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lifewithcake · 2 years

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hi! i love your little healer tips or #healingwithcake. would you kindly share some more specifically for whms? thank you!

Yeah I'd be happy to! I'll give a breakdown of my Whm playstyle below. If you have more specific questions please feel free to ask. Bear with me, this won't be brief but it will be general :)

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Oops this got sooooo long so I added sections for navigation:

A. General Tips

B. Dungeon healing

C. 8-man healing

Not sure what level you are so I tried to stay broad. If you're below 76, replace Rapture with Medica 2. If you're in ARR... lmk cuz the ARR Whm is very different lol

A. General Tips

Thanks to 6.1's changes to the Blood Lily, Whm is actively encouraged to use its lilies liberally. I even toss lilies out if I'm capped. You get three per minute and you rarely need more than two in a single minute. Use your Blood Lily before healing again!

ABC: Always Be Casting. When you're not healing, DPS! The majority of your time in a fight is spent DPSing.

Prioritize Lilies over Cure 2 and Medica 2. Lilies are on a veeery short 20s cooldown. I throw lilies at the tank whenever I feel like they need it, or I toss a lily at a DPS that ate a mech. Use Tetra to support this, as well. At worst, you need to switch to Cure 2/Medica 2 because people are eating a lot of mechs. When you get comfy with this, I even throw Rapture out when I'm capped just for the Blood Lily.

Use Lucid Dreaming as early as 7k MP. I use it anywhere from 50-75% MP and I keep it on cooldown. This will ease your MP burden by tons. I never have issues with Whm's MP unless you're rezzing a lot. (Thin Air is also a great for MP. Pop it before any of your MP heavy heals: Raise, Medica 2, Cure 2, etc.)

Get comfortable with your heal strength. You don't need to use Cure 1 or Medica 1 to keep the team topped off. Whm especially has many stronger options. Use the fewest heals to do the most. This pairs a lot with Tip #1. As you minimize your healing to maximize DPS, you'll start to see how little healers actually need to... heal.

B. Dungeon Healing

If you have issues with w2w's, mine kinda look like this:

Divine benison before tank runs -> Regen [tank is done pulling] -> Holy (Assize weave) -> Holy -> Holy

From there it depends how the tank is doing.

If their HP is dropping a lot still, I switch into focused healing. Might need Temperance here. I throw Asylum down and start popping Lilies/Cure 2 and weave a Tetra. When their HP feels more stable, back to Holy spam. Reapply regen as needed. You can also use Liturgy here as a beefy heal. Maybe you can rotate: Liturgy one pull and Benediction the next.

If the tank is rolling their mitigations well, you might get away with just reapplying Regen or dropping Asylum as you continue to spam Holy. Weave a Tetra as needed.

In both cases, know where your Benediction is and be ready to pop it. Sometimes it's an emergency tool, but try to get in the habit of it being a planned heal. Let the tank drop as low as you're comfortable to get more value.

C. 8-man Healing (and dungeon bosses)

In Normal content, my first resort for raidwides is Plenary + Rapture, then Rapture again if needed. I'm almost always using Rapture exclusively, but Medica 2 is my first backup in rough situations. (I've healed Aglaia without ever needing Medica 2!)

Asylum is a good supplement to Rapture, or is sometimes enough to heal alone! It has the heal strength of two Raptures, plus it has a healing boost. If you know you'll need Rapture, throw Asylum down first for the heal buff.

Temperance is a heal buff but it's also mitigation. If your team is doing well, I use it as mitigation and then top everyone off with Rapture. If your team is doing pretty poorly, I hold it for when things are going south. (Similar logic for Presence of Mind. Good/decent team? I use it for DPS. Bad team? Faster heals and raises.)

Liturgy is fantastic for any mechs with multiple hits, but in Normal content this is few and far between. At worst, use it before a raidwide and your party still gets a 1200 potency heal. That's normally full HP. (In Aglaia, use it during Boss 3's triple knockback triangle. It's magical ;)) Even if you didn't use it before a hit, use it anyways! Throw it down, pop it immediately, and you get a free 1000 heal. That's an instant Medica 2.

I like to use Assize on cooldown for its DPS/MP rather than healing. Your lilies are there!

Similarly, I'm not usually keeping Regen on the tank because I'd rather use a Lily or Tetra.

Watch for tankbusters and use Aquaveil and/or Divine Benison to help mitigate these. I also throw these on people with vuln stacks before a raidwide hit.

Thin Air + Raise are BFFs. Raise is so MP heavy, and Thin Air helps tons.

Benediction is not exclusively for emergencies, but it's great for them too. Just think of it a large heal, not necessarily a 1 to 100%. 40 to 100 is also very worth it. I often use it right after raising someone.

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I hope this helped some. I blasted through a lot of skills very quickly, so if there's anything else I can help with, just lmk! This can be a lot to take in at first, but this will become very second nature to you with practice, and you'll become fantastic at split-second decision making.

#ty for your question! :D #long post #im so sorry lol this got sooooo lengthy #there's a lot i can cover and i tried to mention as many things as i could even if briefly #on the bright side.. if i ever get similar asks i will point them to this question :)#also if it helps at all - i think w2ws are way harder to heal than raids #the apm in w2ws is a lot higher because action is quicker #weaknesses in you; the tank; the dps'es get way more exposed in w2ws than in normal raids #a good healer in a raid can force a clear with sheer endurance but you cant keep the w2w going forever #since i covered so much here you may see some repeated info when i post these as individual tips #but on those posts i try to get specific and list examples!#healingwithcake #bakeryorder #new ask tag??? maybe ????#i like my little bakery/cake thing going on #gonna work on organizing my page and tags~#hwc:whm

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eregyrn-falls-art · 8 months

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youtube

And here it is, the video version of the "Trouble" Multi-Artist Lyric Comic! All the kudos in the world to @stariousfalls for editing this whole thing together!!!

Go here for the post with all of the lyric page art viewable separately. Go to the Trouble Lyric Comic tag on my main blog to see links to people's posts of their art.

Below the read-more, please find the credits, with tags/links to everyone's blogs!

And once again, huge thank you to everyone who participated in this project -- it was so much fun to work on! And special thanks to @mercury-falls for helping me to organize all of this! I'm still so jazzed to see this final product -- the "amv" to this song that I've been wanting to see since 2016, and here it is, and it's wonderful! And it's even MORE wonderful because this represents a LOT of people coming together to express and share their love for this show.

(Go here for some more extended thank-yous!)

CREDITS

Photo Collage One: Elishevart, Pinkplatiploo, Zephrunsimperium, Creativepup, Batman-gif, Fordtato (all newspaper clippings), Shadeartstuff, Skysdrawings

I’ve been a beggar: lemonfodrizzleart

And I’ve been a king: kingsofjersey

I’ve been a loner: muria-art

And I’ve worn the ring: everlight_283 (instagram)

Losing myself: batman-gif

Just to find me again: tazmiilly & gin-juice-tonic

I’m a million miles smarter: eregyrn-falls-art & stephreynaart

But I ain’t learned a thing: annakitsun3

I’ve been a teacher: gobblewanker

And a student of hurt: skysdrawings

I kept my word: orangephoenix6

For whatever that’s worth: mother-ofthe-universedraws

Never been last: jackyjackdraws

But I’ve never been first: jasmine-sketchbook

Oh I may not be the best: stephreynaart

But I’m far from the worst: spectralreplica

Oh I may not be the best: elishevart

But I’m far from the worst: zkyeline

Oh, I’ve seen trouble: fexiled

More than any man should bear: mischieflily

But I’ve seen enough joy: ginandshattereddreams

I’ve had more than my share: gin-juice-tonic

And I’m still not done: morcian-draws

I’m only halfway there: jamesfenimoreharper

I’m a million miles ahead of where I’m from: fordtato

But there’s still another million miles to come: deerpines, orangephoenix6 & fordtato

Photo Collage Two: Creativepup, Cbmagus49, Inkdrawndreamer, Bluefrostyy, Fordtato, Mother-ofthe-Universedraws, Fordtato & Jamesfenimoreharper, Shadeartstuff, AlphaZeD, Bewildred-grimsley

Oh I keep on searching for the City of Gold: vililae

So I’m gonna follow this yellow brick road: cbmagus49

Thinking that maybe it might lead me on: cutebatart

I’m a million miles farther: hellmandraws

And a long way from home: eregyrn-falls-art

I know that there’s a plan that goes way beyond mine: possumbreath

Got to step back just to see the design: pottersfieldcustodian

The mind fears the heart: rechoclo

But the heart doesn’t mind: novantinuum

Oh I may not be perfect: tazmiilly

But I’m loving this life: hubbabubbagumpop

Oh I may not be perfect: athgalla-arts

But I’m loving this life: thisiswhereidraw

Oh I’ve seen trouble: purblzart

More than any man should bear: shadowofaghost5

But I’ve seen enough joy: alextwdgf01 & fordtato

I’ve had more than my share: dragonsheepstudios

And I’m still not done: acetyzias & stephreynaart

I’m only halfway there: cryptidjeepers

I’m a million miles ahead of where I’m from: chiiroptereh

But there’s still another million miles to come: stephreynaart

Photo Collage Three: Cbmagus49, Fordsy, Puppylove, Lemonfodrizzleart, Jamesfenimoreharper, Gin-juice-tonic, Fordtato & Vililae, Rusted-blue, Sciencevillain, Mother-ofthe-Universedraws, Possumbreath, Shadowofaghost5, Pinestwinssimp, Nour386, Cutebatart, Possumbreath, Melodramaticwolf, Tazmiilly, Eregyrn-falls-art

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igncrxntripley · 1 year

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masterlist & rules

requests are CLOSED!!

HELLLOOOO EVERYONE!!! thanks so much for stopping by! before you make any requests, please read through the following rules. thank you!!

requests will be posted as i have time to write them; i cannot promise they’ll be posted immediately

i write smut, fluff, angst, and have shared some prompt posts on my page that i’m more than happy to use in a request

i reserve the right to not fulfill a request if it is something i do not feel comfortable writing or feel as though i cannot do the subject matter justice

if you don’t specify if you’re requesting headcanons or an imagine or anything else, i will choose what ends up being written

my limits on smut are as follows:

i will NOT write anything with virginity/taking virginity/anything non-consensual (including CNC), gore/extreme violence, pedophilia, incest, or ageplay/age regression. everything else is fair game unless the request makes me very uncomfortable

the people listed in my masterlist are who i usually write for, but the following is a more comprehensive list

the judgement day as a whole

rhea ripley

damian priest

dominik mysterio

finn balor

seth rollins

becky lynch

liv morgan

brooks jensen

josh briggs

house of black members - mostly malaki black and buddy matthews

adam page

jon moxley

jungle boy

if you have a specific person to request that is not in this list, please still request them and depending on who it is i may still fulfill the request if i feel as though i can give you what you’re looking for

please check the masterlist to see if a request has been fulfilled already

when sending a request, please make sure you include who to write for, what you’d like me to write (specifics are nice, but too specific is tricky), and a prompt from a list if that’s what you’d like. also specify if you’d like headcanons or a drabble.

check here for all of my writings! i’ll have them organized by series/superstar and hopefully this makes it a lot easier to access everything! i’ll update as things are posted! ❤️

their secret weapon (the judgement day):

regular series: pt. 1 pt. 2 pt. 3 pt. 4 pt. 5 pt. 6 pt. 7 pt. 8 pt. 9 pt. 10 (written by @witcherfromwallachia ) pt. 10 (my version) pt. 11 pt. 12 pt. 13 pt. 14

headcanons: secret weapon’s aesthetic

headcanons: secret weapon and dominik

headcanons: secret weapon and finn

headcanons: finn’s a meanie

headcanons: in sickness and in health

headcanons: secret weapon and rhea

headcanons: secret weapon and damian

headcanons: movie marathon

their secret weapon: little black dress

their secret weapon: tag team

their secret weapon: spa night

their secret weapon: happy birthday

their secret weapon: hall of fame

their secret weapon: and new...

their secret weapon: bad dreams

their secret weapon: first kisses

their secret weapon: attack (work in progress)

damian priest:

haters gonna hate

headcanons: meeting the parents

double trouble

sworn enemies (spy!au)

becky lynch:

backstabber

it takes two to punish a brat (w/ rhea ripley)

brooks jensen:

headcanons: brooks jensen’s buckle bunny

giddy up

dominik mysterio:

loss

sunshine and snuggles

winners

headcanons: bully

headcanons: father’s day surprise

rhea ripley:

nerves

blood is thicker than water

matilda

headcanons: thunderstorms

forgiveness

headcanons: friends with benefits

finn balor:

backstage admirer

deal with a demon (series):

pt. 1 pt. 2 pt. 3

cody rhodes:

attention

‘jungle boy’ jack perry

one more night

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steddieunderdogfics · 2 months

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This week’s writer spotlight feature is: Pricklywhicket/@messessentialist ! Prickleywhicket has four fics published to AO3 -- All in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by pricklywhicket:

so let's sneak in from the cheap seats, honey

it's supposed to be fun (turning twenty-one)

start by pulling him out of the fire

"Sadie is so super talented in the way she describes literally everything. She is so good at writing and it's a shame that she's flown under the radar because she's not the quickest at putting things out there." -- Anonymous

Below the cut, Pricklywhicket answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

Why do any of us write anything? Because we want the story to exist in the world, and it doesn’t yet, so we gotta hike up our pants and do it ourselves!

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Hurt/Comfort. I’m always a sucker for the blorbos taking care of one another, in whatever form that takes. This has always been true, across a truly astronomical number of fandoms I’ve found myself dabbling in over the years.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

…actually, probably hurt/comfort! I just need to get those little dudes some validation and unconditional positive regard, okay?

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

I’m sure I won’t be the first one to say this, but: I HAVE TO PICK ONE????? Okay, alright. I can do this. I’m gonna say…Sanctuary by SpicedSage.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’ve only written canon or canon-adjacent fic so far, so I’m eager to work on something that’s completely AU. I think there’s a unique challenge to keeping characters recognizable as themselves in a world that might not have all the same contexts that made them into that person.

What is your writing process like?

I would love to say it’s super organized and well-planned, but the truth is it’s mostly about routine and responsibility. I set aside time to do it every day, even if I can only tap out a few sentences. I’m not very strict about writing in a straight line - I can stop a scene if it’s giving me trouble, write a note about what I think happens in some [brackets], and move on to something that I have more fully fleshed-out ideas for. Sometimes writing the next scene helps you know more about what needs to happen in the current one.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I'm sure my betas would say yes 🙃 I tend to write a lot of dialogue - a lot of my revision process is going back through and realizing I have two pages of a conversation with no indication of what’s physically happening in the world around the speakers.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Definitely when I’m finished. Prior to my ‘23 bang fic, I had never written anything chaptered. I knew going in that I could NOT start posting if it wasn’t finished, because I’ve been burned too many times by abandoned works. I didn’t want to do that to people reading my fic, and the best way to avoid it is to finish before you post.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Easily start by pulling him out of the fire. The biggest, most ambitious thing I’ve ever attempted - I still kind of can’t believe I wrote 85k.

How did you get the idea for start by pulling him out of the fire?

Like most terrible ideas, it was spawned in a fandom discord chat. We were discussing the tendency of Steddie fics to centralize the party at Steve’s house, because his parents are never there anyway. And then someone mentioned what if the parents came home and found their house occupied, and someone else mentioned Wayne being there, and it just sort of…spiraled out from there.

When writing start by pulling him out of the fire, what was something you didn’t expect?

I had no idea, going in, that I was going to write a comprehensive history of the Wayne and Eddie Munson relationship. I started writing it where I did to give some background on Wayne’s existing distaste for the elder Harrington, and then I just…kept writing. Over the course of a month or two I wrote 20k of WayneAndEddie that I had no idea was in me - it just kept coming.

What inspired it's supposed to be fun (turning twenty-one)?

@wynnyfryd. It was a gift for her birthday. We were talking about our mutual love of Letterkenny, and she mentioned that the episode was her favorite and wouldn’t it be funny if someone wrote… and the rest is history.

What was your favorite part to write from it's supposed to be fun (turning twenty-one)?

I had an unreasonable amount of fun with that one in general. But I think my favorite part was Eddie polling the party about what Steve means to them all. It was fun to sort of put myself in each character’s shoes and think about how they would answer. Plus y’know, any excuse to unironically love on Steve Harrington.

How do/did you feel writing so let's sneak in from the cheap seats, honey?

I believe my exact words upon deciding to write it were “jingles miserably to a blank google doc.” This was a classic case of saying “god I wish there was a fic where—” and having friends tell me that it was now my responsibility to write it. I’m glad I did, though. I love that story, and it proved to me that I could write sex and publish it and not burst into flames. I also just really, really love summer storms. And Wayne’s use of the singular ‘herpe.’

What was the most difficult part of writing so let's sneak in from the cheap seats honey?

Getting over the fear of publishing something E-rated. It was just something I hadn’t done, and I had a lot of anxiety that people were not going to respond well to it. I made three people individually review the sex scenes before I even asked anyone to beta the full fic. Of course I was worried for nothing, the reception for that fic was super lovely and gave me the confidence boost I needed to attempt start by pulling him out of the fire!

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

This is like asking me to pick a favorite child. I’ll say this: most of my favorite lines in start by pulling him out of the fire were taken directly from conversations @wormdebut and I had about the fic. She’s my number one cheerleader and sounding board, and sometimes she’s so goddamn funny that I just have to include it. You have her to thank, for instance, for Steve quite literally dropping his croissant when he first sees Eddie in glasses.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I have a couple of irons in the fire, but nothing I’m ready to share just yet! I’ve been taking a breather from writing (blame baldur’s gate 3, okay) but my WIPs are still very much IP. Stay tuned!

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

Not that I can think of!

Thank you to our author, Pricklywhicket, and our anonymous nominator! See more of pricklywhicket's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

#writer's wednesday #writers on tumblr #steddie writers #steddie #steddie fic recs #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie #stranger things

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hanasnx · 4 months

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Tips for starting out a new writing blog ?

tbh tags. establish a tag system. figure out how you’re gonna organize your reblogs, your posts, the characters you write for etc etc. like srsly i wish i had done that when i started this blog, now i’m going back to manually change tags to fit my new tagging system.

i honestly choose an aesthetic first. name, title, descrip, pfp, bkg. it’s always the most fun for me. pick your fave colors bcos those will stick with you the longest.

put your age in your bio or pinned. super important

make a navi page, and masterlist page first. organize your masterlist by fandom ppl rly like that. make an anon page when you get your first emoji anon and keep track of themmmm by goddd i did not keep track of my emoji anons and recently had to revamp the whole thing, everyone had to pick new emojis. do a rules page also, and if you need help defining your boundaries in your rules take a look at mine bcos mine is super thorough

if you write smut don’t use the actor’s name or character’s name plain. like when i write a anakin skywalker smut post, i don’t say “hayden christensen” or “anakin skywalker” in the tags bcos it’s a good way to get stuck with a community label. chances are someone is in those tags that doesn’t look for smut and doesn’t know what a blow a community label is, and they just hit the “add community label” button so tumblr nails you with one. always tag your smut fics with “(character) smut” or “(character) x reader” and never just “(character)”

don’t tag more than you have to. like you don’t have to clog up tags with things that don’t pertain to it. if you’re writing anakin skywalker x reader don’t tag the fic as “obi wan x reader” too. keep your tags relevant otherwise ppl will tell u not to clog up tags.

if there’s a way to credit things, do. always. find a way to credit things. if you found a fanart picture on pinterest, reverse google image search it to find the source to check of the artist allows reposts etc. if you’re inspired by someone else’s writing even marginally mention them in the post you wrote inspired by their piece.

reblog other people’s work that you like.

that’s all i can think of rn. gl

#indy shoots the shit #thanks for the msg!!#anon #writing tips #blog tips #tumblr tips

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callsigndragon · 1 year

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The Christmas Date | Chapter 14: What do the lonely do at Christmas?

Pairing: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x Fem!Kerner!Reader

(Ron Kerner is Slider, Iceman’s backseater)

Wordcount: 2.3k

Summary: Y/n “Athena” Kerner and Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw hate each other. Everybody knows. What happens when they have to fake date for a whole week to avoid Iceman and Slider’s matchmaking plans?

(there won’t be smut in this series)

Warnings: angst, mentions of death, mentions of uranium mission, mentions of therapy (is that a trigger? idk), bickering kids, hangman matchmaker era, and i'm sure i'm leaving something out.

A/N: SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE TAG! People didn't get tagged yesterday 😭 okay so THERE'S ONLY TWO CHAPTERS LEFT 🥺🥺🥺Not ready to say goodbye yet

Taglist: @ducks118 @milestellerwife @craftymoonchaos @littlebadariell @xoxabs88xox @alexxavicry @tayrae515 @shrimping-for-all @mak-32 @my-soulmate-is-mycroft @harper1666 @purplevortexx @abaker74 @ssprayberrythings @melllinaa @loveless-simp @k-k0129 @mygyn @castle-bookworms-world @chaoticversion @one-sweet-gubler @loveforaugust

@taytaylala12 @benhardysdrumstick @green-intervention @waatermelon-sugaar @smells-like-perfect-senses @interstellarloneliness @tay-bluey @diggorycullen @dhwanishah09 @inky-sun @luckyladycreator2 @nograce-nomercy @witchybabel @omfg-its-tay @macysorbit @little-wiseone @mxdi0

(TAG LIST CLOSED)

Previous | Next | Masterlist

Rooster tries to go after Thena, but Ron’s hand stops him from getting his car keys.

“Give her time, Bradley. It’s been a long week for her.”

Rooster is confused, to say the least. Slider just witnessed her daughter fleeing the house, but he has said or done nothing to him.

“Aren’t you gonna ask what has happened?”

Slider sighs, his hand moving to Rooster’s back and guiding him to the kitchen, where all the family is reunited. There’s not even a trace of surprise on anyone’s faces. Not even deception. They just seem to be concerned.

“You knew,” Rooster whispers, sitting in the closest chair.

“Of course, we knew,” Iceman scolds, giving him a hot mug of chocolate. “Do you think you can make your family believe you’re dating her, out of everyone, with the amount of history you two have together?”

“It was real after a few days…”

Becca puts on her jacket, waiting for Jesse to come from his bedroom with one of his own. “Don’t worry, Bradley. We’ll go with her.”

“Can you tell her that it’s not what it looks like?”

She shakes her head, kneeling when Jesse walks in the kitchen, to help him with his jacket. “I know better than to interfere in something like this. You two need to work it out”

“Uncle Roos.”

“Yes, buddy?”

Jesse runs to the Christmas tree, getting a box wrapped in red wrapping paper with different sized roosters spread all over it. He would laugh if the situation was different. “Open this.”

“It’s not the time, Jesse,” Rooster pushes the box away slightly, but Maverick moves the gift even closer.

“Open it, Bradley.”

He reluctantly opens it, an old Polaroid camera lying inside the box, on top of a brand new album, with all the Polaroids his father had made during his life, perfectly organized and secured inside. He keeps turning pages and pages of old photographs, the last one making him choke on a pained laugh: it’s him, a four-year-old him with Thena in his arms.

There’s a note, he recognizes Thena’s handwriting, with love embedded in every stroke.

It’s time to add your own memories, nugget.

Nick takes the box from his hands before it falls to the floor.

He’s fucked up. Again.

He’s fucked up his second chance with you.

And he doesn’t know if you will give him a third one.

After Becca and Jesse come back, assuring him that Thena is as well as anyone could be given the situation, Rooster gets in the car and drives. He drives for hours, not knowing where, just driving. His heart does know where he’s going, because by the time the sun rises on the horizon, having stopped once to fill the tank at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere, he parks in front of a place he used to visit every week when he was younger.

The cemetery.

Muscle memory seems to have brought him to this place, and it’s also making him stroll in the right direction, finding his parents' grave in just a matter of minutes. He sits down, legs crossed and head down, like a little kid who is being reprimanded. Rooster knows that wherever they are, his parents are mad at him.

“Mom, dad, it’s been a while, isn’t it?”

He sits there for hours. He talks to them, filling them in on the missing parts of his life that they don’t know about. He tells them how he tried to move on from Thena with the first girl that appeared in his life: Mandy. He knew she wasn’t the one. He knew it from the moment he kissed her for the first time.

One of her kisses didn’t warm his heart the same way Thena’s smile did.

But he had lost the right to see those smiles long ago.

So he tried. He tried to move on, but to no avail. She had left an imprint in his soul that followed him everywhere and haunted him with memories of past mistakes. It was like his own personal ghost of the past Christmas.

When Mandy left him, he actually didn’t care. He felt even worse, knowing that another girl had deemed him unworthy and left him to spend the rest of his days in solitude.

He tells them about Thena, how she has become an excellent pilot, a wonderful aunt, and an incredible friend.

And how someone harmed the purest soul he'd ever met just to be like him.

He tells them how he tried to help her in the best way he could. He even tells them how Slider suggested that Thena shouldn’t be alone in a big apartment. He was the one that told him about this arrangement he had suggested to Thena, and how she was excited and scared at the same time to make such an important change in her life and in their relationship.

But he had shattered her last shred of faith in him. He does not, however, explain why. That's something he should tell her when the time comes.

When he has the necessary proof to show her how things aren’t what they look like.

Iceman and Mav find him hours later, asleep next to his parents’ graves. Nobody knows how this will play out; how will Thena forgive this jerk who has only ruined his relationship with her by doing what he thought was best?

Iceman knows that time healed this relationship once.

Only time can heal it again.

Three months and a half later

His car. That’s the first thing you see when you get to the Hard Deck. His Bronco.

You should have known that he would be here. It’s the best of the best, right? Of course he’s here.

You walk inside, looking for Phoenix. You’ve been her wingman for the past three months, and even though she’s an excellent pilot and your best friend, it’s not the same as flying with Bradley.

Nothing is the same without him.

“Thena!”

Phoenix sprints in your direction, placing her hands on your shoulders in an instant. “He’s here.”

“I know. I saw the Bronco outside.” You glance around, spotting the back of his head among the multitude.

“You’re ready for this?” She questions, her eyes never leaving your face, judging if you’re really ready for this.

“Nat, I’ve been going to therapy for months; I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

She nods, placing her hand on your back while she walks with you to see the rest.

“Athena Kerner? Oh my god, it’s been a whole minute, isn’t it?” Mickey walks directly in your direction, hugging you tightly.

“What’s with the hair, dude? Didn’t know where to stop?” You joke, making him chuckle.

“Shut up.”

You greet each aviator, saving Rooster for last. He looks different. Mature. Observant. Three months can really change a person.

A deeper dive into his eyes shows you a completely different look. His eyes are gloomy, longing orbs staring at you as if you were the answer to all his prayers.

Yeah, you still love him after all these months.

“Hey, Rooster.”

“Hey, Athena.”

He opens his mouth to say something else, but you’re dragged away from him. Phoenix wants to introduce you to his new backseater.

Or perhaps she just wants to avoid the fight; too many emotions are being held in, unshared, and this can only lead to a fight that would blow up and cause damage to the people involved.

It's been two days since you came to Top Gun, and you haven't shared a word since that quick and short greeting. Mav, who you only saw the next day, knows better than to put you two together in any exercise.

Mav talked with you in private, checking on how you're doing and what you've been doing these past months. He even asked you about your therapy sessions—if they've been helpful and if there's something he needs to know.

It's too soon to see proper results, but at least you don't think of Rooster as a traitor. There had to be a reason—you just never stopped to listen. But at that time, you weren't in the right mindset to do so.

You've missed him. Not the kisses or the compliments, but his presence. You miss looking at your side while flying and seeing him awkwardly waving at you. You've missed knowing that no matter what, you've always had him beside you. You miss his ugly Hawaiian shirts, his cologne, his incessant humming, his bad jokes, and his smile.

He left a void in your life that time couldn’t erase. The emptiness is always present, almost like a part of you. Maybe it's time to stop and put you two out of your misery.

After the mission, of course.

You run through the academy halls, looking for the infirmary. It's been so long that you almost can't remember where it is. Eventually, you find it at the end of a white, eerie hallway. What's the deal with medical wings and creepy environments?

"They're with the doctor now, we can't enter."

It's the first full sentence he has said to you since Christmas. You were so focused on finding the right room that you haven't seen him sitting down, waiting for the doctor to leave.

"Are they okay?" You mutter, not looking at him.

"I didn't see any blood or injury, so yes. I think they're okay."

"Thank God"

You sit in front of him, looking at his boots, the right one bumping up and down.

"How…how are you?" You ask, your words leaving your lips before you can stop them.

"I've been better," he shrugs. You can feel his eyes on you. "I heard you've been going to therapy."

You nod, glancing at his hands—big, calloused hands that you want to touch. "I can be in a changing room now"

"Really? Gosh, I'm so glad you're making such a big progress, grouchy"

You both stop breathing at the same time. It's the stupidest nickname ever, but it held a lot of meaning for you.

"Shit, I'm sorry." He quickly apologizes.

You waved it off. "Old habits never die, I guess."

"It's not even old," he whispers, knowing that you can hear him.

"Roos-"

The door opens, and a blonde nurse is looking at both of you. "Lieutenant Kerner?"

You stand up. "That's me"

"Lieutenant Trace is asking for you."

She enters the room, and you follow her. You can hear Rooster's steps as he walks down the corridor.

Another time, then.

You’re afraid that you won’t be able to talk to him after the mission. This is an extremely dangerous mission; you should have known better than to hold the conversation for so long. Now you can’t stop hearing Maverick’s words, which are repeating over and over in your head.

He wants Rooster to be his wingman.

You have heard people talking. You’ve heard people say that someone wouldn’t make it. Some of you would come back home in a wooden box. That’s if they can find the body.

You’re now standing next to Hangman; he’s watching Rooster talk with Maverick before he gets into his plane.

“You should talk to him before he goes,” he whispers while bumping his arm with yours.

“He’s coming back, Jake,” you say in a convincing tone, not sure if you’re trying to convince yourself or him.

“Yeah but… what if?” Jake insists before leaving you alone with your thoughts.

Two seconds later, your feet are moving toward Rooster. “Hey, Rooster.”

He double-checks that you're talking to him, as if he can't believe you'd waste your breath talking to him. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, it’s just…” you sigh, raising your eyes and looking at him. “No, nothing’s okay. You’re going up there without me, of course it is not okay!”

Of all the things he expected to hear from you at this moment, snapping at him because he’s flying without you is not one of them. "Amm... well, I didn't choose to be on this dangerous mission, you know."

“Just…just come back, please.”

“Athena, I always-”

“Don’t Athena me. For fuck's sake, Rooster, we've known each other our entire lives; we can have a normal conversation!"

He throws his helmet inside the plane, hands on his hips, and frowns at you. “I’m not the one that runs away every time we’re in front of each other.”

“People keep dragging me away from you!”

“Oh, yeah, blame the rest. As if you want to talk to me” he scoffs, turning around, ending the conversation.

“Would I be here right now if I didn’t want to talk to you?” you state.

“I still don’t know what you want”

You grab him by the collar of his flying suit, pulling him down until his lips crash against yours. “Come back to me, please.”

He doesn’t open his eyes when you pull away, only presses his forehead on yours, whispering over your lips. “I’ll always come back to you, fly girl.”

Tears fall from your eyes, and he kisses them away, covering your face in kisses.

“Go find Coyote and stay with him, please. Don’t be alone”

You nod, hugging him tightly before kissing him one last time and getting in his plane.

“Goose, wherever you are,” you whisper to yourself while walking inside. “Make sure he comes back safely.”

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nocturnalazure · 4 months

Text

WordPress question

So I will soon have filled my second free media library on WordPress.

This was why I had created a second blog in October 2018: too many pics and my media library was full. Since then, I've published the posts on the second blog but kept a table of content of sorts on the main one.

But it was temporary, because I'm using more and more pics in my updates, and I've procrastinated and postponed making a decision for the future, but I can't ignore it now.

I love WordPress because everything is neatly sorted and it allows me to quickly find a specific update, to link to an update as a whole, to easily filter by character tag, or to upload a more detailed character page, family trees, resources, etc. However, to my knowledge, I have only one reader on that platform. I have kept my WordPress blog(s) all these years only because I find it extremely useful.

Now I'm faced with the following possibilities:

Pay for an annual plan

Pros:

Gives me a lot more storage space (13 Gb) for all my pics

Super easy to implement

Uploading pics is easy

Have all my updates on the same website (yay for organization!)

Cons:

Expensive for something I'll use just for my own comfort

Some work needed to re-upload everything onto the same website

I would have to shut down the secondary website and lose some potential lurkers

2. Create a third WP blog

Pros:

Free!

Quite easy to implement

Uploading pics is easy

No work involved in merging two websites

Cons:

Still a temporary solution with only 3 Gb of storage space

I would have to ask to people who may still follow me to update their bookmarks, and that would just create confusion

A third website to take care of...

3. Use Google Photos for storage and link back

Pros:

Free!

15 Gb!

Cons:

Uploading pics is slower than on WP

It's gonna take me forever to link the pics (often 80-100 of them) to each update on WP

4. Close down my WP blogs

Pros:

Free, obvs

I stop bothering with maintaining several websites

Cons:

I would lose that one reader who's not on Tumblr :(

I would miss my WP: I like having updates well organized and it is a very useful archive for me

What would you do? Maybe you guys have other solutions I haven't thought of?

#text post #non sims #(almost non sims)

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theresattrpgforthat · 7 months

Note

I just found this blog and i love it!!! I have a few different questions so to make organizing easier im gonna ask one here and send the others separately so I apologize for the abundance of asks im about to send :D what are some of your favorite past jams or bundles?

THEME: Game Jams and Game Bundles.

Thank you so much! I will probably space out these answers so that other folks have a chance to get their questions answered first. But this one is a pretty fun one to start with.

I’m a sucker for charity bundles, to be sure. My first bundle was the Itch Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, which was back in 2020. I filtered through all 50 pages and sorted all of the ttrpgs into folders - this was the start of my Itch organization. It also introduced me to quite a few games that showed me the amazing breadth of tabletop games, including Subway Runners, Visigoths vs Mall Goths, Troika, and i’m sorry did you say street magic. An additional recommendation I have from this bundle is Transmission Burst v.1 and Transmission Burst v.2, collections of evocative mini games by UFO Press.

One really impressive bundle was The Bundle for Ukraine, which had a staggering amount of tabletop games in it, including Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Apocalypse Frame, Lutong Banwa, and The Great Soul Train Robbery. I want to give a specific shout out to Bright & Terrible (Atlantean Exiles from a kingdom that fell), as well as Recipe on Kmiydish Paper, a solo gaming experience that fleshes out a world through a single recipe.

If you have bought a lot of charity bundles, I also recommend checking out Bundle Browser, which is a website that helps you sift through games by bundle and tag. I find it super helpful when I'm not sure I have a copy of a game, and clicking on the game brings you to its game page!

Now, let's talk about game jams. The Emotional Mecha Jam was a game jam in the beginning of 2019 that explore the depth of emotions that exist in the mecha genre. This jam inspired works such as A Long Night in the Mech Bay, All My Exes are in Mechsuits, and Breakup on Re-Entry. You should absolutely check this jam out.

In 2021, there was a jam called Applied Hope: The Solarpunk and Utopias Jam. I’ve talked about this jam recently, and it’s very very good. I love the theory and conversations sparked in this jam - the goal was to dream of possible worlds - not perfect ones, but ones that were brighter, worlds that could are meant to increase our capacity for joy. I’ve talked about a number of games here before, including subconscious_Routine, Waxworm, and After the World Drowned. I’m also intrigued by Scraps, which won the award for Best Solarpunk DIY game.

The BIPOC Vamp Jam was also a lot of fun! It was a jam that ran in 2021 and asked Black, Indigenous and Creators of Colour to submit their vampire games, in an effort to look at vampires through a different lens. I’ve talked about Vamp Camp and Bloodbeam Badlands before, but I’m also stoked about The Vamp is Dust, (a hack of The Witch is Dead), as well as Project: Day Breaker (Vampires in space!).

Some of my favourite jams are jams that are focused on a specific system. The What’s So Cool About Jam is one of those. It is a super simple system, and the jam is what introduced me to the WSCA ruleset, which is pretty light-weight system that can be translated to a lot of settings. I’ve personally been interested in What is So Cool About Sky Pirates, as well as What’s So Scary About Dinosaurs?.

Titanomachy also has a solid history of good game jams, as evidence by their first and second Caltrop Core jams. Caltrop Core has gotten some pretty big attention, because it’s so easy to hack! This can be seen in in HexFall, which is also by Lex, as well as SW//NG by @farmergadda (emotional superheroes), and Last Hope (dark magical girls). I’m also interested in The Dreaded & The Deep (nautical horror) and The Dying of the Light (a city struggling in the darkness).

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #mint speaks #asks #game jams

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duckprintspress · 4 months

Text

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh

We are 57% of the way to our funding goal for AETHER BEYOND THE BINARY, with 19 days to go!! This awesome anthology featuring non-binary and genderqueer characters in aetherpunk settings has been in the works for a year, and we’re optimistic that we’ll reach our funding target so that we can publish the book as an e-book, trade paperback, and hardcover. Slow and steady, race winning, you know the deal. 😀 Things have definitely slowed down, as is normal for this stage of the campaign, so just a note that we’d always appreciate your help with spread the word about this project so that more people will know it exists! You can find our “main” posts about the campaign on different platforms using these links:

Bluesky

Dreamwidth

Facebook

Instagram

Mastodon

Patreon (public post)

Pillowfort

Tiktok

Tumblr

WordPress

Thanks in advance!!

You can learn all about the campaign, the book, the merch, and the authors, by visiting our Kickstarter campaign page!

And, today we’re introducing two more contributing authors: Flore Picard and Alec J. Marsh!

The Light Organ by Flore Picard

About Flore Picard: I’m a linguist and translator who lives in France and I have been itching to write since I learned how to. I started writing (fan)fiction more regularly when I was procrastinating on my PhD dissertation, and I haven’t looked back since. I’m also an artist who loves drawing both fanart and original art, and I have a passion for patterns and systems, for the beauty at the edge of chaos and the complexity of being human. I tend to write about queer and disabled characters finding themselves and each other and learning to take up space in the world.

Links: Instagram | Twitter

This is Flore’s first publication with Duck Prints Press.

Title: The Light Organ

Tags: angst with a happy ending, capitalism is the real villain, coming out, disabled character, emotional hurt/comfort, family, fraught family dynamics, illusion, in the closet, magic use, mechanic, musician, non-binary, parenthood, present tense, science fiction with magic, teenager, third person limited point of view, transphobia (mentions of) (past)

Excerpt:

“No, no, no—the organ, the light ring—it’s all about the imagination, not the mechanics,” Kas exclaims, gesturing widely to encompass the aether pool behind the glass.

“I’m just here for the tubes,” the tech—Gilbert—says flatly.

His face betrays no emotions, not even annoyance. Kas almost wishes he would yell or be rude, if only for the sake of feeling like they’re having an actual conversation, but Gilbert has always been polite. He just never seems to care.

“Fine,” Kas gives up. “We’ve got glitches. They started about a week ago. It could be a leaking tube, I’m not sure.”

“What kind of glitches?”

“It’s as if… as if the story stops responding to me. I know how that sounds, but I swear that’s what happens. It doesn’t last more than a few seconds, but it’s getting worse. Earlier, I powered everything up to tune it and it kept flickering.”

“Flickering,” Gilbert repeats, mumbling into his neatly trimmed beard.

Kas grabs a cane in each hand and makes their way to the organ’s seat. “I can show you.”

You’re Gonna Get Older by Alec J. Marsh

About Alec J. Marsh: Alec lives in the Pacific Northwest, where they write romantic adult fantasy and self-indulgent fanfiction. They make candles inspired by their favorite characters.

Links: Etsy | Instagram | Twitter

Alec is one of the editors for Aether Beyond the Binary and has also published multiple titles with Duck Prints Press. His novella To Drive the Hundred Miles (modern, f/m, trans male lead) was recently successfully crowdfunded and orders fulfilled. His two erotica stories Heart’s Scaffold (sci-fi, m/m) and Study Hall (modern academia, m/m) are part of the Contributor Short Story Bundle add-on.

Title: You’re Gonna Get Older

Tags: arranged marriage, christian, coming of age, coming out, cults, fraught family dynamics, friends, in the closet, lesbian, midwest, misgendering, non-binary, north dakota, past tense, post-apocalyptic, relationship of convenience, religion, song fic, teenager, third person limited pov, trans man, trans woman, transphobia

Excerpt:

There was a radio in the room, an old two-way they had found on their last visit and hidden in an empty supply closet. It was still there. They slid open the battery pack and snapped in a fresh battery from their aether lantern. Chips of the meteor had been encased in metal tubing to mimic the lithium batteries of the Before, but they were precious and had to be used sparingly. Stardancer knew better than to use precious energy on something this frivolous.

They popped the battery cover in place and pressed the power button. It crackled to life. They cradled it like it was made from glass. The dials made a tak-tak-tak noise as Stardancer scrolled through channels. Music came through softly. It faded in and out, cut through with static, but it was music, and not the kind made on an acoustic guitar. They adjusted the antenna and turned up the volume.

It was like nothing they had heard before, fast paced with a heavy beat. Even over the fuzzy AM connection, it was invigorating. They wanted to dance. They wanted to sing along with words they had never heard before. The singer screamed their triumph, and Stardancer felt invincible.

There's no time like right now to become a backer and help us reach 100% funded! Check it out!

#aetherpunk #aether beyond the binary #aether punk #duck prints press #story teaser #alec j. marsh #alecjmarsh #flore picard #crowdfunding #queer crowdfunding #queer owned business

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silverskye13 · 11 months

Note

can i ask how you get the motivation to write? ive been writing for most of my life but i have such a hard time sticking with it

Honestly it just comes from the overwhelming desire to create. In a perfect world, I would rather animate or make comics, but my life is short on time, so I write instead. I can take my fic with me everywhere, squeezing in writing time while in lines or alone in the office or whatever. It's versatile.

For long projects specifically, it helps to have a plan. You don't have to outline everything [though I know people who do that]. Knowing you have a premise and a major climax somewhere is sufficient. The premise is interesting to you, the major climax is the very cool finish line you want to cross. Setting that goal of "write until you write the thing you desperately want to write" keeps me going. It's why I write chronologically instead of cherry picking scenes I have ideas for and then filling in the blanks later. I treat those scenes like they're dessert. You want it? Work for it :3 not to say cherry picking is a bad thing. I know plenty of people it works for. I just know myself, and if I give myself the fun payoff when I want it, I won't slog through the rest.

In the shorter term other things that help:

Making music playlists or mood boards or whatever. Give your brain a reason to keep picking at the story outside of the story context. Make it fun to work on. Don't feel like writing but don't want to forget you have a project? Add songs to the playlist, look up photos for setting inspiration, make a Tumblr tag for quotes. It has the added bonus of helping your story along, and giving you a reason to make the world and characters better.

Don't be afraid to drop it. Like, seriously. I know this whole post is about motivation, but nothing kills a project more than getting insanely guilty about said project. You're allowed to take days, weeks, months, years to rest on a project. Just because you put it down doesn't mean it'll stay down, and agonizing over putting it down will just ensure it's harder to pick up again. If you're staring at a project and you would rather do literally anything but work on it, don't work on it.

Uhm, counter to that, if it's been awhile and you're scared to start again? Just write gibberish. I have a section on every large document called "cut pieces" where I slam out the most dogshit writing and after I get warmed up, I cut it and put it at the bottom of the doc. For two reasons. The first being you've got the swing of things so you can get rid of all the practice you did getting to that point. The second being it might not be as bad as you think it is. Someday you're gonna remember that dialogue, and you're going to want to salvage it.

Keep aids handy! Especially for things that bring you trouble. For me it's descriptions. I love descriptions, but I often have trouble thinking up good ones or I have something specific in mind I can't nail down, or I've been staring at a wall for an hour trying to think of a good way to describe clouds and I can't. So I keep a description document, full of descriptions from books I've read or previous ones I've written, that I can use as a jumping off point. It speeds things up, keeps me from dithering on something stupid, and sometimes someone already described the perfect cloud, yanno? [As before so again, if anyone wants my description document, feel free to ask. It's massive and it's organized.]

Never stop at the end of a chapter. Well, you can stop at the end of a chapter sometimes it's 2am and you just wanna write [Chapter 11] on the header and go to bed. But normally I like to keep writing a few more paragraphs? So when I start [Chapter 11] I'm not staring at a blank page. Blank pages will always win a staring context. Put an I there so it blinks instead.

Change your document color. Like the paper color? White is so mean sometimes. My screen is black with white text. Other writers I know swear by lavender or green. White is just so hard to break man there's just something about it.

Last one but, keep reading. Like, why do you want to write? Because you want to tell a story sure, but why do you want to tell a story? Well, probably because you read a good one somewhere, and you want to give other people that "I read a good story" feeling. So keep reading. One of the most motivating things you can do is remind yourself why you're slaving over a hot keyboard.

.... And this got very long sorry :'D

Hope this? Helps?

#answering asks #anonymous #the barking writer #writing advice #also sorry if this sounds stilted or theres spelling errors #its midnight and my sleep aids are dragging me to hell as we speak #i can barely keep my eyes open #forgive me if any of this is incoheren #writing #reference

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kraviolis · 1 year

Text

debris becoming whole again (The Owl House)

Rating: Teen Relationships: Amity & Hunter, Belos & Hunter Words: 4.4k Additional Tags: Birthday Trauma, Pre-Canon Flashback, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Reference Child Abuse, Angst & Fluff, Banter, Grief/Mourning, Complicated Feelings, Post-Canon (W&D Timeskip) Summary:

Hunter blinks at her in pure disbelief. “There’s no way you forgot my last birthday.”

“I’m sorry.” Amity does look genuinely sorry about it, which is nice but not what he was getting at.

“No, I mean, it’s actually impossible that you could forget it. You were there.”

“I’m gonna be honest… I don’t think I even know when your birthday is.” She admits, looking sheepish as if that’s her fault, somehow.

AO3 LINK

__________________

Hunter is smiling as he makes his way down the castle halls.

No one sees it, of course. All the coven scouts see as they’re passing by is the Golden Guard power walking with purpose down the hall. They step out of the way and avert their gaze, avoiding any kind of eye contact, which is just fine to Hunter. He doesn’t want to be delayed for a second longer than necessary.

It’s not every day that Emperor Belos wakes him thirty minutes early with a coven courier giving him a letter requesting his presence in his Uncle’s workshop. Hunter had barely been able to contain his excitement long enough to close the door before he was smiling ear-to-ear and rushing through his morning routine. His hair was still slightly damp, but he couldn’t be late– not today.

When he reaches the door, he straightens himself out and clears his throat before knocking.

“Come in,” Belos calls through the wood, and Hunter obeys.

The workshop is one of Hunter’s favorite places in the whole imperial palace. It’s always a cluttered tangle, with half-cooked blueprints and random tubes and bolts and pieces of scrap metal scattered across any flat surface. He’s always careful to step over the various items littering the floor, knowing that it may look like a huge mess but isn’t actually. His Uncle prefers an organized chaos just like Hunter does, and he’ll do his best to respect the space as a guest in it.

“Good morning,” Belos greets him from his seat at one of the benches, his own mask and cloak nowhere to be seen and his long hair pulled back out of his face. He’s bent over, charcoal pencil in his hand scratching away with quick strokes, but pauses his ministrations to turn to Hunter as he approaches. “I see you received my invitation.”

Hunter moves to kneel, bowing his head. “Good morning, Emperor B–”

His Uncle cuts him off with a wave of his hand. “No, none of that, if you please. I do prefer my mornings outside of court and with as little bureaucracy as possible.” He turns back to the bench, pencil in hand as he continues his sketching.

Blushing under his mask, Hunter stands and nods. “Uh. Right. Sorry.”

Belos swipes a hand over the paper he’s working on, brushing away any particles. Then with the same hand, he beckons Hunter closer without looking up. “Come, nephew. Tell me what you think of this– and take that mask off while you’re at it.”

With a practiced hand, he removes his mask and hood in a single swift motion, leaving the golden vizard on the first clear surface he sees. Belos leans back so that Hunter may look over his shoulder at the sketchbook laid on the table.

“It’s… a new artificial staff?” Hunter leans closer, putting a hand on the table to get a better look. His eyes widen as he takes it in. “No, wait, is that my staff? Are you planning another alteration to the mechanisms?”

“It is, and I am.” His Uncle confirms, pointing with the pencil at the fresh blueprint. “There’s actually quite a bit I’d like to implement, but for now– do you see this modification here? With the internal wiring? What do you make of it?”

He absorbs the page, soaking in the looping cockatrice-scratch of his Uncle’s handwriting. “Mixing metals in the wires– tonguesten, copper, and Titan’ium?” He murmurs to himself, trying to connect the dots in his head. “Using copper as the conductor instead of gold would increase power, even if the charge becomes unstable… but putting those two metals together like this wouldn’t work, right?”

Hunter looks to his Uncle, who tilts his head to one side wordlessly with a neutral expression. Seeing that he won’t be getting any hints, he hums and goes back to squinting at the page in front of him.

“This configuration would brick the staff at best, or at worst, cause it explode in your hand the second you try to use it.” He crooks a finger against his chin, running through all his knowledge of magical engineering. “Copper is leaky and Titan’ium reflects magic, which is why normally you should make an effort to avoid using them together, but… not unless… the tonguesten! ”

He straightens his back, holding back a smile as he finally makes the connection. “Using tonguesten as the barrier because of its density will prevent the leaking and keep the refractions of magic within the wire itself, which lets it flow faster and at higher concentration!”

“Very good, Hunter.” Belos nods his approval, making Hunter swell with pride. “These new wire compositions should prevent both that pesky half-second delay and make this mechanism here unnecessary. Once we can remove that eyesore, the head will become lighter and render the staff more balanced than ever. In fact, all these changes I’ve noted down should make it all feel a bit more… natural, so to speak.”

Hunter can’t stop the grin this time. “That’s so– Uncle, you’re a genius! This is incredible!” He says, turning to the elder in excitement.

Belos smiles back, but it’s tense in a way that gives Hunter pause. When he raises a single brow, Hunter suddenly realizes he’s grabbed the Emperor of the Boiling Isles by the shoulders. He pulls his hands back quickly, cheeks and ears burning like he’s just slathered firebee honey on them as he takes a step back.

“I– uh. Um.” Keeping his eyes to the ground, he clears his throat and tries to regain his sense of professionalism. He bends at the waist, arms planted to his sides. “I apologize for my overenthusiasm, sir.”

“That’s quite alright, Hunter. I’m glad to know you’re appreciative of my work.” Belos puts a hand on his head, patting gently. “Just don’t make such reactions into a habit, hm?” Hunter’s breath catches, something warm blossoming in his chest at the gesture even when his Uncle quickly pulls his hand away.

It’s not every day that he receives so much casual affection, as his Uncle has never been very open with his touch– which Hunter understands, of course! The curse is dangerous to those around him, and Belos doesn’t like Hunter getting too close just in case he accidentally injures him. But today must be a good day, one where his curse isn’t bothering him too badly.

“Are you ready to get started?” His Uncle asks, drawing him from his mind.

Hunter blinks and tilts his head. “Started on what?”

“On your staff modifications, of course.”

“Today?” Hunter breathes, lighting up at the nod he gets. “Really? And I get to help?”

Belos chuckles, regal and dignified. “It is your staff, Hunter. You know it nearly as well as I do.” He glances to the door of the workshop, his brow raising again. “Though, I don’t imagine we can begin right this second.”

“Oh.” Something deflates in Hunter but he does his best not to frown or whine like a petulant child not getting his way. “Do you need me to gather the materials first?”

“No, I should have everything we need already.” His Uncle gestures towards his storage containers in the corner, half the lids off of the containers and several labels misplaced or illegible from age. Hunter glances from the materials back to Belos, still not understanding. “It’s just that… well, it would be rather difficult to begin when your staff isn’t here.”

Hunter gasps. “I forgot it in my room! Agh, stupid!” He hits his forehead with his fist a couple times, then turns to run out the door. “Sorry, Uncle! I’ll go and–”

“Hold a tick,” Belos grabs his own staff from where it leans against the wall to his right, using it to levitate Hunter’s mask over to him. “You don’t want to forget this as well, do you?”

“Right– Thank you!” He slips it over his face and pulls his hood up swiftly. “I’ll be right back!”

Before he can rush out of the door, his Uncle calls him back again. “Oh, and one more thing.”

He freezes and wrenches his head back into the room, buzzing with enough energy to power his staff a hundred times over. He forces his tone to stay polite and respectful, no matter how badly he wants to just take off running down the hall towards his bedroom. “Yes, Uncle?”

Belos smiles kindly at him. “Happy sixteenth birthday, Hunter.”

Hunter is so, so glad his Uncle can’t see his face anymore. The second he processes the words, he smiles so wide it makes his cheeks hurt and has to blink the sudden blur in his vision away. It feels like his chest is about to burst from nothing but pure joy.

He has an urge to run back across the room and throw his arms around his Uncle, or even just tell him for once how much he means to him, but he fights it back. No matter how much he cares for him, he can’t cross those boundaries.

His Uncle is a complicated man and has been through a lot of pain in his life– he wouldn’t be appreciative of gestures like that. It’s not in his nature, and Hunter refuses to make his Uncle uncomfortable or, Titan forbid, start putting up his walls when it’s just the two of them again like he did when Hunter was small.

(Back when his Uncle was so distant he often would go weeks without seeing him at all. When he couldn’t find a single chance to show his Uncle how helpful he could actually be to him. No, he won’t go back to that.)

(He’ll show the Emperor every single day just how much he can rely on Hunter, how useful he can be. He’s not going to become more dead weight, and he’s not going to let anyone else take his place.)

(Plus, it’s best for Hunter to remain as professional as possible in the castle. After all, he can only take so much muttering behind his back about nepotism and daycares.)

Instead, Hunter just nods quickly to show his appreciation. “Thank you, Uncle!”

He waits a second for his Uncle to wave his hand, officially dismissing him, before he closes the door to the workshop politely and takes off in a dead sprint down the hall.

Hunter grins under his mask the entire way there and back.

_________________

Hunter sniffles, drawing his knees to his chest tighter.

It’s getting colder out here by the second as the sky darkens, the sun already gone below the horizon. His back is pressed against the wall of the Owl House as he hides away in the backyard. The sounds of the birthday party still going on inside does nothing but make his heart sink even lower.

There’s a sudden raucous of muffled laughter and Hunter squeezes his eyes closed. Everyone is having such a good time. Why can’t he? Why does everything have to be ruined by his dumb brain? Why does he have to be ruined?

It’s not fair of him. It’s supposed to be Gus’s special day. Hunter is supposed to be inside playing games with him and teasing him for turning fourteen and still being a pipsqueak, not sitting outside in the cold and having his own little pity party.

Gus is gonna notice he’s gone soon, and then he’s gonna have to deal with Hunter’s stupid problems instead of getting sick from eating so much of the human cake Luz and Camila brought. But even though Hunter wants more than anything to just suck it up and let himself have a good time with his friends, he just… can’t .

“Stupid,” He mutters to himself, sniffling again.

“Hey.”

Hunter whips his head around, startled. Amity is standing to his right, hands folded in front of her awkwardly. He hadn’t even heard the backdoor open.

She frowns at him and Hunter quickly turns away again to wipe at his face. “Hu–” He cuts himself off and clears his throat before trying again. “Hey.”

Amity approaches carefully and sits down right next to him, not touching but still close enough that he can feel the warmth radiating off of her. Ghost is conspicuously absent from the palisman’s constant post of circling her ankles, and Hunter knows it was on purpose.

His friends can’t even just hang out with their palismen near him without needing to walk on eggshells because of how stupidly sensitive he is. Like, it happened months ago, and Hunter still can’t even think about Flapjack without–

Hunter sniffles harder and scrubs at his eyes. Stupid. He’s so stupid . What’s wrong with him?

“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Amity tells him, and he realizes he was talking out loud. “You’re just having a hard time.”

“I’ve been having a hard time for seventeen years,” He says bitterly and continues to fight his own tear ducts. “I should be used to it by now. I never had these kinds of problems before– before I…”

“Before you left the Emperor’s Coven ?” She gives him a look, flat and unimpressed. “The same coven where showing an ounce of real emotion like this was– how did Luz word it? Like bleeding in shark infested waters?”

Hunter looks away without answering, frustrated over hearing such a logical comment in the face of his very illogical emotions. It makes too much sense for him right now, which makes everything about what he’s doing feel even more stupid.

Amity sighs. “Do you… wanna talk about it?”

Hunter stares ahead, eyes fixed on the edge of the forest around the Owl House. The crowd inside laughs together at something again, muffled and barely-heard through the stone walls and thick glass window next to them.

“I’m just being stupid.” He repeats, turning his head to look at her.

“I mean, when are you not?” She elbows him, smiling. He glares at her in mock-offense and elbows her back, causing a mini elbow war that ends in seconds after a mutual surrender. “Seriously, though. Spill it already.”

Hunter moves a hand down from his knees, picking at the red grass underneath him. “Swear you won’t make fun of me for it?” He asks.

“Swear. Look,” Amity makes a gesture across her chest. “Cross my heart.”

Hunter raises a brow at her. “...What does that even mean?”

“Luz did it once. It’s a human way of pledging a serious promise.”

Hunter sighs. “If Luz used it then good enough, I guess. Fine.”

There’s a long stretch of silence between them. Amity twiddles her thumbs together and Hunter tries to fit the words together in his head in a way where it possibly, just maybe, won’t actually be the stupidest thing he’s said and ever will say to another living soul.

“So…” Amity says. “Are you gonna–”

“My birthdays have always been my favorite memories.” Hunter blurts out, digging one hand into the grass and the other into his hair. Amity goes silent instantly, fixing her attention on him. “Except for– well. You know what happened during the last one.”

“...Do I?” She asks, squinting.

Hunter blinks at her in pure disbelief. “There’s no way you forgot my last birthday.”

“I’m sorry.” She does look genuinely sorry about it, which is nice but not what he was getting at.

“No, I mean, it’s actually impossible that you could forget it. You were there.”

“I’m gonna be honest… I don’t think I even know when your birthday is.” She admits, looking sheepish as if that’s her fault, somehow. “I didn’t realize you already turned seventeen until you said so just now.”

“I… Oh, Titan.” He laughs, but it’s not actually funny. He stops quickly. “I– I just remembered I never actually told anyone. I was so focused on everything else, I never…”

"When is your birthday?"

“My birthday is– Amity, it’s on Samhain." He swallows, his mouth suddenly dry. "Or, well, technically last year it was on Halloween.”

Amity blanches. She’s frozen in shock for a second, staring at him with wide eyes, before she nearly scrambles to take his hand in hers. The pressure is grounding, and he squeezes back just as tight. “Hunter,” She breathes in that same old tone– the one that everyone uses whenever Hunter shares anything about his life that’s less than perfectly happy. Horror, concern, and pity mixed into one single specific tone of voice.

“Don’t.” Hunter shakes his head. His free hand twists itself in the front of his shirt. “I already know. It’s– That isn’t what I wanted to talk about.”

Amity purses her lips and nods, but that doesn’t stop her from looking like she won’t be forgetting it. He just hopes she doesn’t let it slip to Luz before he can get the chance to tell her on his own– that will only end in a grievous amount of tears and yelling. Again.

“Anyways,” He clears his throat. Amity gives his hand another squeeze, encouraging him. “Um. Where was I again?”

“You said your birthdays were always your happiest memories.” She tells him, and he nods.

“Yeah. They were. Are? It’s– complicated.” His shoulders fall, and he leans his head against his knees again. “I didn’t get my birthdays off, in the Coven. No one did, really, but even when I was a kid I never had any birthday parties. Not like this one.”

“Are you upset because you… want one?” She guesses.

He shakes his head. “I– I don’t think that’s it. I think…” He hesitates, rolling the next words on his tongue before deciding to just spit them out. “I think I miss him.”

Amity doesn’t ask who ‘him’ is. She doesn’t have to. Hunter avoids looking at her face, not wanting to take the risk of seeing disgust or hate in reaction to his admission. She doesn’t stop holding his hand, which he takes as a good sign.

“He always made time in his day to spend my birthdays with me.” He keeps going, not sure if he can stop now that he’s started. “Even if it was only for fifteen minutes, even if we spent it going over budget reports, he always made an effort. For me .

“It’s stupid, right? How idiotic does someone have to be to miss him ?” Hunter growls, clenching his hands. “He was nothing but a liar and a murderer. He wasn’t even my uncle! I was only a tool to him, one that he had no problem with throwing away the second I–”

Amity quietly lets out a pained squeak, and Hunter rips his hand away from hers quick as lightning. “Sorry!”

“It’s fine,” She can’t hide the wince in her face as she rubs her palm with her thumb. She shakes her head, her purple bangs falling out of place. “Don’t worry about it, keep going.”

Hunter hesitates but with a threatening brow raise from Amity, he deflates and curls back in on himself. It takes him a second to regather his thoughts from where he’d left them.

“You know what the worst part is?” He says. “When he wasn’t actively making my life into a living nightmare, he was actually really nice to me. For example, he used to sneak me hard candies during meetings that went long. Oh, and he’d let me sit in his workshop with him and rant about my day, or ramble about magical theory while he tinkered. That’s the version of him I miss more than any other. The version who felt like… like an actual, real person.

“And I know it wasn’t ever real to him, I know that everything nice he did was just another way for him to manipulate me, but… but it was real to me.” A lump begins to form in his throat, and it doesn’t fade when Hunter tries to swallow it down.

“Belos,” He spits the name like it’s poison. “Never cared about me, but I cared about him. I– Damn it.” He scrubs at his traitorous eyes again, his breath hitching. “I- I loved him.”

His voice breaks, and so does Hunter. Unable to hold it back anymore, he wraps his arms around himself as his body begins to tremble and jolt with every sob that rips from his throat. Amity pulls him in, leaning him on her shoulder as he cries.

It’s stupid. It’s so, so stupid . He should know better. Yet here Hunter is, grieving a genocidal tyrant who wouldn’t have given his own death a second thought. Grieving the man Hunter had thought he was. Grieving a family he never even had when his new family was right inside. They’re going to smile at Hunter when he goes back in later and look at him like he’s made their lives better just by being there, but right now he’s sobbing over someone who made Hunter feel like he had to earn the right to be his nephew.

“Stupid,” Hunter chokes out through his tears. “‘m so stupid.”

“It’s okay. I- I get it.” Amity tells him quietly, one of her hands rubbing up and down his back. “I miss my mom, sometimes.”

Hunter leans against her with more of his weight. “Your mom s-sucks .”

“I know,” Amity laughs wetly, ducking her head down. “How awful is that? I still love the woman who tried to kill Luz like, twice. I’m a horrible girlfriend.”

“Shut up.” He sobs, serious despite his sniffling.

“It’s true.” She argues back, something weird in her voice. “I have dreams about my mom waltzing into my life again, completely changed and telling me how sorry she is. I always end up crying when I wake up and remember it’s not real. I’m such an idiot .”

“Shut up.” Hunter repeats, shifting his neck to look her in the face. He barely blinks at seeing Amity with tears streaking down her face, too. “Don’t– don’t say that. You aren’t an idiot for missing the person who– who raised you.”

“I know I’m not,” Amity agrees breezily, tears all but forgotten in the blink of an eye. “And neither are you.” She pokes him in the forehead, and Hunter stops crying out of pure shock.

“You…” He trails off, pulling back from her even more.

“Now, if you say you’re stupid for missing your Uncle, you’re calling me stupid, too.” Amity flutters her still-wet lashes, as if she’s one of those innocent little angel baby statues that sit on the shelves in the Noceda living room, and not what Camila calls el diablo .

Hunter stares at her, mouth gaping like a fish. She giggles and the sound makes him scowl. He crosses his arms, glaring at her. “I’m– I’m changing my mind; you also suck.”

“Gotcha.” She grins wickedly, taking a second to wipe her face. Her eyeliner had run when she was crying, painting black streaks down her pale cheeks before her hands smeared it all into an even bigger mess.

He groans and pushes her away, rubbing at his own eyes and nose. “I can’t believe you. You can’t just– trick someone into not calling themselves stupid over something that is objectively stupid!”

“I just did, though.” Amity leans her chin on her hand.

“That’s not how it works!” Hunter argues, throwing his hands up. “I’m not gonna stop doing it just because you– you think you trapped me!”

“What if I blackmail you?” She says it so sweetly, like she’s asking to give him a hug and not attempting to threaten him into being nice to himself. Honestly, Hunter is ninety percent sure she doesn’t actually have anything to blackmail him with, but that ten percent is making him nervous.

“I know for a fact that you don’t have anything on me.” He calls her bluff.

“Do Camila and Mr. Deamonne know when your birthday is?” Amity asks, checking her nails casually.

Hunter reels back, eyes widening. “You wouldn’t. I told you in confidence!”

“Hmmm,” She rolls her eyes up to look at the stars in the fully darkened sky, tapping a single finger to her cheek. “I really wonder what they'd say if they found out.”

“This is low, Blight.” He shakes his head. “Even for you.”

“All you have to do to guarantee my silence is agree to my terms.” She smiles at him, waiting for what she knows is inevitable.

Hunter plants his face into his hands and groans into them. “FINE!” He bursts, throwing his hands up. “ Fine! I won’t call myself stupid. You happy now?”

“Very.” She nods primly, a smug little smirk on her face. “Though, I would be happier if you went back inside, hugged Camila, and had some cake.”

“You’re so bossy.” He rolls his eyes, using the wall as leverage to lift himself up. His legs take a second to solidify under him, but he manages.

“Hunter, you’re the only one who lets me boss them around like this.” She tells him bluntly as she holds out her arm in a wordless command. He sighs and pulls her to her feet in a single smooth motion. “I have to capitalize on that. Where else am I gonna get the same rush of power and superiority now that I’m not a total bitch?”

“You’re just taking advantage of my brainwashing from being a child soldier.” Hunter sniffs.

“You can’t keep pulling the child soldier card.” Amity argues. “It’s so unfair!”

He doesn’t actually care that he was a child soldier or whatever– it was quite honestly the least of his worries. He’s just echoing the words that Darius or Raine or Eda have said to him after witnessing one of his more unnerving habits. Like the compulsive kneeling.

“Whatever. I know when I’m not wanted.” Hunter raises his nose at her as he says it, brushing past towards the door leading into the kitchen. “And, for the record, you still are a total–”

He yelps in a very dignified manner as something trips him and he falls face first towards the ground. Before he can hit the ground in a way that definitely could have broken his nose, he’s caught in a levitation spell.

“You wanna finish that sentence?” Amity asks from behind him.

“...no.” Hunter grunts, struggling in the grip of the magic.

“I thought so.” She says happily, helping him to his feet.

“That’s cheating.” He huffs, brushing himself off. “I can’t do magic like that.”

Amity breezes right past him and to the door. “And I can’t use my childhood trauma as a trump card to win every argument. We all have our strengths.”

He grumbles under his breath but follows her. Before she opens the door to rejoin the party, she pauses, as if realizing something.

“Did my makeup get smeared?” Amity asks, looking up at him.

Hunter blinks. “No. Not at all.”

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bellysoupset · 1 month

Text

How I organize this blog.

This is a post specifically for writers and kink-writers. I'm gonna be talking about how *I* organize my stuff and a system that I feel works well.

It doesn't mean my way is the only way, but it IS a way I've found manageable and as someone with 200+ fics, being easy to navigate is my number 1 concern.

Under the cut 👇

Tagging system

This is my touchstone, my everything in this blog. I have three "categories" of tags I use.

Character Tag: So I tag my sickee in every fic. JUST the sickee/whumped charcter. I try to use the full name (Lucas Atwood) or the nickname that is easier to come to mind (Vince Monacelli).

Why is this important? One day you're going to get an anon saying "hey I'd really like to read all your fics with John". And then you'll have to go and hunt for all your fics with John. One day you'll be writing something and be like "is Mary allergic to peanuts?" and then you'll want to go back and read just the Mary fics. This WILL happen and you'll be glad you can just click the "Mary" tag and go through all your Mary fics.

Organization Tag: I use #mywriting for every single fic I write, tiny or large. Other tags I also use #myocs for all questions I get regarding them and #ocsfaces for everything I've ever posted regarding their appearance. I also use #meta for everything regarding the act of writing.

Why is it important? Sometimes you'll want to reblog other creators' works or you'll go on an answering asks spree and then suddenly, if someone was to stumble in your blog, your writing is actually in page 3 or 4. This is why #mywriting is important, so people can go straight to that, sorted by the most recent piece. Also, updating your masterlist is a pain in the ass, but tagging is easy. You WILL get asks about your OCs eye color, height, whatever, this is the reason for the other two tags.

Please Notice Me Tags: Well, I write sick fics, so everything is tagged #sickfic, #emetophilia, #flu... etc etc. This is just so other likeminded people will find your stuff in the tag! It can also serve as an organization tag if you remember that you always tag "#stomach flu", but I sometimes flip flop between how to tag each illness so in my case is not for organization, is more for marketing reasons.

Why is it important? Well, you put time and effort into this! You want people to read it <3

Pinned Post

This is already common practice around these lands, but here are some things I think are important.

Add your tags (character and organization, only. Not the marketing tags) to your pinned post, so you can easily find them. My pinned post has every character I have tagged, because its easier for ME to navigate my own blog this way.

Please, for the love of god, assign a name to yourself. It doesn't have to be your name, hell it doesn't have to be even A name, it can be "Book/Seven/Cool Dog Name", it just makes it so much easier to interact with other creators when I don't have to call them "kinkmasteremeto102" every time I reblog from them.

Either have your masterlist under a "read more" in your pinned post or add a link to it. I recommend having a link to your masterlist, it has worked to me and this way you can reblog the masterlist without having to reblog your pinned post with more personal info every time.

If there's something you absolutely don't write, don't want requests, this is the place to put it! Make it clear from the get go to avoid exhausting interactions.

In my case I know people mostly come to my blog for emeto, so I mark my fics that have no emeto with **, but that's just personal preference, it doesn't actually make my life easier.