#originally this was gonna be a Very bloody little piece

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

thinking about Eddie & hyacinths again

[cosmicstarlatte]

Your blog and headcanons are living in my brain since i got here, and i just want to say, thank you, i love your work 💕 also, i saw this in other posts (i was in the monster fucker side and end up in the lover side, but im not complaining) about demon relantionship dynamics and i have a question, who of the demons do you think would use an accesory made of something of MC?

TW: blood and hair being used as accesory, demon dynamic being a little disturbing.

Like imagine if with magic MC (safelly) could make jewells with their blood, or in a more victorian way, maybe a bracelet with a lock of their hair. In my mind there would be Satan and Barbatos who have the jewellry always on them but are discret, and then there is Mammon and Asmo who show whatever MC gave them with pride.

Thank you so much anon!!!♡ It's messages like these that keep me motivated, I'm honored!!! 🥰 I hope you don't mind I changed it to just items with blood 😎 I was gonna keep this short originally but ended up getting carried away. This was seriously SO fun to write! I rly think they all would!

Giving Them An Item With Your Blood (Obey Me!)

Tags: Blood, Fluff, Demon Bros, Barb, Dia, GN!Reader, HCs

Lucifer: "Hm? It's from ___."

If someone happens to catch a rare glance at it & are curious enough to ask, he has no problem proudly answering he got the bloody vial necklace from you. He's not shy or ashamed about it, but prefers to keep it between you & him. It usually stays well hidden behind his high collared shirts. Sometimes when he's at home in his office & shirt unbuttoned, he will fidget around with it while doing paperwork. He loves it but won't ever tell you or anyone else how very attached to it he is. ♡

Mammon: "This one!? Not up for betting, scram!"

When isn't Mammon flashy??? The day you gave him the ring filled with some of your blood was basically the day you got married (in his mind) & he went around showing everyone. Of course some of his buddies asked if he'd bet it for a chance at clearing his debt but even that's one bet Mammon refused. He has a ritual of kissing his ring everyday, he thinks of it as his good luck charm even when he's actually having a bad day. He makes you kiss it to add extra luck (love) to it too. ♡

Levi: "I will guard this with my life."

Let's be honest, he doesn't care what it is & would wear/take whatever you give him. Your hairbrush? He will cuddle it.

When you presented him a blood vial bracelet, he got all teary eyed & nearly fainted from excitement. It easily became his most prized possession, he takes such good care of it. He wears it openly & you can see him fidget around with it when he gets anxious. Sometimes he will lightly rub or hold it against his cheek, calming him down when he's overwhelmed. ♡

Satan: "That's what you get for touching things that aren't yours."

His smile was radiant, blinding. Satan's gift is unique just like him & he appreciates the thoughtfulness of a handmade blood infused bookmark. It's one he takes care of & makes sure it doesn't get lost in the mess of his room. He did curse it (you'll get a hand burn) so no one else can touch it except you & him. From time to time he gets distracted by it when reading. He wants to ask if you'll attach a blood charm to the end of it too. ♡

Asmo: "My outfit isn't complete until I put this on!"

He squealed, cried, & wouldn't let you go for the entire day after gifting him the little box of jewelry. He went on to rub it in everyone's faces & showed it off on all his socials. The main gift was a gorgeous charm, the blood swirled, glittering inside. You made sure he could pop the charm into the ring, necklace, or bracelet you also gave him in the box. He was impressed you went to such lengths just so he could always choose how to wear it each day. Even if it was a single piece though, he would've worn it no matter what, even if it "clashed" with his outfit. ♡

Beel & Belphie: "We promise to never take it off." "You promise too ___!"

The twins immediately pulled you into bed & cuddled with you, happily accepting their gifts. You gave each a pendant, a sun for Beel & a moon for Belphie, the middle of each pendant holding your precious red liquid. You even got a star pendant for yourself to match with them although your pendant remained empty; something they noticed quickly. They happily offered up their own blood; they never minded sharing as long as it's with you. ♡♡

Barbatos: "I'm...at a loss for words, thank you."

He kissed your cheek before turning his attention to the golden pocket watch you gave him. He handled it delicately, admiring the ancient designs etched onto it before opening it. It was a gorgeous watch, one of the inner side walls swirled beautifully with your blood. He enjoyed the hidden surprise inside for his eyes only. Truly, he was moved by your gift & made a mental note to give you something in return. ♡

Diavolo: "An absolute treasure this is."

He gave you a tight hug, nearly cutting your air supply off. He's received many gifts throughout the years but the custom pen you gave him was now at the top of the list. Only a see-through compartment of the pen held your blood, floating around. The actual ink inside the pen was regular but refillable for permanent use. He found himself smiling a little more even when filling out the piles of paperwork on his desk. It also finally fixed his habit of losing pens, making sure he always has it on him for quick signing (& Barbatos thanks you for it). ♡

Also I like to think that if they really miss you, they'll hold their object close to their nose to get a whiff of your scent ♡ alakskfgllsskfkg

⬦You might also like: Coffee Shop︱Two A.M.︱Pick-Me-Up

[trutrustories]

STUDY IN LOKI ROMANCE

Part 3: 1893

Since we're only a few days away from the last episode, I decided to COUNT DOWN everything we´ve got so far ( that can be interpreted very easily as romantic ) and discuss what the actual fuck is going on with second season. Because even though I shipped lokius practically from S1E2, I absolutely did NOT expect this kind of development. (Not that I´m complaining)

Warning: This is gonna be LONG post, lots of screenshots, lots of SPOILERS, lot of "oh-my-god-they-so-cute" language, and little bit of meta.

I originally thought that this post would be everything at once, but since I have just too many screenshots this time around, I´ll have to split it. so every post will be one episode. Color coding means:

IIIIIIIIII = anything, that coud potentialy be just acting choice.

IIIIIIIIII = everything else (tzn.: whatever was written, and/or carefully prepared by filmmakers. )

side note: I already wrote, about how amazing it is, that Mobius is unable to fight but fights anyway and how beautifuly, and ridiculously brave he is HERE. But this is about Loki/Mobius interactions, so I´ll try my best not to talk about THAT. (Even when I´m really happy, that s2 continues with this formula and Mobius is still his completely defenseless while aggressively brave self. I love him, btw.)

EPISODE 1 HERE EPISODE 2 HERE

Episode 3, here we go:

22) matching suits part 2 anyone, who work on those costumes: I want to kiss you all!

23) Another exhibition of touches:

the challange name is: "how close we can get, before we sink into each other"

24) "And they lived happily ever after..." They had some lokius fan in the editing room, I´m telling ya! This retro movie style transition... THAT is my roman empire...

like seriously? what is the purpose of this? I can´t wrap my head around it. someone just thought that it is really crucial to end this scene with two of them in a circle. OK.

but WHY?

It was LITTERALY used only once! (I´m sorry, but as someone, who works as an editor, this just driving me crazy 🤒🫠)

25) Loki and Mobius enjoying popcorn:

I have several things to say here:

ever heard about when one person is "forced" to have fun for the first time, and to try new things by the other person, and he´s protesting and is all about work and serious matters, but secretly loves it and is visibly relaxed and happy? - Because I´m sure this is some bloody romantic comedy trope, that everyone have seen about hundred times!

"Oh look, you have a piece of food on the chin, let me just…"

I know I already said this somewhere, but, this is the moment, where in my language suddenly (completely randomly) switched from formal way of speaking to each other to intimate way of speaking to each other. (I´m Czech, btw, and I have no idea, what happened in that recording studio but it had to be interesting)

26) Also... Bickering like married couple (part 3)

27) "You know sometimes I forget, that you are one of them... Blows my mind!"

Mobius being Loki´s fan.

Also yeas. Loki is one of them. God. And Mobius is a small, normal dude. JUST A HUMAN. Analyst, even! And they´re eating popcorn together.... also Loki will do whatever Mobius wishes

28) another "let´s be as close as we physically can" challange

Loki can´t keep only eye on him. he needs hands, because reasons

29) Mobius supporting Loki in using magic...

... or I should say Loki using Magic, whenever Mobius wishes, because...

"Will you handle this please?" "Gently!"

And on top of that... not him, explaining, what just happened, to the public, by: "The amazing Loki, everyone! He´ll be here all week! 🥳🥳🥳"

who the heck asked, Mobius? stop showing off with your magical boyfriend

30) Victor/Ravonna - the most transparent mirror ever:

THIS scene? Are you kidding? Ravonna running towards Victor: "Mr Timley! are you okay? And Mobius running practicly at the same time towards Loki with: You allright?" and both helping their man up on their feet?! IN SYNC! this is too much.

WTF

31) THE BIKE THIS. this is the most GREENLY green point, I can think of. Someone had to have this vision. This idea. And put it in to screenplay. Someone had to find the bike. Someone was shooting this. Camera is moving around them. And they were all like GREAT idea, let´s have them riding tandem bike while chasing Ravonna and Timely, that makes complete sense! (even when we have Loki chasing Brad USING MAGIC one episode back) anyway... ever heard about "let´s do this crazy stupid thing - absolutely not - and then they do the thing" trope?

32) Loki going with Mobius, not even thinking about it anymore.

And to think, that I was expecting something like S01E03 (Lamentis episode)! Once again, I wasn´t prepared for amount of Lokius content I was actually served. What a surprise! 🤯

[bellarkeselection]

Plotting Gossip

Request from @catmikaelson20 klaus is hatching a plot against an enemy, and he is making a plan with some witches, and suddenly, a witch sees klaus's phone wallpaper. He tells her that it's his girlfriend and starts talking about her non-stop.

"So let's run over the plan one more time. We hunt down the witches who are working alongside my mother. Then we torture them and get information and once they are dead we stack their bodies as a message to my future enemies. What are you doing with my phone little witch?" He stopped his explanation seeing Davina was holding his cell phone in her hands. She turned the phone screen towards him showing him a picture of him and Y/n. "Who exactly is this girl. I thought you didn't care about human life because they were too weak." He takes the phone from her hands grinning ear to ear at the picture making his heart flutter. "She's my girlfriend, Y/n. The love of my life. She's my everything."

He kept staring at the phone before sitting down on the couch. He couldn't get enough of seeing his girlfriend and he missed her everyday they weren't together. "Davina she may be human but she is innocent and brings out the good in me. She makes me feel like a better version of myself. Like I can be better with her. She makes me feel human again." He glanced up at the witch seeing her just blankly staring at the original hybrid. "Wow I didn't know you had that in you." She breaths out before the door opened and she saw a young girl with (h/c) enter the room waving to the witch then leaning down and kissing him gently on the lips. "Hi Davina. Hi baby. So how's your plan to stop your mother going. You're not covered in blood yet so that means we still have time for our date." The witch watched her smile still not fully understanding that he was head over heels for someone.

"Of course we can love. I did promise you that you would be my first priority before I take my vengeful mother." My boyfriend Klaus replied twirling some pieces of my hair in between his fingers. Without thinking I wrapped my arms around his neck leaning down pressing my lips onto his. He cradles my face in his hands and I started pulling at his curly locks getting him to moan until Davina cleared her throat blushing at us. "Uh I'm gonna go..." Klaus waved his hand wrapping his arms around my waist making me squeal when he started kissing my neck finding my sweet spot. "Yes little witch leave us. Well tear my enemies apart later." He vamped me upstairs putting my back onto the bed breaking the kiss to remove his shirt and mine. Wrapping my arms around his neck he moaned when my fingers twisted themselves into his curly blonde hair.

"I guess we're skipping dinner tonight for this. I mean not that I'm complaining I'm just suprised." I gasped grinning up at him tracing my fingers over the tattoo on his chest. He moves down running one hand through my hair crashing his lips onto mine. He breaks the kiss staring down at me like I was a goddess or a queen in his eyes. Even though I was a weak human compared to him he sees me as much more than that. "I just can't help myself Y/n. I'm just bloody obsessed with you. You're very being, your smile, laugh, spirit and the way you make me a better hybrid than I used to be-" I cut him off crashing my lips onto his he gasped leaning into kiss until I break it feeling my heartbeat skip a little. "Nik, I love the way you describe everything you love about me but there's far too much talking for the amount of clothes we aren't wearing. So make love to me already please." He smirked nuzzling his nose against mine running his fingers over my hips making me squeal. "What kind of boyfriend would I be if I denied my queen's wishes."

Tags @rosie-posie08 @colbysbrocks

Comments really appreciated ❤️

[colloquialcolors]

gonna write a fucking post about the Winter TLOU section and episode 8 because what ELSE am I supposed to do after witnessing that huh.

As someone very very pleased overall with the adaptation from the game to the show, something I have missed a little is, oddly enough- the hard cuts to black and time jumps after emotionally harrowing sequences or intense moments. After Henry and Sam's deaths. Joel collapsing outside the university. This episode, though, made something about that choice click into place.

For more context- in the game, this section comes immediately after Joel's fall and unconsciousness. The entire section with Riley and Ellie panicking was DLC, meaning the original flow of the story does not provide you with that context, and you might miss it entirely. Instead, the game cuts to black as Joel goes unsconscious with Ellie pleading above him-

and you get the title card. WINTER. It was not winter before. And you are Ellie, hunting. You have been playing this whole game as Joel thus far, and you suddenly, after all that chaos, are Ellie. Hunting in a white blanketed forest. Lighter, quieter, agile and a far cry from the girl yelling, panicked, above Joel.

And this Ellie is capable, at hunting- she already has a rabbit or two, and has just shot another- when she spots the deer, she has some idea of how to track and take it down (hindered mostly by us, the player, adjusting to controlling her). Until the encounter with David, where Ellie asks a little desperately about medicine, you have no inkling on if Joel is even alive, and Ellie being so capable is almost its own negative indicator. As the section wears on, Ellie does a lot more killing in game than she does here- she stabs a nonzero amount of clickers, zombies, and people in the neck during various navigation and escape scenes, shoots the rifle and the bow (miss u bow) with her own kind of proficiency, and reflects many things you have to assume she learned from Joel. The game medium lends itself well to a certain level of capability, of course- even for 14 year olds with bloodied hands.

While the hard cuts to black provide a gut punch I do miss a bit, getting rid of those allows the show to fill in some gaps- especially about these characters in their weak moments, low moments, after the dust has settled and they need to pick themselves up again. It does a lot in humanizing them. Shows them rattled and uncertain and shaken and mourning, instead of dropping us back in after they've picked back up their broken pieces, given the dignity of speculation.

Ellie, especially, is more scared here- more uncertain, more shaky, playacting as Joel rather than successfully emulating him. There is no hard cut where we get to assume Ellie has scraped things together and settled in it. We see her fear, playing out, see her desperation firsthand, before she even sets back out. She is so young. She was young, in the game too, but it is driven home in new and more intense ways, here. She is so profoundly out of her depth.

The uncertainty makes these same victories hit harder, too. Ellie, terrified and horrified and angry, sassing back. Ellie with realization and fear dawning- making the play for the keys, snapping his finger. "Tell them Ellie is the little girl who broke your fucking finger." Ellie, telling him- I'm infected, and now you are too. So many of these lines and scenes are almost verbatim, but it lands differently, with this different context, with an Ellie who is much less sure but still so lethal.

Less, and more. David's entire Fucking Pedophile Shit deal was much less prominent, in game. The overtness of it made things so much worse. So much scarier. Bella's delivery of Ellie's yells and reactions carry an edge of panic, of fear, of raw emotion, brings a scene that was always at 150% up to 300%, until Ellie, screaming, swinging down the knife is an almost physical, visceral catharsis.

In the game, Joel finds here there- pulls her off, pulls her into a hug after she fights him for a moment, the music swelling to give their words to each other privacy as they lock gazes and speak. Here- Ellie pulls herself back to reality. She finishes her catharsis. She realizes, on her own, face spattered with blood, what she's done. She stumbles from the smoke to the clean outside under her own power, on her own.

When Joel grabs her- she fights, there is such audible rage and horror and fear, and it hurts more, it cuts deeper, understanding that fear, the depth of it. Before he spins her around, and the comfort scene is only half a minute longer, but there is so much more to it- more that led up to it, and more in the moment, of Ellie's gaze going from panicked to unbelieving to weak with relief to something heavier.

So few cut aways in the show. no dignity of a timeskip and implied fractures, just bleeding characters, holding onto each other in the snow.

[krillissue]

Mouse Masterlist:

all of my original works on ao3

*now including trisona nonsence!

“Honey Don’t Feed It” link

“Wolfwood was no stranger to flirting with death but this was pushing even his bad luck. He had no idea just what manner of creature perched hungrily in his church. He couldn’t have known just how starving this vampire was.”

❣️Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood/Original Female Character(s)

❣️Vampire Vash AU, Modernish AU (~80s-90s vibe)

❣️Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending

❣️In progress, 21/22 - 102,893 words

"In Sanguine, Veritas " link

Vash finds himself in an abandoned church just trying to get out of the rain. What he doesn't expect is the starving occupant waiting for him. Vampire Wolfwood and Angel Vash for this one.

*This one-shot has become a whole thing, now

🩸Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood

🩸Vampire Au, Modern Au

🩸Bloody make outs in a church, Wolfwood bastardizing prayers, Religious Imagery and all that jazz

🩸In progress 2/5, 12,820 words

“Kill Me With A Smile” link

Flower Shop/Tattoo Parlor AU, Wolfwood meets a very cute tattoo artist from the shop next door and immediately makes a fool of himself.

🌱 Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Background Meryl Stryfe/Milly Thompson, Vash the Stampede & Millions Knives

🌱 Flower Shop Employee Wolfwood/Tattoo Artist Vash

🌱 Getting Together, Friends with Benefits, Sick Fic, Gratuitous Flirting

🌱 Complete, 4/4 - 43,083 words

"Ink & Roses Epilogue" link

A continuation of my Flower Shop/Tattoo Parlor AU

Chapter 1 is Wolfwood meeting Vash's parents and learning more about his past. Chapter 2 is Vash meeting Wolfwood's family and endless fluff.

I have three chapters planned for this so keep an eye out for the updates!!

🌸 Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D Wolfwood, Vash the Stampede & Millions Knives

🌸 Flower Shop/Tattoo Parlor AU, Epilogue

🌸 Domestic Fluff, Meeting the Parents, Wolfwood finally gets to top

🌸 In progress 2/3, 18,535 words

“Got You Pegged” link

Remember that Merylwood pegging I promised?? Well, it’s finally here!! Eat up, my lovelies ❤️ This will eventually be polygun and a rockband au but for now it’s just pwp

🎸 Meryl Stryfe/Nicholas D Wolfwood

🎸 Modern AU, Rockband AU

🎸 Pegging, Eventual Polygun, Wolfwood cries and is called “puppy”, Wolfwood Eats Pussy Like A Champ

🎸 Complete 1/1, 7,607 words

"True Friends" link

More Rockband AU with no band. I promise it's gonna start soon!! This one is Vashwood and emotional so I'm sorry. You don't have to read "Got You Pegged" to follow what little plot there is.

🎸Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D Wolfwood

🎸Modern AU, Rockband AU

🎸Crying during sex, Emotional Sex, Reunions, Cridgefail Loser Sex

🎸Complete 1/1, 8,012 words

“All Tied Up” link

What happens when a bounty hunter finally catches up to the legendary outlaw worth $$60,000,000,000? Wolfwood pretends to be a little mean and Vash pretends he isn’t super into it. (Mostly ‘98/Badlands Inspired)

*Now with a Part 2!! It features Bottom Wolfwood and religious imagery bondage.

⭐️ Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D. Wolfwood

⭐️ Cowboy/Western AU, Bounty Hunter Wolfwood, Outlaw Vash, (Angel Vash)

⭐️ Established Relationship, Porn Without Plot, Light Bondage, Roleplay, Switching

⭐️ Complete, 2/2 - 14,080 words

"Angel of Small Death" link

More gay cowboy bondage! This time Crimsonfang!! They are exes amd Elendira is technically a Nephilim. This exists in the same Au as "All Tied Up" but you don't have to read it. There's so little plot.

🐴Elendira the Crimsonnail/Livio the Double Fang

🐴Western Au, Big Buff Cowboy Livio, Nephilim Elendira

🐴Exes, Bondage, Handjobs

🐴Complete 1/1, 3,548 words

“Sour Note” link

D&D/Trigun crossover! Vash has a habit of getting himself into trouble no matter the universe but luckily he has Wolfwood to bail him out. Just a cute piece of fluff (mixed with some angst but it ends happy) Vash POV

*Now with a chapter 2 from Wolfwood’s POV and some awkward first time sex!

🎶 Vash the Stampede/Nicholas D Wolfwood, Background Meryl and Milly

🎶 Aasimar Bard Vash/Human Paladin Wolfwood

🎶 Meet-cute, First Kiss, Angst with a Happy Ending (a little)

🎶 Complete, 2/2 - 13,745 words

"Forbidden Fruit" link - ao3

My first reader insert fic! It's a double vampire sandwich with Vampwood and Vashpire! I originally posted it here on Tumblr and I'm only just now brave enough to post it to Ao3 too.

❌ Vash the Stampede/Reader (Masc)/Nicholas D Wolfwood

❌ Vampire Au, Bar Hookup, Herding dog/Lamb/Wolf dynamic

❌ Blood drinking, Makeouts, Implied Handjob

❌ Complete 1/1, 4,088 words

August Nash Pt 1

August Nash Pt 2

Lazarus "Coyote" Nashville Pt 1

[onbeinganangel]

artists self rec! when you get this, reply with your favourite five arts/sets/edits/gifs that you've done, then pass on to at least five other people. time to shine and spread some self-love and appreciation 🥰 <3

omg sia, hi!!! it feels so special to get this question from you, the very first person i ever chatted to when i first fell into the drarry rabbit hole 💛💛💛

i’ve not embroidered fic recs in a while (though i have just finished a GORGEOUS commission i can share soon!!) but i think about it a lot. so this is gonna be a bit of little end of the year introspective look at my work. here are my favourite five embroidery projects i’ve done:

fic rec for almost heaven by M0stlyVoid

(original post here) — i just love how this one came out! i love the simplicity of the hands and the wee plait that i made! i fucked up my entire back doing this in 6 hours because i’m a mess but i still think it was totally worth it. this is also responsible for my obsession with embroidering hands (may it live forever) so, again, totally worth it!!

fic rec for Running on Air by eleventy7

(original post here) — this fic will never not be special. these were a lot of work but they remind me of a very special summer and autumn of sitting in the park embroidering and i love that they’re a set of two, with the iconic landscapes. i just love how they are different but complement each other! it makes me think i’d love to make more matching sets actually 👀

3. fic rec for Who we are in the shadows by Quicksilvermaid

(original post here) — i think i love this one specifically because of how experimental it is. i love the gauzy base fabric, the cotton wool, the textured moon. i keep meaning to play with fabric more and haven’t done it as much as i wish, but i really enjoy looking at all the textures in this one

fic rec for Among Ancient Pines by Theartfulldodger

(original post here) — talk about texture!! this was one of those that took AGES and a lot of patience to keep going and going and going with the same bloody stitch. a lot of textile art is trusting the process, and this one put me through it a bit. i love the end result so much though! it's so colourful and bright and i love that i even made the wee trees at the bottom work, which was terrifying after spending so many hours on the base layer haha

fic rec for The Last of What the World Left You by xanthippe74

(original post here) — i mean, look at this wee fella, how could i not love him to death 🥺 i LOVE filling in colour with long and short stitch. satin stitch is satisfying but i just love the depth and dimension long and short stitch give pieces. until this piece though, i'd never dared do it in darker colours! i think it takes a lot more finesse and you can lose a lot of detail with the darker thread. i took a chance because i really, REALLY wanted to embroider HIM specifically for xanthippe's fic, and the effort absolutely paid off. i am no longer scared of darker colours and he makes me smile every time i see him

this got super long to no one's surprise but it was a pleasure to look at these! i think i tend to overanalyse (and worry over) my writing a lot more than i do my embroidery so this was really fun! thank you again <3

[plothooksinc]

For the writing ask meme - 1, 7, 17? :3

Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

...I have never given thought to this before. 8|a But let's face it, I am firmly in the hurt/comfort bracket, with plenty of hurt, no damsels if I can manage it (sorry Leo all your bones were broken before I got to you!) and badassery with a side of humour, followed by plenty of comfort. This is the sort of thing I really enjoy writing, but I also want to make sure every fic I write is different. So some fics won't fit this mold at all, but you'll definitely get elements of it on the way through. ♥

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

FLYNNE COMING AT ME WITH THE HARD STUFF UHHH--

okay, so. In most fics I write there's parts that I'm proud of. So the most recent one-- that I look at and go "shit, I actually pulled that off"-- would be in Chapter 14 of NRFTW when Donnie gets hijacked thoroughly by the Technodrome and is trying very hard to sever himself away from the horror that is more or less being turned into a pile of bloody spaghetti--he forgets himself. Tiny spark inside his own mind just noping out, until Raph forces his way in and goes no. (This is long and I can't get the Read More to work, so I apologise):

---------

<<intruder alert>>

<<mystic anomaly detec--*(&$#$---|||>>

Shut up.

The darkness split in half, awash with blinding light, and it stared uncomprehending at the (light?  familiar?  what was--)

it hurt

but it wanted—

reached for it before it thought better, sadness

lost

(what is colour?)

There you are.

who—

light—

(Red.  It’s red.)

C’mon, you know who I am.  You’ve never been stupid, Donnie.

who?

You.   Here—

The light reached out and touched it.  It saw:

A green, lanky (host)(familiar?) tapping away at (spare parts), talking almost too fast, his (fuel) staring back at him in confusion. 

“--Looks like we have a 317-39.4 in progress.  Oh, come on.  Has nobody read Donnie's big book of bad guy codes?  Nobody?”

“Nope.”

“Never gonna happen--”

oh

Yeah, ‘oh’.  Come back to me—

I’m Donnie?

Oh, bud…

--------

There is too much of this chapter to include as a snippet, so this is a smaller part-- both Donnie's descent into semi-madness and depersonalisation and his mangled thought processes that are overlaid with the Technodrome's to the point you can't separate one from the other that happens just before this piece, where Raph slams his way into what's left of Donnie's mind space and gives him the anchor he desperately needs, and the prose shifts from abstract to a little more formed to Donnie being an it to being a he to being Donnie and then finally them holding a conversation in normal formatting. This whole section? Was not in my original outline for NRFTW. Donnie's attempt to find a cure was gonna be largely offscreen and I thought, nah. That's boring. That's anti-climactic. And then one day I pinged my beta and said "So hey what if I did this" and she screamed at me and we had a winner.

Me: Well, this sure is some weird shit I've never tried to write in my life Me: I have no idea how to do this Me: I'LL WING IT

And the whole thing about writing is: even if you think you probably can't do it, you can still approach it with the philosophy of fake it until you make it and then you might find, actually, that you can. And so this was a section I got to the end of and went "Shit. I did that." And I was so nervous about it, but it turned out brilliantly, and so I now I go back and I look at it and went "Fuck yes, I did that," so I'm proud of it.

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Start to finish! The only time I haven't done this is with my original stuff, in which I've bounced around a few times in order to get the worldbuilding correct in a place before I actually go there. I find start to finish is good because that way I can easily change direction as I go, or seed things in to have them bear fruit later in an organic kind of way, and half the time I subconsciously add little side bits that I realise later I can totally do something awesome with, etc etc. Sometimes I write stories that start halfway through the story and then we have chapters/flashbacks of "and here's how we got there" but that's still start to finish, just the chronology of the story itself jumps around. This works for me. Other ways work for other people!

Thank you! <3

Meme for Fic Writers here.

[moongothic]

MCM Shelf Saga

Part 4 - A Shitshow of a Finale

[Part 3]

So, onto the drawers. First, there's a little bit of prep work to do

One of the drawers had not just bad stains on the bottom of it, but the bottom piece had never even been properly inserted into its place. So I did the good ol' trick of removing the whole bottom piece, flipping it around (to use the untouched bottom side as the top) and put it back in its place, this time all the way into the little slot

Worked great

And then I had to deal with the veneer damage I had caused to one of the drawer fronts

Since this was my first time even attempting veneer patching, I figured I should just try to focus on the worst bits of damage instead of trying to address all the damage? Because I was worried I'd just make it worse, so it'd be better to start small?

So I picked the worst parts and very carefully made made the worst chips bigger so I could cut out itty bitty veneer bits to fill them in with (there were a few more but I don't want this post to be a million photos long)

Once I had made sure the pieces would fit in by caaarefully filing them down to the right size, I glued them down, put some painters tape on top (to try to keep the glue from spreading), left something heavy sitting on top and just left them to dry

Once done, I came back to sand down the patches (since the veneer I had was a bit thicker than the original veneer)

And. Yeah. It's not great. Mind you, unlike in North America, I can't just go to a big store and buy whatever veneer my heart desires, the only veneer I could buy (as far as I know) was a set of three different veneer sheets the size of paper sheets. So I didn't have much options with matching the veneer at all. That all aside, it was my first attempt at veneer patching, and considdering that I think I did pretty decent. If anything I regret just not doing all the damaged spots because some of the dents are really bad even if they didn't go through the original veneer

But it is what it is

I decided it was good enough, and proceeded to tape the sides of the drawers for a cleaner(?) finish

And onto the staining

Still looks like shit

I think this was after the first coat??? Honestly it's been so long I can't remember, it must've been just the first coat

But, I kept on building up coats to get a darker and darker color on the drawer fronts

Once I figured it was dark enough I moved onto staining the veneer on the inside of the drawers, mainly in the hopes of hiding the paint stains that the paint remover and sanding failed to remove

It did not work

Fortunately, it's on the inside, ain't nobody gonna see it, it's fine, whatever, this project was going so fucking bad at this point I no longer cared

This was good enough

And it was onto staining the main unit.

Now unfortunately, due the place I was working in being so bloody cramped I couldn't get decent photos of the unit during the waxing process

I did attempt to make the inside of the unit look semi-decent by masking off where I wanted the wax to go, but... This ended up not working to my advantage, as I had taped just a smidge too close to the edges, meaning when I later put the drawers in, you could see small slivers of the raw wood peek out. So I ended up having to do lots of patching on the drawer-side of the unit. But whatever

Think these are photos of the first coat? As usual, looked like absolute shite

But I kept on going, building up more and more layers of wax until I eventually gave up and called it done

But, with the main unit stained, it meant that every piece of the shelf was finished! I could move onto reassembling it!

After some final touches

First, I had to deal with the brass rods that were used to hold up the shelves

Now at first I couldn't even tell for sure if they were brass or not, like considderng the age of the shelf I figured they should be, but when I asked my dad for a second opinion he was convinced they'd be just iron or steel

Regardless, these were original pieces to the shelf so I did want to use them, but as you can see, they were still covered in paint

I attempted removing them with just nail polish remover, since acetone does remove many types of paint, but it wasn't quite as effective as I was hoping it'd be. I also checked online if acetone could damage metals and it could actually stain/damage brass??? So I figured I'd try something else

Some people suggest using boiling water and baking soda to remove paint from metal, and this should be a safe option with brass (if the rods were brass). So I boiled some water, picked a big enough bowl that could handle hot water, put the rods in the bowl, sprinkled a healthy dose of baking sode on top, gently poured the water, sprinkled a bit more baking soda on top, and then left foil over the bowl to try to keep the dish warm for a longer time

And then I just let it sit for almost two hours

After which, I came back and gently rubbed the rods with a sponge and to my pleasant surprise, the paint residue did just slide off with a little effort

So the paint was removed, and the rods were already looking a bit shinier!

Now, I don't know what kind of a trick of light this was, but genuinely, in person at this point the cleanest, shiniest parts of the rods were looking like silver. I was becoming convinced that dad had been right and the rods were actually steel or something, and I had no idea if I could get them to look clean

But to my confusion, my dad was the one who was now convinced that the rods must be brass

I dunno, I was confused, but I figured, I have my brass polish stuff, I could TRY polishing the rods with them and see if they clean up.

They did

Immidiately proving that they were brass

So I just proceeded to polish the rods!

Shiny! Sparkly! I didn't clean them up as well as one could have, but they turned out plenty clean enough, nobody is going to see whatever staining remains on them

But with that done, it was time for assembling!

After getting some missing pieces!

See, when dad helped me disassemble the shelf on our patio, one of the tiny brass dowels that were also used to hold up the shelves had fallen off and under our patio. So that one was a lost cause and needed to be replaced. There was no way to replace it with brass and tbh it was going to be quite hidden anyways, so I asked my dad if he could get a small steel dowel to do the job. And he did, so that was one thing

The other, more important thing was the screws/bolts/nuts/whatever

See the sidepieces of the whole piece were originally attached to the sides of the main unit with bolts, but the right side ones had sunken in so deep into the wood, that the only way to detach the right sidepiece from the unit was by cutting the bolt off. So we were lacking half the hardware for the shelf

So we went and bought new ones, brought the whole thing up to my room and assembled it here. And all was good

Until I realized the top and bottom drawers couldn't go into the unit, because the bolts/nuts were much bigger than the original ones, so they stuck out too much and stopped the drawers from sliding in

Which was a problem

Now dad was able to cut down the ends of the bolts to make them shorter, but the nut was still a problem

But I looked at the sides of the drawers

And the top and bottom drawers both had channels on them right where they would've rubbed against the original nuts

I just had to make the channel bigger

Now the top drawer wasn't even that bad since the nut was at the back of the unit, so the channel I had to carve for it was only like 3 cm long or something

But it still sucked, because the only way I could do it was with a knife. It took hours. And it hurt my wrists so bad

But I managed to get the top drawer done, I could do it with the bottom too. It just had to go all the way across the side of the drawer.

Carving that shit out took me like 5 hours. I can not put into words how bad it hurt my wrists. Genuinely, so painful.

But I got it done.

Now there were a few other things that I didn't bother documenting but I want to note because I had to do those before this project was completed. First, when we brought the main unit to my room the side of it did get a scratch that I had to spend a few days patching. In hindsight I probably would've been fine if I had just brushed some wax over it, but I thought it'd turn out better if I sanded the scratched area first and then waxed it. It ended up being a lot more work than I wanted to, but it got done eventually. Also, as I mentioned before, I had to patch those small parts on the inside of the unit to make sure there wasn't raw wood peeking out from places I didn't want them to show (around the drawers). And, hilariously, the brass rods used to hang the shelves didn't actually want to fit into the holes of the sidepieces. Like I tried even hammering them in and they just did not fit, so I had to file down the specific holes I wanted to use until they were big enough that I could put the rods in and put up the shelves Last but not least, I used some candlewax on the groove of the sliding door and the sides of the drawers to make them slide smoother (worked great, easiest part of the project)

And I want to note that there's some things I could still do to this piece. I could get some fabric or felt to protect the insides of the drawers so they don't get dirty, and I really should get some clear wax or topcoat to patch the finish on the inside of the main unit (when I had to sand down the paint and revealed raw wood). But if I want to do either of these things, I can do them later. For now, this shelf is completed

It looks like shit

An absolute fucking shitshow

Complete and utter trainwreck

The brass turned out nice tho

Moral of the story: Never use any wood product that isn't Osmo ever again. Osmo would not have failed me like this. And I'd still argue it's better than how it started.

Thanks for coming along with me on this trainwreck

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

[hklnvgl]

(tagged by the lovely @ailec-12 ✨)

I posted 1,471 times in 2022

48 posts created (3%)

1,423 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@flitwickslittlebrotha

@charactershoesfic

@werewolffeelings

@bloody-wonder

@grrrrrr-argh

I tagged 884 of my posts in 2022

Only 40% of my posts had no tags

#trc - 243 posts

#tdt - 206 posts

#mdzs - 111 posts

#pynch - 79 posts

#d - 54 posts

#aftg - 32 posts

#greywaren spoilers - 32 posts

#fic - 17 posts

#greywaren - 15 posts

#ask - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i also want to check the country of others by leïla slamani out from my library so whenever i do that i'm pushing it to the top of my list

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Rules: List the first lines of the last ten (10) stories you published. Look to see any patterns you notice yourself, and see if anyone else notices any. Then tag some friends.

i was tagged by both @flitwickslittlebrotha and @kelliealtogether thanks!!! 💕

the real hawk: Ronan knocked, and then knocked again with more force.

est quaedam flere voluptas: On some hidden level, Adam wanted to be the kind of person to effortlessly enjoy parties.

Yiling’s apples: There were plenty of homeless people in Yiling.

overflowing: Sirius regretted many things.

little dolls for sale: It wasn’t the first time Ronan had thought about it.

enormous are the groves: Adam poured himself out of his car, barely pausing to close the door after him.

into silence: It was Blue, Gansey and Henry’s fourth going-away party.

the plum tree flower: Adam inhaled deeply when he got the door open.

arm as a pillow: Declan didn’t technically live with Jordan.

stars parting: The nightmare wasn’t special.

all in all i'm pretty happy with these first lines! so much that some of them doubled as summaries 🙃 i'm not sure who's been tagged already so i'm just gonna tag @of-stars-and-moon @ailec-12 @parakeatswrites and you guys can ignore me if you've done it already 💛

10 notes - Posted February 21, 2022

#4

ages ago (i'm super late sorry 🙃) @andrea-lyn tagged me to do this! 💛 (thank you lovely!!)

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2021. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

when the world is one color (pynch, 2k). so this is the first of the many one shots i managed to write and post last year and i'm very happy with how it turned out! aka how to combat being cold with hugs (missing scene, post-trk, pre-epilogue)

but for their voices (pynch, 5k). this was very exciting to write bc it was fun to explore adam's thought process in this cdth-inspired au. aka adam is not unkowable if you stare at him long enough (different meeting au, college)

a persimmon (pynch, 1k). oh dear i struggled so hard to finish this little piece bc there were many different things i wanted to include, but i'm quite happy with the result! aka adam panics bc he's horny (missing scene during ch. 39 of trk)

the puppeteer (pynch, 3k). i made myself cry while writing this one. aka once upon a dream (sickfic, mi-adjacent)

yiling’s apples (mdzs, 2k). i've fallen hard for their story so i had to write something for it. aka why does everything important happen in yiling (pov outsider, gen)

tagging @ailec-12 @of-stars-and-moon @cheeeryos @behindtheatlantic @parrished @catboyadamparrish @flightspathfic @kelliealtogether @parakeatswrites 💛💛

12 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

#3

back in march (😅😅) the lovely @ailec-12 tagged me in this game! i'm super late but 🤷‍♀️

rules: tag 9 people you would like to know/catch up with

Last Song: can't remember as usual 🙃

Last TV Show: twenty-five twenty-one (yes it's destroyed me thanks! 🥺)

Currently Watching: crash landing on you (it's a rewatch!)

Currently Reading: you are not like other mothers by angelika schrobsdorff and i'm listening to beloved by toni morrison's audiobook

tagging @ive-garden @creativefiend19 @kelliealtogether @of-stars-and-moon @parrished @sleepy-skittles @purgatorybfs @catboynecromancy @cheeeryos 💛

12 notes - Posted August 3, 2022

#2

Describe yourself with ONLY pictures you have! You cannot download or search new pictures.

i was tagged by @parakeatswrites @kelliealtogether and @behindtheatlantic 💕💕💕

See the full post

13 notes - Posted August 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

writing prompts 💖

it's been a hot minute since i last opened prompts and i don't really have lots of time in my hands to write but i think having little things to serve as inspiration is exactly what i need to get back to my usual writing rythm! so. please send me a pairing and a prompt and i'll write a little one-shot 💕 (i'm mainly in the mood for writing pynch and wangxian but if you wished to see any other pairing just send it my way and i'll see if i can write something for it!)

thanks @ailec-12 for helping me compile this lovely list of prompts! 💛

50 Angsty Questions Prompt List

more questions

dialogue ideas

kiss prompts

more kisses

100 dialogue prompts

bad things happen bingo

minifics

anon asks are of course welcome as well! 🥰 thank you!

14 notes - Posted August 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Hellsing Commentary 1 Notes

This commentary is done by Taliesin Jaffe, the voice director and script adapter of Hellsing, and Crispin Freeman, the voice of Alucard. Direct quotes may vary in accuracy, as these are written down from audio without transcripts. I also didn't write down every joke or piece of trivia because I feel like people who watch the commentaries should get to have some nice surprises for stuff that isn't covered here.

-Taliesin jokes that Hellsing Ultimate is very Hammer-film/horror-film and should have a smell-o-vision. "Scratch and sniff a little red dot every time someone dies, oohhh it smells of dead meat."

-Both Taliesin and Crispin pause mid-conversation to approvingly mention how Integra's younger VA "gets shot well" when she screams.

-The reason Taliesin took the job directing the dub in the first place was because he was a big fan of the manga.

-Taliesin is very pleased with Ultimate's title card because "if you're gonna quote the Ripley Scroll, you're gonna do it right." He has also seen Fullmetal Alchemist at some point.

-Taliesin owns occult books, including (possibly) a fifth printing of Dracula, and the first time they dubbed Hellsing, Taliesin read "every vampire book I could get my hands on" to get a feel for the theme and idea of the series, "looking into the origins of the story and what the creators originally were thinking about..."

-Crispin repeatedly states that he could listen to Integra's VA all day long. "I don't have to do a whole lot of acting when she orders me around, I just sort of respond to her voice and do whatever she says." (Ending in a giggling laugh)

-Taliesin acknowledges that the theme, concept, and structure of Ultimate are all very different from the TV series. The original anime was trying to be a very serious horror film in which everything was taken very seriously, whereas with Ultimate they eased up and interjected more humor.

-Crispin also adds that he could listen to JB Blanc (Maxwell/the Cheddar vampire's VA) all day as well.

-Taliesin likes to annoy his British friends (including JB Blanc) by saying incredibly British words in the thickest American accent he can manage, i.e. bloody hell, scones, clotted cream, bugger, etc.

-JB's performance for the Cheddar vampire was "camped up" significantly and turned into a "mustache-twirling villain" for Ultimate.

-Crispin wants Alucard's glowing sunglasses.

-Crispin and Taliesin joke that Alucard's cravat is the source of his power, since everything else goes (glasses, coat, hat) when he's been shot to pieces but the cravat always stays.

-Hirano has met with Taliesin Jaffe on multiple occasions and been "very nice and deeply apologetic" about various issues. He was also incredulous that Talisen translated some of the symbols involved in the series. "'You actually deciphered that thing? Oh good god, what's wrong with you?! You're not supposed to do that. Stop!'"

-Apparently OVA 1 was recorded in a day and the production as a whole was only five days.

-When the cast came back to do Hellsing Ultimate, Crispin had to make sure that he did not just repeat what he did four years prior. His prior experience with the TV series was useful to get into the character's head/mindset, but Ultimate was an entirely different take. The original TV series was very serious and wanted to be taken seriously, but Ultimate had many campy elements to it. Crispin thus had to stay in the moment with Ultimate and not bring back his performance from the original anime, as it wouldn't fit. ("Same texture, new architecture.")

-Taliesin states that he likes the relationship Seras and Alucard have in Ultimate a lot better than their relationship in the TV series and "the sexual tension has been cut down between the two of you. We've matched you properly against Integra now, where it should be."

-Taliesin has apparently read Hellsing fanfiction on Livejournal and knows "far more about the personal lives of all these characters than I ever wanted to know."

-Taliesin played the male vampire during Seras and Alucard's first mission.

-Crispin noted that Alucard is doing "the same cross thing with my arms that Anderson does, but in the opposite direction on the opposite side of the body." Alucard does it up and to the left and Anderson does it down and to the right.

-Japanese anime apparently tend to have poor gunshot sounds and every engineer Taliesin has ever worked with has gone "we're going to a shooting range with a microphone, this is pathetic." He also knows someone out in Texas who bought an old broken-down Chevy truck and was planning to take it out and shoot it to pieces for audio clips with some specialized equipment so he could get the gunshot sound, the passing sound, the impact sound, etc. for use in anime

-Apparently Taliesin took a lot of cues from Doctor Who in scripting Hellsing.

-Seras's accent was simplified in Ultimate because Taliesin learned his lesson not to be too complicated. In the original anime, it was supposed to be "this fake posh" accent from an ultra low-class girl faking it to fit in with the rest of Hellsing, which Crispin teases Taliesin for. In Ultimate they apparently gave her a "South London roll," which is "simple and easy and uncomplicated."

-Crispin loves how Anderson is "really dangerous" in Ultimate and "could actually cause me many problems" in ways that Crispin never got a sense of in the TV series. He was an obstacle to Alucard, but in Ultimate he is "a threat on a level that Alucard wasn't expecting." Taliesin jumps in at this point and comments how in the manga (and Ultimate) they made him into a polar energy for Alucard, and Anderson is a "chaotic force of order coming in to homogenize and to destroy all that does not -that conflicts with this very narrow worldview that he holds. And it's sort of his mission in life, is to sanitize and, and homogenize –and then you have Alucard, who's this very…the very forces of chaos unbound on earth, and his power manifests as wild multiple-eyed dogs and Cthulhu creatures and shadow power and gnashing teeth of hell, and it's very…it's very much about a loss of control. And his whole character's powers comes from this place of a loss of control, which is almost where he goes every time he has to push a little farther, is how much control can he lose?" He says that this creates a very good archvillain/archrival relationship and continues on to say that "They agree on nothing past the fact that they want less people to be eaten by vampires."

-Crispin makes fun about how they must be pulling their ammunition from the fourth dimension, since neither he nor Seras switch clips that often. While joking about the guns, Taliesin mentions how Schrodinger will show up in the future and Crispin innocently asks if he has a cat.

-Crispin later jokes about how he dresses "nice and fresh and English-patient-y" at cons and it surprises a lot of people. He also apparently had an Alucard costume for Anime Expo/Comic Con in San Diego, and nobody believed he was the official voice actor.

-Crispin asks why Taliesin thinks Hellsing is as popular as it is/was, and after some thought Taliesin tentatively answers that "Every generation has its vampire myth. The vampire myth is one of those wonderful myths that constantly reinvents itself -every ten-fifteen years, it makes itself relevant somehow…What it is that attracts people in this decade to vampires is this chaos and control, and the uh…the fun of it, I'm not quite sure, I-I can't quite peg it. Its funny, considering that I sit and do nothing but sit and think of ways to express it better all the time for the show." He notes later in the commentary that "This was the first conversation we had when we first started working on this years ago. Vampires are about sex. Sigmund Freud wrote a wonderful article way back in the day, back in the 19th century, about vampires as metaphors for sexual frustration and how they play out."

-On the topic of chaos and control, Taliesin comments that Alucard and Anderson also mirror each other in a very yin-yang sense, with Alucard tending to be more controlled with himself and Anderson tending to be "a little bit more all over the place" when he fights. Alucard's ideology is also all over the place, whereas Anderson's is straight, and "Anderson's power comes from these very fine silver blades and his bible while Alucard's comes from the depths of Cthulhu and these creatures before language."

-Taliesin apologizes for anyone who was hoping for Anderson to be Italian (or German). He says that "there's an actual process to this," and he looked up if there had ever been an actual Father Alexander Anderson. There have been several, apparently, one of whom was Scottish, and one of whom actually worked on the creation of the Eusebian canon, which were the papers Anderson was using for barriers/wards in the original TV series. (He apparently uses "the whole bible now" in Ultimate.) The pages of the Eusebian canon are also apparently now 200 dollars a pop, and antique dealers get "a little worried" when they think someone is buying a 400-year-old illuminated manuscript because of a cartoon.

-Taliesin notes that Integra not only has a classic Templar sword hilt, but she is actually a Grand High Arc, and that this may (he also notes that this is him "just making excuses for the manga" and not canon) be why she is Sir and not Dame, as the Templars apparently do not have female Grand High Arcs. "They're Freemasons, they don't do that sort of thing. So she's a Sir Hellsing, 'cause she's gotta be. They made her a male knight so she could take over the family properly."

-Integra is "a bit more amused" in Ultimate, and Taliesin once again adds that the biggest change in Ultimate was that all of the characters have more humor and "Everybody says everything with just a slight grin."

-Taliesin apparently has pages and pages of research notes that really helped for the first series but were almost useless for Ultimate because all the characters were coming from such a new place. Anderson is much more sedate, Walter is less of a smart ass (so far), and Alucard is also extremely different. Crispin's revelation on this specifically came while they were recording the scene where Integra asks Alucard why he turned Seras into a vampire, wherein Crispin apparently stopped and said "This is very odd." to Taliesin.

-When they first started recording the original series, Taliesin asked Crispin what he thought Alucard was about, and Crispin stated "He's bored. He's incredibly powerful, he's this aristocrat surrounded by…plebs, there's no one his equal. And all he's spoiling for is a good fight, 'cause then he won't be bored. Um…and in the TV series his way of avoiding boredom is viciousness and attacking and everything else, and here there's this side of saying 'Maybe I won't be bored if I have a plaything.' Which is really interesting, suddenly there's this sort of humorous, playful side to Alucard, and I thought 'This is odd, I don't remember doing anything like this before. Wow, he's really gonna mess with people.'"

-Crispin's grad school teacher was Romanian and since he became very good at doing a Romanian accent, it was considered at one point that Alucard would have a Romanian accent continuously (as opposed to only when he is in his Level Zero form). Crispin then proceeds to say several of Alucard's lines in that accent.

-At the end of the credits Crispin asks "Who's the girl with the fez?" about Girlycard, to which Taliesin quietly replies "We'll get into that soon."

[nudgeling]

Was originally not gonna show any of this until I was finished, but I got impatient so here's a snippet of a Pearl fic I'm working on. Content warnings in tags.

~~~

We close in on a clearing in the woods. It’s a location that’s been important since the very beginning of the game. It's where the players were first welcomed onto the stage, and now, where the last ones have departed from it.

The place has gone through many changes throughout its stay, now almost unrecognizable from its original shape and form. We recall its earliest memory; when the area was green and lush, with a rich oak forest surrounding the spherical glade which was centered to the direct gaze of the midday sun. The players were greeted into the world with bird song and soothing wind underneath a sun that was warm but never burning. It was beautiful. First impressions are everything, after all, and no other place in the arena required such a well-calculated environment as this one. 

As such, We are far from unfamiliar with the space we’re now approaching to observe. However, something very significant has happened to it during the last four seconds; something which has turned our carefully constructed scenery into a twisted mirage of itself, like a gravely mutilated corpse only We can identify. The change warrants not only a second look, but another overview from ground zero as if we were analyzing it with fresh minds. We open our many eyes.

Most importantly, a black crater remains where the player Scott once stood. Pieces of his flesh lay scattered around the premise, some more than a hundred meters away from their point of origin. The smell and sting of smoke lingers in the air and seeps into the earth for a long time to come like an invasive species. Just as intrusive is the white ringing noise that imbeds itself inside the ears of the many unfortunate wolves who stood witness. It screeches inside of their heads despite their futile attempts at scratching it out with their paws. From above, the whole place looks oddly like a red star.

After a minute of groveling and enduring the steadily receding noise, the cubs are the first ones to move. They’ve picked up the scent of fresh meat, and now little else matters. They stalk towards the free food spread out in the grass, looking towards it and their mothers to silently ask for permission. They are not unaware of the weighing silence of finality, but it’s easily trumped by the allure of meat, and a rumbling stomach. The mother wolves don’t say anything, their attention lies elsewhere, which the cubs take as a “yes” in the absence of a “no”. One small fluffy creature after another disperses from the pack, eager to take part in the feast. They fight each other with tiny paws and milky teeth for the largest piece of what once was the player Scott.

The oldest wolf, a gray female with red eyes matching the tint of her collar, stands apart and keeps a watchful gaze from the shadows of the trees. She's wiser than her peers and picks up on something they don’t. The scene to them is tragic, shocking, bloody, but looming above it all is a foreboding sense of wrongness, a feeling she's as familiar with as her own bones. She should be dead twice over, and yet…

The other wolves don’t notice her approach until she's close enough to brush fur with those she passes. They don’t recognize her, so they growl and bare their teeth at the intruder. Death has washed away her smell and her collar used to be yellow, so she doesn’t blame them. What is left is an acute sense of danger, layered on top of her already undaunted stride and thick muscles moving beneath her fur. As such, her authority remains as well. No one dares to make a deliberate move to stop her as she moves through the crowd like a boat parting water. Loud barks of protest making no pretense of their distaste follow her, but only a short low growl can make a momentarily daring wolf scurry out of her path and join the collective mass that’s joined around her. She doesn’t slow her firm tempo until she’s reached her destination.

The player Scott, who smelled of poppies, oak, and burning wood, is gone. An unmoving figure on the ground clad in red who smells of smoke remains. This, she thinks, is the source of the wrongness.

Despite the scene, her tail wags at the sight of her owner. She settles down beside her, lays down in the moon-shaped curve of the human body’s waist, and awaits a soothing hand to stroke through her fur. It doesn’t come. 

The figure doesn’t react to her companion's presence. Nor has she reacted to anything since the blast sent her flying back down the hill, blowing soot and blood in her face. Her still gaze, a single red eye peeking out between curtains of brown hair, is fixed on an inconsequential tuff of charred grass. 

No one else sees what We see; a red string tied around the tip of her finger, usually always tense like a pulled bowstring, that now lies slack. The end of it lies a couple meters away from her, stinged and frayed at the edge. It’s been torn off, while everyone else’s tether was dissolved. Wrongness indeed.

We close in on the figure, training every eye on her unmoving body and fog-covered mind. Her finger twitches. She makes the realization at the same time we do. 

The player Pearl is still alive.

[81scorp]

Constructive criticism: X-Men first class

Ah yes, X-Men first class. After X-Men Origins: Wolverine turned out to be a rushed, incompetent and excecutively meddled piece of meh, the studio folks at FOX panicked and hit the reset button. Since their cash cow franchise had been so utterly trainwrecked there was no idea in continuing on the track they were currently on. Better to go back to square one and go in a new direction. You gotta keep making those mutant movies or the rights will revert back to Marvel who might actually make a good X-Men movie, and we can`t let that happen. So... X-Men first class was a big step up from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, (That`s not very hard though.) and better than the X-Men 3 that we got. We got to see Charles Xavier really put his telepathic abilities to good use, some good character developing scenes with Magneto and some nice dialogue between the two of them. But it still had some questionable descisions. Like killing off the only black guy in the group. The guy who has the power to adapt to and survive pretty much anything. Not only that but the way he was killed off was pretty dissapointing. At first I was gonna do a CC were I just bring up a few points and suggest how they could be improved. But then I thought "What if this had been made in an alternate universe where X-Men 3 and XO: Wolverine were good?" Then they wouldn`t have to completely reboot it and distance themself from the first movies. They could have made it a prequel that could still work with the continuity of the previous movies. So... if I had a mutant buddy who could phase me back in time to my younger body, so that I could make some changes to this movie... What would I change?

Plot The 1940s, Poland: Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (Magneto), a young woman named Magda and a young man named Gregorij have escaped from a concentration camp, Nazi soldiers are chasing them. Gregorij is shot, Erik uses his powers in self defense to kill the two soldiers who chase them. Magda doesn`t see him use his powers. Back at the concentration camp a soldier has to break the news that the three prisoners have escaped to the camp`s head scientist: Dr Nathaniel Essex. (That`s right! In my version Mr Sinister is the bad guy! Makes more sense than Sebastian Shaw.) The 1960s, Brazil: Erik has found two former Nazi officers in a bar. He talks to them, interrogates them and then kills them. The 1970s, a trainstation: Erik is sitting at a table waiting for a train. A young Charles Xavier sits down next to him, they talk and Charles reveals that he`s a mutant, a telepath to be more precise. He says to Erik that he hasn`t read all of his thoughts, he only "skimmed the surface" and talks to him about how mutants and humans should help eachother. Erik disagrees with some of what Charles is saying but feels that he may have a point in some areas. Charles, noticing that Erik has a train to catch, gives him his card and hopes that they will meet some day in the future. Erik takes the train to meet a man in an office, (let`s call the man Fritz) who used to work with the nazis. Erik interrogates him, kills him and takes some documents from him. One of the documents is a blueprint of a helmet that protects your mind from telepaths. He also finds a knife with a swastika on it. The 1980s: Charles Xavier (who is not in a wheelchair yet) is now a professor, he lives in a mansion and is trying to get his invention Cerebro to work, he gets a little help from Dr Moira MacTaggert but it`s not going so well because, as Moira keeps reminding him, she`s "a geneticist, not a bloody engineer". She also mentions that his inside guy at the FBI has found something for him: an escaped orphan who can fire red energy beams from his eyes is believed to be hiding in the area. Since Cerebro isn`t fully functional yet Charles has to find him  the old fashioned way. That same night: We see a boy in his early teens (Scott Summers) out walking, wearing a blindfold that he sometimes is forced to lift to see where he is going. He manages to get a good look at the area before he quickly shuts his eyes and puts the blindfold back on again. He`s been doing this for a while and gotten good at it. Charles finds him, unfortunately so does a hulking brute named Blockbuster. Scott defends himself against BB but BB is to strong. Charles arrives and is just about to knock BB with a telepathic punch... when some scrap metal comes flying and knocks BB. It`s Erik who showed up and saved Scott! Charles is happy to see Erik again and recruits him and Scott. BB wakes up a few 100 feet away from where Erik hit him, runs back to his boss and explains that another mutant showed up and overpowered him. The mutant had magnetic powers. That last part makes his boss react, his boss is Mr Sinister. Erik helps Charles build Cerebro. Charles uses it to find more mutants. At a boarding school he finds Warren Worthington III, a young teen with two wings on his back that allows him to fly. At a university he finds Dr Henry "Hank" McCoy, a muscular young man with a great intellect and superhuman strength. (He doesn`t have his blue fur yet.) And in a small town in Kenya he finds Ororo Munroe, a girl with long, white hair with the power to control weather. Erik builds a pair of sunglasses made out of ruby-quartz for Scott who is happy that he can finally see again and doesn`t have to worry about hurting anyone. In this scene Erik also mentions that he has studied metallurgy. At a bar in Canada, Charles tries to recruit Logan who tells him to go F himself. Charles takes the hint and leaves. (Yes, I`m keeping that scene in my version. It was fun.) One last student arrives at Charles` mansion: Jean Grey, a girl with the gift of telekinesis and telepathy. (She and Prof: Charles has already met a few years ago.) Xavier gives his students a speech where he welcomes them, tells them his dream about humans and mutants coexisting peacefully in the future and that the training starts tomorrow. What are their personalities? Scott is the very serious one and a bit of a square. Warren is the funny and, at times, immature one. Hank is the smart science guy and the witty one who sometimes competes with Warren for the title of the funny one. Ororo is the cool, confident one (but also secretly a little insecure) who sometimes competes with Hank and Warren over who gets to be funny one. Jean is a bit shy but works to overcome it and turns into the glue that holds the team together. That night: Ororo is going to use the bathroom but it is already occupied by Warren who suggests that she uses the smaller bathroom down the hall. Ororo doesn`t want that and decides to wait until Warren is finished. Warren thinks that she is spoiled. Scott bumps into Erik, sees his concentration camp tattoo, the two of them talk a little, Scott understands what a hard life Erik must have lived.

Act 2: First day of school begins. They have some ordinary classes, Moira teaches them about biology and McCoy (who has several  diplomas) teaches them physics and literature. After this it`s time for physical training. They run in an obstacle course. They do well when it comes to the individual challenges but not so well when comes to the part where they have to work as a group. After the training they are all tired. It`s lunchtime. Erik does not eat his lunch at school but instead prefers to go to a cafè. There`s man at the table next to him (It`s Mr Sinister in human form.), they start to talk a little. Mr Sinister starts to talk about how hard it must be to be a mutant in todays society. It soon becomes clear that Mr Sinister is trying to recruit Erik to his side. Even if Mr Sinister`s views are similar to Erik`s he is not interested, he pays for his coffee and leaves. Xavier`s mansion: Scott walks in the hall, bumps into Jean, the two of them talk a little, she continues to Charles Xavier`s room where she tells him about nightmares that she`s been having and wants his help dealing with them. Outside the room Erik listens to their conversation. Scott continues to the recreational room to hangout with the others. In the recreational room Warren tells the group a little about himself, about how a fire broke out at his boarding school and how he saved his classmates. He encourages his classmates to share their stories, it might help them bond. No one is interested. Next day: They do the obstacle course again. This time they are slightly better at the teamwork and at the end of the obstacle course they get to fight Erik. He beats them. A little later Jean visits Prof Xavier again so that he can help her hold back her powers. Erik knows what they are doing and he doesn`t like it. Hank talks to Moira a little. He tells her that he has discovered that it is possible that mutants could develop a second mutation and that he has been toying with the idea of creating a serum that could trigger such a mutation. (I would like for Moira to have a little scene of dialogue with everyone of the students. Also, this little scene explains why Hank doesn`t look like he did in X-Men 3.) Lunchtime, a bench in a park: Erik is enjoying some alone time. He is soon joined by Mr Sinister. Sinister tells him some of his backstory (but of course he leaves out the part about working for the Nazis) He also reveals that he doesn`t age, is over 100 years old, has enchanced strength and has done some experiments on himself and added more powers, like firing energy-bolts from his hands. He wants Erik to join him and create a better world for mutants. Erik starts to consider Mr Sinister`s proposal. Later that night: Mr Sinister`s goons: Riptide, Vertigo, Arclight and Toad steal some lab-equipment from a building. The police shows up. The goons fight them and win. A beautiful day in a sunny park: Scott is out walking, bumps into Jean, they talk a little, Jean reveals that the park they are in now is not real, it`s a dream, her dream. She is still trying to control her powers and apologizes that her dream is "leaking over" into his. Scott doesn`t mind. Since this is a dream he takes of his glasses and is happy that he can do so without without hurting someone. They hang out and do some stuff you can only do in a dream,  like fly, walk on water (there`s a lake nearby) and other fun stuff. It`s getting late, Scott has enjoyed their time together but thinks he should return to his own dream, they have to get up early tomorrow and fight Erik again. He leaves her head. Jean hears voices and decides to check out where they are coming from. They seem to come from someone elses dream. Erik`s dream, a forest, the night he, Magda and Gregorij escaped from the conentration camp and Gregorij was shot. Jean is there as a ghost, no one can see, hear or touch her, this is just a memory after all. She sees Erik and Magda mourning Gregorij and promising each other that they are gonna survive. A moment later Jean sees Erik and Magda serving customers at a tavern, after that she sees them getting married, after that she sees Magda giving birth to a daughter, Anya. Erik, Magda and Anya move to the city and Erik gets a job as a construction worker. One day his employer (Let`s call him Ivan.) only pays him half of what he deserves. Erik gets angry and causes a crowbar to fly and smash into the wall next to Ivan. Ivan pays him in full and Erik returns to the inn where his family is staying. We flash forward a day or two and Erik is now standing in front the inn wcich is now on fire and Anya is trapped on the second floor. Erik reaches out with his hand, maybe he can do something! Maybe he can...  THUD! Two policemen strike him down. it was Ivan who led them to him. Ivan: "What a shame comrade. If you hadn`t threatened me this would never have happened." Helpless, Erik must watch how Anya dies in the fire. He is filled with rage and with his new powers he kills all the bystanders except Magda. Magda, afraid of Erik because of what he`s capable of doing, calls him a monster and runs away. Jean wakes up from Erik`s dream. Next day: The students are training on the obstacle course, Scott decides to take the role of a leader and this time they do even better than they did last time. They fight Erik and this time they get closer to defeating him. Erik is impressed, next time he might not hold back. Later, inside Jeans mind: she and Prof. Xavier put the last constraints on her powers. The two of them wake up, back in his room and Jeane leaves. A little later, a Museum: Erik watches an exhibition of the human evolution, from ape to homo sapien. He is joined by Sinister who talks to him some more. Sinister suspects that someone is eavesdropping on them and he is right. Jeane has been eavesdropping on them telepathically from a distance. She leaves and is followed by one of Sinister`s goons: Arclight. Arclight almost catches her  but she uses her telekinetic powers in creative ways to escape her. Xavier`s mansion: Jean arrives, amost out of breath and explains to the others what she has seen and heard. What are they gonna do when Erik comes back, now that they know that he is involved with something evil? The phone rings. It`s Erik. He wants to talk to Charles. He tells Charles that he won`t be coming back to the mansion tonight, he`s working on something. He also tells Charles that he wants to meet him at a certain place at a certain time. Alone. Later that night: They decide to share their background stories. Hank tells them that his mutation made him a more than formidable footballplayer and earned him the nickname "the Beast". It also made the faculty suspicious, he was afraid to be outed as a mutant. He is grateful that Xavier showed up and recruited him before things turned really ugly. Warren says that he can relate to that. He had trouble hiding his wings, was afraid of being discovered, and sees Xavier as a lifesaver. Scott tells them that he used to have a brother, or maybe he still has, he doesn`t know. His father was a pilot. They were out flying, something happened with the engine, the plane was about to crash, his mom Katherine pushed Scott and his little brother Alex out the plane door with the only available parachute. Then he must have hit his head because the next thing he knew he woke up in a hospital with a head injury. His brother was nowhere to be seen. A few days later he ended up at an orphanage. His mutant power manifested a few weeks ago. Jean reveals that she once had a friend, Annie. One day when Jean and Annie were playing Annie was accidentally hit by a car. The stress awakened Grey's mutant telepathic powers which empathically linked her to her dying friend. The traumatic experience of Annie's death left Grey in a withdrawn and deeply depressed state. Moreover, not able to control her newly awakened telepathic abilities forced her to isolate herself from other people to hold on to her sanity. Her parents came into contact with Prof. Xavier who helped her out of her isolation. A year later Xavier opened up his school for the gifted. Ororo reveals that when she was little she lived in Cairo with her mom and dad. When she was just five years old, a plane crashed into their house. Ororo's parents were killed, but she survived, buried under rubble near her mother's body. This traumatizing effect left Ororo with the severe claustrophobia that still afflicts her today. (That`s why she didn`t want to go to the small bathroom earlier.) She managed to escape the rubble of her shattered home. Homeless and orphaned she was found by a streetgang of young boys who took her to see their leader and mentor who trained her to be a thief. But soon, it became too dangerous to be on the streets of Cairo so she left the city and wandered through the desert. Discovered that she could control the weather, ran into a tribe who believed her to be a goddess. They gave her food and she in return gave them rain so that their crops would survive through drought season. The students now understand each other better. Elsewhere: Erik is with Mr Sinister and the Marauders. He is using the equipment that the Marauders stole, his magnetic powers and his knowledge in metallurgy to create the telepathy-proof helmet that we saw in the documents that he took from Fritz.

Act 3: Prof. Xavier meets Erik at the trainstation were they first met years ago. It is early and there are no innocent bystanders. Erik reveals that he knows what about Charles putting mental blocks in in Jeans head and that`s why he left. The students should grow to their full potential at the school, not be constrained just because they are afraid of their powers. He also meets Mr Sinister who`s wearing the telepathy-proof helmet. Erik wants to leave Charles and join Sinister. He reveals Charles tries to convince him to stay. Sinister charges his fist with energy and threatens with violence. The students show up, ready to defend Charles. The Marauders show up, ready to fight. A fight breaks out. Angel takes Xavier somewhere safe so he won`t get hurt. But Xavier still wants be part of the fight and not see his students get hurt. During the fight the trainstation takes a heavy beating. Jean tries to reason with Erik but keeps getting interrupted. Finally she tells Erik that Sinister isn`t interested in the wellbeing of other mutants, he`s only interested in creating a superior mutant master-race, no matter the cost. And he worked for the Nazis during World war 2. Sinister attacks Charles and paralyzes him from the waist down. Erik uses his powers to steal Sinisters helmet, Sinister tries to fire energy at Erik but is paralyzed by Charles. Erik takes out the knife that he took from Fritz and sends it right into Sinister`s head. All the Marauders flee except Toad. Charles tries one last time to convince Erik to re-join them, Erik respectfully declines and wants to go his own way. He wants the students to join him but they respectfully decline, only Toad is willing to join him. Charles and his students return to the mansion. They turn on the TV and the news report about how a bunch of mutants demolished a trainstation. People don`t feel safe knowing what mutants are capable of. Charles is sad that they lost Erik but Scott and Jean tells him that they they will stay by his side, they even use the speech that he gave to them at the start of the school. What should they call themselves? The X-team? Fantastic Five? Warren suggests the Merry Mutants. Ororo hits him with a pillow. They`ll figure out a name. The students get their uniforms. Despite everything that has happened Charles and his students are optimistic about the future.

The End

Mid-Credit scene: A Morgue. It turns out that Sinister is not dead! Dun-dun dunn!

And that`s how I would do it. Not great but hopefully not bad.

Since the younger X-Men were not experienced adventurers in the beginning I decided to go for more personal stakes rather than big "we have to save the world" kind of stakes. Diving into the students individual backstories was mostly because I`m into keeping it close to the source material. But in hindsight I can justify it by pointing out that the members of the X-Men in the first movie never had any proper backstories. So in a story where you already know certain things, like if Magneto`s gonna join the badguy or not, you can always dive deeper into the things you don`t already know. (Unless doing so takes away ambiguous and mysterious things about the character/ story that made them interesting in the first place, of course.)

Constructive criticism of my constructive criticism is welcome.

------------------------ Written stuff: 42

Started writing this 2022-06-25

I was originally gonna do a CC of Watchmen but since I alreday had a finished draft of X-Men First class in my note book I decided to do that first.

Other movies on my Constructive Criticism list that you can look forward to

Watchmen (2009) Steel (The one with Shaq) Burton`s Batman Schumacher`s Batman Supergirl (1984) Jonah Hex (2010) Dragonball evolution The Spirit (2008) The Dark Knight trilogy

And as usual: English is not my first language, so if my writing doesn`t seem to flow naturally, you know why.

X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belongs to Marvel.

[thewarriorspecial]

Dress Up (CH3 - Lying to Himself)

*Archive Edition* Previously only linked to AO3, full work now available under the cut.

Read on AO3

Rating: Explicit | Guy Gardner/Kyle Rayner, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Original Character

Additional Tags (All chapters listed): Established Relationship, hand wavy timeline, Lace Panties, Spanking, Lingerie, Oral Sex, Angst, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Character dealing with/avoiding their PTSD, Rimming, Drinking, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood, Bloody Kisses, Polyamory

Guy's still looking for some way to help. Kyle's still trying to barrel towards a sense of normalcy. Guy takes a turn at making their dress-up surprises a thing and it doesn't go the way he hoped.

Guy was hunched over his desk, head leaned in his folded hands as he tried to piece together a question or command to ask the ring for what he needed. The most powerful weapon in the universe was also a storehouse of all the universe’s knowledge for anyone who knew how to draw it out. If I was on Earth, he thought, what would I look for? How would I look? 

He leaned back, one arm wrapping around his chest and the other rubbing his chin. He stared at the empty space in front of the desk. He pictured a bookshelf and watched it manifest.

“Alright. Gimme everything you’ve got on human psychology and trauma.” Immediately the bookshelf overflowed with with books, more appearing in stacks on the floor. Stacks began appearing on the desktop, under the desk, in Guy’s lap, anywhere there was flat space.

“Okay. Woah. Narrow it down. Gimme everything specifically on unhealthy coping mechanisms for trauma.”

Most of the books vanished, and the bookshelf refilled with a few more stacks appearing on the floor. Guy pointed at the first one on top of one of the stacks, flicking his fingers towards himself. The book floated in front of him and opened. He reached into his vest and pulled construct glasses from within. After paging through the first book, he slid it unceremoniously off the side of the desk and it disappeared. He repeated the process with the next three. 

Looking up at the ceiling and rubbing his eyes he sighed, “This is gonna be a long night.”

Over the course of the evening, the bookshelf refilled over and over. Each time the stacks for a little smaller. Yet, no connection could be made between Kyle’s symptoms. Nightmares and flashbacks don’t present alongside hyper-sexual behavior. They create the opposite problem. Especially in males.

Fuck.

Unless it’s something compound? Complex?

“Show me the definition and conditions for C-PTSD and all known symptoms.” Guy carefully read through the stack of papers that appeared. Long term exposure. Childhood. Detachment. Relationship issues. Negative self-image and worldview. Nothing matched there either. That he knew of anyways. Should probably show this to Hal. “Add this to my notes.” The papers added themselves to a vey large three ring binder that appeared, opened, shut, and disappeared. 

Guy leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He needed a walk and some water. He’d have to walk passed Kyle who was still haunting the sofa, pretending to watch TV.  

Fuck.

“What would you do?” Guy asked the ring, pressing the cool surface to the skin of his cheek. “For Kyle, I mean. What would you do to help?” 

A business card materialized on the desk. 'Leslie Thompkins, Psychiatrist’, it read. 

“I remember her. Yeah. Yeah you’re right. How the hell do I get him to go?” A very large pet carrier and a bag of candy appeared. Guy stood up and waved his hands through the constructs to dismiss them. “Get outta here with that,” he laughed softly.

__

“You coming to bed?” Guy asked, leaning in the doorway of their bedroom.

“Yeh,” Kyle murmured, eyes glued to the screen.

“Later?”

“Yeh.”

“Okay.” Guy shut the door to block out the light and the noise. He dreamed of Kyle’s laugh and the taste of his skin.

When the door closed, Kyle pulled the bottle of vodka out from under the covers and took a drink. He preferred doing bong rips. The relaxation and elevated mood were a lot nicer than the slosh and brain fog from the booze but it would have to do.

“You’ll have to do.” Ganthet had said.

Should I even be here? Why won’t he sit with me? He’s up my ass all day until I’m sad. Am I becoming a burden? Does anyone else know? He probably wants to fuck. I’m not in the mood to fake it right now. I’ll surprise him with something tomorrow to make up for it.

Kyle propped himself up against the armrest, sipping from the bottle as he watched the DVD he put in earlier. When he and Guy left Earth, he had tried to back up all of his pirated movies and shows. For whatever reason the episode lists played in reverse order but he’s unconcerned. It was nostalgic and it felt good. Firefly played in front of his eyes and his fonder memories with Guy and Hal and John played in the back of his mind. He fell into a restless sleep and the bottle slipped from his hand.

Kaylee is shot. She gasps as blood soaks her overalls.

“Kaylee, stay with me. Can you move your feet?”

Guy look at me. Look at me. Stay with me. Squeeze my hand. Stay awake.

“Are you asking me to dance?”

You wanna hold my hand and skip? Heh, heh.

Kyle staggers to the bathroom and vomits.

__

Guy woke up with Kyle wrapped around him. They were side by side, chest to chest. Kyle’s head was tucked under Guy’s chin. Guy felt warm breath on his skin as Kyle snored and twitched in a deep sleep. 

The bed smelled like sex and sweat. Kyle had gotten into the habit of coming to bed in the barely light hours of the morning, coaxing Guy awake with light kisses and caresses. Kyle would tuck himself into Guy, urging the bigger man on top. Kyle would writhe and beg to be touched, but his body didn’t always respond. 

“This okay?” Guy would ask.

“Hell yeah,” Kyle would groan and Guy would waver between a desire to give his partner what he’s asking for and the guilt for doing it at all.

“You’re sure?”

“I’m with you. This is all I want.” And Kyle would smile with all the warmth and light of a new star.

And until Kyle woke, either kissing Guy and asking about his plan for the day or vanishing without a word, so stood their nightly routine.

__

Guy watches the rookies twist and dive through the obstacle course John built. Flight training was one of their favorite exercises. It’s impossible to forget your first real flight. In some ways you never really come down.

“How’s he doing?” John asks.

“‘Bout the same.” Guy answers.

“Hey it’s not worse. One day at a time. You get him to talk to anyone yet?”

“No.”

“Keep trying. Everything’s gonna be fine. And when it isn’t, I got you. Both of you.”

“I know. You took care of me. I don’t think I ever thanked you.”

“You did in your own way.” John smiles fondly, watching the blush creep up behind Guy’s ears. 

“‘Suppose so.”

__

Guy returned to the apartment. He checked for Kyle and heard the shower running. He sat on their worn couch, next to Kyle’s depression nest. He picked up the mostly empty bottle of vodka, replacing the lid. He picked up candy wrappers and folded the blanket, tossing it neatly over the back of the couch. Kyle’s sketchbook tumbled to the floor with a thud. Guy scooped it up and searched the cushions for any lost pens and pencils. He set the drawing implements down on the end table and sat down with the sketchbook. It’s newer, the cover only mildly blemished with wear and graphite smears. He saw that a little over half the pages are still blank as he thumbed through them. He felt his heart wriggle with a deep joy. Kyle was drawing again. Too many months it seemed Kyle would drink and stare off the balcony, into unfamiliar constellations forever.

Guy popped open the cover, starting from the beginning. He was immediately greeted with a pencil drawing of a poorly wrapped fruit basket. He’d put it together and set it out on the kitchen table with the new sketchbook and art supplies in an attempt to lure Kyle out of his blanket fort. The next page was sketches of John’s face in various expressions, most of them joyful and all from his right. Next was Hal’s face given the same treatment from the front. Then Guy’s own face from the left. They were all smiling, laughing, hands shaping the stories they had been telling. Kyle’s ability to draw from memory was unparalleled. 

There were sketches of Oan flowers that grew by nearby waterways. Superman, for no one’s enjoyment. A beagle. Hal holding a beagle, smiling indulgently. One in full color; Guy could make out the blonde hair and the shape of her face—Alex. Then the next one was just a refrigerator in high contrast, pouring out eerie light. Piano keys. A pitched battle scene, Lantern and Sinestro Crops symbols mixed throughout. Guy’s face with bedroom eyes. Hal in his flight suit, sticking his tongue out. A night scene where the only light came from a streetlamp over an empty park bench. Hal’s face, again, his salt-and-pepper hair rendered in loving detail. A young woman Guy had never seen before, wearing overalls and bleeding from a gunshot wound. 

The last image sprawled across two pages and the only word Guy could think to describe it was demon. It was the alien that nearly killed him. It was massive—top-heavy and bipedal like Arkillo. It had a serpentine neck and horse-like head with a maw that opened like an eel. Sinewy arms ended in talons with an opposable thumb. Two agile tails whipped behind it, each tipped in a scorpion-like barb. 

Alpha Lanterns had simply called them Hunters. They preyed along the Outer Limits. They were solitary, rarely in a pair. No one was sure yet where they came from but they lived up to their name with malicious intelligence. They had some kind of primal telepathy. Guy had perceived it as a push in his mind; just feelings, no images or words. 

Guy had been hunched down inside the outpost he and a few Lanterns had been sent to build. The Guardians wanted to set up a way station to increase the range and support of Lantern sweeps in those areas. To look for problems like the Hunters. He had been welding, he remembered. They were piecing together the ventilation system when he heard the first scream. Something that big, that heavy, shouldn’t have been able to move in perfect silence. Before he knew it he had been beaten down and stabbed twice. Poison burned a path though his veins. He had ordered the team to make a distress call and retreat. But Kyle refused to leave his side. He remembered the agony of being run through again, of hearing Kyle scream. Hearing Kyle sob and not being able to draw a breath to say it’ll be okay.

“You remember it?” Kyle asked, suddenly behind him. He was leaning on his elbows on the back of the couch.

Guy startled and caught the sketchbook before it fell, “Uh. Sorry. I shouldn’t be snooping like that. I was just excited, you know. You’re getting back to nor—comfortable again.”

“No,” Kyle sighed. “I’m not. But I really want to.” His shoulders scrunched up and he crossed his arms tightly. “Do we have to look at it?”

“Nah, course not.” Guy closed the sketchbook and set it on the end table without looking away from Kyle’s face. They looked at each other for a long time. Guy could see the emotions rolling through Kyle’s expressions as they both reached for something to say. “C’mere,” he offered instead, holding his hand out. 

Kyle took his hand and rounded the couch. He had a hair clip holding one of their shitty bath towels around his waist. He dropped himself into Guy’s lap with a heavy sigh and Guy wrapped him up in a tight hug.

“You warm enough?” Guy asked, laying a big, warm hand on Kyle’s thigh.

“Yeah.” Kyle nuzzled into Guy’s neck, his arms returning to their crossed position around himself. Guy could feel him shiver so he pulled the folded blanket down around them.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“You gonna talk to someone?”

“Can’t I just talk to you?”

“Yeah, I mean, you can tell me anything. I’m just not really qualified to help with this.”

“Weren’t you a psychologist?”

“I was a counselor. It’s different.”

“You talked to people when they were at their worst. Didn’t it help?”

Guy sighed heavily. “I wasn’t wheedling the plot out of Hannibal, Kyle. When I worked in the prison, it was mostly a dumping ground for undesirables. I’d ask these guys what was going on and they’d tell me things like how I’m the first person who used their name or asked them what was wrong at all. I gave them respect and sometimes I gave them some hope to hold onto.” Guy looked away as the words sped up, realizing he was rambling. “Didn’t make me a real psychiatrist, though. I couldn’t treat the schizophrenia or whatever that got them tossed into the street. Even if I had the credentials all I’d be able to do is medicate them while they were locked up.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring all that up.”

“No, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I can’t be what you need.” Guy tightened his hold and rubbed his thumb along Kyle’s back.

Kyle felt too warm and trapped under Guy’s big hands. He wanted to get up but feared the look in Guy’s eyes if he pulled away. So he sat and listened to Guy breathe. He tried not to think too hard about being pressed up against the hole in Guy’s side.

__

“Alright poozers, listen up. Today we’re working on your speed. You’re going to have to outrun and outthink one of the fastest Lanterns in the Corps.” Killowog addressed the five fresh Lanterns, all sans their Corps symbols and ready to change that today. Each one wore a construct belt around their midsection with two flags hanging from the sides. “Your goal is to remove one of Kyle’s flags before he takes both of yours.”

“That’s it?” One of the newbies asked.

“Oh? Did I mention—they’ll all be trying to kick your faces off the entire time.”

“They?”

“Show ‘em, Kyle.”

Kyle grinned as he held his hands out, crossing his first two fingers on both hands to make a plus sign, “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” Four more identical Kyles appeared, each one photorealistic and moving independently. His clones followed as he leapt into the air, tearing through the sky at breakneck speed. The rookies followed in his wake like a formation of geese. Weak constructs of lassos and nets floated passed as they missed. He laughed, elated at the feel of the wind in his hair and the sun on his face. The world below shrank as he climbed, leaving the weight on his mind far behind. 

As he tagged the rookies out one by one, he noticed the squid-like Lantern lurking behind buildings and rock formations. He could feel its gaze studying him as it kept its distance. When it was down to just the two of them, it shot a stream of bubble constructs passed Kyle. They floated by without touching him, but gave him an ominous feeling as they slowly closed in. They were shiny, and he could see his own reflection swaying on all their surfaces like funhouse mirrors. 

He’d lost sight of his clones. He shot an energy blast at one of the bubbles and it opened like a doughnut, letting the blast pass through before it snapped shut again. He released his clones and they dematerialized instantly. He formed a Gundam inspired mech around himself and shot a hail of missiles at the surrounding bubbles. They repeated the same trick—shifting, opening, and closing. 

He reached behind his back and drew an energy sword, thrusting forward and slashing side to side. Their texture was like slime, his weapon dragging through their cores like trying to cut through tar. His chest heaved and his muscles burned with the effort. The ring of bubbles pressed in closer, their shape throwing the light of Sto-Oa into his eyes, blinding him. He let himself fall through the swinging mech construct, sinking away from the bubbles. A tentacle whip-cracked at his ankle, barely missing as he changed direction and sped off. The Squid-Lantern’s arms spun and it shot forward in pursuit. 

Kyle dodged row after row of the creepy bubbles, glancing over his shoulder to track his opponent. He ran his palm over his belt, making sure both flags were still there. Squid-Lantern was missing one. This was anyone’s game. A ray of light shot over his shoulder. He rolled and dove to dodge it. When he faced forward again, he slammed into one of the bubbles, sinking chest deep into its sticky surface. Squid-Lantern landed gently on the surface, its tentacles bowing the bubble’s skin without breaking it. It gently removed both flags from Kyle’s belt. The short, crescent eyelids over its opalescent eyes widened. It lifted all of its tentacles into the air and swayed. 

“Hooray! Hooray! I have the winning!” Kyle’s ring translated. The bubble released him and he turned himself upright. 

“Wow! Nicely done,” Kyle offered his hand to the victor. Squid-Lantern’s swaying paused as it considered Kyle’s appendage. It stuck half of its tentacles out, mimicking Kyle’s motion. 

“Oh, uh, handshake?”

Squid-Lantern’s tentacles vibrated. Kyle flailed his arm and laughed. 

__

Kyle approached the battery, bathed in its ethereal glow. He’d reluctantly left the cackling pack of rookies behind at Warrior’s. Even their enthusiasm couldn’t drown out the incessant nagging of his ring reminding him that his charge was “Critically! Low!”. He raised his ring hand, making a fist and squaring his shoulders.

The words wouldn’t come.

He tried again. And still nothing. He was just tired. This had been the longest day out of the house in a long time. It was a good tired, his mother would say, from playing so hard. You’ll sleep well.

He lowered his arm. He knew the words—could hear them in his mind. There was no power, no conviction in his voice. Would it charge if he could only whisper? He raised his arm again. He felt stupid. He felt weak.

He nearly leapt out of his own skin when he felt a hand under his forearm, a body pressed against his back. Kyle leaned into the familiar scent of aftershave and whiskey.

“In brightest day,” Hal began, voice warm and unwavering. Kyle repeated the words, gaining strength as they finished the oath in tandem. 

Kyle’s ring recharged and he felt the surge of power through his whole body. He was still leaning into Hal. He turned his head to look at his friend, leaving their faces inches apart. 

“You okay, kid?” Hal asked and Kyle’s heart pounded. Hal had his mask off and dark eyes glittered in the battery’s light. At 5’10 they were the same height, but Hal was extremely wiry and compact. He was warm and so solid. Where in the fuck was this coming from? Hal lowered his arm to Kyle’s waist to support him.

“Yeah,” Kyle’s body quivered. “Thanks.” He spun around suddenly, shoving Hal aside. “I should go,” he pointed stiffly at the doorway. “Bye.”

“Dude?” Hal asked of the empty room.

__

Kyle landed on the balcony. He looked down at his still trembling hands. How was he gonna sneak this thing into the house without Guy asking too many questions. He willed his skintight uniform away, leaving him in jeans and hoodie. He adjusted himself and pulled the hoodie down. Why was it so hard to get it up for Guy like this?

The balcony door slid open about a foot and Guy’s freckled, smiling face emerged. Speak of the devil. “You’re home! How’d it go?” 

Kyle couldn’t help the smile that came across his face. God but he loved those big blue eyes. “Really good actually. I thought I’d be more tired but I recharged and uh,” he faltered, rubbing the back of his neck, “I feel pretty peppy now.”

“Good because I have a little surprise for you,” Guy’s expression melted into a naughty grin and he dramatically whipped the sliding door open. He stood in a cheap Halloween sexy-nurse costume, complete with a little red cross cap and white thigh-highs. “I thought you could use a little TLC after you had such a hard day.” 

Kyle’s brain flipped to the static channel as he zeroed in on the gap between Guy’s very short skirt and the top of the stockings. “Th-thighs,” he mumbled.

“Get in here,” Guy rumbled, grabbing Kyle’s shirt and dragging him inside. Kyle surged forward, roughly shoving Guy into the back of the couch, and pulled his big man down for a kiss. Guy spread his feet until they were even height making his skirt ride up obscenely over his erection. His plan to soothe Kyle’s stress and gently tuck him into bed was already gone out the window.  Kyle kissed him like he’d been gone for months. His hands roved up and down Guy’s thighs, fingers dipping into the tops of the stockings. 

“Turn around, lemme see you,” Kyle murmured as he pulled on Guy’s hips. Guy turned, leaning over the couch and raising his ass in the air obediently. He had nothing on underneath the costume. “Goddamn,” Kyle growled, digging his fingers into the backs of Guy’s thighs and spreading him open with the heels of his hands. Guy had shaved everything and his skin smelled fresh from the shower. Kyle rolled the pad of his thumb against Guy’s quivering hole, “You need me to get you ready?”

“P-please,” Guy whispered, his hands moving to cover his face as his hips pressed back into Kyle involuntarily. 

Kyle spread Guy open and leaned forward, licking a stripe from Guy’ balls to his tailbone. Guy clapped his ring hand over his mouth to keep the high-pitched sounds from escaping. His other arm braced his weight against the cushions as he lost his footing. 

“Oh fuck, oh fuck,” Guy wailed into his palm.

Kyle lapped and rolled his tongue, coaxing every imaginable sound out of his big, broad partner. He pinched and squeezed those thick thighs, only coming up when he had to breathe. He smiled and groaned against Guy’s entrance, thoroughly enjoying driving him wild. His attention had Guy literally on his toes. He glanced down at Guy’s pretty feet, perched on that sexy angle. Feet freaked Guy the fuck out so he didn’t dare mention his obsession. He just quietly scooted all of Guy’s normal shoes into the back of the closet. 

Guy’s hips rolled with an unconscious rhythm and Kyle leaned back with his tongue out and let him rub his ass into his face. Guy’s eyes were clenched shut and a deep blush had worked its way down the back of his neck. 

“Kyle,” Guy breathed, both hands clenching the cushions now, “Please.”

“Please, what?”

“I…um,” Guy looked over his shoulder, beet red, “Will you…?” He glanced at his ass and back up at Kyle.

Kyle leaned over Guy’s back putting his lips against Guy’s ear, “You are so hot, Guy. I can’t get enough.” Guy dropped his face into his hands again. Kyle ran his hands up and down Guy’s back, making the cheap fabric of the costume crinkle with static. “I want you so bad.” He rolled his hips against Guy’s ass and realized with horror that he’d lost his hard-on. 

Are you fucking kidding me? Now??

Kyle’s body tensed as he held in a frustrated sigh. He’d die before he made Guy feel like anything about this wasn’t perfectly hot and welcome. He sent a construct hand into the bedroom to grab the lube off of the nightstand. He coated his fingers and rubbed the tip of the middle one against Guy’s hole. “You ready?” Kyle asked as he pulled his clothes off, making a pile somewhere off to the side of the couch. 

“Yes, please,” came the muffled reply. 

Kyle pressed his finger slowly in, soaking up the desperate sighs escaping his partner. Guy was so good to him. He was gonna make his man come rivers no matter what his body would or wouldn’t do. He fucked Guy open slowly until he had three fingers buried in his tight heat. 

“Kyle please, please,” Guy moaned from behind his hands. 

Kyle took a deep breath to focus, making a construct around his limp dick. Like the rest of his creations, it was true to life. It even felt warm and twitched if he willed it. He lined himself up and pressed in gently. He had to keep pushing the costume up and out of the way to see what he was doing. “Take this off for me, love.”

Guy pushed himself up, gasping as the angle changed. He crossed his arms in front of himself, grabbing the bottom of the slinky costume dress. He chanced a heated look over his shoulder as he very slowly pulled it up and over his head. Kyle’s eyes flicked back and forth between the inches of sexy freckled skin slowly being revealed and the passion in those gorgeous eyes. His hands chased the hem of the dress, traveling over all the familiar constellations on Guy’s back. Guy’s freckles were concentrated on the tops of his shoulders like a permanent sunburn. They thinned out as they spread down his back, then gathered again at the dips in his hipbones, filling the spaces like a liquid—like someone had poured a galaxy over his body. Kyle’s hands brushed along the back of Guy’s neck, fingertips dragging in his hair. Guy leaned into the touch and groaned. Kyle wanted to lay kisses along the nape of Guy’s neck but he couldn’t reach. 

“Alright,” Kyle nudged Guy forward with a hand between his shoulder blades, “Get back down there, you’re too tall.” He felt Guy’s laugh under his hand and Guy leaned down until he was on his elbows. 

Guy groaned as he shifted, feeling Kyle still inside him, “Baby, please, I’m so horny.”

Kyle finally started to move, keeping his pace steady and not too rough. 

“God, yes,” Guy sighed, arching his back, “That’s perfect. Please, please don’t stop.” He covered his mouth again, embarrassed with how soft he sounded. 

Kyle focused on Guy’s voice, his own breathing picking up with the exertion. He wrapped his hands around Guy’s waist and felt for tells in his body—the tremors, the way he’d start to push back, the soft, high sighs when he finally took his hand away from his mouth again. 

“Kyle, I—I’m…Are you…?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m good.”

Guy reached back, grasping the back of the couch as he came with a long moan. Kyle feigned a little stutter in his hips, pulling out and pretending to finish himself with his hand. Watching to make sure Guy hadn’t looked up, he sucked his cheeks and quietly spit on Guy’s back. 

Kyle stepped back and wiped the sweat from his face. “Wow,” he said, the smile coming through in his voice, “That was hot.”

Guy was still panting, still leaned over the couch. 

“You alright?”

“Yeah,” Guy groaned, as he stood up. He rubbed hips where they’d been pressed into the couch, “Just a little sore. M’alright.”

Kyle held his hands out with a bright smile on his face, “Wanna go lay down?”

“Nah,” Guy said looking at Kyle’s hands, “I’m gonna go get a shower.”

“Oh,” Kyle watched Guy walk away. “Oh, okay. Are you coming to bed after?”

The bathroom door clicked shut.

Guy turned the water on full blast and sat on the toilet lid. He rested his chin on his folded hands with his elbows on his knees. 

Fuck.

I’m the problem.

[yandere-daydreams]

Ok hear me out I just had this idea while not doing my homework and I think you’re the person who I’m gonna force it upon

Zhongli is all about contracts right? His darling and him would have them as a key part of their relationship but one day his darling light heartedly stated they’d be with him in every life time as a joke of sorts or too appease hin but he takes it as a promise, something not to be broken, a contact.

He spends every life time after his darling passes and finds their reincarnation and keeps them, poor darling doesn’t know if rexlapis or the contract formed they never agreed to this but going along with the deranged Morax seems to be better then suffered whatever the wrath of rock is…

tw - unhealthy relationships, mentions of death/blood, implied kidnapping, possessive behavior, i'm also avoiding studying for midterms so yeah.

i mean, a verbal contract is still a contract. even it was never formally established, even if he'd been too distracted at the time to get it in writing, the discussion was opened when you laid your head in his lap, the terms negotiated as he expressed his apprehensions about letting his mortal lover take to the battlefield among dying gods and unrestrained adepti, the agreement signed and sealed as you kissed his fingertips and mused that you'd just have to promise him 'this life and the next', if he's so worried about losing you before he's had his fill. when he finds you, days later, bloodied and bruised and broken beyond any hope of survival, he does his best to stave off the sorrow, to swallow down his grief and save his mourning for a better cause. this isn't the end, but a temporary pause, an intermission wherein he, for whatever reason, can't have you in his arms. he still has time with you. he's stilled owed his time with you.

despite this, you insist on taking yours. you've always liked to keep him waiting, and your supposed 'death' did very little to change that. months turn to years, years to decades, decades to centuries, and while he doesn't scour Teyvat nation by nation, village by village, inch by inch, searching for any trace of you, he looks when he can, pries whenever possible, allows himself to linger on those who share your eyes, your voice, your laugh, to savor the little pieces of you he can find when the original fails to make itself apparent. it's almost bittersweet when he's reunited with you, not as Morax, not in your precious Liyue, but as Zhongli, in Mondstadt, while you tend the bar of an overcrowded tavern in one of the city's darkest corners. you're different, your past memories gone, your reverence and recklessness both dulled by a comfortable distance from death and war and bloodshed, but it's still you, the same foundation, the same glowing smile and bright eyes and melodic voice that never fails to leave him breathless, restless, grappling for anything you're willing to give. you laugh as he rambles on about sworn bonds and reincarnation and gods long-dead, but that doesn't mean he's wrong, that doesn't mean you aren't still the you he knows, the you he loves. you might not remember him, but that doesn't mean the millennia he spent waiting for you has to go to waste. that doesn't take away the promise you made to him, or the contract you still have yet to uphold.

that doesn't mean he has to stand back and watch you away again, not when he's only just remembered why he was so reluctant to let you go, in the first place.

[dduane]

Yeah, this one’s gonna take me a while

…It’s not for anything massive: just a new banner for the Lionhall Press page at Ebooks Direct and MK dot com (as the Middle Kingdoms and Young Wizards books will be “going wide” to Google Books shortly, and both the LP page and the Errantry Press page at YW dot com will be seeing a little more traffic than they have previously). And when I think of Lionhall, this is one of two scenes I normally think of, where my very first OC has just more or less declared total war on Ultimate Evil…

“There he paused and took stance, resting Khávrinen’s point on the stone, resting his hands on its hilts. Slowly the Fire wreathed up about it, and him, until Herewiss stood in a bonfire of it three times his height. The light of the blue Flame blazed up so that the whole square was alight with it, as if a star had fallen onto the paving. In his exultation and anger, Herewiss neither knew nor cared who might be seeing the light. The light itself was what mattered.”

So: first attempt at getting the lighting right. And this is nowhere near it... but you gotta start somewhere.

...What I already know from this evening’s work is that the final version of this is probably going to have to be done in layers, in post-production as it were... because surprise, when you describe someone as immersing himself in a column of blue light so bright it lights up about four acres of center-city Prydon, everything about it is going to get washed out. Including poor Dusty. And there’s no way to put that right in real-time rendering: this situation’s already too complex.

There are also fifty other things wrong. Most noticeably, the fire appliances (cruelly wrested from their original function and forced to do things I’m sure their designer never intended) are going to have to be stacked fore-and-aft to keep them from interfering with each other, and to make sure the ground lighting looks at least something like it actually would. All those light sources are going to have to be tweaked until they’re in tune and not drowning each other out.

Also: what I want for the sword (instead of the three pieces of emissive material clumsily welded together here) is a surface-shader that looks something like blade-damascening gone incandescent... but whether I’m going to get it without designing it myself (or even then) is another story entirely. Also also, I’m going to have to build another version of Lionhall to replace the one (not seen here) that I built yesterday, because now I hate that one. (eyeroll)

Argh. Either way, all this can bloody well sit until tomorrow.

Dammit, prose is easier. With prose I can make Y’ALL do all the work on the visuals. :)