nicki0kaye

[nicki0kaye]

Ok but what if I made the Tusken more based off the Bedouines and actual human beings instead of the weird alien/racist thing that goes in canon?

#absolutely beautiful #other's art #sw #tuskens

[nicki0kaye]

[nicki0kaye]

I must not mock Gen Alpha. Mocking Gen Alpha is the mind killer. Mocking Gen Alpha is the little-death that brings total generational solidarity obliteration. I will engage with Gen Alpha lovingly. I will permit them to be cringe. And when they grow up I will turn my eye to their accomplishments. Where mocking has gone there will be nothing. Only generational solidarity remains

[nicki0kaye]

Draven: Kallus, study these files for an upcoming mission.

Kallus, already in the middle of memorizing each document: ✨️no✨️

#yes yes yes yes YES YES YESYSE #kallus #ezra #sw fic

[nicki0kaye]

Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but

Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the 'standard' sense?

Like, everyone I talk to who's over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just... dont.

[nicki0kaye]

MONKEY MAN (2024)

#I already wanted to see this movie but hot damn #monkey man

[nicki0kaye]

You know who deserved a nice night out? Our boy Maul

[nicki0kaye]

People often say to me: “You draw like some kind of inhuman machine.  If I eat your brain, will I gain your power?”  The answer is yes, but there is another way. The key to precise drawing is building up muscle memory so that your arm/hand/fingers do the things you want them to do when you want them to do them.  Teaching yourself to draw a straight line or to make sweet curves is just a matter of practice and there are some exercises you can do to help improve. If you’re going to be doodling in class or during meetings anyway, why not put that time to good use?

#can't stress lil exercises like this enough #resources #reference

[nicki0kaye]

I had to do my taxes today and now I am wondering about a) Hob dealing with the evolution of taxes over six centuries and b) newly human Dream confronting it for the first time and Hob trying not to *graciously* offer to marry him for (selfish) tax purposes.

I like to think Hob has been doing mega tax fraud since before he was immortal and isn't about to stop now but I am also a sucker for any and all fake marriage so:

---

It's a joke when he says it. Really it is.

There's a thump from the kitchen table, and Hob peers around the corner from the living room to see a charmingly bespectacled Dream with his forehead pressed to the top of it.

"Problem?" Hob asks. He'd offered to help Dream with his taxes. It's baby's first ever tax return and he's got all the forged documents to allow him to be a real live taxpayer. He's been having so much fun, working at the library. He'd initially been shocked they were going to pay him at all and he still doesn't really grasp how money works because Hob is not actually a harsh teacher, as it turns out. He can afford to keep one small former Dreamlord without ever even thinking about the cost. Dream spends a portion of his pay on coffee and books and scented candles and has the rest in the best, most basic savings account Hob could find for him. They're never talking about real investments or shares or anything of the kind, because Dream has suffered enough and does not need to add having to understand the economy to his list of lifetime woes.

"No," Dream says, with a level of petulance that would impress a four-year-old.

Hob hums. "I'll leave you to it, then?"

Dream makes an unhappy sound, and turns his face to look at Hob. He looks so sad and defeated that Hob can't quite go through with leaving.

"We could always get married. Then I'd be responsible for your taxes."

This may or may not be true. He suspects it's not. It's a joke.

The way Dream perks up stops him dead in his tracks.

"What would getting married involve?" Dream asks.

Shit.

"Umm..." Hob scratches the back of his neck. "Well, we'd need to get a licence. Quick little... thing down at the council offices or the courts or something. You would have to kiss me," he adds, grinning.

Dream tilts his head. "Just the once?"

Hob blinks, a little stone of disappointment turning over in the pit of his stomach. "Just the once, yeah."

Dream purses his lips. Hob can almost see the cogs turning behind his eyes.

"Then I accept," Dream says, closing his laptop and pushing it towards Hob. "We will marry, and you will be responsible for my taxes."

So they get married.

"You didn't actually have to kiss me like that," Hob says, face still aflame as they step into the cool air outside, marriage certificate in hand.

"Like what?" Dream asks, so nonchalant it has to be genuine.

Like you were examining my tonsils, Hob doesn't say.

"Doesn't matter. Do you want to grab a bite to eat? In lieu of a proper reception."

"I would like that."

Hob does Dream's taxes, as promised, two days later, and presents him with the confirmation screen.

"You are a good husband," Dream says, dropping a kiss on the top of Hob's head.

Hob sits for several minutes, poleaxed, before getting up to make them both a cup of tea.

The next time they go to the supermarket, Hob almost has a heart attack when Dream's hand curls around his. He looks down, looks at Dream—who isn't even looking at him—and then looks in the direction Dream's looking. At the end of the aisle there's a pair of, Hob assumes, newlyweds holding hands, having an animated discussion about breakfast spread options.

"You don't have to," Hob says softly.

Dream looks at him, blinks, wrinkles his nose, and tugs him towards the cereals.

Life goes on. They've always gone out together a lot, so they keep doing that.

Hob gets Dream a coffee, and hands it to him as they leave the café. Dream accepts it, and before Hob can figure out what's about to happen, darts in and kisses him. It's not the full dental exam the first one was, but it's very definitely happening.

"You are a good husband," Dream says, turning in the direction of the park they're meant to be heading for without another word or backwards glance.

Hob swings by the library to pick Dream up from work, and finds himself being taken by the hand like something being brought in for show-and-tell, around to all Dream's favourite colleagues and regular patrons to be introduced as his husband. It's...

Well, it's quite nice, actually, but it's not...

"You know you're not obliged to make other people believe it, don't you? The tax man isn't going to find out."

Not least of all because it wouldn't make one iota of a difference, but Hob doesn't quite have the heart to explain that at this point. Dream's treating this very seriously.

If it wasn't all an elaborate panto, Hob would be enjoying it a lot.

Dream looks at him like he's an idiot—familiar territory—and gets his coat. Hob helps him into it automatically, and then Dream takes his hand again as they head outside.

Okay, fine. Dream is clearly convinced that they need to convince other people they're married for reasons other than Hob's ability to manipulate a spreadsheet.

It's not as though Hob minds holding his hand or being introduced as his husband—that is literally true, anyway. And even though he knows it's all part of the act Dream's putting on, he really doesn't mind being kissed as a thank you, or a greeting. Or sometimes just because. Sometimes Dream stops him in the street and holds up the foot traffic to kiss him, and Hob really doesn't mind, honestly.

It's fine. It's fine, it's fine. Hob's managed to keep a greater or lesser hold on his sanity for six centuries, and pretending to have the thing he wants most in the whole world isn't going to be what breaks him. Not even if Dream cuddles up to him on the tube on the way home every time they go out. Not even when he shows up at the university, introduces himself to absolutely everyone as Professor Gadling's Husband, and kisses him hello in front of a whole lecture hall full of first years.

At least, not until Hob drops into the library and finds Dream calmly going through something on the computer with a young woman who's obviously been crying. Dream hasn't spotted him yet, and he doesn't quite mean to spy, but he also doesn't want to interrupt.

"Perfectly simple," Dream says, low and soothing. He's good with people who're upset. Some things never change, Hob supposes, and sleep is always restorative. "My husband taught me all of this, so you mustn't be embarrassed. Taxes are complicated."

Except Hob had not, at any point, showed Dream any of it. He'd just done it. There'd been no instructional element. Hob had simply accepted that he'd be responsible for taxes until the sun exploded.

He watches with his jaw hanging as Dream explains patiently and with authority how to do each step, and the two of them whiz through it in the space of ten minutes before the young woman offers Dream a hug—which he accepts—and goes on her merry way.

It's at that point that Dream notices him.

"Hob," he says, widened eyes giving away that he knows he's been busted.

"Have you secretly got a second husband who showed you how to do that?"

Dream bites his lip.

Hob realises extremely belatedly that Dream knows Hob thinks he's adorable. That he knows Hob can't resist him being a little pathetic. That...

"You knew how to do it," Hob says.

Dream hesitates. Hob watches the full spectrum of possible responses pass through his mind, glimmering in his eyes, before he draws a breath to speak.

"It is a simple form and some basic arithmetic."

"And you're billions of years old and smart even for your age," Hob says as he realises it himself. Why had he thought Dream would be defeated by something like a tax return?

Because Dream had also seemed defeated by...

"You know how the kettle works," Hob says.

Dream nods. "I like the way you make tea for me. It is never quite the same twice, but it is made with affection."

"You also know how the telly works," Hob goes on.

"But if you are required to operate it, you will sit with me."

"And you could've done your own taxes," Hob says. His brain feels like a series of knots being untangled. "But... you know me. You know me so well, better than you let on. Because you think it'll freak me out, I suppose. You knew I'd joke about getting married for tax purposes?"

Dream nods in confirmation.

"And you knew you could run with it."

Crafty bugger. But then he can't help it, can he? Dreams are manipulative. You can take the metaphysical concept out of the function, but you can't take the function out of the ex-metaphysical concept, current menace of a flatmate-slash-best-friend-slash-husband.

Dream nods again.

"Because..." Hob lets out a breath. It can't be true, except it's the only logical conclusion. "You wanted us to be married?"

Dream smiles the sort of tiny, proud smile normally witnessed the faces of parents whose children have just managed to say dada for the first time. He takes a step forwards, closing the gap between them.

Hob suspects he ought to be cross, but then Dream takes both of his hands and he can't quite summon the necessary ill-feelings for it past the sudden upswell of happiness and wellbeing he feels whenever Dream touches him.

"I was just dropping by to tell you that we're stuck in a hotel for the night. Kitchen's flooded. Burst pipe, looks like. I packed you a bag."

"You are a very good husband," Dream says. Normally there's a note of playfulness, even laughter, when he says it. But this is different.

Hob glances up to meet his eyes.

Dream kisses him. He's gotten the hang of appropriate depths of kiss for various public settings, so it's soft and gentle, but lingering.

"I really want to be," Hob confesses.

Dream lights up, one of his gorgeous little smiles making his eyes glitter. "Then we are unified in our desires."

"You want me to be a good husband?"

"To continue to be so, yes."

Hob lets out a long breath. Well. This is...

Good, probably. Yeah, good. Who cares how they got here.

"I was also coming to warn you that the insurance has only booked us one room with one bed. Because we're married."

Dream's eyes sparkle in a way Hob genuinely hasn't seen before.

"I believe that is the ideal number of beds," he says. "I will look forward to seeing you tonight."

Hob leaves the library in a daze, with the biggest, stupidest grin on his face. It's almost enough to make him like taxes.

Almost.

#I DONT EVEN GO HERE BUT WOW AM I CONSIDERING IT #dream #hobs #sandman

[nicki0kaye]

Collaborative writing is a labor of love. What if it could be easier? 

Think connected drafts, not disconnected files. 

Think effortless version history and control. 

Think in-document chat. 

Far away from the prying eyes of AI and LLMs.

Ellipsus is a new writing tool for people who write together!

Two new features have arrived this week: Comments and Dark Mode! :D

We’re looking for feedback from folks who care a lot about writing.

Check us out, and join the Ellipsus beta.

[nicki0kaye]

We need to start gay-coding villains like this again. We used to be a country

#YES #oh my god this still goes so hard #I've never realized how fucking drag Jafar is #if I weren't white as heckin snow I'd wanna make him a drag king performance #jafar #also casual reminder that Genie!Jafar is the only person with nipples in the original Aladdin #its not just in his transformation scene #I thought it was only there for the longest time #but they apparently gave him puffy nips for his whole goddamn stint as an evil genie #godbless

[nicki0kaye]

On my knees begging someone to draw Kallus with Buttercup’s hair from Princess Bride

Please he’d be so pretty

[nicki0kaye]

Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:

1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.

2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.

3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.

4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.

We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!

[nicki0kaye]

Obi-Wan’s Hands in Part V

(Parts I, II, III, IV)

#goddamn #obi-wan #kenobi #sw

[nicki0kaye]

I dids it Also ended up doing 3 other pics, which are currently exclusive to my patreon, but will be posted here next month.

My patreon is a bit in flux at the moment while I do some housekeeping stuff, but joining lets you into the discord where I'll continue to update and hang out

On my knees begging someone to draw Kallus with Buttercup’s hair from Princess Bride

Please he’d be so pretty

#kallus #my art

[nicki0kaye]

i am. so sorry if i have ever used the phrase “i have an au where—” and led you to believe that there is an actual fic out there for you to read rather than, at best, a post where i explain the concept, and at worst it is simply something that lives in my brain

[nicki0kaye]

EYYYYY HE 👏 LOOKS 👏 FAN 👏 TASTIC 👏

so glad you pushed thru and broke that artblock! I'm so glad I could help ;; I can't take the credit tho @twinsoulvisionary turned me on to Julian Sands as a face claim

So, uhhh, I was doing a practice face study of Julian Sands cause @nicki0kaye said he’s a good face model for Kallus aaaaand this happened. Neat. Thanks for breaking a two year art block!

#kallus #other's art