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rielzero · 2 years

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Not all Redraws are as equal

So my dumbass tried recreating this piece from- I believe either late 2020, or early 2021? I don’t remember when I originally made and posted it- because like an idiot I removed it from my deviantart recently, since its an outdated piece. I didn’t check the posting date.

My Persona’s design has changed since this art work was created, hence why I kinda wanted to try re-imaging the work. I did record it and will be making a video on the timelapse later, but to kinda explain- for the remake I really got annoyed with making backgrounds. Maybe I don’t have the patience anymore that I had for the original piece.. But that’s one reason why the remake isn’t as good as the original. As well as the coloring decisions, I ended up using a gradient map for a better result.

This piece above is the original. There’s a lot of color and effects going on. This was when I was highly experimenting with depth and light. I still view it as one of my best works color execution wise.

For the ‘’redraw’’ I was trying to make a different scene, and for that I wanted to use different colors. Which did not really work in my favor.

The scene has more sense of ‘’far away’’ dramatically approaching whatever is buried underneath those swords. The swords on the original piece are trying to push him out, lead him towards falling towers. By trying to make a different scene, some of the original ideas and magic of the old drawing were lost. It also was starting to annoy me, so I kind of wanted to be done with it.

I don’t have patience if I can’t enjoy what I’m making, and that’s kind of what happened during this redraw. I like both drawings, but the older one is definitely better even if my newer work is cleaner or contains the better version of the character’s design.

Here’s the gradient map version, since the colors made me feel meh.

I certainly like how much more dramatic the red orange-y feel this gives. OH well. This piece is actually based on one of my ‘’lyric poems’’ which are poems that I write as if they are song lyrics- at least that’s how they feel to me. The title of this piece is ‘’TOWERS DOWN’’ and the original artwork was made after the piece was written.

TOWERS DOWN

From nowhere to oblivion Trying to keep reign on kingdom gone They can speak and they can whisper So don’t mention you’ve moved on, To drown the sorrows ongoing I’ve been here, still, frozen Afraid of fire, my nemesis, a moment A Free will does, what the heart cannot handle

Here’s blue shades dulling out Storming at the dawn, oh the panic All we know is all we do or say Language handled like cinematics, Bad blood, and terrible family manners Take your time, pain’s still here Left by bitemarks and broken fingernails Red flag one to three Oh no, don’t you plant the seeds I didn’t want to grow these damn trees Now the forest blinds me And the towers are breaking apart How do I water the roots if nothing’s attached?

Close the gate, the flood still comes Towers high, tore em’ in two One more time- The very heart in my tiny body Shakingly refuses to move

Paper thin cuts on this sheet of skin I’m still finding these daggers under everything It wasn’t a war, no one ever wins Compare to compete Who hurt you, if it isn’t me? Malicious people, eating the fruit Leaving you empty, but never alone Waiting for the very moment you get strong Just to break one more bone

But the armor I thought I had, was already torn to shreds Couldn’t fix me, tried to help you instead Towers down, dearest memory Daggers, spears, juvenile empathies You never tried to sow these seeds Trying to erase the trace, no deceit There’s no control, can’t keep it here Drown the sorrows ongoing, the bill is due I’ve been here, still, frozen Afraid of fire, my nemesis, a moment Language handled like sad cinematics, Bad blood, your terrible family members Take your time, pain hasn’t left me yet Red marked swollen eyes

Here’s blue shades dulling out Storming at the dawn, oh the panic Rivers filled with rocky pebbles Speech bubble scripts for bad cinematics, Bad blood boils, no one remembers Point on, there’s one way forward Malicious people, eating the fruit I’ve become edible, and it hurts I can’t move, I can’t move, I can’t move Paper thin skin, easy to tear Daggers and needles, stuck to my ears Piercing a feeling, I can’t stay Not without destroying the very last of me I’ve become edible, and it hurts Towers down, break it apart Latch on nothing, let it fall to its rest Towers down, dearest memories I can’t move, I can’t move, I can’t move I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t whisper

At the very least, I could whimper, oh

Daggers, spears, juvenile empathies You never did sow these seeds Trying to erase the trace, no liars here There’s no control, can’t keep it in I’ve become edible, and it hurts Red marked swollen eyes Take your time, no, it hasn’t left me yet Lovely and memorable cinematics, Bad blood, your terrible family members This pain’s hasn’t left me, no

Towers down, dearest memories My worn heart, my tiny body

Shakingly refuses to move Closing thoughts

Perhaps I should’ve reread the poem before attempting to make a new piece, or not redraw the old one. This makes me think, If I’m doing any new pieces inspired by these ‘’poems’’ I wrote, perhaps I should think of entirely new images that are fitting and inspired by it. These old scenes have a lot of worth to them, even if the art is outdated to my current work. They wouldn’t exactly translate in the way I draw now.

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kolsmikaelson · 3 years

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the three times he tried to ask you out and the one time he actually did- joel farabee

a/n- this is kinda meh but i hope yall enjoy it. not proofread. gif not mine, creds to owner.

word count-1.3k+

warnings- gets a teeny bit heated but no smut

add yourself to the taglist

you met joel the first day you moved into the apartment complex. he caught your eye from that very day. he was around your age, seemed sweet, and not to mention he was definitely attractive. you thought he was shy at first but when you heard him with some friends not long after moving in, you thought he was just shy around you.

the first time he tried to ask you out was a bit of a disaster. he caught you in the hallway when you were coming home from getting groceries. ‘hey y/n ! need any help?’ you smile his way, ‘ joel hey ! yeah that would be lovely.’ you let joel take some of the bags from your hands so that you’re able to get your key into the lock. as soon as you both are in your apartment you lead him into the kitchen where he puts down the groceries he took from you. ‘thank you joel, i really appreciate it.’ his face gets even more red as the seconds pass. joel keeps his eyes trained on the ground and mumbles out a thank you.

before he turns to leave your apartment, ‘hey uh, y/n?’ he questions. you hum in response and look up at him. ‘would you..’ he trails off before correcting himself. ‘would you let me borrow your phone ? i accidentally locked myself out and i need to call my team mate so he can bring me my extra key.’ he scratches his neck, beating himself up on the inside for not asking you out. ‘ yeah of course, here you go,’ you hand your phone to him. he walks towards the front door and pretends to call someone.

————

the next time joel tries to ask you out is after a rough game. the flyers lost, 4-0, to the pens, and a loss is always hard for him, wether it be to the pens or not. he knew that he would probably chicken out again, but it couldn’t hurt to try. he stops in front of your door instead of walking to his and brings his fist up to knock. when you hear the knock your brows furrow in confusion, you weren’t expecting anyone so hearing a knock on your door this late was confusing. you look through the peephole to see joel standing there nervously. ‘ hey whats up joel, you okay?’

‘oh fuck’ he thinks. he realizes he has no idea what he wanted to say. he rushes to come up with an excuse, any excuse, to speak to you and not stand there like an idiot. ‘ uh i was baking a cake for my mom, and i was a couple eggs short do you think you could spare two?’ you laugh, ‘yeah of course dude, one sec.’ dude he thinks, you’ll never think of him as anything more than a friend. his face drops at this realization.

you walk back up to joel and see the look on his face, you wanted to ask what was wrong but you hadn’t known him all that long so you decided against it. ‘ here you go joel’ you place the eggs in his hand, your fingers brushing his slightly, making the both of you blush. ‘thanks y/n, i appreciate it.’ you nod and close the door as he walks away.

joel walks back into his apartment with two eggs in his hand that he didn’t even need. he was so sure he was gonna do it. ‘another time.’ he thinks to himself.

————

the third time he tried to ask you out, is when you helped him into his apartment after a rough game. you hear some thuds outside of your apartment so you choose to peek your head out and see if anyone needs help. the sight you see surprises you. ‘joel, what happened?’ he looks at you and shakes his head. ‘nothing y/n im fine, you can go back inside,’ he smiles. you can see him wince as he moves to unlock his apartment door. you rush to close your door and help him stay standing. ‘yeah, definitely not happening farabee. i’m gonna help you and you’re gonna tell me what the hell happened.’ he nods but stays quiet. he hadn’t wanted you to look at him differently when he told you he was in the nhl. he wanted to get to know you better before telling you. he didn’t assume that you’d try and take advantage of him, but it had happened before and he was nervous.

once you have him sitting on his couch you ask what happened again. ‘ um, i’m in the nhl and i had a pretty rough game tonight, i’m just sore.’ he mutters hoping that you don’t hear him. you did hear him though. ‘woah really? thats insane. you must be really good huh?’ you joke. you can see his face drop at your joke. ‘hey, joel im joking, i don’t care that you’re in the nhl, you’re still my same dorky cute neighbor.’ you realize your slip up after it is too late. joel smiles at your confession, ‘you think im cute huh?’ he smirks. you playfully hit his chest, ‘ and what if i do?’ you smile. ‘well, you’re in luck, i happen to find you very pretty y/n.’

————

the time joel finally had to guts to ask you out. he came home from the bar after a 5-0 win against the pens a little tipsy and as happy as you had ever seen him. joel knocks on your front door at half past eleven with determination set on his face. this was of course after he had a couple of drinks in him and some pep talks from nolan and teeks. he was going to finally ask you out after all the months of pining after you. all he could do was hope you said yes.

you open the door sleepily, ‘joel?’ you question. he immediately feels bad for having woken you and almost decided to just ask you out the next day. but before he can stop himself, ‘hey y/n, i know this is random, and don’t feel like you have to reciprocate these feelings but i need to do this for me. y/n we have slowly been getting to know each other since you moved in and i think i’ve fallen for you. you’re just so kind and genuine, and not to mention gorgeous. so i guess what im trying to say is, will you go out with me?’ you let joel take a breath before answering him. ‘joel, i would love to go out with you’ you respond with a grin breaking out in both yours and joels faces. ‘could i hug you? i don’t wanna go to far and ask for a kiss yet, but you saying yes makes me so happy.’ joel rambles. you nod and pull him in for a hug, but what he didn’t expect, was for you to pull his face to yours and press your lips to his. the kiss starts to get a little heated, with joel running his tongue across your bottom lip, but before anything else happens you both pull away for air. ‘wow’ joel says in amazement. ‘that was..wow’ you can tell joel is stunned.

‘how about this joel, you head to your apartment, text me in the morning, and after our date, we can continue what we started here yeah?’ he nods and pulls you in for another quick kiss and then walks to his apartment. that night, joel falls asleep happy that he finally asked out the person of his dreams, and you fall asleep happy that you finally have a date with your dorky, cute neighbor. it may have taken a couple of shots and pep talks from nolan and tk, but both you and joel couldn’t be happier that he finally got the guts to ask you out that night.

taglist- @jamiedrysdales @joshsandersons @stlbluesbrat @2manytabsopen @nhlandotherimagines @iwantahockeyhimbo @ryanssuzuki @boqvistsbabe @alxvlasic

#joel farabee #joel farabee x reader #joel farabee imagine #philadelphia flyers x reader #philadelphia flyers imagines #philadelphia flyers #caitee writes

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shimmershae · 3 years

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My thoughts on Episode 7--Promises Broken

Placed behind a cut for those of you that would rather escape my babbling, lol. You’re welcome.

The episode opens with Maggie, Elijah, Father Gabe, and Negan.

Right away I can’t help feeling disappointed because the emotional core of last episode (Kelly and Connie’s reunion and the aftermath) seems like it’s being ignored and punted further down the road so we can waste another hour getting piece meal progress on the Reaper front, but I’m going to try to push my misgivings away and enjoy this episode for what it is, so.

“Daryl just told us to go home.”

And save your hides and keep the rest of the community safe? I can’t argue that Negan might have an actual point here, lol. But Maggie sure can.

Not gonna lie. When Negan came back with “I think he was being subtle. He said they were armed with lookouts” I had to LOL.

“We will never be even.” I mean. Maggie been frustrating me with her stubbornness in this suicide mission, true. But she right. They will never, ever be even.

“Ya’ll know Blackbeard, too?” I admit it. I laughed. A little.

Okay. I don’t know if this bodes well for this episode or not, but the cold opening in this episode? Was the most underwhelming cold open of this season.

At least the opening credits still give me that old familiar rush of the heyday of TWD.

Fake Stephanie and Eugene are on Walker clean up duty. Hmm. I think I’m going to refer to Fake Stephanie as Fifi until she gets a real name for brevity’s sake.

Fifi handles herself surprisingly well with the Walkers. Is she one of Mercer’s stormtroopers working undercover maybe?

Somehow I doubt it’s true that our friends can trust “Lance” but whatever, lol.

I hate to admit it but I’m already kind of bored with this episode. We’re barely over 6 minutes in.

I didn’t recognize Princess without her fluffy pink coat!

Zeke is definitely struggling.

I do like that these two have been paired up. They have taken to each other quickly and already have a good rapport. There’s something endearing about their scenes together.

“Never been afraid of hard work. Kinda anti-friends who die from stubbornness.” Have I mentioned lately how much I love Princess? Because I really, really do.

So it’s been days. Has it been days that Maggie and Negan and Co. have been outrunning the Reapers? I’m talking since they left the safe house. Does that mean that it’s also been days since Kelly and Connie’s reunion? This timeline is so slow and yet they keep telling us it’s been days and making me think we’ve been missing time. Like I can’t even.

You know Carol’s “Pookie is in danger” senses have to be big-time tingling by now if it’s been DAYS.

Also? Alden almost certainly has to be dead.

But I digress. They obviously don’t want us getting hung up on the apparent time warp between ASZ, Meridian, and the Commonwealth. It’s like the Bermuda Triangle of the ZA.

“A person with your pedigree...”

Okay then. Commonwealth is full of uppity assholes. Good to know.

Yumiko looks classy! I say that in my best Princess voice, lol.

Well. At least they’ve given Daryl Dog back. Has Dog come to his senses though? That is the question.

Daryl sharing a smoke with the enemy to gain some intel. Or maybe just the keys to food storage.

So. Another redshirt (Elijah’s sister’s friend) we don’t know bites the dust. Meh. Including that tidbit in the trailer was purposefully misleading, lol. Not that I want people to die, but still.

“But the one? He’s mine.” Let’s take bets. Was it Carver Elijah has a beef with because it just seems like it was. Could also be that his name is the only one I know, lol.

Where is Maggie sending our hobbled Father G?

“I kept my mask for practical and sentimental reasons.” Negan? You almost had me. He really can’t help his inherent asshole-ishness can he?

But seriously. Yuck at what they about to do because I assume Alpha and Co. at least cured the nasty skins.

I wish I could say I give a damn that they’re attempting to give Leah some more likeable layers but it’s a cheap cheat so naw.

There’s that damn river that symbolizes the great divide between Daryl and his love and his family. At least it’s pretty.

I’m with Daryl. Is Pope just looking to cleanse the earth of those he doesn’t feel belong or what? Wheedle the truth out of her, Daryl.

“You never needed anyone to make you strong.”

Think our guy has ever said this to his real girl?

It’s kinda funny that the Whisperer flunkie is now the herding Whisperer tutor.

Is that the Reaper’s version of a priest? Sorry. I swear. I’ve been trying to pay attention during their scenes. But my mind wanders because it feels like Woodbury and the Sanctuary all over again. The Whisperers at least were elevated by Samantha Morton, Ryan Hurst, Thora Birch, and yes, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Like I love Norman Reedus and the character he’s crafted in Daryl but he’s not enough to have me enthralled with Leah and these dudes. I don’t care if they were all Calendar pinups before the ZA.

Truly. A+ casting with Yumiko’s brother.

Yeah. Something’s definitely fishy about Tomi’s reluctance to go back to his old life in the Commonwealth, but the desire for a slower, less stressful existence is definitely relatable so I’m not going to hold that part against him at all.

What did Maggie say after Elijah asked if Negan had changed? Because I replayed it a handful of times and still don’t know.

This Lancy Hornsby dude reeks of slimy politician.

Too much one on one Daryl and Leah in this episode. Without any kind of chemistry at least these two drag each other and their parts of the episode down. Leah’s character is a fail for me and it has nothing to do with shipping reasons. She’s just not believable or authentic to her role as a mercenary.

“If I could do it all over again, I’d have killed every single one of you.” Damn. Well. He’s being true to himself, I guess. Unapologetically Negan.

Again. I can’t say Negan’s wrong exactly but shit does he deliver some uncomfortable truths.

Princess’s childlike delight over treats is <3.

Look at Eugene running toward danger! OG Eugene would never. Abe would be so proud.

Eugene and Fifi actually work pretty good together but it all feels so staged. I feel sorry for our guy.

“This guy was being, well, an asshole.” LMAO @ Josh’s delivery. The asshole definitely deserved that punch and his date deserved to be eaten.

Real Stephanie is so pretty.

Aww. She’s concerned about Eugene.

Oh shit. Eugene punched Pamela Milton’s little entitled prick of a son. This feels like the ASZ Monroes all over again. Sorry. I can’t remember their names.

Poor Eugene. Have I said that already?

Is this Lance Hornsby guy the lesser of two evils or...”

All the chances you’ve gotten, hmm? Seems to me they’ve been set up for some failure too, though.

Maggie and Negan leading a herd where? Meridian?

That poor woman. Just wanting her family safe and spared of seeing her meet her maker.

So Leah’s not completely cold. Okay. Doesn’t mean she’s able to be saved though.

At this point, Kang is just yanking Daryl’s chain and ours in the process.

Even hidden behind that skin mask, Elijah made me tear up when he saw his sister.

No previews? What a copout.

Not Kang correlating Maggie and Negan to child and coach, lol.

The narrative they keep pushing about the villains having families and FEELINGS doesn’t change much for me, Angela. Gracie was the only innocent in that outpost Team Family attacked. I’m not saying they should have done it but stop trying to make the bad guys sympathetic. It isn’t earned.

Interesting how she mentions Gabe is trying so very hard to hold onto faith.

If Leah’s the frog boiling in that pot? They better be serving frog legs to the starving community she’s hunting. Just saying.

Overall impression of this episode?

It was boring. No seriously.

I wish I could say I liked it better but it was just meh. I can’t even muster up any words because I just feel blah about it and that’s not a good feeling to have going into the first final (mid? half? tri? I don’t know what to call it) episode of the season.

Withholding the previews further adds to the doldrums because what is there to actually be excited about here after that episode? At least try to pique our interest, Angela.

#The Walking Dead #Season 11 #TWD spoilers #things that make me smile and cry #for reasons

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purplerose244 · 3 years

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Belonging

Here again for the @toa-secret-santa of this year! So happy to participate again, I love these events! 😍😍 Hello @spellcasterdouxie, I’m your secret santa! Merry Christmas and festivities, hope you like my present! ❤

Summary: In which being stuck in New York to protect a magical being and save the world in the process is no excuse for not celebrating Christmas with your friends.

Also on AO3

So… Nari was a terrible liar.

Extremely powerful being, the purest pretty soul, but horrible at lying.

Douxie didn’t have the slightest idea of what she was plotting, granted that she used to be part of an evil congregation of wizards that wanted to take over using an ancient artifact – meh, like that was the weirdest coming from his friends –, but he was fairly sure that her claim regarding the leaking sink of the bathroom was some sort of decoy.

Did that convince him to ignore those big adorable puppy eyes?

“It looks good to me, but I’m gonna give it a double check just in case!”

“Thank you Douxie, much appreciated! Please make sure everything is working, do not overlook a single thing!” Absolutely not. He was a master wizard, not a beast.

Their little apartment was neither pretty nor particularly clean. Which considering the little money he accumulated over the years with all of his jobs back in Arcadia and given the fact that they were in New York City, was kind of a given. But it had a perfectly functional bathroom, basically a gift from above, or some kind of karma retribution from putting up with three different apocalypses in the same summer – and he had all suspicions that another one was coming, but possibly another season. That being said, he wasn’t sure why with her plant like appearance, Nari with all people was so interested into their sink. Besides maybe for spraying a bit of water over her head – one very curious and endearing scene really, like a pot plant watering itself.

Then again, he wasn’t completely sure why he was going along with it instead of asking directly what was this all about. Maybe he liked to study whatever thought somehow as peculiar as her could come up with. Maybe there was nothing else of particular interest to do while waiting for his mac and cheese to be ready… maybe that little nightmare of his from last night got him a little too down, and doing anything but think about it was a better solution than most. And it was a pretty annoying maybe, because dreams about his master were as common as breathing lately.

He thought he was over it. It was probably too soon… hopefully he was at least getting closer to the not too soon part of it.

One long silence followed, from which he was fairly sure he had heard a few whispers a little lower than Nari’s light tone. Great, what now? Was she actually plotting something?

“Is everything okay over there? Arch? Nari?”

“Fine, everything is fine! Keep checking please!”

“Are you serious?” Okay now it was ridiculous. “Nope, I’m getting over there, and you two better not be up to no good!” They were a surprisingly compatible pair, especially since his familiar had made it his mission to teach her the marvel of pranks – she wasn’t even malicious about it, that made it all even more devious somehow. Douxie left the wrench on the ground, getting out of the bathroom and towards the living room. “You all keep forgetting that I’m the master wizards here, so technically I’m in charge, so if you’re scheming something- Whoa, Mordrax’s miracles!”

The last thing he had expected, after leaving their lonely living room that was made of four faded walls with a random kitchen connected to it, was to get back to it completely transformed into a messy, happy Christmas themed little chamber.

Filled with very familiar faces.

“Merry Christmas, Teach!” Claire almost knocked him off his feet with that hug. She looked radiant, all wrapped up in one big purple sweater with ‘Feeling Wicked Sassy’ written on it – appropriate. Behind her Steve, Toby and Archie were all smiling.

“Sorry, you would not leave the house,” Nari looked all cozy and a little guilty in that big mint green sweater – with ‘Every Day is Green Day’ written on it, where did she get that? –, waving at him. “And it felt like claiming we were being attacked by Skrael and Bellroc was a bit excessive.” Thank goodness his roommate and protegee had some common sense – considering his latest adventure, more than him for sure.

Claire giggled, shrugging innocently.

“We honestly hoped you were that bad of a plumber and would give us more time…”

Douxie snickered, because this was ridiculously endearing and he loved it all already.

“Too bad I’m not completely hopeless.”

“Could’ve fooled me!” Steve, it was Steve, not even worth turning around to recognize him. But a random fist bump, that much he could concede – especially with that massive blue sweater ‘Silent Knight, Holey Knight’ he had on, like really what was even that. “Ready to have the best time of your life?”

The master wizard arched an eyebrow.

“Said from you? Should we call the firefighter in advance? Or the police?” The blonde pouted very dramatically, Claire snickered. He had really missed these two. “Wow, this place looks amazing! The landlord can’t see this or she will force me to pay more for the rent.” His wallet was already gasping enough for breath and money. “All this stuff, all the decorations… is this beef?” Ah, that was why it all felt like such a sudden change, this paradisiac scent had definitely not been here before. “It smells delicious!”

“Thank you!” Second shock of the day, but Douxie could hardly blame himself considering the most time he had spent around Jim had been during his huge troll moments – he kinda looked like a twig now in comparison. “I’m pretty well known for my festive feasts.”

“Also known as festeasts!” Toby showed one enthusiastic victory sign, pulling off his orange ‘Rockin’ This Christmas’ with plenty of little gems and stones all around – the forever geologist.

Jim rolled his eyes with a grin.

“Tobes we’re not calling them that.” The Warhammer holder frowned, only to beam when he got handed a spoon for a taste. “I made most of this from home so it’s all ready and warm, but I wanted to make something on the place while I was at it. Freshly made food tastes way better on Christmas.” Toby hummed around the spoon, smacking his lips, then he rubbed his fingers together towards the chef, who caught it as to add more salt.

Douxie couldn’t help but scoot closer, peaking inside. That looked like food. That looked like real, delicious, extremely well-made food.

“What in the world, how did you make that?” Jim snorted.

“You moved on without much of a comment from me turning into a half-troll, a full troll and then back to a human, and this surprises you?”

“My friend, there were Thai leftovers, one instant ramen, an onion and an egg left in the fridge so yes, this surprises me!” All speculations died when he was offered a taste too. “… so it turns out I know nothing of magic. I must bow to the real master wizard here.” If happiness had a flavor it had to be this one. The former trollhunter snickered, giving him a little elbow before going back over his creations. And if the most classic ‘kiss the chef’ apron on him wasn’t already extremely fitting, the cyan sweater underneath reciting ‘I’m In The…’ on the back barely left to the imagination what list was written on the front.

A very well-deserved sign, really.

“Buttsnack’s managed to make these too, take a look!” Steve waved at the little counter that was the only thing remotely looking like a table in this place. And smelling just as heavenly as everything else, there they were, mince pies, just like the ones from Camelot. “But I don’t know if they’re as good because someone slaps my hand every time I- OUCH!! I didn’t even try this time!”

Archie’s tail could be surprisingly useful as a whip, in fact.

“You were thinking about it! So don’t, these are for later.” And wow, if his most loyal companion wasn’t absolutely adorable wearing that little red sweater – ‘Santa Paws’, he was going to complain about it all day long. Douxie wished he hadn’t left his phone in the bathroom. “We’re still waiting for the tree, the last decorations and the music. But we’re almost ready.” So apparently his familiar had been behind all of this. That actually made perfect sense.

Of course this little wizard associate had known this was going to do him good. It was the kind of bond that came with being around each other for over 900 years.

Archie smiled at him, and Douxie couldn’t not grin in return.

“Can’t wait for them! Even thought I did have some when we had that travel… well technically ages ago, we were actually in Camelot, but it wasn’t- Ah forget it, time loops are too confusing.” There was a consensual groan including all of them but Toby and Nari, who just looked at each other and shrugged. “Well, this is awesome, how did you even get everything here so fast?” On second thought, that was more than just bizarre. His eyes crossed Claire’s right away. “You get so tired with transportations through the Shadow Realm usually, and you got to bring along all of these people and decorations?” The thing was, this wasn’t supposed to be possible. Another thing was, Lady Claire of house Nunez was so insanely talented it would had not surprised him.

The girl waved her hand in denial.

“I wish I was at that level, but no. Still, we did travel back and forth pretty quickly.”

“Without magic? How?”

“I should take offense from that highly questioning tone.” Third shock, his poor heart – he came back from the grave once, and he really didn’t recommend it. He was fairly sure the apartment he had rented didn’t include interdimensional portals opening in the middle of the living room. “And from the fact that you humans keep forgetting I invented a perfectly functioning wormhole generator. But please, continue with your predicaments, ignore the scientific feat I’ve accomplished!” For an alien that barely understood human sarcasm, Krel Tarron was made a whole half of it.

As he walked in from the portal, holding one edge of a box filled with Christmas balls, on the other side Zoe stepped in carrying along the rest. And between a black ‘I’m Back, Witches’ sweater and a gray ‘DJ Kleb’ one with four sleeves, it was one curious and fantastic view.

“Yeah yeah, you bent the rules of physics, congratulations!” Zoe’s tense tone implied that she must had heard that complain already. “Stop talking and get working, I’m going the extra mile here!”

“This doesn’t sound like a good time to have a walk.”

“For the love of…!” The pink haired girl let out a muffled scream, let go of her edge of the box – lucky for Krel to have four arms to catch it – and jumped over the master wizard to grab his shoulders. “I hate you so much, you left me alone dealing with all of these new knuckleheads! Like the local dummies weren’t enough!” The collective offended ‘Hey!’ coming from both the Akiridion and the village’s idiot – a marvel that Steve actually responded, fully aware of his status as knucklehead – was somehow even more endearing than funny.

Meanwhile Zoe was still wrinkling his favorite jacket, frowning aggressively at him like the fact that he was out there saving the world was unforgivable – you could say anything about this pink head, but not that she didn’t have priorities.

Douxie snickered, easing the hold onto him.

“Sorry for trying to give my friends a place to live in this crazy wild world, then!”

“… apologies accepted.” Zoe narrowed her eyes. “But only if we finally hunt for niffins and get those forsaken burgers after you did the deed. I’m calling dibs on you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Besides, you owe me. I didn’t snitch and told that Hex Tech got annihilated and we’re in need of new personnel because someone needed to hide from the big bad villains.” Those blue gems were screaming not to mess this offer up, because it was certainly not going to come back.

Even with a pressure like that, in some way inside of him, Douxie felt freed of a little weight. Despite the distance and everything that had happened, some things stayed the same. So he quite happily held up his fist, smirking at the girl.

“Alright, as soon as this is over with. Deal.” Zoe glared at him a few more seconds. Then she nodded, and finally bumped their knuckles together.

With a thud Krel finally put the box down, sighing soundly.

“Thanks Seklos this is done. I believe we are only missing the dead tree that will be then covered in artificial garnishments as a form of apparent belittlement of nature.” He stayed still for a few seconds, mindlessly throwing a little sphere on the ground that divided in four pieces, generating a portal. “… I feel like I’m getting so accustomed with humans’ savageness that I’m even quite looking forwards to it. Especially for that useless invention called ‘tree’.” He snickered, getting inside the wormhole that disappeared as soon as he was in.

Luckily the impossible dimensional gateway appeared of not leaving any trace behind. And luckily the creature – or elf, demigod, Nari was still a bit of a mystery – most connected to the nature that had just been denigrated was way more interested in whatever chef wiz Jim Lake Jr. was preparing.

“You knubhead, I just told you not to!” Archie’s spiteful voice came along, as apparently Steve had managed to take advantage of the situation – a scientific miracle happening in front of them, fair enough – to finally get himself a mince piece. Only to get slapped to the ground. “That’s it, until these cool down you’re getting nowhere near! Douxie, out with me, we need to guard the treasure!” That was some attachment for one tray of soft and delicious little pastries.

Douxie shrugged and complied, picking up the meal under the jock’s renovated pout and heading to the balcony. The chilling air got to his nose right away, but he endured, appreciating just the tiniest breath. There was barely space for once person there.

Well, one person and his familiar. He placed the tray on the railing, making sure it didn’t fall.

“How did Jim even get the recipe?” Archie grinned.

“Well, apparently his troll friends did remember a certain meal very appreciated by humans from back then, but they have their own idea on how to make it. I don’t know the details, but I certainly know it involves socks. Plenty of socks.”

“… you want to see Steve’s reaction to them later.”

“I want to see Steve’s reaction to them later with all the others. Christmas is supposed to be a family festivity, right?” His grin disappeared right after. “So… it didn’t sound like you were sleeping too well last night.” Yep. He knew. Of course he knew. He would had even if he didn’t have to habit of sneaking into his bed to get warm. “Something you’d like to talk about?”

Douxie breathed out, gently buffing his fluffy ear.

“I’m fine Arch, not need to get all sensible on me. It was one of the usuals.” He tried a weak smile, not really feeling like keeping everything in. Not with so many people inside, on this particular day. “… you know, thinking it now, somehow it was easier celebrating Christmas on the streets back in Camelot. Getting something good to eat, have fun, that was enough. Considering how tense was everyone in the Pendragon castle it’s not much of a surprise, but still… I wonder if Merlin ever had a proper Christmas in there.” He sighed. “He certainly didn’t while I was around.” The noisy streets of Camelot overlapped NYC’s busy ones. He swallowed a lump into his throat.

That legendary town was such a faraway place right now, coming back from a single memory was a slap from reality. Douxie shivered, taking in a freezing breath, gasping when Archie jumped over his shoulder and curled all around his neck. His fur was nice and warm.

“We have no way of knowing. But one thing’s for sure, that old man got a surprising, unexpected present in any case.” Archie smiled, eyeing him softly. “One very sneaky, very foolish, very brave apprentice.” They had been there, the both of them. And in any possible way, in the good, the bad, and the best, he had found a life to call that way. The one Merlin had asked him about.

The master wizard smiled, snuggling his cheek against his loyal friend.

It didn’t take long, the winter air acted like a freezer over the little pies. But as they went back in, the place had already changed – and that was besides AAARRRGGHH!!, with one gigantic hat on his head, holding up the tree while Blinky, wearing a scarf, was reading a manual on how to decorate it, where did he even get that? –: there was a table, appeared again out of nowhere, with all the most delicious looking dishes placed all over between branches of holly and little bells. Jim and Nari were putting down the last dishes, Steve was clumsily getting the statue of a reindeer to balance over the tv, Toby was checking the lights to make sure they were functioning.

And Claire was suddenly in front of him, beaming, clearly hiding something from behind her back. It immediately grabbed everybody’s attention, like it was some sort of event.

Was it?

“We’ve organized the present exchange for after lunch, but this one you need to put it on now. So, her it is!” She uncovered the secret and- Oh. It was a sweater. It was a sweater. For him. “There you go, you’re officially part of the wool club, a Christmas-limited association only.”

“Founder of the association Nancy Domzalski, mostly because it was Nana who made them all!” Toby caressed the front of his sweater, smiling softly. “She’s that kind of grandma that thinks that everything that’s made with love can bring warmth, and I’m kind of a believer too.” He shrugged, crossing his fingers behind the back of his head. “I know this isn’t your cool punk rock wizardy style, but Nana had her midlife crisis in her own time and I’m not exactly looking forward to one before my very own eyes!” That was probably not a sight a grandchild wanted of their grandma, that was understandable.

It was. It was, right? It was getting a little hard to focus on something, anything that wasn’t a soft bundle of black and navy blue stripes, welcoming and warm, with ‘Fuzzbuckets’ written on it. It was getting weird. A little unsettling even, because he just got out in the cold but his bones weren’t freezing anymore and he felt all fuzzy inside and now his eyes were warm and-

“… oh, curse me, not the waterfalls…!” Centuries spent transitioning from hopeless bard to punk rock guitarist, only to tear up at a random surprise Christmas party.

From there, he didn’t understand much. Only Claire’s probable ‘Aww Douxie!’, Toby’s sudden ‘There’s no Christmas without the sad moment’, Steve’s surprising ‘I know what to do, come on everybody, let’s all hug it out!’. And all of the sudden he was enveloped with so many arms, so many different people he had gotten to know and had managed to befriend and appreciate. That were part of his world, his life, and what was coming for the future.

So when he managed to open his eyes, there was so much to uncover, between a pink head, a scarred eyebrow, a lock of leaves and a paw still so close to his cheek. And it hit him that perhaps there was a reason why Camelot had always felt so far away lately.

That age was over. But this, it felt like it had only begun. Douxie smiled, closing his eyes again.

Embracing how good it felt to belong again.

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atopearth · 3 years

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Nightshade Part 1 - Ishikawa Goemon Route

I'm superrrr excited to play Nightshade! I've always been so curious about it so yayyy! Enju looks so cool and cute too. Toriumi Kousuke voices Chojiro? Okay, I love him already, and it seems like he's a big brother figure too, I love those🥲🥲 I have a soft spot for overprotective bodyguard types like Gekkamaru too though, he's so loyal! Maybe to the point of it being detrimental to the both of them though, since when Enju trains, he protects her lol, and he doesn't go out on a lot of missions because he wants to protect her. I guess the good thing about it is that this is of his own free will. I guess it's interesting that Enju is the symbol of peace between the Iga clan (that was mostly decimated by Oda Nobunaga) and the Koga clan (who was the Iga's rivals and ended up taking in the remnants of the Iga clan) due to being the daughter of the Koga clan master and the late Iga clan master's sister. Ohh Chojiro is Momochi Tanba's (late Iga clan master) son! I wonder how he feels.. Wow, Kando (Enju's father) looks so fierce and cool. I guess Gekkamaru protecting Enju isn't completelyyyy his free will, considering it was what Enju's deceased mother asked of him and he's kept his promise to this day. Awww Chojiro recommended Enju to come along for the mission! Exciting! I can't imagine having to go on a mission for 8 years, I wonder if Enju and them will even recognise Kuroyuki. I can't believe Kuroyuki was sent on the mission when he was 8 years old! That's just crazy.. Aww Kasumi is so cuteee, her crying at everyone leaving on a mission was so sweet. Lmao at Chojiro telling Enju and them that the mission will always come before their lives and Gekkamaru completely dismisses it later by saying it doesn't matter to him since Enju will always be his top priority.

Kuroyuki definitely seems like he has a lot of baggage with him, but I guess that's to be expected when he was dumped on a mission at such a young age, and if he's coming back alone, that means for all these years, he must have been really lonely. He never got the support of others like Enju and them did. For some reason, I really like Kyara's voice, I should check the VAs. Okay, omg no wonder why lol, I loveee Hayami Saori~ WHOA, I'm in for a ride, Tsuda Kenjiro voices Hanzo? I'm looking forward to that. Oh nooo, Midorikawa Hikaru voices Goemon?? I don't like Goemon's looks, but I guess I'll love his voice regardless😂 Right now, he kinda reminds me of Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi lol. Even though Enju's naive, I really did like how she took back the girl's money bag from the thief and gave it back to her naturally. I'm kinda interested in "Goro" (Goemon), he looks sleazy (lol) but he seems to be quite mature? Oh, their mission is to find the next place Goemon will rob? I know Goemon is a "good" person because he only robs officials who are corrupt and don't treat the citizens properly, but that's about all I know haha. I guess it's understandable why Ishida Mitsunari needs to capture him if Tokugawa Ieyasu and other council guys are coming, it would be pretty embarrassing and shameful to not be able to catch a single notorious thief, and it doesn't help that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is getting older and the council elders have considerable influence. Btw, lmao at Kyara trying to cook with her weapon😂

Wow, Ieyasu is beautiful~ I love his looks🥺 I didn't realise that guy was Hattori Hanzo until I heard his voice a bit more though hahaha. Anyway, yeah, Enju throwing a shuriken to save Ieyasu (when he used himself as bait) was definitely reckless and silly as a shinobi, but I can't really dislike her for it, because she's not someone who can just ignore that. Considering that Hanzo is the strongest/top Iga ninja, and is tasked with protecting Ieyasu, is he a part of Koga now or is he independent? Honestly, I always took Kuroyuki as a flighty guy so when he stood up for Enju (when Hanzo called her a burden if they were to take her along to kill the guys after Ieyasu) against Hanzo, I was a bit touched. Ieyasu is really kind to think about the shinobi who died protecting him from the assassin, it is pretty saddening tbh. Enju catching Goemon was pretty cool, I think he really let his guard down and didn't want to hurt her though. I knew Hideyoshi was going to die and Enju would be accused as the killer, but it's kinda sad since Hideyoshi seemed genuinely happy and impressed with her. Anyway, considering how important Hideyoshi is, I'm surprised they even let him be alone with Enju with no guards at all?? Or any ninjas to protect him or anything?? I like the idea of Goemon "stealing" her away, so she's not escaping and causing more trouble for the Koga clan, but I wonder what will happen to the clan... I mean, Ishida's missions were what kept the clan going so... Anyway, I forgot that Goemon was an Iga ninja, that's certainly interesting, and he left before the Iga clan was basically destroyed so hm~

Aww Enju and Goemon traveling together, pretending to be husband and wife and holding hands is so cute~ I love how Goemon speaks his mind and tells her she's cute, because Enju is definitely super cuteee. Lmaoo when the innkeeper thought they were siblings. How heartbreaking to hear that Enju's father disowned her... It's probably what he needed to do to protect the rest of Koga, but yeah that would hurt. At least Gekkamaru is adhering to what he said before and is ready to discard everything to protect Enju. I agree with Goemon and his choice to leave the village though. I mean, it's respectable and crazy how dedicated and loyal shinobi are to their mission and to their villages, but shinobi literally live for all that and nothing else. It's admirable, but it's also such a saddening way to live? Especially since so many of them die so frequently for their missions. I'm personally glad Gekkamaru is doing this for Enju. I guess in a sense this journey is a blessing in disguise (as long as no one dies) because it will help Enju think about how she wants to live. She's always been stuck in her village "protected" by everyone just because she's the symbol of peace, so rather than appreciating her for who she is, people only look at her as a symbol that needs to exist, yet Enju feels like she needs to "repay" them for treating her so kindly when they basically imprison her in the village and bind her to it in a sense to make themselves feel better. Not saying they're not nice people but the whole ninja village thing isn't really great when it comes to anything about freedom and choice, so it's nice for Enju to now see things with a different perspective. It was cute how they both said to each other they would be a good wife/husband. As for Mokichi, I was suspicious when he insisted on going to the festival alone with Enju, but I do feel bad for her. I know Enju is very careless, too naive and kind for her own good, but I honestly wish to see her continue to see the world in a nice way because it's saddening otherwise I guess. I'm surprised Gekkamaru didn't follow them at all though, like it's still dangerous!!

I was wondering what Kuroyuki was doing this whole time considering he's just like his brother Gekkamaru in terms of how much he wants to protect Enju, but it seems like he was trying to look for her too! Oh.. Goemon wasn't even born into Iga, he was sold there and used as disposable pawns when needed and trained harshly to the point that if he couldn't take it, they would just dump him. Honestly, Goemon hasn't really made my heart flutter much haha, but when he got angry and asked Enju whether she wanted to live or die (when she thought maybe she should stop running so she wouldn't trouble the others anymore), and then when he told her that he would stay beside her until the end, I couldn't help but feel touched. He's not optimistic enough to think that they will definitely survive, but he's not willing to give up, and is willing to do whatever he can to stay alive alongside her and I think that's sweet. Goemon patting her head as she enjoyed the soothing view of cherry blossoms was nice. Enju has really gone through a lot these days so I'm glad Goemon is always trying to help her relax a bit. Whaaat?! Goemon was the Fuma leader?? Oh...Goemon escaped from Iga when he was 8 and somehow or another ended up at Fuma.. I guess Goemon hates killing because of the amount of people he's killed before, and knowing how "easy" it can be with the ninjutsu he learnt as the Fuma leader... It's nice how comfortable they've gotten with each other that they can even sleep side by side together now lol.

I honestly don't really trust Mitsunari, and really don't know if this "goodbye" with her friends will really be for the good. I mean, even on the off chance Mitsunari has good intentions, other people in the castle don't. Anyway, I really liked how forward Enju was in wanting Goemon to stroke her head, and he even kissed her on the forehead~ Goemon is a flirt but he's always so polite and careful with Enju, it's kinda cute. Honestly, the last bit with Goemon pretending to kill Chojiro and them etc was pretty... meh? Like, it was obvious what was going to happen, especially with the gold and him giving it to people lol. I guess something nice and interesting was that Enju will continue to hide from the public eye since she's supposed to be dead, so she'll be traveling with Goemon from now on. Kinda cute how Goemon is more open with his affections. The bad ending was quite nice, I liked how it was Enju who gave up on living because of everything that happened, and because of that, Goemon ended up using the ninjutsu he hated so much to kill the Elders for causing all this to happen, and forcing an innocent girl to lose the will to live and basically sacrifice herself.

Overall, while I do like Goemon's personality, I find his route very lacklustre. I think the biggest problem with Goemon's route is that it's very focused on Enju and her escape from the Elders and how Goemon helps her with that, supports her and that's how they end up bonding by both encouraging her and understanding the desire to live for oneself rather than romance. There were cute moments that I enjoyed between the two, but I don't feel like I learnt much about Goemon as a thief or even as the Fuma leader. They talk about his past and why he hates it all, but it doesn't expand on it which can be okay, but the story doesn't expand on the current him as Goemon either. All we ever learn about him is the superficial stuff like he's a good thief with a crappy past, and that he's a flirt lol. I just feel like since it was his route, I wanted to learn more about him, because other than his desire to live without being tied down to stuff like villages and stuff, and hoping that people like Enju wouldn't have to sacrifice their lives for stuff like that, I'm not sure anything much happened. Like, I wanted to see more of the ramifications of how it was for a shinobi clan to lose their master, how Goemon's "betrayal" towards the Fuma went etc. So yeah, kinda disappointing. The bonus scenarios and stuff were nice though, especially when they chatted about little Chojiro back in the day being cute hahaha.

#hyakka hyakurou #nightshade

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streamacademe · 3 years

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Week 176, Day 1228.

A late post this week as it was MY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY!! Although I didn’t take the day off, I did eliminate anything moderately non-essential on my to-do list for the day, which included writing anything non-thesis related. 🎉

Irrespective of it being a lockdown birthday, I had the best day. Aside from all the messages of love, and extremely thoughtful gifts, my other half also picked up Zizzis takeaway pizza for us and bought me my favourite ‘Rory the Lion’ cake. And yes, I am aware that this is not a typical choice for someone in their late 20′s, but I also do not care. 💛🦁

Photo: My all time favourite cake. Source: Phone camera - HUJI app.

One of the most meaningful gifts I received was a mug with my first journal paper printed on it. The friend that this was from is currently 24 days away from her official thesis deadline and yet found the time to do something so considerate. Respectfully, I christened the mug with an honourable drink of Bailey’s hot chocolate. ☕

Photo: My journal paper mug being used as a vessel for Bailey’s hot chocolate. Source: Phone camera - HUJI app.

The week leading up to my birthday, however, was a little meh. Although my supervisors didn’t hate my analysis technique or the report that I mentioned last week, and gave me good feedback, I must’ve worked on it too much and at around 10 pm on Saturday hit a wall with it and burst into tears. 😂 So I decided to park it until my next supervisory meeting, which was yesterday. I was honest with them about hitting a wall and having a meltdown and, honestly, they were really helpful and made me feel both back on track and more confident in my abilities, which was probably one of the best birthday gifts I could’ve asked for right now.

I also had a bit of an emotional trigger from someone who I cut ties with back in 2019. I needed him to be either in or out of my life and he couldn’t choose, so I made the decision for us. However, he briefly reappeared the other day and it kinda messed me up for a few days because I really miss him and have had to work really hard to keep a distance. There’s a lot of unprocessed hurt still, linked to his actions, which I can’t resolve without answers that I doubt I’ll ever get, so I’ve been shutting it away instead. Hey ho, such is life. Mentioning it on here because there is no shame in feeling a strong way about something or someone. Let it be known that pretending like you don’t will only make things worse and is exactly how him and I ended up in this position in the first place. Own your feelings. 💔

Anywhom, the positives from the last week definitely outweigh the negatives, and now that my brain feels more awake (partly fuelled by cake), I better go get on with the million things I still have to do today. 💡 Ciao!

Photo: Final year PhD mood. Source: Google.

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writingwife-83 · 4 years

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My 2020 Sherlolly Self Interview

Thanks for organizing this fun activity @sherlollyappreciationweek! 🎉 I’ll start out with a very brief “about me” section-

I live in the northeast area of the USA, I’ve been married for seventeen years, have one teenage son, and I’m in my *gulp* late thirties now. I do volunteer ministry work and also work part time from home. Among other leisure activities, obviously I love writing! I started writing original fiction when I was a preteen, but I’ve been writing fanfic under the pen name “writingwife83” for over six years now. I discovered fanfic and the world of online fandom after becoming obsessed with BBC Sherlock in 2014 after s3 aired. I read The Full House, fell in love with the whole concept of fanfic, specifically for sherlolly, and couldn’t help but give it a go myself. And as they say, the rest is history!

Below the cut I’ll talk about some of the topics and fics suggested by followers/readers. Buckle up cuz it’s a lot lol...

Ok, first up to be kind enough to give me some feedback is @readstoomuch. You said- “what inspires you. Any story (I love them all!). Who do you love writing? Who is hardest for you? And which is that one story that you had fun doing?”

As for what inspires me, first and foremost it’s the show and characters itself. Watching those two on screen, it’s not hard to be inspired! But beyond that, I find a lot of inspiration in music and art, and just generally in other creative works and people. I think for a while I had my own internal inspiration and no lack of it, but as months dragged into years lol, I have found that the rest of the shippers are invaluable in filling the gaps when I lack inspiration and motivation. Some prompts I’ve gotten from others have taken on a life I never would have expected, and that’s pretty great. I honestly don’t think writing works best as a purely solitary activity. I know myself and although there is an aspect of my writing that will always be “for me,” that’s absolutely not all it is. It’s the fun of creating with others and it’s the fun of sharing with others.

As for who I love writing and who’s hardest, I think I’ve always felt pretty comfortable writing the main characters in Sherlock. I probably especially love writing Sherlock himself because he’s fun to break down and really dig deep into his emotions and thought processes. There have definitely been times some of the side characters have overwhelmed me and made me nervous about conveying their voices accurately. For instance, Mycroft can be tough if it involves pulling him out of his shell in a way that still feels believable and true to character.

That one story I had fun doing? Well there’s no way I can say just one. 😆 As far as reader response, there’s no other fic that can compare to the fun of I Told You So, that’s for sure. But as far as the actual plotting and creating, I think the fics I’ve had the most fun with are the multi-chapters I’ve done since becoming good friends with @thisisartbylexie. Having her as a sounding board, plotting buddy, and editor has absolutely increased my creating fun and has definitely also made me a better writer.

Thanks so much for asking @readstoomuch 🥰

Alrighty, @thisisartbylexie, you asked- if there's a fic that you ever wanted to go back to change in some way, which one would it be and why? Which one do you feel "oh wow, did I write that?" in a super positive way?

Idk how to choose just one fic. There are plenty that could use some changing lol! One I’d like to fix though, would be Pleased to Meet You. I know (because I’ve been told) that there’s inaccuracies in that one seeing as I’m not personally familiar with university settings in the UK. I did actually attempt research and I thought I got the idea, but apparently it didn’t work out terribly well. But the plotting and progression of that fic is one I’ve always been happy with, so I guess I feel like it’s a shame if it came off messy in some general ways and distracted from the rest of it. I like how I was able to weave that one into the canon of the show up to that point. And tbh it actually still fits as a uni backstory for them without any conflicts to the canon. As much as I enjoy canon divergence and AU, I also have a big soft spot for fics that simply connect seamlessly to what we’ve already been given.

As for “oh wow, did I write that?” I think one of my proudest accomplishments has been Zephyr. That fic kinda has it all lol. The tropes, the pining, the romance, the Victorian setting...ugh I love it. And there’s a climactic kiss moment in that fic that’s one of my faves I’ve written. I’m so glad I wrote it because of the Sherlolly Remix Challenge in ‘16, and at your suggestion, Lexie. But I will also be forever sad that I had to release that fic all at once on AO3 once completed. That fic would have been great fun to be writing and posting as I went along! And on top of being happy with the fic itself and how it came out, I’m awfully proud of the fact that you were excited enough about the fic to illustrate it, and that @goodshipsherlolly enjoyed it enough to record it as an audio fic. Honestly, what more could a writer ask for? 🥺

@mizjoely, you said you’d like to hear anything about The Queen’s Man. Okey doke, you got it lol!

I actually went back and read through most of that fic when I got this because it had been a long time since I’d looked at it. I gotta be honest that in hindsight...I’m a little surprised it did as well as it did.😂🙈 As some may remember, it started because I saw a magnificent manip and wanted to write something to go with it, and then because that was well received, somehow it just kept going. I did very little world building and development of characters in that fic. It was largely just one shippy, romantic, pining scene after another lol. At the end I did kinda tie it all in and wrapped the story up ok, but it was definitely one of those self indulgent fics where I didn’t feel like doing the hard parts and really just wanted to write the fun stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I loved writing it, and I’m so glad it got the positive reception that it did! But it just kinda makes me laugh because it goes to show sometimes you don’t know what’s going to do really well. You could agonize over clever plotting and world building and character development etc, and be so super proud of the finished product and all your hard work, but then you share and the response is like “meh.” And then other times you legit just throw something together with barely any careful thought, and the crowd goes wild! But aside from all that, the visuals in my head of that AU are just too drool worthy to me. Molly in Medieval royal attire? Sherlock in dark armor with a Purple Tunic of Sex™️ underneath? The two of them lingering in the dimly lit hallways and rooms of a castle and gazing endlessly in mutual pining? Yes to all.

Thanks for asking @mizjoely 😘

Ok wow, see what I mean? That was long! 🤣 If you read all the way through this whole thing, *Moriarty voice* thank you...bless you. Honestly, this ship is amazing and I don’t think I’ll ever have a writing experience anywhere else like I’ve had here. I’ve seen the other side of things in another fandom now, so I can all the more so confirm that there’s no ship quite like sherlolly. The warmth, reception, and longevity is mind blowing and I’m just awfully happy to have played a part in creating for the beauty that is Sherlock Holmes and Molly Hooper. 💕

#sherlolly #sherlollyselfinterview20 #I spent too much time on this lol #hope some of you enjoy reading it!#I hope I remembered to link everything #there were lots of links to be added lol

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kal-rants · 3 years

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(Not Really) Quick Thoughts on FE: 3 Houses

Me? Talking about a game that’s been out for almost two years now? You best believe it.

Quick Backstory before I bullet point this shit so I can get it out of my system. I played the game the day it released years ago and more or less finished it in a week. My first route was with Black Eagles and after finishing it was ultimately unsatisfied by the ending and set it down with no intention of doing the other routes. A friend started playing it late 2019 and was fawning over Dimitri and his route. Taking her word for it, I gave the game another go and decided to finally finish it. Took me a while but I finally finished the three main routes and oh boy...

The Houses

I loved all the women in Black Eagles but the guys were meh. Caspar was fun and by far my favorite of them, but Hubert grated on my nerves and Ferdinand was sweet but because I also had Sylvain on my team, I kept confusing the two (based on appearance not personality).

The general cast of Blue Lions was by far my favorite. Every person in the house was so enjoyable and I actually loved getting the support conversations for all of them (Ashe is my favorite character). My only issue with the house was ironically Dimitri who I could not stand post time skip (a little more on that below).

By my Golden Deer run, I was mostly playing just to complete the game which might contribute to how lackluster I found them. I wanted to kill Lorenz so bad but he was so good at killing people and Ignatz was sweet but was so bad at killing people that I permanently benched him to focus on everyone else (played this one on hard mode). Almost all of their support conversations were fairly one note and after the layered convos of Blue Lions, I wanted more. Claude is incredible though and it became an inverse of my thoughts on Blue Lions.

Bonus: Yuri and Hapi were my immediate faves (even if Hapi was a glass canon on the field for half of the game) while Balthus and Constance where interesting but still meh for me.

Plot

So I picked Black Eagles house solely because I was interested about Edelgard and I definitely didn’t realize I was signing up to side with the one starting a fucking war. While I loved Edelgard throughout, I found the actual route complicated for me, especially after the time skip where I was taking down people I didn’t want to take down. I was left feeling like I was following the bad guys even as the game tried to say otherwise and it left me with a bad taste. In retrospect, I’m sure the devs didn’t really intend for you to do this route first judging by how little they go in the way of explaining certain things such as Byleth and Those Who Slither In the Dark. Overall, I understood why Edelgard was doing what she was doing, but the game thought that was enough and didn’t even try to convince me why I should side with her outside of that and it only hurt her route overall. Plus, I am still annoyed that Edelgard dealt with TWS in the epilogue and not in her actual route WHEN SHE IS THE ONE WHO WAS ARGUABLY AFFECTED BY THEM THE MOST OF THE THREE HOUSE LEADERS LIKE WTF WHY GIVE THAT MOMENT TO CLAUDE.

I’ll be honest, I remember so little of what actually happened in the Blue Lions route which I attribute to me not being able to really get on board with Dimitri since BL is more or less an intimate character focused route for Dimitri’s growth. I’m not here to bash Dimitri, I’m just saying his shifts in character happened a little suddenly and there were other things about his character that were kinda just vanilla for me. I did find it weird that we never actually saw Rhea again even though getting her back was a big thing for most of the characters and you’re kinda left to wonder what even happened to her (another moment given to Claude’s run).

And finally the Golden Deers. By the 3rd time through all pre-timeskip stuff was so insufferable to get through, but the one saving grace was Claude’s insight in all of it. It made it feel different even though the events were the same. Post-timeskip his route really shines as it is able to bridge the gap between the war and the proxy war behind it with TWS. It’s also the only route that you actually get answers for shit that the other two ignore (which thematically makes sense for those routes but still). It is ironic though that this route did more to get me to sympathize with Edelgard that her own route did. It is technically the best route of the three hands down.

Other

So Rhea. I went in not trusting her because Jeralt mentions to be on guard about her and, since I started with BE, my distrust was proven right since she is trying to rip open your heart to get Sothis back. That hatred/distrust ran through my other two routes up until the last few chapters of Claude’s where we actually get context for what was going on. I was left in a similar position that I was in with Edelgard where I could understand Rhea’s reasoning for doing everything she did, but I still couldn’t side with her considering that she is technically responsible for the worship of Crests and nobility. Also, who builds a church and places yourself on top to be worshipped? Also also, why even place such importance on Crests? I know about the interview with the developers saying she “had” to because of how humans viewed the 10 elites at the time, but I feel like there is another option to build peace between them that doesn’t involve the elevation of Crests. Also racism; really should have done more to prevent that from blossoming in the way that it did.

So Edelgard. She seems to be a hot topic on Tumblr which tracks so I’m going to traverse this with extra tact. I do love her and overall, I do agree that the system that the Church built had become corrupt. I mean when multiple children have emotional and physical scars of that corruption at school, it’s hard to argue against that. Do I agree that starting a war is the best way to change things? Before 2020, I would have said no, that there had to be another way to change things. But now? I dunno sometimes a system is too corrupt to rebuild off of diplomacy alone and it definitely wouldn’t happen quickly enough in a person’s lifetime. Given Edelgard’s shortened lifespan, I do get why diplomacy would have never worked for her. I don’t think I can ever fully support Edelgard for the war she started and for siding with TWS (I know her reasons but that’s basically making a deal with the devil) but I can’t deny that her goals are admirable at the least. Will her winning said war even change things? Well who knows. That depends on how she implements them afterward. I’ve seen lots of people claim that it’s unrealistic for her to have been successful in changing anything after the war but I don’t know about that. If anything, Rhea proved that she could mold the world however she wanted after her war and if Rhea could do it, then why can’t Edelgard.

Considering the nastiness of racism, I can’t even believe that Claude’s run of “end racism” was going to be as successful as they think. Solid baby steps, maybe? But don’t know how well that’ll actually go in the long run.

Dimitri might have been overhyped or something but I expected so much more than what I got from him. In the Academy Era, he rang fairly vanilla in that he was a kind and honorable guy but not much else. Felix mentions how savage he is, but there weren’t very many hints of that pre-timeskip (that I remember anyway). Obviously he was a ticking time bomb and later Dimitri shows that. And I was totally on board with slowly helping Dimitri become human again, but that’s not really what happened. You’re not allowed to do anything with Dimitri other than get his brief blurb in Explore or toss him into battle. I know why they did it, but because they shut him off from you so completely, I had problems being able to connect with him in the post time skip and ended up rolling my eyes whenever he started talking. It also made his change after Rodrigue died so sudden and it felt v forced for me. They really could have done a better job at it is all I’m saying.

Ashe and Mercedes had the cutest S-support epilogue and I will die for them.

Dorothea deserves the world and Yuri and Dorothea making an Opera troupe for commoners is the best thing.

I wanted so much more for Leonie but they stuck so hard to the Jeralt fangirl label that she never really grew beyond that.

#fire emblem three houses #fe:3h #edelgard #rhea #claude #kal rants.#long post is long #I swear if I get even one note on this I will be surprised #put the read more there because I figure knowing my opinions on the houses is enough to know whether you care to read about my opinions #about everything else

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

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Survey #429

“i’m just a bad luck charm to blame when things go wrong”

Are all-nighters something you have grown used to? God no. I have those SO rarely. I don't know how I used to do it. Do you usually wear sunglasses when you’re driving? I don't have sunglasses, and my driving permit has long since expired. Is there ever a time that you enjoy cold showers? COLD, no. A tad chilly, very rarely. I have to be burning the hell up. What clothes are you most comfortable in? Men's pj pants and tank tops. Is there anybody you’re not ashamed to tell anything to? No, not anything. Have you ever unbuttoned someone else's pants? Yes. Are you good at painting nails? Nooooo. My hands are way too shaky. If it’s late at night and you’re hungry, what do you reach for? Usually a granola bar or piece of bread, lol. What word should you really probably remove from your vocabulary? I don't know. I don't really use any words I find wrong/offensive. Will you eat something if it falls on the ground? NOOOOOOOO SIR. Ignoring nutrition, could you live off veggies for the rest of your life? God no. I'm not a vegetable fan. Do you see the value in education? Of course I do. Are you more physically flexible or situationally flexible? bitch neither lmao Does anybody know about your sex life other than your partners? I don't have one now, but my mom knows of some things from the past. Do you make an effort to eat healthy? Yeah. I could try harder, but I do try. Have you ever lived with a girlfriend/boyfriend? Pretty much. I wasn't an official resident, but I was essentially always there and just counted as a guest, I guess. Would you ever be a stripper? No way in hell. Can you honestly say that you love yourself? No. Do you think that you’ve ever actually been IN love with someone? I don't just "think" it, I know very goddamn well that I was. Have you ever done a psychedelic drug? If not, would you ever consider it? No and no. Did you ever see the movie Good Burger when it came out? Not when it came out, but I've seen it and love it. How often do you clear your browser history? Never. Honestly, have you ever eaten raw cookie dough? Yeah man, gourmet shit. Do you consider yourself a burden to anyone? Why do you feel this way? I absolutely do. I'm just a leech at home. A financial burden to my parents since I'm unemployed. I have a lot wrong with me that my mom has to deal with. Who was the last person to carry you? Why were they carrying you? Probably Jason, realistically. I'm probably too heavy for anyone in my life to carry me now, and there hasn't ever really been a reason to besides him just being cute many years ago. Are you a clingy kind of person? If so, how has this affected your past relationships? I know I am. I'm lucky that I don't think it really affected any. I'm not OBSESSIVELY clingy at least, just moderately so. Have you ever witnessed someone drowning? Did you help in any way? Jesus, no. Have you ever felt like you just weren’t enough for someone? Who in your life has made you feel that way? I absolutely have. No one like... intentionally made me feel like that, I just felt it due to my own self-doubt. The times I've felt that that I remember have been in my only two serious relationships, but not endlessly. I'd just do something stupid and feel like it for a while. Have you ever been at a party where the cops came due to complaints?No. What were you doing the last time you spent a night away from home (or wherever you regularly reside)? I was having a sleep study to determine whether or not I had sleep apnea. Where do you like to sit when you’re on the computer? In my bed. Do you feel as though you’re good at understanding/communicating with animals? Absolutely. Are photographs important to you? Do you like to take a lot of pictures? Not incredibly important, because nothing is quite like actually experiencing that moment, but I definitely like to have some of major events. I honestly don't take a lot of pictures documenting my own life, but rather like nature and stuff. And when people pay me to take family/couple/child photos for them. Would you rather hike through the desert, the prairies, the forest, or the tundra? The forest, for sure. So long as I had my camera. If you could reconnect with someone from your past, who would it be and why? Guess. -_- What was the last game you played? Was anyone else playing with you? Do you prefer to play games alone or with others? World of Warcraft. And well, it's an MMO, so you're playing with what, thousands of other people? I mostly do solo content though, but I do usually chat with guildies when I'm on because I'm close and comfortable with them. What is the longest distance you’ve walked in a day? Idk, but definitely far. Do you prefer homemade food or restaurant food? Restaurant, sadly. What was the last new food you tried? Ummm... I want to say sweet potatoes, back at Thanksgiving. I didn't hate them, but they were okay. What is your most recent regret? I dunno, probably something really minor like eating/drinking something unhealthy. What was the last unexpected thing to happen to you? How did you react? I guess that would be the sleep apnea diagnosis. At least, that was the last big one. I can't think of anything in-between. I was very shocked, even doubtful that the results were reliable. But given how my APAP mask has almost completely solved my nightmare issue, I think it's safe to say it's correct. Name your three closest friends. Sara, Girt, and uhhh... Sam. Do you get excited or annoyed when the phone rings? Annoyed, honestly, lol. Do you prefer writing poems or stories? I prefer writing RP, which is pretty much just gradually writing stories. What pisses you off more than anything? Probably rapists, specifically when children are the victims. It's just... so, so repulsive and unforgivable to me. Like I don't understand how a human being could possibly be so diabolical as to scar someone like that. What’s the appropriate age to have sex? I think you should be adults, honestly, given the risk of pregnancy. Not that I followed that, so I can't really talk, and I know most people don't either. When you're really in love with someone and have a sexual side, it's kinda... hard to avoid 'til you're 21. Is there anybody you’re really jealous of? It's so stupid, I'll probably always be so jealous of the girl Jason dated after me. Even though I know they're not even together anymore (well, last I heard a few years ago). Is pornography evil or are you neutral about it? Meh. I'm not into it, but I don't think it's necessarily evil. I personally don't get sex without emotional commitment, but you do you, so long as you are both consenting adults being safe about it. Do you prefer to be monogamous, or are you more a casual dater or swinger? I'm strictly monogamous. I'd be way too jealous to share a partner with someone, and then there's the heightened risk of STDs, too. Have you ever had a crush on more than one person at once? Do you now? Yes, but I don't now. Who is your favorite relative? Excluding my immediate family, Uncle Rob. He is so damn funny. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? I know I would, realistically. Do you think you will be in a relationship three months from now? No. What’s the greatest thing that happened to you today? It SUCKED while actually doing it, but I'm very satisfied having done around 20 minutes of cardio today at the gym. Cardio is something I 110% need in my life. Have you had any beer this week? I've never had beer. I hate the smell of it, and it's associated with memories of my dad as an alcoholic anyway. Could you cry right now? Nah, I'm in a good mood. If you could see one person right now, who would it be? I'd honestly love to hang with Sara again. Do you wear contacts? No, but I wish I did versus glasses, contacts are just WAY too tedious. What color shirt are you wearing? It's a dark teal. Song playing right now? Ha, I am STILL obsessed with Powerwolf's (but with Alissa White-Gluz's vocals) "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend." Do you wear the seat belt in the car? Absolutely always. Please, please, wear your seat belt. Has anyone ever mistaken you for someone else? Yes. There was a kid at dance who, from behind, thought I was his mother and he just ran up and hugged me from behind and I nearly had a heart attack. Do you like the color orange? Yeah; it reminds me of Halloween. Sometimes, do you wish you were someone else? Not really entirely someone else, but a much better version of myself. What is the weather like today? It's hot as shit and pretty hazy. Do you want any piercings? UGH like you have no idea. Have you given anything up for Lent? No. You do what you want, but I honestly think it's a dumb concept. Would you rather go to a rock concert or a rap concert? Rock, for certain. Have you ever dated someone that was a different race than you? Yeah; Juan was Hispanic. How old is your best friend? She's 23. What does your favorite necklace look like? It's a spiked choker with some dangling chains. It's fuckin' hot. Are you keeping a secret from anyone? I don't like the wording here. I don't have anything I'm hiding from someone in particular, and nothing they need to know at all. I just have a few inconsequential secrets I just don't share with anyone. Would you take a million dollars if it meant you had to die a month later? Uh, no thank you. Do you keep any type of diary or journal? You could say surveys are like snippets of a diary of sorts for me. I share a lot and use them to vent and just jabber on about my thoughts and feelings without exactly burdening anyone with them. What was the last thing that made you really happy? I'VE LOST A POUND SO FAR AT THE GYM!!!! :') It's been just one week, I know, big whoop, but it means A LOT to me. Prior to this, the numbers had just been gradually creeping up and up... but not anymore! :D Can you remember what you dreamed about last night? Very vaguely? Or maybe that was the night before's dream... Have you ever gotten kicked out of a class for being disruptive? Definitely not. I was a well-behaved, quiet student. Have you ever injected a drug? Noooo. Do you think the whole day is better if you smoke pot? I've never smoked. Last time you killed a bug? A while back when an ant walked over my laptop. Are you wearing perfume? What kind? No. The last male you spoke to… is he attractive? That would be my personal trainer, and yeah, he's very handsome.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''fuck up'' by shane dawson

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crackimagines · 4 years

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New Horizons (FE: Three Houses Short Fic)

Animal Crossing AU

(PART 1)

(PART 2)

Byleth, Megumi, and Kazuma must spearhead their group to safety after being transported to an unknown world…

…Of pure comfort and relaxation, led by talking Raccoons, apparently.

----

DAY 1

When the plane finally landed, Kazuma, Aqua and Megumi stretched and took in the island air.

(Kazuma) “Ya know for a buncha raccoons, they’re really good fliers!”

(Megumi) “It’s strange seeing our world like this. Though...the situation here seems far more ideal than the one I was in...”

(Aqua) “Hm? Whatcha mean?”

(Megumi) “...Oh! I’ll save that story for another time, I think everyone has sea legs...Or would that be air legs?”

Everyone else was shaken after being on a vehicle that defied all of their logic.

(Claude) “Sweet land, how I’ve missed you so!”

Kazuma rolled his eyes and turned around to see three raccoons.

Two of them were Timmy and Tommy and the bigger one seemed to be in charge.

(Tom) “Hello, is everyone here?”

(Megumi) “Yes, sir.”

(Tom) “Perfect! Now, let’s all head over to the plaza, I’ll be making our announcement there!”

After heading to the plaza, the raccoon took names of everyone and checked the names off his clipboard.

Once everything checked out, he cleared his throat.

(Tom) “Welcome everyone, to your new island! My name is Tom Nook, and I’m the founder and president of Nook Inc., yes yes! Today is the first day of your new pristine island life!”

Tom Nook explained to the party that they were to begin their new lives on this deserted island as a getaway package, and that their company would be providing everything they need to be comfortable.

Tommy and Timmy gave everyone tents to set up their first homes.

(Tom) “When you’re done, please head back to the plaza! We’ll see you in a bit!”

He turned around and began speaking to the smaller raccoons, presumably about what to do next.

(Byleth) “I guess we oughtta go head and find somewhere to camp out.”

(Kazuma) “Well, see ya in a bit then.”

Everyone nodded and went off in separate groups.

Dimitri, Edelgard, Claude

(Claude) “Ah, this gives me some nostalgia!”

(Edelgard) “You cannot be referring to the time when we were running away from those bandits, right?”

(Claude) “Course I am! It’s kinda a similar situation. On the move, unknown territory, and all of us together!”

(Dimitri) “I fail to see the connection. These aren’t bandits they’re...talking raccoons! I cannot wrap my head around this, nor the technology they possess!”

(Edelgard) “Megunee Kazuma and Aqua seem used to it though. They did say that this was their world, correct?”

(Claude) “We should ask ‘em next chance we get, I’m getting more and more curious about this place myself.”

(Dimitri) “Well in any case, is this where we are sleeping?”

The three of them were standing near the beach, the view looking right at the ocean waves crashing against the sand.

(Edelgard) “Beachside property, eh? Heh, looks like you do have some taste, Claude.”

(Claude) “I’m the only one who does here.”

Byleth, Darkness, Megumin

(Byleth) “Strange, I thought you would’ve gone with Kazuma and Aqua.”

(Megumin) “We already live with them, so it’s nice to take just a little break now and again! And besides, with how small this island is, I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other a lot.”

(Darkness) “This truly is a fascinating world. No war, just peace and quiet...and...talking animals.”

(Byleth) “Yeah, it’s quite the sight. Oh and uh, while we’re here-”

(Darkness & Megumin) ?

(Byleth) “Try...not to weird Tom Nook and the kids out, yeah?”

(Darkness) “I honestly have no idea what you mean.”

(Megumin) “Uh...huh.”

The three of them made their tents nearby the river on the right side of the area.

Megumi, Kazuma, Aqua

(Megumi) “So this is camping!”

(Aqua) “First time?”

(Megumi) “Yes, I’ve never had the chance to do this as a kid. In Japanese cities, there’s not a lot of places where you can do this.”

(Kazuma) “Yeah, it’s a bit claustrophobic. Though, I wouldn’t know too much about that.”

(Aqua) “I’m still trying to figure out how we got here? I can contact Eris and Sothis just fine, so we definitely have access back but...”

(Megumi) “But you don’t know, yes?”

(Aqua) “Right. For Kazuma to get back to his old world, he had to defeat the Demon King. And when we got transported to Fodlan, I think we’re supposed to fight the Flame Emperor or something. As for here?”

(Kazuma) “Meh, I’m fine living in Animal Crossing.”

(Megumi) “So, what is this world? You seem to know this place a bit.”

(Kazuma) “I’ve played a few of the games myself, actually. Basically we just live here in houses and just laze around all day. It’s very relaxing to play, and it’s gonna be even sweeter to live in! Just the life I wanted!”

(Aqua) “Tch, of course the first thing you do is take advantage of it.”

(Kazuma) “Hell yeah, I am! No way I’m gonna let my life of luxury go away like this!”

(Megumi) “Well...Do you know if humans are still around? Tom and the others didn’t seem to react to us that violently.”

(Kazuma) “Oh yeah, it’s supposed to be modern day and everything. Japan, Europe, America, they’re all still here. Only difference is that there’s talking animals that live here in this world too, and no bad war or anything seems to happen.”

(Megumi) “I...I see.”

Megumi’s hand clenched around her necklace for a moment.

(Aqua) “You alright?”

(Megumi) “Y-Yes! Let’s just set our tents, shall we?”

They all nodded and got to work. Their tents were in the middle of a field with barely any trees around.

Everyone made their way back and Tom Nook smiled.

At least they assumed so, all he did was close his eyes.

(Tom) “Alright, with that taken care of, we can move onto more serious business...LIKE THROWING AN ISLAND-WARMING PARTY! We’ll have it right here in the plaza with a roaring campfire!”

(Claude) “Hah, that’s something I can get behind!”

(Aqua) “PARTY, WOOOO!”

(Tom) “I’m glad to see you’re so excited! Now, we’ll just need a couple supplies! Dimitri, Claude, and Edelgard, let’s clean up the plaza! Byleth, Darkness and Megumin, you should find some snacks on the trees! I’ve test tasted a few of them and they’re safe to eat. Aqua, Megumi, and Kazuma, if I could have a word?”

Everyone got off to work as the three went up to Tom Nook.

(Tom) “Now, I know it says that Megumi is the Representative of the island, but can I entrust you two to help as well? You all seem the least nervous about the package, and I’m sure everyone would rally behind you!”

(Aqua) “Hah, you made a good choice!-”

(Kazuma) “Can we have Byleth instead?”

(Aqua) “HUH?!”

(Kazuma) “He’s actually our professor, alongside Megune-Er, Miss Sakura here. Aqua is just kinda here.”

(Tom) “A professor you say? Very well, Aqua could you go help Megumin and Darkness then?”

(Aqua) “I WON’T FORGET THIS KAZUMAAAAAAAA!”

She ran off quickly towards Byleth’s group and everyone else looked on in awkward silence.

(Tom) “...She’s a colorful character.”

(Megumi) “Hah, you have...no idea.”

(Kazuma) “Anyways, we’ll be more than happy to help mister Nook!”

(Tom) “Excellent, thank you very much! Now, let’s get to work!”

Kazuma walked off to help Dimitri’s group, but Megumi was still standing.

(Tom) “Is something wrong?”

(Megumi) “Um...is it possible to send a letter out?”

Later...

Once everyone did their assigned jobs, they all stood in front of the plaza as Tom stood in the center.

(Tom) “Now, it’s been a big day for the island of Garreg, and it’s gotten a bit late, so let’s all have a toast!”

Everyone got out their drinks.

(Tom) “These are pear drinks made with the help of Byleth, Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin!”

(Byleth) “Glad to have helped.”

(Aqua) “Hmph!”

(Darkness) “A simple task for a paladin.”

(Megumin) “Insultingly simple for the Crimson Demon!”

(Tom) “And we have this toasty fire thanks to the efforts of Dimitri, Edelgard, Claude, Kazuma, and Megumi!”

(Claude) “No need for thanks!”

(Dimitri) “How modest you sound, Claude.”

(Edelgard) “We appreciate the attention, mister Nook.”

(Kazuma) “My arms are sore as heeeee-...ck.”

(Megumi) “M-Mine as well, but it was well worth it in the end!”

(Tom) “Now, on the count of three, let’s have a cheer to our new life!”

“HERE HERE!”

The party began with everyone chugging down their drinks, and the music played from the nearby radio.

Aqua entertained everyone with her party magic, and for a grand finale, Megumin cast a powerful and colorful explosion in the skies. As everyone mingled and danced to the music, Byleth quietly slipped away from the crowd.

Megumi was the first to notice and followed her, which in turn made Kazuma follow her.

Byleth sat on the beach, watching the waves glisten from the starry sky above.

(Megumi) “Byleth?”

(Byleth) “Megumi.”

She sat down next to him, and Kazuma joined the two by sitting down as well.

(Byleth) “This...is a bit unsettling. I’ve never had an experience quite like this.”

(Kazuma) “After the first time you kinda get used to it.”

(Megumi) “I don’t understand how!”

(Byleth) “I...think I understand how you two feel now. Being transported to some unknown world, not sure what happened to everyone back at home...”

(Kazuma) “Bah, you got the easy end! We’re in a happy cuddly world, lot better to your war torn world!...No offense.”

(Byleth) “Hm. None taken. My world is the Monastery now anyway I don’t care much for outside of it.

(Megumi) “My old world was...enjoyable...until a certain day...”

(Kazuma & Byleth) “Huh?”

(Megumi) “Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to bring the mood down! This is supposed to be a party after all!”

(Kazuma) “This have something to do with your letter you sent out?”

(Megumi) “Ah...”

(Byleth) “Letter?”

(Megumi) “Well...When you said that this was a world without crisis, and it was Earth in modern times I...asked Tom Nook to send out a letter to some former students I taught and my mother.”

(Kazuma) “What are their names?”

(Megumi) “Yuki, Yuuri, and Kurumi. In short, let’s just say...something happened to me that I was no longer able to talk to them so...If this world is truly as peaceful as you say, I wish to experience it with them. My family as well.”

(Sothis) “Hah, that’s much like her. Thinking about others before herself.”

(Kazuma) “Wouldn’t be Megunee if she didn’t right?”

(Megumi) “H-Huh? Who said that?”

Byleth and Kazuma’s eyes widened and Sothis faded away quickly.

(Byleth) “Um...Anyways, so what are we in for, Kazuma?”

(Kazuma) “Well...if this is like Animal Crossing, we’ll be living here for a good long while. We can pretty much relax everyday and do whatever we want. But uh...we’ll be in debt.”

Kazuma loudly sighed.

(Kazuma) “Even in a kid friendly world, my ass is still in debt...”

(Megumi) “Wait, debt?”

(Tom) “Oh, I wouldn’t phrase it that way!”

Everyone jumped up, hearing Tom directly behind them.

(Kazuma) “JESUS!”

(Megumi) “GAH!”

(Byleth) “WHOA!”

(Tom) “Sorry, I did not mean to frighten, haha! I just wanted to let you all know that everyone is heading back to their tent for some shut eye. I’ll be telling you all what’s in store for your new lives tomorrow!”

They looked at each other and nodded.

(Kazuma) “Well, we’re looking forward to our lives here!”

(Megumi) “Indeed!”

(Byleth) “It’ll be interesting.”

(Tom) “Good to hear it, good night!”

Tom nook waved everyone off and went back to the plaza.

(Byleth) “New lives...again.”

(Megumi) “I won’t waste the second chance of life I’ve been given.”

(Kazuma) “Same here...Wait, what?”

(Megumi) “Good night everyone!”

Byleth and Kazuma looked concerned for a moment, but decided to ignore it. After saying good night, they all went to bed.

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nattikay · 4 years

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Just trying to sort out some thoughts, came here cuz not sure where else to do it. Might delete later.

So we’ve had Maisie for almost a week now an honestly, it’s...caused me a lot more stress than I’d expected it to. Don’t get me wrong, I like her, and I don’t plan to give her back to the shelter or anything, good gracious, no--but tbh I feel a little guilty for not being ~euphoric~ over the whole scenario, and I’m just trying to work out why.

Don’t worry she is being well taken care of! This is an emotional issue, not an ability-to-care-for issue.

I think some of it may have its roots in our old cat, Harry Pawter. We got Harry when I was around 9 years old and I loved him. However, being a child when we got him, I was never really super good at taking care of him; most of the animal care wound up falling on my parents.

Harry, for the most part, was a pretty good cat most of his life, but he started developing health problems around his last two years or so. By this point I was in high school, and for all intents and purposes should’ve been old enough and responsible enough to step in and help take proper care of him. But by that point, I hadn’t really formed those habits and...I never really did. Not as much as I should have. And looking back...tbh I feel really bad about it, and wonder if I didn’t love him as much as I should have, or as much as I thought I did. My dad would certainly imply at much when he got frustrated with the cat, and that...kinda sunk its way into my brain, I guess.

I’ve mentioned before that we lost Harry my freshman year of college, my very first semester. But I haven’t told the whole story, because well...I feel really bad about it. But maybe it’ll be good to get it off my chest.

See, Harry’s health had been declining for a while at that point (he was now 9 years old btw). He was struggling to keep himself clean and having more and more accidents outside the litterbox. My dad took him to the vet, and the vet suspected he may have had a brain tumor. All this was happening recently after I started my first semester of college, so I wasn’t home at the time, only getting this info via phone calls.

My dad didn’t want to pay for expensive tests and surgeries for a cat, so was considering putting him down. I was obviously not in favor of that idea, so we decided that we’d wait until I came home for Christmas and then discuss what to do about the Harry situation.

But we never got the chance. Around November, there was some sort of leak under the fridge or something (I don’t remember the details; again I wasn’t home at the time) and we had to get a lot of work done in there to fix it, which included having all the tiles completely removed and huge fans placed in the kitchen to blow away the ensuing dust. In order to keep Harry out of the way of the construction, we wound up regulating him to the screened-in back patio (and for further context: Harry had always been an indoor-only cat, and never showed much interest in going outside). Needless to say, on top of his health concerns, this construction and jarring change in environment was probably really stressful for him. One day, he found his way out of the patio...and never came back.

We...don’t really know for sure what happened to him after that. I like to say that he passed away rather than ran away, partly because he didn’t really have great survival skills and between that and his already-present health issues, well...I don’t think he would’ve survived long as a stray, and I prefer to imagine that his suffering ended as quickly and painlessly as possible. Even if he did manage to survive for a while then, he’s almost certainly gone now, given that he’d be nearly 15 by this point...but I digress.

All that said...idk, I guess I never really got any proper closure with Harry. And the more I learn about how to properly care for a cat, especially doing all the research I’ve been doing for Maisie...well, the worse I feel for him.

It’s not that we were bad owners, per se, and we certainly weren’t malicious in any way...but man, we could’ve done so much better. Harry was definitely overfed and undergroomed and we didn’t really know how to deal with his issues later in life...again, we weren’t malicious, but I think we were ignorant. I can’t really blame myself in the early years given that I was a literal child but by the time I reached high school and the like...idk I just feel like I could have and should have done so much better. I wonder how many issues could’ve been resolved if we’d been more attentive, more vigilant. Had been willing to put in more effort than just “meh fill up his food bowl twice a day and have Dad change the litter once in a while”.

And with all that considered, well...let’s just say I have doubts as to my prowess as a cat guardian. I want to make sure what went wrong with Harry goes right with Maisie and I just...idk. It’s just been a lot more emotional pressure than I expected it to be, even more so considering I haven’t yet quite formed the emotional bond with Maisie that I felt with Harry (not that I necessarily should have expected to at this point, given that we’ve only had Maisie for less than a week whereas we had Harry for nine years). But still.

And I mean, it’s not like taking care of Maisie has been difficult from an objective standpoint. It boils down to just feeding her (and making sure it’s the right amount of food), cleaning her litterbox, and playing with her, all of which are pretty simple and straightforward (well actually trying to figure out the right amount of food for her age and size has been a bit of a chore but I digress).

Again, it’s not the tasks themselves that are an issue...it’s, I guess, the emotional baggage, or something. Knowing that as my cat the responsibility rests squarely on my shoulders (as opposed to having Harry where my parents took up most of the tasks) probably contributes as well.

Probably doesn’t help that this was a rather sudden development as well. It was only a week ago that we even seriously entertained the possibility of getting a new cat, and now here we are. It all happened so fast, it...almost doesn’t seem real.

Then again, not much has been feeling “real” to me lately. But that’s a separate issue and one for my therapist. :P

I also, despite all objective evidence to the contrary, feel almost like I’m being a burden my bringing Maisie into the house. I know that I shouldn’t...it wasn’t even my idea. My brother made the suggestion, my mom endorsed it, my dad ultimately agreed. The whole family seems to like her, even my dad who is by far the least of a cat-person out of all of us has pet her and talked soft to her (I expected him to mostly ignore her).

But...well, ok, another (shorter) storytime. My parents, while they don’t dislike pets, have had enough of them to last their lives, especially after Harry’s troubled final years, which we kids (regrettably) did not do much to help with despite being older by then. About a year or two after we lost Harry, a family in our church was giving away a bunny for adoption after their two dogs didn’t take well to it. My sister, who has always loved bunnies, begged and begged and begged to adopt it, and after promising and promising to take care of it, my parents finally relented. Alas, the bunny did not wind up being as friendly and cuddly as my sister expected, and after a few weeks she lost interest in it, leaving the bulk of the care responsibilities to our youngest brother (who, to his credit, did pretty well...honestly he’s just pretty good with animals in general, of all types...dogs are his top preference but he’ll happily work with just about anything). Not long later, the poor bunny injured itself, and upon doing some research my parents found that bunnies rarely heal properly from that type of injury (I forget what it was exactly, again I was away in college at the time so don’t recall all the details) and that the most humane option was to put it down. We only had that bunny for a few months.

After that, my dad was (understandably) hesitant to bring another pet into the house, however hard we promise to care for it, cuz last time he relented he got burned and a poor bunny had to suffer. When he agreed to let us get a new cat, he included the (reasonable) stipulation that if it ever seems like we’re not taking proper care of kitty, he’s allowed to make the call to give her up back to the shelter.

Now, I have absolutely zero intentions of pulling a sister-and-the-bunny on Maisie, and I very much plan to take as good care of her as possible. But...you can see how there’s some emotional pressure there, yeah? ^^;

I feel like I have to be an absolutely flawless owner else I’ve let everyone down and proven that my promises to care for her were just talk. I’m afraid people will get mad at Maisie for doing Cat Things and I’ll take the fall and it’ll be assumed I’m not taking proper care of her because I can’t train her well enough. I’m afraid any inconvenience that naturally comes from owning and animal will by default get pinned on me, that I’ll be at fault because I’m the one who technically owns her, I brought her into the house, were it not for me we wouldn’t be dealing with Animal Inconvenience.

And yes I know that’s irrational...I know my brain is exaggerating and none of them really expect an 8 month old kitten to have flawless behavior or blame me for it and as long as I’m keeping her happy and healthy it’s fine...and yet...

I don't know.

Pressure, I guess. A big life change that happened pretty suddenly and it’s gonna take a little while for it to become the new normal...I’ve just gotta hang on until it does, I guess...

anyways...

R.I.P. Harry Pawter, 2005-2014

(last picture we ever got of him)

Maisie, I will do my best ;_;

(first picture I ever got of her...which, I am just now realizing, is similar to the last pic of Harry ;n;)

#vent #of sorts #just trying to sort out some thoughts mostly

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eri-blogs-life · 3 years

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Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth

This has definitely been one of the games that I played this year.

So I have... a lot of thoughts about Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth and I wanna talk about. These thoughts might not be super contiguous or all track logically, but honestly, that’s just kind of the same as the experience that I had playing Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (I’ll just say CS for short going forward). CS is a good game, and I enjoyed my time with it a lot, but it also is a bit baffling at times and so it’s like... I like it, I had a good time with it mostly, but there are bits that made me just feel confusion as to whether I could actually call this a good game.

So... I’m gonna try organizing my thoughts here based on the game’s title to start, cause that seems like a fun way to start out with this writeup of my thoughts.

The Digimon

So, I’ve attempted to play through this game 3 times now. The first time, I picked up the version on PS4 second-hand from gamestop and made it maybe 4 chapters into the 20-chapter story before a better big game captured my attention. The second time, I bought the Complete Edition when it came out on Switch and attempted another playthrough. I think that time I made it 6 chapters in, but issues with the game’s difficulty and my bigger interest in other games that were out at the same time made me fall off of it. Lately, I’ve been on a kick of playing through really big JRPGs on the Switch, and I figured this was the time to really push my way through. But to do that, I had to find the fun. Because my previous times, I didn’t find it to be a ton of fun - the story was meh, the experience was extremely linear, the difficulty had weird spikes and valleys all around, and it just didn’t seem that fun. But I was recently watching a retrospective on the digimon franchise (shout out to Billiam on youtube for that if you’re interested), and while watching I came to the realization that the fun of digimon has always been different than in pokemon (the comparison to pokemon is, unfortunately, always inevitable when talking about digimon - the two were so closely intertwined in popular culture in america in the late 90s / early 00′s that it’s hard to deny there’s something to connect them)

Pokemon’s about catching them all. Digimon’s about raising a partner. Digimon started as a tamogatchi brand marketed towards boys, with cool monsters you could fight with each other. The fun of digimon has always been seeing your partner(s) grow and become new forms. And that’s where I finally found the fun in Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

The fun is in bonding. I found out in my second playthrough how to nickname digimon, and that became my go-to when I would get a new digimon on my team in this playthrough. Every digimon had a nickname. Early on I had a team consisting of Willis, Stinky, Specty, Babby, Evil Babby, Big Bird, Tomato, Axey, and Beedril. Over time, I got to watch these fools grow - Willis from a Terriermon into a Gallantmon CM, Stinky from a Guilmon into a Diaboromon, Specty got fused with someone called Shellby and went from Specty the Patamon to Shellspecty the Cherrymon, Babby fused with Big Bird and the two ended up as an Aeroveedramon, and so on.

The fun of the game was in watching as these monsters I’d bonded with became stronger and changed into new and different forms. And that was the fun of the game for most of the early game for me, and continued throughout the game, mostly.

Ultimately, the game has some weird difficulty spikes at times, especially in some of the sidequests, which feel nearly impossible. I ended up focusing heavily on trying to find all my digimon final forms that had penetrating moves (moves which ignore the enemy’s defense or intelligence when calculating damage), because a lot of the game’s main story bosses are heavily focused on having high defense, and relatively low HP. So, that meant that I couldn’t just use all my favorite digimon. Some just didn’t have what it takes to hold up against certain fights, and I had to move them away from forms I really liked to try to find them stronger forms so I could complete the sidequests. It was still entertaining to play, and did have me continuing to see my digimon grow over time and we bonded, but it also felt a bit lackluster that some favorite mega-level forms just didn’t have what it took to deal with some of the late-game sidequests (at least in hard difficulty, which I played through on - thankfully you can change the difficulty during a playthrough, so I could have dropped it to try to do the sidequests, but I didn’t opt to do that. I just still haven’t beat all the sidequests, instead focusing on the main quest).

the game doesn’t have a lot of animated cutscenes but those it does have come out strong

The Story

CS’s story is... fine. I think it’s probably a decently good story that’s just told confusingly. And I think there’s a couple reasons for that, but one of the biggest is that the translation is not the best. It’s passable, but it doesn’t always feel like things were translated in a holistic way to the whole game, rather it feels like each line was translated on its own, which leads to things feeling like they don’t all track together naturally at times, and a bunch of mistakes like the Eaters being referred to as Bakemon (a digimon name), because in Japanese they’re referred to sometimes as bakemono, which is just the Japanese word for a monster.

The other big issue I feel I have with the story of CS is that it feels like it’s all over the place, at least early on. Early on in the game, the story starts to set up a lot of different characters and plot threads that don’t seem to really connect with each other until much later in the game. That kind of story can be told well, but in this case, I just feel like the execution left a lot to be desired. For a long time, it felt like I was just playing through a bunch of different unrelated stories rather than a singular story. I’m not sure exactly what would be the right way to implement the idea to help keep the early game’s story interesting, but as it is, it felt a little lackluster.

However, that really only applies to the early game. And the late game, though in a bit of a different way. Around chapter 8 out of 20, the story starts popping off, and the individual stories concerning all the side characters start coming together to reveal the bigger picture of what’s been happening in Tokyo and Eden lately, and what issues that’s leading to in both the real and digital worlds. And from about chapter 8 through 19 or so, it feels really good and strong and there’s a clear singular direction that the story is taking, and every new piece of information seems to feed into the major plot in some way.

And then as you get into the last chapter, things start to feel a little less narratively tied together again. See, yes, the mysteries were building into a singular situation that was threatening both the real and digital worlds, but the game feels like it lacks a narrative throughline, or even multiple narrative throughlines for each major character. It feels like there’s no moral being focused on here, rather, it feels like there’s just a series of events that happen because it would be cool to have them happen. And they were cool. But... to really make a story feel good to me, I feel like there needs to be some sense of a complete narrative moral, and I just didn’t feel that way from this game. The closest I could tell was one line from the ending,

“You will now be the master of your own future.”

But... that feels weak. It didn’t feel like being able to control their own future was much of a theme for any of the main characters, except maybe Arata. And even then, it was a pretty weak theme. (I suppose an argument could be made that the game’s very linear story means your character doesn’t have a lot of freedom from a gameplay perspective, so the gameplay supports you not having control over your future, but... that’s a pretty weak argument.)

So, the story is interesting, but it’s also pretty weak.

fusion evolution is apparently gay as hell and i love it

The Cyber Sleuthing

There’s not really any actual sleuthing in this game. It’s really just a narrative device to give your character a reason to help out with a variety of random situations. You very rarely, if ever, have to actually solve mysteries/puzzles during your journey. So... not much actual sleuthing. But the greater mystery of the story does get really interesting in the mid game, so I’ll give it that.

Other stuff

Here, I just wanna talk about some other miscellaneous thoughts I have about this game, and then kinda sum it all up.

I loved Persona 5. It was a wonderful game, and such a powerful turn-based JRPG, that it’s influenced my perception of basically every JRPG I’ve played since. And it feels weird to do that. Like I feel like CS is a really decent game taken on its own, but when I’m comparing everything in some way to Persona 5, CS feels like it sucks. Like there are so many aspects where I can see ways to improve upon the game - the translation is lacking, there’s no english dub, combat is fairly smooth but Persona’s combat always feels like it’s a puzzle to be solved but CS’s combat feels like it’s just ‘have the right type digimon in play’, add more social elements to let me grow closer to Yuuko, Nokia, Arata, and other characters.

There’s this narration near the end of the game to explain how things change after the big final boss battle, and it’s narrated by one of the in-game characters, Nokia. And it’s amazing, because Nokia’s character can be kinda... ditzy, I guess is the right word? So there are parts in that bit of narration where she’s just like “and, you know... stuff changed” or whatever. It’s both funny, and leaves things fairly up to the player to have their own interpretations for what happens with everyone after things are over. There’s some small scenes after that narration that show some of what the main cast has been up to since the events of the final battle, but nothing that gives too much of a clue as to what happened.

----

There is a running gag throughout the whole game about how your mentor character likes experimenting with coffee, making weird blends like adding red bean paste or seaweed to her coffee, and she loves pushing this on other people who often react in horror. But there’s also this really nice scene in the finale where it shows the main character, without Kyoko around, drinking mayo coffee, and I think it’s just cute as heck

There’s a canon nonbinary character in the game, who complains about being forced to choose between either a male or female avatar when logging into the online system, and I absolutely love that kinda shit <3

My favorite status effect is one called Dot, where it converts your digimon into a sprite form and prevents them from using special attacks. And I love when JRPGs add fun unique statuses like this, which make sense within the context of the world

In Summary

So, to tie it all together, here’s my final thoughts:

I enjoyed my time with Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth a ton. But I’m a fan of digimon and jrpgs. I think the game has its fair share of problems that mean I couldn’t really recommend it to just anyone, but if you like digimon and jrpgs, it’s worth picking up. And the complete edition comes with two games for the price of one, so all the better.

#so in summary it's got some flaws but i really enjoyed my time with the game #so now i gotta figure out which big game i'm gonna play next - i've done fe:3h and tales of vesperia recently #i might do the sidequel to CS called hacker's memory next but i'm also considering like ...#replaying pokemon swsh now that it's been awhile since they came out. i was really disappointed with them the first time #so maybe i'd like them better now? and the dlc looks like it might actually be good so...#we'll see #i also still need to get back to dragon quest 11 sometime and finish that up #i also haven't really finished octopath traveler or tokyo mirage sessions fe yet #then there's also bug fables which i played the first chapter or so of and definitely want to get back to at some point #eri blogs games #digimon #digimon story cyber sleuth

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seven-oomen · 3 years

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Hi, Ben! I hope you are feeling a bit better, or that things have at least calmed a bit! (I mean I still hope you’re feeling better, but it’s okay if you’re not yet, too. You know what I mean.)

Wow, Walker sounds…interesting… I remember watching the original series with my mom, because she liked several of the actors in it. I can’t recall much in the way of specific detail, but I’m pretty sure there was definitely a lot of probably-questionable-even-at-the-time cultural appropriation-type stuff going on for both Native American and Asian cultures. And I gotta say, when I think “who can I see replacing Chuck Norris in a role?” JarPad is never the first to come to mind… I’m not even sure why they felt they needed to reboot that series, anyway, given the potential to be highly problematic.

And I’ve never seen any Winx Club, but that show also sounds very…interesting… I don’t understand the general obsession with gritty reboots lately (which is also where I feel DC went wrong). Like, let shit be bright and colorful! The real world is dark enough right now. Also not really here for a plus-size character being the butt of jokes and pranks. We’re well past that sort of thing being okay (and was one of the things I loved most about the Ghostbusters reboot. Realistically built women, and not a single fat joke to be found.)

Omg, that snippet is so cute!!! I wish I could draw, too, or at least photoshop with anything approaching skill, because that visual is hysterical. XD I can just see poor Noah fighting the urge to pick up a Sharpie and write ‘Migraine #1’ and 'Migraine #2’ on Peter and Stiles’ t-shirts. XD (Although between theoretically attempting to look at confidential police files and Mel’s probable reaction to his presence, I suspect Peter is not in for the best afternoon. [As though his outfit weren’t torment enough. XD ])

Also, I love that idea of Stiles making Peter fight a duel for the right to date his dad. Like, just imagine Noah getting home just as they’re about to start, and then hearing an explanation, and just being like “…you know what, what the hell? Let’s see what you’ve got, Hale.”, but like totally giving Peter like his tie or his badge or something to wear as a favor. (He’s totally gonna date Peter either way, but Peter doesn’t need to know that yet.)

And I don’t know if it will help any, but if you feel the need for some fluff, I got the next chapter of IYWTD up finally, complete with only one bed, cuddling for warmth, a bit of hurt/comfort, and massive amounts of pining. ;D (And wow, yeah, that ship dynamic comic fits them so well. Although right now Peter is still stuck on the seesaw between “What is all this FEELINGS bullshit?!” and “I didn’t say STOP!" XD )

Anyway, I’m starting to ramble again. I hope that your day has been good, or at least decent overall, and that tomorrow is even better! Sending lots of good energy for whatever you need it for! Take care! *Hugs!*

Hey my friend, hope you’re doing okay lately and that work isn’t too crazy. <3

My mood today has been, *sigh* well, it hasn’t been great. I think it’s because I did my T-shot at 1 am last night and my hormones are everywhere at the moment while my levels readjust. Which would also explain my moodswings and anger management problems in the last week. I’m gonna resolve that by hopefully getting my boxing bag in tomorrow, though with the Dutch Postal service PostNL you never freaking know. Because of the extended lockdown delivery times have been insane lately. But yeah, there’s that.

I did manage to take the garbage out today, folded some more laundry, and put my groceries away. So there’s that too.

With Walker, idk if it helps or hurts that I’ve never seen the original and have nothing to compare it to. But it just felt really awkward to me because of the acting. (I mean the teenage daughter is a good actress, I liked her, but Jpad is very- off in this show) There’s only one episode out so far and I kinda want to give it another shot but it also just- meh. It didn’t feel that special to me.

As for Winx, or Fate: a Winx Saga, it’s- *groan + sigh* It’s not good. It’s not good writing (the dialogue is horrendous, like a 40 year old man trying to write teenagers), it’s not the best acting, although it’s not awful either. I think the writing and the whitewashing of several characters are the biggest problems. Also the plus sized character and the gay character are bullied and made fun of and urgh.

I personally also never had a problem with the whole girls are fairies and boys are specialists thing in the original show. Because to me, that automatically extends to gender and would include trans people of that gender. But I can see why they would update that. So that, I don’t have a problem with.

It’s just the writing that is horrendous and it’s almost like the people who made it have no idea who their target audience actually is and why people watched the original in the first place.

But yeah, I might “hate watch” another episode just to see if I can poke some fun at it, but we’ll see.

Right? I really like that little paragraph. I’m trying to get this chapter out soon, but I’m struggling a little with a few things and don’t know how to continue it. I’ll figure it out though.

And Noah totally would if he could XD He has an image to uphold but guarantee you that he’s thought about it.

Peter’s having a very bad, horrendous, not so good day so far. That I can guarantee you.

And yeah, I think that image is just really freaking cute. Kinda want to include that prompt into Welcome to the Family. XD It’s adorable.

I think I’m gonna check out the next chapter this weekend. I wanna be in a bit of the right headspace for it when I do read it. And not in my ‘everything sucks and I wanna punch a hole in the wall and break every bone in my hand’ kinda mood.

But I will def check it out soon. I’m sure it’s gonna be an awesome read, it always is <3

Hope you’re having a good day B, Mo and me are sending you good vibes and lots of hugs and snuggles <3

#B #my convos with anon #ben says stuff #submission

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pancake-man · 4 years

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PRUMANO SECRET VALENTINES

Hey @anamelodemelo! I’m a little(almost two months) late, but I was your prumano secret valentine! Big thanks to @prumano-week for organising this whole thing and @snowywolff for kicking my butt into gear to finish this.

Your prompts were Kiss, Funny, Fancy, Date, Nyotalia and I tried to cover all of them! I used fannames because I couldn’t find any good names for the Nyo!s, so Nyo!Prussia is Zoe and Nyo!Romano is Elena! I hope you enjoy it!

Kissing + Mishaps = Kisshaps

They’ve been doing the same thing for years, curled up in blankets and surrounded by junk food, a cheesy movie neither of them has ever heard of blaring on the screen across the room. The same thing, except it’s changed. Both of them have grown, but not much, perpetually stuck below 5’4. Elena’s room has gone from pink hues and stuffed animals to reds and greens and potted succulents on the windowsill. Zoe cut off most of her long hair and Elena wears makeup now. But they’re still the same kids who met years ago on a playground.

So now it’s Elena with her back against the mattress, sitting on the floor because she’s too lazy to get her glasses and she wants to see, dammit, and Zoe up on the bed, laying on her back with an entire bowl of chips balanced on her stomach.

The actor in the film has lost his shirt, again, and Zoe is laughing her ass off making fun of the script and costume department and everything else, really. Elena isn’t sure what about the plot requires the hero to be shirtless, but she’s not paying attention anyways. The flashing lights of cheap CGI reflect on Zoe’s face, making her stand out in the dark room.

Zoe bites her lip and sucks in a breath as the scene shifts. It’s the hero’s younger sister, and the villain(Elena thinks, she’s still not sure what the plot is) They’re fighting, knives out and teeth bared until the sister has the other woman pinned to the ground. The actresses are panting, and Elena feels her own heart beat badump, badump, badump.

The women on screen press their lips together, cheesy and dramatic. “What does that feel like?” She asks, blurts out, because Zoe has experience and she doesn’t. Elena asks because she’s curious, because she’s never kissed a boy, let alone a girl, and what’s on screen is never like in real life.

Zoe hums, sticks her tongue between her teeth like she’s always done. “Just like kissing a boy, I guess.”

Elena’s nails dig into her palm. “Never done that.”

Zoe doesn’t respond for a moment. Then Elena hears the rustle of blankets as her friend rolls over. “Oh. It’s- um. It’s like there’s this space in your chest that you never knew was there, and then it’s just-” She pops her lips. “Filled.”

Elena hums. Her face feels on fire. “I get it,” she says, even though she doesn’t. The movie has moved onto another fight scene, this time with more men and explosions. Neither of them are interested anymore.

Again the sound of blankets, then Elena feels breath on the back of her neck. She turns around and Zoe is right there, so close. “I didn’t explain very well, did I?” Zoe’s lips move around the words, and Elena can’t decide whether to look at them or Zoe’s eyes.

“No, it’s- fine. It’s fine.”

“I could just show you.”

“Don’t be a fucking weirdo,” Elena laughs, but it sounds fake and hollow. She leans forward.

It’s nothing like how Zoe described. It’s actually kinda terrible. Elena goes in with her lips puckered like a blowfish and Zoe goes straight for a French. Zoe groans and Elena can feel the vibrations go straight through her. Zoe pulls away, taking all of her warmth and too-much-ness with her.

“What the fuck was that shitty excuse for a first kiss, asshole?” Elena begins, but then Zoe smushes her cheeks between her hands and guides her up onto the bed. She’s sitting between Zoe’s legs now, and Zoe uses her hands to move Elena’s head around like a doll, tilting it just so that when they meet again, it’s a thousand times better than the first.

Gasps are quickly swallowed up by hungry lips as eyes close and hands move around each other. Zoe is still tangled in pillows and fluff, leaving a barrier between them that feels like miles of distance. Fingers are running through Elena’s hair, pulling at the tangled curls until she whines and retaliates by digging her nails into Zoe’s shoulders.

Elena feels- wait, is that teeth? Something sharp hits her lip and she yelps, jumping back and hitting Zoe square in the face with her head. Elena looks up to see an awful fountain of blood burst forth from Zoe’s nose- all over her clean bedsheets. Goddammit.

“Shit I’m sorry-” She starts to say, but Zoe cuts her off with a wheeze.

“No! No it’s fine, I’m just gonna-” Zoe starts to stand up, but their cocoon of blankets is still wrapped around her legs and she falls backwards. Elena reaches out for her and insead falls right on top of her, wedged between the wall and the bed.

“Oh, MOTHER-”

---

“Seriously I’m so sorry that probably hurt like a son of a b-”

“Dude you’ve already apologised like, a billion times. It’s no sweat.”

“Zoe. Your arm is literally broken.”

“Yeah but it’s fine, see?” Zoe lifts up her arm, twisted at a horrible angle, and waves. “Can’t feel a thing.”

“I’m pretty sure not being able to feel your arm is really fucking bad! As in very not good! Kaput, nicht so gut.”

“Dude your accent is terrible,” Zoe laughs, with a loud snort at the end that nearly makes Elena swerve off the road. Driving with Zoe was usually distracting, let alone in the middle of the night when she had a broken arm. The arm that broke after they made out. That arm.

“Why are you still calling me dude? I feel like we’ve passed that point,” Elena rolls her eyes. But really… Maybe that kiss hadn’t meant anything to Zoe. Maybe Elena was just another girl. Maybe they really were just on ‘dude’ terms.

Zoe shuts up for once, which normally would be great but now it just makes Elena more nervous, and she blows through a red light. “Jesus fucked a cow on a whole wheat bun, Elena! Keep your eyes on the road!”

“I’m sorry!” Elena blurts again, for the billion-and-first time. “You’re really distracting!”

“What?”

“Don’t be an asshole, you know what I mean!”

“No seriously, what? I’m just me.”

Elena groans. She wishes she could pull over and have a proper conversation, but no, she needs to get Zoe to the hospital before she bleeds out or something. “You know, like, everytime you do stuff I just can’t focus.”

“Oh?” Elena is keeping her eyes on the road like a good driver, but she can hear the stupid smirk in Zoe’s voice. “Like what?”

“Like! I don’t know! Fuck!”

Zoe snorts.

“Not like that!” Elena bites her lip and tries to find the words. “Like that right there! When you snort! It’s really fucking cute! And I liked your long hair but now that it’s short I mean- shit, have you ever looked in a mirror? You’re hot! Really hot! And I’ve known you my whole life so you’re kinda like my sister but not because that would be weird, you’re so much better and… fuck!” She didn’t mean to ramble that long. She glances over at Zoe, quickly, just to see her reaction.

Zoe is quiet. She’s holding her arm close to her chest, so it must actually hurt, and she’s just being a bitch about it.

“Sorry, I know I’m not your type-”

“Dude, I thought you were straight.” Zoe moves her good hand over Elena’s. It’s awkward reaching over her seatbelt and broken arm, and Elena’s hands are still on the wheel so it probably isn’t safe, but Elena’s heart does flip-flops anyways.

“I mean… I don’t know what I am. I’ve never… liked anyone else.” Elena takes a deep breath. “Just you.”

Silence from Zoe again. Then- another snort. She starts laughing. “Dude! I thought you were straight!”

Angry tears prick Elena’s eyes. “Fuck off, bastard! I’m driving you to the hospital, don’t be a dick about my feelings!”

“No! No no no.” Zoe pulls her hand away and holds it up in surrender. Elena’s hand feels cold. “I meant, If I knew you were into- well, into me, I would’ve asked you out a long time ago.”

Now Elena does slam on the breaks and pull over. There’s nobody behind them, thank god, but Zoe is still thrown forward and it jars her arm. She cries out and curls into herself.

“Fuck! Sorry, I just- what?” Elena unbuckles her seatbelt and tries to help Zoe back up. She’s crying- no, wait, she’s just laughing again. Zoe unfurls and launches herself at Elena’s face, slamming their lips together in a way that’s definitely painful. Just another bruise to add to the growing list.

Zoe pulls away with that cute smirk of hers. “I like you too, dumbass.”

Elena gasps in offense and punches her. In the arm. Which is broken. Zoe crumples again. “Right! Fuck! Hospital! Sorry!” She rebuckles and starts the car again.

Emergency room staff are the best. They’ve seen so much weird shit that they don’t blink at two teenage girls stumbling in at three in the morning, covered in blood and attached at the mouth. They barely notice at all, actually, and Elena has to fight to get any kind of immediate attention. She stays in the room through the whole ordeal(almost puking at the sight of Zoe’s arm being set into place) and peppers many more apologies throughout the night(Apparently Zoe’s nose is broken too. Elena peppers in kisses for good measure).

The adrenaline of driving your friend(?) to the hospital in the middle of the night is finally leaving her body when the nurse finally leaves the room, and from the looks of it Zoe is just as tired. She’s all wrapped up in bandages, just like the blankets they’d left at home. The hospital chair Elena was given feels about as comfy as Zoe’s bed looks.

“Mmf mhm hh meh?” Zoe says eloquently.

“What?” Elena replies in kind.

“Bunch of fuckin’ messes aren’t we?”

“Ha. Yeah. You look worse than me.”

Zoe snorts, smirks. “You’re just as covered in blood.”

Elena’s eyes widen. “No way,” she retorts as she fumbles for her phone. Sure enough, when she opens her camera she can see her face is smeared with blood, especially around her lips. From Zoe’s bloody nose. “Oh, GROSS!” She gags and grabs some of Zoe’s bandages to wipe the rapidly-drying mess off. Zoe only laughs harder, wheezing an ‘ow’ between each snort.

“Did you mean it?” Elena asks, cutting off Zoe’s laughing fit.

“All of it.”

“So, uh, wanna go to prom?”

“Sure, fuck it.”

“Fuck you.”

“On the first date? Elena, you foxy little-”

“Fuck you!”

Prom is two weeks later. Zoe’s cast is covered in black lace to match her dress. They look baller. There’s a lot of making out after. And this time, nobody ends up in the ER.

#prumano #hetalia #aph prussia #aph romano #hws prussia #hws romano #mine #my writing #lark writes #prumano valentines #seriously im so sorry this is so late!#i really hope it was worth the wait #happy valentines!

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