I'm a Canadian series animator who likes reading and drawing in her spare time. I've made video games you can play. Creator of Dear Devere and Last Meal at Cafe Mori, among others. I draw and post art here. I also write the occasional academic analysis. Cheerful hermit. She/Her, Adult. See sidebar buttons for links to my past projects.
I was watching Grimbeard's video review of Midnight Nowhere on YouTube, and I quite like how the game's menu user interface is the player character's wrist watch.
//my attempt at baiting you into thinking about them and therefore doodling them/silly
Ya know, this reminded me to finish this comic I started in 2025 for a another ask. Here you go, you and the anon of the past! It was almost done anyway (just redrew it yesterday/today)
The entirely made up appeal in my head for red spy/red sniper coworkers-with-benefits is the implied trust they are forced to do, even when their methods are totally different. I'm a little more generous with the amount of respect they have for each other, but I'm always firm on the shittalking, which in writing I think it's easy to leave the level of actual disrespect ambiguous with the banter. I love them mean and petty, ahah.
At face value, both Spy and Sniper are excellent at what they do--I don't usually state the competency kink outright (because it's never explicit in my fics) but it's absolutely integral to how I portray a coworkers-with-benefits dynamic with them. I love the idea of them entering this very blunt, casual fuck-buddy relationship, a tit-for-tat agreement because they trust each other to be discreet and not get emotional or catch feelings or blab about it. I don't even think the threat of catching feelings fully enters the forefront of their minds. It's so far out there. The risk assessment is so damn low. Falling for that guy????? The guy who works opposite of me and does everything that I wouldn't do? Probably not! Outside of their professional skillsets, Spy trusts Sniper because he's such a brick wall of stoicism and emotion, Sniper trusts Spy because Spy can be a million other personas, is known a ladykiller, and is just very unattached by the nature of his job (and personality).
They are totally safe to fuck each other to blow off steam. 👍
Unless.☝️
This is totally my own headcanon, and I did a little bit of rambling here about Spy liking the thrill of a romance. A guy who thinks getting attached is fun and dangerous. (Again, the competency to really get into a persona at the cost of his own emotional well-being.) He's totally equipped to handle heartbreak because he's experienced it before. This is mostly why I prefer writing RED Spy over BLU, because I do like the fact that rSpy has some concrete history of having a past lover, having the chance at a family, and very obviously has a soft spot for his petite chou fleur. I adore him having past genuine romances and just... kinda blowing them up for various reasons varying from mental hang-ups to real liabilities. A man who loves the game but is a complete loser at anything real. He'll never win.
Which!!! Get me to my next point: Spy flirting with Sniper. I think once they settle on routine casual fucking, Spy just kinda brings out the charm because he's bored. He's already naturally charming but he recognizes Sniper's preference for bluntness so at the beginning he's a little more straightforward with shit he expects out of this purely physical relationship. But. You know. One must enjoy life's little mysteries, so he will never stop being a little annoying and irritating to Sniper. He will be flirty. Because he trusts Sniper will keep a cool head about it because it's more funny than anything else. Sniper is uncharmable. Sniper can dish it back a little bit (!! something that surprises Spy) but mostly he acts a little exasperated. Sniper will not, actually, take the light teasing and seducing to heart. Spy has so much faith in this. He can indefinitely flirt with the most unflappable guy on the team. In his mind, Spy can get attached to Sniper, be an indulgent romantic all he wants, and it will mean nothing because it will never be reciprocated. That tiny thrill of a romance!! Spy will have fun with it. He can risk being a little in love, on his own, and it's ok because it will be one-sided.
I think maybe you will see where this is going.
Sniper does not, in fact, take Spy's teasing or flirting to heart. He knows Spy. Spy is the guy who can seduce the needles off a cactus and use the needles to kill 10 men. Sniper absolutely knows Spy does not mean a lot of what he says; every affectionate gesture, every little gift or glance or joke that crosses a line is not real. Sniper doesn't believe in any of it, which is good. Because, well, it is charming. Spy's attention on him is nice. Maybe contrived and shallow, but it feels good in a way that kinda feels low stakes. So yeah. Let Spy make a game out of it. (Maybe it's good practice for Spy, being all attractive and charismatic.) So maybe he can like Spy a little more than what they agreed on. Because, to Sniper, it's not real and will never be mutual. Spy's not the type of guy to fall in love, especially not with someone like him. Spy's too good at his job. He's too professional. Sniper is a little annoyed that he can't be as professional, but that's a personal thing. He'll work on it. In the meanwhile, yeah. Sniper likes Spy. He likes Spy a lot. It's gonna fucking hurt when eventually he's gonna pull the plug on everything but for now.. it's fine.
So that's it. That is my delicious tasty emotional purgatory of coworkers-with-benefits. They're gonna keep fucking like nothing's happening between them. They have too much faith in each other!! They have overestimated each other's competence!!!!! Competency kink!! But it's tying a noose around itself. "It's okay if I fall in love because it's a zero-sum game, he will keep me in check and level-headed, and I am okay with being the one losing, because if we both catch feelings, it's over, we'll ruin each other and the level of professional respect we have for ourselves, it will be so fucking over because it means we were both incompetent" <- two guys thinking the same damn thing, believing their romance is mutually assured self destruction. yay❤️
So that's my secret. This infinite source of fic ideas. Why I prefer coworkers-with-benefits. They'll never confess. The timeline is a nebulous concept I can pluck at different emotional stages between them. I just get to write ten million pwps instead of the agony of confession scenes. I will never* make them say I love you to each other.
eta: holy hell i forgot to get into the competency of being able to read each other and seeing that.. "uh oh... i think this guy likes-likes me" and just completely choosing to turn away from it because, you know, silently implied mutual self destruction and all that. the self-awareness of mutual feelings. emphasizing the character agency to choose to reject romance and yearning is a lot of fun to play with. a man can be so smart and so dumb x2
random scenes from nothing:
hanging out in the camper
Unexpectedly, Sniper gives him such a look of fondness at the joke that Spy can't willfully misinterpret it without insulting his own skills of assessment or social aptitude. Spy goes cold, momentarily frozen in his spot, and waits for Sniper to either scoff or wave him off. When Sniper does neither and only continues on with cleaning his gun, Spy looks away.
chit chat with BLU Spy, who catches rSniper staring after rSpy.
BLU Spy smiles, leaning against the wall. He'll run the clock with a little chat. Out of all the disguises he uses, it seems to bother the enemy sniper the most when he's the RED spy, even though it would be the worst one to strategically choose. He's observed enough to formulate a theory, which he happily shares.
"What, you're in love with him?" he asks, head tilting towards the direction of his RED counterpart.
Sniper glances at him then back to the window. He shrugs. "Little bit, yeah."
Spy pauses.
"Oh, okay," he says, recovering quickly. "You're just going to say it then. You're not worried I'll tattle?"
"What're you gonna do? Tell the team? Tell him and, what? He'll believe you?" Sniper lets out a laugh. "Nah. Think I'm good."
BLU Spy then tries to prod at his counterpart during a friendly game of chess.
"As you know," Rouge says sardonically while he moves his bishop, "I've been in love before. This isn't new territory."
Spy knows he can only mean the candid photographs, explicit in content but more telling in the way Red had tenderly held his lover behind closed doors and shuttered windows. Spy knows there had been genuine affection in Rogue's old relationship, but it surprises him that Red had simply called it love so offhandedly.
Spy has a sinking feeling, knowing he has information that is ultimately useless. Actually priceless in a literal sense. "Oh. You loved her. I thought you were simply fucking her."
"Yes. And you exposed it. So what more can you do to me?" Rogue says, shrugging in the same manner his sniper had.
Spy sits in grumpy silence.
"Are you done trying to threaten me?" RED Spy asks, tapping his fingers against the table. "It's been your turn."
Spy turns his full attention back to the board. He reads the next couple of moves, the back and forth he and RED Spy will have, and ultimately decides the game now is truly unsatisfying. Considering their equal level of skill, the next few moves will lead to a route or another hour of play, which RED Spy seems bored enough to entertain.
So just out of childish spite, Spy puts himself in check with a knight.
So, the day Sniper vs. Spy came out? In Chinese internet culture, that’s literally Valentine’s Day, because the date sounds like “I love you” in Chinese.
Ngl, that’s kinda wild to me, but still happy 17th anni to these old man
It's a hybrid of that (the MAT-49 for the curious, a submachinegun used by the French Army from 1949 to 1979) and the rear sight, bolt, and magazine of the M1A1 Thompson.
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