#(another that falls under the likes of Ra's muses)

[ossacruenta]

because a certain somebody did make a multimuse with a particular muse, I am enabled to add another muse to this blog: the sassy and high-maintance King of the Underworld and collector of souls

[writeronartblock]

Semi-organized post of Fanfic Ideas I have but can't get around to write it

Enstars/Engirls:

Enstars Takt Op AU

Originally just a Leokasa-centric AU oneshot, a series of fics set in the Takt Op universe where some of the characters are Musicarts and exploring the dynamics between them and their Conductors

Potential Storylines: Knights w/ Leokasa, Ex-Valkryie and Ra*bits, Chiakana, Five Eccentrics

"A Starting Symphony"

Part of the Takt Op AU

(Leokasa) Tells of how Tsukasa and Leo initially meets and how the eventually become a Musicart-Conductor duo

"Fleeting Memories"

Part of the Takt Op AU

(Leokasa) Takes place before A Starting Symphony and tells how Tsukasa and Leo actually met, with a bit of world building in place as well

"One Girl's Suffering is Another Boy's Sorrow"

A Protag centric (Anzu and Tenkousei-kun) introspective/character study fic following the events of Paradise (Engirls), taking place before Enstars' Main Story and a little during it

"Slight Changes of Fates"

A-Side: Persona 5 AU, where instead of Yumenosaki, Anzu transfer into Shujin and becomes part of the Phantom Thieves

B-Side: Detailing many of Tenkousei-kun's misadventures of being a Yumenosaki student

"Youth Emergence"

TetoKasa, a normal highschool AU where these two unlikely people become friends and possibly fall in love with each other

Side Story: TetoHiiKasa ver, where Tetora and Tsukasa competes to win Hiiro's affection (while he's nonthewiser about it)

"Meetings of Miscellany"

A Tsukasa-centric oneshot fic collection set in a vague fantasy-medieval AU about the various forming relationships (often romantic) between him and other people

Characters Involved: Mitsuru, Izumi, Tetora, and Hiiro

"To the You in the Field of Fireflies"

(Izukasa) A Hotarubi no Mori e AU, not much more can be said

"My Eternity, For You"

(Izukasa) A fantasy-esque AU in which Tsukasa is an immortal prince living in a tranquil enchanted garden within the rubble of his old kingdom, and Izumi is a butterfly who wishes to be human

Side Story: "Sleeping Prince" just Izumi fondly musing about his dear beloved prince while he's sleeping peacefully

—————

Project Sekai:

A Royal Scandal AU, ft. Tsukasa and Saki as "Chelsea" (is going to be toukasa/toyakasa-centric, sorry)

"The Sun's Come Out to Say Hello"

(Akikasa) Featuring Aged-Up characters, a day in the life of Akito and Tsukasa where they're housemates. With explorations of what their futures could be, likely canon divergent

"Under the Streetlight"

(Akikasa) Based off of Tsukasa's Torpe card and Akito's Anniversary card, a vaguely Victorian(?) era AU

"When Our First Love Ends"

(Toyakasa) Oneshot inspired by the vocaloid song "When the First Love Ends" by ryo (supercell) ft. Miku

A Fantasista Squad origin fic with heavy focus on Touya and Tsukasa from their childhood to current times (tho not necessarily romantic)

"The Mechanical Clown Who Dreams of Love"

(Mafukasa) Inspired by "The Dream That a Girl Doll Had" by HitoYama, Robot Toy!Tsukasa / Toy Maker!Mafuyu

"Fashion Gathering" (working title)

A Ruikasa and Mizuena meet up where they discuss about Wondershows' costumes and other stuff

—————

Genshin Impact:

(Chongyun/Xiao/Hu Tao) A highschool AU in which all three of them are a part of the newly established Occult Research Club and gets into all sorts of shenanigans, courtesy of Hu Tao most of the time

—————

Persona:

A Persona 5 × Kagerou Project Crossover, where Hibiya and Ren are brothers. Hibiya follows Ren to Tokyo during his probation and unkowingly gets involved in more supernatural bullcrap again (alternatively, Ren gets a bigger support group with the Mekakushi Dan)

SEES Member! P4 Protag AU, where Yuu was in Iwatodai for the events of Persona 3 when he was in his 3rd year of middle school. Heavily suggests BanKita/Protagshipping

Side Story: A rewrite of Persona Q with this AU in mind

[a-vctlan]

aloe :   how does your muse handle grief ? (Kunsel)

𝘉𝘖𝘛𝘈𝘕𝘐𝘊𝘈𝘓 𝘏𝘌𝘈𝘋𝘊𝘈𝘕𝘖𝘕𝘚

Kunsel doesn't know how to let go, and it's been apparent ever since he was a child.

Absence isn't something unfamiliar to him -- it takes over most of his memories of his father, entirely swallowed by his work at Shin-Ra's labs, but there is something about it that leaves him restless.

People leave, yes, but they have to come back. ( In one way or another. )

A General Affairs officer was the one to break the news, a letter to be delivered personally, waiting on him and his mother.

Ushered to another room, told to stay inside... but he couldn't help to listen in, brown eyes focused entirely on the black suit standing there, unaffected by his mother's crumbling visage.

There was an accident, and Anselmo Zantos had died. His body could not be recovered. What remains of his belongings would be returned in due time. As part of Shinra's severance package and accident policy, they would be allowed to continue living in their current Shinra issued housing.

No questions, no answers, they were to accept this as it was presented to them. This was the truth, thinking otherwise would fall under conspiracy-led thinking, and could have their worker-relation privileges revoked -- if not have them outright charged criminally.

But there was something about not seeing the body, of being told but not shown, that crept into his head and made a nest in it, resting on the already established branches of distrust and frustration towards the company. There had to be more to it, secrecy that ran so deep it made him sick, he had to know what really happened.

Paranoia, as well, had found home in his heart: he'd grown overly attached, needed to know every move his mother made, became controlling and clinging to what few friends he did have at school, jealous and unreasonable -- all borne from a lack of safety, the thought that there's a chance that once people leave his field of vision they'll be gone for good. This gets better with time, his mother doing her best to accommodate him until she gave up and put him through therapy... but it never really went away.

Five years pass, he's thirteen and dumb, entirely naive to the commitment he would be taking on, but it seemed like the easiest way to get close to the information he wanted: against his mother's wishes, he successfully applies for the SOLDIER program. It is an entirely reckless and impulsive decision brought on by a chance encounter during one of Shinra's many school fair presentations, but he had to know what happened, had to find out.

... He never does, the closer he got, the more questions would rise, some things hidden too well for even him to find.

Over the years, in what would just be another manifestation of his clinging behavior, Kunsel grows somewhat apathetic towards others, a necessary sense of disconnect to spare himself the heartache -- he is not shocked or surprised that Genesis deserted with a collection of Seconds and Thirds, merely curious as to why. More questions, more digging, never any answers.

( That's the son of a Shin-Ra scientist for you.                  Never satisfied with what he knows. )

But as much as he may try to be apathetic, at his core he's a people person, he craves connection and the biggest tell on his true nature would be his involvement in the mentorship program and ultimately how much he smothers Zack with reminders and notes, whom he genuinely grew to consider his best friend, someone whose personality shone so bright it felt like basking in the sun of a Costan summer. Unfortunately, this does lend to him often times leaning into his obsessive nature, but it comes from a place of affection.

And with the SOLDIER program crumbling around them, his workload increasing, cracks in Shin-Ra's foundation becoming more and more apparent... when Zack disappears, his friend too declared dead, Kunsel feels something disconnect in his mind. He doesn't even think to question that Sephiroth and everyone else were declared dead as well, accepting it at face value, entirely wrapped up in trying to figure out what happened to Zack and Zack alone. He's entirely in denial of it, trauma and uncertainty brought on by Shin-Ra constantly using SOLDIER's being KIA as a cover for something else, and although part of his thought process is irrational, when did grief ever care for logic?

( Part of him wondered if he wasn't purposefully narrowing his scope.    Protecting himself from answers he wouldn't like. )

He wouldn't let go, no matter how much time went on -- and instead, he'd crawl his way to a higher vantage point, do what he could to get closer to the Science Department, anything to get a single glimpse or note of what could've happened in Nibelheim.

With grief, Kunsel throws himself into denial and into his work, be it his involvement with the SOLDIER program or his incessant search for the 'truth' in whatever shape it may come.

It cannot be understated how much better his work ethic and behavior became once Zack was out of the picture, seemingly finally taking his job with the seriousness it warranted, and after a while he's set on the path to a promotion he doesn't particularly care for -- but Shin-Ra's running out of poster boys, and his interests aren't a consideration when it comes to the good of the company  image.

[feetoffire]

horses of RA: Ranger Horses (or ponies, as it were)

the Kicker post was simple. the ranger horses are....less so :)))

Tug, Abelard, Cropper Bumper Blaze

quick glossary:

withers: where the shoulderblades meet, positioned at the base of the neck

hands/hh: horses are measured in ‘hands’, which are the equivalent of four inches, from the ground to the top of the withers. abbreviated as ‘hh’ (hands high). if a horse’s height falls between two full hands (i.e. between 15 and 16hh), the number of inches over the lower hand measurement is added as a decimal - 15hh and two inches becomes 15.2hh (~157cm), etc

pony: anything standing taller than 14.2hh (~147cm) is a horse. anything standing lower than 14.2hh is a pony

draft: think Budweiser Clydesdales - the big solid workhorses, often but not always with hair (referred to as ‘feathers’) on their lower legs

lots of musing below, most of which is essentially speculative evolution of the ranger horse:

first and foremost, the average riding horse in the middle ages was, well. a pony. Big Tall riding horses didn’t exist yet (and wouldn’t for another several centuries), and even the drafts of the time topped out around 16 hands, which is on the smaller side for a draft today. couple that with the heights of the foundation breeds flanagan mentions (temujai, hibernian, gallican), and ranger horses are decidedly pony-esque. probably large-pony-to-small-horse sized, since they're supposed to be carrying grown (albeit short) men, but still roughly pony sized.

also the sass. ponies are sass incarnate. (and often ‘shaggy and barrel-shaped’).   

ANYWAY we all know that the temujai are a barely-veiled reference to the Mongols under Chinggis Khaan, so it makes sense that their horses are the equivalent of the irl Mongolian horse. with their insane endurance, hardiness, and deceptive strength, it’s no wonder that they’re the basis of the ranger ponies. only problem is, they’re a little too small. 

Mongolian horses average 12-14 hands, but i sincerely doubt ranger ponies stand less than 13.2hh, for comfort as much as welfare. generally, horses and ponies shouldn’t carry more than 20% of their weight, and as a rider in the height range of a short man, the ponies i’m most comfortable on are ~13.2+; the majority of Mongolian horses are smaller than that, which is....less than ideal.

this is where i think the other horses flanagan mentions come in: for height and added versatility. the horse Halt brings with him from Hibernia is probably a Connemara, and we know Abelard comes from Gallican lines, which suggests the Camargue. given their proximity to Araluen/England, i wouldn't be surprised if the Welsh cob (section D), Highland pony, and moorland types like the Dartmoor were in the mix as well. as a bonus, all of these breeds tend to throw solid color coats, which i’m assuming are preferred, considering the ‘lay on the ground and pretend to be a bush/rock’ trick Will and Tug pull in book 9. hard to do that if the horse is speckled or splotched (sorry Bumper). 

so where does that leave us? a taller, somewhat lighter, probably scope-ier, solid-colored Mongolian horse that stands ~13.2-14.3. endurance, attitude, brains, and height all at once. perfect.

sounds amazing, honestly. i wanna ride one

[featherchan]

👫 - for Adora and Kanako!!

Send a 👫and I’ll write four headcanons I have about our muse’s relationship / @strcngered / No Longer Accepting!

P.S: I will be breaking the rules a little, as I have written more than 4 headcanons. I'm sorry if this is a bit much, but these headcanons have always been sitting in my head for far too long. And I'm sorry for accidentally deleting the original ask. And most of Adora's actions and opinions are something I assumed she would have done or acted. HC 01: The Crown Princess often works late into the night. Before going to bed, she would often check on the people she loved, like her sister and now Adora. The Lioness was shocked to find that the blonde was going through a terrifying nightmare. (I assume she was traumatized due to what she went through in the Fright Zone and under Shadow Weaver's hands.)

Quickly reaching to her side and waking Adora up, she tried to calm her down and even used her healing powers to ease her worried mind. The Lioness was quick to notice how the blonde was a little scared and struggled to fall back to sleep. She reassured her that she would stay by her side until she did, even promising to sing her a lullaby. Already exhausted from a long day at work, she finds herself slowly but surely drifting off to sleep next to Adora. Leading the maids to squeal with delight (discreetly) when they find their shipping couple sleeping adorably side by side the next morning. HC 02: Their shipping is called KaRa. "Ka" from Kanako and "Ra" from Adora. Some try to go with "Adoka". Many fans (people in the castle and the citizens) disagreed and it just sounded weird. HC 03: To help Adora with her nightmare issues, she would often instruct the castle attendant to send a warm cup of chameleon tea with honey, to help Adora sleep better. Adora was deeply touched and wanted to personally thank the Princess for her kind gift. So, she went to search for her and found her in her office and peeking through the door. The blonde was shocked to find the fearsome Lioness in tears.

Being weighted down heavily by her responsibility as a Royal Princess, Adora hears a lot about how the Nobles are constantly against her, due to her lacking qualifications, like fulfilling her mastery of her healing abilities. These incidents broke Adora's heart and made her angry, especially seeing how they affected Kanako deeply. That the Lioness looked so exhausted, frail, and haggard like she'd been through the wringer.

With a single, swift move, Adora stormed into the room and pulled her into a fierce hug. Fearful that she could somehow lose the Princess to the abyss, leading the Lioness to just sobbed into Adora's arms.

HC 04: There's something about Adora that always seems to put the Crown Princess in a good mood and at ease. Just being close to one another or holding hands, they seem to be having an amazing time together, without needing to speak to be in sync. They were perfectly at ease together in the silence, sharing their thoughts and feelings without having to utter a single word.

Noticing the air between the couple, and with Adora's helpfulness and eagerness to help, the head butler and maid began requesting her assistance. Like suggesting ideas to invite the Crown Princess to dine together, or even sending her meal over personally. That the Lioness (who often skips her meals) wouldn't be able to say no to Adora. They even spoke of their deep concern and worry, seeing how the Crown Princess looked worn and overwhelmed. Again, they suggested to Adora to convince the Princess to take a break and rest.

HC 05: When Adora transforms into She-Ra, Kanako has no idea what comes over her and is unable to control herself. The Crown Princess, who is known for her grace and elegance, begins to act a little goofy, loses focus, and becomes shy and clumsy. Making everyone around her feel embarrassed, and Adora just finds her adorable. HC 05: But not everything is always smooth sailing for the pair. They had their fair share of ups and downs. And being two very different people, with their own views and beliefs, such as about what is right versus what needs to be done by the book, leads them to argue over it.

And coming to the rescue, Chidori comforts Adora while Noburu approaches Kanako. Both tried to mitigate the strained relationship by listening compassionately to the pair's woes and frustrations, before speaking about the other's views and sides of the story.

Eventually, at the end of the day, Adora and Kanako would make up by apologizing to each other. Feeling awful and almost lonely not being able to be close to one another. Agreeing that they both may have different views and opinions and would try to see things from a new, more complex perspective, as they learn to compromise and see things from each other's views.

HC 06: Kanako is very overprotective of those who are very dear to her. She always takes care of and protects those she loves, even if she behaves almost like their mother. When she heard, Adora and Noburu's tales about their time in the Fright Zone, it broke her heart. Even years later, Noburu still suffers from night terrors, which have led the Lioness to be very tentative toward both of them.

So, when Shadow Weaver approaches her kingdom, the Lioness becomes fiercely protective of Adora. That she threw everything she had at the witch, for causing all the unimaginable pain she had caused for the ones she loved. She didn't want any of her family to be hurt, and she wanted to make sure that Adora wouldn't be alone or hurt again. And I imagine Adora finds it sort of hot, that the crown princess has a badass side.

And out loud, Kanako announced to Shadow Weaver to stay away from her girlfriend. That her troops and her people began to cheer loudly as their ship had become a reality and finally took sail.

HC 07: Adora found out Kanako was in love with her, most awkwardly. During the Lioness's Royal Coronation, a song was sung for her coronations. And the royal bard took a little twist of his own with the song, hinting and announcing about two girls in love.

That sounds like this. P.S: I do not claim any ownership or rights to the lyrics or song. The song is taken from the series, Star vs. the Forces of Evil. The lyrics are from the show and are not my own.

One royal secret. One must be told. Our queen is under true love's spell

Who is the maiden with the buttercup hair? The Knight of the Queen's deepest desire! I don't need to show it I think we all know it But just to be certain I'll say it again Our queen is in love with her dearest best friend. And her name is Lady Adora

Party goers : loud gasp and flabbergasted Some random dude: I KNEW IT! Kanako: Oh no… Bright red, she buries her face in her hand

Forevermore!

[gildinbainas]

It didn't take the pharaoh long to realize he had touched a nerve. Antony was a known servant of Caesar according to his father's reports, but the last intel on the man suggested a falling out between Rome's Senate and the general. They felt he was becoming far too ambitious yet Atem had a feeling were he to inquire further, he would get nothing more than hero worship from his lapdog. A pointless endeavor to pursue and so he decided to leave that be. While he enjoyed getting under the skin of his enemies, he had no desire to incite a violent reaction… IF it could be helped.

His musings are halted, albeit a delayed reaction on his part, as it finally registered to him that Caesar was DEAD. Atem's face remained stoic, but he was surprised to say the least. He found himself letting those dark eyes rake over Antony's form again, noting the frustration and forced smile upon his features. This… invasion felt in haste; felt spur of the moment as Rome had never once marched to their gates ( that he knew of anyhow ). But the pieces were starting to come together; a fool's mission yet he'd stay his tongue until after the battle.

❝I see.❞

He chose not to comment on the bit about a nameless death, for only those SEEKING GLORY cared about such things. As pharaoh, his legacy was likely equally important, but he wasn't going to chase moments for the history book. If they happened to wash up upon his shores, well…

Atem turned his head lazily towards Antony, long dark hair laying flat against the lush pillows. He watched the man through lidded eyes, his expression neutral for the most part. The only change would be the occasional arch of his brows as he listened to some of the most absurd terms the world over. The gold and grain he could understand, but the slaves? And parading him around Rome like some prized pet?

He'd sooner slit his own throat than agree to that hot garbage. Even so he let his eyes close, a small hum leaving him as he mulled over the terms. This Roman was quite greedy --- a sentiment he was certain his court would attest to.

A sigh leaves him as he lazily reaches for another grape, bringing it to his lips. He bites down letting his mind wrap around the fact that he would be up quite early on the morrow for a very long day. How sad. So much for lounging about the river again, shirking his duties. He would need to rest tonight, for he would need his strength to wield the gods in battle. And make no mistake. Despite having Seto's White Dragon, the forces at the gate would be much for one dragon alone. He would need Osiris and perhaps even Ra itself. Long has it been since he summoned them both in battle against his cousin, but he'd let the gods drain his body dry if it meant sending Rome back with nothing but sand as a souvenir for their troubles. He eventually busied himself with his fruit, speaking up quietly.

❝You wish for me to come to Rome.❞ He toyed with a chain about his neck thoughtfully. ❝To what end? I would be seen as nothing more than foreign devil whose gods are unlike your own. It would be… humiliating but then I suppose that is the point, yes?❞

He reached for another berry popping it into his mouth. ❝Mmm I will take your terms to my court to discuss. If I've not sent for you by nightfall, assume we will meet bright and early at the gates. Fair enough?❞

Anthony’s features shifted into a wounded snarl at the mention of Caesar. His hand tightened on the silver chalice until his knuckles became white, and he stiffly put it to his lips, letting the wine take away the murderous feeling that overcame him every time someone mentioned Caesar in a less than respectful way. When he finished his drink, his smile was in place once again. 

“Alas, glorious Caesar and Pompey are no longer with us. No doubt they’d have seized this plentiful lands had they had the chance, but time was simply not on their side.” He put a hand on his heart. “As their friend, I feel compelled to do now what they could not in their lifetime.”

He took another divine fruit, relishing the sensation of its juice running down its throat, distracting him from actual thoughts. 

“Morbid, you say? I find a sort of poetry in killing a known enemy. Anonymity is so tedious. Who wants a nameless death?” He thought of his own death often, and what people would say of him once he fell into the Styx. Romans loved him. Antony was sure his name would not be forgotten, but that was no comfort if he died a less than noble death. No, he would die an honorable death. A warrior’s death. But first he’d live, more than anyone had ever lived before him.

Antony stood up, all height and muscles, and took the pitcher of wine to refill both his and the Pharaoh’s chalice, vaguely wondering why there were no slaves to do that for them, but taking advantage of the action to loom a little bit over the smaller man, getting a whiff of heady Egyptian perfume. He fell back on the lovely cushions, licking his lips and enjoying the luxury that he didn’t have back in the roman war camp, then toasted to the Pharaoh.

“Noble Ruler of these lands, here are Rome’s terms for your surrender. Twenty shipments of grain to Rome, along with fifty thousand denarii, both to be delivered monthly. A Roman governor shall be appointed to Alexandria, and I’ll have my picking of slaves, let’s say a thousand, to bring back to Rome along with some of my soldiers. The rest of them will stay stationed here until all bureaucracy matters are resolved. As a show of… unity, you will travel back to Rome with me also. You’ll be an honored guest at my Triumph. And Egypt shall be declared a Province of Rome."

He raised his chalice to the Pharaoh with an arrogant smirk, fully aware that the terms were ludicrous. But he often found it amusing to make brazen demands and threats. His adversaries never expected his open honesty about it. He, for one, never understood the need to be subtle when there were armies involved.

"So? What say you to those terms, Atem, Pharaoh of Egypt, God amongst men?"

[kaypeace21]

Analyzing the 5 plays in this drama club poster .From the bts pics of stranger things 4.

So... some of ya’ll know I'm going through the st s4 films given to us by the official st twitter + the films reffed in the show itself or mentioned by the Duffers in interviews .

So I decided to look at the plays mentioned here. Because even if we don't see the monologues in the show directly - the Duffers wouldn't name drop anything unless it inspired them in some way. Similar to films name dropped in the show. Tw : for some dark themes .

This is just a quick little analysis I decided to do since we probably won't get any new st content today (3/22). Nothing too deep. Just mentioning things that caught my interest especially cause these plays have a lot of narrative connections to the st s4 movies I've been watching.

Invitation to a march (Authur laurents)

Reminds me of the stancy/jancy love triangle. "A young woman is having second thoughts about doing the right thing and marrying a respectable , rich, kind, young man with good prospects.By way of a prewedding diversion, this woman becomes interested in the passionate but poor and entirely unsuitable son of a local landlord.Basically, the plot concerns the efforts of Norma Brown to choose between a conventional fiance who "puts her to sleep" but is wealthy (like what her own mother did) or go for this new-poor guy. The play is principally interested in how this youthful love triangle affects the three mothers involved (whether the kids like it or not)

12th night (Shakespeare)

 - viola (el) wrongly assumes a family member (hopper) is dead. She dresses up as a man named 'cesario'. A girl named Olivia falls for 'cesario' (violet dressed as a man). "Finally, when 'Cesario' and Sebastian (violet's twin brother: assumed to have drowned - Will) appear in the presence of Olivia there is more wonder and confusion at their physical similarity. Taking Sebastian for 'Cesario', Olivia asks him to marry her, and they are secretly married in a church. Cough if Olivia is 'straight' cause she fell for Viola (as a doppleganger dressed like her twin brother).Mike being into el who multiple characters in s1 said looked like a boy and specifically like Will is...suspish and a hint he's not straight lol. just like Olivia they're both into guys . plus, this play just has a butt load of love triangles (ugh i hated that aspect). There was also romantically coded letters (which was in the s4 films) . One character is also thrown into an insane asylum and framed as 'insane'.'Pretending that Malvolio is insane, they lock him up in a dark chamber. Feste visits him to mock his insanity'. We all know the psych hospital will be narratively important- talked about it more here.

The seagull (Anton Chekhov-russian)

similar to how I believed s4 will show m*#even already broken up since the months between s3-4 : act 3 (s3) ends with Nina begging for one last chance to be with Trigorin before he leaves/moves away. They kiss and make plans to meet again in Moscow.And in act 4 there's a timeskip where it shows they've been broken up for a long time between acts- and its established they never actually loved eachother. Do i even have to spell out why this parallels the m*#even ending in s3? There is also a play within the play (this is common in a lot of the st films- they have plays- or a story within a story- which illustrate certain themes or emotions of the characters within said film : blackswan, children of paradise, highschool musical, Rushmore, book of Henry, welcome to marwen, never ending story, romancing the stone, wet hot American summer, etc).The play is Konstantin's latest attempt at creating a dense symbolist work. There is also alot of love triangles in the seagull. TW!: for se#ual ab*se/su*cidal thoughts/ inc*st (here and in other play segments). The seagull motif reminds me a lot of Jonathan's rabbit story.Konstantin romantically into Nina shows up to give her a gull that he has shot. Nina is confused and horrified . Trigorin sees the gull that Konstantin has shot and muses to Nina on how he could use it as a subject for a short story: "The plot for the short story: a young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake. She loves the lake, like a gull, and she's happy and free, like a gull. But a man arrives by chance, and when he sees her, he destroys her, out of sheer boredom. Like this gull."  This immediately reminded me of jon's rabbit story and some of the movies on the s4 list . Like in forrest gump- Jenny (who is poor) was se*ually ab*sed as a very young girl by her father. As a child she runs away into a field-away from her alcoholic father yelling at her -there she prays that she can "be a bird so I can fly far far away" .

Jenny as an adult struggles with this unresolved trauma- being with ab*sive partners, doing dr*gs, and having su*cidal thoughts . She as an adult when contemplating su*icide, jokes 'you think i can fly like a bird ?' while looking down at a bridge.God-i'm worried about jonathan (Jenny was also a musician sort of like jon). In another s4 movie example ' mystic river ' :(in the 80s) a preteen baseball playing boy is r*ped by men in the woods. He later says he wishes he could become an undead monster to not feel the pain of that experience - cause quote " if I'm not human anymore maybe the pain will stop" (Will) . slightly off topic but he also has another personality, imagines a alternate word that dissappears when he turns his head. And as a less direct animal parallel to the play - the boy from the film also imagined his perpetrators as monsters and wolves to cope.In 'getout' the photographer character sees a dead deer in the woods and it represents a parent/his own childhood tra*ma relating to his past. similarly in 'prince of tides' the 2 siblings as kids were ra*ed by men. The older brother remembered it and the younger sibling developed DID (so didn't remember but she would draw wolves- as the perpetrators/villains in her picture stories she created . In the film they also had an ab*sive dad and were very poor. She also tried k*ling herself multiple times-but started to get better after remembering the source of her pain and trauma.  There is also the theme of multiple attempted su*cides in the play- and the play ends with yet another attempt- and the audience is left unaware of the artist's fate at the end of the play.

The tempest (Shakespeare)

Prospereo - (the perceived antagonist) is a wizard with monstrous looks, storm powers , and ability to create monster-dogs

He wants revenge on a man who tried ra*ing his family member & revenge on his other family member who wronged him years ago. I mean... pretty much my did theory.But in the end.Prospero decides to show his enemies the mercy that they did not show him twelve years earlier. He tells Ariel to bring the men to him, he will restore their sanity and then renounce magic forever.Prospero breaks the spell that the men are under .

Diary of a scoundrel (Alexander Ostrovsky-Russian)

-  I suppose this could loosely relate to Jonathan? Glumov, is a young man from an impoverished family lacking status seeking entrance into society's pampered class. A 19th-century Russian scoundrel must scheme his way out of his meager life in a small apartment -whatever it takes.He has a quick mind and some talent for seeing through the hypocrisies of people around him ( Jonathan does make a lot of social critiques about society). That gives him some advantages. A tale of one man's mission to finagle his way into upper-class society and find a cushy job. Set in 1874, this social comedy follows Glumov, a Russian youth who begins his ambitious ascent to social esteem. He progresses by wit, guile and rhetoric. Pitting one stupid person against another, he soon gains his ends. To reach these goals, Glumov will lie, flatter, and cater to the vanities of the wealthy. Unable to contain his disgust with his victims, Glumov decides to relieve his unvoiced satirical comments by recording his schemes in a diary. But he is tripped up by his uncle's wife, to whom he has made passionate love on his way to success. At the end of the play, his diary is stolen and his duplicity exposed, but he can nevertheless suceeds. The author is much more critical about the high society itself than about the main character, so the play keeps attracting generations of directors by opening possibilities for political criticism while also avoiding naming names of the current rulers.The play's aim was to overthrow bourgeois tradition and establish a class-conscious art called eccentricism giving a deliberately comic portrayal of reality.

I suppose I notice some possible commonalities-  besides s3 critiquing the wealthy/capitalism in comedic ways . jonathan since s1 has worried about his family's finances / had some resentment toward the rich . In some of the s4 movies ‘orphan’ & ‘ girl interrupted’ someone reads their diary out loud to get at them (in girl interrupted the winona character’s diary even had critiques of her new friends).  Alot of movies also have someone (usually a teen/young adult) making a documentary about their life -which could narratively replace said diary? A few movies have a poor guy adjusting to snobby rich social circles (or being poor and then getting money)- titanic, kingsmen, karate kid, the craft , godfather,  wardogs,into the spiderverse,flashdance, and many others . And movies like wardogs has a poor-young-character do shady things to finacially support his family . There’s also that whole uncle’s wife thing- which makes me uncomfortable for obvious reasons (but I’m just thinking of Lonnie’s creepy gf who was into him). A few movies had the guy’s step mom innappropriately hit on him- orange county & you got mail. And him trying to avoid her advances. Or...not to mention ... it may be a problematic coincidence /trope. But in enter the void -the guy who needs to finacially support his sibling/ does dr*gs -hooks up with his dr*g dealing friend’s married mom (who would give him money).  Or in gilbert grape- the poor teen-who has to finacially support his siblings/single mom-has his endgame relationship be a girl his own age. But before that he h*oked up with a married woman -who would give him money. Don’s plum -young film guy-propositioned by older female film director (for dream job). Not even mentioning the other films that have the guy hooking up with toxic older women (like ‘the graduate’). Or analyze this-where the therapist accuses him of having an Oedipus complex (not touching that one... but the guy in ‘enter the void’ a 100% had one). It’s possible those movies were just- inspo for s3?  A coincidence? Or s3 was foreshadowing for this in s4- but unlike s3 it will accurately be played as wrong  and a sign of Jonathan recreating past tra*ma caused by Lonnie (cough like the photos) /being desperate for money. And not played ‘comedically’ like how it mostly was in s3. But shown as self destructive  (for Jon) and immoral on the Woman’s end. Like... Billy and Jon are character foils. Both are older siblings into rock music, with ab*sive dads who shoved them into walls. Both lose it (and beat steve to a pulp when Steve accidentally triggers their daddy issues). In s3 it’s established womanizer Billy has mommy issues, than he tries ho*king up with someone his mom’s age, and the characters ref ‘back to the future ‘ and Steve incorrectly says it’s about “alex p keaton trying to bang his mom.” This could illustrate his subconscious issues with parental figures/adults cause of Lonnie’s  possible past se*ual ab*se . One film the friend even says to the guy “you don’t have friends!” guy b: i have friends! him:  no you have acquaintances! ADMIT IT! YOU’RE AFRAID OF MEN!I mean-Jonathan liked Nancy- but he initially hooked up with her cause he wanted to prove he didn’t have ‘trust issues’ from his dad. Also it’s prob a bit of a reach (and maybe a coincidence)- but the fact Murray in the same breath compares Steve (Nancy’s then bf) and Lonnie  ... uh... if you think too long about it ... it’s very sinister .  Especially because in s3: muray tells Joyce  that despite her wanting to be with a nice guy, she’s curious about “the brute” Hopper despite him reminding her of a past “bad relationship”(aka Lonnie). Like- yeah connect some dots.  Quite a few films (other than forrest gump) also have the character who (as a kid) was  r*ped by their dad/parent-  begin to do dr*gs/be pr*miscuous as adults since they never learned to properly cope with their trauma (’girl with the dragon tattoo’,  ‘black swan’, and ‘magnolia’). Unfortunately the whole relative doing such things to kid-relatives is in at least 30+ movies. 

Personally, i would be MUCH happier if Jon had a age appropriate romance- and had not a single creepy adult near him. A few movies actually imply Lonnie gets yet another ‘new model’  replacing his gf in her 20s with a new gf- who is ‘barely l*gal” and just turned 18. so there’s that possibility as well- that she’s jonathan’s age.I just want Jonathan-happy &safe. GOD. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

[tobiosmilktea]

hello! can you write a scenario for atsumu? something like idiots to lovers. like they're best friends or sth like that and they end up accidentally confessing each other gshksfsghgs it's up to you actually, i'd lobe to read anything you write ♡♡ i understand if you won't do it btw but thanks anyways!!

cherry cola — miya atsumu

1.8k words | genre/s: fluff, uni!au | warning/s: — | pairing: atsumu x gn!reader

↪︎ in which you find your best friend, atsumu, passed out on your balcony after a party the night before. now you’re giving him a wake up call with a cherry cola and a confession

a/n: definitely not my best writing, so sorry if this ended up not being what you expected, because this went totally different from what i first had in mind lmao

atsumu’s head was pounding. like a hammer whacking right on his forehead over and over again. he groans, muttering something incomprehensible as his neck and back ached. he wasn’t exactly dreaming, yet he knew very well that he was awake in some form of way. like a limbo? he didn’t know—more like he didn’t bother to find out as he shifted uncomfortably, his head pounding harder and harder the more he stirred in his sleep.

the hell was he sleeping on anyway? concrete?

atsumu didn’t remember your bed being this hard the last time he stayed at your house. wait. why could he hear birds chirping right next to his ear and why was he at your house again?

“atsumu!” a voice shouts at him as he felt a soft throw pillow pelt at his face.

“what the hell?” the setter groans under his breath, yanking him out of his lingering slumber as he pushes himself into a sitting position.

his eyes were open now at least, albeit he struggled trying to keep them open. he peeked through his eyelids to see your figure hovering over him with that same fatigue draining you. not to mention the cool morning breeze suddenly pulling him into his senses that he was in fact outside on your balcony passed out.

you make your way over to him, tugging his arm to get up. “hurry and get your ass out of here before the ra sees you, idiot.”

atsumu’s expression contorts into confusion as he rests himself against the railing, right hand holding his temple as his headache turned into a migraine. “the hell happened last night?”

“what do you mean what happened?” you scoff, placing yourself next to him. “how much could you have drank to not even remember we had a party last night?”

a party? yeah, that does ring a bell. atsumu thought, sighing out the last lingering taste of beer out of his mouth.

it was then the memories from last night dawned on him like a sudden downpour. being the idiots you and atsumu were, you two decided to throw some mindless party just because you two were bored in your literature class one day.

the night was still blurry as his head, all tangled up in jungle vines and foggy from the alcohol. he recalled it starting off with a bang, as atsumu worded it himself an hour before the party started. you two had spent a good amount of money on alcohol and evaded a noise complaint by giving out free liquor bottles to keep their mouths shut. the night progressed like normal before atsumu knocked the fuck out, yet he couldn’t shake off the fact that you sat uncomfortably next to him with a look on your face as if you had just committed a crime.

it was the look you usually had when you and atsumu had done some completely and utterly stupid last night—it was just a matter of what.

“do you remember anything,” you paused, shrugging your shoulders as you handed him a drink in one hand and an ibuprofen in the other. “i dunno, that happened last night during the party? like anything strange?”

a huff left atsumu’s lips, trying the conjure up the energy to even speak. “no?” he answered all confused before looking down at the beverage that was radiating coldness throughout his palm. “what’s this?”

“a cherry cola and pain medicine so you can get out of here already,” you muttered. “and are you sure you don’t remember what happened?”

the setter didn’t respond as he cracked the can open and chugged half of it’s contents down. it seared in his throat slightly as the sugar from the drink had forced energy into his body, downing the medicine along with it. “why the cherry cola?”

“answer my question first.”

“i already told you that i don’t remember, (y/n).” groaned atsumu as he took another swig of cherry cola as if it were alcohol. he then leaned in close to your face, watching as you pull back slightly with your eyes wide like saucers.

strange, atsumu thought, but if only he could hear your raging heart beat within your chest and see the faint pink hues upon your cheeks.

“now answer my question,” your best friend chimed in as he mused at your expression.

pursing your lips, you quickly thought of a lie. “nothing. i’m just bribing you with your favorite drink to hurry up and leave.” you attempted to push him up on his feet again, but it succeeded with no prevail as he threw you smirk.

“why do you want me to leave so you badly, huh?” he leaned in again, provocation lacing his words like ant ridden saccharine. even when he was hung over, atsumu was still as playful and cocky as ever.

he was much closer to you, more than both of you were used to. despite being best friends and being by each other’s sides 24/7, there was still a bubble of personal space between the two of you that has always been respected, and yet, you didn’t fight him off nor push him away and it certainly didn’t seem like atsumu was going to do anything about it either. 

“you don’t remember what i said last night?” your voice emitted much softer than anticipated. perhaps it was from the close proximity between the two of you that you didn’t need to be loud in order to be heard, or maybe it was the fact your faces were just inches away from each other.

“we talked a lot last night, though.”

you shook your head, “no, it was a few minutes before you passed out. we were alone and we were drunk in the bathroom and—”

atsumu’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, racking his brain to remember the scene but all he could recall was the two of you talking on the bathroom floor after he just threw up. he probably just said something snarky to you and hoped it wasn’t a big deal.

“did i say something strange to you or something?” he asked as he was still a bit confused.

you scoff, forcing yourself not to roll your eyes. how could he just magically forget what he said last night and act like it’s not a big deal? if it was you that didn’t remember something you said, you would be panicking right now. “yes,” you deadpan.

an amuse chuckle left the setter’s lips, “then what do you want me to do about it?” atsumu’s conscience mentally slapped him over and over again, yelling, what the hell do you think you’re doing? as the words fell between his lips before he could stop himself. since the moment you two became close there were always unspoken boundaries placed between the two of you and yet he was screwing it all up. the signal in his mind didn’t release itself until the moment he felt his eyes fall upon your chamomile lips. and to atsumu’s peachy ones, did you even dare to think of the impossible, of the serenity that filled you two under your blushing cheeks.

even if he was just playfully and mindlessly flirting with you, it wasn’t like you reacted to it much. before, you would most likely just shrug it off as a joke or roll your eyes at him. and yet, now you’re cheeks tint red and you get all flustered just by the sight of him.

“nothing,” you mutter as you finally pull yourself away from him and up on your toes. “just hurry up and get back to your dorm—”

your wrist was suddenly snatched, forcing you to look back down at atsumu. “are you okay?”

“yeah, don’t worry about it.” you dismissed, but he still refused to let go of you.

atsumu was now up on his feet despite struggling to gain balance for a quick second before following you back inside. “why are you acting like this?” he questioned, genuinely curious considering the fact that nothings lining up for him, but that’s probably because there’s still alcohol in his system.

“i told you already,” you repeated, the anger suddenly rising in the tone of your voice and you yanked the door open. “it’s nothing, just forget about it.”

“forget what, (y/n)!?” he exclaimed all of the sudden, his voice echoing own the corridors as the frustration suddenly building up within him at such an early morning. this wasn’t good for anyone, not for you or atsumu, and not even your neighbors who were probably still sleeping.

“because you told me you had feelings for me last night, idiot!” you quickly shut your mouth up the moment the words left you.

atsumu’s expression hardened as his breath hitched in his throat, hesitating to even answer as the words could barely leave his tongue.

you weren’t supposed to know about that.

the thought was drowning in the back of your heads, only for you to swallow any unnecessary feelings back into the dark depths of your gut as you turned away. atsumu cleared his throat and mirrored your movements, creating a space between the two of you once more as if whatever just happened didn’t occur. perhaps the setter had a problem with keeping things to himself while he’s drunk, but surely you didn’t even have the ability to resist the urge you swore you would never succumb to.

because isn’t falling fun?

atsumu’s eyes flickered back and forth from the ground before him and you who seemed to be too deep within your psyche to notice as you refused to even look at him. he captured his bottom lip between his teeth as he pulled himself together to answer. “i’m sorry,” he apologized, “i didn’t want my feelings to ruin our friendship.”

you shook your head, scratching the nape of your neck as your gaze finally decided to meet with his. “it’s not ruined, atsumu. we’re just being idiots right now.”

“when are we not?” he chuckles softly, trying to lighten up the mood that suddenly turned awkward. “i just hope you didn’t reject me while i was drunk.”

“i would never!” you scoff, offense written all over your face as you felt relief coursing through your body knowing that everything seemed close to normal again. “i mean how could i reject someone that looks absolutely adorable while their drunk?”

a playful look melted upon atsumu’s expression as he smirks, “you think i’m adorable?”

“a hundred percent. it’s just too bad i couldn’t kiss you since you threw up right after you confessed. it was disgusting.”

atsumu rolled his eyes, “don’t lie, you know damn well that was the best confession you have every received.”

and it was. purely from the fact that was from your best friend, miya atsumu, who you often called idiot. but if anything, he was your idiot and you wouldn’t change it for anything.

[greenninjagal-blog]

Trouble

Hi yeah its me, and look I’m already back with a new fic for the new year :D cherish this moment I don’t think i will have have this turn around so quick again. For the TSS Fanworks Secret Santa Exchange because I was a pinch hitter :DD @nerdywriterhaven I hope you enjoy!

Summary: Patton has a thing about boardgames and Virgil has a thing about Logan. Together they figure it out. 

Word Count: 7900

Quick Taglist: @alias290​ @chelsvans​ @coyboi300​ @dante-reblogs @dwbh888​ @glitchybina​ @faithfulcat111​ @felicianoromano​ @harrypotternerdprincess @holliberries​ @jemthebookworm​ @killerfangirl3​ @mrbubbajones​  @musical-nerd18​ @nonasficcollection​ @stricken-with-clairvoyancy​ @the-sunshine-dims​ @themagicheartmailman​ @themultishipperchild @thenaiads​ @treasureofpriam​ @vianadraws​ @welovelogansanders​  

Read on Ao3 || My General Writing Masterlist

Patton shows up at Virgil’s dorm room just slightly after six pm on a Tuesday with two thermoses of soup that are still warm to the touch, a halloween tupperware of chocolate chip cookies that had been passed between him and Virgil so many times that Patton really doesn’t remember whose it was originally, his laptop, phone, the chargers for both, and the board game Trouble.

Virgil, predictably, shuts the door in his face the second he sees the game box hidden under all the other things in his arms. Patton also thinks that Virgil tells him to go away, but it’s muddled by the door.

Instead he shuffles all the supplies to his left arm and knee, and knocks again on his door just below the leftover tape from the nametag that his RA keeps putting up and Virgil keeps ripping down because he doesn’t want anyone knowing where he sleeps. His knuckles hum with the rap, datatata dat dat! And he smiles even when there’s the sound of something being thrown at the door from that side.

Patton chooses not to hear it because he’s a good friend and an even more stubborn houseguest.

The door a little bit down the hall opens up with the usual fanfare of someone who is running late to a night class-- which of course is the charm of Roman Prince. He looks nice, as usual, and Patton even thinks that if he hadn’t been wearing two different colored shoes, no one would even know that he had probably just woken up from a nap. The music of his room blares out into the hall with a rap song Patton thinks is Hip With the Kids these days, but Patton himself can’t make out any of the actual words.

All the much better because he’s pretty sure it’s Remus’s music and Remus likes his songs like he likes just about everything else: dirty, scandalous, and offensive. Not that Patton is good friends with either of the Prince siblings, but he’s heard the rumors floating around about both. Roman smiles at him, with glittering white teeth and dimples and soft warm brown eyes that could have been made of melted chocolate.

“Oh! What a spectre!” Roman says, seeming to forget that he’s on the way to a class at the sight of Patton standing at Virgil’s door. “Tell me, angel, what brings a glorious sight such as you to our dorm buildings on this amazing day?”

Virgil’s door swings back open before Patton can answer and Virgil hisses from the darkness, the way he’s usually prone to do whenever Roman or Remus or their blatant disregard for the rules about music volume at two AM is brought up.

He looks not much better from the glimpse Patton got before the door was closed in his face earlier: he’s still pale to the point of looking sickly and dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, with his eye shadow smeared and his hair not brushed at all. There’s a red imprint on the side of his face that Patton thinks matches a crease in his blankets or pillows from where he probably tried to suffocate himself on and off all day between anxiously texting Patton all about “the absolute worst day of my entire life and no I’m not even exaggerating this time Pat”.

“Hi Virgil!” Patton says, as Virgil reaches forward and to take a thermos and the tupperware from his arms and glare unbidenedly at Roman. “I brought dinner!”

“I hate you,” Virgil says, and does not mean because he loves Patton’s Broccoli Cheddar Cheer Up Soup and he’s been in need of cheering up since Patton had seen his messages at noon on his way to his second class of the day.

Roman gasps like he’s offended on behalf of Patton who is not offended as much as endeared to his best friend of several years. “Virgil! How could you act so callus towards a beautiful muse such as this?”

“Get lost, Princey,” Virgil tells him firmly, grumpily, Virgil-ly. “He came here specifically to make a pun about my pain.”

“I do it with love,” Patton adds. “And I brought cookies to make up for it.”

Roman looks like he doesn’t know what to do with that information and Virgil doesn’t give him time to find out because he kinda hates Roman-- although Patton always tells him that “hate” is a strong word and Virgil always says he means it anyway. Patton supposes that if he, too, had hallmates that played music louder than life up to the early hours of the mornings during Finals Week, and then cranked it higher when he knocked on the door to ask them to stop, he might also strongly dislike them.

Virgil ushers Patton into the dark room and then kicks the door closed while Patton is waving goodbye at Roman.

It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light level: Virgil was certainly making use of those thick blackout curtains! It made the whole room look like it was three AM, rather than six PM! There are blobs of stuff all around the room, piles of clothes and blankets that Virgil prefers to have on the floor rather than put somewhere where he’s not going to trip over it in the middle of the night, but Patton supposes that’s just how Virgil’s always been.

“If someone breaks in, they’re gonna trip over this shit and I will be out of here long before they can get back up,” Virgil had said the first time Patton had suggested maybe, possibly cleaning something until they found the floor.

The desk where Virgil did his school work is empty and the textbooks and computer that normally covered it are all on the ground like a massacre from what Patton can make out. Virgil shuffles through the room and ends up turning on the purple lava lamp that Patton got him three years ago so that they could at least see each other and the faux-floor, and even then he doesn’t look happy at needing that much. The elevated bed had the blankets ripped up from it and turned into a nest with Virgil’s phone light peeking out from the depths like some underwater cave with a sea monster in it waiting for an unsuspecting diver.

“Remind me, how you got into this building?” Virgil says, tiredly as he pries open the cookie container. “It requires a key and last time I checked, you don’t have one of those, Pat.”

“As if a key would stop me from checking on you!” Patton replies. He plops himself on a pile of clothes and clears away another spot for Virgil to collapse next to him, so that Virgil can’t exactly escape. “Now, what is this about Logan again? You were being kinda vague and world-ending-y again. ”

Virgil lets out a moan around the cookie he shoved in his mouth and drops to the floor next to Patton, to munch angrily or just upsetly without actually offering an answer, because he’s Virgil and he’s allergic to talking about things that upset him. Patton sets down his other thermos, his laptop, and his own phone to make room for the game between them.

“Must we?” Virgil asks as Patton sets up the board with a practiced hand. Even in the near darkness of the room he knows exactly what he’s doing, and could probably figure it out with no light at all.

“Of course!” Patton says. “You sounded like you were in Trouble.”

“ Sorry to disappoint.”

“It’s rather Risk -y of you to be self deprecating while within hugging distance.”

Virgil doesn’t say anything for a moment, just swallows the bite of his cookie and stares at the colored pieces in front of him. The board game is well worn and well loved-- one of the first ones Patton had ever gotten and one of the first ones he ever convinced Virgil to play with him. Although “convinced” is a strong word for how Patton had just been staring at the board numbly with red rimmed eyes when his father had asked Virgil to come over and try to coax him into eating something, anything, please .

They’d lost three pieces of the red team and one of the yellow and two of the green, but that’s okay because Patton generally played blue and Virgil had custom ordered four purple pieces for just the two of them a few years ago.

Carefully, placatingly, Virgil reaches a hand forward and pops the dice bubble for his number. He gets a four.

Patton gets a five.

“How many times have we played this one, Pat?” Virgil asks, in a voice much softer than before. In the faded purple light and the shadows, it’s hard to see the number on the die, and harder to see exactly what Virgil is thinking about with his eyes hidden like that. His nails are bitten down to the quick, ruining the black nail polish he spent an hour applying last weekend over their shared Biology notes.

Patton shrugs as he reaches forward to take his turn and pops the bubble. Honestly he didn’t think he could calculate the answer if Virgil pressed: this was their go-to game, this was his go-to pun, this is what they did even when the world was falling apart at the seams. It was easier to focus on moving playing pieces a couple pegs than it was to focus on the sound of a heart monitor or raspy breathing or bony pale fingers that shook when they tried to hold anything.

It was easier to find a way to win when the instructions were so clear, and the rules were so fair, and the consequences of losing were just having to put the game back in the box.

Virgil doesn’t say anything more and Patton doesn’t force him to, although he desperately wants to. He wants to reach out and catch Virgil’s hands in his own, he wants to give him a squeeze, he wants to wipe away the tear tracks in his makeup and he wants to tell Virgil that whatever it is, Patton will be there for him.

He wants Virgil to look at a game for once and have fun.

But the only sound in the room is the popper when they roll the die back and forth.

Patton gets the six first. He moves his second leftmost piece to the start and hits it again for a three.

Virgil stares his blue piece on the board for a long moment, without blinking. His hands lie limply in his lap and the tub of cookies sits at his knee. The purple light makes his eyes glisten sweetly, wetly, sadly, with a resignation that Patton knows and wishes he doesn’t. The lump in his throat swells up.

“Virgil?”

Virgil blinks. And then blinks again.

“Why should I even bother at this point?” he asks. He runs a hand up to his hair and tugs at the locks.

“Virgil, this is the opening of the game,” Patton says. “You can’t give up alrea--”

“But it’s not like I’m going to win,” Virgil says and Patton sucks in a breath sharply.

Oh. It was one of those days.

Patton thinks that he should have been expecting this; it had been a decent amount of time since Virgil last had refused to finish a game, and Patton had almost thought that maybe they had kicked those thoughts for good! That through sheer willpower and perseverance and proof to the contrary, they might have managed to rework how Virgil approached a challenge. That at one point Virgil might laugh and smile even when he wasn’t in the lead--

And yet, Patton’s sitting with one piece three spaces ahead of Virgil and Virgil is ready to call it quits. The game had just started. Patton had only been sitting in the room for a total of five minutes. Virgil hadn’t talked for more than a couple sentences.

It’s one of those days, except that Patton doesn’t think that it’s ever been this bad before, because usually they at least made it to the one piece around the board in Trouble , through to one check in Chess , through to one hotel being built in Monopoly , or one train ticket completed in Ticket to Ride .

“This is a sign, isn’t it?” Virgil continues. “I’m just being stupid even considering it. Of course I am. I always am. Nevermind, I don’t want to do this today Pat. Thanks for the soup and the cookies and I’m sorry that I made you walk all the way--”

Patton reaches out and snags Virgil’s arm before he can get all the way off the ground. The board nudges to the side dislodging several pieces into the surrounding void, but Patton thinks that he can replace a hundred playing pieces.

He cannot replace his best friend.

Virgil’s skin is cold, even though the room was comfortably warm, and he’s soft to the touch-- which is never what Patton expects when he gets those lightning quick hugs, when Virgil rests his head on his shoulder during movie nights, when they go shopping and there are crowds that make Virgil want to run for the hills and only Patton’s hand in his keeps him grounded there. Virgil is soft despite the jagged persona he puts on to drive away other people, and he hasn’t gotten any sort of touch in a while because he shuts up the moment that Patton’s own warmth floods over him.

The room holds the silence for an eternity: Virgil frozen halfway up from the ground, and Patton latching on to him like he can pluck all the reasons Virgil is upset out of his mind through osmosis. The lava lamp makes him look unreal, makes the silence ring louder, makes the lump in Patton’s throat grow larger.

“Virgil,” Patton says, “please.”

Please tell me what I can do. Please allow me to help. Please let me in.

“It’s stupid,” Virgil says.

Patton wants to laugh, because nothing that ever hurts Virgil has ever been stupid. “I don’t think so, kiddo.”

Virgil bites his lip and inhales with all of his chest.

“You didn’t go to any classes today. You’ve been crying. You’re still wearing yesterday’s clothes.” Patton says. “Something happened. And it can’t possibly be stupid because nothing that affects you like this is can be anything less than something huge.”

Patton feels Virgil’s hand curl into a fist like he can hide his shaking when Patton is right there .

“Do you remember Logan Ackroyd,” Virgil says. “The senior a year older than us who I had Sociology with last year?”

The same Logan who took extra notes for when Virgil missed class and emailed them to him. The same Logan who offered Virgil a granola bar when he overheard that Virgil had missed lunch. The same Logan who helped Virgil break into the auditorium after school hours to search for his missing earbuds.

The same Logan who has eyes more knowledgeable than the entire galaxy, who wears a tie to class, who smells like coffee beans and pen ink and looks like he’d give really good, safe hugs.

The same Logan who Patton has never once met, but feels like he knows intimately thanks to Virgil’s starstruck rambles.

Logan must be something great and amazing. Patton has known that for a year now, from watching the months slip away and suddenly the ghost of Logan joins them on every outing, summoned by the blush over Virgil’s ears and the soft smile on his lips and the way that Virgil steadfastly won’t meet Patton’s eyes like it will prevent Patton from noticing the way that the senior is always on Virgil’s mind. Logan is kind. Logan is smart. Logan has a new book every day. Logan has a voice like the ocean waves.

Logan, Patton thinks, should have been more careful if he caused Virgil this much distress. Because there are things that Patton would do for Virgil that not even a cold blooded killer would consider doing.

“Yeah,” Patton says, with a smile soft and dumb and innocent. “You guys have Analytical Science together this year, right?”

Virgil lets go of his lip, and breathes out a breath that sounds like more relief than Patton is supposed to hear. “Yeah. Yeah. He, uh… yeah.” Virgil shifts back down, shifts so that he’s on his knees and Patton is right next to him, and they’re still touching and that warmth is stronger than the shadows made by the blobs in the lava lamp.

“Janus… Janus asked him out yesterday,” Virgil says, using his other hand to pluck at a thread in his jeans.

Oh. Patton doesn’t think cookies and soup were enough.

And golly, Patton doesn’t think Logan is as smart as Virgil is always saying he is either, because if he said yes in front of Virgil, he must have been the stupidest person on the planet.

Virgil is quiet, dismissible, a shadow in his own skin even on his best days. But he is not un-noticeable.

He carries an aura around himself that storms and thunders and promises danger to those that get too close. His laughter is a threat first and a comfort second. His smile is a knife blade that even Patton sometimes wonders if he might find in his back one day. Virgil was someone that you noticed and you stayed the fudge away from.

Unless you were Patton, who hadn’t been afraid of Death from the moment he watched his mother cough up blood over the cards to CandyLand, watched his mother turn into a real-life game of Operation, watched her breathing get ragged and her fingers struggle to hold playing cards between them.

Logan hadn’t been scared away by Virgil’s thunder, and somehow he had weathered the storm that Virgil put up to protect himself and lived securely in the eye of the hurricane. And somehow he hadn’t noticed, hadn’t cared, had taken advantage of Virgil’s softening heart just to shatter it.

“He didn’t…” Virgil says. “Janus… he didn’t really mean it. I don’t think. It might have been a joke because they’re friends but Logan told everyone that he would only consider dating someone who could… could…”

“Could what?”

Virgil’s eyes flick down to the Trouble game board, to the pieces lost in chaos of the floor, to the box they hadn’t needed except for transport. Patton feels his heart thud in his chest before he crawls up his throat and he tastes it in his mouth along with the remains of the raw cookie dough he licked off the spoon while cleaning up.

Virgil’s words come back to him in whispers. But it’s not like I’m going to win. This is a sign, isn’t it? I’m just being stupid even considering it.

“Someone who could….” Patton says, “beat him in a boardgame?”

Virgil yanks the thread on his jeans sharply and nods without meeting Patton’s eyes. “I told you it was stupid.”

“Virgil,” Patton says. “This is great! We’ve been playing games together for years! You can beat--”

“That’s the thing!” Virgil says with his shoulders curling up to his ears and burying him in layers of excess fabric. “Pat, I can’t even beat you in a board game and I know all your strategies!”

“I don’t think that Trouble actually has any strategies. It’s really luck of the roll--”

Virgil peeks out of his hood enough to give Patton a miserable glare. “When was the last time I won against you, Pat? Be honest.”

Patton purses his lips. “I don’t think that’s fair, kiddo. I’ve been playing games since I was able to understand the rules--”

“You don’t even remember, do you.”

“It was Dominos and you won by twenty points.”

“Nice try, but you purposely miscounted and you actually won by two.” Virgil reaches out for another cookie and offers it to Patton without making any move to pull his other hand from Patton’s hold.

“You would have a lot more wins if you didn’t insist on not finishing games sometimes!” Patton says. “You never know the ending of a game until you play it out!”

“I could tell you that Logan was going to beat Janus in Chess the moment the opening moves were made,” Virgil counters. “He won in twelve moves and then the next game in six.”

Patton opens his mouth, but Virgil shoves the cookie in before he can actually say anything.

“And God Rest Remy’s soul because Logan obliterated him in Trivia Pursuit.” Virgil continues, “He turned Roman to mincemeat over Scrabble, and not only beat Remus in Poker, but won one hundred dollars off him too. I also watched him win in Othello against some kid he tutored in Calc, a game of Mancala with an art kid who was doing it for clout, and Stratego which he won before I finished reading the fuuuuuudging rules and made his opponent cry over it.”

Patton swallows down a bite of cookie that he didn’t not chew well enough because he feels it tear up his esophagus as it goes. Virgil politely ignores him dying for a second and offers him his own thermos of soup to help it down, before remembering that he’s supposed to be brooding and staring at Patton for too long makes him soft.

“Not to make a pun here, but no dice; I legitimately cannot beat Logan,” Virgil says. “He’s just… so good. At everything. What is the point in humiliating myself with this? Even if I find a game so obscure that he’s never heard of it and doesn’t have a strategy built for it, just going up to him and putting the board between us is like-- that’s telling him that I’ve had this massive stupid crush on him for ages and what if he doesn’t even like me? What if I win and then he has to date me because he said so but he actually hates me? What if--”

Patton coughs so hard he thinks he might have dislodged his own lung, which is fine!! Because at least it got Virgil to snap back to him and table his panicky spiral for later.

“Weren’t you,” Patton croaks, “Weren’t you already going to confess to him? You bought the chocolate kisses and you sent me pictures of them in your bag right before class last week.”

Patton can’t see Virgil’s ears because of his hood but he knows that they’re glowing red from the way that Virgil can’t meet his eyes again.

“I just….I did but then he….” Virgil nudges a pile of questionably clean band t-shirts with his socked foot. “He said he wasn’t interested because class was starting and I still don’t know if he meant an actual kiss or a Hershey kiss because he had to leave class early to pick up his kid brother from his middle school because he was sick with a fever and then I was too mortified to bring it back up-- See Pat, I can’t even come up with a creative way to tell Logan that I wanna listen to him ramble about jellyfish immortality and play with his hair or tell him that I wanna know what the flavor of his chapstick is-- which, by the way, I did say to him and he told me was cake batter and that I could find it at the corner drugstore because he thought I was looking for recommendations-- There is no way to subtly tell him that I want to date him.”

“Then maybe… don’t be subtle?” Patton suggests, and then points at the game between them. “Boardgame?”

Virgil scowls at the game like it had personally offended him. “But I can’t beat him. And if I lose and by some miracle he still wants to be seen with me, then he’d be breaking the very rules he set up and everyone else who lost is going to be pissed at both of us and I can’t do that to Logan.”

Patton bites back the then don’t lose that he wants to say. It seems so obvious to him. He doesn’t really see why Virgil doesn’t think he can win one single game. There isn’t even a rule that says Virgil can’t come back and play again-- which isn’t that the point of games? That you can play them for a little while, pack them up, and then come back to them later? That you sit down with friends-maybe-more and you play and have fun ?

Not for the first time, and not for the last time, Patton wonders why Virgil ever played games with him at all. He knows the first time was pity because he found Patton sitting on the floor of his bedroom with Trouble on the ground in front of him and staring at it numbly because he had cried all the tears out of himself already at the hospital, at the funeral, at the everything that had come after that he couldn’t remember. The first time it had been to get Patton to react because he had been so lost, but every time after that Virgil had made the conscious decision to pick up the pieces.

Even if sometimes he had put them back down halfway through and Patton hadn’t figured out how to convince him that the point isn’t to win as much as it is to have fun.

Virgil twists his wrist loosely in Patton’s grip so that he’s holding Patton back, his cold fingers somehow feeling comforting rather than startling. Patton has always loved that about him, although he’s never sure how that works. The coolness of his touch is familiar, but the vulnerability of Virgil reaching out is something newer, something special, something fragile and Virgil holds onto him like he’s expecting Patton to let go at any moment and Patton steadfastly refuses to let him drift off. Patton squeezes his wrist gently, lightly, softly.

I’m here. I’m not leaving. We’re in this together.

“I think that Logan can make decisions for himself,” Patton says with words so featherlight they barely move the air. “Remember the dominos? Any player can choose to lose, whether it be miscounting or it be refusing to finish the game in the end. But if you never even offer to play with him… Logan can’t make that choice, Virgil.”

Virgil holds his gaze for a moment, two, three, and there’s something in his eyes that shies away from the glow of the light, something slippery and weak and scared. Something that Patton is afraid to put a name to, lest it disappear from him forever.

Something that causes Virgil to squeeze his wrist back.

Together. Us. We’ve got this.

“So what game do you want to play with Logan?” Patton asks. “We can go look at my collection if you want? I loaned out Backgammon to a girl in my Shakespearean class, but other than that I have the usuals with me.”

Virgil takes a deep breath. “Can we…” He says. “Do it tomorrow? I don’t want…” He squeezes Patton’s wrist again and Patton can fill in the rest of the blanks with his own interpretations. He is, after all, fluent in Virgilese, as much as Virgil is fluent in Pattonish.

“Yeah, yeah,” Patton says and shifts through the piles of clothes that act as cushions so he’s right next to Virgil, pressing their shoulders together, leaning his head on Virgil’s collarbone, and reaching around him for another cookie. Virgil moves the tub between them and then pulls the Trouble game board in front of that.

He hesitates for another moment-- they’re missing two of Patton’s blue pieces to the floor, and one of Virgil’s purples to a pile of sweatshirts-- but the fact that Virgil drops forward and presses the bubble to roll the die makes Patton’s chest warm.

He gets a six, and then a four and that thing in his eyes seems to grow just a bit stronger.

That is, of course, when the rap music from next door starts up loud enough to shake the entire room and Patton wonders if Logan would still be up for playing a game with Virgil when he’s incarcerated for second degree murder.

Patton, at least, gets a hug out of it, when he tackles Virgil to the ground before he can get to the door, and he manages to coax Virgil back to their area, back to the floor, back to the game, and then later into the blanket-fort-and-movie-night that they watch with one earbud each and their foreheads pressed together late into the night.

***

Patton’s mother developed lung cancer when he was seven. He remembers it in vague flashes: the blood, the shakiness, her fall to the floor because they had never had any sign of it happening until it was too late to do much about it. He was told it was because his maternal grandparents both smoked a lot when she was growing up and she spent the weekends helping them around the house still.

The doctors said she had a year. She got eighteen months.

He barely remembers her face from his own memories anymore, all of them blurred and twisted by the passage of time that he almost got swept away in entirely. Her picture still hangs around the house, though, and he guesses he’s lucky in that regard. He liked how he could see her every time he passed by the stairs, even after his dad remarried and he had grown up and the telemarketers stopped calling the house to tell her that there was an interesting charge on the credit card she didn’t have anymore.

He still wakes up sometimes with his heart beating in his ears and his eyes blinded with tears and his lungs refusing to cooperate because of nightmares about forgetting her entirely, of seeing her stand up to call out to his dad, of seeing her cough out blood and then fall to the floor right in front of him as his dad is running down the stairs. He still wakes up and feels his heart aching where she might have once been if everything had gone just a little bit different. He still wakes up and wishes that he could go back to sleep because at least in his dreams she’s still there waiting with a deck of cards and a smile that says, “Alright, Buster, don’t think I’m going to go easy on you this time!”  

Usually those types of days he labels as “Bad Ones”, and he finds it harder to crawl from under his blankets to do pretty much anything.

Virgil knows immediately when he sees Patton staring at his black laptop screen that it’s a Bad One.

Patton loves that he knows not to ask, hates that Virgil can read him so easily, wants to cry because it’s been so long and shouldn’t the edges of that pain have gone away by now? He wants to pull Virgil’s purple comforter back over them and drift back off into the blissful warmth while pretending that the idea of a game right now didn’t make his hands shake.

She hadn’t left Patton specifically a lot of things, but the things that she had left him had been boardgames. Things that she had collected over the years and kept on a shelf in the study for them to play after work and school: Candyland, Trouble, Snakes and Ladders. She had a whole shelf for him when he got to an age where he could understand more complex concepts: Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Mysterium, Star Realms, Settlers of Catan.

After she was gone… Patton had stared at that shelf and wondered if she had ever thought that maybe she wouldn’t get a chance to play some of them with him.

He wonders how many of them he could have beat her at, how many of them she might let him win in, how many of them they would love to play together and how many of them they would both play through once and then wrinkle their noses at because it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be.

He wonders and maybe it’s a bit too much because he’s stomach is rolling nauseously and he thinks that if he has to look at a game he’ll actually throw up this time.

Virgil doesn’t say anything, even as he gets up and Patton remains buried under too many blankets and the alarm on his phone goes off again for his morning class. The darkness is safe and warm and Patton thinks he understands why Virgil likes it so much as he closes his eyes and tries not to think of a woman who is long gone and in the ground.

“Breakfast?” Virgil whispers at some point.

“Cookies,” Patton mumbles back.

Virgil had carted a hand through his curls and then the door to the room had opened closed and locked behind him. Patton thinks that was nice of him-- to lock the door like he was protecting anyone from coming in and stealing his valuables even though Patton was there. Or maybe since Patton was there? Patton presses his head into a pillow that smells vaguely like chocolate cherries and black licorice and other things that screamed Virgil, and thinks that Virgil might consider Patton a valuable that needs to be protected and kept safe.

Sometime later Patton wakes up with Virgil lying beside him, headphones on and typing on his computer with one hand while dragging fingers through Patton’s curls with the other. It’s impressive of him by itself, but not nearly as impressive as the fact that Virgil’s hood is down and the blackout curtains are parted enough to bring in a decent amount of light.

Virgil blinks at him and removes one earmuff. “I read that flowers need sunlight to grow,” he says in lieu of explaining the rays of light cascading into the room over the two of them.

Patton wants to laugh, and thinks he might if it were any other day and not this one. He settles for a somewhat bent smile and Virgil reaches to somewhere he can’t see and brings back a muffin from the Campus Cafe.

“Chocolate Chip,” he says. “Which is like a cookie, but better because it’s a muffin and I said so.”

Patton can’t really tell if the tears that prick in his eyes are from the lingering sadness or the softness of just a simple gesture from his best friend. Maybe it’s both. Maybe it’s neither.

It’s a muffin, not something he should be crying over, and he repeats it even as he takes a bite from the top and Virgil pretends like he doesn’t see Patton scrubbing his cheeks as he chews. It’s a muffin, but Virgil got it just for him and Virgil came right back here and sat with him so he wouldn’t wake up alone and sad and and and--

And if Patton liked anyone romantically like that(™) he thinks he would have fallen straight into love with Virgil.

“Did you miss class?” Patton whispers.

Virgil shrugs. “Nothing important. I sent an email to my teachers saying that I wasn’t feeling too good and didn’t want to risk accidentally spreading anything to anyone, which already helps because I didn’t go to class yesterday and I’ve already turned in all my work for the week for most of my classes. Besides, you were here and I didn’t want to just leave you all alone-- what if Roman started playing his Disney compilations at 160 decibels again?”

“You like Disney, though.”

“I also like my hearing and my best friend,” Virgil says like it’s nothing, like it’s obvious, like it shouldn’t be making Patton tear up again because Virgil is just so nice.

“I’m sorry,” Patton whispers.

Virgil moves his computer and jostles around on the bed until they’re lying side-by-side even though the bed was definitely not made for two persons. He presses his head to Patton’s, and he’s cool and soft and safe.

Together. We got this.

“Your mom?” He asks.

Patton nods, with a lump in his throat that makes all the words he wants to say crumble to ashes on his tongue. “Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize, Pat,” Virgil says.

“But… Logan…”

“He’s not going anywhere,” Virgil says. “And, full offense, but no boy is going to be more important to me than you regardless of how fuuuuuuunkily hot he is. Funkily, yeah, sure, that’s a word that I definitely was going to say right there.”

Patton feels the laugh build up in his chest, against all the odds in the world, and it tastes like chocolate when it rolls out of his mouth.

Virgil bumps his shoulder, and grins. “Look, I’m trying here. Cursing is in my nature!”

“Thank you,” Patton says. For everything.

“No prob, Bob,” Virgil says. I would do it all all over again and never change a thing.

“I’m not Bob! I’m Pat!”

Virgil’s laugh is like the sun breaking through the clouds after a rainstorm, like a rainbow cascading through the sky, like being caught after a fall. Patton gets the energy to smile back when he hears it and that alone nearly makes him want to cry again.

Patton twists the blanket under him between his fingers and takes a deep breath. “Did you…” He says before pausing to swallow back the taste of his own stomach acids he’s not sure is entirely imaginary. “Did you pick a game? For Logan?”

Virgil’s nose twitches, which means the answer is a sound no. “It’s not that important right now. You’re not feeling up to--”

“ Vir -gil,” Patton says and Virgil’s nose twitches again.

They share a look for another minute, two, three, before Virgil exhales and looks away.

“Fine, fine,” he says. “I didn’t pick out a game yet. I actually saw him in the Cafe earlier with Janus and he waved, though, which was awesome until I waved back and forgot to look where I was going and walked straight into a glass door. At this point it’s going to be a miracle if Logan doesn’t laugh in my face when I ask him to play anything with me.”

“He won’t laugh at you,” Patton says and Virgil slides his arms up and crosses them so he can bury his chin in them like he doesn’t believe Patton at all. “From what you’ve told me, Logan is really nice isn’t he? And the other day didn’t you say that he went on a rant about Pluto being a planet? I think that’s just as silly as you walking into a door.”

Virgil hums to show he’s listening, even if he isn’t taking the words to heart as much as letting them filter through his ears. Patton licks the last of the chocolate muffin from his fingertips and blinks away the urge to hide away from the rest of the world when he spies the box for Trouble on the ground next to Virgil’s desk trash can.

Virgil follows his gaze to the box and he purses his lips, although Patton isn’t sure if its from the fact that he’s remembering that neither of them won last night, or if he’s thinking about odds of beating Logan again or if he, too, is thinking about ghostly fingers trying so hard to move playing pieces that they can no longer touch.

Patton rolls over and stares at Virgil’s ceiling instead, counting his breaths until he feels like the static between his ears isn’t going to overwhelm him.

“What game do you want to play?” Patton asks.

“I won’t win.”

“I didn’t ask what game you wanted to win,” Patton points out. “What game do you want to play against Logan?”

Virgil is quiet, but he sighs so heavily that Patton can see his bangs flutter out of the corner of his eyes.

“This is going to sound stupid,” Virgil says, and again Patton remembers that nothing Virgil ever says has ever once been stupid. “But I don’t want to play against him at all.”

Patton frowns, rolling his head to the side to take in Virgil’s gaze that is already looking at him. His dark eyes are there and the something in them that Patton doesn’t want to put a name to is there again, shining just like the rays of light between Virgil’s blinds.

“I mean I want to play a game with Logan, just not against Logan. It’s stupid, okay? I was just thinking about the cooperative games back at your house that we used to play with your dad and step mom-- you know like the Unlock , Escape-room-in-a-box games? Or maybe Flashpoint? Or Forbidden Island? I was just thinking how shit I am at making my own decisions in Pandemic and Logan is really good at strategy so I bet that working together we’d be able to beat any game.”

Patton breathes deeply, sharply, and tries to ignore the piercing pain in his chest at the mention of the games. Virgil winces like he wants to take the words right back out of the air and hide them somewhere where neither of them have to face them at all.

“I don’t…” Virgil says, “I don’t want to play against him and lose. I’d rather play with him and win. Again: it’s stupid.”

Patton closes his eyes, and sees the shelf his mom left him full of boardgames she picked out long before he was past chewing on building blocks, of him at eleven years old finally getting the courage to drag a kitchen chair to the case and pick out a game while Virgil stood by to make sure he didn’t fall and to remind him that it was okay if he didn’t didn’t feel strong enough to try, of the two of them sitting at the kitchen table with the game directions between them that don’t really make any sense because it there’s no directions on how to attack each other when his dad comes home early and freezes at the sight

He might not remember his mother’s face outside of photographs he doesn’t remember being taken, but he remembers clearly the softness of his father’s expression when he dropped into the seat next to them and asked if they knew how to play this one yet.

“It’s a cooperative game,” his dad said, with a voice shaking and eyes wet. “That means we all work together to get to the goal at the end. Each player is going to have a different superpower-ability-thing that they can do that will make it easier for us to win as a team.”

So no, Patton doesn’t think that it’s stupid at all. It’s hard to do things by themselves, it’s scary, it’s difficult, it’s frustrating. That’s why when Virgil is texting him that the world is ending because of a boy, Patton will always show up at his dorm with soup and cookies and a game for them to play together instead of telling him that he’s being dramatic and silly. That’s why when Patton is missing a woman who hasn’t been in his life for twelve years now, Virgil will always stay with him to remind him that he’s going to get through it, instead of telling him to suck it up.

It’s much easier to win when they’re on the same side.

And Virgil has only ever had fun when playing games that he wins, hasn’t he?

“Why don’t you?” Patton asks suddenly.

Virgil must have nodded off because he jerks suddenly when Patton speaks up, “huh?”

“Why don’t you play a cooperative game?” Patton asks. “What did Logan say specifically about the whole dating thing?”

Virgil rubs an eye and squints at him tiredly. “I told you, he said he would only date someone who beats him at a game. I don’t--”

“Did he say beats him, or beats the game with him?”

“Neither?” Virgil says. “He literally said to Janus very loudly, “I will only consider someone a viable romantic partner if they can win in a game with me.””

“In a game with me,” Patton repeats. “ In a game with me. Not in a game against me!”

It takes Virgil a long, breathless moment to comprehend it, but it’s clear the moment it hits him. Virgil jerks so hard that he tumbles off the bed entirely and to the ground in a fumbling of long limbs, blankets, dubiously cleaned clothes, and his computer-headphones combo. Patton yelps and leans over to check on him but Virgil doesn’t even look like he noticed.

“Holy Shit,” He says, “holy shit, Pat.”

“Language.”

“ HOLY SHIT!” Virgil yells, and then he laughs and covers his mouth like he’s trying to bottle up the sound. “Patton! Patton! He didn’t say against!”

Virgil’s eyes sparkle, the light through the window makes his dark hair shine and just looking at him Patton thinks he’s never once seen him so happy before, so delighted, so excited.

So full of hope.

The next thing he knows is that he’s sitting up and Virgil is wrapped around him in a hug so tight, so soft, so cool and wonderful that those pesky tears come right back to his eyes. Virgil hugs like he’s unafraid of anything for just this endless moment, like he’s never been unsure of physical touch before, like he’s done it a million times before and Patton shouldn’t feel his breath catch in his lungs lest he shatter this dream with an exhale.

He’s standing at the eye of the storm that is Virgil, and he’s never felt so safe before in his life.

“Thank you,” Virgil whispers, “I, uh, I’m sorry for the sudden hug--”

And then, of course, Remus’s music comes back with a vengeance that rattles the ceiling tiles overhead and makes Virgil hiss and break the hug. Patton thinks that he could forgive it, if it weren’t for the unmistakable sound Disney’s Mulan soundtrack also ringing in the air, like it was trying to be heard over the rap music. Dust sprinkles from the tiles overhead.

“I’m going to kill them both,” Virgil vows, but Patton is quicker. He lunges forward before he even knows what he’s doing and coils around Virgil as tightly as he can, and just hugs him, his best friend, the guy who’s always been there for him, and who deserved all the happiness that he could get.

“Pat?” Virgil says.

“If Logan doesn’t treat you right I’m going to make sure no one finds his body,” Patton says.

And Virgil’s laughter makes it sound like he doesn’t quite believe Patton, but that’s okay. Virgil is still looking for reasons to play a game if not to win, and Patton is still trying to find a game that makes him smile, and together they’re going to figure out how to get Virgil to win with Logan.

But for now the hug is good, and the company is nice, and they have the game Trouble packed away ready for the next time they want to play.

[drjingujisclinic]

hello!! I just wanna say I absolutely adore your work & how you write <3 can I request some gentle femdom of jakurai and fem s/o?? nothing really serious or anything, just where he lets his s/o take the reins to make him feel as good as possible and taking care of him ✧(⸝⸝⸝ᵒ̴̶̷ ｡ ᵒ̴̶̷⸝⸝⸝) thank you so much in advance & for ur hard work!!

JAKURAI JINGUJI: 

tags: sleepy shower handjob, as you do

He’s not controlling, so much as he is a person who prefers giving rather than receiving. His nature is to dote as much as possible on you, and his favorite phrase is to say “Don’t worry about me, I’ll worry about you.” But you can’t help but feel a little bad anyway. Jakurai is always good to you. 

Another late night at the hospital. He always tells you not to wait up for him, and you always do anyway. Usually you’re met with a click of his tongue and a remark about how you need your sleep, and please don’t worry about me, I’ll always come home safe, with that weary look on his face. But tonight he looks more tired than anything else. He gently pushes you away when you approach, mumbling something about how he needs a shower first. 

You can’t argue with that, after all. 

But you do miss him when he gets shifts like these. 

You tiptoe into the bathroom (with a solid knock just to signify you’re there - you’ve certainly been the target of his old reflexes before). He doesn’t argue, just watches out of the corner of his eye as you undress and step into the shower behind him. His muscles quickly tense in his shoulders as you wrap your arms around his midsection. 

“Can I start worrying about you now?” You ask, pressing your cheek to his shoulder. It’s about as high as you can reach without standing on your toes. 

“You don’t--” 

“I know I don’t have to. But I do, you know.” 

He lets out a long sigh, and looks over his shoulder. His eyes are always gentle, even now, when they’re exhausted. 

“Long day. That’s all.” 

“Mm.” 

One of your hands slides just a little lower, pressing gently against his lower stomach. You hear it, just barely, a little huff of breath, and feel the instinctive twitch of his body under your fingertips.

“What are you doing?” It’s hardly a question. He knows what you’re up to. 

You purse your lips. “Do you not want me to?” 

Jakurai swallows and closes his eyes, just for a moment. 

“Go on. There will be less to clean afterwards.” He muses, more to himself than anything else. 

You can’t help but laugh to yourself. “I’ll take care of that too.” 

He smiles, just a little. “Thank you.” 

Your hand slides down, and you wrap your fingers around his length at the base. He’s already half hard - whether from your hands on his stomach or your body pressed against his back, who’s to say, really - and he lets out a soft sigh as you move your hand. 

Jakurai doesn’t often let you take the lead. He doesn’t want you to worry about him. But he can’t help but indulge himself when you do. His head lolls to the side, pressing gently against the shower wall as he lets you work him slowly. He doesn’t force you to speed up, just gently rocking his hips into your hand. Somehow it feels like even now he’s got a hand on the reins. 

Your thumb rolls against the tip, and suddenly a hand shoots up to clasp over his mouth. A muffled whimper falls past his lips and into his hand. You can’t help but frown a little. With your free hand, you gently hold his wrist and pull his hand away. 

“Don’t do that, you sound so pretty, Ja-ku-ra-i~” 

You’re met with an exasperated little sigh, but he can’t be too upset when you’re holding his hand in your own. He bites at his lower lip, hoping that might muffle him, but it does little good as you roll your thumb against the tip again. His hips stutter forward, you swear you almost hear him rumble a please from deep in his chest. 

“It’s okay, finish when you’re ready. I won’t be upset.” You murmur to him, and crane your head to kiss at his jaw. Almost as if on command, he gasps and shudders, and a familiar warmth coats your fingers. 

“You’re okay?” You ask him softly, squeezing his hand. 

“Mm. Thank you.” He sounds sleepy, and you press a little kiss to his shoulder. 

“Go to bed. I’ll take care of you.” 

[the-noir-sorceries-castle]

Welcome to the Bloody Castle!

WHAT IS THE NOIR SORCERIES CASTLE?The Noir Sorceries Castle (TNSC) is the home to all things vampiric, gothic, artistic and of course mysterious. The castle belongs to 3 eccentric lords. The lords have been rulers of this castle for millennia, ruling with grace and harmony. But after 100 years, they decided to use the castle walls as a sort of radio tower, to connect with the outside world. Now, the castle has become the one place where all can gather and read/observe about the world of the paranormal. So to all new and old...welcome!

<+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+><+>

MEET THE LORDS:

𝐃𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐫𝐢||266||♎️||He/They||Magician||Seer||Non-Binary||Bisexual||OCD||Colorful Emo Mess||The ENFP Starlight Trickster||DDADDS Lover||Actor||Lover Of Games||The Oracle

Dimitri: ZITTI E BUONI - Måneskin, Paid In Exposure - NateWantsToBattle, Master Of Puppets - Metallica, Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana, Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen, Sick Of The Silence - Mother Mother, Wolf In Sheep's Clothing - Set It Off, Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N' Roses, Rock You Like A Hurricane - Scorpions, American Idiot - Green Day.

Dimitri: Psychosocial by Slipknot, Under Pressure by Queen + David Bowie, Supremacy by Muse, Beat It by Fall Out Boy.

Dimitri: Zombiecore, Darkest Academia, Cottagegore, Cryptid Academia, Gothcore, Woodland Goth.

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𝔸𝕟𝕟||265||♌️||Zey/Zem||Ex-Mayor||Pirate/Fae||Agender||Lesbian||GAD||Ballerina||Latex ESTP Goth||70s Icon||Fashionista Icon||Entertainer of Birds||The Rebel

Ann: Lies - Pale Waves, Preach - Jessie Paege, Wicked Ones - Dorothy, Screw Feelings - Au/Ra, Blood In The Cut - K.Flay, Hot To Go! - Chappell Roan, One Way Or Another - Blondie, Sissorhands - Maggie Lindemann.

Ann: Ur A Stranger by Willow, Froot by Marina, Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land by MARINA, Monica Lewinsky by UPSAHIL.

Ann: Dark Fairycore, Weirdcore, Victorian, Mori Kei.

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╭──────────────────╮

playιng: [Cellophane] - [FKA Twigs]

1:06 ───⊙─────── 4:21

⇆ㅤ ||◁ㅤ❚❚ㅤ▷||ㅤ ↻

ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

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Thank you for reading, goodbye!👢

[just-the-mage]

[ 👶 ] is your muse good with kids, or do they prefer to avoid them?

For Eva

Evangeline stepped through throngs of people crowding the Rosewood Stalls in Gridania. She checked her list a third time, ensuring that she had what she needed. The cloth bag at her side held eggs, butter, milk, some spices, and a smaller bag of jerky she had picked up for herself. She was in the mood for meat today. If she was being honest, she had been in the mood for meat the past few days. And…the past few days before that. Ever since they had returned from Amdapor, in fact. She put off considering it again, finishing the piece she had been worrying at while she was walking. She cast her eyes around, giving one more look before she turned back towards the lodge. She stopped for a moment, considering a flower stand. Pidgeon would like some flowers…and it wouldn’t be too much, right? Friends bought each other flowers sometimes. Eyeing a bouquet of hydrangeas that would look lovely woven into Pidgeon’s dark hair, Evangeline heard something.

Sniff…sniff…Mama…

Flowers forgotten, Eva stopped, listening again for the noise. Soft sobbing echoed from underneath the stall next to the flower stand, which was unmanned for the time being. It’s owner must have stepped away. Evangeline crouched down, pulling up the cloth around the base of the stand to reveal a small au ra girl, surely no more than five years old, curled up underneath it.

“Hey there, little one…” Evangeline whispered, her voice as soft as she could make it. The child opened her eyes at the sound, two brilliant blue pools meeting Evangeline’s eyes, one violet and one crimson. She gave a little gasp, and scooted backwards a bit.

“Did you lose your mommy?” Evangeline said, backing away a bit but continuing to hold the curtain up so she could still see the girl. The au ra’s lip quivered, and her blue eyes filled with tears as she sobbed:

“Y-yeeesss…”

“Ohh, it’s o-okay, hush, now…” Evangeline said softly, reaching a hand out. “Why don’t you come with m-me and we can try and find her? I’ll have you know I’m v-very tall, and it’s quite easy to spot someone from my s-shoulders.” The little girl paused, still teary-eyed, and slowly nodded, crawling her way out from under the stall. Eva bowed her head, allowing the girl to climb up onto her shoulders.

“What is your name, little one?” Evangeline asked, slowly standing and steadying the girl with her hands.

“Maseera…” came a quiet response.

“Well, Maseera, cover your ears because I’m a-about to be rather loud.” Evangeline said. “I’ll keep you from falling, so d-don’t worry about that. She took in a deep breath, watching from her periphery to make sure the child covered her ears.

“EXCUSE ME!” She boomed, using the tone of voice she hadn’t bothered with since she was an Immortal Flame. She started walking, wading through a crowd that was now turning to look at her. “WE ARE LOOKING FOR THE MOTHER OF MASEERA!” Yet more heads turned towards her as she walked, the au ra still plastered to the back of her head, hands over her ears. Evangeline repeated herself once more, and luckily that was all that was needed. A frantic looking Au Ra woman rushed up to them, crying:

“Maseera? Maseera??” She caught a glimpse of her daughter as Evangeline reached up with a large, calloused hand, plucking the girl from the back of her neck and delivering her into her mother’s arms. Evangeline crouched down, putting herself just below eye level with the mother.

“I do hope you have a n-nice day. Both of you.” Maseera turned to give a bright smile to Evangeline before burying her face into her mother’s shoulder.

“Thank you!” The mother replied. “Thank you so, so much! I’d been looking for her for ages!” She managed a half-bow with her daughter still attached to her, and rushed off into the crowd. Evangeline stood, still smiling. It was probably time to get back to the lodge. She could worry about flowers another day.

This was also asked by @pidgeon-sorrel. Thank you!! ❤️

[amoretheiwa]

Closet Conversation

Tim and Kon have had a thing going for a little while now--a friends-with-benefits kind of things. But Tim isn't sure he can't keep up the pretense of only friendly feelings towards Kon. So things start to come out... That's basically it.

Read on AO3

Read on Tumblr below the cut

Tim found himself hating Kon just a little bit when the Kryptonian finally pulled completely away and didn’t seem even nearly as out of breath as he was. Sweat made Tim’s face damp and he willed his arm not to swipe at his forehead, chest still heaving.

Kon grinned at him—teeth blindingly white and lips still swollen—as he began to reach for his costume pieces.

“I think I have a new favorite room here,” he said with a wink.

Tim pushed down the emotions—and arousal—that evoked and rolled his eyes.

“If every place we did anything like this in ended up as your favorite room, half the Tower would be your favorite.”

Kon raised and wagged his eyebrows.

“Exactly.”

Tim scoffed and turned around, searching for the discarded pieces of his uniform. In the midst of their little…tryst, the oddest things ended up in the oddest places. His boots were in opposite corners and his cape was stuck over the door handle.

“One of these days someone is going to need something in one of these closets and they’re going to find way more than they expected.”

Kon snorted.

“So what? Good for them.”

Tim tensed for a split second before going back to getting dressed. Their friends with benefits arrangement was mutually beneficial. Kon got out his insane amounts of pent-up sexual tension, Tim got stress relief and the added bonus of close proximity to his current crush/best friend. If he could even still call it a crush after the past few years.

Maybe it was the Bat-training, maybe it was his attempt at keeping feelings out of the whole thing, whatever the reason, Tim was finished getting dressed even as Kon was still looking for his top. Tim allowed himself to watch as his friend floated up to the top of a cabinet. His butt looked good at this angle. Tim felt his cheeks flush and turned around, crossing his arms. Robin tradition or not, he mused bitterly on the stories he had heard from Dick, messing around in random rooms in Titans Tower does not seem smart or safe.

“That was dumb,” he muttered under his breath, closing his eyes.

“What was?” Came Kon’s voice most definitely too loud and too close.

Tim whirled and glared at his…friend.

“This,” he gestured at them both, at the room. “This whole thing was and every time we have done it and probably every time we will do it. It’s a dumb thing with dumb perks.”

Kon furrowed his brows, blue eyes glinting.

“What’s dumb about it?”

Tim scoffed.

“Everything. It’s firstly unsanitary,” Kon outright laughed. Tim pursed his lips. “Secondly, it could end causing problems between teammates.”

Kon tilted his head.

“How so? Unless you don’t like my skills,” here the half-Kryptonian wiggled his  hips, “I don’t see any reason to stop.”

Tim felt his heart jump and his blood roil. Ignoring the fact that Kon could hear all the ways his body was betraying him if he was even bothering to pay attention, Tim continued. He turned around again, crossing his arms.

“Say you and Cassie get back together, or you meet someone else. It just would be problematic!”

Kon shrugged and pulled his shirt on. He went to tuck it in as Tim spoke again.

“That was dumb.”

“I know. I heard you the first three times.”

“Crazy dumb. Crazy, stupid sticking fingers into light sockets kind of dumb.”

Tim glared at the wall, not saying anything else. Before he knew what was happening, Kon was pinning him against the wall just as he had been before, only this time both his hands were above his head and Kon wasn’t touching him anywhere else.

“What’s so dumb about this, Tim?” He asked in a low, sultry voice. It wasn’t exactly the same as his sex voice, a little more serious and less out-of-breath, but still far from his hero's voice.

“Is there something that bothers you about this Tim, or is it something about me?”

Tim swallowed, his throat suddenly extremely dry. Even though they had just spent quite a bit of time in there, certain parts of his body were telling him they were more than willing and ready to go another round, maybe even two, with Kon.

“This isn’t a personal commentary on either of us, Superboy.”

Kon leaned in closer to Tim but still didn’t touch him anywhere else. The familiar tingling of his TTK wound its way up from his ankles to rest low on his hips, pushing him further into the wall. He attempted to swallow again.

“Isn’t it though? You don’t have any problems with Bart and Jaime, or Steph and Cass.”

Tim tensed and a good portion of his arousal went away.

“Because they’re all in a public, committed relationship. Any of the potential fall-outs are at least partially anticipated.”

Kon pulled back some.

“Really, Tim? You’re going to go full-on Bats on me like this?”

Tim resented the fact that even Kon called him out on his more Bruce-like qualities—it wasn’t like Jason and Dick weren’t enough. He grit his teeth and tried to pull his wrists free from Kon’s hands. The clone didn’t fight him but didn’t let him just slip away, either.

“This has nothing to do with being a Bat, and even if it did that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.”

Kon floated back some, giving Tim some more space without really freeing him.

“No, you’re right,” Kon put a hand through his hair, “this has nothing to with being a Bat. This has everything to do with you and your repressed emotions. It might make you fit in with the rest of your crime-fighting clan but you didn’t inherit it from them.”

Tim contemplated slapping Kon right then and there. The only thing that stopped him was knowing that being the one to initiate physical contact would mean Kon had won in some sick twisted way.

“I’m no detective but I think there’s something else that makes you see this as dumb,” Kon said softly, almost gently.

Tim flinched and closed his eyes. He was by far not prepared for this change in tone. Fighting, he could do—it’s all he and Kon had ever done before they became friends. But emotions, pity? Hell no.

The silence in the closet was deafening, and if his heartbeat was even half as loud to Kon as it was to him he knew there was no point in hiding. They stood there for what felt like hours before he opened his eyes. Behind his mask, he felt a sense of anonymity rarely afforded to Timothy Drake-Wayne. But in front of Kon? Kon-el, Conner Kent, the clone of Superman himself and containing Lex Luthor’s DNA, was not stupid. Even if he liked to be underestimated as such. He knew it was a lost cause that he was going to have to either come up with a really good lie (even by his standards) or tell the truth, as heart-wrenching as it would end up being.

Tim was just about to open his mouth and say—he didn’t know what, but something—when their communicators went off.

“All Titans, come in. We’re needed ASAP!”

Kon pulled all the way back this time and sighed.

“We’ll finish this conversation later.”

Tim didn’t follow Kon out immediately, instead letting his head fall back against the wall.

If I have any say in the matter we won’t.

Tim had almost forgotten about the uncomfortable conversation that happened after his and Kon’s most recent…meeting. Almost. And God did he hate that he couldn’t bring himself to just calling it what it was—sex, ­unattached and as platonic as it can get sex. Fucking, banging if he wanted to be crude, but it wasn’t much more. No making love for Tim Drake. No, he is much too busy and sleep deprived as it is, let alone emotionally repressed as others had so kindly put it.

He would have completely forgotten about the fact that his best friend (are they even still best friends at this point? What were they supposed to be?) still wanted to talk if it wasn’t for said friend. Tim had hit the showers—finally—after their quick mission. A gangbanger that had gotten too big for his britches decided to dabble in Venom and wrecked a few city blocks by the time they were able to stop him.

While he pulled on some civvies, Tim winced. It was far from the worst battle he had ever been in (hello Ra’s al Ghul, Damian) but bruised ribs were bruised ribs. ­­­­A knock on his door had him tensing. His schedule did not allow him to spend much more time at Titans Tower. After all, he had business back in Gotham of both the suit-and-tie kind and the crime-fighting kind.

“Come in,” he called out. Whichever Titan it was hopefully wouldn’t take up too much of his time.

He heard his door open but knew immediately it wasn’t Bart or Cassie; both of them would have instantly been chattering about something or other. Tim knew in his gut it was Kon before he turned around.

“Do you need something?” He asked, voice cold in a manner he didn’t frequently use on friends and family, just barely keeping himself from crossing his arms.

Kon made sure the door was shut before walking over to Tim’s desk and sitting in his seat. The clone leaned back a tad, just enough that his t-shirt rode up his jeans some. Tim was suddenly very grateful for Kon’s fashion taste and the fact the high-waisted jeans covered skin that otherwise would have been visible and very distracting.

“Yeah, I do, but not right now. This is more of a…a prelude to talking about what you and I need.”

Tim made the split-second decision to not sit down but did finally give in and cross his arms.

“Fine. I don’t have much time so spit it out.”

He hoped that the minute shaking he could feel wasn’t noticeable, but who was Tim kidding? Even with half of Superman’s genes, this was still a superpowered Kryptonian. He leaned against his dresser, the distance exactly enough to not be awkwardly far away but not so close as to make the conversation too intimate, too personal.

Kon eyed Tim. It wasn’t a sensual checking out or aggressive sizing up, just a drawn out and unsubtle observation. Tim began to fidget, a tell and a nervous habit Dick and Bruce had yet to fully train out of him.

“Well?” He finally prompted, undeniably impatient.

Kon leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and hands clasped together.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you brought up earlier, man, and I want you to know that I wasn’t just being a jerk for no reason.”

Tim snorted.

“Like you’ve ever needed a reason to be a jerk.” Kon snapped his head up and glared at Tim.

Tim raised his hands in surrender, genuinely regretting the words.

“Sorry, I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. Continue.”

Kon pursed his lips for a beat before doing just that.

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I still stand by what I said earlier even if some of the…personal digs weren’t relevant. It’s a Bats thing to stay emotionally unattached and I’m not like that. I hate it, I actually really hate it. So even though we’ve got this friends-with-benefits thing going on you’re still one of my closest friends. Besides,” he leaned back again, grinning now, a glint in his eyes and the beginnings of a smirk around his mouth, “it’s not liked we don’t keep each other happy.”

Tim swallowed. His heart was racing but he also felt kind of faint. Instinctively the oblivious side of him wondered if he had maybe been poisoned but he knew instantly that that wasn’t the case.

“So you’re saying that you want to keep this up, nothing changing, even though I think it’s dumb?”

Kon groaned and closed his eyes, rubbing his hands over his face.

“I don’t know man. Ideally, there’d be more than just amazing sex in random rooms but since that’s all you’re gonna give that’s all I’m gonna take.”

“Fine b—wait, wait what?” Tim’s voice squeaked in a way it hadn’t in a few years. Kon’s eyebrows furrowed and his cheeks flushed slightly.

“Do you like me?”

Kon looked miffed at having been interrupted but shrugged.

“Yeah, man, I guess. We are friends after all.” Tim stood up and shook his head.

“No, no, you don’t understand. Do you like like-like me? Like, physically and emotionally attracted to me? As in don’t want to just fuck?”

Kon rolled his eyes.

“Well duh. Why do you think I broke it off with Cassie? I straight up seduced you dude, I just realized pretty quickly you weren’t into me on the same level. It’s cool though.”

“Why did you think I’m not into you? I thought it was obvious and you were just humoring me while getting all the benefits.”

Kon raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to speak but froze. He dropped his head back and started laughing.

“What’s so funny about this?” Tim said, speaking louder so that he could be heard over Kon’s laughter. Emotions were racing through him like a heard of horses but the most prominent one had rapidly become confusion.

“It’s, it’s just that this whole time I, I tho-thought,” Kon wheezed, “thought that you. I don’t know, I just didn’t think you were interested that way.”

Tim felt his jaw metaphorically drop.

“Are you kidding me? We could have been dating this whole time?”

Tim ran his fingers through his hair and gripped it, pacing. Kon stood up and smiled. He walked up to Tim who had begun muttering at light speed, and gently stopped him, holding his shoulders.

“Tim, hey, Rob,” he said softly.

Tim looked up at him and sighed. He bit his bottom lip, and Kon’s eyes flashed down toward his lips.

“Let’s let go of this whole mess and just start over, okay?”

Tim nodded vigorously. Kon grinned and leaned in, kissing him softly. When he pulled back, Tim seemed to be a little in shock.

“So, Robin, Tim Drake-Wayne, would you like to go on a date with me tonight?”

Tim pulled back a little and stared Kon down.

“As much as I want to say yes, I’m way too busy tonight. How about tomorrow? I can make time for a few hours if you can.”

Kon grinned and kissed Tim again, lingering this time.

“I can always make time for you, babe.”

“Babe?”

“Well, yeah, if we’re boyfriends then I reserve the right to call you babe.”

Tim couldn’t deny that he wasn’t getting flustered and flustered quickly.

“Alright, Kon,” Tim grinned, “it’s a date.”

[kda-chat]

Kai’Siv Hercules Inspired AU

Long Post Warning! Inspired by Disney’s Heracles, changed the Greek mythology to Egyptian mythology. Because of that, there are slight variations compared to the original story. Just know this is just a simple, general AU post and I hope you enjoy! :)

XXX

Shai, God of Fate and Destiny, foretold a prophecy: Set, God of the Desert, Storms, and Evil, will one day overthrow Anubis, God of Funerals, Mummification, and the Afterlife and take over Duat- the Realm of the Dead. With Anubis gone, this leaves Osiris, Lord of the Underworld, and Set's brother, vulnerable to overthrow. The downfall of Anubis and Osiris will destroy the Mortal Realm, crumbling Egypt to the ground. However, a mortal champion, chosen by Anubis, will rise to stop Set. No matter what, this champion will be successful.

To prevent the second half of the prophecy from coming true, Set sent ruthless sandstorms around temples that worshiped Anubis, depriving him of followers. For many years, Anubis' temples were barren and empty, loss of faith.

One day, a poor woman, on the verge of death, finds herself in the footsteps of Anubis' temple, carrying a baby. She begs the deity to save her child's life before succumbing to death. Anubis, knowing the prophecy is now set, takes in the baby, and names her Sivir. Gifting her with godlike strength, he requests aid from Ra, God of the Sun. Ra sends down his demi god champion, Azir, to help.

Azir is Sivir's ancestor [Azir was human at one point, thousands of years ago], thus why he was chosen to become her parental figure, taking on a human disguise. His role is to guide Sivir and raise her in the Mortal Realm, to learn and understand about humanity. However, Sivir grew up isolated and distrustful. The other children and parents were fearful of Sivir's inhuman strength and treated her like an outcast. Worried, Azir then took in another child named Taliyah from an exiled village that was destroyed by bandits. Thus, Sivir and Taliyah got along and became close friends. Taliyah didn't mind Sivir's strength and saw her as an older sister that protected her.

One day, Azir reveals Sivir's destiny to her, after she had been questioning her existence and role in this world. He tells her to visit the Temple of Anubis, who will then prepare her for her fight against Set.

Sivir travels to the Temple of Anubis and meets Anubis himself. He tells her about her mother, how she came to him, and now what she needs to do. Anubis sends his champions down to Earth, Nasus and Renekton, to train Sivir. Nasus will teach her how to use her mind in the face of battle, using strategy, plans, and tactics to win. Renekton will teach Sivir about bravery and perseverance, how to use her godlike strength to win. The two brothers have different views of strength and often fight about it. [Insert Sivir's workout montage and getting buff.]

Meanwhile, Set has found out about Sivir. Using spies to observe the young woman, he noticed her attraction towards women. So Set chooses Kai'sa to hopefully "slow down" Sivir's progress and kill her.

Kai'sa is a mortal girl, a victim of the Void- an empty space that is filled with gruesome monsters. Kai'sa once loved another woman [I guess this can be Cassiopeia but I'll leave it blank]. When her lover was trapped in the Void, Kai'sa rushed in to save her but was betrayed by the lover and left in the Void for many years. This made Kai'sa distrustful and cynical towards romance. The only thing that kept her sanity in the Void was her need to survive for her father, Kassadin, who thought she was dead.

Set makes a deal with Kai'sa. He will release Kai'sa from the Void, and return her to her father if she seduces Sivir and kills her. Kai'sa takes the deal.

At this point, Sivir has grown stronger and wiser under Nasus and Renekton's guidance. She has conquered different trials to test her abilities, gaining respect and honor from the people that ostracized her. She was now a hero in their eyes.

In an "accident" at the river, Sivir rescues Kai'sa and falls deeply in love. Kai'sa was unlike any other girl that Sivir fancied, her beauty was mesmerizing to gaze at. And so, for a while, Sivir took time out of her training to pursue Kai'sa [which pissed Nasus and Renekton off, who were suspicious of Kai'sa]. She slowly realized that this wasn't an "I want your body" type of love, it was an "I want you to be my life partner" type of love. During this, Kai'sa plays along to get Sivir's affections, while trying to get her killed. But each time, Sivir cunningly survives [not knowing it's Kai'sa's doing] and it starts to impress the young Void woman.

But as Kai'sa learned more about Sivir, she started seeing who Sivir really was. This strong woman was a huge softy that just wanted to be liked and accepted. Sivir admitted at being resentful of humanity for rejecting her but has grown to forgive them. She spoke fondly of Taliyah and her parental figure, Azir. Sivir was a well-rounded individual that had a big heart. Kai'sa started seeing how Sivir was the complete opposite of her former lover, and slowly fell in love. [Insert famous "I Won't Say I'm in Love" scene with Ahri, Akali, and Evelynn as the muses]

At first, Set is concerned that Kai'sa has fallen for Sivir, but then realizes that Kai'sa was now Sivir's weakness. During a confrontation where Kai'sa declares that she won't hurt Sivir anymore, even at the cost of losing her freedom from the Void and seeing her father again, Set captures her and sets a trap. He lures Sivir in to save Kai'sa, bargaining with her: If she gives up all of her strength and powers for twenty-four hours, she can have Kai'sa. Sivir makes Set promise that Kai’sa will not get hurt. He agrees to the deal [Kai'sa is gagged and unable to talk back]. Sivir accepts the deal because she cares for Kai'sa that much. Once the bargain was made, Set reveals that Kai'sa worked for him and now can go after his brother and take over Duat without fearing for Sivir.

Lost, broken, betrayed, Sivir is useless to fight against the onslaught of monsters that are now fighting in Duat. Kai'sa is equally as guilty, realizing that she was no different from her former lover. However, she still wanted to help Sivir and rushes to Nasus and Renekton, persuading them to go back to Sivir to help her. They do, returning to Sivir and reminding her that pure strength isn't just muscle but it's also the mind and the heart, bravery and intellect. In her renewed confidence, Sivir is able to take down a chimera. In the process, however, Kai'sa is brutally injured while trying to protect Sivir- breaking the promise Set said about letting Kai'sa be safe. This allows Sivir to regain her powers but at the cost of Kai'sa's life. When questioned why she tried to save Sivir, Kai'sa confesses her love for her.

Rushing to come back to Kai'sa, Sivir succeeds in stopping Set from his plans. However, when she comes back, Kai'sa has died from her injuries. Anubis offers Sivir to search for Kai'sa's soul in Duat, in an area where souls must triumph challenges before the "Weighing of the Heart" test. Anubis warns that Sivir might not return from Duat because she is still technically a mortal and can get lost in this area of Duat forever. Sivir does not hesitate to search for Kai'sa. She overcomes the challenges that the dead has to maneuver, searching for Kai'sa's soul. She finds Kai'sa alone, taunted by the betrayal of her former lover, which halts her journey to the "Weighting of the Heart" test.

Kai'sa, looks up to see Sivir has found her, but she is hesitant because the idea of a possible betrayal is taunting her. Sivir assures her that she will never let go of her hand and promises to return her to Kassadin, guiding her way back to the Mortal Realm. As they make their way back, Kai'sa is assured that she can fully trust Sivir and apologizes profusely for hurting Sivir earlier. 

They make it back, safe and sound. The balance is maintained, the prophecy fulfilled. Anubis grants Sivir to be a demi-god like Azir but that meant leaving Kai'sa behind because she is still a mortal. Kai'sa assures Sivir that she will be fine, she thinks Sivir deserves this high honor. But Sivir rejects Anubis' offer and chooses to stay with Kai'sa, reminding her that she promised to return her to her father.

In the end, Azir returns to Ra, and tells Sivir that he will greatly miss her- his daughter. Renekton and Nasus say their goodbyes, crying and moping while trying to act cool. Sivir returns to her hometown with Kai'sa, letting her meet Taliyah, before embarking to find Kassadin. Once they find Kassadin, reuniting father and daughter, the two of them live happily ever after.

XXX

I hope you enjoyed. Yes, Akali, Ahri, and Evelynn don’t have a big appearance in this one but let Kai’siv have their moment since I left them out in the other AUs. I hope you enjoyed because it was fun to imagine! Now I’ve done all three couples, Akalynn- Beauty and the Beast AU, BladeMaven - Little Mermaid AU, and now Kai’Siv. :) Special thanks to Kaya for inspiring me.

[adarafaelbarba]

The Taste of You

Pairing: Nevada Ramirez x reader

Fandom: Trouble in the Heights

Requested: No

Warning: Smut. Do NOT read if you’re under the age of 18! Oral (male and female receiving)

A/N: This covers the 69 square of the Kink Bingo @thatesqcrush​ created.

You couldn’t believe he had coaxed you to come back. But like he said the first time, you would be begging for more. Although, to your defense, you weren’t here to beg. Nevada had been kind enough to feed you information about a rival of his. This was of course more for his gain than anyone else. One rival down and suddenly sales went up for him.

«Mr. Ramirez, I’m not here to listen to you gloat. So if there’s nothing more, then I’ll be leaving», You commented, crossing your arms over your chest. «Got somewhere better to be detective?» he mused in return. «That is none of your business. Not to mention I should even be here. My superiors will publicly execute me if they knew I was even talking to you.» It seemed to amuse him to hear that.

«And if they found out I was fucking you? What would they do then?» Nevada was riling you up, something he seemed particularly good at. «Don’t. Cause it’s not gonna happen again. Last time was a mistake.» Yeah, no that’s a lie, you told yourself, turning to leave. «Goodbye Ra—». You let out a squeal as he pulled you back, crashing his lips to yours in a heated kiss.

It felt like your breath left you as his lips meshed with yours. Like the first time you kissed, you tasted the cigarette and rum on his tongue. It drove your senses wild and you found yourself leaning into the kiss while all logic in you told you to stop and get out of there. Not that you ever seemed to listen to yourself whenever it came to Nevada.

He picked you up with ease, and very much like the first time, he carried you to the bed before dropping you on it. «I’m gonna show you a good fucking time detective! I’ll fuck you so good you’d never want anyone else», he growled. «All talk and no action Ramirez. Why don’t I put that mouth of yours to better use?!» You questioned him, pulling him down on the bed next to you before straddling his chest. «And how are you planning on doing that sweetheart?» Oh god you wanted to gag at his tries on sweetness, it really didn’t suit the man who killed anyone who went against him. «Lay back, and keep focusing on eating me out», you stated, looking at him. «Fuck that! You can suck my cock while I eat you out. Put your own fucking mouth to good use!» He growled, picking you up to turn you around. You barely had time to respond as he pushed you down towards his crotch.

Eagerness and desire seemed to take over as you quickly worked open his pants and belt, pulling his impressive member out. «Good girl», Nevada growled, pulling your panties to the side to lick broad stripes up your cunt. «Mmmm you do know how to run that tongue don’t you?» you moaned before wrapping your lips around his cock.

You had never felt so aroused before, not that you could remember at least. The way he worked his tongue against your folds, dipping it in or teasing your clit. «Such a good little cock sucker! Taking me so well!» he moaned, pressing one and then another finger into your dripping core.

If your mouth wasn’t so full you would be replying with some quick remark, but all you could do was moan, shooting vibrations through Nevada’s cock, which got him dangerously close to cuming. «Dirty little slut!» he growled, sucking your clit into his mouth as his fingers picked up speed.

You were now painfully aware how close you were to your own orgasm. Pulling off his cock with a pop you continued stroking it while tilting your head to the side to look. What met you was your undoing. Nevada pulling your bottom half down to his face, probably trying to choke himself on your cunt. «So needy for my cunt huh? Can’t get enough of the delicious taste?» you teased, your free hand playing with his balls as the hand around his cock picked up speed. «Fuck! Dirty little slut! Get your mouth back on me and finish me off! Let me cum in that mouth of yours!» The way he swore would have made you laugh if it came from anyone else, but from Nevada, it just seemed natural. «Gonna make me cum on your face? Gonna lick up that juice?!» You purred, rubbing your clit against his stubbled chin, «Oh fuck!»

It didn’t take long before you both came, screams and moans falling from your mouths as you rode each others releases out.

You were both spent as you rolled off him, wiping you chin of any drool and cum that might have escaped your mouth. «Fuck mami, I should have know that mouth was good, since you run it so often», Nevada commented, patting your hip. «Right back at you Ramirez», you purred. There was no way you could get enough of him. How his body seemed to be responding to yours. And boy did you know, you would be coming back for more.

taglist: @sweetcannolicarisi @rafaheadcanons@rafivadafreddy@detective-giggles @mrsrafaelbarba @storiesofsvu@stardust-fray@beccabarba @teamsladsandgents @tropes-and-tales@kriegsverlobte @prurientpuddlejumper @meri-dawn @caked-crusader @itsjustmyfantasyroom​ @dianilaws​

[redjaybathood]

Bruce/Selina/Talia plotbunny

A proposal for yet another DC reboot. Or, if you will, Batman-focused line of comics, like White Knight universe. Only it starts with year one Batman who just returned to Gotham from his travels, training with the League of Assassins, starts his vigilante career, and - the tragedy of Flying Graysons happens.

Bruce takes Dick in but - plot twists - does not allow him on the streets as Robin. It’s just Batman adventures in catching criminals and raising a kid.

Then, another plot twist! Talia, heavily pregnant, comes to Gotham too. She decided that she won’t raise her child under Ra’s guidance because, let’s be honest, Ra’s is fucked up, and he fucked her up, and her siblings, so - she doesn’t want that for her child.

She seeks Bruce out for help because being pregnant makes it difficult fighting off the assassins, and she stays. Damian is born, Dick is adopted. Talia and Bruce are not getting back together (yet) because they both are emotionally constipated in different ways (Talia is still hurt because Bruce left the League  left her, and she is certain he lets her stay only because a) their son and b) Ra’s is after her; Bruce is still hurt that Talia didn’t leave with him, and he’s sure she came to him only because of a) their son and b) Ra’s is after her). And, cue Selina!

Talia is not a stay at home mom though. As soon as she gives birth and recovers from it, she begins to work on rooting the League out of Gotham. She also accidentally discovers the Court of Owls (or maybe they go after her because they don’t like Ra’s - view him as their competition) and they have to go, too.

But it’s not like Talia is leaving kids untended, or only with Alfred (which was what Bruce did before she came along) - instead as they have joint custody, they switch.

They both meet Cawoman, separately: Batman one night tries to stop a robbery in a museum. Talia saves Catwoman from getting caught in a crossfire with some Assassins. Catwoman has no idea Batman and Talia (I don’t have a good secret identity name for her, sorry; maybe Muse?) know each other, and the same with Bruce and Talia. Selina flirts with both of them, more genuine on her end in Talia’s case, more playful in Bruce’s case. They both fall in love with her.

Meanwhile, Dick is introduced to other superkids, Roy, Wally, Donna, Garth. No one among them is actually allowed to be a vigilante! Instead, they form a team of kid/teenager detectives and have, like, age-appropriate adventures and help other kids, animals and adults. During these adventures, they find, help and befriend Kory, Raven, Vic, Gar, and oh god, all the Wilson kids. They call themselves Teen Titans and have a “base of operation”/”secret hideout” bankrolled by Bruce, Ollie, maybe Diana and Arthur too. Still, nodoby is in the suits! If, say, Trigon goes after Raven, or Slade tries to kidnap his kids back before finishing his parenting classes, they call adults and hold them off before the cavalry is there. If they ever have to face “evil” kids, like, I don’t know, from HIVE Academy, or Terra, they actually help them escape the adults who make them do those things, and so Titans grow. In the end, there are so many of them, Bruce has no choice but transform Titans Tower into Titans Academy for gifted kids or something like that. Every kid gets to have safe space to live, and also education. First time Dick and his friends ever suit up for real is when they are 18 or so, freshly graduated, and supervillains attack the city the school is in. It’s much higher stakes than anything they fought off before, and waiting for Justice League is not an option. Still, younger kids are not suited up, only the oldest.

After that, OG Titans become heroes but also stay young adults with things like college and jobs and stuff. Younger Titans become kid/teenage detectives, and they call in OG Titans when they get over their heads.

Meanwhile! Bruce meets Jason who tries to steal the tires off the Batmobile. Oh no, a child! He can't adopt him though because it's something that needs to be discussed first with Talia and Alfred and Dick and Damian who is like seven already.

He can't take him to Titans either because most of the kids there are metas or magic or super-related. Also, except for OG Titans, everyone there was found by Titans themselves.

So it's Ma Gunn school for him. Only of course after finding out what is going on there, he runs away and seeks out Muse (who everyone knows has a soft spot for children, and dealing with anyone who abuses kids much more definitely than Batman, so even if Batman wasn’t the one who left Jason there, Jason would still trust Muse more; AND, they met before, when Catherine was still alive - and an Untitled came to Gotham. So they worked together before! Talia even said to him to find her in a few years, when he gets older, to train - she seemed certain he had a talent for fighting evil things). Talia sees Jason and - okay, first, she apprehends Ma Gunn, second, she makes Batman investigate Gotham’s Social Services and Bruce - to donate money to fund foster programs and such. But the third thing she does is bring Jason to the manor. She talked about this with Bruce when she explained why he needed to do something about Social Services, explained things to Dick and Damian so they know that adults weren’t replacing them or love them any less but rather they had so much love around that they decided to take in another kid, and made sure Alfred was okay with caring for another child too. If anyone wasn’t okay with that, she supposed she would have to get her own place, and work out visitation for Damian and Dick. It wouldn’t have been great but she couldn’t just leave Jason. It was like fate.

Thankfully, it did not come to that. But Jason coming to live at Manor is not without the difficulties. First of all, Talia can’t just adopt him. Bruce had a lot of influence in Gotham to be allowed to adopt Dick, and also everyone thought that he’s going to marry Talia, the mother of his other child, pretty soon, but that did not happen. And for Talia, who is unmarried, and has a day job but it’s at her son’s father company, and does not have her own place to live, things are slightly more difficult. And Bruce and Talia both can’t adopt Jason as they are not married. So, they have to foster Jason for now, but they got a hint from Jason’s case worker that they could actually have a better chance at adopting Jason if they are married to each other. Both of them are like: oh no.

Thing is, they are still pining for each other, even if they also repress it with all their soul as they also love each other more than just romantically - they are family that raises two kids together. They don’t want to mess it up! And, also, both of them are pretty much in love with Catwoman, secretly, or so they think, Because at this point they know that the other one is in love with Catwoman, and so they both refuse to date her out of misplaced sense of loyalty and certainty that Selina will be happier with the other one. Selina is this close to calling their bullshit out but then, Jason comes along. And Bruce and Talia have to get fake-married. Which is in truth a real marriage, and was so for years, only without sex, mostly, because they think the other one does not love them anymore.

While adults are being dumbasses with love triangle and ignoring the simple answer of poly relationships with Selina, things are not that much better with Jason, Dick, and Damian.

Look, Jason is half-feral child who thinks the only reason Muse wants to adopt him is that she wants him to become her student and eventually, help her with getting Gotham rid of magical threats like the Untitled. Of course, she doesn’t want him as her son, she has two already and it seems like she can’t bear the idea of them fighting evil with magical punches and swords, so Jason is an expandable street rat. Damian, however, is mad jelly because mother did not ever teach him any magical punches. And everyone in this family treats him like a child! While Todd gets much more freedom. Thus, the resentment grows.

Dick, however, is just put off by Jason’s brash nature. He is more used to half-feral or full-feral kids being nicer to him (because usually he and his team are the ones that rescue them), so Jason, in his opinion, is a little asshole, who doesn’t know what is good. Also, he also jealous? Talia didn’t allow him to fight side by side with her, ever.

And Dick’s friends basically don’t like Jason either out of solidarity with him. Except for Eddie. Eddie thinks Jason is cool and a hero already.

Sorry, Tim is not going to figure out Batman’s identity, because Richard Grayson was never Robin, and Nightwing does not operate in Gotham, so Tim, even when he eventually saw Nightwing on TV, was much older at the time and forgot about the quadruple somersault and did not put two and two together.

However! After a fight with his siblings, Jason runs away from Manor, and meets Tim Drake who takes pictures of Batman, and Spoiler, who spoils Cluemaster’s plans, and Batgirl, who doesn’t talk and lives at an old clock tower that is secretly a base of operation for benevolent hacker Oracle - who is actually Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara. And thing is, neither of them wants to go home - Jason, to the Manor where nobody really wants him in (or so he thinks); Tim, to the empty house; Spoiler, to her parents’ flat where her dad lives and mother sometimes remembers about her, in between highs and withdrawl; Cass has nowhere to go, actually. And Barbara doesn’t really know how to help any of them legally and not to make it worse, so she lets them all stay.

They: gather evidence and put Cluemaster behind bars; make a succesful trap for David Cain, the assassin, and he was supposed to go to the Blackgate but nobody heard of him since (because Muse found Jason very fast, actually, but was hesitant to interfere as it’s the first Jason made friends with kids his age after coming to Manor - but when she found out what Cain did to his daughter, well...); sue for Tim Drake’s emancipation; help to gather evidence that would allow for Joker’s extradiction to a state with capital punishment.

They all live at Clock Tower now. Safe, sound, not in costumes (anymore, if we’re talking about Spoiler and Batgirl).

Talia bites the bullet and asks Bruce to marry her, just so they could adopt not one but four additional kids instead. He agrees in a hearbeat (it’s for the kids! sure, Bruce).

Though, Stephanie ends up not being adopted because she does not want to part with her mom. She lives at the Manor for some time while her mom is in the rehab though.

And then, when Damian is ten, he realises that all of his siblings have a team of their own (Jason’s calling the team he is in, the Outlaws, because he’s dramatic like that, and well, technically, all of them did a lot of illegal stuff before the adoption - stealing, stalkering, fighting, hacking).

That’s when he meets Jon, and they run away together (supervised by Jon’s older borther Kon though) to find the truth about Damian’s mother’s past - they find the League, they found out that there are kids in the League like Mara al Ghul, Maya Ducard. They return to Gotham with them. In Gotham they meet and rescue Colin Wilkes. (all the adventures must be age appropriate though, no killing and no one seriously trying to kill them either).

And get their hides tanned by Wayne/Head and Kent/Lane household.

Duke Thomas, seeing how his parents weren’t Jokerized - Joker was tried and found guilty and got death penalty - still manages to find his way to the Batfam. Only this time, it’s because he’s a meta who helped to bring down the Riddler - though, not with his meta abilities but with his smarts. He is not adopted into the family, his parents are alive and well and not abusive. Instead, he is offered to join Titans Academy where all the batkids go to at this point of time. After they graduate, he and Cass form their own team, the Outsiders. Tim, Young Justuce. Jason stays with the Outlaws name though the people on the team change: Cass and Tim - obvious, Steph - joins Young Justice (because she feels it would be wierd to be on the same team as her girlfriend). Duela Dent joins Outlaws, as does Eddie Bloomberg, Grant Wilson (hey, someone needs to superwise the kids, he has experience with his younger siblings, he volunteered).

Tl;dr: Bruce adopts everyone he legally able to adopt, Talia is a good mom, every batkid has their team, nobody is allowed to be on a team until they either 18 or graduated school. Minor acts of heroics, detective work and age-appropriate adventures are fine before that, but if things become R-rated or more, kids have to call adults. Nobody dies. Everyone is happy and gets along (eventually).