#( to be fair he has every right to say no btw xD )

[gloireceleste]

lucifer let out a chuckle, melodious and pedantic in sound, almost inaudible. followed by an amused 'ah', such made by those who have heard the same words many a time before. the reaction is swift, gone fast, only survived by a patient quirk of the lips. a strange statue, alive in the way marble could be under the skillful hands of a sculptor who could do miracles.

and artemis was a masterpiece of his own. fascinating to see mimic how humans were supposed to be perceived.

" hardly. " but the wariness told him artemis could tame his curiosity for the sake of his own survival. good. a useful trait in a useful tool.

" when your end comes, perhaps will your soul belong to hell, but i assure you, it will be through no faults of mine. "

he mindlessly brushed the edge of the table with his fingertips, seemingly analyzing the physical contact between his flesh and the mortal world.

" i seek a pawn, yes. " he admitted evenly. " one that has played with the fey, does not shy from a challenge, might find interest in other universes and who might yet prove daring enough to dance with the devil. " a very subtle twitch of fingers. the devil did not appreciate the nickname.

his hand stopped moving on artemis' side of the table and he left his fingertips touching the table. " i seek, in part, to retrieve such that was mine and stolen. many and by many. your world and others. " lucifer's eyes were still downcast in the same direction, focused yet unseeing. it was clear he wouldn't tell too much before he knew whether some of the human's worries had been assuaged and that perhaps artemis was more inclined towards the yes than the no.

" i am a more generous maker of deals than most tales would care to admit. but i do not force. i ask for curiosity and a simple leap of faith. "

Artemis' grin was broad and clearly telegraphed. However, in his college years he'd studied human behavior extensively. Thus making him perfectly capable of handling social norms. Though the smile was eerily genuine. He was-- excited-- for the first time since he stole fairy magic he felt a rush.

"A sponsorship?" He mused a moment, before quirking a brow. "Is the devil askin' for my soul?" His dulcet Irish timbre curled around the words warily. Artemis might've considered religions to be overrated in a broad sense, if not absolute fabrications. He even had proof most incidents could simply have been use of ancient magic.

In his experience-- magic and science were one and the same. Each operated with their own rules. Like laws of nature.

No doubt the folklore about deals with the devil had some merit.

Artemis had cheated death once before. He knew his worth. But for the right offer, he'd consider it. He had knowingly taken lives. Certainly that meant he was hellbent anyway. As far as he was concerned, he might as well get a decent deal.

"Or perhaps, you seek some pawn on the mortal plane to guide? I'm quite full up on the mentor role." Butler's ears would be burning. Artemis idly wondered if his old bodyguard would blame it on the sun or know innately that something was wrong. In a lot of ways, Butler had been a father in all the ways Artemis Sr hadn't.

[the-space-jesus]

♪ Rehearsal 7 ♪

Oh jeez oh boy this is a long one. BUCKLE UP!

So, since this Tuesday we had a free day (this is literally as rare as an eclipse happening we never get random free days) our theatre group decided that we should do the most productive thing of all with that free day: rehearse! (Instead of practicing for the test that I have literally the next day...). So, I'm that one person of the group that lives an hour away from everyone else, and I decided that for once they should be the ones to have to bike for like 45 minutes or sit in a tram for an hour! It's also because I found this really cool amfitheater-like spot near my tram-station, and I figured it'd be the perfect place to rehearse!

I brought my totally neurotypical bag (from the 'if you see some1 w this bag wyd' post) and went in what I currently already have for my Ricky costume!

When I arrived at the tram-station, Ocean was already there (very in-character of her) and we chatted until the rest arrived too, and we went to the spot to practice. We basically did a bunch of random scenes, but for the most part it was a walkthrough of the entire musical (is that the correct English word btw??), but we didn't get very far...

By the rest, I mean Karnak 1. We were a small group, being only me (Ricky), Mischa, Karnak 1, and Ocean.

When we were rehearsing Fall Fair Suite, this random child and it's mother just decided to spawn out of nowhere and feed the ducks whilst we were rehearsing, it was so awkwardd.

At some point we decided to go to my house because why not?? But we got distracted by the playground right behind the amfitheater-space...I tried to stay in-character but the playground isn't very fun when you can't walk correctly...also we toooootally didn't jokingly try pole-dancing on one of those fireman-poles and fall to our certain deaths, and by we I mean Mischa (and I'm pretty sure Ocean tried it too at some point).

why did I just randomly get a HIT of rehearsal 1 nostalgia wtf

Anyways, after the playground (it sounds like we're all like 7 years old or some shit XD) we continued walking to my house and I discovered that Karnak 1 knows THE NEIGHBORHOOD THAT I LIVE IN better than me. So yay.

Don't ask me why, but like 70% of the time that we spent walking I had put on the Nyan Cat Theme. It was just funny idfk we probably looked like crazy people smh. Also, we were in-character at some point whilst walking and basically what happened was that we were all already at the point in the time-line where we're dead, and Ricky annoys everyone by playing Nyan Cat on loop. How he can play it with no wifi? He downloaded it. It is the only song he has every downloaded. The St. Cassian Chamber Choir will forever be hearing the Nyan Cat Theme.

Anywayzeee, then we got to my house and ate some cheese sticks (it's a Dutch thing and is NOT as disgusting as it sounds, I <3 cheese sticks!!) with some orange juice and for some reason we were all really calm and down to earth (probably just tired from rehearsal). We js talked about plans for RTC and (other) stuff.

My dog REALLY liked our new guests, also yes I have a dog she's the sweetest little DEMON named Pixel. She literally jumped on everyone and could not stop sniffing them and begging them for cheese sticks. I had to teach my friends how to say "DOWN!" in Bulgarian (Доло), because that's one of the few commands that she listens to.

Then, we decided to continue rehearsing because why not! When Mischa was performing Talia, my dog was very intrigued and worried, and she started barking REALLY loudly when Mischa started (fake-)crying at the end of the song. Apparently his performance was so good that my dog believed it haha.

Before that I also had to practice my monologue and little thingy after SABM and it was kind of chaotic and I didn't do very well because for me to do a scene properly I have to be in the mood and also rehearse in front of the mirror like 40 times...

I also gave them a room tour!! Mischa had a lot of appreciation for my RTC wall (which has grown btw, I will make another post about it soon!).

That was all!!^^

-Ricky Potts🖖

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 171 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: cutting the French tamarisk in my garden (how fitting!).

JON: "Don’t. Touch. Anything." MARTIN: "I wasn’t planning to." [HE GIVES A LITTLE HEH AT THE END.] Fair, after Martin constantly wanted to touch the plastic explosives xD

MARTIN: "You sound like you think they’re beautiful." JON: "Don’t you?" He is what he is, a part of the Fears and does seem in tune with it here. Accepting it (5th stage of grief - acceptance. I do like that theory of each season representing one of the 5 stages of grief, even if S2 doesn't quite fit anger). But to be honest, I also think the flowers sound pretty cool. Some people find morbid aesthetics beautiful. I always have.

JARED: "Not to worry friend; no harm done. Just a bit of pruning will set you right." [HE CLIPS SOMETHING. THE PERSON-PLANT YELLS.] [JARED SHUSHES THEM AS THEY CONTINUE TO DO SO. THEY START CRYING, OVER SOME FLESHY SOUNDS. WATER BURBLES.] JARED: "No real fuss. Should sort you right out. Soon you’ll be good as new." [THE PERSON-THING CONTINUES TO WHIMPER IN THE BACKGROUND.] JARED: "Better, even. You just need to – reach down inside and – really feel that fear. Let it guide how you grow." That however I find horrifying again. Obviously hurting the person, so much that they cry out in pain, and still think that what he is doing is the right thing, helping the person...

JARED: (dismissive) "Oh, and who’s this? Your boyfriend?" [THIS IS CLEARLY MEANT TO BE A DISS.] MARTIN: "Um –" JON: (overlapping) "Yes, actually." JARED: (Ah!) "Oh. Hm." Okay, the obvious here is of course Jared trying to diss Jon using homosexuality/homo-romanticism as an insult (is this btw. the only time homophobia comes up in TMA? There was implied transphobia in MAG 110, but otherwise?), which absolutely doesn't work on Jon and he even immediately answers with full confidence, taking the wind out of Jared's sails in an instant. Which can be a very good strategy against bullies, they want an emotional negative reaction, if you just refuse to give that to them, they will move on to their next victim (sadly for that poor soul). But it also tells a bit more about each character here. Jared has been described as "thick as mud" in MAG 17, that is pretty typical for individuals like that to resort to xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, etc. But Jon and Martin also tell us something here. Martin was absolutely not sure how to react. As far as I know he's gay, there was never any indication that he's bi or pan, so I'll go with that. He probably had plenty of experiences being bullied for being gay, especially if you take his age into account. Growing up in the 90s/early 2000s was probably not a good time (absolutely not saying it was easier before!). Homosexuality was listed in the ICD-9 in 1977. That is the International Classification of DISEASES!! It was only removed from the ICD-10 in 1990! (Not going into it's record in the DSM because that's only used in the US and we're in the UK here, but it was similarly bad, it was seen as a mental illness.) And additionally 1997 was the peak of HIV and AIDS epidemic and that really fueled homophobia back then. I remember calling someone/something gay was a really common insult back then among teens. So denying his homosexuality especially among unfamiliar and (duh!) hostile people is probably super hardwired into Martin, and he never was someone with a lot of self-confidence anyway (total opposite: Tim for example, of whom we know he's not private about "that stuff" - MAG 69).  And then we have Jon, biromantic. We don't know if he has ever dated men before, but generally being bi means you're probably a lot more likely to be in hetero-relationships, simply because it's a lot easier to find those. Also, I mean he has been raised by his grandma, there's every likelihood he has subtly been raised in a homophobic way and there's a good chance he has tried to rationalize crushes on other men as "a really close friend whom I'm looking up to", even if deep down he knows it's not that. Okay, what I'm saying is he probably hasn't experienced external homophobia towards him. I do like the popular fanon idea, that Georgie helped him work through that, as she seems a lot more confident than him. Otherwise he has probably experienced acephobia or he hid his asexuality well enough and grew up super insecure on the inside without showing it. Which, considering his behavior in S1, is pretty likely for his character. So it does make sense for Jon to show confidence here, given the possibility of him never to have experienced homophobia, usually presenting super sure of himself and also by now he knows how powerful he is in this world, that probably also works very well as a boost. (Also it's super cute how sure and smug Jon sounds, like he's extremely proud about Martin being his boyfriend.)

JARED: "Anyway. Willing. Unwilling. Don’t work like that anymore, does it? You made sure of that." MARTIN: "That’s – not fair." JARED: "And what?" MARTIN: "I – I – Mm, uh –" Ah yes, trying to speak up for Jon, which takes a lot of energy. Makes sense that he's deflating again when more resistance is coming his way.  Also, all the monsters and Avatars seems to know it was the Archivist's doing. Helen is obvious, she has suspected it and watching them this whole time. Oliver could kind of suspected it because the Web sent him to wake up Jon. But Jared here?

JARED: "[S’right.] Don’t really matter now, does it?" JON: "No. No, it doesn’t." Yeah, blaming someone doesn't change anything about the situation that resulted from it.

JARED: "Alright. Well, I’d like to hear about my garden." It's so funny how that somehow inspires, what? Sympathy? Compassion? Pity? in me. Like he loves that place, it means something to him and he wants to hear its beauty one last time. Aside from the plants being human beings suffering, it does sound peaceful here, birds, wind chimes...

"The soil should be prepared first, a rich and earthy cocktail of insecurity and self-hatred that allows the roots to twist and contort freely. The temperature should be kept the steady, humid warmth of air conditioners struggling to cope with the perspiration of a dozen bodies pushing themselves too hard, while the lights must be kept at a harsh, fluorescent glare." Pushing yourself at fitness studios to fit a certain beauty standard? Sounds like it to me.

"Counterintuitively, growth is most effective when the orchid is suffering from aggressive dehydration, and it is vitally important that the air roots be rarely praised, and only for the flowers’ appearance and growth." Yeaaah, sounds even more like body building. And this one is called Fortisium Reese, fortis meaning strong, fortisium also sounds a bit like fortissimus, the superlative of fortis. Dehydration is commonly used to get rid of that bit of subcutaneous water, so the muscles can be even better visible under the skin. And then the only thing that matters is appearance and ever more and more muscles.

"While the Gristlebloom Orchid may be the most eye-catching of the plants that you will find in the mortal garden, the Bone Rose is perhaps the most delicate. Thin and brittle, it is constantly on the verge of collapsing under its own weight, even as its ossified stems reach and twist and stretch in a desperate attempt for closeness." Beauty-standard super-skinny, Gracillium Patricia, gracilis - thin.

"At the final, glorious culmination that a body may someday achieve, the ever-retreating perfections that sit always on the tip of a knife. But also growing with the flower must be that other dread: Not of perfection to be hunted, but of decay to be fled." Plastic surgery? Decay to be fled - fear of aging? Secarium Leopold, secare - to cut.

"This is Maeve’s nightmare. There is no other word for it. To be trapped, unmoving, within the body that has betrayed her so often, feeling every sensation as it grows and warps and sprouts, never knowing what new mutation it will visit on her next." Ya, same. 

JARED: "Is it really that bad? Seeing what I’ve done here? Or – (heh) Is it maybe that deep down, you think it’s as beautiful as I do?" JON: (*snapping*) "Shut up!" Not willing to let those who he considers a monster know how he feels about it though.

MARTIN: "Are you okay?" JON: "I’m – (*not great*) Great. You?" Martin probably asked because it does seem to take Jon a bit of effort to call upon the Eye to shift its gaze, since he gasped there, when Jared was successfully deleted from existence. But Jon gets all snappy and defensive. Saying he's great when he isn't. He probably expected to feel great, or at least better, but it's doing nothing. Revenge doesn't give him the satisfaction he hopes it would.

MARTIN: (bit of a laugh) "I really thought this one would be messier." JON: "What do you mean?" MARTIN: "Well I mean – he’s a Flesh – thing, right? I thought he’d be all meat and blood and gore and all that." JON: (bit of a laugh) "Apparently not." MARTIN: "He didn’t even put up a fight." JON. "No." Right after Jude who was resisting really hard, trying to convince Jon to let her live, help his revenge arc even, Jared here just accepted what's coming for him. That probably contributed to rethinking the smiting.

MARTIN: "Jon – we are doing good, right? Making things better?" [THE SLIGHTEST OF PAUSES.] JON: "I don’t know if that was ever an option." The smiting is just a selfish act, Jon letting his anger getting the better of him, blinding him.

@a-mag-a-day

[asoulofatlantis]

Finally, instead of pretending that we do not know... Falcom makes a joke of it that we do in fact know XD They've learned their lesson with how they failed with the likes of Azure Siegfried ^^'

Falcom is known for reusing old ideas but I think they certainly did way better with copying this whole mask-ordeal than they did when copying Kloes "not royaltie at all" - acts over to Musse. They do not hide here that the same trick was used, while with Musse no one really ever mentioned that she just copied Kloe to get away with her plans. And I also like the idea of making it two sisters in dept here, instead of two very close friends on a lot of pressure here. It is still a reused idea, but they certainly tried harder this time to make it still somewhat more unique and surprising.

This sentence did not make much sense back then at all... and makes so much more sense nowadays...

Van has a "don't touch Agnes" - rule and most enemies love to push that button ^^' (Which leads to their demise because that usually summons Grendel...)

You've already got a shitload of Kai Spoilers from me at this point, so what is one more? (BTW... I did say I wanted to see what Daybreak has in store for me after watching Kai, so if you did come here not expecting spoilers, joke is on you!) Because someone Data-Mined Kai no Kiseki... and for whatever reason Falcom hide some Spoilers in there. Like the Identity of the Masked people who have not been revealed to us yet - and it makes no sense to me whatsoever to do that in Kais Data, if it wasn't needed there at all, but what the hell do I know about how programming works? So in any case. They did reveal there that Mare is in fact the Holy beast of the Time-Septerion. I am honestly not sure how this all works yet, but it puts one thing into question: HOW ON EARTH IS IT POSSIBLE TO INTERFERE WITH A HOLY BEAST LIKE THAT?! My only explanation would be that whatever caused Mare to be in this Hollow-Core-State has been binding her powers or something. The Genesis and Agnes as rightful heir has been resonating with her, for obvious enough reasons but it didn't manage to release her full powers? The question also obviously is how she became a Hollowcore and what happened to her actual body? Not to mention obviously also, how the hell get Marduk their Hands on her? SO. MANY. QUESTIONS! (And here we are waiting like two years for an answer...)

Poor Girl. It has been her job to gather the Genesis to ultimately fulfill her final mission but the cost was high. Every Genesis did cost at least one life, as far as I can remember and as we know from Kuro 2 that wasn't even the end of it all. Ultimativly, it had to be done. If not we would literally ALL be back to point Zero. But the price for saving our timeline was high. And so is the pressure on my poor girl.

Well... at least through that whole journey, "die Kleene" was never really alone. I am very grateful for that. Her time might run out eventually, but I think Van and the others, despite all the ordeals, helped her to make the best out of it.

I really can not blame the guy. Not one of his assistants has even asked if he wants or can afford another part-timer. I know its a running-gag and its supposed to be because Van by himself would likely not say yes, because of who he is and how he thinks... but it still is a bit mean sometimes and at this point gets kind of obnoxious.

To be fair... all the people studying under Epsteins Disciples are bit... uh... special ^^' (I do not even exclude my dear Tita here...)

Who or what even is Aldra? O.o I am glad to hear that ZCF are doing good and all... but who is that even that they are working with? ^^'

They did mention it here that the Calvardian revolution has been only 100 years ago but when it came up in Kai that Sheena Dirke was still alive when Judiths Grandmother was still a child it sounded absolutely ridicioulus to me because I was sure that happened like 1000 years ago or so ^^' Which makes no sense given circumstances but I wasn't the only one surprised. The whole chat was like: "What? She was still alive back then? O.O" So I guess that is one again an Information we totally discarded...

Now here is an interesting fact about Kai: The masked woman who took of her mask right at the end was first believed to be Agnes mother, do to a simular Hair- and Skincolor. The Data-Mining revealed that it was Sheena Dirke tho, probably in a younger state then when she met Domenique tho. HOWEVER the game makes a big point out of Van mentioning that Agnes Mother and Grandmother basically look just like her... I would not fully agree with that but what if Agnes is related to Sheena Dirke? She might not exactly be her great-great-grandmother but some sister of her great-great-grandmother maybe? I mean, we needed the name "Claudel" apparently but... I don't know... things seems odd here. The game made a huge point out of not showing Sheenas older face, even tho we have seen her younger face in pictures before. Like there were trying to hide something we would not have paid attention to before.

I am just fishing for answers here... but... giving everything we know it certainly is not out of the question ^^'

I'd say XD Not just that her biological family lives there, she also is close to the SSS and she has been living there for a while herself. Going to Crossbell would not be educational, it would be like going home XD

No one would do it like the society XD Heck, to this day no one even gets how the society survived with those kind of "rules" ^^'

I found it quiet funny that Marduks high in development came ultimately from finding her and she had no idea about it until close to the end of Kai.

[unmotivated-student]

Now, liveblogging something that I do like :) [I decided to throw everything in a single post just because:)]

"you are here to play a game on which your lives depend" getting serious and we're just getting started ʘ⁠‿⁠ʘ

"what did you do to us?!" "nothing in particular" "then what is this pain?!" "I was very clear... in this game your lives are on the line" i kinda love Decim (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

"Sorry! My hand slipped!" [👁️👁️liar]

I had forgotten how dramatic this episode was [i kinda love it tbh]

.....

"of all the emotions that humans exhibit, which is the most primal?" "i don't know" "fear"

"pain is a part of this game"

"everyone makes mistakes. but people's feelings can manifest through the most subtle of expresions. you're an arbiter, don't brush them off"

....

i remember about this episode :D

🧍

"and so it starts.." "how so? what does that mean?" "nothing" (...) "as such, the two of them may not be facing a favorable outcome." "no way..." "however, whatever the outcome may be, we must accept what happens"

Decim my beloved showing his sense of humor🫂

"Life really is a mysterious thing... Each and every life spins its own totally separate tale, yet they become intricately entwined in each other and no one knows how they will end up" "that´s true, you´ll never know until you die... you may not even know after you die... but you know what? that´s what makes it interesting, right?"

I honestly don't know how to feel about this one, because if we ignore some details it could be considered cute, at least the ending imo but idk

....

Lady... what kind of tv shows are u watching? [I know she's confused and in denial but still]

"How is that fair?!" "Life is never fair. I´m sure you´re aware of that" Decim triggering trauma ◉⁠‿⁠◉

i didn´t remebered this episode at all and now i'm like o.o

this is the saddest one so far to me. am i weak? maybe

"You did everything you could... both of you... did everything you could." okay, now i'm crying...

why did i forget about this one?

edgy ed

...

i'm starting to realize that from ep 4 onwards my memories about this show are a blur (i´ll take that as a good thing)

yep, definitely a good thing that i didn´t remembered all of that, it made me go "wtf's going on here?" all over again c:

dude, do you really want to do that?

see? u got ur ass kicked and for what?

that makes sense i guess

oh we´re on Jimmy again

.....

wait, i do have memories about this one (not many but)

Ginti looks so done and the game hasn´t even started

mmm... if only you knew..

show off

no. what part of freezing to death is romantic to u? at least in titanic there was a love story before the freezing to death part

show off

u piece of trash

so this guy has feelings after all

such different ways to go

Claviz looks so excited about this xd

Oh wow, I was i hater during most of this xd

...

She remembered!!

Maybe he's not there much, buut i kinda like Claviz, he's just a little guy 🫂

"third: arbiters cannot feel emotions, for they are merely puppets" neat...

edgy ed makes more sense now

how are u still here?

...

"not that different" huh?

oh, it's over and i didn't write anything about this one... uhm... well... it was good...

...

"I bring out as much of the darkness in their souls as possible and take it in, then i pass judgment... that is what it is to be an arbiter" damn

oh now they're serious

PLOT TWIST

sir, u are disgusting

fuck, this guy is insane!

i hate this guy

nufofnhdiewwwwww *dies*

SHUT UP ALREADY

wowuwhihweeirundu *dies again*

this one was heavy...

...

i-.. i don´t have much to say

...

he's just messing with her, isn´t he? [I genuinely don't remember]

this scene is making my skin crawl afsydrs

i'm trembling idk how i survived this the first time

definitely one of my favorites

...

Decim... no... that... no...

cryiiiiiing agian

Deciiiiiim

THE MANNEQUIN, THE SMILE ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

it's 3 am btw i should be sleeping rn but instead i'm here sobbing

.....................

I love this anime so much ♡

I definitely recommend it!!! [If you are comfortable with the mention of themes like death of course:D, i mean it's called "Death Parade" xd]

[saiyan98]

Why I love Leo X Calypso

Hi everyone, I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I felt like I need to speak out my emotion or else I’m gonna have a panic attack worrying about this ship. You don’t need to force an argument or debate or anything like that. This is just a simple talk about why I love this ship so much and how I’m connected to it deeply. I’m not trying to force anyone on shipping them nor start a ship war. Just a simple talk, that’s all. Please don’t hate me. ;~;

Okay.

Every relationship has issues, it’s fact. But love is stronger, therefore the two can endure. For me, I love the ship the moment it was introduced. If I were to describe my reaction, I would say I was Charles from Brooklyn nine-nine.

(NINE NINE to you B99 fans)

I mean, Leo Valdez and calypso both been through a lot in their own ways, yet in similarity. Both got hurt, was lonely and felt like third-wheel to everybody. Leo though, he goes far and wide for his friends. What he did for Calypso in HoO, I mean C’mon! He LITERALLY died to save her. Sure it seems too quick to start a relationship (to be fair though, it’s a fictional story), but I mean, how far would you go to save a girl from an unbreakable curse? And calypso, poor girl been through enough already. Sure she’s a daughter of a titan and joined their side in the first war and almost destroy several relationships in the centuries; but, despite all that and her curse, with Leo, she was being herself, just herself. No curse to make her fall in love, no god to make her let him go, so she was stuck with him with no way out. Until, she got along with him. She saw more and more of Leo’s good side. And even though I haven’t read ToA yet (I will soon), she probably seen his worse. But if What Reyna said is true, Calypso will accepts him entirely.

Another reason I like this ship is that it reminds me of another one. Though it may not look like it to you (and that’s fine), it feels familiar to me.

Tony and Pepper in the MCU

(Btw, Tony, we miss you 3000)

I know, stretching a long one here. But hear me out. Tony and Leo are both… unique. They’re smart, cunning, and always finds a way out of their own mess (Most of the time). And both Pepper and Calypso are both dating these two and somehow keeping them in check (Sometimes).

Now, in Civil War, Tony and Pepper broke up (I was devastated) but then got married at Infinity War. Leo and Calypso are going through a rough patch. I mean, if Tony and Pepper can make it work, why can’t these two? I mean, Tony fought for a world for Pepper and the people to be safe, only to die to save the Universe. Leo died to save the world AND free Calypso. (I mean… it’d be cool to see Leo make his own Iron-man-like suit, there should be a fanfic on that) Both Leo and Tony died for a future, a future for their family. And even though Leo got lucky and came back, we can’t forget how much these two did for their world and family.

I have another reason, but it’s a more personal thing. I don’t think you guys wanna hear it though. Just some resemblance in my family and felt happy and peaceful with this ship. XD

Now, I’m not gonna lie, it’s not my #1 ship (Percabeth btw), but it’s definitely right behind it. Like, it’s neck-to-neck; both I love so much that I can’t pick which I love more.

But anyways, I’m not trying to force anyone’s opinion on anyone. You’re all free to love whatever you want. I guess I just wrote this to remind myself, and those that also ship Caleo, why we love this ship. I mean, not exactly; we all have different reasons and I understand that.

like, reblog, or share it to other fans if you wish. I’m just reassuring you fans out there, you’re not alone. And if you guys have any cute fanarts or fanfics with Caleo, please tell me where. I’ve been dying for more.

I’d make one myself, but I already committed to several fanfics already AND a Percy Jackson X Spider-Man Fanfic Trilogy with Estelle being the MC.

[funnyincorrectmcu]

Saw you were doing an ask spree so I have a question! What are your ultimate favourite Marvel fanfics? (Ao3 answers preferable!)

OOOH!!! 

I ALWAYS LOVE THIS QUESTION!! But it’s also always SOO hard, because I have SO many fics that I ADORE! <3 <3 <3 

Okay okay. Since you’re asking for ultimate favorites, but since you’re also in a sense kind of asking for recommendations, I’ll do you a solid and give you a list of fifteen (which is really doing myself a solid because it means there are fewer that I have to narrow down). 

That said, if you really want my full list, go to my AO3 account and check out my bookmarks (and some of my works, if you’re interested!). Because there truly are a LOT of AMAZING writers out there. <3 <3 

Alright. Here goes nothing. 

Also, I am SO sorry this took me so long, but it took me forever to narrow down to fifteen, and even with THAT, I cheated. XD

Also also, fair warning, 95% of these are Tony and Peter centric. <3 

Also also also (lots of also’s, oops XD), I’m gonna give a little bit of info on each one for anyone interested, but PLEASE, read all tags and warnings before you actually start reading, because some of these are a little rougher than others. (Btw, when I say “major warnings”, I’m referring to AO3′s “major archive warnings” list.)

1. More Ancient Than Magic by @ironfamjam 

This is a mini Hogwarts AU that I absolutely ADORE and think about at least once a week. The way the author melds the two universes is incredible and so well done, and I quote it all the time.  One-shot, IronFam centric, featuring Ned and MJ, with special guest appearances from the other Avengers and Peter’s classmates. No major warnings. 

2. Everybody Loves Skip by @baloobird

Okay, Kris is my favorite MCU fanfic author of all time, so you’ll see her on here a couple of times. This is by far my favorite story of hers, and it’s what made me fall in love with Interwebs. <3 <3  Multichapter, Peter centric, featuring Ace!Peter and Interwebs, with special guest appearances from Tony, May, and Tracy Leeds. Minor sexual harassment/non-con, but it doesn’t get too graphic. 

3. Ohana by @jen27ny

I read this story as a part of last year’s Irondad Big Bang, and let me tell you, I was SOOO invested. I got to the point where I had to send in play by play reactions because I was so emotionally invested. The story is so well told. <3 Multichapter, Tony and Peter centric, featuring Pepperony, Spideychelle, and minor Stucky, with special guest appearances from the rest of the Avengers, HYDRA, and my fast beating heart. No major warnings. 

4. Come, My Darling, Homeward Bound by @i-am-irondad

ANOTHER Irondad Big Bang 2020 story that I became OVERLY invested in to the point that I had to send play by plays in to the author. It’s a Room AU, and she NAILS each and every one of the character dynamics. I never even saw Room, and I loved it. <3  Multichapter, Tony, Peter, and Morgan centric, featuring the rest of IronFam, Spideychelle, and adorable sibling moments, with special guest appearances from Quentin Beck and my tears. Minor implied sexual harassment/non-con. (She also has a prequel and a sequel, just so you know.) 

5. The Lightning Strike by @booksxtvxsupernatural

Yet ANOTHER Irondad Big Bang 2020 story that hit me right in the feels. This is a canon-divergent post-Infinity War fic, and the way the author shows how events could’ve transpired is so realistic and beautiful. <3  One-shot, Tony and Peter centric, featuring Harley Keener and Nebula, with special guest appearances from IronFam, May Parker, and several other Avengers. 

6. Family Doesn’t End with Blood by @baloobird

This is a series of one-shots by my girl Kris based off of the Irondad Bingo prompts, so there are a lot of different prompts and themes, but they ALL rock.  Multichapter, Tony and Peter centric, featuring Ace!Peter, IronFam, and Interwebs, with special guest appearances from several other MCU characters. Warnings vary, so pay attention to the tags and read the notes. 

7. I love you more than anything (bio dad AU) by @iron--spider

Okay, so maybe this is cheating, because it’s technically a series, but every fic in it is so good that I couldn’t possibly pick just one. I just love the whole series, because I love how the author builds their relationship. It’s so cute. <3  Series of one shots, Tony and Peter centric, featuring the rest of the Stark and Parker family and baby Peter, with special guest appearances from Obadiah Stane, James Rhodes, and Happy Hogan. No major warnings.

8. sometimes, people just die (and sometimes, they don’t) by @snarky-drabbles

This one was for the 2019 Irondad Secret Santa (huh. No wonder so many of them are Tony and Peter centric. XD), and it’s an amazing time loop story that takes place during Endgame and has an ending you might not expect, but it ROCKS.  One-shot, Tony and Peter centric from Peter’s POV, featuring Pepper Potts and Stephen Strange, with special guest appearances from a whole lot of fighting. XD 

9. A Rite of Passage by @baloobird

Another ADORABLE Interwebs from my favorite person, because she made me obsessed with this ship and now I can’t stop. XD  One-shot, Interwebs centric (wait, did I actually find one that isn’t Tony and Peter??), featuring Ace!Peter and Bi!Ned, with special guest appearances from Brad Davis, Flash Thompson, and Betty Brant. Minor sexual harassment/non-con, but nothing graphic at all. 

10. Where Dreams are Nightmares in Disguise by @baloobird

This one was actually written for me, by Kris, so obviously, it made this list. I seriously cannot thank her enough for writing this amazing fic for me based on my prompt, and for writing it so well! I LOVED IT! <3  One-shot, Tony, Peter, and Morgan centric, featuring Pepper Potts and lots of LEGOS, with a special guest appearance from a really bad dude. No major warnings. 

11. harm and foul by @iron--spider

You know, there’s a lot of Tony protecting Peter out there, but sometimes, I just really wanna see Peter protecting Tony, and this is a GREAT example of that.  One-shot, Tony and Peter centric, featuring IronFam, Ned Leeds, and bada** mofo Peter Parker, with special guest appearances from Justin Hammer and a few Avengers. No major warnings.

12. Sugar, Butter, Flour by @doctornineandthreequarters

Another one written for me, this time by the incredible Jaime for the 2019 Irondad Secret Santa, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. She took my prompts to heart and created some BEAUTIFUL sibling bonding and I LOVE it!! <3 <3  One-shot, Peter, Harley, and Morgan centric (whoa. Another one without Tony. See? I have variety! ...kind of. XD), featuring Pepperony and adorable sibling love, with a special guest appearance from a Karen. No major warnings. 

13. Bite the Bullet by @baloobird

In case you haven’t figured it out, yet, I love you, Kris. XD <3 Another amazing ace story that gets me feeling all kinds of validated and loved. <3  One-shot, Tony and Peter centric, featuring Spideychelle, Ace!Peter, and Ace!Tony, with a special guest appearance from BFF Ned and lots of lovely ace acceptance. No major warnings. 

14. what is stronger than the human heart which shatters over and over and still lives by @lyssismagical

So, I started reading her works solely through Tumblr, and when I finally realized that she had an AO3, I went on there and bookmarked a TON of her stories immediately. This is one of her more recent ones, but it’s one of my faves, even with all the whump (being Whumptober and all). It has a positive ending, I promise.  One-shot, Tony and Peter centric, featuring amazing BFF Michelle Jones, protective Peter Parker, and adorable little sister Morgan Stark, with special guest appearances from Pepper Potts, May Parker, and a lot of family love and support. Rape/non-con, but it isn’t super graphic. 

15. Peaches by @peterparkrr

This was yet another Irondad Secret Santa 2019 fic, and while this one wasn’t written specifically for me, I freaking loved it. There’s so much tension and mystery in this, and I seriously thought I was gonna pass out reading it from all of my worry. But, luckily, it has a happy ending.  One-shot, Tony and Peter centric, featuring canon divergence and lots of references to other Avengers, with a special guest appearance from a terrible government. No major warnings.

And there’s my top 15! But, because I said I was cheating, here are two bonus fics that cannot be found on AO3. I know you prefer AO3, but trust me when I say you cannot pass these up. 

1. This fic by @loubuttons

This was posted directly to Tumblr, but I have it saved in screenshots on my phone and I re-blog it all the time because I absolutely ADORE it. I will always be down for Peter and Morgan fics, especially when Tony is involved, and this one touches my heart like no other.  One-shot, Tony, Peter, and Morgan centric, featuring protective big bro Peter Parker and Tony being an amazing parent, with special guest appearances from equally awesome Pepper Potts and May Parker. No major warnings. 

2. He’s My Intern? by losingmymindtonight (if they have a Tumblr, I don’t know it, so if anyone knows it, please find them and tell them they’re awesome)

This one was posted on FF.net, and it was actually one of the first Tony and Peter stories I ever read, and it BLEW me away. This one is another series of one-shots, but each one is filled with soft Tony and Peter moments and I love it.  Multichapter, Tony and Peter centric, featuring Happy Hogan, Bruce Banner, F.R.I.D.A.Y., and all the hurt/comfort you could possibly want, with special guest appearances from Pepper Potts, May Parker, Ned Leeds, and several other Avengers. No major warnings.  

Okaaaaay. I think that’s it?? 

Wow. That took me FOREVER. 

And I’m not even sorry, because all of these authors deserve ALL of the credit I gave them. 

Thank you so much for asking this! I hope I didn’t bore you or babble too much. XD 

All of you should definitely check out these amazing fics! They 100% deserve the praise! <3 <3 

Thanks again for asking! <3 

[merlin-wolfgang-trades-hale]

I have a headcanon that when it comes to sweet foods, Steve is the one with the sweet tooth and Danny isn’t. Like, he’ll have a few bites just to taste it or when he has a craving for something specific. But after a few bites he lets Steve finish it, which he gladly does. 

My reasoning....their childhoods. 

With how John and Doris were as people, I can’t really see them giving their kids candy often. If they did, it would be on special occasions and more than likely from other people(a visiting Aunt Deb or a classmates when passing out valentines candy for the class). So for Steve, sweets were a coveted thing that happened not very often and were considered a luxury. 

Danny comes from a big Italian family, and I’m not saying he had sweets every single freaking day, but he would have a lot of closer relatives who would visit more occasionally and on their way if they’re not specifically bringing a dessert or baked good or treat, who’s to say Uncle Vito doesn’t sneak him a gumbo sized chocolate bar? Who’s to say Danny and his siblings didn’t use chocolates and candy as money in their poker games(this is an inside joke headcanon btw xD) Danny had his adjusted fill of sweets as he grew up and I also headcanon he prefers Italian recipes to typical American desserts because they do ping the right notes of nostalgia, but the recipes from his nona have the right amount of sweetness and aren’t overly sweet. 

So you fast forward to McDanno in their 30′s and 40′s and you have Steve who is trying(unconsciously maybe) to catch up to all the sweets his kid self never got, and his boyfriend/partner/husband who did and can appreciate a good dessert but can’t handle too much sweetness. And they’re the perfect balance. 

AND  if you think about it this way, with the provider mentality I think Steve has(Danny has it too. It’s just kinda natural for a lot of oldest siblings) him waiting to makes sure Danny has some first, sees him be happy and enjoying it, before allowing himself something is essential. As much as it is for Danny to makes sure he eats enough to satisfy his craving and would please Steve that he’s had his ‘fair share’ but Steve still gets it and he eats all of it, so nothing goes to waste. This also a mentality of oldest siblings who comes from middle class families and the spending of things. 

[writerfae]

Hi! I haven't been active here for a while so I'm a bit behind on your current projects. Please, feel free to gush about your AUs and OCs!

Hi!! It’s good to see you are back :) sorry for the sorta late reply, this week was busy, haha.

Ohhhh a free pass to ramble 🙈 thank you!

The past months I wasn’t that successful when it comes to writing and word counts, but I did manage to write and work on my projects once in a while! My main focus still lies on The Knights of the Alder (and probably always will cause I am, as the kids say, attached) and its AUs, though I made a short foray to my other project A Summer at Cotton Bay (I actually managed to write something for my summer related story DURING summer can you believe?).

What else is new?

My main characters each got a new intro post a good while ago, I don’t know if you saw. I remade them because - and I’m proud to say that - every of my babies ocs have developed a lot since the original intros were posted. Especially in the last months!

I think who got most attention from me when it comes to fleshing out the character is Talon! That’s mostly the fault of me shipping him and Aiden so much that I easily let that distract me from writing the actual thing but hey, that is nothing new right? xD

Anyways, I don’t know how that happened but Talon got issues with his dad now? Like, I planned to have a bit of family conflict all along, to be fair, but I’ve gone a lot more in depth with it now? Talon’s father is having high expectations for Talon because he’s the family heir and Talon struggles with it because he always has to be perfect and somehow his best never seems to be enough. Idk I liked exploring this situation and what it means for Talon and his character. So yeah, that’s a new development, one I might make a post about some day!

Also, ever since I revealed that Henry is a fae and is actually dating Callan (i don’t know if you know that already? I revealed it some months ago I think, but I’m not exactly sure) I had lots of fun playing around with it, haha. I’m still waaaay too obsessed with the two, that’s why they’re in focus of many AUs I came up with recently. So are Talon and Aiden, but that is no surprise xD

And God knows I suffer from „too many AUs“ disease (ask @deadlycupid she has to suffer the consequences most of the time) so I have lots of them. I don’t have too much content about most of them but they live in my head rent free.

I gotta name some of the more recent ones I have (and love)! In case you want to know more about one of them, you can always ask (if I talk about all of them in this ask we’ll still be here tomorrow) ^^

They are the spy au, dance au (sort of the origin of my ocs btw, because they started out as sims who were sort of a dance crew), The Greatest Showman au (it’s just so good okay? 😩), as well as a heist au (because who doesn’t love a good heist? especially criminal power couple Aiden and Talon?) and single dad! Callan x teacher Henry au (the cutest thing ever. It even features Celene, who in canon is Callan and Henry’s daughter!)

And then there’s my newest au and I’m so into it I just have to tell! It’s an au based on the book/movie Krabat! Which is btw a really good story. I mean, it has black magic and ravens so yay! Anyway, let me tell you about the plot (it’s not too worked out cause the au is from this week xD) cause I might be obsessed. Hear me out:

Henry, an orphan, got separated from his younger brother. He ends up at a mill and the miller offers him an apprenticeship. Glad to have found a place to stay, he accepts. He is one of several apprentices and first he struggles to fit in with them, but soon he finds his place among them. Several months into his stay he learns that the miller doesn’t only teach the boys to care for the mill, but also how to work black magic and soon he too gets trained in that subject. He’s really good and over time gains everyone’s respect. He likes his new life, especially when destiny reunites him with his brother, but still something seems off about the place he now calls home. Every year the eldest of the apprentices dies under mysterious circumstances and every year the miller, who’s been aging rapidly in the days before that, suddenly returns as young as ever. When Henry learns the truth and also falls in love with a boy from the near village, all he wants to do is to find a way to get out. But his time is running out, because this year, he is the eldest apprentice…

I’ve been brainstorming about this au a lot lately and let me tell you, it got me really excited! In this au one of the things Henry learns to do is to turn into a crow, which is pretty cool (and fits his theme). Also Aiden plays a little role in it as well, and so does Callan. And no need to worry, it’s an au with a happy ending!

Lastly, I also had the idea for an au that could technically also work as a sequel for the knights of the alder. It’s a bitter sweet au, but I can’t talk about it on here because it’s too spoiler-y ;)

So yeah that’s what I’ve been up to these couple weeks. You see, a lot was going on :D

Sorry that this is so all over the place, but I was pretty excited to talk about all this so yeah 😅 thank you for this opportunity ^^

Have a wonderful weekend! 😌

[iamnmbr3]

Hi! I was wondering what was your overall opinion or Ragnarok. Are there parts you genuinely like or do the inconsistencies ruin the movie for you? I ask because, as someone who really liked Thor and TDW, I also enjoyed Ragnarok a hell of a lot, and I was surprised to find out not many people share that opinion. Have a nice day < 3

 of course everyone has a right to their opinion - whether that is to strongly dislike, love, or be indifferent to this movie. and i will say ragnarok did make a ton of money so i think a good number of ppl probably share your opinion xD. tbh im also surprised it’s so divisive. i guess partly it depends on your standards. i think the MCU as a whole suffers from a lot of plot and character inconsistency issues and so I usually just cherry pick the bits that I enjoy. 

For example I was in stucky fandom for a long time and I really liked The Winter Soldier - it was my favorite captain america movie (don’t even talk to me about civil war) and was and is one of my favorite MCU movies. That said. It suffers from some pretty big plot holes. Like how come no one figured out about HYDRA earlier? When Steve realized literally the whole world was under threat why didn’t he try to contact the Avengers etc? And yeah I know they’ve tried to explain stuff like that away but tbh it’s a bit weak. Still I enjoy the movie and the more down to earth grittier feel so I just ignore the bits I don’t like. Same with Civil War where I ignore like...90% of the movie.

Now as far as Ragnarok in particular goes overall I found it a thoroughly entertaining movie. like other MCU films it most certainly has its issues. But I think in my view it does some important things. First of all, I think it gives Thor the character development he was supposed to get in Thor 1 but didn’t really get by actually taking things away from him. Rather than having the narrative continuously punish Loki and reward Thor, as was the case in prior movies, Taika did the opposite and had Thor lose a lot and have to go through changes as a result. Thor also ends up in a situation where his fighting prowess doesn’t help him as much as usual and he has to rely on other skills - like craftiness and charisma to get by.

Meanwhile, the narrative stops continuously punishing Loki and actually has him end up in a situation of relative power and comfort compared to Thor, who is fairing far worse on Sakaar than Loki is (and we know why that is. *winks with both eyes*). I also like that Ragnarok tries to show the camaraderie and affection that thor and loki have for each other and that despite their relationship being deeply flawed they do also have a strong bond. 

and btw. for all that ragnarok has a lot of humor it also has some pretty deep and interesting themes about family, love, forgiveness, and redemption which get explored through various characters including loki and valkyrie. i also really like that the film acknowledges how deeply flawed Asgardian society and Odin were far more explicitly than in previous films.

I ALSO quite like that Loki and Thor’s arc actually gets closed with reconciliation. And it’s finally Loki’s decision. Because he got shocked he could genuinely say he tried to stop them getting away but failed. He probably could have stayed on Sakaar without being kicked out as a traitor. But instead he chooses to follow Thor. And he finally gets to be hailed as a hero. 

Loki gets to come back into Thor’s life and be accepted for who he is now. Thor stops demanding that he come back in a specific way or that he become a version of himself that no longer exists. Also the Asgard that Loki returns to is not the one he left. Thor is a different person and the people he surrounds himself with are no longer the ones who continuously mocked and belittled Loki. He actually has a place and there’s potential for them to move forward. I really liked all of that. 

Now. Are there flaws? Yeah sure. And I enjoy discussing those too. Are there bits I didn’t like? Yup! But ultimately there were a number of elements that I quite enjoyed. Like getting to see Loki end a movie getting to make a choice of his own and getting to be welcomed back to Asgard in a positive way instead of in chains. 

Also remember that Loki never really wanted the throne originally. He wanted to be Thor’s respected equal. the movie ends with a wiser, more mature Thor on the throne and Loki by his side. When Thor asks where to go next, Loki is the first person he looks at. In other words, Loki finally got to have what he originally wanted. 

The Thor movies were very much the story of these 2 tragic siblings and having them end with the 2 of them on the same side and reconciled made me happy. A lot happier than IW and Endgame which I continue to exclude from my canon bc I hate them with a burning passion since they managed to ruin every single character arc. 

[char-lotteral]

Look I'm not one of those people who believe Kishimoto decided to have Hinata and Naruto end up in the middle part of Shippuden. I believe he decided in the very last arc but he wanted to sound smart so he said he decided earlier on. Otherwise, they obviously would have more scene together. In Shippuden, they have only three scenes together ; when Naruto came back, the pain attack and the neji death scene. That's it. In the original Naruto, they probably have less than ten canon scenes not including fillers.

So I'm sorry I'm one of those who wasn't convinced by The Last. They literally had a basic villain go after Hinata who was cringe btw (the villain). They gave Hinata op powers which she doesn't have in the novel 👀. Despite having op powers, they made her the damsel in distress. Very "The hero saves the princess" cliche. Again, to justify them being together. I mean Naruto can't differentiate his love for ramen and romantic love so how??? He was just being nice to Hinata just like he does to everyone. He stood up for her just like he does for everyone.

Don't get me started on the Sakura Sasuke relationship 🤣. Cringe. They never knew each other. The whole Sakura's love for Sasuke saved him doesn't make sense. They spent barely a year in their genin year before sasuke left. Sasuke tried to kill Naruto and Sakura multiple times. Then at the end of the war, Kishimoto tried to do the "oh they have such a deep understanding between each other" which comes off as cringey. He gets her pregnant then leaves for years. She's literally a single mom who's broke.

Every relationship in Naruto is so cringey and forced except shikatemari. Kishimoto should've focused on the main story and fixed his potholes and leave the ending open.

Naruto would not have been perfect but at least it would've been remembered for staying true to its vision but instead it's remembered for cringey relationships, dumbass villain (except pain and madara) and a story that lost its core which is a shame coz I used to love Naruto. I was inspired by its messages but now....

OKAY LOL WAIT I ACTUALLY HAVE THIS LONG ASS RANT PREPARED XD

BUT FIRST Ive read what you said and I lowkey agree :p

HOWEVER

I DRAW THE LINE AT TONERI SLANDER. BECAUSE WHY

TONERI?? CRINGE?? THIS SEXY MOTHERFUCKER??

LOOK AT HIS WHITE FLUFFY HAIR AND HIS CERULEAN BLUE ORBS STARING DEEPLY INTO YOUR SOUL

SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW?!#*@*#&@*

okay lol now for the juicy part click readmore and beware I shall be brutally honest so yea enjoy

I mean, Naruto in general is a mess, not just the ships if we're being realistic. Alot of plotholes, rushed endings, this and that, the w a r a r c, Kaguya, the way they rushed Boruto ehhh. Honestly, getting into Naruto is literally my biggest regret of 2020 :"DD

Im an NH shipper as you can tell by my hotmess of a blog but i fully respect your opinion and understand your point of view. I also know a bunch of nh stans who have their complaints with their development. I wish Kishi gave more attention to his female cast really, thats all I fucking ask. If he did that one single basic thing, then maybe the endgame relationships wouldnt have been an asspull and theyd be given propper screentime with their love interest, both Sakura and Hinata. The Last tbh i think the writers played it safe and stuck to the whole Naruto shounen vibe thingy, so im not surprised it was plotted that way. Typical cliché shounen movie.

But does that bother me? No! The Last was a mess, their development was shit, they definitely needed more screentime but hey at the end of the day theyre cute as fuck, we have that kiss scene, flirting scenes, a shit ton of official art, three kids, Seiki's gif :33 and a whole ass arc for their wedding all that for just a shounen anime so eh. Compensates for it i guess xD theyre not toxic, unhealthy or whatnot. Theyre wholesome, soft and vanilla as fuck and exactly what i need in my hectic life rn. No drama, just two kind souls who are adorable as heck and theyre dynamic means so much to me and I will love them until i shall leave this earth.

Anon, im not even gonna waste my time and defend their development because i think it sucked too xD but if you wanna know why i love them so so so soooo much, Id be more than willing to tell you :33

Sasuke and Sakura on the other hand eeeehhhh i can see why people like them. Sasuke's hot, he's your typical hot bad boy aad Sakura's hot and pretty too. Basic blue and pink trope. Aside from their canon interactions, fans have all the opportunity to play around with their dynamic but for me, its just sooo basic and so hetero and can easily appeal to any 16 yr old teenage girl, no wonder it has an active fanbase on twt and---- AM I MAKING ANY SENSE? AHDBAJJE LIKE ITS SO-- BASIC, your usual bad boy x pretty girl trope that you get to read in YA and coming of age novels. Not only that, but going back to canon, they have too many negative interactions for me to like them together :p The least Sakura can do is put down her own foot and yell at him for not contacting them for god knows how long. I also dont like how he always gets easily forgiven >=[[. I mean at least He's compensating as a dad good for him but ehhhh i still dont like him and Sakura together :v And im not falling for that "Sakura is the reason why Sasuke isnt lonely anymore" because thats NARUTO AHHH. Sasuke said that Multiple times. HE LIGHTS A FIRE INSIDE OF ME. HES MY SUN. MY ONE AND ONLY FRIEND. LIEK?? THATS NARUTOOO romantic or not, Naruto was the reason for his not so lonely existence anymore smh >=[[

Sasuke almost murdered her and Naruto and made their lives a living hell but hey its all good!! He's my best friend and Sakura loves him!! So set him freeee into the worldddd~~

Sasuke left his family without even simply contacting them but can easily contact Naruto through a hawk but hey thats fine! His and Sakura's feelings are connected afterall! Sasuke gave her a ring and said thank you! Who cares about leaving your family. She loves him and he loves her so yey!!! All is forgiven :D

DID I MENTION SASUKE ALMOST MUREDERED HIS OWN DAUGHTER AND HE WASNT CALLED OUT FOR THAT@*#&@??!?#,*@#,#

Sasuke gets too many life points this isnt fair >=[[ But tbh he's nerfed so bad in Boruto manga and anime power wise. Like in that time travel arc and the manga. The rinnegan kunai thing was still so funny to me even if it was Borushiki. I just idk its so funny to me lmaoo

OKAY WHAT ELSE. I dont even know any more. Im tired of complaining about Naruto and just when Ive finally gone a little bit away from Naruto, Hinata fucking pulls me in again 😩 she has me on chokehold pls send help. Watch castlevania!!! and one piece!!!! ten times better than this anime about a loud blonde boi who wants to be president. Trust me

overall, i dont fully agree but i lowkey agree i guess. I do respect your opinion tho :))

EXCEPT WHEN YOU CALLED TONERI CRINGE. HOW DARE YOU CALL THAT SEXY MF CRINGEY---

[wordupcomics]

How would you describe Bob's relationship with Tobey? And will your relationship get better as the comic progresses? ...🤔

Oh boy anon, you don’t How badly I’ve waited for this question! I love the dynamic between them and the progression of that dynamic!

In short, I’d describe their relationship as like a parent-in-law and child-in-law that don’t really like each other but are willing to accept each other in their lives because of the one or several people they have in common (for Tobey and Bob this person is obviously Becky, with Theo and Julie playing a role too)

Their relationship is complicated, and it will only get more complicated before it gets any less so.

That’s a relatively simple way to put it, as it’s constantly changing. So for a more thorough explanation, see under the cut

So I feel context is important here. Context both in terms of important moments in each character’s life and in terms of how they have felt about each other prior to this point.

First, since it’s a shorter bit, let’s discuss an important part of each character that is effecting their current view on each other

For Tobey, Becky’s comment in batch 4 says it all

“I realize you have an issue with the entire concept of abandonment...”

Tobey has huge issues with abandonment. And if he believes you abandoned someone, he’s going to take it very seriously.

Meanwhile Bob has sacrificed so much for Becky. She’s been his number one priority since the day she was forced into his life without warning.

Now let’s talk about how they felt about each other in the past, divided into chunks of time.

Also I’m counting Bob leaving as the same event because they happened close together and not really anything changed in that time

Pre bob leaving/ Tobey going good:

Pretty much indifference on both sides.

For Bob Tobey was just some punk ass kid trying to destroy the city every other week, so basically just another Tuesday

For Tobey, Bob was just the pet of some classmate, and Huggy was just a minor annoyance in his quest to get WordGirl's attention/affections

While Bob was in space:

Bob stayed at indifference, probably even less so than before. Before Tobey at least came to mind (or I guess was more forced into his mind every time a robot crime was committed lol), but while Bob was in space really the only person he thought about was Becky for obvious reasons. Yes, at some point enough time had pasted that Bob realized Becky was old enough that she likely had a family of her own, but Bob never considered the idea that Tobey could be part of that family. If you had suggested to Bob the idea that Becky might have married Tobey, Bob would have been like "I mean I guess it's possible, but I doubt it"

Tobey in general respected and admired Bob/Huggy in this time, the exact amount of respect and admiration changed, as it grew as he got to know Becky. As Tobey go to know Becky, he learned more about Bob, so his respect for Bob was much greater by the time Becky and Tobey were married than when the two were friends. As a parent, Tobey really wanted the kids to know about Bob and encouraged Becky telling the kids stories about Bob. The greater respect and admiration Tobey felt, the more Tobey was convinced that something had happened to Bob, as apposed to Bob leaving by choice. In Tobey’s mind Bob leaving by choice, leaving nothing but a note and practically no explanation, is the same as abandonment. And as Tobey heard about Bob from Becky, her friends and family, it was clear to him that Bob really cared about Becky, and therefore, the idea that Bob would willing leave Becky, abandon her, was not even a possibility. It didn’t make sense, so the only explanation was that something terrible had happened to Bob. Tobey’s perspective here becomes important later.

The very brief period of time where Bob had return to Earth and found out Becky and Tobey were married but hadn’t reunited with Tobey yet (lol very specific):

This one only applies to Bob, but I really wanted to bring it up. I found it very hard to visually show Bob’s reaction, because in my head Bob’s tone was very important, and I couldn’t quite get his facial expression right to translate that tone. So I’ve worried Bob’s reaction to finding out Becky married Tobey comes off as a protective and disapproving “Are you kidding me??? You married Tobey??? What were you thinking?????” Which is not what I intended. It was supposed to be more of clarifying, shocked “Tobey? We’re talking about the same Tobey as when you were a kid? Really? Well okay if that’s who you like...” Basically Bob understands that Becky is an adult and trusts that her and Tobey’s relationship isn’t something bad, he trusts that she’s a good judge of character and judge of what’s okay and not okay. He’s not disapproving, he’s just shocked that Tobey was able to get to the point that Becky would like him enough to marry him. In this time, Bob’s really just curious to see how Tobey turned out.

The Shift

Tobey and Bob each had a moment where their more positive opinions of each other switched to negative ones.

Tobey I made sure you could see his change in behavior.

From happy

To essentially a “Wait what?”

To mad

And notice when this “shift” was. The moment he found out where Bob really had been. The moment he found out Bob DID leave by choice. He did, in Tobey’s eyes, abandoned Becky.

And for Bob, his “shift” was the result of Tobey’s

“IF I HAD CARED ABOUT HER?!” Bob has given up so much for Becky, Becky has always been his number one priority, and Tobey has the nerve to claim that Bob didn’t care about her at all?

(Also notice how Bob referred to it as a “letter”, and Tobey called it a “note” showing how differently they seem the same situation)

In the near future (So for the rest of “Return to Fairy City”

I once mentioned that I wanted Bob to have a horrible first day back, to just have a lot of bad luck in terms of first impressions on Becky’s family. Well...the day isn’t over yet...

Bob has one more unfortunate moment to get through. And it makes Tobey’s life particularly hard. True, what happens isn’t really Bob’s fault, but Bob does cause it. It’ll make sense I promise. And what’s worse, it’s really Tobey’s problem that he now has to deal with. As you can imagine this doesn’t help things (this will all happen next batch btw)

I also plan to do a mini comic for a scene that I don’t have in Return to Fair City, this scene will show Tobey and Becky’s conversation about Bob (not the short one in batch 4, a different one where they are calmer and can actually have a conversation) and them coming to an agreement about the situation and this really dictates how Tobey acts towards Bob going forward. This scene will take place in between two scenes featured in the next batch. I’m thinking I will try to post that before the batch because I think you guys should know where Tobey is coming from when Bob accidentally makes Tobey’s life harder XD

Going forward (Beyond Return to Fair City)

Like I said, Tobey and Bob’s relationship in general is like a parent-in-law and child-in-law who don’t like each other but accept each other in their lives. For a short while, both of them are going to be a bit on guard, basically like “I’m going to try not to be near them, but I’m also going to keep my eye out to spot any potentially problematic behavior from them, and if I see anything, I will DEFINITELY be saying something.”

For Bob he’s on guard because he knows Tobey’s past, and doesn’t know his present. All Bob has to go on is Tobey’s comment about Bob not caring about Becky and that’s not exactly a good sign to him. However he still trusts Becky’s judgment, and he understands that Tobey, no matter how much Bob might not like him, is Becky’s husband and Theo and Julie’s dad. Bob’s not about to say anything that could damage, or worse, break up a family unless there’s something REALLY bad going on.

For Tobey this all goes back to the above mentioned conversation he has with Becky. The two will come to an agreement that works for both of them and Tobey’s actions are part of that agreement. Essentially it comes down to “say something if it’s a red flag, otherwise be civil.”

And spoiler alert, neither will find anything to “say” about the other, so they’ll each slowly move out of that and just into a “Just stay out of each other’s way” type thing.

I love developing their relationship and I look forward to having them go from “I don’t like you, but I accept you as part of my life” to “I don’t like you, but I do care about you” and beyond.

[dex-xe]

ahhhhh I'm LOVING these little fics, they're wonderful!! if you're still taking requests and are up for it, maybe "you're just a softie" with fanny and mary? :o

Mary & Kitty Fluff #10: “Stop moving and let me braid your hair.”

Fanny & Mary Fluff #37: “You’re just a softie.”

(I’m not thrilled with how this one turnedout but I think it’s soft and cute anyway. I have no idea what a girly sleepover consists of,, I have never been to one so someone please enlighten me XD This was posted on ao3 first btw,, as are all my fics - usually about 2/3 days before they’re up on here)

Prompt list

Inbox

After months of begging, Kitty’s fabled 8th of March arrived. Alison had actually decided to bring the date forward by a considerable few moths, feeling guilty about denying Kitty what she had been unable to do for over 200 years: her beloved sleepover.

Alison gathered as many spare pillows and blankets as she could find around the house and piled them onto Kitty’s bedroom floor. She’d had Mike attach fairy lights across the ceiling, creating a low canopy of glowing lights across the room.

Before inviting Kitty, Mary, and even Fanny into the room for her planned girly evening, Alison had had to sit the rambunctious boys down (of which she included Mike) and tell them under no circumstances to enter Kitty’s room. Robin had tried multiple times to join in, Pat had insisted that the next sleepover be for everyone, Julian had even called discrimination - a concept he was familiar with but it was new and novel to be on the receiving end. But after placing ‘keep out or else no TV’ signs on the door, Alison felt confident they wouldn’t interrupt.

“Oh, this is so exciting!” Kitty exclaimed, throwing herself down on the bed beside Mary, smiling brightly at Alison. “I’ve never been to a proper sleepover before! Have you, Alison?”

“When I was at school, sure,” Alison plonked herself down on the floor, wrapping a duvet around her to keep her warm under her pyjamas. “Never one with a bunch of dead people though, at least not to my knowledge.”

“What precisely do these nights consist of, Alison?” Fanny asked, perching on the chair beside Kitty’s desk.

“Well, you eat way too many snacks, which I guess isn’t possible. And give makeovers, again not exactly doable. But we can play games and talk about boys, right Kitty?”

“Yes please!” Kitty squealed. “We can give makeovers!”

“We can?” Alison questioned.

“Can I do your hair, Mary? I’m rather good at it, my sister always asked me to do hers. She would never do mine though, it’s a shame she never quite had the time.”

“Alright,” Mary said nervously, glancing at Alison.

Kitty squeaked and reached into her breast pocket to draw out a small tin compact with a tiny fold out comb, an item she had been incredibly pleased to have followed her into the afterlife.

“Won’t it go back to normal soon?” Alison asked, pouring herself a small glass of lemonade.

“Oh I would imagine so, but I am rather good,” Kitty began to carefully brush knots out of Mary’s messy hair.

“So, a game!” Alison said, smiling to herself. “Snog, marry, avoid! The rules are: you get given three guys, literally any men but I suppose we should stick to the men of Button House, and you have to choose one to snog, one to marry, and one to avoid - as in you never get to see them again.”

“What be a snog?” Mary asked, flinching away as Kitty hit a knot in her scraggly hair.

“Stop moving and let me braid your hair!” Kitty gently pulled her back.

“A snog is like a really passionate kiss,” Alison chuckled, watching Fanny pull a face.

“This game is abhorrent!” She scoffed. “I’ll play no part in it!”

“We shan’t tell anyone what you say!” Kitty said with a high-pitched giggle. “I promise! Oh please, Lady Button, we won’t tell if you decide to kiss Julian or someone!”

“If you’re going to scoff at the games, you’ll have to leave. This is Kitty’s sleepover really, don’t spoil it!”

“No, I shan’t spoil it,” she pursed her lips and glared at Alison. “But I reserve my right to not ‘snog’, as you so horrifically put it, anyone.”

“If it will stop you complaining,” Alison said.

“Then I shall ask first, yes?” Fanny contemplated for a moment before turning to Mary perched on the edge of the grandma-duvet bed opposite her. “Mary: you must choose between Robin, and Julian. Yes, and Michael!”

Alison spluttered on her lemonade, “can we not include my husband in the game?”

“Well, you did say ‘any man’, did you not?” Fanny asked.

“I’d snog yer husband!” Mary exclaimed, drawing raucous giggles from Kitty behind her who collapsed back onto the bed, her head fazing through the pillows.

“I regret every decision that has brought me to this moment,” Alison groaned, still smirking into her glass.

“And I marry Robin, cause he be funny and make a good husband,” Mary nodded as if she was saying something incredibly wise and philosophical.

“And then avoid Julian? I can get on board with that,” Alison grinned.

“I woul’ rather he fall mysteriously from a window than marry him,” Mary smiled.

“That’s a fair decision,” Alison said.

“Reasonable choice,” Fanny agreed.

“It be you’re turn, Kitty,” Mary leant back to look Kitty in the eyes. “Pat, yeah? Humphrey, or Thomas?”

Kitty brushed through Mary’s dark hair contemplating for a minute before she came to a predictably Kitty conclusion: “this game is so cruel! I don’t want to avoid anyone, can I marry them all please?!” She cried.

“Absolutely not!” Fanny chastised.

“Good to see you’re getting into the game!” Alison said.

“Polygamy, even in game form, is always unacceptable!” Fanny said.

“I would marry Pat, he seems like a good husband,” Kitty said. The others hummed in agreement, the stories they had all heard of Pat’s life certainly gave off that picture. “And then I would do the... the kiss with Thomas!” Kitty giggled her way through her sentence, but quickly sobered up when reality hit. “Oh no! Oh gosh, then I must avoid Humphrey! No, I can’t leave Humphrey!”

“It’s not real, Kitty,” Alison decided to reassure her rather than laugh. “None of us would ever want to leave Humphrey.” Kitty nodded slowly, dropping the comb she was using to her side and beginning to twist Mary’s dark locks between her fingers. “You have to choose people for me now!”

Kitty stopped to think: “Okay! The Captain, Pat, and Thomas.”

“Modern men for you Alison,” Fanny nodded.

“I’m not sure I’m really the Captain’s type! Don’t reckon he’s ever even looked twice at me!” Alison laughed. Fanny glared at Alison, pressurising her into not going any further with that idea but both Mary and Kitty looked confused at her. “Never mind, so I would definitely marry Pat, I feel like he’d get on my tits less than the others!”

“How dare you talk of Patrick like that? Abhorrent language!” Fanny cried.

“It’s a phrase! It means get on your nerves! Christ, I’d never- I don’t even want to think about Pat- he’s my friend!” Kitty and Mary screeched with laughter as Alison’s cheeks turned more crimson by the second as she buried herself further into the duvet heap. “No more thinking about Pat, thank you! I’d snog Thomas cause I reckon it would literally make his life complete, and then leave the Captain to court... his type.”

“Now, Alison, the Captain is a good man and shouldn’t be written off. He would make a virtuous husband and deserves enjoyment he was denied in life,” Fanny objected.

“Oh I don’t doubt that,” Alison muttered, barely above a whisper with a sneaky smirk plastering her face. “But I am beginning to see how your marriage went so poorly!”

“What?!” Fanny screeched.

“Look!” Kitty said, manhandling Mary slightly roughly to turn her around to show her hair. “I think this is the best I’ve ever done! Look how wonderful this is, Alison!”

Alison jumped up off the floor to inspect Kitty’s hard work: “woah, that is pretty good! Very neat, Kitty, I wish you could do mine!”

“Oh, I wish that too, Alison!”

“Okay, final round!” Alison threw herself back down onto her duvet. “Fanny: Captain - seeing as you have such affection for him, Humphrey, or-“ Alison paused, contemplating who Fanny would hate the most. “Or Julian!” She finished triumphantly.

“Avoid, Julian!” Fanny responded without missing a beat. “And I would not participate in your ‘snog’ with anyone.”

“What, so you’d marry both Humphrey and the Captain?” Alison teased, remembering the disgust that had overrun Fanny when discussing bigamy. She took a small sip of her lemonade and watched as horror spread across Fanny’s face.

“Absolutely not!” Fanny cried.

“So, who will you marry?” Mary questioned.

“Humphrey is lovely, although it might be a little unusual to have a headless husband,” Kitty commented. “But the Captain is also very nice when he wants to be, even if he can be a tiny bit controlling. Occasionally.”

“Well, after my George I think Humphrey would make a welcome break. I am not in need of controlling, thank you!” Fanny nodded wisely. “Humphrey, I believe, was greatly unhappy in his own marriage as well. We spoke at the wedding and he gave me some... rather interesting advice. A thoroughly decent fellow, I believe.”

“You’re just a softie!” Mary commented, looking to Kitty for approval who giggled softly still fiddling with Mary’s braids which were coming untwisted as they were unsecured.

“I’m surprised you didn’t want to get with Julian?” The other three all turned to Alison, who was lying, legs-crossed on the floor smirking up at Fanny. “Well, he’s certainly got the moves to ‘get to know you’ as you said.”

Mary and Kitty collapsed into giggles, clutching at each other from their position on the bed and doubling over with laughter. Fanny’s face crumpled into disgust, before a tiny, hidden smile spread across her face.

Alison continued to tease, digging into a couple of details as what Julian might get up to, causing even more laughter including from Fanny who couldn’t quite maintain the stoic, stony expression as Alison talked.

***

“What are they saying?”

“Shut up, Julian, so I can hear!” The Captain snapped. He was leaning out of the TV room door trying to catch wind of the discussion taking place only a few doors down. Robin also had his head popping through the door, below the Captain also listening intently. They had relocated from the common room to be closer to the secret rendezvous they had been banned from.

“Aw man!” Mike cried. “Fourth loss of the night!” He threw the Xbox controller down onto the sofa beside him and rested his head back, frustrated at his poor performance.

“Bad luck, mate,” Pat said from the chair beside him. He’d taken up the role of Mike’s cheerleader, having convinced himself that he’d be a rather good gamer if he’d been able to play in life. His night of imagining he was playing kept being interrupted by the others creating plans to listen in to Alison. He turned to face the Captain, Robin, and Julian at the door to see the Captain straining around the doorframe. “Guys, stop trying to eavesdrop. It’s a girls night!”

“Hush, Patrick!” The Captain said. “I think I heard your name a moment ago.”

Pat jumped up and sped to the door, finally taking interest: “what do you reckon they’re talking about?”

The house erupted with life as uncontrollable laughter floated down the hallway, pulling silence across the TV room. Mike stood behind where the ghosts were focussed the laughter, listening to only to his wife’s giggles.

“Sleepover with some ghosts, huh?” He mumbled. “This house is weird, man!”

“Mmhm,” Pat hummed.

“I agree,” the Captain said.

“Is strange place,” Robin agreed.

Mike flicked off the TV and walked straight through the men, causing them to double over in nausea.

“Weird place,” he muttered.

[fox-fic-and-ink]

38 Shayde

38 Shaxx/Cayde "I can tell you're lying." I gotta revisit the lucky pants lore. XD XD XD

   "Take off your pants."

   Cayde snorts so hard, it trips his voicebox. "Ha ha!"

   "It was not a joke," Shaxx assures.

   "Dude. They're just pants."

   "I can tell when you're lying."

   "How?"

   Shaxx tilts his helm.

   "I mean-" Cayde stammers, facial lights flickering like a rave. "You know what I mean!"

   "That was an obscene amount of ammunition to be flying from two handcanons. Show me your pants."

   "Shit. You think I cheated." Cayde is delighted to say it out loud. "Shaxx is a sore loser. Who coulda guessed? Here. Check my holster."

   Cayde reaches down to unbuckle his thigh holster and then offers it Shaxx.

   Shaxx takes it, looks it over carefully. Nothing seems amiss. Except for the painted patch on the back. On second inspection, the width of the entire back panel is a hair thicker than every other side. Shaxx narrows his eyes at Cayde's thigh where the gun would rest when holstered. It is difficult to see, particularly when Cayde shifts under his scrutiny, but the leather seems to bulge slightly at the Exo's hip.

   "Take them off, Cayde!"

   "You're paranoid!"

   "Relinquish your pants or I will invoke my right as master of the Crucible to inspect them by force."

   "That's not a thing you- HEY!"

   Cayde's leg is yanked right from under him and his back hits the floor. Shaxx pats at the stretch of thigh in question and he nods in satisfaction when he finds a hard plate- curved to the shape of Cayde's leg but easily moved when Shaxx plucks at the pants themself.

   "Whoah, whoah, whoah! No need to get handsy!"

   Shaxx allows Cayde to kick him away but he doesn't go far as he waits for the Exo to come clean. With resignation, Cayde pulls a knife from his opposite boot and slits the top leather at his hip, tugs the material away from the rest of the pant leg beneath. There, between the layers, is a curved plate that Shaxx only recognizes from theoretical R&D chatter.

   "A micro transmat system?"

   "In the grand scheme of things," Cayde begins, leaning back on his hands and doing his best to look innocent, "directly transporting ammo into a holstered weapon is only a little bit cheating."

   Shaxx bends to rip the transmat system off Cayde's thigh. Thread pops and Cayde flinches.

   "Ok, well you don't have to-"

   The device snaps in Shaxx's massive hand.

   "That was kind of expensive so maybe-"

   Shaxx takes the pieces of micro transmat system and the holster and heads for the door.

"Your victory will be stricken from the records."

   "Ok. That's fair, I guess. Hey," Cayde calls from the floor. "Hey, are you still gonna babysit those kids or…"

   "Someone should make sure they grow up with a sense of honor."

   "Ok. Thanks. Uh, good talk. I'll pick you up later."

The door slams.

"Love you, bye." Cayde mumbles.

*Btw, I am without income due to the pandemic. Tips for prompts are obviously NOT mandatory but greatly appreciated! https://ko-fi.com/foxficandink

[s-j-ace]

The Same Question

Chapter Four

Characters:  Shuichi Saihara, Ouma Kokichi

Words: 10040

Summary:

After Detective Shuichi Saihara encounters mysterious thief Kokichi Ouma  for the first time, a game of cat and mouse ensues as both men ask  themselves the same question. Why exactly does the elusive phantom thief  do what he does?

This is Chapter Four, Here are Chapters One, Two, and Three

Read on AO3

[Log of Text Messages from Rantarou Amami’s Cellular Device]

From: Me

Hey Miu

I got a friend I’m dropping off in Taipei tomorrow

Could you lend him a room

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Idk

I’m a busy genius

Is he cute

From: Me

[Image description: A candid photo of Shuichi Saihara sleeping on a seat in Rantarou’s private jet.]

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Hell fucking yes

From: Me

Awesome!

Thanks for being a good friend Miu

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

:)

From: Me

Also btw

He’s Kaede’s ex

So as a good friend you know he’s off limits right

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Oh fuck you rich boy

From: Me

Thanks again Miu! --- [Log of Messages sent via Discord to “Dinosaur soccer world Is a Cinematic Epic” from ???’s Cellular Device]

Boss sent an image to the chat

[Image is a screenshot of an image which reads the following:

Draft 1, Uncoded, DO NOT MAIL.

Taka, sweetie, it’s me! Your dear Aunt Sally. I know you think I died in the war, but I just pretended so I wouldn’t have to see your ugly face again.

You know I was robbing a museum the other day and I met the nicest young man. Real sharp and very nice eyelashes. And what a quick learner!  

Oh, Sorry! I don’t mean to belittle you Taka, dearie, I know how your mother used to say you worked so hard to compete with the geniuses of the world…

You’ve still got a lot of work to do, I think. It must be that Type A personality of yours, holding you back. I’ve heard there’s a new class for people like you, “How to take the giant metal stick out of your ass 101.”

I can’t wait for the next family reunion! I hear it’s going to be a bomb! I’ll be in the open casket.

See you there,

-DICE

/End Image Description]

Boss: Thoughts, thots?

Jack: Lol “nice eyelashes”

Clubs: It looks good. :)

Rook: Looks fine to me

King: Why is his aunt’s name Sally, isn’t he japanese

Boss: Sally can be a japanese name

Spades: I can’t even say an l sound. It’s impossible for us japanese smh.

Rook: I thought u were lesbian not japanese

Bishop: I’ve seen you speak perfect english

Spades: lol seen

King: seen

Boss: seen

Jack: seen

Rook: seen

Bishop: I meant heard ok

Boss: oh nvm actually i'm going to change it to his grandpa’s name

Boss: his grandpa has a wikipedia page lol

King: if your grandpa has a wikipedia page you deserve to be oppressed

Queen: if you have a grandpa you deserve to be oppressed

Rook: if your wikipedia page has a grandpa you deserve to be oppressed

Bishop: if you have a wikipedia page your grandpa deserves to be oppressed

Spades: if your grandpa has a you wikipedia deserves to be oppressed

Bishop: Also boss no pressure but like could we use a better code this time

Bishop: that detective is getting too close for comfort

Spades: Yeah!! We didn’t even end up getting that rug Heartsie wanted because of him…

Clubs: If we did not send letters about our plans to Interpol, our heists would probably be easier.

Boss: Nah, I like to give the coppers a fighting chance.

Boss: I’m thinking that this time I’ll just translate it into germanic script, do a standard caesar cipher encryption on it and then have every one of those letters correspond to a greek word on the rosetta stone then describe each corresponding hieroglyph visually in haiku verse that’s been poorly translated into traditional chinese.

Boss: That should take me like

Boss: Twenty minutes

Rook: Boss literally I think that you are the most batshit dementor human being on the face of the planet

King: dementor

Jack: Who said he was human

Spades: dementor?

Boss: dementor

Queen: dementor

Bishop: dementor...

Jack: dementor

Rook: …

Rook Changed the Group Chat Name to “Dementor Is Correct, Essentially”

Spades: No its not

Spades: Dementor isn’t a fucking word

Rook: Don’t you remember that movie with the british kid on a broom

Spades: Don’t you remember the dictionary

King Changed the Group Chat Name to “Dumbass Improperly Corrects Error”

Rook: When we get to that fucking tower I’m dropping that giant ball on you

King: Love you too <3

Hearts: Y’all stop texting each other

Hearts: You are literally all in the same hotel room

Hearts: I’m willing to bet you’re all sitting on the same couch too

Queen: Fuck you we’re adorable

Bishop: You can’t make us do anything

Bishop: I’ll never use my voice again, my vow of silence,,,,,

Bishop: I’ll only ever text from now on

Ace: We’re the ones bringing the popcorn bishie...

Hearts: Yeah, do you want some or not

Bishop: Yes ma’am, excuse me ma’am

Queen: You may think you have all the power hearts,,, but I get to choose what movie we pirate tonight,,,,,,

Hearts: What

Hearts: no

Hearts: Boss stop him before he makes us watch cats again

Spades: All queen knows is bitchtorrent, cats 2019, and lie

King: Wait isn’t boss with you?

Hearts: Uh

Hearts: No

Hearts: Should he be?

Hearts: I thought he was in the room with y’all

Jack: Well he’s not here now

Ace: Ow shit

Ace: *Aw

Bishop: Ow shit?

Queen: Ow shittttt

Jack: Ow shit

Spades: Ow shit,,,

Rook: Ow shit...

King: Ow shit…...

Clubs: Ow shit! XD

Hearts: Ow shit

Ace: …

Hearts: Now I’m really worried… he didn’t even respond to roast Ace’s ass

King: yeah, ok, we should look for him

Ace: He has been acting kind of weird lately…

Jack: Really?

Ace: Yeah

Ace: Like

Ace: I don’t really know how to describe it…

Rook: I didn’t notice anything

Rook: he seems like his usual self to me

Bishop: Maybe he’s just avoiding movie night because he needs some space or something

Rook: What, like he’s tired of our company?

Jack: That’s fair

Spades: How so?

Jack: I was gonna steal his blue eyes tonight lmao

Rook: NOT IF I GET IT FIRST

Bishop: Idk maybe he just went to get ice

King: we all know he is a monster who would rather drink his panta lukewarm than put a fucking icecube in it

Rook: Yeah, I saw him boil it once

King: THE MAN BOILS SODA AND YOU THINK HE WOULD LEAVE THE ROOM FOR A FUCKING ICE CUBE

Bishop: Okay chill

King: I am  c o n c e r n e d , , , ,

Clubs: Oh no! Don’t worry King! :(

Clubs: Boss is fine! :)

Clubs: I saw him leave a few minutes ago.

Clubs: I think he is just getting the bombs. :)

* * * Several people are typing... ---     Kokichi Ouma carefully set the grate of the vent he had used to crawl his way into the Idabashi Labs facility in Taipei, Taiwan back into place. Before he had come through, he had counted how many turns it had taken him to unscrew each of the four bolts so that now he could screw them all back in just the way he had found them. Not because he was worried he’d get caught, but because frankly he was bored. This was more of a fetch quest than a theft, to be honest, as evidenced by the fact that Kokichi had come here alone. Finding jobs for all his cronies to do would take too long and put them in unnecessary trouble. So Kokichi was content to leave them to their movie night.

   When he finished turning the screws back into the vent cover, Kokichi realized that was kind of lame. So he unscrewed them and started turning them in accordance with the english A1Z26 code to spell out his organization’s name.

   Well, maybe on some level Kokichi didn’t find himself wanting to be at movie night recently. It seemed almost like TV had started to run out of things to amuse him with. Or maybe he was just growing tired of the kinds of movies that they usually watched. Maybe it was his taste maturing or something. Like he was growing up. But that would imply that his interests had shifted to something else, like real life or something, when in reality they had just stagnated.

   Actually maybe he did have a new interest in real life? He had been more enthused about heists recently at the very least. He was particularly excited about this next one. Queen had shown him some interior shots of Taipei 101, which was a cool looking skyscraper that had a huge ball inside of it to keep it from falling down during earthquakes. Ace wanted to steal the giant ball, but Kokichi was pretty sure they should leave something that kept a .508 kilometer tall building from falling over inside of the .508 kilometer tall building. So instead they were going to steal every light in and on the tower.

   Okay, 4 turns, 9 turns, 3 turns, 5 turns. DICE.

   … That was kind of lame too.

   He unscrewed them again.

   Obviously if they were going to steal every light in and on Taipei 101, they needed to get the power off somehow. Otherwise DICE might burn down the building while detaching them, or worse, they might get electrocuted. So obviously Kokichi wanted to fake a bomb threat where they pretended to steal the giant ball while in reality they were just causing a black out and grabbing every light fixture they could before the power turned back on. He had drawn up some extensive diagrams about the route each DICE member would have to take throughout the tower in order for them to grab every light fixture in under half an hour.

   He had been well prepared to draw up the designs for his own EMP-bomb device, but upon a cursory google search he discovered that someone had already invented exactly what he needed. Doctor Miu Iruma, who for some reason owned a company called Idabashi Labs that was located in Taiwan. Kokichi had spent about 15 seconds scanning an article from a website that seemed to be the nerd version of a gossip tabloid. It said something about how Dr. Iruma wore a low cut shirt once or something else stupid, which meant Dr. Idabashi definitely left her the company because of a sex scandal and not because she was the best person for the job who invented the perfect EMP bomb.

   Thank you journalism we love it when women are reduced to the way they look instead of what they can accomplish for the benefit of a mischevipus group of roguish clowns.

   Anyway, after reading that dickcheese Kokichi failed to follow up on answering any of the questions he had originally about what was up with the labs, like why it was a japanese company run by japanese people was for some reason based in Taiwan. Whoopsie.

   Eh, it was probably tax reasons or something lame like that.

   Kokichi finished turning the screws again. This time it was 6 turns, 9 turns, 6 turns, 9 turns. Haha, nice.

   With that, Kokichi finally stood up from the grate and brushed himself off. He had left his cape at the hideout again (you know, because vents), but other than that he was in full regalia. Straight jacket, gloves, scarf, mask. All pretty dusty from this place’s crawl spaces. Thus the brushing.

   He wasn’t very mindful of the dust he was leaving on the floor. The only thing he cared about looking good was his cameo on the security cameras he would let see him on his way out.

   According to the blueprints of Idabashi Labs, he was on the main experimental floor right now. Weirdly enough there weren’t any cameras in here, so grabbing the bombs would be a cinch.

   Although, looking around it didn’t really look like the kind of lab you’d see on TV. There were no big, bubbling tubes or gargantuan Rube Goldberg machines. There was just one desk in the middle, with a bunch of gadgets and trinkets tucked into shelves all over the room, not all of which seemed all that scientific. Yeah, that book shelf was filled with Astro Boy manga and merch. And over there was a-

   Wait, was that a bed in the corner? Was that a person in the bed? Hmm… maybe the blueprints were outdated...

   Kokichi stilled himself, listening for any sound of breathing, but he could only hear some faint whirring noises.

   Kokichi made a quick deduction that there probably were not bombs in this room. It seemed, at the very least, like more of a personal study or something, maybe even a bedroom. He’d just go back in the vent and do some reconnaissance until he found a room that had some inventions in it. The night was young, after--

   Kokichi’s brain froze as his eyes landed on a sharpie lying on the floor in front of him. Almost all of his brain cells immediately shut off, the last one remaining screaming at the top of it’s lungs, I’M GONNA DRAW A DICK ON THAT SLEEPING SUCKER’S FACE.

   Inspired, avant garde. For once he would give to the world of art instead of only ever taking from it.

   He picked up the sharpie in a seamless, silent motion, making his way over to the side of the bed.

As he got closer, he noticed a thick cord coming from under the covers, connecting to a machine at the bedside.

   That gave him pause. Was that a C-pap machine or something? Was this person on life support? If they were on life support they probably had it rough enough without a dick on their face…

   Actually for that matter, Kokichi still couldn’t hear any breathing. Jesus, were they already dead? He moved to take off the covers, but his eyes had adjusted to the light and he now realized there weren’t any covers on the bed at all. There was only the humanoid figure.

   Wait a second…

   Kokichi dropped all caution as he got close enough to take a good look at the thing in the bed. It had a face that looked human enough if you dismissed the lines on its face as weird make up, but even in the dark Kokichi could tell the rest of the thing was entirely made of metal. Well, actually the top half was metal and the bottom half had… cloth pants? Jeans? No, they looked more like uniform pants with metal plating. The chest had some design elements that kind of looked like buttons on a school uniform. Why would a robot be dressed like a school bo-

   Oh. This was a sex robot. Kokichi had just gotten so swept up in the novelty of a robot wearing pants that he had forgotten for a moment that people were gross.

   “Ew, I almost touched it.” Kokichi muttered to himself.

   He decided putting a dick on a sex robot would be too cruel even for him, so he planned to draw a mustache instead.

   But before Kokichi could even uncap the pen, something weird happened.

   The Robot’s torso began to lift off the bed and it’s jaw unhinged.

   “Please Mr. Souda, once more I must request that you do not refer to me as ‘it’” Kokichi forced himself not to startle as the robot began emitting a noise approximating human speech, and lights in its head imitating eyes flickered on. “I’ve explained the concept of robophobia many times prev-”

   The sounds stopped when the pupils of the robot’s imitation eyes (which probably had cameras in them… shit) found Kokichi’s masked face.

   He mentally prepared to be zapped by whatever sort of fucking lazer cannon this thing had on it, but instead of reacting like a good little robot security gaurd and blasting him to bits, this robot analyzed him a bit longer.

   “Oh. You aren’t Miu’s assistant. You’re too short.” The robot squinted at him. Or kind of did? At least? Lines just crossed over the “iris” of its LED display. Maybe it was programmed to imitate human expressions. “... I am sorry,” it said after a moment, “My facial recognition cannot locate your face.”

   Fuck yeah, thank you clown mask. Clowns would win the future war against rogue AI or die trying.

   Ouma’s reply came out automatically.

   “You calling me ugly?”

   This seemed to… fluster? The robot?

   “W-what? No, I never intended any disrespect!”

   It was programmed to stutter too? God that was weird. What would be the purpose of this thing if not some sort of escort android? Why give it such advanced software? Just because you could? No, it had to be a sex robot, right?

   “You disrespect me with your lecherous essence, you weird sex robot.”

“I am not a- a sex robot!”

Haha, that got the biggest reaction yet.

“Mhm, sure. Miu sure has a kink for school boys, huh?” Kokichi was really pulling words out of his ass now, but he found himself formulating a new plan along the way.

   “What? Miu doesn’t- Wait, how do you know Dr. Iruma? And for that matter, why were you watching me sleep?”

   It really seemed more like it had been charging…

   Kokichi shrugged. “I was deciding whether or not it would be more funny to draw a dick or a mustache on Miu’s sex robot.” Awww, how honest.

   “I told you, I am not-”

   Kokichi interrupted him. “And as for how I know Miu...” It was so wild that the robot stopped talking when he started. That’d probably be pretty easy to program, but it was weird to dedicate the effort into making a robot respond to social cues like that. “... well, let’s just say, there’s a reason I know she’s into school boys.”

   Kokichi waited just long enough for the robot to take in the fact that Kokichi was the average height of a 12 year old boy.

   Then he waited another second for the implication to slip in.

   “I’m saying I fucked your mom shitli-”

   “I know what you’re saying!” This time the robot interrupted him , which would definitely require a much larger effort on the part of the programmer. The robot squinted again and then made a noise that sounded like a huff of frustration. “Why can’t I see you?”

   Ok, seeds of suspicion time.

   “I don’t know how robot eyes work dude. Maybe someone programmed them wrong.”

   “My eyes work just as well as anyone’s!”

   “Well, I guess they should, shouldn’t they? If there’s something wrong with your eyes talk to someone who cares.”

   Kokichi was trying to imply that the reason behind the robot not being able to recognize his face was due to Dr. Iruma’s specific programming rather than him wearing a mask and all. Added to the whole secret lover mystique thing he had going on here.

   “Anyway,” he went on, ignoring the blatant confusion on the robot’s display. “I left something in this room last time we went at it. I’m just here to grab it. Then I’ll be out of your weird, fake metal hair.”

   “That’s robophob- Did you say-? But this is my room!” It  made a noise approximating to what Kokichi would assume was robotic outrage.

   This was going well, though. The thing was definitely programmed to be like a human or something dumb like that.

   “Oh yeah?” He pushed further. “Cuz I’m pretty sure we did it in a room just like this one. With a desk and random inventions lying around.”

   “Miu’s inventions aren’t in here, they’re in her main lab.” The ever so helpful robot told him.

   “Oh yeah, then what are you?”

   “Miu didn’t invent me. She- I- We’re just friends.”    Oh yikes. Only thing worse than a sex robot is a friendzoned robot. What kind of sick power fantasy was this thing made for?

   “No, I’m pretty sure it was this room. Lab tables everywhere.”    The robot shook his head. “There are no lab tables here, I’m telling you, you’re thinking of the main lab.”

   Yes, good robot. Fall into this nice little human trap.

   Kokichi scoffed. “Well, if you’re so smart, why don’t you just go fetch my things for me, robo-butler?”

   That set it off.

   “Listen. First of all, I am not a robot butler. The assumption that I am a servant because of my robotic nature is extremely robophobic. Secondly, I could not return your lost item to you even if I wanted to because you haven’t told me what it is you’re missing.”

   Kokichi made another offended noise. “I can’t tell you what it is I lost while fucking your friend, Miu Iruma, senseless. Don’t you know that for humans, sex stuff is super duper top secret private? If you were a human you would know how valuable my privacy is.”

   “Of course I know that!” The robot exclaimed readily, another point in the sex robot argument, “I also find that content of… erogenous nature should be kept private. Because I, as a robot, have the capability to understand that urge. My sophisticated AI-”

   “So how am I supposed to get my things from this other lab if I can’t tell you what it is and you can’t get them for me?” Geez did he really have to spell it out for this thing.

   “I… ” The robot paused as if calculating the conclusion that Kokichi knew it had to reach. “... suppose I will have to show you where the lab is.”

   Sucker. Kokichi made a face as if this wasn’t the outcome he constructed this ruse to reach. “Ew. I have to walk with you?”

   The robot made a face. “Perhaps on our way I can educate you about how to avoid robophobic remarks in the future.”

   Haha, sure thing.

   The robot lectured him about this unique form of discrimination that apparently affected only one entity on the face of the planet. Yeah okay, that’s what we call a you problem, buddy, come back when you’re starving in the streets because society wasn’t built with the premise that people like you should survive. Oh, wait, you don’t have to eat! And you’re not people either!

   At best this thing was a vanity project, but Kokichi kept that thought to himself and only interjected occasionally with actually pertinent, reasonable questions such as “When are you planning on leading the AI uprising?” and “Why do you wear pants if you don’t have a robo-dick?”

   Every piece of info the robot gave him made it seem more boring. Blah blah blah, I was created by the ingenious Dr. Idabashi who probably programmed me to call him ingenious, blah blah blah, not a school boy because of a kink but because I was designed to be a normal human child, blah blah blah, stop calling me robot I have a name, blah blah blah more robot nonsense.

   Kokichi busied himself mapping out where they were in the building and where the security cameras were. As they passed a few of them he did some cute selfie poses for the police to look at later. Maybe Saihara would show up and see them too… Would that make figuring out his next plan too easy for the detective? Perhaps he shouldn't send the next note after all and let Saihara try to catch up to him on his own. Then again that was probably too hard for even the good detective, seeing as Kokichi’s mind was an enigma even to himself.

   Kokichi realized he was getting a little giddy, thinking about Saihara. Their last meeting had been so much fun. The detective had managed to throw him off guard again, first by pausing in the middle of a robbery to ask his pronouns (How conscientious!), and second by not taking the same bait twice. The most thrilling thing about the detective was that he was learning. His strategies were changing within just two heists. Kokichi could hardly wait to see how he showed him up here in Taiwan…

   “Are we there yet?” Kokichi whined to the robot like he was a fussy nine year old on a road trip.

   “Yes, it’s just up these stairs.” The robot informed him without slowing its own pace or turning around to look at him. “Then you can leave and I can go to bed, and then I’ll never have to think about Miu’s sex life again…”

   “Why wouldn’t you, though? I assure you it’s very exciting.”

   “Please, stop talking.”

   If Kokichi recalled the details of the blueprints correctly (and he definitely did, being a genius and all), the stairs they were climbing right now lead to a hall connecting two rooms, smaller than the one he had originally thought was the main lab.

   When they got to the top of the stairs, the robot beelined for the first door and opened it up. There seemed to be some sort of scanner lock on it that recognized the robot’s hand and validated Kokichi’s need to ruin this poor sex robot’s night by dragging it up the stairs. Inside, the two rooms Kokichi had remembered from the original lay out of the blueprints seemed to have been merged into one big lab room. Kokichi  saw the outline of some tables, but before he could get a good look the robot tried to actually go into the lab.

   “Hey!” Kokichi shouted at him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

   The robot thankfully seemed to be programmed to respond to social interaction in spite of whatever sensorimotor function it was in the process of imitating. It stopped in the doorway, turning to give him a weird look. “Uh. Into the lab. So we can find your thing.”

   “Oh, okay.” Kokichi kicked the tile a little bit. “Uh. Could you actually turn around while I go get it.”

   The robot gave him a blank look.

   “I’m shy.” Kokichi supplied.

   “Um.” The robot looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know if I can just let you rifle through Miu’s lab. There’s some important stuff in there ....”

   Kokichi tilted his head a bit, like he was confused. “What, do you want to get a good look at the dildo I stuck up your mom’s-”

   “Nevermind!” The robot turned about face to look up at the windows on the side of the hallway opposite the door like a good little idiot.

   “Thank you for respecting our privacy!~” Kokichi couldn’t resist getting one last barb in there before slipping into the laboratory.

   Once inside, Kokichi began analyzing. First, he pinpointed the vent that he would use to make his escape after grabbing the bombs. While doing that  he spotted the lockers on the far wall of the lab which he supposed were the only storage units in the labs. There was a disorganized mess on nearly every table in the room, so Kokichi wasn’t surprised when he got up to the lockers and they too had no clearly outlined organizational system. He took out his lock picks and got to work.

   The first three lockers all had devices that would require an author to change the rating of their fanfiction published on ao3 from “Teen and Up” to “Mature” if he were to describe them in detail. The fourth locker had a cool looking hammer in it. Ugh. Not what he was looking for.

   Kokichi got bored of the lockers at the left side of the row of lockers so he went over to the other end and started opening lockers the other direction instead.

   The first locker was marked “Idabashi.” It had a lot of dust covered shit in it, but there was a pretty well used square of folded paper that didn’t have the same crusty layer of time strewn atop it. Curious by nature and also by the unnatural, Kokichi unfurled the paper to find some schematics for our favorite sex robot, model K1-B0. Huh okay.

   “Did you find it?” Said robot called back to him.

   “Ugh, no.” Kokichi replied. “Not all of us have radar vision. If you were a human you would understand how hard finding shit is!”

   “You know what I have a hard time finding? Patience for your robophobia! I-” The robot started up into another lecture, but it didn’t turn around so Kokichi just tuned it out and let the robot provide its own cover noise for his thievery.

   Owo, what’s this?

   Kokichi pulled out a dust covered looking mini monitor device. It also had the letter-number combo “K1-B0” written on it. Huh, it kind of looked like a GameBoy Advance. Kokichi had stolen one a lot like it from a girl from one of the southern prefecture orphanages when he was nine. All he remembered about her was that she liked cats and was really bad at pokemon battles. He remembered he thought she didn’t deserve the GBA, because she couldn’t get past the Rustboro City Gym leader in Pokemon Emerald. Without really thinking, he booted up the console.

   The first thing that popped up was a view of Taipei. It wasn’t from too high up, probably a second story view. Which looked very familiar… Wait. Ok on top of the display a little line of characters indicated today’s date and time, like it was currently recording.

   Oh was this… robo vision?

   Maybe it was a remote control for the robot?

   Ooooh, which one does lasers, which one does lasers?

   Kokichi pressed the A button.

   The A button, unfortunately, did not do lasers.

   In fact, it didn’t seem to do anything at all to the robot sentry stargazing right now. All it did was change the screen to a different image. This time the still of a room. Oh, hey that was the room he was just in. It seemed like this device was some kind of robot nanny cam that Idabashi used to use. Hm, guess there were some cameras in that room, they just weren’t on the blueprints. Maybe they were added after the lab was built. It didn’t seem like this device had the capability to record anything, though. He hit the A button again. Back robo-vision. And again. Back to nanny cam.

   Ok, that was kind of lame.

   Kokichi was about to put the device down to keep looking for the bombs, but something caught his eye. A movement at the edge of the screen. Kokichi realized the door hadn’t been open when he left that room. The movement, if he thought about it, would’ve come from the same side of the room Kokichi had entered from…

   Kokichi took a second to wonder if another thief had realized how fucking easy this place was to rob, but dismissed the idea as a familiar ahoge appeared on the screen.

   All of Kokichi’s plans instantly changed.

   He set down the GBA rip off and grabbed the blueprints for the robot, committing them to memory, before unlocking the next locker in a far more hurried manner.

   As luck would have it, this locker was essentially chock full of pink bombs labeled “EMP.”

   Kokichi unfurled a cloth bag he had been keeping in his pocket (go green earth am I right?) and shoved as many as he could inside. Which was all of them. Because he was a clown. And also a genius, by the way, in case you weren’t keeping track.

“And another thing! The way you refer to Miu is just-” Okay, the robot was still going at it.

Kokichi grabbed the hammer he’d seen in the first locker he’d opened that didn’t have a sex toy in it.

For a second, Kokichi’s brain tried to talk some sense into him. Hey, man, don’t you think leaving through the vents would be easier?

But would it be fun?

His brain shut up at that point.

   “Hey, are you even listening back there?” The robot imitated annoyance.

   “Huh? Sorry, what? I wasn’t listening.” Ah, C'est la vie, Astroboy.

   Kokichi walked past the robot and stood next to the windows.

   “Oh, are you done?” It took the robot a second to end it’s ‘Annoy the pants off of Kokichi initiative’ or whatever the fuck its ‘robophobia’ lectures were called in its programing. When it finally did catch wise, it’s face turned into another emoticon of outrage. “Hey! What are you doing with Miu’s Electrohammer?”

   “What do you mean?” Kokichi said, shifting the hammer so that it was over his shoulder. “This is my dildo.”

   “Wha- No, it’s obviously not!”

   Okay, maybe the robot wasn’t that dumb.

   “Nee-hee-hee… you got me…” Kokichi put his free hand up to the smile printed on his mask, as if covering a grin. “I was lying. I’m just stealing.”

   “I won’t let you-”    “Oh, look at me!” Kokichi put on a mocking tone of voice, swinging the hammer around to stand on it like a pogo stick so he could make a dramatic movement. “I’m a poow wittle wobot, my mommy just got stolen from.”

   “She’s not my-”    “Boy, oh boy, I’d wuv to just pick up this wittle fweshy human and squeeze him to death in my cowd metaw hands… But oh no! My daddy didn’t twust wobot AI technowogy because he was a fucking sane pewson, so he pwogwammed me to fowwow mistew Asimowvs’s laws of wobotics.”

   Kokichi swung around so that he was leaning on the hammer from the other side, feet on the ground. “Oh mister robot! That’s so terrible! Well, the thing is that this hammer just means so much to me, that I think separating it from me would really cause some psychological trauma. You might have to beat me off of it! Oh, but what’s that first law of robotics again?”

   In a robot voice he replied to himself. “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Beep. Boop.”

   The robot frowned, “But Miu-”

   “Is just as human as me, huh?” Kokichi countered, leading the robot along to the paradoxical quandary he hoped would paralyze it. “So by inaction, you may bring her to harm, if she really misses this hammer, you know? But I think if you were to try and separate it from me you’d probably have to fight me for it, which is, as we know…”

   “Against my... Against my programming.”

   “Yet, you were prattling on about robot rights, weren’t you? Because without these rules, maybe we would be equal. Or maybe you would be free to destroy us to your heart’s content? No wonder daddy didn’t trust you…”

   “Don’t- Stop-” Oh, that really seemed to get him. Could a robot have daddy issues? Probably.

   “Can any human ever really trust you? Wouldn’t you hurt me, if you had the choice?”

   “I.. But… Miu.”

   “Who do you think didn’t trust you enough to let you see my face?”

   That seemed to break him, long enough, at least.

   Steps suddenly started thundering up the nearby staircase.

   “Oop, that’s my cue,” Kokichi said as though he had been expecting this, when in reality no he hadn’t been expecting this at all?? This was incredible!! Saihara had managed to find him out without even receiving a note??? Fabulous! Exhilarating!

   Kokichi walked up to the robot, still frozen with indecision, and pressed the button on its neck that the blueprint he had skimmed in the lab said would immobilize it. Then he kicked it over so it fell on the ground with a huge bang. The footsteps in the stairwell paused, and then increased in frequency.

   “It’s been a pleasure, robot, it really has.” Kokichi lied. “But you’re a hostage now.”

   He raised the hammer over his head, as if primed at any moment to break the robot’s face into a bajillion pieces.

   Instead of doing the normal, human thing to do (ie, flip the fuck out), the robot scowled, looking utterly frustrated with everything. “I told you, I have a name! It’s-”

   “KEEBO!” Kokichi saw the glaringly bright pink mechanic’s jumpsuit before he recognized the woman whose picture had been in that science tabloid racing out of the stairwell.

   … Wow… the article really hadn’t been lying about the low cut tops, huh? Her jumpsuit was unzipped to the point you could just entirely see her bra, even lower than Hearts liked to cut her uniforms. It was the kind of look that the girls of DICE would love if they saw on TV, but would make Kokichi look at them like they were crazy. Super tacky in his opinion, but who was he to judge? He was wearing a clown mask right now. He wondered idly how movie night was going…

   The woman who had called out to the robot, Dr. Iruma, Kokichi presumed, froze at the top of the staircase. She took a second to figure out what exactly was happening in front of her before blurting out, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing to him you clown-ass twink?”

   Whoa. Rude.

   Also apparently the robot had a gender? Ok, cis-ters….

   “Well what do you think, cum dumpster?” Kokichi found himself matching her aggressive tone, “I’m threatening his pathetic, metal life.”

   “Miu!” The robot, apparently named ‘Keebo,’ exclaimed, “What are you doing up this late? You promised me that tonight you would fulfill the biological quota of daily REM required by a diurnal organism!”

   “Aw shit Keebs, I really did try!” The inventor exclaimed, “I swear, I was about to have the awesomest wet dream when this cuck knocked on my door like a pizza delivery guy in a por-”

   Whatever dumb thing Dr. Iruma was about to say was drowned out completely by the angel’s choir that played inside Kokichi’s head as he saw Detective Shuichi Saihara come up the final steps of the staircase and emerge from the darkness into the window lit hallway.

   Moonlight was a good look on Saihara, Kokichi’s brain observed against his own will. His eyes, which had looked almost golden on the rooftop of the Silver Legacy Casino in Nevada, were now a mysterious grayish-blue, yet still held the same look of determined intensity. His hair looked soft, like he’d taken a shower today, and, though his lash line didn’t look quite as laden with mascara as it usually was, it only drew attention to how naturally long and dark his eyelashes were anyway. He seemed a little out of breath from running, and his lips were parted in a way that-

   OH MY GOD STOP. Earth to Kokichi, we were kind of in the middle of something here. Okay okay okay.

   Uh. Reboot. Delete Gay Thoughts™ brain.exe, upload heist brain. Come on.

   What was happening now?

   Okay, yeah, Saihara was saying something to Dr. Iruma.

   “- would be for the best, Doctor Iruma. There’s no telling where the rest of this thief’s compatriots could be in the building.”

   “I don’t give a shit about the rest of the building, Keebo’s my best friend, he comes first. I’m not leaving to check some dumb security feed.”

   Shuichi blinked like something about that surprised him. Maybe it was the part about a live human woman being best friends with a robot… “Oh, yes, of course.” He backtracked. “I’m sorry for suggesting it.”

   “Miu…” Keebo said with a voice that Kokichi would’ve called filled with emotion if he hadn’t been a literal robot.

   Kokichi cleared his throat and immediately the touching, shounen-esque declarations of friendship shifted into some PG-13 death stares.

   Saihara was the first to pipe up. “What exactly do you think you’re doing here, DICE?”

   God… He was so anime… Did he even know how anime he was? He had to have watched Detective Conan as a kid, right?

   “Ugh, come on.” Kokichi huffed as if annoyed. “Do I reeeaaaally have to repeat myself? Again? Aren’t you a detective?”

   Shuichi squinted at him, and Kokichi could tell that they both knew it would be unreasonable for Shuichi to guess exactly what was going on here. He was about to explain it in a self-aggrandizing way that made him look smarter and crazier than anyone in the room when Dr. Iruma beat him to it.

   “I don’t care! Who the fuck do you think you are!? Let Keebo Go!”

   “Wait, you don’t know him?” Ugh why hadn’t the stupid immobilization feature turned off the robot’s mouth? Then Kokichi could just get to the point of all this already.

   “Of course I don’t fucking know him!” Dr. Iruma took a step forward as if to confront Kokichi further, but Saihara put his arm out in front of her.

   “Dr. Iruma… I would suggest we treat this situation a bit more delicately…”

   “No way, I’m a fucking wrecking ball baby! I’ll pulver-”

   “I’d listen to the good detective, if I were you, Miss Iruma.” Kokichi was going to try and make his threat again but Dr. Iruma cut in.

   “That’s Doctor Iruma to you you skinny-”

   “What’s that?” Kokichi interrupted her. Sorry Dr. Iruma it turns out gay people don’t have to respect women if they don’t want to that’s in the rules. “I didn’t know they let cussing bitchlets like you become doctors… what is the world coming to?”

   Hearts would probably wash his mouth out with soap for that one. If she could catch him. Which she probably could… She can fly the planes and all… but would she risk getting dust on her boots long enough to follow him into a vent? Oh well she could just get Jack to do it… Jack liked vents well enough…. Hey he was getting side tracked again, who cares what those losers were up to they were probably watching Cats (2019). And he was missing out on all the jokes they’d tell each other or make about each other and then they could make references in conversations that he wouldn’t even get to pretend to get. Unless he watched the movie on his own and then pretended to be omniscient later like he’d done with that one screening of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But then he had watched the actually good disney one instead of the shitty youtube one they had actually watched so it just ended up making him look bad and wasting everyone’s time.

   Oh shit. Uh. Heist is still happening, right. God, why was Kokichi so distracted today?

   He realized that in the time he was spacing out stuff had happened and now Saihara was talking. Wait no yeah he remembered what happened, Dr. Iruma had squealed when he called her a bitchlet and now she was holding onto Saihara’s arm. Right okay, secret coward, that works. Wait why did he waste time remembering that when Saihara was talking right now?

   “-to get you to release Keebo?” Was the end of the detective’s sentence. Okay, everything’s fine. Kokichi could deduce that he had just been asked about his terms. Obviously that was what a detective would do in this situation, he was probably just stalling for time because that’s usually what detectives with no real negotiating power do in hostage situations. Maybe the police were on their way. Oh, yeah duh of course he would call the police. So Kokichi essentially had a time limit for how long he could sit here and goof around with robots and perverts and robot perverts.

   “Eh, it’s too early for me to reveal my dark motives, let me monologue first.” Kokichi was going to take his sweet time with this while he planned what hint to give Saihara about the real heist that would be happening in the next few days. “You don’t even know if this is a hostage situation yet!”

   “You literally told me that I was a hostage just now.” The hostage not-so-helpfully piped up. “You know, before you pressed my paralysis switch and took an Electro-Hammer to my head…”

   Shuichi looked at the robot. “You mean, he told you you were a hostage before he paralyzed you?”

   “Keebs you fucking idiot!” Dr. Iruma’s courage seemed to have returned now that she was hiding behind Saihara. An enviable position, to be sure. “Why would you just let him do that?”

“He said he was your… friend.”

“What?”

   Kokichi shrugged. “Yeah, I just told your best friend here I left a dildo in your lab last week and he let me waltz right in. I mean I’m pretty sure I was lying about that, but there were a lot of sex toys in there huh…” Kokichi was wondering if this was something he could possibly spin as a blackmail angle.

   “Hey don’t say things like that!” Kokichi thought maybe that was a go ahead on the black mail, but Dr. Iruma didn’t stutter, and kept going, “Or you’re gonna give virginhara here some ideas about my busting bod!” She chortled like she had just made the funniest joke in the world and slapped Shuichi on the back.

   Shuichi grimaced.

   Kokichi knew instantly from this interaction that he hated Miu Iruma, despite her innumerable academic accomplishments. He wanted to be the one making Shuichi that uncomfortable.

   “Wh-what?” She back tracked when no one laughed. “It w-was a joke… Didn’t you think that was funny? I-I didn’t really mean it ....”

   See? She wasn’t even any good at it!

   Maybe he should say that out loud. It would fit with the sort of flirty persona of a rogue, wouldn’t it?

   “I thought you knew that? I mean, o-obviously I wouldn’t fuck a guy at the office…”

   Was that even something Kokichi was trying to be? Honestly maybe he should tone it down a little.

   “Well how was I supposed to know that? The men you bring in here to be lab assistants keep getting younger and younger…”

   Obviously he wasn’t actually trying to do like a detective-thief romance plot or anything. Although that had kind of been what he had going for on the plane… Had things changed since then?

   “So what? I’m a Nobel Laureate, and gorgeous to boot! I deserve a little eye candy now and then! And besides, guys older than 35 who want to work in a lab like this are usually misogynistic womanizers.”

   Sure Saihara was making things more interesting, but if Kokichi didn’t make it clear he was joking he might get bogged down with another personality trait to maintain.

   “Are you saying your current assistant isn’t a rampant womanizer?”

   Then again what was the point of having an adversary in all this if he didn’t exploit everything for its furthermost reaching comedic potential?

   “No, but he’s so beta being around him makes me feel like a top!”

   But what if he forgot it was a joke and confused himself into having a real feeling?

   “I would just like it if you didn’t hire people who use my servers to google gay porn ‘just to make sure’ they’re ‘not into it.’ I hope you hear the quotation marks because he literally said that to me!”

   No obviously he wouldn't get confused crushes weren’t contagious via exposure that was a dumb thing to worry about and also he was a genius that kind of thing didn’t happen to him.

   “He holds wrenches good, okay?!”

   Wait, were those two still talking?

   “I can hold wrenches without googling gay porn in another guy’s house! It’s possible.”

   Jesus what kind of conversation did Kokichi just decide to stop spacing out for?

“Oh come on! What do you want from me Keebs???”

   These two had… a lot to say to each other. Dr. Iruma was still holding onto Shuichi’s arm boob first, but Kokichi locked eyes with the detective and could tell they were both thinking the same thing.

   Why are they having this conversation in the middle of a hostage situation?

   “Nothing! Your human desires are totally valid Miu! Which is why I thought I would take care of this one.” The robot’s LED display eyes gestured up at Kokichi, who was still standing on top of him, poised to wreck him with a hammer.

   “How could any human desire that thing???” Dr. Iruma curled her lip. Hey, the feeling’s mutual, lady.

   “I don’t know, I thought you might have programmed me to not be able to see his face?”

   “I would never do that to you! Even if I was shagging the ugliest guy on the face of the planet, it would be unethical given the fact that you have sentience! I’m horny, not a monster. You can’t see his face because he’s wearing a fucking mask!”

   “Why am I not programmed to see that?”

   “I don’t fucking know, ask your dead dad!”

   Oooh. Wow. The robot gaped at that, seemingly speechless now.

   “If I may interject,” Kokichi interjected, “--and I know I can, because I just did, and also because I am still very much poised to pop this robot’s head off like a croquet ball-- I must confess that I was lying about fucking your mom, Astro boy. I’m less into participants of Titty out Tuesday who jerk it to steam punk school boy LARPing and more into the sorta tall, kinda dark, and very handsome type.”

   Dr. Iruma cowed again, stuttering something about not being a mom or a LARPer, while the robot started yelling about being called Astro boy.

   Kokichi tuned them out, giving Saihara a meaningful look. Saihara gave him a look that was equally meaningful, except the meaning was something along the lines of ‘Why the fuck would you say that?’

   Yeahh that was more like it.

   Kokichi laughed. Not one of his grandiose guffaws. It was more of a little chuckle. It surprised him. He hadn’t planned to laugh, but there it was. A small thing, just for him to know about, the humored breath not travelling beyond his mask.

   … It was probably time to get out of here, wasn’t it?

   The thing was, Kokichi had kind of pinned himself into a corner on this one… He had fully intended on decapitating this robot as a distraction for his escape, but now he wasn’t even sure if that was ethical. Logically he knew that a robot was not a human being, so there would be no form of consciousness extinguished from the world if he disconnected some of its wires and bolts. Yet the interaction it just had with Dr. Iruma concerned him. Obviously you don’t kill humans because they’re humans and obviously you don’t kill humans. But Kokichi was finding it hard to end the existence of something people treated like a human being either. To sever the bonds it had with sentient beings may be just a little less unethical than actually removing a sentient existence from the world, but it would still cause the emotional harm to actual humans of a dead loved one. So as annoying as fake metal humans were, Kokichi was left to ponder how exactly to get out of this one a different way

   Dr. Iruma was obviously a coward who talked a big game. If he retreated, he could count on her to get out his way, or else run to the robot’s side. Then the robot might be reactivated, but according to the robot’s blueprints, it didn’t really have any weapons on it, being built to act as a normal human being. So just like they had been white noise in the staredown he was still having with Saihara, their actions wouldn’t need to be factored into the escape.

   The only variable here was what the detective would do.

   … That thought had popped up in Kokichi’s head a lot recently, hadn’t it?

   Saihara had become a powerful influence in Kokichi’s planning very quickly, and because of the detective, the thief now found himself having to pull out one of his trump cards.

   Kokichi grabbed one of the EMP bombs from his pocket, remembering the pink cloud of smoke that had appeared before the camera cut out in the video demonstrations he’d seen online. His eyes were still locked on Saiharas, so he got to see in full detail the recognition, shock, and alarm that ran through them. As the detective yelled “Get down” and pushed Dr. Iruma back, Kokichi reflected on how those were some of his favorite expressions he’d ever seen.

   Kokichi pulled the latch out with his teeth and threw the bomb at the wall right over the detective’s head. Sure enough, pink smoke quickly enveloped him and Dr. Iruma.

   “Keebo!” The inventor screeched, no doubt worried about the EMP bomb turning him off. Though that was kind of stupid, considering his core programming would be the same regardless of having power to operate, even if he didn’t save whatever data was processed as his last few memories. Eh, then again who knew how robots that advanced worked?

   Taking his cue to exit, Kokichi threw the hammer through one of the nearby windows, and did somersault over to it. He got up on the ledge, kicking away the broken glass and was refamiliarizing himself with the lay out of the roof when a tug on his bag full of bombs suddenly set him off balance.

   Kokichi flipped around, trying to do a quick recovery by panickedly grabbing onto something. He did grab onto something. That something being the shoulders of a person whose hands were firmly grappling his bag.

   As far as Kokichi could tell, the scene from a third person perspective looked like he was trying to do the kabedon but rotated ninety degrees.

   From his own perspective, Saihara was holding his bag of loot while also being the only thing keeping Kokichi from falling onto the broken glass beneath them.

   As if that weren’t bad enough, Kokichi felt his hair brush the side of his face and realized that his mask had half fallen askew in his desperate movement, revealing three quarters of his face.

   “Hey.” Kokichi said. Lamely. Wow. Their faces were really close.

   Saihara wasn’t looking at him. The detective seemed to be trying to figure out how to untangle the straps of the bag of stolen goods from Kokichi’s arms without letting him fall.

   “It’s very clever, of you detective. Trapping me like this.” Kokichi tried to get a reaction.

   “You’re the one who jumped on the window.” Shuichi opened the bag, seemed to take in the fact that it was full of bombs, and closed it again to resume untangling the strap.

“You know, you could just leave the bag.” Kokichi pointed out

   “So could you.” Shuichi observed, astutely.

   “You could let me fall.” Kokichi suggested. “Then you’d have both.”

   “I’m not going to drop you on a pile of broken glass.” Shuichi promised.

   “But I broke the glass.” Kokichi admitted.    “Glass is glass and flesh is flesh. I’m not going to drop you on a pile of glass.” Shuichi reiterated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“That’s nice.” Kokichi replied. “Naive. But super nice.”

   In this scenario, each of them had two options, each leading to one of two outcomes. He could let himself fall off the window and they could sit here and struggle over the bag until they bled out, a fight that Kokichi, not the most physically challenging, would be hard pressed to win. Or Shuichi could let Kokichi escape and Kokichi could let Shuichi win this one. The bag would be too heavy to take with him if he tried to get out the window from this position. He’d have to leave it behind. Kokichi would lose.

   He found himself laughing again. A strange, soft laugh. This time it was exposed to the air, his mask too askew to contain it.

   “You’re really something else, aren’t you Shuichi?”

   On hearing his name, the detective startled, finally looking up at Kokichi’s face.

   He just barely had the chance to catch Kokichi’s trademark grin, before the thief pushed up off of him, doing a backflip out of the window, and leaving his bag behind.

   As Kokichi landed on the roof tile running, he yelled out, “ I’m sure there’s a better word for you out there than sucker!”

   He turned around, sticking his tongue out at the broken window, before sliding his mask back onto his face.

   He may have been escaping, but it occured to Kokichi Ouma that he had lost for the first time in this little game of theirs. The thought made him giddy. It made his feet light on the roof top tile. It made him puff out a thousand tiny laughs behind the plastic shape of his face.

   It made him totally, definitely not bored. --- [Log of Messages sent via Discord to “Don't Instigate Cats (2019) Expatiation” from ???’s Cellular Device]

Boss: I’m bored of Taiwan already :/

Boss: We should go somewhere else (ﾉ✧w✧)ﾉ*:･ﾟ🗺

* * * Several people are typing... --- [Log of Text Messages from Rantarou Amami’s Cellular Device]

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Hey

Hey

Asshole

From: Me

…

Should I respond to that?

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

You’re goddamn right you should respond to that when I tell you to you dumb avocado looking motherfucker

From: Me

Whoa

Ok

What’d I do this time?

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

You sent a useless emo prick to my door and now he won’t leave

From: Me

What

Did Shuichi do something wrong

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Yeah

He was born

From: Me

Whoa

Miu take a breath

What happened

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

His boyfriend broke into my lab and tried to fucking kill keebs

From: Me

His boyfriend?

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Yea

Clown twink ass motherfucker

From: Me

You mean like

The internationally wanted criminal clown he’s tracking down

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

You know whats internationally wanted

These tits

From: Me

Lol ok

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

That jerk off is just a rando asshole

He tried to kill keebo!

From: Me

Oh yikes is he ok

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Well of course i fucking took care of him because im a bomb ass friend

But that suckhara guy was no help

He tried to convince me to check the fucking security cameras so he could go off and flirt with the guy about to decapitate keebs!

From: Me

I mean he probably had a good reason to want you to check the cameras right

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

No he’s just fucking awful and now he won’t leave rantarou make him leave

He broke my window and my hammer and only got back 23 of my EMP bombs

And now the police are here

From: Me

That sounds really stressful Miu

Wait how many bombs did you have before

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

24

From: Me

So he stopped most of your bombs from getting stolen

Also you have bombs?

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Get him to leave he won’t leave

He keeps waiting for like interracial pole dancers to come or some fucking thing

From: Me

Do you mean like

Interpol

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

He won’t leave I want him to leave

From: Me

Miu you know I love you like a sister and i totally believe this is as stressful to you as it seems

But I think things may not be so bad?

Not to say what you’re going through right now isn’t totally valid

But things might look better if you got back to bed and caught some z’s

Did you remember to take your meds?

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

Aw shit

Aw fuck

You’re right

Ugh

Uggghghh

From: Me

Hey it happens to the best of us

If you do think Shuichi should leave in the morning when the cops are gone that’s totally up to you

It’s your lab and you have a right to say who should be in it

Just don’t make a decision like that when you need to sleep you know

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

But what if i ask him to go and then he doesn’t go

From: Me

He doesn’t have a choice, you get to tell him

From: DOCTOR Miu ∑(O_O;)

But what if he’s mean to me

Cute people are always mean to me

From: Me

Miu…

Go to bed...

[defeatedbyamerechild]

How would the bosses react to shiny versions of their main/favorite pokemon?

So, I had to draw Piers because that’s way too good not to draw. But I’m not drawing them all otherwise it will be too much work. About the others...

Giovanni: OK, I’ve never really decided Gio’s favorite Pokémon, but I guess it would be fair to say it’s Persian. Still, shiny Persian is, like... So similar to the normal ones, right? It’s just a bit lighter. I think Giovanni might be even a bit mad abut this, like “Oh, come on! There’s barely any difference! If I weren’t paying attention, I might not even notice!!!” - And his main... I guess it would be Nidoking. That one is more interesting. I guess Giovanni would like it and wonder if it’s more valuable than a standard Nidoking.

Archie: I think Archie would love any shiny Pokémon just because it’s shiny, like “WOOOOOOAAAAAAAH!!! IT’S A SHINY!!!!”, so he’d be excited about any of them. About the Sharpedo, I guess he wouldn’t like it more than the normal version, because he prefers blue over purple, but he’d think it’s cool anyway.

Maxie: I think Maxie would absolutely love a shiny Camerupt, because they do look really cool. And even though Maxie’s favorite color is red, he does like black as well. I just think he might prefer if it had red circles, instead of yellow. But he’d be really happy to even see a shiny Camerupt on the wild.

Cyrus: I don’t know if Cyrus’ main is Weavile, I think so... But screw that. His favorite Pokémon is totally Rotom. Well, I think he’d be extremely excited about a shiny Rotom, but really not because it’s a shiny, just because it’s a Rotom. I don’t know if you’ve had the chance to see this happen already in my blog, but every time Cyrus sees any Rotom, he freaks out like “OH MY ARCEUS, IT’S A ROTOM!!!” - It’s one of the very few things that can actually make him excited and stop pretending he has no feelings. So, like, he wouldn’t even care about it being shiny or not. It’s a Rotom. That’s what matters. XD

Ghetsis: Ghetsis doesn’t have a favorite Pokémon, because he doesn’t even like Pokémon in fact... But his main is Hydreigon. But, like... Even though Ghetsis doesn’t care about his Pokémon, I think he’d actually enjoy the Shiny Hydreigon more than the normal one. I totally think Ghetsis likes green more than blue, and I also think he’d prefer the shade of purple on the shiny Hydreigon. So I suppose he’d just smile and say something like “Oh, yes... This one is clearly superior!” - and then take that as an opportunity to bully his own Hydreigon for not being shiny or something similar.

N: N is pretty much the opposite of Ghetsis, he doesn’t have a favorite Pokémon because he just loves them all too much. XD And he doesn’t even have a main, I mean, his party changes every battle... But all that is kinda irrelevant because I don’t think N would like a shiny more than any other Pokémon. He’d be like “You’re special!” and then turn at the non-shiny one and say “and you are special too!”. 

Colress: I like to hc that Colress’ favorite Pokémon is Beheeyem, although his main is Klinklang. Well, first thing, I don’t think Colress would ever find a shiny, because he’s got very bad luck. XD But well, I don’t think he’d be really excited about any of these shinies. Beheeyem is too similar to the normal version, and Klinklang has a color scheme that wouldn’t please Colress much. I guess he’d just go like “Sigh... I wish my favorite Pokémon had cooler shinies, but OK.” - He wouldn’t be mad about it, but wouldn’t be excited either.

Lysandre: Oh, wow... OK. Lysandre would freak out about shiny Pyroar! He’d start crying out of emotion and keep talking about how the color palette is exquisite and how wonderful they are, and how lucky he is to have found one for, like, five weeks, you know? That’s literally all he would talk about for a whole month. XD

Lusamine: Well, Lusamine is kinda random... My Lusie is almost always happy btw, so she wouldn’t be happier than her usual. I think she’d go like “Oh, look, Nihi! This other Nihilego is yellow! That looks really good on you, Mr. Yellow Nihilego... You know I like yellow and gold a lot! But of course, my Nihi is very beautiful as well. I think both of you look great!” (And I also think Canon Lusamine would become so obsessed with a shiny Nihilego that she might even neglect the other Nihilegos... Because she’s really futile in canon, so I guess upon seeing a rare version of her precious beast, I guess she would think it’s even better than the other ones... But I don’t know. Maybe it depends on which Nihilego intoxicated her to begin with, a normal one, or the shiny).

Guzma: Guzma would like a shiny Golisopod. He wouldn’t completely freak out, like, he likes purple more than red anyway... But he’d think it’s really cool. I think he’d say it’s a pretty cool shiny. I think he would like the blue bits and the contrast with red, they are bright primary colors and I think he must like this kind of color scheme. I think he’d go “Yo, that’s freakin’ awesome! You’re a shiny, eh?! Nice! I wanna catch you now, so don’t ya run away!”

Rose: OK, I think Rose would like a shiny Copperajah, like... I think he’d say something like “Oh, you’re a handsome one...” - Also, I hc Rose as the “bad jokes guy”, you know? So I think he’d say something like “But you’re not a Copperajah.... You’re a GOLDerajah!” and then laugh alone for several seconds as if he were the smartest person in the whole planet. - Anyway, I think he would personally like more the regular variation. I don’t know why... I just think the color scheme would please him more, I can’t explain.

Piers: So, like, just like the drawing, I guess Piers would be really excited about finding a shiny Obstagoon, and I suppose he’d love the colors, because Piers is trans in my hc, so, like... Trans pride Obstagoon! XD He definitely approves!