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yoshistack · 2 years

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Cut Free

What becomes of a puppet once its strings have been snipped?

Well... in this case: they probably need a healthy dose of comfort from those closest to them.

For this years @code-swap event, I had the privilege of making a gift for @zhinyart. They wanted some Jerlita, as well as XANAfied Aelita or Jeremy. I loved the idea of both of them, so I hope you don’t mind that I went ahead and combined the two ideas.

Working on this was really fun—it feels so good to have time to write again! I hope you enjoy!

Ao3 Link: Right here!

She finds him sitting in his room.

For once, he’s not working; his computer sits there untouched at the end of his room, monitors all completely dark, and his laptop lays closed on the table nearby, plugged in and charging. Instead, he’s perched at the edge of his bed, staring down blankly at a jagged looking black box. There are bits of white and silver visible inside the box, and pieces of black plastic of varying sizes form a small trail from his closet to where he sits on his bed. It takes a moment for Aelita to recognize the mangled case as the remnants of the physical copies of Hopper’s diary.

She frowns. Jeremy already entered the contents of the CDs into the restricted access section of the supercomputer—why should he care about the discs anymore?

Something is wrong.

He doesn’t acknowledge her presence when she shuts the door behind her, nor does he move when she sits herself next to him on the bed. “...Jeremy?” her voice is quiet as she calls out to him.

He doesn’t react. Her fingers tighten around the sheets beneath her into white knuckled fistfuls of dark fabric.

“I don’t know what happened the other day,” Jeremy finally says. He’s still staring down at the broken case. His voice is flat as he continues, “Odd keeps looking at me strangely, and Ulrich won’t tell me anything about what happened. You and Yumi weren’t really involved in it as much, and I wanted to know so…” His gaze finally flickers to her, and it looks hauntingly hollow; it’s not a look she ever wants to see again, especially not on him. “I looked at the video log from the security cameras in the factory.”

His admission makes her stomach drop. She wasn’t there when it happened, but having come up not long after the immediate aftermath of it, she’s aware enough of what happened that day to know just what has him so worked up.

Never let it be said that Jeremy Belpois doesn’t care about his friends.

“Oh, Jeremy…” she whispers sympathetically.

“I hurt them, Aelita, and I-” His voice abruptly cuts off as he turns to look at her properly. His mouth closes with a soft ‘tap’ of his teeth as his gaze trails over her face, then lands at what appears to be her right shoulder. Confused, she tries to look down at it to see what’s caught his attention, but she stops when she sees him lift his hand.

Suddenly, outstretched fingers hover over the bottom of the right side of her neck, just above the spot she knows three crescent shaped, fading but still red burn marks currently sit. She feels a prickle of dull pain flare from them as their eyes meet each other again.

“...I hurt you too.”

“Jeremy…” She grabs his hand and takes hold of it in her own, giving it a gentle squeeze. For once, he doesn’t freeze up at such a gesture. “XANA’s the one responsible for attacking us, not you. We all know that. None of us blame you for what happened, and you shouldn’t either. No one could’ve known XANA would do something like that.”

“That’s the thing though, isn’t it? I should’ve seen it coming!” He lets out a miserable sounding sigh and stares back down at the case sitting in his lap. “Of all of us, I should know how tricky XANA can be. I keep thinking about what could’ve happened if I hadn’t gone straight to the lab after finding Hopper’s diary and I…” He shakes his head. “I should’ve been scanning myself this whole time. I should’ve known something like this could happen, I-“

“Jeremy,” she interrupts his rambling before it can spiral, “How could you have known? We only found out XANA could possess people a week ago. We barely knew that it was even possible, let alone what the limits of it were.” Jeremy still won’t meet her gaze. Aelita gives his hand another squeeze, and finally he looks back up at her. “We know how to keep you safe now, that’s the important part. Yes, some of us were hurt, but we’re ok. I’m ok.” She puts extra emphasis on that last point. Some of the tension finally leaves his shoulders.

“…And Odd?”

“He just needs some more time, that’s all.” Aelita doesn’t know all the specifics of what happened, but she does know Odd. Nothing keeps him down for long; she’s sure this will be no exception, and they’ll be there for him too if he needs it. “No one blames you, Jeremy. It wasn’t your fault,”

He’s quiet for a moment, seeming to consider her words. He turns and opens his mouth, then sheepishly closes it again. “I know that you’re right…” he admits quietly, then looks back to her. “But knowing all that doesn’t change how I feel right now.”

“That’s ok.” She places her other hand on his knee and flashes him a soft, genuine smile. “I’ll just keep reminding you until it does,”

It finally seems to register in Jeremy’s brain how close she is to him. He jumps and his eyes keep darting around, going from their joint hands, to the on his knee, finally back to her face. His own face turns beet red, and he reaches up to adjust his glasses as he turns to look at his closet. “I um… thank you.”

She laughs.

“Of course, Jeremy.”

He finds her in the lab.

She stands in the middle of the room, seemingly unaware of his presence even as he steps off the elevator. Her eyes are locked onto the holomap spinning around in its spot in the center of the lab. Smaller, slightly pixelated versions of the Ice and Mountain Sectors rotate in their usual patterns around the core of Sector 5. From such a distance, Lyoko seems almost peaceful, though he of course knows better than to truly believe that.

He frowns. Her presence in and of itself isn’t strange—after all, he asked her to come—but she’s completely transfixed on the holomap in a way that he’s never seen from her before… or at least not in any positive kind of way in any case.

Something is wrong.

He sets his laptop bag down by the computer chair and moves toward her. His footsteps echo against the metal floors, but still she doesn’t offer any form of acknowledgment of his approach. “Aelita?” His voice is quiet as he comes to stand next to her.

She doesn’t respond.

“I remember it,” she finally says after a minute passes.

Jeremy doesn’t respond, just looks at her curiously.

She continues staring at the holomap. “On Lyoko, I mean. With the Scyphozoa.” She swallows thickly, finally looks over at him. Her eyes have that glassy look to them that she always gets when she’s extremely upset about something—not quite teary, but still intensely emotional, perhaps even more so than if she were actually crying.

He’s seen it too much lately.

“What are you…?” His voice trails off in a questioning tone. He’s not sure what to say; the Scyphozoa has always been a touchy subject for her. For her to just bring it up out of the blue…

“I remember,” she repeats, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Whenever it grabs me I… I remember it.” Her eyes flicker back over to the holomap. This time, Jeremy joins her in looking at it. “Destroying the sectors. I remember it.”

Suddenly, it clicks.

“What?!” His eyes go wide. “You remember when you’ve been possessed on Lyoko?!”

Wordlessly, she nods.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He suddenly feels breathless.

Aelita crosses her arms over her chest and tilts her head down, eyes shut. “We have enough going on without me dragging more of my personal problems into it. And I…” She pauses to take a shuddering breath. “I didn’t want to think about it at first. It came back in pieces later—more nightmares, I guess—and I just thought… I hoped that it was just my imagination getting to me but… then the others started talking about it and what they said matched up too well and it just—” The next words get caught in her throat and come out as a rough cough instead. Her breathing gets faster as it becomes clear the tears she's been fighting off are threatening to spill.

“Oh, Aelita…” He’s by her side in an instant, wrapping an arm around her shoulder in a half embrace.

“Ulrich made this stupid comment during lunch today about fighting me in the Desert Sector, a-and I know he was just joking and he didn’t mean anything by it, and I’m just getting upset over nothing but I…” A pause again for breath, and to wipe tears from her eyes. “I just… I don’t want to be used like that. To fight the others. Every time I start to remember it feels so real and I just want it to stop, but I can’t do anything but just watch and-“ Another coughing fit comes over her before she can continue. He manages to catch her in time before she leans forward too much and falls.

“Hey, hey, I’ve got you,” Jeremy rubs her back in soothing circles. “Just breathe, ok?”

She leans against him, suddenly seeming exhausted, and looks up at him miserably. “I hate having to fight the others. Or destroy Lyoko. I just… I feel like such a burden, and if only I didn’t freeze up wherever the Scyphozoa shows up, but I can’t move and it’s just-“

“Aelita,” he interrupts in a soft, but firm tone that catches her attention. “You’re not a burden. You’ve never been a burden; not now or ever before.”

She can’t quite meet his gaze, and instead stares down at her boots. “I keep making things more complicated. Letting myself get caught makes it harder to protect the core. Every time that thing shows up, I scream at myself to get away from it, to do anything but… I just can’t move…”

The admission breaks Jeremy’s heart. For once, he doesn’t hesitate to envelop her in a tight hug. He can feel her stiffen and let out a quiet gasp of surprise.

“Aelita,” he starts again. “No one is blaming you for anything that’s happened. Not fighting for them, not for entering the XANA code, none of it. XANA’s the one who did all that, not you. It’s not your fault.”

Slowly, her arms wrap around him to return the hug. She presses her face against his shoulder and he can feel her trying not to shake against him. “It’s using me to do it though.”

“That doesn’t make you responsible for it. It just means XANA is too lazy to do its own dirty work.” That gets a wet chuckle from her. He can’t help but smile at the sound of it. “None of what’s happened has been your fault, Aelita.”

“…I want to believe you,” she says after a moment. She steps back from the hug and looks at him with a furrowed brow. “But knowing all of that still doesn’t make me feel any less like I’m doing this all wrong.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll just have to keep reminding you until you get it.” He pulls her close again. “And if the others give you any trouble about it, maybe I should remind them that I do have access to their digital avatars programs.” He gives her a grin. “How do you think Ulrich would look with some really puffy pants?”

She lets out another laugh, this time much stronger, and gives his shoulder a light, scolding smack at the idea. When she pulls back again, she’s looking up at him with a small, but genuine smile.

“Thank you, Jeremy.”

He smiles broadly back.

“Any time.”

#code swap #code swap 2022 #code lyoko #Aelita Schaeffer #Jeremy Belpois #jerlita

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minxi-mink · 2 years

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Another piece for @code-swap !

This time around I got Epsilon from discord and I decided to choose their prompt were Aelita was the one who got Xanafied and not William. For her outfit I took inspiration and fused both her season 4 outfit and William’s xanafied outfit. This was fun and I can’t wait to participate next year. (also drew this on my new iPad so still getting used to that…)

#code swap #code swap 2022 #code looks #code lyoko aelita #my art

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zhinyart · 2 years

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This year, my gift for the Code swap event goes for @fuckyeahjerlita who asked for art (or writing)...

The first prompt was “Jeremy and Aelita at the factory”, so I didn’t think twice. I was super excited to work on my gift inmediately (I haven’t drawn anything during these months due my work, so I really needed this). When I finally had some time to start sketching, I felt something was missing. I thought maybe I could do something more... functionally?. So, I changed my mind. Instead of working on a single artwork, I decided to create a pack of 12 illustrations that could be used as stickers for any messaging app (whatsapp, telegram, discord...etc) .

So, what’s included in the stickers pack?

4 illustrations of both, Jeremy and Aelita

4 illustrations of Jeremy

4 illustrations of Aelita

✅ To install the pack on Whatsapp: link (download sticker.ly first)

✅ To install the pack on Telegram: link

I’ve read these could also be added to the Discord server but I don’t know how, so here’s a download file of the stcikers in PNG format and size 320x320px. And I really hope you like my gift, let me know if you have a favorite one :D <3

Note: Due aesthetic decisions I didn’t add the factory in the background but each illustration is meant to be in the context of the Einsteins working at the factory. ^^u If this invalids my gift, I don’t have any problem of going back to my original illustration.

#code swap #code swap 2022 #code lyoko #stickers #telegram #discord #whatsapp #Jeremy Belpois #Aelita Stones #zhinyart

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the-writing-artist · 2 years

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Sometimes, all you need is someone to hold your drink for you.

My Code: Swap gift for @tama1313. One of the prompts they gave was “a day out for Jeremie and Aelita”, so here they are, browsing music.

Hope you like it!

#code swap #code swap 2022 #code lyoko #jeremie belpois #aelita stones #jerlita

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secretcodelyokan · 2 years

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Summary: Due to an unfortunate inconvenience, a sense of unease hangs over Yumi, Odd and Ulrich's band rehearsals. Luckily, the solution might be easier than anticipated.

Notes: Takes place during Season 1′s earlier episodes

[4,427]

Good afternoon! This year’s @code-swap is dedicated to @pazaztic ! One of your prompts mentioned Yumi, Odd and Ulrich practicing in a band rehearsal, and I’m always down to exploring their friendship and Season 1, so I gave it a go. I hope you enjoy it!! Have a good day or night!

Love, Smol

#code swap #code swap 2022 #Code Lyoko

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code-swap · 2 years

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Keep an eye on your inboxes!

It's check-in week! Woo-hoo! We've sent out check in messages to everyone, to which we're hoping you'll get back to us quickly! These check-ins are to make sure that you've all received our messages, and that you're all still intending to participate. We like to check in a few weeks ahead of time, just to give our pinch hitters a little time if they need to make an additional gift.

Thanks for all of your hard work thus far! Keep it up! Just two more weeks!

#code swap: 2022 #code lyoko exchange #code lyoko event #code lyoko #code: swap #aelita hopper #aelita schaeffer #jeremie belpois #odd della robbia #ulrich stern #aelita stones #william dunbar

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ramroadrage · 2 years

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Best parts of Nope 2022:

1) Emerald reciting her father’s speech about their history so much that she always forgets to add a generation to account for her being a generation younger, and OJ always reminding her of it. We don’t figure this out until we see her watching a video of her dad saying the exact line. 2) How the small things always come full circle. It was a coin that killed Otis Senior and it was a coin that helped Emerald capture the only evidence of Jean Jacket. It was a balloon that set off Gordy into a massacre and it was a balloon popping that ended Jean Jacket’s massacre. How the Haywood family’s legacy is based in the first captured film, and it’s Emerald’s picture of Jean Jacket that calls back to and expands on that legacy. 3) How unashamedly campy it was to name the horse we saw die first Ghost and the horse that made it ‘till the end Lucky. (RIP to Clover and the other ones sold off to Jupe). Gordy. Gore-dy. Naming Jean Jacket after the one horse Emerald never got to tame. 4) How the movie starts with Gordy’s rampage and makes you think it’s just part of the Monkeypaw Productions intro and that Gordy is just staring at the audience for the shock value, but mid-movie gets recontextualized into a traumatic flashback of Gordy staring at Jupe under the table. 5) How we will never know why exactly Gordy spared Jupe. Did he calm down enough to recognize Jupe as one of his “family”, or even recognize that they were used and exploited in almost identical ways by the production crew and cast? If one of the other actors swapped places with Jupe, would it have been the same? Was the tablecloth just enough of an obstruction to Jupe’s eyes that Gordy didn’t kill him, and would have if the cloth wasn’t there? Did Gordy even actually reach to touch Jupe’s hand, or did Jupe add that detail on and unknowingly add that to his recollection of the event, and thus his belief that he could reach out and understand Jean Jacket the same way? 6) The way OJ was the one to realize Jean Jacket’s “rules” so to speak, being the character who seems the most coded to be neurodivergent; not looking others in the eye unless absolutely necessary, speaking bluntly and as short of terms as possible, using the way he interacts with horses when speaking to others (the “woah there” to the director at the green screen scene and slapping his hand to his leg to get Angel and Emerald to run faster to the car), unable to carry through with small talk in one scene (the movie scene with the white woman asking Lucky’s name) yet staying on topic and proposing a deal in another (trying to make a deal with Jupe while Emerald looks around), who understands what boundaries the animals he works with have and respects them. 7) How it goes unexplained why Emerald and OJ let Angel stick around because there doesn’t need to be an explanation. They just accept him in their group after a while, and they help each other without question. They allow each other into their respective homes for safety, and he refuses to let Antlers use the remaining horses as bait (”They’re horse people”). 8) The scene where OJ and Lucky run from Jean Jacket as the music swells almost like a rehearsed show between the three of them as Jean Jacket returns to the sky and OJ and Lucky split. That in contrast to Jean Jacket returning and OJ and Lucky barely make it out alive, which we don’t find out if they survive until the very last shots of the movie. 9) I Wear My Sunglasses At Night (Jean Jacket Mix). How music played electronically is used as a detection of Jean Jacket’s presence like some fucked up game of musical chairs. 10) How Emerald's father could never look her in the eye after selling off the original Jean Jacket for money, and how he dies by a nickel through the eye, how it’s money that kills him. How staring at something in the eye when you’re not supposed to is intertwined with not looking and paying attention to something you should have, both in the sense of not losing track of your family as priority and in the sense of not losing track of a wild, lethally dangerous animal.

#nope #nope 2022 #nope spoilers #jordan peele #GOD this movie changed something in me I swear #it's fucking wonderful

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sarahbduck · 2 months

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Subscription for a Paintbrush

A painter might feel like a paintbrush is an extension of themselves, developing muscle memory and skill to create beauty. But what happens when that tool is owned by someone else, and they charge rent? What if they've decided to take it away from you? What if they've decided your art isn't yours?

As a 3D artist, I was professionally trained in using Autodesk Maya, a 3D modelling and animation application. I became really good with it, and grew to love it! I used it at work and at home for my own projects. It became muscle memory, an extension of myself, an organ for expression.

The full version of Maya is ludicrously expensive at CA$2,500 a year! So I had to settle for a cheaper version called Maya LT. It was missing some features, but I wasn't using them at the time so it worked out. I paid CA$360 a year for 3 years.

COVID struck, and I lost my job. I had to use savings to continue paying my license for an additional 2 years, yet in that time they provided no updates. I was just paying for access.

In 2022, Autodesk announced that Maya LT was being discontinued, replaced by a new version called Maya Creative. Instead of a subscription, you'd buy "tokens", spending one token for 24 hours of use. You could only buy tokens in bulk, the cheapest being 100 tokens for CA$405, and they expire after one year.

I've never seen such a predatory, disgusting pricing model for a piece of software. It's like an arcade machine! I thought subscriptions were bad enough! I refused to participate.

Despite spending nearly two grand, the tool I love is going to deactivate itself soon, and I don't have any say in it. It's bytes will still be on my computer, but it'll refuse to launch. Maya LT had a proprietary file format, so all of my projects will be unusable.

It feels like I'm losing a part of myself.

I feel like a fool for even letting this happen in the first place. I let myself become attached to a tool I didn't even own, run by a faceless corporation! My own art is being held hostage! How unfair! Should it even be called a tool, or a service?

I've been avoiding 3D art lately, focusing on programming and game development. My friends and I started working on a game in the Unity Game Engine. A couple months in, Unity's owners were saying and doing some unsavoury things, so we swapped to the Godot Engine. I feel incredibly lucky that we did because of the Unity drama that followed.

Unity wanted to start charging a fee for every user that installed your game. They wanted this to apply to every Unity game retroactively. This is obviously a stupid idea, and they walked it back, but it begs the question: Do you even own the game you developed? It seems like you don't.

I don't want to let myself fall into this trap again. I feel like we as artists form a personal relationship with our tools, and it shouldn't have to be an abusive one! I want to own my art and tools! That shouldn't be difficult as a digital artist! I've been recommended some proprietary subscription based "tools" by friends recently, and I refuse to use them. I won't let this happen to me again.

I'm going to use as much open source software as I can. Open source software is the only software you can truly "own". You have access to the code, and you can do with it as you please! It's often democratically run by the community! You can distribute it to your friends, and it's not piracy! There's a ton of excellent open source art software out there, and I encourage you to check it out!

Autodesk broke my heart. When I get back into 3D art, I'm going to be learning Blender.

#digital art #open source #maya #autodesk maya #autodesk #unity3d #software #philosophy #blender #gamedev #thank you for coming to my ted talk #for the love of god ableton please don't switch to a subscription oh god please don't i need you...#technology #3d art #essay

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occasionalincorrectquotes · 1 year

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Cells at work manga masterlist

(Fun Fact did you know: Cells at Work has a 2nd season, and although there will be no more new episodes, spinoffs are constantly releasing, so you can still enjoy fresh new cell content even now!)

✓: Completed

*: ongoing

X: not officially translated as of November 2022

Cells at Work (the original) ✓

Cells at Work: Code Black ✓

Platelets at Work ✓

Cells at Work and Friends ✓

Cells at work Baby ✓

Bacteria at Work ✓

Cells Not at Work ✓

Cells at Work Lady ✓ X

White Blood Cells at Work / Cells at Work White Brigade ✓

Cells at Work Illegal * X

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Don't know what to read/start with? Recommendations and trigger warnings under the cut!

Cells at Work (The original manga): A nice series that teaches you the basics of cells, mostly immune cells but they do include some gut immunity in the 2nd season, filled with a nice balance of angst and fluff, includes a prominent ship although it isn't the main point of the series and they don't actually say out loud if they like each other romantically or anything.

TWs: Includes a lot of blood, slicing of knives/violence in general, cancer (anthropomorphized, but they do say the word a lot of course), violently biting things until they gush out blood/whatever they're made from

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cells at Work: Code Black: An angsty series, a lot of sadness in general, although it looks like a gender swap of the original, the contents are also very opposite to the original. This series takes place in a different host body. Not fluffy, bad work environments, cells suffering in general. If you love seeing little fictional people suffering or want a reason to take better care of your body, this is the series for you!

TWs: Blood, violence, actual bazookas/guns, nsfw topics like unsafe sex and others, major and minor character deaths, drug mention both beneficial and unbeneficial, attempted suicide, ACTUAL suicide, depression, cancer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Platelets at Work: A very nice and fluffy series about the children of Cells at Work, takes place in the body of the original CaW manga, features the platelet team we all love and their master Megakaryocyte. It's a very nice slice of life series that talks about the platelets doing their best and being children, very cute 10/10.

TWs: Tbh, I'm not sure, maybe i can reread it and see, but i don't think there's anything worth a warning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cells at Work and Friends: My personal favorite, features a Killer T cell with social anxiety as it's protagonist. A great slice of life that doesn't have much about education of biology. A lot of misunderstandings, a lot of funny and relatable moments, I'm sure all of us can relate to at least 1 of the chapters.

TWs: Blood, slicing and dicing and violence, eating and dead bacteria/viruses that would usually be very gorey are censored, depression and suicide mention (from one specific character, you can avoid him if you like and still enjoy the series), sewing needles on specific chapters, mention of nsfw

Reply if you'd want me to reference which chapters have the trigger so you can avoid it while still enjoying most of it

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cells at Work Baby: Much like the original, featuring 2 red blood cells as the main character instead of a white blood cell, just as educational as the original and all the characters are in a cute chibi style.

TWs: Blood, slicing, a little violence but it isn't as bad as the original, character death

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bacteria At Work: I have yet to read this fully, but i have read the first chapter, full of pretty men and talks about gut bacteria and dietary stuff.

TWs: Unknown (to me)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cells NOT At Work: More of a slice of life compared to the original, it is quite educational on the development of red blood cells. Real LGBT rep, a wide range of characters and dynamics, made me very emotional, though i haven't read the last volume.

TWs: Mention of death/character death, and maybe slicing and killing in the last volume

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cells At Work Lady: Because this manga has yet to be translated officially, i have yet to read it, but it talks about the anatomy of women, from periods to pregnancy, there is quite a lot. They also include pretty men!

TWs: NSFW mention, slicing and dicing of various things, potentially more that i am unaware of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cells At Work Illegal: Lastest CaW manga spinoff to be released as of writing, the name speaks for itself. Usage of drugs, smoking, drinking, and potentially many more. It is untranslated, so I cannot truly understand what it is about, but thats the gist of it. Also the main characters might be potentially a little gay

TWs: Drug usage, a lot of slicing and dicing and blood, NSFW (not just mention I'm pretty sure)

#cells at work #haiya did this on my main by accident but #hopefully its good enough

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wooahaes · 1 year

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midnight kisses

pairing: non-idol!woozi x gn!reader

prompt: countdown

word count: 0.8k~

warnings: jihoon is still doing some kind of music, just not as an idol. skinship.

daisy’s notes: if you’re seeing this when it gets posted, happy last day of 2022! or happy new year if you’re in a different time zone!!

Jihoon never prided himself on being the most romantic boyfriend to you... but tonight was different. With barely any time left in the year, he’d been caught up in his own studio when he noticed what time it was. He’d get back to his work in time, but he’d thrown his belongings into his bag and booked it. Most likely, you’d be sitting on the couch for a quiet night in while you watched the countdown to the new year, and he’d be able to do something very out of character for him and kiss first, explain later.

(And maybe you wouldn’t question it too much and wonder if maybe he got body swapped with someone else...)

The cold air made his lungs ache as he booked it down the street, each step hitting heavy against the pavement from the moment he got off the bus that’d take him closest to home. He wasn’t able to surprise you like this last year (hell, you’d been barely a month into dating--just planting a kiss on you felt like a leap he was terrified to take) but this year? This year he’d follow through.

“I just think it’s kind of romantic,” you’d told him on your third date--days before the end of the year. “Kissing someone at midnight...”

Of course, you’d immediately told him that you didn’t expect that kind of thing from him so soon. The two of you had worked up to different forms of skinship, and even holding your hand was enough to get his heart racing at that point. He used to think it was because he was nervous around you. Then one day it clicked: he was nervous because he liked you so much. It wasn’t so much the skinship was it was the you part of it, as he’d dealt with skinship through his friends before without problem.

It was you. He was starting to fall for you, little by little. And now Jihoon could proclaim easier, with red cheeks and heart skipping a beat, that he was in love with you. Maybe that was why there was a thrilling edge to surprising you like this after a full year of dating.

He’d let himself into the apartment, hands fumbling with everything from the code to the doorknob itself to getting out of his shoes. He’d called out for you when he didn’t see you curled up on the couch, spotting your empty mug of tea in the kitchen sink as he hurried past.

Instead, he found you curled up asleep in bed. Right. You did have things to do today that would have tired you out. He glanced at the clock, finding he had a minute left as he made his way to you. The bed behind you sank down with his weight, and he reached out to tuck a strand of your hair away from your face.

“Honey?”

His voice was quiet as you stirred awake, eyes fluttering open to meet his own. He watched as you sat up, glancing at the time on your phone and barely registering it.

“I thought you were working,” you mumbled, rubbing at your eyes. How long had you been asleep? Or were you just that tired? He felt guilty for waking you up. “Did something happen?”

The clock flipped over. Jihoon hesitated for a moment. “Just.. This.” And he leaned in, slanting his lips against your own for a short kiss before he pulled away.

When he looked at your face again, sure that his own was bright red, you were far more awake than you were moments before. “Jihoon?”

“You said,” he said, “when we started dating that you wanted to be kissed at midnight on New Years... So... I did...?” He paused. “Did you not want me to? I’m sorry--”

You leaned in to kiss him hard, smiling into it. “You remembered,” you mumbled as you pulled away. “Jihoonie...”

“I love you,” he said, finding your hands. “I wanted to surprise you, but I almost forgot since I was working--”

You’d giggled at him, and he found himself smiling, heart soaring at the sound. Oh, the things he’d do just to hear that cute laugh again and to see you smile. “I know. I would have stayed up if I knew you were coming home,” you said. “But I love you, too.“ You reached up, running your fingers through his hair. "Are you staying?”

He nodded. “Do you want me to?”

“It’s your bed, too, silly,” you teased. “Of course I want you home with me.”

And so Jihoon would stay, soon enough curled up with you. Being with you would mean that he’d have his heart racing as you settled in, the reality of living together still feeling new. But to fall asleep after exchanging kisses with you, the weight of your body against his own...

Jihoon would happily get used to it.

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