#me seeing a character with a halo of light around them: (POINTS) JUST LIKE THE BARD IN THE BOY AND THE WHIRLWIND CUTSCENE TIMESTAMP 0:50

[lanternlightss]

if we ever get nameless bard’s model, i really, really hope at one point we get him framed in the lighting like this (a call back to him surrounded by light in the boy and whirlwind? put upon a pedestal? or the bard, a guiding light from past...)

[ambros1an]

Hsr characters in a Soulmate au

warnings: sunday backstory, implied Gopher Wood being a bad father (Sunday), implied stellaron hunter Sunday, discrimination (aventurine, not said by reader), debt (aventurine), firefly backstory, 2.0-2.2 penacony spoilers

characters: Sunday, Aventurine, Firefly

a/n: it's so obvious who's my #1 fav in this

Sunday: writing

Throughout the world, everyone had the ability to communicate to their soulmates through writing on their own skin.

Sunday doesn't remember much about his childhood. His home-world was entrenched in war. The only constant in his life was his own sister, and the strange symbols on his wrists.

After being taken in by Gopher Wood, he would be taught that those symbols were words, and they came from his Soulmate. Excitedly, he'd take to the books to communicate with the person on the other end. At first it was little doodles, then broken sentences, and then full on conversations.

He wrote about his sister, the charmony dove, music and literature. One day, the writing stopped. You'd jot down messages in concern, so worried to the point your hand writing looked like illegible scribbles. He never did tell you his name after all.

After years, finally you got a response.

'Meet me at Dreamflux Reef, here, at 8 pm.' You couldn't help but notice that your soulmate's penmanship had improved after all these years. The once poor excuse for cursive wasn't just printed letters attached to one another, but font-like in it's neatness with broad loops. Despite the brief words written on your skin, your stomach rolled. Was it nerves or excitement?

There was a little hand-drawn map, taking up a portion of your forearm, with an 'X' on the location. You approached the streetlight ahead of you. It was five minutes before 8 pm, at the exact area he told you to be at.

There was somebody there. In the darkness, it was hard to see. The streetlight offered little brightness. Just a faint glow upon whoever it was. They were clearly halovian, a light bounced off their halo, providing a shine in your line of sight. Contrarily, they stood in dark clothes. And seemed to be fidgeting...as if waiting for someone.

As if on cue, the figure straightens up and turns to look at you. Those grey feathers and yellow eyes were unmistakable.

"Mr. Sunday?" The man hasn't been seen since the Order was chased out of Penacony.

"I didn't expect you to show up early," Sunday gives a halfhearted chuckle, then he calls your name, "you are them, right?"

"Yes, but-" You look towards your arm where the writing is located.

He sighs and shakes his head, "I...I'm the one who's been writing to you all these years." Sunday lifts his sleeve, on it is your reply to him, asking where he's been, and saying you'd be there.

Your soulmate was Sunday. The former head of the Oak Family. An MIA criminal. But also your childhood friend, who you never met.

There was so much to say, but the only thing you could think to ask was, "Why? You've been gone for so long..."

"I'm sorry. My fa-the dream master, prevented me from reaching out to you. He wanted me to be 'the chosen one' for The Order. I'm sorry that it took so long for me to-"

Gently, you put your arms around him.

"I was so worried. Please, talk to me. About everything."

He would, but now, all he wanted to do was rest in your embrace.

Aventurine: eye color

Everyone has one of their eyes the same eye color as their soulmate’s, until they meet.

It’s something that’s so arbitrary and meaningless to most people. There are only so many colors in the universe after all. But not yours.

“Sigonian.” Disdain.

“Poor child.” Pity.

“Whoever your soulmate is, you’re better off not meeting them.” Disgust.

Sigonia. A far off planet somewhere in the galaxy. Lightyears away. Where a people known for their unique eyes resides. Or used to reside.

Looking into the mirror, your right eye looks back at you, it’s a purple tinged with blue. You wonder what your soulmate’s would’ve looked like. You’ve long since accepted that any possible soulmate would’ve died years ago. Not even baseless rumors could settle any feelings of loss.

Knock Knock

Debt collectors.

The gentle knocks turn into bangs. The person standing outside takes a full walk around your house, peering inside any windows in search of you. The IPC was relentless when it came to debt. They'd make constant calls, tell your neighbors, blackmail their debtors, tack on more and more money, all to collect as much money as possible.

Just as your nerves calm down your phone rings. It's from a family member.

"Hello?"

"Hello, I'm calling from the IPC." That's not them. The voice is male with a smoothness to his voice. He disguised his number.

Just when you're about to hang up, "Don't hang up yet, I have a proposition for you." He instructs you to open the door.

You follow his instructions. Each step you make, the pit in your stomach gets wider. The door creeks as you turn the knob.

Two purple eyes, with a blue ring around the pupil. Sigonian. His eyes mirror your right one. But, within his reflection you see your own two regular colored eyes. Wait-

The man's mouth drops in shock, but instantly pulls into a grin. He hangs up the call.

"I see what's going on here. This time, the charge is on me," Aventurine insists. He's covered in designer clothing from head to toe, with golden rings lining each finger. You know right then and there that anything you say will get you nowhere. You're just glad he seems to be on your side.

"...Thank you."

"Mmm, but I never said it was without recompense." Shit. "In return, I'll provide you with a better place to live. This place is a bit...run down," he takes a glance around your home, and you can't help but feel embarrassed.

"Thank you, Aventurine, but that just sounds like I'll be in your debt."

He waves you off. "Debt? No, friend. What kind of partner would I be to let my soulmate fend for themselves?"

Firefly : timer

Every person across the galaxy has a timer leading up to the meeting of their soulmate.

4,000 years. Approximately 35,040,000 hours.

That was what Firefly had.

When she first awoke in her incubation chamber, it felt like she could wait forever. Their purpose was to devote their entire being to Glamoth. She did not dream. Not of the warmth of someone’s hands in theirs. Not of someone telling her that she was more. That was not a right of a weapon.

Yet, under the ashen sky and fields of smoke, not a single light shone through. Glamoth would never see the sun again. That was no place for a firefly.

For the last time she broke all protocol.

They unfurled their wings and chased the light. Finally, Unit AR-26710’s heart fluttered for a purpose that wouldn’t destroy.

24 hours = 1,440 minutes = 86,400 seconds.

They’d be landing in Penacony soon. She looked at her wrist, where the countdown was located. 1 day. She could feel her heart beat in her throat; she was so nervous.

Love. Kafka taught her that emotion. She’d never felt it before. Not that way.

Her eyes never left the window.

5 minutes = 300 seconds.

299, 298, 297, 296… Thinking in seconds was faster than minutes. It made time go faster. Minutes felt like eternity.

120, 119, 118, 117… Were they standing in the same area? Could she be looking at them right now? How far apart were they? Would they be tall or short? Would they be the time to put milk before cereal? Would they even like her?

10, 9, 8, 7… She watched the time tick away. She didn’t dare to look up least she burn up from the inside. It felt like her propulsion accidentally activated.

4, 3, 2, 1—

A figure crashed into her from behind. “I’m so sorry!”

0

She turned to look, and there you were. Yet, there was no celebration like she imagined. No hugging. No holding each other in an embrace. Instead, your face was pulled into grimace. Your arm gently interlocking with hers. Your posture was tight and hunched. All the signs of an uneasy person. Two Bloodhound members trailed after you.

“Did we do something wrong?” Firefly moved to stand in front of you

“That’s classified information,” one of the bloodhound guards say, gaze shifting off to look at you.

“I really didn’t do anything.” You look at Firefly with a pleading look.

The girl looks back at you and nods. She grabs your hand, the one the countdown is located on and charges for the alleys.

You hear the slap of their shoes against the concrete. The hurried pants of the guards. The footsteps behind you get louder and closer. In spite of the danger, all you can think about is the girl whose fingers are intertwined with yours. It brings a rush to your cheeks that only a breeze can soothe.

When your soulmate rounds the corner of the alley, her warm hand laced with yours turn a cold metallic. Her other hand placed around the small of your back in support. The suit of the armor is cold against your skin, but there’s a heat that radiates from the chest of the mech. It soothes your nerves. The lack of heat from her hand interlocked with yours may be replaced, but it was welcome.

When she unwraps her wings from behind her suit, a warm air erupts around you. Suddenly, you’re in the sky. The wind ruffles your hair, but you can’t bring yourself to care. Not when it dawns on you that you’re in your soulmate’s arms.

‘How would the other hunters react if they knew she blew her cover? Kafka was definitely going to tease her."

a/n #2: aven's was so hard to write. he feels like such a sleazebag in this but its only because he's in work mode I promise !! I want to do more of these bc it was fun.

[marie-m-art]

Good Animated Omens - Behind the Scenes

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the walk cycles I animated of Aziraphale and Crowley (original post here).

I'll reiterate that the character designs are @lookitsstevie's creation! I made builds in Toonboom Harmony based on their designs, and then animated the builds.

Long post under the cut, organized into four parts. Feel free to jump around or just click through the images and gifs to get an idea of the gist. (At least take a look at Part IV, where you'll see a version of Aziraphale without his jacket and a closeup of Crowley's torso!)

Hopefully this is interesting even if you don't know the first thing about animation. It's not a step-by-step-from-scratch tutorial, but it might give animators some ideas to think about when trying this software!

I'm happy to answer questions about what I cover here - comments, DM's, or ask-box questions are all fine by me. If you like any of the new gifs and want to reblog it on its own, I can make new posts for those upon request! (I'd prefer you don't reupload them, but if you do please at least credit me with a tag to my account - thank you!!)

Part I: The interface and some basics

Above is a screencap of the software interface.

In the centre is the Camera window, where all the drawing and animating is done. 

To the left, the Node View. It's a representation of how the pieces and layers that make the characters are grouped and connected to each other, which is what makes a character "build". Every piece in this window is called a node, and there are different types. Light blue "drawing nodes" contain the drawings themselves. Each drawing node usually has a green "peg" attached; the peg is used to move and rotate the drawing piece; you set a pivot point on each peg. Light grey nodes are groups that have more nodes within, and dark blue nodes are added effects (eg masks, the blur for the halo, etc).

Below, the Timeline - it's where keyframes are set and tweened. The red square dots indicate there is a new keyframe on a particular frame; the white dots indicate keyframes are on layers nested somewhere under the topmost visible layer. All the pieces of the characters can be found in the timeline and correspond to the pieces that exist in the Node View (and Camera). Typically you work with a collapsed view of the build layers in the timeline, which allows you to set keyframes on multiple layers at once.

To the right, a few tabs in this window - Tool Properties, Colour Palettes, and, shown on top here, the Library. The library is where you store your builds, so that you can bring in a fresh copy when animating a new scene. This library tab also has the Drawing Substitution window, which shows thumbnails of every drawing contained in a drawing node when that node is selected.

A second of animation is 24 frames long. Finished animation will often have keyframes on every second frame with the tweens removed, to help simulate the look and feel of traditional animation - this is known as animating "on twos", and saved time, money and paper in the old days. If you leave the tweens on, and/or have keyframes on every frame, the animation is "on ones".

My walks are on twos - it's the look I prefer.

When I say "tween" I'm specifically referring to the software feature that will automatically calculate and interpolate the path between two different poses/keys of a peg. An inbetween could be the result of using a tween, a new drawing, or both. On twos, an inbetween will look the same as any other keyframe on the timeline when you're finished - its relevance as a concept is during the process, not the end result.

Quality animation is achieved via a combination of moving/tweening pre-existing drawings using their pegs, and adding new drawings as hand-drawn inbetweens when needed. Toonboom Harmony also has nodes called "deformers": they offer a way to tween the shape of a drawing without needing to redraw inside the drawing node. (Part IV has the explanation for which pieces I used them for, and why.)

Part II: Navigating the builds

This is what their default poses with no animation look like.

Animation using builds is sometimes colloquially referred to as "puppet-style animation" because the way you can connect body parts to each other feels like making and handling a 2D digital puppet: you can connect a hand to a forearm so that they can move as a unit, and you can connect that unit to an upper arm to move the whole arm as a unit, and that arm gets connected to the torso, and so on.

When you want to connect two pieces, like a hand to a forearm, then you create another peg in the Node View and attach the two body parts together under that new peg. The screencaps below show the nodes that make up Aziraphale's and Crowley's entire builds inside their respective groups:

Things got a bit sloppy ... It looks extremely complicated, but once it's set up, you don't have to think about it too much when you're animating!

And I've zoomed in on the nodes that make their arms so you can see how there are pegs on top of pegs (all the green nodes), with wires connecting everything:

As I explained in Part I, new drawings are added and contained within a body part's drawing node (the light blue ones under the green ones), and the Drawing Substitution window is where you can see all the drawings that exist in a particular node. In the timeline, you set keyframes for moving the pegs, and you also choose which frame the new drawings will appear when applicable. You might have a lot of drawings stored in the nodes, but only what you set to appear in the timeline will be visible in the final animation.

You can select a body part in the camera view, and then find the corresponding layer in the Timeline or the Node View by pressing the "o" keyboard shortcut. If you select a body part by clicking on it, and then press the "b" keyboard shortcut, you will jump up to the next peg it's connected to. You can hide and unhide pieces using "d" and "a" respectively.

In the first capture above, I'm showing that the arm pieces can be moved separately or together, and you can see how the pegs in the Node View light up when I select them in the Camera window (hiding them turns them red). In the second capture, I pop down to the timeline to step back and forth between the poses - the light grey row (it appears between the rows of red dots) represents the hand's drawing node in the timeline.

Part III: Summary of animation process

In my head I imagined how their walks would differ from each other - Aziraphale bouncier but with very straight posture and limited arm movement, vs Crowley slinking and swaggering all over.

I also knew that I wanted the animation to look good for both a walking-on-the-spot version, and as a version walking across the screen (both versions are at the top of the post!).

Then I started doing some rough animation.

I set aside my finished builds for the roughs. For each character, I made a few drawing nodes and two pegs; a peg for the up-and-down upper body motion, which I tweened, and a peg for moving them across the screen. The legs and arms are drawing substitutions.

With these extremely rudimentary rough "builds", I worked out - how many frames long the walks would be, - how far the characters would move across the screen each step, - how much the upper bodies would move up and down, and - the key drawings of the legs and feet.

I didn't worry about animating clothing, hair, or Azi's arms in the rough stage. For those elements, the drawings would be spaced really close together and would be easier to figure out with tweens. (Note: this rudimentary setup would be sufficient if you want to clean up and inbetween characters by hand frame-by-frame instead of making full builds; my preference is build animation because the process is more fun for me)

Then I started working with the finished builds, using the roughs as a guide, and established the broadest motions first: the up-and-down motion in the upper bodies (I set a keyframe at the lowest point, a keyframe at the highest point, then tweened between them) and how far they'd travel across the screen. Then the feet were done.

I went back and forth between viewing them walking on the spot and walking across the screen to make sure that both versions worked. I also made sure they crossed the same amount of ground relative to each other.

After those crucial parts, I moved on to animating their arms, hair, torsos, clothing details, and finishing the legs, not necessarily in that order. I simulated twisting/rotating their torsos in 3d space by moving their waistcoats and lapels.

The first gif switches back and forth between versions (imagine a background scrolling by when they walk on the spot). The second gif is an example of bad "footslip" - they're moving at different speeds, and if you pay attention to their feet, Aziraphale appears to slip on ice while Crowley appears to slide forward on skates.

"You go too fast for me, Crowley!"

Part IV: Extras and details

Here is a version of Aziraphale's walk without his jacket, and a closeup of Crowley so you can see his swaying hips better:

One of the cool things about animating with builds is they lend themselves well to small modifications; the jacketless version took all of five minutes to make.

I'd be remiss not to include a close-up of Aziraphale's hair, the real star of the animation :) (Crowley's hair is also animated but I purposefully kept it understated since it's a much different texture.) And a closeup image of Crowley's snake tattoo:

The biggest unit for both of them are their upper bodies, which includes their pelvises. The up-and-down motion is only on one peg instead of on every single piece, which is handy because it means I can hide just that part of the animation when I want to work on the clothing details:

During the process of animation, I am often hiding then unhiding pieces like this so I can see what I'm doing.

Their clothing ended up being a lot of separate pieces, which I kept adding during animation rather than before, as it was hard to predict everything I needed. Their clothing also incorporates cutters (aka masks), and deformers (see explanation in Part I). In the next set of gifs the deformers show up as green outlines with handles and get turned on and off.

Aziraphale's torso functions as a mask for his clothing. The shape of his torso subtly changes via deformer. His lapels and waistcoat have V shapes that are masks/cutters (they cut a V shape out of those pieces); the same pieces that make the cutters also are used for the black lines of those V shapes via a special layering setup. The main shapes of his lapels are animated with deformers, and you can see how far beyond his torso shape they extend when I turn on the deformers in the second gif.

Deformers work best for shapes that change a little bit, and/or slowly. The minor shape changes in his and Crowley's clothes ended up being a great use case for deformers, because they pretty much tweened perfectly.

The reason I didn't use them on Aziraphale's legs was because those shapes change significantly between keys; I predicted I'd have to re-adjust every frame of a tweened deformer, so I drew the inbetweens by hand (halfway through, I realized I probably should have used them after all, but I was in too deep by then; hand drawing was fun though!). Deformers worked well on his bottom jacket:

Crowley's pelvis is layered above and below his thigh pieces and has a deformer. Also take a look at all the drawing substitutions for his hands:

And lastly the deformers on the hair:

Epilogue

I'm hoping the gifs all play at the same speed for everyone as they play for me. Hopefully the demo gifs are at least watchable, if not super clear... (I'll listen to feedback on the presentation of the information, for if I do similar posts in future!) Don't hesitate to ask questions about anything I covered, or about any details you noticed that I didn't elaborate on!

ko-fi.com/marieanimate

I'm shy about mentioning it, but I set up a Ko-fi account in case this post compels anyone to leave a small "tip" (but reblogging and sharing is just as good)!

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!

[theneighborhoodwatch]

thoughts on the Eddie scene from the end of the commercial reel? :D

HAHA oh man. okay while i'm waiting on the results of that poll, i might as well answer this. thoughts under the cut:

so, this may be me being optimistic, but i actually don't think this is indicative of eddie being permadead or anything, and not just because i think it'd be kinda cheap to kill a character off this early into the story before we even got to really know them. rather, i think this is a pretty straightforward explanation for eddie's absence from the homewarming recordings: he spent most of the day in his office waiting to be called on, only got invited to the homewarming party once everyone else had wrapped up their shenanigans, and proceeded to disassociate so hard that he was borderline catatonic when frank managed to draw his attention away from whatever he saw when he looked beyond the veil - and it's implied that frank was the only (or at least, the first) person to notice his acute distress in the first place. in short, eddie's presence throughout the entire holiday of homewarming ended up being so inconsequential either way that he might as well have not even been worth mentioning. of course, if he is missing by the next update then like. egg on my face. but that's how i see it for now.

so, is The Void that eddie found himself in when he first opened his eyes real? i mean, certainly on some level, it must be. either it's the truth of the neighbors' world or it is simply true for home, since they were the only other entity there - and since home is at the center of their world, well...... . as for what the void represents - i feel like that's something we'll only have a clearer picture of once another character finds themselves in The Bullshit, but i can hazard a few guesses, the first and most obvious being that it's eddie accidentally piercing the veil by being just a little too OOC for the universe's liking, i.e. "silly mailman, you're the resident workaholic! you're not actually supposed to relax, that's just so this special can end!" the second interpretation - and one that i like just a bit more, if i'm being honest - is that it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, or that distress over a deviation from the status quo makes one more susceptible to The Horrors.

hear me out: we know from the previous show scenes in the commercial reel that feeling useless or unneeded by way of having no work to do is a really easy way to get under eddie's skin, and his agitation over that was still lingering when sally invited him to the homewarming party. he's optimistic, yes - but very cautiously so. he's not used to it. something still feels a little wrong, which presents a prime opportunity for Something (home?) to wrap their arm around his shoulder and go, "buddy, you have no fucking idea." i remember reading a post that went something like "if a person goes from 1 to 100 seemingly out of nowhere, chances are they were at a 99 for a really long time, and they were just either hiding it or didn't even realize it." i think it's something like that. Something - home? wally? one of those two acting on the other's behalf? - sees this dissatisfaction, and in it, finds an opportunity to Make Them See. Make Them Understand.

something else i can't stop thinking about is that final shot of frank at the end. on the one hand, yes, it is very sweet how frank is willing to break away from formality if it means making sure that eddie's alright. on the other hand, though.... that shot of frank feels very idolizing to me. in the sea of red, frank is the one remnant of when things were fine and dandy for eddie just a few minutes before. he's in the center of the shot, and for that split second, arguably the center of eddie's world. they're even haloed by light, like an angel. again, whether they're in a properly established relationship by this point or if this is the beginning of their relationship turning from a playful flirtationship to something deeper, it's sweet to think that this is how eddie sees frank - as a refuge from The Bullshit. but i have to wonder... is eddie prepared for the possibility (or inevitability, rather) that one day, it'll be frank in that chair? given how frank likes things "just so," how is eddie going to react if, say, frank decides that the best way to ensure eddie's safety/wellbeing is to stay away from him? Many Questions Here.

[remembers that i suggested lower one's eyes as eddie's answer to frank's esperar pra ver once] [remembers that lower one's eyes is about a judas analogue being in love with a jesus analogue] [coughs up blood]

on that note, i know some folks think that at least some parts of "bug-a-bye and goodnight" are about eddie because "that's not the kind of thing you say about a bug!!!" but the thing about that is. it might not be what you would say about a bug. but it is absolutely what frank would say about a bug.

ok i'm done. For Now.

[somehow-a-human]

GO Filming Tidbits - Lens Filters

DO NOT ASK NEIL ABOUT FAN THEORY

After reading through this lovely article, which Neil shared and specifically mentioned, has many secrets in it, I was definitely drawn to the descriptions of the different filters used to characterize people and locations in the show so I decided to do a little digging on them and their effects! I think it's so interesting to give characters their own filter, a lens for which we're seeing the world through their eyes! So let's take a look at the three filters mentioned in the article below:

Tiffen Bronze Glimmerglass - Bookshop Scenes The bronze tint provides additional warmth, and softens skin details and blemishes, it gives a slight reduction in contrast for a more ethereal image appearance.

The bookshop scenes look warm, & hazy. You might think of the look as a bit of a sepia effect. There are soft halos around light fixtures and the filter provides a warm toned pop to yellow, gold, and orange colors. This filter is really helping give the bookshop its cozy, safe, and welcoming vibe.

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Tiffen Black Pro-Mist - Hell This filter reduces highlights and lowers contrast, softens wrinkles and blemishes, and creates a soft quality of light.

Very similar to the Bronze glimmerglass, the Black Pro-Mist filter provides scenes with a very intense 'hazy' effect, but we're missing that warm tone that you see in the bookshop. It makes hell seem cloudy, like maybe you haven't quite wiped the last bit of sleep from your eye, or the air is just so thick and gross that its visible. Fitting for hell. We also see the effect when demons attack the bookshop, and whickber street becomes a green hazy hellscape.

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Tiffen Black Diffusion FX - "Crowley's Present Day Storyline" Diffuses strong light entering the lens and produces a glowing effect, the resulting image appears soft and ethereal, there is little loss of clarity or detail and the image does not lose saturation.

This filter was the most interesting one to me for sure. First of all "Crowley's Present Day Storyline"? Why not just Present Day Storyline, or Crowley & Aziraphale's Present Day Storyline, or Whickber Street's Storyline? I know we're already questioning timelines and narrators so that wording definitely made me raise my eyebrows. The effect keeps the shots very saturated, compared to the others we've been introduced to, and very clear, but there is still a magical ethereal quality to the picture. I think the effect is painfully obvious in Episode 1 scene of Shax and Crowley meeting on the park bench. No shortage of people have pointed out how saturated this scene is, and now I think I know what filter to thank by name.

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[siren-serenity]

ethereal

in which your leona looks more than beautiful at the fairy gala...in your eyes, he's ethereal

characters: leona kingscholar, gn!reader warnings: none a/n: - this was inspired by leona's SSR card vignettes, he's looks- goddamn! - feedback is appreciated!

"Leona-senpai!" Ruggie Bucchi teased his grumpy-looking senior, who rolled his eyes. "Ya look like a fairy when ya'll dolled up, shi shi shi!"

The lion beastman only sighed heavily before toying with the lace and the golden ornaments wrapped around his attire. The golden glitter was laid thickly on every piece of skin shown off to the world, making him seem like he was an angel, glowing even on the bright summer day. However, Leona would to do nothing more but to rip off the itchy, irritating garb but one look from Professor Crewel made him think twice.

"He looks magnificent."

Upon hearing your voice, Leona spun around, ignoring the way his heart fluttered at the thought of you thinking of him in such a way, ignoring how his tail was swaying from side to side (he especially ignored Ruggie's cackling, Jamil's snickering, and Kalim's cheerful remarks), and most of all, the way his cheeks flushed bright red.

"Perfect," He greeted you, smiling gently. Vil clapped his hands, pointing at the lion beastman accusingly.

"See? See?! This is what I'm saying!" Vil threw his arms up in the air and Professor Crewel mirrored him in attitude. An elegant and well-manicured eyebrow was raised at the lion beastman as Professor Crewel nodded. "Leona can definitely smile if he wanted to, but guess who was all grumpy and mopey for the past few hours?"

You couldn't help but hold in a laugh before walking closer. Leona held in a breath when you cupped his chin in your hand, tilting it slightly here and there. The way your (e/c) eyes glimmered and your head eclipsed the overhead lights; it framed you like a halo around an angel.

"How lucky am I," You murmured, only loud enough for Leona to hear. "I have an angel as my lover. Oh, how the Sevens have blessed me today to see such an alluring vision of white."

Leona couldn't help but let out a tiny scoff, gently pushing away your hands but he had never in his life felt so warm, so welcomed, so utterly loved than in your arms. He could only cough and look away, igniting even more laughter from the rest of the group.

"Well, well, well! Leona-senpai, I never knew you could flush so red..." Jamil snickered, hiding a polite smirk behind a raised hand. Kalim nodded in agreement. A puppy-look in his eyes made Leona groan as the ruby-eyed student began to babble.

"You guys look so cute together! When is your anniversary?! I want to give you so many presents! Jamil, what if we gave them hundreds of emeralds and (e/c) jewels for the first day of their anniversary, and then hundreds of pure white doves for the second....OH! Why don't we give them matching thrones and-"

Everyone just blinked at the babbling dorm leader. He was still cheerfully throwing words here and there; Jamil sighed loudly and had to shush him to make him stop.

"Thanks?" You blankly said before shaking your head. You tugged Leona away from the chaos, leading him down the numerous, glamorous hallways of Pomefiore. The lion beastman's shoulders shook with hidden laughter before he tilted his head back and roared carefreely.

"Look at that heir! Why didn't you accept the offer? Matching thrones- pfft-" Leona choked on his breathes, laughing.

"Aww, don't worry darling. After all," You gave him a smile. "you're the king of my heart."

Leona blushed before coughing.

"You can't just say that!" He spluttered but the twitches of his fluffy ears and the pleased swaying of his tail gave his emotions away immediately. You pushed him against the wall, smirking as Leona's eyes widened.

"I'll say it as much as I want to," You breathed out, nuzzling and pressing soft kisses along his neck. Leona groaned, fisting around your biceps. "You're ethereal, my love."

[meowmeowriley]

Anybody else see that art on Twitter of Soap as an Animal Crossing villager, and then the other art of that Soap sitting on Doom Guy Ghost's shoulder? Anybody else feeling so incredibly normal about it? Anyway. Have this.

***

"C'mon uncle John, would it kill you to smile? Pretend you wanna be here?" Soap was doing his best, he really was. He loved his nephew, and when his sister Isla said he couldn't go to the convention because it was too far away and he didn't have an adult, well what are uncles for?! But he hadn't taken into account that 1) he's never been to a cosplay convention and 2) he's seriously out of his depth when it comes to the colorful characters around them. If anyone asked he'd be mortified to admit that he'd spent the better part of his leave following his nephew around, taking pictures of him with characters from various video games and anime. No, he'd be keeping this experience to himself.

"I'm not not enjoying myself." Andrew rolled his eyes. "I just don't know any of the characters. I haven't played a video game in ages, and I've never watched anime." Plenty of other soldiers did watch anime, and there was nothing wrong with that, he'd just never joined in.

Andy snorted. "What was the last game you played, old man?" Soap resented that. He wasn't even thirty yet.

"I dunno, Halo maybe?"

"The original?!"

"Think so." Soap said with a shrug.

"So the year I was born. Got it." Yikes.

Suddenly Andy was excitedly pointing at a large man in green and gray armor, in the middle of a crown. "Oh you have to recognize that guy!" And did he ever. How could anyone not recognize Doom Guy? And he was holding the BFG.

"Ohhhohohoho yeah. I know Doom Guy." John had nearly forgotten how much he'd loved the Doom games as a kid. "And before you say it, those games are old, even for me."

"They redid the games in 2016 and 2020. It's relevant again." Oh. And with that Soap was once again being dragged toward some random person in a costume.

Something this guy was getting right was that he wasn't speaking. He'd nod, wave, aim his gun, but he didn't utter a word. Soap couldn't see a thing through the helmet visor. I wonder if he can even see outta that?

The guy caught sight of them, evidently he could see, and tilted his head while looking down at Soap. "That things pure dead brilliant." He found himself marveling at the BFG in the man's armored hands.

It looked like it was actually made of metal. And it actually glowed! How the man had gotten the green lights to work, he was dying to know. Trying to configure it in his head, he nearly missed when the man held it out slightly for him. "Can I?" He asked, just making sure. Oh he'd kill for something like this in the field. Pure devastation. Doom Guy nodded and John took the gun. Holding it, it was a hell of a lot lighter than he'd imagined. The fuck is this thing made of?

Andy popped up beside him. "Can we get a picture with you mate?" To that, Doom Guy nodded. Maybe Soap would tell people he'd been here, he wanted a picture of him holding this gun hung up at his desk.

Andy backed up, people kindly stayed out of the way as the picture was taken. Doom Guy posed, crossing his arms over his massive chest. Soap held the gun as best he could like he would a rifle. Not aimed at anyone, but ready. "We're good." Andy called. Doom Guy  held up his hand to stop him, then stuck out one finger and swirled his hand around. "Huh?" Andy thought for a moment. "Another?" Doom Guy nodded and gave a thumbs up. Really taking his character seriously. Who were they to deny him, this was cool as fuck. Soap readied himself to take the next picture, giving the camera a feral grin, just like the first, when Doom Guy placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned down.

"Enjoying the convention Johnny?" Startled at the use of his name that he knew he hadn't given the man, he whipped around, instinctively pointing the gun in his hands at the chest of the other man.

Then it dawned on him. "Ghost?!" He asked incredulously. There's no fucking way.

The man in question began laughing. He reached up and removed his helmet. Shaking his head, Ghost's messy, dark blonde hair flew in every direction.

Unlike Las Almas, he wasn't drenched in sweat, there was no grease paint, and light brown hair was longer and curled slightly. Shit he had freckles. Shit he was cute. Dangerous thoughts, John.

"I didn't think this was your kinda thing, Johnny." Ghost said with a crooked grin that perfectly framed his crooked teeth.

John was no saint. He'd been flirting with Ghost since they met. Secretly really wanted to have sex with him, but he'd only seen the man's face that one time, and now his mind was going a million kilometers an hour trying to take in every inch on display. Thoughts both pure and impure ran through his head, and the only thing that managed to make its way to his mouth was "Where'd you get this thing?" Normally he was a better flirt, but normally he was flirting with the visage of death. Not a pretty man with freckles. Well he was, but not really.

"I made it." Ghost shrugged, armor clacking as his shoulders rose and fell. "Same as the suit. It's all EVA foam and 3D printing."

"You made this?!"

"Yeah? I made my masks too. What, you think I bought those?" Ghost smirked.

Andy had jogged back over. "I took a video, so we could take screenshots." He handed the phone over to Ghost.

"I'm absolutely keeping this, Johnny." He said as he typed in his number and sent the video to himself. Damn, Andy got Ghost's number before he did.

"Johnny?"

"Shut it, Andy." He warned. "We work together. Never in a million years thought I'd see him out here though."

"I go to any convention I can make. It's fun. I have other suits. Isaac Clark from Deadspace, Master Chief from Halo. I like to wear them and make people smile. I don't get to do that often." He seemed lost in thought for a second, face darkening. Just as quickly as it had happened, the expression was gone. "You go to conventions often?"

"First one. But I could be persuaded to go to more." John smiled his best flirty smile. Andy snickered, and earned himself an elbow to the ribs.

***

Now I desperately wanna see Soap at a con dressed like Isabelle while holding the super shotgun.

[clumsy-jiminie]

ɪɴᴇᴠɪᴛᴀʙʟʏ ʏᴏᴜʀꜱ | ᴘᴊᴍ | ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇ

❝ ʀᴇꜱᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇʟᴀxᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ❞

↣ summary :: Kiara Smith had dreamed of true love for as long as she could remember. from being obsessed with the Disney princesses who found affection in the strangest situations to dressing up as a bride from kindergarten to fourth grade. it was the only thing she ever truly desired, so much so that a pleasant smile and kind eyes could have her smitten in seconds. right when she thought she found the one, a chance encounter with Park Jimin—the city’s famously perfect fuck boy with a smile so warm and a heart of ice—has her feeling quite the opposite. he knocks her off her axis and derails her life as she knows it, yet the universe seems to have another plan for the two.

↣ rating :: 18+

↣ genre :: fluff, angst, smut, e2l, slow burn

↣ pairing :: business owner!jimin x fem!artist!oc ft. taehyung

↣ word count :: 5.5k

↣ chapter warnings :: mature language, implied sexual encounter

↣ notes :: a day in the life of our beloved jimin. I was really excited to write this chapter just bc I love how jimin is. there's so much I have planned for his character.

↣ next :: previous :: series m.list ↢

if you have any questions, comments, or concerns PLEASE don't hesitate to message me or send me an ask! my inbox is always open. 💖

"you know I'd be lying saying you're the one that could finally fix me, looking at my history, I'm bad at love."

- bad at love, halsey -

"You sure I can do this?" The dark-haired man asked, chewing on his plump lower lip as he stared at his white ceiling. The nervous habit often left his lips swollen and bruised, but he couldn't stop. It was better than chewing his nail beds raw.

The woman beside him scoffed obnoxiously, rustling the bed as she switched sides to face him. She looked at the man, worried etched into his beautiful features, stealing the place of his usual bubbly self.

"Are you kidding, Jimin?" She gazed at him, the same look of love swimming in her pools of chocolate as his. "Of course you can." She reached out to him, placing her delicate hand on his cheek. He turned to look at her. Her simple touch made his shoulders relax in an instant. "I have believed in you since the idea first fell from your lips."

He couldn't help but stare at her. Her words sunk into him, swelling his heart until there was no more room for worry. The gentle light of early dawn illuminated her pale pink skin, casting a soft halo around her. She was an angel—his angel—placed on earth to find him and bring warmth into his cold life. If every mistake he made led him to this point, he'd make them all over again. 

He smiled, hoping to burn this moment into his memory of how she looked, how soft she felt, how sweet her voice was. He placed his hand on top of hers; feeling the stark difference between her soft hands and the diamond ring occupying her left finger. "I love you."

"I know," she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips. It was quick and sweet but made his heart soar nonetheless.

"So what should I name it?"

She rolled onto her back as they both stared up at the ceiling. "Hm, well," she paused, pursing her lips in thought. "Whenever you dance, it's captivating. It's a topic, a discussion. Art, but moving."

Jimin's brows furrowed as he pondered on her words. "Like in motion?"

"Yes!" She squealed. "That's it!"

"So, Art in Motion…." The name sounded foreign on his tongue, scrunching his nose as he said the last vowel.

"Mhm, Art in Motion." She grinned.

But for some reason, it sounded exquisite when it left her lips. It sounded expensive, like a delicacy—like success. They glanced at each other, a giggle escaping her lips as Jimin reached over and pulled her into him, her small frame against his own. He covered her in kisses. Her laughs were the sweetest sound he's heard.

"What would I do without you?"

Jimin's eyes fluttered open, meeting with blonde hair covering the pillow beside him. It almost startled him; part of him expected to see those same chocolate waves from his dream. Dreaming was the only way he could remember the past, considering he would have willed those memories into a box during his waking hours. All they did was provide a source of pain, a fuel for depression, and he couldn't afford to waste time.

Like right now.

He wasn't a morning person and would strictly work at night if he had it his way. But nighttime was only for getting drunk and sleeping in terms of the business world, so he had to adjust. He pushed himself to sit up, running a hand through his messy bedhead to push the wild strands out of his eyes. His partner groaned softly from all the sudden movement, causing him to look at the girl through squinty eyes.

"Hey," he croaked with his brows furrowed. He glazed over the blonde's tousled waves that cascaded over her bare spine. He reached out and touched her, cold hands against warm skin, but to his surprise, there was no response. His brows squished together further; that trick usually caused them to spring to life.

The muscles in his jaw feathered with annoyance as he grabbed his phone off the nightstand, checking the time. He got out of bed and gathered his boxer briefs from the clothes that were scattered amongst the floor, haphazardly thrown about in last night's act of passion. This girl slept like a rock and would put a significant dent in his schedule if she didn't get up soon. And as stated earlier, he didn't have time to waste. He responded to a few text messages he deemed urgent before grabbing the comforter and tugging off of her body. She groaned in protest, reaching out to grasp at the sheets.

"Yo, get up." The blonde began to walk around his bedroom while picking up bits and pieces of her clothes. It may have been cold the past few nights, but dressing with this many layers was extreme. After confirming he grabbed everything, he tossed the bundle of fabrics at her. The sound of a text notification rang from his phone, prompting him to respond quickly. "You gotta go," he said over the clicks of his keyboard.

The woman finally sat herself up, furrowing her brows as she looked back at the man. He was barely paying any attention to her. She got up and started to get dressed again. "Good morning to you, too," she said, catching a glance from him for a second. She huffed quietly, sliding her shirt on. "You know, guys I normally hook up with, treat me to breakfast in the morning."

"That's nice for them," Jimin deadpanned.

The blonde gasped dramatically, her green eyes widening. "You know, I deserve better!"

He nodded his head, "Mhm definitely. You do deserve better." He walked over to his door and opened it, eyes still glued to his phone screen. "And you are welcome to go find it! Outside my apartment."

The woman pouted at the man now. She walked over, standing directly in front of him. She had hoped to get his attention one last time, but her efforts failed. "I didn't want to believe the rumors about you. I was hoping they weren't true, but I guess Park Jimin does have a heart of ice."

Jimin genuinely snickered, looking at the girl. "I guess you'll learn not to be so naive," he grinned at her, and her heart could've melted. Someone so cold shouldn't possess a smile so warm. Mixing fire with ice should've been physically impossible, but here he was, the walking enigma. "Izzy will let you out. Ensure you don't forget anything; I'm not fond of flings." The blonde girl left his bedroom as he looked down at the phone again. "Get home safe, Jamie!"

"It's Jessica!" He heard just as he shut the door. 

It didn't matter what her name was since he would never see her again. Like she said, the rumors were true. Park Jimin will treat you as if you were the only girl in the world, to forget your existence when morning arises. Warm to the touch with words like icicles. He walked to his bathroom, losing the box briefs as he hooked up some music for his shower.

After completing his morning routine, he walked out of the bathroom with a towel barely hanging around his hips. He tossed his phone onto his bed as he walked over to the wall-length windows occupying one side of the room. As Jimin pulled back the curtains, allowing sunlight to finally crash through his windows, he sighed deeply. He looked up at the crisp blue sky with a slight frown pulling on his lips. He rubbed at his chest, hand over his heart as if to soothe a never-ending ache.

She liked days like this, days without a cloud in sight. It reminded her of perfect summer days, with ice cream dripping down her chin and children's laughter. 

"Mr. Park," said a woman as she barged into Jimin's room. The woman was genuinely heaven-sent when he needed her to be. Her heels clicked against his polished, white birch flooring, the sound ripping him from intrusive memories that would’ve left him bedridden for a week. She stared down at the binder in one hand while the used pushed blonde hair out of her face. She adjusted her glasses as she waited for her response.

Jimin inhaled deeply, letting his eyes shut as his head tilted back. His hand rested over his heart. While being heaven-sent, he knew exactly what would come out of her mouth in the next 15 seconds just by how she entered his room. "Yes?" He sighed.

"Alright, you have a 9:30 with Mr. Salvatore; he said he wanted to double-check the lot for the next studio. The graphics team for AIMIt also would like to meet with you when you have the time. I said you were available at 11, hoping the studio check would be brief, so it'll be just before your lunch. And….” Izzy continued to ramble on about various meetings on the itinerary today, emails that needed to be sent, and checks that needed to be signed, causing Jimin's head to spin.

"Iz…." He called out as he shut his eyes tight, trying to separate his thoughts from her voice. She continued, prompting him to turn around and face the woman. "Izzy," he repeated a bit louder this time. She stared down at the binder in her hand, her free one waving about as she spoke and pushing back her black-rimmed glasses when needed. He walked towards her, and with her total lack of attention to her surroundings, Jimin could snatch the binder from her hand, her wide blue eyes finally meeting his brown ones. He looked down at his jam-packed schedule, seeing tiny color-coded notes that made him squint. Even with his contacts in, he still couldn't read any of it. "Did you manage to schedule in when I get to take a shit?" He smirked playfully at her.

Izzy rolled her eyes, reclaiming the binder from the man. "Oh ha ha, Mr. Park, you're so hilarious!" Sarcasm laced her words while Jimin sent her a wink. He walked towards his walk-in closet, and she intuitively followed while she flipped through the pages of the schedule she meticulously put together. "But these are the consequences of going to dinner the other night! You have a tightly packed schedule down to the second, thanks to yours truly. You're welcome." He dropped the towel, but this didn't phase Izzy at all. She was dedicated to her job, and dedication meant walking in on the blonde more often than not.

She was organized, precise, and reliable but needed to gain awareness of boundaries. You win some and lose some. 

"You don't have time to waste!" She reiterated as if Jimin didn't already know. He continued to get dressed, sliding on a pair of boxer briefs before putting on a pair of black sweatpants. "Between being the owner AND an instructor, I'm surprised you have time to shit! By the way, I have you down for 2:30 PM and 6 PM for bathroom times, figuring things could digest after lunch and a snack."

"Well, it won't be needed," he said before asking Siri about the weather. "Cancel everything."

"W-What?!" She stammered, looking at the shirtless man as if he had four heads.

Jimin thumbed through his athletic shirts, flipping between a long-sleeved compression shirt and a long-sleeved cotton shirt. They were both black, and he ended up going with the former. "Cancel it all." He took the shirt off the hanger, slid the stretchy material over his torso, and turned to face the woman again. "I want a day to myself."

"Are you crazy?! Mr. Salvatore doesn't like it when people cancel at the last minute, which is fair! You need—"

"Isabelle," his stern tone cut her off and promptly shut her up. She knew which battles she could win, and this wasn't one of them. "Mr. Salvatore can wait. The graphics team can wait. However, I will drop by the office to get payroll done. Other than that, I know everything, and everyone else will wait. You know this business doesn't move without me."

He was right, and of course he was. Even though he constantly reminds Hoseok that the man is just as important as he is, the brand will crumble without Jimin. They needed his business expertise, as it was his major in college. He walked out of his closet after slipping on some sneakers, knowing Izzy would trail behind like his shadow. After grabbing his phone and keys from his room, he went downstairs.

"Do you think I should get breakfast at Little Latte or Starbucks?" He asked as he skimmed through the various food items in his fridge—nothing but odd ends and snacks. He was rarely home anymore, and when he was, it was after dinner or to commit someone to his sheets.

"Mr. Park…," she said softly, voice slightly quivering as she held the binder close to her chest.

"Izzy," he sighed again, closing his fridge and looking at the small girl before him. She was trembling despite her serious tone. He couldn't help but frown a little. He knew how much this job meant to her, primarily because he found her. He technically saved her, and she showed her gratitude by being so dedicated. Little did she know, she was the one who saved him, and Jimin would never be able to repay her. "After you reschedule everything, because I know you will, please take the day off as well."

He walked over to her, lifting her chin with his finger to look into her blue eyes. She glared at him, making him smile. Her brows furrowed, her body rejecting the idea of a day off. 

"Come on, Iz," he pleaded once he realized she wouldn't budge. "It's beautiful outside! Take a walk, get some sun! We both deserve some rest and relaxation. If not, you leave me no choice but to fire you." The woman looked up at him with wide eyes as his brows raised. He cracked a smile, "Don't worry, you know I'd rehire you."

Izzy let out a heavy sigh. She couldn't help but roll her eyes, falling victim to Park Jimin's irresistible tactics. "Starbucks is overpriced, and you know Little Latte makes the best coffee on the Lower East Side," she offered the man a small smile. 

"Thank you," he reached out to ruffle her hair, causing her to swat at his hand. "Now go on! And I expect to hear all about your magical day off tomorrow morning!" He urged her towards the door while she let out a loud scoff. They knew she would stay inside and rework Jimin's schedule, maybe curl up with a book afterward. She loathed the outdoors.

After Isabelle left, he scrambled around one of his spare closets where he threw random objects in. Like how every household had a junk drawer, he had a junk closet. There, Jimin found his old yoga mat, dusting off the plush rug. He didn't realize how long it's been since he used it. Either way, he had plans to change that today. He headed towards the door and left. 

Jimin opted to walk to the quaint coffee shop, seeing as it was just a short distance from his penthouse. It indeed was a beautiful day outside—not a cloud in sight. The sun offered a comforting warmth instead of beating down on the man like he owed it rent money. There was a light breeze just for the people who got hot no matter what, keeping everyone comfortable. With over-ear headphones on, blasting Justin Bieber as he walked down the sidewalk like he owed it.

"When I'm in my thoughts sometimes, it's hard to believe I'm the person you think I am, the person you tell me you love…"

Skip.

So much for that. The blonde continued to hit the arrow button on his phone screen. He needed a little more upbeat and a little less let's-remind-you-of-your-past.

"Got a boy back home in Michigan, and it tastes like Jack when I'm kissing him…"

Settling for Halsey, he continued his trek until he reached his destination. He pushed the door open, and as expected, the quaint coffee shop was busy despite being a Wednesday at 11 AM. He quietly joined the queue, bopping his head to the music blasting in his ears. He noted which songs made his body subconsciously move, hoping to prepare something for a later class. As the line grew closer to the registers, he lowered his music just enough to hear the quiet hum of a busy establishment. Once at the counter, he pulled off his headphones and rested them around his neck.

"Hi, welcome in, what can I—Oh shit," Jimin heard as he reached for his wallet. He furrowed his brows while looking up at the person behind the counter. Eyes of flames met his own, making his go round. In front of him stood a tall man with dark hair pulled up into a bun resting on his head. A silver hoop glimmered against his lips while various black ink and color tattoos traveled down his arm and spilled onto his hand. He held a black Sharpie with a tight grip, frozen in place as it hovered over a plastic cup. 

Jimin was slightly stunned and a bit confused. He didn't know this man for him to be on the opposing end of a glare. "Did I—"

"What do you want?" The other man growled, causing Jimin's eyes to narrow. Little Latte has been his favorite spot for years, and he's never once had such a rude interaction with any of the staff.

"A medium dalgona, please."

"Of course, you'd pick the most annoying drink to make."

"Couldn't possibly be as annoying as you right now."

The man scoffed. "Aren't you too old to be using comebacks from grade school?"

"Aren't you too poor to be talking to me like this?" Jimin snapped, earning a quiet gasp from the woman behind him. The man's patience was thin, and he only wanted a cup of coffee. The taller man's gaze hardened at Jimin, almost challenging him. Jimin was never one to back down, so he stared back as he placed a hand on his hip and looked the man up and down.

An older man walked out from a side door wearing a soft blue button-down and a black apron covered in flour and food stains around his hips. He stood with perfect posture and didn't look a day over 30. His midnight hair and beard had peppered strands of silver throughout. His skin was pale with rosy undertones, lips perfectly structured, and a jawline sharp enough to cut through granite. Jimin could only wish he'd look that good in his older age. He did a double take at Jimin as he stood by the barista's side. Any evidence of concern in the older man's face dissipated while Jimin's tense shoulders dropped a little from the familiar face.

"Ah! Jimin! It's so wonderful to see you." He nodded at the man briefly, pearly teeth peeking behind rose-shaded lips, before looking at the barista. "Why don't you take your break, Jeongguk? I got it from here." Jeongguk sighed softly, dropping the cup before entering the room where the older man once came. 

"Sorry about that, Jimin; he must be a little tired. He normally doesn't work Wednesdays," the man said as he finished Jimin's order.

Jimin finally managed to relax, though his brows remained furrowed. "It's no problem, Mr. Choi. How much do I owe you?" He looked down at his wallet and began to sort through the bills. 

"Nothing," Mr. Choi's brows furrowed as he flinched slightly.

Jimin's warm brown eyes met the others', hand frozen in place with a 20 dollar bill between his fingertips. "Mr. Choi," he deadpanned. 

"Jimin," he said in the same tone, prompting a groan from the blonde as he rolled his eyes. Mr. Choi couldn't help but chuckle as he turned his back to the man to start preparing his beverage. He stepped to the side with a playful pout on his puffy pink lips.

He forgot when Mr. Choi started to refuse his payments, but he fought him every time the elder insisted it was on the house. Good coffee deserves compensation. Good food deserves payment, especially if everything is made in-house. Mr. Choi was an insane baker. While away in Spain, he missed Little Latte dearly. This was his safe space for years during college—from studying to heartbreak, Mr. Choi has seen him through it all.

After sneakily paying for the lady behind him, he waited for his coffee, glancing around the shop. The shop mainly had stayed the same since Jimin first started to come here until something caught his attention. Across the room, by the stage, placed against the wall, was a piece of artwork. A Luna piece, to be specific. He felt a chill spread from his face to his fingertips, suddenly feeling flushed with heat.

"You really did mean it when you said you were a big fan.”

Her voice rang through his ears as if she were right next to him. Jimin's cheeks burned as he swallowed hard, folding his arms over his chest. He tried to pull his eyes away from the seamlessly blended pale and mid-green tones that spread horizontally from one end of the canvas to the other. Flecks of emerald green and metallic silver danced freely amongst the ombré. The piece was a statement, the colors popping against the taupe wall. Knowing he could spot her work anywhere, he hated that Kiara was right.

"Is that new?" He asked as he glanced at the owner.

Mr. Choi looked at Jimin and then at the painting, "Oh yeah. A customer gifted it to me as a birthday present." The man smiled as he reminisced. There were very few people who held a space in his heart, but since moving here, it seemed as if he adopted a family. "Kiara," a fond smile spread on his lips while Jimin's heart started to race, "lovely girl." 

The older man handed the blonde, who seemed entranced by the painting, his beverage. "You know, she reminds me a lot of you," he chuckled. Jimin's eyes widened, almost dropping the coffee he had just received. He stared at Mr. Choi, who had a slight smirk playing on his lips. "Both of you are very hard workers, lovers of the arts, and pains in my ass."

Jimin glared at the man while Mr. Choi threw his head back, cackling. There was no way in hell he and Kiara were alike. Grouping the man with a selfish liar was ridiculous, but the blonde forced a smile to humor him. He stuck his hand in his pocket again, hearing sounds of disapproval from behind the counter.

"I said it was on the house!" Mr. Choi argued.

Jimin ignored him, seeing a jar on the counter with a white label that 'read tips :)'. The container held various dollar bills and some spare change, but the shop deserved more. Despite the elder's protests, the man grabbed a 100-dollar bill and stuck it in the jar.

"Jimin!"

"If you keep complaining, I'm gonna put another hundred in there," the blonde threatened with a grin. Mr. Choi narrowed his eyes at him but didn't make another sound. Jimin winked at the older man, causing him to roll his eyes and shake his head before returning to work.

The man sipped his coffee and walked over to a seat by the window. A seat he had known since his college days. He enjoyed watching the people walk by; it kept his mind quiet as he made up stories for those who passed. It was easy to do in a place like this, where there were so many different people on so many different routes. 

Sometimes, he wondered what it would've been like if he had gone down an alternative route. Would he be able to take days off whenever? Would he have been able to sit in a coffee shop? Or would his day have been plagued with never-ending emails from people demanding his attention?

Jimin didn't like to think about it often, feeling anger bubbling in his gut.

"Your dreams don't matter."

"You can dream once you take over this company."

The blonde shook his head, ridding the memories from his mind. Just as he took the last sip of his sweet coffee, his phone started to buzz in his pocket. Jimin quickly reached for it, glancing at the caller ID before answering.

His sweet coffee turned bitter on his tongue.

He swallowed hard, feeling his hands grow warm as he placed the empty cup on the table. He stared at the screen, breathing unsteadily as he racked his brain for reasons why she would be calling. A few seconds later, the contact named Mother disappeared from his screen, minimizing to a small missed call notification. His jaw clenched as his body tensed up.

She told him never to call her again.

He promised he wouldn't and kept it.

So why was she contacting him?

His phone buzzed again, seeing she had also left him a voicemail. He inhaled deeply, shutting his eyes briefly before unlocking his phone. He waited to check the voicemail. Just the thought of her managed to will the action of her reaching out into existence. Now, if only Jimin could use those powers in other aspects of life.

The man ran his fingers through his pale golden locks, gripping the strands briefly before releasing them. Jimin released another heavy sigh, shutting his eyes for a moment. Little Latte was a great place to sit and think until those thoughts became heavy. Next thing you know, you're bawling your eyes out while the owner consoles you with a cup of tea and a freshly baked sugar cookie.

As he debated on staying, fighting the demons and nightmares that were bound to rear their ugly heads and finally try to lay them to rest, he spotted a note stuck onto the table. It read:

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."

His lips pulled into a small smile as he read it, glancing around as if he were going to find the one who wrote it. How did this mystery person know that this was what he needed to hear right now?

And with that, the blonde got up, throwing away his trash before waving goodbye to Mr. Choi. The note was a good pick me up and gave Jimin the boost he needed. He wasn't going to go back to that place again. He wouldn't let his thoughts consume him past the point of no return again. He made a promise to a little girl, and he intended to keep it. Unlike some people, promises meant something to him. He placed his headphones over his eyes again as he looked up the nearest yoga studio on his phone. Living in New York was terrific on days like these; everything was within walking distance of each other, and you never needed to go far to find what you needed.

After following the directions from his phone, he stopped in front of a building with tinted glass windows. On one of the windows was cursive lettering that read State of Mind. The words circled a silhouette of a person sitting with their legs layered one over the other. Jimin pushed the door open and entered. The light, cream-colored walls and the golden oak-stained wood flooring gave the room a bright feel. There was a hint of lavender incense burning in the air, nothing too strong but enough to calm his nerves upon entering. Various plants were placed meticulously around the room while soothing music filled the otherwise quiet space.

He walked up to the desk, where a woman with long dark hair focused on a computer screen. The blonde waited patiently, not wanting to be rude by demanding her attention instantly. Soon enough, the girl glanced at him, doing a double take. Her brown eyes were wide with wonder, and her jaw slightly hung open with a smile tugging at her lips. She stared much longer than socially appropriate, making the blonde chuckle uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, placing a hand on her chest while a dusty pink spread across her tanned cheeks. "You're Jimin, right? On TikTok?"

Jimin offered the girl a slight smile as he chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, I am."

"Oh my god, I'm such a huge fan! I've been dying to go to one of your classes, but," the girl suddenly looked down and away, the pink on her cheeks deepening to a rose. "I'm not that great of a dancer."

The blonde's smile widened. "That's OK! We offer beginner classes and ensure everyone is comfortable and confident in their skin. We're really laid back." He reassured as the brunette looked at him again. She was pretty, with a sweet face, innocent eyes, and a shy smile. He felt a pain in his chest, his smile wavering for a second, but not enough for her to notice. "Let me get your contact information, and I'll try to squeeze you into my next class if you're interested."

She perked up, the smile on her face reaching her eyes. "I'd like that!" She quickly wrote down her information and handed it to him. "Now, how may I help you today?"

Jimin chuckled, slightly amused by her quick personality switch. "I was wondering if there was a glass I could join in," he said as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket. "I know it's kinda last minute."

"That's fine!" She tapped on her keyboard a few times. "There's a class starting in a few minutes with an opening, so you can walk on in."

The smile on his lips grew. They finished out the transaction as Jimin lightly flirted with the girl. He couldn't help it. She looked so much like… her. The woman from his dreams. From his nightmares.

He walked down a nearby hallway until he reached a frosted glass door. Upon entering, he noticed the chatter amongst the fellow occupants stopped. Suddenly, all eyes were on him. If it were anyone else, they would've been startled by the point of uncomfortableness, walking in with shoulders that seemed to fold in on themselves while keeping their eyes glued to the floor.

Jimin was the exact opposite. He knew he commanded the attention of any room, so he was used to the peering eyes watching his every move. There was silence beside his footsteps that led him to an empty spot next to someone who got a head start on stretching—someone who seemed not to care about who had just walked into the room at all. After he rolled out his mat, the conversation between the other people resumed. As he took a moment to warm up, his eyes glanced around the room.

The area had the same walling and flooring as the reception area. Wall-length windows aligned against the right wall gave a full view of a garden they had outside. The foliage began getting its deep green leaves back, and colorful buds were sprouting. The place must've been beautiful in full bloom. He made a mental note to visit later in the Spring.

His eyes then went from looking past to the girl beside him. She wore a black zip-up hoodie that stopped short enough to expose some of the golden brown skin of her abdomen. She raised her arms, stretching out her body. Her silhouette was absolutely sinful. A perfect hourglass shape accentuated every more so by her fuller figure. She had on a pair of thin yoga pants, and Jimin could damn near lose his mind staring at her ass, so he looked elsewhere. Her dark hair was tied into a messy bun, loose spirals sticking out here and there, trying to break out of their restraints. All he could do was imagine himself with his fingers entangled in her hair while he pulled on them, burying himself deep inside of her while she screamed out for more.

Stop. You came here to relax, the blonde thought to himself.

Jimin pulled his arm over his chest and held it with his other arm, stretching his shoulders. So far, the body was nice; now, if she just turned around, he could decide if she was worth pursuing. The blonde didn't have a type—he liked anyone in any shape, size, or skin tone. With all the beautiful people in the world, why limit himself? Love is blind, and lust is fluid; there should be no reason to be picky when you're just looking for fun.

He turned his body to the wall-length mirror in front of them, hoping to get a glance at her face. At the same time, she turned to face the mirror as well. Their eyes instantly met as if they were looking for each other.

His heart dropped into his stomach while his face grew hot. 

It couldn't be. There was no way.

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[major-comet]

I finally watched RvB: Zero, and I think I have more questions than answers

this tweet aged Quite Poorly

So while I was watching I took like, a whole page of notes. I'm going to try to break down / determine what exactly it was that wasn't working for me. This is long as shit, and I apologize for that, but this has been almost four years coming

Okay, starting off strong with possibly one of my more controversial takes:

it looked Bad (or at the very least, not like halo. which in part means it didn't look like red vs blue)

I was trying to figure out how to explain what it looked like to me, and the best I could come up with is that a lot of Zero looks like a Hunt Down the Freeman cutscene. linked here for context. It looks like someone made a show in Source Film Maker and then threw a bunch of weird lighting and filters over it (which tbh is probably how they made the HDTF cutscenes.) It's so weird because I don't remember it looking like that - the memory I had of the trailer in my head from 2020 looked a lot better. I think the jump to the Unreal Engine was not a graceful one - and I do recognize the effect that the beginning of the pandemic had on it, but I also just don't think it's the right direction for rvb. The machinima in Halo is like, a huge part of rvb's charm for me, and it's sorely missed. At some point it's stopped feeling like a Halo show. In trying to look cutting edge and New, it somehow has looped back around and feels very dated to me, and not in a charming way.

I think this really comes across in the cinematography and camera work. The camera in Halo works and looks a very particular way, and one of the things that gives rvb it's distinct look is the number of mostly static camera shots, focused mainly on dialogue. Church says it best in episode one - "That's all they EVER do, is stand there and talk." - and one of the things that continues to make Red vs Blue work so well after they started doing animation for it is the visual / narrative contrast between the slower / static / grounded machinima scenes, and the fast paced animated fights. Finishing a fight scene, and then going back to the machinima not only provides a narrative resting point, it also provides a visual rest. It makes all the cool shit you do in the fights stand out more, because it feels visually different from everything else.

Zero feels like everything is moving all the time, and all the time everything is moving very fast. It has this sort of frenetic energy throughout the whole thing: it never feels like the characters have any time to breathe - figuratively or literally. It felt like I was watching it on 1.5x speed. They never idle - they're always moving around, even when they're just standing in the background while other characters talk. It's overstimulating.

Narratively, it's easy to blame some of that on the poor pacing (which i know is not entirely the creative teams fault: I'm very familiar with how bad RT's animation department was about that sort of thing), but visually it was a Choice - a distinct departure from one of the iconic visuals of the 17 seasons that came before it. I think that's part of what makes it feel so much like Source Film Maker to me - I very much associate that kind of frantic camera work with TF2 and Half Life videos. I felt like I couldn't look at it for too long because I could feel myself getting a bit woozy (i'm Very prone to motion sickness, especially while watching animated shows)

I will say: the fights - whenever the camera would actually let me see what was going on - looked nice. They mostly fixed the weird floaty feeling that I seem to remember a lot of the fights in Shisno having, and hits felt like they had a decent weight to them (especially Carolina falling towards the end, that impact with the ground was Hard). Although [I think it was Phase?] kept doing this "kick the camera in a POV shot to make a transition" thing, and I don't think it ever felt like that kick actually connected with anything Once. However, and this is something my brother pointed out while we were watching last night, it felt less like I was watching people in a fight. That's part of the charm of using motion capture for your fight animations - you can tell that there's people and a real and tangible weight behind all of those movements. It was part of what made Monty's style so distinct, and it has basically become a part of the identity of Rooster Teeth Animation as a whole because of that. It's not perfect, it definitely has its roadblocks and issues, and when unsuccessful it can definitely look odd and floaty - but it's easy to overlook all that, because when they get it right? It's breathtaking. When the fight you're watching has that weight of reality to it, it's something really special.

In my opinion, Zero discarded the two most important things to RvB's visual identity: the Halo machinima, and the motion capture fight scenes. What we're kind of left with is something that wouldn't feel out of place during a Summer Games Fest or Game Awards - I think Zero really looks like the video RT did to announce that Master Chief was coming to Fortnite.

Important to note, because I think it plays into my thoughts about the show and everything surrounding it, is that Torrian thought that machinima was "a dying medium" and that going back to it would have been "going backwards".

I have, a lot of thoughts on an rvb director having those kinds of feelings about the medium that rvb is so famous for that there's chapters about it in books written on the medium, and acknowledgements and thanks to Burnie in others - but that's a whole other topic for a whole other time. At the end of the day: it doesn't matter that much, but I think it definitely plays into how visually different Zero is from everything that came before and after it.

Anyways, moving on:

the voice directing was wildly inconsistent, and often kinda Bad

This isn't something I want to pin on the VA's, especially since a lot of my issues were actually with Shannon and Jason. I think the first thing I said when Tucker started talking was quite genuinely "that doesn't sound like Jason" - and Wash sounded super weird in episode one as well. I had issues with how the new characters were directed too (Was it Phase who kept calling West "old man" but weirdly stressing the "old" and not the "man"? That's totally nitpicky, but it was weirdly noticeable to me), but it felt very strange to me for the ones who seemed to be given the worst directing to be the two who've been with the show the longest. Although I will say - Jen was acting like the fucking rent was due and sounded perfectly fine. Also I think the best line delivery Wash had was absolutely him telling Tucker that he missed him - he just sounded so goddamn fond.

I do also want to give a shout-out to the guy that replaced Ryan after the everything came out and they needed to recast him - that role drips like it was written for Ryan and his voice and general line delivery, and I know that redoing those lines must have been a Nightmare. Honestly he did really well with those circumstances.

the pacing was nightmarish

Again, very willing to blame a lot of this on the higher ups, but I also think it was trying to do way too many things in the limited time they had. Trying to put importance on our returning characters (well, Carolina at least), but also make the Axel & Zero thing feel important, but also give the Phase/East & West thing the weight it needed, and somehow fit in "caring about what happens to One, Raymond, and Tiny" - and somehow that means we're left in a situation where a character we've had since the first episode of season one almost dies and it's given almost no weight compared to the villain reveal of a character we've known for 5 episodes. Everything suffers from this pacing, the characters especially. You're introducing a whole cast of new characters into a show that had been running for almost two decades at this point - it takes time to endear the audience to 6 (?) new protagonists. And none of the characters are given that time to breathe that they desperately need.

also a visual thing, but: everything is too shiny and/or glowy

Part of what makes the energy sword so cool, both in Halo as a whole (or at least the Bungie games, which are all I've played so far) and in RvB is that it stands out from the environment. It looks cool and different and, well, alien. It's part of why I hate the remastered anniversary version of Halo: Combat Evolved so much - everything looks so glowy and bright all the time, and it means that the little things get lost. If everything glows, nothing glows - the show is just brighter. Everything glows in Zero.

Speaking of the energy sword:

why in gods name was Tucker even here, and what the hell happened to Locus

Tucker existed in this story just to do a fake-out death and provide the villain with his sword. I think I almost would have respected it more if they had committed to actually killing him - I wouldn't have Liked it, but I think I would have almost respected the balls it would take to do that. Tucker's sword was apparently the last one they needed, which means the two options we're left with are that A) they killed Locus, fan favorite Locus, unceremoniously off-screen without so much as Mentioning him, or B) they just. forgot about him. neither of those are great options.

Part of this is complicated by the fact that Gray left RT on not so great terms, but like fuck they could've at least mentioned him. let Zero do a long narration over a flashback of him killing Locus, or even just some dumb throwaway line about how they just needed one of the particular kind of keys that Tucker and Locus have (they're visually distinct from all of the other keys in Zero and I don't think I remember them mentioning that fact At All why do all of the other keys look like Cloud Strife's Buster Sword) - something would have been nice. Tucker was brought in for an episode and a quarter just to move the plot along - the plot that really didn't even need to involve him in the first place, even though he's had his key since season 3 and it has been an integral part of his character literally ever since. It really kind of feels like they needed to bring him in to fake-out his death because they wrote themselves into a corner with the keys.

Hey, here's an interesting question:

why did we need to tie this into the keys at all?

This kind of brings us into my main thought about Zero, which is that not only is Zero maybe not so great for rvb - rvb isn't great for Zero. Zero is not served in any way shape or form by being a season of Red vs Blue - in fact I think that a decent chunk of my major issues with the show would be almost completely solved if I was watching some new show called Shatter Squad or something, instead of season 18 of a show I've been watching for years.

So many of my issues with it are with how clunky all of the rvb stuff feels - which obviously isn't helped by the pacing, but think about how much nicer the pacing could have felt for all of the shatter squad stuff if we weren't also trying to fit Carolina, Wash, and Tucker in there. Why did this villain plot have to involve the keys at all - why couldn't Zero have had it's own macguffin? hey speaking of the weird rvb stuff;

stop calling him David & other such grievances

this next section is just a direct sampling of my notes from while i was watching.

stop calling him David. why did Wash willingly put more electronics in his head - that seems odd for him? and also; wasn't his whole arc through the time travel stuff about coming to terms with being disabled? it's kind of shitty to the disabled fans who saw something of themselves in Wash to then immediately turn around and say that basically nothing that happened in 16 and 17 mattered At All because the technology existed to just, erase his plot motivating disability, right? stop calling him David. has Carolina ever called him Lavernius before? stop calling him David. i wish Gray was still around so Locus could have been dragged into this. why didn’t Wash and Carolina just stay retired with the Reds and blues Caboose? why the fuck did Tucker not retire. why the fuck is he just off somewhere else, without his friends or even his goddamn KID where’s Junior - you're doing a whole plot about the alien keys without a single goddamn alien showing up?

okay now back to new / cleaned up thoughts. just a few more things.

I don't have anywhere else to really fit this in, but the cars looked Abysmal. Like a cybertruck but somehow worse.

Do you remember those 2020 tiktok cosplay videos where they were constantly switching from pose to pose? That's kind of how the characters move - I really noticed it the most in episode 5. They never stand there and idle, it feels like they're always posing. It's also kind of like RWBY in that regard - very "I'm queen of the castle", in a way.

Without the Reds and Blues around, and by virtue of not being fully limited by game assets anymore, you had all the colors of the rainbow to choose from. Why do we have two new orange characters (both protags, even) and two new blue characters? (the red ones are fine because that's a narrative thing that connects them, like North and South). It's kind of a bad character design choice, especially for the orange ones because it means that I can't easily tell who's in a lineup of characters at a quick glance - and with everything always moving so fast in Zero, the ability to do that would be really helpful.

I almost respect how stupid the whole "ultimate power" thing was. Zero was giving Shadow the Hedgehog at points, which I kinda liked. (maybe that was just because he had a red and black color scheme paired against One's primarily blue armor)

I honestly really liked Tiny, but I'm worried that that's just because she was hardly in it. Her armor was like, Lakers colors, and I thought it looked really nice in this style.

There were a few points where I looked at in and thought that it looked like a Skylanders cutscene

I feel like I came out of those 8 episodes knowing almost nothing about One. By playing her against Zero, it comes off like she's supposed to be the primary protagonist, but all of the character development time has to be devoted towards East & West for there to even be a Hope of that plot line having an impact. It made her big "why are we here" rally speech towards the end feel really undeserved because actually No, One, I have no idea why you're really here. (and they did Not earn a big "why are we here" rally speech in general, rvb didn't even earn one of those until they were like, 8 seasons in.)

If I say “the writing in rvb needs to feel at least a little bit dated.”, do you know what I mean? does that make sense? Where’s the Battlestar Galactica jokes? Where’s all of Sarge’s references that are way outdated even by early 2000s standards? Where's the Reds and Blues re-creating Reservoir Dogs just to cheer up Tucker?

I feel like one of the issues I have with Zero (which to be fair is also a problem with how the higher ups and creatives seem to have viewed RvB more generally - looking at you, Burnie and Restoration) is that it seems like it fundamentally misunderstands the kind of audience rvb actually had by that point in time - the people who were still watching rvb all the way through 2020 were people who liked all of its little quirks and its characters enough to stick with it - and Zero has like, none of that. It feels more like I'm watching a futuristic sci-fi version of RWBY than it does rvb. I understand that Zero was obviously trying to court a new audience, but they did so in a way that makes the show feel completely different than everything that came before it.

OH MY GOD there was this song that played I think during the fighting in episode 5 that sounded scarily like Not Gonna Die Tonight by Skillet, and it made us cry laughing after I pointed it out

I wish they had leaned more into Raymond being a frenetic inventor/tech guy, I thought he really shined in those moments

Carolina and I don't always get along, but goddamn watching her be reduced to revolving around Wash like this just sucked. made me feel bad for her. Like they bring Wash back and re-able (?) him just for him to be a damsel/plot device for Carolina in a way that feels weird and bad for both of them. Like fuck, when he was a plot device in Shisno it still at least mostly felt like he had his own agency as a character and didn't just exist to motivate Carolina and Tucker.

Full disclosure here, it's been so long I don't quite remember exactly what ended up keeping me from watching Zero just a few short days after I said I was looking forward to it. If I had to make a guess though, I'd say it was the Wash thing - I probably heard about it, and immediately decided I wasn't gonna fuck with Zero. I think I'm even more upset about that now than I was back then. I haven't rewatched seasons 15-17 since before I finally got sick enough that I started to actually consider myself disabled, but I know that arc is going to hit Very Different now compared to when I was in high school - before I had to change career paths because of my disability and feeling like i was losing a part of myself in the process. Idk, I still feel like I just don't understand why they would even do that.

Anyways: besides my fix of "just let it stand on it's own as a shatter squad show and not make it be rvb", I do have one thing that I think would have really helped it

Just focus the conflict in on Axel and Zero and how it all affects One, who I think was supposed to have been the main protagonist?

Part of the problem Zero faced is that it was trying to do too many things. I think if they had really focused in on Axel and Zero for this season, and then held onto that East/Phase reveal until a later season it would've been leagues better. So much of the Phase reveal hinged on the audience caring very deeply about East, and it totally just did not land for me. It's an eight episode season, and that reveal happens in Episode 5. If that reveal had been allowed more buildup by being saved for a later entry in the series (that yes, may or may not have ever even been made, but work with me here), it would have had way more impact, and would have made way more sense for it to affect Raymond so hard - Raymond, who has only known East about as long as we have. None of the plots really felt like they had room to breathe, even the East/Phase stuff which absolutely felt like it was given the most space and weight, even though the show is literally named after Zero.

OKAY I wrote way more about that than I had planned to, and tbh I still feel like I haven't covered it all but this is now over 3,300 words and I think I have to stop at some point. Zero has some strong bones to it, but I don't think the execution does them justice.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Fireflies

Ah, my beloved @lordoftherazzles has been such a good friend and has sent me this lovely prompt.

Now, evidently, Razzy is queen of Bagginshield (and firefly scenes) but I hope that this might make her smile nonetheless...

Words: 774

Characters: Bilbo x Thorin

Prompt: Fireflies

Warnings: None

Bilbo swatted the fragrant air swirling around him lazily as if he could dispel the oppressive heat by simply waving it aside like an unwelcome relative out to get his best silverware.

Just within arm’s reach of him, Thorin hummed happily, utterly lost in thought.

Pressing his lips together to hold his smirk at bay, Bilbo decided not to harp on the fact that he had been right when he had claimed that Thorin needed a holiday.

"Dear," he had said in his most serious and convincing tone, "the mountain is wonderful, but wouldn't you like to spend at least part of the summer in a place where you can actually feel the sun on your skin?"

If he was completely honest though, his motives had been much less pure and selfless than his stubborn pride made him pretend.

As a matter of fact, he had lately started to desperately miss the Shire—as the warmer months rolled around, he yearned to see the fields scintillate in the glaring light and smell the complex perfume of the wildflowers behind his house.

Only, he knew that not even the most perfect summer evening in his childhood paradise would feel like home without that brave, strong, and endearingly awkward dwarven king of his.

To his surprise and relief, Thorin had not grumbled or argued overmuch but had willingly handed over the reins of his kingdom to his nephews and packed a much too heavy bag right away as if he had only been waiting for Bilbo to say the word.

"We should go in," Bilbo now murmured languidly as the penumbra behind his lids grew deeper and darker—the sun was going down in a halo of blood and he expected his beloved to hanker after a quick bath and a tankard of ale before dinner.

"Not yet," Thorin replied, his voice much clearer than Bilbo had expected it to be.

Alarmed, the hobbit sat up abruptly. "What is the matter?" he asked in a tremulous voice.

In his mind, various horror scenarios sprang to life, jostling one another in their race to Bilbo's frantically beating heart.

What if Thorin had only pretended to be at ease here for his sake and—in his heart of hearts—he hated the indolent, sometimes outright lazy days a proper hobbit could while away, lying in the grass and eating sun-sweetened berries all afternoon long?

Even worse, what if he had espied the black wings of a terrible messenger sent from the Mountain that had hastened here to recall them to their duties?

Bilbo swallowed and turned to the one he had loved so dearly for so long in tense expectation of a new catastrophe, his ears and nose twitching in alarm, ready to pick up on the slightest indication of a threat.

"Look Bilbo," Thorin whispered hoarsely and pointed a finger at the nearby bushes that had shielded their frequent exchanges of tender kisses—sticky with fruit juice and sweat—throughout the day.

Like dancing stars lighting up the nascent darkness, fireflies were swarming among the branches merrily.

It was a sight that warmed Bilbo's heart as it reminded him of the carefree, endless days of his childhood and youth.

Nevertheless, he could not recall ever having been so visibly overwhelmed or overjoyed by the spectacle as Thorin now appeared to be.

"They are like specks of gold and shards of precious gems," the dwarven king breathed, awe ringing in every word. “It’s been so long since last such a blessing was granted to me…thank you for reminding me, yet again, of these simple but invaluable pleasures.”

As he regarded his sapphire-eyed lover and brushed a chubby hand down the filaments of pure silver streaking Thorin's proud mane, Bilbo could only sigh in agreement.

"The wonders of the outside world," he chuckled softly. "I am glad that I got to share this moment with you."

His previous fears kept gnawing at the edges of his mind though and so, after another few minutes of contemplative silence, he finally burst out with the question that tortured him so.

"Why did you agree to come? Many are those who have tried to lure you from your throne without much success. Are you feeling quite all right?"

Waving a hand at the tireless flight of their twinkling visitors, Thorin shrugged sheepishly.

Grabbing Bilbo's chin between his strong index and thumb, he then bent forward to press a passionate kiss on those soft, cheeky lips.

"I heeded your demand," he then replied simply and soberly, "because you are my miracle of the outside world. And I'd not miss a second of it."

@fellowshipofthefics: here's another one :)

I hope you've enjoyed this, love <3

Lots of love from me <3

[sqarletsworldlesswandering]

Also any trivia on Eclipsed! Duality, if that's alright?

Ooo, haven't handled Duality too much as of yet!

Time to write some characters-

First things first: What in Worldless comprises this goober?

Just looking purely at their arrival animation, they look for all the world like bigger versions of Edda and Aven - i.e. Wanderers or some other humanoid, but with extra headpieces. Their abstractions are much the same way.

However, their headpieces are more reminiscent of a phoenix and a wyvern, in some ways.

So I've got a few theories:

It's two more Wanderers, just with fancy headgear. Maybe a status symbol or something.

It's technically four starfolk - let's say two wanderers who previously absorbed a phoenix and a wyvern respectively, and the traits of our winged friends are still showing for some reason.

- And this I think is the most likely and makes quite a bit of sense strength-wise - it's a Paladin and an Angel. Case in point the wings on the Lightfolk, and the general magnitude and bulk of the Darkfolk, while both are still anthropoid. It's not perfect - we don't see any instances of the armor typical of paladins, nor the halo of angels, but the headpieces could be a nod to that.

I'm going to run with interpretation 3 here.

As for Duality as a character...

They look very... mushed together. They can't quite collaborate perfectly, and it almost gives the impression that they lost some of their collective energy, and don't have enough to sustain both halves most of the time. They have an easier time letting one front over the other, but they can't properly separate either.

And they're quite literally spliced together by the splinters of their exoskeleton. It's... painful. At least until they stabilize a bit. They never fully stabilize, but they get to a point where they aren't actively in crippling.

The two of them get along... interestingly. They ultimately do get along, but you wouldn't know it from the way they banter. It takes being around them a bit to realize that it is actually banter and not just... genuine arguing. The whole vibe is every bit "I hate you so much let me hug you."

At first, they are both thinking "No. No, no way. Absolutely not. I am not stuck at the hip with this guy." Then they both slog their way through the five stages of grief (honestly kinda want to make a fic of that-) and eventually reach a very begrudging acceptance.

Inverse to Edda and Aven, in this case the Darkfolk - we'll call her Skoteinos ["Skoh-tey-nohs], 'Teino for short - was much more angry about it than the Lightfolk (henceforth named Kavodim ["Kah-voh-deem"]).

Kavodim was fairly... calm, comparatively, but nose-in-air and aloof towards the "Dark One" as he insisted on calling her, with a pretty scathing undertone of condescention. Meanwhile Teino was absolutely chomping at the bit and on a few occasions tried to strangle "Pigeon-brain."

Other nicknames in chronological order include:

Insignificance

Nuisance

Inconvenience

Dark Pebble

Oh Gloomy One

Doom-and-Gloom

Storm cloud

Little Pebble

Aspida (Shield)

Aspidio (Little Shield)

Sko

Teini

---

Eyeling (essentially "minion of Worldless," which... in the transcended mind is not a complement)

Atracav (Slang for black hole, a bit of a double insult: both a dead star, and an all devouring "greedy/gluttonous" force)

Blind Beast

Gallus (chicken)

Columbella (Little Pigeon)

Columba (Pigeon)

Featherbrain

Oh Snooty One

Columba (Dove)

Collumbella (Little Dove)

Glory (think in terms of the light phenomena)

They also discovered quickly that they made a formidable (ha-ha, "formidable foe"-) team in combat, much to their chagrin. They'd rather just... awkwardly stare in opposite directions after a fight well won than acknowledge the chemistry.

Eventually, and I mean EVENTUALLY after way too much angst and the other transcendeds watching them be emotionally constipated and closed off and angry, they sort themselves out and it turns... sweet? If you can call high-volume shouting matches and arguing sweet, because there's no actual anger behind it.

Duality is one of the younger transcendeds, both in when they came about and their components. They were... grateful that they weren't strictly the youngest because otherwise that would have been unbearable (from their view).

They also don't... really have a consistent unified form. Duality-proper only comes out in rare instances of a very united goal or emotion. The rest of the time, they just sorta use their own names, or Duality to refer to the both of them at once.

Also, around mid-story (after fighting the duo), they figure out how to stabilize enough to walk around independently of each other for brief periods of time.

The other transcendeds have no clue how a pair of individuals that outwardly gives the impression of Anger manages to also be so... weirdly loving to each other.

Teino also knows Dark Paladin (eehhh let's call him Kleisme - shortened version of Kleismenos) pretty well. Once she's in her right mind again, she... spends far too much time reflecting on his situation with Ceren (Demon). Post-Conflict she's one of the reasons he eventually cuts ties with Ceren.

Teino is the epitome of aggressive joy and enthusiasm. She's the loud energetic friend that always sounds a little angry, except that she's radiating cheerfulness and good vibes, and it's contagious. Her laugh is one of the clearest, most reverberating chest-voice guffaws and it's a beautiful thing. Kavodim quickly learns that she has a fondness for unusual and niche-use weapons (ahem time to talk to Throne) and for all things crystals. Also mushrooms. She loves mushrooms, she finds them wonderful and fascinating pieces of fauna, and will tell you all about them. She also lived in the Amethyst Bog pre-conflict, which is her happy place. She's always wanted to visit the Amaranth Swamps, but never got the chance. Kavodim... manages to brave it for sake of seeing her enthusiasm and getting to listen to her ramble about the flora and fauna of the swamp. Honestly, Teino is a pretty good candidate for taking care of an Inkwell/Libellit pair now that I start writing her.

Kavodim is... tangentially aware of Archi, but they're in different flocks so he doesn't know her terribly well. That changes in New Eden because of their newfound ties with the duo. He actually ends up wing-manning Teino in getting Kleisme away from Ceren. Being an Angel - and an incredibly icy one at that - he has at least some intimidating force behind him against a Demon, and he will not hesitate to pull the "I'm getting our Ophan" card (said Ophan is Throne, as of right now, hopefully I haven't created a discontinuity). So while Teino is convincing Kleisme that "my guy you need to get out of this," Kavodim is giving Ceren a death stare to rival Worldless to keep him busy.

In other news, where Teino is loud and happy and boisterous and frankly the epitome of jolly, Kavodim is much icier. But not Gabriel icier. His ice is a much pricklier ice and it's a bit harder to be around. He in general is a little hard to be around? If nothing else, he's hard to talk to, and not much for small talk. He's definitely just too good to talk to you, not utterly incompetent with small talk. Totally. Teino eventually golden-retrievers that particular attitude out of him, and it turns into just... a normal introverted reservation as opposed to a mask of condescension. Teino was the first to really initiate any sort of gift-giving, and just sorta... guessed at first, trying to figure out what he liked. The whole thing was very... "What do you mean 'is this from me' I wanted to punch you this morning." But, after a couple interesting but not necessarily... poignant gifts, he sorta... as nicely as possible told her that he appreciated the sentiment but wasn't sure what to do with it, so she backed off until she could figure out something he'd actually want, as well as noting that gift-giving was perhaps not the first resort for being nice. Then one time, she noticed him lingering at a clothing stall in a market once, at which point she began consulting Athena, Willow, Throne, and Archi on what best to give him.

He now has a very subtly yet intricately embroidered and well fitted cape coat. You never see him without it.

At least once, Summum has asked if he needs to stage an intervention and if the two really hated each other, at which point they both rapidly and somewhat indignantly responded "no, we don't hate each other, don't you dare try and separate us" followed shortly by contemplation, and then "oh, we can see how you might conclude that maybe we shouldn't do that." Summum is forever exasperated.

I'm running out of ideas at the moment, but I'm sure I will have more at some point (especially if you have any more specific questions about these two!)

[marzipanandminutiae]

Cabinet of Curiosities Opinions

Roland (Lot 36) is not a neo-Nazi and the hair wreath is not made from the hair of concentration camp victims.

I didn't think this needed to be stated, since he called the Wolmar family evil, which he definitely wouldn't have done if he agreed with them. But apparently some people see "German guy talking about Nazis" and assume he's one himself. Weird.

As for the hair wreath, such things were popular in the 19th century, not the 1930s-40s. I went looking and couldn't find any extant examples from that era. Given the presence of other antiques from that period in the storage unit, like the summoning table, it makes far more sense for the wreath to be an earlier family heirloom. At the very least, even if it WERE some perverse latter-day craft project made by Dottie or her mother or something, there would be no reason for Roland and Agatha to assume that. So they'd probably believe it was innocent even if it wasn't.

2. Emilia is an avenging angel sent to test people like Nick.

This is a bit more of a stretch, but bear with me. When he gives her the lock, she says (in Spanish) "What kind of man are you?" An understandable response to him being a racist asshole, but to me it sounds like she's saying it in a measuring way, as if she's really wondering. Later, in her final appearance, the light behind her umbrella gives her a halo effect. And condemning him to be devoured by a demon he set loose seems like a pretty fitting thing for an angel to do if she's seen that he's past helping.

(This take brought to you by: whiny pissbabies on Reddit going on about "well he's not THAT bad and even if she couldn't see the demon, she KNEW the loan shark was after him so she should have REALIZED he was in real danger and let him out!!! the clearly symbolic racial-, gender-, and class-disadvantaged person in this 45-minute fictional story is the TRUE bad guy here, not the man who was listening to a white nationalist radio show and agreeing with it!")

3. Stacy's coworkers (The Outside) weren't actually that bad.

She feels isolated from them because they have nothing in common to talk about. We never see them actively being mean to her; just not being her best friend- and nobody is obligated to befriend coworkers if they don't want to. They invite her to the party, so clearly they do think of her. Sure, the one lady reacts badly to being given a taxidermy duck for Christmas, but...taxidermy IS a pretty contentious gift. Not something I would spring on someone at all. Stacy was just doing her best, so I don't blame her either. It's just an awkward situation all around, that's nobody's fault.

I feel like the point is not "this woman's bitchy coworkers drove her to change herself." It's that marketing and the media cause women to be internally critical on a deeply harmful level, even if nobody else is actually being critical of us.

4. The Outside has themes of sublimated homosexual desire.

Stacy has a tense relationship with her hsband, idolizes the women at work who are constantly touching and stroking each other, and literally makes out with the feminine-looking Allo Glo creature in the basement. I mean. Come on. This one seems like a no-brainer to me. I don't think that's the PRIMARY theme, but it's definitely there.

6. Nancy (The Murmuring) had something to do with Ava's death.

One theory I saw online was that she'd rolled over on her while co-sleeping, since the ghost she mistakes for baby Ava appears in the bed next to her. I'd believe it, and it definitely adds another layer to her sympathy with the mother ghost- who I just learned is named Claudette in the credits. Even though I very much doubt she did anything that purposeful.

7. Alternatively, Ava was not a baby when she died.

Edgar and Nancy are both on the older side to be new parents (Essie Davis was 52 during filming, though the character is probably somewhat younger), and Nancy has clear experience talking to older children when she addresses the little boy ghost. Ava's death was recent, so while I suspect the intention is that she was a surprise baby to a couple who assumed they'd never have any, she could have been any age within childhood.

8. Ava was named after birds.

"Avis" means bird in Latin and her parents are ornithologists. It just makes sense.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

On a scale of Blegh to Slay Girl, which OB character design is the best and worst?

I'll be talking about my own thoughts in this post, but if you're interested in seeing a larger sample size's opinion on this question, you can check out the results of this poll! Vil was initially hardcore in the lead, but over time (I think because someone datamined and shared Malleus's full body OB design during the period in which the poll ran) Malleus overtook him.

From personal Blegh (worst/least liked) to Slay Girl (best/most liked):

Azul — This is the first “real” look we’ve had of his true form, and it doesn’t leave a good impression on me. It’s not that I don’t like Azul’s look as an octopus, the proportions of his tentacles just seem… off?? Like I feel like they should be much longer than they actually are. Additionally, the design of the tentacles makes them look plasticy and fake, almost like pool toys you’d blow up and then whack around in the water.

I also feel like because of Azul being an octopus, the design feels a little empty and the designers overcompensated by cover up the empty space (ie slapping random stuff on). The placement of the shells on his lower body is very weird on him, and compared to his collar (the necklace, the coral spiking off his shoulders) there’s not a lot happening here. The harsh black blot against the grey-purple of his skin also looks very jarring (which, as you’ll see, will continue to be a point of contention for me as we get into other OBs). Perhaps the only element I like in Azul’s OB is his crown, which resembles King Triton’s (you know, after Ursula yoinked it from him). It’s not too much embellishment like the elements at his collar, and it’s not oddly placed like the shells are.

Vil — I like his sleeves, veil, and little metal talons!! I also appreciate this his single glowing eye has blot running down like tears or running mascara! … That’s about it. I find that nothing else about his look does it for me 💦 Vil’s chest feels… oddly empty?? It’s like he has no form at all there because of how unnaturally smooth it is. And while I kind of get where the devs are going with the religious imagery and the incorporation of peacock feathers, I don’t think it all visually meshes very well together. The blot that his fabric fades into ends up looking like weird clumps of hair sticking onto the ends of Vil’s train and sleeves because no one was there to hold them up for him to keep them clean.

His crown is meant to make him look regal and imposing, but I just giggle a little because it looks so… chunky that it comes off as comedic and top-heavy (like he’ll keel over from the weight of it any second now). Yes, I understand it’s the same crown as that of the Beautiful Queen; I just think the extra things they added to it (ie the peacock feathers in the halo) gives additional weight that isn’t needed. I’m not sure if I get the weird spikes at his waist either; it was probably to better color distribute the scarce white in his look, but I feel like some other design element would have made it look less disjointed.

Malleus — This look is what I jokingly call “Nosferatu”; it reminds me a LOT of a stereotypical vampire, from the cape and slicked back hair to the zombie-like tint to the skin and draconian is this considered a pun clothing. The skin (being a reference to Maleficent) is, of course, a muted green color. That… just makes Malleus look hella seasick to me DX maybe like he has some cyanosis coming on??? In any case, I don’t like it. hdisbskskxos ANOTHER THING, THE GLOW IN THE DARK/LIGHT UP HORNS AND TAIL ARE SO FUNNY 😂 It doesn’t make me take him seriously as a threat when he’s over here lighting up like a lava lamp.

The main thing that makes me like this design a little over Vil’s is that the colors of neon green and deep blue-purple offer a greater contrast between the super dark parts of his clothing. There are also little details I appreciate, like how the blot on Malleus’s face forms little black scales like that of a dragon or a lizard and the continuous incorporation of thorns throughout the design. There are thorns over his torso, thorns crawling up his waist, thorns forming the “cage” of his skirt, and thorns climbing up from his cape—it really sells the imagery that his own insecurities and loneliness are swallowing him. The thorns on his chest are of particular interest to me 👁️ It’s like Malleus has “walled off” his heart to intruders, refusing to let them into his perfect dream world where no one leaves him. It just works well thematically!!

Jamil — I know Jamil’s OB design is really unpopular. I didn’t initially like it that much either, but the more and more I thought about it, the more I realized that while I don’t think the outfit is awful, it’s Jamil’s physical traits that drive people off from him. I actually really enjoy many elements of his OB: the tattered veil, how his skirt flares out at the end, the shoes, the beads, the draping cloth of his sleeves… The problem is, that’s not what my eyes are immediately drawn to. I’m way too busy staring at his snake hair and fake facial hair to notice anything else 😂

The snake hair looks so goofy (I think because of them lacking a lot of detail), and I'm not sure if the hair turban was a good choice either. I think it gives kind of clashing ideas as well??? The idea of snake hair invokes thoughts of Medusa, who is more closely linked to Greek mythology (which, thematically speaking, is more of an Ignihyde thing than a Scarabia thing; I’m not saying that Idia should have snake hair, but the fact that it was put on Jamil who had no association with Greek mythology may feel slightly off). The blot pooling at his chin and forming pseudo facial hair is also pretty silly (I know it's to mimic Jafar's goatee, but it's still weird to see on Jamil). Altogether, it creates a weird initial impression, especially when combined with the various over-the-top facial expressions Jamil makes while in this form.

Riddle — Here’s the part where I admit I probably ranked Riddle high due in part to nostalgia and because I’m really into Alice in Wonderland motifs 🤡 I think it’s a nicely balanced design, not only because of the even distribution of black and red in the dress (plus white as a much needed accent color), but you very clearly get the “Queen of Hearts” vibe without the very obvious overabundance of hearts everywhere. There’s a lot of neat little details, like the roses at his waist, the “spider legs” of playing cards, the loops of the bow that form a “heart” behind him, and the incorporation of suits into his choker and various other areas.

One thing that I think helps Riddle really stand out is just how small he is compared to everyone else; his OB outfit helps to further emphasize that, with the length of his dress’s train curling around him. We see the size difference highlighted in the battle against him as well. Riddle’s Phantom looks over him while he floats slightly hunched over, as if a puppet on strings. It makes me think of how his mother still has a strong hold on him, so she’s the one “in control” of his strings, the one influencing his toxic behavior. That lends Riddle’s OB a lot more personality in my eyes.

Idia — Cringe lines aside, I like how different and dynamic Idia’s OB is! The electronic mouth guard helps him be a lot more expressive than he usually is, and all the blue flames and swirling blot creates a super distinctive look. (I’m especially a fan of the vortex of blot that makes up the lower half of his design.) Blue and black work really well together, and I also feel like that color combination is good for emphasizing the sleek, cybernetic armor Idia sports, with the black part being metal and the blue part being the lights/energy/magic/electricity coursing through that powers it.

I guess the one big con against Idia’s design is that it doesn’t much resemble Hades. However, I tend to find that I have a preference for more subtle design elements in OBs, so I don’t really mind this. There’s enough sprinkled in to get the idea, from the stripe of cloth hanging from Idia’s clavicle to the slender (resembling the robes of Hades), pointed fingers of his gloves (again, similar to Hades), and even the vortex of his armor (like the spirits of the underworld swirling around). A lot of the tech elements help make Idia stand out and tie back to the trauma he experienced, so I think retaining the robotic nature of the OB is a must!

Leona — The single major qualm I have with this design is his lack of footwear 🥲 I never want to see bare feet (I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say it’s related to a traumatic childhood memory). Other than that, I think this is the most cohesive design of the OB boys. It's not too much, but it's also not too little, and the colors aren't too garish, nor too much black. The slicked back hair and furry collar resemble a lion's mane, and even something as understated as Leona's silhouette is made to better resemble his Disney counterpart (Scar's body shape is replicated using a corset of sorts). The blot covering his hands also gives him sharper nails, similar to a lion's claws. Leona's jewelry is also an interesting choice; the necklaces, of course, resemble the teeth of a predator, but everywhere else the jewelry seems very shackle and chain-like, perhaps alluding to how Leona feels resigned to his fate because of something he cannot control (his birth order). He's trying to break free of those attempts to keep him down, rebelling against people's low expectations of him.

The fabric that's draped over his lower half is a little on-the-nose; it's ramshackle and stitched together, resembling "scars" (geddit, cuz "Scar"). In the context of an OB though, I think I can overlook this. All of them feel broken, so seeing torn and ruined elements only makes sense. You can see his tail chilling inside of that cage of stitched fabric, but just barely because there's also golden cloth in front mostly covering it. To me, this is a good thing because tails on humanoid characters kind of unnerves me 😅

Anyway, those are my thoughts on all the OB designs ^^ I hope that was at least somewhat interesting to read.

[chernayavidua]

🍒 + esoterium :3

                 i know i already raved about them over on their bucky blog and i think on their multi as well,,,, BUT I WILL DO IT AGAIN !! dearest dixon! darling dixon! first i want to thank you for being so nice, chill and welcoming. you were super open to tossing ideas around when i first approached you way back when and you've been just as welcoming, nice and chill ever since. secondly, i want to say that i absolutely adore how you write. i mentioned it before --like over a year ago-- in another ask / comment i sent your way about how i love that you can write steve and bucky so well despite how different they are. i would write with pretty much any of your characters at this point bc i truly adore how you write them. and you use can paint an image so well without falling into the fiery pit that is flowery orbs hell. like the reply from david where you write how he sees her in the reflection of the glass and the light creates a red halo around the top of her head. *heart eyes* idk i just loved that description, it was so so good! and don't even get me started on your reply to steve and natasha dancing. and this one from your bucky is ?????

No motion to make acknowledgement that his heightened senses can already smell her feather light perfume. He knows it well..

                 like??? her feather light perfume that he knows well???? fuck off ! i remember when i read that i had the biggest dumbest grin on my face bc yes! HELLO??? someone finally acknowledging that she wears perfume (not always but in the circumstance of that reply, it absolutely made sense for her to wear it. also knowing her she wore it on purpose so that he would know she was there but that isn 't the point) idk it is the little things about my character that someone drops into threads either on purpose or by accident that i truly adore when writing with someone. and it is also something i try and do with long term partners. also ? this tidbit i found while scrolling your steve blog ??

Nothing about his wiring’s been reconnected to make him okay with killing. He’d never want it to be. It’d mean he was too far gone, too far lost off the borderline of their side verses the enemy’s.  And the most sickening thing is--sometimes--he feels himself close to that point of no return. Feels relief knowing it’s him that’s going home. Even at the cost of someone else.

                 let me just take a moment to appreciate this gem because, to me, it hints that the change he's gone through since coming out of the ice. acknowledging that he isn't that kid who just wanted to help the war efforts. that sort of "naive out of touch" 1940s all american guy that we perceive him as in the avengers movie isn't there anymore. sure, some things might still be there but he's come along way in this century and has seen a lot both during the war and after being defrosted, especially after the fall of shield and that bit you wrote really expresses that. i freaking love it. hope you have a good holiday and spend it with loved ones along with your doggies. maw! ilu! ♡

END OF THE YEAR POSITIVITY FOR @esoterium + @loyaltyworn

[lion12211221]

[Writing Prompt]

I would, but my muse blocked my number like a jilted ex.

"what is this place?" "A temple. A shrine. A bastion of a once great empire. A golden age of splendor, of enlightenment, of boundless technological advancement…" "A tomb. And a message. A warning to all those who would come after, that no matter the heights, the power or the ingenuity, eventually, everything falls. Everything rusts or decays. Everyone, every structure, every line of poetry or prose, every institution or bright new idea, none of it lasts, not forever. Nothing endures the inexorable march of time, not even the stars in the sky or the planets on which we so briefly stage our fleeting existence. Flickers of light, fireflies before an approaching dawn." "It's poetic, in a way. A comfort to some, I'm sure; a somber, existential reminder for others."

Some Context: (Not part of prompt, just my own thoughts if you want them (I write like I rant, fair warning))

I'm a big sci-fi and sci-fi fanfic fan who regularly organizes spelunking expeditions into the depths of the Star wars, Mass Effect, Halo, Titanfall and Warframe fandoms, and sometimes when I strike a precious vein there is more than one mineral present if you catch my drift[er] (I'm a regular comedian, I know, sue me).

Well recently, on one such subterranean enterprise, while playing Warframe till oh-shit-my-shift-starts-in-4-hours o'clock for the umpteenth time I had an idea (find cover, this is not a drill).

What if Warframe was simply the very distant past in the Star Wars (works better than Halo imo - more diversity of timeframe/characters/not already well established history/Obi-wanturnedmegayer...) universe. So I started connecting some dots.

What if the tenno (who as far as I can tell were essentially made immortal by the Zariman incident, I mean apparently the Orokin-Sentient war lasted 'generations' and the operators still look like they could put you on a list) were like the original force sensitives in the galaxy. The big bang of Ashla and Bogan if you will.

And what if, after living for a long time and seeing more beings begin to develop and exhibit powers like theirs, they decide (in their galactic guardian/caretaker wisdom) to try and bring these beings together to train and learn from them, and to study the void [the powers the Tenno have]/the force (The void itself/the rift can be hyperspace - little understood in modern Star Wars times as knowledge so lost they don't even know that it is; they can use it, just don't ask them exactly how).

Thus begins the Je'daii order. (The Tenno have access to Orokin tech, and have had a long time to refine it themselves (these people out here collecting PHD's like trading cards they've been alive that long), they could have built the Tho Yor pyramid ship thingies)

Je'daii order around for a long ass time (like 36,453 BBY to 25,783 BBY long according to wookiepedia) before the great jedi/Sith schism. Most Tenno at this point kind of regard the whole thing as a 'it was fun while it lasted' type deal and peace out (thus no/very few Tenno to start the Jedi order) while some of the more sadistic Tenno (Sevagoth/Nidus/Revenant/Nekros type Tenno) basically become the original ancient Sith lords (Who are said to be ungodly powerful and make more contemporary (give or take ten thousand years, I mean what's that between friends anyway?) Sith look like loth kittens.

Haven't quite figured out how these guys were killed off/gotten rid of yet. Maybe the rest of the Tenno just decided they'd gone insane and banded together one last time to take them down/banish them to God knows where.

Fast forward to a more familiar era in the Star Wars universe, where the Tenno and the Orokin who birthed them have basically completely faded from memory/record (There were never that many of them to begin with, for all that they were incredibly powerful), and in steps our fateful Tenno Operator/Drifter (They can switch between like in the game depending on what is most advantageous in the situation. It would suck being tens of millennia old, getting ID'd and never being able to get a drink because the real age on your ancient ID is not just in a writing system no one has ever seen, but looks like an integer overflow error in a warlord Gandhi civ game) just cruising through life, chilling in some seedy cantina on some outer rim dust-ball when all of a sudden our [sparkles emoji] protagonist [sparkles emoji] character, who inevitably drags said Tenno into their shit/back onto the galactic scene after millennia of laying low, trying out every hobby and career under the sun, and refreshing their PHD collection (Why do they have to do the damn medical - read neurosurgeon - exams over and over again what seems like every other week! (actually like every couple decades when someone bothers to check their long expired medical licenses).

That's basically as far as I've gotten with it in my head, just kinda plugging different characters/scenarios/eras into my head to see what sticks. I'm partial to pre-Mand'alor Jaster Mereel if you want to take it the mando route, or on/post Bandomeer/Melida-Daan Obi-wan if you want to take it in any number of directions from there (or why not combine the two?).

So the Prompt is a little snippet I wrote of our lucky Tenno bringing a character to an ancient Orokin temple, no idea for what purpose though.

[obesericewrites]

Hello! Today is like my bday and I'm feeling a little underwhelmed by everything that has happened today so I'm not really having the best day. Things are also like not going the way how I wanted it to but only because I've been so busy to the point I haven't had the time to plan anything for myself. So like I've been rereading old asks and replaying the demo and it's been really cheering me up. I just wanted to tell you because your work has such an impact on me. Just reading about your characters manages to make my day a little better 😭

As for the ask, how would the ros react to the mc going through the same thing? Like it's their bday but with everything that's been going on with their life, they haven't had any time for themselves and have just been having a pretty bad day the entire day despite the greetings and gifts they received.

I am so sorry that answered this late! I hope your day got better, and that you had a lovely birthday in the end. I made this extra long, just for you 💛

S: They notice your true feelings immediately. S would not be an assassin if they didn't pick up on your tiny cues. They are the sort of person that will choose between one of two options. The first is straightforward. They spend every penny they have on buying you things. Remember those beautiful textiles you mentioned approximately three months ago? S has it in thirty colors. You needed new needles a few weeks ago, right? Here they are, taking up half of your counter space. However, if that does not make you happy and instead makes you uncomfortable. That's when option two comes into play.

S will take you somewhere quiet. They drag you into a secure patch of trees on the village's outskirts, and there, laying down in the sun's rays, is a beautiful picnic. Your favorite meals, beverages, and snacks are arranged neatly on a cluster of plates. A cozy circle is formed by cushions and fluffed blankets. It appears to have taken some time to set up, and S...did it all for you.

“I know today hasn’t gone as you’ve planned, darlin. But I figure—ahem, well, I wanted to see if I could make you feel better. Happy birthday.”

M: It takes them around twenty minutes before they realize you too are not enjoying the party being thrown. The only reason it took so long, was due to the fact that M had been briefly lost in their own discomfort. The people in your house had been…loud, excessively so, and the energy they put out was a lot. To say the least. When they subtly sneak up behind you, M grunts out a single word, “follow.” They lead you outside, and purposefully towards an unattended cluster of bushes.

M squats alongside it and beckons for you to follow suit. When you do, the view before you is breathtaking. A large moth, slowly bursting through a cocoon shell, appeared to be connected to magic. As its wings extended, a little halo of light appeared along within its patterns. That is how you spend the remainder of your day. M guiding you around the village, introducing you to various creatures and items. They concludes it by presenting you with a beautifully carved wooden sculpture of your favorite animal.

“It…not in my culture…to celebrate the day of birth. Yet…if important to you…I will do it. Here is gift, happy day of birth.”

B: They notice almost immediately. Even as B is in the middle of a conversation, their eyes are on you alone. They excuse themselves sweetly and approach you with a purposely controlled expression on their face. The presents, people, and general atmosphere had appeared to overwhelm you to the point that they could tell you weren't having fun anymore. They first try to cheer you up without leaving the party entirely. B will bring up sappy or embarrassing memories in order to make you laugh. If that fails to work. They then do their magic.

B playfully sneaks you out of your own party. The two of you are caught three times before the guests decides to help you. They take you to their shop, and the time you spend together is...refreshing. It's been a long time since you've simply talked to someone without any problems or responsibilities weighing you down. B begins to quietly bake while listening to you speak. By the end of the day, they have made one of your favorite pastries and they place it in front of you with a kind smile.

“I’m so glad you talked to me, MC. I know how overwhelming a birthday can be, especially in our village. Just know, I am always here for you. Happy birthday.”