#Also it's the first time in forever i did some backgrounds (you can tell...)

[nickpeppermint]

Have you seen anything strange? 👁️

Have anything strange seen you? 👁️

[natriae]

Dad!haikyuu is everything! I imagine Omi being your fake date to a family gathering and he swoons at your interaction with the kids until an auntie shoves a baby in his arms and he’s like UHHHHH 🧍🏻”don’tcrushthisbaby don’tcrushthisbaby” And now everyone including yourself can’t take their eyes off him 😭😭😭😭

STOP I LOVE THIS

warnings: fake dating, fluff, cue flustered kiyoomi

One month ago Sakusa Kiyoomi took you aside during one of your usual hangouts with Atsumu to ask if you could pretend to be his girlfriend. Your brain told you over and over that this is a terrible idea, but you couldn't help yourself and said yes. Plus, it was one night at his mom's house. You already knew his family it wouldn't be to shocking to see you by Kiyoomi's side.

That's the thing. Your heart strings started to be pulled on the moment the two of you walked through the door and Kiyoomi let out a short, quiet "we're dating now." His mom's only response was to pull you into a hug and explain how she's been waiting forever for this. After greeting the two of you she told everyone the good news.

You felt terribly guilty for lying to her but Sakusa seemed unbothered. Maybe you were just being dramatic about the whole situation.

Somehow mid-way through the night you ended up spending most of your time with Kiyoomi's sister's kids. She was your favorite Sakusa. She also was the only one who knew you had a crush on her brother since middle school. She would help you get pretty for him, but it never worked. She claimed it did, but you never saw any progress. You and the children were in the basement playing with toys while a random kids TV show played in the background. The characters would sing and save the day successfully holding the attention of the youngest Sakusa. She isn't even one yet, but she has the whole family whipped except Kiyoomi of course. For some reason he tries to stay away from her leading you to never actually meeting the little one til today. She was adorable. She'd bounce her arms up and down while babbling to the song. In front of you was her older brother, and Kiyoomi's first nephew. He had toy trucks and a few random characters from animes you know and some you don't. You were helping zoom the cars around the basement, crawling on your knees still you looked up to see Kiyoomi has finally decided to spend time with you. You could have swore you saw his lip twitch before he stepped pass you and sat on the couch switching the TV channel.

Kaia, the youngest, immediately started crying when she couldn't hear the joy of a few cartoon pups saving the day. Quickly you ran over to her picking her up to help calm her down. You lightly bounced her on your hip while giving small shushes to the baby. You walked away from Kiyoomi because your pretty convinced by his actions that he doesn't like children. Which tears a bit of you heart knowing that you always imagined what having kids with him would be like. What a great dad he would be, but that's all in your imagination. The little girl begins to quiet down as you lift her up so she can stuff her head into your neck.

From across the room Kiyoomi watches you calm the baby with a red face. How are you so good at this? He's never seen you with a baby and from what he knows your not an aunt of any sort, unless you count Atsumu's dogs. He finally lets out a small smile as he watches you bring the baby up so she can snuggle into your neck, but as if the gods are against him. You turn around to see him watching you, and you tell the baby with a slight smirk, "baby I think your uncle Kiy wants to apologize," you walk over still holding the baby like a natural. Finally setting her down to crawl over to him on the couch. The older man trys to hold the baby like a puppy. He's never done this before and he's never felt embarrassed in his life. You giggle softly at his nervous face and tell him, "Kiyoomi that's not how you hold a baby," he can barely focus on your words when your giggles are enough for him to worship the group you walk on. He swears he enters heaven the moment he hears that sound. "it's good that your holding her butt but i think she wants to be facing you," You say as you scoot closer and reach to try and show him the proper way.

Kiyoomi leaned back on the couch and attempted to correctly hold the baby on his chest. One hand on her back and the other holding her butt up. As if Kiyoomi was a sleeping pill the little girl immediately closed her eyes and fell asleep on the tall man. "see it's not hard. Do you wanna take her to her momma? She seems sleepy," you said with small smile on your face. Not forgetting the little boy playing behind the couch you glanced over to make sure he was okay. God, Kiyoomi could help but want to ask if you wanted to be a mom right now.

Unmoving Kiyoomi stiffly shakes his head no at the though of having to hold this baby while moving. You srunch your eyebrows together in thought trying to understand why he's so stiff. noticing your confusion he squeaks out, "What if I break her?" and at first you thought he was joking but there was genuine panic in his features. He thought he was this cool collected guy, but you could honestly read him like a book.

"i'll be right here, okay? You're not going to break her," You nodded your head while you spoke to him in the calmest voice you could muster. Slowly he stood up and you redirected his hand so that it held up some of her head too along with her back. "you need to keep her head up. Baby's head's are weak," he nodded his head at your words like they were the gospel. Anything you said he would take it as the truth. If you said it, it was right. Cautiously walking up the steps to the family room. His whole family seems shocked to see the large man holding such a delicate baby. He takes a deep breath while he tries to pass the sleeping girl to his sister.

"whoa, what did you do to her? She never sleeps this heavy." His sister said in shock, "Kiyoomi you need to hold her more often," she continued. Then did you finally take in how red his face was. He was so flustered it was adorable. Quickly you took your phone out and snapped a picture of the boy without his knowledge.

bonus:

It was late and about everyone at the gathering had left except for Kiyoomi's immediate family. The baby girl was back in your and Kiyoomi's lap trying to decide who she wants to get attention from. You and Kiyoomi were shoulder to shoulder and at one point he brought his arm over to hold you even closer. After falling a few times on Kiyoomi and then gripping his shirt like a life line the little girl turned and crawled into your lap. You let a small Ha at Kiyoomi for her ultimately choosing you, but you take it back once the little girl tried pulling the top of you dress down to get to your boob. Kiyoomi quickly grabs the little girl and she starts crying sad that she didn't get fed. If you heard correctly you swore you heard him tell the little one that you would have milk soon but not now.

[darantha]

How to Spot AI images (Hopefully)

So, I did see GailyNovelry's excellent post on this (Link here), but saw that there also were some confusion and they were using a environment image as their example, so I thought I'd do a breakdown that was more character centric.

The key thing with AI images is that the program does not know what it is making. And, arguably, they thrive on that we are currently conditioned to not really look at things for too long before we hit that engagement button and/or just scroll onwards to whatever next the algorithm feeds us.

It's hard to fight that urge, I know, but if you just pause and look, you'll soon start spotting things that just do not make sense, and I don't just mean that the pretty booby elven fighter is sporting seven fingers on one hand. Those are the obvious things. I'll try to cover the general sort of artefacts that tend to tip me off to the fact that a image is generated rather than actually hand-made by someone making informed design decisions as opposed to trust what amounts to RNG. I think this is important as there's those who do not tag their images as AI generated, and try to scam people with commissions.

And, as the saying goes... The devil is in the details.

To start with I picked this image from deviantuser CeiEllem. At first glance, it looks... very impressive. Sharp looking elf lady with killer hair. 10/10 wish I could rock that haircolour.

But, it is AI generated. Aside from the general tell that is this hyper rendered, near photorealistic style that AI images often have, there's a lot of details that tips it off to just not having been made by a human who actually made the decisions.

Since AI is just working off patterns and not actual decisions, things like hair is a immediate giveaway that you're looking at a AI image.

(Deviantart users: daralyth, DavidZarn and lunayokai)

In all these three images you can see just how hair whisps off into weird nonsense shapes or even meld into the background or clothing. Because, again, the AI doesn't know what its doing, just working with shapes. Similarly, background elements that just stop and start randomly is a dead giveaway, like the tail in the first image.

As I've said, details is the key to spotting these images, and another giveaway is the sheer density of details that is just noise.

This is from users Rigtorok7, and the details are so noisy, absolutely miniscule in scale, and hypersharp, yet have no actual design to them. Artists imply details all the time. We don't render out every single nook and crevice, and since we actually know what we want the viewer to look at, we'll pull back and simplify things so you don't want to look at the big chunk of very noisy hair ornament or necklace instead of the face of the character.

For comparison, this is how it looks when I, personally, indulge in doing 'overdetailing' of something (because I am forever weak for painting jewelry).

BUT I want to stress that the key here isn't that detailing equals AI generated. The key is the lack of design choices IN the details. There's a lot of artists out there, and someone painting out all those nooks and crannies in something doesn't mean they are a AI user. This painting by Leighton is super detailed but you see the intent with all the details. You have a focus with the people in the boat and secondary read of the figure in the door, where the details are a lot more implied and less sharp.

AI can't do that, because AI isn't making any decisions.

I couldn't find any good example once I went looking, but if you're into fantasy art: look for people just holding weird 'swords'.

AI is rapidly evolving, so who knows how much this'll help in 3 months, but for now, this is how I spot things.

But, in the end, the biggest giveaway that someone is using an AI generator is that they've filled up page after page on deviantart/artstation/wherever in the past like... six to nine months, and often swing between wildly different styles. If you're unsure, look up the source of a image. Another clue can be generic 'untitled' or just 'elf lady' sort of titles, since someone uploading 30 images a week isn't going to make unique titles for each image.

Also, commissioners. ... you should ALWAYS get a sketch and progress image from a artist that you hire. My art directors would have my head on a plate if I didn't send them a rough sketch and progress shot before finalising the image.

[sadbenedict]

common questions about Au

received a lot of questions from @chokehoe /thank you very much :D/ to make it more interesting, I've made it into a topic, and I've made some sketches! hope you enjoy!

So for your au where gojo locks geto in his basement, dose geto hate gojo now? Like I can imagine and understand why because he locked him away in basement, but I need to know.

This is a question I've answered before /You can search the hashtag, I could write more about it there/

He takes offence to it, of course, I don't think anyone would like someone locking you up. He still has love, Satoru is not a stranger to him after all, but there will be resentment. I think by the time Yuji shows up, their relationship will be very strained

Also does suguru use Yuji to get himself out? I feel bad for Yuji if so because then he’s gonna be stuck in the middle of that whole fiasco

I think he might take advantage of Yuji's kindness /oh yeah, manipulative Geto/ I think he'll want to get Yuji to take something from Satoru's room / and Yuji will have doubts about Gojo's mental stability/ If Satoru spots him, it's gonna be really creepy….

Was gojo just going to keep suguru locked in his basement forever, or did he have some other plan like suguru becoming a teacher?

I don't think he has any plan since he did it all on emotion. And I don't think Satoru will let him go anywhere now. Maybe he'll try to re-educate him /or maybe he's just calming himself down with these thoughts of re-educating/

Dose suguru have a plan for what he’s going to do if he does get out. Are nanako and mimiko ok in this one?

I think Suguru is just thinking about escaping right now. But even if he does, Satoru can easily find him by scent, will he have enough time to go somewhere before Satoru realises he's escaped? And if he is caught, will Satoru become even more insane? Suguru could also end his life if he realises that he has no other choice /I don't miss that thought/.

Nanako and Mimiko gone and are doing the same things they do in canon

Does anyone else know he’s down there, either by gojo telling them or by finding out by accident?

So far, only Shoko and Yuji know. I'll mention that the action takes place after the alley when Satoru "ki-lled" Suguru. Shoko knows because she healed Suguru /yeah, glued his arm on, that's just how I want it to be/. I think Shoko accepted since Satoru probably scared her, and she doesn't want to lose Suguru. But she probably wasn't surprised by Satoru's decision. To put it shortly

Maybe Megumi and Nobara will start to suspect something if Yuji !accidentally! says something XD like

Yuji: ...haha, yeah, like that strange guy in sensei's basement. Meg/Nob: what

Yuji: what

Also, I can’t stop imagining if the basement was the laundry and gojo & suguru are having some deep conversation and all you hear is the washing machine going in the background.

omg it's interesting! I pictured this place as where Gojo dragged Yuji to. Because, in theory, it could have held Suguru. But maybe then he moved it to another location, as you suggested, or converted this basement into a more habitable space. That's how I imagine this

/the room is quite small, I drew it like this for easy reference/

Has megumi or tsumuki walked into the basement because they needed something and just found suguru there and just didn’t know what to do so they just walked out, or do they not know? I feel like it would be funny but also creepy if they found suguru there because like the laundry used to be down there or something

Oh, this is gonna be really creepy XD I actually like this idea!

I think they'll get very scared and Megumi will probably encourage Nobaru not to ask Gojo since he heard from him about his ex-friend /understood from Gojo's description/ Since it's very strange and creepy, so better not to trigger Satoru

Why was gojos first thought to lock suguru in a basement in the first place?

I think he just realised that Suguru wouldn't be around him normally. And yeah, and he was determined to kill him.

Again, he did everything on emotion and from a selfish point of view. Also, I think he was just tired and just wanted to be around him all the time

@tug-tries-to-draw @morgraythedark @ediblespider @dreamhusbando @myssteriouss-wanderrerr you had similar questions, so I hope you find the answers here! If there are any more, I'll be happy to answer them! ⸜(*ˊᗜˋ*)⸝

[joe-spookyy]

finished the reanimator novelization and here are my notes.

stoner dan cain is real and true and he’s in my dream blunt rotation

in the comic his middle name was elston but in this it’s jonathan. what’s the truth…

canonically canadian herbert was shocking but not as shocking as the serum he used on his shitty roommate to turn his semen green forever.

also he’s 24. what a young fellow.

this book was not edited very carefully. not to be a dweeb but i haven’t seen anyone mention the amount of grammatical errors, incorrect references (looking at u larry talbot/tolbot), lack of attention paid to paragraph cuts in the reprint, and literal page by page contradictions on the lore. (claiming hill’s brain/head can feel every sensation that his body feels and then literally on the next page saying that there is no shared sensation)

meg gets a lot more character depth here and i love it i love her meg halsey you will always be famous

and yes she was a horse girl. this is very important to the lore in my opinion.

everyone’s seen the famous “dan cain tells a cop he has AIDS so he can sneak into the hospital scene” but i can tell you all with certainty that it doesn’t make any more sense in context. he could have lied about anything. how and why did he land on that.

they’re a lot clearer about how exactly the reagent works which i thought was neat, although they kept describing it as yellow. that shit is geen

herbert west canonically not Not queer (says nothing when accused of it, looks at floor awkwardly) and everyone in the hospital has clocked him.

way more in depth about how much of a freak dr hill is.

they named all the reanimated corpses which was nice cause even when i’m watching the movie there’s too much going on to recognize any of them so it cleared things up and i finally comprehended for the first time that it was hill’s intestines that strangled herbert and that it was because of the reagent overdose. or whatever. that was probably obvious but i missed it on every one of my watches.

herbert mentions saints and how he wishes gruber could be canonized. this fuels my raised catholic herbert vs raised protestant meg theory and adds to their already powerful beef.

the controversial laid to rest/plagiarist line is in the book sort of. and i’m sorry to say it’s laid to rest. they did swap up some other lines (side note: why did they mess with who’s going to believe a talking head get a job in a sideshow) so this could mean nothing it is just interesting.

this line was crazy.

TLDR: not the greatest piece of literature but pretty fun and adds some cool background information for the characters. would reccomended.

[georgiapeach30513]

Trying To Save Me, Part 1

Summary: Fate. A word you were forbidden to ever speak. It wasn’t real and it didn’t exist. A word that was always whispered around you, but never to you. You didn’t know why you were fated for something. Just that the day you were born the great winter came and you’ve been on the run with your family since, but now they were gone. Traveling to what you thought was further and further away from the dark king’s palace. Instead, you had begun to get closer. Following a white wolf instead of your learned route. No wonder you wound up captive and given to the king as a gift. As was fated…

Pairings: dark king!Bucky Barnes X Reader

Rating: explicit

Warnings:  language, violence, death, curse, attempted SA, kidnapping, humiliation, objectification, non/con fingering, 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 4.8K

Series Masterlist

*dividers created by @firefly-graphics

A woman’s shriek echos up into the mountains while a young boy looks up at the sky. His freakishly green eyes look all along the night sky. His hand taps on the arm of the other man beside him as he points up at the sky. “You need to tell Malik,” he answers, keeping his eyes in the sky.

A twig in the distance breaks, and both men look towards the tent as a long drawn out scream comes from inside, “Go, now,” he answers annoyedly as he watches the first snowflake drift from the sky. “Our fates are sealed, I fear.”

The younger boy runs inside, eyes going large and round as a woman reaches down, and cradles a just born baby to her chest. Tears and sweat pour down her face as she clings to the child, rocking back and forth.

“Sire.”

“Silence,” a gigantic man says, stepping closer to the woman, “My queen. Let me see the baby,” she cries harder, shaking her head. “Let me see the child!”

“She’s just a baby,” she cries, looking up at him. “She doesn’t have to know. Nobody has to know. She’s just a baby!”

“Sire,” the guard says again, and the large man turns abruptly, eyes aflame as he approaches slowly. “My king, the snow is falling,” the queen in the background wails. Her hands slap at everyone who tries to take the baby from her arms. “He will come for her.”

“Clean them up. Cicely, stop your screaming. Everything you know, will be no more. If you want to keep the child. If not, we can end it now. It is fated…”

“Malik, she’s a baby! My baby! No, it doesn’t exist. Take the crown on top of my head. I don’t need this life,” with a sigh, Malik slings his head to the side and everyone in the tent scrambles. “What are you doing?”

“This will be a winter like you’ve never seen before. They’re loading the necessary items,” picking his crown off his head, he throws it to the ground. “She’ll never know. Yours, too,” the queen kisses her daughter’s head before letting her own crown fall to the ground. Life would forever be different.

You reach your hand into the snow, digging around a moment before you pull up a small root. Wiping it clean before gnawing your teeth into the fibrous twig. Glancing out through the thin trees. You haven’t known anything but winter. And typically you were alone. Had been for a few years, until him. The white wolf. He always lingers around when you scavenge for what little food you could find.

“It’s not meat, you beast,” the wolf’s eyes never leave you as it sits down into the snow. “I can see that you’re looking at me like you want to devour me, but you also know I’m too skinny for eating, huh?” Chuckling, you tear another piece off the root. “Did you eat a rabbit out of my trap? I’d like to get some real food in my belly. I have to start traveling again.”

The perks of living in a village was you weren’t completely alone. There is a comfort of having a wall, and humans, even if you didn’t talk to them. “I can’t go back into the walls without something. They do community soup. You have ruined my supper a few times. This shit is horrid,” you groan. A part of you wants to throw it at the beast that wouldn’t leave you be, but you need the sustenance.

“If someone saw you, they’d kill you. Your pelt and meat would be useful,” the wolf yawns, laying himself down fully in the snow. “You’re not even scared of me, huh? I wish you could talk, so you could tell me where we were. I miss my family. Ugh,” you groan, standing up and the wolf remains laying there. “Should you ever attack me, I will kill you.”

The wolf looks you completely in the eyes, his silvery blue ones a stark contrast to your overly green ones. Looking upon each other for too long before you throw the small remnants of the root towards him. “Do not pursue me, white wolf.”

Turning your back on a wolf could be stupid, but at this point you welcomed anything that would break up the monotony. Anything that would give you excitement outside of this routine life. You’d stop at the few traps you’d laid for the small game, and hopefully carry something back. The hunger in your belly grows stronger everyday, and if you want to leave this forsaken village, you need food. Real food.

‘Don’t stay in one place too long. Don’t give people your real name. Don’t look them in the eye. Don’t speak too much,’ all your parents taught you was running away and fear. You aren’t even sure why you had to constantly move, and constantly hide your identity to the point you aren’t even sure who you are. It was all made up lies after all.

Who were you? That is a funny question because you aren’t sure. There have been glimpses of who others thought you were. There have even been whispers that you try to ignore unsuccessfully. Mentioning a word that you were forbidden to say out loud. Who were you that made people fear you, and your family fear for you?

Leaning over a trap, you thankfully pull up a rabbit. That stupid wolf didn’t eat everything. Minding your business outside of the walls of the village is your safe space. People inside the walls, particularly the ones your age are cruel. Their curious but angry eyes always on you. Watching. Planning some form of your demise.

“If it isn’t the little sapling caught all alone again,” standing up straight, you look behind you at one of the village boys, but choose to just walk to the next trap. Don’t engage. Don’t give them a reason to hate. “What’s the matter, princess? You scared of a little fun?”

You didn’t want the fun he was willing to dish out. You wanted to eat, and leave this place. Talk to as few people as possible. They were the ones dragging you into their drama, “Yeah,” you stop your movement. Turning in the other direction when two boys start stalking you. “We just want to play a little bit.”

“Maybe fill your belly, so you have to stay. That’s what you’re getting ready to do, huh?” Three boys. You’re fucked. Instead of collecting from your traps, you walk towards the wall. You try to find something. A large stick, anything to use as a weapon. Of course there would be too many.

“She thinks she’s too good for us,” four. Where the hell were they coming from? Head down. Walk faster.

Another steps from behind a tree directly in front of you, and you nearly forget to breathe, “It doesn’t matter what she thinks. I’m tired of the girls here. I like fresh meat. I’ve heard your untouched,” fuck. Your bright green eyes look around at all five of them gathering around you. What amazing men they are.

Grabbing onto the knife at your hip, one of these jackasses grabs your arm, “Don’t think so, sweetheart,” another hand, another weapon.

“Girly, we just want to have some fun.”

“Fun for who?” Your voice isn’t as strong as you hoped. It is borderline screeching.

“Keep screaming. We like it,” god, they are just a pleasant bunch. You wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. First is pain, and then a blinding light as you drop to the ground. “Go on, give us a scream.”

“Are you too stupid to say anything?” You clench your eyes closed as you try to ignore the pain in the back of your head. Snow squishes up into your ear, and you drift off to anywhere but here. Hands grabbing the furs on your body, and you hate you’re always alone. There is never anyone to protect you, so you have to take everything.

“She sure is pretty face down like this,” one of their hands hooks under your pants. “We won’t tell anyone if you won’t. What the fuck? Ahh,” snarls. “Help me!” Your assailant screams while all his friends run away. Pulling the furs close to your body, you scurry around, sitting on your ass, and start to scoot away.

Those silvery blue eyes stare deep into your soul as his teeth dig into the boy’s shoulder deeper. “Get your knife! Do something!”

“You were about to rape me. All of you,” you would have to be a fool to not know what those boys were attempting to do to you. And this one had the gall to demand that you do something to save him. Who was going to save you from them?

“We were teasing, you little bitch!” The white wolf’s muzzle raises as he watches you. Too still for an animal in the forest. “Stab it!” His screams are hideous, but you don’t feel sorry for him. That disgusting excuse for a man would had laughed at every scream you made.

You give a single nod to the wolf, and he bites down so hard on his shoulder, you hear the sickening crack of his bones. His voice shoots into the twilight as the wolf drags him away. It felt like he was waiting on you to tell him it is okay to kill him. At least the beast would have some meat tonight as would you. You could finally get a full belly, and could leave this terrible place. As soon as the first ray of sun came through your tent, you’d be gone.

Grabbing up your rabbits, you try not to vomit at the horrid screams, and crunching bones that are not far enough away. Your stomach rolls, realizing the wolf was trying to keep the young man alive as long as possible. Wanting him to feel every bit of the pain he was ready to inflict on you. “Thank you, and you’re welcome for dinner, white wolf.”

No. You squint as you look up into the sky, and then back at the beast. That isn’t the right way. “You’re going to get me killed,” the wolf continues to look at you, turning his back he walks a few steps before looking back at you. “I’m not following you.”

He takes a slow calculated step towards you, snarling as he takes another. “Fine! But you follow me,” another step. “Don’t lead me closer to the center of the realm,” you don’t even know why that is a thing. Why did you have to stay on the outskirts? A wildling, living in an eternal winter. You are no longer a child, and surely people still didn’t believe the prophecy.

“Do you know what spring looks like?” You’re talking to a wolf. Walking where you shouldn’t be, and you have lost your mind. Wandering around because you no longer even understood why you had to do this. Humans weren’t meant to live alone, you couldn’t see the purpose of needing to lay low. It’s silly to assume that you couldn’t live the life that some did in the villages. Getting married, having a family, being as normal as winter would allow.

You didn’t want to bring a child into this world. A world where food is just as scarce as the warmth. And the king’s cruel reputation for using women as currency. Sounded like a grand world. What if you had a daughter, and she was one that was kidnapped by the king. Sold into whatever life he made them live.

Maybe those were enough reasons for you to not go close to the kingdom. “Do you think the king’s guards ever go outside the kingdom walls?” Your furry friend puffs as he continues his trek. “I suppose they’d have to. I wonder how the kingdom works. Why wouldn’t people just refuse to have children? And what is he doing with these women? Eating them? Does the blood of virgins keep him alive forever? Is the king really not that cruel, but the stories are because he hoards food? Maybe even something nice to eat. Not just to sustain oneself. Ahh!”

You flinch, having to step back as he starts to walk towards you again, “Okay, I won’t talk about the king. Truce. I am just talking, and didn’t realize you understood me,” nodding his head, he turns back around. Weird creature. Even though the wolf couldn’t respond, you feel the need to talk. Like you have an audience for the first time.

Why the hell did this wolf understand you? How did it possibly know what you are talking about? And did he like or not like the king? Maybe they were sworn enemies and talking about the king pissed him off. Or maybe they were in fact friends. “How was your dinner last night? I’m sure the meat was rotten, but I suppose it was better than a squirrel. Thank you by the way. Don’t think you and I have to be friends, but I think they would have left me for dead.”

There isn’t a doubt in your mind that’s what they were going to do. Fucking men. They were all little boys who wanted to destroy things deep inside of them. “Monsters. The word men shouldn’t even be used. They’re monsters. Like you, white wolf, I know you are a beast and can kill me, and eat me it seems, and I still follow you. Do you have any idea where we are going?”

You are glad that no one is around to hear you gab on with a damn wolf. One that would surely have you for lunch. “That’s probably what you’re doing, huh? Leading me to your den where you can all feast on me.”

The giant dog stops abruptly. Throwing his head up to the sky he bellows out a howl, and you cover your ears as his noise vibrates through your body. This didn’t sound like a normal wolf. Or maybe you’ve never been so close to one. Screaming out in pain as you move away from him. “You fucking asshole!”

You need to get away. The beast seriously did bring you to your demise. Sending out a distress call to his fellow demons to come chow down on your body. “Asshole,” you mutter under your breath, trying to run far away from the creature that is going to see that you’re ripped apart limb by limb.

“Where did she go?” Fuck! More men. Monsters. All of them. The only ones worth anything were the ones laying cold and dead in the snow. “Go in all directions. It’s time,” you’re going to die, actually die this time. Die out here in this frozen wasteland because if you run, they’ll chase.

“This will be easier than I thought,” an evil leer as the man spots your footprints. Damn this winter! There should be a downpour of snow right now. Instead you’re a sitting duck with a trial of prints right to you. Taking off your pack, you pull out your daddy’s necklace, and kiss it. If they wanted you, they’d have to catch you.

One slow, solid breath, and you launch out of your hiding spot, and spring towards anywhere. “Got her,” shit! Everywhere you run there are men. But not just any men. The ones you had tried to avoid for a lifetime.

“By order of the king, I command you to stop!” They could cut your head off. If you were going to die, you’d die trying. And you weren’t going to stop. What choice did you have but to do everything in your power to not be taken captive.

“Oomph,” you start choking as a large man wraps his arms around you tightly. “She’s a fighter. The king will love that. Someone that can deal with his overgrown bratty self.”

“Get your hands off me!”

“Cuff her,” the blond man says, nodding his head towards another. “Hold still!”

“I don’t want to be your toy!” You hate men. They’re disgusting. The most vile of humans.

“You won’t. Not ours anyways,” he chuckles as the chains are put around your wrists, and even your neck. “Careful now,” he says obnoxiously as metal is extended towards your face. “It shouldn’t hurt but just a little. With this on, no one but the king will touch you.”

You didn’t want anyone touching you. Not this guard. Not the king. Closing your eyes, you grit your teeth as the mask is pressed against your face. A quick sting from the metal that is too cold to be on your skin. But then something pricks the back of your neck, and your scream lights up the forest, and then darkness. Nothing but eternal despair.

You were warned. And you failed. The one place you were to avoid, you ran right to it. Stupid girl.

Living in a world of ice and all alone, you get used to things not going your way. You’re a bit too vulnerable in a society that looks down at you because you’re a woman. A marked one at that. But a woman whose only one purpose you possess is for men’s pleasure and carrying babies. Other than the last remaining people of your tribe, you never met a man that was worth anything. And now you were in the belly of the beast.

The worst man of all. Some people claim that his influence sludged out to the realm, and it’s what turned all men sour. The fairy tale that once upon a time men were chivalrous, and they changed along with the weather.

Once your mind came to it didn’t take long to figure out exactly where you were, and in whose dungeon you are in. His. The man you were told to stay as far away from. He was the bogeyman in the stories you were told growing up. Foul, hideous, loathsome, and the worst kind of human, and now you’re trapped with a damn metal mask on your face.

Feeling completely alone except for the stupid mutt laying beside you with his head on your lap, “You are filth. Don’t try and butter me up because you got me caught,” his head pops up, his crystal blue eyes staring deep into yours, and you turn away. “I’m going to die here.”

It’s something you have never doubted. Getting caught equals death. Being here, alone, with a damn wolf, with a mask cannot be a good thing. The king will most likely stall, making sure you have no fight left before he pulls you apart one inch of your skin by one inch. Your mind races with ways the dark king can destroy you.

It’s cold. Colder in here than even outside. At least outside there is a dryness to it. In here the walls drip with what you hope is water and not something more sinister. What could you possibly have looked forward to in this life? An eternal winter? Constantly fighting for men not to touch you? Becoming a wife that had no desire to birth children in this world? Maybe this is better off.

“Where are you going?” You whisper as the four legged menace runs away. “Coward,” even he knows it’s desolate here.

Clanging sounds from behind the door, and you roll your eyes up to meet the blonde guard that captured you in the woods. “About time you woke up. Come on,” his mouth sets into a leering smile as he pulls you up from the floor. Using the key at his side to undo your chains. “He’s been waiting on you.”

“Dare I ask who?”

“You know exactly who. Your fate,” swallowing bile, he pulls you into his body. No amount of making yourself heavier works as he practically drags you out of the dungeon. That word is a curse. You’re more scared now than you were getting caught. “I saw your necklace, girlie,” his laugh grates on your nerves as painful as the arm that is wrapped around your waist.

“We’ve been waiting on you.”

“To torture me,” he chuckles right into the shell of your ear, and you want to retch. “What is this on my face?” His talking stops abruptly. Continuing to tug, and pull on your body, “You’re hurting me.”

“Get used to it,” torture it is. Did you think anything less? The most vile of humans that you were supposed to stay away from, and he captured you. Of course you were going to be tortured. Now you have to suffer the consequences. He shoves you into a room so hard that you fall down to your knees, and you yelp. Turning around to look at him. “Face forward and have fun.”

You hear another man clear his throat, and you try to disappear. Looking down at the floor with your eyes closed as you listen to his light footsteps. Walking around you before his meaty hands go under your arms, hauling you up to stand. Your breathing is nonexistent, but his breath is heavy. Fragrant of a scent you can’t place. And he inhales deeply.

Leaning into your ear, “You smell like a fucking dog,” he should talk. You weren’t the only one that reeked of something, and he is a king. You’ve been in a dungeon. “I’ll enjoy watching you be bathed.”

Fuck. Torture seems to be subjective. “Has any man touched you?” What did it fucking matter? Like he was going to ask for permission? He had you tied up with something on your damn face, impairing your vision, and he cared about how many men have put their grimy hands on you? “If you want to be able to sit on your ass, I suggest you open your goddamn mouth. Has a man ever touched you,” he swats at your backside hard as he comes to stand in front of you.

“Men always touch what they think they can own.”

He clicks his tongue, smiling gleefully at you, “None of those men had the power to own you.”

“And you do?” His hand goes underneath the mask, grabbing your neck with his fingers on your chin as he turns you to look at a mirror. You stare horrified as a wolf shaped mask covers your face. Your hair is oily and matted, and your bones protrude out of your body. But the mask is evil looking on your face. Otherworldly, and it didn’t belong there, “You don’t own me.”

“Is that so?�� This man is far faster than any other man as he pulls and yanks at the rags that dress your body. Pulling off everything in shreds until you’re bare before him, and he throws you over his shoulder. Marching out of the room you are in before he throws you into a body of water.

You sputter, struggling to keep your head above the water before standing up. Shivering and naked. Wishing you could throw daggers at every part of his skin. Looking around to see an audience of people staring at your shame, and you dip back into the water for coverage with your arms hugged against your chest. You want to yell and curse at him, but you’re outnumbered. “Clean her. Then we’ll all enjoy inspecting you.”

“What does that mean?” Panic rises in your voice as men and women come into the pool with you. Men grab at your arms while women scrub on your body with a brush. The king sits down in a chair, and a creepy smile spreads over his face. “What does it mean? Ow!”

If he wasn’t so vile you might find him handsome. Cheekbones carved so sharply, and dark hair slicked back. He rolls his fingers over the armrest, and you start counting every ring that is laid upon his fingers.

“You’re so weak,” he chuckles, staring too intently as the women cup and scrub your breasts. His eyes drift to your necklace as he leans back, “Do you even know who you are? Or why you have always been mine? Every inch of you belongs to me. Those eyes and your necklace prove it. Your mom was nothing but a lying whore, and your dad was a fool anyways.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t? I don’t know that your so called father sat on a stolen throne? And your lying mother laid down with the rightful king. Your sweet innocent father thought your eyes belonged to him. You telling me he didn’t know your mom was fucking his guard,” your eyes go large as you stare at him. They were eerily similar to Jarrod’s.

“She tried to fight this curse and our connection, and instead, let a cock drive your bastard self right to me. What do you know of the day you were born?” Nothing. But you wouldn’t tell him that. “I’m sure they didn’t tell you much. The first snowflake fell that day. Everyday that you’ve been kept apart from me was another day of winter. The day you were born every drop of blood in your body and every inch of your delectable skin belonged to me. The night you were conceived is the same night your cunty father murdered mine. His guard was pumping his wife full, and here you are.”

God the way he talked about your family is despicable. Because you really wanted to know about your mother’s affairs. “Your mom was so scared to give birth to the king’s daughter, she gave her cunt to the next best thing. Jarrod was always the king. You can’t fate. Just like you can’t escape my wrath. Remove the mask.”

A woman slowly takes the metal off your face, and you glare at him. Wishing your look alone could set his entire body on fire. His head twists to the side curiously as he looks at you. An odd softness before he looks at the swell of your breast, and the snarky smile appears again.

“Bring her to me. On her knees, so I can look upon what’s mine. Don’t fight it either. I’ll fuck you like an animal right in front of all these people if you fight,” your chest heaves as all these hands carry you in front of him. Turning you away before lowering you to the floor. Someone pushes down your head as you stay on all fours before the king.

“This is how I like to see you. Submissive, spread and so puffy for me,” his fingers run through your core, and you hear a rumble in his stomach, “you can try deny me, but your body backing up to my fingers? Your body craves me. It’s like a magnet you can’t escape, and if you keep acting like a needy bitch in heat, I’ll give you exactly what your body has been denied.”

That’s a lie. You’ve never wanted any man to touch you. Never desired anything from them, but even you can’t deny the moan that escapes your mouth as one of his fingers breaches your walls. Loud and salacious as you glance back at him. “Since you love how it feels when we’re connected, just wait until I fuck you.”

You keep your head low, knowing that everyone in this room can see you down on your knees like an animal, while the king has a finger inserted so far into your cunt. He pulls the appendage out before shoving two more in. The audience starts to walk closer as the king stabs them into you, and you hope you don't react. That the only thing he can see if your fingers curling up, and you biting on your tongue.

Your cheeks heat up in flames with embarrassment, but also a sickening pleasure that you wish you didn't feel. The lewd squelching sound of your body causing the king to licks his lips with need. Fucking his fingers into faster before pulling out. Denying you release, and he slaps over your lips. "Juicy enough to eat."

“You’ll never get to fuck me.”

“I will, and you’ll beg for my seed every night. Don’t forget this moment. The moment you learned that your life is meant to serve mine. Put the mask back on her, and I want her placed in her gilded cage right in front of my bed. Maybe she’ll like me fucking into some whore’s cunt. Or would you like to watch me fuck my hand? I’ll even spurt my cum on your face. Make the servants wash you after you lick up every drop of my load. One of these days, you won’t be able to deny us. And maybe then we’ll get to see the world how it was intended.”

“And how’s that, your grace?”

“Not covered in fucking snow,” his voice is harsh as he walks out of the bathing room. Leaving you with all these people just staring at your naked body. Dressing you like you are a doll. You’d never beg for him. You didn’t want him. Or any man. It would never happen. And winter had nothing to do with him fucking you.

Because you belonged to no man.

Next

Masterlist

Taglist: @tis-thedamn-season @marveloustaylortot @pono-pura-vida @peaches1958 @seitmai @smile1318 @andydrysdalerogers @cjand10 @midnightramyeoncravings @kmc1989 @pandaxnienke @rogersbarber @theinheriteddutchess @buckybarnesisdaddy @jesevans @alexakeyloveloki

[mrs-kodzuken]

good day! i saw that your requests is open soooo~^^ can I request an iwaizumi x manager reader where they've been in a secret relationship since they're first years (idunno how oikawa doesn't know, but he just doesn't 🤣)...

and when the volleyball team had their reunion after so many years the reader just goes to iwaizumi and kiss him and be like, “what? i thought you all know..” 🤣🤣🤣

thank you! and i love your works so much! ^^~

First year, first love ♡

Pairing: Aged up! Haijme Iwaizumi x fem!reader

WC: 2.1k

Genre: fluff

CW: fem!reader, friends to lovers, clueless!oikawa, a little background to give this fic more oomf, aoba johsai manager!reader, volleyball team reunion, iwa being literal the best boyfie, valentines flashback is italicized

note: my first request!! i hope you literally love this, i jumped up and down once i got this haha, if you have anymore please let me know!

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I stared at Haijme, tracing the soft features of his face with my eyes while he slept. I couldn’t be anymore in love with this man. After knowing him since literally forever, it was like he knew me from the back of his hand.

Which is why the longer I stared and sighed contently against him I knew he’d wake up. Being with him was easy to me, it was breathing at the point.

I could still remember the day that Haij asked me out our first year. It was the cutest thing ever but he was such a wreck because of how nervous he was.

It was different seeing that Iwaizumi also got as nervous as I did when I was around him. Compared to then, he’s very different now. With him working as an athletic trainer and being on top of his game in every aspect of his life, he’s very different.

However, I still love this Iwaizumi but sometimes I miss the nervous wreck, friend Iwa.

All morning Iwaizumi has been such a wreck. I mean, I get that it was Valentine’s day but my goodness. He’s dropped his pencil three times already and it’s only second period.

“Iwa? What’s going on with you?” I whispered my question to him, peering curiously with concern.

He locked eyes with me and then looked away as quickly as possible, which was very strange for my friend.

“Nothing, (Y/n).”

My eye twitched, we never tell lies to each other.

Something was definitely up with Iwaizumi today, and I decided right then and there that I’d figure it out by the end of the day.

It wasn’t like he was trying to avoid me or anything but the way that he hadn’t spoke that much to me was a given of my theory.

I walked through the halls and smiled at the decorations for Valentine’s day.

I’m pretty sure our student council had helped make the paper decorations of hearts and spirals to hang from lockers and classrooms. I thought it was so creative because personally, I loved holidays no matter the kind.

The thought struck me like a lightening bolt, ‘what if Iwa got a Valentines gift that made him like someone?’

That could not happen, like ever.

As long as Iwaizumi and I have been friends, I don’t think he would up and leave me because of that? I mean, I baked him homemade cookies—the kind that he loves. He wouldn’t just up and like someone because of something they got him?

Suddenly, my mood had switched and I immediately was focused on knowing his answer. That would be easy since Iwaizumi continued to practice volleyball with his friend, Oikawa. They asked me to be the team manager and since Iwaizumi was my friend I agreed.

I couldn’t help but to impatiently wait for the time to pass by so I could finally get Iwaizumi alone to talk to him. Once the bell rang I immediately got up, almost tripping over my own feet, to find Iwa before he got changed for practice.

I already cringed at the thought of everything he received today from some other first year girls. I’m sure mine was better.

I couldn’t help the wrong feeling of jealousy that filled through me. It was weird and didn’t happen often, especially with me thinking about my friend—best friend, Iwaizumi.

Finally, I caught up to him and found him looking as frantic as me whilst I was trying to find him. It was a sight to see and I didn’t know how to comprehend it. It was so unlike him.

"Hey, can we talk?"

I could tell he tried to mask the nervousness up with trying to seem unbothered but I saw through it. However, just those four words were enough for me to feel nervousness as well.

I nodded my head, too afraid to speak just in case I wasn't in control of my voice.

Iwaizumi leaded me around the gym, towards the backside where no one could see, which made me even more nervous. I knew what went on back here, I just didn't think it would ever happen to me.

I gathered myself and stepped along with him until we came to a stop. That's when my brain decided to make me pay more attention to my surroundings. A breeze blew through us a bit, moving my hair.

It was a cold day but the sun was out shining as if it knew what was today was. I could hear how the grass had crunched when we walked to where we are now.

"What did you need?" I hesitantly asked him, a part of me knowing and wishing he will say what I think he will.

"(Y/n), I'm just going to get straight to the point. I like you. I have liked you for a long time but only realized my feelings now. I won't pressure you into liking me back but I know we have this honest is the best policy thing going on since forever ago and I wanted to keep true to that."

Iwaizumi's cheeks were blush red and he couldn't look me in the eyes after saying that. However, my heart couldn't be more content after hearing those specific words from him. It felt like everything was right again and I knew what was in his head.

"This isn't pressuring me Iwa, I like you too. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I really love our friendship and didn't want to ruin it." I confessed to him as well, pouring my hopeful heart out right back into his.

I didn't realize until after our confession that the baggie I packed his homemade cookies in was stuffed into his pocket with a little bit of it hanging out.

I couldn't help but smile and watch as he showed me his hand that I also didn't realize was behind his back this entire time.

"Here. I bought this for you since you made me my favorite."

I giggled a bit, overjoyed that he bought me something, nonetheless it was a stuffie and not just any stuffed animal but my favorite.

"Thank you, Iwaizumi. I love it so much." I thanked him and pulled it close to my chest. It was definitely getting a name and being set on my bed when I got home.

"You're welcome. We should head on now." He cracked a smile and I was glad that everything between us worked out now. Well, almost everything. I wasn't sure what to call us yet.

Iwaizumi waved me bye so he could go change into his practice uniform while I put my stuffie in my bag then caught my breath so I felt good walking in.

The shoes squeaked on the floor as I walked in and I immediately apologized to my upperclassmen because I'm not ever late and it felt like I had disrespected them.

I take my job seriously ever since Iwaizumi joined the volleyball club with his friend Oikawa and had asked me if I wanted to be the manager.

"Are you okay? You and Iwa-chan are never late to practice." Oikawa asked me, eye brow raised and peering at me like he wanted the answer I didn't want to say.

"Oh yeah, I had a couple things to do and such. I didn't know Iwaizumi was late too. I think you should practice serving today, Oikawa." I nervously chuckled and picked up my managerial clip board, trying to change the subject whilst trying to keep my face from flushing.

"Hmm," was all I got out of him before he decided to practice his drills and of course serves.

After a day or two, Iwaizumi and I had agreed to go on little dates first and know each other on a relationship level instead of friend level. This was also because we both thought starting our relationship on Valentine's day was cringe.

Just the thought of how we got together still makes me swoon at nervous Iwa but also smile at how alike we are.

I shifted comfortably against him, trying not to move so much to make him wake up or anything. My arm traveled to side ways hug him, his warm body is what always makes me kick the covers off at night.

However, me trying to not move so much to not wake him up fell in vain because I felt an arm tighten around my waist.

"Good morning, honey." I said to him cheerfully, I loved waking up with him by my side.

"Mornin, love." His gruff morning voice spoke out against my neck which sent delightful shivers down my spine.

"We should get ready sometime soon, I think it might be brunch time soon." I commented, already planning out what I'm going to wear and what time I think is socially acceptable to show up.

Our graduating class is having a reunion and our volleyball club reserved a special place to meet up and of course I was invited to both events.

"I know, I just missed you in my dream." He sighed, trying to pull me even closer than I already was to him.

"Yes but you said you're eating breakfast and all, so." I wiggled my way out of his presence and decided to go use the bathroom and do all of my necessities whilst in there.

I knew Hajime was going to eat breakfast because he's very strict about what and when what kind of nutrients were going into his body. However, me? Not so much. From time to time I do decide to workout with him only to improve my self image. However, over half of the time I don't need to just from the way he compliments me.

By the time I was done and dressed, Iwaizumi was ready to go with the keys in his hand and a smile on his face at my outfit.

"You look stunning, love. I can't wait to see everyone." He said before kissing the top of my head and leading me out of our house and into the car.

I was pretty happy to see everyone even though most of us had caught up with each other on socials here and there.

Entering the reserved building, my blood was pumping to see everyone and rekindle again.

"Go find your buds, I want to go talk to Mattsun," I ushered Iwaizumi off and tried to find my best friend that I was super close to besides Haijme in high school.

It was a loud space since it was all men here in one smallish room. There was a banner, drinks, food of course since it was brunch, and plenty of seating. That's when I found Mattsun and rushed over to hug him.

"Fancy seeing you around these parts," I exclaimed after crashing myself into his side.

"Oh yeah? Samesies." He threw his head back to laugh, something he always did.

I got caught up in a conversation with him and suddenly it shifted to talking about Hajime and I. Mattsun was really the only volleyball member that talked about mine and Haij's relationship and I just assumed that everyone else didn't care that much to speak about it.

"It was nice catching up with you, (Y/n). Keep me posted on some new things!" He winked after I said I'd be going to visit the rest of our class which was weird, I didn't have any new things going on.

I found the man I was looking for and smiled, "Hey, I'm gonna go find the rest of my high school girlfriends and see if they came. I love you, honey." I pecked a small kiss on his cheek and he nodded and kissed my forehead in acknowledgment since he was in the middle of a conversation I accidentally interrupted.

Suddenly, the room was so silent that I could hear a literal pin drop.

"What?! Since when were you guys together?"

"(Y/n) just kissed Iwaizumi and he kissed her back?"

"Wait, you guys didn't know they were together?"

"How long have you two been dating?"

Lots of questions got sprang out of plenty of the teams mouths as my eyes widened in the sudden volume change of the room.

"I think I'll leave you to deal with that, honey. Bye!" I scampered out of the room but not before hearing Hajime try to reason and ask if they really didn't know.

That would be awfully hilarious if they seriously didn't know.

However, one thing I didn't know was that there was a small box that outlined Haijme's pants pocket until Mattsun sent me a snap chat video of it. That almost made me choke on my food as I put two and two together of him saying to keep him posted on new things.

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a/n: This was my first request!! I hope I did good and thank you so much for saying that you love my works! It made my day haha!

you all know my header rules, if not see pinned post!!

[onna-musha-mari]

Under the Wisteria Tree

Giyuu Tomioka x Hashira! Reader (Gender neutral)(they/them)

Summary: Giyuu finally tells you his feelings in one of your favorite spots.

Warnings: None, pure fluff

(First time posting a fanfic…I tried y’all)

(Wisteria border by @saradika-graphics)

Giyuu stood there in silence, watching the wisteria petals fell to the earth from their branches above. There was a reason he was here, and not just to admire the scenery of the light dancing through the openings in the trees…He knew that a certain Hashira always came to this exact spot to meditate and relax. Giyuu never planned for any of this, he had never been one to dwell on emotions like this. But, here he was, waiting for that hashira who some might think took the job lightly. Sure, they goofed off sometimes, but they were an efficient fighter. It was something Giyuu lov- oh, wait, no. He might be ready to approach them, but maybe let’s take it slow…baby steps. Baby steps.

“Giyuu? I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Great, caught off guard, perfect way to start this.

Giyuu straighten his stance, now looking towards them with his usual stoic expression.

“Oh, I didn’t notice you had come up to me. My apologies.”

“No need to be sorry…may I ask why you’ve come to the Wisteria fields? I don’t blame you though, it is a very pretty spot, don’t you agree?”

And there was that flush, that feeling that went through him whenever they made conversation. He had never felt it before and yet, it felt good. Very good in fact. It was the reason he planned on telling his fellow hashira that he wished to spend more time with them. In a more…well more close relationship.

“I…merely wished to see the reason why you come here everyday…but I see why now. It is nice here.”

“It is really beautiful here”

Their eyes were fixed on the branches of the trees, while Giyuu’s were focused on the person standing next to him

“Yes…very beautiful. … Anyway, I did want to speak to you about something, important.”

“Yeah? What’s on your mind?”

He sighed before looking them in the eyes

“When we first met, I thought nothing of it. But when I first saw you caring for those girls at the butterfly mansion, then with Tanjiro and his sister. I knew something was different about you. And the more I learned about you, the more I wanted to know. You’re strong, sometimes I think stronger than most, or myself at least, because you can be a great fighter and yet still be so kind to people. I know you’re a good swordsman…but you’re also a good person.”

He looked up, taking a breath before continuing to speak.

“And not only are you strong and caring…you’re beautiful. …”

They looked at him, looking with wonder and surprise as this normally stoic swordsman laid what seemed to be his heart for them.

“I never thought of myself as a person who would ever want to focus on things like this, or did I think I’d find someone who makes me feel what you make me feel. …This is a lot harder than it was talking to Tanjiro about… what I’m trying to say here is, I would love to get to know you even more. And I would like to have a, closer relationship…if that is something you would want too?”

Moment of truth, it’s either they say yes or no. Oh what was he getting himself int-

“Yes, I would love that Giyuu, and thank you. I really didn’t know you felt that way. But, yes, I would love all of that.”

“Wait, really?”

“Really”

“oh…wow…would you mind if I held your hand?”

“Of course”

They took his hand in theirs…This was really happening. Under the Wisteria tree, Giyuu found the person he wanted to spend forever with, if fate let him. This felt, nice…really nice.

“Thank you”

They looked back at him, curious to what he meant.

“For what?”

Giyuu looked up at the Wisteria trees, once again watching the petals fall around them, the suns last rays of sunlight gleaming against the background. He picked one of the flowers and put it behind their hair before he continued.

“For giving me another reason to be strong…like you.”

[vidavalor]

hi there 👋 i love reading your good omens metas. i'm wondering if you have any thoughts on aziraphale's line to crowley in 1967: "i can't have you risking your life, not even for something dangerous". this always sticks out as odd to me. obviously he doesn't want crowley risking his life for any reason, so why this weird qualifier?

Hi @mybelovedismine Thank you so much. :) I am so sorry it took me awhile to get back to you. Love me some 1967 Crowley & Aziraphale and this question is great. Cheers.

1967/Holy Water Era/some S2 Aziraphale meta under the cut.

If you go back-- and I mean way back-- to the very opening bit of GO 1.01, it opens with what seems at first like it's just a quirky, funny scene introducing God and her sense of humor and the show's sense of humor. It is all of that but it also contains what I think is a really important piece of information-- especially with relation to the 1967 scene-- which is the date that Earth began in the GO universe. Crowley and Aziraphale don't know exactly when the end of the world will come but they know "about" when-- and that is a ticking clock running in the background for them for millennia.

The date that God gives us for the creation of Earth at the opening of S1 means that 6,000 years exactly would math out to October 21, 2004... but we also know that they don't know if it's going to be *exactly* 6,000 years. It could have been 5,900. It could have been 6,500 or anything in between. It winds up the super-cruel 6,004 years, beginning in 2008 in S1. What is clear to Crowley & Aziraphale is that their experience is closer to that of humans in a way because even though 6,000 years would be a very long time to humans, it's "nothing", as Angel!Crowley put it in Before the Beginning, to Crowley & Aziraphale... and there has always been a very good chance that it's all they will ever have together.

Their relationship is like someone turned over an hourglass on the wall at Eden and it's been dripping sand steadily in the background this whole time. It's partially why their relationship accelerates a little faster over the last few centuries, imo. There is a chance they're running out of time together. Armageddon means the Great War between Heaven and Hell and they are an angel and a demon. Whatever side wins the war is the one who will live on for all of eternity. The other one won't survive it-- or, even if they did, they won't be able to be with each other. Not to mention that Armageddon means that, regardless of who wins the Heaven and Hell war, Earth will be destroyed and their life on it together will be over.

Aziraphale always thinks Heaven will win. He always thinks it's him who will have to spend eternity alone. Part of this is because he has to tell himself that Heaven is still the side of good, even if it's flawed, because he can barely deal with the guilt over being part of the machine that's caused Crowley so much pain. Aziraphale also thinks, though, that maybe when the time comes, they can find a way out of it all, somehow.

In close to 6,000 years, the best plan they've got for dealing with this is Crowley's plan to just run away to Alpha Centauri and hope that no one notices that they're deserters. (So, not a great plan, but also they're up against the will of God here so kind of hard to try to work out a way around that.) In S2, Aziraphale is so desperate-- SO desperate-- for a way to not have to lose Crowley that he is willing to entertain the idea that he can trust The Metatron's word and beg Crowley to come to Heaven with him and be an angel again just so that they can be together forever. Aziraphale doesn't need Crowley to be an angel to know he's good and to love him-- he already knows and feels those things. He loves him so much that he can't bear the thought that he could lose him. He's never been able to bear that thought.

In 1967, they were running out of time and it's something that became increasingly intense for them the closer the years got to 2004 and the day they would hit 6,000 years since the Earth's creation.

In 1967, they were down to 37 years until 6,000 years were up, so the end of the world was, to them, a moment away.

It's not hard to see how Crowley wants to carpe diem and go for broke, in case it's all they'll ever have. He wants to be a little less careful. To try for the things they haven't been able to give each other while they've had to be a secret for so long. 'Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all', right? And they have loved, do love, are loving in 1967... but Crowley feels the time slipping away and his anxiety is dialed up to eleven under that cool exterior and Aziraphale knows him like he knows the back of his hand and he can see where this is all going... and it's not where either of them want it to go.

Think of this from Aziraphale's point of view...

Aziraphale is an angel. His soul is saved. He is meant to survive Armageddon. That, to him, is actually something of a curse at this point because it means that he'll live for eternity. For *all* of time. An absolutely incomprehensible amount of time. Neverending time. The kind of amount of time that would make 6,000 years feel like less time than it took you to blink while reading this sentence. And if everything goes according to what they know of God's Ineffable Plan or Great Plan or Whatever The Fuck It Is lol, he's going to live through all of this time alone.

Without Crowley.

Forget even the end of Earth and humanity (and that's hard to forget lol), Aziraphale is slated for a post-apocalyptic return to Heaven and a celestial cubicle and spending all of time with Michael and Uriel and Sandalphon and no food and no books and no music and even all of that, he could stand, if only he could just have Crowley with him and he can't.

Because Crowley's a demon. He's fallen. He's eternally damned. Heaven has socialized angels to believe that the war between Heaven and Hell that Armageddon triggers will be the big triumph of Heaven over Hell. Aziraphale tells himself he believes it but he's honestly more *terrified* of it than devoted to the idea. Heaven triumphing over Hell could kill Crowley. It's what Aziraphale is *supposed* to want as an angel but it's actually *the exact opposite* of what he wants. He adores Crowley. He will never-- in all of the infinite time to come-- ever get over Crowley and he knows it.

Even if Crowley somehow survives The Great War 2.0, Earth will still be gone and Crowley's fate is eternity in dark, cramped, literally painful damnation in Hell. There is no way for them to be together without thwarting the will of God and Aziraphale is an angel-- his entire purpose as a being is to serve God. It's what he was made *by God* to do, as far as he's been taught, and he mostly believes it... it's just that he also thinks he was made for Crowley.

This isn't just what Crowley thinks. Crowley isn't wrong that this is a mutual feeling:

Aziraphale felt that then, too, and he's never stopped feeling it. It blends sometimes with his faith in God-- something that, ironically, he sometimes thinks Crowley somehow has more of than he does. If God made him and God made Crowley and if God made them for each other, then it can't really be just to take them away from each other after such a short time, can it? Maybe they're meant for some other purpose in all of it?

But this is the same God that Aziraphale knows can be cruel...

Aziraphale has gone up against the will of God countless times over the years now and he is, for reasons he doesn't understand, somehow still an angel.

It seems unjust and honestly pretty profane to him that *he* is the holy one when Crowley's been through--quite literally-- Hell, for thousands of years, and his biggest sin is being curious. It is very hard to be told that you were created for the purpose of representing the side of good in a war against good and evil but to then, over and over and over, find yourself believing that the good guys are maybe not so good... all the while falling deeper in love by the day with a being your side calls 'demonic' and 'evil' but whom you know to be a sweet, romantic, smart, gentle, funny, kind cinnamon roll. Crowley is a demon and he's the best angel Aziraphale knows.

Now imagine you've all those conflicts and you're running out of time and staring down the end game of all of this and when you've got maybe, if you're lucky, a century and a half left or so worth of sand is still in the top half of the hourglass (mid-1800s), Crowley starts to pull away from you.

He's honestly never done it to this extent before. He trusts you with a surprising amount of himself and has since early days and, in recent centuries, you were happy together-- as happy as your situation would allow and that was more than you ever thought you'd have. This is the same being whose willingness to push through his fear of being vulnerable to have something honest and intimate with you has had you in awe of his bravery since you met. He taught you how to do that and now he's putting up walls you can't scale and slamming shut every open door.

You were happy together and then, you went on a date in Edinburgh in 1827 and suddenly, the centuries of peace and of getting away with it all ended in a literal second when Crowley got dragged to Hell two feet away from you. Hell didn't find out about the two of you or about Elspeth-- they were pissed about the human grave guards that Crowley accidentally sent to Hell for shooting Wee Morag-- but Crowley comes back a couple of weeks later and it's like it's all over already.

He's badly shaken. They hurt him. He spent time in Hell not sure if they had found out about you or if you were still alive. The anxiety, depression, and PTSD he has from being cast out of Heaven and a lifetime of trying to survive being a demon of Hell goes into overdrive and you don't know what to do. You've always been good at helping him. Nothing works. The bookshop-- your home but his, too, in your mind, the safest space he can go to to get away from Hell and get some rest-- isn't enough. He's not coming around the way he used to. He doesn't want to talk about any of it. The connection between the two of you-- emotionally, sexually-- feels like it's eroding. It hurts more than you want to admit. Your relationship de-evolves for almost 35 years as you watch the spark seem to go out of him. You don't know how to fix it and you try everything you can think of. You can understand how the ticking clock makes it all hurt more and you don't want him to be in any pain-- ever-- and you'd go away entirely if it was what he really wanted but neither of you know how to say goodbye because you both know that neither of you actually want to.

He's your best friend. He's the only one like you in the universe. You're both miserable and lonely without each other and it seems stupid to spend the last years you might ever get together apart but it also seems impossible to ever get back to where you were. Then, one day, after *years* of this, he asks you for the one thing that can *kill him*...

In the moment, all you can think about is that he wants to die because he's seemed like he does for decades now. All you can think of is that he is in so much pain and he wants nothing from you but the means by which to end it.

He's your lover. Imagine being told by the being with whom you've spent countless pleasurable hours in bed that all he wants from you now is a suicide pill.

He used to laugh. He used to be silly and hilariously dry-humored. He used to flirt with you and gaze at you from the couch on the bookshop, all pretty yellow eyes and lounging limbs, and now he's spine-straight stiff, like the pain is what's holding up. He arranges meetings in the park instead of coming over. He wears his glasses, all the time. You can't remember when the last time you saw his eyes was.

All of it says to you that you aren't enough and then he asks you to give him a suicide pill and you're broken-hearted-- you're just broken, period at the thought of him in so much pain-- and you're angry. You're furious. How dare he do this to you? You've been in love for millennia. He is your best friend. How dare he shut you out and leave you alone when you are going to be alone without him for the rest of bloody time?!

You're so in your feelings about him shutting you out that you know you have been failing at caring for him and not really helping the situation for awhile now. Your defenses have been up for awhile. Years, probably. You're caustic and, frankly, pretty bitchy in your bitterness. It's a little twisted but you've tried everything else and maybe if you could even just make him angry, it'd at least be something. He's barely spoken above a whisper in thirty years and sometimes you think about him off his head on laudanum in Edinburgh, drawing you to him magically by your bow tie to look at you over his glasses, inches away, and how you didn't know that was going to be the last time he ever really flirted with you.

So, when he asks you for holy water in 1862, you do your best to piss him off, since he won't accept anything else from you lately. You used to be wildly compatible and now you're broken and you're angry because God was always going to break your heart by taking him from you but he was never supposed to. He was supposed to love you-- those things neither of you say-- to the end.

You did get him angry. You both got angry. So angry that it felt over.

It wasn't. You saw each other again in the interim and it didn't just magically heal itself, like you wished it would, because you regretted how you reacted to the request for holy water but somehow talking about it felt too much.

Because you thought you might have understood it more afterwards.

Because you began to understand that he felt vulnerable. That he needed to feel like he could defend himself and, if it came to it, you. That maybe he didn't want to die-- maybe he wanted to live. That this was him asking you to help him figure out how to feel safe again-- something you've actually always been good at-- and you were so afraid, too, that you handled it badly.

Maybe one of the things you were afraid of in the moment was the way he talked about it going wrong, going pear-shaped, about him wanting insurance... about how there wasn't a way to reframe that in your mind to not mean that he meant he was willing to kill a demon in your defense or his-- which could kill him. It could send a legion after him and destroy him. There was so much that could go wrong. No matter what Crowley wanted holy water for, his death felt like it was the end game. You would throw yourself into Hellfire before you did anything that could cause him harm.

He had been pulling away for years but there he was saying I would kill for you. I would die for you. and that was the closest either of you had ever come to saying I'm in love with you. and you weren't sure what was more dangerous: saying those truths you both knew and felt or holy water.

Crowley didn't bring it up again and neither did you. You're useless without one another so you saw each other again within the next couple of decades. The Old West in America. Back in London in the 1920s and times in between. Neither of you ever discussed the Holy Water fight or what it meant. You secretly learned to drive, for the future, just in case, when he turned up stupidly in love with a car in 1928. You would die for that dumb car if only because of how Crowley smiled when he turned up to take you for a ride.

Over time, Crowley seemed to get a bit better and your heart burst just looking at him, even if it also ached with the knowledge that you had made it harder and hadn't known that time how to help when he needed it.

Then, 1941. The Blitz. Bombs raining down over London and the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation and maybe, just like the humans, you both thought this might be it. Time slowed to surviving each night and every moment felt like it could be the last and maybe that's why you both wanted a different ending.

Crowley always did prefer the funny ones.

In the middle of it, Crowley joked about holy water-- the first time either of you had mentioned it in 80 years-- and you heard it there, woven into his quiet, coded but undisputable, confessions of love. It was for you, it was about you, it was to keep you safe... it was because you were two feet away from me when they took me and I want to be with you to the end and it's the only thing that can help me keep you safe from them.

He doesn't ask you for it again. You know why. Things are good. He doesn't want to fight. He doesn't want you to reject him again. He doesn't want to admit again that he feels unsafe. You think about giving him some after 1941 more than once but you are now afraid of what it might say to him if you do.

Because you could both be almost out of time, if everything goes pear-shaped when the clock runs out on about 6,000 years, and Crowley wants to try for more.

You both want forever. You both aren't sure that you'll even get tomorrow. The world is speeding up in 1967-- has been for decades now-- and you think Crowley is caught up in it. You both live in London, in SoHo, you'd be as safe as you could be. You'd blend in enough. It's too dangerous, though. It's not the humans you're afraid of, really-- not that the human world has ever been safe for your and Crowley's kind of love and you aren't sure that it will get there before it's all over. What you're afraid of is that you'll get caught by Heaven and Hell and you'll lose him before the about 6,000 years is up-- and then you will have no chance at all, whatsoever, of forever.

Crowley doesn't think he'll make it. He doesn't say so but his actions say so and his situation suggests it. He wants to go faster. He doesn't demand it, doesn't pressure you, but he periodically gently asks and you have to let him down somehow, you have to get him to slow down. It's not that you don't want him. If there were no risk to him, you'd never try to put up a speed bump. It's just that you are hopeful.

Ironically, you're hopefulness-- your optimism-- it comes from him.

He's brilliant. He's clever. Maybe, somehow, the two of you will find a way out of this.

You don't want to watch the world burn. You don't want to watch billions of humans and a whole planet and a whole solar system-- Crowley's nebulae-- destroyed for no reason and as much as you should be willing to go along with the Almighty's will, it's fucking ineffable and you secretly aren't sure if you believe in a God that would do this. You struggled during The Flood. You struggled over Job and Sitis' kids...

...if you are honest with yourself (and you are more than you care to admit), you struggle to be faithful to a God who has caused Crowley so much pain.

You think that, somehow, when the time comes, you and Crowley might find a way around it. How? You have no idea. None. But you think there is a chance that you could figure it out and so long as there is a chance-- even one, single, tiny, chance-- that somehow you and Crowley could survive it all and be together forever, you are not going to let him do something stupid and get himself killed trying to be together now.

You are not letting your far-sighted lover trip over his snake legs and go head-first into a faunt of stolen holy water that you could have given him safely 105 years ago, when he asked for it, and you fucked it all up...

You make him some. You use your powers and your essence and your body and turn water into a weapon for him. The real thing. The holiest.

You understand what it is to him now. It's not death; it's life. He doesn't want either of you to be in pain. He doesn't want to be left alone. He wants to feel safer. To be able to protect you from what Hell put him through and worse. He doesn't want to leave you. He wants a chance in Hell at surviving what's to come and an out for if it all goes pear-shaped and you want him to live and not to suffer and only you can give that to him.

You understand that now. It was never that you didn't trust him. It was that you didn't trust yourself.

You put it in a tartan thermos that silently says your anxious, emotional ass best thing of me before you ever decide to use this.

It also says this is for you to keep and it is of me and I know that's a risk if you ever get caught with it. I trust you to keep it hidden, like you do us, and protect me. This is for you and it looks like me and you know when the tartan started and why... you know it was because of our night in Edinburgh in 1827... you know it was the night they took you and I didn't know if I'd ever see you again and you know I've been wearing this pattern of us for 140 years and that I always will.

It's just that you also can't let him think that giving it to him is an assent of sorts. If Heaven or Hell ever found out you did this, they'd destroy you both.

So you rushed over with holy water, your tie undone, catching him before he can go any further with his scheme to pay humans to steal him some and you waited for him in the safety of The Bentley, one of the only places the two of you can actually talk with some expectation of privacy, and when he asks, you have to talk him out of it. You have to break his heart a bit. You have to disappoint him. You have to try to protect him from himself a bit or you'll lose him.

You tell him that you're giving him the holy water because you can't let him risk his life "not even for something dangerous." Dangerous is trying for more between you than there already is. You aren't rejecting him outright and he knows that. You never have, really. You see each other in secret. You have been for more years than either of you can count. You rely on each other to help each other to the right speed.

You need him to tempt you into giving yourself permission to do what you want and need but aren't sure you can or should. He needs you to help him keep from spiralling from anxiety.

He gets you to go a little faster-- not too much, at a pace you feel comfortable with. You get him to slow down-- gently, tenderly. You are both able to trust each other with your vulnerabilities and that's why it works.

He's blinded by the world changing in ways both exhilarating and also terrifying, by it breaking apart at the seams increasing his fear of running out of time.

You've been together for thousands of years.

You don't stay the night; you've never had breakfast together. You've never risked taking each other's hands in public. You've never directly said I love you.

If you can get him to see how dangerous it all still is-- because it is-- then maybe you can keep him alive long enough to have a shot of neither of you ever having to worry about losing each other again.

Somehow, it's not much different now than it was before the beginning. He's always been like this. Optimistic, progressive, free-thinking. Innovative. It might get you both out of all of it yet but it won't in 1967. He is caught up in the emerging new, human world and it's a heady cocktail when mixed with his existential terror. He's going to get himself fucking killed. You know better, just as you knew better before The Beginning. You know that too many questions, too much risk, will draw a metaphorical sniper's bead to his head. And you know that, on some level, he knows he needs you to rein him.

It's an era of freer sex and free love and wild, progressive music and art but... it's also an era of war and violence and assassinations... and Heaven and Hell are so far removed from Earth that it would take another 6,000 years to get them anywhere near close to this.

Crowley knows this, intellectually. You know he knows. He just feels the sand trickling faster and faster and there's hardly any of it left now.

You know how that feels-- you feel it, too. Every time you look at him. Everytime he slips away out the backdoor of the bookshop with a soft kiss and an even softer g'night, angel and you wonder if that was the last time.

Tick, tick, tick, tick...

Crowley sees All You Need is Love but you can see December 8, 1980 coming at some point down the road. You've both been on this planet long enough to know what they do to the first ones who break away, to the ones who go against the grain, and the humans are no different from Heaven and Hell in that way. You cannot tell him yes or you will be killing you both.

You put it on yourself a bit. He goes too fast for you, you tell him. It's not untrue. He does. It's just that if it all were different, you'd never refuse him anything. You hope he hears it as your issue, not his, though you doubt he will. It is so hard to look at him and tell him no when all he is saying he wants is the chance to love you more.

God, there are days when you think he might kill you if he were to love you any more than he does. You don't know what you ever did to deserve his love. You don't know how you survived before you met him or how you are supposed to if you lose him.

"You go too fast for me" is what you say and you know he understands that it means:

You'll burn us fast and bright and it will be amazing but it will *end*. They will catch us. They will kill us. I can't lose you. If I thought all we could ever have would be just a short, few years, then I wouldn't deny you but I think we could find a way to have forever. Somehow. I have hope for that. I get that hope *from you.* I need you to slow down because I can't watch you get yourself killed. I'm not strong enough to lose you. I need you to let me pace this for awhile...

You want him to know you understand, that you feel it all, too. So, you tell him of the things you'd like to do, if it was safer, not knowing if it ever will be. The things you choose are of all of these holy water years. A picnic-- one implied to be in the daylight, in this future you're both imagining, this world you hope to one day see emerge. He had tried to take you on a graveyard one at midnight in 1827. You know that had been what that would have been had you not ran into Elspeth. The two of you sneaking around in the dark, as always, but together. Alive. Maybe, you tell him now, you could one day have that picnic together under the sun. You think you can see that world. You have no idea how it arrives but he's not wrong. You can see some things changing here and there's always hope that things could change with Heaven and Hell. He has taught you to keep the faith in how he's survived the worst and remains optimistic.

Maybe, one day, you could be angels dining at The Ritz. It is intentional that you reference World War II. It is a way-- the only way you can right now-- to tell him you love him, as you both did in your own ways during The Blitz. It is saying:

I love you. I would love that life with you. I won't give up on the idea of it-- of having more than a short burst of it. That is why I need you to slow down and stay safe. It's too dangerous for more right now. Take the holy water and take a breath. You're okay. You have me. We keep *each other* safe, remember? Slow down. I need you with me forever.

[honey-minded-hivemind]

I'm back and still a nervous wreck!

I had the stupidest idea and wanted to know what you thought.

For X-Men evolution because I think it fits best there

Reader who wholeheartedly believes in conspiracy theories, reader who doesn't believe mutants are real even when they themselves are one believing that instead the government made up mutants as a lie to genetically enhance people and get away with it. Wiping their memories and leaving them to fend for themselves, they wholeheartedly believe that their memory was altered (when in reality their mutation just mentally messed them up, think like their body releases toxic gasses or something like that readers been breathing it in since they have no control over their mutation and it makes them smell strange one of the many reasons why they have no friends)

So reader goes to the same high school as the X-Men/brother hood but not with either groups from the start, this strange quiet and weird smelling child who rambles about conspiracy theories and while their theories are... Unique they aren't hateful of mutants so the X-Men don't really notice them they blend into the background mumbling to themselves and forgetting where they put their hoodie (it was on the back of their chair)

Reader gets sent to the principals office a lot due to the way they act causing raven to get closer to reader their charming attitude and slightly messed up speech and memory issues making raven into the first platonic yandere eventually having the brother hood keep an eye on them.

I imagine reader sticks with the Brother hood while also not being a part of them just rambling forever about bigfoot or area 51 and the brother hood don't have the heart to tell this strange child that got held back a grade their weird like so many others have.

And when Kurt shows up the X-Men become platonic yanderes Kurt letting them ramble to him during one of the only classes they didn't share with toad at the time (I can never remember when characters in X-Men evolution get introduced I only have a pirated version that takes forever to start so it isn't worth setting up an entire thing just to watch one episode) and so Kurt goes back to the X-Men talking about his strange new friend who Jean and Scott remember seeing around the school, so with interests peeked they start looking into this teen, a teen who's parents never come to parent teacher conferences a teen who has been known to be very good at forging signatures on permission slips doing it for extra cash, a teen whose address is missing from official paperwork thanks to raven and a teen who always comes to school in dirty clothes a teen who doesn't have a phone and uses the library computers, and showers at a 24 hour gym every other day.

And so slowly one by one this child sneaks their way into their hearts and into adoption papers.

I'm writing this as someone who had lived in a house for a majority of my life that was filled with mold I was allergic to my mom promised it wasn't black mold but now I'm realizing it probably was I slept with my head inches from it for years it messed me up in the head, some of the side effects were "mold rage" that's really what it's called and memory issues I kind of used this as a way to vent about what happened in my life, I really didn't mean to do that I'm really sorry you can ignore this if you want typing it out just made it better and spinning it into a fun story was even cooler.

Thank you very much, a nervous wreck of an Anon.

No, no, it's okay, don't worry. I'm sorry you had to experience that, Anon. While I didn't deal with mold, I did once or twice, when I was younger, have a bad hallucination, which I didn't understand, and I believed a few things that seemed crazy (but looking back on now, was caused by stress and trauma). It isn't easy to have your mental health or perception messed with, and it isn't funny, either. (So yes, to anyone reading this ask/drabble, do not ever make fun of or try to trigger a person who has something like Anon or I mentioned. It is NOT, and I MEAN, NOT FUNNY AT ALL.)

Okay, let me see what I can do for you, Anon, maybe call you 🐝Bee or 🐝Wasp Anon? Or maybe 💛 Anon (Yellow Heart Anon)? Let's try this new mutation out-

• Reader is the sort of person who thought everything had a secret to it. The government? Was run by lizard people or aliens, or had a secret organization who experimented on people. Area 51? Definitely held aliens and maybe eldritch nightmares, and possibly secret evil projects to take over the world. Bigfoot and yeti and dragons? They were all real, they hid in the forests, and were probably nicer than most humans Reader knew. And school was designed to indoctrinate children from an early age, all because of what happened in ancient times, which was overthrowing the king and queen and chopping off their heads. So. Yeah. They they had a lot of ideas.

• They had so many ideas and ways of saying them that their teachers usually sent them to Principal Darkholme, whom wasn't nearly as bad as some people made her out to be! Sue certainly did yell at Reader; no, she just let then ramble for a bit while she looked through their papers (and maybe spied on someone, because this lady can't just be a principal), and gave them a weird look. Not a bad one, no! Just well, not mean but not happy but not annoyed either. Something that made her tell them to come to her if there was a problem, and that some of her students would start taking classes with them.

• Reader liked these new kids! This one guy looked like a toad or frog, and he smelled a bit funny too, less like propane or like the house was in danger, and more like swamps and leaf litter. Maybe he was a frog person! That would be cool! Unless the government caused this, and now it's not so cool and they need to get kicked in the ****... Oh... they can't say that... Oh well. This Peter? Piro? Pietri? guy is really fast and talks a lot too, and doesn't seem to mind showing them all his hobbies, even asking if if have any they want to share with him! Woo, another person to hunt small bug dragons and look for fae with! The giant one is kinda cool, like, he seems unmovable and unbreakable! Is he part whale? Part rock? Part demigod?! Whatever he is, he's strong, and is gentle with them like he is with the Toad guy. The shaky one (he isn't a rock, but he insists he is more rock-like than shaky, which is nonsense) seems to keep people like Duncan and his posse away, so he's pretty chill! And then there's the witch, who's magic and is so awesome and is really red. Maybe she's like, a chaos witch? That would be interesting... maybe she has a coven Reader can try to join...

• Those five let them talk and even chip in their ideas, but then start insisting they're mutants, not magic, or aliens, or government experiments. Reader points out they wouldn't remember that part. That just earns them an odd look, somewhere between sad and worried, but they're back to rambling since they don't need to worry about their friends not knowing certain things. It's okay not to. Reader can't remember certain things either, and they don't always say things how they want to say them, and they aren't wrong for being that way, so their friends aren't wrong for not knowing either.

• They gain a new friend, who turns out to he a blue fuzzy elf. He's funny, and German, and Reader is certain he is part angel, because he's that nice. He talks with them, even shows them his powers, and asks what Reader can do. And Reader laughs, saying they don't really know... He looks at them, says he knows someone who can help, and that's how Reader meets his friends (or family. They seem like a family). Their professor/dad says they're all gifted, and so is Reader, but Reader says that they haven't noticed anything so far. The man says he can read minds, and Reader asks if he can read theirs... The man nods, goes quiet... and he seems to panic, his eyes going sad in the corners and his gaze a bit haunted or winded. The others notice, but Reader doesn't know what's wrong... They're asked to visit them every day, so they can get to know one another, as friends do, and Reader agrees, happy to have more friends!

• It's so odd, meeting so many new people! They've finally gotten everyone's names memorized (it took a few weeks, but it was worth it!) There's Principal Darkholme, who also crossdresses as Mystique (cool, she can change colors and shapes!) There's Todd or Toad, their friend they share classes with and who smells a little weird and is a toad person. There's Pietro and Wanda, twins, who both look very different from each other, like opposites. Lance is the shaky guy who walks them to and from places, and Fred is who is there as back up in case someone gets too close. Kurt is their fuzzy elf friend (who must be part angel), and who smells like sulfur from time to time. The Professor is sweet, if a bit authorative, and tries to make them tea and discover their power. Jean and Scott are two older students who both seem to like the colors red and green and yellow, and they both start driving Reader to where they need to go. Kitty is the one in pink who seems to go phase through things, like some Twilight Zone person, and Rogue is the one in green and black who can do anything. There's also Logan, their old-but-not-old guard/dad man, who growls a lot and smells like leather and seems worried about them. Storm is a goddess, who controls winds and rain and clouds and lightning and snow and sunshine (she's so cool!). And Hank is their friends their dad, who likes science and listens to Reader's theories and tells them someone once thought he was Bigfoot (Reader laughs, and asks how that went, and that Hank couldn't possibly be Bigfoot! They're both entirely different beings, that's absurd!) These people are so nice! They even share food with them! And go to the park! And go to the library!

• The others have tried to convince them they're mutants, not government experiments or aliens or magical beings or demigods, but Reader isn't entirely convinced. How could mutants exist? Wouldn't they look super different from everybody? Or be welcomed? And if not, then everyone is just being a ****... they still can't say that... Oh well. They've tried to argue with them, but each time they cut it off before they start sounding choked up or angry or worried. Reader hopes they're okay. They don't like seeing them upset, and they really, really are trying to do the right thing. They just wished it wasn't so hard on everyone.

• The Professor calls them over one day, saying he's finally figured out what their power is. Reader chuckles, saying they've talked about it before, and that Reader can't have powers. He says that no, he knows what it is, and that they need to sit down. So they do, because they won't argue with him when he seems excited and scared. And he tells them that they emit a toxic gas or fume or mist, which causes hallucinations or ilillusions to those who breathe it in or absorb it. He says they do what they do and act the way they act because for quite some time now they've breated it in nonstop. They're quiet, and they feel worried, and they ask to go home. They don't sleep that night, too scared to go to sleep, too scared to turn off the light, too upset to stop thinking about what might be true or false...

• Their friends don't stop talking to them, but they don't want to talk a lot for the next few weeks. It's hard, and feels hard, and they don't want to think even more about how everything could be a lie and it's all an illusion and how it could be a trick- There's just too much to do, homework to do, reading to attempt, home to go back to, and not enough safety to be blank and to stop thinking for once...

• They call in sick for a few days. They stay where they live, with its old walls and decaying floors and smell of old rot and wood and metal, the creak of the boards and squeaks of the hinges making Reader jolt and jump like they've touched a livewire. Their head hurts now. It hasn't stopped hurting since the Professor told them about their... power. They haven't slept well since then either, the few times they slept full of nightmares, their nights full of tears, their mind struggling to understand why this was happening to them and why it couldn't make sense...

• Principal Darkholme visits them, so does the Professor, but they came in while they'd been in a fitful slumber. Waking up, muttering to themself, weaving into the rooms... they saw them, worried it wasn't real, and were soon being looked over by two worried adults, asking if they're okay, if this is their home, where are their parents, do they need help- And all they can do is let them bring them out of the old place, ending up at one one their homes, where they're given a tea to drink, and they try to settle...

• They soon are told they can be helped. That the adults will be giving them something to take, that it will help them, and they don't want to take it- but they end up having to, because it ends up either taken willingly, or it's slipped into their drink or food, and all they can do struggle as their mind starts experiencing something that feels like a pick trying to shatter it in two... It gets better over time, and for once, they can feel a bit... calmer. Like they're seeing things from a new perspective. And now they aren't sure what to do, with the new thoughts swirling in their head, the new feelings, the new abilities...

• Toad or Kurt or Rogue is usually with them. They keep them company, they make sure they took their medicine, and call the others when Reader starts to panic or feel overwhelmed. Sometimes it's okay, and Reeader can calm down on their own. Other times, their illusions and hallucinations effect everyone, and they have to call the Professor or Jean to walk Reader through shutting it down. They struggle to sleep at night, afraid of monsters in the dark; it leads to Evan or Kitty or Kurt usually throwing a sleepover in your room, hugging you, even promising you'll be okay, that you're strong, that you're safe... Mystique always let's you know it's her, no matter what form she is in, and she makes sure she's there if you need someone someone ground you or keep others away. Hank still does checkups on you, but he never calls you crazy or thinks you're weird, he just smiles at you and says everyone is different, but you're all human, mutant or otherwise, and that it's not an anomaly or wrong to go through what you go through, as it isn't wrong that he's fuzzy and blue, or that Toad smells a bit, or that the Professor can't walk. It's all a part of life, and they're so glad you're experiencing it with them...

(I hope I did this okay, Anon. I did my best, and tried to convey this the best I could. And folks, it is okay to struggle with things like this. You're still human, you are valid, and you matter. Please try to get help if you can, and take care of yourself, okay? You're you, and you're loved💛)

[pooks]

time to nag about my headcanon "Percy has Seer powers" and why that is a great idea

first of all, a little clarification; this isn't common knowledge to the younger siblings. only Arthur, Molly, Bill and Charlie knows. they kept this secret after Fabian and Gideon Prewett died

this implies that they died to protect Percy, who was just this tiny toddler who had absolutely no control over what he could See

the result is to keep his Seer powers secret

some background info; Percy's Seer powers is a rare gift that is apparently passed down from the Black side

Cedrella, aka their paternal grandmother, had it and has taught Percy how to use and control it. that's why Percy had a more closer bond to his granny than the rest of the family.

Arthur did not inherit it, but one of his brothers did. unfortunately, his poor brother is dead (it's not Billius, but someone else cause Arthur had three brothers accourding to the wiki) because he rather die than to let himself being caught by Voldemort and used as a tool.

while he doesn't understand Seer powers too well, Arthur respects it and is trying to be supportive for Percy.

also at a later point, Percy had 1 Bad Incident™ involving his Seer powers and it slightly traumatised him enough to not try to use it again

he takes divination in his third year for two reasons; 1, he also want to achieve 12 NEWTS like Bill. 2, he wants to understand his weird future-seeing power.

Oliver, his roommate (oh my god they were roommates) finds out by accident and keeps nagging him about the future Quidditch match results. Percy refuses cause that's SPOILERS

and now ONTO THE FUN STUFF

Percy can look far into the future, but he settles for the fun stuff

he occassionally makes references to memes and vines

his siblings doesn't understand them at all

at least until they're all adults with families in the future

and they be like "YOU KNEW"

and Percy just smiles innocently even though he absolutely isn't

Harry and Hermione aren't safe from Percy's Seer Shenanigans either

everytime Hermione is working with a crossword, Percy's eyes flashes green for a moment and when he opens his mouth, Hermione hits him with a pillow cause he was about to reveal the answer

Harry asked Percy once if his Seer powers was why Fudge promoted him. Percy simply smiled and said "yes, that was the reason. but the idiot didn't realized that i tricked him all the time and sent him on a wild goose chase."

aaaaand some Ministry shitshow stuff;

HEADCANON TWO; PERCY MADE LIFE SOUR FOR FUDGE AND THE IDIOT NEVER REALIZED IT

ofc Percy would be petty af once he figured out Fudge only wanted him because of his Seer powers. which means the fucker looked at the classified information in his personell file. Percy is obvs mad about that, but it's too late to tell his family about it and he decides to be an absolute menace about it without being caught

"getting caught means that you weren't smart enough to get an escape plan"

Percy takes full offense of being treated like a tool instead of a human with rights

he burns several draft-ups for the "updated law for underage magic" because they're fucking awful and he knows the bastard wants to ruin Harry's education. that also means he would ruin his baby siblings' educations.

he also burnt the suggestion papers about giving Azkaban prisoners the dementor's kiss without trial.

the law suggestions about banning human rights for werewolves, wizard hybrids and squibs also got BURNT INTO ASHES

Percy: I decide the future now. >:)

Scrimgeour makes an early bird appearence cause Fudge can't find the law suggestions anymore and he was the idiot to not keep copies.

after investigating privately, Scrimgeour finds out that Percy burnt them up and this madlad explains why.

suddenly Scrimgeour fully supports Percy and says his late uncles would be proud. bonus: Scrimgeour simply says to Fudge that he can't find things that may be gone forever, it's sadly "lost media" now.

Percy, getting the idea from the twints, orders dragon fertilizer (it's dragon dung lol) subscription from norway's dragon research center and sanctuary and sends it to Umbridge, using her forged signature

he's careful to not get caught, so he looks into the future (a bit at the time, though)

feel free to add some of your own ideas/suggestions/headcanon about Seer!Percy Weasley :)

[thedeviltohisangel]

All The Things I Did (10): Together We Can Get Somewhere

a/n: ayyyyeeee we are back on the common era timeline! heavy dose of morning after pillow talk. a really great scene between cass and harding that i love sm. a tiny bit of background on cass/mary. and some of the filthiest john/cass acts we have ever seen. but we are all so feral for possessive john that i am not sure anyone will really mind. we are slowly progressing towards him singing blue skies and i know so many of us (including myself) are waiting to see cass in that moment. it also means north africa and her brother and LONDON are working their way towards us as well...come chat with me! xoxo

warning: smut

The sun filtered in gently through the blinds of her window, Cass’ eyes fluttering open slowly. Most mornings she had gotten in the habit of Mary frantically knocking on her door or the incessant cawing of an alarm clock but today she woke feeling settled. As light as a feather. Warm and sated and full of a new vigor to face down whatever the day may have planned.

Her head was rested against the inside of the bicep of the man behind her, the gentle and rhythmic rise and fall of his chest showing no signs of disturbance. 

She closed her eyes briefly with a smile and raised her arm to fill the gaps between his fingers with hers. It felt so right to wake up in his arms and no matter how many times she did, she didn’t think she would ever get used to the exaltations in her chest and the bubbling, unbridled joy that ached to sneak up her throat and out her mouth as a declaration of love and comfort and commitment to always and forever.

“Good morning, baby,” he mumbled into her hair. John curled around her tighter and puckered his lips against the back of her head before settling back into the dreamy place between waking up and falling back asleep. 

“Morning, Johnny,” Cass replied as he moved his arm to wrap around her waist and pull her back flush to his chest.

“Go back to sleep. Staying here with you all day.” She giggled and rolled over so the tip of her nose nestled into the notch of his collarbone. 

“Say good morning again.” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Good morning, Spook.” The deepness of his voice in the morning reverberated through her with a pleasant hum and desire took over as her tongue flicked against the front of his throat. 

“Something about you in the morning is just infinitely more delicious,” she reasoned as she propped herself onto her elbow.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Cass, but I will appreciate it even more if you let me hold you a little while longer.” His chest felt empty without the weight of her head against it. His arms felt barren without her body to wrap around. In a short amount of time, Cass had become an intrinsic part of him. He needed her around to feel whole. Needed her touch to feel alive. Needed to express his love to her in order to feel anything at all.

“I get antsy first thing in the morning,” she rested her head back on the pillow and her hand found his cheek as his smoothed over the contours of her pert butt cheeks, “if I don’t get up right away, I never will.”

“I fail to see the issue with that.” John was known for falling in and out of sleep until he eventually decided he should get out of bed. The warmth of blankets and softness of a pillow were perks but not necessary. He had fallen asleep waiting in line for dinner at the mess hall. At the Thanksgiving dinner table with his family. During his college graduation. It was truly a gift in his mind.

“I’m positive my entire day is going to be filled with retelling the story of Berlin over and over again for hours at a time.” He tightened his arms around her. 

“Tell them to fuck off if it becomes too much.”

“Just like that?” she chuckled, kissing his lips and then his nose. “I’m not as prolific with my insolence as you are, Major Egan.”

“Prolific insolence? Spook, I need a few minutes in the morning for my brain to be able to process your brilliance.” The way her nipples were pressing against his chest was doing nothing to help either. 

“Well, we are going to have plenty of mornings like this for you to work on it.” Cass pushed his curls back from his forehead as he leaned down to kiss her. “In South Carolina, I could hear the birds chirping every morning and the sounds of the wind rustling the trees and my sister’s dog barking at the squirrels…” Her voice trailed off as she let herself think of the memory. She hadn’t left her home and her family on the best of terms and there were moments that she regretted it more than anything. 

“Sounds like a dream, Cass. I can’t wait to wake up with you in my arms just like that.” 

“Tell me about waking up in Wisconsin.” John sighed and settled back into the pillows, his hand rubbing up and down her back as she rested her head on his chest.

“My sisters were always up before me so they could use the bathroom mirror to get ready. I could always hear them bickering over their hair and their makeup and accuse each other of stealing the other’s dress. That was my alarm clock. And my ma’s morning cigarette and pot of coffee wafting up the stairs…” She smiled as he drifted into the memory. 

“Do you miss home?” she asked as her fingers found the wispy curls on his chest and traced over them gently. 

“I miss my family. I miss American food,” they both giggled, “but being with you feels a lot like home, Cass. I’m learning it doesn’t have to be a place. It can be a person.” She kissed his shoulder. 

“I like that.” His eyes widened with glee as he sat up and pressed her back into the mattress.

“Cassandra Ann Cooper, you like that? Like? That word means nothing to me.” The cheshire cat smile was wiped from her face as his finger found her sides and tickled her relentlessly. “I cannot believe you would reduce my declaration of you feeling like home to that word.” 

“You win! You win!” she wheezed as she coughed around the ferocity of her laughter. “I’m warmed by the sentiment. How’s that?”

“Much better.” He kissed her lips then her cheeks then her nose and everywhere else on her face he could reach. 

“Can you promise me something?”

“Anything.”

“Promise me we’ll always be like this. That we’ll always laugh and have fun and wake up kissing and go to sleep kissing and you’ll never shut me out of that beautiful mind the same way I’ll try to never shut you out of mine.” The dichotomy of Sidney Landry and John Egan was not lost on her. The way Landry had made her close herself tighter and feel weaker and sullen. The way he had poked and prodded at her until her fire retreated into a corner and eventually went out. But John stoked the fire inside of her. He breathed oxygen into her soul and nurtured her passion and knew the right time to add fuel versus when to calm her down. He was her twin flame, dancing and flickering in the night and relaxing to a morning filled with warmed embers.

“I promise, my love, I promise.” Her legs settled around his waist as he kissed her like he might lose her, a wet trail making its way down her throat and between her breasts, past her belly button and to the aching apex between her legs. John was nipping at the inside of her thighs when there was a knock on the door. 

“Lieutenant Cooper? Colonel Harding is asking for you.”

“I need-” she sucked in a breath as his tongue teased at her entrance, “-five more minutes, Mary.”

“I’ll have her ready in two!”

----

The fabric of her uniform felt itchy against her skin after a morning of John’s skin against her own. True to his word, he had gotten her over the edge in damn near exactly two minutes. Had her thighs shaking and toes curling and eyes rolling to the back of her head. Cass remembers her sister or her friends sitting at afternoon tea together and blushing over their wedding nights and the appetite of men. They always talked about it being painful and never full of pleasure. They had learned how best to take care of themselves and on particularly hot afternoons, would exchange tips on what worked for them and how they hid their own releases from their husband in the middle of the night. If she was a betting woman, she would bet this was not something she would ever have to worry about. John seemed to derive more pleasure with his head between her legs than he did in any other situation. She smirked at how jealous her older sister was going to be when she told her.

“Lieutenant. You’re looking much better this morning,” Colonel Harding remarked as he motioned her into his office.

“Yes, sir. I slept very well.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Not because Berlin meant nothing, sir. Was just at the limits of my exhaustion.”

“Well, I’m certain the OSS equipped you with all necessary skills to complete your missions and still sleep at night. Have a seat.” She smoothed her skirt underneath her and sat in the chair across from him. When she went to cross her legs, she was reminded of the gift John had sent her on her way with. His warm cum was coating the inside of her panties It had been less than an hour since she’d left their love nest and her clit was throbbing with need. 

“Sir, I believe my after action report for Berlin was thorough and contained everything that the upper brass might ask-”

“I didn’t ask you here to talk about Berlin, Cassandra. I have a separate issue I require your assistance in remedying.” It wasn’t very often someone was able to surprise her. She was intrigued. 

“Of a personal or professional nature, Colonel?” 

“It’s a gray area. I need a plus one for a dinner with my British counterpart tonight.” He puffed around the cigar in his mouth as Cass rolled her eyes.

“That is what you have an executive officer for. A plethora of coffee cart girls and typists and-”

“None of those people you’ve listed are as beautiful as you. As smart as you. As talented as you at asking just the right questions to get the information I need to make sure him and I are on the same page.”

“The Brits are our allies, Colonel, they should be telling you exactly what you need to know whenever you ask for it.” He smiled at her wolfishly and she had to admit he was a handsome man. 

“Exactly, Lieutenant. You always know what to say.” She really wanted to argue with him and decline the invitation but the professional flattery was working wonders on her. She blamed John for increasing the pliancy of her mind from the moment she woke up that morning. 

“Fine. I suppose this dinner could be mutually beneficial. I’ll see what I can scrounge up in terms of proper clothing.” 

“No need. I had the tailor in town come up with something I’m sure will be to your liking.” Twice now he had gotten the upper hand on her. Cass was beginning to feel like she had underestimated the Colonel’s commitment to pursuing her. 

“If it doesn’t fit right, you’ll be hearing from me.” 

“My girl got the measurements from your girl. Shouldn’t be an issue.” 

“Miss Richards would never offer up my personal information unless you had hidden your true intentions and I will not have you or anyone else attempting to trick her like that.” Mary had become a sacred corner of solace in Cass’ life and she would protect her as furiously as she would anyone else she loved. They had been working together since the moment Cass had graduated OSS school and been assigned to Thorpe Abbotts. Mary had been responsible for handling all of her paperwork and supplying her with her uniform and everything else that most people took for granted behind the scenes but Cass had known was the difference between success and failure for her tenure across the pond. The secretary had not been used to an officer bestowing such praise and genuine gratitude upon her and the two of them had been inseparable ever since. No matter where she went, Cass planned on taking Mary with her. 

“Understood, Lieutenant. I will make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Harding’s eyes twinkled at the passion on display in front of him. How he ached to go back in time and take her for himself that night in London. The way she had shined in her satin gown and diamonds draped around her neck and had even laughed with eloquence at everything the Brit said to placate him into trusting her. The way his heart had damn near fluttered when she conversed with the Belgian representative in perfectly accented French. Against any rationality in his brain, he had almost gone to the small jewelers down the street to buy her a ring right then and there. In a different world, Cass would’ve said yes.

“Good. I’ll see you tonight, Colonel. I have a habit of being on time so please be prompt to pick me up.” 

“I wouldn't deign to keep you waiting, Cassandra.” Her tongue was physically clamped between her teeth to prevent the biting words from coming out of her mouth. She hated the use of her full name unless John was using it to try and capture the magnitude of his feelings for her. When the letters of Cass were just not enough and he needed more. It was also why Cass had yet to refer to him by his ever present nickname of Bucky. Something about John, the name his mother had given him, she felt showed that she loved exactly who he was at his core. Exactly who he was when he had been born and exactly who he would be if it all ended. She loved the innermost sanctum of him just as much as she did the boisterous, intelligent goof he always presented himself as. Every nook and cranny was hers to explore and love and cherish for all time.

“I’ll see myself out, sir.” Cass was turning on her heels and out the door before he could quip anything back. “Have a nice day, Eloise.” 

“You as well, Lieutenant!” Cass didn’t blame her for Harding’s surreptitious behavior towards Mary. She knew the two women were close friends and would always trust Mary’s gut as much as she trusted her own. 

Her steps took her out into the fresh air, her hands ripping the tie of her uniform over her head as she checked her watch to try and figure out where John might be. It was in between breakfast and lunch so he wouldn’t be at the mess hall. She knew he wasn’t scheduled to fly any practice missions today and he would have gotten his maintenance report from Lemmons first thing in the morning. Her best guess was mission briefings in headquarters or he was talking Mary’s ear off until Cass returned to her billet. She’d start with the offices.

Everyone who passed her seemed to sense she was not in the mood for conversation. Her hands were clenching in and out of fists at her side, her steps more than purposeful as she moved towards her intended target.

Not only did she need to warn John about the potential circus she had just agreed to participate in but he had also promised her a reward if she found him after and had held onto his cum like a good little Spook would know how to. Cass shuddered with anticipatory pleasure at the thought.

The office spaces were abuzz with navigators and typists and orderlies as she successfully worked her way through the crowd and politely greeted each and every person that she crossed paths with. Standing by the large canvas map and watching the way her OSS colleague was tracing the route of their next mission were a group of men but most importantly there was Major John Egan.

“Lieutenant Cooper! I was hoping you’d be available in time for the next portion of the briefing. You are much more familiar with Regensburg than I am,” Major Bowman announced as she joined the group, flushed and breathless and ready to cash in on whatever John had planned.

“Oh, that is coming up isn’t it?” she mused, not even sparing the Major a glance as her gaze was transfixed on the profile of her lover. “I’m sorry, sir, but might I borrow Major Egan for a moment?” It was going to be longer than a moment. Most certainly. But she didn’t want to give the officers any more of a reason to snicker than they were already getting. And she really wasn’t waiting for an answer, her finger lacing with his and gently tugging him in the direction of her office. 

“Sorry, Red,” John shrugged as he followed after her, “we all got our duties!” The door slammed shut behind them and Cass was closing the blinds to offer them as much privacy as they could find in the cramped building. 

“There’s something you must know,” she began as his lips were already attached to the side of her neck. Biting and sucking and repeating before soothing over the new marks with his tongue. “Colonel Harding invited me to dinner tonight.” That served to get his attention. 

“Did you tell him you had my cum between your legs?” John dropped to his knees and shrugged off his layers so he was left in his button up. Cass lifted her hips off the wall as he shimmied her pencil skirt up her legs. 

“I could feel it the whole time. Keeping me warm.” He hummed at the sight of the wet spot through her panty hose. 

“Such a good girl,” he whispered in a trance. With one hand on either side of the waistband, he pulled and ripped her tights clean down the middle. 

“John! These are good tights!” she gasped.

“Things that get in the way of me and you may get ripped.” He tossed the offensive fabric to the side and his mouth watered at the prize that rested between her thighs. Dainty, pink lace covered her cunt and the remnants of his morning wood was snuggled up against her. “We have to get some of this back in you, baby.” He gently kissed the sensitive skin below her belly button as his fingers curled around the band of her panties and slid them down her legs. Cass stepped out of them, John bringing them to his nose before they were tucked into the inside of his sheepskin. “We smell so good together, Spook. Could die a happy man with that scent wrapped around me.”

“Don’t talk like that,” she pleaded as one of her legs went over his shoulder. “Don’t talk about leaving me.” His fingers traced around her entrance, the tip of his pointer finger broaching her slowly as he pressed his cum back into her.

“Colonel Harding know that you took me with you to your meeting? Do you think he knows you make me come so hard that my cum leaks out of you?” Cass sighed as he began to gently tease her swollen pearl.

“He invited me to dinner with the Brits tonight.” John paused and his touch slipped from her wetness. “Wants me to be fully spooky. Bought me a dress to wear specifically.” His eyes dragged up her body and he rose to his full height, her leg dropping shakily to the ground but Cass made no move to readjust her skirt. 

“You’re going to wear a dress he bought you while on his arm at a fancy dinner?” She nodded. His hand wrapped around her throat and she whimpered. “You said I was yours. That also means you’re mine. And I’m going to fuck you so hard, Casssandra Ann Cooper, that you won’t know anything other than that fact tonight. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Major.” He had said the night before that he would have his time to take control and ravish her. She was delighted that the time had come. John kissed her in a way she knew would bruise her lips, spanking the bare skin of her bottom that was peeking out from under her skirt. 

“On your desk,” he ordered. Cass practically skipped over to her desk and wasn’t quick enough to carefully put away her belongings before one swipe of John’s wingspan sent it all crashing to the floor. 

“John! They’re going to hear-” 

“Part of the fucking point,” he muttered as he lifted her by the waist and placed her on top of her desk. He grabbed his sheepskin. “Lift your hips.” She did, the jacket going under them to provide him with better leverage. He gripped around her ankles and pulled her so her cunt was right at the edge of the desk. 

“Make it so I only know your name and the way you feel inside of me,” she whispered. Cass’ mouth salivated watching him undo the buckle of his belt, his cock springing proud once he freed it. One hand went to each of her knees and pushed down until she was pliant and ready. He pressed into her slowly as black spots practically danced across his vision at the way being inside of her felt. It completely forced all of his thoughts into one singular thread to please her and provide for her in any and all ways.

She was only able to take half of him before her walls were contracting around his shaft and he moaned her name with no qualms over the notion that someone could hear him. Let them know who he belonged to and who she belonged to. Let them know that no matter Harding’s efforts to woo her away, she would always come back home to John Egan. 

“I belong inside of you, Cass. You belong wrapped around me like this.” His hips were snapping as quickly as he could without hurting her, fingers curled around the side of the desk as she tried to anchor herself to reality. “No one else is ever going to have you like this. No one is allowed to ever dream about you like this.”

“Yes, John. I’m fucking yours. Fucking all yours forever.” John swatted at the hand that was reaching for her clit and replaced it with his own. She gasped and bared her throat and he ached to sink his teeth into the supple skin as she began to chant his name like it was holy. To her, it was.

“Come for me. Come all over my cock, baby.” Cass obliged his request with a curse and a cry before focusing on the way her lover’s features were pulling together tightly. 

“You’re so beautiful when you fall apart, John, so beautiful and all mine.” She used his tie to pull him down against her lips and she swallowed his moans as he quickly pulled himself from her and shot his cum over her inner thigh. He kissed her like an animal as his high worked its way down to a simmer and the racing of their hearts calmed to a normal pace. “I would’ve had Harding ask me out sooner if I’d known,” she breathed. Feeling like seeing how far she could push him, Cass reached a fingertip to the soft skin of her thigh and dragged it through the creamy substance before bringing it to her lips. 

“One day, when all this is over, I’ll give you all the same things he can. Fancy dresses and dinners and whatever else his salary can buy.” 

“John? You really think any of that means something to me? Matters in how I feel even a smidge?” Her palm rested along the curve of his jaw so her thumb could land on his lips. 

“I know it doesn’t. Doesn’t make my desire to give it to you any less,” he murmured before kissing the pad of her thumb. 

“I have plenty of dresses and been to plenty of dinners. But I’ve only got one John Egan and I’m rather fond of him. Would like to keep him around and in one piece for as long as possible.” 

“Well, Spook, the world could really only handle one John Egan, don’t you think?” She smiled widely with a giggle and he pulled her closer for a kiss to her lips then nose. “I love you. No one else. Just you.” Cass closed her eyes and nodded in understanding. 

“Whenever Red is done pretending he knows what he is doing, you can bother Mary and me while I get ready. Escort me to Harding’s like I’m sure you want to.” What he wanted was to be able to provide for her the way she deserved. Be the type of man worthy of being called her husband one day. Love alone didn’t buy a house or nursery furniture or a fence for the family dog. 

He had no way of knowing the family wealth she came from. That his worry about providing for her seemed beyond frivolity. That anything she could ever dream of wanting could be hers tomorrow with the Cooper family name behind her. She had meant exactly what she had said. The only thing money could not buy her was love and the only person she wanted it from was John Egan. Cass knew he had it in spades. 

“Once I see you in that dress, I might not let you leave.” His nose nuzzled against hers. 

“You will when I tell you that if you let me leave, you’ll get to take it off as quickly as you wish after.” He could rip it to shreds if he wanted to. John knew he wanted to. 

“I want to dance with you in it after. Get another taste of the life we are going to have once we go home together.”

“Home together. Makes my heart warm.” 

“Don’t tell Buck. I’ll never hear the end of it.” Cass mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key. “My Spooky Spook. So good at keeping secrets.” He kissed her to lock it in for good measure. Cass looked down at the cum drying on her legs and the mess of papers and paper clips and other office supplies on the floor. 

“We have quite the mess to clean up.” John hummed. 

“Good thing no one came knocking.”

[nereisi]

You want a non-cliché male (shounen) protagonist? I got it!

Something that I literally can’t get out of my head recently is how I constantly see discourse about the staleness of male MCs - especially shounen manga protagonists - always so ready and accepting of being the Chosen One. Always so ready to discard their “mundane” life and embark on some dangerous mission. Outspoken, fiery and with unbeatable charisma.

And while we are beginning to see (minimal) change with recent books/manga, do you know who was literally the antithesis of this a lot of years ago?

Tsuna.

Tsuna who was literally the last choice for everything, whose nickname was Loser-Tsuna, constantly bullied and harassed and whom nobody thought he would ever amount to anything. 0 friends, 0 abilities, 0 accomplishments. 

And when some guy to tell him “You can become the head of a mafia family. You’re gonna be respected, sought after.”, when Reborn serves him POWER on a silver platter... Tsuna says “oh hell no, fOck all that”, turns tail and RUNS. 

He won’t manage to escape forever, but that’s beside the point. Tsuna is a coward, a plain nobody, so boringly normal that in any other anime he would be for sure one of the background filler characters. He isn’t cut to be a protagonist. He’s wimpy, weak and whiny, sometimes to the point of being annoying ever for me - and I love KHR.

But what fascinates me is this. A character so weak and bullied, usually would be elated to have that much power offered to him. I knew that he was the protagonist, so the first time I watched the series I was expecting him to accept the power and better himself, become a different person, a hero. (Or, if he was in another manga, a villain.) 

Instead, not only Tsuna refuses - again and again, until the very end - to become who he was destined to be, who everyone around him wants him to be; but the only time he uses the power he was gifted with is strictly to protect himself, his friends and family. And then he quickly steps away immediately after, like when you move a scalding pot without mittens. 

His guardians have become... his guardians, in order, because: 1) he saved his life, so he thinks he’s cool 2) mostly head empty, only vibes (also he saved his life) 3) a literal child bribed with candy 4) somebody else asked him and he just went with the flow 5) one crumb of kindness got them hooked (actually 2 psycopaths in one body and it’s not a metaphor) 6) doesn’t give a shit as long as you give him a good fight. 

Sure, at some point they all recognize his strenght, but apart from Gokudera’s blind idolization, for everybody Tsuna is just A Guy. He might be their “boss”, and they might come to respect him, but he gets treated nothing like a cliché male MC. 

It’s really a shame that Katekyo Hitman Reborn, as a series, was managed badly as it did. Even though it’s one of my favorite shows, it’s weakened by a lot of factors... but an uninteresting MC? It ain’t one!

I smell a reboot in the air. I really hope they will to the series justice.

[maleyanderecafe]

Akahane Academy (Visual Novel)

Created by: Scratchitone

Genre: Comedy

Akahane Academy is a parody and it knows it. All of the male characters the player meets in the beginning are yanderes, and all with long chins that will stab you through the chest. There are three different yanderes, all of which are kind of unique in their own way. The intended play is to go from top to bottom when it comes to routes, so I'll try to follow that order when writing this review.

The player heads to Akahane academy to meet up with their club leader, Yukina-san, the neko girl, who seems to be rivals with the main character. She tells the player that she's left a surprise for them in the classroom, to which they walk in and find three different guys, Hiro, the blonde cheerful one, Misaki the black more mysterious one and Yuusei the more aloof one. From there, the player can interact with them and get their route.

Starting with Hiro, the player stalks to him about some of the manga that they like, and finds out that he's in the cooking club. He shows the player around the home economics room, and lets the player have a taste of cherrypie that he just baked. However, upon taking the pie out, the player smells a strong iron smell, and sees that the pie has a human face stretched out on it. Hiro reveals that he killed all of the player's friends and turned them into pies so that no one else could have them.

If the player goes with Masaki, he starts to brood on about how nobody understands him (complete with an emo wolf in the background), until the player tries to resonate with him. Shocked by this development, he falls in love for the first time and ends up telling them that they will be together forever and ever.

Finally, if the player goes with Yuusei, he will continue to stare at her, sort of breaking waiting for them to notice him until Yuki-san enters the room. She states that this entire thing was revenge for winning the science fair, where she worked really hard on her project and the player won by... making something they don't even understand. As revenge, she ends up making the three boys to ruin their life. She ends up leaving and the player is now stuck with the three yandere boys.

As I've said, very much a parody, since they call everyone weeby names and have dumb things go on but it's great and I like it. Definitely the most "serious" route is Hiro's route since we actually do get to see him basically cook all of the player's friends (which explains why we see such few people in the school anyways and the fact that the Home Eco's room is mysteriously covered in blood. It's probably the most scary route in the entire game and it's a shock because it's likely the first one that you play. The other two are a lot more lax, with Masaki's being probably the most tame (and funniest one) since it plays on the trope of an overly emo/brooding male lead, and the image of him sitting under a tree with a wolf to symbolize his brooding side is actually hilarious. He falls in love and becomes rather protective afterwards but there isn't really too much after that. Masaki's has even less than that but there are little flashes of him smiling as he talks to the player and his figure becomes more creepy as it goes on. It gets interjected by Yuki-san revealing her whole plot of making three yandere guys to ruin the player's life (though I'll be honest so far the only one who actually did anything was Hiro after cooking all of those weird blood pies). Still, it really does lean into the weeby OWO UWU type of writing and it is pretty fun to play since nothing is really taken that seriously. Also man, those chins are so sharp I could probably cut cheese with them.

Anyways, short game, pretty fun. Lots of dumb moments. I enjoyed it! If you like more parody games/ comedic type of yandere games, try this one out- it's short and it likes to make fun of itself which I can always appreciate.

[neuroticbookworm]

Parenting in Step by Step, a defense

I saw a bunch of posts about how Pat is immature and has poor communication skills, and citing his parents' divorce as one of the potential reasons.

*baffled* W H A T.

I don't have the time or energy to rant about the "poor communication skills" read, so all I'm gonna say is that Pat was busy holding his mushed up braincells together for the majority of this episode and direct your attention to @shortpplfedup's crisp and hilarious Ten Movements that perfectly summed up Pat's emotional journey. Cut him some slack, for fuck's sake.

Now, onto Pat's parents and their relationship with him and each other. I want to highlight the writing and dialogue in their scenes, because it hurts my heart to see not a lot of people talking about them.

When we first meet them, both Pat's Mom and Dad express concern about his eating habits, but the parent-child dynamics in these conversations were very different. Pat's mom says it's not good for him to eat ramen for breakfast, but she quickly accepts Pat's excuse and goes back to doting on him. When she brings up Jeng, and Pat complains that she is nagging and changes the subject, she lets him.

When Dad comes into town a few *undisclosed unit of time* later, he basically asks the same question as Mom, but this time, Pat is a little elaborate with his excuse explanation.

But Dad doesn't let him get away with his bullshit. He offers up a few solutions and wants to work on them with Pat.

After he's sure that Pat knows the need to change his food habits, he then adds levity to the conversation, and goofs around with his son. (I will forever adore the Asian Gordon Ramsey moment, more father-son wholesomeness in Asian media, please and thank you)

(did y'all notice how both Pat's Mom and Dad call him adorable with very different energies? did ya? okay, good)

Now, when the time came for Pat to let go of all his frustrations and break down in front of his parents, I was worried that the show would lean a bit too hard on the parental roles, the good cop/bad cop gambit. But no, it surprised me. It sure started out that way, with Pat offering up an empty excuse to Mom's question.

Which is immediately followed by this look:

(more on this later, I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about this)

When Dad follows up with this statement, Pat's defenses begin to crumble.

He opens up about how he feels overwhelmed and disconnected with himself, and Dad responds with this:

He brings the realities of adulthood to the forefront, reassuring him that he has also been there before and that Pat will learn to manage it. Still in line with the roles the show had previously drawn up for them. When Pat continues, Mom moves to Pat's side as soon as they realise that Pat's problems include heartbreak ("Everywhere I go, it's filled with memories") and she hits him with this:

Oooooof. That's a hell of a line. Accurate? yes. Comforting? Fuck no.

That's when Dad moves to Pat's side, and tries to soothe him. The roles are flipped.

Pat then says that maybe it would've been better, if they had stayed with him all the time. Now, this can mean two different things: I wish I didn't grow up so I could've stayed with you and life would've been so much simpler; I wish you guys did not get divorced and we could've all stayed together. Mom chooses to address the first part. She says that even if they stayed together, no one could stay with him all the time.

Dad, then acknowledges the separation and they tell him, TOGETHER, that they will always be his parents, and they never stopped loving him. And that they don't hate each other.

The TEAMWORK here, between Pat's mom and dad is executed SO WELL. They love their son, and want to comfort and reassure him, and they do it together. They don't do the "one of us do the talking and the other one hmms in the background" bullshit. They both understand his pain and give him their individual and collective opinions. They are in sync with each other's thoughts, and it shows. Remember the look between them at the beginning of this scene?

This speaks VOLUMES. They know something is weighing on him and they can't let him excuse his way out of this conversation. They look at each other, a non-verbal "let's do this", and start talking to Pat.

Being in love with each other and being good parents are not strictly inclusive. The show did not leave this unsaid, either. They show us, how two people can move on and still remain in each others' lives as someone to lean on. Someone who will always know you better than most people in this world.

How some people saw this amazing back-and-forth and thought "yeah, they're incompatible, and they traumatized their son, and he now has communication issues", I'll never understand.

TL;DR:

Stop demonizing divorce and calling it the root of all childhood trauma

SBS writers are doing some things EXCEPTIONALLY WELL, and they deserve credit for it

[distant-screaming]

your top 5 nlmg moments <3

what the HELL archer............. worst sleepover ever I'm being made to choose? from nlmg????? >:( I had 22 scenes shortlisted, and I with great pain cut it down to 5 + 3 bonus ones. also this took me really long to answer because I can't shut up. anyway. I will try to keep this as short as possible and not go into full explanations because then we'd be here forever 🎀

so, my favorite nlmg scenes, in no particular order:

palm gets shot

is this surprising? at all? no I didn't think so. palmnueng are so insane about each other and this entire scene is such a good demonstration of that - palm, actively bleeding out from a gunshot wound, tells nueng not to sign anything over, and nueng does so anyway. and then palm gets shot and just - the acting is so wonderful from everyone in that scene and it's such a good demonstration of their characters! I also especially ADORE the next bit, where nueng is outside the operation room and he's just so grief stricken it makes my stomach hurt. and I just love this whole section a lot okay!! (fun fact: my first time watching the show, I wasn't able to watch the scene fully - I had to skim it and go ahead to the part where palm was Alive. once I realized he was, I went back to watch it properly djfkfj)

waltz scene(s)

I'm cheating a little but it's fine - all three of palmnueng's waltz scenes live in my head rent FREE. the first one (the dream sequence) is just so very 'I have a crush on this guy' core and it's so soft and sweet and yearn-y <3 I don't remember where I talked about this, but in the dream sequence nueng keeps track of the rhythm by tapping his finger on palm's shoulder - the same thing he did in real life. this means palm was so focused on him during the irl dance that he even noticed that. and that just. it makes me sick okay. second dance sequence is in the motel room after mam dies, and this one is so different from the first because it's much more centered in comfort and relief rather than romance. the whole scene is an absolute masterpiece - the way it's shot with the blurred backgrounds and close ups and the colors - and man I just. I love it so much. it's so intimate. and finally the waltz at the restaurant before nueng gets snatched by kit... literally no one does it like them they're so!! it's a very scary scene to watch because you can tell something's about to go really wrong really fast, but my GOD is it good. me and who literally........the tenderness, the trust, the way they look at each other with absolute stars in their eyes (and the way that the camera focuses on nueng more this time, and how in love he is because we've seen palm but nueng is just as insane). insane. deranged.

first kiss on the island

rooftop hug

while watching this, I had to pause the episode and physically stand up to do laps around the room. it's sooo good and pondphuwin are amazing at intimacy and it's just like, they really do kiss like they're desperate for each other which is exactly what palmnueng are. also the significance of it being after david + wu's wedding is a whole different rant I will spare you from but ajfkskfkdjfkdjfkfjfjfjv!!!! absolutely amazing first kiss, especially contrasted with their first kiss on the rooftop. no notes.

speaking of rooftops! man. the whole ben + coming out part really hurts me every time I watch it and this scene is no exception. nueng is so desperate and heartbroken and he keeps lashing out but palm just holds him close and doesn't say anything and eventually nueng hugs him back and just cries in his arms and he just. he just wanted a friend. he just wanted to be loved. that's all. GOD.

peng(2) you(3)

world's most insane guys flirt, leave me dead. like. this is episode 2. nueng still has some like vague pretend animosity towards palm. and yet. 'oh yeah let me just - here touch my neck and I'll gaze into your eyes and say peng you (friend)' HELLO?? I mean. sure why not. palm's clearly enjoying it (read: having a gay induced mental breakdown). generally I love scenes that have flirting with pining oblivious guys and this is the perfect fit. also, the fact that palm is slightly higher than nueng here the CONNOTATIONS guys the THEMES. the [I am shot and dragged away]

Bonus:

nueng barging into palm's room

sir...... just. all of this. no words. he's such a bratty teenager. I love him

palm opening shot

this one is on here solely because this is the exact moment I feel utterly and deeply in love with pond. hello there gorgeous standing there all by yourself??? why is he so <3

every time palm is annoyed by ben existing

I ADORE this dynamic. they're this 👌 close to killing each other in every frame they're together. the fingers are touching btw. hashtag gay on gay hostility. I love it.