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cae-ruleam · 2 years

Text

the progression of succession

multichap fic, AO3 link (the format is a bit better there)

rating: T for swearing. later chapters might get heavy

word count: 1788

“One day, Phantom changed, or did he, really?”

Or, Danny is taking a test he isn't aware of ever having signed up for.

When Danny woke up, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That should’ve been a sign of something amiss.

The previous night, he had been, rudely, awoken by Johnny and Kitty when they decided Amity had to be their dating spot again, at 2am in the morning. Whoever ever uttered that the dead sleep forever were clearly wrong.

It hadn’t been much of a fight, luckily. The couple genuinely just wanted to have some harmless fun riding and sitting around. Shadow even smiled at him. Johnny’s familiar was never able to lie about their emotions or intentions, which were, by extent, Johnny’s.

By then, already feeling guilty for impeding on their date, Phantom left them to it and drifted back home slowly. While there was no fight, regularly sleeping just four hours a night was bound to have some side effects. Unfortunately espresso shots only did so much.

So, color Danny surprised when he woke up fine. Better than fine, actually. He felt energized in a way he hadn’t felt in months, since Christmas Truce. Again, that should’ve tipped him off, but Danny was not one to look a gifted horse in the mouth.

The halfa shot a quick look at his bedside alarm – 7am – he could work with that. If he had to use some ghost perks to speed up the process, no one would be any the wiser.

He quickly pulled on some casual clothes, you can never go wrong with a NASA hoodie and black trousers, before he sped for the bathroom. He was in and out and down to the kitchen like lightning.

‘Thank god mom and dad are only ever down the labs or in their room.’ He thought as he grabbed a quick bite.

The house felt empty.

It has for the past year or so, ever since Jazz left for college some states over.

Soon – Danny thought. In just one more year, he will be able to leave this house behind as well.

He quickly scarfed down the rest of his breakfast and left silently like the wind.

Once outside, he stepped into a familiar alleyway and let his transformation wash over him. He flew high up into the sky.

His itinerary towards Casper high was practically second nature, and he let his body take the lead as he looked around, down at Amity.

Ghost attacks have become less frequent, but visits were becoming more common. It would still take some time before the citizens actually understood that, though. So Phantom was still as busy as ever. Just thankfully, less beat up.

At a distance, down below, a student running late felt a shift in the air. She looked up at the sky and saw... an anomaly.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and hastily tried to take a picture. Once shot, the entity was glitchy as fuck.

She pulled up Twitter and put out a quick tweet before hurrying on.

-----

illegally blonde @.royallyhigh

alright this is creeping me the fuck out. has any ghost capture ever been this disturbed???

[Image ID: A vague, long and slender figure zipping across the sky. They’re incredibly distorted as if the image had already been compressed a thousand times over and shown on a twenty year old monitor, instead of having been taken two minutes ago.]

- reply to @.royallyhigh

in denial hush @.creamcherrypie

what the fuck. if i didnt know you suck ass at editing id say this is fake

- reply to @.royallyhigh

ember's new single out now! @.rosesformystar

no... don’t they look familiar...? i'm not going crazy, am i?

- reply to @.royallyhigh, @.rosesformystar

its halloween month idgaf @.starsformyrose

are you thinking what i'm thinking?

- reply to @.royallyhigh, @.rosesformystar, @.starsformyrose

Hopeless Writer @.mydailyfoodblog

You’re all crazy. It can’t be. They SCREAM bad news

-----

Danny slipped into his seat at the back of Lancer’s class with two minutes to spare. Most of the class was already present.

Lancer walked in and proclaimed it, “Too early to deal with this,” and started the class without marking attendances. The last few students came in a few minutes after without much fuss from them or their teacher, and class went on as normal. If the students seated near Daniel Fenton felt chills on their back, no one made a sound.

‘It can’t be coming from him. Not from that whimp.’ were their collective thoughts.

Puberty may have stretched him out and he may be quite fit, but his baggy clothing made sure no one would be aware of it. Sometime when he was fifteen Danny realized how badly his identity was hidden. He made an effort starting then, and it has been working well. No one suspected a thing, no one but Wes, of course.

Classes came and went. Students got increasingly creeped out near Danny Fenton of all people, for whatever reason.

Lunch came around.

It was just the second week since the start of the school year and Danny was already tired of it. Lunch breaks and free periods they shared being his only salvation. Such as right now.

The universe still seemed against Danny, for some reason. When they received their timetables for the first semester Team Phantom was thoroughly pissed. They barely had any classes together, the ones which they did share, were the only classes they took where there was only one class. They must’ve caught on that Sam and Tucker were covering for Danny’s ‘extracurricular activities’, and, fair. But it sucks.

While walking through the halls towards the cafeteria, he couldn’t help but notice the other students all stepped away a bit more than usual. Couldn’t help but overhear some whispers.

Do you think it could be because of some creepy shit his parents have been pulling? They have a PORTAL in their basement, don’t they?

Maybe you’re right... God, he may be a loser but I kind of feel bad... Shit! He’s near, shh.

If Danny didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought he was back in his freshman year. Actually, that might be the case. He wouldn’t put it past Clockwork to send him back in the past without warning. But their comments do not add up, at all.

Making his way past the rows of lockers a bit faster, he quickly arrived at the cafeteria. He went up, got some food and sat down at their usual table. The other two were already there.

“Do I have something weird on my face or something? Do I have ectoplasm scarring I missed?” was his greeting.

Sam and Tucker looked up from their food and stared at him with unreadable expressions. Eventually Sam scrunched her brows in confusion when that emotion won the inner battle.

“No... but if people have been avoiding you I can understand why. No offense, but you feel insanely unapproachable. Any idea what could’ve caused it?” The goth spoke with little emotion in her voice. It might’ve been a subconscious effort to not set off this anomaly- no, her friend, she had to remind herself. Why?

Tucker wanted to join in on the conversation, but his throat was locked. Why? This is his best friend! He could only settle for nodding with an identical quizzical expression on his face.

Danny sighed, and sat down frustrated. They continued their lunch, ignoring the elephant in the room. They tried to chat normally. They talked about the upcomming DOOMED game and the co op session they had been planning for ages, since its reveal. Lunch proceeded normally. If Sam and Tucker still felt on edge, they did not let Danny know. They shouldn’t.

-----

Danny was at P.E. His last period of the day and light at the end of the tunnel. Aside from the avoidances all around, his day had gone smoothly. Of course, that’s when everything went wrong.

As he reached the end of the obstacle course, alarms blared. The ones signaling a ghost attack, yeah, those.

After three years of ghost attacks, everyone had become used to the procedure and thankfully quickly left the gymnasium, to the safety zones, belongings forgotten. Danny was with them, until he wasn’t.

While walking, running, with the crowd, he silently left them and slipped into the bathroom invisibly and intangibly. He transformed, and left in the same state.

He took the malevolent ghost – a new one, huh – by surprise and tackled the both of them to the outside, somewhere safer and less destructable.

The ghost sneered, something about not expecting the ghost child to show up so quick. It was rare to meet a ghost out here who was unaware of the fact Phantom attended Casper high as a human.

Below, some people ran. Other passerby stopped in their tracks instead, gawking up at the two ghosts. Was that Phantom?

The teenaged ghost looked familiar, yet so different, so distant, hazy, unapproachable. If people claimed this is the one ghost you could always trust to help you, people would not have believed it. Few people’s hands subconsciously headed for their phones.

In the air, the ghost got ready to launch an attack, until they looked up and tilted their head.

“You are the ghost child, right?”

“Phantom? Yeah, who else? Now come on, let’s do this dance quick so I can head back. Some of us actually have something to do with their afterlife.”

The other ghost was still clearly thrown off, they shook their head and readied themselves again. Whatever was going on was weird, Danny had decided that hours ago, but it just became even crazier, if ghosts were affected too.

His solution was to ignore the issue. If he did not pay it any mind, it would go away on its own, and hopefully not bite him back in the ass.

He took advantage of the ghost’s confusion. He shot a quick ectoblast at their chest and sucked them into the thermos. After sealing them, he darted back towards the school.

Once inside, he noticed the students packing their bags and leaving. When he got near them invisibly, someone less attentive wouldn’t have noticed anything odd. Danny saw that they became tense and rigid.

He ignored the ever-growing enigma and ran the facts through his mind. Right, it was last period. The area must’ve been declared safe and they’d been dismissed early.

No one noticed, or cared about, his absence as usual.

Danny did a quick one over of the entire school building before heading towards the gymnasium. Thankfully there were no damages inflicted in between the ghost’s arrival and the time he took to transform and push them out.

He gathered his things and sped back home, ignoring the dread gnawing at the back of his mind.

Meanwhile, Amity’s filtered side of social media was ablaze.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dp #fanfic #phan phic #ghost king danny #sam manson #tucker foley #cae's writing #i came back from the writing grave after about a year oops #i have an actual plan for this!#lets see if i can stick to it #unreliable narrator and you will be left with as much knowledge as danny... </3

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worldwright · 3 months

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good evening ! im super early today bc im dying lmao

man, it was so fucking hard to fall asleep after my war against that fucking stinkbug, and someone i wont name fucking deserted and left her leader to fight this great and horrifying enemy

anyway, i checked which fucking painkiller i can take, and the only one i can is paracetamol but this fucker does nothing to my headaches, so im switching entirely to water from tea bc it works better than a fucking painkiller

i slept bad (what a surprise), my father woke me up bc he couldnt find me (man, the only day he wants to know where the fuck i am is the only where i dont wnat him to find him), a headache is there and my nap didnt help ;-; but at least i finished my second watch of glass onion (started last week) and watched the episode of dunmesh and now i can say w/o any doubt that chilchuck is my fav -he was from the very beginning but ude, now im sure)

ill be able to finally sleep in my bed tonight yay

and here a picture the coward from this morning (or icecream, or latte, or whatever you like to compare her to. my friends call her "table basse" [coffee table] or "chieng en format familial" [familiy-sized doggo]. youre too kind with your nicknames for her lol)

have a wonderful morning with your partner my friend !

o how decadent is her lounging !! would that we could all feel the same peace 😌❤️

(no that is not proper English grammar don't copy me 😭😭)

hehe tiny emojis 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🍃🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

immmmmm so excited to hang out with people I felt like I was withering lmfao

I think I'm gonna go up to see all my friends next weekend, since all of them are once again living in their dream life shared apartment with the besties ughhhh I can't wait to live there

the new office manager at my job is so cool :3 he's incredibly gay lmfao

I've officially caught up on apothecary diaries. ugh what do I do with my life now

obviously the answer is wait impatiently for every new episode and write analysis posts in the meantime

mmm I wanna reread witch hat atelier...... next week downtime obsession found 👍👍

egg salad last night was all right! I accidentally added too much mayonnaise and then had to overcorrect from there, so it ended up not having as much egg per volume as it should have. but still tasty and nutritious :3

speaking of food you're SO valid about Chilchuck. he's just ❤️❤️❤️ This Is A Divorced Father Of Three With Extreme Communication Issues ❤️❤️❤️ who looks like a middle schooler 🥰🥰🥰

also chatted with a friend about our fic ideas, which was really fun. the problem is that I have a really fleshed-out AU, but I don't know what actual plot to put in the AU. lol. ahhhhhhh

girlfriend weekend!!!!! girlfriend weekend!!!!!!!!

hope your headache goes away in time for you to get good sleep tonight!!

#pen pal

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elysiuminfra · 1 year

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hi anon i love you. thank you for thisi question (i just woke up) you have no idea how excited i am to talk about this. had to make a post since it didnt wanna publish ur ask :( in the ideal world AMPHIMAL (all capitals for silly) is a 14 episode 2D animated tv show (heavily inspired by gennedy tartakovsky's work - particularly with samurai jack and primal, as well as mike mignola's work on hellboy) (AND SERGIO PABLOS!!) (wait edit: AND the old animated batman movies) HOWEVER. i have had many many thoughts about its ACTUAL format as a webcomic. i think it works best in this format cause the internal dialogue is important and you'd lose that in a show (i have many many thoughts about how media format influences tone/overall storytelling) particularly i'd like to execute it as a webcomic set with unconventional format - im very inspired by indie comics such as quinn - a horror webcomic made by moby, tumblr linked here, an artist who's work ive followed for a while and who's work first piqued my interest in breaking "traditional" webcomic format. yugo limbo and mike mignola (there he is again!) are also huge inspirations. (and another webcomic im too embarrassed to say) im in love with the idea of using the website itself as a backdrop for your visuals - it would be a mix of script, prose, intermingling with cinema-like stills as visuals - this is because traditional comics are difficult for me, i THINK in camera angles and shot layouts, not necessarily comic panels. i also plan on having annotations throughout the story, for secrets and descriptions of certain era-specific objects as fun optional facts - although when i actually put it all together on a website, this feature could be toggled. ideally it would be non-intrusive - think the note system from pentiment. the biggest inspirations i draw for AMPHIMAL though is Hellboy full stop in terms of palettes, visuals, and style. i plan on further solidifying and developing the "look" of amphimal as i do more research on victorian cultural and architecture motifs (they don't even know about the henry jekyll architecture associations) and also because i am the world's most unnecessarily detail-oriented person. my current work reflects moreso how i plan on amphimal looking when its published, with stark shadows, black shapes taking forefront, limited and striking palettes with heavy emphasis on color, shape, and object motifs. i am putting an unnecessary and frankly embarrassing amount of thought into literally every single detail (AND striving for semi-historical accuracy) (which is extremely difficult due to the lack of primary sources / bias in papers and the lack of accounts of certain aspects of victorian life, such as lgbt history and london’s underbelly of the era. particularly because many primary accounts are rife with racism, bigotry and inaccuracies - and they don’t paint a complete picture, so much of what i show WILL be speculation and not historically accurate) as for SCRIPT? behind the scenes its pretty rough - i have my charts and notes, but they're all pretty disorganized and i don't think i could share them without 1. spoiling a LOT of stuff (it doesnt differ from the original plot in any way, it just has far, far more depth into the characters - and some stuff i want to keep a secret!) 2. exposing just how deranged my note-taking skills are. amphimal currently exists only in pages and charts and key visuals i've made for myself that i MUST compile in a clean format for personal use (and sharing among those who can take peeks behind the scenes) as for key points oh boy. my favorite chapter and the one i'm most excited to write is utterson's search and first meeting with hyde. second favorite is utterson's scenes involving lanyon's death (he does die in amphimal, that i'm not changing - i thought about it at first but scrapped it) these moments show off utterson's character at key points OUTSIDE of jekyll (an absolute necessity!) - and he is, by far, my favorite protagonist out of all my projects. and i love him your honor ANYWAY ummm i dont really have much else to write other than thank u for sending this question!!! artistic format / experimentation is one of my favorite things to talk about. as for WHEN amphimal is gonna be a thing, it'll be in the future when i'm in a better living situation (and when the full amphimal theory bible is compiled - i'm obsessed with consistency between scenes and background motifs, so this will work as a reference for me once the project gets started however this will and is currently taking a LOT of research) ETA? later. possibly next year if i'm not too busy adjusting to the city im moving to. dont know yet but it'll happen. i'll make amphimal before i die promise because if i dont my spirit will never sleep peacefully

#answers #amphimal #sorry you activated my special interest (MEDIA FORMAT)#as well as victorian architecture. also had to edit cause grammar mistakes that *I* could not let slide

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lee-kangin · 1 year

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hi!!!!! omg happy to see you!! no worries about the response!!! and ive been doing well too 🫂🫂

yess, his freckles are so so pretty, it really adds a nice bit of detail to portrait shots. and the elle man photos are by kim hee june btw!!!! i think i about vibrated out of my seat when i saw them on insta 🌷🌷 im very partial to the approach he has when photographing muscular models wherein its either not the main focus or, if it is, the shapes are still softer, if im making any sense. like the difference between heungmin’s ck shoot and some of the photos in guesung’s previous one?

but yeah, im VERY excited to see what the rest of the shoot has in store ☀️☀️ the mood of all three pictures is just so nice and im in love with the lollipop photo especially <333

also yesss!! the yoo quiz ep was so fun, i forgot they formatted with multiple guests though so when i first started watching it i was like?? forestella?? but it was fun watching both so ☺️☺️ when seho’s dad came in with the bundle of flowers that was so KJDKDSKKSDK also when yoo jae suk was like not everyone can pull of guesung’s glasses! if i were to put them on i’d look like a financial criminal! 😭😭 the part where he talked about the way their nt supported oh hyeong gyu was really cool to learn about too :]

i loved the little karaoke moment he had with his friend in the ila ep ☺️☺️. and yeah me too!! the way he talked about his family on yoo quiz and then with them on ila, its so precious to see what a close bond they have with each other. ❤️🐯 i always feel bad for athletes that have to follow such strict diets, so i was glad to see that at least he can enjoy himself more..

ahhh when he said life partner i was smiling so hard 🌷🌷 idk if what he actually said has the same connotation in korea but its really sweet to say either way ;;w; 🌈🌈 the tie he wore to the awards cermony is his friends signature symbol too!! from his fashion line, i realized that a little bit before watching the ep 🥰🥰 made it even more fun to see him there

oh! and on a related note, the stylist who’s worked on both of guesung’s shoots also keeps tagging his friend in her posts for some reason ldjsjekddk. like, alongside the credit list for who helped with the shoot 😭😭

about fabien fjskwkd, huh.. i just remember looking him up once, getting shocked that france even had a taekwondo nt, and leaving the page 😭😭 and i knowww, like the fact it was a CAST IRON pan too… 🕴🏻🕴🏻i hope to see more dazed shoots too <333

also yayyy!!! i cant wait for the summer to start ☀️☀️ im hoping for england’s downfall like you would not believe rn.. who will u be rooting for? !! 🎤🎤

and i have been following the transfer dicussion! can’t say i understand it very well but im interested to see where he’ll end up!! mainz would be cool for you then? 🫂🫂 if their offer still stands by summer? i saw that minnesota (???) had offered him a spot too and was absolutely astounded, i didnt even realize they could have a team lmfaoejdhskwkd

hope u had a good day!!!

hiiii!! 🫂🫂🫂 sorry for the late response, missed this entirely in my inbox 😭 but ohhhh i didn’t know those were by kim hee june!! i understand what you mean, the subjects of his photographs are always painted in such a soft light, and i rly like the eye he has for muscular models, so visually pleasing! 💛 i rly love seeing the different approaches that different photographers and magazines have wrt guesung, like for example the vogue cover sent me bc there was this rly popular tweet that was like “타겟층이 내가 아닌 것 같은 이 기분은 뭘까” (why do i have the feeling that the target audience isn’t me) and then all the qrts were kr ppl going “i think men are the target audience” and “are you gay” LIKE 😭

OMG FORESTELLA BELOVED … yoo jaesuk is so funny for real such a great mc 🥰 it was rly lovely hearing abt how they supported hyeongyu bc i think he has a rly bright future! god knows we need some more world class forwards 😭 celtic and suwon bluewings have been playing tug of war over the guy the entire transfer window but i think hyeongyu’s managed to annoy his manager enough into letting him go (he went to him like five times 😭) … rly exciting!!

waaaah could talk abt guesung and dongin for ages but i’ll keep myself in line … just so cute that guesung has a non footballer friend who he can relax and be himself with, like the little karaoke and ‘heater heater!’ moments in the ila ep were so endearing 🥺 he eats rly well i felt myself turning into a grandpa cooing over their grandchild eating well when i watched him 😭 i saw that abt the tie!! it’s so cute ☹️🫂 i think the direct translation of what he said abt dongin was ‘(my) life’s companion’ but i could be wrong bc i don’t remember the exact phrasing atm. either way so cute how everyone sees guesung and dongin as a duo including guesung’s stylist 😭

DEAD abt fabien. yeah i think he explained how he got interested in kr culture on a talk show and i was legit flabbergasted that france had a taekwondo nt 😭 as for who i’ll support … taeguk ladies of course ⚽️ rly excited to see the girls play 🥰

the transfer window for guesung rn is kind of a mess 😭 celtic and mainz were playing tug of war but then park jisung (former star kr football player and now technical director at jeonbuk) fell from my good graces when he rejected the mainz offer (and idk if celtic is rly pursuing him anymore) … now jeonbuk’s training in spain and there’s talks that la liga teams are interested?? idk mainz would still be cool for me bc the bundesliga is a good way to get used to european football, plus lee jaesung from the nt plays there so he’d have someone to rely on in a foreign country, and mainz area generally has the biggest kr population in germany. not to mention the fact that mainz coaches have already reached out to guesung to talk abt how to implement them into their style of play, so him getting minutes is also guaranteed. we’ll see ig … transfer window isn’t closed yet! 👍🏾

hope your day’s been nice 🥰🫶🏾

#the minnesota team FJSKALF the way they offered GREEN CARDS for guesung’s family. dead #rahul answers

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multiplefandomsblog · 3 years

Text

Shuichi x fem!reader fluffshot

desc; shuichi with a fem!s/o who enjoys wearing dresses. she goes out of her way to buy a dress for a date.

warnings; they're in highschool? i think???, suggestive depends on how you look at it, fluff, so many clichés, i did some fake text messages bc i didnt know how to type the text message format

word count; 2k

“Hmm...” You hummed frustratingly as you skimmed through the dresses in the shop, not finding one you were happy with. You were trying to find a dress that you thought Shuichi would like, but so far you haven’t found one that piqued your interest. You furrowed your brow at a blue dress that you came across on, looking at the back in interest. You grinned as you finally found the right one, the one you were going to wear for the date you had with Shuichi.

As you brought it to the counter and took out your wallet, you couldn’t stop thinking of how Shuichi would react. You felt giddy from the excitement of seeing him flushed from the sight of you. Quickly purchasing the dress, you grabbed the handle of the bag the dress was in and made your way back home with a bounce in your step.

As you sat in one of the public bus seats, you checked your phone for the time. Your eyes widened in panic when you saw the big bold letters read, “5:00 pm” That meant you only had 1 hour to prepare for the date you had with Shuichi. You put your phone back in your pocket and started fidgeting with your fingers in distress, predicting how much time it would take for you to get home, shower and dress up. ‘Would there be enough time?’ You thought. Shifting uncomfortably in your seat as the anxiety bubbled up inside you, waiting to pour out.

Whilst you were panicking in the bus seat, Shuichi was at his house trying on multiple shirts that he was unhappy with. He stood in front of his full body mirror with faux confidence, “H-hey there uh, you look great!” He spoke to the mirror with a nervous smile, picturing you in front of him. His face dropped as he sighed, “Great? Great!? Get it together Shuichi, we both know that she’s much more than great.” He grumbled to himself as he took off his shirt and--yet again-- put on another one.

He looked in the mirror, examining the black button-up on his back. He made a sound of uncertainty before nodding, “Eh, okay.” He inhaled before faced the mirror again and looking himself dead in the eyes. “S/o, would you be my girlfriend?” He said--surprisingly--without a single stutter, before breaking character and groaning. He squatted down and muffled his screams in his knees, face red from shame. “I can’t do this,”

“No, I-I can do this. What would Kaito say if he saw you being such a coward?” He muttered as he stood up and paced the room stressfully, before stopping and staring at the flowers he got for you. He had an internal battle in his head between ‘What if she says no?’ and ‘But what if she says yes?’ In the end, he decided that future Shuichi would decide.

~~~

Once the bus stopped near your home, you quickly hopped off the stairs of the vehicle and started jogging to your house. You unlocked the door to your house and rushed to your room. Checking the time again, it read 5:14 pm. ‘Perfect.’ You thought as you hastily stripped yourself of your clothes and showered. No longer than 10 minutes later, you carefully got out of the shower, careful not to slip. While you dried yourself, you heard your phone ring. Unlocking your phone, you smiled at the message from Shuichi.

Shuichi yelped as he pressed send, throwing his phone at his bed. You replied back with trembling fingers and rosy cheeks.

You laughed loudly as you watched his calm composed texts turned into embarrassed apologies. Your nerves easing as you laughed. Taking a small breather, you replied back with a goofy smile on your face.

You left his last message on read as you dried your hair with a victorious smile. Whilst you basked in glory, Shuichi was at his house, trying his best not to imagine you naked. “Keep it together, Shuichi!” He told himself, voice muffled by his hands. He lightly whacked his head, trying to stop where his thought process was going. He really didn’t want to picture you naked; He would never look at you the same way if he did. Shaking his head of his strange thoughts, he went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face.

~~~

Once you dried your hair thoroughly, you got out of the bathroom, shivering as you felt the cold hair hit your damp skin. You quickly slipped on your undergarments, wanting some sort of material on your cold body. After slipping on your undergarments, you made your way towards the small paper bag you had left near your room door. You reached into the bag and grabbed the dress, grinning excitedly as you saw the glossy dark blue fabric.

You put on the dress and went to go check yourself in the mirror. Looking into your reflection, you beamed at how your dress looked on your figure. You felt like a fucking Disney princess. You made a few funny power poses in the mirror to hype yourself up. This might be your new favourite, you thought, you just hope that Shuichi likes the dress just as much as you do. You did a few playful spins in the mirror, before glancing at the clock on your wall, ‘5:35 pm.’ Looks like you had more time than you needed.

You sat down on your bed, picking up your phone, and opening the messaging app to text Shuichi. Your thumb hovered over the keys, as you hesitated. You decided it would be rude to ask someone if they wanted to go earlier when you had already agreed on a time. So, instead, you exited the app and scrolled on Tumblr, occasionally laughing at a shitpost.

〜〜〜

Shuichi stared at his phone, waiting for the screen to light up with a notification impatiently. His ahoge perking up every time he saw his screen brighten up with a notification, but deflating when he saw it wasn’t you. He glared at the small box before caving in and grabbing his phone. He opened the messaging app, about to text you when suddenly, his phone started vibrating. He almost dropped his phone from surprise, fumbling it until he caught it. Unfortunately, his thumb had tapped on the answer button before he could see who it was.

When he finally held his phone in his hands to look at it clearly, his eyes widened as his heart thumped when he saw your name. Clearing his throat, he quickly brought his phone next to his ear, letting out a squeaky, “Hello?” He winced at the unwanted pubescent sound his throat made, face-palming as his voice failed him.

“Uh-Hi! Is-is your throat okay?” You asked, unsure if who you heard was Shuichi. “U-um yeah- No, my uh, my throat is fine.” He cleared his throat once again. It was as if he had forgotten to speak, somehow managing to mess up each word. “S-so, why’d you call?” Shuichi asked nervously, trying to steer the conversation away from his squeaky voice. He awaited your answer as he laid on his back on his bed, gripping his phone with one hand and leaving the back of his other hand on his forehead.

~~~

“No reason, really. Guess I just got impatient and wanted to hear your voice.” You slyly replied, your face heating up with every word that made its way out of your mouth. You see, that was a lie. You had actually been trying to change his contact name to something funny but you had accidentally pressed the call button. What? Did you really think you would have enough confidence to call him yourself? Hah, you wish! You should be thanking your ginormous fingers.

Shuichi sighed dreamily, basking in the sound of your voice. He was so entranced by the sound of it, that the lovesick idiot forgot to reply. Causing your thoughts to go into overdrive and your confidence to go ‘poof!’, “Oh! I-I’m sorry if that’s weird! I just mea-” He snapped out of his daze the moment he heard your panicked voice, quick to dismiss your thought process, “N-no, it’s not weird! To be honest, I wanted to hear your voice too but I just d-didn’t have enough confidence to call.” He admitted quietly, face flushing from his mini confession.

“O-oh.” You were sure you were going to pass out from overheating, he wanted to hear your voice too! You lived in the thought that Shuichi likes the sound of your voice. Shuichi continued the conversation, “So... Tell me about the dress you said you thought I’d like, I’d love to hear about how it looks.” Shuichi smiled fondly, knowing how much you love dresses. As the image of you in a summer dress popped up in his head, he felt his heart warm up. He’s extremely grateful that you enjoy wearing dresses because he enjoys seeing you in them just as much.

Every time he sees you approach him with a dress on, he’s on cloud 9. He swore he was the luckiest man alive when you accepted to go out with him. As you giggled at his words, you were unaware of the effect your giggle had on this man. Your giggle was near fatal for a love-sick fool like him, you made his heart pump just a little bit faster in his chest.

“Nice try, Saihara-Kun. But it’s a surprise! Don’t worry about it though, I am positive you’ll like it.” You teased, running your fingers on the glossy blue fabric in thought. Shuichi chuckled underneath his breath, making your heart skip a beat this time. “You caught me,” Shuichi confessed, laughing quietly. You pressed your hands against your red cheeks, feeling how warm they were.

Glancing at the clock, you spoke, “Oh hey, it’s already 5:46 pm. Are you going to pick me up, Mr. Detective?” You purred, standing up and searching for your purse. Shuichi checked the time on his phone, eyes widening at the time, “Already? It felt much shorter than that.” You shook your head and laughed, “Time goes faster when you’re having fun.” You chimed. “That’s the most cliché thing I’ve ever heard you say.” Shuichi deadpanned, causing you to chuckle at the tone of his voice.

“But it’s pretty accurate isn’t it?” Shuichi sighed in defeat, “I guess so. Or maybe the author was too lazy to write more.” You hummed in agreement, “That’s probably what happened, yeah.” You smiled softly before saying the words neither of you wanted to hear, “Hey, we have to hang up now.” Shuichi felt dread wash over his body at the thought of not hearing your voice, “You have to pick me up remember?” You reminded, cleaning your room a bit before you left. “Don’t hang up.” He pouted, not wanting to stop hearing your voice.

“Shuichi, I’m going to see you in, like, less than 10 minutes.” You giggled at his desperate tone of voice, “Trust me, I don’t want to hang up either.” Shuichi exaggerated his sigh, “Okay, okay, I’m on my way. I’ll see you in 10 minutes, yeah?” He quickly got up, smoothening the wrinkles on his dress shirt. “Yup!” You gushed, feeling caught up in the moment you blurted out, “Love you!”

Crazily enough, Shuichi didn’t seem to notice it either as he replied, “Love you too.” As both of you hung up, you paused. ‘Wait.’

Shuichi also froze, ‘wait a second.’ The two oblivious idiots simultaneously had a mental breakdown, both realizing that they both had just confessed to each other. What did this mean? Were you two a couple now?? Shuichi pushed the thought to the back of his head, focusing on the fact he had to drive to your house and he couldn’t be distracted(drive safely!). He picked up his keys and the roses he had gotten for you earlier today, and made his way out the door.

You slipped on your heels with one hand while you held your purse with the other. Looking in the mirror one more time, you adjusted your dress slightly before taking a peek at the clock. 5:59 pm. You made your way to the door and opened it. Jolting when you saw Shuichi’s tall body right in front of you, “Shui- Why didn’t you ring the doorbell?” You questioned, cocking your head to the side. Shuichi looked at you in awe, you were right, he really did love your dress.

“I... Uh...” He couldn’t say anything as he marvelled over the way you looked in the blue dress. You grinned bashfully, twirling a bit for him. “You like it?” You bit your lip, looking up at him. He simply nodded, not able to think of any words to describe how godly you looked at the moment.

Holy shit, he really, really wanted to kiss you.

He found himself slowly leaning towards you, eyeing your lips. “Shu?” You tried to snap him out of his daze, before realizing where his eyes were trained on. Realization dawned over you and you flushed, eyeing his lips as in turn. Reaching up to grab his face, you gently put your hands on his jaw and craned your neck to kiss him. Thank god for the heels, you would’ve had to pull him down without them.

His eyes expanded due to the fact you made the first move. Closing his eyes, he gripped your hips, sliding his hands over the material of your dress. As he kept going for more of your lips, more of your touch, more of you, the more he became intoxicated. But to his dismay, you pulled away, breath fanning against his chin. “Ditch the date?” You asked, trying to gain your breath back. “Ditch the date.” Shuichi eagerly replied, curling his arm around your waist and pulling you inside your house, closing the door behind him.

this is so long ;--; and unedited- hsbhjbdkndfx i hope you guys enjoyed this! super fun to write brooo, and hey! its only 1 am! proud of me? :D - mod chia

#shuichi saihara #shuichi oneshots #shuichi smut #shuichi headcanons #shuichi fluff #shuichi x reader #shuichi saihara x reader #danganronpa oneshot #danganronpa imagines #danganronpa fluff #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #mod chia

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sanstropfremir · 3 years

Text

ok alright alright alright kingdom episode two

kinda disappointed that they only showed half the stages, but that's just an editing thing to draw out the content so you can air for longer, i'm not super surprised about that. i would have liked to evaluate them all at the same time, but at least this gives me time to go more in depth for all of them since they're full stages this time and I wrote 3000 words for last episode when they only had 100 secs. so this format will probably keep me sane for longer, i think.

solid stages all round for them, none had especially glaring flaws on the whole. i'm not gonna do a full ranking for this episode since we haven't seen them all, but i will say that btob’s was my favourite from this set and both ikon’s and tbz’s stages were about equal; they both had things i liked and disliked in equal measure so i'm tentatively giving them the same ranking. full opinions and analysis on each stage below the cut, plus another section of general notes because hey what the fuck did you do to that stage mnet???

and for anyone that’s wondering yes i do have the qualifications. also seriously grab a drink or something because this is LONG.

some general notes

and here i thought this section wouldn't be as big as it was last time because mnet was going to get their shit together about the stage design, but noooooooooooo they had to go and make it worse! thanks mnet i hate it! remember how i said you shot yourself in the foot last time? well ya fuckin kneecapped yourself AND all your idols with this one ya dumb fuckin idiots. alright folks welcome back to stage design 101, my recurring segment where i explain the different types of stage layouts and their effectiveness for kpop idol survival shows, i guess.

ok so last week i covered the basics on theatre in the round and traverse staging, which i’ll link here if there’s anyone new or just wants a refresher. i mentioned that its likely that mnet will switch to an in the round style staging because it offers a lot more freedom for camera movement and also for directional blocking. well, i was wrong. so i'm gonna give you a quick rundown of prosceniums. a proscenium, proscenium arch, or just prosc, is an architectural feature that sits around the front ‘opening’ of the stage that delineates the stage from the audience. if you've ever been in or seen any pictures of old european style theatres it can be quite ornately decorated with scrolling, but it's almost always there in most western theatres. it basically provides your ‘wings,’ which are where you exit off into to get offstage, they provide cover from the audience sitelines. pretty much any theatre where the audience is directly opposing the stage across the 180 degree line is a proscenium stage, even if it doesn't physically have the arch. hell, movie theatres are prosc stages. now, there's a secondary architectural feature/device called a false proscenium, where you set a second, smaller archway inside the first prosc, usually done for a specific effect. think of it like a literal framing device; it's often used to visually signify that ‘this is a play, we are telling a story, please be aware that this is a play thank you.’ but sometimes, it can be a semi-permanent structure that’s set in place to narrow the prosc opening. we had this at my university, there was a false prosc set just inside the actual prosc because the stage had a hilariously big prosc opening for a university that never had casts larger than 24 people. so they set false prosc in to make the stage slightly narrower and to widen the wings, because it doesn't matter what size theatre you're in, you always need more wingspace. makes sense? ok, now here’s a very quick drawing of what i'm pretty sure the kingdom stage looks like:

before you get lost: stage directions are oriented to a person standing on the stage, hence SL and SR being reversed. a quick tip for remembering which way is upstage and which is downstage: if you go too far downstage you fall down (most stages are raised between 2-4’ from the floor, so if you step off the end you will actually fall.) the arrows on here signify the entrances i observed during the performances, which is not necessary in this explanation but i just thought it was interesting to note. still not entirely sure what the surrounding architecture is but it appears that the stage is a raised platform inside a room, and not actually built as part of the building. the ‘house’ is just a technical term for where the audience is, and in this case it's where it looks like most of the film crew and the producers/staff are. there’s pretty clearly a platform upstage centre, and i think there may be some others but i don't care about those right now. what i want to talk about is this dumbass false prosc they set IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE. now i suspect that they did this to solve some problems that they could have had that i don't know about, since i don't know who the stage designer was and what the actual limitations of the space are. but basically they've built two stages and stacked them on top of each other to create one very deep stage, and then separated it off with a false prosc in order to control the size of the space a little better, and possibly to add some visual interest. this stage is functional for its purpose, absolutely, and i think, if mnet actually gave a shit about point of view and camerawork, it could produce some really interesting performances. however, because this stage is so deep, it kind of has the same properties as the traverse stage from before, but just with some big led screens in the middle for reasons. you extra have to pay attention to the directionality because you have all the staff and cameras concentrated in one specific cardinal point, so you have to get creative if you want to crossover between the two sides frequently. again, this is not necessarily bad; restrictions often produce some of the most creative decisions. but! we have not seen a lot of consideration for camera and sightlines and audience pov, hence why i think this setup is dumb: it’s not facilitating the best performances it could.

ok now to the actual performances

btob

this is my favourite of the group because it's very clean lined and utilizes a few simple devices to pretty good effect. i realize these reviews are making me sound like i only like simple performances but i promise this is not at all true i'm just very critical and very picky. let’s start with the costumes, because why not.

costumes

i like these very much, i love modernized traditional clothing in all forms, and these are very well tailored and well coordinated. they do the bulk of the work establishing the theme for the performance, along with the costumes on the backup dancers. personally i would have liked them to be a bit more colourful, à la the teal detailing that was on minhyuk’s final look. i'm getting a bit tired of the whole trend of having groups only wear all dark or all white, or maybe sometimes red if they're feeling spicy. obviously uniform colour is the easiest way to tie a group together visually, but on a show like this i think the groups would actually benefit more from looking distinct from each other internally rather than establishing the group as whole.

i liked that minhyuk had a costume change but i didn't really care for how it was how it was broken down. this is a very personal quibble because i literally have spent years prepping quickchanges but the method it broke down wasn’t the most visually compatible with the garment and felt kinda clunky. please ignore this anecdote it's just me being picky.

set

i loved the forest! a very excellent way to divide the stage area and obscure the weird stage lines/architecture that mnet has made. plus the snow, flowers, and fog? makes a really sharp and immediately indicative atmosphere, a very good use of visual shorthand to establish place.

i didnt love the screens, they reminded me a bit too much of rolling whiteboards from grade school, but they are thematically relevant. also, i feel like we didnt actually get to see about half the choreo for them? fuckin mnet and idiocy again. fun use of rear projection with the dancers’ shadows, and also good use of them to direct traffic, if you will.

personally i think that the sheet gimmick from tbz’s performance would have been a better fit here instead of the screens, especially since the fabric motif was already established at the very beginning of the performance. plus you can do some really fun shadow work with a stretch fabric screen.

personally i think there could have been a little bit more integration between the forest area and the screen area, or they could have done the whole thing in the forest space, but that would require a bit more consideration of camera and choreo maneuverability

sound

really liked this arrangement, obviously the song is iconic but they added a more traditional instrument sound. has good structure for the loose narrative that they had and they were well to label this as ‘theatre’ version because this did follow very closely to a traditional musical theatre sound and style

lighting

no complaints. the overall theme for this episode is apparently blue and red? again with them i like their dedication to a limited colour palette and i especially like the blossoms at the climax

staging

there was pretty clear camera choreo and a minimum of nausea inducing moves. i think some of the effectiveness of the staging got chopped by the editing but that’s not really btob’s fault.

i was just saying i wanted them to give minhyuk some time to shine, i was not expecting to get it so soon! this is a very smart choreo that proves you can be interesting without doing a lot of tricking. minhyuk obviously did a lot of practice and work with that sword, his movements are very fluid and he knows how to handle it. and it looks like its either a blunted proper blade or a correctly weighted replica. a lot of the times when sword choreo looks fake it's because the person either hasn't had enough practice or the weapon is not weighted/weighted incorrectly. only complaints are that you would never hold your fingers/palm that close and un-anchored over the edge of the blade, which is just a safety thing. also you would never scrape your blade on the ground like that, nor toss the thing like dead fish but that's a respect thing with a live blade and this is clearly done for dramatic effect so i’ll forgive it. please ignore this anecdote also it’s just my third dan getting uppity.

ikon

costume/set

smart thematically to go with the sort of miscellaneous 30s-40s (western) aesthetic because it's the fastest way to make it look like you built a theme with mnet’s weird pseudo art deco nonsense they've inexplicably got going on in the set dec. however, they should have stuck the theme all the way through, it would have been more visually cohesive and more interesting. we expect more hiphop/electronic sounding songs to come with these kinds of 4th gen costumes, it would have been anachronistic in a fun way to have them do that second half in 40s style suits. here’s a performance from sdc3 that uses that kind of anachronistic play (this was a combo stage with two ballroom dancers and it has a 20s aesthetic but close enough.) also here’s another routine from sdc3 that does a similar effect on a much more abstract scale, and also it’s a fucking incredible performance and it got slept on by the captains. also yes i know these are incredibly experienced career dancers but they way they construct narrative within their routines and their stage presence is SO GOOD.

do not speak to me about the backup dancers costumes, holy shit i hate them. i hate them so much. how do you manage to hit too shapeless AND too fitted in the same fell swoop? i'm so mad at these. i'm neutral on bodycon dresses on the best of days but these were absolutely the wrong choice for this stage. generally kpop has abysmal costuming for female backup dancers on the whole but this is just like.....especially lazy. the point of the costume are to help give an indication of where and when you set your performance. they started off with a vaguely 40s theme and then jumped abruptly modern. why? also skirts like that are the literal worst choice for dancing in, hello?? the men’s looks are just sloppy, when you have a garment that big you want it to serve a purpose within the choreo, whereas with this it's just hiding the dancers’ movements.

as for ikon themselves, see everything ive said about black on black on black styling in the previous two reviews.

the actual set is minimal and that's tragic. i mentioned mnet’s weird art deco theme and it was smart of them to try and play off that with a lack of stuff. definitely a mismatch of stuff pulled from yg’s prop storage, but they made it work as well as they could. no other meaningful comments i’m just kinda sad about it.

sound

the arrangement is fine, no complaints from me. they keyed up the old hollywood style musical theatre sound in the beginning which i really liked. i didn't mind the song/tone switch, i think they pulled it off.

staging

same as btob they learned more towards a theatrical style, which is smart for this particular format of show. i think this was the smartest staging of these three, and also i think the only ones to not get the crew in shot.

despite seemingly leaning into a more old hollywood style the narrative was a bit too loose for my taste. i'm not sure what i would have done to make it clearer at this moment since they had so little to work with, but i did get by on my previous knowledge of the songs. that shouldn’t be the only indication of narrative though! all elements need to support it!!

also like btob they had a pretty intentional point of direction and there weren't a crazy amount of spins. they also used the camera cuts the most effectively that i've seen so far. the first half is actually all in one take!!! incredible!!! thank you!!!! this is how you do it!!

the lighter flick gimmick was well pulled off and a good example of how to use a couple of simple tricks to good effect.

ikon as a whole has really great stage chemistry with each other, and they're extremely cohesive performers. this is a really strong physical performance from them, the dance was very solid and clean. good use of levels without verging into acrobatics. this might be the best group choreo i've seen so far, but we’re not very far so that's not a very high bar to clear.

it's a shame they had the budget of 1 banana.

tbz

i liked this stage better than their intro stage, but i still think they have a long way to go and they're still over ambitious. personally i find stages based on specific pop culture properties to be kind of twee and ineffectual, because it requires a specific knowledge of that pop culture property to work. sometimes the specificity can help with a narrative but you're at risk of alienating a larger portion of your audience out of sheer non-knowledge than anything else.

costumes

again, interesting garments physically, but not much clarity of relation to the theme other than the colour. also the backup dancers???? another case of backup dancers being from an entirely different stage, what is up with those coats/dresses? looked more like they belonged in either sweeney todd or a vampire movie.

hands in front of the camera again, but these were used much more effectively. i'm not the biggest fan of mixing metals and i’m partial to silver on the whole so i didn't love the jewelry, but at least it was vague and stereotypical enough to denote ‘fire magic’ even if it does rely on a derivative middle eastern shorthand.

set

the stage set itself is fine, although definitely feels a bit haphazard to me. doric columns and frozen rocks and whatever that cover for the pyrotechnics was at the front, combined with the candles and the chaise lounge? like ikon, it felt a bit like they were pulling out of the props/set storage. not that all these things do not work together, it's just that you need a thread to tie them together, and this didn't have that for me.

sound

it's a crime they have a song called ‘no air’ and its not a jordin sparks cover. just saying.

i didnt really like this arrangement, again like their intro stage it didn't have a strong structure that suited the narrative, because they were pretty clearly trying a narrative on this one. also were most of the adlibs playback? they were singing live but there were so few shots of anyone specific singing.

lighting

probably the weakest of the three. the projection design was a bit too tacky for me, and although i appreciated the small amount of variety in colour, it felt way too concert-lighting for me.

staging

the editing on this stage is wack and did no one any good. the hands leading/pov was a really smart device and they should have stuck out the one takes like ikon did, it would have made the whole stage feel a bit more cohesive. a lot better directional camerawork from them this time around, well done. again with the hands in front of the camera gimmick which i actually preferred this time, since they were a part of the narrative. the stretch/silhouette fabric i think they pulled off quite well, even if it didn't really fit thematically with the piece. i actually worked on a show a very long time ago that used this exact same effect with dancers and also rear shadow projection, and it requires a lot of rehearsal and trust to pull off well, so props to them. i think it was the wrong choice because there isn't an established motif for the fabric, so it kind of appears out of nowhere for one specific visual moment and then disappears, and i think that time could have been better served for something else narratively relevant.

again, these 4th gen groups are overly focussed on gimmicks as a way to make up for the lack of experience. personally i think this will be detrimental in the long run, and a reliance on gimmicks means that you don't trust your performers. tbz have the manpower to be doing some pretty cool collective dance work and i dont think its being trained or utilized correctly. they are suffering from a lack of cohesive stage presence right now and that can be fixed with training and time.

this might be because the group sizes are so different between these three but this choreo is very directionless. mnet is also providing to be absolute garbage at editing and i feel like i can't see the choreo at all.

this is a thing i've noticed with kpop camerawork in general, there’s very little regard for actually viewing the choreo as a singular work. and for some reason the camera always needs to be moving???? people do actually want to see what’s happening on the stage. the choreographer can only see from one spot, so from that spot is how they are intending it to look. you wouldn't need to upload full cams of every music stage if you just filmed the choreo properly in the first place. if you watch the two sdc3 clips i linked you can see a clear difference in maintaining the integrity of the choreo, even though both shows use several cameras and a lot of cuts. obviously for kpop you want the money shots of idols’ faces but i definitely think there’s a healthier middle ground than what we have now.

ill wait for full subs but i want to know where in the fuck in sk you can rent a tank thas clearly been custom made for underwater photography, because that’s extremely cool even if it was absolutely unnecessary to the actual stage itself. i can think of several ways off the top of my head that would have achieved that same freezing effect without any of that wasted time and effort.

mnet decided to drop full cams while i was writing this and despite watching those my opinions are the same.

in conclusion, some more general thoughts:

i think ikon and btob got it right by leaning more into the theatrical than the cinematic, if that makes sense. i might be talking up my own ass here but these are theatre performances, and they should be treated as such. trying to do things that you can do on film isn't going to do you any favours in the long run, and it makes it harder to make a cohesive performance. i’m harping a lot about narrative but it is so important to performance. although it is not technically necessary, when doing big theatrical performance stages like this it does help with clarity of intent and general success. humans have brains structured around storytelling, it is literally the way our history has been passed down for tens of thousands of years. the atlantic published an article recently on narrative and memory, and it's a really excellent read for maybe after you've taken a break from this behemoth, oh dear god.

tldr: the stages were good but disappointing in their own ways. mnet continues to sabotage via weird stage design decisions and bad editing. see you next week! (or in my ask box if you have questions)

#kingdom review #kpop analysis #kingdom #oh dear lord this is almost 4k #to anybody that actually reads this thank you and im sorry #text

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luupetitek · 4 years

Photo

I did the thing! Lately a lot of artists post their 10 years of art progress meme, to celebrate that we're starting a new decade. I liked the idea, so I made my own \(*´▽`*)/ 10 years! Who could have thought! My art journey is of course longer, but those are probably my most intense art years x3

More about my art journey under the cut!

2006/2007 was the moment I discovered manga and anime and after joining the fandom, I started writing fanfics and slowly drawing more often. I was inspired by all the stories I could watch and read and by all those cool characters. I also get to know more people who also liked to draw. My first love was InuYasha, and right after was Death Note, which you can see even here ;) I joined my first art community, deviantART, in 2008. Thinking about making my own manga, but I've never drew any page, staying on the first stage of planning everything.

In 2010 I was still drawing. Drawing even more. All the time! Usually on my lessons :v As you can see, I drew mostly traditional, usually fast pencil sketches, or more fancy, inked and color pencil ones :v But that was the year I got my first graphic tablet! It was terrible, but I was happy I could finally draw digitally... with Paint x'DDD oh my good, yes. My first graphic program was window's PAINT. Still it was fun! But, as you can imagine, my works weren't too good quality (you can see them in the scraps, lol), and i didn't have many tools to work with. So I stayed with my fancy Faber-Castell Polychromos color pencils 😎 I was no longer writing fanfics. Nonetheless, I didnt stop writing at all, I started chat rpgs with my friend! Beginning with Death Note characters.

2011 was the year I started thinking about my art carrier even more seriously. Taking some private and class art lessons. Not for too long, but I was introduced to other art styles, mostly realism. Still practising digital art and my own art style too. I also started doing commissions this year!

2012 I changed my high school for a school with an art class :D I also started taking some private lessons from a skilled artist, who could teach me not only traditional, but also digital art and liked manga too. I think that's the year I made my biggest and probably mostly visible art progress. I was drawing ALL THE TIME. I was no longer using Paint, but Paint ToolSAI and then Photoshop. I got a Wacom Bamboo tablet (which I still have and use up to this days). But what's even more important: I was not only drawing, but also observing. I was looking at photos, at people around me. Noticing how their bodies move, how do they look like, how their body parts and their clothes look like. Drawing from references and from the world around me, sitting in a subway and drawing people sitting next to me. I was learning the anatomy, shapes, gestures, shading. I LOOOOOVED sketching and making full pencil pictures! And still, even though I don't draw traditionally anymore, sketching is my most favourite part form the whole drawing process cx Oh! And that's the year I started to play on a rpg forum with a ttly original story and when Drill was made! ♥ My first true original character, that I'm proud of and that I still love~

2013 was busy with my preparations to get to the art university! I still drew a lot, mostly the rpg characters and some practice sketches, but now also big format pencil and paint pictures for my portfolio. I felt in love with aquarelles 😍 and was practising them together with pencil sketches and digital art. I also did my first, short animations : > And did a project with the whole movie clip for the Disney's song "I'll make a man out of you"! I had a lot of fun AND I GOT ACCEPTED INTO MY DREAM COLLAGE!!! ＼(≧▽≦)／ Like, seriously, it was my goal since my middle school, when I first saw their ad in a subway, lol

2014 More art! More digital! More aquarelles! More OCs! Generally the only thing I was drawing that time was rpg characters and uni projects xD Started experimenting more, connecting traditional art with digital art

2015 Same, just drawing those OC's in many ways and having fun~ RPing a lot and... OH! Is that? Yes it IS! It's RAVENIA! It's the year when Vasdorl was born ٩(♡ε♡)۶And my love for drow ofc!! I was introduced to DnD and fantasy and there was no going back from that path. I joined the drow community on tumblr and discord to meet more people with the same interests.

2016 IT'S RAVENIA!!!!! And the real start of the drow era! That's also the year when "Vicous Vasdorl" comic started! And when I began working on my BIG "Escaping the Underdark" game project, as my final uni project ♥ I came back to doing commissions and developed my comic "simple style"

2017 More drow! More Ravenia! More Vasdorl! And of course MORE OF MY GAME, that was taking most of my time as I already was too late with it. It was such a big project for just a one person and I had to take a one more semester to work on it. Drawing all days and all nights. Generally I was just waking up, working and going to sleep and that was my life back then. That was also the moment I learned how to do good digital sketches, as I was drawing A LOT. Especially while working on my animations. (Drawing them traditionally just to remake them digitally was too much time-consuming. So I completely stopped doing it. I was abandoning my pencil, and replacing it fully with tablet pen). AND I DID IT!!! I graduated with the highest grade possible and I finished my game! \(^ヮ^)/ I started doing plushies and chibis and went more into doing commissions.

What about those last 2018 and 2019 years? I guess you know them well. I had more problems so I stopped doing my comic and focused on doing commissions. Doing commissions and from time to time drawing our dear Ravenia characters but I didn't stop in my journey here. Working on comms was a perfect way to experiment more and go out of my comfort zone! Drawing many different things, many different characters and of course backgrounds! Which I always hated doing and now I don't have anything against. Experimenting with light and perspective. Mastering my skills and my anatomy knowledge. Making art trades and gifts. Having fun with you on streams x> Just trying to push myself a little bit more foreword and learn something new with every picture~

Woha, that's a really long description xD' But for the TLDR people: It was a long journey! But I'm very proud of it! Starting from manga and anime, with traditional works and doing mostly fanarts. And slowly going to digital fantasy, not using any traditional techniques anymore, to draw my and my friend's OCs. I spent most of my life on making art, 12 years on deviantArt, 5 years on being here and sharing it with you and 10 years on learning as much as I can. Still learning and trying to improve even more!

Thank you for being with me through that time ( ˘⌣˘)♡(˘⌣˘ ) And hopefully we will be able to continue it through the next 10 years! Let's see what the future holds ;) ____________________________________ You can find me on: (@Luupetitek) Deviantart | ArtStation | Mixer | Ko-Fi donations

#meme #luupetitek #10 years art progress #progress #improvement #2019 #art #artist #story #info #progressmeme

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fullmetalscullyy · 5 years

Note

Can I please request some Modern AU with a spoonful of pining/adorkable Roy and tons of fluff? :D :D thank youuuu in advance, Emma!!

so i’ve fallen in love with this oneshot and writing their banter in a modern setting uwu thank you for this tas!!

also i hope the texting reads well in this format ksjdfjk i realise the format is 14:00pm which is a bit redundant but i didnt notice until reading it back on here aaaaand tbh i’ve waited too long to post this and its 10:30pm so i really can’t be bothered changing it at this point

part 2 | part 3

There was an incessant banging on his apartment door.Stumbling through his living room, Roy cursed as he kicked the corner of hiscouch hard, his toe throbbing. His irritation growing by the second, hisvisitor still banging away on thedoor like there was no tomorrow, he wrenched the door open with a glare. Riza,his neighbour, stood on the other side of the door, hand raised and poised toknock again with an impatient expression.

“What?” he growled irritably.

“Hey,” she greeted brightly, unconcerned about the time andthe sacred rite that was a lie in on a fucking Saturday. “Can I ask you a favour?”

“Riza, it’s Saturday morning.”

“And?” Damn her. Dam her and her ability to rise at six inthe morning any day of the week. The woman had probably never slept past sevenbefore in her life. Roy, on the other hand, appreciated and valued his sleep.

“Saturday,” hestressed slowly. He had finished work late last night and had been lookingforward to his sleep. Now it had been ruined by Riza.

They were good friends and hung out frequently. Starting offas neighbours who politely greeted each other every morning, they quicklydiscovered they shared mutual friends, so it was easy for their relationship todevelop. To Roy it had been the most natural thing. The only down side was saidfriends were both couples and they ended up third wheeling any outing theyattended. Through this, however, they had formed a close friendship, which hedeeply valued.

But when she interrupted his morning by loudly banging on his front door for about five minutes instead ofwaiting for a more respectable hour, Riza really tried his patience.

“Good observation,” she quipped. “Anyway, I need a favour,if you’re up for it?”

Roy sighed, admitting defeat. He rubbed his eyes tiredly,resigned to the fact that for the fourteenth day in a row, he had been woken upat six thirty in the morning.

“What?” he asked irritably.

“I’ve got a work thing tonight and I need you to come withme.” Roy narrowed his eyes critically, eyeing her open and honest expression.

“What’s this really about?”

With a sigh, she finally revealed the truth. “You know thatguy I was dating?”

“The stick?”

Riza huffed. “He’s not a stick.”

“Riza, he’s built like a stick.”

“Anyway, it didn’twork out and now I have… a situation.”

It shouldn’t have excited him so much to hear that herrelationship with Stick Man Dan didn’t work out. Roy wasn’t blind, Riza was abeautiful woman. Plus, he adored her as a friend. They had clicked instantlyand the banter they shared was effortless. If things were to progress furtherbetween them, Roy certainly wouldn’t say no.

“A situation?” Roy asked doubtfully, yawning loudly. “Whatkind of situation?”

“Just some friendly stalking, that’s all.”

That woke him up.“He’s stalking you?”

Riza nodded and Roy didn’t miss the briefest flash of worryappear on her face. “Have you gone to the police?”

Riza nodded. “Yeah, of course, but they won’t do anything.”

“Why?” he asked, unable to keep the anger out of his voice.Regardless of his feelings towards Riza, they should be doing something aboutit.

“Apparently until he does something concrete, and there’sevidence, they can’t charge him.”

“Bullshit.”

Riza’s lips quirked upwards. “I’m inclined to agree. Anyway,it’s fine. I can look after myself. My hope was that you could accompany me tothis thing tonight to try and gently tell him that, you know, I’ve moved on.”

“Yeah, of course,” he replied, tone concerned. “Do you needsomewhere to stay? Is it that serious?”

Riza smiled at him instead of replying, Roy unable todetermine the emotion on her face. “No, thank you. I’m okay.”

“Let me know if you do. And if Stick Man Dan comes around,give me a text or a knock.”

“I will,” she smiled that cryptic smile, expression soft.“Thank you.”

“Okay then. What time do I need to be ready for?”

“Six, if that’s okay?”

“No problem.”

“It’s date,” she grinned.

“But be warned,” Roy added. Riza’s expression turnedexpectant. “Wake me up, banging on my door, at this time tomorrow and I will remove your hands from the ends ofyour arms.”

Riza grinned. “Thanks Roy!” She walked towards the lift, aspring in her step, completely unconcerned about his empty-but-tempting threat.He sighed, closing his door, but smiled as he re-entered his apartment. Anevening with Riza on a “date” didn’t seem so bad.

* * *

RM: What do Ineed to wear tonight? 13:44pm

RM: Smart?Casual? We talking tux? 13:44pm

RH: Smart casual is fine.13:51pm

RM: Wow. Thankyou. Much helpful. Very cool. 13:51pm

RH: You’re welcome.13:52pm

RH: Do I detect sarcasm?13:52pm

RM: Your powersof deduction are unparalleled. 13:53pm

RH: Thank you. I pridemyself on that. 13:54pm

RH: Idk just weartrousers and a shirt. 13:54pm

RM: Still nothelpful. 13:55pm

RH: Idk, I’m nota dude. I don’t know what you wear on a night out. 13:55pm

RM: Where is itbeing held? 13:56pm

RH: In a function suite.It’s just a gathering to celebrate a colleague retiring. Dan will be therebecause he was a friend of the retiree and one of my colleagues. 13:57pm

RM: Stick ManDan is friends with old age pensioners? 13:58pm

RM: Riza.13:58pm

RH: Shut your mouth rightnow. I already regret the decision no need to rub it in. 13:59pm

RH: And if you say I toldyou so I will punch you in the face. Guaranteed. 13:59pm

RM: What acatch. 14:01pm

RH: I hope you enjoy thatpunch coming your way in approximately 4 hours. 14:01pm

RM: Hey if noone else will make fun of you for it I’ve got to step up to the plate. 14:05pm

RM: I’m justfulfilling my duty as a friend. 14:05pm

RH: Two punches. 14:05pm

RM: Come at me.I look forward to them. 14:06pm

RM: So… Aboutthat dress code… 14:10pm

RH: Roy. You’re a grownass man. Dress yourself. 14:11pm

RM: Do you wantStick Man Dan to get the message or not? 14:11pm

RH: What, pray tell,message could you send from the way you are dressed? 14:12pm

RM: That I’m asexy motherfucker and you’ve done so much better than him already? 14:13pm

RH: … 14:13pm

RH: Insert picture of melaughing my ass off while rolling my eyes here. 14:13pm

RM: Juststaying true to myself. 14:13pm

RH: Keep telling yourselfthat buddy. 14:14pm

RM: To behonest anyone is a step up from Stick Man Dan. 14:14pm

RH: All right I’m goingnow. I’ve got more important shit to do than tell a grown man how to dress fora “date”. 14:15pm

RH: I thought you were“Mr. Hot Stuff” anyway? Surely you know how to dress for a date. 14:15pm

RH: Wait. 14:17pm

RH: You’ve gone on a datebefore, haven’t you? 14:17pm

RM: I’m noteven going to dignify that stupid question with an answer. 14:22pm

RH: Oh my god. 14:22pm

RH: Hahahaha. 14:22pm

RH: That pause speaksvolumes. 14:22pm

RM: I was inthe bathroom. 14:22pm

RH: TMI dude. 14:23pm

RH: Roy is not the“player” he makes himself out to be. Confirmed. 14:23pm

RH: I can’t wait to tellBecca. 14:25pm

RM: Youwouldn’t dare. 14:24pm

RH: ; ) 14:28pm

RM: Yourloyalties, and any impending betrayals, are noted. 14:29pm

* * *

“I’m going to kill you,” Roy grinned, trying to hide hisirritation as they walked arm in arm towards the function room where this partywas being held. “Really, Riza. This time, I will.”

“I’d like to see you try,” she muttered under her breathquickly before greeting a colleague and introducing Roy.

“You told Catalinaof all people.” Riza snickered beside him, steering Roy towards the buffettable. “You lied to her as well.”

“You neither confirmed, nor denied, if it was true.”

“I said I wouldn’t dignify it with an answer,” he bit back,his irritation rising. He couldn’t believeRiza had said to Catalina that he’d never been on a date before. Of course, he had been on a date before.The woman had phoned him up, cackling, asking if it was true. No matter what hesaid, Rebecca refused to accept any other answer.

God, he hated those two when they were together. A force tobe reckoned with, for sure, and often at his expense. Although they were maddening,Roy never minded it really. It was all good fun. However, it was just asentertaining to banter back and forth with Riza about the situation.

“Well, now we know you have,” she deadpanned, picking up apaper plate and filling it with food.

Roy followed suit, a smirk on his face as he shook his headin amusement. “I don’t feel so bad about making fun of you about Stick Man Dananymore. In fact, I don’t feel bad at all.”

“I would care butthat’s history.”

“Doesn’t look like it,” he muttered in her ear, picking outthe Stick Man himself heading their way, his approach unknown to Riza. Roy shothim a polite smile, which was ignored.

“What?” she asked, mid turn.

“Hey, Riza,” Stick Man Dan greeted his ex, still completelyignoring Roy. Thanks, mate.

Roy had never liked him. He was built like a stick, all skinand bones, and taller than anyone Roy had ever met, which did nothing in hisfavour in the appearance department. Every time they met up as a group, hewould completely gloss over everyone who wasn’t Riza, offering only one-wordanswers. Not to mention he hated Roy for some unknown reason. He couldn’tfigure out what it was. Roy would chuckle to himself when he considered StickMan Dan may have felt threatened by him.

Roy had often wondered what Riza saw in him. “As a concernedfriend,” he would tell Hughes and Catalina irritably when they gave each otherThe Look. Said look was a “oh-shit-he-loves-her” look.

Amusement aside, Roy did consider how it looked from anoutsider’s perspective. Both he and Riza were very close. Probably too close inthe opinion of significant others, but nothing had ever happened. It didn’tmean Roy didn’t want it too, but ifRiza wasn’t interested, then so be it. He wasn’t about to mess up thisfriendship and make it awkward by asking her.

As Stick Man Dan ignored Roy, he considered that perhapsthey were close enough that it wouldn’t makeit awkward between them. They told each other everything.

Only one way to find out, however now was not the time.

“So, you’re here with Gerald?” Riza asked him politelygripping Roy’s arm tighter and sliding an arm around his waist. Not expectingsuch close contact, his breath hitched as he ate, but was luckily able to hideit behind that.

“Gerald, unfortunately, was unable to make it tonight,however I thought I would just come anyway to honour Janine.”

Roy frowned. What person comes to a friend’s retirementparty? At said friend’s place of work?

A stalker, looking tosee someone who shot them down.

Roy shifted, wrapping his arm around Riza’s shoulder as hecontinued to eat, staring Stick Man Dan down. His hand came to rest on saidshoulder and he gave it a quick squeeze. Dan seemed to realise who it wasstanding beside Riza, and his eyes flicked to Roy’s briefly, before moving toRoy’s hand on Riza. If a six foot seven bean pole could look dangerous, thenthat’s what Stick Man Dan’s eyes looked like.

And Roy did notlike it.

Apparently, neither did Riza. She was tense underneath his arm,so he rubbed his shoulder in response. This man made her uncomfortable now,that was for sure. That was his job tonight, as a friend, to help her make itthrough this night and get rid of this guy forever. The only way Stick Man Danwould ever take the hint was if they were convincing.

However, he didn’t want to push the boundaries too much –

Oh my god, Roy, chill.You’re here as a friend, that’s it. Nothing more. Just help her out.

“That’s very nice of you,” Riza replied.

Stick Man Dan’s eyes flicked over to Roy’s once more. Oh, so he wasn’t invisible? Who knew? “Iwas wondering if I could talk to you for a minute?”

“Sorry, Janine asked us to come and speak to her after we’vegrabbed a plate,” Riza lied smoothly. Roy watched as the disappointment crossedStick Man Dan’s face, feeling very pleased by the show. Riza begun to walk away,neglecting to offer Dan another chance for his talk, and Roy let his arm drop,regrettably, but followed after her.

“Can you see me?” Roy whispered to her quietly, leaning inclose, as they left Stick Man Dan at the buffet table alone.

“What?” Riza asked, looking up at him, confused.

“Can you see me?” he repeated. “Stick Man Dan acted as if Iwasn’t there and I was wondering if I’ve miraculously achieved the ability toturn invisible.” Riza snorted, loudly. “I mean, it would come in incrediblyuseful. I’ll be disappointed if you cansee me at this point.”

“Shut up,” she laughed quietly, approaching the woman of thehour. “He’s an ass.”

“I honestly don’t know what you saw in him,” Roy joked,sighing dramatically. He would never let on that he was being serious. “I mean,clearly he was a charmer.”

“He never liked you, did he?” Riza smirked, popping asandwich in to her mouth.

“Oh, we were best buds. Me and Dan?” He rose his hand,crossing over his pointer and middle finger. “We were tight, just like that.”

“Shut up,” she chuckled.

The rest of the evening was pleasant. Riza’s colleagues weregood people who welcomed him with open arms. Apparently, they were in on thewhole stalker situation, and were aware of Roy’s role in the night. It didn’tstop them from playing it up, perhaps too much. As much as Roy enjoyedpretending that he and Riza were a couple, that was just it.

Pretend.

“Do you want to go with them?” Riza whispered in his ear.The feeling of her hot breath on his ear made him shiver, goose bumps rising onhis flesh. There were a few people who were going out for the night to a clubnearby. Truthfully, Roy didn’t want the evening to end. He enjoyed having hisarm around Riza as they sat together, their thighs pressed against each other.Holding her hand was something he couldn’t get enough of, and often foundhimself stroking the back of it with his thumb as they sat.

It’s all an act,he kept reminding himself.

But as the night wore on, Roy found he didn’t want it to bejust an act.

So, he agreed to going out to the club.

That was his first mistake.

His second came when they were dancing under the dimlighting, smoke coiling around their legs as they moved dangerously close to one another. Roy saw, rather than felt, hishand reaching out to brush her bangs off her face, his hand curving around hercheek to cup it. Riza’s eyes that had once been on the space between them hadsnapped up to meet his, both their dancing slowly coming to a stop. A thumbbrushed over her cheekbone and Riza’s eyes widened. The music in the clubdulled to a heavy thump, the wordsfading away to become obsolete.

He pressed his lips gently against Riza’s, feeling herbreathing hitch underneath them. His free hand made its way to her waist, handgliding effortlessly across the material of her silk top as it moved around toher lower back. Riza responded eagerly, deepening the kiss after she locked herarms around his neck, pulling him tightly against her body.

For a few moments all was right in the world. This felt good. It felt natural. It made Roywonder why they hadn’t done it sooner. He pulled back, as if his brain finallyrealised what he had done, and who hehad kissed.

Riza was a friend. This was supposed to be pretend. Not thatRiza could hear him, but he stuttered, trying to apologise for oversteppingthat final boundary.

The look in her eyes told Roy she was okay with it.

One of her own hands rose to cup his cheek this time, drawing his lips back against hers.

* * *

“Would… Would you like to come in for a coffee?”

Riza smiled tiredly. She had ridden in the lift with her headon his shoulder, eyes closed, and a small smile on her face. It had made Roy’sstomach go crazy and grip her hand tighter as they stood waiting on theirfloor.

That second mistake was working out all right.

“I would love to, but I think I’m just going to go tosleep.”

“See, if you slept in at the weekend, you wouldn’t be sotired at one am.”

Riza smirked but the lift dinged at their floor before she would reply.

“Maybe one day, you could teach me,” she replied, playingcoy, before giving him a wink as she stepped out of the lift. That left Roystaring after her, desire in his eyes.

A hand stilled the one on her door handle, gently but firmlyspinning Riza around so her back was against her apartment door. Roy’s handswere pressed flat against Riza’s apartment door, trapping her head betweenthem. Her surprised squeak was adorable and so was the grin on her face as Roybent to kiss her lips. Since he had done it for the first time in the club, he hadached to do it again.

“See you tomorrow?” Roy murmured, his hands moving slowly upand down her waist.

“See you tomorrow,” she agreed, her face and neck flushedfrom their activities. “You can count on it.”

He bid her goodnight and entered his own empty apartment. Thememory of kissing Riza, the feelings of her skin underneath his hands on herwaist, the softness of her hair as he ran his hands through it feverishly were freshin his mind as they lulled him peacefully to sleep.

Only to be interrupted by incessant knocking on hisapartment door.

At six thirty in the morning.

There is only one person…

Gearing up for his charade of being truly irritated, butready to joke with his friend, his retort about removing her hands from theends of her arms died on his tongue. One look at Riza’s face told him this visitwas different. She looked… scared?

“Can… Can I stay here?” Her voice was hesitant and quiet,almost fearful. His irritation gone after hearing her speak, Roy opened thedoor wider so she would enter his apartment. He was worried. Riza never looked like this.

“Yeah, of course. Is everything okay?”

Riza shook her head, offering him her phone instead ofreplying. Apprehensively, Roy took the phone from her unresisting hands.

Unknown Number: Riza weneed to talk. I didn’t like what I saw tonight. I don’t like you spending timewith that guy. I won’t allow it. 06:21am

Roy looked up at her from the screen. Her eyes were castdown towards the floor, not looking at him in the eye.

“I got that this morning, a few minutes after I woke up.”

He tried to reign in his anger. He really did. Was he watching her? The thought made himphysically ill and see red at the same time. “This happen often?” he askedcurtly, but somehow, he already knew her answer.

“Yes,” she replied in a small voice.

“Has it ever escalated?” Riza was silent and that was theonly answer Roy needed. “Why didn’t you tellme?”

“I could handle it,” she replied, voice stronger now. “Buteven after last night he still hasn’t gotten the hint and…”

“What?”

“I’m scared,” she whispered. “I’m scared of what he might do,of what he’s possibly already done, and I… I don’t want to be alone right now.Especially not in my apartment.”

Roy closed the door behind her, putting the chain across it,as if a reassurance that Dan wouldn’t get anywhere near her. Not while Roy wasaround anyway.

“Block that number after you’ve reported him to the police,”Roy told her. “I’ll drive you down there tomo – Well, at a more respectablehour,” he quipped.

“Why don’t we just go now?” Riza asked, confused. Ah, of course, Misswhat-is-sleeping-past-six-am?

“I’m going back to bed,” Roy told her. “And – only if youwant to – you can learn the benefits of sleeping past six am at the weekend.”

His attempt at humour was only to try and lighten the mood –to try and take Riza’s mind off things – and he was pleased to see she fellinto step with him, their banter coming easily to each other. He was thrilledto learn thigs weren’t different between them, despite what happened tonight.

Riza’s lips quirked up and her posture relaxed. Instead ofher arms hugging her body, they moved into the front pocket of her hoodie. “Andwhat benefits would those be?”

“Waking up next to me?” he offered with a smirk.

Riza sighed, cocking her head as if to consider hisproposal. “I think I like that benefit. Are there anymore?”

Roy grinned widely as he closed the distance between them,kissing Riza Hawkeye like his life depended on it.

God, it felt good.

#royai #royai fic #royai fanfic #royai oneshot #fic request #writing prompts #emma writes #ruikosakuragi #ask #hold my hand

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blatherkatt · 5 years

Note

i just started reading your blumenthal kids reunionfic and i LOVE IT! Its so good and so full of potential and angst and I LOVE IT!!!💞💞💞 The way you write Eodwulf is soooo good hes such a mess and so gay help him. and Astrid Omg... I cant wait for more of her i checked out some of your posts on here and shes just great??? You've clearly put a lot of thought into them with the child designs and stuff, did you have any major inspo for the two of them like songs or other characters and stuff???

hey tumblr dont…delete part of my answer what the heck

anyway!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH,,, ed ( @tactfulgrimalkin ) is the one doing the actual writing but we plan everything together and i edit and do artwork so he deserves lots of love for the great writing…i dont remember what else i had here before tumblr deleted it so i hope thats the gist of it

eodwulf is a gay disaster of a bastard man and astrid is SO fun and im SO GLAD UR EXCITED TOO BECAUSE WE SURE ARE

anyway you just opened pandora’s box and i’m very sorry for the length of the rest of this answer but here we go prepare for some cursed content necessary to answer that question ( | ) w ( | ) it was a Wild Ride getting these two characters to where they are boy howdy

so the thing is in order to explain how we created these characters i actually have to get into the origins of the fic on the whole because the two are inextricably linked, and also, the origins of this fic are incredibly cursed and you can send all ur hatemail right here go on blast us we’re ready

but we were talking about caleb and how we’re both excited for whenever astrid and eodwulf turn up, and the thought came up for basically the rough skeleton of that scene in chapter 2:

“hey how messed up would it be if instead of them both hunting him down like we’re expecting…one of them comes in with a huge savior complex and sincerely thinks he’s delusional and should still be in the asylum, how MESSED UP would that be”

…and then shortly after that, this happened

thats the cursed part dont say i didnt warn u but listen you know we’re right

also that pic of caduceus didnt exist back then i went back and got this screenshot just to share the curse with you all

ANYWAY

in classic us format we got carried away and eodwulf got slotted into the role of that scene in chapter two and his character was largely developed around that scene, like, what kind of person would still be clinging to caleb after all this time to that degree to make that happen? and what was come up with was an extremely avoidant person clinging to a fantasy version of things wherein they don’t have to fight

(eodwulf was developed into a Person before astrid, i should note at this point, and ed did most of that developing; i took point on astrid later on)

but around this time i went “screw it im gonna do some concept art we’re both in too deep now” so here’s some of that for u guys

started with them all as teens and did a couple sketches as well as one of baby (well. teen. so baby) caleb/bren/we were calling him felix at the time as some of u probably already know

first draft had astrid with longer hair than eodwulf lmao check this out

flipped the hair length on those two which was for the best because at the time we were imagining eodwulf as a bit more mischevious which is another thing that got reversed over time now astrids the prankster and eodwulfs the overworked mom friend because bren takes astrid’s ideas and makes them SO MUCH WORSE but he still looks better with longer hair and then i played around w/ colors for a while and wound up w/ this

voila, the initial kid concepts, to which subtle yet vital changes were made after time. if any of you are curious about if im frustrated that that’s still the best i’ve ever drawn eodwulf’s nose the answer is yes. yes i am.

astrid’s hair is not messy enough, theres not enough freckles, and she does not look ready to fight the entire world for a dare. 0/10.

anyway then i did adult versions which look WAY OFF NOW LMAO

eodwulf with way too much beard, looking far too messy when he ought to look very clean so that he can hide how much of a disaster he actually is, and also a glimpse into the very boring Ice Queen/Heartless Bitch we vaguely had astrid as to start with. even more out of character tho is the earring, astrid as she is today would absolutely never tolerate an earring unless she absolutely had to, girl’s got sensory issues but she didn’t back then. ALSO STILL NOT ENOUGH FRECKLE

anyWHO a while after this it was decided that eodwulf has ADHD, something both the authors have a whole lot of lmao, and that was the point where ed REALLY took off and developing eodwulf went out of control and we both went Well I Guess We’re Gonna Have To Write This At Some Point Now

and with that happening is when developing astrid took more priority i think, because man, at that point in the game she came way too close to that really annoying trope that shows up in fanfic a lot wherein The Girl is A Bitch who is Getting In The Way Of ~*The Yaois*~ and thats like, thats bad. we knew from the outset we were absolutely not setting this up as a love triangle because we both hate those but even w/ her having no romantic relationship to either of the two, like…she was kind of just There and the one who was most loyal to trent (the only thing of her original characterization that really stuck, honestly) and sooo boring????

so like, and i say this honestly, i managed to COMPLETELY FORGET that “reverse sasuke” cursed comment from the beginning of all this and STILL go “well what if we made her more like caleb’s rival that’d be fun”

and that’s how astrid sorta wound up accidentally morphing into the Scrappy Underdog of this anime trio and calling her a naruto analogue is extremely cursed but also not inaccurate tbh

started out with the concept of her popping into bren’s window because she heard they were doing magic and wanted to learn it too and evolved from there; we decided that she was gonna be neurodivergent too but, hilariously, initially that she was “the best at pretending to be neurotypical” (WE COMPLETELY REVERSED THAT AND IT IS FOR THE BETTER. SHE’S SO MUCH MORE FUN NOW) and made her also autistic because it one meant she could be like SAME HAT at bren really hard which’d make her feel more like part of the group instead of just the odd one out, and two because it fits with the whole rivals thing

branching off of that we made her just. INCREDIBLY direct. like. astrid’s thought process is “how can i accomplish what i want accomplished with the smallest number of steps? what are the consequences of doing it this way? do i give a shit? no? im gonna do that.”

(which is why she climbed a tree to get into bren’s attic instead of using the door because that way she just completely skipped having to convince his mom to let her in)

i cant get into it much here because so many spoilers and we’re gonna explore it all, but like, astrid’s backstory turned into this exploration of the intersection of sexism and ableism especially as applied to a medieval-esque society in which the word “autism” doesn’t even EXIST and in which a convenient double standard exists Right There in the form of bren and like,, its gonna be good guys im excited for it

as far as characters tho she does also have just a touch of Vimes from discworld to her, albeit like, she’s lawful evil to his lawful good, but she’s got the same tendency to stick REALLY FIERCELY to the rules that she thinks are important, even when they inconvenience her, even if it’d be so much easier to bend them just this once

and for songs i cannot link like any astrid songs because they all might accidentally give away so much BUT I CAN LINK AN EODWULF SONG

youtube

this one was HUGE for him

uhhhh i think that’s everything i can think of that we can say right now unfortunately so i’ll end this with a comparison to the current teen designs we have now that are being used in the actual fic, even tho im not fond of how bren came out in this picture, but like, for the sake of comparison

lets see how far we’ve come

I N C R E A S E F R E C K L E

#longpost #SORRY TO PEOPLE ON MOBILE #zemnianghosts #i also got a lot better at drawing them all over time #just like. so much

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sraawrats · 5 years

Text

🦇🎃Kana’s Halloween Hangover Rec List🎃🦇

Love Halloween? Not ready for it to be over? No worries! Old and new, these are some of my favorite spooky, suspenseful, and supernatural Kylux reads--perfect for drawing out your favorite month a little longer!

which is 100% why i’m posting this on november 1st, definitely not because i didnt manage to finish it before yesterday. nope, not at all

My Baby’s a Devil in the Bedroom | @callmelyss

- E - 4/5 chapters, 14 645 words - “Oh, obviously.” Kylo let out a shaky laugh and ran both hands through his hair. “Wait, no, you’re serious. You’re a fucking demon.”

“Well, yes, not to put too fine a point on it.” Hux smiled, clearly pleased with himself at the joke. “Or more accurately, I’m a succubus. A sex demon.”

—

Kylo has an unusual squatter. He's pretty fine with it. -

This fic is seriously amazing. It’s a super fun idea, the dialogue is hilarious, and it perfectly balances the sweetness and humor with angst/intrigue. Plus, I’m absolutely taken with snarky, smug, candy-tasting succubus Hux <3 <3

strange phenomenon | @brawlite, @kyluxtrashcompactor

- E - 8/8 chapters, 65 756 words - Kylo Ren is haunted by recent tragedy. He answers an ad posted by one Armitage Hux for a roommate, and he thinks a fresh start will help him begin to heal. He brings next to nothing with him from the past when he moves in.Or so he thinks. -

This fic is wonderfully suspenseful, and perfect if you’re looking for something to keep you on the edge of your seat. I also had a lot of Han feels when reading this one. Overall it’s just really nicely well-rounded with heartfelt and genuine characterizations, good spooks, and some searing sexual tension.

Something Wicked | @marlonbookcase

- G - 7/7 chapters, 22 514 words - Kylo and Armitage have been friends since they were kids. Now in university, they run a semi-popular YouTube channel called "London Below" where they investigate all sorts of haunted and paranormal happenings in and around London and try to answer the question, are ghosts real? When they take on the mysterious and tragic case of the Pendle Witches, they come face to face with the spirit world in a way they never have before. Will they make it out of Pendle alive? Are ghosts real? And most importantly, does Armitage return Kylo's affections? -

I love Buzzfeed Unsolved. I love Kylux. I love this fic. A lot. As it says in the description, it’s not an exact Unsolved AU, but it really captured the format/feel of the “paranormal investigator” genre, so if you’re a fan of that, you’ll love this. Bonus points for some mutual pining and sugary fluff 👀👀

Second Spring, First Fall | @huxandthehound

- T - 5/? chapters, 7 018 words - Nothing brings people together quite like the holidays. Well, maybe not Halloween... After a scare, Hux has to confront his neighbor. Lucky for him, Kylo might be a little sweeter than his tricks let on. -

A cute multi-chap made of Huxloween prompt fills! Lighthearted, but it’s still got that Halloween spirit. Plus I’ve got a soft spot for sweet modern AU Kylo :))

Some Strange and Unnerving Events | @longstoryshortikilledhim

- E - 10/10 chapters, 158 815 words - As a boy in a dreary school on the moors, Kylo Ren had only one friend, a red-headed boy whose sharp tongue and wit drew Kylo to him. But that friend was taken from him. Now grown, Kylo goes into the service of the master of Stormfield Hall, the enigmatic Lord Arkanis, who is seeking a tutor for his charge. Kylo's past will come rushing back to him, both in his new employer and some unusual circumstances that bring to the fore powers that Kylo thought long-suppressed. -

This fic hit me like a ton of bricks. This fic hit me like TWO tons of bricks. Start this one when you’re ready to be feeling it for a few days afterwards. It’s an incredible historical AU with magic and a great murder mystery--it basically pushes, like, all of my buttons. And it’s /genuinely/ spooky, I had to start keeping a light on while I read it. Oh, and it features definitely my favorite Millicent ever. If you’ve got the time for something long, go for this one.

Reach Out in the Darkness | unicornsandbutane

- E - 2/2 chapters, 9 321 words - Having spent a decent amount of time researching the history and folklore of Arkanis, Cadet Hux strikes out one chilly evening in search of some legendary creature that's supposed to be extremely powerful. If the myths aren't true, all he's wasted is time. But, if they are based in some actual fact, then what a boon such an entity would be to his cause. He doesn't know what he will find, but he is prepared for any (absolutely ANY) eventuality. -

Tentacle monster Kylo. I am unapologetic. It’s really good.

Witchfeather | Whatever21ism

- E - 14/? chapters, 16 015 words - Armitage Hux is a new witch trying to establish himself in a new town. One day he goes out seeking a familiar, particularly a cat, somehow instead he ends up with a raven who is much more than they appear to be. -

A favorite of mine! Apothecary witch Hux & his crow familiar Kylo. There’s some really nice worldbuilding and crow Kylo is super cute. Possibly abandoned, but defs worth checking out what’s there & showing the author some love.

First Order Investigations | @mistresseast

- Unrated - series, 3 works, 58 094 words, incomplete - Hux and Phasma have been running First Order Investigations since high school, and Dr. Snoke's metaphysical research graduate program seemed like the perfect opportunity to pursue their interests under the protective umbrella of academia. Unfortunately, that meant allowing Snoke's personal project, a taciturn medium named Kylo Ren, to join their team. Hux and Kylo mix like oil and water, or, more accurately, like fire and gasoline, and Hux is convinced that working effectively with Kylo is absolutely impossible. They hate each other, and Hux is content to leave it that way.

But then, a case in the sweltering heat of South Carolina begins to change things between them, and Hux finds himself questioning not only Kylo's feelings, but his own as well. -

Paranormal Investigator AU of the highest quality. The detail and thought put into each investigation site is incredible. I love this fic to pieces, and if you like ghost stories, you will too.

Undead | @heyktula, @splinteredscript

- E - series, 2 works, 6 855 words, incomplete - They’ve been circling around each other for years. Kylo Ren, the most powerful vampire in Supreme Leader Snoke’s house, and Armitage Hux, the human liaison between the world of mortals and that of eternal darkness. Baiting, taunting, the cord between them growing ever tighter.Sooner or later, one of them is going to snap. -

A lovely and dark vampire AU~~ Gives off some real classic Kylux vibes, and is an absolute pleasure to read :D

Fixer Upper | @irisparry

- T - 5/7 chapters, 10 034 words - When Armitage Hux starts with First Order estate agents, he thinks the house on Alderaan Drive is an insult, a patronising set of training wheels for the new boy. He is ... not correct. -

Adorable haunted house AU! I love both of their characterizations in this one, especially shy, grumpy ghost Kylo~

Hair of the Dog That Bit You | @theweddingofthefoxes

- M - 9/9 chapters, 21 597 words - Ren owns a popular tavern, and Armitage is a respected physician in town and the surrounding villages. Their years-long friendship will survive anything -- even the bite of a werewolf. Won't it? -

Full disclosure, I haven’t actually finished this one-- I have a tendency to get distracted unless I finish something in one sitting, rip. But I remember being SUPER stoked about starting it, and anything by weddingofthefoxes is guaranteed to be a treat, so I’m putting it on here anyway :D tbh now that I’m thinking about it again I’ll probably finish it tonight.

The Eldritch Effect | @generallyhuxurious

- E - 17/17 chapters, 67 899 words - For the last three years Major Donal A. Hux, formerly of the British Army's Parachute Regiment, and Kylo Ren, estranged son of US Defence Secretary Leia Organa, have been tooling around North America investigating "weirdness"- and they're plenty weird themselves. Their latest tip off is leading them towards a haunting in rural Alabama. But first they need to make a stop in Trinity, South Carolina... -

A real goofy Paranormal Investigators AU that I super love (but I also need to catch up on rip). It’s an American Gothic AU, but you don’t need to have any knowledge of the show to follow along (I don’t). It also comes with a series of oneshots set in the universe but outside the main plotline, so when you finish the fic and inevitably want more, you’re covered ;)

blackbird, fly | @acroamatica

- M - 19 265 words - One sunny afternoon in the mountains of Washington state, Ben Organa-Solo walked out into the woods.

He never came home.

Six years later, a journalist specialising in missing-persons cold cases decides to follow his footsteps and see where they might lead. -

This is a sad beautiful horror AU that is very close to my heart. The writing is just gorgeous and the suspense is beautifully done. Also, it about doubled the amount of emotions already attached to the song Blackbird for me (I still get a little heart-squeeze every time I hear it)

what’s real or isn’t | @brawlite

- E - 12/12 chapters, 57 398 words - Hux's new house is not haunted. It isn't. -

Super surreal haunted house AU. There’s also monster sex. This is definitely a staple of spooky Kylux fics :D

How to Kill a Living Thing | hedgerowhag

- E - 10/10 chapters, 25 394 words - It starts like any other horror movie: a young man moves into a strange old house full of relics of the past and becomes haunted by some strange entity. However, Ren doesn't find the monster that he expects. -

This one has got some of the most stunning, spooky visuals I’ve ever read. I could picture every scene and character so clearly. Plus, I love Hux’s characterization--he’s kind of a shit, and it’s beautiful.

Twenty-Six Weeks | @vmprsm

- E (eventually) - series, 4 works, 28 539 words, probably complete - Two mature adults need to do two things: live an a house with a stranger for six months, and keep their secrets to themselves. How hard could that be?

Apparently very. -

The author made a point of trying not to give too much away in the summary/tags, so I won’t either :D I’ll just say it’s one of my favorites, and definitely worth a read if you haven’t already~~

The Brief Wondrous Return of Vampire Boy | @hollyhark

- T - 21 190 words - Two days before Halloween, Hux hears a rumor that Ben Solo is back in town. While Hux does not believe the sensational version-- that his estranged childhood friend/enemy escaped from an asylum and is out for revenge --he is left on edge as to how to proceed. -

One of my favorite Halloween fics; it really encompasses the feel of fall/Halloween but also, like, good ol’ ~teenage bullshit~. There’s a lot of creepy Snoke stuff, some dealing with the fallout, and a nice hopeful ending :))

Ghost Encounters of the Hux Kind | carefulren

- T - 9/9 chapters, 25 610 words - Kylo purchases an old, abandoned house in order to get away from his family. He just wants the chance to be alone for a while, and he considers this house as the start of his new, isolated freedom.

Everything is going as smoothly as possible, until it's not.

Perhaps, Kylo isn't living alone after all.-

A sweet and soft ghost story AU. I adore the ending <3 <3

Spookylux Huxloween 2018 | @nofootprintsinsalt

- T - series, 31 works, 36 896 words, complete - Huxloween 2018 - 31 benarmie fics in 31 days -

A series of benarmie fluff/horror for the Huxloween prompts this year! These were so so fun to read throughout the month and I adore the little universe that develops as they go on :))

Of Our Time | @ezlebe

- E - 15 297 words - “Do you know how many people would think it’s weird you walk around in the day?”

Hux grits his teeth in vain against an uncanny sensation, his own words digging and clawing up his throat to leave behind the taste of blood and bitterness thick on his tongue. “I could care less. I was made this way before there were movies – before fucking Stroker. Call me a demon if it makes you feel better.” -

I only read this really recently, and I was BLOWN AWAY. Seriously, this packs so much into 15k--it’s got feels, it’s got lore, it’s got steamy smut. What more could one ask for?

Shiver The Whole Night Through | @theweddingofthefoxes

- T- 5/5 chapters, 7 977 words - Ren's always loved hunting, so when he's told his paid time off won't roll over into the next year, he decides to take a week, get his gun and rent a cabin in the woods. But it takes no time at all for the hunter to become the hunted. -

This one’s very accurately tagged “Mind Games,” which really made it stand out to me--I do love a good spooky woods story~~

The Ghost Under My Bed | @longstoryshortikilledhim

- E - 19 525 words - Amateur witch, aspiring actor and full-time family fuckup Ben Solo discovers that his house is being haunted. Best part? His very own poltergeist, Armitage Hux, is kinda cute. Worst part? Well. He's dead. -

THIS IS THE SWEETEST GHOST STORY. I love it so so much. The sweetness of their relationship set against the sad backdrop of both of their histories gives this one a really unique feel. And the ending is guaranteed to give you the warm fuzzies <3

aaaand that’s all, folks! Lord, this post turned into a behemoth lmao. I just. really love supernatural stuff. (on that note, if anyone has read/written anything even tangentially spooky/supernatural, feel free to send it my way. I will happily give it a read ;)))

Happy reading! ^_^

#kylux #fic rec #halloween #huxloween #spookylux

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jackandmarksavedme88 · 5 years

Text

Anything But Average

TW: Alludes to some violence. @weirdmixofweirdness i had a brain and thought: why not pull up desktop mode ONTHEFREAKINPHONE. DUH 😂🙈

Formatting sucks but. Yeah.

@ashphoenix06 @nekob00

**************************************

Chase sat at the bar, his second glass of whiskey in his hand. He didnt want to go home, JJ and Jackie would want him to talk. And he just didnt feel like talking now. Itd been so long since she left it seemed...but seeing her today, across the street, holding hands with some guy theyd gone to school with, it seemed she was his just yesterday.

"Oh suck it up. She didn't want you. Youre here drowning your sorrows, and shes onto the next dick..deal with it" he thought to himself, draining the glass and waving for another.

"Ya know. Thats the cheap crap. You really wanna get blasted theres better stuff.." The bartender said "Yeah well. Im just drinking. Not getting crazy."

His phone buzzed and he looked down, laughing to himself at the meme Jack had sent him. Then a text came through from Alison She was Jacks friend that had become close with the Septic guys over the last few years. Based in Texas in the US they didnt see her in person much, but Chase and her communicated almost daily

A:Heyyyy. Whats up?

C: *picture he took of Stacey and her boy toy* Thats a guy we went to school with 😑. They were 'friends'

A: Dude. Thats a downgrade. Although she was never good enough for you anyway. Only good thing was the kiddos

C:yeah. It still hurts like hell though.... I need to run away. Get out of here. Theyre going to her moms for a month or so for school holidays and i dont want to be here.

A:well. You could always come here? My Dad and step mom are leaving so i have my cabin on the ranch plus the main house to myself for like a month. You should come!

Chase sat and pondered this. Him go to Texas? With horses and a lake and a bunch of land to explore with fourwheelers....that sounded like heaven

C: Are you for real? Because i could seriously use that lol

The phone rang with Alisons ringtone "Hello?"

Alison: Hell yes im serious! Itd help me out because i don't really want to be by myself out here that long. And you sound like you could use it. Seriously. Fly in, ill come get you and we can tear some shit up

Chase laughed 'alright. Be careful what you ask for Allycat"

Her laugh echoed across the line "Ohhh im shaking Mr Brody. Figure out a flight and let me know!"

Chase told her ok and hung up with her, immediately finding a flight that left in a couple of days "I am outta here" he said

************* 'Wait. So youre going for a month??' Jackie said in shock , 'Just like that??' He was standing in the bedroom door watching Chase pack. He had to be at the airport in about 2 hours

"Yeah. I need to get outta my head and Ali offered. So Im going. I think it'll do me some good. She has a computer and Stacey said i could skype the kids, they wont be in town anyway... I just need this Jackie" The hero stared at him knowingly and then nodded 'ok. Just be careful.... Hey..She ever say anything to you about her going MIA a while back?'. Chase shook his head. Thats one thing he hoped to get out of her. Even Jack had tried to get her to tell him where she'd been, but no dice. 'Hm. Ok. Well, let us know when you get there man...'

Chase zipped his suitcase and grab his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. 'I will bro. Thanks for understanding' he hugged his brother hard and then grabbed the suitcase and left.

******* Chase sat in the passenger seat of the truck, still speechless at Alison's appearance. He was expecting the Alison hed seen two years ago; but shed been training and gained muscle and holy hell. She was dressed in cutoff red shorts and a sleeveless black shirt. When she ran up to him at the airport hed almost stepped on his own bottom jaw. Her auburn hair gleamed in the sun as she talked about everything she had planned for this weekend

"Uh...chase..you ok? Awful quiet there bud" she looked over at him. Chase shook his head to clear his brain 'yeah. Yeah im good.... Hey. You look incredible!"

Alisons face flushed 'aw. Thanks' she laughed. "So. Here we are" she pulled the truck up to a gate and punched in a code. As she drove onto the ranch Chase stared out the window.

'Holy hell Alison. This is gorgeous.' They drove for another fifteen minutes, passed the huge main house and pulled up to a log cabin.

'Alright. Let's go in.' She grinned and stepped out of the truck. Chase smiled and followed her. She walked up the steps and unlocked the door. As Chase walked in he laughed. A Sam pillow and Pink Mustache pillow decorated the couch on either end.

'Really Alison?' He said, picking up Septiceye Sam "Hey! Yes really!' She said laughing. 'Just because im friends with them doesnt mean im not going to buy their shit!' He shook his head, all awkwardness gone.

There was the Alison he knew, a goofball with an affinity for Markiplier and Jacksepticeye.

She walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling some steaks out. 'You hungry?' Chase nodded. 'Hell yes, ive been needin some of your cooking!' He said, his smile lighting his face. 'You know. Im gonna have to teach you how to cook Mr Brody.' She grinned at him. And he looked at her wide eyed "um..alison. You sure you wanna do that?' "Um. Yes" she said. Grinning at him. 'First lesson..music!' She pulled up an app on her phone and music began drifting through the room. Chase shook his head. Yep. Still Alison

****** Chase watched as Alison danced in place as she cut up some vegtables and potatoes. She was barefoot, singing along to the beginning notes of 'Small Town Boy' by Dustin Lynch, he smiled as he stood up from the barstool he was sitting on... Vegatables could wait He walked up behind her and took the knife from her hand, she turned to him 'what are you-?' Chase grabbed her hand and pulled her to the open kitchen floor and started dancing with her. She threw her head back and laughed as they swayed and Chase sang along

* I'm a dirt road in the headlights I'm a mama's boy, I'm a fist fight Kinda county line, kinda cold beer Little hat down, little John Deere I kinda give a damn I kinda don't care You see that girl standing right there She loves a small town boy like me She's my ride or die baby She's my cool, she's my crazy She's my laid back in the front seat She's my with me to the end girl My turn-it-up-to ten girl....* Alison laughed and sang with him. She was in trouble if her stomach and heart were going to continue playing Zoo escape with him here. Shed been friends with the guys a while. But this was out of left field. She hadnt expected her heart to try to beat its way out when she saw him standing there at the airport. His green hair had been replaced by a natural brown and his eyes shone as blue as ever. When he saw her and smiled as she started to run toward him for a hug, shed almost fallen over. This would be a very interesting visit.

*********** They were sitting on the back porch after dinner. Chase was watching Alison animatedly talk about training with some of the guys in her Dad's work, laughing when she knocked over her water glass when her hands flew into it 'Oh shit!' Alison cried out. Then she just started laughing and Chase couldnt help but laugh along with her as he went inside the sliding glass door to the kitchen and grabbed a towel and handed it to her. She mopped up the mess and then sat back down, still giggling.

'Well. Still gracefull as ever i see Miss Calaway' Chase said teasingly She stuck her tongue out laughing 'oh fuck off Mr Brody' They laughed and then sat in silence, watching the lake.

'So.' Alison said quietly 'how are you...really?'

Chase smiled at her 'you know.... Earlier this week i was in hell. Seeing her with him opened old wounds...but being here now i feel a little better. Like i can breathe. It hurts still. But i can breathe' Alison nodded and reached over and squeezed his hand 'im really glad you came. I needed some company...'

She dropped her hands to her lap and stared out at the water. The energy around them shifted and Chase could sense something hed been feeling all evening. Something was weighing heavy on her. 'Alison....whats going on? You never told me what happened that two week span you quit replying to anyone..and ive left it alone this long but.. i can tell now sitting here it wasnt a case of being too busy with fun stuff to look at your phone' Alison looked down, a mixture of sadness and guilt shadowing her face. He was talking about last year. Even Jack had tried to get out of her where shed been...but she hadnt told a soul. Only her family knew. Tears welled in her eyes... that had been during a bad time for Chase...she remembered the pain in the drunk texts from him that shed read when she got the phone back...

She stood and walked over to the railing. Trying not to cry and failing 'Hey...alison im sorry. I didnt mean to-..' Chase stood and walked up beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. She turned to face him and burying her face in his chest, silent tears rolling down her face for a moment. Then she took a deep breath, stepped back and wiped her face 'Sorry...its just... I never apologized for not being there for you. I read those texts a million times after the fact and... Im so sorry Chase'

Chase stared at her shocked 'thats whats upsetting you? Alison, i send angsty texts to my brothers every time im freakin drunk' he laughed. "You dont need to apologize. It was a bad point but nothing for you to feel guilty for being absent for... But i would like to know where you were. We all know when you reappeared you were different." Alison stared into his eyes, hed had never noticed how green they were. She was searching...but for what? 'Chase.... Not even Jack knows what happened...' She took a deep breath '....i was in the hospital.' Chases mouth dropped open in shock 'What?! Why???'

She stared at her feet and was quiet for a minute. 'Do you remember Chris?' She asked. Chase grimaced at the name, he remembered Chris. He also remembered the broken nose and black eye he gave him a couple years back when he saw him shove Alison to the ground "Yeah. Your boyfriend that no one liked?' She nodded 'yeah. That one.... God i shouldve listened to yall. ' Chase put his hand under her chin and lifted her gaze to his and spoke softly 'what did he do ali?' She swallowed hard. 'Short version? Got mad that i wanted to leave the country to come see yall.... Tied me up and used me as a punching bag for 3 days....'

Chases eyes widened in horror 'what the fuck....howd you get away???' She snorted 'my Dad came to find me.... Imagine for yourself how pretty that was' Chase knew it hadnt been.

Her father was famous for being called The Undertaker. Almost seven feet tall and 300lbs...and Alison was his little girl. His first daughter. His pride... Oh lord that couldnt have been good....

'So' she continued 'i was in the hospital for a good while... Actually the first time i texted you i was still there for another week.... ' Chase pulled her into a hug 'Ali im so so sorry..my God if i had known...' Alison laughed 'if you had known you wouldve been deported and arrested for murder...no i didnt want anyone knowing. Im the one who stayed when yall told me to leave. I'm the idiot.' Chase leaned back, arms still around her. 'No! Its not your fault. I dont care what we told you to do. You want to see the good in people. You want to believe everyone is good and thats an amazing trait. You should never think thats stupid' She smiled and leaned into his chest savoring the warmth and safety.

Later, after they had said goodnight and gone to their rooms, Chase lay there awake. He could still feel her head on his shoulder, feel the warmth from her, and his heart skipped. "What the hell is going on ??' He hadnt felt that since high school...that first skip of the heart when you find someone.... 'Oh grow up Brody. Shes your best friend and doesnt need your damaged ass complicating her life..' Little did he know she was in the room at the opposite end of the hall thinking along the same lines...

****** A week had gone by, they danced around the flirtation and the obvious tension that lay under their banter. The day before it had rained, creating mud puddles everywhere. Now it was sunny and muggy out. Alison excitedly threw a pair of 4-wheeler keys to Chase and grinned as she pulled her ponytail through the back of the hat she was wearing. Chase watched as she bounded down the front steps and followed suit. They were both in jeans. The day before Chase had bought a cheap pair of boots he could get muddy. They were heavy but at least it wasnt his sneakers. They headed down the path between Alison's and the main house. Chase studied her as they walked. He hadnt been as brave since the first night. He wanted to say something....anything. But he wasnt sure where to start. 'You good ?' Alison stopped walking and looked at him, his face flushed slightly "Yeah, im good. Ready to tear up the mud' Alison laughed 'well the shed is right over here. I keep mine here since its closer to my place' They rounded the bend in the path and came upon the metal shed. She unlocked the door and walked in, pulling the tarp off the two four-wheelers. She threw a michevious grin at Chase as she climbed on hers "You ready to get dirty?' She laughed Chase grinned 'Hell yeah!' He climbed on his and they roared to life, Alison shot out of the building and took off, he threw his head back laughing and started after her

****** After about an hour or two of flying through mud and water puddles, they were sitting on the edge of the lake on a blanket Alison had laid out under the big umbrella. Chase had his shirt off as it was wet and muddy. He looked over at her and couldnt help but laugh. She had mud streaked down her arms and some on her nose.. The only part that wasnt spotted was her legs. Shed taken off the jeans and was in her swim shorts that had been under them.

'What?!' She said

'Youre a little...uh...dirty there girl' She laughed 'you should see yourself, your floofy hairdo aint cuttin it kid' she said as she reached over and messed up his hair, dirt falling out 'Hey!' Chase cried and grabbed her hand as he chuckled 'you leave my hair alone. Youre just jealous' Alison laughed and rolled her eyes. 'Yeah. Ok' They sat next to each other in silence, her knees pulled up and arms wrapped around them. She leaned against his side and looked like she was ready to fall asleep on his shoulder. Chase scooted over to the far side of the blanket and laid back, then pulled her down so her head rested on his chest and an arm was around her. His pulse raced and she easily fit in his arm and curled against him.

She sighed contentedly 'hey Chase... Anytime i need to lay with someone im gonna find you. Because youre really comfortable' she said giggling. He laughed 'ok. But youll have to come across the pond a lot' 'Hmm' she said thoughtfully 'ok. Im good with that. Ill come over there for some Brody cuddles' He squeezed her and smiled. 'Hey....Ali?'

'Yeah?' She shifted her head so she could look up at him. Her heart raced as she caught his eyes. Shed been having trouble concentrating on anything since he took his shirt off and this wasnt any easier.

'What are we avoiding here?' He asked... He hadnt meant to be so blunt but it just kind of came out that way. 'I mean. We're good and normal and then other times its so freaking awkward..i dont get it' 'I-.' Alison didnt really have an answer for that. She knew what she thought she was avoiding. But she wasnt 100% sure. 'I dont know.. I mean... I think its obvious theres something to talk about. But neither of us wants to say it'

Chase stared into her green eyes intently 'Well if you want to say what i want to say, then fuck this silence. Tell me'

Alison sat up and looked the other way and he followed. 'Its not just that easy for me Chase.... I dont know what you want...i dont know what im supposed to do..i dont know wh-'.. '

He grabbed her chin and turned her face towards his 'what i want is for you to shut up and kiss me...what youre supposed to do is stop rambling and let me show you'

With that he pressed his mouth to hers and kissed her. Slowly at first and then harder. She sat up on her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck as she kissed him back. They pulled away breathless and stared at each other.

'Now alison' he said, his voice husky "Whyd you wait so long to do that?' He grinned and pulled her to him again and kissing her deeper, laying back, her laying halfway across his chest. After a moment she pulled away and laid her head down on him and laughed 'Holy crap' He laughed out loud, 'yeah... Thats one way of putting it' He kissed the top of her head and wrapped her in his arm, they both drifted off..

****** It was a month and a half later. Chase stood by the front door. Nervous. He didnt want to leave. They hadnt been what youd call official..neither of them labled it . Sure they had held hands, slow danced with each other, kissed and gotten close..but it wasnt like *that* was it?... And now he was going home. He wasnt supposed to feel this way. His heart wasnt supposed to ache like this....

Alison stood in her room making sure she had her keys and phone...stalling. "What the hell...why is this so damn hard. Hes my best friend....a great kisser...but my best friend! Its not supposed to be like this' she thought to herself. Walking out she caught his eyes and saw her sadness reflected there

'Are you ready to go?' She inquired, trying to sound happy

"....you want the truth or the answer thatll make you feel better?' He chuckled.

'Chase...' She stood by him and grabbed his hand... 'I know, i know. We live a million miles from each other... I just didnt think it would-' 'Hurt this much?' She said, staring up at him He sighed and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in and kissing the top of her head. 'Yeah' She opened the door and they walked out to the truck.

******** 'Seriously. Come out sometime, the boys and me will show you a good time' Chase said Alison smiled at him ' Definitely...ill miss you. Thank you for coming. I had a blast'

Chase smiled and her 'And stop standing so far away.' He grabbed her hand and pulled her close 'its harder to kiss you goodbye from over there....if thats okay.... Just one last time?' She smiled and nodded as a blush crept to her cheeks he leaned down and kissed her, both of them holding on longer than they intended. 'Alison...dont be a stranger' he said. Hugging her one last time and picking up his bags. 'I..i wont Chase. Tell everyone i said hi'

She waved goodbye and watched him walk toward his gate, then turned and headed for her truck. When she got inside she let go of her control and cried. The tears didnt stop until she was back to her place. She walked into the room Chase had been staying in and found one of his worn shirts folded on the bed with a note and a small bottle of cologne. She smiled and cried a little reading it

'I know its not the same as falling asleep on me. But this is the cologne i use, you can wear the shirt or use it as a pillow case... Ill miss you' She laid down on the bed and could still smell him as she drifted to sleep

******** 'Dude. You were supposed to go over there to get happier. Now youre just more mopey. What the hell happened?' Jackie asked Chase

They were in the living room, Chase sprawled on the couch. It had been almost two weeks since he came home 'Jackie. Just leave it alone man. Ok? I dont want to talk about it'

'Chase, you need to talk about it. I havent seen you like this ever. When Stacy left you cried and drank and talked about it... You dont even drink anymore. You just sit and watch tv or sleep' Jackie said, worry coating his words.

Chase sat up 'look man. Im an idiot and i caught feelings at the wrong time and the wrong place. Ok? And it hurts because i cant be where i need to be and where i want to be at the same time! I dont drink because then i dream about her and....'

His words drifted off Jackie came to sit by him and put an arm over his shoulder ' you always dream about Stacy though. I thought the sleeping pills helped with that'

Chase put his head in his hands 'Bro. This isnt about Stacy. I never thought id say this but i think this hurts worse'

Jackie was shocked. He couldnt believe what had just come out of his brothers mouth 'Then...who? And what did they do that was so bad???'

Chase shook his head 'thats just it. Nothing bad. It was all amazing... But.. Damnit man. I just wish it wasnt so fucking far, you know?' Jackie thought for a minute and his eyes widened and mouth dropped as he caught on

'Holy shit you mean Alison???' Chase's head shot up 'Jackie if you tell anyone so help me ill strangle you' Jackie put his hands up 'No no. I wont..but..what happened?' Chase laughed 'nothing like that... We just kissed and cuddled a lot and... I really think i fell for her man and i dont know how to process it... I feel like I'm losing my mind.' Then he opened up and told Jackie everything about the trip. His brother just sat and listened.

*************** Two weeks later...

'Alison!' Jack ran over to her, shed begged him to pick her up at the airport but hadnt wanted anyone to know. Hed been happy to oblige. Confused. But happy

'Jack!' She ran over to him and hugged him hard. Shed missed this goofball

'Ok so are you going to tell me whats going on?' Jack said as they grabbed her bags and walked outside to where the Uber was waiting for them

' um.... Its a little hard to explain. But.. I just had to come ok? Im actually meeting my Dad tomorrow. Theyre here because of a movie shoot. We are all staying a month or so.'

Jack shook his head 'i know when youre lying. Theres something youre not tellin me Ali' She looked at him. Knowing hed either laugh or help her... Well only one way to find out

'Jack....when Chase stayed with me for that month... We..I.... I fell for him ok? And i think he feels the same way. And this last month has been hell because i cant stop thinking about him. I know it sounds crazy but i had to come see him, and yall. ' it came out in a rush.

Jacks mouth dropped open in shock. 'You mean...youre the reason Chase has been so mopey? Thank God i thought he was on about Stacy again' and he laughed 'So. Wanna suprise him?' His smile conspiratorial Alison grinned. She shouldve known she could count on him.

*********** 'Well why do i need to go Jack? Why dont you?' Chase whined into the phone 'i dont feel like talking to anyone about filming man. I dont have it in me' 'Chase. Youre going. Trust me. Just meet the agent at the park. Theyll be by the river. Itll be a good opportunity for you man' Jack said on the other end of the line, trying to keep from laughing. 'And what about the others? Jackie and everyone left the house today. They said they were staying with you tonight because you were filming some stuff. Why cant i help?' Chase questioned 'Look Chase. I need you to do this for me. Ok? Please bro?' Chase rolled his eyes 'fine. But this better be a good meeting' Jack hung up the phone and laughed 'oh trust me Brody. Youll love it' he said to himself. Shooting alison a text. 'Now we wait'

At the house Chase threw the phone. He wanted to be mad but he knew Jack was just worried. Hed been holed up in his room since he came back, hadnt touched his skateboard in a month, hadnt even looked at his PS4.. All he could do was go through the photos from his trip. Hed talked to Alison on facetime and she seemed to be happy, was training and riding horses. She had sent him phtos of her and her Dad and little sisters... He felt like he was lying to her. He said he was okay, just more tired...but the reality was he wanted to beg her to come to him. He wanted to tell her he thought he loved her-- but he just kept a smile on his face because as long as she was happy, thats all that mattered

****** Later that night Alison sat on the bench. Nervously playing with the hem of her dress she had bought that morning. He should be here any minute.... What if he was mad...what if he didn't want her here? What if.... She recieved a text from Jack

J:Hes there.

Her heart pounded. Now what? She sat and waited...hearing footsteps

* Chase could see someone on the bench by the water and headed that way. As he walked his eyes focused on the figure. Their hair was an auburn color... That thought made his heart ache as he remembered brushing Alisons from her face... He got close enough to the bench and the figure stood and turned toward him. His heart jumped and he almost fell down 'Al-alison?' He whispered. Not believing what he was seeing. 'Chase..' She said softly. Her face broke into a smile as tears filled her eyes. She ran to him and he embraced her. He finally let go and looked down at her grabbing her face with both hands "ali what the hell are you doing here?!' Tears rolled from her eyes 'Chase....i couldnt stay away anymore. Im sorry...i know i shouldve told you but i didnt know if you wanted me here and-' her words were cut off as he kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. When they pulled back he looked at her for a long minute and then spoke as he wiped her tears 'Dont ever apologize for making me this happy...ever. Of course i want you here. Its been hell just talking to you on FaceTime and not being able to say what im thinking. My God Alison i missed you more than i thought possible' She smiled and kissed his cheek and hugged him again. Savoring the feel of his arms around her

'Cmon. Lets go talk' he said pulling out his phone to call a ride 'I got it' she said grinning 'My dad loaned me a driver for my trip' she called someone and said whered they be. As they walked to the road Chase saw a black limo waiting and laughed 'Well. That beats an Uber'

As they rode he just stared at her. She was looking out the window. His heart beat faster. She came....she missed him so much that she came all the way here. He smiled to himself and then shot Jack a text

C:'Youre an ass for letting me walk into that unwarned....but thank you man'

J:no thanks needed. I did it for both of you. You both deserve smiles on your faces man. Now put the phone down... Also Jackie said to tell you 'stay in your own room' 😂

Chase laughed out loud and covered his face. He was going to have to smack him Alison looked over 'whats so funny?' She reached for the phone and snatched it before Chase could stop her 'alison i wouldn-' he warned laughing 'Oh my god.... Im gonna have to smack him when i see him' she said laughing as her face turned red. They both giggled and Chase grabbed the phone and turned it off after sending 'tell him i said ..' Followed by a couple of middle finger emojis

***** They walked into the house and Chase locked the front door before grabbing Alisons hand and kissing her again. He couldnt believe she was here. Alison leaned into him and kissed him back and then said smiling 'i cant believe im standing here' Chase laughed 'i cant either! I mean...why would you come all this way??' Alison locked eyes with him. 'Because... I never knew i could miss someone so much Chase. Honestly it was driving me nuts. I got tired of having the pictures from your trip and FaceTime with fake 'hey buddy' bullshit..... But i wanted to say it to your face.

Chase nodded. He knew exactly what she meant.

** Alison had been there a week and couldnt get over the fact that she was with him. Chase was sprawled out on the other side of the king sized bed and snoring. They had both decided to stay in the hotel room she had reserved for her time here. Chase wasnt used to such a huge bed and Alison laughed thinking back to his face when he first laid on it. She laid her book down and reached over, brushing his hair back and smiling. He stirred and blinked at her sleepily "Ali-- you ok babe?" Her heart jumped at that name. She felt a blush spreading as he sat up and his bare chest became visable. "Yeah- yeah. Was just admiring how cute you were when you sleep" He chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair "what. Are you saying im not cute when im awake? " "Well....when youre asleep youre much quieter" she said laughing. His mouth opened in fake offense and then he grinned mischeviously "Oh. Okay.." He rolled over and caught her and tickled her and she laughed and squealed. 'Chase! Chase! Okay i give i give!!" He stopped and looked down at her as he laid across her and laughed 'youre pretty cute yourself Alleycat " he kissed the tip of her nose and she craned her mouth up. He smiled and leaned down to kiss her and she wrapped her arms around him. He still wasnt used to the sparks that went through his brain with her. That first night hed stayed with her they... Caught up.. quickly. He was still addicted to the taste and feel of her even after as many times hed experienced her. "Ali-" he whispered as he placed his forehead to hers "Yeah Chase?" "I...i think... This is gonna sounds insane' he laughed She pushed him up so she could look in his eyes "Baby...what?" Chase stared into her green eyes. Never having been more sure of what he was about to say...knowing if he didnt hed never sleep "Alison..... I love you...and i know thats crazy. I never thought id ever say that to anyone with this feeling behind it after her....but honestly if she walked up to me right now and asked me to come home...id say no. Youve made me feel whole. You make me the man i want to be. Even my kids when i saw them yesterday asked why i was so happy... ' He stopped and grinned sheepishly "i kinda talked about you a little...they want to meet you. I told them maybe in a couple of weeks..but thats up to you..Stacy was cool with it if you are..' She stared at him, not knowing what to say. A smile broke across her face and her eyes misted over "Chase...id love to meet them..." She pulled him to her and kissed him before saying quietly 'and Mr Brody...you should know. I love you too.." *****

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shidiand · 5 years

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How do you imagine Tenco's Story ending in your head?

that is a GREAT but UNEXPECTED QUESTION freshlybaked "spider" bread and i'm really happy to have the opportunity to try and answer this ageless question that has burned within all of us in the tenco's story iv waiting room community since 2013. it is an incredible coincidence (or is it? 👀) that i was just talking to Risa about tenco's this (edit: yesterday) morning so i am extra double super in the mood to talk about Tenco's Story today. so excellent of a coincidence is this that i am tempted to refer you to them in case you wanted to hear their thoughts on the matter that would probably turn out super cool, but that is neither here nor there; let us talk Tenco's Story.

i of course must mention my unadvertised and modestly detailed commentary on tenco's i-iii at https://shidiand.tumblr.com/tencos, presenting slightly interesting facts in an unwieldy and difficult-to-use format, but as it dates back to june 2017, i want to take some time to understand my feelings about the series once more.

tenco's story is a series that has a lot of meaning to me.

i took on my current name of shidiand in november of 2013. i was still in 11th grade at the time, 4th year of high school, and a very socially isolated person. i should say i was introduced to touhou in 7th grade, 2010, so i was still working through a 3 years-strong phase of trying to simultaneously both find an outlet for and bottle up an endless wellspring of awkward weeaboo-gamer nerd energy at the time.

i had my first real foray onto the internet in 2010, tried out twitter, followed some RPers and other people who had Cool Touhou Usernames. didn't really go anywhere. i had maybe 50 followers, i dont really know the count but it was definitely a) double digits and b) pretty low. didn't know what to tweet about. didn't know how to hit it off with others. i think there was basically maybe only 3 other people i ever properly interacted with. oh shit i was playing league of legends at the time. oh my god. i really did play league of .. oh my god. let's move on.

aw shit im super digressing amn't i. well.

this is just how it goes when i write essays on tumblr.com.

i'm afraid you're just along for the ride at this point so please do your best to enjoy it.

i got kind of tired of twitter at the time because i didnt know what to do with it. didnt know how to interact with people and didnt find the people i was following interesting, so i ghosted on out of there by the end of 2012. didnt deactivate it until like 2015 but at that point that was just burning away my dark history. anyways. november 2013.

--im taking a lot of time here trawling through old files on my computer, my tumblr blog, notification emails still lying around in my gmail inbox from twitter, the dropbox i didn't actually use but it had several tenco's story pictures on it but i deleted them so this was useless, ... to trace the timeline of this story and im really seeing a lot of remnants of dark history here you know? did you know i wrote a letter to a girl i had a crush on valentine's day 2014, slipped it into her locker, and anxiously hung around nearby at lunchtime to see how she reacted at lunchtime? i certainly didn't, or at least i made darn ass sure to forget about this incredible virgin incident and not remember it, ever, until i came across the records of it that i thoughtfully preserved for the me of 5 years later today. ok well now i have to read the letter to see if it was as bad as it just sounded there brb

ok so the good news is that it was actually very focused on being positive and full of admiration for the cool things she did instead of being a confession letter so i am very glad i was able to be a respectful chad 5 years ago, but the bad news is that the jokes, the actual sentences i put together. oh my god. but i mean. well. at least i got the spirit. its certainly a step up from this other person in my grade, WEEABOO ANDREW, YOU MAY RECALL THIS STORY AND HIS NAME FROM PREVIOUS STORYTIMES, THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND who came to school on halloween once cosplaying kirito from sword art online and got very possessive about people asking if they could hold his black replica plastic sword, and probably worse, dropped a "will you be my girlfriend" letter into the locker of my homie and fellow trombonist samantha, who was a little bit nerdy, hung out with the anime-likers who were actually sociable and fun to be around so you can imagine why weeaboo andrew was into her, which had i) a direct quotation from SAO chapter 16.5 (origin of the famous "glopping noise" line), and ii) a condom. jesus christ. i dont want to talk about this any more. next topic.

i also put this drawing of iku nagae and her skarmory (actually an albinoss from 18 DRAGONS) on the other side of the letter because it was the coolest thing i could think of drawing at the time. and i completely agree with 2014 me because it IS super fucking cool. hell fuckin yeah

https://shidiand.tumblr.com/post/76301993387/iku-nagae-ft-that-thing-that-supposedly-is-a

alright that was a fun little trip down memory lane but lets get back on track. november 2013. i started anew as shidiand. still awkward, still learning how to express myself and looking for my place among others. i followed some touhou bloggers, hung around r/touhou a lot as well. in december i got my first tablet for christmas, a wacom bamboo splash. i still use this thing! the usb cable disconnects if you bump it so i have to find just the perfect position to sit in whenever i want to draw, but its served me well. anyways. i was just starting to play around with digital art but i remember, probably just before new years, for some reason i wanted to find out more about tenshi hinanawi (i don't remember why. tenshi wasn't even one of my favourite characters at the time) so i went googling and right there on zerochan i found this:

https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=23525572

this was during my dark souls phase so i just went BANANAS at the sight of this. this was literally the coolest image i had ever seen in my internet life. That image alone made me want to draw in hopes that I could make something as cool as that someday.

it wasn't immediately after but i soon discovered tenco's story, and it was love. kannnu was my very first artistic inspiration, and for a long time, my only one. i absolutely idolized them at the time. since then, ive found other artists to look up to, in a more healthy manner, but to this day i still look up to kannnu, still admire their work a lot.

i played around with drawing, followed the lives of people on tumblr, started reading touhou fanfiction, made a new twitter. i met a lot of new people along the way. some people i havent stuck with, some i cut ties with, and some people i still keep in contact with today. over those long 5 years of being shidiand, i found a name (i used to use shidian and then shid, but someone called me shidi once and i realized that was a lot better), how to reach out to others, how to express myself, places that i could feel included in. this is why i owe a blood debt to evelyn, who permitted me to kneel at her throne and was like "yea ok you can join my discord server u seem cool". evelyn, if you were confused by me ominously mentioning this blood debt/blood oath in a tumblr reply 1-2 years ago, this is the context. those 5 years were like a coming of age of sorts, that i never had when i was in high school.

and my love for tenco's story, that inspired me to draw that day, has been with me since almost the very beginning of my time as shidiand. from the beginning, i have always encouraged people to READ TENCO'S STORY, like the kin of those who cry PLAY MELTY or WATCH SYMPHOGEAR. i think my very first sidebar description was something akin to a prayer, written in very choral language, hoping for the day tenco's story iv was completed, ..., "meanwhile, furious shitposting". kannnu's work, finding delight in whatever they chose to draw, has been at my side, all along. my true mentor, my guiding moonlight...

so that's why i still to this day love tenco's story so much.

let's talk about tenco's story.

tenco's story is a story told through single pictures. the plot is vague, and details are sparse. dialogue is rare. we only know what has happened; we seldom know why. furthermore, there are many gaps between scenes that the reader is left to fill in for themselves; we see only snapshots that form an hazy outline of the events that occurred, and must imagine the rest. motivations and explanations fail me. but even with a barebones plot, tenco's story has themes, and if nothing else, those have to be carried through.

the main theme, of course, is journey and travel, but there are also other ideas, too. i actually think they start to change as the series goes on:

book i, where tenshi runs away from home, is about striking out on your own. it's a very fun and unpredictable journey, together with a friend.

book ii, where tenshi and iku are separated, forces tenshi to find and rely on companions of her own even more. but they do so, and they are able overcome hardships, and there is food and festival.

book iii marks a climax, reasserting tenshi's goal of finding the sword of hisou. i feel like the journey shifts from a travel (visiting) to a path forwards (making your way through). perhaps this is just something i get from knowing the locations from dark souls (Anor Londo, New Londo Ruins, the Great Hollow), but the locations start to give more of a sense of verticality, like they're emphasizing tenshi's climb to the summit. the hardships and enemies are the greatest they've been yet, and right when they near the top, tenshi and iku start to bleed. the book ends on an uncertain note.

if i had to describe the type of journey and travel that tenshi and iku undertake, there's this sense of wonder at discovering new places, wandering from vista to vista in delight, but also a sense of conquering, making it through a difficult patch. the sequence from pages 2-44 to 2-51, taken together, convey this sense of overcoming the best. it's one of my favourite parts. again, although the tone definitely starts to lean towards struggle in book iii, i think tenco's sense of wonder really is the heart of the series. there's no map of the world, no predicting where tenshi and iku will end up next. and through their travels, though they come across many enemies, they also find friends -- places of refuge, places full of life, people who will look after them for a few days, companions who will stay with them for the rest of the journey. at the end of book iii, we see a long haired tenshi with purple hair being impaled by the sword of hisou (3-33, see also this extra illustration that risa pointed out to me http://sinnnkai.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-195.html), and regular short haired tenshi continuing on her journey (3-42). if we ignore the out-of-story images where tenshi has the sword of hisou, tenshi has actually only ever used her sunlight blade (2-24, 3-26, etc), so i think that the long haired tenshi on 3-33 is a different person altogether. (if i had to guess, she might be the purple haired woman in the top left of https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=35443328 as we have never seen that woman appear anywhere.) she probably has something to do with the flashbacks at the end of book ii and she might somehow be short-haired tenshi at the same time, but this is just speculation.

however, in 3-43, tenshi's hair is rather blue, so i don't know if this is the purple haired woman or not. if it is, tenshi is probably still fine and closing in on the summit, but if it isn't, then it's very worrying to see a picture of tenshi without any of her companions. it's very ominous.

meanwhile, iku, while climbing the red carpeted corridor, is stabbed, and disappears for a few pages. there's a black page, a shot of a shrine that strongly resembles the hakurei shrine, and a picture of iku standing behind someone in a tux, with the line "In the past, I was saved by the lady I was serving, you see?". and then iku wakes up in a field of flowers.

i think what this scene makes clear is a theme that has continued to appear and reappear throughout every book of "being saved, being aided by someone's kindness".

i think another theme that is implied and has to be addressed by this story of running away from home is "return". something im imagining is that the reason tenshi makes finding the sword of hisou her goal is because she wants to have something to prove herself with, to vindicate her when she comes home. but i don't think she needs to prove anything, and i ultimately think that she would be happier spending the rest of her life exploring.

so i think this should be what happens in the ending.

open on iku's journey, and give her a long sequence of travel without seeing tenshi. underline her newfound resolve. she climbs to the summit with albinoss, and finds the rest of tenshi's companions fallen. and in the last room is sword of hisou tenshi, who has lost herself, and it comes down to iku to bring her back. after a difficult battle, when both of them are on their last legs, iku is unable to stand any longer. but at this moment tenshi sees her companions struggling to get back up and reach her, and that's what brings her to her senses. and iku gets to see how many friends tenshi's been able to make on her own, and they finally and properly reunite. together, tenshi and iku carry each other out of the last room.

i don't think it's necessary to return to heaven. as a conclusion, dedicate some time to tenshi and iku travelling together. they're on their way back, revisiting old friends who helped them along the way, enjoying the journey. their last stop is the house of the elderly nawis (1-42). tenshi shows off the sword of hisou; she decided to keep it not as a trophy to show her family but as proof of the bonds of her companions. surrounded by friends, tenshi and iku decide to part ways with each other, knowing that the other will be alright. iku drifts among the clouds once more, and tenshi sets off for the horizon.

that's the plot that i'd write/just wrote. i don't really expect tenco's story iv to ever come out, though. i mentioned my first sidebar description earlier in this essay, but of course, you can see that it's been changed. 2 years ago, i read my hopeful prayer once more and was struck with a terrible melancholy, so now it reads this: "having come to terms with the fact that tenco's story iv will never be released, i can still live, knowing that the spirit of the journey will live on through kannnu's original works [...] meanwhile, furious shitposting".

on one level, tenco's story is a story, but in the process of following it, i came to think of the work itself as a journey too. you can constantly see kannnu's improvement between and even within each book. they have always drawn whatever they liked; what plot matters in the face of "I wanted to draw a beautiful sky." "I wanted to draw a fantastic battle." "I wanted to draw Dark Souls and Monster Hunter and Pokemon and Brave Fencer Musashi and Bokura no Taiyou and Touhou."

its not really kannnu's style to go back and tie up old ends. they just draw whatever makes them happy. so as i watch them continue to draw beautiful places and fantastic creatures, new characters heading out on journeys of their own or just enjoying their everyday lives, it's as if tenco's story never ended. the limits and consistency of that world ignored, and a new one springs up; in a way, the world of tenco's, which had such thin boundaries, just gets bigger.

but even so, having said all that, i still see them draw that short-haired tenshi from time to time. it makes me happy to see them remember tenco's story with such fondness. often crossing over with orion or roar or elweiss, you can see tenshi on another journey.

#tenco's story #freshlybakedspiderbread

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pbandjesse · 6 years

Text

Today was weird. I didnt sleep great and when James's alarm went off I was like dizzy I was so tired. James left me in in bed and went to get ready. I fell back asleep. And he went to work.

I slept until like 930. I didnt feel a lot better but I knew I had to get up and go to my meeting with Brian. I was not looking forward to it though. I don't like confrontation and I didn't really know how this was going to go.

I left here around 10:15 and like downtown. James was at Taney so that he could be there before and after the meeting just in case. So that was really nice of him. He left his sunglasses somewhere and his charger here at my place so I brought him those things and then went over to talk to Brian.

It was a productive meeting. Basically I got in there and he told me that when he got the email he was really bummed out for the rest of the day. And I feel bad that I bumped him out but I also really needed to say all of those things. All of it this how I was feeling and I didn't want to let it stew like so many other people seem to do when they have a problem here. I still really like my job and I really like the people I work with but I can't let something like this just fester and feel like no one ever heard me. A lot of things were cleared up. It turns out it wasn't just photographs of me the stack was pretty big. And the board member that apparently took the pictures actually belongs to ships company. The people that are reenactors that come once a month. And when he brought it up Chris and a whole bunch of other people on the board shut them down immediately. They said that it was inappropriate and that that wasn't the way to go about dealing with uniform issues. I did feel like that could have been said to me earlier when everything went down last week. But I'm glad to know that management at least seems to be standing out for us. Apparently Chris also want to Brian after I confronted him on Saturday and was very upset that I was upset. Brian says that pretty much everyone in management and above knows about me and how hard I work. And that felt nice that I am being acknowledged inside the company even if I don't know about it. It's just the way that the museum is structured makes it hard for people above us to really get to know everyone on Frontline staff. I think it's something that should be addressed and Get to know us and work with us but I understand that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we don't know about. But like I told Brian and I wrote in my chapter for the book that I'm working on I think that the Frontline staff should be given some more information about what's going on behind the scenes. It only makes our job better when we know what's going on.

We ended up talking for an hour. And it was decided that I'm going to just move to the weekends. I'll do overnights and Fridays. Brian very much made it clear that he doesn't want to lose me. That he wishes more people had my attitude. And he was upset that I was upset but he wanted to try to make it better. He also really took it to heart my comments about working hard on the tasks but not being able to be fully qualified because we just aren't running the programs. I'm so I am now officially a museum educator and my pay has been bumped up to go with that. He also told me that as a company they are looking into the pay and general because we're not competitive to other museums anymore. And all of that is definitely going to help. We'll just have to see what happens but I do feel like I was listened to and that helps. I really would like to help make the museums culture better. And I think just my positivity will help that. And I think it has already especially with the new people coming in. We just have to see what happens now. I'm still hoping to get that other job but knowing that even if I just want a couple hours in the morning that is something that they can do. I didn't exactly know that they would be accommodating. So it's cool to know that They are willing to work with me.

I was going to be a couple minutes late to my shift but it was fine. I biked over to Constellation after I said goodbye to James. Sean had called me and texted me a whole bunch of times worrying about where I was. But it was fine. I was at the desk to start and I finished editing my chapter for the book. I'm pretty much completely done. It's about five pages single-spaced. And the woman whose compiling the whole thing seems to really like it. She's just going to change some of the formatting but we both agree that like where it went is really good. So I'm excited about that. And I got a copy of the book and I'm going to pay it so that's always nice.

Eventually Stephanie came down and took the desk for me. I went upstairs. It was such a beautiful day up on Deck. There's wind and it wasn't a lot of customers but the few people I did talk to it which is so nice. These three brothers, old old men, had all these questions and I think they were just asking each other but then I started answering them and they like lit up. They came over and they were asking all the stuff. And they were like we're so glad that you're not just a ticket taker. It was a very funny. So when I was outside they talk to me a little bit more and they were just really really nice.

Brian came back over to Constellation because he ask during our meeting if I wanted to finish up the other tests ASAP. And the one that's been the problem has really been commence firing. The one where we actually fire the cannon. And that's really been a problem because the last two weeks every day I've been there it's rain. And you can't practice in the rain. But it wasn't raining so he came over and I learned how to pack a charge. Put the gunpowder in the tinfoil and hit with a hammer. And then he had me pull up firing pin for the first time. I actually almost fell over doing it because I pulled a little too hard and hit myself in the arm with the little metal hook that holds the primer into place. But I did it in one pull. And it was loud! I was surprised. I guess I never really considered that the actual primer is loud as well and not just the gunpowder part. The Mercury and gunpowder that's coming out of the copper tube is also causing an explosion it's just tiny. But I did it and now I get to keep practicing and I'm going to get to fire the cannon. That's crazy.

Around 3 one of the ships that are coming for Fleet Week finally crested into the harbor. I think it's called the godspeed. It's a recreation of the Jamestown ship that brought over the first people to Jamestown. And it was so tiny. But they sailed here from Jamestown and that's really cool. It was really neat seeing it, and that's the first time I've seen one of the ships actually come in the harbor and not just already be there when I get there. But then it was time for me to leave. I went and got changed and across the street. I had a pretzel and a soda and I went home.

I stopped at the grocery store for milk and eggs. And then I came back here. I was pretty tired but I had wanted to clean and stuff. I didn't know if I could make that happen. I have a snack and then I went and got in bed and I slept until almost 7. I was pretty Delirious what I got up. I had to clean I had to make art. So I did vacuum at least the bathroom and the kitchen. I need to do the rest of the apartment or so much cat hair in here. But at least I did that. I went and worked in my studio for a while. I'm really really pleased with myself for these little details I'm doing in the diorama this week. Plant ones are always really hard for me so I hope this one looks good and all the work that I put into these little shelves it's not for nothing.

And now I'm just hanging out my living room. I think I'm going to go take a shower and watch maybe a movie. I'm hoping to wake up a little bit early tomorrow. Try to get some stuff done before work. But we'll see I'm not that concerned about it. Tomorrow's the first day of Fleet Week. I hope it's fun. We do have a couple ships that pulled out so we'll see what happens. I think it'll still be pretty good.

Good night everyone. Sleep well

#ootd #boat #ship #work #cannon #tuesday

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