#{{she is NOT normally this mean i'm so sorry-----}}

[moralityandmusings]

DP x DC: Corner of Shadows

Alfred Pennyworth has been a lot of things in his lifetime: an intelligence agent, a friend, a butler, a pseudo-father, a pseudo-grandfather, a medic, and more. But the one thing that he rarely gets a chance to be is, well... wrong.

He'd noticed things in Gotham seemed quiet lately, though he was superstitious enough not to voice that thought aloud. A quiet Gotham was a plotting Gotham, and he was wary and alert for whatever she was brewing. It was odd though, since Batman and his affiliates had managed to arrest and incarcerate the most destructive of the normal rouges in Arkham. Alfred knew that wasn't a long-term solution, but it would hold them for at least a few months before they inevitably were broken out. Alfred's sense of dread peaked on a Wednesday afternoon in late April. He had been doing his day's tasks, notably at the exact moment he was dusting in Bruce's study, when he felt a chill. Now, Alfred had been the caretaker of Wayne Manor long enough to know it's secrets: what windows were sealed shut and which could sneak open, what rooms and hallways created drafts and where the origins were, and the most likely hiding places for stashes of coffee, weapons, or even people. Bruce's study had never once incited a chill.

Alfred, though, was a professional. So, he didn't even pause in his task. He simply angled himself to reach the next set of shelves and snuck a glance around the room under the guise of reviewing his work.

He noticed it in the far corner of the room.

In his brief glance, the corner appeared darker than normal, as though the shadows had warped themselves out of their normal crevices to conceal something or someone. He considered, for a moment, hitting the panic button tucked away on the shelf behind him. However, he was not one to back down from a skirmish, nor was he incapable of handling one measly threat on his own. No need to concern the family until he knew whatever shadow creature or demon they were dealing with.

It wouldn't be the first time Alfred has faced down a demon. It also wouldn't be the first time he'd come out victorious. "I'd rather hope you were not planning to remain hidden in that corner. If so, I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you." Alfred said, keeping his back to the corner and continuing with his dusting with a purposeful air of nonchalance and passivity.

Even without a straight view of the shadowed corner, Alfred could feel the tension grip the air. "If you are here to steal from Master Bruce or one of his children, I'd kindly suggest that you exit through whatever means you entered. If you intend to harm them, I'd suggest you reconsider unless you plan to challenge me. Contrary to my family's beliefs, blood does not magically disappear out of the carpet, and as I do not know what you are, I'd hate to have to take the time to figure out how to best clean up yours." It was with this thinly veiled threat that Alfred chose to turn around and stare down the corner of the room, hopefully engaging in direct eye contact with whatever creature lurked there, or at least close proximity to it. It was as though the shadows were fighting with themselves. Almost imperceptible to the naked eye, they seemed to elongate and shrink back in rapid succession. It almost appeared that they seemed to be anxious. Then, a voice. It was akin to nails scraping down a chalkboard or the explosion of static through a radio on full volume in close quarters. It was a violent and powerful voice that hinted at fear and destruction. "What makes you so sure you would win?" The shadows seemed to tremble. Alfred smirked.

"I've dealt with many things in my life. Enough to know that demons, wraiths, creatures of the night, and even the most violent humans all have one thing in common: they can still cease." The shadows seemed to tilt. Alfred paused for a second, it almost looked like when a child or dog would tilt it's head in confusion or thought. "Cease." The broken and grating tone suggested that the reply was not a question, more like a thought for itself.

"Life does not always end in death, and death does not always extinguish existence. However, even one that is dead can still cease to exist if given the right... persuasions." Alfred lightly grinned. He knew to an outsider that it would seem vaguely threatening, even if the grin was only created out of his own amusement seeping through. The room was still. The shadows had stopped their rhythmic twisting, finally stationary. However, they were still stretched and warped beyond their usual means. The being was still present, even if it had yet to reveal itself.

It seemed, to Alfred, the creature was thinking, and he, ever the polite host, chose to let it.

After a long, quiet moment, the being spoke again. Only this time, the broken static and sharp noises ceased. Instead, the voice of a teenager, maybe even a child spoke. "What if... What would you say to a being whose existence was a constant fluxuation of life and death? Constantly living and dying and living and dying again and again, a never-ending cycle. How would you handle a being like that?" Alfred paused for a moment. He didn't let his own confusion at the entity show on his face as he realized his assumptions about this being a demon or shadowed creature here to cause harm were wrong. He had a job to do, after all. And even if this was not one of the children he was tasked with helping raise, he would not harm or threaten a child. "I'd invite the being for a cup of tea." "You'd..." There was a long pause, even longer than the standoff from earlier. It seemed Alfred's answer had truly shocked the shadows. "Why?" "Life can be incredibly isolating. Death even more so. I'd dare say, young sir, that if one was constantly walking the veil between both, regardless of if they teeter more towards one way or the other, that the being could, simply put, use an ally." The tension that had begun to stifle the room dissipated almsot immediately. As the shadows started to expand out from the corner, slowly inching their way towards where Alfred stood as though expecting him to move, to strike, Alfred stayed perfectly still and poised. There was no flinching or startling to be perceived. The shadow stretched along the floor until it stopped about half a food from the tip of his left shoe. The shadows slowly, slowly, slowly crept the rest of the way until it barely brushed the top of the well-worn leather shoes. When he didn't react, didn't move away or lash out, then the shadows quickly receded back from whence they came. Then, in the blink of an eye, in the corner sat a boy.

As far as Alfred could see, he was thin, dirty, and the staining on his clothing suggested that he was injured or had been so recently. His pitch black hair was matted and greasy, the bags under his eyes and sunken in face suggested he had been alone, likely hiding, for much too long. His gaze, however, was strong. The direct stare he landed on Alfred suggested that he was being cautious and his tensed posture indicated he would bolt if Alfred handled this incorrectly. So, Alfred leveled his own gaze back, allowing for warmth and care to flood back into his features, casting out the cold and ironed exterior he had thrown on in the face of a potential threat. "So, young sir, would you prefer a black or green tea?"

[lazysoulwriter]

only ever you. - pedro pascal.

requested! thank you so much for sending. (i'm sorry for taking a little longer than usual to post!)

----

You hadn’t meant to see it.

His phone had lit up on the kitchen counter at 2:13 a.m., vibrating with a soft buzz that broke the silence of the dark apartment. The name wasn’t familiar — Julia. And underneath, the preview: “You didn’t have to be so sweet last night.”

Your breath caught in your throat. You didn’t even realize you’d picked the phone up until you were staring at the message, hands trembling. The notification disappeared before you could open it, and the screen went dark again, leaving your reflection staring back at you.

You didn’t sleep after that.

Pedro stirred beside you hours later, pressing a lazy kiss to your bare shoulder like he always did. Like everything was normal. Like your heart wasn’t collapsing in slow motion.

You went through the motions of the morning. Coffee. His hand brushing yours when he passed the sugar. A soft “love you” before he left for the gym. And you nodded. You smiled, maybe. You weren’t sure. You just knew that as soon as the door closed, you sat down on the floor and tried to breathe.

You didn’t say anything for two full days. You weren’t ready.

You watched him like you were outside your own body — how he lit up when he talked about the project he was filming, how he still kissed the top of your head when he walked past the couch. You hated how badly you wanted to believe nothing had happened.

But the message replayed in your mind every time he smiled at you. So sweet last night. What the hell did that mean?

You finally broke after dinner on the third night. You were supposed to watch a movie together. Pedro had just pressed play, remote still in his hand, when you said, "Who’s Julia?"

His head turned slowly. Confused. “What?”

You hated the way your voice cracked. “Julia. She texted you. Said you were sweet. Last night.”

His whole body stilled. Remote forgotten. His brows furrowed in a way that was almost… hurt?

“Wait—what? What are you talking about?”

You hated that he looked genuinely confused. It made your stomach churn worse.

“I saw the message. I wasn’t trying to snoop, Pedro, I swear, it just—your phone lit up. I—” You ran a hand through your hair. “I just need to know. Please.”

Silence. Long and heavy.

He stood slowly, crossing to you. His voice was calm. Too calm. “Mi amor, you think I—?” He stopped himself, jaw clenching. “I would never. You know I would never.”

“Then explain it.”

“She’s part of the cast. We had a wrap dinner last week, and she had a panic attack when the paparazzi swarmed her outside the restaurant. Everyone else was too busy acting like it was normal. I offered to call her a car, waited with her until it came. That’s it.”

Your throat tightened. “That’s all it was?”

His eyes were glassy now. “You think I’d touch another woman when I have you?” He lean closer. “When I wake up every day thinking how lucky I am that you even look at me?”

You bit your lip, trying to keep it together. “It just felt real. The message. The way she said it—like there was more.”

He reached out, hesitant, then cupped your cheek gently. “I’m an actor. I know how things can look. But I’m also a man in love, and I don’t half-ass that. I don’t play games with your heart.”

You exhaled shakily. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think it mattered. Not because I wanted to hide anything, but because I didn’t see it as anything worth remembering. She was scared, I was nice. That’s it. You’re the only one I come home to. The only one I want.”

Your tears fell silently. He wiped them away with his thumbs, kissing your forehead, then your temple.

“I’m so sorry you felt like you had to carry that alone,” he whispered. “Next time, please just ask me. I don’t ever want to see you hurting because of something I could’ve cleared up.”

You leaned into his touch. Let yourself believe him — not because you were desperate, but because he meant it. You knew his heart. And it was yours.

“Okay,” you whispered. “I believe you.”

He kissed you then, slow and full of emotion, like he was pouring everything he couldn’t say into your lips. You melted into him, arms wrapping tight around his neck, grounding yourself in the safety of his presence.

Maybe love wasn’t always easy. But with Pedro, even the pain had purpose — and the ending was always soft.

-----

[dewinabsentia]

shutting down summer solstice

hiii this is my first time writing and posting. please be nice<3 title from garamond by arm's length (yes i'm telling you to listen to them) i saw a post about solaris playing dew's guitar and got wrapped up in the idea of her being overwhelmingly fire in her multi elements. dew is an unreliable narrator and panics. 1.4k

thank you @jimothybarnes for being SO kind and encouraging

gorgeous divider by @wrathofrats

“What do you mean you’re not coming?” Dew nearly drops his fork. The whole pack is seated around their large dinner table in shocked silence, all eyes on Cumulus.

“I- I can’t go. Not without Copi- Frater.” Cumulus’s voice is tight, like it hurts her to say this as much as it hurts the pack to hear it. “I’m sure Papa Perpetua will be great, but I can’t go.”

Dew looks wildly around the table, gauging everyone’s reactions. Cirrus is staring down at her plate, jaw tensed. The lack of fight proving she knew before the rest of the pack. His chest feels tight in a way that triggers his fight or flight response. 

“So you’re not even going to try? You’re just going to quit?” Clearly, fight winning. He hates the way his voice raises. He hates that this is happening. Why would she leave them? The last tour was great, fantastic even. How can she think staying home is better than being with everyone? Why would she leave after seeing how the pack suffered when Aether- 

“Dew,” Cirrus snaps through gritted teeth before Cumulus can respond herself.

“No,” he mirrors her tone. “This isn’t fair to the rest of us. This should’ve been a pack decision, we- we should’ve had a say,” Dew’s voice wavers pathetically the longer he speaks. He feels Mountain’s hand on his thigh, usually a grounding presence, just makes him tense more. He feels like the room is spinning. 

Cirrus deflates empathetically, already experiencing Dew’s same emotions weeks ago when Cumulus first told her. “It– Ultimately it’s Lus’ decision.” She glances at Cumulus who meets her gaze with tearful eyes. 

“I’m,” Cumulus’ voice cracks, she clears her throat, “I’m sorry. It’s not easy, but I need to stay.” 

It’s been a week since Cumulus broke the news to the pack. They’re two months out from tour. They need a new ghoulette. 

Aurora offered to fill Cumulus’ tour role for the time being. Leaning heavily into her Air element, she picked up on Cumulus’ parts surprisingly well. It’s bittersweet, Aurora flourishing in her new role while Cumulus steps further and further back. She isn’t gone, she’s still in the den and in the practice rooms and at dinner and all around the ministry. Really, nothing has changed about Cumulus’ presence. But the knowledge that the majority of the pack will be leaving without her looms over them all. 

The summoning night is more of a peacocking event for Copia, Frater, to show off to the newly appointed Papa. He’s in his full Papa regalia, not his Frater uniform. Scheduled on a full moon, new black candles ordered, all ghouls requested to be present. None of this is actually necessary, Dew thinks. Phantom and Aurora were summoned on a random night, cheap tealight candles, with only the standing band ghouls present. Dew rolls his eyes as Copia directs them to line the walls of the summoning room. 

Leaning heavy against the wall, arms crossed, Dew knows he’s sulking. At least in Aether’s case it was an emergency, called back to the ministry to be a representative of Copia while he was on tour. He still doesn’t understand Cumulus’ decision, can’t comprehend the willingness to just stay. Mountain nudges Dew lightly with the hand hanging down by his thigh. He sighs, shifting away from Mountain. 

“We’re going to be okay, we’ve done this before,” Mountain’s voice comes soft. 

“I don’t-“ the tightness in his chest returns, but before Dew can fully respond, Copia is addressing the room. 

“Thank you all for coming, I, eh, I know this isn’t the normal summoning routine.” Copia is wringing his hands, the leather gloves squeaking standing out in the usually quiet summoning room. 

It’s dark, it’s always dark in the summoning room. And cold. Dew has never liked being here. The memories, the implications, of every time being in this room, meaning something was changing. Someone new coming in to fill the gap of someone old. He tries not to be bitter towards new summons, he really does, but every replacement hits harder than the last.

“It’s not a replacement,” Aether told him earnestly, “I’m still here, no one is replacing me. I’m just a stay-at-home ghoul now.” He gives Dew a lopsided smile, hoping to ease the pain. Dew looks away, can’t stand to look at Aether knowing they’ll be apart for so long.

“I don’t get why Copia can’t have someone else do the job,” Dew huffs. The more they go back and forth about this, the more he feels the tears fighting their way forward.

“Hey,” Aether gently turns Dew to face him, his voice softening, “I’ll always be here. I’m not leaving you. We’ll just be in different places for a bit, but you always have me and I’ll be waiting right here for you to come home.”

Dew lets out a shaky exhale, forcing away the memories of the night before Phantom’s summoning. He loves the little quint now, he really does, but the initial adjustment period of someone new never gets easier. He’s pulled from those thoughts as the sounds of a papal robe billowing through the door announce the entrance of Papa Perpetua.

“Ah, welcome,” Copia forces a smile. Apparently he’s not too thrilled either at the thought of replacements. “Let us begin.”

Dew focuses on cracks in the black stone floor, counting lines and forming images out of soot marks. He doesn’t know how long Copia explains the ritual for, he doesn’t really care either. He’d rather this be over with sooner rather than later. His attention is pulled back to the present when Perpetua begins lighting the black candles set in a circle on the floor. Copia is watching, almost looming, inspecting every movement of Perpetua. Waiting for a moment of subpar performance to jump in and take over for the new Papa’s first ghoul summoning. For a moment, watching the push and pull between Copia and Perpetua, Dew forgets why they’re actually here. 

Perpetua lights the final candle and takes his place at the head of the summoning circle. Under the candlelight, shadowed by his mask, he looks menacing. Dew can’t help but feel unsettled. He straightens his back, sets his jaw, and decidedly focuses on the flickering of a candle. Perpetua begins the incantations from the dusty tome that Dew is far too familiar with by now. He wishes he didn’t know every syllable by memory. 

With each line read, the flames grow a bit larger. A small breeze sweeps the previously stale room. Something smells like it’s burning, Dew ignores the otherworldly essence of it. The room feels alive as some loose rubble falls from the ceiling. The center of the summoning circle sparks a small flame. It grows in brightness, but not in size. Dew feels a pit in his stomach as the room begins to warm. A dark layer of smoke covers the floor surrounding the center flame, concealing the entirety of the summoning inscriptions. The radiance engulfs the small flame. Dew feels like he’s staring directly into the sun. It hurts. There’s a sudden flash from the growing brightness and everyone in the room startles, shielding themselves from the overwhelming light. 

When the flare settles, in the center of the summoning room, stands a ghoulette. Below her, the floor is singed. She radiates warmth. Dew’s blood runs cold.

“Dewdrop!” 

Copia’s voice is distant as he bolts from the summoning room. From his Papa. From his pack. From his replacement. He doesn’t understand, but what else is there to understand? What other use would they have for a freshly summoned fire ghoul? Was this an elaborate plan to send him back to the pit? Corner him in the summoning room for a quick switch? 

He rounds a corner and the dam breaks. Dew stops running when the sobs shake his whole body. He tucks himself in an alcove to try and steady his panicked breathing. He feels sick. He can’t return to the den, can’t find solace in his pack. Hell, they’d probably drag him right back to the summoning room kicking and screaming. He can’t stay, not like this. 

His head thumps against the wall, a humorless laugh leaving his scratchy throat. Of course this would be his way out. Betrayed by his own pack, his own Papa. He should’ve known his time was limited after a run with two Papas. Third time’s the charm, right? He replaced Ifrit and now he’s meeting his own fate the same way. There would be no need to keep a burnt out fire ghoul around the ministry. 

“Dew!” He hears Mountain’s yell echoing the halls. His stomach drops. He does the only thing he knows how to do.

Dew runs.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi! Wondering about my character who is one of five main characters and if I've made any less-than-ideal choices about her. She's the only Black one of the five but one of several poc characters, and the character has been aroace to me longer than she's been Black (if that makes sense lol, the character designs came later).

However, the other four characters end up in two romantic pairings together (interracial) and I'm worried that might come across as me painting this girl as undesirable as the only Black main character. I would make it clear she was aroace and wasn't interested in relationships, plus she's kind of the most likeable character of the group lol, and doesn't get sidelined in any way, though her main storyline surrounds her sibling who is not one of the core five.

It's also probably a good idea to mention I don't plan to include much actual mention of race in the story. I'm writing about themes I'm better in a position to dissect instead.

I don't know. I know the "Black woman as the disposable ex character" is common and one of my other main characters plays much more closely into a complicated version of the castaway ex role as she has a significant breakup, so I feel I've avoided that, but I don't know if having one main Black character and her being the one without a partner is bad. The ending features the group splitting up a bit but not just into their relationships + her, but do you think I should change the aroace element and at least hint at a possible romance for her? I feel there's also a common theme of fictional Black women only being seen as valuable in the context of relationships as well, so I can't work out which is better to avoid. Sorry for the long winded ask, and feel free to tell me I've gone about the whole thing wrong lol. Thank you so much!!!

Your Black character being aroace is fine. There's themes of Black women being rejected, there's themes of Black women being pushed to the side as "aroace" to remove them, there's themes of Black women being oversexualized and undersexualized- you see where the common thread actually is 🤣 It's not seeing Black women as normal ass people who can be anything we wanna be, with all types of stories. If that's a story you want to discuss, by all means do so.

Now I will say, you mentioning that you aren't deeply discussing race is fine, but her Blackness absolutely will impact people's perception of her as aroace and her experience in turn (it's mentioned in my last lesson). So that is not something you can ladida over if you want to get into how your character's identities may impact them.

[z0mb0ysworld]

I'm Mr. Loverman, and I miss my lover(girl), man.

Jackie Taylor x GN!Reader

Angst with some fluff.

NOTES: This is my first fic. Sorry if the grammar or format is terrible. Yes I did steal a quote from HTTYD. Sue me.

You hated her. You hated her so much. A lie that you told yourself every day and you knew it was a lie. You hated how she came into your life and made things enjoyable before leaving. That’s it. You hated that she left. You knew you could never hate Jackie Taylor. You just missed her so much. You remember the day that the soccer loving girl came into your life and left a big indent.

You could admit you were never a “glass half full” person. You saw things how they were and maybe, just maybe, you were a little dramatic. But, could you blame yourself? Your mom split the gig when you were young. “A free spirit” is what your dad said she was with a sad smile on his face as he held your little body close to him. Since then you realized that no one stays. You were in high school now though and soon it was your turn to leave. It was a normal day in class when you felt someone sit next to you. Weird. No one sat in the seat next to you. You looked up to see popular girl and girl’s soccer captain Jackie Taylor. Jackie Taylor who has also been your crush since freshman year. Jackie Taylor who you swore you thought was the only constant in your life. She smiled and looked at you with those eyes you swore made your heart stop, “There’s a project and we are supposed to pick a partner. Everybody else seems paired up. Will you be my partner?” Did you really zone out that much? You felt your head move before your mouth, nodding. You saw her eyes light up and she began talking to you again, “So I was thi-” The rest of the class went by in a blur but you could swear you agreed to go to her house later at some point. Jackie smiled again at you as she packed up her things, “Okay. See you at my house after school!” Alright.Yep.You did. Great. 

You rubbed the piece of paper that Jackie had given you as she left class. Her address. You looked at the house as you got out of your truck. Fancy. You walked up to the door and knocked on it. The door swung open and Jackie stood there in shorts and a tank top. You tried your best not to stare at the way she looked.. human. Not like the popular girl that everyone adored. She excitedly invited you in and led you to her bedroom. You looked gazed at the walls as you went up the stairs. Jackie looked like she had the perfect family from what it seemed on the photos. You followed her into her room as she sat on the bed. You closed the door behind you as per her order. She patted the spot next to her and you sat down. God. This girl can ask you to jump and you’d say “how high.” You went to take your notebook out of your bag but a hand on your arm stopped you.

 She smiled and you could feel your stomach do flips, “Hey.. We got like a week to work on it. Let’s talk. You are so mysterious. I wanna know what goes on inside that head.” 

You let out a small chuckle and you could swear you hung the stars by the way she looked at you, “I’m mysterious, huh? You’ve been watching me or something, Taylor?” By the blush on Jackie’s face and the way she refused to look at you, you guessed you caught her. 

She nodded, “I mean how could I not? You are always so quiet even if the world around you is loud. You walk through crowds like there is no one around you. I think that has been the first time I’ve heard you talk or laugh besides earlier in class. To be honest, I’ve never really wanted to know a person more.” 

You shrugged at her words, but on the inside it felt like your body was on fire. She watched you that much? She paid attention? Does it matter though? You reminded yourself that nobody stays. She’ll leave too. But maybe- just maybe. Maybe she won’t. You took a deep breath. Let’s see.

Jackie had just won the game for her team. She was going to national’s and you couldn’t be more proud of her. You guys have been together for a year now and to say you loved her would be an understatement. Jackie has remained the light in your life. The one thing that you knew couldn’t be taken away. She made sure to remind you. Nights of curling up and her holding you as you sobbed. Her quiet whispers of “I’m here, baby. I’m not going anywhere. You’re okay.” solidified that. By the time you were at the sidelines, Jackie had already run up to you and jumped into your awaiting arms. You smiled wide and kissed her cheek as you spun the two of you. You laughed, “Congratulations, my love. You did it! You’re going to nationals! I’m so fucking proud of you, lovergirl.” You set her down and she looked at you with the same look she did a year ago, like you hung the stars in the sky. Jackie pulled you into a kiss that was full of sweetness and passion. It was her in a nutshell. She pulled away, “You’ll be there too, right? At nationals? I can’t do this without my cheerleader.” You smiled and knew what the answer was already. You would follow her until the end of time. Your lovergirl.

Jackie left. She fucking left. She lied. She lied. She lied. She lied. You hated her so much. She left the cabin. She left you here alone. She’s dead. She lied. You held your head in your hands and sobbed. Your whole body shook with the force of your sobs. If you had been there, you could have done something. Anything. You decided to check the traps before bed and camped out in the wilderness. Luckily, the overnight snowfall didn’t snuff out the fire in the little cave you camped in. When you got closer to camp is when you heard Shauna’s sobs. In the mix of the crying, you heard Jackie’s name. Jackie. What happened to Jackie. You ran faster than ever. When you got to the cabin and saw Shauna shaking a frozen Jackie, you stopped in your tracks.  You wanted to scream. You wanted to cry. Hell, even a word would have done good.You felt like a little kid again when your mom left, but this time there wasn’t your dad to hold you. Would he have said the same thing about Jackie? The lie about her being a “free spirit?” That didn’t matter now. You just stared and realized your lovergirl was gone.

No one could replace Jackie is what you told yourself even years later when the surviving members of the YellowJackets got rescued. Including you. Your lovergirl was one-of-a-kind. The only one for you. But, she is gone now and you were alone. You took a long sip of the beer in your hand as you sat on your couch in your apartment. The rest of them moved on with their lives. You moved on too. Well as good as you could. Inside, you knew you were back there. In her bedroom with her. Your lovergirl. You stared at yourself in the blank TV screen. You moved your head to the left and there she sat. Your lovergirl. You knew it wasn’t her. She was gone because she lied. She stared back at you with that look from all those years ago, “Baby, I thought we were gonna drop that mysterious act. It took me so long to find that personality you hid from everyone..” You smiled and just stared at her. Even if it wasn’t her. You sighed, “You’re as beautiful as the day I lost you..” She smiled and you felt like a teenager again. You looked back at the TV screen and it was just you. Only you. Your lovergirl was gone.

[httpsdana]

Hi girl! Idk if i already send this request but even if i did i'm requesting again :) . Can you do one that Kenan always watch reader doing her skin care so one day he ask her to do in him and she proudly do it . Very fuffly w a lot of kisses plss

Teenage Skin~Kenan Yildiz

・❥・prompt list

・❥・masterlist -> part 2

・❥・who I write for

・❥・a/n: I did get the previous request and I was already working on it!! enjoy <33

Kenan was used to watching her. While her nighttime routine was doing her skincare, his was sitting by her side and watching her enjoy how her skin glowed. At first he said it as a joke (kinda)

“Can you put that on my face?” he asked, trying to act casual, when all he wanted was to feel her smooth hands rub the cold products on his face.

“Huh?” she raised her eyebrows, her fingers stopping their motion on her face. She turned to look at him, as he stepped inside the bathroom.

“Those things…” he pointed to the several things on the bathroom counter, “Can you use them on me?” he asked, almost shy.

“You want me to put my skincare products on your face?” she asked again, trying to bite back a smile.

He nodded shyly, reaching to hold her moisturiser in his hand.

“I mean yeah” he shrugged. “Have you seen my face? I’m pretty sure my skin thinks I’m still 15 or something”

She giggled at his words, quickly washing her hands and turning to him.

“I’ve been wanting to make a skincare routine just for you for a while now but I didn’t think you’d down for it,” she said, opening her drawer and pulling out a headband.

She placed it in hands, while he looked at the fluffy two-eared headband in his hand. When he looked up at her and saw the excited smile on her face, he let out a sigh.

“Am I gonna regret this?” he asked, his lips twitching up in a small smile.

She put her finger on her chin, as if thinking, before she hummed.

“Probably. But not after your skin starts glowing,” she grinned, leaning up and pecking his lips quickly before pushing him down to sit on the closed toilet lid.

She helped him put his headband on, pushing his hair away from his face then she tied her hair in a ponytail and pulled the sleeves of her hoodie up to her elbows.

First off, she grabbed the cleanser, applying some on a cotton pad then wiping it across his face.

“Oh this is cold,” he hummed, letting out a sigh in satisfaction.

“And it's definitely removing all the dirt from your face,” she pulled a face, showing him the cotton pad that had darkened a bit.

“I showered in the morning!” he said, chuckling slightly.

“mhm this is normal. These things get stuck on your face without being visible,” she said, throwing the cotton in hand.

“wash your face love,” she instructed, before grabbing the next thing.

Kenan washed his face, and dried it with the soft towel that hung next to the mirror.

Next step: toner.

She placed a few drops on her hands, rubbing them together before patting it gently on his face.

“I might fall asleep like this,” Kenan murmured, opening his eyes to look at her.

He couldn't help but smile at the way her tongue poked out of her mouth, her eyes focused on his face.

He quickly reached up, pecking her lips quickly, making her squeal.

“you're gonna get this all over me!” she protested, but her smile proved that she didn't mind it.

“sorry you just look so cute,” he mumbled, his lips tugging up in a bigger smile when her cheeks turned into the brightest shade of red.

Then, she opened the next drawer this time pulling some…stickers?

“what're those?” Kenan asked, his eyebrows raising.

“pimple patches,” she stated, “you've got some pretty nasty pimples baby”

Kenan looked at his face in the mirror, noticing the big juicy pimples in his face, which made him wince.

“tell me about it,” he muttered to himself, turning to see her holding the first star patch.

Kenan sighed, but let her put it on his face. His forehead, below his lips, on his cheek. At the end, he had four yellow stars on his face, and he looked adorable as hell.

“Oh you look so cute,” she squished his cheeks with her hands, kissing the tip of his nose lightly.

Kenan giggled, his nose scrunching up. He wrapped his arms around her thighs, as she stood between his legs and grabbed the pink serum he loved.

“I love this one,” he pointed out, making her chuckle.

“I know you do, because it's pink,” she said, putting a few drops on his cheeks.

She patted them slowly on his face, careful to avoid the pimple patches she had put previously.

Then she noticed the way Kenan was looking at her, his eyes half open, full of adoration making her heart melt.

“What?” she mumbled, tilting her head to the side.

“I love you so much,” he said, his eyes widening as he processed what he just said.

It wasn't the first time he said it, but it was the first time he said it so randomly, so casually but still sincerely.

She felt her cheeks heat up, eyes looking away to avoid his. Then she hummed.

“are you trying to get some kisses?” she teased, putting the serum back in its place and grabbing her moisturiser.

“maybe” he shrugged, “is it working?”

She turned to him, her seriousness melting away at the pout on his face.

“maybe” she muttered, leaning down to press a few kisses on his lips, then on the top of his head.

Kenan grinned widely, tightening his arms around her.

“okay last thing. moisturiser. you'll be getting a free massage today sweetheart,” she joked, applying some of the stuff on his forehead, cheeks, chin and nose.

Then she started to gently message it, with upward and downward movements until his skin absorbed it all. Then she moved to his neck a bit, making sure some of the product reached it too.

Kenan sighed, his eyes fluttering closed as her hands did their magic.

A few moments later, her hands left his face and his eyes opened.

“okay! all done. you're glowing Kenan,” she cooed, moving so he can see himself in the mirror.

Kenan stood up, stepping closer to the mirror to admire his now shiny skin.

She grabbed her lip balm off the counter, twisting the cap off, swiping it across her bottom lip slowly, then the top. Then, with a playful smile, she turned toward him and held it out.

"Want some?" she offered.

But before she could even lift her hand, he leaned in without a word and kissed her, firm and confident, stealing the taste right off her lips.

When he pulled back, a faint shine of balm smudged at the corner of his mouth.

"Got it," he said with a smug little grin, wiping the corner of his mouth with his finger.

She blinked, heat rushing to her cheeks immediately.

"i hate you."

"thank you," he murmured, brushing his thumb across her warm cheek, "i love you too baby."

my taglist: @barcapix @paucubarsisimp @spidybaby @mxryxmfooty @n0vazsq @joaosnovia @ilovebarcaaaa @f1lover55 @jajajhaahaha @universefcb @mariejuli (lmk if you want to be added!!)

[hmshermitcraft]

Gem tugs Pearl through the rift to Empires. When they cross over Gem is transformed. Her hair is pinned back, her clothing has changed into a pretty dress, she's practically radiating sunshine.

“Hello there. Ooo! we’re holding hands?” Gem giggles, finding this fascinating. “You must be one of the hermits!”

“You look gorgeous! We normally hold hands on adventures, yes.”   “Thank you! I'm Gemini, The Dawn Princess! You’re important to Hermit Gem?” “I’m Pearl! I am important to her, yes.” She hasn’t felt nervous around Gem in a long time. “Hello, Pearl! That's a pretty name! I'm told some of us walk in both lands! It’s neat! You look like a Queen!”

“I was a Queen once, I've retired that crown. I live with the hermits now.” “How sweet! Oh my gosh! You were a Queen?!” Gem bows and kisses Pearl’s knuckles. “I'll show you around Dawn, your Majesty! I bet that's what Hermit Gem wants me to do!” 

“I can’t wait to see the place. Will you hold my hand, Princess?” Role-playing can be fun. Why not? “Absolutely! Please put on these sunglasses!” Pearl goes along with it. 

After the whirlwind tour ends, and she gets to know the Princess, Gem brings her to a beautiful room to stay the night. Pearl is exhausted. 

“This place is incredible. Your builds are as stunning as you are. Do you get lonely here, Princess?”

“Thank you! No. I think she carries you with her in her heart when she’s here! So, I don’t feel lonely!”

“You make it sound like she's in love.”

“Because she is, silly! I'm the sun and you're the moon! Isn't that romantic?” “It is romantic. I… you mean everything to me.”

“You haven’t told her, have you? Promise me you’ll tell her? It will be wonderful!” The Dawn Princess skips into her arms to hug her. “If you’re sure, I promise I will.” Pearl reluctantly hugs back, feeling somewhat sad. “What wrong Pearl?” She senses something wrong and drops it immediately. “Be my Gem, please.” “I'm here, honey. I was playing pretend, that’s all.” Gem sits with her putting an arm around her. Pearl leans into her. “What part was pretend?” “Pretending to be the Princess. I'm in love with you. That’s real.” “You role-played all day to tell me you love me?” “Yes. You weren't going to tell me how you feel. I thought I'd give you a push in the right direction.”

“Pretending worked. But, it was like a stranger hugged me when I wanted to hug you. That was weird. But, it’s true I do love you.”

“I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Gem hugs her tightly. “I love you, too. Will you be my Queen, Pearl?”

“I will be your Queen. But, pretending to be a Princess is treason to the Crown, you have to kiss me a lot to make up for it.” She can role-play too.

Especially if she gets more attention out of it. Pearl is very good at role-playing then.

[bloody-bee-tea]

Emotional Spring 2025 Day 16 - Excuse me?

Shouta spends his free evening in front of the TV, Hizashi's radio show running in the background while pictures of the recently collapsed houses are shown on screen.

Normally, Shouta would be out of the door in an instant with a situation like this, but the houses came down due to a gas leak and rescue is really not something Shouta can help with. If it were a villain, the situation would be different, but with this he stays where he is and for once just watches the situation unfold.

Rescue efforts are still in full swing and from what Shouta can make out from what's shown on screen, there are still people missing. Hizashi is fielding answers for the incident as well, but given that he's stuck in his studio, he knows even less about it than Shouta and has to resort to consoling the people who call.

Shouta is not entirely indifferent to the tragedy playing out on his screen but he's been a hero for long enough that he can accept that there's nothing he can do and that things like this simply happen.

That's just a part of life.

So Shouta is more than content to follow along with the rescue efforts on screen, rather than be out there and help in person and his evening is going as great as it can, with a town-wide catastrophe when his work phone suddenly rings.

Years of hero work have honed his instincts and his stomach immediately drops because he just knows that whoever is on the other end of the line is going to ruin his evening.

"Eraserhead," he says as he picks it up, already pressing his lips together at reading Tsukauchi's name, bracing for whatever is going to come his way.

The slight pause that precedes Tsukauchi’s words doesn't do anything to settle Shouta's nerves at all.

"Tsukauchi speaking. Are you seeing the news?" he asks and Shouta's eyes go back to the screen where he watches another highly damaged wall crumble while the rescue heroes jump out of the way.

"I am."

Tsukauchi lets out a harsh breath and Shouta is glad that he's sitting already because whatever the other man is going to tell him, it's not going to be fun.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Aizawa," Tsukauchi starts with and Shouta's stomach drops out pre-emptively while a million possibilities flash through his mind.

At least Hizashi is most definitely safe, he almost hysterically thinks, because his voice is still coming from the radio.

"Your son and his mother were caught in that explosion."

Shouta is so perplexed by those words that he blinks a few times, trying to bring any meaning to them that goes beyond 'your son and his mother' but he’s drawing a blank.

"Aizawa?" Tsukauchi carefully asks after a moment and Shouta shakes his head in confusion.

"Excuse me? My what now?"

"Your—son? And his mother, though—I'm sorry, but she didn't make it. Your son is here, he's—" Tsukauchi hums in thought. "I think it's best if you come in."

"I don't have a son. I don't even—Tsukauchi, I'm married to a man."

Now there's a perplexed silence from the other side of the phone and it's almost enough to make Shouta crack a smile, except that someone died and there's a kid and somehow Tsukauchi thinks it's his.

"Congratulations," Tsukauchi finally says, "but that doesn't explain anything."

Shouta has to agree but— "Why the hell would you think he's mine?" Shouta asks, trying to get this entire situation to make sense.

"Because he shoved a note into our hands that said 'Please call my father, Eraserhead'." Shouta wants to protest, because anyone can write a note like that but then Tsukauchi goes on. "And then we ran his DNA against our hero databank and it's a match. You're his father, Aizawa."

"What the fuck," Shouta breathes out because this can't be. "How old is he?" he asks because maybe that will somehow make this make sense.

"Seven, probably. He won't say, he's not speaking, but he looks around seven."

"I've been married to Hizashi for that long, this can't—" be, Shouta wants to say but then he remembers that shortly before they came together Hizashi was dating someone named Dave from abroad and Shouta was so furious, so hurt that he went out and fucked the first person who seemed interested and that person just happened to be female.

Shouta doesn't remember much from that night but he remembers that he deliberately didn't ask for her name and he never saw her again after that. Hizashi and Dave broke up just a few days later because Shouta cracked and confessed his feelings and then they slightly jumped the gun on the marriage thing and now apparently Shouta has a son?

"Aizawa?"

"Fuck," Shouta says with feeling, his ming reeling with this revelation and Tsukauchi lets out a long breath.

"So I'm guessing he can be yours?"

"Fuck," Shouta repeats because what else is there to say. "I'm coming in."

"Yeah, alright," Tsukauchi says, right before Shouta hangs up on him and he still can't wrap his head around the fact that apparently he has a son.

Fuck, how in the world is he ever going to explain that to Hizashi? They agreed on not having kids because of their work and now he brings a biological son into the equation?

Shouta forces himself to not think about it too much on his way to the station, because he has no clue what to do and he's not going to figure it out on his own, anyway. Maybe the boy has some other family, siblings on his mother's side who can take care of him and maybe Shouta is worrying for nothing.

Maybe it will all turn out perfectly alright and he's panicking for nothing.

"Eraser," Tsukauchi greets him as soon as he steps into the station and promptly leads him towards the back.

Shouta is glad they are bypassing the interrogation rooms because he thinks if he has to meet his son in one of those for the first time he's going to lose his entire shit but when they finally come to a stop in front of the office they specifically keep for kids and teenagers, he doesn't feel any better.

"He doesn't speak, so we don't actually know anything, really, besides that note and the fact that you're his—" Tsukauchi trails off when he sees Shouta's eyes flash, because he's not yet ready to hear in person that he's a father to anyone.

"You said he was in the accident. Is he hurt?"

Tsukauchi makes a face at that and Shouta immediately knows that he's not going to like the answer.

"Yeah, but—Aizawa, those don't look like injuries from a collapsed house. Some of his bruises are old and I already noticed some scars."

"Fuck," Shouta says, feeling like a broken record, but he doesn't know how else to convey just how fucked all of this is.

Tsukauchi seems to agree with him though, because he nods with a grim face.

"His mother was crushed in her bedroom. I'm not sure he knows that, yet."

"Wonderful," Shouta drily says and then, before he can change his mind or delay this any further, he steps into the room.

Tsukuachi stays outside, mostly because Shouta closes the door right in his face but there's a mirror in this room, too, and Shouta doesn't believe for a second that he's truly alone with the boy.

"Hey, kid," he says as he steps close to the table and his heart constricts painfully in his chest when he sees the boy—his son—for the first time.

He's small, and that impression is only made worse by how he hunches his shoulders and ducks his head. He has a mop of shockingly purple hair and it stands up as if he's been electrocuted. Or like Shouta's hair when he uses his quirk.

When Shouta sits down at the table, the boy looks at him and for a moment Shouta is taken aback by his tired eyes and the huge eyebags.

Yeah, definitely my son, Shouta drily thinks and then forces his face to look less impassive.

He takes in the yellow bruises on his arms, sees the way the boy ducks himself away as if he has to prepare for a hit and Shouta almost chokes on his breath when he spots an irritated line on the bridge of the boy's nose that reminds him too much of the muzzle scars on Hizashi's face.

Shouta’s head spins and he doesn’t know how he’s going to do this at all. But he has to, so he says "Hey," again, because the boy only blinks at him. "I'm Eraserhead. Aizawa Shouta. Do you think you can tell me your name?"

The boy blinks at him some more and only presses his lips together.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Shouta tries next and watches how the kid nervously plays with a plushie.

Still, no answer comes and Shouta suppresses a sigh.

"You gave these officers a note that said to call me. Can you tell me why?"

The boy's eyes drop down for a second before they go back to him, but still, he doesn't speak.

"Do you understand me?" Shouta asks, because maybe he's deaf but before he can ask the same in sign-language the boy nods.

Shouta is at a complete loss as to what to do here now but then his eyes fall on a pin on the boy's jacket.

"Do you like Present Mic?" Shouta asks and it's almost comical how huge the boy's eyes get before he rapidly nods his head. "Would you like to talk to him?" Shouta offers and it doesn't sting when the boy nods again, though much more reluctant now.

"Alright, I'll call him and then we'll be back. Okay?"

The boy nods once more and Shouta gets up.

"If you need something just knock on the door," he says before he almost flees the room and he doesn't like the look he gets from Tsukauchi when he leans against the wall.

"He hasn't been talking at all," he offers and Shouta heaves out a breath before he pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Maybe he'll talk to Hizashi," he says and Tsukauchi shrugs before he looks over his shoulder.

"It's worth a try. Listen, I have to—" He points over his shoulder and Shouta nods, because with what's going on, Tsukauchi hardly has the time to babysit a child. Or Shouta.

Shouta waits before he's out of earshot before reaches for his phone with shaky hands. He's calling Hizashi's private line, knows it will go through no matter what because this is for personal emergencies and this damn well is one, even though Shouta mentally apologises for probably scaring Hizashi half to death.

"Shou?" Hizashi's voice already slightly shaking when he picks up and Shouta briefly closes his eyes.

"I'm fine," he reassures him immediately, even though it's not entirely the truth and prepares for a world of yelling once all of this is dealt with. "I think I—" his voice breaks when his eyes fall back on the room that holds the boy, holds his son, probably still fiddling with the stuffed duck someone gave him and Shouta doesn't know how to do this at all.

It somehow feels like the easy way out, calling Hizashi to deal with this, but Shouta can’t do this alone.

"Shouta? Baby, what's going on?"

"I need Present Mic," Shouta finally gets out because he can't do this, the boy won't—or can't—speak with him and he practically lit up when Shouta mentioned the other hero.

"You—where are you?" Hizashi asks, already sounding a little bit more steady now that he knows Shouta isn't dying and Shouta lets out a harsh breath.

"At the station," he gives back, and he can practically see Hizashi nod.

"Alright. Gimme ten minutes."

"Don't get into a traffic accident, I can't—" do this on my own, Shouta wants to say but his voice breaks halfway through.

"I won't, I promise," Hizashi says and then hangs up, clearly impatient to get going, which Shouta feels guilty for since he knows it's because he didn't explain anything yet.

Shouta debates whether to go back into the room or not, but he imagines sitting in absolute silence with the boy for ten minutes or longer and Shouta's skin positively crawls.

Shit, he's really not cut out for this, is he?

So instead of doing the sensible thing and comfort the boy any way he can, he paces in front of the room until he hears Hizashi's familiar steps coming towards him.

"Shou?" he calls out before he even rounds the corner and Souta is so unsettled by today that he simply crashes into Hizashi and holds him tightly.

"Oh, okay, big problem then," Hizashi mutters and slings his arms around him in return. "What's going on, baby?"

"I'm not injured," he mumbles into Hizashi's jacket because Shouta thinks it bears repeating and he only reluctantly allows Hizashi to push him away, though he relaxes when he cups his face in his hands.

"Alright, what is it then?" Hizashi softly asks and Shouta takes a deep breath, leaning his face into Hizashi's hand.

"There's a boy in there who is my son and he won't talk and he's injured and I need you to talk to him," he gets out and he can practically watch how the words hit Hizashi one after the other.

Hizashi opens and closes his mouth a few times, clearly just as caught off guard as Shouta still feels and it's almost enough to make Shouta relax.

"I—your son?"

Shouta helplessly shrugs because what else is he supposed to do and Hizashi takes a deep breath.

"His mother?"

"Died in the collapse. Tsukauchi says his injuries seem old and I'd have to agree."

"Fucking shit," Hizashi mutters and slides his hands down Shouta's arms to take his hands. "Okay, kid first. He doesn't speak?"

"No. He wouldn't talk to me and according to Tsukauchi he's been like that the entire time."

"Have you tried sign?" Hizashi wants to know and Shouta feels so stupid because he didn't even think to try that. "Taking that as a no then," Hizashi says with a shaky smile. "Alright, are you going to come in with me?"

"Yeah, I—of course," Shouta gives back even though he doesn't know how he's supposed to handle this situation at all and Hizashi squeezes his hands one last time before he enters the room.

The boy's eyes immediately light up and Shouta thinks he's vibrating where he sits and he doesn't allow it to sting when the boy notices him and immediately dims down.

"Hey there, little listener," Hizashi says and signs it at the same time, letting the kid know that this is a viable way to communicate.

Hi, the boy signs back, bashful and excited and still clutching the stuffed duck awkwardly in his arms so his hands are free to sign.

"My buddy Eraser here told me that you're not speaking, so we don't even know your name!" Hizashi says and he does a good job of keeping all his conflicted feelings to himself; a much better job than Shouta did, that's for sure. "Think you can tell us what to call you?"

The kid very carefully fingerspells his name to them and something about knowing his name makes this entire thing so much more tangible.

"Hitoshi, that's a nice name, kiddo. I'm Present Mic, which you probably already know, but you can also call me Yamada, okay?"

Hitoshi nods hesitantly, his eyes darting back over to Shouta, who attempts a soothing smile and probably fails horribly.

"I already told you, you can call me Aizawa," he offers again and almost feels proud when Hitoshi nods.

"Hitoshi, are you hurt anywhere? Anything that needs medical attention?" Hizashi asks and Shouta knows he saw the fading yellow bruises on Hitoshi's forearms, saw the scratch on his nose that's almost a perfect mirror to the one on Hizashi's and Shouta reaches out to take Hizashi's hand.

Hitoshi shrugs before he reluctantly signs It's fine.

It's most definitely not fine, Shouta fiercely thinks and he's glad for how soft Hizashi's expression stays.

"I don't think it's fine at all, Hitoshi, because I can see some injuries on you. But those are not from the accident just now are they?"

Hitoshi shakes his head and Hizashi almost crushes Shouta's hand in his.

"Who did that? Can you tell me?"

Hitoshi's eyes dart around, panic clear on his face and he hugs the duck so tightly Shouta is afraid it's going to explode.

"Kid, you're safe here, okay? Whoever did that is not going to do it again," Shouta says, speaking up for the first time and Hitoshi's shoulders go so high up, Shouta is afraid his entire head is going to disappear, but then his hands start to move in shaky shapes.

My mother. Please don't send me back to her.

Hizashi and Shouta share a glance and they know that it's cruel, the entire situation is just one big mess, but they have to tell him because he'll find out sooner or later anyway and it seems that even if his mother was still around he wouldn't have gone back to her anyway.

Not if Shouta has anything to say about it.

"Kid, your mother died in that collapsed building. I'm sorry," Shouta says and Hitoshi stares up with them with huge eyes.

She's gone?

He can't convey his emotions very well without his voice but his hands tremble and Shouta suspects it's with hope rather than sadness and doesn't that just feel like a kick to the stomach.

"Yeah, kiddo, she's gone," Hizashi nods and Shouta spots a telling sheen in his eyes.

It's horrible, to even contemplate why Hitoshi would be so glad that his mother is gone and Shouta pushes that thought far away for now. They'll have time to fall apart over all of this later, when Hitoshi's situation is all figured out.

"Hitoshi, were you born without a voice?" Hizashi carefully asks, eying the scratch on Hitoshi's nose again and Shouta's fears are confirmed when he shakes his head.

No, I can talk. I'm just not allowed to, Hitoshi signs out and Hizashi forces a shaky smile on his face.

"Let me guess, little listener, you have a voice based quirk, right?"

Hitoshi nods though he seems reluctant.

"Just like I do, but I bet you knew that right?" Hizashi goes on, not letting Hitoshi's sudden hesitation deter him.

Another nod, this time more firmly.

"Listen, Eraserhead here is called like that because he can erase quirks, you know? Do you want a demonstration?"

Hitoshi nods, his wary eyes on Shouta and Hizashi starts to hum, his quirk activated so everything in the room starts to vibrate.

Shouta gives Hitoshi a moment to take it all in before he activates his quirk and cuts Hizashi off and Hitoshi's eyes get big.

"See? Real neat, isn't it? You think you can tell us what your quirk is while he uses it on you?"

It's a precaution just as much as it is to set Hitoshi at ease and Shouta thanks his husband for his quick thinking. He would probably still be fumbling around with this boy, without a clue what to do.

Hitoshi stares at Shouta for a long, long moment before he finally nods and Shouta doesn't know why he suddenly feels like crying. He just got the slimmest showing of trust from a boy who apparently is his and it shouldn't matter so much to him but it does.

Shouta activates his quirk again, this time looking straight at Hitoshi and Hizashi gives him an encouraging smile.

"It's called brainwashing," Hitoshi whispers, his voice rough from obvious disuse and Shouta thanks his years of training for not blinking in surprise at that.

"Whenever you say something or does it have specific requirements? Do you need to activate it?" Hizashi inquires and he keeps his voice light so Hitoshi doesn't think they are scared of him.

"When I ask a question and it have to chose to take control," Hitoshi mutters and then clams his mouth shut again so Shouta drops his quirk.

"Thank you for telling us, Hitoshi. Now listen, we're two pro heroes, right and we have seen our fair share of strange and powerful quirks but that doesn't mean we're afraid. So totally feel free to talk around us, okay?" Hizashi tells him, and Shouta nods in encouragement.

If Hitoshi knows about the requirements of his quirk, it's unlikely he's going to use it on accident and in any case, he seems too timid and scared to make them actually do anything should he brainwash them.

Hitoshi bites on his lower lip in thought before he suddenly looks up again, his eyes on Shouta this time.

"She said she got stuck with me because you didn't want me. She didn't want me either, but there was nowhere for me to go," Hitoshi says and Shouta's heart drops straight to the floor as Hizashi sucks in a surprised breath. "Now she's gone and you still don't want me so where am I going to go?" Hitoshi asks and Shouta fights the urge to cry because he sounds so tired, so resigned that it's hard to take.

"I didn't know, kid," Shouta shakily says. "I didn't know about you. Your mother never told me that I have a son."

Shouta never wanted kids, but he thinks that if he had known about Hitoshi, he would have taken responsibility anyway; he would have wanted to know his son.

"And now?" Hitoshi asks, his voice so horribly flat as if he already knows what Shouta's answer is going to be and what kind of horror must he have gone through to sound like that?

Shouta desperately looks at Hizashi, because what is he even supposed to do in a situation like this but when Hizashi nods at him, things immediately fall into place.

"And now I know and you're going to come home with us," Shouta says and attempts to give Hitoshi a smile. "I'm married to Yamada, you know, so we'd both take care of you."

Hitoshi looks between them as if he can't quite believe his words but when Hizashi nods enthusiastically and gives him a thumbs up, a small smile steals over Hitoshi's face.

"Would you like that, kiddo? Or is there other family you can go to?" Hizashi asks and Shouta wasn't prepared for how warm it would make him feel to think of Hitoshi as family.

"There's no one else," Hitoshi mumbles and Hizashi's smile softens.

"There's us now," he promises him and Shouta takes a deep breath when Hitoshi shyly nods.

"I'll go find Tsukauchi and get this sorted out, shouldn't be a problem though, since you're related and all and then we'll get you out of here, sound good?" Hizashi asks and gets up as soon as Hitoshi nods, leaving him and Shouta alone again.

Hitoshi eyes Shouta as if he can't quite believe that he's going to stay and Shouta's heart aches knowing that for his entire life so far Hitoshi thought his dad didn't want him.

He wants to apologise, but can't bring the words over his lips because it's not even his fault, but he knows that the kid needs something, so he says the next best thing he can think of.

"I'm glad to know you now, Hitoshi," Shouta gently tells him and it's enough to make Hitoshi burst into tears.

Shouta panics for a long moment but then he moves around the table and pulls Hitoshi into his arms where he curls up small as sobs wreck his little body. Shouta holds him and tells him it's going to be okay over and over again and this is how Hizashi finds them when he comes back.

"Aw, kiddo," he breathes out and comes closer to pull them both into his arms as well. "It's going to be fine now," Hizashi promises and even though everything will be a mess for a while, Shouta believes him.

Hitoshi must too because he nods, even as more tears stream down his face and it takes him a while to calm down but once he does, Shouta and Hizashi take their son home.

There will be a lot of things to figure out in the future, up to and including their own work, but they’ll make it work. Shouta will not allow for anything else.

[camellcat]

I'm in the middle of a btvs s5 rewatch and idk what the fuck is going on but xander is NOT riley's number one fan. in fact he is dogging on riley quite consistently. he is holding a grudge, even. what happened to make him switch so hard that he's calling riley her "one in a life-time" ????

[andiv3r]

Having to block everyone who has "wincest dni" in their bio not because I ship wincest (because I have come to the conclusion that I actually don't) but because I do think it'd be fun to poke around at the very real weirdness of their relationship that I've noticed in the show so far. And I'm 99% sure that my poking around will get seen as shipping.

[jessamine-rose]

*lovingly tackles Aine*

Read my Yandere! Pierro longfics first ♪( ´▽｀)

Last week, my beloved mutual @ainescribe surprised me with Savior! Darling fan art and AHAI9232@2-!/! CRYING SCREAMING I WANT TO LOOK AT THIS ART AND WORSHIP YOUR VERSION OF SAVIOR THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BLESSING ME WITH YOUR ART—

*clears throat* Anyway, now that I finally have the time to properly sit down and comment on the fan art, I’ll do just that. Feedback will be in the tags and it will be unhinged. Once again, thank you so much to Aine for drawing this <3

[aprilblossomgirl]

# mood 1 + mood 2 (basically)

[hsslilly-blog]

huntclaire divorce au. everything is exactly the same but wait i was going to make a joke here but i’m actually very invested in this

[evanwevand]

I hate having my whole family following me on Instagram cus now I can't post vents or they're going to worry about everything I draw and pretend to care for me GRRRRRRRRR

[lunarharp]

little bit of modern au (SPOILERS for the zelda game.)

[bluedino15]

Undertale Yellow AU/UT and DR based-Ideas Ramble Post

You know, I haven't posted on this account for anything in YEARS besides reblogs and one Paper Mario: Origami King rant...

Anyway, had random assorted Undertale yellow AU and post pacifist/wider Undertale/deltarune world--related ideas I felt like spouting for fun because I'm back into Undertale brainworms and Twitter would suck for this, especially since I keep updating this. Feel free to use these ideas if you somehow see this and get inspired. Credit would be nice (at least cause I would like to see anyone turning these rambles into ideas) but really isn't necessary. These can easily veer off from the canon/creators of yellow and various AUs referenced (I've been really bad at keeping up with generally accepted versions of aus and the story for official ones), and I do not in ANY way want to imply my ideas are good or "proper" add-ons, just fun what-ifs that might break the rules. Also, I'm bad at coming up with good endings or full casts descriptions for a lot of these concepts (sorry Dalv) so feel free to do them yourself

UNDERTALE YELLOW SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

*Undertale background (and yellow lore ideas):

-Clover is the first human to fall after Flowey's "birth"

-if Berdly has an unseen Undertale counterpart (he's the only one who never has a reference or family member referenced unless you think the drunk bird in grillby's is related), martlet is like his way older cousin.

-undertale yellow takes place just before the monsters who became amalgamates woke up (since alphys said she called everyone and probably wouldn't have been so chipper in the journal if one monster wasn't still getting up, and Ceroba says she hadn't heard anything and there's no mention of other monsters getting news of their relatives) and subsequently melted. In other words, amalgam kanako doesn't happen until after the events of pacifist (that said, I wrote some au ideas on the idea of her amalgamating before anyway)

-Kanako is part of the amalgam that tucks in frisk, since she remembers it being comforting when she was a kid. Also, this is just a story idea but I can imagine her being a bit special/unique when everyone started melting, perhaps the first to get up and last to melt or vice versa (I think the former cause her soul was probably holding on a bit longer since because of the boss monster and existing determination injection sustaining her longer). EDIT: lmao so much for being headcanon for the first bit. Anyway, only add-on thought to this is that since a lot of lore, though partly unused, implies it's mostly just older monsters that fall down, kanako was the only outright child in true lab and Alphys basically had to become her guardian/parent for a few months.

-martlet stole the serum from true lab while everyone was still fallen down, soon after alphys made the first injections, hence why alphys is willing enough to chance leaving the lab open and why martlet isn't as shocked/traumatized as she might have been if she saw amalgamates. She wasn't familiar enough to recognize kanako/a child resembling chujin (how she might have expected them), but she was also focused on sneaking in and out so she wouldn't have paid much attention until reflecting during pacifist.

-the snowdin attack took place in upper snowdin, which is why there's way more guards stationed there. Additionally, that was one of the last events of Undertale counterpart rudy's life, and he helped asgore restore trust and calmness in the days after the event. His girls were too young to remember. Lastly, sans and papyrus briefly drew suspicion for their human frames, but both pretty quickly disarmed residents of suspicion.

-The reason that Clover was the only one to ever travel through yellow locations (the other humans may have at least explored other parts of the underground and just died in Frisk-explored locations) is because they're some of the farthest possible places from the Castle. Even slightly more direct routes would have gotten them killed, hence Flowey pushing them on a roundabout path

-Undertale's Gaster (I have a seperate pet theory about how there's one from Undertale who fell into Deltarune, and another who originates there) made the core but fell into Deltarune before clover arrived, and there he has some major interaction with sans and papyrus that follows them back in Undertale where they get here after Clover

-Ceroba's family were naturally gifted towards magic and one of the more important families on the surface, to the point that a few remnants of their tradition remained aboveground where they eventually become (one of many) inspirations for Mew Mew Kissy Cutie (without the humans knowing the monster background), hence the bell motifs both share. Underground life has kind of quashed most boundaries that aren't "the royal family," but Chujin was marrying above his paygrade (both had a strong mutual love)

-The boss monster gene is normally inherent only in goat-esque monsters, so by default they're the only boss monsters, but it can be transferred from goat monsters to non-goat monster children (normally undetected), and it was in Chujin's family for years (this is mostly just me coping on my different definition of boss monster). Also, as a small little design concept, I like to imagine that kanako and chujin would have had slight boss monster features (rounder snouts, tails, fur that's either white at the base or tip, small horns buried under their hair, and chujin could develop facial hair)

--As a combination of the above, Kanako would probably have been one of the most Naturally gifted/powerful monsters short of the Dreemurrs thanks to both her mother's magic and father's boss monster DNA. However, she probably wouldn't have had a need to significantly develop those powers (kind of like how Toriel is naturally powerful but not really a warrior).

-Ceroba has a slight Japanese accent (like someone who has both mastered English and speaks it commonly enough) that's usually burried underneath the underground's default (like every species had some dialect and accent pre-Ebott that's faded over time), but if she gets angry it FLARES up

-Likewise, Starlo has an exaggerated cowboy accent (I personally think of Mad Dog in the Live a Live dub with the southeastern-slant given his showmanship), but when the mask (and hat) drops, it turns into softspoken midwestern farmboy.

-Chara only bonds to Frisk because they share an affinity for determination and Frisk landing on their grave was close enough to hit something. Clover isn't attuned enough for that to happen.

-sans, alphys, and Asgore know about all the Yellow locations (though Alphys is too shut in to ever visit anywhere besides the mew mew arcade machine), Undyne has been to the dunes and mine and is old enough to know of the steamworks but never visit, while she respects the Wild East just enough to avoid visiting herself and causing trouble (personally, she probably thinks they're just a bunch of slackers who aren't helping out monsterkind given her views of mettaton, but she can at least respect their passion ). Papyrus doesn't know about the steamworks but has been out to the dunes once or twice. Toriel has been shut in and away too long to know of the steamworks and doesn't know the dunes dried out.

*Undertale yellow post-pacifist (and just Undertale post-pacifist):

-Flowey left his main save after Clover's death, after realizing both neutral and any pacifist didn't get anywhere, and due to a mix of pity/respect (though he wouldn't admit it, clover sacrificing their soul for monsterkind reminds him of Chara) and pragmatism, he keeps his ("main" if reular flowey has multiple) save file permanently after their death even if he CAN reset to his creation. (Of course, he's still toyed with the timline THOUSANDS of times before Clover fell--since they only fell after he already tried everything and just waited, he's not too torn up about never going back while he plays around with his new circumstances for a while)

-The only ones who know most of what happened to Clover are Martlet, Starlo, and Ceroba. They told Asgore that Clover was a good kid, but nothing about how they steered Ceroba off her path

--likewise, no one but Clover and Ceroba (and Flowey) knew that Ceroba is responsible for Kanako falling down. Starlo (and some of the rest of the Feisty Five) has suspicions Ceroba hid SOMETHING about the nature of Kanako falling down beyond what she reveals out loud in pacifist, but would never suspect what happened, and both he and Martlet were knocked out for the fight (plus, Clover was seeing a memory) so neither caught what happened. There is absolutely some angst potential of Ceroba admitting what happened and it temporarily straining her friendship with Starlo.

-Undertale is about 2 years after (I normally headcanon that it's decades apart for humans but for this game I'd let it slide). There's not much obvious aging or change outside whats apparent in the credits from character development (dalv is a little more outgoing, Ceroba starts to live a little, starlo goes back to the farm more often) but Martlet is probably marginally more organized and a tad more matured in terms of appearance.

- The cast is mostly uninvolved with UT, but at least one of them (probably martlet or Dalv--ceroba is still a little bitter about mettaton costing Chujin his job and Starlo might avoid the show out of respect to her) catch Frisk on Mettaton's show with clover's gun and hat. Your call whether they respect that Clover's tools protect another kid beyond the grave or see that moment as disrespecting their memory (Martlet is probably the most understanding, Starlo the least), but after the barrier is broken they at least appreciate that Frisk used Clover's belongings to achieve justice for monsterkind

-During the photoshop flowey fight, clover was kept on lock the longest since he knew more of what their soul was capable of.

-The Wild East/Dunes and steamworks aren't used as hiding spaces in genocide because even if clover was pacifist, monsters know humans have gotten there before, and Alphys isn't taking chances compared to how true lab can be locked down.

-the souls can briefly "sense" clover while everyone is absorbed by Asriel, and toward the end of the fight as monsters inside gain their memories back, they don't exactly "talk" again but at least gain a sense of closure and fulfillment from Clover. No one quite knows what happened after the fight, but the gang feels a little better about Clover for some reason.

-Ceroba meets amalgam Kanako in both the evacuation and post-pacifist. At first, she'd hold it against Alphys (after the initial despair at seeing her daughter transformed), enough to even attack alphys, but she comes to admit what happened is just as much her responsibility. On post-pacifist, Kanako is calm enough (thanks to Frisk) and sentient enough for it to be a real reunion, and like most amalgams doesn't hold it against alphys enough to lash out, which at least eases Ceroba.

-toriel gets some closure on what happened to clover when she wants to honor the fallen humans and asgore directs her to ceroba. She doesn't get the full story but enough to know they gave their soul up willingly. Even though the two in the past probably would have disliked each other (Ceroba disliking Toriel for giving up on her husband, and Toriel for what Ceroba did to both kanako and Clover), Ceroba would have mellowed out enough to respect toriel's decision. Toriel would be more standoffish but at least sees Ceroba as less of a coward than asgore who was motivated by love of her family.

-any monsters who befriended previous humans plus yellow's main cast and toriel hold a funeral for the humans who died (Asgore may attend out of penance, and other monsters out of guilt but not as the primary attendees), Toriel is probably the only one (besides family if any are left) that cares for integrity sadly...

-Honeydew inn becomes the main nature resort of the underground for surface visitors, especially with snowed inn shutting down

-On the surface, Starlo becomes involved in those western town recreations, and Martlet still doesn't quite have a direction to take her life in and winds up in various odd-jobs for a while, but she appreciates the newfound freedom. Dalv isn't quite a pro yet, but his organ playing nets him the occasional music festival appearance, and in-between he works on his kid's books. Ceroba would mainly be occupied just trying to keep amalgam kanako happy (though if there's a connection between her background and Japan, she at least visits a few shrines together) and when she doesn't visit her friends, she's working together with other amalgam families on treatment.

-in flawed pacifist, starlo has almost entirely lost the sheriff and western fascination due to his feelings on clover and justice as a whole, and busies himself on his family farm, occasionally paying respects to the ketsukanes. The feisty five become more distant friends and the wild east as a whole gradually loses its cowboy flavor without Starlo's enthusiasm and becomes more of a rural Hamlet in the dunes. Martlet and dalv are generally the same as above, but lack a strong friend group for support, especially with martlet and starlo never reconciling over Clover's choice . After the events of UT, starlo takes in kanako and cares for her as both struggle with the loss of Ceroba and feelings on humans in light of frisk and Clover's legacies. Starlo also takes a small roll in the steamworks restoration with alphys (below), but has nowhere near the same knowledge or attachment

-The connection to the surface eventually results in the resources for reflowering portions of the dunes, and the mines remain a source of mineral wealth for monsterkind.

*General AU Idea I had regarding Kanako as Flowey/an Equivalent

-The steamworks gets "restored" (cleaned out of important tools and research properly, and physically repaired but out of practical operation outside as a museum) post-pacifist. Most robots choose to stay in the only home they know (and could operate in) but any capable of moving at least have the freedom to leave, and it's now run as a historical location with Axis occasionally involved in tours (when he's not exploring the concept of freedom himself). Alphys contributes to the restoration work due to a combination of guilt for "faking" mettaton's nature and putting a lot of scientists out of a job, and Ceroba realizing she's still one of the best tech specialists left in the underground and asking for her help (and alphys naturally feels she owes it to her as a family member of an amalgamate).

-Kanako takes on a similar role to Flowey after a combination of Ceroba's soul essence injection and alphys' determination injections (Ceroba never told Alphys that there's already some injected in her) overload her past the amalgam point and her body melts too much to even hold together, eventually dusting and settling into a white flower from the steamworks that kanako kept from chujin as a memento. She grows the same lack of empathy and desire for thrill/power that drives flowey as lack of emotions and the ability to reset erodes her unwillingness to kill (as usually develops as a result of gaining reset power: see meta narrative on Frisk/Chara/the player). Eventually, this drives her to seek the souls and see what she could do with more power. her philosophy outside of those goals is that people only ever use each other as a means to an end, and trust or faith in others is a painful dead end (Chujin's plan and Ceroba's work hurt Kanako and she cynically sees it as an attempt at creating/clinging to legacy, she realized Alphys faked her credentials and was using the DT injections just for reputation, and she eventually realizes Asgore doesn't reaaaaally want to free his citizens the way he promised them but is too afraid to be honest and destroy their trust). There's an element of "kill or be killed" but based more in the belief that inherent selfishness means those who don't use others will be used. The integrity soul human themself isn't truly present, but their LV, though filtered, made it easier for Kanako to start hurting others, and lingering feelings of fear and hatred towards monsters combined with kanako's own trauma from a human created a deeper sense of distrust for all living things.

-outside her general philosophy being a bit different and putting down her parents and their friends a bit more (similar to Flowey holding more cynical views of his parents) her actions are like flowey for most of the game (so she largely masks her philosophy and her personal belief that she and Clover are trying to use each other). the only noticeable difference is that she's less reliant on pellets and more on energy infused attacks given the nature of the flower she's attached to. Part of her snapping in neutral in addition to just generally being angry clover won't open the way to killing asgore after years of trying to get them there is that she's PISSED clover would be so "stupid" as to throw their safety away by trusting Martlet. The inside of her head would have less of Flowey's self-harm elements and be marginally less twisted (it "helps" she isn't dealing with lingering remnants of Chara's mentality or death from humans like Asriel did) but instead there'd be a sense of loss of self from the amalgam experience she briefly felt manifesting as melty, goopy horror, and the fear she felt both then, and as a child when integrity attacked (and subconsciously, the fear Integrity held as Axis blew their head off).

-despite the Asriel comparisons I also really wanna try not making her mostly just "Asriel but UT yellow character." (which is also why I can't come up with an ending scenario since I feel it could rip off Asriel too much). I do think flowey's role in UTY works really work because it IS flowey and not someone like him (whether like his UT or UTY selves), I just also had the idea kanako might be flowey during my playthrough and I REALLY wanna explore that .

**variation of the above but placing the timeline further back.

-I have a less developed idea that sees this as part of a larger AU where yellow takes places before flowey or alphys. Chujin loses his job due to the core shutting down steamworks labs and the axis prototype incident ensuring he doesn't get to work as an individual researcher. The Integrity attack happens when kanako was just a baby, then a decade later is when chujin dies and Ceroba starts the serum plan. After kanako becomes fallen down, Ceroba does another injection since she's desperately clinging to the belief that chujin's idea HAS to work.

-That much human soul essence contains enough DT for it to partially melt Kanako and seemingly destroy her sentience, but her boss monster DNA (and the fact that it's not pure DT but filtered through human essence and is therefore slightly more self sustaining) keeps her soul and form resilient enough to survive as solo amalgamate. Ceroba keeps her locked in the Ketsukane house out of a mix of shame, fear of losing all her friends, and fear that Asgore would ask other scientist to poke at Kanako's soul (Ceroba herself would admit that she really isn't sure herself which one dominates her thinking, but it's probably more selfish than she would like). She tries her best to at least talk to her, feed her and comfort her while maintaining the facade of a normal life (she tells everyone Kanako got sick and passed away, and it was too much to bear to bring anyone to her funeral) Kanako slowly becomes less and less responsive. Months before Clover falls, Kanako's body comes into contact with a white flower from the steamworks, and the remnants of her soul jump into on after sensing a stable, "living" body, awakening as her time's version of flowey.

-I don't have too much of an idea for the ending of Clover's journey, but in this version Ceroba has at least given up on using Kanako for a monster soul and instead is aiming for Asgore's. Part of the shock of the Ketsukane household portion would not just be the tapes, but the fact that Kanako's now motionless, amalgamated body can be found right after. It's initially assumed to be from Chujin's research before the truth comes out.

-this probably breaks a TON of rules of both undertale and Yellow, so if anyone has a less stupid sounding version of this, it would be neat (and also how it would somehow end in such a way as to not interfere with Undertale)

*species swap/overtale yellow/monster clover:

-martlet's wings are a carpentry invention she made to make her job easier. They aren't exactly the most reliable equipment though...

- clover is a fox monster for a kanako parralel just as how Frisk and Chara are commonly goat monsters. Their aesthetic still leans on western cultural ideas about foxes as opposed to kitsune elements, with the hat over their ears plus scarf over their nose in populated areas hiding enough facial features to pass as human. Otherwise, they're a star monster to mirror fellow cowboy, starlo.

-All the robots are largely the same (since they aren't monsters), though there's an implication that integrity's monster counterpart's dust has had some unnatural effect on Axis' personality (nowhere near asriel's rebirth). Chujin had BADDLY underestimated how fragile monsters can be, and axis' attempt to harvest essence and dust without a proper protocol led to some of the dust getting within his internal systems.

-one of the uncomfortable facts that clover is confronted with towards the end of each route is that if/when the monsters died, there would be no real way to know what dust is theirs or where they are now.

-part of the reason clover stands a chance is because their gun, unlike the rest of clover, is not magic but instead physical with a bit of extra kick from magic infusion. And a murder-high/genocide route naturally gets a little bloody... (though most kill would at least be "clean" enough shots through the chest)

-in each route, clover undergoes their own "undying"-esque transformation based on overwhelming justice that feeds into determination, resulting in the equivalent of their big shot mode. In neutral, flowey reducing them to their soul in his mind means their magic is no longer tied to a body or the danger of the real world and can desperately concentrate on self defense, in pacifist, Ceroba lands a clean hit and clover's sense of betrayal and desire for a just end pushes them to take one last stand (regardless of pacifist outcome, they don't have a strong enough soul for it to last forever). In Geno, axis manages to land the same killing blow he did on integrity, and clover is strong enough to spend the remainder of the story in their undying mode. Asgore manages to actually land his own fatal blow that would kill them in moments, but clover survived long enough to kill him and take his soul, leaving it ambiguous if it saves them.

*what-if: Ceroba succeeds in capturing Clover's soul

-basically what it says. Ceroba manages to get clover all the way to true lab (including pushing past alphys and mettaton) before Starlo warns them (or alternatively, if for some reason Flowey didn't reset the timeline when she takes Clover's soul in the pacifist fight). After the initial shock in true lab, Ceroba realizes one of the amalgams is Kanako. Even though part of her admits her plan won't work with the state her daughter's soul is in, she's too desperate to reverse her daughter's condition and after coming across Alphys' entry 17 (unused in-game, but her speech on how monsters can't handle DT), backstabs Clover in the hopes that their soul can act as a weight on the determination that overloaded the amalgam's body. Flowey's aversion to true lab plus the speed and chaos of events happening make him too slow to control the timeline since the amalgamate has enough determination to go beyond his file (a full human soul plus a DT injection plus a human essence injection plus boss monster DNA plus other monsters). The body stabilizes into a chimera, and all the monsters in the amalgam plus clover have their own sense of self and degree of control over their body (picture Asriel + Chara but way more chaotic, with kanako and clover as the ones most commonly in control). Everybody is confused and terrified, and Angst and tragedy ensue. Kanako isn't really happy that an innocent human had to die for her sake, and Clover is caught between anger at being betrayed, and their own recognition of the injustice Kanako and all the amalgamated monsters have endured.

*"Ketsukane Reborn"/Clover shares a soul with Kanako

-not my idea at all (there are quite a few cool takes on this), but yeah, clover shares their soul with Kanako similar to Dreemurr Reborn. Kanako has less angst about Clover giving up their soul (they're still sorry of course, but they didn't ever try to hurt Clover, and clover gave their soul up since it wouldn't be just to let them suffer so they're okay enough with what happened) and the two can be surprisingly in-sync with a mix of Kanako's enthusiasm (Kid was hopeful enough that her parent's serum would work) and Clover's desire for justice, compared to Asriel/Frisk being a bit more solemn and differing

-Since both of them keep their eyes open, the main way to tell who's more in control is the eye hue: Brown for Kanako, and Yellow for Clover.

-The monster side of the soul offers support in shooting sections with the same additions that ralsei and susie provide during spamton Neo (with the protection closer to Ceroba's diamond shields).

-Ceroba absolutely broke down SOBBING in a mix of joy and sadness to have her daughter back and for how much Clover gave. Clover assuring her it was okay was one of the first times they manifested.

-If they ever actually meet Dreemurr Reborn Asriel/Frisk, Asriel talks with Clover a lot apologizing for all he put them through, and Kanako talks with Frisk thanking them for not fearing her in True Lab.

-the human essence in kanako was the only reason why her body was even stable enough to absorb Clover's soul (clover confirmed this themselves before they gave it up), but even still, she does feel that it's unfair she got a second chance that no other amalgamates did. As they get older, the two search the world for the history of monster souls to see if there's any cure.

*Underswap yellow:

-I don't have ideas for most swaps since the cast mostly don't come in pairs, but in a role but not personality swap AU, Ceroba would swap with starlo and goes full weeaboo running the Far West. She's not anime weeb (though that's her equivalent to western movies as research material) but more like, glorious Nippon, edo-era, ken-sama shit. Starlo is a peaceful enough farmer who packs a gun after seeing its power in his interactions with human culture (if clover swaps, he got the gun they left behind when they died). Ceroba is moreso putting on act of overblowing what is "tradition" while making it more "trendy" based on human trash in waterfall in order to appeal to other monsters even though she wants to honor her family's legacy (not just her immediate family but ancestors), and Starlo leans into it more than Ceroba does for him. The culmination of the arc would more be her frustration with a self-imposed obligation to put up an act that celebrates the human alterations and ignores how her family and own personality really are, compared to Starlo getting too caught up in the act, and she is much more willing to kill a human for personal reasons.

-If clover does swap with another human, it's either patience (a la their items appearing in the ruins in ts!underswap) or integrity (as the major human of yellow's backstory). Whoever swapped with clover is the one going through the journey with yellow's cast and theming is closer to their soul, while clover went through the events the original human they swapped with did.

-Asgore, Toriel, undyne, napstablook, and Temmie are mostly the same as however you view/prefer their underswap selves. Running with the doll idea, neutral ending Temmie's memories feature a lot of ripped apart and mutilated dolls and stuffing, and an "odd" focus on a lack of arms... On Geno route they get absolutely ripped to shreds as their plush's body parts come off.

--Alternatively, going with the Asriel and Chara swap (the other one I usually see), then Chara-as-Flowey would DETEST Clover the instant their mask slips in neutral/genocide. They still wouldn't reveal their backstory, but there would be hints at the fact that they're pretty familiar with humans and have a VERY low impression of humanity (Clover's counterpart not excluded), even if circumstances have lowered their empathy for monsters as well. During true pacifist, Clover's counterpart's act of selflessness for the sake of monsterkind earns their begrudging respect, while during Geno, Chara-flowey promises them that they aren't all powerful and will have consequences some day like all humans (I've never really seen a consistent elaborated form of this swap so I kind of just ran with my own ideas of it, without too much personality swapping)

*Underfell Yellow

-I forget the general plot/backstory people go with and I haven't seen the original version in YEARS so I don't have much for Undertale/fell cast members who appear, aside that flowey was genuinely siding with Clover most of the journey and sends them away from toriel for their safety (from Toriel or the rest of the underfell underground is your call). Clover gives him the okay to move on without them once they realize there's no route in which Clover escapes without massive amounts of dustshed, but he's still shaken by losing them and it affects his relationship with Frisk on top of Frisk's connection to Chara.

-Martlet is motivated by a desire to climb the royal guard's (or their underfell equivalent) promotion ladder by ANY means for the power and prestige it brings. she tries to fake being clover's ally but is really, really bad at hiding her intentions so they usually avoid any backstab easily enough. She really shouldn't be qualified for the job, but she managed to cheat the initial results and competition for a position.

-starlo I already saw a cool bandit concept for and there is no improving on that

-ceroba's life went on a downward spiral ever since she married chujin only for him to become a disgraced, laughingstock of a scientist and leave the family broke, and then went on to focus all his efforts on soul and robotics projects with no care for the family before he had the "decency" to pass away. Ceroba is baddly shaken, and without realizing it, starts emotionally manipulating Kanako with the idea that her mother works very hard, is very tired, and needs more help to care for her child (not entirely untrue, but Kanako thinks it's somehow her own fault). After discovering Chujin's serum idea, Ceroba becomes borderline negligent trying to create the injection, with Kanako finding out and putting herself forward as a test subject in the belief that anything to help her mom is good. Ceroba at this point is too desperate to even question if she shouldn't do this, and we all know what happens next (though Kanako coming under the care of Underfell alphys is pretty bad...). All she has left is a degrading existence as a paid assistant to starlo's gang, having given up on her husband's plan or that Kanako might recover, but Clover's pure soul has given her a new plan that might salvage her family's dignity

-chujin has actively tuned up axis to be as much of a human murder machine as he can be after the integrity incident, partly to spite asgore and the royal guard by showing his creation is superior to anything they could ever hope to do, and partly out of a burning hatred of humanity. Axis has a sympathetic personality from his initial creation when chujin was less bitter and exploring the potential of artificial intelligence for good, but it's buried amongst data screaming at him to kill humans, and little is left for monsters or robots besides indifference (in a bit of blatant symbolism, his heart is now cracked from disrepair). In his more comical moments, think of abridged android 16 if he didn't have a bird interest.

*Outertale Yellow:

-Okay I really have nothing for this except the fact that at least one "star fox" joke with the Ketsukanes (and also Martlet, froggits, and any rabbit NPC) would be very funny to me.

*Storyshift Yellow:

-This one I don't have real ideas for at all (especially because I'm embarrassingly behind on the reboot and I don't wanna put lazy headcanons on it), but if Clover somehow fell before Chara (considering how neither of the skeletons are referenced in UTY), their fate would influence how the Dreemurrs attempt to keep Chara alive.

-Sans immediately pulls out his instant kill cage on clover in flawed pacifist unlike asgore having dodgeable attacks, and admits how blatantly unfair it is for the kid. On Geno, he would normally try to put up a fight during genocide even if recognized he would eventually lose, but he sees Clover's fight with Martlet's equivalent and admits he can't even hope to delay clover or make them reset enough as soon as he realizes they have counters for his tricks (laser during his turn which makes it much harder to dodge, attacking outside of battle, the natural advantages of resetting) after one or two reloads. He does manage to leave them with a comment asking whether the slaughter and chaos and hatred that will follow was worth it or just.

*Inverted Fate:

-I don't really have anything concrete for this either since I admittedly missed a lot of backstory, plus the creator already said Clover's journey would be incompatible with the the AU (and I'm not creative enough to imagine where/"when" most of the yellow cast would be in IF's world). That said, as a what-if, I do think It'd be neat if Flowey went through Yellow before the timeline reset and that a part of Asriel was still affected by that time with Clover (if only for how they weren't Chara, just as how he's dismissive of Frisk, as further evidence to himself of Chara's importance and specialness).

-I do think Martlet could also be interesting to examine due to anti-human sentiment becoming much more normalized thanks to both the backstory and Undyne's actions. Martlet would be a more dedicated member of the Royal Guard (and a little older than she is in UTY) who wouldn't be as friendly to frisk, but she can't help but have doubts.

*Poketale Yellow/pokemon themed AU where everyone is a Pokemon/Mystery Dungeon choices:

-Clover is a Jolteon

-flowey is a sunflora

-decibat is noibat,

-Dalv is golbat (I could find surprisingly few vampire-esque pokemon. Also, while acrobat matches the color scheme better, dalv is relatively weak and too isolated to have fully evolved).

-martlet is quaxwell (she evolves in Geno route. and I know she's not a duck but I found surprsingly few good blue bird pokemon besides ducklett, or Articuno)

-bailador is Hawlucha,

-starlo is like a junior Solgaleo (mainly on account of his parents, and I just can't see cosmoem or staryu working well. Feel free to make them work or come up with a better fit like a special solrock or minior)

-Ceroba is Ninetales (she usually hides her tails outside of battle, and they only show in full for the pacifist final)

-chujin is thievul

-Kanako is a vulpix, but she has a few traits of a thievul

-axis is golett.

(Feel free to put any of your own ideas for them, i'm sure i missed some new pokemon that are better fits. I just like Jolteon clover to go with Eevee frisk)

*Dreemurr/Ketsukane Swap (including Chara with the Dreemurrs).

-The dreemurrs aren't royalty, but rather "just" the monster equivalent of nobility, while the ketsukanes sit on the throne. King Chujin has a much less trusting view of humanity, but the Dreemurrs pleaded to him that an exception be made so long they ensured Chara never hurt anyone. As there was less pressure to be the "future" of monsters, Chara never developed the same sense of responsibility or duty to destroy the barrier for monsterkind. Their hatred of humanity remained though, and combined with their exposure to more average monsters and the sense that they were a burden on monsterkind, they wanted to be part of a "weapon" for all of their family's fellow monsters. They convinced Asriel to go ahead with their plan hoping that their fused soul might contain the essence necessary to empower all monsters to take revenge with a source of near infinite determination. Asriel/Chara stayed hidden from society after convincing asgore and Toriel that Chara died of a natural illness and the fusion was an accident, and begging that no one find out what happened lest they become saddled as monsterkind's saviors (really because chara wants all monsterkind to be powerful enough for war first and doesn't want them to have false hope until the power is in their hands). They secretly worked together with Chujin to extract the essence of their soul after convincing him of the potential and banking on his general distrust of humanity and faith in science to free monsterkind. Chujin realizes it's risky but after Chara already sacrificed themselves for this plan, he can't refuse.

- As kids who didn't fully think things through and a king working in secret without other scientists, the plan did not work at all. The Raw energy of Chara and Asriel's determination basically went berserk in response to an extraction attempt, leaving the fusion as an amalgamate constantly melting and reforming from attempts to save and load. Chujin was too guilt-ridden to tell the truth of what happened to Asgore and Toriel, so he lied to them that Asriel/Chara broke into his personal lab and tried the experiment on themselves and died, begging the Dreemurrs to tell everyone else it was a disease so that no one questions the sudden disappearance of a human. The body is too well hidden for the Dreemurrs to question anything at first, and they leave to grieve.

-Asgore is the first to realize something is off and eventually finds the amalgamate. He comes close to killing Chujin in rage for hiding his children's survival and mutation, but is stopped at the last second by Asriel (just sentient enough to protect Chujin since it was partly his and Chara's fault, but unable to communicate that to Asgore) Chujin swears that he thought finding them like this would be worse than thinking they died, then promises that if Asgore keeps this a secret to everyone, then the two can work towards a cure. Asgore hates that he was lied to, but still believes that Chara and Asriel tried to extract the essence on their own, so he accepts the proposal as Chujin's form of apology. Asgore works himself ragged through tests on his soul seeing if the growth between boss monster parents and children or a stable boss monster soul might reform the children, far past the safety point that Chujin recommends, but nothing works. As his condition pushes past the point of no return, Chujin finally realizes that another human soul would be the only thing powerful enough to restore the children, and bitterly passes the information on to Asgore, believing it's hopeless one would appear like Chara.

-This whole time, Asgore kept everything a secret from Toriel even as she became worried about his health. On his deathbed, he admits the truth (as he knows it) to her and apologizes for lying about their children since he didn't want her to see them so disfigured, but with no hope for recovery they have been secretly transported home without chujin's knowledge (leaving him constantly afraid they may one day reappear). Asgore begs Toriel to keep the same promise of secrecy and tells her that a human soul is Asriel and Chara's only hope. Toriel is infuriated with Chujin but out of Asgore's wishes, she never tells anyone and keeps them hidden, while planning to take a human soul should the chance ever arise

-Toriel DESPISES herself for the killing she's planning to do even if it's for saving her kids (that it's for them is the only reason she even takes this path), and though she believes that Asgore and Chujin both lied to her (the later not receiving any sympathy), she still blames herself for everything that led to the transformation even though she really is innocent ("if only I paid more attention") and is caught between her protective urges and her mission. She fights with a cult-like animal mask based on a goat (like a stereotypical image of Pagan, fertility European religions), giving her longer horns and a generally demonic appearance.

*Deltarune / Deltarune Yellow (whether it's the Yellow Cast in regular Deltarune or in Hometown's past is your call, but most of these apply to the former):

-Martlet is stuck doing a bunch of odd jobs around hometown since she hasn't really decided on a careeer or college. She's related to Berdly as a way older cousin, and the age gap that puts her in higher end of asriel's age group means they don't really hang out much.

-Dalv is another shut-in, though he occasionally submits anonymous organ recordings and children's books to the library.

-Decibat is one of the workers at the library and can be most counted on to shush anyone, even anyone else trying to shush someone.

-Starlo runs a movie watching club focused on westerns. The rest of the feisty five put up with it but each has their own genres they prefer

-Bailador runs a really weird dance aerobics program at a local gym.

-the Ketsukanes would be one of the more notable families in town like the Dreemurrs and Holidays (like how Toriel runs the school, asgore ran the police, and Noelle's mom is the mayor) due to chujin being a capable inventor (in his case, less authority in town and more out of town fame that trickles back home) and his and ceroba's families both having lived there for decades, but he had a pretty big falling out incident with Dreemurrs regarding their choice to adopt Kris (he didn't trust having a human in the community, let alone the chief of police having one). After that public blowup with Asgore, Kris was mysteriously attacked in the woods while alone, and while there was no official evidence of who did it (Kris was too young and too hurt to remember) and no one was charged, rumors quickly singled out chujin and his reputation was destroyed, since no one wanted to be friendly to someone who hurt a Dreemurr (though most townsfolks are more worried about Toriel, asgore, and Asriel's feelings than kris'). The family moved away to a city where he works with the tech and robotics companies he already designed for--the irony that in spite of his hatred for humans he now has to live in an environment full of them as well monsters has not been lost on him, but he's too stubborn to go back or make up with the dreemurrs and just avoids humans as much as possible now. The ketsukanes.generally dress more like a "modern" Japanese family (e.g. Kanako wears a school uniform), though chujin isn't quite a salaryman.

-Ceroba occasionally visits to talk with her old friend Starlo and pay respects to family buried in the town cemetery, but otherwise she's grown distant from most of the people living there and has awkward talks about her family's new life which are mostly done out of politeness obligations. She isn't distrusting of Kris like Chujin is, but given the nature of Chujin leaving, they're naturally not comfortable around each other (she wishes Kris could remember what happened that day and exonerate her husband, while Kris knows it wasn't chujin and feels guilty for being unable to absolve him, but they still dread thinking about that attack and being reminded of those who refuse to accept them as part of other monsters), and Toriel is very cold toward Ceroba since that's the closest person to chujin she can take out her anger on.

-Kanako was pretty young at the time (she's currently Asriel's age, and left when she was just 7 or 8 when Kris was a newly adopted younger sibling), so she's not too close to Asriel and Dess' school group and she never really knew Kris' school group (she's never met Susie before the events of Deltarune, and she only saw Kris once or twice due to her father's hostility--she mostly knows Noelle and catti thanks to her time with their older sisters). The rare times she visits with her mom during summer is her mostly just her seeing what's changed, telling her old class what city life is like and awkwardly trying to get to know the town's teens as an older teen/young adult (most of them are weirded out since they don't really know her except from their parents talking about chujin unfavorably, Kris is too quiet and too uncomfortable about what happened to get close, and Noelle's own problems with Dess make it hard to talk since the original in-between point for them is now gone). She might have ended up as Asriel and Dess' friend or at least someone they occasionally talk to online since they were too young to fully get what happened or blame her, but Dess' disappearance left just Asriel and kanako, and the ketsukane-dreemurr family history made it too awkward to talk as just the two of them, so they stopped keeping up around high school.

- Some of Chujin's old concept sketches on an automated police robot that can still be found in the station's files are basically axis without the steampunk pipes or heart design. If one file was part of the dark world it would resemble a sleeker axis insecure about being incomplete, with the spare requirement being to "finish" building him (if you do so, he ends up falling in love with the machine to thrash your ass, and much hilarity ensues with rouxls and sweet cap'n cakes in hometown). Noelle's cool robot face is needed to briefly placate him since his facial recognition concept was never exactly well developed (blame chujin's biases for making him associate human faces with criminals, and not really working out a monster face).

-clover is a kid in asriel's age group who happens to both go to the same college as him, and was friends with kanako in high school (ironically, as much as chujin didn't want a human in hometown, he accepted that in a city would realistically be impossible to keep kanako away from any. Most what keeps him away from hometown is his pride + sunk cost fallacy at this point). However, clover doesn't realize Asriel and kanako knew each other for a while since they (clover) never saw a need to bring up one to the other, and the two of them didn't ever mention the past (and kanako herself goes to a different college). That connection would only come up as part of any storyline you do

*Deltatraveler yellow:

-note: I know that deltatraveler has a set plan of chapters, and I doubt this could freely drop in-between any of them with no trouble--this is just a what-if I can see happening towards the end of the journey, but at least before toontown. Also, I would not assume by default that Kris, Susie, or Noelle know any of the Deltarune counterparts I imagined above, since they're coming from a universe closer to the Deltarune we know.

-Neutral: Kris, susie, and Noelle all get dropped into the steamworks (at a point between its shutdown and Clover entering) and accidentally turn on Axis. Shenanigans ensue, including Noelle pulling out a cool robot face that manages to placate Axis multiple times as Kris sneaks away and Susie getting pissed off at the lab puzzles. She and Noelle get stuck in the factory and they come out with the guide robot screen stuck on susie's weapon. Kris gets stuck in the lab and deals with both Axis and Yellow's Flowey who's confused about how his Determination is being overridden and tries to kill Kris, though before a fight can happen Axis interferes. The rest of the gang doesn't entirely realize they're in a version of the underground (no monsters besides sans, and they aren't familiar enough with the references to other people/places) until Kris tells Susie they ran into Flowey again, and on cue he appears. Since he's a different flowey who doesn't know the rest of them vs the main one tailing them, Susie can instantly cut the bullshit with him and tries to take him out, but once again Axis interferes, and UTY flowey leaves. After the encounter, the main chapter 1 Flowey appears unbeknownst to anyone and plans to use the experience with his counterpart to get a better read on how to deal with Kris, Susie, and Noelle.

-sans takes the place of Mo and mentions he hasn't ever been here even though it feels familiar to him for some reason but also...not. (he's alluding to the underground as a whole, and that he's not from Yellow's universe/timeline).

-pacifist: Ceroba appears early on after noticing one of Chujin's devices in her home went off (it was linked to Axis activity). Upon realizing there's a pure human soul (she really sensed it before the gang sees her, and it's implied she avoids them on neutral as a result to leave the job of killing Kris to Asgore and the Guard since she doesn't need the soul or care much for asgore's plan if it's at 5 souls already), she approaches as an ally to get the gang to Hotland and the royal scientist (Susie is annoyed that she won't outright fight back against robots like the rest of the team). She recognizes Kris' soul is odd, but she's confident enough in it being "pure" and keeps trying to pull them to the side to earn sympathy points while seperating them from Susie and Noelle and just generally being a bit of a control freak which puts Kris, Susie, and Noelle on edge. She accompanies Kris through the factory and "accidentally" gets cut off from Susie and Noelle, during which time she really tries to butter up Kris as an ally. Susie and Noelle catch up soon after the lab and accidentally trip an alarm that alerts the underground to the group's presence, causing Ceroba to panic, grab Kris, and run for it before getting separated from Susie and Noelle in Axis' arena. After repelling Axis, Ceroba tries to make a play for kris' soul, but they make it clear to her their soul cannot be trusted or controlled even if they were comfortable letting her use it. The gang is angry that she lied to them and tried to kill one of them, though at least Noelle can't help but feel sorry (without agreeing) after she admits her desire to uphold chujin's legacy and help kanako (without ever explicitly admitting what happened). In turn, once she hears the trio has their own family to get back to, she promises to grab the royal guard's attention and hold them off, assuring them the royal scientist might recognize kris' soul wouldn't work for the kingdom's needs and help them leave to avoid trouble.

-obliteration: Because the soul forces the group's way into the steamworks without turning it on, Ceroba isn't alerted at first and Axis is force booted in safe mode. The soul destruction scene includes Mo making a brief appearance (sans ain't gonna help you outside of key locations, so mo ends up running into the group none the wiser while attempting to scrounge around for stuff to sell), and for trying to kill someone that doesn't even pick a fight and still tries to help after the first threat, Kris slam dunks the soul into the pink goop. (Alternatively: during the lab portion Kris pours the acid on the soul if you attempt to make them drink it). The rest of the gang is a mix of desensitized and tired enough to let the Soul destroy Axis ("helps" he's just a robot to them) in the second encounter if Kris is forced to catch him in time--failing to do so drops obliteration. The final fight is with Ceroba after Axis' danger signal manages to trigger one of Chujin's devices, and she realizes you're not only destroying Chujin's work, but a threat to the whole underground (and kanako in particular since you're going in the same direction where Kanako currently is) while bitterly noting that of course the next human would be impure. She uses shields, red attacks, the steamworks itself, and a partner to put up a hard fight against kris, susie, and noelle given how powerful they are at this point. From there I can see two different partners

--If it's still pre-clover, Ceroba is accompanied by Starlo since he refused to let her explore alone and together they can put up a hell of a fight in sync (especially with starlo getting more serious, and providing more unpredictable attacks to counterbalance Ceroba's). If Ceroba dies first, the full weight of the situation hits him and he starts bringing out some magic based on both his farm background and his astral nature. If Starlo dies first, Ceroba curses that she sees yet another person close to her die and pulls out her mask, going into a lighter version of her pacifist phases (she's more righteously angry, but can't hold onto the same hope for chujin's legacy that pushed her in pacifist). I feel like Ceroba would go down first since she could shield any attacks plus starlo never gets a "hard" fight, but I could also see him trying to jump in front of a heavy attack meant for Ceroba that she wouldn't have time to shield up for.

--If it's closer to Yellow (perhaps because the grind takes so long that the events in steamworks go from corresponding with right before Clover to the Dunes and Wild East?), Ceroba is accompanied by a pacifist clover who tagged along despite her insistence not to (If they either die or somehow win, her plan is impossible to fulfill, plus she has enough basic decency to be uncomfortable putting a child up against killers). If clover goes down first, she naturally goes rage mode at losing both an innocent child and her plan (and the soul/Kris sense that "someone"/Flowey tried to reset but couldn't), and she goes diet pacifist like before. If Ceroba goes down first, clover's LV jumps to 8 in rage and they pull out big shots and dodges (they aren't high enough LV for the laser, but will spam big shots late in the fight) alongside attacks based on Undertale Yellow's attack system and the yellow soul portion of photoshop Flowey. Susie and Noelle flat out refuse any participation the second Clover gets involved, and when it falls to just clover they outright assist them against the soul (Susie and Noelle will force spare themselves but they can't spare clover since Clover is too enraged to back down from the fight). After landing the killing blow, clover's soul slowly starts charging the laser in a last ditch attack, but it shatters before it can fire, and they collapse. In this case, I think Ceroba would always die first thanks to protecting Clover, but I want to consider the possibility of her surviving as a what-if. The gang can't exactly fall much further than killing Ness and Paula (plus whatever happens in Ts!underswap with Chara), but being unable to stop the soul from forcing a kill on clover even with their assistance would be one of the second-to-last straws.

-the elevator to Hotland proper is a grey door. The gang is...a tad exasperated by this (Susie: "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?") but accept that they have no real choice since the way before the arena is blocked and either the commotion from axis or the obliteration route has notified the guard to their presence.

Doubt anyone will read my ramblings or be seriously inspired, but I just love this game, and I love to imagine it together with all the other cool stuff in Undertale and fandom