#this was based off an idea i had with some friends and i tweaked it a bit

[mawguai]

Splatoon x Alice in Wonderland idea I had

[zealous-starlight]

Wow okay this has already gotten way more attention than I initially anticipated. Let's just hop right to it then!

To those of you that don't know, I'm making a TF2 visual novel! If you wanna learn more about that, you can check out this post for clarity. For now I wanna just explain the general idea for this thing.

So we are going to be following the player along this journey. I've yet to decide if I want to refer to the player as Y/n or if I want to find a codename for them yet, but for now that doesn't matter. They will be referred to with gender neutral pronouns either way, just so everyone can enjoy!

The basic gist is that you are an old friend of Ms. Pauling. She disappears from your life for a long while before calling you one night, pleading for your help. You agree, mostly because you owe her a huge favor (which I won't spoil for now). There's a year long time skip where it's revealed that she had recruited you as a sort of second hand to her, mostly just doing her paperwork. Every month or so the two of you take a trip to the base where you pick up paperwork and check on what needs replacing

The story picks back up with you and Pauling driving down the road in her car. It's about a month after the bread incident and the team has had to relocate to the cold front while the other base is fixed up so both you and Pauling have to do your check-ins there this month.

Little did you know an unlucky series of incidents would occur that end up with you, Pauling, and the nine mercenaries all trapped in the same building for the next month.

That's the general outline for the set up! As for the tone, I'm trying to stay true to a lot of the goofiness that TF2 has to offer so there will be plenty of the off the wall type humor in this. The level will heavily depend on the route you choose, some more serious than others, but all will have their moments. What I can assure you though is there will be plenty of intimate moments. This is a romance story after all!

I've got some bare bones plot written down and the different routes and such that you can take along the way, but it's still up for changing. I've got some stuff I wanna tweak here and there and plenty I still need to flesh out before I can even consider putting it down in hard writing, but I'm definitely working on it! If you guys have any suggestions or things you'd like to see change a little, feel free to let me know!

[mari-lair]

Mitsuba is a mess, and his relationship with Kou just high light it.

(Head up: I’ll call the human ‘Sousuke’ and the supernatural ‘Mitsuba’)

Mitsuba wants friends, and he seems to have focused on Kou to get that, which in hindsight, is a very strange decision. Kou was not his smoothest interaction in Hell of Mirrors, he wasn’t even Mitsuba’s first interaction outside Tsukasa: Nene was.

Nene  had no expectations of how he ‘should be’ based on Sousuke, and she had a lot of time to bond with him.

They bantered and tried to help each other from danger even when scared, and Mitsuba did feel a connection: He ran to her rescue before even Hanako and Kou when the ceiling fell, and he treated her as the priority, only saying his farewells and looking at her fondly when he kicked everyone off his boundary.

It seems like they are already friends, or at least, on friendly terms, so why does Mitsuba focus on Kou after Hell of Mirrors? What changed?

He got obsessed with the idea of identity.

Wanting an identity has been a big part of his character since his introduction.

Mitsuba’s existence is depressing: He thought he was a ghost, a human that died, and forgot his life.  He tried to remember who he was but he couldn’t, so he felt isolated, and empty, and this feeling got worst when Hell of Mirrors didn’t show him anything. No reflection, no fear, nothing.

He displayed some fraction of a desire here: “Who am I?” "I want memories.”

It’s a wish that stuck with him before even the basic ‘wish’ to get out, which was what lead Nene to him and kick started the arc in the first place.

Mitsuba said “who cares” when Nene talks about seeing him before (seeing Sousuke) but he does care. A lot. It is not a passing wish, it genuinely bothers him.

Unfortunately, this wish to ‘remember’ is crushed before it can even became a proper goal.

He is told he is an artificial ghost, he never had a life or a heart for No.3′s mirrors to read: He’s an empty monster, created for the hell of it.

Mitsuba is not an idiot, he can see Kou is using him to pretend Sousuke is still around and Tsukasa is using him for his entertainment.

The lack of love sticks to him, it hurts, but what seems to have affected him the most is his lack of previous life. The idea that he was never human and have no life to remember.

That he doesn’t have anything.

And he can’t accept that.

Unlike Sousuke, Mitsuba's main goal isn’t to make friends: It’s to have an identity, to be somebody.

When he masters his school mystery powers he doesn’t seem to spare Nene, Tsukasa, or even Kou, much thought, but he gets obsessed with Sousuke: He watches his life from the moment he steps into the school, to his graduation, and his destruction.

The mirrors finally show him something, and even if there is this disconnect between himself and Sousuke, it’s still something.

We are told his wish is “to be human”, and that is a big part of it, he wants to have a life, to be visible and tangible, but he wouldn’t have tried to be Sousuke if his goal was simply to have a human body and experience being alive.

Mitsuba is contradictory: He wants to have his own identity, be worthy as himself, but he doesn’t like himself, he feels like an empty frankenstain monster built on the shadows of Sousuke, and being a human with no memories, no connection, no goals outside ‘living as a human’, is still empty. Barely an existence.

So he tries to be Sousuke, he gets lots of friends that call him Sousuke, which is a first name he doesn’t have, and tries to have the relationship he had with Kou. He steals Sousuke’s backstory and Sousuke’s dream, and tweak it to convince himself he is living his own dream.

He keeps following the previous No.3 rumor, even if by accident or force: First by stealing No.3′s seat number “to not disappear”, and after by stealing Sousuke’s dream “to have something"

But there is still a distance between him and Sousuke that shows replacing him was never his intention: Mitsuba doesn’t guard the photography book Kou gave him in Hell of Mirrors, he doesn’t try using a camera at all in picture perfect, he doesn’t like being mistaken for Sousuke.

He just likes to feel like somebody that can realistically be loved.

Even if deep down he is convinced it’s not true.

He only snaps out of his Sousuke obsession and goes back to pay attention to Kou as an individual, not as a major link to an identity he feels empty without, in chapter 48, after he opens up and Kou pays full attention to his wishes as Mitsuba, not Sousuke, for the first time.

He begins to care about Kou on a personal level: He stops watching Sousuke and starts watching Kou.

Considering how much free time Mitsuba have, I assume he watched more of Kou’s life through the window: The way he saved Hanako in the Young Exorcist arc, his big talk when he learned about Nene’s life spam, and so on. But even if he didn’t, since I have no proof he did, Mitsuba still witnessed how he did not fight back while in danger with Sousuke, and everything in picture perfect.

He knows Kou has a martyr complex.

Kou wants ‘perfect’ solutions and feels very distressed when he can’t have them. He’ll put himself in danger to give ‘anyone’ a happy ending, this, paired with Mitsuba’s view of himself, makes this conclusion perfectly reasonable:

So even though he doesn’t feel comfortable calling Kou a friend, Kou still makes him feel like he matters. Like he is worth grieving.

He likes when Kou listens to him and notices things about him, because it makes him feel like his existence is loved, which Mitsuba has convinced himself it does not, and never will.

An act as simple as remembering he has a fondness for penguins made him melt.

And while I am sure he would be happy if anyone did something so nice to him, he is extremely affected by Kou in specific. He values what Kou does much more than anyone else, his actions stick with Mitsuba to the point of madness since their first meeting.

In Hell of Mirrors, Kou should have been perceived as a lunatic: He is a stranger that’s way too touchy and speak nonsense about personal things Mitsuba wasn’t a part of, but even though he doesn’t even know Kou’s name, he is speechless by Kou. 

The memory that stuck with Mitsuba in Hell of Mirrors wasn’t this weird stranger grabbing his face and demanding he remember something that he never experienced, it was Kou’s watery smile, the clear love, and relief he felt when seeing what he had believed to be Sousuke.

I’m sure Mitsuba had no idea how to react to having someone cry of joy to see him, but the way Mitsuba's survival instinct stopped working when Teru tries to kill him is unbelievable: Mitsuba is so focused on how Teru remind him of Kou, on how seeing someone that looks like Kou with such cold and cruel eyes doesn’t compute, that this ‘wrongness’ take all his attention, leaving him uncapable of processing the deadly sword on his face. 

He sees Nene, Sakura, and Natsuhiko, distressed on many occasions, and while he does get sad for Nene and can empathize with them all, when Kou is the one troubled he pays full attention, he goes out of his way to help and freak out when Kou gets too sad. He goes as far as to put a pause on his wish to die to make Kou stop.

His joy also affects him more than anyone. When Kou is happy Mitsuba is always star struck.

He forgot every Nene smile but played Kou’s watery smile on repeat after Hell of Mirrors. He constantly frames Kou as if he is bright like stars or larger than life.

Even when he completely disagrees with what Kou says, Mitsuba still pays full attention. Is like he can’t look away when Kou is paying attention to him.

Because of it, instead of being dismissive or unimpressed, he gets very shaken and frustrated when Kou promises things he doesn’t believe in.

Kou have a lot of power over Mitsuba, which Mitsuba doesn’t nescesarily appreciates.

He wants to get closer but he also want a break from Kou.

Mitsuba isn’t very good at handling strong emotions, but he also has the bad habit of dismissing casual feelings or forgetting them.

He may be a very sweet supernatural, more emotional and empathetic than most, but in the end, he is still a supernatural: He does not get attached to people easily, and have an odd sense of priority.

He doesn’t have a high standard of how ‘caring or nice or alive’ someone need to be for them to be worthy of being his friend, he just want someone, anyone, to hold on to.

And yet he unconciously doesn’t allow himself that.

We can’t justify his sudden lack of interest in Nene, who was the closest thing to a certified ‘friend’ he got in Hell of Mirrors as him putting a mental block on her after learning of her lifespan: He just has no desire to be closer to her, be it because she wasn’t awake when he was told he is a frankenstain and therefore doesn’t see Mitsuba as the monster he sees himself, so he feels a disconnect, or because of something else, but regardless, he has convinced himself that she isn’t someone that he can care about, or isn’t someone that will care about him.

The same goes for the broadcasting club.

It is understandable why he doesn’t consider Tsukasa a friend, since despite how useful and competent Tsukasa is (he kidnaped no.4 as a present for Mitsuba, keeps him alive, gives him no.3 power and so on), he is hurtful and scary. But Natsuhiko and Sakura have shown to worry about him and go out of their way to make him happy.

They welcomed him with open arms, and they may not be perfect, but they do try to listen to him, they do care.

Natsuhiko was genuinely distressed when Mitsuba was in danger. He may be very goofy, but he tries to help enough that even Mitsuba acknowladge.

But Mitsuba does not consider Natsuhiko a friend, an annoying sibling, or anything.

No matter how desperate he should be to connect with others so he doesn’t feel empty he just... don’t.

He can’t put a label to the people he surrounds himself by, not on his own. He doesn’t cling to any bond he might have created, so he still feels alone, and with no reason to stay in the near shore.

He gave up on his current connections.

He gave up on being human and making new connections.

He would have gived up on the idea of friends as well, if it wasn’t for Kou.

Kou have a lot of power over him, and Mitsuba want to be Kou’s friend very badly but he was basically told point blank Kou doesn’t feel comfortable calling him in specific a friend.

He does get his hopes up after Kou jumps off the roof for him in picture perfect, but throughout all of the manga, Kou never called him a friend, he only ever called Sousuke a friend.

So once Mitsuba’s body started be unable to hold itself together, and he had to eat supernaturals to stay around, any kind of hope grew too troubling, not worth the pain and self hate of merely existing, so Mitsuba gave up on being his friend. He decided he just doesn’t care anymore. About anything

Or so he told himself.

The moment he sees Kou all happy to see him and worried about his health, he can’t look him in the eye. He either doesn’t have the courage to hurt his feelings (cause he knows Kou's sadness makes him super uncomfortable), or his determination to die wavers.

He hold on to him, and instead of giving up on this connection too, his ‘last wish’ is to spend time with Kou.

He still clearly want to be Kou’s friend, or more than friends, he just didn’t want to think about it.

The penguin destruction wouldn’t have distressed him so much otherwise. The idea of going to a festival with Kou wouldn’t be useful if Mitsuba didn’t get excited and looked forward to hanging out with Kou.

[doppel-doodles]

Since everyone is making their own little version of the characters I thought I would join the fun for my Fallen crown Au! These were supposed to be quick little sketches just to get some ideas down but they still took me the whole day:'D will probably change as I draw them but I wanted at least something down on for the time being and I do like how most turned out!

Single versions plus some info and ramblings about each under cut for those interested:

My lamb was mainly based on both, yes the actual player character but also the vibes of my own plathrough which were very "oh god who let this child be in charge?-" while I'll still mostly just call them Lamb I figured they should still have a proper name so I went with my friends @/tamaruaart suggestion as it suits them rather nicely! And most note worthy detail is honestly just the fact that they carry something from each bishops realm on their person now, I like to think they treat those items like little trophies:>

Narinder is probably my weakest I feel like, he definitely needs something to give him some extra "ompf!". I basically made his undertaker fit a sorta reverse or at least loosely inspired by his white robes in game. I imagine he is very boney or a straight up skeleton underneath so he covers it all up beneath heavy fabrics, but because I lack subtly I still covered him in bones regardless-

And yea I kept the veil cause 1. It's a look and 2. It coviently covers up his now sewn shut third eye.

There wasn't much reason behind making him an undertaker, I simply thought it suited him, when your the former god of death you aren't exactly squeamish around corpses. Lastly the dark blues are there to contrast the other followers warm tones, as they kinda seen him as an outcast which is just fine for narinder he isnt exactly thrilled to be here.

I'll put Leshy and Heket together as they were sorta designed as a set.Since they are both youngest among the bishops I sorta latched onto the headcanon that they get along pretty well and just stick together after getting into the cult so they just share a lot of their duties. So I gave them some matching elements like the puffy shorts but also stuff that contrasts like Leshy having looser clothing and Hekets being more tight. Or Heket getting working gloves with a little belt to hold tools plus a hat for the sun, meanwhile Leshy will happily dig through the dirt bare clawed in the sun for hours-

I debated on giving Heket an apron but honestly I think she would only wear one while cooking or tending the farm plots there is no reason for her to wear it casually, the gloves though stay for I reason I utterly love because its PETTY-

Literally the only reason she keeps them on almost constantly is because when the lamb asks she can be like "ew, I'm not touching you with my bare hands." Yes, my humour is broken moving on-

I also gave Leshy a cane just so he actually has something to feel around with when he is areas he isn't too familiar with so he isn't running into crap- on that note, Heket can speak a bit but not exactly loud or for a very long time without seriously hurting her throat, once I properly learn it I definitely wanna draw her using sign language.

Lastly bodies, Leshy was based off a previous drawing I made of him in bishop form, I simply made it less monsterous but he is in charge of chaos so he had to remain a creature- Heket is more straight forward, she is a frog and she is large and in charge.

There was one reason why I made Shamura a tailor and that was the mental image of them sewing the bishops clothes when they were younger and dressing them up all cute.

I went for more pink colors mainly because I thought it better suited the purple and would make their red eyes pop! Honestly I really love their colors they remind me of a Berry! I've drawn shamura before but honestly the only things that stuck were the colors,face and then also the hand markings I did tweak their eyes a bit I wanted something more stern feeling.

For clothing I kept everything nice and loose, while they are the tailor I also love the idea that in their spare time they either teach the youths in the cult or are like the champion of the fighting pit because war is also their domain and they can be- so I wanted them dressed pretty comfy to deal with whatever may come! But still keep everything pretty mature and mildly fancy maybe in the future I'll do some fancy gold and silver embroidery to the pants because of that.

As for body type I wanted them to be pretty thin but unlike Narinder who is twink material under his cloak they have a bit more bulk on top to show that they can choose violence if they so wish-

I adore me some pathetic but still serving men, honestly except for the cross on his belt I completely ignored the fact I made him a medic- If he needs to treat something gross he can throw something over to protect his clothes but just like Heket there is no reason for him to wear that while not working.

Otherwise my main goal was simply to make Kalamar look pretty and fancy. I debated on either short or long bottoms until I realized I'd have to figure out his tentacle situation, then realized I don't hate myself THAT MUCH so bro got put into a floor length gown, work smarter not harder kids.

If I have an excuse to give a character a shawl I will take it so fast.

His body type I mainly wanted to flesh out the roster so I tried making him very squishy and huggable looking, I debated on thinner so he looked more dangly and stretchy but that made him kinda to similar to Narinders build for my liking.

[ohnoanalien]

Glitch

STOP MAKING ME RETURN TO TUMBLR TO WRITE THINGS

Anyway @lunar-wandering has some great ideas and I'm absolutely spoiled by the LMK/JTTW community. I love his posts about Macaque and losing control of his powers when he gets emotional, so I tried to combine "Macaque loses control when he gets flustered" and "it's very cute when Macaque is treated like a king". This is post beach stuff-- I hope you enjoy, and good luck with college! Call this a congrats gift!

"Ummm...not that I'm ungrateful that you made this, it's just--"

"The eggs are plant-based! I know you're vegan now, idiot. Your little one-sided biography's been hanging around since the 16th century." 

It’s strange, Macaque thought, how the light worked. He could alter every spotlight, walk under the brightest beam of sunlight, and yet no glow compared to the great centerpiece that casually sat across the kitchen table. He would constantly blind the three realms with his confidence and booming voice.

And oh, how he pampered and spoiled his own shadow nowadays. 

He was always in the spotlight, over-protective over every little bump in the road. Grooming tattered fur after he returned from training with his successor. Reminding his old rival to eat and drink after dragging himself across the three realms, nearly skin and bones under his captor’s bidding.

All services fit for a king. The least he could do is return the favor. Sometimes.

"You tweaked breakfast for me? That's...thanks, I guess." Wukong looked down at his plate with a kind smile.

"Don't mention it." Macaque grumbled between bites. The shadow demon pressed a paw to his speeding heart, checking the reflection of the window to see if it wasn't fluttering as badly as his six ears.

His very visible, unglamored ears. 

Before the Monkey King could look up, he bundled his scarf over his head.

"Everything okay, bud?" He leaned in closer, curiously searching his partner.

"Uhhhh." Macaque said eloquently, leaning as far back in his chair as he could go. “I’m just…a little cold’s all.”

Bad move. The Monkey King’s brow furrowed, absent-mindedly scratching an icy streak in his fur. He could practically hear the great sage’s mind turn, counting the number of blankets they had in their little temple. “How cold?”

Shit. Shit shit shit! If he left now to fix his stupid ears he'd just look suspicious either way. He scrambled for his own fork, ready to down his meal in three bites and make a run for it. 

Taking it as a big, neon ‘do not touch sign’, Wukong sighed heavily. “Just…let me know if you change your mind, okay?”

The other only grunted, waving a paw of approval.

"To be honest, I didn't think we could pick up where we left off." The Monkey King hummed thoughtfully, gaze and mind drifting elsewhere.

"Mhm." Macaque reached for his mug-- freezing in place as a patch of thick white fur crawled up his arm. He quickly stuffed his paws in his lap, sewing on a slapdash glamor. All while the great sage continued his heartfelt speech, not noticing the struggle a foot or so away.

"--ut I think we're really getting better at it. At us, I mean. So what I'm trying to say is, maybe we should talk about…” He looked up, blinking in surprise at the way Macaque dropped his fork, elbows shoved in his lap, teeth clenched through a nervous grin.

“Hey, Mihou? Are you a hundred-and-ten-percent sure you’re okay? You seem, I dunno, distracted?" A peach-furred tail slapped the floorboards.

"Just got a lot on my mind! I'm listening. Promise." Macaque lilted.

"Sure, I gotcha. But if something's wrong--"

"Nothing's wrong!" He waved freshly glamored paws. Nonetheless, the king’s brow weighed with worry, eyes trailing to his old friend’s torso and back again. Apologies would just have to come later. "Just...ignore me. Keep going."

"Fine, fine. Whatever you say. So where was I– Oh, yeah!"

A sigh of relief passed the shadow demon’s lips. And while Wukong chatted away into his teacup, the breath of fresh air was short-lived as Macaque's eyes turned a deep purple.

"--dual mentorship might be a good idea too?"

"Y'don't say." The shadow demon stared very intently at his eggs, head bowed. His snow-furred tail lashed frantically, slipping itself down his pant leg before it could knock something over.

"--t's a big step, but I trust you enough now to--"

Wukong looked up, and Macaque scrambled to hide his face behind his own cup– choking on his tea when longer, sharper fangs clinked against ceramic.

"Mac?" Sun Wukong's head snapped up just as he straightened himself, grin threatening to tear his muzzle apart at the ends behind a paw. "You’re not getting sick, are you?"

"Listening!" His partner wheezed out. He tried not to panic as the glamor that coated his hands nearly popped like snowy balloons. "I'm-- kaff kaff-- I'm listening."

"...Uhhhh sooo...in short..." the Monkey King drawled, ever-so-slowly turning back to his breakfast.

A close call. Macaque bit back a gasp as the table suddenly met his chest, shrinking just a smidge taller than the average macaque– edge prodding his stomach on the way down. A new coughing fit blossomed, barriers completely broken. The second Wukong looked up, his old rival had vanished altogether.

"Mac?" The sage called, standing up to scan the shadier corners of the room.

"Just-- koff-- just dropped something!" Macaque answered from under the table, still trying to get. His illusions. Under control.

He wasn't sure what he expected. Call it bad luck or a bad omen, he desperately pulled at strings of magic, growing three feet too tall before shrinking again. He hit his head on the wooden surface with a loud bang, dishes clinking from the force.

He could practically hear the unimpressed expression on his partner’s face as he lowered himself. "Oh come on, don't be like that! We both know you're never going to talk unless I...I..." 

He didn't need much light to see the X-shaped chunk of a scar that carved through a single, dead eye. Frozen in time, Wukong was unable to stop the shadow weaver from melting into the ground.

On one hand, portaling was the fastest and easiest way to escape any situation. A battle, a theft, a social conversation-- any setting could be an exit when sunlight hit the room just right. On the other hand, Macaque was not informed that his glamors weren't the only defective power in his arsenal. The shadow demon aimed for his old, abandoned dojo. Instead, the demon yelped as he caught on a flurry of branches, falling from the shadowy canopy of a familiar peach tree. Morning sunshine peeked from the rustling leaves. Peppered by flora and pale sand, he felt a stone paw wipe away at his eyes. And when the fog cleared, he was met with another pair that hovered above him, blinking back gold vision.

“Soooo…” The Monkey King drawled, “any reason you’re glitching worse than MK after a bad Monkey Cop binge?”

Macaque didn’t bother to grace him with an answer. Instead he pushed himself upright, face twisting at the fur coat he just groomed.

"Ugh, I look like a wreck." He grumbled.

"Don't sell yourself short." Sadness turned to hope, cupping Macaque's cheeks with his palms. "I, for one, think you look very handsome."

Mihou rolled his eyes, ready to pull away, when Wukong twirled him back into his arms.

"I'm serious." He bent down to kiss the nape of his partner's neck, "I love your beautiful ears. Your silver fur."

"Yeah, sure." Macaque snickered, "Come spring, all the fair maidens in your kingdom would swoon for a guy with fur that looks like dry bones."

"Well I certainly did."

Four simple words sent a shiver up Macaque's spine. The last glamor crumbled to nothing, and he hurried to bury his face in his partner's chest. For a moment, the pair stood completely silent.

Finally, Macaque took a shaky breath, mumbling into leather and silk.

"Pardon?" His king raised an eyebrow, "Something you want to share with the class?"

Six ears pinned back. Teasing turned soft and gentle, and Wukong began to rock the both of them into a soothing rhythm. "Don't sweat it. Take all the time you need, okay?"

A groan traveled down Macaque’s knotted stomach, "I said I...ugh..."

"You...?"

"I just. Agh, this sucks!" Just for a brief moment, Liu’er Mihou raised his head, namesakes revealing brilliant hues that flashed to his emotions.

A realization pierced The Monkey King through the heart, and he swore that he felt feverish. His flush nearly matched the shadow that latched to his waist. "...Oh."

Macaque stared openly.

"...What?" Wukong asked.

"That's it?"

"For gods' sake-- what do you mean that's it?"

Swearing to every level of Diyu, Macaque squirmed out of his arms and towards the waves. "You read me like a goddamn book--"

"'Oh'! It's one word! What do you want, a poem?!"

"--I spent all night learning to make that disgusting, watery abomination of an egg recipe--"

"Hey! Don't diss the diet! It's pretty good when you stick with it for a couple centuries!"

"--And I'm stuck with this stupid mess of a body--" A gnarled root caught Macaque's leg, and he fought to untangle himself with all the strength of an adult-sized monkey. "and it's all-- ugh!-- thanks to you and your stupid eyes– Oof!" He fell to the floor in a heap, sending a cloud of sand flying.

Wukong blinked. "What was that?"

Macaque’s blush dusted the tips of his ears as he ripped the root from his ankle, mussed fur fluffing up with rage. "I said I love your eyes!"

He threw up his hands, exasperated. "I love your stupid, goofy grin! I love it when you laugh so hard you light up a room! I love it when you wear those– those ugly Hawaiian shirts! I love it when you leave them unbuttoned! I love how much you've changed! Sometimes I even love how much you've changed me! And I want you to say literally anything else because now you know I'm in love with you!"

Heaving gasps slowed to a stop. The shadow demon swore that Wukong had reverted back to stone. Slowly, carefully, he unclenched himself. He took one step. Then another. Bending down, Macaque could see Wukong's eyes sharpen, studying every crack and tear in his partner's face.

Macaque swallowed. "Whatever. It's not important. Forget I said any--"

His thoughts-- and breath-- were stolen from him with a pull of the collar. Warm lips connected, the sage’s feather light and gentle.

Nope, not a chance. Macaque didn't pour his heart out just to get a few drops. He wrapped his arms around his king's neck, deepening the kiss-- and sending them tumbling to the floor. For a brief moment, the pair stared at each other, wide eyed and stunned. Macaque's shadowy body hovered over the Monkey King. Splayed against foam that lapped at their side, dazed and panting for air.

Macaque snorted.

Wukong giggled.

Their laughing fit traveled through the ocean breeze.

"Well well well!" Macaque's head rested on his palms, spread flat against his chest. His tail swayed in the air, grown fangs flashing. "I didn't take you for the shy type."

"Ugh, no fair! You cheated." The sage pouted, "I can't help it if all your glamors are dropped. Next time you kiss a goddess, you tell me how it goes!"

It only took three-and-a-half seconds for the walking, talking deity to realize his mistake. Annoyance faded into embarrassment, eyes widening and fur fluffing. “Oh no.”

"Let’s see." His partner smirked, twirling a patch of golden fur around his claw. "How did it feel to kiss a goddess?"

He hummed a contemplative note, as if he were tasting the words in his mouth before speaking. "Eight out of ten."

Wukong bolted up so fast he nearly knocked Macaque off his perch, "Round two."

Macaque bit back a chuckle, "Peaches."

"I should have broken that scale, Mac! I'm a twelve at LEAST."

[delusionsofspace]

Ideas/HCs based off friend post?? <3

OH MAN LMAO OKAY UH?

I wasn't expecting AU asks but that actually is a fucking hilarious concept to me

Edit I am adding a fucking readmore because I am INSANE please click for submas rambles

So the tags say l4d and I'm gonna be so fr I don't know a lot of the lore, but I do know zombies and that there are special types

I honestly think, theres two kinds of scenarios that can definitely play out and it all depends on if Ingo gets amnesia or not (if we go with the no pokemon theory, therefore Uxie does not exist, BUT there are other ways to get amnesia so we vibing) because there are plenty of scenarios that make sense for random persok to have serious amnesia. If Ingo just, Wakes Up somewhere he definitely would be logical about it and start off with "I must have been injured whilst trying to survive" rather than "I'm from a different fuckikf universe help me"

My first thought is, if he does get amnesia from idk hitting his head or just Arceus being a cunt, then I think he is a very practical man and would adjust accordingly. He would be stressed as fuck, yeah sure. He would be VERY unhappy about having to be more aggressive in his stance on how he approaches situations (and not understand why he feels like there should be somebody else at his side handling more aggressive/threatening scenarios) but, much like in Hisui, he can definitely go from being funny train man so scarily ripped old man who can and Will deal with shit as needed.

I think guns would absolutely be a learning curve, though. He is used to the loudness because of trains, and I personally headcannon Ingo as hard of hearing and that's why he yells so much (which he would also have to learn to control to not alert the zombies in his immediate area) but I still think he is autistic enough to probably not appreciate how loud guns are. I think he would Deal With It but be moderately grumpy about it, I also think he sould probably be a great shot because of how calculating he can be, rather than if Emmet was in the situation where he would just shoot first and think second.

If we were in a situation where Ingo did have his memory though, I genuinely think that woukd be worse in a way?

The entire time he would be trying so hard to get back to Emmet, it would be literally his only goal, right next to not dying. He would probably speak about Emmet a lot, and also regularly use him as his motivation. God forbid he got injured, his only words would be "I can't die here, I need to get back to him, he must be so worried". He would absolutely also likely put his own health above others slightly more than if he had amnesia, because when he cannot clearly remember Emmet he falls back into his protective older brother stance of making sure everyone else is okay first. ESPECIALLY if they are kids, like in Arceus with the player character.

I also think if he ever got returned to Emmet, he would be much more of a changed man than when/if he returns from normal Hisui. Like deeply traumatized type beat. Amnesia or not, returning to a safe place after being in a horrible location that you literally have to kill to survive would do numbers on his mental health. I think he likely would end up very jumpy, with some form of PTSD, maybe even from the guns and would have issues with loud sudden banging noises. I think he would likely require Emmet to straight up be like a service animal (servive sibling? lmao) to keep him company in public so he wouldn't start tweaking. Crowds would probably stress him out, and he'd also probably be much more touch repulsed than before hand, where I imagine Ingo to be neutral to touch while Emmet is deeply touch adverse (minus Ingos touch, obviously)

Wow I fucking rambled . More asks if you have more questions please because I am unwell (I also deeply enjoy this AU idea ngl I think we should traumatize Ingo a little bit more. For the sillies. It's enrichment to him)

[nerdieforpedro]

Parallel Paths

Chapter One of A Safe Place for Us

Dieter Bravo x Aisha Smith (black plus size AFAB)

My entire masterlist and blog are for readers 18+ MDNI. I do not consent to my work being used in AI, recommended on TikTok, borrowed or plagiarized.

Summary: Aisha and Dieter have a long friendship after meeting on the set of a mutual show. As the years continue, Dieter’s feelings morph into something else while Aisha focuses on her goal.

Warnings: Nerdie not knowing about showbiz or writers (ironic I know), racism, playing Dieter’s career a bit, sperm donation (it’s plot relevant)

Word Count: about 1.4k

Notes: Why I wrote this…it’s an idea that got stuck in my head after @angelofsmalldeath-codeine and I had one of our many story idea discussions where we threw out ideas and tossed things to and fro. I finally rolled with it, smut will be in chapter 3 and beyond. Why it takes me like several chapters to get to smut I dunno? My writing style changed and I don’t know why, I would like it to go back 😭 Here we are.

Main Masterlist/ Dieter Bravo Masterlist/ AO3 Link

Aisha had been a writer on a show called ‘Graceland’ back when, according to her, the USA network still made shows people wanted to watch. She had been hoping to be a writer on the show ‘Psych’ since she loves comedy but it didn’t quite work out. She was thankful she had an actual writing job so she could pay some bills. She’d been able to help write the first season before getting a job on another show: The Mentalist.

Technically, she’d met one of her best friends at a table read for ‘Graceland’ but it didn’t register who he was until there was an entire season making him more central to the plot on the second show. Aisha appreciated that he was serious about getting the character right, adding in changes to better express what the writer’s room was trying to convey. He didn’t do it so much for the slick escapist show on the USA show but she really saw him shine on the screen as Agent Marcus Pike in ‘The Mentalist.’ One thing that the writer’s room voted to write out for his character was all the eating. “No agent is gonna be eating like that,” they always said. Once Dieter Bravo ate the takeout in the scene while dolling out his lines, the director loved it so they quickly pivoted on that creative choice.

“I think making Marcus a foodie is a funny quark to give him. What else were you thinking, Ai?” Dieter walked over finishing up the box of lo mien while the crew were setting up some different shots of the next scene. She showed him a character outline she’d made and tweaked based on what the producers said they wanted. Marcus was to be the epitome of a hopeless romantic.

“I think my favorite is the base guitar. I can’t play an instrument for shit. It just seems a bit unfair to the guy to have him be this great of a guy and there’s still Patrick hanging around.” Aisha explained, going into detail about how if there was a real Marcus what woman in her right mind would choose Patrick and all his issues over Pike.

“Patrick yuks someone’s yum out there. Clearly not yours.” He tosses the box in the trash. “You’re gonna need to show me what other ideas you have later.” Dieter takes another look at her notes before giving her a soft smile and heading back over to set. Aisha waves and heads off to the writers room to start of future episodes, she finds herself looking forward to the ones her acquaintance is in now. It’s enjoyable to write for Dieter, he’s so expressive even without any lines. She hopes he gets more varied roles so she can see him in different situations. Bravo wonders how different the show would have been had they taken more of Aisha's ideas into account. He’s aware of how formulaic procedures tend to be. It’s in the name but given that they actually had a black woman on the writing staff he thought they’d listen a bit more.

Aisha remained the rest of The Mentalist’s run, writing for some commercials here and there. Dieter remained on for the rest of the sixth season and got his breakout role in Game of Thrones. She was happy for him but sad that she was going to have to write him out of the show. He’d become a fan favorite and she wouldn’t be able to use more of her ideas for Dieter’s character. She also wouldn’t be able to raid the craft services table with him or discuss what Dieter actually did during the different stunt sessions that he had with the team where he learned how to shoot a gun or talk about why he has so many sunglasses. Smith felt like she knew why, Bravo’s escapades hadn’t escaped her ears. He never mentioned them to her though and she didn’t believe that she ever saw him high on the job, it didn't mean there weren't articles about what he might be doing. They kept in touch during his filming of his Game of Thrones role and his next role in Narcos. Having dinner every so often as Bravo’s fame increased, the discussed their lives beyond the industry.

The first hurdle was when Aisha mentioned a fiance. Dieter didn't know she was dating. He wasn’t opposed to the idea, she not his, just like he’s not hers. But he found he still didn’t want to know. She didn’t entertain any thoughts that Dieter would see her as anything other than a friend. Dieter wondered what made him possessive over her like that but didn’t dwell on it. They’re friends. They both continued like this for the next five years.

In that time Dieter had been in rehab three separate times and Aisha finally wrote her romance book, turning it into a series and kept a steady income. It was at a dinner Bravo invited her to at one of the diners they’d always go to after shooting Mentalist episodes. “I’m going to have a baby Dieter.”

If the milkshake could have come out of his nose, it would have, but he calmed and swallowed. “Come again? Didn’t you drop your fiance because he stole some of your ideas and used them in a failed pilot? Who are you having this kid with?!” His raised voice draws the attention of some of the patrons. Aisha is surprised, outside of making jokes and acting, she hadn’t heard him raise his voice. “It isn’t some other writer again is it? Or that same one?” Cutting his eyes at her from behind his sunglasses that had fallen down his nose, Dieter’s hands were flat on the table.

“You don’t need to be so loud. There’s no fiance or writer involved.” Aisha fidgets with her caramel fingers, clearly anxious to tell him. Her other friends thought she was crazy, would Bravo think she was too? “I-I am going to use a sperm donor. The money is steady from my books and I have two more manuscripts written up so I should be good for a while. I-” She’s focused on her hands this entire time, but wanted to look him in the face for this part. Placing her palms over the back of his hands, she exhales. “Dieter, will you come with me to the sperm bank for support? I don’t want to go alone and we’re friends right?”

She didn’t just ask him that. No, no, no, no, no. But she did. Aisha is waiting for an answer. Just some guy…it could just be any guy. What if they really have those binders and shit like in movies? But she should have someone supporting her with the baby. Not some faceless dude. But she’ll do this with or without me. Just like that fiance, he looked shifty like I used to when I was looking for more drugs. Fuck me. “I’ll come with you. Just, are you sure this is how you want to do it? You didn’t want to adopt?” Then some asshole’s sperm won’t be in you, not unless it’s mine. Wait, I’ve never even wanted kids and…table it Dee. Ask your therapist about that. Actually, this entire dinner.

“Thanks Dieter.” Her soft smile is what gets him. Greeted him after every stint in rehab and even after the scandals he’d had with co-stars, some paparazzi and that one critic he may or may not have thrown his People’s choice award at for talking about his belly on national TV. Aisha never treated him other than the goofy man who took his FBI role way too seriously on a show that maybe five people watched back in the day before he was killed off in one and written out of another. When they both could barely afford to eat any of the craft services food and maybe used some foil to take it home and eat it for dinner and breakfast until each of them got their big breaks. That smile carried him through some blemishes on his career and personal life.

Dieter could do this for her, be there in this endeavor.

Maybe he could even make her consider another option. This he should talk about with his therapist but he won’t. He’ll keep it to himself. The same way he’d like to keep his Aisha.

Moots who would also take a plate from craft services 🥪: @megamindsecretlair @soft-persephone @soft-girl-musings @rosecentaur1916 @westside-rot

@mysterious-moonstruck-musings @schnarfer @yorksgirl @guelyury @readingiskeepingmegoing

@survivingandenduring @angelofsmalldeath-codeine @gwendibleywrites

Chapter Two

[eros-agape-art]

The gang is finished, everyone has complete bases. So! Detailed descriptions of my changes below 👇 Alan is not included because he already has a description in the post I introduced him and the most recent post about Alan.

Charlie- I decided to go more the "goat" route with her design. She is nearly as tall as Angel Dust, she just seems shorter than she should because of her pose. She has small feathered wings, to represent her angel heritage, however they are small because they are underdeveloped. She is unable to fly as she cannot move them to the extent needed for flight capability, she can barely move them at all, nor can she tuck or fold them. I gave her more definite horns with a floating apple motif at the top, think of it like jewelry. She often goes by Charlotte although her friends and loved ones call her Charlie.

Vox- Vox is the Hotel Benefactor in this AU and supports Charlie in her ventures. He acts more like a solid father figure than Alastor and is more of an open person. When he was alive, he was a TV host. A charming personality and a kind man at heart. In '55 he was briefly drafted into the Vietnam War until he was too injured to continue and was sent home. He regretted many of the decisions he had to make there, feeling like a monster as he was only 25 at the time. When he returned home he recovered some and resumed his work, this time opting to produce affordable technology for those who could not afford it. Unfortunately this would be his demise. One poorly timed installation of a television set during a thunderstorm led to him being struck by lightning. He still distributes tech after his death through his company Voxtech Industries. I made him a little bulkier than the original and gave him a more 50's look, complete with a 50's TV. He is also still an Overlord.

Niffty- I decided to make her more bug like. I took inspiration from a tortoise beetle and a stag beetle.I didn't change too much with her personality wise, she is still a manic, but she puts more effort into caring for those who can't care for themselves... in her own weird and twisted ways. She runs a company know as NCRIM or Niffty's Cleaning and Revitalizing Interpersonal Maintenance, and she is an Overlord.

Husk- I didn't change too much, his concept is pretty solid to me as a surface level concept. I only tweaked slight things to tend to my au better. In this au he is still an Overlord and still runs his casino.

Angel Dust- I changed Angel quite a bit design wise, but not so much personality. Angel still works for Valentino, still a porn star, and will still love Husk. For the design, I made Angel still very tall and slim, but I gave him more of a solid chest. I like the idea of him having the fluffy chest, but I feel like the "fluff" doesn't move as it should in the show, it is just fluff after all, so it shouldn't be as solid as it seems to be. I also gave Angel some mandibles and the "spider butt". I also changed Angel's hair because it looks right for the show but it looks off for me personally. I also gave him the "small spider feet" I don't really know how to call it, but I gave him thin feet. I also moved his arms up to the shoulder with the other pair, because anatomy I guess, it just made more sense to me.

Sir Pentious- I didn't really change pentious, he's still pretty much the same except for the eye placements on his inner hood and tail. His personality isn't really different either.

Vaggie- I changed quite a bit for Vaggie. I decided to lean into the moth theme more and bring that put in her design. I gave her moth wings and antenna and more anthropomorphic legs. I like to think that the moth look came after her fall, as the time she's spent in hell has changed her like metamorphosis. So the longer she stays in hell the more it influences her, the more she becomes a part of hell. She is heaven born in this au so she would assimilate into being a hell born. I also changed the design of her Spear for no apparent reason other than why not.

Cherry Bomb- She is pretty different than in the show. I haven't changed her personality but her physical appearance is different. I've decided to make her bombs more of a physical part of herself. She has what I depict as horns that "grow" her bombs as a biological process. Like how one kind of insect I can't remember the name of does. I also made her feet into heels, like permanent pumps.

Lucifer- I lent into the goat for the legs to relate him to Charlie more as well as the horns with the apple motif. For his wings, I heard somewhere [don't quote me on this I've never read the bible] I think it was from LovesArt123, that when Lucifer fell his wings burnt and became more like bat wings in structure. I sort of did the same thing for his tail as well. I gave him more of a proper halo, I honestly wasn't planning that but I rolled with it, and I gave him more than one pair of eyes. He's the king of hell, shouldn't he have more eyes to view others with? The pose I used had the person carrying a lantern and I thought it would be funny if he just lanterns to head to the fridge for depression food at night. So he uses lanterns to navigate at night, not that he can't see in the dark because he can, it's others not realizing he's there that he uses the lantern.

[everydaydg]

Some thoughts on Mazinkaiser! (2001)

I was expecting a fun time and I sure got one.

Mazinkaiser is short 7 episode mecha OVA animated by Brain's Base (Well known for their works on Getter Robo, Natsume's Book of Friends, "Durarara!!" and so on) that is an absolute love letter to Go Nagai's work, bringing an beautifully animated thrill ride of a series.

Mazinkaiser is just... a joy to watch. Its not too deep, its not too complicated, its just... koji kabuto gets his ass beat and then finds a robot with the power to become a god or a demon. While I do enjoy when my mecha delves into deeper themes using the big robot as a narrative device... its fun seeing when the robot is just a big robot and just a simple simbol of hope.

Mazinkaiser doesnt really go too deep on the idea of becoming a god or demon thing as much as Mazinger Zero, and it doesnt really have to honestly, but the theme is kinda present.

So in a runtime of arround 210 minutes (This is just a rough estimate assuming that every episode is 30 minutes long, most hover arround the 25-27 minute mark so that number is pretty off), how does it fare? pretty damm well

Its really enjoyable, kinda episodic in a way. It doesnt really shoot for a sequencial story like that of "Change! Getter Robo!" but there are elements that carry over from one episode to the next.

It is mostly a monster of the week type of deal which is neato!

Ya get to see this big hulking robot defeat things with increasing stakes with some jawdropping animation.

I know saying Brain's Base animations are fantastic has a similar energy to saying water is wet but god damm it, Water IS wet

Its a treat to the eyes

Fantastic use of color, particularly black. Using strong shadows while not shying away from beautifully vibrant reds.

Its all fantastic. Heres a small clip of it in action.

Beautiful.

Another thing I have to give to Mazinkaiser is its great sense of scale on the robots.

The mechabeast are bigger than buildings, alot of damage is done to houses, hotels, towers and so on.

Mazinkaiser is often presented as this huge hulking beast of a robot and I LOVE IT! They give it great presence and an amazing silouhette that is often used to create some of the best shots of the OVA.

I might as well go ahead and talk about one of my favorite parts of the OVA while im at it... Mazinkaiser itself.

Absolutely striking design, Brain's Base did slight tweaks to its SRW F design in order to create this machine with a menacing presence, you can feel the power it has by the way it looks

and I feel the way its portrayed in the OVA itself is great! Working towards making it feel like an unbeatable beast in an exiting way that does not make the entire thing boring.

Lemme give a different example so you have an idea of what I mean.

Getter Robo. Most Getter OVAs portray the titular robot as a glass cannon that recieves mayor damage but can in turn dish out insane damage and that is very clearly seen in the multiple shots dedicated to the damaged robot. This often creates desperate scenes where the main characters have to fight in dire situacions as the machine is falling appart. This is quite engaging for the viewer as the result of the fights is often uncertain with this in mind.

Well Mazinkaiser goes ahead and showcases... a robot with no weaknesses

This in paper might create a boring experience where the viewer will always expect the invincible robot to win. Brain's Base had to walk a fine line of making the unbeatable robot beatable and unbeatable at the same time... yet they somehow did it... by not making the robot beatable

Koji being a human makes for some scenes where its not about the survival of the robot... but its pilot

and thats how they get the element of uncertainty and the exitement of the viewer.

The power of the robot is often too much to handle for him, the fact that a ship has to be inserted at the top of the machine to work leaves him vulnerable for prollonged periods of time, electric attacks get to the cockpit, Koji passes out in the damm robot like twice.

Koji being the only pilot for such a machine and him being so vulnerable adds stakes to everything and the OVA uses this idea to its fullest, presenting ordeals with Koji outside of Kaiser that are incredibly tense (the bike fight against the androids come to mind)

Sidenote: A smart choise that I apreciate is the fact that the only visible sign of mayor damage done to Kaiser is on the final battle. It makes the final beast even more threatening, setting the scene. "Oh god this thing can actually damage the robot, it even broke Koji's manual controls!"

I love it! its a great way to make the experience thrilling while not sacrificing the concept of a robot with no weaknesses

The story itself is not much to talk about. As I said, is as deep as Koji blowing up and getting a cool new robot. While it does have serious moments, its often lighthearted and hopeful with some great touches of comedy, mazinkaiser can be a really funny OVA some times... emphasis on sometimes, some jokes dont hit (Not a big fan of EP.4) but it has more hits than misses imo

Imo what trully makes the simple premise click is the characters.

Koji is such a fun guy to have as your protagonist, arrogant and passionate in the best way possible, very much inline with his other appearances in media.

Its an absolute joy seeing his chemistry with Boss and Sayaka! who are also an absolute joy here.

Boss, despite mostly being comic relief, is a great character! He is being a bit of an ass at times, you can genuinely tell he cares for his friends.

While yes I am not too happy about how much boss gets shit on at times... he does deserve it sometimes ngl and he does get a huge role in episode 6 which works as a bit of a redemption for him. (I absolutely love what they did with boss in ep.6)

Sayaka is a bit of the straightman of the group, keeping Kouji and Boss in check and giving them crap at times (for good reason most of the time).

Despite it, all that you can tell that she deeply cares for these two and wants to see them safe.

Confident and bold always wanting to help in battle, shes great

(also Its always fun seeing when Koji and Sayaka hang out as a couple, they are cute.)

The three have always had alot of chemistry together and Mazinkaiser does a good job with em

The background characters are also a joy! The scientists, Lori and Loru, Prof. Yumi, Mucha, Nuke, they are all great.

The whole thing goes to great lenghts to create a genuinely enjoyable cast of characters that are all brought to life by an incredible cast of voice actors

We have:

Hiroya Ishimaru who gave a great performance as Koji (This was his last role as the character and what a great way to go out on), Ai Uchikawa as Sayaka, Fumihiko Tachiki as Boss (Voice of Gendo Ikari from Evangelion), Haruko Kitahama and Hidekatsu Shibata as Baron Ashura and it goes on and on.

They all give a fantastic performance (ASHURA SPECIALLY LIKE GOD DAMM- THEY WENT OFF.

May you rest in peace Haruko)

Only complain here is that Tetsuya kinda just leaves for... most of the story which makes me sad, I wanted to see what they did with him but I understand how it would be hard to fit him in (specially without great mazinger)

Alright, lets move on to another aspect I quite enjoyed! The Soundtrack!

Kazuo Nobuta (Composer for Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo and New Getter Robo) and JAM Project made the soundtrack for this and they went above and beyond for this!

Creating a score that perfectly compliments every scene... they did it again god damm it.

I became an absolute fan of their work after Shin vs Neo and my god... Mazinkaiser is right next to Shin vs Neo in terms of score and mayor themes.

Lets start with the Opening and Ending themes and then move on to the score

"FIRE WARS" is a FANTASTIC opening theme

I absolutely love the small period of time JAM Project had were they were leaning hard into rock, it lead to some killer songs. Id say Fire Wars is the poster child of this period.

"TORNADO"... fantastic ending theme, starting with a fantastic piano, then hitting you with a sudden rise followed up by a beautiful acoustic guitar... and then it hits ya with the drums and violins that go along with the hopeful lyrics.

Even if the future is uncertain, even if the night is ever restless, there is reason to fight on. Fight for those that you love.

With bonds as strong as steel, we will fly again. Spirit as strong as a Tornado.

The entire thing is amazing and it feeds into Mazinkaiser being a symbol of hope, emphasing Koji's endless fight for everything he loves.

Fantastic

While this isnt an OP or Ending theme... Its still necesary to bring up:

"THEME OF MAZINKAISER"

HooHOOO... this song is used as the backdrop to some of the best fights. What a wonderful theme

Ichiro was KILLING it in the studio for this soundtrack!!

They killed it with the three mayor themes!

And it just keeps going with the score!

Take a listen!

You can easly hear Nobuta's style come through in all of the mayor compositions.

Distress, Passion, Hope.

Perfectly encapsulating the feelings of each scene... even the goofy ones!

Its a total treat to the ears!

I could keep going and going on some aspects I thoroughly enjoyed but I think you get the idea.

My only mayor problem with it is the Episode 4 in leaning too hard on beach tropes and... well the escape scene... eghhhh I dunno

Maybe Getter Robo conditioned me into expecting great hand to hand combat (especially New Getter) so seeing Koji just use Sayaka- eghhhh thats a no for me chief.

If you know you know.

Anyway.

Mazinkaiser is another hit by Brain's Base! Creating a fantastic action OVA that pays respect to its source (Mazinger Z) by mainting good character writting and by creating greatly choreographed mecha fights.

A thrilling ride that any fan of mecha has to check out!

Trully amazing! I don't regret checking it out one bit

Not even gonna proof read this, its just a whole lotta hoey from me as per usual and its like 12 am in the morning lmao. Apologies if some things are hard to read, english aint my first language and I often go by how some words are pronounced instead of how they are actually written so some errors slip by. Thank you for reading.

[litgarchive]

It's at least December 12 everywhere in the world. Now what?

An LITG Archive Update

To preface, the original seasons are still playable at the moment if your auto-update is turned off. (I can confirm; I can still play on my Android phone.) I've heard (but have not tried) it's possible to play using older mods as well. Overall, this is good news!

However, no one is sure how long this would be viable, given that you do still need to connect to the Internet to play them. And, how long would Fusebox allow that from their end?

Well, I'm not putting this project on hold. And the fact that the seasons are still playable? A good time to collect more records. (IIRC, I don't have a Season 3 playthrough with Seb as the best friend yet. Please hook your girl up with any link whatsoever.)

What I'm doing and what are the goalposts moving forward, all under the cut!

Originally, I was going to do Season 3 first (as you might have seen from the demo), but I did realize that we'd likely lose more content from Season 2, given it's the longest and has most extensive branching compared to the other two seasons.

So, what am I doing now?

I've mapped out all the choices for Season 2 Day 1 Part 1. I will start transcription. If there are any missing choices, I will create a separate post requesting assistance (like I did before).

Season 3 transcription of a recorded Harry route is being continued by lovely people on their free time. They are currently doing Day 4 Part 1.

Any particular timeline when you'll be able to release a playable Season 2 (or any other season)?

What I can say is it won't be up for a while unless there will be more volunteers helping me transcribe seasons using a particular formatting and process. This is the most time-consuming part.

For a general idea, it took me almost 6 hours to transcribe the part for the demo using 2 recorded playthroughs by @queen-of-boops and by @mrsbsmooth. I broke up the scenes and added in some code/notes as I transcribed. Then I had a few more hours tweaking the transcript into ink, breaking it up a bit more so it won't flood the screen as much UI-wise, installing the UI framework, and testing it.

Granted, since I have brushed up on ink and have done base stuff for the demo, it shouldn't take me too long to code the full game once I've done all the non-coding related tasks.

Why not release it in chapters?

Honestly because I'm not a programmer, I have massive technical debt, and I could do that, but honestly I'm not very comfortable with doing that unless I at least map out all the choices first. I want to avoid missing variables which may, in turn, break everything else.

You might be surprised with the scenes we're still discovering as we repeat the playthroughs. We've got aliens, Islanders checking Bobby's reaction to Rocco possibly stealing you away from him, Ciaran being turned on by a belch, and Kassam actually considering you as a dateable prospect despite not being interested in you in the first place, etc. Honestly wild.

So, now what?

I will be posting an update once a week until all three seasons are completed. I'll post recording requests when needed. (Thank you to everyone who has shared their records so far, I could kiss you all. It's so lovely seeing our community band together like this.)

We can only hope Fusebox publishes the remastered versions soon (if at all) so people (like me) can play their comfort routes or just play some of the best seasons they had put out into the world.

So, yeah.

Much love before it's December 13 from my side of the world.

💕 Pine

[coneyislandbabey]

(put me out, put me out) put me out of misery. -> e.roundtree

WARNINGS: none!

SYNOPSIS: The push and pull between you and Eddie Roundtree was never-ending. No matter how hard you tried to push him away, you always came back together.  word count: 1,762

NOTES: This is part (5/8) of the beast of burden series! Part 4 can be found here. Sorry i've been MIA lately guys, been having a hard go of it but! Hopefully will be back to posting more regularly now.

Los Angeles, 1973 

If you sat back and analyzed the last few months, you could almost come to the conclusion that everything was normal. Back to the normal of before, even. Before being, of course, before yours and Eddie’s absolute blowout of a fight and all the far-flung mess that bubbled up and refused to simmer down in its wake, like a gangrenous wound. You had finally apologized to each other, promising to work hard at repairing your relationship, and you really did. The hurdle that seemed impossible to overcome months ago was long behind you, and your friendship with Eddie was strong and solid again. 

And yet. Things weren’t quite the same, were they? There was an ugly, obtuse stain on your relationship. No matter how good things continued to get, you couldn’t ignore it. It lingered, overwhelming and cloying if you ever stopped to think about it. You wanted nothing more than to leave it fully in the past, and that desire seemed to only bring it further into the present. Life was funny like that. 

Still, you were grateful to have him back in your life. Eddie had been your best friend for years, and the months where he wasn’t were the worst you’d ever experienced. You never wanted that again. If the whole mess had taught you anything, it’s that you never wanted to have to live without Eddie Roundtree in your life. If you had to endure some weird feelings to keep him around, then so be it. 

Practice was wrapping up for the day, and exhausted, you went to pack your bass up for the day. All you wanted to do was go back to your room, put on your pajamas, and have a cigarette while you read your current book in bed. And then sleep for like twelve hours before having to get up and go to the gig tomorrow evening. 

“Hey, (y/n), you and Eddie both said something about wanting to tweak the bass and rhythm guitar lines on a few songs, right?” Billy asked, coming to stand in front of you with his arms crossed. 

You stood from where your guitar case was resting and nodded. “Yeah, we did. Why?”

“You need to stay and do that tonight. It has to be done with that for the gig tomorrow,” Billy said, and stalked off without giving any explanation before you could answer. You suppressed the urge to roll your eyes, pressing your lips into a thin line. You wanted to take one of Warren’s drumsticks and throw it at the back of Billy’s head, but instead you bent down and unzipped your guitar case yet again, lifting your bass out of it. You lifted your head and met eyes with Eddie, who was wearing a matching pissed off expression to your own. You joined him over on the other side of the room as everyone else filed out to enjoy their evenings. 

“He makes me feel violent,” you commented lightly once the door was closed, and Eddie’s face brightened with his laughter. 

“You have no idea how relatable that sentence is.”

“I have a little idea,” you shrugged, recalling all the times you’d listened to Eddie (rightfully) rant about the way Billy treated him. “So, what do you wanna work on first?”

“You wanted me to listen to your base line for Have Love Will Travel, right? Let’s start with that,” Eddie suggested and you nodded, settling yourself down onto the floor for what would likely be a long night. Much longer than you were planning, at least. Eddie sat down next to you, his guitar on the floor on the other side of him, his full attention on you. 

If you were playing the new bass line for anyone else, you would have been nervous, but Eddie had listened to everything you wrote and suggested the last few months, and you listened to everything he came up with as well. Working as a team, always backing each other up, Billy was less likely to immediately shoot either of your ideas down. It had made the work dynamic a little easier for both of you, especially Eddie, who Billy was always harder on than anyone else. 

Situating your bass on your lap, you closed your eyes and began to play. You’d been tweaking the Have Love Will Travel bass line on your own for a few weeks– the song was missing a certain punch and you were sure you could bring it yourself. Finally, you felt confident that you’d gotten it right. You would know for sure, if Eddie agreed with you once he’d heard it. You sang along softly with the bass, losing yourself in the song, completely sure that it sounded better this way. 

When you finished playing you opened your eyes, glancing Eddie’s way to find his eyes were still on you. His gaze was soft, brown eyes bright like copper in the dim yellow lighting of the room. His smile was small– a real, genuine smile, not his usual smirk. You blinked at him, feeling something old and familiar squirm in your stomach. 

“What’d you think?” you asked, voice as soft as his gaze. 

“It’s a hundred times better than before,” he said, smile growing by degrees. “Really, the song has been missing something the whole time, and I think you found it.”

You bumped shoulders with him, looking down at the bass in your lap to hide the blush creeping across your cheeks at his praise. You had always trusted Eddie to be honest with you about whether something was working or not, which made his compliments mean that much more than if they were coming from anyone else. Really, anything Eddie said meant so much more just for coming out of his mouth. 

“Good,” you nodded. “You think it’s ready to play for the others?” 

“Yeah, but you didn’t need me to tell you that,” he nodded immediately. 

“Maybe,” you shrugged. “But I like to hear it from you.” You snapped your mouth shut, suppressing a gasp of surprise at your own words. Ever since you and Eddie made up, you’d been so careful not to say things like, well, things you would have said to him before. How many years had it been since you realized you were in love with Eddie Roundtree? You didn’t know anymore, it felt like you always had been. But none of that changed the fact that what you had told him that fateful night in New York City was still true. You couldn’t put love before your career, before your art. You would do anything for Eddie, and that included bottling up any confusing or complex feelings you had towards him. Anytime they bubbled up to the surface, you stamped them down with an unbridled ferocity. 

I like to hear it from you. That could be friendly, couldn’t it? That could mean nothing more than ‘I trust your opinion and your ears, and when you think something is good, I know it’s good’. Maybe for anybody else besides you and Eddie, it could be taken at the surface level, but you both knew better. I like to hear it from you meant a million different things between the two of you. It meant I trust you more than anyone else and I crave your approval like an addict craves their next fix and every time I create something, the first person I want to share it with is you and really, I am always thinking of you. All of these, of course, are just different ways to say I love you. 

“What did you want to work on next?” you asked quickly, trying to brush over the moment. You fiddled with the strap of your bass, hanging limp in your lap. 

“(y/n),” Eddie said, his voice soft. You chanced a look over at him, and saw that his eyes had grown impossibly softer. There was something else there, too, something you’d caught in his gaze when he didn’t realize you noticed him looking at you. Something liquid and bittersweet floating just beneath the surface. 

“Eddie,” you answered. Measured. Hesitant. Every muscle in your body was tense, taut, ready for a fight. Any time things grew serious between the two of you, you got scared, scared that Eddie would decide your friendship actually wasn’t worth the heartache you’d caused each other, scared that you would get into another fight and he would be gone from your life for good. You’d rather a lifetime of dancing around your feelings than for that to happen. You met his eyes and he must have registered the fear in yours, because a small, encouraging smile graced his face, and he leaned over ever so slightly to bump his shoulder against yours. 

“I know a lot has changed,” he started, the words coming slow as he worked to make sure they were the right ones, “But I still– I’ll always feel the same about you. Doesn’t matter what’s going on between us, you’ve always been my favorite person. You know that?” 

A small, relieved laugh escaped you, and you could feel Eddie’s shoulders drop minutely in relief. “I know, Ed. Even when things were bad, I still knew, somehow. Maybe because I still loved you just as much, and somewhere inside, I knew you had to love me the same.”

“I did love you the same. Still do. Just, uh, you know. I just want you to know.” When you looked up at him, Eddie’s cheeks were dusted red, his gaze somewhere on the other side of the room. You would never be able to convey the relief his words brought you; after the fight, after everything that followed, you were sure Eddie couldn’t love you anymore. You hoped, in some selfish way, that he still could, even though you couldn’t give him what he wanted. You knew he would always care for you as a friend, but you’d thought anything else would have been squashed by everything that had transpired. You hadn’t realized just how much that idea crushed you until you realized it wasn’t true. 

“I know I can’t…” you trailed off, swallowing back the sudden wave of emotions welling up in you. “I know I can’t give you what you need, but for whatever it’s worth, I still do love you the same. I still do, and I always will.” 

“That’s worth everything,” Eddie said, his tone suggesting that you should know that, obviously. “How ‘bout we work on Susie Q?”

tag list: @eonnyx @celestialstar111 @whataloadofmalarkey @sapphiclm @spidermanenthusist @mannstarkey @luvrgirl555 @toyourloves @thefemininemystiquee @treblebeth @how2besalty @vyctorya @neptunes-curse @littlehoneyfreak @itsjustmikii @fallingwallsh

[team-magma-official]

Have you tweaked the character from canon? If so, what did you tweak?

//I am perfectly aware of the rabbit hole I am opening by asking this. I'm opening it on purpose.

[canon questionnaire]

ohoho, an enabler. i take every opportunity i can to talk worldbuilding and canon divergence in-character so this is great actually. may your harvest be bountiful or something. thank you!

this is probably going to be incredibly long-winded and ramble-y, so bear with me. i love talking about this guy.

to start, i completely threw out the "expand the land" bit. that's goofy. not as bad as archie's thing, but still. and that's the main thing--rse-era maxie does NOT give you much to work with in terms of character.

however, the stuff that is there is... interesting i guess? and i started with that for the basis of the personality he has in both my fic and this blog. first off, he's the antagonist you have the most contact with once he's introduced. you have to battle him the first three times you meet him, before ever having to battle archie. second, he has some great lines during the climax--pointing out to the player his own hypocrisy when he criticizes archie has stuck with me since i was literally ten years old. he's convinced he can't actually do anything about groudon and kyogre fighting, but he also doesn't just give up.

and he and archie both do try to help in what way they can. they don't accomplish anything, but they do try.

and THEN there's the way he was portrayed in oras, which i also pulled from despite the fic and blog being based on emerald. in oras, he acknowledges his role as the antagonist in the player's story, and leans fully into it. he's pretty clearly having a good time throughout the story and seems genuinely fond of the player, acknowledging their talent and explaining his plan to them when you meet him at chimney. he even has a speech in seafloor cavern about how it's silly but he wanted the player to be there to witness his moment of triumph--and it's worth noting that archie does NOT have an equivalent moment. oras maxie is much friendlier and more open than people give him credit for in my opinion.

so let's get into the stuff i extrapolated from all that.

in the fic, he works as an archivist in mauville, which is how he has access to information on how to wake up groudon without causing her to rampage. he's very intelligent--my friend, the mod of @official-team-magma, jokes that he's high intelligence, low wisdom. he's affable and energetic but kind of hotheaded and impulsive. i struggled with untreated adhd for most of my life, so he does too because i need the representation. he's friendly with may to the point of trying to recruit her to team magma and being open with the fact that he and his team aren't a danger to her (she's from johto and used to team rocket). he's not comfortable being perceived as threatening, especially not to a young and anxious immigrant woman who's just trying to do what she thinks is right. he's still friends with shelly and speaks highly of her despite them being on opposite sides of a conflict now. he's a safe driver.

i said once on main that if maxie asher had a d&d class, he'd be a paladin. part of the backstory for hoenn in this fic/blog is that it was almost colonized by kanto back in the early 1800s, like johto and sinnoh were. the kantans landed in the eastern islands, and when they started aggressively pushing west, the native hoennic people (including the draconids, who do exist in this continuity) pushed back. a war broke out, and only ended once someone gained groudon's favor and partnered with her.

in the present, there's no war going on, at least not in the traditional sense. but maxie's definitely trying to gain groudon's partnership to grant himself legitimacy for what he wants to accomplish--the idea being that if he has her on his side, people will listen to him.

as for what he's doing with that favor, i guess we'll see!

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

Jenna People wrote in and said, There is a story going around on the Internet saying that the writers originally intended for Jim to have an affair with Cathy. 

Angela No! 

Jenna Yeah. 

Angela No! 

Jenna But that John Krasinski was so heavily against this idea that he convinced the writing staff to change their minds about the storyline. Is this true? 

Angela Well, you would have never gone for that either. 

Jenna Yeah. No. 

Angela Uh no.  

Jenna We can clear this up right now. Jim was never going to have an affair with or hook up with Cathy. However. 

Angela There's a however?

Jenna There were things about the proposed storyline that did bump me and John. Here's how it all went down. So after we filmed Cathy's phone call at the end of Special Project, you know, where she's like talking to her friend and it becomes clear that she's going to go after Jim in Tallahassee. It comes out of the blue. 

Angela Out of nowhere. 

Jenna Well, that was a total record scratch for me and John. We kind of immediately went into Paul's office and we were like. 

Angela Wha- wha- wha- what?! 

Jenna Yeah, we were like, exactly, like where is this going? We said, There is no way that Jim can hook up with Cathy. And Paul was like, That is not part of our plan, I promise you. No, that's part of her plan. That's Cathy's plan. Jim is not in that plan. And I actually checked with Warren and Halstead, who wrote this episode, and they confirmed that it was never part of the plan. And, lady, don't ask me how I have it, but I have the original Goldilocks outline for this episode. 

Angela You know why? 

Jenna Why? 

Angela Because you're my best friend. And we're both digital hoarders. You say it's really just me, But you have some old stuff you hold onto. 

Jenna I have a few things. 

Angela Now you hold on to things almost a little bit more intentionally, whereas mine is just like, you know, crazy clutter. 

Jenna Yeah. Well, I did collect things that had to do with Jim and Pam. 

Angela Yes. 

Jenna And what the Goldilocks was, it was the kind of very first story outline for every script. 

Angela Right. Before they went off and wrote anything. 

Jenna Exactly. This was what the writers could use when they went to write the script. And it was based on everything that had been pitched. And this document had to be approved by the producers. There is nothing in the Goldilocks about Jim hooking up with Cathy for this episode. Nothing.

Angela So this is even more. 

Jenna More proof. 

Angela More proof. 

Jenna Yes. When I talked to Warren about it, he said that the character of Cathy was always meant to be a kind of like provocateur. You know, you think about when she was introduced. Pam is really bothered that Jim won't admit that she's objectively attractive. 

Angela Right. 

Jenna But it was never pitched or it was never the intention that Jim would have any romantic feelings toward Cathy. It was always kind of understood by the writers that that was off limits. However. 

Angela Another however. 

Jenna Another however. In the very first drafts of this script, there was a lot more kind of teasing of the audience. Like, will he? Like, is he being charmed by her? Is he flirting back with her? Or is he just being a nice guy? Like in the version you see here, he is so clearly uncomfortable and is a giant no every time she does something. But in the original script, there was a little bit more like repartee. 

Angela Hmm. 

Jenna And John and I got to read that, and it really bumped us. We felt like even walking that line was a betrayal. And we did not want that for Jim and Pam's relationship. You know, the producers said that the idea was that they were putting temptation in front of Jim to show how committed he was to Pam. Those teases were more to create tension for the audience than they were to imply that Jim would ever do anything. But because we complained, they made some tweaks to make sure that it felt like this was 100% driven by Cathy and there would be no mixed signals from Jim. Like we didn't want there to be anything where it was like you could say, Well, Jim, you shouldn't have laughed with her in that moment, or you shouldn't have whispered in her ear during that conference room scene. Like, of course she's getting the wrong idea. Those are like examples of kind of the little things that she could have taken the wrong way. 

Angela Right. 

Jenna So the shooting draft of the script also included a scene where Pam calls Jim's hotel room on speakerphone and Cathy answers the phone. 

Angela Oh, I know. 

Jenna Yes, we shot it. It was written that Pam is really insecure about this. And even though it was really clear from Jim's side that he's really uncomfortable with Cathy in the room, Pam can't see that. So I didn't like that scene. I didn't like that Pam would become so easily insecure. Because, again, I felt like that pointed to a bigger issue in the marriage. And I asked them, like, How is that going to get resolved? Like, is Pam ever going to tell Jim her feelings? 

Angela Yeah. What's the long term ripple effect of that moment? 

Jenna Yeah. And there wasn't really an answer. They were like, Oh, it's not an arc. Don't worry. And I'm like, No, but if you're going to bring it up, it's- we should- 

Angela It's out there.

Jenna It's out there. So. Yeah. 

Angela Well, I watched that scene because it's in deleted scenes, and, you know, there is more to it. There's more to the phone call. 

Jenna Yeah. I mean, some of that was a late night writing scramble. I was going to bring it up kind of like where it would happen in the breakdown. So we should definitely talk more about it. I mean, I still have more to say. 

[ejzah]

Got inspired after watching the early season 1 episode, Past Lives. Could you write a fanfic where based on previous experiences, Kensi doesn't like flowers, but finally she starts to love them again when she begins to fall in love with Deeks.

I Hope He Buys You Flowers

***

February 2011

“What the hell is this?” Kensi demanded, upon walking into the bullpen and finding a light pink rose with a fine spray of baby’s-breath surrounding it.

In Kensi’s opinion, gifts of flowers never meant anything good. They were for apologies. For illness and death.

The house had been filled with flowers, buckets and wreaths and vases of the things when her dad died. When she was 19, her boyfriend before she met Jack gave her flowers and then she found out he liked another girl. She’d brought them to a few friends who were sick, or colleagues injured enough to land a stay in the hospital.

Flower gardens of course were an entirely different matter. She loved the idea of growing daisies, and moss roses, dahlias, and had even attempted to grow a few of her favorites in the past with predictably disastrous results.

Being give flowers though? No, she wasn’t really a fan. Especially when they were laying on her desk.

“No idea,” Callen answered her, sounding amused as she gingerly picked the little covering up between two fingers. “It was here when I came in.” Sam just shook his head.

“The flowers are courtesy of your favorite LAPD liaison,” Deeks announced grandly, coming from the direction of the stairs.

“You bought me a rose,” Kensi repeated.

“Yeah, and Nell and Hetty.” He tilted his head towards Callen and Sam. “Sorry, I didn’t get you guys any, cause I thought you might find it weird.”

“And we appreciate that,” Sam said.

Kensi sighed, already over the banter. “Ok, that still doesn’t answer the why. You know I hate flowers.”

“Valentine’s Day,” Deeks answered simply, like it was perfectly obvious.

“Which was two days ago,” Kensi reminded him.

“Yeah, and now everything is on clearance, flowers included. I always grab a few.” Deeks grinned, leaning forward conspiratorially. “I might even share my Fannie Mae stash if you’re nice.”

“So, you just did this to be nice?” It was a foreign concept, especially when most gifts came with expectations.

“Pretty much,” Deeks said. “But you don’t have to keep it if you don’t want to.”

“No.” Kensi twirled the stem of the rose between her fingers, watching the colors swirl. “It’s ok. Thanks.”

***

July 2012

It had been a sucky, sucky birthday. Their case had run late, requiring Kensi to go undercover in a slinky dress and seduce a complete ass of a guy when all she really wanted to do was go home, eat store bought cake and zone out on Top Model.

She kicked off her shoes as she walked into her apartment, one landing somewhere under the couch, and she tugged her shirt off, leaving her in jeans and a tank top. That movement tweaked her strained ribs, because of course she’d gotten into an altercation with one of the armed guards at her would-be seductee’s mansion.

Thank god Deeks had been there to back her up. Instead of a bullet in the head, she’d come out with mildly bruised ribs and a sore hip. Which still seemed like a poor birthday present.

It would probably be smart to soak in a warm bath for a while, but that seemed like a lot of effort and Kensi was feeling decidedly sorry for herself. Heading straight into the kitchen, she scrounged up a personal frozen pizza—which was only a little frost burnt—a beer, and the rest of a container of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Carting all of her bounty back into the living room, she tossed it on the coffee table, she turned on the TV and scrolled through the channels. None of her go-to mindless shows were on, so she settled on some procedural that was a little slow paced and way too dramatic instead.

The doorbell rang just as she was about to take a bite of her pizza. Growling under her breath, Kensi pushed herself off the couch with a groan, intent on making the person on the other side of the door regret coming to her apartment.

She looked through the window, frowning when she found no one there, and only an unassuming brown paper bag on the top step. She opened the door cautiously, regarding the bag suspiciously until she found a little note card stapled to the top of the bag.

“Happy birthday, Kensalina. Sorry it wasn’t better,” it read on Deeks’ familiar handwriting.

Rolling her eyes, Kensi carried bag inside, clearing a spot on the table. She pulled out a bouquet of flowers, speckled lilies and small purple roses in the mix, a tiny stuffed koala, and underneath that, a slide of the best looking chocolate cake she’d ever seen.

She set each item on the table and surveyed them with a smile creeping at her lips despite everything. Deeks annoyed the hell out of her sometimes, but then there were times like tonight when he seemed to know exactly what she needed.

Bypassing her now cooled pizza, she popped open the plastic container and dug into the cake.

“Oh my god,” she muttered around a mouthful. Deeks would have a field day over her reaction if he were here. She savored each bite, her eyes drifting over to the bouquet several times.

Maybe flowers weren’t the worst thing in the world.

***

April 2013

“Deeks, pay attention,” Kensi snapped, nudging his shoulder, and interrupting his examination of a leather vest.

“I am,” he protested in a low, unconcerned tone, casting a slow, unassuming look around the market they were casing. To anyone watching, it would hopefully look like he was scoping out which stall he’d go to next.

“You know I like to blend in. We’re supposed to look like a couple enjoying an afternoon shopping.” As if to prove his point, he held up a particularly garish pair of high heels. She pushed them away with an amused grimace.

He continued on his way, easily balancing checking out the wares, chatting with the vendors, and keeping an eye on their surroundings. She admired him for a few seconds, lingering on the way he rested one hand on his hip, one leg extended to the side.

Now was not the time for ogling, she reminded herself. They were on the job. And Deeks would never let her live it down if he realized she was checking him out.

Moving on, she paused in front of a sunglasses stall, fiddling with a few random pairs while she watched a man edging his way through the crowd.

“You got something?” Deeks murmured, silently coming up behind her. He looped his arm around her waist, leaning into her side.

“Just a pickpocket,” Kensi replied. “We’ll have to notify the local security once this is over.” She should have found a reason to call pull away, but instead, she let Deeks lead her back into the main road between stalls, her hand resting on his lower back.

“Here.” Deeks held up a flower with a bluish-purple hue. “It’s not a fern, but it’s the best I could do.”

Kensi took it, taking a deep sniff. It had a light, pleasant smell.

“When did you have time to get this?”

“There’s a little stall over there. The lady grows them all herself.”

Kensi shook her head; of course he’d made friends with the flower lady.

“You know, we’re not actually here to buy stuff,” Kensi said.

“It would look weird if we didn’t.” Deeks eyed her briefly, something playful and definitely not professional flashing in his gaze. “Besides, it matches your top.”

A small rush of pleasure that he’d notice ran through her. For a moment, she wished that they weren’t in the middle of a case, and actually on a date. She pushed that thought down, passing the flower under her nose again.

“You know, flowers aren’t so bad after all,” she said told Deeks as they walked arm-in-arm.

***

A/N: I hope this was alright. I know I didn’t cover the whole length of Kensi and Deeks’ relationship, but I was drawn to start early on.

Title take from the Bruno Mars song “When I was Your Man”.

Thanks for the prompt!

[frenzyarts]

Could you talk a bit about how you design your OCs from a visual level? I really love their designs. Only if you have the time and energy of course <3

Thank you so much omg 💕 I was trying to think of a good way to answer this question, but the truth is my methods are very nebulous and hard to define! I’ll do my best though 🥳

Some characters come to me very easily, some go through a few revisions, and some go through a meat grinder of revisions lol. Rune was easy, her design was just in my head right off the bat from years of drawing/thinking about demons. Yorick was a little different. Awhile back I played a ttrpg and designed this character:

Look familiar? This is prototype Yorick!! (I have this on my portfolio at a higher res if you wanna zoom in or something idk) She was a character who was kind of elfin and was a clown who controlled shadows. When I started pinning down the stories and characters of A Slowly Beating Heart I KNEW I had to put a demonic clown in there, and I thought of this design.

A phase I go through when designing characters when im not sure how they’re gonna look is doing a bunch of iterations based on vibes. Here’s some of the earliest Yorick sketches I could find, you can see how they don’t quite look “right” yet:

Like the vibes were there but that’s not our Yorick! Here’s what I think might be the first or second sketch I did where they look right:

I used the old Yorick I had designed but finally modified the outfit and design in a way that pleased me. I went with this design, and went through some minor edits with the colors, and boom, the demon clown was born! (Though even in this image they aren’t quite right, in the final comic I got rid of the lines on their horns and saturated the green parts of their eyes):

Melody is another story. Versions of Melody had also been living in my mind for almost as long as Rune, but never as a solid design. I have a zillion sketches of Melody that don’t look at all like how she looks now. It wasn’t until right before her appearance in the comic that I actually decided to refine her character design. Since I had never quite solidified how she looked in my mind, getting her on paper was quite the task. Her hairstyle was already on my mind, but I did a bunch of different versions of her halo and outfits. I put a bunch of designs together and sent them out to my friends to ask them to vote on their favorite outfit to help me decide 😂:

In the end Melody’s outfit didn’t quite look like any of these, because they’re all somewhat complex, and I need things to stay really simple for comics. Once I had designed the outfit the struggle still wasn’t over, cause now I had to do colors. Here’s just a small sampling of the color pallets I went through:

I guess if I was gonna break down my process into steps, it would be like this:

1. Sketch a bunch of ideas based on vibes

2. Choose my fav and then refine it further by tweaking the outfit/hair ect

3. Try out a lot of different colors and keep adjusting them until they look right

4. Give birth to my Art Child 💃✨🙌

I don’t always do all that, and some of the design processes for certain characters happen a little differently. But that’s basically it! Sorry this was super long, I hope it helped!!

[gctchell]

Any ideas for hazbin/helluva boss ocs?

Yes.

Aaaages ago (2018), I had a Hazbin Sinner OC who was heavily, heavily based off of "Out Alive", "Prom Night" and "Just One Yesterday" ; Diana the Hyena. A Prom Queen who wholesale slaughtered the competition. I've tweaked her some since her last postage.

Diana called for a toast in the girl's locker room, and when asked why they were meeting there of all places, she quietly 'confessed' to them that she had snuck in a bottle of alcohol and didn't want them to be busted celebrating in the hallway, or an empty classroom. Naturally, that was intriguing! Off the gaggle of gals went to gather, and Diana pulled out an obscure brand bottle that smelled like lime and looked like lemonade. It was intriguing! The girls all collected a shot, and Diana, who already had her own cup poured, asked the most charismatic of them all to lead the toast for 'good luck'.

Downing her cup first, Diana watched closely to make sure the others would follow in suit, and once they all took a swig, she gasped and said she heard a noise outside. The girls, already feeling the effects of something strange in their stomachs, buckled with anxiety. She told them not to move, that she would investigate, and she slipped out as girls began rushing to the toilets and sinks to unload their stomachs. She locked the door, put a folded step ladder beneath the knob, and snuck away, slipping the bottle of her own special concocted poison into her backpack that she'd stuff away in the pool room.

Diana was the shining star of her Science Class who just so happened to have a love for True Crime. Not a good combination.

Seeing as the other candidates did not show up, there was really only one present gal in attendance to vote for. Not everyone's first choice, but honestly, she was for a chunk of them. She was such a sweet gal who took her time out to help others with their science questions when they were struggling, and she was quite amicable. She would've stood a fair shot because of that! But her self-consciousness about her appearance in comparison to the others, and practically possessing eagerness to try out her homemade poison, really won out in the end ( and animals are not to be experimented on - humans are a more humane test subject in her opinion(?????????) ).

These are not good reasons at all to do what she did, and yet they were hers. Sometimes it really can be that simple. Wanting the win, wanting to see how well her experiment worked, and following an insatiable morbid curiosity for a mind that consumed too much content about murder at such a young age.

It was a lovely time for Diana. Dancing, celebrating, partying away the hours with her new crown and sash, and science friends who were more than happy to celebrate her victory. It was a damn good night! The fact there were now lots of girls laying dead in a locker room is just an afterthought, really.

The night ended, and as everyone was leaving, Diana was taken captive by a trio of boys before she could make it to the parking lot where her mother was waiting to pick her up. Dragged with her backpack all the way to the tree grove behind the school, she was confronted by them -- and one of the surviving candidates, who was rasping and clearly too sick to engage in much conversation, but her boyfriend was more than happy to make up for the loss.

Overpowered, Diana was beaten and bruised, but the finishing blow was the candidate discovering the bottle in her backpack and deciding to literally give Diana a taste of her own medicine. The boys held her down, and the candidate force fed her the entirety of the bottle. It didn't take long for her to pass.

Since then on, Diana's been on missing posters that have been long forgotten by now, an overseen case, a missing girl with a potentially promising future never to be found. No one knows by whose hand the victims perished, because the killer was already taken care of with no evidence left on the crime scene - her killers certainly didn't want to be caught, and unfortunately seen the girls unsolved deaths as a necessary evil for their reputation and future.

Now as a Sinner, Diana has been getting by as an employee of Carmilla's, a scientist specializing in experimentation and liquefying holy weaponry into usable form. She's really trying to put them in pill form, but hasn't found quite the durable capsule yet. Given how she died from being force fed her own poison, she's a little obsessive over this project.

When I first posted about her on an old blog, one of my old friends, Peggy, pleasantly surprised me by linking the song "The Ballad of Sara Berry" LMAO. LOVE SOME KILLER PROM QUEENS.