#this page will be turned into an archive by this time next week !!

[saint--claire]

When I was a little child, there was a particular library book I checked out week after week, endlessly renewing it as much as I was able. The book, How to Raise and Keep a Dragon by John Topsell was a quasi-nonfiction guide to, as you guessed, rearing different species of dragons. I loved it. Tiny-me had plans.

As an adult, I tried to buy it a few times. No dice. The book was so old that no mainstream bookseller stocked it. Even when I tried niche websites recommended by various booksellers and librarians, I still couldn't find it. It was sadly lost to time, apparently not popular enough to make it into the archives.

But.

My best friend had a copy of that book. We're going to call her G, for several reasons not relevant at the moment. I was discussing my search with G one day, for some reason I can't remember now. She got a funny look on her face, asked me a few questions about the cover, listened to me do a very poor job of explaining with my hands how the hardcover copy had included a real gemstone in the dragon's forehead, and then went off to fish it out of her bookcase.

I was Gobsmacked.

I should not have been, given that the history of shared childhood books between us both would have made a circle with ragged edges, more so than a venn diagram, but I digress. The book came home to live in my house for a few months, and I was delighted by the chance to read it again.

Do people remember those type of books? Dragonology, Egyptology, The Stone Age - a way of introducing children to non fiction. They very earnestly spoke about the responsibilities needed to raise dragons, the practicalities involved. There was a record of registration you could fill out, if you had carefully considered the information to your self and felt you were responsible enough to to go through with adopting a dragon.

I vaguely remember filling out some of the riddle and puzzle questions in the Dragonology books. I would never have written in John Topsell's book, it was a library book.

But.

When I re-read G's copy at home, smiling over the familiar artwork, I was surprised to turn the page and find the painstaking, somewhat-wonky handwriting staring back at at me. Baby G, with her name spelled out in freshly-joined but still-not-quite-got-the-hang-of-this-yet cursive lettering. Baby G had filled the registration out in her best handwriting, in glittery green gel pen to denote the importance of the document. This was compared to the earlier, less important checklists done in plain black ink.

I read the registration certificate. Smiled. Smiled some more at the names listed for G's dragon, her dam, and her sire - Eragon was also a great book. Go off, Christopher Paolini.

Breed; standard Western Dragon. The box 'miniture' was ticked, to show that G's dragon was of the minature specic variety, rather than a full size dragon. This was, as she would later explain to me, chosen on the basis that baby-G felt it was the more financially responsible choice. Also so she could keep her dragon in her house with her, but we're not there yet.

I looked at that certificate. Looked at it again. Looked at the calendar, and then looked at the sewing machine I had just been given for Christmas.

G celebrates her birthday in January.

The template came first. I studied the different images of the standard western dragon through the book, picked my favourite, and re-drew it to a significantly larger scale.

Inking the design to the fabric, four times over probably took the longest.

I very subtly asked G the next time she was over (after hurling all dragon-related materials in a panic into the depths of my wardrobe) what type of colour dragon she would have, should it come up. As G later said, that type of question from me truly did not register as anything other than a question asked from theoretical interest. I transitioned the topic as discreetly as I could after she answered, and delightfully, my sneakiness went in one ear, out the other, and she forgot I had ever asked until several weeks later.

I enjoyed painting them.

Don't ask me how many mistakes I made through this process. So many. I do already know how to sew, but it's been a long time. I'd been meaning to get back into it for a while.

Given that various aunts and grandmothers and my mother had a knack for calling when I was up to my elbows in either paint or pins, it became a family affair. Each of them peered at the project through face time and offered their advice.

Some of the advice I took, some I didn't. No regrets about sewing it in pink thread. Considerable regrets about accidentally slicing one of the feet in half and having to fix that.

In the end though, she was finished.

I carefully pinned on her name tag, with the name baby-G had chosen with a little blue ribbon. A collar was unacceptable, this is a dragon, people, come on. Dragon's don't wear collars.

I put the book in the box, open to the registration certificate, and put the dragon on top. Wrapped the whole thing up with a bow and then refused to touch it before I sent myself mad trying to fix details that didn't really need to be fixed.

A bit late for her birthday, sure, but there we are. We'd gone for a trip off to nowhere for a weekend, to go try wine made out of blueberries and hike up a waterfall. (And climb on it. And swim in it. It was a very good waterfall).

I gave her the box, informed her she wasn't allowed to keep the box, just the contents (it was the only thing I had that was big enough for me to keep all of my A3 portfolios in, it had only been temporarily-repurposed as dragon housing), and then left the next bit up to the gods.

A surprise, sitting un-awaited for some 15 years in amber, to catch up to baby G and adult G together.

Happy Birthday, baby and adult G.

#StClaire speaks #How to Raise & Keep A Dragon #John Topsell #Joe Nigg #the thing about problems hammers and nails #except in this case it was childhood wishes and sewing machines #and as someone said #you were relearning to sew and you started with THAT? #well no #I started with a scrub hat #which kept the hair out of my face while I painted this #and then also that apron my aunt gave me the pieces to years ago that I refused point blank to do by hand #but yeah #101 mistakes later #and one re-attached foot #pretty happy with her #dragons

[astrophileous]

Love Bugs was sooo good!!! Do you think they’d let Penelope plan a baby shower with the entire team? Maybe even a sex reveal and Penelope truly trying her best to not reveal it early, the others on Garcia duty to make sure she doesn’t let anything slip LOL

WAIT HOLD ON THAT IS SUCH A CUTE CONCEPT???

and I hope you don't mind me putting my own twist to this, but you literally just reminded me of this insta reel I saw a while back of a couple who was doing a sex reveal privately on the beach with a cake, and then the wife, very innocently pulled out the candle so that the husband could cut it, not realizing the cream sticking on the candle would prematurely reveal the sex to them 😭 now I just can't stop imagining Penelope accidentally doing the same thing KAJJSJEJ IT WOULD BE HILARIOUS

btw thank you so much for reading love bugs, I'm soooo happy you liked it <3333

Love Bugs Masterlist / Criminal Minds Masterlist

You couldn't have been less inclined towards the idea the first time Penelope had brought it to your attention.

The next time she did, Penelope knew better than to come empty-handed. Thankfully for her, JJ and Emily both seemed to be partial towards Penelope's brilliant suggestion.

"I think it'll be great, (Y/N)," JJ had said. "I never did one for Henry, but I helped a girlfriend host hers once. It was fun."

"And I, personally, am always down for a party." Emily grinned.

"But a gender reveal party, guys? Seriously?"

"It'll be great, Beets. Trust me," Penelope swore. "Plus, you don't need to worry your pretty little head with anything. You just sit back, relax, and let us three do the heavy liftings."

Eventually, with the right doses of persuasion and incessant pleading, you agreed to let them throw a sex reveal party for the baby; with one condition: you wanted to keep the whole thing small and simple.

But small and simple weren't exactly Penelope's forte.

JJ and Emily tried their best to keep the tech analyst in check during the entire planning process. It was bad enough that the two of them had to take turns monitoring Penelope to make sure she wasn't stepping out of any line, but when they finally received the envelope from your doctor containing the sex of the baby, Penelope grew even worse.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Penelope yelped when Emily's voice suddenly appeared beside her. The blonde scrambled to click a few buttons on her computer screen to close the page she was looking at before Emily could see what she was doing, but it was too late.

"Wasn't that the archive of the hospital (Y/N) goes to?"

"What? No. Of course not. Why? Did you think I hacked it? That's ridiculous, why would I ever hack--"

"Garcia," Emily's stern voice cut her off. "Did you seriously just hack a hospital's records to find out the sex of (Y/N)'s baby?"

Penelope's silence was all the confirmation that Emily needed.

"It won't happen again," the tech analyst murmured shamefully.

But it did, in fact, happen again.

"Pen?" JJ's eyebrows creased when, just a few days later, she spotted Penelope sitting behind the desk in her office.

"Yes? Oh, hi! Hey, how are ya? Nothing to see here!"

Penelope offered JJ a sheepish smile, one that was intended to conceal trouble but instead spoke of one. JJ's eyes squinted.

"What's that in your hand?"

"Oh, this?" Penelope raised her right hand, showing JJ the figurine of a duck dressed as Superman that she, for some reason, was holding. "It's my new buddy. I got him at a flea market last week. Isn't he cute?"

"I meant your other hand, Pen."

JJ raised her eyebrows expectantly.

Soon enough, Penelope surrendered to JJ's stare of death--the one that she had perfected since becoming a mother--and handed the envelop into JJ's awaiting palm.

"I'm sorry," Penelope said meekly, like a child being scolded after being caught with her hand in the candy jar.

A week before the party was supposed to be held, JJ had safely dropped the cake order at the bakery, along with the sacred envelope that you had entrusted in her care. In hindsight, it looked as though everything was finally going according to plan.

Until the D-day rolled around.

As Emily held down the fort back at Derek's and your shared place, JJ and Penelope resorted to cake duty. JJ let Penelope go into the bakery to grab the cake while she stayed in the car for a quick phone call. When Penelope didn't yet reappear after five minutes, JJ decided to follow her inside to see what was holding her up.

"Hey, Pen?" JJ called to Penelope, who was standing like a deer caught in headlights in the middle of the room. In front of her, the baker was holding the box of cake with visible confusion on his face. "What's wrong?"

"She's just been standing there like that. Frozen. Like she saw a ghost," the baker informed.

"Pen?"

"The apron," Penelope whispered.

"What?"

"The apron."

"What ap--oh no."

JJ's eyes widened almost comically when she finally registered what had Penelope looking so stunned.

"Sir," JJ began, "you didn't happen to be working on this cake before we came in, did you?"

"Yeah, I did. I was just finishing it up. Filling in the buttercream and adding some final touches."

JJ sighed. "So, you're saying that the buttercream on your apron is the buttercream you used to fill in the cake?"

JJ's question prompted the baker to look down at the apron he was wearing.

More specifically, at the colored buttercream that spoiled the sex of your baby.

"We've got a situation," JJ said to Emily as soon as she and Penelope found her in your kitchen half an hour later.

"What is it?"

"Me and Pen accidentally found out about the sex."

"You what?!"

"I found out about the sex. I know the sex," Penelope murmured from where she was standing behind JJ. "I know what it is. I know what--hey, you two!"

The three women swiveled their heads towards the doorway, seeing you standing there with Derek practically gluing himself to your back.

"Hi, girls. Everything alright in here?"

"Everything is fine! Why wouldn't it be?" Penelope chuckled nervously.

A frown appeared between Derek's eyebrows. "Babygirl, you okay?"

Penelope waved him off. "I'm fanta... bulous."

"Fantabulous?" Emily whispered.

"Pretty sure it's a combination of fantastic and fabulous." JJ whispered back.

You stared at Penelope in concern. "You sure you're okay, Pen?"

"I'm fine, Beets! Splendid, even! I'm just so happy to see the three of you! God, look at that. You're all so perfect together. My Beets, Chocolate Thunder, and your beautiful baby--"

"Okay!" JJ exclaimed, cutting Penelope off before she could spill the main surprise. "We've still got a lot of work to do here, so... go, both of you."

As soon as you and Derek were out of earshot, JJ said to Penelope, "Pen, you gotta calm down."

"I can't. Oh my God, I can't calm down. It's the knowing. I hate knowing secrets, I'm not good with them."

"It's only for one more hour," Emily reasoned. "You can do this. Just... take a deep breath."

JJ and Emily somehow managed to keep Penelope from spiraling any further, long enough for them to finally commemorate the main event of the night. Your living room was crowded with beloved and very familiar faces: members of the BAU and a few friends of yours and Derek's. The speakers were blasting "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire, and you stood in front of the guests with Derek to your side when Emily and Penelope finally brought out the cake.

"Ladies and gents, we're about to witness a very important moment in history," JJ announced to the room. "In a few minutes, we'll finally find out the sex of the newest member of the (Y/L/N)-Morgan's household!"

The crowd erupted in cheers. You felt Derek give your hip a squeeze.

"Does anyone care to share their guesses?" JJ asked.

Shouts of "boy" and "girl", and a very vague shriek of "twins", all piled on top of one another. JJ quickly gestured with her hands for the crowd to calm back down.

"Without further ado, I present to you, Derek Morgan and (Y/N) (Y/L/N)!"

As your guests exploded in a synchronized ovation, Derek pressed a gentle kiss to your temple. "You ready, Bug?"

"As long as you are, Mr. Morgan."

You and Derek each grabbed a knife from the table, but before the blades could touch the cake, Penelope's voice stopped you in your tracks.

"Wait, let me remove those candles for you."

"No, Penelope!"

Emily's warning came too late.

The entire room held their breaths at the sight of the candles in Penelope's hand. The tech analyst darted her eyes in confusion before she realized what she had done.

"Oh no."

"Is that--" Derek's voice sounded lost in awe.

"Yes, it is," you breathed out.

"The cream, it's--"

"I know." A humorous chuckle escaped your chest as a lone tear fell down your cheek. "It's a blue buttercream. We're having a boy."

Derek didn't waste any second before gathering you in his arms. Around you, your crowds of friends celebrated along in a sequence of hoorays and applause. But even in the midst of that ruckus, you felt like there were no other people left on this world with you other than Derek and your baby.

Your son.

"Hey, Little Man," Derek whispered as his hand landed on your belly. "I can't wait to meet you."

#derek morgan #derek morgan x reader #derek morgan x you #derek morgan x y/n #derek morgan fluff #derek morgan fic #derek morgan fanfiction #derek morgan imagine #dad derek morgan #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds x you #criminal minds x y/n #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fic #criminal minds imagine #shemar moore #love bugs #penelope garcia #emily prentiss #jennifer jareau

[thecoffeelorian]

May 10, 2024

Hello again, everyone...

Firstly, I'd just like to offer a little friendly reminder that the Bad Batch section of this fandom is not dead, just done with its main source material. There are, however, a million directions we can take our derivative works, as I expect this fandom overall is just getting started with the material from "Tales of the Empire" and I, personally, am kind of excited with where we all might go next.

Secondly, thank you to everyone who took the time to like and reblog my past entries, as I know for a fact I wouldn’t have gotten very far without your consideration.

Thirdly, though, I would like to state the purpose of this weekly entry, because it can and should double as a mission statement of sorts:

As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I do this list every Friday to bring more visibility to art and stories that might otherwise go unnoticed on the Tumblr timeline, as well as to help the creators of such fanworks achieve more followers in the process.

This means that I will look for the entries with the lowest amounts of likes and reblogs and then add them to my weekly list, as well as liking and reblogging them to my own Tumblr page.

And so, while we’re all on the subject, here are my picks of the week::

THE CLONE WARS

The Clone Wars Fanart--From @foxyaran:

The Clone Wars Fanart--From @angela-art13:

The Clone Wars Fanfiction--From @ireadwithmyears:

The Clone Wars: Tukk Tales Fanfiction--From @gun-roswell:

THE BAD BATCH

The Bad Batch Fanart--From @nocturius8015ficore:

The Bad Batch Fanart--From @s-pirth-lemonade:

The Bad Batch Fanfiction--From @groguandthebadbatch:

The Bad Batch Fanfiction--From @jedi-princess-kestis:

TALES OF THE EMPIRE

Tales Of The Empire Fanart--From @robinthephoenix:

STAR WARS SEQUELS

Rey Skywalker Moodboard--From @skyofnostars:

In conclusion, as part of my mission to poke around the Star Wars fandom and, on Friday every week, highlight those artists and writers who might otherwise go unnoticed…I hope you will check out the links I have included for yourselves and like, comment on, and reblog them, as well as also giving the artists and writers a few more followers to their Tumblr pages.

Please also like and reblog this latest installment so that these links can be spread around to as many other fans as possible, just in case not all of them can tune in at the same time.

An additional thank you goes to @djarrex for making the divider I used earlier in this post, but still want to give credit for.

And finally, so that I do not forget...thank you to my friends, thank you to this fandom, good morning, and good luck.

No Pressure Tags:

@maxims-multifandom-corner @skellymom @melymigo @ankossss @sharpasanaro

@ilovemedia @snap-my-kneecaps @algo-o-nada @somethingsaladsomething @rott1ngbra1n

@brownielocks69 @ratcatchinggirl @yeehawgeek @ilcuoreardendo-fic @chefobiwankenobi

@lilithastar @wondermadeleine @theosb0rnway @here-comes-the-moose @vaderkin-is-a-lightning-rod 

@trixie2023 @callsign-denmark @smw-on-kamino @ray-rook @saphiranishimurashan

@serinzatravel-blog and anybody else who might be on the lookout for new and interesting works around the fandom.

#star wars #fandom friday #fandom recs #starwarsblr #the clone wars #tukk tales #the bad batch #tales of the empire #star wars sequel trilogy #the clone wars fanart #the clone wars fanfiction #the bad batch fanart #the bad batch fanfiction #commander fox #mortis #mortis gods #the daughter #the father #the son #star wars fanart #star wars fanfiction #tcw kix #clone trooper kix #kix x reader #captain tukk #high ground animations #tbb tech #tbb wrecker #tbb crosshair #tbb omega

[choicesficwriterscreations]

December Creator of the Month: Oh-So-Youre-a-Nerd

Each month, CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers or artists, and this month’s creator of the month is @oh-so-youre-a-nerd . We're very excited because Ascindio is our very first artist to be highlighted! We hope you will enjoy learning more about them and their work below! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page.

Quick Links:

Tumblr Blog Instagram

How do you want to be known on Tumblr? 

Ascindio 

More below...

1- When did you start playing Choices? What was the first book you played? 

I started playing in 2016, I can't remember if I read Endless Summer or Rules of Engagement first, but I ended up deleting the app after like 2 weeks cause I couldn't stop buying diamonds 😅🤦

I re-downloaded it about, ohh idk 2 years ago?

2- When and why did you join Choices fandom?

I joined the Fandom specifically on Tumblr and specifically for It Lives Within, which happened to come out right after I read the first two books 

3- How did you pick your blog name? 

I always try to seem cool and mysterious when I meet people irl, and then as soon as I open my mouth, I ruin it with some niche trivia or something, and they say,  “Oh, so you're a nerd.” 😂 Can't tell you how many times this exact phrase has been uttered to me. 

4- Pull up the first post in your archive, and tell us about it!  

This is the first Choices related post I made 😂 I was just thinking about the concept of what if characters make terrible decisions cause they're controlled by a player who is out of diamonds lol I was going to do a whole series of them (next was going to be lotr “fly on eagles to mordor?” *30 diamonds* or “simply walk”) but got lazy lol

5- Do you write fanfiction, create fan art, or are you one of those really gifted people who do both? 

Only art. God, I  WISH  I wrote too. I've thought about trying cause I have so many ideas floating around in my head, but at the end of the day, I'd rather spend my free time drawing. 

6- How long have you been creating for Choices and for any other fandoms?

For Choices, since early 2022

For other fandoms, since well, forever, but I only started posting around 2017/18

7- What is your favorite Choices book, and what is your favorite Choices book to create for?

Favorite Choices book is probably It Lives in the Woods. All of the characters were so interesting, I never got bored reading it, and it had an incredible twist that made sense but I still didn't see coming. 

Favorite to create for is probably Blades of Light and Shadow though because I am such a sucker for the fantasy aesthetic.

8- Share your first Choices fanfic or fan art that you posted with us. Do you still like it, or would you change it if you were creating it today?.

This isn't the first Choices art I made, but it IS the first I actually shared

And honestly, I DO still like it because I still remember the way I felt absolutely POSSESSED while drawing it (I hadn't drawn anything for *months*). I would definitely change the background, though. Those trees look like shit, and they're not even the correct type for the kind of forest they're in. 

9- What is your favorite piece of fiction or art that you created? 

My favorite Choices art I've done is probably this piece. 

10- Do you have a fic/art that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to do well but found it could use a little more love?

I definitely didn't expect this one to do well at all as it was so hastily drawn

And I was sad this piece didn't get more love, it was such a dope scene and I was so excited about how the sword turned out

11- If you could only draw one style or type of art for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? 

I'm not sure if I'm interpreting the question right, but if I had to pick like a specific type of art, it would be digital, and I would want to do fan art. I have a hard time painting anything that I don't already have a deep connection with (so original art with no story behind it is usually a chore for me), and digital art is just so incredibly convenient and not messy and so so versatile. 

12 - Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?

Because I use fiction as a way to safely process trauma/ grief/ other big emotions, each MC I make has a small part of me, whichever part I feel the need to explore at the time.

There's an amazing quote by Patrick Rothfuss that I feel explains it perfectly. 

It's from Wise Man's Fear

“These folk knew all about death. They killed their own livestock. They died from fevers, falls, or broken bones gone sour. Death was like an unpleasant neighbor. You didn’t talk about him for fear he might hear you and decide to pay a visit.

Except for stories, of course. Tales of poisoned kings and duels and old wars were fine. They dressed death in foreign clothes and sent him far from your door. A chimney fire or the croup cough were terrifying. But Gibea’s trial or the siege of Enfast, those were different. They were like prayers, like charms muttered late at night when you were walking alone in the dark. Stories were like ha’penny amulets you bought from a peddler, just in case.”

13 - What element of writing/art do you struggle with most?

I have a very difficult time making the poses seem natural and flowing. My all time favorite art is Baroque/Renaissance style and how fluid the poses are, how soft the skin looks, how delicately it's all done. Obviously, I will always have my own style, but those are things that I so want to incorporate but never seem to get quite right, and it drives me crazy 😂

14 - Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?

Not really. I mean, I have a ton of unfinished work, but as soon as the window of inspiration passes, I just can't get myself to care enough about it to finish it (insert Jake the Dog, “now it's gone, and I don't care about it anymore!” )

15 - If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to see your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you show them first? 

I would, and have.  I typically show them whatever most rendered recent picture from my Instagram because I don't post any nsfw there and usually try to post only my prettier work for this specific reason haha. (As opposed to here, I post everything here, ain't NO ONE from real life invited to see my tumblr 😂)

16 - Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing or art? Are there any artists that influence you?

Writers: Brandon Sanderson, for sure. He's the reason I got back into art back in 2017 ish. His stories are just so emotional they push me to create. Same with @saibug1022, there is always at least one scene from every story he shares that I desperately want to draw to try to capture the emotions. 

Artists: God, sooo many, here are just like my top 3 favorites and their instagrams.

Audra Auclair

Obsessed with her unique style, and specifically the way she draws eyelids and noses

f3lc4t

The way they draw those dripping, glowing wisps. I stare at their pieces for hours (no lie) trying to dissect them stroke by stroke to figure out how they do it.

Miho Hirano

Their art has a delicate whimsy-ness I would SELL MY SOUL to achieve 

17- Which one of your creations would you like to see a fiction written about? 

JC, this is the shit I DREAM of.

Definitely this one. 

So this is love.

This little comic means a lot to me. 

18- Do you write original fiction or create non-fandom art? 

Very rarely, but I do, every so often. This is my favorite original piece.

20-  What other hobbies do you have?

Gaming, singing, walking through the Cemetary with my wee daughter, reading, that's about it 🤷

21 - What’s your favorite emoji? 

🙇

22: BONUS - tell us anything you’d like (if you want to).

I really wanted to say that I don't believe in “good” art and “bad” art (just ethical vs non-ethical). That being said, I know what it's like to hate your art, like soooo intimately. If you ever are feeling shit about your art, you can ABSOLUTELY message me (I don't care if we're mutuals or not, I don't care if we've never interacted before) and just say, “I am feeling shit about my art” and I will go through your art and tell you every specific thing I love about it and why it's wonderful. I am not joking; I am so so serious rn. 💗💗💗💗 

#choices fic writers creations #playchoices #choices stories you play #cfwc creator of the month #oh-so-youre-a-nerd #choices fanart #playchoices fanart #december creator of the month

[thenightpool]

rinharu wrapped 2023

We almost can't believe it's already time to bring out the kadomatsu again! 2023 just raced by, didn't it…?! Let's take a moment to look back on everything Rin & Haru (and their fans!) have achieved this year.

🌸 Archive of Our Own

The Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka tag on AO3 now holds 3,674 works!

That means 173 new fics were posted this year. (There might've been more than that, but it's hard to keep track of creators privatising their older fics!)

And the Night Pool's AO3 collection is up to 90 works!

.

🌸 The Night Pool

Here at TNP, we revived @sakurathon, a cherry blossom-centric event! This year, the event received 40 works by 19 lovely participants.

Since it was such a big success, we're bringing the event back on April 27th & 28th 2024.

°•. ✿ .•°

We also held the aquatic-themed Unleashed Blue, during which 20 participants created 51 (!!) otherworldly works for us.

With permission of the creators, we lovingly collected them in a 400+ page commemorative zine. You can download it on linktree

°•. ✿ .•°

Writers filled an impressive 35 prompts during our prompt meme Make a Splash! that we held in honor of Haru's birthday.

Read the fills on AO3

°•. ✿ .•°

Rin & Haru's Big Warm-Up, our monthly prompt event, received 16 new works on AO3 across the year & more on socials.

Check out our collection on AO3

°•. ✿ .•°

We also kicked off rinharu fandom's very first bang: MEDLEY!, a mini + reverse hybrid bang that will start posting in March!

(Psst. Sign ups are still open for a few roles!)

°•. ✿ .•°

We held 3 training camps – super fun writing retreat weekends – over on our Discord. We have 4 more retreats planned for 2024!

If you'd like to join us for the next one(s), here's the info

°•. ✿ .•°

We posted 33 new fanart translations!

Here's the link to our masterlist

°•. ✿ .•°

And finally, The Night Pool beat out Harurinralia to win our Ultimate Rinharu Moments Tournament that we held back in April on both Twitter and Tumblr!

.

🌸 Other Fandom Events

It's been a busy year!

In July, @starstarfairy hosted Wave Of Memory (@rinharumemories) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Free! The event ran in two wave on tumblr and Twitter and combined polls, fan memories, and all types of fanworks.

@sweetheavenfics helped us run the RH-friendly @soumako-week in September!

@ryu-outsider hosted the month-long daily prompt event Free!cember here on Tumblr. It welcomed the entire fandom. The event was promoted by eleanorenchanted and run via hashtag.

And @rinharuweek ran for a full 10 days this year in celebration of the show's anniversary! They are just wrapping up.

.

🌸 Official News

Free! turned 10 in 2023. Omedetou gozaimasu!

Free! The Final Stroke Part 2 broke all of the series' previous records in the box office, bringing in over 1 billion yen

It also finally made it to Crunchyroll.com for the US & select others

Miyano Mamoru & Shimazaki Nobunaga fed us (+ fanartists' inspiration) well by shouting "HARU!!" and "RIIIN!!" at each other before hugging passionately during the 10th anniversary event at the Saitama Super Arena

We got tons of amazing new art; including a cover illustration for Free! The Band Live's Ever Blue performance in Yokohama, Animedia's July W-cover, Sweets Paradise's promotional art, and Kyoani's 10th anniversary event's illustration

Rin's ripped jeans (+ THE ANKLETS) in the Matsukiyo & Cocokara's Top Of Summer collaboration launched a thousand fanworks

Matsuoka-senshu, Nanase-senshu, Kirishima-senshu & Yamazaki-senshu represented Mizuno at the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka

Spoon2Di recently restocked volume 78 & 85 on their webshop, and Akiba Pass Shop opened pre-orders for some gorgeous tapestries featuring said art

Karatz, Bikkuriman Choco, Iwami & DECOL all bumped Rin up to 2nd place in character listings (where he belongs!!)

Last but not least, KyoaniShop bankrupted us all by releasing amazing new merchandise (and also did not try to hide that Rin is the Free! series' 2nd protagonist, either…)

--

Thank you so much for being here with us in 2023. We hope it has been a wonderful & creative year for you. Here's wishing you an even more rinharu-filled 2024!

#MOD MUSE IS SO SORRY #SHE ACCIDENTALLY NUKED THE OG POST #she made up for it with new formatting and emojis and the event graphics #she apologizes for the deja vu #rinharu #harurin #rinharu wrapped 2023

[elejah-wonderland]

_elejah au

Love is in the Air

_tvd fanfic_Part 1

a/n: this is a light-hearted, romantic little story.

*

New Orleans

"I am all packed" Elijah said to his sister Rebekah on the phone.

"Why Rome?" the blonde asked.

"I just had this idea for my next book. And I need to go there to get the feel of the city, do some research at the archives." Elijah said.

"So, it's going to be another murder mystery with historical background?!" Rebekah stated.

"Burning Wings was such a great success and now they want me to write a sequel," Elijah said, "and a couple of nights ago I had a dream that kind of set this idea in my head to put the plot in Rome."

"Well, I hope it will not all be work- after your divorce you have done nothing but work."

"I plan to take time off and enjoy the city. Stefan is gone with Valerie to visit his brother and his wife Rosalie in Amesterdam and I got his apartment for a whole month." Elijah explained.

Rebekah sighed a little as her brother mentioned her ex-boyfriend Stefan Salvatore.

"I am sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned him."

"It's ok. I just- it will always be hard cuz- you know - I messed ut up and now- ok- right. When is your flight?" Rebekah asked.

"Tomorrow morning. I will call you when I get there." Elijah replied.

"All right. Have a great time. And try not to just work." Rebekah said and with a little bye and Elijah's promise that he will also take time to enjoy his holiday, they hung up.

Pressing the search button, the latest articles with the news popped up. And the picture of the woman he had met ten years ago as he visited his sister, who was studying in the prestige old private  Mystic Falls College for liberal arts, now stared at him.

His eyes smiled seeing the photo, which was clearly from one of her premieres as she was a famous actress.

And then he saw the article headline.

Elena Gilbert rumored to be secretly engaged to Mason Wood.

Elijah sighed a little and not reading further, swiped the page off and went to a subject he was interested in.

*

In Florence, Italy

Elena walked in her hotel room followed by her personal assistant  and manager, Jo Parker.

"Thank God today was the last day of the shoot. Can you please reschedule everything  for at least a week?!" Elena said."I am so going away and I don't want to know about anything. Please."

"All right. So, what shall I book you? Bali?"

"No. I already made my own arrangements." Elena said.

"What? I didn't want to ask - but - are you seeing  Mason again?" Jo asked.

"No. Well, we hooked up again- and that's all" Elena replied waving away with an insignificant huff.

"Right. Do you want me to say something about the non-engagement? It's all over the internet"

"No. Just leave it. It will blow over. Especially when they soon see him with Erin." Elena explained.

"Erin Lindsay? Seriously?" Jo now asked.

"A couple of days after our hook up I saw him with her all lovey at the same hotel." Elena said followed by a little sigh.

"Oh, sweety - you still thought that -"

"Yeah- I kind of thought that maybe the hook up would be - but things were over with us ages ago- I don't know why I  thought that there - and I am not even in love with him really - anyway, enough of it."

"Where are you going?" the manager asked.

"Rome." Elena replied.

"Rome?" Jo was surprised.

"Yes. And I am going incognito. I got Francesca's keys to her apartment. I need to get away from everything and everyone. Take a week off- maybe two." Elena replied.

"Ok. I have something for you to read. Liv is still negotiating to get the rights to do a movie, but it's nearly in the bag and Tristan is very interested in producing this," Jo now got a book out of her bag, adding,"it's a historical thriller and you would be playing Angel, she is a 15th century librarian, who investigates a murder involving an ancient curse. The book was No.1 everywhere!"

Elena took the book and looked at it, muttering,"Elijah Smith?" and then turned the book around. The face on the back now made her heart jump.

"Interested? The book is really good - there are so many twists and turns - I could not put it down till I finished it. There is a very ambiguous cliffhanger at the end - and apparently there is going to be Burning Wings 2- Elena?"

"Ha? What?" Elena now snapped out of her momentary daze.

"Interested?"

"Yeah" Elena said breathing in a gulp.

Jo smiled a little, gathering why Elena got a tad bit taken in.

"He is such an eye-candy, right?"

"Yeah" Elena said and put the book down on the table.

"What's up?"

"Nothing," Elena replied, "ahm- I want to go shower and I think I will hit the bed."

"All right. I will see you at breakfast? Shall I rent- a- car for you?"

"Yes, please. Thanks, Jo. Sorry, I am just so wasted."- Elena now said rubbing her neck a bit.

"I know. Don't worry. Ok. See you in the morning." Jo said and then taking her bag from the chair left the actress's room.

As the door clicked on the way out, Elena now shot a look at the book, flashing back to the past.

Flashback

Ten years back

"May I?" Elijah asked politely for the seat on the bench.

"Yes" Elena said removing the books so the man could sit down.

"Maybe it appears odd that I want to sit here though the other bench over there is empty, but it's too exposed on the sun and it's such a great shade here under this oak" Elijah said as he sat down.

"Yeah- it's crazy hot today," Elena replied,"and it's only May"

Elijah's eyes now descended on one of the books - "Roman Tragedy", and then a guide book on Rome. "Ah, Rome - such a great city."

Elena now swayed her look from her book she was reading.

"Have you been there?"

"Yes, last summer. With my sister Rebekah and my brother Kol." Elijah replied.

"Rebekah is your sister?"

"Yes. I am here to meet her. And she specificly said  - to be at the White Oak Tree. She is running late. You know her?" Elijah explained.

"We are in the play together." Elena replied.

"Oh, really? She didn't say anything about it. Is she any good?"

Elena nodded a little.

"Not that great, ha?"

"She is, and she could be excellent, but she seems not to care that much. Ok, I shouldn't  saybanything really."

"Oh, you're ok. She is my sister and I love her, but I know what she is like. She excels only at things she really is passionate about, and if she is not - well, she can be superficial."

"Yeah" Elena slipped.

"She wants to be a designer, she told me and I saw some of her designs - and they are amazing. Her show is the evening. But I guess, you know that?!" Elena said.

"Yes, that's why I am here." Elijah now said.

He then saw Rebekah approaching and he stood up. And just before he went to his sister, he turned to the brunette, introducing himself, "I'm Elijah."

"I'm Elena." the woman said.

_to be continued

#elejah #elena gilbert #elijah mikaelson #alternative universe #tvd au #elena and elijah #tvd imagines #fanfiction #part 1 #love is in the air #book cover designed by me #aka elijah smith

[ladyteldra]

Any Way the River Flows

Alternatively: Help! I've Turned the Scum Villain into a Woman!

Shen Yuan survived the attempt on his life from the expired yogurt with divine intervention called his little sister. She was even kind enough not to make fun of his obsession with PIDW and introduce him to fandom while he recovered.

He does not survive the encounter with Truck-kun.

'System! System, what the fuck?!’ [User was assigned the most suitable host!]

In which Shen Yuan is trans and just as prone to overthinking as ever. There is truly no greater champion at 5D chess, especially against himself.

Preview:

Shen Yuan adjusts his mask as he steps off the bus, fitting it more firmly over his nose. It was a pleasant, if chilly, day and the warmth of his breath quickly steams up his glasses if he’s not careful. The sun was out after several days of cloud cover, leaving crisp blue skies he knew won’t last long, the weather report called for rain in the next few days. 

There was worse weather to have to go out in.

He was returning home from a visit to his doctor. Finally recovering from a severe bout of food poisoning that had laid him out months ago. Too many long nights followed by putting off shopping until the last minute, and then getting distracted by a notification in his email.

Anger wars with shame as he remembers that forsaken ending and the resulting situation. 

Deep breath in, out. 

His doctors have been stressing the need to avoid getting worked up over small things. His sister would never let him live it down if he had another health crisis over that damn novel. 

The only thing worse than how the novel ended was knowing his sister was the one to find him on the floor. Unconscious and apparently dying after ingesting expired yogurt of all things. If she hadn’t decided to check on him that day… if she had waited another week for their planned outing… He doesn’t like to think about what the scene would have been. 

Shen Yuan will always be thankful for her intervention, but would have thought that she was too busy calling emergency services and the family to make note of his computer screen. He apparently wasn’t that lucky.

After berating him for his poor habits - his lack of food in the apartment, missing family dinners, not calling - she brought up exactly what web page happened to be in full view. 

Proud Immortal Demon Way. Popular YY Stallion Novel. Incredibly long. Frequently updated. Absolute trash. The brand new final chapter that was only just released for the paid subscribers.

And the freshly posted comment by one Peerless Cucumber.

She was kind enough to lock his computer and turn off the monitor before the ambulance arrived.

Meimei had read the novel too. Well, at least part of it. 

She had bailed shortly after the resolution of the Abyss plot line. When it moved into less cohesive storyline and plot territory and more into excuse for papapa scene territory.

That’s not to say she dropped the novel and left it all behind, never to think of it again.

No. 

She was kind enough to introduce him to all the amazing sites where dissatisfied fans had taken on the task of exploring the story more thoroughly.

She introduced him to fanfiction. Condescendingly telling him he’d have nothing better to do during his time in the hospital bed. She was right. 

Shen Yuan had, of course, known of fanfiction before. You can’t exist on the internet without having at least heard of it and he’s been to multiple conventions. Fan content is a cornerstone for many of them. He’d spent a good amount of money on unofficial merch.

He just hadn’t seen the point of exploring it before the absolute bomb of a conclusion. These were offshoots of the original, how different could it be?

The answer is very. 

Despite familiar themes and characters, it was like a whole new world.

Every complaint he had as a reader, ones he felt were being shouted into the void, were obviously things that bothered others as well. Dropped plot points were explored in depth. Interesting wives that felt forgotten were given personality and purpose. Innumerable objects of ancient power were given history and context. 

So many delved into the possible political landscapes surrounding the world, how they evolved to where they were the protagonist tore through. Focused on the numerous background characters and villains and gave them motivations and lives that were less one dimensional. Gave those supporting them their own reasons in a world that didn’t just revolve around the protagonist.

Admittedly, his favorites were still ones focused on Lou Binghe. But they gave him more meaning than a revenge driven papapa machine. 

There’s nothing like distance to gain perspective. The entire experience has felt like a gold mine in comparison to the original trash.

The community has been extremely welcoming too.

An unfortunate number of people he interacted with recognize his handle, one he really should have considered changing between platforms in retrospect. It’s one thing when it’s mostly anonymous criticism of terrible stallion novels, quite another when people he’s starting to respect are using it. He should have left it behind in middle school where it belonged, but he’d gotten used to it and so had others. It was branding. And at least not as blatant as Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s own dick pun. 

The fan authors on the sites are always surprised at Peerless Cucumber’s lack of vitriol when commenting on works, pleasantly so in most cases. He’s been quick to point out that he’s not paying them for their content, so he can’t judge it as if he was and most of them far outstrip the original work in every way already. And those he actually hates? He can just not interact entirely.

He’s also joined a few forums and chat rooms dedicated to the more factual side. Ones focused on helping each other find the obscure pieces of information in the behemoth of original text or getting feedback on their interpretation of passages. Trying to find lost threads that tie together hundreds of chapters apart. 

He’s starting to make a different name for himself there. One not tied to biting critique and scathing reviews, but someone to rely on for quick and accurate information on the beasts from text. He’s being tagged more and more often in posts looking for quick answers on traits and names of obscure beasts that might appear in different locations in the novel. He’s even updated the wiki.

It’s fun. 

He feels like it’s been good for him. A new way to enjoy the world of Proud Immortal Demon Way without all the stress and rage that came with reading the original every time he realized another plot point was being ignored. 

He’s even regularly talking to several others on a regular basis. In a few months, he’ll even be willing to tentatively call them friends. 

Shen Yuan might have, might have, also begun compiling all his answers into a single document for easy access. He may have also started expanding on that information with links between other creatures and what they might be based on. Some blurbs of what could be first hand accounts in the style of journal entries. 

If you want it, write it yourself. Be the change you want to see in the world and all that. The reception of the few entries he’d shared had been positive. Enough to make him want to keep going

There might also be a slowly growing assortment of artistic interpretations of what those creatures would look like.

Meimei is the only one that’s seen the drawings and she’s given her seal of approval. He’s not drawn since his burnout from school. It was good to know he hadn’t lost all his hard won skill. His mother can never be allowed to know. She’d been giving him sad eyes to pick up drawing back up for years. If she knew that all it took was a shitty novel…

He very carefully doesn’t think about the also growing assortment of figure studies as he’s reread the beginning text.

Well, she’d probably just be happy it happened at all.

Shen Yuan stops before the next crosswalk, red. He rubs some circulation back into hands before pulling out his phone to check his emails. He can’t get too engrossed, everyone else is on the other side of the street for once, so he can’t use people moving around him as a prompt. But he can at least check to see if he’s been tagged in anything recently. It’s good to start formulating a response ahead of time if he can, or at least know how much is waiting for him.

If he’s lucky, there might even be some updates to look forward to when he gets home. He follows more than a few that use his contributions.

His email hasn’t even finished loading when the screech of tires causes him to look up in alarm. 

It’s a truck.

Swerving towards him. 

‘I’m not even on the crosswalk, yet.” 

Read more here.

#scum villian self saving system #svsss #fanfiction #shen yuan #shen qingqiu #he's trans in this #I finally posted it #tel writes

[mithriil]

Good Morning

Larissa Weems x Reader Fluff

I’ve posted this on Ao3 already, but I wanted to archive it on here as well. Just a small little thing I wrote thinking soft thoughts. 

Link to Ao3

Or read it here under the cut. 

A/N:  First time ever writing anything, but this scene just came up and wouldn't leave me alone. :)

Waking up in a bed that is not your own is usually not a very comforting experience. All the more were you surprised when you woke up and realized you felt at peace, content even, for the first time in a while.

The restlessness of the past weeks had left you exhausted and in its wake now only calm and comfort remained.

Feeling the sun on your skin you turned your head towards its direction, breathing in deeply, relishing in your newfound state of quiet serenity.

"Don't move."

She sat facing you, her back to the large windows through which the warm light of the sun fell, in her hands a well worn leather sketchbook and the ink-pen you had thought lost - you would have to ask her later how exactly she got hold of it.

You heard the scratch of a pen, then a light rustle and the sheets laying on top of you moved just slightly.

Smiling, you opened one of your eyes just slightly.

You could just make out her concentrated brow against the light, eyes focused on the book in her hands, long fingers gripping the leather delicately. Hair still slightly unkempt, so different from its usual pristine updo, a blue silk robe only very loosely hanging onto her pale shoulders.

Angling her head just slightly on her next stroke you could make out the little soft hairs across her cheek and jaw - she must have woken up just shortly before you, her clear face and sleepy gaze gave off a domestisticity that you did not realize you craved so much, the view causing a warmth to spread through your chest.

Suddenly she made a low sound in her throat, more felt than heard, the sensation of her voice dripping warmly down your spine, and looked up into your eyes.

Her warm, calculating gaze lingered on you for a few moments before she raised the hand in which she held the pen towards you.

You closed your eyes slightly and felt two of her fingers on your face in the next moment. Slowly they traversed across your brow, down your cheek, stopping shortly at your lips, finally landing on your chin. She raised your face just so, before removing her hand again, a satisfied sound eminating from deep within her chest.

You released the air you hadnt noticed you were holding.

Keeping your eyes closed you listened to her calm breathing. By the time she spoke once more you were almost asleep again, the warmth of the sun, the smell of her perfume and her that marked the bed as hers lulling you back into the dark arms of sleep.  

"Open your eyes."

Her quiet request brought you back and you hazily opened both eyes, seeing her now sitting beside you on the bed. She was holding up the sketchbook you gifted her on a whim weeks ago, showing you what she had been doing this whole time.

In the top left corner stood "Good Morning" in her neat handwriting. It was you. In sleek black lines she had drawn a scene of pure tranquility. Your hair falling in lazy waves, the sheets not fully drawn up, the contours of your legs and hip visible. Your arm in front of your chest, just so conceiling and teasing with the nudity beneath. A small satisfied smile on your face - you hadn't even noticed that you were smiling the whole time.

Raising your eyes from the page you met her curious gaze, already waiting for your response.

Why was it so hard to find words at this moment? You wanted to thank her, yell at her really, your gratitude for... everything, the evening, her cooking, this morning, the drawing and above all her. All you mustered was a quivering smile with tearful eyes, not quite knowing what to say really, just hoping that she would understand you like she did so many times before.

Her face broke into a gentle smile, her eyes almost glowing in the morning light.

#larissa weems x reader #larissa weems #gwendoline christie #* #i return to tumblr after years of inactivity with this #wild #but hello guys if you're still around lol hope you're all well #fanfiction #f!reader #but really you can read it however you want #i dont really describe anything specific

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

📣ANNOUNCEMENT📣 THE BIG 2024 PROJECT

At long last, I'm announcing what I've been working on🥁

Starting February 6th and continuing every other Tuesday through at least mid-December, this blog will be highlighting the work of various illustrators of A Tale of Two Cities over the many decades since its initial publishing!💫

As it stands right now, the archive will span from the very beginning in 1859 all the way through about 1992 (with a heavy density at the turn of the century) and will contain just under 500 individual illustrations by 20 individual illustrators — in styles ranging all the way from pen to painting and abstraction to realism✍️

All of these numbers will continue to grow, however, because this is an ongoing project! In fact I expect the queue to continue through a good portion of 2025 as I keep finding and archiving more and more — there's just so much out there! For this reason I am not posting these in a sorted order — I looked at what I have right now and ordered them to feel random and balanced, with some themed for certain months😎

Also! A large percentage of these (about half of the artists and well over half of the total illustrations) are coming from sources difficult or impossible to find on the Internet and are instead coming from my own scanning work: When I would discover in my research editions that I knew to have work by new illustrators whose pages weren't available for online viewing, I would seek out and buy those editions for super cheap online and scan them on my own printer's scanner — so for a lot of the old illustration work that this blog will be posting, it will possibly be the first time some of these have ever been uploaded for public view on the Internet!🤩

As far as keeping the archive organized on this blog, the organizational tag for these posts will be " #illustrators ", and I will also tag each post with the highlighted artist's name and with the decade in which each set of illustrations was initially published (as far as my research tells me)🏷️

On the off-weeks, this blog will be posting its usual miscellany, with a sprinkling of behind-the-scenes and extras for this specific project. But starting next week and continuing every other Tuesday* through about the entire year, expect a new post highlighting the work of a given A Tale of Two Cities illustrator — and be prepared because sometimes the number of illustrations on a single post will be in the tens/dozens since Tumblr increased the max image count for a single post to 30! *with the exception of April, which is going to have a special schedule for reasons you'll see when the queue gets there👀

I'm just so excited to at long last get to share this incredible archive here! I sincerely hope you enjoy this fascinating and often breathtaking look at these tiny, beautiful pieces of art history!🌟

#A Tale of Two Cities #AToTC #illustrators #classic literature #dickens #charles dickens #victorian literature #illustration #heads up #blogress #text #it really is happening this is so exciting! #i...actually still have a lot of work to do for it to be ready (the queue doesn't. Actually exist yet lol) #because this last week I needed a break from this project so I tried playing the indig0 disk dlc for p0kem0n scarlet and. #i. underestimated how long it would take. i'm still playing it actually. so. once that's done then it's back to this #i mean i'll definitely have next week's post done in time but just wish me luck trying to get the whooole queue set up by then too! #regardless. WOO-HOO! YIPPEE! HOORAY! HUZZAH! HECK YEAH!

[annmariethrush]

Suptober day 3: inspired

Dean gets excited about making breakfast after morning-sex only for it to go embarrassingly awry. On AO3 or below the cut :)

Dean sighed contentedly as Cas rolled onto the bed beside him, dropping the towel onto the floor next to the bed. Dean adjusted his sweaty body, which was quickly becoming clammy in the cool air, to press against the soft, warm skin of Cas’s upper body that always radiated a gentle heat.

Now that Jack was god and no longer living in the Bunker, Sam being out on a case meant that Dean and Cas had the whole place to themselves. As much as Dean loved living with his brother, he knew better than to waste privacy when he got it, and he had passed that tenet along to Cas over the months after Sam had given him enough bitch face to last a life time.

Pressing a thoughtless kiss against Dean’s hairline, Cas grunted, “You need to eat breakfast. Do you want to go shower while I make it?”

Dean laughed gently, “Sunshine, after last time, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Dean’s mind drifted back to several weeks ago when Cas had attempted to make French toast before Dean got out of bed. He had awoken to the smell of smoke drifting from the kitchen and Sam loudly admonishing Cas for trying to burn the place down.

Cas frowned and began to protest before a sudden thought made Dean cut him off excitedly. “Wait!! I’ll make pancakes! It’s been forever since I got to make pancakes, but we have fresh eggs from the store finally so I should have all the ingredients and we can—“ Dean trailed off, “What?”

Cas’s frown had morphed into a bemused grin at Dean’s ramblings and he was staring at Dean as though nothing else in the world could be funnier or cuter. Cas gave Dean a kiss, firm and a little sloppy, and entirely drawn out, with a comical “mmmmwah” sound, before making a show of shoving Dean out of bed unceremoniously.

“Hey!” Dean rolled off the bed, giggling as he caught himself. “Fine, no more post-coital cuddling for you!”

Dean gathered up some combination of clothes from the floor where they had been scattered, quickly finding himself dressed in a pair of light blue flannel pajama pants (adorned with clouds wearing sun glasses) and a dark pink t-shirt from Cas’s closet that said “SWEET CHEEKS” on it, which Dean had acquired from a restaurant’s gift shop in Kentucky several hunts ago. He gave Cas a grin and a wink before grabbing his dead-guy robe from the back of the door and heading to the kitchen.

Dean’s mind wandered while he gathered ingredients for the pancakes, frequently going back to check the recipe— a torn out magazine page from an issue of Southern Lady that he had been thumbing through in a motel room while Sam was showering. As he dug through the pantry he came across a fresh squirt bottle from a pack he had gotten to store cooking oil in and had an idea.

—

Dean was proudly drawing the outline for his fifth penis shaped pancake into the pan, carefully adding veins to the curved length, when he heard a sound behind him in the kitchen. He turned to greet Cas, a huge grin on his face, only to have his expression turn to horror as his eyes settled on the person before him. He instinctively moved to put his body in front of the plate full of pancakes before slowly greeting the person before him.

“Morning, Jack.” Dean felt his whole face flushing bright red and he considered just asking Jack to smite him right then and there. “I can make you other pancakes, sorry. I didn’t realize you’d be in this morning…”

Jack looked entirely unfazed, as per usual, and was about to respond when Cas came around the corner saying “Smells good sweethea— Jack!!“

Dean’s eyes flicked over to Cas and he doubled down on his wish for Jack to smite him as he noticed Cas’s attire. Unaffected by the chilly winter air in the Bunker, Cas had opted for only a pair of pajama pants, leaving the broad expanse of his chest and his toned arms on full display. With a big smile, he strode towards his son, greeting him with a hug. Jack squeezed back, the two of them entirely unbothered by Cas’s lack of clothes, and paying no attention to Dean’s bright red face.

Just smite me…

Pulling back, Jack pointed past Dean and told Cas confidently, “Dean made pancakes that look like you!”

PLEASE FUCKING SMITE ME!!

“Oh did he? Well you know how inspiring I am…” Cas smirked as he moved to glance behind Dean’s back at the plate of pancakes.

Dean’s eyes stayed wide open even as his brain begged to shut them, watching as the metaphorical vehicles piled up and spontaneously combusted in this seemingly endless car wreck he couldn’t peel his eyes away from. He felt the moment that Cas made eye contact with the carefully crafted penis pancakes, seeing them in their veiny glory, and the air in the room went utterly still. Cas’s smirk dropped for a moment, causing Dean to simultaneously rejoice at not being the only one embarrassed and to redden further as Cas grasped the situation, but then Cas was suddenly doubled over laughing.

This was more than Dean could cope with.

Before he knew it though, he was doubled over too, laughing so hard that his ribs hurt, his eyes leaked, and he was hardly even making a sound as his lungs tried in vain to fill back up. They laughed and laughing, leaning against each other, and nearly collapsing onto the floor. Only minutes later when Dean had wiped away the tears streaming down his cheeks and mostly caught his breath did he think to look at Jack again, finding him with an eyebrow quirked and a slight smile, but otherwise entirely unmoved.

Dean turned around to revel in his work now that the tension had left his shoulders and, with a jolt of panic, realized he had completely neglected the pancake outline still on the pan. “Shit!”

He cringed as he attempted to pry it off the pan, listening to it crack and shatter into small burnt shards. Accepting his loss, he scraped it off of the pan with force and piled the soot into a small bowl to cool down before going in the trash can. Finally, he turned around to face the music once more.

“So, I’m the one who is too irresponsible to make breakfast…” Cas stated, giving Dean a smug look.

“I don’t wanna hear a goddamn thing, it’s not the same and you know it.” Dean defended, though he was already beginning to think that Cas might be right. He sighed, “What shape pancakes would you like Jack?”

Jack’s brow furrowed for a moment, thinking about it very deeply, before stating, resolutely, “Trapezoid.” He nodded as though confident in his answer before adding, “Please.”

Dean shook his head gently before putting a hand on Jack’s shoulder reassuringly, “You got it kid. Now go put the syrup and orange juice on the table while your dad goes to get a shirt.”

Jack hops over to the fridge happily and begins digging out the juice. Cas gives Dean another smug look before turning to go, but Dean grabs him by the wrist and pulls him in for a hug. Cas, surprised, wraps his hands around Dean’s waist before Dean whispers harshly in his ear, “I’m gonna enjoy these pancakes and then I am never going to hear another word about this, understood?”

Cas leans back and plants a quick kiss on Dean’s cheek, “Of course. Because Sam wouldn’t find this funny at all…”

With that, Cas turned and ran out of the kitchen laughing. “Oh you’re gonna get it now, buddy!” Dean hollered after him.

He turned back towards the stove with a shake of his head and a lingering smile before thinking to himself, what the fuck is a trapezoid???

#destiel fic #destiel #suptober23 #destiel fluff #dadstiel #Castiel #dean winchester #Jack Kline #spn 15x20? what 15x20? #Dean reads housewife magazines #embarrassed dean #Jack is unaware of human customs #Cas is a bit of a shit #dick shaped food tastes better #Dean Winchester laughs #deancas

[naranjapetrificada]

Fanfic Friday time

This week wrt my own writing: things are picking back up again, although god I forgot how little sunlight we get during spring. Of what I've written of Chapter 3 so far, I'll probably be keeping like, 3000 words? Which doesn't feel like a lot considering how much I wasn't able to squeeze into Chapter 2, but the problem with misjudging your timeline is that you start seeing new places to put things, farther away than when you started. I also have some important pieces I need to get on the proverbial chess board and no idea how to elegantly do it so

Anyway, onto the recs! I've been reading a mix of new and old OFMD stuff, plus a disarmingly beautiful Good Omens fic I found deep in my [redacted number] open AO3 tabs that knocked me right off my feet.

Works from the A to Z of Edward Teach zine started to show up on the archive this week, if you weren't able to purchase your own copy. It's packed with great stuff, but a couple of gems that stood out to me were:

To-cat-ta and Fugue by the one and only @mxmollusca, a silly and sweet canon divergent (season 1) one shot that brings a whole new meaning to "cat energy"

J is for Jeff by @veeagainsttheday, a modern AU about Ed trying to get a new start with a new identity, but accidentally telling the cute guy whose life he impulsively saved his real name. Thing about saving someone's life is they might want to thank you for it, and if they're Stede Bonnet then Ed Jeff will want to see him again.

As for non-zine OFMD recs, well, I'm still out here trying to scratch the Fast Car itch while patiently waiting for smallestchurch to post the third* chapter. In the mean time:

I went for one of her other fics, Turn on the Light. This time it's a modern AU where Stede buys a bookshop next door to Ed's famous cocktail bar, and as we know, these boys fall in love in every universe. I adored it.

For some more childhood friends vibes, I went to If You Get the Time, the Number is Still Mine by @one-more-page. It's told almost entirely through phone calls between Ed and Stede as they grow up and apart and back together again, and did a great job of capturing the extremely specific loneliness of watching yourself lose a friend.

And last but certainly not least we have Though Heaven Bar the Way by @books-and-omens, a gorgeously written, evocative, canon divergent Good Omens fic that I'm going to be thinking about (as a writer and a reader) for a long, long time. Inspired by The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, it's set at a tuberculosis sanitorium in the Swiss Alps a few decades after Crowley and Aziraphale's big 1862 fight. When I say it knocked me off my feet I mean it knocked me off my feet. It hit me like an avalanche. I will be recommending to absolutely everyone.

*because I have a modicum of self awareness I can see the irony here, deep in my own WIP's chapter 3 trenches.

#fanfic friday #fic recs #fic rec #fic writing #writing process #ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #good omens #good omens fic #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands

[ikroah]

Wherever I have gone, wherever I've been and gone, wherever I have gone, the blues are all the same —“Blues Run the Game,” Jackson C. Frank (1965)

It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin’ #23 - Ring-a-Ding-Ding II

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Read IKROAH on Archive of Our Own

Notes / Original Pencils / Transcript:

Notes:

Let’s talk about two things.

The first thing is burnout. It’s hilarious in retrospect that the notes on the previous issue open with an apology that it’s been three months since the preceding issue, which given that this current hiatus lasted six months, lmao. As I’ve mentioned before and elsewhere, shortly after completing the previous issue of IKROAH, the toll of working on it and other projects so industrially for two years finally caught up with me, and by May I basically had a kind of flip turn where suddenly, I could not stand my own art. More than that, I was repulsed by the very act of drawing, of making. Too many self-imposed deadlines, too many long nights churning comics out in as few sessions of work as possible, too many other things that I wasn’t giving myself enough time for. Something had to give, and when it did, I could barely hold a pencil for months without just getting really angry. I wish that I could say that there was something specific that I did to overcome this feeling, but there wasn’t: I can only attribute wanting to draw again to spending a long time not drawing at all, a time in which I tried to basically forget through disuse all of the bad habits that I’d ingrained about making myself make art. Art is an important hobby and creative outlet to me, but sometimes, you really just need to step away from something for a relatively long time so that you can come back to it with a much healthier mindset. And that’s what I’ve done. Thank you all for being so patient with me during IKROAH’s first real hiatus. There have been “hiatuses” in the past but, for example, one thing that I definitely had to strip out of myself was the anxiety and the guilt that I would feel when IKROAH would go on “hiatus” because more than three weeks or so passed between issues. I had myself on an absolutely insane production schedule for no reason except believing that getting every issue out as fast as possible was paramount. When I first began this comic with issue #1, I thought I could do one issue every two weeks. This was colossally stupid and going in as naive as I did with this mindset was like ingesting a slow-acting poison. IKROAH issues come out whenever they come out and that’s that from now on, and I feel silly because no reader of the comic has ever acted entitled to anything but that anyway.

The second thing I want to talk about is my art itself. My burnout had a point, especially with IKROAH, which is that there are some things about my art that is very frustrating. Did you know that the reason that IKROAH pages are the size that they are (1080 x 1678 px) is because I draw them two-per-sheet-of-paper at 13cm x 21cm each, and 1080 pixels is twice the width of the (possibly outdated) maximum display width of an inline image on the dashboard, and a height of 1678 pixels matches the aspect ratio of the best way that I could digitize my images at the time, which was by taking a picture of my art the best that I could with my phone in good lighting? This was the standard that I set for myself in summer of 2020 and for some reason I decided that it was etched in stone. I made some small improvements over time, such as finally buying a scanner sometime around IKROAH #12, and then changing IKROAH’s dialogue font and switching to digital paneling in #22, but this is going to be the final issue that abides by that old, absurdly small page size. I have finally reached my breaking point in this issue with how it completely prevents me from drawing fine or distant detail, so this is the final issue that is going to be at this size. Were it not for the fact that pre-burnout I hadn’t already drawn the first two pages of this issue and had formatted the paneling and lettering already for this specific size, I probably would have gone bigger already!

IKROAH has been, for the most part, an artistic playground where I’ve honed my skills and experimented with the comic book form gleefully. Compare the art from the first few issues with the more recent ones to see that development in action. But for all of this development and experimentation, why have I felt like page size is unassailable? I can’t tell you for sure what the “new” page size is going to be, because while I have a larger size in mind, it’s another experiment, not a promise of consistency. I used to think that it was easier and faster to work small because smaller art meant less art, but I’m finally sure that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Now, I’m extremely excited for what a much larger canvas will mean for the look of the comic, and for the rest of Volume 2, I’m sure that you’ll be able to see me experimenting artistically in some way with every issue.

Original Pencils

Unfortunately, due to the way in which this issue was inked, I don’t have the complete original pencils to share with you! I would draw and ink panels one-by-one instead of penciling the whole page first. This is because I my burnout was actually triggered, essentially, by fucking up the inks on the first page after penciling it and feeling sure that I would have to redraw it, and that making me so mad that I couldn’t bear to reapproach my art at all. I didn’t want to make that mistake again, so I went through the rest of the pages with a lot more caution. Still, I can show you some scans.

One major thing that made working on all but the first two pages was finally investing in real non-copy blue pencils instead of blue colored pencils. Real non-copy blue pencils lack the waxiness of colored pencils, making them draw much lighter, erase much cleaner, and generally behave much more like regular pencils that just happen to be blue. It’s been a godsend for my ability to ink more expressively, and I’m experimenting with inking and coloring styles are going to be my favorite part of the rest of Volume 2, because I think that that is something that I want to overhaul the most.

Also, one funny thing: if there was a significant reason why I made Benny’s suite number 1007, I have forgotten it. Just like how I must have forgotten in the writing and penciling of this issue that Benny’s suite is canonically on the thirteenth floor. Oops! Well, not in this canon it’s not.

I do have one complete pencil sketch to show you: IKROAH’s first ever two-page spread! Bang!

Transcript

EXT. THE TOPS CASINO, NEW VEGAS. The Tops’ signature sign shines brightly outside the entrance, brightly even for Vegas.

INT. THE TOPS CASINO, NEW VEGAS. Casino guests hustle and bustle around the main floor, checking in, heading to and from the cashier on the second floor, and mingling. Leaning against a rail overlooking the slightly sunken gaming area is AGNES SANDS. She stares intently and furiously toward the back of the room, where an older man is laughing with a younger man. The younger man is drinking a martini, wears a black-and-white checked suit jacket, and is oblivious to her presence.

AGNES thinks to herself as she watches him.

Hello, Benny.

Her eye narrows.

You’d think that getting shot in the head would be the worst thing to ever happen to somebody, but at this point in my life, I’m genuinely not sure.

On the casino floor, a RED-HAIRED WOMAN seems to accidentally bump into BENNY from behind, knocking his drink out of his hand. It shatters on the ground, and he turns angrily to face her.

When I was six years old, my father died from a bad fall. He was a caravaneer, so they never shipped his body home.

ROSE OF SHARON CASSIDY stands in front of Benny, clutching a nearly empty glass of whiskey. She raises her hand up to her faced, shocked and embarrassed. BENNY is just as surprised, and even more so when CASS takes his face in one hand and suggests that he come with her to refill her glass.

My mom was our town’s doctor, so after that, she decided to apprentice me as her nurse. I was still just a kid.

She was right to do it. It takes a long time to learn medicine, and it’s a useful skill. She knew it’d do me good.

CASS hurriedly leads BENNY by the hand toward the casino bar. As the pair brush past AGNES, she pickpockets BENNY’s key, and holds it up to glean the room number from its tag: 1007. Satisfied, she drops the key on the ground, and heads for the elevators. Just behind her, CASS points out that BENNY seems to have dropped his keys, and he reacts with relief.

But she was hard, as a teacher. Maybe even more so as a mother. Maybe she had to be.

AGNES’ elevator slowly ascends. First floor to the tenth.

Maybe I wouldn’t have started messing around with locks if I didn’t get it in my head to act so damn rebellious later on. I broke in somewhere I shouldn’t have. Found something I shouldn’t have. I was thirteen.

I had to put my own face back together right there on the concrete floor. Held it in place with duct tape, and two-hundred year old bandages. Pre-war.*

*As depicted in IKROAH #7 and the IKROAH Vol. 1 Special Delivery companion story, “Scar Tissue.”

Ding! The elevator arrives and the door opens.

I still can’t even shave without getting a cold sweat.

Back on the casino floor, CASS and BENNY have it it off. They’re smiling and laughing at the bar, several drinks deep.

Meanwhile, AGNES stalks toward Room 1007.

My mom was happy I was alive, but didn’t care whether I was okay, if that makes sense. She was always like that.

It’s why we fought when she found out about...me, when the changes from the hormones I’d been sneaking got...unignorable.

The lock is easy to pick for practiced hands. It opens with a CLICK. The door swings open and AGNES stands in the doorway, assessing the area.

I wonder what your mother would think of this. What she must have been like. Whether she’s even alive now. I wonder if she loved you, her baby boy, a killer in cold blood.

Eventually, we fought. Physically, I mean. It was a long time coming. I hit her hard, once, and that was it. It was over.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget what that felt like. Maybe I’m not one to talk.

Time passes.

BENNY returns to his suite and puts his keys in the lock.

I ran away to the NCR after that. I was an adult now, and had to start over. And I needed skills that my mom couldn’t have taught me. I thought I’d be a combat medic, out in the field. But no. No, no. Of course not.

BENNY opens his door, looking exhausted and covered in kiss marks. Looks like somebody really wore him out. He shuffles over to his bedroom.

They shipped me to some do-nothing recon station way up north in California, near Gecko. And from the minute I set foot there, my C.O. fucking hated me.

He abused me, berated me, blamed me, because I took his old friend’s position or something. Stupid petty bullshit like that.

I think that he was sabotaging my medical supplies. Messing with my work, trying to get me discharged.

There’s no other way he could have found my estrogen from home.

BENNY undresses in his bedroom, and then flops onto his bed.

Just another thing for him to scream at me about. Or it would have been.

AGNES enters the bedroom.

Never got any military police after me when I attacked him with a scalpel that night and ran.

Maybe he couldn’t cover up his own bullshit well enough, so he just kept his mouth shut. Doesn’t matter. Lucky me.

AGNES rifles through BENNY’s jacket, which he hung on a coatrack near the door.

I ran to New Reno. I’d deserted. The only job I could get was at a charity clinic run by one of the crime families there, and it was dismal. I couldn’t afford to live.

So I started picking locks again. Pockets, too. Got real good at it, too. You’d know.

AGNES’ eyes fixate on something. She’s pulled it out of his coat.

I was stealing to survive. Same dance, different song. Nevermind my hormones, I needed food and shelter. I’d never felt lower.

The Platium Chip.

I was casing one of the casinos there when I saw a man get glassed. I was still a doctor. Still had that oath. So I went to work, and saved the man’s life right there. His name was Yancy Bishop and he made my life a living hell for six long years.*

*IKROAH #12.

Until I killed him.

Something else catches AGNES’ attention in BENNY’s bedroom. Something on his nightstand. A gun.

He came to me helpless in surgery and I ripped him apart from the inside out, thrilled, exhilarated, terrified of myself.

AGNES approaches the nightstand. She picks up the gun.

And after that...I ran away again. Ran until I got to the Mojave. Ran until I fumbled into being a courier. Making deliveries, always running, but not a doctor anymore, not stealing to survive, just some stability in my life for once. For once. And then:

It’s the same gun that BENNY shot her with.

She turns to face BENNY.

You.

AGNES removes the 9mm bullet that she has been wearing around her neck since she left Goodsprings; a bullet made partly from the lead that was fished out of her own skull.

You are not special.

She loads the gun. As quietly as she can.

I’ve been dealing with people like you my entire life. My mother. My C.O. The Bishops...

...your Khans, McLafferty, the Van Graffs...have I killed more people in the last week than you have in your whole...

AGNES approaches BENNY’s bed. She gets one shot.

...was I the only one, Benny? And you couldn’t even do it right. I clawed out. An ugly life, too ugly to kill, even with a gun to my head. Your gun. This gun.

She raises the gun. She aims with both hands. Bodies are easier to hit than bottles.

Rigged from the start—is that what you’d said? You piece of shit. You look like you have everything, have been given everything. So you just had to rub it in, that night. Didn’t you.

AGNES scowls. Her brow furrows with rage.

Always been too big of a target. Too tall, too wide, too mannish. Never been beautiful. Never even got to be handsome, like you. Then you shoot my eye out, butcher me even more—and all for what? A mail-order tchotchke!?

The gun gleams in the sparse light.

I’m going to fucking kill you.

AGNES’ expression shifts.

I’ve killed so many people to get to you.

Her hands start to shake. The gun is heavy in them.

And...and now I’m going to kill you.

Sweat is beading on her face.

Because of what you did to me. Because I can’t sleep at night. Because of you. I don’t sleep, most nights, because of you.

AGNES grimaces as her whole body trembles.

So I’ll kill you, with the fucking gun you killed me with, then I won’t be so...

The gun. The gun. The gun--

I’ll...I’m—

Her eye is wide with terror.

Oh God.

AGNES stands alone in the dark in the bedroom of the man that she has planned to kill. The gun is in her hands. Tears stream down her face, frozen in grief. The gun is in her hands.

BENNY is awake. He has been awake. He is sitting up in his bed. He is staring at her staring at him.

The gun is in her hands.

AGNES fires the gun.

SFX: BANG

#fallout #fallout new vegas #courier six #benny gecko #rose of sharon cassidy #the tops #new vegas #ikroah archive #volume 02 #23

[vibratingskull]

Mermaid!Thrawn x f!reader part 5

Part 1, 2, 3, 4

"You're searching something in particular, miss?"

You turn to the Librarian, a nice short lady with round glasses that comically enlarge her eyes.

"Well, yes... In fact I'm searching several things : I would like a book on sign language, a book on the legends of the town and the gazette archives around the 50's. I don't know if you would have all that..." you explain. She seems to think for a second. "Wait at this table, I will give you what you need." she says as she walk away among the shelfs. You let your gaze travel on the covers of the books, leafing through some by curiosity, those are illustrated books for children about fairy tales. You realize you've never heard Thrawn sing like in the tales, maybe this is just folklore... You pick up an old illustrated edition of the Little Mermaid and read it again. How long since you last read it? Years, most probably. You sit at the table and let yourself carried by the tragic tale of the adolescent.

You're fully immerged in the story when she came back with the books. "The archives are on microfilms, if you want to see them we will need to take out the machine. Is it urgent?"

"No." you shake your head with a smile "No, I can come back next week.", "It would be preferable, indeed." You thank her and opens the legend book "Legends of our region" and pass everything until the aquatic creatures part. It speaks of a monster toad that haunts the swamps and a little undine that died for a pearl, you skim over the unnecessary text until you find the mermaids, and your thoroughly disapointed : The text is one page long with a childish drawing of a siren. You sigh. You choose a second one, to find out that they don't speak of it at all you take the last one with little hope but you're more lucky.

"The mermaid is an antique sea creature, existing through multiple form in multiple cultures, but the siren of our region is a bit more specific and have capacities her cousins lack." tells you the author. You install yourself comfortably and start reading. Your mermaid specie is especially sociable, helping the fisherman and the shipwrecker victims, they would have guided the fish to the shore with their songs, commanding them. They used to be nomadic tribes, following and hunting among the great whales but became sedentary as humans took the roles of the whales, providers of food. Magical creatures, they can metamorphosis in sea lion, daulphin or walrus, and even human for a brief amount of time. They say they also posess a potion to transform a human in a mermaid. The tales of the shipwrecks by singing mermaid would be a pure invention, the sailors simply choosen to take the potion and disapear into the sea forever and the desesperate partners staying on land shared the tell to mourn their relationships. Once every millenial, the tribe would get on land to enjoy a hunt party and taste what the land as to offer different than the sea and then go back into waters. They would be a second tribes that didn't help humans but eat them, drowning sailors and careless swimmers, they would be hideous creatures screetching in the night, obsess over blood and flesh. They live in the deepest layers of the ocean, where the light can't shine, in contrary of the good mermaid that higher in the layers. Today the mermaid disapeared, never to be seen again, like every mythologic creatures.

Your smartphone rings, you received an sms. It's your mother telling you that your father will sleep at a friend house tonight because they argued again.

You sigh.

You exit the library with your books, saddened. You wish you could come back in time, when you were young and your parents didn't hate each other... When they would laugh and play with you. Today they only scream and break dishes. When was the last meal you ate with them that didn't end in an argument?

What started all of this? Did they fall out of love? Did your mother cheated on your father before or after the first major argument? Before or after your father started drinking? Did he start because of that or because of his work?

You remember one night he came in the dead of night into your room, drunk, and wake you up to cry...

"Why are you crying, child?" a voice rises next to you. You raise your head to an old men in a cassock, on the front steps of the church.

"Huh... Nothing." You wipe your tears, blinking "Just bad memories."

"Would you want to tell me? To alleviate your heart." He proposes. You look at him, he looks stern, uptight, dead serious and cold. "No, i'm not really religious. It would not be-", "I didn't mean in the chapel or anyting of the sort, just have you talk would maybe ease your trouble by putting it into words." He corrects.

"Ho!" you're suprised "That is really nice of you, but I don't like talking of my problems to strangers, that is not really their cross to bearn, y'know." You try some humor, but it doesn't work, his face remains rigid and stoic. His eyes look like they could see your soul, making you feel a bit uneasy. "Then speak to a friend, maybe they would be of good advice.", "Yes sir." you nod, timidely.

"Can I see your book?" he asks politely, but his gaze is hard. You hand him the book in silence. "You try to communicate with your deaf and mute brothers and sisters? That is a good thing." You smile politely "Something of the sort." You observe the church as he leafs through it, you remember loving visiting it. Your familly isn't religious, you just like visiting old buildings, maybe you should try urbex, it could be fun! Him however, you've never seen him before

"You're new here, father...?", "Father Tarkin." he gives you back the book with a nod "In fact I came back, you must have been a infant when I was first here.", "Oh. It was a will of yours?" His hard gaze travels across the streets like he could see sin just by looking at it. "I felt a sensation of unfinished business here." You feel you won't have any more info than that so you politely thay goodbye "Well, welcome back father" and start to walk away

"One moment please." you stop dead in your tracks, turning to him with wondering eyes "Your necklace..." By instinct you grip it "What?", "It reminds me of something, is it a family heirloom?", "Yes" you lie, "Oh... curious." He seems to think, holding his chin and frowning. You feel yourself shivering. What if he knows?

"It looks like the tiara exposed at the museum.", you sigh relieved "Oh? Really?", he nods "Yes. Maybe it was inspired by the same art style?", "Probably"

He looks at it some more and shakes his head "Anyway, the night will soon fall. Go home.", "Yes father!" And you go off, you pedal to the beach and jump off your bike, run to the shore and push a bark into waters.

You paddle towards the setting sun, craddled by the waves. You paddle along the cliffs in search of one particular cavern... When you found it you enter it, when the sea will rise again, the entry will be completely hidden and you'll be stuck.

You get out of the bark and walk inside the large cavern , familiarizing yourself with the place. Then you take your flashlight and study the sign language book, waiting for him

An hour passes by when you feel a claw grazing your tighs, you raise your head from the text to see Thrawn looking at you intently. You can't help but smile. "Hi!" you wave at him surexcited, he imitates your gesture slower, like he wonders what does it mean.

You take out a fish container and he hops on the bank to seat next to you "I hope you like salmon!" you sing. You open it and give him some of the fish and you eat it together, sneakily you robbed your mother of some soy sauce and put some on your piece. He looks interested, "You want to try?" you smile. He takes the bottle and traces the text on the tag with his claw. "I doubt you can make sense of it." you mock gently. He opens the lid and inhale the scent. He frowns severely and you burst out laughing, "You're surely not used to it under water!", he looks at you like he understood you were mocking him. Nevertheless he tries it, lets a drop of it fall on his tongue and taste it. His face is indecipherable and he puts down the bottle without letting an ounce of expression twist it. He eats his salmon silently and with dignity, while you do your own cookery, slicing it and dropping it in the sauce. "Usually I eat it with sesame too." You mundanely explain, you start talking to him about your day, about every little things that happened to you. He lays down on his elbow and listen, letting his codal fin resting in water, you see his ear-fins-things wave at some moment, and his dorsal fin undulate. Once again you vent all you can, he remains still, unmoving as you both can see the sun finishing to set and the water slowly raising. You'll soon need to exit the cavern.

But you feel so good here... with him. You can't speak together, but you feel connected on an intimate level. Like you knew him for years.

You let your eyes wonders on him and you notice he's wearing your old plastic bracelet. "Ah!" you smile, you take out the necklace and show it to him, he nods slowly.

You lay beside him, letting your feet in the water, grazing his fin.

You remain silent, watching the stars through an opening in the stone of the cliff. You point at one star "Ursa minor." you indicate. He points another "Cha'fh." he murmures, "Antares." you say, "Strech" he responds, "Perseus", "Me'ro"...

You redo the wole sky like that, you giggling and him all serious. "I probably shout note everything you say, so I can remember it all my life. Oh wait!" You take out the sign language book and a mini-moodboard with markers out of your bag, " I think about ways to communicate better!" you exclaims. He raises back his torso with a raised eyebrow.

You're about to explain to him when your smartphone rings. He growls at the sudden sound. "It's okay, it's a smartphone, it won't do anything" He relaxes when he see the small machine but looks puzzled when you start speaking to it.

"Where are you?!" bawls your mother. You wince. "I'm out... with a friend.", "You didn't warn me about that! I was worried dead! Come home this instant!", "Mom, I'm an adult, I can do-", "Huh,huh, young lady! As long as you live under my roof you will abide by my rules!" and she hungs up.

You sigh, Thrawn looks at you, curious. "I have to go..." you grumble. You gather your stuff and enter the waters, you'll have to swim the sea rose. Thrawn slides next to you ready to follow you but you hesitate, you got your flashlight to look in the dark but in salted water you won't be able to open your eyes. You wince "Crap." Thrawn seems to notice your hesitation.

He gently takes your hand and pulls you gently. You take a deep breath, close your eyes and go under water. You feel him swim next to you with his powerful tail, pulling you towards the exterior. You let him guide you, swimming with your legs, he pulls you with an assured hand.

Finally you pierce the water with a gasp. Thrawn is next to you, holding your hand, waiting for you to take back your breath. You'll be drenched at home. Great...

"Thank you." You gasp, he nods and you go back to the shore together. You part with him almost reluctantly, but he let go without difficulties. You walk on the sand as he remains in shallow waters, looking at you walking away, you turn to him and wave him goodbye, he imitates you and you look at him swiming away.

Who knows when you'll see him again, he comes and goes as it pleases him

@blueninjablade3 @al-astakbar @thrawnspetgoose @readinglistfics

#mermaid au #thrawn x reader #thrawn x you #thrawn x f!reader #thrawn #grand admiral thrawn #mitth’raw’nuruodo #fanfic #vibratingskull

[satureja13]

(Hey! Today we start our interactive clue hunt! 🔎 Read until ~ the end of the post to solve the riddle and enter your guess to help the Boys and Rubyn find the next location of their adventure! I keep the poll open for one week and even after that you can join anytime you want. Just read/play in the chronological order 🗺 The correct answer is revealed in the following post. If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask! 🏞)

Ji Ho got up early to care for the horses and goats. To avoid meeting Vlad there. He was just about to go downstairs, when he saw a movement in the plant beds... there is someone!

Ji Ho yelled: "HEY!" The person just stood up...

... and walked away! And even though Ji Ho was running behind them, they didn't go faster!? As if they had all the time in the worlds!

Ji Ho's yelling woke the others and Sai and Jeb already came running. The person turned around...

... and vanished!

Rubyn: "What happened?" Ji Ho told them.

Rubyn: "Let's check the beds. Maybe they are from the Council and poisoned the water?!" Saiwa: "I don't think so... I've seen her before... But where? Oh at the market! She was the one who knew about the Professor! But wasn't able to tell me more!" They ran over to the beds.

Rubyn: "There is a bottle!"

Rubyn: "With a message... How strange..." Jack: "If she wanted to tell us something, she could have just talked to us?" (But that's boring, Jack...)

Rubyn put on some shorts and they met in the living room of one of the containers to read the mysterious message.

Dear Friends, Jack and Jeb ;) We need to make sure only you can enter the ship. So give your best to master the quests! First you need to find the house. It is named after a certain Gem Stone. To find out the color of the Gem Stone which gives you the hint of the name of the house:

April in your current year, Ji Ho and Jeb performed as the: ________________________________ The first word is the color of the Gem Stone! See you later! Sincerely, Professor Callahan (Editor's Note: If you want to riddle along with us, check the -> Archives and choose 'April 2023' in the drop down at the top of the page and search for Ji Ho and Jeb's stage performance to find the clue)

Rubyn: "Is this a prank?" Jack: "Why do you look at me?" Saiwa: "Because you are the troublemaker here!" Jack: "I swear I have nothing to do with this! I never saw her before!" Jeb: "This is so strange. What is this all about? Which ship? And why are Jack and me mentioned separately in the header?"

Ji Ho: "There is another note in the bottle." Rubyn: "It says: Open when you arrived at the house!"

From the Beginning  ~  Underwater Love ~  Latest 🌴 'The Expedition' from the beginning ▶️ here 📚 Previous Chapters: 🎤 'Putting the Boys Back together' from the beginning ▶️ here 🥀 'Disbandment of the Group' from the beginning ▶️ here

#the expedition #simlit #sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 story #simblr #sims 4 story #woo ji ho #vladimir tepesz #jack callahan #giga byte #saiwa #jeb harris #rubyn montana #underwater love #sims 4 vanilla #selvadorada #container home #interactive clue hunt

[adarkrainbow]

Do you have any more information about the Michel Carré/Paul Collin "Sleeping Beauty" opera? I had never heard of it until now.

I knew you were gonna ask ;)

And don't worry you're not the only one, I just heard about this very obscure thing today while doing my early post! In fact, when you go check the Wikipedia articles of both Michel Carré and Paul Collin, you find nothing about any potential work on a "Sleeping Beauty" production... The piece is however evoked, described and link when you go check the Wikipedia page for the fairy, Urgèle.

Now the source for this Wikipedia paragraph is actually a double link to two articles stored by Gallica - the online archive of the BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale Française, National French Library).

The first link is here.

This article is from a newspaper called "Les clochettes algériennes et tunisiennes" (Algerian and Tunisian bells) from the 10th of January 1904. It was a Franco-Algerian newspaper about literature, humor and commercial business published every sunday. In the "Theatrical Week" segment you can read that an "opéra féerique" (fairy-opera, "or so claims the poster" adds the journalist) had its premier at the Municipal Theater: La Belle au Bois Dormant, Sleeping Beauty by Michel Carré and Paul Collin with music by Charles Silver (who received a Great Prize of Rome).

There is a recap of the plot that goes as such. Princess Aurore (Aurora, played by Mme Rigaud-Labenz) was recently born, and her five fairy godmothers (Primevère, Rieuse, Brillante, Sensible, Prudente - Primrose, Laughing, Shining, Sensitive and Careful) call upon her health and happiness. The King, pleased, invites them to a copious feast, but suddenly arrives the wicked fairy Urgèle (played by Mme Corot). Angry at having been excluded of the christening, she casts a curse: if the princess falls in love when she is twenty years old, she will die. We jump sometimes later, before the twenty years are passed - the princess Aurore is wandering, sad and dreaming, in the palace's garden, but her father's reassurance that once she goes over her 20th year without falling in love she will be free from the curse convinces her to not take part in the various games and entertainments of her young female companions. However the Wandering Knight appears (played by M. Broca) - welcomed by the king, he finds himself alone with Aurore. He is very openly in love with her, but when she answers favorably to his advances, she falls in a deep sleep as well as all the inhabitants of the castle.

A hundred years later, arrives the Prince (also played by M. Broca) - as he arrives in a forest he learsn from a peasant woman named Jacotte (Mme Stéphane), wife of the peasant Barnabé (M. Vialar) that the castle he sees on the horizon contains a princess who will marry anyone that is able to wake her up. The prince recalls that one of his ancestors told him that, once he had kissed a princess and she had immediately fallen asleep. Barnabé, overhearing the Prince revealing this secret, decides to go wake the princess and become king - but he is too afraid by the forest at night when he tries to go to the castle, and after stumbling over a rod/bundle of wood, it suddenly lifts itself in the air, carrying Barnabé with it (think of a witch's broomstick). Right after Barnabé was carried off in the air, the Prince enters, still thinking about the princess, and in the fog he sees Aurore that calls for help and tells him she loves him. He immediately rushes to the depths of the wood. Meanwhile Urgèle, in her cavern/grotto, calls against the Prince all the spirits of evil, while the flying piece of wood drops Barnabé right next to her. Urgèle puts Barnabé in a royal suit and sends him wake up Aurore, while suddenly, in a flashing light, Primrose appears saying "Aurore will be free, the times are over!" - which turns Urgèle's grotto into a celestial dome filled with springtime flowers, benevolent spirits and butterflies. Despite many obstacles ("flames, monsters and gnomes"), the Prince wakes up Aurore with a kiss on the forehead. All the servants wake up, and the two young royals exchange love vows. The old royal garden becomes green and alive again, and the good fairies appear, with laying at their feet the wicked fairy, vanquished.

After this recap of the plot, the critic-journalist tells their opinion. They point out that "apparently" it was a success in Marseille and Lyon, while it is currently played in Alger at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. According to the reviewer, its success is due to the "scenic and féerique" part of the work, "because, in truth, the music is too rudimentary. It is a musical dictation carefully written by an applied student, without any spelling or grammar mistakes. M. Silver is a Prize of Rome, which means he knows the technique of his art in a deep way. Unfortunately, he is missing something that is not demande for the examinations: inspiration. Not everybody can have genius, but M. Silver reveals himself as a beginner talent who under-uses his own work. Among four acts and one prologue, not one dominant moment, not one spark that makes the well-tooled orchestra alive. The author aimed at a too great simplicity, and comes off with a too-great naivety. And yet isn't the musical formula smoothly handled by M. Silver the best way to strongly express spontaneous feelings?"

The reviewer than says the actors really did their best to portray the characters - Mme Rigaud-Labenz and M. Broca were, "as usual" a triumph and only deserve a flood of praise - while the other characters were "episodic", and were "correctly held". In conclusion "the staging was very entertaining, and the play deserves to be seen". And the reviewer's name is "Frontin"

[As a personal note, the sources keep oscillating between calling this an opera and a theater play... In fact, Frontin clearly seems to call this a play, even pointing out with some irony that the work claims itself to be an opera.]

As for the other article, given this is already quite a lot, I will add this into a reblog.

#sleeping beauty #sleeping beauty adaptation #carré and collin's sleeping beauty #sleeping beauty opera #french adaptations

[judgeverse]

The Destiny came home five years ago today, but Rush can't bring himself to post on the survivors' Facebook group. Instead, he watches and thinks and regrets. Some musings on the nature of loneliness and letting yourself be left behind. (For SGU Week 2023) - - - Throughout the day, the anniversary messages trickle in, slowly at first, then piling on as more and more people cave to peer pressure. Rush grudgingly turns his laptop back on and leaves the page open in a tab, flitting between different documents and projects, pulled back to the Destiny group every time the browser alert pings in his ears.

Hope you’re all doing well, writes Young. No less, no more. Simple and direct. Rush respects that. There’s no need to call attention to the occasion.

I miss you guys so much! gushes Eli, along with a paragraph updating them all about his new job at a game company, and another year’s worth of empty invitations to get together at the next comics convention. Rush wants to be happy for his success, but there’s a bitter taste in his mouth.

Brody sends a meme about going to outer space. 

#stargate universe #stargate #sgu week #nicholas rush #everett young #chloe armstrong #eli wallace #david telford #ronald greer #matthew scott #tamara johansen #camile wray #lisa park #dale volker #adam brody #whew I think I got them all #they all get a contribution in here #my fic