#rip I noticed all the paragraphs in this post started with ‘so’

[larkspurglove]

It’s always struck me as weird that NPMD ends with homecoming and not prom, because as a non-American, isn’t prom the quintessential American high school end trope thing??

Because of this I looked up what the actual difference is and holy shit homecoming takes place at the end of the first semester of the school year????? (Correction: turns out it’s actually around September/October which is roughly the end of the FIRST TERM)

So you’re telling me that not only do Steph, Grace and Pete have to process their trauma but also deal with SCHOOL????? FOR ANOTHER HALF A YEAR??????? AS HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS?????

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

book 7 part 4 thoughts!!

***THIS POST CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7, PART 4 OF THE MAIN STORY!!***

Usually I would put this in bullet points, but I have so many thoughts that I have to format it as paragraphs. (If you’d like to watch a rough part-by-part summarized translation, please check out this archived stream!)

Please note: this is NOT meant to be a summary or a translation; these are only my initial thoughts on the events that unfold. There may be details overlooked or misunderstood in this post, so PLEASE do not use this as a translation.

LILIA'S SO DIFFERENT 🤡 His voice is deeper, and he speaks more gruffly. He definitely comes off as more combative and having disdain for humans. HE'S POPPING OFF ABOUT HOW BAD SILVER/SEBEK/GRIM ARE AT MAGIC??? Damn, what happened in the following years to make him change????

The contrast between current Lilia telling Silver "there's nothing left for me to teach you" and past Lilia being like, "there's nothing for me to teach you, are you trying to make fun of me?"

The human faction they're fighting at the moment are the Silver Owls!! There are also people who dress in iron (a metal which harms fae in irl mythology), I'm not sure if they are synonymous with the Silver Owls or not.

IHBFIOASBFIAADSI LORD, THE FAE SOLDIERS ARE ALL MIDDLE SCHOOL NEKO GIRLS HISSING AT US

AYO, SEBEK GRANDPA REVEAL????? ??? ? ? ????? BAL/BAAL/BAUL REAL, I CAN SEE WHERE SEBEK GETS HIS LOOKS AND HIS PERSONALITY FROM

Silver's asking to team up with Lilia and his group (Lilia was about to just leave them there because he's concerned with the Silver Owls setting up camp at the base of the mountain)? Bruh, book 1 we're calming down an angry classmate and book 7 is like, HEY KIDS LET'S TAKE A FIELD TRIP INTO AN ACTIVE WAR ZONE.

Silver's hoping to shock him awake via a fight, here comes a Sebek and Silver tag team battle!! RIP Lilia beats them up a little :v (Sebek. Don't fanboy over his strength, WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES HERE)

Oop, they disorient him with light and Lilia's mask off!! It's treated like a big reveal????? Sorry, but how does Yuu not notice this is Lilia automatically 😅

Lilia voice) you are not my son (and here you can hear Silver's heart breaking/j)

Oh boy, we get to be prisoners of war/j

NOT LILIA ASKING SILVER AND SEBEK HOW THEY KNOW HOW TO FIGHT SO WELL WHEN IT WAS LILIA WHO TRAINED THEM TO BEGIN WITH

"Fae don't go back on their word" AH SO THEY LIKE TO KEEP PROMISES EH

"May the night bless you" seems to be some kind of salute for nocturnal fae?

LOL Lilia's against being called a father OTL THE IRONY HERE IS SO STRONG

Not Sebek's grandpa telling them off for not showing Lilia respect and saying how great he is... Fanboy genes run in the family/j

DOES YUU STILL THINK THIS IS A PERIOD DRAMA OR SOMETHING

BAAL IS CALLING SEBEK A HUMAN KEK

BAL/BAAL/BAUL REAL DROPS THE CROC MASK???? ?? ?? ?? ? He's got SCALES instead of facial hair???? ???? ? ? Oh man, he reminds me so much of Seteth FE3H OTL The scales are a signature trait of the Zigvolt line! Sebek says his mom has the same scales.

NO NOT SEBEK HAVING TO CONFESS THAT HIS DAD BEING HUMAN, IS THIS THE START OF HIS CHARACTER ARC

LILIA TOLD BAAL TO BABYSIT US...

AW Sebek's so excited about seeing his grandpa in his prime... I'm happy seeing Sebek happy OTL

Lilia's dreaming about the past... I wonder if it's because he was thinking about his life and what he has achieved before leaving his loved ones with his legacy...

Lilia first got the invite to NRC 500 years ago??? So NRC has been around much longer than we expected.

Ahhhh, crap 🤡 The return of book 6 limited battles but now with a battle map. There is a new mechanic where HP carries over from each battle; if a card's HP gets knocked to 0, you cannot use them. (5 cards be restored at random if you get to a heart space on the battle map.)

SEBEK'S ACTING AS OUR OLD FAE SPEECH TRANSLATOR (He's throwing his own angry commentary in, which is hilarious)

The humans arrived on a boat ~100 years ago. Now they have a settlement in the east and are mining around Briar Valley + taking the fae's natural resources. (I think this is why Mystium, that shape-shifting magic green ore that Lilia's weapon is made of, is no longer as plentiful; it was likely mined into obscurity.)

Magical creatures are now coming down from the mountain and causing trouble in Briar villages; the fairies cannot handle all of this. Damn, this is just the plot to the first Shrek movie 😂 They're invading Shrek's swamp--

Oh, interesting! So there are different kinds of fae language (depending on the type of fae they are; think of the diurnal fae from Fairy Gala speaking in bell tinkles), but they infuse their voices with magic so they can understand one another. In modern Briar Valley, there is a common tongue. Omg, Sebek speaks it with his mom and grandma! BILINGUAL KING, HE'S SO PROUD OF HIMSELF... Silver tried to learn from Lilia, but he struggled with it; Sebek's dad had the same issue so the problem must be that human ears cannot pick up on the same range of sounds as fae ears can. This is true of real life as well; different creatures have different auditory thresholds and auditory detection ranges.

Bruh, not Lilia sending out literal children to fight for him on the battlefield...

Eh, new character named??? Some human soldiers are talking about Henrich?? Henrik??? Henric??? He's a commander of the Silver Owls who is conceited and dumps his work onto his subordinates. Errrr he apparently also has a little sister named Leia? Lea??? Leah???? Who is rumored to be in a relationship with someone called the Dawn Knight.

More interesting lore????? Kind of???? Some pixies (small fae) come and warn Lilia about something up ahead, then heal them too. This is notable since in Fairy Gala: What If, we learn that diurnal fae (which I believe pixies are) and nocturnal fae (which Lilia and Sebek appear to be) do not like each other. It seems they got along well enough in the past to confront a common enemy?

They reach a Silver Owl camp!! ... Aaand Lilia tells his soldiers to boot them out so they can take over the camp. I mean, it IS technically the fae's land to begin with, so. Uhhhh, yeah I think I'm with Lilia on this one 💦

I don't think iron affects fae negatively in Twisted Wonderland?? Lilia and co. are having no trouble fighting them even when the humans are clad in iron armor.

HMMMM they've named dropped a formidable person on the human side called the Dawn Knight (Lilia mentions them once, then the human soldiers do). The Dawn Knight is the captain of the Silver Owls and even Lilia considers them a strong opponent. Methinks they'll become a key player later...

OH NOOOO 😭 Sebek’s like, “let’s change this fate!!” but since it’s just a dream, reality won’t be altered at all… Then Sebek suggests just. Staying in the dream???? Which makes darkness spawn… The light from Silver’s ring thing (the trinket he got from Lilia as a sign that he is now a full fledged adult) protects them???

Silver fears the dream will tempt him to stay too 😭 He asks Yuu to snap him “awake” if it ever comes to that… Silver, sweet boy… OTL

NOT SILVER AND SEBEK JUMPING IN TO STOP LILIA FROM COOKING FOR THEM (Come to think of it, how have Lilia's soldiers survive this far with him cooking for them???? ?? ??? ?? ?? )

LILIA THINKING THEY'RE GOING TO POISON THEM, THAT'S SO JAMIL ENERGY

Omg... They're acknowledging their Master Chef training (this is the only time they've referenced events in the main story, if I recall correctly)... Silver even prepares a risotto for them all~ (His own favorite food is mushroom risotto, so I like to think of it as he's sharing a piece of himself with the fae.)

asldiuhaodasidba Lilia complaining about the tiny portions in fine dining...

SEBEK PREPARING A ROAST CHICKEN FOR THEM, they're going all out for this one meal??? ? ? ??? ? ?? Poor Sebek though 😭Baal refuses to eat anything Sebek made, he'd rather starve or eat rations than a human's cooking...

AW BAAL BOUGHT SEBEK BOOKS????? And encouraged his love for reading... 😭

Grim taking Baal's portion of food... (Of course... Did we really have any doubts about that?) Sebek really did get his attitude from Baal... Now Baal's going, "Gimme my food back!" after Grim started digging into it... And then Baal has three entire helpings of risotto... THEY HAVE THE SAME INTIMIDATING-YET-ALSO-PATHETIC VIBES

AYO SILHOUETTE FOR MALLEUS'S MOM????? Her name is (Princess) Mallenoa, the only daughter of Maleficia (Malleus's grandma). She lives at a separate palace and commands the military. Lilia also describes her as being extremely powerful, fickle, stubborn, selfish, and easy to anger. He's just tossing out allllllll the adjectives ahdbayodqdq

Ah, so it sounds like humans greatly outnumber the fae??? So they're at a disadvantage. Normally a royal would handle diplomatic stuff like this but for some reason Lilia is being sent? They're traveling on foot to deliver a message to the human encampment to the east; the last messenger (that travelled there via magic?) did not return. Ominous...

Fae nobility are repulsed by the smell of iron? I'm confused, are fae in TWST impacted by iron or not????

Aww, Silver... He's asking his dad to come to school not to learn, but to make special memories there 🥺 Back to "our Night Raven College"...

NOOO NOW THEY'RE FLASHING THROUGH ALL THE DORMS... while Silver and Sebek monologue about how everyone at NRC is very different, but despite how weird they all are, there is a lot that can be learned from their differences. Silver's spreading what he learned from his dad... and the fact that even Sebek pitched in... 😭

Lilia voice) let's make these high school students our pack mules and unpaid chefs and if they fuck up we leave them for dead in these woods where there are monsters lurking about

Man, he's so ruthless????? Lilia will use anyone he can to succeed in his mission... But then the next second he lays into his princess with a smile www

Lilia knew the princess since they were kids ~300 years ago, which puts the current conflict at ~400 years ago from modern day (since present Lilia is ~700 years old).

asdjbasbldbasdi Gotta love the lowkey jabs at classic fairy tales... Lilia says that human princesses may need protecting but not theirs???? (Yet Mallenoa still stays in her castle all day like she's waiting for a prince.)

THE PRINCESS HAS AN EGG... MALLEUS????? IS THAT YOU???? ???? ????? ? ?? ? ? (LOL at Sebek calling it Tamago-sama asghdyqovywqdwp9qbpacpasb) JAHAJAAH BAAL SUS OF THEM BEING INTERESTED IN THE EGG????

Oooh, so dragon eggs only hatch after receiving enough love and magic from the parents??? (Otherwise the egg will not mature and hatch.) The "power of love" is real, you guys 🥺

ANOTHER new character name drop?????? Levan/Revan??? It's a fae that went missing (probably the messenger from earlier??) I-Is that. Is that Malleus's dad???????? (Lilia says that both the princess and Levan/Revan have been pushing their tasks onto him; he has known them both for a long ass time.)

Baal voice) I still don't trust you

Fandom, back at Baal: Sorry (grand)daddy. Sorry. (Grand)daddy? Sorry. (Grand)daddy? Sorry.

Malleus is 178 years old in current day even though his egg existed 400 years ago, so it seems there was a few hundred years of delay before he actually hatched (normally the egg would hatch in 2-3 years). That means Lilia was ~522 when Malleus hatched and ~683 when he found Silver as a newborn (Malleus was ~161). Silver and Sebek think it’s weird that the timeline does not add up; it means Malleus was dormant for quite a while?? Or is the dream world wonky to accommodate for a “happy ending”? Or maybe the history they know is not correct (since earlier in book 7 Lilia mentions how true history can be distorted over time.)

Very sus, apparently there is not a lot known about Briar Valley's history??? Lilia never talked about the past around Silver, and Baal did the same with Sebek. None of the books Sebek read really goes into that history either. In current day, the palace where Malleus's mom resided isn't even there anymore, it's just land. It suddenly became a mystery...

MAN, I've been wondering this whole time why Lilia's happy ending is wartime but maybe. This is the period where Malleus's parents both died???? Maybe his happy ending is saving them??? Instead of them dying and him having to live with the guilt of not being there to protect his friends and his future prince's parents???? (I previously thought it was during war that Malleus hatched and/or Lilia found Silver, but I guess the timeline doesn't make sense there.)

According to Silver, they cannot stray too far from dreamers or else the darkness will return and try to drag them into a deeper sleep.

asdhbasdobasdbas Sebek is SUPER hype to see baby Tamago-sama Malleus...

Sebek points out that Silver is not nodding off (good catch, I actually did not notice this because I was too busy screaming about the lore); sooo when Silver is dream walking, he's consistently alert. It looks like Silver's narcolepsy is an important detail??? (Lilia took him to lots of doctors that didn't know how to help him, Silver does whatever he can to sleep well and to have a sleep schedule.)

OH MY GOD, I DIDN'T REALIZE THAT YUU AND GRIM STILL DIDN'T KNOW LILIA IS SILVER'S DAD. They thought it was a friendly nickname this entire time??? Kind of late to get to that, but alright 😅 We have acquired the Forbidden Knowledge... (SEBEK'S MOM IS WAY OLDER THAN HIS DAD BUT LOOKS WAY YOUNGER?? I mean, I kind of expected that but to have it confirmed just hits different.)

One of the soldiers tells the kids to stfu so they can sleep and so Sebek yells at everyone to stop disturbing them (you know, in his LOUD AS HECK voice).

Water in the Briar Country is cold because it is located up north (it snows a lot!). The lake water usually comes from melted snow. Checks out, I guess?

They're packing up to leave the camp... Reminds me of Mulan!

[Insert boring trek to the Silver Owls' base. Interesting tidbit: some soldiers we run into comment that Silver resembles the Dawn Knight/they didn't know the Dawn Knight had a lover?????? So... that's obviously gotta be an ancestor of Silver's, right??? Also??? The Dawn Knight apparently never removes their helmet, even around subordinates... VERY SUS, SIR

NAYUUURx NOT SeBEK CAViNG TO THE DATKNESS 😭 I feel like??? This is a really big character development moment for him?? He’s always been pretty blindly loyal to Malleus and hateful of humans, but this marks the first time he willingly does something against Malleus’s will and he calls Yuu and Grim by name… Sebek, sweetie… 😭 (Side note: Silver’s been so strong-willed through all of this, but I’m glad that TWST showed he isn’t perfect and infallible; he, too, was tempted to stay in the dream when Sebek started to consider it too.)

bchsheoxndle Something else I enjoy is Baul being so… tsun?? He complains about the kids but keeps an eye out for them anyway (and Sebek in particular)… The paternal vibes are too immaculate to completely squash 😎]

They made it!! Finally!!

UHHHHH THEY'RE FIGHTING A BIG MACHINE AND. LILIA INSTINCTIVELY BLOCKS SILVER?? (He’ll be fine, he’s in his prime 😌)

Oop, Heinrich and the Dawn Knight were supposed to be in the eastern base but they aren't??? Oh no, it looks like. It was a diversion?????? While Lilia and co. are busy at the base, Heinrich launched an attack on the palace where Malleus's mom is???????

AND OF CORUSE THAT'S WHERE WE CUT OFF?????????? BRUH.

OKAY, so this entire update was focused just on Lilia's dream. We have no clue what's happening in Idia's dream or the real world with Ortho??? Which I'm totally fine with; I feel like we learned SO much about Briar Valley's history and important figures in it. That's a very fair trade-off. I loved getting to learn about the conflict between humans and fae, fae culture, and about how Briar Valley (or Country) works. I'm surprised that the characters themselves know so little about the history, but that just makes me worried that that's because it's a dark part of history that was purposefully censored from the textbooks...

There were a lot of new characters introduced in this part, most of them just mentioned by name or silhouette. It really feels like we walked right into the most dire part of a history textbook... So much tragedy has been set up, so many key players put into place... But being that this is Lilia's promised happy ending, surely he must reverse fate and save the day in the end????? Right? Right??? ?????? ?? ??? ? ? ? ? ? ?????? I have my eyes glued to the Draconia family lore and history, I'm READY to absorb it!

Something else I found really fascinating was learning more about Sebek this update! He still has a very arrogant attitude about him (that much hasn't changed), but I loved seeing how he acts different around his grandfather and how excited he gets over little things like seeing Malleus's egg. I think this part also marks the start to his character arc; he is constantly put down time and time again by his grandpa, someone whom he really loves. Sebek is used to his grandpa accepting him for who he is, but now his grandpa is shouting hateful rhetoric and discriminating against him for being half human. It's the same ugly behavior that Sebek slings to other people, but now the shoe's on the other foot and HE'S the victim in these situations. It must no doubt be extremely uncomfortable for Sebek, but it's also forcing him into a situation where he has to look at his own bigotry head-on, and it gives him a chance to reevaluate himself. It's similar to how Vil had to challenge Epel's outdated gender views even when Epel kicked up a fuss every time Vil did. asdhbsaisdbabdil I'm just really invested in Sebek's character arc!!

I think there's a high probability we'll see all of the silhouetted figures in full in a future update, it's clear that we'll eventually be rushing back to check on Malleus's mom at some point. I'm super interested in seeing how Malleus's parents, the Dawn Knight, Lilia, Baal, and Henrik tie together. (And, of course, we NEED to check in with the Shrouds as well.)

I have heard people say that Henrik may be a reference to King Henry from the live action Maleficent? Then that means that the Dawn Knight may be TWST's equivalent to Stefan/Stephan (Aurora's dad) and Henrik/Henric's little sister is Leah/Leia (Aurora's mom)??? Then I've heard other theories that since Malleus's dad vanished, we have no corpse to confirm he is for real dead and maybe he's actually Crowley who went off to buy some milk and never came back???? (Because “Levan” sounds like “raven” and you know who else is a black bird? CROWLEY. Is he. Is he really going to be the Ultimate Absentee Dad by pulling off his mask in front of Malleus and go, “Luke, I am your father” at him????) And then there's those of us who are drooling over new character designs and screaming about how hot Sebek's grandpappy is. Point is, there are so many wild parallels, theories, ideas, and thirst posts flying around right now. I love how this wild update reinvigorated the whole fandom into a new period of theory crafting and other creative works. asdhabsdasdbasdi Every new book 7 update gets more and more hype... I just hope we get part 5 in July!!! Super intrigued by the history of the Briar Valley~

[howlsnteeth]

hi, just wanted you to know that if you ever wanted to like. interest-dump about cotl and your thoughts about the lore/storyline and stuff as ive seen you show in your art, id read PARAGRAPHS. im so curious and love to hear about people's interest in game/story/media lore and the interpersonal relationships within the universe!!! - from an autistic system who has loved your art since like. forever. (u can call us moss)

okay hi moss :3

i'm kind of due for an infodump on my cotl headcanons, so! i'll try be somewhat concise because this is going to be a long post anyway rip. i drew some pictures :D

(i can't really think of any warnings to give outside of usual cotl themes/killed race/dying/blood/etc but let me know)

obviously watching the destruction of your entire race is traumatic as fuck, also because it likely took a few weeks or months to achieve. so they died pretty underweight/weak bodied/pretty shut down. the bishops are gone by the time lamb is revived by toww, and their body hadn't quite made it to a 'body pit' (or food pit). still, they get Their Bell from another of their race on the way out. probably weren't thinking about it too hard and just desperately wanted to grab something while their eyes burned in their sockets and this red crown fit like molded clay in their hand. my lamb has a little notch out of their left ear which was caused while escaping, which ends up never healing because of a few reasons but mostly because i like it.

over the course of the game/story they start to slowly physically change. after revival it takes scars a Long time to fade, considering lamb is technically a walking corpse, and also because of their affiliation with Death (narinder, who has similar i'll mention later). they get dark marked lines under their eyes from that classic 'bleeding eyes' action during rituals/etc. their ears but especially horns get longer and sharper. their way of coping is similar to most lambs, jokes and pulled punches.

by the end of the 'main game/toww fight,' they've already made their choice, and start flexing their control/communication with the red crown itself. it gets harder for toww to view through it, and lamb gets somewhat intoxicated with the idea of an ultimate revenge, having killed all the other bishops. they've done everything they can to stop their cult members noticing signs of weakness, but as things get more stressful this kind of rubberbands around to them seeming extremely unstable. by the time they go to fight toww they're muttering nonstop, barely aware, and also they let their wool get longer and basically end up with a mullet. <3 because it's funny to me

they obviously beat toww and for them it's like a smashing of clarity, like a gripped handle let go, standing up from the river of blood. it's freeing but also the most pain they've ever been in. and instead of killing toww this pit in their stomach spares him. lamb went from a corpse to a god and now, in some sick way, they want to watch a god turn into a living corpse, just like them. because with every other sheep dead, narinder is the only one with a connection to that genocide, the cause of the other bishops doing it.

narinder hates their fucking guts. obvs. he thinks, or knows, that lamb is doing it on purpose. but narinder's body hasn't been normal for far, far too long. even before he was made death (as in artworks i've done with him), his body turned skeletal and rotted away. lacerations open all over his body, but especially down his front torso. when he's first brought to the cult, lamb gives him red robes, also because of this 'problem'. but narinder does every single thing he can against them. he gets white robes and lets them turn bloodied and disturbing to everyone around him.

even washing them stops working, and lamb does resign slightly to letting him sit in his dirty stupid robes. it's the pettiest shit. narinder also keeps his veil, and lamb can't bother with a reason to take it away. let that dumbass keep his yuck robes and veil. you can only stick him the stockade for a week before your other followers get too concerned.

over time, they do end up getting closer, but it comes from a place from both being touched and changed by Death, the red crown, and the choices of the other bishops. it takes a really long time and only after all the other bishops have been recruited (another whole thing). both of them catch themselves enjoying little things, and then having moments of all the pain bleeding through. an example is over time narinder does end up wearing darker robes, but it's fairly gradual. in this piece, it's lamb getting too deep in the countless lives that were taken from their race, triggered by blood (a whole little story thing), and narinder does make the (semi subconscious) choice to wear dark robes.

anyway you're probably looking at that giant shadow in the picture huh. it takes a long time but lamb Does end up truly becoming a bishop.

not 100% done with this design, but it has the basics. their main horns end up breaking off (thinking of a story behind that still). the main thing with them that i really like is they have multiple strings of bells on them. so everyone starts associating the sound of ringing bells as Death. so if you hear them, they're coming for you. that being said, they also have the ability to move completely silently, despite being covered in bells. which adds to the scaring-the-fuck-out-of-everyone factor.

there's a ton more i could get into with the other bishops, ratau, the duck siblings, the crowns themselves, more aym and baal, but i'm probably gonna do more artworks with them so i can talk more then :3 this is already too long lmao

thanks for the ask though!! it's nice knowing people are interested in my stuff :D (it's also worth mentioning that i am also a system and have alters of lamb, narinder, and aym and baal, who all contribute to this stuff)

[monoclesnapple]

Tear My Heart, Tear Me Down, Tear Everything Apart

Bungo Stray Dogs Chuuya Nakahara X Gender Neutral Reader Beginning Note: I don't know why I wrote what I did for the first two paragraphs. I just wanted something messy, and now that I'm posting it, Why? (It's not a big deal, really.) Word Count: 374 (Suggestive/Implied Nsfw at the end)

The door slammed open, hitting the wall with its knob. Chuuya’s lips were all over your own, a sloppy make out session that wasn’t paused, even when he kicked the door closed and pushed you against the wooden surface. You snuck a hand to lock it, pulling it back up and wrapping it around Chuuya’s throat. You squeezed it, drawing a moan from the short man, muffled by your lips.

 His tongue was buried deep inside your mouth, spit coating it, with some drool seeping out from the openings. After a few minutes, the two of you relocated to your shared bedroom, Chuuya carrying you, and he set you down on the middle of the bed. You finally separated, panting with a string of saliva connecting you both. You licked his lips, getting rid of said string.

 Chuuya was on top of you. he leaned down and began pressing kisses along your jaw and neck, going down to your chest and leaving marks due to bites. The two of you were getting impatient, so you started unbuttoning his vest and button up shirt, his overcoat and cropped jacket having been removed at the door. While you were at least patient enough to gently remove his layers, Chuuya wasn’t. He took both his hands and tore your shirt apart, the sound of the fabric ripping loudly made you stop and look at him.

 “Chuuya...?” you let out.

 Noticing the change in mood of the room, he made eye contact with you and paused his movements as well. “Huh?”

 You pressed your lips in a tight line, looking down at your chest. You quietly muttered, “I liked that shirt.”

 Chuuya blinked, looked down as well and saw the piece of fabric that was originally your shirt. He immediately felt bad as he looked at your face that had a hint of sadness or disappointment in your expression.

 “Sorry...” When you looked up at him, he really did seem remorseful. You cupped his cheek and gently kissed him. He let out a soft hum, “Can I make it up to you? Treat you good, or even let you take the reigns this time?”

 You thought about it and made your decision. This would be a long night.

[mauesartetc]

PSA regarding character design asks

For those of you who are new here, if you take a look at the "character design" tag in this blog's archive, you'll notice I post a fair bit about the subject, sometimes helping others improve their own designs. I love getting these kinds of asks, as working out design kinks is a fun challenge for me (despite urgent life shit delaying my response times. Folks who've sent me design asks in the past few months: They're in my drafts and I thank you for your patience).

But recently I received an ask that displayed some rather disappointing behavior, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to nip it in the bud. This isn't a callout post, and I'm not trying to sic the shame squad on this person. I just want to stress to all of you that this isn't okay.

The ask included an image of a character they drew and some brief paragraphs of background information. Typical fare for this kind of ask. Everything was fine until the last two sentences.

I have to confess that I shamelessly stole the [clothing article] from [someone else's character design]. But since [worldbuilding info related to a real-life thing the other person's design was based on], it made perfect sense.

I looked up the original design they were referring to, and sure enough, they had traced so much of it that half of their design wasn't really theirs. Because it "made perfect sense."

I'm going to say this in the most civil way I possibly can.

ANYTHING. Would have made more sense. Than art theft.

"But Maue, it's just part of a design, not the whole thing". Doesn't matter. Theft is theft. And I want to make it clear to everyone reading this that if you think it's in any way acceptable to rip off another character designer, my posts haven't taught you a damn thing. Frankly I'm a bit insulted that this person assumed I'd be complicit in this.

For the record, professional designers do NOT steal from others, or at least the good ones don't. They might be inspired by an existing design, but, importantly, they'll use other inspirations too, and put their own unique spin on it. It's just a starting point, not the final product.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this ain't just imitation; it's the equivalent of copying another kid's homework in school. This is cheating. I've had one of my own characters shamelessly ripped off before, and there was nothing flattering about it. It just made me feel used, like a parasite had sucked me dry. I never want anyone else to feel that way, and I hope to God none of y'all do either.

Folks, if you want to design your own characters, do the research and actually design your own characters. It's really not that hard. Sure, the first attempts might look terrible, but at least they'll come by their shittiness honestly. Ugly art that tried has infinitely more charm than gorgeous art that didn't.

I'm sorry if this comes off as harsh, but I take this shit seriously. So please don't send me asks containing stolen artwork. I won't respond and you'll earn yourself a block. Fair warning.

Don't get lazy. You know better, so do better.

Thanks.

[celestie0]

hi, love! how are you today? are you doing well? is work treating you good?

i hope you are doing well! flowers 💐 for my favourite girlie ✨

also have you got any tips for new writers? like i’ve been tryna write this fanfic but i cannot really understand how to keep it flowing without forcing it out, and i’m hoping you can help us out. its absolutely fine if you’re busy or cannot for any reason. no pressure truly🥹

🫶💌

hellooo i’m doing well thank you 🥺💕 work is well i just got home, its rainy where i live so i made some hot cocoa and im just in bed now. i hope you’re feeling better i know you said you were sick <3 🌤️🌤️ some sunshine for you!

ohhh to be asked for writers tips is so flattering! i tried to think of my top few, and i have them below the read line :”) hope they help in some way and if you do end up posting your works don’t hesitate to tag me i would love to read them <3

my writing tips ₊˚⊹ ᰔ

dialogue. this one is toughhh bc i feel like a lot can ride on dialogue. my biggest tip for dialogue would be to just write all of your dialogue for a scene completely stripped down. none of the “he says” & “she says” or action verbs inbetween, just write it all out like it was a simple text convo w quotation marks. that way the words will sound realistic because you’re only picturing a convo in your head, rather than also trying to juggle all the descriptive prose. after you’ve got the dialogue, then you can go back in to fluff things up. if it’s meant to be comedic or a fast-paced argument, i think keeping it relatively stripped down is the way to go, but if it’s something intense or suspenseful then fluffing it up may be the better choice. also, i find dialogue becomes easier the more you write for a specific character, so if it’s not flowing right away, don’t worry!! their words will find you eventually once you get to know the character better :)

on choosing conflicts. this can be harddd because sometimes you just want the story to exist in happy land haha. but just like you said so beautifully in the sweet kickoff ch8 review you gave me, characters won’t always act perfect, but i think a great way to make conflict seem realistic is for them to act in character but with flaws, rather than just randomly out of character with flaws. maybe make a list of what that character’s good qualities and how those qualities could also work against them, and use the latter to brainstorm realistic conflict that those qualities could put them in (ex: a character is self-sufficient, but that causes them to rely on ppl less when they need it -> they fail to reach out for help in timely manners and leads to mistakes/regrets)

pacing. the biggessstt most important thing in my opinion for writing i believe is nailing the pacing. especially for fanfiction where people may be more interested in specific niche scenes rather than all of the stuff built around it. when starting off a story, don’t be afraid to just jump straight into it! or jump straight into the dialogue and then build the scene gradually as it progresses, rather than [gigantic block of text in beginning of scene that reader must drag their eyes through] and then get to the dialogue (im sooo bad w this myself lmao i fluff things up too much). in a world where attention spans are decreasing (rip), a lot of the times less is more. make sure the pacing fits the scene (romantic -> longer paragraphs more focused on subtle details, comical -> short paragraphs w simple n relatable diction, etc)

creating characters. with fanfiction this can be easy since you already have fleshed out characters from shows/books to work off of, but a good way to characterize is to just include little details that give them personality! not only is it a way to allow the reader to resonate with the character, but also it gives other characters in the story an opportunity to notice those lil quirks and create bonds over them as well. i just picture my friends or family in my head, the things i love about them, and incorporate it (i know nothing about film photography but my friend is a film major n thats where i got the idea for mc in kickoff)

for tone and mood. i think to get words flowing for different scenes, it can be really useful to get into the environment of those scenes while you’re writing, such as listening to a song that fits the vibe of the scene prior to/during writing (i blasted tgif by katy perry while writing the party scenes in ch6 of kickoff lol), or if its a scene at night, write it w the lights off, or watch a youtube vid w scenery that matches. may sound silly, but it could help! if i write something angsty in a really bright sunshine environment it’s hard for me to get the words

read more. this is sort of a miscellaneous one but a good way to subconsciously get better at writing is to just read more! your brain kinda learns how to write on its own when you read. also, when i’m reading, if i see words i really like i jot them down in my notes app so i have my own lil vocabulary of words that i know i would like to use in my writing

on writing insecurities. be proud of your writing!! your first draft does NOT have to be perfect. some days the words will flow, but on some they won’t, and that’s okay. don’t get too into your head about “i wonder what readers will think of this plot point or this character action” etc, i think having faith in your own process but also in your readers will bring you a lot of peace as you write :) create what you want to create and the rest will follow!! when i first started posting kickoff i was overthinking sooo many things that ended up being received just fine by readers in the end, so just stick to your plan 🫶🏼💕

use chatgpt. looool ai can be useful in writing too! i usually only use it after i'm completed with a draft, and i just plug select paragraphs into it to see if it can come up with some better words for me to use. it's also useful to come up with logistical details for aspects of your stories for world-building etc (no clue anything ab professional collegiate soccer games i've never been to one but i used chatgpt to come up with the scenes)

woooow i wrote way more than i thought i would haha but i hope this helps!! ive never given tips before so idk if these only make sense to me 💀 but hopefully they can be applied to what you’re looking to write as well :)

[artbyblastweave]

Currently on episode 3 (2?) of MAWS. A few notes: One interesting thing about S:TAS is that you got an excellent sense of what the post-Superman status-quo was displacing. The first episode after the pilot involved Bruno Manheim, a conventional mob boss, running afoul of the Toyman, one of the first of the new crop of supercriminals, in a way that reminds me of The Long Halloween. Whenever Bruno Manheim shows up for the rest of the series, it's in the context of his struggle to remain relevant until he's killed while trying to be a cats paw for Darkseid. In the S:TAS pilot, Lex Luthor's big plan was an under-the-table attempt to evade an arms embargo and sell the combat robots to a post-soviet state; a very ripped-from-the-headlines plot for the 1990s, interrupted only by the abrupt injection of an out-of-context problem in the form of a Superhero. The show had a lot of nods like that, to the way in which Superman and company were beginning to upend a world that was, in terms of its economy and geopolitics, at least a little like our own. Justice League took it further- demonstrating that Superman has a positive impact on nuclear disarmament policy, but then further demonstrating the government's antsiness about the overall shift in the balance of power towards the Justice League, with their secret killsat and so on. However. The series was aware of how the world was changing, but didn't advance a precise mechanism for why all the disparate weirdness happened to kick off all at once, in time for Superman to encounter and fight it. Because that was pure Doylism- Now that Superman exists, wacky stuff needs to start happening so he can have something to fight each week. MAWS patches this from a watsonian perspective- there's a common (Kryptonian) origin of most of the supervillians Superman is going up against. However, there's a level on which this has made (all two episodes) feel siloed away from the world at large, in a way that the first two (four?) episodes of S:TAS didn't. Intergang goes from an established Mafia-style crime syndicate desperately using alien tech to remain competitive in a post-Superman world, to three comically-incompetent crooks who could barely knock over a convenience store. The robots go from a human technology built for war profiteering reasons to (implicitly) salvaged Braniac-tech. The arms-dealing plot is still present but it's a bit less clear on the face of it who's bankrolling this and who was supposed to be buying it. Cadmus is the strongest tie that this show has to the sense of realpolitik or the balance of power or whatever it is you want to call it, which was threaded through the older shows at a pretty deep level.

There's a level on which I'm being extremely unfair, because I'm comparing 60 mins of worldbuilding to a continuity that ran 15 years and probably close to a hundred hours- this could plausibly go anywhere. Indeed. One aesthetic criticism I had of the show, which I'm walking back before having even made a post about it, is that with the kryptonian tech meta-origin, I thought they were getting dangerously close to doing the MCU thing of villains who show up in costumes-that-are-barely-costumes, street-clothes or military-wear augmented by a few gadgets, with some aesthetic signifiers referring to the more costume-like costumes they had in the comics. Then I did a quick scan of S:TAS and noticed that very few villains in that are actually wearing costume-costumes- instead, it's altered physiologies, experimental bodysuits that look like skintight spandex in the abstracted artstyle of S:TAS, or clothing that's just the style in the alien society that they're from. Villains who are clearly wearing considered costumes are much more prominent in Justice League- set years after S:TAS, when the precedent for costumed villainy has had time to solidify. This last paragraph was what this post was originally going to be about, incidentally.

[croakings]

breaking my loz silence to be a hater but also, here's how totk can still win

i will preface this with the thesis but also bear with me, ok, so: let it be known that in most circumstances, like most people probably, i hate when stories go "And It Was All A Dream!!!"

however. under some certain conditions. it is So Tasty. and i think totk is like. i'm sorry i think this is the only thing that can redeem the story of that game even somewhat. to me. this is all obviously just going to be my own personal opinion if you liked totk you are valid etc and so on and so forth but this is probably not the post for you

a minor point i want to start off with is that we were promised majora's mask vibes and they did not (imo)(this will be the last qualifier/clarification as far as that goes just stick "imo" everywhere in your brain for me please. thanks) deliver on that so much...... UNLESS MY UPCOMING TINFOIL HAT/COPING "THEORY" APPLIES! (there is absolutely no evidence or support for any of this whatsoever.)

i know people have come up with theories and Themes Analyses as to why the totk ending is good and makes sense and i did like a lot of those, and those people are very smart, however what they do not take into account is that i do not like it. if there's one thing i hate more than It Was Never Real In The First Place, it's And Actually None Of That Mattered That Much At All!..........

unless! It Was Never Real In The First Place!!!!!!!!! (<- IWNRITFP)

SO many of my personal gripes with totk are solved by making "the primary impact of these events is just like. emotional there aren't a lot of other consequences if any" follow the caveat of Because IWNRITFP!!!

"but bug" you might say, "what the fuck are you talking about". that's fair despite all those paragraphs i've said very little. i understand.

i am team "pissed off about the arm". team "ZONAI??????? AAAAAAAGGHHHH". team "AND WHY DOES IT ALL DISAPPEAR IN THE END ANYWAY COME O—". team hater. if you will. zelda doesn't even get to have any dragon features stick around like come. ON. ok anyway

also. we have the Monarchy Good Let's Keep Doing That Actually. despite. gestures at all of botw and the info we get of link and zelda post-botw pre-totk. where they're like. really not so much doing the monarchy. is the thing. and that seems really great for them in fact. and this seems really kind of silly outside of it really being needed to continue The Cycle. of loz games. and in loz games. which is that there is a princess and link punches things. and monarchies are a little necessary for point one. there.

but also some of you know me. you know what my favorite activity is. it's Making Up Lore To Explain Mechanics/Whatever i know this is not mechanics it's like. Video Game more broadly. franchise continuity. and that too. put that after the slash idk how to phrase that. so here's the thing.

they go down to the castle murder basement. right. gloom is there. it's spooky. things Go Wrong. tale as old as time.

this is a reach but cope with me. bear with me. what if. the murder basement. is the last real thing that actually happens. (until the ganon fight)(i think)(disclaimer: i have played only like 35 hrs of totk and the greater portion of that was mapping out the depths. so please understand i hate this game and this essay is based on information i gathered trying not to be doomed to hate this game/attempting to gain motivation to like. actually play it.)(if you notice i barely succeeded. if at all. rip)(one of the first things i did was collect the dragon tear memories and that INSTANTLY made me tap out. iykyk y'know.)

I KNOW. BUT. HEAR ME OUT.

here's the story of totk: link and zelda go down to the catacombs. neither of them come out. like. link does. sort of. i guess. if you ask some people. but like. nothing he does seems to matter or affect people. or. most things. with a few direct Plot Related exceptions. no one recognizes him the famous Savior Of Hyrule (the sword one)(not the princess the other one) who has spent literal multiple years scurrying around speaking to without hyperbole every single person in the country probably multiple times in insane circumstances pretty much every time. everyone is just Have You Heard The Legend Of Press Down B To Slash Fancy AND I SOLVE THIS TOO. with Game Theory.

WHAT IF. what if. ganon's last hurrah. ganon who like. constantly loses. and is repeatedly killed by teenagers at best and children not infrequently. is to see these guys who pretty well won. because they lost. who have a pretty good chance of doing things differently. where he can't. and/or won't. who can set hyrule in a different direction, if they're allowed to continue on. does not let them continue on. "lol they're traumatized young adults," he might say, "i am The Scourge Of Millennia and HERE. is how i can still win." (<- loses)(inevitably)(of course)(BUT HE CAN TAKE THEM DOWN WITH HIM.)

what. if IWNRITFP. maybe we can say the zonai in some capacity WERE real idk. this is irrelevant to my essay but i do like the thought they're just Early Hyrule and we know nothing more about them that's true than we did in botw. i think it would be incredibly good soup if ganon just made EVERYTHING about zonai and the Ancient Times that we see and learn of in totk. just. completely up. this also solved how ganondorf (and also rauru and sonia like character-wise) kind of sucks in this game tbh: because he's The Villain. he's MADE himself THE villain. what are his motivations? you may ask. what the hell is he trying to do? what on earth is even going on with zelda and co in the past? irrelevant. you see if he is as cartoonishly evil as possible and makes zelda and co (The Good Guys)(So Good Guys Wouldn't It Suck If Something Like Killed Them Mercilessly Or Whatever) completely miserable and sets up the perfect, most unassailable dichotomy in her mind of Me Evil, Monarchy (You) Good then zelda and link who are already traumatized can just be pushed more firmly into The Cycle if he just. makes them live out a nightmarish reality he constructs of "nothing that they are or have been matters and they have to cast it all aside to be The Princess and The Hero" and keep that going forever. because without them(The Princess and The Hero) there is only Him (The Villain). they HAVE to be in the cycle to keep him from winning the cycle by default. don't they. right. sure they do don't look at the man behind the curtain what man. who said that.

also the sages!!!! Bloodlines!!! Of Course It's About Bloodlines!!!!!! it's the cycle!!

and see the thing is link and zelda come out of the catacombs with Dragon Ganon Defeated and that can be real. that's the story. link and zelda come out of the catacombs. they have experienced once again a bunch of things that no one else had anything to do with or could be reasonably aware of and there is nothing they can do about it, and they can try to talk about it but everyone else really truly it cannot be emphasized enough was just doing other things.

also!!!! this makes the depths like. less. [picture so-so gesture here.]

i mean. they're still like. more should have been done with the depths. more (or less) should have been done with all of totk but i'm exhibiting favoritism here. the depths make sense if IWNRITFP. the yiga are down in an empty inverted-ish Ghost Monster Hyrule doing loony toons. they are also. cartoonishly. evil(?). do the yiga have a point? in totk? like. really? do they. (other than Mechanics.) well. do they NEED one? link loots stuff and knowledge from them. as in: you have to know things in dreams. somehow. sometimes. what i'm trying to get at here is aren't the depths and the yiga so much more funny if ganon is literally just making them up. like "here is Evil hyrule (look at the ghosts of all those you've failed) with my Evil minions (evil)(like me)(cartoonishly evil and bumbling)(this is a dry joke sarcasm HUMOR. if you will.)(what if ganon is like "oh yeah the yiga my doomsday death cult in botw what was going on with— did link throw that guy down a hole. that's hilarious. i'm going to make a whole thing about that.) and my Evil loot here have relics of past heroes. this doesn't mean anything btw don't worry about it just put them on. yes Put The Tunic On no don't think about it i'm not even here. what. who said that"

like. OH of COURSE no one recognizes you or says much of anything that doesn't somehow give you instructions or tasks to do if IWNRITFP. like. ganon doesn't care. link doesn't care!!! that's something people do. when he is running around trying to save the world. that makes sense..... DREAM SENSE.

do you all see my vision. is this anything. had i played more than 5% of the game or read more stuff i could probably expand on this or be at all coherent but DO YOU GET IT. am i communicating. please take this and run with it THIS is how we can still get majora's mask and. COSMIC DOOM AND HORROR also again justice for ganondorf (and zelda)(and link) on this one WHAT IF. he was evil. what if he was FUNNY. what if totk were good.

ganon with the last vestiges of his Evil Power from his corpse under the castle sealed for There Can Still Be A Good Story There: if two guys were on the moon and one guy killed another guy with a rock would that be fucked up or what. also wouldn't it be cool if i were a dragon. i’d like to be a dragon. i can make that happen and sort of kind of make sense. as a treat. while also doing that to the princess while tormenting her with (More) Visions.

welcome to his twisted mind...... mine.......... minecraft server. hey gamers have you ever THE CYCLE THE CYCLE GET BACK IN THE CYCLE

life could be a dream. IT COULD BE A DREAM

[darnestdungeon]

Tumblr started turning gifs into webp when you try to save them, so here’s the link for the walking DD heroes from my previous post, in case you want them!

Put them under your email signature, it will sure look professional :)

I’ve got the idea to make those gifs after seeing this post, it just looked so cute! Little guys walking across your screen! What if I did the same with the gifs I ripped from Darkest Dungeon? My mind was set, I just needed to make a gif slide to the right, how hard could that be?

(…A lengthy backstage process after the read more...)

If you have an easy solution that could have ended my headache much sooner, please let me know, I'd love to learn. But yeah, it didn’t take long before I noticed I had no clue how to achieve my goal. The problem consisted in how to deal with two simultaneous but different types of movement in one gif (the walking animation + the sliding to the right animation), all while preserving the quality and transparency.

First thing that came into mind was manually moving each frame of the walking gifs a little to the right but it would take SO much time and it would be SO boring I refused to even consider it again. Even with automate actions it would take so fucking long, there have got to be a better way, I mean, it was literally just sliding a gif to the right.

I’ve tried searching for sites that could let me do it to no avail. I did find GIPHY’s gif editor though, it allowed me to edit the gifs in very pleasing ways, totally not vomit inducing (albeit not transparent, it lost some points on that front).

I’ve considered some screen capture gimmicks with an open source software called ScreenToGif but I already knew from experience that the background removal function leaves behind ugly artifacts in the borders of the gifs, same thing with OBS.

I’ve tried looking up in DragonBones, the very own software I’ve used to export the game assets, but I could not figure out a way to make the whole thing move together all while having the regular animation play on loop, if that makes sense? But then again, I didn’t look much into it because I’ve finally had an idea that would work!

I could use a video editing software to make it all happen! I even had a very good open source software installed already, kdenlive! There was an initial problem where I could not figure out how to preserve the transparency, kdenlive would always render the gifs with black backgrounds. But after some googling I’ve found out you could render a video with alpha, so all I would have to do in the end was to convert the video back into a gif!!

First, I’ve rendered a video consisting of 10 sequences in a row of the walking hero gif, so the loop was long enough so they could walk all the way across the borders of the video (the original gif only lasted 1 second). I’ve done that 18 times, one for each hero– NOT counting all the times I had to try and try again for some, ignore the rest of the paragraph, it’s all technical problems. Some kept turning out with white borders around the heroes for some unknown reason (anti, sb, crusader and arb). The problem went away after I used the original untrimmed gif for each of them but THEN I had to redo crusader’s gif from the DragonBones project up because there was too much empty space around his gif in particular and then it would look small in the end if I hadn’t redone it. Reynauld, always the problem boy.

Then I had to find out how to change kdenlive’s project resolution to fit each final gif dimensions. I guess I didn’t quite figured out how to change it in the end, but I did notice whenever you bring an image that’s not quite the size of the default project, the software would ask if you wanted to switch to that resolution. So I took note of each of their heights and then saved white rectangles measuring 2000px width x their respective heights. All I had to do now was drop the right rectangle into the project before editing said hero and we’re set!

I’ve chosen 2000px as width resolution because then the gifs would look very tiny when sized down in Tumblr’s dashboard! But afterwards I realized that choice meant I could not optimally use my convertor of choice (EZGIF.com, a free and excellent gif editing site) to turn the videos back into gifs, because there was a limit on the resolutions, the gifs with height higher than 300 would turn out all deformed, and the other option would make the quality way too shitty. Luckily by the end I found out Photoshop had an option to import videos as animation frames, and all I had to do was save them as gif directly from PS, with no resolution constraints!

Anyways, let’s wrap this up because I’m getting incredible tired just from recalling and typing it up everything that I’ve done yesterday. I’ve literally spent the entire day on this silly project.

After I had the alpha movs of their looping walk cycles, all I had to do was to drop the respective rectangle into the project (to change the project's resolution to match it to the hero’s height) and then drag the mov to the timeline and apply a transformation effect with two key frames: one at the start of the clip moving the clip so it starts from out of the left border of the screen, and the other key frame by the end of the clip, with the clip ending outside the right border. Doing it so would make the whole clip slide across the screen, appearing on the left and disappearing on the right!

I also had to figure out how to make it start with them already on the screen instead of the gif starting on an empty screen, but cutting the video would interfere with the transformation effects, so I had to render it first and edit it again later (I cut a little bit of the beginning of the video and pasted it back on the end). Luckily rendering those tiny gifs only took like 3 seconds each, because I basically had to do it thrice for each gifs.

After turning them all back into gifs in PS it was done!! I saved two versions, one original sized and one 50% smaller, just because I know there are people out there with internet connections that could not handle loading a gifset of 10 gifs at around 4MB each.

And that was it, I’ve learned a lot, I’m never doing anything like this again :)) thanks for reading it all if you did, I'm so so tired

[gigakoops]

I'm seeing articles talking about Bobby Kotick talking about reviving Guitar Hero using AI, and everything about this upsets my rhythm-game-loving ass. For one I don't want to be tempted to buy another Activision game ever again. But then, if they start using AI to do stuff like note charts, it's not going to go very well and it's going to be awful to play.

So if you've seen my username anywhere else, it's likely been in the Clone Hero/Rock Band communities. I make custom note charts, and have been charting since 2011, when I worked on the Rock Band Network. So I know the in's and out's of what goes into a note chart. There's a lot of nuance that goes into these things, and when making a chart I always notice new details, even with songs I've heard hundreds of times. I don't trust an algorithm to notice such things.

I'm also left thinking about CAT, a program used at C3 (a big ol' hub for Rock Band customs that I've pretty much cut ties with at this point) to generate lower difficulties and such. And let me tell you, the results there are subpar at best. You can instantly tell how mechanical it all feels, as if there was no thought put into the note orders, or even the actual rules to how these lower difficulties work. And that's an algorithm that uses existing Expert charts as a basis!

AI-generated Expert charts would be a fucking nightmare. Instead of charts that flow well with the music, and account for all the little details in actual instrument lines, you'll get some clunky thing that technically works, but doesn't feel "right" with the music. Like, imagine playing a song, and while the notes are technically on-beat, it feels like the chords are charted in a way that feels unnatural, and there's a lack of polish when it comes to little licks and such. That's how I imagine an AI chart feeling, and it'd be downright dreadful.

There's also the thought of "What if they use existing charts to train the AI," which leaves two possible outcomes, neither of which are great. The lesser-bad one would be them using old Guitar Hero charts to train the AI. The GH series in general is pretty all over the place with chart quality, leaning oftentimes towards "overcharted" due to charting power chords as three-note chords, and sometimes just charting notes that aren't there for the sake of challenge. That's also the style of the series post-Harmonix, is to be really challenging. But also, I don't see that as being a good basis to train an AI to make charts by today's standards.

Which leads to my biggest fear: using custom charts (mostly Clone Hero charts most likely) to train this AI. And let me tell you right now, I don't consent to this. No way in Hell do I think it's an ethical thing to do to train an AI using potentially hundreds of other peoples' charts. Charting itself is an artform, and I think it'd be horrendous to just steal other peoples' styles so that you can save time on your cash-in revival.

This was originally going to be just the first paragraph, but then I decided to elaborate further until it became, well, all this. Still, I really hope that if they decide to revive Guitar Hero, that they actually hire people to make charts, because the idea of an AI seeing a Skrillex overchart, then ripping off that style for an Alter Bridge song or some shit is going to keep me up at night.

[voidthewanderer]

WIP Wednesday

I was tagged by @bury-me-standing for today! Thanks!

The sketch layer, just like the last post with this pic, is hidden because it's just nothing but chaos with it showing. I'm taking a little bit more time to study some of my favorite artists and how they draw ghoul noses because I really just gotta figure it out having a majority ghoul character line up. So yeah, working on Ripper holding his kid.

But also, here, have some of the draft from A Different Life because I've been working on it pretty religiously as well. Here's the first few paragraphs of the second draft of chapter three. It's supposed to be a little bit more of a feel good type story with some minor, more realistic everyday conflicts rather than some of the over the more major conflicts that happen less often.

“Arsenic…”

The ghoul gave a soft groan, rolling over slightly, though didn’t open his eyes.

“Arsen~”

The voice had a soft warble to it now, despite the roughness. A soft touch on his arm garnered another soft groan, his own voice reflecting his groggy state, “Babe…”

“Baby, wake up…” Another hum, the hand lightly caressing his arm. His muscle twitched slightly at the touch, him finally opening an eye, smile soft on his lips, “What is it, babe?”

“I’ve got a little surprise for you.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle, tucking his elbows beneath his back to prop himself up, “Damn… we get engaged an’ I get t’ have ya back in my life again. What more could I get t’ make this even better?”

“Get up and I’ll show you,” Crow chirped, ducking in to peck his cheek; him humming softly at the affection. He stretched slightly before pushing himself out of the bed to get dressed. Nothing major, at least not for today since he wasn’t cooking; a plain tank top and sweatpants. As he turned back to face Crow, he’d caught their gaze wandering before completely adverting it when they noticed they’d been caught. A smirk crept on his face, “Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout, babe?”

“Just come on,” Crow turned and trotted out of the room before Arsenic could even take his first step, needing to widen his stride to catch up the the smaller ghoul. He could tell that they were still at least curious about everything, but was having a hard time processing their actual thoughts when it was brought up. It was a topic that they’d only discussed once and that had been the day they got together. Nobody knew what tragedy would happen eight months later…

Crow led Arsenic to the communal kitchen, holding a mug out to him, “Here.”

He glanced to it, confused, “What’s all this?”

“Well…we never really got to, y’know, start our lives as a couple. To really do things as a couple living together. I wanna start with this.” This raised a smile, his voice much softer than before as he carefully took the mug, “Of course, baby…”

Once Crow had grabbed their mug, the duo headed to the couch. Arsenic only had a moment to get settled before Crow practically curled up into his lap, hugging their mug close to their chest and pulling his free arm around their waist. He tightened his hold, shifting his legs so they were cradled against him, “There we go…”

They fell into a peaceful quiet, the warmth of just being together comforting. Some of the other ghouls started to shuffle about in their own morning routines before heading out to work. None of them paid any mind to the couple; though most feared that they’d probably get ripped a new one if they made a comment. Crow cuddled up more against Arsenic’s chest, him stifling a groan as they spoke, “What’d’ya think? Maybe we can get up early, make ourselves some coffee together and just… cuddle. I know you’re really not the type to but-”

“Shh… I’d love t’ keep doin’ this,” he chuffed, “Gotta remember, I was on th’ go for a long damn time. Don’t gotta do that anymore. Somethin’ small like this? It’ll be nice. This is my home. An’ I think it’ll be a learning experience for us both.”

[kazoosandfannypacks]

🧿☀️🍓💺 for the ask game???

🧿: Which fandom would you like to live in?

I think it would be fun to live in the tangled fandom!

☀️: Kiss/Marry/Kill the last character you wrote, the last character you saw on a post and the last character in your camera roll

Kiss- Uhhh, I'mma go with the last character in my camera roll, which is Garfield. Putting a little forehead kiss on my favorite fat orange cat.

Marry- last character I wrote, which is Lord James Hubert John Fergus Saltyre, the fifteenth earl of Mount Dunstan. He is 10000000% goals and I would be very content with that setup.

Kill- Last character I saw on a post happened to be Neal Cassidy. Sorry. RIP Neal.

🍓: Dead character you want to bring back to life

Robin Hood from OUaT! His death was super unnecessary!!!!!!!

💺: Share an excerpt from your first story that you wrote

Here's the opening paragraphs from the first novel I ever finished drafting, The Prince and The Farmgirl, which many of you guys may know a little bit about from my post about effective situational comedy, and which features narrations by snarky teenage kazzy.

1. The First Chapter, About Stuff You Might Find Useful  Once upon a time, or perhaps never at all, in the castle of the kingdom of Royaume, the crown prince sat alone and invisible. Not invisible in the literal sense of the word, but invisible in the sense that you and I feel every day, deep within us, an invisible that echoed through the prince's bones.   Now, I imagine the first thing you're wondering, is why does this prince matter? Aren't these kinds of stories about princesses and knights who win their hands in battle, and ride off into the sunset? Honestly, I've noticed that trope in so many stories, the stories where the rich princess marries her poor farmboy- the girl gives up her status and rank and position for love- and while this is a truly noble cause, that's not what this story is about. This story is not intended to be one of those stories. This story is intended to turn those stories on their head. This is a story where things turn out exactly as they should, but never as you'd expect. This story may throw you for a loop or two, as any good story should, but never in a way you never could've seen coming. This is the story of an ordinarily extraordinary boy who meets an extraordinarily ordinary girl.  So, I assume by now, you'd like to get to know this prince. I imagine your mind, like mine, is racing with questions, questions like "What's his name?" "How does he view life?" "What's going on in his family?" "And what makes this nobody of a somebody important enough to get his own story told?" Well, I suppose I'll start to answer these questions, although you haven't bothered to ask them (and even if you had, I wouldn't've been obligated to tell you anyways, as we authors have the right to remain silent so the readership can figure it out for themselves.)  The Prince's name was Adar Griffith, which, if I did my research properly, is just two names that mean "prince." Yup, good ol' King Malik and Queen Regina must've thought long and hard before naming their son Prince Prince Prince. (I mean, it could also be that I'm a lazy author who can't be expected to come up with beautiful, inspirational names for each and every character.)

Mutuals ask game!

[birlwrites]

regulus comforting barty in the last chapter was so !!!!!

I WOULDNT RIDE OFF INTO THE SUNSET WITHOUT YOU

THEMTHEMTHEMEHDHHDHSHDE

can u maybe talk about bartys thought process in this scene, ik regulus noticed him shutting down a bit but is he the type to overthinkiverthinkoverthink or just have sirens and screaming and crashing noises in his head when he's panicking

THANK YOU!!!

regulus does not overthink an emotional conversation one (1) time and accidentally POPS OFF with THERE'S NO HAPPY ENDING FOR ME UNLESS YOU'RE IN IT

barty's more of the *record scratch* *sirens* type, he doesn't really spiral the same way regulus does, it's a Red Flag Red Flag Red Flag sort of thing

buuuuut this scene isn't very long SO! i'm just going to go through the entire thing

(i'll be including direct quotes from chapter 54 below the cut, but i'm not going to tag this as spoilers since it's a chapter that's already been posted)

so, first of all: barty comes in expecting this to be about the war. that's important because that's his mental context - this is about battle and loyalty and allegiance and intelligence and whether evan is trustworthy. because 'is evan trustworthy' was a question barty and regulus were asking each other YESTERDAY. LITERALLY THE PREVIOUS DAY. (a lot of words have elapsed since it's a busy couple of days for regulus, but like, THAT WAS SUNDAY. THIS IS MONDAY. TECHNICALLY TUESDAY BECAUSE IT'S AFTER MIDNIGHT BUT EMOTIONALLY MONDAY.)

and he is also tired and that's important too!! he is not alert, his brain is slow, he doesn't have Overthinking Everything About Evan to keep him awake (regulus has been vibrating out of his skin for the past 20 minutes at LEAST). like he's paying *attention* because this seems *important* but he is tired.

so right away: regulus goes off script. he's talking around stuff. he's mentioning lucinda???? lucinda's not involved in the war?????

this is when barty begins to get the sense that maybe he made an incorrect assumption about why he was being summoned at 2 in the morning. but he really does not know where regulus is going with this, so it's not an 'ohmygod feelings' moment, it's a '?????' moment. hence his visual confusion - he's very much lost already. regulus what. just tell me. i am so sleepy

but there's a long pause there!! and in that long pause, barty has the thought of: lucinda was gossiping about people yearning for each other at dinner.

he doesn't like having that thought, and that's why he responds with "Lucinda spent all of dinner talking about Hufflepuffs you find incredibly dull" - giving regulus an opportunity to clarify what the fuck he's talking about. and regulus... sort of clarifies, but not in a direction barty really likes - i'd call his thought process really along the lines of 'wordless seeping dread' here

and then regulus basically goes 'i have a huge crush on evan' and everything DOES click into place for barty

if regulus were in this position, he'd spiral - super long rambly paragraphs of inner monologue about implications and emotions and all of that. barty is more... nonverbal about it, if that makes sense? inarticulate? just like an 'oh.' and with that 'oh' comes a general sense of 'regulus is not mine anymore.'

after barty's "Oh" when regulus starts talking again, barty isn't really... listening? like he's hearing the words regulus is saying but he's just kind of mentally reduced to that one feeling, putting the world into a new configuration. when he says "So... you like him," that's... 'admitting defeat' is too strong of a phrase, but it's not WRONG. that's half resignation, half 'am i going insane, is regulus about to be like no dude how the fuck did you come to that wild-ass conclusion?'

because this is OUT OF LEFT FIELD for regulus. he's never breathed a word about being romantically interested in anyone ever. barty got very comfortable with that status quo. which is now being ripped out from under his feet. yay!

regulus, of course, charges onward - he's in Problem Solving Mode, but the problem he's focused on is the Evan Problem. but then barty lets some bitterness slip (he was trying to make a joke. it came out too real.) and then he gets The Regulus Stare Of Investigation because regulus has clocked that something is *off*

and that's when barty pivots! because regulus is asking him for help with this, and he's not going to just be an asshole to his best friend for the crime of having feelings for someone. he can be upset and angst over his life and his crumbling sense of self worth later. right now, regulus requires ASSISTANCE. and barty doesn't want to make regulus feel bad about asking for help because regulus DEFINITELY does not need that, he has a hard enough time with it as it is, and this is an emotionally sensitive topic and barty does NOT want regulus to shut him out so!!! time to be HELPFUL

but too late. regulus has found the problem and he is not letting go of it. barty tries to divert him with another wry comment of sorts, except it doesn't really work, and then he gets another Regulus Stare Of Investigation and then regulus hits him with the "I wouldn't ride off into a sunset without you. I wouldn't like it."

now, this is both a 'oh thank god' moment and a 'mortifying ordeal of being known' moment for barty. he doesn't quite want to acknowledge how PRECISELY regulus identified the problem, because that means acknowledging that on some level, barty *is* possessive of regulus, but in the sense of like... being possessive of his place in regulus's life as Closest Person? it's not even about being most important to regulus - it's about being closest to him. and regulus clearly knows that, which is... a vulnerable moment for barty

but regulus has reaffirmed the most important thing, which is that they are BFFs, and so barty's brain can slowly begin to work again now that regulus has removed the big sudden wrench in the gears

but he is still sleepy and he wants time to adjust/process, hence asking regulus if they really need to discuss it right at that second. if regulus had said yes, then barty would have done it, but he is relieved that he can go

and barty is STILL sad about it. that's important. he's going to be supportive but he's sad because it means their dynamic *will* change somehow, unless regulus gets over evan like. asap, which probably won't happen. but at least regulus isn't *leaving.*

barty's going to continue to feel insecure about that - they'll need to talk about it more before it's really resolved, and to some degree barty won't really feel solid in the new normal until it's pretty settled and he actually knows how he and regulus work these days because he has proof

BUT!!! he and regulus are at least on the same page about being vital to each other's happiness. so there's that!

[rainfallbeats]

IDK HOW EDIBLES WORK OK

*slaps my hands on the table* thats ok because i do!

this post ended up being multiple paragraphs long and contains a lot of personal stories so if youre still interested its under the cut. tw for drug use obviously

now granted i havent had that many of them and the only kind ive had were these cookies my brother made but good LORD. sweet JESUS they were strong. like STUPID strong. i remember he prefaced giving me them with "i ate one and thought i was a little worm wiggling in the dirt" and i was like ok i think i can handle it

i could not handle it. strong edibles will slonk your shit silly style. theyre a bit different than smoking because it kinda all kicks in at once, smoking is usually a milder high unless its like a bong rip. i remember one time it kicked in and i could barely get the words "guys i think the edible hit" out before breaking into a 10 minute laughing fit. i was on another plane i was shot up to the moon

and again these were particularly strong ones it really just depends on the strain of weed and the dosage, but some of the effects ive experienced are as follows:

everything is funny. like everything ever is funny. i will just laugh for any reason if im high enough, you could jangle keys in front of my face and id start cry laughing. weed kind of just makes you stupid like that. ive noticed it helps with the adhd too because ill finally have the patience to sit down and watch things or do tasks without getting irritated

pain numbing/weird funny skin feeling. ive noticed that i usually feel warm when the weed kicks in and thats usually followed by like a tingly feeling and a reduced ability to feel pain. this is nice bc im an idiot who gave myself back pain from sitting weird so this makes it go away. probably not anywhere near as effective for that purpose as pain meds but ive never been on any prescription pain meds or anything that wasnt like, ibuprofen so i dont know

food tastes really fucking good. ive considered going back on my adhd meds with recreational weed bc the meds were an appetite suppressant and thats why i had to stop taking them. weed will make you hungry as FUCK and everything you eat will taste better

lower impulse control, this one is kind of a bad side effect because if you were already thinking about doing stupid shit and you get high then youre gonna do it. one time i was on call with a friend and kept chewing on my fingers til they were bruised bc i wanted to chew on something

slowed perception of time/distorted perception of reality. this one is either scary or cool depending on the person but i find it enjoyable. time will slow DOWN like minutes will feel like hours. every splatoon match i play while high is the longest one of my life, and ive found i usually perform better in games because im less stressed and more just absorbed in what im doing. that combined with the fact that my brain blurs the line between whats real and fake so if im playing a game itll feel real to me. i will be staring at the inside of the grizzco building and feel like im actually there, its crazy. playing video games while high is fun

ive noticed that if i get too high i kinda feel dizzy and not in control of my body, my head feels like its underwater and ill be sitting there rocking back and forth waiting to come down a little. which would be scarier but thanks to the funny giggly chemicals its not that bad. but its also not pleasant when youre in a social situation and want to try to act normal

im not actually sure what me dumping all this info accomplishes but maybe someone will see it and itll help them write a character that smokes weed or something. and like granted these are only my own experiences and not everyone is gonna share them but regardless, thank you for the ask

[your-generic-art-blog]

Hi hello yes I have no idea what’s going on anymore

So uh, I have some old artwork that I abandoned and I decided to post now for the hell of it, BUT unlike most of my posts/art, this could be uhhhh a bit disturbing? So we’re starting this post with a content warning and then the work will be below. Okay? Okay.

ALSO: This post contains my first attempt at giving my images alt. text! I will suck at it for a while, but I want to make my work/posts more accessible, incase people come across these posts and can’t see the images. I will improve over time, just please bear with me (and tell me how to do it better l m a o)

Content Warnings: Mildly Disturbing, Mild Gore(?) and Slight Body Horror- revolving around the mouth, teeth and gums. There’s no blood, but it’s badly drawn so it’s not too graphic. Just keep it in mind to be wary ADDITION: There will be an additional image at the bottom of the post where it shows my attempt of adding blood/more gorey details, however it sucked so I’ve forgone it (I did my best- was weird analysing how blood worked though…)

You here? Cool! Let’s check out this trainwreck

So this is an abandoned artwork from Halloween, yes as in from 3 months ago, that I was unable to finish due to time and also just sucking at art. This would be an interesting redraw some time in the future lmao.

(Below I talk about the inspiration which may be a bit disturbing if things about the teeth and gums unsettle you. I would skip this paragraph if so)

It was inspired by some REALLY bad toothache I was dealing with from mid-October until recently. All I knew before I could see a dentist was “it hurts” and this was exactly what it felt like. Like it genuinely felt like my gums and cheek were being ripped apart. To try and distract myself and bring humour into it, I was like “hah imagine it was like a really dramatic scene in a vampire fanfic”, so as I was brainstorming for a Halloween drawing, that thought kinda ran away from me. I was actually going to do a fun/silly drawing for Halloween and then couldn’t help myself.

Makes sense why it hurt btw, half of it was gone lmao. Got it sorted a week ago though! Handled it better than I thought it would.

Funny story- did the sketch for this while watching Halloween (1978) for the first ever time, home alone, while on the phone with my mom, who was also watching it at her house. Hadn’t initially wanted to watch but was convinced, and I spent my entire time watching making sarcastic commentary.

Tried to do some blood and more gorey effects while sitting in a little corner in college. Where everyone could see. I doubt anyone would have batted an eye- if not for the fact I was right beside the eating area/vending machines, and the department for social sciences. Still probs wasn’t that weird, just noticed I caught eyes when people past lmao

For those curious, here was my attempt of blood at the time! It was not just bad but lazy lmao

(One without the weird running blood, and one with it)

[dragon-riding]

stream of thought

anything posted and written on this blog is fictional and should not be recreated and/or idolized in real life

this is cleaned up word dump written in 3rd pov. no names or physical features were used so feel free to imagine the female character as yourself, sona or oc - whatever fits your liking. I hope you enjoy your stay here at the memory shop!

pairing: Malleus Draconia x afab!character/reader troupes/kinks included: experienced x innocent, light dub con, praise kink, biting/marking, rough manhandling, mentions of mouth fingering, very light humiliation, begging, dirty talk, verbal degradation, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, cum stuffing, mentions of butt plug, slight exhibitionism, mentions of cock warming, knotting word count: 1.9k words warning: use of many long sentences, long paragraphs, not exactly proper writing context: Malleus falls for the cute, naïve one, loves her as his darling. Here is his stream of thought as he fantasizes and contemplates before taking her. Vaguely set in canonverse.

Imagine Malleus Draconia slowly taking an interest in her. He loves her bright smiles, cute lil laughs, loves how she’s so comfortable with him, loves that she’s so lovely and soft and delicate, loves that she doesn’t really mind when his touches linger over her waist, shoulders, thighs. What exactly goes on in her head, he wonders to himself.

The way he traps her is gradual, slowly closing any openings for her to run, always cooing softly at her, his little darling, leaning in close, invading her personal space, she doesn’t seem to notice it but her eyelids always flutter and she looks a bit more weak, a bit more vulnerable when praises roll off his tongue because “My little darling, you’ve been a good girl, haven’t you?” has her preening in pride because she was good, so good! And no one else has told her these things before, oh does her heart flutter.

He doesn’t like it when she gets closer to others, doesn’t like it when she lets others touch her the way he did; it meant he wasn’t special to her the way she was to him and that wouldn’t do. Dragons have always been hoarders and he wants to hoard her all to himself, wants to drag her down by the waist, bully her until she admitted he affected her as much as she did to him, pin her down and bite her neck, leaving a permanent mark of their bond. Surely, she wouldn’t mind if he tore the buttons of her clothes so he could see and touch her soft skin, drag out all the lewd sounds from her mouth until everyone knew just who she belonged to, including herself.

He could see it now— her below him, lips swollen dark from all their kissing, she’d resist him at first, no doubt, she was always so silly saying she would save her first kiss for someone special— didn’t she see that Malleus was right in front of her? She would melt next, Malleus had put his fingers in her mouth before, watched as she squirmed when he pressed down on her tongue and fingered the sides of her mouth, letting her choke once or twice when his fingers- ah, accidentally slipped in too deep.

Her mouth was so sensitive - perhaps he could make her cum with a kiss, wetting her panties before they had already gotten started. She would be embarrassed, humiliated, would press her thighs together and refuse to show him but that was okay because he’d be ripping off her clothes next - slowly, of course, so he didn’t startle her. Her shirt would go first then her skirt, he’d take a moment to admire her in her underwear, all laid out for him to feast on. She still wouldn’t know he wanted more, wanted everything, would tearfully look up at him with a wobbly lip, beg him not to look so prettily but he was already looking at the curve of her chest, the line of her waist, her slowly wetting panties, the stain getting darker by the second.

It’s okay if she’s scared— “Don’t worry, darling,” he would coo into her ear, “Just listen to me and everything will be okay. Can you spread your legs like a good girl for me?”— but it’s just so embarrassing to spread her legs, and she could hardly react to anything, arms hugging her body, lips bitten tightly to stop any sounds from escaping. 

That’s okay too, Malleus would help her. He’d yank at her hips, grip tight from exercising what little self control he has left, leave bruises along her hips that she will later trace and blush about as cum dripped down her thighs— drag them wide open and press a finger over the thin cloth. Her entire body would jerk, a small whine would escape, Malleus wants more.

He’d yank her arms away next, ignore her feeble protests, murmur a low warning to not cover herself again before ripping her bra away, burying his face in her chest. He’d be delighted to find she’s sensitive there too— pinching and playing with her nipples, splaying his hands over her boobs and squeezing. They fit into his palms perfectly and he loves that too. He’d leave hickeys- many of them- making sure to trail up to her neck and leave many more where people could see them clearly.

He would save her pussy for last, massaging a knee through her panties and watching as her body jolted every single time he applied a tiny bit more pressure. Didn’t let her curl up and hide herself, just watched as she looked at him pleadingly— but he wanted words and he would get them. Would ask her teasingly if there was anything she wanted, wait until she pried her mouth open before dipping his finger through the fabric and rubbing her clit.

She’s so loud, Malleus sucks in a deep breath, she catches herself too late, humiliated tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. The floodgates had opened and she couldn’t stop. More followed, as loud as the rest and he wants more- kept rubbing at her clit so she would make those sounds as she begged between moans to stop because “people- outside- ah-ah- stop- too much- hgnh-” 

“It’s okay, darling,” he reassures, “You’ll be even louder later, everyone will know you’re mine.” He’s almost regretful to peel her panties away, soaked and stuck to her pussy, but he got so much harder looking at the delicate pink of her swollen clit, spread her folds to eye her twitchiness. She’d try and stop him again but Malleus knows it’s only because she doesn’t want him to stare.

He stares either way, before dipping a finger into her pussy. It’s soaked instantly, she’s so wet, practically dripping wet, he adds two others and they slide in easily. Malleus wonders if she has experience, jealousy and possessiveness twining together in equal arms. He’d drag her into his lap, let her squeal and sit upright, whisper dirty things about the lewd sounds her pussy is making as he fingers her and curls his fingers to press against that special little spot that would make her moan and cum on the spot like a slut. She does cum on the spot, the sound escaping her making Malleus’ toes curl from arousal

He’d place her over his crotch, let her feel how big and hard he was before finally releasing himself— she’d complain that she was completely bare while he was completely clothed but he’d only whisper nastily into her ear “That’s how sluts work, darling. You’re lucky I’m not asking you to get on your hands and knees, hm?” A tempting offer, have her offer herself to him, back arched, ass in the air, but he much prefers manhandling her into the position he wanted— like now, grinding her over the tip of his cock, watching as she hiccupped and let his cock slide between her crack. 

“Mal-leus- it’s too big,” she’d mumble brokenly. He’d chuckle and look at her pussy twitching, greedily sucking his fingers in.

“Hardly for you, my darling good girl.” Would then draw his fingers out and exhale before dropping her on his cock— such things must be done as quick as possible, Malleus believes, but also so he could hear the scream and moan that tore from her mouth— he was certain whoever that passed outside his room would hear and he was looking forward to the rumors that would spread.

“—! Wait- wait-,” he doesn’t wait, doesn’t want to- drags her up and then slams her down, shoves her back onto the bed and continues thrusting, fucks her until she can’t say anything else, until she can’t string together two words other than his name and “please”.

Fucks her until she was begging for something, anything, and he would have to chuckle at her adorable inexperience and tell her she needed to ask for his cum, of course. Had to walk her through her bleariness— she’d already came once again, already orgasmed twice before, she was so out of it, so bleary and delirious— he didn’t stop when she came, only went faster when her moans got higher pitched, garbled words of too much getting lost in her moans and sobbing.

She would beg for his cum— he’d teach her that his cum went inside her pussy and nowhere else. Perhaps one day he would fill up both her holes- he had two, after all, but for now he teaches her that all of his cum is meant for her sweet, tiny little slutty pussy and that she’d love it, she’d want more of it, she’d beg for it, and that’s okay because Malleus will fill her until she’s overflowing, until the cum drips out of her pussy and onto the floor— when that happens, he’ll have to teach her that cum shouldn’t be wasted, would push her against the wall and fuck her standing until she collapsed and he had to hold her up. Cum shouldn’t be wasted after all. He’d introduce a butt plug for her perhaps, he wasn’t fond of the idea of something else other than his cock entering her pussy but he could make exceptions if it meant watching her squirm and attempt to go through her normal routine as she sat on a giant butt plug with his cum up her pussy. 

When he became king and he’d taken her away back to the valley of thorns, he would make her sit on his lap and warm his cock, make her into a cockslut as much a cumslut- watch as she tried not to whimper in front of his advisors but it would be a lost cause because malleus wouldn’t be able to hold back from thrusting and fucking into her then— it was okay though, because no one would say a word when he became king, would let him happily fuck her everywhere and turn a blind eye if it meant his mood was better.

Malleus chuckles as he fingers her pussy, pushing back all the leaking cum into her as she twitches, barely conscious. She’d done so well, he cooed at her, was so good for me, was such a good girl, look, I’ll give you your reward— he slips his cock back in, hard again with his monstrous stamina. She’d whimper and plead no more because it was too much but he’d counter with “Just one more, I’m giving you your reward darling, are you being ungrateful?” and she’d crumble and let him do whatever he wanted, cum continuously in small amounts as he thrusted into her again.

He came much faster knowing the warmth flooding inside her pussy was his cum— shoves the knot at the base of his cock inside her this time to hold them together as he pours more of his cum into her, rubs her cute clit to make her feel good before whispering into her ear how well she’d done, how she was his little darling, his good girl. Let’s stay like this for a little longer okay? You want my cock in your pussy, don’t you? Want my cock plugging all my cum in? She’d whimper and nod, and that would be that. 

Malleus hugs her and holds her close, cages her in his arms, purring satisfied sounds into her ear, looking forward to how everyone would know she was his cute little darling slut— he hadn’t soundproofed the room with his magic, after all.