YEAH SO CHAPTER 5 OF IUTMTM IS OUT AND IT'S GOT Q POLE DANCING IN IT AND I HAVE DECIDED THAT THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH THAT IS TO GIVE YOU SOME SUPPLEMENTARY CONTENT IN THE FORM OF A FUCKING ANIMATION BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK NOT
HAVE I EVER ANIMATED ANYTHING IN MY ENTIRE LIFE EVER? NO.
DID I STAY UP UNTIL 5:30 AM (not a hyperbole) TRYING TO FINISH IT TODAY? YES.
BUT IT'S DONE (more or less). IT IS DONE AND I AM DONE WITH IT SO HOLY SHIT ENJOY BECAUSE JESUS CHRIST WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
anyway hope you enjoy both the animation as well as chapter 5 of IUTMTM please i put so much effort into both
Yeah so this happened to me and I swear to god my partner has THE MOST Wilbur level of shit eating mischievous grin so I just had to draw this
Also no, it wasn't planned, he's just fucking mischievous and happy to cause mischief even accidentally in his sleep <- this is both about my partner and Wilbur
It's done, guys. I did it. I fucking posted chapter 5 of IUTMTM. It is 12,5k words long and literally separated into 7 sub-chaters because i am a madman but it is done.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
this hc has been brewing in my mind since 2021, butt yeahhh enjoyy
wil loves smoking but hates the taste of alcohol. q loves drinking but hates smoking.
now some people might disagree, ive seen many fanart and such drawing them sharing a cig or doing shotguns but hear me out.
q hates the taste of alcohol, but he loves that it makes him blanks out from reality for a moment. wil hates the taste and how it burns in his throat, even if it does makw him forget his problems for a while he ddint find it worth it. hed always gag and spew it back out whenevr q offers him some, sometimes over dramatically to piss q off.
smoking brings memories to wil, thats how he relives them in his head. its more or less addiction than love, but it calms him down. q hates how the smoke would linger on his clothes and reeks his breath, he does smoke sometimes to remind himself of how much he hates it, but is never able to finish an entire stick and ended up giving the rest to wil if he was around.
theyd hooked up a couple of times, both in pogtopia and in las nevadas. most of the times theyd kiss, never soft and loving but out of desperation (pogtopia) or wanting to dominate the other (las nevadas). either way, wil had always tasted the same to q. smoke, and sometimws a little sweet, the taste of smoke is always there.
a few days before wil left for utah, they hooked up one last time (unknown to q that it was their last time). that was thwir last interaction before wil left without a goodbye. the last memory that q had of wil was the bitter taste of cigarettes.
and so, after wil left, he started smokimg again. and although it left him coughing and hacking for fresh air, he wants to relive the memory.
it was never the same, but he tried and tried again. each and everytime, it left his lungs burning and eyes prickling with tears from the smoke.
he hates smoking, but he loves wilbur.
this was supposed to be a funny hc, but then in took a turn lol :33
(may 2024)
I absofuckinglutely agree oh my god yes exactly
chapter 2 od IUTMTM actually deals with that topic and describes my feelings on it, but yeah no Quackity's drug of choice is alcohol, and it provides such a perfect angsty parallel to Schlatt too. He slips into alcoholism without realising in Las Nevadas. He's still functioning "normally", but uses alcohol in private to be able to quiet the storm inside his head, usually when he's trying to sleep. He doesn't like smoking, but starts to smoke because of Wilbur and after Wilbur's death he is properly addicted to it but more so to how it reminds him of Wilbur, rather than to the substance. The thing is, they were each other's unhealthy coping mechanism, and they still are. Quackity loves Wilbur, is basically the only one who sees him as a person etc, but he still has that subconscious idealised version of how Wilbur used to be able to help him just go on despite the horrors of his life.
(this also ties in with the fact that Q for sure has ADHD and alcohol does initially raise dopamine levels and while then it decreases the dopamine levels even more, it is still something that makes alcohol dangerously addictive to people with ADHD)
Meanwhile Wilbur doesn't like alcohol. Not the taste, not the effect all too much... He doesn't particularly mind it, though usually he just doesn't really go for it. Nicotine relax his muscles, which must be particularly appreciated post revival with his body being fucked up, but also generally as he becomes unstable
Also, an alcohol dependency is technically easier to hide, unless you're drinking right then and there. Yeah, it does affect your body odour a bit, but it's much easier to mask than cigarette smoke. Cigarettes leave a smell, and that fits Wilbur a lot—he doesn't hide the fact that he has issues. Narratively speaking, as he starts smoking he starts using his instability as an intimidation tool, basically. He wears it on his sleeve, he starts portraying himself as the bad guy, and smoking certainly adds to that aura, both with how it's viewed, as well as with how it "announces" itself
actually have the specific fragment under the cut, if someone here doesn't feel like reading the whole thing (though of course i very much encourage you read it):
“Do you have a light?”
Wilbur took a lighter out of his pocket.
Click.
Quackity leaned towards the outstretched flame, which trembled slightly. Last they’d met he assumed emotions were the source of the hands’ unsteadiness, but maybe there was an actual issue there after all, unrelated to their argument. He felt an odd, vague sting around his stomach. Regardless, soon enough smoke was spilling out of his mouth, drowning the tingle in his chest in thoughts of pointless irony.
He never even enjoyed smoking. The stench turned foul if not aired out or washed, the smoke made his mouth feel covered in hair, and it didn’t even have much of an effect other than some light-headedness—and even that disappeared quickly. He only engaged in it at parties, if at all…
But then his lonely nights became not so lonely anymore, instead suddenly veiled in a thin curtain of smoke.
And then he realised that a shared cigarette let him indirectly taste the lips which would then rant to him whenever it’d be his turn for a drag.
And then Schlatt’s inquisitive, increasingly agitated comments about the lingering smell made him start smoking where others would see, for an easy explanation.
And then Schlatt was finally gone.
But so was the initial source of the smell.
Convincing himself it was nicotine he was addicted to came easy.
His lighter continued clicking, as he gradually learnt not to mind the tang which begrimed his throat. He scrubbed, washed, rinsed, brushed and cleaned in secrecy, having quickly memorised the disappointed looks on his lovers’ faces. He carried chewing gum, bathed in cologne, and covered his hair with a beanie, despite the change in his style.
But he didn’t stop. He kept searching.
Searching for an ember that’d feel half as warm as the ones in the ravine. For a scratch in his throat that’d itch half as much, as the one he felt when for the first time in forever the hands which held him didn’t make him want to rip his skin off. For a smell half as pungent as the one that used to paint a smile on his face in mere seconds.
But there he was now, right next to the lure which pulled him into the habit in the first place. And the smoke still didn’t feel as vivid as the memories, which he’d already taught himself to disregard. He’d gotten over what happened between them.
Letting go of his reverie he inhaled greedily, stepping closer to Wilbur and leaning against the pole next to him.
Heads touching the cold metal, they stewed in shared smoke.
“Well-” Quackity took a drag, “-wanna tell me to what I owe your visit?”
okk love your blog, so I rlly wanted to send an ask even if its nothing too especific ;-;
soo, since u like tntduo (like me :]) whats your favorite hc for their relationship? I love hearing about hc's, and since your art its so cute, u probs have some cool hc's
Thank youuuuu I appreciate it so much, and by all means flood me with asks! Asks are great, I love asks, be it random thoughts, art ideas, opinions, etc etc, asks are always welcome (unless they're from the 🥝 anon 🙄🙄🙄 /j/loving)
And a favourite headcanon? Hm, i don't know, hard to say. I have multiple headcanons, idk if I favour any in particular
There's one where after revival Wilbur's body is kinda fucked up in the nerves and blood vessels department, so he has some trouble with kinda controlling it, which particularly expresses itself in his hands being unsteady. They're so unsteady, that the first time he picks up a guitar again he can't play right. He blows up over it and has a breakdown, and vows to never play again. He still ends up trying a couple times, but each time he just immediately gets pissed off and upset, and tosses it away. It really breaks him. At some point he's at Quackity's place, and he sees a guitar. He looks at it for a while, but doesn't say anything, of which Quackity makes note. Next time they meet up Wilbur shits on Quackity for not having touched it recently, so Quackity takes it as a challenge. Once the music starts, Wil goes quiet. He's sitting to the side of Q, slightly behind him, and after a while for just a moment he leans against his upper back, and closes his eyes, simply taking the moment in. This situation repeats, a couple times, and each time Wilbur lets himself relax a bit longer. He starts playing with Quackity's hair as he listens, and one time he begins trying to braid it. His hands are shaking, he's struggling to divide the thick hair into even parts, he's having trouble keeping the braid even, but what's crucial is that he does it. Next time it repeats. And next time too. And the next, and eventually the braids start to look actually pretty decent. Time passes, they meet up more often, and eventually comes a day when Wilbur takes the guitar. No words are exchanged. No ridicule, but no praise either - no verbal acknowledgement. Instead Quackity just sits slightly behind him, and begins gently braiding his hair. The notes are wonky and don't always sound quite right, and the rhythm is messy, and strumming only goes well sometimes, but he's playing...
Quackity kisses Wilbur's head, right above the new braid. He leans in, partially hugging him, as the other's playing. It's been a bit over a year since he started playing again, and the difference is big. Neither knows if he'll ever fully regain the control and steadiness of his hands, but he manages to keep the rhythm, and the notes now ring out clear a big majority of the time. He plays quicker songs too, now; sometimes they both sing, and laugh when they mix something up. Quackity smiles, closing his eyes as Wilbur once again butchers a random song by changing up the words completely to make it as on the nose as humanly possible. He begins to wonder what they should eat tomorrow for their anniversary breakfast.
He would spend nights working instead of sleeping, but eventually, when Las Nevadas was developed enough to mostly run itself, that it isn't just work. He could never truly sleep, never wanted to fall asleep, scared of his own mind when not focused on something, only sometimes pushing himself to rest through alcohol or pure exhaustion.
Wilbur on the other hand never had issues falling asleep. It came to him naturally, or maybe it was the constant exhaustion (especially after revival). He could never really sleep though. He would fall asleep, but not rest, half conscious most of the time, or experiencing terrible nightmares and waking up in the middle of the night.
Inspired by your recent art, Quackity would sometimes just stare at sleeping Wilbur. But, Wilbur would often stare at sleeping Quackity in the morning, admiring his lover when he's all soft and calm, and thinking of ways to surprise him with something nice when he wakes up. Maybe he should make him breakfast.
Ok so I love this cause I absolutely adore the "opposites attract" HCs with Q but it'd always be like "well they both definitely have sleep issues" but this is a way to have both and like that's a major slay
Three little hcs regarding their sleeping habits: 1. they both have a tendency to wake up when the other does, just automatically - they're just synchronised (most of the time at least one of them falls right back asleep tho); 2. Wilbur's weak sleep is significantly worse when Quackity's still working - like, he will finally come to bed and Wil's asleep but then Q sits down on the bed (quietly as fuck) and Wilbur's like "hey"; 3. they switch around their sleeping positions, but Wilbur absolutely loves being the small spoon - partly cause he's always cold, but mainly cause he wasn't held enough as a kid/hj
Aaaand in the spirit of the ask, a little headcanon that's tied up with this (plus more at the end):
Common one, but I'll elaborate - Quackity's warm, Wilbur's cold. So, of course Wilbur's cold after revival cause his body's kinda fucked up and all that. Quackity - for a normal human (or a normal animal hybrid I guess idk works with duck too) consistently has a pretty high body temperature. He prefers sleeping mostly undressed (maybe with shorts on but that's not a guarantee/lh), he usually has to unbutton his shirt a bit lower than standard (I mean he's also a whore but it's a 2 in 1 y'know), etc etc.
Now, with Schlatt that resulted in limited cuddling even in the honeymoon phase cause the other also had a higher body temperature, and they'd just end up sweaty and uncomfortable.
With Eret the relationship started with a generic, platonic, positive message ("you matter ♡ -Eret" which they gave out to people in general just as a nice gesture, but nothing romantic) and ended with Q alone at the altar, so it's probably safe to say that didn't really come up.
With Karl and Sapnap though his body temperature was both too much, and not enough - Sapnap, as a demon hybrid, was much warmer, so with him cuddling wasn't really the most comfortable long-term, and while Karl was slightly on the colder side, Quackity wasn't as warm as Sapnap, so Karl would mostly cling to the latter. They'd try to make it all "even", but the emotional and physical distance was still noticeable.
And then there's Wilbur.
In pogtopia they didn't really cuddle much, but whenever they touched shoulders or leaned against each other Quackity noticed that Wilbur would frequently lean in for just a second longer than normal. This came back 10x stronger after revival. With a lot of Wilbur's nerves and blood vessels fucked up, he's pretty cold most of the time. The first time they cuddle he absolutely sinks into the embrace, making a comment about how nicely warm the other is. Quackity doesn't expect it to hit him as hard as it does. He giggles, slightly flustered, and dismisses it as Wilbur just being colder. From then on it repeats, and soon enough Quackity returns the favour by unintentionally hitting Wilbur with something along the lines of "you're like, the perfect temperature". See, Wilbur's always been on the colder side. He'd hear comments about how cold his hands were - not to even mention post revival - and he never really thought much of it, until Quackity's comment just hit him like a ton of bricks, and he just felt so perfectly in place in Q's arms. They just form the perfect temperature equilibrium; not too warm, not too cold - just perfect.
Little bonus: Quackity starts occasionally taking a jacket or sth with him even though he doesn't need it but he knows Wilbur will probably get cold (and need a second jacket).
Another little bonus that connects this HC to a different one about Quackity having sensory issues.
VERY tldr is that sometimes he just gets this intense physical discomfort in his limbs (AuADHD moment), and only way to lessen it is intense stretching, OOOORR using Wilbur as his personal ice bag. There'll be nights where Wilbur will try to move his foot cause "it's probably too cold and bothering Q" just for Quackity to "scold" him for moving it cause it was pressing perfectly into his calf and keeping him from losing his mind cause of sensory issues.
Also they both have food sensitivities, but Q's are more broad, and sometimes they'll spend hours arguing(/lovingly) over what to get on pizza, or when they go to a new food place sometimes Wilbur will just look at Quackity who's staring at the idk olives he accidentally ordered in his food (cause he didn't know the dish contained them) and he will just silently slide over his plate so that his boyfriend can peacefully pick all of them out and give them to Wilbur.
When Wilbur encounters food sensitivities - say, in a restaurant - Quackity will go full Karen mode and make sure his boyfriend gets only the food he wants.
Continuing the topic of mental health, sometimes Wilbur will struggle with hygiene during depressive episodes, to which Quackity will either motivate him with showering together(/nsx), a shared bath, if he's doing worse, or in the worst case scenario he'll help him clean himself up with a damp cloth (no judgement, no comments even, just love and support)
how safe sane and consensual has your head canon of tntduo been through the eras?
you mean like, if me headcanoning and shipping them was safe, consensual, and sane towards me and my brain? cause the answer is a hard no throughout all eras--
jokes aside, I'm assuming you're asking about how i headcanon their relationship to be, and to that the answer would be that it was absolutely always consensual. Both the sanity and safety were very questionable in many ways ever since something started between them, but in general they just became better with taking care of each other and keeping themselves and each other sane, and safe physically and mentally once they started actually dating, and putting an effort into their relationship instead of being actively self-destructive and trying to push each other away.
I'd say it was the most conventional during the elections, where they were just getting to know each other, so that was very much the most sane their relationship was at any point, although the most superficial too.
Then in Pogtopia it might've been the most "dubiously" consensual, but HEAVY air quotes here, cause what i mean by that is that they were both in arguably the most unstable mental states, and probably did a lot of very stupid shit, definitely not taking safety into consideration. They for sure didn't communicate properly many times, crossed each other's boundaries while trying to be self-destructive, and very possibly triggered each other a little bit on the odd occasion cause of all that, but there was definitely no actual pressure or coercion happening to force each other into anything. Also I don't think aside shit like Wilbur trying to blow himself up there were many situations where they'd have the opportunity to do something too unsafe together. I think that's definitely the least sane moment, though.
In Las Nevadas you could also argue that they pushed each other's boundaries at times, but I think at that point they 1. knew and cared about each other enough to not push the actual boundaries that'd truly end up hurting the other, and 2. they're a lot more assertive and confident about sticking to their boundaries. That being said, here they'd probably get the opportunity to be the least safe in many ways, at least at first as they're being psycho-competitive and self destructive and all that bullshit.
