#this is a draft i typed alongside my last post

[rmbunnie]

While I’m on here i have to say its a goddamn tragedy that the jjba fandom went the basic portmanteau/mashup ship name route because its already full of music references so it would be really fun to get creative with it. In a just world fugonara would be called Strawberry Switchblade instead. A single tear is rolling down my face as i type.

[crispy-armpit]

✧ 𝒊 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒕 ✧

yandere secret agent x reader

‧₊˚ ⋅ ‧ 🍸₊˚ ⋆｡ 𖦹 °

⭒ 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: after taking on your friend's offer to head downtown to a hidden bar, you find yourself in the middle of a covert operation. thankfully Messiah is there to hide you from danger. or did he just push you right into it?

⭒ 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵: gn reader, yandere, suggestive position & situation, slight violence, reader held at gunpoint, mentions of a firearm and getting shot, reader pressed against male crotch, sadism(?), auditory hallucination (you hear voices), hair pulling, swearing

⭒ 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵: 1,153 words

⭒ a/n: it was my birthday last month and i had planned to post this by then but ofc i never learn my lesson and kept my drafts in tumblr (leading to it getting deleted) 😭!! so sorry for the wait everyone and happy late new years! :D hope u like the batman wannabe.. it goes from 0 to 100 rq because it's hilarious to me and i'm sleep deprived.. i can smell the hate comments already

will you venture down this path?

it was supposed to be another weekend night spent alone in your home; you, comfortably snuggling against your pillows while playing your favourite brain-rot game from night to morning.

but here you were— unfortunately not in your bed, and devastatingly not romancing your fictional game characters. your friend, Vern, had dragged convinced you to join him and try out some random jazz bar which recently opened.

he mentioned his band would be playing there... he's probably just trying to get more people to hype up his band.

the warm ambience of the bistro & bar, alongside the joyous laughter ringing all over the room, people bantering and simply enjoying each other's presence was enough to erase the thoughts of your usual weekend plans. it was the type of place where you couldn't bring up any negative emotions just because of how chill everyone and everything was. so that's one forgiveness point to your friend.

at some point, Vern had split off from you to meet up with the other Ares band members to go perform— leaving you to drink away your life at the bar.

you channeled your best resting bitch face to avoid any strangers trying to hit on you, which worked. you sat alone listening to the blue voice of the current performer, making small talk here and there with the bartender.

oh, the bartender—

you'd been eyeing him up all night.

he was the only other person at the bar. like all other bartenders, he was charismatic and attractive despite the two deep scars running down his left cheek.

maybe he noticed you looking at it, because he suddenly rasped out, "...animal attack" with a nonchalant smile. which is quite impressive, since your gaze never once lingered on the scars for too long. he must be observing me.

Logan (you read his name tag) was an exceptional conversationist. and he played the bartender role extremely well. he brought up topics like your ambitions, your dreams, and even your darkest passions effortlessly.

but his eyes never seemed to really focus on your figure when you talked.

it was always off to a specific direction in the distance. and when you turned to look at what he was looking at, there would only be the same wrinkly old man sitting on the sofa chair.

"can you see it?"

confused, you reply, "see what?"

do you see it? the eyes? his lack of mouth? with hair as white as his, and skin as dark as void, how can you not see me?

"what the hell are you sayi—" you grow pale when you turn back and see Logan had his back turned away from you the whole time, far from the counter.

who was talking to me?

and for the first time in 3 hours since you've arrived, the old man from the chair moves. he wanders aimlessly for a moment until setting his sights on the bar. multiple random people who were loitering in the room take notice of his sudden movement, and all briskly walk towards him.

you're petrified.

the world is spinning, people are blocking the old man's path from you. and you're so thankful for that because it gives you the time to be pulled on top of the bar counter and then underneath it by a pair of strong hands.

your consciousness recovers and you're met with Logan, body crouched down to your level. his shadowed face shows no semblance of the bright man you were talking to a while ago. now his own icy blue eyes pierced through yours, and the once attractive rasp of his voice is now chilling to the bone.

"Logan—"

"you better fucking shut up unless you want to die."

he pulls out a revolver and points it to your forehead.

profusely nodding your head in understanding, tears begin to prick your eyes; this is so fucking messed up, what is happening??

your brain tells you that this was just the alcohol getting to you, and maybe Logan has some kind of split personality and a murderer... that it's some kind of sick prank Vern is probably pulling on you. maybe my drink got spiked...

but your gut tells you that you are in great danger. alcohol has never made you experience that level of auditory hallucination... hell, you were probably being delusional right now— of course Logan's trying to kill you!!

you could hear the faint sounds of bodies thudding against other people as if they were thrown or pushed. but no screams, just grunts. the loudness of the approaching footsteps came to a halt in front of the counter.

you cover your cries as best as you can with your palms and with Logan's hidden weapon still pointed at you. you could so easily whack it away or dodge it. but you stop once you hear the most grotesque voice ever, the result of what sounded like flesh tearing apart and bones reconstructing.

"where... are... they.....?"

you are faced with two decisions:

scream for help and get shot in the head by Logan

scream for help and face whatever the fuck is out there

either way, you don't get to choose. because the stress of the situation is beginning to overwhelm you and soon your whimpers slip out a little. small enough to not be heard from in front of the counter, but big enough for whoever is on top of you— and that someone happened to be the psychopathic bartender.

you freeze.

but your strength alone is not enough to hold back against the veiny hands that grab the back of your hair and push you against the bulge of the man standing in front of you.

you push and thrash over his grasp, but your actions only lead to him digging the lower parts of your face further into his crotch. WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING??? IS HE TRYING TO SILENCE ME WITH HIS DICK?!

and it works...

you stay silent and limp, not because of fear. but because of the absurdity of this situation and the slow growth of whatever beast is hiding under those black waiter pants.

the heat of your muffled breath against his privates collects in your face, it's getting too much but you hold yourself together. your hands that were once pushing him off now lay on the top of his hardened thighs.

Logan shares a couple words with the old man before pointing him elsewhere. you catch a strange name falling off the old man's lips, Messiah. fuck, is this a cult? shortly afterwards, you hear the light sounds of evacuating feet. he's finally gone.

and with the speed of a middle-aged lady during black friday sales, you manage to push him off to the side and stand up across him, ready to give him a piece of your mind.

you were humiliated, violated, mentally tired and— and—

why the fuck is he blushing.

[multificimagines]

This is an ask I got that’s really old, but I can’t quite locate it in my drafts, so I’ll post it like this.

Arcana Twilight boys as dads/parenting HCs

Disclaimer: I am not a parent myself and have little to no interest in becoming one.

Spica

•Spica is a bit harsh with his kids, but only because he sees so much potential in them and has high expectations of them as a result. He only wants to push them to be the best they can be, and sometimes does more harm than good in the process.

• The rules in Spica’s parenting are rigid, he’s not afraid to use (non-physical) discipline when needed. That said, he’s also very fair in how he enforces these rules and how he treats his children overall —he clearly has no favorites, and although he isn’t always the most affectionate in ways that children would understand, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that he adores his children.

Arcturus

•He’s a little surprised himself how well he settles into the domesticity of parenting, but no one else is. Arcturus loves kids, and is very affectionate with his lover, and is possibly the most likely to be a stable, caring partner out of all the boys.

•His kids are grossed out by how affectionate he and his partner are, and he always answers their disgust by cooing at his partner more and kissing them, laughing alongside his partner as the kids continue to complain.

•You wouldn’t expect it, but Arcturus is also rather strict about the rules, although he’s much more flexible and willing to bend them than Spica is, and much softer with his kids than Spica as well. Discipline is a last resort, because he’d much rather try to reason with his kids or use a reward system to motivate them than enforce the rules through punishment.

•Absolutely hates when his kids go through that, “We’re too cool to even hold our parents’ hands anymore” phase. He’s just so affectionate with his family himself, so it makes him a little sad to hear them say they don’t want his attention, or that they don’t need him :(

Alpheratz

•His kids want for nothing. He’s been accused more than once of spoiling them, but well, why shouldn’t he? He loves to see them so happy, and sometimes it feels like the only way he knows how to make them smile. He’s always done the same with his partner.

•He’s much more laid-back about his parenting, and is the complete other end of the spectrum from Spica when it comes to how strict he is with his children. He gives his kids a lot more freedom and far less expectations, offering guidance when they ask it of him or when he feels they really need it. He feels like this more hands-off approach gives them freedom to grow and become their own person, while still ensuring he’s there for them when he’s needed or wanted.

Pollux

•He never really stops being terrified of his role as a parent. He always feels like he’s doing everything wrong, like he’s not good enough to be a father. But honestly? He’s so sweet with his kids. When he’s able to forget his insecurities and live in the moment, he’s a doting father who gets along well with his children.

•He sometimes sneaks sweets to his kids behind his partner’s back. The scolding he receives when they find out is absolutely worth it.

•Pollux is the type of parent who just kind of takes things one day at a time. He’s not great at making decisions about dealing with their kids and their potential bad behaviors without his partner’s input, because he’s too uncertain of his own judgement. As such, while some of the others have clear approaches to parenting, Pollux’s is going to depend heavily on his partner, and how they approach things.

Vega

•Vega is very protective of his kids (as well as his partner). He’s still dealing with the trauma of losing the Summoner in the way that he did, and nothing terrifies him more than the thought of his new, happy life being ripped out from under him.

•He’s so weak for his kids, just as much as he is for his partner. He struggles to put his foot down when they plead with him for things they want. It’s even worse if the child more resembles his partner. All it takes is well-times puppy dog eyes and he simply cannot tell them no.

•Despite this, Vega actually struggles with the emotional aspect of parenting. He’s never been very good at expressing how he feels in any way, and so he can come across to anyone, including his kids, as quite cold and detached. He’s not trying to be—like I said, he loves his family so much—but he’s a naturally more quiet, reserved person, and this combined with his fear of losing his family at times makes it more difficult for him to connect with his kids. It certainly doesn’t help that he’s not a very openly emotional person to begin with.

Sirius

•Will lie to his kids without missing a beat, either out of necessity or for harmless fun. Is there a Santa Claus? Well of course. What happened to that toy that annoys the hell out of him and his partner? Goodness, he has no idea. Where do babies come from? Hm, you should ask your other parent about that one, they can explain it better.

•The best bedtime reader for the kids. He’ll do voices, use magic to make little shows of the stories, and never ever admit to his partner how much he gets into his storytelling role. But he does, he loves it.

•Sirius is far more likely to use rewards or bribery to motivate his kids, and will bargain with them to get them to do what they’re supposed to—and he is not the slightest bit above taking advantage of the fact that they’re too young to recognize when they’re getting the short end of the stick.

•He has such a hard time keeping a straight face when his kids say or do something bad but funny. Number one most likely to burst out laughing if his two year old says “fuck.” Also number one most likely to teach his two year old to say “fuck.”

[pillowspace]

hi! you write ur stuff on ao3 (or at least yk.. put it there) and my question is: how. I've been wanting to write n stuff for a little while but I do Not know how to use ao3. like to the point I don't even know how to use the searches n stuff. I just click links on Tumblr and go "this is great" and hit the little button at the bottom of the page. I know absolutely Nothing about this site and I Don't know how to learn

I'm good with navigation, but I am very bad at posting. I literally accidentally made 19 drafts of the last CSD chapter I posted and had to delete them one by one. So! I'll explain navigation, and if you have a specific question on posting, I can help with that. But uh, I'm better with navigation for broad advice:

You can search by "last updated," and sometimes I do do that. But what I tend to do is I go into a fandom's tag, go into filters, and sort by "Bookmarks"

From here, you're already mostly safe to read the most beloved works if you don't have something specific you want in mind. But let's say... you suddenly really want fics with modern themes, but you don't know the tags for that. Scroll to "Other tags to include," type in "modern," and watch for what tags appear.

Okay! Cool! I want Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, so I'll press that. BUT WAIT. I want fics that don't take place in a university! What do I do?

Scroll down to "Other tags to exclude" and follow that same logic

Oh, huh... I'm not interested in smut or graphic gore... what now? Perhaps I should open "Ratings" under "Exclude" and hit "Explicit"

Extra information. Relationships tags with PersonA/PersonB with a / are romantic. PersonA & PersonB with an & are platonic

So you're good to go with this alone. Buuuuut, let's say you want some more details.

I'm tired tonight, so I'd like to read a completed work that's under 20,000 words. Here's how I'd do that, opening Word Count and Completion Status under More Options

AND THEN

There's "More Options." Even I don't have this fully down, but this can be useful if you ever need it.

So let's say, you want fluff and whump fics to come up in your search. Either or. Fics that are just fluff, alongside fics that are just whumps, alongside fics that are fluff and whumps. You would type in "fluff OR whump". Caps lock OR

But wait! This whole time, you've actually been looking for a fic you forgot the name of! But you recall that in its description, it had the words "the trees stood tall." How would you search for that? Well, put that into quotation marks. It will search for those words in that exact order.

You can combine this with OR. Like...

"the trees stood tall" OR "the meadows were golden"

Also, adding a * onto a word will... ah, I don't know how to describe this. Let's say you put in app*. Your search will bring up fics containing the words app, apples, applies, applicable, appliance, etc. Words that start with app

And maybe

Just maybe

You're asking because of the DCA, and I have a complex DCA + reader/oc search I wrote up already saved that I can link to anyone

[pushing500]

The Grand Eureka Colony Tour!

It's here at last! The Grand Finale Colony tour! Woo! I'm very proud of this colony, I hope you like it too.

For a sample, let's begin with a shot of the whole of Eureka:

Ta-dah! Isn't it gorgeous? It's a very big colony, so once again I'm going to put the rest of it under the cut so it won't clog up people's dashboards with my screenshots and rambling.

Starting on the left, we've got our first animal pens. The large pen is home to a variety of animals, listed as follows:

Laser, Dominator, Tryst, Clementine, Quintin, Nikita, Safari, Excalibur and Ragdoll the alpacas

Devotion and Mozart the neutrolopes (like boomalopes but for neutroamine, from the 'ReGrowth: Core' mod)

Verona the Cyrenian hind (from the 'Alpha Mythology' mod)

Samson the teratogenic originator (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod)

Teacup, Hayley, Portia, Nadine, Aiko, Fraiser, Salty, Chaplin and Smarmer the horses

Also sleeping in the large pen's barn but not confined by the fences is:

Calvin, Honcho, Whoopie, Zombie, and Paprika the nightling cubs (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod)

Kiki the murkling (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod)

Bryanna and Marauder the red pandas (from the 'Vanilla Animals Expanded' mod)

Tommy Brock the badger, one of only two animals in the colony who does not have a randomized name (from the 'Vanilla Animals Expanded' mod)

Elegance the baby razorjack (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod)

The small pen is where we keep our ducks. They are named Olivia, Pepe, Shrimp, Dynamo, Zack, Tipsy, Augusta, and Adele. They're very useful for eggs, and we cycle through the duck population every few quadrums so we have fresh meat to make kibble (don't tell the ducks that, though).

Speaking of meat, next to the pens are our abattoir/kibble-making freezer, our nutrient paste dispenser, and the prison. Prisoners (and suspected-mime Eva) are put on a strict nutrient-paste-only diet, so the proximity helps.

You can also see three of our twelve chemfuel-powered generators and a teeny-tiny secret patch of smokeleaf that we're growing to keep hippie-drug-cultist Gracie happy. Below that are some decorative chemfuel barrels and our sewage treatment plant.

Next there's the hot tub room with its adjoining facilities, famous for its romantic pink lighting and for being the place where Wookshys proposed to Albina back when I didn't like him.

Also pictured is the children's bedroom, with high-tech illuminated beds, dresser, and end tables so they don't need to worry about being scared of the dark.

Moving on, we have the classroom that has seen so many of my colonists pass on their knowledge to the children in a variety of sweet and amusing interactions. Next to the classroom is the obligatory schoolyard vegetable patch, which provides most of the vegetarian component for the kibble made in the abattoir next to it.

Don't mind Jesse and his square, by the way. I was already drafting this post before a lovely anonymous ask helped me fix the Curse of Jesse's Box (I love you, anon)

Here is the ship we have worked so painstakingly to construct, pictured alongside the tomb for cuterpillar Bernie, a patch of opuntia (prickly-pear) cacti from when Albina was testing one of her psycasts, and the thrumbo barn where Pharaoh, Brandi, Big Dipper, Caramel, Bellboy, Ray, Belladonna, Dollie, Apollo, and Dallas sleep at night.

The Ancient Danger has been transformed into a delightful hybrid space, as it is one part laboratory for mechanitor Fafo to muck about in, one part rec room with a billiards table, a dartboard, and even a television set, and one part drug operation because it is where we grow our psychoid plants ready for when Hussar Henry is old enough to need them (along with some mint and uranium root for funsies).

There are also six more chemfuel generators, an infinite chemreactor, and the legendary monument that Fafo carved depicting her then-fiance now-husband Kaz, which is used as a meditation for all colonists with the artistic focus type.

This is the pool room, which comes with an arcade machine, longwave radio, and roulette table. Next to it are the last three chemfuel generators.

Underneath, there are two barrack rooms. The one on the left is home to Gracie, Emerald, Grump, Hot Minute, and Sam the razorjack. The barracks on the right is currently only home to Jesse and Kelorul, along with Beau the razorjack. There's also a bathroom close by for easy access.

The devil sheep pen is home to many adorable little red devilstrand-producing sheep from the 'Alpha Animals' mod. Sixteen of them to be exact! Their names are Blossom, Petit, Persephone, Tank, Clarence, Crockett, Stellar, Dudette, Violator (my favourite), Honed, Soldier, Heather, Seargent, Fabian, Adonis, and Cassandra. Ingrid the red panda also sleeps in the devil sheep pen for some reason.

To the right you can see a neat little dining area with some sculptures and an industrial radio for recreation, and below that is the temple used by followers of Wendy, Laurie, and Jesse's ideology. There's also a horseshoes pin, for anybody who feels like some low-tech recreation.

Then there are the boomalope pens, made out of granite instead of wood to avoid any potential fire mishaps. They contain the main providers of the chemfuel we use to power our twelve chemfuel generators. The top pen contains our two male boomalopes, Hunter and Dude, and the bottom pen has the three females, Margarita, Missile, and Liability.

I am of the opinion that "Missile" and "Liability" are the best randomly generated names a boomalope could ever have.

Here is our Wedding Chapel/music room, a lovely little space that the couples of Eureka like to frequent in order to enjoy some musical romance with one another (demonstrated here by Kaz playing the drums for his lovely wife).

Outside we also have a little barbecue and dining area for those few colonists who aren't vegetarian, and in the top left corner, you can see the band node that Fafo is tuned to so that she can hopefully get more mechs in the future!

This is Eureka's clothing closet (and where we keep the caravan bedrolls too). That long rectangle building in the bottom left is a "monument" we built for the Empire, which is now a fireproof chemfuel storeroom, and also where we brew chemshine to sell to traders (and to satiate Eva's chemical interest trait).

Fafo made both of those monuments, but only one of them (the pyramid) is of legendary quality. The other is only excellent quality, and depicts "a politician playing blackjack with a thousand hooligans".

Some of the planting zones are here, too, including our blueberry field and apiary, one of our chickpea patches, some rice, some cotton, and some sugarcane.

Some more planting zones (rice, chickpeas, potatoes, onions, more rice and chickpeas, even more chickpeas, gold fern, allspice, plasteel bulbs), along with our only wind turbine and the first solar panel we ever built.

The bedroom at the top right is Albina and Wookshys' room, they share it with Rogan the rottweiler (from the 'Vanilla Animals Expanded' mod). The bedroom below that is Kaz and Fafo's room, which they share with Kaz's bonded razorjack Roxy (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod). The bedroom in the middle is where Hazrov and Candlelight sleep, along with Reaper the razorjack and Anatoly the Tasmanian devil (from the 'Vanilla Animals Expanded - Endangered' mod).

Four more bedrooms here:

Top left is Wendy and Tamarind's room, shared with Stabber the razorjack (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod)

Top right is Kawoo and Andrei's room, shared with Frisbee the pulmonoscorpius (from the 'Megafauna' mod). Outside their bedroom are also three cheese presses, where we... ~drumroll please~... make cheese!!

Bottom left is Vu and Laurie's room

Bottom right is Baz and Zonovo's room, which they share with Jellybean the razorjack.

Moving on, we can see the temple of The Wavian Path (Wookshys' sub-cult), with the tomb we built for Wendy and Pearl underneath it. Pearl is still buried there, alongside Fafo's nephew Pinovo because Wendy was resurrected.

Across from the tomb is the landing pad for shuttles and such, along with our ground-penetrating scanner and long-range mineral scanner. In the top left corner, you can also see our main workshops, which contain our smelter, smithy, machining table, fabrication bench, and animal bionics tables. The room with the fabrication bench is also where Buccanneer the drebbbd (from the 'Ebbbs' mod) sleeps.

Outside the workshops are our weapons shelves.

I'm glad I eventually decided to like Wookshys, look how content he is hanging out here on his little fishing bridge. He's close by a lovely picnic table, some bathrooms, an obelisk, and some plantations of almond trees and water chestnuts. He's having a grand time. This site is so pretty, it's one of my favourite places in the whole colony.

There's also a bathing zone on the other side of the bridge, but I... Uh... I wouldn't swim there for a while. The recent raids might have polluted the water a bit.

Here's our natural meditation area, home to our beloved Anima tree, three Gauranlen trees, and a little jade nature shrine.

Connie is connected to one of the Gauranlen trees, and she has two berrymaker dryads named Herbert and Mortimer. They're very sweet, and I love them both.

Jesse is connected to another Gauranlen tree and currently has a medicinemaker dryad named Wiseguy. A big help to the colony and an all-around cute little guy.

The last Gauranlen tree is connected to colony leader Albina, and she has a funky little acidic spitter dryad from the 'Vanilla Ideology Expanded - Dryads' mod. His name is Rolland, and I adore him. He's so snakey and fun. I should try to draw him someday.

Here's our freezer, our kibble shelves with Colonist-Gracie's secret smokeleaf-joint-rolling crafting spot hidden between them, one of the bathrooms, the water pumping/treatment facilities for said bathroom, and our single mortar with the shelf that has shells for it.

This is the majestic temple for The Path of Animism, the one true ideology for The Animist Alliance. We don't do a whole lot in here, but it's nice to look at. Below the temple is the storeroom for things that don't have to be in the freezer, which is mostly wood and silver at the moment.

We also have the crematorium and some of our fruit trees (four lemon trees, two avocado trees, a blood orange tree, and an apple tree). In the weird divet in the wall of the crematorium is an animal sleeping spot for our geriatric salamander Orion, from the 'Alpha Mythology' mod.

Here we have the obelisk marking our crash-landing site, next to our patch of peas and our outdoor dining area. In the top left corner is Debby and Eva's bedroom, which they share with Polly and Limbo the nightlings (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod).

Beneath that room is the room Brennan used to share with Debby, but now sleeps in alone since the divorce. There are sleeping spots in there for Cinnamon and Moonstruck, Brennan's steel and rock constructs, but I don't think they actually sleep, so the spots aren't used. Behind her room is the stonecutting bench.

In the middle, above the pea patch, is Barghest's room. He's ascetic and doesn't care for fancy things, so it's just him, his bed, and a sleeping spot for Flicker the razorjack (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod). Sleeping along the outside of Barghest's room are:

Hood, Elias, and Huck the red pandas (from 'Vanilla Animals Expanded')

Sinbad the thrumebbb (from the 'Ebbbs' mod)

Witch the cave bear (from the 'Vanilla Animals Expanded - Caves' mod)

Echo the short-faced bear (from the 'Megafauna' mod)

Asset the ankylosaurus (from the 'Biomes! Prehistoric' mod)

And then on the right side, we've got the kitchen/dining room, alongside the art and tailoring benches.

Eureka has a very well-equipped hospital, with plenty of high-tech medical facilities and a sterile drugs lab which has been put to use making lots of medicine to tend injuries and go-juice for when Henry is old enough to be dependant on it.

The research lab is where Brennan spends most of her time, and often one of the kids will hang out in there with her, radiotalking to get their learning desire up.

You'll never be short a bathroom in Eureka, there are plenty to choose from, and most of them are quite nice (in my humble opinion). There's also a lovely hot spring surrounded by manicured lawn, should you choose to relax that way. It is situated quite close to our rock/bone pile, but I can't be bothered rearranging it, so it remains an eyesore, I'm afraid.

There are also some transport pods that are used for the occasional trip out-of-colony or to dispose of toxic wastepacks until we finish researching the wastepack atomizer.

If hot springs aren't to your taste, you could always relax in the saunas! They're found right beside the bedroom that Irwin and Connie share with Bartholomew the ripper hound (from the 'Alpha Animals' mod) and Energizer the angora rabbit (from the 'Vanilla Animals Expanded - Royal Animals' mod), who is the only animal aside from Tommy Brock the badger to not have a randomized name.

Next to Irwin and Connie's room is a small table and two more animal sleeping spots, one for Chianti the boombat (from the 'Vanilla Animals Expanded' mod) and Bernardo the dimorphodon (from the 'Biomes! Prehistoric' mod).

Eureka has plenty of guest rooms for hosting friends and family from other factions, mostly our allies from The Android Alliance. We don't charge for staying here, as the bounties of The Animist Alliance should be free of charge for everyone to enjoy!

In the top right, you can also see most of the water treatment facilities attached to the prison bathrooms and the hot tub room.

Finally, we have some more solar panels and our cocoa tree plantation, surrounded by coral coconut trees grown by another of Albina's psycasts gone awry.

And that concludes the endgame colony tour! I hope you like Eureka as much as I do. It's been a lot of fun playing with the City Builders meme, as I usually go for the "massive superstructure" instead of "quaint village", so it was a nice change of pace. I also think the end result is a very homey feeling community, so that's nice.

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[punch-love]

Can I ask how planned out your work for lp is? Like I know u said u have specific things in mind for each pov but are you ever like ohh I wanna add this scene, this scene would be fun? Or do u have like every chap and situations and whose pov per situation in mind where ur not really adding anything unless something calls for it because it would make more sense for it? Or something else entirely lol?

I have the ending planned, the reveal, and a few more "major" plot points that would be spoilers if I shared them. I think I plot similar to the way that you have points on a roadmap. I know what destinations I need to hit, but how I get to them is usually a lot more fluid. I usually write and rewrite the chapters over with different approaches, trying to figure out which one fits the story best. There are chapters that I write with a loose plan in mind that don't deviate too hard in the edit though. It really depends.

My beta also has a huge hand in each chapter - alongside doing the basic edits they also suggest structure reworks (last chapter they moved multiple scenes around), plot direction, and sometimes contribute prose/dialogue of their own that makes me want to move a scene into something else. This chapter, they suggested I move something in the beginning and stretch out another part, which is what I'm working on doing now in the second draft. I imagine it'll stretch and shift into new, unpredictable ways by the time it gets posted. I really don't like posting anything until I hear that near audible "click" in my head where a chapter finally connects to the last and is ready to be connected to the next. It just doesn't always click in the way I imagine it will when I sit down to write.

I would say love-punch is probably my most planned long work. I've spent the most time thinking about it, and it was created specifically because I wanted to write a specific type of reveal and ending that I hadn't really seen anyone else do. That being said, I was on a run yesterday and thought of a plot point that will drastically change the implications of the end that I really want to add. I don't know if I will still want to add it when the chapters get there, but it is constantly evolving and changing despite the path it's on being pretty set in stone.

[calfrxca]

uhh penny for your thoughts (if that's how you even use the phrase) about anything in your continuity that you want to talk about? it's so cool 🥺

AHHH HELLO

sorry for responding to this almost a week late, tumblr didn't give me a notif 💀

but that aside, thank you !!! im not sure if you mean by personal oc continuity or my SG continuity but it's been, a really long time in the making 💀💀💀 (3 or smth years and im still on my first draft 🧍‍♂️)

it's definitely taking a lot of inspiration from IDW2005 and tfp since tfp was a childhood show of mine and IDW as a whole was one i got into a few years ago but it was definitely an instant hit for me

it's definitely more overtly queer than the source material where a lot of my own characters have to grapple with their own sexualities in the wake of war and how that conflicts with their factions and their own personal interests

i think one of my favourite story arcs to write so far has been tacet's (the guy below), he's a bit. Intense since he takes the narrative role of judge, jury, and executioner towards decepticons and autobots; for neutrals he definitely has a more inquisitor type deal going on where he has "sinners" admit to their sins and convert before ultimately killing them

for decepticons who he feels have betrayed the cause he goes a bit medieval and just burns them at the stake (💀), i took inspiration from the inquisitorial trials of i think the jesuits though i could be very wrong, but they had the townsfolk actually participate in the trials against sinners and actually let them go (if that's the right phrasing) if the town determined them as innocent. if the townsfolk found them guilty the inquisitors actually offered them repentance rather than punishment

the autobots trigger a reaction that's more adjacent to how the conquistadors behaved towards their colonies, especially the aztecs where they forced them to admit their sins then kill them

for tacet and his crew specifically, it definitely started out like that before it developed into a kangaroo court where the townsfolk still participate in the trial but it's a fixed trial; if tacet deems the defendant guilty then theyre guilty regardless of what the townsfolk rule, if the townsfolk rule then innocent then theyre killed alongside the defendant, so it's a matter of survival vs what you personally believe is true/right

i have so many OCs i dont think i could fit it all in a tumblr post LMFAO so i'll shut up, but yeah, it's definitely more of a psychological and body horror focused story than anything out of the source material save for maybe last stand and the grindcore arc of MTMTE

if you didnt mean my personal continuity feel free to drop me another ask for my shattered glass au!

[sheliesshattered]

I did a lot of sewing in 2023, and spent more time on my sewing projects than on any of my other hobbies, even though I ended up with relatively few finished products. I drafted patterns, fitted mock-ups, and worked with specialty fabrics, several of them new to me. I'm pleased with how all of them came out, and feel like I improved my skills in both sewing and drafting. And most importantly, I had a ton of fun wearing each one of these projects!

The majority of the year was spent on my Rhaenyra Targaryen cosplay, starting last January with drafting a pattern from my measurements, sewing a mock-up, fitting the mock-up to achieve a more screen-accurate look, and adjusting the pattern accordingly. I worked with silk for the very first time, black silk organza for the underdress and red silk jacquard (woven by a small maker in India) for the main dress. I dyed lacing cords to match, hand-sewed several yards of trim, set a couple dozen grommets by hand, sewed on several different types of beads, and did a lot of handsewing to complete the whole thing. I worked on it continuously for just over seven months, in between work and alongside other sewing projects in the last month or so.

The other major sewing project last summer was the sequin shorts for my Harley Quinn/Taylor Swift mashup cosplay. I based them on the sequin shorts in the first Suicide Squad movie, but made them red and black to match both Harley's more typical color scheme and Taylor Swift's Red color scheme. I drafted a pattern by altering a swimsuit pattern I drafted in 2020, and made a lining out of swimsuit fabric to check the fit, then cut out the exterior sequin fabric. I'd worked with sequin fabric before, but never one with sequins attached in one continuous chain of stitches, which took a little while to figure out how to best handle to keep from unraveling when cut. I ended up handsewing extra sequins onto places of the shorts where the sequins had fallen off.

I purchased the Taylor Swift tshirt but added quite a lot of hand-sewn details, to make it look more like the Suicide Squad tshirt. In July and August I also finished a bunch of other small cosplay crafting items, everything from wig styling and jewelry making, to gluing rhinestones to a pair of bunny ears, repairing the beading on a purchased dress, and adding a hidden pocket to a purchased skirt, all in preparation for Dragon Con at the end of August.

After Dragon Con I needed a couple of months to recover, and while I did start (but not yet finish) a simple knitting project, I didn't do any sewing or pattern drafting again until late November. At that point I knew I wanted to make a cozy stay-at-home winter dress and get it finished just as soon as possible, so I could start wearing it as the weather turned colder.

I drafted a new dress pattern based on the pattern I drafted for Rhaenyra's dress, and a pair of funky wide legged pants from a pajama pant pattern I'd drafted in 2022. The whole project, from drafting the pattern and ordering a sample of the heavy fleece fabric I wanted to use, to the final hand stitching on the hem, took just under a month -- much faster than the Rhaenyra project, with much less fussy fabric and far fewer details. Now that I've gotten to wear it around the house over the last week and a half, there are a few small changes I may make to it in the future, but generally I'm very happy with it.

Currently I actually have two other sewing projects in process, too: hand-sewing/quilting the print from an old tshirt onto the back of a hoodie for Jack (slow going but getting close to done), and a surprise birthday gift for a family member. I'll post pictures of each once they're done, but probably won't post about the surprise project until the gift has been given.

After that, I have plans to start making some layering pieces to put over (and under) the fleece dress. I have some scrap fabric from older projects I'd like to turn into wearable things, and that bolt of cotton herringbone fabric I got a good deal on on Ebay arrived the other day, and needs to be washed and ironed and such before I start figuring out what I want to do with it.

I'm hoping to continue my streak of 2023 sewing into 2024, with that focus on more practical, everyday wearable items, rather than on cosplay. I don't know yet if I'm going to have any cosplay events to attend this year, and even if I do, I'd be quite happy bringing older projects, including those I finished in 2023, out to play again. As much as I love making those big show pieces for conventions, and pushing myself with new-to-me fabric types like silk and sequins, I'll get a lot more use out of everyday pieces, and feel better about my day to day wardrobe at the same time.

Thank you to everyone who liked and commented on my sewing posts throughout the year! I mostly post about my projects here as a way to document them for myself, but it's always so wonderful to hear that other people like my work, too. I hope 2024 treats all of us well, and to any of you out there with sewing projects you're working on, may your thread stay untangled and your scissors sharp!

[kazutoes]

Opening Line Patterns

Tagged by @kageyuuki!

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (or however many you have) posted fics and see if there's a pattern!

----

(faith) is all i hold: The clock reads a silent, unblinking 6:42am

baby blue eyes (stay by my side): The only sound filling the small suite was the click-clack of typing and the raging Cambridge wind outside.

straight, no chaser: There was a soft knock at the door.

you belong with me: Dustin Moskovitz had known he was straight since, like, twelve.

and you begin to wonder why you came: "A-Adel…"

breathe you in: The first thing he saw when he walked into Kirkland was that the dorm room was surprisingly empty, save for one person. He also saw that Mark was still sitting at his computer. Eduardo was here at noon. It was currently 11:37 pm.

you and me (to infinity): The pulse of the music thrummed in their bodies as they both ran upstairs, grins on their faces.

just like me: There was a soft knock on the door.

i picture you in the sun (wondering what went wrong): A breeze of cool November air drafted through the doors as X Racer stepped into the hospital's busy lobby, narrowly missing a nurse running alongside a doctor. He inhales a sharp breath before heading towards the reception desk, holding his wallet in one hand and his ID in the other.

we could run away (before the light of day): “Look out!”

Conclusions:

awawawawwa im pretty bad with starts so it makes sense they arent Strong but they do the job at least . i have a penchant for using the for like. no reason lol

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii dunno who to tag on here bc the two writer friends i have on here are alr tagged so: @revolvingresidency @totalbrainrot @princewardo @nowhxreboy or any of my writer friends who wanna do it c:

[alchemicallymoon]

Commentary for Mystery Inkling

Read the fic on Ao3 here! This post is a commentary about my writing choices and process for this fic (as well as a little bit of rambling.)

The outline for this fic is/was a mess. It was all over the place, filled with random ideas, and was fully rewritten three times (a fitting number, no?) Basically, I had no idea what I wanted to do, and so I gave up on doing an outline. That isn’t exactly a new approach for me, but it’s something I haven’t done in a while. Outlines make my writing process go by a lot quicker, but I spent so much time on it that it was just a burden. With no outline, I decided to put those random ideas to good use! I had ideas for short scenes and some that I fully wrote out, so I decided to write the fic in a snapshot style of short moments. For each chapter, I had a longer scene at the end for plot and characterization.

Something that I hope you noticed throughout the fic is the running theme (motif?) of coldness. Coldness is part of Three’s personality, as in cold=unemotional. A bit abstract, maybe. There is also their names—fr0st and Rime. Rime is a type of ice, and fr0st is, well, frost. There wasn’t any particular reason for the lack of capitalization or 0 in fr0st besides making it sound more like a username.

Chapter 1 is one of my favorite things that I’ve written for a few reasons. First is that I had fun writing it, specifically making the turf names for the three characters. SeaSean is kind of like visual wordplay around the name Sean, and it was combination of the promo characters usually having ocean puns or common first names as usernames. HeatTooth is supposed to sound like sweet tooth, but for spicy food. But more importantly, HeatTooth is a contrast to fr0st. Another part that I loved about writing it was getting to write backstory for my Agent 3. They usually make an appearance in my fics, but are rarely the focus. When working on their personality, I didn’t want to make them seem unfriendly, but not friendly either. That kinda shifted as I wrote more, and they ended up just being introverted and somewhat self conscious, which still fits the story. The introverted and self conscious version contributes to their reputation of being silent and mysterious, when in reality they’re just shy and overthinking their interactions with people.

Chapter 2 is a total 180 in the way Three is seen. My thought behind that was the difference between turf war and the NSS: one is kids playing a sport, and the other is people fighting for real. It’s a big shift, even for one of the best turf players. There’s also the shyness really showing up. For one, it’s intimidating (and kind of weird) to suddenly be working alongside a famous music/news duo as a secret agent, but also because Three is already shy. The last scene is what I consider to be the before/after transition for Three. It took some time, but they opened up a little and became slightly more comfortable speaking. The last paragraph of that scene is my favorite though. As a huge introvert myself, I don’t like the idea that it’s something you should “grow out of,” so the scene doesn’t end with Three suddenly being an extrovert. Instead, it ends with the others having a bit of an epiphany—they are the ones who adjust their expectations rather than Three adjusting their personality.

Chapter 3 was a huge mystery to me throughout the whole drafting process. I had some ideas for the scenes, but I couldn’t figure what the central idea for the chapter would be. Then I realized there was already a common theme among those scenes: the mundane parts of Three’s life. It’s also my chance to write all the silly little moments that wouldn’t fit into something with a more focused plot. The first two scenes had a pretty simple idea behind them: a funny moment where Three reveals a tiny bit of info about themself. Though I’ll admit, I thought of the funny parts first, and added on the info parts later. I also wanted to write more of Three with the Squid Sisters, I really love that dynamic! I don’t have much to say about the last scene besides the fact (yes, fact) that Bocchi the Rock is one of the best anime series of all time and it inspired the premise for the scene.

[headcanonrepository]

what headcanons do you have so far about the ravenwatch members? also do you have any published fics? i'd love to read them :)

I want to apologise. Because when I got this ask, my intention was to do something like this:

Post at least the first chapter of the fic I had already written

Answer this ask with a link to that fic

Post some headcanons relevant to the fic/that came up while writing

What actually happened:

Put off posting the first chapter of the fic because the last fic in the series wasn't finished (pro tip, if it starts as 'a oneshot' and winds up as a 160k word series, just admit to yourself that it's never going to actually finish)

Type up many headcanon posts and keep them in drafts until the fic is posted, which it wasn't (see point one)

Also convinced myself that I needed to update all my existing fics in different fandoms with a link to both this Tumblr and my main blog, so readers could find me over here

Also needed to update both blogs with a pinned post to get my online life in some semblance of order

Put off all the AO3 and Tumblr maintenance work until I had 'enough time/energy' to do it

Blinked

Time passed. A lot. Not entirely sure how much, but it's definitely a number of months to a year? Or maybe a little bit more?

Finally did the AO3 and Tumblr maintenance on my holiday

Posted the fic

Answered this ask (and will queue the headcanon posts immediately afterwards)

So many many apologies, anon. I truly didn't mean to put this off for quite so long. I have no idea who you are, whether you are still on Tumblr or even still into the Ravenwatch, but I never forgot you. I hope that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you're having a great time.

And to answer the question, my fic can be found here:

(I have got this fic and the next four fully written, just posting chapters on a weekly basis now. There is a fifth and sixth fic planned in the series, partly written but I'm not going to make promises about when those might ever emerge!) It's an exploration of that one line of Gwendis' about wild Ravenwatch parties, with all the smut that implies. I intended it to be a oneshot, and it ran away with me. Alongside the smut, there's a lot of character development/exploration of the whole Ravenwatch family and the nature of vampirism in Tamriel, so while it is f!Vestige/Verandis/Gwendis centric, pretty much everyone in the Ravenwatch family gets some onscreen time. (including Kallin and Estelle, eventually, because I really wanted to flesh out everyday life at the castle and it always rubbed me up the wrong way that we are told the servants are treated well and have full agency but then nothing ingame actually supports that - this is one of those things I really wanted to be shown, not told)

[ryqoshay]

Putting on Hairs - Post Production: Shizuku v Kasumi

Primary Pairing: ShizuKasu Rating: T? Words: 517 AU: Theater (their monster types are not important here) Fandom: Love Live Nijigasaki Parent Fic: Putting on Hairs - Post Production Time Frame: Sometime before the main story Event: Promptober 2022 Event Source: Idol Fanfic Heaven channel on Discord Prompt: Ninja Content Warning: Major Character Death (?)

---------

Author’s Note: Bonus 3rd entry for Oct 15th

Summary: Shizuku approaches Kasumi about something

---------

“Nakasu-san.”

Kasumi nearly jumped out of her skin. “Shi… Osaka-san?” She asked, mirroring the level of formality she thought they had both passed. “Why are you calling me that?”

“It is you, is it not?”

“Me? Of course, I am me. What are you talking about?”

“You acted surprised, when in fact, you knew of my presence before I turned the corner. Because I allowed you to know.”

“You’re not making any sense, Osaka-san.”

“You were about to assassinate my master.”

Kasumi narrowed her eyes.

“Everything you’ve done over the last month has been an act leading up to this moment.” Shizuku continued. “And while it took me a little while to figure it out, then a bit longer to admit it all to myself, I am here now to prevent the finale of your act.”

Kasumi’s hand hovered over the hidden hilt of her sword.

“It was all a lie, was it not. Your feelings for me.”

“No.” Kasumi admitted. “That wasn’t part of the mission.”

“I see.” Shizuku’s gaze turned down.

Kasumi seized the presented opportunity and lunged toward the other woman.

To an untrained observer, it may have appeared that Shizuku never moved. And that Kasumi’s strike landed, ending the battle in her favor.

However, Kasumi came to a stop behind Shizuku, glanced down at herself. Then collapsed.

“I’m sorry… Kasumi-chan…” Shizuku said quietly as she resheathed her blade.

The samurai turned solemnly, stooped, and lifted the ninja’s body into her arms. Then, bearing a weight far greater than that of her fallen foe, she went to find somewhere to bury her former lover.

---------

Kasumi stared at the script in her hand.

“So, what do you think?” There was clear anticipation in Shizuku’s voice. “I’m using our names as placeholders for now, but I’ll come up with actual character names for the finished work.”

“…”

“Kasumi-chan?”

“Shizuko~!” Kasumi wailed.

“K… Kasumi-chan?” Shizuku uttered as her girlfriend barreled into her.

“Why do you always have to write us so tragically? Why can’t we get a happy ending as a couple on stage for once? Does Shizuko really want to kill her little Kasumin that badly?”

Shizuku couldn’t help laughing lightly at Kasumi’s melodramatics but reached up to pat her head gently anyway. “You know I have no desire to kill my girlfriend. And you know I have a fondness for tragic stories.”

Kasumi huffed, though still seemed receptive of the head pats.

“Chika-san and Yuu-san seem better equipped to write happy and fun plays.” Shizuku decided to say. “Perhaps I will ask one of them to write a happy ending for us.”

“That’s fine, but I’d still rather star alongside my girlfriend in a play she wrote for us.” Kasumi sighed. “Even if it is a tragedy.”

“So, other than the ending, what did you think?”

Kasumi detached herself from Shizuku and picked up the discarded papers. “It’s a good rough draft.” She said. “And I really liked this one scene…” She flipped through the pages to find it.

And with that, the couple settled into discussing a potential new play for the theater.

---------

Author’s Note Continued: I originally suggested to someone on the Discord channel who was struggling to come up with an idea to write something based on Shizuku’s solo Eieisa. Maybe some samurai v ninja thing. And then immediately wanted to write about myself.

Whether or not this becomes another play at the Sonoda Kurosawa theater remains to be seen. But if it does, I can almost assure that Shizuku will say “Aye Aye, Sir!” and the focal character will think to themselves “Eieisa?”

[atsukawolfcat]

Sooo sleep evades me tonight and I of course just set some music and tried to relax with my racing thoughts of my new obsession, Genshin Impact. Of course, as I get settled and enjoy the music my brain just throws me another idea that I cannot resist.

Just.

Imagine.

AngelicDemon!Creator, where the Creator is essentially a demon BUT they have the personality and attitude of an angel. (Poor Xiao :< imagine this poor baby's reaction to that ughhh)

Corrupted!/Fallen!Creator, where the Creator somehow becomes corrupted during a fight to protect and now everyone has to fight them to snap out of it? Or or or, they have morally fallen to the point of becoming a brainless doll or puppet that another god or bad guy can use them as a weapon?

Like seriously if you make stories out of these TAG MEEEE

or I might make them myself OvO

edit: Oooh myyy I should save these as drafts before posting it seriously cuz got another good one that includes Demon Slayer

Soooo, essentially its the Demon!Creator but thanks to the lovely youtuber called HalaCG and their amazing song called "Who We Are" I got a subplot? added on for it.

Like essentially siblings, with the Creator being the female. During a fight against other forces, the sister and Creator of Teyvat becomes a demon. Of course, its Demon Slayer, so though she turns she still fights alongside her brother. But then after so long of fighting, she disappears into her created planet to try to live a normal life. She is willingly mute, and doesn't have Nezuko's mouthpiece on to better fit in and not raise alarms. But the brother grows concerned and goes to find her, at the same time as the evil doers do. She goes ballistic, giving in to her demonic side temporarily to boost her power and defeat the bad guys once in for all. And to bring her back? Her brother sings their song, and she joins in.

AHHH I MADE THIS WORSE FOR MYSELF, I AM ITCHIN TO START TYPING AWAY

edit 2: yup, last edit cuz if I get more ideas it WILL be a new drafter post but this one is related to the first edit cuz I just focused on the lyrics and ughh realized this song could double for a lover's song if you remove the Demon Slayer sibling element. Like imagine the same thing, but the creator falls in love with one of the game characters (Diluc, Childe, Zhongli, Jean, whatever your preferance/fave) and that was their song? And that brings you back to reality? Ughhh

[serpent-of-the-silver-plumes]

would you mind talking more about bart and unreliable narration? I always hear people say unreliable narration but I've never seen any concrete examples from media I actually consume so I'd love your thoughts

Oh absolutely!! I actually wrote a thing about this a while back but then went 'this is not well written' and it got buried in my drafts, so I’m glad to have an excuse to pull that up and rewrite it. (Also sorry, this got really long.)

Basically, at one point I was listening to a podcast (Be the Serpent, ep 4), and they categorize different kinds of unreliable narrators into three types: the narrator who knows they are lying to you, the narrator who is lying to themself (and therefore you), and the narrator who is lying because they are missing some key information. I would argue that the three main pov characters of the Bartimaeus Trilogy each represent a different type of these unreliable narrators.

Going in backwards order, Kitty is the narrator who lies because she is missing some key information, at least until the third book. As a commoner, even one who is part of a resistance movement, her knowledge of magic is extremely limited and biased. Were we to go off of her point of view alone, we would get an inaccurate view of this world and the power dynamics that exist within it: that magicians are somehow special in holding magic and that they have evil demons who work alongside them in shared mischief/hunger for power/whatever.

However, because the books include other points of view, the full impact of that unreliability is not realized.

Similarly, Nathaniel lies to himself, especially in the later books. He ignores how much he personally contributes to upholding a system that depends on the oppression and slavery of other sentient beings, and squashes down the last traces of his moral compass. I don’t think he ever really questions the system of government or if it should be there and work the way it does.

To some extent, we do see through his unreliability as well, because Bartimaeus is around to keep a check on him and tell the reader that no, the magicians and their imperialism are bad, that spirits have very good reason to hate humans, and give us other world building details that contradict what Nathaniel believes.

But some of it is about what is going on inside Nathaniel’s own head, so there is also a lot that can’t be fully seen by an outside perspective that has to be assumed by the reader. Like he will deny the sentimental feelings he has towards Ms. Underwood and the guilt he had over Kitty’s supposed death and the fact that he even remotely cares about Bartimaeus, but actions speak louder than words.

Because both of these characters’ unreliability stem from a lack of understanding, having other perspectives in the book in some ways cancels out their unreliability, and actually ties their unreliability more to their character development than as a plot/narration device. Kitty grows more reliable throughout the series while Nathaniel gets less so until the end. This doesn’t make that unreliability useless though, especially in a series aimed for children. By getting each character’s point of view, we can see where they are coming from and how the knowledge and views they have affect the way they act, but there is also someone else to point out how they are wrong, to make you question how true what each individual says is.

Bartimaeus is entirely different from the first two characters. His narration is told in first person, unlike Nathaniel and Kitty’s third person. He talks directly to the reader and goes off on tangential footnotes that are not necessarily part of the events currently happening in the story. Because of this narration style, he also has the power to lie more directly to the reader than any of the other characters.

Given his life, it is understandable how he has gotten into the habit of lying. Every moment of his existence on Earth is spent under the power of someone else, so he lies in order to protect himself. There are some instances where he lies to his masters in order to escape punishment or to lead them into danger so he can be set free, but he also lies about his feelings because he cannot afford to be emotionally vulnerable.

For the most part, I think it can be assumed that the dialogue and most actions that happen in his pov chapters are told as they are, since much of that lines up with what goes on in the other characters’ perspectives, and also there are at least a few things that show him in a less-than-flattering light that he would probably leave out or change if he could. Instead, the lies he tells are largely about his past and his emotions, often done through exaggeration or omission, and cannot be collaborated by others.

When lying about his past, Bartimaeus frequently exaggerates his prestige and role in history. In Ptolemy’s Gate, Bartimaeus says that he talked to King Solomon about Faquarl’s tendency to brag about his historical importance. Even beyond the obvious irony, in the prequel we see Bartimaeus’s time at Solomon’s court, and while it isn’t technically impossible for him to have talked to Solomon about Faquarl, the timing and circumstances make it extremely unlikely. Although his other stories cannot be proven or disproven with what we know, this instance and his general tendency to brag outrageously makes it very likely that Bartimaeus at the very least embellishes.

However, despite being super showy about his past, Bartimaeus doesn’t actually include much important information. He very rarely talks about his great feats as a thief or assassin or anything else. When he lists his accomplishments, he describes building walls and talking to important historical figures. There’s a post somewhere (if I find it, I’ll link it) that explains this as being a way for Bartimaeus to try to take control of his reputation and therefore his life; by associating with safer jobs, he is less likely to be summoned for very dangerous and morally reprehensible jobs.

He does generally try to portray himself as clever and collected and just generally more cool than he actually is. There’s a moment at the end of the first book where he describes himself as trying to calm Nathaniel who is freaking out, and then the next chapter is from Nathaniel’s pov which describes him as being the calmer one while Bartimaeus is a fly anxiously buzzing around.

I don’t remember the exact line, but in the second book there’s an exchange that goes something like this:

“____” I said calmly.

“Stop your whimpering,” Kitty said.

The way Bartimaeus portrays himself is straight up contradicted by the more factual account of the words and actions of someone else. And presumably there are plenty of other times that we do not see contradictory evidence where Bartimaeus straight up lies about how he is reacting to something.

But one of Bartimaeus’s most unreliable points centers around humans. Throughout the books, he constantly talks about the ways he has killed and would like to kill his masters, if given the opportunity. Nathaniel is an exception, one that Bartimaeus does admit to the reader, but even in the third book when he talks the most about how he would kill Nathaniel or even join a demon rebellion if Faquarl offered right then and there, Bartimaeus does not actually follow through on these threats when he gets the chance. Despite all of his talk about how much he hates humans, Bartimaeus has as much of a positive relationship he can have with as many humans possible, given the circumstances.

A lot of his unreliability centers around Ptolemy, which is what some of Bartimaeus’s biggest lies of omission are about. In the first book, we do get the sense that Bartimaeus has a soft spot for at least some humans. His excuses of saving and looking after Nathaniel in order to avoid Indefinite Confinement, while likely not entirely false, do fall a bit flat. We even get a mention of “a boy I had known once before, someone I had loved.” Although this is not explicitly connected to Ptolemy at this point, mentions of brown skin and the Nile make a pretty obvious connection to Ptolemy, especially as Bartimaeus describes taking on Ptolemy’s form several times later on. There is a less obvious hint too, “I sat on the ground, cross-legged, the way Ptolemy used to do.” Even without knowing much about what kind of relationship Bartimaeus had with Ptolemy, that kind of detail shows ‘a devotion to detail that could only come with genuine affection, or perhaps even love.’

It isn’t until the third book until we learn anything substantial about his relationship with Ptolemy, and even then he doesn’t tell the whole story. The fandom jokes about how Bartimaeus just casually mentions in a foot note that he prefers a lioness form because the manes are annoying, and it’s not until the flashback that you find out that the mane is part of what got Ptolemy killed. And even with the flashbacks, you still never see the time that Ptolemy visited the Other Place.

There are a lot of posts on this site that talk about how Bartimaeus absolutely was idealizing Ptolemy, and how there’s some evidence that he isn’t the perfectly sweet never-did-anything-wrong innocent child that Bartimaeus describes him as (notably that part where he was vaguely annoyed that people kept coming to him to ask for help and interrupted his research). Not that Ptolemy secretly sucks or anything, but it’s really easy to let nostalgia skip over the less dramatic details of Ptolemy being an actual human being with flaws.

In summary, I would argue that all of the trilogy protagonists are unreliable narrators to varying extents, and Jonathan Stroud is a genius for how he manages to make it all work.

[heybeybey]

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Pairing: Rivetra | Levi x Petra

Summary: Forced to retire from the Scouts due to a major injury, Levi thinks he'll be spending the rest of his days in domestic solitude. Petra, however, has another idea.

Loosely based on The Way of the Househusband.

Or: Captain Petra x Househusband Levi canonverse AU

AO3 Link

A/N: Okay I've had this outlined for WEEKS (no ending in mind tho) but I never got around to actually drafting it. But....... I had some time this morning and the inspiration after seeing this post so yay.

Thanks to @sleeperswakewriting for introducing me to The Way of the Househusband. It's cute and funny and DEFINITELY RIVETRA in another universe.

This is going be a drabble series btw but no assurance on when I'll be updating each chapter (My Royalty AU draft is glaring at this fic rn tbh). Some chapters will be based on the Netflix show but Levi's condition is a bit different from Tatsu's so it'll probably be loosely based at best.

And yes, the title is from the song My Girl. But I like this version since I think it fits Petra the most :3

Also also, we all know deep down that Levi wants to be a househusband so here you go.

- - -

Chapter 1: The Ceremonies

There was a time when his mind wandered to how his career in the Scouts would end. Levi always thought he'd die on the battlefield, just as he witnessed among his comrades. He'd accepted that reality, sometimes even waiting for it despite his will to continue fighting on.

For some reason, retiring has never crossed his mind.

"Honorably discharged due to major leg injury, incomplete spinal cord injury, and loss of right eyesight."

He can still hear the pity and sadness from Erwin's voice from that day in the hospital when they talked over where he will go from there. The doctors mentioned that his spine will heal over time, but his leg is broken way beyond repair. It's worse enough that amputation was considered at one point. He'd be good as titan food should he retain his current position in the scouts.

At first, he wanted to scream. He wasn't the type to show some outwardly emotion (except for when he's beating down new recruits or the three males in his squad) but being a part of the Survey Corps is what gave this shit of a life some meaning after he was pulled out of the underground.

Frankly, he didn't know what's next.

"Hey, Captain." Petra's sweet voice snapped Levi out of his thoughts and he forces himself to get out of his bad mood. This was her day and he'd be damned if he ruins it for her.

Levi takes her in and the corner of his lip quirks up. He feels pride fill his chest as his eyes strays a bit on the insignia freshly pinned on her uniform.

"I think I should be the one calling you that, Ral." He replies. "Congratulations."

Wheelchair-bound for what may be the rest of his life, Levi and his squad had to sit down and talk over what's next for the Scout's elites. The obvious choice was Eld, but Levi and the rest of the team were surprised when the blonde man turned down the promotion. He says that while he had the leadership skills and the years of experience that makes him more than qualified, he knew that he didn't have the same burning dedication to the cause as much as he'd witnessed in others.

Eld said that he'd be glad to support the next team captain instead. Oluo, while skilled, had often been too focused on his kill count. Gunther has a strategic mind but didn't really have the charm to bring people together.

So they all turned their attention to Petra.

To be honest, Levi had always wanted to promote Petra as his second-in-command. However, Scout regulations demanded a certain number of years that she didn't have yet at the time he first chose his elite squad. He'd never had a problem with Eld, but his and Petra's ability to synchronise on the battlefield is the reason why he'd always turned to her when he needed a second hand.

It makes sense in his eyes and to the rest of the team, even when Erwin and the other soldiers were doubtful of his choice. They've seen how ferocious Petra is during expeditions, but still had the heart to cry alongside her dying comrades. She's kind and helpful, but knows when a hard decision is needed to be made. She'd pitched in her ideas and opinions every time she accidentally passed by the officers' meeting sessions (she always brought them tea so she sometimes hear the conversations). This was often met with a surprised look from her higher-ups but having worked with Petra for quite some time, Levi would just smirk at his fellow veterans.

She's still rough around the edges and she definitely still has more room to improve, but the potential is there. He wouldn't have chosen her as part of his team in the first place if he didn't see that fire.

He wasn't surprised that Eld, Gunther and Oluo supported her, even when Petra was terrified to accept such a responsibility. Levi was firm in his decision.

In the end, Erwin stamped on his approval.

Levi was the one who pinned the insignia on her signifying her new position during today's pinning-on ceremony.

- - -

"Hey, Captain!"

"I think you should stop calling me that, Petra."

"Sorry. Habit." The ginger blushes slightly as she steps closer inside the apartment, basket in hand. "I bought something for you."

She brings out a few fruits from the basket, laying it down on the dining table in his humble apartment. "The farmer's market was on sale today and I had the chance to pass by before they closed."

"You didn't have to buy me all these, Petra."

"I had to use my pay raise for something, Captain," she jests. He wheels himself towards her to assist her with unloading the basket and they both work in silent contentment.

"So, how's your first day?" Levi asks after washing the fruits. Petra's face lights up at his question and the whole room seems to come alive as she chatters on.

"Holy Maria, Captain. I didn't know the team can be this stupid. No wonder you had dark eyebags after training us for years!"

- - -

It's been three months since he resigned from the Scouts. The new captain never fails to come home to the apartment he's renting near the Scout HQ everyday.

Come home? Tch. How delusional can you get.

He'd welcome her back every expedition and every training day. A part of him feels a bit of guilt gnaw on him when he sees how tired Petra is whenever she comes home, thinking of the time when he was her direct commanding officer.

"Captain, can I sleep here tonight?"

Now, he sees the sorrow and fatigue in her eyes. "You're always welcome here, Petra."

He offers to give up his bed for the night but she declines, saying that she'll be fine on the couch. She's unnaturally quiet, but he knows that this is how she typically is after expeditions.

They're both on the couch right now and she snuggles closer to him. Levi motions for her to lay her head on his lap, their boundaries thinning with every single visit.

He's quiet when he sees the tears start to fall from her eyes. Soon, Petra's sobbing and she wraps her arms desperately around him. His hand starts to slowly run through her ginger locks, hoping it gives her some comfort.

"She was the last in my and Oluo's batch." She starts, voice shaking and he gives her space to talk and mourn her comrade. "I wanted to save her... but it was either her or compromise the mission. I had to give the order."

"I'm sorry." Because if someone understands her better, it's him.

- - -

"Levi?"

It's the scout's day off today and they're all allowed to leave the vicinity to visit friends and family, or simply just to fuck around if they wanted.

Petra, not surprisingly, decides to spend another weekend with him.

"Hmm?" He's currently preparing their lunch, wheeling himself around the kitchen area.

"Did you ever think about settling down when you were still in the scouts?"

He cocks an eyebrow at her question. "And leave a widow crying on my grave? I didn't even have the time to date, Petra."

And he didn't even want to date someone else. Not when he kept having wet dreams about his own subordinate at that time.

"Well, you have a chance now, right?" Petra starts to help with laying down the dishes on the table. He looks at her, eyes taking in her body language. She's doing that thing with her hands again where she tries to occupy it with things to do whenever she's nervous. She's too tense for this to be some absent chatter.

"Just spit it out, Petra."

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm always here. In this apartment. Whether I'm back from training or meetings or expeditions," she starts. Levi wheels himself forward to grab their food from the small kitchen but he attentively listens to each of her words. Seeing that he won't be replying, Petra decides to continue.

"I like coming home to you, Levi. And I'm still devoted to you." Petra nervously says, the redness on her cheeks intensifying. Levi feels his heart thump at her last sentence. He stops what he's doing and looks straight into her amber eyes, the same moment as she reaches out to delicately hold both of his hands. "I'd like to continue doing so... if you'll have me in another way."

Bold as ever is the first thing that fondly came to his mind. He feels emotion start to climb up his throat but he never wavers in staring back at her. The next thing that came to mind wasn't exactly a thought, and the answer leaves his mouth with a certainty he didn't know he had.

"Okay," he quietly replies. Not much of a talker, as usual. Still, his sure answer was quite a surprise to the both of them.

Was it loneliness? That fear that he'd most likely die alone because of his automatic ability to push people away? Maybe it's some deep hidden desire to live a domestic life with someone—something that he allowed himself to fleetingly dream of while he was still in that underground hellhole—that he has since accepted wouldn't be in his future.

Until now.

He and Petra decided to have a shotgun wedding that same afternoon.

[shadowdianne]

Fic writer review [Or a fic writer tag game if you prefer]

I was tagged by @naralanis and I can already see her grin all the way from where I am xd Thank you, dear, for the tag, let’s see what are my answers, shall we.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

*bursts out laughing* Adding both pseuds I have… 535 according to the account info but by counting them all I’m reaching 541 so I’m guessing it’s counting some drafts I need to re-find.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

I seriously hated you for this one xd I was going to do it by hand by I decided one-third there that I value my mental stability a little bit more xd according to the stats page back at a03 that number would be 1257884. It may be wrong. I think there should be a few more numbers up there but the majority of my works are one-shots so *shrugs* There’s also the fact that counting my ao3 things only is shaving off like half of it Xd Anyway, can we laugh at the fact that I’m a pain in the ass and that I’ve written a lot? More than I should have, that’s for sure

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

Trick question because I haven’t crossposted everything I wrote back in ffnet and I actually erased some fics from my account back there so the numbers are a little blurry there.

When I had the entirety of my work posted both in ffnet and a03 I had written for: Twilight (Bella/Alice) Glee (Faberry and there were a couple Pezberry and I don’t fucking remember the pairing name for Santana and Quinn), Harry Potter (Hermione/Ginny, Hermione/Narcissa, Hermione/Bellatrix) OUAT (SwanQueen and several oneshots focusing on the mad hatter and the blue fairy solely back at ffnet that were written in Spanish and never translated), I actually had a veeeery old au prompt of Frozen (Elsanna in where I wrote them as non sibilings), Rizzoli and Isles (Rizzles), Dishonored 2 (Emily Kaldwin/Alexi Mayhew), Lara Croft and Wonder Woman, Supergirl (SuperCorp/Supercat) I had a 100 one -or maybe two??- (Clexa), The Shannara Chronicles (Amberle/Eretreia [Or Princess Rover], Rwby [Blake Belladona/Yang], The Worst Witch (Hecate Hardbroom and Pippa Pentangle), The Half of it, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Madam Satan/Zelda Spellman) and… I think that’s it(?) I may be forgetting some but probably nothing important if I’m not remembering it lol.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Ah, we are going to go there, uh? Xd My works are not the kudos and comment getting type Xd So I was quite surprised when I went to check this.

1: Cracked it I wrote this one back in 2017, it was a prompt done by an anon: Lena is nerding with one of her projects at home, mumbling mostly to herself because she’s stuck and Kara casually mentions how to solve the problem like it’s nothing. I really had some fun with this. It was back when some us, SQeeners were fully doing the jump between OUAT and SuperGirl (I mean, there had already been some crossover as for fandom is related but this when the girls were actually getting their conjoined voice within the fandom)

2: Dateless I honestly needed to check what this one was about but I think I can see why this one shot has the amount of kudos it has. It’s a short and sweet idea and responds to the Teachers Au that went SO well with SQ. Everyone thinks they hate each other and try to set them up with other people whilst they, in truth, are dating. I don’t remember if I wrote them as married rather than dating but despite being from 2017 as well is one cheeky enough to be cool Xd I probably would edit some lines now *shudders*

3: After you I truly didn’t expect this one to be top 3. Makes me think of a lot of things, if I’m being honest Xd. After you was a one shot written almost feverishly as an answer to the fabulous drawings that Sejic did of both Lara Croft and Wonder Woman back at 2018 or something. It’s just Lara and Diana being himbos but not at all with each other.

4: How about… How about is one I remember perfectly, it was my answer to the ending of the Half of it film. I had SOME thoughts about it, let’s just stop there Xd I really liked the film itself but I think and I thought at the time that my response to wishing for a final scene at the very end of the credits responds to me being in a different personal moment than the characters. I really wanted to explore my feelings about it and so I wrote about them finding each other again after some time passes. It was also something I wrote after quite the hiatus so I took it as something I could write about without focusing too much on the why.

5: Come to me

Ahh, SuperCorp Xd I remember this one actually. A friend of mine and I were talking about descriptions, and she mentioned quite off-handedly how she wanted a fic in where Kara’s back was described. I complied… more or less.

Fun tidbit, despite the big volume of my work is obviously set in ouat there’s only 1 SQ fic there as you can see, the others are either SuperCorp or the random one shots I created for Wonderwoman/Lara Croft and The half of it. *sighs in deep thought* I’m also not going to look too much into how almost all of the fics were posted and written back in 2017. Nope, not at all.

*Small voice screaming you peaked in 2017 and everything else is garbage jumps back and forth*

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I tend to always respond, yup. I truly value comments. I might have gone for spells of time in where I didn’t have the mental capacity to check in old fics because I truly didn’t know what to answer but I treasure every single comment and you all who comment know that I can start to ramble in the answers xd -sorry about that- I really really REALLY love interaction.

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending:

Ok, Nara, come on, this one is a catch for me. I’ve written angst in far too many fics to remember the angstiest one :P I have the most recent one, though, that is the easy one to think about: Goodbye.Written for @delirious-comfort. I’m just going to say “Kisses with their last dying breath” as an idea of what awaits inside but I’ve written about death and loss and angst quite a lot. There were some I wrote back to SQ with Regina needing to kill Emma during the Dark Swan arc that, to this day, I still love and some others in where Regina is the one that dies, again and again, trapped by magic while Emma watches. I have the loss in mental destruction form and… I REALLY like my angst y’know xd

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not counting Lara and Wonder Woman not really! I think it comes from the fact that I loooove worldbuilding as a whole and some pairings would require all my focus into making the world perfect which in turn would make me self conscious on the OOCness of it all.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

*snorts* I’ve received hate due to the pairing I’ve written about, how I’ve written about it, the amount I’ve written, how slow or quick I can be, the usage of some tropes, the lack of usage of those same tropes… Let’s just go with: yuuuup.

9. Do you write smut?

I’ve written smut, yeah! But I can already see the pointed looks of some so let’s elaborate Xd I write smut when asked and sometimes when not asked but there’s a part of me I like to call a terrible tease that prefers writing the beginning of a scene, taunt it, focus on what happens before the sex scene per se as I find it more enjoyable to write. The process of escalation is always the best for me to see what can I do it by using both dialogue and descriptors tbh, so I tend to tease more than show.

9. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

A few weeks ago I’d have said: Maybe(?) But trying to follow the trail of some other fics that had been stolen from some friends -I think it was me trying to find more about the page that stole something from your Nara!- I found some pages in where my fics had been reposted. In some it was stated that the person posting the fic wasn’t the author but I had never been contacted in order to see if I’d say yes to such a thing and in some others the page was locked up but I could still see someone was pretending to be the author. I did the thing and got some of those down.

Pointed note: Ask me if you want to post or translate or anything. I will look into you and answer you if you seem honest about the thing. But despite every joke and self-deprecating comment those 500 and then some fics represent MY time so very kindly I say fuck off to those who wish to steal from me and if I catch you… you don’t really want to see me angry, trust me.

10. Ever had a fic translated?

I’ve given permission to some, yeah, but never heard it back from them so I’m guessing it didn’t stick.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I’ve written series alongside other authors as @stregaomega for example. And some others that are unpublished -looking at you @carsonnieve - I’ve also done collabs… but fics co-written in the sense of two authors same chapters I don’t have anything posted I’m afraid :P

13. All-time favourite ship?

*snorts*, I guess the obvious answer is SQ uh? And I do think they were the ones that allowed me to read and write SO much. The one I feel more strongly about, however, is Bering and Wells from Warehouse 13.

14. WIP you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

All of them counts as a valid answer? But if I only could finish one that would be Arcadia. With A forgotten Promise second and the one I did as an Assassins Creed AU third. (I don’t remember the name so there’s no link, sorry xd)

15. Writing strengths?

Uhhhh, you REALLY want me to say that? I don’t fucking know!! To me everything I write is garbage. I always try to go for the feelings so I guess. Dunno xd I’ve been told I’m good at worldbuilding and to be honest is what I enjoy the most.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Everything Xd Pacing? What I hate the most sometimes is dialogue, I would count it as a weakness but I’m always far too focused on description rather than dialogue. I don’t think it’s a bad thing per se but it’s something that I don’t do as much.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I’m conflicted. Always. Majorly because I think that having bilingual characters in fanfiction is portrayed and expected in a way that I don’t feel it’s honest with how bilingual people -us- talk. So if I go by what I know I do I think it’s not what readers hope to see when it comes to that and if I go for how canonically is hoped to be found I don’t think it’s logical. But that’s me and my overthinking Xd If I have the option I like to do it.

18. First fandom you ever wrote for?

Belice! Or Bella/Alice. Worst first fic ever but oh, well, I’m always saying that :P

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

Uhh… Don’t make me do this XD Agh, I don’t know. I’ve always been very vocal about Metallic Ink because I let myself enjoy the process of creating a magic system almost out of zero and that was fun. Despite hating some of the writing process and that I’d do it differently now I think I’m going to stick with that answer. Or anything that had any steampunk-based undertone. To be honest I like more thinking of concepts, I had one in where Emma was a thief and it involved the robbery of a ring that was Regina’s one way ticket to freedom I then later repurposed that I adored thinking about so let’s go with…. Yeah, I love having the option of changing things up a little and focus on how characters would fit in different aesthetics for this one Xd

Annnd… these are four pages, gods. I’m just going to tag @waknatious @carsonnieve @stregaomega here and see what they do- Enjoy the questionnaire ladies :P