#this ended up looking kinda like her beta version which is cool

[3-inch-doodles]

i haven't figured out how to get D0g in here yet but damn if he's not gonna be referenced!!! so Alyx gets a circuit pattern that resembles his face plate on her helmet

[poobletoods]

tsb is on my mind today so im looking through a vid of the concept art and holy shit i forgot how good it is

every version of lafcadio looks so done with my shit. im sorry if ive offended you sir i love you that first one im choosing to accept as what he looked like when he was younger

the owl mask is SO good... full wise old man mode... im not sure what the concept behind that third one is, maybe a piece of glass or a chunk of post-fire rubble? and the middle one is just so fucking angy hes doing the arthur fist

also another instance of concept versions being SO long and spindly. it's a REALLY really fun art style but i am glad they all got a little chunkier, it really helps the readability from afar and the general cartoonishness of the style

concept art reggie is certainly something. his ass can NOT see

this version of clay is killing me who IS this man

oh fuck here he comes

trinity of course serving cunt in any form

her ass also cannot see but for reasons unrelated to outfit choices

godddd we couldve had a willow that kicked ass and took names.... she couldve LOOKED cool in addition to just BEING cool

also sad that she lost the curly hair

i think thats some kind of incense burner shes holding in some of these but for a second i DID think she just had a fucking gun

tequila im so happy with where you ended up you started out as a fucking nerd im sorry

beta grey also Could Not Fucking See and that long skinny version of him haunts me i forgot that existed

also he is in fact labeled "lightfingered locksmith" in this art which made me realize they took off the "ed" because of a character limit. it just wouldn't have fucking fit in the title card.

THERES MY BOY and he is looking BUSTED in that first image holy shit wheres the MEAT wheres the MUSCLE!!!!

that first mask is WILD i kinda love it the second one looks like a silly jack o lantern tho

i like to think lucas gave him a scary spooky mask because hes too nice to actually start shit. gotta max out this sap's intimidation.

love that aurum barely changed aside from mask design. they said first thought best thought and they were right. i love him so damn much

they gave him eye holes out of courtesy, very kind of them

also realizing i'm gonna have to draw this bitch's chair in the near future why did it have to be so intricateeeeee

motherfucker himself. i love the sketches in the corner he's a shitty little bird doing his shitty little jojo poses

glad he got the wing cape back too that is an ESSENTIAL part of the phoenix motif

god ellie is so fucking CUTE

interesting to see how titles changed as well, maybe she and lucas were originally just engaged and not married?

i love how many initial designs were just Long

the portraits are all so gooooood i love all these funny guys :)

[spunky-89]

All Power (Kol Mikaelson x Female Reader)

A/N: Woo a new fic! Cause updating or finishing old WIPs is apparently not as cool. Also, this fic is a bit of a crossover from Teen Wolf, not anything like major, just some references and such.

Word Count: 1.8 k

Warnings: None that I can think of

The air was tense in the courtyard as Kol stood protectively in front of his lover, facing off against his pain-in-the-ass hybrid brother. Elijah stood between the two trying to keep them from tearing each other apart. Freya was off to the side holding herself, feeling guilty for starting this disagreement.

“You come anywhere near her Nik and I swear it will be the last thing you do.” Kol threatened.

“I don’t like liars, especially not in the house where my daughter sleeps,” Klaus growled.

“You really think I wouldn’t make sure that my girlfriend had no ill intent towards my niece? Do you think that low of me brother?”

“Enough, both of you,” Elijah spoke, turning slightly to look at his youngest brother and his lover. “Now, would you care to share what this ruckus is all about?”

“I don’t know, ask Nik.” Kol spat, rage in his eyes.

“You stand there and make me the bad guy when it is your pet human that is lying and has been her whole time with us.” Klaus proclaimed.

“And how do you know this Niklaus?” Elijah inquired.

“Because I sensed it,” Freya spoke up, moving closer to the brewing storm.

“Sensed what Freya?” Kol snapped, becoming more and more fed up with the current situation.

“Something… off,” She tried, struggling to find the words.

“You need to do better than that sister, or else this is a waste of time because you have no grounds to accuse my girlfriend of anything.”

“Enough.” The woman came out from her position behind Kol and came to stand next to him. “Please just stop, all of you.” She requested.

“Darling?” Kol gave her a questioning look and she gave a heavy sigh.

“She isn’t wrong, I’m not human,” She started, avoiding eye contact and staring at the ground. “Well, not entirely human I should say.” She then looked to Klaus, “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t sense it. I mean typically wolves have a sense for this sort of thing.” She remarked.

“Get to the point, my patients is waning fast,” Klaus warned. As he did so, Kol took a threatening step forward, only to be stopped by a hand on his arm.

“Okay, calm down. The short version is I’m a werewolf.” The woman stated plainly.

“You can’t be, you’ve never turned on a full moon,” Kol stated, looking to his girlfriend in confusion.

“That’s because I’m a different breed and I’ve learned to control it.” She then gave a bashful smile at him and said, “I also happen to have an amazing anchor that keeps me grounded.”

“That’s it,” Klaus growled and sped at the supposed werewolf and pinned her to the wall, his eyes glowing golden. “Who are you?”

She saw Kol move to intervene but she shot him a look to let her handle this. She smirked as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, opening them to reveal her eyes were glowing a vibrant purple, wolfish features taking over her face slightly. And before Klaus could make a comment or move, she dug her claws deep into his side and rake them upwards, causing him to release her in shock. She used that moment to roundhouse kick him away from her.

“Who am I? Well, I’m someone you really don’t want to piss off.” She huffed, fixing her clothes.

Kol was looking at her wide-eyed, never having seen her like that before. He watched in fascination as her face shifted back to the one he loved so much, though the claws on her hands didn’t disappear.

While Kol was focused on her, she was focused on Klaus. She knew she just poked the sleeping bear, or well in this case wolf. She acted casual, but she was ready for a full-fledged brawl. She heard him let out a chuckle, and her heart went icy cold. She knew that kind of chuckle. It was the kind that told her she’d just pissed him off and he was amused by her attempt to hurt him.

“That was a neat trick, love,” He said as he stood back up to his regular height. “But you’ll have to do a lot better than that if you want to hurt me.” He growled as his eyes flared and he started to rush towards the woman. Before he could even get close Kol threw him to the other side of the courtyard.

“I told you Nik, not a hair.” He seethed, standing protectively in front of his girlfriend, who was now minorly terrified and clutched onto the back of his jacket.

“Maybe I should just go,” She murmured to Kol.

“Nonsense, you are still welcome here,” Elijah promised.

Klaus had gotten up and was getting ready to argue when Elijah cut him off.

“Why don’t we give the lady the benefit of the doubt. As it stands, if she had wanted to harm any of us she’s had ample opportunities to do so and has not. We shall hear her out before we jump to any more conclusions.” He stated, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Everyone was slow to move, but eventually, all were gathered in the seating area.

“What do you want to know?” The woman asked, practically perched in Kol’s lap.

“First off, how is there another breed of werewolf?” Elijah asked.

“Well, there’s actually a few. I’m from the French line of werewolves, whereas your brother is of the North American breed. As far as I know, the only other breed is English wolves. But there are many different shifters out there from many cultures. Kitsune, for example, come from Japan.” She explained as best as she could.

“How is it we’ve never heard of any other wolves or shifters before?” Freya asked.

“That I am unsure of, but I’ve met loads of different shifters and other creatures. Where I come from, it’s practically a beacon for supernaturals.”

“And you can control your shifts?” Kol piped up.

“Well for the most part. The way French wolves and shifters work is that you can shift at any time, not just on the full moon. But the full moon makes us more susceptible to turning. But for older wolves, it becomes easier to control your shifts. Whereas baby wolves tend to be much more at risk of turning uncontrollably.”

She then spent the next hour or so explaining the differences between the different wolf breeds and other supernatural creatures, although she never really explained what she was. It was actually Kol that brought up the question.

“Me? Well, I’m kinda a special case. I’m a werewolf, but well, an extremely rare one. It’s why I didn’t tell you who or what I was.” She explained, clearly nervous to reveal who she was. But with one squeeze of the hand from Kol, she sighed and started speaking, “I am the twin sister of Scott McCall, the True Alpha. I am his opposite in most cases which makes us an elite team that is nearly unbeatable. So I am what is called a Compliment Alpha. Part alpha, part beta, all power. It’s why my eyes are purple. It combines the red of an alpha’s eyes and the blue of a beta’s.” She explained, once again flashing her eyes.

“Does that satisfy you Nik? Or does she have to go through her life story before you trust her?” Kol asked, seemingly done with his girlfriend being interrogated.

“I swear to you I am no threat to your family. I didn’t even know of your existence until Kol revealed who and what he was. Vampires are kinda new territory for me. This is not some evil plot to harm you or any Mikaelson. You all have become my new pack, and you don’t hurt your own pack.” She swore.

“I shall allow you to stay, but be warned little wolf, I see even the slightest hint of your inevitable betrayal and I will end you and your brother.” Klaus threatened, but instead of being scared she just gave him a smile.

“I would expect nothing less.” She teased as she stood from the couch. “But just so you know, my old pack and I are hard to kill. Trust me, many have tried, yet here I am.”

Kol stood as well and took her hand as they left for her apartment on the other end of town. He pulled her close by her shoulder and kissed her head as they walked out of the compound.

-----------

When they finally made it back to her apartment, he could see her noticeably relax.

“I have to say, darling, I’ve never seen you kick ass before but I would love to see it again,” Kol murmured as he wrapped his arms around her waist and laid kisses on her neck. She giggled and tried to push him away.

“Stooop,” She whined as she tried to wiggle out of his grip.

Kol, unfortunately, refused to let her go and held her tighter as he relished in her laughter. Moments like this were his favorite because there was just joy in the air. All troubles forgotten and burdens lifted to make room for the contentment he felt when he was with her.

The two settled down on the couch and just sat cuddled up in silence for a while. Kol was the first to break it after about half an hour.

“Would you have ever told me?” He asked, looking down at his lover who suddenly seemed very interested in the couch.

She sighed and sat up. She hated this. She knew he would eventually ask this. And she dreaded it because she didn’t have a good answer. But she knew she had to give him something.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” She started, “My identity and my secret is the reason why I ran here in the first place. The danger became too great for my brother and me to stay together. We had to separate, at least for a little while. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.” She paused as she recalled the day she had to say goodbye to her mother and brother. The physical pain she felt when she got on the plane without him. “I was scared.” she admitted, “I trust you, and I wanted to tell you so many times, but…”

“But what darling? Cm’on darling, I just want to know.”

“If my identity was found out, I would have had to leave again. Which would mean leaving you. And I couldn’t- I can’t lose you too. It would break me. Shatter me to a point that I would become volatile and dangerous to those who came across me. Because my heart’s been broken a few too many times for me to be able to come back from that.” She said quietly, not realizing that tears had begun to stream down her face.

Kol pulled her back into his arms and just held her.

“I swear to you my love, no one will keep me from you. Not even my brother.” He vowed.

[tfw-no-tennis]

beast warhrerhbjgdsf

ok so at the end of the beast wars opening when they go ‘BEAST WARS’ the end sounds all garbled so its like ‘BEAST WARGHISHUDFBJKSFNS’ its really funny

so we’ve watched more beast wars!! woohoo

we've watched thru ep 21 now wrow

I continue to really like this show despite the cgi continuing to be painful

I like the characters and plots a lot...it feels pretty episodic rn but there's a throughline of character development and dynamic establishment that keeps things fresh

plus, new characters!! blackarachnia returned offscreen right after she left I guess, so she's here now...I like how she like immediately has her own agenda and isn't loyal to megatron (or tarantulas, who had a hand in her creation) 

and tigatron!! what a cool dude I love him. he’s so chill, and I like that he’s into nature and stuff, that's awesome. he is super epic and I feel like he’s saved the maximals sooo many times lmao. for some reason I feel like he’s eventually gonna be like ‘no I'm gonna go be one with nature sorry guys bye’ and leave the cast - specifically if we move the setting to space/cybtertron later in the show I feel like he’d stay on earth. that's just my hunch tho idk 

and airazor!!! she is super cool, I like her design a lot. cool bord lady...the maximals definitely needed someone who could fly other than optimus (which, why can he fly, he’s a GORILLA). and airazor is dope, I hope she sticks around

also the pods are a great way to introduce new characters and create conflict - all the eps w/the pods have had great tension, and I like that the good guys don't always win (like when the predacons got a pod to make blackarachnia, and later inferno)

ah yes inferno, that was a fun one - I liked how he was more ant-like and that translated into him trying to protect the pod, calling it ‘the colony.’ he’s so massive for some reason which is kinda funny. also ruth and I both hate that he flies around with his spinning ant ass. cursed 

also ruth implored me to include the fact that we’ve been calling scorponok a beta cuck bc he’s just such a loser hbvjakhdsfnaks

on that note its sooo funny to me that literally all of the predacons aren't really loyal to megatron, w/the exception of scorponok, who isn't very useful anyways. like, we start the show off with dinobot defecting like IMMEDIATELY and all the other predacons are trying to take over or undermine megatrons authority constantly. he doesn't seem to care that much tho which is funny. I feel like they spread out the megatron-starscream dynamic from g1 throughout like all the predacons lmao 

also megatron is so funnyyyyyy I love him lmao. he’s so dramatic, he’s like a theater kid but more advanced - like a classically Shakespearian play actor. 

and I find it funny that megatron like, barely ever leaves the base?? he just kinda chills out there and sends his underlings to do stuff, which they’re almost never successful at accomplishing. I feel like megatron has participated in like 3 fights this whole time and almost never actively participates in the plot, unless the plot is taking place at the predacon base. I wonder if he’s busy plotting or something...

also ruth and I both noticed that the characterizations kinda changed around a little from the beginning, like rattrap being less mutinous, optimus being more understanding, etc; which tbh seems to be a bigger Thing in 90s/2000s cartoons (that is, the whole ‘not having the main cast’s characterizations nailed down at the beginning of the show’ thing)

ok what else has happened...I find it super funny that there's been TWO episodes where megatron tries to reprogram a maximal in some way to give the predacons an advantage, and both times it backfired spectacularly. like, didn't he learn from the first time!? 

the starscreams ghost ep was WILD omg. also I saw that that ep was up next and I was like ‘oh we should watch the g1 s3 ep where starscream is a ghost bc there might be important context we’ll need’ and ruth was like ok fine and then we watched it AND IT WAS SO BAD. MY GOD

like, we watched a fair amount of g1 before starting beast wars, and I’ve watched a couple s3 eps (which, I know s3 isn't as well regarded as the pre-movie stuff, but I guess I must have watched some of the better eps bc they weren't like THIS), so i knew this ep probably wouldn't be very good...but we were NOT prepared for the level of badness we were presented with vbahdjkfhbahsjkdf

I mean maybe we were missing in-show context, but also we just had no idea what was going on the entire time basically. the entire episode was so wack. the only takeaway I had is that octane and sandstorm are dating

anyways enough about g1. the beast wars starscreams ghost ep was actually good, I missed g1 starscream, that iconic bitch...none of the predacons are quite on his level in terms of sheer legendary bastard energies

I liked that blackarachnia was like starscreams protégé, complete with her betraying him at the end lmao 

also idk if this is something we’re supposed to know from the beginning, but ruth didn't realize that beast wars megatron and op aren't g1 megatron and op and she was like :0 when that was kinda revealed this ep - idk if that's a spoiler or not but I already knew that going in lol 

oh and the part where op said ‘LETS MAKE THIS A DOUBLE DATE’ and busted dinobot out of the cr chamber? Gay™

oh my god and that ep where the maximals were stuck in beast form and like, reverted to their animal instincts was...sure something vbhajdkfsnbskjf that was a lot 

it was like a much more goofy version of the stuff in animorphs about the characters being influenced by their animal morph’s instincts (which was almost always presented in an absolutely horrifying manner)

but yeah we have 6 eps left in the season (!!!) which we’re looking to finish soon, I’ll probably make another post for those eps and s1 in general woohoo

[unseelie-bitch]

Season 3 Episode 1: The Princess' Ball

Oh I am EXCITED for this

Oh god okay new shots in the intro include a well-dressed man who very much looks like a human version of Scarlemagne from Kipo. Gonna go out on a limb and assume he's the new antagonist

Musa's hair's longer!! Oh it's so cute

Okay who is this blue haired lady that keeps showing up in the intro she's clearly important but gives me villain vibes

Also loving the amount of ballgowns they're clearly going to wear this season

Stella's packing for a vacation, good start

Musa "wear whatever you have" is not advice Stella would EVER take come on

And why exactly is vacation way shorter this year? You can't just say that and expect me not to question it

I think Techna's voice actor has changed >:(

Layla and Musa aren't going home? Aww...

"Hitherus" iconic

KIKO

Oh nice one Layla

Oh no Stella's getting a sungram please tell me her parents aren't cancelling on her

Oh Stella's getting a princess ball! Also "back when they still had arranged marriages" implies that Sky actively proposed to Diaspro and they were actually dating so... what's the truth lover-boy?

Oh no her dad has a suprise announcement he thinks will make her happy? What's the bet he's either pulling her out of school or has found her a husband

Aww Stella's bringing the whole squad!!

"Approaching omega dimension" with ominous music... can I assume we're either going to see the Trix or fancyboy?

Oh they're delivering three prisoners... Icy? Darcy? Stormy?

"They say it's so cold down there it freezes your heart solid" well Icy won't exactly have an issue now will she

Yep it's the Trix

Okay so Icy just woke up with glowing eyes which is a whole thing but can we talk about their frozen expressions? They not only look afraid but in pain... when were they frozen? What happened to them? I hope they're okay

Well Icy's free

Icy I'm loving your monologue but do you want to maybe free your coven sisters

Oh no she's hoping her parents are getting back together honey no

Oh my god Icy freed Darcy and Stormy and they both immediately collapsed they look so exhausted I'm so worried for them

"Only the baddest of the bad get sent here, girls" "Nice! I bet they're talking about us at Cloud Tower" I cannot stress enough that these are not Big Bad Villains they're just teenagers who don't want to be forgotten and have been abused and manipulated please can they get redemption arcs

Oh ice-laser-breathing-snakes. Isn't that fun?

Stormy actually looked terrified oh no

Blue haired girl from the intro has made her entrance and she's a dick

Pizza man is not okay with this Stella Vs Mystery Girl fight in his shop

Sorry they're... what? Please tell me she didn't actually say "Betas" like it's a flex

Oh wow her friends have a song and dance. Isn't that lovely

Okay I was willing to accept Mystery Girl right up until she was a bitch to Flora now she's going down

Techna going "snap" to emphasise Stella's insult? Iconic. Especially since she did it better than the Betas

Musa's getting her hair spelled! Excited to see it longer

Bloom and Stella are alone <3

Virtual dresses? Excellent world building

Montage!!

The Beta bitch is going to steal Stella's dress isn't she

Yep there we go

HOW DARE YOU PUSH STELLA AND BLOOM OVER

The Trix are running from the snakes oh shit

IT FROZE STORMY'S MAGIC AND SHE LOOKED SO SCARED AGAIN NOOO

Icy actually called back to make sure Stormy knew where they were going! I'm so glad they all care about each other <3

Icy please stop enjoying the icy floor the others can't deal with this like you can

Love that Icy jumped then flew into the cavern while Darcy and Stormy just fell straight down

Again, Icy is fine and gets up straight away, Darcy is hurt and crouched down and Stormy is just straight up lying on the floor please look out for the non-icy witches Icy

Oh there's sir fancyboy. His name's Baltor and I believe I've vaguely heard it

He was sentenced to eternity?? Jesus. Also implies that they would have gotten the Trix out at some point which is interesting

"Frozen dude, blink once if you can see us" okay first of all Icy his name is Baltor and it is literally RIGHT in front of you, secondly he was sentenced to eternity do you really want to try and team up with that? Thirdly iconic line though I love her

Love that Stormy's like "what if we unfeeze this guy so the snakes can kill him and we can get away" and Icy immediately agrees. These girls are pro-murder but everyone has flaws and they're cute so

Darcy and Stormy protecting Icy's back while she's using her (clearly diminished) powers to unfreeze Baltor? Even though they know damn well there's nothing they can do against the snakes? Absolutely brilliant the Trix are such a strong group I love that they actaully love each other and will protect the others at all costs

Fully ran behind Baltor and shoved him into the snakes lol

OH SHIT BALTOR KILLED ALL THREE SNAKES WITH LIKE 0 EFFORT

He's so extra I love him

He was frozen and awake for 17 years... yikes

I didn't notice his stupid little beard until now yikes Baltor please shave it

Oh he cut Icy off this won't end well Darkar has taught her not to let anyone else take charge

Baltor being like "I have no idea what any of you can do and I know I'm powerful but we've been sentenced to the same place so you probably are too. Also I'm out numbered so Imma just let you do what you want... for now" is the smartest villain-play so far

Meanwhile Stella's still trying to get her dress from Beta bitch

"Tantrum Tirade" is Beta bitch's spell so she's clearly the epitome of 'daddy's little rich girl'. Just the Winx version of Veruca Salt. Clearly Beta is for the trustfund babies without talent. Yikes

We have a name lads: Chimera

OH NO HER SPELL IS MAKING A BASKET OF PUPPIES FALL FROM A HIGH BALCONY

Watch Stella lose the dress because she's a good fucking person and won't let the puppies die

OH THOSE DOGS ARE SO CUTE

Oh shit. She's "soon going to be the princess of solaria". Shit man. Stella's dad's marrying Chimera's mother isn't he. That's the news SHIT

The gate to Tides? Oh no Baltor and the Trix can't wreck Layla's home world :(

Baltor you little bitch you could have told them the gate was re-enforced BEFORE they tried to break it and got thrown backwards

Icy might want to show off but I love how Darcy and Stormy are like "bitch do NOT bring that snake back near us"

The teamwork lads. Icy redirecting the beam so Darcy and Stormy can break the barrier? Immaculate. Also I love how Icy has started calling them "ladies" I just think it's cute

Baltor's little hops are ridiculous

"I like your style" "Back at ya Baltor" Icy I can't believe you just WINKED please stop flirting your girlfriends are RIGHT THERE

Mermaid guards!!

Okay but for real, why do you even HAVE an omega dimension gate? Like, what was the purpose? Come on

Oh Baltor's enslaving the mermaids. Christ that was quick

"How do all these guys get minions?" "I don't know but we gotta get some too" says Stormy and Icy, ignoring the third member of the Trix who's primary power is MIND CONTROL (also the Trix are so cute I'm sorry they're just adorable)

Musa's long hair is WONDERFUL

Okay Stella's new dress is actually quite cute

Musa please don't ignore your boyfriend

Are we going to find out why Bloom and Sky fought or...?

Riven brought music for Musa oh my god I can't believe I'm starting to like him... but the growth... the development... HE'S ACTUALLY KINDA CUTE NOW SHIT

"Something's wrong with the ocean" no shit Layla there's a TIDAL WAVE

RIVEN JUST SAVED A TINY CHILD AWW

Layla saving the OTHER tiny child

Oh... bye Layla! Good luck fighting Baltor alone...

"You brand them, turn them into freaks and take their power? Very cool, Baltor..." Icy PLEASE I know you have a crush but come on

Baltor's electric guitar solo is peak

[thewebcomicsreview]

Homestuck 2 has updated. It’s a Christmas Miracle! As always, this liveblog is tagged “Homestuck 2 Liveblog” is you want to filter it out. Today, we’re still in Candlyland, and it’s time to meet the Vriskas! 

For those who blocked out the epilogues, the one in the stripes is Vriska Maryam-Lalonde, who was adopted by Rose and Kanaya, and the shadowed Vriska is Vriska Serket, the post-retcon version who went to defeat Lord English. She definitely just fucked and killed Gamzee, despite the fact that she is 16 and he is middle-aged. Since having two characters named “Vriska” is confusing, Vriska Serket is getting referred to as (Vriska), in parenthesis, but just to make sure we don’t get any less confused, the pre-retcon Vriska Serket was also called (Vriska) and is presumably out in space somewhere with pre-Retcon Terezi since those two were last seen cuddling in the Furthest Ring watching the universe collapse from a safe distance in what is arguably the “end” of Homestuck’s alpha timeline, but could very plausibly also have gotten sucked into the Black Hole and landed on Candyland Earth.

Okay, everyone understand what’s going on? No? Fuck you, it’s Homestuck. 

Minutes in the past, but not many, (Vriska) pockets John’s phone before she can worry too much about waiting for a reply from Terezi.

Oh, right, Vriska has John’s phone and thus can communicate with the alive Terezi on Dirk’s ship, the one remaining connection between Candyland and Meatspace. 

Oh man, if Homestuck was still popular you’d see this cosplay at anime conventions a lot, wouldn’t you?

VRISKA: That’s the Right Call. VRISKA: So, Nickname me, 8itch. And make it Cute.

Okay, disregard my entire opening Paragraph. Vriska Serket is now back to being Vriska with no parenthesis, and Vriska Maryan-Lalonde is now nicknamed “Vrissy” so that everyone gets a unique-ish name. Hooray, we’re all caught up. Also there’s like an 80% chance these two are going to get together at some point. Also also, what’s up with Vriska’s eyepatch? 

She didn’t have that in Act 7, and she didn’t get it in the epilogues, I just checked, and there’s no space in-between Act 7 and the epilogues or the epilogues or now for her to have gotten it off-screen. These panels are going out of their way to hide her eyes, but since the epilogues explicitly confirmed she has normal eyes (and thus is still alive), I don’t know what they’re hiding.

VRISSY: Yeah, but Vrissy is a Thing now. Roll with it. TAVROS: Okay, uh,, Vrissy, VRISSY: We kinda Need a Ride

Speaking of mysteries, why does Tavros Crocker have a troll typing quirk if he’s the son of two humans, and thus presumably a human himself, with no relation whatsoever to the original Tavros? I can’t help but notice Tavros is typing in Gamzee purple instead of Tavros’s original bronze color, so I have a terrifying feeling that Tavros is going to be the biological son of Jane and Gamzee somehow and the epilogues just danced around that. Maybe I’m being too pessimistic.

Oh thank Christ. Also there is absolutely nothing interesting on Vriska’s face, so I’m not sure why there were hiding it. Maybe they figured some people would forget Vriska’s alive and wanted to milk a little drama from the casual readers? I dunno. Maybe I’m over-thinking this as well as pessimistic. Still wondering where that eyepatch came from, though. 

Aww, he’s cute. I like his snazzy suit jacket. Also: This is the first named character in the entirety of Homestuck to have come out of a vagina like a normal person instead of being a an ecto-clone.

I don’t think white pants are a great idea in an artstyle where the humans aren’t colored in, though. He looks like he’s Donald Ducking it. 

There’s a Pulp Fiction joke to be made here but I’m not gonna say it

This is very obviously Harry Anderson Egbert. He is a bit less cute. It is very weird to see unimportant background humans in Homestuck. None of the kids in the original comic ever interacted with another human, or mourned the deaths of a single person when the earth was destroyed. Which, conservation of detail and all that, but it still makes it weird to see just Bob Fedorafreak or whoever walking by.

HARRY ANDERSON: yo. VRISSY: Hey HARRY ANDERSON: hey babe, what’s up?

Hm, Harry Anderson (Never just Harry?) refers to Vriska as “babe”, which is rather friendly (Edit from the future: Harry and Vrissy are dating, Vrissy and Tavros are kismesis). Gives me the vibe of like a Hollywood agent, and I suppose his always being “Harry Anderson” backs that up.

I do like this character, or what little we’ve seen of him so far in literally two pages. As the child of the two main families, he’s got the Strilonde “Must be cool at all times” thing mixed in with the Harleybert “Kind of heart, dumb of ass” thing. I also can’t help but notice that Homestuck 2 has almost immediately set up a team of four teenagers, two boys and two girls, two humans and two trolls. If John/Jade/Rose/Dave are the Beta Kids, and Jane/Jake/Roxy/Dirk are the alpha kids, these are, what, the pre-release kids? The Delta Kids? I like the Delta Kids.

VRISKA: You said this was a schoolhive, yeah? VRISKA: We can just dump it in the inciner8or. That’s pro8a8ly what his plan was to 8egin with. VRISSY: The what???????? VRISKA: The inciner8or. Like, for 8odies?? VRISSY: At SCHOOL???????? VRISKA: Yes?

Okay,this got a laugh out of me. A big complaint of Homestuck was that we never got the original four kids all in a room interacting with each other, and now we have a new quartet and they’re immediately in a car together. I’m digging this dynamic of them all being wildly incompetent but in different ways, and if Homestuck 2 is going to have a lot of this kind of thing I’m down for it.

Vriska and Tavros have, through some tortured logic and misunderstanding, decided that the best way to hide Gamzee’s corpse is to carry it into school with them to meet Harry Anderson because they think he has a plan and don’t know he thinks they were joking and has no plan at all. This is legitimately great. Look how confident Vriska is! She thinks this is an amazing plan! And why wouldn’t she? She’s the Thief of Light and she literally has Superpowers that make her super-lucky. 

This is, and I say this in complete sincerity, the most fun Homestuck’s been in years. 

I’m fucking sold on this comic. This is exactly what Homestuck needed. 

It’s a Christmas miracle, everyone. Homestuck is good again. (At least for now)

[toothpastecanyon]

Noie’s Brother, Chapter 21: Rewrite

FINISHED!! Thank you @feferipeixes for betaing this story!

Fate sometimes rhymed, but Alcor felt like this one was a little on the  nose. A newborn Mizar fading away in the hospital and a loving father  pleading to him from behind a circle of candles.

Fate sometimes  rhymed, but Naomi Argenta just wants this stupid vampire to stop  harassing her brother. It’s making him go… weird.

See most updated version on Archive of Our Own.

______________________________________________________________

 Noie had to run. She dashed down the halls, clutching a textbook to her chest and forcing air in and out of her mouth. The door was just to the right - she was nearly there, nearly there, there!

                 She crashed into the door and staggered into a lecture hall full of people. A few turned to look at her - she reddened at that - but most of them paid no attention.

                 The professor continued talking, and she slipped past him to take her seat.

                 “-in microeconomics, it is often observed that the opportunity cost - which is the cost incurred by not choosing the next best option, for those of us who need a reminder - the opportunity cost is often evaluated in terms of…”

                 Noie reached the back of the class, and slid into place beside an elven woman in fuzzy pyjamas. The woman cracked a smile at Noie as she hurriedly unzipped her backpack.

                 “Someone likes to be fashionably late.”

                 “I know, I know.” She took out her magi-orb. “It wasn’t my fault this time, the library printer jammed while I was trying to print out- Oh, what did I miss?”

                 “Uh, econ stuff?”

                 “Bea…” Noie stared down at her empty desk. “Why don’t you take notes?”

 (And stars, she thought, she sounded just like Dipper there)

                 “Don’t need ‘em. I know this shit already.”

                 “Really?”

                 “Yeah.” Bea winked at her. “I know lots of things, Silver. You coming to debate club tonight?”

                 Noie made a face as she opened her textbook. “I don’t know. I don’t think I did very well.”

                 “I would argue that’s inaccurate.”

                 “I got yelled at for speaking out of turn.”

                 “Yeah, and the look on your face was fucking hilarious.” Bea chuckled and nudged her. “Hey, you forgot the rules for a second. Big whoop. You’re new. Come back, alright? I liked your section.”

                 “Really?”

                 “Yeah, you made good points and all that. And you didn’t talk like a mile a minute, so I could actually hear ‘em, too.”

                 “Oh.” Noie flashed a smile at her. “Thanks. Uh, I guess I could go back, then?”

                 “You’re guessing correctly, Silver.” Bea looked at her for a moment. “So… you gonna boot up that magi-orb of yours anytime soon?”

                 “Huh? Oh, right!”

                 Noie fiddled around with the base of the orb until she found the button. It was a strange thing, like a crystal ball mounted on top of some hardware. It booted up and instantly went to her notes, which was convenient but… weird, that it knew exactly what she wanted.

                 Magitech was weird, Noie thought. She didn’t really like it.

______________________________________________________________

                 Noie lay on her bunk bed, absentmindedly scrolling through her phone as her magi-orb sat open on her lap. The dorm around her was small, but cozy. It was a little messy, with some clothes on the floor and a couple papers strewn around her desk, but clean enough for a college student.

                 Besides, the clothes weren’t hers. There was laughter and the jangle of keys; Noie cut her eyes towards the door as it opened.

                 “-did not do that!” A woman burst into the room with raucous laughter. “Hahaha, J, you’re such an asshole! Get outta here! Go! I’ll see you later!”

                 She then slammed the door, loud. Noie raised her eyebrows.

                 “Hi, Val.”

                 “Huh?” Val looked over at her. “Oh, yo, Noie! How’s it going!”

                 “Uh, pretty good.” She switched off her phone. “Just doing my homework.”

                 At that, Val chuckled. “You’re always doing your homework, aren’t you?” She took off her jacket and dropped it on the floor. “When do you even have fun, dude?”

                 “I have fun!”

                 “Oh, yeah?”

                 “I do!” Noie curled up a bit. “I’ll have you know, I’m the fun twin.”

                 “Hah! So where’d you go last night, again?”

                 “...Debate club, but-”

                 Val cut her off there with a cackling laugh, and Noie scowled. She turned back to her phone.

                 “No, no, dude,” Val tapped the side of bed, still chuckling. “We’re cool, dude, we’re cool. You do whatever nerdy shit you like, okay? I don’t care. I love it.”

                 Noie shot her a tight smile, and she snorted.

                 “Aw, come on, dude, take a joke.” She looked around the room. “Yo, did you clean up in here again? It looks great!”

                 “Yeah. I did the bathroom, too.”

                 “Man, that is awesome! You’re awesome! See,” Val reached over and nudged her shoulder. “this is why I like you! I don’t have to worry about anything when I’m here!”

                 “That’s-”

                 “Oh, was gonna tell ya! I’m not gonna be here over the weekend - I’m going over to Joss’s.” She grinned at Noie. “He’s gonna throw, like, the best halloween party - dude, I can’t wait. It’s gonna be lit.”

                 “That sounds cool. What costume are you wearing?”

                 Val only sniggered in response. Noie looked over at her.

                 “What?”

                 “Nothing, dude, nothing. Oh my stars, you’re      precious,     did you know that? I love you.”

                 “What?” She raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

                 “Oh, you’ll understand when you’re older.”

                 “We’re… the same age? What do you mean?”

                 Val just shook her head and took her phone out. She disappeared under the bottom bunk, and Noie rolled her eyes.

    ��            “Oh-kay. Good chat. Whatever.” She stared at her phone for a few seconds, then kicked off her covers. “I’m going outside.”

                 “Mhm… What did you say?”

                 Noie stalked across the room and out into the hall, fist balled around her phone as she brought up Dipper’s number.

                 Outside, she called him up. Her phone rang once, twice, and then put his face on screen.

                 Dipper’s face. She just got a look at his fuzzy beard before he adjusted the camera. He was lying on the floor, surrounded by papers, and he shot her a crooked smile.

                 “Hey, Noie! Just doing homework, what’s up?”

                     “Oh my stars I am turning into you.”  

                 “What?”

                 “No, no, it’s fine. It’s fine.” Noie laughed it off nervously. “Heyyy, Dipper! Dipperino. How you doing, bro?”

                 “Pretty good!” He looked down at his papers, and shrugged. “Just, uh… just doing homework. What’s up with you?”

                 “You know what people do at a Halloween party?”

                 “A Halloween party? Uh… dress up, I g-”

                 “Yeah! So I’m not crazy!” Noie paced underneath a tree. “That’s what I told my roommate, but she seemed to think I was being stupid about it or something!”

                 “Oh, that-”

                 “And she still acts like I’m her maid or something! What’s up with that? I got 24 hours in my day just like her; why do I have to spend my time cleaning up our room while she goes partying!”

                 Dipper made a face. “Yeah, I’m sorry, Noie. That really sucks.”

                 “Ugh.      Ugh.”     She rolled her eyes. “Roommates.”

                 “Heh, yeah.”

                 “What, you got roommate troubles like me?”

                 “Oh, no, I just - I was just sympathising. Roy’s cool!” Dipper gave a thumbs up to someone offscreen, then smiled back at her. “We made a chore wheel.”

                 Noie slumped against the tree. “Oh, I      wish    Val would agree to a chore wheel. I even made one up for her and hung it on the wall, but she didn’t even notice it!”

                 “Did you… tell her it was there?”

                 “No, but she’s gone all the time, I never remember to talk to her when she’s there.” Noie’s frown deepened. “Besides, why’s that even my responsibility? She’s an adult, just like me! She should know how to do her stupid chores by now; I shouldn’t have to tell her to do it!”

                 “Yeah…” Dipper made a face. “Yeah. What are you gonna do now?”

                 “What do you mean?”

                 “I mean, maybe you could talk to an RA, or-”

                 “Ugh, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to blow it into a massive thing - I mean, it’s fine! I’ll survive.” She shrugged at him. “I dunno. Am I being a downer? I’ll stop being a downer now.”

                 “No, no, you don’t have to-”

                 “So, how’s the week been treating you, bro?” Noie crossed her legs and leaned forwards. “Is it just more of the homeworks for you, or…?”

                 “No, no, actually, I went to, uh, spellcasting club, actually!” Before she could open her mouth, he added: “Online. They stream it, and you can join the stream. And I-I wasn’t participating - obviously - but it was cool.” He grinned, and his eyes twinkled with excitement. “Really cool. And the teacher stayed later, and we had this whole conversation about enchantments… you’re probably not interested in the details, but it was really fascinating!”

                 Noie beamed at him “Aww, yeah! That sounds so cool, bro! I’m so glad you got to do that.”

                 “Yeah!” He rubbed the back of his neck. “And, uh, I don’t have class Wednesday, so I went back and visited Grandpa.”

                 “How’s he!”

                 “Doing okay! Doing okay… He says he misses you.”

                 “Hah! Good one.”

                 She laughed at that, but Dipper didn’t join in. “No, seriously,” he said. “He was talking about how he can’t wait to see us all back together on Christmas.”

                 “Oh yeah?”

                 “Yeah.” Dipper’s voice lowered. “I… I think he’s kinda lonely in the house, Noie. You know… ever since Grandma…”

                 He trailed off there, and she looked away. She stared at a little patch of grass off to the right, and it was quiet for a moment. The only sound was the rustle of the wind.

                 “Yeah…” Noie felt herself say. She cleared her throat. “Yeah, I bet he… is.”

                 There was a noise on Dipper’s end as a door opened and closed. He sighed. “Yeah.”

                 There was a pause, as he seemed to think over his next words. Then:

                 “Have you thought about… giving him a call this week?”

                 Noie made a face. “Yeah, I should… I should do that.”

                 “You don’t have to, but he’d like that, I think.”

                 “No, no, I should. You’re right, I should.” She shrugged. “I just, I dunno… I don’t know what to say, I guess?”

                 “That’s understandable. Maybe just something like hi, how are you doing? Then go from there. It doesn’t have to be long.”

                 “Yeah… you’re right. You’re right, I’ll do that.” She looked back at him, and managed a smile. “Thanks, Dipper. I love you.”

                 “I love you too, Noie.”

                 She beamed at that. “Man, I just wanna hug you right now! Why aren’t there video hugs? Someone needs to get on that!”

                 “Heh, that would be cool.”

                 “And I just wanna poke your cute little beard, too. I love it.”

                 Dipper’s hand went to his chin. “Cute? I mean, thanks, but I don’t think cute is the right-”

                 “It’s soooo cuuute and soooo little-”

                 “Okay, ha ha. You’re very funny.”

                 “And you’re a big dork.” She snickered at him. “It looks great, bro. I’m just teasing.”

                 “Really?”

                 “Yeah!”

                 “It doesn’t look too thin, or-”

                 “Nope! It looks great on you, seriously.”

                 “Oh… thanks!” He stroked it, and grinned. “Thanks, Noie!”

                 “Anytime.” She watched as he shuffled through some papers. “Welp, I won’t keep you. Have a good day, Dipper!”

                 “Thanks, you too! See you on Friday!”

                 “See you on Friday,” Noie said, and the video feed shut off with a beep. She stared down at her phone, and found herself still smiling.

                 It was good to talk to Dipper, she thought. Things never felt as bad after one of their chats.

                 She didn’t go back to her dorm right away. She turned her phone off, and just sat on the grass for a little while.

                 It was peaceful. It was nice.

______________________________________________________________

     >im at the parking lot. wheres this place again?  

     >Down the main street where all the shops are on the right, you’ve probs passed it before. It’s got a black sign that says ‘Tree’s Teas’  

     >If we see you pass by we’ll all scream for you. You won’t miss us ;)  

                 Noie made a face at that last text from Bea as she walked down the street. Hopefully she wouldn’t miss this place.

                 “Alright,” she said, and looked up at the signs. “Tree’s Teas, Tree’s Teas. Where are you?”

                 She passed by sign after sign, glanced in window after window. It was a hot day; there weren’t very many people out on the streets, and she could feel the sun beating down on her hair.

                 Why they were going for tea on a day like this, Noie had no idea, but she still felt her heart skip a beat as she caught sight of the sign.

                 They were going to tea. They.  

                 Noie took a deep breath, and opened the door.

                 “Is that who I think it is?” Bea’s voice came with a rush of cool air. She was sitting by a group of other students, waving her over. “Ey, Silver! You found us!”

                 She laughed nervously. “I, uh, found you! Hi Bea, hi…”

                 She recognised a few faces from debate club, but not their names. The others were even more of a mystery - thank the stars Bea immediately launched into an introduction.

                 “You know Gus and Meena from Tuesday. And, ah-” She pointed a finger at the other three. “That’s Sara, Mako, and, uh - what’s your name? Heh, just kidding, dude - he’s Jess.”

                 Noie tried for a wave. “Hi. I’m… Noie. Nice to meet you?”

                 “Yo, Noie.”

                 “Nice to meet you too!”

                 “Hi!”

                 Smiles and greetings filtered in, and she allowed herself a smile. Maybe this would be fun.

                 “Cool! Nice to, uh… So, I just get a drink, and we study together?” Noie looked over at the menu; there were a staggering number of options there. “Jeez, these guys are serious about their tea, huh? Think they’ll kick me out if I order a soda?”

                 Bea snorted. “Blasphemy, Silver. No, you gotta order a tea! They’re really good here!”

                 “Alright… which one should I do?”

                 “Dude, you should get the macha!” One guy - was he Gus? - held up his drink. “It’s my favourite!”

                 “Or you should try the chai!”

                 “Or apple cinnamon!”

                 Noie made a face. “Thanks? I guess I’ll, uh, pick one of those.”

                 “Or I could go up there with you?” One of them, a woman with bright purple hair, looked up. She spoke quietly. “I, um, I work here, actually, so I could walk you through it…”

                 “Oh, that sounds great.” Noie smiled at her. “Sara, right?”

                 “Yeah.” She got up from her magi-orb. “Alright. And I can give you my, my employee discount, too.”

                 “Oh, sweet! Thanks!”

                 Bea waved at them as they went over to wait in line. There was an awkward silence as they stood there, just a little too far away from the group and not entirely sure what to say to one another.

                 Noie cleared her throat. “So,” she started. “You like… tea?”

                 “Yeah…” Sara nodded. “I get a free cup every shift.”

                 “Oh. Sweet. That’s… fan-tea-ast… uh…”

                 “What?”

                 “Bad pun, sorry. Butchered that.”

                 “Oh…”

                 They moved forward in line. Noie glanced her way, and then scuffed her foot on the tile. Oh, stars, she shouldn’t have tried a pun. Now this lady probably thought she was a weirdo.

                 “Hey,” Sara looked over at her. “Were you from Diamondback High?”

                 At that, Noie frowned. “Yeah? Why?”

                 “I went there too!”

                 “What?”

                 “Yeah, I remember you from my history class senior year.” She smiled at Noie. “You have a brother, right?”

                “Yeah, Dipper! He’s going to SASU, he’s my twin.”

                 “Ohmystarsyouretwins.”  

                 “What, you didn’t know?”

                 “No! I- well, duh, you guys were in the same year, I should’ve figured it out.” She smacked her head, and Noie chuckled. “I’m dumb, ignore me.”

                 “No, no, it’s cool.” She picked at her shirt. “Seriously, we were in the same history class?”

                 “Yeah! You don’t recognise me?”

                 “I… uh-”

                 “I get it, don’t worry about it.” She ran a hand through her purple hair. “I didn’t have this until I went to college. Trust me, I look pretty generic without it.”

                 “No, your face looks really nice!” Noie blinked. “I mean - sorry, I didn’t mean to be weird-”

                 “You’re fine. You’re fine. Thank you, Noie.” Sara grinned at her. “You know, I, uh, always wanted to talk to you. Back in highschool.”

                 “Really? Why?”

                 “I dunno, you guys - you and Dipper - you seemed like really cool people. To me.” A little red was sneaking into her face. “I dunno, you guys just seemed like you were always having fun with each other, and… I dunno. I dunno, it seemed cool.”

                 Noie stared at her for a moment before cracking a smile. “Aw. You should’ve.”

                 “Yeah, I should’ve! I, uh… I dunno. I’m kind of… bad with people. Sorry.”

                 “No, don’t apologise!” She hesitated, and then bumped Sara’s shoulder. “No time like the present, huh?”

                 “Yeah. Yeah! Nice to meet you, Noie.”

                 “Nice to meet you too…”

                 “Sara.”

                 “Sara, sorry. Bad with names.”

                 “No, it’s totally okay-”

                 “Hi! Are you ready to order?”

                 Noie and Sara stared at the cashier waving them forwards, and then blinked at each other.

                 “Oh… oh!” Noie turned to the person standing behind them. “Why don’t you go ahead of us? I still need to decide.”

                 After a moment, Noie ordered her tea, and sat back down among the group. It was a little new, a little awkward to sit with so many people… but the longer she sat there, the more she was aware of a great big beaming grin on her face. It was nice to be here - really nice.

                 She sat back, and sipped her tea, and let the hours slip by.

______________________________________________________________

                 11:47. Dammit, she should be at class by now.

                 “Come on, submit!” Noie stabbed a finger at her magi-orb. “Submit! Submit, you stupid thing!”

                 It kept loading. She huffed and stomped her feet into her shoes.

                 “Come on, come on… wait, no internet? Seriously?!” Noie tapped aggressively at the white error message that popped up. “No! No, you can’t do this to me! What happened? Did the internet go down? Arghhh, I don’t have time for this!”

                 She paced around the room for a second, hands on her temples. She      had     to submit her slideshow - the presentation was in ten minutes! Why did she always do this to herself?!

                 “I gotta… I gotta fix this.” Noie clicked to troubleshoot her wifi problems, hesitated, then opened her desk. She hadn’t cleaned it out since highschool - maybe she had a USB in here or something?

                     Stars,     she hoped she did. She rifled through random papers and pieces of old homework, growing increasingly desperate as the minutes ticked by too fast and      oh fuck it was 11:50 now she was definitely going to be late-  

                 “Oh!” Noie happened upon something small and grey and rectangular - a USB! “Oh, yes! Thank you thank you thank you!”

                 She kissed it and then plugged it into her magi-orb. After pulling up her files, she copied her slideshow and went over to paste it into the USB’s drive-

                 And there, she paused. Frowned.

                 “Huh?” She moused over a file titled ‘For_Naomi.mov’. “It’s… for me? What is this?”

                 She had never seen this before in her life… or had she? The longer she stared at it, the more      something    came back to her; an awful feeling of déjà vu flooded through her like ice in her veins, and she felt her heart beat faster. She felt her head begin to pound behind her eyes. She stared longer, and she almost saw flashes of something, someone, a dark figure looming over her, digging its claws into her stomach      and ripping out-  

                 Noie staggered back, panting hard. She was shaking all over.

                 “What the…? The fuck?” Noie felt her stomach, then looked back up at the screen. “What the fuck?”

                 Nothing answered her. The only sound was the hum of the air conditioner. She gulped down air, and tried to steady her heartbeat.

                 She shuffled forwards. “Well… that was…” she tapped the screen to minimise the file. “That was… something. Okay. Oh-kay.”

                 Her head had stopped hurting, but everything still felt strange. She stood over the magi-orb, just breathing for a moment. In, and out. In, and out.

                 In, and her eye was drawn to the clock. 11:53. She let it out in a sigh.

                 “I’m gonna be so late.”

                 Noie glanced down at the USB, and grimaced at the way it set her brain tingling - it was like pins and needles inside her skull. Whatever was on it, whatever that file was…

                 She’d deal with it later.

                 The presentation was twenty percent of her grade, and the internet hadn’t come back, and this still seemed like a perfectly fine USB, so she took a deep, shuddering breath and decided to brush over this for now.

                 She copied her slide onto the drive, rubbing her head and trying not to look at the file with her name on it.

                 This was fine, she thought. Everything was fine.

                 Her head hurt when she wondered what was on it, so she tried not to think too hard about that. She thought about getting her keys and getting her bag and getting out the door. On the way to her class, Noie rehearsed her lines, pointedly ignoring the weight in her pocket.

                 There was a flash of something as Noie tiptoed into the back of class. It was cold in here, but she was sweating. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible… had happened? Was happening?

                 She stared through every presenter, tapping the desk with the USB. The weight of it, the slight curve to it that fit around her thumb-

picking it up from the ground gripping it shouting where’d he go WHERE’D HE GO-  

                 “Naomi Argenta?”

                 Noie stiffened. The man who called her name      had wings and a suit and glowing yellow eyes-     then he was just her professor.

                 “Do you have your presentation?”

                 “P… presentation?” Noie nodded, stiffly. “Yes. Yes, I-I have it. I just need to plug it… in.”

                 “Alright. You’re next.”

tore apart the angel horrible screams looking at her like YOU’RE NEXT-  

                 The presentation was… awkward. Noie liked to think she was an okay public speaker - she didn’t need to rehearse something a million times to sound natural. That day, though, she really wished she had a script to fall back on; she stumbled through her words, talking fast, breathing fast, gripping the microphone with white knuckles and trying to think past the pain behind her eyes and the flashes in her vision-

                 “A-and there was, there was this presi-, uh, president, Ch-Chancellor-”

A voice in her ear, a laugh, “a very pro-nat President you guys elected a hundred years or so back-”  

                 She got through it, and was met by scattered applause. Class was nearly over. She took the USB, and sat back down at her desk.

desk and looking over at dipper knowing what he is KNOWING WHAT HE IS-  

                 What was going on? What was happening to her? She groaned into her hands, acutely aware of the heads she was turning right now; just a little longer, then she’d be able to go back to her dorm. Just a little longer, then she’d be able to sort this out.

                     ...Stars, she hoped Val wouldn’t be there.

                 The pain behind her eyes just kept pounding away at her, and it felt like eons before this class was finally dismissed. As soon as she heard chairs moving, Noie stumbled out of her seat and started off on the walk across campus.

                 It usually wasn’t that bad of a walk, but today it seemed to drag on. Time seemed to stretch, and suddenly each footstep

                                                                                                                                                                                                               felt like

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              an

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              eternity.

Leon’s eyes. They closed, and accepted their fate.  

I want you to know that I don’t regret a thing.  

                 A man’s voice echoed from the pain behind her eyes, and Noie staggered into her dorm room. Her eyes went right to Val’s bed; when they saw it empty, they fixed on the magi-orb.

                 Slowly, almost reverently, Noie took the USB out of her pocket. She was going to find out what was on it

and why there was a part of her that already knew.  

                 She closed the door. Locked the door. Walked to the magi-orb, and sat herself down before it.

                 Breathed. In, and out.

                 Plugged the USB into the base. Saw her name once again - ‘For_Naomi.mov’.

                 Clicked on it

                 and watched

                 and felt the pressure behind her eyes suddenly      pop    and-

                 Oh. Oh.  

                 Oh, no.  

______________________________________________________________

                 It was dark in Noie’s dorm. The lights were off - had been off all through the night - and the early morning sun glowed against the blinds.

                 Noie was there. Lying in bed, on top of her covers. Her phone screen illuminated the deep bags under her eyes, the creases on her forehead, the sheen of sweat that had collected in her hairline.

                 She hadn’t slept all night. How could she? If she closed her eyes, she’d start thinking, and if she started thinking, she’d think about her brother and how he was      Alcor the Dreambender     and how it felt to have his claws dig into her belly and-

                 Noie felt her whole body shiver. She shifted in bed a bit, and stared down at her phone.

                 No. No, she wasn’t going to think about that. It didn’t seem real.

                 Maybe it wasn’t real.

                 Maybe this was all, like, a really intense dream she’d had. All that stuff with the angel and the vampire and… him, that wasn’t her life! That wasn’t the kind of person she was! It wasn’t!

                 Noie could see her hands. Her palms were sweaty - in the darkness, the shine looked a little like blood.

                 She gulped.      It wasn’t.  

                It couldn’t be.  

                She didn’t stab him.  

______________________________________________________________

                 Noie woke to the sound of her phone ringing. She groaned; her head felt awful, and when she moved a hand to cover her face she felt the weight of her phone - she’d gone to sleep with it in her hands.

                 Why’d she do that? And why was it… night outside? She sat up, and looked down at her phone.

                 Dipper Argenta was calling her.

                 She saw his face, and everything came back to her like a kick in the teeth - oh, god. The phone rang again, and she flinched and tossed it to the ground.

                 It sat there, ringing, ringing, ringing. Noie curled up tight and plugged her ears with shaking hands.

                     Ringing.  

                                     Ringing.  

                                                     Ringing.  

                 …

                 Silence.

                 She sniffed, and opened her eyes. Her phone was lying still on the carpet; she stared at it for a second, and then shuffled out of bed to pick it up.

                 Her stomach growled as she got to her feet. Her legs felt weak. She knelt down, and picked up her phone, tapped the screen, squinted as it turned on.

6:23  

Friday, October 29  

Dipper Argenta - Missed call

                 Noie sighed. Of course… she was supposed to call him today. What the fuck was she supposed to do about that?

                 The phone rang again. Noie jerked back and banged her elbow on the edge of her desk.

                 “Ow! Fuck!” She jerked it back, and glared at the phone. “Argh, Dipper, you… you demon.”

                 It felt weird to say it out loud.  The phone kept ringing, ringing, ringing, and she opened her mouth.

                 “You… You…” She stared at his dorky profile picture, the one they’d taken on a trip to the Grand Canyon last year.

                 She stared at the gentle grin on his face, the way his hand came up to stroke his patchy stubble. And to think, all this time, buried underneath that, underneath him…

                 “Y-” she tried, but her throat had gone tight. The words wouldn’t come. Her phone finally stopped ringing, and her brother's smiling face faded to black.

                 Noie took a deep, shuddering breath, and turned off her phone.

______________________________________________________________

Maybe this wasn’t that big a deal.  

                 It was three in the morning on a Saturday, and Noie was wondering if, you know, maybe it wasn’t the end of the world if her brother was a meaty shell formed around a bloodthirsty demon. He was still a demon, yeah, but as long as the demony bits like the wings and the claws and the urge to kill stayed locked away, you’d never be able to tell!

                 So in a way, nothing had changed, right? Just don’t bring up the demon thing, and it could still be normal between them.

                 Noie stared up at the ceiling. She stared up at the moment she slit her brother’s throat, at the terror shining in his eyes, the terror      of her.    She stared until she couldn’t anymore, and pressed her hands to her face.

                     Stars, she never wanted to see that again as long as she lived. If she could get things even halfway normal after that, well…

                 Well, she didn’t know.

                 …

                 She didn’t know what she wanted to do.

______________________________________________________________

                 Noie didn’t know what time it was. She didn’t know what day it was. But sometime late at night on her magi-orb, she heard keys jangle outside her dorm. Her heart caught in her throat as the handle turned; for a moment, she imagined she’d see Dipper on the other end, see his golden eyes glowing in the darkness, see-

                 See her roommate Val peek her head in, then raise her eyebrows as she caught sight of her.

                 “Wow, you still awake?” Val cracked a smile. “Lemme guess: some kinda homework shit. Am I right or am I right?”

                 Noie tried to form words, but they caught in her throat. She just stared as Val shut the door.

                 “You not gonna say anything?” A pause. Val’s chuckles died off. “No? You, uh… you alright there, dude? Noie?”

                 She just shook her head. A sob came out of her, and suddenly the lights came on.

                 “Whoa, whoa!” Val stood on the ladder, her bewildered expression looming over Noie. “What’s the matter, dude? What are you doing? Why are you surrounded by… soup cans? And- are those      dry noodles?     What the fuck?”

                 Noie tried to cover them with a blanket. “I-it’s fine… Val, d-don’t-”

                 “Uh, no it isn’t? You look like you haven’t slept all weekend, dude.”

                 “I-”

                 “And your hair. Eugh. When’s the last time you showered, ‘cause it’s officially been too long.”

                 Noie clenched her fists. “I-it’s      fine,     Val. Leave me alone.”

                 “Oh, come on. I’m only trying to help.”

                     “Leave me alone!”     She snapped, and watched Val flinch away. She sighed. “Sorry. Look, it’s just… it’s just complicated, okay? Thank you for the offer, but it’s just… you can’t help, so just leave me alone. Please.” She turned back to her magi-orb. “Let me figure this out.”

                 There was a moment of silence as she tapped away at the screen. Val shuffled her feet, then cleared her throat.

                 “Okay.” She said. Then: “You wanna smoke?”

                 “What?”

                 “I just got a pack, if you wanna-”

                 “No! Just leave me alone!”

                 Val put up her arms. “Okay, okay, you don’t have to be rude about it. Sheesh.” She then turned off the lights. “Well, I’m going to sleep. Good luck with your issues, dude.”

                  She got into her own bed, and Noie sat there in silence. She looked at her magi-orb; there were several articles it had automatically pulled up on demons, and she’d been reading through them before Val came in. As she stared, another one popped up: ‘Fight with your roommate? Browse over 50+ listings in your area with roam4homes.com’

                 Noie turned it off in disgust. Stupid magi-orb - what was she even doing up this late?

                 …She had a class in the morning, didn’t she. What was it, Tuesday now?      Ugh,     yeah, there was no way she was going to that. She felt awful; her head was pounding, and her hands were trembling, and her hair felt dirty and there were little shards of hard pasta in her bed and she was still kinda hungry…

                 Noie put her face in her hands. This was… she couldn’t go on like this. She was going to fail college. She needed to, to talk to Dipper, maybe, or maybe not… well, she needed to come to a decision about whether she was going to talk to Dipper or not. She needed to do      something    to resolve this… but what?

                 She sighed, deeply, then dragged a hand down her face. She looked over at her phone, picked it up, and just held it in her hands. She hadn’t turned it on since Friday; there were bound to be a lot of missed calls on there.

                 Yep, it was probably going to make her feel awful.

                 Yep…

                 …

                 Her stomach growled. She hesitated, and then sat up in bed.

                 Maybe she should get something to eat first.

______________________________________________________________

                 “Here’s your order, ma’am. One crispy fried fish taco and a medium soda.”

                 “Thank you so much!”

                 “Thank you for stopping by, have a good night.”

                 “You too, dude!”

                 Noie stopped for a minute to smell her order before placing it on the seat next to her and driving off. It smelled nice and warm and fishy; Bea said it made her car stink - and yeah, maybe it was a little strong - but she couldn’t see why it smelled bad. It brought her back to drive-through dinners, her grandfather piling everyone into the car and setting out on the road. They used to do them a lot after Allie stopped cooking… it was fun, back then, sitting in a car with her family all around her. It was comforting, and right now, a little comfort sounded good.

                 Noie parked her car under a streetlight in a near-empty parking lot. She took a deep breath, and let it out. She looked at her phone, which sat still turned off in a cupholder.

                 She took a bite of her taco, chewed a little… and then turned it on. It booted slowly; the silence hung for a few, awful moments, before it came to life.

                 The first thing she saw was the time: it was 3:30 in the morning. Then there were her missed calls. She had twenty. Her texts were filled up, too - one of them was from Bea asking to hang out, but the rest were all Dipper:

Sent last Friday at 6:31pm      

>You there?  

>Today is our weekly meeting, btw. That’s why I’m calling.  

Sent last Friday at 6:40pm      

>Let me know when you want to reschedule!  

Sent last Saturday at 8:06pm      

>Are you okay?  

Sent last Saturday at 9:17pm      

>If you’re busy with homework or something that’s fine. Just text me when you get this.  

Sent last Sunday at 11:57pm      

>Please call me, Noie.  

                 Oh… whoops. Noie could feel herself cringing into her seat as she scrolled through his messages. Yep, that was… expected. He was probably worried sick by now, and at that she gave a dry smile.

                 Her brother, Alcor the Dreambender, was worried sick about her. Stars, but it was true, wasn’t it? He used to get worried if she got home from work too late; she only could imagine how frantic he’d be after getting ghosted for a whole weekend.

                 Noie had no idea what she was going to do with him, but the pang in her stomach made her type out a short reply:

Sent last Tuesday at 3:37pm      

>Still alive. Sorry.  

                 She sent it off, and took another bite of her taco. Now he was probably going to call her in the morning. What she was going to say to that, she had no-

                 Bzzzing!  

                 Noie jumped. “Aaah!” She yelped and glanced down at her phone. Dipper was calling. “Seriously? You’re calling me now? It’s three in the- ugh.”

                 She hit the ignore button, hesitated, then went over to her messages. She could already see Dipper typing something up, so she rolled her eyes and sent a text.

>go to bed, ding dong. well talk in the morning ok?  

                 Dipper’s typing paused for a second, and then continued. She snorted a little at that, then brushed some taco crumbs off of her pyjamas.

                 His replies popped up in rapid succession:

>Are you okay?  

>What happened Friday?  

>Also you should go to bed too, it’s 3 in the morning. Don’t you have French at 10 tomorrow?  

                 Despite everything, Noie found herself smiling at his texts. This was so, so... Dipper of him. This was the brother she knew, not Alcor, not some kind of demon.

                 She made a face.

                 Even though… that wasn’t true, was it. Because. Dipper was a demon. The brother she knew had always been a demon.

It’s still me. This is still… me.  

                    Always. She just… hadn’t seen it before, hadn’t known, hadn’t wanted to know-

“Noie?” She watches him stagger back, fall against the binding circle. “Y-your eyes… what’s going on?!”  

                       -let people tell her who she wanted him to be, and then…

her hands on the knife across his throat. her hands feeling the tug of parting skin. her hands covered in warm, golden blood, her hands, her hands, HER HANDS-  

                 Noie didn’t realise she was crying until she felt a sob rip through her body. She’d dropped her phone; with shaking hands and blurry eyes, she fished it out of her lap and turned it on.

                 There was another text from Dipper.

Sent last Tuesday at 3:45pm      

>Just call me after that class, okay? Love you, hope everything’s okay. Sleep well <3  

                 Noie stared down at that text, sniffed, and then smiled. It didn’t last long, though; she thought about what she had to do in the morning, and sobbed into her steering wheel.

                 It was a while before she could bring herself to drive home.

______________________________________________________________

                 Val had left. The door was locked. Her phone was fully charged, and open on Dipper’s phone number. Noie had even dressed herself for the occasion; she passed some time just looking through her t-shirts, waiting for things to feel right.

                 Eventually, she sat down at her desk, took in a deep breath, and let it out. There was nothing left to delay this with anymore… but for a moment, she stared at the wood grain on her desk, at the morning sun shining in and putting a soft glow on her carpet.

                 It had been a weird night. She’d cried a lot. Questioned life. Wondered what the fuck she was going to tell Dipper. Came to a decision, thought it was a terrible idea, talked herself out of it… and then talked herself back into it after every other solution seemed to work out worse.

                 After all that, she finally felt… not calm, but quiet inside, if that made sense. There was an uneasy stillness in her mind, a lull in her thoughts; it was like she’d worried so much about this conversation that she’d exhausted her ability to worry at all. At this point, whatever happened, happened.

                 All she needed to do was get this over with, so Noie looked back down at her phone, pressed the call button, and waited.

                 It rang once.

                 Then it picked up.

                 “Noie!”

                 Dipper. Noie grit her teeth at his face. “Hey,” she said, and then nothing more. Dipper hesitated a moment before replying.

                 “Uh, hi! Hi!” There was relief in his voice. “Oh, I’m      so glad     to hear from you! I couldn’t reach you all weekend - I-I thought maybe you’d lost your phone, I didn’t want to freak out Grandpa so I just- I- what happened?” He stared at her unsmiling face. “Is everything okay?”

                 “Everything’s…” Noie tried for a smile. “Um, it’s nice to see you.”

                 He frowned. “It’s nice to see you too? Also, it’s ten fifteen - aren’t you supposed to be at French? You didn’t have to-”

                 “Are you alone?”

                 “What?” He looked around his room. “Uh, I think Roy’s at class for the next hour. Why?”

                 Noie just stared at her brother’s face. She knew it so well; she knew those worried creases in his forehead, that slight tilt of his head as he leaned in closer. A part of her wanted it to stay like this forever - wanted it to stay normal. Human.

                 “Why? Noie?”

                 But it couldn’t. She knew that now.

                 “What’s going on?”

                 She took another deep breath, and let it out. Didn’t look him in the eyes; she trained them on his chin, and opened her mouth. “Dipper,” she said, slowly, deliberately. “I have to tell you something.”

                 “What? What is it?”

                 He was leaning in very close, now. Her eyes slid down to her desk. “I have to tell you… you need to remember. The deal, it’s broken, you need to remember now.”

                 “Remember? What do you-”

                 “You’re a demon, remember you’re a demon!” Noie’s head shot up; she stared him down. “Dipper, I remember who you are, you’re Alcor the Dreambender and I need to talk to him- I mean you. I need to talk to the whole you.”

                 “Wh- what? Argh!” Dipper clutched his head. “I- what are you talking about, Noie? I’m not a- ugh… I’m, I’m not a-”

                 “Yes you are! You’re Alcor, you took a human form so you could grow up with me. We made a deal so we’d forget but I remember and you have to too, okay!”

                 Dipper had crumpled out of frame; she could only see the top of his head. “Noie…” he moaned. “I don’t… it’s not… what’s… what’s happ̗͘e͎̭͈̭̗ni̲̫̖̜̬n̫͉g?”

                 “Please remember, Dipper.” Noie felt a pang of guilt at the pain in his voice. “I’m sorry it hurts. I didn’t want to do this, but it’s the truth, okay? You’re… you’re a demon.”

                 He wasn’t speaking anymore; she only heard a whimper in reply. There was a wet pop, and then another, and then a tearing sound that made her squirm in her seat.

                 “Dipper?” She watched as the last bit of his head fell out of frame. “How’re you, uh, taking this? Everything okay?”

                 Something bumped against the desk. Other than that, it was dead silent. All she could see was the chore wheel at the far end of his dorm; she stared at it, and waited for him.

                 Waited, until she heard a low, distorted growl. The sound of someone swearing under his breath; a hand coming into frame as it gripped the desk, a tall, suited figure rising up, and locking glowing golden eyes on her.

                 Alcor the Dreambender.  

                 Noie thought she’d gone past worrying, but she saw him and suddenly she was trembling all over. Her stomach flipped and made her feel sick; it was something about those teeth, those claws, those wings flaring out behind him, those eyes staring her down as he dug inside her and ripped and tore-  

                 “Mizar.” Those eyes; she watched them narrow slightly, then widen. “Naomi.”

                 Noie forced a laugh. “That’s… that’s me. Hi. F-fancy meeting you here, huh? Ha! Haha! Jokes. I’m funny!”

                 “N-”

                 “That was an entrance, huh? Ent-er-ance. En-trance. Enterancé! That’s Spanish for, uh, nothing, I just said it in a, in an accent.” She felt herself leaning back as he opened his mouth. “I-it’s actually, uh, entrada, la entrada, th-that’s Spanish for entrance, s-s-so th-that’s-”

                 “Naomi.”

                 Noie stopped talking. She could feel her heart beating in her throat. She closed her mouth and sat there, staring at him. He started to speak, then stopped, sighed, and shook his head.

                 “This… hold on a moment. Stand back.”

                 Noie heard that. It took a second to register, but he reached towards the camera and she backed up to the end of the room. She didn’t know what he was doing at first, but then she saw his hand come out through her phone screen; his head appeared, and then his torso, and then he stepped off of her desk and dusted himself off.

                 “That’s better… Naomi?” His expression fell as he looked at her. “Look, this is… weird, I know. I’m sorry you remembered, that wasn’t meant to happen. What set it off?”

                 She tried to speak, but nothing came out. After a moment, Alcor nodded to himself.

                 “The USB.” He picked it up from her desk. “Of course - why didn’t I think of hiding that? Ugh, that’s dumb. I’m sorry.”

                 Noie swallowed. “I-it’s okay, Dipper-”

                 “It’s no̕t͟. I made a deal, I promised you wouldn’t have to worry about this anymore, but I… I rushed it.”

                 She watched his hands ball into fists.

                 “I just wanted to get away from it all as fast as possible… just like I did with Leon. Just like it! Argh, why can’t I just ge̴̶t į͝ţ t͞h̷ro̵u̵͞g͏͡h̸̸̡ m̢y̨͝ ḩ͢ę̵̡a̡d̵ ͏͝th̸͢a̕t̴̨-” He stopped, and glanced her way. When he saw her flattened against the wall, the echo dropped from his voice. “Sorry. It’s fine… I’m fine, Naomi. I’m not gonna do anything.”

                 He seemed to think for a moment. In the silence, Noie peeled herself off the wall.

                 “It’s just…” Alcor started, and then sighed. He straightened. “Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll do it right this time, Noie, I promise.”

                 Slowly, he extended a hand. Noie stared at the tips of his claws, then followed his arm up to his face. The demon -      her brother’s     expression was carefully blank, and the black-and-gold stare he fixed her with still sent shivers down her spine. He’d shaved, she noticed.

                 “Dipper?”

                 There seemed so little of her brother to recognise, but…

                 “Just take my hand, Noie. I’ll put it all back to normal, okay? Like you want.”

                 “Normal.” Noie gave a wry smile. “That’s what I always wanted, isn’t it.”

                 Alcor tried for a laugh - it was awkward,      familiar.     “Heh, uh… don’t worry about it. I… I get it, you know? This is a lot. I’m a lot.” He didn’t quite meet her eyes. “It’s… okay, if you don’t want to deal with it.”

                 She recognised that tone. She recognised it from fights they’d gotten into, when she’d said something hurtful and Dipper went quiet. She recognised the pang in her chest.

                 Noie stepped forwards. “Dipper, I-”

                 “And it’s not like I don’t deserve it.” He was talking faster now, hugging himself. “After everything I did to you, a-and your family, it’s no wonder you don’t want me around like this! I killed your dad! I ruined your life! I was horrible and demonic and a monster and-”

                 “I’m sorry.”

                 “I know, I-” Dipper blinked. “Wait, what?”

                 He was staring at her now, golden eyes wide in astonishment. Noie took a deep breath, and clenched her shaking hands.

                 “I wanted to say… I’m sorry, Dipper.”

                 “Why are you sorry? I-”

                 “Let me talk, okay? Because I’ve been thinking on this, and I owe you an apology. I owe you an apology, Dipper.”

                 He frowned, but he didn’t speak. Noie grit her teeth.

                 “It took me a long time to realise I did. It took me all of last week, I barely slept, I ate-” she gestured to her bed, “dry pasta at three AM while I was looking up stories about you, I… well the point is, I know what I did wrong now. I know I didn’t treat you right, bro. And I’m sorry.”

                 Dipper just looked bewildered. “You think      you    didn’t treat me right? I ki-”

                     “I know you killed Leon!” She snapped. “I know, okay? And I’m not saying you didn’t do bad shit, I’m saying we both did bad shit! We both… hurt people, you know?” She shook her head. “I hurt your friend, Lucy Ann. And I hurt y-you.”

                 Her voice cracked a little. She stood there, looking down at the carpet, trying to get it back under control. Dipper’s eyes were boring into her head.

                 “I-I sold you out, bro.” Noie managed. “You and your friend, I sold you out to some pro-nat angel because I thought he could fix you.”

                 “Oh, Noie, I never blamed you. You were possessed, you-”

                 She shook her head. “I wasn’t possessed. Maybe at the last moment it was the angel who stabbed you, but everything that led up to that? That was me.” A crooked smile, a mirthless laugh. “That was… me. And you wanna know why I did that? I was scared of losing you.”

                 “That’s unders-”

                 “I was scared of losing my grip on you. Things were bad, back with Grandpa, okay! Everything with Granny a-and school, everything felt like it was spinning out of control, but you were… you didn’t change up on me. You were always there for me - it was supposed to be the two of us looking out for each other, you know? Not one of us turning into some all powerful demon who… who didn’t need me anymore!”

                 “No! I need you, Noie!”

                 “Don’t say that.” Noie stabbed a finger at him. “Don’t say that, Dipper. You don’t need me.”

                 “I do, I-”

                 “You don’t need me.” She backed away, shaking her head. “Not in the way I wanted you to need me. Because I needed you to stay human and I slit your fucking throat over it!”  

                 Dipper flinched away from her, eyes wide, mouth open, but saying nothing. Her words hung between them. She took a deep breath, and let it out with a shudder.

                 “And maybe…” she started. “Maybe that’s what messed me up so bad. About you being a demon. It wasn’t what you are, or what you did… it’s what I did - what I did and never apologised for. It ate me up inside, Dipper.” She swallowed, hard. “It’s been eating at me all week. I couldn’t handle it when I was fifteen, and I… I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

                 It was silent. Noie hung her head low, and felt the silence stretch. She had nothing more to say but sorry, sorry, sorry… and when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked up, wordlessly.

                 Alcor was there, gazing down at her with his gold-on-black stare, his face framed by his fancy suit and by wings as black as the void… but Dipper was there, too. Dipper was there in the nervous smile he flashed her, in the awkward pat he gave her shoulder, in the stuttering way his words tumbled out of his mouth when he tried to speak.

                 “It’s… uh…” he tried. “You… want a hug, Noie?”

                 Noie stared at Alcor, Dipper, her brother for a second. Then, she sniffed, and threw her hands around him. He squeezed back, and she buried her face into his chest as his arms wrapped around her.

                 It was nice, for a moment. Then something else wrapped around her, something warm like skin but also much, much wider and she looked back and-

                 “Aaah!”

                 “Whoa, sorry, sorry!” The darkness swallowing her up suddenly flared out behind Dipper. “Those were just my wings! Sorry!”

                 She stared. “Just your… just your wings, huh.”

                 “Yeah, I-I’m sorry, I should’ve known that would, that would be weird-”

                 “No, no! I’m sorry I freaked out!”

                 “No, don’t be sorry-”

                 “No, you don’t be sorry!” She giggled. “We… we’re a pair aren’t we?”

                 “What do you mean?”

                 “I guess it’s just… I don’t know! I don’t know, Dipper!” She sat down on the bed. “There’s a lot of things I have to get used to, I guess? Having a demon for a brother.” Her chuckles died out. She looked up at him. “But… I’ll work on it, okay?”

                 Dipper frowned. “You… don’t want to forget?”

                 “No. Not again. You’re a demon, Dipper. I don’t want to hide from that anymore. I don’t want to pretend you’re something you’re not.” She smiled. “You’re my brother, Dipper. Everything after that, that’s… I can get used to that, okay?”

                 Slowly, he gave a smile. “Okay.”

                 She grinned, and stood up from the bed. “Now let’s try that hug again, huh?”

                 Dipper sniffed, floated forwards, and wrapped his arms around her. They squeezed each other tight; Noie buried her face into the crook of his shoulder, and closed her eyes.

                 This was okay, she thought.

                 They’d be okay.

______________________________________________________________

                 “Hi! Welcome to Tree’s Teas, how can I- Noie!”

                 “Ey, Sara!” Noie swaggered over to the counter and slung her arm over the counter. “How’s it going? What’s cracking? Hopefully not the mugs, ha!”

                 Sara giggled as she raised an eyebrow. “It’s going okay… how are you? You seem kinda excited today!”

                 “Oh, yeah! I’m hanging out with my friend right now!” She grinned as Sara blushed a deep red. “And! I’m studying econ with my brother, so I’mma need two cups of my usual today!”

                 “Alright!” She picked up a mug. “By usual, do you mean the one tea I ordered for you last week? The Nutty Chai?”

                 “Yeah, yeah, that one! It was good!”

                 “Okay, then!”

                 Sara turned around to pour the tea. Noie fished around inside her wallet - there were so many receipts in here she could barely find her card.

                 “So your brother,” Sarah started. “Are you video chatting with him or something?”

                 Noie opened her mouth-

                 “Wait, you’re buying two teas, I’m dumb.”

                 “You’re not dumb.” She cracked a smile. “Maybe I just really like tea, yknow?”

                 “Heh. We do have free refills.” Sara turned to look at her. “But is he actually in town? Dipper?”

                 “Yeah!”

                 “That’s awesome! How long’s he visiting for?”

                 “Visiting?” The smile froze on her face. “Um…”

                 She trailed off there; Sara seemed to get the hint.

                 “Oh, am I asking like a bajillion questions? I’m sorry.” With a nervous laugh, she placed the first cup on the counter. “I haven’t seen him since high school, that was - wow, that was nearly a year ago!”

                 “Hah! Crazy, right? So much has changed.” Noie stared at steam rising from the mug. “So much has changed.”

                 “I know, right? So that’ll be… five thirty-nine for the two of them, Noie. Noie?”

                 Noie looked up. “Huh?”

                 “Five dollars and thirty-nine cents.” Sara frowned at her from behind the register. “Uh, are you okay?”

                 “Me?” She barked a laugh, started digging through her wallet again. “Oh, I’m fine! Never better! I was just remembering, um… he’s got a beard now. Dipper. It’s really funny.”

                 “Funny?” Sara chuckled a little. “What’s wrong with it?”

                 “Everything, and you’re not allowed to say a word about it.” She handed her card over. “You’ll see, dude. It’s great. He’s so proud of it… I love it.” Her snicker softened to a smile. “I love him.”

                 Sara grinned. “Aww.”

                 “Heh… ahem, anyway,” she took the card. “Enough mushy stuff, this is hard study time! We’re not just gonna pass this test, we’re gonna      destroy    it!”

                 “Heh, I bet you guys will. Good luck!” Sara blushed a little. “Hey, uh, if you’re still here in an hour, you know, I get off work at five, and-”

                 “You wanna join the study party?”

                 “Y-yeah!” She fiddled with her apron. “I mean, if that’s okay, it’s totally fine if it isn’t, I know-”

                 “Hey. Sara.”

                 “Yeah?”

                 “That’d be dope.” Noie pointed a cup of tea at her. “I’ll keep a seat open for you, okay?”

                 “Oh… okay. Okay!” She gave a grin. “Thanks, Noie. Careful with your tea.”

                 “Hey, if I spill some, it’s my brother’s. Anyway, we’ll be outside. See you at five!”

                 “See you!”

                 Noie walked out of the door, two cups in hand. The patio was shaded and covered in mist makers; it felt quite nice, for such a hot day.

                 It felt nice to see Dipper there, tucked away in the corner. He was still wearing a suit, but the eyes that looked up at her were warm and brown; the smile he gave her wasn’t stretched, or full of fangs. It was just… him. Dipper. Her brother.

                 Maybe he was other things, too, but he was always, always her brother.

                 Noie grinned back at him, and walked over.

[nny11writes]

1, 33 and 48 for the writers ask meme? :)

1. Tell us about your WIP!

Oh god which one?????? Fic I’m currently get good writing in on and excited about is How to Quit You which is already posting but not finished. Buuuuut, I think I want to talk a hot second more about the dang Art Model AU that jumped me in a back alley. One of my friends has a story she’s writing/planning for a different fandom (Power Rangers: Jungle Fury!) and we were hashing through her idea that one of the characters was an art model back in college and he took his crush to an art gallery where a nude of him was hung up.  I liked it! And then weeks go back by, maybe months, and suddenly all I can think is, “How fucking hilarious would it be if Adora was an art model? Like, she’s not ashamed of her body or nudity, she’s not bothered by the process or images of her being put out into the art world.” and then the very next thought was, “We all like hc Catra as an artist in Modern AUs, oh my god she could be the disaster lesbian she is!”

And now I’m a few thousand words into it and Adora has started attending the drawing sessions when she’s not a model with a cheap drug store “art book” and her mechanical pencil she chewed to death. Because she’s fallen for the mean artist and wants to impress her she has a genuine interest in learning how to draw even if everything she puts on paper looks like a misshapen potato.

I’m going to force them to ride in the car while Animotion’s Obsession plays on the radio and they both break out into a sweat.

(Warning for that song, it’s one of those “oh this is so catchy, but I can’t hear lyrics when listening to new songs” and then I looked it up and it’s a bit date rapey. Like, why do so many 80′s tunes I like end up really skeevey?)

33. What’s your revision/rewriting process like?

I would hesitate to say I even have an actual process for revisions and rewrites. Basically, every time I open my doc to work I always go back to the start of the chapter I’m working on and re-read until I hit where I need to write.

This gets me in the right head space for the fic, helps me remember what the characters are doing/plot, and nail down the same tone in my writing.

But it also means that every time I write I do a bit of editing before hand. Heck, if I need to re-read an older chapter or skip ahead to a later one to double check consistency I’ll do some editing /while/ I’m writing as well.

Because I tend to look at one fic then a different one then a different one, with no consistent schedule it ends up being the great advice of write it and walk away. Come back a day or two later and look at it again because you’ll see more errors that way.

I think this isn’t the best system for most people. A lot of folks need some separation between writing and editing so that they don’t hamstring themselves via perfectionism. I’ve been learning over the last year that I’m, in fact, not a fat lazy bastard like I’ve always thought I was. I am, in fact, a fat overachieving hype-man. Which is wild! So I know I fall into that trap sometimes too.

Great example is Chapter 18 of how to quit you, I wrote the chapter, edited that for about two or three months, then realized it was really not good and deleted it to start over, edited that for a few weeks and realized it’s still not right. So I might need to delete it again but I’m going to try and fix it via smaller section re-writes and adjusting what I thought I wanted plot wise. But what chapter isn’t finished and is next to be posted? Chapter 11. Fucking, god damn it all. Almost every chapter from 11-14 has been heavily ignored despite needing to be in the story and being good I just can’t get my brain to work. So instead I get stuck editing and editing and editing and not WRITING.

On the other hand, I tend to bulldog it and then when I do ask people to edit/beta read there’s not as much obvious stuff that they have to slog through since I’ve caught most of my common spelling mistakes (-ign instead of -ing will kill me some day), tense mistakes, and consistency errors.

I like doing it this way, and while it can get it the way it normally helps. But again...it’s not exactly planned out. I just launch into a fic and go “cool I wanna write something for this fic” and I’m not a chronological writer so god speed little dude.

48. Do you prefer to write skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back?

I mean, kinda like I talked about above I tend to edit and polish parts of my draft while still actively writing other parts of it. Like, with the same chapter and across the whole fic.

I honestly fall into both categories because I’m somewhat of a blend of them. I lean more towards expanding on what I’ve already written but I don’t tend to write super skimpy drafts that need actual fleshing out.

I do love [I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS BUT TRANSITIONS ARE MAGIC] for areas I have a vague idea about, but there’s usually fully fleshed out scenes on either side of it. It’s just when I’m doing the editing to write thing that I’ll sometimes go, “Oh, wait, this would be much more impactful if I expanded a bit more.” So a one off line about Obi-Wan realizing that Palpatine ordered Maul to kill Qui Gon and is trying to corrupt Anakin, became a third of a chapter that I felt was really well rounded already both before and after that moment. Or a short paragraph about Glimmer and Catra riding back into work devolved into them teasing one another and got some good descriptions in (I’m so bad at describing physical things in stories, so that one line about Catra’s cheeks looking like hibiscus from her blushing was fucking god tier for me), and all the sudden I didn’t just have a short transition area, I had a full blown scene. (Thank you again dontcallmebugaboo for listening to me ramble about how the transition sucked and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and you just said “romantic horse ride” and the clouds fucking parted, ilu) The most COMMON version of this is when Characters Suddenly Take Over and completely derail my story. Because then as I look around I go, “Hey yeah that could work, but I need a chapter about A and then need to seed in more references to B before I can expand on C.”  

So idk is the short answer lol. I tend to write things out as I go along and every so often I get jumped in a dark alleyway.

[macklives]

homestuck recap

i hated this so fucking much bc my 2 am bitch-ass didnt want to read a recap thats probably longer than any slowburn out there

anyways here it is

also, uhhH sorry im using this as a end of session discussion bc that shit gets explained in her as well. and im not writing up more recaps of a recap so this is where im done for the day. (by done for the day i mean last nights session, im still doing a liveblog soon. i just wrote this yesterday)

also that this is long

you dont have to read it, theres nothing of importance

ive been coping with humor to get me through it

neato.

have fun with what i suffered through:

why was “beta” the only thing unhighlighted?

like did i miss a page???

OH its the beta version of HS thats why

damn its like 5 pages and thats it

mmh

well youll all be happy to know im clicking every single one of these links again bc i like looking back like ahh i remember that. good times. also in case i forgot some shit existed.

do you think andrew had fun writing this? or was he like “fuck”

thats a lot of fucking package talk. good thing im not confused as of now and remember it pretty clearly. of else, this early on in the recap, id be screwed.

god remember when i did an analysis on each item and what it did

i feel as if i have the technology engrained inside my head right now

cruxite, alchemeter, all that jazz

flashbacks are starting up already

yeah, that was the good part in homestuck where i knew 100% that i probably would continue on this liveblog in its entirety, ngl

that one explosion scene. bc it kept me going.

OH W A IT SHIT

i just realized how the intermission spades probably fucking foreshadowed the whole jack revolts thing and gains the ring, which was also technically JOHNS fault considering he slashed up the doll in the first place

my god, i guess thats the only good aspect of the recap. looking back at things and realizing the missing pieces.

oh that makes sense for the whole “this prototyping had no effect on the enemies, since he was already in the medium” i didnt actually think about that

little did rose know where that would get her right now

oh yeah

there’s still the whole entire lab terminal thing and how mom basically knows the place exists. i guess we’re still venturing onto that and itll come up later when we find out how mom knows SO MUCH about the game.

still think shes some weird spy or secret agent

i kinda love her ngl

anyways, theres literally no reason for skaia to produce a cloning machine. so technically, they only sent the meteors in, right? so who put the cloning machine in if not mom?

oh yeah that impact was nerve wrecking asf

and still at this point in the comic i called dave fuckboy red

huh, how times change

i hated reading that whole paragraph ngl, the frustration just kicked me in the boobs again

yeah nobody else got tornadoes, huh?

OH that makes also much more sense

bc she did prototyped them before she entered the medium.

i gotcha

man one of my favorite edits i made, rose hitting that meteor with a bat

are you

telling me

the exiles structures they arrived on were in the form of the items the kids used to enter the medium?

THE EGG

THAT EXPLAINS “EGG”

of course it was 413 years ago. that was never explained. simply vague “many years in the future....” but i expected no less from this

man serenity is the most wholesome character in hs no doubt

damn thought andy here was really gonna spoil us jade’s planet

okay cool, im glad i now have the layout to the whole “their stations went to the coordinates of the home button” shindig

man i honestly dont know what else to say besides “yeah cool recap” when i already pretty much know what went down? ofc im looking into each link and shit and adding in things when i see fit, but otherwise its just me going “ah good times” yknow

the whole meteor thing kinda makes sense now?

we’re still missing a few pieces of info but we’re getting there, folks

oh yeah that reveal

god jade and dave have it in the shits for parents huh

bro isnt the best and jade has a fucking dog

who lowkey

is doing better than bro

who knew a fucking dog is a better guardian than bro lmfao

dreambot = terminator. im telling you.

sorry im still on that idea and it will never leave unless i have the actual proof in front of me that its not going to become a thing. meaning, ive finished hs and theres still no terminator dreambot or either andrew himself gives me a canon letter with “the robot is not arnold, mackenzie, pls just let it be”

why is the entire game session highlighted

i swear to god if this is like to a second recap or smth of the whole game session i may fucking CRY

okay thank god its just a design of the skaia layout

which is honestly cool

idk why its blurry tho but i can at least see the layout now. which is honestly how i pictured it anyways.

yeah, john did make a huge impact in his friends’ life and i find that so fucking touching

yep. got that. everything loops around. cool.

especially when the trolls come in. god we havent even gotten to that recap portion yet, we havent even gotten to the INTERMISSION

pls can this be the halfway point to the recap

AT LEAST

so they were exiled after the whole jack: ascend thing, right? considering theyre way in the future. man no fucking wonder.

speaking of jack

man that whole dad and jack interaction was gold, ngl

OH THAT EXPLAINS THE RING THEN

and wow, andrew’s really giving us the best female content huh. andrew is the true god of equality and diversity.

also hey, i didnt realize that wow. so PM tricked the queen in showing the parking ticket to be able to take the present from jack. she’s a smart cookie, that one..

she and PM basically snitched on jack and it was the best thing that has happened to me so far

oh yeah okay

but why did AR panic over bec? bc thats something we havent learned yet, right?

anyways

exile town, the only town which should exist. facts. i dont make the rules.

noice

i love PM being queen. like.. thats canon now. shes an actual queen.

yeah that was a fun game and the consorts were cute

fuck yeah the dick head

hate them even more now that i know john was killed because of them

anyways, i wonder what dick move dave’s denizen did? maybe thats why its filled with lava bc the denizen was like “fuck it. make the land red. kill them all”

UH WHAT

WHAT

OH MY GOD HOW DID I JUST FORGET NANNAS LETTER LIKE THAT LMFAO

THEIR TITLES WERE THERE THE WHOLE TIME!

so i still dont know what they mean but i can gather it has something to do with the game giving them abilities. considering dave is the “knight of time” and he can go back in time. whack.

which means john can either control someones breathing or simply wind. and rose is... like that one girl in the winx club who does the sun shit. bc whenever i think of light powers, i think of stella.

and jade is space. witch of space.

nice

i have no idea what that means ngl

okay finally

we’re at the trolls

maybe this recap will end soon

i remember when i thought they were internet bullies

yesss

someone asked if i basically knew the trolls were on a different veil than the kids, so not presently with them, and i know lol. i was making a joke before btw. jsyk. dont think im incompetent to forget these things when sometimes i choose to forget it so i can add in a joke

it be like that, i annoy many

then again, pls dont assume im trying to say im not incompetent bc im also a fucking dumbass and DO forget shit and i have no excuse

imagine being so bored on the meteor, your last resort is speaking to aliens

ngl me if i was ever trapped on a meteor and could potentially do that

nah ik its bc its their only hope at helping with their session or whatever tf CG said to john. but there was BOUND to be a conference meeting between them like “okay guys. humans. that needs to be sorted out” and you just hear CG screaming in the background

i cant wait to meet them honestly bc im growing on all 4 of the ones we’ve seen already. and on top of that, i know what they look like and i know theyre not THAT bad, just a little on the crayy zee side sometimes

but theyre trying

OH MY GOD

I GET IT

FUCK

DOES THAT MEAN THE INTERMISSION IS *APART* OF THE MAIN FUCKING STORY??

AND SPADES IS WV FOR THE TROLLS

GOD D A M N

wow

i didnt expect that. but maybe the signs were there and i was just willingly choosing to ignore it or smth bc “haha couldnt be, right”

flashbacks to how i thought the trolls were humans

anyways, i guess he got his revenge on the kids version of “snowman” ie the black queen. but really

he did not have to do that. he could have cut off the finger and fled. but he decided “nah, lets implode her” so the loml is dead and all i got was a catchy song

i knew they were different types of “bullies” but now i just have to replace bullies with uhh

trolling strategies

anyways, this is cute. i love how they’ve come to be friends through mutual frustration. good part in the comic.

i wonder why it explodes

more importantly

....

terminator time?

this was my favourite sequences of dialogues in the whole entirety of homestuck. that is to say the back and forth thing that the kids went through to become a sort of wingman for the other.

absolutely gold.

all except AT’s rap.

GC was the only smart one with the linear shit

anyways fuck he still has to kill the denizen now but apparently its hard to beat for a sleeping dick head so

that will be fun for the future

john will probably need to kill A LOT of imps to get there

yeah rose is a badass bc she slayed that thing with needles of all things

OH and the white queen was the cursive

damn did AR ever do the whole guide process to a kid yet? maybe he will with dave, idk

oHHH

i fucking SEE

thats why he said DNA

to use it and replace all the life forms in the ocean

fucking neat wow

man that sounded sarcastic but im genuinely impressed bc all i got was bullshit as i read jaspersprites log

so thats the secret. it was “meow” bc that somehow translates to the genetic code she needs then. and that code apparently took fucking years to write as well. sick. whack. oh man.

derse is very pretty, ngl

and wow shit

“dave had already been awake in his tower all along without realizing it” how tf does someone just

do that, awake in both places at once

i didnt even fucking realize that fact as i read that pesterlog wow

ah yes, around the time things got confusing

okay so the capsule makes sense bc at first i didnt know it was a fucking time capsule so i got confused as to how it just apparated the game lmfao

the more you know i guess *twinkle*

i find that a neat concept tho

like the whole whatever you prototype affects the imps and shit

yeah so that whole “he had no advice” basically impacted his future

no shit dave wanted to reset things bc he probably thought he caused some sort of bad butterfly effect and killed his best friend

fuck calsprite thats all im gonna say

i read that first sentence and i think i got an aneurysm

and then everything else just made me sad again

i mean good thing he fucking did amirite?

we got pain at first but now we got cool shit like idk

fucking DAVESPRITE

damn idk how that works

will rose have like two minds now? or will this be some steven universe fusion shit?

“and understood their meaning” course well i fucking didnt so could you pls elaborate, rose?

okay but then what the fuck did he use that was inside the fucking box

bc i thought he used his knife?

im only every going to refer him as that now, thank you andrew

alright okay..

god that was a lot

i dont know what will happen once i click on those links but i am going to see that for myself bc i refuse to add ANYTHING ELSE

[merlinistheredheadedstepchild]

8 Lunatic – July 18, 2011

Stiles and Scott go to the park to drink jack daniels Because Stiles wants to cheer Scott up over being dumped Scott says they’re on a break Cause denial 

Dylan is a good fake drunk Stiles is wasted but he still puts it together that Scott can’t get drunk 

Some dudes show up and steal their liquor and Scott is ready to wolf out over it Tomorrows the full moon 

Stiles collapsing into the jeep Good comedic choice And then the Alpha shows up kills pot smoker and burns that poor waster to death

Scott’s alarm goes off at 7:00 It’s Monday and school was closed on Thursday and Friday Which means Night School happened on a Wednesday night 

Melissa is trying She even calls Allison ‘what’s her name’ But Scott is determined to get her back Cause denial 

Is that a different red SUV? Chris doesn’t want to even let Allison out of the car But Kate’s on her side 

Chris admits that he should have listened to Kate and that he underestimated the danger

No one in school knows that it was the five of them Allison and Lydia believe that Scott locked them in the classroom and left them for dead

Stiles is so concerned for his dad and he’s trying to warn him cause it’s a full moon Stilinski just wants his kid to stop worrying and go take his chemistry test 

Allison won’t talk to Scott in the classroom And Scott has a panic attack thanks to hypersensitivity And full moonyness And werewolfism

The hypersensitivity is amazingly well done That’s a consistent thing on this show Showing mental illness through cinematography 

Scott runs out Stiles follows him Tracks him using the ring of his cell phone And then figures out that the inhaler will trick Scott out of his panic attack 

“No you were having a panic attack. But thinking you were having an asthma attack actually stopped the panic attack. Irony.”

And then Stiles tells him that he used to get them after his mom died

Stiles tries to convince Scott that heart break is just a thing you have to go through. Also her dad hunts werewolves. It was bound to be an issue

Scott is worried locking him in his room won’t be enough. He feels like he might kill someone 

The state detective is actually a hunter Winchester style

Mowhawk is back So that’s nice

Chris thinks the Alpha won’t be focused because of the full moon Kate thinks it has a reason to be focused Nobody thinks Derek’s gonna be out

And they’re all cool with killing him if he is

Victoria being terrifying with a plate of cookies My favorite kind of juxtaposition

More Jackson flirting with Allison over a chocolate chip cookie She asks him if he wants ‘a bite’ But he hears ‘do you want the bite’ And kinda freaks out

They talk about whether they’re okay after the other night Scott breaks a wall with his head 

Greenberg gave the team pink eye so Stiles gets to play first line He’s very excited Scott makes co-captain and Jackson is not happy 

Jackson’s lackey is prepared to fuck Scott up Danny is being a reasonable adult

Scott can smell jealousy thanks to the full moon Which implies that he can’t smell it at other times Stiles convinces Scott to see if Lydia is attracted to him Instead he asks her if Allison still like him Lydia throws a ‘just friends’ in his face 

Lydia is manipulating like a boss And Scott looks like he’s gonna murder somebody I get that Posey was trying for something predatory but he has such a kind face and he’s really struggling to even look aggressive. He mostly just looks kind of dead eyed and distant. But that works too.

They make out instead

And then Scott lies to Stiles about Lydia liking him because the full moon is Making him a terrible person

Seven hours till the full moon

Some of the guys knock Scott on his ass so he fucks them up and then fucks Danny up 

Lydia comes to check on Danny and Jackson notices that her lipstick is smeared He is not even shy in his awareness of her cheating 

Kate is teaching Allison how to use a stun gun And Allison has a break down over the other night and Scott 

“It just, it felt so right with him” 

Allison tells Kate that Scott knows Derek But she’s confused about Scott saying he doesn’t know Derek Which is fair, because Scott keeps saying that he doesn’t know Derek and that they’re not friends, but Derek keeps showing up and usually being nice 

Kate wants to know everything 

Stiles lets himself into the McCall house With a key he had made 

“That doesn’t surprise me. It scares me but it doesn’t surprise me”

And then she notices the sound of chains in the duffel He says it’s for a school project

She’s a good mom who asks her son’s friend if he’s okay because he hasn’t been talking to her lately 

Scott’s getting his Derek on and lurking in his own bedroom Funnily in the same chair Derek did 

“You sure about that, cause you’ve got this kinda serial killer look going on in your eyes and I’m hoping it’s the full moon taking effect cause its rally starting to freak me out” 

Scott you are not fine

Stiles should really run Instead you handcuff the super strong pissed off rage monster to a radiator Those cuffs are never going to hold 

Allison goes to a sporting goods store because she’s thinking about getting back into archery to feel safer Jackson is there getting a helmet for Danny He really seems to like her 

Stop taunting the werewolf Stiles! 

“That’s like the one girl I have...” Have you never liked another girl Stiles? 

Scott’s being a piece of shit and tells him that Lydia was the one who kissed him 

Allison tells Jackson that she doesn’t think it was Derek Jackson agrees with her 

Do not listen to him Stiles He’s a lying liar 

Is this just his second full moon? So the show has taken place over 34 days? 

When the light of the moon touches Scott he freaks out

Allison knows that her family is lying to her and it makes her unsure about everything I’m kind of genuinely liking this version of Jackson

And Scott breaks out And runs through the woods like a numpty 

Jackson tells her about the person he saw in the hall who got down on all fours

And Scott tracks them to the car in the parking lot and hallucinates them making out And while they’re trying to stumble on the word werewolf Scott jumps on the car but then it’s Derek to the rescue Being very not dead and very wolfy Thank god he’s concerned about Scott cause this night would not have ended well for any of them

Nice arm hold Derek And he screams some sense into that boy 

Derek changes back and forth so seamlessly I like it

Stiles is looking for Scott and comes across the deputy’s at the park with the burnt body He panics thinking it might be his dad And then hugs Stilinski when he shows up Kate and Chris are doing recon on the corpse and Allison’s friends  Kate figures out that the smaller beta could have been younger

Derek carries Scott back to his house And looks so terrified of disappointing Scott when he tells him about the maybe cure “Scott, if you help me find him. I’ll help you kill him”

Scott left a claw in Jackson car And of course Jackson kept the damaged lacrosse glove He’s actually doing pretty okay at figuring everything out for a guy who hasn’t actually looked a shifted werewolf in the face It’s been just over a month and werewolves are not nearly as obvious an option as steroids or drug use 

Is Lydia manipulating Allison with the ‘he locked us in a class room and left us for dead?’

End episode

[miraclejune]

HERO’S SOUP: Chapter 13

Thousand Hearts

Monday morning. The mansion was in chaos. 

Hyunjin was running late again because he ‘overslept’. Woojin had to drag him out of his warm blanket earning a low groan from the Beta.

Changbin left first with Chan and Jisung, the only people who weren’t busy for the day, they volunteered to help Changbin with his studio. Well, he had to buy them each a new pair of sneakers next week so it’s not quite volunteering if you might ask.

“Minho? Felix? Where are you guys headed?” Felix adjusted the strap on his backpack before turning to Woojin. “We’re gonna head out for a while. There’s a popular new spot for busking down at Hongdae. We’re gonna check it out.” Minho tapped his feet letting them snuggle in his shoes perfectly. “Eric’s outside.” the two of them dashed out the mansion yelling their goodbyes.

"Remember to stop by the cafe later!" Woojin reminded them with a shout as he closed the front door.

“I didn’t even get to say hi to Eric.”

Woojin rolled his eyes, tugging the towel around the wolf’s waist. Almost revealing a damp and stark naked Hyunjin. “DUDE! What the hell.” Hyunjin gasped and tried to cover his body. They were the only ones left in the house but he was over-dramatic without fail.

“You could’ve exchanged your pleasantries if you weren’t so busy reading each fucking comment in your Instagram posts last night.” Hyunjin huffed, fastening the towel as he stormed to his room. Woojin chuckled, Hyunjin was the second easiest to tease. The first place would always be Changbin. Hands down, that idiot is so gullible.

He looked at the clock, ah they’re terribly late. It was 9 am, and their call time was 1 pm. We can’t really see any problem with that, as a matter of fact, they had plenty of time. However…

“Hwang Hyunjin don’t you fucking dare do your tedious make-up routine. Busan is not a 5-minute drive.” Hyunjin shot up from his vanity table’s seat as he heard the alpha’s growl at the end of his sentence. Woojin was in full-on Manager mode. 

He made a break for it. Snatching his backpack behind the door, simultaneously combing back his damp hair. He hopped the last 3 flights of stairs stopping in front of a brooding Woojin. Hyunjin suddenly remembered that one time Chan said Woojin looks like a hostile bear when he's mad. At that time he couldn't quite see it but now, Woojin kinda did resemble his description.

"Why can't we just take the train." Hyunjin eyed Woojin fastening his seatbelt, he earned another deathly glare. The terrified wolf gulped and decided to put his feet down from the dashboard. "Sorry."

Woojin pulled into the road. "It's better to have our own car just in case we finish late." 

Hyunjin quietly nodded. "Plus, you're a head-turner. It's gonna be a pain in the ass." Woojin might've done what Chan told him not to. Actually, there were too many to list but this one thing is on the top. "Hm." 

Hyunjin likes being praised. His confidence and self-esteem shots up. It's good, Chan said it's fine to praise the boys every once in a while. But, Hyunjin's a lost case. "Wouldn't want to get chased for hours by scouts." Woojin caught a glimpse of Hyunjin's face from his peripheral vision as the wolf said those words.

Oh gosh, he's done it now.

-

Seungmin didn’t have council work today, nor Jeongin had class. It was their University's anniversary so the school decided to let the students rest for the holiday. Leaving the two college students with nothing to do.

"Hey, can you get the door!" 

"Okay." 

Seungmin stood in front of the open door, his head moved about figuring out who opened the door. "He's in the kitchen." Seungmin's eyes fell on the boy who looked much like a smaller version of Yang Jeongin. He gave the kid a smile before following suite inside the house.

He calmly made his way to the living room, sitting down on the left side of the sofa near the window. Jeongin's little brother comes back from upstairs, a switch on his right hand. Seungmin eyed as the boy sprawled on the carpet. He spotted the pile of snacks on top of the coffee table. Seungmin smiled, it seems like someone's enjoying their free time.

"Hey, Seungs!" Jeongin appears from the kitchen wiping his soap ridden hands on a strawberry shortcake apron. "Can you wait for a while? I'm just finishing up with the dishes." 

"Seriously? Strawberry Shortcake?" 

Jeongin's eyes blinked at the blinding light of a camera flash. "Don't you dare---"

"And... sent! This is gonna leave them in stitches." Seungmin tipped back his head and roared with laughter. Jeongin looked at her with disbelief, Seungmin did the exact opposite of what he was about to say.

"What on earth are you laughing about now? Delete it! And this isn't even mine! It's my moms!!" 

Seungmin abruptly stopped laughing and looked Jeongin dead in the eyes, "Nnnnnnnnno." he made sure to enunciate the 'N' just to irk Jeongin's nerves before resuming his laughter.

"You look ridiculous." Jeongin's little brother got ahold of Seungmin's phone that fell on the carpet next to him. "Ugh. I hate you all so much." he groaned and stomped his way to the kitchen. 

-

"Ma'am, what do you think of my friend? Isn't he adorable?"

"Oh my! That's a very cute apron he's got there haha! Here, take these fish cakes, it's in the house for making my day!"

"Thank you so much!"

"Jeongin, where are your manners?"

"T-thank you." the boy bowed his head. His blush seared through his cheeks and for a minute he thought her face was on fire. Jeongin suddenly felt embarrassed and delicate; even going as far as attempting to hide his rosy features behind his slim fingers. 

He eventually took action and dragged Seungmin outside the small snack shop. Jeongin swears he could see Seungmin smiling from behind him. The witch picked up his pace and walked beside the blushing boy.

And there he was in his arrogant triumph, Seungmin smirked - just a small pouting of the lips; a narrowing of the eyes and a tilting of the head. It was so subtle, it was even more infuriating for Jeongin who caught a glimpse of it after making the foolish mistake.

"You don't have to show that photo to EVERY person we meet today!" face the color of an overripe tomato and annoyance boiling inside, Jeongin could only groan. "No way. It'd be a shame to devoid the world with this gem. Plus, we get free food." Seungmin held up his phone in front of the boy, irking Jeongin's nerve some more.

After a few minutes of Seungmin annoying Jeongin and at some point his phone was thrown to the pavement, they reached Changbin's studio. Well, where the building was located to be precise. It had 4 floors and looked fairly new. The paint on the walls was still fresh and some windows don't have 'windows' on them yet, just the frame.

"3rd floor. 2nd door to the right." Jeongin recalled what Changbin told them yesterday. "Let's go, strawberry shortcake." Jeongin disregarded the nickname and followed Seungmin inside the building, they headed towards the door with the stairs logo on it. "Elevator's working." the old guard chirped. They turned around and met with his wizened eyes. "Thank you." he gave them a smile and went out of the building.

Chan, Changbin and Jisung or 3racha as the others would lump them, didn’t know they were coming so they decided to surprise them with some chicken, rice rolls and spicy rice cakes (of course they bought it lol don’t let these kids near the kitchen). All in which Seungmin showed his photo to.

As they opened the glass door, Seungmin expected the place to be an utter mess. It was plausible. The building smelled new inside too. So renovations are most likely on-going.

However, both were surprised to see the place neat and tidy. A few boxes were neatly piled on the corner, there was no hint of renovation at all. Surprisingly enough, the AC blasted on the side.

"Looks like it's fully operational now."

"Yeah." Jeongin took a look around. The place looks nice.

Seungmin yelled over and walked towards the adjacent room. "Hello, dweebs. We have brought you some snacks." Changbin hit his head under the tattoo chair. "Fuck! Dude what the hell. You scared the crap out of me."

Seungmin pursed his lips "Mm. Then you better check your diaper, you big baby." he put the paper bags on the small coffee table near the wall, before offering a hand to Changbin who was massaging his sore spot. "Where's the old dude and the squirrel?" He carefully sat down on the chair Changbin was fixing. "It's fixed. You can sit." Changbin said, turning around to gather the tools. He closed the toolbox with a click and placed it near the door.

He noticed Jeongin looking around. A smile automatically crept on his face. "Jeongin." the boy yelped and found Changbin leaning on the door frame smiling at him. He smiled back. "Changbin! The place looks so cool." he was naturally pulled into a tight hug. 

'Always so warm.' the boy thought as he hugged the wolf back. "Did Chan help with the designing?" 

"Of course he did. This place looks like the black hole itself." Seungmin muttered from inside the room. Changbin and Jeongin chuckled. "Yeah, he has this aesthetic that's suited for a tattoo shop."

"Can't deny that."

"You didn't answer my question Changbin." Seungmin whined. "They're out buying some stuff needed. They'll be back soon." he turned around and went back into the room. "Just stay there, Jeongin. It's still dusty here." Jeongin sat down on the chairs provided. So, Chan and Jisung are out. 

The room is like a perfect magazine cover for an aesthetic tattoo shop. Jeongin was afraid to sit, worrying he would wrinkle the fabric or stain it with something he doesn't know on his pants. The leather couch is inlaid with rhinestones; placed so delicately. The white curtains are linen, the kind of white that is untouched by hands and devoid of dust. Those types of curtains that leaves the room in complete darkness even in mid-day, it stood out the most because of the black walls. Jeongin's eyes fell on the velvet walls they were decorated with stripes, which he thought he was just hallucinating but they really do reflect when you move around. The floor is a high polished wood, dark and free of either dust or clutter. The photographs are black and white, arranged to look like such by a professional, must be photos taken by Seungmin. One photo caught his attention. He stood up and sheepishly walked towards it. 

It was their group photo from when Woojin showed him his room in the mansion.

The door shot open. "We're back--Oh Jeongin you're here!" Jisung instantly dropped the contents on his hand and engulfed the boy in a tight hug. Little did he know Chan was right behind him. "FUCK!!! Dude my foot!" Chan sat on the floor, the sudden pain weakened the back of his knees.

Jisung didn't care at all. He detached himself from Jeongin for just a second before putting an arm around his shoulder, looking down on Chan. "Has anyone told you, you look great kneeling down like that?" A very annoyed vampire looked up to both of them. Color drained from their faces.

"W-we brought food! You guys must be hungry, it's in the tattoo room!" Jisung cleared his throat, pulling Jeongin away from a fuming Chan. "Cool! Let's go! We're starving. Right, Chan?" that must be the stupidest question he has ever asked and do note that he asks a lot of halfwitted questions. Jeongin could've sworn he saw Seungmin face-palming hard inside his head.

They gathered inside the tattoo room, Jeongin swept the floor a bit while the others moved the boxes and other stuff outside to make room. "Pull the table near there." Jisung did what Chan told him. His grudge only lasted a few seconds. They're back to normal as if Jisung never made a snarky remark earlier.

Seungmin sat on the floor with Changbin while Chan and Jeongin situated themselves on the leather couch fit for two. Jisung, on the other hand, went out of the waiting area and grabbed one of the ottoman chairs provided. 

Changbin watched in disgust as Jisung stuffed his face with rice cakes. Shaking his head, his right hand became busy. Seungmin fought with him for the tuna rice rolls. Changbin turns to Jeongin with a smile on his face, "You kids don't have school today?" obviously Seungmin lost. He pouted and took a plain roll, angrily putting it in his mouth.

"Nope. It's our school's anniversary so we're on a break. Only for today though." the boy replied. He turns to Chan who was offering him a piece of the rice roll. Jeongin opens his mouth letting Chan feed him. "Like a baby chick." Jisung said before scarfing down a chicken leg.

"Am not!" 

"Yeah, he's not." Jeongin was thankful for Changbin siding with him. "He's not only Chan's baby. He's our baby!" ...nevermind.

Within a span of a few minutes, all the food was gone. The four of them finished everything. It would've been gone within a second if everyone else was there. Oh, Chan excluded.

They talked about the place for a while. Seungmin was suggesting a few things here and there while Jeongin and Jisung played with Chan's switch. The vampire went out to the restroom.

"Hey, Wooj. How's the trip so far?" Chan's voice echoed a bit inside the empty restroom. Since the building was fairly new, there were only a few tenants. And today they were the only ones there. "It's great. Hyunjin complained for 10 minutes straight before I knocked him out." Chan chuckled, he knew what the alpha meant by 'knocked him out'. "He blabbers nonsense then falls asleep after eating a snack. Like a baby." Woojin laughed on the other end. There was a short pause as he switched lanes and shifted gears. "How's the shop going?"

Woojin heard the sound of the faucet being opened. He waited for a while for the vampire to respond. "It's pretty much done. We just have to recycle the boxes and clean up a bit. Seungmin and Jeongin are here too."

"I know." Chan complained about why he didn't tell him. "Because they said it was a surprise! I don't wanna spoil it." Hyunjin stirred in his sleep, the blanket he pulled up fell on the side. "Hang on, Chan." 

Woojin fixed the blanket, making sure to glance on the road every once in a while. "Did you find out some info about the Sofia's?"

"No. Man, those guys have a shit ton of people yet we can't get ahold of any useful information. They're too secure." Chan couldn't agree more on what Woojin said. He lived at that place for decades yet he hasn't heard of a spy nor a mole from outside. The information he knows about that family was only their rules and regulations within the clan. He was not given a word on how they manage their operations and business. 

Although he did only live there because of Kazuo's grandfather who trained him. It was strictly just training. Chan would wake up, be served breakfast in his room, clean up and train. His free time outside would involve 5 guards and 10 undercover guards as he roamed the streets of Tokyo. 

"Maybe I should go stop by. Can you book me a flight to Japan tonight?" he closed the restroom door behind him. Chan dawdled a bit at the hall. He should finish this conversation before going back inside the shop.

"Tomorrow. I'll go with you."

"Alright. Drive safely."

Woojin's voice vanished. "Okay, maybe another call." He dialed a new number, after a few rings Chan could hear the bustling sound of a busy street. "Felix? Where you at?"

"We're at Hongdae with Eric." Chan could hear Minho and Eric arguing in the background, he smiled. "You guys found a new spot?"

"Yeah---hey save some for me, you dickheads. Oi fuckwit!!!---Hey, we're just waiting for our turn." Felix's accent comes out when he's preoccupied too. Chan should note that.

"How's the shop going?" Felix reached out for Minho but he already has the phone to his ear. "Oh hey, Minho. We're almost done. Just cleaning up a bit." 

The phone was passed around for a while. It was impressive of Chan to know who he's talking to. Maybe because this happens on a daily basis when it comes to phone calls. 

"We'll drop by Woojin's cafe later. Are you guys coming by?"

"Yeah. Since you mentioned it."

Chan smiled, hearing Felix's deep chuckle. 

"Alright! See you there!"

"Bang bang chan chan see you~" was Minho.

"I'll come by the mansion on Saturday! I'm so gonna own these idiots in Mario Kart." and that was Eric.

The three boys on the other line argued for quite some time. Chan waited for Felix to end the call before slipping his phone inside his pocket. 

He sighed, recalling his talk with Woojin. They had no lead on why Kazuo knows about who Jeongin was. Maybe it was just him? Maybe the guy's just messing with him? Kazuo always did that when he was part of their clan. Chan rested his hand on his neck, he could feel the mark of the Sofia underneath Seungmin's spell.

It was a flame-shaped mark burned into your skin by the existing leader of the clan. It takes weeks for the wound to heal (even for Chan) but the scar will never fade, even if you rip your skin off it will still be embedded in your flesh. Not even a tattoo can cover it up. Chan had Seungmin put a spell on it to make it disappear from the eyes. But if you touch that part, you would still feel the mark on your hands.

Flashbacks from the Sofia's mansion played in his head. He was rather fond of those memories, although only handpicked ones. He had no idea of what that place was and what they were doing behind closed doors. Every time he would ask the staff responsible for him, they would turn a blind eye and excuse himself/herself for a stupid reason. The next day, the staff would be replaced by a new one. It happened a couple of times until Chan realized that it was his fault, so he completely stopped asking anyone and just went his merry way.

"What are you thinking, boy?" Chan felt his heartbeat in his chest, pounding, banging, trying to get out. His breath hitched as his head snapped at the end of the hall. 

Standing near the window, an old man wearing a security guard uniform. The smile on his face was calm and warm. But Chan knew otherwise. It was just one of her disguises. Underneath that was a demon. Skin almost translucent, blood-sucking fangs bared at him, her small waist was bound by a tight corset showing off her inhumane figure. Purple and red eyes devoid of emotion, pitiless. Her face is every woman and man's desire.

But Chan was rather focused on what was running through her veins. The blood flowed like a lazy river. It flowed like so much red gravy across the slaughterhouse floor. The metallic scent wafted through the air right into his nostrils. 

He ran forward, every second craving for the woman's blood, he felt as though his own blood were on fire. His limbs were moving on their own. He was disconnected from everything but the ever-present sound of his drumming heart.

'I need it. I need it. I need it.' He spoke those words like a mantra. Again and again and again. 

The figure didn't move, she stayed there. Her hands were open, almost like a trap. As Chan plunges, he was pulled into a hug. The old man vanished, there stood the woman underneath it. 

"Hello. It's been a while, boy." Chan was shaking, his blood-red pupils dilated, claws scratching at the woman's back, his body trembled all over. Chan was no longer himself.

"Let's go home, shall we?" 

"LET HIM GO!" Changbin's voice roared. It was almost as if the building itself shook. One by one they all stood across the unknown person holding Chan. Jeongin could see how Chan shook underneath his grip. "Isn't that the guard from earlier?" Seungmin nodded, he pulled Jeongin from the front. "Stay behind Jisung." 

He stood behind Jisung who gave him a reassuring smile. Somehow Jisung was trembling too. Jeongin didn't know why. He was not strong nor have abilities but he wanted to somehow help Jisung. Jeongin snatched Jisung's right hand and filled the gaps with his own. 

"Thank you." Jisung felt calmer. He could feel Jeongin's thumb caressing his hand to distract him from his fear. He knew he had to be strong for the boy.

"What do you want from him?" Seungmin asked in a cold tone. But his head was filled with mindless thoughts.

The old man stared at them. No words were uttered between them. His lips slowly formed into a menacing smile. 

"He asked you a question." Changbin growled. In a split second, he transformed into his wolf form. The old man's smile grew wider and wider until it literally reached his ears, his pupils turned white and blood came out of his eyes. It was a disgusting sight. 

Jeongin shivered. The chills on his spine won't go away. The back of his knees were giving up, his hand gripped Jisung's tighter. 

They breathed in as the old man started chuckling. His laughter filled their ears almost as if he was standing right beside them. Changbin growled so loud. He was pissed. Chan wasn't trying to escape at all. What are they supposed to do? Woojin wasn't there. Jeongin is probably so scared and this... this being is giving him all sorts of scary feelings. It's as if he was staring right at the devil himself.

Changbin growled once more. He had to do something!

"Changbin!" Jisung shouted.

In the blink of an eye, Changbin's battered body fell on the floor. Before he could even take one step, he was already banged against the wall. They didn't even see what happened. 

The crumbs on the wall fell on his fur. He may have broken ribs and legs. He could feel a gush of blood underneath him, but he remained conscious. Struggling to get back on his feet only to fall back on the wet floor. 

The rest of them were left in utter shock. It was as if the scene had knocked every wisp of air from their lungs, and they stood there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything. 

"Jisung, get Changbin and Jeongin out of here." Seungmin's voice went an octave lower. He loosened his tie. "But, Seungmin!" 

"NOW!!!!!!" his hair turned white and his eyes were a striking shade of purple. With a snap of a finger, 3 spell books emerge from thin air, floating around him. Seungmin had no time for Jisung to put up a fight. 

Jisung's head hung low, he knew he had to do something. But after seeing Changbin almost killed within a fraction of a second, he chickened out. He wanted to run. He wanted to get out of there. But as he saw how Jeongin's eyes looked at him in fear, he wanted to kill the living shit out of the old man across them.

He wanted to claw the man's organs out.

"Jisung. Today's not your fight." Jisung looked up to see Seungmin staring at him with his purple eyes. They were pleading him to go. 

"Please." he bellowed, snatching Changbin, who went back to human form, he put the injured wolf on his back. "Jeongin, gimme your hand." he said to the boy sitting on the floor, trembling in fear.

No. He doesn't want to go either. He can't leave. He doesn't even have the energy to stand up. "Jeongin, I'll get Chan back. I promise." tears formed in his eyes as he looked up to Seungmin. 

Jeongin took a deep breath and stood up. He took Jisung's outstretched hand. "Please stay safe, Seungmin." the witch can only give him a half-assed smile. He turns his head back after seeing Jisung, Changbin, and Jeongin disappear out the window. 

Suddenly the air became heavier. The building felt like it was gonna collapse any second. And there he saw the old man was just a mere figure drenched in blood. The smell was gut-churning. Seungmin could feel the vomit behind his throat. This is insane.

"You..." the witch couldn't make out the words the monster was saying. It was only like a rumble.

"You found him." 

Found who?

"SHIT!" the monster started shrieking. It was so loud. Seungmin could feel his ears bleed. He couldn't see where Chan was anymore. His vision was blurry. He eventually fell to his knees, screaming in pain.

-

"Seungmin. Wake up." the witch felt a light tapping on his cheek. He groaned. Was it a nightmare? But as his hands felt the cold wet floor, he knew that horrific scene really did happen.

His eyes slowly adjusted, he saw a bloody Chan. "A-are you okay?" seeing Seungmin in that state, Chan felt like he could cry. "Yeah." he supported him, letting the witch rest his back against the also bloody wall. "What happened?" As Seungmin looked around, he realized it wasn't only Chan who was bloody. The hall was covered in thick, pungent blood. 

"I took her heart." Chan held up his right hand. Confined in his sharp claws was a heart, beating only once a minute. A spellbook flew beside Seungmin, he glanced at it for a second before holding up his hand on the heart. His eyes and hair glow white and as he closed his hand like a fist, the heart burst, painting Chan's face with its blood.

"So it's done?"

"No. I only got two." Seungmin nodded. They had a long way to go, indeed.

"I never thought she would show up, Seungmin. Not in this century. Not with you guys in it." Seungmin can feel the weight underneath Chan's words. In front of him was a very vulnerable vampire.  

"Woojin's coming back." Seungmin said. Woojin was the only one who knows what to do in these types of situations.

"He knew something was wrong."

Chan balled his hands into a fist. He wiped the blood from his face. "Thank you for making the right decision."

"Jisung's a bit stubborn but he's a big softie when it comes to promises. Just like Jeongin."

Chan somehow managed to smile at Seungmin. "But, Changbin's in critical condition." the smile vanished as if it was never there. Changbin always thinks he has to take action whenever a dire situation comes up. He doesn't want to depend on other people even if they offer him help.

"Let's go find them. I'll call someone to clean this up." Chan stood up and pulled out his phone, thank god it wasn't crushed. "Do you have the strength to fix the wall?" Seungmin was already on it. 

After the last piece of crumbled cement vanished into the wall, Seungmin turned to Chan. "Did you lose yourself?"

Chan stopped from his tracks. His head hung, he stared at the blood-ridden floor with an empty gaze. "Yeah."

"How much blood did you get?"

"None. I couldn't reach that heart."

Seungmin nodded mindlessly. So it was the old man's blood. He walked towards Chan, not minding the blood pooling on his shoes. Seungmin put a heavy hand on Chan's shoulder making the vampire turn to him. 

Chan likes cuddling with them. Whether they were watching a movie or just hanging out in the living room. His hugs were warm because he adjusts his temperature to make them feel comfortable.

But as Seungmin held him in his arms, the biting cold chilled his fingers into clumsy numbness, cold seeped into his toes and spread painfully throughout his feet as if it were his bare feet on the pristine icy whiteness rather than sneakers on a blood river.

Chan was cold.

[rpgmgames]

September’s Featured Game: Ghost Hospital

DEVELOPER(S): Lev, Kip, Rose, Tredlocity, C, Bittersweet ENGINE: RPGMaker MV GENRE: Adventure, RPG WARNINGS: Anxiety, Body horror, Implied child harm SUMMARY: Ghost Hospital is a game about anxiety, depression, despair, mental rock bottoms, and, of course, ghosts. You play as Robin, a twelve-year-old girl who has an anxiety disorder and is very much alive in this hospital meant for beings that are not alive. Frankly, her anxiety was already bad enough before she landed in a hospital full of dead people, the still-shambling shells of ancient ghosts who try to take her down for a sweet taste of life, and the hospital directors hellbent on keeping her contained, and more importantly, away from the reason she's REALLY there. Thankfully, you have your new friends Jay and Sarcastic Ghost- Jay is a ghost about your age, and still a very new arrival to the hospital, and Sarcastic Ghost…well, he's an amorphous blob of a ghost, who talks a lot despite not having a mouth.

Download the demo here!

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! Lev: Hey, my name is Lev! I'm an artist and storyteller, and though I've wanted to make games for a long time, this is my first serious attempt! Most of my work is about my experiences in mental illness. Kip: I'm a freelance artist being allowed to write cheap jokes in ghost form. Rose: I'm a freelance writer and editor for the game! I also work on dialogue and story drafting. Tredlocity: My name is Tredlocity! I do some character designs and writing in the game! C: c / ghoul is a character designer, comic artist and Halloween enthusiast. They're currently apart of several indie game teams and are writing the webcomic, This Dark Forest of Ours. Bittersweet: I'm Kendall (AKA Bittersweet), and I'm the resident music person (one of two, technically, but the other left the project unfortunately.) This is my first (and thus far only) major soundtrack composition project, but thus far, it's been a satisfying one!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Lev: Ghost Hospital is a game about anxiety, and the game was born out of an idea to put someone in the shoes of someone with clinical anxiety and depression without going for the prototypical 'horror game' or 'walking simulator', giving more game-friendly, practical narrative and gameplay examples of how it effects people.

How long have you been working on your project? *Lev: The game started development in late 2016 as a thesis project for college. At its inital completion, it was more of a beta or proof of concept than a demo- in its current state, it's far closer to what we have envisioned for the final project.

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Lev: Absolutely! The biggest influences are OFF, Yume Nikki, and Sweet Home, and a lot of Gameboy Color graphics and aesthetics- namely, Pokemon GSC and the GBC Zelda Games.

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Lev: RPG Maker is a versatile engine, but still fairly restrictive, so getting all the effects I wanted to work was challenging. Mental illness and real life have been taking a toll on development time, too. Getting things to work took teaching myself some javascript, and after being in serious development for this long, I've found ways to motivate myself to keep working. Having other people checking in on you helps, too.

Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Lev: In its very first inital pitch, it was much closer to Yume Nikki, being more atmospheric and serious. At some point in character and world development, though, I couldn't bear to make it a stoic adventure, and with most of the stuff I already take inspiration from, it's hard for me to not put jokes into the media I make, anyway.

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Lev: At the beginning, it was just me working on everything. The first people I brought on board were my concept artist, Kip, my writer, Rose, and my musician, Bittersweet. I can't do music on my own, and I knew from word go that I wanted this to be the kind of game with a strong story and a lot of unique NPCs.

What is the best part of developing the game? *Lev: Call me biased, but the most fun part is making the art for it. It's hard for me to motivate myself to keep working if I'm just using default placeholder sprites, I have to make new NPCs to keep myself interested. It's not the most convenient, but it's fun to do, and it actually really does help with my workflow.

Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Lev: Oh, absolutely. RPG Maker games have a bad reputation for being very cut-and-paste, and there's a lot of those out there. But it just takes a bit of effort to make yourself and your game stand out, and it can be done absolutely beautifully! The latest one I've played was Hylics, completely surreal and wonderful.

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Lev: Robin is a sort of proxy character for myself, so...I'm a bit biased on her. I love Jay a lot, too, he's kinda the friend I wish I had in elementary school when all this first showed up, haha. *Tredlocity: As someone who faces anxiety on a daily basis, I relate to Robin a lot. Though I would say my favorite character is Jay, since he can shoot plasma and has blue hair. *C: I'm partial to Coop [upcoming character], not just bc I designed them but bc I love big sister types. *Rose: I also relate to robin and jay! i try to control my anxiety while remaining positive and hopeful about situations. *Bittersweet: As an anxiety-riddled person, I relate immensely to Robin. However, my favorite character by far has to be Carna. (There's another character I'm particularly looking forward to when the full version of the game is released, though~)

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Lev: Honestly, there's a few things I wanted the game to be able to do at the start that I wasn't able to make happen. I spent a LOT of time trying to get it to work without having to go in and code it myself, and I wish I'd been able to take a step back, remind myself that this is my first serious project, and just stop worrying so much about what, in the end, would've been a minor detail, anyway.

Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Lev: Chances are I'm gonna leave it alone, but if I go back, I HAVE had a bit of a 'Ghost College' AU where they're exploring a haunted old library on their college campus instead of being trapped in a ghost hospital. It'd probably be cool as a point-and-click adventure, but it wouldn't exactly be a canon exploration of the postgame.

What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Lev: I'm actually working on a few other projects, so being able to work on those more freely would be great, especially considering I'm really bad at keeping my own limits in mind, haha.

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Lev: Mostly, I'm afraid that making a game about a subject like this, as a minority and with other people in my team that would be considered minorities, that releasing this game to the mainstream public would get me a lot of negative attention from people who think that people like us don't belong in the gaming sphere. It's pretty nerve-wracking, but after the positive reception of games like Undertale and SLARPG, it's getting easier to convince myself that I should be more afraid of people just generally not liking the game, haha.

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Lev: Have someone to work with! DEFINITELY have someone to work with. Even if it's just a friend to bounce ideas off of or someone to ask if you've been working on the game, having someone else involved helps a lot. And specifically for RPG Maker- if you can, replace your default font with a different one. It's a minor detail, but it goes a long way towards making your game feel more original. *C: Always have a backlog of different projects. I have about four or five ideas constantly on rotation so I don't burn myself out on just one. *Tredlocity: My advice for any creatives is to start small, and just get it out. Feedback is a great motivator, and the only way to get better at something is to keep doing it! *Rose: I think some good advice is to write a few drafts of whatever it is you're working on in order to see which version you'd like to continue! let your work have different scenarios and situations based on various elements you insert or take out of a story, game, or other piece. *Bittersweet: Don't pressure yourself to a dead-set deadline. I know, you want to get this project out eventually, and if you're on a roll with development then all the power to you, but if you're struggling, don't let it burn you out. That's just unhealthy.

Question from last month's featured dev @toxicshroomswamp: How do you feel about your main character(s)? What piece of life advice would you give them? *Lev: I love my main characters, I love them like my own children. I would probably tell Robin that she'll learn to handle everything, it won't be so scary forever. I'd tell Jay that stopping for a minute and thinking is way more important than it seems. I'd tell Sarcastic ghost to shut up.

We mods would like to thank Lev, Kip, Rose, Tredlocity, C, and Bittersweet for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Ghost Hospital if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[cerulean8looded]

25!!!!!!!!

okay that one i literally made bc i look like john, love just dance, and want to be loved but here we fuckin go

25. John being a just dance twitch streamer and all the boys being gay for it i mean youtubers au

so im thinking that all of them make WILDLY different content. lets start with the beta kids.

so john has a gaming channel, clearly, and he decides he wants to lose some weight in a fun way that also helps his channel, so he starts the just dance thing. other than that, he mostly plays things like minecraft, five nights at freddys, all your basic bitch stuff, along with a fair few horror games. he really likes minecraft and sims 4 though.

rose has a witchcraft channel. she practices witchcraft and makes videos about spells and sigils and crystals and all the other cool stuff that goes along with that. i dont know much about witchy stuff anymore, its been a while since i was into that stuff, so id have to do a bunch of research for her.

dave has two channels: irony channel and music channel. the ironic one is where he posts anything to do with sbahj, and just generally fucks about, does weird trends and stuff. he never shows his face on his music channel, never shares his name, and it’s all remixes, so no one hears his voice either.

jade has the most chaotic but pure channel. she does anything she feels like doing, from kids show reviews to “Look at this cool pumpkin i grew” to “heres my favourite gun”. she has no theme, and never plans to change this.

Trolls

aradia is similar to jade in chaotic energy, but she tends to stick to stuff like creepy antiques she finds, weird animal bones from the fields she just wanders about in and that kind of odd stuff. she also talks about dark conspiracy theories a bit.

tavros mostly focuses on animals; animal care, animal facts, how to spot animal illnesses, how to deal with hostile but injured animals in the wild, what to do if you see an animal you think might have rabies, all that kinda shit. theres always at least one animal in every video, whether its a ferret in his lap, a cat walking over him, a snake around his neck, a guinea pig on his shoulder, and so on.

sollux does a gaming and tech help channel. he plays any game that people claim is difficult and tends to beat them so fast people think he’s hacking. he slaves over every fnaf game to try to beat the custom night first. as for tech help, hes basically that guy who runs the channel on how to fix discontinued apple products.

i lost my fucking karkat paragraph, im furious. basic recap of what i lost: he does general content like dan howell and phil lester kinda, with a couple staple series, such as his rant series, where his followers give him a topic and he rants about it for about twenty minutes (after editing). he also does livestream versions which can sometimes last for several hours per rant.

nepeta does cosplay videos with whoever she can rope into helping her (usually terezi, vriska, equius, or feferi) plus a lot of fandom videos in general. she usually comes off really lighthearted in her videos, but she also makes a lot of important comments about fandom culture and shipping wars etc. on her second channel she does vlogs, which exposes her absolute gremlin side. these vlogs often feature things such as her climbing up a tree, getting stuck, and screaming until equius saves her.

kanaya does makeup and fashion advice videos, mostly with a vampire theme to them. occasionally she’ll do cosplay makeup too. her favourite videos to do are when her subscribers send in pictures of themselves and their closets, along with some general information on what they wont wear and all that, and she gives them advice on how to spruce up their look a little and declutter their clothes, etc. she likes feeling like shes making a difference to people.

terezi focuses on true crime mostly; cold cases, current cases, sometimes she runs through the process of solved cases. she prefers to do unsolved stuff, since it gives her the ability to talk about her own theories on it, and she does often get it right, but for particularly interesting cases she will do a video anyway. she also does a little bit on mental health and the reasons behind crimes and shit.

vriska is another kinda general youtuber. she does whatever the hell she wants, plus anything anyone says she cant do. she also lets some of nepetas fandom stuff leak into her content. no one really knows how she got so many subscribers. she also has the most merch out of all of them.

equius makes videos on whatever happens to be his current hyperfixation at that moment. hes the most inconsistent. one week hes picking apart the homosexual subtext in certain scenes of jaws, the next hes teaching you how to put together a microwave. he does a lot of lgbtq+ videos too; his most popular video is of him and nepeta and some others at pride and most peoples favourite part is nepeta racing around a small clearing with equius on her back while vriska cackles behind the camera

no one is really sure what gamzee actually does. his videos are all filmed on a phone camera and are never edited. he doesnt have an intro or an outro. sometimes it seems like he forgot to start filming until halfway through whatever he was talking about, but he never repeats the bits the camera missed. theres no theme, no clear goal, no one knows whats happening and theyre pretty sure hes high in every video. one time he posted a video that was over 48 hours of the phone just pointing at a wall, which appeared to be covered in blood just out of sight of the screen (as in you could see the edge of it but not the actual blood) and there appeared to be a hand sitting at the corner of the screen. everyone was fucking terrified for a while, but the next video posted to his account was karkat explaining that hed had a bit of a mental break and thrown a jar of jar at the wall (the “blood”) and that the hand was just a doll. hed taken out his phone to film a vent video, but promptly forgot about it, dropped it, and went to do something else. he finally remembered over two days later, posted it without thinking and called karkat. a few weeks later he started posting again like the whole thing never happened.

eridan’s content mostly focuses on harry potter and magic (which he definitely doesnt believe in because that would be ridiculous), but he makes a lot of environmental PSA videos about littering and pollution and stuff. in his fandom videos he comes across as just really excitable and doesnt seem like he cares about much else, but he really shows off his intelligence in PSA type videos. he also posts a lot of videos of him just talking about whatevers going on in his life, usually whenever he gets a new crush. his most popular video is the one he made right after seeing johns just dance streams for the first time, because he looked like he was about to cry or scream the whole time.

and feferi! her content mostly focuses on social and political issues. she talks out against “canceled”/purity culture a lot and tends to end up involved in discourse for it. shes that person in the middle of the argument whos literally only stating facts and saying that we shouldnt jump to unnecessary conclusions, but somehow ends up being accused of being jack the ripper or some shit for it. she isnt afraid to share her honest opinions and makes sure to remain as polite and level-headed as is humanly possible when responding to others.

i was gonna do the alpha kids and dancestors too and like share some plot and that kinda stuff but this is long as fuck, so we’re gonna stop here for now! feel free to request again for even more info dumping. also i just wanna say that i planned none of that gamzee stuff i had no idea what i was doing when i started that

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee thoughts/review

So I finally got around to beating the elite four today and while I haven’t done much past that (basically just checked out Cerulean Cave), I thought I’d give my final verdict on the main game. I will say that Kanto is far from my favourite region/games but I went into this game with the mentality that it was just here to 1. pull in new/pokemon go fans and 2. basically be a test drive to fix up any bugs so that generation 8 can run as smoothly as possible so don’t be surprised that this review is more positive than a lot of others, at least the ones I’ve seen anyway. I’m also going to say that I haven’t tried out the multiplayer or pokemon go features yet, meaning there will be nothing about them in this post. So with that in mind lets get to it.

The Good:

- I’m going to start with the most controversial ones. I liked the gym requirements and the catching system. I know a lot of people were fuming over the gym requirements when the trailer first came out saying how “easy” it’d make it, but I think they did a really good job balancing it. I also liked that to enter Koga’s gym you had to have 50 pokemon. Because at the end of the day, pokemon isn’t just about battling and I found it a good way to make sure the player is fully emerging themselves in the game. It also works really well with the catching system being the main way to level up pokemon. However, this is coming from someone who finds the battling in pokemon to be one of the more boring features so I can get that it’s not for everyone.

- The visuals. My god was I impressed. Don’t get me wrong, I was expecting it to be a step above the 3DS but they really outdid themselves. Specifically, as someone who didn’t put much thought into it before these games, Sabrina’s gym blew me away. Just on the note of Sabrina, I was shocked to hear so many people had issues with her because to be honest, Gyrados bodies her entire team. Really the only time I had mega issues in this game was the coach trainer with the primeape and that was mostly because it kept critical hitting me.

- Pokemon following/riding with you. I don’t really think much else needs to be said. Everybody has wanted this for a long time. Specifically I love how unique the pokemon you can ride are in terms of the models. Like riding on Kangaskhan’s shoulder with Eevee in the pouch, Snorax’s front, flying on Charizard etc. My only dislike with this feature is that it felt uncomfortable that fainted pokemon can still follow you.

- The cubone plot. Nothing more to say.

- The incorporation of the gym leaders/elite four in the story. Yes, it was very basic and I hope they do more with it in future games but in comparison to the original games it’s definitely more prevalent and that was appreciated.

- How they handled the Alolan forms. Once again, pushes you to catch more pokemon but doesn’t make it stupidly difficult/annoying.

- Character customisation. Once again, could have been more in depth but definitely still appreciated. Additionally, the fact that minus the crown, it is affordable unlike generation seven was a good step forward.

- The wild pokemon being in the overworld. 100% this feature made Kanto much much better. One of the reasons I could barely get through Kanto before this game is because I found the caves unbearable in terms of encounters and didn’t feel like wasting all my money on repels. Also, the fact they made it easier to get the rare encounter was much appreciated. And people can say they’ve made it “too easy” all they want but I don’t care. Grinding for rare pokemon has always been a pain and really has 0 to do with difficulty, just annoyance, so I appreciate the easier way.

- The little things. Having the gamblers have higher level pokemon because they gamble on luck with the one hit ko moves (or at least the one outside Lavender) and the like was a nice touch.

- Having characters from other games make an appearance. From Blue to Mina to Archer, it was a nice touch. This is especially the case for Jessie and James to be honest because Jessie has always been my favourite pokemon anime character and it adds a bit of feeling toward team rocket.

- Getting rid of the bicycle road. Given rideable pokemon was a major feature in the game, it was unneeded and tbh looks nicer now that you aren’t forced to zoom down it.

- Not necessarily a positive or negative but the trainers and Bill look so attractive in this game? Like nice to look at but I can just imagine the rule 34ers or whatever it is out there having the time of their lives right now.

- The pokeball plus. Okay yes I know it was expensive, but quite frankly, I found catching pokemon far more fun using it as opposed to the regular pokemon controls. 

The Bad:

- The main issue with this game, and really what I’ve found with Kanto over the years is that it feels like there’s very little replayability value. Sure, I love Giovanni as a villain and the game is gorgeous, but truth be told, nothing about the story makes me want to go back to play it once I complete the pokedex and beat the specialised trainers. Likewise, there’s very little postgame, especially for people who are more into the story than battling like myself. Also, this isn’t so much for me because I don’t do challenge runs but I really don’t know how a nuzlocke or the like would work in this game. However, like I said, I basically expected what we got given this is all but a beta game for generation eight to work out the kinks.

- Kinda goes into the above but lack of sidequests. I know there’s one or two, but given the amount in generation seven, it does feel lacking.

- Adding Meowth but having him not talk? Wack.

- Only some trainers had their pokemon out with them. It was cool to see, but I wish it was more commonplace.

- The new eevee/pikachu moves being available so early. I get that they have to make them viable given they can’t evolve and they expect you to use them the whole game, but a 90 power super effective move for the second gym is overpowered. Same with a priority 50 power but always critical hitting move. Also I’m sorry but the eevee move names were ridiculous.

- I say this every game and I know it’s a business move but having version exclusives doesn’t make me want to go buy the other game to be honest. It’s just annoying.

- I’ll be honest and say that I don’t remember Kanto well so maybe I just did this in the wrong order (given the levels I don’t think so though) but outside of Jessie and James, I feel like all the team rocket stuff was lumped in together when it could have been spread out more. Like it feels like it was nothing, then Lavender town to activate the cubone story, game corner, back to Lavender town, silph co building and then nothing again until the last gym badge which really you would have had to do regardless and had nothing to do with team rocket itself. Also, I know he’s a ground gym leader, but it would have been nice to verse Giovanni with a mewtwo at least once, but given how the main story implied his role in the game is done, I doubt that’s happening. I did like mentions that Blue and the rival helping out.

Final thoughts:

This game is beautifully made and something entertaining to do for a few days either by yourself or with the kids. But truth be told, while my disappointments with the games are small, the thing this game makes me most excited for is what comes next. Given we now know the capabilities of pokemon on the switch, it feels like the sky is the limit for generation eight and I for one can’t wait for it.

[mo-ondial]

yall i have an idea

To all whos, whats, wheres, hows, whichs and whens, and really anyone: IDEA!

Is anyone up for a good trolling?

By this I mean, I’d like to collect some whatblogs who would like to participate, and then find a couple hivestucks and troll them! Not mean trolling of course, beta-troll style trolling; roleplay as a trollcall character and have some fun bugging them. (remember, your goal is that the one being trolled has fun being bugged by you, too!)

Like or reblog this post if you’re willing to be trolled! (reblogs are good so that more people see it and there are more players!) People might be a little mean, so people with kinda thick skin! But don’t worry, if you want, you can be assigned a nicer troll, just shoot me a message! (as well as don’t be afraid to block anyone, etc, you’re not being forced)

From the pool of people reblogging this, we’ll choose as many as there are patron trolls for them at random.

And if you want to be a troll, shoot me a message! Tell me who you’re going to be roleplaying as, so there aren’t any doubles, and maybe a quick description of how you’ll play them. (to balance out sessions)

And I’ll assign people. A couple of trollees and a patron troll each, and then everyone will have everyone’s urls. In addition, there’ll be a “memo” in the form of a discord with a channel for each “session” thing (you’ll be told which greek letter you get). If any cool pesterlogs happen, you can send screenshots there to share! (and it isn’t left to only people and their patron trolls, everyone should talk to everyone in their session! Make friends, and have fun!)

Questions? Ask! And also please pass this along, it’d be fun to have a whole thing!

@why-is-daraya-in-detention @whats-in-tyzias-mug @wherearemalleksotherpiercings @whosonlyneraslist @whatsinchahutsscrapbook @how-many-cult-blogs-are-there @whats-amisias-paint-made-of (also @ ing some more blogs helps too!)

And just some advice ~

Trollees, participate! Fire back at your patron troll, be funny, enjoy yourself! You’re playing yourself, but it’s also like you’re a character. Everyone, really, just have fun and make friends and yea!

Rpers, be interesting! It can be tempting to jump right in, and hey, some people can actually do that and I applaud you, but I highly suggest you write out speech rules! (or practise monolouges, whichever works!) Your most powerful weapon is a good way to make jokes, to be funny. An example I made for Remele:

Sentence structure: Short and jagged, and spread across too many messages/lines, similar to list items that turn into casual thought instead. Also similar to rambly tags.

Interactions:

Places self too close to people, immediately. No barriers for friendship, but also doesn’t follow normal friend making techniques, and more just assumes that she is besties with everyone on the earth. She is not.

She’s in the “you” fandom: this means she ships her friends, looks too far into things, stalks people out of love.

Humor:

Starts going off on tangents which sound like fanfics. Very bad fanfics.

Headcanons things that shouldn’t be headcanoned. I.e. “I have this headcanon that you’re married to a knife.” (out of nowhere, usually)

“I improved it.” is the response to telling tall tales that escalate into blatant and ridiculous lies. (also misquotations) (general response to when she’s contradicted)

Quirk:

*’s at the end of each phrase

Scours of text in parenthesis

Lots of multiples of letters

Scant punctuation

Repeats phrases in 5’s

(you will thank yourself later for easy quirks, unless you’re talented at that sort of thing unlike me)

So this kind of turns into*

Speech like this*

And*

This is what she sounds like*

Uh*

Yea*

Heyyy i have this new ship*

With you in it*

You’re in love with my friend*

But*

An AU of my friend*

so*

Now youre dating a neon pegasus version of my friend who likes guns*

You’re roommates*

Neither of you wanted to be roomates though*

Its a real slowburn*

But thennnn*

One day she saw you*

And you looked so beautiful*

She was silly for thinking clear skin would be nice*

Because*

Just*

Look at how beautiful your freckles loook*

They look like stars really*

(hey i have this headcanon that you have freckles everywhere*

and they're lime like your blood)*

(hey i also have this headcanon that

youre a limeblood)*

(and that you secretly indulge in knitting)*

(and you never part with this great scarf you made*

But*

You’re too scared to wear it out*

Because*

Anxietyyyy*

And its sad)*

Why dont you ever wear your scarf*

I bet its super cute*

Can i see it*

Show me your scarf*

Show me your scarf*

Show me your scarff*

Show me your scarffff*

Show me your scaaaaarffffff*

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: Leap Year

Next up, @blinkfl0yd, @ahshesgone and @innocentcinnamonbun stopped in to answer questions about their Resbang, Leap Year! Here’s some of what went down!

*Please be advised that this AMA contains one (1) small spoiler for the unpublished part 2 of Leap Year :)*

Q: My first question is for Inno and Ash! How did you choose which scenes you wanted to draw! :)

Inno: Ahh I usually like to draw scenes that have a big emotional impact or are just really funny (Which a lot of scenes in Blink’s story made me laugh out loud pretty hard) I also like to make book cover-like pieces for Bangs I do.

ahshesgone: Ohhhhh I was so in love with that first scene with Spirit and Maka, I HAD to do it, because it set the tone so perfectly for both of them. Then it was mentioned that Blair babysat Maka and I Had To also, bc that right there was a dream I had and I realised it when I read it, and Stein and Marie were just impossible to pass up. Blink writes so vividly, I would draw forever if I had the time.

Q: What was the inspiration behind this story? I always love stories about the adults and we get them so rarely!

BlinkFl0yd: Honestly I just really like the adults haha, I just thought they needed some love. I'd been playing around with a college AU for the adults probably since before Resbang was announced, but I think the biggest thing that kind of inspired where it was going to go was probably learning about anesthesia awareness?? Which is pretty much exactly how it sounds and is actually really terrifying and made me think of Spirit and Stein which is pretty much what kickstarted that whole plotline. So that was sort of the basis for the whole fic. After that it was just... coming up with different shenanigans. The horse head was totally a spur of the moment thing.

Q: This one is for everyone: did you guys have fun working together? Was there a lot of communication? :D

ahshesgone: I really liked working with both Blink and Inno!! They're the awesomest. I guess we could do with more similar timezones though, tbh.

BlinkFl0yd: Oh gosh seconded. ash and Inno are so cool and so talented and it was so much fun working them them.

Inno: I had such a blast working with ash and Blink ;;;u;; <333

Q: Was there anything that you wanted to add but couldn't? Or anything that originally wasn't going to be there that ended up going in?

BlinkFl0yd: So the thing is, as a result of splitting it up for Resbang, I now get to sort of rework some concepts that I had to originally cut out because of the time crunch. I think the biggest thing is that I originally had a whole plotline planned out for Medusa and White Star that I had to cut out or rework for sake of time, but now I get to add it back in and I'm really excited.

Q: bb Maka is SO CUTE AND I LOVE HER, how did you go about characterizing her?

BlinkFl0yd: Oh gosh yes, baby Maka was fun but difficult. I have no idea how children work so…

Q: Yeah like, you didn’t make her too babyish which is a problem I see a lot when people write kids.

BlinkFl0yd: I am honestly not very good with kids, but yeah, it does irritate me when people write kids super babyish, I deadass once read a fic where a ten year old was still making baby sounds and even I know that that is Not Right. I think that's the one thing that helped me with baby Maka and the rest of the kids.

Q: Favorite character to write and favorite scene to write?

BlinkFl0yd: It was a lot of fun to get into Stein's head, and I also had a lot of fun writing Blair's appearances. I also enjoyed Sid a lot more than I thought I would, and Nygus.

Inno: You wrote Stein so well, it made me cry tears of joy.

ahshesgone: Omg I loved them both so so so so much. [And] OH MY GOD Azusa.

[there is much joyful screaming about Azusa]

Q: Artist chans, what was your arting process like once you decided what you wanted to art? I think you both did digital, but I bet there are a lot of differences in how you work!

ahshesgone: Hmmm well my process for these ones was pretty all over the place. They were all started around the same time but I finished all of them at different times so I think all of them came [out] looking pretty… dissimilar? I wish I had made the Blair one look less digital because I think that's what I needed for my art for Leap Year, for it to look??? tactile?

BlinkFl0yd: I honestly cried a little when I saw the first draft of the Spirit and Maka picture.

Inno: Ahh I lay out a gesture sketch, then a normal sketch, then I lineart the sketch, fill the whole canvas with a color that pertains to the mood of the piece and use a low opacity brush to lay in colors then just start blending colors from there to form lighting and shade. After that I sometimes air brush some more color into the piece. :,) Other pieces I just color in the lineart and add basic cell shading :,,) I hope I answered right :,)))

BlinkFl0yd: BOTH OF YOUR ARTS MADE ME CRY A LITTLE.

Inno: Couldn’t have made it without such an outstanding source material blink ;;u;;;;

Q: For all of you, do you think Resbang helped you hone any skills/get better at something, maybe something you decided on trying to work on or something you surprised yourself with?

BlinkFl0yd: Honestly, yeah. I've never never actually worked with other people before for a fic, I've never even had a beta before until Resbang? So that was new.

ahshesgone: Oh, I used a really weird way to sketch the steinmarie thing which I was very impressed with myself for. I think I crosshatched the silhouettes and then just erased where I needed lighter areas?

Inno: I've been trying to get better with perspective and comics as well as drawing backgrounds and resbang definitely helped out getting my butt into gear to practice drawing those things. I did pretty well too on it.

Q: Do you feel like your writing has changed or improved at all during the course of writing this? I'm just curious if you felt that your techniques or style had changed at all.

BlinkFl0yd: I'm not really sure if it's changed much? I think if anything I’ve gotten better at working under a time crunch. I'm kinda a perfectionist, which does not go very well with Resbang, so I guess if anything I've gotten better at just word-vomiting first and editing later.

Q: Were there any particularly difficult scenes or roadblocks you needed to work through?

BlinkFl0yd: Hmmm. I think some of the trickiest scenes to write were the ones with Shinigami and Kami. We know so little about [Kami] so she was probably the hardest one to write. I was coming up with a full-on backstory and personality for her as I was writing, so that was both kinda fun but kinda difficult. And Shinigami is… Shinigami.

ahshesgone: OH BUT THEY WERE SO GOOD. I was shaking when I was reading that fight in the car.

BlinkFl0yd: oop. SPOILERS.

Inno: LOL.

ahshesgone: SORRY.

BlinkFl0yd: That's one thing that'll be in the next parts haha.

ahshesgone: Oh my god sorry I read so many versions of it I’M SORRY.

BlinkFl0yd: It's fine! Lol, call it a teaser.

ahshesgone: t-tt-tadah!

Q: Totally not rushing you, but do you plan on posting some of part 2 soon???

BlinkFl0yd: Hopefully soon. School has actually been horrible.

Q: After this, do you have any other projects lined up? And artists, what're you working on next? >:)

BlinkFl0yd: There's a lot I want to do!

Inno: r e v e r b.

BlinkFl0yd: Oh gosh, REVERB.