#more notes than I would prefer

[justarandomhelluvablog]

Okay so obviously the more important thing here was Angel's reaction to it, but

Husk's face when he realized Valentino was there.....

#Hazbin Hotel #Husk #do I still need to tag spoilers for an episode that's been out more than a week? #ah I'll tag it just in case #spoilers #for Episode 6 #am I in love with this cat man maybe #Still hoping he still has his magic but just isn't using it it would be awesome if the magician cat could still use magic lol #I mean I think his cards and dice might be an extension of his magic but I mean like. not Alastor level magic #bc Alastor would not keep him around if Husk was anywhere near his level #but ya know #enough to be a li'l frightening. as a treat #the razor sharp cards and the exploding dice are super cool but I wanna see this man wipe the floor with Valentino lmao #and then let Angel say his piece before he (Angel not Husk) finishes him off #and yes I very specifically want Angel to be the one to kill Valentino #but I can accept it if it's Husk instead #but much preferred if it's Angel #oops sorry I wrote a novel in the notes o7

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

newsletters (email and physical) are way underrated right now tbh. down with constant information-sharing via popular social media websites, bring back newsletters.

#gurt says stuff #social media #random #reblog if you also love and miss newsletters and would prefer them to having to follow everyone on social media #and getting way more info than you ever wanted or needed about stuff you literally do not care about #just send me a little note to my inbox once a month with the info and maybe a few nice authentic musings #I would be so down for that

[unproduciblesmackdown]

NOTE: THIS ITEM IS CURRENTLY IN PREORDER. IT WILL SHIP IN JUNE-JULY 2023. We will be printing based on preorder size, so grab one now if you want one!

More than 40 trans writers and artists have joined forces to explore the deeper meanings of the Fast & Furious franchise (and also gender). There's really no way to know why this exists, but it does, and you can own it! Suitable for F&F fans and newcomers alike. Contributions include:

- A new short story by Manhunt author Gretchen Felker-Martin - A demolition derby driver’s perspective on 2 Fast 2 Furious’s derby scene - An essay contemplating the queer symbolism of Cipher’s bowl cut - The scoop on the franchise’s only canonically nonbinary character - Instructions for an F&F-themed tabletop roleplaying game - A contemplation of which Taylor Swift album represents each F&F character - Plus: Bingo cards! Comics! Haiku! And, of course, hot gay erotica…

2 Trans 2 Furious is edited by Tuck Woodstock & Niko Stratis, with cover art by Mattie Lubchansky and zine design by Shay Mirk.

~

This zine is 8.5" x 5.5" and perfect-bound like a real book — fancy! Interior pages are black & white. We're guessing this baby is like 100 pages long but we'll get back to you on that.

Currently only shipping to the United States, sorry! We're hoping to at least expand to Canada soon, and also plan to add a PDF ebook option, so keep an eye out!

(that "the scoop on the franchise's only canonically nonbinary character" is the page i contributed about our one & only beloved akd-acted cam stone!! plus also if you're interested in preordering a fancy printed copy of a zine about fast & furious, which you don't have to even know about or like, with all trans contributors. including me)

#and i don't even hardly know about it or like it. proof positive #cam stone #i even looked up typical pixel to dpi ratios so my art would be high res enough for printing. Canvas Big & my laptop hated it lol.... #but indeed there's three cam pics including an effort at a kind of pinup adjacent Ooh Cam Stone one lol. carefully placed torque wrenches #anyone look up f&f posting on this site....there's gotta be; right. this whole zine is an ode to that. well here goes a few tags: #fast & furious #f&f #2 fast 2 furious #gets a special shoutout. inspiring us all well beyond [even seeing any f&f related stuff. tfatf.... #also would be one less contributer if not scholar nothingunrealistic.tumblr.com; also the source of my knowing abt cam stone in general; #being the one to know of this project & go ''perfect cam stone opportunity'' like it Really is isn't it #and thus; against all odds but also appropriately; Racing to actually create a page abt them to spread the good news #in that there was like a month & a half's heads up but i still exponentially did most of the actual execution days before the deadline #ran into some technical difficulties in the final hours lol but then seized a Post Submission Editing Opportunity to amend that w/more time #and to go ''i wrote it as fast & furious: crossroads which is what many sources format it as But official materials write it like #fast & furious crossroads without the colon & it's nbd but i would prefer to change it =('' getting a yeah no prob lol.... #fixed up some very minor visual errors & changed one instance of word ordering so that it had some more Prosody imo. didn't mention that lo #plus going ''yeah there can/should be an editor's note to emphasize This Is Really Real Not An OC b/c that's clearer And funnier'' #fast & furious extended universe really has a nonbinary character & if they're for real abt this finale Trilogy call akd up please.... #let's get that cam & vienna cameo it's fast(tm) easy & free (it's not free....might not even be easy but it's more than worth it) #fast & furious crossroads #anyone looking That up has gotta get in on this #pdf / virtual option tba as mentioned....but physical copy rules too. i forget if i sent them my mailing address but i think i did lol #the ideal of being Gifted one like yeah i Will take this around with me then thank you #truly the most formal publishing my Work has ever seen. besides ''online'' or ''once i did a painting that i think was on the wapo site'' #and a very appropriate way to achieve that....but fr what's great is So Many More Ppl Can Now Learn Cam Stone Exists #we've got The Scoop as attested babey!!! 🍨 #and in turn we owe it all to akd everyone say thank you akd for acting that pwns & a je ne sais quoi to boot #which; in turn; thank you kompenso; thank you will roland's pwning acting/je ne sais quoi; thank you michael greif What Works understander. #i have remembered that pixels are implicit in the term ''dpi''....but it's a wash on clarity yet funnier to leave it as i wrote it

[dutybcrne]

I like to think that when it comes to his first time with his partner, Alhaitham treats the talk leading up to it like a fucken job interview-

#☆ ┆ ( .ooc. ); #hc; alhaitham #//Not on the other blog bc this is more crack hc than anything but at the same time jfjfb #//Like #//Mans propositions his partner after waiting the Ideal Time after they’ve become an item #//But when they say yes; he’s all ‘Great; let’s talk abt it at (time) this many days from now’ #//Heads off to prepare for said time and when it rolls around; dude’s got a fucken little notebook and starts formally askin them questions #//Preferences; kinks; do’s/don’ts; ideal times for them; past experience; etc #//Very formal; very thorough questions he’ll follow up with MORE questions; avidly scribbling his notes down #//Bc he genuinely wants to be well prepared for when they DO get into it #//Makes a very detailed note file on them then proceeds to schedule an actual time for them to sleep together #//Plans a whole special date for then and everything; while using the time until then to study up on everything they told him #//And things he could do that align with their tastes #//I would say Bedo would do this; but he’s more hands on and would prolly like to learn it all in the moment #//Once Haitham gets the rundown on what they like/dislike; dude is far more confident initiating whenever/however often his partner lets him #//But the first is Very important he makes it good and is Hella Prepared #//Esp since it for a Fact would be his first OVERALL #//Dude would feel Much less nervous if he’s gotten all this down and sorted

[victorluvsalice]

-->When Victor got a call on his phone. From one Emilia Ernest. Asking if he wanted to duel her on the dueling official grounds of the Magic Realm.

Well, how the hell could I say no to a rematch? :D I had Victor tell her “OK!” and head over to the Magic Realm, bringing Alice and Smiler along once he arrived. He flew off to the dueling grounds right away, eager for battle –

Only to have to wait quite a while for his opponent to show up, because Emilia doesn't own a broom and thus had to take the long way around. She did eventually arrive, however, and the two commenced their epic magical battle! :D Both took a few magical blows from the other, but in the end, Victor was triumphant once more! Yay!

...and I found out that dueling the same person more than once does not count toward the “win three duels” goal in the Spellcraft And Sorcery aspiration. Boo. *sigh* At least he proved to Emilia he’s the more powerful spellcaster, I suppose. And got a well-earned nap on the bench nearby afterward. :p

-->Anyway – while all that was happening, how were Alice and Smiler getting on? Well –

Alice had some mushroom conserve as a snack, then took a feral run over to Caster’s Alley before transforming into her beast form again and going out for a proper hunt. And when she returned from that, belly full of found meat, she did a little bit of scavenging and found a fossilized udder and a Yuki MySims statue. Unfortunately both duplicates of stuff we already had, but well, what can you do. Even if they're dupes, they're good for the werewolf XP!

Smiler, meanwhile, hit up one of the local fishing spots and caught a perch, a sturgeon (worth $192! I mounted that one), and a pufferfish. They then took a moment to feed the local cowplant (yeah, the Magic Realm reno I downloaded apparently includes a secret cowplant! Guess I shouldn't be surprised, it is from LilSimsie) before going to play some chess. Gotta keep that Logic skill going in the right direction and all! Plus it's something a little different from having them play video games while they're here.

-->However -- I came here to try and get some progress made on one of Victor's spellcasting aspirations for his New Year's resolution, and I was determined to do that. So after he woke up from his nap, I had him grab a mote for later consumption (since he's now got the Mote Hound perk and can just see them always), then got him to transportalate himself back to the main building. My INTENT was for him to do some more tome browsing and maybe find a new potion book for the Purveyor of Potions aspiration, since he seemed to be doing better with that one than the other...

But, who should be in the room he found himself in but one Morgyn Ember! Who was once again available to ask for a potion recipe! :D Even better! Victor thus did so, and got the Potion of Nausea – great for your enemies, not so much for customers in a grocery store. :p But it was another potion recipe regardless, bringing his total known up to five, and thus completing that goal on his current aspiration milestone! Now he just has to brew up two more potions, and he is set!

#sims 4 #the lazy save #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler always #yeah I was not expecting Emilia to call him up and go 'hey hear you're a great duelist wanna spar?' #especially after he kicked her ass the other day XD #but yeah always up for a handy little rematch >:D #which would have been MORE handy if the game counted repeated duels against the same person towards the S&S aspiration #I thought it might be one of those 'win three duels period' ones #but nope it's 'win three separate duels against three separate people' #which Victor PROBABLY could have done but #as noted he was a lot farther along on the Potions aspiration anyway #so easier to just fulfill that #would have preferred NOT to get the Potion of Nausea but #well he just has to know it he doesn't necessarily have to brew it #more than once anyway #but we'll cover THAT later #queued

[joshuaalbert]

tbh i do think changeling jack would have been a better option like. first of all i think just actually sticking to the changeling plot, rather than the antagonists being the changelings and the borg in an alliance that i guess doesn’t not make sense but ultimately brushes aside the changeling stuff at the end probably would have been better, but i also think there’s some potentially interesting stuff in there. again with the caveat that this is kind of operating off of like...not totally changing the setup but trying to do something better with the same beginning.

like ok loose concept 20 years prior to ep 1 beverly picks up this kid while she’s on a mission in the wake of the dominion war and initially doesn’t know he’s a shapeshifter or anything, just that he’s a child who needs help. he’s on her ship for a while and she gets kind of attached to him, especially when he shows an early interest in medical stuff, but at some point she gets confronted by some subset of starfleet that’s after him, and it comes out that he’s a changeling who did something bad in an attempt to escape capture by starfleet and they’re here to take him back.

and like. she’s gotten to know him, and she feels protective of this kid and she believes he was genuinely acting out of fear and possibly reacting to mistreatment, whereas their charges seem. kind of questionable? they feel like the result of paranoia in the wake of the dominion war and she doesn’t trust the people that are going to bring him in to treat him fairly, and she’s already somewhat more disillusioned with starfleet than she used to be because she’s already lost one son to starfleet ideals and is starting to regard jack as another, so that questioning really gets kicked into overdrive here on a broader scale. she makes the choice to protect this kid that she’s gotten attached to and they escape, but they have to go on the run, and that’s why she’s been off the grid for so long. she raises him, and they do their medical thing, but eventually they run into trouble and she doesn’t know where else to turn, so she reaches out to picard and tells him not to involve starfleet (both because they’re potentially compromised but also because her trust in them is still not at an all time high)

and then also since that’s dealing with the dominion war and that story belongs to ds9 i would have loved to bring back sisko (probably like. as at least a 2-3 episode arc, one of which replaces the episode w/ro laren bc i love her and all but she deserved better and we could have made the points that were made there in other ways). like. put him face to face with picard for the first time since the ds9 pilot and have them reassess each other after this time. i don’t know exactly how i’d see that dynamic playing out but i think bringing them back together to try to negotiate a threat would be super interesting AND like. i would really love to see picard going to sisko for advice about fatherhood tbh. maybe picard has read jake’s work and is familiar with the fact that they have a very close relationship so in trying to bond with jack he realizes sisko could be a really good person to learn from, even if they’ve had personal struggles in the past (and even if they’re never like Friends now). idk feels like a way to bring sisko back in and give him some closure that would have worked thematically on multiple levels.

like idk i dont have a whole plot seeing as ive been thinking about this for. not very long. but by focusing more on the changeling plot and giving it personal relevance we can focus on questioning starfleet and the federation, and how having to question these things picard has dedicated his whole life to affects his identity, but ideally to me the conflict would be one that shows the potential for positive change.

#for context the answer to 'why are you writing so many long ass posts' is usually a combination of mild hypomania + writing going badly #so you can just. act on that assumption in the future lmao. #like i said in the last post i dont really like the setup but even with it there were more interesting things that could have been done #and like...idk weird changeling kid jack trying to figure his shit out in the space where the dominion war is over but people are still #kinda weird about people like him is infinitely more interesting to me than specialest borg guy jack #even if ultimately i would prefer that they just. didn't do a secret child plot at all lmao #(as a side note i dont love the ds9 episode that comes to a kind of like. well people will always just be prejudiced conclusion #but i do think there's a difference between 'that's just always how it'll be' and showing people actively making an effort to be better) #i honestly have no idea if anything i've said today makes any sense wahoo but here we are babey!! #pic #picard spoilers #san rant #changeling!jack

[broke-on-books]

Here is my finals board btw

It has everything you need for finals week, aka reminders for my actual finals, spider man, motivational poetry (unspeakable suffering edition), the comics vers of that one Twitter post, macroeconomics formulas, Batgirl, a sticker my gramma gave me, and motivational quote (again)

#comic book man... PLEASE #no but i love it <3 #could probably fit more superheroes but im lefty and may erase something #theoretically i would also want to add wonder woman and my two fave green lanterns (simon and jess) bc they are obsession central atm #but also mayhaps more school work is preferred #my sticky notes are total shit though and the magnet barely helps + i have no tape #i had an earlier vers up w/o most the quotes when some classmates were in my room to grab a thing and one asked if that was batman and i #said yes lmao. close enough agfjahdhd #i mean shes way cooler in every way but sure. #actually wait yes she is. she deserves it more than he does and Gets It more than anyone else (canon) so its hers now. bye bruce lame #blah #what was i saying again?

[amplexadversary]

Welp I have fallen for a plot twist because I'm used to no one in anime being willing to wear a fucking wig.

Not that I know voice actors in general well enough to have picked up who IBOs obligatory masked man was just by his voice after existing for two episodes.

Even though that blonde fucker was conspicuously absent.

#IBO spoilers #To be fair the only other time I've seen wigs in anime was when I watched Death Note and that was more than a decade ago #and of course Team Rocket but their disguises are paper thin by design AND their original voices very distinctive. #Haven't decided yet if IBO got better after the first 10 episodes or if I've just gotten used to of what to expect from it #What I am learning is that Gundam subs are very much a certain way and that the dubs often clarify things that are left implied #(like the subject of a sentence or a clause that gets left incomplete) #so I'm stuck trying to get the subtitles *of the dub* (annoying) #or just watching the dub but with the sub's subs (less work but also annoying) #because my autistic ass prefers details #also me calling whatshisface a blonde fucker makes me think of another notorious anime blonde who WOULD probably kill him on principle #now I've got to titter at the thought of Rein in a mobile suit. it's so out of genre. #edit: welp I've seen ep 43 now. McGillis's backstory is as fucked up as Rein's (well. Annerose's.).

[lesbienneanarchiste]

Was just thinking, why could I spend hours wandering around Library A but I want to get in and out of Library B as fast as possible and never browse ever? And the answer just occured to me that it's bc Library B only has hip height half shelves in most of it's adult section 💀 like it is physically uncomfortable to browse for books bc you have to bend over and crouch down to look at the books except for mystery/thrillers, which line the walls. Nonfiction has full height shelving and I do browse there more and there is one section of adult fiction in The Maine Room where it's just Maine authors that's eye level and I'll browse that every now and then but the entire adult fiction section on the second floor is all below waist height and I hate even looking for books I'm specifically there for bc it means I have to bend over and twist around to see what the fuck the books are. Insane.

#disgruntled octopus #its also a much smaller library than Library A but like they do have a broadly good selection #i WOULD browse more if i was physically able to but the entire experience is not great #on a side note i have also realized i prefer when libraries do not sort by genre which is interesting #like Library A just has All Fiction together (except for kids) and i prefer that #whereas when i was younger i used to love going to different sections in the old libraries we used to go to #esp the sci fi/fantasy section. so i wonder if the change is partly bc i dont care for sf/f anymore? 🤔 #this means nothing to anyone else but its just interesting to me!

[tmae3114]

most days I feel like most of what I do in terms of trying to accommodate other disabled people is just. the bare minimum. even though I know that I do stuff that other people don’t, it doesn’t feel like I’m putting in any particular effort beyond just... basic decency and compassion. it feels like the people who don’t are failing to perform basic decency and compassion, y’know?

and most of the time the responses I get feel in line with that. just other people recognising basic decency when performed. a nod, a “thank you”, where appropriate, mostly just unacknowledged because it’s not something that needs acknowledged. it’s the same kind of response I tend to give

but sometimes I get a response that’s just heartbreaking and that always pushes me to keep paying attention and keep trying to do more because if so many other people are going to fail at basic kindness then somebody’s got to pick up the slack and if I don’t, who will?

#this is mostly a vent post but you can reblog if you want #if I get bothered by reblogs I now have the option to Simply Turn Them Off #this post was prompted by the fact that a couple of weeks ago #I asked one of my volunteer teammates what his preference was for when I did the written version of the interview we're going to do together #would he prefer I transcribe his speech exactly as he said it with his stammer included #or would he prefer I write it as the questions are written in our notes? #and he gave me the WIDEST eyed look and went ''you can DO that?'' #before saying he ABSOLUTELY wants it written exactly as he says it on the day ''if that's okay'' #and I just. that should NOT have been the response. that should NOT be such a surprise to him #writing a transcript of his speech exactly as he said it should be the STANDARD EXPECTATION #I knew it wasn't that's why I ASKED but it should not have been such a shock to BE asked #and I think about when I was in college and got accomodation for my auditory processing issues for the first time #and the way I felt when I realised that this was me FINALLY for the FIRST TIME on even footing #and just. the way that that felt. #and I'm not saying that every single form of accomodation is simple or basic or easy #some is difficult and requires significant effort and not everyone is in a position to do it #but being patient and respectful and /ASKING PEOPLE/ THEIR NEEDS AND PREFERENCES #should not be something that so often seems to be a rare treat for the recipient #an untrained twenty-three year old should not be a more conscientous guide for a blind teenager than her professional school aide yknow? #hhhhhhhhh it's two am and I'm having Feelings

[autobotmedic]

{ @convenientkeystorage has probably unintentionally just blown my mind with the realization that maybe part of the reason I’ve had so much trouble settling on holoform designs (besides the fact that designing humans is hard) is because ratch has no idea how he wants to look as a species that he is still learning to understand and will probably never fully comprehend all the aesthetics and clothing of because he just doesn’t care enough about such things

like obviously I have my own ideas as an artist but when it’s come to trying to figure out what he would pick ic not just what I think would suit him, I hit a wall

which means he would at least partially end up looking how jack/raf/miko wanted him to and what they considered comfortable in appearance, just with tweaks of his own, like height because he doesnt want to look up at anybody hkajhf

resembling jack’s grandfather is, actually, an entirely plausible option

meanwhile I feel like raf/miko’s ideas would lead to a more video game stylized avatar

#i still think he would have more than one form just because he WANTS more than one identities to tackle multiple degrees at once #BUT IM A FOOL OF COURSE HE WOULD LET THE KIDS HELP HIM WITH THEIR IDEAS OF HIS APPEARANCES #IVE BEEN A FOOL THIS WHOLE TIME #[CANON|HC NOTES] heart full of broken dreams #unsure about what dennis would prefer tho

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also let's hear it for our [cam stone exists] entry being the only one (so far) of the 2 trans 2 furious zine to have an editor's note, hell yeah

#the issue was ''oops we didn't realize at first this is like Real Real Preexisting Info & not an OC'' #and i'm like well since (a) that's on the basis of my Already trying to make it initially clear & (b) i'd have to edit in more text #and i Know i both wouldn't do that concisely Nor even have a good idea of how to make it Clearer & (c) i think a separate editor's note #would in fact help Clarify in being a separate editor's note; would be more concise than i could make it (it is: ''this isn't fanfic. #everything on this page is true!''); would also just be funny in & of itself #there's also some Artist Statements in the back of the book; i didn't know that at the time but prefer it right on the page anyways #as the editor's note is....loved an artist statement abt an edit that made me laugh that said like [humoring another trans person out there #is enough]; a statement contextualizing an abstract very epic comic/illustration as ''this is my effort to imagine a distilled #Platonic Ideal of the fastness & furiousness at the core of the movies'' right tf on #2 trans 2 furious #cam stone #it's what they and we deserve: a funny little and clarifying little special addition

[mynamesdrstuff]

.

#whenever i see likes vs reblogs posts on my dash i always end up diving into the notes for a non zero amount of time #im more just thinking out loud here but like. whats the courtesy if youre more of a little head nod person and less of an art appreciator #i simply am not interested in having some things on my blog but i also see a lot of people saying likes are worthless compared to rb's #is not liking a post at all preferable to liking it and having the artist think you dont care enough about it to show other people? #<- genuine q to an extent. whats the courtesy #and this isnt the case all the time lol like im much more likely to rb textile and craft things bc thats what im interested in! #its just that drawings will very rarely get more than a slight head nod from me and i dont think my user experience would suffer much if #i didnt see them at all

[rsmrymnt-tea]

ahsjsha thinking about dola coming home looking a little miserable and very tired, and it makes both satan and sol go :0!! before they both spring right into trying to make her feel better >.<

solomon goes to her and greets her gently and warmly, leads her to the sofa for a seat and some quiet cuddles if she doesnt feel like talking. satan’s already in the kitchen preparing some tea and sweets for her and returns to the living room with a tray of her go-to pick-me-ups—usually some assortment of cookies and biscuits, or sometimes some ice cream. she’s got a bit of a sweet tooth.

after a bit of tea and snacks, she’s venting to them about her day. satan can feel her get more and more upset as she goes, but is relieved when he begins to feel her wind down once she has it all out of her system. solomon’s been listening and helping her get through all her thoughts; satan meanwhile isnt above using a bit of his Sin to make sure she gets all of that rage out and not bottled up, and it makes the cooldown at the end feel a lot better.

sometimes it’s enough to calm her down and bring her mood back up. other times, especially when it’s because of an assignment gone wrong or a disagreement with either diavolo or the sorcerer’s society, all she wants to do is lay down and enjoy her lovers’ embrace. she’ll ask them to tell her about their day while she was away. both of them try not to bring anything up that’ll get her thinking too hard so she can just relax and rest.

and when that happens, she usually falls asleep on one of them while on the sofa and they have to carry her to bed. solomon stays with her while satan takes over for her usual chores, though once he’s been taught how to cook, solomon takes over sometimes, making it a point to cook how she’d like it to not work dola up again. he has a handful of go-to dishes for tired dola days, recipes he never experiments with—they’re all her comfort food, recipes he’s noticed she makes for herself whenever she’s feeling down.

when she wakes up, she feels better, and whoever’s stayed with her leads her to the dining area to have dinner. by the end of a pleasant meal and even more pleasant chat, she’s feeling much better—and to satan and solomon’s relief and slight concern, dola would head back to whatever work she had planned after dessert.

though sometimes they manage to derail those plans with a bit of… distraction. and whenever that happens, dola can’t find it in her to be upset about it. not in the slightest.

#dolasach #laetum feles #suggestive #at the end shsjsha #like kind of ahdjsha barely even seems like anything to me #im feeling kind of even more tired than i was before the beach trip ngl and it kinda shows #but i would personally prefer to lie down on the cold ceramic tiles and drink a shit ton of coconut water #and have no one talk to me while i furiously write down my feelings into a note book and list down everything i need to do #for a little bit of structure shdjshs

[polyboros]

'the viscera in your teeth' for fic titles? some flavour of sauces oc for this one persnaps,,

the viscera in your teeth – eli and evan get into a bad spot. the phoenix-harbringer gets them out of it.

it's on a shortcut to deeproot that neither of them have taken on foot where everything goes to hell; evan barely has time to throw up his arms in front of his face when the ground beneath them crumbles, and they both tumble down, down, down, into a darkened cavern with no way up or out.

his back aches. he didn't land right and the fall's definitely fucked something in his leg, maybe his ankle - but he's alive, and through his ragged breathing he can admit that's more than he was expecting when it hit him. the dim sunlight through the hole they made barely illuminates a thing. he can see flickers of fire, brief, little spots that don't clarify the shapes in the dark. when he pushes himself away, his back hits a wall. groans of undead begin to filter in.

in front of him, eli stands.

their wings burst into bright, bright flame, so sudden that evan has to jerk his head away, heat searing at his legs. their shoulders are hunched, breathing ragged. he can't see their face, from this angle. can't see if they're hurt.

"don't move," they tell him. evan nods quickly, even though they're probably not looking. he's never heard this tone from them, low and firm and not-all-there. something recognizable seeps in as they glance back. "we'll be alright."

they unsheath two swords from gods-know-where, one lit in a brillant flame like their own, the other a terrifying thing that blends into the dark and that evan doesn't linger on. as the heat rises, the dots of fire around the cavern reveal themselves to be spawners, and the cavern walls coalesce into a coliseum, decrepit and crumbling.

evan can't begin to count the crowd of wraiths.

they fall like dominos, dragged towards eli's blades as they throw themself into the fight, lurching onto their swords and splitting themselves neatly in half, on fire, crumbling to dust, only for their remains to be thrown into the next undead by pure momentum. eli scorches a path through them, slices through spawners like butter, molten metal dripping into the sand. the embers left on tattered cloth and bones provide light, but only briefly. his eyes stay locked on eli. a singular wraith lurches towards him—he doesn't have a second to panic before a tendril of voidmatter slams into it, impaling it on the wall next to him.

he scoots a little to the left, mouth dry.

when they hit the opposite coliseum wall, they finally stop. they lower their blades towards the sand, sweeping around to face evan from across the cavern, unreadable. there's nothing left of the monsters - not their corpses, not their loot, not their spawners. just ashes and sand.

"eli?" evan's voice echoes strangely against the stone. he tries to pull himself up and fails, biting back a cry as his weight leans too heavy on his foot. eli bolts back across the sand towards him, sheathing their swords somewhere along the way, and their hands come up to steady his shoulders. "holy shit, that- that was- gods, we could've died-"

their fingers leave streaks of ash on his t-shirt as they adjust their grip, shaking their head. "no," eli says, voice faint. they lean down and look him in the eye, searching. whatever they find there finally steadies them.

their lips twist, grin lopsided. "no," they repeat. "not on my watch."

evan blinks. he can still see the afterimage of their flames. this close, he realizes they're barely sweating. like it was nothing. like whatever the hell that was- nothing. they hold his gaze for a long moment before it dips down to scrutinize his leg, and he lets them focus on that instead, hands pressing at his shin while he leans against the wall, because it's easier.

adrenaline's been doing fucked things to his head, lately.

#kbitycus art #prompt reward #encrypted-cryptid #sauce smp #rough sketch of this idea but if i didnt get it out i would never exorcise it. thinking abt them #directors notes on this one include: eli is much more freaked about the Falling part of this than anything else #guy who was convinced for a moment that they were back in the apocalypse and both them and evan were doomed #the skeletons are preferable #authors note two: phillips ruins are such assholes theyre what inspired this #what if an underground structure had five million skeleton attack

[sleepymaddy]

.

#me.txt #panicking about the trip ofc #then I have to go to the new client on Thursday #there is literally nothing I am looking forward to whatsoever #it’s funny bc I don’t feel the stress itself yet. there’s like… this hollow? #sort of like. artificial calm #(about the job I mean. I’ve been having adrenaline flashes all morning about the trip) #but it’s like. the certainty of dread. the fact that I’m stuck in a one way road that ends in a wall #the slow tightening in the lungs. #the mounting headache #the thing that’s going to manifest in back aches and shoulder tension and more thoughts about dying than usual #it’s funny I thought about booking a therapist appointment #for this week or the next #but like. what’s that going to do really #this is like. nothing. lmfao? #I have *checks notes* a trip abroad with a friend #and a new client I have to go to #which is a perfectly routine thing for my job #and it feels like dying would be preferable #so. whatever’s wrong with me. i doubt ‘talking about it’ will fix it #it’s just inherent to who I am. boring and scared and ashamed and just kind of rubbish