#i miss having a general idea of what my world would look like ten years in the future

[meteor752]

I rewatched ever after high with my girlfriend after like, six years

We had…thoughts

Do you guys think fairytale people look down on those who aren’t from a fairytale? Because, Ever After High seems to be the most like prestige school, but not everyone can go to it. Is there like racism going on between fairytale people and normal people?

It’s said many times that Apple will be like, the future queen, but when we meet Snow White she’s a fucking capitalist. Also Apple being queen means kinda nothing cause half the school are royalty and will grow up to become kings and queens. That title doesn’t mean anything

We had like, ten kids from wonderland, but no Oz kids? I feel like a Dorothy child would be very obvious, like what the hell, same with the witches

The school actively encourages evil people to be evil, then become surprised when they are evil. Like, Evil Queen cursing Wonderland and almost taking over the world? That’s on you, principal

Also can we place lock up the principal in jail? He lied and manipulated his students, stole from Raven, and kept his brother cursed and locked up in the basement. Like, ???? The brother comes back and is just like “Oh I missed you so much brother” like no!!!!!! Get that man out of here!!!!!

Do the fairytale people reproduce like, asexually, or do we have a ton of inbreeding between the royals? Well, it would be the most realistic aspect of the show

Hot take: Apple is a great character. Like yeah she’s a little selfish, but when we’re shown how she was raised it’s fully understandable that she’s so obsessed with fulfilling her destiny, but she’s never rude or bitchy, not ever really to Raven. Also she gets better! Active character development! She’s one of my favorites

Why the fuck is Allister frolicking in Wonderland. Bro Alice came back, she left that place, yet everyone is just like “Yep he’s a wonderlandian”, like no! Also he’s a royal? Bro you can’t be a royal, you were actively rebelling against your story by going to wonderland early

It’s a little messed up how many of the kids are like, being forced to die. Like Ramona? She will be fucking gutted after eating her sister if she goes with her story. Like what is this school, what are these rules?

Apart from Sparrow, surprisingly, everyone of the boy designs are so fucking boring. Ew

I love the direction they took for Briar. I think they kinda realized after the first episode that shit, it’s kinda weird that this girl who’s destiny it is to sleep for 100 years to just be fine with it. Briar is also one of my faves

Speaking of the sleeping beauty story tho, do you think it’s rare for the school to have a sleeping beauty? Cause we’re shown that this school has housed like, generations of fairytale characters, but since Sleeping beauty clocks out for a hundred years, and probably only had a child after that, they must only get her like, every fourth or fifth generation. Kinda interesting actually

Daring X Cerise > Daring X Rosabella. Like idk, maybe it’s that Cerise can like, fully challenge him in his views, forcing him to become better in a way. Like, with Rosabella it feels more like an “I can fix him <3” mindset, while with Cerise it’s more “I can knock him down a peg”. I just thought they had a better dynamic, idk

Speaking of the Charming family, gf and I fucking hate Dexter’s name. Like, Daring and Darlings names match each other so well, not just that they sound alike but that they have meanings. Dexter is just a boring name

We tried to come up with name ideas, Dating was the funniest one to us, but we thought Dastardly was kinda fun.

Like, our thought process was that he was meant to be like, the classic jealous twin brother, always looking to sabotage his perfect older bro, except he wasn’t that at all. Like, a running joke would be that it would look like he was sabotaging Daring, or like being mean, but then the camera would like zoom out or smt and show that he was like, playing a video game or just doing something completely different. It would have been more fun, plus it would have given Dexter like an actual personality instead of just, inferiority complex the person

Dashing could also have been an idea for a name

Kitty should have a tail. As should her milf of a mother have. Also like, real cat ears instead of just a hat or a headband. It feels obvious

I mean Bunny has actual bunny ears, plus she can transform into a bunny, but why is the cat just like A Girl

How can Hunter belong to both the Little red ringing hood story, and Snow White. Is his dad just a mad multitasker, or does he have two dads? I like the second option honestly

The storybeat of the characters all living through each others story honestly should have been like, an entire special. It’s the most interesting thing the show did, and I wish we could have seen more, cause it lasted only like seven minutes. But that gives us more time to see that thrilling book all storyline, amiright?!

Briar’s moment was especially heart aching, and I wish we'd gotten more of it

But like, since Briar as the evil queen saw Apple poisoned instead of her mum, does that mean that Raven was talking to herself in her story

But at the same time, Blondie saw the current queen of hearts instead of Lizzie, so like what's going on

Snow White and The Evil Queen have like the vibe of high school rivals/ex girlfriends, and they did go to school together, but like Queenie is literally her step mom. Like what. If Raven were to live out her story, would that mean that she would marry Apple's dad? Whoever that is?

The more you think about the lore of this world the more it doesn't make sense, but it also becomes like incredibly dark

The Pied Piper is one of if not my favorite fairytales, but I hate how he is represented in this show. Like he kidnapped children and then drowned them, that man shouldn't be a teacher!

Also white queen is a teacher at ever after, yet her daughter is still in wonderland. Like bitch just left her there, what the hell.

I love that they didn’t make any of the princesses stuck up bitches, like Descendants did. Like, the girls are all kind, with vibrant personalities and a lot of love for the people around them. The closest thing to the “mean girl” stereotype is Duchess actually

But Duchess makes total sense! She fucking drowns at the end of her story, of course she wants another one. Why is Raven’s rebellion praised but Duchesses scorned? Also why is she a royal, girlypop is literally trying to steal other people’s happily ever after, she a rebel

There is more I can say, but this post has already been deleted twice from my drafts, and I am scared of it, so it’s better to get it out now

Also, as a final little send off, here’s my ranking of the characters, and the ships

#Ever after high #Ever After high thoughts #Apple White #The Evil Queen #Raven Queen #Allister Wonderland #Ramona Badwolf #Sparrow Hood #Briar Beauty #Daring Charming #Cerise Hood #rosabella beauty #Darise #Dunno if that’s the ship name but it should be #Dexter Charming #Darling Charming #kitty cheshire #Bunny Blanc #hunter huntsman #blondie lockes #Lizzie Hearts #The Pied Piper #Duchess Swan #The White Queen

[crookedkryptonitebeliever]

Best and Worst of Both Worlds (part 40)

Tw: like really bad sickness, doctors dismissing symptoms, general themes of hopelessness, shorter chapter than usual

Part 41

You were woken up by the feeling of fingers running through your hair and a presence right beside you.

You know it's Yves, so you snuggled deeper into him. Which earned you a kiss on the crown of your head.

"(Name)." You cracked open an eye and looked up to see Yves's kind eyes. Yves has changed his clothes that fit more into his usual style; a simple turtleneck and a pair of smart palazzo pants.

"It's time for you to eat, my dear." You struggled to sit up, but the pull of sleepiness proved too much for you. So, you flopped back onto him, latching onto his chest. Yves wrapped his arms around you again and buried his face in your hair.

You groggily told him that you're not hungry and you simply wanted to cuddle some more.

"We could do that after your meal." He mumbled, closing his eyes in bliss as well.

You said no, you wanted to bask in his touch now. Vibrations can be felt when he hummed in response.

"How spoiled." Hissed Yves with mock distaste. "But, I wouldn't have you any other way." He continued, softening his tone.

You grinned, feeling his hands rub soothing circles on your back.

"I will give you ten more minutes. Then, you must eat. Did I make myself clear?" You nodded, pressing your face against him. A chuckle reverberates through his ribcage.

You relaxed even more, and enjoyed the attention you were receiving. Whereas Yves had a lot on his mind.

It's been a day since he last stepped foot into the courthouse or prison, and he should be discharging you today.

Your family back in your home country still doesn't have an inkling of any idea about what you went through. While Yves is pleased that you're completely relying on him, it also worries him that your support system is practically non-existent.

Despite being possessive over you, he also knows that you're still young and a human, you need the presence of other relationships to develop healthily. Yves wouldn't want to shorten your life expectancy nor would he want to fry your neurons just because he was selfish during your formative years.

He also wanted that domesticity where you would introduce him to your parents, and it becomes his duty to charm them. Not that it's of any challenge of him to do so.

He twirled your hair around his fingers as he pondered the reality around him. He stopped when he heard a change in your breathing. You fell back asleep.

Yves sighed and rested his hand next to your head, Checking the clock in the room.

You're not physically starving, and neither is this a sign of some serious underlying cause. Why not let you rest against him a little longer?

He pulled the blanket to your shoulders before snuggling closer.

__

Mr. Jones lost almost everything when Evangeline let her mask slip that day. He lost his daughter and his wife; they fought and fought over the matter, where Mr. Jones mostly defended his little girl's actions. She refused to acknowledge that she was partially at fault as well, for not paying attention to Evangeline's behavior.

His wife demanded to get a divorce, and they were still living together in the same house. But sleeping in separate rooms. She would have moved back into her mother's home, but they had no space for her. Seeing that Mr. Jones is unlikely to hurt her out of rage, she stays until she can afford to start the process of separation and get her own place.

The legal fees for Evangeline devastated their combined savings, and both of them had to take up extra hours of work just to put food on the table. It's for the best, this limits the interaction between them at home.

Mr. Jones undoubtedly loved his wife, so it felt like his world was crumbling when she started looking away. He missed their morning talks, the love between them and their daughter. Tears were shed, but he had to keep them under control if he wanted to keep his remaining clients. Customers started dropping him after learning about his daughter's deeds, not wanting to associate themselves with a relative of a depraved criminal.

The ones who stayed are either clueless or not as concerned about their reputation. The company that hires him to work as a professional chauffeur is notably withholding customers from him, most likely due to them hearing about the case too.

The couple disagreed on everything after that fateful day, there were verbal fights daily and unbearable tensions between them. The house felt more like a concrete box with no air holes, so there were days Mr. Jones would even sleep in his car.

However, one day, there was something that they could finally agree on. And that is a beautiful gift hamper addressed to the Jones family.

It was from Yves, containing expensive wines, luxury chocolates, imported perfumes, an exquisite, living room display piece, a set of crystal glassware, and shiny jewelry. This sympathy gift was surely not cheap nor easy to put together, the items are either rare to come by or custom-made.

There was a sealed envelope inside, it made both husband and wife cry upon reading his printed letter with his name embossed onto it.

It said,

It has been a tumultuous time for all persons involved. I can only imagine the anguish you must have felt as parents. There will be differences between the two of you regarding this, conflict is to be expected. Despite what Evangeline has done, she deserves a whole and loving family. Please accept this as a gift of sympathy. Wishing you strength and understanding, with the courage to overcome the turbulence as a team. -Yves.

They embraced each other, forgiving for each other's transgressions and apologizing for their mistakes as well. Mr. Jones's wife retracted her request for a divorce and expressed regret for even bringing that up. Yves is right, they have to stay together for their daughter. Evangeline needs them more than ever, they cannot let the family fall apart.

Both of them felt the weight of their guilt crushing their bones. Yves is such a kind man for caring about their wellbeing although his partner is a victim of a horrible crime done by their child. It was such a nice gesture, they thought he had a heart of gold that withstood the blows of the steely mallet of cruelty. They wished so badly for this to never happened, they wished to make it right but they couldn't afford to. They had no idea how to. Especially when Yves filed for a restraining order against them shortly after.

So they carried on. Appreciating the goodies and savoring them. Among the pristine jewelry, there was a suncatcher with charming little gems woven in intricate patterns. Mr. Jones found it quite nice and decided to hang it on his rear-view mirror. It garnered quite a handful of compliments from his clients and friends alike. There is a gorgeous necklace that pairs well with all his wife's outfits, so she would wear them regularly and receive praise from her coworkers.

The piece of decor really helped to bring the living room together, the couple would catch themselves smiling at it, as the item reminded them of Yves's goodwill.

The glassware made the gifted wines taste better by elevating their appearance, they sounded delightful too when clinked together.

Eventually, his wife moved back into the master bedroom, the lit candles from Yves's basket smelled heavenly and relaxed their nerves especially when they had rough days at work.

They were enjoying them too much to connect the dots.

They thought the clumps of hair that fell in the showers were due to stress with all the legal shenanigans going on. The frequent headaches and strange sores that appeared around the chest of Mr. Jones's wife, and Mr. Jones's forehead were probably due to the immense pressure they were facing due to financial instability.

They worked long hours every day, so it made sense to feel fatigued and dizzy sometimes. Except it isn't normal to feel it almost daily.

The frequent vomiting and diarrhea must have been due to stress. It couldn't be from the chocolates, that were eaten weeks ago! The doctors told them that their weakened immune system from overworking made them susceptible to the most rudimentary of diseases. They're just unlucky to have caught a stomach bug from somewhere.

That explains the frequent fevers too, they're hindering their ability to work. Mr. Jones kept losing clients because they also fell ill with similar symptoms. He was double-masked, but nothing seemed to stop the spread of this mystery virus.

The tests showed nothing out of the ordinary for them, except the bacteria or virus of the illness they were suffering at the time. They felt horrible for thinking Yves had tampered with the food, especially after sending it to a lab for analysis to come back negative for any poisons or biohazardous materials.

They had their house tested for mold. Nothing. The husband and wife had to spend a weekend off to try and locate whatever was causing their prolonged sickness. They cleaned everything, from top to bottom, and eradicated every particle of dust in their home. Still, it persists.

The couple couldn't smell, hear, see, or feel anything out of the ordinary, it is making them go insane. They couldn't figure out for the life of them, what is slowly leading them to their death?

They're tired. Too tired to wonder why their electronics are glitching out and sometimes even shutting down randomly. Their cameras are weirdly taking fuzzy pictures, this is especially annoying to Mrs. Jones, when she has to scan a photo of a document only to come out distorted and illegible.

They're exhausted. Too exhausted to question the doctors who kept telling them that they were fine, they must have been simply too stressed. The only remedy was to stop working as much and worrying too much. Fully believing the couple would bounce back to full health when they heed their advice. Thinking that their immune system would regain strength to fight against the constant infections. The professionals were too busy, too apathetic to look a bit closer. To peek into the microscope once more.

They would have found unusual alterations in their red blood cells' DNA and white blood cell count. But they didn't, dooming the Jones to a terrible fate.

Mr. Jones kept forgetting his routes, stumbling over his words as he would experience bouts of confusion. Mrs. Jones would misremember where she put her important documents or the agreed time when she had to meet her supervisors.

The couple has lost a substantial amount of weight, they were ghoulish and sickly, finding it a challenge to even handle their own body weight. They're in constant agony every minute, and neither can sleep it off or ignore the pain, there isn't much they can do without knowing the cause of their misery.

But they kept going on. They have to for the sake of their family. For the sake of Evangeline.

The Jones only has a couple more weeks to find out what is causing these before it's too late. However, being this severely mentally and physically incapacitated led them to miss a laughably straightforward solution of buying a Geiger Muller Counter. Especially when Mr. Jones knew Yves has a strong background in mathematics and physics.

Mr and Mrs Jones held onto each other as they closed their eyes after retiring early for the day, praying that this wouldn't be their last night in this world.

#yandere #yandere x reader #yandere oc #yandere male #oc yves #yandere concept #tw yandere #yandere x you #yandere oc x reader #male yandere oc x reader

[raainy-daze]

Gotta Get Creative

halloween special !

rottmnt raph x gn!reader

summary: as it turns out, halloween costumes are a whole lot more difficult when you’re trying to match with a mutant turtle.

word count: 1,142

a/n: taking a break from requests to get some halloween oneshots out! i’m counting this as gender neutral, but reader does wear a dress for their halloween costume. happy halloween, everybody!

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

Ah, October, the month of spooks and scares. There’s a chill in the air, and celebrations have begun.

The moment you got out of school, you grabbed your things and practically ran the route to the nearest manhole. It was a path you knew well by now, having walked it so many times.

You arrived at the lair in roughly ten minutes (new record!). You went through your routine, greeting everyone - Splinter on his armchair, Mikey and Leo having some sort of competition, Donnie in his lab. Finally, Raph in his room.

“Hello, wonderful boyfriend of mine! It is October 1st, which means I am now about to become a menace to society. Got any costume ideas?”

You dropped yourself onto the bed next to Raph, who, prior to your entrance, had been knitting. He had set his needles down now though, and you pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before grabbing a notebook out of your bag along with a pen.

“Right to the point, huh?”

“This is business, Raph. Halloween costumes are no matter to be taken lightly.”

Several months ago already, you and Raph had agreed to go in matching costumes this year. Now that October had come, the challenge was to decide what costumes.

Of course, there were a few ground rules. Mainly, whatever it was had to something that would cover Raph’s mutation at least to the point where he could go unnoticed topside. Unless the Hidden City celebrated Halloween the way humans do, which you sorely doubted.

This couldn’t be too hard, right?

•°. *࿐

“My brain has failed me. The Internet has failed me. The world has failed me, Raph.”

As it turns out, your imagination wasn’t being very cooperative today, and neither was Google. In front of you sat your phone opened to a list of couples costume ideas (more than a few of which were more than a little unsettling), and all around you were scattered crumpled up pages of your poor notebook.

“Come on, (y/n), it’s only been thirty minutes.” Raph was patting your back in consolation.

“It’s been almost two hours.”

“What?” Raph blinked at you. “That can’t be right.”

You pointed at the corner of your screen, which indicated that roughly two hours had, in fact, passed.

“Oh. Well-” Raph picked up your notebook, reading through the most recent page. “Okay, so not much. That’s fine. It’s only day one.”

“Only day one! We waited until October to decide, and now we’re going to suffer for it! One of the most important parts of a good Halloween is a good costume - or at least an above mediocre one!” You threw your arms up in frustration (and maybe just a bit for the sake of drama), just narrowly missing Raph’s face.

Speaking of which, you couldn’t help noticing something strange in his expression. Like he was holding back a smile, and…

“Are you laughing?”

“No.” His voice cracked as he spoke, and he immediately burst into a fit of laughter.

“You think this is a laughing matter?” You couldn’t help smiling, despite your words.

“I’m sorry! I just- Wait, wait, no!” He grabbed the pillow you were reaching for before you could, and you both dissolved into giggling messes.

Your head was resting on Raph’s shoulder now, and for a moment, you just took a moment to smile.

There were a few minutes of silence, both of you lying back on the bed, before Raph chuckled. “Imagine if we just… ditched the disguise.”

“What do you mean?” You turned to look at him.

“Like, we just go up top wearing a generic couple’s costume, and when anyone asks we just go ‘oh yeah, we’re Jack and Rose from the Titanic, but if Jack was secretly a turtle monster’.”

It was a joke. It was just meant to be a joke. But… “Raph?”

“Yeah?”

“I think you’re a genius.”

•°. *࿐

Over the next month, you spent your time gathering the supplies for your costume. It wasn’t that difficult, really, the Titanic outfits weren’t that hard to recreate.

When the day rolled around, everyone met down in the lair to get into costume. April was in a circus ringmaster’s uniform, with Mayhem meant to be her circus animal. Donnie, to no one’s surprise, had dressed up as Frankenstein for the third year in a row, and had convinced Mikey to go as the monster.

“Leo, where’s your costume?” You raised an eyebrow, and he responded with a grin.

“What do you mean, where’s my costume? It’s right here. I’m a mutant turtle who lives in the sewers.”

“That’s cheating.”

“Says who?”

At this point, you decided to ignore him. You instead turned your attention to your boyfriend, who was sitting next to you on the couch. Raph’s previous joke had, in fact, become reality - here he was, Jack from the Titanic, but as a turtle creature.

“So, if Jack is a turtle now, does that mean he survives after all?” April asked.

“I don’t think snapping turtles live in the ocean,” was Donnie’s response.

“Shh - let it be happy. We need more happy endings in this world.”

“Glad you could find a happy ending in our cover up for a Halloween costume, April.”

“Hey, every costume deserves a little world building. Like magical circus animals…” April gestured towards Mayhem. Or rather, the spot where Mayhem had been moments ago. “Oh, for the love of- MAYHEM!”

You leaned back against the couch, smoothing out your dress. You’d bought a dress initially, but wound up altering it to your liking. You put a lot more effort into it than you’d really care to admit.

“Alright fellas, what’s our route? Got any intel on where the best candy’s at?” Leo took charge of the planning, or at least tried to before Donnie pulled out a rather extensive map of the best trick or treating spots in New York City.

“Well, I’d say these turned out pretty well. The costumes, that is.” Raph smiled at you.

“So would I!” You returned the grin, and put an arm around his shoulders. Well, you tried to. He was a bit too much bigger than you for it to work very well. “April’s right though. A costume like this needs a story behind it. How did Jack become a turtle creature, I wonder?”

“Maybe he’s a ninja, too. One that lives in the sewers.”

“Hey, guys!” You looked back at the others. Donnie was still holding that ridiculously large map - you had to bite your tongue to keep from laughing.

“I’ve got Mayhem, let’s go!” April called from the sewer entrance.

Everyone got up from their spots around the room; Donnie rolled up his map and Mikey rushed the last few finishing touches on his makeup. You grabbed Raph’s hand as you stood up.

“Let’s go get some free candy, people!”

#tmnt x reader #rottmnt x reader #gender neutral reader #reader insert #raph x reader #tmnt raph x reader #rottmnt raph x reader

[tossawary]

Rules: Share the first line of ten of your most recent fanfics and then tag ten people. Don't have ten? Not to worry, just share what you have. Tagged by @otakuchan449.

I did all of my fics, which are unsurprisingly all SVSSS, because I was curious as to the patterns. I usually like to name the POV character and illustrate their style of narration in the first paragraph, which is generally humorous, so people know quickly whether or not they're going to vibe with my style. I also like starting in the middle of a situation / inciting incident if possible, so we can hit the ground walking briskly if not running, and get to the good stuff.

23. Shang Houhua - someday unfortunately to be known as Shang Qinghua, once unfortunately known in another life as Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky - came back to himself abruptly. (if words could make wishes - WIP MBJ Time Travel AU from SQH POV)

22. If the System was to be trusted, which it generally was when it came to making Shang Qinghua’s life worse for no good reason, then today was the day! (Stepping Up - 90k Canon Divergence AU, An Ding Disciple LBH)

21. Shen Yuan was conscious when he was reborn, though he didn’t know what was happening at the time, because all he knew at first was pain and golden dust. (Sit With Your Soul - 61k SQQ & SY Daemon Fusion AU)

20. Shang Houhua was thirteen going on, uh, fourteen plus a whole other life that sometimes felt more like a dream than something that had actually happened. (hey, share the weight a little - 70k Canon Divergence AU, YQY/SQH)

19. “Shifu? Forgive the interruption, but there’s a woman here to see you?” (love to the ones I've never met - 83k Fic Companion, Dimension Travel)

18. Jiahui just needs to check that her restaurant hasn’t burned down. (forgiveness for whose sake? - 48k Fic Companion and Epilogue)

17. Luo Binghe knows he isn’t supposed to be doing what he’s doing, but given that he has no other way of getting answers, he does it anyway. (you had me at hello - 5k Non-Canon Fic Extra)

16. “My king, don’t touch that-!” (A Child Once - 101k Canon Divergence AU, Deaged SQH)

15. The world was dark, woven from a black so infinite that it looked flat, and it was full of light. (Catch a Falling Star - 122k Bingliushen Stardust AU)

14. Shang Qinghua woke up having a bad day - forget going through puberty twice, because in this transmigrator’s opinion, having to experience a new round of “first day of school” bullshit year after year was worse - and speed-walking through the Cloud Recesses wasn’t helping him get through it any faster. (Nothing to Me, Nothing to You - 60k Moshang MDZS AU)

13. Mobei-Jun’s search for Shang Qinghua had taken him to many strange places. (dreams that had never come true - 14k MBJ Time Travel AU)

12. It would be a lie to say that Shang Qinghua wasn’t too sure what had happened. (every haircut I've ever had has been a bad haircut - 5k Moshang Hurt/Comfort)

11. The situation was bad. (Babe in the Woods - 19k Canon Divergence AU, MBJ has a baby brother)

10. Shen Qingqiu was perfectly capable of piloting his own ship, but that day, like many others, found Liu Qingge leaning against a column by the hangar entrance, waiting for Shen Qingqiu as he prepared to leave Qing Jing Peak Temple. (this point of pale light - 18k Liushen Star Wars AU)

9. Liu Mingyan was the model of a refined and accomplished cultivator. (but that's fine because I like a hot mess - 3k Mingling Getting Together)

8. Shen Qingqiu had made use of many excuses over the years to avoid the presence of the man who was now his own sect leader, some of which had even been good. (the ability to remain sober and gracious - 4k Canon Divergence AU, Qijiu Xuan Su sword reveal)

7. Shang Qinghua’s head hurt and his eyes were watering and he was beginning, just maybe, to think that creating an experimental stimulant because he missed the non-organic goodness of energy drinks with an unreasonable passion had been a bad idea. (anxiety and caffeine are having a cockfight in my brain - 2k Moshang Hurt/Comfort)

6. The library’s front door flew open so violently that it could be heard even at Shen Yuan’s desk nearer to the back of the main hall, which sat in front of the way to the computer rooms. (Absolutely Ineffable - 10k Good Omens Fusion AU)

5. Once there was a summer in which upon arriving home from university, Shen Yuan was immediately told that he was being sent away to the heart of the country to stay with his distant uncle, whether he liked it or not. (The Red Cabinet - 7k Narnia Fusion AU)

4. It took… Shang Qinghua… a while to figure out that demons actually had horns in this realized version of his sellout stallion web-novel. (Horns - 11k MBJ has sexy horns AU)

3. So, apparently, a portal burning with demonic energy had opened up over Qing Jing Peak and another Shang Qinghua had fallen out of it, and the wound in the sky had unfortunately closed again pretty much immediately. (ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real - 7k Non-Canon Fic Extra, SQH meets AU SQH)

2. So, Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky, the dearly despised and fervently favorited author of Proud Immortal Demon Way, died in a vaguely humiliating fashion… and then he transmigrated. (it must follow, as the night the day - 26k Moshang Role Reversal AU, Demon SQH and Cultivator MBJ)

1. Shang Qinghua has not been having a stellar transmigration experience. (pride is not the word I'm looking for - 400k Canon Divergence AU, LBH's Mother Lives)

This serves as a pretty good round-up of all my currently posted fics! There are far too many in my WIP folders to begin including everything in there.

I've been a little out of touch with reading fanfiction lately, so please, if you wish, take this post as an opportunity to participate in this game and tag me in it! I highly recommend taking a moment to revisit and admire your own fan works! Look at all that cool stuff you did! If you only have WIPs, then I don't mind if you use WIPs. Sometimes our pieces of writing are full, intensely detailed paintings that take years to complete and sometimes they're just rough sketches we do to warmup or have creative fun when we have the time, and sharing both is nice.

And if you don't have your own fan works to pull from, then I'd still love to see a list of opening lines from some of your favorite fics by other people. Any fandom you like! Give me those fic recs! Give me the opening lines of your favorite published novels if there's one you've been itching to gush about.

#tossawary ao3 #tossawary svsss #ask tossawary

[callmearcturus]

the au everyone but me is sick of

so while i was super depressed and sad, i did the Extremely Predictable and wrote more fallout AU to comfort myself. someone left a comment suggesting i write out the full epilogue so I started doing that just to ensure I was writing SOMETHING.

i have no idea if I will finish, so here is what I have so far for your amusement.

this will make literally no sense if you haven't read out here the good girls die.

Even now, Karkat had never learned how to be a morning person, and so assumed he was just never going to make that switch. Here in the late California summer, the mornings were blessedly cool and forgiving while his beloved nights were balmy until the moon was high in the sky. For comfort's sake alone, he should have adapted.

But no. Like clockwork, every morning found him here, sitting at the kitchen table with his eyes mostly shut, his head heavy on his neck in a way that let him doze for a while, yes, but also ensured he was going to get a knot lodged right at the top of his spine. This was the devil's bargain he took Monday to Friday, except for the Fridays where he decided the office could just open later, he didn't care.

"Are you conscious, ranger?" 

"No," Karkat said, managing to make one syllable into a vehicle conveying his ire.

"Poor baby," another voice said, and something was set down in front of Karkat. He blurrily opened his eyes and looked at the plate. A nice little pile of roti with a generous scoop of chutney. 

Karkat smiled to himself at the sight. He'd missed his father's breakfast as soon as he left home some ten years ago. Getting to have it again as Dave picked up on a few recipes was heartwarming in a way that threatened to cause a brush fire in his chest.

Tearing one roti, he dabbed it through the chutney. "The lemons came in?"

"They're, like, almost oranges? I dunno, your dad says citrus crossbreeds a bunch." Dave knuckled his hip and looked across the kitchen at Rose.

She shook her head silently; Rose didn't eat breakfast most days. Apparently that was the default for her, divorced from her life in the Mojave where everyone ate whenever they could, unsure of when their next meal would be. "The free lovers of the produce world," she offered in bemusement.

"Ugh," Dave said, nose wrinkling.

"Contain your prudishness."

"M'not a prude, I just don't want to think 'bout the orchard orgies this early, it's perfectly fuckin' reasonable." He held out a spoon to her. "Will you just try this, it's the first one pops let me do on my own without hoverin'."

"It's good," Karkat confirmed as he ate.

"Your constant need for approval is truly your greatest failing," Rose told him sternly as she bent to taste the chutney. Dave tried to swat her; she dodged nimbly. "Don't, I just did my hair." Swallowing, she gave him one brisk, prescribed nod. "Tart. Anise?"

"Yeah, I don't dig anise, but baba fucking insists on it."

"It's good," Karkat said again.

"What is his name?" Rose asked suddenly. 

"Who?" Dave picked up a roti for himself and spooned in some chutney, rolling it like a little burrito.

"The elder Vantas."

"Dunno. At this point, I'm playin' the long game, seeing if I can go the my entire life without knowing."

Rose crossed her arms and looked at Karkat, eyebrow lifted.

Shrugging, Karkat chewed slowly and offered no answer.

"Fine, please yourself," Rose said. She always referred to Karkat's father with dignified appellations, Father Vantas and Monsieur Vantas and such. Karkat was pretty sure her mouth refused to form diminutive sounds like *baba.* It was fun to watch her verbally dodge each one while Dave tacked more on.

He wasn't about to spoil that for them.

"You have an appointment with the teacher's union in an hour," Rose announced. "When you have sated yourself, let's be off, councilor."

"And who's your meetin' with?" Dave asked sunnily.

"What could you mean, brother-mine, I'm just the secretary." She opened the fridge and took out a nuka. Cracking the top of with a precise strike against the counter, she took a swig. "Hurry up, Karkat."

If working with the military had taught Karkat anything, it was how to march.

=

As of the last regional election, Karkat worked out of the council house. Vineyard wasn't such a political foothold in the Republic that it had been contentious, and there were enough other former military people peeled off the Navarro base that Karkat's commendation had actually meant something.

It hadn't been how Karkat intended to spend his retirement, but also Rose was right; he was civic-minded and liable to go fucking stir-crazy if he didn't have something to do. So in the end, he let the whole thing happen.

And here he was, his schedule peppered liberally with meetings, trying to figure out how to not piss off too many people, and to really piss off very specific people.

But on some level, he never stopped being a ranger and probably never would.

The representative of the teacher's union talked about their back order of textbooks from the closest press, how they'd put in the order two years ago and there was still nothing to show for it. It wasn't fair that children around Shady Sands had whatever materials they wanted while anyone even slightly off the highway had to make do.

Karkat asked what kind of books they needed, and took notes.

"Are we going somewhere," Rose asked when she caught Karkat in the living room with a map on the table.

"Another errand," Karkat muttered, walking his fingers from Vineyard to the spot on the map he needed. "You two can stay, it'll only be a few days."

"What sob story tugged at your overflowing bouquet of heartstrings this time?"

"School needs more books. Press is taking its sweet fucking time and kids are having to share texts."

"Sounds like the work of a strongly worded letter to the capital."

"Already sent one. Now it sounds like I can cut out the middle man and just hit this old vault for what they have."

"You hate vaults," Dave said from down the hall. "Why are we talkin' about vaults?"

"It's not really a vault," Karkat said. "Old Brotherhood bunker, remnants from a chapter that folded some fifty years back. All the tech got claimed by the Followers, but they'll let me have extra books for if its for education."

"And this something that must fall squarely on your own shoulders?" Rose asked, dropping herself into the armchair as she observed Karkat's manual cartography. As she did, Dave wandered in, his hair curling around the nape of his neck, damp from a shower, walking around barefoot with a towel around his hips.

"It's just…" Karkat frowned at them. "I know where to go, who to talk to, what to say. Why would I rope in some daytripper who doesn't know their ass from their elbow when I can just do it myself, the point is eliminating the middleman. I'm not going to add in another middleman for kicks."

Rose sighed loudly, leaning her cheek on her hand, as if Karkat was being disappointing in a predictable way. 

"You're staying here, I don't know what your issue is," Karkat said. "If I didn't know better, and I fucking do, I'd say you were concerned and were going to miss me."

"Luckily we do know better," Rose said dryly. "No, but Dave will, and I will have to deal with his longing looks and whimpering in your absence."

"Oh, fuck you," Dave said, turning right back around and leaving the room. "Bye, California, try not to step on a deathclaw's foot while you're out."

Pointing over her shoulder, Rose said, "See? He'll be like that the entire time you're away, and I will have to deal with it."

"Shut up, Rose," Dave called down the hall.

"I'm not even leaving yet, can you both relax," Karkat said with a sigh.

"Do try not to abandon us for too long," Rose said.

=

He didn't mean to abandon the twins for very long at all. The trip down southeast to the Follower operation was a two-book journey at most.

Karkat tended to estimate his time in that way. When he first was stationed in the Mojave, he got stopped at the Outpost. A security officer had gone through his stuff because generally speaking new people were only supposed to have one gear bag and Ranger Cancer had two.

"Is this thing just books," the officer had asked after awkwardly shifting the books around without removing them from the bag. They were very precisely arranged and stacked inside to maximize space, and the officer didn't seem like she wanted to fuck up the careful engineering.

"I'm on a two year tour," Karkat had said.

"This bag probably weighs more than a bodybag."

"Yeah." Karkat had already had this argument with his superiors back east. If Karkat was willing to carry the fucking thing, he could do what he wanted. However, if he dropped dead of exhaustion from carrying an extra bag through a goddamn desert, they'd leave him behind and write his cause of death as Stupidity.

Karkat hadn't dropped dead, and he'd read through his entire bag during his tour. He'd even given some books out to First Recon as gifts; he knew sniper work was a whole lot of waiting around in boring places.

But now, in California, Karkat took two books with him. They were perfect for passing time before nightfall; the perfect barometer of when he needed to get moving was the necessary light level for reading a yellowed Old World novel. As soon as he started to squint at the words, it was time to go.

Walking through California was different than the desolate quiet of the Mojave. Back in Vegas, Karkat had walked with his rifle in hand. The sight of anyone or anything moving on the horizon was a possible threat; raiders, mutated animals, motherfucking cazadors.

And there was still danger in California, but things were less…. ornery, as Dave would say. People were less willing to tempt death by ambushing a guy in ranger gear.

At Olompali, Karkat checked into an cabin. After cleaning up, he deliberated exactly how he wanted to handle this one. The Followers of the Apocalypse were not fans of the New California Republic, but generally they respected the rangers as a self-managing volunteer group. If the Followers believed in anything, it was anarchic altruism.

Karkat left his helmet and his mantle, keeping his armor light, with his patch on his shoulder. After more deliberation, he left his service pistol and kept his rifle on his back, hoping that would be a sign he was here to be useful but not a threat.

Rose was mortifyingly right about him, Karkat thought with a scowl. The careful picking and choosing of himself to make sure he got the reaction he wanted, it was all very political of him. Thank fuck she wasn't around to see it, to needle him and ask him to explain his precise choices.

Sighing, Karkat went to the old bunker.

The whole ordeal was familiar; the Followers were very sympathetic to Karkat's plight and were openly interested in providing assistance to educational efforts. And what a coincidence, they did have most of the hoarded library the Brotherhood had collected.

But there were just a few things they'd appreciate help with, if Karkat had some time. After all, he did bring a rifle.

Karkat liked the Followers but for fuck's sake, this wasn't his job anymore.

Dave and Rose:

Made it to the Followers safely. Stuck with their honey-do list before they'll give up the books. Will be a little longer than expected. Please remember to actually go shopping and pick up food so you don't starve.

Love you, see you as soon as I can.

California

For ten minutes, Karkat deliberated on the sign off. He'd been witness so many times to the particular distaste the twins had to outright shows of affection and emotional statements.

But it was a letter and he wouldn't be there when they got it, and thus would dodge all of their sarcasm and irritated hissing.

Sealing the letter, he found a courier on the way to Navarro and asked him to detour to Vineyard.

With that handled, Karkat geared up and stormed out on the trail of the raiders the Followers wanted to disappear.

=

The little venture out to the Followers took a few weeks, which was both longer than Karkat intended and shorter than he feared.

These things usually wound up being worth it in his experience. There were times when he showed up in the name of the NCR, carrying some kind of orders from on high, and knew the way people bristled at him, at the way that kind of control chafed against them.

He also knew if he showed up and did shit like this, crossing out items from the honey-do list with blood and dust under his nails, he'd usually luck into a more longterm relationship. People who actually did shit were the truest currency of the New World, more than caps and dollars.

So with a lingering sense of satisfaction, Karkat talked to the doctor running the outpost and verified there would be a caravanner up to Vineyard soon with all the books a brahmin could haul. And just as a bonus, they'd send one of their own instructors along to give a few lectures on science and medicine.

Perfect. With that promise secured, Karkat put his back to the camp and headed home.

By now, he'd traded his books for new ones. He barely read them, eager to get home and traveling straight through one night and into the next day.

Karkat enjoyed being a ranger, but he also enjoyed being home. Having a home still carried its own novelty bias.

With the accelerated pace, Karkat had the good fortune to return to Vineyard at night. As he walked through the streets, one watchmen wandered his way, suitably concerned about someone in full armor with a rifle just out and about in the city.

Karkat waved to him, and got a thumbs up. Just the local ranger, nothing to see here.

Well, ex-ranger.

Arriving home quiet as he could, Karkat divested of his gear in the living room. It was much easier to walk quietly without the extra tonnage weighing him down, less of a risk of waking the twins when the house was dark and quiet like this.

Drinking a full glass of water and washing up briefly, Karkat wandered down the hallway. Checking the double bedroom, he found both beds empty.

Frowning silently, Karkat walked over to his own bedroom, and nudged the door open further. To his relief, someone was sleeping there. The covers were pulled up high enough that he could only see the curve of an ear and some cornsilk white hair, so saying definitively who was impossible.

He could hazard a guess and slipped inside.

When he finally put a knee on the bed, there was a sleepy mumble from under the blankets, but nothing else. Which felt a bit like dousing the warmth in Karkat's heart with moonshine. He was prepared for the usual consequence of disturbing the sleep of a New Vegas citizen, the flash of a knife, the viper's strike. But all he got was a muffled slur of consonants that might've been Rose's name with a question mark attached.

Moving over Dave, Karkat dropped himself down behind, his body fitting into the space under the windowsill, back against the wall. He couldn't help the deep sigh loosened from him at the feeling of finally being off his feet.

For a few moments, he assumed that was that, and it was time to sleep. He certainly could just fall the fuck asleep now, the weeks of work and travel coming up from behind him to smother him into slumber.

Then, Dave shifted, and the back of his hand thumped against Karkat's chest, turning to let his fingers coast over his clavicle. "Not Rose," he muttered, turning more and opening his eyes, pale little wet crescents in the dark. "Look what blew in with the tumbleweeds."

Karkat closed his hand around Dave's, pulling it up to press his lips against the knuckles. "Hey."

"Been a while." His fingertips touched Karkat's jaw. "Mammillaria."

What? "What?"

"They don't got razors in the F-O-T-A?" There was a huff of laughter. "You are so prickly."

"Was kind of busy doing their goddamn busywork," Karkat grumbled. "Didn't have time between the raiders and setting up gecko traps and investigating their water filter theft thing."

"Fuckin' itinerant do-gooder." Dave pressed his thumb against Karkat's scratchy jaw, eyes shutting again.

"Shit got done." Karkat was perfectly fine with the little touches, the point of connection stretching across the gap between them, a soft landing after so much time away. "Where's Rose?"

Dave sounded drowsily amused. "Prob'ly shouldn't tell you."

"Why?"

"Think she's, uh. Having a sleepover with the hospitality guild. Talking about… plans."

Karkat's eyes popped open as he considered that. Rose out for a clandestine 2AM meeting with the local sex workers. Which, he would probably be supportive of whatever the fuck that was about, but also he needed some plausible deniability. Karkat was a terrible fucking liar. "Yeah, don't tell me that."

"Sorry, councilor," Dave chuckled. His fingers were still skating idly around. A little considering noise escaped his mouth.

"What's wrong?"

There was enough of a pause that when Dave said, "Nuthin'," Karkat knew he was lying. Squinting at him in the dark, Karkat watched Dave press his head further into the pillow. "You know how the dust out there can make someone's skin all shiny? You're rockin' that look pretty nicely, California."

He did know it pretty well, how there was that grace period between fresh-washed to grime where it was almost like every speck of dust caught some ephemeral light and shone, making someone look like they were carved by some lost Old World master. Many times, Karkat had seen that sheen over Dave's skin and had stared for way too long, wanting to touch but certain he'd smudge it, ruin it.

Also, that was back when touching Dave was less of an inevitability.

Closing his eyes and soaking up the attention, Karkat hummed quietly.  Curling his hand around Dave's arm, he thought he could definitely sleep like this. It had the possibility of being the best sleep of his life.

"Are you for real tired?" Dave asked. "You, mister sun hater? Mister night tripper?"

"I've been traveling for almost two days straight," Karkat pointed out mulishly. "I wanted to get back to you."

"Oh. Well." Dave blew out a breath, and sounded almost a little disappointed, which made Karkat squint at him. "If you are going to conk out then you at least gotta give me somethin'."

Bracing with his elbow, Dave slid in closer to Karkat and kissed him, hands curling around his neck, thumbs stroking Karkat's cheeks.

#dumb fallout au #davekat #my fic

[ashersmut]

Dragon Guardian Jack au

[Jack]

I was brought back into the world for a reason. My spirit followed the wind to the island of Berk where dragons saw and welcomed me as one of their own. 

Therefore, I will fight to protect them as long as I exist. 

Seven generations later, Hiccup is born. Jack watches Valka with her newborn from outside the Haddock home.

[Jack]

Gods…another one. He’s so small. I almost feel sorry for him.

Valka turns her head, as if she hears a voice. She looks directly at Jack, who stares back with disbelief. The winter spirit hides quickly, making an escape to the sky.

[Jack]

Thats…that's impossible. I've been invisible to mankind for centuries. That woman. Who is she? I need to speak with her face to face.

That night, Jack leads a dragon raid to have Valka captured. He brings her to the secret nest of the great Bewilderbeast. The winter spirit sits upon the Alpha dragon like a king, looking down upon his hostage with curiosity. 

[Valka]

You...I saw you earlier today. Who are you?

[Jack]

I think we have a lot to talk about. Let's sit down and have a cup of tea. 

The two of them sit down to talk, while drinking hot tea.

[Valka]

These creatures. I've never seen them up so close before, but this one (Cloudjumper) is gentle, intelligent, and beautiful. They all are. 

[Jack]

This woman's soul reflects my own. Perhaps that is why she can see me and others cannot.

You're different from the rest of them. 

[Valka]

I've always felt like an outsider on the island. I tried everything to stop the fighting, but it was impossible to reason with Stoick. I just wish the generations of bloodshed would come to an end.

[Jack]

For the first time, I felt like I made a mistake. I escalated the conflict between dragons and humans, and I need this woman's help to change history.

Do you wish to go back to Berk?

[Valka]

I don't know. I worry about my family…my son. But I do not miss the fighting. This home of yours is peaceful, and I wish to learn more about what you do. Would you care if I stayed for a little while?

[Jack]

You may stay for as long as you want.

Ten years later. Valka has decided to stay in the sanctuary. She and Jack work together to rescue dragons from hunters, and they take turns watching over the sanctuary when the other is gone. She still thinks of her family often, and she worries about her son. 

[Jack]

If you're thinking about your family, you're welcome to leave. 

[Valka]

It's been far too long. What would Stoick think? The person I am now, my ambitions…they conflict with the traditions of Berk. I'd be dead to them whether or not they already believe I am. 

[Jack]

Perhaps, but I have faith that one day, we can restore peace between dragons and mankind.

[Valka]

People are not so easily changed. You and I were born different.

Besides, I can’t afford to leave this nest. Not now. These creatures need me.

[Jack]

You have the heart of a mother and the soul of a dragon. That's why I've always admired you. 

[Valka]

I'm a terrible mother. I fear my son would resent me, knowing I've been away all this time.

[Jack]

I'm sorry, Valka. I should have never brought you here.

[Valka]

No. It was my decision to stay. I should thank you for your hospitality and the knowledge you've given me. 

[Jack]

And I'm glad to have you as an ally and a friend. If there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know.

[Valka]

There is one thing…

[Jack]

Hmm?

[Valka]

I may as well stay here for the rest of my life, and I'm content with that. But…if something were to happen to me, would you please watch over Hiccup?

[Jack]

Of course. I will make sure nothing happens to him.

----

An idea I had that's been sitting in my drafts for a while...something to give Hiccup and Jack some more history. I may or may not illustrate this at some point? I'm a pretty lousy writer so please excuse the strange writing format.

#hijack #hijack au #frostcup #frostcup au #jack frost #hiccup haddock #valka haddock

[inlocusmads]

slam poetry ~ stevie sun x rowan stone

Rowan decides she wants to audiotape the outcomes of her cases instead. With Stevie's involvement, it turns into the world's worst podcast. (Murder at Homecoming)

wc: 1.4k, teen and up, strong language

a/n: written for @choicesjanuary2024, day 16: "relationships". Ever since I finished MaH I really wanted to write something for Stevie and my MC Rowan but somehow writer's block hit. Eventually I stumbled upon this scene from 22 jump street which inspired, well, this whole thing.

Audio recording number -- erm, I might have lost track of this stuff already. Let’s call it Number 3, because I haven’t done this in a while and the previous was Gabriella’s case, which I think has enough audio transcripts of mine being circulated around in several small magazines.

All right, let’s do this one last time. Name’s Rowan, Rowan Stone. I have a missing sister and for the last er, let’s say two years-ish-- I’ve been a -- well, let’s say I’m more than happy to do stuff for this dead-end town. Kind of a hobby, actually. If I’m off the video game controllers and not playing the drums, I’d suppose. I don’t like cop work, not a fan of sitting at a desk either. My policy is to just toss paper at annoying people. Hate the clicky-clicky sounds of keyboards, hate when people cross-talk - people in general. 

Are you recording tapes again?

Stevie, arghh, this is going in the archives, for heaven’s sake! Now I’ve got to do it again.

What’s it for?

The -- thing, the-- 

You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?

No, it’s like -- you know how I have been writing down my case reports as of lately?

When have you ever maintained an archive?

I thought it would look good on my resume or something, isn’t documenting a big thing now? You take five hundred photos everyday.

Someone has to document you moments before a disaster.

The idea is that I don’t have to deal with stupid keyboard clicks. You know the kind of annoying noise they make? 

Aw man, I thought you were into the weird detective aesthetic with the smokey room and the brown furniture and this rusty-ass typewriter.

Anyway, well, I was meaning to record this tape as a summation of what happened with Pierre and the test scores thing that I cracked. You know how he ended up hacking into the school’s servers and everything. Blew out of proportion, I tell you. Pierre was right there and yet everyone had to blame it on Brian. The dude hasn’t seen sunlight in over ten days from that tendon he pulled. 

That’s it?

Yeah, I mean, that covers it, right? 

Okay, Ro, I love you, but you are the absolute worst at summing things up.

You’re not pulling a twenty questions on this, are you? Vogue 75 questions or something?

I am surprised you know what vogue is.

Of course, it’s that Madonna song. Kidding.  Honestly if it weren’t for Stevie right now, I would have been done in ten minutes.

Right, isn’t that what Einstein said? Spend time with a girl for five minutes and it’ll feel like ten or something? 

Totally not what Einstein said, but go on.

He also sat on a stove or something, right? Reckon he got his rear end burned or something?

Listeners, I humbly submit to you the stuff I put up with on an everyday basis. No, Stevie, I don’t suppose anyone wrote a thesis on Einstein’s charred end and I don’t think nobody wants to either.

Who are you even talking to? I mean, what’s this thing even for?

A Case-Revisiter.

You’d be better off typing on a keyboard, though.

I’ll pay you twenty bucks hourly to help me with this.

Nahh. No offense, but like I have way better things to do. Have I ever told you the time when I graffitied the vice principal’s desk? Serves him right for cutting off funding for the arts program to fund a get this, SEASONAL, emphasis on “seasonal” baseball league that somehow never happens. Oh my god, Rowan, you should look into this. If anyone smells like embezzlement and uh -- a bunch of other shit, it is this dude. Anyway, the graffiti was hilarious though. I drew like uh, like this erm- thing, y’know?

And who’s terrible at summing up again?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait-- I’m trying to like, remember-

Right. Listeners, you might as well get bundled up for the next ten years.

Who are you even distributing these tapes to, even? I mean, I know there’s a market out there for feet and true crime, but like, we’re neither. 

True crime sucks, by the way.

We should put like a picture of a foot, but with blood and stuff. Yay, podcasting.

For the record, listeners, this is your standard Stevie-Does-Oddly-Specific-Jokes-Because-She’s-Run-Out-of-Material segment.

Unless this is for your personal use, which is like, okay weirdo. I mean, if you really want to go to sleep with my voice running in the background, you can do so with some discretion. Like actually asking me.

For the last time, this is -- honestly I have no idea why I am doing this. My dad found this tape recorder thing and I was like, sweet, I don’t need to store hundreds of voice notes in my phone anymore.

You have voice notes?

Yes, actually. Some of them are long elaborate slam poetry things about you, falafels and the justice system.

Aw, you write slam poetry about falafels?

I’ve only got one line, though.

What is it?

Falafels are great. They’re -- your-- 

Rowan Stone, everybody. Will give Sappho a run for her money. Not the historical Sappho, the one I know from Couscous. It’s like this grimy run-down club that plays Avicii and Avicii only but they have these slam poetry nights where people just walk in with shit like ‘roses are red, violets are blue’. 

Weren’t we talking about Pierre?

Pierre’s shit at keeping secrets. That’s why he gave you such an easy case. Donovan and I had the whole forging-ID business and this dude walks up and asks if he could get into this place, like a molerat and he blew our cover. Pierre, if you’re listening to this, fuck you for ruining my business and everything, y’know? I was running that like my own battalion of tin soldiers that puts Kathy Neighbourhood-Woman’s Christmas decorations to shame. Also, stop ruining school for us and forge your report cards like a normal person.

Let the record show that this is the first and last audio-memo-whatever-the-heck-this-is I am ever doing.

Good. Let’s go out. Come on.

There’s this fun karaoke place down the road that just opened up. But I do have --

I’ll punch you if you say work. You’re a child! An infant! A-- uh, small human person.

Chores, I have chores. Mom’s already pissed that I have, maybe pissed some people off at school for turning in my assignments late.

Get out of chores, y’know? Also you probably saved the whole town or something. Not cool, Mr and Mrs Stone. Also is it me or do you also see how weird the whole process of ‘grounding’ is? You get chores as a penalty for not doing homework. That’s like getting shot in your leg but being treated for an allergy to mushrooms. 

Karaoke sucks though. We should get absolutely wasted in a bar.

I don’t know if you’re being serious or not.

Honestly, it’s difficult, because on one hand, it’s like-- nothing good happens in Beachwood. Karaoke places get shut down. Bars are raided because I dunno- for reasons. Carnivals are an excuse for sponsors to get more money into their pockets which ruins the experience for everyone. Arcades are no longer fun because the games are rigged to make you funnel as many quarters as possible.

You know, I thought dating would bring out a change in you, but you still sound like a grandma who has a picture of Aragorn thinking it’s Jesus.

It’s so difficult to make a change, though. I still think we should just do something familiar.

I am not having a repeat of the tuna salad incident.

Remember when this audio recording was supposed to be about Pierre?

Pierre who?

Now I remember this is why I had a crush on you.

The baiting isn’t going to work. I do it with nuance. What you do resembles a pathetic wet cat. You are not dragging me to the tuna-salad place. Please.

But I wrote some poetry, besides the falafel stuff. Here, listen to this. Titled ‘For Stevie’.

Someone kill me, please. 

‘Slam Poetry! Lots of yelling! Waving-’

Pierre, where the fuck are you, Pierre?

‘Generic compliments about hair and eyes. Specific instances where I decided I liked her. Stevie! Ste-uh-vee-’

Okay, forget I ever said you were cool.

‘Not to be confused with steeds or the V in sweaters. Ancient Romans! Lots of uh, gerunds. Loving, big lovey-doving, uh-- girlfriending. Girl, friends -- ding. Doorbell. I reach out- press the button. Butane gas prices. Pa-pa-pa-’

All right, I’m pressing this button.

Wait, wait, wait, I’m not done yet, I’m not do--

***

Tagging:

perma: @quixoticdreamer16 @tessa-liam @stars-are-within-me

I don't know if I ever plan on writing for MaH consistently, but if you are interested in these fun lil stuff, let me know! (Say even a potential Nora-meets-Rowan crossover fic) I'm also thinking if this garners a bit of interest, I'll do a character sheet for Rowan. Thank you so much for reading!

#w:inlocusmads #murder at homecoming #stevie sun x mc #stevie x rowan #choices january challenge

[noodyl-blasstal]

please... b f h u ? thank you 💕

Ooooh, thank you so much for these!

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience? In a shocking turn of events... yes! Generally, a lot of my fics have themes of misunderstandings around dating (e.g. Scamming Me; Scamming you; Moonlight to Sunrise; I PHDo). I have been on so many accidental dates because people just aren't explicitly clear about what they mean when they say stuff like "let's go for a drink" because how on earth is anyone supposed to actually know that's somehow "let's go and get a drink and talk about whether we should get married."

Conference Buddies bears a homage to some of the terrible packed lunches I've had (shout out to the place that decided to combine every single dietary requirement into one horrifying lunch.)

Astrology for Horse Jugglers was a mix of silly ideas and some of the times I've met people who yes anded their way into my heart. Once I was with someone who met an old friend of theirs who was also with someone else. During their conversation we constructed a story so beautiful, so elaborate, that my friend was convinced we also knew each other.

Ten Years Ago Today is about long-term grief and the way it can hit you. Old wounds can feel pretty fresh, even when you think they're healed over.

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

So this is something I'm currently working on. I enjoy this so much because I think it sets up a lot of dynamic and it's fun to play with a one sided conversation like this.

“Mags! Hey! Quick question… cool, oh, yeah, another new puppy? That’s great, when do we get to meet th…” Taako’s going to kill her, he’s going to kill her dead and no jury could convict. He settles for nudging her gently with his elbow instead because he’d miss her eventually. “... sorry Mags, actually, I have to be quick, you know how <i>some people</i> can be… Yes, I will, Magnus says hi.” Taako’s going to eat them both. “Uh huh, look, it’s about the library books, was there one which they didn’t take? … Oh, uh huh, you, you told him he must have made a mistake and that he needed to take it? … and… uh huh… uh huh…  then refused to take it back… uh huh… and after that you just left… even when he shouted at you to come back? … uh huh… Magnus! ….uh huh, yeah, gods… fine. Gotta go, love you bye.” Lup hangs up the phone and looks solemnly at Taako. “So, I have some news.”

H: How would you describe your style? I'm not sure I have a good answer for this. "Silly" is probably my overwhelming descriptor. The stories are usually daft and I usually pour a little bit too much of my heart into them.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much. Ooooh, okay. So. This is tricky because there's so many great people!

@ceilingfan5 of course, I ploughed through your Ao3 back cataogue when I started reading TAZ and it was banger after banger. I love your brain noodles, love the way you embody the characters, and the way your wording is so creative and fun. Your style's just super engaging and lovely and your stories are delightful.

@holdmecloser-gandydancer also has so many great fics. I think about Say it with Flours, The Only One On Your A.M. Radio, A Baggage Claim Candlenights, Rode Hard And Put Away Wet, and some of the works in progress so often.

@mmmarty (spot the theme here) also has so many wonderful fics. Have I seen pacific rim? No. Did I love No Such Thing As Cold (Only The Absence of Heat)? Absolutely. I also think of Magic Club and By The Book often.

But that's not counting @barry-j-blupjeans (endless amazing one shots), @liltaz-asatreat (so many thoughtful, emotionally impactful fics), @taakosleftshoe (aquarium AU!), @jerreeeeeee (incredible world building), Tanacetum (my phone broke mid of faeries and fungus and I was so upset and tracked it down so fast to zoom through the rest), and of course Weevilo707 (also endless great fics).

There's definitely lots of other people I've forgotten too, but I've got a brain like a sieve.

#Sorry I wrote you an essay but thank you so much for your ask!

[subbe93]

Yukiko/Yusaku: Our Greatest Masterpiece

A/N: Okay, you know what? I give up! I have saved this one-shot like two years or something just to post it on Kudo Day, but like every other year before, I missed it again D: So I decided to give up and just post it. If I didn’t remember it this year, I have no idea how I would do it next either.

But a little backstory, because I love to share those. In the winter of 2020, I participated in the Finnish fanfic -server in a challenge named Fluff10, in which the idea was to write ten fluff fics. At first, I wanted to use only ShinRan, but then I decided to participate generally with Detective Conan since there are so many pairings I like. Well, it didn’t go very well: I got four of them written, and only one of those I published. To be honest, I have no idea what happened. But when I started to share my fics on Tumblr, I thought that I shouldn’t let them go in vain, so I decided that maybe with time, I should translate them and share them with you! Though this one has been ready for a long time, I have just waited until Kudo Day ^^’

But yeah, this is the third of those four fics that I wrote in Finnish for that challenge. The first one was Eternal Flame and the second one was Can I have this Dance. But even though this isn’t ShinRan, I hope you like this ❤

Our greatest Masterpiece

Summer started to move beside and fall slowly took over parks in Tokyo. Leaves and bushes lose their green colors and change into yellow, orange, or red ones. The wind started to be a little bit colder, but somehow it felt refreshing. And yet, the afternoon sun made the scenery very bright and beautiful. Looking at how leaves one by one lose their grips from the branches and make them hover around… It somehow looked beautiful, even romantic.

Under the big-brimmed hat, the woman admired the scenery through her sunglasses. On her red lips rested a dreamy smile. The view became more and more romantic when she observed those young couples who walked through the park hand in hand, parents in each other’s arms looking after their little children, and those older ones who had seen many things during their lives, just sitting there peacefully side by side, enjoying the day and each other warmth.

Maybe someday she and…

She felt how the baby stroller moved a little bit. Her eyes moved to look into the stroller where a little, well-dressed five months old boy moved a little bit before continuing his peaceful sleeping. That loving smile that had lost for a moment, came back on her lips when she observed her beautiful little offspring. Yukiko was actually a little surprised that her curious son had been patient enough to close his eyes to take a little daydream. Shinichi has a very calm nature, but curiosity? He got more than enough. Seeing the sky or his parents’ faces wasn’t enough anymore. At home, everything, that Shinichi couldn’t get close enough, interested him very much. He had already learned to turn from back to stomach and back and was dangerously fast learning how to crawl. Yukiko was already worried about what would happen when that boy learned to move on his own.

Yukiko bent a little to stroke the boy’s cheek with her fingers. She needed all her willpower so she wouldn’t take that sleeping child into her arms just that she could press his cheek against hers and yell to the world how little and cute and beautiful her little one was! Oh, she was so proud of her son! She wanted so much to stop everyone she met only to show them her little Shin-chan! She wanted too much to take him into her arms, squeeze him into a gentle hug, drown him in kisses, and babble about how loved he was.

But she didn’t dare to do it. The boy had finally closed his eyes and fallen asleep, and that was an achievement in itself. Instead of sleeping, Shinichi was much more interested to examine and learn about the world around him. He wanted to touch and taste everything that he saw and could grab with his little fingers. Whatever his parents were doing, those bright blue eyes were glued to them. He wanted to see, wanted to know, and if they didn’t show him, he let out a scream only to get their attention, to make them show him what they were doing or what they were holding.

“Ah, you have got Shinichi to sleep?”

Yukiko took away her hand before ripping her eyes away from the boy. She turned to look at the young, dark-haired man who walked closer to her in his long, light brown jacket. Both of his hands were in his pockets, and on his armpit was some kind of book, whose name Yukiko couldn’t see. She met his dark eyes and felt so happy that her husband was finally back.

“Yu-chan!” she shouted shrilly, maybe more loud than she meant to. Fast she covered her mouth with a hand and glanced at the boy, but Shinichi seemed still sleeping without caring about a loud sound. With relief, she let her hand drop and turned back to look at her husband. “What took you so long?” she asked and decided to roast him a little bit. “I started to believe that you had abandoned me already!”

A man let out a soft laugh. He took his left arm away from the pocket and wrapped it around Yukiko, making her come a little closer. Yukiko leaned against him, feeling how Yusaku’s hand went to rest on her waist. “Why would I abandon my beautiful wife and little son?”

Yukiko felt a blush on her cheeks but decided to still be a little offended. “How do I know if some unlucky young, beautiful girl has taken you with her.”

Yusaku let out a laugh, making Yukiko look at him. “But how is that possible?” he asked with a smile and dark eyes met her. “I already got Japanese youngest and the most beautiful wife.” Yukiko felt her cheeks burning more when the man came a little closer his eyes twinkling. “No one can’t beat you.”

His lips touched Yukiko’s reddish cheek. Yukiko smiled. She turned her face a little bit, enough that she could press her lips against Yusaku’s and exchange a loving kiss. She grabbed the back of his jacket, ensuring he couldn’t leave – like he was even doing that.

Then they moved away from the kiss and pressed their foreheads against each other. Yukiko opened her eyes, looking straight into those familiar, dark ones. She wouldn’t ever get tired of looking at them…

“You know I love you?”

She felt how her heart made a somersault. She let go of his jacket and raised her hand to touch his cheek to stroke it. “Love you too”, she answered gently before leaning a little closer to steal one kiss, then another…

A little sound from the baby made them move away from each other. Both of them looked in the baby stroller where their little offspring made sounds at the same time while he was moving. For a while, he looked like searching for a better position to be before stopping and calming down. Both parents waited for a while, but when the boy didn’t open his eyes, Yusaku moved a little bit away from his wife.

“We should probably continue our walk”, he said, taking that book from his right armpit. Yukiko tried to see the name of it while Yusaku looked at the clock on his left wrist. “I have a feeling that Shinichi is going to wake up soon and be hungry.”

“Probably”, Yukiko answered and observed how Yusaku put the book into the stroller beside Shinichi’s little feet. For fast she could see the name of the book and the author before Shinichi moved his feet and hid part of it. “Is that your new book?” she asked and turned to look at her husband who was looking at their son with a soft expression. “I didn’t know they were printing it already!”

“That was only a specimen”, he answered a little absently before he straightened himself and looked at his wife with a smile. “However, they said it would be ready to be sold after two weeks.”

Yukiko’s smile widened. “That’s wonderful, Yu-chan!” she chirped happily and pressed a new kiss on his cheek. “It’s going to be your greatest masterpiece!”

“No, it won’t”, Yusaku answered, making Yukiko’s smile disappear. Yet, the man smiled and pressed a kiss on her lips before turning to look at their son. “Mine… No, our greatest masterpiece exists already.”

Yukiko stared at him for a moment before following his gaze to the baby stroller. For a moment she stared at sleeping Shinichi before she started to smile gently, feeling love, happiness, and pride. Then she let out a laugh and pressed closer into Yusaku’s arms. “You’re right”, she agreed. “He definitely is.”

#Detective Conan #Yusaku/Yukiko #Yusaku Kudo #Yukiko Kudo #Shinichi Kudo #Fanfiction #Fluff #Romance #I don't know #I'm so bad with tags xD

[natdrinkstea]

Zelda 3 - L + un

so this one isn't writing as much as it is a little thought exercise @haijinks and I use to keep each other occupied and it is What Would Our Perfect BOTW/TOTK follow-up look like?

putting this under a cut :) it's long :)

our basic premise so far (Nintendo you can pay us $10000000 to use this) is that it's about five (maybe ten?) ish years post totk and link is visibly older! late 20s, early 30s, less boyish and more of a Real Adult. He's still getting used to having Both Arms Again, but in general everything is Normal now? Rebuilding after the Calamity is near finished, Tulin and Riju are all grown up (😭), and in general everything is chill. until! inciting incident! don't freak out, but Ganon's once again trying come back. BOO! but in my vision his soul or whatever is a sort of shooting star, a meteorite slowly falling from the sky directly towards Hyrule castle. (Imagine a huge ball of white-red light hovering above the castle throughout the game. UGH. isn't that COOL).

Guess Link is back at it again!

Because I miss them, Link has to go on a little cross-country journey, Zelda in tow, to attempt to convince the Sages/Champions to- you guessed it- BRING THE DIVINE BEASTS BACK! and he has a little quest in each region similar to botw where we get to reprogram each divine beast to aim its laser towards the Ganon Meteor. in these little quests we get to see how the last fifteenish years have really impacted the people of this world- two world-ending catastrophes that close together have got to leave a mark. how did Tulin and Riju manage growing up in Revali and Urbosa's footsteps, and having to save the world so young? Is Yunobo cool again? Is Sidon still hot?

our idea for the Gerudo/Naboris quest specifically was that just before the time this takes place, word got out about the existence of a young gerudo who (gasp!) is a boy. this isn't necessarily bad, but after ganondorf everyone's a bit on edge. so, zelda and link go to check it out, and learn that this kid's totally normal, just a bit desperate to prove his worth after being Hidden In Shame for so long. it'd be sad and about generational trauma or whatever

other things of note:

-> ZELDA DOESN'T DISAPPEAR IN THIS ONE! She actually travels with Link for some of the more plot-heavy portions of the game! I think she maybe provides some cool mechanic or something, like the memories in BOTW but if they weren't pictures. Maybe she's just a walking sheikah slate/purah pad lmao. AMD SHE CAN BE HELPFUL IN COMBAT. somehow. we haven't figured it out. can you summon her like the Sages? who knows

-> similarly, Zelda was fucked up big time by the Dragon-ing and I think another main quest has something to do with the fallout of that. maybe her cool powers are fucking up, or she has scary nightmares about being a dragon again, or visions or smth. idk man. wouldn't it be cool though.

-> link gets a third set of cool new superpowers. no ideas for what those would be

-> you can sit down whenever you want in this one

-> MY BIGGEST NEW ADDITION: because totk introduced the sky islands and the depths as new areas, we have ... drumroll.... two new divine beasts!! that's right, in the last few years people have made these areas hospitable and that means they need a giant robot animal too. to fit in. In my heart the depths beast is a snake, with the mechanic being that it's coiled around a huge stalagmite and you can rotate it up or down from the map. the sky one is a dragonfly!!!!!! and maybe it flaps its wings in a fun way! who knows!

-> you can decorate Link's house in Hateno however you want. just because I want to

-> nothing about shrines yet! I'm thinking maybe a weird mixture of the botw and totk ones? but we're not totally sure.

-> At the beginning of the game Link decides he is Retired and puts the Master Sword back!!! By the Deku Tree! so you have to get it back! but it's different this time somehow. somehow. we don't know everything.

send ideas if u have them!!! this is basically fanfiction

#ask nat #moonon #legend of zelda #<< for my own organizational purposes

[inheroes--wetrust]

ok this is based on first read only so it might get crazy but there is no fucking way that kiriona is gideon. evidence below anyone please feel free to discuss i am FERAL over here

(EDIT: no fucking way that kiriona is *full gideon. i am now fully in camp "kiriona is gideon with some very very key pieces missing like oh i dont know her love and humanity")

1) during the broadcast and in the book, it's made very clear that gideon's body is dead. she's described as waxy like naberius (who we all know is dead as a doornail). if it's gideon's body and gideon's soul, they should snap back together no issues. palamedes seems to think that just bringing nona close to gideon's body would draw her soul out and gideon would be whole again, and palamedes is the smartest necromancer of his generation (love you bb). there's a soul piloting a body here. they aren't cohesive.

2) tamsyn said in a recent interview (https://books.tumblr.com/post/693388542787846144/writer-spotlight-tamsyn-muir-tamsyn-muir-probably) there is a pecking order to POV characters. paraphrasing here, but she said that if possible, gideon is first and foremost the POV character. we obviously see this in HtN - gideon is narrating the mithraeum chapters of the book, and as soon as she comes to the surface, she is the POV character. when they first came into contact with gideon's walking and talking corpse, i half expected POV to switch to gideon, but we never got that.

3) a fucking FRIENDSHIP BRACELET? with IANTHE???? hell fucking no. what in the world. why would they even put that there? it makes absolutely zero sense, there's no point to it other than for nona to point out they're working together. chekhov's friendship bracelet. maybe ianthe is controlling gideon's corpse somehow? i have no idea it's four in the morning.

4) the way she interacts with everyone but especially the sixth house. you expect me to believe that gideon nav sees a dying cam for the first time since her sacrifice and is just like oh hey cam looks like you're dying soon? absolutely not. the sex pal thing was also aggressive. very "hey palamedes remember that thing we did together who else would know i called you sex pal once". iirc, she never actually called him that - she was just pointing out a fun gideon fact.

5) she doesn't care about harrow. gideon cares EXCLUSIVELY about harrow. gideon "it was not my thumb to let them bite off" sees alecto piloting harrow's body and just says sure i'm going to let that happen? not in ten thousand years.

this obviously leaves a million questions starting with 1) who is kiriona and 2) WHERE IS GIDEON but these are 100% two different souls. tamsyn i need alecto now please and thank you.

EDIT: More evidence on the second reread.

6) when cam and nona-as-harrow go to see ianthe, ianthe says, "How are you surviving, Harrowhark the First? How can you stand beneath the light of Number Seven? Unless I am addressing..." and then nona screams, there's a general panic, and ianthe is like FINE OKAY FUCKING RELAX and tells nona she's coming back to the emperor with her. lyctors can survive an RB when their cavs are at the forefront. harrow's cav is gideon. and pre-NtN, harrow had a lobotomy that caused her to have a breakdown at the sound of gideon's name. what else would she have been saying other than "Unless I am addressing Gideon Nav", which should make no sense considering ianthe knows full well that kiriona exists. unless of course kiriona is not gideon or at least not gideon all the way.

7) https://www.tor.com/2022/09/13/tamsyn-muir-on-lyctorhood-as-genderfuckery-and-greasy-bible-study-in-nona-the-ninth/ new interview by tamsyn for the nona release. the last question strongly hints that gideon's body and gideon's soul - or at least not all of it - are not in the same place, and at least some of it is still with harrow.

8) pyrrha says john shouldn't have been able to pull gideon's soul all the way back to put her back in her body. she explicitly says that harrow still has a piece of gideon and john could not have gotten it back, AND that john should have been able to do better. he resurrects. that's LITERALLY his thing. he should have been able to bring gideon back perfectly, but he didn't. why?

9) get in line, thou big slut. on first glance, this is gideon nav to a t. i love her so much. however. i find it SUPER interesting that slut, which has (to my knowledge) never been used in the previous two books, is used twice in NtN both by ianthe - once about the original lyctors, once about corona. idk what it was about it, but the use of it three times in the book, when previous insults have been along the lines of "you mutant, you mistake, you great big calf-eyed fuck-up" just struck me a little. iffy. this one is definitely more out there but the use of slut in the book just stood out to me for some reason (a sentence you can only type when talking about the locked tomb).

upon further review i have decided that kiriona and gideon are definitely not 100% the same soul, but kiriona could have a piece of gideon's soul, because a lot of the ninth house stuff is very gideon, especially with crux. i still want alecto now.

#nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #nona spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers #nona the ninth #the locked tomb #gideon nav

[misshanbb]

First Lines

I was tagged by my baby @sasblr. ❤️

Rules:

Post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to AO3. (Sort by date posted.) If you have less than 10 fics posted, post what you have!

born at dawn and the ruler of all LITA, Phayu/Rain, kid fic, fluffy family feels, ABO 'verse

Being pregnant is as magical and frustrating and annoying as he thought it would be. Rain loves the idea of his pup being inside him, that he’s creating this beautiful new life, that he’s carrying Phayu’s baby.

a dream come true LITA, Phayu/Rain, midsummer, soulmates, ABO 'verse, sequel to dream a little dream of me

Rain knew he had eaten the food his Mama had made but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was he’d put into his mouth. He just kept thinking about his Alpha. His Alpha! He had found his Alpha!

destiny's first meeting LITA RPF, Boss/Noeul, ABO 'verse, first meeting, "canon compliant"

There was something tugging Boss to the lithe omega, to Noeul, that he couldn’t put his finger on. He wanted to protect the omega, wanted to make sure he’s taken care of, wanted to make sure he was treated right.

dream a little dream of me LITA, Phayu/Rain, midsummer, soulmates, ABO 'verse

There weren’t that many holidays that Rain really believed in like the Summer Solstice. He liked the Winter Solstice celebrations for the lightness it brought in the dark months, and he did appreciate Liberation Day and Pack Week for the days off. But the Summer Solstice was something special. It made him feel like he was a part of something bigger than himself.

between the possibilities we aspire to and our wounded memories and past mistakes LITA, Phayu/Rain, Pacific Rim!AU, Emotional Hurt/Comfort

The entire world was stunned when the monsters appeared. At first it didn’t seem to be real, a sort of mass-hallucination, and the conspiracy theorists quickly claimed government involvement while the government tried to hush it down. But the news of the catastrophic damage done to the world couldn’t be quiet for long and the monsters quickly got a name: Kaiju.

the smallest act of caring LITA, Phayu/Rain, Domestic Fluff, Rain takes care of Phayu

It hurt Rain to see the stress in every line in Phayu’s body. His hubby was working so hard, doing more jobs than any one person should do, and demanding himself to be far too good at all of them to be healthy. 

in the darkest depths of my heart 镇魂 | Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Character Study, Episode Missing Scene

Shen Wei had known for ten thousand years that Zhao Yunlan, Kunlun, was the heroic type. Of course he was. He wouldn’t have disguised himself as the Great General in a war he had no connection to to aid the Alliance otherwise. Shen Wei was not. He was the opposite; in his heart a selfish being. 

in another life, would we still be us? LITA, Phayu/Rain, Canon Divergence, Rain conspires to date Phayu to expose him

The very first time Rain sees Phayu, he doesn’t know who he is. He doesn’t understand that the person in front of him is someone very special. Of course, Rain doesn’t know that Phayu is Phayu at that time. What he did know at the time was that the person in front of him was a good person, a very attractive good person. 

in the light of the moon LITA, Phayu/Rain, ABO 'verse, Royalty AU, Arranged Marriage

Phayu sinks his body deeper into the Moon Pond, sighing heavily. The water is just warm enough to act as a comforting blanket, a balm to a tense body. He tries to not let the First Meeting get to him. He hadn’t necessarily been looking forward to meeting his new husband, but he had been cautiously interested.

so close and yet so far away LITA RPF, Boss/Noeul, Royalty AU, Bodyguard Boss and Prince Noeul, Pining

There are things Noeul likes about being a Prince. He gets the opportunity to go to many new places and meet many new people and get to learn so many new things.

I tag everyone that wants to do this.

#type: text #type: fanfic #my writing #LITA #镇魂 | Guardian #PhayuRain #BossNoeul #Weilan

[kitchfit]

Year In Review: Viddy Game Pt 4 (Happy Mario Day!!!)

Oops! All Mario! To prepare for the release of Super Mario Wonder, I wanted to play through as many of the Mario games I never played before as I could. There are a few wayward titles I missed, but I’m sure I’ll end up playing those sometime in the distant year of 2024. Damn that sounds like a fake year. I hinted in earlier reviews that this was something of a nightmare to accomplish, but that was just me being silly. They’re Mario games! All of these were pretty fun.

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

I started out my Mariothon with the story-driven series I had never actually touched. I’ve played all the (good) Paper Mario games, but I’ve never touched the other side of the plumber’s rpgs. The combat was a refreshing change of pace after all those Final Fantasy games. It’s almost as much of a rhythm game as it is turn based, which makes it very engaging. I also like what it adds to the Mario World. Luigi has been characterized in several of the RPGs and his own spin off series, but having him along for the entire ride in this story driven game makes him somehow more endearing to me than he was before. I like to imagine this takes place right after Super Paper Mario, and Mario is making sure his best bro is safely right next to him after the shit he went through.

The Bean Bean Kingdom feels like a suitable alternative to the Mushroom one we’ve grown familiar with. A lot of the older games had introduced other Themed Kingdoms, like the Jewelry Kingdom in Yoshi’s Safari or Sarasaland in Mario Land, which is based on types of tea. And Mario Odyssey would assert the entire world being organized into these Kingdoms, so Bean Bean fits right in! It’s super fun to explore the fresh areas with a familiar aesthetic. I only wish these Bean characters would make more appearances outside of this game. I guess they show up in the other Mario and Luigis, but Reggie knows what I mean. Put Prince Peasley in Mario Kart, coward!

New Super Mario Bros

When this game released I had no idea that 2D Mario had been put on hold for ten whole years. From my perspective Super Mario World had only been released earlier that year in 2006, on Nintendo’s brand new console, the hand-me-down Game Boy Advance I got from my cousin. So when my friend showed me New Super Mario Bros. on his Fancy DS Lite in 2009, I wasn’t that impressed. This one didn’t even have the cape, or the Tanooki suit from Mario 3! I was not impressed. What it did have was a fun as hell competitive mode that I could play with my friend via DS download play (which is an awesome system they should bring back), so I never felt the need to seek out a copy.

Playing it now, the game is a lot more distinctive than I gave it credit for. While the world themes are based around the generic grass, ice, fire, etc. themes the Mario games always recycle in some way, the level designs give a good sense of cohesiveness, and the new power-ups: the tiny mushroom, Mega Mushroom, and Blue Shell significantly alter how you approach the level. When you’re tiny, you get a higher jump and can get into hidden paths, but touching Anything Will You, while Mega Mario can ignore everything and cause as much carnage as possible. The Blue Shell lets Mario continuously slide and kill anything in your path provided you keep whatever initial momentum you started with, making this game the singular moment the red plumber stole something from the blue hedgehog. The low-res 3D artstyle felt dated when I first saw this game, since I wasn’t enjoying the industry norm of changing every franchise to 3D. “Give me my pixels, damn you!” said 8-year-old Kitch. I now find it really charming, especially compared to the later entries in the “New” series. There are a lot of original enemies in this game that never show up again. I need everyone to look at the Snailicorn immediately.

Super Mario 64 DS

I was always told this was the inferior version of Mario 64 due to the limited control scheme. Instead of full 360 movement, you are now cut down to 8 directional movements cycled on the d-pad. However, I played this game on the 3DS, and the analogue stick made those 8 directions flow seamlessly. The other change is the addition of a Run Button, one that I was not aware of until futilely trying to race against Koopa the Quick. That’s right, for the entire fight against King Bob-omb, I had just assumed this game ran like shit, or that Yoshi was intentionally designed to be extremely slow until I happened to hold down the b-button as if this was some kind of. 2D MARIO GAME? In 3D??? It’s a sensible change, but one that is only communicated by experimenting with the controls, which someone who has already beaten the original game 3 times wouldn’t really think to try. And since there’s little need to ever Not Run, holding that button down for the ENTIRE GAME started to get annoying towards the end.

Otherwise, it was really nice returning to this classic. The calm atmosphere in exploring the Mushroom Castle and revealing its little secrets makes it genuinely unmatched as a hubworld, and the levels, while mostly generically themed, cram tons of personality into such small areas. Realizing how tiny levels like Cool, Cool Mountain and Big Boo’s Haunt are actually startled me, since I spent so much time as a kid exploring the nooks and crannies of those areas. There are also a lot of new stuff hidden across these levels that either unlock or are accessed by the new playable characters. Each of them have their own movement speeds and abilities, but none of them really play as well as the Mario Himself, so changing into them was mostly situational. I loved the new boss fights that unlocked them, though. Adding Goomboss from Paper Mario into the OG 3D Mario made me really happy. I’ve still never 100% this game, but if I go back, I might actually make sure it’s this version I complete.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

The awaited sequel to the GBA game, I hear absolute jackshit about this game when people talk about the Mario and Luigi series. I assumed it was the runt that came between the beloved classics of Superstar and Bowser’s Inside Story, but that isn’t true at all. In fact, I think I like this game more than Superstar. Since it’s on the DS, there’s a naturally higher fidelity with the pixel art, the premise is more interesting, and it adds a new layer to both the combat and overworld movement in the form of the BA-BIES. Since there are two new X and Y buttons, you get Baby Mario and Baby Luigi as additions to your playable characters, meaning at any one time you are juggling Four Whole Mario Bros. all for the price of One! The game is noticeably more difficult than Superstars, nothing too crazy, but I did die a lot more. Or I am just Bad At Games.

Like the previous entry, this game is oozing charm out of every bodily orifice it has. Mario and Luigi are characterized extremely well as they step up as babysitters. It warmed my heart everytime Luigi purposefully goofed up to make the babies laugh or whenever Mario shouted “BA-BIES” in concern whenever they were in trouble. It may be the most overt personality he’s ever really shown. The time travel mechanic isn’t super in-depth, the present time basically acts as a hub world, but we get some more of that Sweet Mario Lore as they explore the Days of Mushroom Past. Autocorrect wants me to say Pasta. We get to see Baby Peach and Younger Toadsworth at some point after Yoshi’s Island, an E Gad pre-ghost fascination, and also these alien freaks who look suspiciously like Fucked Up Toads. What does this mean for them? Are Toads themselves descended from aliens, or vice versa? Will we ever get to see “Toads In Space?!” Some kind of… “MARIO GALAXY???” Only the future can tell.

Super Mario 3D Land

Nintendo was able to put a 3D Mario on a handheld in the last generation, so I guess the new hurdle was an ORIGINAL 3D  Mario on the Three Dee Ess. This serves that purpose well. I could honestly end it there. The level design is well executed around the controls that are based on Galaxy, and it translates really well. They brought back the Highly Acclaimed Tanooki Suit that lends itself nicely to 3D platforming, and also seemed to be a selling point of the game? A lot of the Goombas and Koopas are now wearing the tanooki suit, and even Peach gets to show off the fit at the end of the game. You can’t play as her though, it’s just there to tease you. Luigi is an unlockable character with his own set of remixed levels, but that’s really it.

And that’s the thing, this game is fun, but it’s also kind of… Nothing? If you’ve played 3D Land, tell me: Where does it take place? The Mushroom Kingdom? That’s probably a good guess, but there’s nothing that really shows that, is there? There’s little to no cohesion between the levels. The level select is a linear screen with a multicolor background. You’ll be playing a water level immediately following some weird toy-themed level with absolutely zero context. Where are we? What’s happening? No one really looks for a story in a Super Mario game, but the lack of any real context makes this game super forgettable to me. It’s just a selection of random levels, and a Lot of the levels are repeated with slight differences. Why? TELL ME REGGIE. At the very least we get these cute letters from Peach showing her own adventure escaping Bowser. That would’ve been a fun to play, but this game won’t let you go Girl Mode. Oh well.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

This is one of those “underrated Mario gems.” Maybe the only one. Super Mario Land is pretty mediocre, so I’m not surprised its sequel fell by the wayside. It’s super creative for a GB game, and because of the power of Cool Internet People, I got to play this in color! Lucky me :) The whole game takes place in a magical theme park that was maybe created at the end of one of the Mario Parties. Did anyone else make that connection? I know one guy did. They go ham on the level designs: an area that makes you tiny so Mario is battling ants, a bubble ride that takes you into space to fight Pig Creatures, a mechanical Mario; at one point you go inside a whale. It’s wacky! The enemy design reflects this too, there’s a bunch of Weirdos, like the Pig Creature:

The goal is to find those 6 Golden Coins in each world to unlock the Mario Castle, with the caveat that Mario will lose all his coins upon a game over and have to track them down again. You only have to repeat the boss fights however, so it’s not a complete wipe. My Boy Wario is introduced in this game, and he really does come across as this supernatural, corrupted parody of our portly performer that the commercials for this game made him out to be. But the official word is he’s just Mario’s childhood rival that was upset they didn’t name a castle after him. Don’t worry, Wario! I’m sure you’ll get yours soon.

Super Mario 3D World pt 1

This one is just stellar all around. It makes 3D Land look like a tech demo in comparison. Every level showcases a degree of creativity on par with Galaxy while keeping 3D Land’s linear design. Every part of this experience is just so damn satisfying, the new power ups, targeting the tops of the flagpoles, riding on Yobbo the Swimming Yoshi, and you can go GIRL MODE. My biggest complaint about 3D land is that they teased a playable Princess Peach without actually ever giving it to you, and now I refuse to play this game as any other character. Except when the game makes me play as Mario or Toad to get all the Green Stars. Also the GREEN STARS.

The secondary collectables have never felt as necessary as it does in 3D World. They add an incentive to explore the levels or find an extra challenge that are actually Worth searching for. I don’t remember if they really gave you anything, but I still liked finding them. 

Also the MUSIC, the ost slaps so hard in this game. We’re moved to a new setting in 3D World, and the soundtrack and aesthetics match that vibe. It’s unique, it’s bOMBASTIC. There are two new power ups in the form of CAT and CHERRIES. The cat can run up walls, while the cherries can make a double of your character. The former is generally the best playstyle for most of the game a la the Tanooki suit, while the latter works as a fun challenge that gets really creative with its limits as you control two or three or six characters with one controller. There’s even a bonus mode at the end based on Galaxy where you can. Guess What? GO GIRL MODE EVEN HARDER. I haven’t done it yet but hey. I Am Going To.

Bowser’s Fury

This is one of the few I actually 100% completed. I was on a Dollywood trip with some friends and after the festivities ended at Guy Fieri’s Shitty Arcade and Ripley’s Wacky Wonderworks we stayed in the cabin and chilled out. I didn’t have a ton else to do while everyone was resting so I got really into Bowser’s Fury. Our first taste of what may be Open World Mario. It’s fun! Mario is stranded in the middle of a lake with wildly clashing aesthetics that somehow just works. Light blue dominates the eyes hampered by the slimy black of the magic ink polluting the water around you. There are small yellow islands dotting the lake and floating in the air. And when you get to these islands? Cats! They’re all cats! There are cats on the ground, cat ears on the goombas, Cat Koopas, Kitty Boombooms, everything is a cat!! Even the grass is cat fur! You have cat to be kitten me, right meow! It’s a place so suitably weird for the Mario universe, I could easily see Lake Lapcat being introduced in one of the earlier Paper Marios.

Gameplay wise this is just a big Mario Oddysey world with more… direction? The lack of a real swimming mechanic in Bowser’s Fury makes the ocean a fun place for movement and little else, though there are occasional challenges for Yobbo the Swimming Yoshi to run through. It makes Lapcat feel like a massive hubworld of sorts, with no divide between it and the level, It’s as if in Mario Galaxy you could walk straight from Rosalina’s Observatory directly onto a new planet without going through the Domes, if that makes sense. It’s short, but super fun for what it is. You get all the power ups from 3D World to play around in less linearly designed levels, and it lets you stock up on them through an inventory system. Bowser Jr. follows you around and acts cute! Mario and Bowser turn into Kaijus and you have a Godzilla vs King Kong style boss fight. I guess Mario would be King Kong in that analogy… Nintendo may need the help of John Kirby once more…

Super Mario Sunshine

I had never heard about this game’s existence until I was like 15. My friend told me it was one of her favorite Gamecube games growing up, and I did not believe her. Every description she gave about Super Mario Sunshine sounded like she was messing with me. “Oh yea it’s the game where Mario goes on vacation and he like, gets framed for vandalism? And you have a water gun and you clean paint.” Fuck off with that, you’re not getting me! I thought it was a running joke she had until I looked closely at Mario's trophy in Brawl that referenced the same name. Huh! 

Anyways this is my first time actually playing it on the 3D All-Stars collection. I started it when it was released, but I reached a point where I had no idea what I was supposed to do until my cousin who grew up with it told me I needed almost every shinesprite to beat the game. ALSO WEIRD. The other 3D Marios let you go at your own pace and pick and choose which levels you want, but here all but the last levels are required. I guess this is because Sunshine is more “narratively driven” and they want you to watch how each world changes through your actions. I can appreciate that! Mario 64 experimented with that a bit, like the tower appearing at the top of Whomp fortress in Star 2 or King Bo-bomb’s corpse appearing at the bottom of his battlefield after you coup de tated that fucker. Sunshine, however, has levels like Noki Bay where each level has Mario tackle the source of the pollution, or Gelato beach where you make sure a hotel is suitable for reopening and even get to celebrate at the end.

The controls on the other hand. My cousin described them as “lovably janky.” Mario no longer has the long jump, which startled me every time I tried to long jump, which was a lot cause I have the memory of a housefly. Wall jumping is harder to pull off as Mario does not automatically turn towards the wall like other Mario games, so you have to time it perfectly, and Mario’s overall movement is very awkward. I never felt like he jumps the exact distance I expect him to go. This is probably to make the player more reliant on Fludd, the aforementioned water gun that can let you hover as well as two other fun, but useless abilities. Fludd is very fun to use, but they take it away from you during the platform challenges and it reveals just how janky Mario is in this game. I guess it also makes them more satisfying to complete. Still, since these levels are required, I probably would have given up ever beating the game if I played it as a kid.

New Super Mario Bros 2

This is a similar case to 3D Land. It seems the goal of this entry was “put a 2D Mario on the 3DS,” which was a less impressive goal given the OG New Super Mario was already playable on the 3DS. It’s much prettier, I guess. The big name of this game is “Coins.” Coins are everywhere in this game. There’s a new power-up, the Golden Flower, that lets you turn blocks and enemies into coins. Another power-up that gives Mario a coin every step he makes. There are Golden Koopas that produce coins when thrown. There’s a counter on the home screen that shows how many total coins you’ve got, and the game notifies you every time you reach a “Coin milestone.”

Yea I’ve never cared about collecting coins in Mario games. It’s not like they unlock anything that matters in this one, they just congratulate you every three minutes and if you get One Million coins you get a new title screen. That’s kind of cool, but not something I would actually care to try and get. What I’m left with is the most standard 2D Mario game to exist. The Tanooki suit is here, but like 3D Land, you still can’t go Girl Mode. Unless you count Luigi. Genderfluïd King. Despite this, I do find myself coming back to this one quite a bit to carve out some of the bonus worlds. It’s slightly harder than the other games in the “New” series. Maybe if they leaned into that, like the OG Mario 2, it would be more memorable. Wait, this is the 3rd New Super Mario game. Why is it called 2? The hell?

New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe

As the final entry in the “New” series, it makes sense that this is the most polished version of that game style. The world designs are still based on the tried and exhausted Grass, Desert, Snow, etc. aesthetics, but here there are a lot more unique level designs or some that are SO COOL aesthetically, like the level based around a Van Gogh painting. I wish there were more levels like that, but in THE LEAST, this is the first New Super Mario game to introduce CONTEXTUALIZATION. This is something I’ve been complaining about with these new mario games. Super Mario World (the best one) has a beautiful map level-select. When you’re in Donut Plains on the map, the level reflects that design, taking place on a field, and when you go in a cave, THE LEVEL TAKES PLACE IN A CAVE. Imagine that. It’s such a simple thing that adds so much to the experience. You are actually traveling through a world, not just choosing random shit off a menu. U Deluxe’s map isn’t as cool as World’s, but it was still immensely fun to discover all its little secrets, and made me realize how much I missed World’s map design. Maybe I should play that game instead.

There is one unforgivable sin in Mario U specific to Deluxe. There’s an original playable female character in the form of Toadette! Girl Mode! Finally! And it SUCKS! It’s not actually that bad, but playing as Toadette gives you access to Peachette, whose existence replaces all power-ups in the game while playing as her. So Girl Mode is actively worse to play than any other mode, except funny rabbit mode. But that’s only if you want to be a funny rabbit. She’s meant to be “easy mode,” which is a bit demeaning given she’s the only female character, but I get the desire for an easier way for kids to play the game, I just wish it didn’t lock you out of all of the power-ups. Speaking of which, there are a Lot of power-ups in this game, but a lot of them are hidden for some reason, like the Propellor Hat and Penguin suit, which I found 1 and None of, respectively. Why are they in the game if I can’t use them? These aren’t collectors items, they’re funny little costumes that are supposed to be FUN. WE’RE ALL HAVING FUN HERE.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

FINALLY they’re letting Mario be WEIRD AGAIN. The artstyle of the New Super Mario Bros. games got heavily criticized after this one was announced for being “soulless” and “boring,” but I wouldn’t say that. Because I don’t think it’s true! They’re vibrant and colorful games with an obvious ton of talent and heart put into them. I would, however, describe them more as “corporate.” Homogenized and Marketable. Mario and Gang have been kept to their models in every game since the DS and everyone has clearly been exhausted by it. Wonder is breaking the trend, and Mario looks fucking Weird.

He’s so much rounder, his clothes have a different texture, and his eyes are bigger and brighter. His eyebrows are clipping through his hat! He looks like a plastic toy brought to life, which is not an insult. All of the characters are brilliantly animated to pull off this new look, and I refuse to try out embedding videos in Tumblr so you just have to trust me. It’s not that I want Mario to stay like this, but I DEFINITELY want them to Keep Being Weird Like This.

The weirdness doesn’t end at the artstyle. There are three new power-ups, the Elephant Apple, Bubble Flower, and the Drill Shroom, the last of which is carried over from Mario Galaxy 2’s Spin Drill in terms of gameplay. The Bubble Flower lets you capture things in Bubbles and lets you jump on them for extra air time, and the Elephant Flower turns you into a Fucking Ele Phant. Twice as big, can swipe things with your trunk, can carry WATER in your trunk. Truly the Mario experience we’ve been missing. There are also the most playable characters than there have ever been in a mainline Mario game. Peach, Toadette, AND Daisy in her first playable appearance. THREE FORMS OF GIRL MODE. Nintendo knew what my main Mario complaint was before I ever thought of it.

The main draw of this game, however, are the additions of the Wonder Flowers. There are no levels that stand out against the other, more standard levels like the New Super games, because literally every level in this game is FANTASTIC. The Wonder Flowers are an extra challenge midway through any level that changes it into something WEIRD AS HELL. Maybe the level speeds up and slows down rapidly, maybe you have to dodge walking Piranha Plants as they sing an acapella stage performance, maybe you turn into a Goomba yourself and have to avoid being eaten by a predator. It can be literally ANYTHING. Every level is exciting to go through because you want to see what NONSENSE those crazy bastards have come up with. 

Not to mention the world design. The Flower Kingdom is BEAUTIFUL and similar to the Beanbean Kingdom in terms of cohesion. There’s another country right next to the Mushroom Kingdom with a new botanical aesthetic we’ve never heard of before? That makes sense! It feels perfectly natural for it to be part of this universe. This is another of the three I went to the effort of 100% completing, and some of those last levels are HARD. I gave myself a migraine on the final badge challenge. Also BADGES. They’re cool. Some provide an extra movement option and others make movement actively worse as a way to challenge yourself. Some are just fun! It adds a neat level of replayability to the game as you experiment with them all.

You also get a fantastic reward for completing all the levels. It is. SO Stupid. Extremely dumb. And I have never been more satisfied with a completion reward in a Mario game.

Super Mario Galaxy

To end out my Mariothon, I celebrated with another playthrough of my favorite game featuring a space-faring plumber, Super Mario Galaxy. This was the game that made me fall in love with the series, and in my eyes, still has not been beaten by other Mario titles in terms of atmosphere (PUN). It is just so fun to exist in the levels in these games in a way I can’t say about other Mario titles, except maybe Odyssey and 64. I could follow the objective, climb on the honey walls as Bee Mario, or hop across apples and pears so large they’ve become planetoids and have a great time, fantastic even. But I could also walk around Honeyhive and Deep Dark and look around the scenery and play around with the controls, which are restrained, but refined compared to the previous 3D Marios. Most of the purple coin levels are designed to do exactly that. Galaxy is by no means a sandbox game, but it retains those elements from Sunshine and 64.

Maybe that feeling just comes out of nostalgia. This was at one point the only game I would play on my wii for months on end. It’s like comfort food to me. One time I heard a local cafe play the Galaxy main theme on the speaker as I was walking by and I just. Paused for a bit, leaned against the brick exterior and soaked in the vibes. Listening to that pristine orchestral track whilst watching people come home from a full day of work, or following the actions of a cat decided whether or not to eat a bug running for its life. There’s probably a copyright issue they were violating, but who cares, Fuck Nintendo.

There is one thing that I know isn’t just nostalgia. The older I get the more I appreciate the storybook section of Galaxy. Every few worlds you complete, you’ll get a notification that Rosalina has a story to tell you, and you’ll hear a chapter out of her children’s book detailing her past. It has a melancholy vibe and it’s a genuinely beautiful and heartfelt story with a gorgeous handpainted artstyle:

Supposedly, Koizumi (co-director on the game) snuck this feature in without Miyomoto’s knowledge, and he hated it. When he discovered it after the game was released, he was upset enough that to this day Nintendo has not let Koizumi direct a big release. Apparently, he thought it ruined the game’s tone. I don’t know if I believe that, and I don’t feel like fact checking that shit, but if so, I’m glad Koizumi got it past the guy. It elevates the game’s overall story to an absurd degree in my eyes, providing Galaxy with one of the best endings in any video game I have played.

My ONE criticism. MY singular gripe. Is the title itself. “Galaxy” has always bothered me. “Battlerock GALAXY?” “Loop de Loop GALAXY???” Miyomoto sir, those are SOLAR SYSTEMS. And tiny ass solar systems at best. Sometimes just singular planetoids. But obviously Super Mario System or Super Mario Tiny Ass Planet isn’t as Marketable as- What the fuck was that? Wait, hold on. Sorry guys. Computer, ENHANCE.

What the fuck is this? I’ve always noticed it there in the background, but… I’ve never considered… is this Earth??? The surface of the Mario Planet? Are you telling me all of these “galaxies” are simply a collection of stylized MOONS??? Do we ever actually leave the outer atmosphere? Well, maybe. Looking at the skyboxes of a few more worlds, it seems we do actually bounce around a few other planets, but they’re nearly always there, holding our bee-themed satellites in rotation of itself. That makes more cosmological sense, I suppose, but I’ll stand by that Super Mario Satellite wouldn’t have been too horrible of a name if Nintendo wanted some fucKING ACCURACY WITH THEIR TITLES. HAPPY MARIO DAY EVERYONE. The big MAR10. I totally planned for this to release exactly today, and it’s not just because I put this whole project on the backburner while I focused on my Real Life Job. Thank you to everyone who has been reading these (I see you). I’ve repeated before that these reviews are mostly for me, but the few people that have been leaving likes did motivate me to keep going. I’ll be posting more things on this blog in the future, but I’m not sure I’ll do the Year in Review thing in this manner again. Look forward to more of my ramblings! Or don’t! Skim them in mild interest! Don’t read them at all! Either way, wahoo! Yippee! Yahaha! And Have A Blessed Mario Day.

#mario #mario day #mar10 #okay here we go #super mario 64 #mario & luigi #mario and luigi #superstar saga #partners in time #new super mario bros #ds #wii #new super mario bros 2 #super mario wonder #super mario 3d land #super mario land 2 #super mario 3d world #bowsers fury #super mario sunshine #my post #video game #reviews #year in review

[idreamofhazeleyes]

Written in Blood

This is the re-write of "Ties in Blood" I've been putting off for the past couple years. Aeryn Malone is a nursing student at a major Michigan college when she's suddenly introduced to the supernatural world.

@squirrelnotsam @impala-dreamer @mrswhozeewhatsis @idreamofplaid

Chapter 1

“Hey, Emily,” I greeted as I dumped my class books onto my cluttered dorm desk. 

Exhaustion crept through my body as I reminded myself that I had work in about forty five minutes. Third year nursing classes were kicking my ass. I wasn’t sure what drove me into taking the nursing program at the Southeast Michigan college. Yet here I was working my way through college. A fleeting thought of calling my brother passed through my mind.

“Hey, Aeryn. Harper called a floor meeting soon. She wanted to make sure we’re all here for it.”

“For what? We’re half way through September already.”

“You’ve heard about the animal attacks, right?”

There had been a few bodies found in the trails and parks in the city that surrounded the university. Reports from the city officials and police said that the victims were missing their hearts and nothing else. No one knew what animal in the area that could take down a fully grown human and just take the heart. 

“What about it?” I asked, half knowing what it was about the animal attacks.

“Probably has new safety things for us to follow,” Emily said. 

Any hope of a shower had gone out the window thanks to the floor meeting Harper wanted to have. A quick wash at the sink and putting on some makeup would have to do. I pulled out my make up bag and shuffled through it and decided on little make up due to the time. Enough to make me look less tired. My icy blue eyes reflected back in the mirror. My skin was pale despite the late summer sun. Too many hours indoors for classes and laboratory work. No amount of make up would cover up how tired I was. 

“Come on,” Emily called when I finished with the makeup. 

“Hold up.” I stepped out of the bathroom. “I’m nearly ready.” 

Back in the room, I pulled out a women’s v cut shirt for work that show enough cleavage to be flirty and slipped off the men’s shirt I’ve worn all day. A number of patrons at the bar I worked at seemed to respond with flirting if I wore clothes that flatter my figure. 

Emily was at the door when I finished dressing. We left the room and made our way down to the common area where other women our age had gathered.

“Okay, everyone,” Harper called over the general chattering of the dozen or so women. “I know you all have plans this evening, but this is important. The University is stressing the òimportance of being careful when going out at night. We don’t know what sort of animal is causing the maulings, so whenever you all go out at night, do your best to travel in groups. If you cannot do that, tell anyone in this group where you’re going and how long you may be gone for. Let anyone know when you’re on the way home from work or the library or classes. Understood?”

There was a gathering of nods or acknowledgements. 

“Alright,” Harper finished. “Be careful out there and be aware of your surroundings.”

The group of floor mates started to disperse and talking about the new guidelines while Emily and I worked our way back to our own room.

“Any idea what the creature is?” Emily asked when we walked back in.

I shook my head. “I doubt that there’s any animals that are big enough to take down a fully grown human or would just take the hearts and nothing else. I don’t know any creature that could do that. Do you?”

Emily shook her head.

I gathered my bag and ensured that I had everything in it before heading for the door.

“I’m off to work. I should be back around ten.”

With my bag in hand, I made my way out of the dorm building and out onto the street. I melded into the crowds of students that were out after a long day of classes. A number of them seemed to have the air of being at the university on their parents’ money. I’ve had students like that in the bar and I refused to serve them. If the students had an issue with being denied service, I would call over a bouncer and have them escort the student out.

Getting to the back door of the building, I saw a couple of the cooks sitting nearby while sharing a joint. I waved in greeting before going in. Taking the elevator down to the kitchen and cutting through to get to the landing, I dumped my bag on the top of the cabinets.  

“Hey, Aeryn,” Tami called from the top of the stairs. 

“Hey.” I came up into the server area to see Tami and Nikki there. I ducked out into the sitting area and over to a computer monitor and pulled up the clock to clock in. 

“Did you hear about the animal attacks?” Nikki asked when I returned to the server area. 

I nodded. “Yeah. My RA had a quick meeting before I came here about it. Basically travel in groups or communicate with our dormmates about where we’re going and when we might be back.”

We all eventually dove into serving people. The shift went by quickly enough and there weren’t anyone I did not have to remove. At the end, I cashed out and collected my bag. With a quick text to Emily on the way out, I started to make my way back to the dorm building.

The streets were relatively quiet on the walk back. There was a small breeze that ruffled the leaves. I swore there was a noise on that breeze I could not place at first. It came around again and that time it sounded like a howl. My heart started racing and adrenaline flooded my system. I fought against the urge to run back to the dorm building. If it was a predator, it would be a bad idea to run. 

As I turned a corner, I saw a large body on four legs and feeding on a prone body. My own body froze in fear. I stood there for a few moments before noping out of the area. I turned in that weird calm way and started back down the street. There was another way I could take to get back to the dorms. 

My hands fumbled a little as I reached for my keys to unlock the main door for the dorm building. I double checked that the door was closed and locked behind me once I was inside. That thing was not a normal creature. Definitely too large for a normal wolf, and there were no wolves in the area. Coyotes, yes. Definitely not wolves. 

Emily was passed out on her bed with a class book and study papers before her. I left her to sleep while I gathered things for a shower. The thought of studying passed through my head as the hot water washed over my exhausted body.

#spn fanfic #supernatural #john winchester #dean winchester #original character

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 2/14/2023

Welp, the great "don't force myself to write when I don't wanna" experiment is over. I got real heckin' depressed and it was bad, so I started making myself write again, and it lifted. Perhaps it's a coincidence, I don't know, but this sort of holds with how the last four years of my life have been going. Trying to scrape dregs out of an empty jar isn't exactly fun, but it's what I gotta do, I guess.

Anyway, the good news is that I'm not being too mean to myself. I stole @bleachbleachbleach 's method of requiring myself to write one sentence on my WIP every day. I've managed to make it every day. One of the main things that happened (and this sort of thing always happens when I set goals) is that I realized that if I did only one sentence a day, it would take me forever to finish, which has pushed me to do more than the minimum. For the first few days of the week, I was doing about 100 words a day, which is still very paltry, but I think I've done more than that the last few days.

The thing I am working on is a story I started in 2019, which I have always been very fond of, except that it's a mess. The first paragraph is in a difference POV than the rest of it. It's mostly written in the present tense, except where it's not. Most importantly, it just sort of stops where I ran out of ideas. It's possible this was not the best possible project for me to dive into in my current mental state. I've been working on it, but I feel like it keeps getting worse 😂. Like, I re-wrote that first bit, and I just don't like it as much. Also, even though I know I should never, ever, never ever write in the present tense...I... think it works better that way? I'm seriously considering switching it back?? Also, it is primarily a world-building story, and as soon as I started on it, I realized that there were a bunch of holes in my world-building and it's been so hard to make any kind of decisions about anything. (I spent a week trying to figure out if this one guy has a wife or not. It seems like a thing I should just be able to decide except that it's also sort of the entire crux of the story)

At least I didn't have to start from nothing. The original story was about 2900 words, and my intuition is that the final product is going to end up between 5 and 10k. This is a great size for a story, the easiest size of story to write, and I'm honestly just mad that I'm so bad at all of this, and I'm worried that at the end of the day, the thing is gonna suck because I've lost my touch. Anyway, right now, it's 1768. It's nowhere near what I know I'm capable of when I'm on (when I'm really fucking on), but I'm faking it 'cause I have to, and it's going okay, I guess.

I don't know what's up with my art, either! I just don't really have any ideas I'm excited about! I did a tutorial this week with some pastel brushes, and then I turned around and did a Valentine's Day art project with the same brushes. I feel like it's probably a good time to do some skillbuilding, but, man, skillbuilding kinda sucks. 😂

The one good thing that did happen this week is that I finally made a decent loaf of sourdough! Look at these guys!!

They were so springy and good in the middle and nice and crusty on the outside! The secret turned out to be a combination of getting my starter more active generally, and actually following an every-six-hour feeding schedule the day before I baked it (the last feeding was ten hours because it was overnight and I had to get my kid off to school in the morning) It was 100% naturally leavened (no commercial yeast at all). I followed this King Arthur recipe.

The discard recipe of the week was Little Spoon Farm Blueberry Muffins, which were every bit as good as the recipe promised, if you like sweet, cakey, grocery-store style muffins. Little Spoon Farm is becoming my go-to for discard recipes, they haven't missed yet.

#writing update #art update #burnout update

[jimkleban]

10 Goals for 2023

9 years of foolishly posting my annual personal goals. A look back at 2022 is here: https://at.tumblr.com/jimkleban/my-2022-in-review/muu9t9hu9fkh

Themes for 2023

The world is changing quickly with polarization, evolving norms, war in Europe, inflation, tech layoffs, and a looming recession. These are also very exciting times especially with what has been made possible by advances in generative AI. This year finds me happy to pour my heart into my work and looking forward to explore more of the world. 

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” -Ferris Bueller

10 Goals for 2023

1) Crush it as Head of AI at Supernormal

A new year finds me in a new role running AI at a startup called Supernormal. Supernormal is an AI-powered meeting assistant that automatically gives you detailed notes after your meeting. The generative AI space is on fire for now, and for a product like this it's a race to win. I'm excited for this role as a career step. It's a good fit for my background and skills, the team is great, and I'm finding in really fun to work at a startup. My goal for 2023 is to hire an AI team and deliver a great product.

2) Follow the muse with Infeather.

We are born to create. What we make are expressions of ourselves and sometimes in creating there is a sense of something calling us forward. A muse, if you allow it to be. Over the last year I've been building an AI-powered reader called Infeather. By crawling twitter and other sources it finds high quality articles for people to read on followed topics. My dream is for this project is to grow it further into something people can use day-to-day. The recommendations can expand beyond linked articles to include videos, forum threads, and posts. The goal this year is to keep going, following the muse, and make the reader better and grow the number of users.

3) Live abroad with the family.

In 2019, Elizabeth and I took the girls (7 and 4) on a year of travel where we stayed in Bali and Australia. We want to do something like this again before our kids grow up. I'm not sure if the timing for traveling again is right this year given our work, health, and family commitments, but ideally we'd set up somewhere in a new country sometime this year. We would find schools for the girls, work remotely, and spend our free time exploring. 

4) Respark the romance with Elizabeth.

My wife Elizabeth and I have known each other for more than twenty years, and we have been married for over thirteen. It's not always easy to find good, quality time for one another given our full time jobs and parenting duties. And yet, it's the relationships that matter most in life. My goal this year is to do ten amazing things together with my partner.

5) Develop the art of long term friendships.

One of the key predictors of long term happiness through life apparently is the presence of long term relationships. It can be hard to prioritize friendship when you a busy life with family and work takes up time and energy. Yet, it pays off in the end. I think there is a real art in making friends, and maybe it's mostly a matter of making oneself available. I want this year to be one for friendships, new and old.

6) Build 3 new AI apps as experiments.

I'm intrigued by what is possible with AI and it's never been easier to wire ideas up quickly. This year I have the goal to write three new (mini) apps. The ones I have in mind at the start of the year are a spoken language practice chat bot (using Whisper) for my attempt at learning French, a personal health assistant that helps build positive habits, and an oracle/therapy bot that helps you  reflect about what is happening in your life.

7) Get a couple of home improvement projects done.

Out of all of the things that I like to do, spending on home improvement is not one of them. As such, the house is in a bit of disrepair and there are a couple of things we want to make better. The goal is to land at least two of these house projects (even if it's just scheduling and coordinating contractor work) before we go abroad. This could be new upstairs bathroom fixture, a shed in backyard, and repairing the deck. I think these things can be fun and rewarding.

8) Get into the mountains.

The best part of the Pacific Northwest is probably the nearby mountain ranges with the Cascades  and the Olympics. These are wonderful places to explore and spending time in the mountains is also a great way to stay in shape, get tough. I try to have a physical goal each year, and this year I'll be working on adding strength exercises to my routine, but I think an even better goal will be to spend more substantial times in the mountains - getting out on a day trip at least twice a month.

9) Give up added sugar and fast food.

Health matters more as you grow older and I don't think you can keep bouncing back from treating your body poorly. This includes the diet. I've been blessed with a fast metabolism and I'm physically active, so I haven't had a reason to avoid eating poor food. I've done well in the past with giving up alcohol, but at times the cravings have just transferred to donuts and cheeseburgers. I feel much better when I don't eat these things. The goal this year is to give up added sugar, save for the occasional shared desert, and stop ordering fast food.

10) Break the phone addiction.

The iPhone was released in 2007 and changed the world. Like television, we both benefit and suffer from the adoption of the omnipresent computer in our pocket. The device and its apps are designed to be addictive, fueling profit, in ways television never was able to be. On the other hand, we also gain from having these tools. We own our phones and how we use them, not the opposite way around. The goal for 2023 is to change how I use mobile phone, through a mixture of behaviors, settings, and apps so I can demonstrably claim my phone serves me.

Closing

2023 has energy, legs to it. I feel happy, empowered. A lot is going to change quickly, so buckle up and take the ride. Here’s to what comes.