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eleanorfenyxwrites · 5 months

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After Each Midnight Begins A New Day

Extra #13d - Technically A Cutsleeve? (Mo Xuanyu and Lan Jingyi)

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]

[Masterpost] [AO3]

Instead of a small snippet of something for WIP Wednesday this week how about a rarely seen, highly endangered, actual update on a WIP? Groundbreaking 😂 This particular chapter has actually been sitting mostly-written in the doc for a very, very long time, just waiting for me to figure out if I liked it/how I'll tie it into the overall plans for the story, and I've finally figured it out (I think). These boys are doing the ancient fantasy China equivalent of U-Hauling it and I personally love that for them 😌

--//--

“Uuuuuggghhhhh!”

“That’s it, I’m done. Sizhui, it’s your turn to sit with him,” Zizhen sighs as he stands and stretches his arms over his head.

“It’s just a cold, Jingyi,” Sizhui reminds him as he takes the empty spot next to the bed to start taking his turn wiping his forehead with a damp cloth and Jingyi cracks one glassy eye open to glare at him.

“You don’t know that,” he croaks, aiming for ‘belligerent’ but too weak to really sound it. “I could be dying.”

“Jingyi - I’m an actual doctor,” Sizhui reminds him gently with a laugh that thankfully doesn’t jostle him.

“Then I’m dying of some brand new unheard of disease and your doctor training is no help here,” he pouts without missing a beat. His deathbed is no place for logic, he doesn’t want it.

“Oh good. In that case when you die can I take your corpse home with me for my aunt and I to study?”

“Sizhui what the fuck,” Jingyi deadpans. Zizhen throws his head back to laugh loudly enough to make the pain in his head spike. “Zizhen shut the fuck up,” he adds as he bats Sizhui’s hands away to pull the cloth down over his eyes with a groan.

“Zizhen, his head does hurt, it’s best to be quiet,” Sizhui tempers and just as Jingyi is groaning his agreement the door bangs open, making him flinch.

“Idiots. Sizhui,” Jin Ling greets - standard. Really his crush could be seen from the moon at this point but even Jingyi has to agree that it’s cute how it makes Sizhui blush. It’s a lot cuter when Jingyi isn’t dying.

“Oh good, you’re back. Did you find what I asked for?”

“The healer said she’s never seen one of the herbs you wanted but when I told her what it was for she said we have one here in Lanling that she swears does the same thing. Other than that yeah, they had everything.”

“Mm. Oh! Hello,” Sizhui says warmly and that’s strange enough that Jingyi lifts the cloth off his eyes enough to peek through his lashes and he’s glad no one’s taking his pulse at the moment because he’s pretty sure his heart stops.

“Hello Wen-gongzi,” Mo Xuanyu replies in that smooth, low voice of his, an indulgent smile on his rouged lips. Jingyi is definitely going to die. This is it, he’s done for, goodbye cruel world. “I don’t mean to intrude but I was in the healer’s pavilion helping sort the herbs when A-Ling came in, and I don’t think you’ll blame me for not trusting him not to get them mixed up on the way over here,” he teases, obviously pleased with himself as Jin Ling scoffs, and Jingyi drops the cloth back over his eyes with a groan.

No matter how badly he wants to keep looking at Mo Xuanyu, Jingyi is pretty sure he’ll die of embarrassment at being seen like this before he could properly appreciate how beautiful Mo Xuanyu looks today. It was embarrassing enough when Mo Xuanyu had to help him with his depleted core, but getting sick like a child mere days later because of it?? Better to just hide his face and die in peace. (Although…if he could pick a last sight of this world, Mo Xuanyu’s coy smile would be a phenomenal option.)

“I trust A-Ling,” Sizhui says as he shifts around a bit to face their visitor, audibly smiling. “But I’m grateful for your help anyway, you’re not intruding at all. Is medicine also an area you’ve trained in?”

“One of my many skills, yes. You have a good memory, Wen-gongzi,” Mo Xuanyu laughs and his laugh isn’t grating - Zizhen - so Jingyi doesn’t comment. Or make a noise at all. Or move. Maybe if he doesn’t move Mo Xuanyu won’t see him. “I’m sure I’m no match for a doctor of the Dafan Wen, but I help our doctors pretty often, usually when the summer rains bring fevers, or on the odd chance our disciples are injured in a night hunt and the numbers overwhelm our usual rotation of healers.”

“Oh that’s perfect, it’s nothing serious anyway so that’s more than enough experience,” Sizhui replies. In the interest of saving at least some of his pride Jingyi decides to go ahead and break his brand new vow of eternal silence.

“Don’t lie to him, it’s very serious,” he retorts with a cough for his parched throat. “I’m dying, I just told you that Sizhui.”

“You’re not dying you moron, you have a cold,” Jin Ling snaps. How he manages to sound so snappish without raising his voice is an interesting skill. Jingyi both appreciates it - for the sake of his headache - and doesn’t - for the sake of his little remaining pride.

“I am dying, Sizhui already said he wants to take my poor corpse home to poke and prod at once I’m done using it.”

Mo Xuanyu’s responding laugh sets him on fire from head to toe, though it’s a small mercy that at least right now he can blame his dismayed groan on being sick rather than the stupidly massive crush he’s doing his best to hide.

“A-Ling tells me you four were planning to head into the city today,” Mo Xuanyu says as he sets down the wide, flat box of herbs on the table next to the bed. “What a shame poor Lan-gongzi is going to die without one last chance to enjoy it.”

“See? At least he understands me,” Jingyi posits weakly. He lifts one hand from his eyes to make a rude gesture in the general direction of Zizhen’s snickering. (Alright fine, so maybe his crush can be seen from the moon too, though thankfully Jin Ling has been too short-sighted to spot it yet .)

“It’s alright, we can just go another day,” Sizhui replies, conciliatory as usual, always trying to keep the peace.

Mo Xuanyu instantly tuts, “Oh don’t be silly, you three can still go. I don’t have anything else to do as I was already helping the healers anyway. Leave Lan-gongzi to me and you three enjoy your day out.”

Seriously — who did Jingyi piss off so badly that this is his karmic repayment?! What in the world could he have possibly done to deserve being a sick, miserable mess in front of his crush who just so happens to be, oh right, absolutely fucking incredible? He’s going to actually become a monk after this. His parents had done it, after all - they had put him in the group care for the parentless children of the Sect and retreated right up the mountain to become monks in total isolation, what a grand family tradition to follow, what an incredible idea they had had! In fact, he’s been an idiot for not doing it sooner. He’s absolutely made for life as a monk, he doesn’t need to go chasing after the most stunning man he’s ever met.

Jingyi waves one hand in half-hearted dismissal when his friends, after one more round of convincing from Mo Xuanyu, say their goodbyes and well-wishes and then the doors slide shut with a soft clack. For a long while there’s nothing but the quiet sounds of Mo Xuanyu moving around next to the bed — his even breathing, the nearly-inaudible jingle of the jeweled chains dangling from the zanzi in his hair, the whisper of fabric brushing against itself, the quiet grind of dried herbs between his gentle fingertips. Jingyi finds himself starting to relax against his best intentions. He’s tired, is the thing, and (at least when it’s just the two of them) Mo Xuanyu’s presence is surprisingly calming.

Jingyi frowns softly when the cloth is removed from his forehead and eyes some time later and he blinks his eyes open with an effort to study his companion. He’s hardly wearing any face makeup today, just a feather-soft dusting of his pale powder. It makes his skin look like porcelain, even more so than his heavier makeup, in Jingyi’s opinion. His eyes are similarly subtle, with just the faintest kiss of a red so gentle it’s almost pink at the outer corners and his long lashes darkened with black powder. It’s really not fair, Jingyi thinks, that Mo Xuanyu can do anything at all with his looks and be so beautiful.

“You’re staring, Jingyi,” Mo Xuanyu teases as he re-wets the cloth and wrings it out with a smirk on his lips.

“I am not! I died and my eyes are just open like that.”

“Ah okay, I see,” he laughs. “In that case, this humble one is honored to have been the last thing you saw before death.”

Mo Xuanyu turns to face him fully and Jingyi knows he should stop looking but there’s more to see at this angle. Mo Xuanyu’s huadian today is an intricate, beautiful thing, a flower of some sort clearly painted with a delicate, patient touch. He’s still smirking with gently-stained lips and his eyes, sharp and clever, are studying him right back with an intensity that makes Jingyi feel too warm all the sudden.

“Be honest with me, how are you actually feeling?” he asks after a long few moments and Jingyi’s eyes slip shut without his permission as Mo Xuanyu rests one gentle hand on his forehead. It feels unbelievably intimate without his ribbon — he hadn’t even managed to get up and put it on before he’d realized he’d gotten so sick overnight and decided to stay in bed — but he can’t say he minds. He doesn’t mind at all.

“It really is just a cold,” he grumbles, irritated with having to concede that ground. It’s worth it at least to hear Mo Xuanyu hum softly in approval, perhaps a bit in sympathy as well.

“Well I think you’ll pull through just fine, then — we’ll have to deprive Wen-gongzi of your corpse for a little longer,” he teases and Jingyi laughs weakly, though it’s still enough to set off a fresh coughing fit.

“You really don’t have to stay, you know,” Jingyi says when it’s over and Mo Xuanyu has replaced the hand on his forehead with the soothing sweep of the cloth, regular and steady.

“Don’t be ridiculous, of course I do. Your cruel, heartless friends have abandoned you in this sorry state to go into the city, someone has to take care of you!”

Since their return from the night hunt, there have been moments (a lot of them, actually) when Jingyi suspects that Mo Xuanyu might like him too. They’re just little moments, hardly noticeable, but if he pays attention, and if he strings them along one right after the other in his mind like a strand of pearls, a pattern starts to take shape.

Mo Xuanyu always takes his arm if they happen to walk alone. He drops his wild act around him to be soft and genteel instead — but then cuts through that softness with acerbic wit when least expected just to make Jingyi laugh. He calls him by his name alone in private though he still uses his title in front of any audience. He finds excuses to touch him. He keeps finding excuses to get him alone. When he does, he looks at him like- like—

“Xuanyu-“

“Mhm? What is it, Jingyi?”

“Why do you look at me like that?”

“Like what?”

Jingyi says nothing for a long moment as he studies Mo Xuanyu’s gaze — intense, perhaps ever so slightly vulnerable, but..so warm. Practically daring him to take a deep breath and jump..

“Like you could do it forever.”

Mo Xuanyu takes a deep breath in of his own and smiles softly as he exhales again, his hand slipping down from his forehead to touch his cheek — just his hand, without the cloth between them as an excuse. Jingyi can’t help but stare at him as he brushes his thumb against his skin, his touch cool and soft as silk.

“Ah, Jingyi, Jingyi. Only you would choose to do this when you’re ill. But alright. Tell me — what did you think of me, when you first met me that day in the gardens?” he asks, his voice quiet.

Later, Jingyi will blame what he says on being sick, his defenses crumbled first by feeling so poorly and then toppled completely by the tenderness Mo Xuanyu offers him. Really, though, it’s just that he’s been dying to say it almost since that first moment Mo Xuanyu had waved and called out his hello, kneeling in the middle of a field of white peonies like a beautiful heroine in those novels Zizhen is always reading.

“‘I’d rather die now than live with the possibility of never seeing such beauty again’,” he answers (he definitely hasn’t ever dipped into Zizhen’s stash) and Mo Xuanyu laughs (it’s still not fair that even his laugh is beautiful), covering his smiling mouth with one slender wrist.

“You did not! Stop borrowing lines from Ouyang-gongzi’s romances and tell me what you really thought.”

Jingyi snorts out a laugh that makes his head pound but he doesn’t care when Mo Xuanyu is smiling and laughing at him like that.

“Alright, alright,” he acquiesces, coughing slightly as he settles. “I just thought that if you were really as wild and ridiculous as the Young Mistress had told us you were but you could still be so beautiful and elegant at the same time then…you seemed to be everything I didn’t even know I wanted until it was right in front of me. Nothing poetic, sorry.”

“It doesn’t have to be poetic,” Mo Xuanyu mumbles around his shy blushing. “I like the real version better. I don’t like that you’re finally confessing to me while you’re too sick to do anything about it.”

“Too bad,” Jingyi retorts with a haughty little lift of his chin, smiling weakly when Mo Xuanyu instantly flicks him in the throat lightly enough that he hardly feels it, but the teasing intention is there.

“You’re really terrible, you know. I think I’ll keep you.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm.”

Jingyi smirks then, immensely proud of himself, and Mo Xuanyu chuckles softly as he strokes his cheek again with the back of one knuckle.

“You should get some sleep,” Mo Xuanyu murmurs after his eyes have slipped shut. “I’ve made your medicine, you can drink it and then rest.”

“Are you still going to be here when I wake up?”

“Of course. What sort of doctor would I be if I left one of my patients to die all alone?”

Jingyi chuckles at that but it quickly turns into a coughing fit that has Mo Xuanyu curling a comforting hand around his shoulder to help him lean up on one elbow and hold him close as he brushes his hair back from his forehead with the other hand.

“You’re disgusting,” Mo Xuanyu stage-whispers when he’s finished coughing and Jingyi groans weakly, shoves half-heartedly at his shoulder to hear him laugh. “Come on, A-Yi, sit up for me for a minute,” he continues once his chuckling has subsided and Jingyi’s ears burn at the diminutive. He’s pretty sure he’s never been more motivated to sit up in his entire life though so he does as he’s asked, and if he personally feels that Mo Xuanyu touches (and squeezes) his arms a little more than strictly necessary to “help” him accomplish it then that’s their business.

He turns then to pour him a cup of the medicine and this time Jingyi doesn’t even feel guilty about staring. Mo Xuanyu’s smirk only grows as he works and by the time he turns back to hand Jingyi the decoction he looks on the verge of bursting into laughter, which is charming in and of itself, but he’s also blushing a deep red under his powder which is probably one of the loveliest things Jingyi has ever seen.

He stops staring, finally, to take the medicine and drain it as quickly as he can with a grimace, the bitter grassiness of the herbs thick and cloying on the back of his tongue. Mo Xuanyu makes a sympathetic noise in his throat and takes the cup back to fill it with fresh water, which Jingyi drinks a bit more slowly to help rinse out his mouth. He wonders if it’s strange for him to feel so comfortable around Mo Xuanyu, but at least for now he sees no need to try to make conversation or to do anything, really, except let Mo Xuanyu tend to him. He’ll return the favor a hundred-fold as soon as he can, but for now he lies back to let Mo Xuanyu cool his face with the cloth again, content to be cared for.

Just as he’s drifting off, he hears Mo Xuanyu chuckle quietly and mutter, “A-Ling is going to be so mad,” and Jingyi falls asleep mid-snicker.

—//—

When Jingyi wakes again it’s with a gasp and a start, sending him sitting straight upright fast enough to make his head spin.

“Hey, easy,” someone tells him and Jingyi fights through the lingering dizziness to turn his head and find that –

Uh-huh. That’s Mo Xuanyu. Who nursed him back to health, apparently staying with him all day and all night, judging by the quality of the light beyond the windows.

“Uh-”

“Oh no no, don’t get embarrassed now!” Mo Xuanyu chides around a smile. “You’re awfully sweet when you’re sick and if you tell me you regret anything you said I’m going to say fuck the rules of hospitality and tell Xuan-ge to kill you.”

Jingyi snaps his mouth shut because that’s certainly not the case, not at all, but…well…even if he doesn’t regret it, it was still embarrassing! He settles for leaning forward to prop his elbows up on his lap to bury his face in his hands and naturally he doesn’t pull away when Mo Xuanyu stands up to come sit next to him so he can rub a small hand in circles on his back.

“How are you feeling?”

“Great,” he tries to say, but it comes out weak and raspy. Mo Xuanyu tuts softly and slips away from his side again with a rustle of his skirts. Jingyi takes slow, measured breaths like he’s trying to meditate through the quiet clinking of ceramic and the nearly-inaudible burble of pouring, and by the time Mo Xuanyu returns to press a cup of water into his hand he feels slightly more capable of showing his face.

He takes a sip of it obediently and then drains it in a few greedy gulps, abruptly aware of the fact that his mouth feels mildly reminiscent of the deserts far to the north. Mo Xuanyu refills it for him without a word, and when he’s drained the cup for a second time Jingyi actually feels ready to look at the other man straight on.

He hides the anxiety lurking in his gaze quickly, but not quickly enough.

“I meant it,” he blurts, panicked by the idea that Mo Xuanyu looks so nervous because of him. “Everything I said yesterday, I meant it! I…Lans are cursed,” he grumbles the complaint — and then abruptly realizes how that must sound and he twists to get his knees under him and turn to face Mo Xuanyu directly, to hold his face tenderly between his palms like he can hold him in place long enough for his wild, racing thoughts to chase each other in the right direction to not fuck this up completely.

“Wait no it’s not a real curse – and not that I think falling in love with you is a curse at all! Honestly it’s probably the best thing that’ll ever happen to me even if I scare you off because honestly how could I not? I sound insane. I feel insane, actually, and none of this is helping me give you a reason to stick around is it? Um. What I meant was that Lans just…we just do this, and I always thought that I maybe wasn’t really a Lan because no one’s ever made me feel like this and I’ve met so many wonderful people that I liked just fine but they didn’t make me feel like you did when I realized who you were and what that could mean and —”

Jingyi cuts himself off as abruptly as if he’d been Silenced (perhaps partially thanks to how he’s pretty sure he’s been conditioned by how many times someone else has Silenced him when he spirals) at the sight of Mo Xuanyu’s growing smile and the blush stealing across his powdered cheeks, so beautifully arresting that Jingyi feels like he might die if he doesn’t stop and appreciate the sight while he can.

“A-Yi,” Mo Xuanyu chides, soft and sweet as he nuzzles his cheek into Jingyi’s cupped palm. “You’re forgetting that I’ve seen my fair share of Lans in love. I know what you meant, stop panicking.”

Jingyi exhales sharply and sags forward to press his forehead against Mo Xuanyu’s, careful not to smudge the other man’s huadian. He stays still as Mo Xuanyu’s hands curl slowly around his wrists, stroke slowly up the lengths of his forearms to cup under his elbows and tug softly until Jingyi shuffles closer on his knees.

“You love me?” Mo Xuanyu teases when Jingyi’s heart has slowed and he groans, sagging further forward to bury his burning face in Mo Xuanyu’s shoulder.

“Can we pretend like I didn’t say that? I know it’s weird, and too fast and…just forget it? Maybe?”

“Hmmm…no, I don’t think I will.” His voice is warm and low, a banked fire, and Jingyi has to fight hard not to be lulled into a false sense of security. Because there’s no way that’s a good thing. There’s no way that he could confess to this man he’s known for little more than a week and have that just…be okay. And even if it is okay, Jingyi knows precisely how quickly that can change when he lets his guard down and stops watching what he says and does. Mo Xuanyu hasn’t known him for very long, it’s too much to expect to think that he would want to pursue any sort of lasting relationship, which would be…rather unfortunate, for Jingyi’s apparently very ‘Lan’ heart that, if the clan stories are true, will only love like this once.

“You know, I always secretly thought that Yao-ge and Wei-ge were bluffing a little about how passionate you Lans are,” Mo Xuanyu muses when Jingyi’s mortified silence must go on a bit too long. He tuts softly and brushes gentle fingers through Jingyi’s hair, combing it away from the nape of his neck until Jingyi has to suppress a full-body shiver of pleasure. “You poor thing, I’ll have to be extra careful with that soft heart of yours, won’t I?”

Oh.

Jingyi sucks in a sharp breath and tries to think of some way to reply to that but finds himself strangely at a loss for words. How is he supposed to express how good that sounds? To be treated gently? Carefully? Maybe he’s still a little worn out from his fever, because his eyes are suddenly burning and he exhales shakily around something tight in his chest. Mo Xuanyu hums quietly in the back of his throat and stops petting his hair to cup the back of his neck directly instead, his thumb brushing softly back and forth just below his hairline.

“Yeah,” Mo Xuanyu murmurs, audibly smiling as he tucks his cheek against the side of Jingyi’s head, “It’s mine now, no taking it back, and I promise I’ll be careful with it, alright?”

As is quickly becoming a pattern that Jingyi can’t be mad about at all, he finds himself helpless to do anything but agree and go along with whatever Mo Xuanyu thinks is best. He nods and slips one arm tentatively around Mo Xuanyu’s waist to hold him close, and they don’t separate until they hear a ruckus beyond the door that gives them a solid 30 second warning before Jin Ling’s blustering, fussing arrival with breakfast for them both.

#the untamed fanfic #Technically a Cutsleeve?#Lan Jingyi #Mo Xuanyu #Lan Jingyi/Mo Xuanyu #Nonbinary Mo Xuanyu #Junior Quartet #not me updating an old project after a year plus and it's the one that's significantly less popular than all the others accumulating dust 💀#But for the select people who really like this fic I hope this is an exciting day lol

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icewindandboringhorror · 11 months

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I’m always paranoid of my tumblr being deleted or malfunctioning or something like that someday, so here’s other places to find me/follow me, just in case lol

~ instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lucalicatte/

~ main youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/LucaLiCatte

~ games/sims youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@cloudycatte

~ facebook page (I rarely use this because I hate facebook but.. it at least allows text posts better than instagram does, so idk maybe I’d use it more if tumblr went away? lol) - https://www.facebook.com/cloudycatteart/

~ Other Links (stuff I don’t use often/isn’t Main enough to list here, like twitter, neopets, other tumblr sideblogs, youtube channels, etc.) are here - http://icewindandboringhorror.tumblr.com/otherlinks )

#An updated version of this since some of the links on the old one are no longer the same lol #I might make a website website one day (not with a custom domain since I'm not paying for that/dont have the money lol #but like a 'my name.weebly.com type thing lol) but I haven't had the time recently. If I ever get around to it I'll update the post and #reblog that version. ANYWAY.. I just like to have one of these written out to reblog every once in a while. During the once ever few months #when poeple are like 'tumblr is failing again! it wont survive!' which has happened like 80 times but I'm still always like :0c what if!#also love the ms paint art done with a mouse ghhj #ANYWAY.. also if you want to see the stinky game I made that's not actually related to my own worldbuilding really (why I have never #posted anything about it publilcy because it's like.. how do I talk about it lol) I have my itch.io linked in the 'other links' page #as well as my General Projects blog. which talks about all the ongoing and upcoming projects I want to do that are #actually set in my world and can give you previews of some of the things I'm working on. Currently resuming my Game after abandoning it #basically for the entire pandemic and a little before that - as mentioned before - so that's OUgh.. in terms of A Lot Of Work #Especially since while kind of 'revamping and updating' I want to add a few features which are mostly easy but every once in a while #I don't understand something and it's like....... hGGhh...... Ironically despite Blogging I just hate talking to people in public open foru #.. I love privacy and security lol.. and I always feel that ONE day I am going to have a question that has not already been asked on a foru #somewhere and I am going to have to post myself and.. no.. I shan't even imagine it.. It's not even really social anxiety it's just like..#efficiency.. instead of wating like days to get an accurate response and resolve the problem with the general public I would rather just ha #e a one time 30min conversation with an expert and resolve it quickly. PLUS then I also only interact with One stranger instead of Many Of #Them lol.. any 6+ yrs of experience Ren'py experts hmu so I can pay you like $50 to have a single 45min conversation #with me over an insanely simple question and then never talk to you again until a year later when I have a second question. hhjb #ANYWAY.. I still really don't like instagram or it's layout and I never understood how it works like.. if I should be tagging photos or wha #or how you really use it and I just... euGH... stimky.. but it is one of the most popular so I feel obligated to link it. I wish facebook w #sn't such a nasty poo poo because I do actually like the variety of posts you can make and how Pages on facebook operate. In the scense of #it being similar to tumblr that you can make a VARIETy of styles of post. not just Only Post Photos or Only Short Text or Only Video which #is still like.. how the funk does sutff like that even get popular lol.. the Limited nature.. hewwo.. but alas.. and NO way I'm touching #fucking Threads please do not make an account on there and don't let your friends do it and don't let that shit catch on lol.#BUT YEahg... links...... just in case.. i hope tumblr stays aroundin it's current format forever though lol..#I'm pretty sure even facebook doesn't have audio posts. or tags the way this does. or CHRONOLOGICAL FEED. custom html for pages.. aaaaa

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kbspangler · 2 months

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This is the public statement from @alepresser and myself which went up at Webtoons tonight.

Now for some ranting. Just from me, not from Ale—she's innocent of the art crimes I've committed in the past, and boy howdy have I committed art crimes.

This is the first page of my first webcomic, A Girl and Her Fed. I started this thing back in 2006. (I don't actually need a head count of those reading this who weren't yet born in 2006. I'm sure you're delightful and I wish you well in college.)

And this is the last page I drew in early 2020 before I turned art duties over to Dr. Beer. It's better, right?

Well, these days, A Girl and Her Fed has pages like this:

I drew this comic for fourteen fucking years because it's a story I wanted to tell, and I thought webcomics were the perfect format for it. I didn't know how to draw. I got better through sheer obstinate perseverance and sticking to deadlines as best I could for, again, fourteen fucking years. I sought out a replacement artist when I ran into time constraints and couldn't do art plus writing anymore; I'm a much better writer than an artist, so I had no problems whatsoever kicking art to the curb.

The first time Ale sent me art that would go up on the website—art I hadn't needed to draw myself—I literally cried in relief because I had been grinding myself down for, yet again, fourteen fucking years.

So when I read comments from people who say they want to make a webcomic but can't draw themselves and therefore need to resort to AI, that little line between my eyes gets dangerously deep.

This isn't like I'm some old dude who's bitching over student loans getting cancelled after making regular payments. This is me, someone who threw raw art onto the internet like a monkey hurling fresh poo, because I wanted to make a webcomic and the art is part of the process of storytelling via webcomics! I could've (arguably should've) hired an artist right out of the gate, and that would've been part of the process of making comics, too: a partnership between an artist and a writer is also something which grows and develops over time.

For example, after Dr. Beer and I spent two years working on AGAHF, we decided we enjoyed our partnership so much that we set out to make another webcomic! It's great! It's got wonderful art and consistent storytelling! You should read it!

But turning art duties over to unaltered images generated by AI because you want to make a webcomic but "just can't draw" is, frankly, a bullshit excuse. I'm not talking about persons who are physically unable to draw due to disability—I'm talking about people who say they want to make webcomics but simply don't wanna do the art part.

Friends, if you don't want to show your entire ass in front of God and country, you don't actually want to make a webcomic.

Do the thing yourself.

If you're scared, don't be. Take the plunge. Set a goal of twenty strips and do the thing yourself. If you can already draw but can't write? Great! Write twenty strips, write forty panels, etc. You might surprise yourself. If you can write but can't draw? Great! Draw twenty panels and see what happens.

Whatever comes out of it, it's a thing you've done yourself. It's something new you've given to the world, no matter how big or small. Be proud of that. And if you need to partner with someone else to make your comic dreams work? You can do that, too! It's still a thing you've done yourself, and many projects are stronger when done together.

...but maaaaaaaaaybe hire that partner before you've busted your own ass for fourteen fucking years. That one's on me.

#webcomic #webcomics #side quested #comic #comics #indie comics #webtoon #webtoons #AI #ai art #ai generated #ai image #ai artwork #artificial intelligence

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reimenaashelyee · 4 months

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The World in Deeper Inspection UPDATE Read: (Chapter 1: Pages 57 to 68) (COMPLETED)

About the comic

Grimsley confronts the man who set him on this goose chase.

And with that… that’s the end of the 10th Anniversary revamp!! Can’t believe it took me almost a year to get this short project done, but blame my school and day job for that! *drives the nail into the TWIDI IS NOT DEAD sign deeper into the wall*

It was enlightening to reinterpret my first ever completed comic (more complete than the strips and unfinished or one-off shorts I had done prior) – basically the one that started me down the road to a career as a published author. I was happy to see how much my style had improved – not just in the layout, flow and pacing – but in how my characters have become more expressive and energetic, and how comfortable I am with the cartooning. Here is the proof that drawing comics helps you get better at comics!! It only took 10 / 11 years!

Plus, after a long while of drawing with a more reserved, professional approach (see: Seance Tea Party, Alexander Comic), I enjoyed the abandon and whimsy of TWIDI. The lettering is inconsistent all over but that only adds to the handmade whimsical charm of TWIDI, so lol.

Anyway – I have the 10th Anniversary ebook edition up on my Ko-fi and itch.io! This edition carries both the original and revamped versions of Chapter 1. No new cover or illustration for it this time; I think they are perfect as they are.

I have been meaning to make a continuation of the end of TCM that bridges the start of Chapter 1. It’s a long time coming: a story that had somewhat existed since the early days of TWIDI in 2010. Hopefully I will find that stability in my life to return.

Open the cut below to see my notes.

There’s also nothing exciting here, EXCEPT I severely cut down on the number of panels (and the verbiage).

As with the previous spread I cut down and distilled a lot of the verbiage. I shifted the dialogue slightly so that the reveal that Mr. Brown is a Lord comes from Grimsley (in 2013, Mr Brown never admitted he was an aristrocrat until this page) – it made more sense since Grimsley had gotten the info independently from the newspaper article and Andrew, and Mr Brown not mentioning it himself fits with his whole lying thing. For this spread and the next couple of them I am zooming out the panels to include more scenery. The 2013 layouts felt very claustrophobic, with the over-reliance on bust shots of the characters to carry the tension of the conversation.

Some more dialogue trimming and background scenery. I decided to change the setting for the chase sequence to be within the cemetery – just ’cause it makes more sense than if it was done all around Brookham. The panelling for it is a bit more dynamic too – look, Grimsley is parkouring!!

I have no idea why 10 (actually, 11) years ago I had so much trouble conveying and pacing this sequence of Mr Brown being set on fire. That’s the hindsight of experience, I guess??? Anyway I added a few more panels for actual build-up, and the blocking is way better now – there’s more energy (especially Skeleton’s expressions) and clarity (omg we can finally see where and what’s happening to the lamp). The last panel is a new addition to better connect with the next spread. Also… I am excited to see how much further I can draw Mr. Brown’s demise.

Man, the difference some changes in pacing can make. I added some panels with witnesses to the fire, just to emphasise why Grimsley and Skeleton have got to run. It’s crazy enough if a Brookie has got to witness immolation in the middle of the Night, but two paranatural spookies??? Also human fat has such a colour hdsjkfhsdkf the things that come out of an immolated body are so eerie….

The 2013 spread is almost perfect. 18 Year Old Me got it.

#the world in deeper inspection #art #comics #webcomics

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decepti-thots · 2 years

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MTMTE/LL script project.

I am reposting an updated person of this post so I can maintag it for visibility!

tl;dr: I am attempting to digitize the MTMTE/LL scripts that exist for archival purposes to prevent any of them becoming lost media in the future. And I am looking for help in this!

The long version:

I am trying to get scans or clear, readable photographs of all the MTMTE/LL scripts that exist for the sake of digitizing them and making sure they don’t wind up lost media. (Needless to say, me currently trying to get ahold of fandom stuff from 20-30 years ago and constantly running into brick walls because nobody has scanned their copies of things got me thinking about this, haha.)

These scripts are, in a lot of cases, literally just printer paper stapled together and sold at cons to a very few people. I would hate to see these disappear in a decade or two because we all wound up forgetting where we left them, or stuck them in the attic and damp got them, or whatever.

Roberts has been selling nothing but spares/leftovers of these for a while now, including at this year's TFN, where he had very few left and none of them were new prints as far as I could tell. (Rusty staples!) In addition, he's said he does not expect to be doing more cons for some time. The one time he sold them online in 2020 or so, it was explicitly just old stock. So at this point, getting my hands on more for this project means either getting folks to kindly contribute scans or sell me their copies on.

(Sidenote: at the moment I'm not 100% sure if JRo has finished up selling these forever, though it seems likely for the forseeable given the above. Even so, I’m a little leery of making this stuff super public until such a time as he confirms he's got no future plans, because I hate to eat into a potential way for creators to make some well earned money off their own work if it turns out he’s gonna sell more later. This project is to make sure an archive exists as futureproofing, but I don't currently plan to immediately make this a massive public repository. But obviously, anyone kind enough to contribute can have access to the drive.)

Below the cut is a list of a) what I currently have, b) what I expect to have soon and c) what I know exists and do not have. If you have anything I don't, and would be willing to scan or photograph it to contribute, please let me know. Alternatively, if anyone has scripts I don’t already own which rather than scan they’re interested in selling on, hit me up. I am not made of money, but I’m willing to pay a fair price to get my hands on them if needed. Just be aware I’m UK based.

Unscanned, for me to do: Lost Light #6, This Machine Kills Fascists (standard)

Unscanned, being scanned by others: Chaos Theory

Scanned or photographed: More Than Meets The Eye #6, Interiors (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #9, Shadowplay Part One: Post Hoc More Than Meets The Eye #12, Before and After (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #16, The Gloaming (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #22, Little Victories (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #28, World Shut Your Mouth: Towards Peace (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #31, Twenty Plus One (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #35, The Custom Made Now (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #38, Elegant Chaos: Predestination, an Expert's Guide (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #39, The Permanent Revolution (annotated) More than Meets The Eye #40, Our Steps Will Always Rhyme (standard and annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #47, The Lopsided Triangle (standard) Lost Light #6, This Machine Kills Fascists (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #50, How Bright Their Frail Deeds (annotated) Lost Light #13, Sardines (annotated) Lost Light #25, How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2 (annotated) The Transformers Holiday Special, Silent Light/MTMTE #50 backup script (annotated)

Ones I am looking for and know exist: More Than Meets The Eye #4 (labelled #3), Life After The Big Bang (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #5, How Ratchet Got His Hands Back More Than Meets The Eye #14, Remembrance Day More Than Meets The Eye #21, Remain in Light: This Calamitous Life More Than Meets The Eye #35, The Custom Made Now (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #43, The One Where They Go To Earth (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #55, The Dying of the Light: Do Not Go Gentle

(Note: the scripts often have preliminary titles that differ from those above that were used for final issues. Also, for earlier issues, sometimes numbering is off by one, because projected issue counts shifted. The above is mostly guesses based on numbers JRo mentioned for scripts on Twitter and final issue names.)

You can contact me either here or on Twitter. And if you could let anyone know who you think could help and signal boost, I would appreciate it.

Thank you!

#maccadam #more than meets the eye #transformers idw #transformers

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pshattuck · 8 months

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Hello everyone so this is going to be a pretty big blog about the upcoming future of my life as a artist. So to try to shave off some time I will be copying and pasting the Twitter thread I made to here.

Startiiiing now:

“Hey everyone I got another update for you and it’s probably gonna sound like “she’s changing shit again” but I feel like a lot has been going on in my life and a lot of it is changing too and I think I discovered something about me and my artwork that I feel like is important.

The reason I started pumping out content before this new job I got was well after I lost my old caregiving job YouTube and commissions were my only source of income for the last 6 month and I honestly was making enough for bills at that point it was my family keeping me afloat.

So yeah, life was not kind to me and I got.. well extremely depressed. I kept applying and no one was accepted them the one job I wanted I did not get and I was lucky to just get by. My brain all the time for the past few months kept saying I was a failure Until I got lucky.

I just got done with shadowing and orientation and I’m now officially working at a job that yeah can be stressful but I fully enjoy. I’m feeling happy and I’m finally healing from this dark cloud that’s following me. And with this month coming to an end I realized something.

Growing up my art was the one thing that kept me happy it was my happiness from real life issues and it got me to meet the love of my life along with great people in online community’s. However, the more it became a stressor to live off my art… the less it made me happy.

Not to mention the reason I shared my art to begin with because even if it was cringe or my art was not the best in the past … I always loved to see people enjoy it. It killed me to ask people to give me money to draw for them. It’s just not me.

I allowed a online algorithm, and a few words from a small handful of people to make me second guess what I loved to do, I allowed money to make me decide what I should work on…I realized I secretly hated myself for it.

This new opportunity in my life is why I’m writing what I am today and it’s my own choices and it’s one I’m actually happy with.

Everything I draw will be free to view I’m going to build it up on Tapas and Tumblr just for the multiple image support plus they have better age restriction on there platforms because I’m a adult and do want to dabble in NSFW stuff.

The one animation I have on sale in my store I will be making it free to view. For the amazing person who did buy the pack I will be dming them so once my paycheck comes, they will be refunded.

And now for the big thing.

The next few months I will be saving my own money and working on Concept Art for the next few months along with working on comics because by next year I want to work and pay people to help me bring my comics to life as animated projects.

The first project will more then likely be Jackie’s Everyday Adventure because it has the least amount of characters and backgrounds and will dabble in the form of 3D animation. This will be a strictly animated series with some rewrites from the original comic version.

Homebrew… is honestly the biggest project since there is over 30 chapters and I’m not even halfway done writing scripts. I won’t Even considering working on animating that until at least chapter 10 is out.

Everything else will be explained over on Tumblr that will be where I blog about my projects since there’s not as tiny of a character limit on there. Thank you all for reading this and I will link the full update on Tumblr and I will share a link to it on here.”

And now here we are on Tumblr!

The only thing I will be keeping for any financial support will be Ko-fi but that’s only if people want to, I’m not going to have anything locked behind a pay wall.

Commissions will no longer be open because I will just be doing art trades or request. Since my new job is full time I don’t need to worry about the stress of not finishing something quickly.

Physical print books are still gonna be a thing however not for a long while. Since my old client liked my original books ill be printing a small handful of copies of them so I can give them to her to read at the nursing home. And leftover copies will be for contest prizes.

YouTube on the other hand… I’m going to be honest I’m not sure if I truly will bring back Pshattuckproductions. The most fun I have had with YouTube was building up lunar comics. I will honestly be focusing on that channel in terms of any uploads.

So far this is all for now. So see you soon everyone.

#comics #art #deepinhomebrew #pshattuck #comic

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satans-helper · 10 months

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Reaching for Stardust - Part I

Read Looking for Space here.

Listen to the LFS playlist / RFS playlist (all fic playlists get updated even to this day!!)

Word Count: ~3300

Warnings: none

A/N: Y'all...I'm so happy to be here, immersed in this new series. I began writing this back in April after I, seemingly out of thin air, came up with a foundation that seemed solid enough to even attempt writing a sequel to my beloved LFS. Ever since I finished that fic, I thought that one day, I might return for more. I have a very hard time letting any series go and LFS was truly a momentous project in my life--the fact that so many people have read it and continue to read it brings me so much joy, I can't even tell you.

Having been a fan of GVF for about five years now, I do feel a lot of sentimentality and nostalgia surrounding the band, the music and definitely my own fics, too, particularly all my series. I can still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I was mapping out certain pieces of them in my mind. I felt a huge rush of nostalgia recently when I revisited my city's planetarium for a star show, which was a huge source of inspiration for LFS, and I realized that it was literally this same month, August, in 2019 that I was just finishing up the first 8 chapters of LFS, not even planning on making it a 30-something part series (LOL!). You'll see, if you read, that some of these feelings find their way into RFS. This isn't because it's a self-insert fic, rather that's inspired by how much this fandom has seen, experienced and grown over the years. I imagine my friends and readers who were back there in the pre-pandemic GVF era can relate to some level of nostalgia. A big theme in RFS is change. I think we all can absolutely relate to that, too. One thing remains the same though--this is a love story, through and through.

This probably seems like major overkill to introduce fan fiction but this is how I feel. Many of my old GVF friends have moved on in some way or another and I've often felt alone the past few years with still being so tethered to this group of beautiful, silly, fascinating boys that spark so much joy and fantasy for all of us. So, as always, thank you so, so much for reading my fics. I really hope you enjoy

P.S. I am cross-posting to wattpad (comments bring me life!)

---

I was getting lost in the pictures of Alaska–deep, shiny blue water, towering, white-capped mountains, a vivid stream of neon green in the Aurora Borealis, lush green forests. Even enormous, graceful whales surfacing, their tails nearly popping out of my screen as I unconsciously leaned in closer, hovering over my desk. I blinked hard as I turned my attention to the next picture that had been emailed over to me–a huge white ship, lined with windows that seemed endless–and huffed, shifting in my squeaky second-hand office chair. I didn’t even have a true desire to go on a cruise or even go to Alaska, but the neverending research into foreign lands nagged at me, reminded me that it felt like a very a long time since I’d been anywhere new. At least not anywhere exciting, really.

I grabbed my phone and opened the gallery to scroll through the last trip Josh and I had been on. It’d been a long weekend about nine months prior, which reminded me that it wasn’t all that long ago at all but it still felt like ages since returning to the normalcy of day to day life. It had been a gorgeous summer excursion where we’d had a comfortable, clean hotel room, a warm pool and three nights out all to ourselves, and I found myself yearning for that freedom and escapism again. Plus the sunshine and heat. Michigan winters persisted, long and brutal, and we hadn’t broken through into any real spring weather until just the past week, which had at least given Sam a nice birthday. Josh and Jakes’ birthday was coming up fast. I thought it’d be nice to do something for them, with all of us–go somewhere for real again, all four of us, run amok in a hotel or airbnb. Or just have a nice dinner together followed by bar-hopping. Whatever the twins wanted, really.

The picture I’d secretly snapped of Josh in our hotel room wandering out of the bathroom completely naked save for a towel twirled around his head came up after a dual selfie of us at the pool and I laughed loudly to myself, throwing my hand to my mouth. I’d nearly forgotten about so many of the little moments. It was so easy to forget when time kept slipping by like the wind, each good moment gone in the blink of an eye and each bad moment suspended in the air until something else came along, and the minutes turned to days and the days turned to weeks and months and before I even knew it, years had gone by and it felt like nothing and everything had changed all at once.

Next I scrolled to a picture of the best breakfast I’d ever had, this amazing brie-stuffed French toast with a warm berry compote and housemade whipped cream, then the picture of Josh’s breakfast, which had been a skillet full of chorizo, bell peppers, eggs and queso that he’d deemed to be “orgasmic.” My stomach clenched in response and I looked at my phone clock, suddenly eager for dinner once again. My hours were almost up with 5 p.m. creeping on me and my mind turned its attention to Josh and I’s relatively new Friday night ritual–binging on Chinese and watching the most obscure, nonsensical horror movie we could find. With that, I swiveled around to stretch my legs in the sun through the window and pulled up the menu on my phone, trading pictures of Alaskan mountains for pictures of fried dumplings and greasy lo mein; a few seconds later, a very appropriate text popped up:

Hey mama, I’m gonna be a little late tonight. Want me to pick up dinner on the way home?

Yes please. What’s your ETA?

8ish? What’s on the menu tonight?

I’m gonna do the orange chicken and an egg roll. Wanna share some crab rangoon?

yes I do. What about dumplings?

obviously!

;) see you soon

I’d need something to hold myself over until Josh got home, though I was glad to have this part of our routine to look forward to. Stability was important and even Josh had come to understand that more and more. I turned my attention back to Alaska, mulling over the images and cycling through words in my head that I could bring to the page and entice people with, as if cruises needed more promotional materials and marketing to bring in profit. They were relatively cheap, all-inclusive and easy for people to handle and reminding myself of this made me bitter all over again–why couldn’t my company make one of their perks a free trip for employees once a year? I didn’t know their exact state of finances but I bet it could be done. They just didn’t want to. And the irony was that they didn’t pay most of their employees enough to take extravagant trips of their own.

Whatever. There were other, more important things I told myself, getting up to stretch and find something from the fridge or snack cupboard. In 32 more minutes I could clock out and put these wild places out of my head for a bit–the weather called for a long walk somewhere.

It was the nicest day we’d had so far, which I fully realized once I was driving and headed out to a familiar, easy forest trail Josh and I often did together on the weekends. But we had a busy weekend coming up, actually. We desperately needed to stock up on groceries–my most recent find of an old packet of peanuts as my last snack was testament to that–and then the boys had a show at Waterstreet. Sunday wouldn’t be as fun–my sister was repainting the entire interior of her new house and had somehow roped Josh and I into helping, in part because we were just that nice, according to Josh anyway, and also because she let each of us pick one color for one room each. Josh had chosen a shade of dusky desert red for the den and I’d chosen something called “spring morning,” a pale lilac, for the powder room, which seemed pretty fitting for the time of year she was making these renovations.

The trail was bustling, which I wasn’t surprised by, and much of my walk was spent nodding and smiling to other people passing by. The break in weather was infectious for all of us in the area–everyone seemed to be in better moods finally, myself included even despite the gripes I had with work and money and everything else. Sometimes it felt like just yesterday that Josh and I were lying on our backs in the deep black night, gazing up at infinite stars and trying to come up with material for that poetry class that had been the catalyst to bring us together. The warm sun above me while I continued down the dirt path also reminded me of days past, of the first hike Josh and I ever had together when we both stripped down to our feelings, laughed, kissed through sweat, and had decided that was it. We’d made a lot of decisions over the years, so many that I felt like I hadn’t even noticed some of them, but I’d never decided to let fog cloud my memories. I hated that it happened regardless. And sometimes I absolutely hated what changes all the decisions had led to. I wanted to go back in time every once in a while to relive those moments and those days and it made my heart ache to know I couldn’t. Josh would assure me that the future would be just as good–and sometimes even better–than what those memories had to offer.

And he was often right. Life was good, and I reminded myself of that as I narrowly avoided tripping over an obtuse rock sticking out of the dirt, it was just more challenging now. There was no school to fall back on–I hadn’t realized how much of a safety net that had really been at the time–and less free time. There were more financial worries. More pressures in life. But if nothing else, I had the best people in my life possible; if nothing else, Josh and I were rock solid. He didn’t let a week go by without reminding me that we were soulmates and I agreed wholeheartedly–no matter what might happen, we’d have each other.

After my walk, I thought about running our necessary errands on my own but ultimately decided that’d be a deviation in routine I didn’t want to make. Josh was the best person to go grocery shopping with, being surprisingly focused and deliberate in his choices. He also was the best at picking out produce, somehow always able to discern which fruit was just the right amount of ripe, and he was good at finding the best deals. He was the coupon cutter, which always made me laugh, and I was the one who followed instinct more than the list we mutually made the day before. I would get caught up in being frivolous, more often than not tossing special treats into the cart that I couldn’t excuse beyond something like, “Come on, you like them too” to which Josh would agree with his cheeky little grin.

And that same grin was on his face later that night when he came home with the bag bursting with Chinese takeout. His voice and the smell of soy sauce and that syrupy orange stuff made me hop up from the couch, excited for all the things, but mostly him.

Josh gave a little groan as he headed into the kitchen, his backpack still over his shoulders while he carried the white plastic bag in his right hand and his keys in his left. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, shuffling and rustling all the way out of my sight. “Stephanie needed extra time–she’s having trouble with the new cameras. And to be fair, they do have a steep learning curve. You remember how much trouble I had with them last week?”

I followed him in, taking the bag out of his hand so he could zip back out and discard his keys and backpack. “Which one is Stephanie again? The one who’s obsessed with ‘film noir?’”

Josh chuckled from beyond the walls before appearing again, pink-cheeked and smiling. “Yeah, that’s her. And that’s another thing–I’m gonna have to review how these cameras even film in black and white because for the life of me I can’t remember right now.”

“Does she have any movie recs?” I asked as I opened a cupboard to get plates. “We gotta figure out what we’re watching tonight.”

“What about Night of the Reaper? You haven’t seen that one yet.”

“Yeah, but you've seen it,” I replied, wagging a pair of chopsticks at him. “That’s like, cheating. We gotta watch something we both haven’t seen.”

“We’ll find something.” Josh moved in close and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and my heart fluttered–it always did. “What about you? What’d you get up today in my absence?”

“I went to the Hemlock Trail. It was busy,” I told him while we both plated our respective dishes, my stomach growling. “It was nice though. Looks like we’re gonna have good weather for your birthday.”

“That would be ideal but I’m going to be cautiously optimistic. Last year we had snow, remember?”

“Yeah, like a dusting,” I said with a little laugh, purposefully knocking my hip into his. “I’m gonna be blatantly optimistic and say it’ll be good. And we still gotta figure out what you wanna do.”

“We'll figure it out, my love.” Josh led the way to the living room and sank into the couch which we could have probably done with replacing; he set his can of sparkling water on the end table then grabbed the remote. “I’m so excited for these dumplings. I don’t care if it’s cat food.”

“They do kind of taste like cat food, don’t they?” I concurred, settling down on the other side of the couch. I put my plate on the coffee table in front of us and pulled it closer.

“They smell like cat food, too,” Josh said, picking a dumpling up between his pair of chopsticks. “I don’t mind. They’re fucking delicious.”

“I really don’t get how you’ve always known how to use chopsticks,” I remarked, opting for a fork instead to pierce my own dumpling while Josh fished through the cushions for the remote as he chewed. “It’s not fair.”

“I’ve tried to teach you, doll.”

“And I haven’t learned, so either you’re a shit teacher or I’m a shit student.”

Josh laughed and swatted my arm with the remote. “Hush! I’ll have you know that my students love me.”

I nodded, chewing. “So I’m a shitty student after all.”

“You are not. There’s a learning curve to chopsticks too, ya know.” Josh took another bite of his dumpling then leaned forward, peering at the TV. “Okay, so–what’re we watching?”

I followed his scrolling through our shared list of choices while I tackled the orange chicken. “What about that one?” I asked when he paused on the title Devil’s Ground. “It looks pretty obscure. 1983, a director I’ve never heard of, looks grainy and weird.”

“It’s been on our list forever,” Josh said, clicking the play button. “Let’s give it a shot.”

The movie really did turn out to be obscure–the protagonist was a teenage girl who finds an old well in the middle of the woods and climbs down into it, for some reason believing that her missing brother would be down there. Josh and I chided about the already well-known fairytale parallels, except in this movie the girl encountered creatures in the world beyond the well even weirder than those in Alice in Wonderland or Labyrinth, and ended up having to get betrothed to some menacing demon, played by a giant puppet, to save her brother. Then she and her brother kill the demon and find their way out of the strange world and back in their world.

Josh laughed loudly as the movie came to an end. “That was ridiculous. One of the best ones we’ve seen so far.”

“Those puppets were something else,” I commented, watching the credits roll and hoping everyone on that production went on to do better things. “The little blue one with teeth was my favorite.”

“Why didn’t they just get a real actor for the demon?” Josh asked, shaking his head. “Good god. It was a travesty but also kind of brilliant. I could show this to my students to demonstrate the use of close-up shots.”

“The close-up on the puppet demon when he was being slaughtered seemed unnecessary.”

Josh got up and stretched, gathering all of our plates and silverware and his chopsticks. “It really was. You want me to do the dishes?”

I turned the TV off and followed him, carrying in our empty drinks. “I thought another part of our Friday night tradition was saving the dishes for the next day and we can argue about it then.”

“No argument. You get to do them since I got the food,” Josh said as he set the plates into the sink with a clatter, then pinched my side. “Deal?”

I giggled, shrinking away from his ticklish touch. “Deal.”

“Anyway, my darling,” Josh began to say, twirling away from me and to another kitchen cabinet. I watched, amused at how he always struggled to reach far enough up to get the wine glasses. “There’s a full moon tonight. Let’s go see it.”

“What? There is?” I asked, trying to peek at wherever it may have been through the kitchen window, our third-story apartment giving us a halfway decent view of the sky most of the time. That was one of the few perks of this place–we’d moved in last year, sizing up so I could have my “office” and enough space in general for both of us to not be completely on top of one another–though Josh never complained about that–but the building was old and lacking a number of things, namely outdoor space. Our little balcony was all we had anymore.

Josh trailed out, wine glasses tinkling in one hand while he held the mostly full bottle of red wine in the other, and I followed again, feeling a sense of eagerness for the night sky which I hadn’t felt in, well, about a month. Our life together was full of tradition, I had come to realize in time, and a viewing party of the full moon whenever possible was certainly one of them. I’d just been too wrapped up in Alaskan cruises to remember this one on the calendar.

The night air was chilly–a tingle ran down my spine and Josh noticed this as I sat down next to him on the cushioned bench we’d garbage-picked right after moving in. He skillfully and quickly poured each of us wine, set the bottle down and wrapped his free arm around my shoulders, pulling me in close.

“It’s gorgeous,” he declared, his voice as rich as ever but a softness brushed through those words. I always loved whenever he got so starstruck over something that he couldn’t help but be concise.

“It really is,” I agreed, pulling my gaze away from Josh’s equally–if not more so–gorgeous face to take in the huge globe of bright cool white above us. “I can’t believe I forgot about it. Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know what planet I’m on.”

Josh laughed, light and affectionate. “You’re on planet earth. It’s disappointing sometimes, I know, but if we weren’t here, I’m not sure we’d be able to see the moon and the stars like this.”

I took a drink, already lulled by Josh’s voice and his warm, strong arm around me. He’d always been strong, considerable muscle secure beneath silky tan skin, but he’d gotten stronger still; the muscles had become even more obvious and I sometimes poked fun, and a little bit of envy, at him for being a “hard-body” because, well, he was. I’d learned to memorize the curves and lines of his body throughout the changes, tracing every plain and valley with my fingers whenever I had the chance.“Probably not, no. We’re really lucky after all, aren’t we?” I said, reaching up to stroke his hand over my shoulder.

“I think we are. Especially if we can see the stars wherever we go.”

“Speaking of–earlier I was thinking about how it’s been a while since we took a trip anywhere.”

“Yeah? Well, where would you want to go?” Josh asked, bringing his wine to his lips. “Not Alaska, I assume.”

“No, not Alaska. But I don’t know, Josh, I feel like we should go somewhere soon.”

Josh took another drink, looking ahead through the darkness that was interrupted by various porch lights from the other apartments rather than up at the jeweled sky. I’d expected enthusiasm–he’d have more free time soon with the semester coming to an end and I still had a lot of vacation days left, making the whole thing easy in theory–but he was uncharacteristically quiet.

“What?” I prodded, tugging at his wrist.

“No, nothing,” he assured me, coming alive again with his body squirming beside me, his hand grabbing mine in reciprocity. “I was just thinking about it. We should both think about it some more.”

I returned my attention back to the moon and the stars and a memory overcame me so viscerally it actually hurt–the abandoned barn, the vast field, the endless sky hanging overhead the two of us. “Alright, let’s think about it,” I concluded, wishing that the place we could travel to was back in time.

Josh sighed and curled around me. “I feel like a dumpling,” he said, lifting a hand to pat his stomach, and I laughed right into the night along with him.

---

Tagging no one because my list is so outdated that none of those people are even in the fandom or use tumblr anymore LOL please let me know if you'd like to be tagged in this series!

#josh kiszka #josh gvf #greta van fleet #gvf #gvf fic #josh fic #josh kiszka x reader #jake kiszka #danny wagner #sam kszka #sam gvf #danny gvf #jake gvf #lfs #rfs #I'M BACK!!!!

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celinamarniss · 5 months

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Year in Review

In 2023 I posted 4 fics at 58,153 words.

Previous years:

2022: 4 fics at 45,096 words.

2021: 3 fics posted, 55,788 words.

2020: 7 or 10 fics posted, 125,738 words.

2019: 7 fics posted, 72,149 words.

2018: 7 fics posted, 87,752 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,643 words

2017: 9 fics posted, 115,336 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,653 words

In total, 49 fics posted to Ao3.

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This

34,355 words, gen, Din/Luke/Mara

The Din/Luke/Mara fic I told myself I wasn't going to write! As these things tend to do, it expanded into a much longer fic than I expected. The "five things (plus one)" structure helped to keep it from spiraling even further, but those individual chapters ended up being much longer than I expected and took much longer to write. At first, I serialized the first couple of chapters in smaller excerpts for WIP Weds on tumblr. It was fun to get a little feedback and the weekly deadline compelled me to write those chapters quickly. But when engagement dropped to basically nothing I stopped posting updates and waited to post each chapter to ao3 when it was done. My progress slowed down considerably, but the chapters got longer. I had fun, most of the time.

The Girl Who Traveled the Ways Between the Walls

4,938 words, gen, Animalis verse

Written for the 5k AU fic challenge. Luminous Creatures begins with Mara and Luke's daemons settling, and I regretted never writing a story with an unsettled daemon character. I wanted to write a fic with a fairy-tale vibe and I wanted to explore the weirdness of the Imperial Palace. The Palace becomes a fairy tale wood, and Mara sets off on a quest in which she encounters strange people who aid her or demand aid. Does she learn the right lesson in the end? Perhaps not.

Echo, Revenant, Targeter, Phoenix

15,431 words, gen, Winter Retrac character study

I wrote this one for the Star Wars Big Bang, an experience that ended up being so stressful that I dropped out. I still finished the fic on time and posted it. The fic attracted a modest number of readers (unsurprising given Winter has been basically forgotten these days), but their enthusiasm was very gratifying. I've always liked Winter and I wanted to give her a chance to shine.

However, while I love the worldbuilding and individual scenes and images in this fic, as a whole I don't think it's very gracefully written and I've never been very happy with it.

Cascade

3,429 words, mature, Luke/Mara

I wanted to include A Non-Zero-Sum Game in Vol II of my printed fic collection, but the series felt unfinished without the fourth and final story that I planned to write after Tether. So five years later, I finally wrote it. It was interesting to go back to those old fics and try to write a story that fit the series. I wanted to post it before the new year broke so that I could count it in the 2023 list, and I rushed to get it out. It could probably still use some work.

As the year went on, I failed to meet a lot of the arbitrary deadlines I set myself, and that made writing frustrating and unfulfilling. I don't want it to be like that! I want fic to be fun.

However, I have a lot of non-fandom projects coming up in 2024, and I'm going to have to shift my focus away from fic, at least a little bit.

GOALS FOR 2024

(almost exactly the same as the goals for 2023)

Triumvirate Finale! (explicit, very) The big finale of the Triumvirate series, in which the trio returns to Coruscant to face the Emperor. Doesn’t have a proper title yet. Progress so far: three chapters drafted, 15,410 words.

A Smuggler’s Guide to Joining the Rebellion (gen) The sequel to The Things You Find on Tatooine. Progress: the first chapter finished, 2,241 words.

Lando Calrissian and the Jewel of Andara (gen) The Lando and Mara heist romcom I’ve been promising forever. Progress: three chapters drafted, but in need of heavy revision, 6757 words.

Other fics on the backburner:

Courtship remix

Experiments

Daughter of the Rain and Snow

More daemon fic!

#year in review #writing #process #my stuff #my fic #all my gratitude to everyone who read my fic‚ commented‚ and cheered me along

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trappedtowers · 25 days

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Trapped Towers Dev History ~ How We Got Here (Part 1)

(Middle art piece done by @/evilredyoshis)

Hey everybody !!

Today I'm going to be introducing another type of post I can end up doing - development history/update posts! These will likely be rarer than other types of posts (after this 3 parter anyway), purely because development on this project is just pretty slow due to my lack of ✨ focus ✨ and all that. However, there is definitely some old development stuff I can talk about! Plus, for those of you who are new - you get to learn more about this project that has been ongoing since early 2018!

So lets get into this, shall we? It's going to be a lengthy read.

February 2018 - August 2020 ~ The Beginning/Undertale AU Era:

February 2018 was a time, by this point I'd spent almost a year making music for my friends and very small audience in the Undertale community. One day, I was simply bored and had no ideas - so my sister told me "hey make an Alton Towers megalo"... how I hadn't done it yet shocked me, I'd been going since 2014 and loved the place dearly. However, with a laugh I agreed and got to work.

A few days into creation, I began theory crafting the basics for an Undertale AU. The first ever concept for what would eventually become Trapped Towers - explains a lot about the name and premise though huh. I eventually uploaded a song or two for the AU, including the megalo I did finish - "Ministry Of Death".

One person found and covered the megalo. Then another. And another. And soon enough the whole thing spiralled - I would consider it to this day my biggest impact on the Undertale Community, even if it was still relatively small and not long lived. Either way, it got me to take the project a little more seriously... but quickly it spiralled into development hell. I was only 14 after all, if you asked me what a leadership style was I probably would have no idea what you were on about or given a dumb answer.

Reboot after reboot was attempted. New server after new server. Eventually though, one server was made and kept. However, the project had already fallen into more obscurity and my motivation was low, so I moved to new things. Every so often a new Trapped Towers post would occur, mainly new Smiler content as that's what really brought in people. Things would stay like that for a bit unfortunately though...

Old Content:

How about some art and concepts from the time though huh? For an Undertale AU it was... something. Tom wasn't called Tom and was literally just called Frisk. The world layout was just Undertale and I just made stuff fit - The Beornen were almost located in X-Sector because of Wickerman being the Grillby replacement. Th13teen wouldn't have really even been in the story as she was Gaster. Half the characters didn't even have designs! People loved Smiler and Enterprise, and any serious work focused on the Ruins portion with Terra. They were still trapped because Nemesis was too dangerous to be let free, however Nemesis was also in a permenant sleep - only prophisised to reawaken. It wasn't an active threat.

(I don't entirely remember who made what here, so I'm sorry for no credits)

OLD SOUNDTRACK LINKS:

Trapped Towers V1 Soundtrack

Trapped Towers V2 Soundtrack

It's all quite funny to look back on. There's so many bits that clearly influenced the project as it is today. Many old designs haven't had drastic overhauls either, which is quite funny to think about... maybe I should get on some...

Anyway, with that brings the conclusion of part 1 of this 3 part blog series. The next two parts will come out day after day, with tomorrow being "August 2020 - June 2021" and Friday being "June 2021 - Present Day". Figured it'd be much easier for reading if I split them into a couple parts !! Also gives me a few extra days to consider what else I want to post haha.

Until then, cya ! - JustDaniel

#alton towers #trapped towers #alton towers au #TT HWGH #I love rambling about anything to do with this project hehehe #Sorry if this is how you found out I was an Undertale fan/still am one

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lazar-codes · 11 months

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11/07/2023 || Day 48

React

It's time for React! Honestly, after constantly googling what React even was for the past 2 months, it finally solidified in my brain that React is a JS library used for building UI. I know everyone says it, but it finally just clicked with me and I feel like I can finally start to understand it. I started watching a youtube playlist on React, and each video is split into short 5-10 mins segments on a specific topic. I got through 9 videos today, and tried to mess around in React on my own to see if I remembered what those 9 videos covered (plus, I wrote notes while watching so it would hopefully solidify that info). The one problem I have though is that these videos are 4 years old now and React has obviously updated some stuff, so I guess I'll be finding out the new ways of how things work as I work on projects. Speaking of, might do a Frontend Mentor project using React to get more familiar with it.

It's a little bit funny to me that React builds UIs using components, because in my last semester in school we had to use C# and Blazor to create a Library System, and I think the main thing about Blazor was that we can use components. But... none of us had any idea what those were so we didn't use them as they're supposed to be used. But now I'm thinking that if they're anything like React components in how they're meant to be used, knowing how to use them would've made our work a lot easier and less tedious/repetitive. Oh well, it's always fun to look back to see how you could improve something.

#codeblr #studyblr #100 days of code #programming #coding #lazar blogs

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danpuff-ao3 · 1 year

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do you know the snarry fic Marriage Stone? i want to read it, but it says "chapters 62/?" !!! do you know if it is completed? i can't bring myself to read anything that is not completed. :'(

whatever help would be great!

Hello! Yes, sadly The Marriage Stone is famously unfinished nearly 16 years after its original posting, and 9ish years after its last update. There are more chapters on ffnet. 77 actual chapters, and 1 author's note from 2016.

The original author, Josephine Darcy, encountered many issues IRL that led to a hiatus, and in that hiatus, others picked up The Marriage Stone to finish themselves. You can find several "continuations" of the fic by different authors on ffnet; I believe I've also happened upon them on AO3, though never sought them out there.

Josephine Darcy was a bit (understandably) dismayed to see so many continuations of the work she loved and had been unable to complete herself. As of now, it is uncertain whether she will ever actually finish it. It's been over 6 years since her author's note. But I am not one to give up hope!

I'd given a few of the continuations a try back in the day, but never quite had the heart to continue on without Josephine Darcy (though I'll admit to skipping to the last chapter of one that was completed!)

Due to the author's mixed feelings about the continuations (she seems to understand why, and harbors no ill-will towards the creators, though she was obviously negatively impacted by them), I cannot myself go read them. But, if you would like the choice for yourself, I will supply you with what links I can.

The Marriage Stone, by Josephine Darcy: original on ffn. 77 chapters + author's note. Nearly 400k words.

Lynne's AU Ending to the Marriage Stone by lynned0101: ffnet. 69 chapters itself; picked up numbering from The Marriage Stone, so between the two there are 146 chapters. Nearly 500k words for the AU alone. For the two together, you're looking at just under 900k words.

My Tribute to Josephine Darcy's The Marriage Stone by Yengirl (plus coauthor/beta Vine Verrine): ffnet. Ongoing, updated as of January 2022. Might be worth keeping an eye on. Features 44 proper chapters plus an author's note from around the time Josephine Darcy came back. They also picked up the numbering from The Marriage Stone and is currently at 122 combined chapters. Word count for this continuation is just under 300k words. Both together would be under 700k words.

The Yengirl continuation also looks to be on AO3 but with much less available there, so if you were to read it, I'd recommend doing so on ffnet.

It is such a great story and very beloved, at that! I've not often seen fanfics create such a ruckus that fans took such a huge project onto themselves to see it through. (Not that it hasn't happened, just not that I've seen, of course.) It's an old story, but one full of adventure and intrigue and fabulous world building. It is also the reason I fell in love with the Draco/Charlie ship! It is also one of two stories that gave me an aversion to beginning WIPs 😂 This and starcrossed's Nights of Gethsemane series, with its unfinished sequel Release of Sisyphus.

I would tentatively say it's still worth reading, even in its incomplete state, but that might be nostalgia talking. Maybe I think it's worth knowing that part of Snarry history. Maybe it is just that good. I'm a nostalgic lady myself, so I make no promises! But there is at least an existing, complete version if you would like to give it a try.

And wherever Josephine Darcy is, and whatever she is doing, I hope we can all take a moment to wish her well, and hope that these past few years have been much kinder to her. And I do hope that, one day, she will be able to finish this story she put so much time, effort, and love into. But even if she doesn't, I hope she knows how meaningful and impactful this story has been to so many people. 💛

#asked & answered #the marriage stone

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rocketturtle4 · 8 months

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On Repeat tag game

In the unlikely event anyone saw the original version of this post that was up for 12 minutes before I realised I'd done it wrong and panic-deleted it only to realise 12 seconds later that no one would KNOW I'd done it wrong...

...no you didn't

It's Friday evening, I'm blaming weekend brain.

ANYWAY

Tagged by @visualtaehyun @sorry-bonebag and @thegalwhorants I feel so popular! Thankyou!✨

The game: Put your Spotify On Repeat playlist on shuffle and post the first 10 songs! (don't forget the shuffle like I definitely didn't)

Let's see what happens, I was very relieved to realise this is like RECENT on repeats lol, if it had been for the whole year...who knows what would have appeared. My music get's updated very rarely but recent joining of a spotify blend has dragged my music tastes kicking and screaming towards a little bit of variance lol.

Also this On Repeat thing is very cool so TY for the new feature!

Unsteady by X Ambassadors

ahhh what an opener. As some of you may know my bestie @plantsarepeopletoo has been breaking down the Only Friends music on the regular (it's so interesting, the music is almost predictive of the character arcs!!) and occasionally sharing the feeeeeels with me and @shouldiusemyname as they work through it. As part of this we have regularly discussed other songs that remind us of different characters and relationships in OF and this song put me deeeep in my Ray feels after Ep...5? or maybe 6 and yep I've been playing it A LOT ever since.

2. Mad love - Sped Up Version by Mabel, Speed Radio

I don't even remember how I found this one but it's a vibe

3. SPARK by A.C.E

Ooooh interesting, I recently finished a rewatch of Light On Me where I was reminded how much I love the ending song hence this!

4. Don't Blame Me by Taylor Swift

I'm with you @thegalwhorants, I'm a swifty, not a big one, but her voice and music are excellent. Plus Reputation yk?

5. Free Fall by Slot Machine

Lol is commentary even necessary? I'm not even a huge KP fan but this song kills

6. I do not know how to write/copy Thai sorry but its by Selina and Sirin

The Only Friends feels are everywhere it seems. But this is SUCH a beautiful song.

7. betty by Taylor Swift

Same swifty disclaimer as before, this is one of my all time fav T Swift songs and I will take no judgement.

8. Belly Dancer by Imanbek, BYOR

Now here's a throwback I'm surprised to see on my repeat playlist, I guess I listened to it enough that it's lasted lol, for a while I studied to this song on repeat for hoooooours. Don't know why but the repetition is non-distracting, Mad Love above falls into that category too.

9. Pretend by Nanon

Ahhh now this is no surprise, I am currently on ep 13 of the Jungle, hoping to finish it this weekend and this song is gorgeous. Love it, love Nanon, love The Jungle.

10. Bad Habits (feat. Bring Me The Horizon) by Ed Sheeran

oooh finishing off with Ed that rounds it out nicely. Ed Sheeran's concert came to my state in little old down under in March of this year and it was my first ever concert. Love his music and the concert was AMAZING. Though this version of the song can actually be blamed on a recent blend I've joined to drag my music kicking and screaming into any sort of variance as my personal playlists have the original.

I have NO Idea who has already played cause my PhD has suddenly dumped three projects which need immediate attention in my lap all at once so my tumblr time has vanished into the ether.

Of course I COULD stop watching 15 shows at once but they'd have to STOP AIRING first

[Image of Ayan from The Eclipse saying "I don't get myself either"]

Soooo @grapejuicegay @wanderlust-in-my-soul @pandasmagorica play if you want and if you already have feel free to tag me retroactively! I basically only see stuff if I'm tagged these days... or if they happen to appear in the 20 random posts I see at some point through my day.

#tag game #music tag game #on repeat tag game #rturts is wondering #Spotify

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binarybitex · 9 months

Note

Since today is appreciation day, I obviously had to send something in ^^ This is going to be really long because I have a lot to ramble about -w-

Let's start with the obvious. Cardboard Castle. I FUCKING LOVE IT!!! I feel so lucky to have been graced with an over 100k-long slow burn with my favorite pair. You had my ass checking the tag every day to see if it had gotten an update. Every chapter is amazing, but 4 and 5 have to be my favorite. Something about them is just… idk. Maybe it's because I absolutely love carnivals and go to them every chance I get, and the way you described them it just made me feel like I was reliving them. Plus the corn maze scene?? Dawg you had me feeling like Sebastian thinking “Just kiss him!!” The fact that it’s not really a date, but totally is. Just reading it makes me feel so festive, no matter the time of year. Thinking about it now I have the urge to make some apple cider. With all the inspiration I get from it: here’s a little mood board based on it!

As for chapter 5, I really just enjoyed the dialogue at the end. The vibes are also immaculate. I can enjoy a good angsty fic like the next guy, but David and Max just bonding with each other and being mundane makes me feel so soft. The dialogue really felt like two people just going over old memories. In your author’s note, you mentioned it would be a boring chapter, but I feel like it was anything but boring. Whenever I want to read something fluffy, I always go back to that chapter. Plus what Max did to Charly was hilarious. I don’t have as much to say about this one as I did chapter 4, but nonetheless, I love it!! To be honest, it was after reading chapter 5 that I really got into writing and decided to upload my work/become more active in the maxvid community as a whole.

And onto Heart Hallow ;D I don’t usually find myself getting into OC projects, but when webtoons recommended it to me, I was like “I’ll give it a go” AND I’M GLAD I DID BECAUSE AJDGWMEOWHFE. I adore the characters, the drawings (particularly the coloring you do for each panel!), and the little stories they go through each chapter. I can tell so much love went into it from just seeing how you talk about it when asked. Kara is up there as one of my favs (yes because she’s Aroace but it has a good personality!! I just like seeing Aroace characters >w>) but Lewis and Zeke are my top too. On several of my assignments, I have Z + L scribbled on them surrounded by hearts. It has driven my friends crazy trying to figure out who they are LMAO.

And just like I do with all my favorite media, I had to insert my OC in there somewhere :3 So, Spencer! I had a lot of fun filling out her card and doing the little edit. She managed to sneak her way into employment at HH (I’m not creative, please just accept this.) and is one of the housekeepers. So two things about her. One, she’s an artist. She does a lot of landscapes/portraits. And two, she’s super messy. Which is why she has a bunch of paint all over her! She’s good at getting it out though.

Anyways, the reason that she has paint all over her is that she noticed a lot of the walls at the hotel needed to be touched up, and since she’s really good with matching colors (make-up artist), she used what paint the hotel did have to create the color needed to re-paint the walls. Then she heard about the old murals that used to be on the walls (probably from Lewis) and was like, “Wait a second. I can paint landscapes. I should do that!” So she got (dubious) permission from Mr. Wright and got to painting! She does it whenever she has time. Mr. Wright seems like he wouldn’t care, cause free art. So yeah. She does a lot of painting so constantly dirty, much to Lewis’s annoyance. And every holiday she gives all her co-workers paintings because it's cheap and easy.

And some doodles :> Not the greatest artist but I like to think I’m funny.

She suffers from having bad taste in men disease :( Her two friends, Ava and Mia run a bakery and anytime they have leftovers they give them to her. If she has anything left from that she’ll take in with her to share the next day. She is also super tall (6’5) because it's funny to insert her into a show/movie/comic and have her be the tallest person there. I also had another meme in mind but I don’t think I’ll finish it in time so be prepared for a random meme in your DMs one day.

And that’s it. Sorry it’s so long, I just want to make sure I say everything on my mind!! You’re super cool and I love your stuff and keep up the good work :3 Have a great day!!! (again your art is really nice to look at ok bye)

hi omg!! this is the most pleasant thing to open my phone up to and I just have to thank you for taking the time to write all this to me! 🫶

I'm beyond elated you've loved cardboard castles as much as me. it's my baby, and chapters 4&5 are my favorites too! I LOVE the moodboard!! omg!! srsly you did such an amazing job with it!

and Spencer is adorable !! I had a feeling you might have been coming up with an OC 👀 she'd fit right in with the cast. love how tall she is... the fact that she's taller than lewis is just 🤌and we're definitely missing a creative personality type at Heart Hollow! (for now. a new character gets released soon towards the end of book 1. she's an eccentric artsy kinda woman herself!)

your art is so cute, I love your style!! and the fact you filled out an employee sheet for spencer makes me so happy 🫶

have a lovely day and I hope that you'll send some more stuff my way! my asks are always open :-)

(btw ur ask totally made my day!!!!)

#heart hollow #max speaks #asks #oc #oc writing #original writing #original characters #ocs #original character #writers on tumblr #tumblr writers #writeblr #writblr

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gardensandtaverns · 10 months

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Dev Journal: Day 1

I’ve tried a few times at putting myself out there with my system, boss, level, and world design content. Every time I did it for feedback, or validation, because I was looking for a reason to go out and do it full-time. Well, I’m now fresh out of college, a year down the drain trying to find any job that matches my qualifications, and have nothing better to do than to take the hobby I’ve poured countless hours into and run with it. So now this blog is finally just going out there for myself; clean slate.

For anyone who finds themselves becoming an interested and long-time fan of my work, I’ll document where I’m starting from here. Like I said, I’m fresh out of college. Twenty-two years old with a degree in Statistical Analysis, and a sizable amount of coursework in Operations, Actuarial Math, and Physics to boot. All that aside, I’ve been a huge game nerd for 15 years, been writing worlds and systems for a decade, and have been a perma-DM of both Dungeons and Dragons as well as, now, Pathfinder for a sum total of 5 years and counting. Needless to say, I’m a nerd who wasn’t encouraged to write - so I did all the hard homework first to make time for it.

This blog is gonna start out kinda boring, it’s really just me documenting what I’m doing. In part so I can look back at it, in part so I have it all somewhere that can be seen, and finally just so I can put myself out there. Being nerdy doesn’t really score you a huge network until well after school. Eventually I’m hoping to put some of my old D&D content and notes as a DM and worldbuilder out there. Maybe someone will learn something, maybe not.

Regardless, today was Day One. My first steps to really becoming a game designer. I’ve always had a knack for level and world design. I like making things that feel meaningful and have something to add. I’ve also been infatuated with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim since I was in middle school. So me, who has no credentials in softdev or compsci, well how am I going to make myself stand out to game studios? I’m starting with the Skyrim Creation Kit, and hopefully I can make something good enough to play with the big boys in some of the large community projects.

Today is Day One, Project One: The Bookwyrm’s Vault.

When I think of Skyrim, I think of three things. Vikings, dragons, and the Jedi Greybeards. But when I think of my ideal fantasy, I think of the wizarding type of sorcery, I think of arcane dragons - long-lived individuals who have honed magic over generations. And who’s to say that the dragons of Skyrim can’t be this way, Parthurnax certainly is.

So I devised the idea of the Bookwyrm’s Vault. I’m still undecided whether it is a Dwemer ruin built around the den of a long-departed dragon, or a ruin which a dragon took interest in. Regardless of which, the goal of this dungeon, unlike many of those in Skyrim, is not to add a crawl through enemies to feed the martial prowess of so many of the races of Tamriel. It’s to instead create something once beautiful and tranquil.

Initially I thought to conform to the Dwemer dungeon stereotypes of long hallways with many guardian automatons and littered steamworks and metal scraps. I’ve decided instead to be less industrious and more mystic and monastic with this ruin, to design a great library of magic and lore, one that rivals the College of Winterhold. Perhaps some Dwarven Spiders, remnants of a bookkeeping system as degraded as the parchment, remain to provide a small inconvenience to the Dragonborn. Even maybe a few runes of fire and lightning protecting more secretive experiments, or lingering from the attempts to keep something else in. This is my level, my addition, and I want it to reflect my interests in fantasy.

Now, today was my first day working with the Creation Kit. Panning with the MMB is a new experience, and wow could it use an efficiency update, but it is a decade-plus old piece of software, so I guess it gets a pass. For my first time working with the software, and having no clue what assets Skyrim actually uses, I decided to go pretty simple.

We start, as all subterranean dwellings must, with a passageway down and in to the earth, allowing all the room needed to carve out the great recording hall that is front and center. This room will, once populated, hold a dozen or more desks in varying states of repair and organization, and will have been where historically research of older tomes and transcription was done.

To the east of the recording hall, I’ve made a larger laboratory for more practical experimentation, which will feature a handful of crafting stations, like an alchemy and enchanting table, as well as maybe a staff enchanter if I feel inclined to make this mod require the Dragonborn mod.

To the west of the recording hall I plan to have a short hallway that connects a number of bedchambers, or private cells. A place to rest or study quietly.

Finally, to the south a passage leads further down. The door at the end of this passage will be locked, and I feel the key would be best kept in a well-warded chest in one of the private cells, as it leads to the special collections room.

Based on what I’ve seen of the assets library so far, I’m worried about making the special collections room because I had been hoping to make it a two-tiered library, but that may not be possible with the assets that exist and I certainly don’t have the experience to produce new ones. I may be able to use some of the components normally reserved for exteriors to get by, though. Only time will tell.

#skyrim #modded skyrim #modding #video games #game development #level design #magic #bookcore #dragons #dwarves #learning through play

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