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ml player doodles with mage's stray cat because (1) i saw Plain Boiled Bagels at the store the other day and of course the answer is to boil the plain. and (2) the rest of the world needs to know that spring is a blessing to weird drink makers (and a curse for remuses) scala-wide

#kh #khml #kh player #player stray #player spring #brain kh #remus kh #plain kh #en art #while i was tagging this i almost tagged both players together as string by accident #the other option is spray which is also ridiculously funny. why do these guys' names make whole words #remus is crying in his sleep bc the guy he picked up off the beach is making peanut butter baja blast in his kitchen at 3am #(and they find it delicious too)

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you'd dreamed about him last night.

he'd been sitting in your lap on the armchair you always sit on, talking about something, his voice a melody of woven gold. you'd held him close by his waist, and his skin had been warm, human, where you leaned forward and rested your chin on his shoulder, mouthing shapeless words onto his skin.

#doodle...! i wanted to get into the habit of posting more #and i didn't manage to draw anything or write anything else for jax's birthday so here's the only thing i'm actually relatively happy about #god. happy birthday jax i'm sorry i wish i could've done more for you #ANYWAY vampire fern and his cloaks are always a banger fashion choice for wandering city streets #pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #unbound vampire au #en art

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Welp, Since I'm here why not post this-

This is really old lmao. The protag's name's Silver(no not the one from Johto) and I made a lil fanfiction about her journey

https://archiveofourown.org/works/47618200

#I REBLOGGED TO THE WRONG BLOG #ANYWAY! i remember you from ao3!!! #your art is cute!!! look at them all looking so happy and smiley!!!!! #rb #pokemon unbound #jax unbound #silver unbound

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happy birthday sou!!!!!!!!

#kh #kh player #player sou #player zero #en art #i spent like two weeks and was still late... #whatever. i've been thinking about him a lot recently instead of zerokun which is frankly hilarious #when i learn how to draw brain as well i will be unstoppable (this will have devastating effects for sou) #(and also for mage naturally. but that's a given) #wahaha

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Started playing Pokemon Unbound

#rb #pokemon unbound #woah op your player has sick style!!!!!! #fingerless gloves are the shit #welcome welcome... enjoy your stay.........!

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came for the keykid art , got dragged down into another hyperfixation (downloaded unbound and named the playable character fern before realising that fern was actually an oc when checking the tvtropes page for unbound lmao)

my ultimate goal in life is to get ppl to enjoy the niche things i enjoy and i'm happy to see that it's been working like a charm. i'm honored

#hey op if you see this i'm really glad you like fern #he's our sleepy little bastard... just a little guy with big emotions...... #and a deserve for you mage. gettem

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A normal day at the Battlegrounds in Seaport City

Been wanting to do this meme for a hot minute but I didn’t know who to do it with ;;

Then i realised that Mel, Galavan and Big Mo live in seaside cities, with the first two living in a city with nice beaches :]

Poor Big Mo. Mans gotta deal with gangs in his city, and now these two.

#pokemon unbound #mel unbound #galavan unbound #big mo unbound #WOOOOOOO TINY GALLY AND MEL VIBING IT OUT

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“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Butterfree”

An underrated gym not gonna lie, Also love his gym theme for its mechanical and wistful vibe <:]

#rb #pokemon unbound #benjamin unbound #WOOOOO appreciation for an underrated gym leader

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WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME I FORGOT THE DESCRIPTIVE TAGS. WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME!!!!! I FORGOT!!!!!!!!!!

[fic] one step at a time

Fern has fucked it up. Badly. Well, okay. Yeah. He kissed Jax. There's a lot of things to unpack there.

T-rated | 20.1k words | posted 26/01/24

jax / fern (male player), fern & mom | major cameos: fresia (female player), ace (rival), melony

fern character study, pov 2nd person, emotional hurt/comfort, relationship/feelings navigating

read here

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[fic] two at a table for one

Summer wouldn't be summer without beach shenanigans!

G-rated | 2.1k words | posted 01/02/24

jax / fern (male player) | major cameos: none

fluff, pov 2nd person, beach-episode-esque, er... spiders!?

read here

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #unbound canonverse #en fic #LOL I FORGOT TO POST THIS STRAIGHT UP #I AM SORRY. please accept the fax #i am also sorry for living in the southern hemisphere it is still summer here lmao

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[fic] one step at a time

Fern has fucked it up. Badly. Well, okay. Yeah. He kissed Jax. There's a lot of things to unpack there.

T-rated | 20.1k words | posted 26/01/24

jax / fern (male player), fern & mom | major cameos: fresia (female player), ace (rival), melony

fern character study, pov 2nd person, emotional hurt/comfort, relationship/feelings navigating

read here

#en fic #pokemon unbound #unbound canonverse #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #viola unbound #i can't believe that's a tag now. viola is fern's mom's name #i don't ever mention her by name though so you can just call her... mom #EITHER WAY. god i've been working on this for 14 months? it's finally done #i'm glad i get to show a little more about fern... THIS IS PRETTY IMPORTANT IN THE WAY OF UNDERSTANDING HIM #also please remember that this is a companion piece to steps; it would be very beneficial to read that first #or else this will be very very confusing

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you are challenged by champion fern!

i commissioned unbound's sound director, pascal van den bos, for a battle theme for fern! do listen out for some of the melody references to some very important links in his life... and get ready to be absolutely destroyed in battle!

there's a link to this in the battle scene of steps, and i definitely recommend listening while reading!

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #featuring mage's ferny!!! he's ferning!!!!!!! #this fucking bangs btw. i am forever indebted to pascal for an unparalleled absolute fucking banger #canonising fern one step at a time frfr #^ idk if mage made this joke specifically as a steps reference but it is absolutely appropriate. fern canonisation arc #fern theme canonisation would also canonise the heavy influence of jax on the player (which is sexy. incredibly sexy if you will)

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hypothetical album art for a fern battle theme

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #unbound canonverse #FERN BATTLE THEME (REAL) SOON

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concept bouncing around in my head: fern doesn't have any real affinity for displays of romantic affection. he's not interested, just as a base point, in things typical couples do like hold hands or kiss or whatever, as a way of showing affection. like at all.

i don't think that means he never does that, nor do i think that his dating jax changes this at all.

because i think he would absolutely comply if jax wanted to or asked (whether this be faux-reluctantly or without hesitation would depend on the situation, but it does not change that he would do it without real complaint), and he would absolutely allow jax to do it even if he didn't ask, unless some other situation takes priority (like the fact that he doesn't want them to be front-page on sketchy tabloids every time they breathe in the same air).

i also don't think he doesn't initiate, either. it's rare, but it's just never as a way of directly telling jax "yeah, believe it or not, i actually want to spend the rest of my life with you." like... he kisses during sex because it feels good. he snuggles into jax's shoulder when they hug or when they're in bed because jax is damn comfortable. hell, fern is shameless about kissing with ulterior motives, though largely it's either as a distraction or because he wants sex. even more rarely, he'll have a moment where he initiates because he enjoys seeing jax's reaction. he knows he can make jax happy when he offers a kiss at random moments, and he likes seeing jax smile afterwards. (he probably only does this when he's too sleepy to think about it. again, he doesn't do this to tell jax that he loves him; he does it because he's selfishly selfless.)

from that you can probably infer that he loves jax anyway. but i think intention is important in fern's case because his focus is not "i love you" but a whole heap of other things strewn together (i'm incredibly proud of you) (i want you to be happy) (you give me respite and i am forever grateful) (i would be happy to just watch tv with you on sunday afternoons) that make up his not-really-named concept of love.

it's also worth to note that fern doesn't hate touch. it's not his love language, but he's used to receiving it, whether that be in the form of affectionate gestures from his mom, or mild playing rough with ace or fresia or jax, or even in the form of sex, which is clearly, for him, detached from the notion of romance. for fern specifically, touch is a way of confirming what is solid and real, what he cannot confirm with just his eyes. (this is more relevant to other aus like crime syndicate, but it's worth noting that he will use it in this way when he gets aros un-cubed.) it's also a way to enjoy pleasure, and a way of communication, both of which are very important to fern as well.

and also it's worth noting that fern does show love, it's just not really through affectionate gestures and physical touch in general. he's completely bound to acts of service and it's far more likely that he will do something sweet with the intent of vaguely implying that he cares under a mask of indifference rather than, say, going up to his mom and giving her a hug. fern's a fucking bastard like that

on fern and romance...

in one of the new scenes in steps v2, i have fresia tease fern about how they would be a great couple because of how comfortable he looks when he's with jax, and how he even willingly laughs and smiles, but fern argues that he doesn't like jax the same way:

...and it was really interesting to make this stand out while writing this scene, because there are several instances where i've made fern say that he's close with jax, he cares about him, or that he likes being around him:

at this point it was kinda a recurring joke between mage and i to say "and fern still says he doesn't like jax! even though he's like this with him!" but we dug a little into it, and it feels like we accidentally made all the clues point to one thing:

despite his observant nature and how much the reader can tell he obviously cares about jax, fern being unable to recognise his own feelings is because he only knows how to recognise signs of romance when they're physically expressed.

because, if you think about it, you don't really get to see the internal aspects of showing interest in someone when you observe other people. even in media, there's a lot of cases where you're shown physical external signs of attraction/romance, and that's why fern can recognise flirting, or how someone talks to someone they like, or the way jax looks at him like he deserves the world... that's exactly why he can tell that jax is in love with him, because jax wears his heart on his sleeve and is far too easy to read.

but he doesn't know any of the internal tells, which he's starting to show. and of course, fern doesn't express any of these physical signs, because he's a fucker who won't express vulnerability. this isn't really helped at all by the fact that fern doesn't have that many close friends to compare his relationships with, and that the line between the close friendship he has with jax and possible romance is very blurred, especially when he knows that jax is romantically interested in him.

it's only later (which i'll address in a different fic) that fern sorts out his feelings and what they mean, because at that point he's having a crisis over having kissed jax at the end of steps, knowing that it's a romantic gesture, knowing that jax took it as a reciprocation of his feelings, because he still doesn't think he likes jax but every fucking fibre of his body is screaming that he hates the idea of rejecting jax, for a multitude of reasons including that he doesn't want to see jax all broken up, he doesn't want to be the one who hurt him, and also his fear of abandonment is making him think that jax will just straight up cut him out of his life. and the conclusion he gets from that is that he wishes he was in love with jax, while being completely unaware that he's been walking down that path for a while now.

(which is funny, because afterwards, when he's finally sure that what he feels for jax is romantic love, he's down so bad that he's even worse than jax. fern loves and loves and loves and he cares so much but he just needs to recognise what it is.)

(one other thing i love about fern and his journey with romance is that he realises he loves jax when they're sitting together watching tv and he thinks that he likes it. that he could have more of this. that he is genuinely happy to sit next to jax and make snide comments about the shitty plotlines of tv dramas and maybe rest his cheek on jax's shoulder while he does so. jax gives him comfort and a space where he can shed himself of everything weighing on his shoulders while still being his rival and best friend and someone that fern respects with all his heart. it's no wonder that fern loves him so much.)

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #jax unbound #fax unbound #unbound canonverse #jesus. miniature fern essay overtook me today

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おめでたい様に王冠を

happy birthday, fern!

#pokemon unbound #fern unbound #en art #woah i didn't expect to have an art tag on this blog #it was his birthday yesterday on the 21st #but i was so busy i couldn't finish my fic so i ended up scribbling him instead #mirror function....... mirror function save me................ #go easy on me i'm a nervous wreck rn #if you listen closely you can hear me faintly yelling about jax's hands... jax's hands crowning him with light........

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(threateningly) all the numbers

i have been threatened.

How many words have you written this year? published total on ao3 is about 33k, but if i add all the unpublished stuff the total is just over 70k! i sure wrote a lot of stuff i won't publish this year LMAO

How many works did you publish this year? 4 (salute emoji)

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? finishing steps v2...! it adds a lot of canon exploration and also fern character study which was fun to write and really satisfying to get out!

What work of yours has the most hits? from this year it's steps because i didn't publish anything that wasn't unbound but is it cheating if like half of its 600 hits were from last year. haha. haha

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? i actually didn't get that much feedback at all from anyone who wasn't already a friend so i guess i'll have to work harder for that. nobody new commented on anything that i published this year and i didn't get a single reblog note so... (shrugs) but there was a nice comment i got about steps taking liberties with the post-canon which made me very happy...!

Favorite title you used i'll post this later this month but 'one step at a time' as a half-companion piece to steps... if i can finish it in time.......

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? let's just take a moment to listen to acacia by bump of chicken the fucking song ever the everything the fax essay

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? 8 and 9 are the same. fax. i only wrote fax. fax the ever

What work was the quickest to write? respite took me about a day, which is insanely fast actually

What work took you the longest to write? steps took me like 8 months to rewrite. it turned out pretty damn good so we're winning here

How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year? surprisingly not a lot... i have bodyguard to work on, which is pretty much a constant, but otherwise i think i'm done most of my wips. i want to take a writing break once i'm done with my current fics because i'm just. tired. but i have a bunch of ideas (some basic ideas and aus, some about aros with jax... i have reincarnation sitting in my notes... promised to do something w crime boss and syndicate too...)

What’s your longest work of the year? stop making me say steps BUT it's 38.5k baby!!!!!!

What’s your shortest work of the year? actually this unpublished micro study of fern which i find really sexy. i'll put it at the end so you guys can read it too!

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? bodyguard (fernsleep) it's always bodyguard. augh

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? pov 2nd person because it's so fucking sexy but to be real it's probably fluff

Your favorite character to write this year? i literally only wrote fax. so uh. i guess jax ? he's easier than fern

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? SEE ABOVE. FERN IS HARD

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? not really pairing but once i get up to khux i have something in mind w ephemer! and also maybe some khml things because i can't just be faxing all the time (i can absolutely fax all the time and i will continue to if left unchecked)

Which work of yours have you reread the most? probably steps again but i think hook, line, sinker gets privileges too

How many kudos in total did you get this year? ao3 is telling me 27 on the fics i've posted this year of which like. 10 are from steps being from last year. let's do better next year. otherwise i get a ton from my old prsk works and occasionally from enstars but i haven't posted anything new for either for a while

Which work has the most comments? please i literally wrote only for a ridiculously obscure fandom. please give me a break (it's steps.)

Did you do any collaborative works this year? no :( i think it'd be fun to try but i'm kinda bad at working with people because of my specific vision and vibe for whatever i do (also perfectionism). i also literally don't have friends into the same things as i am

Did you write any gifts this year? mage i know you're here. i hope you enjoyed your 13k of porn

Did you receive any gifts this year? no. i don't expect to get any though

What’s your most common category? what does this mean . umm. m/m G-T usually i think releasing porn this year was a bit new but it was good and i liked it a lot so ,

What do you listen to while writing? whatever song i'm addicted to recently! this is how you get me listening to catchy idol pop while i'm writing about fern getting his sanity fucked out of him. the vibes don't really matter because the music is just there to stop me from getting distracted at everything

Favorite work you wrote this year? this ask game really wants me to say steps again but it's literally my pride and joy. i hope you all play unbound so you can read my 38k monster oneshot

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? "It's cute, in a way, how his dishonesty betrays everything he wants to say."

Biggest surprise while writing this year? i actually quite liked a lot of the things i did this year. they're not bad and i don't mind rereading them and i hope that means i've gained a bit more confidence in myself... also i wrote 13k of straight up porn that's new. i've never wrote that much goddamn porn before lmao

anyway that bit from (14) because i think it's really sexy thinking about fern in terms of his relationship with intimacy and how that relates to sex and romance in his view of things... y'know......

#ask game #grinning weakly. i did it

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ao3 wrapped [writers edition]

How many words have you written this year?

How many works did you publish this year?

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

What work of yours has the most hits?

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

Favorite title you used

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

What work was the quickest to write?

What work took you the longest to write?

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

What’s your longest work of the year?

What’s your shortest work of the year?

What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

Your favorite character to write this year?

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Which work of yours have you reread the most?

How many kudos in total did you get this year?

Which work has the most comments?

Did you do any collaborative works this year?

Did you write any gifts this year?

Did you receive any gifts this year?

What’s your most common category?

What do you listen to while writing?

Favorite work you wrote this year?

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Biggest surprise while writing this year?

#rb #ask game #numbers anyone?