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johnwickb1tsch · 3 months

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bittersweet ~ a yandere!John Wick x fem!reader sunshine/grump coffee shop AU... Part 1

-Imagine that after John Wick wins his freedom from the High Table, he [re]retires to your sleepy little mountain town, where you work in a coffee shop...

-Your quaint little town tucked in the mountains is the kind of place people go to get away from it all, and you can’t help but wonder what Mr. Wick is running from. He is an unfairly handsome man. You nearly make a huge fucking fool of yourself, the first time he approaches your counter, so taken that you could hardly speak. For all his good looks there is something compellingly melancholy about him. You see it in his soulful dark eyes, and the set of his shoulders. You can see this man carries a weight beyond what anyone of his years should bear.

-He becomes a regular at your little coffee shop, and you get over your shyness with him. He’s soft spoken, sometimes a little grumpy, but usually impeccably courteous compared to some of your unbearably entitled clientele visiting from the Big City for the ski resort or the hiking. He never orders anything fancy, just black coffee, and he likes to stay for an hour or so in the cozy cabin atmosphere of your shop. He favors a corner table tucked in the back by the river-stone fireplace, usually reading an old book, though sometimes you think he just sits, his attention fixed beyond the page he’s on, eyes not really seeing the room.

-You manage not to stare too hard, when you see him without gloves for the first time, and realize he is missing his left ring finger. You are not repulsed. You just wonder what happened to him.

-In time you notice he barely touches his unadorned coffee, and you wonder if he even likes it. You don't know where you get the cheek to tease this so-serious man. “Do you just order it like that to match your clothes?” You’ve never seen him in anything but head to toe black.

At first he looks at you as though you have grown a second head. Then he answers, completely dead pan, “Maybe it matches my soul.”

You snort with laugher, not believing him.

Maybe you should have, looking back.

“Sure, Mr. Wick.”

The next day you surprise him with a cup of something you concocted with him in mind. It's nothing too scathingly original. Just a dark chocolate mocha, with a splash of hazelnut, and just a bit of steamed cream. “Try this,” you say, setting it on his table totally unsolicited. You feel validated, for he's barely touched his black coffee again.

“What is it?” he asks, peering at it suspiciously.

“I just think you might need something a little sweet.”

He looks up at you through his long hair, and you don't know why, but a little chill runs down your spine. It's not fear, exactly. It's like walking in the woods, and stumbling on a powerful animal on the trail. Something that maybe could eat you, if it chose, but instead just disappears back into the dark trees.

You do not pester him anymore that day, even if it is the highlight of your shift sometimes. But when you go to clean up his dishes you do notice the cup you gave him is empty.

He doesn’t come in for almost a week after that, and you fear that maybe you were too pushy and pissed him off with your boldness.

Maybe it's a little pathetic, the way your heart leaps when he walks through the door again.

“I’ll have…whatever that thing was you made the other day.”

You try not to gloat, but your lips twist in a smile.

-It becomes your little mission in life to make this man smile, and if just the corner of his mouth ticks up at some point during his visit you feel as though you’ve accomplished a good thing.

Maybe it’s totally a cliché, but you’re an artist, and when you’re not making coffee, or cleaning up coffee, you draw bright designs on the chalkboard around the menu with your pastels. You make elaborate landscapes and art nouveau maidens inspired by Mucha. People in town seem to enjoy your weekly designs, which is nice, even if it’s not entirely the recognition you crave. Four years of art school just to doodle on the chalkboard, you can hear your father say. He’s not wrong, but it still stings.

One day, you sketch Mr. Wick reading in the corner on the back of a discarded receipt. He is…such a lovely man. When you walk past you slip it on the table for him. You don’t let yourself watch his reaction. If you had, you would have seen his expression soften, the stony façade cracking even if just for a moment.

Is this how you see him? Not some broken down old man, the way he absolutely feels after his war with the High Table, but something…not unpleasant to look at.

You don’t know it at the time, but this is the action that sets off an avalanche. You wake a sleeping beast in him, and a dark obsession begins to kindle.

#john wick #john wick x reader #john wick x you #john wick x y/n #keanu reeves x reader #john wick imagine #yandere john wick #yandere! john wick #coffee shop au #keanu reeves #in which the author skips off to hell...#the people have spoken!#john wick fic #bittersweet john wick imagine

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sunny-day-jack-official · 2 months

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So! The demo is finally out! Or, a bit of it is. What’s next?

Let’s run over a few questions, so hopefully everyone is in the loop!

Q: Why is it only a little bit after so long?

A: Development has been all over the place and a big reason is just how difficult it can be to mediate between artists, programmers, writers, etc.. Mental and physical health, personal emergencies, etc.. are also a big part of this— and it wasn’t anticipated that this would eat up so much time.

The original game was planned to have Sauce (presently speaking!) handling a large majority of tasks all at once. So— when health stalled, production stalled.

Of course, healing took a bit of time to. And even now, that’s why so much of the demo is left unfinished. Overall— it wasn’t possible to complete the demo in the same amount of time the original demo was completed because realistically speaking— that was extremely unhealthy and rushed.

Because of that tight deadline, 48 hours to a week, many significant errors or retconned elements made their way into the game. A huge toll was taken that resulted in extreme burnout after. Quality (as can be seen in the CGs) suffered. An emphasis on quality is currently being prioritized, but I can safely say that I am no longer able to work at my original 2021-2022 pace.

—

Q: Why are you (Sauce) working alone?

A: At this point in time— we had spent a while working on the GUI and design/function of the game. It is, after all, set to have some pretty hefty features.

Translation and dub settings

Censorship and Softcore modes

A VERY LARGE story map with several endings

An additional “one-shot” story mode wherein every ending you unlock, you then unlock additional content

That takes a lot more planning than we’d anticipated.

How do we make this efficiently run on most systems?

Are we able to make sure that the size of this game is compatible with older devices?

Are the assets optimized? ( A lot of time has gone into re-drawing and working out sprite systems )

What settings are accessibility necessary for impaired players? How do we implement those options?

How do we design a stylish and efficient system?

That was something we had figured originally would be pretty easy to work out! But multiple people here are wearing multiple hats.

The rest of the team is actively working on those portions. But at the moment— we’ve decided to shelve literal art development and scripting (which was where we were hovering for a while) until we got the programming bits truly sorted out.

That leaves little old me! While they worked on this, I’ve been spending time making sure we could serve you a sample of what’s to come. My job is doling out a taste of the narrative, style, etc.. That way, once they’re finished, we can consider any feedback in the implementation of these portions of the game in the final, official build.

Hopefully that makes sense! TL;DR - Everyone’s busy making the important program my bits and designing the menus. So I’ve stepped away to work on this so you all have something to see in the meantime!

—

Q: Why are you REBUILDING THE DEMO?

A: The old demo— you’d think it would be easy to patch up. But it’s literally the very first build, sized up and fixed and stitched over. Unfortunately it was an unoptimized mess, even for what it was.

Hopefully a cleaner, more organized build will allow for better gameplay. But the key factor is just a desire for better quality!

—

Q: How often will you be uploading new additions?

A: Until all the bugs are fixed and the whole demo is rebuilt. This should be every week or so until then. Once it’s all done, the demo will see a re-release publicly!

In the meantime, please keep in mind bugs may be aplenty— and I personally apologize for this. Demos released are intended to show proof of work— but they may not be the best, most fun experience for narrative-seeking players. It’s advised immersion-prioritizing players wait until the build is fully finished and christened on our steam page!

—

Q: Will there be Mac support?

A: I will absolutely try!

—

Hopefully that helps give a bit more insight. Unfortunately it’s difficult to articulate everything that’s going on, but we’ll do our best! We’d like to have someone more verbally gifted helping us to write these posts, but until we decide how to go about that, you’re stuck with me.

We’ll do the best we can to answer any questions as clearly as possible. And again— we thank you all for your patience.

Making SDJ was clearly a messier experience than we had considered. It’s been a rollercoaster— and as Sauce speaking, I can actually attribute most of the delays to my own personal health and absence.

That— I am sorry for.

The rest of the team is working very hard to put something together that’s quality. I can promise with my whole heart that they’re doing their best. We’re all just people passionate about this project, and no matter the weather I don’t think it’s ever not on our minds.

I look forwards to putting out a large Kickstarter update soon, detailing our work and more! And I’m excited to open the airways for more and more communication.

But for now— we’ll see you next bug-fixing update.

- Sauce

#somethings wrong with sunny day jack #swwsdj #sunny day jack #sdj #snaccpop studios #snaccpop #game development #vndev #visual novel #indie games #minors dni

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parasolemn · 2 months

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doodle of Authority? it is my fav skill...

ehe. whoopsies! sorry anon it's been. A Month. and no end in sight

anyways images for you

you can probably already tell some of these are. Older. but yea. there was a lot of "well it's just a doodle I don't need to go super hard on these" and then "this is awful we need to start over" so. there's. a lot of images. most I've drawn this freak ever actually

deserved though. big thanks to my New Buddy who made me see the light like two months ago. he [LONG RAMBLE I DELETED] 🤨 UUGHHH I can't go off on a ramble about authority rn I'm unnormal about him sadly but I have so many words in my brain about him and all the other skills ue ue ue

i should post images...

i did some doodles in my book too when i was working but. eeeh? wasn't really sure if this was what you were after either... also I always take an opportunity to draw encyclopedia hi ency hi. i love throwing ency at the other skills i love thinking about skill interactions

don't mind the date on the last image I accidentally dated it 1st jan instead of 1st feb and couldn't be fucked to fix it. as I said, Old (can i even say stuff is old if it's a month old. uhm. wll i changed my art style so it counts)

parcark: nobody else is autistic about DE skills like you are they won't want to see them blorbified in an ooc but funny way. also parcark:

this was not worth a month's wait. oops.

COUGHCOUGH BY THE WAY . volition design is from @tubrasko (this wasnt the image i asked you abt btw i'm doing a larger one than this RN!!!! grins) suggestion design is from @vesli1 sorry for butchering your boy a bit I only had a pen my pencil broke 💔 empathyyy i stole from @trialofasphodel waves at you Hi ! i know both of u have seen these imgs b4 btw srry for re @ ing you the auth and drama designs are froommmm spilledkaleidoscope I won't @ that's scary.cough

love him. ok bye anon !! i hope you don't mind i know these aren't the best quality o7

#i'm not really happy with any of this but if i don't post this now this ask will never get responded to so. shrugs. mh #i'll probably redeem myself some day when i get to auth for skill-quote-on-quote-tober. some day...#i'm going to punch myself in the face #parcark art tag #undescribed #disco elysium #doodle requests #art dump #de skills #disco elysium skills #<- which tag do you guys usually use for this ?? ive seen both...#This has been sitting in my drafts for so long I'm just going to post it and then crawl up into a ball and perishFUUUCK !!!!!

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factual-fantasy · 8 months

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I haaaasss 27 asks :}

Yes. Yes it does.

Thank you! :DD And yeah canon Gregory is just not my vibe man XD

(Traffic cone in question)

Thank you so much! :DD And yeah I try my best to get up and do something productive/different when I'm feeling down like that. My thought process is "well sitting here and sulking isn't making me feel any better so I should go and do something else" Which just so happened to be breaking out the old sewing kit and making a traffic cone?? XD Well to be fair I've made like 10 of those before but still an odd choice on my part-

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked my cars artwork! :DD

And yeah I would draw cars stuff more often but they're just so hard to draw :(

Idk why they decided to jump into a DLC before fixing the base game, but man I really wish they wouldn't have. 😔

I'll do my best! :D

@tallchest13-blog

Yes :} or at least I've been trying to-

Thank you so much! And I did use a pattern to make him. Credit for the patten goes to Tammy Hallam, heres her video on how to make your own too! :}

@montygatorshusband

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DDD

As for Glamrock Bonnie,, ehh, its a bit odd to me. Not a huge fan of the color pallet but its not the worst I've seen. I'd give it a 5.5 outa 10

ALSO! I believe Octonauts is streaming on Netflix, but I've also had some luck finding full episodes on YouTube :0

Thank you! And oh yeah, I feel you on the fandom part. XD That's why I'm still kind'a on the fence and haven't dove head first into my usual angsty stuff. I'm kind'a testing the waters with every post I make to see if I'll collide with the uh, other side of the fandom :x

Thank you! :DDD

Also Google is a search engine. :0 If you search for Octonauts fanart, its gonna do its job and search for fanart and likely find some of the stuff I made. Notice though that all of my artwork shown on Google links directly back to my blog. Its because Google isn't stealing it, its parting the branches of a bush and pointing "Look! Over there is some Octonauts fanart like you requested!" XD

@pinkbomb08

There isn't really anything Gregory can do for Bonnie..

Its hard to explain,, but I'll try. Bonnie is missing his leg from the middle of his shin down. So he cant stand up right like Foxy because- well duh, he's missing a whole foot.

So order to fix Bonnies leg so he can stand/walk like Foxy does, he would need an entire replacement foot with a working joint. This would also mean that the wires in Bonnies legs would have to be replaced and hooked up so that he can control said new foot.

Currently there are no spare parts around that fit Bonnies model.. and even if they did, Gregory wouldn't know how to properly re-wire an animatronic foot. He's smart but not THAT smart <XDD

The only thing Gregory could do is make Bonnie a weird peg leg that makes his current leg longer. Currently Bonnies half leg is shorter than his good leg. But in all honesty Bonnie doesn't really want that.

Having Gregory ducttape this weird goofy peg leg to him would be more embarrassing then what he already has. He'd probably want to salvage what ever dignity he has left and say "ah give it a rest. There's no point. My legs good enough for what its for." <:/

@taizarack

If I remember correctly... Sometime ago my tablet pen broke. And it took like 2-3 weeks for a new one to arrive. In the mean time I tried to make an art doll of sorts. That doll was Bibi!

I ended up making a lot of goofy posts with Bibi and I as I waited for my pen to arrive. Once it finally did and I went back to drawing comics, I ended making Bibi a reoccurring character. And he's been around ever since!

Now Jangles is a Halloween prop that I bought because I thought it was funny. I was practicing making quilts one time and I made a small blue one that just so happened to be the right size for him. So I put it on and then I thiiink I got the idea to add Jangles to my blog as a joke.? I gave Bibi a "new friend" to celebrate hitting 10,000 followers. The new friend was a cropped png of jangles XD

Eventually down the line I wanted to give Bibi an proper friend. So for Bibi's birthday I drew a comic where Jangles came to life and here we are XD

@pinkbomb08

Currently I am getting none of those things :x I have a cold so sleep and food is hard :( Thank you though! :D

@notsoliyah

:D AW!! Thank you! I'm so glad to hear how I've inspired you! :}}

@ur0neand0nly

XD Thank you so much! And don't worry, I'm pretty confident I'll draw him again someday

XD Thank you. To be honest I'm kind'a going back and fourth on this fandom. I don't really wanna be apart of the fandom, but the characters are the only thing I'm interested in drawing atm soo-

@ardent-38

Ooo these are interesting! Although absorbing power ups isn't about digesting them. Its something about being human specifically that allows them to absorb the powerups.. 👀👀👀

@maddiethehatter2192

My advice would be to use references religiously. That's what I did!

Also thank you! :DD

Barnaby for sure.

Well, my interpretation of him really-

@taizarack (Post in question)

@funky-frankie

No there's no SpongeBob comic, I just felt like drawing Mr. Krabs XD

Also THANK YOU!! :DD That means so much!! :}}}

@elegysonnet

<XD thank you. So far I have some pretty basic ones I imagine. Wally's house is alive and evil, Julie is actually a scary monster but has drastically altered her appearance to look less scary.. Sally is very celestial in nature because she's a real star, Eddie used to be a real human and bleeds and has a heart beat and what not.. uuuuuuh what elseeee,,, I liked to imagine that Sally and Julie came to the neighborhood when they were really young and Poppy kind'a adopted them?? Although I don't know how wide spread that idea is XD

Thank you! And yeah I'm not very fond of that portrayal either <XD As for your questions..

1: I'm sure there would be somethings that would push his anxiety to the surface. I'm not sure what they'd be but still- I imagine if Luigi was around to see it he would try to get Mario out of what ever situation he's in. If he's in a crowd he'd try to help him slip away unnoticed.

2: I'm not familiar with the giga bell, but if I did add it I'd imagine those would be the side effects yeah <XD Really sore and tired and cant really move for like 3 days :x

Remodeled or not, I wont be adding any of those animatronics to the Pizzaplex. I already wrote the entire past of this timeline, and those bots all already have a story in my AU. And with their given stories it wouldn't make sense for them to be added to the Pizzaplex.

Of course I cant spoil what those stories are, just know that I have my reasons-

Oh yeah I forgot to add the colored eye lids to Wally and Barnaby in that trampoline drawing <XD

And yeah! I wanted Wally to be much more expressive so I gave him eyebrows-

@cudlycorncornsworthcoberson

Aw, thank you so much!! Its so cool to hear that you've shared my name with your friends!! :DD

#my response #fnaf security breach dlc spoilers #fnaf security breach dlc #fnaf security breach #ocotnauts #bibi and jangles

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laurark · 4 months

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2023 Wrap Up

A strange year that was both long and short. The main lesson to learn from 2023 is the same lesson I have been learning every year since I was 6 years old: Things happen if you try!

I spent a lot of time this year hitting my head against a wall, or rather healing from an RSI that caused making art to become really fraught. I could bear the wrist pain in order to do my favorite thing (drawing!!!) but then the pain stuck around after I had clocked out for the day and was making dinner. It would go like this: I want to make pasta sauce using canned tomatoes, but using a can opener is so painful now that maybe I should just do something else. The onions and garlic are already cooking in the pan though, what can I pivot that to? I felt like the biggest dunce in the world. I worked my way into being cursed, I deserved it.

I have this craving to just commit to a big art project, like a graphic novel, and keep my head down working on it. Having all my time devoted to work feels a bit like doing penance, like earning my bread. But I look at the world and I know I cannot draw my way out of this. I can’t write my way out of this. I can’t post my way out of this. I am unprepared for what I need to do to earn a better tomorrow. But I am prepared to learn.

I changed up my desk ergonomics and my wrist healed. Thank you to the huge desk easel that I stole from my parents’ house. It’s ugly, heavy, stained, and I keep banging my elbows on its sharp corners. It sucks but it saved my life. Do not resist making your workspace uglier if it might help you!

Making The Influence and participating in the ShortBox Comics Fair was a huge work highlight this year. I’m so grateful I can make a work with dark themes and have it be understood and appreciated. The encouraging response to The Influence did a lot to kill the bad faith reviewer in my mind. Things are possible if you try!

I started painting again and I really love it. I’m trying to just follow the image-making. Painting is play to me and I want it to remain so. I feel myself itch to turn it into some kind of profitable thing, to make it palatable, but I’m trying to resist so it remains a place of experimentation.

I also wrote a short novel. It’s awful. I just re-read it and it’s so bad, but reading it makes me happy. It needs serious reworking to be a proper novel, but I did technically cross the finish line and write the whole story. It was very refreshing and informative to branch out like this, even if I don’t think this particular example is fit for human consumption. Earlier in my life I was so stubborn about ONLY working in comics but now I’d like to pursue whatever path I can to have a creative career. If you try!

I had a great time tabling at Short Run this year. Two different people came to my table and told me they came to the show specifically to see my table. One person said Bug Boys was responsible for facilitating “many special moments” with them and their niece. I don’t want to forget about moments like this. It means a lot to me.

It occurs to me as I type out this year’s accomplishments, they’re mostly things I did at home alone. I haven’t rejoined the world after COVID in a meaningful way, the way I hoped I would during lockdown. It comes naturally to me to make up excuses to stay home, keep my head down, watch how things play out before joining in. That attitude does me a disservice. It isolates me. When other people are only in the screen, they become hypothetical. It’s not right to live this way, but it’s comfortable to me. It feels “safe” after COVID, even though it’s not safe. I know I need to change this.

It feels sick and strange to be blogging in my safe little apartment during a time of bloodshed. To flip through my planner and think of my future while others starve is obscene. My entire life was obscene in this fashion. It’s my responsibility to sit with this feeling and do something with it.

Here’s to a better 2024. We can do it, we can try.

In love and solidarity,

Laura K.

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borninwinter81 · 2 months

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William Blake and Good Omens - an intertextual analysis

Please note: I did another version of this and posted it, but it was quite hurried, way too short, and was incorrect in a number of ways so I deleted it. However it had already been reblogged by the time i did so. If you happen to see another version of this meta that's not the right one, this is the version I'm happy with!

After my previous post re William Blake and Good Omens did so well, and so many people showed an interest I've decided to do a more in depth piece. This is focused upon the TV version of Good Omens, not the book.

Please don't tag Neil in this - although it's mostly textual analysis I do a very small amount of S3 theorising, and I know he doesn't want to see that.

I am in no way suggesting that Neil and Terry specifically wrote Good Omens with Blake in mind, I honestly just wanted an excuse to write more about Blake because I love his work so much, and I thought it would be interesting to try and apply some intertexuality since the works will contain similar themes, both being about God, religion, humanity, and angels and demons.

I also should stress that I am not an expert on Blake, there are people far more qualified to comment on him than I. I'm just a former literature student who loves his work.

There have been many different interpretations of Blake's work over the years, so it's completely fine to disagree with someone else's ideas about it, as with any work of art or literature. And although this piece is likely to be long, I'll barely be able to scratch the surface of all the possible meanings that could be ascribed to it.

Much like the old adage that if someone claims to understand quantum physics they're lying, I'm not sure anyone can truly fathom the full meaning of Blake's philosophy (especially in his later prophetic works, fuuuuuuck those beasts....), so if you're confused by him don't be discouraged, that's perfectly normal!

That being said, I wish to discuss the parallels between Good Omens and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, my personal favourite and probably the most accessible of his longer works.

"Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell."

This excerpt is from near the opening and sets out the central idea of the work - that there is an essential duality to humanity, and each person is a combination of extremes. These extremes are not at war with each other, but rather are equally necessary, hence the "marriage" of the title. "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" is a metaphor for the human experience.

Consistently throughout The Marriage... Blake refers to the two extremes as Reason and Energy. These terms could be construed in a number of different ways: thought versus emotion, mental versus physical, restraint versus desire, temperance versus excess, caution versus impulsiveness, and following the rules versus free will.

Blake's use of the word "Reason" in this context may be somewhat confusing, however he likely chose it because of his negative feelings towards science and the Age of Enlightenment. Blake saw literal visions of angels and prophets and the divinity of all creation, and hated that science reduced everything to formulas, calculations, and materialism, leaving the world bereft of wonder. "Art is the Tree of Life. Science is the Tree of Death" as he put it.

His ideas about "reason" are best expressed by his painting "Newton". Though inspired by the scientist, it is not a portrait - instead it depicts a figure deeply engrossed in scientific drawings and calculations, totally ignoring the beauty all around him - see below.

In the context of The Marriage... Reason is "passive" because it involves thought, caution, self-restraint, and doing what you are told, all states which block action. Energy is "active" because it is physical, emotional, impulsive and allows you to act based on your own choices and desires. It's quite clear that Blake feels "energy" is the preferable state - he tells us as much in the next section:

"The Voice of the Devil

All Bibles or sacred codes, have been the causes of the following Errors. 1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul. 2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul. 3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies. But the following Contraries to these are True. 1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. 2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy. 3. Energy is Eternal Delight."

So the body is an aspect of the soul, not separate from it, Energy comes from the body, it is Reason which places limits upon Energy, but Energy is eternal delight. Physicality, desire, impulsiveness, emotion, sensual pleasure and free will are not wrong or evil, they are aspects of the human soul and it is from them that we derive our enjoyment of life.

This does not necessarily mean that Reason is always bad. After all, Blake tells us that both are necessary for human existence. Sometimes temperance, caution and thought before action are required. But Reason becomes negative when it "usurps its place and governs the unwilling", i.e. when it completely supplants Energy and becomes the sole guiding factor, forcing passivity.

The Angels of The Marriage... are governed by "systematic reasoning", therefore they are wholly creatures of Reason. They are also "all religious" meaning they believe the "errors" stated above. His Devils by contrast "hate religion" meaning they believe the "contraries", which are the true statements according to Blake. It does not necessarily follow that they are wholly governed by Energy, merely that they believe Energy is "eternal delight".

It is worth noting at this point that Blake saw God and religion as totally separate. For Blake, "God" is that connection with divine wonder which was integral to his life; he tells us plainly that "all deities reside in the human breast" and that "the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God". In other words all humans have a direct and intuitive link with God and don't require the church, Priests, or a religious framework and adherence to a set of rules in order to reach moral decisions. These rules exist only to "enslave the vulgar".

The importance of this ability to make one's own choices about a moral course of action is shown by one of the "Memorable Fancy" sections of The Marriage...

Blake relates how a Devil is able to use an Angel's "systematic reasoning" against them:

"if Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath, and so mock the sabbaths God? Murder those who were murder'd because of him? Turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery? Steal the labor of others to support him? Bear false witness when he omitted making a defence before Pilate? Covet when he pray'd for his disciples, and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against such as refused to lodge them? I tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments; Jesus was all virtue, and acted from impulse, not from rules."

The Angel has no way to refute the "reasoning" that Jesus was governed by Energy and "impulse", i.e. his own morality, the "voice of righteous indignation", not reasoning and the rules laid down by Heaven. And because Jesus is the Messiah he must be virtuous, therefore Energy is virtuous. The Angel immediately allows himself to be consumed by fire and is resurrected as a Devil.

How can these concepts apply to the world of Good Omens? This was where my first draft was totally incorrect, as I tried to transfer Blake's ideas about Angels and Demons and Heaven and Hell wholesale, applying "reason" to Aziraphale and Heaven and "energy" to Crowley and Hell. In fact the divide is slightly different in the GO-verse: Crowley and Aziraphale *both* represent Energy, and it is Heaven and Hell that act according to Reason.

At first glance Aziraphale may appear to toe the line - he needs creative application of the rules to make him comfortable with trying to avert the apocalypse, and when he doesn't like the way matters are being handled by the Archangels he seeks a higher authority and goes straight to God. He'd clearly prefer someone to be confirming the rightness of his actions for him. However this doesn't mean that he won't act on his own.

Immediately upon his introduction to the story he has given away his flaming sword, an action that he took impulsively because he felt it was right, not because someone told him to. It bothers him, but he does it anyway.

In the Job storyline, though he initially looks for some loophole within the rules that will allow him to save Job's children, in the end he directly goes against Heaven to do it, even though he believes he is going to Fall and become a Demon for having done so.

Though he resists it and exhausts all other possible avenues first, he eventually does take an active role in averting the apocalypse in S1.

He hides Jim at great personal risk to himself and against the will of both Heaven and Hell, again because he feels it is the right thing to do.

He is therefore perfectly capable of independent action from a position of "righteous indignation".

On a more basic level, he enjoys worldly pleasures, which all come from "energy" according to Blake's philosophy. Food and drink most obviously, but also books, music, dancing, theatre, art and so on.

Crowley is more easy to place as acting from Energy - in spite of the obvious aesthetic differences between them, he also loves worldly pleasures. Alcohol and coffee, snazzy clothing, driving his car with Queen blaring on the stereo, going to lunch with Aziraphale, Shakespearean comedies. All things he isn't supposed to want or need, and which baffle other Demons, in the same way that Aziraphale's desire for food baffles the Angels.

And he's absolutely willing to act according to his own moral impulses when they conflict with Hell's orders (or Heaven's), be it saving Job's children, ensuring that Elspeth doesn't die by suicide, or averting the apocalypse. Yes, he'll try to hide his "good" actions in order to avoid punishment by Hell, but he's firmly "on his own side".

Conversely, Heaven and Hell are both part of the structure of religion in this story, are strictly adherent to a set of rules, and their inhabitants appear to have no real desires of their own, other than possible advancement within the systems they uphold. They are "passive" in that their functions allow the status quo to continue and the "great plan" to unfold as they believe it is meant to, even though each side expects a different outcome.

Again, applying Blake's philosophy, I would say the reason for this is that "energy is from the body". Crowley and Aziraphale have both been given bodies in order that they can exist on earth, and *have* existed on earth for 6000 years, therefore "energy" - physical pleasures and free thinking - have become a part of who they are.

On a more fundamental level, possession of a body can be equated to humanity, and humanity has been shown as the most powerful force of all in this story, its influence having led to Adam becoming "human incarnate", and thus acting according to what he feels is right, instead of fulfilling the function he was destined for.

Heaven and Hell contain no material objects, and the Angels and Demons are spiritual beings, having no bodies, so they are not open to energy, and therefore are wholly governed by Reason, and the preservation of the religious structures within which they exist. Structures which, as for Blake, may not actually have anything to do with God herself. In S1 she is a distant observer, clearly aware through her narration of all that is going on, but not interceding in any way. In S2 she is barely present save for her voice being heard briefly in Job, and overlaid with Gabriel's on two occasions.

Bearing all this in mind, what predictions can we make regarding S3 by applying Blake's philosophy?

"The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true, as I have heard from Hell.

For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to leave his guard at [the] tree of life, and when he does, the whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite and corrupt.

This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment."

The parallels of the cherub with his flaming sword, and the passage of 6000 years should be obvious to anyone reading this - they have of course been lifted directly from the Bible as they are in GO.

I have read some metas which speculated that Aziraphale's bookshop, or perhaps Earth itself, is a metaphorical stand-in for Eden or The Tree of Life. Aziraphale has been commanded to leave his "Eden" and will now be instrumental in causing the whole of creation to become infinite and holy, but Blake tells us this will be done by an improvement of sensual enjoyment, which arises from Energy not Reason.

Sensual enjoyment is something which is intrinsic to Aziraphale's character, and this could make his placement in Heaven very important.

Putting aside all the "final fifteen" theories and taking matters at face value, Aziraphale tells us that if he's in charge he can make a difference - he needs to subvert the system from the inside out. The most subversive thing of all could be that a sensualist who acts according to "the voice of moral indignation" and "Energy" has become the supreme Archangel. We have seen in Blake how a realisation that Energy could be virtuous was enough to convert an Angel into a Devil (incidentally, does the image of an Angel being consumed by fire and emerging as a Devil seem familiar at all...)

We may have seen the beginnings of this already. Gabriel and Beelzebub became open to Energy from such little things as visiting earth, spending time in one another's company, and their mutual enjoyment of a song, which has given them wants and desires beyond those dictated by Heaven and Hell. This is enough to make them wish to leave their roles behind.

It's possible that the same may happen with Muriel. They haven't yet imbibed food or drink, but they have shown an enjoyment of books, which are an earthly pleasure, and open the reader up to new ideas and ways of thinking.

Of course, this would lead to questions regarding the Metatron's statement that he has "ingested things", and whether this means he is acting from reason or energy. Of course the simplest explanation is that it is a manipulation tactic, and he is lying about having done so, but if true that statement has some interesting implications. However, this is now super-long and I'm out of juice, so will leave others to speculate. I may return to this in the future!

There we go, hope you enjoyed. I doubt this will reach nearly as many people as my first Blake post, but if a few find it of interest then my work is done!

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esteemed-excellency · 2 months

Text

RE: Hiram's lodgings

Lore drop under the cut for everyone who's curious about the Townhouse, this is your chance to snoop around

Hiram coordinates all his affairs from his sanctum at the Brass Embassy and the Bazaar. He officially works for the Foreign Office, meeting diplomats in Wilmot's End, at the Palace, and overzee. He supervises his shady businesses from the Cabinet Noir in Balmoral, and he uses the Rooms above a Gambling Den as a secondary meeting location.

He keeps all his research notes and scientific papers at the university and at the Embassy sanctum, with backup texts in Parabola. There's backups of backups scattered around different lodgings like the Rooms above a Bookshop and a recently acquired Sanguine Château, in case of emergency. He keeps track of every single document and duplicate copy in his possession, never storing all his belongings in one place.

The Townhouse is the only lodging with an aesthetical purpose, other than functional: he needs a place to keep all the items he collected over the years, but almost everything is expendable in case of emergency. All the most important documents and personal items are in his rooms on the second floor, the only place he truly considers home.

The house staff is employed exclusively to look after the house and the guests, and even if the majority of them comes from a shady background they don't do any criminal work. Since Hiram is often out they can do whatever they want, as long as the house and the guests are looked after. The Second Floor is the only part of the house not accessible to guests, and if someone gets too curious the fingerkings can have everyone who gets too close to the mirrors.

Including foyers, bathrooms, facilities, balconies, corridors, store spaces, and other rooms I forgot to account for, the Townhouse consists of:

Basement: kitchen, pantry, scullery, store room, servants' dining room, cellar, vault. Other than the main stairwell, a servants staircase connects the basement to all the other floors. The vault holds some liqueurs, too expensive to be simply kept in the cellar, spirits (the alcoholic kind), spirits (the non-alcoholic kind), and whatever Hiram is smuggling around town on a daily basis. An old additional stairwell connects the basement to the attic but nobody knows about it, and if anyone discovers it they don't remember it for long. Hiram burned all the floor plans years ago (don't worry about it for now).

Ground Floor: porch, entrance hall, parlour, dining room, main library (literature, gothic novels, classics, poetry, theatre, art)

First Floor: drawing room, guest rooms + dressing rooms, budoir/fumoir (depending on the guests), second library (travelogues, naval tales, maps, globes, scientific treatises, penny dreadfuls).

Second Floor: Hiram's rooms + dressing room, private study, private library (law books, trade almanacs, hyper specific scientific treatises, proscribed material of various kinds). The main corridor is full of mirrors, and it's the only floor with mirrors big enough to allow entrance to Parabola. They're always covered when Hiram is at home. The curtains are almost always drawn in every room and the light is dimmer than in the rest of the house. A secret compartment in a bureau desk holds Hiram's infernal contract and an old stash of letters.

??? Room: (ok you can worry about it now) accessible only via mirror. It should be connected to the secret staircase but the door is always locked from the inside, and the outside is walled up and covered by another wall section, the staircase is just beside it. There's no windows. The room holds the Shrine to St Joshua, a weapon rack, a small vault with the Leasehold on all of London, some fragments of the Tragedy Procedures, a bottle of Brandy, and a few other items. The mirror is always covered. A pickaxe guarantees an emergency exit.

Third floor: servants' quarters and offices. Few of them can stand Hiram playing music at ungodly hours and they take turns sleeping at the townhouse. They all have their own lodgings and accomodations.

Attic: the main stairwell ends at the third floor, and the attic is only accessible via the servants staircase. The butler and some urchins are aware of the additional secret staircase, but the butler can't be bothered with it, and the urchins don't like to forget what they were doing every time they go down the stairs. There's no fun in sending someone to steal biscuits from the basement if they forget to bring them back upstairs.

Other than the house staff, the polycule, some urchins, and Hiram himself, the (semi)permanent residents include:

A Hungover Terrier, often out and about with the bohemians.

The Midnight Matriarch: you can pet her in your dreams if you fall asleep in the guest rooms.

A Lamp-Cat: the best bioluminescent bedlight. You can pet it but it will sit on your lap. If you try to sleep it will sit on the bed. Or on you. Pros: very cute. Cons: very humid.

A Bat with Attitude, permanet resident in the attic.

Two Raven Advisors. One white, one black. One always tells the truth, one always lies. Or so they say.

Sugarplum (Hiram's)

Sugarplum (Captain Dargor's)

Sugarplum (Giorgione's)

#i can't draw architecture and perspective so you get a big description #very important additional information: there's a grand piano in the parlour + hiram has a gramophone in his library #hiram hargrave #hiram lore #handsome townhouse

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jill-question-mark · 6 months

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Re: printer paper being nice for bookbinding...

So you specifically said not to do this but...

1)using plain printer paper is totally fine for books if that's what you have access to. It's what I started with and some people just stick with it.

2)most of us who get really serious into it get custom cut paper to be short grain as it should be. We get 11x17 paper cut into 8.5x11 so the grain is correct. Most Renegade Bindery people in the US get it from Church paper, and they've added a listing to their website for it. And it's nice paper. (Hammermill cream typically.)

Nooo don't encourage me! Danger, danger! As punishment you get to see the results of me going to poke around in my old college work.

Here's a little book I probably made after somehow acquiring a colour inkjet printer. The colours have held up well after 25 years!

The interior consists of anatomical clip art. Why? I dunno. If I pretend to be an art historian of myself, I could say I was making a prescient statement about computers taking over everything including our bodies, but honestly I was probably just having a laugh with the extensive clip art collection that had come with my.. WordPerfect? or Corel Draw? software.

Two little books with non-adhesive bindings and rather nice Japanese paper.

The covers stay on via paper tabs.

Here's a set of two books with covers made from hand-dyed/patterned fabric from my textiles classes. The covers are again attached with paper tabs that I made into a decorative element.

More handmade paper. It's unsized and feels like quality paper towels. Looks like dried flower petals aren't an acid-free material and the colour didn't hold up :P

cool little triple-fold guy.

Hand-marbled paper... I was really into purple and teal in combination.... It was like 1997

Bonus: me snarking on "AI" technology, before the turn of the century. Plus ça change? Unfortunately, the computer didn't do a bad enough job to be funny.

#my art #my REALLY OLD art #bookbinding #non-adhesive binding #paper marbling #long post #i also have a set of snarky greeting cards that are pretty good #those were from a class called Printed Matters #the professor was one of the OG 1970s hippie artist guys that gave the school its reputation #we all got a 'high pass' grade as long as we made... anything at all #and showed up to class

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gracethyomen · 4 months

Text

"Olympics, Menus and Artists"

Hey y'all. Its me. Ya prophet. I come bearing angst/comfort and some Mattalie for you all this fine evening. This chapter is a long one so buckle in. I wanted to get some of Natalie's personal life into this one and get more of a judge of how she is as a person outside of just her relationship with Matt and the gang.

Warnings: Buckle tf up this one is wild. Kidnapping, mention of kidnapping, mention of death, violence, mention of violence, blood, language, guns, imprisonment, crying, injuries to main character, panic attacks, catholicism, praying. This is part one of the original post I have on my page that started this whole shebang, so some of it might look familiar.

Natalie sighed heavily and tucked her chin into her jacket against the wind, clutching her niece's gloved hand in hers as they walked down the street,

"Katie, i'm sorry I couldn't make it to your ceremony last week." She spoke over the rush of air, looking at the sweet dark-haired girl by her side.

"That's okay." The girl reassured with an easy smile. "You had lawyer stuff to do, right?"

"I'm not a lawyer, Kate, I just help them out." Natalie laughed, ruffling the girl's hair with her free hand. "I do paperwork... Plan cases... Investigate legal documents..."

"Sounds interesting." The girl hummed, tucking into Nat's side. "I wanna be a lawyer some day." She wondered aloud.

"You do?" Natalie looked at her incredulously, opening the door to a restaurant for the two of them. "Since when? I thought you were set on Olympics."

"My mom says it's unrealistic." She huffed.

Natalie hummed and smiled when the hostess came up to them. "Reservation for two. Bishop." She said kindly. "Two kids menus please." The hostess nodded politely and led them to a secluded booth near the corner, taking their drink orders before leaving them to continue talking.

"My mom says i'm too old to color in the kids menus." Kate added, looking at the crayons sadly.

"Well that's why we're not going to color." Natalie reassured, deftly flipping the menus over to the clean back. "We're going to draw. Drawing is a fine art, i'm sure your mother would approve."

"She says artists are all broke and delusional." Kate huffed, but picked up the purple crayon and put it to the paper.

"Man, Olympics, menus, artists..." Natalie laughed lightly. "Sounds like your mom needs to have more fun." She smirked conspiratorially at Kate. "Maybe we should show her sometime. Then I think she'd have a lot of fun."

"I don't think she likes you." Kate said sadly. Natalie paused her coloring. "I don't know why. You're awesome. She just says she doesn't need your nose in her business."

"She said that?" Natalie asked, trying to seem unbothered but failing.

"Only when she drinks." Kate shrugged, not looking up from her drawing.

Natalie cleared her throat, leaning across the table to look at the drawing closer. "What're you drawing, pumpkin?" She asked, tilting her head to try and get the perspective.

"Hawkeye." The girl said, matter-of-fact. Natalie nodded, now making sense of the arches and curves of the bow and quiver, the straight lines of the suit.

"Still your favorite?" She asked.

"Yeah." She nodded. "He's the best shot in the world."

Natalie smiled and tapped the drawing, making Kate look at her. "For now." The girl smiled so wide it made Nat's heart weep a little.

"Do you miss my dad, Aunt Nat?"

Natalie's smile dropped for a moment, but she pushed her hair back over her shoulder and plastered it back on, ignoring the thoughts regarding her estranged late brother.

"All the time, Pumpkin."

"Just one little sign..." Foggy insisted, hands open and pleading jokingly with Karen.

"What would it cost? You can hardly afford to pay me!" Karen laughed. Nat smiled a little at that, shuffling the physical copies of Karen's case and putting them in the filing cabinet as the first file.

"I thought you were working for free?" Foggy countered.

"Only for a day."

The door opened, revealing Matt... With a nasty black eye.

Wordlessly Natalie stood and met him halfway, turning his head with a soft touch on his jaw. "What happened?" She whispered.

"Jesus, Matt!" Foggy swore, and she heard Karen gasp too behind her.

"I'm fine." Matt insisted, tilting his head away from Natalie's touch and she walked past him to the rickety fridge, snatching a package of frozen peas from the tiny freezer. "I wasn't paying attention, it's my fault."

"You need a dog." Natalie scolded in a sing-song voice, wordlessly handing him the peas before moving back to her desk.

"I'm not getting a dog." Matt snickered. He heard Natalie sigh but she didn't say anything. She wanted to, but she didn't. She was wearing the brown sweater top today. The one with the boat neck she liked to shove up around her elbows because the sleeves were too long. He could hear it in the way the fabric brushed the desk. When she shifted her legs under the table, a specific sound of shifting fabric hit his ears. The black wide-leg trousers today. The scent of her jasmine and ginger shampoo was particularly present; she'd washed her hair this morning. And put it in a... ponytail. The way her soft curtain bangs hung around her face told him she'd worn her glasses instead of contacts today. He liked imagining her with glasses. Cute frames around her big eyes. Foggy had told him that. he'd described them like bug-eyes but knew they were more like doe's eyes. Although he liked the image of her in glasses in his head, it made the air currents around her face a little harder to decipher.

In his rapt state trying to paint a picture of Natalie on that particular morning, he had missed most of the conversation between Foggy and Karen, but the long silence was enough for him to hum in question, tilting his head at the two of them.

"There's someone at the door."

"Our door?" Matt questioned, standing from his desk with a soft groan, dropping the peas from the side of his face.

"I'll get it," Natalie murmured, moving to open the door to their rickety office. A man was outside, he noted. Wearing a freshly pressed suit and lacquered shoes from the smell of him. The cologne was refined. A man of class. Expensive. What was he doing here?

"Hello there." The man chuckled when Natalie stepped back to let him in. "Enchante." He whispered to her only, when he lifted his hand for a shake, she met him, but he instead lifted it to his mouth for a soft, demure kiss. The exchange lasted less than a second, but it set Matt's blood boiling. Before he could speak, the man entered further into the office and looked at the rest of them. "Do you take walk-ins?"

Exactly three minutes and seven seconds later they were all sat at the adjoining conference table with Karen taking notes and Natalie with a folder in front of her. Since Karen's employ it opened up Natalie's abilities to do more of a paralegal's job than a secretary. Spreading out the many responsibilities she had previously shouldered.

"I represent a consortium with diversified interests in the private sector, both domestic and international." The man explained. "From time to time, we scout the landscape for promising talent to put on retainer."

"Retainer?" Matt snarked, and Natalie tapped his leg under the table, checking his tone. "Why are you approaching us? Why not a larger firm, Mr..."

"Confederated Global Investments is my employer." He filled in.

"Not what I was asking," Matt said flatly.

Natalie glanced at him in her periphery. Her brows furrowed; why was he being so rude? Sure the man seemed a bit foreboding but usually he wasn't this open with his judgment.

"It's the only name relevant to this discussion, Mr. Murdock." The man inclined his head just a fraction of a degree, smiling just a little at Natalie, causing her to clear her throat and focus on the table.

"So why us?" Matt continued on, clenching his jaw at Natalie's reaction.

"Obviously the larger firms aren't able to provide the same hands-on attention that we pride ourselves on at Nelson and Murdock." Foggy tried, also looking at Matt confusedly.

"It's a fair question." The man considered, folding his hands neatly on the poorly stained table. "I'm here because my employer does extensive business in Hell's Kitchen and who knows it better than two local boys and their lovely paralegal who graduated from Columbia law, cum laude and summa cum laude?" The man gave a closed-mouthed, charming smile. "You set up shop right here in your backyard despite the fact that both of you were made a very lucrative offer from Landman and Zach in Manhattan where you interned."

"You've done your homework," Natalie remarked, raising a singular eyebrow. She crossed her legs under the table, shifting carefully in her seat.

"What Ms. Bishop is trying to say is we're still building a practice so we're very particular about our clientele." Foggy interjected, also seeming unsure as to where the conversation was headed.

"I assure you, all my employer wants is for you to continue to be ethical, decent men," He looked at Natalie. "And women. Good lawyers." He ended. "For that, and nothing more than your exceptional skills and discretion you'll be fairly compensated."

Foggy's eyes widened as the man slid him a check across the table, Natalie eyed it from beside him and found her mouth dropping open at the sum written there. "It's-It's fair. That's... That's fair."

"Your partner doesn't seem convinced." The man looked at Matt thoughtfully, sizing him up from his stiff posture to the grip on his white cane.

"Like Foggy said," Matt said carefully. "We're particular about our clientele."

"Perhaps you should review one of our cases before you make a decision?" The man stood, adjusting his expensive suit before he placed a crisp file on the table before them. "Peace of mind and whatnot."

"That's a fantastic idea." Natalie said amicably. "Matthew? What harm could it do?" She swiped the file and added it to her pile of papers, passing them to Foggy and standing.

"You have thirty-eight minutes to get to precinct fifteen. Everything you need is in that file." He passed around the table to meet Natalie at the door. "Thank you for your time."

"I'll show you out." Natalie said, just as she heard Foggy start to splutter out questions. She opened the door and the both of them walked through it, Natalie passing in front of him to open the door to the office.

"Walk with me for a moment, Ms. Bishop?" The man asked, Natalie paused for a long moment but nodded her agreement, grabbing her long coat from the hook near the door.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Confed Global?" Natalie tried, crossing her arms over herself to hide her nerves.

They made their way to the street before he answered her. "I'm very familiar with your sister-in-law, Natalie." The man raised his voice over the sound of the street around them. "She's told me much about you."

"She did?" Natalie stiffened just a tad, unsure of how to respond. "Nothing bad, I hope?"

"No, very good things, Natalie. Very good." The man chuckled, drawing a white card from his coat. "My employer and I are interested in working in much closer regard with you as well as her." Natalie stopped walking to take the card from him, staring at the numbers written on it. "You are better than a do-gooding law firm out of a broom closet, Natalie. Your brother thought that, so does my employer." He tapped the card with a finger. "This is my personal number. Call me." Before she could stop him the man leaned in to press a chaste kiss to her cheek, making her take a half step back in shock.

She stood there for a long moment, watching the man as he walked away and pulled his phone out of his pocket, watched him more as he walked a whole block before getting into a large black SUV.

She watched him until she couldn't and then she turned to walk back to the office and her coworkers, shoving the card into her jacket pocket. Just when she thought her relationship with her sister-in-law couldn't get any stranger.

Natalie shoved the keys into her door with a soft groan, feeling the clip in her hair dig into her aching head. Long day, a nightmare case... She was still so confused about the card in her pocket and the man who gave it to her. More confused about how he knew her brother's widow.

All things she didn't have time to ponder because a hand gripped the back of her head tight and yanked it back. Another hand covering her mouth as panic took over her body.

"I hate being broke." Foggy whined, leaning back in his broken chair and staring at their water stained ceiling.

"You think Landman and Zach would have been better?" Matt snarked, smiling into his glass.

"No." Foggy held up a hand, "But they had free bagels... every morning." Matt laughed at that but he kept going. "And they had furniture that didn't smell like a pack of cigarettes."

"This is true," Matt conceded. "We're doing good here, Foggy."

"Are we?"

"Yeah we're making a difference." He reassured him, loosening his tie with one hand. It was at that exact moment that the burner phone in his pocket began to ring, sending a soft jolt through his body. Claire. Only Claire had that number.

"You get a new phone?" Foggy asked, raising an eyebrow when matt pulled it from his pocket. "It's a girl isn't it? You got a new phone just for your girls."

Matt laughed as Foggy stood and gathered his things moving towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Foggy." He called out, just as he heard the front door shut and Foggy's soft murmur about how his life sucked.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked into the phone, only hearing commotion from the other side. "Claire?" A crash, more noise. "Claire, can you hear me?" It was then that he heard a scream, somewhere between a shout and a sob. Bloodcurdling. "Natalie..." He whispered, recognizing the tone of voice. "Natalie!" He repeated, gripping the phone tightly between his fingers.

"Yeah we have the woman." An accented Russian voice spoke through the phone. "A young man named Santino was kind enough to introduce us." Matt opened his mouth to pour a threat into the phone when the call clicked. All at once his hands started to shake, he threw his briefcase against the wall with an animalistic shout, pulling his tie completely from his neck and running a frantic hand through his hair.

They had her.

"Our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be they name." Natalie fought against the tears threatening to clog her throat, whispering under her shaky breaths. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us." One of her captors swore a little, pacing irritably. She couldn't see but she could hear his agitated footsteps. "Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory, yours is the power for ever and ever, amen."

Taking a shaky breath she began the next step in her prayer. "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women-" She was cut off in her prayer by a harsh strike to her face, tearing a scream from her throat.

"Stop fucking whining." A man's voice called before fingers gripped her jaw harshly. "Don't bother with prayers. Your god can't save you now."

He released her with more of a push than was necessary, knocking her head back. Despite the shaking of her body and the fear wracking her she continued her prayers in a whisper. "-and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus." She heard a soft hum and the filtered light through her blindfold was gone, sounds of confusion following. She stiffened, and the gap in her prayers was long enough for a hand to clasp around her mouth, muffling a scream as hot breath touched her ear.

"Close your eyes." The husky voice ordered gently, "Keep praying. Whatever you hear, don't move, and keep praying." The hand muffled a choked sob from her throat, and then it was gone. Leaving her a whimpering mess.

At the first sound of the fighting, she yelped in terror and started praying again through her sobs.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen." She cried, shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs. "Glory be to the father," She screamed as gunshots rang out but continued praying. "-and to the son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."

Next was the Our Father prayer again. This time she could hear less violence and less screams, but they were still coming. "Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread-" She choked as she heard steps starting to come towards her, stopping inches before her feet. "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." The blindfold was gently lifted from her face, but she kept her eyes screwed tightly shut, tears now able to flow freely down her reddened face. "And lead us not into temptation..."

"Natalie, open your eyes." That same husky voice urged softly. She shook her head, voice cracking on a sob.

"But deliver us from evil."

"Open your eyes, Nat."

She gasped at the familiar voice and opened her eyes, seeing a pair of familiar brown ones directly in front of hers, so close she could hardly see anything else.

"Amen." She blubbered, sobs beginning anew at seeing a familiar face, mixed with confusion and shock.

"Amen." He whispered back. Then he took a knife from his pocket and cut the binds holding her to the chair. "I'm gonna get you out of here, Nat." He soothed, rubbing her wrists where the circulation had been cut off. "I'm going to pick you up, and I want you to close your eyes and finish the rosary. Okay?" She nodded absently, shivering in place and hot tears sticking to her face.

Without another word, Matt's arms were around her, lifting her gently off the chair and collecting her against his body, tucking her head into his neck to shield her eyes from the massacre that he'd left behind to get to her.

All he could think about as he carried her away from the empty room was that he wished those men had suffered more. That they'd paid a heftier price for laying a hand on her. "This isn't going to feel great." Matt apologized in advance, nose wrinkling at the thought of putting her in any more pain.

"I don't understand." She whispered, wincing as the needle entered her skin again. "How are you doing this?"

"Used to patch up my dad when I was young."

"Not the sutures." She swallowed. "You act like you can..."

"See?" He finished, smiling faintly. "I can. In a way." The smile vanished into an expression of concentration as he continued stitching her gash back together.

"So you aren't blind?" She wondered aloud, still trying to process everything that had happened in the past twelve hours.

"I am blind." He conceded, tying off the last suture. He frowned at her whimper of pain. "Sorry."

"You've probably had worse." She murmured around her swollen lip.

"You haven't." He countered, cutting the thread and smoothing a bandage over his stitching. "And.. I more meant I'm just sorry. Sorry for bringing you into this."

"I don't even know what this is, Matt." She sighed, pulling the borrowed shirt over her shoulders again. Normally, this situation would have her melting, but she found she wasn't entirely feeling romantic after the events of the day.

"I never thought i'd be putting anyone else at risk." He reiterated, brushing her hair back from her neck to lay on one shoulder. She shivered at the touch but found herself almost leaning into it.

"You can't have known this would happen." She insisted, refusing to look at him for fear she would do something stupid. "Random things happen."

"It wasn't random." The whisper was barely audible over the beating of her heart when she looked at him. There was a softness in his eyes that was so vulnerable, and something else there too that she hadn't seen yet. Something that looked like longing.

"What do you mean?"

"I talked about you." He murmured, stroking a single finger down from where her ear met her jaw to the line of her shoulder. "I was hurt. Someone was patching me up and I told her... About you."

"I don't understand-"

"Someone else heard. They heard when I talked about the color of your eyes. Your hair. The bistro by your apartment. Your name." He swallowed, a flush burning his neck. Something akin to embarrassment flaring in his stomach. "They used that information to find you. To hurt you."

Natalie swallowed hard past the lump in her throat, standing from the stool at his counter and turning to face him fully. "Why? Why would someone do that?"

"Because of how I talk about you." He spoke plainly, voice low and clear. "Because they put it together..." He paused a long moment before forcing the words out. "I care about you."

"I-" Her words were cutoff when Matt leaned into her space, hovering so close to her mouth but not crossing that final boundary.

"They knew hurting you would hurt me." He spoke almost against her mouth, and without thinking she gently pressed her lips to his, closing that last infinitesimal distance between them. He froze, just for a moment, then turned his head, breaking the kiss

The stood in awkward silence for a long moment, then he cleared his throat, stepping away. "You can... take the bedroom tonight. It's probably not safe for you to walk around right now. People could still be watching."

"Right." She nodded, wandering aimlessly past him towards the sliding door of his bedroom. His soft footsteps followed her, and she wished with everything in her they didn't. The rejection he'd given her stung, and she honestly wished she was in anyone else's' apartment right about then.

She tried to move into the bed without looking at him. But she only managed it for a moment before she stopped him at the door.

"Matt?" She hated the shakiness in her voice, but he turned at her call. "Will you stay with me?" She asked meekly, feeling weak and ashamed. "I just-"

"Yeah." He answered, saving them both from her awkward ramblings. Wordlessly, she scooted across the plush mattress and lifted the covers making room for him. Once they'd settled, she rolled over to her other side, looking away like she could pretend she couldn't feel the heat of him just less than a foot behind her.

It could have been minutes or hours later before she rolled over and opened her eyes to find Matt already watching her, something heartfelt and touching in his unseeing eyes.

"Stop looking at me like you want me." She begged in a whisper. "Matt, we both know you don't."

"I do." He muttered painfully, lifting a hand to touch her face. "That's the worst part."

"I don't believe you." She laughed humorlessly, closing her eyes sadly. "You don't have to say these things to spare my ego, Matthew. I know where I stand-" She was broken off when suddenly Matt was no longer a semi-appropriate distance away, but rather right against her, lips hovering over hers in a promise of a kiss. Without thinking she lifted a hand slowly to the back of his neck and pulled him that last millimeter, their lips meeting softly in the middle.

Matt started the kiss gentle, but it didn't stay that way, only seconds later she felt his tongue just brushing the seam of her mouth, asking permission to enter. She granted it on a gasp when his arm wrapped around her waist, gently bringing her in closer until they were touching from shoulder to knee.

The kiss broke suddenly, leaving them both taking in air, breath fanning across each others' faces.

"Believe me yet?" Matt nearly growled, moving his hand from her waist to her hair to tangle his fingers in it.

"I could do with some convincing." She countered, with only a little uncertainty in her voice. She thought she saw his lips turn up in the beginning of a smile before they were pressed against hers.

a/n: WHEW this one was a marathon to write. I am so tired right now but the second part of this scene will be included in the beginning of the next installment, including a lot more soft Mattalie content and the aftermath of the attack.

as always this story is dedicated to @abucketofweird and I'm extending it to @sunflowersandsapphires as well. You guys have been amazing supporters and none of this would be written let alone posted without you both.

I'm unsure if starting a tag list is a good idea. If anyone would be interested in that let me know. I've never done this crap before.

If you guys are liking this story please consider leaving a note or following for more it really means a lot. I'm gonna try and keep updating this semi-regularly but I make no promises because I'm chronically ill and in college. So nothing is certain lol.

Thanks again,

-Sybil :)

#daredevil #daredevil x reader #matt murdock x oc #matt murdock x reader #daredevil x oc #daredevil x ofc #marvel #matt murdock #matt murdock x ofc #matt murdock x you

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fallingintoyourlilaceyes · 1 year

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hii, i’m not sure if ur recieving requests rn but i’m jst gna shoot my shot

could i request reader x xavier where shes not the dating type and ppl have tried and failed to try and ask her out, date her, etc. and then comes along xavier who’s determined to take her out on a date (respectfully)

and yeahh

Oh my god I´m so sorry this took forever to write! I just hated everything I brought onto the page. I hope you still enjoy dear <3

Not the dating type

pairing: Xavier Thorpe x fem!reader

synopsis: You had never given much thought to dating, but what happens when, by accident, you meet a certain artist. Will your stance on the matter change?

warnings: none

word count: 1.4k

You had never given much thought to dating. Not that you had anything against it, it was just that it felt a little too superficial whenever someone did ask you out. You were happy spending the time apart from your friends and schoolwork with yourself. Which right now you wished there was more of.

“Why didn´t you go out with them? They´re like super cute...!”, your friend asked you for the nth time.

“Do we have to discuss this again? Why would I go out with someone who I know isn´t even interested in the same things as I am in the slightest and that doesn´t know me at all? Plus, you know I like spending time on my own. I just want to have a good time and write every once in a while.”, you take a bite from your lunch. “Despite, don´t you think they are like the blandest person to ever exist? Like just really bland?”

For the nth time your friend lets out a distressed sigh at your answer. Though even she can´t help herself to not chuckle at the emphasis on ´really bland´. “I take this as my sign to not even ask you about this year's dance?”

“Not unless you want to hear last year's answer all over again. Isn´t it a bit too early to think about that anyway?”

She shrugs and the two of you finish the meal talking about an assignment before you have to head into different directions for afternoon classes.

That evening after lunch you go back outside into the quad. Most students are busy with god knows what and so it is not too crowded. The air is still warm and so you decide to lean onto the cool stone wall. Fully concentrated on the writing in front of you, you don´t notice the tall figure looming over you, trying to get to exactly that wall. At least you can feel a finger tapping your shoulder.

“Sorry, but you are kind of in my way.”, looking up you see into a pair of green eyes.

“Oh, I´m sorry. I didn´t even notice.”, you hold up the journal. “That looks really good by the way. Did you paint that?”

“Uh… yeah… Thank you.”

“Anyway I better go get back inside. I´m sorry again for sitting in your way.”, you smile at him while you dust yourself off and then walk back inside.

This would happen regularly afterwards. You´d always sit down in that same spot and when he eventually came over to continue painting you´d talk for a bit. Mostly about art at first. You asked Xavier about his paintings and how he found himself picking up drawing and painting and he would ask you about the stories you wrote in that journal he never saw you without. As time progressed you found the conversations had taken to more personal topics as well. You found yourselves greeting each other in passing and before you knew it you thought of the schools resident tortured artist, as your friend and the other students had dubbed him, as a friend.

“So what do you want to do today?”, you asked the artist curiously.

“Actually I wanted to show you something. Come on, it´s not far from here.”, he seemed a little more nervous than usually.

“Alright.”, you made it a point not to mention your observation but quite some time after wandering through the woods you couldn´t bite back a joking question. “You´re not trying to kidnap me, are you?”

“What? No, don´t worry. We should be there soon.”

Indeed it only took a couple more steps before you stood outside an old shed.

“I´m sorry where are we right now?”, you stay back a bit as he takes off the heavy chain to open the door.

“I found this shed a couple of years ago and Weems let me clean it out and use it as an art studio.”

Stepping in, you get hit by just walls and canvases filled with paintings.

“Wow, you must be here often.”, you can´t hide the amazement in your voice entirely.

“Pretty much every chance I get…”

You spend the afternoon in the Studio, talking like you do until you find what you assume is another canvas hidden behind a big piece of fabric.

“Hey, Xavier, what’s underneath that?”, you point to it.

“Oh, it’s not done yet.”, he brushes the question aside quickly.

Once more you don’t push it.

The next time you get to the shed it’s gone and the times after you don’t see it either, so you slowly forget about it.

When you go there one evening to have some time truly to yourself and write, like you had done a lot lately, you catch Xavier with it.

Too far into the music and his thoughts he doesn’t hear the door open or close. Neither does he hear you walk up behind him. Standing on your tiptoes to look over his shoulder you see it. A picture of you. Only then does he realise you are there. Trying to hide the canvas as fast as possible, he couldn´t do much for you to unsee it.

“Hey… I didn´t think you were coming here today.”, his face start turning redder by the second.

“Yeah, I just needed some time away from everyone else…”, God this was awkward.

“Oh, okay”, this ends the conversation for that moment. You go to sit at the small table to do your thing and Xavier does his. This time the silence between you isn´t as comforting or comfortable as it usually was and so you speak up again.

“Are we gonna talk about the painting or not? I know what you usually paint. Is there something I need to know?”, you can hear the second chair scraping before he speaks.

“No, nothing like that at least.”, he thinks about what to say next. “Well, I didn´t plan on doing it like this, but… I had this dream over and over again since I was young. Like really young. Of just that scene. Ever since we started talking it came back twice as often. And I know what you said about the other guys that asked you out, but… I wanted to ask you if, maybe some time, you would want to go on a date with me?”

This time it was on you to be silent. “You are really sweet, Xavier. I just… I don´t think I can say yes to that. Not only because of what you heard, but you basically just broke up with Bianca too. Enid would have this on her blog God knows how fast. You know what position that would put both of us in. I´m sorry, I better get back to school.”

Things got a bit weird for a while after this. You never stopped talking, but that afternoon never left the back of your head. Ultimately you pulled yourselves together though and when he asked you for a second time, on the day of the Poe cup, things went over all smoother. However it got you thinking things over.

When he asked you out only a short time later for a date to the Rave`N you surprised both of you with a yes.

“Wait, really? You´re not just saying yes because…?”, he asked.

“Yes, really Xavi.”, you chuckled. “In fact I think this is going to be a fun evening.”

“What made you change your mind?”

“After you asked me before the Poe cup I think I realized that I actually like being with you not only as a friend, unlike I had thought… It also felt different like when anyone else asked me.”

And you were right. Though you didn´t stay long at the dance itself and headed out to spend the evening away from all the loud music. You laughed a lot and by the end Xavier brought you back to your room. Not hearing any concerns about being caught by a teacher.

“Tonight was great, but you better go before you get caught.”, you still giggle. “Go.”

He still doesn´t move or say anything when you open the door to get into your room. Just as you opened the zipper if the dress, your phone gives off a high pitched ping. ´You were too fast. I wanted to ask if you want to get coffee tomorrow. As kind of a second date?´

Rolling your eyes, chuckling again you send back a ´Sure. That sounds great 😊´

You think you can hear the buzzing of a phone and a whispered celebration outside, but blame it on the setting in tiredness.

#xavier thorpe #xavier thorpe x reader #xavier thorpe x you #xavier thorpe oneshot #wednesday netflix #wednesday netflix one shot

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sanctus-ingenium · 1 year

Text

answering your asks in one big post because you sent so many of them (update: added 2 more that just got sent)

hi guys. what the fuck

in plain text so i don't have to type out a million image IDs

Anonymous asked: "I am obsessed with your metal beasts and lore!! The designs are *chef's kiss* gorgeous and inspired and if you were to ever make print versions of the kinda diagram-like side view pieces of them I'd slap that stuff all over my walls ❤️❤️"

Answer: I'd have to pretty them up a LOT to get them print ready. But I think it would be cool to do a blueprint style version kind of like old diagrams of machinery with additional embellishments

like this (source)

Anonymous asked: "have you ever posted any art of the dragons you've mentioned before? im really curious ab them"

Answer: I've posted sketches. I have trouble drawing diagrams because I am STILL torn between radial and bilateral symmetry... i know it should be radial but in my heart I prefer bilateral. So I'm thinking maybe it is radial but with a pseudo-bilateral look. It's definitely on my to-draw list

Anonymous asked: "just wanna pop in and say i love all your worldbuilding its so creative and fun, but as a dragon lover i ESPECIALLY adore your weird and funky dragons. i think its so cool when people push the boundaries on what a dragon can be (that versatility is a big part of their appeal to me in the first place) and your take is one of the most fun ive seen in a while"

Answer: as a marine biologist, I-

the dragons came after the beasts. I wanted to give them a reason for existing and 'knights fighting dragons' evokes such a great retro fantasy vibe that i loved it. The reason Pantera is a leopard (and not any other kind of big cat) is because in medieval bestiaries, leopards were said to fight dragons using their 'sweet breath'. You can see where I went with it. But dragons in these bestiaries have such variable appearances and can be virtually anything, like you said they're so versatile. For the people in this setting, the most they ever really see of dragons are the legs, tendrils, and the massive beak (which is mineralised like the pen of a squid). It's a creature really too big to comprehend, so they depict it in their diagrams as a bird-headed creature with wings and a back end made of serpents. but you can always tell in these illustrations whether the artist has actually seen a dragon in person.. because they won't draw it like this:

@our-tiny-hotel asked: "where did you get the idea/inspiration for these stories?"

Answer: for mez, i like zoids, retro fantasy, speculative biology, and stories which explore themes of religion and its role in highly gendered systems of oppression (lbr it is fantasy catholicism. that's right... this is also a story about gender)

for inver: fairies man

Anonymous asked: "is nosewyse a dog? i cant find anything about it on your blog"

Answer: You can find Nosewyse here. He's the smallest Holy Beast and by far the most pathetic

@raskies456 asked: "Re: your tags on the Taurus art, how DO the smiths manufacture such massive single plates of metal?"

Answer: I'm going to draw some diagrams to explain but basically the theocratic empire sits on a massive wealth of iron ore so there's no shortage of it. Smiths can manipulate metallic elements using the dialogue tattoos on their palms - Mercury and Mars are the titles for enginesmiths and armoursmiths respectively. Enginesmiths use mercury because it doesn't interact with incandescent dragonsblood, and it's a liquid metal which in alchemical theory is Pure and extremely close to gold (free of sin u might say). The quicksilver is used to manipulate the insides of a working engine without having to physically touch it. Armoursmiths work on iron, but here's the issue: solid metal won't budge. It needs to be softened or liquid for the dialogues to have any effect. So the armoursmith teams are blacksmiths who heat up these mass amounts of iron using dragonsblood furnaces until the iron is malleable, and then in teams of 50 or more they slowly and painstakingly stretch and shape it into the desired form. that's how they make armour plating for Holy Beasts. The use of dialogue tattoos isn't like psychic telekinesis, but more like playing an instrument where the position of each finger has to be perfectly accurate in 3D space to produce the desired effect. it's a very physical job and incredibly skilled. Taurus's barge took decades to construct and thousands of workers.

Anonymous asked: "are you ever going to publish the book are you are writing"

Answer: maybe. the idea of traditional publishing doesn't appeal to me. might just be a "buy this pdf on itch.io" sort of deal

Anonymous asked: "Hi, im new here. I hope this isn't rude, but from what i can tell the gist here is that medieval people dug up what i can only assume are the still-living skeletons of otherworldly beings or perhaps demons and went "Wouldn't it be cool if we put flamethrowers in these guys and rode them to war" and then they do that thanks to jellyfish ooze from giant violent sky jellyfish?"

Answer: I can neither confirm nor deny (yes but also nooot quite ;))

Anonymous asked: "Jowd you learn how to draw machines? Is it hard to draw all the Bits on those mechazords in the correct place when theyre like jumping and run ing and shit?"

Answer: I learned a lot from building zoids, putting them together, watching them move etc etc. At the same time, it's also sort of basic anatomy too? Your hinged elbow joint is a mechanism and if you just made the same joint in metal it would work the same way. But ALSO when i draw them, I follow the ref sheets for big parts but mostly bullshit the details because who give a shit at the end of the day if I put a screw wrong, no one's going to care

Anonymous asked: "Idk if this helps you at all but on r/zoids on the Dreaded Reddit people talk about 3d printed zoids so maybe you can get your zoids that way"

Answer: I am a member of r/zoids lol... that sounds really cool though. I've never seen a 3D printer in real life before tho. But I can't be out here getting more zoids when I have had my HMM command wolf half-constructed for literally over a year because I keep procrastinating on it

Anonymous asked: "A lot of libraries have 3d printers and some people will like. Hire theirs out so people can print stuff"

Answer: Not in Ireland they don't

Anonymous asked: "Is it illegal to make beaft ocs".

Answer: I'm not a cop and my main stance is: do what you want, I can't stop you. If you would like to design a mech animal using medieval bestiary aesthetics - go for it, it's fun. However, why does it have to play by my setting rules? Wouldn't you prefer to make something wholly belonging to yourself? You can invent a million new ways to use this sort of mech design in a story with a whole new setting, all yours. It just won't be one of mine or in my setting.

Anyway you couldn't make a beaft oc in my setting anyway because you don't even know what they are or how they work

#you are all so thirsty for beafts #info asks #setting: mez #anon is now off over xmas

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