#also i continue to not know how to write demo's accent dudes like i just don't know where to start

[thetriggeredhappy]

59 with demo/engie per favor💜

i don’t even know what the Cute Funny Ship Name is for these two but i hope i did well?? (warning for engie being embarrassed about his body type)

#59: Kissing So Desperately That Their Whole Body Curves Into The Other Person’s.

“Darlin’, care to spare an eye?”

Demo looked up from his own project—the last touches on some particularly finnicky wiring for a new potentially Spy-proof door panel—as Engie slid over a pad of grid paper to him. It was a page full of equations in the Engineer’s neat, blocky text. “I know I say it every time I see it, but I’d give my other eye for handwriting like this,” Demo joked, sliding the pad closer and starting to look over it critically. He squinted at it after a second. “Even if you do use the bloody imperial system still for some damn reason.”

“Just what I’m used to,” Engie shrugged, sitting back and rolling his shoulders to work out the stiffness that came from hunching over a workbench for stretches of time.

Demo continued his way down the page, eye darting back and forth quickly over it before stalling for a few seconds near the bottom. “Twelve inches in a foot?” he asked for confirmation, glancing back up at Engie.

“Yup.”

“Made a mistake right here at the end, Toymaker, wrote the equation right but the answer’s by eleven, not by twelve.”

“Damn,” Engie sighed, taking the pad back and starting to erase. “Thanks, I would’ve missed that for sure.”

“Half the reason I’m here,” Demo returned easily, moving back to his own project. “Good on you for wanting to show your work, at least, makes checkin’ it a damn sight easier.”

“I noticed that, that you never write down anything,” Engie said, looking up at the way Demo worked without any kind of guide or diagram.

“Don’t need it. Keeping around paper’s a fire hazard in my line’a work, and takes up time besides. Nah laddie, all the diagrams I need are right up here.” He tapped at his own temple. “Only things I have hanging up in my workshop are a periodic table and a fire extinguisher.”

“You don’t have that memorized?” Engie asked, speaking even as he redid the math on the paper in front of him.

“I do, but just the order. Could probably copy it down if I had to, but, eh. Saves time to have a cheat in front of me.”

Engie looked up at Demo appraisingly. “I really do think it would be worth your time to take an IQ test,” he said, as he’d said a few times before. “Certified genius looks awful good on a job application.”

“So does the last name DeGroot, darl, I can already get a job damn near anywhere I bloody well want, even with an eye knocked out and a half-dead liver,” he laughed. He flicked a switch and snapped shut the box, holding it closed while he pressed a few buttons, hearing them beep and watching the lights flicker back at him accordingly. “Should be all set with this.”

Engie put aside his pencil and stood up, moving to pick up a tray of tools and screws. “Alright, might as well install it now,” he said.

Demo nodded, stretching and grinning as there were a few answering pops in his back. “Lead the way, lad,” he said cheerfully.

He did so, making sure the other door was unlocked before they let the main one close and lock behind them. The instillation of the new panel was a quick affair, especially with Demo’s expert hands, and it was only half an hour before Engie was screwing it in place and testing it out. The door clicked open, and they grinned at each other, satisfied.

“Now, I’d hate to tell you how to do your job,” Demo started.

“But?” Engie prompted.

“But you know how he keeps breaking in here, right?”

Engie shook his head, brows furrowing above his goggles.

“Well, he can just unscrew these,” he said, pointing at the screws holding the box closed and to the wall. “Then pull the thing open, tinker with it how he pleases. You need something more secure than screws.”

Engie blinked, surprised. He hadn’t thought of that. “What, so... bolts?”

“Nah. Hand me that,” he said, and took the power drill from Engie. “Here’s what you do, some foolproof security solutions.”

He put the drill back against the screws and ran it, Engie immediately recoiling at the horrible noise as Demo stripped the screw, grinding the grooves away into nothing.

“Hell or high water, not a damn thing you can do about a stripped screw,” he said two screws in, and Engie had to admit that he had a point, even as he mourned the damage that doing so would do to his power drill.

“Might need to replace parts of that now,” he complained.

“Solly will break it within the weak, darl,” Demo pointed out, voice raised over the sound of the drill. “Good as scrap anyways.”

He finished off his little job, and they went back into the workshop for Demo to collect his wiring kit and for Engie to get back to his own math. “Care to stick around a while longer?” Engie invited, a little hope in his voice, pushing his goggles up for a moment.

“Ach, how am I supposed to say no to a face like that?” Demo teased, taking a seat again and watching as Engie kept writing. He rolled his eye after a second. “You and your damn imperial system nonsense, yards this, pounds that—“

“Well, I’m more pounds than yards anyways,” Engie joked, grinning up at Demo in a way that was vaguely self-deprecating.

When he did, he found that Demo was giving him A Look. “We gonna need to have another talk, lad?” he asked, voice nearly devoid of humor.

Engie huffed, looking back at his work, pulling his goggles back down. “Never needed to have one in the first place,” he grumbled back.

“I disagree,” Demo said a little sharply. “Love, I don’t know how many times I need to say it, but there’s nothing wrong with the way you look.”

“There just ain’t anything right with it, neither,” Engie muttered, starting to flush.

“You’re an attractive and intelligent man, Dell Conagher, and I’m lucky that I get to date you,” Demo said firmly.

“I’m half as wide as I am tall and balding, Tavish DeGroot,” Engie replied impatiently.

“Doesn’t very well damn matter, because I think you’re a feckin’ stud for it,” Demo snapped. “What’s weight got to do with anything in practicality, love?”

“It doesn’t bother you that you can’t lift me up to hug me?” Engie pointed out.

Demo stood up abruptly. “That’s a bloody challenge if I ever heard one, Conagher, pencil down and on your feet.”

Engie immediately began to protest. “You’ll hurt yourself trying, darlin’, don’t you dare,” he said quickly as Demo rounded the table.

“Didn’t nary ask a question, Conagher, I said on your feet,” Demo said, twice as demandingly, and Engie hesitantly obliged.

And to his surprise, Demo first pulled his goggles off from over his head, then put them and his hardhat on the desk next to them. Then, in one smooth motion, he hefted Engie under both arms and lifted him into the air, kissing him soundly on the mouth once they were eye-to-eyes.

Admittedly, the sudden departure from the ground startled him, made him lean forward, clutching at Demo’s shoulders with both hands as if to catch himself, surprised at the way the difference in height seemed to dramatically change the feeling of their chests pressing together. And for a moment, he felt less embarrassed by the feeling of Demo’s firm chest and stomach against his own softer one, instead left dizzy and a little giddy at the ease with which a Demo had lifted him off the ground, and idly enjoying the way Demo’s stubble felt against his face.

They broke apart with a smack, a sound similar to a jar opening, and Demo smirked at him for a second, joy glittering in his eye for a moment until he lowered Engie back to stand firmly on both feet.

“Any further questions, Toymaker?” he asked, full of a cheeky confidence, and Engie found himself struck dumb by it, simply shaking his head for a second until his brain stopped short-circuiting and words came back to him.

“Not at all, you were right,” he replied. “You were right.”

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #demoengie #is that the ship???? idk man #shut up me #everybody talks #my fanfiction #seriously idk what this ship is called yo i just go here #also i continue to not know how to write demo's accent dudes like i just don't know where to start #also demo is a genius you can fight me on this

[sutzrainbow]

For the character game DO ODDWORLD PLEASE--

*CRACKS KNUCKLES*

I WAS HOPING YOU'D ASK HERE WE GO.

blorbo - Abe. Without a doubt. My brave brilliant blue bird boy. My amazing avian alien. My messianic Mudokon martyr. My friend since I was five years old. I could gush about him all day, even going into the meta stuff and how different and refreshing he is from other platforming characters. Abe isn’t Ratchet with his arsenal of crazy weapons. He’s not a Sonic character who can just blast their way through robots at will. He’s not Mario who lives in a world running on dream logic. He’s got powers but they have strict limits. His thing is strategy, not strength. He’s timid and emotional and doesn’t always know what he’s doing. He looks like a goof but he really, really isn’t. I just love Abe so much.

scrunkly - Abe again, but also Toby. I fucking love Toby. As Abe's growing, he's losing his innocence. He's definitely not cute bumbling Oddysee Abe anymore. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and they still find other ways to make him adorable, but Toby is now fulfilling that role of the 'innocent' one. I want to sit with him and let him gab on at me about trains for hours. I loved that we got more of him in the enhanced version.

scrimblo bimblo - Munchkin. If the series continues but they write Munch out, I shall be sad. Munch deserves a reimagined story and to be fully realised as a character like Alf and Toby, even if he's not playable. Munch deserves better.

glup shitto - I love any cameo from a character that isn't one of the main ones (the Vykkers in Soulstorm, the Bolomite in Scrabania) so there isn’t just one. It's pretty hard to tell the Mudokons apart when they've nearly all got the same model and same voice. However, I do have a fondness for that Mudokon hidden in shadows/steam in the first level of Oddysee. Why? Because that's the one I found in the demo all the way back in 1997. I was just messing around on a safe screen, making Abe say random stuff to me, when I heard the reply and this little dude emerged from the dark. My cousins and I lost our shit. That incident more solidified my bond with Abe than the Mud we found together, but I always like to see that one. He's a reminder of how it all began. I should make an identity and claim a name for him.

poor little meow meow - Morguer, surprisingly. I know he's got less personality than the Gluks he replaced (Dripik and Phleg), but I appreciate that he's the one Glukkon who doesn't blindly follow the propaganda. He's suspicious from the start and compared to the others in deep denial or just being idiots, I appreciate that he's at least competant. When all the Glukkons are hiding their heads in the sand it’s hard to see them as a credible threat to what Abe’s up to. Also, right at the end when being faced with the armed Sligs, Morguer hides behind Aslik and I think that's adorable.

horse plinko - Molluck because watching him flail around trying to regain control is funny. While I do enjoy stressing Abe out too, I highly doubt I could ever do to him what his creator is planning on doing to him. I only stress Abe so I can then give him a big hug.

eeby deeby - the Brewmaster, specifically his incarnation in Soulstorm. What a sadist. He wasn’t much more than a character with an accent in Exoddus, but in Soulstorm he’s just horrifying. He specifically worked with the Vykkers to make this stuff and engineer its effects on the Mudokons for the sake of profit, and it’s a level of insidious yet believable evil that horrifies me, and that’s not even going into what the stuff is made from. In Exoddus the Brew was addictive but only made you sick if you drank too much. In Soulstorm, it’s not only addictive, but the withdrawal effects kill you. The first time I saw that cutscene where he explains the effects of the Brew and its purpose, bile rose in my throat and I felt a hot rush of anger. Come to think of it, I could probably categorize the Vykkers this way too. eeby deeby even sounds like some nonsensical product they’d come up with.

That was fun! Thanks for asking me!

#oddworld #fandom character meme

[handwritten-yo-blog]

day 1. “never stick too close to your dreams”

I feel amazing. top of the world.

 I've got that "new start" feeling you get when you go on the first date with a girl that you'll likely think of for the rest of your life. 

I am sweaty, I am smiley, I am stoked. 

All I've ever wanted since breaking up my high school band in 2009 when we all moved away, was to get sweaty and excited and sound good playing loud. I've stuggled. I had a project in uni that was a lot of fun but only played a handful of gigs (though we did record a release I am very proud of). After that I spent years holding back my dreams while playing accordion in a bluegrass band. A few years ago I started getting the desire to get loud again and about a month in to me putting serious thoughts to writing punk songs, they kicked me out. Great timing really. 

I worked a summer for my father at the Star Track courier company, driving around cranking bands like Foley and Camp Cope on the stereo and writing songs in my phone down the highway as i delivered 4wd light bars to rural farms. I moved down to melbourne with big dreams of finding great musicians to start a band with, and two years later now and that dream was never realised. 

I met a double bass player who played for a friends band and had him record on a couple of my EPs, and I continued gigging with my fiddle player hannah. After taking my friends band "this is a robbery" on tour, I began jamming with his rythym section, two brothers from Taroona in Hobart. It sounded good, so I moved down to hobart. It wasn't my dream of being a band in melb, but it was only a one a bit hour flight from being that dream. 

We tried to jam every week but only jammed about once a month. It was okay, but it wasn't great. The rehearsals were often marred by hangovers or the bass players dog running off in to the bush and the search for it taking up all our rehearsal space time. We learnt a small handful of songs and played a few shows that were always energetic and amazing, but never tight and impressive.  I constantly made plans in my note book along the lines of "we'll rehearse all through january and I'll book studio time for march" that would then be overwritten with "we'll rehearse all through july and record in august" and after two years of that and the drummer joining a band that more suited his style, I gave up propositioning them for rehearsals.  that brings us to now. I got back from Hobart a week ago and brought my hobart friend Ella up with me to cruise around Melbourne going on dates and seeing a perth friend of ours who was here. On the last day of Ella's week up here I took her to do my favourite thing- aimlessly walk through suburbs noticing things about the space and once your legs give up, jump on public transport back home. We walked from footscray to williamstown and were having a blast, in the highest of spirits after putting up a fake "toilet" sign on a wooden door we found near the peir that was definitely not a toilet. the perfect prank. 

We were sat down at a swanky joint on the coast, having just ordered expensive pizza and cocktails having thought we were getting a good deal seeing the happy hour sign that was left out even though it was not a weekday (and hence not a happy hour). I checked my phone and was excited to see that some people I half-know had tagged drummers that they half-knew on the FB post I had made earlier in the day that read "Melb drummers, get at me". Really it was half meant in jest, as every one knows that its impossible to find a drummer in melbourne who isnt already in eleven other better bands. I'd made this post many times before and always found diddly squat luck. I didn't expect to this time and the first comment I got was "this is a tough one hey, best of luck". I and the two other people who liked that comment knew it to be true and couldnt agree more. 

Little did I know I would find some success. SIx years ago I was in Lismore, studying music at lismore southern cross university and dating a girl who I was utterly infatuated with. We'd go to every little community event, market, gig or talk we could and found ourselves at the unibar gig of a brisbane band called The Clues. We were the only people there who stood near the stage, enjoyed it and had a boogie. After a brief chat with the memebers we said seeya. I went to a another gig of theirs a few weeks later in Byron bay and drunkenly talked further with them. Lovely guys. Cool band. they broke up not too long afterwards, but I drunkenly added on FB the guitarist who I found particularly pleasant to talk to. 

Not having spoken to the guitarist since really, he commented on my post, tagging his Brisbane mate who moved to melb a few years ago. I just so happened to have met this mate of his at a Purplene reunion show a couple years back when I first arrived in Melbourne and went to the show alone. He and I drunkenly sang words towards each others faces and bonded over how wonderful it was that Purplene broke their 20 year hiatus to return for a one-off show at the old bar. We added each other on facebook, briefly noted that we shared a mutual friend in the clues guitarist and left it at that.  The drummer tagged, Ty, hit me up to send him some demos and I did. it was an ever such succinct chat. 

-hey dude, chuck me your tunes. 

then

-they sound good dude, wanna come round tomorrow night to try them. 

then 

-sweet as, heres my address, see you at six thirty. 

I read these messages while eating the tastiest vegetarian (half side cheese) pizza and downing a marzapan flavoured cocktail called the GodFather. I was pretty excited about this and remained excited for the next 24hrs. The day passed both quick and slow and I drove myself in the rain with my useless old wiper blades from footscray to Brunswick east. I arrived half an hour early and was busting to piss. I wandered around in the rain looking for an alleyway to use, got quite wet, found a spot and was glad to have had a way to pass the half hour that wasn't just sitting in the car excitedly nervous. 

I knocked on the door, met Ty's lovely partner Jazzy and the small old blind dog. The rehearsal room was warm and I was offered a list of drinks "would you like a beer? a wine? a tea? a coffee? we've got juice, you could have a cordial" and I said I'd love a beer. I was then given a list of all the different beers they had and told I could ask for whatever I wanted. I wasn't sure what to say and I said I was happy with anything. Jazzy came out holding an armful of different beers against her and I was delighted to see a stubbie of Tooheys Old. I delightfully picked that one and both Jazzy and Ty agreed that it was a very good choice. 

We got straight to rehearsing and it was the most instantanous and impressive song learning I had ever been a part of. Really wonderful accents and fills in all the right places. I had a really good time and we worked through all of two new songs that I have written. I'm commented on how easy and profficient the songs were coming along and Ty replied "yeah, I'm old hat at doing this". I sweated through my shirt, bopping on my toes as i lost my voice and gave Ty the eyes whenever the tricky to remember little-fill was about to come up.  We worked through the outro of the last song and then went out the back for Ty to have a smoke. We talked about Steven the Magpie that he raised from baby and now lives in the park next door and comes over each morning at ty's whistle. We talked about possums and how the cats and dogs he owned were too old to have any luck hunting them. He showed me the massive old rear-projection TV in the back garage that he found on curbside, and then we scheduled another rehearsal for next week and I set off home, listening to the recordings we had made on my phone. 

I told Ty that I was keen to record these songs as soon as we got them tight and he is keen as well. About a month ago at a Hard Aches show, Ben David said he was interested in hearing my new songs and would be interested in helping me get them recorded. Awfully kind of him and I hope to take him up on that offer in the future. He's quite a busy person though and I am very impatient with my need to get these new songs out, so I will be looking into all posibilities of studios to get these songs recorded. I'm excited to begin rehearsing with my double-bass player Matt and have the full band release I've always dreamt about. Just gotta keep at the songwriting slog hoping good ones happen, and continue rehearsing with Hannah, Matt and Ty. 

I'm going to try to keep a journal here of the progress. I may also make it a zine. "Handwritten" is a possible name for the band, due to my affinity for handwritten journal keeping, letter writing and list making. I wanted this here post to be hand written and scanned, but i have other things to do tonight and was worried I wouldn't get this all out in time before if escaped my memory like everything does so quickly these days. 

This will be an interesting trip, as i think the musicians journey is often kept secret to create hype and suspense and make it look effortless. Its not effortless and it takes up so much of me trying to make this happen. Join me to see whether we find any success this time or I fail gloriously in public view of this blogs readers.