#i might draw rocco

[jamesleech]

i barely made it but here's the last week of portraits from april. i gave myself the goal of 20 and that's what i managed to do. who knew that drawing every day would help make your drawing better? and take up a lot of time?? but also make u wanna draw more??? i dunno thanks for sending in your heads - if i didnt get to u i might next month :-)

available here: https://buttmcbutt.bigcartel.com/

no.16 david no.17 deb no.18 thomas no.19 rocco no.20 sasha

#art for sale #art #artists on tumblr #moleskine #sketchbook #sketch #portrait drawing #drawing #charcoal

[goqmir]

hey magic the gatheringers, ive been rebuilding my favorite edh decks and hyperfixating on them lately so i just wanted to make a pretty lil post about them offering them to anyone who wants to play em :) these are my favorite decks right now and ive just run through and adjusted the decklists of all of them in the last couple days so they're fresh and ready to perform <3

the first deck is Rocco Cast From Exile!

the third rework of this decklist with the new cards from CLU really cemented that this is my favorite deck i've ever made. Rocco, Street Chef plays kingpin to a unique Naya value pile built around playing cards from exile!

this deck is similar to Prosper, who is unfortunately the face of Cast From Exile-- but unlike Prosper, this commander and the other options for CFE payoffs you get in Naya are super interesting and cool :) you get [[Feldorn]], [[Pia Nalaar]], [[Quintorius Kand]], as well as fun cheapening effects like [[Liara Portyr]] and [[Tlincalli Hunter]] on top of the delightful cascade effects green gets!

you also get to play around with +1/+1 counters (Rocco might be the best commander of all time at like... putting +1/+1s on specific individual creatures honestly??) and the magic that is food tokens (which are getting stronger and stronger each passing set). furthermore, Rocco impulse draws for your opponents, which means you get to encourage them to make tough decisions! do they play their combo piece from exile, feeding your deck? (Rocco is so efficient that they will soon learn that the answer to that question is almost always no... but you can always pretend that you're playing group hug and giving them free cards until they figure that out!)

this deck gets a lot of mana and builds up a monstrous board state very quickly. as far as individual value pieces go, be on the lookout for [[Jaheria, Friend of the Forest]], [[Inspiring Statuary]], and [[Night of the Sweets' Revenge]] for ways to make an unreal amount of mana. [[Herd Baloth]] and [[Faldorn]] will get you tokens for every card played from exile, and i would say are the main things giving you a monstrous board. don't sleep on the cascaders and thieves either-- every extra card obtained from things like [[Bloodbraid Elf]] or the Etalis net you another Cast From Exile trigger!

Naya Cast From Exile is weird and awesome and I highly recommend playing and building in this design space :) there's a lot of Naya CFE cards that work but I cut from the deck, and they give us more cards and commanders for the archetype all the time. this is definitely my favorite deck i've ever made <3

the second deck i'd like to show off is my Oloro Control decklist!

i've always been the interaction player at the table. you might find that these decklists are a bit heavy on the interaction for you actually-- i truly believe disruption is like. so important. especially when you're playing for value rather than combos like i do ^_^

so here is my dedicated Esper Control decklist! Oloro is there to keep you topped off and to draw you cards-- by playing this deck it really does net you anywhere from 10-40 extra life in a given game in my experience just by playing him. and the card draw on Oloro is pretty insane, enabling you to find the necessary ramp and bombs to end the game after you've disrupted every combo at the table :) personally i don't like Oloro the character very much at all-- don't know why, but he's a little difficult for me to look at. i personally have a custom proxy that replaces Oloro with Grusha :3

this Control deck is all about gaining slow and steady value while ensuring the bad things aren't sent your way. there are some stax pieces here, but not very strict ones-- your goal is to remain innocuous while you get the mana and cards to play your bombs and your opponents hopefully go at each other. the bombs in question are things like [[Debt to the Deathless]], [[Expropriate]], [[Torment of Hailfire]], planeswalkers like [[Sorin Markov]], and creatures that amass you value quickly like [[Drogskol Reaver]] and [[Sunscorch Regent]]. you gain life, shut down your opponents, and force unwinnable situations or knock out opponents with big bombs. it's fun!

the third deck is Vadrok Inevitable Betrayal Combo!

Vadrok here is the final fruit of my obsession with the 0 cmc suspend cards I went through a few months back. after toying with pretty much ever one in turn, Vadrok is the one that stuck around because he plays so interestingly and truly warps your table's metagame if you bring him out enough times.

let's get into the weeds: the combo here is a pretty simple one-- Vadrok is one of (and the only legendary) engine that allows you to play cards from your graveyard without exiling them after, done by mutating. [[Inevitable Betrayal]] is a 0 mana cost blue spell that takes a creature from an opponent's deck and puts it onto the battlefield under your control. The combo, then, is a gradual one: use a spell to discard Inevitable Betrayal, and mutate onto Vadrok. each mutate plays Inevitable Betrayal for free, allowing you to cheat out an opponent's creature each time. this is strong.

the deck features a suite of tutors, a variety of ways to discard cards, and every mutate card in Jeskai (except the one whose mutate cost is six mana :P). the combo is surprisingly low to the ground and quick, allowing for turn one/two discards and turn three Vadrok mutates at times. however, it's often worth waiting to mutate Vadrok onto a creature with Hexproof to ensure little interruption as you swarm the board with your opponents' best hits.

this deck, of course, relies heavily on your opponents' decks then. which is why this deck is so metagame-warping-- even at more casual tables, you'll probably see your friends take their funny eldrazi and craterhoofs out of their decks because you're so prone to winning with them. personally, i find that delightful! i tend to cycle deck usage anyway, so it's cute to steal a bunch of things for a couple weeks, have my opponents edit their decklists to remove my hits, lose interest in the deck, and come back a couple months later and steal the good hits in their new decks, repeat :) its fun having a deck that warps metagames with its presence alone.

the final deck id like to talk about is my Silvar and Trynn Humans decklist!

mardu is delightful and for the longest time i couldn't find a mardu commander i ever wanted to build! finally though, i stumbled across these two :) the art on them is so gorgeous! i love ikoria.

this deck is very fun! the only typal deck on the list, humans is a very fun type to build around and you get access to so many bangers in mardu. this deck is all about building a board of as many humans as you possibly can, then sacking them all to put 17 +1/+1 counters on Silvar and start swinging for commander lethal. how that is done is different every game, with so many fun human pieces and interaction pieces that each game feels very distinctly different from the last more so than any of the other decks discussed on this post. furthermore, mardu offers my favorite interaction suite of all time, so it's always a pleasure to play with.

teehee anyway thats my decks ive been hyperfixating on! feel free to give em a try :) sqrrk!!

#mtg #magic the gathering

[golby-moon]

oh no I accidentally started making fakemon for the first time since my fake Fidough and Lechonk evolutions. these were designed for a few people from their discord usernames and from their own vague description of things they might wanna see

-

first up is @whitster-lizzy

I think by the end of a somewhat confusing back and forth that I was supposed to make a combo of Bulbasaur, Medusa, and poison ivy. I took inspiration from the last two, but just could not get Bulbasaur's plump little front half to look good morphed into a tail. instead, I went for more of a 'protector of the forest' thing and added a maternal vibe that Whitney kinda gives off and ended up with this. I wanted to put an emphasis on three for the three leaves of poison ivy, so even its tears (which may or may not be from sad edits and the inability to hug anything without poisoning them :(() carry that, as do the scales sporadically thrown around there. the arms became vines when I was too tired and frustrated to keep trying to redraw actual arms to get them to look right (oops) and the hair is just a mess as I'd expect vine-hair to be

-

next is @rauko-is-a-free-elf, who started this whole thing with a comment about someone mispronouncing their name as 'Rocco'

for whatever reason, I came up with an ice bird instead of something that screams 'rock type' idk why either. took inspiration from blue jays (one of their favorite birds) as well as peacocks with the tail and tried to go for sort of a crystal structure on there (along with dots that were supposed to be snow but failed to look like it) while still including the distinctive dark swoops blue jays have on their tails. the wings were supposed to be icicles and that was actually the first thing I designed rather than the head or the body. it really does make use of diamond shapes so I did try to add some rock type elements to it mostly in color scheme though maybe it would've been better without. I'm not really sure why it has a mask other than I wanted to give its face some dark lines like blue jays have but my brush was too thick to add too many little details. so mask👌

-

now we have @bleuzombie

I didn't have any sort of a prompt or direction for this one and based it entirely off of their username. I originally took inspiration from Machop in the way of body shape and went from there, developing a vaguely reptilian form somehow that looked a lot more lizard-y before the dark typing came out in the form of skeleton-bits not unlike the Cubone line. the spiky bat there is a reference to The Walking Dead ofc, which led me to develop more of a baseball vibe with the dark line under its eyes representative of the grease baseball played use to reduce glare and with the sorta long sock-like design for the feet, along with the baseball stitching pattern that doubles as what's supposed to represent the stripes like all baseball uniforms have. its hands have always looked boxing glove-y from the very first beginnings of the sketch so I just colored them to match the rest of the color scheme and oh no now it's a fighting type oops

-

now @nickelkeep

this one is also inspired by their username, which at first had me thinking about how dragons hoard coins but then somehow got turned into c a t and I don't really know why. either way I tried to keep a coin theme going (especially with its eyes, which are supposed to look like coins) while also making it a dark/fairy as sorta requested and it became a representation of the duality of cat: both angel and devil (also a twist of money being the root of evil and all that). so it got fluffy and spiky at once and now has pitchfork-themed whiskers and a few occult symbols to offset its scarf and heart motifs. I think this one was actually the first design I worked on and to the relief of everyone, I actually used a reference of a cat to get the pose right 🎉

(idk why there's a bad drawing of a nickel I think I was originally gonna make that into a background but I did decide against it in favor of making these look more like official pokemon character reference sheet things. enjoy the bad nickel anyway)

-

next one up is @anyreiart

idk what happened with this one. I don't know much about anyrei and their username doesn't inspire much in the way of fakemon (beyond a few seconds where I thought of making a sun-inspired something with the 'rei' becoming 'ray'), so I went with a theme based on what I do know, which is that they paint, along with two pictures that they sent, one of which was Gothorita (the other was for a hairstyle I think but I did steal the funky red and black checkered tie from that because reasons). going off of that, this one is supposed to look like a paintbrush with its body and its edgy anime hair, and its belt continues carrying the paintbrush motif. since I was provided with the request to make it goth, I added thick eyeshadow-esque lines under its eyes and kinda used the hairstyle from the picture while also turning it into a paintbrush that utilizes their favorite color as the paint color. carrying the gothic art idea, I tried to make its lower half (originally meant to be a blobby sort of easel shape before I changed it) into something resembling stained glass windows that was famous at the time (I got confused multiple times while making the stained glass design so it's not all that consistent uh). it was supposed to be dark type, but ended up giving off more of a ghost/fairy vibe after I realized I accidentally made it a ballerina paintbrush (oops)

-

moving on to @as-lost-as-sams-shoe

this one is heavily inspired by their username, starting with the scallion, which is a kind of oniony thing. they themself actually added the 'wrapped' part to push the pun a little further, which made me think of Swadloon and its cozy little leaf blanket, which naturally led to the scallion with its massive head and slimmer body (to match the shape of an onion more than a scallion admittedly) to be all wrapped up. scallions have leaves that look like they were cut straight across, which lead to the development of its 'bangs' (which was also inspired by the fact that scallions themselves grow underground and only the leafy parts are seen, adding a 'shy' element) as well as the tassels along the bottom of its leaf-wrap. the lines along its body are made to represent both the rings inside of an onion as well as the word 'rapscallion,' which is a term that can be used to mean villain or bad guy, earning it prison-esque stripes. its eyes are massive as a play on onions making people cry, and the smaller parts of its eyes that I can't remember the names of are based off of onion rings. the skull and crossbones shape is just to make it pirate-y, which is what I can't not picture when I read the word 'rapscallion' for one reason or another

-

and finally @zybynarx, who gets a finished one as well as a sketch I scrapped and started anew

I actually had a lot to work with for this one, as they specifically asked for a fire type puppy pokemon. first instinct is ofc to go for a dalmatian, which is the firehouse dog or whatever, and I wanted to make the lower half black as a reference to that scene from 101 Dalmatians where they coat themselves in ashes to appear completely black. I made some firefighter-y stripes and tried to make its back legs look almost like boots which looks, in a couple of word, super weird. I then added tinder fluff on head and a kindling sort of thing on the neck, but when I tried to develop the back half's design, my brain sorta died and I couldn't decide what to do, so I went back to the drawing board fully intent on making like a complete copy of what I'd already tried

instead I ended up with this personification of tinder that's just all fluffy all the way down instead of the almost lion mane of tinder design I was originally picturing. I carried over the themes of adding firefighter stripes to allude to a firefighter's jacket as well as the kindling collar thing the other one had. I kept the bottom half black but made it more like wispy smoke than ash that trails behind it when it moves (which is a lot because puppy). the eyes are two pieces of coal and the nose is supposed to look like a match but doesn't. it looks very fluffy but is probably too squirmy to make a good lapdog. it just has that squirmy ball of energy vibe to it

-

whether people really like these or not, it was definitely a learning experience, and I did pick up on a lot of things to keep in mind for future fakemon designs (particularly not to overcomplicate things and go more for consistency, which I did not originally do as I wasn't planning on make them into character sheets at all and didn't plan beyond the main drawings of the fakemon)

this craziness is a result of the @deancasanimebang (which is still accepting artists until October 1st :0)

(08/28/23)

#my art #pokemon #pokemon fanart #fakemon #art made for other people #in a more literal sense #like these are gifts #unwanted gifts perhaps but still gifts #my bang legacy #spn anime bang #deancas anime bang #my requests

[squid-nerds]

Would you consider setting up a patreon? I know it's a bit risky and admittingly I don't know all the ins and outs of art being a large source of income, but with your following maybe you'd be able to make enough to be able to dedicate more time towards art and less towards another job?

Of course it's your life n you gotta do what makes you comfy!! I'd personally pledge in a heartbeat if you did set up something like that, love your funny squits :>

EeeeEEE I've considered it before, but im pussy 🥺 Not because I don't want to do Patreon, rather... it'll be rather stressful to get started.

I can't quit my job upon making a Patreon, unfortunately. I would need to wait until Patreon makes up for my job's wage before I could dedicate my entire time to art, and I'm very uncertain of if/when it would happen. Until then, I would have to juggle both incomes... I love working, but not sure if I could make that haha

I would love to do it though, really!!! There's a LOT of sketches and wips that I don't post in attempt to keep my socials cohesive lol (i.e I sketched the next page of Emilio and Rocco's story years ago, but didn't finish so didn't post it)

Thank you for being interested!! I'm happy you like my dorky lil' babies! I love drawing them so much...!

If anyone else is interested in a Patreon, please let me know! If I see there's a good amount of people interested, it might push me to stop being so scared lolol idk

#not sure what tiers I'd do.... #1 USD and 3 USD maybe? #San is going to heavily disagree with those prices #I dont knowwwww aaaaa #ask #massive-ass-bird #JUST SAW YOUR nAME #HAHAHAHAHA #OMG IT TICKLED ME BAD #I've been talking to the largest bird imaginable and didn't even know it

[luckyqueenreign]

LITG: Double Trouble EP 11 Recap

here we go...

*spoilers under the cut*

everyone is talking about who MC is going to choose...I will say normally I love a super confident pixel but Roberto just gave me the ick so bad with this overconfidence.

YAYYYY challenge time!!! im actually excited about this one!! GUYS the placement of these cowboy hats on the girls OMG it's so bad. oooop!! not Grace flirting with Ryan where Ozzy could see!! Girly ur relationship is already on thin ice!! EEK I chose the "you dont sound too secure with Ozzy" option and she said "youre right, I guess I dont feel that solid with him right now....kinda feels like he might still be open to other options." and then she glances at MC...😬😩 UH OH shes gonna give a test in the challenge...girlyyyy. skefoisjefjwaenfajw SINCE WHEN AM I BLONDE?????? lolol omg look I get that the art team prob couldnt draw the hat for EVERY hair option but they couldnt at least match the color ??????? also I hate that in challenges MC is the only one who wears a diff outfit. why cant they just make us have a special one but give the girls outfits too??

DEAD at Roberto not having any rhythm and Lewie not having any coordination in the obstacle portion. EEK time for Grace to test Ozzy 🫣 I meannnnn.....Lewie lol? why not Ryan who she actually just flirted with in front of Ozzy and who was grafting her AND is also single. lowkey feels like shes not only trying to teach Ozzy a lesson but us too 👀

OZZYS TURN 🥰 not Ozzy dominating on the bull and his dance moves AND choosing MC. ksaidsiodisjdfies OBVI snogged Ozzy's face off even though I def didnt kiss the other boys 😬 MC is obvi going out and showing out as she she should 💅🏼 anddddd u guys already know who I chose. Grace im sorry babes! Also sorry Roberto and Lewie! OOP Ozzy whispering that after our moment on the terrace he hoped we'd pick him. ok the constant interruptions from Grace...I get them...and I actually do like they added this in but im gonna need a little less to make me feel less guilty about what im about to do 😬. "IT SEEMS LIKE YOURE COMPLETELY ALONE" fb u really want me to fall in love with this pixel man dont you??? 🫣🫣 Grace saying that was low😐 im sorry for Grace that I made my mc be in her villain era bc im def choosing the diamond scene and going to do it all over again with Ozzy. SCREAMING not us landing perfectly on top of him after falling off the bull and then KISSING IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. MC IS A MENACE.

time for a girl chat 😬 damn Amelia saying MC always had the big moves and looking sad...yeahh thats def gonna come back up. LOLOL not Ryan pulling a Rocco and chatting with all the girls. ACK GRACE!!! "its not only the boys im struggling to trust" I love that theres more nuance here and fb actually gave her some personality here. Grace has EVERY reason to be fuming at not only Ozzy but also MC. ok wait..... "but when he cracks a joke you're the person he looks at to see if you laugh." STAHP IT PLS!!! not grace fishing for an apology! im so confused Grace has sat here with us and explained how its so clear Ozzy has feelings for MC and then when she asks if she needs to worry if you say yes. she's still like are you sure??? why did fb not make this consistent with everything else she just said!!

Ryan encouraging Roberto to shoot his shot with MC to free up Amelia is such an EL OH EL moment. like sir u have spoken two words to the girl and you've been grafting literally every girl in the villa outside of MC all day!! pack your bags Ryan!

#litg spoilers #litg #love island game #love island the game #double trouble #litg double trouble #litg s6

[knuxtiger4]

Where You Can Find Me:

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Nintendo Switch: 1250-0230-8168

Discord: Knuxtiger4

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For those coming for the VTM art and want to know a bit, I play in a VTM splat game on Thursdays currently. I play Marina, an abomination (Gangrel/Black Fury) that is trying to understand her creation and at the same time keep herself from becoming the monster she truly could be. I draw her a lot as you can see!

She has other members of her coterie that you might see art of! One is Ingrid, her girlfriend who is an Exalted and a Tremere vampire, played by @gloriousfirepersona. The other is Rocco, a Hunter and Catiff vampire who is played by my roommate.

I do draw other things from time to time but VTM and D&D take up my life currently!

#knux's personal #knux's rambles #vtm #vampire the masquerade #wod #world of darkness #ttrpg #where to fine me

[adamwatchesmovies]

1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

I watched 1990: The Bronx Warriors as part of my exploration of the “Road Warrior Post-Apocalyptic” genre. For the most part, the various imitators and derivatives have been aping the Mad Max franchise. This is the first time I’ve seen “inspiration” principally drawn from the other two establishing films of the genre: Escape from New York and The Warriors. The results are one of the most uninteresting and cheap attempts I’ve seen so far.

In (the then futuristic) year 1990, New York’s Bronx is dominated by crime and declared a No Man’s Land. The police have given up all attempts to bring order to the raving biker gangs who roam the streets. Ann (Stefania Girolami), the 17-year-old heiress to the nefarious Manhattan corporation runs to the lawless wasteland to hide from the responsibilities she will soon inherit. There, she befriends The Riders and their leader, Trash (Marco Di Gregorio). To get the woman back to the boardroom where she belongs, the Manhattan Corporation hires a mercenary named Hammer (Vic Morrow) to do anything it takes.

It begins as a thinly veiled rip-off of John Carpenter’s memorable action film and then turns into a cheaper, lazier, and endlessly duller version of Walter Hill’s cult-classic. You go in assuming this will be a cheap film; the other Post-Apocalyptic adventures didn’t exactly have big budgets. Even so, this is inexcusable. This film is too low-grade to deliver even the mildest form of vehicular carnage, which is a shame because the Warriors’ – I mean the Riders’ – motorcycles look so flimsy you know they’d fly in a million pieces if they hit even a medium-sized pothole. I’m not joking when I say it looks like they bought a bunch of Halloween decorations – on November 1st when they’re heavily discounted- and then glue-gunned them onto the steering wheel of their motorcycles.

The performances are horrible and the actors are made to look even worse by the ADR. Everyone’s all mush-mouthed, and with the home release’s lack of subtitles, you’ll struggle to understand what anyone is saying. Had this plot had any kind of substance or complexity to it, you’d be completely lost. Nonetheless, you keep watching, hoping there will be some cool stunts or hand-to-hand combat scenes to make this effort worth your time. Your hope is in vain.

The only way to draw enjoyment from 1990: The Bronx Warriors is by making fun of it. Even so, it doesn’t have much to offer. It’s agonizingly dull and so obviously devoid of any kind of passion, enthusiasm or effort. The one thing that might bring a smile to your face are some of the characters’ names and the art direction. If it seems as though I’m grasping at straws, I am but how could you not laugh at characters named Hotdog (Christopher Connelly), Witch (Elisabetta Dessy), The Ogre (Fred Williamson), Ice (John Loffredo) and… Paul (Rocco Lero)? Some of the random gangs receive given quirks that make them mildly diverting, such as a group of mimes who perform a coordinated dance, but those add nothing to the story. It’s a flat picture, obviously shot in a run-down neighbourhood. It drains the life out of you.

I suffered through 1990: The Bronx Warriors so you wouldn’t have to. There’s no reason to see this, even if you enjoy the stories it’s shamelessly burglarizing. I didn’t think it could get any worse than Exterminators from the Year 3000, but here we are. To survive these films, I’m going to have to set the bar way lower than expected. This Italian production has not one, but two sequels and I can’t imagine either being any better than this. (On DVD, August 4, 2018)

#1990: The Bronx Warriors #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Enzo G. Castellari #Elisa Livia Briganti #Dardano Sacchetti #Vic Morrow #Christopher Connelly #Fred Williamson #Mark Gregory #1982 movies #1982 films

[roboraindrop]

Deeeeeep breathssssss

I've got a 100% survival rate so far, I can keep going

#someone tell my thoughts that pls #like... mini emotional rant for a second but today has been awful and i feel so useless and anxious #depression also sucks and hates me and i hate me and i really would love to just fuckin kms rn #j has helped me through this so many times but Rein's never really had to deal with it and im afraid if he knows he'll think less of me #i want to protect him but i dont even wanna be alive to protect my damn self??? weak af #i dunno #j says that he wouldnt be like that #i know he wouldnt but my stupid mind hates making people worry about me even when i probably ahould be wotried about #i dont wanna go through this #i wanna be at home so i can cry alone and not at work where i have to pretend to not want to break dow #im just gonna stuff my face with the chicken i brought for lunch and draw until my hands are numb #i might draw rocco #rocco is the personification i gave to my depression and anxiety #sometimes it helps to tuonk of him as a sepsrate being eho just loves to torture me #because then i can focus my anger to him and not myself #rambling #meg is emotional

[evenasyoungastheyare]

Martino and Niccolò

#nicotino #skam italia #i think i might correct it later #martino rametta #niccolo fares #martino x niccolo #drawing #kiss #skam italia fan art #skamit #martino rametta fanart #niccolo fares fanart #well well well #and lectures for tomorrow are not prepared again #nicotino kiss #pencil drawing #skam #rocco fasano #federico cesari

[rayshippouuchiha]

A one shot for my KHR Streamer AU. It's in a text message style. Not sure if I should add more to it or just end it there.

Tsuna was doing some late night drawing when he heard his phone vibrate and a notification pop up on the screen. 

SassyGamerGirl: I'm craving pie. I don't know why.

Blinking with some curiosity and amusement, Tsuna set down his stylus and picked up his phone. He opened the group chat he and his friends made. 

SinnamonRollCat: Emilia, I don't think any stores are open at 10 o'clock at night. Don't you have ice cream in the freezer?

SassyGamerGirl: I do, but I want pie. 😩

BestArtQueen: see if Uber Eats has anybody willing to deliver. 

SinnamonRollCat: Or…I could make you something. A pie might take a while to cook though. What type do you want?

SinnamonRollCat: Also, Laverne, why are you up? We didn't wake you, did we? 

SassyGamerGirl: Yes!! Apple!👍👍

BestArtQueen: Nah. You're good. Was up finishing a project. Mind if I join your pie party?

WealthyChef: Go the fuck to sleep, all of you. Tsuna, let them starve.

GundamStyle: What's happening? 

GundamStyle: Whoa! Tsuna's making pie!? I want to join! 

SassyGamerGirl: Pie party! Pie Party! Pie Party! 

SinnamonRollCat: Of course you can join too, Rocco and Laverne. 

SinnamonRollCat: Sorry to wake you, Vico. 

BestArtQueen: Pie Party! Pie Party! Pie Party! 

GundamStyle: Pie Party! Pie Party! PIE PARTY!!! 

WealthyChef: It's not a party and eating sweets at night is not good. Go to sleep.

SassyGamerGirl: We're already up, Vico. Nothing can stop the party now. 😝😝

GundamStyle: Everybody meet at Emilia's house? Tsuna, need me to pick you up?

BestArtQueen: I'm down with that. 

SassyGamerGirl: Sleepover/party is a go. Bring clothes and toothbrushes.

WealthyChef: If we're cooking and having a sleepover, my apartment is the best for it.

SinnamonRollCat: Yes, Rocco. Thanks, Vivo.

SassyGamerGirl: late night party at a rich dude's house. Can finally cross it off my bucket list.

WealthyChef: Hn. No alcoholic drinks or loud music please. 

BestArtQueen: Boo! 

GundamStyle: Boo! 

SassyGamerGirl: Spoil sport.

SinnamonRollCat: 😁

WealthyChef: 😑🙄

Tsuna exited the chat and got up out of his chair, stretching. He smiled as he began to pack a bag. Looks like they were having a pie party after all. 

Ohhh nice!! We can always use more fic so I say go for it if you've still got inspiration

#RayRambles #long post #KHR

[theelvenhaven]

Elves Dressing Up for Halloween

Gondolin

Halloween Request:  Hello! For a Halloween request, could I ask for headcanons of what the elves of Gondolin would dress up as for a costume? Would any be extremely hesitant? Would any be receptive to couples costumes? Thank you (and if not, thanks for taking time to read this!) 😌 - @sterling-roses

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Turgon

Turgon honestly isn’t one for dressing up at all on Halloween and will not be partial to even couples costuming. If anything he would much rather host a party and keep his usual attire than have to dress up as anything. Even if it is customary. 

At most you may get a masquerade mask on him and that is as far as it will go. So every year, being quite the creature of habit, he prefers to go as a King than let his hair down a little and relax. Though Turgon will support you in almost whatever costume you decide to go in AS LONG AS it is appropriate. 

Nothing inappropriate or overly sexual as Turgon is a little bit of a prude. Though he won’t fight you too hard and be considerably flustered all night over it and bite his tongue. He’ll eventually grow used to whatever costume he may not find appropriate but it certainly takes some time for him to get used to it. 

Glorfindel

Glorfindel loves dressing up, being the big ray of sunshine that he is, and has a lot of fun dressing up! He is really creative and thinks outside the box on the costume ideas that he comes up with. 

And when you ask him to dress up in couples costuming he immediately jumps at the chance to be able to do so. Glorfindel also loves to be able to help create these said out of the box costumes too. For example you have a ton of cardboard boxes at your disposal, he will absolutely spend the time to make a costume out of it. Robot? Fish tank? Washing Machine? He’ll put it together.

Glorfindel also really loves puny costume ideas too. Anything that can be a big play on words he is bound to figure out an idea for you both to wear. No matter how ridiculously cheesy that idea might be, Glorfindel will absolutely run with it. He has a blast coming up with the ideas. 

You are absolutely welcome to assist in coming up with something, Glorfindel loves to hear any of your ideas. And if you are more partial to an idea that you have, he is happy to relent to you and get your costumes put together with whatever theme you prefer. Either way, Glorfindel is just really happy to spend time with you like this!

Ecthelion

Ecthelion is pretty rigid and formal and strict, so when it comes to dressing up for Halloween, he isn’t all too elaborate in dressing up. If anything he may add an accessory or two to a really nice outfit, but it is never anything over the top. 

So when you suggest couples costuming, Ecthelion is a little hesitant to join you in any of the ideas that you might have. They might need to start off relatively conservative and more classic like Period specific costuming or Historical Figures or something Masquerade style. 

He feels a little odd all dressed up, especially since it is not the one or two accessories that might dress up his costume. But Ecthelion trusts you deeply to not put him in something ridiculous or make him look ridiculous and tries to enjoy the fun of the night all dressed up. 

I do not recommend really letting him choose in the beginning of your costume couple planning because he will not venture even into the more conservative spaces. Choosing to keep it more to what he is already comfortable with. 

Rog

Rog loves to dress up and though he does, his costumes can be pretty simple. Happy to dress up and throw together whatever he might have at home. Even if it means wearing work attire for Halloween. A blacksmith is technically a costume. 

So when you suggest couples costuming, Rog is really happy to let you take the reins and lead the way on what to dress up as! He’s a lot of fun and can easily get super into character with it. Such as if you want to dress him up like he walked right out of Woodstock 1960 and give him a few verbal cues to use, he will shamelessly use them. 

Rog’s a big ball of fun and the life of the party, and after the first time you two couples costume expect to couples costume from then on out. Cops and Robbers, Period Costuming, Heavenly Themed, Character Specific, whatever it may be he is down for it (unless it is offensive). The ellon will absolutely costume with you in those inflatable costumes and have a ball with it. Inflatable sumo or dinosaur is absolutely up for grabs. 

Just know you will probably have to have it custom made and fitted for him properly. And Rog will absolutely try to wrestle or horseplay with someone in the said inflatable costumes. Anticipate that he may go home in it with it deflated because he will eventually pop it.

Penlod

Penlod in his true fashion is dressing up as a Historical Figure. You’ve told him how costumes work and that he can be anything he wants to be, and the ellon is going to choose the most interesting Historical Figure he can. 

He will absolutely be as detailed accurate as he can be, from the costume and to the accessories. Penlod puts a lot of attention into his costume and the little pieces that bring it all together. 

Penlod will absolutely do couples costumes together, but he will not budge on it not being a historical figure. He WILL consider being a regular civilian in x time period if thats what you wish! Ancient Greece? 1400′s Renaissance? French Rocco? 1800′s? 1920′s? 50′s? You name it and he will dress up as it. He’s a sucker for histories and will happily spend time compiling a costume that is just as detailed as his!

You both will absolutely look like you’ve walked right out of the era you two dressed up as. With Penlod indulging facts about the era to anyone who will listen to him. 

Egalmoth

Egalmoth loves being able to dress up really exquisitely and jumps at any opportunity to be able to do so. His costumes are so incredibly elaborate and gem and fine stitch filled they’re absolutely heavenly to look upon. 

Sometimes he really doesn’t even pick a theme of what he wants to dress up as when it comes to Halloween. Egalmoth just wants to dress up nicely, he’s a little bit of the “he’s got the spirit but is confused” saying. Though he is absolutely  aware that he is supposed to pick a theme. He just chooses to not always do so.

He will absolutely couples costume with you, but when he does, Egalmoth absolutely wants to pick the theme. He’s bold so he is unafraid to pick unearthly themes like dressing up as the Vala of such regal nature, or Ancient Gods in rich costume style or Angels or Monarchy. Anything that allows him to be able to put you both in an incredibly unearthly and regal status he is here for. 

Anticipate that Egalmoth, like Penlod, has an extreme eye for detail. So no expense will be spared and your simple costume will quite quickly become a luxurious and intricate affair. 

Galdor

Galdor is really go with the flow and has a knack for choosing a good costume with his more go with the flow nature. Though he won’t really dress up unless he finds it necessary to do so for like a party. If he’s solo on Halloween he’s more likely to just stay cozy. But when it comes to couples costuming, he is all for it!

Galdor’s only preference is that he prefers the nature themes, but he won’t strictly adhere to them and will explore other costume themes with you. The only line he will draw is if he finds any of the themes to be vulgar or offensive in anyway.

Whether you two are Witches and Wizards together or the Angel and Devil, Galdor is going to be happy to meet your expectations. He’s got a pretty good sense of humor though and will be happy to dress up in awkward costumes or whatever other humorous costuming you might come up with.

Maeglin

Maeglin is completely and totally hesitant at the idea of dressing up as anything. The idea of just dressing up as whatever, just seems like an open line for someone to possibly criticize what he has chosen and that is an immediate dislike for Maeglin. 

As for couples costuming its really really REALLY going to take some convincing to get him to participate. If anything, the first few Halloweens he is probably not going to be receptive to any of it at all. Totally opting to just tagging along while you dress up. 

Though he gives in to the peer pressure of everyone asking him where is his costume or hearing how it would be cute if you two dressed up together. Maeglin absolutely lets you choose what you want to dress up as, but I warn that you might want to start out far more conservative and safe options like him being a Knight and you being a Princess/Prince or perhaps you’re both Pirates or maybe you dress up like Ancient Greeks/Romans. 

Something that isn’t going to be too over the top, but just enough out of his comfort zone people will recognize that you dressed up. 

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Tags: @saviorsong @lilmelily @dicksoutformtl @fandomhoe101 @icarus-fell-in-spring @someoneinthestars @red-riding @miriel-estelwen @ta-ka-shi-ma @nerdyely @thegirlwithoutaname87 @anunexpectedsideblog​ @achasiel​

#Turgon #Glorfindel #Ecthelion #Rog #Penlod #Egalmoth #Galdor #Maeglin #the silm #the silmarillion #silm #silmarillion #The Fall of Gondolin #jrr tolkien #tolkien #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #imagine #imagines #one shot #one shots #headcanon #headcanons

[ariendiel]

What do you think the Season 2 cast's lives are like after the show if they DIDN'T get with MC?

OoOoHhHhhhh, this is such a good one, Mango. I've seen a few other people already answer it for you already, but figured I might as well do it as well since you took the time to send the ask my way too (I'm not doing all of them though, sorry!) 💙

the LITG S2 cast – after the show

Blake

She's absolutely thriving with all the PR and deals she got. Her stint on Love Island was brief, but she's absolutely milking it for all it's worth. Blake definitely got a boohoo deal out of the show.

Bobby

I think he'd try to go back to working at the hospital, but the fame would be distracting to the point where it'd probably be unsafe. Besides, I think it's basically agreed in the fandom he'd eventually start his own bakery, right? He'd also be the one to appear the most on random morning shows, being as extroverted as he is, and remain close with Gary – and to some extent the rest of the gym crew (Rahim and Noah).

Carl

Ohhh, I think Carl would find dealing with the attention quite tricky, but also he'd use it to potentially start his own little tech company. He's introverted and shy, but also clever and knows how to get the most out of it – he'd just have to be careful not to lose himself too much. Carl would probably also be one of the Islanders to get a small cult following lol

Chelsea

I feel like she'll struggle to cope for a bit, the attention and online love/hate being a bit much at time for someone with ADHD like her. However, she's so intrinsically positive I wouldn't be surprised if she powers through and becomes a bit of a national darling. She moves from interior design and to more event managing, gets some stellar advice from her therapist and just lives her best life (I refuse to acknowledge Chelsea x Rocco).

Elisa

She'll use Love Island for a while to get more followers and lucrative deals, but she'll soon enough move on to her next influencer project – Elisa can't let her brand become stale after all.

Gary

Him and his nan would totally get a show together right? Or at least start a youtube channel. His nan would steal all the attention–as she should–and they'd bring on other Islanders as guests etc. The gym crew is a fan favourite of course. However, I also think Gary would kind of miss just being a regular crane operator, and so not quite let go of his old life. He still goes to the pub with his mates, where Dicky absolutely makes fun of him and they pull a few "birds" using Gary's stint on Love Island to grab their attention.

Hannah

Exactly what @hopeshoodie said here. She'll try to kickstart her writing career and marry some boring rich white man because she thinks that'll make her happy. Then, she'll have a few kids and be relatively rich and miserable before running off with Lottie during her mid-life crisis.

Henrik

He'd probably just venture of into a forest and eat some moss for a while. Okay, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if ITV2 just kind of loses him. He's meant to be doing interviews, but he forgot and is now cuddling sheep on St Kilda. I think he'd randomly show up for a few interviews, but fame isn't really his think although he's ridiculously charming. Instead of being forgotten though, people start a #HenrikSpotted trend and he eventually moves back to Sweden.

Hope

Her business mind will thrive after the show. Nope ends pretty much the second they land back in the UK, but she doesn't mind because she's got more than enough to do. I feel like she'd bury herself in work and brand deals, working towards the top in the toy company while ignoring the haters as best as she can. However, she soon realises she needs to process what happened on the show and the aftermath, and so starts going to therapy and taking better care of herself.

Ibrahim

I've fully embraced what he said in CMM, and think he'll slowly step away from golf after the show, and instead moving on to drawing/writing comic books. I think Love Island was quite transformative for him, which he'll talk about in interviews once he feels ready. He also keeps in touch with Noah, and unlike what was said in CMM I can see him and Jo lasting if they work for it (I'm probably in the minority who doesn't mind Jo).

Jakub

I think we get a small look into it in the wedding reunion, but Jakub would definitely get into modeling for fitness magazines, and probably judging body building contests as a "celebrity judge". He also starts doing what Justin Bieber does did, and posts random photos of fit models on his instagram with "damn who's this?" under them to draw their attention in the hopes of a quickl hookup. He starts his own protein shake brand.

Lottie

Her and Gary probably lasted longer than Nope – which is to say not that long at all, maybe a week lol. And as we know, she was quick to move to the US, where I think she'd stay for a while as a MUA and influencer. She'd definitely start her own youtube channel, and who knows what kind of weird dramas she'd get into there (imagine her mixed in with J*ffree Star, Tati and James Charles? 💀)

Lucas

I honestly think he'll disappear from the limelight for a while, instead only doing the interviews he has to for the TV channel, before taking off on his bike. Lucas didn't go on the show to get famous, but he uses his bit of fame to try to bring focus onto charities like Doctors Without Borders while also returning to his regular job.

Marisol

Marisol probably likes the idea of fame more than fame itself. Fuckbois sliding into her DMs, twitter hate, and such really isn't what she wants or imagined, although she thought she was prepared for it. So even though she has a few deals and tries to make the most of it, she eventually returns to her studies and doesn't try to remain relevant.

Noah

He goes back to his job at the library in Romford, but uses the bit of fame he got to promote a few charities and his Sunday reading classes for children. He's still good friends with the others (especially the gym crew and Lucas), and eventually also becomes great mates with Hope – nothing like laughing together over the two weeks where you both acted like idiots.

Priya

I think it's pretty much canon that she goes back to doing some modeling and more fashion related stuff? Priya pretty much got what she wanted from the show I believe: a free summer holiday with hot people, and fame. I think she'll date/hook up with a few famous people, and keep the public's attention the most "naturally" out of almost all of them.

Rocco

He'd pretend to go "off the grid" for a while, to cleanse his spirit or something after the show, but he'd definitely be updating his social media and comment on the show. Rocco would definitely do ads for vitamin bears and detox tea on his instagram, in between advertising his food van and new business of "mindfulness classes".

#litg everyone #litg s2 #love island the game #litg #ask #this is a long post so you have been warned #feel free to reblog or comment with your own ideas #especially for the islanders left out

[goqmir]

as the resident Rocco and player who is addicted to getting value from casting shit from exile i am PRAYING on my hands and knees for more junk token makers in the fallout deck reveals next week.

they are so fun, incredibly strong, impulse draw is generally a very interesting and balanced mechanic, and the flavor of finding something useful in a junkyard or heap of scrap as impulse drawing a card (it might be useless and be exiled forever or it might be the treasure in the trash that saves you the game) is amazing. i love junk tokens so fucking much. please give us more junk tokens. as much as i know itll never happen my dream is for junk to be as common as foods and clues-- all im realistically hoping for is an engine that can slot into Rocco as a draw engine (and maybe a junk subtheme in a direct-to-modern set...............)

#mtg #magic the gathering #mtg spoilers

[spookyspaghettisundae]

Long Live the Kings

My heart started racing before we arrived at the courthouse.

We exit the car to free Spider from his escorts, and the guards refuse to release him. They’re loose cannons.

They think they’re heroes.

We shoot before they draw, but fire is returned.

Duck for cover behind the car, glass breaking and metal twisting. Within seconds, more armed police officers appear, storming outside the doors, then the shootout escalates. Hundreds of fired rounds shred our car, the vehicle eating most of the bullets meant for us.

With screeching tires and police sirens blaring all around, we speed away through bustling inner-city streets, with other cars in traffic dodging out of the way, crashing into a trash can here, or pedestrians jumping out of the way where we wheel across the sidewalk to dodge incoming traffic. Cars collide behind us as red lights are jumped, a police car lifts over the collision, and it slides along asphalt until a truck smushes it into an accordion.

There’s nowhere to run when they’ve got cameras and reinforcements everywhere. Helicopters swoop through the valleys of skyscrapers, and SWAT file out of vans at the next crossing to cut off our escape.

Forced into taking a hard left, crashing through some benches in a dirty lot between some blocks, the car breaks down entirely when a helicopter sniper shoots through the trunk and disables our back wheels. The car rocks up and down and skids to a halt with a firework of sparks spraying out behind it.

Duck for cover again, return fire. Heart pounding. Automatic fire from armored SWAT sweeps across concrete wall, and I get shot in the arm. Against my will, taken by the momentum of the bullet winging me, I stumble out of cover, and some sniper blows my head off. My lifeless body flops to the ground.

That was just one of many scenarios percolating in my brain. Versions of how everything was about to go horribly wrong. Because when ever had anything in my life gone completely right?

Rolling through the city in another stolen car in broad daylight, bright rays reflected from towers of steel and glass, flashing, and blinding me every other second until we stopped at a red light. Through these mirroring surfaces, I was staring into the sun, oblivious of the vast sea of people passing us by on sidewalks and inside other vehicles. The noise of the city was just that—background noise. Radio static.

To banish the imagery of everything going down the drain, I was trying to envision a way for things to work out right.

It kept having the opposite effect. I kept picturing the worst possible outcomes, fueled by the graphical violence of action movies I had watched in the past.

Call me a pessimist, I guess. I prefer to think I am a realist. Not that I had a healthy relationship with reality, but—

The leather of the passenger seat creaked as Rocco turned to us. He held out rubber masks—caricatures of former US presidents, crumpled in his black-gloved hands. He wiggled the masks in front of me and D, arching a brow as we hesitated to grab the items.

My palms were sweaty from my own gloves and gripping the shotgun on my lap, covered by my leather jacket to conceal it from random onlookers who might catch a glimpse inside the windows of the car.

It wasn’t even noon yet, but the city had already heated up. Sweltering heat. Cooking us in the car, contrasted by air conditioning cranked up so high that it was freezing. A clash of temperatures.

D snatched one of the masks with dark skin and comically big ears; it looked like former president Barack Obama. That left me with the other one, which also featured comically big ears and another stupid grin on it—former president George W. Bush.

“Why do I gotta be this tool?” I asked. “This guy sucks.”

Rocco smirked and gestured to the Obama mask in D’s hand, then said, “You can trade with him.”

“Hell no,” D mumbled.

Rocco waved his own mask around. A roadmap of wrinkles, a caricature of Ronald Reagan.

“Look, it’s not like you are this person. I’m takin’ the worst one, yo. I kinda look at it, like, ‘look at these shitheads’. They’re the OG criminals, the motherfuckers with all the money and power to change the world, but they ain’t done shit. That’s the real criminal shit. I wasn’t even born when this motherfucker was fuckin’ up the country. If we’re gonna bust some caps, I want the OG shitheads to finally take a fall for it.”

“What’s wrong with this guy?” D said with a glance to the Obama mask. “I’m okay with bein’ this guy.”

Rocco smirked again.

“What, ‘cause he’s black like yo’ ass? You gonna drone-strike me, like Bin Laden and all those brown kids overseas?”

Rocco guffawed.

D was not having it. “Shut up, you trickle-down stream o’ piss.”

Rocco laughed harder. Tossed a Bill Clinton mask onto Boombox’s lap, who was busy driving all this time.

Boombox shot a glance at his mask and mocked a southern drawl when he said, “I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman.”

“Of course not,” D said. He grinned into the rearview mirror. “You’re still a virgin.”

That prompted a middle finger from Boombox, and more laughter from Rocco.

I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle myself. Finally, a distraction.

It lasted another whopping ten seconds until my heartbeat started pounding again. The car rolled up outside the courthouse building. Boombox swerved from the lane into a vacant parking spot across the street where the sunlight no longer blinded me.

He left the engine running. Everybody went quiet, but the leather of gloves cracked. Weapon safety switches were disengaged. D gripped the Obama mask with one hand, his other rested on an automatic rifle hidden underneath the jacket over his lap.

D shot a glance at me. I didn’t know what it meant. I often couldn’t decipher his stony-faced expressions and wondered for a moment if he was unsure about me tagging along for this stunt.

But I hadn’t even asked to. I figured Rocco preferred to have Lisa filling in as their number four, because she was packing some serious muscle and I was—well, let’s be real—I was wimpy. Rocco, however, had said he wanted someone smart. When I had told him that was not me, he had said that he needed someone who could think outside of the box. Also, not me. And when he then had sighed and said he needed someone who could keep a sharp eye on things, I just gave up on protesting. Clearly, he trusted me with this, or he wanted me along for the bumpy ride, or both.

Afterwards, Baby Joker had told me it had to do with getting back in the saddle quickly after the incident with Brubaker. Like getting back behind the wheel of a car after a car accident, so you don’t grow afraid of driving.

Something like that.

So, where was I?

Right.

Outside the courthouse. To free Spider.

Trying not to think about us all dying in a hail of bullets.

D broke eye contact. His shoulders were rigid with tension. I was nervous.

The towering building loomed above us. I pictured how many armed guards and police had to be in and around the courthouse right now, ready to march and shoot at the drop of a hat.

A silvery prison bus turned the corner and drove towards the courthouse building at a languid pace. All our eyes were trained on it.

Our timing had been right. Perfect, even. It just had to stay that way.

Maybe this wasn’t going to go to hell immediately, after all.

Boombox calmly drove us over to the parking lot, closing in on the transport bus. He matched the languid pace and passed by them from the opposite side of the bus door opening where the vehicle stopped.

We slipped our masks on and got moving in a flash. Within a handful of breaths, I was sweating inside this grotesquely oversized mask. The gun in my hands weighed a million tons.

Boombox stayed in the car and never killed the ignition while the rest of us got out. I walked up to the bus driver’s window and tapped it with the barrel of my shotgun. The driver’s eyes went wide, and I shook my masked head before he could react. His mouth was agape, but I don’t think he said anything.

D and Rocco jogged, disappearing around each end of the bus.

Muffled shouts.

“Down, motherfuckers!”

“Get down!”

“Move!”

“Don’t you even fuckin’ think about it!”

Clattering. Shuffling. No gunshots.

Yet.

The bus driver twitched, and the muzzle of my shotgun scraped across the window while I shook my head again.

Shit, I thought. He might have already done something. Alerted someone. Part of me thought of shooting, but then I figured I didn’t want to shoot the guy. Maybe he had family. Or maybe he was one of the slime-people in disguise, “elevated” by demons like Brubaker, and things would spiral out of control once I blasted one of them wide open in broad daylight.

My heart was pounding. The imagery of things going to hell returned.

The only thing to wipe it all away was D and Rocco returning around the bus, hustling, shoving along a third man.

Spider.

I had not known what to expect. Because of Rocco being short and wiry, I had not envisioned such a tall and muscular man, especially not one who looked to be in his late forties. I had also pictured a man of color, but Spider was one of the pastiest white guys I had ever seen. A stubble of salt and pepper on his head and face, a roadmap of scars that had to have come from countless knife fights, and a faded, vicious-looking spider tattooed across his entire face, stretching from forehead to chin, and covering his cheeks. He reminded me more of a younger Loki, like he belonged more in a biker gang.

And he had the meanest, coldest eyes I had ever seen.

Spider was still in chains, and the shackles forced him to waddle like a penguin as D pushed him along, right into the car. We all piled inside, and the tires screeched as Boombox took us away.

This hadn’t even taken a full minute.

The sirens, the yelling, the shouting, the car chase—none of it happened. I sighed in relief as reality set in; a reality far more forgiving than my fucked-up fantasies of everything going wrong. A few things did not add up, but I would sort those out in a moment of boredom.

So, there we were. Driving off. Heads on a swivel, Boombox carefully melting into the traffic of busy inner-city streets, past a construction site.

Spider was sandwiched between D and me on the backseat.

His energy was weird. It was stoic, but not calm. By comparison, let me put it this way: D is stoic and calm, Rocco is fidgety and energetic, Boombox is nervous and bouncy.

Spider? Stoic, yet vibrating intensely. Like he was on the verge of ripping a telephone book apart in his bare hands. His stare straight ahead, fixed upon the road ahead of us, was smoldering. When our gazes met for a few seconds, they locked. There was something painfully blank about it—a thousand-mile stare that buried the many lives he had taken.

Then he craned his neck to look behind us, like D had been doing.

Lifted his hands, chained together with cuffs, rattled them.

“Get this shit off of me,” Spider said. Steady. He enunciated every word clearly, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. His burning gaze met mine again.

I put the gun down and grabbed some bolt cutters, then clipped through the first chain. Clipped through the chain connecting the handcuffs to the ones around his ankles. Spider nodded at me and grunted.

D clicked his tongue, swore out loud. “We’re bein’ tailed.”

“Yeah, look like suits, like FBI or some shit,” Rocco said. “Get ready. Gonna get ugly when we switch cars.”

Boombox drove us through a darker arcade of palm trees, and under a bridge connecting two buildings, then took a smooth turn into a monolithic parking garage. The momentum of the car swiftly riding up a ramp provoked a gasp from me, and Spider shot me a skeptical glance. I was kind of happy now that I was wearing the stupid mask—I kind of dreaded what it might be like if Spider knew I was a woman.

Instead, he looked back like D. So did I.

“Fuck, man, this has gotta be a trap,” Boombox said, whining in tone. “I told you this is gonna be a trap.”

Just as Boombox took us up another coiling ramp to a higher floor of the parking garage building, a black sedan followed. Two figures sat inside, both dressed in black suits, wearing sunglasses.

Rocco was right, they looked like government agents. A man and a woman. They reminded me of that TV show. That’s why I’m going to call them Agent Sully and Agent Shoulder from here on out. She had copper hair and he had broad shoulders.

You get the idea.

Spider growled. “Yes, this is definitely a trap. I didn’t speak to no lawyers. Court hearing came out of the blue.”

“We gotta be quick,” Rocco said. His shoulders were hunched, poised to jump out of the car and start blazing away. “They might be callin’ the cavalry while we are speakin’.”

Spider grunted in agreement.

“Give me a gun,” he said.

I didn’t hesitate and handed Spider my shotgun. He seemed like the kind of guy who had far more experience wielding one than I did, and even though I had shot some dudes on Bateson’s island, I was not as hardened towards this as you might think.

That had only been a few months ago, and I still had nightmares of seeing a man’s skull explode from a spray of bullets I had fired.

We jumped out of the car the second it stopped on the third story, taking cover behind it, and Boombox jogged over to the next vehicles.

The black sedan pulled up onto our floor and turned. Made an abrupt stop.

Agent Sully and Shoulder got out. Each of them held a service pistol in hand but kept them lowered by their sides.

They smiled.

Despite us having taken cover behind our first car and aiming bigger guns at them, they smiled in unison.

It was the creepiest thing.

“We are the swarm that devours the crop,” said Agent Sully.

“We are the rivers running red,” said Agent Shoulder.

“Fuck off,” Rocco shouted at them. Muttering to us, he said, “For fuck’s sake, of course they’re fuckin’ demons.”

The agents started walking towards us, as if they didn’t care about being littered with bullet holes before they got too close. Which—given how the demon posing as Detective Brubaker could turn into an insect swarm and had survived a hand grenade blast that way—these two assholes probably didn’t care too much about getting shot.

“We are there to hold your hand when temptation takes you,” said Agent Sully, halfway across the lot towards us.

Some guy in a pastel blue polo shirt and white slacks exited a door from the staircase onto our floor. His eyes went wide when his gaze bounced back and forth between the former US president masks, a guy in a prison jumpsuit with a spider tattooed on his face, our rifles, and the two FBI agents walking towards us with their own drawn pistols.

Then Agent Shoulder lifted his gun and shot polo-guy in the head with a sideways glance. Tourist polo-guy crumpled to the ground, leaving a trail of blood and brain matter on the wall behind him. I lost my ability to think straight, shocked over how Shoulder had just murdered an innocent bystander without hesitating.

“We are the heralds of your end,” Agent Shoulder said, breaking out into revolving laughter.

Everybody on our side stopped his laughter as they started shooting at the agents, with a staccato of thunderclaps from rifles erupting all around me.

A cluster of bullets swarmed around the two agents and froze. Like some real science fiction shit—the bullets had slowed to a complete stop and now hovered mid-air, caught in an invisible bubble around the two agents. We all stared at this mind-boggling phenomenon, dumbfounded.

Both agents still grinned at us like they were deranged cats, playing with their food.

Like this was just some sick game to them.

“You’re trash,” said Agent Sully. “You think your puny human toys can hurt us.”

Agent Shoulder said, “You’re fucked. You were fucked the moment your species crawled out of the primordial ooze.”

Agent Shoulder snapped his fingers, and the cloud of bullets sprayed in every direction.

We all flinched and ducked for cover just in time as the hail of stopped shots shook different parked cars in the enclosed space, leaving bullet holes and spiderwebs of cracks in various windows. Some car alarm went off, complete with blaring horns and flashing lights.

“Move,” Rocco said with a growl. Then he shouted it, “Get a fuckin’ move on!”

But the engine Boombox was trying to start, it just chugged and choked. Boombox fidgeted in the seat of the getaway exchange car and slapped the steering wheel.

“It’s not workin’! What the fuck?”

Agent Sully stopped laughing and Shoulder spoke as they continued walking towards us, “Oh, no. You’re in luck. You are very fortunate.”

“You are getting a personal treatment,” said Agent Sully. “Nobody will hear the slaughter. Human minds are so pliable. With just the right amount of nudging, they can close their eyes to any horror. Scream and shoot all you want; nobody will come to your aid.”

“We will rip out your entrails—”

“And play jump rope with them, you pig-fuckers.”

The FBI agents holstered their guns. They removed their sunglasses and pocketed them. Agent Shoulder cracked his knuckles like a showoff getting ready for a fistfight.

“Fuck this,” Boombox said.

“Yeah, fuck this,” Rocco repeated. “Let’s waste these sons o’ bitches.”

Spider demonstratively took another shot at them, but the slug froze mid-air in front of the agents, repeating the same bizarre phenomenon. It then flew back at us and lodged itself in the side of our first car.

Attempts at revving the car engine ceased. In its place, another motor started chugging—Boombox got back out of our secondary getaway car. He yanked the cord again, and a chainsaw in his hands roared to life.

“Scarface time, you cockroaches!” he shouted.

Rocco yanked his mask off, revealing a face covered in a sheen of sweat and a toothy grin. His eyes flashed with the same madness I had seen at Bateson’s mansion.

“Let’s fuck these motherfuckers up.”

D kept his mask on but slung out a knife. Rocco slung a metal baseball bat out from underneath the passenger seat of the first car.

Just as Boombox walked past us, the smile on Agent Sully’s face vanished. She glared at Boombox and stared at him with hatred while the rest of the guys approached for close combat. I was too afraid to act, bouncing back and forth between looking for something I could use as a bludgeon and my instincts screaming at me, telling me to stay in cover, or just run the hell away.

Boombox froze where he stood and started shaking. I don’t think any of us understood what was going on until it was far too late. The trembling made his limbs quake, and the chainsaw continued chugging and growling, all the way until it rose towards his own head.

Agent Shoulder started laughing again when Boombox started screaming, when Boombox started sawing into his own shoulder and neck and training the tool right there to continue chewing through flesh and bone.

I was frozen with horror. The wet crunching and slapping sounds made me want to throw up.

“You never had a chance, suck-pigs,” said Agent Shoulder.

Muffled by his mask, D hollered, “Boom! What the fuck are you doing?”

Sully’s eyes went wide. Boombox’s screams intensified.

She was doing this. Somehow, she was doing this to him.

Rocco jogged past Boombox and towards the agents with his bat raised.

With a yelp, Rocco flew past me, smashing backwards into the side of our car. Upon impact, his ankle bent in an unnatural angle with a loud crack, and he collapsed, screaming in pain. The baseball bat clanked as it rolled towards me.

My paralysis finally broke. I grabbed Rocco’s bat and clutched it with all my might and the little courage I could muster.

D was already up in the faces of the agents, taking jabs and swings at Sully. Boombox stopped sawing himself, prying the chainsaw away from himself, with blood and sinew trailing from the spinning chains like molten string cheese; then he fell onto concrete grounds, choking, gurgling. His limbs now trembled with weakness as he held himself up, and the chainsaw motor went dead.

I charged at Agent Shoulder, but the bat never connected. Probably the best swing I would ever manage with a baseball bat, driven with all my sudden fury. My vision blurred with tears as I strained against invisible forces holding me back, and then my muscles began to burn.

I couldn’t move. Frozen in the middle of my movement, like the hail of bullets.

“Pathetic,” Agent Sully muttered.

I smacked myself in the face with the bat and saw stars. Then someone grabbed the bat out of my hands and clobbered my side with two swift slaps, sending me tumbling onto the ground.

“Humans are helpless,” Agent Shoulder said, pointing the tip of the bat at me.

“You missed your chance,” said Sully. “You could have joined us. Now you can all die like dogs.”

“Fuck you!” D said, grunting as he lunged at Sully, who side-stepped away from his jab with the knife.

Spider walked into battle. He did not run. Once the stars had cleared and I ripped the rubber mask off my head, I could see him wrestling for control over the bat with Shoulder.

“Fuck,” D said with a groan, having stabbed himself in the belly with the knife.

His arms trembled the same way as Boombox’s had when he sawed himself. Boombox slapped a palm against concrete in his helpless flailing, still emitting awful gurgling sounds behind us.

This demon bitch was controlling us. I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to say it was mind control. I still felt the tendrils of blackened nails, clawing at the back of my mind, pulling strings, and whispering filthy lies of comfort.

Just surrender control. We can take it from here.

And an invisible force sent Spider flying headfirst into a nearby car, followed by a loud THUNK.

Mind control and fucking telekinesis, the big whopper of superpowers.

We were fucked.

I crawled towards the chainsaw, despite knowing the danger. Boombox twitched beside the power tool. See, just to be clear: I didn’t even want to do this. I was being controlled.

“You’re all just meat-puppets waiting for someone powerful to take the wheel,” said Sully.

I started hunching over the chainsaw and grabbed it. My hands were not obeying, because I couldn’t even issue the command. I was screaming into a plastic bag over my head, stuck in the back of my mind and forced to witness someone moving my body against my will, being suffocated while I had to watch. This fucking demon had hijacked my hands and yanked the cord. Yanked again. And again.

The bloodied chainsaw chugged, roared to life again, splattering my mask with Boombox’s blood once the chain went spinning again.

As I turned with it to face the agents, it was not to attack. My body was about to wreak havoc—on D—and I could only watch as D was dropped onto his knees by an invisible force, his knife’s handle sticking out of his stomach and his wrists and hands twisting in ways that the human body shouldn’t. He started screaming in pain.

Spider was reeling, stumbling around as he struggled to stay standing, and his tattooed face was covered in his own blood.

“Isn’t this fun?” Agent Shoulder asked, spittle spraying from his lips.

I continued lurching towards D, step by step, puppeteered with the running chainsaw in my burning arms. I fought against it. But I could do nothing. It was like she was tapping into all the bad imagery I had brewed up in my brain, of all the things going wrong—and making them even worse. Of all the violence and destruction, pushing my body to translate it all into the worst version of reality.

“Why do you keep hitting yourself?” Agent Sully asked, dripping with mockery.

The agents laughed in unison, but their eyes burned with humorless hatred.

I screamed—a mixture of agony, fury, and sheer terror. D’s eyes went wide as he watched me raise the chainsaw above my head, ready to bring it down on him.

Then Sully’s head exploded. It was just there one second, then gone the next, a ragged stump of bone and torn flesh, with blood spurting out from it and spraying us. The sound of a deafening gunshot arrived with delay, and the fire in my limbs subsided as the shot echoed through the parking garage.

I staggered back, stumbling around like I was drunk.

Agent Shoulder’s face fell—that sense of sick pleasure and superiority had been wiped away in an instant. He stared in disbelief as Agent Sully’s body flopped around, limbs flailing while her body dropped to one knee and then tumbled forward, until it stopped moving.

Then he screamed as I brought the chainsaw down on him. Sully’s decapitation had returned control to me. I was screaming again, all fury now. Shoulder screamed back at me before the chainsaw could connect with his belly, and I was flung away from him. I got lucky, too, because the chainsaw flew out of my hands as his telekinesis crap threw me across the parking lot.

That hurled me onto a car hood, cracking headlights before I rolled off and slammed back-first onto concrete, knocking all the wind out of me, and leaving me reeling, gasping, coughing.

Then I witnessed Shoulder’s head explode like Sully’s. There one moment—gone the next. Another walking corpse that wobbled around before collapsing, with blood pumping from a ragged neck, and a spray of blood having coated the ceiling and people around them in red.

Just as I was getting up to my feet, a figure approached from the ramp. Shoes clapped against ground in a steady pace.

A man in black neared; black leather jacket, black denim pants, shiny black boots that jingled with each step. He carried a rifle so ridiculously long that it had to be about as long as he was tall. Smoke still billowed from the barrel while he walked towards us. Slicked back dark hair and a prominent widow’s peak crowned his head. A cold gaze swept across our sorry asses. He stopped by the corpses of the two demon-agents and nudged them with the tip of his boot, surveying his work.

Crouched down and started examining the bodies.

Let’s call him “Slick” for now.

That big-ass gun—which I learned later was normally used to punch holes into tanks—must have been the reason their heads exploded the way they did. The twitch around his lips hinted at satisfaction over his handiwork.

D leaned against a car, cautiously pulling the knife from his stomach, and grunting as he pressed a palm against the weeping wound. Spider gripped his own head, shook it, and blinked in confusion. Rocco was limping and dragging himself towards Boombox—

Fuck. Boombox.

I rushed over to them and checked on Boombox with Rocco; we arrived by his side at the same time.

Boom was still breathing, but when Rocco turned him onto his back, he stared past us like he had gone blind. I struggle to find the words to describe what he looked like otherwise. The chainsaw had cut through his collarbone and shoulder and neck and—

It was a fucking mess. The pool of blood beneath him had grown to an alarming size.

There was no parallel dimension in which he was going to survive this. I knew it. I did not want to admit it to myself, but I knew it.

Boombox spoke with gurgling, guttural noises, squelching out parts of the words, “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.”

Rocco had tears in his eyes as he lifted his friend with an arm behind his shoulders. The boss’s hand trembled as it hovered over the horrific injuries, searching for a way to do something—anything—but clearly finding nothing he could do. Boombox was drenched in his own blood, and it continued to pump out of him in multiple places where the chainsaw had ripped into him.

“Hold on,” I said. I lied, “Hold on man, we can get you patched up.”

“Fuck, it’s hard to breathe like this,” Boombox gurgled. “Hey, you wanna hear a better Clinton joke?”

Then his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp in Roc’s arms. Rocco’s nostrils were flaring, and I expected him to shout in rage, but nothing came.

Slurping, squelching noises echoed through the hall, loud enough that the blaring car alarm could not drown them out.

Two piles of black sludge followed up the ramp behind Slick.

D stumbled about and looked as dizzy as I felt. Keeping his hand pressed against his self-inflicted knife wound, he spat on the ground, retching before he swore. Glaring at the moving piles of tar.

“Fuck.”

The piles of sludge grew to staggering heights. They assumed vaguely humanoid shapes. Shiny black orbs opened and blinked and glistened where eyes should be.

Above mouths filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth, maws opening and closing hungrily, dripping with dark slime.

Vampires. Just like the one that had attacked us in the old crib. The “lab creations”, as Bateson had described them, or whatever the hell they really were.

Spider’s face twisted as he stared at the abominations and muttered, “What in the fuck?”

He bent over and grabbed the baseball bat off the ground. Spider also struggled to stand, probably woozy from a bad concussion, though he looked the least vulnerable out of all of us now, despite him still being clad in a prison jumpsuit, with cut chains dangling from his cuffs, and blood coating his entire face.

Rocco was still preoccupied with his dead friend, but now his gaze kept hopping up and down between Boombox and Slick with his two tar-vampire buddies. I could practically hear Roc’s teeth gritting and grinding.

“And just who the fuck are you?” Rocco snarled. Yelled. Snelled?

Slick reached back and shoved the huge rifle into the hands of one of the sludge vampires. For some reason, I had never pictured them to be carrying a gun.

The stench of raw sewage hit my nose, forcing me to cringe. Slick patted down his pockets, produced a small pack of cigarettes, and took his time in bringing a smoke to his lips.

With tears streaming down his cheeks, Rocco said, “I’m talkin’ to you, motherfucker.”

Focused on the cigarette, Slick lit it up with a cheap electric plastic lighter and took a deep drag. Then he finally made eye contact with Rocco.

“Maybe you have heard of me before. I am Mister Renaissance.”

Shivers shook my spine.

The wave of hate from D and Rocco was so tangible that the city’s heat just grew a couple of degrees hotter.

“I feel like apologies are in order,” said Mister Renaissance.

“Fuck you,” D said. He ripped the mask off his sweat-covered face and held the knife out in front of him.

Not to attack but pointing the blade’s tip at our enemy.

Renaissance blew out smoke. He acted so cool that it was almost as sickening as the awful stench assaulting my senses.

“What I mean is—I am sorry about sending the Welding Mask Killer after you. Seems to me like we have mutual enemies playing us for fools, pitting us against each other. A shame about Welding Mask, but I’m not going hold it against you for defending yourselves.”

He thought Lisa was dead.

None of us bothered to correct him.

“So, you wanna know how to kill these demon assholes? Permanently?” Renaissance asked.

“Why the fuck would you wanna tell us?” Rocco said. “What has fuckin’ changed? You wanna kill us first, now you wanna kiss? What the fuck?”

Roc finally let go of Boombox and slowly rose to his feet—or foot, as he wobbled when his broken ankle gave way, and he braced against me, grabbing his arm, while I joined him in standing.

I wasn’t even thinking. My heart was pounding, and my body was just ready to run. We had lost several people fighting a single one of those lab-grown tar-vamps when we had a sci-fi weapon, and now we were facing two of them, one armed with a big-ass gun, and Mister Renaissance, who—I shit you not—kinda looked like young Gary Oldman in Dracula and may have also had some weird superpowers.

After blowing smoke out of his nostrils in a strange sigh, Renaissance said, “What changed? You went after Bateson. You microwaved that crazy bitch. I hear she’s pretty pissed. And you have no idea how happy that makes me. I could only be happier if you had fried her for good.”

“How the fuck are you out in the sun?” D asked.

Renaissance waved his cigarette at the narrow openings to the outside. “Shade’ll do. And sewers.”

Rocco sneered, flashing a hideous grin. “Ain’t no shit changed. Y'all motherfuckers wanna keep us humans around as a buncha cows, right? Demons here wanna kill everybody, and you’re just makin’ sure you can keep the burger supply runnin’.”

Renaissance puffed more smoke and puckered his lips.

“You’re not wrong. Anyway, I set up the court hearing, knowing you’d go get Spider. And knowing the demons would come after you. This is my peace offering, from me to the South Side Kings. By the way, why were you fighting in the Bank of America building?”

Rocco shook his head but answered, “Bateson brought us there to negotiate, but she sucked ass at negotiation. Kinda like you. Why’s it matter?”

Renaissance grunted.

“Never mind. That crazy old medieval witch has it out for all of us alright.”

I spoke up. Because I had to know. I was worried that Rocco, or Spider, or D was about to unleash all hell and pick a fight that would get us all killed. They weren’t stupid, but they had pride, and if they were only half as upset as I was over the dead body of Boombox between us, then their blood had to be boiling.

I asked, “Okay, so, how do we kill these assholes? C'mon, man, sweeten the deal. Bateson was all talk.”

Renaissance flicked ashes onto the corpse of Agent Shoulder.

“Brain the host. Brain it good.” He nodded at the dead agents.

“Host? You mean these were people, human bodies before? What happens if they take one of us? Is there a way to get 'em out?” Rocco asked.

“Yes. I guess. There used to be a way to remove a demon from the host, but it required a weird old piece of wood—”

The vampire pointed at his own nostril, as if poking it into his nose.

“Jam it up there, real deep. Start rooting around. Then pull the disgusting shit out. It’s like a brain worm. The hooked stick was supposedly holy or some shit, either Egyptian or, like, made from the cross of Christ. Not sure. All we’re sure about is that it got lost in the shuffle of the centuries since these cosmic dick-bags last mucked around on Earth.”

D asked, “That’s fuckin’ all? Just blow their fuckin’ heads off?”

We really had been overthinking things.

“If they’re not transformed, yet—yep. Destroy the human’s head. No coming back from that,” Renaissance said. “I understand this is a lot to take in. We can talk more if you want. I understand your first instinct is not to trust me, and I can’t blame you. I recommend getting out of here and calling me once the dust has settled.”

The vampire produced a small business card from his pocket and dropped it. The thing fluttered and spun and landed on the ground between the dead agents. Renaissance swiveled and waved to the two sludge vampires, and the squelching noises accompanied them backing away and turning and following him back down the ramp.

Spider walked over there, baseball bat in hand, until he reached the card and picked it up.

Rocco exhaled sharply and looked between me and D and Boombox, then shook his head.

Tears still clouded his vision, I could tell.

“I need you two to get Boom’s body into the trunk,” he said.

I was on board. I dreaded picking up his body—it was awful, but I didn’t want to leave Boombox here, either. I had only known him for a few months, but he had been a good kid. Well, okay, he was a gangbanger, so maybe not a good kid. But he was “good” in the most tenuous sense of the word, okay? I liked him. I had somehow gone quickly into thinking of him as a friend, more than people I had known for way longer than him.

Arriving by my side, D let go of the wound on his own stomach. Blood still seeped out from his shirt. I winced at just seeing that, realizing that I had emerged from this encounter the most unscathed out of all of us. I almost wanted to tell him to let me carry Boombox on my own, until I learned just how heavy a lifeless human body is—I gasped and grunted as I lifted Boombox’s legs and nearly fell on my ass when I couldn’t drag him or lift his entire body.

Emitting a pained noise, D bent over and picked him up by the shoulders, clearly doing more of the heavy lifting than me.

Spider returned to us and said, “Put him down. We’re leaving him here.”

“The fuck you say?” Rocco said. Sharp words, furious. He narrowed his eyes at Spider.

The big man stepped towards him. Towered over Rocco as he got up in his face.

“I want all the motherfuckers around town to know that the Kings spilled their blood here today. To know the Kings leave no survivors with these demon fuckheads. I want people to think it was us.”

Rocco shook his head. Violently.

“And I ain’t gonna leave no King behind. You didn’t know Boombox, man. I brought that kid in after you went to go do time, and I taught 'im everythin’, yo. He was royalty, like the rest of us, and he should be buried like a King if we got a chance to do it for 'im.”

Spider’s unblinking stare sliced into Rocco, scanning him up and down.

“You’re just a lieutenant again, Rocco. I made you boss, but now I’m back on the streets. We are all Kings at this round table, but I am calling the shots again.”

They stared at each other, and it was like invisible lightning and explosions crackled between them.

Without turning to look at us, Spider said, “Put him. Back. Down.”

My arms were aching, and D was hurt. That’s why I knelt and put Boom’s legs and lower body back down on the ground. I swear. Laugh at me all you want.

D’s head turned with a painful slowness until his stare burned into mine, and he shot me the angriest look I had ever seen from him. The stoicism I knew from him was wiped away, I could physically sense how furious he was—at the demons, the vampires, at Spider, and now at me.

“Your soldiers are wounded,” Spider said, still looking down at Rocco, easily standing over a head taller than him. “And you yourself ain’t in any condition to carry a dead man.”

Rocco’s chin quivered.

“You didn’t know 'im, boss. I made him a man. We can't—”

“We can and we will. We’re gonna show this fuckin’ city not to fuck with the Kings.” Spider tilted his head, and I half-expected him to grab Rocco by the throat. I had never been this scared of any of the other gang members.

Spider asked, but the way he said it felt far more like an order, “Are we cool?”

We were not cool.

The sweltering heat continued to radiate through the open spaces through which daylight poured in from outside the parking building. We all stood still while motes of dust danced in the rays.

D groaned as he knelt and put Boombox down to rest with all the gentle gestures he could muster. His gloved hand ran over Boombox’s face and shut his dead friend’s eyelids.

“Now let’s get the fuck outta here before we have to deal with the next motherfuckers wanting to step up,” Spider said. He finally peeled his gaze off Rocco and stared at me.

Nodded at me, then nodded at the getaway car behind me.

I didn’t want to waste any more time, and I needed to escape D’s angry gaze, which flashed at me when he looked back up from Boombox.

I kept the president mask up until I sat inside the car, then ripped it off. I felt like I was suffocating under it. I gripped the steering wheel for a few seconds, as if it could help ground me. Then I fired up the vehicle. The others soon piled inside, taking different seats.

Spider was studying the business card in his hand, flipping it over.

He asked, “You think this 'Renaissance’ motherfucker is gonna set us up?”

Rocco was running his hands over his head, and he exhaled sharply when he answered, “One hundred percent, boss.”

Tears mixed with the sweat on my face as I tried to look away from Boombox’s dead body on the concrete, laid to rest in a huge pool of his own blood. The car bounced and thumped as I wheeled over the corpses of Agent Sully and Shoulder.

“Fuck 'em all,” Spider said with a sneer. “This is a new era. The Kings aren’t small fry anymore. From what I heard, you did good in my absence, Rocco.”

He stopped flipping the card and stared at Rocco on the seat next to him.

“We’re gonna rule this fuckin’ city. Honor your man back there, and remind everybody why the fuck we’re called the Kings. To think more than twice before fucking with us.”

I had a very bad feeling about this.

And my instincts had gotten pretty good.

—Submitted by Wratts

#spoospasu #spookyspaghettisundae #horror #short story #writing #my writing #literature #spooky #fiction #hyperrealism #splatterpunk #gutter fantasy #urban fantasy #action horror #helplessness #isolation #vampire #demon #street gang #South Side Kings #violence #Kelly Romero #D #Loco Rocco #Lisa Theresa #Boombox #Baby Joker #Spider #boss #tragic

[taumoeba]

"Of Course I Can Illustrate a Book Jacket" by John Rocco, from the 10th anniversary edition of The Lightning Thief, 2015

(text version for readability under the cut)

image 1: "Of Course I Can Illustrate a Book Jacket!"

The story behind my first book jacket assignment and how I came up with the image for The Lightning Thief

It was the spring of 2005 and, after spending the previous fourteen years working as an art director in an entertainment field, I was ready to pursue my dream of having a career in children's books. I knew only one person in the industry: Rob Weisbach, the publisher at Miramax Books. Rob said, "You know, we have this book that we need new cover art for, and I know you'd be just perfect for it." My response was, "Of course I can illustrate a book jacket!" (In retrospect, I'm not sure if I was trying to convince him, or myself.)

After I read The Lightning Thief, I met with the book's editor, Jennifer Besser. I went on and on to her about how much I loved the book, and as I tried to describe what I thought would make a good cover, I realized that I should have sketched out my idea. I pulled out my sketchbook, scratched out a very rough pencil drawing, and held it up. Her face took on a polite but puzzled look as she tried to decipher it. I spent about a minute doing another, more detailed drawing of my concept. Jennifer immediately lit up, smiled warmly, and said, "Yes, that is the way to go. Go with that."

[To the left is a photocopy of his sketch, which features the figure of a boy holding a pen. He is standing in water and the reflection of his pen in the water is a sword. There are tall skyscraper buildings in the background.]

With any cover art, what I try to do is create a promise. If the image intrigues you, you'll pick up the book, and I promise you'll like what's inside.

image 2: When I first read The Lightning Thief, this is what stood out for me: it's the story of a kid who is stuck in the middle of an argument between two adults, and he feels helpless and alone. That's what I wanted to show. Sure, those two adults were Zeus and Poseidon, and yes, the argument was over a seven zillion-watt lightning bolt, but those details would inform the imagery, not overwhelm it.

So I knew I was going to have Percy alone on the cover. I didn't want to actually show Zeus and Poseidon, so I thought the best way to represent them would be with a stormy sea (Poseidon) and a stormy sky (Zeus). I chose to put Percy in the water, as he is the son of Poseidon, staring at the New York City skyline-- in particular, the Empire State Building.

A lot of people ask me why I have Percy with his back to us on the cover. I did that for two reasons. First, when I'm reading a book and the main character's face is clearly visible on the cover, I can no longer make up my own ideas about that character. There is no room for my imagination. If I don't see his face, he could be anybody. He could even be me! I love books that make me feel like the hero of the story. Second, with Percy facing away from us, we, as readers, are on the adventure with him, following him into the book.

[To the right is a more detailed version of the sketch from image 1. On the top half of the drawing, there are strikes of lightning in the air and a storm cloud hovering over a city with many skyscrapers. The silhouette of the Empire State Building is in the middle of the city. The bottom half of the drawing is an ocean, in which a boy is standing with his back to the audience. He holds a sword in his right hand and faces the city skyline.]

Others might ask: why didn't you put any mythological imagery on the cover? Honestly, I felt it wasn't necessary. There are so many books already out there about Greek myths, and I didn't want it to be one of those "Here's a great adventure book and you're also going to learn something along the way!" That's kind of a turn-off for me. Also, the Greek mythology connection is inherent in the series title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

image 3: I had figured out that I wanted to show a young boy standing in a raging sea with a massive storm overhead, with the New York City skyline in the background, lit up by lightning. How was I going to make this faceless boy stand out with all of that going on? With color. I knew Percy's shirt was going to be orange, because that's the color of the Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. So, in order to make him "pop" from the background, I chose to use a complementary color everywhere else. On the color wheel, the opposite of the red-orange of Percy's shirt is blue-green. Percy would be the only warm thing on the cover; the rest would be very cool. When there is something warm in a painting, it always tends to "come forward," and the cooler colors tend to recede. As an illustrator I use this tool to give my paintings depth.

The Lightning Thief was only one of the many covers I have illustrated for Rick Riordan's books. I even reillustrated my own covers for Percy Jackson! My new art for the series, which creates a mural when the books are placed side-by-side, was unveiled in 2014. But the original Lightning Thief cover will always hold a special place in my heart, because not only was it for the first book in a phenomenal series, but it was also my first-ever cover art. I'm proud that it has become associated with a classic piece of children's literature.

Happy anniversary, Percy!

John Rocco

#john rocco #pjo #blah blah blah #as i was saying before..... john deserves his rights #let me know if i need to edit anything in the text version! #100

[bobbyspastries]

Love Island the game season two characters and what song they would listen too secretly/when they are going through it. This is all based on my own music taste btw.

Bobby: 505 by the Arctic monkeys. He likes Cardi so it’s most likely that he usually listens to hip-hop but I can picture him finding the song on spotify or tiktok and listening to the “but I crumble completely when you cry” part over and over again (but honestly, don’t we all?)

Lucas: Sudno by Molchat doma. Don’t ask me why I think this because I’m pulling it out my ass, but I can really picture him listening to russian post-punk. I think it’s the most famous song by the band so I imagine that he found that song on his recommended videos on youtube and got into the genre because of it.

Henrik: Flume by Bon Iver. This one is most likely because I read that the singer wrote it while in a cabin and I guess I associate those mountain vibes? I don’t even know, but I think he listens to it when he’s overwhelmed/nervous and wants to calm down or when he’s sad. I feel like he’d like the song but he wouldn’t necesarily talk too much about it.

Chelsea: How to be a heartbreaker by Marina. I think girlie found about Marina and the diamonds when she was a teenager and weather she identified with some of the lyrics or not, their songs just stuck with her through the years. She’d listen to it when she needs to feel like a bad bitch or has a hard day of work ahead to motivate herself. I think during her teenage years she might have tried drawing the heart Marina had during electra heart.

Priya: Diet mountain dew by Lana del Rey. She is a baddie and she knows it and honestly? I think Lana’s music might be right up her alley. She feels like she’s living her callifornian dream when she listens to her music when in reality she’s on her way to work and I stan her for it.

Marisol: Sweather Weather by the Neighbourhood. Do I even have to explain this one? It is the bisexual anthem but also it is really fucking good. What more could you possinly want?

Rocco: The less I know the better by Tame Impala. He feels like it’s the most underrated shit from the century (it’s not) and he’d sing it at absolutely every party he attends..

Lottie: Love will tear us apart by Joy Division. This one specially applies if Mc kisses her when she’s dumped/ if Mc ends up with Gary. I see her putting this song on her crying playlist and complaining about how most dudes she’s dated have ended up being tools (and honestly, I don’t blame her).

#i think this is accurate #but maybe this is just me #regardless this songs are really fucking good so idc idc #litg #litg season 2 #love island the game #love island the game season 2 #litg bobby #litg lucas #litg henrik #litg chelsea #litg priya #litg marisol #litg rocco #litg lottie