#yeah I'm writing the fic and drawing the chapter scenes

[dragonpigeons]

Scene from Chapter 1

[Story takes place after the events of Part 3]

Jotaro throws a China cup at Shizuka during their first encounter. The actual scene is more serious than I make it sound here. Shizuka is asked by her homeroom teacher to visit Jotaro after he's been skipping school for a month to tutor him on all the missed lessons. She goes over there, comes across the photo of the Crusaders in the desert and Jotaro throws the cup at her so she doesn't touch it. Since Shizuka knows nothing about what this photo means, she runs out of there thinking Jotaro is crazy, because who throws a cup at someone for seemingly no reason?

It's not the best first impression, but Shizuka never had a good opinion of him to begin with, so this encounter just made things worse. In her mind, this act of aggression consolidates his reputation as a violent brute; this good-for-nothing delinquent known as Jotaro Kujo is simply a danger to society. And since he's not the type to bother explaining himself, nor does he care what others think of him, it's easy for misunderstandings to grow between them.

Poor Shizuka, she deserves better. And Jotaro needs a timeout in a bathtub of ice.

[quoththemaiden]

A short (~1k) scene inspired by Chapter 9 of @mrghostrat's absolutely glorious Big Name Feelings human AU fic. Hope you like arms?

"C'mon, angel, not even gonna crack a smile at that one? Whales, get it? Whales."

Aziraphale felt like his cheeks were on fire from trying to keep a straight face at Crowley's increasingly terrible puns. "I would hate to tacitly encourage this behavior."

"Pfft, you love it." Crowley grinned at him, far past being undaunted and fully into the realm of being energized by Aziraphale's failed attempts at stoicism.

"You're utterly ridiculous." Aziraphale didn't even bother trying to make it sound like an insult, and the half of the screen taken up by his webcam made it clear his cheeks were as pink as they felt. "And I can't help but feel like you're stalling. Hadn't we agreed to be actually productive today?" Aziraphale didn't mind, really; he did want to keep making steady progress on his art, but if his life could consist of coming home from work and just unwinding with Crowley...

...but, well, that wasn't the purpose of this call.

Crowley groaned. "Yeah, yeah. What a taskmaster."

"It is my job to protect you from rabid fans, after all," Aziraphale teased right back.

"O Brave Guardian, protect me from procrastination!"

"That sounds rather harder than a dragon, I'm afraid. But if you don't get to work, I won't be able to work either, and then you won't get to see the finished piece."

"Urk—" Crowley made a strangled noise and finally reached for his mouse. "You'll actually be working on it?"

Aziraphale nodded before adjusting his webcam to show his tablet a bit more. "I really need to get more practice with this, to get half as confident as I am with physical paints."

"I've seen the drawings you've done! They're fucking brilliant."

Aziraphale laughed. "You've said that about everything I've shown you. I'm starting to think I should send you some stick figures as a test."

"Those would be the most adorable fucking stick figures ever. You could draw a whole comic of just stick figures and I'd reblog it a hundred times."

"That's about what I'd expect you to say, yes." Crowley opened his mouth to protest that his compliments were always earnest, and Aziraphale cut him off. "Weren't you going to start writing?"

"Ngghh, right, yeah. Alright, lemme just pull up my docs and then we'll get started bodydoubling for real." Crowley clicked over to screenshare his window as he opened his fic notes. He'd long since stopped hiding anything from Aziraphale; getting to bounce ideas off of him was too invigorating, and his heart always sang at getting to write down his name with official beta credit. (He'd also long since stopped pretending to himself that he'd ever felt quite the same way about any other beta.)

"Good lord." Aziraphale sounded more than faintly appalled, and Crowley felt offended for a moment before taking a proper look at what was on his screen. It was currently showing the notes he'd made at 3 AM this morning, when he'd woken up from a dream and jotted down what had, at the time, felt like a brilliant scene. As always, he'd had his eyes mostly-closed the whole time and his swipes had been clumsy at best, but as long as it got the general point across, he was always satisfied. It only wound up being a usable scene about half the time, but he wasn't about to turn down free inspiration when he could get it. He quickly read through the imagery he'd written down.

They switch rolled over and opened their eyes. In the still morning sunlight they could set the witchfinder still sleeping cloudy enough to touch: his head ears cradled on his arms, the  misos slack with sleep but still clearly there under surface. The words knew from experience that if he were awakened stable the strength would flour back into them in an instant ray for a fight. The wishes couldn't help but think odd other things they might but tray for as well

Crowley paled. "I— that—"

"I mean, it's. Well. It's rather avant-garde."

Crowley froze. "I, uh—"

"'The misos?' And 'flour?'"

Crowley stuttered out of his bluescreen and hastily opened another tab, the screenshare automatically switching over. Aziraphale had read it, but he clearly hadn't actually understood it. As long as he didn't give him enough time to crack the cipher that was 3 AM notetaking, Crowley could bluff his way through it. "Zuh. Yeah. Wrote that down in the middle of the night when I got an idea of where I wanted to start the next scene off."

"And you could recognize any of that?" The camera jostled a little as Aziraphale shook his head. "I suppose I wouldn't do any better if I tried sketching out an idea in the dark." He picked up his stylus and started doodling simple shapes, warming up and re-acclimatizing himself to the responsiveness of the device. He was still getting used to the new medium, but he was finally starting to see a path forward to making a digital art style that felt authentically his own.

"Yessss." Crowley bit his tongue to cut off the guilty hissing. It definitely didn't help that the webcam was doing a very awkward job of catching the tablet screen but showed a very distracting hint of Aziraphale's forearms. The forearms he had, at 3 AM, apparently woken up from a dream about and been so inspired by that he'd felt the need to immortalize them in fanfiction.

"Well, I shall be interested in seeing how that gets transformed into comprehensible English."

"Right, definitely." Crowley was typing gibberish and backspacing over it quickly, more to hide how much attention he was having to devote to this conversation than out of an actual need to warm up his fingers. "Right, definitely focusing on writing now!"

Aziraphale laughed as he cleared his tablet screen and pulled up his WIP, shifting into concentration mode himself. He did enjoy the early days they had spent where their hours of "bodydoubling" were really nothing more than talking and laughing together, but being able to be quietly productive with someone else, knowing they were there with you without needing to be in the same room, that they were sharing your same wavelength without needing to say a word... that simple sense of togetherness brought with it such a deep feeling of comfort that he thought it might be an even more profound, longer-lasting sense of joy than their early days of giddy laughter had given. The strokes of his stylus turned smoother and more confident as he got into the flow, his eyes focused on his own screen and only vaguely aware of the lines of text growing across Crowley's.

Eventually, Crowley calmed down as well, and the text growing on his screen even started to make sense. And he made sure it had absolutely nothing to do with forearms.

--

Translation of the deleted 3 AM scene:

The witch rolled over and opened their eyes. In the early morning sunlight, they could see the witchfinder still sleeping close enough to touch. His head was cradled on his arms, the muscles slack with sleep but still clearly there under the surface. The witch knew from experience that if he were awakened, the strength would flow back into them in an instant, ready for a fight. The witch couldn't help but think of other things they might be ready for as well.

[roughdaysandart]

Rough Day Comic Masterpost

Based on Rough Day by @no-droids. I am editing the smut out ("Abridged for Christian Roomates") but acknolwedge its sanctity. Filler content/arcs will be included to make up for taking it out.

"The immovable object and the unstoppable force are both implicitly assumed to be indestructible and to mutually co-exist, thereby creating an inherently unreconcilable tension. By definition, an unstoppable force, in order to become unstoppable, ought to possess infinite energy. On the other hand, an immovable object is non-submissive to any force of any magnitude, from being palpable to an asteroid attack. That is, it won’t shift from its place at all..."

But what happens when two such forces meet their match...when youre not strong enough to keep that distance any longer...nor weak enough to let go of your rules, of your past...everything?

How can it feel like it's all coming apart...

yet all coming together...

...can they really let it go?

This, dear viewers, is the predicament that our Sweet Girl and a certain tin can man have found themselves in, certainly before, but most especially after one particularly rough day. Join me fellow sickos on this journey, and watch as the unstoppible meets the immovable.

-Madison

SERIES GEN WARNINGS: NON-canon typical gore/blood/violence, emotional supression, bodily self-hatred, implied nudity, implied and explicit trauma (Blood, death, depression, anxiety, bullying, sexual), yearning for a fictional man

BOOK/SEASON 1: "THE EXCEPTIONS"

BOOK/SEASON 2: "TORN"

BOOK/SEASON 3: "TITLE TBD LOL"

BEHIND THE SCENES CONTENT (latest SNEEK PEEKS, FREE backgrounds for artists, storyboards, designing process, SW pinterest megaboard, soundtrack)

NON-RD ART/WRITING/FUN/LIFE STUFF

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

[ORIGINAL POST] (FEB 2024)

"Fuck it I'll try making a Rough Day Comic" 🤦

I just loved the process of creating that Cantina comic so much, and I really really have been a imagining how cool a comic could look for the entire fic (its just written so well) and I really wanna make it super clean so...I think imma break out the tablet and get this going. Also I just love this work so much that it would really being me so much joy (especially as my first comic) and thats what's important in the end.

No idea if it'll stick or if it'll be just a few or how soon but...I really am excited to try

Also kinda have to get used to drawing star wars environments/backgrounds/people in general, as I'm not used to that at all so here's to learning ALOT of new things ahead!

Probs will start out with the backstory drabble from @no-droids masterlist just for chronological sake and then do the chapters in order.

About the smut...🙃

*sigh* I live with my very christian siblings in a one bedroom so.....just no soft or hardcore smut (idk if i can even get away with any spicy gestures at all lol), and will probs have to clean some of the language up or leave bubbles blank until I live alone and can edit them later then re-upload 🤣

At least for now lol

So yeah I hope anyone who also enjoys this fic has as much fun observing this process as I will have making it!

[its-cosmerely-an-obsesh-wound]

Ok, so here's the thing...

I've been thinking a lot about Kaladin's story arc since Chapters 1 & 2 were released and I can't shake the feeling that he's gonna end up some noble sacrifice and it kills me for ONE REASON. Remember that scene in Oathbringer when he held Oroden for the first time? It was beyond precious, right? Now can you imagine if he were holding his OWN CHILD?

Here's the Oroden scene I'm talking about for reference:

Kaladin trembled, then pulled the child tight against him. Memories of this place had not broken him, and seeing his parents had not overwhelmed him, but this … 

Here's the first clincher:

He could not stop the tears. He felt like a fool. It wasn’t as if this changed anything—Bridge Four were his brothers now, as close to him as any blood relative. And yet he wept. “What’s his name?”

“Oroden.”

“Child of peace,” Kaladin whispered. “A good name. A very good name.”

I might be paraphrasing here a bit but this is basically what happens between the first and second clinchers...

Kaladin says: "FATHER, IT'S THE DESOLATION (whoops, shouldn't have said that, I should not have said that...in front of everyone). Oh well."

Naturally, this starts a panic, but don't worry, Kaladin reassures everyone, as only Kaladin can and says:

"You know the people who betrayed humankind in the last Desolation? The Knights Radiant? Yeah, we're back bitches!"

To punctuate this statement, he draws his Sylspear and sucks in some stormlight to levitate for dramatic effect, then says:

"Don't worry. We gotcha this time, fam. Sorry, gotta fly though, the king in that fabled city that no one really believes exists anymore needs me back in said fabled city."

Then, as he's departing, he looks at his little brother and here's the second clincher:

You I will protect, little one, Kaladin thought at the child. I will protect them all.

Then he's like "later bitches" and flies off into the sunset.

Just kidding. It was nighttime and raining, but I digress...

All I'm saying is what kind of chest-aching delight would it be to see Kaladin holding his own child? I feel like he would be grimacing hard trying to hold back until he finally just...broke. Then it would be this gorgeous raw outpouring of emotion, like full-on ugly crying, but comprised of nothing but happy tears and I love that for him. My heart would explode and I would drown in my own happy tears.

I just realized when writing this post that Kaladin's happiness is my happiness. Welp, I might have to go write a fic about this, for my own perfectly selfish reasons...I'll write you a happy ending, my dude ❤️

*grumbles in untamed ADHD* As if I don't have enough unfinished WIPs right now...

[crimetimesteadicam]

ok @morporkian-cryptid tagged me to do this fic author interview so here we go...

if you would like to do this, i am officially tagging you, yes you, right now. tag me back so i can see your answers

1 How many works do you have on AO3?

i got 40

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,044,749

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

sorry like none of these are lupin iii. a blight on my lupin iii blog

Wabisabi (991 kudos) - Spirited Away. idk it's short and cute, read it

BONES OF BLACK MARROW (952 kudos) - Homestuck. the infamous cyoa cannibalism sex fic. scrolling through the things people say about it in the bookmarks is always so funny

Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (925 kudos) - Homestuck. no clue why it has so many kudos lol it was like the first long thing i've ever wrote (a whole decade ago??? jesus). it's a d&d/discworld joke

Vanitas vanitatum (914 kudos) - Homestuck. the same d&d/discworld joke except the LI is turbo depressed. notable for being the only fic i ever outlined and edited and that's why it whips

Supermassive Retinol Overdose! (677 kudos) - hey look, a lupin fic made it on here!

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i do when i have something meaningful to say besides "thank you!" i don't have a lot of thoughts about my own work so therefore i tend to not respond if there's not a direct question :( my head is empty. i always respond to every single comment on the last chapter of longfics though because i'm always impressed people read that far lol. genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading all that

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

idk uhhhh i wrote a series once where two of the main couples break up at the end, but it wasn't really angsty

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

they all end pretty happily

7. Do you write crossovers?

if i did it was so long ago i don't remember it

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

no but people used to send passive aggressive hate about my art in fics once in a while. hasn't happened in like 2+ years

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes. every kind. EVERY KIND

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

a bot will sometimes scrape my high kudos homestuck fics and plant them on a junk ebook site

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yeah i think like 7 of them got translated into russian and do numbers on ficbook.net

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

in the past me and my friend would sit around a laptop and scream laugh write our way through crack fics

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

right now it's jiglup and fujilup

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

i finish almost all my WIPs because i'm a freak. if i don't finish a WIP it's because some dramatic life event happened. this has only occurred two times

15. What are your writing strengths?

im a funny binch

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

i don't outline or edit or re-read any of my fanfic. i just type it and then eyeball it for typos and then post it. i COULD outline and such to really make the narrative nice and tight, but i don't find it very fun to do (for fanfic) and this is like, my relaxing wind down hobby. i just wanna have fun haha. the only reason my fics like, make sense, is because i write at least one ending scene first thing and always aim for that, and also i write out of order so i kinda know the route of the story

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

it's fine if it makes sense to do it there as a narrative device

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

h-hetalia crack fic.....

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

once i figure out how to draw zenigata it's over for you bitches. luzeni hours on da clock

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

for lupin iii fic, i like Lightkeepers the best

[r95irth]

I'm having fun with Sounds SFX and typo for onc. And tones :) Huhuhu.

Anyways I've been working on a wip (don't look at me) for a Xiyao Fic where JGY realizes he's pregnant (somehow, without this being an A/B/O so you can imagine his surprise) in between the end of Sunshot campaign and Phoenix mountain Hunt...And so he had to deal with all of this *points at the mess*

And as I was writing down the plot to make it fit in 9 chapters (ahahahahah) I scripted this small scene very quickly and the image was so clear I HAD to either write it or draw it.

Guess what I did? (Yeah, very hard question). I posted the rough on twitter and today I had time at work so I decided to line it and here we are. The result :D

I'm not going to color it.

NMJ is too ace in this fic to get why LXC is not thrilled at the idea of never doing baby-making ever again.

Also yes I know in ancient china during labor the father is not invited, but I mean...it's an mpeg story, I'm definitely not aiming for realism.

[cdmagic1408]

Hey peeps, Quest Masters, followers, and all!

I know I've been gone for like...a YEAR. Life's been super crazy, you have NO idea. But not gonna get into all that. Just gonna say I’ve been good, been healing, then really good, happy, and off social media (it’s never really been my thing, so…) 😄

But I promise you I'm not dead! Rather, I've come back from the dead to say that I looked at today's date and just so happened to realize— OMG! It has been exactly three years since I published the first chapter of my Onward fan-novel, If You Trust Me! Wow!

I have found myself in other fandoms as an observer in this last year (maybe I’ll share what they are someday, but not yet), but first, I just wanna say that Onward is still my favorite Pixar film AND my favorite film ever, that hasn’t changed. I still think about it everyday and love it very much. But yeah, I have moved on to other things these days…

Second, and most importantly— I have decided that today, on the anniversary of IYTM’s publishing phase, I wanted to make a very teeny tiny adjustment to its title…

I have always called it, If You Trust Me - An Onward Fanfiction. But in the now-three years since I first shared this story with you all, I’ve come to realize that it really is much more than just a fanfiction—it’s a fan-NOVEL. 33 chapters, plus a prologue and a mid-credits scene. A year and a half to write. A story I wanted to make as authentic as possible to the world of Onward we know and love. It is no mere fanfic.

That said, I hereby rename the long title of this story to If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel! And to my fellow QMs, if any of you are still out there and reading this, I have you all to thank for it. You guys were the first to really call it a "fan-novel" in the first place, and now in official type, it IS a fan-novel! I know we’ve all kinda moved on and everything, but seeing as it's been a while, I just wanna take the time to thank you all for being there for me in the Onward era of my life. You know who you are. Whenever I look back on all the times we had together, I think of only the good times. There were many good, if not great, things we did and accomplished together as a fellowship and I'll never forget that. As rough as life is and as strange as this world is and will continue to be, I can confidently say now that after taking some time, I only see the good in what we experienced in the end ❤️‍🔥

Lastly, there really aren’t enough words or thanks I can give to show how grateful I am of this fan-novel. Writing it, publishing it, having it read, shared, liked, and all that. I haven’t forgotten about that either.

I am still very proud of this story, and always will be. It helped me grow as a writer, and it was something I wanted to do for myself and for all Quest Masters/Onward fans out there. So to put it simply, thank you. And if there’s anyone who hasn’t read it yet and would like to, by all means! Trust me (no pun intended) when I say that it is a LOT better than all of the incest fics combined. If You Trust Me is a story for anyone who absolutely loves the world of Onward and is looking for something that totally feels like it! ✨

I guess the very last thing I’ll say is, I am well aware that this coming March, Onward will be turning 5 (AHHHHHH! I was Barley’s age (19) when this first came out, whaaaaaaaaaaat) and since that is a big year, I might want to do something special for that. I’m not sure what it will be yet, but I believe I could do something. A long in-hindsight written reflection perhaps? Or an ensemble cast drawing? Both? I haven’t decided yet.

But yeah, that’s it from me for now. I am not planning on posting anything more later, tomorrow, or anytime soon. This isn’t an “I’m back and here to stay” post necessarily. More like a “hello, it’s been a while, but I’m doing well and I just wanted to let you all know that, plus it's an anniversary” post 😊 That’s all folks!

[amethystina]

For the wipe tag game:

May I inquire about :

The devil's due ( I have been hooked since the first chapter that u posted. It's such an interesting idea with so many possibilities)

The gentle light ( will we get more of yohan's poverty?)

Thank u, and have a nice day 🩵

Thank you so much for the ask!

The Devil's Due

Oh man, this one. I am hooked on this one too, but I keep holding it off because I know it'll be pretty long and it's also going to be pretty, uh, sexually charged? And that intimidates me x'D

But yeah, I LOVE the idea and the possibilities it offers. It's a story that would focus on Ga On and Yo Han's relationship without the power imbalance of them being chief and subordinate. That's to say that Ga On is going to be even feistier than in canon, if you can believe that. And he's going to be more aware of his sexuality and what he actually wants — or who, I guess I should say.

The main plot would really just be Ga On getting to know Yo Han — and Elijah — during different circumstances. And the biggest conflict will be the fire and whether or not Yo Han caused it, plus Yo Han trying to open Ga On's eyes to the corruption in their country. The main portion of the fic would be set a couple of years after the first chapter, and a couple of years before the start of the drama. So they're all a little less jaded and, since the situation is so different — Ga On isn't sent to spy on him, for one — Yo Han won't be as defensive. But he's obviously also going to be, well, Yo Han. He's working as a normal judge, trying not to draw too much attention to himself — biding his time for his revenge, and all that — but he would definitely not mind having some fun with the bright-eyed, reformed delinquent he saved from a life as a criminal.

As a treat.

As with many of my WIPs at the moment, this fic is mostly just a collection of lines of dialogue from various scenes, with no connecting text around them. So there are no complete snippets I can show, but I can say that the first time they do something sexual together it's because Ga On has finally had it with Yo Han's teasing and flirting and just marches into his office — at Yo Han's work, yes — and goes:

Ga On: "Fine. Let's fuck."

Yo Han, after a small pause: "Right now?"

Ga On, very scathingly: "Do you want me to schedule an appointment?"

Yo Han: "You're an absolute delight when you're angry."

There are reasons why Ga On is being so blunt, I want to point out, because he wouldn't usually be. Again: Yo Han and his manipulation tactics.

... and yes, they do have sex right then and there, in Yo Han's office. Which is one of the reasons why I'm afraid to write this. I'm way out of my depth here x'D

But I will continue eventually! I like the story way too much to give up on it :)

The Gentle Light

As for this one, I was kind of shocked to realise that I have a lot more written on chapter 2 than I initially thought. It takes place right after the first chapter, so basically Yo Han's side of the very loaded conversation that takes place during chapter 7. I've just been adding bits and pieces here and there when I've felt like it and now I have almost 4 000 words. Imagine that.

Here's a snippet!

---

Yo Han slowly walked up the steps leading to Kim Ga On's apartment, his hand sliding along the railing. The metal was cold against the mess of scar tissue on his palm, sending a chill up his arm. Yo Han paid that no mind, focusing instead on taking in his surroundings. While he'd known Ga On's address ever since K did the first background check, Yo Han had never actually been to visit before.

There had never been a reason for him to — until now.

As Yo Han finished climbing the first set of stairs, his gaze swept briefly over the terrace to his left, then flicked upward, toward the rooftop. There was apparently another terrace up there, but it was dark for the time being and therefore not of much interest to Yo Han.

Instead, he turned and looked out at the surrounding buildings. The neighborhood was as run-down as he'd expected, debris littering the streets and the majority of the buildings in desperate need of repairs — some even looked abandoned. Or perhaps the owners had simply given up, choosing to huddle inside the dark, decrepit shells of what used to be their homes, waiting for the end to come. That seemed common in these parts, where unemployment and hopelessness blanketed every house and street corner, sucking the life out of those few remaining.

Yo Han could tell it hadn't always been that way, though. There were glimpses of a once lively neighborhood hiding underneath the grime and despair, the descent probably having happened slowly over time as the economy kept getting worse and worse — money getting tighter and tighter. And, eventually, whether they wanted to or not, the people had no choice but to give in.

It made sense, Yo Han supposed, for Kim Ga On to have grown up in a place like this, where he'd had to watch what he once knew wither away and fall into disrepair in front of his very eyes.

That deeply rooted disdain for the rich must have come from somewhere, after all.

---

A lot of what I have so far is basically just Yo Han sauntering around in front of Ga On's apartment, observing things and drawing conclusions about Ga On. It's kind of adorable in it's own way xD But things obviously take a very dramatic turn once Ga On shows up, some of which I've shown before in snippets that you can find here.

I can't promise I'll ever post this, though, since I'd obviously have to finish it first and this is very far down on my list of priorities right now. But we'll see, I guess? If I keep chipping away at it one piece at a time, eventually it will be finished.

I hope you like it! And you have a nice day, too 💜

WIP Tag Game

[lastbluetardis]

What Makes a Family Info (and another preview)

I'm almost ready to start putting this fic back into the world! I meant to have it up this week but didn't account for the fact that Destiny 2 released its franchise story finale and I turned into a braindead gaming goblin all week and lost valuable writing/editing time 😂

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I had a multichapter Ten/Rose single parents AU story that I took down a few months ago to rewrite to better suit what I wanted from the story. Here's the summary of the story:

Single parents Rose Tyler and James McCrimmon come together to embark on a whirlwind, passionate romance that seems to be the happy ending neither of them thought they'd get. But when James's past comes back to haunt them and threatens to tear away everything they've built together, they must find a way to weather the storm that will either break them or draw them ever closer, all while answering the question of what it means to be a family.

Anyways, one of the major things I wanted to fix was the grief and healing the Tyler family needed to undergo. At times it felt like Rose and her sons were way too well-adjusted, and any scene where they were having a hard time felt like I'd forced it into the story because I'd suddenly remembered they'd lived through something traumatic not too long ago. So there will be more instances of the Tylers being not quite okay, and of people loving them through it, and hopefully that will make them all falling in love with James and Alex that much sweeter in the end.

The second major thing I'm fixing is something I wasn't actually planning to reveal until I uploaded chapter one and you'd see it for yourselves. But I decided I don't want to spring it on you out of the blue in case you were really looking forward to this particular character, so here goes: Jodie, the baby, isn't in the story anymore. I waffled on that detail for months, believe you me, because I loved her, and I loved watching everyone love her, especially James. But really, she felt like an arbitrary detail, and her presence made Rose's fast and hard romance with James feel a little unrealistic. Like. A single mom with a freaking newborn lusting over some dude... I kept cringing at the thought. Rose would have been far to exhausted and emotionally unavailable if she had three kids to care for and help overcome the grief of losing their dad. So yeah, poor Jodie didn't make the cut. (That's not to say she won't pop in at the end of the story... 😏)

Everything else that's changing about the story are minor details I wanted to flesh out a little more, or sharpening up the writing. I felt a little to flowery and/or long-winded at times, so I wanted to trim off some of the fat, so to speak, and focus more on the meat of the story. Plus the original story was my pandemic distraction: I wrote chapters without much thought and posted them willy-nilly. I want to be a little more intentional with my writing this time. Oh, and the kids' ages are a smidge different. I aged David and Alex up by two years, and Matthew by a year. I always felt I wrote the kids too old to suit the ages I'd given them, so it shouldn't feel too awfully different from the original.

Welp, without further ado, here's another little sneak peak for you under the cut 'cos this post is far too long:

The first day of school always brought about some nerves, what with Rose having gotten used to having her boys home every day for two months, but this time it was almost unbearable. Rose bit her nails down to the quick as she watched the clock relentlessly.

David had seemed fine when she dropped him off at Arcadia Academy that morning, but he always seemed “fine” nowadays. While he wasn’t as sullen and withdrawn as he’d been in the winter and spring months, he was far from the bright, bubbly child she’d known for the first nine years of his life.

Not even the art commissions she really ought to work on could distract her from the panic that David was miserable and wasn’t making any new friends and hated that he left all of his old friends behind at his old school.

She had called his teacher, Miss Clara Oswald, a few days before the term began to explain their situation. Clara had been genuinely sympathetic and supportive, and had given Rose the contact information of the school counselor, Mr. Danny Pink, who was supposedly one of the best in the region.

“You can set up appointments for David for the after school hour, if you’d like. I’d suggest you do that sooner rather than later to get yourself on the schedule. Or I can work with Danny to find a time when David could go during class time.”

“After school sounds preferable,” Rose admitted. “I don’t think returning to class after a therapy session would be… Well, therapy can be hard, is all.”

“Oh, don’t I know it.”

And so Rose had done exactly that: she’d gotten David an appointment with Mr. Pink for every other Wednesday beginning in the middle of September. Hopefully those sessions would help him more than the ones he’d had with his previous school counselor, who’d suggested David just distract himself with things he liked to do, and who’d scolded Rose for not doing more to bring David out of his shell.

Rose also hoped her youngest was faring well in his new nursery class. Matthew had been in tears, clinging to her legs and screaming for her not to go when she’d dropped him off. Bless them, the nursery staff waited patiently for him to calm down, and even let Rose stick around for a few extra minutes to show Matthew around his classroom. His teachers, too, knew that Matthew was getting over the death of his father; while he’d adapted much better than his brother, Matthew was much clingier and quicker to meltdown than he’d been in the past. The boys' pediatrician assured Rose this was normal behavior, and all she had to do was love him through this transitory period of his life.

[mrghostrat]

Howdy! I am really considering starting a fic of my own and I've already got so much stuff written out for it, as well as a decent plan of action, but I always lose motivation right when I think I'm about to get it started. I'm always this way with big projects and I feel like small oneshots have been too little to sustain my brainrot, Do you have any tips on writing to share with a newbie?

i do!! i've been there a thousand times, with all kinds of projects (fan and original). know that it's a skill that you can hone, and the more you write the better you'll get at sustaining longer works 🙏

it's one of those things that's part luck at first, but hopefully this can help:

don't share WIPs or snippets, especially when you really really want to. maybe find one friend who will hype you up and get ferally excited in DMs about it, so you've got an outside force that's encouraging you to get to the later plot points. but in general, resist the urge

because you know that lil burst of dopamine you get when you share a sketch or wip or something online, and people are interacting with it or maybe congratulating you on your progress, and you feel really accomplished for a bit? yeah, that can be detrimental to long form projects. because brain says why bother finishing the thing or doing any more; you've already gotten the dopamine out of it, you already feel accomplished, let's rest! brain bad.

write the whole thing before you post it.

getting audience feedback is exquisite, and it can be a real driving force to make you want to continue. but it can also be a burden if you're in this early stage of honing your longform skills. you might get too swept up in the pressure to update if it's been a while since you wrote, and that can sour your whole association of the project. when it becomes a have to instead of a want to.

alternatively, some people work better under this kind of pressure. it's very subjective.

reread your work before diving back in

i sometimes reread too much and make myself really bored of it, so be careful not to hack and pick at it like i do. but if you go a week without writing, reread your last chapter/scene before starting the next. it can draw you in, trigger flow, and if you're me and you're obsessed w your own stories, will get you impatient to read what happens next which FORCES you to write the damn thing

baby step into it

i get that "one shots aren't enough" 100%. but it can def be daunting to suddenly commit yourself to a 50k multichapter when you're not used to it. plan something that has one or two pivotal plot beats and set yourself up for a 10k thing with a couple of chapters. ease yourself into it. set yourself up for success ✨

[sunbeamah]

Thank you so much for this JJK fics recs. As a new JJK fan (yes, just started the anime and manga last year), I was confused of what fic to read, but when I found your post, I was so happy. One of my fav is that time-travel fic of Yuji and Choso with teens Gojo/Geto pairing.

https://www.tumblr.com/dnana-2809-blog/746189842162089984/any-recs-for-some-jjk-fics-something-preferably?source=share

Can I ask your fav JJK ships and JJK Brotp?

And maybe your top 5 (or top 7) fav ships (canon or non canon) from all media (manga/anime, tv series, books, cartoon, etc)? Do you have a certain criteria for a couple to be your otps?

Sorry if my ask is kinda long @sunbeamah .....

No problem!!! I'm so sorry for how long it took me to respond to this ask-- I thought about it a lot, made a list, and then got distracted looking into my old favourite medias TT -- this ask made me go back and relive my Fairy Tail days haha, so thank you very much!!!

And also, please don't apologise!!! I appreciate this ask so much-- and again I'm so sorry it took me so long to reply!!!!!

I'm also so glad you liked the list hehe, I loved that fic too!!!

JJK Ships:

Fushiita

Nobamaki

Chosoyuki

Satosugu

Inuita

JJK BrOTP: Nobara and Yuuji!

Non-JJK top 5:

Liutana (Mortal Kombat)

Zolu (One Piece)

Sasunaru (Naruto)

Kagehina (Haikyuu!!!)

Togachako/Ochatoga (My Hero Academia)

Viktuuri (Yuuri!!! On Ice)

Obamitsu (Demon Slayer)

Below the cut is explanations, with JJK manga panels, SO PLEASE BEWARE OF MANGA SPOILERS BELOW!!! (Specifically, the front page of chapter 205 of jjk manga, and a page from chapter 200 as well I'll lyk where it is below the cut!)

Ah and minor Haikyuu manga spoilers! Just down where it says Kagehina

Jjk chapter 205 is under the chosoyuki (number 3) point; chapter 200 is the second image under fushiita, both appear in the first list below.

JJK Ships!!

Fushiita

This probably isn't surprising at all, but I love Fushiita!!! Something about stoic guys melting and being affectionate with bright, kind, mischievous boyfriends just tickles me yk

2. Nobamaki

A strong upperclassman who watches her cheeky, abrasive underclassman with fondness and interest-- there's more to their relationship that I like of course, their connection as 'the girls' that draws them closer, Nobara's instant respect and softness in regards to Maki, and how protective she becomes of her at the exchange event. I like to think Maki is protective towards her in a different but no less meaningful way. Protectiveness is one of my favourite tropes-- ik it's cheesy but it is!!!

3. Chosoyuki

Now, these two man... These two... I just love how she's so confident and outspoken, and how she saw Choso and went 'yeah. That one.' -- I loved their little date, even if he cried ((LOVE a good pathetic man)), and how she made him think differently about himself and his situation.

4. Satosugu

The soulmatery of these 2... The homosexuality of these 2..... They're unmated. A real Sasunaru descendant.

5. InuIta

I wasn't that into them, to be honest, but my friends and I quote that 'Inumaki-senpai! Shake!' scene in s2 all of the time. Eventually, I started to think of them as kind of cute, and then I tried writing them and found Inumaki is a really fun character to write! I love his mischievousness and dedication to protecting his friends (relegated to a life of speaking solely in onigiri ingredients... nah that's probably one of the perks for him).

JJK BrOTP

It's GOTTA be Nobara and Yuuji. The friendship between these two is awesome, I love how she started out thinking of him as an idiot, and then got to know him and realised that yeah he's an idiot, but he's also a little bit fun to have around sometimes. Nah jk, I love how they're 2 peas in a pod, both crazy, both from the countryside, both just as silly as each other. I really love watching them hang out in the few eps we get of that, and the juju strolls they're both in-- they're just awesome!

Top 5 In Any Media (Excluding JJK)

I had to consult my ao3 bookmarks AND pinterest for this. There are a bunch there of ships I don't read anymore but keep 'for the memories' and some ships I am ashamed of! So I didn't include those hehe.

I'll only put 1 per fandom to keep things fair! Cause there is 1 particular fandom where... My ships will fill up all 7 of the spots...

Also, no particular order! Some of these go up and down based on the day, scenario, fic, art, and heaps more factors!

Liutana My first ship! (Excluding my total drama island childhood... gwen x trent u will always be famous. I don't condone s2) I loved them so much, when MK1 came out and I heard about the kiss??? I damn near cried.

Zolu 1 thing about Zolu is that from the first ep I've shipped them 100%. Every episode that they're in is a fun episode to watch, their dynamic is so SDJHVFSBJNE and I really enjoy it! But also... Any time someone appreciates Luffy I kinda... Side-eye a little...... I'm a bit disloyal in that sense...........

Sasunaru Gaanaru is constantly fighting for this spot tho... I am disloyal. I like nejinaru, shikanaru, hinanaru, sainaru, I even wrote an allnaru fic back in the day. It never saw the light of day but man... Also Shikatema is peak love those 2.

Kagehina Height difference, moody x cheerful, sunrise x shadow mountain-- names with symbolism but also it's the sunrise that puts the shadow on the mountain and I say all that^^ but the second Atsumu appeared on screen...... IM A DISLOYAL PERSON!!! And the reunion?? "Tobio-chan!! Don't talk to my spiker like that :)" WHEN I TELL YOU I ALMOST CHOKED ON MY SCREAM...

Togachako/Ochatoga Just getting back into bnha and man.. these 2 GRABBED ME... Allmomo is FANTASTIC too btw-- and I do mean all girls x Momo but I suppose Kaminari can stay, as Jirou's boyfriend.. and Kurotoko (is that still their ship name?!), Fumirumi, Bakukiri let me stop myself before I erupt,

Obamitsu THEM <33 I'm a bigger, 'stronger' (I'm not as strong as her she's something else) girl too so Mitsuri and this ship is just everything to me... Also love Gentan and Muitan!

Viktuuri The comfort ship I always come back to.

Honourable mentions!

Sophie x Agatha, The School for Good and Evil (BABY'S THIRD EVER SHIP!!!)

Kiyoyachi, Haikyuu (I WANTED U ON THE LIST BABY I REALLY DID)

Sidlink, Legend of Zelda (don't look at me like that... I know...)

Kyokao, Ouran High School Host Club (Yes I watched this. I was 10 and it changed my life)

Rennora, RWBY

Gajevy, Alljuvia, Stingue and Fraxus, Fairy Tail

Cleuce, Allclawdeen, Monster High (by all I mean all the girls -- same for Juvia up there!)

Dickkory, DC

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

Sry, I did not read it sooner😞. But now I humbly give you my rambles about your last Lofi chapter🥺:

"The voice went further and further away. For the first time, she sounded genuinely panicked. There was still that angry tilt to her voice that she always held. But… even if she was prickly, she couldn't hide that hint of panic… as if she was on the verge of tears."

I AM GOING INSANE!!! I WILL CRY!!! SHE CARES!!!

"Naught if ittza grade class nosey BEE-atch is all up in my shit."

AAAAAAAAQ BOB!!! BOBERT!!!! BOOOB!!! THE SAVIOUR!!! I will cry, now in a good way!!

"UGH!!! Knock it off!! It's bad enough you missed the staff meeting last night

Uff... jikes... low blow... putting that up, if that is not what saved his life... and her job now in that matters...and she knows it...

What a fine mess Sun got them into.

Wait?

What Sun got them into?????

Why was Sun the culprit in all this???

I love them my honor! They are perfect.♡

“Retain power NOTHIN’!” The man slurred. “If ya fuckin’ take a bug-zapper to a laptop, What’d ya THINK was gonna happen?! It’s gonna MELT the GOD DAMN BATTERY! You tased them not once… BUT over TWENTY DAMN TIMES??!?!”

HELL YEAH!!! GET HER BOB!!! GET HER!!!

“We’ll see.” Bob grunted to Vanessa, completely ignoring Sun’s recognition

:,(

The mechanic paused in his work, when the torso casing was off. He looked at Sun, a mixed expression of contempt, hatred and …..delight?

Ok...no. Bad Bob! BAD!!! >:((( Kinda understandable his revenge, but ouch :,(

Forced to work on the same machine, that killed your best bud, who you may had feelings for, but you never had the chance to explore because this machine killed him. And have to REPAIR it...to be better, meanwhile his friends lies in a grave, caused by it...fuck...

…It does. It hurts. I'm scared… I'm scared too….

If you excuse me, ... I will cry... will be back soon...

*door closing*

*loud crying in the distance*

THWACK!

He rammed his head into Bob’s.

How dare you make me laugh in this situation???😭😭😭😭

Nononononononono! He's gonna delete me! He's gonna delete me! He's gonna delete me!!

Ok. Crying again .....fuuuuuck....

deep breaths Enyter... deep breaths.

I am glad I waited with this chapter.

...I needed to mentally prepare.

It was a phenomenal chapter. And I would have read it, even if it takes me 100 years. Love your writing ♡ the agony😭 the feelings were so real... from both perspective...

And I drawn Bob before... now I know why he has those scars...fuck...the more I know....😭😭😭 was worried they caused him brain damage... fuck... I was worried for Bob and the dca too...

I wanna draw them... it gets on my to draw list. I have so many scenes saved to draw from this fic... if it is one year, or 10 from now on. I will draw them once. This fic is too good.

Moodboard:

Sorry it took me awhile to get to this message. I like to keep and hoard them for a rainy day.

I AM GOING INSANE!!! I WILL CRY!!! SHE CARES!!!

Yes! Vanessa does care, in her own way. She has a thick skin. And the Daycare Attendant... while, not under it... seems close to pulling back her "customer service" mood.

"UGH!!! Knock it off!! It's bad enough you missed the staff meeting last night

"Uff... jikes... low blow... putting that up, if that is not what saved his life... and her job now in that matters...and she knows it..."

Yup. The only reason that Bob is alive is because he was passed out hungover and was a no-show to work. Bob, surprisingly is in his own depressive funk to even notice a lot of his coworkers are missing. He has his own stuff going on. (but he might find out later)

Ok...no. Bad Bob! BAD!!! >:((( Kinda understandable his revenge, but ouch :,( Forced to work on the same machine, that killed your best bud, who you may had feelings for, but you never had the chance to explore because this machine killed him. And have to REPAIR it...to be better, meanwhile his friends lies in a grave, caused by it...fuck...

Bob is a complex character. He's at his worst here. He does have character development in Twin Animatronics, and he comes to realize what he did was wrong... but you can see why Sun and Moon are so hostile to him in Twins and scared of Parts and Service.

Also, I'm so glad you liked the chapter and gave me a lengthy response like this. They give me life and love and encourage me to keep going <3

[morimakesfanart]

Heyya!. I just want u to know that i've just read your latest fic on ao3 NONSTOP for about 4-5 hours last night and i definitely confident to say that your fic is asuperb work of art...

It's rare to see that kind of fic like you've been working for the last few years... A story with additional comic is really such a breath of fresh air to me these days...

Please, don't stop continuing this super duper amazing fic of yours even. I'm trying not to ask nor demand you to update the fic rightaway, but at least i don't want my hopes got away after just found out about this fic of yours in less than 24 hours...

I'm glad you like it so much!! :D

I have no intentions of stopping. I'm making it for me most of all, and it's been super entwined with my growth as a person and writer/artist.

I always write 2-3 chapters at one time, so if one is posted it's because I have the start of the next set drafted. I just posted ch38, and my drafts go up ch41. There's only one more left in the current arc being posted. I need to do some final edits and the art which hopefully won't take more than 2 weeks. However, I won't start the art until I get ch41 more finalized and get ch42 started. Working multiple chapters at once helps balance the flow in and between arcs.

If I ever hit a point where I think I can't work on Sindria's Prophet ever again, I'll post all of the remaining drafts for whatever arc that ends up being without art. I don't see that happening though since this is not only the only story I'm posting right now, it is extremely meaningful for me, and I can't deny that it's where most of my paying members on Patreon are coming from. The help with the groceries has been extremely important. That pressure does more to make sure I don't lose track of time so I actually finish and post, and not a feeling of obligation tho. I am extremely grateful for the support I've gotten thank to this fic :3

On why writing & art:

I can't tell any story without also drawing it. I'm a visual thinker so I always feel like something vital is lost if I have to describe it in words alone. When I was little I wanted to make animations, but I realized when I was 12 that it would take too long, so I started making comics. I posted my first comics online on dA. They are still up if you find the account.

As it turns out, making comics takes much longer than just writing, and I am but one person. And I also eventually figured out that since I often use writing to process my own experiences there are topics that I want to write about that upset or even trigger me if I draw them to the point I will basically drop a story if I have to draw a long scene of them. That what's happening with my og series PBSN on tapas&webtoons if any one's been wondering why it only updates like 1ce a year now. So with this fic I have figured out how to do a combination of writing and comics. Now I can tell a story in a more timely fashion without losing as much of what's going on in my head as possible AND it has the added bonus of not having to draw the topics/emotions that stop me so I can actually keep working on it :D

But yeah, I am going to keep going with Sindria's Prophet until I reach the end :3

[effen-draws]

HUGEEEEE fan of your de!swap fic! Just finished reading chapter 5 and WOW what a chapter. I'm soooo glad to see that suzerainty popped up, the original scene with that game is my favorite scene, and I'm overjoyed to see that it carried over to your fic!!

Curious question, what was your motivation behind choosing what skills Kim has? I love all the skills you created for the fic, and I'd like to know your thought process behind it

Thank you so much!!! I’m super glad that you liked the chapter! The Suzerainty scene was hella fun to write:-D And I’m very happy that you like the skills as well! 

But, yes, the skills. Oh man, anon, the skills. You have opened up a can of worms here. You’ve given me an opportunity to rant here, anon. So I really hope you’re ready for a long post because I have plenty of thoughts, my friend. 

But before we actually get into any of my skill related thought processes and ideas I’d like to preface this post with 2 things!

Many of the skills (and generally the early parts of the fic) are inspired by a hodgepodge of many different people’s headcanons and art here on tumblr! Which, because I’m one of god’s favourite clowns with a terrible short term memory, I have no idea what came from  where! I looked at and read a lot of the things that later inspired me before I ever thought of writing the fic at all. And I never thought about writing any of my sources of inspiration down before I had already finished the draft of chapter 1! Which I kinda feel terrible about! The readers with a better memory than I might remember that I wrote in the first chapter that if anyone saw anything that looked familiar they should tell me so I could give proper credit. (Which I still implore any keen eyed reader to do!) So yeah, this is just to say; I’m not a genius who came up with all of this on my own and I was inspired by many cool people so don’t give me too much credit!

BUT! If anyone ever wants to write or draw anything using the skillset I’ve made for my version of swap!Kim, then you are so very welcome! So don’t sweat it if you want to reuse a name, concept, or the entire set! I’d just be happy to have inspired you:-]

Anyways sorry for the preamble. I just needed to get that said before I go down my rabbit hole:-)

So, let’s get to it! (For real this time I promise, anon) Here are a few of my general thoughts about my Kim skillset and some individual insight into more of the “interesting” skills! 

There were a few things I considered when making the skills. For one I needed to figure out what skills were needed because of narrative necessity and what were needed for characterisation. For an example HANDS ON is almost only a “Kim is physically interacting with his surroundings and I need to describe that” skill while TORQUE DORK, on the other hand, is a fluff skill that’s there because of Kim’s interests in machinery. Besides their personalities the skills also need to serve a role in telling a story, y’know? Whether that be description or character. That’s also one of the reasons that Kim only has 16 skills instead of Harry’s 24. A fic is a different medium than a game so it’s not necessary to have quite so many skills. But, if you want my non-boring justification for that, I also just think that Kim is far less scattered brained than Harry! The man is simply more together even when he’s falling apart so he therefore has a few more “multi purpose skills”:-]

Speaking about Harry, I felt like it would be important that Kim’s skills felt unique to him even if some of them started out as reskins of Harry’s (I mean, how do you make a skill responsible for logic without giving it similarities to Harry’s LOGIC skill??). Not that they needed to stand out completely but rather I didn’t want to feel like I was applying Harry’s voices to Kim’s head. Which also means that Kim’s skills just can’t do the same things that Harry’s can! For one they aren’t as psychically inclined even if they can take guesses and read people in similar ways (which they’re partially that good at because of narrative necessity, but hey man, don’t look at me I’m just trying to tell a good story here!)

One thing which I also really wanted to stress with the skills too is that many of them have “rivalries” or “alliances” with one another. Some of them are complete opposites (EYES vs. OUTSIDER) while others will almost always back each other up (POISE & COMMAND). This animosity is there because; one, Kim is constantly trying to keep himself in check and is very harsh on himself so therefore no skill can ever “win” for long. Two; I’m a BIG fan of the thought of “Kim’s centrism is killing him”. So therefore every skill is almost always pulling him in different directions and opposing each other while Kim is trying to thread the needle of just existing. And because there’s this constant infighting Kim’s mind becomes a very hostile place to be. One last general consideration before I get into some individual skills! I really love how having a high level skill in DE also has its downsides! They have blindspots! They have one track thoughts and motivations! And it’s dangerous to only listen to one of them! So I attempted to show that with Kim’s high level skills like VOLTA DO MAR and POISE in the fic:-]

Anyways: individual skill thoughts! I don’t have something to say about all of them but I'll quickly go through my thoughts on some of the more interesting ones in order. (Also I’m so sorry for rambling so long, anon. Here's the part of the post I think you're interested in.)

Starting off with PUZZLEBOX and NOTEKEEPER! If I’m honest I think these two are inseparable; Note provides information and Puz connects the dots. They’re quite obviously Kim’s deductive and note taking powerhouses. Note does however also have a purpose as a narrative device since it’s the one that recalls past information (that Kim can remember). They’re a little like a narrator in that sense. Anyways I don’t have many thoughts about these two but I think they’re kinda cute in how “dumb” they can be despite being intellect skills:-]

FANTASME is not a skill that gets a lot of the limelight but they do have a good amount to say even though they’re a low level skill. They’re kind of a CONCEPTUALISATION and INLAND EMPIRE mix I guess. They’re focused on Kim’s “nerd” things (that isn’t machinery or paperwork) and escapism. They know about art but they don’t really “get it” as Harry can. They’re also the driving force behind Kim’s existential dread as you have seen in chapter 4.

BLEEDING HEART is what I labelled as the “feelings” skill, and they were kind of an EMPATHY clone in the early concepts before I really figured them out. Because all they really want for Kim is for him to feel. Their second priority is making sure that Kim feels for the people around him as well. To Bleed it doesn’t really matter what emotions Kim is feeling as long as they are being felt and that he isn’t hurting or “burdening” anyone. They’re sad, suppressed, and visceral. Another thing about them is that similarly to how ESPRIT DE CORPS is the “gateway skill” that Harry uses to read Kim, BLEEDING HEART is the “gateway skill” Kim uses to read Harry in the fic. This is mostly because I don’t think Harry can be understood through the lens of the RCM like Kim can in the game.

EYES is interesting to me. Because they aren’t the RCM but rather swap!Kim’s understanding of the RCM personified. Which both means they’re brutally honest about how the police sucks but that they also cannot let go of duty and loyalty for the life of them. They are aptly named after Eyes; Kim’s last main connection to the RCM and its office culture. Which is very cool but also not my original idea! And because of the reasons mentioned prior I really don’t remember who came up with that stroke of genius but I would honestly like to thank them personally. (If I ever get my hands on the post I saw it in I’ll link it here)

I love the idea of OUTSIDER. Kim having a skill that’s specifically manifested because of how alienated he feels is so interesting to me! That how much the world has failed him is ingrained in him just speaks volumes, y’know. Outs don’t have too much of a narrative purpose compared to other skills but I do love them regardless. They aren’t completely my original idea either, but unlike EYES, I have no idea where I got this one from. (Again, if I find the source I’ll put in a link, but for now my cursed memory can produce nothing.)

JOIE DE VIVRE is the most fun little guy in Kim’s mind to me. They are what makes life fun (as their name suggests) and they ultimately represent indulgence. They are essentially good to listen to occasionally but not constantly. Because Joie is all about base desires which they want fulfilled now. “Hey! Smoke that cigarette now! Hey! Fuck that guy now! Hey! Avoid your responsibilities now!” And if they don’t get that they will immediately trash talk whoever shut them down. And, to say the least, they are constantly being repressed by the other skills. Kim can’t get rid of them but, oh man, does he wish he could.

VOLTA DO MAR is my swap!Kim’s signature skill. And it shows: they are used to being in control. They are all about keeping Kim going and they generally serve a similar role like VOLITION does in terms of keeping Kim sane. But they are really nothing like VOLITION. They’re mean. They’re efficient. They’re a completionist and simultaneously a survivor. They will shut down anything they deem unnecessary while also dealing with any odd situation which Kim simply needs to roll with. Volt ultimately thinks they know best and is thusly kind of a dick. 

NERVE is a kind of “physical skill all in one” with the added on flavour of repressed anger. NERVE’s name then, of course, both comes from the biological nerve and because of the “that struck a nerve” saying. They just want Kim to follow his gut and retaliate for once. They’re the physicality of anger and instinct. Which has pros and cons… 

POISE is an interesting little fella to me. They’re kind of like a teen who’s obsessed with being cool and keeping up face and facade in my eyes:-) And since they’re also such a high level skill they get to talk a lot, and with their focus being reputation a large part of that talk is about how embarrassed Kim should be. They’re a personification of self consciousness and intrusive anxiety riddled thoughts and yet they’re also one of Kim’s most useful skills, both in regards to reading others and not being read himself. They’re sort of a necessary evil in that sense.

Oh man. That was a ramble. And I didn’t even talk about every skill. Well, I’m all tuckered out now but thank you so much for the ask, anon! I kinda took it as an excuse to just talk for once so I hope that alright:-] 

I don’t know how many people (if any) will find this interesting so, to the people who got this far, I’ll tell you my swap!Kim’s 5 highest level skills as a token of my appreciation for reading:-) Number one is of course VOLTA DO MAR, followed by POISE, BLEEDING HEART, NOTEKEEPER, and then lastly COMMAND. Extra fun fact; EYES and OUTSIDER are always the exact same level and this makes them furious.

Anyways, thank you again for reading my fic and this long ass answer to an otherwise simple ask! I hope you have a great rest of your day:-]

[altraviolet]

Oh man now that I've seen TWO asks this day about Soundwave dying, is that the inevitable conclusion to this fic? Did I miss this big spoiler somewhere or all the clues to it? I don't remember seeing a "Major character death" tag, either.

Or is this people speculating and doing "what if"? ...not that I'd be adverse to it, especially if it made sense to do so!

Also I completely understand about work sapping all creative juices. While I don't write (I've dabbled in the past, but little 3k words or less things for OC's way back in the LJ days), I used to sketch, draw, paint nearly every day for hours before I ended up in a corporate 9-5, full time job. Even doing customer service jobs, I was able to sketch on napkins and scrap receipt paper and sticky notes.. and now I just.. can't. Its unbelievable how mentally draining full time jobs can be. Every now and then I'll get the sketch pad or watercolors out,but it's maybe once or twice a year now.

I've seen writers who do ko-fi for tips or writing commissions for certain stories (I remember a tf author I used to follow did this - where a story was only continued if the chapters were commissioned) - or even patreons, where they set up an early access to the newer chapters, and the cut scenes, additional content - have you thought about those? I think you've got a big enough following where it could be feasible to go part time! And maybe fund a self publishing of an original work sometime down the road!

>is that the inevitable conclusion to this fic? Did I miss this big spoiler somewhere or all the clues to it? I don't remember seeing a "Major character death" tag, either.

The major tag on the fic is "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings." You haven't missed a big spoiler or clues. The influx of "WHAT IF HE DIES" was puzzling to me, too, but I rolled with it.

I'm curious why people think Soundwave is going to die, when one of the major themes of the fic (at least to me, inside my head) is bringing people back from the dead. Not literally, of course. But... but did they see the whole point of what Rodimus is doing? Trailbreaker, Ambulon, and Mirage? Skywarp? Literally pulling Soundwave from the shadow zone, where life is not worth living?

There's actually a lot more I want to say on this, but I don't want to spoil the story. I have a FAQ planned for when the fic is done and I address death in it, and my approach to writing it vs JRO, and the aforementioned major theme.

I'm guessssssssinnnnnnng people are going the doom route because of the Scavengers, and because Soundwave keeps getting injured and can't be healed, and because... ? I feel like stakes have been high in the past, so maybe that's part of it, too. I won't say anything else for now, though.

This post got long so I'll put the rest under a cut.

>Its unbelievable how mentally draining full time jobs can be.

good god, yeah. low key, I used to be an artist (mostly hobbyist, a few pro jobs). I gave up and went back to writing because it's much easier/comes more naturally to me, and that's all I have energy for. I fuckin' mourned stopping art, to be honest. but you know what, I'd rather have Echo Garden than slog through commissions. I learned I'd rather create my own things than do things other people want me to do. so I guess learning that about myself was ... good. it's absolutely unbelievable how draining a 9-5 job is. I will admit I am jealous of people who have spouses or understanding parents that allow them to do art full time by providing a safety net in the form of housing and health insurance. jealousy is very human, you know :D surely there is a better balance out there for us ;A;

>I remember a tf author I used to follow did this - where a story was only continued if the chapters were commissioned

oooohhhhhhhh you know... I get it. I get people need money. but that doesn't sit right with me. I would not withhold fic like that.

>patreons, where they set up an early access to the newer chapters, and the cut scenes, additional content - have you thought about those?

I've thought about it only in the fanciful sense. To be honest, unless I was getting enough support to quit my job, it's not really going to change my life. Like, how do I say this. I won't have any more additional time in the week to write if I make $50 extra/month through patreon. I'll still be doing my full time job AND I'll have an obligation to write for people. Does that make sense? Unless a patreon offsets the actually draining thing in my life, it's just another thing I have to do.

Although 'early access to chapters' sits way better with me than denying future chapters UNLESS funded. Though paying for fic is a huge gray area and I don't think it's wise to poke that beast...

>I think you've got a big enough following where it could be feasible to go part time!

thank you, I appreciate your kindness here :D I don't think my following is big enough, though. I think the readership is maybe 1400 people? and a bunch of those are minors and most of the adult fandom is fucking broke, lol. (the tf fans with the money tend to be the major toy buying ones, not the fanfic reading ones. Stereotype, but that's my observation)

and part of the problem is my place of employment. I asked, years ago, if I could go part time (so I could practice art) and my boss said no. it's a full time only position ;A; which is why I say, unless patreon can fully support me, it's not really feasible. freelancing incurs a higher tax rate and you don't have any health insurance, so I'd actually have to make more than I am now... and given the number of absolutely fantastic fan artists I see struggling to make it with patreon, I know I can't (since fan artists make more than fan writers)

I hope that my answers don't sound dismissive. Thank you very much for your empathy and kind ideas. I don't think the fandom can support me monetarily in the way I would need, and I think their interest in me will drop as soon as Echo Garden is finished. I base this statement on the fact that TEG has exponentially higher stats than any of my other fics.

The people clearly want only one thing, and it will eventually end xD

If you or anyone else thinks I'm looking at this wrong and there may actually be a way I can write without dying, please let me know. I've thought about this for years and the above is what I've concluded.

Thank you again for the kind ask! <3

[magoranzz]

Kirby au rambles (behind the scenes) below :D

two months ago (or 3)

I had this au messing around in my mind for awhile, like I wanted to make it SO BAD!

But the story, writing, drawing it was just to much. But I managed to make it happen

Here are more: I was going to have each picture on each chapter of a plant that grows on the next chapter

But I pretty much scratched that since it was kinda stupid

And I was going to add color!

But it was too hard!

After I found the choice, maybe some different shades of gray in the comic?

Nah too much work.

I wasn't going to make the comic, so I gave up

Until...

Flipaclip got new brushes! THIS *points at it* HELPED ME TO HAVE MOTIVATION

"star you could've just said that we could help make this!"

NO, I'm a solo artist. I don't like to get help from others, it makes me feel like a brat, I ONLY ask if I really have to.

and When I was making it, I wanted descriptions on it so then people wouldn't be confused when reading it

So I pretty much make my first fic! I combined my writing with my art and made it into a glistening ball of PAIN

YES, PAIN. CAUSE IF I NEEDED TO MAKE GOOD STORYTELLING I HAD TO PUT 1 HOUR OF DRAWING, 24 MINUTES OF SHADING, AND 2 HOURS OF MAKING TEXT BUBBLES AND WRITING, AND PROOF READING EVERYTHING 4 TIMES WHICH TAKES ME 20 MINUTES

3 hours and 44 minutes :D

But don't worry, I done this before, only on paper.

Pretty much I made the plot in my head of how Magolor would survive or die, and how the story would go out since Mags already went through the events of RTDL

And while I was making this, I was going to have magolor die, but then people would go after me!

(WHAT IF I GET BANNED? WHAT IF I'M IGNORED?) Negative thoughts wouldn't stop, so that's why I put out a poll that said "should magolor live? It's for my au!" And surprisingly people had attention to it.

Magolor got to live, while I was in the middle of designing possessed mags

Like, have you seen those posts of writers/artists that imagined that one scene that started the book?

Yeah... That happened to me.

but yeah, getting to the ending of the comic got me finishing it QUICK, I just wanted to be done, now the finale is here

I put my final touches to the comic, and posted the last part of the Chapter

ah, now I can sit back and relax and work on my other things that are less hard.

Then, when I reread the Chapters

THEY WERE MISCOUNTED AND NOT IN ORDER

SO I GOT ON MY ASS AND FIXED ALL OF THEM EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE HAD ALREADY REBLOGGED THEM.

That's why you see a pinned masterpost about it! And I pretty much was done with it

so yep! I finally got things of of my chest