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cheapshrimpysheep · 7 hours ago

Text

A Rainy Walk

SUMMARY: He invites you to go with him on one of his club's outings, but the weather is revealed, belatedly, tto be inappropriate and perhaps even dangerous for what should be a pleasant moment together.

CHARACTERS: Mountain Lover Club (Jade Leech) / Gargoyle Studies Club (Malleus Draconia)

TAGS: Fluff; GN Reader; Flirting; Kiss

WORD COUNT: An average of 2.370 words per character.

COMMENTS: In Jade's part, as a person who doesn't like hiking, I wanted to create a way for both those who like it and those who don't to be able to insert themselves. So I made the reader twist an ankle.

I hope you enjoy it. 🌧️⛈️

OTHER CLUBS:

But… We Lost… - Basketball Club (Ace / Floyd / Jamil)

Romantic Experiment - Science Club (Trey / Rook)

For a Quarter of a Second - Track and Field Club (Deuce / Jack)

Unlucky Overtime - Spelldrive Club (Leona / Ruggie / Epel)

P.S.: I don't know what's going on with me to make me start writing so much.

You had gone to the Mostro Lounge, as you do from time to time with Grim, Ace and Deuce for a snack. When Jade comes to your table to take your orders, he informs you that he has prepared a new dessert and would love for you all to try it and tell him what you think.

“Myaah yeah, I'll take any-” Grim starts to say excitedly, until he remembers who he's talking to. “Wait... what do you want?”

“Me? I would just like to know if this new dessert I made has a pleasant taste. And who better than some of our best customers to tell me?” He smiles and proceeds to describe something you would absolutely love to eat.

“Funny, that really sounds like (Y/N)'s favorite desserts. ” Deuce says.

“Truly? What a coincidence.”

“Which I'm sure it isn't.” Ace adds. “Come on Jade, tell us what you really want in return. We might even consider it.”

“Very well.” he smiled amusedly. “It would cost you 17 thaumark each.” Everyone is shocked by that price for a small dessert. “However, I have another proposal.” you see his sharp teeth through the smile for a second. “I believe you know that I am a member of the Mountain Lover Club. This weekend, I'm planning on waking up before dawn to head to the mountains so I can see a flower that only blooms in the early hours of the day.” He looks at you. “And they are such charming flowers that I would love to share this experience with... someone. Perhaps (Y/N)?” If you accept, I can give you all a discount and the dessert will only be 8 thaumark.”

“Did you really need to do all this ruse?” Grim asks annoyed. “Why don't you just ask (Y/N) out?”

“Because that wouldn't be as thrilling, would it? Fu fu.”

“My wallet doesn't need any thrilling, thank you very much.” Ace comments. “And 8 still seems a little pricey for this type of dessert.” he tries to haggle.

“Five each if you let (Y/N) come alone with me.”

They looked at each other as if they were between a rock and a hard place.

“Deal!” You say. After all, you also have a crush on Jade.

Jade laughs seeing your friends' worried faces.

“There's nothing to worry about, gentlemen. I will make sure (Y/N) gets home safe and on time. We can even bring you souvenirs if you’d like. I would be happy to share the wonders of the mountains with all of you as well.”

He could have promised to keep you safe and sound on the mountain, but unfortunately, he couldn't do anything, nor was he prepared for something to happen to you before the hike. In one of your Physical Education classes you ended up twisting your ankle and it wouldn't heal in time for the day of the hike. You were in the infirmary when Jade came to check on you.

“(Y/N), I heard about your accident in Professor Vargas' class.” Jade tells you with pity, or at least it seems like it. It's hard to know when it's genuine concern. “But may I confirm with you that it was indeed just an accident?”

You confirm that it was just your foot that slipped, a little confused by that question.

“Very well. Don't worry, I believe in you. But you know that if there is a classmate who is less... pleasant with you, you can tell me.” He says with a sweet smile before forming his toothy little grin. “I can have a reasonable little conversation with them.”

You assure him that it wasn't any other student's fault that made you end up like this. At worst, it was Grim's mischief to blame. Jade chuckles.

“But it was quite unfortunate that it happened right before our hike in the mountain. However, I thought of a way for you to be able to accompany me, if you still wish to do so.”

On the day of the hike, or rather, that night before dawn, Jade appeared at Ramshackle Dorm door and sent you a message asking if you were ready. He asked for permission to enter the dormitory and go to your room and when he arrived he had with him a flying broom with a special cushioned seat for you. Since it's still going to be a bit of a long walk, he thought that maybe the broom like you normally use in class might be a bit uncomfortable. You could accompany him on the hike sitting on the broom and that way you wouldn't have to walk and strain your feet.

“Would you like me to help you get on the broom?” He asks politely.

If you accept his help, he will gently hold you by the waist and place you in the seat.

“The weather forecasts have been a bit... surprising.” Jade says with an enigmatic smile. “The predictions have proven to be quite inaccurate recently. There is a chance of some rain so I advise you to take an umbrella. But you should also put on sunscreen and wear a hat. Hats are essential when sketching outdoors. I got horribly sunburned once when I grew too absorbed in my work.”

Jade was dressed for the occasion from head to toe. He even wore a long coat full of pockets and was carrying a camping backpack. But in your case, he didn't ask you to take much more than necessary.

As you were walking at night, Jade took a lantern with him and placed another one on the end of your broom. He was using his magic to lead the broom like someone leading a horse by the reins. He took you through the Dark Mirror to the Dwarfs' Mountain. It was a full moon night and it was beautiful. It shouldn't be long before the moon disappeared and gave way to dawn and at that height it was beautiful to see.

“They advise anyone who hike at night to do so on a full moon night, as this is the phase in which the moon provides the best natural lighting. However, if I'm correct it shouldn't be long until dawn. Maybe 30 to 45 minutes. The flower location is also not far from here, we will get there in time even if we take it slow and appreciate what surrounds us. Feel free to ask me anything if you see something that catches your interest.” He smiles and begins the hike.

If you do as he suggests and ask him about something you see or simply what his hikes are usually like, he'll be very happy to tell you anything you want to know. And if you ask him about some type of mushroom, he'll be even happier.

“I appreciate your willingness to listen to me talk about the mountains. I started to tell Floyd my thoughts about hiking in the mountains, and he nodded off not even a minute in.” Jade was telling you, “What a shame we cannot enjoy this hobby together.” when he felt something in his nose. “Hm?”

You also feel something on your nose, then on your forehead, on your cheek...

“Looks like this is your cue to open your umbrella.” He tells you. “So that is why it seemed like it was taking so long for dawn to come, the clouds are covering the sun. Fortunately... we arrived.”

You open your umbrella, it's not raining much yet. You see a small field between the trees and full of closed flowers. When you look at Jade, you see that something seems to be bothering him and you ask what he was thinking.

“Oh, you noticed.” he smiles, as if he had been caught. “I was thinking about these flowers. It says they bloom in the early hours of the day, but I don't remember if they would do so regardless of whether they received direct sunlight or not. It would be a shame not to be able to achieve our main objective.”

And then the sky gets darker and the rain starts to get heavier.

“Oh no, it doesn't look like it's going to be a light rain. You should take shelter. The mine is nearby, let's go there.”

“I should take shelter? What about you?”

“Well, it's not like water bothers me, remember? Fu fu~” He laughs amusedly.

Jade takes you by the broom to the inside of the mine, not far from the entrance, just enough to take shelter and still see the outside. As soon as you sat down on the ground the rain seemed to turn into a storm.

“Oh dear! I've never seen the weather forecast fail so badly.” he says with that toothy smile, probably enjoying the surprise a little too much. But then he looks at you. “I'm so sorry I brought you out into the middle of a storm this early in the morning. I really wanted to see those flowers with you. It seems I was reckless and let myself be carried away by impulse.”

He sees you shaking a little.

“Oh! I hadn't even realized how much the temperature had dropped. Here.” He takes off his long coat and offers it to you to put on. “I appreciate your concern, but there's no need to worry about me. I have excellent resistance to cold, remember? Speaking of your well-being, how is your ankle?”

You weren't wearing the shoe on your injured foot, but a thick sock over the bandages. That cold was good for your ankle, but terrible for the rest of your foot, especially your toes.

“Yes, as I imagined. Let me take care of you until we are able to go back to school. It's the least I can do after putting you through all this while you're still recovering.”

He looked at you with concern, but you've seen that "concerned" expression a few times before.

“You're looking at me so suspiciously. That is quite hurtful. You should know how careful I am, especially in a situation like this.”

But he still had that smile that, whoever knows him, knows there is something behind it. And so you ask him if you're going to be indebted to him after that. If there's one thing you learned from Octavinelle, it's not to accept any favor from them without knowing the terms and conditions of it.

“Fu fu fu...” his charismatic smile becomes his true smile, the one with his teeth showing. “I'm glad to see that you learned such a valuable lesson from us, (Y/N). But there is another one that we may need to teach you better. And that is the ability to realize when you have the advantage. Remember how you agreed to accompany me in exchange for a discount on the desserts? We were even then. In the case of the broom I provided, in exchange, you would offer me your company even though you were injured. In that case, I might be at a disadvantage. Since I was risking your injury getting worse by bringing you away from the protection of your home. And now, that risk has become real. Which means I'm the one who owes you this time. Which means I am the one who is in debt to you at the moment. Due to my poor decision of a date with a suitable weather for the hike. Any treatment I provide you will only and slimply make me pay my debt. Do you feel safer accepting my offer under these conditions?”

Everything he said made sense. And while the Octavinelle trio have a tendency to create shady agreements and contracts, they don't necessarily lie. They can do it by omission, but this is not the case, so you accept.

You are sitting on the mine floor with the same pillow that supported you on the broom. Jade sits in front of you and asks you to stretch your legs so he can put them over his. He takes off the sock that covered your foot and uses magic to warm your foot with the exception of the ankle that needs the cold. And while this heating magic is taking effect he massages your ankle and feet, in a way that is appropriate and specific for a sprained ankle. He was really good at it.

“There's another thing we've been even from the beginning.” he says with a smirk and without looking at you yet. “Grim was right, I wanted to go out with you. But...” He looks at you out of the corner of his eye, barely moving his head. “You wanted to go out with me as well... didn't you, (Y/N)?”

He sees you smiling, perhaps shyly, and takes it as a green light. He takes your feet from his lap and places them gently on the ground, then stretches out towards you, supporting himself on his hands, like a cat slowly approaching.

“I really feel horrible for putting you in this situation.” But he doesn't say this with regret, but rather in a purposefully seductive way. “I wonder what I can do to redeem myself? Especially if it lasts as long as it looks like it will. Making you wait here uncomfortably for so long will create a huge debt for me towards you.” He brings his face even closer to yours, with a smile as inviting as his heterochromatic eyes. “Tell me... what can I do to ease this situation?”

He won't kiss you. He'll wait patiently for you to do it first. Or better yet... for you to order him to kiss you.

“As you wish~” He says and kisses you passionately.

Rainy weather tends to get a person down, and that's what was happening to you too. Even though you may enjoy listening to the rain outside, it's never good when you have to go back to your dorm. Especially with Grim complaining.

Grim managed to get to Ramshackle Dorm dry because he made you to carry him. You, on the other hand, had your legs and feet stuck in water. It was when you were going up the stairs to change your clothes in your room that you saw some little and familiar green lights around you.

You turn around and go to the door. When you open it you see Malleus with a large umbrella and dressed in black waterproof clothes and a raincoat.

“Good afternoon, Child of Man.” Malleus greets you with a polite smile. “I couldn't help but notice you less cheerful and smiling than usual these past few days. I think it even coincided with the arrival of the rainy weather. Would the two be connected?”

You tell him yes. Maybe you don't like rain at all, or maybe you only like rain when you can sit inside and enjoy the sound. Either way, you don't like being out in the rain and risking catching a cold.

“Oh yes, that is true... a simple rain can make a human sick. But I believe that having wet clothes such as yours can also contribute to a possible sickness, am I correct?” he asks and you confirm. “Allow me to help you dry faster.”

“You're not going to use fire magic on me, are you?” you ask slightly worried.

“Yes, I was about to. Why so worried about it?”

“Because you can burn me with it.”

“Burn? Oh, no, I wasn't going to use direct fire. I know that fire hurts other living beings. I was going to use a variation of fire magic that just changes the temperature around certain objects. I have used it several times to dry my own clothes. You seem more relieved. Will you allow me to use it then?”

You accept and he uses his magic to dry your pants, shoes and socks in a second.

“You know, I personally quite appreciate this weather. It's perfect for the Gargoyle Studies Club because we can watch them perform their main function. Or at least I can see them. I would love to share this sight with you. Perhaps it could help you feel a little better on days like these. What do you say? Do you accept my invitation?” He smiles excitedly, which is also cute.

You say you'd love to, but you don't have rain gear like his.

“There is no need for this to be a deterrent. I'll be more than happy to provide you with suitable clothing.” He uses his magic again and changes your uniform into the same set of rain gear he was wearing. Seeing you in those clothes makes him smile even more. “They seem to suit you well.”

“But how do I go with you?” You ask. “Don't you usually fly up to the gargoyles?”

“I do. I was thinking, if you're comfortable with it, that I could carry you in my arms. Like I saw you doing with Grim just now when you were coming back home. This umbrella is big enough for two people. But if you prefer, I can also give you another umbrella and we can ask Coach Vargas for one of the flying brooms.”

You admit that you don't mind about the first option and maybe even use the excuse that you don't have magic and Grim clearly doesn't want to go with you, so you wouldn't be able to use the broom by yourself.

“In that case, if you're ready, we can go back to the main building to admire the gargoyles.” He smiles and bends his arm, inviting you to intertwine yours with his.

You do so, he places the umbrella between the two of you and you walk back to the school building. He was talking about his club and gargoyles in general until you got close to a wall with no doors or windows nearby.

“One of my favorite gargoyles sits right above us.” Malleus tells you. “Do you see that trickle of water? It's coming from that same gargoyle. Are you ready for me to take you up there and show you?” He extends a hand to you.

You place your hand over his and he gently pulls you towards him. He then lets go of your hand to bend down slightly, put his arm around you and picks you up. Your reflex is to put your arms around his neck to hold on, which brings your faces closer together. He looks directly at you and chuckles seeing your embarrassed/shy face.

“Hold on tight. And do not worry about hurting me, you wouldn't be able to even if you tried. Fu fu.”

As soon as he rises into the air you grab him tightly, which makes him chuckle because he was barely half a meter off the ground yet. Then he rises even higher, but slower than he would on his own. He doesn't want to scare you.

When you get close to the gargoyle, he sits the two of you next to it, you between him and the gargoyle so you can see it better. And he will never let go of your waist to hold you. If you are afraid of heights, or if you just feel a little scared at that moment and hold on to him, he will chuckle and hold you even tighter, but never too tight so as not to hurt you.

“Worry not, (Y/N). I won't let go of you. You can enjoy the gargoyle as much as you wish. I'll be holding you the entire time.”

As you admire the gargoyle doing its work and see the rainwater coming out of its mouth, Malleus admires you.

“Do you wish to know why this is one of my favorite gargoyles on the school building?” He asks and of course you say yes. “In terms of appearance, there's nothing very different about this one from all the others. In fact, there is nothing worth calling special about this gargoyle carving technique. What delights me the most about this gargoyle is not what any of us can see, but what it can see every day.”

You look ahead, trying to figure out where the gargoyle was looking, but the school grounds were so big and the sea so vast that you couldn't be sure. Malleus chuckles, as if you weren't seeing something obvious.

“You are looking too far away. See which building is closest.”

You look closer, at the least impressive building on campus.

“Ramshackle Dorm?” You ask.

“Correct. This gargoyle must have seen the whole story of your dormitory. When it was built, who might have been there before you, how it became an abandoned building and the answers to any question we might wish to know about its mysterious past.”

You look at that gargoyle again with new eyes. All your questions could be answered. If it could talk, it would certainly be a very interesting conversation.

“This gargoyle also witnessed all my visits to the ruins.” Malleus continues. “I wonder what it thought of me, coming in just to admire the decay of that dormitory. But more than that, I wonder what it thought of you. Arriving with a mischievous little monster, a being without magic and completely unaware of the history of this world. And yet, able to breathe new life into rubble and call it home. It also witnessed our meeting. Could it have found it as amusing as I did? Fu fu~”

You look at your dorm, thinking now of everything that gargoyle could have seen.

“And now, it is watching over you.” He looks at you with a sweet smile. “I've told this gargoyle a lot about you, and now it's finally meeting you.”

If you look at the gargoyle again and even greet it, Malleus will laugh in amusement.

“I am certain it was as delighted to meet you as I was that night.”

You look at him and see him looking at you with great affection.

“Speaking of which, I'm curious.” Malleus continues. “Did you also enjoy meeting me that night? You were not frightened, at least.”

You tell him how you felt that night. Surprised, especially seeing such a tall guy with horns, but also intrigued to know who he was. You also found him extremely polite by the way he spoke.

“But I remember finding you very handsome right away.” You admit it.

Malleus is taken aback for a second, but then he laughs.

“Well, I am quite grateful for your honesty. Fu fu. Therefore, I should also admit that I found you... intrepidly charming.”

“Is that a good thing?” You ask.

“For some it may not be, but for me, and the inherently way you show it, it is something wonderful. I could even describe it as cute, especially when you are oblivious to social statutes.” He smiles honestly. And after a moment of reflection, his gaze becomes tender. “I am very fortunate to have you in my life, (Y/N).”

You show him your surprise, that sudden line was very unexpected.

“These moments with you always become some of my fondest memories. I hope to be as pleasant a companion to you as you are to me.”

You feel his arm around you instinctively pulling you closer to him. It's being a cute moment until there's a flash. You both look up and a few seconds later you hear the deafening rumble of thunder. It was so loud that it felt like it was very close to you and made you flinch as a reflex. Which also caused Malleus to let go of the umbrella and let it float above you to be able to hug you with both arms.

“I need to get you out of here. We're too high.”

He picks you up with both arms without hesitation while the umbrella floats above the two of you. And then another bolt of lightning! But this time it hit the tower right next to you, which scared you and made you cling to Malleus.

“A quick trip it shall be.” He holds your head, making you rest it on his shoulder, and in the blink of an eye, you no longer feel the rain and the scene changes abruptly.

You are now at the door of Ramshackle Dorm. He has teleported the two of you there. He leans in for you to put your feet back on the ground.

“I'm sorry our study trip has been so short.” He says with pity. “There were other gargoyles I would have liked to show you. But if you enjoyed our time today, I can show them to you on another outing sometime.” He smiles at you.

Right after you say you'd love it, you hear another clap of thunder. And so, you decide to invite Malleus to stay in Ramshackle with you for a while until the storm calms down.

“You are... Well, I would love to accept your invitation, but you do know that storms are not dangerous to me, correct?”

“I know.” you simply say, without withdrawing your invitation.

Malleus starts by laughing softly, until he lets out a good-natured laugh.

“You certainly are a very strange child of man.”

Malleus is too much of a gentleman to advance much further than with charming words. So, that will have to be your job.

“I am very fortunate to have you in my life too, Tsunotarou.” You tell him.

Malleus looks at you in surprise for a second until an adorable smile forms on his lips.

“You are one of the few who would say that.” He smirks. “And certainly the only human outside of Briar Valley who would say something like that at all.”

Come to think of it, with perhaps the exception of Lilia, the Diasomnia boys tend to be a bit oblivious to subtext. So you decide to take a risk and be direct.

“Tsunotarou... Malleus... do you like me?”

“Of course I like you. I thought I was expressing myself quite well in that regard.” He says a little confused.

“I mean... could you...” He probably doesn't know what the word ‘crush’ means, or he may take it literally. “...be in love with me? Or something like that?”

He is taken aback, and looks at you with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

“Me? The successor to the throne of Briar Valley and one of the most powerful mages in Twisted Wonderland? In love with... a powerless human from another world?” He seems to think about it for a moment until a smile forms again. “Fu fu... ha ha... HA HA HA HA HA!”

That laugh hurts your heart a little, until he continues speaking.

“I had never thought of that.” He says, looking to the side as he thinks. “But... if what I feel for you truly is what they call love... then now I understand why it is such a longed-for feeling. And if it is true then... ha ha HA HA... Oh, the obstacles we would have to face to be together. It does indeed sound exciting... Perhaps...” He looks you in the eyes. “Perhaps you are correct in interpreting my actions as such. However, I still cannot be sure it is love. But perhaps I can answer your question by admitting that, in fact, I nourish a much more intimate feeling towards you than friendship. This would explain why your company comforts and makes me happier than any other.”

He sees you smile as you listen to what he was saying.

“May I interpret that beautiful smile of yours as a possible mutual feeling on your part?”

You confirm and he leans in to take your hand and bring it to his lips to kiss the back of it. If you dare to take advantage of the fact that his face is at the same level as yours and you kiss his cheek, he will look at you in surprise before chuckling.

“Such audacity.” He says with a smug smile and still leaning over, his face close to yours. “Are you certain you wiah to find out how passionate I can be?”

He interprets your smile as confirmation and he kisses your lips delicately. Despite everything, he knows he can hurt you if he lets himself get too carried away. He's going to have to test some... limits.

If you would like to read more from me, you can find it in my pinned post: INDEX

#Twisted Wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst imagines #twst fluff #Twisted Wonderland Fluff #Jade Leech #Jade Leech x Reader #Jade x Reader #Malleus Draconia #Malleus Draconia x Reader #Malleus x Reader

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habken · 2 days ago

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Habs I want your 36 hour long YouTube analysis on bnha including thoughts on the new info from the fan book SO bad the toga stuff has me biting holes into the walls

Okay, it’s long:

First, stuff I liked:

Deku:

Good to see deku stocks rise, they doubted my nephew but he always comes out on top 🙏🙏

Circling back to 431, I don’t think it was all bad and I don’t hate it like some people do. I like that it shows us how passionate he is as a teacher and that he was able to carve out a path for himself outside of hero work. I think people were quick to judge him and make assumptions about him after declining Katsuki’s sidekick proposal, and it was Rough having to see Deku get bashed for it for months. I’m so happy that the new info shows that he didn’t give up on those heroic dreams, he just had to find the balance between teaching and being a pro.

I’m over the moon that he’s #4 and that Katsuki’s ranking bounced back too to #5 as a reaction to Deku being back on the hero scene, this is what I wanted so much from the ending, the two of them fighting neck-in-neck, competing for forever, teasing each other and being in each other’s lives… it’s perfect :’))

I think it’s so cool that apparently Deku was still placing in the top 100 despite being retired because of the extended requirements on the hero ranking, but I think that info should have come up in 430. The epilogue suggested that hero charts were going to be restructured or done away with entirely, and I think it’s silly that it’s only vaguely touched on in an art book lol. That should’ve been part of the main ending.

Streets are saying Deku did not get a degree before he started his teaching career… I’m electing to ignore that because I really want to imagine him in uni. I think it’s fair that UA wouldn’t have traditional standards for teachers… but let my boy get some certification before putting him in charge of a class c’mon.. But also this could be a bit of a misinterpretation considering there’s no official english translations out yet.

Also I’m so glad that it’s confirmed the suit mimics the ofa quirks !! I was worried that wasn’t gonna be the case and I was gonna end up disappointed but I can rest easy!

Bakugou:

I talked about him already kind of but the thing I’m happy to learn the most about from the art book is that supposedly older pro heroes have a soft spot for him. I think there’s something really endearing about that, and I feel like despite having a “bad attitude” he’s such a sentimental and sweet character and he’s grown so much from the middle school punk from chapter 1. He’s got this blunt but genuine quality to him and I think that’s what older characters would latch onto.

I am such a big fan of his friendship with todorok and love what they said about it in the book under todoroki’s section. Also a big fan of the tidbit that monoma tried to get close to him after the war, the guy saw him die right, and there’s something very touching about him trying to reach out and check up of katsuki and worm his way into his life because of that trauma idk. I want to make something about their friendship maybe.

Eri:

IThe information that jirou helped eri with guitar lessons fills my heart with so much joy :’)) I love that Eri has so many older siblings who all love her and want to teach her stuff and be part of her life and cheer her on

I really like that she’s pursuing music! I know some people wanted her to go down the hero path too, but I think it’s really nice that she was able to carve out a path that makes her happiest. It’s what first brought a smile to her face! When class A performed! And seeing her be able to live that dream is so nice :’))

Deku and mirio being her biggest cheerleaders also makes me so happyy. Those are her older brothers frfr.

I’m really glad the one shot was focused on her, very great thag we get to see her relationship with aizawa and the teachers, and learn about her life now. I was so worried about what the extra pages were gonna be about and it was such a pleasant surprise lol

Things I’m… less of a fan of:

Uraraka:

It’s genuinely criminal that the art book doesn’t touch on her reformed quirk counselling programs at all. To me, this was one of the most interesting tidbits of info we got from class 1-A in 430, and something I really wish we’d been able to learn more about.

It’s very clear that her character’s potential was tossed aside the entire story, and honestly her relationship with deku was too. I’m not really a fan of izuocha, but I am a lover of character relationships and the lack of growth the two had together throughout the series was very disappointing to me. I think the idea of romance between them and horikoshi’s aversion to writing it got in the way of their actual relationship and it stayed stagnant for too long — which is why 431 feels so disappointing in that regard — because they should have gotten closer in the actual story instead of in an add-on epilogue chapter.

All that to say, from what I’ve seen from the artbook, her info section is taken up mostly by things that relate to izuku, all we really learn is her parents don’t use the money she sends them LMAO. It’s just so strange for her to be both disregarded as a character and labelled the “Love Interest” when it comes to talking about her as her own person, but yet not have really any development alongside the character she’s supposedly going to end up with in the actual story.

She’s apparently there to cheer deku on, that’s the role they want her to have. They don’t care about who she is outside of that even though her entire character is a separate person with a life and a story beyond having a crush on a boy. It’s misogyny lol.

Toga and the LOV:

Speaking of misogyny… Toga’s death :( Learning that there were other options for her is upsetting. The artbook has really reopened my feelings about all the endings for the LoV members.

In my mind toga had the most satisfying ending, but that’s really not saying much. I don’t think she should’ve died, I don’t think her “facing responsibility/taking accountability” had to mean the only ending for her was death. She was a kid, she was mentally ill, she wanted love and to be loved and to me, her death being off-screened and used as canon-fodder for uraraka’s feelings and to be pushed towards izuku was so upsetting.

Idk it just feels like a habit for the female characters to be sidelined and for their sacrifices and deaths to be pushed to the side, it’s aggravating.

With the lov in general, it just seems like the overall message is there’s no real path to redemption, that the only way they could find it is to die. For a story that seems to want to highlight the fact that everyone can be saved, and that things aren’t so black and white, and that it’s the fault in society that drove these “villains” to where they are, it really does treat them as if they’re completely and utterly irredeemable and there was never any hope for them. That they are a product of their nature/nurture and cannot escape it any way but through dying. It’s not even tragic, it feels lazy and unsatisfying and feels like it goes against whatever the message of the story was supposed to be.

Idk I’ve defended mha a lot, and I think there’s a lot of positives in it. I think it does have strong messages that no one person can fix issues that are societal in nature, and that real change comes with forming community and being there for those around us. Etc etc. But I’m disappointed that a lot of the themes of mha fell flat and don’t go deeper than surface level.

I’m upset that horikoshi has made these compelling and very human villains, and shown us their stories and that they’re not all evil at the core, and then decided that their arcs all had to end in pain and suffering.

The one who upsets me the most is Tomura. He’s been one of my favourite characters since the beginning, and I think his ending hit me the worst. To me it felt like he was right on the cusp of something and then afo came in and told him his whole life was a lie, that he was groomed to be an angry man with half a quirk that could only destroy, and every choice he’d ever made was directly under afo’s influence. That he never had any free will, he was always meant to go down this path. I thought for sure the final battle with deku and afo would have shigaraki fighting back against the possession, and I was disappointed that his final moments were barely anything at all.

Learning about his original quirk and the original plans for his ending, it’s made me angry about his arc all over again. Thinking about how things could’ve been, and that there were other options for his final moments, I’m frustrated.

I hate that the villain’s are used as emotional canon fodder, to serve as character development for the heroic main characters, when horikoshi made us so invested in their stories as well. You just end up wanting to root for them, not in a “I want them taking over the world” way, but in a way where they find some sort of happiness. And we kind of maybe get that from toga, but to me all their endings just don’t hit the mark. They feel cheap and unsatisfying, and this art book drives a lot of that home for me.

Anyways yeah. I’m gonna stop myself here before I go crazy lol. Hope this made sense

#ask #mha manga spoilers #this is like 1600+ words waow #I didn’t mention dabi but look at whatever beybuniki’s said on that cause I agree

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ducksido · 1 day ago

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I just read your famous reader x idia in the bikini photoshoot and that was FIRE

I really love the idea of Idia with a famous reader so may i suggest famous reader who is a very popular singer, so much they get a role in a movie (a musical) were they and Vil act as the main characters. They share an absolutely iconic duo song and after the movie is released ppl just go crazy about readers and Vils chemistry while acting and singing. They are actually just very good friends but nothing else ofc since reader is with Idia but the public doesn’t know that reader is in a relationship

Idias reaction to the whole internet shipping his partner with one of his former classmates, just JEALOUS IDIA KQOFBIQWNDGU (fem or neutral reader, and thank you for your time 😔)

Idia had never seen this many hashtags in his life. And that was saying something for a guy whose entire For You Page was algorithmically curated to show 98% anime clips and 2% cat videos.

But now?

#VilxY/N #V/N #SwanSongSoulmates #TheirChemistryThough It was inescapable.

“Ughhghgghhh…” he groaned, faceplanting into his limited edition RFA pillow. “What kind of sadist coded the algorithm today?!”

Your name was trending again. Not unusual. You were always trending lately. Your voice alone could shut down the internet. But this time, it wasn’t your latest single, or your runway appearance, or even the viral video of you teaching Ortho how to Dougie.

No.

It was the movie. The movie. The romantic musical masterpiece you starred in. With Vil. Two gorgeous leads. One fire duet. And now the world was foaming at the mouth with their OTP delusions.

He was trying to ignore it—he really was! But every scroll brought up another edit, another post, another cursed caption:

“WHEN HE SPUN HER AND SHE HIT THAT HIGH NOTE??? GET MARRIED???” “Vil looking at them like they hung the moon... Idia who??” “No but imagine the musical s*** scene they cut out 👀🔥”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN S*** SCENE?!” Idia shrieked, nearly knocking over his gaming chair as he bolted upright. “THERE WAS A S*** SCENE?! THEY FILMED A SEX SCENE?! I’M GONNA BLACKOUT—”

“Brother,” Ortho peeked in calmly, holding a tray with cocoa, “you’re at a ten. Let’s try to bring it to, say… a six.”

Idia grabbed the cocoa with a tremble. “I’m fine. I’m chill. I’m—I’m going to throw up. Why didn’t they say they were going to have chemistry?! They’ve got enough charisma to flatten an entire fanbase!!”

And to make matters worse?

You hadn’t told the public you were dating. You wanted your privacy. He respected that. Really, he did.

But that meant the entire world thought you and Vil were star-crossed lovers plucked straight from the screen, and he—your actual boyfriend—was in the background like some glitchy NPC with emotional attachment issues.

It drove him insane.

Later that night, you strolled into his room, still glowing from the movie premiere, cheeks pink from fan praise. “Hey, babe,” you smiled, plopping onto his bed. “You okay?”

Idia gave you a look. A pained, dramatic, cursed look.

“You and Vil trended for six hours straight,” he said. “I think the internet proposed on our behalf.”

You blinked, then snorted. “You saw that, huh.”

“Oh I saw it,” he grumbled, pulling a hoodie over his head like a turtle. “Did you see the fanfic where Vil and you got married on stage after singing a love confession at the Tonys? Because I did.”

You leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You jealous?”

His hair flared magenta in an instant. “Wha—ME? No! What?! Pffft—That’s—Jealousy is a basic human emotion and I’m clearly more evolved—”

“I’m your duet partner in real life, you know.” You kissed his neck this time, slowly. “I like singing in your key the best.”

His mouth opened. Closed. He turned into a blubbering mess.

“You can’t just say that! I’ll short-circuit—”

“Sing with me then, Mr. Shroud,” you teased. “And remind me who I actually belong to.”

Idia.exe stopped working.

Vil may have been the co-star. But you? You always saved your best performances for him.

#twst #twst wonderland #twst x reader #twst headcanons #idia shroud #idia shroud x reader #idia #twisted wonderland idia #idia x reader #twst idia #idia x yuu #idia x you

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linartblogs · 23 hours ago

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First, thank you very much for your response ! Also, I apologize for any mistakes, I'm not a native speaker, but I'll try to map out my thoughts as well as I can ! Also, for anyone reading, spoilers ahead for s6 (El Toro de Piedra).

On the Adrien = love thing, I see what you mean, I guess I just tend to ignore certain messages the show seems to push and interpret some things my own way (keeps me sane). s1-s5 already made me so skeptical about Adrien's parents, but s6 is just making them look worse to me, especially Gabriel. Him being involved with the cult they introduced in s6 (idk if you're caught up with that) makes me go "yeah no that guy was still weird even before his wife's death ? And she's maybe on it too ? They both wanted to reform the world ?" or maybe that was after Emilie's death who knoooows.

I guess a reasonable "fanon" interpretation of Emilie and Gabriel would be that while they DID love Adrien, they're still shitty, self-centered people and parents who always projected their own dreams/wants onto their kid, whom they wish to shape into the perfect little man. However, near her death, Emilie seemed to have semi gained some self awareness which is why, in her final moments, she tells Nathalie to change Gabriel's mind and to let Adrien choose who he wants to be. Idc if the show wants me to think that she was a good mom, but to me that seems to indicate that she only had a change of heart towards the end. So she was somewhat controlling at first, but finally understood that she could not mold Adrien into just who she wanted him to be. I guess making her a semi decent mom is a more interesting thing. It also makes her a more complex, realistic character.

So, maybe Adrien is made of multiple complex emotions : His parent's love, his mom's desire for freedom as you said, but also her desire for him to be a "better" version than her, destined for bigger, great things (to go with that theme of her projecting onto her kid). So I see him breaking free from Gabriel's control as a first step, which gets him some extra power, like shielding the ones he loves since he's so attached to his identity as a super hero ? Make him go like, marie-sue style and face off his dad in the finale ? Well, at least it has to be impactful to signify his emancipation from his father's control.

Felix being a copycat makes a lot of sense to me, I think he's naturally a genius (was made that way), which is why he is skilled at so many things. But him being a shape-shifter would add to his manipulator aspect a lot.

As for Kagami, truthfully I'd love for the show to release more information about her or her mom, since we don't even understand fully Tomoe's motivation, or even who actually made Kagami. Her father maybe, since he seems to be absent ?

Globally, Miraculous is a real mess to rewrite, because you have the sort out a looot of stuff. They have so many good ideas but they always execute them poorly or drop something right after being on the good track. I still think it's entertaining, and they seem to be fixing some stuff in s6 although it's a bit late lol.

Sentimonsters are beings made from a single emotion and Adrien's emotion is heavily implied to be love. Sentimonsters can also have any random power the writers decide to give them and have been established to sometimes get powers their creators didn't intend (see Feast). That is the ultimate setup to use the power of love to empower Adrien and yet the show gives us nothing.

(See power of love rant for more)

#miraculous fandom #adrien deserves better #kagami deserves better #felix deserves better #brainstorming #brain dump

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tkomptgoedluv · 1 day ago

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revenge.

tear you apart pt.2

pt.1 here | pt.2

grumpycafeworkervampire! joost x f! reader

tags: dead dove do not eat, f! reader, internetcafe & vampire au, reader doesn’t know how to cope very well, joost’s heart is too big for his body, they’re both desperate to be the other one’s peace, so much hurt, possibly even more comfort, plenty of angst, all characters are dutch and speak in dutch but dialogue is written in english for obvious reasons.

word count: 8,490.

warnings: very detailed descriptions of blood and self harm, descriptions of an un-specific mental illness, semi-heavy stalking, breaking and entering, mentions of gore, brief mentions of violence + abuse, rpf.

notes: hello my lovelies <3 thank you so much for being so patient with this one! it’s not only the longest fic that i’ve ever written, but also genuinely my pride and absolute joy. i fear that i might not ever be able to top this one, actually, so please enjoy it! just keep in mind that this fic comes with a MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING.

also once again, a big big shoutout to my BABY @joosthead for putting up with me constantly asking her to check the doc every time that i added something. please go check out her work if you haven’t already — she’s got some mad shit coming 💋

── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ──

you never really were too good at knowing when to stop, were you?

it’s always been easy for you to get lost in it, lost in the feeling of your old razor blades carving line after line into your skin. once you started, you just had to keep going until you physically couldn’t. not until you’d get too dizzy to focus, until you just couldn’t quite keep your grip tight enough on the razor anymore.

you never learned how to cope any other way; since you were fifteen, it had been your default. cutting yourself up whenever you started to feel too much, or whenever levi would push you too far. as a kid, it was more of a punishment but with him, it was your way of controlling all the pain that you felt.

that’s why you’d done it again, why it’s been the only thing that you’ve managed to do over the past five days or so. you were trying to control things, trying to come to terms with what you had seen and all the big feelings that came right along with it.

you’d spent so long wishing him away — daydreaming of all the terrible things that could happen so you’d finally be free of him. you never actually thought that it would happen, though. that you’d witness your own boyfriend get ripped apart limb from limb; devoured as if he was nothing more than a piece of meat.

you hated that some sick and twisted part of you deep down, missed him. that you just couldn’t wrap your head around the fact that he was gone now. and you hated that when it came to joost, you weren’t quite sure what you felt. for less than a fucking hour he’d been the closest thing to a friend that you’d had in years, but then he’d gone and done that and —

blood dripped down from your wrists, the tops of your arms, and your thighs, and onto the dirty white tiles of your bathroom floor. you’d never gotten this carried away before, and you had made such a mess of it. all the cleaning up would have to be done tomorrow because right now you doubted that you’d even be able to stand.

at least you weren’t feeling quite so much anymore; only the stinging of each and every single one of the fresh cuts. it all hurt, but it was a better thing to feel than the guilt that had kept you confined inside the walls of your own home for so long. you couldn’t help but wonder if you would die here, alone and bleeding on your bathroom floor, or if the police would find you before you’d get the chance to.

you’ve seen bits and pieces of what his friends had been saying online— knew that they wanted to report levi as a missing person now. you wondered how long it would be before the police would come for you, either looking for him or his killer. then again, you weren’t actually sure if there was even a body left behind for them to find.

finally, after god knows how many, you put the razor blade down. it clattered against the linoleum and laid still in one of the few small pools of your own blood. honestly, you were a little proud of what you had done to yourself, even though it still felt like it wasn’t enough.

in a daze, you just sat there quietly as the time passed, as the blood slowly began to dry. you weren’t entirely sure of the time but it had to have been late from how dark it was outside. your phone was somewhere in your flat, having died a while ago after you neglected to charge it for a few days, but it’s time probably would’ve read something like one or two o’clock in the morning.

no one had been by to check on you, not that you had expected them to, especially not at a time like this, so you jumped when you heard a knock at your front door. silence rang out as you waited, too afraid to move, until you finally heard another one. only then did you get up.

it was with wobbly legs that you limped your way out of the bathroom and through your hallway, your heart hammering away inside your chest. you tried to peer out through your front room windows as you hobbled over to the door, certain that you’d see flashing blue lights or the silhouette of a police officer waiting for you on your doorstep.

but as you opened your front door just an inch, barely wide enough to peak your head around outside, all you saw was nothing. no cars going past, no people wandering by, nothing.

for just a moment, you could have laughed. because this was it now, surely; your breaking point. all that guilt, all of that paranoia — it was finally driving you mad.

the old hinges of your door squeaked as you went to close it again, turning on your heels as you did so. you glanced up as one of the floorboard creaked from behind you, the gloss in your eyes only slightly blurring the sight of him standing right there, somehow.

you went to scream, a high pitched, blood-curdling shriek right on the rip of your tongue when his hand came up to cup your mouth shut. he knocked you back into the door, slamming it shut as his entire body weight came down to have you pinned against it. you could feel just how hard he was shaking as he held you there, see how those big, panicked eyes of his were flickering between blue and red.

“no no no, please, please don’t scream. i’m not gonna hurt you.”

joost was frantic as he spoke, almost choking on each of his words, begging for you to keep quiet. no matter how desperately you were trying to fight against him, your nails clawing at his chest through his shirt as you fought to get him off of you, you weren’t going anywhere. the more that you struggled, the harder his grip on you got.

you had no way of knowing it yet, but this was killing him. seeing you so small like this, crying out, sobbing, against his hand as you used what little strength you had left to try and push him away — it was undoubtedly going to haunt him.

he knew that he shouldn't be here, not really. he shouldn’t know where you live, shouldn’t have followed you home that one night a couple months ago. it was just that there had been an attack in your city that week; some poor girl found dead in an alleyway, all bloody and beaten, barely clothed. he’d already had your routine memorised by then, so he knew that you’d be making your way back from the cafe alone, in the middle of the night.

joost had just wanted to protect you, he’d just wanted to make sure that you weren’t about to become the next headline in the local newspaper. at least, that was what he had told himself as he’d stayed hidden away in the shadows, his head down low and hood pulled up as he’d ‘escorted’ you home without you ever knowing it.

sure, it had definitely crossed some lines, him sneaking out of the cafe’s back door after you’d left that night to follow you, but the alternative was worse, right?

that’s what all this came down to, really. his insatiable need to know that you were safe. because last week, you’d ran from him that night with marks on your arm that your boyfriend hadn’t been the one to put there. and you’d ran from him, no less, scared out of your mind at the mere sight of him as he’d stood there pleading with you to stay.

and joost couldn’t stand that.

everyone else could view him as a monster and treat him as such, but not you.

never you.

that was the only reason why he’d ended up on your doorstep tonight. he needed to know that you were okay, that you were still alive, and that you understood that what he had done to levi, he would never, ever, do to you.

it was never his plan to ‘invite’ himself in the way that he had. he was going to knock on your door and wait for you to answer it, and he was prepared to spend the rest of the night out there, reasoning with you to just hear him out if he had to. and if by the end of it all you were to still cast him out with the promise of never wanting to see him again, he’d find a way to live with it. just as long as you’d be okay; he’d live with it.

it was never his plan to get to the top of your street and already be able to smell it. the thick, sweet, iron-heavy smell of your blood already so strong that he was gagging by the time he made it to your doorstep. hunched over and heaving, he’d stumbled up to your front door, forcing himself to take deep, slow breaths through his mouth before finally knocking. it took everything in him, every little last bit of willpower, not to turn right then and there.

“lieverd, it’s okay. i promise it’s okay; i’m just here to talk. you…you don’t have to fight me.”

even as you were still thrashing, joost leant down to rest his forehead against yours. his eyes bore into yours as they continued to flash between the two different colours, a few tears of his own welling up behind his waterline. the last time that you were up this close, close enough to see the sweat shining on his temples, you were grasping onto his arm in such a feeble attempt to hide yourself from who you thought to be the only monster in the room.

the one whose blood you’d later seen dripping down from in between joost’s fingers, as he’d clutched onto his heart like a trophy.

he should be the real monster to you — a small part of you even wanted him to be. as terrible as levi truly was, he’d never bitten the head off of anyone, never ripped a heart straight out of someone’s chest. he was just…levi. he was your boyfriend and you hated him, but you never wanted him to die.

there was a bigger part inside of you, though, one that twisted up at the thought of joost being anything like one of the ‘bad guys’ from your old bedtime stories. because despite everything that you’d seen, despite how he’d found out where you lived, somehow, and now had you pinned up against your own front door with his hand holding your mouth shut, you knew that he wasn’t. he wasn’t evil, wasn’t dangerous like how your boyfriend had been, and you knew that. you just didn’t quite know it yet.

still, you began to relax. whether it was by choice or because you simply didn’t have any fight left in you anymore, you weren’t entirely sure. your whole body felt as though it was on fire from how several of your cuts had ripped open slightly from your struggle. small spots of blood started to seep through the thin, white cotton of your shorts as you almost went limp against joost; your eye-contact unbreaking.

there was just something about the way in which he was looking at you. it was the exact same one he gave you that night last week, when he was desperately trying to convince you not to go back home to levi. his hands had been cupping each one of your cheeks, his warm breath fanning across your face as he panted. seeing that same look on him now, it was enough for you.

joost had felt you start to ease, had heard the fast beating of your heart start to slow. his grip on your mouth loosened as he gently wiped away the wet from your face with his free hand, tucking the loose strands of your hair away from your eyes.

“i’m gonna let you go now, okay? then we can talk?”

you nodded, blinking away the tears from your eyes.

as he held back a breath, joost finally moved his hand away from your mouth and took a single step back — allowing you just enough space to stand up on your own. he still hadn’t looked away from your face, his eyes stuck on yours as he searched your features for any signs of fear, any signs that you were about to turn and run.

but instead you seemed…calm. still very much in shock; your hands still very much trembling as you wrapped your arms around your middle. but you were calm enough to stand your ground and not shrink underneath his gaze. you didn’t flinch when both of his hands came up to cup either side of your jaw, the pads of his thumbs caressing along the skin.

“are-are you okay? i’ve not seen you in…i thought that maybe you had…”

he couldn’t quite find it in him to finish his sentence. it wasn’t like he needed to, you already knew exactly what he was talking about, and now it all started to make sense.

that look in his eyes, the way his voice kept shaking every time that he spoke. he was here because he was scared, terrified even, that you’d done something to yourself. that night you’d told him, or rather shown him your secret so he knew what you were capable of now, and it had been driving him mad ever since you disappeared.

you hadn’t needed to say anything; the way you suddenly pulled yourself away from him had said enough. in all of the chaos he hadn’t thought to simply look down. if he had, he would have seen all the damage you’ve already done; every single one of the fresh cuts that you’ve given yourself tonight and all of the ones from the nights before. the old vest top and pyjama shorts that you were wearing weren’t hiding anything — from your shoulders down to your shins, he could see everything now that he had finally dropped his gaze.

with his head down, you couldn’t see his face but you could feel the way he tensed up. you could hear him sniff, cough, and swallow down the bile that was rising up in his throat as he stumbled back a few steps.

you were still bleeding.

it was making his teeth ache.

neither of you said anything for a while. you stood frozen by the door, your arms still wrapped around yourself as he just stared blankly at you with tears running down his cheeks.

he felt sick; sickened by the very thing he’d been so afraid of now staring at him right back in the face. he couldn’t stand the sight of it but couldn’t bring himself to look away, either — there was just so much red. long, neat lines of red that covered you almost completely from head to toe; no patch of skin left unmarked. it was vile, it was abhorrent, it was breaking his heart.

“why?”

that was all joost could muster. a pathetic, broken question as he tried so desperately to pull himself back together.

“i…i don’t know.” you paused only to wipe your teary eyes on the back of your hand. “i never know what else to do when i feel like this; it’s just been hard, joost -”

you trailed off, quickly losing your train of thought when you heard him sob all of a sudden. you hadn’t seen him start to crack because you’d been staring down at your feet, suddenly feeling too shy to meet his eyes. except now he was the one trying to hide, his arm coming up to cover his face as he cried hard enough to make his shoulders bounce.

he repeated ‘i’m sorry, i’m so sorry.’ like a mantra in between shallow gasps of breath and hiccups.

he was blaming himself for this because how could he not? all those cuts along your skin; you might have been the one behind the blade but he had been the one to do it. he’d been the one to scar you like this. that one irreversible act of his that he prayed would keep you safe had pushed you to an edge that he feared he wouldn’t be able to pull you back from.

it wasn’t even his responsibility to, not really. he didn’t know you and you didn’t know him, either. still, he found himself loving you in a way that didn’t make any sense.

and you loved him too, didn’t you? in a way that you couldn’t quite wrap your head around because of course you did. you proved that to both yourself and to him by how you finally moved from your spot by the door just so you could take his hands and pry his arms away from his face. you let him engulf you, cradling you close to his chest as he cried into your shoulder because you knew that he needed it.

you didn’t know who he was or even what he was, but you knew that he wasn’t something to truly fear. deep down you knew that you loved him in such an awfully twisted way, and you knew that he needed to feel you just to know that you weren’t going anywhere.

joost was still spilling out his apologies as you tried so hard to soothe him. you felt him shiver under your touch when you let your hands slip underneath the hem of his t-shirt to rub the hot skin of his sides, your soft little whispered assurances filling his ear.

it wasn’t his fault, nor was it levi’s or anyone else’s. you were like this long before he’d ever set his eyes on you and a part of you had already accepted that you always will be. the very last thing that you wanted was for it to be a burden someone else had to carry, let alone somebody like joost.

“you didn’t do this, okay? it’s alright. i’m gonna be alright.”

maybe it was cruel of you to try and calm him with words that even you didn’t fully believe in. what you had done to yourself only an hour ago, only you would ever be to blame for it, but you didn’t know if you were going to be alright in the end. you were still a witness to what he’d done and you were still doomed to live with the guilt of that.

“you don’t need to apologise for what i’ve done; you know that this is what i do. it’s not your fault.”

“but i fucked up, lieverd.” joost shuddered as he sucked in a sharp breath, sniffing. “i fucked up and i did this to you; you did it because of me.”

you hushed him, carefully stepping back just enough so that you had the room to cradle either side of his neck in your hands, urging him to look back at you. as soon as he did, you could see that his eyes were back to being just their usual sweet blue, nothing else.

“i did it because i was scared, joost. i didn’t know what else to do.”

“what, scared of me?”

his question was more like a punch to the gut than anything else. for just a moment it knocked the air out of you; left you winded and with no idea on how to go about answering it. truthfully, the answer was yes, but also no, because it was never actually him that you were so afraid of.

you were just afraid of what he did; what you know joost is truly capable of now. you were afraid of the part of you that was almost relieved to see levi suffer what he did, knowing that it meant that he wouldn’t be able to hurt you anymore. but again, you never wanted him to die. you never wanted to see him get torn apart, piece by piece.

joost whimpered out your name when you didn’t answer and instead just stood there with your mouth slightly agape. your lack of an actual, verbal answer was an answer in itself, really, and he knew that; knew that you were probably just too scared and too kind to tell him the truth. still he needed to hear you say it though, purely for his own sake, he needed to hear you say that he wasn’t just another monster to you.

but the longer that he waited, the weaker his knees started to feel. he kind of fell into you, in a way, burying his face deeper into the crook of your neck as your arms came up to hold him against you. his hot tears ran down your skin and pooled together in the dip of your collarbone and it was right then that your own eyes started to burn.

slipping out from his grasp, you wordlessly led him by the hand over to your sofa. you watched him collapse onto it as you took a seat next to him, his elbows rested on his knees as his head hung low in between them. his shoulders were still shaking and you could still hear each of the muffled cries that were spilling from his lips.

“please, please, believe me, lieverd. what i did…i never wanted it to hurt you. i’m so sorry.”

you curled yourself into a tight little ball and let out a long, deep breath, one that you hadn’t even known you’d been holding. you had questions; so, so many questions that had been festering, growing like mould in the back of your head. and joost could almost feel you holding them back as he looked up at you with such watery eyes, the only red in them being the sore, puffy rings around them.

“ask me anything, whatever you wanna know.”

“why did you do it?”

there was no emotion in your voice and you kept your face blank as you spoke — it was only the slight quiver of your bottom lip that gave you away.

“he was going to hurt you, schatje.”

“but how…how were you even…?”

it had happened decades ago, back when internet cafes were still just your average libraries and when only the rich could afford to have their own mobile phones.

joost had been young, living off the high of infamy and adoration that came with being in one of the best punk bands in the scene at the time. him and his friends, they’d been something of local legends; for good and for bad, it just depended on who you asked. those that loved them deemed them god-like in their old denim and rusted chains, and those that hated them, simply feared them.

he’s not proud of it, how they spent day after day rotting away in a garage, doing whatever drugs they could get their hands on and writing songs just to spend night after night playing shows at only the worst bars they could find. how they’d get even more off their faces afterwards and start fights, smashing up the venues and spray-painting anarchy symbols anywhere and everywhere that they could. how if the night didn’t end with them running away from the cops then it would end with them in the bed of anything with a pretty face, two legs, and a heartbeat.

and then what was supposed to be the best night of the band’s life, the biggest show they’d ever played to a crowd that already knew all the words to their songs, became nothing more than the beginning of the end. it’d happened after they’d all really outdone themselves, whilst those so-called ‘friends’ of his that only ever brought out the worst of him were all passed out somewhere, and joost had decided to go out for a little wander.

still to this day, he can’t remember the face of who had jumped him. the alleyway had been too dark and he’d been too drunk to even know where he was, so all that truly stuck with him was the agony of it all. the searing pain of a pair of fangs plunging deep into the side of his neck, the gradual, stinging cold he’d felt as the life was almost all but drained from him. whoever it was, they’d left him there to die afterwards — still to this day, a part of him wishes that he had.

waking up that next morning something so much worse than human, consumed by an appetite so uncontrollable that he just couldn’t help himself when he came across that lone jogger whilst on his way back to his friends. surely it had to have been worse than death. he’d torn that poor guy to shreds as if it was nothing, as if he was just pulling chicken off the bone.

but he hadn’t stopped there, had he? he couldn’t, he didn’t know how to. even after he’d shown up on his drummer’s doorstep covered in blood and crying his eyes out, he had to keep going, keep feeding. because joost wasn’t too good at knowing when to stop, either, was he?

it had taken him years to figure it out, actually. years of mindless, reckless slaughter to realise that he actually hated what he was now, and that his ‘friends’ weren’t ever really his friends. from the moment he’d shown up that day, all stained red and babbling about the man he’d just killed, the band played him like a puppet simply because they knew that they could.

regardless of the change, he was still joost. they knew that it really wouldn’t take much to get inside of his head, to spin whatever that had happened to him into something almost profitable for them all. and it hadn’t, because everything they had him do was always ‘for the band’, so really, how could he have said no?

besides, he would have been lying if he’d said he hadn’t come to enjoy it, after a while. seeing the life drain from their eyes as they’d beg for mercy, pleading with him, promising him that they’d do whatever he wanted if he’d just let them go. he’d always laugh then, before sinking his teeth into their throats.

and it helped that these people also happened to be nobodies, too. from shitty bar owners that wouldn’t let them play to members of a rival band that had just gotten a little too cocky for their own good. no one ever missed them, most hardly noticed that they were gone.

joost was never a monster to them, to the band, just an over-glamorised attack dog that could do a lot more than just bite.

it had taken him far too many years to realise it.

“that’s how i ended up with the cafe…i wanted to get away; i didn’t want to be like that anymore.” he paused only to gauge your reaction, or more so your lack of one. you hadn’t said a word the entire time, hadn’t flinched or pulled a face; you had barely even blinked.

“what did you do with the body?…his body?”

the sudden sound of your voice, it made him glance back up at you with a small quiver in his lip. you were still staring blankly at the wall ahead, your expression borderline unreadable, but your words hadn’t cracked and your hands weren’t shaking anymore, either.

“i know some people that are…like me; they handled it.” when you fell quiet again, joost continued, wiping the snot from his nose as he did so. “i’ve done a lot of bad things, lieverd. what i did to levi, fuck, that’s not even the worst of it. you should be scared of me; i’m scared of me.”

“i’m not.”

“why?”

“because if you were still the monster that you think you are, i wouldn’t have even made it halfway out the door that night.”

after only another moment or two of silence had passed did you finally look down to meet his eyes again. whilst there was a shine in yours that definitely matched his own, there was something so soft about the way you were gazing at him. it made the muscles beneath his shoulders relax and drop down as he breathed out a quiet sigh of relief.

you didn’t need to elaborate any further, didn’t need to say anything else to prove to him that you knew he wasn’t that person anymore. he could tell simply from the hint of a smile that was tugging at the corners of your mouth. from how it was with careful, delicate movements that you moved to crawl onto his lap and hugged him, nuzzling your face into the curve of his neck.

the large, warm palms of joost’s hands slid underneath the cotton of your tank top and soothed the cool skin of your spine as he rested his head against yours. instead of asking how you were even real, how someone so undeniably good was able to look past each and every single one of his sins, he kept quiet to let the last few tears of his fall.

but if he had in fact asked, then you would’ve told him that truly, you couldn’t hold any of it against him.

of course it was all awful, from the countless faces he’d torn apart to the people that he terrorised even before the change. your skin had been crawling as joost had spoken and you just couldn’t ignore the fact that anyone else in your position probably would’ve taken off running by now. that, and that they’d have every right to.

except you weren’t just anyone, were you? as far as you were concerned, those old so-called ‘friends’ of his were the real monsters, because you of all people knew what it was like to be hurt by those you trusted most. to have someone so deep inside your mind that you quickly became blind to everything else. you couldn’t hold it against him because in your heart, you got it. you could feel that, that wasn’t who joost was anymore.

“can you stay tonight? for a little while?”

you felt his hands trail down to the side of your hips and squeeze as you pulled away just enough to see his face, your own two hands falling down to rest against his stomach.

“i’ll stay for as long as you want me to, schatje. i’m here.”

being on the brink of almost giddiness as you nodded, that small smile of yours twisting up into an almost grin, you hadn’t realised how his fingers were starting to roam. that his hands were gently moving around, rubbing up and down the flesh of your waist until they reached the very front of your hips.

you hadn’t been fast enough, hadn’t been able to take hold of his wrists to stop him before the soft pads of his thumbs could find the aching, bumpy lines of the cuts you’d put there a few days ago. as you froze, you watched his own sweet smile drop and his eyebrows furrow, and felt him slowly lift up the hem of your top just enough to see the true extent of it.

even in the low light of your living room, even if his eyesight wasn’t as unnaturally good as it was, he still wouldn’t have been able to miss it. just like the rest of you was, the tight skin of your stomach and all the way across to your hips were marked with the same harsh, red gashes. most were scabbed over but a couple were sprouting fresh drops of blood from where you’d been moving around so much, pulling them apart at the seams.

you went to stand and then tried to simply twist yourself away when you couldn’t, but even then joost’s hold on you was too strong. his touches were feather-soft as he traced the tips of his fingers along every single one, following them down to the ones on your things and then back up along the ones on your arms. by the time that he reached your eyes again they were already scrunched up closed, hiding from him.

“because of me.”

it was more of a statement than a question, partly because he already knew the answer, and partly because he knew that you’d still deny it if he asked.

“joost -”

“- you have a first aid kid somewhere, right? lemme help.”

you shook your head as you went to tug your vest top back down, only to freeze when you finally caught a glimpse of all the little spots of blood that had seeped through your clothes. you stopped and stared at them for longer than you meant to, your hands trembling as you toyed with the material between your fingers.

the blood was always your favourite part. how it would slowly peek through the small breaks in your skin before oozing out, running down your body until the drops would fall and hit the floor. it had a way of hypnotising you every single time, making you want to keep going and going just so you could see it happen over again and again. even now, when the tiny red polka dots were nothing more than just a few sticky stains on your top, turning the tips of your fingers a deep pink.

it took joost gently prying your hands away for you to snap out of it.

“n-no, no, i can’t let you do that. it wouldn’t be fair, not when there’s so much blood and you’re…”

“i’ll be fine, lieverd, i promise.” you felt him give your hands a soft squeeze as he paused, “let me help you.”

there was no point in trying to change his mind. once you lifted your head back up and saw how those big blue eyes of his were staring back at you, the smudged, dark makeup around them making them seem so might brighter, you no longer had the heart to tell him no again. he could have asked anything of you, and you would’ve said yes.

“it’s in the bathroom.”

without warning, joost moved to grip the backs of each of your thighs and stood up, smiling when you squealed as you wrapped your arms and legs around him. it baffled you for a moment how it seemed as though he already knew where to go, that he already knew that your bathroom was all the way down the hall, last door on the left. you chalked his strong sense of direction up to it just being another one of the many perks that came along with being…well, him.

and whilst that was true, maybe it wasn’t the only reason why he specifically knew the layout of your home already. maybe he’s escorted you home more than just the once, twice, three times. maybe this wasn’t actually his first time walking down your hallway at all.

the cold of your bathroom counter underneath you made you jump slightly as joost carefully set you down on it. you’d left the light on from when you were in here earlier; your razor still laying discarded on the floor, coated in a drying layer of your own blood. you hadn’t even thought he’d seen it until he was picking it up and tossing it in the bin as if it was just a piece of rubbish that he’d dropped.

neither of you were saying anything. joost had fallen uncharacteristically quiet, breathing somewhat heavily through his mouth as he dug through your cabinets until he finally found that little green box with the red cross on on the front. his hands were shaking as he opened it, pulling out the countless packets of alcohol wipes and plasters, dropping a few things as he did so.

had you been paying more attention, then you would’ve noticed that actually, this was taking quite the toll on him. but you couldn’t shift your eyes away from the bin, the one that now contained the very last one of your razor blades amongst a small collection of used tissues and tampon wrappers. joost had thrown away your last one, and now you had none.

“okay, i’m sorry if this stings, schat. let me know if you need me to stop, okay?”

it was as you were nodding that you suddenly hissed, your leg jolting from the pain of the alcohol wipe joost had used to clean the first of the cuts on your upper thigh. on instinct you tried to pull away, fighting against the grip that he held on you to keep your leg still against the counter.

you weren’t expecting it to hurt as much as it did. considering how many times that you’ve been here before, cleaning yourself up because you didn’t always have someone around that cared enough to want to do it for you, you thought you would have been used to it by now. you never would have guessed that it would have you in near tears all over again, gripping the edge of the bathroom counter until your knuckles slowly started to turn white.

maybe this was just the price you had to pay for going a little deeper than you meant to.

“hey, do you think you could just…i don’t know, talk, for a while? tell me something about yourself?” at the look of confusion on your face joost just smiled, raising his hands a little to show you just how hard they were shaking. “it’ll help me concentrate.”

he was struggling more than he thought he’d be.

except how could he not be? this was a lot for him. all that blood of yours smeared and stained across his fingers aside, simply just being this close to you was enough to somehow make him feel lightheaded. feeling your knees on either side of his thighs as he stood in between your legs, so close to you in fact that he could hear your heartbeat louder than anything else.

he just needed to hear your voice, needed something else to focus on besides your blood that now laid underneath his fingernails.

“oh shit, uh, okay….um…”

you weren’t sure why you started to chuckle, almost, stumbling over these noises that barely even resembled words. you wanted to come up with something to talk about fast, to help get joost’s mind off of what he was actually doing, but the harder you thought the quicker your mind went blank. nobody’s ever really asked you to talk about yourself before; you had no idea what to say.

there wasn’t a whole lot to say, really. you used to have interests; hobbies that you used to put your heart and soul into, dreams that you were so determined to make a reality for yourself. levi had, had other plans for you, though. either, he would simply take up too much of your time, or he’d be so insistent that those hobbies of yours were ‘pointless’, that eventually you grew to lose interest in them. since day one of the relationship, everything about you had to be about him.

you used to think that it was probably for the best, that maybe he was right and you really were just wasting your time. but now that he’s gone for good, and you’re stuck with someone in front of you that genuinely wants to get to know you, you realise now that there’s nothing for you to tell them. there’s nothing of who you used to be left.

joost gave your knee a quick squeeze before turning his attention onto your arms, having slowly picked up on the fact that once again, your lack of an answer told him far more than you wanted it to.

“okay, let’s start with the easy stuff — what did you want to be when you were growing up?”

“i wanted to be a painter.”

you hissed again at the burn of one of the alcohol wipes against your skin; smiling softly when he reassured you of just how brave you were being.

“a painter? that’s sick! did that happen?”

“almost. i went to school for it, got a degree and everything, but uh, levi always said that it’s not a ‘real job’ so…”

joost’s frown was immediate. he was shaking his head, the lines in his forehead already so prominent. “did you really give it all up because of that? that’s bullshit.”

“i didn’t really have much of a choice, joostie.”

you both fell quiet again after that.

he felt horrible for reacting like that, fearing that you mistook all of his anger towards levi and each of the silly little ideas that the guy had planted in your head to be aimed at you. you’d sounded so defeated as your shoulders slumped, your voice falling to a near-whisper as you moved your gaze onto the floor. of course you didn’t have a choice; that much should’ve already been obvious.

and it was the look on your face now that was hurting him the most. a look of mourning as you pondered the life that you almost had, had it not been for that asshole and the hold that he’d once had over you. as joost wiped another cut clean, he regretted for just a moment not going back for seconds that night — it would’ve been the least that levi deserved.

“what kind of art did you do?”

that brought something of a smile back to your face as your mind drifted back to all of the scrapbooks you had hidden underneath your bed. old, dust-covered notebooks filled to the brim with page after page of everything from doodles to full-fledged paintings. your bottom lip wobbled when you thought of all the canvases though, the same ones you once watched levi destroy one night just because he’d wanted to see you cry after a fight.

“everything — oil paint, acrylics, watercolour. i really loved chalk, though. seeing all the stains it would leave behind made it feel like it meant something more, you know? like i was really creating something.”

a gentle grin curled the corners of your mouth up as you spoke, beginning to ramble so passionately about what you loved that joost really did almost forget what he was doing. he had to stop for a second just so that he could witness that smile of yours, see that gleam in your eyes that he’d once had himself back when he was just kid writing songs in his bedroom. in a blink of an eye, you had suddenly become so alive and it had him floored.

it had him captivated, actually; irrevocably wrapped around your finger.

his hands weren’t shaking so much anymore.

“i have a friend that’s a painter; he mainly does the oil stuff, i think, but maybe i could introduce the two of you one day? he’ll probably have some chalk laying around somewhere.”

“is he…?”

“no, he’s not like me. can i lift your shirt up a little bit? we’re almost done, i’ve just got to get the last ones.”

you nodded, wondering how it was that his skin felt so warm against yours, all things considered.

“it wouldn’t have mattered to me if he was.”

joost knew that you were telling the truth, could hear it in the way that your heartbeat kept its rhythm.

and the conversation continued to flow as joost patched up the last few cuts of yours, sticking little hello kitty plasters delicately across your hip bones. he told you all about this oil-painter friend of his, ‘daan’ — how he’d been the first genuine friend that joost had made after the change, how he never would’ve been able to get away from the band if it wasn’t for him.

joost even opened up to you about his family, his parents. even after so many years, you still had to help him breathe through it as he told you their story with tears all in his eyes. it was only fair that you did the same after that; he almost couldn’t believe it when you’d said you'd lost your parents when you were younger too, spent some time in the system just as he had. after all, that was how you met levi.

and he told you all about another friend of his, ‘lenny’, how it’s because of her that he likes foreign graphic novels so much. whenever he’s not reading those porn mags that he swears he only picks up for the articles, he’s reading and then re-reading her old japanese comic books. you were never much of a comic book kid yourself, having always preferred to lose yourself inside the pages of a stephen king or a neil gaiman instead, so you promised to read ‘death note’ if joost read ‘the shining’.

by the time that he was pulling your shirt back down and chucking away all of the used, bloodied wipes that had accumulated, you were fighting to keep your eyes open. joost could tell that he was losing you just from the way that you kept swaying from side to side and nodding your head slightly even when he hadn’t asked you a question. it made his heart ache, knowing that you were so, so exhausted but still so unwilling to sleep because you wanted to keep the conversation going.

he hadn’t told you his favourite colour yet.

“cmon you, i think it's bedtime.”

you were yawning before you could argue, letting your head fall back against the cabinet behind you. the thought of your bed was undeniably heavenly; the feeling of your mattress dipping below your weight as you curl yourself into a ball beneath your blankets. the only problem was that you were just as comfy here as you would be over there, though, perched on the edge of your bathroom countertop with joost still standing in between your legs, his hands resting on each of your thighs.

this bubble you had created with him — it wasn’t one you were ready to leave quite just yet. there was still that fear of waking up alone again lurking in the back of your mind.

and it was before you could argue that joost was also scooping you up again, holding you up by the backs of your thighs as he began to carry you back down the hall. you let your head fall to rest against his shoulder, your arms draped loosely around his neck. if it wasn’t for that fear of yours twisting your insides and rotting your brain from the inside out, you could have fallen asleep right there.

you probably would have.

“you’re gonna stay with me, right?”

joost glanced down at the top of your head with a crease in his eyebrows, carefully nudging your bedroom door open with his foot. “i already told you, lieverd, i’m not going anywhere. i promise.”

“no, i know that. i just mean -” you paused when he gently set you down just beside your bed, only stepping away to turn on the light until you made a sudden, desperate reach for his wrist.

when the warm glow of the lamp flooded the room, you could see that he wasn’t smiling anymore. instead there was worry in his eyes as he took that step back closer to you again, his hands coming up to tuck loose strands of hair behind your ears.

“what’s wrong?”

“- i meant that you’re not gonna exile yourself to the sofa or anything, right? you’ll stay with me?”

it finally clicked in his head what you were asking.

and it definitely felt like a lot to be asking of him, again all things considered. you just couldn’t do it though, you couldn’t handle the idea of being by yourself anymore. it was why you always stayed in the end, with levi, why a part of you couldn’t help but miss him. his presence would be chilling but his side of the bed would always be warm when you would wake up in the mornings.

you didn’t want to start crying when you felt as though it was taking joost too long to answer. you didn’t want to guilt trip him like that, make him feel as though he had to even if he didn’t want to. but it was just another thing that you couldn’t help, because you were so tired and so afraid that you just didn’t know what else to do besides sit down and cry.

he copied you by sinking down into a squat, placing both of his hands onto each one of your knees. since you kept your eyes focused on the ceiling, trying and failing at trying to blink away your tears as you hiccuped, it was from the corners of your sight that you saw joost reach up to wipe them away himself. the pads of his thumbs stroked along the skin of your cheekbone and lingered there for a moment or two before he spoke.

“can you look at me, schatje?”

you did so almost reluctantly.

“i’m not going anywhere, alright? i’m not gonna leave you.”

nodding as you sniffled, you kept your eyes locked with his as you crawled back onto your bed and pulled back the covers. neither of you said anything nor dared to look away from the other as joost kicked off his shoes and undid the clasp of his watch, slipping it off of his wrist to leave it on your bedside table.

that was all he did before he climbed into bed with you, still dressed in the same hoodie and sweatpants that he’s had on all night. you let his arms wrap around you and tug you up into his chest as you grabbed onto fistfalls of his sweatshirt, trusting that he meant it when he said he’d stay with you but still feeling too afraid to let go.

more tears began to fall from your eyes, your shoulders wracking against him as you cried. soft, gentle circles were drawn anywhere on your skin that he could reach; your shoulders, your hips, your sides, and he murmured sweet little assurances into your ear.

“i mean it, okay? i’ve got you. i’m right here.”

it was with your whole heart that you believed him. with your tears slowly soaking through the cotton of his jumper, you believed that he’ll still be here when you wake up, all curled up with you with his hand still rubbing up and down your back.

“i’m here.”

#joost klein x reader #joost klein x f!reader #luvvergirlwrites

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starm0onlight · 2 days ago

Text

drowned by love🥀

₊˚⊹ ᰔ pairing: Greek gods x fem reader!

₊˚⊹ ᰔ note: i don't know what im doing nor why im doing this but we rock i guess

₊˚⊹ ᰔ warning: English isn't my first language so feel free to correct me!

₊˚⊹ ᰔ content: multi characters x reader, greek gods being... greek gods? there will be more than one part

🪽₊˚⊹ you don't remember how this is happened, everything was so sudden, but all you remember is you waking up in giant forest where trees are everywhere you look.

☀️₊˚⊹ you didn't understand what got you here, first you were at your home and now suddenly you're at some forest in some place..

🏺₊˚⊹ as you stood up you start walking around looking for a way out of this forest, at first you start screaming for help but you give that idea up after a while of screaming and your throat hurting

🪽₊˚⊹ after spending hours of walking you suddenly found a gate, giant gate that look like it belong to royalty, you didn't care that much as you start running towards it, forgetting all about your legs pain of hours of walking.

☀️₊˚⊹ as you reach to it suddenly open by itself reveling a giant palace which quickly mad you jump and gasp, how does this giant palace exist in the middle of no where?

🏺₊˚⊹ you where so shocked that you didn't notice the person who has sneak up behind you.

"well well well, what do we have here, a little mortal?" he says close to your ears which quickly make jump and gasp pulling away from him as you look at him with confusion and little fear.

"what would bring such a mortal like yourself here darling?" said the guy before letting out a little chuckles, he was tall with wings on his head and a hat, as you look up and down at him you notice him wearing what look like old clothes, ancient one. and is that shoes with wings in it?

"i...i don't kno-" before you could answer suddenly you heard a voice coming from behind you, much louder and rougher one

"Hermes, what are you doing, and who is this mortal?" said the voice as it started getting closer, as you turn around you see a man with white hair and beard slowly approaching you. okay that just got even worse now.

"i don't know father, this little mortal just appears here and she looks a little lost" said hermes as he got a little closer to you studying your face as you quickly start stepping away but suddenly hit something behind you, or rather someone.

"what a pretty little mortal like you doing here?" said the voice that comes from behind you softly which quickly makes you jump and turn around to be faced with a tanned man whose hair is as gold as the sunlight with eyes that could literally shine.

what's wrong with men here suddenly appearing out of nowhere from behind you?? is that a kink or something? because you're definitely not interested.

before you can even question anything you heard another voice, great the collection is completed , but this time it seems more like feminine voice, very harsh one indeed.

"zeus!? who is this mortal, and how did she come here??" said the woman harshly as pointed at you like you're some... thing.

"hera, we don't know how this mortal got here, but she seems like she's lost?" said the white haired man as he looked at the woman tiredly.

wait, Hermes? zeus? HERA??? this can't be right.. and don't tell me that the golden hair man is Apollo?? oh she's died for sure.

"lost? on the mountain of Olympus?? just throw her off." said hera as she looked at you with hate and disgust .

wait throw her? OFF OF A FUCKING MOUNTAIN?? i mean she did throw her own son. BUT STILL??

"wow wow... please don't throw me off the mountain, I too dont know how I got here.." you finally said as you try to reason with hera. well , we know how this goes.

"mortal how dare you talk back to me??" said hera with even more hatred and disgust, if eyes could kill, you're a gonner.

luckily zeus steps just in time to stop hera from throwing you off herself "calm down hera, we're not throwing anyone, not yet" well it's zeus..

"so what do we do with her?? keep her?" said hera as she looked at zeus angrily.

"well keeping her doesn't sound so bad, it's been a long time since I've seen mortal so beautiful" said Apollo as he got closer to you studying your face, You don't know if you should be flattered at his compliment or be concerned

"Yea It's been a while since the gods had a mortal servant, a little pet if you will" said hermes with little chuckle as he glare at you.

a pet? for the gods?? getting thrown out of the mountain doesn't sound so bad right now.

"yea turn Olympus into a zoo for mortals!" said hera sarcastically as she looked at Apollo and hermes, definitely not a fan of the idea.

"well, it's better and more entertaining than throwing her off, we could use a mortal in Olympus" said zeus and smirk looking at you.

yep your fate has been sealed. doom.

"well welcome to your new home little mortal, what's your name?" you heard Apollo talking softly to you but you can barely focus with your brain trying to take in all the new information.

you can hear hera yell and zeus ignoring her, but suddenly as your body suddenly remembers it's tiredness you couldn't stand on your feet as you suddenly pass out.

well look like you're in for a long ride.

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justwinginglife · 3 days ago

Text

Royal Pains

You had thought that the title was a joke at first.

Recently you’d received a letter in the mail congratulating you on becoming the new duchess of a small island colony in the south, but you hadn’t thought much of it at the time. Sylus was always pulling ridiculous stunts, paying whatever copious amount of money would allow him to name the new planet that had been discovered after you, or to have your name painted across his newly purchased yacht, or to buy the hotel you were staying the night in and have it renamed so that your name was perched atop it in big, glowing letters.

So when you received the news regarding his newest acquisition, you simply thought to yourself, “There he goes again, buying more things in my name,” and smiled to yourself, before depositing the papers atop the rest of your legal documents, claiming you the owner of this and that, thinking nothing more of it.

It wasn’t until Sylus proposed a trip to go see the island that you realized how mistaken you were.

“My lady.” He held out a hand to help you out of the jet.

Thinking him humorous, you decided to play along, taking his hand with all seriousness. “Ah, yes, my lord. How very kind of you to assist me.” And when your feet had properly landed on firm ground, you even gave him a curtsy to finish off your performance.

He gave a light laugh before continuing with the charade. “Excellent form, Your Grace.”

You raised your chin to him, straightening as best as you could. “Why, of course. As you know, I was raised from birth to be this land’s Duchess and as such, I have always been held to high standards, so I expect my form to be nothing less than pure perfection.”

His lips curled into a smirk. “I see Your Ladyship is also quite humble.”

You rolled your eyes, shoulders slouching again as you broke character. “Alright, alright- I’m done with the whole prim and proper thing now. C’mon, I want you to show me around!” Your eyes glimmered with excitement. “Isn’t that the reason we’re here?”

He smiled warmly, eyes gazing fondly at your enthusiastic expression. “Yes, love. I wanted to show you all the sights this island has to offer.”

Taking you by the hand, he led you through the forests and meadows, over bridges and through tunnels, until you’d been over every hill, admired every flower, and pet every creature you laid eyes on. Every inch of this island was covered in life, covered in light, and every inch of it was yours. And for no reason in particular. Just because you had someone who loved spoiling you as much as he loved you.

Eventually, the two of you made your way into town.

You were so focused on oohing and ahhing all the quaint houses and little gardens, that you almost didn’t notice every villager staring at you. Almost. And it wasn’t until you dragged Sylus to a nearby stall to purchase some sweets from the local baker that you understood why they were all watching you so intently.

“You’re the new lady of the land, aren’t you?” He asked as he bagged up your treats.

You blinked at him, gears rotating in your mind, as you tried to figure out what on earth he could possibly mean. Then it hit you. The Duchess thing. That was probably what they called whoever had ownership over the land. Made sense. It was an old fashioned town. Titles like that were still being used around here. “Well, technically, my fiancee here is the one who bought the land, so I guess that would make him the… ‘lord of the land,’ I guess? But yes, we are the new owners, and we are very happy to be here.”

You could tell Sylus was biting back a laugh but you just chalked it up to him being thoroughly entertained by the whole situation.

“Your fiance?” The baker gave Sylus a lookover. “I didn’t hear anything about there being a new Duke, just a new Duchess.”

“That’s because there isn’t a Duke.” Sylus confirmed.

“Or Duchess, really.” You added on.

The baker’s brows furrowed as he turned back to face you. “But you’re the new owner, aren’t you? So you’re the new Duchess.”

You could tell he wasn’t going to let this matter go and you really just wanted to disappear over some hilltop with Sylus and enjoy your snacks together in peace, so you decided to give in. “I- yes, yeah. That’s me. I’m the new Duchess. Caught me. Nice to meet you.”

Upon hearing your admission, more villagers started to crowd around you, to ask when you intended to move in, to ask your thoughts on how they could run the town better, to ask if you’d attend their baby’s christening or their daughter’s wedding or the unveiling of the new building in town. All things you did not have the answer to and did not know why you were being asked in the first place.

After answering as best you could, as politely as you could, you gave a proper little wave (a wave you thought -or simply hoped- was befitting of a Duchess) before snatching Sylus’ hand and scurrying off with him. As much as you liked the idea of playing nobility, you were getting tired of having to keep up the charade. Especially with random people you didn’t know. And on your vacation. You honestly just wanted some alone time with your fiance and it seemed like you weren’t going to get it if you stayed in town any longer.

“My, my. It appears the new Duchess is shy.” Sylus teased.

You pouted. “Syyyy. Enough with the Duchess stuff. We both know I’m not royalty.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you so sure about that?”

You rolled your eyes. “Sy, I think I would know if I were secretly a Duchess my whole life.”

“Not your whole life. Just recently.”

You laughed. “What do you mean just recently? I think I would have remembered someone dubbing me ‘Lady of the Land.’” Then you stopped in your tracks. “Sy…you didn’t.”

Sylus didn’t even bother to hide how pleased he was. “I didn’t what?”

Those eyes. That damn smile. He absolutely did what you thought you did. Suddenly, you began to quickly rummage through your purse. Where had you put it? Where was that damn letter? Finally your fingers caught the edge of an envelope and you yanked it out hastily. Skimming over the words again, your jaw dropped as your eyes landed on the information you were looking for.

He snickered into his hand.

“Sylus! You BOUGHT me a title as a FREAKIN DUCHESS???”

“Guilty as charge, milady.” He gave a pronounced bow.

You flicked him in the forehead once he’d bent low enough. “And WHY did you buy me a title??”

He shrugged like it was only natural. “I thought I might as well since I was already buying the land.”

“And WHY did you buy me the land??”

Another shrug. “I thought I might as well since I was already buying the castle.”

“And WHY did you- wait. What castle?” You’d explored every inch of this island; you think you would’ve remembered seeing a castle in the distance.

“That castle.” He turned you around, and there, hidden at the edge of the forest, was the castle of your dreams.

You stumbled towards it in a daze.

It was just like walking into a fairytale. There was a large courtyard with a decorative fountain in the center, ornate details carved into its stone. Hedges lined the entrance, making it feel like your own private paradise. A grand staircase lead up to an even grander set of double doors, and past those doors, there were towers to climb, rooms to admire, foyers to gape at, and even more proof of Sylus’ love with every awestruck step you took.

“You…you didn’t have to do all of this. Why…why did you buy me a castle?” You murmured under your breath, eyes still glazed over, as though you were still wading through a dreamscape.

“You said you wanted to get married in a castle, didn’t you?” He mused.

You blinked.

You had said that. Once. When you had first started dating. Oh. Oh, this man. If he wasn’t careful, you’d just marry him right here and now, with no one to witness your union but the sun streaming in through the windows and the birds flying by.

“Do you like it?” He asked softly.

“Like it?” You let out a laugh. “I love it, baby. I love you.”

“Oh, good, so you’re not still mad about the Duchess thing.” He teased. “Because you do still have to go to Moira’s baby’s christening and Sheila’s daughter’s wedding and-”

“Oh, no, no, no. If I’m the Duchess, then by default, you’re the Duke. I’m not ‘Ladying’ over this land without my lord. You got me into this mess, now it’s your mess too.”

“It’s a shame, I only bought one title. It’s not enough for the two of us.” He grinned.

“Then, I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got money too, now isn’t it? Better straighten your crown, pretty boy. You’re stuck with me for life.”

Taglist: @pixelcafe-network @minasfwoopyponytail @ouiouimochi @tbaluver

#han's library #sylus lads #lnds sylus #sylus love and deepspace #sylus x reader #love and deepspace sylus #lads sylus #sylus #lads x reader #lnds x reader #l&ds x reader #lads #lnds #love and deepspace #love and deep space #l&ds #lds #lds sylus

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lemotmo · 3 days ago

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I do get this. It was an incredibly frustrating episode for sure but I can see this.

Q. I guess I don't know what I was expecting because I have no idea what I just watched. It didn't feel like an actual episode, if that makes sense. Everyone felt slightly off and I just don't know what the reason for doing it that way was.

A. No this makes sense, anon. I said to a couple of people last night that the episode felt like the coma dream episode in terms of the way the scenes were shot and staged. It did feel slightly not reality based, which I do think was intentional. Before I go further I am going to say that for the most part I think I get what they were trying to do. I just think, as usual with Tim, he's not the virtuoso genius filmmaker he fancies himself as being, and so the execution of his grand ideas get lost in translation. Which is insanely frustrating as a viewer. The other thing I will say is making Tim and Kristen the writers for this episode specifically was the wrong choice. They each do certain things well, and other things incredibly poorly. I hoped writing together would benefit the script because what each of them struggle with the other one usually does pretty well. That was not the case here. The show is trying to pull off a long con for lack of a better way to say it. Lab Rats was the setup to the con, Bobby's death. The Last Alarm was the hidden in plain sight reveal of what the con is, Bobby's casket being empty and him being held somewhere else without the family's knowledge. Using the arson case of the dead child was a clever way to reveal the con but the success of pulling something like that off requires nuance and structure within the writing, and unfortunately that is the writing struggle Tim and Kristen have in common. Neither one of them can write nuance or stick to a proper writing structure. They can slam you over the head with foreshadowing, and they very much did in this episode, but foreshadowing cannot be the only writing tool and in this case they used it for everything. That doesn't work with an episode like this. Spending more than half the episode on a case, that on face value ended up serving as only a distraction for Athena, was an insane decision. Yes they had to establish the con in a way that wasn't obvious but a stronger writer could have done that in half the screen time, and this show has those writers on staff, but Tim and Kristen are not those writers.

Moving on, I did not hate this episode, I can see and appreciate what he's trying to do even if the execution is beyond frustrating. First I will say this is the Athena I love. She was amazing in this episode. This is how she's supposed to be written as a character. The RoboCop vigilante bullshit they usually saddle her with is not the way to go for her. The Athena of this episode is the sweet spot and Angela was unsurprisingly spectacular. Kenny was equally brilliant. I absolutely understand Chimney being the 118 character focus for this episode given what we saw in Lab Rats. Kenny is a wildly underappreciated actor and when he's given the room to shine he absolutely kills it. He's so good to watch. Letting Athena and Chimney take center stage was understandable, just not for the episode that was supposedly Bobby's farewell, again though I think that was intentional.

I also really liked the brief bits of Hen and Karen and Hen and Athena that we got in this episode. Hen and Karen's relationship is always nice to see because they're beautiful together and Hen and Athena's friendship should have more focus than it gets because their friendship is really layered and lovely. I enjoyed those moments. The brief May and Harry moments were nice to see as well. Hopefully we get more of them next season.

Which brings me to Buck and Eddie. First of all I love that Buck, even in the context of this episode, was so excited to reveal Eddie's return to Ravi, and the audience, as a surprise kind of thing. I like that they let that moment exist even though it didn't really fit the episode, but it absolutely would be something Buck would feel like was a good ta da surprise kind of thing. I'm glad they let that moment be. And Eddie looked amazing, dear god I knew it was him from the stills but I still squealed when I saw him. I missed him tremendously. The show using Ravi as a kind of barrier to prevent the audience from seeing Buck and Eddie alone was a really interesting choice as well given what Ravi has always represented on this show. I know we all live Ravi but since his introduction Ravi has always been and used as the physical manifestation of Buck's trauma. He pops up in episodes where Buck is feeling abandoned or left behind so Ravi being present in that scene as well as being the hug the audience saw Eddie give someone was a really interesting choice. The Buck and Eddie of it all was small but there was a lot within that one scene. The colors they were wearing. Buck's one line of dialogue to Eddie being 'but you're here now', Eddie eating one of Buck baked goods even though had no idea what it actually was, but it was Buck's so he ate it. Buck's entire game right now is avoidance. He's trying to do the one thing his captain asked of him, be there for his family, so Buck is purposely pushing his own feelings about everything to the side for now. Those feelings include everything that has come up about what he might really feel for Eddie. Placing Ravi in the middle of the scene was a good way to show that neither Buck nor Eddie are ready for that conversation yet. But it is inevitably coming. And when you try to avoid something the universe has a way of screaming at you until you obey. A long standing theme for Buck and Eddie. I do think episode 17 will see Eddie and Hen focus and I expect to see something from Eddie in that episode because I do think the Buck and Eddie moment of reckoning is coming in the season finale.

I think the episode felt not real for a reason. I don't think Bobby is really dead but I think Tim is trying to push most of this to the season finale given the criticism of last season's finale. I think we will have the Bobby reveal, Maddie going into labor, and the Buddie moment in that one episode. Hence the episode title being Sesmic Shifts.

Thank you Nonny! I really needed this post in my inbox today. 🤗

I'm going to let this speak for itself. I already talked about these topics in my other posts and I've got nothing new to add here.

Just this:

I'm already looking forward to the next episode. I can't help it. 🤷‍♀️ I love this show too much. I just NEED some more Eddie, preferably in some more speaking scenes this time. 🙄😋

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

#anonymous blog I love #nonnies galore #911 8x16 #911 spoilers #911 8x17 #911 8x17 speculation

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fox-guardian · 13 hours ago

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hii i hope this is ok to ask but i love how fucking HUGE you make curly look, do you have any advice on how to draw muscular frames? :o

thankies!! i love drawing him Robust-Looking <3

as far as advice goes, when it comes to anatomy i always recommend the channel proko on youtube, they have all kinds of videos about how to draw anatomy with each area of the body broken down. basically, if you're trying for anatomical accuracy with muscles and stuff, their vids are a great way to grasp how muscles work!

as far as general shapes and vibes though, i have a couple quick tips of my own <3

the biggest part, if you can imagine, is proportions. typically tutorials will tell you the average shoulder width for a person is about 2-3 heads wide, so if you're making someone Bigger and Beefier, you'll wanna go past that a bit. (and making a character's head smaller is gonna make their body look bigger by comparison, so if you wanna go crazy, shrank that thang)

For example, Daisuke (who i draw as lean, but still with some muscle, especially in his arms) is 4 heads wide at his shoulders, while beefcake curly over here is 5 (sometimes more depending on the drawing lol). something as simple as broadening the shoulders already gives a character a beefier-looking silhouette.

[ID: Simple rough sketches of Daisuke and Curly from Mouthwashing with colored circles showing how many heads wide their shoulder width is. Daisuke is four, Curly is five. end ID]

~~~~

"but what if i don't know how to draw the muscles and am not going for realism/don't feel confident enough in that yet? how do i give a muscular vibe without as much detail?" FEAR NOT it's super easy. here we use the power of SHAPES!!

i draw jimmy and curly with the same "skeleton" or base frame, so i think they're a good example of this next bit. despite having the same bones, i broaden the fleshy parts on curly's limbs (focusing on his shoulders cuz he has big ass shoulders) and keep his upper arms wide before tapering down into his hands (muscles tend to be largest at the base of the limb and get smaller up to the hands/feet but there's plenty of design exceptions). i carry that shape language down into his legs (which i emphasize with his fitted calf-height boots). meanwhile jimmy stays fairly squared, especially when fully clothed

[ID: Simple sketches of Jimmy and Curly from Mouthwashing with notes describing their shapes. Jimmy has a rectangle over his body and is noted as being "relatively rectangular" and the shapes of his limbs are mostly straight. Curly has a trapezoid over his body and has a "top heavy shape" with limb shapes that taper down and in. end ID]

~~~~

and honestly, a good hack to make a character read as more muscular or robust is to give them a buddy that contrasts that. once again, jimmy will assist.

even in a simple drawing like this, giving jimmy the opposite tapering to his limbs just emphasizes curly's hugelargeness by comparison. it also shows that you don't need a lot of detail or realism to convey Beefiness

[ID: Another, more simplified doodle of Jimmy and Curly, pointing out that Jim's limbs taper outwards while Curly's taper in. end ID]

~~~~

another final quick tip i have is: the neck makes a difference!

people with more muscle tend to have thicker necks (it's because of the muscles there, if you can believe it) and it's kinda become one of my fav bits of drawing curly lol. idk why <3 necks fun to draw <3 for him, i draw his neck starting at the very edges of his face and widening out at the bottom to match the shape of his head and to flow a bit more into his trap muscles, but you could go Even Further Beyond if you so Choose. i've found this is a surprisingly good way to convey Beefy Person Beefy even if you don't have as much anatomical knowledge.

[ID: Four bust sketches of Daisuke and Curly comparing their necks. The first two show them both facing forwards. Daisuke's neck is slimmer and straight, while Curly's neck meets the edges of his jaw and has a wider base with higher trap muscles. The second two shows them in profile, with the back of Daisuke's cranium sticking out past his neck, while Curly's is even with his neck, showing how thick is is from the side. end ID]

~~~~

in review we got:

widen shoulders relative to the head to convey a Broad silhouette

taper limbs inwards from base to extremities to emphasize the shape/size of the muscles

give em a less muscular buddy for contrast

thick necks help a lot in conveying a muscular build

and of course, i know i only used men in these examples, but these tips will work just fine regardless of a character's gender. please draw more beefy women ily <3

i hope this made sense and helps you and whoever else might see this uwu

if anyone has any questions about it i will. Try. to answer them. making these posts is oddly difficult lol

#fg's art #mouthwashing #just gonna use the one tag since this mostly has nothing to do with them lol #art tips with major #art tutorial #fg's answers #asks #cursing #WOW AN ART ADVICE QUESTION I ACTUALLY ANSWERED WITH A TUTORIAL. AMAZING. I THOUGHT IT COULDN'T BE DONE AKSDJHAKDJH #the part of me that loves helping people and teaching people art stuff #vs the part of me that finds it SO DIFFICULT TO GATHER MY THOUGHTS INTO A POST #it's hard <3 but we work <3

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issue-paper · 1 day ago

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My designs for the main cast :D Thought process explained below vvV

The original designs are great! I love Astro so much and Dandy is my absolute favorite toon out of the six of them, but I felt like their personalities and likes could be pushed further through their designs so here's my take. My thought process was definitely more towards what they would look like in an actual cartoon on screen. Sprout: Sprout's original design is really cute, but I don't really get why he has a scarf? It's a simple accessory but it doesn't really tell me anything about him. So I decided no more scarf and instead he gets an apron. Sprout likes to bake! It's a not so subtle choice to make but it suits him well I think. Shelly: Shelly is soooo cute and I understand in the lore she's the most ignored out of the mains so her in game design makes sense as to why she's so simple but I wanted to push her interest in archeology harder. So she gets a pair of boots and a pair of gloves with a patch in her dress to get across she's always doing something that its needed repair. Dandy: I admit Dandy was a little harder to think of something for. He's such a solid and simple design, a perfect mascot really but I decided to tweak his colors just a little and give him a friendship bracelet. It's rainbow, just like his petals. I figured I wouldn't dress him up because Dandy would be the one to have multiple outfits depending on what he's doing with his friends, he's everybody's friend! Pebble: Pebble is the biggest change, he's still got his big eyes which I love. I do wish I had kept his weird stare but I'm just keeping him cute for now. He's rounded out as I felt he didn't come off as a pebble and more like a stepping stone you'd find in a garden. Which might've been the intention with his original design since they're in a place called GARDENVIEW but I still wanted to round him out. I wanted to add dog ears simply because it's cute, how would that affect his twisted? I'm not super sure, I'm not doing these designs with the game in mind. Vee: Vee was honestly quite hard to change. Her design is very simple and I like her bean body shape too much to get rid of it, so it looks more like she's in a body suit instead. I do worry Vee's tones are too similar but I checked and she looks okay. I also gave her some cute little heels. I decided to get rid of the bend in her antenna feeling it could be used to show her emotions better. A stressed out Vee could have a bent one, but the perfect game show host wouldn't be seen with something like that. Astro: Not a huge difference! I've given him some big socks, a pair of slippers, and added some fringe to his blanket. I've also changed the plus shape on his face to a twinkle shape, along with the pompom on his hat. Next time I draw him the twinkles may both be smaller, I feel like the one on his hat looks too heavy. The color choices on each toon were very important to me. Something I really admire in MLP:FIM is how excellently the mane six are designed. Some of them share colors, not a single one of them looks out of place next to the other because of how their colors work. So I wanted these main six to also share colors while also each have their own defining color. Sprout is red, Shelly is orange, Pebble is yellow, Vee is green, Astro is blue, and Dandy has each of their colors on his petals. He's everyone's friend so he has to look the part. And that's it! Thanks for reading if you did, I really like these characters a lot and I wanted to share my take. Again the original designs are wonderful. Qwel did a great job. These were made out of love for the original cast along with a love for character design.

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causeimcrayzeebee · 3 days ago

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MAJOR TETRO PINK SPOILERS (for the whole thing basically)!!

wow. this was such a heartbreaking ending. i can’t help but be overwhelmed and emotional about everything that happened today,,,, i have so much to talk about but i just really can’t cover it all so I’m just gonna talk about my main takeaways from today!

i was so convinced it was gonna be tamba and was in hysterics cause i didn’t want it to be her… i am actually shocked hasegawa was the culprit— well, for the most part, save for during the camera discussion where i was yelling at my phone that hasegawa knew they were there (and somehow i was still not convinced he was the killer till the actual reveal), but in all honestly, this was a perfect end for his character.

it really highlighted the decay of hasegawa ken. pre killing game, hasegawa lived a somewhat simple but comfortable life, with a loving family and a successful career. but of course, it seems he was without friends, coming home from school every day to continue studying in his room. then he entered the killing game, surrounded with 15 of his peers, and only 1 of them really became his friend. kamimura kazutoshi. hasegawa became attached to him, connected with him; he felt a love he hadn’t before. and then kamimura was taken away. the remaining students he was surrounded by were who he believed to be terrible people. now, hasegawa was truly alone.

in hindsight it’s obvious it had to be him…. he couldn’t escape being suspicious for every damn trial n still survive lmaoo,,, of course he would come up with a convoluted, difficult plan that would’ve gone through just fine if it weren’t for monomoko intercepting.

speaking of monomoko, i was thinking about how tetro is so interesting in the aspect that it has supernatural elements like monomoko. she’s not a real bunny and is some kind of dimensional extraterrestrial being (im not caught up with staffside yet bear with me), but somehow, she’s far from the the scariest and most horrifying part about tetro. the things that are the most realistic and plausible to happen are the most fucked up, horrifying parts. in the words of hasegawa ken, real horror is knowing. knowing that it’s possible, knowing the evils of real people.

endings are difficult. even the best stories can have mediocre or horrible endings. but i have to shout out pink because while this technically isn’t the fully ending, it was such a fantastic end to a long journey. red had me tearing up. i did not expect a whole ass animation at all but it was so very moving. the colors and the shots were just amazing! but mostly what hit was the writing. the prose for that took my breath away, the little red riding hood theme was perfect. hearing sasaki one more time, narrating what could only be something from her journal, was a perfect way to wrap up sasaki’s life, and tetro pink as a whole.

maybe hasegawa is right— maybe the pink cast are all terrible people. but maybe they’re also just human. maybe that’s the human response to their circumstances. and maybe humans just make human mistakes when pushed to the edge.

looking at the remaining people was a knife to the chest, realizing it was only 5. and those exit interviews. oh my GOD the exit interviews. they’re both so similar yet so different to who the were before. wada…. oh my goodness wada…. “I’d have killed myself so sasaki could go to sleep” was so raw and filled with pain, i don’t think I’ll stop thinking about that answer. ojima and yanagi were both pissed at the people who took away what little childhood they had left, at the loved ones they took. i also found seki commenting on ojima not losing anyone particularly close interesting, because i think many of us acknowledge the absolute devastation of people like hasegawa losing kamimura or wada losing Isono and Tsuno, but we often forget how this would be for everyone else. ojima was close with everyone; everyone was closer than the average group of people because they were put into hell together. even if a student wasn’t super close to someone who died, that was someone they knew who was murdered. EVERYONE lost the deceased 11 people. tamba and hiroaki are both so much more shaken up, more quiet and more defeated. they went into the game as people who took every opportunity to get the upper hand and be better, but now they’ve been beaten to a shell of who they once were.

so with this, our surviving cast is going home. but did they really even survive? yeah, we have survivors technically, but really we’ve witnessed the brutal killing of 16 students; 16 people; 16 KIDS. and there will be more.

thank you von, the vas, and the editors for working so hard on such a beautiful project. im beyond excited (and terrified) for blue!

#tetro danganronpa pink #tetro danganronpa #tetro pink #im still hyped up on the adrenaline from this week omfg #FUCK BRO 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

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retroden-85 · 1 day ago

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Here’s a teaser poster of a project I’ve been working on for quite awhile now!

Tainted Pasts

Just after Thanksgiving break of 1987. Seniors, Jesse Anderson, Olivia Collins, Axel Crawford, and Petra Miller all get back into the groove of their final year of high school. All of them have big dreams to chase and want to leave behind their socially suffocating small town of Beacon Peak, Oregon. The four friends were hoping to have an uneventful senior year, but unfortunately, fate had other plans.

Within a month, attacks and murders all across town start propping up. The killer, getting away Scott-free with almost zero evidence to link them to their brutal crimes. The victims seem random, ranging from high school students, to beloved town residents. The town government and local authorities are overwhelmed and receiving backlash with no one getting put behind bars.

Jesse and the gang decide to take it upon themselves to help with the investigations by simply just finding any clues in their local library archives, anything that could help them find any evidence or links to these murders that might have a deeper meaning to them. Along the way, the four friends recruit another senior named Lukas Woods. He’s an enemy of theirs but with what’s going on with the dire situation, the friends decide to put their rocky beginnings in the past and to help each other in the present to maybe find a way to help the authorities catch the murderer.

Unbeknownst to the five of them, they would get themselves tangled into the revenge plot of a crazed serial killer who has a tainted past with the town and the people who call it home. Not only will the five of them put themselves at risk and into life or death situations, but everyone else around them in their lives will be pulled into as well.

Lots of text below for context! 👇

This is my au Tainted Pasts! It’s a 1980s horror movie inspired au because I have a stupid crazy hyper fixation with the 80s! This au contains a lot and I have so much planned with it, in terms of art and the narrative itself. A lot of characters will be featured from MCSM with the main protagonists being of course ‘The New Order of the Stone.’ And the main villain will be none other than the White Pumpkin!!!

Romance will also heavily be involved with this fic, very specifically and mainly, Jesskas (Green Sus. Jesse X Lukas)

This fanfic wouldn’t be possible without my lovely boyfriend @legendoffreakshit. He’s the one that helped me come up with this wild au in the first place! We’ve been having a ton of fun figuring out the plot of this au, with connecting key major events, figuring out the murderer’s motives, and the roles of the MCSM characters in this universe.

There will also be very heavy topics such as: Violence, Guns, Drugs / Drug Mentions, Blood, Mild Gore, Assault, Alcohol, Period Typical Racism, Period Typical Homophobia, Strong Language, Death / Murder, and etc.

So if any of those warnings bother you, this probably isn’t the au for you because this fic will be HEAVY.

Lastly after what seems like rambling and information all over the place. I’d like to say that this is my first fanfic I’ve ever made. I’ve been doing a lot of research and learning off of friends works on how to write narratively. So, take my fic with a grain of salt with my amateur writing skills. Not to mention, my inconsistency when it comes to posting. There’s chances that chapters could take a long time getting posted. But, I hope that information doesn’t discourage you from checking out my fic! It would mean a lot for just anyone to check it out. It’s something that I’ve worked on for a long time and I’m very passionate about it and excited to share it to the MCSM community despite my severe anxiety.

With that being said, thank you if you’ve read all of this! And if you are looking forward to the fic, chapter one will be releasing very soon! So see ya then!

#mcsm #mcsm au #jesskas #80s slasher au #Tainted Pasts au #mcsm white pumpkin #I rambled so much lmao #autism be damned

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angelshizuka · 2 days ago

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To me, Lucifer being pan is too fanservicey and caters to the Radioapple people. Even though that is partially queerbaiting because it's confirmed he only loves Lilith and will only end up with her. It's like how Octavia being ace is to cater to those who hc'd her as such, even though it's clear she was only made ace so Viv could dissuade people from drawing lolicon art of her.

So I prefer to have Lucifer as a cishet who is fine with his daughter being bisexual. And he's not overly woobified or put into queerbait scenarios. He loves Lilith very much and won't cheat on her for no reason.

I'm sorry, Anon, but I literally cannot disagree more with literally everything you just said.

Like, you do understand that no amount of making Lucifer canonically cishet would've stopped the Radioapple ship, right? Same goes for Octavia, if people wanna do that, no amount of her being canonically ace will stop them (wheter you agree with it or not is besides the point). If you think that, you really have no idea how fandoms work.

And that's not even getting into how Viv herself literally came out ace (bi) recently. So, why are people still acting like her making characters canonically ace is just a stereotype or an "excuse"!?

I get it if people headcanon Lucifer as cishet (which yes, will officially always be a headcanon now), but I will not respect said headcanon if it involves claiming him being canonically pan "makes no sense", because the arguments I hear are always such bullshit and always miss the point of what pansexuality even is.

Honestly, I am so god damn tired of people acting like body count and sexuality are the same thing. It's literally nothing different from claiming someone is "actually straight" or "actually gay" just because of the gender they're currently dating. Not to mention Lucifer has existed for billions of years before Lilith even existed.

And claiming making Lucifer pan is "queerbaiting" in a show that's filled to the BRIM with queer characters sure is a choice... If anything it's good to show that even queer men can be in a relationship with a woman and it doesnn't magically erase their sexuality.

Anyway, I'm gonna keep celebrating him being canonically pan!

65 notes · View notes

august-anon · 3 days ago

Note

A prompt for batfam tickle fic :

Maybe something with dick and Bruce when dick was little and them playing games after dick couldn’t fall asleep and tried to stay up? Or maybe had nightmares?

I don’t remember if you write for charecters when they where little so if your not comfortable with that then that’s my fault for not remembering :)

thank you for the prompt!!! this was adorable i loved writing it. I also didn't want it to feel too short in comparison with the other batfam fics i've been posting lately so you get a nice little bruce & dick relationship timelapse fic lol

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Monster Snacks

Fandom: Batfamily (no specific source material/continuity)

Ship(s): Gen!!! Platonic!! Familial!! No batcest here

Characters (lee/ler): Lee!Dick, Ler!Bruce

Word Count: 5510 words

Summary: There's a monster that prowls the halls of Wayne Manor late at night. Dick, over the years, has become very familiar with him.

[ao3 link]

-----------------------------

Dick had made his way into Bruce’s bed over an hour ago, tears and snot trailing down his face. He’d been trembling like a leaf, haunted by nightmares he refused to speak of. Bruce hadn’t known what to do. He’d pulled Dick into the bed, made sure he and Zitka were tucked in all snug, and flipped on the TV to… whatever the hell was playing on Disney Channel at this hour. Something about a dog and a rabbit in the jungle? Bruce wasn’t really following, but Dick seemed engaged enough with it, so Bruce had left it at that for a time. Fifteen minutes in, Dick had moved from his spot across the bed, snuggling up to Bruce’s side as he hugged Zitka tight between them.

Now, as the clock ticked past two in the morning, Bruce was weighing his options. Dick needed to sleep. It was far too late for boys his age to be up, especially on a school night, but he didn’t want to trigger whatever fears sent the boy spiraling earlier that night. He seemed happy enough now, giggling at the TV and singing along whenever the theme song played, but Bruce knew all too well how his mood could change on a dime. Hesitantly, he rubbed at Dick’s back.

“Hey, chum. Think you’re ready to try sleep again?”

Dick paused in his giggling, freezing for a moment before turning wide, innocent eyes on Bruce. “Do I have to?”

Bruce frowned, brushing the hair out of his eyes. “Dick, you need to rest. I’ll be here to help with any nightmares, but you need to get some sleep.”

Dick’s adorable pout morphed into a scowl. “I don’t wanna sleep. Can’t I just stay up? I don’t need to go to school tomorrow.”

Bruce sighed. “Chum–”

“B,” Dick said, drawing out the sound. “Please?”

Bruce rubbed at his eyes. “Are you saying this because you’re scared, or because you want to stay up late and watch TV?”

Dick hesitated, only a split-second, but it was enough for Bruce to catch. Then, his chin started trembling and his eyes went wide and watery. “I’m scared, Bruce. Please?”

Bruce did his best to stay patient. Dick was just a boy – an angry, grieving boy at that. Testing boundaries was not abnormal – at least, not according to Alfred and the multitude of parenting books Bruce had bought. Bruce wondered if he had been this much trouble when he was a child.

Truthfully, he was probably far worse.

So after a few deep breaths and a bit of brainstorming, an idea came to Bruce. One that wouldn’t traumatize Dick even further, but that would enforce the rules about bedtimes.

“You know… I didn’t want to tell you this and scare you more, but I think you should know.”

Dick hugged Zitka tighter, curling into Bruce’s chest. “What?”

“There’s this monster. It comes for little kids who don’t go to bed when they’re supposed to – attacks them until they do.”

Dick gasped. “A monster?”

“Oh yes. It’s big and furry, and it’s got these huge claws. You can’t escape it, not unless you agree to its demands.”

Dick frowned. “But – you’re Batman. Can’t you beat it?”

Bruce shook his head, his tone solemn. “No. I’m sorry chum, but not even Batman can beat this monster. And it’s coming for you, soon.”

“What is it?” Dick whispered.

Bruce leaned in close, so close he could whisper in Dick’s ear. “The Tickle Monster.”

Dick was shrieking before Bruce even started, and he couldn’t help but laugh as his hands connected with the boy’s sides. He took advantage of his current position, blowing a loud raspberry into the crook of Dick’s neck before making “om-nom-nom”-ing sounds to really sell that there was a monster eating Dick right up.

Dick giggled and snorted and shrieked, pushing at Bruce’s head and hands. “No Tickle Monster!”

Bruce pulled back to look Dick in the eyes. “I’m sorry, chum, but it’s already too late! The monster can’t stop until you agree to go to sleep.”

A determined expression flitted over Dick’s face before he tumbled back into laughter. “Never!”

Bruce sighed, as if this was paining him, and clawed his hands into Dick’s ribs. “Then you leave me no choice.”

Dick rolled back and forth, trying to dislodge Bruce’s hands from his ribs. Bruce followed him easily, creeping his hands upward until they were buried in Dick’s armpits. Dick shrieked with childish laughter, kicking his legs out in Bruce’s direction.

“B! No, it tickles!”

Bruce couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’s the point, Dickie.”

With no warning, Bruce jumped down to Dick’s stomach where his pajama shirt had ridden up from all his squirming. Dick cried out and curled up on his back, continuing to kick his feet so that Bruce had to shift out of the way to avoid getting kicked in the face.

“No! Not there!”

“Ticklish tummy, chum? Hmm, the Tickle Monster’s getting hungry.”

“No he’s not!”

“Oh, but he is.”

Shoving his legs out of the way for safety, Bruce leaned down and blew a series of short raspberries around Dick’s stomach. Dick cackled, tossing his head back and shaking it back and forth, scrubbing his hair into tangles against the sheets. Bruce laughed and leaned back down, repeating the raspberries. This time, he squeezed up and down Dick’s sides as he did so. Dick nearly launched out of the bed when Bruce’s fingers squeezed just below his ribs.

“B!” He practically screamed.

“Oho, did I find a tickle spot?”

“You jerk!”

Bruce grinned and dug in, targeting that one spot over and over. Dick laughed himself into silence, throwing himself around the bed like a fish flopping around on a deck. Bruce tickled there for a few more moments before one of Dick’s little hands began slapping onto the mattress with purpose, like how Bruce taught him to tap out for a spar.

Bruce pulled back, running a hand through Dick’s hair as he melted into a boneless puddle of pre-teen, giggling breathlessly. With his free hand, Bruce set out to straightening the sheets and blankets and fetching Zitka from where she somehow got tossed on the other side of Bruce. With his precious elephant tucked into his arms, Dick rolled onto his side with his back to Bruce and buried the remainder of his giggles into her fluff.

“Alright, chum?”

Dick rolled over to his other side so he could plaster himself against Bruce. “The Tickle Monster’s evil.”

Bruce chuckled under his breath. “Is he, now? I suppose that means you ought to get to bed on time, doesn’t it?”

Dick groaned. “I guess so.” He was quiet for a moment, shuffling his feet under the sheets. “Can I stay here tonight? Just in case the bad dreams come back?”

Bruce felt something in his chest melt. “Of course, chum. You’re always welcome here.”

Dick was asleep before Bruce even turned out the lights, clearly tuckered out from all the activity.

* * *

There was a soft blue glow coming from the entryway to the family den.

Normally this wouldn’t be odd – Dick had always been a bit of a night owl, and their nightlife had never helped with that matter. It wasn’t uncommon for Dick to sprawl across the sofas in the den, TV playing at a low volume, until he felt as though he could sleep. Sometimes, Bruce came downstairs the next morning to Dick passed out on the couch, TV still playing in the background.

But last Bruce had checked, Dick had been at Titan’s Tower. He would know. He’d checked Dick’s tracker obsessively before, during, and after his own patrol until Alfred practically forced him into the locker room to shower. As far as Bruce knew, Dick had been intending to stay the night. He’d been doing that a lot lately – even on school nights, despite Bruce’s rules. Even if they hadn’t actively been fighting beforehand, Dick seemed to be looking for any excuse possible to be out of the Manor and away from Bruce.

So to enter the den and see Dick laying stiffly across one of the couches, a surly expression chiseled into his face, was rather surprising.

“Dick? Are you alright?”

One of Dick’s eyebrows twitched. “Fine.”

“Why don’t you head up to bed soon? You’ll hurt your back sleeping on the couch.”

Dick shot him a glare. “I’m fine.”

He very clearly wasn’t fine. The bags under his eyes were deep and dark, reminiscent of the greasepaint Bruce used to wear under the cowl before he switched the eyeholes out for pure white lenses. Dick’s hair, which he normally took so much pride in, was greasy and unbrushed, sticking every which way like he’d been running his hands through it for hours. And he was far too pale, almost as pale as Bruce. Dick clearly wasn’t well.

“Chum–”

“I said I’m fine, Bruce! God!” Dick snapped, then promptly seemed to realize he was proving the exact opposite of his words and focused back on the TV.

Bruce wavered in the doorway for a moment. They’d both been hotheaded recently, Dick chafing under Bruce’s rules and guidance as he grew. It seemed like no matter what Bruce did, it blew up in both of their faces. If Dick was insisting he was alright, maybe it would be better to leave it be – to give Dick his space, to head up to bed and sleep for the board meeting Lucius would no doubt be dragging him to tomorrow.

But then he caught another glimpse of Dick’s face, looking so distinctly unwell, and Bruce knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep himself without a little pushing.

Bruce entered the den, ignoring the wordless growl Dick let out as he approached. He pressed the back of his hand against Dick’s forehead, unrelenting even as Dick tried to push his arm away.

“I’m not sick!”

Bruce hummed, allowing Dick to push him away after several seconds. “You feel a bit warm.”

“I’m not. I’m a perfectly normal temperature.”

Bruce ran a hand through his hair, still wet since he hadn’t bothered to dry it after his shower. He crouched next to the sofa, ignoring the way his left knee cracked and popped. Vigilantism wasn’t exactly easy on the joints.

“Did something happen?”

Dick hesitated a moment too long, but his tone was cruel and snappish when he spoke. “No. I already told you, I’m fine.”

Bruce pursed his lips, temper flaring. “If you’re so fine, then you should have no issues heading up to bed for school tomorrow.”

Dick’s glare snapped back to his face. “Are you serious, right now?”

“Is there a reason I wouldn’t be?”

Dick turned away and wriggled into the cushions, as if digging himself deeper into them. He crossed his arms, steadfastly ignoring where Bruce was crouched next to him.

Bruce stood and took a few deep breaths, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. Dick never responded well to his frustration, and he didn’t have the energy to fight after such a long patrol. He doubted Dick did either, with what seemed to be the beginnings of a fever coursing through his body. What Dick needed most right now was rest, whether or not he wanted it.

But how could Bruce convince him? With Dick’s stubborn pride, there would be no convincing him with words. He didn’t exactly want to wake Alfred for the confrontation, either. If he manhandled Dick up the stairs, it could end poorly for both of them, not to mention how it would piss Dick off even worse.

But there was one thing Bruce remembered, something that always worked like a charm when Dick was younger. Something Bruce hadn’t tried in a very long time, now.

“Don’t you remember what happens to boys who don’t go to bed on time?” Bruce said, trying to force some playful cheer into his voice. It just came out awkward and strained.

Still, it got a reaction. Dick faced him again, eyes immediately shooting to his hands. “I’m not a little kid anymore, B.”

“Maybe not. But I heard the Tickle Monster’s hungry.” He was getting closer to the tone he was reaching for, but he wasn’t quite there yet. “It’s been so long since his last meal.”

Dick shifted on the couch, like he was debating making a break for it. “The Tickle Monster’s not real, B.”

“Isn’t he? I guess you’ll find out if you don’t get up to bed, won’t you?”

There, the ball was in Dick’s court. If he refused again, that was permission, right? It’s not like Dick didn’t have a laptop in his room, full of passwords for every streaming service known to man. He didn’t have to be in the den to stay up and watch TV – if Dick really wanted to be left alone, Bruce wasn’t sure why he chose a public room of the Manor.

Dick narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “I’m not scared of the damn Tickle Monster, Bruce.”

Choice made. Bruce hummed. “Suit yourself.”

This time, he sat on the edge of the couch, right by Dick’s hip. Dick squawked at his proximity and shoved at his shoulder, though he wasn’t even using half his strength. Taking this as permission, Bruce clawed both of his hands into the center of Dick’s stomach. He squawked again, this time tipping over into giggles at the end of the sound.

“B, cut it out!”

A smile twitched at the edge of Bruce’s lips. “Sorry, B’s not here. Just the Tickle Monster.”

Dick tried to groan, but cut himself off with his own laughter as Bruce added a few squeezes to his hips. “You’re so lame!”

Bruce gasped. “Lame? Here I am, starving for laughter, and you call me lame?”

“Because you are!” With Bruce’s body leaving him nowhere to squirm, Dick instead started turning like a rotisserie chicken.

Bruce tutted. “And here I was going easy on you. You really wanna do this?”

Dick flipped him off. Bruce gave into his smile, squeezing strategically at Dick’s hips, sides, and ribs until he got Dick to turn on his stomach. He pressed a hand on Dick’s back to keep him from turning anymore and promptly dug into the back of Dick’s thighs with his free hand.

Dick screeched, immediately burying his face into the throw pillow underneath him to muffle the sound. It was probably for the best – this sort of scene had drawn Alfred into the room with his shotgun more than once. Thankfully, even with the pillow, Bruce could still just barely make out his words.

“No, no, no!”

Of course, it wasn’t hard to make out the words when they were so simple.

“I think the Tickle Monster’s winning this time, chum.”

“Fuck you!” Dick turned his head just enough for his speech to become clearer, just long enough to say, “Get away from there!”

“Away from where? Away from here?”

Bruce spidered his fingers into the back of Dick’s knees, jumping between the two sporadically. Dick shrieked, panicked giggles lost into his pillow. He kicked his legs, but Bruce easily avoided them, shoving his calves back to the couch. He gave one a playful squeeze and Dick jumped, snorting into the cushion.

“Really, here too? Or maybe this was where you wanted me to get away from, hm?”

He occupied himself with squeezing at Dick’s calves for a few seconds, chuckling under his breath at the snorts he could just barely make out through Dick’s pillow.

“Why don’t we try this – I’ll just tickle all over, and you tell me when I get to where I should stay away from.”

“B!”

Bruce ignored him, pinching up and down the backs of Dick’s thighs and knees. Dick shrieked and squeaked, cackled and giggled, and tried his damned hardest to squirm his way off the couch despite Bruce holding him in place. He always did seem to forget how weak and boneless he became when he laughed.

“Well?”

“Any of it!” Dick cried out. “All of it!”

Bruce laughed outright, pausing in his attack. “Is this you telling the Tickle Monster you’ll go to bed?”

He let Dick roll over this time, still giggling wildly. “Yes. Yes, I promise.”

“Anything you want to talk about before you head upstairs?”

Dick sighed, less melting into the couch cushions and more going boneless with exhaustion. “A mission with the Teen Titans didn’t go so well. That’s all.”

Bruce ran a hand through Dick’s hair. “One poorly handled mission doesn’t mean you’re a failure, for you as a leader or for the team as a whole. You take this and you learn your lesson, you make sure everyone does better next time – but beating yourself up over it is only going to be unproductive.”

Dick gave him a wry look. “Oh, yeah? Says you.”

Bruce returned it. “How do you think I know all this?”

Dick snorted, tilting his head back into Bruce’s hand. “Do as you say, not as you do, huh?”

“Something like that.”

Dick hummed. They sat there in companionable silence for a few minutes before Bruce sighed, peeling himself from his son’s side.

“Alright, let’s get you some medicine and up to bed.”

Dick frowned. “I told you – I’m not sick.”

Bruce stared him down. Though he’d gone red for a handful of minutes from all his laughter, Dick’s face had returned to that sickly pallor. The only flush that remained was high in his cheeks, splotchy and irregular.

“Tell me that again in the morning. Better yet – tell Alfred.”

Dick groaned, but allowed Bruce to pull him to his feet. He wavered slightly when Bruce released him to switch the TV off, so Bruce made sure to keep a grip on him as they maneuvered to the stairs. He would have to remember to call Dick out of school in the morning – and he might’ve just found the perfect excuse to skip out on that board meeting.

* * *

Bruce should not have been awake. With summer approaching and the sun rising earlier and earlier, dawn wasn’t far off, but Bruce still hadn’t slept a wink. There was no reason for it either – patrol had gone off without a hitch (and even ended earlier than usual, it had been a quiet night for once), no one was injured, and all his children currently in the city had decided to celebrate with a post-patrol movie night at the Manor. There were no especially concerning outstanding cases, and no recent Arkham breakouts (or any worries of one approaching).

The restless energy zinging beneath Bruce’s skin did not seem to care.

For now, he decided to give up, padding silently out of his bedroom. He glanced up and down the main hall of the family wing for a moment before deciding to start with the door closest to him, right across the hall.

Damian was tucked under the covers, his breathing slow and even. Titus, curled at the foot of the bed, raised his head as Bruce slinked into the room. He brushed a few strands of hair off Damian’s forehead, smiling a little as the boy sighed in his sleep, a nearly imperceptible furrow between his brows smoothing out at the touch. A quick tousle of Titus’s ears, and Bruce was on his way.

In the next room over, Tim snored away quietly. Alfred had offered him a sleeping aid that night, as the bags beneath his eyes were becoming a concerningly dark color, and Tim had actually accepted. Clearly, it had worked. His half-open laptop sat precariously close to the edge of the bed, so Bruce snapped it closed and safely deposited it on Tim’s desk.

In Cass’s room, the lump under the blankets was suspiciously wide. It split into two lumps as Cass made an alarmed noise deep in her throat and sat up, staring at Bruce with wide eyes. She relaxed slightly at the sight of him. Steph did not move, an almost cartoonish snore leaving her lips.

“Everything okay?”

Bruce gave her a soft smile, stepping into the room fully to run a hand through her hair and make sure the blankets were pulled up sufficiently to the girls’ shoulders.

“Everything’s fine, sweetheart. Go back to sleep.”

Cass scrutinized him for a second before nodding, allowing him to fuss with the blankets a moment longer. He gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before pulling away, shutting the door quietly behind him.

At the end of the hall, Duke sprawled across his bedsheets, dead asleep. In a few short hours, he’d be waking up for the day, ready to take on his weekend patrol to keep Gotham safe. Bruce straightened out his blankets as well, before quietly taking the empty glass from Duke’s bedside table and filling it at the bathroom sink. He often slept with his mouth open, which left him with a horribly dry throat come morning.

Backtracking the way he came on the opposite side of the hall, Bruce skipped Jason’s door. As far as Bruce knew, Jason was enjoying his weekend off in Star City with Roy and the Queen’s. He’d already sent a photo of him and Lian in matching sunglasses, staring down the camera with serious looks. Roy had immediately sent Dick the bloopers, the two of them doubled over giggling and trying to steal the sunglasses off each other’s faces.

Bruce cracked the door right next to his own, peeking inside. He expected to see Dick sprawled across his bed, sleeping in the oddest pose his body could comfortably manage. Instead, he found mussed bedsheets and an empty bed. Bruce’s heart skipped a beat as he immediately pulled his phone out of his sweatpants to check Dick’s tracker. His heart settled marginally when he saw that Dick was still in the Manor, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to rest until he saw Dick himself.

As Bruce navigated down the stairs, he pulled up Jason’s tracker just to be sure. His tracker was right where it was supposed to be at the rental house in Star City, his vitals steady and healthy. It seemed as though he were getting a good night’s sleep. Another vice around his ribcage eased slightly, allowing him to breathe a bit easier.

Bruce trailed through the Manor halls, following after the first sound he picked up. He found Dick moving lazily through the kitchen, picking through Alfred’s tea selection as a kettle slowly came to a boil on the stovetop. Padding along in nothing but socks, Bruce couldn’t do much to make his steps heavier in a courteous warning of his presence. Still, as always, Dick just seemed to know, glancing up at Bruce in the doorway with a half-hearted smile.

“Alfred know you’re in here?” Bruce tried to tease, though his tone fell flat as he felt his nervous system readjusting to seeing Dick safe.

Dick played along anyway. “I won’t tell if you won’t – you’re banned, too.”

“Fair enough.”

They lapsed into silence. Bruce came up to lean against the island across from Dick, who wordlessly pulled another mug out of the cupboard. When the kettle had just barely started to whistle, Dick snatched it off the burner to quiet the noise. He poured them both a steaming mug and let them steep in silence, adding a swirl of honey to Bruce’s and a few teaspoons of sugar to his own. Together they shuffled to the den, dropping onto the couch next to each other.

“Can’t sleep?” Dick finally asked once they were settled.

Bruce gave him a dry smile. It was answer enough. “You?”

Dick’s shoulders shifted minutely under the hoodie he was wearing – oversized enough that it had to be either Jason’s or Bruce’s. “The usual – nightmares and restless nights.” He let out a humorless laugh. “And on such a good night too – it’s so stupid.”

Bruce sighed, setting his half empty mug on the coffee table in front of him. “I’m sorry, chum.”

Dick shrugged, taking another gulp of his own before setting it down as well. “It is what it is.” He pulled one leg up into his chest and hugged it as he tipped sideways, resting his head on Bruce’s shoulder. “Just too jittery to sleep now. Hoped the tea would help, but I don’t think it is.”

“Give it some time,” Bruce said, lowering his voice into that soothing rumble that always made his Robins blink a little heavier.

He reached down to squeeze Dick’s knee, trying to offer some awkward amount of comfort. Though Dick’s lips stayed sealed shut, he made a yelp somewhere back in his throat. Dick’s leg kicked out from under Bruce’s hand, the leg he held to his chest jerking slightly as well.

Bruce immediately sat up straighter. “Injury?”

Dick waved him off, avoiding Bruce’s eyes to instead hide in Bruce’s shoulder. “No, no injury.” The tips of his ears were pink.

Ah. Bruce suppressed a smile. No matter how old Dick got, it seemed he would never outgrow his ticklishness. Not that he imagined Dick minded – he still remembered a giggling little boy, doing everything in his power to goad Bruce into playing Tickle Monster with him.

Actually, speaking of which…

“You know, I might have a friend who can help you out.”

Dick snorted, rubbing his forehead against Bruce’s soft t-shirt. “Gonna get me some sleep aids like Timmy? I think I’m good, Bruce.”

Bruce smirked. “Not quite.” He reached out and squeezed Dick’s knee again, more deliberately. This time, he didn’t let Dick shake him off. “You’re actually quite familiar with this friend.”

Dick made a few alarmed noises in his throat as he tried to extract his leg from Bruce’s ticklish grip. “Wait until everyone finds out that Batman is such a secret softie.”

Wordless permission granted, Bruce started putting together a plan of attack. He brought both his hands up to Dick’s stomach, clawing gently into the muscles. “You must be mistaken – there’s no Batman here. Only the Tickle Monster.”

Dick doubled over, giving into his giggles. “You’re so lame! I thought the Tickle Monster only went for kids up past their bedtimes?”

Bruce hummed, adding a few playful squeezes to Dick’s ribs before jumping up to skitter around his neck. “You’re still my kid, aren’t you? Besides, you always had the best giggles for him.”

Like right now, Dick’s giggles being hilariously squeaky and high pitched as he toppled backwards against the arm of the couch to try and escape Bruce’s fingers, his legs tumbling into Bruce’s lap. His cheeks flushed a healthy pink, clearly embarrassed – whether by the Tickle Monster teasing itself or the sounds leaving his lips, Bruce couldn’t be sure.

“Bruce – shit! – that fucking– it– fuck!”

“Sorry,” Bruce said, slipping under Dick’s arms the second he saw an opening. “Does that tickle?”

Dick tossed his head back, belly-laughter filling the room. “You ass!”

Bruce chuckled. “Maybe you ought to defend your tickle spots better. You know how determined the Tickle Monster gets.”

“I am 25 years old!”

“So?” Bruce scoffed, vibrating his fingers into the space between Dick’s underarms and ribs. “Last I checked, the Tickle Monster doesn’t discriminate. And you, young man, are certainly up past your bedtime.”

Dick arched his back with a snorting cackle. He tried to roll off the couch to escape, but Bruce caught him around the waist. He drew Dick into a mock hug, back to chest, and Dick was already shrieking before Bruce’s hands started up again. He knew what was coming.

“Wait, wait – Let’s talk about this!”

Bruce laughed, Dick’s head ducking out of the way when Bruce’s breath glanced off his ear in a way that was clearly too ticklish. There was no way he was stopping now, but he kept his hands still for a moment, letting Dick bargain.

“Bruce, come on, it’s childish!”

“No Bruce here – but Bruce did see you sneakily tickling Tim during the movie tonight. I think ‘childishness’ is a moot point.”

“I– I– We’ll wake up the others!”

“You know just as well as me how good the soundproofing is on those bedrooms, now.”

“Um– You– We–”

“Yes?”

“Bruce!” Dick’s tone turned whining.

Bruce chuckled. “Alright, alright.”

He loosened his grip momentarily, acting like he was going to release Dick, until his shoulders dropped in clear disappointment. He tightened his grip again, one hand skittering up and down Dick’s ribs, the other squeezing at that sweet spot just below them on the other side. Dick burst into laughter, squirming and screeching in his arms.

“Did you really think I’d let you go that easily?”

“Bruce, no!”

“That’s right – no. You’re nowhere near tickled-out enough to sleep yet, after all.”

“Fuck you!”

Dick grabbed at the hand tickling just under his ribs with both of his own, trying to push it away despite being weakened by laughter. Still, Bruce let his arm go limp, allowing Dick’s meager strength to push it away from that hyper-ticklish little spot… only to slide down his ribs on the other side and latch onto the matching spot there. Dick screeched again, switching to try and push that hand away while Bruce’s newly free hand started skittering around his ribs. They repeated this a few times, Dick spluttering curses between his cackling and wheezing.

“You’re so mean!”

Bruce shrugged, giving Dick a brief reprieve by tickling lightly over his stomach. “Never said the Tickle Monster was nice.”

“I hate you.” The sentiment was clearly not serious, said lightly and interspersed with giggles. Still, Bruce thought it warranted some punishment.

Without warning, Bruce released Dick from the ticklish hug, his hands shooting down to squeeze at Dick’s thighs. Dick burst immediately into hysterics, not even being able to talk through his laughter. Bruce had to dodge flying knees and feet more than once just to save himself from a broken nose. He couldn’t help but laugh along with Dick, whatever heaviness he’d been carrying in his chest easing at the sight of his eldest’s dimples and wide, bright smile. But eventually, Dick started slapping his palm against the couch cushions, clearly tapping out, and Bruce had no choice but to slow his fingers.

Dick curled himself into a protective little ball, rubbing away at his ticklish spots as if to rid himself of the ghosts of Bruce’s fingers. Eventually, he peeked an eye open to peer up at Bruce. His blush, which had calmed down along with the force of his laughter, flushed a healthy pink across his cheeks and ears once more and he quickly shut his eyes again, turning his face away.

“Ugh, B, you’re such a sap.”

It was then that Bruce noticed the gentle, fond smile gracing his own face. He could practically feel the way that the harsh lines around his eyes and across his face had softened. He didn’t make this sort of expression often, but it always seemed to make his kids bashful when he did.

He supposed he understood. Whenever Alfred dropped all the propriety and looked at Bruce with proud eyes and a soft smile, Bruce couldn’t help but look away himself.

“Watch it,” Bruce said, following Dick’s lead in pulling their sarcastic walls back up instead of sitting in that uncomfortable vulnerability. “I can call the Tickle Monster back, there’s always time for round two.”

Dick laughed, this time without being forced, and then groaned and clutched at his stomach. “My abs hurt. You’re such a jerk.”

Bruce chuckled, brushing Dick’s mess of hair away from his forehead. “Do you think you could sleep now?”

Dick hummed, loosening a little from his protective ball. “I think I’m gonna sleep right here on the couch, right now.”

Bruce turned his hair pets into a playful ruffle, jostling Dick’s head enough to make him groan and glare up at Bruce.

“Neither of us will be sleeping on the couch. As comfortable as it is now, your back will thank me in the morning.”

Dick groaned again, but went along when Bruce hauled him to his feet. Tea forgotten and long cold on the coffee table, they left it to deal with tomorrow, leaning on each other as they made their way up the stairs. Dick made for his own room, but Bruce stopped him before he could completely detach, allowing a bit of that vulnerability to come back as he pressed a kiss to Dick’s messy hair.

“Sleep well, son.”

“Yeah,” Dick mumbled, ears going pink yet again. Maybe Bruce needed to try being more affectionate with his children. “You too, Dad.”

Dick slipped into his room before Bruce could react, leaving him blinking in the hallway with a dumbfounded expression. His face did that melting thing again, as did his chest, and Bruce quickly sequestered himself in his own room to fully build his own walls back up.

Still, maybe he should invite the kids to sleep over more often. It would probably do them all some good.

#tickle fic #my writing #dc tickling #batfam tickling #lee!dick grayson #ler!bruce wayne #ticklish!dick grayson #dc #batfam #dick grayson #bruce wayne

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