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hamcakevaletguy · 12 days

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My thoughts on the Damien situation, from the POV of someone who’s relatively uninvolved with posting on social media:

As a newer fan of Smosh myself (I watched some videos in 2012, but haven’t really kept up since, and only started regularly watching the last year or so), I went through the backlog of content that they have because I enjoyed their more recent videos. Zayna, a newer Palestinian fan, did the same and found this joke in an old TNTL disappointing and wanted him to address it firsthand and make his stance clear.

For anyone saying Damien has already made it clear that he is in support of Palestine: it’s not a given that the fan who brought up the clip would have already known about Damien’s stance on Palestine. Yes, he’s talked about it in a couple of his streams and posted Insta stories about it, but a newer fan of Smosh, not necessarily Damien himself, wouldn’t know about those unless they were looking for it because they are:

temporary (IG stories only have a lifespan of 24 hours unless you take screenshots) or

a few minutes hidden under several hours of game streams on a separate platform (he talked about Palestine several months ago and has streamed a lot since, unless you know the specific Twitch stream and the timestamp when he talked about it or had clips of it, most casual fans wouldn’t know either)

In his defense, Damien himself has recently said that more fandom stuff has reached his timeline than he would like, so maybe he thinks more people know about his activism because of that. However, even if Zayna did know, wanting a straightforward statement apologizing for the insensitive joke (because bringing up the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" [as it was called back in 2019, not accurate to what has been going on for 70+ years and counting, which is an ethnic cleansing] for shock value, as he himself said, is insensitive) is not an unreasonable request.

More under the cut

When all you have is 240 characters per reply, the things that you do choose to say matter even more. When you parse out everything in Damien's replies, he doesn't come out looking too good. Yes, he did apologize for the original joke. In his replies, he said:

using it as shock value was in poor taste and naive of him,

it was in poor taste back in 2019 and he wouldn't make it now

(in response to his first couple of replies) he is sorry for reacting in frustration and he'll learn from it,

and, in his final reply, his parting words were "With all my heart, I hope for safety for your loved ones. Be well."

However, he also says and does things that undermine his apology in the same replies:

questioning why the clip was brought up in the first place, as if bringing up old content wasn't something fans regularly do with things they're interested about and as if it's not still a public video fans can easily find,

bringing up that the fan in question had 19K followers, a fraction of the followers he has as a public figure,

saying that this conversation could have been done in private, as if an initial DM request wouldn't be buried in his other requests as a public figure, and as if he doesn't have the capability to start a DM himself to clarify things after the initial reply/post,

saying that the original tweets tagging him should have been deleted after his first response when he never asked for that, and just assumed it would happen for some reason,

deleting his replies a couple of hours later,

and blocking Zayna and several others who were only interacting with Damien through quote tweets (I'm not sure how quote tweets work, do they notify the OP?), some who don't even say anything remotely critical of him - in his defense, blocking is not inherently a bad thing, it just means that he doesn't want any further interactions from them for whatever reason. However, silencing any Palestinian voice isn't good, to say the least.

Damien has always been a proponent of “trying to understand and see from different perspectives” so his response here surprised me, personally. I get that he has a fear of being misunderstood, but jumping to the conclusion that the other party is purposefully trying to be incendiary is the opposite of that.

I'm not going to try to make excuses for him. He knows better. He's been a content creator for years. He knows he has more influence than any normal fan would. His autism is not a part of this conversation either. Mental illness is an explanation for behavior, it doesn't absolve you of the consequences of it. If you're citing Damien's autism as an excuse for his behavior, you have to also account for Zayna's autism.

People are also bringing up the possibility of Damien getting death threats as a result of this, which we have no proof of and won't have proof of unless Damien himself decides to disclose that. He has only stated that he is taking a social media break, which has been a long time coming, not necessarily only because of this, because he has been busy and tired in recent months. What we do know has happened is that Zayna has received death threats (weird of people to want the death of a Palestinian when the original argument they're defending Damien for is that he is in support of Palestinian liberation).

This isn’t an issue of cancel culture, it’s an issue of accountability and frankly, hero worship of Damien in the part of people attacking Zayna and other people on Twitter.

When the only people who had spoken about their support of Palestine in their own words, however briefly, are two or three cast members, some people are naturally going to put them on pedestals. This hero worship of Damien has been exacerbated by his image as the most politically correct member of Smosh, and Smosh’s (until recently) silence about the issue.

While we're at it, for people saying Smosh's sudden outward support for Palestine and joining Creators for Palestine is in response to backlash about Damien, or only in response to the block list going around:

It's only been a few days since the Damien's whole ordeal. Smosh is not that fast, and historically, their response to backlash would have been either complete radio silence or unlisting or privating the TNTL that the clip is from, combined with silence.

I’m sure Shayne, Ian and Courtney have been working on it for more than a few days, based on their liked posts, to get everything straightened out with the organization themselves and adding their names to the list of creators.

People have been asking for Smosh to be more public about their views on Palestine. Some of the cast members have said their piece on their personal social media, but their views could have changed. Those posts were made shortly after the events of October 7 brought even more media attention on Palestine and the Gaza Strip, which was not necessarily in favor of Palestine because of the effects of U.S. propaganda. It's been several months since then and people have a lot more information now, and more clarity.

Up until now, the only indication of Palestinian support not from social media is a brief statement from Ian who said something along the lines of "travel watermelon", while they were talking about their rejected roasts during Anthony's Funeral After Show in December, which are codewords that were used in TikTok for Free Palestine. However, this is heavily censored, behind a paywall, and temporary, because of the nature of their live shows. This support of CFP is the bare minimum of what Smosh could do, but the bare minimum is more than they were doing before.

They listed Smosh as the name under their $15,000 donation to CFP, not just Shayne, Courtney and Ian, which could be intentional, referring to Smosh as a whole company, or just referring to the three that have posted about it as a collective. Unless Smosh makes a full statement about it, themselves, it's still up in the air.

The timing of it is unfortunate. Damien has been silent about it so far, making his original posts about Palestine seem performative to some. However, it’s only been a few hours and he is on a social media break. The only thing he has briefly gone back online for is to promote something he's doing with Nintendo, which he could have been contractually obligated to do. He may or may not say something when he fully comes back from his social media break, but for now, that's everything we know. People can make their own conclusions based on all of this.

I am being very intentional with every single word I say on here, as to not be misconstrued in any way, however, if I missed anything or anyone else has anything to add (constructively, like images of either the actual conversation had by Damien and Zayna, or the cast and crew's support of Palestine prior to CFP, not outright anger and disagreement), please do. If anyone has any genuine questions about the situation, please feel free to message me directly and not bring it into this post, which is supposed to be a civil discussion surrounding more facts and events, less speculation. If I feel those questions have relevant points to add on here, I will add on in reblogs.

#damien haas #free palestine #smosh discourse #smosh

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lynxgriffin · 9 months

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Small Update

Hey everyone, just wanted to give a little bit of a heads up here that there's probably going to be a slowdown in art for a couple of weeks. I know I've got a giant backlog of both regular doodles and Eldritchrune asks in my inbox, but right now my day job's a bit more intense than usual, and I've also got some real rough family stuff that I'm going through. I'm also still working on the next longer Eldritchrune comic (the Kris sacrifice scene), but since it's a long one I'm not yet halfway through it.

I'll keep answering questions in the inbox, and there will still be FPFN on Friday nights, but there will probably be a lot less art streams and art posting until I can get through this real life stuff and catch up with the huge backlog. I'm hoping in about two weeks or so it'll be back to normal in terms of art.

Thanks always for following, liking things and sending comments...have a happy Alphys for your patience!!

#life update

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mylovelies-docx · 11 months

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Sorry, I Love You - Part 7

Heyooooooooooo. I'm back and there are no longer any parts backlogged - I'mma have to get to work on finishing this series lol

Plot: You and Bucky have a good thing going - best of friends that also have more than a little chemistry between the sheets. Everything is fine until you develop feelings for the man who doesn't want a relationship. What will happen when Bucky finds out?

C/W: Meeting new people, feels

Word Count: 1,900

Tag List: NOW CLOSED! If you'd like to keep up with this story, please follow my blog and turn on notifications! ❤️ you :)

[Prologue][Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Part 4][Part 5][Part 6]

The sunset blazes through the kitchen window, bathing you and Bucky in soft golden light. The focus you had not even five minutes ago is a distant memory when faced with the view in front of you. Bucky looks so fine sitting across from you with the light shadowing one side of his face and illuminating his shorter hair.

You still can’t get over the fact that Bucky actually cut it – you’d mentioned a haircut on more than one occasion, but he’d always brushed it off and said it wasn’t his style anymore. You disagreed then and you absolutely disagree now. His long hair was gorgeous in its own right, but nothing compares to the uninhibited view of his face now. His hair is mussed in spiky clumps where Bucky has run his fingers through it in frustration, but you can’t help but think how good it looks even like this.

You’re pretending to type something on your laptop, ensuring Bucky thinks that you’re actually working and not staring at him like the love-struck idiot you are. Every once in a while you’ll catch his eyes flickering up to meet yours, so all you can do is act like you’re thinking about something really hard and you’d just so happened to have blanked out on him.

It’s been quiet between the two of you for the last 30 minutes – the vigor and excitement for planning ratcheting down once you got into the gritty details. That’s why you’re not expecting the thump, thump, thump that echoes down the hallway from the front door. Bucky’s head jerks up and he looks at you with a quirked eyebrow, asking silently if you knew someone was coming over. You shake your head and rise from the table.

Stepping under the kitchen archway and into the living room, you pad across the carpet and into the entry hall. “Just a moment!” you yell out to the stranger behind the door. Without looking, you slide the dagger hidden inside the entryway table into your hand and approach the door. Rising slightly onto your tiptoes, you peer through the peephole in the door.

A couple stands on your front porch, the view fishbowling to where it appears their middles are huge but their heads and feet are the size of golfballs. You look over your shoulder at Bucky, who stands behind the living room wall with gun ready. You laugh silently and mouth the Greten’s at him. He puffs his cheeks out when he exhales and drops his gun, tucking it into the waistband at the small of his back. You slip your own knife up and into your sleeve.

Opening the door with a reserved but polite smile on your face, you greet the nextdoor neighbors. “Oh, hello! I wasn’t expecting company.”

The tall woman before you blushes slightly and dips her head. “Apologies. We were just wanting to stop by and introduce ourselves. We wanted to wait a day and allow you the time to settle in. I’m Tessa and this is my husband Christopher, we live right over there in the blue house.” Tessa points to the home directly beside yours with several windows boarded over and paint peeling off in some spots.

You smile brightly at the pair and introduce yourself before yelling behind you, “James, we have guests!” Turning back to the couple, you step aside and usher them in. “Come, come! It’s freezing out there.”

Christopher tries to decline, but you won’t hear of it. You and Bucky had already decided to meet and befriend this couple, so them showing up works out well. Their dossiers noted that they were a well-off family that knew everyone and everything going on within the community, but you can’t help but note the discrepancies you find between the surveillance photos taken a year ago and the people in front of you now.

Christopher’s thinning hair and exposed scalp are covered by a thin toboggan that can’t be effective in this weather, and you see that Tessa’s dress is threadbare with nearly half a dozen patches when she takes off her overcoat. Regardless of the state of their clothing, Tessa offers you the small bowl she’d been holding in her hands.

“It’s my grandmother’s recipe. Everyone says it’s the best they’ve ever had!” She smiles proudly at this statement and you can’t help but grin back.

“Well, I’m excited to try them!”

Bucky walks into the living room, acting as if he hadn’t been behind the wall with a gun only moments ago. You escort Christopher and Tessa further inside and close the door behind them. Bucky walks up and shakes Christopher’s hand and introduces himself.

“I am so sorry,” you begin, “but I haven’t started on dinner yet. I can whip something up real fast, though!”

“No, no, dear,” Tessa declines. “We didn’t mean to intrude – only wanted to introduce ourselves and then get out of your hair.”

“Nonsense,” you say. “The more the merrier.” You pat Bucky on the shoulder as you walk by him and into the kitchen. “Tessa and I will be in here. I’ll let you guys know when the food is ready.”

Bucky nods and holds his hand out to the couch, offering Christopher a seat. Bucky takes the armchair across from him (which has a loaded gun stuffed between the arm and seat cushion). With your hands full, you look at Tessa and nod your head towards the kitchen.

She starts to shuffle across the living room carpet towards you, her hands clasped in front of her. “We really didn’t mean to intrude on you and your husband. We just –”

You let out a hearty guffaw to mask your displeasure in correcting her and shake your head. “He’s my brother,” you explain to them.

She stops where she’s at, standing behind the sofa next to Christopher. They share a look with each other before Christopher turns to Bucky. “Brother?” he asks.

You and Bucky look at each other with small grins. There’s no way you could ever pass for blood-relatives.

“He’s adopted,” you say.

“Oh, well in that case,” Tessa says as she continues her walk towards you and the kitchen, “I have a son about your age…”

***

Dinner was a simple affair, but the Greten’s seemed to enjoy it immensely. Barely any food remains on the shared plates in front of you, your guests having taken second and third helpings. You’re glad to see that they enjoyed the meal.

The conversations were very surface level ‘getting to know you’ topics, which is always the most tedious part of meeting new people. But laying the foundation for your life in order to establish your cover sometimes: like now, when you and Bucky can relax into an easy ‘sibling’ rivalry and rib on each other. It keeps everything lighthearted and doesn’t allow you think on how this would have played out differently as ‘husband and wife’.

The couple are in their 50s and have lived in this town their whole lives, so if there’s anything you and Bucky need to find out then they’re probably the ones to help with that. They have 5 children ranging in ages from 28 to 13, all living at home with the exception of the eldest son that Tessa is dying for you to meet.

You laugh merrily as you follow the Gretens back to the front door.

“You both must come,” Tessa is saying as she pulls on her coat. “Most everyone in town is going to be there and they need to meet you.”

Christopher slides the thin toboggan out of his pocket and places it on his head. “You both are going to be a hit: it’s been so long since anyone new has come around.”

Bucky stands next to you and puts his arm on your head, leaning on you as if you were short enough to be leaned on. You scrunch your face and slide out from under him, elbowing him in the side as you do it. “We wouldn’t miss it,” Bucky replies.

“Great!” Tessa claps her hand and ushers Christopher out the door. “Saturday at 9pm. Don’t forget!”

“We won’t,” you agree.

After a quick goodbye, you close and lock the door.

“They were nice…” you begin.

“But…?” Bucky continues.

“But…something isn’t adding up.”

Bucky hums his agreement.

You both stand at the door, contemplating what could have happened to this sweet couple since the intel was gathered, but without the people in question there to ask (and it being much too rude to ask) there isn’t much point.

You walk away to begin cleaning the kitchen. Tessa offered to help, but you wouldn’t hear of it – after her stories of how hard she’s worked to take care of her family and this community, you couldn’t dream of accepting. Bucky follows you into the kitchen and removes the plates from the table. You work in silence, the camaraderie from dinner fading away into something else. Not uncomfortable, but nowhere near as companionable as the silence used to be in the beginning of the year.

You and Bucky used to lay in the quiet dark after sex. Clothes on the floor, sheets rumpled, hair messy. There wasn’t much that needed to be said that couldn’t wait until after you’d caught your breaths. But the peace that arrived after the frantic activities led to you falling asleep in his arms on more than one occasion.

But you were always alone come morning.

The clack of plates stacking on top of each other rouses you from your thoughts. You’d been mindlessly scrubbing dishes while Bucky dried, but you realize that your hands have been floating in the soapy water with nothing to do. You quickly pull the plug and watch the liquid form a tight spiral over the drain. The glug, glug, glug precedes Bucky as he clears his throat.

“You wanna…” You look up at him as he says this and see him nod his head in the direction of the living room. “Uh. Wanna watch a movie?” His arm scratches nervously at the back of his neck and you can tell he’s uncomfortable. Why would he ask?

“No,” you say. “No, I think I’m gonna go to bed. Tomorrow’s the first day at the facility, ya know?” You give him a brittle smile as you say this. Stepping forward, you make sure not to brush against Bucky as you slide past him and out towards your bedroom. You hear him release a heavy sigh behind you, probably glad that you didn’t take him up on the offer.

He may have only mentioned watching a movie together to be polite, but a couch and a dark room with Bucky hadn’t ended platonically the last several times it’s happened. The memories will probably prevent movie nights together for as long as you still have feelings for him.

Which will mostly likely be for the rest of your life.

@jackiehollanderr @rabbitrabbit12321 @12345sebby @blackwood-bodecker-housewife @lauraashley93 @themorningsunshine @happinessinthebeing @nash-dara @calwitch @stany0url0calwh0res111 @pono-pura-vida @learisa @introverbatim @kentokaze @marvelogic @kaz11283

Part 8

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x y/n #bucky fanfic #Sorry I Love You

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ladykailitha · 10 months

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Royal Pain Part 11

Hi! It’s been a rough week and I burned up my backlog. This is the last finished chapter I have left and with the busy weekend I had with my sister and getting a migraine yesterday and today...I don’t if I’ll have anything ready for Thursday.

Also since I finished Roads, I have leaned more into The Boy With a Bat Book 2. I’ve completely overhauled chapter two because I rushed from the play (which was in March) and jumped straight to June and meeting the lovely Robin. But I realized that I could draw that out more. Build up the relationship between Eddie and Steve more. Play on Eddie’s friends clashing with the “Let’s Pick on Steve” style of love from the Monster Hunter gang up a bit.

I’ll also put up a poll to see what other stories you guys might be interested in seeing me do next.

But on to Erica, Chrissy and Argyle’s first day. Still no Eddie, but don’t worry, he’s not forgotten, the dinner ‘date’ is next.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10

***

Chrissy and Argyle turned up for work the next morning and Steve was vibrating with excitement.

“Hi, guys!” he greeted them cheerfully. “This is Erica Sinclair. She’s going to being doing henna for our clients this summer as a bit of summer special to get more causal clients through the door.”

“Totally rad!” Argyle said with a thumbs up. Steve was pleased to note that his eyes were clear and the faint aroma of weed was gone.

Chrissy just nodded.

Steve turned around and grabbed a couple of oranges from the fruit basket. He tossed one to Chrissy and one to Argyle.

“Until I can get the synthetic skin in, this will have to do,” he explained. “I want to you tattoo something simple into the rind of the fruit. Get creative. Have fun.” He looked at his watch. “You each have a room with a chair set up with everything you’ll need. Don’t do colors yet. I just want to get a feel for how you work. You’ll have one hour.”

Steve watched Chrissy first she had a deft and steady hand. She did a gynandromorphic butterfly. The right wing only had basic stripes of a female butterfly and the left wing had the spots and showy patterns of a male butterfly.

It was an interesting choice. He left her to finish up the left wing as he wandered over to Argyle’s room.

He started on a surfboard. He was bent over the fruit with an intensity that lacked in the man’s usual demeanor. His long hair covered most of what he was doing but Steve could see it was a well-thought out piece.

He waved at Argyle to get his attention. Argyle looked up with a big smile. “Hey, dude!”

“You’ve got a really good head for design,” Steve told him. “You fill the space without making it look crowded.”

Argyle’s smile turned into a grin. “Thanks!”

“Since you’re almost done, can I talk to you about something really quick?” Steve asked.

“This is about the weed, huh?”

Steve nodded. “I don’t care what you do in your off hours. Just don’t bring it to work, get caught with it on your person, or come to work baked. You’re are an amazing artist and I would really like to keep you.”

Argyle nodded. “The big meetup was a bit of an accident. I forgot to account for inhaling my roommate’s blunt on top of my morning hit and was still a little too toasty.”

Steve nodded. “Fair enough. This is one job that takes care and precision and since we’re doing permanent work on people. Messing up is little more...”

“Heinous?” Argyle asked, cocking his head to the side.

Steve burst out laughing. “Yeah, that! As long as you follow those three things, you and I are good.”

“You don’t care I smoke weed?” Argyle asked curiously.

Steve shook his head. “It’s fine. I just can’t have it here, I’ve worked to hard for everything to go up in smoke.”

Argyle nodded sagely. “I will abstain while I’m working for you, dude. I wouldn’t want to hurt you in that way.”

“You don’t have to completely abstain,” Steve assured him. “Just not on days you have to come in.”

Argyle gave him a thumbs up. Steve looked at his watch. “You’ve got about enough time to finish that up and the hour will be done. Come back out when your done.”

He stopped to check in on Erica. He peaked his head in her room where she was testing out the different colored henna on herself. She was doing a pretty lotus pattern on her left hand with the different dyes.

“You really do have a steady hand,” he said as he strolled up to her.

She grinned up at him. “Thanks! The darker the red is, the harder it is to show up on my hand. See?” She held up her hand so he could get a better look at it.

“Yeah. Does the dye have to be red?” he asked.

She nodded. “Real henna starts off bright orange and darkens over time. There are other dyes that can be used for henna, but it’s not from the plant of the same name.”

Steve nodded. “I got you the paste stuff, but I can get you other kinds if you would prefer that.”

“That’s fine for now,” Erica said. “The powder isn’t shelf stable and can go bad. If I decide to do it full time, I’ll think about going to the powder, but this will work.”

Steve nodded. “Wanna come see what Chrissy and Argyle did for their first tattoos?”

Erica grinned and immediately jumped to her feet and followed him out to the reception area.

Argyle and Chrissy were leaning up against counter chatting with Robin.

“Hey, guys!” Steve greeted. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Argyle and Chrissy turned, throwing both of their oranges at him at the same time.

Steve caught them both which raised eyebrows.

“Dude!” Argyle said. “That was wicked.”

“Shit,” Chrissy said with a giggle. “I forgot you were on the baseball team, too.”

“You were on the baseball team?” Argyle asked.

“In high school,” Steve said with a shrug. “And the basketball team and the swim team.”

“Wow.”

Steve chuckled. “It was so my parents could pay to have someone else watch me instead of doing it themselves. But I had fun. I was captain of the basketball team and co-captain of the boys swim team.”

“You have depths, bro,” Argyle said. “That’s so cool.”

Steve blushed. “Thanks.” He handed one of the oranges to Erica. “Hold this, please.”

She rolled her eyes but wisely said nothing.

He looked at the orange in his hand and saw it was Chrissy’s. “I guess will start with this one.”

Chrissy grinned at him.

“It’s a good design,” he told her. “It’s unique. The lines are strong without being too thick.” He peeled the orange and looked at the rind. “Right, okay, so they go deeper in some spots and not as deep in others. So you’ll need to work on consistency.”

She nodded. “I didn’t even realize I was doing it. That’s a neat trick.”

Steve smiled at her and tossed the orange back to her. She sat down with it and studied where she had gone wrong with it. He took the other orange from Erica.

“This was your first time with a tattoo gun, right?”

Argyle nodded. “Thanks for setting it up for me. It was bit different from the stick and poke my nana taught me.”

“You were taught how to do the stick and poke style?” Steve asked. He felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Stick and poke done by amateurs was dangerous but knowing that he had been taught to do it put him at ease.

Argyle nodded.

“If you want, I can get you a proper set,” Steve said. “If that would make you more comfortable.”

Argyle lit up. “I have my own set my nana gave me, I can bring that by and have you take a look. But I wanna learn how to use a gun, too.”

“That would be great,” Steve agreed. “Bring them tomorrow, I’d love to take a look.”

Argyle beamed at him.

Steve lifted up Argyle orange. “The style is good. The lines are clean.” He peeled the orange and winced. “It’s a bit too deep.” He tossed it to Argyle for him to take a look.

Argyle stumbled with it and it fell to the floor. He picked up with a grimace. He looked at the orange and winced too. “Way too deep. I tattooed the orange and not just the rind.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “I think it’s because with the stick and poke method it’s easier to see how deep the needle goes and with a gun it’s all about pressure.”

Argyle nodded. “That makes sense. Looks like I’m buying a lot of fruit in the next couple of days.”

Robin chuckled. “At least you can claim it on your taxes.”

Argyle’s eyes went wide and he smiled broadly. “I didn’t think of that, that’s awesome!”

Chrissy giggled. “It’s great doing something like tattooing for a living because you can claim all sorts of things as tax write offs. Took your best friend out to dinner, talked about tattoos? Business meeting. Bought new ink that looked pretty, and you might not ever use it, but you don’t know that, business expense. It’s great.”

Argyle looked as though his mind had been completely blown.

“You won’t need a lot of fruit anyway,” Steve said. “I’m getting synthetic skin in later this week so you learn about how different colors appear on different skin tones. It’s important to learn because one yellow might look good on a person, but not the next.”

“I’m having our friend Will do up binders for you two,” Robin said, holding up Steve’s three-ring binder that had his portfolio in it. “So that we can start getting you clients, too.”

Steve nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. “That won’t be until the end of the summer. So in the mean time, we’ll be building up your tattoo skills and to talk to clients. Then probably after the 4th of July, we’ll start you off with the smaller and simpler tattoos, get a good foundation in.”

They both nodded.

He turned to Erica. “I’ve already started advertising your henna. So if you have pics of some of the work you did for your friends get them to Will so we can display them.”

She saluted. “Roger that!”

“Also I’ve been looking into it,” he continued, “would you be willing to do henna nights for bridal parties?”

Erica wrinkled her nose in thought. “I don’t think I can. That’s a lot of work and it has to set overnight, I’m good, but not that good.”

Steve nodded. “Fair enough. That’s why I asked first, I knew Robin would get calls about it and now she has a firm answer to give.”

Robin nodded.

Steve blushed and ducked his head. “I had this idea and it sounds stupid in my head, but...”

“I think it’s cool,” Robin said sticking her tongue out at him.

Chrissy cocked her head. “What’s the idea?”

“I thought we could lean more into royal theme a bit,” Steve muttered to his feet, “go by nicknames,”

Argyle blinked at him a moment. “Like what?”

“Lady, Marquis, Duchess, Stewart...” he mumbled.

Robin grinned manically. “Go on tell them what your name would be.”

“King.”

Chrissy cackled. “That would be perfect!”

Argyle just stared him blankly. “Wha’?”

“You see,” Robin began, “the reason for name, the decor, everything is based off a nickname from high school. King Steve.”

“Who was a massive asshole, by the way,” Chrissy said with a wink.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Until my senior year when I realized I didn’t want to conform to what my parents wanted me to be and gladly handed the crown to the next poor schmuck.”

“But when we were looking for a name for the new shop...” Robin said in a sing-song voice.

“It just made sense, a royal pain?” Steve said. “That’s me to a tee. So I kinda leaned into the whole vibe.”

“So you want to lean into that a little further?” Erica asked. “Because I am so claiming Lady. Not sure if I want to do Lady Applejack or Lady E. Because just Lady is the name of a dog and I ain’t into that shit.”

Chrissy laughed. “I’ll happily take just Duchess because while it can be a dog, it’s also the name of several kickass characters.”

“Oohh...” Argyle said. “I could be the Marquis de Carabas! I named myself after a fairy tale!”

Steve frowned in confusion. “What now?”

Argyle bounced in excitement. “It’s from the book, ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman. It’s so rad. It’s about this dude who finds himself in a London that is weirder and wilder then the one you see. One of the bros he meets is the Marquis who has this wicked black coat. But he got his name from the fairy tale Puss in Boots. But not like the Shrek one.”

Steve blinked. “Yeah sure. It’ll be a work in progress to be honest. And I won’t start it immediately. Just an idea to float out there.”

They all nodded. Steve smiled at them. This was a going to be the most fun he’s had in a long time and he gets to share it with all of them. And he had Eddie to thank for it all.

He couldn’t wait until tonight.

***

Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Epilogue

Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk @renaissan-vvitch @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @plyerice27 @thedragonsaunt @chaoticlovingdreamer @sapphirecobalt-1 @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666 @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @justforthedead89 @emly03 @bookworm0690 @aizawa-emma @redfreckledwolf @thesuninyaface @bookbinderbitch @yikes-a-bee @littlewildflowerkitten @scheodingers-muppet @archermightbegay @hallucinatedjosten @ellietheasexylibrarian @anne-bennett-cosplayer @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @bestwifehaver @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx

#My writing #stranger things #steddie #tattoo artist steve #ladykailtiha writes

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jbbartram-illu · 1 month

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Real person message!! When making your sculptures (or other things too really!) do you ever get bored of making the same kind of guy many times? And if yes, do you have a way to spice up the process, or do you prefer to just move on to something new? (I love your work a ton! Both when the types are very different but also when they are like siblings :D)

Oh man YES I do get tired of Particular Guys! Sometimes because the whole process is so labour-intensive (hello, Woodsbeasts & big Bird Ladies), sometimes just because I run out of creative steam on 'em (most recently, sphinxes), Thankfully (because the timelines of pottery are so so so long) just not making them for a batch or two will give me a minimum 6 month break & by the time I think of going back they feel fresh & exciting again.

I also have the benefit of pottery being the more flexible part of my job (I'm also an illustrator/graphic designer) - when it started to become a viable part of my practice, I promised myself that, with the exception of commissions/prepping for particular sales, most of my batches would be of whatever I felt like making at the time. As opposed to my other work, which takes the shape of particular projects (a book, a report for a client, etc), I can just tootle away at my pottery desk, sculpting weird beasts that make me happy. This has worked well for me & I plan to stick with it as an approach for the time being.

Mugs/vessels are a bit different, as the actual making of the forms almost becomes muscle memory (especially the slab-built mugs), so it feels less creatively draining. I can, however, burn out on particular types of vessel decoration, eg. the EIGHT (8?!?) medieval-marginalia inspired pieces that are in the glaze kiln as I type. They took SO LONG and by the last couple of mugs I was full-on cursing my choices (tho if they turn out well I know I'll forget all about the pain & go oooohhhh let's make more. This is how my terrible brain works).

So yeah! Burnout happens, but I don't let it worry me because I know my weird little guys can wait until I'm ready to make 'em again :)

Note: this starts with 'real person message' because in Oct 2023 I got a bunch of annoying spam messages & asked people for real asks...then I got a ton of lovely Qs & am still working through the backlog in...uhhh...April 2024. Oops/thank you for your patience?!

#artblog #pottery #ceramics #handbuiltceramics #ask #ask answered #thenearsightedmicroraptor

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swordfright · 5 months

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oh god uh okay. jesus christ here we go. sigrid is c!dream's daughter from one of the alternate (i.e. bad) endings of ouroboros. sam thinks he's her father but neither of them is quite sure because, well. she doesn't look like sam. she looks like this...

there's no deep dark biome on the server, so nobody has ever seen a warden before. they literally do not know what the fuck she is or how to care for her. luckily, dream manages to escape the torment labyrinth when sigrid is a toddler. he takes her directly to phil because phil is like, old as balls. surely this old man knows something about this species, right? wrong.

raising her is challenging. she's completely blind, so she needs help to get around (good thing techno has not one, not two, but two-dozen dogs that can be trained as service animals.) they also discover, when she's around nine or so, that her screams can inflict serious damage on anyone within hearing distance. doomsday trio do their best, and she gets...some semblance of a normal childhood. normal by dsmp standards, anyway.

after their escape, when sigrid's still little, dream meets up with punz again and they continue to pursue their research together. dream leaves for days at a time, then weeks, then months, returning to the arctic less and less frequently. in his defense, it's not his fault he never wanted a kid. he's also got a pretty intense complex around not being seen with her, since he knows any association with him puts sigrid in danger. what ends up happening is that she basically gets raised by c!emeralds. her personality is much closer to techno's than dream's.

needless to say, she and dream have a complicated relationship. i've got about 15k words of him teaching her necromancy collecting dust in my drafts lmao

one of her Big Things is that she gets lonelier as she grows up and realizes there isn't anyone her age around to play with. the closest she's got to a friend is michael, who's a couple years older and has been inducted as a Real Syndicate Member (this is the ouroboros timeline, so sam never killed ranboo.) this leads to her rebellious phase, which involves a lot of exploring outside the perimeter of the arctic with her dogs. she eventually befriends another little girl who's in a similar boat (there are hardly any kids on the server! just boring grown-ups! it's not fair!) and the two of them meet up in secret to go on stupid dangerous adventures. phil and techno never see this other kid and are fully convinced that sigrid made up an imaginary friend to play with. in reality, the other kid is quackity's daughter. so uh. yes, this situation does eventually blow up in everyone's faces.

i'm gonna cut this off here sdfghgfd thanks for taking an interest tho!! i have a backlog of sigrid drawings, maybe i'll be brave and post more of them someday...

#i love her sm #personality-wise she's like if naruto was a stoner #she's not like dream at allll #and Q's kid is like if regina george from mean girls was like an 9 year old #the two of them are unstoppable #snake fic aus #sigrid

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sysig · 9 months

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Goal: Be normal

Obstacle: Watching literally any interpretation of Treasure Island, apparently

#Why's it Stevenson again. What has he done for me lately (Jekyll and Hyde)#That was like the one book that I just straight up refused to read in school and it's back to haunt me #And honestly I'd be fine if it was just one thing! But no it's a weird fucked up web of loving stuff!#'Cause first of all it's RLS as previously states - Jekyll and Hyde author (love) which just puts me in a clone/doppleganger state of mind #Okay fine I'm already there you got me #But then you've got me in a pirates mood which my brain Is Still After All This Time in love (love!) with the Pirate Fic #And it super doesn't help that Treasure Planet is also sci-fi as if I wasn't aliens enough lol #But like the relationship between Silver and Hawkins and growing into your own person and just jfskalfsdf #Stop being good! Stop it! You're giving me Feelings and Feelings spawn Ideas and I Am Trying To Edit!!#I am backlogged to fuck btw I am suffering :'D I legit might have to pump the breaks I have so much to edit #We're talking in the hundreds - meanwhile my brain is trying to point me back to the Pirate Fic because look ♥ Authors (love) Stories (love)#Stop your nonsense! I'm trying to focus!#Doesn't help that I haven't drawn for a couple days either so The Energy is building meanwhile I'm trying to wall up against the flood #Stop making! The two halves are out of whack! I'm making way way Way more than I can keep up with!#Editing has gotten boring as well which is :/ It did used to be relaxing but I'm just so impatient now #I want to draw! But then I also want to show off what I've drawn! But I want it to be pretty!#I need to tear through this notebook - drawing brain likes this idea and editing brain hates it - 'cause the paper is subpar :/#Dark lines with a grain that catches graphite not fun to work with - fine to draw on but a pain to edit #Anyway lol ♪ Back to what I was doing before #Update: WAIT I forgot the Feelings I had about Arrow fjdslakfdjf #The dynamics are non-specific and apply all the way around because I say so

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valhallansim · 2 months

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I miss you :( Are you okay? It's been a while.

Hi anon, thank you for your concern!!

Not to worry, I'm mostly doing okay! The last few months have been a rollercoaster for me and my family, but things are finally settling down a little bit after all the chaos. It's not all bad stuff, though, I have also been very busy with finishing up the illustrated children's book me, my mom and a friend of mine have been working on for a long time. I have since sent the draft to a couple of publishers and am waiting for a response!

As for why I haven't been active on here, the answer is fairly simple: I haven't felt like playing the SIms much at all. Not necessarily because of the state of the game, but just because I've also been trying out a lot of games in my backlog that I have owned for years but never touched (I just finished Inscryption yesterday and I was FLOORED by how good this game was). Also, BG3 came out and ate up all my time for a good while lmao

Anyway, I am not planning to abandon this blog and I'm definitely looking forward to the moment I feel the drive to play the Sims again! Thank you all for sticking by, and for those that have sent very sweet messages inquiring about my wellbeing: thank you so much! <3

I hope everyone is doing well and is still enjoying the game!

#valhallan talks #valhallan asks

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veliseraptor · 3 months

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Fic Writer Interview

I was tagged by @anghraine - thank you!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

under my main pseudonym that I actually use these days, 610. total, across pseuds, we're looking at 1,013.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

4,930,564, which is so close to 5 million!!! we'll see if I hit that threshold this year, I might if all goes well with big bang fic

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I thought I could do this from memory and I was so close, only missed two.

Life in Reverse (13,990)

With Absolute Splendor (10,436)

some good mistakes (6,551)

The Villain Wrangler (4,445)

half a league onward (4,437)

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

I do not, because I don't know what to say, get overwhelmed, fall behind, get more overwhelmed, and ultimately end up with a backlog I don't feel capable of dealing with so I just don't. I feel bad about this periodically (often) but I don't do anything with that feeling. Just kinda feel bad.

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

I've written a lot of fics with angsty endings but I might have to give this one to Mercy, because that was a very mean fic on the whole. arguably even meaner than my other murder/suicide fic.

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

I have a hard time with this question because I feel like most times my happy endings are at least touched with some kind of bitterness or loss or at least underlying open door that could be a problem down the line, or, like, lingering trauma.

but on the other hand I'm sure I have written generally happy endings in my backlog of fics, there's just a lot of fic in there so it's hard for me to pull them out, because they're probably also the ones that I find less memorable.

in some ways I think With Absolute Splendor might get this one, because it feels like it has ones of the strongest sense of earned catharsis, even if everything isn't all the way fixed. there's probably happier endings in terms of world state, but that's one where the ending feels happier because it doesn't start that way. but how this grace thing works is also one of the fics where I feel like it's on the whole softer/tenderer than my usual work.

7. Do you write crossovers?

not really! I wrote a few once upon a time, and a couple pastiches (one fandom in the style of another fandom), but those are years behind me and I'm not generally a crossover person as a rule.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

oh yes. most of it more entertaining than truly upsetting, but there are a few exceptions. my favorite remains the person who was really bothered by the fact that my Black Jewels Trilogy fic wasn't High School Musical fic. still no idea what was going on there.

9. Do you write smut?

sure do. I haven't been writing as much these days (but then, I haven't been writing as much these days, full stop) and I've never been all that much of a pwp writer but it's still very much a part of my writing.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

once, some time ago - I think it was Life in Reverse got posted on Wattpad. oh, though there was also another MCU fic that got reposted on AO3, but the person deleted it pretty quickly when I commented to inform them I didn't appreciate their doing so.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! into a few languages and it's always super cool and flattering to me.

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

I have the one in progress but never anything I've finished/posted. I've done a lot of RP over the years but I always kept it pretty squarely separate from my fic writing.

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

I've had a lot of all-time favorite ships, and there are plenty for fandoms I'm no longer really in that stick around in my head for longer than I'm really participating in the fandom (Celegorm/Aredhel is notable for this), but I think I will say that Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen occupies a very particular kind of sort of insane place in my brain that feels relatively unique. so I'll give this one to them.

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

oh lord, so many of them. mostly various MCU wips I'll probably never finish but where I'm like "this was a good idea and I like what I have of it so far, too bad the MCU killed my caring about the MCU." outside of those...I'm so loathe to accept that things will or might remain unfinished, so I'll go with one of those and say the "Hela is around when Thor and Loki are growing up" one, which would've been so good and I still sometimes toy with the idea of returning to, only, you know. aforementioned "caring about the original canon" issue making it hard to actually do the writing thing.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I've been slowly filling out this meme for a while and I left this question conspicuously blank almost to the last. I think my strongest area is probably dialogue, though I worry that I'm giving myself too much credit there. I think I'm pretty good at writing it, though. it certainly is one of the pieces of writing that comes most easily to me.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

description and action, for sure. I tend to skimp on description in a way that probably weakens much of my writing (I have so much respect for writers with good descriptive language), and I loathe writing action scenes the way that I loathe writing few things - it always feels like wrestling a bear. I usually know what I want to have happen as a result but getting there is just. very hard.

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

something you gotta be very careful with. I was going to say I almost never do it, but the one exception to that is Lymond Chronicles where I do it a lot, but that's because it's a fairly important part of the style of canon and I'm just. following that lead. otherwise, I tend to shy away from it personally, partly because I write from pretty deep in a character's head and if they don't understand what's being said in another language then that's what I want to convey in the story, rather than giving the reader privileged access to what's being said that the character doesn't have.

does that sound really pretentious? probably.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

technically I wrote a cracky Harry Potter fic first, but I consider my first actual fandom to be Wheel of Time.

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

either bingjiu or beefleaf are two pairings that I love and have a lot of strong feelings about but haven't actually managed to write anything for, and both are on my list as like...just #waiting for the right idea.

also hua cheng/mu qing, which is a tiny pairing of my heart that Needs Me (or whatever) and I know the kind of fic I want to write for it but actually executing it is, as usual, proving harder.

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

it fluctuates wildly depending on mood, but I'll give this one for now to the backyard is full of bones - it was the first project I bound into a book, which I feel like says something for it.

tagging @gloriousmonsters, @curiosity-killed, @mikkeneko, @brawlite, and @feralkwe; not actually sure how many people I'm "supposed" to tag on this one so if you want to do it consider yourself tagged as well.

#lise memes #confessions of a frustrated writer #memeing instead of dealing with my bad feelings

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kirchefuchs · 4 months

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A couple lighter thoughts to help balance the angst my brain shot at you.

Number one: I heard a comedy video with a story where this woman saw a squirrel stuck in a well and her solution was to take her husband's shoelaces, eat a full box of popsicles for the sticks, and build a ladder so the squirrel could climb out. My brain combined this with the theory of Peanuts the Hatchetfield pocket squirrel being Tinky's other parent and thinking "Yes, Tinky would definitely do this."

And number two just happened cause I was listening to They're only human from the death note musical and ended up picturing Tinky as Rem and Blinky as Ryuk.

Both of these thoughts are very fun, and I like them a lot. Tho I only got around to drawing something quick for the first one, unfortunately. I do get what you mean by the song, tho. I really really like the idea :D

Regarding Peanuts and the LiB's parents, do we actually know anything about their parents in canon? If they have parents at all? I don’t remember anything about it, though I'm not super on top of all the lore, and I also tend to forget a lot of things. Still a fun topic to think about though

(I'm gonna try to zoom through your asks right now, cuz I have quite the backlog, lol. I wanna get through these before I post other stuff)

#fanart #ask #traditional art #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #tinky #tinky starkid #tinky npmd #t'noy karaxis #ted spankoffski #peanuts the hatchetfield pocket squirrel #tinky redemption arc

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maleyanderecafe · 6 months

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Hey there! Have you played Where the Two Flowers Meet? It's made by the same creator as Sweet Valentine and it's SO much fun. I'm pretty sure one of the main charas is a yandere even though there's no yandere tag. Really recommend it if you haven't tried it yet (do heed the TWs tho)

I will be honest, although I did see this in my itchio dashboard a long time ago, I didn't end up playing it because of my giant (and still giant) backlog of yandere games. I am glad that I got this ask for it because man, syllphana did it again with their seriously amazing story telling and characters, which is expected from the creator of Sweetest Valentine. Keep in mind there are a lot of warnings including suicide amongst other things, but Where the Two Flowers Meet is a great scifi style yandere story with some bittersweet endings. This game is rather long with about 10 different endings so the summary for this will be quite long as well.

The story starts with a man waking up in a hospital, having lost his right eye, right arm and has amnesia. While in this state, he is visited by a doctor who introduces himself as Caleb. He tell the man that his name is Aran and that the two of them are lovers. Aran is of course entirely surprised by this, having not remembered the 10 years of them being together and is worried about his current state. Caleb tells him that he tried to jump out of a building, thus the injuries and amnesia and that he's here to help me recall who he is and to take care of him as his injuries grow. Caleb starts to recount the two's history slowly as the days go by.

The history of Caleb and Aran are slowly drip fed throughout the first couple of chapters of the story as Aran tries to figure out what's gong on, but for the sake of not going back and forth I'll summarize most of it together here. All of this is done through Caleb's point of view.

Caleb first meets Aran while visiting his grandparent's old cottage one day to pay respects to him only to be spooked by a intruder. Caleb ends up meeting Aran who is trying to take care of the garden there. Aran seemed to have met Caleb's grandfather a ways back and became friends, basically becoming his gardener of sort. The two of them get closer afterwards with them even adopting a cat that wandered into the garden. Unfortunately, the cat ends up eating a poisonous flower and gets rushed to the hospital. The cat ends up dying due to consuming too much. After a while and burying the cat, we get to see Aran painting some things in the main room. Aran asks Caleb what he sees with the paintings, but when asked in response, Aran simply states that he paints without purpose, something that Caleb doesn't understand. While Caleb believes you have to earn the right to be born else be useless, Aran believes that life doesn't necessarily have a purpose or meaning. The two of their philosophies seem to contradict each other, with Caleb believing they exist to make the world a better place, where Aran believes that there isn't always a purpose to everything. We also get to learn more about Caleb's family life, that his biological father was an alcoholic and didn't take care of him, but that he is currently living with his adoptive parents and a better life. As the story goes on, the two of them get closer, understanding each others habits, learning from each other and taking care of each other. While Caleb is more stern and practical, it's obvious that he has a much better lifestyle than Aran, and he is working hard to get his medical degree. Meanwhile Aran is much more self destructive in his lifestyle because although he seems to be an artist (making music, paintings, etc) he lives life very day to day, eating junk food and not taking care of himself, something that Caleb often worries about. Aran also seems to have the habit of running away, either avoiding conversations or simply not meeting Caleb for long stretches of time. At a couple points in the story, we see Frida, one of Caleb's associates meet him in front of their house, wanting him to join a project of sorts despite Caleb heavily despising Frida. At some point, to loosen up, Aran invites Caleb to a bar to hang out. There, he meets a girl named Sarah who seems worried about both Aran and his brother, as she hasn't seen his brother in a while. Eventually Caleb has to bring Aran home after getting extremely drunk and Aran even attempts to sleep with Caleb. We see that Aran believes that he's ultimately useless as compared to his brother who is in the army, believing that the only good use he has is his body, something that Caleb shuts down as he tries to take care of him. The next day after taking care of each other, the two of them have fun at an amusement park to let go of their worries. Near the end as the two watch the sunset, they talk more about their issues, with Aran worried about Caleb's outview on life, relating to him stating that he doesn't have to work so hard to prove himself, that he's not useless. Similarly, Caleb talks to Aran about his self destructive life style and the previous life, worried that he's suicidal. At the end, the two of them end up dating happily, at least for a while. Caleb ends up learning that Aran's mother is slowly dying, and that Aran will start to sell his paintings and eventually his house to help take care of her. Caleb, worried about Aran decides to give some of his savings to him so that he can take care of his mom. However, upon returning home to get the money he's saved up, he finds it gone. He calls his adoptive mother, who replies that he gave the money to his biological father weeks ago, with Caleb never being able to get the money back, and not being able to pay for Aran's costs.

Aran in the hospital is visited by Julia, his nurse who he recognizes as Caleb's sister and seems to be trying to help him out of this situation, but is unable to tell him the truth about what is going on. After Caleb reveals that his mother is dying Aran freaks out, with Caleb stating that he is simply taking care of her and that she's fine.Aran is able to leave his room one day and finds that the place is heavily monitored, and that he's essentially trapped there unless he can get a keycard. Julia does end slipping him a keycard which he can then choose to use.

If he doesn't use it, Aran lives in bliss about what is about to happen. He is eventually discharged from the hospital by Caleb and given flowers, only to then be shot and killed by Caleb soon after.

If Aran does use it, he ends up finding out he is in a very specified part of the hospital and goes to the library. There he meets Frida, a coworker that Caleb despises due to her personality. She seems entertained by the prospect that he's escaped and even decides to help him by showing him where the archives are. There Aran finds out that he's part of an experiment and finds out that he might not actually be Aran. After returning to his room, Caleb apologizes to Aran for lying about his mother as she has died, and here Aran can decide to either call him out for lying or not say anything.

Calling him out for lying leads to Caleb sedating Aran, stating that the subject became unstable and wiping his memory again, thus starting the entire cycle of the game over again.

If Aran decides not to, he will notice that Caleb is monitoring his reactions and decides to calm down so that Caleb won't notice. He tries to convince Caleb to tell him the truth, with Caleb worried as Aran had tried to kill himself three times now. Julia comes in and tries to convince Aran to leave as soon as possible as he is an innocent bystander in this. However, Aran is determined to learn more about what is going on. He ends up going back to archives to get more information only to find the other experimentation. It seems like they are in a project called Project Metamorphosis where they are able to basically replace another person's brain with someone else's memories. The current Aran is the seventh version of this, with the other versions having died or otherwise were killed. He finds a video of Caleb interviewing him in a blank room. We find out the Aran we currently know is actually Aran's twin brother, Roy, who was a military man and gained the injuries after a fight. Roy initially is against the idea of the procedure, finding it cruel and unusual, but Caleb is able to convince him, stating that because of this procedure he'd be able to not only revive their mother but also Roy's child. Roy feels as if he doesn't have much to live for after and agrees to the procedure, something that Caleb is pleased about as it's expected that it would be easier to map Aran's brain onto Roy's since the two are twins.

From this point on the main character, has to decide if he still is Aran or if he is no longer him. This splits the path into two with their own endings.

If he does decide that he's Aran, where he essentially brainwashes himself into believing that he is and the point of view switches to Caleb. We get to see the flashback of Aran's last moments through Caleb's eyes. We see that Aran was not able to save his mother, not even able to sell the house after Caleb disappears, which Caleb feels immense guilt over, even though Aran attempts to reassure him. Aran asks Caleb to essentially leave him alone for a bit, something that Caleb feels worried about, but ultimately respects. After almost two weeks without contact, Aran finally picks up Caleb's calls, leading to a sad final call with Aran as he drunkenly drowns himself in the woods due to his depression and commits suicide. Caleb rushes to try to find Aran but it's too late, and finds his dead body floating in the river. He's about to give up when he remember project Metempsychosis, the project that Frida is a part of and plots to try to save Aran in this way.

Back in the present, we see that Aran is acting calmly, at least until Caleb decides to tell him that he'll be discharged from the hospital. Caleb seems pretty pissed that Aran is essentially faking being nice to him as he's basically lied and confined him to the hospital, but Aran doesn't seem to realize this at all. Caleb confronts Frida about this, realizing that he is now actually acting like Aran to which Frida seems confused and smug about as this is something that he wanted to have. We see another flashback of Caleb taking Aran's brain from when he was dead and find that current Aran is now clutching said brain in the storage room. Caleb is able to coerce him back to his room. From there, Caleb tells Aran that he no longer wants to contact with him when he is discharged from the hosptial, leading to Aran becoming outraged and angry, attempting to break down the door as Caleb leaves. When visiting him the next day, Caleb finds that Aran has pulled out the needle to his IV drip bag, and starts talking about paintings, similarly to how Aran did in the past. Caleb calms him down, stating that the two will be together forever, something that makes Caleb happy in some way. The next day, Aran attempts to pin Caleb down and coerce him into having sex with him, however, Caleb tries to push him away. Before he leaves, Aran threatens to sleep with others if he goes.

If Caleb stays with Aran, the two of them will end up sleeping together, as Caleb believes this is retribution for what he's done to Aran. The two will end up moving together in a toxic relationship.

If instead Caleb leaves, he finds the next day that Aran has hung himself with his IV drip line. He can then decide whether to stop continuing the project or to continue.

If he decides to stop, he will end up shooting himself, resulting in him finally being together with Aran in the afterlife while his dead body lay slumped next to the body of Aran.

If he decides to continue, he ends up converting the sixth trial, 06 into Aran. He is successfully able to implant Aran's memories onto him thus continuing the project and eventually adopting Roy's Metempsychosised daughter.

If however Aran decides that he isn't really Aran anymore, he eventually goes by 07 based on his designation number. As he wanders around, he ends up being caught by Caleb and brought back to an observation room. Caleb and 07 talk about what 07 has learned- how he's not Aran, but rather Aran's memories implanted onto Roy and takes the keycard amongst some other things in his pocket, while leaving Julia's number in his pocket. Julia comes in and tells 07 that they have to leave now, or else his memories will be erased once again.

If the two leave, they will be able to leave the life behind, running away from the experiments. The ending leaves the two mostly happy, though not aware of what happened to the rest of the facility and it's ongoing.

If he decides to stay, he will state that he wants to stop Caleb from continuing and find out more about what is going on, no longer running away from his past as he did before as well as worried about Caleb's new victim. Julia sympathizes and brings him to Frida, who has been working together with Julia to help him, at least for the time being. After bringing him to the lab, Julia warns 07 not to break anything before leaving. 07 is able to find documents on Roy's family, how he had a daughter and wife as well as general brain scans of Roy. He also sees pictures of Aran, and eventually finds his brain.

If he chooses to destroy it, Julia will come find him and get angry, as he basically has been refusing to listen to her the entire time. He is caught and wakes up as Caleb is sawing his head open, ready to get more information form him. He accepts Caleb's request of ending it quickly leading it to his death.

If 07 decides not to, he will feel in turmoil, though speaking with Julia lightens him up a bit, seeing that Caleb seems to care about 07 a lot more than the other experiments, which gives 07 some hope that he'll be able to convince Caleb of his wrongdoings. He is brought back to his room where he talks to Caleb the next day about how he joined project Metempsychosis to bring Aran back, even revealing that Frida herself is a product of this project, with Caleb even seeing the original Frida die before his eyes. We see that Caleb is using this project to atone for his misdeeds as he believes that it was his fault that Aran died in the first place. Caleb confirms that 07 will be brought into his brain being wiped and Aran has the choice to kill Caleb.

If he does, he will successfully kill Caleb by choking him, only to realize that he had a gun this entire time and could have killed him. This just leads to him getting caught by the others.

If he doesn't, he will find a key taped under his bowl, and has Julia come into the room by pretending to stab himself. Julia confirms that the key isn't actually from her and promises the next day to talk to him before he gets the procedure. Unfortunately, the next day when Julia comes in, she ends up dying in front of him, with Caleb confirming she was poisoned by the executives for helping 07. After this, Caleb essentially helps 07 escape and with the two of them fighting off scientists and security guards, they are able to leave the hospital. While they leave, Caleb tries to buy time for 07 by going back, in which here 07 has to convince Caleb.

If he convinces Caleb by asking what Aran would do, he will leave with 07 back to the cottage. However, upon sleeping, 07 finds a note thanking 07 before finding that Caleb has committed suicide to be with Aran again.

If he asks about himself, the two will end up meeting Frida, who desperately tries to get Caleb to come back. 07 tells Caleb also that he can't keep running away from his problems, as project Metempsychosis will continue even if Caleb dies, urging him to try to stop these experimentation. After shooting her, the two end up going their separate ways, with 07 buying a new prosthetic eye and arm and permanently changing his name to 07. The two meet up about a year later, with Caleb promising to turn himself in for his crimes and to allow the two of them to finally get some closure.

So first things first, I really like the story for this game and that's probably just because so far I do like Syllaphana's games for both being interesting and having cool twists and turns. In their devlog after this game, they were talking about how they didn't do that well on the worldbuilding, but honestly I thought it was pretty good. It's a solid and simple concept that makes sense in the world that it's in and it's not overly complicated but still explores a lot of different venues, which I think is a perfect match for it. The pacing in the story is also pretty good- I didn't really find any parts of it that dragged for long periods of time and I felt like mostly each part was concise enough to get from scene to scene without it feeling too weird (though it was a bit strange that 07 is able to get away with a lot, such as leaving his room like 3 times with little repercussion, but it's a nitpick). I like how most of the music is a piano motif of some sort as well (except for when they go to the club) which really brings a kind of softer vibe to the overall gameplay experience.

One of the things that I liked the most is seeing Aran and Caleb's relationships form. I actually do appreciate that they're not overly romantic for the most part because while it can be cute, it fits more of the theme for the game (and that I actually have a bias for relationships that aren't just... romanceish, I guess, though it depends on how they are written). It's nice that the pacing is fairly slow when they get together and we see how they mesh well together, with Aran being a bit more reactive to Caleb's teasing while also taking care of him, and Caleb a bit colder in some aspects but also deeply appreciative and caring of Aran. It's also nice to see the two's vices, with Aran being a lot more self destructive in his tendencies, as well as his tendency to run away from everything if given and Caleb's obsessiveness with having to prove himself to be useful, which leads to of course his involvement with Metaphychosis and guilt which he carries around in pretty much all endings. I think because these segments are much longer compared to Sweetest Valentine, we really get to see how they think and view the world as well as just how they are as people. It makes it much more unfortunate when everything starts to snowball, with Caleb not able to give Aran the money that he promised because of his adopted mother and Aran's mother dying after which just leads to Aran's death. It's a lot of unfortunate circumstances that continue to stack on top of each other until it's basically too late. Basically the point is, I like the way that the relationship was handled and that it was mostly in Caleb's point of view.

I actually surprisingly kind of like Frida too. She's a pretty awful person who constantly just plays around with both Caleb and 07 throughout the game, but she is, at least towards 07, relatively useful in his search for what's going on. I actually like the reveal that Frida is actually part of this project as well, that her current body is actually a successful attempt at transposing someone and that she can just continuously be duplicated over and over again. There's some kind of horror knowing that the current body you're in can just be replaced by a company to be exactly the same, and that the current Frida has actually died long ago. It makes me wonder if that's why she was so desperate to get Caleb to stay because otherwise her existence would be in jeopardy or if she had wished that there would be another like her.

For the endings, I normally usually like the "true" or happier endings for characters, but I actually have to side with my yandere lover side and say my favorite ending is the one where Caleb and Aran end in a basically abusive relationship, where Caleb takes the brunt of Aran's anger as a way to pay for what he's done and to satisfy his guilt. It's messed up but in a weird cathartic way, and I honestly do like it better than the true ending. All of the endings are rather bittersweet in one way or another though and it does fit the tone of the story.

But anyways, to the part most people actually care about which is the yandere section. Caleb for the most part is a replacement yandere, though he can be defined as a couple of different ones depending on which route you go down of. Normally replacement yanderes sort of just project their love onto someone who is similar to their love interest, which makes them a bit more iffy in terms of whether they're really yandere for the second person, but in thise case, Caleb is literally transplanting memories onto various people in the hope that one of them becomes Aran. We can see that it doesn't really matter who or what becomes Aran, so as long as Caleb can revive him to some degree, all of the pain and suffering is worth it, as we see in the ending where 07 dies and 06 is used as the replacement. It's also of note that Caleb also does this out of guilt for not being able to save Aran, which I can always appreciate when there's a deeper meaning to why someone becomes a yandere in the first place and he's also aware that what he's doing is wrong but refuses to stop in the hopes that he can one day get Aran back. It's interesting to see that if 07 tricks himself into believing he is Aran that Caleb always stays as a yandere, either accepting him or someone else as Aran, or even just straight up dying so that he can be with him. Ironic that when 07 tries to become Aran so that he won't take any other innocent bystanders away from the experiment that Caleb just gets worse and worse. 07 actually does also become a yandere in these endings too, killing himself when realizes that Caleb is trying to throw him away or even abusing him afterwards, possibly as a way to sate Caleb's guilt(and his own anger) so that he's exactly as he would want. In his true ending, Caleb becomes a redeemed yandere, realizing that he can't run away from his problems nor bring back Aran, and the two have a rather bittersweet reunion. I think it's a nice way for Caleb to realize the error of his ways, and is a good arc to when he finally is able to see 07 as a person and not as an experiment to bring Aran back. This is something even 07 calls out to him about, stating that it's messed up to do something like this and that Aran would never want this to happen, though if it actually gets through to Caleb depends on 07's choices. Caleb's life is intertwined with Aran to the point of suicide in many of the endings.

But anyways, I really like playing this game. It's impressively long compared to the various other demos I've been playing recently and it does a really good job of building this kind of scifiish like world relating to memory erasure. The characters were all pretty interesting (and I feel bad for Julia since she basically sacrifices herself in the best ending, with Caleb... reaction somehow less than 07 which seems strange) and it has an interesting yandere. It's good and I highly recommend playing it.

#asks #male yandere #yandere #yandere boy #recommendations #where the two flowers meet

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