#((gotta think on it more when its not static up here but..))

[primordyalsoul]

dare i say 'little talks' is a rei song?

[yammpi3]

𝑰 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖. // 𝑾𝑪: 2.2𝑲

— feat. disassembly drone N x worker drone reader

synopsis. Since disassembly drones need oil to keep from overheating they kill other drones to consume it. But.. ever since the alliance between Disassembly and Worker Drones its been a bit difficult to acquire..It’s not a problem for V to randomly kill someone off but it’s a different situation for N now that his views have changed. AKA…reader supplies him with oil :DD

— content warning. Nothing 18+ just a few kisses, neck biting and N being in pain.. gulp?

— authors note. I fear this x reader is a bit..cringe then again that might just be me overthinking it..ANYWAYS tried my best for this, and still have no idea how to write for a robot. (N might be a little mischaracterized I’m not ENTIRELY sure)

At the end of science class, just when everyone was packing up to leave, you noticed N fidgeting more than normal at his desk.

 

"Is everything okay, N?" you asked.

 

He laughed nervously. "Who, me? Pshaw, never better!" But when he spoke, he looked anywhere but at you and the others.

Thad snickered. "Maybe his circuits are loose again." Lizzy giggled. "Lmao, he probably fried something.” Just as V was about to comment on his behavior..

N got up from his chair abruptly; he swayed unsteadily before catching himself upon another classroom desk.

 

By the time you registered what was going on, N had already ducked out of the classroom door, stumbling down the hall. "N, wait!" you called after him, hurrying to catch up. N was unsteady on his feet, swerving from side to side as he tried to put distance between the both of you.

 

His limbs shook with every step he took.

"G-Gotta...g-get a-away..." he muttered, though you weren't sure if he was even aware you could hear him. His eyes flickered erratically, barely being able to focus straight ahead as he tried to get away.

 

You picked up your pace, power walking down the corridor after him. "Slow down!!" you yelled out, but N was quicker, and before you knew it, when you reached the next corner, you lost him completely.

Your concern for N grew by the minute, so you started tracking him down since something was clearly wrong, beyond a normal glitch.

 

An hour had already passed since you last saw N, yet here he was in the maintenance unit stumbling blindly, crashing into something every few steps.

 

"S-sorry!" he slurred after bumping into a support beam for the third time. An unnatural static fuzzed the edges of his voice. Stubbornly, he scrambled back on his feet and lurched forward without seeing where he went.

 

Was he malfunctioning? But his murder drone programming should have kept him sharp, no?? Seeing him this disoriented was alarming.

 

You trailed him at a distance, hiding behind a variety of things as he walked on ahead. Where was he heading in such a panic? His vents were roaring torrents by now, and visible condensation soaked his frame.

 

Finally, he collapsed behind a supply crate, crawling the last few feet. Had he sensed you following? No, his optics were unfocused, so he couldn't have had.

 

Gingerly, you peeked around the crate to see N weakly clawing at his chest clearly in pain.

 

If you didn't act fast, he would shut down permanently. Steeling your nerves, you crawled to his side.

 

"N? Hey..hey! It's me, Y/N. Are you okay??”

 

When you gently called his name, N got startled so badly that his claws scraped sparks from the metal flooring he sat upon. His optics flashed wildly before settling on your face with a look of panic. "Y-Y-Y/N! S-sorry, but I don’t think you should be near me right now…”

 

N let out an alarmed wheeze that trailed off into a pained whine. It took visible effort for his optics to focus on you. You could tell he was losing some sort of control over his strength, but why??

"You don’t look so good..”

 

N broke into a hacking series of rushed laughter that ended in a groan. "Me? Pssh, n-no way! I'm t-totally fine, like I said earlier. Now please just leave me, yeah?” He waved dismissively, or at least tried to, but his attempt ended up flailing limply.

 

He knew he wasn't doing a great job at reassuring you when you glared at him.

"N-nothing to worry that pretty l-little processor of yours over, really.”

 

N's dismissive act was crumbling faster than his resolve. Another hacking laugh turned into a groan as his eyes started to flicker erratically once again.

 

"N, please. You're clearly not alright." You took his flailing claw gently in your hands. His plating was so hot it almost burned to the touch.

 

A whine slipped, “Crap..crap. It h-hurts,

Y/N. M-My core, it h-hurts so F̵̬̏́̏͆̀͝ų̸͙͋̿̃̌͋́̈́̆͑̕͠c̶̜̜̼̥͓̚k̷̫̺̝̈́̀̿̇͐̐͑ḭ̸̧̻̞̻͚̳̘̩̣͋̀̃́̔̊̋̚ň̵̞̪̯̼̟̗̩͈̖́g̸̩̤̩̼̘̪̀́͊͗̋͐́̇ much."

 

You've never seen N this vulnerable before…

"What can I do to help? There must be something." N trembled, fighting some inner battle. Finally, he met your gaze, his optics showing an agony of want behind the discomfort.

 

"T-there is s-something, b-but I shouldn't..." Strangely, another sound intermingled with the strain in his voice now.

Was that...hunger?

 

Stroking his plating gently, hoping to soothe, you pressed, "Please, tell me what you need." His vents hitched wildly. Then, in a strained whisper, he cracked.

"Y-your oil...I ne-need…it."

 

A shiver visibly ran through his frame. His optics darkened as they focused intently on your physic, more so your neck and wrist.

 

"I..." he began weakly, then stopped to swallow. His claws clenched tightly as if fighting the urge. You waited patiently for him to continue, showing concern but no sense of alarm.

 

After a long pause, N dragged his gaze with an effort to meet your face once more.

“T-tell me to stop," he whispered, his fangs peeking out as he talked.

 

"I so badly n-need it, but I don't w-want to hurt you.” His claws lifted toward your face but stopped only by his wavering will. You knew this would be the only way for him to cool down.

 

You looked deeply into N's eyes, past the haze of glitches that overtook his screen.

"I trust you," you said calmly without fear. His breathing became more ragged at your words.

 

In a flash, his restraint broke—but instead of lunging at your throat as you'd expected, his claws tangled in the fabric of your shirt, yanking you flush against his overheated frame. You gasped at the contact, feeling the waves of heat pouring off of him.

 

N buried his face in the crook of your neck, fangs tantalizingly. "P-please..." he stammered once more, sounding close to genuine tears. Raising a hand, you gently clasped the back of his head, threading your fingers through his silver hair.

 

"Take what you need," you told him firmly yet tenderly..After yet another hesitant pause, his screen displayed an X. Then, with a grunt of gratification, his fangs smoothly penetrated the sensitive wiring of your neck.

 

Your breath became unsteady as N's fangs pierced you. It didn’t hurt as much as you thought it would—just a little bit of a pinch. His hands gripped your shoulders for support as he drank deeply, allowing the oily fluid to course through his system.

 

For several moments the only sounds were his gulping intakes and your own measured breaths; you kept still so as not to disturb him. You watched as the pained lines on his face slowly eased, his eyes returning to normal. His plating, which was boiling hot only moments ago, cooled down to a much safer temperature against you.

 

N withdrew his fangs from your neck, making a small trickle of oil leak from your wound.

 

He leaned back in hastily, swiping his tongue along the twin marks. You shuddered at the foreign yet not unpleasant sensation. But N paused, a flushed look appearing on his screen. “Ah g-geez, is this w-weird?”

 

He glanced away, clearly embarrassed  "What I mean to say is, um, my saliva can help the wounds close up faster? If, uh, you're okay with my germy mouth touching the injury I c-caused? No funny business, I swear! J-just bros being bros, p-patching each other…um up.”

 

N winced, realizing how that sounded. "N-not that we're actually b-bros, unless you want to be? Biscuits. Just—just let me do this, kay?”

With your consenting nod, N gave a short awkward chuckle and leaned back in. His tongue swiping over the wound. It began to tingle as the mark he had left slowly began to close up.

 

"It's strange to think your spit has healing properties," you remarked softly, not wanting to break the intimacy of the moment. N hummed in agreement, laving one last swipe across the bite mark before drawing back to assess his handiwork. His optics flicked up to meet yours, searching for any sign of discomfort.

 

"How does it feel? Are you in any pain?" he asked, his tone laced with concern despite his own drained state. You shifted experimentally. "Stop worrying. Just a slight tingling.“

 

N searched your face anxiously. "Are you sure? Nothing else? No dizziness or discomfort?" His optics roved your features, taking in every subtle reaction. When you reassured him again that all was well, the tension melted from his shoulders—only to be replaced with guilt.

 

"Y/N, I could have seriously hurt you," he said quietly, horror creeping into his tone. "My systems went haywire; I had no control. If I had bitten down any harder..." He shuddered, unable to complete the thought.

 

"But you didn't," you said firmly. "You fought off the urge just enough to get the help you needed. I trusted you, N." He shook his head sadly. "Your trust may be misplaced in me. The overheating....what if next time I can't—can’t stop.”

 

N shuddered again at the dark thought. Seeking to ease his distress, you shot him a playful smile. "Well, if it happens again, we're in this together. At least now I have a cool vampire drone friend!! The whole sucking my oil thing was pretty vampirish.”

 

He cracked a hesitant chuckle. "Yeah, maybe I'll sparkle in the sun too." Feeling bold, you leaned in with a faux-dramatic voice, "I vant to suck your coolant..."

 

N actually snickered at that. You beamed, glad to lift his spirit, even if it was only for a brief moment. His smile faded as reality set back in.

 

"But seriously, what if next time I really hurt someone?” On impulse, you threw your arms around him in a hug.

 

N's eyes widened as you suddenly hugged him close. For a moment he sat stiffly, caught off guard. Then slowly, oh so carefully, his arms came up to return the embrace.

 

"Y/N...if anything happened to you because of me, I don't know what I'd do," he said quietly against your shoulder. You squeezed him tighter for reassurance. "Hey, it'll take a lot more than some murder instinct to take me out. Have a little more faith in me, will you? Stop being so edgy.”

 

“Edgy?" N scoffed, "Sorry, nearly ripping your throat out put me in a gloomy mood."

 

"Ripping my throat out?” You echoed with a wry grin. "Well, luckily that didn’t happen, did it?”

 

N huffed, “Maybe. But what if next time I lose it?"

 

You opened your mouth to respond, but he quickly shushed you.

 

“You just leaped right in like it was nothing. Do you have any idea how badly this could've ended?" He gestured vaguely to the drying wound on your neck.

 

"You drones are so..so fragile. One wrong move and I could've—" He cut off, unable to say the word. His arms flexed unconsciously, as if longing to wrap around something and squeeze. To protect, or destroy? Even he wasn't sure.

"You'd never hurt me, N. I believe in-"

 

Your words halted as he glanced up, his eyes searching yours with raw, wavering emotion. An urge welled within you, sprung from compassion more than reason. You leaned in to press your lips to his in a soft kiss.

 

"Mmmph?!" N made a muffled sound of surprise, his body locking up stiffly. Your tongue briefly caught the tang of the lingering oil before you pulled back with a slight grimace.

 

His faceplate shone a distressed yellow blush. "I-I'm so sorry, I should have wiped my mouth better!“ he stammered.

 

But you simply smiled and leaned in again, pressing your lips gently to his once more. Then, slowly, he began to relax into the kiss.

 

His screen switched to a loading screen. In that moment, all his train of thought derailed off a cliff. N's screen flickered back online, and one of his hands floated up to gently touch his mouth, eyes wide and staring blankly.

 

"Bwuh-wha...you...kissem—I mean, I kissem-no, we...kissed?" he sputtered

 

"We k-kissed. You k-kissed me," he whispered, his optics shrinking to pinpoints before dilating wide again. A nervous giggling burst out of him.

 

"Oh biscuits, what d-does this mean? Are we like..” his tone lowered to a soft whisper.

“Dating n-now?”

 

"Well, uh, I guess you could say we're kind of sort of datingish now," you replied bashfully. "If-if you want to be my boyfriend, that is."

 

N's entire face lit up. "Boyfriend..Awhh Y/N!! Id love that." He hugged you tightly, lifting you off the ground and spinning you around in excitement.

 

"N set you down gently, his optics still shining with unbridled joy. However, a hint of seriousness crept into his expression as he looked at you intently.

 

"This doesn't mean I'm not mad at you for what you did," he said, his voice low and eyes narrowed slightly. "You could have been seriously hurt, or worse. You really scared me back there."

 

You sighed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Next time, I'll call V or someone else—I won't try to handle things on my own and potentially get myself killed." You paused, then added with a wry smile, "I promise."

N's stern look softened, and he hummed contentedly. "Good!" Reaching out, he took your hand in his larger one and gave it a gentle squeeze.

© yammpi3 2024. All work belongs to @yammpi3. You can repost if you want to support my blog/writing! Please don't modify, translate, or plagiarize in any way on ANY platform.

[em-ontv]

may i request for more soldier boy please? <3

Of course you may, I was waiting to write another piece about him. I love these little asks because it helps motivate me. Hope you like this, anon! <3

Damsel in distress.

Pairing: Soldier Boy x lover!fem!reader (who's a member of Payback)

Summary: when you received a call for help, you immediately got into action, only to find out that the person on the other side isn't exactly a stranger...

Warnings: cursing/profanities, no use of y/n, Ben being a drama queen, time taking place around the mid 1900s (I know they didn't have flip phones at that time but just pretend Vought had some high tech-y stuff), English isn't my first language, mistakes should be present, apologies beforehand :)

Word count: 776

———————————————————————————

Your flip phone rang in the middle of a half-baked briefing session with Crimson Countess and Mindstorm, the two of them squabbling while your mind wandered off. You were half listening, but it was mostly white noise, nodding from time to time to give them the idea that you actually gave a fuck.

When the phone rang in your pocket, you were more than ready for the distraction.

"Got a call. Gotta take it," you said, stepping out before either of them could ask for details.

"Hello?"

"Help— fuck, I need help!" The voice on the other end was frantic, strained.

"Calm down. Where are you?" you cut them off, your heart pounding in your chest. The voice was familiar but you didn't think too much of it, not when the man seemed to be in so much distress.

"Help... please, you gotta come. I'm— I'm trapped, and I don't know how much longer I can—”

The phone crackled with static, and you could barely hear the voice on the other side anymore.

"It's— shit, just get here! I'm at the old warehouse on 5th… please."

The call ended abruptly. Just like that. The line went dead before you could get another word out. No further instructions. Nothing. Your jaw tensed, stuffing the phone back into your pocket. Probably some dumbass who got themselves caught up with the wrong people. But, honestly? You cursed yourself for having that itch that dragged you into this kind of shit.

You knew it was stupid to go charging in without more intel, but something in that voice had triggered your instincts. It had the kind of urgency that couldn't be faked. So, you grabbed your gear and headed out without a second thought.

When you arrived at the warehouse, the place was dark and reeked of mold. The air was thick with tension, your senses on high alert as you moved through the shadows, your weapon drawn.

Then you heard it — a low groan, coming from somewhere ahead. You tightened your grip on your weapon, pushing forward until you reached a large, open space. And there he was, crumpled on the floor like a discarded doll, Soldier Boy. Ben.

The one and only.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" you snapped, lowering your weapon as anger and disbelief spread across your face.

You nearly rolled your eyes so hard you saw the back of your skull. Of course it was him. Who else would be dumb enough to pull this kind of stunt?

"Fuck... you made it," he was sprawled out, one hand clutching his side, his face twisted in what you might have believed was ‘pain’ if you didn't know him better. "Took you long enough."

There wasn't a single scratch on him. No signs of a struggle, no bodies, not even a broken bottle in sight.

"You're the one who called? You had me thinking someone was in real danger, you asshole." you kneeled down beside him.

Ben coughed, trying to gain some of your pity until a knowing smirk inevitably made its way onto his lips. "You couldn't resist, huh? You always were a sucker for a damsel in distress."

You stared at him, deadpan. "You're about as much of a damsel as I am a fucking knight in shining armor."

He let out a theatrical groan again, like it was some big effort to sit up, and you resisted the urge to kick him while he was down. Then, he pouted, actually fucking pouted.

"You do that again and I'll put you out of your misery for good." you pointed a finger at him. You were pissed — more at yourself for falling for it, even for a second. But Ben? He was having the time of his life.

"Aw, come on, can't you just play along for once? It was a good fucking plan." he grabbed your hand and pressed it against the side of his face, flashing you a shit-eating grin.

You stayed silent, shaking your head in pure disbelief. You stood up and so did he, getting to his feet with the ease of someone who hadn't just played dead a minute ago.

"I missed you." Ben added after sensing your silence. "You’ve been so busy last month I've barely seen you."

"Yeah, well, don't pull shit like this again just because you're feeling needy."

"Needy?"

"You heard me." you exasperated.

"I just wanted to see you in action, get the blood pumping." his hand went to the small of your back and pulled you closer, lips pressing kisses along your jaw.

"Next time," you sighed. "Just fucking ask."

"Yeah, yeah. Love you too."

[cottondo]

vox x reader ; please?

Nobody really understood how it happened— it just did one day.

You ended up really hitting it off with the man of Voxtech himself; and wow lookathat, you’re dating him now.

It wasn’t unusual to be waking up in his bed, either. But what something Vox wasn’t used to, was a sunshine personality like yours. Of course you have your devilish charms still, as thats what drew him into you to begin with. But, the small appreciations you had for just about everything? It was weird, right? For a sinner in hell, it was marked as a rare occurrence to see someone like you.

( Other than the Princess of Hell, though she was much more over the top than you were. )

As your eyes opened, surroundings gaining a much clearer focus, you let out a tired little sigh.

There’s a soft buzzing beside you, where Vox was passed out in a deep sleep. It was such a nice state to see him in. Calm, not stressed out and dealing with everyone’s chaotic bullshit.

Honestly, it was nice being awake before everyone else. You could just take in the small beauties of silence before everything got obnoxious.

Your eyes flicker over to the windows, and see a bright neon sign with arrows pointing downward towards its front door.

A brand new building had just opened up, and it was a place you’ve been waiting to check out for a while now. Honestly, you couldn’t contain the excitement. It seemed like it took forever to finish, as most demons tried to overrun it while it was still in a vulnerable state.

With a little gasp, your hand falls to vox’s shoulder, and shake it lightly. “Oh my god, Vox, wake up!”

A static noise enters the air, as a small groan of annoyance leaves the tv screen. “What—”

You smirk, leaning over his shoulder to view his annoyance. “It’s finally open~ we gotta go!”

He heaves out a heavy sigh, turning to lay on his back with a dull, tired expression. “Y/N,”

“Please?” The little pout you made usually got him to do what you wanted, but this time it didn’t. He looked tired and visibly annoyed. Honestly, fair. You did kinda just wake him up in one of the worst ways possible.

“Can you at least let me wake up a little, first?” His lopsided smile made your heart flutter. Fuck, he was just so cute no matter what.

“Okay, fine. Just don’t fall back to sleep.” You fully sit up, crawling over his figure, and hoping to avoid stepping on any part of him in the process of getting off the bed. Standing to your feet on the floor, he **almost** chuckles. “What the hell even is the place you wanna go to, anyway?” His one eye widens out of curiosity over at you.

You roll your eyes, annoyed that he never usually remembered the little things. “The first like, ever, plant shop in hell. Somebody actually got things to grow down here,” you inform, taking a step in front of the mirror. “I think they used, like, human world magic or something.”

Vox sat up, stretching his neck and letting out a little groan. “Since when can anybody just get access to earth?”

You deadpan him briefly, “Does it even matter? I need one.”

He shakes his head, sitting up.

“I don’t know how you can be this happy so early in the morning.” He smiled at you. Holy shit, he actually smiled at how stupid your little obsession with this place was.

“Did— did you just smile~?” You decide to point it out, a smirk curling up to your features.

His eyes widened, body slightly startled at your reaction to him. “What?”

You inch closer to him, a brighter look of excitement as he stares at you in curiosity. “Oh my god you did! I saw you, so there’s no denying it.”

Vox takes on the tv effect to his tone as he looks up at you. “Alright, alright.” He then stands, and you notice how he slightly towers over your idling frame. “Only you can convince me to do shit I normally wouldn’t do.” His screen looks away with an almost embarrassment to it.

Your arms gently slip around his waist, causing him to tense up, arms raising.

“Thank you.” You smirk up at him. It didn’t take much to get him wrapped around your finger.

Vox sighs, lowering his arms, and slinking a hand around your waist. He gently guides you forward into his figure. His little smile comes back, and for a moment, you can actually feel him soften his outer shell with you. “Anything for you, my dear.”

______________________________________

I’m so sorry my writing hasn’t been up to par lately lmao 🥲 Not loving this one rn

[kinardsevan]

Buck finds out that Tommy talks in his sleep, and it's all just cute and/or sweet things about Buck.

The first time it happens, he’s come off of a twenty-four in the morning after Tommy’s ran late, keeping him out until the middle of the night. As such, when Evan crawled into bed at eight AM, still wired from the last round of coffee he’d drank, his boyfriend was still in his first round of REM sleep, dead to the world when he crawled into the blankets. 

He’s been watching tiktoks about Huskies with attitudes when Tommy starts talking as he shuffles under the blankets, shifting towards him. 

“No you can’t touch my butt,” he mutters, rubbing his face against his pillow. “You never keep your hands to yourself, Evan.” 

He snorts at the words coming out of Tommy’s mouth, has to clap a hand over his face from making too much noise when his boyfriend suddenly shifts again. But then he settles again, and that makes him curious. He leans over, setting his phone on the nightstand. 

“Are you sure I can’t touch your butt,” he asks softly, running a hand down Tommy’s back. “I like how it feels.” 

Tommy huffs, curls his legs up under him. “Fine. But no squeezing.” 

Evan bites his lips together, laughing mutely. Tommy shifts again, snuggling closer to him in his sleep, and it breaks Evan’s focus as Tommy’s arm slides across his waist, pulling him in. Being in the strength of Tommy’s grasp always makes him melt. 

—

The second time it happens, Tommy has just come in from being on call from another forest fire. He barely manages to stay awake long enough to shower and let Evan shove a few bites of food down his throat. He passes out quickly, still on top of the blankets in his sweats and a shirt with a helicopter on it that says “shut up and lift”. He’s got one leg bent up and a hand resting across his torso, the very iimage of exhausted as he snoozes in Evan’s bed. It’s one of Evan’s favorite sights. 

It’s also that night that he pieces together that Tommy babbles when he’s exhausted. The more wiped out he is, the more he talks in his sleep. Sometimes it makes sense, other times its only an intelligible word here and there between garbled noises. Maybe even fake mouth static?

He’s halfway through the movie they were watching when it starts. 

“You got me a cheeseburger?” 

Evan furrows his brow as he glances down at Tommy, baffled by whatever is happening in his dream. 

“I love cheeseburgers.” 

He can’t help himself. “Tommy, do you want a cheeseburger?” 

“There’s cheese on the ceiling,” he replies. “Evan cooked the muffin man.” 

“That doesn’t even make sense,” he mutters to himself, doing his best to stifle his own laughter. But Tommy’s words also suddenly have him thinking about a veggie burger. 

When Tommy wakes up half an hour later, it’s to the sight of Evan eating takeout. 

“Food?” He asks wearily. Evan lifts the bag towards him. 

“Got you a cheeseburger,” he offers, a small smile playing on his face. Tommy glances at the bag skeptically for a beat, but something about it… 

“Thanks,” he murmurs, shifting up on the bed. 

. . . 

The third time it happens, Evan has a pretty good idea what he’s in for. He’s been off for twenty-four of his forty-eight while Tommy had just come off shift that morning. He spends the better part of the day tidying around the house and running errands while Tommy rests, but by mid-afternoon, he’s craving a nap. He snuggles down into the blankets behind Tommy, opting to be the big spoon for the afternoon.

He’s on the edge of consciousness when it starts. 

“No, CP30 cannot have WD-40. He’ll melt.” 

Evan grumbles softly as Tommy’s words pull him back from darkness. “What?” 

“Revenge of the sith is a better movie.” 

“Get outta here with that blasphemy bullshit,” Evan mutters, burrowing his face between Tommy’s shoulder blades. 

“Yes, princess.” 

His eyes snap open and go wide at the response, but half a second later, Tommy is snoring. 

. . .

“We gotta talk,” Evan says later that night as he’s putting dinner on the table. His tone is serious, so much so that Tommy is concerned. 

“Okay? What’s going on, babe?” 

Evan sits down next to him, moving bowls around to start putting food on his plate. 

“You know you talk in your sleep, right?” He asks. 

Tommy nods. “I’ve heard. Gets worse the more I need rest.” 

Evan nods back at him. 

“Well you called me princess,” he adds. “And continued on your speech about revenge of the sith.” 

Tommy chuckles softly, resting a hand over Evan’s. “Evan. Sweetie. Honey.”

Evan scowls at him. “It’s not a better movie, Tommy.” 

“This coming from the man that said Valentines Day and Love Actually were the same movie,” Tommy retorts. 

“Thomas Kinard,” Evan chides. 

Tommy smirks at him before shoving a forkful of food into his mouth. 

“On the subject though,” Evan continues, a small grin pulling on his face. “Can I still touch your butt?” 

Tommy’s eyes go wide as he looks up at him. “Excuse me?” 

Evan smirks back at him. 

[squerlly]

flames of desire chapter 5: bonding exercise

Alastor x (f! bunny reader) -Fluff- chapter 1

your POV:

through out my time here in hell I have grown accustomed to the musty hot atmosphere of the underworld and the loud mornings of screaming, gun shots, and road rage, its hell after all and there technically isn't any rules. me and angel hang out a lot more, behind his sex jokes and playful demeaner hes a great friend. husk and I are cool I suppose, according to him I'm more tolerable. Nifftys a bit crazy and energetic but I enjoy helping her clean sometimes, but one person that's been on my mind a lot is Alastor. hes always watching me, I catch him staring at me with that weird smile, I wonder if his face hurts from smiling all the time...none of my business what he does I just wish he wasn't so eerie. I was in the lobby this morning when Charlie called us over for a "bonding exercise", seeing everybody gathered in there seats I sit on the couch next to angel, "good morning everybody thank you for comingggg, I would like to have you all here for a little bonding time yayy!!!..." the silence was defiantly loud... "uhm- well I though we could all do something fun like drawing!" standing behind her vaggie comes out with paper, markers, and crayons "oooo colors" niffty giggles "what's does this look like kinder garden?" "angel please try and at least participate" letting out an annoyed grumble he agrees "fineee..." "great! were all going in partners and you will draw each other, that sound fun right!!?" oh no... "charlies with me, husks with angel, and Alastors with y/n, nifftys can uhm..." "oh oh can I be the judge!!!" "sure..." "you gotta be fucken kidding me..." "aww cmon whiskers I'm not that baddd~" walking to there partners I turn to see Alastor sitting on the arm chair looking at me with a wide grin on his face, "fuck me..." I grumble walking over to sit on the floor beside him "well my dear looks like its just me and you" "yeah... me and you" grabbing two pieces of papers and some crayons "I cant even draw..." "oh don't worry I'm sure you will do just fine!" "why am I doing this again..." "cheer up dear this is supposed to be fun after all, I cant be that hard to draw" "yeah your right just need two colors" scribbling on the paper I start at the base of his face, doodling his creepy smile and red hair, looking up I see him studying me curiously "what's the matter, am I hard to draw?" I say smugly "not at all dear your quite easy to draw" ouch, thanks...

Alastors POV:

I never really focused any time on things such as art, yes I can cook and maybe play the piano but drawings not one of my few good skills although ill give it a shot. I would have never guessed I would be sitting here doing one of charlies silly little projects, attempting to draw y/n I look at here for a while, this is the closest I have ever really been next to her, my she really is small it makes me want to squeez her tiny little body, her head could fit in my hand easily. I have noticed a few things while observing her, her ears twitch when she's focused on things like now, her pink bunny nose twitches when she's scared, and her fluffy tail wags when she's exited or annoyed what a strange individual...

your POV:

"ok guys once your done with your drawings you will show them off to your partners!!", as a few minutes pass by I have finished my drawing and well I'm quite disappointed in myself, man I should have taken art class in high school "I finished if your ready to show them" hell no... "I- I'm done but I don't think I wanna... "oh I'm sure its not that bad" giving the drawing one last glance I turn the page I show him the drawing facing away to hide what little dignity I had left. hearing a quiet static buzz noise I look back up seeing him looking at the drawing with a questionable face "I know its badd!!!" "w-well I wouldn't say that dear its just..." "just say its bad!" "its interesting" "well what does yours look like?" turning his page my jaw drops to the floor, what is this creepy deer man not good at "its not my best work but-" "are you kidding me Al this is good!" standing up I grab the drawing, it was in crayon but it looked just like me. pausing I try to tone down my excitement seeing alastor wide eyed from my reaction "I'm glad you like it dear" "what cant you do" "well I did say I was a man of many talents but drawing isn't one of them" "do you uhh mind if I keep this..." "not at all dear~" "you don't have to keep mine you can just throw it-" "nonsense its mine isn't it?" "yes.." "then I will keep it". for once he seemed to have a genuine smile on his face, not some creepy ass smile, its kind of nice...

Alastors POV:

I don't know why but I wanted to keep her silly little drawing, its...cute?. it looks nothing like me but its quite amusing seeing her all embarrassed. I was surprised to see she liked my drawing, her eyes lit up with a small smile on her face, it feels good to know my work is appreciated even in the... strangest things it gives me a sense of pride, I might hang it in my radio tower...

your POV:

looking at everybody else I saw Charlie bouncing on her heels looking at a little doodle vaggie made how cute~, husk made a sloppy doodle of angel and angel just drew himself. niffty was running around looking at others drawings, eventually she got around to ours, climbing on my shoulder she looks at Alastors drawing "ooooOooo you look so cute in the picture!!" I smile a bit "thanks niff" grabbing her off my shoulder I set her down "well that's the end of the exercise, how was it!" "ehh it wasn't to bad" "it was alright" "whatever...im going back to the bar" Charlie puts on a little smile "well do one again next week, maybe we could make cookies together or do all about ME's oh oh!! what about-" "ok hon slow down" "sorry". this was nice, hell isn't that bad, at least not here. better than home...

hey guys!!! I was supposed to release this earlier but I'm a little sick right now from the cold weather but I refuse to let you guys down! I made this chapter a little longer than usual so I hope you guys loved this cute chapter as much as I did, love you guys have a good day/night

-squerlly

for more content or chapter please click this masterlist

@pooplyface1423 @strippezzz

[osleeplessflowero]

Sans doesn't know how many minutes he'd spent in a sealed off room of the lab, keeping the door shut, staring at it with trembling eyelights and hands. When Alphys told him the recent project had..gone awry, he hadn't expected things to turn out this bad.

Raising a shaky hand, he pushes his glasses up further onto his face so they don't fall. He'd already been scolded once by his younger brother for breaking the last pair by accident.. don't need a repeat of that.

Experimenting with souls had been a common theme the last few months to see how well they'd do under different conditions, but..this attempt? It's..

He hears banging on the door, likely someone's hands along with the sounds of something slithering across the floor. Wet, goopy noises can also be heard accompanied by strange, out-of-sync breathing. ..It knows where he is. He doesn't know what it wants to do with him, and frankly, he's scared to find out.

A walkie talkie beeps on his belt. He quickly grabs it out of instinct, almost dropping it in the process as he holds it up to where he can hear from.

"alphys, i hope you are responding to tell me you are going to lure it away from me." He speaks in a hushed tone, knowing it's still listening outside.

"I-I'm making my way down there now, Sans. I.. I don't know what happened, they're.. it's just like the Determination projects-" Alphys fidgets around as she scurries through her lab, picking up this and that and dropping anything unimportant in the moment.

"I-I don't.. kn-know what their Intent is. If you end up exposed, PLEASE be careful. One bad hit and you're dust!" She stresses her words despite her stuttering, opening the door to the elevator and heading down.

"don't gotta tell me twice. i'm staying in here." He'd considered shortcutting, but..he's still gotta help her study this entity, even if he doesn't really want to get near it. No calling it quits now. ..He's still going to keep a door as a barrier though, just to be safe.

Several different pitches of giggles are heard through the door as the entity lightly hits it in the same spots, until it manages to make a dent. Letting out a breath, Sans walks over to the monitors in the room to look outside through the cameras. Empty rooms are scattered about on each one, able to be viewed from different angles.

He looks over to see this strange mass outside via the door camera.

A large, white mess of a form wriggles and writhes, its upper half constantly changing between various physical forms and species types. Two arms rest on the door gently, while two more above them seem to be the ones hitting it. Its eyes are black hollow voids with every form change, the one thing that remains consistent. Upon zooming in a little more, Sans can see a little melty smile on its face.

He can't help but wonder what it could possibly be thinking..or what it's trying to do. Turning to the door, he contemplates. He could Check them.. there's not that much of a distance. Might as well, right?

He focuses on the door, his eyelights flickering out before one returns with a bright, brilliant shade of blue. His focus is brought to its soul, a bright, vibrant mess of colors and static, constantly shifting forms. There are some different colored strings coming out of it in different directions. Guess this is what happens when you try experimenting on something distorted..

Okay..that part's kinda obvious. But why do they want to see him?

Another sound is heard from his walkie talkie, so he holds it up.

"how close are you?" "Very, I-I should be able to get down there in a few more minutes. C-Can you hold off until then?" "yeah, just please hurry up."

Alphys stops responding, so he turns back to the cameras, only to see the mass looking up at it with a widened grin. He jolts, only to see a bigger dent be formed in the door from the impact of its hits..

"they're gonna break it down at this rate-"

Some white, goopy hands begin to pull on the bottom of the door to try and lift it. He quickly rushes over, trying to pull it back down. "shit shit shit shit-" "Sans, I'm almost there! Oh my stars, why is it?-"

It pulls open the door with all of its strength, launching itself into the room. Sans braces himself for impact, his eyes squeezing shut. ..But..he doesn't take a hit? What's going on?

He opens his eyes, looking both up and down as the figure rapidly changes shapes, hugging him tightly. Clinging to him, like if they were to let go they'd be lost.

"uh..hey there." He chuckles nervously, confused by this whole scenario. One bizarre thing after another.. "so..is this what you wanted the whole time?"

It nuzzles its heads against him, its smile content.

"taking that as a yes. well, uh..i guess this is okay. have i melted your heart? hearts? same thing."

Various giggles come out of "You", as Alphys enters the room abruptly.

"Sans! Are you-" She halts, seeing how the mass is reacting to him so...affectionately? How peculiar. "..Are you okay?"

"well, i think so. they haven't lashed out at me or anything, just..done this. feels kinda weird, very cold."

"Well, at l-least they don't have a Hostile intent..this..this could prove useful! Tests could go by a lot easier if it trusts you. And it seems to really like you already, s-so.."

"how would you feel about me stickin' around?" He asks, "You" perk up instantly at that. "you like the sound of that?"

He's suddenly squeezed much tighter as those voids on your face shift to be shaped like hearts. "i guess i have my answer."

"Have you Checked them at all?" "huh? oh, yeah, i did earlier." "What does their soul look like in the current state?" "well, it's a flashing mess of colors and distortion. also had some weird looking strings coming out of it." "..Strings?" "yeah. different colors as well." "Did you see where they were leading?" She walks over, putting a hand on "Your" shoulder before recoiling once you let out a sound of warning.

"well, a few were leading to me, but a few were spreading off in different directions, too." "..Oh my stars." "what? what's wrong?" "I think I might need to look over your soul." "why?" "Just..trust me, okay?"

[chaos0pikachu]

Trends in BL (Sorta): Genre Trends

So I've seen a few posts discussing trends in BL and I wanted to talk about that from a different angle. Specifically discussing what trends are, how they're formed, and to not remove BL from the rest of their countries own media.

The latter is something I see a lot when discussing BL this kind've ~separation of church and state~ but it's BL and Country's General Media. As though BL lives in a separate bubble outside of all other media and thus never influenced by the media being made in its country of origin nor the countries they share direct borders or trade with. Or all influence began and ended with seme/uke dynamics imported from Japan and nothing beyond that (no, Pit Babe was more than likely not inspired by Supernatural) and it's been static ever since.

All of that is, untrue, but also a really limited way of viewing international media. These countries are places with their own history, culture, politics, and of course, media arts. BL is a part of all of that. Which also effects the trends and potential trends we'll see in BL individually (as it's going to change country to country with some crossover).

I think a way of identifying trends in BL and also the root of those trends is by looking at the media of the country of origin their surrounding countries, and what BLs have unprecedented success and what has the industry learned from them?

So I'm gonna break this down by: genre, technical and business trend(s) in 3 part posts. In this post I'm just going to talk about genre trends in Thai and Korean BL as that's what I'm most familiar with.

Basically this post got hella long, I'm not in college anymore, and my motivation was tied to the length of my Jennifer Hudson Best Of playlist. So I had to split it up, es lo que es.

[This will not be a comprehensive list of like all BL trends ever respect to y'all who do but I do not and will not watch every BL in existence, bendicion]

To start we gotta talk first about how trends in media tend to work and also what we mean by "trends". Because there's genre trends, technical trends, and business trends.

Here's a good article breaking down various aspects of all three. When we talk "trends" in film it's not as simplistic as "office romances" or "cross country remakes" of which, one is a genre trend and the latter a business trend.

Some examples of what I mean:

Shared Universe (genre trend)

3d boom (technical trend, trended a few times in the industry, first in the 1950s until the 1960s and then again in the early 2000s until the mid 00s thanks to James Cameron)

Remakes/Reboots (business trend, this is a business based decision b/c the risk threshold for a pre-established work is lower than for an original work that may or may not have financial data backing it)

Trends in media, whether they are genre, business, technical or a combination, tend to take time to build up, and also tend last much longer than a singular year (generally for as long as something is profitable).

Example: it took time for the Shared Universe genre trend to gain traction.

Batman v Superman (2016) wasn't released until five years after Avengers (2012). Following this, The Mummy (2017) starring Tom Cruise was meant to kickstart Universal's The Dark Universe was released six years after Avengers. Before that Dracula Untold (2014) was supposed to be reworked to also start The Dark Universe (both these films flopped so no Dark Universe, rip).

Since the Avengers release, we have the shared universes of: Monsterverse (which combines Godzilla and Kong franchises together, technically started in 2014, officially started in 2017 with Kong Skull Island), and the Sony Spiderverse (Venom, Spider-man, Madam Web, Mobius lol) and The Conjuring Universe (Annabelle, La Llorona, The Conjuring, The Nun).

It's been almost 12 years since Avengers was released (fuckin'a) and we're only now starting to see some minor diminishing returns (Disney had a horrid year financially last year) for this genre trend, and not even across the board.

I want to iterate that Avengers did not 'invent' the idea of a cross-franchise shared universe. Things like Xena and Hercules, or Hanna Barbara cartoons existed long before the Avengers. However the Avengers kickstarted a genre trend in film. Just because a piece of media started a trend does not mean it invented the genre or technical innovation (James Cameron didn't "invent" 3D but he did revolutionize it with Avatar and I suffered through many 3D horror movies because of it).

[I point this out because sometimes ppl be getting testy when ppl say kinnporsche influenced the increase in mafia/crime BLs with well, um, actually history trapped/manner of death came first - yes, yes we know this. And Bi No Isu came out before all of them so everybody drink some tea and relax, everybody's faves are pretty okay😘]

Okay to let's get to what ppl actually wanna talk about, BL.

(Some) Genre trend(s) in Thailand and Korea:

In Thai BL genre trends I'm noticing are: horror, supernatural, paranormal, action crime, and magic/magical realism. A lot of these crossover, horror shows typically are also paranormal - Ghost House Ghost House (2022), After Sundown (2023) - supernatural shows tend to cross over with magical realism like time travel, or other soft magic elements - Time (2024), I Feel You Linger in the Air (2023), Cherry Magic (2023).

For the horror, supernatural/paranormal genre trend, this isn't at all surprising if you look at Thailand's recent film output from 2020 to 2023: The Medium, The Whole Truth, Ghost Lab, Haunted Tales, Cracked, Death Whisperer, Home for Rent, The Maid, Waning Moon, School Tales, and others, are all horror, paranormal, or supernatural films of some sort.

The horror genre trend especially has been around Thailand for a while, as far back as 2018 with the smash success of Girl from Nowhere which only gained a larger following when it hit Netflix in 2021. I'd almost argue the horror genre trend really picked up with Girl From Nowhere as now one of the main acquisitions of Thai series and film on Netflix are of the horror genre.

That larger media trend is now trickling down into BL with series like: Shadow (2023), After Sundown (2023), Dead Friend Forever (2023) and upcoming projects like Vampire Project.

While supernatural/paranormal series like Ghost House Ghost House (2022), 1000 Years Old (2024), I Feel You Linger in the Air (2023), Two Worlds (2024), Golden Blood (2024?) are increasing. OMG! Vampire (TBD?) will at least be supernatural but we can't say with certainty if OMGV will be horror or not as we only have a poster.

I imagine with the success of Dead Friend Forever, and I Feel You Linger in the Air we'll see the trend of horror and supernatural/paranormal series (I know some have already been announced) continued.

Then there's the genre trend towards more action and crime focused series; which more than often crossover but not all~ the time.

In terms of the increase in crime based Thai BLs I'd argue it was a joint combo of Kinnporsche's (2022) wild skyrocketed success, and the success of Manner of Death (2020). Alongside the influence of rise of crime and thrillers from Korean media (The Gangster, the Cop and the Devil (2019) and Unstoppable (2018))

Manner of Death I'd argue influenced projects like Never Let Me Go (2022), Unforgotten Night (2022), and Big Dragon (2022) if only because of their release times and taking into account the time it takes for a production to film and be edited down.

Whilst all these series came out after Kinnporsche - NLMG released a trailer in Nov, Big Dragon in Oct, and Unforgotten Night in Jun, while Kinnporsche dropped their trailer in Apr - they're series releases are so close to Kinnporsche that I don't feel confident in saying Kinnporsche 100% influenced their acquisition. Ngl it's hard not to see influences of KPTS in at least Big Dragon & Unforgotten Night if only in terms of technical film making, so there could~ be influence but I can't say that definitively. I'm gonna attribute these to Manner of Death since it came out two years prior to these other series.

Meanwhile series both released and unreleased My Gangster Oppa (2023), Red Peafowl (TBD?), Chains of Heart (2023), Kidnap (TBD?), are def riding the crime genre trend that Kinnporsche started and I'd argue series like Pit Babe (2023), Playboyy (2023) were acquired for production in part because of the crime elements included in their respective series.

Meanwhile series like Law of Attraction (2023) (crime/action) and The Sign (2023) (crime/action/supernatural) are combining crime, action and supernatural elements together.

I've said before Kinnporsche takes a lot of cues from Korean and Hong Kong crime films like Jet Li's The Enforcer, and Fist of Legend, Donnie Yen's Flash Point, Raging Fire, and Kung Fu Jungle, Han Dong-wook's The Worst of Evil, Kim Jin-Min's My Name, along with Japanese manga like Bi No Isu and KeixYaku.

Meanwhile The Sign is def taking cues from Chinese costume dramas like Ashes of Love, Fairy and Devil, White Snake (and it's many adaptions), Guardian, & Ying Yang Master Dream of Eternity. Alongside Hong Kong and Korean cop and romance shows like Tale of the Nine-Tailed, Hotel Del Luna, Director Who Buys Me Dinner, First Love, Again.

[I think the only reason Thailand or Korea hasn't jumped on the full fantasy train and pulled an Untamed is because of budget. The Sign has done very well for Idol Factory so I could see more studios trying to go in that fantasy direction if they can get the funding for it.]

Meanwhile shows like Time (2024), Two Worlds (2024), and Cherry Magic (2023) are leaning more into a combination of magical realism and a supernatural. Which is something that's been popular in Korea (Mr. Queen (2020), The King Eternal Monarch (2020)) in the past and obviously Japan (Cherry Magic (2020).

This, again, isn't a fully comprehensive list. I'm sure there's shows I've missed, and there's going to be evergreen genres that are always produced - university, high school, office all with a general romcom flavor - because they're cheap, easy, low risk and for the most part reliable.

That's not an insult to shows like Cherry Magic TH, or Middleman's Love or Cooking Crush or whatever.

Cooking Crush is just going to cost way less than The Sign it's simply a fact. Likewise Middleman's Love cost less than The Next Prince (TBD?) and was less risk as an office romcom. What helps offset the risk of something like The Next Prince is casting Zee and NuNew in the lead roles.

[watch these two trailers and tell me they cost the same]

Think of it of like, the 50 cop procedural dramas networks are always churning out; they do so because they're cheap, easy, low risk, and reliable.

Gmmtv made Cherry Magic not for the art of it all but because it was low risk and low cost to produce with a high value return. I imagine that's also why gmmtv cast Tay and New because while I don't know who the hell they are, lots of folks in BL fandom do because of Dark Blue Kiss and the reuniting of a well liked costars will also help offset financial risk for the project. Studios will often only greenlight a project if "a name" is attached to said project.

Anyways, Korea's turn.

The data for Korea is less because Korea comes out with fewer series than Thailand. Like currently Thailand has 9 ongoing BLs in 2024 while Korea has 1 (oh City Boy Log you lonely thing you).

For Korean BLs I'm still seeing mostly evergreen genre trends: the workplace (The New Employee, Oh! My Assistant, Roommates of Ponngduck 304,), high school/university (Light On Me, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Semantic Error, Love Class, Love for Love's Sake) and Joseon (Nobleman Ryu's Wedding, Tinted With You, Director Who Buys Me Dinner) romances - which make sense, a lot of these were the trends of romance kdramas in the early to mid-00s.

What I am hoping, is we'll start seeing the acquisition of KBLs that are closer to what's currently trending in Korea: revenge (Revenge of Others, The Glory, Marry My Husband, Perfect Marriage Revenge), thrillers (My Name, Midnight, Somebody, Celebrity, Mask Girl), more class based social commentary (Devil Judge, Golden Spoon, Vigilante, Kingdom), and an increase in both sex and violence (Somebody, A Shop for Killers).

I could totally see more revenge based KBLs in the coming years since revenge and thriller shows can be combined pretty easily and you don't need a huge budget for either. You can also set them in evergreen settings like the workplace (Marry My Husband) or high school/uni (Revenge of Others).

KBLs have mostly stuck with evergreen settings with a couple outliers like Kissable Lips (2022), Once Again (2022) for example. I enjoyed Love for Love's Sake but it stuck in that evergreen space of school based romance, with magical realism. Again, not surprising given KBLs are just following trends of romance kdramas of the past.

Whilst not a bad~~~ thing, it can be a bit stale and hopefully with a bit more budget/investment we'll see the acquisition of series that are more in line with what's trending with Korean audiences currently.

There's other things I'd like to see develop into trends for KBLs but they're mostly technical and business trends.

That's all I got in the tank, this post took me almost six hours to write b/c of all the sourcing and research I'm freaking peeked.

See y'all next time ✌️

Check out other posts in the series:

Film Making? In My BL? - The Sign ep01 Edition | Aspect Ratio in Love for Love's Sake | Cinematography in My BL - Our Skyy2 vs kinnporsche, 2gether vs semantic error, 1000 Stars vs The Sign | How The Sign Uses CGI | Is BL Being Overly Influenced by Modern Western Romance Tropes?

[like these posts? drop me a couple pennies on ko-fi]

[druidshollow]

who's the iterator with the shelter symbol on their head? 👀

*whips around and evil grins at the camera* TIME FOR A CANOPY POST

sheltering canopy | #862, gen 3 | she/her

(im gonna be talking about off string canopy mostly because she doesn't really do anything yet in the canon adjacent story!!! all the like. personal info and stuff is consistent tho)

of course. as always. since this is canopy's first time around. fast facts.

sheltering canopy is part of the far north group, a local group adjacent to corners!

far north consisted (in order of construction) of eleven rivers, untold odyssey, one wish for all, four falling phrases, and finally sheltering canopy. when rivers' first admin went to the void sea and was eventually replaced with flowers, flowers proposed and helped construct the twins and separated the far north group into two groups.

odyssey was made group senior overseeing wish and canopy, and phrases was made senior overseeing rivers and the twins.

shortly after the mass ascension, wish caught the rot, and some time after that the Gift was released and odyssey received dev status. unfortunately wish's rot was too extreme so they couldn't save her, but odyssey was able to reach canopy and make her a mobile puppet so they could travel south together!

they are heading south because *static sounds here* (there is something that LOTS of iterators are travelling towards, havent decided if its like. a commune or new society or something but whatever i decide is where these guys are heading). unfortunately, the only way south from far north is through the great north divide (a large mountain range), which is perilous and frigid. keeping warm is hard and securing water is even harder. rivers and phrases climbed the range and went above (pink path), where canopy and odyssey (cyan path) moved through a ravine called the west chasm (more water and warmth than going above, but also lots more carnivores)

the divide is a difficult journey but once youve reached the other side, the real threat rears its head. across the mountains from the far north group is the civilizing divide group, a group consisting of 13 iterators, most notably their senior and older sister, adamant dune.

i think we all know who dune is by now, lmao canopy and odyssey almost reached the other side of dune's territory without even understanding the danger they were in, but the group caught up with them last moment. by the time canopy and odyssey reach this point, phrases and rivers have already long escaped and dune had thrown hollow space out. she was especially dangerous at this point, angry and grieving and now without her voice of reason.

a mystery group (who i currently know very very little about) jumps in at the last moment and saves odyssey, leaving canopy behind having seen her injuries and knowing there's no coming back from a killing blow like that.

but canopy miraculously survives the wound dune inflicts on her, and instead of just trying again, dune takes canopy in to her group in exchange for canopy to help them retrieve cells. they tell canopy that they murdered odyssey.

dune in no way treats canopy like family like she does the rest of her group. she makes canopy help with murder and has little to no regard for her wellbeing or feelings. canopy collapses in on herself amongst the violence shes being made to commit and the cruelty she's facing. she becomes quiet, introspective and numb. it reminds dune of hollow space, which just makes her disdain for canopy stronger.

i sketched this freaky comic of dune making canopy murder someone, you can see it if u promise not to look at the arms for more than 0.5 seconds lmao

she goes by the name shelter with dune and co.

ok its 12:30 pm on a work night and i gotta wake up at 6 so thats all from me for now. ill save her and odyssey's reunion for another time!!! the payoff is huge you guys have no idea but i promise they end up together again

[ticklishbeans4]

Take a Break

Listen I'm on this Fionna and Cake train and I have no plans of getting off just yet, so enjoy this!

Simon had been traveling with Fionna and Cake for some time now, they were no closer to their goal unfortunately. He could feel the frustration rolling off of his companions, and he didn’t wish to anger them further like he always seemed to do, so he just kept quiet for now. They walked through this… pillow world? The crown was bunk here too, just a pillow crown that was about as magical as he was right now. The only reason they were still here was because Cake insisted they rest. He wasn’t against the idea, not fully at least. This world was soft and quiet and calm, he liked that part. But not moving also meant The Scarab could catch up to them at any time. They’d been lucky so far, but that luck could run out at any moment. And with his… well luck, they were on borrowed time.

He laid on the green fuzzy pillowy… meadow? That’s probably what it was. He laid in the meadow and looked up at the starry sky above him. Did he really want to do this? Go back to being Him? It would bring magic back to Fionna and Cakes world, and he’d be freed from his depressing life. Maybe he’d even find a way to block the madness. But not the way the Winter King did. He would never do that. He wasn’t a wad.

“Hey.” Fionna snapped, pulling Simon from his thoughts. “You’re being quiet! It’s weird!”

He sighed and sat up, “I just wanted to enjoy the peace and quiet while I could.”

“Well stop it! It’s weird!” Cake huffed, glaring at him with a face remarkably similar to Fionnas.

“Whenever I talk you two seem to get mad at me, now I’m not talking and you’re still mad at me. I just can’t win.” he rubbed his face and stood. “Let’s go. We’ve been here long enough.”

“Noooo! I’m all comfy and cozy!” Cake whined, laying back on the pillow meadow and rolling around.

“You won’t be so comfy and cozy when The Scarab turns you into a cube!” he snapped, softening when the cat looked stunned. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just… I don’t want us to get caught before we find a new crown.”

“Yeah but we can rest sometimes. My friend Marshal always says you gotta have a good work life balance!” Fionna grinned, getting comfy on the pillows.

He growled in frustration, grabbing his hair. “That’s- This isn’t a JOB! You were the one that was all urgent in Prismos cube! Now it’s like you don’t care at all!” 

“HEY!” she snapped, standing back up, getting in his face. “I care a TON! That’s my world in your stupid brain! All my friends and family! Everyone I love! I care more than you do! But we can’t run ourselves ragged over it! So sit down! Shut up! And RELAX!” She pushed him back harshly, which lost a bit of its effect since it was a very soft landing. But the message was clear.

Simon stayed on the ground, curling his knees to his chest. Relax? What a joke. He couldn’t relax for the life of him, he hadn’t been relaxed since… since he found that damn crown! Maybe a few moments with Marcy but… He would just have to wait till Fionna and Cake were done being stupid.

The silence was tense for the next while, Cake seemed to be the only one unaffected as she rolled around, kneading the ground and purring loudly. Simon just stayed curled up, not caring that it had gotten uncomfortable a long time ago. He couldn’t even think right now, he was just… upset! His head felt like it was filled with tv static and cotton, and it was somehow bullying him at the same time.

“Simon?” Fionna’s voice called to him, sounding softer than it had before.

“Yes?” he replied flatly.

There was a long pause, before he heard shuffling and the presence of someone behind him. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have pushed you. Or yelled at you. And I’m sorry for telling you to shut up.” He sighed, still curled up and still feeling awful. “I forgive you. And I’m sorry I said you didn’t care. I know you do.”

“It’s ok. I get it, we’re all pretty stressed. I just wanted to be able to take a minute, ya know?” she sighed, “I… I want to fix my world. I do! More than anything! Or… at the very least I want to keep it safe. But I can’t just… run all the time. Everyone needs a break, ya know?”

He was silent for a moment, mulling over her words, and how to respond. Not easy when he could barely think straight. “I… I do understand. I know what it’s like to want to protect someone… But also keep yourself from falling.”

“Yeah! Something like that!” she chirped, sounding significantly happier. “So… Do you feel rested and relaxed?”

“Not really, no. But if you’re ready to go, then we should go.” he replied, sitting up, yelping as his shoulders were grabbed.

Fionna looked at him with blazing and determined eyes, “No way! You deserve to chill just as much as anyone! We’ve been going at 110 percent for days! You need like, a nap or something!”

He gently removed her hands from his shoulders. “I don’t really… Do, naps. Not since I was very little at least.”

“WHAAAAAAT!?” Cake cried, rushing over and jumping on his chest, sending him crashing back to the ground. “How can you not take naps!? Naps are the best thing in the world!” “I just don’t! I can never fall asleep when it’s light out!” he cried, trying to push her off, but she just dug her claws into his jacket.

“Nah man! You’re taking a nap here and now!” Cake demanded, curling up on his chest and purring, but in a distinctly angry way.

He sighed heavily, “Fionna, get your cat off me. I don’t need, nor want, to take a nap!”

She shrugged with a distinct mischievous twinkle in her eye, “Well you gotta relax somehow! How do you usually relax?”

“I don’t.” he huffed, though a few things did come to mind on how he used to relax… Singing, dancing, he remembered a few times he’d be stressed out and Betty, or even Marcy back in the day, would tickle him to make him relax. …That somehow worked the best he found, back then at least.

Fionna scoffed, “That’s stupid! Everyone has something to relax! I drink, dance, party, watch tv, or pet Cake!”

“And I’m a cat! So I do nothing but relax!” Cake grinned, hopping onto Fionna’s back.

“Well I don’t have those things. I used to sing but… It doesn't really help like it used to.” he sighed.

“Weeeeelllll, you could sing right now!” she beamed, both girls leaning in close to his face.

For some reason, that got a snort out of him, and a smile as he pushed them away. “Get out of my face, ya weirdos!”

Fionna gasped, “Oh my god! He CAN smile! I thought it was a myth! We are bearing witness to a historical moment! Simon Petrikov, grumpyguss extraordinaire! Smiling!”

He rolled his eyes, “I’m not that bad!”

“Buddy, I can count on one hand with fingers left over the amount of times you’ve smiled.” Cake scoffed, bapping his nose with her paw.

He snorted again and brushed her paw aside, “That is so not true! I’ve smiled plenty of times!”

“No you have not!” Fionna argued, poking his face.

“Have so!” he countered, bapping her hand away.

“Have not!”

“Have so!”

“Have not!” “Yeah huh!”

“Nu-uh!”

“Yeah huh!” This poke was to his stomach, and much to his downfall, he yelped.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment as they all stared at each other. Simon could feel the heat rising to his cheeks as he slowly and subtly tried to scoot back. But Fionna and Cake… they looked down right predatory. Eyes gleaming, grinning wide as they came closer to him.

“Say Simon~” Cake purred, “You aren’t keeping anything from us, right?”

“N-no! I wouldn’t do that! Not after everything we’ve been through!” he laughed nervously, looking between the two as they approached.

“You suuuuure?” Fionna grinned, lifting a hand, her fingers wiggling evilly. “Cause I mean… it sure seems like there’s something we could do to help you relax… And you didn’t tell us.”

He gulped, anticipatory giggles already rising in his chest. “N-no, I-I have no id-dea what you mean!”

“Awww! Look at ‘im! Already blushing like a schoolgirl!” Cake teased, which only made his blush worse.

He went to make another comment, but Fionna poked his stomach again and he squeaked. That seemed to be all it took as the girls pounced on him, Cake pinning his arms over his head as Fionna’s hands clawed at his stomach. Now he tried, he really and truly tried not to laugh, to not let them know how sensitive he was. But sadly, he was very sensitive, and it had been a long time so his endurance was shit, so he broke pretty damn quick. “Nahahaahahahah! Nohohohoho! Fiohohohohonna! Cahahahake!” he squealed, kicking out and tugging at his arms.

Fionna just laughed, scratching evilly at his stomach, like some crazed gopher trying to make a home. “No way! This is too good! If I’d known you were this ticklish, I would have done this way sooner!”

“Nooooohohohoho!” he snorted, turning his red laughing face into his shoulder so he didn’t have to look at her smug face.

“Hey! Don’t hide that smile now! I’m working hard for that!” she teased, poking at his ribs, jumping a bit as he shrieked.

“No wait! Not there!” he begged, but with the evil glint in her eyes, he knew he’d signed his own death warrant.

“Oh? Not… here?” she asked, poking his ribs, “Or here? Or here, or here, or here?” She was poking up and down his ribs, lingering a bit at the spot right above the bottom ribs since it made him shriek like a mad man.

“AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! NOHOHOOHOHOHOHO! PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE!” he wheezed, snorting loudly under her evil fingers.

“What? Has poor Mr.Petrikov had enough?” she cooed, taking all her fingers and clawing at his ribs.

“YEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHES! PLEHEHEHEHEHEASE! MERCYYYYYY!” he pleaded, tears of laughter forming in his eyes.

It seemed Fionna believed him as she stopped tickling, and Cake released his arms. He curled up, still giggling as the phantom tickles ran their course.

“Yup.” Fionna sighed, clearly pleased with herself. “Definitely using that more often in the future.”

“The near future.” Cake laughed, poking Simon's side, making him squeal and roll away from her.

“Stahahp! Stahhap! I yeheheild!” he giggled, waving his hands to prevent more attacks.

The girls just laughed, flopping onto the ground next to him. Simon rolled onto his back, grinning as he stared into the sky. This was… strange. He actually felt pretty good for once, lighter. Maybe he just needed a good laugh, or to play again. Have some fun. …Maybe he just needed some friends in his life again.

“Still grumpy?” Fionna asked with a smirk.

He scoffed, rolling his eyes before he closed them. “I’m not answering that question. In fact… I’m taking a nap.”

“Ooooooooh! So Mr.IDon’tTakeNaps is suddenly all about nap time?” Cake teased.

“Meh meh meh meh meh.” he mocked back, opening and closing his hand. “No, y’all tired me out. I’m an old man! I can’t take that kind of torture like I used to!”

“Like you used to!?” they both cried, looming over him with eager expression.

“Oh Glob damn it.” he sighed, but not without a smile. This was going to be a long journey. But right now? …It didn’t seem as bad as it did before.

[imaginatorcreates]

Prompt Foundry Day 31: Celebrating Halloween! | Fictober Day 31: "it's always been you" | 31: Costumes (bweird OC-tober) (what are your ocs wearing for halloween?)

24 September 2024 — 24 September 2024

Word Count: 649 words

Author's Notes: Prompts by @thepromptfoundry and @fictober-event and @bweirdart. Full promptfoundry list here. Full fictober-event list here. Full BeWeirdOC-tober list here.

“Remember Zephyr — ”

“I know!”

“Not too much candy. And please try to stay close.”

Zephyr groaned. “Whynn, I’m not gonna run off super far! I’ve gotta take care of the passengers! And you’re one of them.” Really, it should be obvious from their costume. Maybe Whynn didn’t understand what they were dressed up as. So the child posed in the middle of the dark street, one hand pointing forwards and the other on their hip. “All aboard!” they called out.

Their hair fluffed out, untethered by a hat or other head accessory. While a hat would’ve really sold their costume, they hated the feeling of almost everything on their head. The most that they allowed was a hood, and even that felt too weird if they really thought about the sensation.

A few beings looked at the child, some cooing and others rolling their eyes. Zephyr ignored them at first, but as their gaze drifted between Whynn and the passerby, their bravado slowly faded into something sheepish. “You think my costume is nice, right?”

Whynn stayed silent for about 13 seconds of varying length before they patted Zephyr on the shoulders. “Very cute.”

“Very professional!”

“Professionally cute.”

Zephyr lightly hit their guardian on the arm and whined, “I’m a professional! ‘M not cute!”

“Oh, fine. You’re the most professional one there is.” Whynn fixed their short cape and said something under their breath that sounded like, “Maybe I should’ve done a different costume.”

“I like your costume. Wizards are super cool! They’re also super smart, like you,” Zephyr said. “You’re just missing the big hat they wear where you can shout ‘Sun and moon! Stars and sword! I summon to me, places not explored!’ or something!”

Whynn blinked owlishly behind their glasses, then gasped. “That’s a perfect spell!” They waved their hands with the grace of someone who didn’t exactly know what to do with their hands and recited the rhyme Zephyr made up. “Oh, that’s perfect!”

Zephyr hopped around their guardian. “Is it?”

“It is!”

The child let out a loud whoop of joy. “It is! I’m a spellmaker and a conductor and– AT!” Zephyr’s attention jumped from celebrating their new careers to the familiar conductor. The conductor was dressed in a classic black costume…maybe a vampire? Zephyr guessed that someone at the train depot or station gave it to the robot. “AT! Look, look!” They stumbled into a run towards the robot, leaping into a floating and slow-moving projectile. “Guess what I am!”

AT-1225 caught the light child and put them down. “Let me see…” He looked at their costume, and Zephyr caught the moment when she paused. “Oh? Are you a miniature me?”

“Yeah! It’s always been you!”

AT-1225 did something a little odd: it made a static-filled sound before covering its mouth. The static turned into a crackly laugh that continued even when Whynn managed to catch up to the duo. “Apologies, but — ” He tapped at his throat and static still echoed out. “Come on…” She tapped her throat a bit more before things calmed down. “You dressed up as a train conductor?”

“Of course! Whynn’s a wizard, I’m a train conductor, and you’re a vampire!”

AT-1225 shrugged. “My coworkers insisted.”

“No hat?” Whynn asked.

“My coworkers also insisted that the hat would ruin the overall costume.”

Zephyr watched as Whynn took one of AT-1225’s gloved hands and pressed the back of it to their mouth. AT-1225’s voicebox fizzed and he reached up to grab a hat that wasn’t there. She instead shaded her eyes and crackled out, “Whynn! You — !”

“Sorry, sorry. I had to.” Whynn looked happy, a sheepish smile on their face.

Zephyr on the other hand, pretended to gag. “Ew! Ew ew ew! I’m here for candy and pointing at people, not this!” They circled around the two with increasing intensity until they could finally move forwards.

Halloween, here they all go!

[adelaidedrubman]

every fucking wednesday huh

tagged today by my dears @socially-awkward-skeleton and @direwombat to share something for wip day!

on this second nanowrimo wednesday (boo!) i give you a VERY rough excerpt of a hl&s scene i had envisioned in my mind’s eye for quite some time and banged out during the early november sprint before i immediately lost steam. very sloppy and very long (as always no pressure to Read All That) but here is a bit of jessie answering john’s questions about what is so special about fishing

“Everyone who actually has to live in the real world finds some way to kill all that angry static buzzing around in their brains. Something that sets off that click —” she snapped her fingers, then curled the hand back into a tense fist, “that shuts it all down to go peaceful for a while, without just making you feel dead. Lotta folk turn to drink. Real simple folk find the Lord. Me?”

She smiled, huffing out a gentle, breathy laugh.

“I go fishing.” The calm she had described now belatedly slipped into the even pace of her words. “Because everything about the world that pisses me off, fishing is the exact opposite. It’s a challenge. A battle of wits. You gotta work to catch a fish — real work, not just doing shit because somebody decided you gotta to take home a paycheck. With fishing, you gotta think, you gotta feel, you gotta use your hands. Stay alert to every little movement in the water. Know what’s gonna catch a fish’s eye, and have the skill to do it right. Know how to think like a fish. Appreciate ’em so you can lead ’em to their doom. Feel the tension in your muscles as you fight against a big one on the line. Your heart racing at the thrill of finally reeling it in. You’re using your brains and your body to wrestle for control with the fish — and if you do it right, you actually get it. It’s work, but it’s also —”

Her fist unclenched, tension easing from her shoulders.

“Calming,” she concluded, almost under her breath. “It’s so simple, but you’re accomplishing something. You’re part of the world around you, and for once it all means something. For once, it’s not a world I hate being in. It’s a world that’s just the sun beating down on your back, the wind in your hair, the sound of water beating against the dock. And beneath all the equipment and technique, it’s just you and the fish. It’s engaging, but peaceful. Fishing is —”

She looked down at her feet, her nose crinkling with an almost lazy, half-hearted irritation. “When I’m fishing, I feel real. I feel free,” she said softly, resolutely. “You wouldn’t fucking get that.”

John didn’t bother to hide the way he slowed his stride this time, nor the way he looked at her — drawing in a deep breath before coming to a complete stop, then turning to face her. He allowed himself a moment to rake his eyes along her profile, bask in the sense that he was truly seeing her for the first time — all that high-strung energy, all that barely contained fury packed into the tense ridge of her jaw, begging for release.

“I get it more than you would ever know,” he told her, heart pulsing an extra beat at the responding jitter of starlight glittering golden eyes towards him, before she stubbornly looked away again. Such a fragile flutter, a baby bird’s wings just beginning to beat against its breast.

Human — she was so undeniably human. In a way most people weren’t, in a way that managed to burrow itself down to that deepest, most difficult to reach part of his soul that was still soft and warm and a place where joy could spread. A place someone could nestle into and make a home. As if she’d snagged her fishing line at the depths of the lake, and managed to hook a long-lost sunken treasure.

“It’s exactly how I feel when I’m flying,” he explained, looking up towards the skies. “It requires complete concentration. If my focus slips for one moment — if there’s a single shift of the wind I fail to account for, I could go hurtling to my death. Just as easily, send every sin —” He caught himself, “...single person beneath me to theirs. I hold all that destruction within my grasp. I’m powerful. I’m in control. I’ve bested fate.”

He paused, finding only the slow building chirp of crickets filing the silence — for once, she wasn’t interrupting him, wasn’t rushing to fire back some clever insult. For once, she was hanging off his every word.

And looking at him. Hard as she tried to hide it — tucking her chin down and pressing her ear near towards her shoulder as she twisted at the waist to face him without facing him, the lingering of deepening tawny at the corner of her eyelids betraying her facade of detachment.

“But more than that…” He dared to take a step towards her, to turn himself so they were just a sliver closer to facing each other directly. “When I’m up in my plane, I feel —” A smile. One that felt natural spreading across his face. A smile just for her, the kind of smile he so rarely ever got to give — one given knowing that the person on the receiving end of it would actually understand why he was smiling. “Free. The world and every horrible thing in it is miles away from me — and if I want to, I never have to come down without bringing hellfire with me. When I’m up there, nothing can reach me.”

He dropped his voice to barely above a whisper. “I’m in control, but I’m free.” He let the revelation settle in the air between them — it was odd, he didn’t know if he would have ever been able to vocalize it so clearly, without her. “There are very few things in this world that can really give you that feeling.”

Jessie lifted her jaw — so strong, so proud, always. Imposing enough it had caused him all this time to overlook just how delicate her features really were. Those soft, rosy lips; her round little button nose; those wide doe eyes framed by darling doll lashes, taking him in so fully.

Yes, there it was — her eyes met his, she was looking at him.

It was just as he’d dared to hope. She saw him, she saw everything.

He was seen, and she kept looking.

She stepped closer. Her eyes trailed along his face at a leisurely pace. She finally blinked, slowly, but never looked away.

She inhaled, deeply, her eyes not wavering as her chest rose.

sending no pressure tags out to @unholymilf @belorage @florbelles @g0dspeeed @josephslittledeputy @afarcryfrommymain @poetikat @just-another-wasteland-merc @voidika @captastra @confidentandgood @deputyash @blissfulalchemist @shellibisshe @thedeadthree @nightbloodbix @ladyofedens-blog @miyabilicious @simplegenius042 @henbased @clicheantagonist @firstaidspray @strafethesesinners @quickhacked @jackiesarch @v0idbuggy @orionlancasterr @stacispratt @8bitpizzacoupons @strangefable @shallow-gravy @roofgeese @inafieldofdaisies @corvosattano + anyone with things to share + opt in here!

“That’s nothing like fishin’, dumbass,” she said decidedly, craning her neck back and shaking her head back and forth, as if in complete disbelief at just how ridiculous his statement was. “Flying planes is a dumb rich people hobby,” she dismissed with a wave of her hand, looking back over her shoulder at him as she walked past him in the vague direction he’d been leading them. “Those aren’t the fuckin’ same.”

[rosewaterandivy]

Thinking about Steve with an older sister who rarely, if ever, comes around and is spoken of even less. Only two years her junior, but he went through life in a small town never quite measuring up to expectations: his father’s, his mother’s, the coaches and teachers at school. But, somehow, it never bothered her; postcards would arrive from places like Palm Springs, the Grand Canyon, or, inexplicably, the Denver International Airport. Always hastily scrawled and near indiscernible, but he’d learned to read her chicken scratch long ago.

Hey lil bro, don’t let the bastards get you down!

Happy Groundhog Day from man’s testament to hubris, aka Phoenix!

Always signed with the phrase: keep looking up.

And Steve knows she means it.

He also knows that her absence since graduating and peeling out of Hawkins for good is in no way about him. Knows that, aside from him, anything worth staying around for had been dead and buried since ‘86. And he could never blame her for it, wouldn’t even dream of it.

The eldest Harrington’s vagabond existence has never posed a problem, a postcard would arrive or the phone would trill out long and loud in the middle of the night. Steve knew she was safe, that she could take care of herself when need be; he just selfishly hoped they never came to be, but he could never really be sure.

It was never a problem, until suddenly it was.

Nathaniel Harrington was dead, thank god.

His mother was either hysterical or drunk or both.

And he had no possible way to contact the only person who would make this shitty situation even slightly better.

He’s pacing in his dad’s study, an old cigar and papers from the company’s latest acquisition left haphazardly on the desk. Steve’s biting his bottom lip something fierce, waiting for Robin to arrive. It’s late and he’s still reeling from the visit to the funeral home and what an unmitigated disaster that turned out to be. And for no reason he can ascertain, a line from a well-worn postcard sent from Paris, Texas flashes through his mind, the one she’d sent after Nancy broke up with him:

Shit happens! Things happen that leave a mark in space, in time, in us— and yet, we keep on spinning on this great blue marble. Despite, well, everything.

He can hear her voice saying it too, soft and confiding like whispering secrets to each other during tedious family dinners.

The phone on the desk rings, just as the front door opens. Robin’s head peaks through just as he brings the phone to his ear, he sucks in shaky breaths to say, “Harrington residence.”

“Can’t believe they’re still makin’ you say that Stevie.”

He sways on his feet, Robin’s hand cupping gently at his elbow and sitting him down in the leather chair. Tears gather at his lashes from sheer relief rather than a deep sense of mourning. He sniffles into the phone, incapable of speech.

“Everything okay?”

He nods to Robin in thanks as she brings him a glass of water, which he downs greedily. She then sets a handle of bourbon on the desk with a loud thunk.

“I, uh,” Steve scrambles to say, “N-not really.”

Robin takes his now empty glass and pours a finger or two of the amber liquid into it before passing it back across the desk.

There’s only a blip of static down the line, maybe the sound of a passing car.

“Ya gotta talk to me here, Steve. I’m no mind reader.”

He screws his eyes shut and downs the drink in one go, hissing at it burns all the way down his throat. Sputtering a cough, he covers his glass with a trembling hand as Robin goes to pour more.

“Right, yeah.” He shakes his head to clear his thoughts, as if he could shake them loose. “Well, here’s the thing,” He takes a deep breath in, let’s the rest all come out in a rush. “Yagottacomehome.”

“… Why?”

“Dad’s dead.”

His voice doesn’t shake, the saliva doesn’t drag along his throat, his sinuses remain clear. In fact, he’s oddly at peace in this moment. That is until:

“Oh, that son of bitch!”

A trill of bells echoes in his ear as she slams the payphone back into its cradle.

Well, maybe that could’ve gone better, in retrospect.

But at least his sister will be home, but for how long he couldn’t rightly say.

[im-the-queen-of-stardust]

Alright people, just got my early access of the Magnus Protocol Premiere. Been thinking about whether I should do a live blog like I did for Magnus Archives. Still not sure but we're just gonna start it and see where it's going. Tbh I've been so out of the loop with the podcast I didn't even know the premiere episode was coming and I have no idea when further episodes are getting released. I thought it would start next year! Anyway, I'm gonna put all my reactions down below under the read more so I'm not accidentally spoiling anyone.

That intro music is amazing. Love it.

So glad they included a transcript, I would've already been lost with all these voices. That's what I loved about tma, never got confused there because the introduction to the characters was so nice and slow

Oh, here we are then! Jumpscared by Alex already. Did not expect him to turn up so soon. I'm certain there's nothing sinister going on here. Not me already theorizing that it's Martin who got stuck in the system or something after Mag200. But that means Jonny is one of the other voices who occasionally reads out the statements, right? Gotta be. So Chester or Augustus, who do you think he is? Putting my money on Augustus I think. Why? Because why not.

First look at the Fears?? Is it the Stranger? That's got to be the Stranger, right?

The transcript has these little stage directions and I gotta say I'm in love with "Lena's office is pristine, sterile and has nothing that might indicate its occupant would be brash enough to have a personality"

Btw don't know the in universe reason for the recording yet but friends, your microphones are shit. Jon's recordings were never as bad! Your voices do that thing where it gets frizzy. Might I suggest using a tape recorder?

Is that more static in the background I'm hearing when Gwen says "I'm not most people." Oh, I kinda missed overanalysing sound cues.

We have great vegetarian sausages in Germany too, Colin. I already like that poor IT guy

Sam I really don't think this is the job if you're "just trying to get back on your feet" There must be more going on there

Damn, had a 50/50 chance and didn't get it. So you're Chester then, Jonny? Really can't decide if I would love it more if these voices had some connection to tma or if there's just no reason at all.

I actually read a fanfic like that before. Immediatly though about it when I heard Alex's voice. Jon was sorta trapped in the tape recorder. All Martin and co had were his recorded statements on tape and at some point Jon got like powerful enough to be able to communicate through the tape recorder I think. Was a really great read. Would be funny if this turns out to be similar

Oh, Magnus Archives ruins!! What are you gonna find there RedCanary?? This is exciting

Of course you've been having trouble uploading the pictures, RedCanary! And I don't think that's you're normal getting paranoid either. Oh, I love this. It's like my old friend, spooky Magnus Institute is back

An Archive, you say?? And it's empty. Interesting.

Side note, the music during this is fantastic. Like loved it from the beginning but right now? Amazing.

"What the hell is that? Are those eyes?" Never thought I'd actually be happy about eyes getting mentioned. But eyes, people!! This statement has everything: Magnus Institute, some poor bugger who's descending into paranoia and madness, weird symbols, an artefact (?), ominous texts ("Canaries should stay above ground", okay obviously a reference to the user name red canary but also do you think that has anything to do with like mining. Weren't birds used to detect gas?), eyes and were those the last few notes of the tma intro in the background music?

Oh, who is listening then? Can't mean me, Colin

The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution non commercial sharer like 4.0 international license

[scaryscarecrows]

The thing leaps on him, bringing them both to the ground in a flurry of screams and snarls. It breath stinks and its claws feel like fire tearing into his chest and he never thought he’d die like this, but who does–

Shkkkk. Shkkkk.

The raptor stills, curving sickle claws retracting, and hops off him. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t think he can, anyway.

Shkkkk. Shkkkk.

It books it, vanishing off somewhere in the darkness, and Jason plunks his head back and tries to breathe and assess his injuries. Broken ribs. Severe lacerations of the hands and arms. More lacerations in the…fuck it, entire torso area. Joker-damaged ankle furious at being disturbed liked that. In short: moving is going to be rough, and the odds of him bleeding out are higher than he’d like.

Well, shit.

Shkkkk. Shkkkk.

What the hell is it? It doesn’t sound like the Tyrannosaur, which seems the most likely one to scare a lone raptor away. But the ground’s not thudding and honestly, it doesn’t sound big enough. The rex roars, it’s true, but the first time they saw her, they felt that rumbling hiss first, like a massive crocodile.

He looks around as best he can, eyes straining in the dim lighting, and things he catches a glimpse of…something…darting from shadow to shadow. What the hell?

He doesn’t wanna know. Everything here is a horror and he doesn’t wanna face this one.

Shut up and deal, ankle.

He takes as deep a breath as his ribs will allow and pushes himself up. This sucks: his vision swims, everything shrieks in protest, and his stomach does a backflip.

Not gonna puke. That’ll put me back on the ground and I won’t get back up.

Shkkkk. Shkkkk.

The exit to the room isn’t far. But then again, that’s what he thought about the power box, and look how that turned out.

There’s the sound of scurrying behind him and he lurches around in time to see something with big, bulbous eyes coming at him.

“Get back!”

Well, that’s what he meant to say, preferably in a you don’t want to fuck with me voice. What comes out is a garbled noise, breathless and pained, and he knows it knows he can barely stand. It twitches, head jerking in a very birdlike way, and makes that sound.

Shkkkk. Shkkkk.

A flash of movement to the left tries to draw his attention. He ignores it as best he can and continues to shuffle backwards towards the door. If he can just get to the door, he can slam it and lock these things in here and just…no idea, yet. That’ll come later.

The bug-eyed thing in front of him steps forward. It’s got teeth, lotta teeth, but it’s not very big. Comes up to his knee, maybe. Not that it matters: the raptor fled, and that’s enough for him to be very, very wary of it.

He’s almost to the door now. So of course the other one, the one he’s trying not to look at, dashes by him and knocks him on his ass. This is it, he’s dead, it’s over–

–they’re not attacking. Why aren’t they attacking?

Doesn’t matter. He drags himself into the hall as they follow, leisurely and honestly, it’s gotta be blood loss, but they remind him of Crane and Richardson. They follow people like this, once they’ve been drugged all to Hell. Slow and easy, because why get in hitting range when they can just wait?

There’s a light switch by the door and he thrusts one bloodied hand up to smack it. That gets results: the things scream and scuttle back into the dark, hissing and snapping their little jaws. Cave dwellers? Does it matter?

He shoves the heavy door shut, reaches up to push the deadbolt into place, and slumps down at last, gasping for breath. God. Good God.

Get up, you can’t stay here.

But he can. Just for a minute, just to get his breath back.

He reaches up, fumbles with his earpiece for a second and finally gets it to click.

“Does anyone copy?” Static. “Hello?”

Rogers is the one to answer first.

“Power on?”

Jason looks at the too-bright bulb and the green ‘locked’ light on the door.

“Yeah,” he wheezes. “Power’s on. Coming back now.”

Hopefully, anyway.

Shkkkk. Shkkkk.

Yeah. Hopefully.

[theinfamousdoctorf]

Hello! I was just rereading Eclipse meets his match and noticed something amusing- did eclipse forget he can close his modesty panel? Cause he did have have one at the start! when he first got Moons old body, but after that its not mentioned again which makes some of the embarrassing situations a little more funny in that he could have just closed the panel and saved himself some suffering- Like when he didnt want Earth there for his leg thing because he'd have to take his pants off. Or is he just so horny that he cant close it? Does he just not notice it opening when he starts uh- getting "excited"? lol I know the answer is probably "No, not really" but is eclipse okay?? Does Sun need to teach him about modesty (lol) too? like he did with the binning bad thoughts to prevent spirals? I thought it was kinda funny that everyone else can close themselves up and then here just eclipse, for some reason making it worse for himself lol

No... what that is is me not explaining what it's supposed to be well enough. By modesty panel I just meant the piece of their shell that is between their legs. For the male ones it is a thing that opens. For the sleeves it's the metal part that's around it and it doesn't move. [Unless you're opening the panel like a cabinet door to get at the bottle and wires behind it.] That's why when Eclipse first brushed it with his hand he hit the sensors directly and startled himself. I feel like the bumps are about the size of a flat decor marble and only raised 1/2 inch from the surface at most. Think like those silicone sensory toys with the bubble-wrap texture. He wouldn't have a cameltoe unless he was bent all the way backwards to make his pants as tight as possible. But it's just there. I don't think the metal around it being moveable would be ideal since it would need to really take a beating around the hole if it's being used properly.

[The fact that it's a static thing with no moving parts is also the reason it's the cheapest default apart from just not having anything there at all.] Eclipse is a little stuck on how to handle it. He can leave it dry and futz around with having a bottle of oil in his pocket; but that's not great since it would be heavy and he's not wearing a belt to keep his pants up. Putting on underwear to pad it runs the risk of the cloth getting caught in his leg joints. [The pants work because the rolled edge seams are nowhere near the joints so they just float over them.] Notice I don't mention Sun wearing his booty shorts unless it's the only thing he has on. They're not tight. And it's not like he has pubes to catch the moisture at all. It just seeps directly into his pants. There's a reason I gave him black pants, it makes the stain a bit less obvious. Sometimes you just gotta run to the bathroom, pat things dry and get on with your day. Am I right fellow sleeve-havers?