#I've wanted to make this literally since last year

[suplicyy]

Hii!

Could you please write some hcs of Kenma, and Nishinoya plus maybe anyone else you want with a gf who's like a tiny bit younger than them, shorter and is like really clingy. She's like constantly texting them, and takes every chance she can to hug them or just talk to them and is there even at their practices.

Haikyuu boys w/ a clingy gf

— Summary: Relationship hcs about them having a clingy girlfriend.

— Characters: Nishinoya, Kenma

— Fluff

— Fem!Reader

You're only a year younger than him, so it wasn't so difficult to make friends with him!! Little by little you would meet each other by chance during breaks or during free time in class, and these moments made you get closer and closer, until you started dating.

But as time went by, you opened up to him more and had the courage to be who you really are, as he has always made it clear that he likes you for who you are. And after that, you felt more confident to be more loving with him: with lots of physical touches, words of affirmation and lots of quality time!

You love your boyfriend very much and want to show it in the most affectionate way possible!

Nishinoya

The way you met is always told as a story at family lunches. You were passing by the gym by chance, and a ball he received flew out of the place and ended up in your face. He apologized a million times and even offered to buy you a popsicle for a whole week.

But after that you understood each other and became friends, until you got to where you are now!

He simply LOVES you to be clingy with him, as he returns your affections with the same intensity as you. People on the outside assume you were meant for each other since your personalities match up so well.

Anywhere and anytime you are always together in some way, whether it's clasping hands, hugging, kissing; you are rarely separated from each other.

But unfortunately there are times when you aren't always together, after all you don't live in the same house and you have your own clubs to go to. So you guys are always messaging each other on your cell phone!

If someone doesn't ask him to stop using his cell phone to talk to you, he could easily spend the whole day just sending you silly audios of him singing a random song he heard somewhere.

Kenma

One day, you saw him playing one of your favorite games, so you started talking to him. And you spent a few days talking until you had the courage to ask for his phone number, which he gave you almost immediately (but he would never admit he was excited about it for you)

Kenma spoke more freely through messages than in person, so you almost always talked about various things: games you're playing at the moment, movies, series, about your day. And with that you ended up becoming closer, until you started dating.

You know that Kenma is someone who is quite shy, so at the beginning of the relationship you weren't so clingy in public with him. But when the two of you were alone, you loosened up a little and became much more affectionate.

At first he was always very shy when you initiated physical affection with him, but after a while he relaxed more and managed to adapt to your way of showing affection to him.

You would from time to time be seen literally clinging to each other, with him playing on his console and with his head resting on your shoulder, and you hugging him. As much as he doesn't like PDA that much, he finds your presence and your touches so comforting that he ends up giving in a little.

Kuroo once went to Kenma's house to get something he had left there the last time he went there, and when he entered he found him hugging you with his face buried in the crook of your neck. After some deadly glares from the boy, Kuroo promised he wouldn't tell anyone.

A/N — Tysm for your request!! I wish I had added more characters, but recently I've been very busy so I was afraid it would take too long for me to do this one.💔💔

I hope you enjoyed it!

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu imagines #hq #hq x reader #hq fluff #haikyuu x you #haikyuu x female reader #haikyuu x fem!reader #haikyuu #nishinoya yuu x reader #nishinoya yuu #nishinoya fluff #kozume kenma x reader #kozume kenma #kenma fluff #hq kenma #hq nishinoya

[kinkley-are-adorkable-flirts]

I'm apparently obsessed with goofy proposal stories.

*********************

Tommy is baking in the kitchen. “Honey, can I use you for that lightning brain of yours, my slutty little human calculator? How many tablespoons is 8 teaspoons?”

Evan purrs at the thought of being used by Tommy. “2 2/3, or 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.”

He wraps arm around Tommy’s waste from behind, the other reaching to cup his bulge. “Speaking of 2 tablespoons…”

Tommy: “I don’t know whether to be turned on or insulted. Tablespoons? Really?” He still turns to kiss Evan

Evan blushes and tries to redirect. “Well, speak of fraction conversions, when we get married it will be a 3/4 gay marriage since you’re gay and I’m bi.”

Tommy blinks, trying to figure out which piece of information to prioritize addressing first while simultaneously trying to show his confusing without making Evan panic. “Baby, I… you...”

“OMG did I do that thing again where I thought we had a conversation but it was just me prepping or reminding myself in my head? Have I not actually proposed yet? I rehearsed it so many times in my head I must have thought…”

Tommy helps Evan pause and reset like no one else can. “No, I feel like that’s something I’d remember. Do you need a moment?”

Evan nods, grabs a spatula, holds it in front of Tommy’s face and says “bzzzt, memory of the last 5 minutes erased.”

He races to the bedroom to his hiding spot to realize… he also forgot to pickup the ring in his excitement.

Dejected, he walks back into the kitchen, staring at the ground to find Tommy on one knee, holding an open ring box... but not HIS box.

"Evan, you came to me in a hurricane, both literally and figuratively. I've been looking to settle for years, but had given up hope. Then you came into my life, bringing this chaotic, manic, menacing energy that I never thought I wanted, but you made me realize I NEED it. You made me realize that I'm not looking to settle, I want to commit, commit to loving you with all of my being. I want to be the first one you see when you wake up in the ER... because I've accepted that's a thing... and I want you to always be the first I see. I want... I want it all, though I suspect you feel the same." Tommy reaches in his pocket and pulls out a second box, Evan's box.

"How did you...?"

"You filled out the order form like it was a medical form and put "In case of emergency, contact my Tommy. They said they even questioned you and you said you were sure. When I went to pickup MY ring for YOU, they asked me if you were ok because you hadn't picked it up. I actually kinda love that it's automatic for you now to put me as an emergency contact, even with a jeweler... Look at me, going into an Evan Buckley patented tangent. Right down the rabbit hole."

Evan blushes and joins him on the floor, taking his hands. "The look on your face after we had moved in together, but you weren't the one called crushed me, so I guess it's become second nature. I'll follow you down the rabbit hole any day, and there's no one I'd rather have following me. So we're doing this then?"

"Never a doubt in my mind... Can we revisit the 3/4 gay married thing though?"

Evan's blush deepens "ugh just shut me up, you fool." and they kiss. ****************** A few days later they have an informal engagement celebration and are telling their family about the proposal, receiving multiple laughs, chuckles, head shakes, eye rolls, and "only you two"s. They are laughing with them, but look at each other mildly horrified when asked if either ever "technically" asked one another to marry them. Tommy starts to laugh though. "I guess that's the missing 1/4 of the gay marriage" and Evan groans and hides his face.

They settled on a date quickly and emailed out save the dates (save a tree too!) - March 4 (3/4) of course.

Down the Rabbit Hole - Ruby_Daiquiri - 9-1-1 (TV) [Archive of Our Own]

#911 show #the weewoo show #adorable idiots #kinkley adorkable flirts #i keep writing proposals #i keep turning two liners into full stories #buck x tommy #tevan #tommy kinard #evan buckley #buck and tommy #bucktommy #3/4 gay married

[monbons]

WIP Wednesday

Posting actual WIPS on a Wednesday? Imagine that.

As long as we are all baring our hearts on tumblr, I have to admit that I have been struggling to write anything since I wrapped up Eternal Life (back in the first week of April). At first I figured I was simply burnt out since I wrote all 42k words of that fic in just about a month, but given that I've started three separate WIPS since then and made zero progress on any of them, I'm wondering if I am just out of stories. I hate all my words--even though I really love some of these concepts. So, as you may have noticed, I've been distracting myself with sewing projects because good progress is so clearly visible there...

Anywho, to motivate myself, I decided to post a snip of each today and hope that having bits out in the world will motivate me to finish at least ONE of them! All untitled. Set up and snips below the cut.

Very creatively titled "Party Robot," this WIP is a silly/fluffy one-shot inspired by an article I read a while ago about a growing trend in American weddings. This one is the furthest along and will likely see the light of day eventually...

A nervous bounce.  From a robot. I recognize that bounce. “I thought you said Shepard was working tonight.” My voice is tight. “He is.” Bunce replies, similarly strained. “What did you say he does again?” Panic rises in my chest.  “He’s in entertain–”  Whether Bunce trails off or I simply don’t hear the rest is irrelevant because the music has changed from easy dinner instrumentals to much-too-loud techno and the show is clearly starting. As the synths build, driving towards a crescendo, my brain reels with the growing realisation that Simon would never just abandon me at the last minute, would never send me anywhere alone, certainly not my cousin’s gay wedding, which is every kind of milestone given his Old Families lineage and Pitch blood specifically and– “PARTY PEOPLE!” The DJ booms into the mic. “Have the grooms got a treat for you!”

A multi-chapter AU I have lovingly nicknamed "Baz in a Bubble." It is sad and angsty and is proving significantly more difficult to execute (despite having a complete outline) than I once thought it would be. Who could have guessed having one home-bound character would make me too sad to write? Thanks to @thewholelemon and @hushed-chorus who've listened to more than their fair share of my griping about this one. Anyway, here's the first bit of BAZ POV:

There are exactly 297 stars in the sky above me. I count them while lying in my bed every night. They do not twinkle or flicker hello like real stars. Instead, they glow a constant yellowish-green that reminds me of the colour artists always make toxic sludge in the cartoons I grew up watching. It's the colour of superhuman villains and their evil plots. Of poison. Of danger. It's the colour of the plastic star stickers Fiona put up on my ceiling when I was 10 and spent the whole year crying and begging her to go outside. Just once. Just for a minute. Because I was starting to forget what fresh air smelled like or how it felt to have grass prickle against your bare feet or how the stars lit up the night sky in Hampshire. There are no stars in the middle of London. Not outside my window. Not in this room.

And then the WIP I have the least progress on (literally almost nothing) but I so desperately want to write and could really use a thought partner to help me brainstorm/plot/figure out what the hell I'm doing--- a canon divergence where Simon successfully exposes Baz as a vamp and Malcolm steps the fuck up as a father. Here's a bit of Simon POV:

It didn't matter anyway. Pitch Manor was empty. While [the Mage] ranted and raved, I wandered into Baz’s living room. The TV was still on. Peppa the Pig was playing. A half-dressed Barbie was splayed on the couch next to a small bowl of grapes, all cut in half. I picked up the doll and brushed her tangled hair out of her face.  Why didn’t I know Baz had a sister? A family that ate snacks together in front of the TV? Parents who loved him so dearly they fled their whole lives under cover of night? In the days that followed, I sat in meeting after meeting with the Coven, listening to The Mage. He demanded the casting of tracking spells, pushed through more dark creature reforms, and rambled about the miscarriage of justice and the dangers of harbouring monsters.  But Baz wasn’t a monster.  He was just a boy.  A scared boy.  A boy who ran because he wanted to live. 

Anyway...here's to accountability via tumblr. Maybe once I've slept for several weeks and feel more refreshed I won't be so frustrated by every word I know, or more precisely, all the beautiful ones I can’t seem to find…

Thanks for the tag @bookish-bogwitch. Cannot wait to devour the new chapter of BPD!

Hellos and high-fives to all. May your words (and art) be faring better than mine: @raenestee, @cutestkilla, @roomwithanopenfire, @facewithoutheart

@emeryhall, @artsyunderstudy, @aristocratic-otter, @larkral, @rimeswithpurple

@drowninginships, @valeffelees, @shrekgogurt, @blackberrysummerblog, @iamamythologicalcreature

@run-for-chamo-miles, @thehoneyedhufflepuff, @arthurkko, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @youarenevertooold

@beastmonstertitan, @supercutedinosaurs, @rbkzz, @fiend-for-culture, @theearlgreymage

@brilla-brilla-estrellita, @skeedelvee, @ic3-que3n, @talentpiper11, @ivelovedhimthroughworse

#words words words and not a fic to show for it #if eternal life is my last fic at least it is a damn good one to go out on #if you would like to suggest a sewing project for me to procrastinate with i am open for business #gonna go crawl back into bed in the meantime #wip wednesday

[mantisgodsart]

First batch of @bug-oc bugs. This would've gotten finished sooner, but we've been sick as a dog for most of the tournament's runtime, so we're calling it a victory that we managed to get anything done - there are a lot fewer contestants this year, which means both less art to do and more ability to commit to trying to make some particularly unique creature designs - there are some in this batch that we REALLY want to do justice, and that is... unfortunately hard to do when we're barely functioning for two hours a day. This is our unofficial call to STAY HOME when you're sick! Even if you're feeling sturdy enough to go out and about, your actions can impact those around you very easily.

Design notes and owners below the cut with individual pictures - the middle one here is a beta design that we're still in the process of ironing out, so that one just has

[This is the first time I've met someone who "worked in Snakemouth" since that one... weird encounter, with those roaches giving me a job offer. I didn't know that they had a security guard position. I... didn't know that they knew what a security guard even is, honestly. To have two bugs involved with the lab turn up is an incredible coincidence. I wonder if the time portal is actually open again, or if different universes just work on different timeframes?

Regardless, it's a good opportunity to advance my knowledge of partial transmutation and multi-organism transmutation. Whatever happened to that moth in the last tournament... my understanding of how to handle both symbiotes and parasitism is clearly incomplete, if running into multiple organisms can cause problems like that. I'll have to put some extra work into monitoring...]

Omelette from @tangleslime2 was one that felt... obvious, we suppose?Your work will one day consume you, and such - one way or another! More literal in this case. A lot of the work here, honestly, is toying with shapes and body language. Omelette has a LOVELY sillhouette with some extremely identifiable clothes, and translating it to a zombee design was Very fun. Maybe a bit plain on the design side, but the linework was incredibly fun to do - we got to do a whole lot of fur, which is always a fun time. This design was very quick and easy, as designs go, and we had a lot of fun doing the hat. Wildly askew, and held on by but a single antennae!

Sundew and Nerine from @mizzle-moths are untransmuted, as requested - Sundew's pose was very fun to do - nice and fluid, though the wing markings were admittedly a bit funky to parse. We hope we got all the details correct here! Both of your bugs have gorgeous color palettes. Our usual marker set's dark gray marker's dried out by now, so we had to use an alternative, which... unfortunately bled clean through our sketchbook page. Lesson learned, we suppose. The scribble over the eyes used the same pen that we did our linework with - the "scribbling over the eyes of a dead character" trope is very well-worn, but cliche only becomes cliche because it inspires enough people to follow in the footsteps of a story, and we're very fond of the way it adds to the... hmm, visual language? We just think it's neat. Hope you enjoy!

[...working with spirits and more immaterial forms isn't my area of expertise, but it's something i dearly need experience in. My hope is that by advancing my knowledge in this field, I might be able to apply the knowledge to other fields that evade me - anything inanimate has proven to be my bane, and I'm fairly certain that a few of my attempts into this area have produced "hauntings", when they're not producing incredibly specialized organisms. Maybe if I know how to cause a haunting, I can figure out how to not cause one...?]

Moving on to our beta design - that is a VERY rough draft of Beera from @longeth-dayv. Given by the obvious Luigi's Mansion inspiration, we wanted to run with it by pulling our inspiration more directly from a Luigi's Mansion enemy - mostly, this meant tinkering with sillhouettes while trying to figure out what sort of design would match best to the character, and how to translate a design to something recognizable.

The pack, despite its significance character-wise, doesn't have quite as much weight in the balance of the design, which meant more tweaking for the transformation - though we briefly tried toying with the pack itself for this design, that particular page we felt would skew a bit too close to body horror for your personal comfort, so we scrapped the idea. Better safe than sorry, as they say. As such, we're aiming more towards using wire and body language to drive recognition.

The image here is a loose draft based on the bats enemy, used to test the fade and layering of the highlighter we were using - as it turns out, it doesn't layer very well! We started out looking for electric enemies, but we only really turned up the Electric Oozer, and that... was a bit too close to "normal boo" for our personal tastes, so we swapped to just primarily yellow enemies. Though we were previously considering taking the bat design to final draft, actually putting it out on paper convinced us to the contrary, so we went back to the... sketchboard. We'd bet there's a good chance you can already figure out where we're going with this one. A fun design challenge, for sure!

Finally (at least for this particular evening), we offer you this: a look behind the scenes, (or at least, the scenes that don't involve "us being sick and struggling to communicate whether or not something is sorted with the other mod"). What we've been using to keep track of matches, as well as to draw lots. Not precisely a high-tech solution, but damn if it doesn't work - the ends here are split into two for the sake of a loser's bracket, which we... thought we had figured out, but then it turned out we've been having miscommunications on what the bracket setups even are, and, well...

...we're working on it, we'll say. It might still be integrated, but that'll have to wait 'til trying to do things doesn't require fighting for our life. We will probably rerandomize the brackets for it, we might use it for illustration practice if the contestants are cool with it, so on and so forth. As always, thank you for your patience - we hope that Round 2 encounters slightly less hitchups compared to Round 1.

#our art #bug fables #finished #ocs #other peoples ocs #omelette #beera #sundew #nerine

[getvalentined]

We may have discussed this before but my brain is a sieve - re: Vincent being assigned to Nibelheim because Gast wanted to honor Grimoire's memory via Vincent - does this mean that Veld may have known that Vincent could/would end up contributing to Gast's work? Or do you headcanon that Gast just asked specifically for Vincent, and Veld went along with it for reasons of his own?

My headcanon for this is recently updated based on the newly clarified timeline of events related to Veld's backstory—since we know Kalm burned in 1997 and Felicia is therefore around Zack's age rather than Sephiroth's, I've shuffled this quite a bit! The end result is still the same as it was, but the means of getting there are slightly different.

Veld had no idea that Vincent had been selected for use in the Jenova Project. He knew the basics of what was going on in the project itself, given that Project G was on the verge of being shelved at that point and the Turks would be required for a fair amount of cleanup when that occurred, but he wasn't aware that the Turks had been selected for use in the project as breeding stock. Veld himself had already been unwittingly used in Project G in a similar fashion several months prior, although his contribution didn't necessitate he be on-site and was instead acquired via an invasive but company-standard physical exam at Shinra headquarters.

Gast's request for Vincent to oversee security on the project came down the pipe to Veld with an admission that it was strictly sentimental, since Project S would be carried out in the same facility where Grimoire had done his last research project. He'd been dead for around a year at that point, but Gast asserted that he just thought it would be nice to have a Valentine on the premises while everyone fully adjusted to Grimoire's eternal absence. Veld thought this was a bit silly, but that seemed to be the norm for most academics in Veld's experience, so he didn't see a reason to reject it.

He and Vincent's relationship had been a bit rocky since Grimoire died, so Veld hoped the assignment might give Vincent some perspective, if not some much-needed closure. Regardless of whatever led Vincent to distance himself from his father, he hadn't handled the loss well, taking a month off to make arrangements back home—trust funds and scholarships and memorials, ongoing management of the estate and long-term agreements with the university, long talks with old people in high places. Upon his return, Vincent threw himself into work in a way that would be most politely described as "burning the candle at both ends," but more accurately described as "driven like a man possessed."

At least, that would be the case for literally anyone else, but Vincent Valentine hadn't been given the title Turk of Turks for nothing. In his case, the most obvious results of his insane workload were that he was usually exhausted enough to sleep through the night, he drank more coffee than usual throughout the day, and he didn't go nearly as easy on rookies as he used to.

The fact that Vincent could intentionally put himself through twenty hour shifts multiple times a week for months on end rekindled old frustrations and insecurities on Veld's part, mostly regarding Vincent being in the department in the first place—everyone knew he was too good for the Turks, and those several months of stellar, almost machine-like performance proved it. This lingering sentiment had been lurking in the back of Veld's mind for years, since Vincent first tested into the department; with the reminder of where Vincent came from fresh in his mind after Grimoire's death, Veld found himself ruminating on it constantly.

Vincent, for his part, rejected the assignment outright. As vice director at the time, this was technically within his right, but the refusal to even contemplate the prospect set Veld off like nothing else, leading to a huge argument. Veld said a lot of things he would live to regret, Vincent almost certainly decked him, and Veld told him that he would either take the assignment or he'd be kicked from the department and sent back where he belonged.

"...I thought I belonged with you."

"We both know you're way too smart to be that fucking clueless about where people like you belong."

Veld had no idea that Vincent had been requested as part of the experiment just starting up in Nibelheim. He sent him because it was where he was meant to be from the beginning: in a big old mansion, far away from the Turks, surrounded by people just as smart as he was who knew where he came from and what he should have been doing with his life.

Maybe Veld would figure out how to apologize by the time Vincent finally got back.

(He didn't.)

#headcanon warning #vincent valentine #veld of the turks #vinveld

[cerealforkart]

Happy day before Halloween! It's a villain Hermie AU or smth

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #hermie the unworthy #normal oak #lincoln li wilson #taylor swift dndads #scary marlowe #doodly #animatic #I've wanted to make this literally since last year #here it finally is #Youtube

[dancedance-resolution]

i started a supercorp portrait of a lady on fire au like three years ago. i'm never going to finish it, but the writing style is pretty cool, so i want to share it. so um enjoy the prologue and a bit of chapter one?

---

Prologue. Bonnelles, France. 1786.

“First, my contours,” Kara said, her voice soft and level. She looked out upon the dozen or so young women, their eyes darting back and forth from their papers to Kara herself. “The outline,” she continued. The increasingly swift sound of scratching charcoal prompted Kara to further instruct, “Not too fast. Take time to look at me.” She paused. “See how my arms are placed.”

At that moment, Kara saw the painting.

She swallowed and took in a breath; she schooled her expression before letting out the air with a pathetically soft “My hands.” Her students’ gaze followed her verbal direction, now observing as Kara’s fingers curled with remembrance. Their own hands now began to sketch the slope of hers—the slope that had once coaxed breathy moans from a lover, the slope that had once created that very painting in all of its hollow longing.

Kara felt her heart rate accelerating, and her attempts at calming deep breaths only made her shoulders shake unsteadily. “Who brought that painting out?” Her eyes darted around, landing on each possible offender, as she tensed her core and adopted a stern countenance.

Every student dutifully turned to look at the work.

It was an especially young girl who finally lifted her hand. “I brought it. From the stock room. Should I have not?”

Kara’s “no” felt like a brick, its weight threatening to pry tears from her reddening eyes. So Kara took another swallow, a handful of blinks, a few more steadying breaths.

“Did you paint it?” the girl asked innocently. Nia, her name was? She stared at Kara, oblivious to the flood of sound overwhelming Kara’s mind and echoing in the cavern of her heart.

“Yes,” Kara uttered softly, the word barely audible as they fell from her lips. “A long time ago.”

Nia’s head snapped back to examine the painting once more. It stood on an old but sturdy easel, tattooed and scarred but still standing. The artwork itself was brooding, with a white sun bleeding into a dark vignette. Heavy clumps of clouds occupied the sky and caged some of the sun’s rays, so the fire burning behind the woman was bright enough in comparison to create a dragging shadow of her figure. The flames crawled up the back of her windswept dress, bringing sharp tension to an otherwise lulling, melancholy landscape.

“What’s the title?”

The sound of the sea began to swell in Kara’s head. Her lips trembled. Her body unwittingly swayed slightly. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”

---

Chapter I. The island of Brittany, France, and the surrounding sea. 1779.

Kara squinted into the distance, her face scrunching up a bit as she desperately tried to shield her eyes from the harsh glare of the sun on the water. For all its gorgeous teals and sparkling peaks, it certainly did make her wish for one of those brimmed hats the rowers were all wearing. With every one of their paced paddles, the cork-like little canoe bobbed haphazardly. Kara rather felt as if she were in the wine glass of a thoroughly drunken Marie Antoinette.

At least she wasn’t prone to seasickness.

She still felt quite unsteady, though, being thrown about and forced to pathetically grab onto the boat’s low walls. She leaned forward, trying to regain her balance and ground herself despite the absence of ground.

The wooden pallet holding her canvas was, apparently, as unstable as she was, and the next thing Kara knew, it had been lurched off of the boat like vomit from a drunkard. Kara watched helplessly as it thrashed among the choppy waves, the sea carrying it a few feet from the boat.

The chief rower met her desperate look with exhausted resignation; he ceased his paddling as Kara shed her overcoat and placed a precarious foot on the edge of the canoe.

With a strained creak from the boat’s wood, she jumped into the water, dress billowing behind her. Her first gasp for air upon emerging from the water was audible; she could feel the effort in her throat. Her arms moved in laborious little arcs as she slowly made her way towards the floating pallet and finally made a desperate reach for it. Kara’s fingers grasped onto a wooden board, and she pulled herself up onto it with a grunt.

---

The incessant wind upon the sea was certainly not helping Kara. Dripping wet, she wrapped herself up in her overcoat in a pitiful plea for warmth. She held the edges of the garment up to her lips, the sensation of the dry fabric bringing her some comfort as she closed her eyes and left herself to the mercy of the mighty sea.

But the interminable rocking of the feeble boat wouldn’t allow her any rest.

Kara wasn’t very religious, not anymore. Yet, the sight of the cliffs and coast of Brittany moved her to relieved prayer.

---

The sun had already begun to set as Kara trekked up the sandy coast. Her legs ached with every stumbling, unsure step—maybe she was a bit seasick after all—and her hands were tired of having to grip her full skirt to keep it out of her way.

She paused on the rocks, taking a moment to manually wring some of the water out of her skirt. She filled her lungs with an arduous breath before slinging the rope holding the pallet over her shoulder. Next came the fabric sling, which housed her trunk of personal items—she positioned it on her back with careful poise.

The journey up the cliffs and towards the trees was exhausting. Kara’s skirt required repositioning every few seconds, the rope was digging into her shoulder, and the pallet and trunk slammed into her back with each wobbling step. By the time she reached the straight path up to the residence, her breaths were heavy and pained, and the sun was nearly fully hidden beneath the horizon.

A soft light emanated from the windows above the mansion’s door, helping Kara feel a bit more secure as she knocked. A short blonde woman answered her summon and introduced herself with a flat “I’m Eve.” She opened the door a bit wider and gestured with her body for Kara to come in.

Eve held a small candle as she guided Kara up the stairs, the sounds of their shoes echoing through the grand yet starkly undecorated hallway. The walls of the stairwell were cement bricks, and the wrought iron bannister was rather plain and geometric.

They came to a stop in front of a similarly void room, bare save a few heavy curtains and a daybed. The raised panels along these walls matched the white-painted wood of the window frames, and they gave the chamber some elegant character.

While Eve entered the comparatively less intimidating room, Kara stayed back a moment, taking in the shafts of muted blue light from the windows and the contrasting warm glow of leaping flames from the central fireplace.

Eve crouched down to poke at the fire as Kara set down her belongings. “It was a reception room,” Eve explained. “Though I’ve never seen it used.”

The fire crackled pleasantly. “Have you been here long?” Kara inquired.

“Three years,” Eve answered, directing her attention back to the fire.

Kara peeled off her overcoat and draped it along the wainscoting. “Do you like it here?”

“Yes,” Eve said simply as she stood up. She turned to Kara, meeting her eyes now as her hands smoothed over her skirt. “I’ll let you get dry.” And with a nod, she was on her way.

Kara watched her every step.

Once the door closed, she hastily began removing her overskirt. It fell to the dark herringbone floor with an unglamorous thud.

---

There was no method or grace to the way Kara wrapped her hand around the rusting crowbar, but with a few jerks, she’d managed to successfully pry the top off of the pallet.

After setting down the wood cover, Kara extended her hand, letting it fall clumsily onto the slick canvas in front of her. It was still wet, and her hand’s small circular movement caused moisture to pool at her fingertips, as if her touch had beckoned the water. So her hand withdrew, and Kara slid the canvas out from its container. Her eyes danced over the surface as she considered how to dry it, holding it in front of herself like the Communion host of an evening Mass.

---

Kara decided to accompany her drying canvas, which was now positioned next to the fireplace. Stripped naked, she sat in front of the fire and pulled her legs towards herself—she was vulnerable, sitting there bare and in a new environment, and the action made her feel a bit more small, compact, and safe.

Kara set down her candle so she could light her tobacco pipe with the flames. Her large, smoky exhales grounded her, in a way, with the familiar sight and smell acting as a sort of sedative. And she stared forward, expression blank but unmistakably worn.

---

Kara walked barefoot along the cement floor, making her way through the hall and to the pantry room wrapped in nothing but her robe-like smock.

#again i have no intention of finishing so be forewarned etc #supergirl #supercorp poalof au #i have been feeling a bit weird going through my old work bc. i don't think i've really improved in the three years since starting this??? #and i quite literally haven't written anything in 2023 other than like the 1000ish words to finish up this final chapter of tree of my song #&those thousand words genuinely feel worse than my old writing #because i'm out of practice i think #it's weird bc writing is something i think of as super important to me - like in less than a month i'll literally be at community college a #ain despite how bad my experience was last time with it bc i theoretically want to take classes that will make me a better writer #so like blah blah blah do i want to dedicate more of myself and my energy towards writing long term or do i just like the idea of being a #writer. #blah blah blah if i had to do a rose colored glasses on this all it would be. since january i have read 60something books and before this y #ar i hadnt been an avid reader in ages. and most of those books have been in the genre/niche i want to end up writing in #so i was learning writing by reading in that sense #hmm etc etc #i should probably stop taking myself and all of this so seriously lol idk #i'm theoretically back into writing and trying to prioritize it more again so (thumbs up emoji)

[medicinemane]

And maybe you'll be like "but if you don't trust businesses, how can you trust welfare?"

I fucking don't. My mom trying to get on food stamps fucked me up because a lady I never met without my permission got my SSN from my mom and started editing my files. My heart still races to this very second whenever I think about it, it kinda messed me up bad and I'll never ever ever see any kind of recourse

And I'm terrified that I'm gonna lose my medicaid just cause I inherited some money from my grandpa

And I've never even applied for disability cause it kinda doesn't matter finding out if I'd qualify or not cause of my depression, when the rules are so restrictive I don't know if I've even be allowed to keep my house

I do not fucking trust these things on a personal level. I feel like out of a lot of people I have the most to fear from them cause I'm on the edge of having things work, and that gets you punished

...but I need medicaid in order to have insurance (and when you strip out the finance side of medicaid, I love medicaid... they're honestly incredible insurance... I just... I just... dental is like 90% of why medicaid is so important to me, ever since I found out this state pays for it I've actually been able to do cleanings which is important to me cause I can't always get myself to brush)

And I think things like disability and food stamps are pretty damn important on a personal level, and honestly are also good for the economy cause they get people spending... it's practically a free cash infusion into the economy, cause these are people who need to buy stuff

There's just so much important stuff welfare does that it's worth dealing with government

No, what I want is more accountability so if someone gets my SSN from a 3rd party like my mom they're held to HIPPA styles standards where that's not ok to access my files without my permission (She changed my fucking address and tried to get medicaid to investigate me for fraud! Never even met me)

Like have some accountability there and in every situation

Secondly I want less punitive focused rules. I'd frankly prefer bezos get on disability than smack down some poor sod cause they got $2000 in the bank or cause their friend lets them live with them for free

If there's gonna be a cut off on these programs, it needs to be a solid step above the poverty line, cause... by definition I assume poverty line denotes kinda the minimum expected income people can reasonably live off of, and if you take away benefits people are gonna lose a chunk of money to covering that stuff themself, so you need a buffer before you kick people off

I don't fucking trust the government for a second, I've actively been fucked by them and on a personal level I avoid everything but medicaid and only that cause everything but the money is pleasant to deal with and I kinda need it (honestly if I was rich I'm not even kidding that I'd rather give medicaid like $400 a month than some insurance company, I sincerely like them as insurance)

But I'd trust them a lot more if they were less punitive, less out to hunt me down and gut me cause someone handed me a fiver or cause I started to get on my feet, and if government employees had concrete rules they had to follow that were actually transparent and enforced

Like 90% of my problems with welfare go away if they're held accountable and there's less "catch the welfare cheats" mentality going around

I don't trust the government in the slightest, but sadly there some jobs it kinda has to do, so I'd just rather force it to be an open book where the public can keep an eye on it and if they step out of line there's consequences (sort of like I don't trust most mega corps but happen to sometimes need stuff from them... did you know literally every cell service provider has been illegally selling shit like your location data to random people like bounty hunters, and the FCC just slapped them with a fine that's 0.02% of their yearly incomes and debated even doing that? I even can offer a source on that)

...I don't trust much of any authority cause they constantly fail me and kinda screw me. Don't trust doctors either, but I still gotta go to them, you know? ...they're just... they're real bad at listening... so many systems need systemic change

(You know who I really don't trust is the cops. I could point to so many examples. My uncle doesn't trust cops either, and he's an ex Fire and SWAT paramedic, he worked with them and we still got into a long conversation where he basically tore into them far better than I can)

(I don't trust authority that's not accountable)

#anyway; if I'm a lousy cheat or whatever least they can do is give me a gun so I can solve that problem #shit makes me wish I was canadian so I could take advantage of their sick implementation of assisted suicide #what should be a system that gives people a choice about the quality of their life; and I don't think should be relegated to terminal illne #...there was... think he was dutch; had been burned by his girlfriend all over his body; was in constant pain #and he ended up using assisted suicide in the end cause he was just in constant agony... think that's his choice to make #but of course the canadian system concretely pushes people; mostly the poor and disabled; to kill themselves #not theoretically; as in literally says word for word to them 'you should really kill yourself; just sign here' #it's sick; it truly is #but for any americans that want to dunk on it; I'm telling you we're no better #we have the exact same miserable desperation and people (again; mostly poor and disabled) into despair #only difference is we don't offer assisted suicide #the underlying issues in the US and canada are so damn similar; so much of what's happening ends up being the same #you can't act smug just cause you only make people want to die instead of also offering to help #that's like saying that you're the good guy cause while you did everything you could to drive someone to the brink #get them fired; slash their tires; just cartoon level villain stuff to personally harass this person... at least you won't hand them rope #we have such similar systemic issues to canada; and I am explicitly telling you that like the people in canada that have said #'I can't take it anymore; disability doesn't cover my expenses and I can't get any help... I'm at my wits end so I'm gonna go die' #I'm telling you that I feel that same way; just without any eugenics agency I can call up #I'm really working to get things stable; but it feels like I'm teetering on the edge of falling into permanent failure #and... and I'll actually tell you the amount even though I don't like to mention money... makes me feel guilty #my gramps left me $27k; which sounds like a lot; but I got 20 windows that need redoing (house has a lot of windows) #...if they ended up being 1k each; that's most of the money gone; if they end up being more... #and I got a whole lotta other stuff I've been putting off like plumbing around here; need to replace that faucet #it's an amount of money that helps; but it's an amount of money that isn't gonna last #...that's like a year of bills; and my mom already needs me to pay like $400 to the propane bill since she got behind #I want to use it to... to try and really get my feet on the ground; but it might loose me my insurance... it makes me want to die #and not to be a selfish bastard; but if I could I'd like to try and take and invest a bit to maybe build some passive income #given that... that a job never seems to work out for me cause I fucking suck and cause like... my insomnia has me up at 5:30 am right now #mm tag so i can find things later

[slippery-minghus]

oh no. i feel like if i do not consume an entire load of bread in the very near future i will simply cease to exist.

#very uh. very worried about my finances right now #like. i'm fine. i have some savings. but i also just got to put something into my savings for the first time in a VERY long time and now #now i immediately have to take it out #and i'm getting stressed out about buying groceries #because if i dip into my savings here what about there? where is the line? #and i owe so much to taxes but i can't exactly afford getting less of my pay...... #my last paycheck was $0.66 more than my rent #my insurance is refusing to reimburse the last of my electrolysis visits from last year and like #i'm SO over the fight but that's $120. that i really actually kinda need? #and i'm starting to get that funny in the head feeling about wondering how i'm going to feed myself #i still feel so much shame about that funeral i went to years ago and my only thought during the reception after was about #how there was just so much food and i could actually eat my fill #i have leftovers for dinner tonight and it's fine but.... making a lovely vegan dish wasn't the best choice tbh #i feel like if i don't have a large helping of bread and meat i'm going to go insane #and it really REALLY doesn't help that i've apparently lost the ability to eat in the mornings #so i'm at quite a significant fuel deficit and it's stacking #but no matter how hungry i am in the morning the concept of processing solid food is just repulsive and daunting #eating a clif bar at 9am would take literally all of my spoons for the day #i was looking at protein shakes since i can handles *drinking* breakfast #but the cheapest one that meets my dietary requirements is $35 for a 12pack #and i'm uh. i'm worrying over spending $10 on produce this week #personal #and nevermind that i don't have the spoons to even GO shopping (: #(on an aside i switched back to my regular melatonin gummies last night and i Actually Slept. so hopefully that will continue and help some) #i just want to curl up in a ball on the floor and have someone gently place a roll of bread and hunk of cheese next to me in my enclosure #also it's photophobia season and i still feel like i haven't recovered from saturday #got too much sunlight and was nauseaus for half the day #my body feels so bad

[parkeryangs]

ive learned to kind of. accept my sickness a lot more this year but some days ET is just so fucking miserable :(

#taking meds every single day to fix me but they DONT fix me its just slightly less bad #if i dont take them at the perfect time at night i will get so dizzy i cant even move (but irregardless i will get sick and dizzy anyways!) #sometimes im like idk do i even NEED meds bc its still awful with them but its so much worse if i ever go without #and i really havent been sleeping well for the last month or so which ALSO does not help at all........ #but i knoww my tremors are only going to get worse bc ive ALREADY declined a Lot since my dx #being this young with a disease common in middle aged + other adults is weird as fuck too like i've only been diagnosed for three years #i dont WANT it to keep getting worse for the rest of my life. i've hardly even LIVED any life. god #it makes me angry and i feel a bit bad for that but. nobody irl GETS IT #i literally cant do anything!!!!!! my eyes are shaking i cant read and w my hands i cant write rn. i dont have my guitar so i cant play tha

[girlyliondragon]

Real talk the thing about making extremely complicated/complex and flawed characters (especially those greatly based off yourself to the point they're your self-created comfort character) that you've grown to be extremely proud of thinking of their stories, is that you also know that there are people out there that will absolutely villainize the fuck out of them or try to 'reason' that they are completely irredeemable even in instances where they have no control over their life and act accordingly or even are pushed into situations where they didn't want to be to begin with or are even trying to be better than they were before even when they have gone through and still go through moments of relapse like any troubled character would in an attempt to make them feel real and it actually really fucking scares me.

I can't give details, but it's like. It's obvious they, the character, aren't a good person, not as a whole anyways and aren't meant to be, in fact said character sees themselves as the worst to exist because in their eyes they deserve every bit of punishment after everything they've done because they are forced to be stuck in the past and mask themselves unhealthily due to repeated mistakes and not wanting to do them again despite making achievements to move on and be happy and despite some telling them that they're doing a good job despite everything and that they deserve to be happy and meaning it rather than trying to placate them, it's obviously up for people to decide their own perception OF that OC from what they read of their story bits to decide whether they like the character based on what they read of them or not, because flaws and shit like this is very compelling to many, myself included.

But at the same time I'm super nervous about the idea of expanding on said character and showing their maladaptive coping mechanisms and behaviors and bad moments alongside their good moments because a lot of people on the internet, especially the very loud ones have no fucking concept of the varying shades of grey morality in the slightest. Even in cases where they are in fandoms with characters with many different forms of grey morality, like it terrifies me that someone could potentially misread everything and ruin my desire to make this OC I'm vagueing about want to not only move on and be better, even if they have to start from the bottom again sometimes, but redeem and even forgive themselves in their own eyes in the process and start anew, just because people have a black/white mentality that they force onto at the expense of others doing so. It really ruins character exploration and growth.

#Wow RANT Alert #''Emerald what stemmed this?'' I was making an extremely complex and complicated sona's story (Not Sapphire's) #which is something I haven't tried to do ever since I abandoned Emi as one given the bleh I had to go through making hers work #due to outside forces making me feel like shit and like it's not a good idea #so I've finally got the balls to do it again. And even intend on being open about it or at least trying to be #but I'm scared to because people don't know how to read between the lines of what makes a good or bad character #they just automatically assume and don't try to dig or even try to understand that the character's grey for a reason #and that its their actions in the now that define whether they are capable of doing better. Not the past ones #I definitely don't want another fandom sona's story loosely based off of myself to be ruined because of bullshit like that. #since it's now turned into a story of self forgiveness and catharsis for myself which is why I'm so banged up about this #But man does it feel like a huge ticking timebomb #which is a shame because I've literally NOT done complex characters in for fucking ever since last year #I want mess and imperfection and to feel like I did a good job making said character's personal growth and backfires feel real #not feel bad for making them extremely messy and imperfect to begin with just because others don't like it #which is ironic because this character started as my ''ideal'' self. Or about as ''ideal'' as they can be in that world #only to not be and instead be more relatable to me as time went on brainstorming them #I want a character who's life closely mirrors mine. only they actually get their happy ending and can keep going with it.

[sureuncertainty]

hopefully it's just tonight but i haven't written at all in the last couple of days and i tried again tonight and it didn't work AGAIN i just can't get myself to write idk sometimes i really feel like the sequel to silence agenda is literally never ever going to actually get written and there's no point in even trying

#like i go thru phases where i'm all excited about it and they never last and i NEVER fucking finish anything with it #like literally ever #i have started to write this novel literally like 4 or 5 times now at this point? #and i can't get it done ever #since 2020 i've been working on it for almost three years #i've been making steady progress on tmtou i literally rewrite silence agenda like every fucking year #and yet i fucking can't get this story written #and idk how much of the problem is me how much of the problem is US and how much of the problem is my motivation levels and stuff #idk idk i think i'm just In It tonight and i'll probably feel differently later #it goes in these cycles #but idk man for awhile i was REALLY CONVINCED that this was gonna be the Time that i actually got this book written #i have the story! i have it! i just need to make it! and idk how!!! #i try and then a week later i can't #and my brain is hyperfixating on other things (idk why i decided to reread aftg) so i just Can't #and i do wanna get silence agenda published soon so i wanna focus on that #but i feel like i can't deliver on this sequel i feel like i can't even write it #idk i've never spent THIS LONG and gotten THIS MANY DRAFTS out of a book without being even like. close to the halfway point #i should finish it! i want to! i want to want to! but i fucking CAN'T #part of it is me part of it is the fact that it's hard to write when kat's not around and she hasn't been lately #idk i really thought i was gonna be able to do it this time. but apparently not #idk when i'll learn #that i can't write this fucking book #win rambles

[christensen]

I'm so pissed off, i just saw someone on twitter calling out Snow fangirls and naming people stanning characters like him ("hot" but evil) "the anakin effect" as if liking anakin has been a mainstream phenomenon for longer than a month.

#like im sorry but liking the prequels at all and anakin in particular has always been SO niche #im gatekeeping him if you haven't been a star wars fan since at least 2014 you can't stan the prequels OR anakin :/ #like on the one hand its great that thanks to nostalgia and ahsoka (tv) hayden is getting his due but like. look at the COST #ania speaks #txt #i've had this blog for like 6 years and this url for idfk almost that long #and i literally used to get asks from people who reblogged from me (a star wars blogger (and sometimes some other things) through it all) #asking me what i was referencing #hell some girl once asked me if i was using her last name as an url for some reason (???) #like you just cant make it up. #the anakin effect my ass thats just YA!!!!! tbosas is YA!! ya fans are EXPERTS at woobifying terrible men #anakin isnt one you stan because you want to fix him (if you do. you're very weird tbh) #you stan anakin bc of the TRAGEDY. the CORRUPTION. the forsaking of everything in the name of power. #anyway today i went to see tbosas with a friend i've known for years and she acknowledged that i've been on the trenches #for him + the prequels in general since f o r e v e r it was so vindicating

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

the best part about super mario rpg on the switch is that i can play it in bed or on long car trips

geno and i will never be apart again

#DCB Comments #what did you think that last post abt it was the last i would say abt it. haha you're a silly goose :) #i can play fe7 in the meantime while i wait but it's gonna be the longest wait in my life lbr #I KNOW I KNOW I'M A FIRE EMBLEM BLOG BUT. LIKE. IT'S SUPER MARIO RPG I HAVE RIGHTS #I am also curious how long they took to make this bc for example the ToS port was trash lol #but this game looks like they actually took their time with it and cared abt it #ig they only rly do genuinely amazing work on the games they expect to sell well and shrug their shoulders at other stuff #kinda sad for the ports of other games but this remaster looks like actually gave a shit abt the final product #AND YEAH I'M STILL AN FE BLOG BUT UH... EXPECT A LOT OF SMRPG POSTING AT THE END OF THE YEAR #i don't think you understand my buddies that was my fave game as a wee little t'ing #and in recent years i have listened to the soundtrack regularly. i do not mean once in a while #i mean REGULARLY. i have spent years BEGGING for them to at least put on the online services #not to say i can't just play it WHENEVER THE FUCK I WANT BC I LITERALLY OWN IT AND AN SNES LOL #but it's VERY SPECIAL to have it on the switch as well. also now the modern gaming world is going to be #relentlessly subjected to geno content and crazed fans like me and i think that's just wonderful :))) #anyway SO YEAH EXPECT A LOT OF SMRPG POSTS WHEN THE PROMISED HOUR ARRIVES #I don't currently plan to go full multi fandom but I've considered sprinkling my other interests #with FE still being the main focus of this blog bc at this point it's still my main thing with an active fandom #ALSO DID YOU KNOW in fact no you didn't bc i didn't ever talk abt on this blog but #i was considering cosplaying geno to the very last con i went to in 2019 (haven't attended one since) #if it turns out i end up going to my usual con next year maybe i'll try again! i have mikey planned but i can add another outfit!!! #did u also know that growing up i had zero idea that geno was so popular like i didn't know until the internet was cool and all #and then i found out that everyone else loved him too and i was very surprised to see how popular he was #but also was like yes rightfully so

[halinski]

Trigger warning for sh topic in tags, just me rambling, dont read, if you do its at your own risk of wasting your time lol 🙈

#so when i met tyler last saturday i was like... #thinking about making it my goal to not sh for a year or smth #like make a big gesture of going clean #maybe like the next time i meet him i could have been like: i've been clean since you signed my arm!! #but oh boy #i knew in the back of my mind that night that that wouldnt be possible #i was like: well maybe maybe i can just not hurt myself in the primary qay #*way #i couldn't even promise no scars #couldn't promise no blood no bruises #i can't promise shit #and now i'm here like 3 days later already ready to give up #having clear goals makes me wanna go do the exact opposite #makes me want to go worse #not like /actually/ bc if i were to literally break my fingers i couldnt work and as soon as i could i would be working he phone #and nope nopidity nope #thats the last thing im gonna do #ignore me #the sh thoughts are never easy to deal with #tyler has no idea the impact he ever had on me that i actually made it 4 months clean before #that i ever tried #and managed to stay clean #like #i used to be so obsessed i would shake and be unabke to fall asleep and would literally panic that bad things would happen if i didnt sh #and it was through derek hale that i actually attempted to stop the first time #when i was 17 #lasted 2 weeks and that was 10 years ago and im not sure i can do 2 weeks anymore again #but it was huge #it's been 16-ish years since i've been clean of physical sh for longer than 4 months #a really bad habit

[my-current-obsession]

Contemplating more Rune Factory “Special” changes/updates I’d like. In this case, things I’d like to see changed/added in a hypothetical, absolutely NEVER going to happen Rune Factory 4 Special+ (or Super Special, or Special 2, etc.)

Obviously since this game already has an updated rerelease, this isn’t happening. But there are still a few ways I think it could be brought even closer to perfection.

- So most of my wants for a theoretical “5 Special” came from 4 Special. Similarly there WERE actually several upgrades or quality-of-life changes made in 5 I’d love to see come back to 4 (or more realistically, maybe they’ll show up in 3 Special!).

- PLEASE let me just examine the stone/lumber box and add in all the materials I have instead of manually taking out stacks and putting them in. You can also do this for fodder bins and the fertilizer, which is nice, but the stone/lumber is the BIG one.

- Automatically picking up items as you run over them is great! I’d love to see that in other titles.

- Tabbing between storage options or categories when cooking/forging/crafting is super convenient. Hopefully that comes back, because after getting used to it in 5 I keenly feel its absence and get a smidge annoyed in 4 when I have to make something and then back out entirely to choose to make something else.

- Make Illuminata a romance option! It’s not clear if she was ever intended to be one and then scrapped, but personally I think she was. She is the only character outside the marriage candidates to have a swimsuit model & sprite, and she has several town events where she is a primary focus, similar to the events that are prerequisites for other bachelor/ettes. Plus she has lots of dialogue explicitly pointing out that she’s single and WANTS to find love. There’s really no reason NOT to make her a love interest other than her taking care of Amber, but if Amber is old enough to be romanced/married, then she’s old enough to live alone too. And Illuminata could continue to run her store after marrying the same way that every other love interest continues to do their job.

- I actually prefer the dragons in 5, but I know A LOT of people would love to see Venti as a love interest, and I’m not opposed to that. She’d be locked to a post-game romance, but she does have a human appearance and she seems to be into Lest/Frey (given her conversation where she blushes and starts to ask “If I were a human...”). Narratively she IS the person Lest/Frey cares about most so she’s got the role of a love interest already, kind of. It would be difficult to do since they’d need to add/change the story to allow her to change to her human form, and probably add a few town events for her, but it would be great if it happened. And perhaps including this would help the... abrupt ending to Act 3.

- Make it a little less ridiculous to romance Doug. I understand narratively why his friendship is INITIALLY gated at 3, but I think it’s ridiculous that it stays there until you’ve beaten Act 2 (which is basically the end of the story proper...). I think it would make sense to unlock the initial gate near the end of or after Act 1. After Doug comes around and basically decides to trust you and help Venti, or right after you beat Act 1 (saving Leon), I think you should be able to progress his friendship further. That said, it makes sense to keep his romance gated, so maybe until you’ve beaten Act 2, he stops progressing at LV 6. This way he won’t be SO far behind everyone else and if you want to romance him you’ll be able to do so almost immediately after he becomes available instead of taking several weeks just to get him from 3 to 7. As someone who dated multiple people in a run, Doug is at a HUGE disadvantage due to his late availability combo-ed with his affection almost surely being worse than everyone else. You either have to wait to date ANYONE to try and snag him first at LV 7 or basically give up in favor of dating others because it will only get harder to date him with every subsequent boyfriend and he will probably always lag behind in terms of affection, making any other guy easier to add to the harem by comparison. Literally all of this is mitigated by just raising his gated affection from 3 to 6 partway through the story. Depending on how long it takes you to complete Act 2 and whether you’re plying him with gifts, you might not even HIT the new limit, but even if you do, if you want to romance Doug it would be much quicker and easier now.

- Give players the ability to manipulate town events, at least a little. Technically players can already manipulate town events by determining when one happens and then just save scumming until they get what they want, but I want an in-game method that’s intended to help get the events you want. That said this IS an RNG system and I kind of like that. I wouldn’t want it to give you complete control. But I think something like adding “Orders” to the game at some point that allow you to, say, spawn “only town events involving [name]” would be GREAT. I won’t get into the particulars of how early the feature should be allowed (personally I think end of Act 1, but it could also be after Act 2 or an “Extra Order” reward for beating Act 3 and available from the beginning in any new game) or how much each Order would cost. I just think being able to force the game to only pick from town events involving a specific person (and including any mini-events) would be nice. Once you’ve seen all town events involving that person (excluding the marriage event, which has priority anyway) the order is automatically canceled. You could also cancel it yourself at any time. With this feature it would be MUCH easier to get the prerequisites for your intended spouse, but there is still some element of RNG considering everyone has at least a few events they’re involved in that AREN’T their needed events. This would also be great for trying to get mini events for characters you haven’t seen before.

- Some kind of weather forecast would be nice. With the exception of typhoons, people in town only comment on the weather that is currently happening. And you can still get taken by surprise if no one happens to mention the incoming typhoon or if you don’t talk to everyone. I believe weather is probably RNG as well, but if it was randomized and set like a week in advance, it would be nice if there was a way to check the weather for the next few days. Obviously this is most useful for making sure you KNOW a typhoon or snowstorm is coming and could wreck your farm. It also has other small uses - if you know a thunderstorm is happening you can remind yourself to go to the area that requires that to unlock. You can plan outdoor dates knowing the weather in advance. I don’t know about the airship or observatory but I KNOW there are variations of the lake date depending on the weather, so if you want to see them all you need the weather to comply. This way you’d know ahead of time and be able to plan for it.

- Lastly, either the game needs to be smarter about characters equipping everything they’re “given” or it needs to give players a way to directly, manually change other’s equipment from all the items they have. This is MOSTLY a problem with Kiel specifically since he has a reoccurring quest where he asks you to give him a weak shield and then he equips it EVEN IF IT’S SUBSTANTIALLY WORSE than whatever he had previously (and thus the better shield just DISAPPEARS), but in general I wish characters wouldn’t just automatically equip whatever you give them. If the system checked to be sure it was better than what they already had, that would be ideal. Of course, then you’d have to define what makes it better - which stats matter most, or is it the difficulty level of crafting/forging the item, etc. Alternatively, characters could have a stash of every equipment item you’ve ever given them and you can manually go in and decide what they actually equip (similar to the original .hack games, if anyone’s played those. In that game, characters did automatically equip “stronger” weapons/armor but you could manually change them to whatever you wanted that they had).

Overall I think 4 Special is an AMAZING game and I love it a lot. Most of my complaints are quality-of-life changes, compared to my more substantial issues with 5 (which is still like, but not as much. I like these games mostly for the social/romance aspect and that’s where 4 blows 5 out of the water even despite the RNG of town events making it way harder to actually marry who you want). In both games I long for more love interests, but that can’t be helped. Partly I just crave the extra content that would bring, though I do genuinely like and would want to marry some of those people if I could.

#rune factory #rf4 #rune factory 4 #for the record i will not be doing this kind of post for other rf games. simply because i haven't played any others #i mean i played some Tides of Destiny YEARS ago but i'm not familiar enough with the game now to suggest changes #maybe i'll revisit this topic when we get 3 Special (which will be my introduction to 3) #but anyway if i could make only ONE of these changes happen... i'd pick the town event manipulation #fun fact - i played lest my first run and was into margaret from the start. started dating her as soon as possible #in that file i have played over 2 full years & beaten rune prana. STILL haven't married her since i don't have all her needed events #(i decided i wasn't going to save scum for events. i wanted to get what i got and have relationships feel more organic as a result) #i did eventually cave and start dating other girls... and more girls... and am now literally dating ALL SIX of them #i've seen all but margaret and forte's marriage events. the only reason i DON'T have forte's is because i just recently started dating her #so i haven't gone on enough dates yet. but mark my words once that third date is done i'll get her marriage event immediately #leaving JUST margaret left. the girl i was MOST into as the LAST girl i marry. the RNG was not kind to me #my two frey runs have been much better by comparison but i am similarly struggling to get leon #so yeah as somewhat irritating as the other issues are and as nice as the QoL changes would be... #i would take more control over town events in a heartbeat. no hesitation. trying to get married in this game SUCKS