#sorry guys I reallllly like that bridge

[mothalas]

death by a thousand cuts goes so hard for what reason

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day One Hundred Sixty-Nine: Desk Lamp ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto, Umino Iruka ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ AO3 Link ]

Sometimes, being the goodie two shoes student can backfire.

Horribly.

“All right class, I need to make a quick run to the office,” the fourth grade teacher announces, standing from his desk. Iruka gives them all a look. “I expect you all to be on your best behavior while I’m gone, all right?”

A chorus of, “Yes, Mister Umino,” rings out monotonously over the room.

With that, he heads to the door, slipping out and letting it shut with a click.

Almost immediately, trouble starts brewing.

Snickering, a little blond boy - Naruto Uzumaki - abandons his desk and scurries to Iruka’s. “Hey! Who wants me to look for the answer sheet for Friday’s math test…?”

Several students murmur in tentative agreement.

Afraid to speak up, one Hinata Hyūga hesitates as he starts rifling through drawers.

“Oi.”

A few heads turn to another student: Sasuke Uchiha. Dark-haired and quiet, he’s one of Iruka’s favorites.

The word pauses Naruto in his search. “...what?”

“Go sit down, idiot. Mister Umino said to behave.”

Obviously not in the mood to pay the other boy any mind, Naruto scowls, sticking out his tongue. “Like I’m gonna listen to you! Whatcha gonna do, tell on me?”

Dark eyes narrow. “If Mister Umino finds out you guys are cheating, we’re all gonna get in trouble. Leave it alone!”

“He’ll never know if we don’t tell him! That means you too, teacher’s pet!”

Scowling, Sasuke stands up. “Stop it!”

“Make me!”

All right...fine! He will! Leaving his desk, Sasuke instead moves to the teacher’s, pulling on Naruto’s arm. “Go sit down…!”

“No! I wanna see the answer sheet!”

“You’re gonna get the whole class in trouble, stupid! Leave it!”

“And you’re the one being dumb, you’re gonna get us caught!”

“Let go!”

“YOU let go!”

“Guys, s-stop!” Hinata calls from her desk, standing.

Grappling with each other, the boys stumble further into the corner of the desk and the wall. The rest of the class watches with bated breath, waiting to see who will come out on top - Hinata tries to intervene, but -!

CRASH!

Startling, they both look over to see the aftermath just as Iruka walks in, Hinata flinching at the loud noise. From atop the teacher’s desk, his favorite desk lamp - one of glass featuring a dolphin - has tumbled to the floor, now lying in a thousand pieces.

Eyes wide, the instructor stares...then looks up to the boys, who stand frozen in their struggle. “...what on Earth is going on?!”

“Naruto was -”

“He totally came and -”

“- tried to stop him -”

“ pushed me, and -”

“All right, all right!” Iruka cuts in, heaving a curt breath. “I want both of you to just...go stand out in the hall until I think of a proper punishment.”

They both stiffen.

“...Hinata, were you involved in this?”

Suddenly remembering the third child up out of their desk, the boys look to her. “No, Mister Umino, she didn’t -!”

“I told all of you to behave. No one was allowed to get up from their desk.” Looking almost regretful, Iruka says, “I’m sorry, Hinata, but you better go with them.”

The little Hyūga seems to shrink in fright. She’s..she’s never really been in trouble before…

Both boys try to come to her defense, insisting she had nothing to do with the struggle and the broken lamp.

“I understand that, but...rules are rules, boys. Now, out into the hall. I need to call the janitor to come clean up the glass…” Shooing them out, Iruka looks to his beloved lamp, sighing with a hand at his brow.

It’s the last thing the trio see before the door shuts behind them.

...silence.

Scowling, Naruto leans against the wall, arms folding and collapsing to sit cross-legged on the floor. “This stinks...why didn’t you just leave me alone, Sasuke?!”

“Because you were being an idiot! Mister Umino trusted us, and you were trying to cheat!”

“Well maybe some of us aren’t that good at math!”

“Maybe instead of trying to cheat, you should use more time and effort to study!”

“U-um…”

Both of them look to Hinata, pausing as they see her worried expression. “...you okay?” Sasuke asks.

“Are...a-are we gonna get in trouble…?”

The pair glance to each other. She seems awfully upset… “...well, maybe we will,” Naruto offers blandly. “But you didn’t do anything wrong, Hinata.”

“Well...not as bad as us,” Sasuke mumbles sheepishly.

“I think Mister Umino will just give you a time out. Don’t worry.”

“W-what about you guys…?”

“Detention, probably,” the blond mutters.

Sasuke rounds on him. “What? But I was trying to -!”

“Doesn’t matter! You broke the lamp!”

“No I didn’t! That was you!”

“Nu-uh! You pushed me into it!”

“I didn’t push you! You just -”

“Guys, p-please stop!”

Both of them flinch as Hinata gives a quiet cry. Tears bead along her lids, chin trembling. “...please...d-don’t yell...yelling is s-scary…”

They both wilt. “...sorry,” each mutters, avoiding looking at one another.

Eventually, one of the janitors walks past them into the room with a vacuum to clean up the glass. Hinata shrinks to one side, Sasuke giving her a glance. Once he leaves again, Iruka follows the staff member out, arms crossed.

“So...are we ready to tell the truth?” he asks, staring down the bridge of his nose at them.

“...I can do it,” Sasuke murmurs. “So...Naruto got up after you left. He wanted the answers for the math test -”

Behind him, Naruto scowls...but doesn’t protest.

“I got up to try to get him to sit down, but he wouldn’t listen. We started to fight, and…” The Uchiha glances aside. “...I...pushed him into the lamp. That’s why it fell.”

That gets Naruto to pause.

“...it was my fault. But please, Mister Umino - Hinata didn’t do anything. She was trying to come get us to stop. She didn’t do anything wrong!”

The teacher sighs heavily through his nose. “...I see…so, you two think Hinata shouldn’t get in trouble?”

Both boys shake their heads. “...she wanted to help,” Naruto admits.

“Naruto, I’m very disappointed you tried to cheat, and that you didn’t listen to my instructions. Sasuke...I’m glad you tried to keep order, but it wasn’t your place to try to punish Naruto. That’s my job, all right? Next time, just mind your own manners and listen to the classroom rules. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“...yes, sir.”

Looking the trio over critically, Iruka sighs, head bowing as he thinks. “...all right. Seems you three have learned your lesson, so I won’t give you detention. But! If this ever happens again, you’ll have detention for a week! Understand? When I tell you to do something - or not to do something - you need to listen!”

“Yes, sir.”

“...all right, then. Back into class with you. We’ve got lessons to tend to!”

Heads all bowed contritely, the trio head back in. Naruto goes first, Hinata behind him and Sasuke behind her.

“...glad you’re not in trouble,” Sasuke murmurs.

“...thanks for d-defending me.”

“...sure.”

                                                            .oOo.

     This prompt was...not great, I won't lie xD So the drabble is ALSO rather...lackluster. I didn't really have any good ideas, so...here's a mediocre one, lol      Poor Hinata, just trying to keep the peace...but there's little of that to be had once those two start bickering. At least Iruka took it easy on them~      Anyway, I reallllly need sleep, so...time to sign off! Thanks for reading n_n

[toddmichaelrogers]

Letter to You

Time continues to march toward nothing. I pass along with it, happy to see currents ripple and shift until I find my reflection marked by tell-tale signs of fear and what some expressionists (scientist who study faces) might call “pretty gay”--but I myself learned to accept as “mostly straight, don’t mind seeing a dick though” a long while ago.

(READ MORE)

The world is falling into the sort of post apocalyptic chaos our stories have been worried & also warning us about for several ages. I’m pretty excited for the 80s again (who knew far right fear tactics, dance music, cocaine and a cold war would ever come back in style?) If you’re reading this as a printout in some sort of home-fashioned bunker, the year is 2017, the American President is a reality star billionaire who was elected by people (both good and bad) in an effort to clear out the politicians in the country’s capital. 

One dear friend of mine referred to it as “burning down the house” which is all well and good, unless of course there are people living in that house you have attempted to burn down. 

We are three weeks into an uncertain world, run by a puppet of far worse men, a puppet who is obviously, quite clinically insane. I actually worried about typing that for an instant, here, in the “land of free speech”. That’s how bad it is. The people surrounding him are open racists / enemies of the LGBTQ community, and misinformed religious fear mongers. This week airports across the country were shut down by protesters after refugees and travelers from several foreign countries were banned from entering. I saw a picture of Muslim people praying in an airport while an American crowd cheered them on and it nearly moved me to tears. (And I eat a lot of salt, so if I cry it burns and I fuckin’ feel it). I will not leave this country. So what am I to do? Should I write politicians? Call them? Does this matter at all, or has it ever? I have lists of resources on Tumblr, saved between gifs of cartoons and porn searches. What am I to do? Also what gets the best results? “NSFW” or “Boobs very humungo gifs”?

I don’t know what to do. But I am grateful for the art and politicians this horrible world is about to create.

EFFORTS the band I am in was asked to play a show. This is nice as no one has heard our music. We have declined any other opportunities to perform, but a few weeks into this political fuckquake was the right time to ask, I guess. So tomorrow we have band practice, and then we’ll be playing our first show ever, later this month. I definitely want to puke but in like, a good way. Like prom nerves. Prom puking.Like a  Prom-Puke-Posal

We’ve been recording our first album since November 2015. Back then it was just me and Zach. Then a guy named Geoffrey heard our demos and asked to play bass for us. No one else was asking, so we eventually said yes. Nearly a year later Zach and I tracked most of the album (there are maybe 5 songs still missing) and Geoffrey had sent us his bass demos for each. It was October 2016 and the album has been taking so long that I started pulling demos together for some other sort of release. I was going to call it DAMNSEL & THE EUTH GROUP and Geoffrey said he would produce it, but a few songs in it became obvious we were just making another EFFORTS album and now Zach is involved as well.

xxxxx

New future efforts stuff @thisisgeoffrey and I fucked with last night.

A video posted by Todd Michael Rogers (@d_a_m_n_s_e_l) on Jan 3, 2017 at 12:40pm PST

xxxxxx

The plan is to finish our first LP (I Bought You A Coffin) and then either license it to a record label, preferably in the UK (Plan A) or just do it the fuck ourselves (Plan B). Then when that’s all said and done we’ll have the next bit of music ready, which will be released as two EPs (2.1 Sorry Everyone Disappoints You) and EP2 which I have a name for but it’s not official or anything (2.2 Mean Songs to Hurt People). After we release the 2 EPs-- each holding 6 songs--we’ll smash them together for our second album (2.final form May The Eyes That Rise Upon You Never Know (Your True Heart). I even have album covers for all three but I ain’t showin’ em here yet. So far the first EP is missing 1 and a half songs, and the second is all in demo pieces.

A lot of these plans seem fanciful at best but it’s sort of how I always work on things, ‘shoot for the stars and hope you don’t put a bullet in your own boot’.  A lot of it came about one night when Zach and I stayed up drinking as we concocted a five year plan, should anyone ever ask us if we had one.

But it all start now, with finishing this album, making our facebook page (LINK), playing our first few shows, and releasing our first single (May You Absorb all Evil) But look, we even have a cover for it, granted to us by the artist Liam Barrett. We’ll release this baby sometime this Summer, along with a music video I have been meticulously planning for over a year.

*

I miss writing the novel. It’s been over a month since I touched it, but printing out my progress from the start of 2016 to the end was amazing.

I think the time away from it will be good, the fear, the worry, the feworry is leaving it for too long, allowing it to get lost in the current of the sea (see opening paragraph, this blog).

My plan is to look at what I’ve done (dangerous) do a quick edit job upon it (also dangerous, but hopeful/most/ly this is just a grammar bombing), and then see where the first 200 pages are at. I hope I’m doing the right thing, the bow of the ship needs to be set through some very particular territory, and even I know I’m telling a strange story in a weird way. I could smashed to bits upon the rocks of those who would never publish it.

But I miss it.

*

WHYLC is a comic book I started writing 10 years ago next month (Jesus Fucking Christ) and which I eventually self published online after taking it upon these keep-it-100 hands to illustrate. Issue 2 will take even more time, but for those of you who read it, the work shall continue. I reallllly like making comics and it was sort of the first thing I ever wanted to do writing wise. 

PS Issue 1 can always be found right here (LINK)

*

Spell Saga could destroy anyone, at any given time, if they saw the scope and horror of the project, stretching like ley lines backwards & forwards, away from my heart. I’ve spent the better half of a year working days and nights to pay for both a) my cool ideas and b) my dumb mistakes. This has resulted in many more cards being printed than initially anticipated, and most of my ‘money bucks’ being sent out as packages of said cards to patient wonderful truly unbelievable fans across the globe. 

(Meagen Crawford took dis pic)

Do you know how long it takes to package something? Or even double check and print the correct address? Let alone figure out a packaging solution after the US Postal Service gave you the WRONG information? It’s been a fucking nightmare--but a super neat problem to have. I can panic and smile, I do both all the time.

The next step of the process is sort of manifold:

First I have to finish sending packages to places like the UK, Singapore & Brazil. Then I have to wire the final amount to the manufacturer which was delayed by all the changes we made during initial production. THEN I have to finish re-designing DECK 2 (it’s just a new Photoshop HD makeover, no rules changes). THEN I have to get the packaging for deck 2 finalized (make sure everything is the right size, get UPC code etc.) THEN I have to wire the manufacturer to print this deck and ship everything out together from Hong Kong to any US coast and down to me in lil ole Tennessee.

Then I get my shit together. Spell Saga has been bruised and hidden away while the manufacturing continued. Having Decks 0, 1, and 2 printed and at my fucking door (taking up most of my living room) will give me the privilege and honor of sending everyone another deck for free (thanks for waiting) along with sending out marketing packages to game reviewers across the Earth. It will coincide with the continued but stalled development of the Spell Saga library (a web page of game resources formerly known as the wikiFAQ).

Getting the game back up to good standing is a very real priority for this lonely designer. When I have all that cooking at the right degree I can finally finish the main game by Designing DECK 3 and the Ending with Cousin Lauren. (Then I’ll have to pay for that one to get printed too. That’s 10 grand. Right there.)

PS Cousin Lauren has a page for her art now. Check it out (LINK)

In the INTERIM. The Meantime. IN the age of Meanness: I’ve been designing a new SPell Saga deck, called 1.5 The Under Sky. It’s a sort of bridge between decks 1 and 2, that also acts like a warp into deck 3 if it’s played right. The Look, Feel, Story, and emotional journey of this Deck matches the others--it’s still the story of The Last Minstrel--but while decks 1,2, and 3 were created with the emotions of a bad marriage and a young man afraid of what his life might have become, this DECK is sort of based on how it’s felt to publish the game and everything that’s happened to me in my own journey. Making things is hard. It’s so hard. It’s super terrible and impossible. But getting to the end is the whole point of a journey, and this deck celebrate that.

In The Under Sky, you play as The Last Minstrel, but you’ve sort of lost your way to The Forest, as well as your friends. It’s the idea of knowing exactly what you want, until a sort of early 20s suburban existentialism hits like a storm to blow you so off course you aren’t even sure who you are anymore, much less where you’re going. During the game you’ll explore the insides of living keeps called Castle Crashers, making friends with mirages and using a creature called the dark pixie to pull magical items out of ordinary places. There’s also a river of blood that’s spilling out from a talking disembodied head of a fallen god. It’s pretty cool.

If I’m nervous about anything it’s that the mechanics are advanced to say the least. It’s still the same old Spell Saga but there’s new ideas there too. Like, imagine five cards that are in a circle. The hero token (representing your character) can move left or right on the circle visiting each card (each representing a different place to visit) if you’ve played Spell Saga before, the idea should seem familiar, it’s the main and most basic mechanic of the game. But now, imagine each card in the circle is a stack 5 cards deep, and when you move from one stack to the next the cards in each stack are shuffled, the order they rest in dependant upon how you enter or leave the stack with your token. That’s some scary shit to try and “make a rulebook out of” but I think it’s going to work. I want every Spell Saga deck to kind of have it’s own vibe going on, each playing off the mechanics you may have learned in the previous deck.

There’s other Spell Saga news too:

If anyone is reading this Realmwalker ~ Science//Armor//Romance will be republished with typographical errors removed and a new box sometime near March. This was a game I released a year ago (Judas Iscariot Priest!) on The Gamecrafter, and then removed until i had time to fix it.

The next Realmwalker ~ The Discordant Shore is half designed and really a very exciting game. I think it should be done by June, and that one will also be on The Gamecrafter. The Reason this one took so long is half the cards are also copies of special handmade cards I’ll be sending out to people who spent dat ca$h on the Kickstarter, y’know, back in 2014 (Satan’s Red Mouth!).

Are you still here? Are you still reading this?

French Toast Gaming Co.’s next game, something I first worked on twenty years ago, and then spent the better part of a decade worrying about is about to be released this year. EPIOCH was supposed to come out last August, but many delays pushed it away. Now my good friend Weshoyot has nearly finished the art, and all the game needs is more playtesting and a rulebook before it pops up on The Gamecrafter. Here’s an art peek, and you should check out her instagram. (LINK).

That’s everything I needed to type out to stay sane. Thanks for following along all three of you. I appreciate it. There’s been other things too of course, lost jobs, another concussion, dreams where I tell my secrets to people who look disappointed. But you don’t need to know any of that. Not really. It will all come out in the artwork anyway.

OR THE patron page PODCAST, I GUESS.

-mE.