#{ the name’s cloud. me……? (i do a little bit of everything.) → meme.

[backwaterheroics]

take this to elmyra and say it's from me. — kunsel

party favors → ☆ @sentmail

Cold dread overtakes him, sinking into the soles of his feet and climbing up to settle hollow in his chest.

Not because the request comes from Kunsel, a man whose very presence forces him to face the mirror shards of himself and never see his own face looking back, always other people. Stolen facets, shoddy mockeries—a disregard to which Cloud didn’t even know he was giving. But that’s no excuse, that’s never an excuse.

It’s not because the request is to hand off something to Elmyra, a woman who shares his grief and can no longer muster the energy for anger or hate. Someone who, because of Cloud, had her child stolen from her. She has every right to condemn him, to demand retribution, to curse and scream and scorn him, find him worthless and despicable. Instead she lets him share her space, quietly and never for too long, but—— they found an accord, with one another. Cloud thinks it’s because she’s a mother.

No, it’s not because it’s Kunsel or because it’s for Elmyra.

Kunsel almost begrudgingly has passed over some random roughshod crystal bauble. It’s not valuable, it’s certainly no treasure, nothing to be turned into cash for hard times. If he turns it this way and that, maybe squints his eyes a bit, it looks somewhat like a bear...maybe a Bagnadrana.. or a Dorky Face.

Whatever it is, Kunsel is tight-lipped, obviously uncomfortable. Cloud doesn’t want to know how he knows Cloud goes to Elmyra’s on a somewhat regular monthly basis. (to pick up flowers, to take to the lakeshore in the ancient forest. to offer apologies, ask for forgiveness and penance he doesn’t deserve.)

But it’s Kunsel to Elmyra and the only common ground there is Aerith. He’s not stupid, he can make connections.

This is something he doesn’t know. A part of Aerith’s life he can’t ask about. Can’t talk to her about. Can’t share with her. He’ll never know and he doesn’t have a right to know.

It weighs on him, this yearning. He craves any part of Aerith still left in the world. His memories are faulty, His heart even moreso. What tangible evidence is there of Aerith’s regard for Cloud? for Cloud’s regard for Aerith?

There’s just a grave.

But here Kunsel is with something, because he was precious to her and her to him, and there’s proof. Here in his hands. a little unremarkable trinket, obviously beloved and being passed on to a mother who would cherish it even more than a friend.

A friend…. or…..

Kunsel is right about him.

He doesn’t know anything.

“Yeah, alright,” Cloud agrees and can’t meet Kunsel’s face. He stows away the piece in a secure compartment in his pack where he keeps his spare materia, then turns away to fix a crate of packages onto his motorcycle, feeling his eyes burn and his shoulders curl. “I’ll give her your phone number too, in case she wants to reach out. She got a line recently, so—-“

[aurumacadicus]

Fictober 19/31 -- “Do we have a deal?”

It is PHYSICALLY PAINING ME that every time I see this prompt, I remember back to 1992’s Aladdin where Jafar is disguised as another prisoner so he can use Aladdin to enter the cave of wonders.

But now I get to inflict the physical pain on you of Steve missing the end of a soap opera that started in his time by three years. It’s over 1K so look out for the cut!

--

It was eating away at him. Lottie hadn’t mentioned the paintings when she’d mentioned her ‘mutant’ name, what everyone had taken to calling her. She hadn’t mentioned any of her friends back home, really, except for Paisley, who she’d made a wedding dress for, and someone named Maryam. She’d never mentioned any artist friends.

Hadn’t mentioned a lot about her life back on the west coast, now that Steve thought about it. He wondered if that was a privacy thing, or if she didn’t feel comfortable telling them. It hurt, a little bit. They’d been hanging out in the common room a lot. He’d… sort of counted Lottie as one of the few friends he had in this century.

Well. Lottie had always been upfront and straightforward when asked about something. Steve took a deep breath and nodded to himself as he stepped off the elevator, sketchbook tucked under his arm.

Unfortunately, Thor was there, raising an eyebrow at him. “Why do you look like you’re about to go off into battle?”

“Fuck, do I really?” Steve asked, shoulders sagging.

“Relax your jaw,” Thor said, clapping him on the shoulder as he moved past him. “And don’t lean forward so much when you walk.”

“Oh my god,” Steve breathed as he realized Thor hadn’t been joking. “Is this why everyone jumps out of my way at SHIELD when I just want to come home after a mission?”

Thor turned in the elevator, raising an eyebrow at him. Luckily, he seemed amused. “Maybe if you didn’t do everything with the same amount of earnestness, you wouldn’t look like you were coming to punch Hitler in the face every time you made a decision to do something.”

“You haven’t gotten to the forties yet!” Steve shouted after him as the doors began to close, and Thor laughed. “Who showed you?! Was it Tony?!” He scowled when the doors closed all the way, swallowing up any answer Thor could have given him.

Steve continued scowling for a few seconds, just to feel better, before he returned his attention to the common room. Lottie was still where JARVIS had said she would be, curled up in the loveseat, giving painstaking attention to her sketchbook. He figured she must have been designing the next dress in her Avengers line. He’d seen the pictures for his, Tony’s, and Bruce’s in her cloud. He wondered if she’d been working on Thor’s, or if they’d just spent a while in each other’s company. Thor seemed to hate being alone, from what he noticed.

“Lottie,” Steve began, wondering how to phrase his question.

Lottie looked up at him, face breaking out into a smile. “Oh, hi, Steve! What’s up?”

“I have… questions for you,” Steve said, and then closed his eyes and sighed. God. He usually ignored the fact that Natasha teased him about being awkward. Times like this, though, he was glad she wasn’t around to see him really being awkward.

When he opened his eyes, he found Lottie had sat up straight on the loveseat, sketchbook set aside, fingers steepled together in front of her chest. He blinked.

“How about this? I give you… the information you want,” Lottie began. “In return, you give me… Irish stew for supper. Do we have a deal?”

“Huh?” Steve asked, squinting at her in confusion. “Lottie, if you want Irish stew for supper, you just have to tell me. I didn’t have plans anyway. JARVIS, order ingredients for Irish stew.”

Lottie blinked at him, apparently too stunned to speak immediately. Finally, though, she spluttered, “Oh my god Steve it’s a meme. You don’t have to make Irish stew if you don’t want to. I’ll answer any questions you have regardless.”

Steve stared at her for a moment, trying to parse what she’d said, then ultimately dismissed it as unimportant. He hadn’t had any idea what to make for dinner and it was his turn. He was glad for the suggestion, honestly. “I don’t know how to ask the questions without being weird.”

Lottie looked as if she wanted to carry on with her previous point, but he very deliberately circled the couch to sit down across from her. She stared at him for a moment, then rolled her eyes with a scoff. “Steve. Honestly. I haven’t punched Tony or Clint, and they don’t even try to be delicate with their questions. Just go ahead.”

Well, that was true, Steve had to concede. His questions weren’t even half as intrusive as Tony or Clint’s were, either. “When we were doing research on you. Before you told us to just ask you any questions,” he added with a wince when she scowled a little. “I… found some art. Paintings of a lioness, from areas around where you grew up.”

“Yeah?” Lottie asked, raising her eyebrows. Then she seemed to understand the question hidden in his statements. “Yeah, those are me.”

He’d thought so. He wondered if it would be gloating to admit it. He decided it would be better to do that with the rest of the team instead. “I can’t find any information on the artist,” he finally said. “Social media, galleries, even a name. It’s just a website with paintings of you as a lioness around your town.”

“Yeah, he took them off his main website after I was stabbed,” Lottie answered. “Not because he was ashamed or anything, though. At the time, my family was so private about me that the press went for my friends and neighbors next. He didn’t want to answer any questions about me so he took them off his website, then asked if he could put them back up. I said I’d prefer if he didn’t, and he asked if he could put them on a private website then, and I said that was fine. The anonymity would protect both of us. I’ll send you a link to his socials,” she added cheerfully. “You’re such a good artist, he’ll be honored you want to see his work.”

“Yeah,” Steve answered, hoping he didn’t sound squeaky. He could admit the work had been beautiful, but mostly he’d wanted to be nosy. Well. No one had to know that. “What’s his name?”

Lottie blinked at him, surprised, then let out a startled laugh. “Oh! I’m sorry. His name is Daniel. Daniel Winston. We went all through school together.” She grabbed her phone, tapping at it. “Here, I’ll send you his Instagram. He has links to his professional pages on there.” She did one final-sounding tap, and his own phone buzzed in his pocket. She waved hers at him with a smile. “He’s moved on from lions in orchards and on the steps of city hall, thankfully. He made me feel beautiful at the time, but I’m glad he’s moved to something new.”

Steve’s smile froze on his face. She hadn’t mentioned the painting of her standing on her school or standing on top of a house. And the dates on those had been recent. Like, months recent. And all of them signed off with well-wishes for Lottie. He opened his mouth a little. Should he tell her? Or—maybe he shouldn’t? They were still on Daniel’s private website, apparently, and Steve had only really found it by mistake. He wasn’t even sure he could recreate how he’d gotten to it.

“…Steve?” Lottie asked after a moment, brows furrowing together in concern.

Steve sucked in a breath. He still didn’t know what to do. “You never really talk about your friends,” he finally said. It would give him time to talk it over with someone else, get advice on how to broach the subject without blundering into it like a stampeding elephant. “I just… it must be hard. To be away from them.”

“Oh,” Lottie said, surprised. “Well. We message each other a lot. Or, well, as often as we can. They’re getting married, and having kids, and working. But we still talk a lot. I’d just gotten back from Paisley’s wedding a couple weeks before you guys knocked on my door. It’s not like I never see them. Hell, the other day, Natasha walked in on me arguing with my friend Maryam over whether Supernatural is a soap opera or a telenovela.”

“I understand those words separately,” Steve began, then frowned. “Soap operas? You mean like Guiding Light? On the radio?”

Lottie’s mouth dropped open into a surprised ‘o,’ eyes wide, before her lips spread into a wide smile again. “Oh my god. Steve. Okay but you know it ended, right?”

“Of course it did,” Steve said, confused.

“In two-thousand-nine,” Lottie finished.

Steve didn’t realize how stunned he was until he heard the thump of his sketchbook hitting the ground after sliding from his lax grip. “Two-thousand-nine?!” he finally spluttered, and Lottie began to laugh. “That’s seventy-two years!”

“Steve,” Lottie choked out.

“DID NED AND MARY AT LEAST GET A HAPPY ENDING?!” Steve exclaimed, frantic, as Lottie rolled off the couch, clutching her stomach.

[whiitemateria]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER.

Name: Mal / Puppy

Pronouns: She/They

Preference of communication: Tumblr DMS are fine, but Discord will almost always net you a response!!

Name of muse(s): Aerith, for one! My sweet, sweet girl! I also have Cid (@bigbrawl) and now Zack (@chaiinslash) / I do technically have a Cloud (@strifebound) but my muse for him is ... very fickle lately.

Experience/how long (months/years?): I started roleplaying when I was like. 10. Or something, I dunno. So, like, 17 years? Help.

Platforms you’ve used: (CLEARS THROAT) GaiaOnline, various forums that are probably now defunct, Skype, AIM / MSN / Yahoo Messenger, Discord, FUCKIN’ EMAILS.

Pet peeves / dealbreakers: Losing contact with an RP partner is always exhausting; especially if they decided suddenly that I’m not interesting or replying fast enough? I admit I can be a bit in and out at times - but so ADHD goes - though I think most of all, someone who doesn’t know how to drive a scene will absolutely drive me up the wall. If I’m the person single-handedly carrying the plot of a thread because the other person isn’t so great at making use of hooks or leads ... chances are I might give up on that thread lol.

Fluff, angst, or smut: I write a bit of everything! It’s all fun to me! Though admittedly, I’m a bit of a hurt/comfort slut. I don’t really like writing smut without purpose most of the time - the only person who’d get that out of me is probably my bff @/lovelornverse ... BUT IF ITS THEMATICALLY IMPORTANT AND SERVES A PURPOSE you bet I’m down for writing a lil smut.

Plots or memes: Either or! Why not both? Bonus points if memes turn into plots. Or plots are used for memes. 

Long or short replies: I can get overly long with my writing. I just have a lot of thoughts. But ultimately I will match whatever I’m given, barring circumstances where I feel like I have a lot to get out. And nobody EVER has to feel like they need to match with me. I just ramble.

Best time to write: When the ADHD releases its grip on me and lets me write the words.

Are you like your muse(s): Short answer, yes. I have a lot of little things that make me similar to the ones I write - though I won’t be so full of myself as to presume them, I just feel like I relate pretty well to certain facets of the charactes I write ... otherwise, I wouldn’t like them so much.

[loosingmoreletters]

"nobody asked about my writing" meme

Tagged by @gravitywonagain (just posting this on my writing blog instead the personal you tagged) Thank you so much! This was a lot of fun to do!

 1: what are you currently working on? 

so many things because I can never have just one WIP. Lots of mdzs stuff that is, if you want one coherent theme, trans, and sort of trying to fix things.

As for original stuff, I'm still trying to find a name for my last protagonist and make three languages.

2: summarize your current project 

which one? uuh, I'll just pick a posted WIP:

deeper than the ink: in a desperate attempt to keep Wei Wuxian from spending the rest of his life in the Burial Mounds, they fake his death and create a new identity so very different from his own that keeping the secret has more far-reaching consequences than anyone realized.

a new season has come: covers one year of the three-year time skip in deeper than the ink in which Wei Wuxian raises a-Yuan, adjusts to his new life, and teaches Xiao Xingchen how money works.

3: summarize your current project poorly 

picking the fic of which I wrote the first and a half chapters in some kind of fever haze:

take me home country roads: They travel with a goth teenager, a corpse they like, a corpse they're ambiguous about, the world's worst gender identity crisis, and Lan Qiren. The fact that they’re not caught is a fucking miracle.

4: describe your favorite character or characters

I love characters that are kind despite everything that happened to them, despite what the world tells them they ought to be? Characters that care. They can fuck up, make the worst mistakes, go off the deep end for a bit if they want, but I'm here for that I just want to help, I don't want anyone to get hurt, please keep them safe desperation

5: post a line from your current project without any context.

“Well, in any case, you’ll have to wait to march me out of the Cloud Recesses, my legs refuse to work,” Wei Wuxian said with a sardonic smile. “What was the rule again? ‘No killing within the Cloud Recesses’?”

6: how do you get through writers block?

well, writers block usually happens to me when I actually have a lot of IRL stress that I sometimes aren't even aware of. But usually I just keep switching between various projects, write little scenes, make a interest board and so on.

7: would you want to live in the world of your current work?

absolutely not. fairly sure anybody who wants to live in any variation of the mdzs setting needs to lie down, touch grass, and remember that AO3 has been down for less than a day and we're already crying

8: briefly discuss your outlining process, if you outline 

I do outline for long WIPs! Usually I make a rough outline for the plot before switching into making them for every chapter. It's mostly because the way I write my first draft requires me to have a more or less clear sight of where this is supposed to be going. my outlines tend to be on the funny side, like this:

9: what is the aesthetic of your current project?

Going with a new season has come: gardening, embroidery, finding peace and quiet because you need it, being undone in your skin and coming apart at the seams and sewing them shut again.

10: what song sums up your current work the best?

Obviously, the song I named the fic after!

This was a lot of fun!

I tag: @eventualtoast, @ghostwriterofthemachine, @magic-owl, @noxgold, @liverbiver9

[rek1s-headband]

I'd really like to see some headcanons for a polyamorous relation between y/n, kaoru, and kojiro because I just want these boys to hug each other and me.

Thanks for the request! This was fun to write, because I too would love to be sandwiched between these two. Enjoy!

➯ random boyfriend headcannons

➯ characters: cherry x joe x reader

➯ warnings: none! Just fluff for now. I do swear a bit in my work though, please tell me if this is an issue!

-Yall literally take turns annoying the shit out of each other around the house. You’ll sit on the counter while Joe attempts to make dinner, you and Kaoru mixing his spices around and sticking labels on the wrong packets. You’ll rest your head in Kaoru’s lap while he attempts to get some calligraphy work done or make some adjustments to Carla, Joe talking the ear off him while he tries to concentrate.

-Joe has caught you and Kaoru in the parking lot of a McDonalds on more than one occasion.

-You and Kaoru will go on “dates” to Joe’s restaurant while he works, and pretend you have no idea who the man in front of you is. The two of you will go so far with it too. Joe has had to sit through “birthdays” (yours wasn’t for another eight months), marriage proposals(the poor man had to bring the two of you cake), fake breakups where one person would storm out and cause a scene in the restaurant, the list is endless.

-On the other hand, you and Joe will go to Kaoru’s exhibitions, and absolutely mortify him. The two of you will be shouting various words of encouragement(?) at him, while the poor man just tries to do his work. Yes you’ve gotten a few stares. Yes you’ve been kicked out by security on multiple occasions.

- “WORK THAT BRUSH BABY” “WRITE MY NAME😩” “GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME WE WERE JUST BEING SUPPORTIVE”

-Idk how many of yall have seen that tweet where someone got a label maker and labelled everything in their pantry stupid shit like “mini bagels” (Cheerios) and “ghost broccoli” (cauliflower) but that’s 100% something you and Kaoru would do just to piss Joe off when he’s trying to cook.

-The three of you regularly make shitty edits of Adam in those ghetto clouds every time he gets into a new scandal and make memes out of pictures you take of him every time he shows up at S.

-Joe would carry you around this house at his side and ask you stupid questions while you reply in a robot-like voice to mock Carla and piss Kaoru off

-“Hey Clara(cause yall are original), can you tell me where Kaoru is?”

-“Hello Joe, Kaoru is in the corner reading a book like a little nerd”

-He acts like he hates it, but you and Joe find it hilarious, so even he can find himself smiling at your antics.

-The three of you will sit in a line sometimes, you in Kaoru’s lap, and him in Joe’s, and yall will just sit and braid each other’s hair while watching TV. Sometimes you and Kaoru will take turns trying to put mini braids in Joe’s hair, sticking bows and clips in it anywhere they’ll stay. The two of you have given Joe hair extensions before, and he absolutely adored them.

-Joe and Kaoru are already awful when it comes to skating together, so if you can skate, you can imagine the absolute chaos the three of you would cause at S. Instead of acting like a mediator, you’re just as much of a little shit as them, yelling stuff like “BEAT HIS ASS” or “place your bets now folks!” If you’re not joining in on the fighting as well.

-The three of you sleeping can go one of two ways.

-One, a triple spoon(I’ll let you decide who’s where, maybe you swap) or yall will just be overall comfortable. No kicking or shifting in the night, just pure peace.

-Two, an absolute free-for-all of limbs and heads. Maybe your head will be on Kaoru’s chest, maybe your foot will be in Joe’s armpit. Someone nearly always ends up without a blanket, or on the floor.

-Carla has a charging port in your room, and when she randomly says stuff in the middle of the night you’ll shoot up in bed, scaring the shit out of yourself and the other two. That place quickly becomes a panic room of “WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING” “THAT DAMN ROBOT” “the forecast for tomorrow seems to be cloudy, with a chance of rain.” “BE QUIET CARLA” “sorry, I couldn’t find anything for ‘night garden’, would you like me to search again?” “CARLA”

-Joe is awful for snoring. You and Kaoru will take turns beating the shit out of him with a pillow until he shuts up long enough for the two of you to fall asleep. If he doesn’t stop, you need to violently shake him to make him wake up, this man is a DEEP sleeper. He does that dad thing when he wakes up yknow the big inhale through the nose and the bleary eyes.

-Your house is decorated from top to bottom with artwork. Most of it is because Kaoru liked how it looked, other times it’s simply because you and Joe thought it looked funny. You’ll have various pieces of art hanging in your house that Kaoru thought you and Joe just liked the look of, when in reality the two of you thought it looked like a dick.

-idk how many of yall have seen that TikTok (if not I’ll link it here) where they’re ordering McDonald’s and start fighting in the front of the car while one person vibes in the back, but yall have done that multiple times unironically. I’ll let you decide who’s where, because it changes OFTEN.

-Your birthday cakes are always TOP NOTCH. Joe pours his absolute heart into baking them, while Kaoru helps decorate it and make it perfect for you.

-The three of you are banned from Target because you and Joe decided to mess with the kids toys and set off an alarm.

-Yall regularly do that thing where two of you will be together and the third (usually Joe) will come up to you and start screaming like “HOW COULD YOU?? I LOVED YOU AND YOURE OUT HERE WITH SOMEONE ELSE? GO TO HELL.” And storm off.

-Yall fight over the front seat of the car. Like, the two who aren’t driving are sprinting towards the car, shoving each other out of the way like little kids. Yelling “shotgun” means nothing to yall if u manage to get there first. Whoever’s driving won’t unlock the car for ages, letting the other two battle it out watching from a safe distance.

-The three of you had to make a chore list because of how petty you were. Once the trash went without being taken out for like a week because you’d just keep piling shit on top, trying not to make it collapse.

[xvnexx]

TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM BIOS

speak your mind even if your voice shakes

tell me a lie

you were a masterpiece, but then everyone saw you

I smell autumn

yes I function with out a heart

my mom won’t like you

please do not touch

there are so many types of art but {name of idol) is my favourite

seize the day

fragile, handle with respect

I was the perfect roe that drowned

happiness is a great colour

you eventually will run back into it

keep your heart closed but mind open

qualified meme-ster

ambitious

s/he was so artistic painting smiles on every face but her/his own

did s/he forget to love

ask no question and you’ll get no lies

people change quicker than you think

society is an ugly burnt ass cracker

how many secrets can you keep

only fools fall for you

meme queen

everything I ever loved, I lost in the magic

seek joy, embrace joy, share joy

if you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to build theirs.

autumn kills summer with the softest kiss.

no tears for the creatures of the night

you will let go

the colour yellow is really under-appreciated

im a petty bitch

Im a golden thread; fragile but valuable

a little bit of sugar, but a lot of poison too

confusing reality with dreams

and I will fight even if I break

smile

fuck im broke

give me a sign

you’re one of a kind and no one understand

make your life a story worth telling

in conclusion, im bitter

but one day I’ll stop falling

(idol name)’s the tear in my heart

im soppy and emotional so stay the fuck away

yikes

have I fit into society yet?

is this any better?

create you’re own path to an adventure

I let you out, and everyone saw

send memes

glazed donuts

late nights, red eyes

entertain my faith

*instrumental*

sometimes to stay alive you gotta kill your mind

I’m Fiji water, you are toilet water

see good in all things

we rise by lifting other

oh no, not you again

you still have Facebook?

you make me emo

just keep going

but do you know my aesthetic?

wheres the leak ma’am

be like spongebob, create fire in the ocean

can life go back to when I didn’t understand it

How do I silence my sins

I will burn again

did I give you permission to break my heart?

red blood, black heart

dear society, do you accept me now?

a thornless withered rose

a touch of gold

fuck you I don’t care I failed

aesthetic mind

my brain is 80% song lyrics

im at the top but I still don’t see you

left me in the dark

stars fall and the world goes blind

sorry mom I promise to never be a a bad bitch

if you’re lost just look for me

dismayed mind

fuck of weirdo

home is where the art is

keep your dreams close to your heart

teach me your contour blending ways

find a way to be yourself

first you find yourself

let me glow bitch

I don’t want seconds

take on life like a swan; calm and serene on the surface, but paddling like hell underneather

(idols name) fills my heart

mom can I be savage now?

do ya thang

neither lost nor found

have a positive mindset

im honestly a troubled kid looking for dank memes

don’t look back, chase whats in front

no thanks, I don’t want leftover

I want to create

a black cloud in a black sky - nobody notices

oops sorry I spilled out my heart

I found the heart, but its empty

did I leave a stain on your heart

I thought this was eternal

buy me food pls

I asked for the word, and you bought me a carrier bag

sorry only dark humour is accepted

you made it this far kid

you’ll probably love me

too lazy to socialise

I found my happy ending

[animated-moon]

tug of war

pairing: zhongli x gn! reader

warnings: SPOILERS FOR LIYUE’S CHAPTER OF ARCHON QUEST! reader works at bubu pharmacy, not proofread we die like real idiots 🤞🤞 i also made references to some of the liyue npc’s idle dialogues that people made into memes because it was too tempting not to

word count: 1.1k

a/n: i lowkey hate it but i guess we all just have to learn to adapt

☆。*。☆。

The almighty archon Rex Lapis has never lost before. Never once has he given in to the enemy’s demands, no matter who or what was at risk, and never once has he cowered to someone in battle, no matter how strong the enemy.

That was, until you came along.

“Hey! What are you doing out in Jueyun Karst all alone? It’s dangerous, sir!” He turns around, seeing a small frame running towards him. He’d just finished fending off a group of hilichurls, as per the Traveller’s request. He’d gotten a few scratches and part of his neat suit was torn. Sometimes, he forgot that he wasn't the unbeatable Morax anymore.

“Oh? You’re that new hot topic in Liyue, aren’t you?” He nodded, tucking his spear away.

“My name is Zhongli, consultant of the Wangsheng funeral parlour. A pleasure to meet you…” You chirped out your name, and he took a mental note of it. He’s heard your name around before, since you worked part time at Bubu pharmacy. He recalls that Baizhu was pretty fond of you.

“We should patch you up, Mr Zhongli. I happen to have some herbs that can numb the wounds for a bit. Please stay still while I apply them onto your arm,” you said, taking his arm gently as if he were made out of porcelain. He’d barely felt your hands on his skin before you clapped your hands ceremoniously.

“All done. Make sure to be more careful in the future, sir!” Before he could state his thanks, you’d run off, leaving the god speechless and charmed.

“Hey, Li!” Your voice stood out to him amongst the sea of chatter and exclamations. It's always been like this with you. “Wanna play tug of war?” He smiled.

“I’d never say no to a challenge,” A simple reply, like the simple man he now was.

This war between both of you started as a lighthearted game, and Zhongli found himself unwilling to let go of his end of the rope. He looked up at you, a focused gaze as you tried to knock Zhongli off his balance.

Every little motion from you was a tug of the rope, slowly pulling him closer. Even with his build, he found it difficult to pull the rope back to him. It was like his feet were planted to the ground, and his arms were only made of stone.

What is this feeling? He often asked himself, but even the almighty Lord of Geo couldn’t find an answer to his own question. When did he know to feel like this?

“Aren’t the lanterns beautiful?” You asked, taking a bite out of your cheap and tasty chop suey. Zhongli nodded, settling next to you with his grilled tiger fish. It was still hot, and he blew on it gently.

“I’m glad you took time off to hang out with me today, sir! Although you really didn’t have to,” you made a comment, and Zhongli had the smallest smile on his face.

“It’s nothing. Ms Hu let me off early today. Let’s just enjoy the lanterns.” He commented, and you hummed.

The silence was comfortable, and he glanced at you, the light from the floating lanterns reflecting off your face in a magical way. You fluttered your eyes close and clasped your hand over the other, lips moving slightly and allowing your wish to get lost amongst the beautiful lanterns.

What was it you wished about? Zhongli considered asking, but remained quiet.

“Li! Are you just letting me win?” Your voice pulled him back to reality, and he had a wide grin on his face.

“You’ve grown stronger,” he comments, and you laugh softly.

“Feel welcome to bash my ego with your geo arms.” Zhongli laughs at that, putting more strength into trying to secure himself. He wouldn’t fall. Not yet.

“Really?” You asked, eyes almost glittering. Zhongli smiled at you fondly. “They never told us these things in school,” you comment, and he shook his head.

“Not many truths of the past are conserved at all. It’s a pity not many people are as interested in history as you are,” he says, both of you strolling around the Dunyu ruins.

“Oh, do you see that?” He asks, pointing to a crossbow. “That’s-“

“The Guizhong Ballista, right?” You finished his sentence, and Zhongli looked at you, a little surprised. “I remember that you said the God of Dust, Guizhong and Cloud Retainer built it together to protect the citizens of Liyue! The traveller and you had to fix it together last time, since some treasure hoarders destroyed it.

“You remembered that? It was months ago.” Not many people bothered to remember Zhongli’s stories, after all. Not many even saw the true value in them.

“Well, it’s an interesting story, and I should be grateful that you chose to tell it to me,” you replied simply, gazing at the crossbow. Zhongli was a man of a million words, but at that moment, all the words he wanted to say seemed to be caught in his throat.

Zhongli tried again to tug on the rope, his strength not coming to him at all. Your giggles as he inched closer and closer to you was music to his ears, and he couldn’t help but smile again.

“Go! Pull harder while he’s not paying attention! You can do this!” Somewhere in the crowd, Childe could be seen, cheering for you. As he caught Zhongli’s eye, he snickered and mouthed two words to him.

“Down bad.”

“I like you, Zhongli.”

“Huh?” Zhongli made a sound of surprise? You… liked him? Before he let his mind wander, you tossed a pebble across the surface of the water, watching as the water rippled.

For some reason, he couldn’t remember the rest of that day. Did he say it back? How did you respond? What did you say after that?

Did it even happen? Or was it just a fragment of his imagination?

“Mr Zhongli! Go!” Hutao cheered, but Zhongli didn’t hear anything besides the bubble of laughter falling from your lips.

“Yea, I like you,” you repeated, turning to look at him. Before Zhongli could speak, you continued.

“-r passion for history.”

He pouts, tilting his head at you. Were you teasing him? Seeing the frown on his face, you laugh.

“Disappointed?”

“Hardly,” he replies, but turns away from you. Sometimes, Zhongli too could be childish.

“You’d have to say it first, Li,” you say, and Zhongli tilts his head at you again.

“Why is that?”

“I don’t like giving in,” you grin, standing up to leave Zhongli speechless yet again.

“I can never win with you, can I?” He mutters to himself, a wide smile across his face.

That was when your little competition began, he remembers. If he even tried to think that he wasn't interested in you, it’d be a lie. Within a few short months, he had become so enamoured with you that it’d hardly be fair.

Now, as he gave one last tug to his end of the rope, you grinned at him. He remembers every single time your eyes lighted up in delight, or dimmed with disappointment. He remembers every time you’d tugged on the rope, slowly knocking him off the balance he’d always known.

After everything, he finally let go of his end of the rope, falling into your arms which felt like home.

[vavuska]

Who changed Lola Bunny?

Malcolm D. Lee explained, “This is 2021. It’s important to reflect the authenticity of strong, capable female characters. … So we reworked a lot of things, not only her look, like making sure she had an appropriate length on her shorts and was feminine without being objectified, but gave her a real voice. For us, it was, ‘Let’s ground her athletic prowess, her leadership skills, and make her as full a character as the others.'”

(See the complete interview here: X)

So, gone are her curves, thigh-high drawstring shorts and midriff-baring crop top. Instead, Lola Bunny now takes on a sportier look wearing a more standard basketball vest and leggings under her track shorts.

But, let's see more deeply what determinated this choice:

1. Being mad at a fan art is sad, people.

Before, a sad 50 yo guy starts complaing about how "cancel culture" or "politically correct" ruined his life - Really? Changing a cartoon bunny from a movie you didn't see for a decade ruined your life? Wow. Someone should really review the list of their priorities -, let's see how really Lola looked in the 1996 original Space Jam.

Here we have original Lola Bunny:

(Here you can see all Lola's scenes in Space Jam: X)

Yes, Lola walked in a sexy way that show off her curves, or at least she seemed to have curves (a little breast, tight waist, long legs, bootie), but those are not big as in the fan art you are seeing around, and Lola's curves are not evidenced during the match or when she played. Is more her attitude and posture that made her look sexy. However, althought her curves clearly changes every time she is doing something different, from action to action, there are some scenes in which she is purposely made sexy, with saxophone music as soundtrack and male-gaze sections that ends in the same way, Lola surrounded by a bunch of horny and howling cartoon guys.

That's appropriate with Jessica Rabbit: she is purposely made and designed as a parody of the femme fatale from old hard boiler movies, in which attractive, mysterious women were portrayed as evil and manipulative gals who hide criminal intentions. Jessica, with her intentionally exaggerated body, subverted the misogyny of 40s and 30s detective movies: she is kind-hearted, truly loves her naive and goofy husband Roger and uses her powers (beauty and cunning) to protect him. Her body too is used for comic sketches, while this not happens for Lola, that's just a serious and indipendent basketball player. So, the male obsession for her body is out of place, expecially because she reacted with anger at being misconsidered only for being an attractive female bunny. “Don't call me doll” is her catch phrase. So, it seems strange she didn't react at all at the very sexualized presentation at the final basketball match: Lola simply shows her basketball skills, ignoring or accepting passively the reaction of the honey crowd of wolves around her. (Please, notice the association: Lola “admirers” are wolves, predators, while Lola, their object of desire, is a rabbit, a prey)

This is the cartoon version of cat calling: they are like a group of men who sit on their porches and whistle at girls everyday when they walk in from of them. A normal girl or woman would pass over this thing, even if they are bothered, unconfortable or embarassed, because they are more scared by a possible violent reaction of this whistling horny guys at their legitimate anger objections. But here, we are talking of Lola, a strong Looney Tunes bunny, and she could smash that damn basket ball on wolves' face, breaking all their teeth. That would be very a Looney reaction. But Lola doesn't react at all at this situation. Here, on my opinion, screenplayers missed an opportunity, but probably they thought to have already did too much with Lola's personality and “girl power”.

Remember also that Lola is the only young cartoon female character we see in the whole movie. So we can't do a proper comparison with other female relevant characters' rapresentation. (See here for a deeper analysis of Lola's origin and development: X)

However, compared with Bugs, Lola looks more fit, more humanized than Bugs. Lola has clearly a definited breast and booty, but it looks like is more her posture that makes them relevant. Lola has clearly shoulders back to show the rack. Bugs is anthropomorphic but remains an animal, has no shoulders or pectorals more like a human and looks a bit over-weight (fat belly). And his posture don't keep that stomach in, chin up, and march forward.

Lola, on the other hand, has a more human structure. That's why I say she has curves. An example are Mickey and Minnie who are two beans in the same way it is not that Mickey is a bean and Minnie has small tits, they are structurally alike.

Lola's body remembers highly No-Ribs-Jasmine from Aladdin (see the gif for reference). That unrealistic Barbie-like waist that was so popular in the 90s and 80s. (See here for references: X and X)

Now, we are changed a lot from the past 24 years. Barbies didn't have that impossible, unrealistic waist-line anymore, Disney princess concept has changed (see Merida and Moana).

Lola concept is changed in 2012: her design for the new cartoons is totally different and her personality too. She wear a blue or violet dress, almost flat-chested and she was made annoying and silly, just to make a contrast with Bugs smarter. Just like Daffy Duck is dumb as hell and his new girlfriend, Tina Russo (no more dear old Melissa Duck), is way smarter than him. Tina is tough, street-smart, rebellious and feisty. But we will see this thing in the next point.

2. People on the upper floors hated Lola personality.

Lola Bunny had only few lines in Space Jam, but she definitely passed the first impression that she was draw only for make male characters fall in love. Lola was a good basketball player and show it off, in front of a skeptical and then astonish bunch of cartoon guys and also Michael Jordan. She also had a strong personality and said it clear to Bugs she didn't like being called "doll". Lola was beauty and curvy, but not a cheerleader. Lola was a basketball player. Remember this part, because we will talk about basketball in the next point.

If at the box office Space Jam was a success, at Warner Bros there were those who turn up their noses, and they are important people, from the upper floors, who accused the film with Michael Jordan of having completely distorted the philosophy of the Looney Tunes. They blamed Lola Bunny more than everything else. Producers of Warner Bros said she was too perfect for the moody group of Warner cartoons: she was too sensual, provocative and independent, totally alien to that core of crazy characters that act as an exaggeration of the vices of 'man.

And fans hated her too. Chuck Jones, creator of the Merrie Melodies said: "Lola Bunny is a character with no future, she’s a totally worthless character with no personality."

So, Lola Bunny was deleted. Lola would make only some brief apparitions in some comics edited by DC Comics, in Baby Looney Tunes, in which she was a toddler with a very similar personality and resemblance to Space Jam adult version, and also as playable character in some unsuccessful videogames.

Years passed and projects for a sequel of Space Jam never become reality, so in 2003 Warner Bros relased Looney Tunes Back in Action. But Lola wasn't here, because the movie purposely want to make a deep cut with what we saw in Space Jam, according to what said it's director Joe Dante. This movie was a totally failure, but it gave back to Looney Tunes their craziness.

Years passed again, but this time is 2011, 10th of May on Cartoon Network was relased the second episode of The Looney Tunes Show. The series aimed to strongly relaunch the Looney Tunes, long gone from the glories of the past, updating the stories of Bugs Bunny and associates in a sitcom key, with the rabbit sharing a house with Daffy Duck in a suburb of Los Angeles. All interspersed with sketches by Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner done in CGI and the updated return of the Merrie Melodies. But the big news of the second episode is that LOLA BUNNY RETURNED.

And Lola was a character with some relevance within the series, even if something didn't seem right with her. Lola looked different, she was no longer the rabbit version of the femme fatale seen in Space Jam: she was naive, talkative, with her head in the clouds, crazy to the point of becoming Bugs Bunny's stalker. Bugs after having fallen in love with her at first glance understands on the first date that he absolutely can't stand Lola. She is no longer the Lola we used to know, even if the appearance is similar and the name is the same. Lola is effectively a Looney Tunes now. And the fans like her, the public like her, Warner Bros like her.

(See Lola in The Looney Tunes Show here: X)

But this is a big walk in behind from the indipent character we used to know in Space Jam. Lola was turned into the stereotype of the crazy girlfriend for a while. And this is not a surprise, if we remember that in 2012 were popular the "overly attached girlfriend" meme template. (See here for references: X)

However, in The Looney Toons Show Lola has some very funny moments, while in Space Jam she was more serious and a little out of space among the other characters. (See here for references: X)

3. What women wear when they play basketball?

Women's National Basketball Association was only created in 1996. So, women's basketball were not considered - and still is not considered - as important as men's basketball at the time Space Jam was filmed.

In Space Jam 2 there will be WNBA players with a significant role, for example Diana Taurasi and Nneka Ogwumike.

Professional female athletes aren't that curvy because curves are determined by body fat and they have a little.

As a busty volleyball player, I can say, dear people, breats could be very annoying during sport activities: it could be a pain, when you run or jump. That's because a lot of women wear sport bra to compress and support their breast. Sports bra may also include layered cups or a high neck to keep everything in place and protect from painful hits, so women can be safe and comfortable during workouts.

Female basketball players didn't wear crop-tops and tight shorts to play. They wear exactly what Lola wears in the picture above: long sleeveless tees, large shorts and maybe protective gears such as knee pads, sleeves or braces to reduce chronic pain caused by the immense burden put on the knees in basketball, to prevent bruises caused by collisions and hard fall and to provide support after a significant knee injury like an ACL tear. They could wear also compressive arms sleeves to help muscles that are sore or overworked to recover faster. The sleeve enables your blood flow to circulate quicker to the heart, which helps you heal and recover quicker.

Wow. WNBA wears Exactly what wear NBA players. So surprising.

4. This is only a promotional character sketch, not what Lola would look in the movie.

Space Jam 2 would be developed in CGI and there are a little preview frames going around, included one showing Lola jumping and you can see her breast shape. But she totally looks like a comic cartoon character. It's not humanized. It's not designed to be the sexy love interest. She doesn't look out of space among the others anymore, expecially because seems that there would be also Tweety's Granny and Melissa Duck or Tina Russo as players too.

5. Reality.

Really? You want a human anthropomorphic rabbit? Well, Lola as a rabbit would have something like six nipples, but no human-like breast. And, also, real life girls have ribs. No one in real life is that thin. Oh, well, if you don't considered Pixee Fox, a model who had surgically removed six ribs and wears daily a compressive bust corset (yes, like the one that made Elizabeth Swan faint in the first movie of Pirate of the Caribbean) to look like a cartoon fairy (Tinkerbell, you are the one to blame for this).

(See here for references: X)

In conclusion, we can say that all this controversy is based only on a porny fan art and that Lola “new” graphic isn't change too much from the original Space Jam movie. It's just a little more cartoonish.

We can also firmly remeber that Space Jam 2 is going to be developed for children, to relunch Looney Tunes among new generations of children, who are the largest buyers of merchandising (including Happy Meals surprises) and consumers of new cartoons that surely would be developed, if Space Jam 2 would be a success.

However, we should admit that those kids probably know better the 2011 version of Lola than her original version and that 2011 version was more appreciated by fans and producers. Lola's voice actress, Kristen Wiin won BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award in 2012 and was nominated for that prize also about three times in the following years. Also Rachel Ramras, Lola's voice actor was nominated for BTVA People's Choice Voice Acting Award in 2016 for her role in Looney Tunes: Rabbit Run.

We don't know anything about Lola's personality in Space Jam 2, so we can't do a proper comparison or a prevision, but, according to what Malcolm D. Lee said, we can assume that original personality of Lola would be preserved.

The controversy is relevant only for Lola's body and not for her personality, and that's is highly rappresentative of what impressed more this bunch of grow-up kids. They grow up to be like the horny wolves and they are howling because their prey is not available anymore.

And, to be honest, being so obsessed with the breast and the body of a cartoon character (that is clearly made up for kids) it's not sane at all. Sorry to say that, but sometimes people need to drink from a bottle of truth.

[luckychild]

Hey, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the boys responding to hearing “I love you” for the first time - only if you want, of course - you’re blog is awesome :)

I love this prompt (pun intended)! Super cute ask just in time for Valentine’s Day. This turned out to be an x-Reader piece; hope you don’t mind!

(Confession: The Kuwabara scenario is pretty close to how me and my boyfriend confessed to each other. He said ‘I love you’ really early and I came around slower. So that section really means a lot to me.♥ Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Warnings/Tags: Some light cursing. SFW. Gender neutral reader. There’s some Yukina/Kuwabara in Hiei’s section.

Hit “Keep Reading” to dive in!

KURAMA

So… Kurama knows how you feel before you drop the L-word.

He’s perceptive! And you keep looking at him askance and biting your lip all cutely, demurring from answering when he asks what’s up.

You’ve been dating for a long time, so it would make sense you’re finally about to say those three little words aloud.

He has a hunch you’re about to admit your feelings, and his hunches are usually right.

So, smarmy fox-boy that he is, he teases you about it a bit before the weeks leading up to your confession.

He’ll sort of murmur your name to get your attention, look deeply into your eyes, then say:

“I love…” [dramatic pause while you hold your breath and your eyes go wide] “... this food we’re eating right now, don’t you?”

And then he’ll act all innocent and pretend not to understand why you just choked on the food he said he loves so much.

He thinks it’s hilarious to watch your face go supernova.

Kurama is low-key an asshole, but that’s why you love him.

But when you actually do work up the nerve to tell him how you feel?

He’s not laughing anymore.

He knows this is serious for you.

He knows that saying ‘I love you’ makes you feel vulnerable, and he won’t devalue this moment by not taking it seriously.

So he doesn’t make any jokes after you say it and stand there looking at him, shaking like a leaf.

He just smiles, pulls you to him, and presses a kiss against your forehead.

“I love you too,” he murmurs, lips ghosting over your skin—and he only lets you go once he feels you relax against him, relieved to have your affections returned.

HIEI

You know that meme about “alternative responses to ‘I love you’”?

Hiei falls into multiple categories of that meme, cycling through them one by one until he lands on his final reaction.

After you say ‘I love you, he just sort of looks at you. Like, really looks at you with a blank expression on his face, like he can’t quite grasp what he just heard.

And then Hiei laughs.

It’s not a nice laugh.

It’s a throw-back-his head laugh, a harsh bark of sound that makes the hair on your neck stand up.

“You fool,” he spits. “Attachments make you vulnerable. If you’re too blinded by emotion to see that, then you’re not who I thought you were.”

And then Hiei… just kind of vanishes.

You don’t hear from him for a few days, and the hurt you feel is the kind of hurt only someone you truly care for can inflict. It’s proof of your feelings, sure, but…

You spend a lot of time in a glum or agitated mood, because while you knew Hiei wasn’t the most emotional, this wasn’t what you thought would happen when you confessed your love.

Meanwhile?

Hiei’s off training in the woods and attacking trees with 900% more ferocity than usual.

He isn’t sure why he’s in such a foul, vengeful mood at first, but the fact that he can’t get your shattered expression out of his head?

That’s... a hint, he supposes, as to the source of his ire.

Eventually he emerges from the woods and wanders around until he reaches Genkai’s temple, where he spends a good deal of his time when not in the city with you.

Yukina is there (this is part of the reason he goes there a lot, predictably).

So is Kuwabara (this is part of the reason he doesn’t go there all the time, also predictably).

They welcome Hiei into the temple like they usually do, and while Hiei normally leaves as soon as he spots Kuwabara, he allows his sister and her boyfriend to lead him inside for once.

He watches the pair of them cook dinner in silence, observing the way Yukina and Kuwabara talk and laugh with each other, and the way they wordlessly communicate as they work.

It’s… not the worst, he thinks, seeing them together. His opinion on Kuwabara has changed over the years (mostly thanks to you poking him to give Kuwabara a chance) and he knows Kuwabara would give his life for Yukina.

Kuwabara demonstrates exactly this when he opens a cabinet and a heavy pot falls out of the cupboard; Kuwabara leans over Yukina to take the brunt of the blow, sheltering her from harm.

Yukina gasps and grab’s Kuwabara’s arm, inspecting him for damage and fussing over his injury.

But Kuwabara just grins, takes her hand, and asks her if she’s OK.

“I love you,” he tells her when she scolds him for being reckless. “I didn’t want you to get hurt!”

That scene replays in Hiei’s head for a few days afterwards, looping through his head along with the image of your sweet, earnest face when you told him that you loved him.

The image of your shattered heartbreak makes a few appearances, too.

It takes a few more days after that for him to realize something.

Love hadn’t made Kuwabara weak (or any weaker, at least). In fact, love often powered Kuwabara up in fights. It gave him things to protect, a reason for fighting, a purpose for his power—

Hiei goes cold at the realization.

Attachments aren't always signs of weakness.

Attachments can be powerful.

Was he the fool, not you, for rejecting an attachment so quickly?

Hiei suspects he made a terrible error, and the moment he has this realization, he breaks into a run and rushes to your side.

He’s not sure what he’s going to do or say to you to fix things, but he is determined to do exactly that.

Only you can say whether you forgive him or not, though.

KUWABARA

So Kuwabara hasn’t been shy about his feelings for you.

Like… he hasn’t been shy AT ALL.

He sings your praises to anyone who’ll listen.

He tells you you’re gorgeous every single day.

He says he loves everything about you all the time!

It was basically love at first sight for him. (Because that’s just who he is!)

But as for you? It took you a little longer to come around.

It’s not that you disliked Kuwabara or anything.

It’s just that he came on strong and you were a little more cautious about jumping into a relationship than he was, that's all.

And he was totally cool with that!

“Hey, you don’t have to reciprocate!” he tells you when you indicate you don’t feel the same way. “I’d wait for you forever, but if you never like me back, that’s OK, too. I just want you in my life; if it’s as friends, that’s fine, too!”

Your friendship is just as valuable to him as your romantic feelings.

He’s not pushy at all despite his declarations; he’s a gentleman to the extreme, content to love you on your terms and never push for reciprocity.

But after a while, you start to look forward to seeing him.

You start to search for him in crowds, hoping to spot his shock of orange hair.

You start to miss him when he isn’t around, craving his bone-crushing hugs and booming, exuberant voice.

And then one day you see something on TV and it reminds you of him, and you start smiling to yourself as you think about him—and it hits you.

OH NO.

YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH HIM, AREN’T YOU?

But he’s been saying he loves you for AGES… is it awkward that you’re just now ready to say it back?

You argue with yourself for days and days about what to do… but eventually you’re hanging out, and you’re listening to him be his boisterous and enthusiastic self, and it just spills out.

“KUWABARA-I-LOVE-YOU-OK!?” you blurt when he pauses for breath.

But… he doesn't react the way you think he will.

He just stares at you in silence, stunned, and you take that as a bad thing.

You get up to leave, muttering an apology as your cheeks burn, saying you’ll see him later—

His hand darts out and closes around yours.

His face is on FIRE, but he stares up at you in wonder. In awe, even. Like the clouds parted and angels started singing.

“Y-you do?!” he says, voice pitched up quite high, eyes as wide as they can go. “D-do you really? Do you mean it? Do you really love me back?!”

And you start smiling, and you start laughing and nodding, and he laughs too, and then you’re both in a puddle on the floor, arms around each other, just laughing together for the joy of it.

YUSUKE

Yusuke has been wanting to tell you how he feels about you for, uh..

Well. It’s been a long time.

You’ve been dating for a long time, and you’ve been through a lot together, and he can barely even look at you without blushing these days.

He’s been in love with you for a long while, but like hell if he’ll actually admit it.

Yusuke is NOT a mushy person, nor is he very in-touch with his feelings.

In fact, he’d rather take a sharp stick to the eye than ever admit how he feels about anyone.

But when YOU end up saying you love him FIRST, it does something to him.

He freezes. Stares at you. Blue-screens for a second.

And then he falls back on the one thing that has consistently aided him throughout his life:

Snark.

“Well damn, babe,” he drawls with a lazy grin (one that does NOT reflect how rapidly his heart is beating). “I knew I was irresistible, but if you really wanted to get laid, all you had to do was ask.”

You shriek and huff and walk off (and probably swat at his arm, though of course he dodges).

It’s only when you’ve stalked a good dozen meters away that his brain catches up with his mouth and he realizes that he’s fucked up.

Like, really fucked up.

So Yusuke curses and lurches after you and shouts, “Hey, hey, wait a freakin’ second!”

But you don’t stop walking.

You get halfway down the block with him trotting at your heels, telling you to just cool down and let him talk.

Eventually he gets in front of you and holds up his hands.

“Now, now,” he says (nervously; very nervously). “Just give me a chance to—”

NOPE. He ruined what could’ve been a cute moment and you aren’t having it, so you dart around him and keep walking with your head held high (and a tear in your eye).

His arms are around you before you get far, though.

He buries his head in your shoulder and just holds you, and finally you feel it—the way his heart is racing, thudding against your back.

“Look, I… I love you too, OK?” he mutters. “So please don’t go…”

It almost makes you giggle, seeing him blush like this.

Almost, but not quite.

You know how big of a deal it is for him to say those words, so you just hold him right back.

Headcanon & Imagine Masterlist | Tip Jar

[smallraindrops-blog]

A Road To Somewhere.

For prompt: road trip

Hypnos/male!reader

Thanatos/Zagreus/Meg in the background.

5.7k total, link to part two at the end.

Warnings: some sexual stuff are talked about but the most that happens is kissing and cuddling. Jokes about cannibalism as well. Alcohol uses. No beta.

Summary: Why talk about your feelings with your childhood best friend when you can just go on a road trip?

A/N: sorry for going silent, I was dealing with some medical issues on top of helping my partner with stuff.

To the Anon who requested this, I'm sorry about the wait, I hope you like this and feel free to always hit me for another request!

At three in the morning, your phone rang. 

You groaned as you rolled across your bed. and you squinted at the brightness of your phone. 

Hypnos' photo flashed on the screen, the one where he stole your letterman jacket to nap in on the school bus that Zagreus had sent it to you. And if you kept the photo five years after high school, well that is your business and nobody else's.

You hesitated, not sure you want to talk to him right now. After that night, the only thing you and Hypnos traded was polite, almost cold texts. not your usual meme or lazy chatting about whatever. But something about the picture of Hypnos' sleeping face pushed you to respond. 

You swiped the green button.

"You are coming with me." Hypnos said, or rather slurred.

You covered your face,"Hypnos, dude. Are you drunk right now?"

"You- you said you have never seen the ocean right?" Hypnos asked, ignoring your question.

"Where are you? I am coming to get you." You turned on your lamp, looking for a pair of jeans to wear.

"No- no." Hypnos said firmly and very drunkenly. "Y/N, dude. I'm fine. I'm at my shitty apartment." Hypnos paused, "You know, the one where my brother hooked up with Meg. And Zagreus. At the same time. Which is really effing weird for me."

"I - Hypnos-" you tried to think of what to say. The said incident happened over a little month ago and Hypnos had the misfortune of walking in at the wrong time. Which of course because Hypnos got his heart broken by Meg lead up to Hypnos trying to hook up with you to get over her.

"Look, you always said you wanted to see the ocean right?" Hypnos yawned, which you took as a good sign. Hopefully it means your dumb best friend will pass out soon and not ruin his liver for rest of the day.

"Yeah, what of it?" You asked, frustrated at Hypnos for doing this to himself and to you.

"Road trip!" Hypnos dragged out the words with a laugh. "I will be picking you up tomorrow. Love you bestie."

"Hypnos wait no, we can't just leave." You said. You waited for a response, "Hypnos?" You asked worriedly.

A snore came through the phone and you sighed. You turned off the lamp and laid back down, listening to Hypnos' deep breathing.

You stared at the ceiling, and tried not to think about the last time Hypnos got this drunk. Or about that night or how Hypnos acted like nothing happened the next day.

You rolled over to face your phone and closed your eyes.

You will just stay on the line in case Hypnos wakes up.

💤

"You can't be serious, Hypnos." You said as he went through your clothes, uncaring of any boundaries you may have.

But honestly with Hypnos, you had long lost any boundaries. You knew you should actually try to enforce some but you craved just being near him.

"I am! I need to get away for a bit and you told me you were taking a week off right? And it starts today or last night technically." Hypnos held up a lime green shirt and made a face at it.

"Yes for a staycation, I don't have extra money for a motel or anything like that." You replied, and took the shirt away to place it back on its hanger.

"It's my treat, Y/N." Hypnos leaned on you, his head on your shoulder. You tried not to notice how warm he was against you or his big golden puppy dog eyes. "Come on, a free trip away with your best friend aka me aka the best thing ever with your favorite person ever-" Hypnos rambled.

"Fine, only because you said you will pay for everything." You sighed, You hated how hard it was to say no to him.

Hypnos cheered and pulled you into a bear hug. You savored the warmth despite not wanting to.

You just needed a vacation too. To clear your head. And who knows, you and Hypnos could finally get back to being normal.

💤

Hypnos was in the driver's seat as you closed the truck and joined him in the car. A pen dangled from his teeth as his golden eyes flicked across the map. He glanced at you as you strapped in.

"It will be a two days drive if we only stop when we need to. That gives us three days at the beach or wherever else we end up doing." Hypnos took the pen out and marked a couple spots on the map.

"Couldn't we just use our phone GPS?" You asked.

"Nope, the place I'm taking you isn't a normal public beach and we have to drive through some mountains and mountains always win over gps." Hypnos pointed the pen at you. "Always." He said in a mock doom voice.

You rolled your eyes, and with a finger pushed the pen out your face. "Alright but if we get lost in the mountains. I call first dibs on eating you."

"Ha, jokes on you, bestie. I got almost no tender fat on me. So enjoy gnawing on my worthless bones." Hypnos crackled as he started the car. He tossed the map in your lab and peeled out of the driveway.

His deft fingers quickly found some music as Tom Petty sang through the radio.

Hypnos sang along badly. You covered up your smile, it feel good just near him again even if you didn't want to admit it.

Within minutes, Hypnos had weaved into the midmorning traffic. But even with the traffic, you already feel a little lighter.

💤

The first day of the drive went surprisingly well, even with traffic for the first hour. The skies were a vivid blue with fat, lazy clouds that casted shadows across the land.

Hypnos had the windows rolled down, one arm out of the window and music blasting. His shades should have made him look like a frat boy but you actually liked how they looked with his messy white curls and dark red shirt.

You kept your mouth shut and just watched the landscape change from suburbia to the fields dotted with cows and horses.

It was the most peace you had felt in a long while even with the elephant in between you and Hypnos.

It wasn't until twilight had followed you to the motel that the problems started.

"Is that a permanently closed sign?" Hypnos asked flatly, his shades resting on his head.

You nodded, "I had a feeling the trip started a little too well."

You and Hypnos both stared at the sign, the red and white words mocked you.

"I knew google was lying to me." Hypnos murmured.

"We can just sleep in the car, Hypnos." You followed him as he turned back. "We probably shouldn't drive anymore tonight."

Hypnos shook his head, "Nope, we would get murder so fast." He snapped his fingers to make his point. He threw an arm around your shoulders and guided you back to the car. "Come on, I bet there's another place just up ahead."

"And if there is not?" You asked, noticing how easily you fit next to him.

"There will be." Hypnos said confidently.

At your doubtful look, he said cheerfully,

"Or we could just get murder in a much nicer area."

💤

It was almost an hour before you saw the faint vacancy light just peeking behind the trees.

You gasped, "There! Do you see it?"

"Yeah, I see it." Hypnos replied, perking up. The rundown motel looked like someone's idea of what an old western inn looked like without actually never seeing one before.

But after driving for an extra hour and half, it looked like heaven.

Hypnos pulled up in the first empty spot he found which was plenty of.

"Stay here, keep an eye on the car. Don't get murdered." Hypnos said as he locked the car up. He only looked back once as he entered the building.

You slumped in your seat, exhaustion overtaken you. Your phone buzzed in your hand, Zagreus's name popped up.

'Is Hypnos with you??'

You stared down at the text, why is Zagreus asking you?

'Yeah, why?' you replied.

Immediately, Zagreus responded.

'He hasn't responded to any of our texts or calls.'

In a separate text, 'Is he okay? I knew my talk with him was rough but I didn't expect this. '

You bit your lip, just realizing that you haven't heard Hypnos' phone go off all day. Normally, Hypnos' phone was glued in his hand and he was always constantly texting or playing a game.

You looked up, making sure Hypnos was still in the building.

You replied, 'I think he just needs a break. I will let you know if anything happens but maybe just give him some breathing room. Also what talk?'

Three dots appeared and disappeared a few times before Zagreus' response came.

'No, I know. We just wanted to make sure he wasn't alone. Thanks.'

You rubbed your face, unsure what to make of the texts and that Hypnos, a known phone addict, hasn't been on his phone all day. And that Zagreus didn't bother to tell you what 'talk' he had with Hypnos.

You looked back up and saw Hypnos walking back a grin on his face. When your eyes met his, he waved the roomcard and a plastic bag triumphantly.

You pushed your worries aside for now, Hypnos will talk to you when he is ready.

💤

"Uhh, dude. There is only one bed." You said blankly when Hypnos turned the lights on. All the room had was a single hotel bed and a little table with two chairs. The whole area looked like it never left the seventies.

"And a sofa." Hypnos pointed out as he flopped down on it. The sofa creaked loudly as if threatening to snap in half. "I can sleep on anything, remember?"

"If you are sure." You grabbed the plastic bag from the floor as you sat down on the bed.

You dumped the goods on the bed. There was a healthy mix of spicy ramen bowls, candy bars and cans of soda.

You picked out the one you knew Hypnos liked and set on making dinner.

The sofa kept creeking each time Hypnos twitched or even breath. Hypnos' eyes were close but there was a tension to his body that kept him looking truly relaxed.

You debated on telling him that Zagreus had reached out to you but the tight frown on his face kept you from saying anything.

The microwave gave a high pitch beep and you quickly pulled out the ramen and placed the hot bowl on the table. "Hey, Hypnos. Soup on." You told him as you got your bowl ready.

"Oh. Thanks. Wanna have a soda?" Hypnos asked.

You thanked him as you dug into your own dinner and honestly the cheap ramen was the best thing you tasted after not getting lunch during the drive.

Hypnos was unusually quiet during dinner and while getting ready for bed. You couldn't help noticing that Hypnos never once picked up his phone.

Hypnos yawned and sat on the sofa much more carefully yet the beast still creaked in warning.

You sighed, there was no way you or him would sleep with all that creaking.

"Hypnos, just come to bed. I think it's a queen so we got plenty of room." You told him as you got under the covers. You met his gaze, his eyes bright even with the dark circles under them.

"Okay." He agreed softly. He gave you a look that you ignored as he joined you. He turned off the lights. "Good night, Y/N."

You rolled on your side, back facing Hypnos. "Good night." You yawned widely, already halfway to sleep.

💤

You didn't quite wake up all the way, not at first. You blinked at the wall, small cracks in the blinds allowed for small rays of sunlight to break though. It made the motel room feel cozy even with the ugly decor.

There was an arm loosely wrapped around your shoulders and you sank into its hold with a sigh.

Your eyes closed before your brain realized that you could feel another body pressed against your back, legs tangled together.

You snapped awake, your body went rigid and you heard Hypnos grumbled against your nape.

You relaxed, letting out a breath when you remembered Hypnos was in bed with you. Hypnos, during sleepovers when you were children, always ended up clinging on to you.

It was almost nice, a return to a simpler time. Almost.

It was a very different experience when you both were adults. You flushed when Hypnos pressed a little harder against your body, a pleased, sleepy hum rumbled in his chest.

You could feel him pressed against your lower back and damnit, your traitor of a body was responding. You squeezed your eyes shut, flushed from shame and want.

Your mind flashed back to the last time you allowed Hypnos this close.

You could still remember how he pushed you into his dark bedroom and kissed you again and again. How it felt being under him on his bed. How you almost let him have more.

And you knew you wouldn't survive if Hypnos acted just like he did the morning after.

With the small strength you were able to find, you pulled out of his hold or rather you tried to.

His arm went tight and kept you in the bed, "Where are you going so early?" His sleep rough voice mumbled against your skin.

You ignored the goosebumps he caused and you sighed annoyed. "Come on, you're being a jerk. I need to go get ready for the trip."

"Hmm, we drove more than we planned. We still have some time." Hypnos murmured, clearly going back to sleep. You grabbed the blanket with your free arm and yanked it off the both of you.

Hypnos yelped at the sudden cold and let you go. You darted out the bed and grinned at the scowl Hypnos had. You tossed the blanket over his face and walked away. "Early birds get the worm Hypnos!" You called out as you headed to the bathroom.

You bit back a laugh at the loud groan Hypnos made.

💤

After a quick stop for coffee and pancakes with bacon which Hypnos immediately drowned in syrup much to your disgust of the sheer amount of sugar, you were back on the road.

After an hour of staring out the window at patches of woods between the farmlands, you turned to look at Hypnos.

"What is it about this place that made you pick it? I looked at the map, we could get to the ocean quicker if we went along the other route. " You thought for a moment, "And you know, not to have to drive past the mountains."

"Yeah, if you want to see what everyone else sees and deal with the crowds." Hypnos scoffed. He pulled his shades down a bit to look at you, his windblown curls bounced with the movement.

You prayed he didn't notice your blush.

"Also my mom told me about this place a million times. Trust me, it is going to be worth the wait." And with that, Hypnos focused back on driving.

You turned back to the open window, silently hating yourself for still being attracted to him.

"Hey- is that a cow?" Hypnos asked, already slowing down. You looked down the road and saw the animal. You couldn't help the laugh that came out. "Yeah it is."

The stray cow stared down at the car. It was apparently unconcerned about being hit as it chewed on the grass in its mouth.

Hypnos pressed down on the horn repeatedly and long. The cow kept chewing on its bit of grass, blinking slowly.

"Dumb cow. It knows what it is doing." Hypnos muttered.

You laughed again, "I think that is an oxymoron."

Hypnos scowled and waved his hands at the cow whose tongue had found its nose.

"Well, what bright ideas do you have, Y/N?"

You looked into the bag of snacks down by the footrest. And pulled out a bag of barbecue chips.

"I'm going to lure it out of the road, first chance you get, drive past."

Hypnos pulled his shade down, an eyebrow crocked.

You shook the bag at his doubtful look.

Hypnos' eyes narrowed, eyes sharp and calculating. "That won't work."

"Oh?" You raised a brow. "And why not?"

"Those are barbecue chips, I'm pretty sure even that dumb thing know that smell. And when it smells the barbecue, it will just run you over enraged about the chips."

You leaned toward him, "Wanna make a bet?"

He matched your lean, a bright glint in his eyes. "Sure. If I win, you have to agree to everything I say until we get to the hotel."

"Fine." You agreed. "And if I get the cow out of the way, you can only speak in moos until we get to the hotel."

"Deal." He leaned back into his seat. "Easiest win ever."

You scoffed at him as you got out. "Gee, thanks for believing in me."

You stared down the cow who merely blinked at you.

Hypnos poked his head out the window, laughing "Hey Y/N, when it's moving, start running!"

You shushed him and crinkled the bag at the cow. It took a wary step forward and you opened the bag and it took a sniff.

The cow immediately tried to bite the bag but you took several steps and it followed you. You couldn't stop your smirk at Hypnos' outraged face. "Good cow." You cooed. "Good cow."

You took several steps back into the tall grass and dumped the chips on the ground.

The moment the cow started eating the chips on the ground, you took off like a shot and almost fell into your seat. You barely had a chance to close the door before Hypnos drove off.

You pulled your seatbelt on and waited, a huge grin on your face.

When Hypnos refused to say anything or even look at you, you poked him in his cheek.

"Hypnos." You called his name in a sing-songy tone. "I won the bet. Hypnos. Hypnos." You poked him with each word. There was an evil, childish part of you enjoying this too much.

Hypnos batted your hand away. "Moo fucking moo." He replied sourly.

You playfully frowned, "I don't think cows can say fucking."

"Oh my god."

"They don't say that either."

Part Two

[hime-memes]

On this edition of ‘ Hime grabs a book she doesn’t remember owning and making a meme ! ‘: We have some sassy starters from ‘ The Snark Bible ‘ - a compilation of clapbacks and funny quotes. 

As always: Feel free to change anything within these starters that you see fit to make it work for your muse & the receiver’s muse !

Recommended For: Whichever muse needs to be feisty, but, like, right this second. 

** Any slight wording changes / sentence break ups made to the original text is to accommodate for RP purposes or more clarity. **

Trigger Warning: Swearing, alcohol mentions, drug mentions, infidelity, NSFW themes may also be present in some. 

“ I haven’t committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law. ”  “ one of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. “ “ Hard work is damn near as overrated as monogamy. “  “ Disobedience, noun. The silver lining to the cloud of servitude. “  “ This isn’t an office; It’s hell with fluorescent lighting ! ” “ The fact that no one understands you, does not mean you’re an artist. “   “ I like you ... you remind me of when I was young and stupid. “  “ I’m not being rude: you’re just insignificant. “  “ It’s a thankless job, but i’ve got a lot of karma to work off. “  “ I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public. “ “ Someday, we’ll look back on this, laugh nervously, and change the subject. “  “ Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you’ll suck forever ! “  “ We passed over a lot of good people to get the ones we hired. “  “ To ere is human, to blame somebody else shows good management. “  “ Ham and eggs is just a day’s work for the chicken, but a lifetime commitment for the pig. “ “ I envy people who drink. At least they have something to blame everything on. “ “ When I read about the evils of drinking ... I gave up reading. “  “ A woman / man drove me to drink and i didn’t have the decency to thank her / him ! “  “ A bartender is a pharmacist with a limited inventory. “  “ Drugs may lead to nowhere - but at least it’s the scenic route. “  “ I don’t like people who take drugs ... customs men, for example. “  “ I would never do crack. I would never do a drug named after a part of my ass, okay ? “  “ I hate to advocate for drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone: but, they’ve always worked for me. “ “  It’s a scientific fact, for every year a person lives in Hollywood, they lose 2 IQ points. “ “ He is the type of man who will end up dying in his own arms ! “  “ An actor is a guy, who if you ain’t talkin’ about him, he ain’t listening. “  “ Oh, wake up ( Name ), you’d be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left 20 years ago ! “  “ Ordinarily he is insane, but he has lucid moments when he is only stupid. “   “ You’re a mouse studying to be a rat. “  “ He knows so little and knows it so fluently ! “  “ He / She is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death. “  “ Maybe humans are just the pet alligators God flushed down the toilet. “ “ He / She is a bit like a corkscrew --- twisted, cold, and sharp. “ He had delusions of adequacy. ” “ I want to reach your mind  --- where is it currently located ? “  “  she’s so boring, you fall asleep halfway through her name ! “  “ I regard you with an indifference that’s bordering aversion. “   “ She never lets ideas interrupt her easy flow of her conversation. “  “ You have an inferiority complex and it’s fully justified. “  “ Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn’t they’d be married too. “  “ I never knew what real happiness was until I got married. By then, it was too late. “  “ Married life teaches one invaluable lesson: to think of things far enough ahead not to say them. “  “ Early on - I let her know who was the boss. I looked her right in the eye and clearly said: ‘ You’re the boss. ‘ “  “ The trouble with some women is that they get all excited over nothing --- and then marry him. “  “ There’s only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is --- I’ll get married again. “  “ One man’s folly is another man’s wife. “  “  Men don’t realize that if we’re sleeping with them on the first date, we’re probably not interested in seeing them again either. “  “ You know more about a man after one night in bed than in months of conversation. “  “ I’m afraid of the video guy judging me because I don’t want him to think I’m some sort of freaky pervert. So now, when I rent porn --- I’ll actually get Dirty Debutantes and Citizen Kane. He knows I’m a masturbating loser, but I’m a sophisticated masturbating loser. “  “ My girlfriend was complaining about my stamina in the sack, so I popped six viagra and drank a six-pack of Redbull. Her funeral is Tuesday. “  “ I think we can all agree - sleeping around is a great way to meet people. “  “ His finest hour lasted a minute and a half. “  “ My ex and I had the best sex during our divorce. It was like cheating on our lawyers. “  “ How many husbands have I had ? ... You mean apart from my own ? “  “ I enjoy dating married people.They never want anything kinky, like breakfast. “ “ There are times not to flirt: Like, when you’re sick ... or, when you’re on the witness stand ... “ “ You don’t know a woman until you’ve met her in court. “   

[katsukisbeatingheart]

sing to me

soulmate au where you can hear the songs stuck in your soulmate’s head. the closer you are to them the quieter the music becomes, before the voice changes altogether.

word count: 2,440

a.n.: helo i have a few of these typed up and a few others in progress explicitly for soulmate aus. it’s the least angsty one so far so here you go friends.

(psst here’s dabi’s)

(psst here’s sero’s)

(psst here’s bakugou’s)

listen while you read 👉👈

ao3

Shinso Hitoshi did not sing, and isn’t the type to give even so much as a hum. But when he did—of his own volition, mind you—he never did so in front of people.

Which is how he knew this soulmate bullshit might not actually be all that contrived.

Sometimes he’d catch himself embarrassingly humming or whistling in public—usually to the absolute amusement of his friends and family—stuck with songs in his head he hadn’t even ever heard of. And it was in times like that he’d begin singing something ridiculous back, as his own petty way to clearly say ’stop’.

When the music would disappear, he’d chuckle lightly to himself and continue about his day.

Only to fall asleep that night to you whispering sweet, sweet literal nothings from the far side of his mind. Barbie Girl was a slap and a half, but if he had to check out with it rolling around in his head at two a.m. for the third night in a row, he’d dedicate his waking hours to annoying the hell out of you.

See how you liked it being startled awake—hopefully, he wasn’t 100% on the time difference—by Caramelldansen.

There were even a few times where you’d try to push music into each other at the same time. Like hijacking a radio frequency, you’d change channels on each other all day and all night until it was a warbled cacophony of noise, bordering on a headache big enough for a small city. Rarely would either of you concede, but if and/or when you did, you’d make sure the song was something you both liked.

At any other rate, Shinso had to give you credit for your taste in music; even if he didn’t recognize a fair few, he’d remember the lyrics and scour the internet later looking for them like his life depended on it. He already had a building playlist of the songs you’d sing to him—separate ones for the songs he knew, the songs he didn’t know, and his personal favorites. He kept those to himself like trade secrets, deflecting questions about what he was listening to or what kind of music he had on his phone.

Oftentimes, it was easy to guess how you were probably feeling if he just listened. There were queues of songs that made him feel relaxed and incredibly focused—which he assumed did the same for you—and others that just set him on fire.

Then there were days he felt like he was walking around with water in his shoes and a storm cloud lamenting with taut strings and frail keys. It was days like those that he liked to physically, consciously hum meme audios—or if the sadness was particularly dour, he’d find a quiet place, and sing songs that meant the world to him. Shinso wouldn’t hear anything back, and assume you were singing too.

The music said a lot about you, which was a considerable feat as he had never met you before, and he wanted to be selfish. He didn’t want to spoil what was special to you and him before he even got to see you.

You definitely worked your way around that, the maddening anonymity—using song titles to give away bits of information about one another as generously as you could. Favorite colors, films, seasons; all objective small talk suddenly turned scripture. He amassed everything in a small journal like priceless treasures—carrying around the value of another life in his pocket as casually as a to-do list. He had the music, but something tangible like this put his mind and heart at ease. You were really out there, and Shinso could meet you someday.

It wasn’t a known secret to anyone that subject posed one of his greatest fears. One day finding someone to spend the rest of ever with, with someone else’s song playing in his head.

In more than a few ways, you helped him remain largely optimistic. As long as he could hear you, he could find you, and as he got older and he acquired more freedoms and was just a little surer of himself, there was a chance.

That hope suddenly burned like ice on one derisively beautiful day.

Shinso dragged himself up the flights of stairs leading to his apartment, sliding around the stacks of moving boxes cluttering up the only way home. He tottered down the hall, and stepped through the threshold inattentively humming a new tune he’d heard that day that he thought you might like.

If there was one thing he could ever count on, it was your consistency.

Ever since you were kids, he grew up with annoying, made up nursery rhymes he still had memorized, as though he’d written them himself. They quickly turned into fun jingles, which then morphed into some of the most beautiful melodies he’d ever heard. Those didn’t usually have lyrics though, so it wasn’t like he could look them up to be sure—and yet he somehow knew they were original to you.

It was then that he realized, he had never gone a single day of his life without music.

So, when he sat back after a long night of work and readied himself for at least a few hours’ sleep, he froze. Shinso hadn’t heard a beat of song all day. Not anything besides what might have been jumping around him as he went out for errands or to the agency. 

With a harsh shake of his damp hair, he swiped a towel over his stony expression. His clenched jaw was starting to drive an ache into his skull.

You probably slept all day, he reasoned.

Even though he was sure you’d sent songs to him in sleep more than a few times in your life…

No. Absolutely not.

He shook himself free of worries, refusing to end the day with fear in his heart where the music should be.

Instead, he closed his eyes and slipped into a tune he’d fallen asleep to before—one that he was sure you created. It rained over his restless consciousness like sun-drops and star-dew, pulling steady, even breaths out of him and pushing a gentle weightlessness in.

The next morning, however, brought even more questions Shinso was just slightly afraid to have answered. Still no sign of the little voice that sounded like him, but was not his own. He absently picked up on a lilting murmur somewhere from upstairs, and anchored to it the more the weightlessness slowly began disappearing.

Shinso shrugged off his nerves, whistling light and roses into the bathroom mirror through his teeth. He splashed cold water into his face and closed off the tap with a huff, sending a final apprehensive glance to his reflection before heading out the door.

He doesn’t know why he’s suddenly ineffably compelled to turn into the shop on the corner after a quick run to the market—but he is. Maybe it’s the incoherent and yet still familiar ringing in his ears, clear as a bell ushering him along his spontaneity.

Shinso’s morning started jittery and threatened to boil over in anarchical agitation. Strolling down the street with the absence of his wonted metronome, hands in his pockets tapping to the beat of an abandoned drum, he felt he stuck out like a loose screw. He was mindless in his trips to each store as he blindly reached for things he was vaguely sure he needed.

It was when he had stepped out onto the corner that something inexplicable snapped into place.

Shinso jogged across the street and through the inviting doors of a building whose name he hadn’t even bothered to read. He found himself surrounded by chrysanthemums and dahlias before he realized he’s in a floral parlor.

The redolence of fresh soil and ingratiatory verdure engulfed his wearied demeanour; the petals brushed his cheeks, and if he didn’t know any better, he’d suggest that the bouquets were reaching for him. The salvia and larkspur waved from the other end of the aisle, and he followed their purple buds to the other side of the shop.

He stopped to admire the camellias and daffodils, lightly taking them between the pads of his thumb and forefinger.

Butterflies.

Hitoshi’s eyes widened with a start, his posture straightening like he’d been struck with lightning.

They fill my guts when I look in your eyes.

He pivoted back and forth on his heels, desperately looking to the flowers for an explanation. A voice filled his head for the first time in nearly two days.

A heart that’s young is filled with sweet surprise.

This time though, the voice isn’t his. It’s clear and ringing and it doesn’t belong to him. The usual warmth he felt basking in the sound of music you whisper in his voice does nothing to compare with the exhilaration frothing in his chest now. Shinso ran a hand through his already disheveled hair, sliding it down his neck and over his shoulder.

It’s really not his, he inwardly surmised. It’s like listening to someone from inside a bubble, though; it’s a round and full sound, but he just knew if it were only slightly louder, the barrier would pop and he’d be free.

Only the innocent can sympathize.

It’s yours.

He brushed past the water lilies, clearing row after row as casually as he could in a futile attempt so as to not appear deranged.

I don’t care

The voice bled into his mind clearer, like watching the gentle shift of river to ocean water through facile currents. He turned the last corner with a breath of anticipation. In a final bit of direction, the lilac, heather, and baby’s breath spilled out of an ornate frame, unquestionably pointing to a figure facing away from him.

“About the funny way you wear your hair,” you crooned. You turned to tenderly repot the rosy begonia cupped in your palms, tucking it in place with the most serene gleam Shinso Hitoshi had ever seen. He sighed, releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding for years.

“Someday you’ll let me put my comb up there.”

“’Till then you’re beautiful and I just stare,” Hitoshi finished softly.

You almost dropped your armful of forget-me-nots. Your strangled breath caught in your throat, hooked solely on the man standing there waiting. He gazed at you with an amused smile and crinkled, bruised eyes. It’s reminiscent of a sleepy kitten and if you hadn’t been so shocked, you’d have melted in your shoes.

“I missed your voice yesterday,” he drawled almost lazily, crossing his arms over his chest. You cleared your throat, rolling upright with a swing of your hands as they lock together at your back.

“I was going to say the exact same thing.”

His movements reminded you of a large jungle cat, stalking forward with a controlled lethargy tensed in anything but. As eager as you were, you matched him beat for beat, dragging your quivering legs in delicate strides down the aisle.

“So, is this supposed to mean we met sometime yesterday then?”

He stood right in front of you, finally close enough to recognize as the nameless and faceless childhood friend you’d been listening to since you could think on your own. You stepped into him, coming to a stop just before the tips of your shoes met his.

“It’s likely.”

“No way,” he said with a resolute shake of his head. “I’d remember you if that were the case.”

“You sound so sure of yourself.”

He stared you down with a focus you wouldn’t expect from eyes as exhausted looking as his.

“I’ve never been more certain about anything in my life.” You bashfully tugged at the fabric of your clothes, the warmth in your chest spreading upwards to beam across your face. Flattening your palm against the expanse of his collar bone, you idly swung your hands over the surface like a pendulum.

“Maybe we just missed each other then—crossed paths without finishing them,” you suggested, twirling a lock of purple around your finger.

“You wouldn’t happen to be moving in somewhere, would you?”

Your head jerked with a small start to twist at him quizzically. How could he possibly know that?

“In a complex a few blocks away from here, yes. Why?”

Shinso’s smile broke into parts amusement and incredulity.

“Looks like I’m your new neighbor,” he grinned. My neighbor? You lit up, eyes twinkling with excitement.

“That means—!”

“You’re stuck with me, yeah.”

“That can’t be such a bad thing,” you started, dropping your voice to push into him more, “—after all, I’m a little new to the area.” You blinked, letting a coquettish simper slide across your features.

“I could do with some sort of guide if I’m going to survive out here, you know.”

“I think I know a guy,” he murmured, a strained husk in his volume.

“Oh, you do, do you?” you whispered under fragile breaths.

“Yeah,” he said, leaning down to angle his face with yours. Just as you reached in to touch his lips, he pulled back suddenly, tapping his finger to his chin in thought. “Tall, blond, black streak of lightning across his bangs—hard to miss. I’ll introduce you; probably just your type.”

You rolled your eyes and punched his shoulder, gripping the fabric of his shirt in an iron fist.

“How could you possibly know my type?”

You pulled his stupid happy face to yours and kissed the mischief out of him, and he dissolved into a tender mess under your fingertips. All of this was new and unexpected, but he imagined seeing, meeting, and eventually kissing you going much different. Shinso hadn’t expected colliding like old, familiar friends; Shinso hadn’t expected missing the way you pressed into him, as though you’d done it a thousand times before. This was a first kiss between two people, but not the first time you’d ever touched.

“Be careful,” he sighed, voice richly warm, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were flirting with me.”

You languidly pressed your lips to the corner of his mouth, tracing time signatures into his jawline.

“Have been since we were kids, thanks for noticing.”

“You mean to tell me Mr. Snuffles Is My Best Friend was actually for me? I’m flattered.”

“Oh yeah, definitely. Absolutely not about one of my favorite stuffed animals.”

“That’s good to know. And here I was thinking I would have to challenge a teddy bear for your hand.” You laughed heartily, pressing your forehead into his chest.

“Can I walk you home?”

You fingered the fabric of his shirt, leaning in to feel the rhythm of his heart. It was the prettiest song you had ever heard.

“I’m already there.”

[lockawayknight]

Questions 2, 6 and 9 for the latest Munday meme 👀

from meme for roleplay muns [accepting!!]

2. Name 3 things you admire about OCs.

oh man what DONT i admire about ocs… everything about ocs and their lore and creation and the love and heart that goes into them just is my favourite thing in the world. i dont talk about ocs much anymore but hhh they are so important imo, such passion gets put into them and theyre such a good outlet and always so fantastic and aaaa bark bark bark

if i had to choose three things that i love about ocs, i guess it would beeee 1. seeing them mesh into lore, whether personal lore or from a game book etc 2. their DESIGNS, all the creativity and nuance and good stuff, & 3. the amt of thought and love that goes into their personalities, and how unique they all are💕

6. Name 3 things you love most about your muse/muses.

AGAIN WHERE DO I FKIN START creighton means so much to me i cant stand it he is so fucking important,,,,, UM let’s see i’ll stick to purely canon stuff, like stuff with dialogue and event cues rather than hc stuff, to make this a bit easier and say 1. HIS SOCIAL NATURE he is so social and extroverted and loves his friends and companions and the people he meets along this journey of life i love himmm!!!!!!! 2. his dedication, how much he’s willing to sacrifice for the ones he cares about, his big heart and all that good sweet soppy stuff, & 3. his general appearance is just so good, the white hair and blue eyes and that messy armour like they really popped off with his armour and striking features, like how do u make a faceless char have such distinct defining features smh!!!! ideal man ideal shape ideal everything i wanna hug him so much

9. Have you ever written fanfictions?

THIS IS A FUNNY ONE i have but they’re all neopets stuff LMAO, i have been writing since i was really really little and have over 50 publications on neopets.com. i’m still super proud of my series called clouds over cogham (which is over 60k words dnfnnfn) and my tormund ellis documentary. they can all be found here if you search the usernames theschizophrenicpunk and werelupecookies. also my ao3 un is werelupewoods if anyone wants to read other stuff lmao. i also also have a bunch of personal stuff abt my ocs that i dont reeeeally plan on showing anyone but it exists??? idk i just love writing uvu

tyssssssm!!💕

[gas-station-trackphone]

Fic Recs/Mandatory Reading for Reddie fans

Here is an incomplete list of some of my favorite Reddie fics on ao3, because i cannot get over the sheer talent of this fandom’s wonderful writers! A lot of these are the Greatest Hits that you’ll find on almost every fic list, but that’s why I consider them mandatory reading. like if you haven’t read some of these, what are you doing?

the years go by like days by georgiestauffenberg, rated M

the 27 years in between, but better because richie and eddie stay together. every time i think of this fic, i think of that lady gaga meme where she’s like “brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, etc” and maybe it’s bc this is one of the first reddie fics i ever read, but this one is always gonna be my favorite

broken record by spunknbite, rated E

the mother of all time loop fics. every reddie veteran gets chills at the phrase “the house on Neibolt was still standing”

literally everything by stitchy

like seriously just clear a few days bc you’re not gonna want to stop reading this author once you start. no other author has made me literally fucking cackle in one paragraph and sob in the next like this one, pls do yourself a favor and devour all their works like i did 

the night we met (take me back) by camerasparring, rated E

ch2 fix-it where eddie shows up at richie’s door alive and with no memory. great slow burn with a wonderfully conflicted richie, 10/10

let’s hear it for my baby! series by cloudings, rated E

OOOOOOOHHH boy! a modern teen!reddie grindr AU that’s both steamy AND sweet?? more like a fucking blessing amen hallelujah

a heart that laughter has made sweet by marjaani, rated E

another lovely teen!reddie fic that’s got it all! sweet, stupid boys, humor, a teeny bit of angst, and some 5-alarm fire smut with some top eddie, as a treat

keep talking. i’ll keep walking toward the sound of your voice. by theappleppielifestyle, rated T

angst with a happy ending is my favorite, and this one is just fantastic. so sweet, so sad! and stan is featured as eddie’s afterlife buddy and idk about y’all but i cannot get enough of stanley uris in my reddie fics. read this, then read all this author’s reddie fics, they’re all amazing

collateral by loosecannon, sheepknitssweater, rated E

a post-ch2 fic that i guess could be classified as fix-it, BUT with some very interesting twists. they beat the clown, everyone lives, but no one really gets the tropey happy ending. the WIP sequel is also incredible and i live for the updates.

the greater fool  series by mischiefmanager, mostly rated T with some E

this is a series i’ll reread a lot bc it’s so fucking good. follows young reddie into early adulthood, mostly a bunch of cute shit where they figure out themselves and their relationship. also contains the single best teen reddie fic in existence, he came in through the window, but reading the whole series is a must

brokeback derry and everything else by Amuly, rated E

27 years in between, richie and eddie reconnect in their 20s and meet back up in derry twice a year to remember and love each other before going back to their lives and forgetting. so much pain. there’s a lot of sweet stuff in there, but you can see shit’s gonna get complicated from miles away and the anticipation almost gave me stomach ulcers (in a good way). ultimate angst with a happy ending.

let me name the stars for you by playedwright, rated M

speaking of angst with a happy ending...Martian AU!!!!! this one fucked me up in the best way, i literally called my roommate at 2am to vent to her about my emotions after reading it. i go back and reread chapter 8 just to be overwhelmed by it, and it makes me cry every time. plus, there are awesome sequels/companion pieces in the series! read this, i beg you!

walk through fire for you by hyruling, rated T

unwind after all that angst with some cute, drunk, confused eddie being very upset when he finds out richie is engaged. richie only teases him a little before pointing out the matching ring on eddie’s finger. 

in the heat of the summer (you're so different from the rest) by kaboomslang, rated E

post-ch2 slow burn with tags that really say it all, including but not limited to: eddie moves to california and richie is a mess, Eddie Kaspbrak’s Hot Girl Summer, and cute middle aged man dates

pivotal moments by danfanciesphil, polypocket, rated E

high school reddie has a sort of fwb thing goin on, but emotions get in the way. featuring wonderful bevchie friendship, hella miscommunication, cute double dates, high eddie, and a happy ending

like a bullet in the back by jerry_duty, rated M

adult idiots in love! a personal favorite trope of mine! slow burn with a fair helping of angst but a really great ending. richie stays with eddie in new york while he’s there on business, and it takes these losers SO LONG to figure it out but the way they dance around it is very cute

no sense of living without aim [WIP] by liesmyth, rated E

richie and eddie meet on grindr in the 27 years between and hey, whadda ya know, they fall in love! i really love this fic but i’m pretty sure it’s been abandoned. i’ve had it open on my phone browser for like 3 months with no update but i still check it regularly bc i’m pathetic and this fic is just so good i’m DYING to know what happens next so read at ur own risk

a strange sense of familiarity [WIP] by Katranga, rated E

another “they meet and fall in love without remembering” fic, and even though it’s not complete yet, it gets regular updates. oh, also, i’m obsessed with it. they’re long distance fuck buddies who can’t admit they’re in love, and then they get hit with the childhood memories! and everyone lives! what’s not to love!  also PLEASE read kisses take like mint and every other reddie work by this author, they are all fantastic

adult friends by sudowoodo, rated T

AU where adult reddie meet at a first aid seminar for work (immediately fall in love), become friends, become best friends, and finally get to be happy. has some super repressed eddie and intensely pining richie, which is always fun, and genuinely made me laugh out loud. also please check out this author’s other reddie fics, there’s some super sweet kid reddie in there that really warms the heart

the mind's a funny fruit by joldiego, rated T

eddie wakes up barely alive in derry, has 0 memory, calls himself richie, and moves in with some lesbians. an absolute must read that ought to be on every reddie fic rec compilation. i read this a long time ago and just thinking about it makes me want to read it again.

now what i'm gonna say may sound indelicate [WIP] by IfItHollers, rated E

it took me entirely too long to find this fic since i joined the fandom, and it’s truly a fucking masterpiece. it’s almost at 200k now and still unfinished, and the slow burn is excruciating, but this is a legendary fic for a reason. eddie spends the first chunk of this fic in the hospital recovering from the massive chest wound, and then he and richie move the recovery to ben’s cabin in the woods. the author’s notes for each chapter are a story in themselves

signs of a new lifetime by swordfishtrombones, rated T

one of the sweetest, most romantic reddie fics i’ve ever read. a fresh take on a classic concept: post-ch2, they’re in love, they haven’t said/done anything about it yet, BUT!!! it’s not angsty! they are all cute and giggly like “you say it first!” “no, you say it first!” and it makes me fucking MELT

broadcasting tower by swordfishtrombones, rated E

back-to-back recs from the same author! bc i love these fics so much! sort of similar to the last one in that they both know what’s up and just haven’t said it, but this one’s got the angst! i didn’t know when i read it that it was the same author as the other fic, and i thought how funny, i found another reddie author that perfectly captures this pair in such a wonderfully romantic way! i also just noticed there’s a follow up to this so now i have to go read that immediately

eurydice; the original comeback kid by Vulcanodon, rated M

for the love of god please read this and the other work in this series. it’s a ch-2 fix-it with some intense action sequences and major pining, and it has haunted me since i first read it

love on the telephone by tempestbreak, rated E

okay this one is really just 30k of pure smut but it’s also so sweet and features a mini sexual awakening for eddie and some insecure richie with an emphasis on how much they love and trust each other. also it doesn’t hurt that the smut is fire, like does anyone else want that twink obliterated, or is it just me?

the boy who loves you by candlejill, rated E

eddie lives, richie confesses, things are chill and then they’re not. richie’s career flourishes, which is always nice to read and is what ultimately catalyzes eddie’s gay awakening and realization of his love for richie. it’s got some sad angsty parts and a very sweet ending, and it up there as one of my favorite reddie fics of all time

richie and eddie break up [WIP] by skeilig, rated M

a refreshing and realistic take on life ch-2 for the losers, because being in love at thirteen doesn’t mean you can fall into a perfect relationship at 40. i’ll admit, i’m hoping this will ultimately be a “richie and eddie get back together” fic, but it’s still a very good read (and often very funny in the second chapter) at the moment in the midst of their break up

september 1989 and everything else by pineapplecrushface, rated T

cute kid reddie figuring it out and making me smile. the follow up to this and the after derry series by this author are also personal favorites

go west by ssstrychnine, rated T

road trip fic! an absolute work of art slow burn with teen reddie in the 90s. it’s so beautifully written i just wish i could go back and read it for the first time again

the edification of eddie kaspbrak by tozier, rated M

character study with some incredible fucking prose, my lord it gorgeous. explores how eddie learns about love as he grows up, and it’s super fucking sad sometimes bc the poor boy doesn’t know how to have the things he wants and i just want to give him a hug, but it’s really a spectacular fic

circular motion by sinchronicity, rated M

soulmate!AU that follows book canon and even though it’s been a long time since i’ve read it and the details are fuzzy, i remember absolutely loving it and thinking it was incredible

tell me you know by RichiesToesHurt, rated E

college losers with some severely pining and jealous richie with a lovely ending 

predicament bondage [WIP] by dgalerab, rated E

i resisted reading this fic for so long, recently broke and binged all of it, and now i’m like frothing at the mouth for updates. richie’s a closeted actor/comedian who meets eddie, a professional Dom, when he needs help researching a role. they become friends, they develop crushes, richie realizes he’s a sub, and it’s just so much fun to read

there’s a lot more fics to rec so i might add on to this in the future, but in the meantime my biggest tip for for reading fanfiction that took me embarrassingly long to figure out: focus on the authors! if you read something you like, check out the rest of the work by that author bc odds are you’ll like that too. i mentioned it in a few specific works above, but check out the authors catalogues for these fics. if i included every work by these authors that i loved, this list would be miles long

feel free to add on any great stuff i missed, there’s sure to be tons of it!

[scrawnytreedemon]

Ooh, how about Hojo for the ask meme?

OHOOOO, I HAVE A L O T TO SAY, BABY-- Especially after seeing that final showdown, oh boy.

(hfhdkjfhjkj sorry for this being late!! had many thinsg to do <33)

For context, I know jack-shit about Dirge of Cerbeus, and I’d rather it stay that way. Vee has scarred me enough with her recollections from the wiki alone, and unless we finally do that shit-movie night we’ve been meaning to for awhile, I’m not touching it with a ten foot pole.

First impression: Horrible rat man; nasty. Your run of the mill Mad Scientist except somehow Even Worse. Perhaps a little generic at times. Pervy fuck. Probably has a bunch of obscenely lewd magazines in his study. Fuck him for fucking over absolutely everyone that’s gotten within ten metres of him. This guy fucks, and that’s how we got Sephiroth. -1/10, Worst Scientist, Husband and Father of the Year.

Impression now: I... I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I like him now, unironically. You win, Hojo Fuckers. Seeing that scene at the control panel, I think that man’s genuinely depressed-- Like, ‘I’ve devoted my entire life to my work to numb the pain but now I’ve realised it’s all for nothing and it’s fucking useless and I’m fucking useless and there’s nothing for me to do other than sacrifice myself for my son, who fucking hates me.‘ Like... Jesus Christ, I did not expect him to be so self-aware. He’s still a downright horrendous person and many of the things he’s done, if I believed in such a mindset, are downright irredeemable. Basically, I actually like his character now-- full-on -- even if he’s still a right bell-end.

Favorite moment: The rooftop scene. Jesus Christ, man, that changed my whole view on him. The way he’s actually becoming aware of how wrong he was, and how it weighs on his mind-- How, almost absently, as if he’s saying it more to himself, he tells Cloud he should become a scientist. It’s a small thing... But it speaks to a level of respect I don’t think Hojo has had for anyone in a very long time. He’s been brought to his limit, willing to give anything and everything so that the one thing he’s done right, his son who he gave up to further his now-dead career, succeeds in world-annihilation. What really gets me is that moment in the fight, where you’ve ended the first phase, when he says, apathetically, how he hopes the Mako juice is going-- And then he turns into a monster. This horrendous, twisted thing that’s barely held together by skin and sinew-- Probably one of the most downright-horrifying things in this entire game --And it’s just... like... wow... he broke.

Idea for a story: A fic where him and Sephiroth actually try and make amends. I’ve seen this guy killed off-screen so many times, and everytime, I am deeply disappointed. I get it. Hojo’s probably the worst character in the game. He has no morals and no boundaries, and he’s irritating as fuck-- I get it --But he’s also the reason all of this shit has happened, and is such a vital character in the forming of the story, in Sephiroth’s specifically, that I want him to be done justice. I want to see one of them reach out to the other, and slowly, bit, by bit, by agonising bit piece together something vaguely resembling a foundation for their relationship. I want to see them reminisce over the few good times they had together, and address deeply the many, many bad ones. It’ll be painful, and there will be many bumps in the road where they’ll feel like there isn’t even a point to this shit, and yet push on despite that. Because despite everything, they are family-- And not because they are obligated to, but because they’re choosing to. I want to see that. I really do. I’ll probably write it myself.

Unpopular opinion: I think my newfound appreciation of him in general, lmao. I won’t get into the paternity debate, as I’ve addressed that in Vincent’s post and another one. Perhaps the fact that I think it’s stupid that the scientists in FFVII get referred to by their first names-- Like, who does this shit??? Who out here thinks Hojo sounds like a first name??? It’s just... Really unprofessional and I don’t think Hojo is comfortable enough with anyone to just have them call him by his first name. Also Dr. Faremis Gast sounds better than Dr. Gast Faremis. I know it’s a pun in Japanese but I don’t give a shit. Fight me.

Favorite relationship: Him and Sephiroth, because there’s just, alot of shit. I don’t think he was ever truly close enough to Lucrecia for me to get invested-- It’s clear the relationship, though while initially stable and they probably got along well, was one mostly of work --And I don’t think there’s anyone else close enough to Hojo’s character to serve as another option, either. Maybe Vincent, but again, that was through Lucrecia. Seph and Hojo have this dynamic where strained doesn’t even begin to describe it. Hojo thinks Seph doesn’t know and Seph thinks Hojo doesn’t know that he knows-- And it’s painfully clear that had it not been for Hojo, Sephiroth wouldn’t have been so unstable. There was alot of abuse, physical and psychological, that got framed as ‘work,’ and it’s undoubtebly fucked with Seph’s very concept of ownership, and who owns another. It’s clear that on some level, Hojo feels shame for what he’s done-- Not guilt, shame --And is unwilling to let the boy(and perhaps even himself) from knowing his true parentage. Part of it’s definitely spite for Lucrecia, but there’s more. I could go one for hours, honest to god, so like, feel free to tack on your own ideas, fellow trash conoisseurs.

Favorite headcanon: Him being Wutaian. Not sure if it’s entirely headcanon, but like, it really is ironic. I personally think his family moved to Midgar while he was still young-- Perhaps due to a faction split -- so he grew up on the Eastern Continent, so he was stuck in this weird middle space alot of immigrant or descended from immigrants children where on one hand, you’ve got your family’s legacy, and you probably, if not fluently, speak their native tongue and carry out their traditions, and on the other hand you’ve grown up with people who’ve been here for generations and inevitably get moulded by their ways and their customs, perhaps to the point you’re more culturally theirs than your native land’s. If we’re going with the faction split, I think Hojo leans hard into the latter, out of a deep-seated indignance. Maybe his family were fairly influential, before they had to move to what was, no doubt, a less than idyllic neighbourhood. I think part of what made him want to become a scientist was that need to regain that honour, that dignity-- It’s very self-centred, and clearly didn’t work out.

Thank you Vee as always-- You incredible bastard --For both asking and also rambling with me about this grease-weasel for like, a good long time.

Knowing my luck I just might’ve gotten another hyperfixation. A terrible one. Fuck.

And to anyone who’s read this far, thank you! As always, feel free to throw in your own thoughts, whether they be replies or reblogs. I’m curious to know what the general vibe is about him(other than Haha Stinky Goblin Rat), as I don’t think he’s talked about all that much? Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places.

Anyhow Hojo Fuckers, I owe you a beer. Not a good one, probably tastes of piss, but knowing you lot, that’s probably just fine, lmaooooooo. Keep up the ungodly work <3

[daydream-believin]

The Never-Ending Roadtrip (new beginnings)

Summary: Reader joins Douxie in the quest for Nari’s safety. He’ll need company won’t he? - Also, a talk about Merlin and grief. It’s big feelings time. (part two)

Warnings: Swearing, theres like three bad puns and at least one meme im sorry

Word Count: 2713

A/N: inspired by the fact that i recently moved states and it was the most tedious trip ever. It took the entire day. i was bored out of my mind. So i decided to write about going on a long boring roadtrip with Douxie instead. also, i have a black cat myself and i can attest that they are little domesticated demons. she didn’t like the long trip either.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Douxie deadpanned when he saw (Name) run up to join him on the ship, perching on the edge. “Well I’m coming with you, obviously.” Douxie had known the young woman long enough to know that there would not be a point in arguing. They would just go round and round for hours before she ultimately won. She fought dirty, puppy dog eyes and all. He didn’t have time for this.

After making sure that Archie and Nari were secure, Doux turned back to (Name), “You’re absolutely sure about this decision, love? Once we take off there’s no going back. We could even be running for the rest of our lives. You really should stay with the others,” he warned.

She looked annoyed. “Yes, Doux. I am absolutely sure. I wouldn’t want you to do this alone. And besides, you’ll need me.”

He blushed for a second before realizing she meant he would need her as in extra backup and not that he needed her needed her. Trying not to show the slight disappointment that was written on his face, he chuckled and covered his cheek with his palm, “Of course.”

They set off into the early morning sky. After waving goodbye to the rest of the gang, (Name) clung to the golden railing, looking out over California in amazement. It was like she was in a movie. This was her life changing magic carpet ride. Of course, a lot about her life had seemed to be out of a movie lately. Ever since she discovered her gift for sorcery. Ever since she got mixed up in all this Arcadian mess. Ever since she met Douxie.

Surprisingly, Douxie was really talkative for the first few hours of the trip. (Name) had expected him to be a bit more closed off, considering the week they had just gone through. He was really gushy too, with his heart on his sleeve even more so than usual, and that’s saying something for Douxie. Maybe momentary death was good for unclogging heart pipes.  (Name) was loving it. Not the momentary death thing. That had almost stopped her heart. No, it was so nice to be having such lighthearted conversation with her friends. Kept her from dwelling on things. Once night got closer, though, she couldn’t help it. What could she say, the pink splattered purple sunset made her sentimental. She and Douxie had slipped into a little talk about Arcadia, about the kids, about what had happened, and about what was next for them. Despite her gushing about how happy she was to be here with him, Douxie still felt really guilty that he put her through all this. She made the mistake of telling him how much it scared her, everything that happened earlier. She made a bigger mistake telling him how she cried over his body, refusing to accept that he was gone. He wasn’t of course, but she didn’t know that.

He suddenly got quiet after that. The conversation lulled. Even Nari and Archie seemed to sense that something was off and kept quiet. After watching the stars roll by in silence for a few hours, (Name) started to feel the tug of sleep. She tried to find a cozy spot, but failed, because she was on a ship. A pretty basic little vessel. There were no seats or anything even kind of cushiony. She contemplated using Archie as a pillow, but that probably wouldn’t fly well with him. Pun intended.

Douxie was still as statue, staring out straight ahead into the clouds. Like a grizzled old sea captain. The bags under his eyes were getting worse than usual, but (Name) decided to not to say anything to him and let it be. He looked like he was enjoying the silence. She didn’t think he’d sleep tonight. How could he? She mused. (Name) herself hadn’t even begun to truly process all that had happened. She wished she knew what to say. Anything to comfort him, to let him know she’s be there. But (Name) was no use now, in her sleepy state. She might make it worse. She’d try talking to him in the morning. If he even wanted to talk.

In the end, (Name) wound up leaning against the corner, using her balled up over-shirt as a pillow. It was a bit colder now, but with Nari snuggled up in her lap and Archie stretched out over her legs, she’d be just fine. They might as well had been heaters. Doux wouldn’t join them, insisting that they needed to fly through the entire night to put as much distance between them and Arcadia as possible. He assured them that he’d wake them up if something was the matter. Of course, they were sleeping on an open deck floor. Any sort of trouble would wake them up immediately anyway, but it was a nice thought. (Name) snuggled into her makeshift pillow. She took one last look at Douxie, brooding at the helm, before slipping off to dreamland. It was a mediocre dream.

The morning sun came sooner than (Name) wanted. The cheeky bugger. There was no use trying to go back to sleep. The sun was too big and bright. so, so bright. Nari also stirred when the sun beam hit her face. She blinked blearily and let out a cute yawn. Or at least it would have been cute, had it not been directly into (Name)’s face. (Name) had to give it to Nari though, her morning breath actually didn’t smell bad. It was earthy, floral even. Damn nature spirits. Despite (Name) and Nari being awake, the sun’s rays seemed to have little to no effect on Archie. He could sleep through anything, on anything, at any time. Damn cats.

Douxie looked like the dead. His raven hair was a mess, lips chapped from the wind. Those eyebags had somehow gotten even worse. Douxie gave Tim Burton characters a run for their money. (Name) decided it might be better to wait until she was a bit more awake and articulate to try and talk to him more about… the, ah, events from yesterday. Yet, she was fully aware that if she kept procrastinating, the conversation was just going to get worse and worse. But the timing’s not right. Yes, the timing’s just not right. The stars, they’re not in position. In fact it might be easier if she got him to take a nap first. Yeah, no need to cause sleep deprived Douxie to have an unnecessary breakdown.

It took some convincing, but (Name) finally got him to agree to let her take the helm and get that well deserved rest. Not that Douxie thought he deserved it. He wasn’t too happy about leaving (Name) and Nari alone, figuratively, while he was unconscious and unable to protect them. He wasn’t too happy about a lot of things, really. He especially didn’t care to be alone with his subconscious. But with the worried look (Name) gave him, he couldn’t help but comply with her demands. Her and her bloody puppy dog eyes.

He woke up to the sound of (Name)’s singing. She probably hadn’t meant to wake him up, with her soft voice hushed, but nonetheless he was awake. Douxie was a light sleeper. He had to be, after all his troublesome years. She was singing a sweet little love song. He felt a drumming in his chest as he listened. Speaking of his chest, there seemed to be a bit of pressure on it. A familiar pressure. It started to purr, sending the comforting vibrations through his ribcage. He gave Arch a good scritch behind the ears before sitting up.

“Your voice is so lovely, you know. I cannot imagine why you’re always hiding it.”

Name startled. “Did I wake you?” she asked, concerned since he hadn’t been out but for a few hours.

“Yes, you had,” He began gently, “But, I’m glad.”

“You’re glad?”

“Of course, I got to hear that beautiful singing voice of yours. Quite the rarity, innit?”

(Name) flushed. She wasn’t sure if she was flattered by his compliments or embarrassed that he had caught her singing once again. Still, she tried to refute his words but all that came out was a flustered sputter. Thankfully, Nari came to the rescue. Unintentionally, but a rescue all the same.

“Hisirdoux, now that you are awake, may I ask where it is that we are going?” the small goddess asked.

“Oh, uh, about that,” Doux wrapped his arms behind his back and sucked some air through his teeth, “I actually didn’t have a set place in mind. I think we’ll just wing it. On our winged boat.”

(Name) whipped her head towards him so fast she’d get whiplash. She didn’t even acknowledge the terrible joke. “I’m terribly sorry, but you what.”

“I just thought we’d head northeast for now. Once we run out of land, we’ll pick a new direction. It’s not like we’d be able to stay too long in a place, after all. It’s safer to be constantly moving.” He tried not to sound to unsure in this rambling. He did have a plan, just not one that looked too solid on a piece of paper. It’ll be fine. They’ll be fine.

“I- okay.” She didn’t sound too panicked, which Douxie counted as a win. Still, he didn’t want her to be too stressed about the uncertainties. He figured he might as well just pick a place to ease her fears a bit. She couldn’t worry herself raw, that was his job.

“How about New York City? That can be our first official destination on the Never-Ending Roadtrip.”

“Yeah, yeah okay. New York City, that sounds nice.” Victory.

***

“Ugh, we’ve been flying over basically the same damn thing forever! Can’t this thing go any faster?” (Name) whined as she leaned over the edge like a wilted flower. Her wind-mussed hair hung over her face. It took everything in Douxie not to flinch whenever she got to close to where she might fall out. Sure, she would most likely be able to break her fall with magic, not coming out with too many scratches, but it still scared him just the same. (Name) was gonna give him a heart attack one of these days.

“It’s a fucking magical flying boat, (Name). It goes eighty miles per hour tops. Do you know how advanced that was in the twelfth century? It was a fucking miracle of technology, (Name). It’s not the boat’s fault we’re currently travelling through Kansas.” Doux huffed. He quickly felt guilty for snapping at her and apologized. He felt a bit on edge lately. Their conversation last night kind of freaked him out. He wanted to be a little more protective of her now since she told him about how scared she was, but snapping at her would just accomplish the opposite of getting across how much he cared.

Name sighed. Looking around the ship, she noticed that Nari and Archie were just napping in the sun, completely unbothered by her and Douxie’s loud outbursts. She looked back out into the seemingly infinite grass field again.

“Well, I guess now is a pretty good time,” She said cryptically, “Hisirdoux, we need to talk.”

It was like she just injected ice water into his veins. He didn’t like her tone, plus, those words were never proceeded by something good. Never. “To talk?” he asked with a nervous tinge in his voice, hoping if she elaborated it wouldn’t be as bad as the conclusions he was jumping to.

“Yeah. Talk. About your feelings.” Well now he was panicking. She said that so solemnly. How did she know? Fuzzbuckets, she was about to reject him, on this boat they were stuck on, in the middle of Kansas. Rip out his heart and throw it into the grassy void.

“To talk, about my feelings?” he repeated her again, incredulously. He put on his best fake smile.

“Yes, Doux.” She sat down on the railing near him and crossed her legs. “I just- I think it’s time we had a proper conversation about stuff. Like say, I don’t know, how you’re handling your grief over a certain mentor.”

Douxie quickly let go of the breath, he wasn’t sure when he started holding, in a loud sigh of relief. Oh thank Merlin, he thought this was going to be bad. That’s what she wanted to talk about? Okay, not the problem he was expecting, but one he could deal with. He’s already had a couple of good cries. He spent most of last night mulling over not just Merlin but the whole concept of death. He could talk about the weight of grief hanging over his heart, no big deal.

“I believe I am handling it well, thank you for your concern, Love.” He tried to sound nonchalant.

“Hisirdoux Casperan, you stared out into the distance with unblinking glassy eyes for hours last night and barely spoke to any of us. Hell, you fucking died yesterday, Doux. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that. You’re not fine. And you’re not weaseling your way out of this conversation either.” She said sternly. They entered an unspoken staring contest.

“Alright, Love, fine. I am fine. Okay?” She quirked her brow. “I am, truly. I’m at peace. He lived a good life and I’ll continue his legacy with honour. Of course I’m still sad about it, but I’ve got other things to focus on right now. Sure, my chest is still heavy, but it’s not crushing like it was when the wound was fresh,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “And I did get my last goodbye talk with him when I was dead,” He chuckled to try and lighten that last bit up, but name still winced at his words.

“Douxie, I just- I know what it’s like, ya know. To suddenly no longer have that father figure in your life. Someone you looked up to for so long. It’s hard Doux, I get that.” She sympathized. She tipped her head down towards the deck floor.

“Well, in a way, he’s already been gone for about, say, nine centuries. I’ve had my time away from him, so I know that I can do it. It’s the knowing that now he’s gone gone that’s the real kicker.” He glanced across the boat over to the sleeping pile of fur and greenery. Nari was curled up into a ball while Archie mirrored the same, but on top of her. They were like a couple of stacked buns. Douxie smiled at the sight. “And yet, do you know what makes it all feel better?” Name looked back up at him and furrowed her brows.

“You. And Archie. And Zoe. And Claire. And my bandmates and my coworkers and the rest of the Arcadia gang. I’ve got plenty of people in the world now. I know I’ve got all kinds of love.”  He hung his arm over her shoulders. He had made up his mind, he was going to open his heart to her soon. Almost dying really puts one’s priorities in view. “Recently, a great man, well, a great dragon, told me that family is not just who you have, it’s also who you’re with. If one thing I’ve learned in this nightmare week, it’s that you’ve got to enjoy people while you can. Because once they’re gone, they’re gone. You can’t dwell on past love, you’ve got to soak in the love you’ve got now, or you’ll miss it.”

“I guess I understand that.” (Name) said softly. She took in his words. Focus on the now love, huh. She could use to do that too. She felt his hand move from her shoulder to the small of her back.

“Oh hey look at that, we’re coming up on Missouri. How about we stop for brunch, Love?”

“Oh I’m starving,” Archie butt into the conversation and flew over to rest on (Name)’s shoulder. He did one of those black cat yawns where they turn their entire faces inside out and they become nothing more than a black hole with teeth, “I could really go for a bagel with extra lox right now.”