#we've also had a frog once here

[chrismerle]

more bugs get into the new house than the old one, but they're more bearable than when bugs got into the old house

in the current house, there are, like, multiple bugs a day, but they're rollipollis, tiny millipedes, those little translucent dancing spiders, tiny grass spiders, moths, and regular ol' flies. they're so low key that even i, the most insectophobic and arachnophobic person in the house, can basically just ignore them

in the old house, bugs getting in was less common, but they tended to be shit like wolf spiders that would span my palm, house centipedes longer than my fingers, cicadas a couple times, and FUCKING STINK BUGS. there was no ignoring any of them

[firewasabeast]

Can you please do a hurt/comfort Eddie + Tommy friendship with Bucktommy - Tommy gets hurt in some way (mentally/physically/sick/etc) and Eddie helps him until Buck can get there

you gave me a reason to finish the fic I started earlier today! thank you!

His teeth were chattering. Had been since he woke up after hitting the ground.

He didn't hurt anywhere, which was never a good sign.

He laid there, surrounded by trees. Cold, wet leaves underneath his body. He could hear crickets and frogs all around him. Could smell smoke somewhere nearby.

There were distinct sounds of metal creaking mixed in with nature.

Slowly, he moved his head to the right, then to the left.

Fire.

It was about fifty yards away. Thankfully, due to the recent rain, the fire was contained to the helicopter that had so gracefully fallen out of the sky.

He wasn't sure how he ended up so far from it. Had no memory of being ejected or jumping or whatever happened that made it so he wasn't inside those flames.

He lifted his hands to his face, could barely see them as the sun set below the trees. He was sure there was blood. Dirt, mud, leaves, and blood.

They shook so fiercely he wasn't sure how he had any control over them at all.

His breathing was labored, heart beating rapidly. No matter what he tried, he couldn't seem to calm himself down.

Suddenly, in the distance, he heard something.

People talking.

Not just people, familiar people.

Family.

“H- Here,” he barely managed to get out, figuring they'd be running toward the fire instead of him. He cleared his throat, tried again. “Here! I'm here!”

The talking stopped, then there was running.

He could feel the pounding of the footsteps as they approached.

“Hey, we gotcha, Buddy!”

“Howie?”

“Yeah, it's me. Saving your ass, once again.”

Hands were on him now. Lights shining in his eyes, causing him to squint. He could hear others talking. Hen, Eddie, Bobby. Couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Chimney had him focus on him. “Can you tell me your name?” he asked.

“T- Tommy,” he answered. God, he wished he could stop shaking. He couldn't barely get out a word.

“Year?”

“2024.”

“Best paramedic you know?”

“Hen,” Tommy replied, choking out a laugh.

“Hey now!” Chimney exclaimed, mocking offense.

“I knew I liked you,” Hen said with a smile. She patted him on the shoulder before getting back to work.

Chimney chomped on his gum a couple times before asking his next question. “Can you wiggle your toes for me, Tommy?”

Tommy shook his head. He lifted his arm, tried to pull Chimney closer to him so he could whisper. “I c- can't feel anything,” he paused, sucked in a shaky breath, “b- below my waist.” He knew what this meant, and he also knew he was in shock. The adrenaline pumping through him was the only thing keeping him remotely alert.

Chimney nodded, sharing a glance with Hen. “Cervical collar for our dashing pilot here, please, Hen.”

“Already on it.”

“Ho- Howie?”

“Yeah, Buddy?”

“Ev- Evan?”

“Buck went home early today,” Eddie answered, moving into Chimney's place so he could do whatever work needed to be done. “Chief is cracking down on overtime, so he had to be sent home.”

“We've... We've been sa- saving f- for the wedding,” he explained, although he wasn't sure why. Everyone there already knew that.

Eddie took Tommy's hand and wrapped it up in his own. “You were probably already up in the air when Buck sent you the text complaining about being sent home.”

“He'd say... He'd say th- the chief didn't want us t- to have the good hors d'oeuvres.”

Eddie nodded, tried putting on a smile. “He did mention that on his way out.”

Tommy squeezed Eddie's hand. “We m- might have to re... reschedule.” His lip trembled at the thought, tears welling in his eyes. Evan was so excited for the wedding. Had been working diligently and meticulously on every detail since they got engaged in October. He wanted a winter wedding, and didn't want to wait another whole year, so February it would be. With it being December now, Tommy didn't see any way he'd be able to fully recover by then.

If he did at all.

“Let's not worry about that right now, alright, Man? I don't think Buck will care when the wedding is, as long as there is one. Let's focus on that, okay?”

Tommy nodded. Blinked a few times to rid himself of the tears.

A few fell anyway.

“Ed- Eddie?”

“Yeah?”

“Do I... Do I still have my legs?”

“You certainly do, Kinard,” Bobby interrupted. Tommy wasn't sure how long the captain had been on his other side. Bobby gave his shoulder a light squeeze. “You've got all your limbs right where they should be. You ready to move now, Kid?”

Tommy could've laughed at the nickname. He'd been called that by Bobby a couple of times, many years ago. It'd been a long while since then.

He nodded. “Ready.”

Eddie didn't let go of his hand as they lifted him and began carrying him to the ambulance. Tommy was a bit surprised. He didn't remember ever being moved onto the spine board. Hadn't felt a thing.

A part of him had wondered if they'd even been working on him during that time. That maybe Eddie was the chosen distraction until he drifted off and his breathing stopped.

He was glad to know he was wrong.

*****

Bobby drove them to the hospital, with Eddie staying in the back beside him. It was a bit cramped with him, Eddie, Chimney, and Hen all back there together, but the fact he was surrounded by these people made him feel a bit more comforted.

Tommy looked over to where his and Eddie's hands were still tightly gripped together. He wasn't sure if Eddie was refusing to let him go, or if he was refusing to let Eddie go. Didn't really matter either way. He needed something to keep him tethered to reality.

He shook his wrist back and forth a few times to get Eddie's attention. “Can you... Can you call Evan? Please?”

“Of course,” Eddie replied, grabbing his phone out of his pocket with his free hand.

“You've got some cuts on your arms, Tommy,” Hen explained as Eddie pressed Buck's name. “We're gonna work on those on the way to the hospital, so you might feel some stings, okay?”

“Yeah. That's okay.”

Eddie put the phone on speaker and Buck answered on the third ring. “What's wrong?”

“Buck-”

“Who is it, Eddie? I just left work an hour ago. Is it Bobby? Hen? Chim?”

Tommy took a deep breath. “B- Baby.”

Silence.

Then.

“Tommy? Is that you?”

“Had a... a little accident.”

“What hospital?”

“The usual,” Eddie replied.

“I'm heading there now.”

“Evan? Evan!” Tommy exclaimed, wanting to get his attention before he got in the car and started to drive.

“I'm here, Tommy,” he answered. “I'm gonna meet you at the hospital.”

“I don't wanna... wanna scare you,” Tommy said, and he could feel the tears burning his eyes again. “I can't. I can't feel my legs.”

“He's stabilized,” Chimney added quickly, before Buck could ask. “Likely a lower spinal cord injury.”

Another pause, followed by a quiet. “Okay. Okay.”

“He's doing well, Buck,” Eddie reassured him. “We're all right here with him. He won't shut up about you, like always.”

Tommy smiled. He hoped Evan did as well.

“Feeling's mutual,” Buck replied. His voice was softer now. Tommy knew the words were meant to keep him focused and thinking positively.

It worked.

“Need you t- to be safe.”

“I will, Baby. I'll drive safe and I'll be at the hospital as soon as I can, okay?”

“Okay. L- Love you.”

“I love you, too. So damn much, T- Tommy.”

Tommy wasn't sure who hung up first, but he could tell by the way Evan's voice wavered at the end that he was probably close to falling apart.

“Thank you,” Tommy said as Eddie put his phone back into his pocket.

“Whatever you need, Bud, I'm here.”

“Just... Just keep ho- holding my hand.”

Eddie nodded, squeezed a little tighter. “I can do that.”

[mcytblrsexymen]

thanks for playing!

(an image ID is under the cut, as well as in the image description. the artists credits and their social media links are also listed under the cut - go check them out!)

hey y'all. we've been quiet a bit. that being said, we have one last thing before we get this event behind us.

this was a really special thing to be a part of. what started as a silly joke we didn't think would get very far ended up being a cultural event within the fandom. thousands of votes, participation from everyone, a thing we'll never forget. we can't express enough how exciting it was to be a part of everything. we, the mods, had a fantastic time with everything. a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience, you know?

but it wasn't us that made this what it was. it was you all.

we just want to say, from the bottoms of our hearts: thank you. thank you for all the campaigning - for a while, it was practically all we could see. thank you for all the fic - we have a canonized ao3 tag, that's wild. thank you for all the art - several fandoms were practically revitalized by this and it was beautiful to watch. thank you to the ccs who went along with the bit - it was a delight to have you playing in here with us. thank you for the stories you told with this. for the narratives you created. for alliances we would have never seen coming, for betrayals, and most of all for being here, together, doing this. thank you all so much for making this what it was.

anyway, so this art is my thanks to everyone. i commissioned a number of artists from as many different fandoms involved as i could find in hopes of capturing some of the chaotic energy of what might be some of the single most insane two weeks of my life. (and click on the piece so tumblr compression doesn't ruin it - there are SO MANY FANTASTIC DETAILS to look at!)

cheers, everyone. thanks for playing. you've made something special that i don't think we could ever create again, and it was a moment to remember.

<3, second and the sexyman mod team.

ART CREDITS:

confetti @bdoubleowo: goodtimeswithscar, technoblade, ldshadowlady, scott smajor

genesis frog @aroaceacacia: joe hills, saintstarling, itssubz, rtgame, composition, lighting/shading adjustments

siren @chronophobica: zombiecleo, grian, ranboo, tubbo

fluffy @fluffy-papaya: pixlriffs, vikingpilot, zloyxp, rythian

colten @malewifeph1lza: slimecicle, captainsparklez, jschlatt, dream, illumina

kish @kishdoodles and brynn @brynnticus: docm77, aimsey, mythicalsausage, orionsound, clownpierce, eddie the rabbit, owenjuicetv, seapeekay, ashswag, lighting/shading adjustments

td @paradoxalriven: quackity, ethoslab, stage

thank you <3

image ID: a portrayal of the mcytblr sexyman competition, as done by seven different artists, each with their own artstyle. it portrays many mcyters crowded around a stage, onto which a spotlight shines on the finalists. scar and joe are posing at each other in competition. to the right, quackity is climbing onto the stage, boosted by etho. around the stage there are a number of additional mcyters; technoblade, ldshadowlady, scott smajor, saintstarling, itssubz, rtgame, zombiecleo, grian, ranboo, tubbo, pixlriffs, vikingpilot, zloyxp, rythian, slimecicle, captainsparklez, jschlatt, dream, illumina, docm77, aimsey, mythicalsausage, orionsound, clownpierce, eddie the rabbit, owenjuicetv, seapeekay, and ashswag can all be seen cheering on contestants, talking to each other, and watching the competition. there are additional nondescript shadows around the stage in the background, implying an even larger crowd. the image also has the logo for the competition on it.

[randompjofan]

pjo headcanons cuz im bored

•the hephaestus and hecate cabin convinced chiron to let them make demigod-safe phones

•the catch is calling people will attract monsters anyway, so they stick to iris-messaging

•the first app nearly everyone downloaded was insta

•the gods took notice and apollo immediately downloaded it as well to stalk everyone

•most of the gods followed suit

•the iris cabin started an lgbtq+ pinterest page (they go INSANE during pride month)

•nico and piper were the first one to follow them

•reyna's way of coming out as bi was following them

•the romans and the hunters threw a RAGER when she did

•the greeks gleefully joined in

•venus got angry but couldn't do anything about it because bellona threatened to stab her in the gut

•the gods HATE getting injuries that should be fatal because in those moments they always wish they could die

•frank was really confused about lgbtq stuff at first, but he's starting to understand it now

•one year after jasons death, on his birthday, nico asked if hades would be able to resurrect jason since zeus was jason's dad

•hades mentioned this to zeus and at first he said no, but here threatened to make him sleep on the couch for another decade. He agreed.

•the apollo kids have karaoke nights on thursday

•there's also a camp-wide movie night, but sometimes they dont do it because how it works is one cabin must pick a movie and all agree on it

•when it was the hades cabin's turn nico and hazel sparred for either Tangled (nico) or The Princess and the Frog (hazel)

•hazel won, but let nico choose tangled because that way he could make fun of will the whole time

•when it was the poseidon cabin's turn, Percy asked annabeth to choose between finding nemo and moana

•she stood on a chair so she could look down at him, looked him right in the eyes and said "no."

•he got her back later by repeatedly singing the "Where's My Dad" song from finding nemo

•i'll make more movie night hcs later

•reyna and jason act like nico's mom and dad

•the entire apollo cabin has basically adopted nico at this point

•chiron often mistakes nico and will for patroclus and achilles and it makes him so happy that they're basically reincarnated versions of them he's one of their biggest shippers

•chiron has also shipped percabeth since percy arrived at camp no matter how many times annabeth insisted she hated him and he has no regrets

•grover and chiron often argue who the biggest percabeth shipper is and once percy told sally about this she iris-messaged them both and showed them t-shirts that said "#2 percabeth shippers" then turned around to reveal her shirt, which said "#1 percabeth shipper"

•athena and poseidon have agreed to get along until percy and annabeth die

•hades and apollo have also agreed to get along until will dies, as nico has been promised a place in hades's palace already and plans to take will with him

•nico has the worst nightmares out of all the campers by far, but annabeth is a close second

•hazel introduced nico to sanrio and gave him a kuromi plushie

•he has it on his bunk

•frank will sometimes transform into a peregrine falcon so he can visit chb in a matter of two hours

•nico taught hazel how to shadow travel after the war with gaea so she can get to chb at any tima

•will gets mad when she shadow travels, but nico gets even madder

•calypso has major trust issues and she really does want to be close to leo but she has a hard time

•the aphrodite kids have made it their mission to help her out

•on meg's birthday, apollo teleported to her in Lester form to wish her a happy birthday

•meg cried because she thought that apollo had forgotten her

•the hermes cabin caught connor with malcolm pace while staging the rocky horror picture show prank on chiron

•they immediately told the athena cabin about this, and all they said was "we've known for a month."

•the athena cabin is actually really good at telling when people are in love, but the Aphrodite campers are a bit quicker

•ares brags about clarisse and frank ALL THE DAM TIME.

•hades brags about nico and hazel constantly, and many times restates that he actually tried to be a good dad.

•nico will visit the underworld a lot during winter

•persephone always asks him "is your boyfriend here?"

•will decided that since the underworld is nico's second home, he'd visit with him

•things got reaaaaally awkward when he saw persephone (tsats reference)

•one of the first things persephone told him was how she turned him into a dandelion

•percy and annabeth iris-messaged nico at this moment cuz they got bored and laughed their asses off

•While Jason was in Elysium, he met Esperanza Valdez and Emily Zhang. They were actually good friends. He looked for Marie Levesque as well, but Nico told him to stop, and didnt elaborate. He wondered why, but stopped anyway.

•when he told leo and frank about this, they started SOBBING.

•a few weeks after piper started dating shel, they were at a park when piper realized there were karpos in a nearby field. She tried to shoo them away, but Shel just said "oh, those dont really hurt you, its ok." Thats how they found out shel could see through the Mist.

•a lot of people have a crush on rachel at chb and even some at camp jupiter. Rachel knows and when she told annabeth annabeth said "wow, you sound like percy." They practically died laughing.

•nico is actually close to mr. D to the point where he's allowed to play cards with him and mr. D actually calls nico "nico"

•it drives percy insane

•clarisse is really good friends with will as her and her siblings often end up in the infirmary and she feels bad for being rude to michael yew

•she's basically will's mom

•both camps call reyna and clarisse "the in-laws"

•nico will rent out his cabin for group sleepovers and just sleep in the apollo cabin

•one time they had a sleepover with the seven, nico, will, reyna and clarisse (will made her come) and they watched scream 5. During each kill scene frazel walked out of the room, percy, leo and jason watched through their fingers, piper and annabeth made a face every time she was stabbed, clarisse subconsciously mimed each stab while staring intensely at the tv, reyna and nico watched in silence and no one could tell if they liked it or not, and will just sat there labeling all the ways they would probably die and how the hell did Tara carpenter survive

•Nico is actually TERRIFIED of lightning after what happened to his mother and Bianca

•nico still has the statue of hades that bianca gave him

•drew tanaka is actually a decent fighter

•lavinia eventually became immune to the rashes from Poison Oak after seeing her so many times

•the first time will plagued someone was when a hecate camper hid austins saxophone in the Mist out of spite and he had a mental breakdown

•lou ellen made that camper sleep on the lawn

•the archery range is actually for all projectile weapons and the last time the romans visited lavinia got a manubalista bolt lodged in the target

•the valhalla kids visited CHB once

•people could only tell mallory and rachel apart from clothing and voice

•they decided to swap clothes for a day and watch people spiral because they're cruel like that

•alex and nico made shirts that said "glow-in-the-dark boyfriend club" and gave it to will and magnus

•leo met alex. It was horrific.

•hearthstone got flirted with by 6 dryads

•blitzen got frustrated by that

•jack met nico's sword and fell in love

•nico was deeply disturbed by that

•the song Mama's Boy by dominic fike is LITERALLY NICO. FIGHT ME FUCKING FIGHT ME CMON LETS GO-

•the "percy isnt nico's type" jokes DO happen very frequently, but percy doesnt make them, the entire camp does MINUS percy. Percy's just clueless lol

•not a lot of kids in cabin 14 are part if the lgbtqia community, but they are ALLIES TO DEATH.

•the hecate and hermes campers are OBSESSED with halloween

•frank was really intent on getting nico to trust him after he started dating hazel

[hatchetfield-bang]

It's here!! The 2024 Teams Roster!!

Wow! Our most popular year so far, and our most successful first check-in/claims! We also had a very successful beta claims for the first time ever!!! Without further ado, get excited for the teams of the 2024 Hatchetfield Bang!!!

Love Runs Blue Author: Amanda/Calc Artist: Arran/Wiz Artist: Jade

For as long as my heart beats, our love shall fill it Author: Arthur Artist: Crypt Beta: Cami/Mike

Double Trouble Author: Love Artist: Kostya Artist: Axel

My Imaginary Friend, the Horror Author: Hayley Artist: Apollo/Pax Artist: Indigo

A Budding Conspiracy Author: Ash Artist: Artsy Artist: Oli

Sleazy Grown-Ups Must Die Author: Nab Artist: Jude Artist: Noodle

Little Briar Rose Author: Cal Artist: Teddy Beta: Pamela

Save The Town, Save The World Author: Felix Artist: Banana Bread Artist: Myth Beta: Lou

The God Of Friendship Author: Cas Artist: Grape/Kai Artist: Chloe Beta: Lou

when everything gets heavy, i've learned to travel light Author: Dragon Artist: Lo Artist: Teddy Beta: Lou

Ziria Author: Rats Artist: Noodle Artist: Jade Beta: Andi

She Walks Among the Stars Author: Dylbo Artist: Maddy Artist: Temmie Beta: Feather

Abstinence Camp Continued Author: Myth Artist: Ricky

Let's Do The Timewarp Again Author: Feather Artist: Kaz Artist: Nico Beta: Violet

Flash, Bang, Jane Author: Amanda/Calc Artist: Chloé Beta: Charlotte

Learning to Love Again (For the First Time) Author: Dylbo Artist: Finn Beta: Lucy

2003 Author: Love Artist: Tere Artist: Storm

Hallowed be thy name Author: Frog Artist: Olly Beta: Feather

The Senior Shriek Author: Felix Artist: Jasper Artist: Achilles Beta: Violet

Bleeding Memories Author: Ash Artist: Chloe Beta: Andi

Transfer My Tragedy Author: Felix Artist: Maddy

Grace Rips Off A Carrie Author: Ember Artist: Myth

Branches of the Willow Author: Nick Li Artist: Dan Beta: Temmie

leaning over us in icy stars Author: Rats Artist: Ace Artist: Ash

Reflections Author: Megan Artist: Domo

innocence died screaming, honey (i slithered here from eden just to sit outside your door) Author: Scott Artist: Olly Beta: Feather

How Far We've Come Author: Nier Artist: Morgan

Sweetheart Author: Grape/Kai Artist: Maddy Beta: Violet

The Hatchetfield Games Author: Charlotte Artist: Achilles Beta: Cami/Mike

i'll never let you go (take me back) Author: Ali Artist: Green Beta: Charlotte

Alice Woodward Must Die Author: Emmelie Artist: Silver Beta: Love

The Hatchetfield Poets Department Author: Charlotte Artist: Andi Beta: Love

NPMD Among Us AU Author: Andi Artist: Ren Artist: Emmett

Nothing means everything (to me) Author: Frog Artist: Amy

dead kids (where do they go?) Author: Em Artist: Cass Artist: Ace

and the bible didn't mention us (not even once) Author: Amy Artist: Storm Beta: Love

Only Hers Author: Abi Artist: Marc

[stone-stars]

Transcript:

Murph: Uh, and then of course we've got Caldwell Tanner! Caldwell: Hang on, I gotta get ready. [Jake laughs.] Murph: You don't have a Birdie rhyme ready, dude? Caldwell: I have a Birdie rhyme. Emily: He has an instrument, my man! Caldwell: I have an instrument. [Pause, then the sound of a wooden frog being played. Caldwell speaks rhythmically.] Nights are cold, days are long! [Wooden frog is played once.] Try to be bold, try to be strong! [Two strokes of the wooden frog.] But with my friends and Birdie by my side, nothing can go wrong. [Two strokes of the wooden frog.] Hold for frog song! [Rapidly plays the wooden frog with intensity.] Emily: [clapping, prolonged] Yay---!! Caldwell: Yes! Yes. Murph: A-- A very important part of that is that he had a wooden frog? That he was... rubbing with a stick? [Emily and Jake laugh. Caldwell softly plays the frog.] Murph: I don't know that it quite-- worked with audio. Emily, talking over him: It was really good. It was really-- Agree to disagree Murph. [Jake and Caldwell laugh in the background.] Murph: And overall-- this is a podcast. So one could argue-- Emily, over him, with increasing intensity: Agree to disagree. Agree to disagree. And now this entire episode is gonna be scored by a wooden frog. Murph: Yeah? Caldwell: I'm so-- I'm so fucking sorry, I can't play an instrument on our podcast? Murph and Emily: Yeah. Caldwell: That's what Emily does all the time! Emily: Yeah. It's fucking gorgeous. It was gorgeous. Murph: Yeah. Okay. Okay. No-- Caldwell: Hey, you know what-- Emily: Caldwell, I'm so impressed. I'm so fucking impressed. Murph: Jake's weirdly quiet. [Jake laughs.] Jake's pretty quiet. I don't know what-- he might agree with me. Caldwell, under him: Thank you so much Emily. Emily, yelling: I can speak for both of us! Caldwell, I'm so fucking impressed! Jake: (laughing) I'm-- I'm in between Murph and Emily, I think. I thought it was fine. [Murph, Emily, and Caldwell laugh.] Caldwell: I'm going intro obscure 2024. Emily: Twenty-twenty-fure. Caldwell: Twenty-twenty-fure. Murph: Jake had-- Jake had a little bit of a scared look, like he didn't know where Caldwell was going with it. [The others laugh.] And I will say I was scared as well! When you broke out the wooden frog and just kind of scraped it as you were talking, I thought, surely this can't be that much of a part of it. Emily: And I saw it and I said "I hope this roller coaster does flips." And it did! [Caldwell laughs.] Murph: Yeah. Jake: It did loop-de-loops. Murph: It also is a reference to… was it Dungeon Court where you were doing slam poetry? Emily: Well-- I was thinking you were doing a "So I Married an Axe Murderer" cadence? Caldwell: (laughs) Kind of. It's always in there a little bit. [Emily laughs.] Murph: Okay, so you need to be caught up on Dungeon Court, Caldwell: Right. Well no, last-- Murph: You need to know that he has a frog… with him. Emily: Yeah, it was perfect, Murph. Caldwell: Yeah, it was flawless. Murph: (disbelieving) Yeah, it was perfect? Emily: The audience has followed! Murph: (laughs) Okay. Caldwell: Actually, last episode we were talking about not doing intros and doing alternative stuff. Murph: Oh, okay! Caldwell: And I said I was gonna get a cork keyboard. And I looked, but they were kind of expensive, so I figured I would use this frog statue that my friend Kiana got me. Jake: That was definitely "alternative," you were correct. Emily: I think it was awesome. Murph: Yeah. Alright. [Emily laughs.] Jake: Snaps for you, dude. Murph: Snaps for you. Caldwell: Okay, here we go. [He plays the frog.] Murph: Okay. (laughs) Again. Caldwell: Start the show! Jake: (laughs) Now he won't put away the rest of the episode, right [Caldwell laughs.] Emily: Yeah, I was like "okay, maybe I gotta tone down the support." Murph: Get it away from the mic. Get it away from the mic. Emily: Just for the sake of it not coming back during the episode. Caldwell: Just gonna put it over there now. Murph: Okay, let's go ahead and do a little recap!

[Everyone laughing.] Calder: This-- this is really catching on. Kenna: Wow, if only you had some kind of wooden frog to scrape! [Emily laughs harder. So do Jake and Caldwell.] Caldwell: Reaching for it. [Murph laughs.] Resisting. We're about to make a DC 30 check, I should not make Murph mad. [Everyone laughs.] Jake: Fair. Murph: Weird it's-- the wind picked up and it's a DC 35 check, now. Caldwell: Huh.

Murph: And you can tweet about the show using hastag Naddpod that's N-A-D-D-P-O-D. Everyone, as Caldwell scrapes the frog along to the lyrics: We are we are! The youth of the nation! We are we are! The youth of the nation!

[keroradio]

CD drama 5 and the last in the Pekopon Shinryaku set, can you believe it?

Although this story is set around Christmas, it's being posted more or less on the opposite side of the year, but that's fine (^.^')

Having said that, I've noticed there's no middle ground for how these go; either I finish it in a day or so, weeks before it's scheduled to be posted or I'm still finishing it the night before. This was one of the latter, a lot of different things happened, some are still being wrapped up, and then I lost an evening I expected to be able to work on it dealing with a couple of stressful people, one of whom I feel bad for, but am also really starting to resent (-.-)

And there were a few lines that were hard to understand (Keroro's croaky voice is cute, but sometimes it's hard to tell what he's saying)

Either way, it's finally here, and is going to last for a few days, so I;m excited to share it

N: Christmas is for being with a person you love, just who decided that? But sometimes you'll be alone, listening to the radio in quiet, don't you think that sort of Christmas Eve is also nice?

(Broadcast start-up)

623:It's Christmas Eve night, the snow falls all around from the sky, could those be tears from Mr Santa who is so busy that he's away from his beloved? What a thing to think on Christmas eve! Mutsumi's My radio, tonight is special Christmas installment! Let's get right into reading a hand selected poem from our listeners, Inner Tokyo City's Nacchi-san

723: Ah, th-thank you! Good evening!

623: Good evening! Nacchi-san, where and with who are you listening to the radio, this Christmas Eve?

723: In-In my own room, wi-wi-with my friends

623: Are you a bit nervous?

KYK: Pull yourself together, Natsumi-san

Moa: Please do your best! You could say, shout it all at once?

MMK: I had planned to spend Christmas Even alone with Fuyuki-kun, I thought, why am I here? UMMK: At this rate we won't be able to do our "Confess our love in Tokyo" plan

623: Spending Christmas eve with your best girlfriends seems fun too

723: Ye-yes! I'm happy that I got to talk to you, Mutsumi-san

623: Thank you, well then, let's dedicate tonight's drawn poem to you, Nacchi-san On a sacred night A figure gently approaches If you listen closely See, you can hear it

K66: Sergeant Keroro's Original Strange Dopamine

(Cheering)

723: Ah, st-stupid frog

-----

K66: Pekopon Invasion CD number 5: Original Strange Dopamine, Christmas Jack, yes sir!

-----

Keronians: Merry Christmas!

K66: Now, we've finally begun! Broadcasting on Christmas eve, Christmas eve: Snow falls all around from the sky, could it be dandruff from Mr Santa who was too busy to take a bath? If that's the case, take a day off!

On that note, I'm the house drudge Sergeant Keroro, yes sir!

TMM: I'm the late bloomer Tamamacchi!

G66: Oh, Uh, I'm Giroro

K66: You're so stiff, Girocchi! Look, this time be more charged up! Yes!

G66: Ha! Charged up, ha! Charged up, ha!

K66: You don't understand this is radio

966: Hurry and finish so we can get to the first song

K66: Roger, yes sir! Director Kururu! Let's get it started!

D66: Uh, Keroro-kun!

K66: Ah, and we can't forget about tonight's star, tonight we're giving the always inconspicuous Lance Corporal Dororo, will have plenty of conspicuousness

D66: E-he-he I'm a regular respondent of the show, Dororo, good sir, I have a bit of confidence in my material, good sir. First is an ice breaker: I don't want a Christmas cake like this, instead of a candle wick-(1)

K66: On that note, tonight's featured song is the opposite of a Christmas one, Pekopon Invasion Ondo!

G66: Wait, why are we playing an ondo song for Christmas?

K66: Then let's go!

(Pekopon Shinryaku Ondo Plays)

K66: (sigh) Well, that's it for the start, then?

TMM: Mr Sergeant, you're the best!

G66: However, are there really Pekoponians who'll listen to this sort of radio at Christmas?

K66: That's a key point of the plan, yes sir. The only ones listening to the radio on Christmas eve are lonely Pekoponians who don't have a lover

TMM: You said it

K66: And so, if we help them with that loneliness now

723: I can hear them

K66: We'll win their hearts, then we can promote our Keroro goods, and increase our invasion funds. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year To You! That's my plan, yes sir

TMM: How shady! It's a black Christmas!

K66: Gero gero gero gero

723: Really, what are they up to? My dedicated poem reading from Mutsumi-san~

Moa: Uncle, even on Christmas eve he's dedicated to invading Pekopon, you could say, no rest for the poor?

966: Ah, whoops, the mike was still on

K66: Gero, Seriously?

KYK: Ignoring that, they're really funny

K66: To recover the mood, let's go to tonight's randomly drawn poem:

On a sacred night A figure gently approaches If you listen closely See, you can hear it

A reindeer sneezing! On that note, now we have a commercial, then after the commercial, this episode's extra special guest

(Afro Gunsou Plays)

K66: Releasing soon! Making it's way to improve your life, the eagerly anticipated giant figure: 1/1 scale Sergeant Keroro!

966: Even the resonance sound is spot on

G66: I want one too

TMM: I also want one~!

D66: I too wou-

K66: OK! Now resonate together with me! Kero kero kero kero kero kero

723: Right now, they're probably in the underground base again Let's go!

FYK: Sis! Don't!

MMK: Ah! Fuyuki-kun! Would you like to be alone with me?

FYK: Ah! Nishizawa-san, welcome!

723: What happened, Fuyuki?

FYK: Right right, look outside the window! In the sky, there's a giant UFO!

723: What!?

Moa: Ah, that's a Satan Claws spaceship! (2)

723: Satan Claws?

Moa: They're fearsome alien race, and a rival clan to us Angols in regards to destroying planets you could say, villain introduction?

723: So they've come to destroy the Earth?

MMK: Oh-no~! They ruined the mood

KYK: If we don't stop them right away-

FYK: What kind of aliens are they? Those Satan Claws

Moa: Right, uh...They look a little like Pekopon's Santa, but....

K66: Still, we've kept you waiting, yes sir. Our program's extra special guest is, amazingly, Mr. Santa Claus, yes sir!

(Everyone cheers)

K66: Welcome, yes sir. Mr Santa

D66: I thought Mr Santa only wore red coats, good sir

G66: I notice that guy is red & slimy, and his face ends in body hair that looks like a white beard

TMM: He has a violent appearance

966: I thought he'd be riding in on a reindeer

(Unsettling noises)

Moa: It really feels like one, you could say mark of authenticity?

723: Could it be this is

FYK: Satan Claws?

MMK: What? This is bad

Moa: We're in trouble, if a Satan Claws gets angry, you could say a critical situation?

KYK: We've got to let them know!

K66: Huh? I just had a bad feeling Oh? What's going on, Mr. Santa? If you're make a gloomy face

TMM: See, smile more, smile!

K66: Should I try tugging on your beard?

TMM: I'll try bopping him on the head

SC: unsettling noises

K66: You're in a bad mood today, aren't you? I guess you're dropping off presents

SC: more unsettling noises

TMM: Ah, this must be his bag of presents!

K66: Oh! Then in that case, let's check inside the bag!

G66: Hey! You can't just go searching through people's things-

K66: I'm just looking. Right Mr. Santa?

TMM: Ah, I wonder what could be inside~

K66: Ooh! First is something from Asakusa....a key holder?

TMM: And here we have a....cell phone strap

D66: These are sweet potato dango from Kumamoto

G66: Are these Christmas presents?

K66: Oh! Here we have a parcel from an electronics shop in Akihabara

TMM: Is it a game?

K66: No, it's a massager, yes sir

G66: Are these supposed to be presents for children?

SC: (garbled noises)

TMM: He's saying something, Mister Sergeant

K66: Hm? What is it, yes sir?

SC: Butt-fire-cracker (3)

K66: What? Whaaat!? B- bu-

G66: B-Butt-fire-cracker?

TMM: What does that mean?

K66: What do you think it means? A fire cracker in your butt

SC: Butt-fire-cracker

K66: Gaaah~!

-------------------------------------

1-We'll see a finished joke in the second part, but it's a word play joke; the basic structure is saying "I don't want this (Christmas thing)" then describing and alternate version where it could be summed up in a set of words that are pronounced the same way as the original thing. Unfortunately, we get to little of the joke to tell where it was going

2-I'm not sure exactly how it's supposed to be romanised and I changed it several times before settling on this

3-This was way before season 6, Kero Zero contradicting Tamama not knowing now, and the shapeshifting blobby guy. The name gives you a good idea of what it is, but apparently it actually was a thing associated with the later half of the Showa era as one of those childhood experiments that is a bit messed up when you look back (sort of like the infamous setting an anthill on fire with a magnifying glass).

Basically, children would get a small firecracker, stick it in a frog's butt and then light it so the frog would explode, hence the Keronians being freaked out by it, even though they could probably just pull it out....and they survive explosions all the time

[suryp]

Run.

That's what I'd done, what I'd been doing, for days.

I'd gotten quite good at it, too. Even with hellhounds or d'roge nipping at my heels, even cradling a wolf-pup in my arms, even after the things teeth bit into my tits, which fucking hurt, by the way, I was good at running.

It helped that hellhounds always tried to tire their prey out rather than simply running it down, and that d'roge preferred most anything else, but human hunters didn't have those issues, and I was quite certain banshee didn't either.

So when I eventually saw them on the horizon, I started moving as quickly as I could.

Or, I would have, had I not been quite, ah, busy.

At least they'd grow up faster than a human child, and hopefully faster than most Skei'yd considering the size of my breasts.

They were, at least, already showing interest in meat.

Welp. No time to experiment now, I had to keep the both of us away from danger, and that meant heading even further south.

Unless they truly believed we were dead, they'd keep coming, and that meant we had to either make a convincing set of corpses, or leave no trace of our existence for at least...

Well, I didn't think either was going to happen out here on the open steppe. They'd see us miles off, and it seemed like they'd gotten professionals on our tail, so the only hope we had was...

The Forest. The Banshee Forest. A place people only went to if they were truly desperate, even if the potential profit was thousands or millions in a single trip.

And I had to, somehow, survive there, well enough to take care of a Skei'yd pup, for years.

Well. Time to go.

I'd learned star mapping from my father, who learned it from his. On the deserts and open prairie of their home, it was a needed skill, and I enjoyed learning. If I kept with it, I may have even been a matriarch, but when he eventually believed I was old enough to truly make that choice, I'd learned a lot of things from other people.

Glad I remembered his lessons, though. Keeping the sun off my back was generally necessary, and the animals here had much better insulation than any of the old clothes I still had.

The march was still long, and every few... days? The first sunset occurred not too long ago, but every once in a while, just when I'd forgotten about them, I saw traces of smoke behind me, heard faint shots ring out.

Always put a spring in my step.

eventually, I'd reached the ice. I knew from reading that there wouldn't be any food out there, and that if it was too warm, It'd break underneath me and I'd be stuck in a freezing ocean, with big fish below and ever moving ice above. I resolved to start out as late, and as cold and southerly, as I could.

Plenty of time to gather good food, freshwater, and warm clothes.

So I began gathering. And hunting. D'roge started burying themselves when the first night came, and now I hadn't seen one in days, so I began looking for where they might've gone. There were also plenty of other burrowers, and a few plants with edible roots, as well as the moss itself were I so desperate, but I was lucky.

A dead hippogriff.

Or at least, some ornitherian. The skull was missing, probably from D'roge, and the guts and ribs were mostly gone, but there was still a lot of good meat left, if you were desperate and dexterous.

Well, I was human, so I had plenty of both.

That night, I continued along the coast of the frozen sea, taking any easy resources I could spy. The rocky beach held a few crabs and some specks of green, but I'd expected less, considering the sea was iced over.

And then, I saw it.

Firelight. Closer than it had ever been before.

Close enough to see the sillhouettes of horses, and their riders.

So, I did the logical thing.

I booked it.

-

part2.

so. uh. we've still got some places to go. the RUN storyline isn't finished. we're gonna loop it back i prommy.

anyways, obligatory explanation of certain bs, ie, the d'roge.

these are weird frog dogs, effectively stolen from @alphynix's Running Frogs, albeit with a few other ecological changes that aren't explored in this story (or at least, not this section :3).

In other news, it's real difficult for frogs to breed when there isn't much water around.

now that we've covered that, y'all can expect part 3 (the final for RUN) pretty soon. I'll be sure to put em all together in at least one post, so it's easier to read, but until then, bye!

[medacarpyl]

A Dialogue Between The Frog and God

My small frog body wakes up in a large, endless abyss. I feel like I'm floating, still, suspended in the water with the scorpion's tail digging into me, over and over and over again, clinging onto me like a prayer. But it's dark, and light, and certainly not as viscous as the water I died in. I examine my body. Exactly the same as before the scorpion stung me. No wounds. No venom. "Hello?" I nervously call out.

"Hello, little frog. We're all God." The voices come back, a harmony of cacophony. It reminds me of breeding season, with all the frogs singing out for a mate. That's the only thing I can compare it to. I haven't experienced much, as a frog from a fable.

"May I ask where I am? It's very large in here, and I'm scared."

"Don't worry, little frog. This place is infinitely big, and yet, it's also infinitely small."

"Well, it doesn't feel infinitely small," I mumble, as I am a very small frog drifting through the very large abyss, and I'm still very scared.

"Your story has reached the ears of countless humans... We've decided to reincarnate you as one, in all Our infinite kindness. Yet, in all Our infinite cruelty, we've added a catch: you will meet your scorpion again, and you will love them just as much as you did before."

"Will it hurt?" I ask. "I don't want to keep loving, if it'll only result in more pain."

"It will hurt. More than anything you've ever known, more than any scorpion you've ever loved, more than any sting you've ever felt, and more than any venom you've ever had coursing through your small, soft body."

"This feels more like a punishment than a reward." My soft ribbit sounds more like a cry.

"It'll hurt you infinitely, but it'll fill you up with infinite amounts of joy, as well... Though, little frog, have you felt much joy?"

I think of how nice it felt, feeling like I saved that scorpion. The warm, fuzzy feeling in my cold blood doesn't leave easily. Even though the bitterness of the poison is still palpable in my mouth, I can't deny I felt a glimmer of happiness, when I thought I helped someone else. Was that joy?

"I don't know," I croak out, eventually, "what is joy?"

The voices don't respond to my question.

"Well, then, once you close your eyes again, you'll wake up human. Perhaps, instead of allowing your scorpion to drag you down with them, you'll never extend your hand in the first place."

Even the thought of it is too evil. I close my eyes and shake my head, and indeed, I wake up human, with no memory of the abyss. Only a yearning for touch, for nourishment, for love. I scream out, my lungs filling with air for the first time.

One day, I'll meet my scorpion. I don't know what they'll look like, or how they'll act. But I'll reach my hand out indiscriminately, wondering if anyone will sting me. Maybe it's stupidity, or stubbornness, or maybe just a deep desire to be needed. But even so, I can't stop, and I never will stop, even when that deadly sting catches me.

Even when I’m reborn again, and again, I’ll make the same mistake. I’ll look the scorpion in the eye, and tell them I’ll help them, even as I see their tail covered in poison.

Is it a mistake, if I keep doing it again, and again, hoping this time, we’ll make it across together?

[pympartic]

:[ OOC ;; Mobile Post //; So I don't know how many people know of this, but we actually Do Have Christopher Yost (aka one of the big writers on EMHs) notes on what he would have liked season threes episode line ups to be. And I've been thinking about them a lot because of possible thread ideas and thinking on what B Plots might have ran though these episodes. I'll link and keep Yapping below. ]

:[ Link ! ]

So starting with the season premiere actually this one itches my brain.

S3E01 STRANGE TALES As Surtur releases an army of demons on Earth, the Avengers find themselves facing their worst fears... trapped within the realm of NIGHTMARE! Up against an enemy they can’t fight, the team turns to the only person who can help: Dr. Strange!

Okay first of all I LOVE NIGHTMARE EPS SO MUCH, but second of all I've talked to people in the past about how EMH isnt afraid to make changes to the source 616, the key difference between how it does so vs the MCU being that EMH will make a change and Really Commit to it.

Why does that matter?

I think this episode could have been used as a way to do plot points like for example Hawkeye getting booted from the team because the government said so! EMHs Avengers have been set up to be so fundamentally opposed to letting the government tell them what to do it's unlikely they'd do that, this is also due to the cartoons heavy focus on the avengers being a Functional Family Unit, the team really only breaks apart Once due to Skrulls with even Panthers leaving not even being him quitting moreso just having other priorities which they understand. Not to mention as Izzy brought up, Clint in EMH is trust based trauma down to his bones.

From what we've been told of the plans they had the show wasn't planning on doing Civil War either (Bold move tbh) so you could maybe have the fear of it happening be a thing for Tony who was set up to really worry and care about his people and their trust after the Skrulls made him paranoid. (Understandably)

Hell you could even do the Yellowjacket Spiral since they basically wrote in a clause of Hank Literally being so incapable of hurting Jan even Ultrons brain got affected! Maybe reference that killer robot he makes in the comics in a fit of mania only this time it doesn't stop like it should, or straight up make it Ultron! (EMH focused a lot on Hanks need for control and his feelings of loosing it or trying to keep it. The irony being that he couldn't keep the tech based on his mind under control and now he's trying to control Himself ((buddy you should idk talk to your friends and loved ones in Just Saying that do be how we do things around here)) )

Also because EMH has always drawn more from the comics then the MCU WE CAN ACTUALLY HAVE NICE DR STRANGE! Maybe he gets the avengers tea to calm their nerves, sits and talks with them as they recover from the terrors Nightmare put them through. GIMMIE NICE STRANGE-!

S3E03 RECURRING KNIGHTMARE Iron Man and Doctor Doom are pulled through time to ancient CAMELOT, finding themselves uneasy allies against Modred the Mystic. And back in the present, the Wasp’s only hope to get Iron Man back is the BLACK KNIGHT.

I CANT BE THE ONLY ONE WHOD THINK THIS BE FUN AS HELL RIGHT? Doom and Tony having to team up, the two drama bots having to fight Magic Wizards and knights?! That'd be SO FUN!!

S3E07 THOR CROAKS As Ragnarok approaches, Loki takes Thor off the battlefield. His only hope? Ant-Man and the Wasp… assuming a transformed Thor doesn’t eat them. Ribbit.

First off HEHEHEHEHE FROG THOR! Second off this actually got me really excited because a lot of season three and four concept art used the Hank Pym giant man. Yellowjacket is also not mentioned in any of the episode summeries. So there's a non zero chance that either this would be a Scott and Jan episode (Yay!) or Hanks ant man again and we get the fun Hank and Scott dynamics (BIG YAY) Either way this episode would have been fun for Bug Antics Alone!

I WANNA GUSH SO MUCH THIS SEASON LOOKS LIKE IT COULDA BEEN SO COOL I SCREM ALSO TONY GETTING TO CURE SIMON? WHO APPARENTLY BECOMES A FULL TIME AVENGER AS WONDERMAN LETS FUCKING GO BIG TONY W?? AA

[r3dblccd]

GETTING TO KNOW YOU !

respond to the following prompts. include as much or as little as you want; you don't have to answer them all !

tagged by: @rainyearning

tagging: @luneblush, @moonpierces, @formorethananame, @weedzkiller, @dozenrozez, @wcvensouls, @honeycoded, @cherridream, @caelcstis, @blondiexbiites

name / alias. Rose

birthday. 12 February

zodiac sign. Aquarius

height. 150 cm (as mentioned sometimes before, I bite ankles)

hobbies. Listening to music, reading, writing, drawing, journaling, dancing, biting ankles, having existential crisis

favorite color. Red

favorite book. It's so hard to pick though! I'd say maybe the Rat trilogy by Haruki Murakami

last show. I honestly don't remember. I think it was the short series Choco Milk Shake. Idk what I'm gonna watch next, there are so many I still have to catch up on like WWDITS, My Beautiful Man, Our Flag Mean Death, Good Omens, Yellowjackets, Alice in Borderland, and now Sweet Home season 2.

sources of inspiration. I draw inspiration and ideas from various sources, be it movies, tv series, books, webtoons, video games, music, what have you.

story behind url. It's taken from the bridge of Enhypen's Given-Taken. Most of you all probably probably already know, but I just love vampires and everything magical and supernatural and wonderful and terrifying. And it just made sense with the majority of the muses that I have for the url to be this.

recent read. I moved this here for last so you can skip reading me ramble if you want. (I tell you, it's long, don't say I didn't warn you)

There have been so many things I've read in the past few months for my classic literature discipline in uni, mainly classic Greek literature and theatre, we've only recently dived in early roman literature and works from the Western European Middle Ages, our professor is kicking our asses off, but honestly these are one of my favourite classes out of the whole semester. But anyway, I actually just now finished reading The Romance of Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bedier. Not bad, I must say. It has never been really my cup of tea to read romance stories, but at least it was much more interesting to read that than to read The Golden Ass (that one wasn't bad either, if we overlook some parts of it, yeah, I admit, but it was so unnecessary long in my opinion, I was literally falling asleep while reading it). If I had to pick which of the works I've read so far is my favourite, I'd have to say I really liked the tragedy Medea by Euripides (our professor once told us a story how she watched it being played out for the only time at the theatre in the city that we call our cultural center and how suddenly it started to rain and there was a thunder during the monologue of Medea and how it felt like nature was out there for the heroine and as if it was listening to her and answering her word, and the actress just kept playing her role in the water and when she was done, the rain suddenly stopped as if on cue and the sky was suddenly as clear as day again, and damn, I wish I was there to see it myself, I don't even care if I got drenched, I got chills just listening to that story. That was basically a once in a lifetime experience. But ANYWAY! The story itself is great, I really loved it.) and I also liked the comedy Frogs by Aristophanes, despite the message that the author was trying to convey at that time period.

As for my free time, I'm still reading The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and I'm pretty close to finishing the second book from the whole series (The Restaurant at The End of The Universe), probably in a week or two I'll start the third book Life, the Universe and Everything. And I really love it so far. There so many funny and straight up absurd moment in the story and I love the group of main characters in it. My heart goes out to the robot Marvin, idk if I will see you again in the following books, Marvin, but you're a big mood, I feel you.

As for my annual update on Webtoons I am reading! Right now I'm reading Everything Is Fine, Homesick, Never-Ending Darling, Omniscient Reader, My S-Class Hunter, ZOMGAN, There Are No Demons (the art style for this series is very uncanny valley but in a cool way, I love it), Nocturne, The Guy Upstairs, Lore Olympus and Zombie X Slasher (and interesting way to take the zombie genre and create a story, I must say, I don't think I've seen anyone do this before, I look forward to what the author can offer). And I recently finished Surivival Diary, Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, The Star Seekers, Crimson Heart and soon I'll be finishing Dark Moon: The Grey City Too.

And a webtoon I recently finished too was Survival Romance and I just gotta give a shoutout to it. That webtoon took me completely by surprise. It wasn't the cute art style that made it unique, there are many stories that look cute on the outside that hide something dark and sinister underneath (like Everything Is Fine, for example). I knew this webtoon is horror, so at first I expected maybe one of the characters would be a yandere or something like that and the MC would be trying to escape that. And yes, there is one side character that could be considered obsessive in a way in parts of the webtoon, but the story wasn't about that at all. The author just took the romance and horror genres and turned them on their heads. The whole story isn't all that much about romance at all, actually, it's about forming friendships and bonds with people and having the will to keep pushing forward despite all the struggles you might be going through. The plot twists were SO GOOD, even though some could have been quite easy to predict. I also loved that the author put some meta and breaking the forth wall moments (Doki Doki Literature Club style is the closest association I could think of for this webtoon, kind of) and by the end all the characters [REDACTED, NO SPOILERS, GO READ IT YOURSELF IF YOU'RE CURIOUS]. The message is also very nice, the closing words in the epilogue honestly hit quite close to home and made me bawl my eyes out. The story also has zombies in a quite a unique way in my opinion. So if like dark stories with twists and turns and a meaningful message, and if in any way I piqued you're interest, go and check it out. I'm sure you won't be left disappointed. I could honestly write way more about this webtoon, but I already wrote a lot, so I'm gonna stop here.

[archivist-the-knight]

oh my god... spoilers under the cut but i need to talk about here for sweethearts

this is the first arcadekitt game i've played [not the first ive seen!! i saw my neighbor enid in a playthrough format and decided to check out the author's other work.] and??? best one i could've chosen i loved the experience.

first off even without the plot twist the game is really good. its so sweet and genuine, all of the characters are super nice and the dialogue feels natural. each character is likeable, and you have equal reasons to like and dislike each of them. their flaws are balanced out as equally as their pros. also?? the pride flags were really cleverly incorporated into the designs. especially acanthibar... the others are cool i love em but acanthibar... he takes the cake. the aro sleeves... the trans sash... he's giving it his all dude highest respect for my frog guy. also, i do like how the pride flags kinda matched with each of the characters personalities if it made sense? there's more to be said about that but biggest example i can draw from is vatilis and crowven... vatilis, try as they might, wears their heart on their sleeve and has a hard time keeping their emotions down, so theirs is a sweater that compliments the rest of the outfit, but you can still see it. crowven is casual about it, if you bring it up he'll confirm it with pride and isn't as scared of hiding his emotions. his main alt sprite is him itching hsi nose with the pride bracelet hand...

also mary... the fact that until we see her most of what we've heard about her is the fact that she's "scary" and weird from netina, and that she doesn't like being called that from crowven. and when we actually meet her... she's so kind, out of everyone in the game she has the most decorated, personality-filled room, and is generally just a big sweetheart. also points. she and reggie are autism4autism ace4ace they're literally adorable together... who gave them the riiight oh my goddd /pos

anyway!!! :-3 i really like games that subvert your expectations both narratively and aesthetically. which sucks, because i don't see it done often. but??? oh my god here for sweethearts filled that niche perfectly... the genuine suprise i felt hearing them mention "hunger" until i realized... the protagonist never mentioned anything beyond "i'd feel nice" to why they wanted that connection... and then i was pleasantly surprised by the twist that the protag was here to feed off of the heartbreak ooooh my god... genuinely everything i had building up for the dance stopped in the best way possible.

like the signs were pointing towards natina being the secret killer, but... reginald being the supposed killer the ghost saw was actually the first witness of the crime, and twyla actually being the one to commit the murder? and how, once you realize this, it's already too late?

and twyla being onto us the whole time... asking us if we eat in our room at all, having gunther distract us when she literally said she just needed him out of the way for a little bit to get his keys, which she could have easily done without us. once you get that information, so many events prior make so much sense! hell, some of the incorrect dialogue makes sense! of course we'd accidentally slip up, we're hungry and desperate!! its just .... ooo eated. pun intented.

anyway the only real con i had about this game was that there wasn't a seperation between how you presented and what pronouns people used for you. but even then i'm fine with that!! theres only like two moments that i encountered it, its fairly casual and ultimately didn't take away from the experience. + i know it would've been hard to code... the game already has so much going for it in that department so i get it!! and plus... they were all conveniently terms i'm okay with being used for me so there's that hehe [oh they also all still use they/them for you no matter what. its just like a few instances of them calling you pretty so again; its okay and in fact im fine with it being kept that way tbh]

regardless!! i had so much fun with this game, please play it on itch.io its free and really entertaining. it takes a while to complete, it took me an entire afternoon, so keep that in mind. but i personally really liked it!!

bonus... the player character looks exactly like me/one of my sonas. HELP...

[not-poignant]

There's been lots of Temsen talk around here, so I thought I'd drop by and tell you how grateful I am for TND and Temsen in particular. (TW scars) I have scarring on both sides of my torso. It's not raised or painful, but it's very obviously there because of the colour difference with the rest of my skin. It looks like spots and mottles. In TND, you wrote about an old sickness that ended up causing some Vench's skin to have spots and mottles (maybe some of them were just born like that? Im unsure) Until it was revealed that that's how the spots and mottles came to be, I had envisioned the Vench as these beautiful creatures, you know? And after the backstory, I still did. It made me realise that someone else may find my spots beautiful too (although, I realise I'm not an underground skin touch wowie creature, so it's different, lol). What I'm trying to say is that that part of TND but also just TND as a whole has helped me work through and accept so many parts of myself. Once it's finished, may I print it? To keep it on my bookshelf :). If I were a better artist, I'd draw something for you from TND, and if I were a better writer, I'd write. I'm really trying to convey how much TND means to me, and I don't think I can properly. I wish I could make you a 7 course meal, because I am a decent cook! If I didn't love you before (I did), I certainly do now, for having created this wonderful story and blessing us with it. I hope you continue to do things you enjoy and take breaks and eat good food!! Love <3

Hi anon! Tbh a 7 course meal sounds nice, I've only eaten mandarins today, because I've been in too much pain/fatigue to manage like...meals. So I'm always very amazed / in awe when other people have the energy to make things like sandwiches.

In TND, you wrote about an old sickness that ended up causing some Vench's skin to have spots and mottles (maybe some of them were just born like that? Im unsure) Until it was revealed that that's how the spots and mottles came to be, I had envisioned the Vench as these beautiful creatures, you know?

Tbh, anon, all of the mottles except for very few which look very specific (and have only been described once), are all not scars, but very beautiful, shining parts of the vench's bodies. I mean, Augus also perceives the scars from the rotting sickness that Wirth explains as beautiful (it is a white, shining scar that's very noticeable), but every other time vench mottles are mentioned, they're just a part of the vench's normal skin, in the same way that frogs also have very pretty blotches/mixed colourations. Mottles are clan specific (scars aren't), in terms of their colours (in fact hair, eye, and mottle colour are all clan specific in The Nascent Diplomat).

So envisioning vench as beautiful creatures who have naturally occurring mottles (that aren't scars - the scars only affected one generation of vench and they are the vast minority, the only one we've met so far is Wirth) is what was intended re: the story.

That being said, I really love your interpretation of things as well. I've written stories in the past where characters have quite serious scars, and their love interest has always seen them as beautiful or as neutral, as having merit or as signifying how strong the person with the scars was, or generally as being significant in some way. Stories like Into Shadows We Fall, The Golden Age that Never Was, The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle, Stuck on the Puzzle, even moments in The Spoils of the Spoiled, Falling Falling Stars, and it will be present in stories like Mallory & Mount as well. It's definitely something I've spent time on as a concept, even if it's not something I did for more than about five seconds in The Nascent Diplomat!

In that sense, I definitely think you will meet someone who either finds your scars beautiful, or alternatively, just a neutral, normal part of you. I have over 3 metres of surgical scars on my body, anon, and that doesn't include the scars I have for other reasons (stretch marks for example). Some of those scars are in very obvious places, some aren't, but there's very few parts of my body you can look at without seeing at least some.

Meanwhile my partners both have freckles absolutely everywhere (though they're fading now, as they get older), and I think that's amazing and really cool, and I love those freckles, and I don't understand how anyone could mock someone for it, because that just doesn't compute to me.

No body is perfect, and any body that is, will not be perfect for long, we all have an expiry date, we all attain scars and wrinkles and blotches and freckles and warts and hormonal discolourations (I have two dark patches on my cheeks from being on the combined Pill for such a long time - my Mum always covered hers with foundation, I don't cover mine at all, it doesn't seem like there's much of a point when I have a 20cm scar on my neck anyway.

Learning to at least be neutral with our bodies, is an admirable and I would say even necessary goal. Learning to be positive or loving our bodies is amazing for the folks who can get there!

Once it's finished, may I print it? To keep it on my bookshelf :).

Of course!!!

I apologise for not having put down the kind of profound meaning that you picked up from the story, but I still really support and love that interpretation, especially since I've written versions of it across so many narratives in the past, and will continue to in the future. Your interpretation makes the narrative a lot more powerful, and that you turned it into something that you could use to help transform your feelings towards yourself and your scars and your body is an absolute credit to you. I think you're amazing :) <333

[darthstitch]

Fic Snippet: DART (...still a WIP)

Here's the thing about having the personification of the collective human unconscious as your Dungeon Master.

He's a Ridiculousness Magnet™ - even if he's actually not using any magical shenanigans to affect the outcome of the game.

"I believe it would be unfair and certainly untrue to the spirit of the game," Dream of the Endless had said, once the Hellfire Club had realized what he really was.  "Also, I would rather that any powers I might choose to wield might be better suited to turning impudent little mortal children into frogs."  

"Awww, but you love us too much, right, Murphy?" said Dustin cheerfully.

The King of Dreams leaned back in his seat and pursed his lips.  "Perhaps I might consider mushrooms.  Or a particularly odorous toadstool.  There are a number of them in the Dreaming - I could always use a few more."

"But nephews are safe, right, Uncle Dream?" said Jed, giggling.  

A long, elegant finger gently booped the boy on the nose.  "Perhaps a mouse would suit you better, little nephew."  

That being said, ridiculousness still happened on a regular basis during the game.  

"Dustin," Eddie said patiently.  "You found a weird critter in the garbage can.  Why aren't you going to blast it to Kingdom Come?"

"Just because it's weird-looking doesn't necessarily mean it's dangerous!"

"It could grow up to EAT you, numbnuts!  Or worse!  Come on, Murphy, talk some sense into him."

Dream shrugged.  "It is his choice."

"Oh Jesus Christ.  Roll the dice, kiddo - and don't blame us if that thing grows up into some kind of Lovecraftian monster - especially since our DM here is probably responsible for all of Lovecraft's demented shit."

"Perhaps it would not comfort you to know that his brand of cosmic horror has some basis in reality...?"

"AUGH! WE DON'T WANT TO KNOW!"

"I am Lord of Nightmares for a reason.  Fear and tremble before me, mortal children."

"Uncle Dream, it's kinda hard to do the required grovelling when we've seen you plop yourself into Professor G's lap and demand cuddles," Rose said archly.  "It's disgustingly cute and adorable and brain bleaching all at the same time."

"Alas, my dear niece, my husband is too tempting to resist.  Dustin - if you please."

Of course, Dustin rolls successfully and the critter is officially adopted, as far as the game was concerned.  

"I'm naming him D'Artagnan," Dustin said gleefully.  "Dart, for short!" 

-tbc-

*runs*

[violetlunette]

Which Class A girl had the most potential for an arc? I'll say Momo.

She exists for the purposes of fanservice. BUT:

She's a genius.

Has a horrifically powerful quirk.

Is a recommended student.

Comes from a wealthy family who possibly are also heroes. (It's hilarious that we don't know details like this about a supposed main character, lol!)

Experiences the sexist nature of hero society at the forefront.

During Bakugo's match with Uraraka, the audience, Iida, and the heroes all acted like women were inferior to men and you shouldn't beat them up. This attitude is never seen again, but it's good bones for a story.

When we look at what we've got here, there's some great material. Take her internship. She has the power to create anything but living creatures, but she was accepted by a famous heroine because she's very conventionally attractive. Snake Lady basically said "You're smart and your quirk makes you a goddess, but forget about that. You're hot, and I can use you to market products."

Of course MHA can't be bothered to explore how pissed and gutted someone should be in a situation like this. And nothing ever comes of it! That's always the case with Momo, and it's both hilarious and sad. She exists for the purposes of taking losses. She's never allowed to do anything interesting with her quirk. She can create anything and she uses it to make sticks! Snake Lady could have also had good reasons for saying that. From her perspective, this is how you become a successful female hero. You sell sex appeal, and you market products and you make lots of money and get fame and success. So it's not really a black and white situation here. Momo is being exploited here, and the person doing it is teaching her how to game the system. It's a systemic issue.

And as far as being wasted potential? 100% Momo. If she got even 10% of the sauce that Izuku, Todoroki, and Bakugo gets, she'd be incredible.

Like just imagine for a second if she swapped quirks with Bakugo, and Bakugo remained as important in this alternate universe as he is in canon.

We'd see an unholy amount of bullshit from Creation. It would be awe inspiring. I doubt alternate, Explosion wielding Momo would do as much with Explosion as Bakugo does. Knowing this author, maybe she'd have the power to trigger the explosions from any part of her body, and so she's always blowing up her clothes.

As far as the other ones go:

Uraraka was interesting until she got pigeonholed into being the token love interest that Izuku's going to get with in the epilogue. No effort was put into developing their relationship, and she got no further development once it was decided that her character was supposed to mirror Toga's. RIP.

I wouldn't say she was as wasted as Momo because her quirk isn't really the best for the constantly escalating fights that MHA gets into. She'd have been infinitely better off if the author had stuck to his original idea and quirk swapped her with Mount Lady.

"I grow taller and larger and kick and punch people"! Fits the "PLUS ULTRA MORE POWER 100%!" vibe this series goes for. We saw the devastation that Gigantomachia did with his giant quirk. Maybe the author would have let Uraraka do something cool with it.

Tsuyu's the level headed one who wants everyone to follow the rules and be sensible. Which disqualifies her from playing a major role in a show about being reckless and breaking the rules. In theory, there's nothing stopping her frog quirk from being just as powerful as Mirko's rabbit quirk.

She fell off entirely and barely got anything after the USJ. She started off very promising as one of Izuku's friends.

Toru's a one note joke character and the depths of her light manipulation wasn't explored enough to be useful. She's bad at stealth and gets found out easily. She's not good at martial arts. She's not good at anything. And she's another character that we get barely any background for.

There's some bones here that could make for an interesting story, like how someone who is invisible lives, and what effects that would have on her growing up. Especially if she was born invisible. But nothing was done with it. An issue with having a supposed main cast of 20 characters.

Jiro's another of the puddle characters. Looks deep at first, but isn't. I have very little to say about her. She likes music. She finds Kaminari being stupid hilarious. She likes Momo. That's all we get from her.

Mina. She gets the honor of having a designated personality trait of being a bully hunter along with her friend Kirishima and then becomes the author mandated friend of Bakugo, despite him pushing them both away at every opportunity.

I'm thinking that gives her negative points. i can forgive some people not having a personality, but when you're given one and then it doesn't matter in the face of the plot, you're worse off than the puddle characters.

Agree with 96% of this.

This post is pretty long so I'll try to summarize my thoughts below.

Notes: Long post

With Momo it’s obvious; She has an amazing quirk and is very book-smart. She was talented enough to get into UA by recommendation (not that we learned much about that). Where she fails is that she’s naive and doesn’t have a lot of street smarts. (And I believe that, in the beginning, she struggled to think on her feet.) Another arc is that Momo has quite an attractive body. Momo doesn’t take notice, but others do in and out of the universe. As you stated, this could have been used to look at the difference between how male and female superheroes are treated. Momo isn’t ashamed of her body and sees no issue with showing skin. In fact, she sees it as logical. However, this tends to give the wrong idea to others (especially pervs like Mineta). It’s at the point where Momo is judged for her body instead of her quirk and abilities. Hell, her internship was just because she looked cute, not because of her skill. Now, this could have worked if it was explored more. (Though I’m not sure that Hori’s the right one to explore it. Not because he’s a bad writer [or a male] but because his skills seem to lie outside of this stuff.) Momo’s confidence was already low because of how easily she was defeated during the sports festival, but now she discovers that the few heroes that took an interest in her were only after her for her looks. No way that helped with her confidence. At this point, Momo could be struggling with her ego and wondering if she actually has what it takes to be a hero. On top of that, people could be making comments about her costume leading her to feel a bit ashamed of a body she had been so confident in. Adding to this, Momo should have spent more time with Midnight. Not just to give her death more meaning later, but it’s believable that Midnight went through the things Momo did, so she would have been perfect to guide her. (Also, I think they would have had an interesting student/teacher dynamic.) Midnight could have not only helped Momo to regain her confidence and not care what others think but could have taught her to use her looks to her advantage.

Ochako somehow suffered the most and least in development. There is A LOT of emphasis placed on her feeling for Deku, yet we barely see the two together, one on one. It’s only near the end that we see that and by then it’s too late. This is especially important as her feelings for Deku are what make her a rival to Tago, one of the main villains. (That’s bullshit, but we’ll look at it in the far future.) Outside of Deku, we could have seen how being raised poor affected her. As is, her eyes just get wide and she nearly faints at things she thinks are extravagant. That’s it. We could have seen her be jealous, then feel bad as the richest girl in class—Momo--is a sweetheart. We also could have seen her morals tested as she’s desperate to help her parents, but how far is she willing to go to do that? (Of course, she’ll do the right thing, but the temptation is important in stories.)

With Mina, she could have been used to explore the discrimination against Mutants, which was made a big deal very late in the game. It also would have been nice to give her some personality points to separate her from Toru. Plus, she has ACID for powers. You’re telling me more couldn’t have been done with that?

And since I talked about the others, I'll give some quick ones on the remaining two. (Toru I've talked about in the past.) Tsuyu could have brought some interesting points to the table as well. She has a quirk that doesn’t seem like much but could be a lot of fun if used creatively. More than that I would have liked to explore her lawful good nature. I think it is a very interesting debate about heroes. Should you do what’s right and damn the rules, or should you hold yourself accountable to the same laws that you uphold?

Jiro I personality feels satisfied, but we rarely get to see her step up. I think her quirk depends on her support items as she needs to plug into things to amp her heartbeat, and if it’s too loud, the item breaks. It would have been cool to explore that.

[pbandjesse]

My sinuses are very swollen. My allergies were bugging me a lot today. But I did get good sleep last night for the most part. I was very tired today though. Still am. I did not lay down and sleep when I got home only because I thought it would help me sleep easier tonight. But I also was to tired to actually do anything so I just laid here for 4 hours. Ugh. It's fine. Tomorrow's another day.

I woke up at 6 this morning and was not thrilled. I was able to fall back asleep but when my alarm went off at 7 I had James hold me for 10 minutes before I actually got up. I was struggling a bit. But I would be okay.

James walked out with me and it was very grey. It wouldn't rain but we weren't sure. Tomorrow it is supposed to. We will see how that shakes out.

I drove out to camp. Stopped for a donut. It was a nice day.

After eating my donut in my hammock, I spent that first hour collecting materials and making sure the tables were set up for the feild trip group. And then I went to the office. Where I found everyone else. We had some laughs about the rotations for today and forgetting to assign Sarah a role, plus being overstaffed for once. But we sorted it out. Celia would be doing critter talks, I was leading a mural, Nick was leading Gaga, Sarah would help with s'mores, Dechelle would help with the rotations. While indigo would lead a program they were calling "spirit sticks". Which was just a modified program using my paint brush supplies.

I was mildly concerned about this. I really like all the indigo staff but I get frustrated when things are just woo woo spiritual stuff. And the broad brush of "Native Americans" keeps getting used. Which frustrated me when I have worked so hard and done so much research to try to get us away from that! So I brought the concern up after we were like. Hey what is spirit sticks? And the answer we were given felt. Off. Like it felt like we were just being told a made up answer. So they would lead it. And they kids loved it. But I am not thrilled that we are basically back to doing something that could be considered appropriation. Like not the actual piece, which I guess is fine still because it was still basically the paint brushes, but the way they were spoken about and taught us sus to me. Elizabeth says a larger conversation will be had when Alexi and Heather come back next week.

It would still be a good day though. The group came and we very sweet but this was for sure the most rambunctious group we've met so far. Apparently because of a teacher shortage, last year yeah first grade class had 40 students. That's a wild ratio and I'm not shocked they are 2nd graders with 1st grade/kindergarten social levels. But they were still sweet, just loud and wanted to run a lot.

After we had a circle intro I took the first group and besides the yelling and running ahead they were great. We found just about everything on our list. We looked at and identified mushrooms. I got to tell them history about things. Talk about plants. We looked for frogs. Still no luck catching one down there. And we got all the way up to the horses. Which was so exciting for them. Some of them had never seen a horse in real life before. We fed them hay and pet their noses. It was really sweet.

We had carried the new MWEE staffs today and I think they look great. A child did accidentally hit me with one in the neck and I was very upset but couldn't show it. Was just like, okay I will take this stick now you cannot handle it safely. And we headed to lunch.

I really enjoyed the two teachers I was with today as well. Adam from indigo and Mr Duckett. They both had excellent insight and questions. It made the hike really enjoyable.

I just had to sit quietly at lunch I was so tired already. But to quickly we were heading over to get our groups.

There was a miscommunication though and while we had planned on 1215 for foest program they thought it was 1235. So I quickly fixed the schedule and we cut each rotation back down to 15 minutes. We made it work.

And it was fun! I was so pleased with how their mural came out. The first three groups filled almost all the frames and besides one or two mistakes everyone was good about not stepping on the fabric. The first group made me realize they didn't know what fabric was. Like what that word meant. So I would say we are drawing on fabric, fabric is like what your clothes are made of! We are using markers. We don't use markers on ourselves, our friends, the building, or the floor. Only on the fabric! And that worked so well.

The last two groups would be so gracious when I told them while all the frames were filled their jobs were to finish the drawings that didn't get done and then the final group was making it perfect. I think that language really helped make them excited, like they really were a part of the community making the piece. And that felt really good.

Once my last group was done and cleaned up, I folded up the metal and gave it to the indigo staff. They told me they will gift it to the principal. I love that.

I was able to run down to the fire pit and get a s'more and watch them pour water on the fire. It was really fun. I chatted with Sarah and Dachelle. And then we headed up to get all the materials and put them away.

Sarah was a doll and grabbed my drink and my walkie I forgot. And we set up the boxes to be reset tomorrow. But we were all just so beat. I changed my shoes back to my birks and We went and sat in the office for 15 minutes. I had a little snack. And when Sarah said she was walking to the lodge to clean up the tables I walked with her.

I would check in with Gabe about changing the project, maybe to musical instruments like a shaker or something similar. He said he'll be in touch to discuss it more. So fingers crossed.

Once all the chairs were put away and everyone else was finishing up the last tables I got all the sticks and things that needed to be out away and headed to the after building and then the office.

In the office I talked to Elizabeth. I put trash away. I made my to do list for tomorrow more solid. Eventually Sarah would come back up but she was soon off. Taking things to be mailed. Elizabeth had a tour and then she said she would leave right after. So I only stayed until her tour started. I was excited to leave a little early.

I would have to deal with some traffic but not to much. I decided to stop at Walgreens

Got some chapstick and a new sponge. I felt overwhelmed by vitamin choices. So I did not get any and went home.

I beat James home. So I took an everything shower. I was feeling really bad today about my hair and face. So I wanted to try to fix that. Trimmed my bangs a little more. Washed my hair. Might do my eyebrows. Just trying to feel nice.

James got home and I was so happy to see them. We had some packages. I got a graphic novel in the mail. I started reading it but I decided to wait until I could give it my full attention and I wasn't so tired my eyes were crossing.

James would record their podcast episode. I laid in bed and watched tiktoks. I answered emails. I have a meeting with someone from the creative alliance next Friday so I'm excited about that. But mostly I just laid here with sweetp. James would bring me a salad and a little cheese cake bite. And eventually they would shower and then join me in bed.

I am more then ready to sleep now. I feel so tired but I am still worried I will struggle to fall asleep. Let's hope it comes easy.

Tomorrow me and Sarah are the only ones at camp. I have high hopes of organization and knocking things off our list. I really hope we can get stuff done.

Goodnight everyone. Take care of yourself. I love you all.