#but every single one is so awesome and well written that you actually have no choice but to love them♡

[bread--hood]

aaaaand another Clive post.... because I don't know how to stop myself from taking screenshots every second he is on the screen.....

#I love that everyone is basically thirsty about every character in the game #but every single one is so awesome and well written that you actually have no choice but to love them♡ #final fantasy 16 #final fantasy 16 spoilers #final fantasy xvi #final fantasy xvi spoilers #ff xvi #ffxvi #ff 16 #ff 16 spoilers #ff xvi spoilers #final fantasy #clive rosfield

[divorcedfiddleford]

You made a post saying “it has been zero days since our last alex hirsch hates ford so much bullshit” and i know it was mostly hyperbole, but you have some really good takes that I would love to be elaborated on in terms of how ford is written

it really wasn't hyperbolic. over the years he's just really shown a lot of hatred towards this one character.

content warning: discussion of abuse

i want to start with this clip from the commentary which i think of as a microcosm for how the writers and especially alex think about ford.

transcript:

rob renzetti: i mean he [mcgucket] should've basically knocked ford out, and... and destroyed the... you know, tied him up, and, destroyed... and... alex hirsch, speaking over him: yeah he should've beat ford with a wrench and taken this thing apart piece by piece! he's the one who understood how to built [sic] it, but...

... so that seems like a pretty violent course of action. shall we unpack that?

ford is a character who's pretty explicitly written as a victim of abuse, and who now has c-ptsd as a direct result of the abuse he experienced. alex hirsch believes that ford deserved everything bad that happened to him, that it's ford's own fault, and that he also deserved worse things to happen to him. this is why, given every narrative chance, alex hirsch has piled more suffering onto ford's plate. the biggest example of this i can think of is in the journal, when he wrote that fiddleford was actively erasing ford's memory (despite this being a massive timeline contradiction which i still refuse to accept). because god forbid ford even have one remotely healthy relationship with somebody. that would be too good for him. ford was manipulated and lied to by bill, but alex repeatedly compares him to icarus, a teenager whose demise was the result of his own ignorance. this comparison is still so fucking offensive to me. the sun did not lie to icarus, did not guarantee icarus all of the happiness and success and sense of belonging which he had been denied all his life, did not actively shut out the voices of those around him who would try to help him.

alex in general has a very strange relationship with abuse. he seems to get really upset when people read his characters as victims of abuse. the strongest instance of this is actually not with ford, it's with pacifica - especially in the nwmm episode commentary. the episode says "pacifica's parents have conditioned her to respond to a bell" and alex says people got "the wrong idea" about it. like. dude. what the fuck. you wrote abuse. even if you didn't mean to, that's what you wrote. you can't say people got "the wrong idea" just because you didn't think about the subtext of what you were writing. anyway, back to ford: i believe this extends to him as well. alex wanted to write a character who's a foil to stan and who was a selfish unlikable victim of his own arrogance. however that's not what he wrote. he somehow seemingly accidentally wrote a really compelling and relatable awesome autistic guy who had to fight for every good thing he he ever had in his life only for it to be taken from him every single time. but alex can't let go of seeing ford as just "the opposite of stan". when he talks about "how someone as smart as ford could fall for bill's tricks", he refuses to realize he wrote a situation in which a man was being psychologically manipulated and tortured.

it goes back further, too. people repeatedly theorized that filbrick was... not a very good father, to say the least. on top of the very explicit and canon fact that he threw one of his children out on the street (seriously, there is no defense for this), people pointed out that stan would flinch at filbrick, that ford seemed upset by things filbrick said but dared not talk back, that filbrick was mad at stan not for hurting his brother, but for "costing the family potential millions". but alex can't have people seeing ford as sympathetic. ford can't have it bad like stan did. ford had to have everything and he lost it all because he sucks so much. so he wrote the graphic novel story where ford is filbrick's favorite child and filbrick also is not even a bad parent you guys he's just stoic. ignore the whole thing in dreamscaperers where stan perpetuates the abuse that filbrick did to him. ignore the fact that ford was shouting at stan and then completely shut up as soon as filbrick entered the room and did not say another word for the rest of the night. ignore all that because i just made up this story where he cries at a present from stan. filbrick loved his boys for sure you guys!!!

i'm not even touching on how alex repeatedly villainizes traits commonly associated with mental illness and neurodivergence. ford's hypervigilance becomes arrogance. his passion for knowledge means he's a know-it-all. his difficulty socializing and making friends means he's a misanthrope. his lingering resentment for the way he was raised means he hates his brother and is the worst human being to ever have lived. i could go on, go even further into how the finale reaffirms this, but i feel weird talking about this too much.

#help you unclogged the dam and it all came rushing out #it's been years #didn't know i still had all this in me #apologies for the lack of sources. i reference a lot of old interviews and tweets from 2016-2017 #i know insider was one of them but a lot of it was questions he'd be asked at convention panels and off-handed comments from the dvds #seconds before the clip i included alex says ford's great flaw is pride #as though it was his pride that led to the world ending #and not a millenium-old plan by a monster using advanced manipulation tactics supplemented with literal mind control #tales of the wild zeep #1009

[girltigerclaw]

breaking into ur house rn

top ten characters and bottom ten. reasons are optional

I just finished this chart thing i think i actually stole from your blog a few months ago <3 Slightly edited to my own prefs.

If anyone wants the template check the reblogs, and feel free to add you own. I'd love to see. I'm just rambling under here:

Leafpool: She is more special and sacred than the virgin mary. She has everything. Daughter of the first protagonist, ex boyfriend for me to hate, TONS of wlw situationships<3, a lifetime of tragedy, and some of the most gorgeous canon art to exist.

Crookedstar: Crookedstar is a trans woman to me. Her life is genuinely just so tragic and fucked, I love it. The erins asked: “How much truama, death and misfortune can you fit into a single cat?” and then they wrote Crookedstar’s promise.

Tawnypelt: GIRLS WHO HATE THEIR FATHERS. The erins dont love her like I do.

Tallstar: I love old men… I fucking love seeing older characters and how much they’ve changed from their younger selves. Tallstar is considered one of, if not the most peaceful leader in the clans. But also when he was like 19 he went on a quest to fucking murder a guy :3

Cloudstar: I rlly do not care abt anyone in Skyclan(I like Leafstar but she's not a fav yknow?) Cloudstar... he was based as fuck. Why did Starclan get away with this shit for real??

Scourge: It’s fucking Scourge. He’s awesome

Briarlight: I’m disabled and I love her. She has such a consistent fun, sweet personality and she makes me happy!!<3

RavenBarley: It deserves all the attention and hype it gets. Though I wish mlm ships didn’t overshadow wlw ones in this fandom, RavenBarley is genuinely well written and makes me very emotional even if the publisher didnt allow it to be explicitly canon.

CrookedBlue: TRANS WOMEN CROOKEDSTAR YURI. Two leaders having a forbidden relationship and kits is way more interesting than Oakheart. The angst of Crooked and Blue sitting next to eachother every gathering while the entire forest has their eyes on them. Don’t look for too long, don’t let the mourning slip into your voice. You have to pretend your lover is a stranger. You… have become strangers. You can never be together again. You're enemies now. This is what we wanted, isn’t it? …We’ll never be happy again.

Mothwing: Her novella delving into her relationship with Hawkfrost was so good and heartbreaking.

Heathertail: Daughter of leader, sister of a major villian, and former love interest of a protagonist! Why did she fall off the second po3 ended. She’s shown to be very compassionate and willing to put her own feelings aside for the sake of others. Would’ve honestly prefered her as a mate to Lionblaze or get a pov herself over the nothing we got.

Blackstar: *Murders an elderly woman trying to stop me from kidnapping children. Supports a dictator openly abusing/neglecting children and the elderly. Murders a man for refusing to kill mixed raced children- then tells said man’s sister that she will never be safe.* Man…. i sure do feel bad for abusing and killing all of those people…. Good thing I will face no consequences and proceed to be made leader, where I will have even more power over the wellbeing of others.

I hate. This guy.

The New Prophecy: A classic. My first series was actually tnp! i feel more attached to first arc cats tho, if you couldn't already tell by my list lmao

Johanna Map- Best Tawnypelt content out there

BlueQuince: My personal handcrafted, homemade Yuri. Bluefur feels terrible about Tiny going missing and promises Quince she’ll help her find him. They never did, but they had a very… fleeting but intimate relationship. Quince is grieving and Bluefur feels so overwhelmed by the duties in her clan. They’ve always thought of eachother since but never met again.

Tigerclaw: My name sake<3 The angst of his earlier life is so, so facinating to me. Starclan being straight fucked up and decided killing him is their only option? He was a kid and they saw him as a lost cause from the start. They never tried any other methods, never tried to steer him in the right direction or… even just take it into their own hands and kill him themself, which they have SHOWN they’re capable of.

They watched all the the horrific crimes he commited, entirely aware they were going to happen. Thats. Fucking. Horrifying. Starclan is scary as shit… and his death? FANTASTIC. I only wish he’d gotten lives from cats he killed so that him coming back to life to suffer over and over was an actual curse from Starclan and not blessings. They knew how he would die and they gave him the lives to torture him for his sins…

Flywhisker: Adhd girlies. Painfully relate to that feeling of the constant scolding for never being “good enough” because I prefer to do things a certain way or struggle to focus. So, SO happy for her when she left the clans! You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone! Hope she’s happy and warm indoors with her brother💕

(P.S. I was very suprised to find she actually had an official art piece!)

Bluestar: Get behind me women with mental disorders. I will defend you. Beautifully complex and tragic character, my favorite written in the series. Literally can't think of a single other female character in handled as seriously and with the complexity of Bluestar. (Although her super edition was a bit of an L with how others treated her, it ultimately makes her breakdown even more painful.)

Exile from Shaodwclan: Nightstar my beloved! He's such a great guy. The rightful leader of Shadowclan, always and forever.

Ravenpaw's Farewell: HE DIED IN BARLEY'S ARMS, TELLING HIM HE WILL FIND HIM, NO MATTER WHERE HE IS. FUCK.

Crookedstar art: So beautiful. I genuinely think she's one of the prettiest cats in the series. This along with her official art by Wayne Mcloughlin.

Leopardstar: As a kid I hated her and loved Blackfoot, now I hate Blackfoot and love her. #feminism. But seriously I think she has way more going for her than he ever has. Her father is a medicine cat who hates violence, the DRASTIC change in Riverclan's view of outsiders upon Crookedstar's death and her leadership. Her already having a position of power before proving she's unworthy of it. (Unlike Blackstar who gets rewarded for his racism and violence by being made leader afterwards) and the fact she has to interact with her victims on a daily basis after what she did.

The writings attempts to redeem her are really lame and dismissive of the actually damage she did, but at the very least they TRIED to do something else with her. Personally, I would have loved to see her assassinated by Mistyfoot. Just like her mother Bluestar was almost killed all those moons ago by Tigerclaw... The parallels of violence for power and violence for peace. A victim repeating the actions of the very man who killed her brother to put an end to what he started in Riverclan.... A shadow in Riverclan, if you will. (<-Pretending erin hunter has hired me to rewrite their series)

Windclan: Tunneling as a concept and inviting outsiders into their clan so friendly and casual makes the clan seems so much more diverse than the others. It always stuck out to me!

Andddd there are my current warrior cat options as of 2023! If someone actually read this whole ramble ily<3

#THANKS FOR THE ASK. sorry i wrote you a novel❤ #I already wanted an excuse to just throw all my favs and thoughts into one place so i used ur ask as that lol #asks #mypost

[wayfayrr]

I feel because of the chain having a lot of fights as strangers and since reader would be seeing wind sulking after when they have to leave since the other links are getting physical and because of that I would believe there be a lot of days where the links and reader would just have a movie night just some time to not think of the world for reader while feeding the chain's curiosity of this world. So I give you this, reader showing wind the pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

So I hope you don't mind, I've written this as a sort of continuation of one of your recent asks where reader took Wind to the beach as a reward, but since the rest of the chain decided to argue and ruin it - he gets a private movie night instead!

“I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with your dad arguing with every single living being Wind, I mean I know he’s getting better but you shouldn’t have to deal with it all the time.”

“Is that why you set all of this up [name], because he keeps arguing all the time? Are Wild and Calm gonna join us as well then?”

“Wild said they wanted to try and get closer to Sage actually. They’re doing their own thing, right now I’m focused on cheering you up kiddo. Don’t think I didn’t see you sulking when your day was ruined.”

He’s got his typical pout back, so clearly what I said was right even if he won’t say it aloud, Wind’s fairly easy to read like that. Asides from his very blatant dislike of the beach day being ruined by sage and time getting into a full-blown fight, he seems very pleased with the fact he gets my attention to himself like this. Burying himself in the pillow fort I made on the bed with a smile shows that clearer than day. 

“So we're going to spend the night talking and eating a bunch of snacks?”

“A bit more than that, I’d like to show you some of my favourite films. I think you’ll love them even more than I do though.”

Setting this all up was far more complicated than I would’ve thought originally, and I’ll have to thank Wild for offering to distract Sage long enough so he won’t disturb us when we’re watching one of the best trilogies of all time, I’m sure I can come up with something to thank him. Right now my focus is all on Wind, and making up for his day being ruined; captain jack sparrow always helped cheer me up whenever I got upset so it should help Wind. Poor kid deserves to have some kind of reward for adjusting to his new life this well and as his parent, it falls to me to make sure he gets one that’s right for how incredible he’s being. 

“So what are they about [name]! Is it one of those family traditions you said you were going to teach me, Wild and Calm!”

“No it’s not a tradition, and I wouldn’t be teaching you without your brothers either Wind.”

“You didn’t say what it’s going to be about though. Please [name]?”

Ruffling his hair with a laugh, settling next to him with the remote in my hand ready to show him something I was saving to cheer up a bad day. Making it beyond perfect for this exact moment. With the fog on the screen showing a ship emerge with the eerie singing, Wind’s attention was instantly hooked when he heard the faint lyrics of a pirate's life for me. Good, This is what he deserves after everything else. He’s more focused on this than anyone would have thought possible. Now I just hope he doesn’t have a Jack sparrow like I did the first time I ever saw this film, with his natural energy I don’t think any of us could survive that. After the escape and the botched execution of Jack with will turner saving his life I heard the first thing out of Wind since the film started.

“THAT WAS AWESOME!!! AND YOU SAID THERE’S MORE!!!”

“There’s still another two films to go kiddo, you sure you’re up for that?” “DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO ASK!! OF COURSE, I AM!!”

“So you wanna start the next one straight away?”

“COME ONNNN! I REALLY WANNA WATCH IT!”

“Alright kiddo, just don’t exhaust yourself you can ask me to pause it if you want to eat something.”

After watching the next two films, I can safely say I’m exhausted even though Wind still seems ready to watch more. Wait no, scratch that he looks like he could pass out at any moment, he’s barely keeping himself awake. 

“‘M ready to go to bed now I think [name], do you mind if I-”

And there he goes, he didn’t even manage to finish his sentence before falling asleep. I’m just glad I managed to cheer him up after the failure of today. I’ll be careful not to wake him now. After all, I know better than to wake a man when he's sleepin'. It's bad luck.

#links✦react #linked universe x reader #yandere linked universe x reader #yandere linked universe #link x reader #househusband sage #moss✦answers #moss✦writes

[captainsophiestark]

Destroy All Comers

Jason Todd x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for my Year of Olympians and part of a bigger challenge being run by @yearofcreation2023​! It features a ton of other awesome creators and runs all year, so go check it out!

Fandom: DC

Prompt: Athena; Wisdom and Warfare

Summary: When Y/N's regular co-coach, Dick Grayson, is called away during an important period in the 8th grade girls' basketball season, Jason Todd has to step in and take his place.

Word Count: 3,124

Category: Fluff, Humor

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

Jason's POV

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because you're the only one available to take my place! Besides, you might actually have fun doing it once you give it a try."

I huffed and crossed my arms. Grayson had a mission overseas coming up, and he'd asked me to take his place. Not as Blüdhaven's vigilante, oh no. As the co-coach for a kid's basketball league.

It was dead last on the list of things I cared about or wanted to do. But Grayson had recently helped me out with a problem of my own, and he'd made it very clear he wasn't above calling in that favor.

"C'mon, Jay. It's only two weeks. Ten practices and one tournament, that's all you have to get through."

I sighed heavily through my nose and stared at the ceiling for a few long beats. Then, I dropped my eyes back to Dick, keeping my expression completely unimpressed.

"Fine. But you better not get hurt on this stupid mission, because I'm not covering for you a single second past that tournament."

****************

Y/N's POV

"Alright, great work! Let's take five for water and then get into our layup drills!"

I smiled and clapped a few of the girls on the back as they headed off the court to their bags on the sidelines. Coaching my little niece's basketball team was one of my absolute favorite activities, and I'd been doing it since they were first graders. Now, this was their last year before high school, and we all wanted to go out on a high note. We had a tournament in two weeks that would help set us up nicely for the end of the season if it went well for us.

Every single one of us was absolutely locked in.

Every one of us, of course, except my co-coach.

Dick Grayson, my new best friend since we'd started volunteering together at our family members' school (my niece and his little brother) and I'd managed to rope him into helping me with my niece's basketball team, was my usual co-coach. Unfortunately, he apparently had a big commitment out of town that he couldn't get out of, so he'd be missing the tournament and two weeks leading up to it. I'd been a little upset, and then mostly just teased him for a 'lack of commitment' I knew he didn't actually have before promising to keep him updated on everything. His replacement, however, I was starting to have a real problem with.

Dick told me he'd convinced one of his brothers to fill in for him this week, just so I wouldn't be left wrangling a bunch of thirteen and fourteen year-olds alone. Dick had spoken very highly of him, but he was currently half an hour late to his first practice, and I was starting to get a bad feeling that he'd be more of a hindrance than a help.

Just as the thought floated through my mind, I heard the doors to the gym swing open. I looked up to see a tall, muscle-y guy with a leather jacket stride through the door. Dick had told me they weren't biological brothers, but even with the white streak in this guy's otherwise jet black hair, I knew he was Dick's brother. He came to a stop in front of me, and I might've been a little thrown off by his good looks if I wasn't also so pissed.

"Coach Y/N, I take it?" he asked, holding out a hand for me to shake. I just scowled back at him.

"Yeah. And you're Mr. Thirty Minutes Late To Practice."

The guy–definitely Jason Todd, since he didn't correct me–narrowed his eyes slightly as he dropped his hand back to his side.

"Yeah, sorry. It was kind of a rough night."

I took a second to breathe in deeply, then let the breath out through my nose. This guy was Dick's brother, after all, and for all I knew he might've had a perfectly good reason for being late. I made myself meet his eyes and forced down some of the impatience I'd been feeling.

"Jason. It's good to meet you. Thank you for volunteering while Dick's gone." He nodded and shifted on his feet, looking a little uncomfortable. I sighed. "How much do you know about basketball?"

"Some," he said with a shrug. "I played for a little while when I was really young, and I watch it sometimes now, but that's it."

"Alright. Well, for today, I'm just going to have you run the girls through some simple drills like defensive slides and foot fires while I work on plays and some specific moves with the other half. Deal?"

"Sure."

I turned to share the new plan with the girls, but stopped and turned back again after a few steps. Jason still slouched a few feet away from me looking disgruntled.

"Listen, Jason? I really do appreciate the help, but... the girls and I take this very seriously. If you can't do that for the next two weeks... I think we might be better off without you."

I turned before Jason could really even react, not particularly interested in a comeback. The girls were waiting for me, after all, done with their water break and ready to get back into the action.

We split off into separate groups for the next hour, Jason running drills the girls probably could've done on their own while I worked with a few at a time on more position-specific drills. Finally, with half an hour left, we took one more break before it would be time to spend the last half hour scrimaging. I stood off to one side mentally making the first two groups of five, but stopped my mental planning when Jason wandered over to me, looking more than a little tired.

"How you holding up?" I asked, only half trying to conceal a smile and laugh. Jason huffed.

"They're insane," he said, slumping against the wall next to me and crossing his arms. "They interrupted me five times in the first drill to tell me I was explaining it wrong. And they were mean about it, too!"

I didn't even bother trying to hide my smile this time. "Yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said they took this seriously. It helps to have another adult in their area when I'm doing other stuff, but... they could probably run those drills themselves."

Jason gave a thoughtful hum, but didn't say anything else. I gave him a second and finished making the first set of teams in my head, then stepped to the middle of the court and clapped my hands.

"Alright girls! Let's get this scrimmage going!"

We flew through the last half hour of practice, all of the girls in excellent form. Jason kept watching, seeming much more interested and engaged than before, but he didn't chime in with anything. For the last two minutes, we practiced wild half-court shots "just in case" (and mostly for fun), then huddled up at center court as the parents started to arrive.

"Alright, great practice today everybody, as usual," I said. Even though it was the end of practice, no one looked like they were itching to go; everyone stayed laser-focus locked on me. "Now that today is over, we officially have nine practices left before our tournament next weekend. That means nine practices to get as good as we can possibly get."

The girls hooted and hollered, and our captain, Angie, chimed in.

"And to get ready to destroy all comers!"

The other girls cheered for her statement, and I grinned.

"Damned right. You girls are incredible, and should already be so proud of how far we've come. The other teams aren't gonna know what hit 'em next weekend!"

A chorus of "yeah!"s.

"Good! Now, what team?"

"Wildcats!"

"What team?"

"Wildcats!"

"Wildcats!"

"Destroy all comers!"

"Alright! We'll see you girls tomorrow!"

They all cheered, wished me a good night, and wandered off to find their parents. I watched them go with a smile as Jason wandered up to my side.

"That's not how I remember the High School Musical cheer going."

I shrugged. "Our mascot's the wildcats, but we're our own entity. Our own, slightly more cutthroat entity."

"I like it."

I finally turned to look at Jason and found him already staring at me with a mischievous smile.

"Listen, I know I wasn't very helpful today," he started. I snorted, but gave him a small smile so he knew I was mostly teasing. "But, if you'll let me... I have a couple ideas that might help over the next few weeks."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?"

****************

"Okay girls, lean into the contact! Stand your ground, really let your opponent push into you and push right back!"

I smiled as I watched Jason work with the girls. For our second practice together, he'd come early to walk me through a more detailed plan of some ideas he'd had. Like Dick, he had better experience than me with physical training and the best way to help other people strengthen themselves and specific areas. Unlike Dick, he'd immediately leaned into my more ruthless energy, and had come up with a new strategy we were in the middle of implementing.

Within a few seconds, Group A–the offensive group–stepped away from their partners. Group B, the defenders, stumbled and, in some cases, even fell. Jason beamed around at all of them.

"Great work, that's exactly what we want. Ref can't call you for anything, and the other team'll think a little harder before laying all over you in the paint again."

The girls' feral grins were response enough to tell me how they felt about that new strategy. I couldn't help mirroring their expressions as they went to get water and I went to stand by Jason.

"Nice work," I said. Jason turned to grin at me, and my heart skipped a beat in a way it never did when I coached with Dick. "I've gotta say, day one was rough, but I love the energy you've been bringing since."

"What, you're telling me Dick didn't bring the scorched-Earth energy?" he joked. I chuckled, shrugging at the thought of my usual partner being paired with the phrase "scorched-Earth".

"Dick came up with some absolutely insane yet somehow effective strategic trick plays," I said. "He's always a positive, encouraging energy, especially when the rest of us get a little too intense. But yeah, his usual role is the balance to our bloodthirstiness."

Jason nodded. "Sounds like him. Usually, at least."

I squinted a little at that as Jason stared off at the far wall, but then he shook his head and turned back to me. Slowly, a grin spread across his face, and I swear it was contagious as I mirrored him. Then, he spoke.

"I'm planning on bringing a slightly different energy to the team."

****************

"Alright girls, this is it!" I cried, staring around at the huddle of intense, focused faces around me. "We win this, and we not only win the tournament, but we're set up with the number one seed for the postseason. You've played amazing so far, and nobody can take that away from you. Keep it up for the rest of this game, and let's finish this thing!"

Everyone nodded as I spoke, an excited fire flickering in every person's eyes. After two weeks of practice and some new strategies from Jason, we'd spent Saturday carving through our early opponents like they were nothing. Now, after a long Sunday, we'd battled our way to the championship game. We'd gone into halftime tied, and the next two quarters would be everything for us.

If Dick were here, he would've referenced the "Sixteen Minutes" song from High School Musical, since that's how much game time we had left. But he wasn't here, and Jason and I both had different things on our minds.

"We're tied, which means we can take this as a fresh start," I continued. "Go out there and outplay them for the next two quarters, and it's ours. Leave it all on the floor and show them just who they're messing with."

The girls cheered, and I glanced up at Jason.

"Coach? Anything to add?"

"Yeah. I've only been here two weeks, but that was enough to realize that this team is full of the toughest, scariest competitors I've ever seen. So go out there, show no mercy, and crush anybody that tries to stand in your way!"

The girls and I all roared in approval, and Jason's feral grin fit right in with all of us. It was hard to believe he'd really only been here two weeks; he seemed like part of the team that'd always been here.

The buzzer sounded behind us, signaling it was time to retake the court.

"Alright girls, let's do this!" I shouted. "What team?"

"Wildcats!" screamed everyone, Jason included, at the top of their lungs.

"What team?"

"Wildcats!"

"Wildcats!"

"Destroy all comers!"

The girls clapped as our starters headed out onto the floor and Jason and I shifted to stand next to each other at the front of the bench, just off the court.

"See the looks we just got from the opposing team?" asked Jason with a grin. Behind him, the other players and coaches were still giving us side-eye and concerned looks. I smiled.

"Oh yeah. The intimidation mind game is half the reason for that cheer."

"Nice."

Jason and I fist-bumped, and then turned our attention back to the game as it got underway. One way or another, this was it.

Despite the intimidation to start the second half, the other team put up a great fight. It wasn't easy, but our girls managed to persevere. Jason went wild whenever one of them used a move he'd taught, and we both spent the game screaming from the sidelines with encouragement, play calls, and just a bit of extreme, "destroy all comers" mindset. In the end, we won by eight. All our girls rushed the court, screaming and celebrating, then tamped it down long enough to be good sports and go through handshakes with the other team. Afterwards, we all gathered in a corner of the gym to do a debrief before the celebrations continued.

"Alright, I'll keep this short since I see your parents waiting to join in the celebration," I said, grinning around at my team. "You guys played amazing. You should be so, so proud of yourselves. I know I'm crazy proud of you. You worked your butts off, put it all out on the floor, and won the tournament! We've still got plenty of work ahead of us before the season's over, but that's a problem for later. For now, celebrate! Celebrate yourselves, this victory, and everything we've accomplished as a team."

The girls smiled and nodded through my speech, and when I finished, they paused before going off to their celebrations to each give me a tight hug. Then, one by one, they did the same to Jason. A few of the girls who'd used his moves thanked him for his help, and most of them paused to tell him they'd miss him. I just watched as Jason's face went from shocked, to slightly uncomfortable, to a bit of a frown.

He waved the last girl off, watching them go. Slowly, I sidled up to him, watching our team meet up with their friends and parents. I gave him a second, then sighed.

"I need to call Dick," I said. "I promised him I'd let him know how the tournament came out, like, seven times before he left, he was so upset to miss it."

Jason just gave a little noncommittal "hm" without looking at me. I watched him for a second, still staring after our team, then continued.

"You know... a lot of teams in our league have three coaches, not just two." Jason snapped his head around to look at me with wide eyes. "I don't want you to feel like you have to, but... I think the girls seriously love you, and it looks like you had fun. I'm sure Dick wouldn't mind if you wanted to... stick around?"

Slowly, his expression morphed into a smile, and his eyes slid from me back to where the girls were high-fiving and reliving the weekend. He stood a little straighter, his smile widening, and then he turned back to me with a glint in his eye. Not for the first time since I started working with him, my heart skipped a beat.

"I've got a question before I agree," he said. I raised an eyebrow and nodded for him to continue. "Is there any rule about coaches asking each other on dates?"

Now it was Jason's turn to watch with a grin while I managed a shocked expression. After a few seconds, a smile started tugging at my lips as I processed his words. Before I could answer, he held up his hands and continued.

"I'm asking, of course, to see if I need to wait until the end of the season. Grayson may be good at the peppiness and creative trick plays, but clearly this team thrives with coaches as ruthless as them."

I beamed at him, my heart floating in my chest. "Fortunately for us, there's no rule against coaches going on dates. The girls are gonna be merciless teasing us about it though. They were relentless for weeks when Dick first joined the team, and we weren't actually dating."

Jason smiled and took a step closer to me.

"I think we can handle them."

"Mmm, I'm not sure you're right, but I'm willing to do it anyway."

"You wanna go get drinks now? Celebrate a little for our first date?"

"I'm in." He held out his hand to me and I took it, then held up my phone with my other hand. "Just let me call Dick before we go."

Jason nodded, and I dialed Dick's number on FaceTime. Jason leaned over my shoulder, our arms linked together and a massive grin on his face. The phone rang for a long time, then finally, Dick's face appeared on screen. He looked a little tired and rumpled, but he smiled when he saw us.

"Hey guys! How'd it go?"

"We won!" I shouted.

"You've got a new co-coach, Dickie Bird!" shouted Jason at the same time.

Dick laughed, then beamed back at both of us through the camera. "That's great! Jay, I'm glad you ended up loving it as much as I thought you might."

Jason grinned. "Yeah, well, before I started you forgot to mention the cutthroat team energy."

Dick grimaced a little as Jason went on, probably realizing he now had TWO insane co-coaches to try to balance out, but I just smiled. For the rest of this season, I'd be working with my favorite kids in the world, my best friend, and a possible new boyfriend.

No one else in the league was going to stand a chance.

#year of creation #dc #jason todd #jason todd x reader #dc x reader #batfam x reader #dc fanfiction #dc imagine #dc oneshot #jason todd fanfiction #jason todd imagine #jason todd oneshot #batfam fanfiction #dick grayson #batfam imagine #batfam oneshot #basketball #year of themed creation #gotham #nightwing

[dangermousie]

"I will help you protect your family" thinks the ML.

SIR, YOU ARE THERE IN DISGUISE TO INVESTIGATE THEM FOR TREASON ON BEHALF OF PARANOID EMPEROR.

And nothing clicks in that empty skull of his.

But then, this is the man who thought it was an awesome idea to send his either traumatized or disabled (not clear) sister to live with a bunch of strangers who he is investigating for treason and whose family has already been exiled/impoverished BY THE FREAKING EMPEROR HIMSELF! There are so many bad scenarios there - from the emperor suspecting him and his sister of collusion, to his sister being implicated, to all sorts of violence and just NO BRAIN ALL EMPTY is the ML.

This said, perhaps I am unjust to him. I am pretty sure I'd not be able to handle a super powerful job like chief of secret police in such a fashion that it apparently leaves him all this other time to wander around with FL, be a martial arts teacher and what not. Any man who can do chief of secret police job in about .7 sec a day like he does without being fired certainly is skilled.

PS What is the point of him walking in that mask all over and nobody in the court except the emperor knowing he's the chief when literally every single one of his employees sees him without a mask. Are you telling me none of these dozens of people could be bribed? Forget "two can keep a secret if one of them is dead" - this is a literal crowd!

PPS Does the heroine have face blindness, lack of spacial awareness and is utterly deaf? He doesn't change his voice between personas and how many 6'2 dudes are wandering around town? But then his own family seems to have no curiosity about where he goes all day so perhaps he's just utterly forgettable.

PPPS This drama is written by Till the End of the Moon screenwriters. That drama had its flaws in terms of narrative and character understanding (and that ending was a MESS) but it was largely coherent. But this is more holey than a colander. How?! (This said, Moon always worked best when it stuck close to the novel; but this has a novel too so...)

PPPPS If you are dying to watch female empowerment through trade with a dreamy secret police torturer ML set up, you are much better off going to A Dream of Splendor. I found ADOS morally repugnant for reasons I've talked about at length when it aired, but it was well-acted and narratively coherent. I didn't have to like those characters and found a lot of its POV gross but it actually made sense - these felt like people in a consistent world, not whatever this mess is.

#cdrama #blossoms in adversity

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

Sequence 9 deserves its own post.

O YEA THIS IS THE BEST SHIT EVER.

THE WAY HAYTHAM JUMPS HIM FROM THE RAFTERS

Technically, dad. Aren't these your first words..?

WHAT is this grin Haytham WHAT IS THIS FACE-

HOW'S THAT FOR AN INTRODUCTION-

OH their dialogue is golden.

Haytham even calls it banter please.

EVERY SINGLE TIME CONNOR WANTS TO SPARE SOMEONE HAYTHAM SHOOTS THEM INSTEAD.

We love us some hereditary eagle vision amiright fellas.

OH GEE THANKS DAD!

He takes charge almost by default it's amusing as it is annoying *for Connor*

The way they can scale the roof tops together completely side by side without a single delay from either of them is really awesome.

I cannot get over the way the rapport was written from the word 'go' it's like they don't even MEAN to banter it just HAPPENS this way it's SO FUCKIN' FUNNY.

WHEN HE INTRODUCED CONNOR AS HIS SON HE LOOKED SO STUNNED.

Connor like "DID I HEAR THIS RIGHT??"

And..I never want to hear someone describe someone's mother as 'forest fruit' ever fucking again what the actual hell.

(Yes I'm aware it's period typical racism, and accurate racism depiction but DAMN)

Damn, Haytham's face when Connor tells him about Ziio..I get the sense that, even for as far off the deep end he's gone, he was being honest here.

Which, I do believe he's being completely honest. But as Connor rightfully points out:

Haytham's regrets don't change that. Nothing is going to change what Connor has to live with. The truth of what happened.

HAYTHAM. shsjsakjsdankasdknsakj-

Dad, if you keep getting in my stuff about my sailing I WILL be throwing you overboard.

..And he took Benjamin PERSONALLY.

Well! Suit yourself then.

ENJOY HELL.

"Good job on the assassinating m'boy" (Couldn't decide which cap I like better, uploaded both)

Aww Connor apologizing to Achilles. And he's got that shiny idealism again. And it's so damned EARNEST. The man genuinely has a good heart but the world is content to just keep STOPPING ON IT. And telling Connor it's bad to have one. Everyone has told him so too. But he hasn't lost hope yet and to be honest I sort of hope that he never does. He deserves to have that thread of happiness in him.

And honestly, even though we know this only has one outcome (tragedy) there's that earnest hopefulness in Connor that, if they did just work together they could be allied. And he could appreciate his dad properly. And Haytham him in turn. Obviously that's just not going to happen: given the fact Haytham continues to ally with Lee even though he burned Connor's mother alive. And that their ideals are just too opposed, it's still painful to see Connor having that spark. It's something he'd deserve but AGH.

Probably not, but Connor's hope here is endearing as it is tragic.

(Obviously he has a perfectly suitable father figure in Achilles, but the peace glasses that Connor wears make it so that yeah, this is automatically going to be something he wants-and who could blame him?) even knowing the inevitable of it all.

ANYWAY THIS WAS AS FUNNY AS IT WAS HEARTBREAKING I'M IN SHATTERS, TATTERS.

#ac iii #nates ac iii play #assassins creed iii #haytham kenway #connor kenway #nate caps #ratohnhaké:ton #achilles davenport #ac benjamin church #im sure ill have more thoughts later but i am exhausted and buzzing rn SO THERE

[toyota-supra]

My Top 10 Favorite Games I Played In 2023

In chronological order. It's a long one.

Titanfall 2

I've been told to play this for years now, though for most of those I did not really know why, as it never seemed like my kind of game. But, ever since I started really getting into mecha sometime in 2022, I decided to finally give it a try. I'm very glad I did. Titanfall 2 is a criminally short First Person Shooter with a very fun mech/pilot dynamic, really good mechanics of movement and combat for both, and some of my favorite level design of any game I've played in a long while. The platforming is crazy good! The mechanics are tight as hell! The mech is awesome! I recommend Titanfall 2 for literally anyone reading this.

Mega Man Zero

The Zero series is the one that most called to me in the Mega Man franchise every time I looked these games over, and I was right in that judgement. While I couldn't say if I was going to appreciate most of the GBA era action platformer difficulty or not, it was clear from Zero's more agile movement and bite-sized missions with very memorization-heavy bosses that I would enjoy it. And I did enjoy it a lot! Most of the bosses kicked my ass but it was an absolute blast to finally learn their patterns enough to defeat them. The problem is, I went out of my way to not get any of the game's health upgrades or energy tanks, making the final boss so hard for me that after days and days of attempts I gave up. Not beating Mega Man Zero is probably my biggest regret of the year lmao

Fate/Stay Night

Honestly, what do I even say? You can see my Saber icon, right? Fate is a franchise I never bothered to get close to, knowing of its name only through vague images and names of more popular characters (not even from FGO, just in general), and from later on getting to know that Fate/Grand Order was the game it is I felt like it wasn't for me at all and who cares. So when I learned what the original VN was actually about I felt stupid. How could something so fitting to my tastes have gone under my radar for so long...? Despite not being much of a reader in general, F/SN is a very long game that feels like it's just as short as you need it to be. The prose flows so well, every single character is lovable in many ways, and there's so much passion written into them and the situations they're in that it's one of the most smooth-flowing VNs I've read (which granted are not many) even though it's around the high 6 digit wordcounts. I love this game dearly.

Stranger of Paradise - Final Fantasy Origin

I wanted to play this game since the first few trailers! How cruel was it that, not only did I not have a powerful enough machine at the time, but the game wasn't even on Steam until the year after release? Final Fantasy Origin is the game it presents itself to be. There's something about it that's so special to a certain kind of person (which I happen to be one of) and that falls flat for everyone else. The combat and its many Weapons, Jobs and Skills to use are just fantastic in how nice they feel, and I really do like the type of story Stranger tells. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm close to it. I like to describe Stranger of Paradise as everything good about PS2 and PS3 games in a modern title.

Pseudoregalia

An old feeling from a new friend. Pseudoregalia is everything I like in 3D Platforming, and a little bit of what I don't. If you've ever looked at a single gif or video of Super Mario 64 and thought, "this looks pretty fun to play," you should be playing Pseudoregalia. If you like goat ladies with big butts, I can't say I understand if that would sell you on a game or not, but it is a feature everyone mentions. I wrote on this game already, so please do check that out and get it. It's one of the three titles of this list that came out this year, and I have not heard enough people talk about it.

Armored Core VI - Fires of Rubicon

My favorite in this list, which is funny because I don't know what to say about it at all. Armored Core is a series I've been studying up on from the outside for a while, and the announcement for this title was my reason to finally dive in. Unfortunately, I did not get past playing the first mission of AC1 a few times and booting up AC3 once. But I will get to it eventually! Fires of Rubicon is one hell of an action game, that I adored for every single one of my (currently) 67 hours of play. Going through the campaign with builds a little too busted for the AI most of the time was my dishonorable focus of the experience, but there's a lot else to do for every kind of person. The amount of freedom you have for messing with your builds for either single or multiplayer is not to be underestimated. Though it could be better. Here's hoping there will be a game that is.

Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition Remix

I played this game as a kid so much that the main menu and its theme are scarred into my mind, yet this whole time I had no idea what the game was actually like due to the fact that most of my playtime was doing a few races and just cruising around. Once you dive into trying to finish the story, MC3 is a much different experience. One that frustrated me so much, I got actually ill from the stress. Please take breaks, gamers! Your health is more important than finishing an 18 year old game! Still, I did eventually do it. Midnight Club 3's handling model and gameplay structure are really impressive in comparison to the much more popular Need for Speed series, and I have to admit I did enjoy the game a lot. It's just a lot harder than it ever needed to be. I'll probably never forget this game, and that's not really a good or bad thing. Just, advice from me, if it gets too hard, maybe switch to sports bikes. Buy that Ducati.

Test Drive Unlimited

Another car game, but this one I have the least to say about of any on this list. I had played TDU on PS2 multiple times before and thought it was awesome. The atmosphere and immersion of this game are unrivaled by any racing game to this day. But playing the PC version with a steering wheel and pedals made everything so much more incredible. I played the Platinum mod, which adds hundreds more cars and fixes a lot of issues with the original game (but not all of them; the game was still really rough and I hate how much the resolution is a pain to change). Overall, one of my favorite experiences with a steering wheel controller so far. Otherwise, a pretty good game if you like driving.

Super Mario Sunshine

An old friend, and a new feeling. I don't play 3D platformers as much as I wish I did, because they're really not part of my main priorities looking for games lately, but every time I play a Mario game, it's like I found love again. It was not the first time I played Super Mario Sunshine, as I had collected a dozen or so Sprites years before, but playing the whole game in I think two weeks during the latter half of the year was such an incredible experience. Unless for some reason you play it on the Switch, Sunshine is a game that loves you as much as you love it. And you do love it, right? I know I do. I'd love to play this game many other times in the future. Granted, that applies to every game here, I just wanted to say it out loud for this one.

Lethal Company

A fairly recent release! Having played it with many groups of people by now, both modded and vanilla, I think Lethal Company is probably one of my favorite multiplayer experiences ever. It is scary and hilarious, but also just really really good, to a level that surprised me for my quality standards of co-op (horror) games. Lethal Company turns friends into improvised horror movie actors and it's incredible. I'm almost at 30 hours played and will likely get to 40 at minimum. It's also pretty cheap and likely runs well on all sorts of machines, so consider checking this one out too.

Honorable Mentions

Witch on the Holy Night and Story of Seasons - Friends of Mineral Town are games I am adoring and could definitely go on this list, hadn't I started them both quite late into December. Maybe next year I'll give them a shoutout!

#video games

[batwingsandblackcats]

close the door & set the day down

Read on Ao3

Co-Written by @sageobo31

Rating: not rated

Archive Warnings: no archive warnings apply

Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)

Relationships: Laudna/Imogen Temult

Characters: Laudna (Critical Role) Imogen Temult Deanna Leimert

Other Tags: Fluff, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Christmas Fluff, Winter's Crest (Critical Role), Headaches & Migraines, Pining, Mutual Pining, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Pie Shop AU, Imogen owns a pie shop and Laudna owns a coffee shop, we really tried to get this out in time for christmas you guys, it didnt work

1/1, 9,228 words (complete)

Part 1 of Imodna Pie Shop AU

Summary:

Imogen loved the holidays. She really, really did, especially in this new home she'd found. Especially since meeting her new friends, meeting Laudna, since getting to introduce Laudna to all the holiday traditions she didn't get to grow up with. The look of absolutely unfettered joy on Laudna's face when she'd brought her to the tree farm just outside Westsruun to go cut down a tree for the first time was permanently etched into Imogen's brain. Not to mention the snow that seemed to blanket everything here in the winter, something she never saw back in Gelvaan. But, inevitably, the holidays are loud, in every sense of the word, and her lovely little pie shop is no exception. — Or, Imogen owns a pie shop, and she's completely in love with Laudna, who owns the coffee shop across the street. A pilot episode.

Notes:

We really tried to get this up in time for Christmas, y'all. Ah well. Sage and I have been playing with this au for over a year, just a fun little thing to keep us occupied while at work, and I've been keeping track of our notes for it in case we felt like actually writing it out sometime. But then, I really wanted to write something for the holidays, and we'd recently been headcanoning holiday scenarios, so we decided to just sorta snip this one night out of the au and make it a one shot for the holidays. We've been calling it the pilot episode. (Scenes subject to change when the whole thing is written out.) In a lot of ways this au really is Sage's baby--she fuckin loves Waitress, and my knowledge of Waitress begins and ends with the fact that pies are involved, so while I wrote this chunk, she's really gonna take the reigns with this au. Thank you all so much for the recent comments on our other fics, I'm so slow at answering them but please know that I literally screenshot every single one and send it to Sage so we can scream about it. Y'all are awesome and we hope ya all had a great holiday season! Thanks again for readin and we hope you enjoy! (Bonus points to whoever catches the Ask a Mortician easter egg.)

#critical role #critical role fanfic #imodna #imogen temult #laudna #fluff #Imodna Fic #IPSAU #Imodna Pie Shop AU

[matryosika]

Now open: commisions !

Author's Note

I've been wanting to do some commissions for a while now, and since my college semester is coming to an end, I figured this is the perfect time to try this out! If you enjoy my stories, and you have a specific, kinky idea in mind you'd like me to write about, i'm all ears.

As I've said before, I'm struggling with finding a decent job and being a full-time, 4th. year college student. Every tip, and possible commissions, will help me greatly. However, and with this being said, I will still write stories for everyone. I have tons of ideas for future stories and series, and me opening commissions doesn't mean that I will stop posting stuff for free. Absolutely not!

Commissions are just one of the many ways people can support an author. I'm opening them, in case someone wishes to purchase a specific story from me!

I'm actually nervous for this. If you can help me reblogging to reach more people, that would be awesome!

Prices

☕ 500 words or less: $3

☕ 500 - 1500 words: $6

☕ 1500 - 2500 words: $10

☕ 2500 - 3000 words: $13

The standard pairing for the stories is idol character x reader. If you want me to write a threesome, or something-some, that would be $2 per extra character. (Sorry! Three or more people in a single smut scene is kind of difficult to write haha!)

I also spent some time researching other authors and their fees. I tried to make the prices as accessible as possible, but also valuing the time and effort it takes me to write something.

The wordcount limit for these comissions is up to 3,000 words. Mostly because of practiticy and efficiency. I hope you understand. If, by any means, I exceed the wordcount, that's on me! I tend to give a lot of context, so I might go over the wordcount agreed from time to time. This, however, doesn't mean you have to pay me any extra. Don't worry!

Instructions

If you wish to commission a story from me, you should contact me through tumblr (private messages, not asks) or discord (incheon914#7828).

Share your idea with me and be as specific as you can possibly be. The more details, the higher the probability of me writing something exactly for your taste. It's also important you tell me how long you want the story to be, based on the prices.

Once I'm done writing the story, I will let you know. Payment will only take place after I've told you the story is complete, and before I send it to you in PDF format. Payment can be done through my ko-fi platform, or directly through paypal. It's up to you!

Delivery time

☕ 500 words or less: 1 or 2 days.

☕ 500 - 1500 words: 2 or 3 days.

☕ 1500 - 2500 words: Up to a week.

☕ 2500 - 3000 words: Up to a week.

I'll work on them as fast as possible. For stories with more than 1,500 words, the estimated time is a week. It could be less, but if I need an expansion of time I'll let you know!

Additional information

You must be 18 or older to request a commission.

I can write smut, angst and fluff. Both NSFW and SFW for the last two.

I don't write historical au's, omegaverse, or anything that includes characters that aren't human (hybrid au's, for instance). There's nothing wrong with it, but the ideas just don't flow within me. I prefer to write something more domestic, in a way.

I'm open to write about any kink, even if I haven't written it before. However, my limits include the following: underaged characters, noncon, incest (step-something, I can discuss it. But I can't promise anything!), race play, extreme age play, slave / owner dynamics, emetophilia, bestiality, sounding and gore.

All of my work is related to SKZ, but I'm open to write about other idols as well. For instance, some other groups I enjoy writing about are BTS and all units of NCT.

#kpop smut #stray kids smut #skz smut #bang chan smut #chan smut #lee know smut #minho smut #changbin smut #hyunjin smut #jisung smut #han smut #felix smut #seungmin smut #jeongin smut

[callipraxia]

The Interview: A Running 'Live' Commentary

Well, you asked, kinda, @the-orion-scribe...

Disclaimer: One of my…things is that where there is a transcript, I'm gonna read the transcript first and then may or may not tackle the audio version later. As such, I'm inevitably going to get some of the subtler bits indicated by gesture and tone of voice wrong. I hope it won't be anything that significantly changes the meaning, but we shall see. I'm doing this live, (redact) it! And partially on my work breaks at that, so apologies if anything gets repetitive or disjointed as a result of different bits being read several hours apart. Full transcript is available here from, I believe, @fordtato, who seems like awesome cool folks.

That all said, let's begin.

[On the SAG-AFTRA strikes]

Alex's grandmother was an actress? Interesting. Also, generally approve of the sentiments stated there, very good, no actual notes.

[On the pilot and the 'Next On' reel]

When I was a much, much younger Callipraxia, I also had an interest in TV work - we had this class at my middle school call Careers, and we had to do a research project on, well, a career every year, and one year I did mine on being a soap opera writer (early nineties soap operas were my first literary influences, and I suspect it still shows). I therefore find this glimpse into the industry fascinating, even though I don't have much to say about it beyond giggling at the image of executives having such reptilian, limited-intelligence brains that they could be tricked into thinking something already exists and therefore just approving it so they don't have to think about why they're being asked to approve something that already exists because it would make their heads hurt.

"I was working...on a cartoon called 'Flapjack.'"

I'm 99% sure I've never seen a single frame of this show, but also 99% sure I've heard of it somehow. Not sure why. No idea what 'Fish Hooks' is, though.

"Then, when we did the Cipher Hunt, I was running out of rewards and treasures to give the audience because I'd already bled Gravity Falls dry of every drop of content that was inside it..."

See, this is what I find fascinating about Proper Creators, and this one in particular. Their creations can seem so much fuller to us than they do to them. This baffles me, because even when I don't do things on purpose, I generally do realize that I did them sometime, you know? (Edit: ha, Hirsch actually talks a bit about this at the end)

"I remember asking him, 'Hey, Mike, you read the bible, right? What do you think about this Jesús character? Do you think it's working? Do you think people will get it?'"

Even though I clearly read the words 'series bible' right above this, my first thought was that Alex was asking Mike if he'd read The Bible - y'know, the religious one. And I was so confused. And then I stopped being confused and I facepalmed in real life.

"Instead of embracing that this is part of lore that fans love...in his mind, he, as a serious videogame programmer, made a mistake, and is ashamed of the mistake, and doesn't want to acknowledge it, doesn't want to encourage other people to corrupt their own game, and so he said 'there's no such thing as MissingNo.'"

This is another "I just don't get Proper Creators" moment. I'd have embraced it so thoroughly I'd have written a sequel just about it and only revealed that it was actually serendipitous (not 'a mistake' - word choice, people!) years later!

Sometimes no answer is better than a boring answer.

This is why I love that thing Robert Jordan used to say - "read and find out!" and the fandom shortened it to "RAFO," and now that's a one-word response to questions you don't want to answer, at least if everyone in the room is familiar with The Wheel of Time books and fandom history...so many times I've wanted to just reply "RAFO!" in a review, but then realized the odds were excellent that the other person would have no clue what I was talking about.

"I know that we did cut like 12 pages from the journal, just due to length."

I've been told that I can make people feel cussed out without ever uttering a single swearword, when I'm annoyed enough with them. I would like to try to do that to whoever it was who decided on this length restriction. Give me lore! All the lore! More! More lore!

[On the walls of genre cards and character beat cards and how this led to rejected episode ideas]

I'm gonna try this writing method out, it sounds interesting. Thanks, Alex! And also thanks to everyone involved who's mentioned any of these rejected ideas over the years, as this allows us to play with them instead! (one day, y'all will know the tale of Wendy as a weather witch. I've got a whole arc planned for her with that one).

"When [Rob Renzetti] and I are together, we're very much like Grunkle Stan and Ford, and he is Ford and I am Stan."

I wish so much that someone had asked if there were ever any RL fistfights during the production of the book. It's barely even funny and would have wasted time, but I wish they had anyway.

"I still recall when Ford had a long beard and was a hippie."

...No.

"We were thinking it'd be kind of more like a zen kind of guy"

I mean, technically I suppose he still is. Apparently quite big on meditation back in the day, and the Journal strongly implies he's a firm believer in divination now. He could have been a sort of hippie lite, had he gone for drugs other than brain demons and/or Truck Stop Coffee I Initially Assumed Was A Euphemism For Significantly Stronger Stimulants.

"I remember talking about, maybe, J.K. Simmons and then thinking, 'Gosh, you know, he's got a very familiar voice, is he gonna feel too overexposed.'"

Ford was actually the first character I ever heard Simmons voice, because I have acquired what passes for my pop culture literacy mostly completely backward. My mother was watching reruns of whatever that cop drama he was on was (was it The Closer?) one day, though, and I did a double take at the TV because why is Ford here on one of Mama’s shows? Did he get arrested again or something? Why are they acting like he's one of the...ohhhh.

Which yes, means I found my way to Portal 2 via Gravity Falls instead of the other way around. That isn't so surprising, though, because video games are another of my...things. I absolutely love a lot of the stories and will happily read about them and watch cutscenes and video essays about them and player-keeps-quiet playthroughs all day, but I've never actually played video games because I have poor hand-eye coordination and rather low frustration tolerance when it comes to entertainment. The puzzles would drive me mad. I adore complex things, but I hate having to figure them out before I can move on with the story if I don't want to stop. Let me figure stuff out at my own pace, dangit -

Er, that got off-topic, sorry. The point was, I've watched a ton of clips of Portal 2 now, and it's kind of fascinating to me that it possibly wasn't a conscious influence, because Cave Johnson is...not really that dissimilar to a thing that Ford could have become, in a lot of ways. Or what he and/or Fiddleford might have actually become in the "Better World," for all we know. He's probably closer to what Fiddleford did become in canon, though, at least for a while/in my possibly somewhat weird interpretation of Fiddleford.

"So we're putting this character together, we're putting blocks together, we're moving blocks and putting them up, and it's only at the last second that a Ford is revealed that we're like 'I guess we did it?'"

This is how I construct plots basically, more than characters, but - oh, gosh, I wanna do a lore dump so bad but this isn't the time or place. Never mind, I'll ramble about character development another time.

Also, I am amused by the visual of, like, Stan or someone performing a dramatic flourish and being like "Behold: A Ford!"

"What to you comes across as 'oh, Rob understands Ford's ridiculous recklessness' to me comes across as 'Rob IS Ford and Ford does rationalize.' That's what he does. One of Ford's greatest powers is rationalizing. So you're seeing Rob as Ford rationalizing Ford's bad decisions. In that moment, I think what's being revealed is less Ford's recklessness, and more Ford's ability to justify anything."

Why not both? But yeah, fair, I've observed this about the character myself. He censors himself when he doubts. It's a defensive mechanism I think - it keeps him alive and functional to a degree, because, well...we've seen what happens when Ford admits he was wrong, twice. In the Journal, he nearly lost his mind, and in the finale, he basically went from thinking of himself as He Who Shall Save The World to He Who Is About To, However Reluctantly, Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds in an alarmingly short period of time. Extreme black and white thinking with him a lot of the time. Not a psychologist, just a nerd, but the longer I think about the character, the more probable a personality disorder seems. Which is one reason I worry about him and Stan both after the series ends. They're both going to be confused as all get-out when it dawns on them that "...wait, we're not suddenly better after all? We're both still really, really screwed up?"

"When you do a clone story, the point of a clone story, in my mind, is a character seeing themselves in a different light, right?"

Depends on which side you're looking at it from, really ;)

"They're all wonderful, wonderful dumbasses, all of them."

Accurate.

"They know that I am a detail-oriented bastard."

...Less accurate, in a way. I've spun whole worlds out of details that the writers have admitted were unintentional or screwups, not to mention the later discourse on Alex as the "emotional" story one while Rob was the "make it a story" guy, or the specific detail that was actually under discussion here. As for that one....

"When you're editing, when you're writing, and then you reread your writing and you edit it, and then you reread your writing and you edit it, there's a very subconscious process of streamlining, literally making paragraphs look nice - it's entirely possible that me or Rob made that change out of one in a million changes specifically because we knew that psychologically Ford is not traveling this path alone, he's traveling it with his muse who he has a very complex and fucked-up relationship with, and even in Ford's private thoughts, he would not say 'I'm alone,' he would say, 'Oh, I have a very important relationship in my life with Bill, but I don't have a friend, that is a difference!'"

...except he canonically referred to Bill as his friend, too, so, uh...yeah, there's that.*

Interesting to hear someone else's perspective on rewriting and editing; I'm pretty sure that there's very little sub-conscious going on with me when I'm editing. If anything, I'm double and triple checking to excise anything that even hints of subconsciousness out of the manuscript, and I am very, very conscious of times when I go out of my way to make paragraphs physically neat and pretty, because I always feel really stupid about doing it. So I suppose I'm glad to hear other people do that, too.

I also found it interesting to see the description of the relationship with Bill as "very complex and fucked-up." Ford, at least, wrote and spoke as though he was under the impression that his relationship with Bill was very straightforward pre-betrayal, but here's the Guy, on the record saying it was in fact "very complex." This doesn't confirm that Ford was on some level aware of this, but it does make me feel more confident about my theory that Ford invited Fiddleford up not so much because he really needed the technical expertise as because his subconscious was throwing up enough red flags to cover every square inch of land in the U.S.S.R. and he just couldn't admit it to himself consciously because admitting that he is not in control of a situation tends to render him non-functional.

*Full disclosure since nobody's read this far anyway, but hi if you have, have a full disclosure: I would not say I ship it, because in context - Fiddleford married, Ford on the brink of sanity, Ford as Fiddleford's employer, Fiddleford mind-wiping both himself and Ford behind Ford's back after a certain point, and that's all before we consider that on occasion, it's entirely possible Fiddleford was interacting with someone who mostly looked like Ford but, uh, wasn't - it would be incredibly dark and messed up and suitable for nothing but a full-blown adult psychological horror story, but I do consider "Ford was in love with Fiddleford, regardless of whether it was reciprocated or not" as a perfectly valid reading of the Journal. I also consider it perfectly valid to read it as Ford just being prone to really intense attachments, regardless of what kind they are - he either adores you or he hates you, whether you're his brother, his muse, his friend, his romantic or sexual interest, or what-have-you, which is kind of what I was saying earlier about the potential for personality disorders there. Ford writes in a style more like he's from the mid-nineteenth century than from the mid-twentieth, or at least like he's trying to imitate that style, so that could make things sound gay that aren't gay, but by the same token, much of Ford's rhetorical style seems to exist to allow him to not-quite-lie to himself while using his superpower of Justify Anything, so ultimately that means nothing, too. I went through the Journal line by line once and determined that you could make roughly equally strong cases for Ford being some form of straight, some form of gay, some form of bi, and some form of ace, and that it also wouldn't be unreasonable to come away with the view that he's not into humans so much but might very well be into one or more types of alien. I don't know and so will potentially read any variant of these things, as long as it's a decent story.

"You know the thing about working with a big company, it's like working with a friend who swaps their head with a different head every couple of years."

Huh, Alex has met Olm, has he?

[Hana] "By the way, I know there's a lot of fake blood on this page, that's for one of my YouTube videos, ignore that."

Why is this the moment I laughed out loud?

"That's the trouble of a puzzle box, is it's like, there's two flavors of it, there's a question with a satisfying answer, and then there's a question that is sort of an open-ended invitation to a kind of, uh, you know, group improvisational session. We've created a prompt for fans to 'yes and' their own story out of it, and the sense that there might be something in there creates a sense of excitement along with it."

Pretty sure this is sums up my general thoughts on the Interview/is the part of it I regard as Important so far. Also, I wish I could write something like that. If I leave a loose end hanging, it's very blatantly a loose end. I can improvise a 10,000-word essay about Ford's anger issues on the fly, doing that out of someone else's work is incredibly easy and natural for me, but I can't do the same in my own work. It's a frustrating thing.

"The Mystery Shack is a bucket full of misshapen, lost, odd oddities, and these character are a bucket of full of misshapen lost odd oddities, and like the idea of them all having a place where they fit in, and - and loving each other as a family, was very important to me."

...Ok, this is another Important bit, but for completely different reasons. Basically sums up why I'm here, really.

"That means that Dipper and Mabel's parents may have had children at a concerningly young age, and is this show's intent to say that it's okay for those relationships to exist?"

Here's a thing that I think is just...me not quite getting how a lot of people work, I guess? To me, there's a world of difference between "that could be what happened" and "and that means I approve of it." The Pineses are a really screwed up family. They should have called that pawn shop Dysfunction Junction, that’s how messed up they are. Apparently it was Filbrick who knocked someone up at a drive-in movie once (one of my 4.5 Shermies is actually a much older half-brother who only gets to know Stan at all after they meet at Filbrick's funeral, though I never decided if his mom was the shotgun wedding or if that was with Caryn. Either way, though, he was vaguely aware that "yeah, Dad and his second wife had those twins" but he'd had very limited contact with them and bought that he'd mixed up which one was supposed to be weird and have six fingers without too much trouble), and Mabel's level of proto-sexual aggressiveness is...occasionally disconcerting, to me at least. One or more generations of teenage parenthood seems perfectly in character for them to me, without it meaning anyone approves or disapproves of that. It's fairly realistic, however depressing, that a much younger son in a family as dysfunctional as theirs might well have started acting out, resulting in Indiscretions - my second fic was based on the premise that the "you gotta raise a kid, your life falls apart..." was Stan talking about Shermie's lot in life rather than his own, as I hadn't yet heard the remark about it being a Filbrick quote (the whole events of that story were constructed with the idea of keeping Stan's line about how he lied to everyone, including "my family" and "your parents", literally true, so every event was created to explain how Stan got away with it for a little longer without anyone noticing, basically). Mabel also seems impractical enough, even post-character development, to get waaaaaay too into a high school relationship with unfortunate results. That's not approval of such relationships, that's just...reality? Goodness, people don't think I morally approve of everything (or even very much at all) in my stories, do they? That's an unsettling thought.

"I think we say 'damn.' I think we say 'hell' maybe, um, yeah."

Ford specifically says "I'll be damned" in the Journal (though, in context, it seems less like swearing than like he possibly means it some form of literally; there's several hints in the Journal that suggest Ford believes in...Something, though he's almost certainly not a member of any organized religion and almost definitely not a member of any organized religion we'd recognize). Stan, for his part, says "hell" in "Lost Legends," referring to a part of the carnival that he thinks would be a good hiding place.

Since Disney allowed people to refer to going to literal, capital-H Hell in at least two properties long preceding Gravity Falls, though (specifically, David Xanatos infamously says "pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell" in the pilot of the animated show Gargoyles, and Claude Frollo sings a whole song where he repeatedly yells the words "Hell" and "Hellfire" without a care in the world in The Hunchback of Notre Dame), I am still more shocked that they let Ford say the word "suicide" on the show proper, on Disney channel. And...okay, Frollo is significantly less child-friendly than Bill, even given the torture scene. Frollo does things that are just as violent as that scene, plus Frollo is quite blatantly driven by a perverse sexual obsession with a woman, so that he attempts to coerce her into sex with everything but the word 'sex' on screen before setting her on fire. There's distinctly perverse undertones in Bill's every interaction with Ford in the Weirdmageddon Trilogy, but Bill's been an energy being without physical form since before the birth of the Milky Way, which takes the edge off...a bit, anyway. Bill in the Journal flings down and dances upon the line between "this is a metaphor" and "...okay, so, the way this is being written about is so on the nose that I'm not sure this counts as a metaphor for any practical purposes anymore," but Bill having "extract information" as a motive in the most blatantly unsettling scenes of the show proper means he's still less overt about it on screen than Frollo.

...What was I talking about, again? Oh, right. Disney Channel: A lot less squeaky-clean in general than it wants you to think, Parents! They've been letting animated people say "Hell" occasionally since I was four!

"We talked about 'is there a way for this government agent who knows about Trembley to be connected to the government agents who picked up this disturbance?' We weren't really able to find a way to make them connect in a satisfying way, so, I wish we had done more with it."

Welp, there's another one for the "Projects to Eventually Do" List. Y'know, I'd never even thought of associating Powers and Co with the guy in "National Treasure"? It's one of those episodes I kinda mostly forget about tbh, the S1 filler episodes - I remember facts from it because they're useful when constructing my "Nathaniel Northwest was a warlock who made deals with Bill and here's how that could play out" theories, but I never think about the plot. Kind of like how I forget that Dipper's infatuation with Wendy is why the Paper Twins exist, even though they're now major characters in a lot of what I've written and are even bigger players in the vast majority of what I plan to write in future....I can tell you way, way too much about "Double Dipper," but I'm always slightly surprised that "oh, the Wendy obsession is why all this other stuff even happened!"

[On a very long section of text about McGucket and the memory gun]

OMG OMG OMG I WAS RIGHT! I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE ALCOHOLISM METAPHOR, IT'S CANON, I FEEL SO SMART RIGHT NOW, WHEEE!

Ahem...sorry about that. Got a bit carried away there. So, Alex also compared McGucket's relationship with the memory gun to alcoholism. And to taking anxiety pills, but...well, there is a reason you don't mix those, I suppose. I want to dig into this so much more, and I'm probably gonna end up printing this section and tacking it to the wall next to my writing table, but right now I have gotta do my mother's taxes, she refused to admit they hadn't been done yet until a few hours ago, arrgh, I don't have time - yeah, that bit's probably gonna get its own analysis post eventually.

"It's like he has to always have a mission in front of him, because if he doesn't have a mission in front of him, he's thinking 'how have I treated the people in my life?'"

Hey, I think I said that...like...three times in this insanely long post, and I know I've said it before. My character interpretations are being validated. It makes me faintly grumpy that I'm as pleased by this as I am. I have a...complicated relationship with validation, let's leave it at that.

"The same way you know a black hole is there by the light warped around it, it's like, you know the damage someone's family has done to them by all of their weird tics and behaviors. So who is the character who would result in Stan being this hurt and needy and mad and also longing?"

I'd argue that it was the whole family dynamic, really - Stan clearly had a ton of daddy issues on the boil even before he got disowned, and while Caryn seems to have been more openly affectionate toward him, I can't imagine it did his psychology any good to grow up with a mother he calls a "pathological liar" without missing a beat. There'd always be that uncertainty (much like there later is with Stan himself) about what was real and what was a lie, what was a performance, because Caryn, like Stan, was an entertainer - it's the thing they were good at. Meanwhile, Filbrick is a fifties and sixties father of the most rigid sort, someone who is clearly uncomfortable expressing any positive emotion of any kind, or really anything except anger. He's either indifferent or he's shouting, and he apparently calls his sons by the same name to the point that they can say "he means you" when he's bellowing for "Stan Pines," because Stan's unimportance in life has been so thoroughly underlined for him by his parents, long before Ford personally was in any position to inflict much childhood trauma, that he struggles to have any form of identity separate from "Ford's twin" by a very young age, and never really grows past this until maybe the final moments of the show - I really wish we'd had a moment of Stan claiming his own name properly, but at least it made the news. Until that point, he'd literally failed at everything he ever did as Stanley, as himself, because he had no direction without Ford - even the Mystery Shack, as built around his specific talents as it is, was created because the mission in front of him had Ford as a focus point. That's a crucial thing, too, about his bond with Dipper and Mabel, and Soos, and even kinda Wendy - he's built a life for himself outside of just being Ford's brother. It's implied none of them even knew he was a twin, that the Other had ever existed. He still defines himself in relation to other people to a large extent, but that's still less restrictive than defining himself (and being defined by others) solely in terms of one other person. Fairer to Ford, too. But I digress.

"And it's like 'oh! I think he's also aloof and distant from himself.' I think he is, uh, deeply, deeply hiding from his real feelings about things, because at some point early on, he decided that he could run from hurt by achievement and by creation, and has dug that hole so deep that he has no relationships."

Accurate, at least at times.

"The shows I was watching growing up were, like, Doug and Rugrats, and there were no holy wars about whether Chucky Finster, uh, should be interpreted this way or that way. We had no idea the world that was coming into consciousness as we were making this thing."

I found this kinda interesting, because I remember those shows, too - but by the time I was old enough to be aware of very much, Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had already created the core of modern fandom culture as we know it, so I at the same time have the concepts of "there is no Rugrats fandom" and "that did not make fandom a surprise to me, because it was falling into place right about the point where my memory starts/I became dimly aware of the world outside of [Microscopically small town I'm from]." I don't know if this is something where he maybe remembers early childhood more than I do, since I have very, very few distinct memories from before I was 10-11 - a few, but they're like isolated snapshots with limited context, except what I know happened because people have told me it happened. I know Hirsch is older than me, but also not *that* much older than me, so I wonder if it's down to those few years (like he said about how gay marriage had just been legalized as the show was wrapping, and it's disconcerting now to think how different so many things were back then) or if it's a difference in personalities or what.

Well! That was more enjoyable than I expected! Thanks for prodding me to finally read this thing, @the-orion-scribe. It's eaten much of my day and seems set to eat a fair bit of it tomorrow, too, since I had to cut myself short at a couple of interesting points, but it was fun.

#gravity falls #gravity falls characters #gravity falls fandom #commentary #my commentary

[mlbigbang]

2022 Ladrien Fic Rec List

It's the end of the year which means it's finally time for the ML Big Bang's yearly fic rec lists! We're really excited to bring you our contributors' favourite fics started this year to supply you with plenty of reading material while you're waiting for the Big Bang fics' publication in January.

you're such a dream to me by @bocadelicate 1,076 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

there was something so comforting about cuddling with his lady. even though she didn’t know he was her partner, and even if he couldn’t know who she was behind the mask. he was still ever so in love with her, and he wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

"It's simply soft, short and sweet Ladrien fluff."

o, trespass sweetly urged by @apopcornkernel 820 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

“We can’t,” Ladybug breathed against his mouth, so close Adrien could count her eyelashes. “Your father—” “Isn’t here,” Adrien said, fierce and flushed. Ladybug swallowed, and as she did, her lips grazed his. He couldn’t help the shudder that ran through him. Ladybug is the vigilante protector of the people. Adrien is the crown prince of the kingdom. They should not be doing this.

"It's a Ladrien knight/prince AU. Need I say more. (I will say more though. It has lovely prose, a fabulous setup, and so much potential plot-wise.)"

for all the moon’s beauty (you are far more radiant) by @theladyfae 751 words, General, 1/1 chapter

Oh, the picture they must make: an outlaw, holding onto the hand of a prince, directing him on how to love her.

"this fic takes place in the famed Ladrien knight/prince AU. it depicts a single, simple night of Adrien and Ladybug, with stunning writing and word use where you can feel their yearning oozing off the screen <3"

"Fae's writing is so poetic and beautiful and the entire thing is just so evocative and fitting of Ladrien as a ship."

say something by @coffeebanana 17,963 words, Teen, 4/12 chapters

Whenever Adrien imagined sharing a hotel room with Ladybug...it wasn't like this. It was supposed to be on a desert island somewhere, they were supposed to be happy, and he always figured he'd actually know Ladybug's real name by then. Instead, Adrien's injured and Ladybug's insistent on hiding him away from Hawk Moth. Plus, as if finding out he's been fighting his father for years isn't enough, Adrien's pretty sure Ladybug's been acting differently since she found out who he is. What he is. And Ladybug...has no idea what to say to make things better.

"THIS FIC. It has sentiadrien, which is something sorta controversial in the fandom. However the way it's handled in this is great, the writing is awesome, and every chapter packs this emotional punch that leaves me wanting more. It's also very *realistic*. Adrien and Ladybugs feelings are complicated and messy, and this fic doesn't glide over that- it *embraces* it. Above all, they really care for each other, and this fic allows that aspect of their relationsip to shine."

Probably Not The Best Idea by @coffeebanana 17,827 words, Teen, 5/22 chapters

When Adrien first offered Ladybug his spare room, it was mostly joke. Not once in a million years did he think she'd actually take him up on the offer. After all, he's the only one who's hopelessly in love. Right? For her part, Ladybug never meant to make a habit out of visiting Adrien. But now that she has, well...spending time with him feels safe. It feels right. So why not give this roommates thing a try? Surely it'll be nice, not having to hide her hero identity in her own home for once, even if she has to hide her civilian identity instead. All in all, it might not be the best idea they've ever had, but...can it really be the worst? And if they happen to get a little more than they bargained for in the process? That's just part of the fun.

"personally i love ladrien, and i love domesticity, so when i saw that this fic was a thing i absolutely had to read it. its only a couple chapters in at the moment but their dynamic is written so well and the fic balances humour and fluff really well <3"

Selfish Love by @ck2k18 1,508 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Jumping from a nearby bush, the animal changed from lizard to jaguar in midair. She whirled to face it, sword in her hand, but not fast enough. Then she was on the ground, someone else's weight on her as she rolled out of the creature's path. The culprit hovered over her, blonde hair shining in the moonlight. His shirt was torn from the beast's claws, and he panted heavily. He’d flung himself into danger for her. And it looked like he’d do it again. “Adrien, NO!” ... Or: Adrien keeps sacrificing himself for his guard, and she's a little tired of reminding him that it's not his job.

"LADRIEN FIGHTING OVER LADYBUG SACRIFICING HERSELF FOR ADRIEN'S SAFETY. + KNIGHT/PRINCE AU. YOU AGREE."

reinvent love by @peachcitt 36,865 words, General, 30/30 chapters

“And what could a pretty sort of girl like you want with me?” she asks, the corners of her mouth quirking up into a smile. “I wanted to become your right hand man,” Adrien says. “Girl,” he corrects, hurriedly. “Right hand girl. I want to be your right hand… girl.” “Cute,” she says to Adrien as she swings gracefully onto the saddle. “Is that a yes?” or a prince cross-dressing to protect his identity and a famous lady-knight attempting to save the world. for ladrien june 2022

"Fantasy AU! Marinette is a magic knight! Adrien is a runaway prince! ....and is currently known as "Adrienne," self-proclaimed right-hand-girl of the mysterious knight. Has very good parallels to canon, but in a fantasy/medieval setting. And lots of delicious crushes and awkward moments."

Under Oath by @eoscenes 81,446 words, Teen, 30/? chapters

In the aftermath of Hawk Moth's defeat, Ladybug finds her heart torn between her schoolgirl crush and her superhero partner ― who returns, after an unexplained hiatus, more irresistible than ever. ⋆☆⋆ Gabriel Agreste is unmasked, and Paris rises up in the aftermath. Marinette Dupain-Cheng must weather Paris' anxious protesters, ravenous reporters, a scattered team of judiciary investigators, and her conflicting feelings for two different boys. In the eye of this storm is the elusive Adrien Agreste, the primary witness in his own father's trial, who might just hold the secret to finding the Peacock Miraculous. (If only she wasn't in love with him.) Meanwhile, locked away in Le Grand Paris hotel, Adrien grapples with his responsibilities to a city that can't decide if it hates or loves him. Keeping his daytime persona and Chat Noir separate entities becomes even harder when Ladybug, whom he has finally decided to get over, starts visiting him at night, determined to figure his secrets out. (If only he wasn't in love with her.) When an unknown figure returns with the Peacock Miraculous, Ladybug and Chat Noir will have to save their city once more — or lose each other trying.

"An amazing all-sides-of-the-Lovesquare fic (emphasis on Ladrien and Ladynoir), following the defeat of Hawkmoth, dealing with the ramifications of secretly being a superhero who brought down a villain that is also your father; the press, the legal system, and a big team of superheroes trying to solve the rest of the mystery. Plays with both realism and superhero fantasy expertly, gives everyone powerups, and has amazing use of emotion and character relationships. CW for alcohol use. One of my favorite ongoing fics."

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ladrien #love square #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #ladybug #ml fic recs #fic recs #ml big bang 2022 #ml big bang

[scribensmulier]

Such Nights as This

pairing: roddy piper x f!reader

word count: 1759

warnings: mutual masturbation, phone sex, use of sex toys, daddy kink

the title is from the Roman poet Propertius describing his beloved: "while I live I am hers, hers will I be in death. But if she grants till then such nights as this to me, a single year would be a long life's span; and if she gives them often, I would never die: one night like this could make a man a god!"

-------------------------------------

When your phone rang, you didn’t hesitate for a second to answer it, knowing it would be Roddy. “Well, hello there.”

“Hey gorgeous.” His already-raspy voice was hoarse after a lengthy promo that night, and the sound swirled through your body. “How you doing tonight?”

You laid back on the bed to relax while talking. He had only been gone two days, but ever since you had moved in together and had gotten used to always having him around, his absences were all the more frustrating. The two of you caught up on everything that had happened since your last conversation (just last night), your work day and his show a couple hours earlier. 

“Babe, listen,” Roddy began, his voice deepening a touch. “I really miss you, you know that?”

“I know. I miss you a lot too. It won’t be much longer, though. It’s a short trip.”

“Yeah yeah. You know, I actually got my own room this time.”

“Yeah? That’s awesome. You don’t have to deal with anyone throwing pillows at you when you snore!”

“Ha ha, funny. But I can also do what I want. All by myself. As much as I want…”

“Roddy, you slut,” you jokingly chastised him. “With all that freedom I’m surprised you’re wasting your time talking to me.”

He lightly chuckled before continuing. “Listen, I want you to do something for me. It’s not what you think.” You paused, knowing he had more to say. “I mean, it kind of is what you think, but something else first.”

“Just tell me what it is, babe.” You couldn’t help smiling to yourself in anticipation.

“The dresser in our room. Go take a look in the bottom drawer, under the sweaters.”

What the hell did he have planned? Why did he want you to dig through a drawer? You sighed dramatically as you got up. “What am I looking for?”

“You’ll know when you see it. Trust me.” And he was right. Exactly where he had said, under the sweaters, was a small box, about half the size of a shoebox, with your name written on it in his scrawl. 

“Roddy… what is this?”

“Just open it, baby.” 

You did as instructed, and a small chuckle escaped your lips. You hadn’t known what you expected to find in the box, but in hindsight you probably should’ve expected the sex toy that now rested in your hands. “Jesus, Roddy, you got me a vibrator? And hid it from me?”

He scoffed. “Like I don’t know about your other one. This one’s for us.”

“For us? So you want me to use it on you?”

“Eh, let’s think about that some other time. Right now I want you to use it on yourself. I made sure it’s already charged.”

“Right now? Should… should I hang up?”

“Don’t ask silly questions, baby. I want to hear every little whimper you make once you turn that thing on. I’m already rock hard thinkin about it.” 

You let out a shaky breath and blinked quickly to clear your mind. Some tiny part of your brain felt nervous about the idea of using a sex toy while someone else was listening, even if that someone else was the love of your life. But some greater part of your brain smothered that thought, because you really really wanted to do this. “Alright. Do you have a specific plan for me?”

“Hmm… well you definitely should take all your clothes off. Not just your pants; everything.” As he spoke, you did what he instructed, setting the phone on speaker mode so you’d have both hands free. “Make sure you pile up the pillows and get yourself all nice and comfy.”

“What about you? Are you all nice and comfy too?”

“Of course. I’ve had my dick in my hand this whole time, just thinking about you all naked for me. Play with your nipples, pinch them a little. Do that little thing I do that you like so much.”

You knew what he meant, and you closed your eyes to imagine it was Roddy working you over instead of your own hands. As he continued his directions, you found it increasingly difficult to resist grabbing the vibrator, but you knew that the wait would be worth it. Even being in a different city, he had you obeying his every word, completely wrapped around his finger. Exactly the way you liked it.

“Alright, princess, how about you spread those gorgeous thighs for me? Don’t do anything yet, just spread ‘em. Good girl. Now just slide one finger in, and tell me how wet you are.”

“Mmm... so wet.”

“Yeah? Good. Taste yourself for me. Lick yourself off that finger and tell me how you taste.”

You moaned as you followed his command. “Tastes so good, Roddy. I wish you were here to taste it for yourself.”

Through the speaker you heard him sharply inhale. “Fuck, me too. When I get back I’m gonna make up for all this lost time. You got your special new toy ready?”

“Mmhmm.” You didn’t trust your voice; you were too caught up in the moment to be coherent.

“Good girl. Now you can turn it on, just to the first setting.” A low buzzing sound filled the room. “Nice, baby, that’s it. Go ahead and put it on that pretty pussy. Right around your clit.” 

“Oh fuck.” The words were out before you realized it. For such an average-sized toy, it certainly had some power to it. This is just the first setting? you thought to yourself. 

Roddy’s breathing sounded shaky already. “Don’t cum without me, babe,” you admonished him. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it. I just… you sound so good, my beautiful girl. I can picture you lying there on our bed, all soaking wet for me, playing with your clit and pretending it’s me. I know you look so fucking hot like that, baby.”

His words made you whimper. The vibrator felt great, but nothing felt as right as Roddy. “You still touching yourself?” you asked, suspecting you knew the answer already.

“Had to take a break.” He let out a breathy chuckle. “Hearing my girl had me almost ready to cum all over myself. Keep going - move it around, see how it feels on every part of your pussy, tell me about it.”

One hand was still on your breast, and you kept it there while you slowly traced the vibrator along your folds, pausing to press it to your entrance. The tease of penetration combined with the vibrating silicone drew a deep moan from you as your words failed.

“Oh I like that sound. You put it in a little bit, didn’t you?” You wordlessly agreed. “Good girl. Why don’t you work it in a little more? I bet that vibration feels so good inside you.”

All sorts of salacious utterances spilled from your lips as you slid the toy into your dripping pussy, feeling every sensation that it offered you. “Babe… please…” 

“What do you need, baby? Tell me.” 

Truthfully, you didn’t even know what you were pleading for. “I just need you, baby, I need you to fuck me.” 

“I will soon, as soon as I can. You know that. Can you do something for me?”

“Anything.”

“Click the little button on that toy. Put it up to the next level.”

Although you weren’t thrusting or really moving it at all, the added intensity set you on edge. “Fuck, oh fuck, I’m so… oh my god it feels so good.”

“Good, I like hearing that.” You could tell from his quavering tone that he had taken himself in hand again, softly groaning as he spoke. “Take the vibrator out.”

You nearly froze in surprise. “What? Why?”

“Just do it.” You did. “Here’s what you’re going to do now. You’re going to use it on your clit, drive yourself insane, okay baby? And you’re gonna use your fingers inside to make yourself feel even better. Start with two fingers. Can you do that for me?”

Your own voice trembled as you responded. “Yes, daddy.” 

Fuck. You hadn’t meant to say that. It had slipped out two or three times before, and you knew he was into it, but it still felt like a new and unfamiliar step. 

“Oh fuck, sweetheart. I need to hear you say it again.”

This time you spoke with more confidence. “Yes, daddy.” 

“God, you better be fucking yourself right now, because I’m not gonna make it much longer, hearing that. You doing what I said?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Good girl. Three fingers now, okay? Three fingers for daddy.”

There were no words to describe the moan you uttered when he said that. You quickly obeyed, easily sliding a third finger into your drenched hole. With your free hand, you positioned the vibrator directly on your clit, letting it send shivering currents through your overly sensitive body. 

“You sound so sexy, baby. I’m getting so close.” You noted the changes in his breath, and knew he wasn’t exaggerating. “Get yourself there for me, I want you to cum with me.” 

“I’m… fuck I’m so close. Please.” You were all but panting into the speaker at this point, desperate for release but wanting to time it perfectly with him.

“Good girl. Make yourself cum, baby, cum for me. Cum for daddy.” He was barely able to pronounce the final word, he was so close to the precipice.

Hearing Roddy call himself daddy once more was all you needed. You cried out all manner of unholy things as an intense orgasm slammed into you. “Oh fuck daddy, I’m coming for you, fuck-”

A hoarse groan on the other end of the phone let you know that he too had reached his peak. “That’s it, baby, I’m coming for you too. I’m… fuck yeah… oh my god…”

For the next moment, the only sounds were laborious breathing and weak whimpers as you both rode out the waves of pleasure, thinking only of each other. You blindly reached out for the vibrator you had dropped in the heat of the moment, making sure to switch it off.

“I fucking love you so much, baby,” Roddy breathed into the phone. “I really do.”

“I love you too.” 

He laughed suddenly. “Best purchase ever. It felt good?”

“So fucking good,” you answered honestly, then paused. “I still miss you, though. I wish you were here.”

“Me too, baby. I’ll be back soon, though, yeah? And you can show me all your tricks with your new toy.” 

#roddy piper #rowdy roddy piper #roddy piper fanfiction #roddy piper x reader #this is a cutesier vibe than i normally like #but he makes me emotional to think about #and then? i went to read my fav roman poet for inspo and i found this bit and i just #its exactly his type of melodramatic declaration #i can hear him shouting the bit about becoming a god #and idk! the poem is more him than the writing probably but thats okay #it had to get out of my head so here we are #i am nothing if not overdramatic!!!

[farenmaddox]

Hey fans of KuroFai/Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle!

Did you know that the KuroFai Olympics are on right now? You didn't? (pause for shocked gasping) Well, now you do!

This year's theme uses tarot cards to let the competitors duke it out to see if FATE or CHOICE holds more sway. There are twenty (20) --- yeah, you heard me, TWENTY --- new works of KuroFai fanfiction and TEN awesome pieces of art for you to enjoy. You can check posts from @kurofai-olympics to get links to everything.

Don't forget the most fun part of the Olympics - voting! Heck yeah, there's a scorecard and YOU can vote. Yes, you! There will be a winning team, a winning fic, and a winning art at the end of all this. But you've got to get your votes in by 30th September, 2023 to make it count.

"but Faren, enjoying and commenting and voting on twenty fics and ten art pieces by September 30th?? um???/"

I hear you, friend. If you can't do that, you can still pick your favorite tarot card and just go for the 2 fics and 1 art that were written for that card. Or maybe you can get through a couple of your favorite cards!

I don't know about you, but me, I really want to read and vote on all of them! That's why I am ✨Making A Plan. ✨

I am going to do ONE (1) fic or art per day, starting today!

That's 30 days! In 30 days it will be the 27th of September, which means I will have finished 3 days early, or I will have left myself some wiggle room if I can't make time every single day!*

Do you want to join me in this plan, friend and fellow KuroFai enjoyer? Of course you do! I'm going to be posting every day about which fic I read / art I plan to do for that day, and maybe give you the tiniest nudge to ALSO look at that one.

Ready? Oh my god, me too! So ready!

I'll make my first daily KuroFai Olympics journal post in just a few minutes!

*yes, one of the fics is mine. So actually I will only need to look at 29 things. But I'm saying 30 and including myself on the schedule because... you could read it. You know, if you wanted to. 🥺

Dear friends and followers who are NOT KuroFai enjoyers: I'm going to be tagging everything related this as "KuroFai Olympics Journal" so you can block as needed.

#tsubasa reservoir chronicle #tsubasa chronicle #kurofai #kurofai olympics #fate vs choice #KuroFai Olympics Journal

[cromulentbookreview]

Fun with Fungi!

Huh, what's this? *cleans away dust* oh, yeah, this blog is still a thing. I probably should've written more reviews, but...

I mean, I could come up with an excuse, but I'm too lazy. Just as I am too lazy to continually update this book review blog that nobody reads. I mean, I just wrote a review *consults calendar* uh. In 2022. Dang, I have been lazy. Oh well.

I'm like a rug on valium, I'm talking lazy.

And by that, I mean: let's have a dual review of the Sworn Soldier series: What Moves the Dead and its sequel, What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher!

Those covers, man. They're awesome, but at the same time: poor bun bun. Poor horsie.

So technically, what I'm doing here is not one but two reviews. So I'm actually being really, really productive right now and not lazy in the slightest.

This is a legitimately true story, I swear. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...by which I mean, four or five years back or so, I'd never heard of T. Kingfisher / Ursula Vernon in my life until I got into a fight with her on Twitter* on whether or not the fruit of the hazel tree should be referred to as Filberts or Hazelnuts.

For the record, I am firmly team hazelnut. I mean, they're nuts from a hazel tree. Hazel+nuts = hazelnuts. Who in their right mind wants to eat something called a filbert? But, terminology varies as T. Kingfisher is firmly on team filbert. My parents also call them filberts on occasion which is weird to me as we live in an area lousy with hazelnut farms.

Mmmm, Hazelnuts...

Anyway! I had no idea who this person was but I got into a tongue-in-cheek gif fight on Twitter with them regarding hazelnut v. filbert. Feeling bad that I got into a fight with a random person online on their hazel tree fruit name preferences, I went to their profile, saw they were an author, looked up their books and bought the two books of the Clocktaur Wars series. I tore through them, and continued on, reading all of the World of the White Rat series (I just saw that we're getting a new one in January and I might have let out a bit of a fangirl screech), and the absolutely delightful A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Minor Mage. So far, every single one of T. Kingfisher's books that I've read has been awesome. Nettle & Bone? Amazing. Thornhedge? I'm a very slow reader, but I devoured it in an afternoon.

T. Kingfisher writes amazing fantasy novels and I absolutely love them. She also writes horror. Which is where I hit a brick wall because I'm a baby who doesn't handle horror well. I don't like horror movies. I don't often read horror books. Because the world is scary enough without ghosts and poltergeists and demons and jump scares. Also I watched The Ring when I was 12 and it scared the shit out of me. Anyway! Oddly enough, I've always found myself drawn to horror-type stories. I mean, horror fits so well in fantasy and sci-fi (looking at you, Doctor Who episodes that gave me nightmares). As an adult, I've found myself more and more willing to dip my toe into horror fiction. Season 1 of The Terror, one of my favorite-ever TV series is considered horror (maybe because it's not jump-scare scary, it's existentially scary. Also it's set in the past. Also it's got dudes-on-boats, my favorite genre). Part of me really, really likes horror stories set in the past - no horror like 18th/19th/Early 20th century horror, amirite?

Right?

Well, whatever, I just like horror to be ye olde timey horror, OK? Like Crimson Peak, The Witch, The Death of Jane Lawrence, Mexican Gothic, The Woman in Black, The Hacienda, Vampires of El Norte, The Hunger ... spooky-scary Gothic-y-Romantic-y-type stories that have a historical element to them. Those are awesome. I'm slowly - very slowly! - getting myself to read more contemporary horror stories. I understand that The Twisted Ones and A House With Good Bones are really, really good, but....what can I say, I'm a wuss. And contemporary stories aren't really my jam. I read to get away from the contemporary world, damn it!

(Me, too scared to read contemporary horror but not too scared to listen to 900,000 true crime podcasts).

Right, where were we?

Oh, yeah. The review(s). I'm starting to understand why no one ever read this blog and why I let myself be lazy.

-

In What Moves The Dead we meet Alex Easton, a Gallacian ex-soldier on their way to visit their old friends, the Ushers, at their delipidated estate in the rural countryside of Ruravia. Alex had word that Madeline Usher was dying, and they wanted to be there for Madeline and her brother, Roderick. Roderick had been a fellow soldier with Alex back in the day and -

Wait a minute, Roderick and Madeline Usher? Delipidated mansion? Unspecified 19th century middle of nowhere...

Yep, this story is, indeed, a retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, and it does a much better job than certain series you might find on Netflix.

Moving on:

Alex, Roderick and Madeline were childhood friends, and Roderick and Alex even fought together back in the day. Alex is a "sworn soldier" - something unique to their home country of Gallacia, a small, backwater country located somewhere between Bulgaria, Hungaria and that other -Garia, a vaguely Central/Eastern European nation with a language somehow structurally worse than Finnish, Hungarian and Icelandic combined. The Gallacian language has seven sets of pronouns: there's one set used only when referring to God, a set used to refer to children before puberty, one set specifically for inanimate objects...and, as the Gallacians are a fierce warrior people (though they're not exactly great at it), there's a special pronoun set just for soldiers.

So, in Gallacia, anyone, regardless of gender, can waltz up to the nearest military recruitment post, declare themselves a soldier, and be given a sword and a new set of pronouns within the hour. Hence the term "sworn soldier."

Anyway!

Prior to arriving at the House of Usher, Alex encounters an Englishwoman, Miss Eugenia Potter, a mycologist studying the local mushrooms, and there are some gnarly-looking (and smelling!) mushrooms. In fact, the whole landscape around Usher House seems...off. Everything seems dead or dying. Random hares will stand up and just stare right at you.

And not in a cute way, either.

As if the landscape weren't bad enough, once Alex gets to the Usher House, Roderick himself barely resembles the soldier Alex once knew. His skin has gone bone-white and he's as thin as a skeleton. He seems terrified by something but can't quite articulate what. Madeline is still alive, but in bad shape. Not even Roderick's friend Denton, an American doctor, can say what is wrong with her and Roderick (Catalepsy? Anemia? Hysteria? Roomis Igloomis? Who knows?). Denton and Alex immediately figure it's something to do with their environment - the house is both rotting and falling apart around them - but Roderick insists that Madeline can't leave, and if she can't leave, he won't leave.

Determined to find out what's happening to their friends, Alex resolves to stay. But things in the House of Usher are starting to get weird. For one thing, Madeline sleepwalks far more than a dying woman should, speaking in a strange, child-like voice, there's a lake outside that seems to pulse and shine with odd lights, there's a legion of undead hares wandering around and, seriously, what is up with those mushrooms??? With the help of Denton, Miss Potter, and their trusty batman, Angus, Alex must figure out what the hell is going on with the House of Usher...before whatever it is starts to spread.

What Moves The Dead is short and sweet and the perfect book to read when it's cold and dreary outside - and definitely not one you want to read before eating a giant bowl of mushroom risotto. If you're looking for a fantastic, spooky-type read that reads like if Edgar Allan Poe and The Last of Us joined forces with an army of undead bunnies.

But!

Luckily for all of us, Alex Easton's adventures don't stop with the events at the House of Usher.

It's late in the autumn and poor Alex would much rather be in Paris. Unfortunately, Angus has successfully guilt-tripped them into a trip to Alex's family's old hunting lodge back in the Old Country, aka Gallacia. Nothing like good old Gallacia in the winter where everything is damp, cold, cold, and, you guessed it! Damp.

But the redoubtable British mycologist Miss Eugenia Potter wishes to study some Gallacian mushrooms, and Angus, who is absolutely sweet on her, pretty much voluntold Alex to come along to act as Miss Potter's translator and use their hunting lodge as a home base.

So instead of a beautiful late Autumn/Winter in Paris, Alex is stuck back home.

*Sigh* looks nice, doesn't it?

As much as Alex sulks at the thought of spending several weeks back home, it's not like they're going to say no to Angus and Miss Potter. Not after everything they went through with the Usher House *shudder*.

Unfortunately, when Angus and Alex arrive at the lodge to help get it ready for Miss Potter's arrival, the caretaker, Codrin, is nowhere to be found. A quick trip to the nearby village reveals that Codrin has been dead for the past two months. But the locals are being very cagey about what killed him - Codrin's daughter is very insistent that it was just a lung infection, nothing else, no further questions, goodbye.

Finding a replacement for Codrin proves difficult, as it seems none of the villagers want to go near the lodge because there's a rumor that Codrin wasn't killed by inflammation of the lungs, but by a creature called a Moroi - a woman who sits on your chest and quite literally steals your breath. And the rumor is, a Moroi has taken up residence at the Hunting Lodge.

Yikes.

After some effort, Alex manages to hire a new housekeeper: the ill-tempered Widow Botezatu, who brings her grandson Bors along with her. The Widow immediately hates Alex, thinking them a wastrel, but Bors is nice enough. Miss Potter arrives, complete with terrible Gallacian phrasebook, but it soon becomes clear things aren't quite right at the Lodge. Alex begins to experience strange dreams - dreams in which a woman is kneeling on their chest because, yep, the Moroi is very real, and it can get to you in your dreams, just like Groundskeeper Willie in Treehouse of Horror VI.

Which is to say like Freddie Kruger, but still.

When it becomes clear that the Moroi is after the residents of the lodge, it's up to Alex, Angus and Miss Potter to figure out how to defeat a creature that can infiltrate your dreams.

What Feasts at Night is just as creepy, eerie and atmospheric as What Moves the Dead - there is plenty of non-fungal body horror and, mercifully, no zombie bun buns. Kingfisher is fantastic at capturing the terror of having your ability to breathe taken from you, and of the dread of having to fight something you can't grasp while awake. How she manages to pack so much into two short novels, I have no idea.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone in the mood for some short, sweet spooky horror.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who gets easily queasy, someone in the middle of eating a nice mushroom risotto, someone who really, really, really loves bunnies being alive and living their best lives, anyone who might wake up in the middle of the night with their cat on their chest staring directly into their eyes...

RELEASE DATE FOR WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT: February 13, 2024

RATING FOR BOTH: 5/5

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SWORN SOLDIER BOOKS: Chigori

*

#book review #horror #t. kingfisher #what moves the dead #what feasts at night #edgar allan poe #mushrooms #zombie bunnies #Gallacia #sworn soldier #Alex Easton #Angus #Miss Potter #Mycology #Moroi #Dream monster

[jils-things]

happy new year! ; my farewell letter to 2023.

last year, ive written a similar farewell letter to 2022 and i want to make this a little tradition - so here's my second one <3

okay, so - wow. first of all, just wow.

this might be incredibly bold to say, but i think this has been my best year to be alive (i promise you i do not want to sound corny about it, but i really think 2023 was amazing for me.) of course, many things happened. im at my last year of senior high before i go to college, which is very scary but i hope i can be brave for it. school has been actually very generous to me recently, despite a few minor setbacks that looked very major when i was going through it, but overall it was very generous to me. but irl rambling is boring, so let's talk about my selfshipping blog!

last year, i had a verrrry firm grip on a previous f/o that im 100% sure old followers know - though im a little sad I can't find that spark to focus on him again - the shift in media has helped me find new f/os that i can say has been incredibly memorable to me. as we all know, im in a very INSANE pokemon brainrot since november or october(?) of 2022 and it has still remained heavily active in my head right now - which i honestly didn't even know i had the full capacity of doing! I don't know what magic this game did to me but i promise you im so happy i revisited this game again.

i would talk about how grateful i am to everyone has been supportive and sweet about my romantic f/os but i think the best highlight of my blog is my newfound love for my familial f/os - before that, i never had a single one on my list because i was simply quite disconnected to the family love concept, but after indulging myself in pokemon - i would come to discover pokemon adve.ntures, or poke.spe for short hehe. i have so many fond memories of finding myself wanting to read more and MORE - i would have every chapter downloaded beforehand just so that i can read it in my spare time, not even school that demanded my attention would stop me from sneaking my phone to quickly read through the manga LMAOO - but consuming the media itself wasn't enough, i needed people to understand the ROLLERCOASTER of emotions i had while reading and well, i think its very clear who those people were, the ones who came to save my miserable ass from (insert shocking scene in poke.spe) AHSJHSHSJSJS you know who you are and i appreciate you forever and they - i kid you not, helped me create something wonderful!

but of course, the video games were just as amazing. would you believe me if i told you i played gens 1 to 7 in one year? that's how much i adore the game and i still have yet to catch up to other games like the spin offs :] im not sure how to end this statement but. im so happy appleshipping and memoryshipping exists 🥹 i usually don't like thinking that they'll be with me forever because i believe nothing lasts for eternity but i just wanna say that they were just ... im just so contented 🥹 again, all of this actually would not have been so impactful to me if it weren't for my awesome mutuals hearing me out about it and supplying me with even more ideas - these mutuals would also end up becoming such loving friends of mine that helped me get out of my comfort zone and im still happy they're around (hi guys!) 💚

oh! and, what a surprise, i never thought id have an oc f/o! i initially thought that this was so impossible to do but?!??;?! it just happened i guess!!!! i keep surprising myself this year 😭

ok now here's the obligatory art summary for the year 💥

literally the best thing i ever done with my art is try using csp and it actually really helped me change the way i draw, and i even managed to cross out a few items in my last year's resolution thanks to it! i still bounce between using ibispaint and csp but i certainly improved!

the last thing im forever grateful about are the people who has been consistently supportive of my art - especially the commissions, i can't stress it enough how much it has helped me outside and it allowed me to go beyond my comfort zone when it comes to my drawing skills :']] thank you all so much

and finally, big thank you to everyone who sent me nice letters to my tree 🥹💚 its a gentle reminder that im actually ... pretty cool ig 🥹 and if you didn't send one, that's also ok!! you're still cool for reading this mwamwa

again im so bad at ending posts like these but cheers to a new year and let's hope it'll be better for everyone. 💚🫡 goodbye 2023!

#~ misc #~ rambling