#i love my job to the point of obsession which is great until it means i'm just sitting at my desk theorising about all the ways

[justinefrischmanngf]

i'm genuinely unwell because why am i hanging on the edge of my seat to know my shifts for next week when i literally 1) have nothing on 2) can guess them pretty well 3) want as many shifts as possible so it's not like i'm trying to organise anything around it 4) will probably not get them until friday 5) have other things to be thinking about ??????

#i love my job to the point of obsession which is great until it means i'm just sitting at my desk theorising about all the ways #my shifts could look next week?????? #anyway i think they'll probably look quite similar to this week though i know some things are fucked a bit because people are away #and things are Shifting And Changing but idk how much of that will impact me.......... #anyway it's late so there's no possible way i'll find out anything work-related tonight but i'm literally going to be there tomorrow #and the day after and the day after so when there are things to find out i will find out it's not like i have to spend my time thinking #about it.... and they're my shifts so like they will come immediately to me when they're sorted????? i cannot make it happen any quicker #but going oooh but i wonder if this is how they'll organise it or if they'll organise it like this T_T #but it's so ! much ! fun ! #have been complimented a few times at work in the past couple of weeks and it's been really crazy bc like . i know i'm not horrible at my #job in fact i know i'm more than decent at it or else i wouldn't be there but to be actively complimented is something different and i feel #insane about it !!!

[selenitesdawn]

hi! could u write a robin buckley x reader where robin and the reader get paired up to look around the creel house in s4 and robin is just like a huge gay mess and can’t stop rambling LOL? thank u! i love ur work

What a Moment, my first request. First off: Thank you so much ! I love this idea and I hope you love reading this. <3

Thank Me Later

pairing : robin buckley x fem!reader

warnings : none

summary : y/n had always thought that robin buckley disliked her, since robin just seems to act weird around her. but when they get paired up to explore the house of the enemy, they are forced to talk to each other.

third person pov

Y/n entered the Creel house last, cautiously following the group inside. She was not a big fan of this entire upside down thing and had no experience with the strange stuff going on in Hawkins yet. In fact, y/n had just recently moved here with her family, since her dad got a job in Lindale and the rent in Hawkins was at an all time low. In retrospect, she should have known that something was off about that.

She quickly befriended Nancy Wheeler, since she was also part of the school’s newspaper. They got along really well and it didn’t take long until Nancy became y/n’s person of trust. They would hang out almost every day, sharing their deepest secrets with one another. One of them was y/n’s sexuality, which she kept to herself most of her life.

“You must probably think I’m a weirdo now. God, I’m so stupid-“, y/n started rambling. Nancy cut her off by giving her a tight hug.

“You’re not stupid y/n. And I don’t think you’re a weirdo. Who cares who you love. Boy or girl. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re happy. I promise.”, Nancy whispered softly, making y/n sob a little.

A few weeks ago y/n also met Steve and Robin at Family Video. She immediately got along with Steve but with Robin it was just different. She really liked Robin from Steve’s stories, but it just didn’t match with the Robin she had met. Whenever the two of them were alone, Robin would either ignore y/n or she would make it painfully clear that she wasn’t interested in y/n’s life. Like at all. All interactions between them just seemed very confusing, so y/n concluded that Robin simply didn’t like them.

“So.. I just moved her from Portland actually.”, y/n told Robin as they waited for Steve to get back.

“Cool… Isn’t that where Steven King was born? I read a few of his novels. Some were really good actually. Carrie and Shining are super popular I think, you probably know them. But this man seems to have a lot on his mind or whatever… Yes. Very unique novels.”, Robin replied.

After that both of them just stayed silent.

Besides that, y/n’s life in Hawkins seemed to be going just fine. Well, until she was with Nancy when Fred Benson died, which started y/n’s inclusion in all of this mess. After that, Nancy decided to tell her everything that had happened in Hawkins over the past years. Although they did tell each other everything, Nancy just thought that it would be best for y/n to not know about all the crazy stuff going on, in order to protect her. But at this point, there was no point in lying any longer. And now y/n was standing inside the house that seemed to be the center of a strange monster killer who just a few hours ago made Max Mayfield float a few meters above the ground.

“Just great..”, y/n whispered to herself as she looked around the abandoned home.

“Hey, guys? You all see that right?”, Max spoke up, pointing her flashlight at an old clock hanging on the wall.

The group gathered around it, all agreeing to seeing it.

“Is this what you saw? In your visions?”, Nancy asked carefully.

Max nodded her head, making y/n let out a loud sigh. ‘This keeps getting better and better.’, she thought to herself.

“I mean, it’s.. just a clock. Right?”, Robin replied while walking towards it. She brushed some of the dust off with her hand. “Like a normal old clock.”

“Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks? Maybe he’s, like, a clockmaker or something?”, Steve asked confused.

“I think you cracked the case Steve.”, Dustin replied sarcastically. Steve just gave Dustin an annoyed look.

“All I know is the answers are here. Somewhere... Okay everyone stay in groups of two. Since we are uneven, I’m going with Steve and Dustin. Y/n, you go with Robin.”, Nancy commanded, making her way over to Steve.

“Woah, wait.”, y/n said as she grabbed Nancy’s arm. “Why me and Robin??”, she whispered.

“You’ll thank me later.”, was the only thing Nancy replied before leaving. She turned around once more to wink at y/n, and with that she was gone.

Y/n turned around to everyone being gone besides Robin, who just awkwardly stood in the hallway. Robin didn’t know what to do, so she just gave y/n a little wave. Y/n replied with a half-hearted smile and made her way to the stairs.

“Let’s go upstairs then.”, y/n suggested, walking up the stairs with Robin following behind her.

As they explored the house together, y/n got more and more scared. It reminded her of some horror movie setting and she just waited for something bad to happen. They entered a room which seemingly used to be a children’s room.

“If I wrote a book…about all of this, do you think it would do good? I think it would do pretty good, I mean no one would come up with the strange stuff that goes on here, right? I mean it’s out of this world. Literally. And I would call it.. let me think…”, Robin started rambling.

Y/n didn’t bother answering, knowing that Robin probably didn’t expect an answer anyways. But in some way she enjoyed Robin’s rambling, it was adorable really.

“I know. I would call it “The Strange Summer in Hawkins”. I mean the first book. There would be multiple of course. Maybe about three or four volumes and each one would have different characters and all. Or the same ones? I mean people would get attached to the characters, it would be stupid to replace them with each book. But some of them would have to.. you know. Die. Sooner or later. I don’t know yet.”, Robin finally said, still walking around the room.

Y/n started going through a box of old stuff, finding nothing that seemed to be helpful. Just a few pictures, some old creepy toys. Nothing out of the ordinary. The whole vibe in this house just seemed off. There were so many spiders crawling around and everything just seemed like it would fall apart any second. Y/n was about to give up searching through the stuff when suddenly she felt a presence right besides her, scaring the living hell out of the girl.

“Found something?”, Robin asked with her head over y/n’s shoulder.

Y/n jumped in shock, accidentally hitting her shoulder against Robin’s throat. Robin stumbled back and let out a loud groan.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”, y/n repeatedly said, putting her hands over her mouth.

Robin just laughed it off, holding her hand against her throat.

“That was my fault, sorry.”, she said while sitting down on a dusty chair.

Y/n collected herself, and sat down on a chair besides her. From this angle Robin was actually really beautiful, she thought to herself.

“You know, I got hit in the throat once before. By some russian guy actually. It was preeetty scary and all. I don’t know if Nancy told you but, there was this thing going on with the Russians and all. Yeah. Pretty scary stuff.”, Robin continued ranting.

Y/n just sat next to Robin, listening to her talking, and talking, and talking. Until she suddenly stopped. Y/n looked over to Robin who now rested her elbows on her knees and started fiddling with her rings. The silence that followed was louder than it should have been.

“I like your rings. They are pretty.”, y/n almost whispered, trying to break the tension.

“You don’t really enjoy talking to me, do you?”, Robin just replied sounding almost frustrated.

“What makes you think that?”, y/n said, furrowing her eyebrows.

“I mean, most of the time it just feels like I’m talking to myself. You don’t really.. try to hold a conversation you know.“, Robin answered, her eyes focused on her hands.

“Well Robin, most of the time it just seems like you don’t even want me to reply. Yeah you talk a lot, but.. it feels like you just don’t care what I have to say.”, y/n commented.

Robin lifted her head and looked into y/n’s eyes for the first time since they had met, making y/n blush a little.

“I’m sorry. I know I tend to ramble a lot when I’m nervous.”, Robin stated shyly.

“Nervous? Why would you be nervous?”, y/n asked sincerely, trying to hold eye contact.

Robin started blushing a little, redirecting her glance towards her hands which were still fiddling with her rings. She didn’t want to embarrass herself, so she just stayed silent. Y/n noticed that Robin tried to dodge the question, so she simply put her hand around hers to get her attention. Robin stopped playing with her rings and looked back to y/n, who was patiently waiting for an answer.

“You’re uhm… I don’t know. You’re just really.. really beautiful I guess. It makes me nervous.”, Robin finally replied, glancing between y/n’s hand on hers and y/n’s face.

“Did you just make that excuse up?”, y/n asked, raising her left eyebrow. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

“See, I shouldn’t have said anything. God, I always mess these things up. Now you think I’m weird, right?”, Robin mumbled. She got up and started walking around the room, obviously upset. “I just don’t know when to shut up, it’s like my own curse at this point. And then this beautiful girl walks into my workplace and I just don’t know how to act. So I either say not enough or I say too much and embarrass myself and it’s so, so, so exhausting to be-”

Robin stopped her rant when y/n came up to her, embracing her in a tight hug. Y/n’s arms hugged Robin’s waist, her head rested on Robin’s shoulder. At first Robin got tensed and didn’t know how to react. But then she took a few breaths and finally relaxed inside y/n’s arms, hugging her back just as tightly. They just stood there for a bit, melting into each other.

“I don’t think you’re weird Robin.”, y/n mumbled into the girl’s shoulder. “I think you have a lot to say, and that’s totally fine. It’s interesting. I actually enjoy your rambling, I really do.“

Robin started smiling, feeling her heart race inside her chest. The hug suddenly felt more intimate than before.

“And by the way..”, y/n said as she separated herself from Robin. Their faces were now just inches away from each other. “I think you’re very beautiful too.”

Both girls started blushing wildly, unsure of what to do next. Luckily the decision got taken away from them, as Nancy entered the room.

“Guys, we found-“, Nancy started shouting.

Robin and y/n quickly jumped away from each other, both embarrassed by the sudden interruption. Nancy on the other hand started grinning from ear to ear.

“Sorry. But we found something, you should come with me.”, Nancy told them.

Robin just nodded and quickly walked past Nancy who was still smiling to herself. Y/n just sighed and walked up to her best friend, giving her an annoyed look.

“You planned that out didn’t you?”, y/n asked, rolling her eyes.

“Correction, Steve and I planned that out. And what about it? It seems like our plan worked out even better than we expected.”, Nancy replied smugly.

Y/n just blushed uncontrollably, putting her face inside of her hands.

“Thank you..”, y/n mumbled quietly.

“What did you say? I didn’t hear you.”, Nancy grinned.

“You’re so annoying.”, y/n replied, nudging Nancy’s shoulder.

“I told you, you’d thank me later.”, she grinned, wrapping her arm around y/n’s shoulder. “But now, we really have to go, come on.”

Y/n didn’t know if it were just the dreadful circumstances (including walking inside the house of a creepy killer) that just made her fall in love with Robin Buckley or if it was just her awfully adorable ranting. But in all honesty, she could have cared less. She just knew that the second they got out of this house safely, she would 100% ask her on a date. And let Robin explain what the hell happened with the Russians.

#robin buckley x reader #robin buckley x you #robin buckley imagine #stranger things reader insert #stranger things x reader #nancy wheeler x reader

[total-drama-brainrot]

If you can change anything about total drama what would you do?

I'd change the writing.

My main gripe with the show's writing is how it treats it's girls.

I know it's a product of it's time, but something about how practically every girl's story arc in the show revolves around a guy (or at the very least, somehow shoehorns in something about her love life) rubs me the wrong way. The only girl who doesn't have an androcentric subplot going on is Heather, until World Tour came along and centralised her whole 'redemption' arc around Aleheather.

Even Katie and Sadie fall into this trap; their whole thing is being unhealthily co-dependant with each other, and yet they're always at odds with each other over a boy (usually Justin).

But the worst offender for me is the way Courtney is treated. Courtney's whole character revolves itself around her feelings for Duncan- to the point that her elimination is literally caused by her being his "love interest" (thanks Harold)- and all of her development as a character stems from Duncan's influence. Meanwhile, all of Duncan's development as a character is entirely introspective, Courtney doesn't really influence anything about him that wasn't already apparent. Maybe she softens his hard outer shell a bit, but we already know that he's got a "heart of gold" behind his tough guy persona so Courtney's influence doesn't really achieve much in terms of Duncan's growth. That's just in Island! In Action and World Tour, Courtney's whole character still revolves around Duncan to the point she becomes obsessive and controlling. Every conflict she faces is centred around Duncan. She's never allowed to grow and change as a person without it somehow circling back to Duncan.

Let these girls have story arcs and conflicts that don't revolve around the men in their lives.

But the writing overall is just... inconsistent? Sporadic. Weirdly paced.

The reboot is the worst victim of poor writing choices, in my opinion, which I know is probably caused by the time constraints due to a significantly shorter allotted runtime, but especially in season two of the reboot there's this constant feeling of wonky pacing and weird plotline priorities. Julia's whole plotline is stilted and the majority of her interesting actions happen off-screen. Subplots are established and built up just to be discarded within the span of an episode or two; i.e. the Rajbow cheating arc, whatever "Normal" Girl has going on, Zee's soda brand deal, Millie's teased character arc and resulting character derailment, ect.

And the main focus of the season? The most boring romantic plot of all time. Priyaleb could've been something great, and I believe that with my whole heart, but the way it actually played out just left a sour taste in my mouth. It wasn't fun to watch, it wasn't engaging or otherwise entertaining to watch, it was just painful. Again, it's the weird pacing and sporadic shifts in narrative that make it all fall apart. I could rant about how disastrous the Priyaleb plot was for hours.

And I really don't mean any disrespect towards the writing team when I say all of this. It's a hard job, made even harder by the time constraints and the limitations they've probably got set in place as a children's show. But I can't help but wonder where this show's potential could've taken it if the writing wasn't so... Like That.

#gonna stop here before i really do go on a full rant #all i'm saying is if i was in the writer's room for the reboot caleb would've been aroace and priya would've kissed a girl #my main gripe with the og series is the period-typical misogyny but i've already touched on that in another post sooooo #total drama #ophe rambling #please ignore this idk what i'm talking about

[tzuu-ii]

Wait! You like me?!

Chou Tzuyu x Fem!Reader // Fluff+angst?

----------⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☁︎------------

A/N: Actually tried to edit this one, so hopefully it’s not too bad. Its also based off of that one interaction between her and Chaeyoung where they hugged and Tzuyu’s heart started racing. Enjoy<3

“Oh Tzuyu, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE sees the way you look at her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mhm, yeah sure, love. You’re obsessed.”

Tzuyu was infatuated with you. Every little aspect. She’d adore how your eyes would sparkle at the mention of something you liked. Or how you’d tilt your head when you didn’t quite understand something. Or even the stupid insults you’d give her when she would jokingly insult you. And yet, she didn’t want to believe that she was in love with her best friend. Despite all the signs saying otherwise, she refused. Even if she was, would she ever tell you?

Probably not.

It wasn’t in her nature. She wasn’t sure if it was the persistent fear of rejection or if it was the fear of losing you, her safe place, her everything. Just at the mere thought of it, her heart would begin to ache in the most unbearable way possible. She did everything in her power to remove that thought from her mind, but as her feelings for you grew, so did that possibility. It was like a tumor spreading throughout her brain. Tzuyu had thought that she was doing a great job in concealing it, but apparently not since Dahyun pointed it out.

It didn’t help that you were now on your way over to her. She had been standing with Dahyun near the lockers whilst you finished talking to your teacher about some economics assignment. You strolled over with the most endearing smile plastered on your face. Tzuyu’s stomach churned, a mess of nerves and elation skipping around inside. You were the clingy type, so when you got closer, you immediately opened your arms in greeting to which she reciprocated. Her heart hopped about as she held you in her embrace. You had a certain scent that brought Tzuyu comfort. A fragrance consisting hints of sweet floral and something she couldn’t quite pinpoint that brought her a soulful nostalgia of her childhood. She almost didn’t notice the pounding against her chest until you had mentioned it.

You spoke with a soft giggle, “Tzuyu, your heart’s racing.”

She nearly choked.

“My heart? I think I’m healthy,"she’d said, stepping back with her hand on her chest.

It was a stupid excuse, but with you being the happy little airhead you were, you believed and thought nothing of it. So, in a sense, it wasn’t Tzuyu’s downfall like she thought it would be. She was a bit disappointed though, she couldn’t deny it. Out of awkwardness, she let go of you hoping you wouldn't get the wrong idea, which you did, but it was all to her advantage. She missed it. How couldn’t she? There was something about holding you that left her at peace with it all. But she didn’t spend too much time lamenting it as you completely dismissed what happened.

“Hey Tzu? Are you busy after school? Ms.Kang said that we could work on the economics assignment together. I was wondering if you’d want to work with me.”

She nodded, “Of course I want to work with you. Do you even have to ask? You really are slow aren’t you”

You groaned and rolled your eyes in annoyance. “I will not hesitate to strangle you, you know.

“Can you even reach my neck Y/N?”

“...”

“Explode, thank you very much. Anyways, I’m heading to History. See you after school, Tzu?”

“Yeah sure, see you then N/N”

And with that, you left leaving Tzuyu and Dahyun alone once more.

“You think you’re healthy? Really? Was that the best you could do?” Dahyun snickered.

“Ugh shut up. I don’t think she really thought about it anyways. Wait. Did she? Holy shit, did she?”

“You’re lucky Y/N is dense. Anyone else would’ve seen right through it. Tzuyu, babe, you’re PAINFULLY obvious.”

She groaned. It wasn’t her fault that her heart decided it was the best time to have a party in her ribcage. Out of all times, did it really have to happen the second you hugged her? The more she thought about it, the more nerves settled in her. Hell, she even thought about canceling on studying later out of fear of it happening once more. But she didn’t want to do that to you. Plus why would she cancel being with you? She always enjoyed it after all. It’ll just be another day of pushing aside her feelings for you anyways, right?

Wrong.

School finally ended and Tzuyu went straight to look for you. And she did end up finding you.

But with someone else.

She watched as the tall boy brought his arms around your waist; as he peppered kisses on the crown of your head; as he did everything Tzuyu wished she could do. Her heart sank as she stood there, frozen in place, unsure of what to do. She didn’t know whether she should leave or approach you. You seemed so happy. She didn’t want to ruin that for you; her knees felt weak. Tzuyu didn’t know if it was even possible for her to walk away.

You did however notice that. Even from a distance, you noticed her awkwardly stiff demeanor and immediately ran up to her.

“Hey! Sorry it took me so long. Yeonjun was being.. Uhm. A weirdo. Yeah, he does stuff like that.” You said.

She let out an awkward laugh. “No, yeah, you’re good. Are we walking home together?”

You nodded and smiled your usual pretty little grin taking her hand in yours. That was also one of your habits. Walking with someone empty-handed wasn’t an option for you. This time felt different though. The hand you held was shaking, trembling. It wasn’t anything aggressive, barely noticeable in fact, but for some reason, you seemed to be hyper aware of it.

Tzuyu wouldn’t dare look at you. She felt as if doing so would cause her to break down in tears. The scene from earlier was engraved in her mind, never to be erased. The girl sniffled quietly, tears threatening to pour from her eyes. You weren’t hers, so why was she so bothered? All she wanted to do at the moment was crawl into a hole and die, but of course she couldn’t do as little as show you. Too bad you already noticed.

The weather seemed to read Tzuyu’s mood though, so you didn’t get a chance to do anything right there. Dark clouds painted the sky as they grumbled upon you two. One after the other, the sky cried heavy tears. And shortly after, your best friend did too. Surely you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, right? Wrong.

You dragged Tzuyu to the nearest neighborhood market, away from all the rain, where she plopped down in the corner. She was soaked. Both her tears and the rain left her drenched. She’d stopped crying by then, so you took this opportunity to ask.

“Tzuyu, what’s wrong? You’ve been quiet the entire walk home, well, not home since we aren’t there yet, but you know. Not to mention the crying when it started raining and the shaky hands! And don’t tell me it’s nothing. I know it’s not ‘nothing’”.

She took a deep, shaky breath and avoided eye contact.

“Uhm… My stomach hurts really bad. I’m having cramps. How far is your house from here N/N?”

“I think it's about two minutes away. I’ll get you some Advil since we’re here. I think I have a few dollars left-”

Tzuyu stopped you from rummaging through your bag.

“No-no it’s okay. I’ll be okay, really.”

You tried to protest, but no matter how insistent you were, Tzuyu refused to let you buy her anything. She was much more stubborn than you were. So instead, you bought a transparent umbrella you found on one of the nearby shelves.

“Let’s go Tzu! When we get home, I’ll let you use my shower so you don’t get sick. I have some clothes you can borrow too” You spoke enthusiastically.

Tzuyu nodded, holding the umbrella for the both of you. And before you knew it, you guys were at your house. Quickly, you showed your best friend to the bathroom next to your bedroom before you headed to the one in your parents’ room. She finished much quicker than you did though, so she sat on the blush pink sheets of your soft comforter waiting for you. Her eyes wandered around your room. Tzuyu admired how much effort you put into decorating it. You often told her when you happened to add something new. It was something you took pride in. To finally see it in person, piqued Tzuyu’s interest in a way she couldn’t ignore. She saw the posters you mentioned a while back littering your walls along with the white washed floating shelves you had. Each containing either albums or small figurines of whatever it was that you liked. That was when you entered the room wearing a rose strawberry shortcake t-shirt and ivory ruffled edged shorts. Tzuyu starred with her mouth agape. Everything about this look, well, you in general, just screamed girlfriend material. You were simply divine in her eyes.

“Everything okay Tzu? How’s your stomach? Feeling any better? Oh wait! I forgot to get snacks, be right back. I’ll go get some pain meds too just in case!”

And you left again leaving the lovesick girl alone. But you came back just as quick as you left with your mouth full as well as your arms with the bunch of snacks you took from the pantry. Yet, you still smiled like a dumbass causing Tzuyu to giggle at your appearance. She helped you set the snacks on the bed while reaching out to get the assignment from her backpack. Well, she was until she noticed your lips form a pout.

“What’s wrong N/N?” She asked.

“Welllllll I know I asked you to come over to work on the assignment, but it’s already so late! We should just play a game or chill out instead. Are you staying the night Tzu? It’s raining after all.”

She took a second to respond.

“Mhm sure, lemme just tell my mom real quick.”

As she pulled out her phone to text her mother, you gently rested your head on her lap finding yourself a bit sleepy. It felt much more comfortable than your pillow ever was.

She had a subtle scent that blended jasmine and vanilla, evoking a puzzling warmth within you. You may have felt literal bliss, but your friend on the other hand, was struggling to keep her cool. Her hands trembled once more as the older girl remembered the scene from earlier. She saw you with that guy. She saw the way you giggled underneath all those kisses. Why the hell were you being so sweet with her if you were with him?

“Y/N…” She started, her voice just as shaky as her hands.

You hummed.

“A-aren’t you dating that one guy? Why are you so touchy with me? Wouldn’t he be upset?”

“Are you talking about Yeonjun? Ew Tzuyu, he’s my cousin! I’d never dream of dating him. Hold on hold on hold on. Are you jealous? Wait, is that why you were so upset earlier? Like I know you told me about your cramps, but you had your period last week. Tzuyu do you like me?”

Her face turned beet red to which she quickly brought her hands up to cover it. But there was no denying it now, she was caught like a deer in headlights. Tzuyu's eyes teared up at the uneasiness in her stomach; her words caught painfully in her throat. The only thing she was able to muster out was a hoarse “I’m sorry” before her tears spilled uncontrollably.

“Hey- no, no. It’s okay, cry it all out. You don’t have to be embarrassed, you know. If anything, I may or may not have had a huge crush on you since like, the second grade!”

Despite your best efforts to console her, you weren't certain if your words were making a difference. But when she paused for a moment, you sat up and took her hands in yours. Gently wiping away her tears, you met her tentative gaze. It wasn't an uncomfortable look; rather, it was filled with admiration.

“You have a crush on me?” Tzuyu asked.

“Mhm! I have for a long time. Honestly, I thought you knew. I don’t really try to hide it. Ugh, and you really called ME slow earlier.”

“Well, to be fair, you kinda are. Dahyun said that my crush on you was ‘PAINFULLY obvious’ and you didn’t notice until now. Apparently EVERYONE knew about it too. Soooo yeah, you’re slow.”

You began to protest, your words tumbling out in a rambling stream of annoyance. But before you could finish your sentence, Tzuyu had closed the distance between the two of you and pressed her tender lips against yours. The unexpected kiss silenced your protests, leaving you momentarily stunned as you melted into her embrace. It was as though all the words you had been struggling to find were suddenly unnecessary, replaced by the simple warmth of Tzuyu’s touch. Her confidence came out of nowhere, but you’d be lying if you said you didn’t adore it. Your hand found itself intertwined with hers. This moment would’ve lasted much longer if it weren’t for the lack of air making you pull away. Still, you rested your forehead against hers, wishing that this moment could last forever. But of course something had to happen. The front door to your house slammed shut as you could hear footsteps creeping up the stairs.

“Quick! Turn off the lights and act like you’re sleeping!” You squeaked.

Tzuyu did just that with you following along. And so you laid there in silence for a solid 7 minutes before there was a soft knock on your door; it opened. Your mother’s head peeked through the crack making sure that you were asleep, prior to her going to check on your sibling. Although you feigned slumber, you gradually found yourself falling into it involuntarily. Upon hearing your mother close the door, Tzuyu opened her eyes checking on you to find just that. You weren’t completely unconscious yet. However, you were awake just enough to feel the girl softly kiss your shoulder while spooning you, whispering a shy ‘Goodnight, pretty’ before drifting off to sleep.

#twice fanfic #x fem!reader #twice #tzuyu x reader #chou tzuyu #twice fluff #twice angst #this fic took way too damn long

[utilitycaster]

could you elucidate on why coffeelocks are bad actually? my friend is a bit obsessed with them right now and i’ve never liked the specific build but i’d love to have concrete reasons that aren’t just opinions!

YES. Somewhere in my archives I think I actually did the math on like, how many short rests you have to take for this to pay any dividends, and it was a LOT, but that was during full lockdown iirc and you do not have to do this much work.

The basic gist of coffeelock for those wondering is that warlocks recharge spell slots on a short rest, and sorcerers can convert sorcery points into spell slots and vice versa. The idea is that if you take Pact of the Tome and then Aspect of the Moon as an eldritch invocation, you never have to long rest again and can just farm sorcery points/spell slots for 8 hours each night.

Now: the most obvious issue is that any reasonable DM who hears about this will look at you and say "I don't care if it's technically legal, I think it's annoying and I'm not going to let you do it." But let's assume your DM does not shut it down.

You have infinite spell slots at level 5. You are warlock 3 sorcerer 2. You know 7 spells total, which is what you'd know had you leveled to level 5 in either of these classes, except you also know 6 level 1 spells and 1 level 2 spell, max. Someone who leveled normally would have fireball, or dispel magic, or counterspell, and if they were divine soul they might even have revivify, but not you! This will eventually get slightly better at higher levels but if you're the party's main arcane caster this sucks and if you're in a party with fewer than like, five people, or perhaps a really caster heavy party, you're putting a lot of burden on other people to do the utility early on so that your dumb ass can cast magic missile 20 times a day or whatever.

I don't actually care for sorlock just generally, in the absence of coffeelock bullshit. Yes, it depends on the same main stat, but a bard or paladin combo will actually significantly broaden your repertoire. Sorcerer and Warlock have a LOT of spell overlap, and metamagic is one of those things that is like, super clutch 0.1% of the time and the rest of the time it's like oh ok (though I guess as a coffeelock you're not even really using metamagic! total waste of being a sorcerer, which is the weakest caster already! great job.). Meanwhile, two of the big strengths of warlock are 1. eldritch blast, a cantrip you can already cast infinite times without spell slots, and 2. eldritch invocations, which you have to level in warlock to get. Dipping into sorcerer means fewer invocations. Basically, all multiclassing is a trade off and I feel like this is at most the sum of its parts, certainly not more. I also think it's very tricky to play this in a way that is narratively interesting and makes sense for your character while also abiding by the specific leveling requirements of coffeelock. This isn't an issue in a one-shot but also in a one-shot you simply might not even take a long rest which renders the entire thing useless.

You have to take Pact of the Tome, which means you are spending all this time and effort and build for infinite spell slots but also you have, without any racial bonuses, literally 9 cantrips (ie, at-will spells) at level 5. And none of them are dispel magic, because that is too high for you for at least another 2 levels and that's only if you choose to continue in warlock. Also, actually, until you reach L9 in specifically divine soul sorcerer, you don't have greater restoration as discussed, so yeah your DM can just be like "oh you don't have to sleep but you do still gain exhaustion."

I lied and I did some math. So: you are a L5 coffeelock. let's say you have exhausted all your resources on day 1. You sit down for your little bullshit 8 short rests. You can never have more than two sorcery points, because the PHB page 101 says that you can't exceed the number of sorcery points shown on the table for your level. So every hour you convert one L2 spell slot (recharging) into a L1 spell slot (non-recharging), and repeat this (you can't convert both at once! because then you exceed two sorcery points!) and you end the night with 14 L1 spells and your two L2 warlock spell slots. If you are lucky, you might get like, one short rest if there is a monk or wizard or fighter in the party and they don't hate you so much that they're willing to go without ki points/second winds/arcane recovery, and they might. I guess you just stockpile low level spells indefinitely until you have to sleep finally? if you have a week of downtime do you just. walk around with hundreds of first level spell slots and not think this is the dumbest shit of all time? ooooh look at me i can cast fucking...detect magic for 24 hours straight. can't dispel any of it though!

Leveling up is a bitch too if I recall. You need to level up in sorcerer to get more points so you can eventually convert to higher level spells, and the exchange rate is not generous (like, if you're not sleeping, it's ok, but it's not in your favor as shown with the L2 to L1 conversion) and imo warlock is the superior class, and you're probably not really taking advantage of metamagic anyway so you're barely reaping the benefits of being a sorcerer except for flexible casting. Do you feel good about this? Is this fun for you? Your entire table is watching you count out your spell slots each night and hoping fervently you get audited by the IRS in real life but man you sure showed them by being able to cast chromatic orb a lot!

Also you can't use items that recharge on a long rest, only ones that recharge at dawn. Sucker.

This is all very long because I think coffeelock is an annoying build for people who think they are smart and really aren't, but the gist is that you trade away a great deal of your utility, ability to help the party, and ability to do anything except cast rather low-level spells in comparison to what everyone who made better decisions is doing. Also it's LAUGHABLY easy for the DM to fuck this over for you within the bounds of the rules even if they allowed it. Your patron gets annoyed that you're only leveling in sorcerer. Levels of exhaustion. Your patron, who communicates through dreams, straight up abandons you because you're not picking up their calls. You keep being put in positions where your 75 first level spells won't do shit and a single third level spell would. They taunt you with items that recharge on a long rest.

It's just...well, quantity over quality. Shein haul ass character build.

#answered #Anonymous #d&d mechanics #the coffeelock: for The That Guy In Lecture (derogatory) in your life

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

What are some of your favorite manga of all time?

Oh this will be one of the easiest asks I've ever received! You've got me all hype, anon!

Fruits Basket

Wanna get me to talk for hours? Mention Fruits Basket. This was the first manga I ever read back when I was still in elementary school and I've never grown out of my love for the series. I will always have a spot for this manga but it's honestly perfection to me.

I love the characters, the messages, the themes and the emotional depth this manga has made me feel over the years? I honestly wish I could experience Fruits Basket all over again. This is without a doubt my favorite shoujo manga of all time. I love all the characters, I love all the ships. Some of my favorite characters off rip have to be Tohru, Shigure, Hatsuharu and Arisa and Saki. But make no mistake I adore Yuki and Kyo and so on and so forth.

This series does such a great job in such a complicated subject matter concerning neglect and abuse in a way that humanizes the abuser without using said humanization to justify their shitty actions. You leave those moments understanding how that person became how they are but can still completely acknowledge how terrible they are. How you don't have to forgive that person for what they did. And that, if you do forgive that person, that doesn't mean you're just letting bygones be bygones and being kumbaya with them. You can forgive and forget or you can forgive and never forget and that's okay. Your forgiving and moving forward for yourself, not them. And that's one of the things I really liked in the series.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Another series you can get me talking for hours about. You will catch me watching video essay after video essay analyzing this story. I was so into FMA during middle school, one of my moms even bought me the games and made it habit to occasionally buy me the volumes! This is without a doubt, the best shounen has to offer. Quality female characters? Amazing action scenes? Stunning romance? Banger after banger with so many panels I can still recall perfectly.

My favorite volume is definitely volume 15! Because of the manga, Brotherhood is my preference when it comes to the anime adaptations. It has all the homies in it. Another series I wish I could just start from the beginning again with no memory of the source material. These brothers and their friends have altered the chemistry of my brain.

NANA

Still believe that one day Yozawa will grace us with her beautiful art and storytelling all over again. NANA was my first ever jousei read and my dive into jousei as a whole. Until that point all I had consumed were shounen and shoujo so the maturity of the series was one I wasn't expecting. I consumed this series when I was about in early to late middle school and it was so much fun to read.

Now that I'm in my late 20s, holy hell is this hard to binge the way I used to because the themes, the struggles of the character and the realism of those struggles are hitting a little too close to home now. So I can only do NANA in small doses now haha. I even got both of my moms into NANA. Which isn't too impressive when one of my moms has watched the anime of every manga I've mentioned on this ask, but my other mom is NOT an anime fan and she loves NANA so much.

Children of the Sea

Oh my goodness, you definitely oh it to yourself to read this manga. It's not a long a read by any means with only 5 volumes and 43 chapters but it was such a pleasure to read. Maybe this bias comes from someone obsessed with the ocean (which my url definitely implies) and the life teeming underneath the surface but wow this was truly an experience. I watched the movie first and then read the manga, and I'm not sure if that'll shape anyone's viewing experience differently but I do wish I had read the manga first. But both are truly great to check out.

If you want a story about a girl meeting two boys raised by dugongs, this is the story for you. One of my favorite aspects of this read were the side stories labeled Testimony of the Sea. It adds so much to the story without even directly influencing the plot as you see all the strange phenomena that take place in the sea leading up to this mysterious event drawing in our protagonists and what will continue well after its conclusion.

Skip & Loafer

Currently ongoing and a series I was not expecting to like as much as I did. I'm one of the people who got into sukirofa after the anime dropped. 2 episodes in and seeing the absolute beauty and grace of how the staff handled the protagonist's transgender aunt, I had to give this a read and I do not regret in the slightest. This is such a great series and a perfect example how one utilizes 'don't judge a book by its cover'.

Characters you meet at first glance? It only takes a chapter or two before their layers are peeled back and you see how much went in to crafting them and making them more complex than meets the eye. A perfect example of this is the character Mika.

But my favorite chapter has to be ch 29 where you learn what made Nao decide to come out and transition. If you haven't read this series, I won't spoil it, you have to read it for yourself. Prepare for a monthly update schedule, because once that day of the month pops up, it's amazing to see how the sukirofa fandom comes together to scream on twitter and tumblr.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

The series that gave birth to the greatest hater in anime history. Araki truly drinks and leaves no molecules every time a part comes out. Another ongoing series I didn't expect to like as much as I did. But it's become a series close to my heart since diving into it after I got over my initial hesitance with the art style. Honestly JJBA's art style really grows on you, especially as you see Araki's art and writing develop so spectacularly.

You get equal parts continuous story and standalone adventure. You do need other pieces of the pie, but each part still feels so rich and in-depth and bright and colorful. You don't feel like the new JoJo and characters introduced are extensions of previous existing ones or usurpers that have stolen the panels away from other characters. It's like watching a torch be passed down from JoJo to JoJo, generation to generation (which it technically is since this story follows the descendants of the JoJo that started it all, Jonathan Joestar).

Araki's biggest source of writing inspiration came from how he felt watching Prince concerts. How the story of the concert would suddenly flip and give you a whole new experience. I feel he truly has that down with JJBA.

Concubine Walkthrough

Can't believe I even forgot to add Concubine Walkthrough, so take this quick addendum. This is one of the best manhwa I've ever read in my life and not enough people talk about it. I'm working on a post right now all about why I recommend it.

If you're a fan of sci-fi, romance and want to read an otome isekai romp that subverts your expectations? Please read this manhwa. It's The Matrix mixed with historical Korean fiction (and of course, otome isekai at its finest).

I loved loved LOVED the philosophy behind the story, the themes. The discussion of what reality is and choosing what reality means/is to you. Just because your entire life is a simulation, does that make your entire life up until that point irrelevant? Simulated it may be, your joy, your pain, your love, all of that still felt real, right? There were so many things I never considered about that very topic until I read this series and I feel like more people should give it a go. It's not that long a read (only 128 chapters for the main story with some extra bonus content on the side), please please PLEASE read Concubine Walkthrough if you haven't already.

#look she's answering #anon #animanga thoughts #fruits basket #furuba #fma #fmab #fullmetal alchemist #skip & loafer #スキップとローファー #NANA #jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #concubine walkthrough

[vevethirst]

I wanted to request something for scotty where the reader is a cashier at the grocery store and scotty constantly goes to the store to see her every time.

finally i got this out!! i have the two other requests in the works💓 thank you for your patience lovelies it feels great to write again

requests: open!

warnings: semi-stalking/obsession

proof read: kinda? let me know if there’s mistakes !

a/n: i’m so happy to be writing again! i’ve been so busy with a lot of different things but i’ll definitely be able to write more frequently💕 enjoy! anon used she/her pronouns so this is a fem reader. also is this worthy of a part 2? be sure to always lmk if you want to be on my tag list!

word count: you know as much as me🥲

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼. 𖤣𖥧

Scotty x fem!cashier reader

It was a Tuesday. 6:30 pm. You were working your evening shift as a cashier just as you usually would, scanning items with music in half your ear. While scanning a customers few items, chips and some sodas, you felt eyes on you. After finishing up with your customer you slowly scanned the room and spotted her. Kinda short kinda not, dark brown hair brushed back. “She’s cute”, you thought. To be honest you truly didn’t mind her eyes on you. She must have noticed you staring right back at her because she looked away from rather quickly. You giggled quietly to yourself, finding her shyness to be adorable. You watched as she quickly left the store after checking out. And frowned to yourself knowing you probably wouldn’t see her again, or so you thought.

After stepping out of the bus you caught your mind wandering to that girl you saw in the store. The way she looked at you utterly star struck despite the two of you having never met in your lives. The way she unconsciously smiled at you, it made your heart flutter even though you couldn’t quite figure out why. You thought about her for the rest of the night until you eventually fell asleep.

Eventually you made it to work, a rather boring job but it sufficed. You continued on as you normally would, except today you couldn’t get that girl off your mind. What’s her name? What’s she like? Is she a college student? Or maybe she already has a nice job? You snapped out of your thoughts to the sound of someone’s voice, “Hello? Um..just these please.” You began to stammer, a little embarrassed, “Oh! Yes I’m sorry, here let me get these for you.” You grabbed a hold of the items on the scanner, and suddenly realized you felt eyes practically burning into your head. Looking up hesitantly you were met with the girl you’ve been thinking about for an entire 24 hours. “Oh!..Hey! I recognize you!” You said with a smile. “I..um..recognize you too.” She replied, you could tell she was nervous, but you found it adorable. “What’s your name? Mine’s Y/N!” “I’m Scotty”

From then on you began noticing her more. She was at the store when your shift started and you caught multiple glances of her until your shift ended. You must admit at some point it did feel a bit like stalking, but you chalked it up to her just being too shy to approach you, which is partially true. It continued on like this until you decided that it was time to have a genuine conversation with her. You called in for your lunch break and approached her.

“Hey”

“Oh- hi..”

“Is there a reason you won’t come and talk to me? I promise I don’t bite”, you smiled at her.

She slouched into her shoulders, averting her gaze from yours.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be creepy. I just think you’re beautiful.”

Your eyes widen, and you felt your face heat up at the compliment.

“Wow thank you. I don’t…I don’t think anyone’s ever really called me that.”

“Really? Well that’s what I think. You’re so beautiful.” She says with a small smile

“Thank you Scotty. Hey, what’s your number?”

I feel like this is really short for my first fic. Forgive me please, I’m still trying to get the hang of writing again. Pls lmk if this wasn’t to your standards anon🤍. Thanks so much for reading! Part 2?

#vevethirst #scotty banana #vivienne scott #bananauk #bananaukshow #scotty x reader

[geraldwang]

Gyutaro x GN reader

Hi everyone, I'm sorry for being missing, my job and college make me crazy but I'm back with a drabble that no one asked for with a character I recently fell in love with, I hope you enjoy it~ remember my request still open if you want make one please just read the rules before.

Warning: Mention of sexual assault, mention of harassment, mention of stalking, obsession, if there are any others let me know

If you see a grammatical or spelling error sorry, English isn't my first lenguaje and I'm still learning so if you gonna correct me please be kind and respectful

Gyutaro had seen you for a long time through Daki's eyes and couldn't help but fall in love, you were so beautiful he would dare to think that even more than Daki although he wouldn't tell him, you were not only beautiful, you were also kind and nice you were a houseworker but despite your great beauty you had a scar on your chest which didn't let you work like the others, so you were forced to work cleaning and taking care of the other girls, he often saw how you gave food to the children who begged in the streets and you treated everyone the same no matter what, that made him feel jealous, he envied everyone you treated well, he wanted you to treat him the same, he wanted to feel your hands caressing him, that your smiles were for him.

She was happy to see how you treated her sister even though she could be rude at times, you always treated her well to the point where Daki liked you and liked that you were the one to take care of her, that did that Gyutaro will fall even more in love with you and I was relieved because it means I won't have to fight her so she won't kill you.

At first he thought of approaching you in a "normal" way so he just stalked you (something Daki didn't like, she thinks it's pathetic) he started going out quite often to see you until he found his opportunity.

One day while you were going through the red district doing your homework a guy cornered you in an alley, he wanted you to spend the night with him, you clearly didn't want it, you insist that you don't work in that and that he let you go but he man doesn't heed your requests and starts touching you under your kimono you try to move him away but it's useless after all he's much bigger than you, yelling wouldn't be an option either, you knew no one would help you, you were beginning to resign yourself to what this would be your destiny like this that you close your eyes tightly expecting the worst, however, this never comes instead you feel that the man gets rid of you, when you open your eyes you see a tall and thin figure in front of you holding two sickles and next to him the body of that man that now lies lifeless, you can't see his face well because of the darkness of the alley, you get scared for a moment thinking you're in trouble so you curl up on the ground crying while whispering:

-"it wasn't my fault...Please don't kill me... I-I didn't anything".

Your surprise was greater when you feel that he hug you despite their cold body, the hug feels so warm that it comforts you, when he see that you're calmer, he let you go, you see that the mysterious man who saved you is about to leave, so you hold his hand quickly:

- "What's your name?" -You ask while you see him with your beautiful eyes, he longed for you to look at him but the fear of his appearance made him turn his face

- "Gyutaro..." -He says with a deep and somewhat scratchy voice that makes your skin crawl

- "Can we meet again Gyutaro?" - That comment took him by surprise, why would you want to see him again?... Then he kept silent, he saved you, you just have to want to thank him... And although he disappointed him a little, but accept.

-"here, tomorrow, at this same time" - with those words he left you alone in the alley.

When you got up you remembered what had happened so you looked for the body everywhere but you no longer saw it or even a trace of the body, you didn't realize how it had been taken but honestly you didn't care either, after all you were safe And you had survived one more night.

Gyutaro was ecstatic you had talked to him... You had seen him, he had hugged you he thought as he looked at his arms still feeling the tingling of the warmth of your body, And even better you wanted to see him again, you really had to be him...

If you want a second part where your meeting is, let me know

#kimetsu no yaiba x reader #kny imagines #demon slayer x reader #gyutaro #gyutaro x reader #gyutaro x y/n #gyutaro x you #demon x reader #im back #kny x you #kny x y/n #imagines #gyutaro headcanons #Gyutaro X GN reader #anime #anime x gender neutral reader #anime x you #anime x y/n #Gyutaro is a cute baby #It's 3 in the morning and I can't sleep

[idkfitememate]

Btw you mentioned you had cool OC's but I don't remember seeing them very much, could you explain a little about them? What fandom are they for? If not multi fandom lol, and what's their backstory? Also you totally don't need to respond if you don't want to lol. Have a great rest of your day/night and remember to drink some water and get rest!

-🐗

Oh no I want to 🐗 anon. I want to. ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱

Gonna stick with OC’s for Genshin rn because that’s what the majority of my posts are about but let it be known that nearly every fandom I’m in or have been in has at least one OC.

Really only one of my Genshin OC’s has a lot of lore/backstory, but all of them have something (I also have OC concepts if anyone ever wants/needs some help with creating one!!)

And that OC would be…..

Ludwig Fritz Köhler von Leichenberg!! My little psycho Priest man~~ My little guy~~

It all ties into my personal Genshin AU but… we’re not gonna get (too) far into that rn-

ANYWAY-

Ludwig is the High Priest of Mondstadt in this cannon. He goes out on basically his equivalent of crusades whip is why he’s not present most of the time. This ties into my “added nation” The Fae Wilds.

His main job as the high Priest is to ensure that fae don’t make their way into Mondstadt, or at the very least non of the very bad ones-

I’m not gonna go too deep but the lore of his job and his backstory basically goes as follows:

Before the fall of Khaenri'ah, The Fae Wilds were directly connected to Mondstadt, to the point where there were human settlements there. Fae weren’t cruel and over all everyone was happy.

With the cataclysm, The Fae Wilds were also taken out, or at the very least corrupted. Now it’s where the tormented souls of Mond find themselves. Returning for revenge is all they can do.

The role of the High Priest was developed immediately after the corruption of Fae, though the corruption was slow spreading so people still kinda lived in the Wilds, just closer to Mond. The High Priest is chosen by Barbatos himself, and is basically the highest position in Mond. Everything, every decision and otherwise goes through him. Though, of course, freedom is still the main thing. The people choose to follow the Priest.

Unfortunately for him, Ludwig lived in one of these settlements. The corruption began to rapidly spread, and his family died to it. He was there to witness their deaths and their rebirths as Fae… the bad kind.

He was saved by Barbatos, which immediately made him obsessed with the God. When brought to Mond by that current Priest, he was considered a blessing. He became a nun - I know men can’t do that but let’s be real Genshin would - and soon quickly raised up the ranks.

The Priest before him was a horrible guy (I mean he was a pervert and Ludwig was a little choir boy, if you catch my drift), and as such was punished - killed - for his crimes. Mond went without a Priest for a few years, then Ludwig was selected.

This solidified his obsession with Barbatos.

The High Priest role allows the human chosen to live until killed via a Fae, but it comes with extreme healing abilities and such so it’s really, really hard.

Ludwig has held the position for… well over three hundred years.

He’s hypersexual, but not in the fun way. In the “Please someone help him and teach him that sexual touch is not the only form of love” way.

He’s strict with the few rules Mond has. And unfortunately breaking these rules often leads to what the other Nations would call “torture” and “cruel punishments”… Ludwig doesn’t think so though!

He is a catalyst user, but (like Wrio) has his own special weapon, which is a large - and I mean HUGE - church bell connected via chain to a small hammer. think flail style (Like Gyomei).

He is - naturally - a Anemo vision. And his actual catalyst is a bell.

He has killed before in the name of Barbatos… he’ll do it again to. Watch out Fatui.

He actually did kill a few Fatui during (before Traveler) the Stormterror event. It was in front of The Lady as well when she dared ask to kill Dvalin.

He cannot hold a beer. Not at all. All it takes is a whiff of alcohol and he’s out like a damn light-

He’s dating Varka but he has two hands just saying…

He hates Barbara’s fan club because he had one like it. He beats up her fans on a daily basis.

He knows Venti is Barbatos. He just chooses to not tell him so he can have freedom.

Anyway he has a shrine in his home filled with Barbatos stuff-

Upon realizing Venti liked apples he tried to make it so you needed a license to pick apples so they could persevere them.

(It didn’t work btw-)

He’s just a little guy. My little guy~

Anyway the other ones are….

Detleif! My Centaur boi! Apart of the non lethal Fae from the Wilds (really just Demi-Humans) dubbed wind spirits. He helps Mr. Ludwig in keeping the more… wild Fae out of Mond.

He’s a sweet man who lost his daughter in an accident, - ahem she was killed - and he do be Anemo. He wields a bow!

… He’s my horse for the cavalry-

Then we have Ella! She’s my weird Hilichurl. If anyone read the old posts I called her a he, she went through a small change lmao

She can speak and has retained “human” intelligence compared to her brethren, and is actually good friends with Ludwig. She and Mr. Ludwig have made a deal where hilichurls and humans live in peace in Mond.

She’s the Hilichurl representative!

Also she’s a winged Churl… lol that’s not important-

She technically doesn’t have any actual vision. Think I’m gonna keep it that way

And finally an Undertaker for the graveyard by the Church! Under the works, all I know is that they use a claymore and aren’t a Anemo Vision holder.

And that’s really all I got! I’m open to questions about them and going in more depth if anyone’s curious!

(And willing to write fics for them… anyway-)

#asks <3 #anon <3 #🐗 anon <3 #my ocs <3

[croik]

“That was mine,” Arthur grumbled, and the King chuckled as he started the car.

“I’ll make it up to you,” the King replied, something hot and eager bubbling under his new, human skin as he took hold of the wheel. “Who knows what awaits us now?”

He pulled away from the mansion. The machine wasn’t any more difficult to pilot than he had anticipated; he found himself smiling, even, as they made their way carefully down the twisted slope. “By the way,” he said, a peculiar tickle in his chest. “You can still address me as King if you want, but my name is Hastur.”

((ok but I honestly love how playful Hastur is here and how he changes so drastically in this fic I wanna know more ❤️)

Ok ok so I already admitted that this fic was a little less planned than some of my others, and I think that's part of how it ended up with a slightly more humorous tone? :D;; BUT I stand by it! At this point last year I was super into the idea of John/Yellow/and the King being the same character, just with different life experience, and I wanted to play up their similarities as much as possible: their temper and stubbornness, their sometimes mean sense of humor, and of course their obsession with Arthur. I also wanted to give King the opportunity to reexperience some of what John has gone through (having to watch over Arthur when he's asleep/in danger), and also let him rediscover some things about himself. When the "purest" version of yourself values something, it's worth examining, right?

So of course I wrote this after You Know Now That My Name is Hastur, so I was still invested in the idea that the King in Yellow has a name, that no one calls him by it anymore, and that he doesn't realize the meaning it has for him until faced with the prospect of hearing it from Arthur. Once John decided on a name, he was very protective of it after all - he corrects Arthur a few times to remind him that he has a FULL name, even. When Arthur it as his pissiest, he rejects and tries to hurt Yellow by calling him by something not his name. (still holding out hope that Yellow will come come up with a new name by the time Jarthur find him again). Names matter to them, so I leaned on King trying to destroy John via erasing his name, and also King becoming preoccupied with Arthur learning his. I think it ties up my version of the character nicely across fics?

As for the "playful" aspect itself, my hope was that the entire ordeal would serve as a way to remind Hastur of why he wanted Arthur's body in the first place: he was bored. He ain't got no job, he ain't got shit to do. Going to earth and maybe causing a little chaos was as much a desire to just do something new. When you're thousands of years old, you need to shake things up! So now he has what he wanted: he's had his glimpse of mortality and won, he's outsmarted Larson (in his own mind at least), he's experiencing a whole new world with all the appreciation John did and none of the limitations/dangers (so far). Because he's not suffering from the amnesia and imprisonment John did in the early show, he has way more opportunity to be smug and glib about all the cool things going on.

Which maybe will get doused in a later adventure when he realizes human bodies aren't always that great, lol!

Thanks as always for the ask, @kananeski!

#ask game #malevolent fanfic #malevolent blah

[somthing-lavender]

Chapter 100 spoilers, a very simple break down of the conversation at the end.

This is mostly gonna be my thoughts, with surface level analysis (for the record, if it's circled in orange I think it's Jade, and if it's purple I think it's Chion).

I wonder if this is why he decided to go with Chion's and Isolde's idea of using magic against Percival in 53. He didn't want to be seen as the odd one out, so he hid his actual feelings of "this is stupid."

Also at first we all thought Jade wore the same outfit as Tristan cause he was also a "Tristan fan." But looking back, he was 100% just trying to fit in. Chion was copying Tristan, while Jade was copying Chion.

So Jade's magic isn't based on his own personality, but instead the traits he admired.

What happened to Chion for him to assume everyone is guilty until proven innocent, but he tries to prove their guilt first?

Talking about Jade's admiration for Chion to questioning his loyalty to Tristan is an odd jump. Makes me wonder what this actually is. Is this a (possible mixter of) past conversation(s) that Chion is remembering, is this a metaphorical conversation, or does Chion somehow have the ability to speak to the dead (least likely)?

Ever since chapter 99 I suspected that Jade holds resentment towards Tristan in a "he's annoying perfect" sort of way. (Didn't expect it to be as far as "hating his guts" tho)

Think about it. Jade's crush talks about wanting a prince to save her, which Jade responded with "Prince Charming is probably actually helpless irl and I can save you instead." Jade was then proven wrong not long after. Prince Charming shows up and proves he's just like the book, "Loving and brave... And when his princess is in trouble, he's always there to protect her." Everything Jade's crush wants in a guy. Requirements that Jade couldn't reach. The closest he got to it (to our knowledge before saving her in 98) was "carrying her all the way home," which was actually Tristan. So the only times he gets praised for saving her, he's riddled with guilt cause it's a lie. Prince Charming was later the one who lovingly gave her the ribbon, not him. And Prince Charming saves her again in 75 to drive the point in.

Outside of romance, there's plenty of things that makes Prince Charming "cooler" than Jade. Prince Charming is attractive (Attractive=Elizabeth's looks=Tristan's looks, meaning Attractive=Tristan's looks), nothing has been stated about Jade's looks. Prince Charming is a better fighter. Prince Charming is more wealthy. Everyone knows and loves Prince Charming's family. Prince Charming is prophesy to save the world. Prince Charming has great healing abilities, while Jade can only give basic first aid.

Heck in a way their magic has the same theme, light and darkness. But while Jade can only flash light and blind people with darkness, Prince Charming is literally the grandson of the god of darkness and god of light.

In a way, every reason Jade respects and finds Tristan amazing, is another reason for Jade to find Prince Charming more annoying.

It was probably isolating to be in the Tristan platoon for Jade. It's a group that's job is to serve someone Jade hates secretly deep down. Besides Tristan himself, Jade was the only member who didn't idolize Tristan.

Another reason for Jade to dislike Prince Charming is that he sorta just consumed Jade's whole friend group. They went from 3 childhood friends, to the Tristan platoon with Prince Charming as their leader. Prince Charming? Their leader? Prince Charming is the newest member of the group but Jade's friends are all obsessed with him. That leads to the last point, which I'll bring up later.

I've seen several people mention that it's nice that Chion still accepts Jade even so he hates someone Chion admires, and I have to agree.

"That's just how you are, right?" I don't think Jade wants to hate Tristan, he just does. He still respects Tristan, and anolages that the hatred is because Tristan is a bad person. But yet still he can't help but hate Prince Charming, it's just a part of him. Sometimes our emotions don't line up with our logic and reason.

"Kind of a big gap there, though." Is probably the saddest line in this. Even if Jade is 2nd, he's still now where as important as Prince Charming is to his own bestfriend.

The final point why Jade hates Prince Charming is Jade is forced to be second place to him. His crush is madly in love with Prince Charming, at best Jade is a second option. Add what Chion said. I would resent someone who just showed up one day, and stole the affection and attention of my friends, leading to me being overlooked.

Extra point I just thought of, Prince Charming brings out the worst in Jade's friends. His crush's obsessiveness and his bestfriend tried to kill 5 people "for Tristan's sake."

Extra thoughts

I really hope they make this death worth it, otherwise we missed and opportunity to explore Jade's and Tristan's relationship.

I want to see Jade snap at Tristan. I want to see Tristan's reaction to learning Jade hates him. How would that affect the group dynamic? I wanna see them work things out.

I headcanon that Tristan really valued Jade's friendship as he was the only one to treat him like an equal. Not that Tristan dislikes Chion and Isolde, but I feel like they're idealization of him makes him feel isolated in his own friend group. With that in mind, how would Tristan feel if he learned the feelings of friendship wasn't mutual at all?

#ignore the granmer mistakes i wrote this at 9-11 pm #Jade #Chion #Tristan Lioness #4kota #4koa #four knights of the apocalypse #mokushiroku no yon kishi #mokushiroku no yonkishi #4 knights of the apocalypse

[seijorhi]

Jeez, it took me almost an entire day to collect my thoughts about SftS, but after reading your asks and taking time to think about it all I have to say is wow.

I just want to preface that Oikawa was never a character I found attractive WHATSOEVER until I started reading your works. Even though you made him so disgusting?? in this I can’t help but still love him because of how well you write his obsession with the reader.

Also i have no idea why but it’s just so funny to me the way he’s like offended when readers dad asked if he killed her…as if he didn’t murder the rest of her family in cold blood.

Which leads me to talking about how that last scene was written from his POV and the way he was thinking about stuff?? He’s so despicable. Murdering a child *with mercy!! Such a great guy 😁👍 Although he did NOT hesitate to justify the readers stepmothers death. Reader never wanted her dead but he used her dislike towards her as fuel to take out his violent tendencies.

Besides reader, I also feel so bad for her father. You could tell he was holding everything back after hearing about his wife and son. The fact he was blindsided by Oikawa in the end too. He didn’t even have to time to think about how reader was going to be tricked and comforted by the man who hurt her the most 😞 anyways r.i.p.

I wanted to ask does Oikawa love reader in any way? Because you said that he wants to challenge himself by playing with her. So I know he doesn’t care if he hurts he, I mean he murdered her family and staged a traumatic event 🤷‍♀️ but I can’t tell if he’s one of those yanderes who’s just sick for no reason or sick because he lives the reader.

I also wanted to ask if he is one of those sick yanderes, would he reach a point where he gets bored and just outright tells reader that he murdered her family just to stir shit up?

Anyhow, RHI, i just wanted to tell you that it was absolutely phenomenal and it left me in shock. I saw none of that coming.

<33 bby my heart is all warm n fluttery reading this 🥺

But oh, Oikawa’s wholly and utterly enamoured with the reader. That doesn’t stop him from being a selfish, amoral asshole – if anything it enables those behaviours. He justified what he did to her step-mom, even to an extent what he did to her brother, all out of love of the reader.

He’ll justify a hell of a lot worse than murder if it comes down to keeping her safe and within reach.

Now I don’t think he’d outright admit to killing her family – not unless she asked him directly. He enjoys the domesticity, the willingness of it all too much to give it up so easily. The casual affection and the dependence/trust she has in him. The trauma bond of going through something awful like that and only having Oikawa at the end of it.

I think if it never came out, and they lived the rest of the lives laying low, oikawa taking jobs from shitty (well paying) people to do bad things and then returning home to his sweet little wifey, Oikawa would die a happy man.

But he’s not opposed to the truth coming out, either. He’ll love her if she’s oblivious, and he’ll love her if she hates him. She’s not going anywhere either way.

#rhi answers #fic asks #shelter from the storm #faerielotus

[quillyfied]

Hellaverse Theories: Hazbin Hotel S1E2

Welcome to Quilly’s Hellaverse Theories, where I overthink the entire Hellaverse!

Here we are at Hazbin Hotel, s1e2 (and it's much shorter than s1e1, thank goodness):

Sir Pentious. My darling. My dearest. What a dweeb. What a maroon. This isn’t a theory, it’s a fact: I love him.

Okay, here we go, the ultra-dangerous Vees that I think get underestimated in their own ways. For a start, they’re a collective of three Overlords actively working together, which isn’t something the show seems to suggest is normal for Overlords up until this point. It’s also interesting to me that Valentino is the most universally hated, to the point where certain folks woobify Vox and Velvette into being his unfortunate victims, but. I think that’s giving Val way too much credit, and certainly not giving Velvette and Vox enough. As the tweet that Viv cackled over goes, Val is Karen to the other two’s Regina and Gretchen. And I don’t know who takes Regina George’s spot, Vox or Velvette, and I’m sure they’d fight pretty viciously for it, but all three of them are terrible and especially terrible together. How calculating and smart Velvette is will be expounded on more later, but Vox can literally hypnotize thousands of people when given the right tools, and I know we collectively aren’t ignoring how horrific the television industry can be in real life. So imagine that culture in Hell, run by a guy with a psychosexual obsession with a deer man who rejected him and a tempestuous situationship with Valentino of all people. Yikes.

Anyway, to the more important bit: the first hint that sinners can be killed and regenerated. Valentino is wrecking Velvette’s department and tore up her best model. And the show can’t wait for that unlucky bitch to pull herself back together. Could be a glib reference to how the model is useless to Velvette double-dead and how dare she die on the job. Could be more literal and sinners can regenerate from deaths that aren’t inflicted by angelic steel, it just takes some time depending on the method of death. This is too VAGUE, I need CONCRETE EXAMPLES AND REFERENCES.

Like okay to get back to the “all the Vees are terrible” argument, VELVETTE LITERALLY SELLS A DATE RAPE DRUG DISTILLED FROM VALENTINO’S VENOM. VOX TAKES ADVANTAGE OF HELL’S PANIC OVER THE EXTERMINATION TO SELL HIS BRAND AND THEN OFFERS TO FETCH A GROUP OF UNLUCKY EMPLOYEES FOR VAL TO SHOOT. Granted, his orders to his assistant seem promising, with wanting to get in touch with Carmilla about actually developing angelic security, but there appears to be no follow-through and Vox is more than happy to sit safely in his tower and peep on everyone else while the Extermination is happening, so. Y’know. Screw that guy. Anyway.

Moment of adoration for Joel Perez and his voice acting. The RANGE. The DRAMA. The FABULOSITY. Valentino is absolutely a scumbag but what a great performance.

I need to know DESPERATELY if the minions that Alastor summons are constructs of his own power, or other, less notable souls that he owns. Husk retaining his own form could be because he used to be an Overlord himself. Niffty…unsure if Alastor actually owns her soul, but it’s a good bet, and Alastor seems to like her most anyway. Valentino has moth demons that look like him manning his doors when Vox comes to see him, but it could be a uniform; Vox and Velvette both have people working for them (that they may or may not own, but it’s another good bet that they do) that have distinct looks. Which means that if Alastor’s little minions aren’t souls he owns in their own uniform, but manifestations of his own power that do his bidding, then that’s another difference that sets Alastor apart from other Overlords that’s worth exploring.

Also I keep forgetting about his shadow and I’m very curious to know if it has unique properties other than letting him teleport around. Alastor changing his form so often also seems something unique to him. The mouth-droolies that are probably blood (unless it’s Valentino and then it’s his venom) seems to just be a quirk of Viv’s art style, since Vox, Alastor, Valentino, and Lucifer all do it when they need to seem more deranged, but Alastor changing his entire look to be bigger and scarier is something we see Stolas and the Sins do in Helluva Boss, not Overlords in Hazbin Hotel. The Goetia family and the Sins are on a different level than Overlords in Hell’s power structure, but Alastor himself seems to be something else on top of that. Perhaps he’s becoming something closer to Adam and Lilith, though again, more on what I think is up with them on a later episode.

The funny thing about the Vees is that alone, any one of them wouldn’t be too much of a threat, but together, they are absolutely dangerous, and that’s fascinating. It’s the dark side version of working together making people stronger and better. But although Vox’s obsession with Alastor isn’t shared by the other Vees, they don’t fight him when he insists they have to keep an eye on the situation with him and Charlie. I don’t believe for a second that any sinner in Hell cares about the authority of the royal family outside of how the royal family can destroy them power-wise, but it’s interesting to me how even when they don’t care about Charlie as an authority figure, they do care when she spends time with other potentially powerful figures. This is a hint of Charlie as a dormant untapped power source. Most of Hell doesn’t care about who she is or what she does, brushing her off as a sort of ornamental figure. Except for Alastor. Who very correctly has singled her out as a future powerhouse, though what he intends to direct that powerhouse towards (and if it was even his idea in the first place) remains to be seen.

Moment of silence for Valentino bedazzling a gun with glue and rhinestones during a meeting with his business partners, that is good background comedy.

Alastor has a different job title every time he’s referred to in his capacity to the hotel and I find that greatly amusing. Also telling as to the quality of management at first. Because, come on, the whole premise of the hotel is based on a wild hair that Charlie has, and the sequence with Sir Pentious pretending to fit into the hotel model is a blinding spotlight into the flaws of Charlie’s thinking. The behaviors that she’s attempting to get Pentious and by extension Angel Dust to model are a very rudimentary and I’d go so far as to say childish understanding of what sin versus virtue is. But as is revealed later—it’s all they have to go on. They can see the state of Hell and make assumptions about what landed them there, but Adam himself is a glaring contradiction to the assumptions, top to bottom. It makes the whole Sir Pentious farce seem even more shallow, which is a brilliant narrative choice to laying the groundwork for Angel’s character arc, because the shallowness of it all is what hurts him.

And, most importantly: while Charlie dismisses Angel in this episode to focus on her shiny new toy, it’s Angel that she relies on to prove her point to Heaven later, a sharp counterpoint of real change to the very obvious fake change in Sir Pentious in this particular episode. (Before. Y’know. The real change Sir Pentious undergoes at the end of the episode. And then again at the end of the season. But Sir Pentious, while in Hell and obviously with his own issues, also isn’t quite as complex or deep a person as Angel Dust is. Perhaps he didn’t have as far to go to make a real change in himself. Until the nature of the rules for who goes where when they die becomes less arbitrary, we can only make educated guesses.)

But back to Charlie and how she’s the absolute perfect princess for the Pride ring: she is sparkly and sweet and naïve, but she is so sure that she’s right that she pulls the entire cast into this madcap adventure with her to try and redeem sinners without actually knowing what it means. She is so sure she’s right that she, a Hellborn demon, is determined to talk to Heaven—HEAVEN, and not just Heaven, but THE ANGELS WHO RUN HEAVEN AND AS FAR AS SHE KNOWS ACTIVELY CELEBRATE HER PEOPLE’S EXTERMINATION—and just knows she can get them on her side if she pitches it well enough.

If Charlie wasn’t so earnest, and self-aware by the end of the season as well, it would make her unlikeable, smug instead of sincere. But, like the magical casting of Rhys Darby as Stede Bonnet that makes him an earnest and likeable character instead of a self-obsessed smug asshole, it’s that core of absolute genuine care in her that saves her from being a terror. She’s learning, and she is going through her own coming of age and understanding the world around her. Not to mention that she has an immense amount of pressure on her that her parents seem to have succeeded in shielding her from until she starts actively pushing at the boundaries of her world and taking on more and more of that weight. Charlie doesn’t have to put herself out there for sinners. Lucifer tells her that. Adam tells her that. Lilith never did, as far as we can tell, but her absence is pretty telling on that front. She could let the status quo continue and live in her own happy little dream world with nothing to trouble or vex her.

But that isn’t Charlie Morningstar. She’s a dreamer with fierce independence. And while her Hazbin Hotel redemption plan is RIFE with hubris, it’s also indicative of her strength of character, and it’s admirable to watch.

In HB, the Sins that we’ve seen so far have had elements of understanding their power—I saw one post describe it as embodying their opposite Virtue as well as their Sin. Beelzebub is the Sin of Gluttony, but she is cautious about others around her indulging too much to the point of harm (Temperance). Asmodeus is the Sin of Lust, but he rejects lust by force and accepts real love in his life that’s more than just sexual chemistry (Chastity). Lucifer is most certainly the Sin of Pride, but the argument could be made of his humbling, not just at Heaven’s hands, but by breaking down his own misconceptions and worldview keeping him and Charlie from connecting and listening to her and choosing to believe in her (Humility). Charlie is heir to Pride, at the very least; she’s well on her way to accepting the slice of humble pie that comes with it.

The ring model of Hell in the background of the entire “It Starts With Sorry” sequence really makes me question if HH Hell isn’t in the same universe as HB Hell, because it’s not just a one-and-done cameo piece; it shows up several times, a fixture of the background that gets at least two different angles. So here’s another theory I’ve been cooking up: HH Hell has two moon-like objects, one that looks obviously Heavenly, one that looks obviously Hellish. I’m wondering if the Hellish moon is either Lucifer’s palace (prison), or the rest of Hell. Admittedly, that theory doesn’t work with HB, what with Blitzo setting up his business specifically to cater to sinners and thus the Pride ring is clearly connected to the rest of Hell and not its own floating sky-entity, but then again, the ring model of Hell isn’t exactly literal, from what I read in the wiki; if they can road trip to Sloth, maybe they can take a magic elevator to Pride because it’s a moon and not a ring. Who knows. I certainly don’t. And it’s not like an atlas of Hell is ever going to be released, despite how very much I would love one.

Not as much to discuss re: my overarching theories about the nature of Hell and its power structures in this one, but the next episode most certainly does, so I will keep this consistent and in its own post.

#quilly's hellaverse theories #hazbin hotel #quilly writing

[socoolinmypajamas]

This is something I have to take out of my system: Christopher Columbus is a VERY well made character in Fate/Grand Order.

His design is unique, his seiyuu is amazing, his performance gameplay-wise is quite good, and he manages to shine no matter the quality of the story. Every human trait he could be the embodiment of, he does it almost flawlessy.

Now, this doesn't mean he's someone we should love, like nor even feel something for that isn't disgust. And if we do, that's just us falling for his facade which, again, shows how well written this absolute bastard is.

In Agartha, a horrible story overall, he becomes our ray of sunshine during the first 3/4 of the story. He's the old rebel captain telling us to never give up and push through all the hardships, making the reveal that he's the worst of them, ready to kill and steal everything in sight, a fitting thing for his record as a "hero" despite being a genocider.

In Oniland, he got trick and ended up lost in a house of MIRRORS, which is hilarious when you think of all the stories in which he and other conquistadores scamed natives by trading GLASS beads with them. It was also a situation where his "never give up" trait shone, and we are again wondering if we should trust him or not. (Maybe I'm reading too far into this one but meh, worth poiting it out).

In Summer 3, he was scamming artists under the pretention of doing a fair trade, so we had to beat his ass. Again, good use of him.

In Fate/Grand Carnival and Summer 5, we see how his most positive trait mix with his hideous greed: In the first one, he's playing slots just to hit the jackpot, even if it lefts him bankrupt because he set his dream on hitting it, and will not stop no matter what until he does it. And in Summer 5, when we se a version of himself that couldn't reach his dream, he's... The same. Just because he couldn't archive his dream doesn't mean he gave up trying. It was just another example of how feral and determinated (obsessive) he could get to reach his dreams, the further away from them he is pushed.

And finally, his interlude. Probably one of the better written ones in the entire game. I'm not going to spoil this one because it really is THAT good and worth reading, but I do gonna say that every good and bad aspect of his character is explored, well used and detailed stablished without making him likeable.

Columbus' writting is consistent (hopefully it will in Summer 6) and does a great job portraying an irl villain that lots of people keeps thinking was a hero, even up to this day. He's a servant that only shows up in the Grand Order because it would be bad for bussiness if the Earth was destroyed, and while is ok (and encouraged) to hate him (because that's like, the whole point), I think is important to consider where does the strong feelings for a character come from.

Tl;dr: Columbus suck and I hate him but his FGO version is a fantastic fictional portrait of a historical figure.

#fgo #rider of resistance #colombus #christopher colombus #writting #character #analysis #historical figure #fate/grand order #fate series #gacha game #gacha games #fate #agartha #epic of remenant

[juleskelleybooks]

Year-End Wrap Up 2023

Thank you to literally everyone who has engaged with the work I've managed to put out despite everything. It was all carved out of me at great cost and with great love, and sharing it brings me joy and is why I keep doing it. Below are some numbers and some thoughts just to quantify things, but thanks.

Stats:

Words Published - 92,122 Words Written - Estimated somewhere in the 50k range Works Published - 2 Units Sold - 399 (self published titles only, includes free downloads) Milestones - Got to sign my physical book in a local bookstore and be featured on their social media as a local author; entered my book to be judged as part of the Lambda Literary Awards

Goals for Next Year:

Actually start keeping track of sales per title etc.

Start tracking words written

Thoughts:

This is mostly for myself, because I have a hard time with things like "accomplishments" and "chronological time" and "object permanency", and because I'm always looking ahead at what I want to have done, like I'm climbing uphill, and all progress feels slow. Sometimes it's good to look back at how far you've come.

At the end of last year, I parted professional ways with my agent (lovely person though she is), so this year was already a bit new in a lot of ways.

In April, Night Is For Hunting released. It's the second Moonrise book, and was intended to be the middle in a trilogy, but the final book has since been canceled (at my request) because I realized that the third book is not within timely reach for me. Still kind of feeling the sting of that. I'm also not super happy with parts of NIFH, as I pushed through places in order to hit (an already extended) deadline. I had grand plans for sections of the book that I just didn't have time to wrangle.

That's kind of a theme for this year, is that I'm learning that being disabled does unfortunately mean that I am less able to do things on the schedule or to the intensity or degree that I wish that I could. The whole reason I went fully self-pub without my lovely agent was because I knew I couldn't have both work that at least approaches my standards and also a standardized publishing schedule. Not at this point in my life, anyway.

In July, Stars Still Fall was released. I wrote what I consider the pivotal scene in that story back in 2018, and have been obsessed with it ever since, so finishing it was accomplishing a major goal. I let myself take my time to get really indulgent with the prose in places, which I enjoyed a lot. I keep poking at it to see if there's any places I'm unhappy with, that I want to change, and so far I haven't found any. (This isn't, of course, to say that it's above criticism. I'm sure it isn't all to everyone's taste. But I'm happy.) I may update the cover at some point to change the typography for the title, because I think it could be better and do better justice to the actual art.

Looking Ahead:

Blackthorn (low-tech space western, bi4bi m/f) seems to have pulled ahead out of the primordial soup of WIPs for now and is rattling full steam ahead. I'm not going to set a due date until I'm closer to the end, but with any luck, I might manage to finish it within two years?

Other projects that are starting to solidify are A Touch of Magic (witchy single dad whose daughter casts a love spell to try to save his job), A Time For Us (completely reworked reissue of M Jules Aedin title Windows in Time featuring a modern-day person helping ghosts from the 1940s at the risk of his own happiness), and whatever I end up renaming Late Blooming (gray-ace middle school teacher finds out he's same-sex attracted shortly after his 40th birthday and a lot of things start making sense, but his crush on the uncle of one of his students is not one of those things).

Thank you, and happy new year!

#wrap up

[thelolzblog]

Putting the "Pen" in "Pencil"

I do not like to write with pencils. I will, when needed. I try to avoid it as much as possible, though. I’ve tried different “models” of mechanical pencils, including those that boasted pen-like casings that coworkers recommended. But none quite worked for me. 

Until this week. Or weekend really. Let’s not get pedantic here.

I prefer pens, and a really good, smooth pen? *chef’s kiss* I have horrible handwriting, and I cramp up very easily (fingers, hands, wrist, you name it). But a really good pen can transcend its job as a writing instrument and become the tool that harmonizes your hand with the paper. 

My primary pen of choice for over a decade has been the BiC Atlantis. Its price makes it more of an economy class model, but that’s okay because I need them in bulk so I can bring them to work, too. Additionally, my purse, bags, and desk drawers are where pens go to die — or at least hang out in limbo until they’re unearthed on the archaeological expeditions that are decluttering attempts. 

Because of how much I prefer pens over pencils, I have always done crossword puzzles in pen. It’s not usually a problem, and I didn’t even think it was that big of deal until others pointed it out to me. I love crosswords. I love pens. It just made sense. (Semi-brag: friends have handed puzzles over to me they get stuck on so I can finish it.)  I also have tons of crossword books, and they’re a great stress relief that also wakes your brain up — the good part, not the part that is going Chicken Little in the moment. Most are “easy” NY Times ones, and the one actual Sunday puzzle collection I bought was just too tricky for me to try and figure out. It now remains in my spare room just in case I need to rip it up for cat litter in an emergency. 

A friend recently gave me a (very late) Christmas present: an NYT crossword book. Hooray! I kept it at work to do a couple clues between tasks to feed my ADHD and keep me going. However! These are medium-level puzzles. And they mean it! I realized after a few that doing them in pen was probably not the best thing anymore. It was time to admit my puzzle prowess was weakened. It was time to admit that I needed to get a good pencil. You always remember where you were when these kind of life turns happen, and I was at my desk wondering if my friend purposefully got me the harder book to mess with me. 

But finding the right pencil for crosswords was…wait for it…the real puzzle to solve.

The search began, and unfortunately Google kept giving me results for pens that write like pencils, and not the other way around. (Okay, okay. We GET it. There are erasable pens. Papermate has been on top of that since I was in school. I’ve also used some that wrote well, but the erasing is really just applying heat through friction. Which means things disappear if your paper gets hot. ANYWAY.)

I just started searching on my next grocery order. BiC had some promising options — smooth and hard-to-break. The store ended up being out of one type, but they did have the .9 (thick) Velocity Max. I tried them, and they weren’t bad. The large eraser is convenient. It both comforts and mocks you: “We know you’re going to make huge mistakes, and we don’t want your arm to get tired trying to remove them. Here’s your big eraser, you big screw up!” They even come with extra lead and erasers. How thoughtful! The problem is the grip: the softer, gel-like part is too high. I did manage to slide it down lower. It looks odd, but it’s more comfortable. The bottom part is just too narrow and has nothing added to it for comfort. Not ideal, but doable. Even if one of the two colors they came in was orange, and we all know that orange is a color that tries too hard.

Luckily I tend to go into hyper obsessive research and testing mode. This usually just wastes my time away, but this time it came in handy! While looking online, I saw an item that I couldn’t help but add to my cart. A Wish List is no place for a pen like this. It was a 4-color BiC pen, with 3 ink colors and 1 option for pencil. It was a sleeker, multi-functional upgrade from those multi-colored pens I adored in childhood: it was the pen version of when the Power Rangers all put their vehicles together and made the big, large thing. Megazord. It was the Megazord. I couldn’t pull it out of my memory, but that’s to be expected from my pencil-for-crossword-needing old brain.

I am happy to report there was a fairy tale ending here. The good, non-messy kind that doesn’t leave a dead witch, giant, or talking wolf in its wake.  (I can confirm no fantasy beings were harmed in the testing of these pens.)  The grip on the 4-color pen is wide and feels great, much better than the Velocity model. The grip and lead make for a truly smooth writing experience, and I have tested it out on at least 10 crosswords at this point. 

And what of the actual pen colors on it? This thing could’ve settled for just being a good pencil, but no. BiC said, “We don’t stop here. We keep going. We make this pen worth every penny.” Which was nice of them because it is not cheap, and it will run you between $5.50 to $7 — more than 1 dollar for each option. (They do throw in extra lead and erasers, just to note.) The width makes for a great writing experience for all colors. I actually used it at work yesterday to color code some notes, and it is definitely going to be in regular rotation for more than just the pencil part.

Very happy I purchased it, and I also bought some new highlighters. But that’s a review for another day.

#z writes things #this is literally a review on pens/pencils #but you asked for it #and by you #chicgeekgirl89 #sspaz1000