#[ it has been years and i still never can decide what to 'file' this stuff under. probably just a me problem. ]

[iniziare]

Muse Aesthetic / Feelings

𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒.  being unable to stop smiling. laughter. bear hugs. happy tears. waving arms around. dancing. contently sighing. eyes twinkling. laughter lines. childlike playfulness. skipping. talking more. affection. cracking more jokes than usual. gesturing more when talking. higher pitched voice. squealing. jumping around. clapping.

𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒. tearing up. self-hugging. one-arm cross. an aching chest. scratchy throat. a runny nose. turning away. deep breaths. quivery smiles. crying. infantile sobbing. hands gripping each other or an object. covering mouth. puffy eyes. eyes appear red. voice breaking. a distant or empty stare. monotone voice. asking for comfort. faking a smile. crumbling. shaking. whimpering. depression. abusing an unhealthy habit (excessive training). withdrawing from others. big teary eyes. doing something even if it could hurt them.

𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑. furrowed brows. baring teeth. passive-aggressive comments. avoiding eye contact. sarcasm. headache. sore muscles. hiding clenched fists. irritability. jumping to conclusions. raising voice. going silent. demanding immediate action. keeping it all in until exploding. body tensing. making risky decisions. middle finger.

𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑.  wanting to flee or hide. what-ifs. images of what-could-be flashing in mind. uncontrollable trembling. rapid breathing. screaming. a skewed sense of time. irritability. keeping silent. denying fear. turning away from the cause. pretending to be brave. nail-biting. lip-biting. scratching skin. a joking tone but a voice that cracks. fainting. insomnia. panic attacks. exhaustion. substance abuse. tics. rushing adrenaline. face draining of colour. hair lifting on the back of the neck. feeling rooted to the spot (!!!) making body as small as possible. staring but not seeing. crying. a shrill voice. whispering. gripping something or someone. stuttering. flinching at noises. pleading.

𝐄𝐗𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.  constantly yawning. blurring words together. dark circles or lines under eyes. mood swings. hallucinations. calling people by the wrong name. dizziness. denying they’re tired. slow blinking. trouble concentrating. stumbling. leaning on a doorframe for support. sluggish movements. falling asleep someplace that isn’t a bed. becoming irritated by the smallest things. “i’m awake, i’m fine.” shaking so bad they spill their drink. fall asleep in their clothes. lay their head on the table because they’re so tired.passing out.

Tagged by: @militus an age and a half ago 🤍 Thank you, I had fun! Tagging: /cracks knuckles. @sicsemper (Gee, I wonder who), @rcdfcxr (initially I wanted to request just Rufus, but I'm really interested in Reno as well, so both!), @inventorem (@aworldofyou because I don't know if you'll see this otherwise), @svnsworn (Jessie), @blitzrod, @tscng, @sentmail (I'm on the 'Lemme learn about Kunsel' train, shh), @lionfated (I've been missing Leon, pretty please), @annjiru (I also am on the Angael train still), @cwarscars (I need you to envision me as a koala very dramatically clinging to your leg), @spynorth (if you tell me you've done it already Lucas, it doesn't matter, do it again and again!), @trickstercaptain, @freedomhasfangs, @lighthouseborn (I can never have enough Henry Turner in my life, ever), @weaponiised, but also— @liifestreams (please give me Reeve, the novel is killing me slowly and he killed me a little). And anyone else? Steal it, I'm sure I've forgotten people and it's nothing personal whatsoever!

#[ tifa lockhart. ] she had buried the twinges of guilt beneath the narcissism of self-sacrifice. beneath the belief of 'the greater good'. #[ tifa lockhart / et cetera. ] but i work for shinra. i'm the enemy. / i don't care. i don't want anyone to die. please! #[ tifa lockhart / meta. ] people have many things pent up inside of themselves. so many things they can never forget. strange isn't it? #[ it has been years and i still never can decide what to 'file' this stuff under. probably just a me problem. ] #[ it's not quite meta because i didn't write it-- it's also not 'relevance' because-- well. not using it for this. ] #[ any way-- this was /very/ fun actually. and i sat here in contemplation for a few of them. ] #[ this actually puts into perspective; again; why i love the nuance of animation that remake gives tifa. ] #[ the voice and animation definitely added to just about anyone; i always want to point out how much of tifa is in the subtleties. ] #[ the clenched fists-- the self-hugging. the doubt that lingers within regardless of anger. and how it's shown even in little gestures. ] #[ like when she suggests going out on the town with cloud and he questions her for half a moment-- she folds back in on herself. ] #[ same thing with the train for example-- literally rooted in place. and it's not taking away from the bravery she holds on many levels. ] #[ it's the nuance of bravery-- that it isn't black or white. you can have doubt and i think the remake did a chef's kiss job with that. ] #[ because we're so immensely layers as human beings-- so it's incredible to me to see a game reflect on that so heavily. ] #[ that game is incredibly human. it's an incredibly good depiction of human nature and reactions. ] #[ and god-- the VAs add to that magnificently. truly. ] #[ i literally cannot praise britt enough. she was so nervous and she aced it. they all did. ] #[ god; all i can think about (especially) is the 'what-ifs'-- literally. doubt. /doubt/. and that is what makes her so good. so real. ] #[ i'm gonna ramble a little more; excuse me-- can we talk about how realistic that is? no one who's brave won't doubt their actions. ] #[ tifa has lost everything to shinra-- sephiroth is shinra 'gone wrong'. she lost everything at his hands and no one could stop him. ] #[ not even shinra itself and that's very important. there's so much anger there that drives her to do selfish things. ] #[ and i note selfish because on the way to a smile has touched on this magnificently as i'd hoped it would. ] #[ she wants them to pay-- she wants her revenge. but she; arguably more than anyone; is aware of what that costs. ] #[ if avalanche goes through with this-- and she helps-- AND SHE DOES. she is responsible for people losing... ] #[ what she once lost. ] #[ and that is /so important/ to her character. before that happens; she is riddled with doubt. before she boards the train-- ] #[ when she's boarded the train and needs to jump off. that moment is /the/ moment where she makes a huge decision. ] #[ because look at how she is once she's jumped off. that entire chapter. she's relatively certain. she's going through with it. ] #[ no way back. ] #[ and then the plate falls not long after. /and then the plate is dropped/. yep. ] #[ ... i'm about to hit tag limit; don't worry-- i'll type about this soon. it's in my onenote! ]

[steddiealltheway]

(Happy happy birthday Noelle (@frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe) thank you for all your amazing fun facts which are the source for this little ficlet. I hope you enjoy <3)

For some reason, The Party had decided to rent Friday the 13th for their upcoming movie night at Steve's house. With all the shit they've been through, Steve thinks that maybe it's a strange choice, but he knows better than to question the kids.

"What a nice choice," Robin says sarcastically as she looks over Steve's shoulder at the tape. She hasn't quite grasped how defensive the teens can get, but they seem to respect her more than they respect Steve. Figures.

"Isn't it?" Dustin snarks back as he grabs the tape from the counter.

Max rolls her eyes and adds, "I said the same thing."

"Yeah, because you want to watch some shit like Cinderella," Mike whines.

"Does it ever hurt your tiny, sexist brain to think of those weak insults?" Max asks with her eyebrows raised.

Lucas tries to hide a laugh as Mike glares at him.

"Alright, alright, this is the Family Video. Take it outside if you guys are going to bicker," Steve says with a sigh as he moves to restack some tapes Dustin had nudged just to be annoying.

"You and Robin bicker all the time," Dustin says defensively.

Steve gives him a look. "Do you want to lose Harrington house privileges?"

Dustin sighs, looking like he really wants to argue before he turns around to the group and announces defeatedly, "Alright, let's get snacks before tonight."

As they're filing out the door, Dustin runs back to the counter and adds, "I almost forgot. Is it fine if Eddie comes?"

Steve shrugs, trying to look unphased by the question. "Sure," he says, voice cracking a bit.

Dustin instantly lights up. "Great! I already invited him, so that would've been awkward. See you later!"

Robin comes up to him and lightly shoves his shoulder. "Sure," she mocks him. "You're so smooth."

"Shut up," Steve says with a sigh. God, Robin will never let him live down what he thought to be his deathbed confession of his crush on Eddie. In reality, he was just put on so many painkillers in the hospital that he had gotten confused when he woke up in a hospital room.

And yeah, maybe the crush still hasn't gone away and Robin definitely knows, but he refuses to acknowledge it.

"You're going to be at the movie night, right?" Steve asks.

Robin groans. "I've already told you, I have my parent's anniversary dinner tonight."

"So, you'll be at my house tonight," Steve jokes.

"I wish."

Steve nudges her shoulder. He's already seen the obnoxious pictures of Robin and her parents from every year of their wedding anniversaries lining the walls of one particular hallway. It's endearing really, but Robin hates it.

"You better call me later if anything new develops between you and Eddie," Robin whispers although there's no one in the room.

Steve just nods, feeling the blood rise to his cheeks as he still refuses to verbally acknowledge the ridiculous crush that maybe fills his stomach with butterflies and all those obnoxious things.

He sighs and turns to Robin. "How am I going to survive tonight without you?"

"The world may never know," she says dramatically.

And really, the world may never know. At least, that's how Steve feels.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Okay, maybe Steve is a little bit of a mess.

Sure, Eddie has shown up, and Steve has been playing it cool, but it's like he can't take his eyes off him. He's made so much eye contact, he's sure that he's creeping Eddie out a bit or giving away his huge crush.

But he’s Steve Harrington. Like Steve “The Hair” Harrington. Inventor of the Harrington charm. All that stuff. And… Eddie has absolutely melted him into a puddle of goo. Christ.

By the time the movie starts, Steve’s head is practically buzzing with all his thoughts of Eddie is sitting next to me. What do I do? The kids are here, so I can’t make a move. But I don’t even know if he likes me.

Then, Max’s question breaks through the thoughts as she asks, “When is the next Friday the 13th this year?”

“Well, fun fact, any month that starts on a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th,” Eddie says with a proud grin.

Steve ignores the kids’ responses asking when that month is and the subsequent response from Eddie saying he doesn’t know, but he just knows the fact.

But for some reason, the fact is absolutely blowing Steve’s mind.

And yes, maybe it’s because it came from Eddie, but truly, when Steve associates fact with something, it is never fun. But this truly is a… fun fact.

He must have a look on his face because Eddie eyes him and asks, “What?”

Steve just shrugs and says, “I just… really thought the fact was… fun.” Jesus, did his Harrington charm just evaporate or something?

But he thinks the honesty of it works for Eddie who smiles softly at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, how did you know that?”

Eddie swings an arm casually over the back of the couch and leans in. “I’m full of fun facts, Harrington.” He gives him a winks before leaning back.

Steve leans into his space, trying to close some of the distance between them. “Tell me another one.”

Eddie laughs, “I’m going to max out my fun fact limit to one a day.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

Eddie tilts his head toward him. “It’s fair if it gives me an excuse to talk to you every day.”

Okay, yeah. That was blatant flirting. Which Steve is about to match, until the kids decide now is the best time to interrupt and yell at them to be quiet as the movie starts.

As the movie goes on, Eddie and Steve drift closer together while trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible in front of the kids. They haven’t talked about it, of course, but Steve’s pretty sure neither of them want to scar the kids. Or maybe, Steve just doesn’t want the kids to very accurately point out his feelings for Eddie and force him to deal with them.

Unfortunately, this also means that Steve doesn’t get a moment alone with Eddie to further flirt with him or try to push him for another fact. But maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Especially since Eddie gave him an excuse to talk to him tomorrow.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“What’s another fun fact?” Steve asks as soon as he hears Eddie on the other line.

“Christ, I just woke up. Give my brain a few seconds,” Eddie groans into the phone, voice rough with sleep.

Steve smiles. “Good morning by the way,” he says sweetly.

“Good morning,” Eddie replies back, sounding a bit less grumpy. There’s a bit of shuffling on his side of the phone before he says, “It’s illegal to feed pigeons on the streets of San Francisco.”

Steve’s jaw drops. “There’s no way!”

“Go ahead and feed a pigeon there then,” Eddie says with a laugh.

“Maybe I will. If you come with me and promise to bail me out.”

Eddie hums on the other line. “I don’t know. I think it would be fun to spend a night in a jail cell with you. Maybe I’ll join you in your crime.”

“Scratch that, I’m bailing you out.”

“That’s sounds about right, Bonnie.”

“Bonnie?” Steve questions, feeling like he’s missed something.

Eddie gasps on the other line. “Like Bonnie and Clyde!”

Steve doesn’t respond, waiting for Eddie to fill him in.

“Okay, this doesn’t count as a fun fact because this is just a story of one of the greatest crime couples to ever exist,” Eddie says excitedly, rambling on about the two.

Steve sits back, cheeks hurting from smiling a little too hard as he listens to Eddie and tries not to linger too much on the fact he compared the two of them to a real life couple.

-:-:-:-:-:-

The phone calls continue every day, but the fun facts really are just a starting point to a long drawn out conversation about whatever’s on their mind.

Robin has pretended to get tired whenever Steve calls her right after Eddie has to hang up or spends hours talking about Eddie during their shift at the Family Video. But he knows she’s secretly just as enthralled about the fun facts as he is.

“Did you know that the Statue of Liberty wears a size eight hundred seventy nine shoe?” Steve asks Robin, still in disbelief over the fact.

“Sounds like you’re talking about me,” Eddie says, somehow coming into the store without Steve noticing.

Steve’s heart beats a little harder as he turns to him. “All good things of course,” Steve says with a wink.

“I was scared you were passing off my facts to Buckley as if they were your own for a second there,” Eddie says, leaning across the the counter.

“And what if I was?” Steve challenges, leaning on the counter.

“Then, I would have to revoke my daily fun fact.”

Steve’s jaw drops. “You’d never.”

Eddie shrugs. “Maybe you’ll just have to see.”

Steve just laughs and shoves his shoulder lightly. “What are you doing here though? Coming to deliver my fun fact in person?”

Eddie blushes and looks down. “No, I was actually just… wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight.”

“Sounds good,” Steve says automatically, not even stopping to think if he has any other plans.

“I’ll see you after your shift then?” Eddie asks, tilting his head a bit.

“I’ll see you then,” Steve confirms with a smile.

Eddie nods and turns to leave.

“Oh, wait!” Steve calls out.

Eddie turns around.

“You haven’t told me your fun fact for today.”

Eddie smiles. “You’ll just have to wait until tonight. After all, it’s a pretty good excuse to make sure you come over.”

Steve scoffs, “As if that’s the only reason.”

Eddie just pulls his hair in front of his face as his smile gets a little wider. “See you soon.”

“Bye,” Steve says, waggling his fingers at him.

“Holy shit,” Robin says, startling Steve. “I thought you said your crush was hopeless.”

Steve just shrugs. “It’s Eddie, he flirts with everyone.”

“Not like that.”

Steve pauses and thinks back on their conversation and all the flirtatious banter leading up to this moment. Maybe she’s right, but also he remembers… “Did you know that bubble wrap was invented by accident?”

Robin runs a hand over her face and says, “You two are going to be the death of me, I can already tell.”

Steve just smiles and thinks maybe they will be.

-:-:-:-:-:-

A few hours later, he shows up at Eddie’s, trying not to overthink things too much.

They were just hanging out. Just… two people… hanging out… alone… who flirt all the time…. And one definitely has a major crush on the other.

Eddie opens the door to the trailer immediately after Steve knocks only a single time. “I heard your car pull up,” he explains as soon as the door is open.

“Been lingering at the door for long?” Steve teases.

“Hours,” Eddie replies dramatically. But there’s a hint of nervous energy that Steve can’t help but pick up on. “Come on in.”

Steve steps inside and is hit with the smell of spaghetti and breadsticks. “Did you make dinner?”

“Nah, I picked it up from Enzo’s,” Eddie says with a smile before closing the door behind him and gesturing to the couch where two plates are laid out. “I thought we could… watch a movie while we ate or… something.”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Steve replies with a smile, noticing the way his response relieves some of the nervous energy that is consuming Eddie.

“Perfect, right this way madam,” he jokes as he leads Steve to the couch with his hand resting on the dip of his lower back.

Steve sits down and can’t help but ask, “So, what fun fact did you make me wait for?”

Eddie freezes and curses, “Shit, you were supposed to ask that after all of this.”

Steve’s eyebrows furrow. “Why?” He asks nervously.

Eddie fidgets with his rings and mumbles, “Okay, you can do it.” Then, he turns back to Steve and says, “Fun fact… I’ve been dying to ask you out for a while now, and… I was hoping that this could be a date? And further fun fact, I will absolutely shut up forever if I read things wrong, and I’m so sorry if I did. Oh shit. Did I? Because really, I thought-”

“Eddie,” Steve interrupts him quickly, placing a hand over his. “I think it’s finally time that I share a fun fact with you.”

Eddie nods, eyes wide and scared.

“Fun fact,” Steve says and takes a deep breath, “I’m really upset that you beat me to asking you out because I’m a damn chicken. And fun fact, I’ve liked you since I saw you interacting with Dustin for the first time. And you can confirm the fact with Robin who I told while I thought I was on my deathbed.”

Eddie’s expression slowly morphs from fear to relief to happiness. “And that’s really all a fact?”

“Yes. Fun ones I hope.”

“Very very fun,” Eddie says with a laugh. He worries his bottom lip before saying, “Fun fact, I really want to kiss you.”

“Fun fact,” Steve echoes cheesily. “I would love to kiss you.”

And he does exactly that.

(Later on, Steve calls Robin from Eddie’s house and yells, “Fun fact, I just kissed Eddie!” Into the phone so loudly that Robin complains that his “fun fact” is giving her ear damage. But she also lets him know that she’s happy for him, as long as he doesn’t keeps phrasing everything as a fun fact.

Only, Steve can’t help it, when everything involving Eddie becomes the best facts he knows.)

#steddie #eddie munson #steve harrington #stranger things #steddie ficlet

[libraford]

Have you shared the story of you joining the track team with us? I feel like you have but I can't remember any details.

I SHALL TELL YOU A TALE OF PURE FOLLY!

The year us 1999, I am in seventh grade. Like most seventh-graders, I hate everything that I am forced to do but I especially hate Pep Rallies. They are hell for my tiny little social outcast ADHD brain: loud noises, forced enjoyment of an activity, sports, pointless interaction with people I can't stand, and the potential for relentless bullying afterwards.

So we had a pep rally.

And I, for the first time in my rules-following life, decided to skip.

My class filed into the gym, I ducked into the bathroom, and waited for the sound of the doors closing.

Problem was that I didn't think I'd get this far and I've never been in the habit of delinquency, so I had no idea what to do next. I started wandering the halls just a little bit, testing out the freedom of having broken the rules, going down hallways that weren't part of my routine...

...when I heard dogs barking.

You see...

...the pep rallies weren't exactly about basketball. The pep rallies were an excuse to make lots of noise so no one heard the police dogs when they came looking for drugs in people's lockers.

And I am not where I'm supposed to be. I am where NO ONE is supposed to be. And I panic, because if I show up to the pep rally late they are going to notice.

I did not think this through.

So I start looking for somewhere to be while the police are searching for worse criminals than myself and I see a bunch of students in the cafeteria. One of them is a friend of mine, so I wouldn't be completely out of place in this location, so I came in and sat down next to her. A roster is being passed around and I sign it so that I can say that I was accounted for during the pep rally in some way.

The teacher who is heading whatever this is stands up in front of this group and says:

"Thank you for coming to the track and field tryouts. You've all made it in."

Uh...

...woops.

I think I'll just sit through this one meet and then quit. People do it all the time, I don't think anyone would notice.

Except that this is a small town and everyone knows everyone- so the teacher/coach helpfully informed my father that I'd joined the track team voluntarily and in no way was it a mistake of any kind.

My whole family is sports nuts. My dad was in charge of the sports page at the news paper, my mom will talk excitedly about college football, and my brother has excelled in every sport he's ever been in.

I'm a textbook case of Not That. Art student, lead violist, and the most exercise I get is dodging projectile rocks on my way home from school.

But my dad is SO proud of me when he hears about it. Lee is doing a Sport? A Sport that's physical? A Sport with a team? A SPORT!

Like... he bought me new shoes and stuff to clean the shoes with and all kinds of first aid stuff for my muscle pains and oh my god for the first time in his life I was in a SPORT!

(Just to emphasize- he has always been PROUD of me. He thought I was a genius because I showed him how to make chocolate dipped strawberries at home without a fondue pot like... he's pretty sure I'm going to save the world somehow. But this was the first time that I had ever shown even the smallest bit of interest in doing a Sport, which is HIS special interest and now we can BOND!)

So I try.

You know... I hate running.

I actually have a condition caused by a childhood illness that impacts cartilage development as well as asthma from a bronchial infection when I was in 5th grade.

But my dad came to all of the track meets that he could and I was so deep into the lie that quitting now would break him.

So I try my hand at non-running events: shot put and discus. I'd still have to run during practice, but I was allowed to go off and do Not Running for a little bit.

I can't remember the actual numbers or anything, but I remember that when I first did shot put with proper form, the coach kind of turned her head sideways and said 'damn.'

So turned out that being at the roly-poly stage of my larval development meant that I was still learning how my personal body chemistry affects the build of muscle. The answer is 'very quickly.'

It starts getting hard to find shirts that will fit my biceps and now I'm in trouble for wearing non-standard issue tank tops to school from practicing shot and discus.

If this were a movie, it would mean that suddenly being a jock meant that I had been accepted by my peers and something something Mean Girls something something. But no, because having incredible muscle as a thirteen year old did not do anything to disspell the rumors that I was a lesbian and unfortunately I was still bullied relentlessly. Nor did I ever throw a punch because I don't like hurting people and no one ever taught me how to fight. But it did mean that I had a handful of girls ready to use teeth and nails to defend the shot put champion.

Which is important because I was the ONLY shot put and discus thrower in the school.

And as I found out- the district.

I went almost an entire season without competing against a single person, winning the event by default.

Until the semi-finals.

And I did have to compete against an assortment of other thirteen year olds that were just now learning that they had upper body strength. But because they ALSO were the only ones competing in those events they had never competed against another person either.

So we all sucked.

I got gold in shot put. Bronze in discus. But to their credit there were only three competitors.

Huge fucking deal for my dad.

Not a huge deal for the rest of the track team, who all did really poorly in most events BUT throwing events, which meant that this was our last game of the season.

And so ended my short, accidental career as the middle school shot put champion.

"Did you try out again in 8th grade?"

Fuck no. I hate running.

#accidental track star

[dearheart42regenerated]

MOTORCITY SEASON 2 MASTERPOST

once upon a time, over 10 years ago, just a few months after the announcement that Motorcity was officially canceled...the creators of the show took pity on their heartbroken fandom and gave us several glimpses of what season 2 might have been like. they saw how much we loved Motorcity and gave us every scrap of info they could at the time, so that we could use those scraps to imagine our own personal "Season 2" - whether it continue on in our fics, our fanart, or simply our own heads.

I'm making this masterpost so that none of this material will be lost or forgotten, and so any fanartists/fic writers still hanging around today can use it for inspiration. if there's any related material I've missed, PLEASE feel free to add it in a reblog or let me know in my inbox! I want this list to be as complete as we can make it! :)

--

The Season 2 That Never Was: A Comprehensive List

Motorcity Season 2 Rough Intro "Scratch audio by our very own Chris P." (x)

-> backup download

--

Season 2 Writer's Wall posted (and later deleted) by @chrisprynoski on twitter, and shared on tumblr by @peopleofmotorcity, these pictures of the writer's wall showed us a "rough sketch" of what could have been, and gave our imaginations SO many fun theories and possibilities to play with. every blurry sticky note was a treasure to us. :')

-> original tumblr posts: x x x x x x x x x x x x -> image masterpost -> google drive folder

--

Chris Prynoski's Fan Interview + Tumblr Q&A's this whole interview on youtube is a delight to listen to, and Part 2 in particular has some interesting bits about season 2. (skip to 17:10 for some good stuff about Texas and Chuck's backgrounds!)

-> Part 1 -> Part 2

Chris P also answered several juicy season 2 questions on tumblr. sadly his blog is deactivated now, but you can still read through all of them at the links below!

-> image masterpost -> google drive folder

--

Capri Chilton - Mike Chilton's long lost big sister! I can't remember where or when it was first revealed that they were considering giving Mike a secret older sister, and I haven't been able to track down the origin. that being said, when it was revealed, the fandom loved the idea so much that they begged the creators to make it canon. Chris P busted out the "magical canon stick", gave us this delightful concept sketch, and "Capri Chilton" was born!

--

The Motorcity Series Bible "To help you all understand what it is you are reading, this is the material that Titmouse used to help pitch Motorcity, and it was also a tool for writers to use when coming up with episodes to help understand who the characters were before there was any other reference. That being said, this was one of the very first documents about Motorcity, so many things have changed or evolved from these early concepts." (x)

-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 -> image backups -> PDF download

EDIT: the COMPLETE series bible has now been leaked by Lost Media Busters on X (Twitter) and helpfully shared by @waksworldrebooted!!

--> here is a google drive download for the full PDF file!

--

Motorcity Series Bible - Redacted Version (Pages 1, 2, 17, 19, 20) funfact: @peopleofmotorcity was the official? unofficial? tumblr blog for Motorcity, and it was run by a guy named Mac - an animator for the show who loved to tease and joke around with the fandom. before revealing the actual first 13 pages of the series bible, he posted this censored version as a prank - a mix of truth and trolling! it's up to the fandom to decide which is which. ;)

-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 17 19 20 -> image backups -> PDF download

--

MTV Era Motorcity Masterpost a fantastic collection of glimpses into the original pilot/pitch trailer that would evolve into the show we know and love today, found and compiled by @waksworldrebooted. "In 2000, Chris Prynoski pitched a cartoon called Motorcity. He made a card and a website promoting the show, which wouldn't see the light of day until the Walt Disney Company got their hands on it."

--> tumblr masterpost (including wayback links to the old website) --> twitter sources from Chris P himself :)

--

Motorcity Unaired Pilot - Disney Version Originally aired during Comic Con 2012, the pilot was recorded and then posted on YouTube by Allison Simmons in July of 2012, later being privatized in 2022. The video was re uploaded onto VKVideo 22 days after its original posting to YouTube and is still currently available to watch online. (x)

--> viewable here!

--

if I find more material, I will add it here! :)

#motorcity #motorcity season 2 #mike chilton #capri chilton #julie kane #chris prynoski #peopleofmotorcity #Youtube

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

how do the m6 act when they're feeling petty??? and how does mc deal with it?

The Arcana HCs: M6 being petty

~ how do I begin to say how much I love writing about these lovely characters being typically human? Thanks for the prompt anon, enjoy! - brainrot ~

Julian

He acts petty about the smaller things as a way of being silly. He can hold onto a hurt, but he prefers to deal with that stuff more directly

You see it come out the most with his younger sister Pasha

She'll be rolling her eyes at him, telling him he's an idiot and she doesn't need his help

He'll be cleaning up after dinner with her and put everything away on the top shelves

She'll get annoyed and start telling him to pull them back down for her: "I know you know what you're doing wrong, Ilya!"

"What's that? I'm just your idiot older brother, Pasha, since when do I know what I'm doing?"

"I mean it! Take them down for me now, you know I can't reach up there!"

"I thought you didn't need my help."

He'll be giving her his usual rogueish grin, casually dodging her swipes at his kneecaps as he pulls everything back down

He wants to get his point across though, so he'll use the opportunity to reorganize her kitchen while she's distracted

Now the dish towels are in the oven and the sugar and salt are mixed up. He might even dose Pepi with some catnip on the way out

Asra

For someone with such a chillaxed approach to life, they are surprisingly easy to annoy

And yes, he gets petty when he's irritated

It rarely happens with you (usually when you're trying to annoy them on purpose), and then his petty retaliation prank is just for show (or to make a gentle point)

But if it's someone being genuinely maddening, maybe a Karen in the market place or a self-important jerk cutting in line?

Barely detectable spells designed to make them question reality in a decidedly unpleasant, but harmless way

The Karen screaming about the pumpkin bread being overbaked is suddenly under a 30 minute enchantment that makes her say the opposite of what she intends to

You've never heard anyone serve compliments so angrily: "Exceptional service! This bread is flawless! You're not being unreasonable, I am!" All while slowly turning purple with rage

And oh no, look at that, the guy who shouldered his way in front of you moments ago just made a beeline for the public lavatory, almost like he has sudden diarrhea

"Oh no, MC," Asra whispers quietly in your ear, dimples dancing, "Oh nooo ..."

Nadia

She gets petty when she feels like she's been insulted or underestimated

It's not her best look, but she has a lot of pent-up resentment about feeling constantly humiliated by her older sisters

So of course, that's what she does to the unfortunate nobleman who tries to mansplain his way out of taking care of his tenants in front of her court

She'll pull out the file of information she's gathered and grill him with no mercy: "You currently own 4 properties valued at ____, correct? And you charge your tenants ____ per month?"

You watch him go pale and gulp, "er, yes, Countess. But with the rain, building costs-"

"Your maintenance to date is estimated at costing you ____, leaving over 50 separate complaints unaddressed, some of which are several years old. If my numbers are correct, (and they are always correct, nobleman) you still have _____ in profits. That should easily cover the estimated ____ required to restore acceptable living conditions. I expect to receive a glowing report from your tenants next quarter. Will there be any issues?"

She usually feels guilty afterwards, but you can't blame her. It's just so gratifying

Muriel

He can hold a grudge, but his brand of petty is hard to notice until you get to know him better

It'll only happen with people he trusts, when they do something he disapproves of

For example, the time Asra visited and decided to feed the chickens some breadcrumbs soaked in mead. Just for fun

Watching tipsy poultry stagger and drunkenly cluck around your front yard was hilarious, but also a little sad

And Muriel doesn't appreciate it when someone disrespects nature. Even Asra

He'll sulk. It's a little comedic to watch a full grown man give someone the cold shoulder and huff and stomp his way around the hut, but it's surprisingly effective

Especially when Inanna joins in, skulking by his side and shooting the occasional disdainful glare

Asra crumbles when Faust sides with them, riding on Inanna's back and blepping at her master reproachfully

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have -" *giggle* "I shouldn't have intoxicated your chickens! It was very rude of me."

Really the apology is all Muriel wants, he'll stop sulking and maybe laugh about it later

Portia

She gets petty when someone comments on an insecurity of hers without meaning to

Being the younger sister of a charismatic older brother means that she *hates* being compared to him

She'll be enjoying drinks with you one evening at the Rowdy Raven, and one of the local regulars will make the wrong comment

"Hey, it's Devorak's little sister! Look at you carrying all those drinks, I bet you can hold your liquor almost as well as he can."

Uh oh. It's on.

She'll turn, smiling sweetly, and challenge him to a drinking contest in front of the whole tavern. He'll need help getting home

She won't stop there, either. After that it's arm wrestling, darts, even an insult war in which you hear some of the most creative roasts you've ever come across

All as her Nevivon accent gets thicker and thicker, curls flying and eyes sparking with triumph as she demolishes poor fool after poor fool

She'll be embarrassed about getting so carried away the next morning while she's nursing her hangover

It's worth it because Julian is now known at the Raven as "Miss Portia's older brother"

Lucio

In the same way that he only throws his tantrums cathartically, his pettiness is his other method of handling his short temper

On one hand, you're proud of him. It's a big improvement from ordering someone's execution because he didn't like what they said about him

On the other hand, it's hard to take him seriously when his response to an unwelcome comment is to mimick it back in their faces because he can't come up with a witty comeback

He'll be passing back by a merchant he tried to haggle with earlier when their shop assistant makes a friendly jab at him

"Hey, Mr Adventurer! You back for that deal, or is it still too much?"

He'll barely miss a beat spluttering before he whirls around and responds in a squeaky mocking voice at the top of his lungs:

"Hey shopkeep! You back for that deal, or am I still too much?"

Apparently, the teenaged assistant in question is gifted in both good humor and snark. There's a crowd gathering for the free entertainment and it's fueling both of them

Neither of them seem afraid of being immature in public so you wait it out at the nearby tea stand until they're satisfied

(If you liked Lucio's part, I highly recommend the meme my lovely mutual sent me based off of it here)

#ask arcana brainrot #the arcana #the arcana headcanons #the arcana hc #asra the arcana #julian the arcana #nadia the arcana #muriel the arcana #portia the arcana #lucio the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana shitpost #asra alnazar #julian devorak #nadia satrinava #muriel of the kokhuri #portia devorak #lucio morgasson

[oceansmotion]

The sleepy town of Wormwood

A powerful witch has cast a spell over the town, isolating it from the rest of the world. Perpetually 1956, it exists in a stasis, unchanging over the years. No one has ever questioned the way things are, never thought about why nothing seems to change from year to year. Will anyone ever break free of the curse and bring Wormwood into the present or will it forever remain the same? I really love this hood and despite having so many issues with it, I still love playing it (and so does @nonsensical-pixels who is the one that inspired me to dig around to get most of the original files back because she was making me jealous). It's a little more silly but there are some pretty dark undertones as well. I know there's a couple issues but they really aren't a problem if you play the hood as a standalone or with non-PV subhoods. There is an overarching mystery/plot :) Who really is Moira and...is she really that bad? Is she actually evil or is there more to it? What's going on in the Moore house and why is there a strange smell wafting from it? The Tegan's sure are an odd bunch, is the picture perfect family of blonde hair and blues eyes a coincidence or something more sinister? Will Olive Specter finally find some good luck and love in Ocean Grisly? Sam Spyers is determined to figure out what's happening in Wormwood, but can she figure it out before it's too late?

There are 3 files included: Required, Highly Suggested, and Wormwood itself. The Required folder contains various CC that I used, almost entirely from Michelle's recolors from MTS (merged) + the Bespoke build set (merged), the (optional) Prison mod from Simlogical is not required but sort of ruins the immersion for two families, there are various plants from Parsimonious, fences from Smug Tomato Basket, more plants from the Castaway conversion site, the Sims 2 store sets, and unfortunately a really old merged buy mode folder that I genuinely do not remember what's in it other than a ton of Veranka's stuff. I don't think I used too much from this folder and most of it has the creator in the item descriptions. In all, it's about 1GB of CC, so it's not exactly that much. CC lite, I guess? Most of it is just to get the general vibe of the hood and can be replaced and even then, the bulk of it is simply recolors or bespoke wallpapers. I used this template from enchantedw0lf on MTS to create the hood. Townies may or may not be bald. No, I will not explain. As the first hood I've ever made, it has been through hell and back. I actually completely finished a more complex and involved version of it before managing to corrupt it due to a simple misclick in simpe and thinking I had a backup but not actually :):):) Then entirely remade it from scratch again but it was a hacked down version with fewer sims and simpler plot lines (rifp cowboy farmer who secretly wanted to be a pretty ballerina and had a room full of mannequins facing a stage where he'd dance for them). All this to say that I didn't make this hood 100% correctly and it has some...quirks. When I remade it, I forgot to disable stealth hoods (you'd think I'd have learned my lesson from this when I decided to make Natosi later lol), and I simply can't be bothered to delete townies n stuff. I don't have the energy or willpower to clean it up. The hood itself is still very pretty and fun to play, I think the odd quirks actually fit in perfectly and helps give the vibes I wanted for it!

Download || Mediafire

#sims 2 #sims 2 maxis match #sims 2 download #sims 2 creator #sims 2 simblr #sims 2 custom hood #Wormwood #Oceansmotion #OceanLivesHereToo #shemighthaveissuesbutshesworthitanyway

[sadaveniren]

Hi! Why do you think BG is still going? I see a lot of people saying that it is an alternative to Louis having to have a beard but in my opinion it's much worse to use a child who has no say in the matter and will probably grow up damaged than a beard who has signed up for the job and is getting paid well. A child is not needed to maintain a closet. So with that in mind, why do you think Louis is stuck with Freddie?

Okay you are like the fourth or fifth anon who has insisted that a child is not a way to maintain a closet and while I... guess I get where you are coming from I feel like everyone asking this seems to be forgetting that this isn't just... a decision Louis made in 2022.

Here lemme just include a portion of this ask and then I'll ramble behind a cut

That anon is 100% right btw. This decision was made in 2015 (tbh I think it was probably made in late 2014 but that's a whole separate talk) by music execs who wanted something flash in the pan for their boyband that was about to lose one of their most well known members (Zayn - and no this isn't blaming Zayn for BG I am lying the guilt very FIRMLY on the feet of Sony/Syco/Modest/Simon for this one). What happened after has just been... a shit show.

I don't think Louis knew there was going to be an actual fucking baby involved until October when Belfast happened and when the baby was born I don't think anyone knew how long this was supposed to last. They took almost two weeks to file the birth certificate. I think they were trying to figure out something else to go forward with it, and they were trying to muddle all of what was coming out so fandom didn't know top from bottom.

They ultimately decided to file the birth certificate and go the paternity route and everything was then meant to lead up to a paternity test denial. And then Jay got diagnosed with cancer in March 2016 and everything went off the rails.

I think decisions were made back in 2016 because of that so Louis could have the privacy he wanted for his mother and BG was put on the back burner of his mind. I think Louis did two years of hard pap work for BG before he decided "okay I'll move back to London and let this baby thing die off, I'll focus on making music I want to make and I'll figure it all out later." He did Xfactor like Simon wanted in 2018, he avoided LA like a plague, and he tried to get Walls made.

I think he might have felt he found a good balance ignoring everything by 2020 and not mentioning it and then Briana had to go and get fucking sued because she scammed some dude for fake boobs. I'm not expecting anyone to remember this but I went on a VERY LONG RANT about how dangerous of a position that put Louis and his business companies in because it involved taxes and the IRS. I would not be surprised that that moment basically made Louis go "okay well I can't just let things lie because then I'll have a bigger mess on my hand and stuff will creep up that I can't control that involves my closet" and so he has taken back over the stunt so he can have control over his closet.

Here's basically where I'm at and you can agree or disagree but this is what it is: Louis ending BG without coming out would be very difficult. Someone asked me "what do you mean babies are part of the closet" and it's kinda like... a baby is like the ultimate proof to the heterosexual world that you are heterosexual. You have had verifiable sex with the opposite sex. The nuance of how that all happens is lost in part of the bigger heterosexual picture. If you remove the baby from the equation you are now left with "Turns out Louis Tomlinson isn't the dad of the baby his fans never thought was his because they think he's gay and in a relationship with Harry Styles." And the fact that they have let it go on longer and longer just makes the fact you can't end it without forcing him out of the closet very difficult.

Especially if they don't have another section of the closet to fill that piece. AKA... he gets engaged or married to his long term girlfriend. Because what most people try to accomplish with their closets is that people don't go snooping around it. And losing BG would cause people to do that with Louis. "oh that baby was fake what about your relationship? oh you and this girlfriend have been together for how long and you guys never post anything normal or have gotten married/engaged? huh... weird"

And if he is trying to remove having a public girlfriend from his public persona, which I think he is, the only piece of the closet he has left is BG. Because if he removes BG he has to do SOMETHING to re-enforce the heterosexuality. He'd need to up the girlfriend side of things. He might need to get "engaged" so that way people don't go poking around at his closet.

TL;DR: BG is being used because it has been here. They missed the boat of ending the stunt at a time where it wouldn't have immediately outted Louis and now they have to use BG as part of his closet until Louis is able to come out. Which is his right to choose when he wants to come out. Does it suck for the kid? Verdicts out tbh but I'm not someone who thinks the kid really knows what's going on at this point outside of "oh hey I know this famous dude and go to Christmas with these people who are nice to me" and I also think when he's not with Louis - which is a lot - he's probably living his little six year old life with his mom and dad.

#for the record i would love to be wrong about bg and louis' closet #but i've thought about it a lot and spoken with a lot of people who have been here for awhile #and ultimately it's like ... no those things are pretty much tied

[stitchlingbelle]

So I recently saw this post and decided to be completely self-indulgent and write about the two specific characters who turned me into the person I am: Belle and Honor Harrington.

Belle* is a fairly easy one to explain. I'm a brunette who grew up on Disney movies and was just old enough to be hit with a lot of "you can't be the princess, you have brown hair". I'm also a voracious reader. And then, I switched schools and became The Weird New Girl overnight.

So when a brown-haired book-reading princess who everyone thought was weird appeared on the screen, I imprinted on her like a baby duckling. Here was all the validation I craved, that I could look like me and be me and read books and still have a happy ending. I clung to that all the way through middle school, high school and into college before I finally made it out the other side (ie, found my people and some self-esteem of my own.)

Honor Harrington is a bit more complicated. I have a deep and abiding love for that book series, and have for going on fifteen years now, but Honor herself is actually not my favorite character.** I didn't see myself in her, or aspire to be her.

What I eventually realized was that I wanted to live UP to her. Every time there was a passage about Rafe or Scotty or some other junior officer doing their best for her, I wondered if that would be me. If I would be good enough, try hard enough, be clever and brave and compassionate enough, to be one of 'hers'.

There's a scene where she has a bunch of cadets over for dinner and one asks a question that reveals they've had a look at some files that are officially off-limits, but unofficially are juuuust barely accessible if you're very, very dedicated. And it's said that caring enough to find them is a mark of being 'the right stuff' in senior officers' minds. I found myself caught up in wondering, would I have found them?

And that was all fantasy to me for the first bit of the series, which is heavy on the military action, a career I have never been cut out for. In-this-alternate-universe-would-I-be-a-Jedi levels of engagement. But it nagged at me.

And then the rest of the series happens, which is increasingly political and increasingly fraught and increasingly personal, as Honor actually becomes one of the people doing the politics. And while Weber leans a lot more monarchist than democratic in the books, the necessity of participating in your politics-- and thus your government and your society-- is one of Honor's major areas of growth and a key ideal set out by her and the people around her.

And I thought, I can't be a war hero. But I can do that.

I'd always been a voter, but I became a write-to-your-senator person, and then a donate-money person, and then a protest-march person, and then a volunteer-who-specializes-in-legislation person. Slowly I became more and more the sort of person I think Honor would be proud of.

So thank you to both my girls, and the people who made them, for making me.

*The Beast, being a miserable outcast, also spoke to me pretty strongly in middle school, but it took a lot more maturity to see that later on.

**That would be Thomas Theisman. Definitely also a character to live up to, but his impact on his junior officers gets a lot less page-time. And most of his storyline revolves more around direct action than civic engagement. (God, I'd love to see a committed lefty tackle that theme in restored-Republic Haven...)

#desperately wanted to title this 'Beauty and Honor' #as a little Robin McKinley nod #but it sounded too pretentious in my head so #BatB #Honor Harrington #yes the irony of Honor Harrington making me a leftist does not escape me #and would probably make poor David Weber cry #oh well

[randomfoggytiger]

X-Files Collector's Fic: Cleaning Out the Vineyard House (Poll Results 2nd)

This list was inspired by this poll-- 1st part here~.

(**Note**: I'll edit out errors later when no one's looking.)

Loose chronological order below~ 

raspberrycoffeecake's Vineyard-Haven

""But he turns back toward the sea, retracts his arms, and wraps them around his knees, closing in on himself.

“I came out here once the year after Samantha disappeared,” he says in an even tone. He’s still looking out at the waves, and she wonders if he’s talking to her or to himself. “It was just a normal summer morning. My father was upstairs in his office, writing letters, making phone calls, ignoring us like he always did. My mother made me a sandwich to take with me to the baseball field, as if there had always been just one child to make sandwiches for. As if Sam was just a dream I had, as if she had never existed. And I finally decided that I couldn’t stand the denial. I couldn’t keep pretending anymore.""

Post Paper Hearts Mulder whisks Scully to Martha's Vineyard. She supports him as he processes his memories; and insists they start a relationship when it won't be based in trauma.

@syntax6's (Gossamer, FFN, Omni) Mulder 1998

""He opened his eyes and looked at her over the flames. "They say the ocean has no memory."

She licked her thumb and scanned the paltry breaking surf. "I guess I can see that. The tide comes in, sweeps everything away and washes out again, only to reappear a few hours later. It makes the ocean seem immutable, as though no outside force can change it."

"And change equals memory?"

"Sure. Every memory changes you.""

Pre-Triangle Mulder sells his father's Vineyard house because of the expenses wracked up during FTF. He and Scully share their beach disappointments; and they compare his height to the former scratches on his childhood wall.

Chimerical1975's Regular People

""Grocery shopping with Mulder was something of an experience. It turned out that he was a creature of immense habit with definite likes and dislikes. Since she'd barged in on him, she offered to cook whatever he liked and he put up surprisingly little resistance to the offer. In fact, he revealed that macaroni and cheese was his favorite thing in the world. But only homemade--he had to be close to starving to eat the stuff that came in the blue box. She was amused that such simple comfort food was something he craved, not to mention greatly relieved because it was something that she actually knew how to make. If he'd wanted ratatouille, she would have been in big trouble.""

AU-- TGTSC Scully's California flight was canceled; so she surprises Mulder at the Vineyard where he is cleaning out his father's house. They whack down yard weeds, move each other with respect and admissions on both their parts-- romantically and not living a normal life together-- and conclude their unresolved romantic tensions.

Folieadeux's Cyclone

""Closing the door behind him, he slid off his jacket and laid it on the hall bench.He'd promised himself that he would not take too much time doing this,that he would be quick and efficient, without unnecessary emotions. Just like she'd do it, like she had done it when it had been her turn.

// He sat in the hallway, his back propped against the wall, watching her. It was late spring and the yearly housecleaning was in full force. The scene was misleading in its normalcy. A woman in an apron and a freshly washed house dress ripping sheets from a little girl's twin bed, shaking puffs of dust in the air that floated in the sunshine before disappearing to wherever those particles went. Her jaw was set tight and her face was determined. Only twin paths of tears betrayed her calm exterior.

He kept silent, a skill he was beginning to hone as the weeks wore on and his sister didn't return. Every day the house grew more and more silent while they all pretended. What they were pretending was something he had yet to figure out. //""

Post Closure Mulder somberly packs up the Vineyard, apologizing to the house while battling morbid memories. He always felt he had to protect his mother: the woman who kept travel books but never traveled.

LuvTheBeez’s (mulderscreek) Packing

""Every object, every possession left in the house had been carefully wrapped and packed away only to spend the rest of its days in a dank storage room somewhere. These boxes contained once precious objects that no longer mattered to anyone, all of them things he'd looked at a million times but had never really seen. Things that had been carefully maintained, fastidiously dusted and polished, each holding a memory that was solely hers, that he could not share.""

Post Closure Mulder packs up Tena's house, frustrated that there were no more answers to be found. Scully drops in with comfort food; and both are glad she hadn't listened to his earlier denials and mild mandates.

OKayVal's 155 Words - Santa Claus, North Pole

""Dear Santa, I have been good. Please bring me a talking Crissy doll. And please bring my brother Fox a model rocket so he will be too busy to tease me. Thank you. Love Samantha Mulder.""

Post Closure Mulder soldiers on, cleaning out Tena's house. Samantha's "Dear Santa" letter guts him with guilt.

xraelynn’s (Gossamer) Illumination

""It’s good to see you, Mulder,” she said softly, taking a sip of her coffee. The smile in his eyes dimmed as he looked away.

“I, uh...I didn’t mean to run out of town on you,��� he said quietly, his eyes fixed down on his coffee. “I just thought I...needed some time.”

Mulder’s face was smooth and calm now, but for days she hadn’t stopped seeing his expression of devastation and betrayal whenever she looked at him.

It turned out that she had needed some time too.""

Post Closure Mulder invites Scully out to the Vineyard, needing her company while he processes his losses and revelations.

@bohoartist's (Ao3) Unnamed Prompt

""Let me see!” she pleads, reaching for it, but he extends his arm just out of her reach.

“Oh not at all, Scully, this is way too incriminating.”

She sits back and pouts, sticking out her plump bottom lip and looking up at him through her lashes before quickly changing tactics and lunging at him.""  

Post Closure Scully rescues a picture of little toddler Mulder before her partner can destroy all of his family mementos.

Pattie's Sailor Spooky

""Besides, I wouldn't want to spoil your free time away from me."

His heart sank. He sat on the couch. After a long pause he told her the truth. "I just don't want to be alone, okay?"

Scully stopped filling the coffee maker and approached her partner.""

Post Closure Mulder doesn't want to be alone. Scully assures him he doesn't have to prove anything-- including making himself seasick by trying to bond with her.

@o6666666's (Ao3)

Untitled

""Martha’s Vineyard, he’d said, this weekend, and she’s already teased him that he ever thought it might be a hard sell. His Scully is made for the beach. Not least because her body is pink and freckled and cut from stone, but mostly because the ocean recognizes her at once—a Scully, one of its own—and she opens her heart to it like she does to her mother and small children, allowing her wild laugh and squeaky voice and a sort of space-taking that seems fundamentally opposite to the space-taking she does at work, with clipped tones, and where the littler she speaks, the more powerful she seems.

(By contrast: When he woke up this morning she had all the covers, and her arms were spread out like wings across the whole bed. “You cozy?” he’d whispered, sidling closer. She’d tucked him right in with her with a kiss to his nose. And doing the breakfast dishes together, he’d heard it—this dry little fart. She’d turned to him with wide, guilty eyes and he’d rat-tailed her, lightly, with the dish towel and whistled: “Scul-ly!”)""

Post Closure? Mulder takes Scully on a boating trip to the Vineyard-- and she boats, happily, like a crazy person.

Untitled

""Mulder, I can’t sail.”

He grinned. “Sure you can.” He was sure Scully knew the methodology of sailing. Perhaps Scully could sail like she could drive. When she was a little girl she could sail, and when she was six she accidentally hit Captain Scully in the head with the boom.

AU-- S9 Mulder bought Scully a boat for her 40th. The two go sailing while Maggie watches their son.

@scapegrace74-blog/scapegrace74's Pandora's Box

""He’s been at loose ends since his mother passed away, and she draws an invisible line around him, daring anyone else to cross it and touch his tender heart.  There are a million daily reminders of loss: calls from the family attorney, paperwork to sign, a father’s voice rising from a tour group outside the Hoover Building, “don’t wander too far away, Sam!”

So when he asks her to run this simple errand, she leaps at the chance to help."" 

Post Closure Scully finds an engagement ring in Mulder's things; and the two realize their weaknesses-- fear to take it to the next step for fear of guilt-tripping the other-- pale in comparison to their strengths.

@alienbaby-babymama/ABBM515‘s Potential

""Even though it had only been a few weeks since their partnership became an “official” partnership, Dana Scully would never have to be asked twice to spend a weekend by the water.

Mulder had mentioned in passing that he wanted to get his mother’s house prepared for sale. The place was big, required maintenance, and the memories engrained in the walls and floorboards of the house was not something he wanted to deal with. The property deserved love again. He just wasn’t sure he was the one to give it.""

Mulder and Scully-- still not dating post Closure-- sort out how to use Martha's Vineyard: a rental property so they can subsidize their IVF treatments.

@gabby-msr/ScullytoyourMulder/scullytoyourmulder993's

A Love Captured

""That night was special. In high school, I was the kid whose sister had gone missing. I guess it was some kind of curse. I was a bit of a pariah. Even on the baseball team,” he said, and he saw her frown in disapprobation.  

“But that night, it didn’t matter. We stayed on the diamond celebrating well into the night, the team and other people, too. Some people drank. I didn’t, I still had to drive myself home. People congratulated me.”

"I’m glad,” she told him, squeezing his hand. “I’m glad baseball brought you some happiness.”

“It did,” he said, but there was something sad about the way he said it.

“What is it?”

“My parents - they’ve never seen me play,” he admitted."" 

S8 Monica is trying to understand the late Agent Mulder. While snooping through his office, she finds memorabilia from his and Scully's vacation to the Vineyard post-Je Souhaite. Their trip was about him rediscovering and reinvigorating his past-- all of it: Samantha, his parents, Diana, and everything else-- with a newer, fresher start.

FatCat's Scully Pride

""Where's the car your mom rented? What did she get us, a convertible?" I grinned.

"Uh, no, it's not a convertible. It's over there." Scully pointed up the street toward a Toyota Corolla.

"Scully? A Corolla? I can't fit into a car that small comfortably."

"Uh, no, Mulder. Not the Corolla, the... erm... one in front of it."

I looked again and whistled. "A Cadillac Escalade? Your mom rented a Escalade for us?"

"She said something about it being handy to have with so many guests around." She couldn't meet my eyes. I knew she was embarrassed.

"Scully," I leaned down to force her to look at me. "Your mom told me about your Aunt Maeve. It's okay. I had some relatives just like her so I do understand.""

AU-- Mulder offers the Vineyard to Maggie's snobby relatives, good-naturedly hosting their get-together. The love bomb and a proposal is dropped; and Charlie fights Scully over her initial refusal.

WordsSpillFromMyOpenVeins_89's Weekend At Martha's Vineyard

""Less then ten minutes later, William was fast asleep on the floor and snoring with Ishy next to him.

Mulder pat the back of William's head, ran his hand down is back, feeling the rise and fall of his tiny chest.

"Oof. Don't know how much longer I'll be able to do this, bud. You're growing up", Mulder whispered against his floppy auburn hair.

Mulder reached out his right arm, to brace against the wall before taking the last two steps up to the second level of the Hamptons Style Bungalow.

Mulder carried William up to his bedroom, unlaced his converse sneakers and placed them on the floor, at the foot of the bed. Carefully covering William with the Van Gogh Starry Starry Night bedspread and tucking the edges under him, to keep him warm.""

AU-- S9 Mulder, Scully, Will, and their dog all vacation at Martha's Vineyard. While there, Mulder proposes; and all is chummy and famfic-y.

Enjoy!

#txf #x-files #xf fanfic #xfiles #fic #Collector's Edition #Cleaning Out the Vineyard House #Poll Results #2nd #Vineyard #Martha's Vineyard #raspberrycoffeecake #syntax6 #Chimerical1975 #LuvtheBeez #OKayVal #o6666666 #Pattie #bohoartist #xraelynn #Folieadeux #scapegrace74-blog #scapegrace74 #ABBM515 #gabby-msr #alienbaby-babymama #scullytoyourmulder993 #ScullytoyourMulder #FatCat #WordsSpillFromMyOpenVeins_89

[timefospookies]

so. fnaf x bsd anyone?

“A reopened case, huh?”

As Dazai spun around on his chair, scanning the pictures in his hand, Atsushi glanced at the files laid before him.

“And so far out of town!”

“The woman who hired us paid a very hefty amount of money for us to go take a look,” Kunikida stated as he flipped through his own documents. “It’s a missing persons case, from over a decade ago. Children. The victims were presumed dead, though their bodies were never found.”

“And neither was their killer, I take it?”

Kunikida nodded grimly as Dazai puffed out a sigh. The poet offered the documents to his partner and he took it gingerly.

“It’ll be our job to find out who did it, then” the bandaged man said.

“This is terrible,” Atsushi muttered, horrified.

“Tell me about it,”

Dazai tapped on the table as he half heartedly read through each paper, expressionless. His protégé, on the other hand, looked visibly disturbed, and could feel the sweat soaking through his dress shirt. He shakily reached for a glass of water on his desk to swallow down his dread. Suddenly, with an exaggerated groan, Dazai hopped off his seat and whined as he stretched.

“Well, I suppose we should pack and get going then!” 

“Right,” said the poet, as he absentmindedly scratched his lip, “Pack for about a week or so, and we’ll meet at the station tomorrow morning. Be sure to do your research,”

Then he added, much more sourly,

“That means you, Dazai.”

The bandaged man perked up, eyes wide in indignation.

“Huhh? Homework?” he protested, “You’re not a teacher anymore, you know!”

“Shut it!” Kunikida said through gritted teeth, stiffer than usual, "This case is particular because it hasn’t been touched for years. So be sure to prepare properly if you plan to be of use, damn it!”

Dazai pouted but seized to press the matter further, opting to pick up the files on Atsushi’s desk instead. He tapped on the young man’s head with the folder, snapping him out of his absentminded spiral.

“Hey, Atsushi, you free? We could study together,” the man grinned.

“Ah! Yes, of course…”

And so, while Kunikida dedicated himself to his own independent research, Atsushi stumbled after Dazai as they headed down to Uzumaki Café. ---

“Keep an eye out for when we exit the plane,” Kunikida said, “Our client should be waiting to take us to the scene.”

The other two men nodded. Their client, Atsushi recalled, was Kira Breed-Wrisley, an American immigrant who came to settle in Japan with her daughter, Charlotte.

“What a curious choice,” Dazai muttered, back at the café.

Atsushi glanced up from the documents they’d gathered and cocked his head in confusion.

“What do you mean?” 

“Oh, Atsushi, you sweet oblivious soul,”

The boy arched an eyebrow almost involuntarily.

“Think,” his mentor cooed, leaning in, “why would she decide to move all the way from the US to Japan, of all places? Business women weren’t a very welcome sight here back in the 80s, you know? Hell, they still aren’t now… but Dr. Yosano can tell you all about that feminist stuff,”

“S-Sure,”

That’s right. The scene they were sent to investigate…it had been a restaurant co-owned by Breed-Wrisley herself. A family pizza place with friendly animal mascots that wowed the public with their fun-inviting nature. Well, that and the fact that their entertainers were highly complex robots, for the time anyway. 

Atsushi took a second to arrange his thoughts.

“Well, Japan has been known to be very technologically advanced in the past…” he mused, “So, maybe Mrs. Breed-Wrisley moved here so she could create better robots with the best materials available?”

Dazai hummed, satisfied. He plopped back down on his seat.

“Very good,” he said.

From what they found, though, she hadn’t originally intended for her creations to be made for a restaurant.

Dazai read off a news article,

“Upon being interviewed, Mr. Cawthon claimed he ‘saw great genius and value in her work’ and ‘suggested it must be brought to light, so after tossing around some ideas, [they] decided on a family diner’.”

He slid the paper towards Atsushi.

“How charming!” he said, “Englishmen, am I right?”

William Cawthon, also an immigrant, was in charge of the finances of the business, while Breed-Wrisley focused more on the entertainment and management. He was a rather plain man, and single father of two boys. He also has been missing for the last 16 years or so. 

When the three detectives got off the plane their search for their client began. Kunikida tried to reach her with his phone, but didn’t have much luck with the connection. Dazai, on the other hand, would run off every chance he got to snoop around the airport stores, leaving Atsushi in charge of both his and his mentor’s luggage. And babysitting duty. 

“Mr. Dazai, please could we move along? I’ve already lost sight of Mr. Kunikida,” he urged.

He tried to grab hold of the man’s arm, but he was slippery with his movements. 

“Atsushi, look! A survival handbook! Do you think if I reverse engineer it, I could find some new method-”

“Dazai!”

Upon hearing that call, Atsushi wearily looked over his shoulder at Kunikida, who approached them at a dangerously rapid speed. The man zipped past him and gripped his partner’s shoulder with little trouble, shaking the book out of his hands.

“You idiot, what the hell is your problem?!” he yelled, “You can’t go running off! Need I remind you that we’re on a serious case?!”

“Ah, Kunikida, I was planning on buying that…” 

“Enough! We don’t have time to slack off! Now get your luggage and act like a grown-up for once!”

“Having a child-like spirit is quite good for you, you know?” Dazai announced, “If you don’t allow yourself to relax every once in a while, you’ll get chronic conditions at an early age,”

Kunikida twitched with sudden interest, taken aback.

“S-Seriously?”

Dazai nodded slowly and wisely as he gestured at the man’s pocket. 

Oh boy…, Atsushi thought as Kunikida reached for his notebook and began to write it down. Dazai watched over his shoulder with a smirk, when the realization hit his partner.

“W-Wait, why you!”

A swift and hard hit to the head left the bandaged man writhing in pain on the floor.

“Agh! What was that for?! I wasn’t lying!” “You can’t fool me, you little-”

As their squabbling went on, Atsushi felt uncomfortably aware of the amount of people staring at them and began to fear their client might be somewhere in that crowd. He looked at his watch and began to squirm. Had they agreed on a meeting time? Or place? Kunikida didn’t mention either. Could he have forgotten? Could the client have forgotten?

“Um, hey…you guys?” he stammered.

“What?!” Kunikida snapped, holding Dazai limp under his chokehold.

Atsushi swallowed hard as he gingerly pointed over his shoulder. 

“Sh-Shouldn’t we, y…y’know,”

The poet didn’t have time to answer as his phone began to ring. He was immediately on his feet as he tossed Dazai to the side, now completely composed and focused on the call.

“Mrs. Breed-Wrisley,” he said. “Yes, we have arrived. I apologize for not contacting you earlier, we haven’t been able to reach you. Yes. Of course. We’ll be right there, please excuse us.”

As he snapped his phone shut, he looked Atsushi in the eye.

“Let’s go,” ---

“Again, I am so sorry for not planning this out earlier. I’m…not very good with organization,”

They found themselves at the airport café sitting before their client. 

“It’s not a problem, madam,” Kunikida assured her, “We’re here now,”

So this was Kira Breed-Wrisley, the genius robotics engineer. With how much Kunikida insisted they be on guard around her, the woman who sat before them wasn’t at all like what Atsushi had expected. She was so small she looked almost ill, and though she must’ve only been in her early 50s, her braided hair had nearly completely grayed. It was hard to hear her over the airport chatter because of how softly she spoke- each sentence she uttered was accompanied by gentle gestures of her bruised, scraped hands (Atsushi wondered how they'd gotten to that state). He knew it had been years, so of course her physical state wasn’t going to mirror her past actions, but still, if he didn’t already know about it, Atsushi could’ve never guessed she’d just been released from a fifteen year aggravated assault sentence. The only traces he could see in her that could’ve hinted at it was that though she smiled and chuckled during their polite chatter, behind her glasses sat a pair of dull, dark eyes- devoid of light, like they’d seen too much.  

“I can’t thank you enough for coming all the way out here,” she said quietly, “I apologize in advance for every inconvenience.”

“Please, you’re doing us a favor,” Dazai cooed, “It’s always nice to visit new places! So much to see and learn…surely you know a few places?”

He flashed a charming smile and Kunikida eyed his partner as a warning. No flirting with the clients. Or else. Dazai sighed off the telepathic threat and sat back on his chair.

“Harikēn isn’t too eventful I’m afraid,” she replied, “But I do hope you enjoy your stay. The housing offer still stands, if you ever wish to change your mind,”

Kunikida stopped her with a wave of his hand.

“We appreciate the offer, but we wouldn’t want to burden you,”

“You’re too kind,” she whispered with a bow of her head.

She sat up straight and observed the three for a moment. Was she analyzing them? Her eyes seemed so sad.

“I realize I haven’t formally introduced myself to your partners,” she said suddenly, “Though you probably already know all about me. Either way, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person,”

Atsushi chimed in with a start.

“Right! I’m Atsushi Nakajima. Nice to meet you!”

“Osamu Dazai, at your service,”

“Mr. Nakajima, Mr. Dazai,” she repeated, “Thank you both. Shall we go?”

“Right,” 

---

They followed the small woman to her equally small car and on the ride to the location, she gave them a little run down of the case (though they wouldn’t dare interrupt her to remind her that they already knew all the details). 

“It was over the span of two weeks,” she recalled, her voice nearly a whisper, “I remember it so clearly…when the news of the first child going missing broke. How the restaurant slowly emptied out...how all those parents cried after the search was called off,”

She shook her head, trying to avoid reliving it all again.

“I never thought...” her grip on the wheel tightened, “No- I never wanted for things to turn out this way. I can’t… I just can’t let this case go until those children are brought to justice.”

Then she let out a grim, loathing sort of snort.

“I’m partly responsible for their misfortune, afterall.”

Kunikida was silent. He sat so tense in his seat that Atsushi could feel that pressure on his own limbs, and Dazai, who had his nose buried in his new survival handbook, seemed lost in thought. 

“It must’ve been terrible,” Atsushi lamented, “Having lost your daughter yourself, I can’t imagine just how…”

“Atsushi.” 

A whisper. Dazai glanced up at him, expressionless, and subtly shook his head in disapproval.

“No, no, it’s okay,” the woman said, and she gave him a saddened smile through the mirror, “Thank you,” 

Then she fell deathly, like she’d left the present entirely. ---

“I should mention that I’ve hired a night guard for the week,” Mrs. Breed-Wrisley called over her shoulder nonchalantly.

As the detectives slid off the small car, the woman fiddled with her keys at the entrance of the rundown restaurant. The afternoon sun served as a spotlight for the display. The windows were scratched and the walls graffitied. Whatever remained of the signs that would’ve spelled out the name of the place instead communicated gibberish. Nature had overtaken the lot, as sprouts of grass peeked through the cracks on the concrete and vines climbed up the grayed walls. 

“And why would that be?” Kunikida asked, vaguely irked at the sudden news but attempting to stay polite.   

The woman didn’t answer as she swung open the gates and soon the glass door. Dazai was the first to set foot inside and though the intense smell of mold on the crusty carpet spoke the truth of how long this place had been abandoned, the place itself…looked frozen in time. The tables were arranged in neat lines, with colorful (though faded) tablecloths. Confetti and glitter stuck to the old checkered floor, with attractive promises of delicious treats decorating the walls. Alongside these, drawings were scattered about the place, painting the happiness of a birthday, of children surrounded by friends and soft animals sharing slices of pizza. Stars hung from the ceiling and arcade machines called for their next player. The curtain of the main stage shone a vibrant velvet and the smaller side stage sparkled purple. Atsushi, though he’d never lived something like this, could almost feel himself in the moment, the smell of freshly made food cuddling the air, the laughter, the lights. But the joy that this place once contained was now stuck to the corners of each wall, caught in the cobwebs, rotting away with time. 

“You said you just hired a security guard?” Dazai reminded her, as the rest allowed themselves to roam the place.

“Ah, yes,” the woman said, “I thought it would help make sure nothing is moved, or stolen”

Who’d wanna rob a place like this?, Atsushi thought. Though it’s nice, there’s nothing of much value here, unless you’d want to sell the mushrooms growing from the carpet…Although, the arcade machines could have a lot of money in them. Not to mention the things themselves are probably worth a fortune.

He hummed, deep in thought.

“This restaurant featured robot mascots, is that right?” Kunikida asked.

“That’s right,”

“Where might they…be?”

Kunikida trailed off as he spotted Dazai, who found himself entranced by a big golden button at the side of the main stage.

“Dazai…” the man growled. 

Dazai straightened up and put his hand to his chest.

“I wasn’t gonna do anything, honest,” he lied.

Mrs. Breed-Wrisley chuckled quietly.

“It’s alright, go ahead,” 

He didn’t need to be told twice. With an excited push of the button, the curtains of the stage suddenly drew back, as music boomed from the speakers and the performers hidden behind sprung to life. Dazai let out an amused laugh as he stepped back to admire the spectacle, resting his arm on Kunikida’s shoulder. A blue bunny waved its hand in front of its guitar in sync to the song, along with a bear with the top hat, whose mouth moved up and down to make it look as if it were singing. On the other side of the stage, a duck of sorts showed off its cupcake, and moved its torso from side to side when suddenly the side stage swung open, and a fox slid out, waving its hook enthusiastically. 

“Wonderful, isn’t it?” Mrs. Breed-Wrisley whispered.

“Yeah!” Atsushi said

But she didn’t seem to hear. Was she talking to herself? When he looked at her it seemed like her gaze was glued to the stage. What was that on her face? Her head tilted to the side and a fond smile plastered on her face. Her eyes shone with the lights. Ah. Infatuation. That’s what it was. The red guitar the bunny held suddenly clicked. It sounded metallic, or almost like a lighter being turned on. Before they knew it, a boom escaped the guitar, causing Atsushi to yelp in surprise. A crackle of light shook the room, as the music slurred and they were all suddenly drowned in darkness. 

“Ah,” the woman chuckled, “They’re a little rusty, I’m sorry about that…”

Atsushi composed himself and joined his coworkers’ sides.

“Their glory days are long gone,” she said.

---

“Atsushiiiiii! Get over hereeeee!”

“Hold on!”

As the boy dried off from his shower and slipped on his sleeping wear, he hurried to exit the bathroom to attend to his mentor’s calls. They had settled in a hotel for the rest of the week. That’s how long they had to solve the case.

“A-A week?!” Kunikida cried.

“I ask that you understand,” Mrs. Breed-Wrisley sighed apologetically, “Lately, I”ve been having trouble keeping the wrecking companies away from this place and…well…”

“We can do it in a week!” Dazai assured her, and Kunikida looked at him with wide-eyed desperation. “You can count on us!”

Now the two detectives laid on their respective futons, each in their own little world. Kunikida muttered to himself as he looked over every word of every document in every file, scribbling his thoughts and theories into his notebook. Dazai, meanwhile, was humming to himself, laying belly down on the futon and kicking his legs while he too scribbled on his own book. His new survival book. 

“Ah! Atsushi, check it out!”

The man waved him over and Atsushi reluctantly approached. He looked down at the page, where Dazai had drawn right over the words into the empty space of the page.

“Wh-Why couldn’t you have drawn it smaller so it would fit on the empty part?” Atsushi grimaced.

“And let my creativity be restricted like that? I could never!”

Atsushi sat down beside him and the man then promptly pointed at his doodles.

“I drew my favorite!” 

He tapped on the drawing of the pirate fox they had seen earlier on the stage. It wasn’t a horrible drawing, funnily enough. A bit on the abstract side, but recognizable enough. The rest of his scribbles consisted of the fox doing several things, such as eating pizza, or being a pirate. There was a doodle of the fox’s stomach hatch, but Atsushi didn’t dare ask why he’d drawn that. 

“Which robot did you like?” Dazai asked.

“You sound like a child,” Kunikida said, still not looking up from his notes. “And, the term, you’ll find, is animatronic. Not robot,”

“Oh, what’s the difference? Isn’t that just the cooler name for it?”

Kunikida snapped upright just to glare at him, but he held the vile poison on his tongue for some other time. As the man shook his head and tried to focus again, Dazai turned his attention back to Atsushi. 

“Well?”

“Ah…eh…”  he thought about it, “I thought the duck was cute,”

“I think it’s a chicken,” Kunikida muttered.

“It looks like a duck,” Dazai countered.

“But it’s a chicken,”

“But it doesn’t look like one,”

Kunikida glared again.

“Must you make an argument out of everything?!”

“Fine, fine, here I’ll make it so we both win,”

Dazai took to his book, the sound of his pen scratching the paper filling the room. Atsushi tried to look over his shoulder, curiosity taking over. Upon finishing and revising it, he proudly revealed his drawing to his partner. It looked like some sort of duck-hen hybrid with the same bib the robot wore and a cupcake on its wing.

“See? It’s a chuck! Or a dicken? Or…”

Kunikida’s mouth dropped to the floor, completely horrified.

“Did you just draw on the book?!”

The bandaged man blinked.

“Oh. Yeah?”

The other stammered. 

“Why would you do that?!”

“I didn’t have any paper,” he stated matter-of-factly

Kunikida’s face transitioned through several different emotions at once.

“Wh-wha-you! You don’t draw on books!”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s! It’s!” the man couldn’t find his words in his bewilderment, “Because it’s practically a crime!”

“Says who?”

“S-Says everyone?!”

The man was less angry and more just. Genuinely confused. And much to Atsushi’s relief, the interaction didn’t lead to a one sided boxing match as his two seniors chattered on about nonsensical nothings. Atsushi felt his chest grow warm as he relished in this strange comfort. It was the first time he’d ever gone on an overnight mission with anyone. To go on one with these two almost would seem like a train wreck, but in this moment he felt grateful to be there. Maybe this was what a sleepover would feel like? The boy barely noticed himself dozing off as he leaned on Dazai’s side and shut his eyes. With a content sigh, he thought:

Tomorrow is another day.

#spooky talk #I HOPE YOU ENJOYED LOL #this is my first bsd fic ever so I hope I characterized everyone okay #I kind just used the first season dynamic as reference #anyway I might post more but yeah!! #fnaf #five nights at freddy's #fnaf au #bsd #bungo stray dogs #bsd au #dazai osamu #atsushi nakajima #kunikida doppo #henry emily #william afton #bsd x FNAF crossover au

[sakarrie-creates]

It’s that time of year! Here’s my 2023 art summary! After two years of having to include non-colored pieces, I finally did enough ‘full’ pieces to fill my art summary template! I did have to get a bit creative with the months since I was able to draw a LOT more during the summer, but I’ll take it! Sorry it's a bit blurry. I'm not sure if that's just for the preview or not, but it was a smaller file than normal and since these reflections are 99% for my own interest, I decided it wasn't worth trying to change.

As usual, I got rambly so reflection questions are answered under the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to make their own! My fic summary will be coming in a week or so, so stay tuned for the stats and round-up there. :)

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Fandom Trumps Hate, Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), Weird People (Editing), SPN Comfortably Queer Zine (dropped), and lots of zine applications for page artist, merch artist, comic artist, and spot artist roles!

What was your biggest challenge this year? While time, like last year, was still a challenge, I think my biggest challenge was a mix of low motivation and an intense perfectionistic mindset. At the start of the year, I got super into TOH and was super hyped about all the zines with apps opening. I really REALLY wanted to get into them and figured I should apply for art too just cause it would increase my overall chances of getting in. After the finale, I did a screenshot redraw that ended up being absolutely fantastic for where my skill level is. I went deeper into rendering than ever before, and somehow it worked for me. 

That probably was the start of my unreasonably high expectations, and I got it into my head that maybe if I could make a whole portfolio of artwork at that quality level, I actually stood a chance at getting into a zine as an artist. From then on, I was hardcore crash-coursing perspective, rendering techniques, and generally trying to improve without allowing room for mistakes. While I do think it helped me grow a lot, it burnt me out so I struggled to work on stuff past summary (when all the zine apps were) and even dropped from the SPN Comfortably Queer Zine cause my imposter syndrome was so strong. (Though that was also partially because it was a ‘sign-up and you’re in’ zine, so they never saw my art during the application process and had no way of knowing if I was good enough.

What was something you were surprised by? I’m pretty sure I discovered the perspective tool is CSP this year! CSP has so many tools I’m not aware of (despite watching tons of tutorials and guides), so it wasn’t super surprising but it was nice. I have to say, they’re a serious hassle to work with and require a higher understanding of vanishing points and such than I currently have, but I could see it being very useful for future scene art pieces.

Did you try anything new this year?

Yes! This year I kicked down the door to the merch world and have been collecting and designing throughout the year. Though the designs have mostly just been for zine app portfolio’s, everything has worked out really well for me and I hope to produce charms for my collection as I improve my skills. Where do you think you most improved? Definitely my confidence in rendering! And probably my rendering itself too. I did a ton more pieces with it this year and it’s definitely a favorite part of the art process for me. I think I’ll have a lot more fun with it this year too, since I’m trying to keep it lower pressure, so I can experiment more to find out what brushes and styles I like most. What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of how ambitious I was with my zine apps. Though I didn’t get into any for art and it burned me out a fair bit, I did a lot of hard work and made pieces I can be mostly happy with. As for specific pieces, I’m very proud of my animatic clip for the Dear Fellow Traveler MAP (which is what the Belos art from the summary is from). My portion was about 5 seconds with 24 fully colored and shaded frames. A few of those were moving frames too, so the end result is the closest thing to actual animation I’ve done. I also really like the rendering on the Huntlow Epilogue art and generally how the Steve&Matt hug turned out.

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals? I honestly couldn’t remember what my goals were, but all things considered, I didn’t do too bad! Thankfully past-Sakarrie was wise and made it a bullet list so I can just check things off. Met: -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Pull out some old WIPs -Build more consistency of style

The checked off ones I definitely met, so good for me! This was a very zine-focused year, so I way exceeded those goals. The last two I did do, but they’re a bit subjective. Specifically, I think the ‘WIPs’ I was referring to were old sketches, but most of the old WIPs I revisited were already colored and I was either adding rendered or cleaning them up for zine usage. As for style, I’m REALLY bad at telling haha. That said, my characters seem reasonably similar when I draw them, so I’m going to tentatively count it. Kinda: -One fully colored piece per month

I’m gonna give myself a half check on this one. I didn’t have a fully colored piece every month, but I did have over 12 fully rendered pieces in the end, several of which had backgrounds. So while I didn’t meet the letter of the goal, I feel like I met the spirit of it.

Did Not Meet: -Finish Huntlow comic -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics

These don’t shock me. They’re all personal projects and this was a very external-goal-driven year for me. The Huntlow comic is a big love of mine but it’s definitely ambitious for where my skill is. I’ve got the whole thing messy-sketched and most of it has been clean sketched, but the jump from that to lineart is gonna be hard, and I have no idea what I’d be doing with color since the panels don’t have a background. That said, I do feel like it’s some solid work and I adore the angst vibe of it, so maybe I’ll get it done one day. I could also see myself posting it as a messy lineart comic so that others could enjoy the concept being executed in case it never gets finished.

As for the 30 Minutes animatic, I still 100% intend to complete it eventually. I love the way it fits to the music and I’m so proud of the thumbnails. Even if it never becomes a full animatic, I want to digitize the frames and line it up with music so I can share the concept I see in my mind with others. My brain was somewhat overtaken suddenly by TOH this year, so now that that’s settled and I’m hoping to follow my muse more this year, maybe this will be something I can get excited about again.

The fanart for favorite fics is no surprise since it’s kinda the tack on. With low motivation and projects with deadlines that needed my focus, personal art like this was buried way below other priorities. It’s a nice though for sure though.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! Oh goodness, I really don’t know what to expect of myself. I definitely am going to try to allow for more personal projects with lower pressure, but I do still have some goals. Hopefully most can be accomplished without applying big pressure though.

2024 Goals:

-Number One Priority: Create for my and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items Overall, how’d the year go? I think I did well! I didn’t meet all my goals and I pushed myself too far, but I learned and improved a LOT this year. All things considered, I made pieces that last year me would be blown away by, so I think that’s an automatic win. I’m pretty uncertain on how this next year will go (even more so than last year, which is surprising since I was changing schools last year), but I’m hoping to enjoy what I do and create art semi-regularly. Here’s to 2024!

#sakarrie's art #the owl house #carmen sandiego #voltron: legendary defender #non fandom #willow park #toh hunter #cs player #cs carmen #cs black sheep #cs the cleaners #belos #toh mattholomule #toh steve #tw puppets #huntlow #willow/hunter #angst #fluff #end of year #art summary #2023 summary of art

[sp4rrowdoll]

I'm here for anotha request😩😩😩😩

You write too good bro save some talent for the rest of us/j

Now this is a different sort of ask but if dol wasnt. A rape porn game, then how do you think the named NPCs would act? Like in game Leighton is...like that, but if you changed the genre of the game how do you think they would act?

(write for any of the characters you want to😩😩and if you want me to elaborate i completely understand, i have a hard time wording stuff💀💀)

I have two characters for you! Leighton and Dr. Harper. The simple answer is that neither of them would be good people, even outside of the dol genre-setting. However, they do suck in very different ways!

Headmaster Leighton

There’s something wrong with Headmaster Leighton. Sure, he’s friendly and nice most of the time, and he drove you home that one time you came to him concerned that Whitney was waiting outside the school to jump you, and that you didn’t want to wind up covered in bruises again—but there’s still something ever so slightly off about the man. The closest you come to figuring it out comes when you stay after school—not detention, you don’t really have any reason to get into trouble, and you’re a good pupil—but sometimes you get caught up in the library, and Robin goes home without you, and the next bus comes in an hour, and you have a lot of free time on your hands. 

So you like to ask teachers if you can help out. Most of the time they say no, but you’re certain they still appreciate it, and it seems to be netting you brownie points. And you like being helpful anyway.

You discover what you think is Leighton’s secret then. Rivers asked you to drop a letter off in his office, and you agreed—it was much easier to do when school wasn’t in session, and the head’s office was near the exit, and it was almost time for you to catch the bus. When you knock on the door, the office is empty. You pause for a moment, wondering if you should just wait for Headmaster Leighton to get back, but then you glance out the window. The bus isn’t too far away, and you decide it’d be a better idea to leave it on his desk.

The file cabinet next to his desk is open, and—it’s just one look. Not even something you did on purpose—but instead of the student academic record you expect to see, it’s full of check stubs. Check stubs with very identifiable names on them. Names that you recognize as belonging to many of your wealthier classmates, ones that you consistently find yourself ranked behind in the class lists.

Feeling cold, you leave the room at as quickly as you can without being suspicious.

Dr. Harper

Dr. Harper hasn’t met an ethics board he couldn’t wrap around his fingers, they say. He’s not even a doctor—technically speaking, at least. Something about having his medical license under investigation, but the investigation has been going on for at least three years now, and has no signs of ever coming to a conclusion. There are rumors that he’s never even been to medical school, but you know that he has. There’s a diploma hanging on the wall in his office, from a school that’s a bit to prestigious for it to be faked, though that’s no guarantee—no, the real teller is how often he boasts about his time in medical school, the letters he gets from old classmates, and the occasional times he brings up his latest paper in your sessions together.

No, Dr. Harper isn’t faking it. 

Right? Sometimes, though, you have to wonder. Like when he brushes aside your concerns about a new experimental treatment that he wants you to be his guinea-pig for, and no matter how many times you say no, he still pushes. And pushes. He’s so young too—and the pharmacy has complained about his non-standard prescriptions several times while you’ve been within earshot. And the one time you got drunk with Alex back behind the barn, he’d started bitching about upstart young vets from the valley who didn’t even know the first thing about animal care, and you know for certain that Dr. Harper doesn’t have a degree in veterinary science. So why was he hanging around the riding academy with his medical bag?

All you know for certain is that you’re going to ask Bailey if you can transfer primary care providers.

#dol #degrees of lewdity #dol harper #harper the doctor #dol leighton #leighton the headmaster #sp4rrow-writes #dr harper is like *violates every known professional medical ethical rule* “i'm sowwy 🥺” and then the ethics board forgives him #that man never went to graduate school!!

[sepulchritude]

Update on my perfection playthrough: I did it!

🌟

I earned 100% perfection in early fall of year 5. I’ve been playing for a while past that though because I wanted to finish wrapping up a few things. Still not quite done, but nothing’s ever quite done so I figured I’d make the post now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Proof + some screenshots of completed collections since I figure most people don’t get to see them

I’m also dating every eligible in town so I got to see everyone’s events and get everyone to 10 hearts 😄 I’m the village bicycle I guess

The only person not at 10 hearts is my son Leon, he’s new. My first child is Ginger, I had her with Shane and named her that because I was away on ginger island when I missed the day we brought her home 😬 Then I divorced Shane and married Haley, and I had unlocked warping by then so I was present for Leon’s birth 👍 I’ll accept my parent of the year award now, thank you

Now for some cool places & lore around my farm!

In the top left corner, I have a small garden and sitting area surrounding grandpa’s grave. The fruit trees here are all old enough to give iridium fruit, and I sometimes go sit on the chair by grandpa and relax. The smell of fruit and flowers in the area also attracts junimos and small animals

In the bottom right corner, my slime hutch has been leaking contamination into the area, making it a lovely sanctuary for slimejacks, skeletons, and carnivorous plants. Also Wumbus the slime man lives there. This area is used for educational visits but for your health and safety we ask that you do not linger long. Also wash your hands

Next door to the left you can see the coop where my golden chickens live. No word yet on what the interaction of pure slime and pure perfection will do to the surroundings

Next: cave shrine

The bats leave offerings for the gilded man, and I am but the humble steward who keeps the altar clear

(I highly recommend putting the golden lewis in the farm cave every time. It brings me so much delight)

My aquarium! On the farm map, it is located just south of the greenhouse, in the blue cabin by the two fish ponds

I had to catch every fish in the game for perfection, and after I did that I decided I wanted an aquarium in which to display every fish. So I had to catch them all again 😅 I also had to invite a friend onto the save file in order to upgrade his cabin and remove the beds, because you really need a house to have enough space to show off all these fish and decorate around them

The main room is for ocean fish (with a small corner devoted to coldwater fish in the southwest corner). On the right are the freshwater fish, both river and lake. Up the stairs we have the fish that like warm climates, then last we have the deep, dark, and otherwise dank fish 🐠

I love how this building turned out, and the screenshot doesn’t do it justice. It’s so delightful to walk around and see all the fish swimming around their tanks

And finally, here is my house!

We’ve got a chill living room/kitchen, a funky bedroom (with Lewis’ shorts on display, obvs), a cute children’s bedroom, and… the basement where our shitty roommate Bobo lives. He doesn’t pay rent.

-

I would say if anyone wants to try a perfection playthrough, I highly recommend giving it a shot! It forced me to spend time doing things in this game that I never paid much attention to, like cooking and completing monster eradication goals. I also got to see the heart events for characters I hadn’t befriended before! Some things were kind of a slog to get through, but I liked having such a large project with so many different aspects to work on

And if you haven’t played much past the community center before, I have to tell you that’s just the beginning. There’s so much cool stuff to find and play with, and a lot of it was added in recent updates so some people don’t know how much is there. Starting a new file and experiencing these things organically as I played was a lot of fun

As for advice on how to do a perfection playthrough, my biggest tip would be to make it fun! Place decorations and make up stories and make your farm somewhere you want to be, because you’re gonna spend a lot of time there 😅 Sometimes a little inefficiency is worth it to have something that makes you smile

#(check notes for ginger island addition) #let me know what you think! is there anything here that you didn’t even know existed in the game? #the sunflowers btw are for my wife haley 🥰🌻 #the coop next to my house is for my original animals (and therefore my favorites 💝) #they are mostly named after danganronpa characters lol you fan ask for a list of names if you feel like calling me out #long post #undescribed #sepulchritudinous #sdv perfection #sdv

[partyinthemysterymachine]

I notice how you draw Harry and James is pretty different from how they look in game. I was curious how you decided their looks. It's interesting to hear about that sort of thing if you don't mind answering. Thanks

hi anon!! :3 thanks for the ask!! i will do my best to explain myself LOL but no promises it'll make any sense >:3c!

so let's go on a fun lil' art journey, anon. grab a granola bar and some gatorade, and c'mon!!!

well first and foremost: i am a NOTORIOUS "i do what i want"-er. going off the beaten path to the beat of my own drum is my favorite thing to do!

.. that said!! as i've mentioned before, actor Josh Charles was my first PB/"cast" for Harry Mason.

and my very first piece of silent hill fanart (march 10, 2018) really reflects that, LOL

incredibly, and almost a full year later to the date, i drew and posted this on march 4, 2019. now THIS is actually the closest canon-Harry i've ever drawn. (this was also around the start of the SH RP i was doing with a friend, which then spawned GOOMT lol.)

april 25, 2019. first color piece for any SH art and my first "real" time drawing james. this is also the last time you'll see him with his bangs on the "correct" side LOL.

april 30, 2019. the SH RP is still going on, and this is where i'm starting to get a better handle on what i want them to look like. Harry also gets a maroon sweater. he's also notably thinner here, and still has a lot of Josh Charles vibes.

sept 22, 2019. james sunderland thinnest browns edition. the bangs will be drawn on the right from now on.

(the only reason why they're on the right is because i forgot which way his hair actually parted. oops.)

the RP has ended. the first chapter of GOOMT is written a tumblr post and subsequently posted to tumblr october 3, 2019. i write/pst chapters 1 - 4 in the following days, then draw them again:

james's jacket is still short (but at least he has eyebrows!!); harry is still thin(ner). he's also got more of a canon-harry super low cut sweatervest.

ch 5, 6 is written/posted to tumblr. i draw and post this on october 27, 2019. please clap for my art journey LMAO

you'll also notice hte presence of A Knife. this is actually Angela's knife. shhh. ;)

still figuring out what they look like in goomt here tbh.

stuff from the following week. more figuring out! DRASTICALLY different Harry, too! still very Josh Charles-y, but starting to take on his own look as well. (note his greys!!)

i like DILFs. i like dad bods. he was intended to be a little soft around the middle.

it's not until January 2020 that i draw these idiots again:

very different nose for james lmao.

this is actually my first full body for both in awhile.

(i'm redoing this :3)

also more "accurate" debut of Harry's jacket!! this jacket was ALWAYS intended to look/be bigger on him. i can't really explain why because i don't know, other than it felt right.

at this point i've figured out how i want Harry to look. his design elements are very simple, because i'm EXTREMELY self-indulgent and i really. REALLY like:

widow's peaks

big thick eyebrows

noses. big beak noses

old men

grey hair

(you can actually find this sort of pattern across my various OCs that you'll never find evidence of on my blog anymore haha except for Zach good luck tho. >:3c)

January then gets very busy in the art department for these guys.

Harry finally gets more of a pudge and starts to "look" like himself. James also starts to "look" like himself.

a note on james's bangs: i uhhhhhhh. Stylistically, i have a thing for drawing Big Hair and Tall Bangs. this is seen in my version of Jonathan Crane. but also my hair used to do the exact same bangs so are you really surprised.

(bonus pieces of abandoned James GOOMT character sheet from 2001. i might have the files somewhere if you guys want to see What Almost Was LMAO)

more from January 2020. rubs chin.

it isn't until the end of Janurary/beginning of February that Harry finally Gets Fatter.

i'd been very unused to drawing fat people until Harry, and had been struggling up until here with actually drawing a more accurate representation of his body type to the one i saw in my head!

the reason why i made him fat is because it made sense to me that he was. people change, and being a single father changed him a lot. (and also i recognize that the only reason why the Dead Harry model was lean in sh3 was because it was a recycled Dead James model and they were Legit not going to actually put too much thought into it otherwise lmfao)

march 2020. still getting used to drawing Harry's body type!! also: even tho James's jacket is Longer in my head, i'm still trying to draw it the game-canon length.

idk why.

August 2020, James long jacket hours!!! and Harry really getting his look.

and FINALLY, one of my FAVORITES i've ever done of these two!!:

james's jacket is short here (only bc i was a Dumbass and forgot to make it longer i think?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who's to say), but this is also the color debut for the backpack!!

(bonus Sept 16 2020 YOUNG HARRY CONCEPT from when he pierced his ears in the 90s thinking Jodi was going to find him soooo handsome. he sure is he cute huh)

BONUS MATERIAL:

attempted to re-do their character sheets back in 2021. this did not go as planned, and i was having a very hard year doing ANY personal art, so. gestures.

(sorry i had to put them up here like this it's just a screenshot of the two files in preview bc i'm Totally Incompetent when it comes to computers lmfao)

this is where we are now!! now as these are just sketches for their Newest character sheets, Harry is a liiittle different in the actual file and is is literally just a screenshot of what i've already posted like mentioned above lmao.

what it comes down to is this:

FOR JAMES

i actually just forgor what he looked like and didn't ref my art to what he looked like in-game. simple as that! LOL

in the initial RP, James was played by my friend, while i grabbed the reins to Harry, so i naturally preserved some of the base features of what my friend decided for James (lean, Super Sad And Wet, pale af). i slapped on the caterpillar brows (this is also a thing i'm historically known for in character design), did some tweaks, and also let James evolve himself as i became a better artist.

longer coat because Aesthetics that's why LOL. i don't like the short jacket he wears in game-canon and i needed GOOMT james to put his hands in his pockets like how i drew him above. Reasons.

he's also so pale because [REDACTED] and much thinner than his in-game model because he did Not take care of himself very well in those three years during Mary's illness. (it's also in his genetics: Frank is lean, too (however much taller than James, rip dude 😔))

FOR HARRY

switch from blue to maroon: i like maroon/burgundy. (i realize later that the color he wears is more on the side of burgundy but y'all i hate the color spectrum and it can definitely also be called maroon so it's maroon LOL) i also just thought it looked better on him. the only other reason i can think of as to why i changed it was because.. people change. this is a new era in his life. i kept it a (more modest, sh1 harry you whore <3) v-neck sweater as a nod to his game-canon but just.. changed it to maroon. probably just a designator.

he's fat because of reasons detailed above (fatherhood, life on the road, settling down, etc). and also because he's hot and he deserves that. self-indulgent.

hair, nose, elf ears: self-indulgent.

for Harry especially there are a lot of aspects about him that "almost were" but got cut out of his development for one reason or another an really he's better off that way. i really really don't like to force development or force a "look".

the main reason i guess above all else is that Harry looks so different than his game canon is because he's not that Harry anymore. and in sh3, you never see the guy's face: him dead. i can't even recall if i'd seen the dead Harry model in full before trying to hammer out what GOOMT Harry looked like. young GOOMT Harry would look a lot closer to what his game model looks like, tho. i can tell you that much :3 (one day i'll draw a Younger Harry but don't expect it anytime soon unless the inspiration REALLY strikes lmfao)

a lot of their changes are just not that deep, honestly. my vision for them comes from forgetting which way the bangs go (looks James), developign them in my head over time, The Vibes™️, and The Indulgences™️. i'm a creature of habit for sure in the character design department LOL but my world my puddle we play in it.

i should go to bed now!! but if you have any questions about something else or anything about their designs in particular PLS let me know!! i realy REALLY love this question and wanted to answer it RIGHT NOW IMMEDIATELY (even tho it's been two hours since and I NEED TO GO TO BEEED DGLDFDFGDGFSKGDFDKGSDFGKH O O O P S ) SO i hope you enjoyed that little trip down memory lane (and my art tag archive LOL) and you have a good safe healthy and cool day :3c!!

#ches writes #my art #goomt #THANKS ANON1! #long post #yeah i decided to put it under a cut but IT IS LONG lmaaaooooo #good LORD ther's a lot of really old art in here. have fun!

[saragargan]

I’ll Be Frankenstein, You Be the Monster - 2

masterlist

You have to help him back to your embalming room. It feels wrong, letting someone not part of the craft back here. It was a pretty strict rule that the embalming room was a sacred place. You guide Michael to one of the embalming tables, and have to help him up and to get straightened out. Then you go to the sink, and wash your hands, before pulling on a new pair of gloves and the smock back over your head. You give it a quick wipe down with some disinfectant spray, and then turn back to Michael.

He watches as you approach, but you can’t read his expression. You flick on a bright light -similar to the ones used in dentist offices- and adjust it to the angle you need. Leaning over the table, you inspect the wound more closely. It looks to you like something had blunt forced its way inside him, and pulled out his organs as it exited. And were those….wires? Imbedded inside of him? You suppress the urge to shudder, and your eyes trace his torn flesh.

The wound is jagged. Grotesque tears in his skin that make you squirm, trying not to think about what it must feel like. You’d seen much worse of course, but those bodies were dead.

Michael was alive.

Or at least, he was kind of alive.

You really weren’t sure.

You cross the room and retrieve a sanitized set of tools, then carefully lay them out on the paper-covered bedside table.

“Alright. I’m going to clean these up a little before I start sewing you up. But…”

You trail off, unsure what to say exactly. You could see that his remaining organs were functioning normally, but if you were to stitch him up like this he would still look empty. You chew your lip thoughtfully.

“Mike, what’s your blood type?”

He tells you, and you check the file of the body you’d been working on.

They’re compatible.

A little puff of air comes out of your mouth, and you laugh a little. Turning back to Michael, you know you must have the air of someone about to say something utterly insane.

“This man, Nathan Russell, he has, or had, the same blood type as you. Theoretically, I could transfer his organs to you, so you won’t look like a deflated balloon when I stitch you back up.”

Michael has a look of shock for a moment, before a bubble of laughter escapes him. Then he winces, groaning as he holds his side, carefully avoiding the wound.

“I’m serious, if you aren’t opposed. They’ve been on ice this whole time, they should work fine. In theory.”

“This sounds illegal.”

“It’s…highly illegal…yes.” Michael simply gazes at you, and you give him a look of defiance. “But I’ve never been one to care much about the law. And considering the situation, I’m not about to start now.”

“Then I guess….go for it.”

You prepare your suture needle and thread, then select an organ. Placing it in the general vicinity of where it would be, you ready your needle, but before you can do anything, wispy white fluid seeps out of his flesh.

You shriek, jerking back your head from where you’d leaned in close for a better view. You watch in disbelief as the fluid connects with the organ, pulling it to the inner wall of his abdomen and regrowing the connecting tissue right before your eyes.

Your mouth hangs open, in horror or amazement you hadn’t quite decided.

“What? What happened?” Michel asks, concerned.

“I….it just. This stuff just came out of you and. It reattached the organ. It healed you.”

“That’s probably because of the Remnant.” He puts emphasis on the last two words, as if they meant something other than their dictionary definition.

“...What?”

“I told you I’d tell you everything, keep going. I’ll talk.”

So you do. You carefully place organs inside of Michael’s body and watch as they magically adhere right back where they belong. As you work, Michael tells you about his past.

He tells you about how he caused the death of his little brother, how his sister also passed a few years later. He tells you about the years after, his father's absence, his obsession with the restaurant he'd founded, and the disappearances you’d heard about in passing, but never paid much attention to. And finally his move here, following his father's instruction to investigate Circus Baby’s Pizza World, and ultimately, the fate that brought him here, laying on an embalming table and split open like a high school dissection project.

He tells you about his father’s theory, about what was left behind after death. Being a mortician, you tended not to feed into any ‘life after death’ nonsense or ghost stories. But the way Michael explained it made it sound plausible, bordering on scientific. And after all, hadn’t you just watched his body put itself back together with little to no help from you? it ‘s all completely insane, and yet…it makes sense.

By now, you’ve finished with the organs, and have since moved on to the wound itself. Unfortunately, the external wounds did not offer up the same cooperation as the internal ones, so you start with the smaller, more jagged tears before moving on the largest, down the middle. It takes you a while to find your voice, carefully suturing Michael’s skin back together. Eventually, you’ve collected your thoughts enough to speak.

“So...you’re like… a ghost…possessing your own corpse?” You don’t fully comprehend what he’s saying, and the idea disturbs you.

Michael looks at you, but sees past you. He seems to be deep in thought.

“No.”

He reaches for you, frantically taking your hand in his and pressing it to his chest. You could feel the heart beating steadily under your palm.

“I’m still me. I’m still…alive.” He whispers. “I’m still alive.” He says more firmly, seeming to reassure himself more than you.

His eyes -once blue, now a dull gray- flick up to yours, pleading with you to believe him.

You were overcome with the sudden urge to kiss him.

Instead you turn your attention back to the gaping wound in his abdomen, and continue to stitch him back together. Michael sighs - you try not to stare at the sight of his lungs inflating - and closes his eyes. His skin is cold against your hands, not unlike the bodies you normally stitched up. You wonder if he can feel them.

It doesn’t take very long for you to finish, you were good at your job after all. You snip the thread, taking in your work. It’s not your best, but you felt you’d done the best you could with what you had to work with. What stands out to you though, is the dried blood that's caked around his abdomen and chest. You leave the table, a minute later coming back with a bowl of hot water and a cloth, and begin to clean off the dried blood. It takes a bit of scrubbing, and when you finish, your hands are stained, the water a dark orange color.

Your gaze finds its way back to Michael’s face. His eyes are still closed, and he’s so still that for a moment you think he may have died for real.

“Mike…?” His eyes flash open, and relief washes over you. You didn’t want to think about how you were going to explain this situation if he were to die right here, body full of stolen organs.

“I’m done.”

He tries to sit up, but groans and falls back against the table.

You offer him your hand, which he holds like a lifeline, and help him into a sitting position. There’s a visible sheen of sweat across his face, as if the simple act of sitting up seems to have exhausted him. You manage to get him to his feet, where he sways unsteadily. You pull his arm around your shoulder, supporting him with your body, and guide him out of the home to your car. You let him fall into the passenger seat.

“I need to clean up inside, are you okay to stay here?”

He nods sleepily, relaxing into the plush seat.

Returning to the morgue, the first thing you do is push the cadaver back into the freezer. You’d have to figure out something to dispose of tomorrow night when you embalmed it, now that you’d transferred a good deal of Nathan Russell’s organs to Michael. Perhaps a trip to the next town over’s butcher shop? You weren’t sure. The entire night had taken a turn you never would’ve imagined possible.

Once your tools have been properly sanitized and put away, you also clean off the metal embalming table. The last thing you did before locking up for the night was “accidentally” corrupt the video footage from the security cameras.

Stepping out into the chilly night air, it was nearing 5am. Inside the car, Michael was asleep in the passenger seat. He didn’t look comfortable in the slightest, but was snoring softly.

You turn over the engine, and drive home.

[phoenix]

So, who wants to hear the story of me trying to do my review of Guilty Pleasures?

...Well, too bad, I'm gonna tell it anyways.

But I'm not a monster.

I needed to do this yesterday, because of my best friend's birthday...

So, my best friend's birthday is, well, yesterday. The 27th. Trisk has always posted reviews on the 26th of each month, so when February rolls around, I've always tried to make my review on that day be something that makes me think of him. From something as much as a movie he likes (Rare for our interests to align enough for that to happen, but I got a few out of that), to something as basic as "made in Canada". The connection doesn't have to be much, and it was always just a bit of something that made me smile, nothing more.

About ten years ago, Scott did a movie review show of his own called, Guilty Pleasures Cinema. I gave him the tagline for the show, and designed his logo, and even made a few appearances as Cthulhu. He eventually gave it up because of trying to include clips always led to copyright strikes, and the audience never showed up enough for him to be happy.

So of COURSE, the reason why I wanted to review Guilty Pleasures this week, once I heard about the movie, is obvious.

Unfortunately, the movie is ONLY available on Blu Ray, and Trisk requires DVDs because of my workflow, and creating images. And also, the one rule of Trisk is "I will own the movie". There's only been two exceptions I've made.

But this is a minor issue, because surely someone has it streaming...well, no. Even though a lot of obscure stuff is, not this. Well, surely I can find it through...other means. Again, no, and that's a bit more shocking. I can usually find stuff SOMEwhere somehow. Maybe ripped to YouTube or similar, other elsewhere, but this was just NOT out there. Or it might be, but GOOD FUCKIN' LUCK trying to find something named "Guilty Pleasures". So much porn...

Side note; I mentioned this to Scott, and he offered to look, and I was like, oh no you are literally the one person I can't tell the name to. ;)

The movie might be out there somewhere, but it's not being easy to find.

STILL, I have a Blu Ray player and a DVD burner! I've done THAT before too, but it's a pain in the ass, and there's loss of quality! EXCEPT...this time the recorder picked up copy protection signals and refused to work, no matter what I did.

Time was running out, and I had three choices; play it on my Blu Ray player in the living room, pause every five seconds, walk to the computer in the other room, right up my notes go back, repeat for 110 minutes...because of course I picked a long movie lol.

Choice #2: Scrap it for now, keep working at it, do it next year, and pick another movie REALLY QUICK.

Choice #3: Buy a Blu Ray drive for my computer, and do it that way.

I went with #3, and found a drive that was reasonably priced that I could justify, and then had to play the waiting game.

Scheduled delivery...the 26th. Because of course...oop, no wait, the 28th.

Under ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCE, I would have been happy to push it that late, as much as it hurts, but this is literally the one time, in 14 years of Trisk, when it HAD land no later than the 27th.

In the meantime, I had done my first basic watch of the movie in the living room, handwritten down my basic notes I do on that past, transcribed it to a text file, and gotten the post all set up, just needed the bulk of it to be filled in.

And of COURSE there was problems with the delivery. I used my STREET ADDRESS, since it was coming UPS, but they decided randomly to go 'Nah, we're sending it SurePost so it goes to the post office". But I have a *PO BOX* and not a box at my house, for reasons, and when a package with my street address goes to the post office, it adds another whole day, as it gets sent around on trucks trying to find an address they don't feel 'exists'. And they yell a me for sending it to the street address when it comes to the post office...but this is tangenting and I digress.

I scream and upgrade the package to Ground, and yep, it knocks a day off the delivery time, so the drive is at least arriving on the 27th. There should be zero problems of swapping the drive, watching the movie, and doing the thing!

But hahahaha, do you have any idea how fucking difficult it is to get a Blu Ray movie to play on Windows? IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS HARD. DVDs were just ready to go. I know all the reasons why Blus are a pain, and it's so incredibly ridiculous.

The drive arrived around noon, the actual swap was RIDICULOUSLY easy. I didn't even have to unscrew anything.

It then took me three hours of bashing my head trying to get the discs to be recognised and play. And I won't go in depth with THOSE details.

But FINALLY it got working, I chugged my way through the movie, I did the work, and got it posted around 7pm.

At this point, I had been up 30 hours, I'd recorded, edited, posted a podcast, swapped a drive, did tech support, did up an entire Trisk review, and lemme tell ya, I was exhausted.

What a bloody journey for one absolutely ridiculous movie.

The good news is, this does open up a new door for Triskings, since as can be seen here, while I've done a few Blu movies before, they were always a challenge. Now, they're on the same level of ease as DVDs.

#Foenix rambles #Triskaidekafiles