#more flotsams! i ended up with a lot of flotsams

[paperzombiie]

[islandofsages]

Hey, I wanted to ask for the housewardens with a male!reader from their dorm that have the same name as the Seven's sidekicks (?).

Example : Cerberus for Idia, Diaval for Malleus, FlotSam for Azul, ect...

And people (*cough* Yuu *cough*) always compared the reader with the housewarden and always say things like : "oh yeah, the new Diaval and the new Maleficent.." *looking at Reader and Malleus talking about Briar Valley.*

characters: the housewardens x male reader

tags: platonic, fluff + crack, imagines + scenario format; yuu is there, mentions of ruggie and jack in leona's, mentions of the leech twins in azul's, mentions of jamil in kalim's, mentions of ortho in idia's, mentions of sebek in malleus'

warnings: nothing

author's notes: i tried to choose characters that aren't already inspirations for the characters in the game so some of them end up being from the second movie and stuff LOL sorry if this isnt what you want anon but honestly i did have a lot of fun writing this

Riddle Rosehearts — The King of Hearts

You’re not sure why and how but you’re dubbed as The King of Hearts of your dorm, alongside Riddle who is the Queen

Unsure of what to make of this, you ignore it and continue to devote yourself to the Queen just as any normal person would sorry this is kinda satire

Riddle is simply your friend. You cherish him a lot and you respect him and his beliefs. Even when he overblotted, your faith in him is unwavering

Speaking of the overblot, after the whole catastrophe, you’ve grown a lot closer with the other card soldiers, along with the magicless kid named Yuu and their pet (Grim was his name?)

They would greet you from time to time, stop by to have a chat when they’re free and check up on the dorm

One day, they made an offhand comment about you and Riddle

“You guys are paving the way for the new generation of the Queen of Hearts and the King of Hearts. Though, I guess the King of Hearts didn’t really do anything anyway.”

First of all, what the hell are you talking about?

Second of all, you’d say you contribute much to the dorm. For Yuu to assume such a thing for you simply because some “past King of Hearts” didn’t do so is ridiculous

You don’t voice these things out loud and shrug it off as them saying random things again, or making some kind of reference you don’t get

And because, third of all, you realize they broke rule 228: they definitely picked a rose in your garden. So you go to kick them out before Riddle could find out.

All in the day’s work for the King of Hearts.

Leona Kingscholar — Zira

You could say you and Leona are tight - maybe not Ruggie and Leona tight, but almost

And part of that can be attributed to the fact that you may or may not idolize Leona. But hey, it’s not strange. If Jack can do it, why can’t you? At least it’s not on Sebek’s level

Plus, you deserve to have some pride in yourself for being one of the only people Leona confidently calls a friend of his

Though, one person has been persistent about being Leona’s friend - Yuu, the person who just spawned out of nowhere apparently

You’d catch them talking to Leona sometimes and to be frank, there are times where Leona is less annoyed than usual at their presence

One day in particular, the three of you are hanging around Savanaclaw’s lounge, when Yuu drops a bombshell

“Ah yes, of course, you two are exactly like Scar and his creepily-devout follower, Zira.”

??? Yes, Zira is (a variation) of your name but you wouldn’t call yourself “creepily-devout”. Also, who even is Scar?

Leona’s ears twitch in annoyance, either because he doesn’t understand what Yuu means or that he’s put off by their phrasing

You sit in silence, deciding if this is a topic worth asking more about or not

Curiosity gets the best of you - you ask them. They basically dump all the information they could onto you

Yeah, you still don’t get it. But whoever this other Zira is, they’re kinda cool honestly.

Azul Ashengrotto — Morgan(a)

A lot of people consider you one of Azul’s henchmen alongside Jade and Floyd - God forbid working to the bone every day for the Mostro Lounge, right?

But you don’t take it as an insult. It’s no compliment to be so loyal to such a capitalistic bastard (said affectionately) but it’s just another part of your life

Plus. You’re friends with the dude. His cunning nature is what you’re here for

Maybe sometimes you feel a little inferior to him since everyone lauds him as some powerful mage but you tell yourself you don’t need such prestige

Though even outside of work, sometimes you see that Yuu person loiter around the Mostro Lounge in search of Azul (and the Leech siblings occasionally)

So you decide to sit down with them one day and have a nice little chat when-

“So you’re the Morgana dude right? You definitely give off the vibes. Let me guess: you have a love-hate relationship with your stronger, superior boss?”

You have to do a double take at what they just spouted - where are these assumptions coming from suddenly?

Also your name is Morgan.

They laugh and assure you it’s only a joke and a reference to a movie they like since Azul and you have an uncanny resemblance to the characters in that movie

Even still, you can’t help but feel confused… no way they just go up to people and reference things they enjoy right…?

You try to work on your vibes starting the very next day.

Kalim Al-Asim — Aladdin

You’re somewhat of an enabler for Kalim’s party animal and reckless tendencies which Jamil doesn’t really appreciate but also you don’t give a shit

Who can say no to free food and music? Well, a specific amount of people but you’re definitely not one of them

Kalim is friends with everyone; or rather, he considers everyone a friend and that considerately counts you too

But you two really are though - after the party’s died down, the two of you would chat late into the night about everything and anything. And it works because he’s such a good listener

At one of his many parties, the Yuu person who’s apparently from another world comes to party along with you

And so you eat and dance as one usually would under Kalim’s rule, learning bits of information about Yuu along the way

As per usual, the party dies down so you, Kalim and Yuu take the chance to relax and have a concrete conversation

At some point, Yuu comments on your name (and apparent namesake…?)

“Wait, so your name is Aladdin? Like the thief guy who fell in love with the Sultan’s daughter? Feels kinda weird since Kalim kinda reminds me of the Sultan himself…”

Well, yes, your name is Aladdin although you just tell people to call you Ali but everything else they just said is completely false

You all laugh it off because the mood is appropriate for an elaborate joke as such but the next day, when you think over the whole interaction, you have to wonder what was going on through their head at the time

You make a mental note to see if you’ll ever fall in love with a sultan’s daughter.

Vil Schoenheit — Raven

You’re a little intimidated by Vil but you have as much respect for him as anyone does

And somehow, you manage to gain his respect too, though you are a mere spudling…

You try not to let it get to your head (especially considering he has more respect for some other spuds than you) but it’s no easy feat to get a compliment from Vil Schoenheit himself

One person in particular has been getting a lot of attention from Vil lately, you’ve noticed

This Yuu person has been stopping by Pomefiore a lot lately, ever since the weird invasion at school where a bunch of robot people broke into the school grounds

You don’t question it because they’ve been interacting with Vil since the VDC but the thing is Yuu has been trying to get to know more of the dorm members

And one day, they get to you finally

They seem normal enough once you two sit down to chat in the lounge—

“Hm, so your name is Raven? I think I vaguely remember a raven being in Snow White…”

You have no idea what that means and before you could change the topic yourself, Yuu dismisses it; but then the next day, when you were thinking about the exchange again, you get curious as to what a Snow White is 

So you start to scour the Internet for this “Snow White” and it manages to consume you for a few days until Yuu tells you that it’s just a movie from their world

You don’t talk to them for a few days.

Idia Shroud — Meg

You and the Shroud brothers are more like frenemies than anything - you three banter like old friends who know too much about each other

Other than Ortho, Idia does ask you for some favors a lot and you like joking that he’s drowning in debt when it comes to you

Sometimes he pays back by gaming with you, sometimes he pays with actual money. Good money at that. You don’t complain either way

One day you run another favor for him (which he promises more good money for) to send some stuff to Ramshackle

A person named Yuu and their only other dorm member Grim had sent stuff to Idia for repairing and maintenance - not that you care about the details. You’re just gonna get it over with

Once you reach their dorm, the first thing you’re met with are the two dorm members bickering over something. You chuckle; it reminds you of your conversations with Idia

You excuse yourself for interrupting and go to drop off their things on the table in the middle of the lounge

They stop bickering then and Yuu greets you momentarily before muttering something under their breath

“Of course the new Meg to the new Hades dropped off our stuff.”

You assume they don’t know that you heard what they said and quite frankly you don’t want to care much but you admit you’re a bit curious of what they mean

When you get back to Idia, you ask him to decipher that cryptic message

He admits he has no idea what they mean by that, simply tells you not to think about it and pays you with some good old cash - and some fun gaming time so you forget all about it later anyway.

Malleus Draconia — Diaval

You are one of Malleus’ loyal retainers - you were bestowed the honor of being his “wings” even whatever that means

But Malleus sees you as an equal almost. You are no servant and you have your own wings to tend to; it’s the stuff that would move Sebek to tears

You do see him as a friend mostly, even if at first you started doing so out of pity

But now you see him making more friends around campus and you can’t help but feel happy for and proud of him

There’s one friend who he seems to be around a lot - the magicless human named Yuu

It makes sense since he does enjoy taking walks around their dorm, even before they came to occupy it

One day, you three make the time to have tea together and simply talk. It’s all very pleasant when Yuu says-

“You know, don’t you think it’s weird how your name is Diaval and you’re serving someone who’s strangely reminiscent of Maleficent?”

Well, you don’t think it’s weird because you have no idea what they’re referencing and who Maleficent is - and Malleus seems to think the same, with the confused look on his face and all

Also as true as it is that you’re Malleus’ retainer, you don’t appreciate someone phrasing it as you “serving” him

Yuu apologizes for the comment and explains what they mean by it. You both still don’t get it but it’s enough to make you shrug it off

Sometimes Yuu would still make such comments, thinking you don’t hear it but knowing it’s not that deep, it doesn’t affect the three of you’s friendship whatsoever.

[alexanderwales]

Pitchposting: Generation Ship

(Pitchposting is a way of giving away ideas that threaten to grow in my mind until they become draft documents. They are free to a good home, though there's no guarantee that I won't try to write them at some point.)

Alright, hear me out: it's a generation ship, one expected to reach its destination with an entirely new generation of people who never knew the homeland, except instead of being a scifi concept, we're doing it as mundane as possible.

I think this is one of those ideas that only appeals to me because I immediately start thinking about the logistics of it all, and there's something in the mundane, gritty realism that really appeals to me. Mostly I'm worldbuilding and problem solving, trying to get at what it would actually be like for people to have been at sea their entire lives, to have a ship that either needs to endure the waves or be rebuilt as it goes.

I was going to say that this needs to be fantasy, but I guess technically it can be an Alderson Disk or something. An Alderson Disk has a habitable circumference of approximately a billion kilometers, a sailing ship can go maybe eighty miles a day, that's a ballpark of 12.5 million days to circumnavigate the disk, which is 34,000 years. That's a hell of a lot of generations, twice as long as we've had agriculture. (But you could also just have it be a fantasy world that's larger than our own, with a generation ship that was only trying to flee to greener pastures that are a hundred years away.)

The purest version of this story is a world that's just water, to match the void of space. The ship sails, repairs are made from flotsam and jetsam and driftwood from unspecified places, rainwater is caught and put into barrels, pitch is used for patching, fish and kelp are hauled up from the ocean, birds are captured from the sky, and the ship must necessarily endure storms and swells.

I've always felt there was something compelling about constrained living situations, places where everyone knows everyone and you have to make it work because there's absolutely no way out — where you're on a knife's edge because there's only so much preparation you can do. A generation ship needs to think about absolutely all of its needs and how it will deal with the deterioration of all things over time, along with problems that might only crop up once every hundred years, or problems that won't become apparent until long after the ship has left the dock.

Let's say you have a sailing ship the size of one of the largest sailing vessels of the 19th century, a thousand people all told. The families are carefully braided to prevent accidental incest, everyone has their position in life, every master has at least one apprentice but probably more so gout or cancer don't eliminate the last person who knew how to make more pitch.

This is clearly an Idea story, one that starts with a ridiculous premise and then explores it, but one of my favorite things about idea stories is finding the characters and the conflicts within them. For a generation ship, the biggest, most obvious conflict is the conflict between generations: the old people who once knew dry land, the middle generation who will likely die before the destination is reached, and the children who will be the beneficiaries of all this travel.

We have a woman who was born to the sea, who loves the sea, who loves the travel and takes great joy in knowing that she's probably not going to see the end of it until she's ancient. We have the grizzled sailor who's nearly risen to the rank of captain and sees the whole mission as utter foolishness. A boy of thirteen who is obsessed with writing stories about the land they've set off toward and keeps his telescope on the horizon, hoping that the predictions were off, that they're somehow two decades early. A girl of sixteen who doesn't feel suited to the marriage that's planned for her, who is secretly in love with her best friend. A scientist who has been quietly advancing the state of knowledge with every new fish brought up from the deeps.

And then there's the plot, which there are so, so many options for. I would start the novel with simple sailing, a few chapters of the daily routine, the personalities, their petty fights with each other, and the stress of being in the middle of unfathomably deep waters whose depths are only glimpsed when the nets bring up something new. Then ... an island, another ship, sea creatures that have a glimmer of intelligence, a storm that makes the ship limp, spoilage that threatens starvation unless drastic action is taken, a political squabble that might bring all the plans crashing down.

Maybe it's a book about being trapped by the past, or about hanging on by what feels like a delicate thread, or about how systems are fragile and careful thinking and brave leadership are the only things that will get us through.

Mostly I think I want to be a geek about a ship that needs to survive in the ocean for a hundred years, and I do not have the time to write this novel, not when there are so many other novels to write.

[adobe-outdesign]

Review flotsams?

Flotsams have always had an interesting history with Jetsams, as originally their designs were almost interchangeable minus some subtle differences. Nowadays the two are more distinct, with Flotsams lacking teeth, eyebrows, and having a horn, among other things. Between the two, I do like Flotsams a bit more—they're mostly just dolphins, but they have a nice streamlined design and a few unique features tossed in here and there.

Visually, all of the basic Flotsam colours sport a pink underside. I think it looks better on some colours than others (blue, for example), but I do wish they had gone for something a little more neutral. Thankfully, most colours end up changing this anyway, making it a little bit of a non-point.

Flotsam look near-identical to their old art, just sporting a different pose and a slightly larger horn. I actually like the post-customization art a bit more, just because of the more quadrupedal swim-ready pose and additional shading. They do technically have a "fist", but it's so subtle it actually doesn't look bad for a change.

Favorite Colours:

Halloween: Sheet ghosts aren't usually anything special, but dang, they really made this one work. I love the dark red base contrasted with the white of the sheet, which is also well drawn in terms of how the folds sit relative to the body. There's lots of nice details on the sheets as well, like the patch on the back and the separate neckline, and I love that they managed to give it a more morose expression via the sheet without actually changing the base expression. Speaking of which, the blood-red base colour is also fantastic and deserves a shoutout in and of itself.

Royal: What a beautiful color! I really like how natural the robes look, and the jewelry that hooks around the horn is such a neat way to handle a crown for a narwhal-esq ocean creature. There's also some nice markings on the tail and fins as an added bonus, and both are equally balanced in terms of design (though I do prefer the female a bit more personally, just because the markingss pop a bit more).

Flotsams are also one of the few royal pets that didn't get destroyed with customization, on the grounds that they weren't really anthro to begin with. The converted designs are spot-on except for a weird half-of-a-necklace that the male sports that honestly seems like an art mistake.

Pastel: Just a really pretty colour as a whole, using a green/yellow/purple palette with strong use of gradients. Colored lineart makes the whole thing seem appropriately pastel-y, and the blue eye pops against the sutble pink underside.

[daphnebowen]

descendants rise of red thoughts

warning: these are probably nonsensical and just a lot of confusion/venting/random excitement?? but enjoy regardless:

I'm glad that they explained jay, evie, and mal's absence right off the bat 

Uma and mal's relationship >>>

Not me bawling my eyes out already at the mention of Carlos, we all know uma's tears were china's tears 😭😭

Wonderland is GORGEOUS

"DEVIL ON MY SHOULDER" WHERE THE ANGELS USED TO BE

this fight scene is so unrealistic 

LUCIUS MALFOY?!?! (nope it's a dupe)

can I just say Kylie is GORGEOUS in red??

MAD HATTER SON SIGHTING AND I LOVE HOW HIS NAME IS MADDOX

who would have guessed she used the hug with Maddox to steal the Time Machine - hmm, not me!!

Brandy is absolutely KILLING IT her voice is majestic 

but where does Chad fit into all of this??? like isn't he the son of Cinderella but he doesn't look like his dad or mom?

the queen of hearts accent is soooo soothing

she (the queen of hearts) reminds me a LOT of Audrey, in her looks, her mannerisms, the way she speaks, her everything, it's kinda crazy 

A MENTION OF CHAD!!! Maybe it's possible! who cares about genetics!!

okay queen of hearts buggy is 🤩🤩

Chloe reminds me so much of evie and red reminds me so much of mal!! this is probably obvious to everyone and on purpose but oh well

WHATS MY NAME REMIXXXXX AHHHH

where's Harry and Gil bro not even a mention of them??? they were uma's best friends bffr

Omg I haven't seen Dara in a lot of other things but she is SLAYING the crazy uliana character 

Chloe running around fixing all the things red's messing around with is so accurate 

WICKED STEPMOM SIGHTING

anyways, the house Cinderella grew up in is soooo accurate to how I pictured it

I don't think poor chloe has ever touched a mop lol

Dara doesn't even sound like herself in this song

THAT EEL FREAKING SCARED ME GAGAHAGAGA IT LOOKS JUST LIKE FLOTSAM AND JETSAM which is probably the point but oh well here I am 

the way my heart DROPPED when she smashed the shoes!!!! 😢😢

oh snap. I did NOT expect red to go there (speaking about the "how did that end up for her?" talking about Chloe's mom) THATS SO AWFUL AND HORRIBLE MY JAW DROPPED

young Cinderella can SINGGGG

Love how they never showed Chloe's feet after she threw her glass shoes into the fireplace 😂 not important but I thought it was funny

love the kid barking and meowing and making Merlin rethink his life choices 

I definitely thought for a second that red was gonna be like "actually, I want to stay in this timeline"

OMG I HOPE THIS WORKS

YESSSS UMAAAA SLAYYYYYY ILYYYY

the costume change for queen of hearts is EVERYTHING

how is Chloe going to explain the broken glass shoes to her mom lol

nothing gets past Uma lol she's ALL KNOWING OUR QUEEN

final thoughts: reaaaalllyyyy wishing we could have brought back more of the og's or even got a little more closure about Carlos and his death. even though I know everyone's moving on and healing and dove especially is distancing herself from Disney and trying to be her own person without that (which, I respect) I still would have liked a cameo, a sort of "passing the torch" thing. without them it kinda was abrupt and strange, but having fairy godmother and Uma definitely benefited the movie. Red and Chloe were definitely well thought out and loveable and relatable characters for me, being a perfectionist myself and having three little troublemaking brothers who want nothing to do with me or my family at all. I feel like there was hardly any real time to get to know the other characters at all though! particularly young Bridget and ella, I definitely would have loved to see more of them. even uliana, although she made such a big impact and interest with her limited amount of screen time, put it to good use and made the most, though I would have wanted more. More backstory between her and Ursula's relationship, perhaps??? Uma and uliana reconciliation?? where is uliana now??? etc etc etc. I feel like the movie was so short there wasn't a ton of time to fully flesh things out and explore the characters and yet the pacing was great for the plot, so I don't know how those two things work together but somehow it felt rushed and yet perfect at the same time?? Like I don't know what they could have added to make it longer. definitely wanted more Uma and fairy godmother banter and updates on all the vks and auradon kids!!! how's Jane!!! ESPECIALLY NOW CARLOS IS NO LONGER WITH US?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? what about Lonnie!! and dizzy and the twins and Doug and Harry and Gil and all those other rascals. good to know Chad's off playing tourney in college and we know mal, Ben, evie, and jay are sailing around the world making amends with other countries and forming alliances. but yeah. overall I was pretty satisfied, obviously I don't think ANYTHING could top the iconic original descendants but I feel like this one did its job. it continued the story and introduced many new characters and a new timeline and plot line that was easy to follow while also leaving room for more and for wanting more. didn't even mention the music but I felt a lot of it was suuuuper repetitive and just this pop thing. where are my ballads!!! my if onlys!!! everything was just like "rotten to the core" or "chillin like a villain" and I wanted some emotional songs. Yes, I love a good pop upbeat song but I don't want an entire movie of them. everyone sang great I think, except I couldn't tell what was real and what was auto tune, but anyways. so yeah, I'd rate this movie a 7.5 out of 10. Pretty decent but still... not the greatest. as to almost be expected without our original cast.

side note: anyone wondering, if Cameron Boyce hadn't passed away, do we think they still would have continued adding on to that original trilogy and storyline or do we think that they would have brought in the new characters and storylines anyway? just a thought, I've always wondering what it would be like if cam hadn't passed. rest in peace xo 💋 

[butterfwiesndinorawrs]

Eeeeps!! I wents go see da musical last night wiff my fwend! It was sooo amazings n dey did such a great jobs! Dey added some songs n changed up da story a little bit... there was tap dancing Scuttles, I loved it soo much! I love tap dancers!!! 😍 N there was an added scene where Prince Eric taught Ariel to dance so she could use her body to communicate wiff him when she couldn't talk... I crieds.. Also at da end when Eric was askies King Triton for permission to marry Ariel, King Triton made it very clear she didn't need permission, and the audience went wild with happy hoots! Flounder had a little crush on Ariel... uhh I still trying figure out how I feels bout dat 😅 he was cute tho... Sebastian and Ursula stole da show mon, as usual hehe! During da song Under da Sea there were so many glowing fishie props used n giant jellies n it was such an amazing performance, I felt under da sea for reals!!! Flotsam n Jetsam were amazing, dey were on rollers n their custumes had green lights so dey glowed.... 😍 I love Flotsam and Jetsam n dey even had their own song!!! Final little spoiler, more like thing I want to come back n members, Ariel saved herself! I won't say how but SHE killed Ursula in dis one... 🧜‍♀️🐚 I know a lot of little girls dat were dressed up as mermaids dat left da show feeling soo empowered.. I was one of dem, dressed up as a little mermaid n all! 🥰😁

[rei-does-stuff]

Watched new the little mermaid movie and I have a LOT of thought! Enough for a whole post!!

Little mermaid thoughts LETS GOOOO

-I LOVED IT FIRSTLY but I do have a few nitpicks

-Firstly I don’t like the cgi animals, they look bad, I get they don’t wanna do the cartoony look for all the fish, but I feel like at least for flounder they should’ve so we could’ve connected to him more, Sebastian was fine, so was scuttle but flounder really got the short end of the stick

-The lighting wasn’t that bad, sure there was some scenes that maybe should have been a tad brighter but it really wasn’t as bad as everyone was saying

-Hailey Bailey singing is INCREDIBLE, I was worried that she would be able to sing well, but not be able to sing in CHARACTER, but goddamnit she KILLS it man! You can really FEEL her emotions and she does so well

-ALSO SHES SO PRETTY???? LIKE OMG???

-Sebastian and King Triton don’t really have as much of a friendly dynamic as I’d like, King -Triton especially doesn’t seem as friendly towards him compared to the original, so Sebastian’s quips seem like ACTUAL complaining instead of something more innocent yk??

-Also because they cut out the song where the daughters sing and Ariel is missing we don’t really get that Sebastian is a conductor/composer so his part during ‘kiss the girl’ doesn’t flow as well imo, bc like how would he know this? He doesn’t know anything about music

-They don’t introduce Eric’s statue, so it’s appearance later on doesn’t make sense unless you’ve watched the original, something I don’t really like about disney remakes

-And Ariel finds it BEFORE under the sea, which brings two issues, one is that the statue is supposed to be a gift from flounder TO Ariel, which strengthens their relationship, and two it makes her leaving at the end of under the sea make no sense, since she left TO see the statue

-OH AND UNDER THE SEA WAS AMAZING, I love how they did their own thing instead of copying the og, makes it way more memorable and it looked rlly good!!!

-ALSO ARIEL JOINING IN ON IT WAS GREAT!!!

-OH, and whilst part of your world was amazing, I feel like Sebastian should have seen it. Since he wasn’t there, he doesn’t know much about Ariel’s motive and her desire for going to the surface, they didn’t have to add all the slapstick that was in the original but just having him there instead of him come after would strengthen their relationship a lot more, especially to those who haven’t seen the original

-I like them setting up how Eric and Ariel are two sides or the same coin, both wanting more from their lives and wanting what they can’t have

-when Eric goes to save Max, I think the original does it better, him jumping from the boat and going BACK onto the ship shows his compassion than him about to leave the ship but going back for max

-When Eric sees Ariel with his blurred vision I feel like it was a bit TOO blurry, in the original the og Ariel had this ethereal aura to her from his vision that added to his whole fantasy of her, that the remake doesn’t really capture due to how blurry it was

-When King Triton destroying all of Ariel’s things was good, not as powerful as the original but still amazing, but one nitpick I have is that Triton tells her “never leave again” and doesn’t LOOK at her. In the original he doesn’t say anything, but does look at her crying and you can see the guilt in his eyes.

-Also, the whole, “your mom was killed by humans thats why i forbid you going there” feels a bit??? Unnecessary?? Idk how to describe it, I think because the original had this sort of queer undertone in it, like the original fairytale had, and I feel like the line is removing that a bit?? The whole humans are barbarians thing feels unnecessary too. I feel if they just stuck with the whole “you’re a mermaid he’s a human” thing would’ve been better, no need to over complicate things yk?? Also it gave said human-mermaid line less power imo

-Flotsam and Jetsam aren’t really in the movie, they don’t tell Ariel about Ursula, which is double edge sword I’ll explain later, but them not being in presence makes the ‘kiss the girl’ scene and them dying and Ursula being pissed about it less powerful imo

-How the double edge sword thing does come with a good side, of course, Ursula being the one to tell Ariel gives her more manipulative side strength, and it adds to Ariel’s trust of Ursula, her being related to her adds to that as well, you understand WHY she doesn’t immediately leave yk??

-NOW URSULA’S MAKEUP, im gonna say it, it’s bad, they didn’t go far enough with the drag queen look and it really hinders it imo, she just looks boring and not menacing at all which sucks because the actress really gives it her all

-POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS, it’s an amazing song of course, but they do change the lyrics to be less about Eric which makes more sense for this movie so I won’t fault it for that

-They did remove the ‘BODY LANGUAGE’ lyric tho so points off,

-And the song is a lot shorter, which isnt good considering PUS was originally a 5 minute song cut to 3 minutes THEN NOW cut to 2, hinders it a lot I feel

-I LOVE THE VISUALS THO, love them doing their own thing and I love how glowy Ursula’s tentacles are, I do wish they kept the lil hologram thing from the original, could’ve added a whole lot to it!

-Them replacing Ursula’s henchmen forcible shutting Sebastian and flounder from telling Ariel to not trust Ursula to just flounder shushing Sebastian isn’t great, makes Ursula less scary imo

-They removed the scroll, and replaced it with her putting her scale in with blood, more intense which I like and removes the question of “if she could sign the scroll then why couldnt she write to Eric” thing the original had

-The transformation sequel isn’t as flashy as the og, the imagery of her tail splitting in two and forming legs was iconic,

-Also Sebastian and flounder not helping her to the surface is something I didn’t like, hinders their relationship

-The whole ‘Forgetting she has to kiss Eric’ thing felt unnecessary? I don’t think the original had it but I could be misremembering

-At first I didn’t like Ariel not immediately meeting Eric but I grew to like it ngl, her seeing the town was really good, and her song is also neat!

-The moment she realizes she cant talk is GOLDEN

-Her bonding with Eric in the little trinket area was SUCH a nice addition, it really strengthens their bond together

-Also the “my little mermaid” thing ADORABLE

-OH OH ALSO, eric and ariel have such autism energy I love it sooo much

-Them going on the town was SOOOO cute, I love them so muchhhhhh, and the dress Ariel wears is really cute, I do wish she had more things to wear it’s really just one outfit and her wedding gown which isn’t that different from her regular outfit, in comparison to the og which had her in a lotta outfits, especially with how pretty hailey bailey is?? She would’ve killed it!!

-OH ERICS SONG IS SO GOOD??? I wasn’t expecting to like it so much but the way it mirrors part of your world is SO good????? And his voice????? Incredible

-Oh i love Sebastian and scuttles friendship it’s really sweet

-also scuttles song wasn’t that annoying?? Idk it was cute and fun and Sebastian joining in was cute!

-They cut out the Poor unfortunate souls reprise which Is a huge let down I really liked it!!!! They use the music for it but she doesn’t SING!!!!

-Vanessa is SO pretty??? Exactly like the og too!!

-I feel like Eric being under control should’ve been hammered in more though, the subtle vibes doesn’t work as well for it imo

-Ariel being the one to stab Ursula wasn’t a good choice imo, the of gave Eric more character, and it would work even better in this movie since theyre so similar. She saved him and now he gets to save her yk?

-Also killing Ursula didnt look that great, you couldnt even tell she was stabbed it had no punch

-When Ursula takes Ariel away she doesn’t say anything to Eric like in the original she just leaves, which is a bit disappointed, they do a lotta things that rob Ursula of her iconic personality

-I think we should’ve seen Ariel get back her legs like in the movie, cutting that I feel like, loses a lot, especially with the bond with her father

-No 80s dress, sad.

-I think that’s everything????? I’m rewatching the original movie tomorrow so I’m sure I’ll have a few more things to add, especially when the 2023 movie goes onto disney plus

-Overall the movie was really good, Haliey Baliey stole the show and the visuals were really nice, special shoutouts to the visuals for Ursula’s tentacles, triton’s triton and the scenes for kiss the girl and under the sea, VERY pretty,

-All the voice actors were great ngl,

-The movie didn’t feel too long either, the stuff they added was good and moved along nicely, didn’t even feel like 2 hours yk???

[tigris-types]

hello! I wanted to ask which of your pets is your favorite to draw? (Also I love all your darigan lutari designs!)

Thank you for asking!! And thank you for the compliment! I had fun making those designs!

So for those who don't know, here are my pets:

Top to bottom, left to right we have Tilleri the tyrannian peophin, Snow the magma eyrie, Anna the eerie pirate eyrie, Oak the green kougra, Jolly K the dimensional kougra, Sharkhorn the darigan flotsam, Jolly 0 the darigan ruki, Darkstrike the gold jetsam, Maplw the faerie lutari, and Maggie the candy zafara.

10 pets are characters and are permanent, I have a lab pet that I also use for the daily quests, so they're a tradable collection of pixels. (Currently a glowing aisha is anyone wants it)

So now to answer the question!

It's easily (looks left and right to make sure the pets can't hear) Jolly K! Tigers are my favorite animal, and so kougras are my favorite neopet. And I like drawing tigers, but what really pushed Jolly K over the edge compared to the rest is how I color her.

I thought the dimensional color was cool, and then I made her character based on her color. She ended up becoming a mage, and I love witches too! So she has a lot of fun witch outfits, which also makes her fun to draw, but back to her color.

On Colors3D, if you erase most of a color, multiply the layer, merge it with itself, and repeat, you get this cool corruption effect. It makes the colors more saturated and increase the contrast, which can make an overall more dynamic piece. It also makes cool looking fire like shapes on the edges, which works with how I interpret the dimensional color to be a combination of dark, air, and light magic. For example, if you look just beyond her glowing outline, you can see the corrupted color.

I also like using this same technique for the fire and magma on Snow.

Snow is my 3rd favorite to draw because I don't have as many outfits her as I do for Maple, who is my 2nd favorite to draw (Maple's also been cross-painted the most). Here's my most recent drawing of Maple celebrating getting to thr Secret Ninja Training School, and I also just got to 500 strength today!

This isn't her usual look, as this is showing off her stealthy/faerie crosspaint look for this occasion.

Please feel free to ask me about my Neopets! I love talking about them!!

[thetragicallynerdy]

Writing Patterns Pt. 2!!!

Rules: list the last line of the same 10 fics you shared opening lines for and see if there's a pattern!

Tagged again by @zombiethingy - thanks for the tag!! It was really neat to look at all of these and see where it ended after looking at where it started.

(Note: I added an extra sentence to a few of them because I was noticing a pattern and wanted to make it more obvious lmao)

1. flotsam and jetsam - chapter 9 "We’re glad to have you on the Revenge.” 2. never seen you shine so bright

“Yeah,” she murmurs, “that sounds lovely.”

3. Yippee-Kiyay, Motherfuckers

“Morning, love,” they whisper, “Merry Christmas.”

4. heel

“I’ve always wanted a dog.”

5. you and i - we're sweet

"Them fishies aren’t going to catch themselves.”

6. maybe we'll get lucky and we'll both live again

“Sí,” Jim says softly. “I suppose it is.”

7. already halfway gone

“Same, mate,” Edward murmurs. “Hard fucking same.”

8. won't you sing me something for the dark

“That’s what I get for kissing you.”

9. lord, have mercy on my rough and rowdy ways

Her lips press to the middle of their back, soft and lovely. “Love you too.”

10. oh go on baby, hurt me tonight

Mary’s mouth pressed to the top of their head, smudging a kiss against their hair. “Good.”

Patterns

Okay these last lines are a self callout, there are MANY patterns here lmao.

All of them end in dialogue.

Four of them follow the pattern of "Sentence," X character said softly/murmured/whispered, "continuation of sentence." (This is my favourite sentence dialogue pattern, but I definitely over-use it)

The words "soft" and "lovely" and "murmur" feature frequently (a general problem in my writing overall, someday I need to challenge myself to not use those words at all XD)

It's not really obvious in the last lines alone, but 6/10 of them also have a kiss in the last paragraph. Also the two in here have a kiss specifically being pressed to skin/top of head. Hmmm.

Anyway - a challenge for myself would honestly be to try ending something not with dialogue. Dialogue comes a lot easier to me than descriptive writing, but it would be good to change things up now and then! And looking at my 'first lines', most of them started with dialogue too.

Something else that's really evident is that I like ending things on a soft note where characters feel loved. I don't think it's a bad thing, I think it's pretty reflective of the type of fics I like writing, but it is good to think about!

Gotta be honest though, my absolute favourite last line is for heel, the paragraph its from is - chef's kiss. (She is not talking about animals.)

Anyway - this was a lot of fun, thanks for the tag!!

Tagging (but only if you're interested!) the folks I tagged for first lines, because it was really fun comparing first vs last lines and maybe you'll find it fun too!

@yerbamansa, @yourlocal-charlatan, @alfalfairy, @dragonmuse, @redxluna.

I am having a hard time remembering who else of my mutuals writes, so please also consider this an open tag for anyone who sees it and wants to join!!

[honourablejester]

Oooh. Reading Nick Marini’s post on his character creation process for Ayden in CR’s Downfall, there’s an interesting set of criteria to build a character around. A level 20 character who has 20s in all stats (meaning all multiclasses are viable) and is the avatar or emissary of a deity.

So I was looking at that, and I was idly thinking about some of my homebrew deities, and wondering what a character built with that criteria to be their avatars might look like. And, in particular, I was looking at Immara:

IMMARA, THE DREAMING OCEAN

Alignment: Neutral, Domains: Knowledge, Tempest, Symbol: Moonrise Over Ocean

Immara is the dreaming goddess of the deep, the goddess of moon and tide, of dreams and prophecy, of shipwrecks and forgotten mysteries. She is the goddess of mist and storm, of flotsam and jetsam, of messages in bottles. She is the dreaming ocean, the tides of history moving across a fathomless, forgotten deep. She is the siren call of the sea, stirring souls to seek hidden things. Immara is not a goddess favoured of sailors and fishermen, her call too strange and entrancing. Instead, she is the goddess of omens and tides, of seekers and prophets, dreamers and explorers. Those who dive ocean wrecks, seek sunken cities, or dream strange dreams in the ocean mist. Her worship is scattered, and individual, her prophets and her priests coming to her often through their dreams, but many who hope for good omens or fortune on the waves might still give an offering of rice wine or moonstones in her name, spilled or thrown into the sea at moonrise.

How would I build an avatar of Immara?

Now. I have never played high level D&D, I’ve no idea how to powerbuild or possibly even functionally build to high levels. I don’t know what synergises and what doesn’t. So this is purely on a thematic level. How would I represent Immara by class and subclass?

Kneejerk first thought, Stars Druid. Druid because nautical spell list, and Stars druid because omens. I did also consider, because tempest, both the Tempest Cleric and the Storm Sorcerer, but Immara is not Iskuur the Storm Lord. She’s the goddess of the dreaming ocean, the depths, the mysteries. She has tempest because she’s a sea deity, and she can get narky, but she’s not really a primarily tempestuous sort of deity. We’re looking for something more serene, mysterious, something that leans on the knowledge end of her domains. So Stars Druid feels right. But I did also want more … mystery. Knowledge. So Knowledge Cleric? Possibly, but it didn’t feel right. It’s not dreamlike enough. Same with the wizards, although divination wizard would fit thematically as well. But. No. I think I want warlock. Because of the invocations, things like Eyes of the Rune Keeper and Ghostly Gaze. Immara is the goddess of omens and tides, dreamers and seekers. Warlock, definitely. And, although Fathomless would fit, beautifully, for a goddess of the deeps, we’re already getting a lot of the oceany flavour from druid. I think we’re going to go Great Old One Warlock instead. Because telepathy, mysteries, dreaming strange dreams. Fathomless would just double back down on the druid spell list. GOOlock has a few more divinatory options.

So. Yeah. I think that’ll work. Stars Druid/Great Old One Warlock. I think that’s a nice thematic mix of flavours. Now. Proportions?

I should probably prioritise one or the other. But I want a decent sprinkling of invocations up to Ghostly Gaze, so I want at least 7 levels of warlock, and I want a good chunk of the druid spell list, plus my starry ominous form. So … Druid 12/Warlock 8? Gets us up to 6th level spells for the druid, plus the improved starry form, and all the invocations and some nice warlock spells I want, plus 5 feats, since (as per his post again) we don’t have to worry about ASIs with our 20s across the board. But I don’t know if I need 5 feats, I’ve a couple I want, but 4 might do. If I go Druid 11 I keep everything I need there, and Warlock 9 gets me another invocation and a 5th level spell. Which. It’s more thematic than useful, but we could get Dream. And I think I do want that? Heh.

Yeah. Stars Druid 11/Great Old One Warlock 9. Lock that in.

Race? Background? Since I didn’t take Fathomless, I think I do want an oceanic race, something that’ll give me amphibious and a swim speed. Of those, my favourite is the sea elf, because then you get both aquatic traits plus elf ones like the perception proficiency. And for background … ‘those who dive ocean wrecks and seek sunken cities’. Heh. We’re going for the archaeologist background from Tomb of Annihilation.

Immara split a part of herself off to be born to a community of sea elves, and a reckless young woman, possessed of yearning and wanderlust, was born to seek shipwrecks, sunken cities and the deep mysteries of the sea, and to dream strange dreams to stir her in more necessary directions.

For her feats, I’m going to give her Eldritch Adept to bring her invocations up to 6, Skill Expert to give her stealth proficiency and perception expertise, Spell Sniper because she has EB and Guiding Bolt, and War Caster for concentration checks.

For her invocations, I want her to have Agonising Blast to help EB, Armour of Shadows for permanent mage armour, Devil’s Sight to see even in magical darkness at the bottom of the ocean, Eyes of the Rune Keeper to read all languages, Ghostly Gaze to see through walls, and Repelling Blast to knock people into her AoE spells.

Some specific spells I want her to pick up: Dream, Toll the Dead, Fog Cloud, Armour of Agathys, Scrying, Hunger of Hadar, Tidal Wave, Augury, Maelstrom, Pass Without Trace, Invisibility, Clairvoyance, Faerie Fire, Comprehend Languages, Raulothim’s Psychic Lance

So, in summary? Yrine Berevan, Avatar of Immara. Sea Elf, Archaeologist, Stars Druid 11 and GOO Warlock 9.

Building with just flatly granted max stats allows you a lot of fun in terms of mixing-and-matching, you know? That’s a fun thought experiment. Pick a deity and go to town!

[team-angel-official]

Say hi to Team Angel! These are the first designs I've come up with, and therefore subject to change! I'm really looking forward to writing this, I've had this concept in my head since I saw the Kotaku promo.

Any advice or perhaps ideas you would like to share is absolutely welcome!

Info:

Team Angel, in this form, is based on a 1998 pitch for a localized sailor moon. This pitch was about four angelic maidens who are tasked with protecting earth from their queen Angela's evil sister Melvina, who lives on the dark side of the moon with her incompetent shape-shiftong henchmen Flotsam and Jetsam. The girls live on the planet Zera, and have limited time to solve humanity's problems.

But what about this reworking?

I'll be changing a lot (which basically equates in this case to things I'd already written feeling to be more intriguing than what I learned the plot was going to be).

For one, they'll be stationed on earth. It'll be a Secret Jouju type of deal where they transform when necessary, but have limited time in that form (depending on the assignment). They go to a human school to learn how life on earth works, and how to therefore deal with the problems of those they were brought to help. At the end of the day they go to a teleporter(?) located on the facade of an abandoned building. This brings them back to their home planet Zera to report back to Queen Angela. If they don't get there in time, their powers will get weaker. Along the way, Melvina will be possibly restored. Her henchmen will not. All of Team Angel is around 15-16 years old, although this is subject to some change.

Although the original was both live action and American, I'm taking stylistic inspiration from 2000s girly flash mascots like Avata Star Sue for my reworking, because it's just cute.

Characters

Rosalyn:

The no-nonsense de facto leader of Team Angel. She specializes in things like martial arts and dance. She does both to calm herself down. She's relatively angsty, and views her role as a Team Angel member as a knightship of sorts. She tends to go directly to brute force when dealing with people that make her mad.

Delphine:

A fun-loving party animal. She has a sharp wit, and doesn't like doing things she doesn't have to. She likes to cut class and wander earth, preferring to learn about it through experience (which is code for reckless decisions). She gets on Rosalyn's nerves.

Lyla:

The smart and fashionable bookworm. She's absolutely enamored with her lessons at her school, and longs to have more time there. She's not very good at talking to people, and speaks rather formally. She isn't good at making friends, and is thankful to have been teamed up with people, as it makes that much easier. She wants to be as outgoing as Delphine, but for her it's not that easy. She likes dressing up.

Celeste:

A shy girl who loves animals. She's a bit ditzy, and always daydreaming. She often "adopts" random animals. She has a pet snake named Regina that she pampers. She loves writing poetry and playing music, which often gets her made fun of by Delphine.

Persephone:

A Zeritian creature who guards the girls. On earth she disguises herself as Celeste's support animal. She is good at calming down any arguments between the girls, and has a human form. She was turned into the creature she is now by Melvina.

Fun fact: a lot of these personality traits were there before I had seen the treatment for the series, which makes me so happy!! Minus Persephone. I didn't even know that she even existed lol.

[elismor]

For the ask thing, how about this section from …without a paddle?

“Not far now,” Kenobi calls over the roaring water. You’d think that a jedi would know better than to tempt fate. A series of alarmed shouts rings out behind them and when Cody turns, he sees an entire tree coming in fast from upstream. It’s going to take out the whole unit. Blasters begin to fire and, for a split second, Cody stops to admire the scene. They’re firing overhead at awkward angles and without clear lines of sight at a moving target while fighting to stay upright, and ninety percent of the bolts are landing. Take that, longnecks. The ARCs double-time it to get the wounded out of harm’s way, but it’s not going to be enough. Maybe with a few shots from the RPS6s, but those can’t really be fired in these– He hears the general’s lightsaber ignite and feels a gentle whoosh of air as the jedi makes an impossible leap. They’re even more strung out now and clustered in small groups here and there, struggling against the water and bracing against one another to remain upright. “HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Wooley bellows and the call runs down what’s left of the lines. Cody adds a bellow of his own. "MOVE IT. NOW." Not everyone is going to make it out before the debris hits, but some will. More if they pick up the pace. The general’s lightsaber casts a blue blur against the water as he cuts, swinging hard and fast in an effort to reduce the tree to rubble so the men have half a chance to dodge the flotsam. Those who can manage begin firing on the smaller pieces to further decrease the threat. There are a lot of minor collisions, but it beats one catastrophic one and Cody’s heart slides down from his throat and back into his chest as he hauls trooper after trooper up onto the bank. They might just pull this off after all. Now who’s tempting fate? He hears Boil’s roar of warning just before one of the larger pieces slips by and hits Waxer broadside, knocking him off his feet. From there, it’s only instinct that makes him grab for purchase and the shiny goes down too, head vanishing beneath the water just as Boil dives to follow. Cody doesn’t even pause to think; he just plunges back in.

Well. I suppose the first item of note here is that I rewrote this bit at least 3 times. For some reason, I always have trouble doing action in present tense and keeping any sort of flow to the piece. It always reads very staccato to me...and this still does, tbh.

The tree came from a real life experience of crossing a swollen river on horseback and having a big limb hit us broadside and almost take the horse out from under me. I was trying to come up with something perilous for them to face and actually considered having the droids catch up, but I couldn't figure a way out of that that didn't end in heavy losses. I'm not sure if comes across clearly, but I also wanted to convey the idea that once Cody made it clear they were crossing, the men did what needed to be done largely of their own volition...including firing on the tree. Everyone saw the risk, knew what had to happen, and made it happen.

In my head, Wooley is going to end up an ARC, so I wanted him to be paying wider attention to things and be the first one who sees the potential danger to Obi-Wan and then, like above, takes action to mitigate it. Cody doesn't countermand or reinforce it because Wooley made the right call and I imagine that later, when everyone is safe and dry, Cody will go tell Wooley that.

I didn't remember doing the bit where Cody just takes a second to sort of admire the men when I wrote Adventures In Babysitting recently, but there’s a similar one in there...where he has a moment to see things from the proverbial outside and can appreciate his brothers. I like the idea of him sort of seeing them in a new perspective and getting to both appreciate their competence and know that, should something happen to him, they'll be fine. I think the rigors of leadership sometimes narrow focus to what is right in front of you and in the moment...being able to step outside of it --even for a brief instant-- let's him see how good they really are and take some pride.  And then Waxer and Boil get into trouble and he just acts himself...sees what needs to happen and makes it happen.

The bit with Waxer and the tree was rewritten a couple of times, too. At first it was him diving after the shiny. Then it was the shiny panicking and taking Waxer under. But it hit better that it was just a fluke...even the best of them can fall victim to shit going sideways. In the first two versions, the shiny drowns, but in the final he demonstrates how good they are, even fresh off Kamino.

There were also a couple of variants on Cody’s convo with him, but all were of similar tone. In one he made a joke about losing his helmet so soon and that veered off into Flood spinning out about it...but in the end this is about Cody, so it got cut. Flood did not manifest fully as an OC until Boil named him--and I did not ask Boil to do so.

And i just realized I went past where the ask ended.  Sorry, got on a roll there.

Thank you for being interested enough to ask! The Rules for this Ask Game, in case anyone else is interested: Pick 500 words from any of an author's fic and paste them into an Ask. The author will respond with a Director's Commentary on the scene.

[arsonforcharlie]

Noticed a reblog about getting your body covered in tattoos.

And as someone who adores body art and what people choose to put on themselves that represent themselves:

What tattoos do you have/want to have?

aw hell yeah, good question! i currently only have 7 and am on a bit of a hold for new ones since I'm going on a trip that I'm saving up for, but here are my current lil skin buddies

my first tattoo was my family crest from my mom's side on my left calf- my mom and sister got it too, because my family is cool and dope. (they got it on the shoulder though, because they were not wearing binders.) fun trivia, i chose the left calf because when my dad's motor skills started failing his left side started to go first, and i wanted him to be a part of this.

on my right thigh right above the kneecap is my little driftwood rainbow i got myself because i was sad i was spending my birthday alone. someday i hope to get a lot more flotsam and jetsam on that thigh, since i miss the ocean all the time. i have the species of seaweed i want on there next all planned out

my left thigh is the gay one. i got my grace petrie black tie piece on there- it was at the end of august, the shop did not have air conditioning, and both i and the artist were a couple months on t, so it was a pretty gross experience re: soaking through the butcher paper with sweat and sliding around on the leather bench. sorry, bud. i also got a little keith haring piece because last year i was originally not going to get any new tattoos in the summer because surgery, but then there was a fundraiser and i couldn't not.

on the back of the right calf we have my skull lava lamp, which i got because i knew i would be whiny and lonely after heading back from seeing my partner. also it's rad as hell. love green slime.

i have a little ghostlight on my left forearm because i'm that kind of theatre dude. i got it from an apprentice- the artist got super popular after she got full artisted, but ironically, most of her work since she stopped being an apprentice, i've been a lot less into. (am i opinionated about samefacing women? yes, yes i am)

finally, most recent and my birthday present this year from my mom and sister, top surgery dionysus. this dude fucking rules so hard. look at his lil smirk. best kind.

[pet-pet-peet]

I just watched the Little Mermaid in theaters

a few things(no spoilers):

Halle Bailey is an amazing fucking actress and the amount of passion she sang with made me swoon

They made prince Eric and Ursala more interesting and gave them more lore and emotion so you feel for BOTH of them

They stayed true to the story while also expanding the world so you feel even more drawn in

The things meant to have consequences feel like they DO have consequences

They gave Scuttle a song, it's a bop

Melissa Mccarthy is the only person that should ever be considered for Ursula roles in this timeline, absolutely perfect fucking fit

There's a lot more to Ariel and Eric's romance than just "hurry up and fall in love with me so you can kiss me and I won't die!"

Flotsam and Jetson don't talk, but with how much more empathetic they make you for Ursula it hits even harder (imo) when they have the ending thing happen.

[adobe-outdesign]

YOU ENDED UP GETTING ME INTO NEOPETS NOW SO WHAT R UR THOUGHTS ON JETSAM(S)? IM A SUCKER FOR SHARKS LOL SO IM RLY HOPING TO GET ONE AT SOME POINT

Jetsams are sharks, and are meant to be kind of a counterpart/natural predator to the dolphin-like Flotsam; to the point where the two looked near-identical. Nowadays there are more differences, with the Jetsam sporting two fins, sharp teeth, slightly different markings, and an upright posture. Personally, I like to think of these two as a case of mimicry, with the Jetsam having evolved to trick Flotsam from a distance.

Visually, the Jetsam has a nice tough look to it that gives it a lot of personality, and the way it sits upright plus the two fins gives it a bit more uniqueness so it isn't just a normal shark. My only issue with it is that the gray underbelly is a bit too dark and low-contrast. Gray as the accent color is fine; it just needed to be a lighter tint.

The Jetsam benefited quite a bit from customization, as its old art was starting to get very dated and needed a redraw anyway. The new Jetsam looks a little less tough, but the smile is nice as it shows off their teeth, and it gives them a fun kind of mischievous look. The overall look didn't change much, but the head has been changed significantly to have a much better, less wonky shape to it, and the markings now stop above the mouth instead of near the eyebrow. The shape of the hind fins have also been improved, and they're one of the only pets who can make the customization fists look good.

Favorite Colours:

Maraquan: How do you make an underwater version of something that already lives in the water? Make it into a deep-sea fish, obviously! The overall design is easily recognizable as a Jetsam, but its been given a horizontal posture with bioluminescence and an angler fish light/teeth. The palette is great, using neutral browns and greys for the body and bright neon blues for the accent color. My only nitpick with it is that the teeth feel a bit busy and don't quite make sense if you look at them too long, but overall, this is a great design.

Pastel: The pastel Jetsam is just plain pretty, using a soft pink and turquoise palette. What really makes it work is that instead of using flat colors, it employs subtle gradients so the turquoise becomes blue in areas and the pink gets some subtle highlights. On top of that, it's also given a sunlight-under-water ripple texture, with a few small speckles on areas like the eyebrows and tail. A lot of effort went into this design compared to your standard pastel pet, and it really paid off.

Toy: Alright yeah, this one's just fun. The pool floatie idea is a great concept that works perfectly for the colour, and the execution is also really solid, including lots of raised plastic ridges, seams, and plenty of highlights to give it that plastic look.

My only issue with it is that weird handle on the side of the head. I guess some shark toys have these, but I've never seen one personally and it honestly just looks distracting and kind of out of place. Also, I do wish it was semi-transparent (think like the good Jelly-coloured pets), but that's not a big deal. Still a really good colour regardless.

BONUS: The robot Jetsam has a mostly red and white palette with a few black accents, and it works really well for this pet. I love the visor, and the patterning on the fins is really neat. Both versions are fine; the UC/styled version looks a bit more robotic, but the customized version reads a bit better overall.

[sjsmith56]

Finding Jade - Chapter 6, Finding Jade

Summary: Jade dreams of Bucky after he fell from the train. During the day everyone relaxes in various ways. Bucky and Jade search for gemstones in the nearby wash. The day ends with a bonfire and singing.

Length: 4K

Characters: Bucky, Jade, Ben, Peter, Sam

Warnings: 18+ only, sexual content (p in v), accepting death, cursing.

Author notes: After a disturbing dream the rest of the day was pretty normal for the Avengers.

<<Chapter 5

〰️〰️〰️〰️

It's so cold.  The fall should have killed him but somehow he's still alive.  His left arm hurts so much and he tries to lift it but it won't move.  Painfully he turns his head to his side and sees a bloody mess where his arm used to be. 

"No, no, no...," he whispers.  "My arm, I've lost my arm."

He takes stock of where he is now, at the bottom of a chasm between the mountains.  How did he get here?  His arm hurts again and he screams at the pain.  He fell, that's right, he fell from the train.  Steve tried to reach him but he fell before they could touch hands. 

"Steve...Steve...I'm sorry pal.  This is the end of the line for me."

He looks to the other side and sees he's on a ridge.  There is a sound of water past the ridge.  If he can just get there he can end it.  End the pain.  End the certainty of freezing to death.  He's tries to move but all he feels is pain.  He's broken, too broken to end things on his terms. 

"FUCK!" he screams, over and over again.

A few minutes later he is calmer, more accepting of how he will die, the slow descent into darkness.  He thinks of his parents and his sister.  He thinks of all the women he slept with starting at the beginning.  He was 17, she was 19 and fast.  Cora thought he was pretty and he took advantage of it.  But she taught him a lot so that the next one, a few months later, Jean was her name... she was so pretty and willing, he made her come first and discovered women liked that, made them feel he was taking care of them.  He was sleepy and it was hard to remember the next one.  Beatrice, that was it.  Catholic, had gone to school in a convent.  She was wild for him.  They almost got caught by her dad as he fucked her in her parent's garage, in the back seat of her dad's car.  He wasn't cold anymore, in fact he felt warm and using his right hand he slowly, painfully unbuttoned his jacket.  The effort exhausted him and he forgot where he was in remembering all the women.  It didn't matter, there were so many and they all mixed together into one image.  A strange but compelling face, blonde, almost white hair.  Who was she?  He didn't remember her.  He would have....

"Jade," Bucky whispered, stroking her hair.  "Sweetheart, you're dreaming.  Wake up."

She opened her eyes, confused at first that she wasn't on the snowy ridge anymore.  Raising her left hand she was surprised to see her arm was still there.  Bucky stroked her hair again and she realized she had been in his memories, the ones she had stored during their mental connection.  She touched his face and he kissed her gently, asked if she was okay.

"I'm alright," she said.  "Bad dream but I'm back here with you now.  Can you hold me until I fall asleep again?"

She nestled her head into his arms and he pulled her body closer to him.  His hand found its way to her hair, her soft silky hair that he couldn't touch enough.  Making her feel safe was good, good for him as well.  It calmed him and made him feel needed. 

Now I look into your eyes

I can see forever

The search is over

You were with me all the while

        The Search is Over by Survivor

The word was out about the gemstone finds on the brief search of the wash where the rain had stirred up the old waterway.  A few days after finishing building up the roadway almost everyone wanted to try their hand at finding a treasure in the flotsam left behind in the wash.  Both Jade and Ma instructed people on what to look for.  The best moment was when Ma found gold, a small scattering in a pocket gouged out by the rain.  The metal, being heavy, stayed at the bottom of the pocket in little flakes that most people would overlook.  But Ma had noticed a glint and investigated further, finding the little bonanza.  There wasn't a lot, but it was enough to melt into a tiny rough bar that could go a long way on the next provision trip.   There were even some pieces of driftwood that must have floated on top of the water flow for miles to reach them.  Ma had the guys drag them back to the Bunker, said they could be used for carving, burning in a bonfire or leaving as is for a rustic but meaningful piece of natural art. 

Jade took Bucky out to a section where no one else was looking and they stopped to kiss and caress each other before searching.  He watched her intently as she kept her eyes down to the ground looking for good candidates. 

"Where did you learn all of this?" he asked.

"From Ma," she said.  "I was homeschooled because Ma thought the authorities would come after me.  She has her nursing degree so she isn't unschooled herself.  We used a home schooling organization for most of it.  Ma threw out the religious stuff saying I had already had enough of that.  We went to the Library, she bought books.  Taught herself jewelry making by using YouTube, then taught me.  We've done the same with Ben."

"It's really hit a chord with everyone," he said.  "This wash is full of gemstones and we didn't know how valuable they were.  It took you to show us."

"Fossil!" she exclaimed, running to the side of the wash. 

There were bones sticking out and she dropped to her knees to dig out more of it.  Bucky kneeled down with her to uncover it but they soon realized it was bigger than they thought.  Digging into his pocket Bucky pulled out a small GPS unit.

"We use these in case we get lost," he said.  "The Bunker coordinates are loaded in as home base.  If we get lost we just use this and hike back to the right coordinates.  I can save the location of these bones so that when things get back to normal we can let a university know for their palaeontology department."

"Good thinking," she said.  "Oh look, a piece of jade."

She dug her finger into the soil below the fossil and pried up a small piece of jade.  The top of it had been scoured by the action of the flood waters.  She held it up.

"It's the same colour as your eyes," he said, smiling.  "May I have it?  I have an idea for a project I can use it in."

"A project?" she laughed.  "Anything I should know about?"

"I'm an open book," he replied.  "You know you could always look and find out."

She kissed him.  "No, I'll only go in if you allow me," she answered.

He pulled her close and kissed her passionately, both of them on their knees in the soft sandy dirt of the wash.  His hand was in her soft hair and he caressed her head through it as they kissed sensuously.  When they finished he kept his face near hers, feeling her breath on his face.

"I can't get enough of you," he said softly.  "You mean everything to me."

"You know that I saw this before," she replied.  "I saw us kissing, making love and I wanted to show you all of it but you weren't ready."

"I'm ready for a lot more," he said, kissing her again.

He pressed himself into her and she felt his arousal.  "Later," she whispered and pulled away to stand up.

He stayed on his knees a moment longer before reluctantly standing with her.  She was already bending over peering around the ground.  He fingered the jade in his hand before putting it in the small coin pocket in his jeans.  He could start making the ring now.

As they got closer to the Bunker they could hear Buddy barking excitedly.  A piece of wood flew through the air and the dog came flying near them to catch it before it hit the ground.  It landed near some quartz and Jade went down on her knees to use her fingers to dig it out.  Bucky kneeled down to help and they discovered it was a huge piece, only the tip of it showing above the ground.

"Hold on," he said.  "I've got something that will pry it up."

Running to the workshop he came back with a pick axe and a shovel.  Jade moved back as he hit the dirt all around the quartz with the pick axe.  In all the directions it hit more rock.  Using the shovel he tested the ground to see how far away he had to go before he hit normal ground.  It was over ten feet wide.

"This is a quartz vein," said Jade.  "There's a good chance there's gold in it.  It might be in powder form though.  We can only extract it by crushing the quartz and putting the powder in a pan with water, swishing it around and watch for the gold to sink.  Hit it with the pick axe and see if you can chip a piece off."

She stepped back and Bucky took a swing at the quartz.  He knocked off a piece and Jade took a close look at it but couldn't tell for sure.

"Ma has more experience with gold prospecting," she said.  "You should mark this location so we can come back to it."

Buddy came flying back at a stick thrown in their way and they heard Peter and Ben laughing.  They both shook their heads at the unlikely friendship between 20 year old Peter and 10 year old Ben.  The next time the stick came out to them Bucky picked it up and threw it back at the boys, hitting Peter on the thigh.

"Ow, Bucky!" he yelled.

"You've almost hit us a few times, kid!" he yelled back.  "Throw it somewhere else."

"Good arm," said Jade, as they walked slowly in.  "Were you always this good or is it a super soldier thing?"

"A bit of both," he said.  "Pitcher in baseball, quarterback in football.  The serum enhances the abilities.  Don't know how Steve got so good at it, he was literally the 98 pound weakling.  He was always picking fights though.  Didn't like bullies.  Neither do I."

"We thought of putting Ben in regular school but he marches to the beat of his own drum," said Jade.  "I worry that he has doesn't have any peer friendships.  Even Peter is too old for him, really."

"Peter's been where Ben is," said Bucky, tossing the quartz chunk up in the air as he walked.  "Smart at a young age, socially awkward.  He was 14 when he first kicked my ass.  Then he was lost in the Snap.  So was I, Sam, and Wanda."

They walked without talking for a few more minutes, eyes lowered to the ground searching for gemstones.

"You used the time travel machine that they used to get the stones to go back for Steve," said Jade.  "You weren't even sure it would work."

"Bruce and I took the quinjet to what used to be the Avengers compound in upstate New York," he said.  "We left the machine in storage there after Steve returned to the past.  It was risky, because there was a lake nearby and you know how the Others are about water.  We gambled there were still Pym particles in storage with it and there were.  I went back with an extra suit and enough particles for Steve and Peggy to come back with me.  We thought of going back for Tony, Vision and Natasha but their timelines ended and couldn't start up again in the future."

He stopped and looked at her squinting up at him in the bright sunlight.  Never had he dated a woman who looked like her.  Most of the blondes he had known were bottle blondes, but hers was the real thing. 

"What?" she asked.  "Do I remind you of someone?"

"No," he replied.  "Most blondes I knew were bottle blondes.  Your hair is natural and so much more beautiful.  Were your parents this blonde?"

"I think my dad was," she said.  "I have no memory of what my mother looked like.  Ben looks more like his dad.  Do you want kids?"

"Someday," he admitted.  "I was pretty wild, chased a lot of girls, but I always thought I would end up with a nice wife and family after the war.  HYDRA took care of that.   I, um... never mind."

He started walking again, holding the shovel and pick axe in one hand, and Jade smiled.  He had broadcast his mind pretty openly in that little pause and she knew he was going to ask if she would have another.  She jogged a little to catch up with him and put her arm around his waist.  He smiled and put his free arm around her shoulder.  They kept walking, stopping once in a while to pick up an interesting looking rock.  The time they spent together was pretty tame by entertainment standards but they were both content and happy to be in each other's company. 

"Have you learned to ride yet?" she asked.  "I've been out a few times and I like it.  When Clint goes home I'm going to take over looking after the horses.  Maria has been helping as well."

"I've been out a couple of times," he admitted.  "It wasn't pretty.  I am a city boy after all, Brooklyn.  A motorcycle is more my taste.  I rode one sometimes when I was the Soldier and I remember feeling free on it."

He heard his name being called and he saw Ma waving to him.  Jade either didn't hear or was ignoring her mother.  Looking at his watch he realized he was a few minutes late for an appointment with Ma to teach him how to make jewelry.

"I just remembered I have a meeting," he said.  "Can I catch you later, before supper?"

She nodded and he bent over, kissing her sweetly.  He took the quartz from her and took it with him.  Ma thought messaged him that Jade was watching so he went inside the Bunker instead and met Ma in the workshop by going through the interior door.  Jade turned away and headed for Peter and Ben instead.  They asked if she wanted a bonfire with some of the driftwood, in the interior courtyard. 

"I'm pretty sure we have the fixings for s'mores," said Ben.  "We would ask but us being kids Steve might say no."

"Let's go see if we have the fixings first," said Jade.

She went inside with the boys and sure enough there were marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate chips.  Next they had to find Steve and they brought it up to him.  He actually liked the idea but when Jade said she wanted to look in the workshop for something to use for toasting forks he said he was headed there and would look himself if the boys and her would bring the wood around.  Peter was breaking the wood apart with his hands thoroughly impressing Ben.  Steve met them out there about ten minutes later with coat hangers twisted into toasting forks.  The plan was made to start the bonfire just after sunset at 7 pm.

After such a beautiful day supper was just as good with everyone in the common room laughing, joking and eating.  It was Sam and Maria's turn to cook and Sam had made jambalaya.  He made two pots of it, one spicy and one not so spicy.  Jade had never had it before so she had the not so spicy.  Bucky, eating the spicy version, rolled his eyes after the first spoonful.

"Sam," he yelled.  "God, I've missed your cooking.  No one makes jambalaya like you."

"Thanks man," said Sam, genuinely pleased.  "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Too long," said Bucky, standing up and coming to him.  "I'm sorry.  I'm truly sorry."

Sam looked at him for a moment, then nodded.  "So am I, brother," he said.  "I've missed you.  It's all in the past, agreed?"

Bucky nodded and the two men became friends again, giving each other a pound hug.  Steve looked at Jade and smiled, nodding his head.  Bucky sat back down next to Jade and she nudged him on the shoulder with her head.  For dessert Maria had made banana chocolate cake using the overripe bananas no one had wanted to eat.  Again people were giving multiple thanks for it.  By the time everyone else cleaned up the fire outside was started, the s'mores fixings brought out and an assortment of benches from the workout room were assembled around the fire.  Jade got a little chilled despite the fire and Bucky ran into their room bringing out his jean jacket and placing it around her shoulders.  It was much too big for her but she rolled up the sleeves and said it was hers now.  Ma told a ghost story.  Peter and Ben talked people into playing charades.  Clint was cajoled into singing after Jade said she heard him sing to the horses.  He said he would only do it if she sang as well.  They sang Friends in Low Places and got everyone clapping in time to it.  Bucky mentioned Steve could sing, being in the church choir.

"That was supposed to help my asthma and it was before my voice changed, Bucky," said Steve.  "I only know stuff from the 40s like you.  Wait, I've got it, I have a good one."

He started belting out Singing in the Rain and everyone joined in.  For the next two hours they sang, ate s'mores, joked and laughed.  It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings the Avengers had ever had as a group in the Bunker.  Even Bruce stayed for the entire time sitting beside Ma.  When the fire died down to embers the men brought buckets of dirt and sand to put out the fire.  Bucky put his arm around Jade and Ben, herding them home.

"I heard you and Peter thought of this," said Bucky to Ben.  "Nicely done, it was a lot of fun."

"Thanks, Bucky," he replied.  "It was such a nice day and we both thought it would be a nice way to end it.  Um, if you two want to have noisy sex Peter said I could sleep on his couch.  I don't mind, really."

Bucky shook his head feeling affection for the boy.  Ben was the most direct kid he had ever met.  His honesty shone through.

"Sure Ben," he said.  "That's very thoughtful of you."

"Take your toothbrush," said Jade, smiling, as he ran in to get a change of clothes.  "How thoughtful, really, that's your take on it?"

"What else do you say to a ten year old who knows you're having sex with his mom?" asked Bucky.  "We are having noisy sex, aren't we?"

"His birthday is next week," she suddenly said.  "I don't have anything to give him."

"I've got you covered," said Bucky.  "Ma alerted me and we've been making him something from all of us."

"Tell me what you did," she demanded.

"Nope," he said.  "It's going to be a surprise."

She squeezed his waist.  When they got inside the room they could smell woodsmoke so Bucky pulled Jade into the shower with him.

"We have ten minutes of water," he said, "before it automatically shuts off.  As much as I would love to make love in here I don't relish the thought of being covered in soap when the water stops."

Quickly they soaped each other down and rinsed off then enjoyed kissing and caressing under the water until it shut off suddenly.  Jade wrapped her hair up in a towel then another around herself while Bucky did the same.  Picking her up he carried her to the bed and got on it beside her. 

"We smell so much better now," he said, kissing her neck and playfully pulling at her towel.

Putting his hand into her hair the head towel came off and he suddenly kissed her deeply and sensuously.  This time he undid her towel and pulled it away from her body then pushed her down below him.  Laying on top of her he stroked her hair while kissing her softly.   

"This was one of the best days of my life," he said softly.  "Because you were there with me for most of it."

He kissed her deeply again and she drew him in closer with her arms.  "You're overdressed," she whispered, tugging at his towel. 

Smiling, he reached under himself and pulled it off.  "That better?" he asked. 

She nodded and caressed his bottom, then ran her hands up his back.  He raised himself so he was on all fours then kissed her body starting at her breasts and working his way down.  When he got to her pubic area he slowed down nuzzling her lower abdomen and the top of her thighs before gently opening her and licking inside.  Her back arched immediately and she gave a short sigh as he found the parts of her that aroused her.  As she ran her hands through his hair she raised her hips into him and he went down harder on her, making her body twitch.  He started to caress and squeeze her thighs before pressing down on them and trapping them under his arms. 

"James," she panted.  "I love your tongue."

"I love yours, baby," he purred, as he sucked lightly on her clitoris and she gasped.  "Do you want to come now or when I'm in you?"

"Both," she whispered, as she squirmed under him.

Smiling he increased his pace on her and had her straining to come as he held her legs down.  When she suddenly tensed and cried out he released her legs and gently squeezed them to move the blood through them.  Wiping his face with the towel he laid between her legs nuzzling her breasts then moving up to her neck. 

"Well, I'm half done," he whispered in her ear.

"Mmmm," she hummed.  "I should have said yes that first night.  Your tongue...."

As he stroked himself to become hard again she leaned over and gently licked him before taking him into her mouth.  He caressed her silky soft hair as she brought him to the edge before stopping and holding the tip of him.

"Why are you stopping?" he gasped.

"Just wait a little and let the sensation lessen," she said softly.  "Then it will be more intense when you're in me."

They kissed and caressed until Bucky entered her again.  Quickly the intensity increased for both of them and when they came together they cried out loud at the intensity of it.  Bucky laid in Jade for some time, kissing her face and neck still recovering from the emotion it had ignited in him.

"My beautiful Jade," he whispered emotionally, "I would die for you.  If it ever came to that I would lay my life down to save yours."

"Shh, babe," she soothed him.  "Just stay in me, stay with me.  I love you being in me, being part of me."

Eventually he pulled out and lay his head in her arms, just as he had envisioned that day in the workout room.  He never wanted to be anywhere else other than with her.  When he finished the ring he would ask her, and he would commit his life to her, his gem, his Jade.

Chapter 7>>

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