While I do think anon was rude, I do think it's pretty shitty to set up all this stuff you were going to add the au and then just drop it. It's disappointing. Definitely unfollowing.

Bye.

thirteen update 🍂 🎹 🏠 👻

chapter 2: November

chapter summary:

She was in a good mood. If she was ever going to take it well, it would be now.

“Maman, what if I went to school this year?”

excerpt:

“Heh.” Adrien flicked a finger beneath his chin and strutted the length of his bathroom floor, glancing at himself in the mirror. He twirled a rose—a red one, one he’d grabbed from the vase downstairs—between his fingers and then presented it to the mirror with a flourish.

“Haruhi!” he declared, “the spring of my heart surges upon the sight of your fresh smile, my love. My heart beats at the command of your drum! Your face is the fierce longing of my soul, and I present to you now this token of my lavish, undying—”

A sharp knock clicked against the bedroom door and Adrien froze, his hand still passionately hovering over his heart.

“Adrien?” Nathalie’s voice called, and Adrien—true to character, if he did say so himself—startled so hard that he slipped and fell onto his butt on the tile.

“Yeah?” he called, hastily pulling himself up and trying to find a place to set down the rose.

Nathalie peeked her head through the bathroom door and took him in, his rumpled hair and the too-small blue blazer he’d saved in the back of his closet for occasions such as…this.

“You have a guest,” she said flatly, and Adrien could not for the life of him figure out whether she was making fun of him.

She left before he could decide, and then it was only a matter of seconds before his bathroom door was thrown all the way open and a blonde ponytail bobbed into view.

“Adrikins!” Chloé crashed into him, wrapping him up in a hug that nearly knocked him over again. “It’s been way too long. You’ve been neglecting me. Aw, did you get me a rose?” She plucked it from his hands and then scrunched up her nose. “Ew, is this real?”

“As real as the current that springs from the well of my heart,” Adrien invented, and Chloé frowned at him like he’d just spoken Greek. “Nevermind.”

She looked him up and down and scrunched her nose up even more. “What did you do to your hair?”

Adrien frowned at his reflection in the mirror and pushed his hair further over to the side.

“I was trying to make it look cool.” He’d been trying to make it look like Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club.

“It looks like you just rolled out of bed.”

read on ao3

TFW your curious human partner wants to watch you eat but you're maybe not quite ready to have them witness it, so you tease them out of it

@naffeclipse I looked at all the angst buildup from chapter 17 and just decided to ignore it to instead deliver post-canon fluff <3

Fic-to-Art #39: Gladiator's ELEVENTH Anniversary! (+ BONUS: Fic-to-Art #36...)

And here we are! March 26th arrived and I did not forget about it, but I paid for my ambitious madness with my wrist and forearm. Somehow, I finished my intended pieces on time, but I do not advise that you ever try to make 9 artworks in 3 days. No, sir. Bad life decisions, that's what that was... but this fic, as anyone knows, moves me to do things I never thought possible, starting with writing the fic itself!

It's really crazy every time it hits me that I've been doing this for as long as I have. It's been a complicated, chaotic journey, with its many ups and downs, but ultimately, it has been our journey. For some people, this is just one more fic in the pile: for me, it's been the best adventure of my life so far. Everyone who has ever been touched by Gladiator, who has ever cherished this story, who's looking forward to the big conclusion, who wants to see how the chaotic war is going to end... you're all part of this crazy adventure along with me, and I can only thank you for joining me.

This year, I had no time to make as big a project as I usually go for. Thus, I did a sort of free-for-all edition of Fic-to-Art over at Patreon and challenged myself to draw as many scenes as I could, out of their suggestions. I even sprinkled in a few scenes I impulsively wanted to draw because I loved writing them or because I look forward to writing them... and this is the result!

In order, the scenes are as follow:

Sokka combing Azula's hair, a common occurrence throughout the story.

Azula watching over a convalescing Sokka in the Chase of Jeong Jeong arc.

The outcome of Sokka's final battle in the Superior Gladiator League, namely a moment where Sokka and Azula more or less gave away their relationship's true nature to the public by raising their hands towards each other...

And now, spoiler territory! Some were by my choice, some by Patreon requests:

An important moment shortly after Sokka and Azula reunite.

Azula confronting her father, with a LOT of backup.

Xin Long's long-awaited freedom.

The aftermath of the final battle.

The full-blown confirmation of their relationship to the general Fire Nation populace.

Sokka, Azula and Hotaru's first night together

And the big final one is ACTUALLY Fic-to-Art #36 but hahaha woops I didn't post it here on time because it was super hard to finish since I had a LOT of things going on... but here it is now! :'D it's a glimpse VERY far into the future of this fic's timeline!

Alright, that should be enough talking and explaining. Some things are vague, some things aren't, but ultimately I really hope you guys will be looking forward to the scenes you haven't seen yet, and to Gladiator's eventual outcome.

So now... with all this being said and done, I'm gonna go take a trip down memory lane and watch my Tenth Anniversary video once more! Feel free to do the same thing if you'd like to commemorate the fic, I think it's a good way to experience Gladiator all over again, hahaha.

Thank you if you read all this, and if you read all THAT: 5 million word landmark, here we come! Thanks for hanging out with me across ELEVEN years of Gladiator!

HIIII HELLO I'M BACk‼️

I'm having 2 brainrots at the same time help... (TF2 & Incredibox)

ANYWAY I MADE 2 NEW OCS‼️‼️

They're uuuuh... Orin Ayo/Breakthrough goofers :3

These the polo things they have V

I love the logic that's come from me starting to craft because like... I needed a bookmark and it would take three seconds to find a receipt or tear a piece of paper, but actually, it makes more sense for me to draft up a crude pattern and spend thirty minutes crocheting one. It makes sense, it's obviously a rational choice

I wasn't ever planning on posting here again but I was innocently scrolling on Twitter when the latest merch set punched me in the face and I just can't stay quiet about it.

Shin...

What.

Is on.

Your head????

gordon and ricky core.... gordon is gordone with their shit!

Original tweet below the cut

very very vague gender ideals

cringetober 4 - angel x demon

which of you recognised these poses before scrolling lmao. I was originally gonna go for the tormented half-n-half combo, but then I remembered how much time I spent with these guys, and how they are The quintessential cutesy angel and demon designs in my mind.

I didn't mean for this challenge to be all new millennium-themed so far - the idea of cringe just keeps personally leading me that way!

so anyway to get these guys what you gotta do is hatch 2 chao and let them reincarnate 3 times. then feed them One of Every animal just ONCE (no chaos drives!!!). then you need to take out the sonic adventure disc and throw your console off a building. it will be totally destroyed, but once you get a new one, stick in your memory card and these chao will appear in your garden

Looks like some shitty ship discussions have surfaced in hl fandom again, but I don't mean that here actually xd

I'd like to hear a little bit (or a lot) more about your fav kind of freehoun if you don't mind sharing! Maybe some pre & post rescas headcanons, idk any stuff you would like to tell, and if you want. No pressure

i'm actually really glad i got an ask like this, i have seen some shipping discourse bubbling back up and it's just. can we not? enjoy what you enjoy, at the end of the day none of this is canon unless valve says otherwise, no need for the infighting. anyway, prepare for a text wall with barely any grammar.

pre-rescas: -i like to think that gordon and barney met very soon after gordon was hired and they got along like a match to a flame (is that the saying?), like barney came along on gordon's first tour of the facility and maybe even got lunch with him. -since the majority of workers at black mesa are most likely 30+, barney was especially drawn to gordon (not only because he was kinda cute) since there was finally another young and seemingly down to earth guy around. -honestly my favourite trope is having barney pine after gordon and try to suppress his major crush on him. -it's kinda sad to say or really acknowledge, but back in the 2000's and early 90's, obv lgbtq+ matters were not as accepted, i mean being called 'gay' was like the worst insult imaginable at the time. because of this, i do think barney would be a little wary of his own gay thoughts, maybe even dislike himself a little because of it. eventually i'm sure he'd grow to accept that he is, in fact, gay. -when it comes to the two hooking up, i really, really like the idea of their relationship being kept hush hush. it's pretty hot ngl and i think it would be the most plausible for their situation. -personally i don't really think barney nor gordon would call eachother pet names, or really say 'i love you' without hesistance. i feel like they'd show their affection in different ways, for gordon he'd show his love through gift giving i think. like the occassional snack for a tired barney on the night shift, or a box of donuts if he's feeling generous. -gordon always makes up excuses for why barney has to visit his dorm room so often. one day it's a faulty tap in the bathroom, or the next a clogged airvent. people seem to believe him because his voice is so monotone.

post-rescase/hl2: -during the years where gordon is abscent, barney, for the most part, holds out on hope that he will come back. over time, as barney gets older and older and nothing seems to be changing but only getting worse, he grows more cynical. i think that maybe 5 or so years before gordon's return, barney had forced himself to settle on the idea that he was not coming back. -after taking gordon into his office, he doesn't outright hug him or ball his eyes out, but it's so so obvious that he's feeling a bunch of old bottled up emotions when gordon looks into his eyes. gordon probably does give him a hug though. -however on gordon's end, i feel like things at the start would be a little awkward. his feelings are as strong as they were back then, as it hasn't been 2 decades for him. -i like to think that around the time when gordon arrived at kleiner's lab, that's when gordon approaches barney about their past and they maybe rekindle things, just a little. like maybe a longing look or kiss on the cheek. -honestly there's not really much i can say about hl2 as barney's appearances are so brief. basically i just think that they'd use every moment they had whilst the other was around to get a little closer again, even if they're not outright smoochin' it up or anything. -HOWEVER, in my happy little half-life, barney arrives at white forest with a group of rebels and he spends a few days in bed all patched up and gordon frequently visits his room and maybe even sleeps there with him, it had been quite a while since they'd met up again, gordon honestly thought barney had been blown tf up after the citadel's explosion. -they basically just hang out A LOT in white forest and eventually one of them works up the courage to start their relationship up again. -i think the idea of them once again sneaking away from crowded areas of the WF base so they can have a little privacy together is pretty cute, like they did in black mesa. -and if we're gonna enter hl3 territory, i think gordon, eli and barney would all set out into the arctic to do combine project borealis mossman stuff, and then save alyx :) amazing writing.

i probably have a lot more ideas floating around in my head but i think this is more than enough lol thanks for the ask, this was fun to put together!

A page from my sketchbook where I was exploring some cultural aspect of the elven culture Luin & Aela are from. Specifically the use of hairstyles (here braids) to show social status

Here's it's mostly about showing elven & human heritage (which determines whether someone has elven or human citizenship, since both people cohabit on the Arvor Islands), and showing marital status. There would also be specific styles for children at specific ages, nobility status, civil servants, etc. but I haven't thought about these. Yet

art summary 2023 (template from here)

I genuinely think that if you shelved at your local library for a few weeks a lot of you would calm down