I saw you reply to an ask saying you were glad to hear about good things happening, and so I wanted to share that I'm an elementary school teacher who's running a DND game for some of my previous students. In set up I told them I wouldn't be playing as if any type of creature was inherently good or evil, and they all responded with such relief, and shock that that has to be said aloud, that it warmed my heart. They've also had the most intense debates about how to handle combat, when is and isn't a good time to jump to violence, and how to heal the one guy they did and up attacking-- all while listening to each other and talking out plans, and even when disagreeing still working with each other
Just wanted to say that the young gamers I know are thoughtful and dynamic in their problem-solving, as well as up front about wanting to have chaotic flights (we had a great discussion about how to set up game fights they can go all out in vs times for restraint, because fiction is the best place to go ham with pretend crimes and I also wanna accommodate that! Plus it's hilarious to throw giant carnivorous deer at them, they had so much fun)
This is EXCELLENT news on 1,256 days left- I’ve needed news like this. Frankly we all do because everything feels pretty whackadoo right now.
Your tags on the sacrificial virgin post make me want to know everything about your OCs, especially this Ivy Rose! What's Ivy Rose like? What story holds them?
ok so! Ivy Rose Lohaun is from my story Red Eyes Take Warning, which is..... a lot. it's actually an in-universe comic series in my Eldritchverse setting, and it starts out as a parody of those generic isekai mangas, before gettting Weird as the author is unknowingly long-term exposed to eldritch horrors a little bit.
I don't have any proper art of Ivy Rose but here's what I do have... most of the RETW characters were inspired by ai gen images (*BACK WHEN AI WAS A WEIRD EXPERIMENTAL TYPEA THING) so this is his
and also this is an Arknights au version of him (he is not normally snakeboy)
and I am still sort of figuring out his lore but what I've currently got is that he inherited some sorta really rare special powers (according to my notes he is a witch, something different from mages. but I think I'm going to make it specialer than just that) and there is some sort of curse or prophecy on his family, that anyone born with those powers will die in some circumstances, and trying to evade this always results in things going really bad (possibly involving said powers?) but the curse/prophecy/whatever is vague enough that when he transes his gender, it manages to fulfill the prophecy / neutralize the curse / whatever.
anyway most of that is kind of just background lore, his actual role in the story is that. he starts out as a 'girl' in disguise as a guy (he is closeted/eggmode at this point) and under the name Lohaun he joins Gavin's party (Gavin is the classic isekai hero guy. he's also just a massive jerk) to go adventuring and stuff and also to get away from the gilded cage of richgirl life. then he gets 'found out' as a girl (this is a trope that happens sometimes where the 'crossdressing' character gets found out and then goes back to their 'real' gender like they're fine with it. I don't like this trope very much so he's like a deconstruction or subversion or smth of it.) and briefly tries just going back to girlhood, before deciding that, actually, he'd rather be a guy. so he tries out a couple different combinations of gender terms + presentations, before eventually settling on using he/they, presenting femininely, and using his firstnames and his surname interchangeably. Gavin, being the asshole he is, at first is disappointed by Lohaun deciding to identify as a boy (because the rest* of the party is sort of harem-adjacent, as tends to happen in these isekais)but then they're like "well I'm still pretty and here so does my gender really matter that much" (they don't want him to ditch them) and so he's like "alright I guess I'm 'straight with an exception' now"
*that is, the rest of the party except for 1. Emery (too beefy for Gavin's tastes, as well as too aroace and autistic to fawn over some asshole guy) and 2. Enzo/Elodie (it is 10 years old.)
Also, FIRST! If you don't mind me asking for two things ^^; If you mind, feel free to delete this!
FIRST — the first two sentences of my current project
Siri frowns, passes the form back to Obi-Wan, and says with perfect confidence, “I think it says perineum.”
“I highly doubt it says perineum,” Obi-Wan replies, pinching the bridge of his nose and leaning back against the file cabinet.
Ohhh!!! I'm Tiger, I'm an ace nb with anxiety and adhd, I am a babey who tries to adopt everyone I come in contact with, I can bake bread and write stories but sometimes I forget things exist, I am usually Not On Time (mildly late and panicked, or stupidly early humming to try to entertain myself in the lobby because I forgot my headphones at home)
you are a gnome teller at the goldcliffe bank . your voice sounds exactly like lucas’s (i am sorry), but with a HINT of hurley as well. an all around nervousnice mix. during the whole “i grab a chair” debacle you are, without avail, trying to insist that they put down all of the bank items and leave. magnus helpfully informs you that today is a “bank holiday” and goes on to explain “by that i mean there are police all over and, like, uhhhh a bird terrorist in here?”
you tell him you were listening to some sick jams (you demonstrate by humming) and got distracted. everyone accepts this, and merle starts humming a completely different song.
then, our horniest boys attempt to extract money from the lockbox and make it roll a constitution check (which it fails), it is revealed that your soul was tied directly to the lockbox and you die of poison damage. “oh shit” says taako. “well, we beefed that one” travis says. “CONGRATULATIONS!”, griffin says. “you guys-- you guys solved the minimum wage worker puzzle, and the solution was poison.” they look at your slumped corpse and continue pursuing the raven.
DBH prompt: touch or hair? (Ransom was a tough prompt for me, too, so I hope this helps!! If nothing comes to mind for it, that's totally ok)
Thank you so much for the prompt! I almost went with touch starvation but I feel like that’s a bit too overdone with both this couple and with me.
Warning for some gross corpse stuff.
Gavinshivered in the rain, his arms wrapped around himself. He was anintelligent man, a great detective, yet he had failed in protectinghimself against the weather by putting up his hood. The rain wasrunning down his nose, dripping off his chin, sticking in his hairand eyebrows. His eyes were down and, every once in a while, he’drun his hand through his hair to slick it away from his eyes. It wasdarker like this, sticking in thick clumps.
Ninestore his eyes away, towards the mangled body that had been shovedinto the crawlspace of the abandoned house. The smell had been enoughto finally get passerby to comment on it and when someone actuallyrecognized what the smell was they were called in. An ax had beenused to cut out a decent view of the body.
“Youcan enter a crawlspace from inside,” Gavin snarled, crouching downto get a better look. There were multiple slices in the now taut skinand the eyes were sunken. It was impossible to recognize the corpsefrom appearance alone. “Why do we have to be outside?”
Ninesscanned the remains of the wall, looking for an answer, looking for areason not to be looking at Gavin. He could see that Gavin’stemperature had dropped terribly, that he was getting sick, but inthe moment, with the water soaking through his shirt and making itcling to his chest, with that pout catching the downpour, Ninescouldn’t think of anything more beautiful.
“Theremains were hidden from the outside,” Nines approached a part ofthe wall, nearby but not exactly where the corpse was stowed away.“The killer cut through here and shoved the body inside beforerepairing the damage and repainting it.”
Gavinknelt in close. Like this, Nines could feel the heat dissipating offof him, could smell his aftershave and sweat and deodorant but somuch less because of the rain. He bit his lip. He had made a mistakein deviating. Everything was too much, too distracting.
“Howdo you mean?” Gavin asked.
“Rightthere, the paint is the same hue but its more vibrant since it’sfresh. It is the exact same set of pigments, meaning it was mixed thesame way and probably purchased at the same time. That would point ata former landlord or tenant.”
Gavinstood back up, crossing his arms. “You can see all that, even inall this phcking rain?”
“Ican see more than that,” Nines admitted, this time looking uppointedly at Gavin. He could see where the weft of his shirt wasweakest, where he could tear it from his skin easiest. He could seewhere Gavin wore at his lip the most, where he could press kisses toif he could gather the courage. He could see strands of hair shiftingand sliding, falling over his brow before they even did.
“Great,so there was no phcking reason for me to come out here and get myselfpneumonia!” He kicked at the grass, dislodging some of it. “Someuse human detectives are. Who needs ‘em when you plastic pricks cansee everything down to the freaking pigment.”
Ninesstood up beside him, drawing close. They really did need to getinside soon. The house was something but it wouldn’t be warm,wouldn’t do much for Gavin’s decreasing heat or health.
“Ifthere were witnesses you know I would be unable to question them,Detective,” Nines placated. “I lack intuition and gut instinctsas well. I am useful for evidence gathering and quick forensics, butthat is all.”
Gavinshrugged at that. “Yeah, sure, whatever you say.”
Hefelt slighted at that. He was trying to be useful, but not toouseful. He didn’t want Gavin to think he was redundant. He likedbeing Gavin’s partner for reasons that he couldn’t explain.
“Weshould enter the house, there may be evidence to be found within.”Nines stated, turning on his heel to lead the way. He could hearGavin grumbling behind him. He doubted that there would be anythingto find inside but it would be a reprieve from the building storm.
“I’mgoing to need some soup after this,” Gavin complained as theyentered the house. It was cold, seemingly colder than outside, andsome of the floorboards were rotted through from the dripping. Thiswas not a safe place to be. Gavin was shivering hard. “I’mthinking pho.”
Ninesdid a quick search, finding many Vietnamese food places in the area.“I would recommend you go Pho’k Yourself, they have the bestreviews by price.”
Gavinsnorted. “Gotta love pho. The people running those joints alwayshave a blast with the names.”
Ninesstarted to wander through the house, scanning as he went. He doubtedthat there was anything in there, that this was just a place wherethe killer had dumped the body, not spent any time in. What he foundwas evidence of vagrants, foot prints, hair, and thread, nothing thatwould help them, just things that would make the case even harder.They didn’t need to ask everyone who had spent the night there,especially since what he found was older than the corpse.
“Youthink burning this place down would actually warm it up?” Gavinasked nothingness and Nines turned back to him.
Gavinwas still standing by the door, arms wrapped around himself, rubbinghis arms, trying to get some warmth into them. Nines closed his eyes,willing a few extra processes into action, overheating himselfslightly. His Cyberlife jacket was, at least, hydrophobic, so it wasstill quite dry. He didn’t need to stay dry. He didn’t feel thetemperature as much as Gavin did.
“Giveme your hoodie,” Nines gently ordered.
“Phckyou,” Gavin glared.
Ninessighed, even though the motion made Gavin’s eyes widen. He hadn’ttold Gavin yet, that he’d deviated. He was certain that the manmust have noticed it, he was a detective, after all, but some areblind to what they didn’t want to see. Nines didn’t really wantGavin to know about the panic attacks that had set in with hisdeviancy, the nights that he couldn’t enter stasis because all hecould picture when he closed his eyes were corpses and times thathe’d failed to keep Gavin safe.
Hetook off his own jacket and held it out to Gavin. “I will give itback once it’s dry.”
Gavinstared at him, making him shuffle uncomfortably. It was, he supposed,Gavin’s first time seeing him without the white jacket but thatwasn’t enough of an explanation of the quickened heart rate or thedilated pupils.
Gavinfinally pulled off his hoodie and handed it over, trading it withNines’ own coat.
Hehummed as he put it on. “Warm.” It was just under his breath,just like the smile that he was trying to hide.
Ninestook a step forward, looking Gavin over. He looked good in Nines’jacket, even though the shoulders were too broad for him and the armstoo long. It was a sense of pride that Nines felt in seeing him init. It was indescribable and unexplainable, why he liked the look ofit on Gavin so much.
“Fiveminutes,” Nines decided, “and then we will get you your pho. Uponscanning the lower florr of the house I do not believe that themurder occurred here.”
“Youdon’t want pho,” Gavin said, his voice lazy and relaxed now thathe was warmer.
“Iam your partner,” Nines replied, bringing up one hand, notthinking, to brush the wet strands back from his face. “I go whereyou go, as long as you’ll have me.”
Gavin’seyes were wide, his gaze clear and on Nines’ face. Nines took astep back, looking at his hand, pretending that he was analyzingsomething from the moisture there.
“Isit just me or did you just pull a shitty romance novel princecharming on me?”
Lani!!!! Lani Lani Lani Lani I want to know /all/ the deets about dating Lani
my sunshine baby just wants to be loved and she just wants somebody to love. she will go above and beyond for you. date nights, your favourite leftovers from the bakery, breakfast in bed, hugs and kisses. she’ll listen to you talk for hours and will always do her best to make your day better. she’s a sweetheart, and if she falls in love with you, you’ll get 17 years worth of love that she’s never been able to give.
but this makes her pretty intense. sunshine baby is excellent at blinding people by shining too brightly. she gets clinging and needy and wants your attention all the time. she wants you to love her as much as she loves you, and finding a person who will is a near impossible task. if you feel smothered by her, it isn’t going to work out.
but if you thrive off her attention and her love like she thrives off yours, then you’ve got a shot!
