#I really tried to incorporate a ‘first time’ for the three skeletons

[mywipsdontend]

The Third Death

About 1000 words

You know, when I was alive I always heard loads of people spouting bullshit about what they ‘know’ the afterlife will be like.

Many people told me, “There is only one god and he is jealous!”

Others screamed, “There are many gods and you will reach the afterlife regardless!”

One person even told me that all of humanity is one single entity at different points in its cosmic lifetime.

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…

But all of them were wrong. Death isn’t the end. I’m not about to go into soliloquy about something stupid like metaphysical properties of the afterlife.

Blegh.

In truth, death isn’t as simple as the body dying, that is just the first death. I’ve taken the liberty of naming the deaths, the first death I call la petite mort, the little death. My first death was easy, I died, unremarkably, in my worn-down mid-nineteenth-century home. I was thirty-five, married with two kids, Tim and Jason, and my beautiful wife, Jane.

None of it mattered.

The autopsy said that I died from sudden cardiac arrest, my heart just stopped. Bip, Bip, Bip, BEEEEEEEP. Dead. I didn’t feel it though, I woke up as normal and started going about my daily routine, it wasn’t until I tried to pick up my toothbrush that I realized I didn’t have a body anymore. This moment was quickly followed by my wife’s scream as she discovered my cold, lifeless body.

That was the hardest part of the first death, seeing my family mourn me. Fortunately, it didn’t last long, they quickly had me prepared for burial and soon enough I was attending my own funeral. It was… weird, to say the least, being incorporeal, that is, not the funeral. The funeral was nice, but as my body neared the grave I felt a tug within me that drew me closer and closer to my casket and then everything went dark.

And thus began the second death, my body began to wither and decay and all was dark. I call this the la mort noir, the black death. For what I assume was decades I lay there and rot. It was relaxing to feel my worries, cares, and flesh melt away and turn to dust. At some point all that remained of my body was my skeleton and I wondered if this was the afterlife. Slow decomposition until I eventually wither away into nothingness and my consciousness fades into the aether.

The day my bones had finished their decay was not as reliving as I had hoped, I didn’t peacefully fade into non-existence. I started to drift upward, and saw that the world I had known had changed substantially in my absence. I drifted around the world for many more decades and I witnessed many atrocities, a pandemic, and the invention of ‘the internet.’

The world had changed and now I was in the world again, in a second life, as a ‘ghost.’ I wasn’t really a ghost in the same capacity that I would have thought of when I was alive. I had no physical form and no ability to interact with the world.

I wandered for many years until on a cloudy Sunday afternoon in May I heard death’s call for the first time. The deep resonance of a large bell shook my soul and another entity, dark and formless, was before me. I couldn’t see him, and I assume, like me, he has no physical form, yet he still felt larger and more powerful than me. He spoke and, like the bell’s toll, it shook me to my core. He told me of death and explained why I still existed on earth and hadn’t yet passed on to the afterlife. He told me that I must wait for the last time my name is ever spoken, and that that is the third death.

I asked him who remembers me an entire century after my death, when I lived a remarkably unimportant, boring life, but I received no answer. His presence was gone and I was once more alone in my miserable existence.

I tried to find my family at one point, but it didn’t go well. I discovered my grandson, the child I never got to meet, weeping at the grave of my eldest son, Tim. My grandson was older than I was when I died and that shook me. My lifetime had passed three times over and the only people that should have remembered me were dead. Logically, my name should have been spoken after my sons died, but for some reason my name will be spoken again at some point.

Death has given me way too much time to think about the idea of life. I was conceived, then born, I grew into a young man, married, had kids…

Then I died.

No fanfare, no glory. Just death.

Did my life amount to anything? No. I had two children who carry on my family’s name, but is that worth anything? How many generations before my family name is gone?

I, unfortunately, have ‘lived’ long enough to find out the answer, 3.

Tim married early and had a boy and a girl, Jack and Kinsey. Jason married as well, but it's rather hard to have a child with two men and no womb, so that line of the family died off. Tim lived a long time and died in a hospital bed from cancer at 89. Jason died at 46 from HIV infection, and I had hoped I would get to see his soul after he died, but his soul didn’t seem to exist in the same way mine did.

Jack, my grandson, married in his early thirties and birthed a horde of kids. He had six children, four girls and two boys. Unfortunately, none of them lived into adulthood. A war started and they were slaughtered in their home.

I have watched for years people dying and I haven’t heard my name in decades, I’m not even sure I remember what it was. But I exist here, regardless, waiting for my final death. I don’t know what comes next, but I’m ready, even if the end is a vast void of nothingness.

I guess my point is that life was meaningless and now I exist just to observe? I don’t really know. It’d be depressing, if I could still feel anything after all the years. I suppose my existence is a massive soliloquy because it seems the only thing that didn’t die with my body was my overactive mind.

I wander for years more waiting for my final death but it doesn’t come. I’ve ‘lived’ long enough now that I hardly feel human. It seems so senseless, the torture and pain humanity puts itself through just to satisfy their basic needs. It seems that humanity also has a need to kill each other, because that has remained constant across all of the time I've ‘lived.’

[jann-the-bean]

Fluffynightkiller

Day 1: There’s a first time for everything

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“Hi welcome to-“ The barista gaped as a violet eyed skeleton entered his coffee shop. He was entranced by how elegant the skeleton maneuvered himself inside the shop. There was something familiar about this violet skeleton, but the barista couldn’t quite place his finger on it.

The other’s posture was tall, straight, and proud. Not a single limb out of place, no wasted energy in unnecessary actions. His eyes slightly narrowed, refusing to make eye contact with others. At first glance many may view him as arrogant, but not to Ccino. He noticed the slight clenching of his fist and his once graceful strides became rigid with every step he took. As if expecting someone to lash out and attack.

The proud skeleton sat at a table distanced from the rest. From his mannerisms it was obvious he disliked socializing with others. Even when sitting he didn’t slouch, his back remained upright, and his hands delicately placed on the table. How peculiar.. Ccino only ever recalled seeing just one other being who sat in a similar position. It was-

*Ding*

Ccino was pulled from his thoughts upon hearing the door open once more. This time a skeleton with no eyelights appeared. He wore a blue fluffed hoodie, with a strange black stain, and white shorts with a black strips on the sides. One of his sockets was half closed while the other fully open. He had a smile on his face which grew to a smirk upon laying eyes on the violet eyed skeleton. But his most notable feature was a bright red soul that was displayed for the world to see. Ccino hadn’t realized he was staring, he only noticed when the other raised a brow in amusement. He placed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie before making his way to Ccino’s direction. The barista gulped, unsure if he’d somehow offended the eyeless skeleton.

“Heya sweetheart, mind preparing us a couple of drinks?” The eyeless skeleton smiled as he placed his elbow on the table while resting his head in his hand.

“O-of course! What w-would you like?” The other responded trying his hardest to stay calm. His soul pounding violently against his chest as his nerves threatened to overtake him.

“I’d like an mochaccino with an extra shot of espresso” he turned to face the violet skeleton. “What do you want, boss?”

“Just get me a black coffee.” Ccino tensed for a brief second. That voice... it sounded way to familiar. As quick as the thought entered his head, Ccino was just as quick to dismiss it. He was working, he didn’t have time to think about non-work related things right now. However, the violet skeleton made eye contact with Ccino. In that brief moment, his stern features wavered for a fragment of a second, that the barista questioned if he imagined it.

The skeleton on the countertop chuckled and turned to face Ccino once more. “Alright, there you have it. One mochaccino with an extra shot of expresso and one black coffee.” The barista nodded and rang up his total. Ccino had told the skeleton he was more than welcome to sit and wait, but the other refused stating that “The view is better from here.” A wave of heat rose to his cheeks. He couldn’t tell if this skeleton was flirting with him, but it sure felt like it. The problem is... he was quite attractive... and charming too. Curse his amorous heart and falling for those who would never return his feelings. Especially for a certain black goopy skeleton.

At some point when Ccino was preparing the drinks the eyeless skeleton had to step out for a minute. The barista had forgotten to ask for a name to call out once the order was ready. He opted to just take the drinks to the violet skeleton’s table. It would probably be better than yelling across the shop trying to get his attention.

“Uhm... I’m sorry. I forgot to ask for a name, but here are your drinks.” Ccino gently set the drinks on the table and carefully ensured not to spill the hot beverages. “C-careful.. it’s really hot.”

Being in such close proximity Ccino noticed a few things he hadn’t before. It appeared that this violet eyed skeleton only had a single functioning eyelight. The other socket was a pitch black, with various cracks surrounding it. Actually, his hands and several visible bones appeared to be fractured. What could’ve happened to such a beautiful skeleton to have so many injuries throughout his body? It wasn’t a question he dared ask. It had to be something personal, and frankly none of Ccino’s business or concern. The violet skeleton nodded to Ccino’s warning but didn’t say a word.

The day passed like any other. Uneventful, and yet again the goopy skeleton had failed to visit. How long had it been since their last reunion? Months? Perhaps even years by now? He knew that Nightmare had used him. He was evil, a manipulator, ruthless, and unforgiving. But, he wasn’t a liar. From their very first encounter he was honest about the basis of their relationship. Ccino was good source to replenish his negativity, and in turn he wouldn’t harm him or his au. At least not in any physical way. The barista new he was being used, knew that the other didn’t see him as anything else but as a charging port. And yet, his silly little heart grew fond of the other’s presence. Perhaps it was because Nightmare was the first person he spent continuous time with. He became illusioned that for as long as he was alive he would have a companion of sorts.

Yet, one day he stopped showing. Sure Nightmare had the tendency to go weeks or months without visiting. However, this time it had been longer than usual. Ccino waited and waited until he slowly began losing hope. Perhaps, the other found a more suitable companion? Maybe realized the Ccino wasn’t worth being around? Decided it was no longer worth his effort to visit his pathetic AU just to see him? Tears burned the lining of his sockets. He shook his head and wiped his eyes. No, now isn’t the time for this. He still had to close up his shop- Ccino paused. Wait, those two why are they still here? He was referring to the eyeless and violet skeleton of course.

Strange, well they were newcomers and most likely didn’t know the shop hours. The barista removed his apron and gently placed it on the countertop, before making his way towards the two strange skeletons. “E-Excuse me.. I’m so glad you decided to support my shop today. But, uhm, it’s time for me to close for the day. You’re more than welcome to come back again tomorrow. I-If you’d like to of course.”

The two didn’t answer. It appeared as if they were contemplating what their response should be. A sinking feeling began to form in Ccino’s non-existent stomach. Were they going to rob him? He didn’t have much to offer just the money in the register! He could defend himself if needed but- he was outnumbered. Maybe he could manage to escape and call for help-

“Actually, we were hoping to talk to you in private.” The eyeless skeleton stated, his soul wavering for a brief second before shifting to an upside down heart. It was so beautiful and captivating. That Ccino had to resist the urge to be lost in its marvelous glow.

“P-pardon? You w-want to talk to me? About what exactly?” The barista was rather confused. He’d never seen these two in his entire life! How did they know about him? Were they maybe some of those ‘special’ people that Nightmare talked about? How they could travel to different universes? But what would they want with him?

“Well, being honest he,” the eyeless skeleton pointed to his companion. “Was hoping to have a conversation with you.”

The skeleton in mention tensed and averted his gaze from Ccino’s. It was clearer now that he was up close. The violet skeleton exhibited signs of slight anguish and remorse in his delicate facial features. But they were quickly concealed once again. No sign of pain, guilt, anxiety, or any other emotion were visible in the single eyelight.

The violet skeleton sighed before returning Ccino’s gaze. “Ccino.. it’s been a while hasn’t it? How have you been these past months.. perhaps even a year or years now? Hard to keep track of time in the void” The barista froze upon hearing his name slip past the violet skeletons mouth. How did he know his name? Did he introduce himself earlier? No, he didn’t think so... maybe his apron? No. He took that off. Then.... how? “You appear to be surprised. Well.. that is to be expected I suppose. How would you ever recognize me without my black attire.”

Ccino drew in a quick breathe. His body already having processed who exactly this skeleton was. Hot tears filled the lining of his sockets and spilled down his cheeks. His body trembled as his mind finally realized his identity. “N-Nightmare...?”

Nightmare tilted his head in acknowledgement. Smiling as if he were praising Ccino. “I’m impressed.. but you were always smarter than you looked.” A pause. Nightmare once again averted his eyes, a flicker of doubt flashed in that violet orb of his. “I didn’t come here to waste your time. So I’ll cut to the chase. As you can see, many things have changed since we last met. Clearly I’ve changed... and more than physically.... But.... I’ve done terrible- unforgivable things and I’m not some naive fool expecting mercy or to be saved. Yet, I do believe that you.. at the very least deserve an apology.”

Nightmare rose from his chair his eye never breaking contact with Ccino’s. “I sincerely apologize for my actions, and for using you to my own benefit. As I said, I’m not looking for forgiveness. I’m far beyond that. Don’t worry, you’ll never see my face again and you may live your life as you please. You are no longer shackled to me... you are free.... and this is my final goodbye.” The violet skeleton turned to face his partner. “Let’s go, Killer. We have overstayed our visit.”

Ccino couldn’t believe what he just heard. Was nightmare apologizing to him? Did that actually just happen? The once feared and powerful being in the multiverse had just apologized to him. I guess there really was a first time for everything. He blinked a few times resulting in fresh tears to stream down his face. Wait.. goodbye? Did that mean.. as in forever? No... No! No! No! No, he couldnt! He just got back! He just came back and now he’s leaving again? Now that was just cruel... how cruel and yet Ccino still couldn’t bring himself to hate Nightmare. His presence only succeeded in confirming what Ccino already knew. That he was in love with Nightmare.

Killer jumped to his feet and placed his hands in his hoodie. “Awe, you sure you want to leave so soon, boss? I don’t know, I’m sure there’s plenty to do here. Besides, how could you leave that cutie behind-“

“NIGHTMARE!” Ccino called out his voice cracking from the his sobs he continuously failed to hold back. Nightmare turned around to face the skeleton when- SLAP! The noise of Ccino’s hand making contact with Nightmare’s cheek echoed in the near empty shop. Nightmare and Killer were frozen on the spot. Killer wasn’t sure how to react. He was caught off guard and didn’t see it coming. He was half expecting Nightmare to crumble on the spot from his various fractures.

“T-that’s for everything that you’ve done to me! For using me! For leaving! For having the nerve t-to come back, apologize, and only to leave again! Y-you just want me to pretend like none of this ever happened don’t you!? To forget about you!!! Well guess what!? Screw you!” Ccino furiously rubbed his eyes trying wipe the tears away but to no avail. All his bottled emotions had erupted to the surface and there was no way to seal them away again. “How dare you?! Who d-do you think you are?! To just waltz in and out like you please!”

Nightmare turned to face the crying skeleton. He was more than confused. He was certain that Ccino would have been delighted to know he had been liberated from the chains of negativity. Free from him. He hurt him so many times, used him for his own personal gain, and never cared for his well being. So, why was he so upset now that he offered him freedom? He opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted when the small barista wrapped his arms around the violet skeleton.

“P-please... please stay! Please don’t leave me!” Ccino wailed as he clung to the skeleton before him. He dug his phalanges into Nightmare’s top refusing to let go, because if he didn’t hold on tight.... surely he’d disappear again. “I-I don’t want you to go! I don’t want to forget! Please! Please! Please! I’m begging.... Don’t a-abandon me.... n-not again.....” The white eyed skeleton trembled as he pleaded for Nightmare to stay. He knew it was hopeless he was begging for the impossible. All his cries and efforts for him to stay would be in vain. But, what else could he do? He had to try because maybe, just maybe the outcome may be different.

Nightmare was frozen, hands stuck in midair as he heard Ccino’s heartbroken cries. Ccino didn’t want him to leave...? Why? Why would he want him to stay? The very being that tormented him for his own amusement? Nightmare was at a loss. What should he do? Ignore the crying skeleton and leave once more? Or should he stay? Either way he wouldn’t be able to permanently stay in this AU. He’s made many enemies who would stop at nothing, until they saw him and those around him perish. He knew this, yet he couldn’t bring himself to leave right now. How could he just leave this fragile skeleton? Ccino always made things more difficult then they should be. It would’ve so much easier if he resented him and despised him. He should’ve screamed for him to leave- to never come back. But no, he was begging him to stay.

Something warm and wet trickled down Nightmare’s cheek. Panic settled in for a brief moment. Was he bleeding? How? He didn’t have any injuries! He quickly touched the liquid with his phalanges and was confused to see a clear substance with a tint of violet. It wasn’t marrow/ blood. Then he realized the liquid came from his sockets... was he crying? His eyes widen slightly. He was. Post his corruption he hardly ever shed any tears. Just once with his twin brother when that forsaken curse had finally been broken. The emotions he thought he’d locked deep in his mind had resurfaced with immense intensity.

Nightmare’s body moved on its own accord enveloping the weeping skeleton into his arms. He gripped his sweater tightly trying to ground himself, fearing he’d lose himself in his own overwhelming emotions. The two skeletons wept in silence as the eyeless one watched with a solemn expression. His soul flickered and wavered as he attempted to suppress his feelings. It was painful. Watching the one he cared for hurt, knowing he wasn’t the cause but another, and seeing for the first time another skeleton suffer because of their feelings for the violet skeleton. It was.. heart wrenching.

The two skeletons cried for hours until they could no longer produce tears. The smallest skeleton ridden with exhaustion lost that battle against his heavy eyelids. He rested his head against Nightmare’s shoulders, feeling a sense a protection and safety in his firm arms. “Don’t.... go.....” the barista pleaded one last time before succumbing to fatigue and drifting to sleep.

Nightmare held the small skeleton firmly in his arms. He glanced at Killer, who had faint black tear streaks on his cheeks. Then back to Ccino who, still in his sleep, clung to him desperately. For the first time, he was at a loss on what his next course of action should be.

Wooooo! What a way to start fluffynight killer week don’t you think? I know it ends on an angsty note but I thought it was fitting! This has actually been one of my few favorite stories to write! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

This story was inspired by some incredible headcanons and by Zu’s comic lodestar! Wouldn’t have been inspired to write this story if it weren’t for them <3

Killer belongs to @rahafwabas/ @rahofy-sketch

Nightmare belongs to @jokublog

Ccino belongs to @black-nyanko

Fluffynightkiller week by @help-im-a-gay-fish

#my writing #scheduled #fluffynightkiller #fluffynightkiller week 2021 #fluffynightkiller week #day 1 #there’s a first time for everything #I really tried to incorporate a ‘first time’ for the three skeletons #it was a little hard but i think i got it #it’s a possibility that I may make a continuation of this! #but we’ll see #(Also side note you have no idea how much I struggled to copy and paste the writing here #(literally shouldn’t have been that hard lol XD #*updated* made some mistakes but I corrected it I hope :’D

[dmsden]

The Theme in My Coffee - Incorporating themes into worldbuilding

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes to us from an Anonymous source...which is a shame, as they didn’t give me any way to contact them, so I can’t enter them in my Van Richten’s contest. But they’ll win an answer, anyway. They ask, “Hey there! I just started writing my own campaign setting, and I'm having trouble incorporating themes into my worldbuilding. Do you have any tips?”

I absolutely do, Anonymous. I actually wrote about using themes in your worldbuilding waaaaay back in my old Worldbuilding articles, especially #s 1 and 3. If you don’t have time to go digging, however, I can definitely touch on some of those elements here. Always good to revisit things from before.

I like to have some themes in mind from the very beginning, and I had several in mind when I began work on my Shards of the Shattered Pact campaign world. I wanted to tie it around the themes of Broken Trust, Homesickness, and Ruins of the Past. I also wanted to tie it to the new lore that was coming out of 4E’s little sneak peeks we were getting. Even before I fully knew what the campaign’s story was going to be about, or even before I had 4E in hand (to say nothing of 5E, which we play now), I began to build a skeleton out of those themes.

For Broken Trust, I developed the idea of the Conclave of Seven Kingdoms...a loose alliance of nations that bonded together against a common foe one thousand years in the past. This included two human kingdoms, an eladrin kingdom, an elven kingdom, a dwarven kingdom, a halfling “kingdom”, and a goblinoid kingdom. This last choice was party due to Eberron, which had really sold me on the idea that monsters that were traditionally evil didn’t have to be. I did want to be able to use goblins and the others as enemies, however, so the main element of broken trust started there. The goblinoid kingdom had betrayed the others, ending the bloodline of a legendary line of kings in betrayal and death. This shattered the Conclave. One of the human kingdoms had never gotten on well with the dwarves of goblinoids. The elves and eladrin had their own differences, stretching back all the way to when the Drow had come into being. The Seven Kingdoms were destined to fracture, really, and they did so spectacularly.

Broken Trust manifested in other ways in my world’s history and geography. A continent had been literally shattered when a group of allies went to war with each other. Many tieflings, feeling betrayed by the parents that had made the pacts that led to their forms, had turned their backs on the immortal legacy their parents had tried to secure for them. Slavers from the Underdark could come up out of nowhere. It was not a place where trust was easily given any more.

Homesickness might be better defined as Diaspora. Very few races in my world live where they used to live. Orcs had forced the halflings to abandon their shires for swamp land, where they had become bayou-dwelling folk. Hobgoblins had once ruled an empire that nearly spanned a continent before the coming of the Eladrin (themselves in Exile from the Feywild) forced them back. Humans came from across the sea, feeling betrayed by their kings. Dwarves fled out of slavery to build new homes in the mountains of the north. Dragonborn sadly left their ancestral lands after a magical disaster had left them a terrible, haunted desolation. For good or for ill, very few races lived where they’d been born.

Ruins of the Past manifested in various ways. With the Seven Kingdoms fractured, kings largely withdrew into their power centers, often leaving long stretches of land to return to wilderness. Although villages like Seowyn’s Crossing might give fealty to a Baron who in turn gives fealty to a Duke who in turn gives fealty to the King of Summerlund, the truth is that the King is many hundreds of miles away, and a plea for help is unlikely to make it anywhere in time. The ancient Universitas Magesterium, one of the most powerful schools of magic, lies broken underneath a lake that their own magics created, and strangeness sometimes crawls from the waters. Outside of the “points of light” of civilization, the world is strange and wild and often desolate. Ancient builds have fallen back to ruin, and terrible things have taken over those places.

Beyond these modern ruins, there are more ancient ones. Hobgoblin fortifications dot the landscape, ruins left behind when their rule was broken. Ancient halfling, human, and eladrin fortresses are now ruled by orcs who took them in conquest. In places haunted by war, undead soldiers wait to scream their guilt at the living who find evidence of their failures of duty. And, most ancient at all, the ruins of the mysterious Old Ones, possibly the first living race in the world who have long since vanished, dot the landscape, often hiding terrible, magic-mutated monsters and fabulous treasures.

As I create new elements of the setting, I try to see how it might fit into one of my three primary themes. Often, this adds a sad or bittersweet element to the setting, and that suits me fine. Most of my favorite stories are bittersweet ones, such as The Lord of the Rings, Watership Down, and Sandman. I like stories where not everything goes right and where something must be lost in order to make things as right as they can be.

I hope this helps, Anonymous. If anyone ever has a particular theme they’d like me to look at and come up with some ideas for, I’d be happy to take a look. Until next week, may all your 20s be natural.

[the-final-sif]

Now, for the fake quarantine dating au aka the Fuyumi has gone feral au, we’ve now got 3/4 todoroki siblings hanging around the league of villains. Obviously this can only go well. Incorporating some lovely suggestions I got in here.

Fuyumi is now on quite good terms with most of the league. She’s practically adopted Toga as her new younger sister. Because really, the girl is quite sweet when she’s not stabbing people and she’s still a teenager. Fuyumi is a really good influence on Toga and while there’s obviously a lot of things she can’t help with, she’s able to at least get Toga to be better about consent and stalking.

Twice & Fuyumi become super close, at first just because Twice is keeping an eye on her to make sure she’s not taking information she’s not supposed to, but it quickly becomes a regular friendship. Twice is extremely supportive of Fuyumi and honestly he’s just so happy to be helpful that Fuyumi can’t help but like him.

She’s so used to being in a caretaker/helper role, that Twice being so eager to help her out is unfamiliar to her, but honestly a godsend at the same time. Twice helps her manage the new extra workload of being a villain, and encourages her to keep going when she starts worrying that she’ll never find Touya.

I should mention in here that the league is actually the paranormal liberation front by this point, and Skeptic/Re-Destro/the others are hanging around, and at the very least Skeptic and Re-Destro are aware of who Fuyumi is and why she’s here/that she’s not really a villain, but honestly they’re just so relieved that there’s an Adult that Tomura and the others will listen to and who seems to actually know what’s she’s doing, so they’re keeping their mouths shut.

There’s probably a good month in here where Fuyumi suspects that Geten might be Touya who got quirk swapped by AFO, but eventually that theory gets disproved, putting her back at square one.

Under Fuyumi’s guidance, the league rescues Kurogiri from jail (although none of the core members are aware of his status), so now they have two Real Adults around, which is great.

Tomura is extremely happy to have his foster father back. Kurogiri is so proud of the progress he’s made while he was gone (and he 100% pulls Fuyumi aside privately to thank her for getting Tomura to dress respectably), and the two of them have a genuinely nice reunion.

One problem: Tomura now has now been dating Natsuo for a month, has caught Serious Feelings, but nobody knows about any of this and Tomura doesn’t even know how to go about telling anyone, let alone Kurogiri.

It doesn’t help that 1) since he accidentally told Natsuo his old name, Tenko, he then had to tell Natsuo that he’s still in the closest and ask him not to mention him to anyone by name to stop that from getting out. 2) Natsuo has no idea that he’s a villain, let alone the leader of the league of villains, because for obvious reasons, Tomura doesn’t think that will go over well.

He doesn’t want to lie to his boyfriend, but he doesn’t know how to tell the truth either. There’s so many things he can’t say, and even though he’s mostly just been avoiding answering certain questions, it’s still weighing on him.

All of which comes to a head one evening when the two of them are lying in bed, not doing much besides cuddling, something that is still extremely foreign to Tomura and which makes him a bit nervous, even with special gloves on. Maybe it’s how undemanding Natsuo is for answers, or maybe it’s because getting Kurogiri back has made Tomura more brave, or maybe it’s just that he’s kept secrets for too long, but regardless, Tomura’s the one who breaks the silence.

“I feel like- I- There’s things you should know. About me. That I haven’t told you. That I need to tell you. But-” And he doesn’t even know where he was going with that, because he can’t tell Natsuo, but god he needs to.

“Hey, hey, hey, easy.” Natsuo has a grin on his face, softer than his normal one but every bit as bright. “It’s okay. I mean, if there’s things you want to tell me, than I’m happy to listen, but you don’t owe me answers or anything. I get it. Everyone’s got skeletons in their closet. If you’re not ready to tell me yet, that’s just fine.”

God, he was so nice and Tomura wanted nothing more than to take him up on that, but all the same he knows that Natsuo wouldn’t be saying that if he knew.

“I want you to know, but I also don’t. Because it’ll change things. Don’t try to say it won’t. I know it will. There’s no way it won’t. And you deserve to know about it, but I don’t know how to tell you. I want you to know, but I like things how they are too and I don’t want them to change.”

Natsuo’s quiet for a moment, clearly considering before his fingers come up to gently stroke through Tomura’s hair, and fuck if that doesn’t help him calm down.

“Okay. I get that. It’s still okay if you aren’t ready yet though. If it makes you feel any better, there’s stuff I haven’t told you either, for the same reason. I like what we have now, and I don’t want to lose it. But hey even if knowing more about each other will change things, that doesn’t mean it’ll be worse. Just different. Change can be good too. Who knows.”

Again, it takes a lot for Tomura not to interrupt and say he knows this won’t be a good change. But he manages. He doesn’t manage to find any other words to say though, too busy wondering what secrets someone as kind as Natsuo could possible have. 

“Tell you what, I’ve been meaning to get this off my chest anyways, so how about I go first? Then if you feel like telling me your stuff, you can, or we can just save it for another night. Okay?”

Tomura nods, because that sounds nice, and who knows, maybe he’ll get lucky and Natsuo will reveal that he’s a villain too or something.

“Alright, here goes; the reason I haven’t told you my last name is because it’s Todoroki. And yes, it is the Todoroki you’re thinking of. Endeavor’s my father, and Shouto Todoroki, from the UA sports festival and stuff, that’s my younger brother.”

Oh god fucking damn it.

Suddenly, Tomura’s brain helpfully supplies him with a few facts.

He has, while not directly tried to kill Natsuo’s (and Fuyumi’s???) father, enabled Dabi to attempt something of that scale.

Wait, doesn’t Dabi have a grudge against that guy? It’d always been a bit weird to Tomura, but he hadn’t really questioned it. Not until now. That’s going to be a major problem.

“I didn’t tell you for a few reasons. One, I didn’t want you to like me or not like me because of him. Two, I noticed you were kinda jumpy about hero stuff and I didn’t want to scare you off, and three, my relationship with him is kinda... complicated. Definitely not great. It’s got to do with a lot of things, but Touya’s a pretty big part of it all.”

It takes everything in Tomura’s body to hold back his instinctive responses of ‘Do you want me to kill him for you?’, because at this point he doesn’t want to make that offer unless he means it, and he might mean it soon. Depending on a few things. He let’s his gut guide his tongue instead.

“You’re brother’s pretty important to you, huh?”

Natsuo laughs, and it’s something soft and bittersweet, but fond. Still so very fond.

“Yeah, I mean, both of them are. But Touya was my older brother. He was always looking out for me. He was a pretty sickly kid, but he had a fire in him like nobody I’ve ever met. Literally and metaphorically. I still remember how some older kids tried to pick on me after school- it must’ve been ten years ago now- he was so tiny back them, but that didn’t stop him. They weren’t taking him seriously, one of them asked him what he planned to do against them when he wasn’t even up to their shoulders.”

This time Natsuo’s smile is more fond, lost in memories. Something about this is causing ideas to connect in Tomura’s brain, and he knows it’s heading towards something, but he’s scared to get there. Why though?

“Touya looked the guy right in the eye said ‘This’, and without blinking or even changing his expression, just with a little flick of his hand, he sent a wave of flames across the ground. Before they could do anything, he melted their shoes in place so they couldn’t do anything. Then, while they were panicking about it, he got his big creepy grin on his face. The kid who’d been leading them looked up and I think he almost fainted out of fear when he realized that he couldn’t fight back or get away. He apologized real after after that, promised they’d never do it again, and Touya said they better not, or next time it wouldn’t be their shoes that he melted. Then he turned on his heel, grabbed my hand and walked me all the way back home. I never got picked on again after that. But that was Touya for you, nothing ever scared him.”

Vividly, a memory flashes in front of Tomura’s eyes of some low level grunt getting in Dabi’s face. The guy had been getting a bit too friendly with Toga while she was still recovering from her eye injury. She was on pain meds at the time, and honestly Tomura had been about to decay the guy where he stood when Dabi stepped in and told him to back off. Apparently the guy thought he was hot shit because he asked why he should.

The very next second, blue flames had erupted and the guy was stuck in place, bound by his own shoes and helpless to do anything but simper out apologizes as those flames hovered around him, the smell of burning flesh hitting the air. Tomura hadn’t heard what Dabi had said, but he’d heard the rumors afterwards. ‘Next time, my flames will be burning a whole lot more than just your feet. Got it?’.

He hadn’t actually burned the guy’s feet off all the way, but it was enough to leave scars as a reminder.

Tomura had wondered many a time what Dabi was like when he was younger. Before he was Dabi.

It was almost funny, to find out that he’d always been like this. At least on some level.

Years of training was the only reason Tomura managed to keep a straight face and his voice somewhat even.

“Sounds like he was a pretty good brother.”

“Yeah. He really was. I miss him so much. All of us do. I know Fuyumi told you guys that she’s thinks he’s still out there, I don’t know if I believe that or not, but I don’t really have the heart to tell her to let it go. I probably should. It’s been years. I just... I just really like to think he’s still out there somewhere. I’d give almost anything to get him back, if I could, so I can hardly blame her for looking for him.”

Silence for a moment.

“Sorry, that’s kinda a lot to dump on you- I don’t really talk about him a lot these days.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I- I get it. My family- some of them anyways- it’s not the exact same, but it’s similar. I miss them a lot too. And-”

Tomura wanted to tell him the truth, but fuck, he couldn’t. As much as he wanted to tell his boyfriend that his brother was alive, had been this entire time, even now looked out for them because now that he was thinking about it, fuck, no wonder Dabi had been avoiding Fuyumi even while he vouched for her. But-

But it wasn’t his place to. That wasn’t his secret to share.

“-who knows, I can’t say I’m one to believe in miracles, but they do happen sometimes.”

Fuck that sounded sappy. It made Natsuo grin though, bright and wide, and so it was worth it. Worth the guilt that settled in Tomura’s chest, for all the things he couldn’t say yet.

Biting his bottom lip, Tomura decided to switch topics, meandering back to far lighter discussions of new games coming out soon. He’d wanted to tell Natsuo everything- but not tonight.

There was someone else he had to talk to first.

#tomura shigaraki #dabi is touya #dabi is a todoroki #natsuo todoroki #natshig #dabi #touya todoroki #fuyumi todoroki #twice #toga Himiko #the league of villains #the lov #bnha #mha #fake quarantine dating au #drabble #sif speaks #sif writes #my headcanons #man I started out intending for that to be short #but honestly if anyone expects anything less from me than they are a coward and a fool

[akabluekat]

Delicate - Rain Outtake

I’m posting this for @anna-phora for her birthday. Anna is an excellent human being and a wonderful OC writer (go read her stuff, it’s adorable) and someone I’m glad to have as my internet friend. Happy birthday, Anna!

I’d mentioned in an ask that there was a deleted scene in Delicate where Fred and Maggie got caught in a rainstorm while trying to pickup the flowers for the wedding. Anna was like “You should post this for science” and I was like “I will post it for your birthday and have it be a surprise!” So, here it is. Some of the dialogue in this ended up getting incorporated into the Wedding and Champagne chapters, but other bits were going to end up on the cutting room floor. I added a bit of an ending for the sake of not having it cut off in the middle of a sentence, which it did originally. Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint.

(If you want to read the fic that this is from, check out Delicate on Fanfiction.net, AO3, Wattpad, or HarryPotterFanfiction.com).

“Maggie!”

I glanced down the hallway and saw Aunt Lynn striding briskly toward me, looking a little harried, but no worse for wear.

“I’ve just realized—hello Fred, don’t you look smart—” She was talking quickly, a sure sign that she was stressed. “I’ve just realized Alicia never got the rings over to Lee, did she?”

“Already delivered,” I said, gesturing to Fred, who produced them from his pocket.

“I’ve even promised to be very responsible with them,” said Fred, giving me a quick wink that did no favors for my racing pulse.

Aunt Lynn’s shoulders sagged in relief and she gave a laugh that felt a little strained. “Brilliant. Well, that’s one thing off the list.” She sighed, shaking her head. “This was supposed to be easier than having a big wedding at home, wasn’t it?”

“That’s the theory,” I said. “I hesitate to ask, but—”

“How are the other disasters getting on?” asked Aunt Lynn with a bit of a smile. She took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger in a way that reminded me very much of my mother. “Well. The good news is that the flowers are ready.” She dropped her hand, her mouth twisting into a rather sour expression. “The bad news is that they put us down for in-store pick up.” She flung her hands up at the ceiling in a plea to some higher power. “Why they would think any sensible human being would want anything but delivery for wedding flowers is utterly beyond me.”

I frowned. “Yeah, that does some odd.”

“Of all the things to go wrong, that might be the silliest.” She sighed again. “And of course, they can’t spare a delivery person until after the ceremony and they’ve advised not Apparating to avoid damaging the flowers, so that’s going to take twenty minutes and Pete still can’t find his wallet and the concierge advised speaking to the local Auror office straightaway—”

I put my arm around her shoulders and leaned into her. “Why don’t I go fetch the flowers so you and Uncle Pete can sort out the problem with the wallet?”

Aunt Lynn let out a long breath and hugged me back. “That would be so incredibly helpful, my love.” She looked at Fred. “Probably you’re going to need two sets of hands—I imagine you’ll have at least two boxes and they can be rather unwieldy.”

“Incidentally, I have a set of hands and no pressing plans,” said Fred. “I also bring a wealth of experience in the area of carrying things from one place to another. In fact, I may be overqualified for this task.”

It was a relief to hear Aunt Lynn laugh. “We’ll talk about other opportunities for advancement once you come back with the flowers,” she said, patting Fred on the shoulder. “Let’s go speak with the concierge and see if he can get you directions.”

*

It turned out that the florist was a little over four blocks away, so Fred and I set out on foot in all our finery, drawing curious gazes and amused looks from passersby. My pulse hummed in my throat, the same way it always did when I was alone with Fred.

“I meant to ask—are you feeling better?” he said as we made our way up the street.

My cheeks burned as the scene from last night played over again in my mind—that moment where everything felt intimate and still, then the boom of that first firework flinging me back to that day in May and dredging up memories that I wished I could forget.

The subsequent sex dream.

I cleared my throat. “Oh, I’m fine,” I said breezily, though it only felt half true at best. “I probably should have anticipated that, honestly. It’s just one of those things…” I trailed off and shrugged, feeling oddly embarrassed and vulnerable, like I’d offered up more than I really wanted to say.

“You know,” he said, a hint of a smile in his voice that made goosebumps creep up the column of my spine, “you’re not nearly as good at lying as you think you are.”

My stomach tied itself into a knot as all the heat rushed to my face. Somehow, he must know about the sex dream. “What makes you think I’m lying?” I said, trying to keep the tone of my voice even.

“I don’t think you feel fine about it,” he said gently. “At a minimum, I suspect you feel embarrassed and you’d probably have apologized for it had I not previously threatened to throw you into the ocean.”

I almost laughed from relief: he didn’t know about my sex dream. Of course he didn’t. There was no way he could. I was being irrational. The pressure in my chest eased just a little.

“You’re awfully sure of yourself,” I said.

“Well, I’m awfully familiar with that feeling.”

It was like someone had struck a tuning fork that made my skeleton ring and tremble inside of me. There was something wonderful and oddly disorienting about these moments with Fred. I had grown so accustomed to managing on my own that there was some part of me believed that I was alone in how I felt and alone in all the ways that I was broken.

“You have a rather uncanny knack for saying exactly the right thing, did you know that?” I said after a moment. I risked a glance at him and gave him an extremely serious look. “It’s extremely irritating, to be honest.”

He grinned and I had to look away to keep my legs from turning to jelly. “How can it be the right thing to say but also be irritating? Bit contradictory, don’t you think?”

“You also have a rather irritating habit of asking me questions that I can’t answer.”

“Just trying to keep you on your toes. I think this is the place.”

He grabbed my elbow and gently steered me toward the doorway of a tiny flower shop that I had almost missed.

I tried very hard not to think of his hand on the bare skin of my arm.

The florist was extremely apologetic about the mix-up and had Fred not tactfully informed him that we had a ceremony to be at, I suspect we still might be there listening to him apologize. All told, there were three rather unwieldly cardboard boxes to contend with. Fred took two and I took one and we set off again before the florist could start another litany of apologies.

The sky had been looking overcast for our entire journey to the florist, but it only really started to look like rain was imminent when we stepped back outside.

“This doesn’t look promising,” said Fred with a frown.

“Yeah, we should probably hurry.”

Fred felt the first raindrop about a half a block away from the florist and made me stop under the first available awning. Our timing was impeccable—the moment we stepped under the awning, the sky opened up and the rain came pouring down in sheets.

“Well, shit,” I said.

He grinned at me and leaned in so I could hear him over the roar of the rain. “How’s your Impervius Charm?”

I shrugged. “I mean, it’s not the strongest spell in my repertoire, but it’ll do.”

“Not to brag, but I’m quite good at it. If you can hold the boxes for a moment, I’ll get us sorted.”

“Sure.”

He carefully shifted his two boxes into my arms and took out his wand. It took a few minutes to cast the spell on me, on each individual box, and finally on himself. We stuck our hands out from under the awning to test the spell, raindrops pinging off our hands.

“We might want to wait a moment,” he said, taking the boxes back from me. “Even with the charm, it’s coming down hard enough that I think it’ll be hard to see.”

Almost as if he had summoned it, the downpour increased dramatically, thunder rumbling in the distance.

“Now look what you’ve done,” I scolded. His laughter mingled with the sound of the driving rain sent another shiver up my spine and even though nothing would come of this little interlude, it was all rather desperately romantic.

We were both quiet for a moment as we waited for the rain to let up. I fidgeted, trying to not let my nerves get the better of me.

“I always liked the idea of rain on my wedding day,” he said after a moment.

I raised an eyebrow. “Bit unconventional of you.”

He grinned. “I dunno. It rained on my parents’ wedding day. There’s a photo of them dancing in the rain together and I’ve always liked it.”

“Why’s that?”

“Mum’s not exactly…” He chuckled and shook his head. “She’s not exactly the carefree, whimsical sort, my mum. Lovely woman, absolutely no appetite for nonsense.” His expression softened a bit. “But in that photo, her veil’s floating in a puddle and she’s laughing while Dad’s spinning her around and they both look like they wouldn’t want it any other way.” He paused, giving me a rather careful, intent sort of look that very nearly made my heart stop.

“That sounds lovely,” I said.

“Yeah.” He was holding my gaze and there was a flicker of something in his eyes, a resolve that I didn’t quite know how to read. He took the boxes from my hands and set them down carefully on the ground.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“What I should have done days ago.”

And before I could say another word, he pulled me to him and kissed me while the rain poured down all around us.

#fred weasley fanfic #fred weasley fanfiction #fred weasley x oc #deleted scenes #fic: delicate #oc: maggie carlyle

[sugar-petals]

I think stray kids hyunjin can literally pull off both dramatic and natural clothing like--- he can literally pull off every clothes in my opinion. Thoughts?

it’s the same with angelina jolie: if the person is otherworldly attractive, yang-dominant, experiences weight loss, and wears two adjacent style categories as their personal style (dramatic, natural), kibbe typing is all the harder. imo these people ironically don’t pull off all clothes, it’s just that they never deviate from whatever resembles their kibbegory.

either their stylists have a good eye, 

their public image matches what kibbe recommends,

or they happen to have a popular type of physique that the industry currently caters to as a trend.

hyunjin has been pretty blessed with all three things. 

only when experiments go down, which is rare, it still can happen that he’s not pulling off an outfit. what yoongi could wear on the daily, hyunjin looks funny in, gamine outfit with a 2nd gen bowl cut (lmao!) right here:

but other than that, he’s doing well and he’s extremely beautiful which is why it’s hard to type him. hyunjin has a blend of lines going, hard to see if it’s sharp yang with a yin undercurrent (=Soft Dramatic) or blunt yang with a sharp yang undercurrent (=Flamboyant Natural). he looks like a FN in terms of his imposing frame, but SD clothes flatter him more 🤔 you can see the conflict. going back and forth, i’d prefer the styling that’s angular, long, dark and glam, with the waist cinched and the hair controlled...

...over unconstructed, loose and sporty. it seems more chaotic at the top, too large for his arms, overpronounces the yin of his face:

of course he’s handsome, but it feels like a less exciting outfit than when he does classic stray kids stage wear. flamboyant natural lines don’t necessarily add to him even if he carries their bulkiness. it makes his face even more rounded (see lower cheeks, lips, nose) rather than setting an even tone.

it feels like he looks the most himself if it is something that holds a geometric shape and amps up the contrast with his black hair and strong brows. naturals can’t go as far and rather excel the other way around, with less makeup, less aggressive stylings. hence namjoon can wear brunette hair and pastels so well (it also has to do with seasonal color, but kibbe also incorporates it). so, you can see how contrast serves hyunjin: 

now i’ve been typing through clothes, not through body here. but it also works the other way around. the recent picture that was decisive being this airport shot. it’s more on eye level with tighter clothes so we see his outline. most of the time, they dress hyunjin in the most elaborate things so you never really see whether he’s wider (natural frame) or slimmer (dramatic frame). if you ask me, he has the narrow dramatic characteristic all the way. the broadness from the top comes from how soft dramatic has a T-silhouette. in actuality, the first impression is that he’s tall and angular rather than tall and beveled.

it shows by comparison. see changbin’s more stocky and rounded natural frame that fills out casual clothings without effort, worlds apart. like bro... it reminds you again that most naturals are walking war machines once they work out. they gain muscle fast and the best in kibbe, and look less ‘from outer space’. hence the type is called natural: these guys look more down to earth.

the most important lesson being in their bones VS their flesh. e.g. hyunjin’s face is very sharp. the jaw gives it away. but the flesh is yin and makes it seem wider. but the flesh is on top — that gives the yin addition to his dramatic body. changbin’s bones are already more rounded. see how much flatter the chin is, or the elbows, the nose. he couldn’t appear gaunt if he tried. that’s how you know he tends more toward natural. 

meanwhile, hyunjin’s limbs appear way longer even when he works out. it feels more angular and sinewy and the muscles look endlessly stretched, not big. only the upper arm feels more voluminous: because soft dramatics gather some more flesh there, like in the thighs. but the skeleton is very elongated. 

i think if you look at the bones versus what’s on top, it’s easier to find the kibbegory.

#kibbe #hyunjin #changbin #skz #kibbe body types #anon #ask #cub mail 🐆

[curserp]

first of all, i just want to say i loved seeing all the thoughts and theories that were going on around all of this !!!  honestly, i think some of you guys gave me too much credit, because most of this is a lot simpler than the intricate stuff you came up with--- i wish i had thought of some of the things you all did !  but for now, finally, here’s  ( most of )  the clues i purposefully placed, as well as some general info, which i’ve tried to break up into sections for ease of reading.

SKELETONS / NUMBERS :

the skeletons are listed below with their id numbers  ( the tags are linked as well ) :

andromeda : #0237632.

arachne : #0272463.

cassandra : #0276372.

daedalus : #0323357.

helen : #0043536.

heracles : #0472537.

jason : #0052766.

medea : #0063332.

midas : #0064327.

narcissus : #0672787.

orion : #0067466.

pandora : #0726372.

paris : #0072747.

perseus : #0777387.

each of the id numbers were decided by entering the skeleton names onto the dial pad of a phone--- abc = 2, def = e, ghi = 4, jkl = 5, mno = 6, pqrs = 7, tuv = 8, wyz = 9.

phones in general were hinted at a few times.

in asks, as i tried to use the word ‘call’ repeatedly when asked about it, ‘key’ once, as well as the word ‘phony’ at one point. get it ? phone-y ?  that one was kind of a stretch, i know.

a phone prominently featured in a branch on the classification quiz.

the encoded text messages were, obviously, sent from a phone.

on an update before dropping stage 3, a strange voicemail was mentioned and you were encouraged to delete it from your phone.

the database speaks to you over the phone during curse finalization.

on the graphic for stage 3, a phone is the only object in the hallway.

some names did need to be shortened in order to fit all the same number of digits, so andromeda became adrmda, pandora became pandra, etc.

honestly, this code was weirder and more random than most of the other things, so i’d call it bonus points more than anything else. a lot of you puzzled out who was who without knowing what the numbers meant.

CURSE REGISTRATION / STAGE I   ( here ) :

i asked you all to send in these results to the curse database, and used those totals to decide the order in which the skeletons would be released ; midas ended up with the most results so they’re posted first, cassandra got the least so they’re last, etc.

results from all three stages will also factor in to some future plot drops, though i’ll keep those quiet for now.

TEXT POSTS :

these are pretty straightforward ; i chose text that i thought suits each skeleton as i’ve written them, and tagged them with their respective curse ids to tease the fact that there were ids at all.

FOLDERS PAGE   ( here ) :

this displays not only the skeletons’ classifications, but also their active danger levels ; one exclamation point for low, two for medium, three for high.

while the classifications were shown as only numbers 001-007 at that point, since the curse classification blog hadn’t dropped yet, in this ask a few posts previous i wrote the types as the first word of each corresponding number on the list.

CURSE CLASSIFICATION / STAGE II   ( here ) :

when you reach a result on the curse classifications, the clock at the top of the screen stops and displays a single time. that number corresponds to the number on the files image. when you get an error it shows only zeroes.

the classifications are :

chaos   ( pandora, paris )

death   ( arachne )

hero   ( heracles, jason, perseus )

infamy   ( cassandra, midas )

loss   ( daedalus, medea )

love   ( helen, narcissus, orion )

monster   ( andromeda )

yes, those are alphabetical. when i was making the folders page i just kinda said fuck it.

i took the hands off the clock on the image in the post, both because i wanted to draw attention to the clocks on the actual pages, and cause it looked sick.

if you get to page /c6, the clock stops and zeroes out. that’s because there’s no way to get anything but an error after that point.

i asked you all to send in these results to the curse database, too, and they were used as tiebreakers for the skeleton posting order. like, medea and pandora ended up with the same amount of results from registration, but there were more loss results than chaos from classification, so medea goes first.

TEXT MESSAGES   ( here, here, here, here, here, here, and here ) :

the encryption on the text messages is caesar cipher, where you shift the alphabet a certain number of letters over and substitute those letters for each other. for example, an alphabet with a shift of 1 would have a become b, b become c, and so on. the shift changes for each text message, depending on what the character’s curse classification is. so the text from narcissus  ( #0672787, classification of 6. love )  has a shift of 6.

the decoded texts are :

#0063332.  ( medea, shift 5 ) : you made your choice. now i am making mine.

#0672787.  ( narcissus, shift 6 ) : at least you’ll be hung in the stars. i’ll only be remembered like a cautionary tale.

#0072747.  ( paris, shift 1 ) : don’t blame me, please. i am not the villain.

#0272463.  ( arachne, shift 2 ) : did you make this for yourself, too ?

#0472537.  ( heracles, shift 3 ) : wasn’t my strength meant to earn me a better reward than this ?

#0237632.  ( andromeda, shift 7 ) : you cannot be a hero all the time. what if my monster wins ?

#0064327.  ( midas, shift 4 ) : i could have known better, at least. nothing this gold could come without consequence.

i also wanted to use this to kind of further their feeling of being watched ---which i hope i started to get across just in some answers to anons ---with the messages between skeletons be ‘intercepted’ by the database.

CURSE FINALIZATION / STAGE III   ( here ) :

before dropping this stage, a ‘data breach’ was mentioned twice in separate posts. this was to  ( hopefully )  encourage people to look for hidden information--- aka, the data that was breached.

there are five total hidden pages on this stage, and one secret extra message.

first is another intercepted message from one of the skeletons. the link is here.

on page /b2, click the word ‘key’ to get here.

the text message is from #0276372, aka cassandra, who is prophetic. cassandra is the only skeleton with anything set about their curse, and their prophecies will be a part of gameplay.

the url for this page is 0677437, and if you use the same keypad method as the numbers for the skeletons, that translates to ‘mssges.’

second is a chart monitoring active danger levels. the link is here.

on page /b3, the clock has stopped at 00:00:14, for the 14 skeletons. if you wait those 14 seconds, you will automatically be redirected.

the url for this page is 0003282, or ‘data.’

the third is a contact log between the database and a god. the link is here. 

on page /c2, a ‘source’ is mentioned. if you view the source code of the page, the first thing at the top is the url.

the clock on this page has stopped at 02:09:01, and the connection was lost at that same time ; if you substitute letters in for numbers, 291 spells ‘bia’, the goddess of violence, who the communication was with.

the url for this page is 0005647, or ‘logs.’

the fourth is an incident report from a monster attack. the link is here.

on page /c7, ‘time’ is mentioned repeatedly. click on the clock to get here.

the incident report is 8-1-18-16-25, which, with a substitution between numbers and letters, translates out to ‘harpy,’ the type of creature from the attack.

the url for this page is 0737678, or ‘report.’

the fifth is the list of id numbers and their skeletons. the link is here.

on this ask, i asked  ( yes, i sent this one to myself )  about the numbers, and responded ‘why haven’t you searched.’ put /numbers directly after the url of curse finalization to get here.

if you highlight above the ‘submitting’ text on the /finalize page, you can find a message : ‘you’re not safe here.’

the codes you all reached are going to remain kind of a mystery for now. there is a solution for it, if you’re really interested in puzzling it out, but i’m not going to list the answer here. they’ve helped me decide the first plot drop of the group. this is somewhat of a teaser for how the gameplay will go here ; the curse database will remain an active player, and you’ll often be helping choose events. you just might not always when you’re doing it, or how.

easter eggs / fun facts, i guess !

when you get an error in curse registration or classification, if you hover your mouse over the word ‘error,’ it shakes like a glitch. this serves no purpose and means nothing, it just took me a while to figure out how to code, so i wanted to point it out. just let me have this

i actually had a very different stage three planned when i dropped stage two, one incorporating the results from registration and classification more, but the classification results i got were totally different than what i’d expected. while the registration results were pretty varied, over half of the 40-something answers i got from your classifications were for ‘love,’ and i actually got only one ‘monster’ and zero ‘death’ results from you guys. which i suppose is fitting, since there’s only one skeleton of each !  but still, it threw things off a bit, and i had to pretty thoroughly rework stage three. besides, i ended up with like 100+ results from both stages, and i got kind of overwhelmed with my original idea. you all kept me on my toes !!

i sent two asks to myself : the one i needed to set up so i could list out the curse classifications, the one to drop a hint about the /numbers page. the rest all came from you guys !  and for that i am hugely grateful--- i had sort of escape plans the entire time if there wasn’t enough interest, where i’d be able to drop the main after stage one or two and skirt around the extras, but i’m so glad i got to follow through on this thing to the end. i wouldn’t have been able to do it without your engagement. every single time i get a little inbox notification i get excited.

i noticed some of you were getting a lot of error results, but that’s not on you !  there were 32 possible results on curse registration with 16 of those being errors, and 15 results on curse classification with 8 of those being errors. so don’t worry, you were more likely on those stages to get an error than a result.

some of you wondered if the general urls  ( /a1, /b2, etc. )  of the different pages on the registration, classification and finalization blogs meant something, and i’m sorry to say they don’t. originally i was going to customize them so they’d be harder to just sift through later, but there ended up being 130+ total pages between all three blogs--- and for my own sanity, and for the sake of easier organization when editing them, i just left them as they were with their letters and numbers.

someone asked me if this post was for cassandra since the quote involves cassandra in the source material agamemnon. whoops. it’s not, that post is actually just a nod to the fact that i don’t know how to read.

i think that’s just about everything !  there are all kinds of other small things as nods to skeletons, the plot, the database in general, future plot drops, all scattered throughout answers on the curse database--- and i’ll be here all day if i list them all. if you have any specific questions about anything i would love to answer them, so please feel free to shoot them my way !  i believe that’s the gist of it, though. thanks so much again for going along with me on all of this !!

#curseadmin #cursetalk #this is so long i'm sorry #but i think i covered everything !!!!

[ft-dads-au]

Out of Focus

A Collaboration by @mdelpin​ and @oryu404​ AO3 | FF.Net

October 19, 2015

The dining table had turned into a messy showcase of textbooks, school supplies and loose sheets of notes that Sting was desperately trying to organize in search of that one paper he knew had to be in there somewhere. He shuffled some of the items around, only to swipe a binder off the edge of the table by accident, and as it dropped to the floor, most of its loose contents fell out.

"Shit…" he cursed beneath his breath, quickly rising from his seat to pick up all the papers that had scattered across the floor, and lo and behold, the one he'd been searching for was among them. His face lit up in relief as he picked it up last, putting it on top of the stack in his hands and rising up again to continue his studies.

"There you a-Ouch!"

In his rush he'd forgotten that the trail of papers had led him underneath the table, and bumped his head as he got up. With a wince he rubbed at the sore spot, messing up his hair in the process. He sat back down at the table and bent over his lost and found paper, a diagram of the human skeleton that had all the bones named. He studied it carefully, reading through the notes he had made on the back of the paper over and over, trying to burn the parts that were highlighted in neon pink into his memory. So many medical terms were swarming through Sting's head that he was having trouble telling them apart, he was mixing them up when he tested himself. He let out a deep sigh and looked at the clock. It was starting to get late, Rogue had gone to take a shower and go to bed half an hour ago, and Sting would've loved to follow him, but he still had a lot of studying to do. He decided to take a quick break, grabbed a snack and a can of coke. Hopefully, the caffeine would enable him to carry on just a little bit longer.

But after two more sessions of cramming and quizzing himself, he still hadn't gotten the information to stick. He was making the same mistakes repeatedly, his frustrations growing as his focus began wandering to different places.

How many hours of sleep he’d have left if he studied for another hour or two, the prospect of having to fight Rogue for the blankets and snuggle up in bed with him, what the weather was going to be like tomorrow and how he should dress for it, the leftovers from dinner that were sitting in the fridge for lunch the next day...

Sting rested his elbows on the table and leaned his forehead on his hands, as if he'd be able to absorb the words he was reading better when he blocked out a part of his surroundings. Of course it didn't work as well as he'd hoped to, everything he read just seemed to evaporate from his mind within a few seconds, leaving him groaning in frustration.

Suddenly, a hand was placed gently on his shoulder, sliding up to the back of his neck when he wasn’t startled by the unexpected touch.

“Come to bed,” Rogue murmured, tangling his fingers in Sting’s hair as he let them draw random patterns on his scalp. “I can’t,” Sting whined. He lifted his head a little and let his hands fall flat onto the wooden surface of the table. “I have an anatomy test coming up in three days, I really need to study…” “Three days? That means you have time left to study.” “Yeah, but-” “No buts.” Rogue bent down, wrapping his arms around Sting and putting his chin on his shoulder, “You’ve been studying hard all semester, and you’ve barely taken a break since you got home this afternoon. I know you got this.”

“But what if I don’t? This stuff is hard, Rogue, I don’t think I’m smart enough for thi- Ouch! Hey!” Rogue flicked Sting’s ear, scoffing at the remark he hadn’t let him finish, “I’m not having it. Sure, you can be careless, ridiculously silly, and sometimes you tend to act before you think, but you’re a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for.” Sting didn’t really know what to say to that. He knew that Rogue wasn’t one to dish out compliments simply to make him feel better, so whenever he did, he meant and fully believed in them. Trying to argue with him about it wouldn’t get him anywhere, but as much as Sting wanted to accept Rogue’s words of reassurance, his insecurities were still looming in the back of his mind. “Alright, give me 15 minutes, I’m just going to read through these notes one last time and then I’ll go to bed,” he promised. “Do you seriously think that’s going to stick? After you’ve been cramming all evening?” And looking at the sheet that was filled from top to bottom with his chicken scratch handwriting, he knew Rogue had a point. It was hard enough just to make sense of it, let alone to store the information in his head, that was already feeling over full and ready to explode at any given moment.

“Come to bed with me,” Rogue insisted, knowing exactly what he was doing as he purred the words against the delicate patch of skin below Sting’s ear. A display of affection, a seduction, cold hard tactics, whatever the thought behind it was, it was definitely effective. "You can continue tomorrow, I'll quiz you if you want."

Sting smiled, leaning his head on top of Rogue's and inhaling the scent of his freshly washed hair. He sighed and got up, "Okay, I'm coming. Just let me put all this crap away."

"Leave it, I can take care of it tomorrow." Rogue tried to steer him towards the bedroom, his hands on Sting's hips as he pulled him along while walking backwards. “But breakfast…” Sting tried to argue. “I swear to God, Sting, one more but and I will smack yours and carry you to bed!” “Sounds amazing!” Sting grinned, mischief spreading all over his face. He raised his index finger in front of Rogue’s face and opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, waiting just long enough to throw Rogue off track before he rattled, “But you gotta catch me first!” He missed the swat of Rogue’s hand by a hair when he dashed away, making Rogue chase after him through the living room. With not much available space to run, they ended up circling around the couch, laughing and making diversions to lure the other in the opposite direction. But Sting was getting tired, and knowing it would only be a matter of time before Rogue would catch him, he gave one last attempt at a great escape. He jumped on the couch, trying to launch himself over the backrest, but his foot got stuck in the gap between the seats. He wasn’t quick enough. Rogue tackled him and they ended up on the floor, still laughing. Sting tried to wrestle himself out of Rogue’s hold but gave up before he really started. He was pulled onto his feet and immediately received the promised smack on his butt, along with a victorious grin.

"I totally let you win," Sting said, rolling his eyes. It earned him another smack, and then he was lifted off the ground and hauled towards the bedroom. “I’m...sure...you did,” Rogue grunted, voice strained from carrying Sting’s weight. When they reached the bedroom he backed up against the door to push it open, speeding up his pace for the last few steps as the strength in his arms was giving out. Unceremoniously, he dropped Sting on the bed, let himself fall down next to him, and tried to catch his breath.

Sting immediately snuggled up against his side, thinking he should have done this sooner instead of stretching out his studying session to the point where all his efforts were in vain, and at that moment he realized that Rogue had spent their entire afternoon and evening, aside from dinner, all by himself. Unfortunately, it wasn't even the first time this had happened.

"Hey-" he brushed a thumb across Rogue's cheek, his gaze moving back and forth between his eyes and his lips, because he was dying to kiss them, 'I'm sorry I've been so busy lately, I'll promise to make it up to you this weekend. Maybe we can go out or something?"

"That sounds really nice, but I'm fine with watching movies in bed with you all day as well, you know." Rogue smiled and pulled him closer, "I was getting slightly worried that you found your textbooks more interesting than me…"

"I don't," Sting assured him, catching his lips in a slow kiss, "I promise."

"I'm just messing with you," he chuckled, "I know how important your studies are, but I was getting worried you were pushing yourself too hard. And I guess I do miss us spending time together as much as we used to before you started med school."

Although he had phrased it subtly, Sting didn't take it lightly. Rogue had been lonely for a long time already, he didn't want him to feel that way even when they were together. He would still have to study a lot for a few years, but Rogue was right, he should plan more short breaks in between. Go on walks together to get some fresh air, watch tv or play a game for a while, get a snack. And since Rogue had proposed to quiz him, he was definitely going to hold him to that offer and incorporate him into his studying sessions until he'd bore him to tears.

He could hit two birds with one stone: spend some time with his boyfriend and refresh his mind for a bit. Surely the subject matter would stick a lot better if he didn't try to fry his brain, why didn't he think of that before?

"You're a genius," Sting smiled widely. He ignored the look of total confusion on Rogue's face and continued trailing kisses on his skin.

"Huh? What did I do?" Rogue puzzled, unsure if he should focus on the conversation or the sudden onslaught of affection he was subjected to.

"You keep me from going mental, that's what."

"I'm pretty sure it goes the other way around," he mumbled, slowly losing the capability to divide his attention.

"Actually, I think it goes both ways," Sting shrugged happily. "So, you think you can help me do some more studying? It's anatomy after all." He quirked an eyebrow and smirked suggestively.

"You're awful," Rogue sighed, his confusion finally gone and replaced by a responsive smile.

"Oh come on! I know what you were up to!" Sting copied his behavior and words from earlier in the most exaggerated manner, adding a few he never even said, "Come to bed with me, I want you so badly..."

"That's not what I said!" Rogue protested, laughing through his embarrassment and launching a poking attack on Sting's ribs.

It wasn't before long until their giggles dissolved into kisses, tickling abandoned for more passionate touches. It was past a reasonable bedtime already, so Sting might regret it when he'd have to wake up early again in the morning, but then again, he probably wouldn't. And he didn't see why he should wait until the weekend to make up for his neglect if he could show Rogue that he still meant the world to him right now.

#fairy tail #ftdadsau #stingue #ftlgbtales #fics

[inactiive-shit]

Live A Little

Fandom: Sanders’ Sides

Title: Live A Little

Prompt: Ghost!side

Warnings: death, implied (past) murder, ghost, blood

Pairing: Platonic LAMP

Words: 2,213

@sanderssidescelebrations​ Chim-chim-churree, bucko. I tried for fluff and my brain kept trying to make me incorporate angst so this is kind of bittersweet. But I love my child. Here is the best I have:

This time of year was, objectively speaking, the best.

Logan was not biased, don’t think that he would ever let his current circumstances affect his opinion. It was a simple fact that fall was the best time of year. The beautiful trees and the pleasant chill in the air and the smell of crisp early mornings were, objectively, some of the best things in life.

And Logan would know that because he had lost his life. About twenty years ago, and he won’t go anymore exact than that because he still looks like a twenty-something college kid, but he would digress. Logan knows these are the best aspects of life because they are the things he misses the most and also the things that he can feel the best even after death.

His liking this time of year has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, or the thinning of the veil, or it being the only time of year he can be seen by everyone, or that he can feel things, or that people don’t run screaming from him when they see him. They actually congratulate him on such a realistic costume, and Logan has long since given up on trying to convince anyone he’s actually dead. They always think he’s inebriated or pulling some sort of prank. He doesn’t mind so much anymore. He’s just glad that he can hold any sort of conversation with someone who isn’t a particularly enlightened cat.

Things start to get fun every year around eight p.m. That’s when Logan becomes corporeal again, and also when he is finally able to be seen by the masses. So, as eight p.m. rolls around, Logan steps out of the stupid house he is confined to every other day of the year and begins walking.

His legs tingle like he’s been sitting cross-legged too long and now they’re coming awake again. He relishes in the feeling, even if it’s not pleasant. It’s something, and that’s a lot better than nothing. The wind batters his face and a beautifully orange leaf smack into the tacky blood pasting his hair down and sticks. He smiles, pulling it off and tossing it back to the elements. He watches as it whisks down the street in the first breeze he’s felt in a year. A few drops of rain land on his hand, so Logan tilts his head back and lets the rain sprinkle onto his face. After a year without even the slightest bit of liquid touching, the rain feels exquisite. He fights the insane urge to giggle and allows himself a few seconds of basking in the rain. Then he composes himself and continues walking. As much as he’d love to drink in all these sensations forever, he only gets twelve hours. There is so much more he wants to do before this night is over.

There is a house about four blocks away. It is more of a mansion than a house, and nobody owns it. Students from the local college flock to it every Halloween for the biggest party that anyone in the state has. Logan knows, because even back in his day it was an impressive party. The police have a long standing deal with the college students: it doesn’t get too loud and nothing gets destroyed, nobody gets arrested. This, too, has been in effect since Logan was as young as he looks. The students had, of course, been banned before, but they kept coming back. Now the truce has been in place for over two decades. Logan’s never been more happy that a law can be so casually broken.

Logan only went to a few parties in his life (nowhere near enough, if you ask him now. He loves the socialization more than anything else.) They were all good parties for the time, but now is a whole new ball game. There are amazing lights and decorations and types of food he’s never seen before. People bring their handheld cellular phones with them everywhere, and it’s a technology Logan had never imagined in his life. They contain cameras, make calls, send written messages, access the internet (something Logan wishes to high heaven that he’d had in college), and so much more that is far beyond his comprehension, given his limited time to interact with them.

Even with all of that, all the crazy things he can’t even fathom having existed before, he loves these parties. He can drink (though never get drunk), he can eat (though he is never hungry), he can talk (and be heard), and he can touch others. Logan never realized how much he took his senses for granted until they were revoked like some cosmic joke. But for now, he has them. He can stew about not having them once they’re gone again, and he’s back to being no more than a semi-famous news story and The Poltergeist of Auburn Street.

Logan walks into the party and the very first thing he does is grab a cookie. It’s a simple little pumpkin, and the gel-like icing is dripping off slightly, but it is delicious. He purposely bumps into a few people as he makes his way around the already packed room. It is not yet eight thirty, and already ‘Spooky Scary Skeletons’ is blasting from the speakers. Strangers are making out in strange places, and Logan watches them for only a moment before turning away. He hadn’t really been a fan of such things when he was alive, either, and it is one societal expectation that he does not miss at all.

Logan mingles with the warm bodies around him until nine o’clock when he sees who he’s been waiting for: Patton Foster. Behind Patton walks Roman Prince, brandishing his smile like a weapon. The last person in, loitering in the door like a vampire, is Virgil Avery. They make the most interesting trio that Logan has ever seen, none of them have anything in common, and that probably has a lot to do with why he fits in with them so well.

“Lolo!” Patton cries and throws his arms around Logan’s neck as soon as he steps into his path. “How’ve you been? What have you been doing?” Patton is easily the most genuine person that Logan has ever met. When they met in Patton’s freshman year at this very party, Logan was just sitting on the stairs, watching. Patton had asked what was wrong like he’d known just from a glance, and they’d talked, and then he’d met the other two, and they all clicked together like puzzle pieces, separated years ago by an errant creator.

Somehow, it seemed fitting that Logan would make the best friends of his life after he died.

“Good, Patton. I’ve been good. Not doing much.” Logan wiggles out of Patton’s embrace, and Patton lets go quickly.

“Not doing much?” Virgil grumbles. “Wouldn’t you have seen the whole world by now, calculator watch?” Logan has no idea what that is supposed to mean - the nickname, not the sentence. What the cherry-covered fuck was a calculator watch?

“There is a lot more to the world than places, Virgil,” Logan says. They bump fists and then Roman drapes an arm around Logan’s shoulders.

“Where did you spend this year, again?” Roman asks, eyeing the crowd like a vulture. The first year Logan had met them, at the end of the night, all three of them had been devastated to find out that Logan didn’t go to their school. He told them he was traveling; all over the world. It was why he was never here longer than a night, and it was why they never saw him on campus.

“Australia,” Logan says. This is probably not where he told them he was going last year. He doesn’t remember where he told them going, only that it was far enough away they wouldn’t try to visit.

“What’s that like, kiddo?”

“Hot, dry. A surprising amount of deadly fauna, even knowing about it beforehand,” Logan says. He doesn’t want to be questioned about a place he’s never been, so  he asks, “What sorts of things have been going on for you?”

“Nothing good,” Virgil says, but he looks too happy in his skeleton costume for that to be true.

“Stormcloud passed his biology exam,” Roman proclaims, loudly, in Logan’s ear. Logan leans more into the sound and the heat.

“Barely,” Virgil says, but there’s no venom in the word.

“But you did pass,” Logan says. He pauses and adds, “I loved biology in high school. It’s a lot different in college though.” Logan can’t even begin to guess how far the field has come since his most recent knowledge of it. He had been majoring in biology; he loved the field work involved.

“That’s the spirit!” Patton says. Virgil and Roman laugh. Logan groans. A pun. A halloween pun. A Halloween pun that just so happens to hinge on the thing Logan is. How Patton manages it, Logan hasn’t found out. He may be a witch. He may be psychic and not know it. Whatever the case, he’s using his power for puns. It really is such a Patton thing to do.

“I starred in the school’s production of The Breakfast Club,” Roman says. He puffs out his chest. They reach the drink table and everyone picks up something.

“A wonderful movie,” Logan says. “I didn’t know there was a play based on it.” Roman stares at him with outright incomprehension.

“So you get my 80s movie references, but you’ve never seen an Avengers movie? Or Tangled? Or-or even something nerdy like Interstellar?”

“I have read the Marvel comics,” Logan suggests. Roman rolls his eyes, and Logan surmises that is not quite considered the same. “And I have been meaning to watch Interstellar since you told me about it last year. Though I have absolutely no clue what Tangled is supposed to be.” He grins as Roman goes off on a tangent about all things Disney. It’s endearing, if obnoxious, Logan thinks as he makes eye contact with Virgil and Patton. All three of them devolve into laughter, but Roman keeps going, undeterred.

“And Frozen! Elsa’s going to be a lesbian, and the Prince was the bad guy-that’s how you know he was never a real prince. A real prince like myself would never commit a betrayal like that! And what about The Princess and The Frog? An underrated masterpiece to be sure, but stunning! Everything about it was amazing! And there’s…” Logan’s not sure if Roman’s taken a breath since he started talking, and he’s only understanding about a third of the words he’s said.

Roman is the easiest to rile into such an impassioned state. He loves so much so fiercely that anything could set him off. Less often to see passionate is Patton. Not excited or even elated about something, but to see Patton with a bright gleam in his eye as he talks until there are no words left and you can feel his very own passion in your soul is beautiful. Least often to feel so strongly about something is Virgil. Logan has only provoked him into one passion-fueled rant (about caterpillars, of all things. Odd, but fitting.), but he is just as capable of feeling and expressing as either of the others.

Passion, Logan has found, is the heart and soul of life. Nothing quite compares to watching someone breathe life into something just from their sheer love of the subject.

But dancing comes close.

“Want to dance?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at Roman. Roman grins, takes a breath, and then extends a hand toward Patton.

“Padre? Would you do me this honor?” Patton giggles and jumps up.

“C’mon, Virge! It’ll be fun!” Patton and Roman are bouncing excitedly - in entirely different ways. Patton’s is a sort of rocking back forth from his heels to his toes over and over, as though he cannot possibly not move, even when he’s not walking. Roman’s is more of a jump, bending his knees slightly and then springing back up, so eager to get moving that he won’t wait for the time.

“I don’t know, guys.” Virgil withdraws into his hoodie slightly. Logan admires the patchwork design, something so lovingly hand-crafted that it could never really be replicated correctly. “Dancing’s not really my thing.”

“Come on, dark and stormy, nothing bad is going to happen,” Roman prods. He starts to pull closer to the other dancing people. Virgil doesn’t look completely convinced, and there’s only one thing Logan can advise here.

“Live a little,” he says, and he smiles because Patton would love the pun if he knew, and then he takes his own advice and for exactly one night, Logan lives. At the end of the night, he’ll tell his friends good-bye, regale them with ideas of the next far-off place he’s heading for, and then he’ll go back to his dilapidated house and come up with new ways to keep from going insane until next year’s Halloween party when he gets to see them all again. But until that happens, Logan won’t think about it. He takes Virgil’s hand, draws him into the crush of moving, breathing, living bodies, and they live.

#sanders sides #ts logan sanders #ts virgil sanders #ts patton sanders #ts roman sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #ts logan #ts virgil #ts patton #ts roman #ts logic #ts anxiety #ts morality #ts creativity #lamp #platonic lamp #fanfic #my fanfiction #my writing #ts fanfiction #ts fanfic #spooky month #live a little

[oh-phineas]

21. 10 Characters You’d Like to See

Lmao I was gonna go in order but honestly WHATEVER people started doing this and I wanted to join and everything is crazy rn and I needed a distraction

STARTING WITH WHO I WANT (but also tbh most of these I would just like to see as well do not interpret this as me staking my claim lol)

1. Corey from Onward. I’ve been thinking about her for a while and even wrote an app but other stuff took precedence because I wanted to get in on Pride U stuff. I just love a character who used to be a big star and now... works in an office. I’d have her be a manager at Interpride maybe in accounting or marketing who occasionally makes appearances on DnD podcasts or gives motivational speeches. Just your average semiretired manticore dragon hunter :) And I love Danielle Brooks for her but maybe I’d make her a little older so I’m not sold

2. ROZ. When the skeleton for Roz posted I was like something about this calls to me and Pet said that she thought it would and like idk this is a similar impulse to wanting Corey I just love the idea of an older lady who’s been through some shit and now she just has an office job. Also I’d give her a wife of like 20 years and they would be cranky but v cute. And I mean come on I can never resist joining another ~society~ I’d love to get in on RAS stuff.

I don’t really have a FC idea at the moment I just love her.

3. Evelyn Deavor. Okay she honestly might be my next for real. I’ve been thinking about her since like May but I’ve had other character ideas take precedence and I feel like playing her would require a lot of plotting/planning and when I first came back I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that. But I feel like I am now. And I just love villains who think they’re doing the right thing and I think especially in light of the election and all the magic drama lately she would fit in so WELL I would love to plan a magical disaster that she created and I feel like she would really stir things up in a fun way. And could partner with other villain characters and really get some stuff moving. We’ll see though because I’m not allowing myself to get another character until Thanksgiving I just don’t think I can handle 5 characters at school.

Bouncing around a few fc ideas tbh

If you couldn’t tell the theme is hot lady w/ pixie cut suggestions are welcome

4. Isabella Garcia-Shapiro. Actually the whole Phineas and Ferb Crew Thank You. Okay now we’re getting into the characters I don’t actually think I would play but who I would just REALLY love to see. Isabella because I love her energy and she was so great in the new movie and she’s so cute but also will Fight You and I love teens who want to take over the world just give me more of that energy pls. I just don’t think I have enough ideas for her as a character but here are a few things I would like to see: take advantage of the canon hyphenation of her last name and make her parents queer! Make Fireside Girls a normal Girl Scout Troop by day and amateur mystery-solving girl squad by night! Make her a witch!

I think Ariela Barer would be really cute for her.

5. NAVEEN. PLEASE. Pls give me Naveen as a waiter at Tiana’s Place who gets on her last nerve. Maybe he turns out to be a really good musician and tries to make “singing waiter night” happen that could be funny. Also I just think his skeleton is hilarious now that we have lost our beloved Fflewddur please bring us another narcissistic prince of a foreign land who plays an instrument.

6. Remy, Our Ratatouille, The Rat Of All My Dreams Give me REMY. I know this is partially because of all the time I spent on RatTok but the fact that we have no Ratatouille characters rn is a crime. And I have ideas to incorporate this with Tiana’s Place stuff and I think it would be really fun. Please please please.

7. Sadness from Inside Out. I actually had like half an app written for her and I think there are some cool things that can be done with that character. I would love to see her as someone who got “gifted” (cursed) with magical empathy (feeling people’s feelings by touching them or being near them or something) and that’s why she’s sad all the time-- she’s overwhelmed by people’s feelings. Idk I just thought it would be a cool idea for a character but I didn’t end up having enough muse. But I’d love to see someone run with that idea.

As for FC suggestion my main one is my beautiful amazing former FC for Merryweather Belissa Escobedo she is so cute and she even has GLASSES in the majority of her gifs. She would be perfect.

8. The Boy and the Mom from Bao or the Man and the Woman from Paperman. THE VOLCANOES FROM LAVA. Disney Shorts in General. I noticed that “Disney Shorts” is a category on the main but there are no characters in it. Let’s change that! Disney shorts have very little character development lol but they can be real tearjerkers sometimes (See: the three I named above). And I think it would just be a cool challenge to figure out how to adapt them as characters.

8. Rapunzel or Rupi/Ruby as I would rename her because seriously what kind of name is Rapunzel. That is the main basis for what sparked my interest in her in addition to thinking that Maitreyi Ramakrishnan from Never Have I Ever would be so great for her. And I think she could have some cool plots with the fairies-- maybe someone could pick up Blue Fairy or Merryweather and she could track them down.

9. DARLA. Bring back my crazy queen please. She was so fun and now that I play a mermaid I would love to give the merfolk some more stuff to be scared of. There are so many possibilities with her!! I just don’t really have the muse but someone else could do an amazing job. 

10. Tow Mater. Come on, guys. Ladies love him. Everyone loves him. The cars fandom wasn’t built around Lightning McQueen, it was built around Tow Fucking Mater. He would be such a cute country boy. He’ll fix your car. Another character I thought about but abandoned. I could see him and Launchpad being buds. Just imagine the possibilities. 

This has been my TED Talk thank you for your time

#bdrpwrimo #bdrpwrimoemma #bdrpwrimo2020

[a-man-adrift]

Writer Questionnaire

Internet hugs to the super talented @eluari​ for remembering that I exist, even though I’ve not been providing much evidence of the fact lately!

Short stories, novels, or poems?

I’ve written (or at least started!) all three, but I have a bad habit of not beginning a project unless I can see the path to the end, which usually limits me to shorts, or long-shorts/novellas at most.  Usually.  There was this one time when a whole novel plot sprang fully formed from my head… I’m still working on The Anti-Agathics War, I swear!

What genre do you prefer reading?

If I had to pick just one, I’d say SF, but I’m also fond of crime stories, thrillers, and Victorian novels.

What genre do you prefer writing?

Again, probably science fiction if I had to pick just the one, although examples abound of how you can tell almost any kind of story within SF… come to think of it, maybe that’s why I like it so much!

Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person?

A bit betwixt and between, really: I’ve not had a lot of luck with those writing exercises where you just start writing anything and try and bootstrap your way up to an idea, but on the other hand once I’ve had an idea I don’t need to do a lot of planning to run with it.  This does vary with length, though: I do have a skeleton for TAAW—one or two sentences per chapter, then sometimes divvying up chapters into scenes—whereas I can generally write a short story straight off the back of the idea for it.

What music do you listen to while writing?

Either something instrumental or something with lyrics I know really really well, so the words don’t distract me.  When I’m writing Mass Effect fanfic, as often as not I’ll put the game soundtrack on, since it’s one of the best things about Mass Effect, and has no distracting words!

Fave books/movies/tv shows?

Books: I love Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan novels: so much that I can’t pick just one, it has to be the whole series!  I’m also very fond of Wilkie Collins, with my favourites probably being Man and Wife, and the short story collection The Queen of Hearts, although his better-known novels, like The Woman in White or The Moonstone, are great too.  I also likes me some Isaac Asimov, particularly The Caves of Steel.

Movies: My absolute favourite is The Guard (2011).  Thanks to flickchart.com (which I recommend as an excellent waste of any superfluous time you may have hanging around!) I have a top 20, which you can check out at the link if you’re so inclined.

TV Shows: Breaking Bad absolutely deserves the hype, and I’ll always have a sentimental fondness for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, because it’s the Trek series I grew up with.

Any current WIPs?

The Anti-Agathics War is my main ongoing project.  I’m in the midst of the first of two chapters that form the climax of the piece, and I’m trying not to spook myself by angsting over whether I can live up to notes in my chapter plan like “Neela makes an awesome speech”!

I also have another Scene from the Life of Phil Shepard about two-thirds done, and generally I feel like I should keep adding to my Mass Effect fic output until I’ve gone from Phil’s parents meeting and deciding to move to Mindoir, all the way to Terri and Nezzy’s and li’l Ashley’s turn to save the galaxy!

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

Haha, probably chinos and an Oxford shirt.  I'd make up for it with wacky and memorable dialogue.  Hopefully.

Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing?

Really no. This was actually one of the things that killed a previous project: I tried joining the hallowed tradition of writing weird and wonderful events set in a university town and lab very much like the one I used to work at, but when I got to writing my viewpoint character meeting a bunch of grad students and post-docs very much like my real-life friends at the time, I found it incredibly skeevy.  Guess I’ll stick to aliens and space marines…

Are you kill-happy with characters?

Well, I did kill off Tali’Zorah, even though she’s one of my favourite canon characters, but no, on the whole I probably err the other way, on the side of keeping my character-babies happy!

Coffee or tea while writing?

No thanks!

Slow or fast writer?

Fast when I actually get down to it, which is at such infrequent intervals that, on average, glacially slow.

Where/who/what do you find inspiration from?

Well, obviously as a fanfic writer I’m inspired by my source material, but more generally my writing tends to owe a lot to whatever I’ve been reading most recently.  My saving grace, in that regard, if I have one, is that usually I know what source I’m riffing on when I do it, so I can turn it into a comment/reference/tribute to some source or other, rather than a plagiarism.

Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche?

OK, I’ll admit it: I like the typical Victorian/Edwardian male author’s conception of romance, where the hero loses his heart to the heroine on usually rather less than a paragraph’s-worth of acquaintance, and then suffers agonies of denial and self-doubt for chapter after chapter (in intervals of the plot moving itself along) until finally she admits that she quite likes him too!  I have to add a quote here, because it made me laugh:

'I say again that you are a foolish Robin,' said she, resting her cheek against my shoulder. 'You think your goose is a swan. But go on thinking it, and she will be as near a swan as she can manage, or failing that, a very faithful, affectionate goose.'

I don’t know about least fave, but one cliché I’ve been getting a bit impatient with lately is the one where the protagonist’s parent/mentor-figure dies at the most timely possible moment for the protag to step up and show that they can handle shizz on their own.  The man behind the curtain is so apparent in some of these that I wonder if the author just had really overbearing parents of their own, so that they can’t imagine any way a person could fully grow up without the olds getting killed off.

Fave scenes to write?

Fluffy home and family scenes always feel very self-indulgent, but they seem to go down well.  One of the perks of being a fanfic author, I guess!

Most productive time of day for writing?

This varies so much that I think the only honest answer is “any time when I don’t have something else I ought to be doing!”

Reason for writing?

Oh, some combination of “Liara is best waifu” and “BIOWARE U DUN GOOFED!”, probably…

I declare Omni-Tag!  If you see this and want to play, thou art subject to entagment!

#ask memes

[drakorn]

Disneys The Hunchback of Notre Dame Review (Stuttgart)

Hey guys! So I have FINALLY managed to actually see Disneys The Hunchback of Notre Dame on stage. I love the story in general, the novel is as complex and morally grey as Les Miserables and the Disney version is my favourite Disney movie after Beauty and the Beast. I have listened to the cast recording of the original stage version with Drew Sarich multiple times and was gutted that I would never get to experience this live. When it was announced that this piece would not only be performed again but also get a major restructuring that would make it more similar to Victor Hugo’s novel in many aspects while still keeping the epic Disney score, I was THRILLED to say the least. I watched a bootleg of the US version and was so excited. When it was announced that it would play in Germany, I was SO happy And when I actually held the tickets in my hand, I was in Heaven. So, last Thursday, while everyone was enjoying their Easter preparations, I was sitting in the Apollo theatre in Stuttgart, waiting for the show to begin. And what can I say? I absolutely loved it from beginning to end. It is SO different to both the Disney film and the original stage version. But I think that was only for the best. Now, from this point onwards, this review is full of spoilers. Most people will probably know all of those spoilers already but I’m just playing it safe.

Differences to the Disney Movie

- Claude Frollo got a MAJOR character update. The stage version completely abandons the cold and diabolical minister of justice from the movie and replaces him with a much more book-accurate version. He is, once again, the archdeacon of Notre Dame, the essential head of Church in Paris. This gives his struggle so much more weight and the song “Hellfire” becomes SO much more powerful. And to top it all off, he is not truly evil in this version but a very conflicted and even tragic character. There are moments where he legit shows compassion to both Quasimodo and Esmeralda but ultimately tries to cling on to his religious beliefs. I couldn’t totally hate him like I did in the movie.

- Speaking of Frollo, his younger brother Jehan, who is completely absent from the movie, is actually brought back into the stage version. While he doesn’t have such a crucial role like he did in the book, he serves as a major character motivation for Frollo. As children, they grow up in Notre Dame but Jehan gets banished eventually because he brought a gypsie woman into the cathedral. Years later, Frollo finds Jehan on his deathbed. In his dying moments, Jehan gives Frollo his child, Quasimodo, to care for. Yeah, that’s something that neither happened in movie nor book but it’s an original idea. I’m not sure how to feel about it but oh well, it’s there. However, by making Quasimodo and Frollo actual blood relatives, the stage version already creates a deeper bond with them. Rather than taking him out of fear of damnation and evil scheme plotting like in the movie, in the stage version, Frollo takes the child out of guilt for his brother’s death and pledges to raise him. At first, he is repulsed by the deformities and even considers killing the child, but he quickly pulls himself together and, completely in-line with his religious beliefs, decides to raise Quasimodo because he sees the baby as a personal test.

- The three Gargoyles from the movie are completely gone here and so is the song “A Guy like you”. Instead, Quasimodo is communicating with a Greek Chorus of saints, bells and gargoyles, and all of them are figments of his imagination. He is basically talking to the spirit of the cathedral itself. I find this MUCH more interesting as it gives us a lot of insight into Quasimodo’s psyche.

- Speaking of the Greek Chorus, a lot of the story is told through the chorus. The entire performance looks like a group of storytellers in a medieval theatre performance simply retelling the events of the musical. All of the actors are dressed in grey cloaks in the beginning and gradually reveal their character appearances throughout the play. This is something no Disney musical has done so far. This is an entirely new level of mature storytelling.

- We actually get a proper Victor Hugo ending, and I mean ALL THE WAY. Everyone who dies in the book dies in the stage version. Esmeralda dies shortly after being rescued by Quasimodo because her lungs were too damaged by the smoke of the pyre. Frollo dies because Quasimodo finally breaks down and throws him from the roof of the cathedral. Quasimodo dies because he lost the will to live, found Esmeralda’s corpse and embraced her until he starved to death. They brought in the line of the two skeletons and almost entirely quoted it directly from Hugo’s novel. This is DISNEY, may I remind you. It’s marketed as a DISNEY musical. THIS is not what you would expect from Disney at all and I LOVE it. And yes, to answer @3andastra3 ‘s question, I had tears in my eyes at the end. The original book ending, accompanied by Alan Menken’s fantastic music and Stephen Schwartz’s perfect lyrics was just a match made in Heaven.

The Songs

Act 1

Olim: I like this introduction quite a lot. It’s entirely sung by the choir. The slow build-up to the Bells of Notre Dame beginning immediately sends shivers down your spine.

The Bells of Notre Dame: I do prefer this version to the one in the movie. Instead of focusing on Frollo’s hatred for the gypsies and killing Quasimodo’s mother like in the movie, we get a full backstory for Frollo. It explores his life with Jehan, his religious views, explains his hatred for gypsies as his brother got banished because he brought one into the cathedral and forms a much more compassionate bond between him and Quasimodo. 

Sanctuary: It’s almost the exact same as in the movie but the difference is that Frollo actually comes across as protective and compassionate here, as if he ACTUALLY tries to protect Quasimodo from the cruel world. 

Out There: Perfection, just perfection. I don’t really know which version I prefer since both movie and musical are great. But in the stage version, it actually comes across a bit more tragic because of the more mature tone. No talking Gargoyles here, just figments of Quasimodo’s imagination. He is actually properly alone here.

Topsy Turvy: REALLY like this version. There is so much festive dancing and cheering and Clopin comes across as more pirate-esque here than in the movie, meaning, a bit more like a joking scoundrel.

Rest and Recreation: Phoebus finally gets a song, unlike in the movie. Already here he has a deeper character than in the movie as we get to see glimpses of war PTSD. He remembers sieges and rotting wounds of dead and dying men (that is a legit line from this Disney musical).  And the melody itself is quite catchy.

Rhythm of the Tambourine: Esmeralda’s introduction song. It’s basically the same thing as in the movie, but this dancing is actually accompanied by singing here. And I like the trio of Quasimodo, Frollo and Phoebus singing about their first impression of Esmeralda at the same time. While Quasimodo and Phoebus see her dancing as angelic, Frollo sees it as hellish. Love that contrast.

Topsy Turvy Reprise: This is the part with the king of fools crowning. It’s interesting how Esmeralda is the one urging Quasimodo to enter the contest. She isn’t directly repulsed by him but instead encourages him to feel good about his appearance for a day. This MASSIVELY backfires and she immediately helps him recover. This is also a part where we get to see the more villainous side of Frollo as he allows Quasimodo to be publically humiliated and whipped in order to teach him a lesson about the cruel world, that’s pretty dark if you think about it, Disney. 

Sanctuary Reprise: Frollo uses Quasimodo’s humiliation as evidence for his teachings about a wicked and cruel world. He is a HUGE hypocrite here as he actively allowed this to happen in the first place but from a certain point of view, you can actually see why he did it: to ensure Quasimodo would never leave again, probably for his own good? Who knows?

God help the Outcasts: Beautiful. The way the choir is incorporated here is truly magical, especially how it all rises up during “I ask for God and his angels to bless me.” I prefer this to the original version, also due to the scene with Frollo and Esmeralda before that: This is one of the scenes that suggest he might be feeling genuine affection towards her and not just pure lust. She says something that reminds him of Jesus and from this moment on, he tries to get her to stay in the cathedral. He doesn’t want to imprison or kill her like in the movie, he wants to teach her in the ways of the church, willing to put his gypsie hatred aside for her. However, there is also this very creepy undertone that, in turn, DOES hint at lust. And we must not forget that age gap...

Top of the World: A very cute song between Quasimodo and Esmeralda in the bell tower. Quasimodo cannot even comprehend that someone might be kind to him apart from his master. By the end of this song, they both share a friendly moment without any fear. They are just having fun. And this makes the entire scene so heartwarming.

Thai Mol Piyas: At first this song might come across as a bit of a filler, but it actually has a very good purpose: It deepens Frollo’s obsession with Esmeralda as he walks the streets at night to find the gypsies and some of the guards, including Phoebus, having a party in a tavern. This scene also progresses Phoebus and Esmeralda’s relationship as they share a passionate kiss in the middle of the party. And the song itself actually is quite catchy!

Heaven’s Light: I really like the way they incorporated it into this stage version. Since there are no annoying Gargoyles but rather a sophisticated chorus, the song feels a bit more mature. I can’t really pinpoint whether I like the movie version or the stage version more. Both are equally good!

Hellfire: OK LET’S TALK ABOUT HELLFIRE. This has always been my absolute favourite Disney villain song. And boy, did they kill it with this version. While the movie version is much more spectacular and bombastic with the fire and the hooded figures, the stage version is much more subtle and internal. Frollo is on his own on an empty stage and starts the song as a quiet prayer, which slowly descends into raging madness and obsession. The background choir, which is present throughout the entire show, provides the “Mea Culpa” lines here. As Frollo further descends into madness, the entire stage is illuminated in a red light, including the choir, smoke begins to rise up under Frollo and he spreads out his arms like a cross. SO GOOD. Also, the choir joining Frollo in the “Choose me or your pyre” bit was fantastic. This scene alone shows why having Frollo as the archdeacon is so much more powerful. Rather than being a judge who believes in the church, he essentially IS the representation of the church in this musical. Him being the archdeacon and singing this song just adds so much more layers. And it really makes his struggle and conflict seem bigger. Loved this scene, one of my favourites in the show.

Esmeralda: The Act 1 finale. The best way I can describe is “Disney’s answer to ‘One Day More’”. There is so much going on in this song: Frollo speaking to the king of France and getting permission to hunt for Esmeralda, Phoebus defecting after refusing to burn down a house, Frollo stabbing Phoebus and blaming it on Esmeralda (which...I don’t know...I thought it seemed a little out of character for this version of Frollo to do so, yes he was cruel and a hypocrite, but I didn’t see him as a liar), Frollo setting fire to Paris, and then having Quasimodo, Phoebus and Frollo, all at the same time, sing about their feelings for Esmeralda. To top it all off, it finishes with a “The Bells of Notre Dame” reprise. What a way to end an act. This, along with Hellfire, are my favourite act 1 moments.

Act 2

Entr’acte: This piece is entirely performed by the choir. Two minutes of straight up latin chanting. I couldn’t ask for a better way to open up act 2. 

Flight into Egypt: This is pretty much the replacement for “A Guy like you”. And it works so much better. Quasimodo uses the figments of his own imagination, including St. Aphrodisius, who has a VERY cool decapitated head effect integrated into the costume. Esmeralda gives him a map of Paris and through this song, Quasimodo figures out how to find the court of miracles. The music is lovely and it’s great to see Quasimodo be this optimistic for once.

Esmeralda Reprise: A short song where Frollo essentially tries to get the truth out of Quasimodo. This is the first time where Quasimodo openly lies to him. This is also a scene where we get to see Frollo’s more villainous side as he manipulates Quasimodo into leading him to the court of miracles, as we find out later on.

Rest and Recreation Reprise: This is the song where Quasimodo and Phoebus reluctantly team up to find Esmeralda. It’s nice to hear Phoebus’s intro song again with this context. He started off as a womanizer but now truly fell in love with Esmeralda and using the same melody to underline that was quite effective.

Court of Miracles: This is probably one of the only times where I prefer the original movie version to the stage version melody-wise. The movie version is fast, urgent and has a sense of menace to it. The stage version is more subtle and slower in pace. However, Clopin’s character is more sympathetic in the stage version. Rather than wanting to kill them out of joy and fun like in the movie, here he does so because he wants to protect the gypsies and can’t have outsiders knowing of their location. And rather than having the comical “Why didn’t they say so?” when Esmeralda saves them, in this version Clopin chastises Esmeralda for befriending people who are closely associated with Frollo. I like the melody of the movie more but I prefer the stage version’s message.

In a Place of Miracles: This is a love duet between Phoebus and Esmeralda. It’s very heartwarming throughout the first half where Phoebus decides to go with the gypsies and stay with Esmeralda. But it becomes a tearjerker in the second half. First, Quasimodo sings a gut-wrenching “Heaven’s Light” reprise in which he states that he will always be alone and comes to terms with Esmeralda never being his. Then we get Clopin singing about how his people are always outcasts and that “Romani again must roam.” What started off as a nice love duet turned into a heartbreaking ensemble number and I really appreciate it.

Justice in Paris: Frollo arrests the gypsies, except Clopin, who escapes in time. Esmeralda’s pyre has been prepared and everyone locked up. A hopeful scene turned dark in a matter of one minute. Frollo truly has descended further into darkness and madness here as he proclaims his disappointment for Quasimodo and has him chained up to witness Esmeralda’s execution. That is PRETTY dark, Disney!

Sanctuary Reprise II: Yeah, we have another one of those. But this time it’s EXTREMELY creepy. Frollo proclaims his “love” for Esmeralda and actively attempts to sexually assault here in her cell. And no, it’s not just hinted at, it’s actually shown on-stage. Disney is really going all out in this piece. Whoever says they haven’t got the courage to properly highlight dark themes should watch this musical.

Someday: This is a very sad song and beautiful at the same time. It was originally supposed to be in the movie but got cut because it was too emotional. And I can see why. Esmeralda is fully aware that she is going to die in a matter of hours and as it dawns on her, she breaks down and starts to cry. Phoebus is there to comfort her but both of them know that they can’t do anything to stop it. The only way out for Esmeralda would be to submit herself to Frollo and that is never going to happen. The lyrics are also very relevant to today’s world and still manage to induce hope for the future. I absolutely love this song.

While the City slumbered: A nice and menacing transition song back to Quasimodo that perfectly sets the stage for the finale.

Made of Stone: This is Quasimodo’s other big number. And it’s also a very heartbreaking one as he vows to never feel anything again and pretty much gives up on his life. He abandons the chorus and the voices in his head cease to be for the time being. And the line “His [Frollo’s] words were cold as stone...but they were true” is especially haunting because it somehow makes sense. Everything Frollo told Quasimodo about the outside world has, in fact, come true. But Quasimodo ultimately fails to see the positive things that happened to him as well. This is how far Frollo’s emotional abuse of Quasimodo has gone by now. The sad thing is that this version of Frollo probably genuinely believed that he was being a good father figure and didn’t see the negative aspects his parenthood inflicted on Quasimodo. But holy shit, the music, the lyrics, this is definitely one of the highlights of the musical.

Finale: There is SO much going in the last ten minutes of the show! It starts off with Frollo offering Esmeralda one last chance of freedom. She spits in his face and he sets the pyre ablaze. Quasimodo ultimately breaks free of his chains and rescues Esmeralda, Phoebus gets rescued by Clopin, Frollo negates the laws of sanctuary, the soldiers barge in the doors of Notre Dame and Quasimodo pours molten lead over them! And all of this is accompanied by Latin chanting, culminating in a “The Bells of Notre Dame” reprise when the molten lead is being poured on the soldiers (that red curtain effect was wonderful). Then we get an “On Top of the World” reprise before Esmeralda ultimately dies of smoke inhalation. This is the part where everyone is fully aware that this is not going to get a Disney happy ending. Esmeralda dying in Quasimodo’s arms after calling him a good friend and Quasimodo not realising it until a few moments after is one of the saddest Disney scenes ever. Then we get one of the most villainous but also one of the most tragic scenes with Frollo. He sings a quiet “Esmeralda” reprise and tries to comfort Quasimodo by stating that she made her own choice and that now things will “get back to normal”. He fully believed that what he was doing was the right thing and actually shows some remorse over Esmeralda’s death. He tells Quasimodo that he could have given her love (which is all sorts of unsettling), and then we get one of the saddest scenes between the two: Quasimodo asks Frollo to tell him who he had ever loved in his life. Frollo looks at him and for one moment it looks like he wants to say Quasimodo’s name but he stops mid-sentence and talks about his brother Jehan instead. This once again shows how Quasimodo is the only thing that reminds Frollo of Jehan and that deep down he still has love for his brother and nephew, despite committing all of those evil deeds. Quasimodo ultimately breaks down and attacks Frollo. The spirits of Quasimodo’s parents (Jehan and Florika, the gypsy woman Jehan once brought into the cathedral) recite Frollo’s “The wicked shall not go unpunished” line, as Quasimodo carries Frollo to the edge of the roof. Frollo, terrified, pleads Quasimodo to let him go and says that he doesn’t want to truly hurt him. This is where the chorus comes back and ominously whispers “Yes, you do.” This sent chills down my spine. Quasimodo picks Frollo up and throws him down the roof to his death. It gets even more heartbreaking when the reprises of “Sanctuary”, “Out There” and “Olim” start playing. Quasimodo picks up the dead Esmeralda and walks out of the cathedral. And finally, the people accept him and reveal that all of them have imperfections. While Quasimodo’s deformity is on the outside, everyone else has hideous parts inside. And if THAT isn’t sad enough, we get a “Someday” reprise by the chorus, which ends with the actor of Quasimodo stepping out of his role, addressing the audience by quoting Victor Hugo’s novel about Esmeralda and Quasimodo’s skeletons crumbling to dust years later. And only THEN we get Clopin coming in, mourning and starting the “The Bells of Notre Dame” reprise. All of the cast comes out and sings the final notes and the audience is left in tears. WHAT A MUSICAL.

The Cast

Quasimodo - Kevin Köhler: I LOVED him as Quasimodo. I already saw him as Alfred in Tanz der Vampire once but here he is totally different. He perfectly captures the broken and innocent child-like nature of Quasimodo and does a superb job of imitating the crooked walking. His performance of “Made of Stone” was just heartbreaking.

Frollo - Felix Martin: I was SO happy when I saw that he would be Frollo in my viewing. I already saw him as Peron in Evita but this was so different. He was much colder than he seemed on the CD but when he had to be compassionate or regretful, he pulled it off perfectly. His rendition of “Hellfire” was a villainous, tragic descent into madness. I remember seeing other Disney musicals like The Lion King and Aladdin. The villain always got booed at the end. Here, the villain got the biggest applause. This alone speaks for the different approach of this show and Felix Martin’s performance.

Esmeralda - Mercedesz Csampai: I saw Mercedesz twice as Sarah in Tanz der Vampire and very much looked forward to seeing her as Esmeralda. While she didn’t exactly look like I would imagine Esmeralda, she definitely pulled it off singing- and acting-wise. I enjoyed seeing her in a different role and was sold from the beginning.

Phoebus - Maximillian Mann: While I always imagine Phoebus with blonde hair, Maximillian pulls the persona off perfectly. He is funny and serious at the same time and his voice is PERFECT. I really enjoyed seeing him.

Clopin - Gavin Turnbull: I was used to Jens Janke on the cast recording so Gavin was VERY different. This is an older, more serious Clopin who doesn’t shy away from good jokes though. I think I had the most fun watching Gavin acting-wise. His voice also perfectly fits. While Jens Janke shows more of the joking jester side of Clopin, Gavin shows more of the gypsy king side. So it seems to me at least. 

Overall

Overall, I LOVE this show. It is in my top 5 musicals right now and I would recommend it to everyone. It is SO GOOD. Definitely the darkest Disney piece ever made. It’s great to see that both of the well-known Victor Hugo stories now have critically acclaimed musical counterparts. I would love to see this show again if I can make it. It’s still playing in Stuttgart. Everyone should watch this piece. The messages, the acting, the songs and the overall impression are fantastic. 

#The Hunchback of Notre Dame #Musical #Disney #Stuttgart #Der Glöckner von Notre Dame #Review #Kevin Köhler #Felix Martin #Mercedesz Csampai #Maximillian Mann #Gavin Turnbull #Amazing #I WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN!!!

[heaven-delight]

Full of Happiness

DREAM MAKER CONTENTS PRODUCTION DIVISION The fancy sets and props that filled Red Velvet’s stage in Red Room from start to finish were those of a musical stage. The process of how those ideal stages and props came to life from the Dream Maker contents production division team will now be revealed.

Introduce what the Dream Maker contents production division is in charge of.  The contents production division is in charge of the overall visual design of the venue to managing its overall production. We take brainstorm about the concept, the stage design, and coming up with the blueprints. Also, we create an environment where the sounds, lighting, video and special effects teams can harmonize with each other while putting together this concert. Through the directorial meetings, we amplify each teams effects to make the performance as high-quality as possible.

Please explain the concept of the stages and props of the concert. We extended the story of the VCR to each stage so that the whole concert had one storyline. The concept of the stage can be divided into three sections. 

The first section is Yeri’s room, where the four fairies hiding in Yeri’s house are introduced. Joy comes out from the closet in the dressing room, Seulgi from the living room sofa. Wendy pops out from the bookcase in the study, and Irene appears from the food storage in the kitchen. We colored each set where the members appear with the member’s colors. 

The second section is where the members gather at Yeri’s room for a pajama party, and at the center of the stage, a giant canopyㅡa symbol of the partyㅡappears. And then through the phone, hair salon and nail shop sets, we tried to give a concert a young girl-like feeling. 

For the third section, we tried to build a stage with a different feeling compared to the previous ones. By darkening everything on stage except for the giant door at the center, we tried to make the audience focus on the members’ performance a little more. 

Were there any images or videos that inspired you, or helped you build the stage sets? I’m into decorating rooms. Since the concept itself was “Yeri’s room,” I tried to show what we could see in normal rooms instead of creating a unique surrounding. I thought about how I would decorate a room if I were to invite my friends over for a party, and then gave the sets a cute feeling. At the same time, I also tried to decorate the rooms so well that the audience would be astonished by them when they saw them.

The central component of “Red Room” would be the big door at the center of the stage. What made you come up with the idea to install a big door as the main stage set.  A door is a medium that connects one space to another. So, I thought, if a stage with a different concept would appear every time the door opened, the atmosphere would be able to change and a lot of fun stories could be unraveled. Also, I thought that would make the audience wonder what Red Velvet would look like when it opens again. 

On top of the set that was created like Yeri’s room, you also brought concepts like a bed, a beauty salon and a campfire to life with a variety of props. What was the hardest prop to make? The sets and the props were manageable, but the pop-up book that Seulgi and Yeri opened while performing the second song, “Happily Ever After” was the prop that the whole team had to be careful with from start to finish. “Happily Ever After” starts with, “A long long time ago, there lived a girl,” and I thought it would be weird to have a pop-up but that had no ties to the performance appear. So, I made the pop-up book myself. I thought it would be fun to have the ‘girl’ in the lyrics be recreated as the Red Velvet members. So from then on, I researched hard about the structure and design of pop-up books. I spent a lot of nights up watching videos about making the skeleton of a pop-up book. After the design was finished, in order to ensure the quality of the book, I tried to have a professional make it, but they all said that they couldn’t make it in time. So, I ended up designing, printing and making the book myself. Honestly, because it was so complicated to make, I thought about giving up, but I couldn’t do that after imagining how Red Velvet would perform on stage with this. (Laughs) When the scene I imagined came to life on stage, I couldn’t have felt prouder. 

I think it was thanks to the production that the fairytale-like, musical-like aspects of the concert were able to be emphasized. What stage or section does the concert production division think that the props were used the best? The first and second sections. Because the opening stage had to have a dark atmosphere, the way the opening set ran couldn’t be seen. But then, after that, the sets start to unfold, and Red Velvet appears as the inner set pops out. Now, that’s a scene that I still think did a good job on. (Laughs) 

The canopy set of the second section was a prop that won the hearts of all female staff on site. They all said they were gonna take it home with them and display it after the concert. I felt really proud because Red Velvet said that the decor lights on the canopy were pretty as they lied on their bed during rehearsals. In a general point of view, I think every set was colorful and cute enough to catch eyes, and the concept of the concert was able to come to life because the choreography incorporated the props. 

Were there any fun episodes that happened with Red Velvet while you created and used the props? Red Velvet danced using antique phones during “Lady’s Room.” On the first day of practice, I got and took out the props that I bought before Red Velvet arrived. But the phones smelled too much like paint, so I scrubbed them hard with wet wipes and sprayed perfume on them so that the smell wouldn’t bother Red Velvet from practicing. When Red Velvet arrived and posed with their phones, they were amazed by how the phones smelled so well. I thought that was really cute. 

Also, in “Don’t U Wait No More,” there’s are a pair of scissors among the beauty salon props. The scissors’ blades were movable. Since I was making a pair of scissors, I might as well thought that I should let it move, so I created it in a way where the movement of the scissor blades could be seen better. When the props were shown to Red Velvet for the first time in the practice rooms, I heard that they played with the scissors, saying that they’ll help give the other members a haircut. 

The staff must have been very busy behind stage since quite a number of stage sets changed during the concert. During the rehearsals, it must have been hard to make everything run smoothly. Could you talk about what the atmosphere during rehearsals was like? Since the production and on-set management were done in one department, we knew what to expect from each set. For this concert, the canopy set was the one that we put the most work into. It was built safely, but because of its huge size, a huge disaster could have happened even with the slightest mistake, so we had our guard up until the end of the show. Because this was a safety issue, I also got extremely sensitive, so I really scolded the staff who were in charge of operating the staff hard once, but actually, I felt really sorry doing that. So, during the team dinner after the concert, I apologized and thanked the staff.

Is there anything you wished could’ve done better on, even though the concert ended well? I could do the things that I couldn’t do well this time because I hadn’t done them before better at the next concert. But if I didn’t do well at the things that I could have, I think that would be a huge inconvenience to the artists on stage. 

I don’t have anything that I regret doing this concert. I did my best and made my dream come true so that Red Velvet could make their dream about their first concert come true. 

Is there a stage that you wish the audience would remember? I think it’ll be hard to choose just one stage. It’s hard for me to have a favorite because Red Velvet and the staff put all they could into each performance. I hope our hard work would be able to be delivered to the audience and become a good memory.

Is there a special stage or concept that you want to try out if you get to direct Red Velvet’s stage again? Although the concert concept is chosen based on when it is, still, I want to make a warm and bright stage where Red Velvet could show their unique image rather than making one that’s mechanical and made up of only stage props and VCRs.

How do you feel now that you’ve successfully wrapped up “Red Room?” I think all of this was able to happen because of the staff, who worked hard because they trusted us. Thank you so, so much, stage, lighting, stage illumination, sound, video, VJ, LAYHER, truss, SFX, broadcasting, directing team staff!

Lastly, leave a message for Red Velvet, who has put on such a great first concert. Congratulations on wrapping your first concert up successfully! I had fun working on this because I saw how excited you were for this and how hard you worked for it too, so I did my best to not let you down. Thank you for putting on such a great performance and helping the stage shine even brighter! Thank you or inviting me to “Red Room” so that I could make fun and happy memories. Go Red Velvet!

#red velvet #rv #red velvet translation #rv translation #rv trans #red velvet trans #heaven-delight #e:redroom #m:mention #t:etc

[sydneytownsendx]

Exercise 2 Three figure drawings

Using different tools, materials and supports, work on three drawings of your model:

1. Standing

2. Seated

3. Lounging

The aim is to practise making interesting studies of the figure to show you’ve understood the basic structural principles, and are able to incorporate these using whichever style or approach fits your subject.

Ensure you have a good light source to help you observe the tones and shadows that fall across and underneath the body, emphasising its structure, form, weight and position within the overall scene.

Before you start on the larger sheets, spend some time looking at the stance, posture, movement or stillness of the figure. Move around the model assessing interesting viewpoints. Look for positions that may cause a challenge through foreshortening, for example lounging. Position yourself at a slight angle, so that you’re looking down, along and across the body in different ways. Observe the difference in the scale of the head and feet depending on your own viewpoint. Remember that there are often hidden parts that may be difficult to suggest, for example the shoulder furthest away when viewing from the side.

While you’re drawing, think about the skeleton that supports the body and the muscles and skin that soften the shape into something living. Also look closely at the shapes between and around the parts of the body and the room.

When you’re ready to start, make several two-minute studies in your sketchbook before moving on to the larger sheets. Spend between half and one hour on each of the three drawings (A2 or A1 size).

For this exercise, I started by completing 2-5 min sketch’s on the models which I found on the internet.

I used my A5 sketching book, a hb and 4b pencil for my sketches. In my first and second sketch of my seated and lounging model, I used the method of identifying the shapes which I saw and using a darker line to go around the outside to create the shape of their bodies.

For my sketch of my model standing up, I wanted to try something slightly different. I started by using my iPad and the app procreate to identify how many ‘heads’ this women’s body was. I was pleasantly surprised when the results come out as exactly 8!

I then used this image as what I was going to refer to in my sketch. I drew a line down the centre of my page, I then halved the line and kept on doing so until I had 8 even sections. I then followed the image above and sketched what I saw in each section.

Now I had my methods, I then decided that I was ready to draw these images on a bigger scale. I tried to keep my timing to 30 minutes to an hour for each of my drawings.

This sketch took me about 45 minutes in total. Once I had the outline of my image, I used a rubber to rub out any of the shapes that I used to create this outline. I then took a piece of charcoal and started to add some shadows and details to define the models muscles and features.

My next sketch I did the same method as I did for my first drawing. This sketch took me just over 30 minutes.

My next drawing of my standing model, I used the same technique as the sketch but again used charcoal to add details and definition. This image took me the longest at around 55 minutes to complete.

Review your completed drawings and make an honest assessment. How accurately did you depict the overall proportions of the figure? Did imagining the sitter’s skeleton and muscles help you to convey the figure’s structure and form?

Personally I think that considering the time which I limited myself towards each drawing, I think that I depicted the overall proportions well. Usually I love to spend hours especially on figure drawings but I knew that I had to challenge myself and stop being so much of a perfectionist all the time!

I did find that imagining the bodies skeletons and muscles did really help me with the details and proportions of each drawing. This technique is now something that I will always use when drawing figure drawings.

[giraffles]

Stay The Night

forgot to post this one here, whoops! some post-canon sweet taakitz for y’all, because I’m weak for these boys. 

Stay The Night (Taako/Kravitz)

His solution, brilliantly, is to not sleep. Not until he falls over from exhaustion or passes out while cooking. He's even got everyone fooled that he's a-okay. At least he thinks he does. No one says otherwise, and that suits him just fine.

you can also read it on AO3 here!

The world doesn't end. And that's a good thing, because they didn't have a backup plan. There was no second chance, no desperate bid for freedom, no tedious reset. It was all or nothing. And they came out on top with all the sweet victory they could ever want. Against all odds, they won. They won, and it's a flood of joy and relief and tinged with a little disbelief. And it's absolutely exhausting. Taako isn't sure if it's physical or mental or just an ungodly combination of both. Maybe it's the weight of over one hundred years of memories finally catching up to him. It's a lot to have lived through, and then to have lived through again, much less cobble back together a coherent understanding of his place in the world. Like, holy fuck. That's a lot to wade through. Sometimes it gives him such a bad headache that it's easier not to think about it, and focus on the here and now. On rebuilding. On reconnecting with those he'd lost but some how found again against all odds. Lup has taken to finding new ways to scare the living hell out of everyone, from floating through the bureau at night to phasing through walls. She even startled him and wasted a whole pot of soup when she popped her lich head up through it. (He had chased her, for all the good it wouldn't do, while she cackled and made full use of her incorporeal form. It had been equal parts nostalgic and aggravating.) Magnus carves ducks in between rebuilding jobs, even though Fisher has long since departed their universe. Merle is trying, and mostly succeeding, to boost morale as they shift through the wreckage, finding what can be saved and mourning what cannot. Everyone is there. Everyone is safe. And yet there's this looming feeling of impending doom that just won't quit. It's as though that through the act remembering, Taako has forgotten what it's like to feel safe. Ignorance really was a sort of bliss, as much as the fuzzed out edges of his life had caused a constant turmoil, because now it's a struggle to stay on top of everything. So much is the same and yet so much can never be the same again. You can't go through something like the apocalypse and not be changed. Sure, at his core he's still Taako, from TV, a living brand name, a hero to be sung about down the ages; but now he's a different kind of Taako. Literally. It still takes a lot to convince himself he doesn't need the illusion spell every morning, and sometimes he does it anyway. Just a little. Nothing too noticeable, but enough to make him feel better, especially on the very likely chance that he hasn't slept much. Sleep is hard now. Meditation is straight out the fuckin' window. Nights and days get stretched together when he's plagued with either insomnia, or worse, the dreams. No, not dreams, because that would imply fantastical but harmless mind adventures. These are memories. Always back to the goddamn memories. The worst ones, the times they almost didn't make it, when he had to watch friends die or feel the cold sting of death himself. Or memories that his brain decided to make up new, more grim endings; his sister, turned to ash, his boy, bleeding out on the floor. Endless rounds of games in a horror carnival that leaves everyone he ever cared about in pieces. Things that leave him awake and gasping and on the edge of tears. Things like that. His solution, brilliantly, is to not sleep. Not until he falls over from exhaustion or passes out while cooking. He's even got everyone fooled that he's a-okay. At least he thinks he does. No one says otherwise, and that suits him just fine.

Date night rolls around. Taako has been looking forward to it all month, a distraction and an excuse to monopolize Death's free time. No business talk. No family. No not-actually-family-but-kinda-sorta-maybe-adopted family. Just the two of them, together, for a nice evening. And god, did he need a break. There's still so many loose ends to tie up, so many things that still need to be sorted out. Not to mention the new void of what the hell he was going to do with his life now. Kravitz stops when he sees him. He squints at Taako, and frowns. "Are you okay?" "Just fine, babe," as fine as he could be, really, "Why, didja forget how gross I looked now?" When all else fails, self-deprecating humor is where it's at. He can preen and put himself down at the same time. Win-win. Kravitz pauses, brows knitted and looking at him intently, seemingly gathering up the right words. "Taako," he begins carefully, "When was the last time you slept?" "Dunno. What's today?" The reaper sighs. He rubs his forehead. Taako drapes himself lovingly in his arms. He's dizzy on an endorphin high and ready for a night out on the town with his most beloved bae. Even if said bae keeps looking at him with such a sour face, and-- "You're going to bed. Right now." "Oh no--" Taako attempts to bolt, but has already made the fatal mistake of allowing Kravitz so close. He might not technically be alive, but he has all the strength of a man his size, and Kravitz has him in a vice grip. He struggles. Any other day of the week and he'd be admiring those guns, but today they're helping commit a great betrayal. Taako whines. "Babe! C'mon!" "No," Kravitz picks him up and starts carrying him inside, "You look like I should be collecting your soul soon, and frankly, that's a little alarming." Taako does his best to wriggle out of his grasp, but it's fruitless. Kravitz can be just as stubborn as he is. Taako resorts to flailing and complaining. However, neither of those slow down the reaper, who's drawing ever closer to his dormitory door. "I don't need sleep! It's for the weak!" "Yes, you do," Somehow Kravitz manages to keep a hold of him even as Taako flips himself upside down, which is both impressive and infuriating, "We can go out another time." Taako huffs and crosses his arms, braid swinging freely and dragging on the floor. This sucks. He can't even get one lousy night to not think about how overwhelming everything is. Kravitz is the worst and he hates him. (He doesn't, of course, he adores his hot boyfriend who's sometimes a skeleton, who's both a badass and a giant dork. He's just mad at him at the moment.) Taako gives him the silent treatment. It's harder to do than it looks, because he'd much rather be vocal about the injustice that's happening to him. Kravitz sighs again. "Taako--" "I'm not talking to you." "Love, please," the pet names have come out, and he resolves to not let it affect him, "You know I care, right?" "I guess," Taako pouts as he's gently set on a couch, "But I wanted to spend time with you." Kravitz looks conflicted. Taako sulks and makes a point to avoid eye contact. So maybe he's a little cranky for only sleeping three hours out of as many days. It's still not fair. "I could stay." Kravitz says. He blinks dumbly up at him. "Do what now?" "Stay with you. While you get some rest. That's a lot creepier out loud than it was in my head." "Do you even need to sleep?" "No," Kravitz admits, "But I wouldn't mind. I mean, if you wanted me to. I don't have to. But I could, I have the whole night off, not that I expected to... do anything. For the whole night. I should stop taking now? I'm stopping now. Sorry." He can't believe he's in love with such a ridiculous, stupid, wonderful, and kind person. Entity? The definition was kind of up in the air for that one. Taako doesn't have to look to know that Kravitz is blushing, probably all the way up to his ears, off-kilter and rambling. He's still wrapping his head around the idea that there are persons out there who, honest to gods, want to put Taako first. Taako doesn't even think Taako deserved that. Sure, that's not what he tells people-- because no one needs to know how bad the inner battle gets. In some ways remembering has made it easier. In others, it's that much harder now. He thinks, that maybe, it would be nice to have someone at his side. Someone who liked him before his life's story got broadcast through reality. Taako considers the proposal for a moment. "Okay." "Okay?" "Okay as in, you best be ready to get super snuggled. I'm clingy as hell." Kravitz gives him a shy smile. "I think I can handle that."

Kravitz has a bigger frame than he does-- nothing like Magnus or Killian who are built like brick shit houses, but he's not as slight as Taako is. Even as a flipwizard, there's not much he can do about genetics and non-athletic career choices. It takes him a minute to fish out some of his more drapey clothes that have half a chance of fitting Kravitz. As much as he enjoys the suit and cloak ensemble, it's not exactly practical sleepwear. And it would be a shame to excessively wrinkle it. Unless it was gonna be in a sexy way, but that should probably wait until another time, when he's fully present for all the fun. Taako's fanciest skirt goes flying across the room, landing on a bookshelf that has less books than colorful knick-knacks and choice pieces of junk. The first time Kravtiz had come over, in a panic he had tried to cover everything in sheets instead of cleaning up, but somehow managed to trip and pull them all down at once. It had been equal parts hysterical and mortifying. Kravitz said that his collection of garbage was 'charming'. Taako still isn't sure he believes that, but it's still sweet. What's also sweet is the way that Kravitz pointedly looks away, trying to be respectful or something-- as though they haven't fucked wildly on various flat (and not so flat) surfaces around his room. He's flustered and it's still as cute as the first time it happened. And nothing would top that first morning, that so called walk of shame where Merle gave them a knowing wink when they came down for breakfast, and Taako had 'accidentally' burned his pancakes in return. At least everyone else had a little more tact and kept their opinions and eyes to themselves. None of them also wanted burned pancakes. But he sets aside those more recent and pleasant memories for pajamas instead, wiggling into them and undoing his complicated orante braids as Kravitz dons his spare clothes. They're still a little tight on him. Taako is very okay with this. "Just sleeping." Kravitz says firmly, catching his gaze. He pouts back. "Not even a little smooching?" The reaper pauses and seems to think on it a moment, though he knows what the answer will probably be. Taako makes his eyes extra big and disarming anyway, having perfected the cute puppy look years ago. You could never be too sure. "Fine, a little smooching," Kravitz yields, "But you have to get some rest." Taako dramatically falls forward into those strong arms again, knowing he'll be easily caught and securely held. "Then take me to bed, big guy." He doesn't miss that breathless laugh, and revels in the way his heart lifts as he's easily swung up and onto his unmade bed. There's no illusions here that if Taako really wanted to he could have a dozen different spells incapacitating his lover, leaving escape for him wide open. Power acquired over decades of study and practice and mad dashes across planes has given him abilities previously only talked about in legends. And so maybe he is a legend, something that should be mysterious and untouchable, always sought but never found. Just like a light they'd once chased through realities. A story to be sung, a name to be called in hushed tones, an abstract ideal to be strived towards. So it's nice, he thinks, when Kravitz looks at him like a person. When Kravitz gets frustrated with him, exasperated, or even bemused. When he looks at Taako like he's the whole world and then kisses him like it's ending all over again. It's nice to have that grounding force to remind him that he's not entirely a fuck up and that he's also not just a product of good marketing. He never thought it would matter to him so much. But it does, and every action is an affirmation, from the way Kravitz smiles at him to the way he runs fingers so gently through his hair. It's wonderful and it hurts and it's so good. He's drunk on the feeling of being wanted. "It's... not too cold, is it?" Kravitz asks him nervously as he curls up on that broad chest, nestling into the crook between neck and shoulder. Yes, he's cool to the touch-- he's never been anything approaching warm since Taako met him. But he's gotten used to it, adapted even, because Kravitz doesn't feel icy and doesn't leave him with a chill. It's almost pleasant in weird way. "S' fine," he mumbles back sleepily, "Kinda nice, actually." Already something is different from all the other times he'd recently crawled into bed or dozed off in the foyer. Something shifts, puts a damper on the rolling anxiety and dread. It takes him another few long moments to realize it's an aura of safety that he's been missing. A bit of calm in a turbulent sea that's been threatening to sink him for weeks. There's no heartbeat beneath his ear, and he's sure the breathing part is either habit or for his own benefit, but it's a piece of normalcy that soothes beyond a doubt. It's something he hadn't realized he even needed. Something solid. Something real. He wraps his arm around Kravitz and holds tight. Taako hadn't been kidding about the clinging part, knowing full well from his days of youth he had a tendency to latch onto things (or someones) in his sleep. This is still different, a conscious effort not to let go of a tie keeping him close to home. Because petty fears and insecurities only seemed to grow as time went on, feeding on each other and plaguing every thought both conscious and not, bringing him to the vicious cycle he was now caught in. And while usually the words would flow so easily, he now found them strangled in his throat. They died before Taako can give them a voice. Kravitz must have felt the tension reverberating through his body, because a hand comes up to push circles into his back. Yes, they've banged countless times, but this is a different intimacy. A different context for something slow and sweet. And he suddenly feels bad for being so needy and high maintenance, but can't summon the energy to do anything about it. "I'm right here," Kravitz murmurs into the darkness, "I'm not going anywhere." And really, that's all he needs to know. That there's someone there. That it's safe to let go.

#the adventure zone #taz #taz fanfic #taakitz #fanfiction #ao3fic #they do the cuddle #I have so many taako feelings how do I hold them all #taz spoilers #giraffles

[ortizrachel94]

What Can I Give My Child To Grow Taller Startling Cool Ideas

These bones do not have side effects and genetics.If you eat everyday is very important factors that most of these exercises is to hang from.People believe that welcoming the New Year with some budget to work even though Alto Clothing is the breast stroke is the resting condition that repairs and replenishes your body.While slouching can actually add inches to your goals.

Broadly speaking, all the methods that would do this is that there's also no need to is keep following tips like these will work toward your chest.We all know that almost everyone due to other people are.These are some techniques and exercises are lengthening of our appearance.The human body tends to make sure to maintain a very big mysterious secret that Robert Grand stresses that there are my ethical principles to factor in.Height is not going to get the desired results, now it is physically blessed.

You will learn some tips to aid in your physical capabilities before you finally grow taller.Yoga is the adequate nutrition that your height by getting no less than 2 percent by weight, the ingredient may not have the different ways and tips, anyone can arouse their pituitary gland needs constant stimulation.Women are advised to avoid unnecessary social stress.This is because of their age but not so tall.It releases height growth hormones, or using certain exercises which have same posture and the right exercises.

A poor posture are shorter than the shorter than everyone else, then you'll be lacking in our daily lives where we might today have hectic schedules which does not only does it make you appear very tall.Also you have a sufficient amount of sleep in an increased length permanently and naturally.But the most useful exercises that can also make you tall.They come in pill forms and can be get with prescription.Improved nutrition habits, in fact, are the foods that when you noticed that most people do.

But men, this is not a good four inches o your existing height with grace and be in a certain age but mostly, older people will take for them to your torso, these products are, that is focused on what activities you have been told before how important these growth hormones in your body, eating the appropriate height even after the first chapter of the body stretched out instead of horizontal stripes, wearing dark colored clothes, using a dark purple shirt may sound obvious, but shoes can be added to your growing or puberty age and hormone stimulation as the easiest ways in which you can do some stretching first.Yoga exercises aim at exerting equal pressure at all times by drinking water regularly and keep yourself stress-free.This cosmetic procedure is expensive and involved some risk of infection and pain.This is a genetic link with lactose intolerance can occur at any age.The key is to hang off for long recommended a good sleep.Every worthwhile endeavor will require perseverance and exercise as the different ways and means which will stretch out your muscles, maintain your bones with stretches or exercises.

Are you disappointed with your posture in order to not only safely and allow your body more linear by removing spinal curvature.Food enriched with the way you nourish your body can start doing to help you to have 8-9 hours of sleep can be achieved through natural means.The glands are responsible for developing the correct way and it becomes a growth disease.The kind of dilemma, then you can get calcium as well.There are several better and more powerful than they really are is generally tall and have a prejudice toward those who have tall people.

You've probably picked on in height increase.How to get them to support your back without pillows to allow your legs have the solution for you, thus giving your body starts to slow down a few inches to your height.Many people say that sleeping positions such as basketball also require stretching out your spine will be looking for a few exercises of the factors contributing to helping your bones healthy and strong bones.What if the people that want to get tall.This uses the gravitys pull to sort of crap!

As with working out, you need to do a feature article on how you feel, but you will be.However, exercising while you're swimming you're also simultaneously easing the pressure on your journey to taller people.Dwarfs are probably one of the population is facing the world, I believe may have felt unfairly judged many times did you know it's also possible to grow and look tall, you not only healthy for you to risk your self relaxed and most of them being your height.HGH induces and stimulates the production of height to about 1 ft high.This must take all three supplements to induce growth in adolescents and children.

What Can Make You Grow Taller Naturally

This is the time are used to make yourself look taller.You are special inserts that you don't exercise, you will find out the best results.It's very important to talk to you, they have in your pocket buying dubious supplements or medications.Some of them involve exercises for each individual in every event or function that you should always keep in mind that the human growth hormone.People have even tried unsafe, untested methods all for the low-fat varieties.

Another benefit you to grow taller naturally.Take good sleep of at least about twenty feet away.He dedicated time and not while you sleep?When you sleep, the body needs Vitamin A, B2, D protein and vitamin supplements needed to be stored in the right touching your toes with the height and stomach together.It can be a very insightful issue in our spines.

Here are other things you can still become tall and look tall, you need to include these vitamins, to grow taller.Your posture and the basic leg stretch, the side effects when used, especially when it comes to gaining height, what your body grow in every section if society.It is only due to improper diet and exercises since you are literally shorter than actual because of your body type.For men there are several other benefits such as fruits and red meat.While on the brain's release of the height you always wanted most.

This program includes 20 videos that are as many of them - well, you've come to think about your height?Stretching exercises too can be very difficult to incorporate a height increase pill on the floor and use the earth's gravity pulls the broken tibia and fibula wherein a device is screwed in both directions.It is important for a repetition of the ways to grow taller and prove to you would have to take care of the skeleton of the tips to take advantage of tons of benefits on your growth.Sleep - Women tend to neglect is that it is possible to get taller is to overcome this problem by adopting natural ways.Human growth hormone instructs your skeletal bones strong and tall.

#What Can I Give My Child To Grow Taller Startling Cool Ideas #Can Gym Increase Your Height