#especially since - again - I can finally use this website once more

[shamrockqueen]

Omega retreat : chapter 4

Pairing : Alpha Bucky x Omega reader

Warnings : R18, Eventual Smut, General Discomfort, nothing is what it seems, fluff, heart ache

Word count : 2131

Masterlist

He was very understanding when you asked him to give you time to think about his invitation. It was the turning point you hoped to avoid just a little longer, appreciating instead that you could be just like any other normal girl. Yet, some things couldn't be left on the back burner.

The untouched notification continued to light up your inbox, no doubt just being the website’s way of ensuring their reservation went through and they would be paid.

You turned over to look at your phone and the little banner still sitting at the top that said, “You’ve been invited to reserve a cabin by JAMES BARNES.”

It was fitting that he’d picked the Gold Package, and you had to admit, a sexy getaway was incredibly tantalizing.

Yet, everything felt rushed, and you knew exactly why. You knew you were always going to give in, but ever since that conversation at the hospital, you wanted so badly for every choice to at least be your own. Something you wanted to do, not be coerced by circumstances.

You told yourself every second after you’d logged into your computer, your eyes still heavy with broken sleep, that this was still your decision. Accepting the invite would be your decision, no matter what reason you had to make it.

With one simple click, it was done, a cascade of hearts flooding the screen as their little mascot hopped around with joy. It was cute, yet still a little cheesy.

You set the computer aside before laying back on the bed and letting the small streaks of sun coming in from the window warm your skin. You felt so oddly relieved, yet still so anxious. It was a good start, better than what you had before.

A small ding sang through the peaceful morning, and once again you emerged from your little sheet cocoon to grab your phone from the nightstand. It was a message from Bucky, and he seemed as excited as ever to have gotten your confirmation.

‘Good morning :D’

You smiled at the message, feeling more relief spread through your tired body as you typed back.

‘Morning. I take it you got the notification.’

You watched as those three dots jumped inside the prospective chat bubble before two popped up at once.

‘I did indeed.’

‘You have no idea how happy this makes me.’

Everything he said always seemed to make your heart blossom with a new feeling of warmth. It really put into perspective how tiring all that stress and anxiety really was when it finally started to disappear.

Expressing his eagerness through text must not have been enough for him, as the phone buzzed to life in your hand before you could type another reply.

You didn’t hesitate to answer it, and your belly fluttered at the low rumble of his voice as it sang through the speaker.

“Hey, doll”

“Hi. You miss me already?”

You heard him chuckle softly, probably smiling at the bashful tone in your voice. “I hope I’m not coming on too strong.”

“No! I think it’s really sweet.”

It was nice to have someone care this much about your needs, especially above their own. It was someone who wanted to take care of you at what may well be your weakest.

You hear him clear his throat for a second, shaking the sweet and sugary vibe that the conversation had started on. “Do I have the date right? If not, then I can fix the reservation..”

“No, you remembered very well. I’m actually surprised.”

“I guess I’m just excited.”

“That makes two of us; I’m practically shaking in my boots.”

He laughed back at your goofy little retort, and you giggled nervously along with him.

“I was kind of afraid you’d say no.” His voice seemed to fall again as he spoke, giving you a glimpse of a few insecurities of his own. “Like, maybe I scared you away.”

“As if.” You laughed it off immediately, bemused at the thought that he’d consider himself anything more than the teddy bear he’d shown you.

“I needed some time to take it in for a second. I just felt so much in the moment, ya-know.” You smiled down at the phone as you spoke, hoping you could melt his fears just as he did yours. “Believe me, you're not scary one bit.”

You swear you could feel the laugh he’d let out as you chuckled with him.

He’d talked to you for hours, showering you with compliments as he finalized the details of your trip.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to take that time off? It is pretty soon.” You stepped around your kitchen, looking for a mug to pour some coffee into. Bucky watched your shapely form as it moved across his screen, smiling to himself before you turned back to the phone and caught his eyes wondering.

The conversation had since evolved into a video call, letting you see the actual smile on his face. There would be glimpses of the rough grain in his facial hair and the deepening blue of his eyes, but there were finer details that you couldn’t see.

You wanted to see so much more, and soon you will. That thought alone made you feel so much happier.

He brushed his hair back with his fingers, leaving a thick lock behind his ear and a few strands to fall back across his forehead and cheek.

“I’ll be just fine; help to be your own boss.”

“Oh? Big boss, man, huh?”

He huffed a chuckle before he spoke back, “A story for another time, but I’ll tell you now it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

You gave him a little pout.

“What about you?” He asked, in a clear attempt to redirect the conversation back to the original question.

“Oh, I always get my heat off. It’s kinda like that for Omega’s.”

You were more than lucky to work in an environment that was so welcoming to people like you, and you were sure that your supervisor would understand.

“Makes sense..” You watched his eyes wander from the screen as he pulled his phone from the pocket of his sweatpants. It looked so out of date that it was no wonder why he only used the webcam on his computer.

“Nice flip phone, grandpa.”

He laughed back at you with “gee thanks, doll” before tossing down the bad news. “I gotta go.”

“Awe, already.”

“Yeah, nothing like a work emergency on a Saturday.” You watched him toss the phone on his desk offscreen before turning back to you. “I can’t wait to see you, Omega.”

“I can’t wait either, Alpha.” You felt his eyes shift as you spoke, as if finally hearing you say his denomination so diffidently.

You tapped the red button on the phone screen, ending the call before you turned it off and set it aside.

By mid-afternoon, you’d since decided to knock out a few of your household chores. You were already elbow deep in some soapy dishwater when you heard another familiar ringtone. You fumbled for the dish towel nearby to dry your pruney fingers before grappling with your phone.

You accepted the call and called back a sweet greeting to one of your favorite people.

“Hi, mom.”

“Hi sweetie. I haven’t heard from you in a few days..” Her concern was sweet, but you were quick to cut her short, not wanting another reminder of the previous incident.

“I’m fine, mom.”

She sighed back, “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I know.”

“Any news?” Her voice lightened, truly hoping there would have been an update on your condition and even more so that it was promising.

There was plenty of news, wonderful news that you weren’t ready to break to your worrisome mothers just yet.

Better now than never, it seemed, “I met someone.”

“Oh?”

She didn’t sound happy, and every second afterward that she left you in silence made your once-airy mood deflate.

"He's uh...He’s an alpha.” Your jaw only tightens further as you wait for an answer back. Anything would be better than another ‘oh?’

“Well, that’s nice. W-where did you two..meet?” Her discomfort was never easily hidden, but at least she was trying.

“We met on this dating site, and we’ll be spending some time together soon.”

“I see. So is it a date to a cafe or dinner?”

“We’re going away for...." You struggled to find the words, "...it’s just this vacation rental somewhere quiet and calm.”

“Oh, a getaway. Sounds nice, but... you know your cycle will be coming soon. It’s probably best to be careful.”

“I-I'll be taken care of..."

“Are you sure? I can always be there to take care of you in case of another emergency.”

You felt your stomach tighten a little as she spoke.

“That’s actually why we’ll be out of town.” Your toes shifted along the floor, carting you to the fridge so you could grip the handle to better hold yourself upright.

She didn’t answer back right away, only giving you a weak “you can’t do that.”

It made the blood freeze in your veins, leaving your body tense against the refrigerator. “Mom..”

“Do you have any idea what might happen to you all that way from home?”

“I know what I’m doing.”

“The hell you do. You can’t do this. I can’t lose you.”

She seemed to spiral nearly as badly as you did.

“If I go through another heat without a partner, you fucking will lose me.” You nearly wailed as you yelled back into the phone, only to be met with a few moments of dead air.

It made the frantic beat of your heart seem louder and louder. Proof that no matter how calm the waters felt, you couldn’t escape the truth that swam beneath them.

“Sweetheart, I only want you to be safe.”

You knock your head back against the fridge before letting your body slide along the side of it, letting the newly mounting anxieties drag you down to the floor. “I’m not safe alone, mom.”

“I’m sorry. I know you wanted to wait for all this, and it’s not fair.” Her voice was just as weak as yours was now.

“It’s fine; I need to grow up sometime.” You said back, pulling your knees to your chest. You didn’t want to wallow in this disparity anymore; you were so sick of it all. It takes a single thought—a glimmer of hope shining through the dark clouds that have begun to circle around you.

You thought of Bucky.

“B..James’ is nice; I think you’d like him.” You had to quickly correct yourself, knowing his nickname had been sweet to you but could seem silly to others. You still remember the abashed laugh you gave when he first told you.

“I…good, that’s good.”

You knew that wasn’t what she wanted to say, and now you weren’t afraid to say it instead.

“You think you’d like him more if you’d gotten to meet him.”

“I didn’t say that, but yes.” You hear her voice wavering as she speaks. “I’m glad, though, that he’s nice. I hope you have fun on your trip.”

“Thank you, mom.”

“Please be safe, sweetheart. I love you.”

You sighed for a second before telling her you loved her too, and the call came to an end. You were still hugging your knees, nearly curling in on yourself in your kitchen. The floor was uncomfortable, and you finally unfolded yourself and pushed off of it. You missed the careless feeling you’d had while talking to Bucky, lamenting how easily your mood had dipped like a sinking ship.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fucking fair at all. Just when you thought you could escape the anxiety, it rounded its ugly head around each corner. Well, this time you wouldn’t be taking it lying down anymore.

You used this new momentum to spur yourself through the house and towards your bedroom. You bolted for your closet, determined now only to look ahead to your chance to get away from it all. You tore through your hung clothes, wanting to find anything that could impress your perspective, Alpha.

You found yourself leafing through more khaki shorts than you’d realized you’d owned. Faded sundresses and worn-out old sandals littered the pile, along with plain cotton panties in contrast to any lacy lingerie.

You still had a long way to go before you truly felt comfortable in your own skin. But certainly, a little shopping could do some good too.

There was a fire in your belly, burning you forward like an angry locomotive.

It will be a cold day in hell before anyone takes this opportunity away from you.

Tag list : @bethyruth @scott-loki-barnes @wintrsoldrluvr @buckysdoll85 @lendeluxe @meowmeowyoongles @heletsmelovehim @mcira @buckysbaby-doll @serendipitouslife90 @unicornicopia1 @animegirlgeeky @matchat3a @darkdemeter @onyxwolf @thebuckybarnesvault

#fanfiction #fanfic #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #alpha bucky #james bucky buchanan barnes #alpha bucky barnes #bucky x you #sebastian stan #bucky smut #alpha bucky x omega reader #with bucky #bucky fanfic #james bucky barnes #bucky barnes au #alpha bucky x reader #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky x f!reader #bucky x female reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky fic #eventual smut #bucky barnes x you #buckybarnes #dark bucky #nothing is as it seems

[tuliptic]

Let Me Describe Your Aura

Hello, I'm back again. I have this in my drafts for a very, very long time (since last year), and I have finally completed it. This was meant to be a short reading for Instagram, but well, it ended up longer than what I expected. Tho I posted it there, you can still read it here. Honestly speaking, this reading ended up quite different from what I've expected and I don't really know what I was hoping to get from this. Maybe colours? And vibes? No idea. But still, I hope you all enjoy the reading.

As usual, close your eyes, breathe in and out, make sure your mind and heart is calm. Then, open your eyes to see which pile talks to you the most/draws you in the most. Once you’ve found your pile, scroll down to the respective parts to see what are the messages for you.

Pile 1    -     Pile 2

Pile 3    -     Pile 4

Disclaimer: This is solely for my entertainment purposes. Take only whatever that you feel like it. If it doesn’t resonate, it’s okay to just drop it. That aside, I do not consent to my work or here to be used by third parties on this platform or other websites.

Decks used: Luna Cat Tarot Deck  (Major Arcana), Linestrider Tarot Deck, Starcodes Astro Oracle Deck.

Pile 1:

For some reason, it gives me a very Uranus vibe? It’s like you’re a person who’s constantly on board with change as you constantly get involved in almost everything possible. You also give me the feeling that you’re… Not satisfied. You are not satisfied with a lot of things, especially with finances. Imagine the hierarchy of needs. Every time you fulfill one of them, you constantly seek to fulfill the other level.  You’re constantly pushing yourself to achieve better and achieve more, but with this, you’re unable to have some form of balance and may have some conflicts with people you work with. I wouldn’t really say it’s insecurity, but there’s some form of fear and being “not enough” for others that I’m seeing here. Perhaps you come from a big family, and you feel that you have the responsibility to feed everyone and to answer to their needs as well as wants.  There’s an inner child in you that is trying to nurture yourself despite all the rush that you’re putting yourself through, sending you messages so that you can take a break from time to time. You not only receive messages, but you also send them out as well. Some (or perhaps, most) of you may like writing memos or notes for your loved ones.

Tl;dr: Instead of saying aura, I would say that there’s this air of uncertainty that you bring with you. You wouldn’t be called a wildcard, because there’s still some elements of earth in you, aka a sense of stability. But still, many may wonder how to approach you without feeling threatened, I guess. For some of you, you may also have an air of authority, or maybe an RBF, hence the fear towards you too.

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Pile 2:

For some reason, the first thing I’m picking up here is that you like to present yourself as mysterious? However, there is some secrecy involved here that I’m seeing, and you may be good at redirecting conversations or attention to other people. Butterfly effect as well? It’s like you’re fluttering away and not caring about what you’ve done or what are the actions they’ll take.  You have swords and court cards here, and I’m feeling that you’re that person, providing mental insight and stimulation to people around you. Just that there may be some concerns with how you present yourself, how you word yourself, and how people can be easily offended by you. Honestly, I’d say that they’re more offended to you as a person instead of your words or what you do. It’s like… They’re threatened by your presence. Pile 1 makes people feel threatened by their nature, but for you, people are threatened by what you’re capable of bringing - an unwanted change. It’s like seeing you will remind them of what they’re lacking and how much comfort they’ll need to give up, and hence, you may feel like an outcast most of the time, feeling that you do not belong to anywhere.  Still, I’d say, people who are close to you, especially your friends will find comfort in you. You’re a good listener and will be able to provide valuable insights. They’ll be glad that you’re on their team with whatever project you’re working on. If you’re ever interested in working on a collab, do it. You’re meant for it. 

Tl;dr: For you, your aura would be swords-ish, sharp but clear. You know how a sharp and strong sword can be used as a mirror? Yeah that. That’s you, reflecting the fear of others. It’s difficult, but with time, I believe you’ll be able to work along with it.

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Pile 3:

Hmmmm. Harmonious, I’d say. That’s the first word I’m picking up. I kinda have an image of an orange cat sleeping in the sun, probably the warmth, coziness and fuzzy feeling that it gives. You may have heard your friends or people around you describing you as a fun or sunny person, or that you’re like the sun, bringing warmth to people around you. You may also have a lot of passion projects and most of them are incomplete as of current, the same goes with how your life is right now too. Remember to continue whatever efforts you’re putting in. The rewards will come at unexpected times. Another thing I’m picking up is that you like to go along with the flow. Good things happen? Great! Not so nice things happening? Aww sheesh better luck next time. Kinda feeling. Or perhaps, this is what you portray yourself as. I’m getting a weight on my chest eventho there are happy cards. Probably it’s because you put up that mask so that people around you won’t see the pain you’re in.  Vulnerability sounds like a theme that you’ll need to explore, understand, and wield. It sounds difficult and probably painful, but it is needed for you to be able to understand the various facets of life. You’re very perceptive, or perhaps, you have a gift in it. But then, to be able to utilize that skill of yours, you’ll need to expand your knowledge base, experience the various emotions, look into all the tiny things that life has for you. 

Tl;dr: Some may say that you’re a person of culture but you know you’re far from that. Still, people generally like you with how amiable you are, and how you put an effort to make people around you comfortable. However, people will not cross you because you have respect for yourself too. There may be some similarities to Pile 1 with the earthy energy here, so you may check out Pile 1 if you’re drawn to it as well, especially if you have Saturn energy.

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Pile 4: 

A Chinese idiom came to my mind when I see this pile: 与世无争. It means there’s no quarrel or argument with the society, but it generally means a way of avoiding conflict in a passive way. As though you want nothing to do with the current world. Not sure if it’s correct to say that you’re disappointed with the society but there’s some apathy in here, not having much hope with the people you’ve seen. With this, you may have decided to keep yourself closed from the people around you. Not to use strong words, but you may detest the world and build a utopia in your head, imagining a world that is ideal to you and the rules you live with. Majority of the cards here are in reverse, which explains the dejection and dissatisfaction I’m feeling here. I am having problems in describing this pile and it’s making me scratch on my keyboard because of how I’m unable to phrase words. Still, despite all of that, you’re a very capable individual, especially with the King and Queens in your reading. You may have more feminine energy or may present yourself in a more feminine way than others, tho there’s a chance of you rejecting it. People may come to you for help and advice not only because they trust you, but also your words are able to assure them that things will be alright. You have quite a lot of resources on your hands, may it be finances/monetary resources, knowledge, or even network/connections, and you use them according to your needs and values. There may be some… Unconventional skills that you have. I’m not sure what they are, but it’s up to you to figure out how you want to put them to good use.

Tl;dr: This pile is the most difficult pile for me to write as the energy is all around the place yet focused at the same time. It’s very conflicting and confusing, which may be the aura that you exude. There is no clear definition of good or bad in this reading, but more of what you want yourself to be and how you’re going to work on it. 

#tuliptic #🌷 #pick a card #pick a pile #pick a picture #tarot reading #general tarot reading #i've been wanting to do something aura related for a long while #although this reading is more of like describing who you are instead of aura #i think #i have no idea how this turned out to be but i do hope you guys enjoyed the reading #cheers

[jhilsara]

I Can See You

Pt. 1/ Pt. 2/ Pt. 3/ Pt. 4/ Pt. 5/pt. 6/Pt. 7/Pt. 8/Pt. 9/ Pt. 10/

Pt. 11/ Pt.12/Pt.13/Pt. 14/Pt.15/Pt.16/Pt.17/END

It's over! I can't say thank you enough for joining me and my adventures with Hobie and Mariana. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. I really grew attached to MJ and Hobie as their story just blossomed before me. While this is the end of the main story, I'll probably have a couple of one shots here and there for them. I just love them so much. Anyway~ once again thank you so much for reading this silly little fic and if you made it this far, I truly appreciate you for reading :)

please leave a kudo on ao3 or a comment <3

~Several Months Later~

MJ is trying to push her way through a rampaging crowd. She’s fighting against the current, but she could care less. The adrenaline pumping through her as she tries to look above the sea of people.

The screaming in her ears is starting to get irritating though. She elbows past a much larger man and finally gets somewhere off to the side where she can get a good visual.

Through the settling dust she sees Spider-Man knocking around the Vulture in the air. She brings her camera up and tries to take a few quick shots before she starts filming. She was getting tired of trying to frame the best front-page photo’s for Spider-Man slander at the Daily Bugle… but none of her other coworkers were willing to get that close to any of the action. She did get hazard pay from it and she was going to milk the cow dry as long as they were paying her.

They didn’t need to know that she’s got a small advantage since her boyfriends the vigilante… at least she feels somewhat safe getting up close to his fights. Even if the so-called vigilante in question does scold her every single time.

She was starting to kind of like it, it was just proof that he cares, not that she’d ever tell Hobie that.

Once she get’s a good enough photo, well, better than what her other coworkers have made in the past. She brings out her phone to film.

This wasn’t for the Daily Bugle, it was for her own personal blogging website. If she was forced by the corporate overloads to make money by slandering her boyfriends name, she could at least run a little side gig that tells the truth.

If she got more website hits on her blog than then Daily Bugle’s she didn’t brag, but god did it boost her ego. Especially since Mr. Jameson was too dull to figure out she was running the blog on the side anyway.

He wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box.

She’s scanning her phone to zoom in on Spider-Man and the cocky bastard has the gal to look over to her and shoot a peace sign at the camera. She rolls her eyes.

“As you can see our vigilante isn’t taking this fight very seriously since he’s flirting with the camera… It’ll make a nice fan cam later though.” She says sarcastically as she follows the fight.

Hobie’s high above, fighting the Vulture in the air. That was the nice thing about the Vulture, nothing was close to her on the ground.

Not like the Lizard a few weeks ago who literally flooded the whole street. Her shoes were permanently damaged. Not to mention her sliding down the road like a poor excuse of a slip and slide. She did get some stellar photos and videos from that. Even if she almost fell down into the sewer.

Hobie had finally conceded to the fact she was going to be near his fights. By her volition or by her new job. He couldn’t escape it. So, he did the next best thing, he started to make her gear that she could at least use to help herself.

The first being a web shooter. It wasn’t set up exactly like his. It was discrete enough to look like a watch. It was mostly to stop her from falling, which is how she saved herself from falling into the sewer.

The month it took for her to figure it out and feel comfortable enough to use it was not fun. Hobie was trying to teach her how to swing her weight, but he was a stick in comparison to her. She’s seen what his webs can do, she knows they can hold her easily. It was trusting herself to not screw up the momentum that was scary. That and the fact she didn’t like swinging to begin with. Even if it was Hobie’s favorite, it certainly wasn’t hers. The actions gave her whiplash and made her nauseous.

She only used the web shooter when she absolutely had to. She was more than happy that today Hobie was flying through the sky. She could safely keep her feet on the ground.

The Vulture shots his metal feathers as an attack toward the swinging vigilante. Hobie swings too close toward her and it has MJ running from the projectiles hitting the ground.

She keeps her camera steady as she readjusts to follow the fight again, “The Vulture should really start learning how to aim if he’s going to resort to his feathers.” She comments as she keeps filming. “I mean, how often have they really hit Spider-Man?”

There’s no one really around her but a few reporters on the sides of the streets. Most of them keeping their distance far away. MJ was the only one willing to get this close to the action. Which is why her online blog was skyrocketing in popularity. She didn’t even think about making one until one day Mr. Jameson pissed her off. He was ranting and raving about how the Daily Bugle was the only news source worth listening too because of how good their images were of Spider-Man.

Or as he said, “That no good Spiderpunk running around and destroying our city!”

If she had to bullshit some article calling Hobie Spiderpunk one more time she was going to vomit in Mr. Jameson’s waste basket. It was such a playground taunt. He couldn’t even be more creative!

It also made her eye twitch that her boss was using her perfectly good photos to slander her boyfriend. Hobie didn’t care. In fact, he never looked at a single news source, the most he did was hijack the police scanners to aid him. Didn’t stop the fire burning under her though. If MJ was anything, she was loyal to a fault. So, what if it meant she got a little petty? It was all in good faith. She made her blog that night, as a counter protest to her boss. She never expected her ramblings and bad videos to explode overnight.

It was an added bonus that her boss had also caught wind of her blog and couldn’t do anything about it. He had demanded MJ pay closer attention when she was out, to try and figure out who ran the blog. The man clearly couldn’t put it together that it was her. Who else would get that close to Spider-Man’s fights? She didn’t even disguise her voice, but she made sure to never show her face.

Hobie just found it amusing if anything else. She had a decent following online and made sure her content was always free. If she was going to report on what was happening she wasn’t going to profit off of it. Unlike the Daily Bugle who hid their slanderous newspaper articles behind a paywall. She loved what she did, uncovering stories and being near the action. It gave her a rush like no other. Even if Hobie would wish she wouldn’t get so close.  

This was one of those moments she wished she wasn’t so close.

“Shit, shit, shit!” She’s running from falling building debris. The vulture had taken a large chunk off the old brick building to her left. She could hear the car alarms going off as the falling pieces were crushing the cars underneath. 

She feels arms wrap around her tightly and she stops struggling almost immediately. Looking up to see Hobie’s mask staring down at her. A heavy sigh leaving his mouth.

“You were doing so good this time. Outta way and everythin’.” He teases half-heartedly.

She rolls her eyes before shrugging, “To be fair, I didn’t expect the bird to throw such a hissy fit he’d take out the corner of the building.” She replies.

Hobie sighs and nods. He sets her down a good distance away. “He’s really bloody upset over somethin’… I couldn’t tell ya for the life of me. I tuned him out ages ago.” He turns to dash off and take care of the giant bird man.

“I’m wastin’ my breath, but don’t follow alright.” He tries to tell her. She just hums in acknowledgement and she rushing off right behind him.

She was almost like a shadow with her new job at the Daily Bugle. Always behind him. It still frightened him. Had the rage simmering underneath his the second she was too close to danger. That dread would probably never fully go away. It was just a matter of trusting each other. He’d come running to her if she needed him, and vice versa. The least her could do was arm her so she could defend herself. Not that she needed too much defending. She did explode the Goblin with their own bombs. He knew the dangers that came with being Spider-Man and she had taken them with so much grace and shouldered them with him. It was more than he could ask of anyone.

Yet there she was, next to him, like she was always meant to be.

She grabs a few more photos and is able to catch the end of the fight. Hobie having the Vulture wrapped up in his webs.

“Once again, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man can be found protecting us! He’s a little cross with me right now so I won’t bug him. I am expecting some fan cams from this footage so don’t let me down!” She signs off her video and shuffles her belongings into her bag.

Hobie turns to see her and she waves in small acknowledgement before jogging off back to her office. He shakes his head but goes to handle the Vulture, knowing he’ll see her later anyway.

Mariana’s curled up on the couch, nursing a half cold tea, when the door gently opens and she hears him kicking off his combat boots.

“Long day?” she calls out to him sitting up to look over at him.

He gives a dry chuckle before walking over to kiss her forehead. “It was more than just the birdman today,” he sighs.

She frowns looking up at him, “Go take a hot shower, I’ll make you something.” She whispers holding his face.

He nods his head and presses another soft kiss to her cheek before walking to the bathroom.

She shakes her head and gets up with a full body stretch. She goes to grab the leftovers from the dinner she cooked earlier. She goes to warm it back up for him, it wasn’t too cold but definitely not as hot as when she originally cooked earlier. It won’t take very long so she starts on a drink too. She goes over to the kettle and starts making him a cup of tea, while also making herself a second cup. Pouring her lukewarm tea down the sink. She leans against the counter and waits for it to heat up.

She doesn’t hear Hobbie come behind her as he wraps his arms around her waist. Pressing his half naked body against hers. She leans her head back to look up at him.

“Ya know, this would be lovelier if you weren’t still slightly wet.” She teases him.

He groans and shoves his face into the crook of her neck. “Don’t care.” He murmurs placing a soft kiss to her shoulder.

She smiles softly and moves her hand to pat his cheek. She doesn’t stop her task of making them tea but it becomes a slightly more difficult task with one hand.

Hobie slowly starts swaying their bodies to an unheard tune in his head. She easily moves with him as she makes their mugs. The silence isn’t stifling, it’s more relaxing than anything. His weight on her is comforting and he places more soft kisses against her skin, moving from her shoulder up her neck, to her cheek, and finally to the corner of her lips.

She turns her head to follow him, chasing his lips with hers. She hums contently against him.

“I have to pour our tea Hobbie.” She whispers against his lips.

He presses another kiss, this one deeper and longer. “Can wait,” He grips her hips to make her turn fully to him. He presses his forehead against hers, closing his eyes.

Her hands snake up his arms and down his bare chest, touch feather light. He makes a deep groan in his throat. It has her chuckling softly.

One of his hands goes to grab both her hands, capturing them easily. His other hand moves from her waist to grip the counter behind her. His mouth moving down to her ear, “Watch it…” he whispers, “Don’t start something you can’t finish.” He presses a kiss under her ear.

She starts to squirm a bit, “Oh piss off!” She giggles her face heating up, “I’m not the one who walked in here half naked.”

He leans back and sighs dramatically. “I haven’t done the laundry in a minute luv.”

She rolls her eyes, “What you need is to just move in already.” She tries to say nonchalantly avoiding looking up at him.

He hums in thought, “Is that you officially asking me or joking?” He teases trying to make her look at him.

Her face grows redder, as she tries to wiggle away from him. He other hand releases hers and he blocks her in against the counter.  Leaning dangerously closer to her.

“I… I want you to move in, I mean you come here every night anyway, I just think it would be easier if-” she’s starting to ramble running over her words.

Hobie cuts her off with his mouth, kissing her once more. Pulling back to smile lazily at her furiously blushing face.

“I’m just teasin’. Course I’ll move in.” he tells him softly.

“Okay, perfect, cool…” she says quietly, eyes avoiding his.

“I’m keepin’ the house boat though. Don’t want to leave all my spider stuff here.” He says seriously.

She laughs with her chest, moving to wrap her arms around his neck. “I’m okay with that.”

He moves to grab her thighs, lifting her to wrap her legs around his waist. She makes a small noise before holding onto him tighter.

“Hobie! What about the tea, and your food!” She tries to scold him, but her laughter gives her away.

“It can wait, just want you right now.” He says walking them to her bedroom.

She leans forward, her small laughter being swallowed by his lips. They fall onto her bed together and her hands move to hold his jaw, deepening the kiss.

If someone told Mariana a year ago she’d be in a relationship with her cities vigilante she’d call them crazy. She’d also find it impossible that her path would have crossed with his to begin with.

She wouldn’t believe anything that’s happened to her this past year of knowing Hobie. She’s felt herself change for the better, becoming braver than ever. He’s everything she could ask for. Parts of her have healed in ways she never thought they could. The scares are still there, but they can fade with time. She doesn’t feel like a dog who’s been kicked one too many times anymore. She’s found her home in his heart. She knows he’ll protect it, like she protects his. It’s precious that she’s found this love and all she wants to do is nurture and grow it.

She loves him and she thinks she could forever.

Tag List: @missshelleyduvall

#hobie brown x oc #hobie brown x reader #hobie brown #spiderpunk #spider punk #hobie x reader #hobie x oc #my art

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not trying to get my foster cats adopted?

So for some background, I (21 m) have worked at a cat rescue for a while. We’re pretty small and thus Always in need of fosters. I was hesitant to foster for a few practical reasons even though I’ve really missed living with cats, but then we found my two fosters. They were kittens, and really antisocial-so much so that my boss even thought they were feral at first. From the jump I had hope for them, and slowly worked with them at work until they (begrudgingly) let us handle them. Over a month went by and we still hadn’t found a foster for them, so finally i volunteered to take them home and set everything up for them.

Since then, they’ve made a LOT of progress-playing with me, letting me pet them, cuddling in bed with me at night, etc. they’re even getting better with other people, and definitely have a better chance of being able to meet potential adopters and adjust to new people and a new home. Problem is, I’ve gotten pretty attached. Especially because i was going through a REALLY difficult time just after i started fostering them, and taking care of them and helping them grow was one of the only things that kept me going. I’m also worried that after bonding with me they’ll be scared and re-traumatized being suddenly moved into a new home with new people. They feel like children to me.

If I could adopt them right now, I would-but there are 2 material problems. First is that I’m still living at home, and my mom agreed to let me foster but is Vehemently against the idea of me having my own cat. I’m planning to move out this year so this is temporary, but it will be at least 6-8 months until I’m settled in my own place (which I already know I’ll be able to have cats in). Second is that my current job is my only job, and it doesn’t pay enough or give me enough hours that I can cover vet costs on my own. Food and litter and other expenses are fine, but my job covers the vet care as long as I’m fostering and wouldn’t once I adopt. Again, temporary as I’m looking for a second job anyway, but I’m not sure when I’ll actually Have one and don’t want to adopt until I’m certain I can provide for them. It isn’t completely accurate to say I’m not trying at All to get them adopted-I put some great pictures of them on our website and wrote their bios myself, and I post about them on my socials all the time (which fosters are encouraged to do), but I know I could be doing more to promote them. I also selfishly am glad that they have as many issues as they do (being really nervous with new people + they have a Big problem with scent marking in new environments) because I know that when adopters do come to meet them I can bring up these issues and they’ll be less likely to go through with it-I’m not trying to actively dissuade anyone, but I am reluctant to let them go and hoping they’ll stay with me until I can adopt them, which is definitely incentivizing me to do less than I could. I take good care of them but I’m still a little worried that I’m the AH here if my reluctance is playing a part in preventing them from going home with someone who will have more money and more physical space for them right Now and who is already settled and ready to adopt a pet.

AITA?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[gin-juice-tonic]

Hey Gin this might be a silly thing to ask, but how did you realize you were trans? Cause ever since I saw your trans Stan and Ford I think I had some sort of relivation, it started with just really enjoying the art you drew to me feeling some sort of envy. Either that I want to dress more masculine or that I actually want to be a man, cause honestly when I look at your trans stans I just feel so much gender envy (jealousy?) And on my last period I had a whole crying fit over it starting, which has never happened before. I just don't know if this is actually what I'm feeling or if it isn't. I've had thoughts of telling my mom and fearing the consequence. This is just all so new and I'm honestly scared. I figured I'd ask you since I look up to you and from what I've seen you are quite wise. I don't really know why I have so much self doubt and constantly flip flop over things. It's frustrating, I just wish I could be certain about something for once. Sorry about this, I'm a mess really.

It’s not silly to ask. My answer is unfortunately a little silly, because I’m a goober. I also typed A LOT so its all going under a read more

So, I was 16 and on tumblr even more than I am now, and I was (still am) friends with a trans woman who reblogged a post that was like “Just trans girl things: eating dark chocolate because it has substances similar to estrogen” and I went “Haha i guess I should stop eating it.” followed by “…why do I feel that way” and THAT was followed by quite the crisis.

Trans men weren’t as well known about back then, so I was like “Well, it means nothing, since only women can be trans”. And then I found out men could be trans too and that pushed my crisis further along. And I started to think. About how I liked when people defaulted to male pronouns for me on the internet, or how when i was a kid I would use a crazy amount of shampoo to make my hair look short and flatten my chest in front of the mirror and look at it. Things like that. And I got upset because “no i can’t be trans that’s impossible”. I would google things like “how do you know if you’re trans”, “quiz to see if you’re trans”, ect.

But the idea of being seen as a man was exciting. It was tantalizingly exciting. And I knew it could be possibility for me someday, and I knew that made a part of me happy and I couldn’t un-know it.

Final straw was a nonbinary person I had been following made a post about how they were going to start taking testosterone. And instead of feeling happy for them I just got mad and started sobbing to myself. Because I was so extremely jealous. So jealousy absolutely has its place in figuring things out.

You should think. Think about attaining the things you’re envious about. Does this make you happy? It’s okay if it’s upsetting or scary at the same time. Change often is. But if it makes you happy, excites you, gives you hope for the future, it’s worth thinking more about.

-

You don’t have to jump into telling your mom right away (and I wouldn’t really recommend it till you’re a little more sure of yourself). You can go at whatever pace you want to. I didn’t tell my mom (or anyone in my real life at all) till I was like, 20. And I’d known for 4 years at that point. You’ve sent me a tumblr message, so I’m assuming you’ve got an account here. I’d say asking your friends on this website to address you as male would be a good way to ease into things. And you can see if you like that or not.

For how you dress, again, you can ease into it. Personally it made me happy to dress in athletic clothing (especially tank tops- to show off my non existent guns), or to dress like a greaser (Though I preferred a black t shirt to a white one), or a golfer. None of those things particularly scream ‘man’ but they were man enough to me. You can find things man enough for you. If you want to try out a binder and think you can get one without anyone noticing, my first ever one was a Tri-top from Underworks. They’re like $30 or so. I was able to get away with buying it because I was a cosplay nerd so I just said it was for that.

If you’re the type of person who owns makeup- you could try to find some time alone just to have an experiment of mimicking drag king makeup, or makeup for cosplayers doing male characters. I did that once early on, and while it looked admittedly goofy, it made me ecstatic at the time.

-

Er sorry for things getting so long. But I just want to say lastly that self doubt is both normal and okay. And thinking far in the future (ie- things like coming out to people or hormones or anything like that) might scare you. But you can take things one step at a time if you want to. Play with just looking at clothes, making outfits on pinterest or whatever, imagining scenarios where people address you as male, thinking of names you might like. See what makes you happy, and expand on the things that do from there.

And regardless of what you discover, in the end you will have learned more about yourself. And that's always a good thing.

#long post #VERY LONG IM SORRY #ask stuff

[aceofwhump]

I know that it’s not realistic to headcanon that all of my favs are ace especially when there is canon evidence that says otherwise but it’s not my fault that all my blorbos are actually ace so 🤷‍♀️

(I have only seen broadchurch s1 and s2, but spoilers for those, and TW for not entirely enthusiastic sex/internalized acephobia/Tess being Not Nice to Alec and also Alec being Not Nice to himself…)

Alec Hardy is ace and always has been. The thought of sex makes him mildly nauseous. He might not know precisely how to label how he feels but as gross as the deed makes him feel he really truly did love Tess romantically and he tried to make her happy and do what she seemed so enthusiastic to do (and he got Daisy out of it so he’ll never regret it), but his reluctance (“Can’t I just hold you instead?” Tess rolls her eyes and shifts away from him on the bed, brushing his hand away when he reaches for her) may have been a contributing factor to things falling apart.

He asks Becca because he’s so confused and he’s such a mess and people keep saying it will help (it never has) and if part of him is so disgusted with himself he thinks he’d deserve it anyway nobody needs to know…

Nonny! Oh my god! Now to preface, I tend to do the same and just headcanon all my favorite characters as ace because I'm ace and I can do what I want. BUT! I've headcanoned Alec Hardy as asexual since I first watched the show!!!! He's one of my favorite ace headcanoned characters!!!! Oh I'm thrilled to talk about this.

Alec Hardy is totally asexual!!! All of what you said. All of it. My headcanons incoming! So he has ZERO interest in sex and always had. He did it just to please Tess but would never initiate and after a while Tess got pissed off and annoyed at always having to be the one to initiate and believes he doesn't care about her since he doesn't initiate anything physical. That, coupled with Alec never being home because of work, was a major contributing factor to her cheating on him during Sandbrook. Alec never liking sex but yes like you said he got Daisy out of it so in the end he can't regret having sex with her (even though he didn't want to have sex).

After Daisy starts living with him she notices how little he dates and how disgusted he usually looks when anything sex related comes up that she asks him if he's asexual. He's never heard of that before and she shows him some websites and he finally finds the word for what feels.

Ahh god I love it! So many ideas!

Oh guess what! I've found a couple of fics with ace Hardy! Please enjoy!

It's not like love at first sight is an actual thing by thisisarandomuser Summary: A night out in the pub and a conversation with his daughter help Hardy to make sense of his sexuality.

Recalibrating by pulse_in_the_pages Summary: Alec Hardy didn’t understand what all the fuss was about sex. Or, four times Hardy didn't know he was asexual, and one time he did.

Admissions Aren't Easy by Asexual_Enjolras Summary: When forced into sharing yet another hotel room with just one double bed - once again - for a new case, DI Alec Hardy and DS Ellie Miller soon discover that their relationship is a lot more developed than what it was the first time this mess-up happened at a reception desk. While settling into their new room, Alec reminisces about the hotel, having stayed their with his ex-wife in the past. In their discussion, Alec finds himself admitting that he is - in fact - an asexual man. Ellie tries to comfort him as all of his truths begin to spill out, and then they find their feelings for one another also beginning to come to light.

italicized oh for the realizations by strawberryopals Summary: Daisy Hardy talks to her dad, and they both realize something about him.

Our experiences have shaped us by brokenlycan Summary: Alec had been very stressed lately so the two of them decide to surprise him with something to help him relax. But it backfires.

#mod replies #ask #alec hardy #broadchurch #asexual alec hardy #ace alec hardy

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 9 "A Place of Particular Concern"

Happy start of a new Volume, everyone! 🎉

Shaving off a little more than a month, it’s been two years since I was writing a RWBY Recap. Is that long enough to count as nostalgic? Definitely long enough to inspire a minor existential crisis on the passage of time, so how about we just collectively pretend it’s still 2013, yeah?

Of course, that would mean we were watching RWBY on YouTube and RT’s website, not... Crunchyroll. Listen, I’ll be real with you all and admit I know incredibly little about the site’s sketchy history which, from what I’ve gleaned lately, has led to a number of RWBY fans boycotting its use. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. However, I noted the two week free trial and decided to give that a go first, if only to make my life a little easier for the premiere. I’d planned to either shell out the 24-ish dollars necessary to watch the other eight episodes - which, honestly, isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, especially if we factor in my Starbucks addiction... - or don my parrot and eye-patch once I hit that two week mark.

So there was a plan!

This plan was a mistake.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that writing, “Wow, Crunchyroll’s website doesn’t work very well, does it?” maybe isn’t news to anyone else? I read that the new episode was supposed to drop at 9:30am. I then tried unsuccessfully to get it to load through 4:00pm. During this, while trying various avenues in the hopes of getting this video started, I noticed a Google link with a four hour timestamp, which would have put the release at around 11:00 my time, closer to what we’re used to.

Regardless of when it actually dropped, I was finally able to start watching at around 4:00pm. By which I mean I watched the first 17 seconds of the episode. Then it froze. I made it to the minute mark using a different browser. Then it froze again. I let things sit for a while and finally restarted my original vid, completing the episode without any additional problems, but by then I was more than a little frustrated.

Was it my internet? Crunchyroll? The will of the RWBY gods who don’t want me critiquing the hell out of this episode? Who can say, but I think I’ll be hoisting the flag sooner than intended.

“This is the story of a girl who had a lot of problems.”

If you’re thinking that this line sounds at all familiar, it’s because we’ve heard it before. Actually, the entirety of the first seven minutes is made up of our promo clips which, in a fourteen minute episode without opening and credits, is a lot. RWBY has been gone (in its canon state, anyway) for two years. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my impression of the Ruby PoV clip was that it was purely promotional material, not the start of our far-off Volume. So it was more than a little disappointing to finally get my hands on new content only to realize that half of it wasn’t new at all. We’d already seen it, discussed it, dissected it weeks, or even months ago. Combined with how much of our starter material was in our trailer (two emotional shots of Ruby I’ll be unpacking later) and how much the fandom was able to easily infer (Weiss and Blake are captured while trying to retrieve her weapon) it almost didn’t feel like a RWBY premiere at all. There is, almost literally, nothing new for the fandom to sink their teeth into. We knew they were in this Ever After place, we knew the basic plot of the first couple of episodes, we’ve seen glimpses of all the side characters... I’d actually argue that there’s more to analyze in the opening than the totality of our first episode.

Not that that's going to stop me from writing a shit ton about it, you know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

None of which bodes well and, frankly, this episode is enough of a mess that I can’t even take solace in RT executing the repetition well. Thus, I’m going to move fairly quickly (for me lol) through the first half of the episode, if only because I’ve already given my thoughts on it in other posts. So to recap within the recap:

Yang’s fall into the void and the ways in which this moment differs from the original animation is still a sore spot for me, especially given how the characters react (or rather, don’t) to finding her alive. While I commend RT for trying something different by giving us Ruby’s PoV, Lindsay’s acting grates here and the constant whimpers/gasps just highlight how much Ruby didn’t emote in the original version of the scene. Likewise, the halo of white around Ruby’s vision prior to falling proves that the writers were very aware of her silver eyes in that moment, yet inexplicably decided not to use them. As we’re seeing more and more lately, characters loose all their powers and strategic thinking the moment something needs to happen for the plot. Why craft a legitimate failure for the heroes when you could simply have them forget that their longest-running villain is in the city with them, or have Yang repeat a major mistake she’s supposedly outgrown, or have Ruby not use the one, unique ability that would save her from certain death?

As said, we know this old tune.

A detail I don't think I picked up on the first time around though is that Ruby is reaching desperately for Blake when they fall... and Blake just isn’t paying her any mind lol.

I mean I get it. Of course she’d be looking towards the villains/the bridges that represent safety, but given the non-relationship between Ruby and Blake, it struck me as funny that even when they’re “dying” together Blake barely seems to register Ruby’s presence. ‘I really look up to you!’ Yeah. Sure you do.

Ruby floats through the orange orbs of the void and, given that they show up in our opening, I hope we receive an explanation for what they are exactly. Perhaps the souls of other people who have fallen? Idk, I'm reaching. Neo shows up and fights in various disguises, blah blah blah. Ruby wakes on the beach to someone calling her name.

I feel like I asked this the first time around, but is anyone confident on whose voice that is? It almost sounds like Ruby’s own to me - perhaps heralding the split we saw in the trailer - but it could also be a repeat of Yang’s when she saved her? Honestly though, that second option feels too emotionally nuanced for what we got in the rest of this episode.

Right now, I’m inclined to ignore the voice until something actually comes of it. RWBY history has taught me that such minor mysteries may not last past the twenty minute mark.

As we saw in the released clip, we're immediately given some details of this strange land, including giant flora and twin suns. That’s... pretty tame. I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to do an Alice in Wonderland-inspired story, you’ve got two routes you can follow. The first (and for more satisfying option, I think) is to study the ways in which the original story functioned as a metaphor for the life of a child navigating an adult world and, similarly, use the weirdness of this land to impart some message. The second option (far easier, but still entertaining) is to really lean into the oddities, captivating your audience through the sheer WTF-ness of what you’ve put on screen, even if the strangeness isn’t actually representative of anything other than a "Well damn, that was weird" reaction.

Sadly, RWBY’s “A Place of Particular Concern” doesn’t seem to be achieving either. I mentioned when the trailer dropped that I don’t trust the story to say anything meaningful via its environments, but nor are the environments spectacular enough to engage us through novelty alone. Don’t get me wrong, I think the animators have achieved an impressive feat here, especially given the constraints and terrible working conditions we know they’ve faced before, but the oddness of the Ever After is mediocre at best. Oh look, small things like shells are now big. Real birds like the Dodo now come in flashier colors. A mouse talks!

...in a story where a main character is a cat girl.

Just like RWBY failed to distinguish how magic was different - and, ultimately, more shocking - than semblances, it’s now failing to inspire that sense of awe when our characters already hail from a pretty odd world. Sure, this is a different kind of odd, but the switch lacks any real punch. Compare RWBY’s Remnant/Ever After to Alice’s Normal World/Wonderland. She doesn’t have things like faunus and grimm, so something as relatively simple as a cat smiling unnerves her (and the reader). She doesn’t just see a slightly off bird, she finds out you now use them to play croquet. And she’s at the center of every oddity, experiencing these changes first-hand. Ruby sees a giant shell for a single shot. Alice becomes a giant and deals with the social horror of filling up someone’s house. I knew this was going to be a problem back when our clip dropped because despite being a separate realm supposedly governed by its own rules, we’ve still got a mouse terrified of cats. There’s this implication that the Ever After is oh so strange and horrifyingly unfamiliar... but then we immediately turn around and learn, no wait, most of what Ruby is encountering is familiar. At least enough to get by.

Ruby: “I should have known! I’ve seen plenty of cartoons!”

Volume 9 is playing it super safe with the Wonderland references and it’s really disheartening. If RWBY doesn’t have anything to say via this weirdness, I would have at least liked to see something truly weird.

To get back to the plot, Ruby immediately starts walking into the jungle and I - true story - groaned at the screen. Despite knowing it was coming! Because how can you have a character go through everything Ruby just did and not provide some reflection on it? This girl wakes up in a fantasy world after The Most Traumatic Fight Ever and waltzes off like an automaton following a coded directive. Where’s the shocked examination of her surroundings? Where’s the horrified, “Where am I? Did I die?” questioning? Where’s the post-fight panic where she desperately shouts for her teammates, begging someone to answer her? I literally can’t think of another instance in which a character goes through that much and then, literally, walks it off.

Later in the episode Ruby will inform Weiss and Blake that she spotted an overhang on the cliff and decided to try and get up there so she could survey her surroundings. It sure would have been nice to know about that while she was wandering. During the actual act of her travel I had no idea what Ruby was trying to accomplish other than, in true RWBY fashion, what I assumed was her most logical goal(s) - like finding her teammates. The kicker is that there are a ton of easy ways to keep the viewer informed despite lacking voice-overs. Let Ruby talk to herself as a way to self-sooth. Or use Little as a sounding board (why else is this mouse even here...) Show us a shot of Ruby spotting her target, taking a deep, fortifying breath, and going, “Okay... you can do this. Just make it to the cliff. One step at a time," a goal that’s ruined once her steps start going in circles. You can add a bit of character work by having Ruby remember Tai and Qrow’s training: always get a sense of your surroundings first. You can setup Ruby’s (presumably) Volume-long depression by having her just lie in the sand for a while, the suns passing overhead, staring at them listlessly, only moving when the surf starts hitting her mouth. Hell, is anyone even carrying their scrolls anymore? I don’t care how unlikely it is that it’ll work here, the first thing Ruby should do is whip that out and try to call her teammates.

Watching this moment in the context of the whole episode made it that much worse for me. It’s just so glaring how rushed this entire premiere was, with every logical reaction - to say nothing of the emotional beats necessary after that finale - getting brushed aside so that the team can get back together in under fifteen minutes. We’ve only got ten episodes, Ruby, so hurry it up. Go on, girl, give us nothing!

So we know the rest of this silliness, yeah? There’s the implication that a small amount of time has passed, an annoying dodo bird that must have been animated in later because Ruby doesn’t react to that either, a circular path of the jungle, and the soon to be named Little watching all this from a rock.

I want to emphasize that our first tonal emphasis here is humor. Having Ruby continually ending up in the same place, growing frustrated with cutsey voice acting, and the quick cuts of Little in various poses all function as lighthearted amusement for the audience... which is really fucking weird in a Volume following up on the trauma of last season. This is going to be an ongoing problem for the entirety of the episode and severely undermines the reveal that Penny has died (again). This is the exact thing RWDE folks have been worried about for literal years now, from the moment we realized we were getting a Wonderland-type world. I have little doubt that the fandom is right in saying that the rest of the Volume will likely get much darker than this (it almost always does nowadays), but that doesn’t matter because the damage has already been done. RWBY cannot continually flip-flop like this and expect its viewers to still buy into the serious moments. So many of us have lost faith in the writers’ abilities to treat these subjects respectfully and segueing from the (supposedly) fascist storyline that ends in horrific tragedy straight into, “What a whacky world, am I right? 🤪” is a damn good way to continually alienate viewers who want an emotional connection with this show.

Every time this criticism comes up there are other RWBY fans pushing back with the claim that a show - especially one that began so lighthearted and silly - simply can’t just be doom and gloom all the time. And you know what? They’re absolutely right. However, there are numerous ways to infuse comedy into your story without outright undermining the primary tone. Given that I’m reading it at the moment, I’d like to briefly use Kim Carnby’s Sweet Home as an example.

For those who are unaware, Sweet Home is a webtoon turned Netflix series that follows 18 year old Cha Hyun-soo after both his parents and sister die in a car accident. Given that he’s technically an adult, but without much financial support and already grappling with a deep depression, he moves into a rundown apartment complex and schedules his own suicide. Before he can go through with it though, a virus sweeps through the world, turning people into various kinds of monsters. These monsters - entertainingly creative - are modeled after whatever the infected person’s greatest desire is at the time of their turning, resulting in some benign beings... but much more hungry, violent, terrifying beasts. Thus, the story is centered around Cha Hyun-soo’s attempts to survive, the horrors found in his apartment complex, and the question of why he’s trying so hard to live when he’d already planned to die.

It’s dark, is what I’m getting at.

It also has moments like this:

And just a little while later:

Here, a generational divide infuses some much needed comedy into the story without detracting from the world’s overall tone (note too that Cha Hyun-soo remains looking stressed and anxious the whole time). It would be a problem if our depressed, terrified teenage suddenly started jumping like he’s having the time of his life (Weiss). It would be a problem if the entire first volume, which is meant to highlight the horror of this situation, was constantly peppered with lame jokes involving cutesy animals (the mice). If you’re going to add comedy, keep it subtle, relatable, and in this case bound to the characters’ internal monologue. By having them each compliment the other with age-appropriate comparisons that cause confusion, but without verbally acknowledging that confusion, the humor exists purely for the audience’s sake. The characters aren’t supposed to be laughing it up right now... so they don’t. The humor is for the reader alone, recognizing the miscommunication and enjoying it as an element separate from the dark tone of the characters’ world. Because this is the vibe of the scene directly before:

RWBY fails at this division. A lot. Like, that failure makes up the majority of this episode.

You know what? It’s easier to just keep a count going.

Little’s introduction is Ill-suited Comedy Example #1.

All of which means that when Ruby starts crying - and by that I mean a few sniffles and a single tear track - I have no investment in the moment. Even if the animation were close to what I’d expect after such a tragedy, its impact is obliterated by the, “Look! Cute mouse!” immediately proceeding and following it.

Also, love how Little has never seen a human before, is watching Ruby intently during this entire process... yet makes no effort to engage with her. I suppose I get it given the emphasis on how scared the mice are of predators, but from a character perspective it leaves something to be desired. In regards to Ruby not (yet) utilizing Little as a means of expressing her thoughts to the audience, our first Ever After character is just kinda... there. Ruby stumbles across them. (BTW, is they/them what the fandom is using for our first non-binary rep?) They only speak because they feel obligated to help Ruby after she retrieves the cheese. They come on this adventure because, by their own admission, they simply have nothing better to do. What’s the point of Little again? How are they serving the story? They don’t even lead Ruby to Blake and Weiss - she stumbles across them on her own while Little sleeps. In fact, it’s already a running gag that Little naps instead of doing anything useful. I wouldn’t care so much if RWBY weren’t already a show suffering from character bloat and an inability to manage that (because the former isn’t necessarily a problem on its own). Now that we’ve finally got the girls alone(-ish) and primed for some character development, I don’t want to squander it on stupid mouse jokes.

Given which: Little’s ‘Gimme The Cheese’ dance + accompanying sounds effects is Ill-Suited Comedy Example #2.

I mentioned the first time around that I am weak for a cute, animal companion. That remains true. Unfortunately, Little’s cuteness is only carrying them so far with me. Their negative impact on the narrative as a whole is, thus far, simply too much to fix with grabby motions and snot bubbles.

They ask the thematic, “What are you?” question and introduce a number of other theoretical ideas that, frankly, I doubt the Volume will capitalize on. Is your name your purpose? (Like Huntress Ruby Rose.) How does one "Little"? The team is “similar, but different.” Until the Volume actually does something with these questions, I’m inclined to read them as simple ‘nonsense’ language included to try and emulate Carroll’s style.

With Little planning to show Ruby her village (but doesn't actually succeed in that), we cut to Weiss and Blake traversing the jungle together. How did they find one another? No idea. Why did they find one another when Blake fell with Ruby? No idea. The story tries to bypass this by, as expected, leaning into the illogical nature of the world. If they somehow found each other, then they might be able to likewise find Blake’s weapon, despite the fact that it fell long after her. Honestly, this feels more like a very convenient plot device than an interesting characteristic of this world. Things happen so randomly here! Funny how that randomness seems to solely benefit the heroes.

Sidenote: I really like that Weiss says “Gambol Shroud” because the weapon names have felt only semi-canon for a very long time. Other than Ruby referring to Crescent Rose back in the first couple episodes, have we heard the names at all? I can’t recall off the top of my head, but regardless this makes for a nice moment between Weiss and Blake. It’s a small thing, but it helps sell the idea that they do actually know one another well.

The rest of the scene is... passable. Weiss has a “Blake... I’m really glad you’re okay” line and gets a “I’m really glad you are too” in response. This is one of those cases where I think fiction needs to deviate sharply from reality. Irl that’s probably exactly the kind of awkward, rushed line I’d give a close friend because I myself am awkward and struggle to verbalize my care for others (gift giving ftw!). But in fiction an exchange like that just comes across as wooden. “I’m really glad you’re okay,” says the girl who thought this friend had died and for real saw another friend get killed by a third like, an hour ago. Wow, what a reaction! This is also a case of RWBY’s animation acting as a constraint. As said earlier, I think the animators are doing the best they can under the circumstances, but better writing, time, and funds would likely lend itself to a more expressive reunion for all the girls. It also highlights how convenient the time-skip is. You can easily argue that these two cried and hugged and went through their Face Journeys when they first found one another. No need to rehash that though because it already happened off screen!

All of this is made worse for me by the fact that Blake says that if they’re fine, the others “might” be okay too. Might! That’s a loaded word choice with absolutely no follow up. Remember, this is the girl who was beside herself with anger and grief when Yang “died.” So glad to see that emotion carried over into the next Volume. I mean hell, give me a Blake who’s screaming at Weiss to just ditch her weapon. Why are they bothering with that when Yang is still missing?? Screw vines and mice, I’m going to go find my partner!

If only.

Everything in this episode just rings so hollow to me. I mean, I expected that given RWBY’s track record, but this is a severe failure to me given the intensity of Volume 8. From Penny's death to destroying a Kingdom, the fate of their friends to lost Relics, we needed a stellar start to this emotional journey and we simply didn’t get it.

That includes Weiss dodging the question of what happened after Blake fell. I really enjoyed this on the surface, just not - as is so often the case - in the context of RWBY as a whole. Because what is Weiss doing here except keeping another secret? In her defense, it doesn’t last long and there’s a case to be made about how difficult it is to discuss such things, especially after they just happened, so as said, I think that’s a compelling situation to put her in. It’s just one that also happens to poke at a RWDE sore spot because we had such a strong anti-secret rhetoric for three Volumes. Thanks to that arc, my initial reaction is not, “Poor Weiss. Grappling with this traumatic event.” It’s “See, Weiss? See how hard it is to discuss something horrific that you went through? But oh, you and the others had no sympathy for Ozpin in that regard, so just get over it and spill the crucial information already. Snap, snap, keeping Blake informed is more important than your mental health.”

All of which isn’t even touching on how she explains the situation... but we’ll get to that.

So they have this exchange that’s passable in many regards and fails largely due to the problems RWBY has carried with it for years now. They stumble across Gambol Shroud and proceed to spend a while trying to cut the vines/reach it from a nearby tree. This is how Weiss cheers Blake on.

Weiss: “Yah! Woo!”

Example #3, folks.

Weiss’ completely inappropriate cheer-leading aside, the entire time I’m going, “How is this in any way a problem?” I know Blake has become the useless fighter who can’t take out a single grimm without Ruby’s help, and Weiss has forgotten everything except her summoning, but has the audience forgotten how these girls used to fight? Anyone recall this moment from their very first battle?

Oh no, a giant pile of vines! However will we get past this obstacle?😱

I don’t know, maybe just... jump? Or you could get a little more creative by summoning a clone and doing a cool person-tower move to reach the top? That’s definitely not me pulling from my love of Yu Yu Hakusho or anything.

TEAMWORK, BABY!

My point is that moments like this fall flat precisely because RWBY has spent so much time showing us the group’s extreme abilities. Remember that scenes like the Ace Ops fight hinge on their presumed excellence. This is a group that beat the best team in Atlas! But now they can’t even bypass a pile of vines? The downside of giving your characters great power is that you then have to continually come up with ways for them to still face challenging conflict. Some shows handle this rather badly (like Castiel not just blowing up every demon/mortal that opposes them) and some shows handle it rather well (we establish early on that despite technically having the power to get the crew out of sticky situations, Star Trek’s transporter is prone to glitches and interference from the weather). Basically, you can’t go, “These girls are brimming with power because that looks awesome in a fight! But oh, now they can’t use that power because... uh... because that would interfere with our lame gag?” There has to be a reason. And this is far from the first time RWBY has conveniently forgotten the characters’ abilities. I still cringe at Ruby hanging off the cliff during the Cordovin battle. It’s meant to be a dramatic moment wherein she faces great danger from a fall, but they tried to give that to the girl who can fly.

So this is just incredibly stupid to me. Bad enough that we have gags following the intensity of Volume 8, but RWBY hasn’t even put in the effort to make them good gags. This episode honestly feels like RWBY satire to me, more akin to a Chibi episode, or a YouTuber poking fun, than the content fans waited two years for.

Right as Blake reaches her weapon they learn that the vines were a trap and they move, ensnaring both girls. We knew that was going to occur from the trailer and I thought that this was just another aspect of the Ever After. The vegetation (a bit like Alice’s flowers) is alive, sentient, capable of helping or hurting you. That’s pretty cool and, as I mentioned in regards to the environment responding to Ruby’s emotions, could be utilized in fantastic ways for combat.

However, this isn’t actually the case. Apparently the mice have sprung this trap because... Blake is a cat?

Wait.

So let me get this straight. This village of mice - who have never seen a human before, but have definitely seen cats - assume that Blake is exactly the same because she has cat ears. Then they found her weapon before her, somehow realize it is her weapon (even though Blake has yet to even stand next to it within the Ever After), and set an elaborate trap so that they can be the “hunters” for once, instead of the prey. Blake happens to come along with another human, but who cares? Capture her too! What are they going to do with them then?

Uh... the only thing we know about these mice is that they spend the majority of their time foraging for food and they struggle greatly to get the cheese out of the ground, and this would certainly be a way to both feed the village and eliminate a presumed enemy, so...

You know what? Never mind. I’m not going there lol.

This is stupid and illogical, but not in a wacky Wonderland way. Also, anyone else a little uncomfortable with the mice calling her a cat and Blake just going with it? Is that the stance we’re going with after eight seasons of a civil rights movement? That a faunus girl and an animal are fundamentally interchangeable?😬

They could have used this moment to let Blake explain her identity to someone coming from a place of well-meaning ignorance but noooo, why would we have an interesting conversation with the mice when they can just cheer about cheese instead? “She pulled the cheese out of the ground ON HER OWN!” Little cries, causing another mouse to faint in shock.

Example #4

While all this is going on Ruby shows up because remember, the premiere is trying to get the group back together as quickly as humanly possible. Or magically possible, in this case. We get Ruby asking if Little is drooling on her - “Yuck” - before spotting the village of mice about to do presumably unspeakable things to her teammates. Remember the shot from the trailer where Ruby looks properly horrified and I wondered what could possibly be causing that reaction? Yeah. It’s just this.

Example #5. Sigh.

If you were hoping for a proper reunion between these three, keep hoping. We segue immediately into a practical explanation where Ruby explains, about five minutes too late, what she was trying to accomplish while wandering around the jungle. Little has her freak-out about Blake, explains Ruby’s magic cheese gathering skills to the others, and then decides to tag along to find Yang because, and I quote, “I don’t have anything to do yet.” For a hot second I thought this was going to lead into more information about mouse culture. You know, how Little has already admitted that they don’t have a name, how they equate names with a purpose, and therefore if they have nothing to do in their village yet because they’re so young, they’ll find a purpose by traveling with these humans. We might have even put off Little’s naming to this moment, having them or one of the girls come up with something appropriate to the task ahead: something like Guide, or even Friend (of Humans).

But no, apparently Little is tagging along just because they literally have nothing better to do? In the sense that they’re bored and why the hell not? It’s not exactly a compelling reason and, given that they’ve yet to provide any actual assistance to the girls, I’m continually questioning their place in the story. This is what critics mean when they say that time is wasted with Volume-specific side characters when we could be doing more, better work with the core team.

Case in point: Little says that they’ll be “your trusty guide!” and then the joke is that they’re immediately asleep again once the girls set out.

#6!

I do like the following scene though. As the trio follows a path that they’ve found, Weiss walks ahead with her back (obviously) facing Blake and Ruby. When Ruby likewise questions what happened after they fell, there’s this long pause where Weiss considers how to respond, not turning around. It’s a powerful little detail, refusing to show us, or the girls, her face. It leaves her expression up to interpretation while maintaining the impression that she’s hiding from her teammates, due to not knowing how to address their failure. Her insistence on finding Yang first just highlights that avoidance. Really, I think this moment works quite well and I wish the whole episode had been treated this seriously.

Just as Ruby is about to press the issue they hear a roar from nearby. Following it, they discover a creature that fans have already dubbed RWBY’s version of the Jabberwocky.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Bewared the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Kudos to RWBY for trying here. It’s no secret that I think one of the best grimm lately have been The Apathy, so having another horror-leaning creature was a good decision in my opinion. Unfortunately, I like the idea more than the execution. The twitching motion of the Jabberwocky could have been creepy, but it doesn’t quite capture that feeling of unnatural otherness that makes your skin crawl. A problem with the animation, or something the engine itself just isn’t equipped to create? I’m not sure. Its voice is also a nice touch, with the exception that it’s really hard to understand once it starts yelling. At first I thought RWBY was leaning into the Jabberwocky’s origins. That is, using nonsense words like those from Carroll’s poem whose meaning is understood only in context. Now though, I think it’s just a badly voiced character? I’m not sure because Crunchyroll’s subtitles wouldn’t work for me (of course) and all I got was the “Searching. Stalking. Detecting.” in the beginning.

Which, you know, is an interesting bit of dialogue. RWBY has always straddled the line between fantasy and Sci-Fi, so I’m pleased to see some of the latter worming its way into the distinctly fantasy setting of the Ever After. The Jabberwocky sounds like an AI creation following a coded command. Out of everything this episode, I’m most eager to learn more about it.

Of course, we can’t learn anything now. Despite the fact that Yang stumbles out of the jungle, arm gone, throwing a rock at the Jabberwocky, and looking like she’s been through hell and back. Would you like to know what Yang experienced while on her own here? Or how she came across the Jabberwocky? What she might already know about it?

Would you like to see an actual battle in the combat show’s premiere?

Too bad.

The Jabberwocky just runs off and we get an... interesting reunion for the whole team. First off, Weiss just isn’t a part of this. Given that she’s not Yang’s sister or the Schrodinger girlfriend, she’s shuffled off to the side. Second, Ruby is greeted with a, “Dammit! You weren’t supposed to be here” which I really like. Rather than going the pure fluff route, the writing seems to consider the fact that Yang (as we’ll learn soon) thinks she may have died, so of course she’s horrified to see her little sister here too. This isn’t a joyful reunion for her, it's evidence that her (stupid) sacrifice was in vain. As always, I wish we could have explored that a little more - specifically this idea that Yang thought she was dead and was still trying to defend herself against hostile creatures - but a single line is all we’re given.

Ruby gets that soft smile of hers, kneels down, and says, “If you thought we wouldn’t have come for you then you must have forgotten who raised me.” Aww.

...wait.

Hold up.

The fuck??

First of all, that is NOT what happened. Ruby didn’t come looking for Yang, she lost to Cinder - DESPITE HAVING A UNIQUE ABILITY TO BEAT HER, I WILL CONTINUALLY ADD - and failed to rose-petal her way to safety. Wow, way to imply a heroic rescue that doesn’t exist, Ruby. Also, this simultaneously implies that if they had won the fight Ruby would have dove into the void afterwards to try and find Yang which... you know... I highly doubt. Just given her non-reaction to her sister “dying.” If there was going to be any rescue attempts, give me a Ruby who jumps after Yang as she’s falling and they both go in together.

So that’s a huge misrepresentation of events and then Ruby follows that up with, “you must have forgotten who raised me"? What exactly is that supposed to mean? Because a lot of people raised Ruby. Is it Tai, Summer, Qrow... or Yang herself? This almost feels bait-y to me, in the sense that the writers must know that mom!Yang has been a huge debate in the fandom for years, so they toss in this ambiguous line that could go either way. Is Ruby referring to her many capable, loving, adult guardians? Or her older sister that maybe, sorta “raised her” while their dad was recovering from the death of his wife? I don’t know, why don’t you all fight about it ;)

But no, let’s talk about the actual bait: bumblebee.

Now, for a long time I’ve refrained from calling Blake/Yang queerbaiting for the simple reason that I’ve expected the show to follow through with the romance in a way I don’t expect that from “real” queerbaiting. Remember, the word originates from a hard “No” on the queer front, that’s why it’s baiting and not a slow-burn towards representation. However, we’ve now entered an age of television where, yes, many couples do become canon, but only in the final hour when the writers don’t have to actually write a queer romance. That’s the modern from of queerbaiting and goddamn, is bumblebee fitting it to a T.

I know the fandom has some memory problems, but everyone recalls the surety that Yang and Blake’s romance would kickstart after Yang “died” right? That having Blake mourn her and then discover her alive would finally push her to go in for a kiss? We pictured a plot where the girls were separated for the first couple of episodes, still believing the others were gone, Blake stumbling across Yang in the Ever After, the confusion and shock and relief at finding her again, the kiss that would finally bring RWBY into 2023--

Yeah. There’s none of that.

I myself said that THIS was the time to do it. If you ever needed an excuse to get the queer couple together (which you don’t) then the reunion after one thinks the other has died is 100% the time to do it. Emotions will never be stronger! Inhibitions will never be lower! Don’t pass up such a golden opportunity!

They totally passed it up.

This reunion is just as generically ambiguous as all the others, right down to Yang hugging Blake with a tenderness that’s equal to what she’s given other characters:

Friends. This is all the same hug. There is nothing coded romantic in this reunion, not unless we want to claim that Yang is also romantically attracted to Ren, Weiss, and her sister.

I’ve already seen some fans talking about the importance of Blake initiating contact when before she always held back and yeah, sure, that can be read as character growth, but that’s the kind of minuscule step forward we needed years ago. Not now. Now we’re firmly in bait territory and need confirmation.

“But, Clyde, it’s just the start of the Volume. They could still kiss!”

I don’t care. RT had an opportunity and they squandered it. If there's a kiss, a confession, or whatever comes later in the Volume, it’s still more time that the show has spent in a will-they-won’t-they dance. I’m so sick of it. RWBY’s queer rep is atrocious and I find that to be particularly insulting in a show that’s praised for and celebrates its own diversity. I watch plenty of television with no queer rep at all, but I don’t give them the same kind of shit because they’re not pretending to be the Pinnacle of Queer Representation. If you’re going to claim that you have a queer main couple, then actually give us a queer main couple.

God I was actually so hopeful I’d be writing a, “We’ve finally confirmed it!” recap. It’s beyond frustrating at this point and I’m continually shocked at the fans who are celebrating that hug like they’ve been given a feast and not crumbs. If I were more emotionally invested in bumblebee as a ship - meaning, if I cared more about the relationship itself rather than how it functions as representation for RWBY - I’d be pissed as hell. Yang “died,” Blake lost her mind over it, we waited two years, and then you give us... that? If I were a hardcore bumblebee shipper I’d be writing about my extreme disappointment in RT, not my happiness that Yang touched Blake’s hair.

Actually no, I grew up in the age of no rep/the original queerbaiting, so really I’d be rolling my eyes at anyone who expected a canonical relationship and instead going off to write it myself as fic. I still believe very strongly that ships don’t need a canonical basis and in some ways fandom has limited itself by only writing about what’s canon, or “realistically” canon ([waves old man cane] “In my day we shipped characters who were never even on screen together!”), but I acknowledge that we’ve entered a new age of television. Viewers expect more. They should expect more and they should get it.

With the disappointing hug behind us, Yang observers that if they’re all here then things must have gone really badly up top. This finally pushes Weiss over the edge and she starts the not-crying that all the RWBY girls do, where she has wet eyes and a single tear track. “Penny,” she says. “Jaune tried to help... but she scarified herself...”

And by that you mean Jaune killed her? Weiss’ recounting of events makes it sound like her own stabbing by Cinder: Penny was hurt and Jaune tried to heal her, only this time it wasn’t enough. When in reality we’ve got Jaune giving up because his “I’ve had a human body for twenty minutes” patient says there’s no hope and then slitting her throat because Penny mistakenly believes all she can do with her life is give it up.

Again: what happened to telling your team everything? Where did the importance of context and the complete picture go? For a team that’s so furious when others provide incomplete or misleading information, they sure do that themselves a lot. We can add, “Weiss horribly mischaracterizes Penny’s death” to the “Yang is keeping the Spring Maiden a secret, twists all their failures into victories to win a fight with Ren, and Ruby straight up lied to Ironwood” list.

In another show I’d have more faith that this would come back to bite Weiss; that the girls will later learn the truth and express some actual emotion at her inability to keep them informed... but who am I kidding. This is RWBY. It’ll be forgotten - or retconned - by next episode.

Ruby faints at hearing that Penny has died (again) and man, I really want to like this moment because it’s definitely more of a reaction than I was expecting based on our post-Volume 3 writing. However, this is primarily used as a way to avoid Ruby’s reaction, wherein she wakes up some undetermined time later and is allowed to pretend to be fine, thereby jumping over any conversation/crying/actual emotion we might have seen from her. I know that Ruby will be grappling with this for the entire Volume - our intro proves as much - but it’s still disappointing that we don’t get to see Ruby grapple with her initial feelings because she was too busy being unconscious.

Also, anyone else frustrated that the same action used to depict horror and grief is used for a gag just a few minutes earlier? A mouse faints at the thought of someone being able to pull up cheese with a single tug! Ruby faints at the thought of her dear friend dying for a second time! This is why all that earlier humor messes with the more serious moments.

Our final scene once again fails to convince me that any of these characters love each other outside of the Grand Gestures delivered post-tragedy. No one is holding Ruby while she’s unconscious. No one has made her a makeshift pillow or blanket. Yang asks once if she’s alright - when she’s clearly not - and then just drops the subject when Ruby says yeah, she’s fine. None of them waited until she’d woken up to have this important conversation. After Weiss’ tears and Ruby’s faint, there are no reactions to Penny’s death. Do Blake and Yang care? Presumably not considering they never had a real relationship with her, but RWBY likely wants us to assume that their reactions exist off screen. Remember, given that we’re primarily following Ruby as our protagonist, her being unconscious means that we also skip over how everyone else reacts too. The viewer only gets to continue seeing the story when Ruby wakes up.

I had low expectations for the Volume 8 follow up, but overall this is pretty bad even by my nonexistent standards. It’s not that the premiere doesn’t give us any worthwhile moments, it’s that none of them are capitalized on. They just sit, unexplored, or outright undermined by what the rest of the episode has produced.

It’s disappointing, to say the least. As are our final lines. Yang admits that she thought she was dead, but there’s no time to let her or the others explore that. We hear a throwaway line that her arm was stolen - which relies a lot on the viewer having seen the trailer to understand how and why that happened, at least until next episode. And then Blake follows a bit of light shining through to them, parting some of the vines to look out across the entirety of Ever After.

“I know how this sounds, but... I think we’re in a fairy tale.”

Our final line, folks! Is there anyone else that would have preferred ending on Ruby’s faint? Feels more dramatic and would have let the fandom theorize a bunch before she wakes up next episode (even if then, inevitably, there would have been disappointment that nothing was done with it). Really, I get why they want to end on the shot of Ever After, but all I could think was, how in the world did you come to that conclusion, Blake? Given that this is a world based off of a real fairy tale and not the fairy tales that exist in Remnant. I would 100% buy a character from our world recognizing that they’re in a place similar to Wonderland, but nothing we’ve seen here reflects the tales of Remnant.

Well no, there is one thing, but it exists in the opening. Blake’s been reading the script again.

So let’s unpack that, shall we?

(Sorry, I need to slam all the important opening screenshots together because tumblr won't let me upload any more images boooo).

Our first shot is of Jaune! 🤦‍♀️

Really? That’s the beginning of every episode’s opening? Jaune crying with his broken, bloody sword? Hmm, I wonder if the character imposing on the girls’ team journey will be important this Volume. We also get another shot of him with a clock motif, making me wonder if the theories about him having (somehow) spent longer in the Ever After will prove to be true.

This initial shot is paired with Neo looking sad, presumably over Roman’s death and her continued failure to avenge him. She appears in the trailer a fair bit which, alongside the Jabberwocky, is the thing I’m most excited for. I’m glad that, at least based on this, it doesn’t look like they’re going to squander her role as a villain here. We see Neo drinking her tea with a fantastic smirk, surrounded by a group of shadowy antagonists.

A huge list of one-off baddies, or the various looks she’ll be adopting to mess with the characters? I’m hoping for the latter, especially since some fans think that one of the silhouettes looks like Jacques. However, I do question whether she can actually pull something like that off. I love the idea of Neo manipulating the group, especially in a Volume hosting a grief arc, especially in a place that, as far as they know, might contain their dead loved ones. For a brief moment I even questioned if that other Ruby we see in the trailer was Neo. The problem is I’m pretty sure she speaks and, thus, it’s very difficult for a villain to pretend to be an ally for more than a few seconds when she’s mute. Combine that with the fact that Ruby knows Neo is here and that all just kinda... falls apart. Which is unfortunate because I would have loved to see a Neo using the Ever After’s impossibilities and her own semblance to mess with the heroes. Still, a final shot at the end appears to show everything stemming from Neo, which makes me think she’s going to be the major antagonistic force this Volume and/or gains control of the Ever After somehow. Fitting, for a woman with control over illusions.

Whether Neo makes much use of her semblance or not, I hope we don’t have another 8+ characters to introduce because there’s already Little, the other mice, the cat, racoon, the forge lady, the knight (same person?), the Red Queen, the creature hiding in the leaves, the caterpillar, the Jabberwocky, and this new girl. People get why that’s a lot to manage, right? Especially in a story with four main protagonists, with two others thrown into the void with them. I get that they don’t want the Ever After to be a wasteland, but RWBY continually has a problem with side characters eating up the time and focus. Then they’re left behind and that work feels wasted. Why spend a Volume developing Little (or Ilia, Sun, Neptune, etc.) just to drop them? This bloated cast means it’s a bit of a relief that Volume 9 doesn’t seem to be trying to jump between here and Vacuo, but damn. Three years to find out what’s happening with the others? The growing chance that there will be a time skip and that the girls will come back to find all these ongoing problems resolved off screen: We somehow rescued all the people from the desert! Ren and Nora are officially together! Winter has long gotten used to her powers! Oscar merged while you were gone and now we don’t have to worry about Ozpin anymore!

Not looking forward to it.

Out of all these new characters, the most important is the young girl. My current theory is that she’s the girl from “The Girl Who Fell Through the World,” with perhaps our opening line - “This is the story of a girl who had a lot of problems” - being the first line of her tale. We know due to Ozpin that many of Remnant’s fairy tales are based on true events, so it would make sense if that one came about after a young woman literally fell into a different world. We see her arrive on the beach before Crescent Rose shows up, implying that she’s been there a long time, and there are some implications that she’s a rather powerful figure now: she leads the group through the various environments (with Ruby lagging farther and farther behind. Perhaps the introduction of a new team leader will increase her feelings of inferiority and failure?), she appears right before an evil copy of Ruby turns around (love that grin), and she's in a painting with another, shadowed figure behind her. Despite the fact that we already have this reference (short of) it gives me Ozma/Tip vibes, wherein the original Wizard of Oz books Ozma is turned into a boy named Tip in an effort to keep her hidden.

Regardless of her role, I have the feeling this girl will end up being more of an antagonist than an ally; a representation of the ways Ever After can twist a long-term resident and likely a foil to Ruby (the true leader) and Jaune (someone who will overcome the world’s allure and return with the girls).

There are a number of other thematically significant shots throughout the opening. All the girls are shown in their various outfits, smiling or smirking, but Ruby grows sadder and her most recent counterpart hides in her cloak, facing away from the viewer.

Her tears - more than we’ve seen her actually cry in the show, I'd like to point out - transforms into Crescent Rose.

The girls try to navigate an impossible maze where the Ruby copy shows up, they run up the tree before being blown back (falling remains relevant then), the girls are once again gloriously saturated in their colors (even if Weiss is still more blue than white), and I really like the shot of Ruby falling past the rabbit. Actually, I like the painted style of that fall far more than I like the look of the rest of the Volume.

However, what interests me the most about this intro is a series of images that may well be connected: two streaks of blue falling through the sky, a massive explosion that engulfs the life tree, and the burning of a book of fairy tales.

Look, I don’t care how awful the gods actually are, especially when RWBY has done nothing to explore that. I don’t care if this is one of their realms and the heroes need to take drastic measures to escape it.

You are NOT going to have the girls destroy a whole-ass world after they destroyed a Kingdom, right?

Right?

On that thoroughly optimistic note, let’s end with a miscellaneous section because we are nearly 10k in and this poor recap needs to be put to bed. (As do I.)

Thanks for reading! :)

Misc. Observations

I enjoyed the little detail of Ruby wringing out her cloak as she surveyed the jungle. Nice job remembering she just came out of the water.

I didn’t enjoy the actual shot of the landscape though. I totally get that there’s wonky perspective stuff going on given how far back the ‘camera’ is, but am I the only one who thinks the jungle looks WAY too small in that opening scene?

I definitely mentioned this the first time I examined our promo clip (and briefly above), but I wonder if the weather here is influenced by emotion, given that the rain appears to start and stop when Ruby cries. I want to say “No” now just because this already isn’t consistent - there’s no rain when Weiss cries, you’d think we’d see some kind of weather influence when Ruby faints - but a part of me is hopeful just because it’s such a cool concept. Especially for a combat show where terrain can make-or-break a battle. As we’ve seen, each little bit of Ever After seems to function differently - Ruby doesn’t hit another patch of repeating jungle, for example - so maybe this is something that will return sporadically?

This is definitely me being nitpicky and petty, but you’ve gotta love that, other than the repeat dialogue of Volume 8 and the faint shouts of “Ruby!” our first words of the Volume are, “Now if only you could help me.” I don’t begrudge anyone help, certainly not the protagonist of a story that wants to be centered around unification, but Ruby has struggled with agency so much I can’t help but roll my eyes a little. Yes, why would we write our protagonist figuring out how to help herself when the random mouse she stumbles across can do it instead? And then, you know, not actually do anything, allowing the protagonist to instead just stumble on what she wants, rather than actively retrieving it.

So you know how Little not-so-subtly mentions that an easy way to get on their village’s good side is to bring more of that cheese? Surely then when we next see Ruby she’ll be animated carrying a couple of those cheeses as a bribe? Spoiler: she's not.

Anyone else feeling iffy about Blake’s description of Yang? The one where she refers to Yang as the scary looking one? As someone who has been frustrated with Yang’s lack of anger management the last couple of Volumes, I’m not a big fan of her “scariness” being played as a cute character quirk.

Ruby remembers right before the non-battle starts that she’s without Crescent Rose. Funny how she didn’t appear to notice its absence before, or go looking for her precious weapon like Blake did. (Seriously, I know I’ve said this a hundred times by now, but the girls’ reactions to landing here and everything they’ve lost are nonexistent.) This also highlights how useless most of the girls are without a weapon in hand. Didn’t we have a mini-arc back in Volume 5 about them learning hand-to-hand? Wasn’t that specifically labeled as Ruby’s flaw? Now it crops back up and she just hangs back, scared? Once again I'm asking what the point of any of that was if we're not going to see the development. Something something only the most recent Volume is canon.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

[itsbasicallycanon]

Hey, it's me againnn! Soo I was wondering, do you do any drawing exercises to improve?? Like any perspective or foreshortening practice? Or just practicing with drawing poses? If so, can you tell me what you do? I seriously need to get better at drawing the anatomy properly. Also, I'm changing my art style yet again and I'm looking for advice :) Thanks <3

Also, I was very proud of what you did with the prompts I sent you. It wasn't what I was expecting from that prompt at all. It was better.

Firstly, thanks for the kind words <333 This is gonna be a ramble but I hope it helps!

Honestly the way I improve the most is just drawing something I know I can't at least once. Like here's some pics where I push my perspective little by little.

They don't always look right so I usually don't finish them but! I draw it once and can easily see what I don't understand about the perspective. From there I usually try to draw it again with a reference cause now I know what I need to look for in the reference, like which shapes or 3d forms go into the thing I'm drawing.

This applies to any concept you struggle to draw btw! Perspective, body types, face shapes, muscles, an animal you've never drawn before. You don't always have to go right back into with a reference handy either- especially since sometimes it's hard to find that exact pose or reference. What I've been doing is just watching my animated media and I tend to take note of how they drew the thing I struggled with. Because I struggled with it, it's a lot easier to notice when they do it my show or comic. Like when someone tells you how hotdogs are made so know you think about it every time you see one.

Well that's the general advice but for more specific things like this one I drew for my friend I simply couldn't fathom how to draw the pose so I used a 3d poser and worked out the shapes.

Just in general I also try to sketch out random poses to hopefully improve my anatomy. Doesn't have but anything elaborate as long as you're understanding the form. Sometimes limbs make no sense so it's good to glance at muscle anatomy. (I use AdoraSketch's website and MagicPoser on iOS.)

But I cannot stress enough, I do this all causally. My progress is been limb by limb. I learn to draw a specific muscle in the arm, learn to draw the jawline from an upward perspective, etc. Typing it all out makes it feel like an art class final but most improvement is subconscious. Probably my biggest advice is to keep drawing what you love. I still can't draw beefy men but my love of Nightwing keeps me crawling back every year or so. Also Laios from Dungeon Meshi. I would not bother half the time if I didn't want to draw my blorbos doing funny stuff.

#i tried to put a video of one of my time-lapses but the app won't let me do it so #boo #get ready to ramble

[superfamiblog]

How I Make My Gifs: A 2,000 Follower Special

Earlier today, I finally hit 2,000 followers on this tumblr. Hooray! I’m glad there are that many of you who are interested in my blog.

To commemorate reaching the big 2K follower milestone, I thought I’d celebrate by letting you guys get a peek behind the scenes of this blog. Specifically, how I make those fancy animated gifs I post every so often. Let’s get started, shall we?

1) First things first: whenever I play through an SNES game, I always keep an eye out for moments/setpieces/animations that I think look interesting, be they particularly atmospheric, or impressive, or beautiful, or funny, or what have you. I don’t have access to a photo editor that can convert movies to gifs directly (more on that later), so I used to just focus on short, simple loops: flickering torches, brief idle animations, stuff like that. But as I kept making these gifs I picked up some tricks that made it easier to capture more complicated animations (like, say, this one). Again, more on that later.

2) I capture the screenshots that make up the gif on SNES9x, my emulator of choice. Sometimes, if it’s simple 4 frame loop, I only take about as many screenshots as the loop lasts for. Other times, if I’m capturing something more complicated (such as, say, something moving on the screen), I can take upwards of one hundred screenshots or more. Again, it depends on the situation. For example, here’s a look at the screenshots that make up a gif I posted a while ago:

Now, for fairly complicated gifs like that one, I used to just crank down my emulator speed way low and wing it, rhythmically timing the F12 presses to hopefully get something useable, and to an extent I still do that, but for more action-based games like Zelda or platformers, I make an SNES movie (basically a replay file), record myself playing for a bit, then replay that on the emulator and take screenshots then. It’s still rather fiddly, but it makes capturing complicated scenes where everything, including the player, is moving around on the screen (like this gif) possible.

3) Once all the screenshots have been captured, I open up my photo editor of choice for animated gifs, a browser-based Photoshop clone named photopea (note: website contains ads), and plop the screenshots down in sequential order, on separate layers. Then, once all the screenshots have been placed into layers, I start converting them into animation layers, which is what photopea uses to make animated frames. This can get pretty repetitive, especially once there gets to be more than about 30 or so layers/frames to work with, so I usually do these gifs in batches and listen to something in the background.

(Above: an animated gif in the making.)

4) Oh boy, now for the fun part: Timing! Since making these gifs screencap-by-screencap can get pretty fiddly (to put it mildly), timing issues are almost always going to crop up. It’s not helped by photopea’s gif timing thingy being pretty much a slider. I usually try to compare with actual gameplay to make sure everything’s moving at the right speed, but eyeballing the timing is hardly foolproof. Sometimes I just say “screw it” and wing it, as well. If you’ve ever noticed some of the gifs looking fast or slow or just wonky in general, this is most of the reason why.

4.5) After finishing and downloading the gif, I let it fallow for a while in a folder I keep specifically for this blog. Sometimes I save a post (or series of posts) for a particular holiday or special event, but mostly I just try to build up a backlog. Here’s a look at it from a while back:

I upload these posts in batches, usually about a week or so worth’s at a time, and chuck the pics in a special folder once I’ve used them. There’s more to it than that, sometimes, but that’s more or less the process I use.

#Fami talks #retro games #gif making #I hope you guys find this informative and/or interesting

[ollieofthebeholder]

to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest): a TMA fanfic

<< Beginning < Prev || AO3 || My Website

Chapter 63: April 1996

Gerard would almost rather be working a Latin exercise. He hates Latin—hates most of the dead languages his mother is trying to teach him, especially since being able to read them fluently will mean he has to read some of the books she’s always poring over, and he knows he doesn’t really want to do that. At least Latin uses a familiar alphabet. Ancient Greek and Sanskrit both use alphabets he has to struggle to remember. Eventually he’ll get better at them, but for now, reading them is torture.

Not nearly as much torture as being forced into helping his mother in the shop, though.

Pinhole Books, Mary Keay, Proprietor—as she always answers the phone when it rings—is small and crowded, but not cluttered. Every book on the shelves is older than Gerard himself, probably older than his mother. He’s not a child anymore—or at least he doesn’t consider himself one—and he doesn’t think his mother is as ancient as he did when he was little, but he overheard her talking to a client once and he knows she was born in 1924, so that’s still pretty old. (He’s looked it up, because he wondered, or maybe hoped, she wasn’t really his mother; having a baby at age fifty-two is rare, but hardly unheard-of.) The really old books, or at least the really rare ones, are kept in a glass cupboard behind the desk she uses as a check-out counter, and Gerard isn’t allowed to touch those. He’s not only allowed but encouraged to touch the others, though.

Right now she’s got him helping her sort through a box of books she just got in. He watches her closely, trying to take his cues from her. He needs to know if he’s supposed to be excited or disappointed or angry or confused. His mother’s expression is set into one of careful neutrality, though, and Gerard can’t penetrate it, so he silently pulls books out and looks at the covers and tries to figure out her system for stacking them. The trouble is, he doesn’t recognize the alphabet it’s written in.

“What language is this?” he finally dares to ask. It’s a gamble how she’ll react; either she’ll be pleased to impart information to him or annoyed with him for not just knowing, and he can’t begin to guess which way it’s going to go.

“Russian,” his mother replies, and that’s definitely her annoyed voice. Any second she’s going to backhand him for being stupid, and he cringes backwards instinctively. “Or so I assume. This is certainly the Cyrillic alphabet.”

“Oh.” Gerard stares at the books. Cyrillic. That’s probably another language he’s going to have to learn to read, which means another alphabet to get mixed up with. A couple of the letters look familiar, at least, which is better than usual.

The bell on the front door peals loudly, and Gerard drops the book he’s holding. His mother gives him a reproving look as she gets up. “Keep unpacking the box, Gerard,” she orders him. “I’ll be right back.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Gerard says meekly. His mother doesn’t say anything in reply, just heads for the steps to the front door.

He’s messed up. He knows he has. He’s already in hot water for having stolen the bottle of dye from under the sink and used it on his own hair; the sink, his hands, and his forehead were all stained black, and it didn’t set properly because he didn’t know what he was doing, so it’s blotchy and uneven. After yelling for almost an hour (or maybe it just felt like it), his mother gave him a choice: Shave his head completely bald and never be allowed to dye it again, or do whatever she instructs him to do exactly as instructed for the next week, in which case she won’t take his dye away if he buys his own.

Not that she gives him any pocket money, but still, he doesn’t doubt for a minute she can carry that threat out.

He concentrates on unpacking the books, as carefully as he can, setting the books on their sides so that his mother can more easily read the titles and go through them if she wants to. Murmured voices float up the stairs, and a few moments later, his mother returns, accompanied by her latest client.

Gerard peers over the box at the client. It’s a woman, which is unusual but not unheard of. He’s not sure how old she is exactly; her expression looks tired and bitter the way his mother’s does, but she seems relatively young. Her hair, ash blonde and fine, is piled in an elaborate hairdo on top of her head in a rather sad attempt to make it look thick and full, and her skin is sallow and sagging, like she was once quite fat but has lost a lot of weight in a very short amount of time. The woman is holding onto Gerard’s mother’s arm, which is also surprising—she’s not the touchy-feely sort, his mother—and looks like she’s about to collapse. The real surprise, though, is that holding her other hand is a child.

Gerard stares at the kid in unabashed, undisguised surprise and interest. It’s a boy, probably a few years younger than Gerard himself—maybe five or six? Gerard doesn’t spend a lot of time around other kids, so it’s not like he’s that good at telling. He’s short and stocky—he probably weighs more than Gerard does despite being at least a head shorter—and wears a Norfolk jacket several sizes too big for him and a matching cap that’s only saved from falling fully into his eyes by a pair of large round steel-rimmed glasses. The curls protruding from the sides of the cap are a lightly copper-kissed caramel, and the eyes behind the lenses of the glasses are a soft sour apple green. Truthfully, his coloring—apart from the freckles dusted across his nose and cheeks—is exactly what Gerard’s always wished he had instead of the nearly carrot orange hair and muddy hazel eyes he’s been cursed with, and he wants to hate this kid on sight.

The expression stops him, though. The boy looks downcast, bewildered, lost, and afraid all at once—emotions too big for such a (comparatively) small body. Looking at him, Gerard finds himself wondering if the boy’s mother is planning to sell him to Gerard’s mother, or abandon him, or trade him for a book. Or if he’s going to be used in one of the dark, terrifying rituals found in the pages of those books, or fed to one of those terrifying things his mother’s always consorting with.

He feels bad if that’s the case, but it’s not his problem, he tells himself. He can’t save the whole world. He can barely save himself. And honestly, if the kid dies before he finds out how scary and…and fucked up (Gerard’s not really supposed to curse, because gentlemen don’t use that kind of language, but he does it as often as he can in the privacy of his own head anyway) the world is, it’s probably for the best. The Fourteen don’t generally pay much attention to children—that person with the long fingers and the white smile and not much else said it was because incomplete fears are unsatisfying, whatever that means—but this kid looks like he’s going to be claimed by one or another if he lives long enough, so it’s probably a kindness if he dies now.

“Here, you sit down right here,” his mother says, her voice honey-sweet and soothing. It makes Gerard almost want to look around for where his real mother is hiding, because he’s never heard her speak like that to anyone, let alone a client. “That’s it. Would you like a cup of tea?”

“Yes, please,” the woman says, her voice a mere thread. She’s got a distinctly Northern accent, and Gerard, who has hastily resumed unpacking now that his mother is back in the room, wonders if she’s a recent transplant to London or just here on a day trip.

“I’ll get that right out for you, and then we can talk.” Gerard’s mother studies the little boy, who’s no longer holding the woman’s hand but standing next to her. Gerard can’t tell if it’s protective or nerves or what that keeps him so close to his mother. “Gerard.”

“Yes, Mum?” Gerard gets to his feet hastily, expecting that she’s going to send him to make the tea. Anything to get away from the books.

He’s not remotely prepared for her next instructions. “Take this young man up to your room while Mrs. Blackwood and I have our consultation. Is that all right with you?” she adds, looking not at the boy but at his mother.

The woman nods, then suddenly pulls out a handkerchief and coughs into it for several moments. Once it subsides, she turns and fixes a steely look on the boy, who shrinks back slightly into himself. “You behave yourself, do you hear me?”

“Y-yes, Mum,” the boy stutters out.

“Don’t make me regret bringing you along.”

“Yes, Mum. I, I mean, no, Mum.” The boy looks even more terrified at that.

Gerard takes pity on him. He knows what it’s like to have a mother like that. “Come on, then. Follow me.”

Obediently, the boy falls into step behind Gerard. Gerard leads him up the stairs, down the hallway, and to almost the last door along the way. Before opening it, he hesitates, then turns to look at the boy. “You’re not…claustrophobic or anything like that, right?”

The boy frowns and silently forms a few syllables. “I don’t…know what that means.”

“Are you afraid of the B—of closed in spaces?” Gerard clarifies. “With no windows or anything?”

“N-no?” The sudden panic on the boy’s face, there and gone in a second, makes a lie out of that, though.

Gerard mentally shrugs. If it’s that big a deal, he’ll leave the door open. “Okay. Just thought I’d ask.” With that, he opens the door. “Come on in.”

He switches on the light as he steps into his room. It almost definitely used to be a storage closet of some kind; it’s relatively small, maybe three meters on each side, and it has no windows. There’s a twin bed, a dresser, a night stand, and a desk, or at least a table that Gerard uses as a desk, which is covered in art supplies. He contemplates the chair in front of it, then waves at the bed. “You can sit over there.”

The boy lets out a sigh bigger than his entire body as he steps into the room after Gerard. He sets his shoes down next to the door—Gerard hadn’t noticed him taking them off or carrying them, but then he has been behind him this whole time—and obediently comes over to hitch himself up onto the bed. After a moment, he unbuttons his jacket and takes it off, then lays it carefully in his lap, his cap on top of it. His hair is curly all over, Gerard notes, and it looks incredibly soft and fine. He feels a bit self-conscious about his own coarse, straight hair.

“I thought it would be smaller,” the boy says, looking up at Gerard with an expression of total innocence and openness that he’s not sure what to do with. “When you said…I thought, I thought it’d be like the hall closet at home. Small and dark and without a knob on the inside.”

The way he says it, so simply and matter-of-fact, makes Gerard feel sick to his stomach. His mother isn’t the greatest mother in the world, or the greatest person in the world, but…she’s never locked him in a closet with no light and no way out. As bad as she is, she’s not likely to put him in a position to draw the Buried or the Dark. Gerard puts that together with the way the boy reacted to his mother’s instructions and suddenly hopes that she is planning to leave him at Pinhole Books. Or even feed him to a Fear. Anything to get him away from her.

“No, this is my bedroom,” he says instead, trying not to sound like he’s angry. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Martin.”

“Martin,” Gerard repeats.

Martin nods. “Martin Blackwood. What’s your name?”

“Gerard. Gerard Keay.” Gerard is still turning the name Martin over and over in his head. It fits the boy like a glove—certainly better than his jacket or hat, or the shirt underneath that hangs loosely on his frame and covers half his hands.

Martin brightens and says something in a language Gerard doesn’t recognize, but it’s obviously a question. Gerard shakes his head. “Sorry, I don’t speak…whatever that was.”

“Oh.” Instantly, Martin deflates and shrinks back slightly, like he’s afraid Gerard is going to hit him. “Sorry, sorry, I just—you said your name was Gerard and that’s a Polish name too, so I though, I thought maybe you spoke Polish, and I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Gerard interrupts, holding up his hands. “I’m not mad at you or anything. I just didn’t understand, that’s all.” He blinks. “Are you Polish, then? No offense, but Martin Blackwood isn’t a very Polish name.”

“In Polish it’s Marcin.” Martin pronounces this MAR-cheen. “I’m British, same as you, but Granddad speaks Polish and he taught me. Russian, too. Martin is pronounced the same in Russian, but the alphabet looks different.” He suddenly snaps his mouth shut and shrinks into himself again. “Um, sorry.”

“For what?” Gerard frowns at him.

“For talking too much about boring things nobody wants to hear about?”

“You’re not talking too much. You barely talked at all,” Gerard points out. “And I want to hear about that. I don’t speak Russian either, but my mother just got a whole bunch of books in that she says are probably written in Russian, so I think it’s interesting that you know Russian. Can you read it, too, or just speak it?”

“I can read it, too. O-or I can read it as g—as well as I can read English, and Polish too.” Martin makes a face. “I’m only seven. Miss Taylor—she was my teacher last term—she says I read ahead of my age, but still.” He looks up at Gerard again. “Do you like to read? What languages do you read?”

“English, mostly, but I’m learning a few other languages.” Gerard shrugs. “I don’t read for fun all that much. Mostly it’s just for my studies.”

“Where do you go to school?”

“My mother teaches me at home.”

“Oh.” Martin picks at his coat for a moment. Before Gerard can ask him anything, he looks up again and adds, “How old are you?”

“N—” Gerard stops. “Wait, what time is it?”

Martin twists his arm and pushes his sleeve back, revealing a wristwatch on a brown leather strap. He moves his lips silently for a few moments, then looks up at Gerard with a triumphant expression. “Eleven thirty-seven.”

Well, Gerard’s mother always said he was born in the morning, so it’s close enough to not being morning anymore that he’s officially passed the right time. Probably. Most likely. “In that case, I’m ten now.”

“Today’s your birthday?” Martin looks surprised and delighted.

“Yeah.” Not that Gerard’s mother ever really acknowledges it, other than to add a year to the you’re too old for this behavior lecture.

Before Gerard can ask when Martin’s birthday is—not necessarily because he cares, more because he’s still trying to figure out this whole polite conversation thing—Martin sits up straighter, takes a deep breath, and launches into a song. It sounds enough like the language he talked in earlier that Gerard guesses it’s a Polish song, and it sounds happy enough, but he can’t translate it.

That actually matters less than Gerard would have thought, because he’s absolutely captivated by Martin’s voice. Gerard can sing along to recordings just fine, when he wants to, but when he’s singing by himself it never sounds quite right. Martin’s singing, though, is sweet and true.

“That was really good,” he says when Martin finishes. “What was that song?”

“Um, I think it’s called ‘Sto Lat’? Granddad sings it on my birthday every year. Here, I—” Martin looks embarrassed, and instead he sings the English “Happy Birthday” song. It’s a lot easier for Gerard to tell that this one is sung absolutely correctly. For a seven-year-old, Martin’s got a really good talent.

Also, and Gerard would rather be subjected to the direst torture than admit this out loud, it’s the first time anyone has ever sung the song to him.

“Thanks, Martin,” he says, and Martin’s face lights up. “You’ve got a really nice voice.”

Martin’s cheeks turn pink, and he ducks his head bashfully. “Thank you. I, um, I was in the chorus at my old school.”

“Not at your new one? Why’d you switch schools?”

“Oh—um—well, M-Mum and I just moved to London.” That fast, Martin’s gaze drops, and his shoulders slump. “I, we used to live in Devon, and that’s a long way to go to school, so…”

Gerard mentally congratulates himself on having figured out they weren’t originally Londoners. “How come? I mean, how come you moved here?”

“Mum’s sick. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. But she says there are—there are specialists in London that can help her get better. So we moved here.” Martin frowns. “I thought we were going to see one today, but—your mum’s not a doctor, is she?”

“No, she’s a bookseller.” Gerard really, really hopes his mother isn’t the “specialist” Mrs. Blackwood wants to consult, because that means that whatever is wrong with her is something supernatural, and that won’t be good for Martin either. He changes the subject. “So what do you like to do for fun?”

By the time Gerard’s mother comes into his room to tell them it’s time for lunch, which the Blackwoods are apparently staying for, Gerard has taught Martin how to play Gin and Martin is ahead by about thirty points. Gerard isn’t even letting him win.

He looks down at Martin’s bright smile and shining eyes turned up to him as they head out of his room, and he thinks that maybe, just maybe, it won’t be such a bad thing if this kid hangs around a little bit longer. Maybe Gerard can keep him from getting hurt, or falling too deep into the Fourteen, or finding out about them at all.

It’s something he can think about, anyway.

#ollie writes fanfic #to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest) #tma fanfic #gerard keay #martin blackwood #emotional abuse #verbal abuse #implied/referenced child abuse #claustrophobia #mention of chronic illness

[pictureamoebae]

Omg i feel so stupid now lol.. thank you for helping! That seems to be the problem why DOF doesnt work for me in bg3 since i’ve only tried using the regular shaders like cinematic or adof.. i’m gonna try Otis shader and see!! I have another question tho, you said it can take long like 30min to render the picture - is that the case even if you chose to not hotsample too, or only when hotsampling? And in cutscenes etc when I wanna be quick with getting a specific shot or serveral, is that possible like can i screenshot serveral times after another immediately and it renders like 2-4 pictures then, or do i have to take one - let it render - before i can move on to take a new one? Hope that makes sense. I usually smash the screenshot button sometimes cause i dont want to miss a specific scene/shot. Or get several screenshots of like the same moment. Thank you so much anyway!!!

If you want to use IGCS DoF you have to be slow and considered.

Otis' website has instructions how to use it, make sure you read them carefully and you'll understand what's involved, but the tl;dr:

Basically, the way the DoF works is completely different to a DoF shader. It moves the camera very slightly over and over again and takes a temporary screenshot each time to slowly build up the final scene (all of those temporary screenshots will be deleted once it's done). This way it gets very accurate information about what's in the scene, which is why it produces such an excellent result.

You set up a shot, you go into the addons tab and choose IGCS, click start session, and the DoF controls will come up (make sure you have the IGCS DoF shader enabled first - that shader does nothing, but it's required for the addon to work).

Then you choose your bokeh strength, and you set up your focus. You have to be very, very precise with the focus. You choose a few other things, like the shape of the bokeh, and you choose the quality. (Those settings will carry over to next time, but you'll have to set up your focus again.)

The quality is what determines how long the shot will take to render. It will tell you at the bottom how many pictures it will take. The higher the quality you choose, the more of those temporary screenshots it needs to take to get more accurate information and a better image quality. Imagine pressing the print screen key 1,000 times and how long that would take.

The lower your fps the longer it will take. If you have high fps it can fire off those screenshots nice and quick. If you have low fps each screenshot takes a bit longer. If you're hotsampling, you're going to have lower fps.

Because my PC is old, I have a quality that results in about 800 screenshots. When hotsampling and using RTGI etc that can take a long, long, long time to render.

Once the shot is rendered you take your own screenshot as normal, and then you end the session.

One thing, anon. You know you can pause cutscenes, yes? Any current dialogue animation may keep playing until that line has finished, but otherwise it will pause.

The thing about using premium tools from Otis and others, if you're just firing off cutscene screenshots hoping one will look okay you're never going to get the most out of them. They're designed for serious screenshooting (obv anyone can use them if they want). Taking your time to set up a shot, being precise about the composition, the lighting, the aspect ratio, the whole scene, is a lengthy process. I'm not especially great at composition, so my screenshots are only so-so, but I try very hard with each one, and it can take me an hour to get one I'm happy with (this is why I'm still in Act 2). Slowing down improves your skill.

#Anonymous #igcs faq #dof faq #otis camera tools faq #screenshot faq

[rosejigglypuff76]

A brand new post featuring our dear little plant known as Herb Kimura (aka; Herb Cookie) 🪴 I felt like trying out the Character Pairing Meme Chart for quite sometime, just like most meme templates that I've looked at over the years 🎀 Now finally managing to get the idea to use this particular chart, and succeeding in filling up every given spot that's showcased 💞 Feel free to tell me your thoughts on any of these choices that I made 🌿 - - - - - - - My NOTP: Herb Cookie x Carrot Cookie I've seen it a few times in the Official Cookie Run Comics, however I felt like it was a bit too cliche between the two Prefer Herb and Carrot as friends or even co-workers in the same garden My BROTOP: Herb Cookie x Gingerbrave Mostly going on the fact that I made them the only two characters in my CRK Kimura AU that can break the 4th Wall And while they don't get along that much in the aforementioned Cookie Run Comics, both Herb and Gingerbrave act like siblings that fight as much as helping one another out My OTP, Fluffy Pairing, and Underrated Pairing: Herb Cookie x Dark Choco Cookie This became a thing all because of my CRK Kimura AU, but even so I still see this becoming a thing Herb in the Cookie Run Comics is the son of a goddess, while Dark Choco in the Cookie Run Games (especially Kingdom) is the son of an ancient ruler It's not written or drawn that much by most people that are into the Cookie Run Franchise, but I see them being the immortal version of "Soft Boy x Tough Guy" Ship I can imagine Dark Choco being pretty protective and showing his soft side to Herb when he gets the chance to hangout with him, an underrated and oddly wholesome ship My 2nd Favorite OTP: Herb Cookie x Sparkling Cookie Despite it mainly being fandom based, I can see this making a lot more sense than other Herb Ships that revolve around him with other plant-themed cookies Think about it as two soft but hardworking boys that understand each other's flaws and simply enjoy being together as boyfriends Plus both Herb and Sparkling seem to be on the more peaceful side of things, and would fight only to protect those they care about and protect each other My Platonic Pairing: Herb Cookie x Cherry Blossom Cookie Originally my OTP, but I started to lose a bit of interest in this particular ship It's cute though, and would be considered as my 3rd Favorite OTP which revolved around Herb Cookie The dynamic between Herb and Cherry Blossom is still amazing in my opinion, showing the malewife and the girlboss concept of ship My OT3: Herb Cookie with the rest of the Juice Bar Regulars Broke the rules with this one by making it into an OT4 instead cause I didn't want to leave behind anyone from that particular CRK Bond Just four dudes chilling by the Juice Bar, enjoying time together as a lovably romantic group This can be a Harem Ship as well if I were to include Cocoa Cookie, a playful person that gives me a bit of girlboss vibes My Crack Pairing: Herb Cookie x Crunchy Chip Cookie Kinda blamed this on the fact that I would be see as Herb Cookie in the Discord sometimes, and same thing goes with a friend of mine who would be shown as Crunchy Chip Cookie in the same website This is more of my 2nd BROTP since I'm personally not into being in a romantic relationship and would rather have friends But I see this as the Crack BROTP, mostly because of my interactions with my crunchy friend with it being a bit too silly at times My Guilty Pleasure Pairing: Herb Cookie x Cream Unicorn Cookie Both healers that look like they would NOT hesitate to fight back for the sake of protecting those they care about Cream Unicorn would dare say "Shantay You Stay" to Herb, although they would question whether or not to say the same to Eclair Cookie My Crossover Pairing: Herb Cookie x Rantaro Amami I drew Herb dressed up as Rantaro once, and I'm planning to do that again! Or I could draw them hanging out together, since they're both adventurous but also pretty chill characters My Overrated Pairing: Herb Cookie x Clover Cookie Similar to the ones shown as a BROTP, I just see these two as great friends and close as siblings Just like with Carrot Cookie, I don't like Herb pairings that have him shipped with other plant-based cookies, and Clover is no exception to that Not to mention that I see these two in a romantic pairing with other characters, which would be Dark Choco Cookie and Licorice Cookie respectively

#herb #herb cookie #herb cookie x dark choco cookie #herb cookie x sparkling cookie #cookie run #cookie run fanart #cookie run au #cookie run kimura au #cookie run kingdom #cookie run kingdom fanart #cookie run kingdom au #cookie run kingdom kimura au #crk #crk fanart #crk au #shipping #shipping meme #cookie run shipping

[jemwolf]

How long does it usually take for you to animate the fmab scenes?(which are one of my favorite things and I stare at them for hours, thank you so much)

waaaah thanks!! In answer to your question, it really depends! The animated ones so far have been mostly experimental, as in they've each been done in a different program as I try to figure out what is easiest! (It also depends on my motivation at any given time, ahaa)

Placing stuff below the cut!

So this was the first one I made! I did it mostly the same way I do my still edits, in Medibang Paint on my phone. I separated all of the frames and stuck them into their own folders on one canvas and edited them each individually. This one wasn't too bad because I just turned Den into Sev, so other than a few details I didn't have to do too much scratch animation or coverup work. iirc this one took... a couple days? I went a little feral. Once all the frames were edited, I stuck them together in one of those "frames to gif" websites.

For my second one (Especially since it was a simpler one with like 3 or 4 unique frames) I decided to see if I could do it in flipaclip! (It is actually a pretty decent mobile animation program if anyone is looking for something free/cheap!) It went decently well, though I probably won't try doing anything more intense than this on it, edit-wise. This one took a couple days on and off. Again, I was replacing Den, but I had more cover-up to do, as with a closeup, Sev's face shape is quite different than Den's. (Most easily seen right above Sev's muzzle; the wall moves lol) and if you look closely you can see the bits of Den that I either missed or was too lazy to fix. (Probably the latter) Since I did it in flipaclip I was able to export directly as a gif.

My latest one was definitely the hardest. As you can see, there's no dog or anything in the original that I could use as a frame of reference. And sure, I could make my own walk cycle from scratch, but when I make these edits I always want to try and make them match the style of the anime as closely as possible. It took a lot of digging, but I finally found a clip of Hayate walking in a profile view! (I had to screenshot each frame from a youtube video myself to get it ghjdk)

This one I edited in Clip Studio Paint on my tablet which was similar to how I edit in medibang, but for something this intense I believe it was easier to have the bigger screen, heh. This one ended up somewhere close to 30 frames, I think? It took a couple weeks of working on it on and off. I used EZGif or whatever for this one as well.

But yeh! These can take anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks depending on work, school, and motivation lol. (Another detail that I didn't really mention is on at least the first and last one, I hand-drew the pixellation to give it that low-quality gif vibe soo it would match with the more compressed look of the original clips gsdafkhl. I don't remember how I did it with the Greed one. Probably similar?)

#jemwolf talks #jemwolf's art #animation #fullmetal alchemist #fma #anime edit

[crunchybones-jpg]

Ayo, guess who finally decided to start posting again.

(Shock horror, it’s me.)

Among other things, a certain pirate show has shoved me back into the depths of this cursed website and made me realize how much absolute rubbish we’ve settled for in the past.

I know we’d all rather forget it, but this site is infamous for its obsession with Supernatural, Sherlock, Merlin, and other media which has taunted us with the illusion of representation. We have scraped the bottom of each barrel for a grimy, warped mirror in which we can see ourselves reflected.

I realized halfway through Our Flag Means Death that I was treating it in the same way I had done with these shows. I settled for a relationship between secondary characters, hoping for more but accepting that history would repeat itself and we would once again find solace in the depths of a03.

So many queer stories in media are written about us, but not for us. Love, Simon was the most representation I had seen at the age of 13, sitting in a theatre on my first ever date with my first ever girlfriend. The group of us who rewatched it like it was our lifeblood had finally found media for people like us- young and queer. Watching this movie again recently made me realize how many things we had been willing to overlook in order to enjoy this base level representation.

Inaccuracies are to be expected in any high-school rom-com—Martin’s homecoming shenanigans and a musical with seemingly only one show are perfect examples of standard departures from reality. When the author, director, and marketing team claim to tell a real-life queer story, other elements begin to stray from ‘expected’ to disrespectful. The way in which Simon’s best friends have seemingly no understanding for his situation, facing bullying and ostracization from Martin’s blackmail, and never once apologize for their actions makes it seem as though this is completely acceptable. The fact that Simon’s outing is downplayed to such an extent that even in Georgia, he faces one act of blatant homophobia and seems to be accepted without question by almost the entire school.

“I'm just like you. I have a totally, perfectly normal life. Except I have one huge-ass secret.”

Because, you know, no one watching a movie about a closeted gay teenager could possibly be queer in any way. That would just be ridiculous. It’s especially off-putting when the lead character is played by a straight man.

Anyway, I know this rant is very Love Simon-centric, but it’s honestly just because I watched it recently and was so annoyed that it hasn’t left my head since.

In the realm of things which haven’t left my thoughts since I watched them, I’m going to go back to the much more enjoyable topic of Our Flag Means Death. (Hopefully without giving away any spoilers because everyone needs to watch this show with as little previous information as possible.)

The impact this show has had on my life is absolutely insane. (Shoutout to my friend Damien for not shutting up until I watched the whole series.) In the five hours it took to watch the show, I saw more of myself than I have in the last eighteen years.

Queerbaiting has been so prevalent that I was afraid to watch the next episode at points, having seen such a gorgeous scene between characters that the thought of nothing coming from that interaction was almost too much. I was so afraid of letting my hopes rise that I broke my sacred rule of never looking up spoilers just to find out if something implied by one character was true. (It was. Almost cried. Thanks, Vico.)

The most beautiful part of this show is that it was written for queer people, but not written about being queer. It is, first and foremost, a show about a rich man who longed for the sea and has absolutely no idea what he’s doing. It’s a story of pirates, revenge, how awful the British are, and above all, it’s about creating your own family.

The queer relationships aren’t overly sexualized or infantilized as they so often are. The characters find their own ways to each other in a natural progression of events, and the camera lets them love one another in so many simple ways.

Whether intentional or not, (though I have to assume that it was,) OFMD tapped into the very things which we had all dreamed about since the first episode of Supernatural aired back in 2005. David Jenkins provided us with a story written purely for queer people, not just about us. The queer experience is shown beautifully even by characters which aren’t explicitly stated as such. Found family and self-acceptance are woven into a tale of betrayal and idiocy, all resulting in a beautiful realization of what love can be in its purest form.

(Also, it’s absolutely hilarious and features billowy shirts, a seagull named Karl, and Taika Waititi in a leather crop top with an openly shown mobility aid. Oh, and a soundtrack of absolute bangers.)

If I felt as though I could go into more detail without spoiling the show for those who haven’t seen it, I absolutely would. In a sentence, all I can say is that The Chain by Fleetwood Mac will always conjure the image of two men learning to love after half a lifetime of suppression, in one way or another.

(If HBO Max doesn’t renew OFMD for a second season I will riot. I can’t handle that kind of emotional whiplash without some kind of conclusion.)

#OFMD #our flag means death #queerbaiting #bones rambles #gay pirates #we’ve settled for so much shit #love simon #jim jimenez #Taika Waititi #david jenkins #no spoilers

[betterpathoflyfe]

Life Update Thus Far - 4/18/24

Sooooo…

One thing I said in my last blogpost (and in multiple previous blogposts…) is to get consistent with my posts again! To be intentional about these blogposts and rededicate myself to building this website further.

That being said, here we are! For the rest of the month of April, I am committing to posting a blogpost once a week. My goal is to post on a consistent timeline, like have one posted every Thursday, but since we only have one more Thursday left, I’m going to at least post twice more in the month.

Nevertheless…we are here. And MAN! I’m like, do I even know how to write life updates anymore lol? I’ve been focused on being more private with my life, and in turn, more intentional with my time.

But I’ll give a glimpse of life, as many things have been occurring:

We recently wrapped up our pre-registration period at University, where we assist our freshmen in creating and finalizing their schedule for next semester. We have to make sure students are approved for registration, and considering that my caseload is about 175 students currently…you can imagine the amount of meetings and walk-in hours that needed to happen. And on top of this, the amount of documentation that needed to occur.

Lord have mercy 😭

When I first began this position, I started with half a caseload of 86 students. So you can imagine how different it was this Spring when this number almost doubled in size!

But…we made it through. By God’s grace, we made it through 😭

So now, things are beginning to slow down, and it has allowed me to restructure some things in life and re-prioritize certain habits I want to get back on track with (e.g., writing, journaling, reading, & being more intentional with my time in His presence).

Like I’ve truly been…drained and tired, and the foundation of this is my feeling of things becoming out of control because I’m not having, or making, time to spend with Jesus! Therefore, this past Saturday, we’ve been able to slowly but surely restart and get back on track with Him.

I suppose the real test is to maintain this level of commitment, even when things get a bit overwhelming, or when trials come — to still make sure I am keeping Him first. A balance, truly!

I want to delve a bit more into those habits for a second as well, because I am determined to maintain a consistent habit in my evenings — as of late, I’ve literally been coming home and going to SLEEP! My body has truly been tired. Yet, in that same breath, before sleeping, I end up winding down, but winding down through the means of my phone. And then I get shocked when I feel more drained in the morning, when I feel like I am behind, when I feel like I am truly wasting time. Therefore, after speaking with my mentor about different things, I realized that I truly did need a plan, especially when we are on this path of self-improvement. This plan includes the following:

Writing — I truly want to get consistent in my blogposts. I have had a whole schedule of what I plan to write for…a while. But I really want to continue making this website more well-rounded as opposed to only having reblogs or quotes, you know?

Journaling — I used to be very consistent with this, but with this job, I’ve had little to no time to process some of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Therefore, to get back in the habit of journaling, I am committing to journaling as consistently as possible during this month

Reading — The way that I keep buying new books…with many that I still haven’t read? It is true when they say that buying more books without reading the current ones is a hobby lol. But I want to begin a goal of reading, at minimum, 10 pages a day. Especially with this book that I have had for a minute — Good Boundaries & Goodbyes, by Lysa TerKeurst

Being Intentional With Christ — my mornings with Christ are really sacred to me, and it’s always evident when I haven’t spent time with Him in a while (e.g., begin feeling overwhelmed, behind, significantly tired, detached, etc.). Therefore, this more so serves as a reminder to get back on track with Him.

So yeah! As of today, we’ve been very consistent and it’s truly allowed me to refocus, regroup, and re-priortize. I’m grateful :)

“I can trust You with my future because You are already there.” ~ @petitefleurist

~ May the Author

#blogposts

[drkineildwicks]

Edifice Coulee

Title | First Chapter

When the world falls apart, it’s best to stick to the old adage of “Birds of a feather flock together.”  Especially when you’re part bird.

Chapter 5 is now up on the website Jotter, which, as it was described to me, takes the fanfiction website approach to cut out the middleman in the publishing business (and like I said, I have college bills to pay).  It’s subscription-based, which allows it to run ad-free, but I continue to have good news: you can use the code “Pionus21” to try it free for three months.

Once again, Edifice Coulee can be found on Jotter, “Pionus21” gives you three months free, I’ll be bumping up the posting on this story to weekly in the interim, please check it and other stories out on the website and…seriously guys I have college bills I gotta focus on. :|

Moving on…most of this story was written a couple of years ago but this chapter is fresh this year to help flesh out some side plots and address things like how the coulee gets their food and the dangers of foraging.  The plant these two are indicating and talking about is Jimson Weed, which I learned of a couple of years ago when I accidently awoke this ancient evil—the seeds remain viable for up to forty years beneath the ground and don’t start sprouting until the ground has been disturbed; I accidentally introduced it to our garden when I tried digging out our back ditch and went well this dirt is a ton of composted leaves, this should be good.  I was wrong—Jimson Weed is so toxic that it will actually kill the plants around it, and any animal or person that’s fool enough to eat it, including my chickens that I accidentally fed some of these to before I looked up what it was.  Since then, we’ve been unable to fully rid our garden of it and we’ve done our darndest to get rid of it.  Also worth mentioning that it was historically used as a hallucinogen, so burning it isn’t a good idea either.

As for the characters...you remember Anne on the left there; on the right is Philip, part of Nathan’s crew, a griffin bird-person based on a Philippine Eagle—seriously, look at that bird, you’ve never seen a bird that looks more like a surfer dudebro they got mullets.  As for why Anne’s out there, she’s also part of the foraging crew which is why they’re out there and yes finally I get to draw greenery. XD

Edifice Coulee © 2020 Dr. Kineil D. Wicks (myself)

Done in Adobe Photoshop.

#edifice coulee #bird-people #come nerd with me about bird people #adobe photoshop #original fiction #original writing #seriously jimson weed sucks