#maybe i'll do an outline for it we'll see

[flowerakatsuka]

listening to stuff nakamura has sung yesterday got me thinking about mitsuki saiga's ( kuroba's voice claim ) singing and, by extension, kuroba's singing capabilities. saiga has a pretty pleasant singing voice, but i think it'd be really fucking funny if kuro was just like. horrifically tone deaf.

[honeydots]

I would like some teasers about that Xander - Soleil father-daughter support fic please 💖

HEHEHE that'd be my pleasure~~!! i'll put a couple things under the cut c:

the fanart nattie drew for me is from their c-support!! the gist of it is that xander's employing a similar punishment to soleil as he did to laslow for excessive flirting :3 but as they're working in xander's office, they both end up falling asleep, hence the little scene in the art <3

the rest of the support is about soleil lying through her teeth about how she totally isn't flirting anymore so she doesn't get in trouble again, and xander completely seeing through her lie and doing a dad-thing of trying to make her come clean herself instead of directly calling her out !!

[gamebunny-advance]

Thinking About This More...

I was gonna leave this decision to a poll, but I'm making the executive choice to add a background to these, or maybe even designing something else entirely.

I'm just not used to working on such a small scale, and cutting/pasting the pieces together evenly is kinda difficult for me. It's a little hard to notice in pics, but the original came out kinda splotchy because I had to do some touch-ups to the outline. That's fine for a personal item, but I just wouldn't feel good about selling something like this with those kinds of mistakes on them (at least not at a price that keeps me outta the red).

So, I'm gonna workshop some more ideas with the top characters (which at this time is looking like DJSS and NJ, go figure) and go from there.

[ddejavvu]

could you do a spencer x daughter reader comfort for grade stress? my grades are a lot lower than normal and i feel awful :(

you’re an amazing writer much love <3

'$20 and a completely unabridged gossip session about my love life if you can hack into my school's system and change my grades...'

'Baby genius!' Penelope scolds, in response to what you personally believe was a very fair and enticing offer, 'I can't! I don't do bad hacking anymore, I only do the good kind :)'

'It would be good for me to not have these grades.' You type back, smearing an exasperated hand over your face. You swear you nearly drag your skin right off, and you consider attempting to do so, maybe you wouldn't have to go to school anymore if you were just a skeleton-face.

'I'm sure you're freaking out over nothing, wonder baby,' Penelope responds, full of all of her usual optimism that sickens you now, 'You of all people don't need to be worrying about your grades.'

She's wrong. Now you do, now your grades have inexplicably taken a nosedive, dropping into uncharted territory. With a father that attended college at the ripe age of twelve, you feel severely disappointing. You're not following in his footsteps, you've lost the outline of his sneakers and you're traipsing through mud trying to locate them aagin.

You don't bother responding; you're not even sure what you'd say. You don't even consider the ramifications of her saying no to your scheme, being that the world's biggest gossip knows you're upset about your grades and she's not bound to confidentiality by any suspicious illegal activity.

Which means that when your dad gets home, he heads straight for your room.

"Hi, angel," Spencer leans down to hug you over the back of your desk chair, dropping a kiss to the crown of your head. It's the same kiss he's planted on you every day since you came into the world, "Penelope said you're having school trouble?"

Your stomach drops and you groan, "That snitch."

"Hey!' Spencer scoffs, "She's the one that always spoils your birthday presents 'cause you give her puppy eyes. You use her poor secret-keeping abilities to your benefit just as much as the rest of us."

"It's nothing," You're still glancing blankly at your homework, keeping your eyes away from your dad so that you don't have to see his face. You try to brush him off before he directly asks what your grades are, "I'm just having a bad week or something."

"A bad week doesn't impact your grades that much," Spencer hums suspiciously, "And your teacher doesn't even put in grades until the week after you submit assignments, so this week being bad wouldn't have changed your grade yet. What's really going on?"

"I don't know," You confess, and you're glad he understands it's the truth and not another half-hearted excuse. He catches the wavering in your voice and knows you're being honest with him, and he can practically feel the cartoonish crack running down his heart, splitting it in two.

"Alright," He soothes, setting a hand on your shoulder and squeezing at its tense muscles lightly, "We'll figure it out. I'll help you, okay?"

"I don't want your help," You lament, tears stinging painfully at your eyes, "You- you know everything, and I don't want to hear how many times you have to correct me. I don't want to see what I should be while being reminded that I'm not."

There's a long bout of silence where your dad's hand lingers on your shoulder, the only reminder that he's still there. It's like he's stopped breathing altogether, air caught in his throat as his brain tries coming up with a solution.

"I don't want you to be like me." He confesses, and the tears stay in place at the corners of your eyes, waiting for a cue to fall.

"I'm... It was hard growing up and being different. It's hard now being different. Morgan still scoffs whenever I talk too much, and we've been friends for years. JJ cuts me off every time I go on a tangent. People aren't nice to anyone who's different."

"But that doesn't matter," You whimper, hands flying to your face to push against your eyelids like you could squeeze your tears back inside, "You aced classes, you got into college super young, you got a high profile job, you're successful, and-"

"-and if I had to choose one thing about my life to carry over into the next, none of those would be it." Your dad cuts you off, moving to pry your hands away from your eyes. He smooths his thumbs over your eyelids, softening the sting from your aggressive touches.

"Y/N," He starts, honey-colored eyes dripping with love as he stares at you from his spot perched on your bed, "All the knowledge in the world doesn't make you happy. Knowing what chemicals are attributed to love doesn't mean you feel it. Knowing what poets have written about love doesn't mean you get to experience it for yourself. I don't want you to know everything," He explains, drying a tear with the cuff of his shirt sleeve, "I want you to be happy, to be loved. And you are smart," He promises, "-just because you don't understand the material you're getting, or you aren't doing your homework, or you're overloaded with assignments so that your grades drop doesn't mean you're not smart."

"Dad," Your face crumples, your eyes squeezing shut tight as tears drip from their corners. He guides you into his embrace with a hand on the back of your head and you let him control where your weight lands, slumping into his stomach pitifully.

He rubs down your back with his free hand, letting the one shelter your face against his button-up.

"I love you," He murmurs, and you can feel the vibrations of his voice through his chest. You press your ear into it, so your brain soaks up the words, "Even if you're having trouble memorizing the..." He peers down at your paper, "-amendments to the Constitution. Okay, well, you really should know those. We'll work on it, honey."

"Okay," You can't help the weak laugh that shakes your shoulders at his reaction, and he smiles sweetly down at you when you break away, not an ounce of judgement in his eyes that are twinkling with fondness instead.

"Now," He pats your back, straightening up from where he'd been slightly hunched over to rub soothing circles into the fabric of your shirt, "Let's talk about how you're encouraging Penelope to commit cyber crimes for you."

"Uh," You grimace, glancing back quickly at your revision sheet, "I plead the... fifth?"

"That's-" Spencer looks away, biting his lip to conceal his laugh, "That's good. That's bad, don't do that. But that's good. You know number five. That's a start."

[moremaybank]

mirror sex with jj pleaseee😩

REFLECTIONS — j.m

pairing jj maybank x gf!reader

summary jj surprises you when you two go on a romantic trip for the weekend

warnings 18+, unprotected sex, humping, fingering, oral sex (m. receiving), anal play, mirror sex (obvi), language, praise kink, slight degradation kink, squirting

author's note kinda put my own lil twist on it, i hope that's okay 🫶🏻

jj masterlist

you swiped your key card over the lock, hearing the little ding that notified you that the door to your hotel room was now unlocked. you stepped inside, jj following closely behind you as he brought in your bags. the door shut behind him, and he set down your belongings as he watched you explore the room.

it's not every day that the two of you get the opportunity to spend an entirely stress-free and romantic weekend away, so jj had opted to make it memorable. sure, he splurged when he had promised you he wouldn't, but he couldn't help himself. he loved you so much, and you deserved it. point blank, period.

"j..." you whispered, eyes roaming around the room. there were twinkly lights across the walls and strung carefully around the railing of the balcony, and the view was gorgeous. it overlooked the water, the now setting-sun casting hues of pink, orange and violet over the body of water. there were three bottles of kook-worthy champagne in ice buckets and chocolate-covered strawberries decorated with precision. the king-sized mattress has rose petals sprinkled over the duvet in the shape of a heart. "did you do all this?"

"maybe," he shrugged, a casual but shy smile on his face. "you haven't even seen the best part. look up," he urged.

it was an odd request, but you obliged, tilting your head back to get a look at the ceiling of your room. when you did, your gaze landed on your reflection.

"you didn't," you breathed, a smile growing on your face as you looked at him from over your shoulder.

"oh, but i did."

you and jj were laid up in the hammock at the chateau. he had an arm slung around your shoulders as you leaned your head on his broad chest. your fingers toyed with each other's as you stared up at the stars in the night sky. the air was chilly, but neither of you even had the chance to notice because you were enveloped in each other's warmth.

nothing could beat this.

"hey, babe?"

"hm?" you hummed in response, your fingers tracing patterns over the palm of his hand.

"how cheesy would it be if one day we got a hotel room with a mirror on the ceiling?"

"that's...an oddly specific question," you chuckled, "but honestly, i think it'd be romantic. why do you ask?"

"i'm just trying to see if you're as freaky as i am," he smirked, and you laughed softly, smacking him on the chest.

"jj."

"i'm serious. it'd give us a whole other perspective," he said, slowly climbing on top of you. "just think about it...you on your back while i'm devouring the hell out of your pussy. you looking up at the mirror and watching my every move. each thrust of my cock into you, watching it fill you up from two different angles...it'd be one hell of a show," he mumbled into your neck, leaving soft and wet kisses there.

you felt your panties start to become damp as jj's words and actions turned you on, and you weaved your legs around his hips to bring him closer to you. your hand clasped around the back of his neck, bringing his face back up so you could look at him.

"well, when you put it that way, how could i ever say no?"

jj grinned in response. "i'll make it happen one day. we'll get out of here, just you and me, and we'll spend an entire weekend together just drowning in each other. how's that sound?" he questioned, his thumb smoothing over the outline of your jaw as his gaze locked on yours.

"that sounds perfect. now, what do you say we drown in each other right here?"

"how could i ever say no?" he spoke, quoting what you said earlier with a smug look on his face.

"that was two years ago, how'd you even remember that?"

"it was my idea, baby. i told you i'd make it happen, didn't i?" jj pulled you backwards until you were against his front, and he wrapped his strong arms around your waist as he leaned his head on your shoulder. "you deserve the best, baby, and i'm gonna give it to you."

you turned your head to the side, pecking jj's cheek softly. "you better get your ass on that bed, maybank. i'm about to give you the night of your life."

"that's my line," he frowned.

you didn't answer, but instead, you shoved him down onto the bed and climbed on top of him. you giggled as he tugged you closer to him, and your lips collided.

jj's hands slid under the hem of your shit, fingers hooking into the material of the back of your bra. he tugged on it, letting it snap back onto the skin of your back. you hissed at the semi-harsh contact, the sting only spurring on your pending horniness. you'd always been the type of person to enjoy a little pain with your pleasure. in response, one of your hands threaded your fingers through his blonde locks, tugging on them as jj pulled you closer still, your clothed breasts pressing into jj's chest.

"take this shit off," jj mumbled, pulling at the hem of your shirt. you obliged his order, stripping your shirt off. your laced bra accentuated your cleavage and made jj's head spin. he yanked each cup down, freeing your breasts from their confinement before his lips adorned them with kisses and nibbles. he sucked soft red and purple hues into the flesh of your tits, and you rolled your hips against his. the tent in his shorts was growing. his cock firm as you prompted his arousal, and it twitched underneath your clothed core.

"jj," you whispered, your digits prying at the button of his shorts. he nodded at you, giving a silent go-ahead for you to remove them from his lower half. you yanked them down his legs when he raised his hips. "can i suck you off, baby?" you asked, your palm rubbing against his cock over his briefs.

"fuck yeah," he breathed.

you grinned, helping him shrug off his shirt before you started to trail wet kisses down his torso. you began at his sternum, making your way down to the waistband of his underwear. you drew it downward, exposing his cock. the tip was red, angry and wanting as it silently begged you for attention. your hand circled it, and you stroke him slightly.

"have i ever told you how beautiful your cock is, j? it's perfect. i salivate every single time about it, did y'know?"

you spat on your hand, lubing it up before you brought it back to jj's length. you brought your face closer to it, opening your mouth. you slapped it against your tongue, feeling the gratifying weight of it weighing you down. it didn't matter how many times you'd come face to face with his length. you were still stunned and completely cock-drunk every single time without fail.

you wrapped your lips around the tip of his cock, your tongue swirling around it as you teased him. jj's hips jerked, notifying you that he wanted for me. more of your lips, more of your mouth and your tongue. just the tip wasn't enough for him. he needed to feel all of you, or he wouldn't be satiated. not in the slightest.

you brought him down your throat all the way, his cock nudging the back of it each time you took him into your mouth. your head bobbed up and down as your lips created a vice-like grip on him. he threw his head back, his fingers digging into your scalp as he guided your movements.

"shit. your mouth feels so good, baby. can i come down your throat? will you let me do that?" he questioned.

your doe eyes stared up at him, softening as you silently gave him permission to do so. he grinned as best as he could manage through the pleasure. he let you slurp and suck all around him, your mouth warm and slick against his length. jj met you halfway, semi-thrusting his hips as you pulled and pulled at him with your lips. you moaned around him while taking him deeper. it was almost as if you could feel him in your lungs, and you moaned around him as he used your throat to make himself come.

"fuck. i'm right there. make me come, baby. want you to swallow me whole."

you sucked on him harsher, your lips providing a suction-like clasp on his length. your free hand came up to play with his balls, massaging them as you reeled him toward his orgasm. they tightened, his cock fluttering inside your mouth as he shot his hot ropes of come down your throat. it was hot and slightly salty, but also so jj at the same time. you could lap at him forever if he'd let you.

jj pulled you off his length and guided your face back to his so he could kiss you. he did, his lips devouring yours in a wordless 'thank you.' you blindly yanked at the clasp of your bra as you tossed it aside, freeing your breasts completely. you momentarily pulled away from the kiss, desperately trying to rid yourself of your jean shorts. you finally dislodged the button, unzipping them and tugging them down your legs along with your panties.

"will you fuck me, daddy? i wanna watch you fill me up," you begged, your bare core grinding against his cock after you climbed back on top of him. you bit your lip as the stimulation to your clit raked through your body. your movements soon became relentless as that familiar pleasant feeling grew more and more present.

"baby. if you don't stop, i'm gonna come before i even get inside you," jj grunted, grabbing your hips in an attempt to halt your grinding. you whined at the loss of your pleasure because you craved that high you were chasing. "shh. it's alright, pretty girl. i'm gonna take care of you, i promise."

he changed your position, laying you flat on your back as he propped your head up on the lush pillows. his fingers ran down your inner thighs, causing goosebumps to form in their wake. he inched closer and closer to your cunt, and your clit throbbed as your blood rushed to it. you yearned for any sliver of friction jj would grant, and as if he knew your exact thoughts, his thumb teased your entrance. it gathered up your slick, smoothing it over your folds and all the way up to your bundle of nerves. his circled it delicately, sating your ache only slightly. he slipped his middle finger inside of you, stroking in and out as he continued his work on your clit.

"can you do something for me, princess?"

"anything, j. anything."

"i want you to watch us in the mirror. watch as i bury myself in you. watch as every ridge and vein of my cock strokes your pussy until you can't take it anymore," he rasped, pushing into you inch by inch. "your pussy swallows me so well. i wouldn't give a fuck if you kept me inside of you forever. i'd just spend my days filling you to the brim with my seed. get you all knocked up and pretty."

jj didn't move, letting you adjust to his measurable length. you could feel it throbbing inside of you, each pulse matching up with the beats of his heart. he threw his head back as he got accustomed to your pussy.

you looked up at him in the mirror, watching as the sunset light from the balcony door highlighted the high points of his face. he was so beautiful, all uniquely carved and striking. you burned the image into your memory, never wishing to forget just how majestic he looked in this moment.

"move for me, j. gonna be your good fucking slut. make me fall apart for you," you urged, your hands running down his chest.

jj started to move, his cock slamming against your cervix with a slight sting as he fucked you. his hands groped your tits, squeezing them needily as he rutted into you. he gritted his teeth, the gratification of your cunt around him sending chills down his spine.

"tell me how i make you feel, baby girl. beg me for my cock, i wanna hear it." his hips picked up the pace further, your flesh smacking together with each thrust.

"i need your cock, baby. can't live without it. pound me harder," you pleaded. you felt his lust take completely take over his actions, and his cock rammed into you. you knew you drove him crazy when you spoke to him in that manner, begging and begging until he snapped. he was fast-approaching that state, and you wanted to see him break.

"i love when you use me, jj. force me to take your cock and until i can't breathe, make me fucking take it. tonight is all about you. this pussy belongs to you, j. it's all for you."

"yeah?"

"mhm. fuck, look at that," you spoke, motioning up to the mirror. "you see that, baby? see how my pussy takes all of you? you're so good for me, filling me whole. love you and your cock so much."

jj's hand came up to your face, and he pushed his thumb into your mouth, letting you lap at it and drench it with your saliva. once he decided it was enough, he brought his hand underneath the place where you two were connected. his thumb probed at the entrance of your puckered hole, and he sank it in slowly. a new wave of pleasure coursed through your veins at the added penetration.

you gasped at the sudden intrusion, your hands gripping onto his biceps with a strong grasp as you melted underneath him. you were slowly turning into putty in his hands, letting him act as he deemed fit. you'd allow him to do anything to you, anything that granted him even the slightest bit of satisfaction.

"ruin me, jj. make it hurt. i'm so fucking close."

jj pulled out of you just as you felt your orgasm starting to wash over you. you whined loudly, hands gripping at him as you tried to feel him again.

"not yet. not finished with you, baby."

jj leaned back against the pillows to your side, and he tugged you on top of him. your back was flush against his front, his legs caging around yours as he sank you down onto his cock. you threw your head back against his shoulder as he began to move again. his hand clutched around your throat. he kept your gaze on his in the reflection of the mirror.

"look at you. my own fucking sex doll. you're so pathetic that you'd let me do anything i wanted to you, isn't that right?"

this new position drove you up the wall. his cock jammed against your g-spot, the curve of him nudging you deliciously. your hands hooked under his own, wrapping around his biceps once more as he fucked you. you were already on the verge of crying when he brought a hand down to rub at your clit viciously.

the view from the mirror was a different type of erotic, one that the two of you had never experimented with up to date. it was like watching a film, one that had you on the edge of your seat; one that you never wanted to look away from in fear that you'd miss a vital moment.

"don't stop, jj. oh god, please don't fucking stop. i'm right there."

"yeah? you gonna cream all over my cock, baby?" his hips fucked up into you relentlessly as he poured all his energy to destroying your cunt. you nodded, your eyes locking on his as you bit down on your bottom lip harshly.

"oh, baby. e-even better," you spoke. you squealed, finally feeling your orgasm take over. your release squirted out of you, and your juices poured out onto the sheets below you. it coated jj's fingers as well, the ones that had previously been massaging your clit. he brought them up to your mouth, stuffing them inside and letting you taste yourself.

"how d'you taste, pretty girl? so fucking sweet, right? nothing is as sweet as you." his hips began to jerk as he approached his own high. your hand reached behind you, gripping the back of his neck as his teeth bit into the flesh of your shoulder. you felt him shoot his hot come inside of you, filling you with a warm sensation.

eventually, he halted his actions, pulling out of you slowly as you both laid together, trying to catch your breath. you turned your head, your forehead leaning against the crook of jj's neck. you listened to his heartbeat, and you felt it thump-thumping at the skin of your back. his arms weaved themselves around your waist, holding you tight as you both relaxed.

you grabbed one of his hands, interlocking his fingers with yours as you brought them to your lips. you kissed his knuckles, lingering for a moment before holding that same hand to your chest.

"thank you so much for this. i love you," you said.

"...you don't think i'm done with you, do you?"

jj tag list (join here!): @maybankslover @kittyqrt @skydisneylover @v-velvetykisscs @hobiibobii @rafesdior @fool4him

[fuctacles]

Making moves the nerd way

"Halloween" for @steddieholidaydrabbles Part II of the previous warm-up but can be read alone

G | 1k | no cw | almost getting together, slightly oblivious Eddie

next up

Eddie was sitting on the kitchen floor, painting empty pizza boxes while Steve was trying to focus on making dinner. Despite the newspapers spread around him, he managed to stain his surroundings with grey paint. 

“How much do you have left?”

"I'm making a graveyard, Steve, not a random burial site with three corpses. It would go faster if you helped me, you know?” 

“Well, do you want to eat? Because I can’t cook pasta and paint tombstones at the same time.”

Eddie grumbles something under his breath. 

“Point taken.”

So they resume their activities, a weird mixtape of Metallica, Queen and Tears for Fears playing in the background. 

“Okay, little Picasso, time to eat," Steve announces eventually.

"Don't call me like I'm a toddler," Eddie scolds him, but the fact that he's peeking over the table while on his knees, eyeing the plate put there, does nothing to help his statement.

Steve smirks at him, at the half-tied mop of hair surrounding his eyes over the counter.

"Wash your hands before eating. Kiddo."

"I'm older than you!" he protests but hops up anyway to do as he was told. It's good Steve reminded him though, he'd probably just throw himself at the spaghetti like a savage, paint stains or not.

They eat and discuss the acceptable damage to Harrington's lawn to prop up the gravestones. Eddie's devastated to hear he can't just put holes in the ground.

"We can prop them up with sticks. Or weigh them down with rocks. We'll figure something out," Steve shrugs and that placates him for the time being. He helps with the dishes but is quickly shooed back to his art station. Steve joins him later, with a hand in his hair.

"How is it going, baby?"

Eddie grumbles, not looking up.

"I know you mean it in like, a kid way, but maybe don't call me that?" he says, double-focusing on the cardboard in front of him.

"Okay, kid, sorry," Steve amends, petting his hair, and scratching his scalp gently. Pretends not to see Eddie fold under the treatment. "Does my little artist need help?"

"Your little artist has been asking for help for the past two days."

Steve snorts, detangling his fingers from the long hair.

"That's fair, sorry. I guess you wore me down," he says, sitting down. "What do I do?"

Eddie finally turns away from his work, considering him.

"You can paint them over," he decides, handing him the grave he's been working on. "I'll cut them up." He grabs a new pizza box for himself, the needed shape already drawn on it with a Sharpie. His scissors follow the outline slowly and jaggedly, struggling with the thick cardboard.

“How many do we need?” Steve asks, dipping the brush in paint. 

“At least ten. I don’t have stuff for more anyway, figures I can just make extra later when I have time and supplies.”

Steve looks around.

“We have like, three,” he observes.

“Well, chop chop then, my little helper.”

Steve sighs and gets to work. 

While he’s happy to indulge Eddie and help him out, he’s been imagining their evening together differently. Getting one-on-one time in their little traumatized family was a rare thing unless you're already an established couple. Or him and Robin, but that's because they work together. Needless to say, it was hard to make a move on someone. Even with something already brewing between them. 

“So, are we putting our enemies’ names on them?” he settles on learning more about Eddie instead. Hopes he doesn’t mind treating his graveyard project like a shared effort, that Steve says ‘we’ instead of ‘you’.

“Oh, I’m totally absolutely putting Vecna on one. Other than that I think I’ll keep them fantasy-themed. Maybe use all the NPCs my Party killed throughout the campaign. I think we’ve seen enough of that in real life.”

“You said it.” Steve mentally kicks himself in the ass. Just his luck to start a topic that goes straight into the trauma of their Upside Down past. How is he supposed to make a move now?

He shuts up and starts painting the cardboard more angrily while Freddie Mercury screams his lungs out in the background. He doesn’t notice when the cardboard cutting ceases. 

Not until their hands brush when they both reach for the paint. He looks up to see most of the boxes cut up and shaped, waiting for paint.

“My hand started to cramp from the scissors. And you looked so peaceful, I wanted to join you,” Eddie explains. Steve watches him bite at his bottom lip, mulling something over. “I’ve always liked working with someone on projects like that. Help out with school play scenography, make Halloween costumes with Wayne…” He shrugs, like it’s not a big deal, but the soft, genuine smile tells Steve otherwise. “So uh, thank you, for letting me do this here. For joining me, too.”

And Steve realizes this could be a date, too. He could make a move like this, on his kitchen floor, fingers stained with paint. 

“Of course. I have this weekend off, we could work together some more,” he offers. Then frowns at Eddie’s stunned expression. “What?”

“You want to spend your time off with me, playing with paint?”

“Well, I was hoping you have something more planned. We could work on our costumes, maybe?”

He’s alarmed when Eddie makes a pained noise.

“You’ll take Aragorn from me!”

“What?”

“We’ve been fighting over Lord of the Rings characters for Halloween costumes and if you join us there’s no way Henderson will let me keep him.”

“I don’t need to join in, I’d rather just help you with your costume.”

To this, Eddie turns suspicious.

“Why?” he squints.

“Eddie,” he sighs, staring fondly into his eyes, and grabs his wrist for good measure.

Eddie’s eyes go big like saucers when it hits him.

"Holy shit. Do you want to have a nerd date with me?”

Steve chuckles. 

“I guess I do.”

[madlittlecriminal]

Hey, would you like to write for ps5/insomniac Peters since he's your new crush 🤭

If so I'd have an idea: Peter comes home all beat up (nothing too crazy tho, some bruised ribs, lil cut on the brow etc) reader gets worried and starts to patch him up and then Peter notices that she has some sexy lingerie on and questions it, so she tells him that she wanted to surprise him, then Peter is just taken by lust and starts to kiss her neck, feel her up, you try to protest a bit saying you need to finish patching him, but he's just like "I'll manage, I need you now."

Make him soft and gentle (he is already) but also a bit rough? Lol thaaannnkk🥵😍

Medic in Lace ↭ Peter Parker × Female!Reader

my god, i finished the game two days ago & he really is the softest boi. i love him so much & i want him

Warnings: mention of blood, minor injuries, smut, grinding, unprotected p in v, riding, praise, mention of cockwarming because i thought about it & i can't stop thinking about it...you'll see what i mean, mention of face riding, maybe a little bit of breeding kink but not really (?)

i got carried away and made this a little longer than intended. i apologize.

"Pete, are you okay?" He gave you a small smile and nodded. "I'm fine, princess. Just a few cuts is all and maybe bruises." You glared at him before letting him sit down on the couch and getting the first aid kit. "Uh-huh." You grab the rubbing alcohol before pouring some on a cotton ball and cleaning the blood off of his brow. "I'm serious." He chuckles and you glare at him. "Yeah okay." He helps you take off the suit and you sigh when you saw a forming bruise on his ribs. "God, Peter." You shake your head as you put a bit of ointment on the forming bruise.

"Wait a minute," Peter sat up and smirked a bit as he got a look at what you were wearing. You raise a brow. "What?" He let a hand trail up your thigh as he looked up at you. "What's this?" You snicker. "It was a surprise for you." He bit his lip with a nod. "I'm definitely surprised, princess." You felt your cheeks grow warm at his words. "Really?" Peter pulled you closer to him. "Hell yes." You chuckle. "Let me finish patching you up, okay?" As you tried cleaning the cut on his nose, he moved away from your hand by going to your neck and began kissing your neck.

You gasped softly. "Pete, let me finish!" He shook his head as his hands travel underneath the red babydoll. "Peter Parker!" He chuckles. "I'll manage, I promise. I just need you." You pulled him away before looking down, biting your lip when you saw his bulging outline from boxer briefs. "I see." You say softly and he nods. "Please, baby?" He asked in almost a whisper. You leaned down and placed a peck on his lips. "Fine. Just one round, okay?" He chuckles. "We'll see." You roll your eyes playfully before kissing him again, but this time more sensually and slowly.

Peter kissed you back without hesitation, bringing you closer to him as his hands still remained on your back underneath the babydoll. His fingers danced along your back as he kissed you, absolutely lost in your lips before you sat down on his lap, slowly grinding your hips against his. He moaned as he felt your wetness from your panties. "Already dripping wet, gorgeous." He commented and rested his hands on your thighs. "Only you do this to me, baby." You whispered before moaning softly. "I love you, you know that?" He whispered and you nodded. "I love you too."

He pulled his cock out from his boxer briefs before moving your panties to the side and teasing your cunt by lifting you up with one arm. "Oh god, Peter!" He bites his lip while looking at you with hooded eyes. "I'm here princess. Don't worry." He enters you slowly, causing you both to moan in unison. You rest your forehead against his before grinding your hips, causing you to gasp and throw your head back. "Oh fuck," Peter watches as you get yourself off on his cock. "You have no idea how pretty you look, do you?" He asks before reaching over and kissing your neck. You shook your head, and he hummed softly in pleasure. "You look like a goddess. Like a true princess sitting on a throne." His whispers go straight to your cunt, making you clench around him. "Y-your cock is my throne?" You stutter out, causing Peter to chuckle. "Of course. My face is also your throne, but we'll talk about that another time."

Peter grips your hips while looking at you through hooded eyes. "Want me to help you?" You nodded as he pulls you up his cock and then back down. His grip was enough to drive you crazy from how gentle it was, but it wasn't enough to bruise you; he's a gentle lover. He moaned your name into your ear, causing you to moan in response, your fingers trailing towards your clit to play with it as Peter thrusts into you. "You always feel so good." He groaned, guiding his hands under the babydoll and bringing you closer to him, making your chest touch his as he still thrusted into you. "And you'll always be my good girl." You clenched around him before letting out a cry of pleasure as you cum around him. Shortly after, he joins you, filling you up with his cum.

You take deep breaths with Peter before he lifts your chin up and kissing your lips softly. "You should stay here." He says softly after breaking the kiss. "I am here, Pete. We literally live together." He shook his head. "You know what I mean, princess." You felt your cheeks warm up at his words. "But I have to finish patching you up." He shrugged with a smirk. "You can do it on here, can't you?" Your eyes widened. "What?" He chuckled softly. "You can patch me up on here, can you?" You blink. "Are you serious?"

"Up to you, princess."

[herotome]

Devlog #142

Hi-ho, Wudge here.

Time to talk about these past two weeks worth of work. Haha... ah....... The good news is that there's quite a lot. The bad news is now I have to type it all out. 😭 The things I do for love (for Herotome) amiright.

Note to self I'm gonna have to carefully save drafts of post throughout because, again, it's A Lot.

Ok so, we'll start off with some Mia stuff.

Outfit concepts!! Some of yall may recall I struggled hardcore with her hero outfit, but I think it's finally getting somewhere?? After uh... I allowed myself to use black. :') I had it in my head that Dart is the only one who can wear black-- but how unfair is that?! There's a limited number of color families in the world, characters should be able to borrow colors from each other in accent colors! So, I'm much happier now that I've gotten over that mental hurdle.

On the right is a 'party'/gala outfit. I have a few events in mind where the LIs can dress up and look nice, so this is a concept for that...!

I also made a bunch of these... cut-out images, so highlight her injured hand in-game... ....... Then I realized I could literally just. Show her full sprite and pan it down. Then add a lil spotlight/vignette effect if I damb well want to. :| So uh. I'll be throwing all these out I guess....... It was a learning experience!!!!!! just a bit of a painful one hahaha.

Moving right along, expressions.

I got through a huge set of Griffin and made some new mouth shapes for Mia! Much to my dismay, Mia's lips are rather more detailed and thus take a bit more time to render..... but I'm getting the hang of it.

I also have been coding in these new expressions for the Mia and Warden scene in the federal center lobby.

Here's a preview! Maybe I can make a gif of a few branches to crosspost to Ko-Fi...

As for Griffin - I haven't started coding in any expressions yet, but I did set up all his PNGs and can show off the full set here:

The pictured tool is by Feniks - wonderful, wonderful way of seeing all the expressions at once and quickly converting a specific mood from image into code (which you can see in the lower rightmost corner). I highly recommend it for any renpy devs who are have an overwhelming surplus of character expressions!

And I experimented with a ghostly text effect (using altered code from Wattson's dripping effect). It's hard to read at the moment and I dont love it - in Herotome it will likely have a proper outline and I might use a special font. It's inspired by this one artist named Endling - back in my teenybopper deviantart days, he had this comic with a big bad wolf character who would talk like this--!

And of course, updated art of these fools (as seen in my last not-devlog last week)

I also wrote.. a decent amount... did a fair amount of outlining/plotting.... and Remnantation and I made progress on a new Griffin CG... I designed some other potential NPCs.......

...... You can tell I'm running out of steam for this devlog, I'm sure. I think that'll do it for now.

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[ashleys-doodle-corner]

And here's last of the alternate art I had for Po-uta. This was in the backlog for ages until I recently finished it a few months ago.

I still had a sketch idea for one more variation that I wanted to do, but I never got to outlining it. Maybe I'll work on it one day, we'll see.

Also, below the cut is a variant of this art piece, which is just without the soft glow.

[strlingsav]

Yo…your last fic was brutal. I had to stop and back up coz immediately after the smut was pain! No prefaces or even a segue on what’s about to happen. It choked me up with the suddenness of it all.

Smut..fluff..more smut..more fluff..MOTHERFUCKING PAIN!!! 🤯😱🫢😭😭😭

Please, please, please…bring him back. Give us fluff and butterflies. Maybe he can survive, just a damaged but is able to come home to reader, he can heal and with those injuries, maybe retire and live in peace with reader? Maybe even have a bun in the oven waiting for him? Just heal us pleaseeeee! Anything will do, please!! 😭😭😭

(But only if you’re willing, of course.)

Thank you for the love, the smut, and the shared pain (coz I’m sure that also hurt you too). Just..thanks. 💕

Ugh of course I'll indulge this bc one I love you for being so sweet and two because I'm an absolute whore for happy endings. 🥺🤍 The first is here.

Endings: Two

– Simon "Ghost" Riley x F!Reader

Explicit/gory content under the cut. Read at your own risk.

"L.T.," A voice was hazy and distant in Simon's ear- miles away, but he could see the outline of a figure before him.

He didn't have the energy to respond. He wanted nothing more than to give in to his body's demand to sleep, to rest. The dopamine firing in his brain, coursing through his veins, kept him subdued, peaceful, even.

"Up you get, Sir." There was a short pause, followed by radio static, "We're on our way out, evac standby."

Simon grunted as he was lifted from the ground, the shift in his weight caused a growl to come from his swollen lips.

"Steamin' bloody Jesus. You look like hell."

Simon could register the voice, now. It was Johnny. The Sergeant had found him in the wreckage, he'd survived.

Simon could hardly muster a 'fuck off', settling for a haphazard groan of displeasure.

Simon carried on, regardless of the pain in his chest, in his thigh, the throbbing in his skull now making him fully aware of the injuries to his person.

"Need a medic down here!"

Simon felt his body transfer to a spineboard, not without a loud yowl of pain, watching his feet as he was carried toward another helicopter prepped for evac.

Soap jogged beside him, his hand helping carry Simon's weight. The fog hadn't yet lifted, still blurry and half-awake, Simon could hardly comprehend where he was headed.

"You'll be alright, Sir. We'll take care of ya. Hang on, wouldya?"

He was relieved and devastated at the same time. He'd already made his peace with dying, he'd agreed to the terms his body set, the serenity that had almost cradled him to his grave- but you, damn you, forced him to hold on. Damn you, for settling into his mind and making it your home. For being the only thing he could think of, rely on to keep him hopeful, as he was carried onto the helo.

—

You received the call while at home, nearly dropping the plate in your hands when you heard the Doctor on the other end tell you Simon had been admitted with traumatic injuries.

You drove to the hospital, disregarding every speed limit and stop sign, thrumming your fingers against the steering wheel impatiently at every red light, watching the road through blurry, swollen eyes.

When you'd made it through the maze of hallways, finally finding Simon, he was asleep. He was on a ventilator, his skull bandaged where they'd pieced it back together once the swelling had gone down.

His eyes had been taped shut after surgery to aid in the repair of the severed retina, a white cast over the broken femur he'd endured.

You hardly recognized him through the swelling on his face. He wasn't the same- not the strong, solid man you'd said goodbye to a month ago.

You were sure it was a joke, a prank he'd pulled to keep you on your toes, but that wasn't like him, and a month in, you knew it was your new reality. He was lucky to be alive- so the doctor said.

The extent of his injuries meant physical therapy, a lot of it. The idea made you cringe, if he ever woke up, he'd fight like hell against it.

Despite feeling so completely overjoyed that he'd made it this far, survived this much, there was a part of you that knew there was a long journey ahead. A journey that would mean sleepless nights, emotional support, physical support.

You were dreading it. It seeped into you, like a bird of prey, it dug its claws into you. It only got worse.

A cycle of grief and anger, missing him- his voice, his eyes- so badly your breath caught in your throat every time you looked at him, looked at the broken man lying helplessly in the hospital bed- but also resenting him for putting you in that position.

Turning you into a caretaker, the solid foundation for the both of you while you almost lost the most important man in your life.

You couldn't help but feel the guilt eating away at you- how fucked up it was to think of yourself during a time when Simon might never wake up.

But you persevered, pushed past the dread in the pit of your stomach, and waited at his bedside with sharp eyes.

Day and night, you'd settle in, sleeping with a thin throw-blanket you stole off the couch and an old pillow. You'd wear his T-shirts and sweaters, just for a hint of familiarity, a semblance of your old life, his smell.

You'd hold his hand, even when you knew he couldn't feel a damn thing. You'd talk to him, tell him about your day- regardless of the fact that he didn't hear you at all.

Most nights, you'd sob under the disguise of the heart monitor and thrum of the ventilator. You'd grieve the man you loved. Whether he was dead or not, he would never truly be Simon Riley again. You'd learn to love the new man he'd be, you were sure of it, but your heart had been caged in, trapped under the weight of his unrecognizable form.

He had woken up after a few months, to which you celebrated with vibrating happiness. You tried not to smother him with affection. Instead, you gave him his space as he took in his surroundings, began to somewhat understand what exactly had happened.

You sat down, reaching for Simon's hand, and you felt him squeeze down. For the first time in months, he'd responded to your touch.

You stared up at him, your eyes welling with tears, your heart racing in your chest, pounding against your rib cage. A tidal wave of relief washed over you.

"Baby," You whispered, moving closer, kneeling next to him. "Simon."

His voice was muffled, panic filling his eyes as he realized he had an E.T. tube down his throat. You kept him calm, calling for the nurses immediately, watching with worried eyes as they extubated him.

He coughed, settling back into bed as he turned his head to look at you. Then, he whispered your name. Strangled and hoarse, rough with phlegm.

You could feel a shiver down your spine. You took a deep breath in, bowing your head to rest on his arm as your chest was racked with sobs. It was nearly impossible to control.

"God, Simon," You sniffled, your face tilting to look up at him. "Thank God," You cried, burying your face in his shoulder.

His doctor didn't want you to get your hopes up- he didn't want you clinging to the idea of Simon's recovery.

"We're not entirely certain what his brain function is like at this point, he'll need a CT. He may not ever remember his accident, and might even have trouble recognizing his surroundings." His doctor was resolute- harsh, not wanting to lead you on with false promises and hopeful ideations.

Your eyes had been swollen for months, and after finally coming to terms with his situation, they were dry and irritated.

You pursed your lips, entirely unsatisfied with the answer but defeated.

"Thank you," You forced a polite smile, turning on your heel, back to Simon's bed.

—

His physical therapy had been going well.

The cast had come off, and you finally recognized your boyfriend after the swelling went down. He was there, real, whole again- mostly.

You'd been woken up by his terrifying shouts and screams for help multiple times a night. It didn't subside, not until you wrapped your arms around him and quieted him down. You weren't sure if he knew, or if he wanted to hide behind the facade of sleep to save himself from embarrassment.

He had difficulty remembering the accident in its entirety, only remembering how difficult it was to move, to get up. He recalled the pain well, regardless of just how hard his body worked to keep him sedate. On the rare occasions he spoke about it, he'd never forget Soap. Never forget the voice he heard, urging him to stay awake, to get up.

You knew you couldn't thank Johnny enough, couldn't make it up to him in anyway that would equate to what he did for you and Simon. Anytime you brought it up, he'd shut you down, and Simon didn't speak about it either. Not unless provoked.

It was a memory he pushed down, as deep as he could, locking it away in the same vault where he kept every other long-living secret.

You knew better than to push him on it. You wanted to be there for him so badly, to tell him how happy you were that he was okay, alive, but you didn't. You gave him his space until he asked otherwise, which usually came in the form of a simple kiss, a hand on your waist, a quiet 'love you' when he passed by you.

You could never figure out why he'd suddenly started telling you he loved you more often, but you didn't question it.

—

When you missed your period, missed the cramps starting a few days before, the blinding headache at the start of the week, you realized your intimate exchange before his deployment may have had an unintended effect. Despite contraception, you had a feeling something was different- wrong.

You were pregnant. Two solid, indisputable red lines, staring you in the face. A happy face, on another, with a plus sign. It was real, concrete. Part of you didn't want to tell Simon- you wanted it to go away. But, against your judgment, you did.

It was late, finishing the day with a shower together as usual.

You were starting to show- not enough that he'd notice, especially not with the turmoil in his head. Though, while he scrubbed across the flesh of your stomach, a soapy loofa leaving bubbles and foam behind, the grin on his face when you stood on your toes to kiss him; it was the right time.

"I'm pregnant," You blurted out, your hands falling to your sides.

You avoided his gaze and silence fell between you, the running shower louder than ever, accompanied by your jugular pounding in your throat.

He looked shocked, confused, terrified- all in a series of minutes.

"Trust me, I know it's not ideal. It's not good timing. I know you're still healing and we're just getting things back together. I'm sorry."

He took a moment, his rough hand pressing against the small bulge in your stomach.

"How long have you known?" He asked.

"A few weeks." You swallowed.

"How far along?"

"Three months."

The tension was undeniable, holding your breath for the moment he told you he couldn't do it, didn't want it.

Instead, his arms snaked around your waist, pulling you into his chest.

"My kid's in there," He breathed, his arms squeezing you gently. "You're havin' a kid. We're havin' a kid."

You smiled softly against his shoulder. Now, you could be excited. You didn't have to feel guilty for holding it back, or for carrying another 'burden' inside you. You could celebrate. The baby, another milestone in your life with Simon, normalcy returning.

"We are," You breathed, leaning back to hold his face in your hands. "I love you," You said gently- a fact, a statement with every ounce of truth to it.

"I love you too, sweetheart."

He'd tell you one day that during his accident, all he could think about was you- that he wanted to fight to be alive for you. But for now, he settled for telling you he loved you, every chance he got.

[saturnsorbits]

On Watching the Man you Love, Love Someone Else

Fandom: My Hero Academia, Warnings: Period-esque, Angst, The Bastardisation of a Longer Piece I'll Never Finish. Word Count: 4k.

Summary: Set to pull the job of a lifetime, Sero's band of wayward thieves are left short when Camie runs off. But could her leaving be the catalyst for more than just a new plan?

A/N: It genuinely hurts a little to let this piece go. I worked on the idea for a while, and really did fall a little in love with this Reader, but ultimately the idea just wasn’t meant to be finished in a word count I could commit to. This piece has so much potential, I’m just not enough of a writer to properly do it justice… I’ve tweaked some pieces, the conversation that occurs with Sero at the end was originally supposed to take place between Reader and Cammie for example - but this is as cohesive as I could get it. Anyway… I hope at least someone enjoys this…

'Gone.'

A chair hits the floor, wood creaking as the legs snap and splinter.

'Fucking gone.' Sweeping an arm across a table, Sero sees the end to a bottle of wine and two half-full glasses. They smash and paint the floor red. 'Fucking – fuck!'

'With all due respect...' Standing in the doorway to the office, Shinso ducks a rogue paper weight as it's hefted at his head. It cracks against the brick behind him before dropping to the floor and rolls until his boot comes down on it. '… It was just a matter of time before she took off again.'

Sero's head snaps up from where he's hunched over his desk. His arms are shaking, hands marked and scratched from his tantrum as he forces out a breath through gritted teeth. 'Don't patronise me right now.'

'Is it patronising to just state a fact?' Shinso arches an eyebrow.

Sucking a long breath up through his nose, Sero inhales until his lungs begin to burn. 'I'll bury a stiletto in your skull.'

'You're not quick enough.'

'I'll -.'

'Stop threatening me, when we both know you're just upset that you've proven to be too uninteresting to entertain your lady-love again.' Bending at the hip, Shinso snatches the paper weight from under his foot and tosses the stone in his hand. With an amused boredom, he slips a small pocket knife from the rim of his boot and begins to scratch. 'What did she take this time?'

'Her shares of the last score, half the dried meat, the last mill-seed loaf, two of the expensive dresses and the...' Biting the inside of his cheeks, Sero's eyes drop to the floor. 'She took the Todoroki.'

A laugh bursts from Shinso's chest. 'Good fuckin' riddance.'

'I liked that painting.' Sero growls. 'Almost lost my fucking head stealing it too.'

'Oh, I remember...' Biting down his smile, Shinso licks at his lips and clears his throat. 'Worry not brother, we still have a game ahead.' He snickers. 'Maybe we'll be able to snatch you another.'

Sero seethes, the muscle in his jaw ticking as he grinds his teeth until he feels the molars catch. 'The game's pretty much fucked now that Camie's taken off again.'

'No.' Shinso shakes his head. 'I know it's hard for you to think beyond yourself sometimes, but there's more than just one woman in this piss-poor little gang of ours capable of playing a darling Duke's daughter.'

Setting himself back down in his chair, Sero sighs. He digs a knuckle into his eye. 'Make sure she's ready for the first touch tomorrow morning. I don't want us to spend any longer on this than we have to.'

With mock decency, Shinso folds himself over in a low bow before standing and stretching out his shoulders. 'Certainly... Now, I'll leave you to your moping, my Lord. Feel free not to trouble us while you're constitution has you acting so pathetic.' A wide grin takes his lip, but before Sero can think of rising from his chair in another fit of anger, Shinso tosses the paper weight straight at his head. 'Catch.'

Snatching the stone from the air, Sero flips it over in his palm exposing the rough outline of a broken heart and a crude crying stick figure on his knees beside it. He's too slow as he hefts it back at the now closed door of his office.

Shinso's footsteps retreat, echoing around the cold stone of the corridor beyond; his low laughter following close on his heels. Sero slams a fist on his desk. 'Fucking bastard!'

'The Queen of Thieves has -.' Kirishima wobbles as he descends the stairs into the kitchen, you in his arms, with only Tetsutestu's hand on the broad of his shoulders to stop him from toppling over.

'For the love of -.' Bakugo hisses. Spinning around from his post in front of the stove, he digs a fist into his hip and glowers. 'Keep it down.'

Tipping you out of his arms, Kirishima slinks toward Bakugo. His head dips, cheeks glowing soft as he slips his arms around the smaller man and plants a kiss on his cheek. 'Sorry, baby...'

'He might be sorry...' Skipping up to the large, oak dining table set central in the room you unhook a large, bulging coin purse from your shoulder and empty it out onto the table. Coins of gold and silver clatter onto the wood, flowing from the bag until the entire surface of the table shines. '… But, I'm not. We're celebrating.'

Bakugo's eyebrows dip. 'You ran a score.'

'We did.' You beam. 'Stole a bunch of machine parts from Ingenium's.'

'Ingenium's is protected by the League.' Venom drips into Bakugo's voice, his teeth grinding as he levels a spoon with your head. He's about to shout, the vein in his temple already bulging, but before he manages to bark, you're grinning.

'And -' You lift a palm to stop him. 'When poor little Tenya wakes up in the morning and discovers that his four gold pieces a week to the League hasn't stopped his precious shop from being turned over, he's going to look elsewhere and who else do we know who has a reputation for keeping thieves away?'

Bakugo tries not to let it show, but pride makes his chest puff out and his eyes shine. 'I should be mad that you're whoring my boyfriend out as hired muscle...'

'But...' Your eyebrows dance on your forehead. 'But, you've just put the biggest score I've seen all year on that bloody table -.'

Kirishima pecks at Bakugo's cheek again, twisting from where he had been dipping his fingers in the bubbling soup on the stove behind his boyfriends back. 'Don't forget the bank notes. We've got bank notes too...'

A snort breaks from Bakugo's chest. '… And guaranteed us another solid four gold a week, so -.'

This time it's Tetsutetsu who breaks into Bakugo's speech. 'We put our prices up two weeks ago. It's eight pieces now. Seemed fitting since there's two of us; an not just one bruiser like the other gangs are offering.'

This time Bakugo does laugh. He throws his head back, shoulders bouncing as he slips from Kirishima's hold and stalks towards you. Opening his arms, he wraps himself around your waist and lifts, spinning you around once before letting you back to your feet. 'If I were into women I'd kiss you breathless, you little fucking genius.'

You giggle and lace your hands behind his neck. 'I'd love to take all the credit, but -.'

'But she was the mastermind behind it all...' Kirishima beams. 'We just stood by and looked scary.'

Tetsutetsu offers. 'We helped lift the machine parts too!'

'It was a joint effort.' You concede, letting Bakugo drift back to the stove, after ordering the boys to set the table.

'What's this?' Shinso appears at the bottom of the basement stairs like a ghost. His hair is wild, torn back as if he'd been caught in a gale and the usual bags under his eyes are deeper and more pronounced.

You look up, half way through scooping another handful of coin back into your pouch. 'A score.'

Leveling you with a bored stare, Shinso raises his eyebrows. 'I'd gathered that much. I was -.'

'Ingeniums.' Bakugo cuts in. 'They can explain over dinner. Sit.'

Shinso obliges, slipping into a seat at the table. 'I have news of Mina.'

That perks everyone's ears.

Producing a letter from his inner jacket pocket, he brandishes it in the air. 'She seems to be enjoying the sea air down south, says she's learned a lot from Midnight.'

Bakugo snatches the letter, quickly skimming through the neatly written hand. He hums. 'Established some links with the Mirko company – could be useful.'

Reading over his shoulder, Kirishima snatches the letter as soon as Bakugo's eyes reach the bottom. 'I miss her.'

'Me too.' You sigh. 'She'll only be gone another month...'

'And we can welcome her back with a score.' Shinso grins, his crooked teeth nipping gently at his lower lip.

Eyebrows furrowing, you glance around the table. 'But -.'

'You're to the play the Duke's daughter instead.'

'I -.' Part of you wants to argue, but you know there's no point. There's only one reason that you're to take the roll of the Duke's daughter, after all.

'I'll take a look at the dresses tomorrow, see what we've got that fits... I can always adjust one of Camie's.' Bakugo offers.

The conversation dissolves then, the room filling with plans and laughter as the bowls we're cleared away and a plate of freshly baked cookies took their place on the table. Bathing in the revelry of having the crew, mostly, all together, you barely notice as the sun begins to slip from the sky leaving the kitchen soaked in the soft glow of lamp light. It isn't until Bakugo yawns, declaring it bedtime, that everyone begins to slowly make their way to their retrospective rooms.

Bakugo heads off first, Kirishima dutifully in toe behind him as they slip into one of the backrooms where a small, stuffed mattress awaited them.

Shortly after Tetsutetsu turns in, slipping into a his coat and swiping a singular golden coin from the stash as he trots back up the stairs, presumably on his way to find something comely to warm his bed for the night.

Lastly, it's Shinso, who offers you a knowing look when you dish out one last portion of soup and dutifully turn towards the upper bedrooms.

He rolls up his sleeves and sighs before dipping them into the soapy water filling the sink, listening as your steps echo as you climb. No-one comments on the empty chair at the head of the table.

Wrapping your knuckles on the office door, you balance the soup dish on your wrist while trying to shove open the door he's evidently jambed shut. Sometimes, you really do wish he where less fickle.

'I brought you food...' Your voice is low, sweet in the back of your throat as you edge into the room and spot him laying on his bunk.

'You didn't come down for dinner.'

Sero grunts, not moving his eyes from the ceiling. 'I'm not hungry.'

'Hanta... You can't keep doing this to yourself. You've barely a week of starvation in you and we're coming up on day three.'

'Just leave me.'

'Listen, I know -.'

'Know?' He sits up then, eyes burning as he fights the tick in his jaw.

'Please. Tell me what you fucking know...' Tongue licking at his back teeth he growls, spitting his words at your feet. 'You're probably loving this, aren't you? She's gone. I'm as good as bloody kept now, aren't I.'

'I don't.'

'Don't act stupid, Dearest.' He coos, but there's no fondness in his tone. 'I know how you look at me. Gods, if I all, but stretched out here and welcomed you to bed I bet you'd ride me out of sheer desperation while I laid back and thought of her.' A murky laugh bubbles in his throat as he cocks his head to one side, legs spreading in mocking invitation. 'That brother of mine seems to enjoy sharing his pallet with you often enough, maybe you're in want for a change of cock.'

Cocking your hip, you dig a fist into the fat there. Your nails dig into your palm, carving out raw half-cresents in the skin. 'Have you finished?'

'Ha. Have you been practicing that? If I'm inclined to forget half of my life, you're almost a semi-decent imitation.'

'I know you're hurting, Hanta. All's I'm asking is that you -.'

'You really shouldn't try so hard, y'know... To be her. Take it from a mummer himself, you'll never come close to the real thing.'

'I'm not trying to be her. It's you who wants that, Hanta. Not me. If she where me, she'd be the one stood here trying to stop you from starving yourself to death like a pathetic divorcee and I'd be off somewhere else doing God only fucking knows what...' You collect yourself, if only just and place the bowl on the floor at your feet. 'Now eat. One good meal won't get in the way of you being love-sick.'

Turning on your heel, you bite your lip. It's all you can do to stop the tears. The marks on your palm sting, but even that is a dull comparison to the claw marks now inflicted across your heart. You've barely reached the bottom step when you hear it, a scuffling that gets your hopes up, before a loud bang shatters them once more. You don't bother to hear what is muttered in the dark after it, you don't care to know.

'He's a mean bastard...' You whisper to yourself, violently clearing your face before stepping foot back in the kitchen.

Shinso is still there where you left him, a pile of newly clean plates by his side.

'Sorry for abandoning the chores.' You force a smile, rolling up the sleeves of your shirt as you prepare to dip them into the sink. Shinso just chuckles. He dips a new plate into the water and hisses.

'S'nothing. He still acting like a kicked puppy?'

''fraid so... Matter of fact.' Pulling your hands back before they hit water, you pluck another bowl from the cupboard and set about spooning out another helping of soup from the pot still bubbling on the stove. 'Would you mind taking him up another dish? He won't take anything from me and I'm pretty sure I heard him toss the last down the stairs. I'm rather hoping you'll have more luck.' Once the bowl is full, you slip it onto the table and reach for a loaf of bread.

Cracking it in half, you lay it on a plate. 'I'll finish up here.'

'I -.' Shinso sighs, wiping his hands on a chequered rag.

'It's fine, really.'

There it is, that forced smile again. Shinso chews the inside of his mouth.

'We're already a hand down tonight, what's one more? It's been a while since I've had the kitchen to myself.'

'As his brother, it pains me to say this, but he really isn't worth half of the trouble.' He takes the dishes from the table and cocks an eyebrow at you as you busy yourself with the ones already in the sink.

You laugh, snorting before shooting Shinso an equally as amused look. 'Says the man who routinely puts himself in harms way for said brother.'

'That's different.' He deadpans. 'He's never picked up a habit of making me cry.'

You drop the dish in your hands. 'I'm not -.'

Now, it's Shinso's turn to snort. 'I know how long it takes to get from here to his room and back again and you where about ten minutes too long, even with all the vile things I can guess he spat at you. Plus...' He reaches up and smooths his knuckles across the curve of your cheekbone. 'Your cheeks are red.'

'I -.'

'I'll take him the soup, but I'm doing it for you. He could starve for a week longer for all I care.'

'Thank you, 'Toshi.'

'You're one of us. We look after our own...' He grinds his teeth, tipping his head. 'Or at least, we're supposed to.'

Sero rolls his eyes as soon as soon as the door is kicked open. He's laid back on his bunk, arms folded underneath his head, eyes trained carefully on one particularly large spot of mould on the ceiling. 'Just because a different man holds the spoon, doesn't mean I'm more likely to eat'

Not bothering to pause, Shinso marches across the room in barely two strides. 'Just as well I haven't brought you a spoon then, isn't it?' He tips the bowl onto Sero's exposed stomach.

Sero yells, scolded.

'You, Sero Hanta, are the biggest cock I've ever fucking met.'

Wincing through the radiating burn, Sero manages to huff out a cocky snort. 'Why, thank you.'

'She's just trying to help'

'Well I don't fucking need it.' Reaching under his bed, Sero snatches up his discarded nightshirt to clean the spill from his skin. 'Nor, do I need you soiling my bed clothes.'

'Be glad it's just soup.'

Sero opens his mouth to speak, but is quickly silenced again by his brothers glare.

'You break her little heart twice a day and she doesn't trouble you with it and yet, every time Cam runs off – somehow it's her that bares the brunt.' Shinso folds his arms across his chest. 'She's a nice girl, Hanta... She's family.'

'Ah, so you are fucking her after all.' He chuffs. 'What is it? Jealous she's still got a taste for my cock?'

A growl builds in the back of Shinso's throat, the muscle in his jaw flaring as he grinds his teeth. 'I'm going to pretend to have misheard what you're attempting to insinuate for your own fucking good... Get a grip of yourself before I have to knock some sense into your myself.'

'Consider me fully scolded.' Sero clicks his tongue. 'Is that all you came here to do?'

'She's done your half of the washing and made preparations for tomorrow night; thought you could do with a few nights off. So you can mope here all week for all anyone gives a shit.'

Sero sits up at that, his eyes wide. 'She's supposed to be doing the first touch tomorrow -.'

'And she's still offered to do your half of the choring... ' Shaking his head, Shinso sighs. 'She's more than you deserve. That's for damn sure. Without her, we'd fall apart.'

Sero pauses. Chewing the inside of his cheek, he swings his legs over the side of his bed and sits up. 'Is there anymore soup?'

'Yeah.' Shinso chuckles, gesturing the bed. 'In a puddle on your blanket by the look of it... If you want a fresh bowl, you'll have to get it yourself.' He strides off towards the door, but stops at the door to turn back over his shoulder. 'And you best be as gracious as a fucking priest when you do.'

The water is scolding your hands. Your wrists have vanished, lost below the soapy bubbles as you fish for the last bits of cutlery lost in the sink. Behind you, the stairs creek making the muscles of your back tense even as you try to keep your shoulders relaxed. Maybe it's the years you've lived together, or the fact that your heart skips a beat each time you hear him, but there's no mistaking the foot falls for anyone other than Sero Hanta.

He appears, shirtless, at the foot of the stairs, but doesn't press into the kitchen.

You ignore him. Focusing instead on the burning of your hands as you pluck a fork from the water and begin to clean it.

Sero clears his throat.

Still, you clean.

He sighs, stuffing his hands into his pockets before approaching the stove. Lifting the lid of the pot, he inhales through the steam that leaps from inside. 'Do you mind if I -.'

Turning, you absently pass him a bowl. 'There's still some clean spoons in the draw.'

'Thank you.'

You nod.

Spooning a decent helping of soup into a bowl, Sero takes his time choosing a spoon. It's mindless work, a waste of time as his mind whirrs – trying frantically to come up with something, anything to say to you.

The thing is, Shinso's right. You are more than he deserves and then some, but he's never been good with sweet things. That's why him and Cammie work so well.

They don't.

With you, there would be the possibility of a future. One that involves a quiet life, without crimes and games, a small house and weekly breakfasts with Bakugo and Kirishima, fuck... Children, a pretty little stone shining on your delicate finger.

He could give you all of that, but he can't give you what he knows you really crave.

He doesn't turn around when he speaks, instead, he hangs his head and talks to cream of his soup. 'You know I wish it were different...'

'It isn't that hard not to be a cunt, Hanta.'

'You know what I mean.' He winces.

You chuckle, but its a cruel noise that trickles off of your lips. 'So what is it? You wish I didn't yearn for your affections, or that you loved me like you love her?'

'Yes, well...'

Yanking your hands from the water, you splay your palms on the cold surface beside the sink. You're used to this, the numbness that so often overtakes you. The knowledge of your unrequited affection is like a balm, a prickling salve that serves not to sooth, but to prolong your suffering.

If you were able to let go, you would have, but you've loved him since you first laid eyes on him all those years ago when two scared children had come together for scarce more than survival.

'I sound bitter, I didn't mean -.'

He chuckles. 'You did. It's okay. I think that might be the normal thing.'

'What?'

'To hate me. To, to -.'

Your eyebrows furrow, your heart giving out in your chest as you consider a world in which his assumption might me true. 'I don't hate you.'

Turning finally, Sero leans back against the wooden surface of the kitchen counter. He licks his lips. 'You should.'

You lift your head, twisting until you can look at him.

At first glance, you'd be forgiven to think that his eyes were black, but on closer inspection, or under the right light, the faint, deep chocolate of his iris' shimmer – soaking up the light around each of his blown pupils. Now, with them trained on you, you're allowed to bask until you lose your nerve. Dropping your gaze, you tangle your fingers with one another. 'I could never.'

A sadness washes over him. 'You'd be better off finding refuge under Kaminari or Monoma.'

'Hardly a satisfactory refuge...' You chuckle, letting the noise lighten your mood.

He shares in your laughter, before allowing the sound to die on the back of his throat. Turning back to the counter, he palms the bowl of soup and slips a spoon into his pocket.

In two short steps he stops in front of you. His spare hand reaches out, curling around your shoulder. The tips of his fingers dig gently into the flesh and muscle covering your shoulder blade as his thumb smooths over the dip of your collarbone: caressing. Your skin blooms for him, heat rising through you as you allow yourself to think of all the other touches he could gift you, but any further thought is silenced as the gentle press of his lips touches to your forehead. Lingering, his lips hover barely a millimetre above his kiss.

'You deserve better than me.' He whispers it into your hair line before stepping away.

You feel the chill of him leaving, feeling an odd sense of abandonment and longing settle bone deep inside of you as he crosses back across the kitchen, towards the stairs. He's talking, but you don't quite register the words, not even as he calls your name.

'Forget the touch tomorrow. We'll scrap the job. It was a terrible plan anyway...' He hums. 'I think I should take some time away, let Bakugo and Shinso handle things for a while, maybe.'

He's gone, almost at his room, you'd guess by the time you leave your trance. Your fingertips find his kiss, touch gently against the skin there and feel the warmth of his lips as it slips, absorbed by your skin.

You smile.

He might not be able to give you what you want, what you crave. But, you'll always have this.

A singular, sorrow-filled kiss.

-> Masterlist

[doppelgangercomic]

SEQUEL??!!

hey everybody, long time no see!

first off, i wanted to thank everyone for all the consistent love on this story throughout the years! i hadn't dreamed it would still get this much love so many years later after i finished posting it in 2018! that really does fill my heart with joy <3

in any case, i wanted to let you all know that i have actually written a sequel to the story and posted it in the form of a fanfiction! i know it may not be as exciting as a comic, but i'm hoping that if you enjoyed the comic's story enough, you'd want to see what happens next in any form it may take. i've wanted to make a dpg sequel ever since it ended, and due to fandom hopping and burnout it kind of felt like a dead end for me for the longest time. however, with the release of the new graphic novel, i finally got the motivation and interest to start up my danny phantom engine again and finish the story like i've always planned to! and who knows--maybe one day i'll find the time and energy to comic-ify it as well? i guess we'll see; i have so many comic projects to do already, haha..

the sequel is six chapters long as well, and it's completely uploaded on my ao3 already! i whipped it out in one day once i got the outline made lol. still, i hope you might take the time to check it out and see what all i had planned for dan after the end of the comic!

here's the link to the fic!

thank you all so much again for the love and support, and i hope you'll enjoy doppelganger II !! i'd love to know what you think once youve read it! <33

[robobarbie]

Sorry if this was mentioned before somewhere, but how do you go about writing the script & choice branches for your stories? Do you tend to get a premise first & then build characters around it, or the reverse? How was it like working with multiple writers for BP, and getting their different takes to become cohesive into the overall plot? (Asking more out of behind the scenes curiosity/fascination with different writers' processes so ignore this is you wanna)

How do you go about writing the script & choice branches for your stories?

For big projects (like BP + AAI), before I start the script, I always have a mildly detailed outline for each day -- but I don't feel married to it. I then take one day at a time and just write whatever comes to mind in a google doc, and I often do veer off within each day from what the outline had indicated. Sometimes the conversations just flow differently as I'm writing them out, and that often ends up being some of the most natural writing.

Choice branches are placed in areas where I feel like it would make sense to the player, like, an answer to an open-ended question. Or, maybe an option to learn one of two things about a LI. The important stuff though always stays out of either-or branches to make sure the player sees it.

We'll often plug-and-play different choice branches/lines as we implement the game though, because you really can't know how dialogue will feel until you see it with all the other assets. The pencil skirt line in toaster's route was on-the-fly add, for example.

Do you tend to get a premise first & then build characters around it, or the reverse?

I tend to go premise -> characters. OCs are not super important to me on their own honestly, and I can't name a single one I have that hasn't been created purposefully to fit a story. I'm notorious for not fleshing out my characters a lot in my head, despite trying to write them realistically and caring quite a bit about them being "right".

How was it like working with multiple writers for BP, and getting their different takes to become cohesive into the overall plot?

I'll give them one of those day-by-day outlines for a route and then let them do whatever they want with it -- so, the overarching plot is determined largely by myself (with brainstorming help from friends!) and that keeps it all pretty narratively cohesive. It also helps that each of the routes I outline has virtually nothing to do with each other, so it gives the writers more freedom to go crazy.

So, the writers are free to take that outline and veer off it if they wish like I do. All that I ask is that they generally hit specific plot beats and have a general similar writing style as everyone else so it isn't too jarring route to route. I find that letting people do whatever the hell they want with my stuff has led to some of the best parts of the project(s). My editing hand on other people's things is suuuuuuuuper light. Like, I really only cut lines for brevity as I'm adding them into the game. And that itself isn't frequent.

[the-math-one]

The Bill Cipher Geometry Shitpost: Part One

Disclaimer: None of this is to be taken seriously

edit: actually yknow what scratch that i worked real hard on this you should take it seriously

So, as we all know, Bill Cipher is equilateral. That's because of that one line "sixty degrees that come in threes" from that one book that you'll easily find by ctrl+f-ing "equilateral" on the Bill Cipher page on the Wiki. See, but what if that's wrong though?

To do geometric analysis on Bill Cipher, we need to find instances where Bill is facing directly forward (if he's rotated along one axis, we can compare two sides). This is kind of hard. Especially since Bill can, like, bend into hyperbolic geometry to express emotion? (maybe I should do a detailed analysis of the Gaussian curvature of Bill bending later but that seems exponentially harder). Since I'm too lazy to record episodes, I'll just use the ones from the gallery that the Wiki has so generously provided (https://gravityfalls.fandom.com/wiki/Bill_Cipher/Gallery). I found a few, so I'll work with that I have.

Yes, I will come up with incredible farfetched interpretations for each observation. No, they will not be remotely true.

Right, so for our first picture, we'll analyse the Bill Cipher zodiac shown in the intro. This link has the Geogebra file:

There's a lot going on here, but I'll try to break it down. One problem is that Bill's outline has nonzero thickness, so there's really two triangles we can look at: the inner triangle (labelled ABC) and the outer triangle. I've done most of my calculations based on the inner triangle, and my observations should still hold to within experimental error.

First, Bill is (obviously) not a perfect equilateral triangle, because that's how drawing works. AC and AB are both longer than BC. This is unexpected; we'd expect Bill to be isosceles, but for his base to be, well, his base. Instead, it's his right side (from an onlooker's perspective), for some reason. To check that this is within experimental error, I took the perpendicular bisectors of AB and JK, and both are slightly right of C as can be seen in the few vertical lines. This shows us that Bill's right side is slightly longer than his left, and that his base is around the same as his left side. We can't conclude anything from this yet, but we'll get more as we compare to later images. Also, it might be remedied by the fact that Bill's left edge is not perfectly straight.

Our main conclusion comes from looking at the important points in bill: his eye, his bowtie, etc. I drew the line from C to the midpoint of AB as an approximation of the altitude of Bill (assuming he's close enough to Equilateral for that to work). The centre of Bill's bowtie is almost EXACTLY a fourth of the way up, the point a fourth of the way from F to C being labelled as M in the diagram. If we look at the part where Bill's bricks start, which I've labelled N on the right side, then AN = ~8.14, so AN/AK = ~0.63. Note that N can be moved up and down since, again, Bill has non-trivial thickness, and I found that the error gives AN/AK = 0.63 +/- 0.01(3). Particularly, this does not include any fractions with denominators equal to small multiples of three. The closest simple fraction it includes is 3/8, so we can assume that Bill's bricks are most likely 3/8 of the way up.

We can also look at the circles. I've labelled two of the zodiac circles as (OPQ) and (UTS), and their centres are at V and R below. Notice that I is the midpoint of the altitude, so within experimental error we can say that Bill is positioned, most likely, so that the midpoint of his altitude is the centre of the zodiac.

We can look at Bill's eye as well. Seeing as the distance from I to the centre of Bill's eye is approximately the same as the distance to the top of the bricks, we can conclude that Bill's eye's centre is approximately 5/8 of the way from the altitude.

The distance from Bill's top to the top of his hat, which I've labelled W, is almost exactly the same as the distance from C to the midpoints of AC and BC. The intersections between the circle centred at C with radius CW with AC and BC are labelled Z and A_1. Particularly, the line ZA_1 almost perfectly passes through I.

So what can we conclude from all this? Well, we notice that Bill has focused his appearance on fractions such as 1/2, 1/4, 3/8, and 5/8. These all have denominators which are powers of two, which is extremely surprising. Since Bill is (close to) an equilateral triangle, we would expect Bill to have many 1/3 fractions, not only because triangles have three sides (obviously), but because the centre of Bill (or, technically, centroid, and where almost every important triangle centre degenerates to in an equilateral triangle) is one third of the way up each altitude. However, the centre, labelled F_1, seems to have no significant meaning at all. I've also labelled the point 2/3 of the way up as E_1, and while you could argue it's meant to be the eye, 5/8 is much closer and makes more sense due to the 3/8 that already appeared. The point 2/3 of the way up is also usually important in equilateral triangles, being some of the points that lie on the nine-point circle. The midpoint of the altitude in a triangle has almost ZERO nice properties, unless you want to argue that Bill is a fan of Schwatt lines.

Right, so TL;DR: lots of powers of two in the denominators, not many multiples of three. The most clear takeaway is that Bill has shape dysphoria. Bill would rather be a square or some other type of triangle than an equilateral triangle, which for some reason he is anyway. He would rather be able to move around freely like a jazzy triangle. I think this works very well with his feeling of being trapped in two dimensions (and thus his escape and whatnot), as well as being an allusion to the tight caste system in the book Flatland, in which Bill, being the power-hungry triangle he is, would probably want to rise the ranks. However, he is, for some reason, trapped as an equilateral triangle, and thus he rebels by using midpoints for his important features, like a square would do.

I think this adds a lot to his character and backstory, why he's so power-hungry and why he's so hellbent on gaining control of everything, and why he wanted to enter the third dimension - after all, it lets him bend, and thus fixes his problem of rigidity somewhat.

Here's another image

It wouldn't be a proper scientific theory without more images to back me up. Here's Bill's Dreamscaperers portal entrance (link if you want to check my methodology):

This is a great image, because it has very little details that we need to deal with. Instead, we can just directly see that Bill's ``base" (if we consider him isosceles) is mostly on his right edge, though that right edge is now shorter. This lets us compare him to his previous appearance: now, in rebellious nature, he is somewhat breaking rigidity (but just barely, so perhaps he's unable to do it too much without... breaking flatland anatomy? I'm not sure). Also, Bill making his right edge his base is also rebelling against the norms of an isosceles triangle. This could also be because Bill considers that edge more important than his bottom edge (which would intuitively be the base). From Bill's point of view, the right edge is actually his left edge, which could be a clever allusion to the general opinion in history of the left being seen as more "evil" (the Latin word even being "sinistra"). (He makes deals with his right hand, which is weird, but I think it's something about how the deal itself must actually be genuine, even if under sinister intentions).

And again, the centre of Bill's eye, the main feature in the image, is at the centre of the altitude. And so the theory holds! Many features change across depictions, but his eye is consistently the midpoint of his altitude.

But Bill can be a pyramid!

Right, but I have a few counterpoints. First, although he has a square base, his features are still embedded on one of the triangular faces, which are probably still equilateral triangles (though I have to measure to make sure). Second, he only does this (I think) in Weirdmageddon, where he's already gained a lot of power - again showing he'll rebel against the rigid equilateral triangle regime whenever he gets the chance!

Wait, Part 1?

Yep, this'll be a multi-parter! In the next part, I'll analyse Dreamscaperers Bill (or "Lanky Bill") more, and give a few more diagrams. I'm busy though and wanted to get something Gravity Falls-related for the twins' birthday. I'll also analyse the Book of Bill cover which is really weird.

Alright! Thanks for reading!

[possum-quesadilla]

THE FULL OUTLINE FOR LONELY REMNANTS / CORPSEJUICE IS COMPLETE…. Now to just keep writing the actual damn thing…

I thought it would be eight chapters but it’s going to be twelve if you include the epilogue :,)

Here are the names and songs for each chapter, these are subject to change! If you wanna be completely totally in the dark, I’ll put them in a ‘read more’ so they can be avoided

- Chapter 1 songs: title song (“Ocean Breathes Salty” by Modest Mouse), “Friends In Low Places” by Worthikids, “Go to the Light” by Murder By Death, “Under My Skin” by Jukebox The Ghost, “You’re Dead” by Norma Tanega (for vibes), “Lost” by Amanda Palmer, “Lonesome Town” by Ricky Nelson, “Cut You A Piece” from 35mm, “I Will Always Think of You” from “BoJack Horseman, “Today Today” by Jack Stauber.

- Chapter 2: “I wish I'd find all the lonely remnants, Of you that left when your head cracked open” from “Coma Baby” by Nicole Dollanganger (woah! Guys it’s the title!!). Songs: title song, “Will You Remember?” by The Cranberries, “Sleepwalk” by Forrest Day.

- Chapter 3: “I'll save you from that fate, If I have to kill every angel in Heaven, I will snatch you back from the grave, And you will live to see my bed another day” from “Over the Moon” by Penelope Scott (thanks Cosmo <3 ) (No songs currently other than the title…)

- Chapter 4: “Didn't give me time to say goodbye in the way that I wanted to, So honey, close your eyes and stay like you're supposed to do” from “Pigeon” by Cavetown. Songs: title song, “A Mask of my Own Face” by Lemon Demon.

- Chapter 5: “Now you remember where you came from, Now you remember where you’re going, You’ve got to keep it flowing” from “Spiral of Ants” by Lemon Demon. Songs: title song, “Danny” by Nicole Dollanganger, “Here Before” by Vashti Bunyan, “Meteor Shower” by Cavetown, “Soap” by Penelope Scott.

- Chapter 6: “But you see, It’s not me, It’s not my family” from “Zombie” by The Cranberries. Songs: title song, “STRAIGHT DOWN” by Worthikids, “Lifetime Achievement Award” by Lemon Demon, “Army Dreamers” by Kate Bush, “Everything Moves” by Bronze Radio Return, “Memento Mori” by Crywank, “What Did You Do” by Jack Stauber.

- Chapter 7: “My body’s made of crushed little stars, And I’m not doing anything, I wanna see the whole world” from “My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars” by Mitski (guys I promise I tried to limit the amount of mitski… at least there’s no Jack Stauber bc I’m so strong). Songs: title song, “Remember My Name” by Mitski, “The Wolf” by SIAMES.

- Chapter 8: “Hey, Would it be so bad if I stayed? I’m just a ghost out of his grave” from “Ghosting” by Mother Mother. Songs: title song, “Love Will” by Jack Stauber, “dead girl in the pool.” by girl in red, “Body” by Mother Mother, “It Will Come Back” by Hozier.

- Chapter 9: “But in the end if I lose my voice, Will you forget about your love for me? But I still hold out hope that someday, I’ll be worth more than the silence left in my way” from “Canary in a Coal Mine” by The Crane Wives. Songs: title song, “Amen” by Amber Run.

- Chapter 10: “Wildfires have been eating you inside my head, Trying to smoke you out, Or burn you alive in it” from “Please Just Stay Dead” by Nicole Dollanganger. Songs: title song, “I Will Never Forget” by Kimya Dawson, “Howl” by Florence + The Machine, “Kitchen Fork” by Jack Conte, “Sense, Sensibility” by AJJ, “Putting The Dog To Sleep” by The Antlers, “My Name is Carnival” by Stranded Horse, “Rule #21 - Momento Mori” by Fish in a Birdcage, “The Apology Song” from “The Book of Life”.

- Chapter 11: “Villain and violent, Infant and innocent, Baby, both arms cradle you now” from “forwards beckon rebound” by Adrianne Lenker. Songs: title song, “Howl” by The Family Crest, “Small Red Boy” by AJJ, “Let Us Adore You” from “Steven Universe”, “The Bed Song” by Amanda Palmer, “Today Today” by Jack Stauber AGAIN.

- Chapter 12, epilogue: “And maybe we'll get lucky and we'll both grow old, Well, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I hope so” from “Ocean Breathes Salty” by Modest Mouse (oh shit like chapter one!! That’s crazy). Songs: title song, “Nothing Man” by Sodikken, more to come!

[squareallworthy]

It's Triangle Tuesday! A triangle, its centroid, a theorem, and two bonus triangles.

Greetings, seekers of triangle knowledge. Today I'm going to talk about the centroid.

Among triangle centers, the centroid is, at first glance, maybe a bit underwhelming. Take a triangle ABC. Let the midpoints of the sides be M_a, M_b, and M_c. Draw a line from each vertex to the opposite midpoint. The three lines cross at a point G. And that's the centroid.

Very simple. Simple almost to the point of banality. Don't get me wrong - the centroid is a great point. It's just not very flashy in its construction, and the fact that it exists doesn't seem at all deep. Later on, we can show how the centroid relates to other things, such as the symmedian point, the Euler line, and the nine-point circle. But for now, it's kind of hard to appreciate the centroid on it own. Let's do what we can do now, before getting into that other stuff, to see why the centroid is interesting.

It's not at all difficult to prove that the lines meet at one point, but the proofs I've looked at aren't all that enlightening. You draw a line and look at some parallel lines, and you say, "mmm, okay, that checks out, that's a proof all right," but it doesn't feel like you've learned much.

Even before proving that the lines are all coincident, it seems obvious that they should be. Each line cuts the triangle into two equal parts, and so when you draw two of them, the point where they cross is the middle of the triangle, measured two ways. So it just makes sense that the third line has to go through the same point, right?

Let's see if we can follow our intuition on this to get at something more fundamental. The lines that connect the vertices to the midpoints of the side are called medians. In general, lines like this that extend from a vertex to the opposite side of the triangle are called cevians (pronounced ˈtʃeviən, CHAY-vee-un). Are the medians really all that special among other cevians? What if instead of marking the midpoint of each side, dividing it into two segments in a 1:1 ratio, we mark a point that divides the side in a 1:3 ratio, going counterclockwise around the triangle? If we then draw the cevians, what do they look like?

Not surprisingly, the they aren't coincident. They outline a triangle (in red) that looks like the original triangle, but smaller and tilted counterclockwise. If we divided in a 1:3 ratio going clockwise, we would get a clockwise-twisted triangle. And if we move the marked points back and forth, sure enough, only when the points are halfway along the sides do the three cevians cross at one point.

And if we take the crossing point of two cevians, and then draw the third line through that point? Where does that hit the opposite side? Here I'll go back and draw that with a dashed line on the 1:3 ratio counterclockwise drawing:

It lands pretty close to the vertex. Somehow that point has to balance the 1:3 ratio we used to measure the other points, but it's not clear exactly how.

So how are coincident points connected to the place where we cut the sides? Let's get a bit more formal. Let's have a triangle ABC, and a point P that is not located on any of the sides of the triangle. We'll draw cevians from the vertices through P, and they will cross the sides of the triangle at D, E, and F.

So we would like to know where F, for instance, cuts line AB, and how it relates to the other points. Or, to put it another way, if we knew the ratio of the length of AF to FB, and the same for BD to DC, could we say what the ratio of CE to EA is? Conversely, if we have a triangle with three cevians cutting the sides at D, E, and F, and we knew all the ratios AF/FB, BD/DC, and CE/EA, could we say whether the cevians are coincident or not?

It's easy to get lost here with statements made up of long strings of segments. If you are like me, your eyes start to glaze over when you see that and you don't learn anything. So let's lay out a plan for figuring this out. We are looking for some information about ratios of line segments. To do that, it would be helpful to have some similar triangles, because similar triangles have all the same angles, and differ only in size and orientation. So if you know something about the ratio of two sides of a triangle, you know the same thing about the corresponding sides of a similar triangle.

And a good way to get some similar triangles is to arrange to have them meet vertex-to-vertex between parallel lines, like this:

With this arrangement and a little bit of Euclid (which I won't get into here), we can show that the pairs of angles marked with the same letters are equal. The two triangles with angles α, β, and γ are therefore similar, and we can say that the corresponding sides are in the same proportions -- that is, if we compare the red dashed segment to the blue dashed segment, it is the same ratio as the red solid segment to the blue solid segment. The four colored segments together make a Z-shaped figure, and it is this kind of arrangement of segments that we want to consider as we figure out what's going on with our cevians.

So with that in mind, let's go back to triangle ABC and add a line through A that is parallel to side BC. The new line meets two of our cevians at G and H.

And that creates sets of similar triangles:

AHF is similar to BCF (in red, below)

AEG is similar to BCE (green)

AGP is similar to BDP (blue)

AHP is similar to CDP (yellow)

From that, we can get these relationships:

AF/FB = AH/BC (from the red triangles)

CE/EA = BC/AG (green)

AG/BD = AP/DP (blue)

AH/DC = AP/DP (yellow)

We are interested in the ratios that the sides of ABC are divided into, that is, AF/FB and so on. We have two of them above, which I have bolded. We still need to get BD/DC and then shuffle things around to get all of those into one equation.

The two equations above from the blue and yellow triangles have the same right hand side, so we can say

AG/BD = AH/DC

and by reshuffling,

BD/DC = AG/AH.

There's the ratio for the third side. Now let's multiply that together with the equations we got from the red and green triangles:

AF/FB * CE/EA * BD/DC = AH/BC * BC/AG * AG/AH.

Everything on the right cancels out, so if we reorder the things on the left side to be alphabetically nice, we have

AF/FB * BD/DC * CE/EA = 1

which is the first half of what we wanted to know. If three cevians pass through the same point, then they cut the sides into ratios that multiply to 1. What a nice simple relationship to remember!

What about the converse? Can we prove that if three cevians cut the sides in ratios that multiply to 1, they all pass through the same point?

Let's suppose that we have divided the three sides of ABC with points C, D, and E in a way that AF/FB * CE/EA * BD/DC = 1. Then let's draw the cevians BE and CF and say that their crossing-point is called P.

Now, if we draw a cevian from A through P, does it land at D, as our equation says it should? Well, it has to land somewhere, and we'll call that point D'.

Can we prove that D' = D?

We were given that

AF/FB * BD/DC * CE/EA = 1.

And since we just drew three coincident cevians, we can conclude from what we just proved that

AF/FB * BD'/D'C * CE/EA = 1.

Combining those, we do a little algebraic manipulation:

BD/DC = BD'/D'C

BD/DC + 1 = BD'/D'C + 1

BD/DC + DC/DC = BD'/D'C + D'C/D'C

(BD+DC) / DC = (BD'+D'C) / D'C

But BD+DC is the whole side BC of the triangle, and the same with BD'+D'C. So

BC / DC = BC / D'C

and therefore D = D'. And that's our theorem:

In a triangle ABC, lines connecting the vertices to points on the opposite sides D, E, and F are concurrent if and only if AF/FB * BD/DC * CE/EA = 1

This is called Ceva's theorem, after the Italian mathematician Giovanni Ceva (ˈtʃeva, CHAY-va), who proved it in 1678. But as usual in mathematics the theorem is not named for the original discoverer. That was Abu Amir Yusuf ibn Ahmad ibn Hud, who proved it in the 11th century. (I got the above proof from this website, though I have cut some corners by ignoring signed distances and neglecting the case with an obtuse triangle.)

Given Ceva's theorem, we can trivially prove that the medians of a triangle are concurrent. The midpoints divide each side in the ratio 1/1, so

1/1 * 1/1 * 1/1 = 1

proves the existence of the centroid. There are much more direct ways to prove this, of course, but Ceva's theorem will come up over and over again in the study of triangles so it's worthwhile to get it down now.

Now since we've proved that the medians are coincident, here are some of the properties of the medians and centroid.

The medians divide the triangle into six triangles of equal area.

Each median divides the triangle into two triangles of equal area, because they have equal bases and heights. Therefore

T+U+V = X+Y+Z

but also

Z+T+U = V+X+Y

and subtracting the second from first gives

V-Z = Z-V

V = Z

and similarly for every pair of opposite triangles. But also, X and V have equal bases and heights, so X = V, similarly T = U, Y = Z. Putting that all together shows that all six areas are equal.

The centroid G divides the triangle ABC into three triangles ABG, BCG, and ACG of equal area.

This follows immediately from the previous result, and we can immediately follow that with

The centroid lies on each median at 2/3 of the distance from a vertex to a midpoint.

ABG has the same base as ABC, and 1/3 the area, so it must have 1/3 the height. Those two very straightforward facts give us this less obvious property:

A point X divides a triangle ABC into equal triangles ABX, BCX, and ACX only if X is the centroid.

For a triangle ABX to have 1/3 the area of ABC, it must have a height 1/3 that of ABC, so X must lie on the dotted line in the picture, which runs through G. Analogous lines for triangles BCX and ACX must also concur at G.

And, of course, the most famous properties of the centroid, and the reason G is traditionally used to name it, are that the centroid is the center of gravity of the vertices, and also of the area of the triangle. (If you are coming from a physics background, you might object that the centroid of an object is by definition its center of gravity, or center of mass -- that's simply what "centroid" means. To avoid any confusion, I am using a gemometric definition of centroid as the place where the medians cross, and proving that this point is also the center of gravity.)

The centroid is the center of gravity of the vertices.

If A and B represent equal masses M, they can be replaced by a single mass of 2M located at Z. The center of gravity of C and Z, then, is a point 1/3 of the way from Z to C, which is G.

The centroid is the center of gravity of the area of the triangle.

Every line parallel to AB can be replaced with a mass Z_1, Z_2, ... at the midpoint of the line. Each of these masses will be located on the median, and so the center of gravity of all these points must also lie on the median. By a similar argument, the center of mass must also line on the other medians, so it must lie at their crossing point. (Yes I admit this is rather handwavy, but a better proof requires integration and I am doing elementary geometry here, not calculus. I have an idea for a proof using purely geometrical methods but I haven't finished it.)

To be complete, I will note that the centroid is not the center of gravity of the perimeter of the triangle. That's a different triangle center, which we will perhaps consider on a different day.

Finally let me introduce two triangles related to the centroid and the medians. The medial triangle, shown in red, is the triangle formed by the midpoints of the sides. The antimedial triangle, shown in blue, formed by lines passing through the vertices A, B, and C and parallel to the opposite side, which meet at A', B', and C'. The anti- part comes from the fact that ABC is the medial triangle of A'B'C.

Both of these new triangles are similar to the reference triangle ABC and can be formed by reflecting ABC through a point and scaling up or down by a factor of 2. That point of reflection is, of course, the centroid.

If you found this interesting, please try drawing some of this stuff for yourself! You can use a compass and straightedge, or software such as Geogebra, which I used to make all my drawings. You can try it on the web here or download apps to run on your own computer here.

An index of all posts in this series is available here.