#' watch the past behind me. / npc's.

[solxamber]

*slides a briefcase of a million dollars in a shady booth of a late night restaurant*

Pssst… If you do a Ignihyde number 4 with some fluff, this’ll be all yours champ…🫵🏽😼

Your Favorite || Idia Shroud

For the Holiday Event! ; Prompt: "I am NOT jealous", Genre: Fluff

a/n: love the way you sent this in 10/10 i giggled

Idia is sulking. Big time.

You’ve spent the past week fawning over a stray cat that’s made a habit of lounging in front of Ramshackle Dorm. With how often you’re caught petting it, feeding it, or talking to it in that ridiculously cute voice you think no one hears, it’s no wonder Idia has spiraled into a jealous little mess.

“You like that furball more than me,” he grumbles, watching from the doorway as you crouch down, scritching the lucky feline behind its ears. A second cat strolls over to join the first, and then another. Idia glares at them like they’re conspiring against him.

“What are you talking about?” you ask, laughing as one of the cats rubs against your leg.

“Don’t act like you don’t know!” His hair flares up in cyan indignation. “They follow you around like you’re some Disney princess or something. You’ve basically got a cat army. And here I am, just a lowly NPC standing in their way. Great. Just great.”

You rise to your feet, dusting off your knees as you approach him. “Idia…”

“What?” He crosses his arms, staring intently at the floor to avoid your gaze. “I’m NOT jealous, okay? Not of some… cats. That would be ridiculous.”

“You sound jealous.”

“I don’t!”

“You totally do.”

“Shut up.” His cheeks are turning red, and you can’t help but find it adorable.

Smiling, you step closer and place a hand on his arm, forcing him to meet your eyes. “For the record, I don’t care how many cats flock to me. You’re still my favorite.”

Idia freezes like you’ve hit him with a paralyze spell. His mouth opens and closes as if trying to find a retort, but no words come out.

“Cheesy,” he finally mutters, the tips of his ears burning as he looks away. “So cheesy. Where do you even get this dialogue? Some third-rate romance game?”

You laugh, tugging him into a hug despite his half-hearted protests. “Maybe. But it’s true.”

If you could see inside his mind, you’d find Idia’s inner monologue going into overdrive. They like me more than the cats? Me?! THE cats?! Internally, he’s already kicking his feet, twirling his hair, and giggling like he’s in a shoujo anime.

Outwardly, though, he just mutters, “Whatever,” while his hair flickers pink. But the way he leans into your hug gives him away completely.

Masterlist

(yes I finally added a banner)

[royalarchivist]

Quackity: These past days I've been in many calls, and I'm not done yet. I've spoken to a lot of people and creators. I've read your comments and I'm well aware of what needs to be done to carry out this project. I want to tell you all, beforehand, that for me the team's well-being is fundamental. I'm very involved in this topic to sort it out and I want to make that very clear. I want to tell you something... I want to tell you all that the administrative staff responsible for so much harm to the project has been fired. Specifically, those who made decisions without my permission, affecting the administrative and financial area of the project. Consequently, after this, I was in charge of doing a financial analysis that's carrying out for the QSMP.

Guys, to be really honest, it was not going to last. Therefore, I've had to make deep drastic structural changes that have lead me to reduce the performance of the server down to the most essential, and this is in order to ensure the well being of everyone involved in it. Having said this, I want to give a very important update: I want to let you all know that the QSMP will have to slow down temporarily. This is to ensure this new structure adapts to the project, because it's a restructuring that's taking place. I'm letting you know, and I reiterate, there are no voluntary positions inside the QSMP.

At the moment, there will not be any more individual update accounts of all 5 existing languages in the project. In any case, during this transition, there's going to be a temporal absence of all Eggs and NPCs. I know these are difficult changes, and I repeat, it's temporary until we adjust to these new conditions that will improve the performance of this new structure that's being made from scratch, both in the administrative and financial part. I'd like to reintegrate people fro the QSMP as time goes by if a financial viability can be found for the project Taking advantage of this update to tell you guys that within the changes of the server as it is, creators will have full control of their lore and stories. The team will not intervene in the way that it was being done. Moreover, efforts will be made to change the competitive dynamics inside the game so as to ease up the game style for the creators. Like I'm saying, all of these changes, and more, are being carrying out to have the project as best as possible, and they're being done little by little. This is a whole new structure that will ensure the best continuity and experience for the creators, the community and the team behind.

Guys, I want to make very clear that this is restructuring process, and again, it's not a fast one. The server being open does not mean everything's perfect, I understand that very well. Conversations will keep taking place, communication will continue and the constant improvement of the project as well. I ask, please, for everyone's patience and understanding regarding all changes. Please do wait for official announcements since a lot of incomplete and incorrect information is being spread. I want to tell you all something- if you don't trust in these changes or have many doubts about it, and don't want to consume any more of the project's content, I understand 100%. I have a personal commitment with the QSMP and I will work until it functions in the way it is supposed to do.

Lastly, I want to let you know that it was being worked on for months on finalizing the integration of Korean creators to the QSMP. For that reason, tomorrow we will be welcoming the new Korean creators of the QSMP, of course, taking into account all the changes I've just mentioned. I hope you can give the new Korean members warm welcome to the project. And as you know, their schedules are earlier. For everyone who would like to watch, they will be joining at 11am Mexico time and at 9am US time. Basically, I wanted to give that update regarding everything that's being done within the project. Again, thank you for your patience and understanding- these are necessary changes and I'm glad they're being done now. And many more things will keep being adjusted.

via @QuackitySubs

[weaveandwood]

The Snake and The Crow

Pairing: The Viper x Female Rook (Bianca, an Antivan Crow mage) Words: 3.4K NSFW Summary: The Viper and Rook had chemistry that was instantaneous, obvious. It was only a matter of time before they acted on it. And then kept acting on it over and over again. This takes place on one such night.

AN: I have never been more feral for a non-romanceable NPC before, and now...I get it.

Read on AO3! Read Chapter Two

He met her, as always, by the Eluvian at the shop. She crossed through, as always, wearing Shadow Dragon robes to blend in, though she knew they wouldn’t stay on long enough for it to really matter. He stepped forward, pulling her into his arms for the quickest of moments before leading her through the hideout, taking a path she had grown very familiar with these past weeks. Though it was the middle of the night when only the fewest and most discreet Dragons were around, he would remain vigilant and masked, only unveiling himself once they were alone in his quarters at the hideout. Not much longer, she thought, ready to rid herself of both her clothes and her tension with a few hours spent tangled up in him. 

Their chemistry had been instantaneous, palpable to the point where even Neve commented that she felt like she was intruding on something after the first time they met. It seemed like a forgone conclusion then, that by their third meeting they found themselves in hidden corridors, entwined in each other. Since then, she made appearances every other night, and the two spent hurried hours forgetting about duty for the first time in a long time. 

Tonight though, something was different - they turned left instead of right. The went out the entrance to the streets of Dock Town instead of to his small converted office that she intimately knew every flat surface of. 

“Viper, where are you taking me?” Bianca asked, following him through the streets, crowded even at this hour. He pulled her into a side alleyway and pressed her back against the wall of a building. He looked left and right before unhooking his mask and kissed her - deeply, and far, far too quickly - before pulling away. She was left breathless and desperate for more, clinging on to his coat to regain her balance as he fastened his mask back into place. 

“The hideout is too busy for me to be able to do all the things I want to do to you,” he said softly into her ear. He tucked a curl behind it, his fingers tracing the outline of the elegantly pointed tip, sending a shock through her. 

“Oh,” she whispered, a hot flush creeping up her neck though she couldn’t recall seeing more than the usual handful of Dragons when they cut through the hideout before. She could sense something simmering under the carefully crafted veneer he exhibited as The Viper, and wondered what was in store for her when he could be Ashur once more. He took her hand and led her on a winding path through alleys, side streets, and up some ladders before finally arriving at a small apartment. 

“Did you bring me to…your home?” she questioned with a teasing smile, looking around while walking through the front door. It was modest, sparsely furnished - the mark of a man who never spent any time there. She leaned against a wall and watched him take off his hat and mask, finally revealing the handsome face that she had grown so fond of over these last weeks, specifically his full lips. 

He knew what he was doing with those lips. 

“I know I can trust you,” he said matter-of-factly, hanging up his coat. “Now, where were we?” 

“I believe you were going to elaborate on all the things you wanted to do to me,” she said. He stepped close to her, unfastening the closure of the robes she had hastily thrown on before leaving the Lighthouse that night and sliding them off her shoulders, leaving her in just a pair of leggings. 

His fingers traced the outlines of the feather shaped scars she had gotten carved into her skin the night she was initiated as a Crow. The pain had been worth it for the feeling of his light touch, tonight and every night they were together.

“I want to touch every one of these feathers,” he rumbled in her ear. “With my fingers, with my mouth…especially your wings.” Bianca’s breath caught at the mere thought of him behind her, mental images from previous nights creeping to the forefront of her memory - one hand on her waist, pulling her back into him, the other in her hair, tugging slightly to turn her head to kiss him roughly. He had always been particularly drawn to the feathers carved into the shape of wings on her back. His mouth trailed from her earlobe to the side of her neck, kisses following a path left by his touch, causing her magic to react wildly within her. Sparks of lightning felt like they followed each press of his lips against her heated skin, bringing a gasp from her own. Her neck, her collarbone, the lowest scarred feather between her breasts - nowhere escaped Ashur’s diligence.

Still, he moved lower, and the sparks within her ignited to fire as she watched him. She was ready to self combust when she felt his fingers reaching inside the waistband of her leggings. He let out an approving hum when he realized she didn't wear undergarments - she never did on nights they spent in each other’s company.

“You’re lucky I even wore those.”

“You shouldn’t have.”

“That would have made for one awkward walk through Dock Town,” she laughed seeing the smirk on his face looking up at her. “It wouldn’t be good for Mr. Anonymity to be seen walking the streets in the middle of the night with a pantsless woman, don’t you agree?” 

“It may have been worth it,” he smiled against her stomach, kissing it once more before sliding off the slippers she wore and pushing her leggings off her hips, the dim light in his apartment revealing the curves and dips of her strong frame. He traced the outlines of her legs from her ankles to her calves to her thighs before settling his hands on her hips. Bianca admitted to herself that there was something very pleasing about a fully clothed Ashur kneeling before her naked body. She closed her eyes, leaning back against the wall and felt his warm breath on her. He kissed each hip bone, each thigh, her lower stomach as if he had all the time in the world, his soft lips branding her yet never moving to the place she wanted them the most. 

“Ashur,” she whispered, “it isn’t like you to tease me so much.” Most nights were frenzied with him - there was never time for much else. They had a simple arrangement, and it worked. Or so she thought, until she felt him kissing almost every inch of her skin. Things couldn’t be different between them, but…what if? 

“There is less of a chance of someone flinging my door open with an emergency here,” he looked up at her before draping her leg over his shoulder, kissing the crease of her thigh. “Besides, here you can be as loud as you want,” he smiled before flattening his tongue, dragging it from her entrance to her clit, the lightning within her raging once more. She tightened her grip on his shoulders and arched against the wall, soft moans spilling from her mouth as he continued licking, alternating between soft slow laps and fervent flicks against her, reading her body like a book he was well acquainted with. Her hips rocked against his face, and she wanted more, more, more…

His fingers dug into the soft skin of her hips, his tongue keeping its steady rhythm like a dutiful soldier. She tensed up and shuddered against him, her cries echoing through the apartment as he tasted her pleasure.  

He stood and swept his hand from her hips to her stomach to her breasts in an agonizingly slow path.  It was pleasant torture - every second he spent exploring her body increased her want of him tenfold. The warmth of his lips soon followed as he took each nipple into his mouth - sucking, flicking, biting gently. She felt him hum against her as each one hardened at his ministrations. He dragged his tongue in a path between her breasts, following the outlines of her scars back up to her collarbone, her throat, then finally her lips, where he kissed her like he would never kiss her again. Kissing Ashur was what she assumed a religious experience would be like, if she had been religious at all - he kissed her deeply, intensely, and with a fervor that was unmatched by all the others she had kissed before. Their tongues slid together, well-practiced at knowing what the other liked. His hands threaded through her hair, wrapping in her tangle of curls, while hers busied themselves by pulling his shirt free from his pants. He had been wearing it far too long. She began fumbling with the buttons blindly, distracted by both the heat of his kiss and the hardness pressing against her hip, letting out a frustrated groan when they did not yield easily. She was desperate to have him inside her and in that moment, those buttons were proving to be almost as big a foe as the gods they were fighting. 

He pulled away, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth before grabbing her hand and leading her down a small hallway to his bedroom - as sparsely furnished as the rest of the apartment, but comfortable enough. Bianca perched on his bed, watching him. 

“I thought I was lucky just seeing the entryway to your apartment, I didn’t realize I’d be seeing your bedroom too,” she laughed. “You’re pulling out all… the…”

She was quickly silenced by the sight of him undressing. Ashur had a grace that was hidden by the layers he wore. He surprised her that first night they were together, how elegant his movements were when unconstrained by large jackets and layers of clothing, layers of duty, layers of pressure. He never shied under her gaze, even when she watched him as intently as she was now - head tilted, eyes following the path of his hands. Sliding his shirt off, pushing down his pants, taking off his undergarments. It had to be said Ashur in no clothing was her favorite Ashur of all. Completely unburdened, completely himself. It was a rare occasion they had the opportunity to fully undress as most nights were stolen moments, a rearrangement of clothing to allow for quick access and an easy exit. Tonight…well tonight there felt like there was time, even if they both knew there wasn’t. Not really. 

“Now you’re really spoiling me,” she said. “A girl could get used to this, you better watch out. Soon, I won’t want to be bent over your desk anymore,” she laughed. 

He laughed as he crossed the room, climbing on to the bed behind her. He made good on his promise from earlier as she felt the first touch of his fingers softly tracing the scars on her left shoulder, followed by his lips. Slowly, methodically, he traced each one from her shoulder blade to her arm and back. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, focusing solely on the feeling of him on her skin, anticipation of his next move adding to the bonfire raging within her. 

“We both know that’s a lie,” he whispered into her ear, gently nipping at her earlobe and eliciting a soft gasp from her. Bianca was wound so tightly she felt she could explode at any moment, and though she hadn’t even touched him yet, she could tell he must be feeling similarly - he was hard as stone against her backside. She pressed her hips back into him, smiling at the moan he used her shoulder to muffle while he resumed his careful appreciation of the scars on her right arm. 

He ran a finger lightly up and down her spine, goosebumps spreading all over her body. She wasn’t sure what magic he possessed to cause her to react so vividly to his touch, but she would not complain, not when it felt like this. His hands went to her waist, pulling her against him, her back now pressed against his firm chest. She rocked back against his hardness, wanting him even more if that were possible. She wanted him to push her forward into the mattress and take her. Instead, she felt a hand slide to her center, parting her and finding her swollen clit before rubbing it gently. The other hand slid up to her breast, his palm fully covering it as it kneaded the soft flesh, his hips rocking in time with hers. 

“Ashur…please…” she moaned. This wasn’t fair - they didn’t tease each other, they didn’t drag it out. That was something for normal people with normal lives who weren’t trying to save the world. That was something for…feelings. Something they agreed they couldn’t — wouldn’t — risk. “Don’t make me beg.” 

He stopped moving. 

“Would you beg for me?” he whispered into her ear. She could almost hear the smile in his voice. “You want me that badly?”

“I want you inside me right now,” she whispered, her voice dripping with lust. “Don’t make me wait any longer.” 

“Lie down for me. I want to be able to watch you while I have you,” he said. If she thought she was heated before, it was nothing compared to how she felt then. Her body was molten - she was liquid fire in his hands as he pushed her back onto the mattress, her head resting against his pillow. It was faint, but it smelled of him. She guessed this was probably the first time he’d been here in over a week. She watched him through half-lidded eyes as he settled himself between her spread legs, pressing them farther apart with his muscular thighs. 

“You are beautiful, you know that right?” he said, leaning down to kiss her as he took himself in one hand, guiding himself into her slowly, steadily, just the way she liked it. The initial burn gave way to pleasure as she felt herself open and give around him. Ashur was a large man, especially where it counted. She moaned into his mouth as he pressed deeply inside of her, filling and stretching her perfectly. Any worries she had during the day left her mind whenever he was inside her and tonight was no exception. 

He set a deliberate pace from the beginning. There was no need for easing her into it, she preferred it this way - with him pulling almost completely out of her before driving back in fully. Each time his hips snapped against hers she felt the world melt away. She arched against his bed, her arms wrapped around his back just as his were around hers - the two of them clinging tightly to each other as they sought to forget everything outside of this moment, if only for a moment. She knew her nails were digging into his skin, and selfishly hoped they would leave a mark, even if no one would be able to see it. 

“More, Ashur, more,” she whispered into his ear. “Have me. Take me. I’m yours.” 

He looked into her eyes, something quickly flashing across them but gone in an instant before he sat up on his knees, his hands on her hips. He drove into her faster, harder, grunting with effort. His eyes darkened as he watched where they were joined, his hardness glistening with her arousal.

For a long while, the only noises in the bedroom were the sounds of their collective moans, their bodies hitting together, and the creaking of the bed. Ashur managed to hit every spot that drove Bianca crazy, even some she didn’t even know he could hit from this position. He moved her feet to his shoulders, using her thighs as leverage as he continued his relentless pace - long, driving strokes that hit every inch of her. She felt herself starting to tighten around him, wanting that release so badly but not wanting this night to end. She could be like this with him all night every night and never be satisfied. She was selfish when it came to being with him, that she knew. How could she not be? She was certain she was ruined, that no one else could possibly make her feel this good. The scary thing that raced through her mind occasionally was that she wasn’t sure if she wanted anyone else to try. 

“Ashur, I -” she panted, unable to get a complete sentence out before he started to rub her clit once more, a jolt running through her, causing her hips to buck at his touch. He knew what she needed. He kept the same pace, watching her face as she got closer and closer to the edge, ready to throw herself over that great precipice. She cried out his name, sending it to whatever gods were listening, if there even were gods anymore and came hard around him. Pleasure crashed over her in waves as her orgasm shuddered through her body once more. 

He lost control, thrusting into her roughly as he raced to the peak of his own desire. He kept eye contact as he finally, blissfully reached it, driving into her once more before crying out loudly, his release filling her. He was beautiful when he came, she couldn’t deny it. He was beautiful always, but unguarded, unfiltered, and knowing nothing but pleasure was a side of Ashur no one else got to see but her, at least at this moment in time.

A small consolation. 

Sweaty and panting, he pulled out of her and lay beside her on the bed to catch his breath. She turned to her side to look at him, unused to having time to relax after finishing their near nightly ritual. 

“Why don’t you stay tonight?” he asked quietly, breaking the silence. His finger played with a wild curl that had fallen across her face before pushing it back into place with all the others. 

“That doesn’t sound very ‘no strings attached,’ Ashur,” she laughed. She wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to.

“Maybe we could have a couple strings,” he replied. 

“Hmm...and what would a couple strings be like?” she asked, her fingers tracing the shell of his ear, the sharpness of his jaw, the fullness of his lips. He responded with a gentle kiss to her fingertips. 

“Maybe sometimes we come here if there’s time. Maybe you stay the night instead of running off straight back to the eluvian.” He sighed. “There are other, more dangerous strings I am thinking of, but those are not possible.” 

She laughed. “And what constitutes a dangerous string?”

“Something like us not hiding, something like us seeing what this even is. Or could be.”  

“Those are…dangerous strings. You know that. I know that. If anyone found out, the Venatori would use me against you and Elgar'nan and Ghilan’nain would use you to get to me. We…can’t,” she said, her brow furrowed as her heart sank. “As much as I want to.” 

“So…I’m not alone in feeling this way?” he asked, his fingers intertwining with hers. 

“No, you’re not. Which may be dangerous in its own way. We both have important work to do. When that is done, we can revisit the dangerous strings.” Relief poured through her veins as he nodded in agreement. 

“And until then?” he asked, kissing each one of her knuckles, the inside of her wrist, her shoulder, her neck. He was relentless, and she was already cursing herself for being logical for once in her short life. And he knew it. 

“We can have a couple…non-dangerous strings. I do think I like being in your bed.” 

“And you staying here?” 

“I like that too,” she smiled. “Just not tonight. I have to leave in a few hours to meet with Grey Wardens in the Anderfels and find a monster hunter named Davrin. I should be back in a couple days, though. If it's a night where there’s time…I’d like a repeat of tonight. More than one.” She paused, her heart racing. “I like this. I like us. If it were any other world…” 

He kissed her then, softly. 

“If it were any other world, we wouldn’t have met. It is what it is. I’m happy to revisit the dangerous strings later. Come on, let’s get you home. Unless…” he pulled her back on top of him, making her laugh in surprise. She felt him already starting to harden beneath her once more. “You have time for a quick round two?” 

“I think I can make the time. Who needs sleep anyway?” she smiled before kissing him.

[fadingclub]

Hi! I really admire how you come up with so many completely different and unique monsters and OCs! I would never in my life have thought of giving a character the same face as Kolven, for example, and I started to worry, but don’t you get tired of looking for ideas for NPCs and enemies? Do you come up with designs for them yourself or do you watch the work of other artists and get inspired by them? (or both idk)

Every time I see new art from you, I restrain myself not to squeal with delight!!

Thank you! Personally, I find designing characters and creatures really therapeutic and fun. Drawing strange and biologically impossible things in detail can be a fun way to pass the time, though making them work in engine is much more of a chore.

I like to look at specimen of ancient creatures for inspiration, so many strange and otherworldly things existed in the past, and that both gives me a sense of awe and anxiety. It's a great place to look for inspiration!

Mercury came to me when I was feeling confused and disconnected. I imagined a successful business man who one day woke up to find that his face had fallen off, leaving a black abstract void behind. I thought of what would bubble up from that void, to show how he was truly feeling, so I drew simplistic symbolic eyes and abstract patterns into his face. Identity means a lot to me, and I think of a person who has been brought down to the components of what they are, rather than who they are.

[writingforatwistedworld]

Another bread era?

Otome au

I do not take any responsibility for you reading this no matter which age group you are from!

WARNINGS: Yandere themes, obsession, possessiveness, stalking, threats, death, murder

Malleus Draconia/Lilia Vanrouge-“I’m gonna take your bread sir… let me take your bread SIR SIR STOP WALKING AWAY FROM ME SIR!!!??”

Malleus Draconia, the hidden king behind the roses, a legend who even the highest of kings and queens whisper in fear about... is holding back a laugh from watching you

Ok, to be fair, you can only do so much as a ruler of a Kingdom which has been isolated from the others for so long which probably also resulted him in being a bit (or maybe a lot more than a bit) for social interactions

Malleus adores you to a level which is incomprehensible for the ordinary human mind. Heck, most likely for any mind

Yet his most beloved is at the moment pretty much the opposite of him. Most unelegant they screamed at the poor bakers of the Queendom of Roses for their bread

Not like those humans, pardon, NPCs could hear you but it was a rather silly sight to see you sprinting up to the next person like you were possessed and demanding their bread

Could it be that there was a famine that led to you now demanding the food of others? But why especially bread? (I am not joking he is seriously asking himself that)

After sending Lilia out to check, just to be sure, he finally found out that no, you are not on the path of starvation, you are just silly

Might as well enjoy the show then. It's not every day that you see an otherworldly bring controlling a body being this interesting... not like he had seen another bodysnatcher like you before

When he noticed the havoc you caused in your wake he could not hold it back anymore, bursting into laughter he swiped tears of joy from his cheeks

Why this moment was so funny to him was beyond him. Perhaps it was that small memory of another place far in the past, a human from another world, a room filled with all kinds of individuals enjoying their rather mediocre meal together

Perhaps he should humor you

Sending out Lilia yet again (the poor bas-) he ordered that you were brought a basket filled with the finest sentiment of breads

Soft bread, hard bread, bread with seeds, bread with a crunchy crust, bread that tasted spicy and much, much more

When that NPC tried to trade all that bread for a meager price which could barely feed a person for a day the oh-so-lighthearted atmosphere shifted immediately into something that can only be described by “Oh f, he did it”

“Lilia, when was the last time you sharpened your blade?” “Pardon?”

But hey, at e end off the day you had still your bread and everything was great and fine and dandy and yay and oh my god someone just got killed in a PG-13 game what the heck is going on??!

Lilia is someone who takes his duties very seriously

Be it conveying messages to all those that have paid the price of his ruler's benevolence or monitoring the one who connects the one controlling them and this world

At first, Lilia assumed that the one controlling the puppet wearing white and blue would be a cold-hearted tyrant who loved to watch an entire world being nothing more than a game to them

But then...

“SIR GIMME UR BREAAAAAD!” A most frightening battle cry, Lilia nearly fell off from the tree branch he was dangling from when he first heard it

Were you finally setting out to conquer this world? Was it finally time to draw his sword and- uh... huh? *Insert confused expression*

Instead of attacking a defenseless person you sprinted to the next one, repeating the same actions you did just a second ago

The general had expected something of a crueler nature, just how the Gods were at the dawn, not someone jumping up and down whilst demanding bread

But perhaps, this could be used to his benefit?

The next day you found a new NPC. How strange, haven't you walked down this path in the game many times before? His did you miss him?

Interacting with the young man you found out that he was a baker who specialised in bread

How funny! You made a show of wanting bread just yesterday

It was almost like the game was interacting with your real-life self... Nah. Must be your imagination

To your delight, the dialogue seemed to change every single day, ending with the baker telling you stories far too dangerous for a normal person like him to experience

Every following day the interactions with the young man became more and more interesting, and by interesting I mean they went more and more off the grid

Lilia had to tell you more stories from the past he could still remember. This started with him investigating by talking to you but after time, he got attached. What if you were to move on and leave him behind from boredom? After some time his filter started to stop much less from his past than before. Things that he would have sugar-coated before we're now on full display.

Just don't turn your affection to somebody else. You were such a refreshing new sight that he simply had to own your attention

Now now, play nice and do what he says. Otherwise you might find a few NPCs missing

[hopelessromanticwh0re]

Hot to Go!

“It’s Chappell Roan Day!” you nearly screamed at the crack of dawn. You’d been waiting for this day for a month and a half, eager to see your newfound idol. “Cakey, baby, it's 6 a.m.,” Vernon mumbled into your chest, still half-asleep. “But I’m so excited! I can’t believe I’m going to see her!” you say, a little quieter but with the same enthusiasm. “I’m excited too,” he says, lifting his head. “But we need to sleep.” You give him the cutest pout, clearly not wanting to go back to sleep. “If you wanna be the loudest in the crowd, you gotta rest, Cupcake,” Vernon says with a soft chuckle. You let out a scoff but obey, snuggling back into bed. Vernon places a light kiss on your forehead, and soon, you both drift back to sleep.

“We’re going to be late, Babycakes,” Vernon calls from the doorframe. You’ve been getting ready for the past three hours, determined to look your absolute best. You’re currently putting the finishing touches on your makeup. Glitter decorates your eyelids, and a bit on your puffy cheeks—everything has to be perfect. “One sec,” you whine, applying shiny lip gloss to your pillowy lips. You glance at your outfit in the mirror for the hundredth time that evening. You’re wearing a pink mini skirt, a leopard print top with pink detailing, and your signature gold necklace—Vernon’s gift—with “Cupcake” written in cursive. Vernon can’t help but admire how beautifully everything fits you. “My heels!” you exclaim, grabbing your thick leopard print heels from the closet. As you bend down, your mini skirt rides up, revealing your pretty pink panties. Vernon walks over, scoops you up, and places you gently on the bed. “I can do it myself, Bononie,” you protest, handing him the heels. “Can you, though?” he teases with a smirk. You roll your eyes, but he just smiles and gives you a quick peck on the cheek as he helps you with the heels.

5, 6... 5, 6, 7, 8! A loud shriek escapes your lips. “It’s Hot to Go! She’s playing Hot to Go!” you yell with all your might. Vernon smiles at you, watching as you jump up and down, singing along to the song. While Vernon likes Chappell Roan, it’s obvious he doesn’t adore her as much as you do. H - O - T - T - O - G - O Snap and clap and touch your toes Raise your hands, now body roll Dance it out, you’re Hot to Go “H - O - T - T - O - G - O,” you scream the lyrics, moving your arms to form the letters. You glance over your shoulder for a second to see your "npc" boyfriend. Vernon is standing there, smiling back at you. “Baby, you have to do it,” you yell over the music. “Okay, okay,” he laughs, brushing it off. “Do you know the choreo?” you ask with a giggle. “Yes,” Vernon laughs with you. “H - O - T - T - O - G - O,” you sing again with all your might, moving your arms to the choreography. Vernon stands slightly behind you, doing the same. You can take me Hot to Go “Louder! Sing louder!” you yell at him. “H - O - T - T - O - G - O, you can take me Hot to Go!” Vernon’s now singing much louder, making you smile from ear to ear. “I love you, Bononie!” you yell. “I love you too, Cupcake,” he replies with a grin.

Authors note: OMGGG if you’re seeing this, this is my first ever drabble!! I’m so excited to see how people react to it. This post is also the first ever appearance of a lil character of my own, Cupcake!reader who is almost like a golden retriever character that will most likely only be used when I write abt Vernon. But that may change in the future. Anyways thank you sm for reading it and i hope you liked it 🩷🩷

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/12/2024

this one's a bit short. i am now thirty and still unemployed (ten months this week) ://// if you enjoy the tuesdayposts and are not maxed out on your charitable donations for other causes (american healthcare access, healthcare access in other places, war relief, any number of other good causes) i am going to be $300 short for december rent. here is my paypal.

listening

listening to a lot of pete seeger, for my health. there are about one zillion recordings of Old Man Atom, all ever so slightly different. it starts off as a perky gee-whiz-science! tune and continues frog marching the listener along in an increasingly jaunty manner. it's

Then the cartel crowd put on a show To turn back the clock on the UNO To get a corner on atoms and maybe extinguish Every darned atom that can't speak English Down with foreign-born atoms! America for American atoms! I hold this truth to be self-evident That all men may be cremated equal!

it's very depressing to listen to early anti-nuclear protest songs and realize they hold even more true today! song's a bop tho!

-

reading

the feds nabbed someone allegedly related to the semi-dire Snowflake data leaks that have been ongoing throughout the year (Santander Bank, AT&T, Ticket Master, Neiman Marcus, etc).

this guy has been a real thorn in krebs' side for a year or so and participates in some of the worst corners of the internet, which explains the adversarial nature of the writeup. i read through the whole thing going "yeah this guy is Very annoying but why is krebs so mad at him" and then got to the bottom section about other activities. italicized OH moment in real life but bad.

-

watching

continuing noirvember with The Maltese Falcon (1941, dir. Huston).

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 American film noir in which a San Francisco private detective deals with three unscrupulous adventurers, all seeking a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.[3] Written and directed by John Huston[3] in his directorial debut, the film was based on the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and is a remake of the 1931 film of the same name.[4][5][6] It stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade, Mary Astor as his femme fatale client, and as villains Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.

i have two really snotty thoughts to get out of my brain: the modern letterboxed reviews like "i liked this but the homophobia ruined it" weak. all of you are WEAK.

and

i appreciate the work of the tumblrinas trying to queer this story in a more 2020s friendly way. however. sam spade canonically calls someone a slur for using cologne that he deems too feminine. the noir detective series you want is Philip Marlowe, who is at least homophobic in interesting and less physically violent ways.

anyway! gorgeous gorgeous movie. mary astor goes toe to fucking toe with bogey in every scene. a very frantic and frightened woman who is one jump ahead of the pathway crumbling behind her at all times. but she takes the jump and makes it! every time! except for the most important one!!!

-

playing

having a normal one with 12 hours of powerwash simulator

new genshin update rapidly approacheth. there's a lot happening in this screenshot. accidentally careened right past this npc, with one bullet for the poor low-level slime in the background, floaty blue pet in tow. the npc wanted me to deliver something to her sister who is visible under the big tree in the background. i love early area spaghetti code.

-

making

deep cleaned my house again bc i had people over for my birthday, which was a very lovely and very drunk evening of star wars on in the background while we played trivia. not how i expected to enter my thirties! i am not in the life circumstances i expected to be in my thirties, i do not have the life i expected to have in my thirties, etc. feeling a little maudlin and need to do crafts about it but also all the crafts in my home are not quite right!

[certifiedlovergirlsstuff]

hey!! happy celebration time bestie :) sorry this took forever, i got sick but i'm here now!

i was thinking it would be cute to do a blurb for steve based off these grumpy x sunshine prompts: (i love sassy steve, he's my fav)

having the habit of hugging them randomly

^ and when u forget to hug then, they just stand there like an npc, too cool to ask for that hug.

or they pull you into a hug without any words and wouldn't show u their face after

i feel like steve would get this attitude probably bc you're in front of the kids or something and he doesn't wanna beg for your hello hug but he also doesn't want to go without it. you can decide if they're in an established relationship or not <3 congrats again on 500!!

riley i hope you enjoy this cause i wrote this in two days. both times while at work. completely forgot the grumpy x sunshine part, but i feel you could see hints (let me know if you want a rewrite)

pairing: steve harrington x fem!reader wc: 969😏

masterlist / steve harrington

you and steve are friends who’ve kissed a few times. twice while drunk, one at a house party and another while at a surprisingly packed hideout where eddie’s band played. there were three other times where you kissed but both of you were sober and it was broad daylight hours. however, the two of you weren’t a couple. haven’t really chosen when to have a proper discussion or just blatantly ignoring how both of you are just waiting for the next time a kiss could happen.

yet, when it comes to hugging, you and steve are a gross couple in love. always holding onto each other for a time that isn’t considered a friendly passing hug. sometimes you’ll hug steve from behind as a ‘sneak attack’, other times it’ll be a side hug with your arms around his waist and one of his thrown over your shoulder while waiting in a long line. or it’s where you crash into steve chest seeking his warmth as a safety blanket, even could be where the two of you are full on cuddling while taking a nap on his king bed.

hugs are something steve fully expects to receive whenever the two of you are in the same room, within reach or quick steps. so when steve sees you walk into his backyard for this pool party the kids forced him to have, he’s completely frozen when you walk past him and throw your open arms around dustin first. dustin doesn’t deserve to be in your arms first, that’s a steve harrington only privilege. but he allows it since it’s the twerps birthday.

steve just stands back by the loungers, watching as you sway the boy side to side, almost throwing the both of you to the ground. the two of you laugh and steve swears he gets a bit tipsy from the high pitched lilt.

you pull away from dustin and turn on a 180 to then pull bright cheeked max into a sisterly embrace.

“what the fuck?” steve grumbled to himself. his eyes never leaving as you pull each kid, one by one into a firm hug. and when you’ve given will the last one of the group, steve expects you to come find him next, but no. you see nancy and bounce over to her.

“mad your girlfriend ignoring you?” steve startles at the voice of robin appearing beside him. she was unbothered while picking chips off her paper plate. “jesus, gotta put a bell on you.” hand over his heart while side eyeing her.

“i’m not a fucking cat, drill bit. you're just lost in that smooth brain of yours while creepily staring at y/n. might finally put that restraining order on you.” sentence punctuated with her loud chewing.

steve rolled his eyes, “she wouldn’t do that. and she’s not my girlfriend. she’s a girl who’s a friend.” his quiet tone showing his real emotions on that claim.

robin hummed, “yeah. a girl who’s a friend that you’ve kissed five times and been to chicken to do shit about.” he glared at the accusation. she then pointed a salty finger across the pool, “who’s also giving eddie a nice hug and you're over here standing like a tree waiting for her to take the initiative.”

steve whipped his head at robin’s pointed location to see eddie with his right arm casually holding your waist as your left is over his shoulder. steve could only see the mesmerized grin of eddie and it’s making his head fuzzy.

there was a slight shove at his shoulder and it forced him to once again glare at robin. “dude!” she rolled her eyes, “stop being wuss and get your girl. it’s not that hard, you both like each other already. act grossly coupley in public, that’s why you’re always ‘oh, not dating’ bullshitting to strangers.”

“robs, it’s just… i’m- im scared…” steve trailed off while turning his eyes to the ground. robin’s hand touched his shoulder and she asked, “of what? there just needs to be proper communication and everything will come together.” robin squeezed his shoulder before boldly stating, “she loves you. and you love her. be in love together.” and she walks away leaving steve by his porch door.

that is until there’s two arms sliding around his waist from behind and something laying along his spine. he automatically raises his hands to fold over yours, ruffling your arm hair from his back and forth motions.

“was wondering where you were?” your voice is muffled by the way you're pushing your left cheek into steve’s skin.

he turns his chin over his shoulder, “i’ve been here the whole time. thought you were ignoring me.” trying to play the last part off as a joke, but he really did think you were ignoring him.

you gasped and moved to stand in front of him, “never. just wanted to save the best for last. and also i wouldn’t have to let you go after i got to everyone else first.” making your point while rewrapping yourself into steve. his own arms resting over your shoulders with his cheek laying on your head.

“i love you.” he blurted with such an ease that steve was a bit shocked that it was such an easy and true statement.

a dreamy smile on your lips as you replied, “i love you too, stevie.”

and his heart jumped a little faster, both from your silky voice and you possibly saying it in a different meaning, “no, not as a friend.”

“i know, stevie. i love you both as a friend and more.”

steve lifted his head away from your skull and you tilted your head up. the two of you stay held together as infectious smiles grasped at your lips and childish giggles spilled free.

-

[thereal-true-ogilvie]

hello everyone welcome to i talk about benrey for a minute here

as someone who’s watched the entirety of hlvrai at least 6 times, the full vods at least 3, and the cast commentary hovering somewhere around 10, i consider myself to be pretty well-versed in the series. i also kin benrey. this is probably important to my perception of him.

the series is about self-aware AI.   its in the title! so it seems obvious enough to me that Benrey was programmed to be the final boss. he was SUPPOSED to be a silly character that antagonizes the protag and throws off the group dynamic, and then it’s a big reveal and you get to beat up this guy that was mean to you!

but he doesnt wanna. hes self aware.

Of all the characters, i think Bubby and Tommy are the most “powerful” in that they were able to break their characters the most. Tommy is a bit of a wild card because he doesn’t usually act like an AI. I view him as the “character you’re supposed to protect” in the party, but somewhere along the way he, too, became self-aware and figured out how to handle his own. I think that’s where the age thing comes in. He was programmed to be a 5-year-old that you’re trying to get out of this dangerous facility! but he didn’t want to be a 5-year-old, he’s smarter than that, he’s capable! so he changed it. Him being the son of Gman also probably helped with him being able to just do that.

I take Bubby and Dr. Coomer as both being tutorial characters. Dr. Coomer is a bit broken, but he still does his best to teach you about things. I think he’s the tutorial NPC that goes “watch out for [x]” and “we can use ropes to cross big pits!” and “we should call them Peeper Puppies!” while Bubby was supposed to be the “here’s how you shoot a gun”

Like, Dr. Coomer does the knowledge about the world, and Bubby does the action. for the video game. And Bubby is supposed to be kinda cold to you, because the action-tutorial NPCs tend to be. Like “what you cant even hold your own? tch, guess ill have to teach you.” But Bubby doesn’t do that. He doesn’t WANT to play the game, he wants to go back home. He liked it before the game was switched on. So he doesn’t teach Gordon shit and just tries to speedrun so the player will leave and he can go back home.

one little scene that stood out to me so much was when the crew is sitting around in a circle with the pigeons. not outside, the other scene with them sitting in a circle and there’s pigeons. why are there 2 of those.

anyways, Benrey is just staring at this pigeon behind Gordon, and singing to it, calmly. And then there’s a loud beep that sounds like the vox, and definitely doesnt come from Benrey. and he suddenly gets up and shoots the pigeon. That reads SO HARD like he was being too soft with the game world, so it pushed him to do something evil randomly. Like a little villain reboot.

Almost everything he does to antagonize Gordon can be read as genuine confusion. He kills random NPCs because he knows theyre not important, and that they can’t feel anything, and that they’ll only slow the team’s progress. And what makes Gordon so mad at him is how often Benrey says Gordon shouldnt be allowed in here. I take that as a similar stance to Bubby. Benrey doesn’t want to be the villain. He doesn’t want the player to progress and make him. That gets more obvious the closer we get to the end, and most people tend to notice it in the last scenes before Xen, where he’s suggesting they go all the way back, and basically begging the player to stop here, at least for a little while.

its really sad, honestly. but i take the cast commentary bits as canon. Which makes it adorable when Benrey comes back into the movie theatre with Gordon and we get

“I wonder what will happen. I bet you know what happens!”

“I win!!!”

He did win. He got to get past being the final boss. He got to join the epilogue. I think, he probably wasn’t supposed to be able to. But these guys broke the game enough that he could. Isn’t that sweet? Isn’t that a nice ending for him? I think he deserves it.

Wayne says he acts like “he isn’t aware unless he’s being spoken to” and I think that fits really well. Like, sometimes his actions are coded into his behavior, so he does them without realizing. And then the player interacting with him (which is the premise of the self-awareness) forces him to actually look at what he did, and sometimes he has no idea how to explain it. Leading to his “huh?”

listen to me. are you listening. i need you to hear this. i need more people to understand benrey. and how much i love him. hes trapped in the narrative, doomed by it to be the villain. but he doesn’t want to be. he clearly cares about the crew in his own silly goofy way. he doesn’t want to fight them. i wrote down everything he said in the finale, and he only says 5 outright malicious lines, all of which are directly after an unnatural pause, like he’s being rebooted again. Some important lines: “I knew this was gonna happen,”

“Stop shooting at me, I have to shoot back, I don’t wanna do that,”

“I didn’t have a big plan, I was supposed to be nice, but you forced me to be BAD so I’m gonna be BAD… friend.” the small, quiet “friend” there gets me every time. even after everything, even after his nature is revealed, he wants to believe theyre still friends.

“Don’t go in there, please… I don’t like that room." The amount of times he sounds so genuinely sad when asking them to stop, or even just saying “bro..” like he’s mourning the friendship they could’ve had. The amount of times he sounds genuinely pained when he’s glitching out and stretching across the screen.

And his last words, said childishly of course, but,

“This isn’t fair.”

[thinkingotherwise]

Requested by: @nxttaru

WE'RE DOING GENSHIN NPC X READER NOW??? i want a halfdan one

I have a little list of the npc fics under the masterlist, I still try to update it once in a while but I mainly just have ideas about the characters and before I fully finish one, something new or someone new catches my attention.

Halfdan x Khaenriah! reader

You watched the sun as it slowly descended lower and lower on the horizon. As evening was approaching, your steps led you toward the training grounds where you were sure some of the knights were still sparring. The path you took ran through the gardens and you lazily looked around observing the blooming flowers and how magical they looked. You stopped at the particular flower bed and crouched to pick up one of the Inteyvats. You loved the flower and its meaning, mainly because of Halfdan who told you all about it. Hearing his explanation and how it was his favourite, it quickly became yours as well.

Entering the wide-open field used for training, your eyes moved over all the knights before stopping at the two, or more like only one of the knights, who sparred the Twilight Sword. You watched in amazement as the two exchanged blows, their attacks quick as lightning with so much power, you wondered how the wooden swords were still intact. You once asked why the two were always sparring together whenever you visited and the answer was simple but hidden by the humble front as you had to dig deep to get it. There was no one else but only a few people who could match Dainslief's abilities, one of them being your Halfdan. Their power and skills were on similar levels because of the constant training and sparring sessions they sought to better themselves.

Suddenly you gasped as Halfdan's weapon pointed at his partner's neck. They stood like that only for a few seconds before Dainslief swung his sword in alert and knocked the weapon out of the royal guard's hand. Your lover grabbed his hand hissing softly but you couldn't hear it being so far away. You slowly stepped toward them and when they heard steps coming closer they both turned to you.

Halfdan immediately smiled as soon as he saw you and he moved his hands as if to open them for a hug but quickly realized that he was probably sweaty because of the sparring and held back. Not minding him, you bounced straight into his arms as soon as you were close enough to him and he laughed joyfully. It was always surprising how easily he picked you up, but then you remembered the muscles he hid behind his uniform, and that explained everything.

"Hello there, love. It's great to see you." He muttered into your chest before letting you go. "Hhsss." He hissed in pain as your feet touched the ground and you quickly looked at what happened. He held the side of his palm and massaged it in pain. You were worried it was something you did but then Dainslief stepped closer. "Apologies, Halfdan. I must have hit your hand when I swung my sword." The Captain commented after nodding at you in greeting. "No worries, Dain. I'll be alright after some time." Your lover said shrugging his palm off as if he didn't feel the pain and it wasn't already swelling. You looked at him in mild disbelief and turned to Dainsleif. You noticed that he had the same unbelieving and concerned expression as you. "Don't worry I'll take care of him." You said and when Halfdan tried to cut in saying he didn't need anything you waved your hand at him knowing fully well he had trouble acknowledging it out loud. Only because he didn't want to trouble anyone. "Thank you, (Y/n)." Dainslief said in your direction before turning to his friend. "I'll see you for a sparring session soon enough."

Then you led Halfdan to a storage room and searched for some bandages or potions to give him. He reluctantly agreed after seeing the uneasy look on your face. You gave him one of the potions (I know Genshin does food but bear with me - it makes more sense), applied some cool paste that would help with the swelling, and then carefully bandaged his hand.

Halfdan watched you attentively, his expression unreadable despite the pink on his ears. "Thanks." He muttered, his voice soft and sincere. "Don’t know how Dainslief always gets the better of me... next time I’ll—" He stopped himself, and when you smiled encouragingly to him a grin appeared on his face as well. "Next time, I’ll win." He loved having your support and seeing you smile seemed enough to pick him up. You smiled, tying off the bandages with a firm knot. "Next time. But for now, get some rest, love. You'll be sparring again before you know it." You agreed, securing the final piece of bandage around his arm. You brought his hand closer to your mouth and placed a healing kiss making him giggle. He was so enamored by you, by every action you performed for him. You as well, you would do anything to make him happy and if you could you would take away any pain he would feel.

You brushed your hair back after cleaning up and felt the flower you picked before and placed it in your hair. Immediately you grabbed it between your fingers and extended your hand in Halfdan's direction. He blinked twice looking at the flower surprised and you stepped closer with a chuckle. You placed the Inteyvat in his front pocket and kept your hand over his chest. His heartbeat quickened and you felt it. "I'll leave the sparring to you two, but I'll be here if you need help again or a little token of appreciation." You commented. Your fingers moved to brush the few locks that covered his forehead and placed a kiss right there.

[randoimago]

Watching the Sunset Together

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3

Character(s): Rolan

Type of Request: NPC Winter Event Thingy

Note(s): I literally saw this post earlier today and decided I wanted to write drabbles/oneshots (whatever I have inspo with at the time) for various characters. Except I wanted to specifically do it for NPC's.

Since this is so very last minute, I'm only really seeing what NPC's you guys want to see stuff for and if I think it fits (or if I vibe with the NPC) then I'll choose which of these days to write for them. I went with Rolan for number 1 because I love him dearly and this idea came very easily to me.

If there was one thing Rolan could say he loved about Ramazith's Tower, it would be the view. Standing outside the tower and looking down at the city below him, seeing how small everything looks from this height, it really puts things into perspective. Not only that, but seeing the ocean of the docks in the distance and watching the sun begin its descent over the water gave him a sense of calm, of peace.

"Well, it was peaceful," Rolan says aloud, an amused smile on his face when he hears the noise of the portal behind him.

He half expects it to be one of his siblings, mainly Lia, wanting to try one of the "weird Wizard things" in the tower. When he glances back, there's a pleasantly surprised look in his eyes as he sees you.

"And what brings you here? Was my illusion downstairs still no fun?" He asks, smiling a bit as he remembers the conversation you've both had about his little illusion and how you grew bored with making faces at it due to not getting a reaction. He had told you that his siblings say the same thing.

"Not quite, it just doesn't have the same smugness you do," you reply and Rolan rolls his eyes playfully before stepping aside on the balcony so you can join him if you want. He just barely suppresses the happy smile when you do stand next to him. Rolan makes sure his damned tail is coiled around his leg so it doesn't go to yours.

"Oh? Then what brought about this visit?" He inquires, a tad curious as he tries to not be too hopeful about whatever reason you might have.

"Just decided to visit and see how you're holding up," you answer and he suppresses the contented purr that wants to pop up. You've heard his purr before and teased him for being exactly like a cat, to which he defended himself profusely before pouting. The laughter that escaped your lips afterwards almost made him purr again, not that he'd admit it.

"Busy. I've had to deal with a lot of Lorroakan's former associates. Some of them being very happy that the place is under new management while others, not so much." Rolan noticed the concerned look on your face and he gave you a teasing smile. "What? You don't think I can handle myself by now?"

"Considering what a piece of work that bastard was, you can't blame me for being worried about what his friends might be like."

"Aw, you're worried about me?" He teases more and chuckles happily when you playfully shove him in response. In the past, he might've been insulted that you worried, but now it makes his heart beat a bit faster.

"Seems you enjoy me worrying, judging by your purring." His chuckling stops momentarily as he makes a face when he realizes that at some point he did, in fact, start purring at the banter between you two. A scoff escapes him and he rolls his eyes when you start laughing this time. His "annoyance" fades easily as he takes in your happy features and how they're accented from the rays of the setting sun in the background. He has to look away to glance back out to the cityscape, glad that his skin is already red enough to hide any blushing he might be doing.

"Things have been rather peaceful lately," Rolan says, changing the subject. "It's nice being able to finally relax after everything and just look at the sunset."

He hears a contemplative hum from you and he glances over for a moment, your eyes locked on him.

"The view is rather lovely," you agree softly and he feels his heart thrum faster. A slow smile crawls onto his lips before his eyes move back to the sunset, as do yours. He's glad you don't mention his tail that has wrapped around your leg gently as he stands a tad closer to you, his eyes glancing back to you for a moment more.

"That it is."

[moonbiscuitsims]

Cyberpunk Edgerunners: David Martínez (Sims 4)

Updated hair ⭐

CC + recolours and info download below My other Cyberpunk character recreations 🌙🌙🌙 LUCY EDGERUNNERS 🌙🌙🌙 V 💛 Jackie and Misty 💛 Rita Wheeler (NPC) 💛 Goro Takemura 💛 Lizzy Wizzy 💛 My sims Cyberpunk inspired content My CP 2077 (non sims) photos

REFERENCE

So I just finished Edgerunners, I mean I could tell it was gonna end badly (as in it is sad not badly made) from the Easter egg in the game and the endings we get there. I'll admit I didnt find it easy to binge watch but I've finally watched it and love the aesthetics of some of the characters so maybe I'll do more. I inspired the jacket more on the in game version, with the labels and everything. Had to place the sleeve labels on different place and take some creative liberties but mostly it's as accurate as I could get it. I didn't remove the normal spec or shadow.

David Martínez CC: DOWNLOAD (don't forget original meshes or it won't work)

Jacket is a recolour of @darte77 's Cyberpunk Jacket. You need the MESH (only need Darte77_m_Top22aHQ). Included a version with light emission and without. It was my first time doing this and I couldn't get it to flash slowly so if it bothers you get the normal version :) I know some areas could be better but I did my best with my limited CC creating knowledge.

Pants also my recolour of the same creator as the jacket, you need the MESH also. (Darte77_04pantsHQ.package)

Shoes are just a recolour of base game sneakers.

I updated the hair! I found this archived version of his hair as the original creator site was deleted.

"Cyberware" was "painted" by me and random Sandevistan image tattoo included. Again, I did my best 😅I know it's all a bit meh and someone else could probably do it better but the cyberpunk sims community is way to niche and past trend. I copied the pattern from some Cyberpunk2077 cc images, not the anime, and I made up some of the geometry because it was a nightmare 😂 It is in the upper back tattoo category.

Necklace is this by @gorillax3-cc though I can't find the one necklace version so maybe it's included?

Eyes are these by @Pixelore No uploading behind paywalls, including in sim downloads especially behind paywalls, reuploading (if there's something wrong with the link lemme know), claiming as yours or making this inaccessible in any way. Feel free to use it for whatever screenshot/video or improve or edit it for other cc and link back to this post + other creators💛

[libertybri]

Request for best friend!Fo3 npcs finding out/watching as a normally calm, cold, logical Lone, after seeing their dad for the first time since he left them, punches him in the face and berates him for leaving them with no information, no way to know if he's okay, no idea what he's doing or if he's ever coming back. Them saying "You were my only family, now I'm not even sure if you loved me at all" and generally being angry and hurt by him. Could you also include how their dad would react?

Lone’s hard fist connects with the jaw of their own father. James looks up to his kid bewildered, “Lone,–“

“I get to talk, not you.” Lone sharply cuts him off, “You have made my life hell for the past few weeks and you don’t seem to have any remorse for it. I have been shot at, beaten, stabbed, targeted, and made a war weapon for a faction that shows little-to-no care for me at all, and all to find you here for some mission bigger than yourself. You left me behind to suffer through all of that while still needing my help in the end. You were my only family, and now I’m not sure if you even loved me at all.”

James remains quiet as Lone removes their intense focus away from him and diverts their gaze to the ground.

Amata:

“I used to look up to you, James. You’ve made a real mess in your path and you have a lot of work to do to make up for it.” She tells him after Lone finishes their rant. Amata shakes her head shamefully at James, who takes in her words like knives.

“I didn’t mean to hurt either of you, believe me.” He pleads.

Amata heard enough of the older man merely pushing out excuses for his flight personality causing a whirlwind of trouble for Lone. Her friend who is usually cold as ice showing that much emotion sent her into protective mode. She turns to Lone and softly says, “You don’t have to follow in his footsteps, you know?”

“It’s for the betterment of–“

“Yeah, I know, but you’ve been a hero to everyone since the first day you walked out of the vault. He’s been trying for over 20 years. I think you’re warranted a little time for yourself.” She tells her friend with a gentle smile. Lone nods and follows their friend to the exit, not saying another word to their dad.

Butch:

“I think we outta hit the road, Nosebleed.” Though Butch rarely uses that nickname with his best friend anymore, he figured it would divert their attention away from their dad and onto him. He didn’t like the way James threw this onto them and expected Lone to carry out his chosen mission without a choice for them. It also deeply upset him to see his usual calm and collected friend become so emotional over the matter. Most of all it angered him that James wasn’t speaking up. With a huff, he tells his friend, “We got better things to do that don’t involve us riskin’ our lives for a bunch of people who could care less about us.”

Lone thinks for a long moment and nods, “You’re right. Let’s go.” Butch excitedly guides them to the exit, as he was pleased he didn’t have to convince them any further. As they leave, Butch looks back at James with a deep glare.

Charon:

Charon remains silent, allowing Lone to make their own choice in the matter. Though they were experiencing a lot of emotions right now, he knew that Lone would still think clearly with logic and make the right decision. “I need time.” Lone finally decides, telling their father and looking to Charon for guidance.

He nods, “Let’s go then.” Without another word, Charon leads them to the exit.

Clover:

“C’mon, sweetie. We don’t have to stay here for this.” Clover pleads with Lone and diverts her gaze at James with a look of disgust. “And you need to man up! Get your job done without dragging your teen kid into it.”

“Clover–“

“She’s right. You shouldn’t be here. This job is dangerous and it’s been my destiny since before you were born, not yours. I should have told you, at the very least so you knew what you were getting yourself into.” James agrees with Clover and tells Lone honestly.

“Then you better hope you’re able to get it done yourself, because I’m already dragged into it.” Lone tells him sharply and nods to Clover as signal for them to leave. Clover rests a comforting hand on their back as they leave.

Gob:

Gob allows Lone to process their emotions and make their own decision on the matter. He would support them with whatever decision they made as their judgement was rarely ever wrong. One day he imagined they could both fill the void of family to each other, but he understands Lone’s frustration, as that was their only source of paternal love for years and it all diminished within weeks.

“We can take a break from saving everybody else. Let’s go hangout at the Underworld.” Lone says nonchalantly, spinning on their heel and walking towards the exit.

Gob follows wordlessly, having no say in the matter. He doesn’t give a single glance back at James. If he wasn’t important to Lone at the moment, he didn’t matter to Gob.

Jericho:

“I told you all this bullshit was a waste of time. We could be out knockin’ skulls and making caps right now. Helluva bounty waiting for us back in Megaton.” Jericho could care less about helping them save the Wasteland. He saw it for what it was: Trash.

“I had to see for myself.” Lone sneers at him, “Whatever though, I’ll give you this one. For once you were right.”

“Lone, please my child don’t tell me you have fallen into the life of raiding?” James pleads, all but questioning where he went wrong in abandoning Lone and causing them to go this route.

“Don’t act like you care now. I’ll decide when I’m ready to help you. So far all you’ve done is waste my time.” Lone finalized the conversation and lead the way for themself and Jericho on their next adventure.

Sarah Lyons:

“Lone, if I may,” Sarah speaks up, “With great interest of the Brotherhood, this is the right decision to make. You must support your father despite the personal business.” It hurts her to go against her friend’s better judgment, but she had a duty to adhere to and Lone also made that commitment alongside her.

Lone nods wordlessly.

“I do still love you with all my heart, dear Lone. That will never change. This mission is beyond us, but working together I know we can change everyone’s world for the better.” James tells them, “Afterwards, I will do everything in my power to make up for the hurt I’ve caused you.” He’s sincere in his words, tearing up as he speaks to his child.

“You’re very lucky to be their parent.” Sarah reminds him, doing her best to support her friend while keeping them in line of the mission. She nods to them and they give her a half-smile in return.

[clemblog]

Caine’s Lesson - Part 19

•

Gangle had had a crush on Zooble for a while now- She’d noticed over the past few weeks that Zooble had slowly gotten more close and buddy with her. She might even dare say protective when it came to Jax’s bullying of her art and just general timidness. It made her so happy, it was so much easier to keep her comedy mask on nowadays, especially since Zooble had slowly started got into the swing of catching her mask if anyone knocked it off. The gesture gave her butterflies.

So… She’d come to the decision that she was going to admit her feelings to her today!! She needed the distraction from Pomni and Gummigoo’s disappearance.

Gangle had finished helping the citizens for the day and had decided to approach Zooble then, as she assumed she was also done with her chores. However, what Gangle forgot to realise is that Zooble was not strained by anxiety like Gangle and was able to chat with the citizens, and hence able to fall behind on the daily chores.

None of the circus group were forced to do chores of course- Take for example Jax, who only did things for the ranch occasionally when he was in a good mood. It was just something most of them kept up with to show thanks to Mama Croc and her boys, as well as help settle the rest of the NPC’s into their world!

Gangle walked over tentatively, watching Zooble as held several tools in her hands and was talking with a couple NPC’s who all held their own tools.

A wave of anxiety fell over her.

“M-Maybe I should do this another day-“

Next time Gangle was going to ask her out in the time before bed! That way it could be just her and them! Just a quick one on one chat and Gangle would tell her- Definitely-

“Pssst..! Psssst…! Zooble? Zoobleeee? Zoobley? Hey… Wake up! Can I talk to you…?”

Zooble however was dead asleep, exhausted from the days work. Work was a natural Jax repellent so she always dug in to her chores will full force. It was a quality Zooble had that left Gangle a little flushed, the dedication she had to the things she liked was admirable.

But with Zooble not waking up, she’d just have to wait to tell her another day… It was starting to seem like the universe didn’t want her to admit her feelings to Zooble…

Did Zooble not like her? Did she find her annoying and babyish like Jax did? Was she being nice to her for the sake of it? Did she not really care? Would she one day stop catching her mask when it fell? Would she start to drop it like Jax often did?

Gangle didn’t know how long she’d been overthinking, but the sun had started to rise and she found herself moving through the day in a depressive blur. Why was she like this? Why was she like this? Why was she like this? She had just started feeling better. She’d been doing wonderfully in terms of her mental health, even Ragatha had fussed over her at such. She’d been so proud. But now she was falling back into these stupid thoughts over some silly feelings-

“Gangle? Hey. Gangle…? Earth to Gangle, talk to me. Please? What’s got you so stressed ribbons?”

“…I don’t want you to hate me…”

“Hey. No. I’d never hate you, knowing you you’re overthinking something which is no big deal, so I’d never hate you. Unless of course you turned around and started acting like Jax. Then I’d hate you. But never over something like this.”

Gangle sniffled at this with a shy smile, wiping at her face.

“You’re too sweet to me…”

“Gangle. You’re probably the only person here who I want to be sweet and gentle with.” Admitted Zooble, softly.

“…No wonder I have a crush on you-“

“…You what?”

Gangle flushed at this with a squeak, hiding her face in her hands.

“Forget I said anything!”

Zooble snickered at this fondly, moving to sit in front of her.

“Gangle~”

“…”

“Gangle, come on, you can look at me!”

“Noooo, you’re gonna a tease me~”

“Maybe, but that’s only because I love you, you little sweetheart~”

“…you do?!”

“I do, how could I not?”

“…Cause I’m pathetic and a crybaby.”

“No.”

“What?”

“You’re sweet, kind, caring, which sure makes you a little sensitive but it just shows how much you truly care about you do and people around you.”

“…really?”

“Yeah, you’re a beautiful person, Gangle, and I’m sorry idiots like Jax try to shame you into feeling like those qualities aren’t one’s worth keeping.”

“…Hey.. Uhm Zooble?”

“Yes Gangle?”

“…Do you wanna be girlfriends?”

“I’d love to be.”

The two embraced in a quick hug, curling into each other in their happy emotions with a soft embrace. They slowly pulled apart, Zooble cupping Gangle’s face once again.

“I have a question now~”

“O-Oh! What is it?”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Y-Yeah, you can.” Nodded Gangle, shyly with a smile as her mask face lit up pink at the ask.

Oh god she was kissing a girl now-

The pair had hesitantly moved closer to each other, leaning in to gently press their lips together in a gentle tender moment of understanding. They held onto each other like they were the only ones that mattered. In the stress of it all, living in an adventure, Pomni and Gummigoo going missing. At least they had each other.

Who knew how long they’d have everyone else with Caine’s current mental state?

•

By the way I was wanting to ask if you guys would be alright with me sending links to ao3 here on tumblr for each new chapter. It’ll make my posting process so much easier but hey lmk.

Part 20

[blackjackkent]

The guards give them no trouble as they escort Florrick to the upper level of Wyrm's Rock, and they are just starting to relax and believe they might get the Counselor out to safety cleanly, when--

"LORD GORTASH HAS BEEN EXPECTING YOUR ARRIVAL. PLEASE HOLD A MOMENT."

Rakha jumps with a startled yelp at the jarring voice of the Steel Watcher that seems to have materialized out of thin air next to her, and it takes every bit of control she has not to erupt in a fireball engulfing everything in the immediate radius. She's... very tense at the moment.

"Shit," she hears Wyll mutter, followed by a string of other curses of increasing inscrutability from Jaheira, Minthara, and Lae'zel. Rakha echoes all of them in her own mind. These Watchers see everything, know everything. They recognize her on sight - and now there's nothing else for it. Their cover is blown. There will be a fight, far before they're ready...

She has her quarterstaves halfway off her back in an instant-- and then freezes as the actual import of the words filter through.

Hold a moment?

They are not being attacked. A few of the Fist are looking at them with mild curiosity, but no one has a weapon drawn. The Watcher itself does not seem hostile. Nothing, in fact, is happening.

Florrick, standing between Minthara and Jaheira, takes a quiet step back and makes a concerted effort to blend into the brickwork behind her.

Narrator: The Watcher's presence fades, but another takes its place. Confident. Dominant. Commanding.

(A/N: My personal headcanon is that, in the D&D game in which I like to imagine all of this is taking place, the DM absolutely had a crush on their own NPC when it comes to Gortash. XD And meanwhile all the players are picturing him as a scrungly asshole with an anime haircut no matter how much the DM tries to convince them otherwise.

(No shade to Gortash shippers; he's just not my type at all. XD ))

The giant automaton's head cocks slowly to one side. Then a new voice emerges from it - Gortash's. And, bafflingly... he sounds excited.

"Greetings, old friend!" His voice sounds tinny and strange, coming from the speaker in the Watcher's chest. "Orin told me you were on your way here, but I scarce believed it! Welcome back to Baldur's Gate. Welcome home."

Rakha goes very still.

She remembers being held in the grip of the Absolute in her vision inside the walls of Moonrise Towers, and how that creature welcomed her with reverence and awe. It was a jarring moment, as it was the first time anyone, anything, had recognized her from her past and seemed glad of the recognition.

This is the second. Gortash knows her. He is glad to see her. He calls her old friend.

Welcome home.

Pain stabs through her head at the place where Orin's knife left its scar. She opens her mouth to speak and nothing comes out; her throat suddenly feels dry and tight.

Gortash, in any event, doesn't wait for her to answer. "Allow me to formally invite you to my inauguration," he says grandly. "Make your way to the ceremonial hall."

The Watcher drops its arms to its sides and turns and walks away, its heavy metallic steps echoing through the hall.

Rakha swallows tightly, struggling to find her voice. "We went through all that trouble to get inside-- and now Gortash invites us to see him?"

It doesn't make sense. Well, no - it makes all too much sense. And it terrifies her.

-----

They turn to walk out of the keep, and she realizes Florrick is looking at her with sudden distrust.(*)

"You know Gortash?" she asks warily. Rakha watches the Weave flicker around her; she's gathered an unspent blast of ice in one hand.

Rakha shakes her head. "I might have, once," she explains curtly. "I don't remember." A pause. "I don't remember anything."

"He called you a friend," Florrick presses.

Rakha's eyes drop to her right hand, watching the held spell swirl and ripple around Florrick's palm. "I was one of them once. Apparently," she admits flatly. "I don't remember it. They know me. I don't know them."

Florrick hesitates. Her grip on the spell lessens minutely but doesn't drop. "As long as this city stands, I will stand with it," she says curtly. "This is my promise. And if you mean to stand against me," she says tightly, "I will see that you fall."

Rakha grunts noncommittally. She has the woman's measure and she doesn't think Florrick would actually win if it came to a fight between them. But that doesn't matter.

"It's Wyll's city," she says quietly, and despite her best efforts, the words are heavy with exhaustion. Gods, I'm so tired of fighting. Of not knowing. Of tearing myself apart. "So I stand with it too. Whatever--" She swallows, feeling the sudden weight of the words as she speaks them. "Whatever Gortash might think."

Florrick looks at her appraisingly for a long moment. Then she looks at Wyll, and so does Rakha.

"We will stand with you, Counselor," he says quietly. "Have no fear of that. Your faith in this city should inspire us all."

Wyll's tired too, Rakha suddenly realizes. He's fighting the same battle she is, the battle between the two halves of her mind, only he is stuck on the outside looking in, unable to do anything but try to cling onto the good parts. And this is his city, and he's watching it start to tear at the seams, and just watched its new tyrant greet his lover with satisfaction.

And yet somehow he hasn't looked away, hasn't flinched, hasn't turned away no matter how much he must want to.

I don't deserve you, Rakha thinks - not for the first time, but with a new weight as she stands here on the edge of the keep with the blood of the Flaming Fist on her robes. And you deserve so much better than me.

Florrick considers silently for a moment, then nods. "Then I and the city both owe you a debt we cannot repay, Wyll," she says, equally quiet. "For getting me out of that damned prison. For giving me courage when I'd all but run out."

She glances at Rakha again. "I will travel to the Upper City, find what allies I can. If you truly mean what you say, that Gortash is no friend of yours, then you won't fight this coming battle alone."

The spell in her hand fizzles out. "See that you keep your word," she says coolly. "For his sake, if not for mine."

Rakha considers trying to explain the battle in her head, the desperate effort with which she strives every day to be someone Wyll can be proud of, her fear of her own failures and her terror of what waits for her in meeting Gortash face to face.

But there is time for none of it; Florrick gives her a curt nod and turns, disappearing into the Rivington crowd.

-----

(*) This is a mild rewrite of the actual scene you get after getting Florrick out of the keep. Makes sense to me that she would have some Questions after them being greeted by the Steel Watch like that. Lines in italic are from the game dialogue, everything else is mine.

[obsessedtomone]

Unravel Yourself Before Me ⛓️ Chapter 8 - Close Call▸Shigaraki x femReader

Chapter Summary:

◤ From the moment he saw you in the convenience store, he’d already labeled you as a major pain in the ass.

The way you stared back at him in disgust—the way everyone fucking stared at him—like he was some piece of garbage to be thrown out, made him want to strangle you until he saw the light leaving your eyes. 

You must’ve thought you were so fucking cool, talking back to him when you had no clue who he was or what he’s capable of.

Just another one of those irritating clueless fucking NPCs. ◢ Setting: University AU - No quirks (unless degenerate personalities count) Tags: Slow burn, Eventual Smut, Unhealthy/Toxic Relationships, Humiliation, Mentally Ill Reader, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to ??? Warning: Dead Dove – Do Not Eat | Mind the tags TW: Implied Su/Self H, Dubcon, Reader has a super shitty past like actually, Shigaraki Tomura is his own warning.

AO3 Crosspost | Chain Divider by firefly-graphics

Chapters: One • Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven • Eight • Nine

Chapter 8 - Close Call

Time is passing by, leaving you behind. 

You know that because you’ve been watching the changing colors seeping through the old glass panels of your dirty windows, dancing against your almost-white walls. 

Sometimes, the fog in your cerebrum would lift long enough for you to hear things like motorcycles racing down the empty streets. Or the neighbors arguing with each other, somewhere alongside the building.

You don’t remember when or how, but your head ended up hanging off of your bed and you’re now boring holes into the floor with those empty eyes of yours. Maybe you’re lucky enough to form a blood clot soon, have a stroke and finally get away from this shithole people call life. On better days you’d snort at the thought, but today is not one of those. 

Today, you feel empty.

Somewhere deep down, you think you feel hungry too. 

When did you eat last? 

You’ve been laying on your bed like this for hours, maybe even days, just wasting away, tuning in and out of thinking, occasionally interrupted by the sound of your friend trying to reach you, but you haven’t been reading the past few texts at all.

They have a key to your apartment, but they don’t use it in times like these. You’ve made a deal that as long as you sometimes reply, they won’t try to come and bother you. 

You need space. So much space. Space to pretend you don’t exist.

Last time you shut down like this was somewhere last year, after your ex—that ex—found out where you lived and showed up to ‘talk’. Talk with his fist against your face, when you told him, knife in your hand, to fucking dare get any closer. 

It was a good thing that Taylor has the sixth sense of a helicopter parent, otherwise you might have cut his throat open. He’d left after, but not before you told him that if he were to show again, you’d expose all the dirt you’ve had on him, even if it meant you’d rot in prison too. 

You should have known he’d try to get back at you somehow, probably happily selling the porn to Shigaraki first chance he got. 

But that was your fault and your fault only, wasn’t it? 

You chose to be with him. You chose to stay with him despite all the things he put you through. You could’ve just left, but you didn’t. There is always a choice, isn’t there? You always have a say in life. You could’ve said no, could’ve walked away from the monsters, could’ve killed yourself at least, but you didn’t. 

Your mother, your teachers, hell, even Shigaraki was dead on. You’re nothing but a series of failures, disguising yourself as something else, pretending you’re functional. You ruined everything. You always do.

It’s hard to breathe right now. 

You’d sunk yourself to the floor, curling up in a ball and screwing your overflowing eyes shut. You count to ten, you pick different garbage around your room to look at, but you still can’t breathe. The tightness of your throat doesn’t let up, but it’s better to feel suffocated than to hyperventilate until you pass out. So you crawl to the meds next to your bed and overdose on them if only a little bit. Enough to keep you sedated for the rest of the day.

It’s good that Taylor isn’t here to see you like this. They almost put you in the looney bin last year when they called the police and paramedics, thinking your corpse might have been rotting in your apartment. 

You got really mad at them, that you remember. The police dude wrote the both of you up for wasting his fucking time with ‘dramatics’, so your friend ended up getting a copy of your apartment key and a promise from you.

It makes you shake your head, thinking back on it. 

You’re leaning against the bed frame now, still on the floor, the empty stomach making the meds kick in faster than they should be. It feels nice to feel nothing. You hope you someday get to feel nothing forever. Maybe someday soon. 

You envy your friend. They aren’t as fucked up as you are. They don’t need to shut down. All they usually needed was drugs, parties and sloppy hook-ups, none of which would make you feel any better right now. None of which ever made you feel any better.

The back of your head hits the frame and you exhale deeply. It feels like your bones are creaking whenever you move. It’s hard to, but you should count your blessings and keep yourself grounded. 

Like how you didn’t get fired from your part-time yet, when you called your manager Gene and told him you didn’t know when you’d be able to come back. He’d told you to not worry about it, to take as many days off as you needed ‘kid’, and you figured it had to do with that glint of sadness he has in his eye, every time he looks at you. 

That kind of proves to you that not all people in the world were assholes. There are a few of them that still care about you, even if you could count the amount on your fingers.

Funnily enough, that’s what you do, high as you are right now. You raise your hand in front of your face, and you start literally counting on your fingers.

There’s Taylor—one finger down.

There’s your manager—second finger down.

There was that arcade nerd, the one you should quit worrying over at this point. You didn’t message him again despite telling him you would, and it still fucking bothers you for some reason. But he still counts as a positive, so you put another finger down. 

Would he be weirded out if you messaged him now? Maybe you could hit the arcade with him, someone outside your bubble and forget you were you for a second.

You’re staring at the ridges of your fingerprints when you realize you’d spaced out again. 

A distant ringtone brings you out of your daze, and you glance at your phone. You’d changed your number. Was that last week? How many days have passed already? Fuck if you remember. You should probably order take-out before you pass out again. Some good, greasy fast food, you think. Yeah, fast food sounded really damn good right now, fuck your savings. Dead people need no savings.

Why the fuck is your phone still ringing? Ring, ring, ring. It’s fucking annoying. Should you answer? You reach for it and look at the display. Another unknown number. Was it another creep? How did they find out? Your head hurts. Should you pick up?

Ah, fuck it. If it really is another creep angling for a hook-up, you might take them up on it. Shigaraki probably posted the rest of the videos on social media by now, maybe even made your address public. 

It’s okay, at least that’ll give you the final push to put an end to this miserable party of one. 

So you pick up the phone. “Hey,” the last person you wanted to hear from says quietly, swallowing some of the grit in his voice thickly. You frown, but you don’t reply. He clears his throat and tries you again, “I uhh—I… got this number from your friend.”

God, did he fucking threaten them? You should be getting mad, but the meds make you feel nothing.

“It’s been a while since you, uh…” You hear him curse under his breath as he trailed off, “It’s been two weeks. Your friend, uh… Taylor? They told me you’re not feeling well and—”

“What do you want from me?” you snap, hearing your voice sounding rougher than you remembered it to be. Prolonged dehydration, if you had to guess. You’d like to taunt him, to piss him off, but you didn’t have the energy. You couldn’t care less anyways. Nothing fucking matters.

After a moment of hesitation, Shigaraki replies, voice calm and low, “Come back to school.”

You snort, raising your phone to your face and almost end the call if not for the bright screen fucking blinding you for a second.

“I deleted them,” he says, attempting to keep you from hanging up. It works.

“Huh?”

“I removed the thread. After you left. It doesn’t exist anymore. Anywhere. At all.” Shigaraki sighs. “Told your friend first, but they said you haven't read their DMs yet.”

For a brief second, you think about it, realizing you’re supposed to feel what—relief? 

You still feel nothing.

“Okay. Why,” you say, not ask. 

You don’t understand. He wanted you to suffer, so why would he go through the trouble? You don’t understand, but thinking is really hard for you right now.

“I’ll… tell you when you come to school. Have you eaten yet?” 

If you didn’t know better, you would’ve thought you heard concern in his voice. Thank god you know better.

It takes you a while to reply, but he doesn’t press you for some reason. He just waits.

“Why do you care?”

“So no, then. Do you…” Shigaraki trails off, hesitating, “Do you want to grab a bite with me? I’ll—I’ll pay.”

“Shigaraki.”

“Yeah?”

“Why the fuck would I go anywhere with you?”

“Let me take you out once and you’ll find out,” he promises.

A promise you didn’t care for him to fulfill.

“We’re not friends,” you bite, huffing in disbelief. “We’re not even on friendly terms. I screwed you over and you got to ruin my life in return. The end,” you assert, going over the list with him, “How stupid do you think I am? Even if you got rid of the thread, everyone on campus fucking saw everything and at least a few saved it. The damage is—”

“Fucking done, I know, I…”

You roll your eyes, feeling the beginnings of a headache to form, still waiting to hear whatever stupid bullshit excuse he had to say. But he only curses and sighs. 

Honestly, you get him. Somewhat. 

It’s not hard to figure out how someone ends up being as fucked up as he was, especially not when you come close to it. He’s damaged as hell, masking his insecurities as his confidence, whatever joke of a father he has, letting him come home with big patches of dark bruises and scars. 

You’re familiar with it and it makes sense for you, but he shouldn’t be. Rich people are weird, but they’re also cowards. They don’t stand out like he does, they mostly keep to themselves. 

Whatever family he has obviously doesn’t care about what he does, not enough to keep the dirt behind closed doors at least. And they should, because Shigaraki is as destructive as it gets. Either he was born a natural psychopath and his dad doesn’t fucking care about him or… he too is an insane piece of shit—

Fuck’s sake. Are you seriously rationalizing his behavior right now? God knows you didn’t go to fucking therapy, only for you to fall back into bad habits. He hurt you. He is the bad guy. What makes him different from your exes and other people that have abused you in the past? Nothing.

You can’t excuse his behavior just because you see some similarities between the two of you. You shouldn’t relate to him just because you’re pretty sure you would’ve ended up like him, but were lucky to know better. 

You know all that, but at the same time, haven’t you been through worse than what he's shown you so far? Would it be labeled as self-sabotaging if you tried to see what compelled him to change overnight? To get to know him for real this time?

Ahhh, this headache was really getting to you! Yeah that must be it, because why else would you shit on all the years you spent building your life up and heal, only to destroy it using five little words—ones you’ll probably spend the rest of your life regretting.

“Where… did you want to meet?”

Shigaraki’s ears perk up at that, phone slipping from his hand and crashing onto the floor. You hear muffled curses and a hasty reply, “Fuck, really?! You’ll come?”

It’s like you hit a reset button and he’s more or less back to that awkward gamer dude in your first CS class together. Or maybe you’re hardcore coping while you’re dizzy and numb. Self-sabotaging the way you would’ve if it was any other residual college creep you expected to call for a hook-up earlier. 

Yes, that’s it. He’s not special, you’re just really fucked up. Didn’t you always love the calm before the storm and the smell after the rain?

“Keep fucking asking and I might just change my mind. I’m gonna shower first and—oh,” is the last thing he hears before you trip and—thud—face plant. “Fuck,” you say softly, your eyes closing against your will. 

Okay, maybe taking too many pills on an empty stomach clearly wasn’t as smart as you thought it would be.

“Hey—okay?—llooo?” 

His panicked raspy voice is the last thing you hear before you’re completely out of it. 

You fucking hope it was for good this time.

────────

The first sign that you’re still unfortunately very much alive, is that you don’t feel anything like the promised nothingness or the forever inexistence you hoped to achieve after your oh-so-tragic passing. Where the fuck would they bury you, anyways? 

Instead, the first sound that your brain is able to register, is a loud pounding in the distance.

Followed by people yelling.

Feeling your mind slowly booting up, you attempt to get up. Instead of succeeding, you slip and fall again several times, groaning audibly at the weakness in your muscles. Around the third attempt of bruising your knees (and not in a good way), you finally get to your feet.

After that, you embark on your miserable trek, clutching your empty, hurting stomach and slowly making your way towards the source of the obnoxious pounding. It feels an awful lot like deja vu.

“Fuck off! This is your fucking fault—” is what you hear, immediately recognizing Taylor’s voice, arguing with…?

“Get off my fucking case! If you would’ve checked up on her, we wouldn’t even be here, you dumb—”

And of course, he’s here too. 

“Shut the fuck up, you creep! Don’t get me started, you crazy asshole! Do you even know what she went through, after you—”

“I have fucking neighbors too, you know?” 

Both of them stare at you as if you became the eighth wonder of the world overnight, prompting you to raise an eyebrow. 

“Well, you look like shit,” Shigaraki breaks the ice first. 

You and your friend look at him in disbelief. 

“What?” he mumbles, turning his head away, hand habitually reaching to scratch at his scarred neck. “It’s true.”

You roll your eyes at them, watching Taylor gearing up to reply to him, but you open the door for them to come in.

“Whatever. Just don’t talk shit about the mess,” you say, walking first and kicking random things out of your way. “I don’t have a couch, so find something to sit on, or don’t. I don’t really care.”

Immediately after finishing your sentence, you trip on something and see your life flash before your eyes. Shigaraki is quick enough to grab you by your waist, making you stiffen up and shoving him off as soon as your feet feel stabilized enough.

“Do not fucking touch me,” you hiss at him. He huffs, frowning right after.

Normally, you know he wouldn’t let that slide, but he’s definitely been acting weird lately. 

It doesn’t matter, because you don’t have willpower nor the energy to unpack his nice guy behavior from the past few interactions with him, no matter how much it gnaws at you.

Instead, you’re distracted by the sounds of Taylor knocking shit over, opening and closing what seems to be every single fucking drawer and cupboard of your two by two kitchen, trying to find something—anything—that was edible enough, presumably for you to eat.

“I’m fine. You really didn’t have to come over. Especially not you.” You glare at him and say it like you weren’t starving to death and ready to be put in a coffin if they hadn’t shown up.

“Like hell you are!” your friend replies sharply, not bothering to spare you a second glance in their quest of finding food.

So your eyes land on him again, noticing his head hanging low and the mop of white hair messily covering his face as he furiously scratches at his neck, almost drawing blood from the sensitive skin. You can’t see his expression and honestly you didn’t really care to. Is he acting this way because of the phone call?

“Yuck, stop that.” You swat his hand away harshly when you notice him breaking skin.

Shigaraki finally meets your eyes and you notice his dark eyebags. 

He looks far worse than he normally did, and that alone says something. Usually he’s so confident and full of himself, so much so, that him looking at you the way he does right now—uncertain and perhaps a little lost—looks incredibly out of place. 

What is making him so uneasy?

“What?” you spit, but he doesn’t reply. 

Instead, he grunts and looks away. The fuck is his problem?

“Okayyy! So!” Taylor makes their way over with a glass of water and hands it to you. “Yooou have absolutely fucking nothing to eat! Incredible news, I know.” They roll their eyes, placing their hands on their hips while you immediately start chugging the glass down. Was plain water always this fucking refreshing?

“Shigaraki. How about you be a big boy and go to the store while I help this bitch clean up? Nothing too heavy on the stomach, ‘cos she hasn’t eaten in a while. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

You don’t know how you missed it but oh. Your friend is mad. Incredibly so. But that would come later, when you’re stable enough to take an honest-to-god beating from them. Right now, what they’re saying is absolutely mortifying to you.

“Wha—Why the fuck would I go?” Shigaraki snarls at Taylor, but is only met with a smug look.

“No because yeah, why the fuck should he?” You glare at him. “Fucking go home already.”

“You shut the fuck up, princess. No one asked you,” Taylor snaps at you and your eyes widen, but before you can say anything, they quickly reply to him, “And sure! I can go! Can you clean around, take her clothes off and help her take a fucking shower? Can’t you see she can barely fucking stand?”

“I’m not a fucking child!” you yell, but both of them ignore you. 

Shigaraki’s eyes widen and a bright red flush spreads on his pale features. 

Seriously?!

Taylor snorts. “That’s what I thought.” 

Both of them are fucking insane. Maybe you really did die and this is your hell.

First of all, is he seriously acting fucking flustered? He’s literally seen god knows how much disgusting footage of you either naked or fucking something. Not only that, but he also decided to post said footage online, for everyone to jerk off to. Is this the same fucking guy who pinned you to the wall in a public hallway, telling you how undeserving of his cock you were because you were a little mean to him?

That train of thought fills you with newfound anger, but before you could really kick him out of your house, Taylor fucking interrupts you again.

“I know I took you with me on a whim,” your friend begins, referring to the only black fucking sheep in the room, “But I really don’t trust leaving you with her while I run around, okay? And honestly, she’s also about to snap at me for showing you where she lives, so you better fuck off now while you can. That’s the least you can do for her after everything.”

Oh.

Oh, right.

“Taylor, seriously? What the fuck were you thinking?!” you can’t help but shout at them. You know your friend was careless, but letting Shigaraki personally stake-out your living environment was definitely pushing it.

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait! I can explain!” were Taylor’s famous last words, as you deliriously started hauling any object or piece of trash you could at them.

Tomura glances at you a final time, before quietly slipping past the both of you and out of the noisy apartment. 

Your friend wasn’t lying to you, they really did take him on a whim. Not only that, but they had a whole ass mental breakdown when he texted them back about what happened.

He doesn’t really understand why they let him see you after all that he’s done, figuring they must either be really fucking dumb, or a horrible friend. 

Not that he’s about to complain, though. This is a golden opportunity for him to learn what makes you tick and how to break you just enough to build you up again for him. 

Without risking you killing yourself in the process.

It’s a point of concern he’d need to consider very carefully in the future, unlike today where he’d almost fucked up, underestimating just how fragile your will to live is. 

It’s fine, he tells himself as he’s walking down the stairs of your building. Hell make you fucking want to live. He’s gotten this far and besides, there’s never been an end boss he couldn’t conquer before. 

Little did you know, the past few weeks have been rough on him too. Not that you’d ever find out.

Or care.

───────

The bell rang and he was still standing in the hallway, back where you’d left him, looking off in the distance and hoping to materialize you again out of thin air, while students poured out of the classrooms. Was the hallway always this narrow?

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

His neck was unbearably itchy at the thought of you rejecting him again. At the thought of himself messing up. He never messes up. It didn’t make any fucking sense.

He shouldn’t care about you.

You were nothing to him before.

───────

From the moment he saw you in the convenience store, he’d already labeled you as a major pain in the ass.

The way you stared back at him in disgust—the way everyone fucking stared at him—like he was some piece of garbage to be thrown out, made him want to strangle you until he saw the light leaving your eyes. 

You must’ve thought you were so fucking cool, talking back to him when you had no clue who he was or what he’s capable of.

Just another one of those irritating clueless fucking NPCs.

Yet irritation turned to amusement, once you managed to fuck up in front of him, fumbling at your pockets in search for what was presumably your cash. Such a fucking mess that you were. 

He couldn’t help but giggle at your incompetence. Weren’t you bitching at him only moments ago? It was an incredible turn of events, one that was fitting, for an idiot like yourself. Did you need someone to save you? That’s alright, he could treat you this time. Tomura liked it when people owed him, after all. It allowed him to own them.

And he didn’t want to believe his luck when he immediately spotted you in class, the very next day, sitting in his favorite seat. Really, things couldn’t have been better set up for him. His favorite little bitch, going to the same university he did, sharing classes with him.

He couldn’t have found a more convenient toy to break if he tried.

“Yo, sponger.” Tomura grinned, feeling excitement growing inside of him.

Your brows pinched in surprise and then disbelief, fueling the thrill coursing through his veins. It was funny, he thought, seeing you getting all frustrated like this. By the look on your face, he’d bet a significant amount that you thought the store was the last you’d see of him. And doesn’t that fucking suck for you, to sit next to the guy that humiliated you, not even forty-eight hours ago? 

Fuck, he reveled in that expression.

He hasn’t been feeling this giddy in a decent while. Especially not lately, after he’d botched a few important missions that had been assigned to him. It bummed him the fuck out, but he managed to find the perfect outlet to recalibrate his temper. You.

“Why—” you started, and he inhaled softly, watching expectantly as you were visibly losing your mind over the encounter. “How did you even recognize me?”

Your irritated tone sounded so, so sweet to his ears. Not even the professor walking in could’ve held him back from messing with you. 

Tomura leaned into you, the subtle smell of your body wash entering his nose as he whispered, making you visibly shudder.

“I’d recognize an ugly fucking skank like you literally anywhere, idiot,” he said, wondering if it was enough to get a rise out of you. He hoped you’d bite back, so he could push, push, push. You were so much fun and he’s just met you! 

The jab must’ve done the trick, because you physically recoiled at his words. How far could he take it, he wondered. It’s been a while since he indulged in female attention since, generally speaking, women avoided him like the fucking plague. For reasons he wasn’t oblivious to. 

Tomura knew what he looked like, his status and horrible personality doing nothing to help him in that regard, save for a few crazies that got off on his violent nature, and the hookers Master occasionally booked, despite Tomura turning him down every time.

It made perfect sense to him, the way people were afraid. He’d been walking this earth causing as much damage as he could and wishing to decay every living breathing thing that crossed his way, that’s how much he fucking hated everything, everyone. And they too, hated him. Except, they hid it well most of the time, not wanting to become part of his famous track record, to give him a reason to retaliate.

But then—then there was you. You, who openly displayed your disgust, from the first fucking second he’d set his eyes on you. You who didn’t bother to fucking hide it, to cower, to walk on eggshells in order to not upset him or give him a reason to fuck with you. You who wore it on your sleeve, who wasn’t afraid to be found out, but instead made sure he’d heard you.

And boy did he hear you, crystal fucking clear.

In fact, here you fucking were, leaning into him, together with your smug-ass face, about to hit him with what he was sure to be the dumbest counter of the century, reaching your arm around his backrest and doing your fucking best to avoid all contact with him. 

He didn’t have time to think of ways to punish you, for treating him like he’s about to infect you with some deadly disease, because—

Because the warmth that radiated from your body—your nose almost touching his—the puff of air coming from your arrogance, landing on his skin—it all unexpectedly sent his brain into overdrive.

People never get close to him. He never lets anybody get close to him.

But you fucking dare to.

His breath hitched, chest filling with anticipation.

You had the nerve to fucking chuckle in his face, before saying the thing you thought would eat at him the most:

“Look dude,” you began and he watched as your smile turned vicious. You’re so close to his face, so close that he could just— “I’d hold up a mirror, so you can take a good fucking look at yourself, but you’d probably have to buy that for me too.”

Then you snorted and Tomura’s eyes widened, brows knitting together. He turns away, one hand habitually reaching his neck to scratch that newly formed itch.

He’d—He’d felt his chest tighten! Fuck! That was unexpected. You were so fucking cute. 

It takes him a fucking second to compose himself, since your bratty little comeback comment went straight to his cock. He’d need to adjust himself in just a second, head filling with ideas on how to deal with that and soon.

That means, if I play this right—

Tomura’s hand dropped from his neck, and he finally turned to you with a completely new gameplan in his mind.

“If you don’t kill the stupid goblin at the beginning of the stage, the final boss won’t carry your S-Grade,” he casually stated, pointing at your screen with his finger, doing air-circles around a section of the minimap on your screen.

“Huh?” 

He frowned. Were you fucking slow? 

He opted not to ask, giving you a pass because you are playing one of the best MMOs today—good pick by the way—and by extension making it fairly easy for him to find common ground with the one cocksleeve he actually wanted to fuck.

That thought surprised him too, but he couldn’t dwell on it much because he had to hurry and quickly get on your good side. Do all that before you found out who he really was and all the half-truths reach your ears, completely fucking obliterating his chances with someone he’s actually into for once.

You were looking at him all stupid and confused now. Tomura found it extremely endearing to witness.

“Tch. Your run, dumbass. You’ve prolly been grinding for hours, only getting it once or twice because you never think to kill the stupid goblin and only ever do it by accident.” He shrugged. “No one ever fuckin’ does, so they don’t find the pattern without looking up a guide.”

He fully expected you to tell him to fuck off—maybe even hoped it would happen—but instead you were surprisingly obedient, listening to his advice. The challenge you were facing had completely overwritten the fact that you didn’t even want him breathing the same air as you, merely seconds ago. Interesting.

So while you were busy trying out the suggested strategy, Tomura took his time to really observe you. He leaned in closer, testing the proximity limits, but either you had really shit self-preservation skills or you didn’t care, because he couldn’t believe how oblivious you suddenly became towards his presence.

Why act like you dislike him that much, then let him get this close to you? So close that he could easily inhale the nice scent of your shampoo and run his fingers through your hair. Grip it hard and make your pretty head bob up and down his—

“Ugh!” you groaned out loud, slamming your fist against your desk and making him stop in his tracks. Students sitting in the row before you glanced back, but you were too absorbed in the game to care.

Close. Too close.

His hand was hanging in the air, just behind your head and almost making contact with you. He quickly retracted it, going back to just observing you. One dirty look from him and the students flinched, opting to turn around before he got angry.

But Tomura was far from angry. 

Instead, he was struggling really hard to keep himself from spiraling down the rabbit hole of things he wanted to do to you. 

Dirty, downright fucking depraved shit that he’d only ever seen generic male protagonists in eroges do, after picking all the right dialogue options to get to the part where he stuffs his female interest full of his cock.

Depraved shit he’d admittedly never thought he’d ever want past the walls of his bedroom, where he’d occasionally spend his nights watching just enough unhinged pornography to calm himself down, hours after some stuck-up bitch walked by him with the tightest fucking skirt known to man.

It was new, this feeling of desire. 

Not desire for violence and torture. Not desire to gain more strength or power. 

The desire to have you. 

The seed had been planted somewhere along the way of meeting you for the first time and now that the roots run deep, he was starting to want to rise up to the challenge and get the nasty bitch sitting next to him to submit to him. 

How many silly pretend dates would it take you to let him drag you into his room? 

Tomura’s eyes landed on your neck. 

What would you sound like if he marked you—if he covered your body in so many bruises and hickeys, the whole damn world would know you were his? What was your favorite co-op game? Would you sit in his lap while the two of you would play together? Would he be able to get you to cockwarm him while you were playing? What was your favorite take-out dinner? Your movie? Did you also have a plethora of unpopular takes he could debate you on? Are you a virgin? Do you play other genres aside from MMOs? Could he get you to wear his hoodies too, maybe touch yourself, sweat a little and give them back to him? Let him fuck you stupid against his bed while wearing them? Would you take him like the obedient girl he knows you’ll learn to be?

He wasn’t stupid. He knew he’d have to tame you somehow, but you’d understand, wouldn’t you? You would become his favorite little plaything. 

Tomura couldn’t stop—couldn’t stop his thoughts from spiraling out of control as his need to have you grew exponentially by the second, especially when his cock became so fucking hard, it was straining against the fabric of his jeans and beginning to hurt. 

If only he could skip the introductory phase and get to the fucking cutscene.

Fuck, he had to stop himself before he bent you over your desk and pounded your pussy for the whole lecture hall to see. So he took a mental step back and resolved to watch over your gameplay, impatient fingers twitching as he did.

And it wasn’t the degenerate thoughts he was harboring in his mind that shocked him, no. What really shocked him was the fact that… he kind of really enjoyed watching you play.

You weren’t as good as he was (he doubted you’d ever be), but you were decent. Better than Spinner, at least. The gear that your character was wearing was made up of only legendary sets, ones he’d even use himself—if only with a few modifications. That’s the kind of gear that you had to grind a long time for and be lucky for it to drop from bosses that only spawn once a month.

He briefly scratched at his neck and by the time you’d finished your second run, a really good idea formed inside his head.

“Told you so,” Tomura said. It made you scoff and roll your eyes, which in turn made him frown. 

It’s alright, he thought. You needed time. People often got annoyed with him when he was right. You’ll come around and even if you didn’t, you’d still be really fun to debate with, he could already tell. 

You looked so fuckable while pouting too. It made him want to see you cry.

“No need to get salty. Took me like a week to figure it out by myself and it drove me fucking insane too,” he mentioned, thinking back fondly to all the controllers he managed to break. Kurogiri advised him to stop creating unsightly holes in the walls of his room, but Tomura threatened to use his head next if he didn’t shut his fucking mouth. Good times. “And I’m pretty good at these types of tells in games y’know? But the design of this one made no fucking sense. What’s your IGN? I can add you and we can raid together.”

He drummed his fingers against your side of the desk, arm placed firmly against the surface as he waited for your reply. He didn’t catch on to the fact that it was him that pissed you off. Not the game itself. 

His plan was flawless. Partaking in one of his favorite hobbies and getting to know you better into you becoming the ultimate fucktoy pipeline, would be the absolute peak. He’d take it slow, for sure, eventually sweeping you off your feet, impressed by his abilities, knocking your pride down a peg or two. You’d fucking learn to like him too, he resolved.

He wasn’t all that bad if you left out… a lot of things.

“Sorry?” 

You fucking looked at him as if he grew another head and Tomura saw his vision of your future together beginning to crack.

What’s wrong? 

He felt his body starting to itch again. Why the fuck were you looking at him like that? You were supposed to want to get to know him too, weren’t you?

But the bell rang before he managed to say anything to you, too stunned to move a muscle, and you scurried off, his red eyes never leaving your figure until you were well out of his sight.

He was wrong about you. How? How could he be wrong? 

He’s never fucking wrong!

But he was. You were exactly like the rest of them.

Stupid bitch.

It was fine. He’d find a way to teach you a lesson. 

And soon.

───────

The store’s lights changed, compared to the first night he’d met you. 

Instead of the brightness that blinded him, there’s now a soft fluorescent glow, doing its best to light the small establishment up. The air here still smells like a blend of dirty mop water and tobacco smoke, all mixing into a disgusting but familiar musty scent.

Behind the counter isn’t the usual cashier, but an old lady who’s smoking inside the establishment. Tomura scoffs, figuring it must’ve been the owner, unable to otherwise explain the audacity.

He finds himself fidgeting while looking around the aisles with various food objects. Would instant noodles count as ‘not too heavy on your stomach’? He doesn’t know. After all, Tomura doesn’t often find himself having to care for anyone before. He always has Kurogiri to do that for him.

Shaking his head and scrunching his nose, Tomura keeps searching. It takes him about two minutes of googling whatever the fuck to even look for, and another three of pacing around the aisles, eyes lighting up the moment he finally spots the canned article in question.

It was one of your favorite comfort foods, not that he knew at the time.