#GOOD BECAUSE I REFUSE TO SHORTEN IT TOO

[chuthulhu-plays]

I generally watch LPs of horror games bc I'm too anxious to actually play them but a lot of them have FANTASTIC stories, so sometimes I just binge-watch KrinxTV for background noise. Been watching a lot of playthroughs of Still Wakes The Deep because it's such a delight to hear Scottish voice actors get work and I thought I'd address some questions I keep seeing Let's Players ask:

--Adair is a member of the National Front as you can find out from posters in his cabin, a Neo-Fascist British political party that’s been going since the sixties. While it often preaches British ethnic unity, in practice that often means “everybody in the UK should be exactly like East End Londerners” and features plentiful disdain for Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk, alongside those perceived as “not British”. No wonder the wanker eats alone in the canteen.

--Neeps and Tatties=turnips and potatoes, mashed, drenched in butter or sauce. Fills your belly, keeps you warm, probably makes you sink like a stone because it’s so heavy.

--Cranachan=a dessert made of raspberries, honey, cream and oats, absolutely delicious

--Rennick calls Caz a “wee ned prick”. Ned is apocryphally said to stand for “non-educated delinquent” and is basically just a way of calling someone an uneducated, lower-class criminal

--A lot of things said by and about Roy indicate that he’s a teetotaller who went through AA and specifically became Catholic and is making an effort at converting Caz.

--I think it’s entertaining how Scottish nicknames often follow a pattern of shortening/rejiggering that I also see a lot with Australian nicknames—Cameron becomes Caz, Rafferty becomes Raffs, etc. Trots is an unusual one but is almost certainly a reference to him being a communist, presumably a Trotskyist. Gibbo is also an unusual one in that it’s just very silly. There’s a kind of indignity implied in being killed by a guy called Gibbo.

--A few times on the radio you hear the Shipping Forecast, a type of weather report aimed at specifically reporting weather conditions out on the ocean, and is also famous for the report being read in such a calm, soothing tone that some folk use it as a sleep aid.

--All the yellow paint for interactable things is very video gamey, yes, but is also in line with old British health and safety standards, and yellow paint on things like emergency ladders or on the edges of stairs that are trip hazards is a thing ou can still see in some older buildings.

--Caz keeps saying he’s “good with the leccy”; leccy=electricity. Caz is implied to be quite a wee guy who can get through a lot of tight spaces, and my uncle swears blind that electricians used to refuse to take on apprentices over a certain size because they only wanted to train wee guys who could get up into the tight spaces that a lot of older buildings are full of. On that note, “wee man” is a term of endearment, generally, and isn’t exclusively applied to short guys.

--Finlay saying of Gibbo that “he’s no right” is INCREDIBLY OMINOUS. It sounds mild but “he’s no right, that boy” is what older folk say about a child who’s been found disembowelling cats for fun or someone they strongly suspect is a pedophile. It’s not something you’d say about a friend who’s just acting a bit unusually.

– “Great minds united over a Buckie”--Buckfast, or Buckie, is a caffienated tonic wine that’s cheap, widely accessible, and is a bit like rocket fuel for bad decisions.

– “Ya roaster” tbh I don’t really know where it comes from, calling someone a roaster, but I’ve always felt like it has a vibe of telling them they’re huffing their own farts.

--Scunnert/scunnered--buggered, screwed, utterly fucked, etc

– “You’re the jammiest bastart on this rig” Someone who is jammy is someone who has incredible luck that is implied to be related to their sheer confidence or willingness to engage in risky behaviour. Walking along the street and finding a pound coin isn’t jammy; crossing the road confident that the cars won’t hit you and stopping in the middle to pick up a pound coin before making it unscathed to the other side is jammy as all hell.

--Barlinnie is the biggest prison in Scotland, and largely hosts violent offenders—it’s where Caz would definitely go for hospitalizing a man.

--Weans are children (contraction of wee yins/wee ones). I thought this one was contextually obvious but apparently not.

SPOILERS BELOW

--”One spark and the whole thing’ll go up”—this is referring to the wee spark of flame in the lighter used to blow up the rig, but is also kind of a pun because electricians are often called sparks or sparkies, and in the end it’s Caz who blows up the rig.

[reader-wandering18]

Yuu Professor

In the staff room, Yuu leaned back in his chair as he sighed deeply.

—I see you’re too tired, Professor Yuu.

— Professor Trein.

— He’s the youngest of us all, try not to intimidate him, Professor Trein.

— What are you trying to say, Professor Crewel?

Yuu felt like he was in the middle of a clash between two mountains. He was afraid his life would end before he even started at that school.

— Come on, get along, we have to make a good impression on the new teacher!

Professor Vargas had arrived, grabbing Yuu by the collar of his shirt and pulling him into a tight hug as if they were old classmates. Although with his large muscles, Yuu felt suffocated.

— If you need anything, you’re more than welcome to come to the Mystery Shop. We have great promotions this year.

Sam handed him a business card.

Professor Crewel was right when he said he was younger than all of them, he was only 27 years old and to top it off… he had no experience in being a teacher.

“It was all because of that incident”

While he was undercover due to his previous job, he was caught in the crossfire between two strangers. Both of them were apparently killed and to top it off, one of them was the new teacher at Night Raven College that year who was mistaken for him.

He had no intention of entering that school and taking that teacher’s place.

When he was ready to escape, he found himself in the school surrounded by a magical field with no way out unless he asked the headmaster for permission.

If he speaks now, he would get into big trouble and have charges like identity theft, possible murder (when he didn’t) and if they were to investigate further…

“Two years, my contract period is only for two years”

Nothing bad could happen.

He would like to kill his past self.

— RIDDLE!

A case of Blot had appeared in front of him.

And soon, a series of them in that prestigious school.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?!”

Yuu activated a magic shield to protect himself and the students.

Riddle’s blows were fierce, clearly aggravating his anger at the moment, causing the earth to tremble… But the shield showed no signs of breaking.

“That damn crow had said he would bring more teachers, but he hasn’t returned for a while now!”

All the students had evacuated, except for four stubborn young men.

— WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Get out of the dorm immediately!

— I can’t do it, Professor. I can’t leave Riddle as he is now.

— I refuse, he still hasn’t apologized to me!

“These damn proud brats.”

— Worrying about you shortens my life,— he said in a whisper.

— Don’t leave the shield or I will punish you!

— Professor!

Yuu stepped forward, holding his staff firmly, the wood looked ancient, there was also a design made of pure silver with complicated runes, the magic gem was on top with an exquisite crimson hue.

The moment he stepped out of the magic shield, air bullets pierced the rose bushes leaving nothing but small pieces resembling toothpicks.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye.

Riddle was shocked by the speed at which the master had released the magic. He hadn’t uttered a single word or seemed to have hesitated when it came to making projectiles with the air element!

The strength of the magic power they released could be compared to the cannons of a warship.

— It’s incredible.

Yuu walked towards Riddle with his head held high and only one thought in his head.

“ You are too young to waste your life”

Riddle came back to his senses, thanks to Professor Yuu's intervention. He was taken to the school infirmary after waking up and talking to everyone.

Though Ace, seeing him cry, could only behave as Ace would.

Seeing that moment of conviviality between students, Yuu decided to take a step back and leave that dorm. His rush to flee was also to avoid cleaning Heartslabyul's dorm, which had practically been left in ruins because of him.

"I'm really tired, let the students take care of it."

After a week, in a lonely classroom, Yuu found himself grading his students' homework.

"How can this guy be in charge of teaching him at three years old?!"

The identity he had accidentally taken was not only that of a teacher, but also that of a high-level magician. If anyone else who hadn't studied magic as exhaustively as he had, they would be in serious trouble.

But this coincidence sent shivers down his spine.

That guy, despite being a high-level magician, has no family or friends who can get him into trouble if they see him. Also his age and appearance.

It was as if the role was made for him.

Knock knock

Yuu was startled but didn't show it, his eyes went to the classroom door where he found three students from Heartslabyul. One of them was holding a strawberry cake.

— Teacher, may I come in?

— Clover, Diamond, and Rosehearts. Come in.

With magic, Yuu arranged all his documents and before he could ask the reason for his visit, Riddle put that strawberry cake in its place.

— This is a thank you for helping me.

Seeing the shiny cake in front of him, Yuu couldn't speak for a moment.

— As an educator, I must take care of my students. You don't need to give me a strawberry cake.

— Come on, teacher, the dorm leader made it with so much effort for you!

— Carter!

Riddle scolded the blonde haired boy, though seeing the blush on his face was not something he could hide.

—This is a cake I made as an apology for the trouble I caused. Before the no unbirthday party, I want you to be the first to taste the cake.

Hearing those words, Yuu couldn’t help but look at Riddle tenderly. The overstain is caused by the negative feelings of wizards. It’s something that simply can’t be controlled and he was burdened by his past.

“I still feel a little uneasy knowing that I was able to see his past. It’s really strange.”

He cut the first piece of cake and as he brought it to his mouth.

“This is really salty!”

Hahahaha here I leave you another part of Master Yuu living with heartslabyul, there will be more interactions with the other students, I hope it is to your liking.

PD information: In order not to make Riddle feel bad, Yuu did not tell him that his strawberry cake was too salty. So that was how Ace along with Deuce, Trey and Carter ate the other cakes that he had made beforehand. Yuu couldn't throw away the cake so he endured having to eat it.

One more thing, I probably won't upload anything in the next few weeks, more than anything unfortunately I'm a student so right now I'm full of projects. I already have the two chapters of Darkness ready as well as more ideas of Yuu from other worlds but honestly they don't convince me so I haven't been able to upload them and I also don't have time to edit them but in my free time I plan to move forward.

Slowly but surely.

[aimedis]

milo & sweetheart headcanons 🐺🫥

"i'm ever at your service, baby.."

milo definitely gives sweetheart princess treatment (gender neutral)

milo likes resting his head on sweetheart’s stomach in between their legs

they're the only ones who can reign each other in from being the assholes they are

when sweetheart is overheated, they get really mean and milo has to apologize to everyone for them

in general, sweetheart's attitude to everyone they're close to is just mean. they get mad pissy with milo too but he gives them shit back

they're the takes himself too seriously x doesn't take themself seriously trope

they wear each other’s clothes all the time and have the audacity to get mad at the other for it

“is that mine? take it off.” "whose hoodie is that, huh?" "..." "exactly"

they play fight so often it's not even funny, even around other people

sometimes sweetheart tells milo “don’t touch me i have a mate” when he tries to kiss them. milo threatens to beat him (the mate) up 

sweetheart calls milo "aggro's handsome dad"

they both speak spanish fairly fluently and they use it whenever they're arguing in front of others or talking shit about people

sweetheart is kind of the therapist friend and tries to be the support system for all of their loved ones even if it burns them out. milo is their support system for when it gets to be too much

milo worries about sweetheart constantly over-working and burning themself out but he knows he can't stop them. so he just remains as the person they can fall back on when they can't do it anymore

they have fake arguments about literally nothing for fun

when sweetheart got to take milo home after the inversion, they kept their hand on his chest as often as possible to remind themself that he was still alive

they will argue about literally everything and anything

it only gets super bad when they're both stressed out and only then does it make them say things they don't really mean. but they're both pretty good at accepting blame and communicating afterwards

arguments always end in cuddles and movie nights with warm blankets

there was a time when an argument was entirely milo's fault and he refused to apologize so sweetheart put him on a physical contact ban. no touching, kissing, hugging, cuddling, hair ruffles, no nothing for a whole two days

milo was so distraught after he got home on the second day and they were practically ignoring him so he started compulsively apologizing

sweetheart made him beg for forgiveness on his knees for 10 minutes before they let him touch them again

darlin flirts with sweetheart sometimes and it makes milo crazy jealous

sweetheart is constantly looking at and touching milo's chest

milo slaps sweetheart's ass every chance he gets

they're insanely competitive with each other and milo's a sore loser (“…milo I don’t know what you want me say cause if I say anything it feels like I’m gloating” “because you’re a cheater!”)

milo always has an arm around sweetheart's shoulder/on the back of their chair

their song is ho hey by the lumineers

milo gets really cold on the summer solstice and sweetheart gets really hot. milo clings onto sweetheart the whole day and sweetheart let’s him no matter how sweaty and agitated they are

sweetheart and milo make playlists together as quality time (they 88 playlists with extremely specific moods and titles)

in serious situations, they cannot look at each other without laugh at absolutely nothing

sweetheart went to the same empowered high school the wolf bois did (they never crossed paths, it was a really big school) and when they told milo he flipped his shit

sweetheart is constantly bothering and harassing milo and he thinks it's the most amusing thing in the world

they have matching necklaces with the other's name on

milo definetly has a nickname for sweetheart that's based on their actual name (shortened version of it, elongated version, a rhyme, etc.)

they're the couple that, after being together for so long, have basically turned into the same person (adopting the other’s speech patterns, clothing styles and acting the same way, acting in sync)

milo is an absolute baby when sick, sweetheart babies him the entire time until he's 100% healthy again

sweetheart likes to pretend they're not sick until they collapse which is why milo is always cautiously watching them once he notices (because they have fainted before)

milo and sweetheart love playing the chapstick challenge because sweetheart has an egregious amount of chapsticks and lip balms and it’s an excuse to kiss each other

milo and sweetheart sometimes recite (love) song lyrics with a completely straight face and not singing it. they think it’s the funniest thing ever

they will also just randomly start singing out loud together from a phrase that happens to be in a song

they do each other's hair whenever they have the extra time in the morning because it takes so much longer (it's the extended make-outs)

milo is sweetheart's alarm clock because he wakes up at the same time every day and he cannot, for the life of him, leave bed quietly (sweetheart is also a light sleeper)

whenever sweetheart is extra tired and doesn't feel like doing their whole after-work care routine when they get home, milo does it for them

if sweetheart wears makeup, milo loves watching them put it on

occasionally, sweetheart makes tiktoks (thirst traps) to their favourite/trending songs and posts them on their private socials (only the pack/close friends are on there)

milo is always first in their comments, spamming at least 20 interactions before he texts them letting them know he saw it

they also do tiktok dances (the old actually cool ones not the garbage ones bitches do these days) and milo goes crazy for those

sweetheart's parents were very neglectful so having marie in their life means a lot. milo reminds them often that she's their mother now as well (fuck you colm)

sweetheart paints whenever they need to calm down or stop thinking and they always add a little bit of milo to their paintings (his favourite flowers, a shirt he owns, adding his freckles onto every one of their characters, etc.) ((they also paint aggro all the time))

milo has definetly threatened to kill someone for sweetheart

sweetheart didn't think milo was an overly possessive boyfriend at first because he really doesn't show it that often but they mentioned a coworker flirting with them and he straight up growled

milo gets more jealous than sweetheart does because wolf shifters are generally more possessive than others but sweetheart can also get crazy jealous

they're both really possessive in a "touch my mate and you're dead" way

sweetheart hates throwing up (it's kind of a fear but not quite a phobia) so whenever they do, milo is always sitting next to them to hold them and he dotes on them until they feel better

they both worry over each other all the time over everything

neither of them know how to be subtle or how to keep their hands off of each other

milo loves telling sweetheart they’re gorgeous every damn chance he gets 

sweetheart slides their cold hands up milo's shirt just to make him flinch

[d34dlysinner]

This has been on my mind so.. WHB Kings (+ Sitri, Leraye) reaction to MC forgetting their own name due to being called "Solomon" or "Solomon's child" so much, that the MC asks the guys "What was my name again?"

MINORS DNI

The demon needed something from you and called out a shortened or nickname version of your name that he rarely uses. He noticed that you didn't respond and this time said your full name to catch your attention.

"I just called for you... Are you awake?", he says as he sees you snap out of your train of thought.

You opened your mouth: "Huh?... What is my name again?"

Satan stood there as his eyebrows raised in sync with his eyes widening.

"What do you mean-... Your name is MC.", he says as he watches how you snapped your fingers.

"Ah... right!", you said as if you suddenly understood something.

To say that Satan was shocked at you for forgetting your name was kind of an understatement. Then he remembered all the times he hears others call you "Solomon" or "Child of Solomon", and he understood why it became hard to remember your name.

After that he made sure to watch over you for a while and kick anyone in Gehenna that never calls you by your name.

Mammon needed a second to register your question.

"Your name is MC.", he says to answer your question. He didn't understand how you forgot your own name. It's something that he could not even own and even he knows many names.

"You should write your name down. It's one thing that others shouldn't be able to take from you. It's also something you shouldn't forget.", he says as he becomes worried at how easily you forgot your name.

After that scene he would atleast call you by your name 3 times a day.

Leviathan frowned as he said: "MC... How could you forget your own name?"

He definitely didn't understand how so he kind of blamed it on you being a human.

"Maybe humans forget things too easily...", he says to himself as he stood up and walked towards you.

"What's your name?", he asked as he expected you to say the name he used on you a few second ago.

"... MC...", You said. The way he looks at you while waiting for an answer sort of feels as if you were being scolded for making a dumb mistake, but that feeling disappeared the moment his frown vanished.

"Good. So, you do know your name. Now you should remember it forever."

Beelzebub thought you were joking at first.

"You're messing with me.", he said before he saw your expression turn into a confused frown.

"Wait... You're really asking what your name is?", he asked. He questioned if you hit your head or something.

He was about to say your name until he had an idea. "Hmm... Well, if you want to know your name you have to get it out of me.", he purred into your ear. He gave you a relaxed smile, a smile you knew all to well.

"You can't just tell me... You really want me to get it out you by teasing or?", you asked. Your answer was confirmed the moment he shone you a bright smile. He wouldn't keep your name secret forever if you don't want to do it. In fact, he'll just call you boring and say your name if you refuse.

Sitri was confused for a moment. He thought that you were joking as he said "Solomon?" again. You were also confused as you knew that it wasn't your name, but your ancestors name. Sitri does know your name but would refuse to say it. It was only when you 'threatened' to leave him there that he spoke up. "MC. MC is your name."

He does call you Solomon most of the times. Solely because this is how he copes with the reality of Solomon being dead, but he also didn't want you to leave too just because you were going to ask around for your name.

"Your name is MC. If you allow it... Please let me call you Solomon for a little while more."

Leraye was shocked. "Wait... MC?... You forgot that your name was MC?", he asked as he just used your name as usual.

Leraye didn't want to call you or compare you to Solomon. It's cheating to him. And on top of that he loved your name so he was confused on how you would forget something as simple as your name.

"I will call you by your name everytime we meet, everytime we say goodbye and every time I'd think of you. That way you won't ever forget who you are!"

[nectardaddy]

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN. . . single dad! meian + f!reader

✮⋆˙ notes/CWs - brief mention of parental death, heavy underlying emotions, meian's a flirt when he wants to be, typos probably

It was all too early for the man that morning, the sun barely even breaking the horizon when his alarm went off. He rubbed at tired eyes the whole morning, fighting off the urge to do nothing more than get back in bed. But he couldn't do that, even if he had the chance - he had more than just himself to take care of. 

His daughter, Himawari, always, without fail, fought him on waking up; and now that it was earlier than normal, it was a complete lost cause. She fought against waking up, fought against getting ready, and fought against going outside because she refused to wear a jacket. But the chill outside turned her off to the idea of going to school all together. Stubborn, and moody from the change of schedule, he had to all but drag her to get in the car - she fought against that too.

They had to get to her school earlier than normal, his schedule clashed with all other times to meet with her teacher - a prerequisite, of sorts, to meet all new families at the beginning of the year - and he finally bit the bullet and asked for a time before school. Thank god her teacher agreed; despite the coaxing and near begging the man had to do to get his daughter in the building to begin with. 

She walked beside him, arms crossed over her chest with a scowl; a rather adorable sight at how small she was and the Hello Kitty bookbag she adorned. (But Meian told anyone who would listen to not let her fool them, she was as devilish as they came.) He shortened his strides whenever he walked with his daughter, he was tall enough that one stride was about three of hers; so he opted for picking her up with a groan. “Come here, you're killing me.” 

She fought against being picked up as well, “put me down!” A loud whine that nearly echoed in the empty hallway, “I don't wanna’ be held right now!” He only sighed as she squirmed against him, but eventually gave up once she realized she was no match. 

“It's not my fault you walk slow,” he groaned, but the smallest of smiles peaked at his lips once he cut his eyes over to her. She pouted, huffed, and did anything she could to make him feel bad; but it didn't work. 

“Maybe you just walk too fast.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Hima.” 

The hallway was long, almost liminal as the doors seemed to never end. Each decorated, or not, which showed the personality of who occupied it. The school was basically empty, besides the few staff members who got to work early on their own free will, and quiet. Quiet enough to hear the small sigh of defeat from his daughter, and she now rested her head on his shoulder. “Dad, I'm tired.” 

“I know.” Good god did he know. “Maybe if you went to bed on time you wouldn't be so sleepy.” 

“But I can't sleep when you're not there,” she sighed again. He felt his heart drop at her words, even though he knew them all too well. Every babysitter he ever had loved the girl, but every single one had never gotten her to fall asleep. The girl refused every time; and if she didn't, she laid in bed until she heard the front door open and shut, and the familiar voice of her father. She would drive herself to sleep deprivation all because Meian wasn't there. “I miss you too much to go to sleep.” 

“I know,” he repeated, much more softly than the latter. Filled with care, and hinted with regret, though he knew he had no other choice but to not be home. Games were important, not like the stray practices he would miss here and there; and the games that were later in the day he unfortunately couldn't bring her to. “I miss you too.” There was a small moment of silence, not knowing what to say as he felt his daughter fidget with the sleeve of his shirt.

The man prided himself with his encouragement skills and wise words, but more often than not he couldn't find them for himself. There was a missing piece to his mind it seemed, gaping and dreary as he wished nothing more than to be a good father - but to him, he always fell short. There were times he wasn't home, important events like school plays and concerts missed from commitments to his team, he couldn't help her with her homework as he wasn't home when she got back because of practice, and the period of time away for nationals felt like a stake through the heart every time it rolled around. 

An optimist with others, but a pessimist with himself. Always falling just shy of what he thought a good parent should be and what a good parent should do. It was utterly exhausting.

Despite his aching heart and rattling mind, he gave her a small smile and desperately tried to change the subject - more for himself rather than her. “Why don't you tell me about your teacher?” 

He heard the girl hum before she lifted her head to look at him with tired eyes. “I think you'll like her,” a tone that finally seemed to melt away the prior attitude. “She's really nice, not like my teacher last year, and she makes crafts with us.” She smiled, the first time that entire morning, “yesterday we read about bunnies and we made plates that looked like bunnies.”

“I know, you brought it home.” He smiled at the reminiscent thought; he came home just after she did, and she all but knocked him down running to show him the plate with construction paper and pom poms glued to it. “I'm actually pretty jealous, ‘sounds fun making bunny plates.” He chuckled, “you think the guys would want to make them?” Hima was well aware of the team he played for, moreover his teammates. She often saw them at the handful of practices and games that he took her to, but more so knew of them through the stories he shared.

She laughed at his question, and he took a silent sigh of relief. “Mr. Hinata might,” she giggled, “but I know Mr. Bokuto would!” The child picked favorites, most definitely; however, her favorite, out of all of them, was Sakusa - and he still had no unearthly reason why other than the dry humor he offered. Every practice he ever brought her to was always met with Hima hanging off of the man, annoying him, and pressing every button Sakusa had - and Meian let her, a silent act of revenge for the consistent arguments he started with Atsumu.

“You're right, he would.” Bokuto was just as childish as she, if not more - he would probably beg the man to make one if given the chance. “Do you want to show him yours later today?” While he didn't plan to take the girl to practice, the sentiment of longing still lingered in the back of his mind; twisted and turned until he felt sick. The awful feeling of thinking he spent too much time away from her returned; and he hoped bringing her with him might mend how he felt, and maybe make her tired enough she would, for once, go to sleep on time. 

“Really?” She asked excitedly. The girl cheered just before continuing on with her child like rambles. Himawari could go on for hours, days really, if he let her (which he more often than not did). She enjoyed talking about just about anything, and would find side story after side story as she went on through her rants. But the man never minded, he found it endearing that the girl had picked up his outgoing attitude. 

He smiled as she continued on, rounding a corner to the hallway that her classroom was on. The school was quite big, a primary school that housed kindergarten through sixth, so every grade level was split into smaller hallways. The man surprised himself that he could remember where to go, as the only other time he went was when she was in first grade. 

“She's really pretty, y'know?” Meian cut his eyes towards the girl, still holding her within his arms, and scrunched his brows.

“Who?” The word laced with confusion as his daughter only giggled again.

“My teacher.” He couldn't help but let a small breath pass his lips, and fought against rolling his eyes entirely. Himawari was prone to talking up the people within her life; which was an admirable trait to have, he was happy the girl wasn't a bully. But she was apt to make the older women around her larger than life - to play matchmaker. The girl couldn't remember her birth mother, she had passed when she was only a year old, but Meian made it a point to consistently remind the girl of her. Consistently reminded her, and himself, they were never abandoned. 

That never stopped Hima from yearning for another woman's presence though. Didn't stop her from the small smiles she would give her father when talking about women much older than she, his age, with an err of playfulness that made him roll his eyes. So to her latter statement he only hummed, “and what do you say about me then, huh?” 

“That you're old.” 

“Ouch-” he rolled his eyes at her nonchalant attitude, “I'm not even that old, Hima.”

“Yeah, ok.” Her sarcastic tone made him sigh, and he thought to himself that maybe he allowed her to hang about Sakusa all too much - his blunt choice of words rubbed off on her in ways he couldn’t imagine. Never rude, but curt replies that never failed to make him groan. But he kept his mouth shut on the topic as he continued walking, and thanked the stars he was almost to his destination. 

“Put me down, put me down!” The girl began to squirm in his arms, desperately trying to escape him to go to her teacher’s room that finally came within their view. The man quickly caved, picking his battles wisely with his daughter’s already flighty mood, and figured it wasn’t all that bad for her to be excited for school - quite the opposite really. 

He watched as his daughter ran through the doorway of the open classroom, and heard a cheery voice greet her from the other side. The voice was light and airy, joy mingling amongst syllables with every word spoken. There was an intent behind it that felt sound, secure - a voice that most definitely belonged to a second grade teacher. 

“Dad said I can bring my bunny plate to his practice and show his friends!” 

“Really? That's so cool, I bet they'll love it.” A small smile peaked on his lips at the woman’s words; although he couldn’t see it just yet, he could practically hear the smile she wore. “Did you get to show your dad yet?” 

Yet. 

The word alone made his steps slow just before he reached the door, letting his pace taper off before completely stopping and he let out a silent breath. It was her job to care, to provide comfort and joy, to create a sense of security and structure - but Himawara had no structure in her life. And it was all his fault, or so he thought. The girl, frankly, never knew her father’s schedule, as it always dialed and changed according to the needs of the team. He desperately tried, at any given opportunity, to cling to time with her - and while he cherished every second, it was never enough. 

He couldn’t help her as much as he liked with homework - yet. He couldn’t pick her up from school most days - yet. And he couldn’t find it within the chasms of his mind to give himself grace - yet. 

“I did! He put it on the fridge!” He wished he could be more like his daughter - happy and unknowing in the reality of real life. A childlike sense of certainty that everything was fine, that one could find joy in everything if they looked hard enough, and an unwavering belief that her father did everything under the sun for her. He couldn’t help but smile softly at the thought, and allowed the burden of ‘yet’ to pass him. 

“Now that's where real masterpieces go,” she mused. “Did you tell him the book we read?” 

“Not the title at least,” he chuckled as he rounded the doorway. “Everything else about it? Absolutely. I could probably quote it to you at this point.” A joke that landed fairly well, as he heard the woman laugh in response, but the comedic energy the man once held was quickly replaced with awe as he leaned against the doorway.

Himawari was wrong, utterly wrong. Her teacher wasn't pretty - she was beautiful.

He felt his stomach lurch to his throat, a brief sensation but one that made him cough. The realization that the woman was his daughter's teacher made him feel rather small, stupid even, and wildly out of his element. He woke up that morning and simply got ready for practice - a slam packed schedule as the practice started just after this meeting would be over - and now he deeply regretted it. 

“‘Morning, Mr. Meian.” He felt like a puddle of the man he once was only seconds ago, before she said his name. A subtle code switch that he picked up on from her - a voice for talking to children, and a voice for adults. He felt his mind go blank and nearly asked her to talk to him as if he were a child, maybe then he wouldn't have been so enamored. 

He couldn't help but linger in the doorway to the classroom, the exposed skin of his arm leaning against the cool wood of the frame. Hands shoved into the pockets of track pants as he watched the woman retrieve papers from her desk. Only then did she meet his eyes and his breath hitched in his throat. She paused for a fraction of a second, her pace stuttering just before forcing her eyes to the ground and continuing on. 

This was terrible. 

“You can come in,” her voice was softer in comparison to her latter statement, nervous even. It made him second guess why he was here in the first place, despite the flicker of his daughter playing with a puzzle on the floor nearby.

“How are you?” He asked, trying to fight against the heat that wanted to surge to his face. He felt silly making small talk, the man always fell flat on his face when it came to it, but felt even sillier if he had said nothing at all. 

“Tired,” she spoke through a chuckle, and he could tell. Behind a, semi, forced smile was tired eyes and a look of exhaustion. It was only Wednesday, and he suddenly felt bad for making the meeting in the first place. “But I'm here. How about yourself?” 

“About the same as you,” he smiled. “Sorry again for wanting this meeting so early, it's the only time that worked.” An apology didn’t seem like it should be enough now that he looked at the woman. Albite pretty, she looked weary, burnt out, and he sensed a twinge of discontent - like she didn’t want to be there in the first place. Groveling may have been a better thing to do, but it wasn’t as if he had a choice in the time he chose. He exhausted all other options from a meticulous schedule that was downright impossible to change.

“Don't worry about it,” she shrugged, “I'm just glad you didn't want it way after school.” 

“Feels like a crime to make you stay that long.” 

“It should be.” She met his eyes again and smiled, one that seemed genuine rather than forced this time. And he watched her eyes flicker to the other side of the room after a moment. “We can sit back there,” she motioned towards a semi circle table in the back of the room. “It's a little cluttered, but it's better than sitting at a desk made for a second grader.” The table didn't seem cluttered in the slightest; occupied with stacks of papers and different containers, each having a different color that he only guessed was for ease of organization. 

She sat down, he followed, and began shifting the papers and containers over, now lining the edges with organized chaos than the latter neat piles. “Sorry,” she chuckled. “They come back here to work with me, so keeping everything neat is almost unheard-of.” 

He let a laugh pass his lips just before he cut his eyes to his daughter, then promptly returned his gaze to her. “Trust me, I know. She'll pull out everything and decide she doesn't even want to play anymore.” 

He felt his heart squeeze when she laughed in response, it was a laugh he could easily get used to, a laugh he wanted to hear more often than just at school. It was gentle, lighthearted, and voluntary - it didn’t feel like a laugh she had to force, as he suspected she did often. His mind kept circling back to the sound as she spoke; he didn’t even realize she had formally started the meeting just minutes ago. His thoughts were the furthest from where they should have been, as he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of her. 

Dazed, seemingly on cloud nine, he didn’t register that she spoke of grades, behavior, and reading level. He simply nodded along as he tried to memorize every detail of the woman in front of him: her eyes were dark and tired, she had smile lines on the sides of her lips, of which he guessed were from years of doing nothing but, her clothes were casual but nice despite the knowledge that children were frankly disgusting, and the side of her dominant hand was stained with multicolored marker, which he only imagined was the set up of a craft for later today. 

“Do you have any questions?” The sentiment jerked him back to the present, and his fuzzy mind cleared quickly once he realized he didn’t register a single thing she spoke about. “Anything you want to add, maybe?”

“When's the next time you're doing these meetings?” The only query that made headway in his mind left his lips at the same time; speaking without thinking, and noticing too late what managed to tumble from his tongue. 

“Conferences?” There was a sense of confusion riddled in her voice; if he were listening, he would have known that his daughter was doing just fine - excelling even. 

“Yeah,” he nodded. And despite his better judgment, he doubled down on the sentiment entirely. “When's the next time I can talk to you?” He watched the woman’s eyes widen, and for a moment he felt like an idiot until he noticed a barely there, bitten back smile. 

“You could always email me?” It was a subtle change in conversation, but one that both picked up on quickly. He was convinced the woman was trying to make his heart stop when she locked eyes with him, a cheekiness to the once serious discussion now diminished. “I respond pretty quickly actually.”

“Do you, now?” He leaned forward slightly, enough to rest his elbows against the table. At first the distance between the two was vast, professional, but he closed the door to professionality and locked it when he leaned in closer to her. She bit the inside of her cheek, still fighting the smile that desperately wanted to bloom on her lips. “That's good to know. But, I feel like I get a million emails every day. I'd never live it down if I missed one from you.” 

“Things happen,” she shrugged with a gentle chuckle. “Did you have a better alternative though?” It was then he realized she wasn’t talking to him like a teacher anymore; instead, the tone had shifted again. This was actually her - not a teacher, not a professional - her. A coy change in the color of her voice that made his heart do flips, but played upon regardless. 

“Getting your number was one.” 

The battle between her and her ever growing smile ultimately ended in defeat at his proposition. Her lips pulled upward in an inviting smile and she cast her eyes to the table, a sheepishness washing over her at the man’s boldness - but she couldn’t deny that she liked it. “It's not every day I give a parent my personal number.” 

“We don't need to talk about school.”

“Then what exactly would we talk about?” 

“If you're free this weekend, or any weekend really?” The question left his lips with ease, despite the nerves that overflowed him when he first entered. He saw her eyes flicker back up to meet his own, catching his gaze once more, to which his heart hammered in his chest. 

“What did you have in mind, Mr. Meian?” 

“We don't have to decide that now,” a cheeky reply as he flashed her a smile. “We have until Saturday to figure that out.”

“I guess we do.” She looked down again, biting at the inside of her cheek, before reaching next to her at a stack of sticky notes. “You better not use this to ask me questions about second grade math,” she teased as she wrote the number down. Her handwriting was pretty and neat, a whimsy to it that matched her job to a tee. Once done, she took it off the stack and handed it to him, their fingers briefly touching as he took it from her. There was a pause when their fingers met; her fingers were cold against his own and it sent a shockwave through him. He could die happy if he was able to feel that again. 

“That sucks. Because I've been really struggling with adding and subtracting.” He broke the brief silence with a boldness, one that looked all too good on him, and he smiled again. She rolled her eyes and laughed at his statement, “I’ll text you later today.”

“I hope you do.”

taglist (open, send an ask)

@causenessus @softpia @renardiererin @kodzu-ken @phoenix-eclipses

@wyrcan @honeekyuu @wakashudou @wolffmaiden @eggyrocks 

@yogurtkags @bakery-anon @totallytatum @mollyrolls @aozui 

@jadeoru @hyunteru @kameyyy @nekozaki @sandwhitches

@knightofwands-upright

[bon2bonn]

Flowers to you

Words count : 1.6k

*First life update!🌷 with little Mari, the firstborn of the Leclerc-Sainz clan .

The Small grunts made Carlos smile in amusement, slowing his steps a bit for his determined daughter to catch up with . her steady pace was due to the big bouquet she was holding onto for dear life , refusing to let anyone else hold it or even come close to touch it , a special gift for her Mama , insisting on each colour , type and even made sure to ask politely if they could wrap it in blue wrapping papers .

That's why now she's carefully making her way up to the front door supporting her precious flowers , pausing every now and then to adjust her small hands around it and huffing dramatically as she tried to and failed to blow away strands of hair that stubbornly fell over her face but that won't hinder her from doing what she planned to.

Carlos chuckled at her struggling form , asking softly " you want some help there Mari? " , she shook her head or at least tried , answering confidently " non papa , I got it! " he hummed unlocking the door to let her get in first before he did the same , both taking off their shoes before heading to the kitchen when they took notice of the quiet house, making sure to not make too much noise in order to maintain the peace. Both washed their hands and made their way to the counter, where she stood on on her stall , a set of steps for her to reach the counter, the sink ....etc , patiently waiting for her father to get one of her favourite vases down for them to work on.

" So , miss Mari what do we do first ?" Carlos asked with his hands on his hips, feigning confusion making her shake her head dramatically, pointing at the vase then at the counter " the vase , papa! Did you forget already ? " His face broke into a grin as he set the vase on the counter where she leaned over to inspect the inside and nodded in approval, then he turned again to grab his wife's clippers , waiting as little Mari carefully unwrap the flowers and untangle the secure knots at the stems, taking out one at a time to hand over to him to clip out the excess leaves , shorten the stems before taking them back to arrange into the vase to her liking.

She hummed a tone as she took one from his hand delicately adding it to the rest before picking another from the pile, nodding at her work with a focused look on her face , her brows creasing as she took out one that she didn't like and put it aside before proceeding, and once she's done she took out the blue ribbon out of her pocket , the lady on the counter was kind to give her a one to match with the wrapping , saying it was for good luck , so she now took it and wrapped it around the vase , asking with frown for her Papa's help when she couldn't make the knot as neet as she wanted, then she leaned back a bit to give it a final inspection, Carlos crossed his arms over the counter where he leaned on it after putting everything away and cleaned the remains of leaves and wrapping paper " so , what do you think miss Mari ? You think Mama would like them ? " She nods confidently her small hands on the counter " Mama will love them , they're her favourite and , we made it with love because, we love Mama , so she'll love them " he propped his head on his hands with his elbows still on the counter and asked in amusement " and how much do we love Mama ? " She gave him a wide grin answering " as much as I love papa " making him ask again " and how much do you love papa? " She held out her hands giving an exaggerated measure "as much as there is stars on the whole whole universe" he placed his hand over his heart Groaning dramatically " too sweet , ugh ! My Mariposa is too sweet what should I do !" He then scooped her up spinning around the counter , emitting a loud laugh out of her as her hair fell all over her face " papa! My hair! " He placed her down and sighed in content " alright how about we wash our hands and go show Mama what we made ? " Her face lit up and she hurriedly made her way to wash her hands, dried them and waited for him to do the same , he teased her by doing so slowly making her groan impatiently and throw her head back , just like her mother .

He then picked her with one arm and grabbed the vase with the other on their way out , heading up the stairs for the master bedroom where they left her resting before going out .

Her second pregnancy was a difficult one to say the least , suffering from long restless nights accompanied with back pains up to high blood pressure overall it was a complicated one , and on her latest appointment her doctor finally declared she needs to be on bed rest for the remaining period of the pregnancy, strongly advising them to change the birth plans to surgical option, to avoid any complications or risks as she put it, trying not to alarm the already stressed couple, but precautions are a must with her condition , specially through the last stages of it .

The moment they stepped into the room their daughter exclaimed at the sight of her reading peacefully with raised arms " Mama! " Making her look up , a smile lit up her face as she was greeted with them standing before her, with little Mari barley containing her excitement as Carlos set her down on the bed , leaning over to greet her with a kiss " hi" she smiled at the kiss , greeting back a quiet " hey " then leaned back to open her arms for a big hug from little Mari who crawled her way up to wrap her arms around her neck, leaving a kiss on her Mama's cheek and cuddled into her arms humming as she asked her " how was your trip ? ", both parents grins in amusement as she perked up in a burst of excitement pointing at the bedside table where Carlos put the vase earlier " look mama , we got your favourite " , she admired the blooming flowers along with the baby blue ribbon around it , appreciating the effort they put into it and turned to her " I love them baby " leaning to kiss her on the cheek " and the blue ribbon too " Mari's smile widened at that as she gently patted her Mama's belly " it's for Mateo " then she leaned down to leave a kiss on the side of it, speaking quietly to the baby " hi Mateo , we brought you and mama flowers today , I'm sure you're gonna like them when you're here , Mama liked them and I did too so I'll get some for you too , okay? " she promised unaware of the knowing look shared between her parents , they didn't reveal the baby's gender yet , but , Mari decided long ago that it's going to be a boy , even declaring his name to be Mateo just like she remembered from the dream she had , stubbornly refusing to settle on anything else .

Carlos then gave a sound of protest " what about me !? where's my kiss? , I did help! " his wife looked at her daughter in question , who in turn gave her a wide grin " he did Mama " making Carlos look at her pointedly, she then opened her arms for him , and he didn't waste time leaning over to receive a kiss on his cheek, then he turned his head to steal one from her lips , before leaning down to place another on her belly, before moving to the end of the bed to take her feet into his lap , massaging them to relieve some of the aches .

Meanwhile Mari leaned over to not so quietly whisper to her Mama with a frown on her face " Mama " receiving a humm before she proceeded in a serious manner making her mother frown in turn " what's wrong baby ?" Making her answer with a solemn look as she recalled her conversation with her uncle " I think thuthu is right " her mother then asked curiously, knowing her youngest brother's antics " really? And what did he say this time ? " She answered with a pout " papa is forgetting things , he didn't know what to do earlier !! , and thuthu said that means papa is getting old " that made Carlos snap his head their way , his smile fell and a frown on his face , his eye twitched as he called out in denial over his wife's loud snickers " AY ! I'm not old ! , he's lying! " He then glared at his wife who was cackling when their daughter innocently answered back with a sympathetic nod " he said old people say that too " .

[nerdranttheories]

Watching Two Heroes again reminded me of something I haven’t really seen talked about a lot, but

All Might Keeping Secrets and Self-Isolating Led to His Downfall

Obviously, right? Everyone and their mother’s said this, and it’s clearly meant by the story. But I think David Shield is the best example of this, and I haven’t really seen the Two Heroes movie mentioned when having this conversation. This is my explanation of this movie being the epitome of this idea, and the time where I believe All Might learns from his mistake — even if it’s too late for him to change the course of his narrative.

The movie clearly indicates early on, by All Might himself, that David Shield, his “best friend” and sidekick from his college days has not been informed of One for All, and All Might intends to keep it that way. Deku, ever the audience lens character for the world of My Hero, questions it, to which All Might answers it’s to keep his friend safe.

This is shown to not be the case. In fact, by not telling his friend about One for All, David, someone who is good and concerned about his friend, turns to villainy out of desperation to save him. If All Might had simply told him about how his power works, and that he’s passed the torch on to Deku, then David wouldn’t have had as much need to worry. And this is something that All Might had several opportunities to reveal, even over the course of the movie itself. Most especially when David’s checking Toshinori’s vitals and his quirk levels. (Which, I have no idea how you would even trace something like that, but I digress.)

Then, to add salt to the wound, All for One targets David regardless of his knowledge of One for All. Just his connection to All Might as a former sidekick was enough to put him in the line of fire. All Might’s secret-keeping didn’t protect him from anything, and instead turned an already bad situation worse. In the end, presumably David Shield is put away in prison, because when we see Iron Might in the manga, only Melissa is pictured, not her father, and if David had been available I refuse to believe that he wouldn’t have had a hand in the suit’s creation. All Might’s time limit in his muscle form is also shortened once again.

Ultimately I believe this specific situation is what led to him eventually urging Deku to not make the same mistake he did, in not telling anyone about One for All.

Also, the specificity of Wolfram being drawn this way after being defeated, gaunt and steaming, paralleling someone else we all know and love, felt very intentional. I don’t have more to say about it at the moment, I just thought it was interesting and that I’d point it out.

[youcouldmakealife]

SOTM: Gabe/Stephen; a low-key occasion (pt I)

For the prompt: Stephen Petersen, Bridezilla

It quickly became quite clear that this prompt would refuse to settle into a one-parter, so here is the first of at least two. Next one should come within the week.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” Stephen says

It isn’t always a bad sign when Stephen starts right in the middle of a conversation he neglected to invite Gabe to — sometimes Stephen genuinely forgets that ‘I should tell Gabe’ isn’t the same as ‘I have told Gabe’. But lately? Lately it’s been a very bad sign indeed.

But then, everything’s a bad sign lately. Stephen says ‘good morning’? Bad sign. Stephen doesn’t say ‘good morning’? Bad sign. Stephen shortens it to ‘morning’? Absolutely terrible sign.

It’s only been getting worse as the wedding date approaches. Gabe thought they’d be above stressing over their wedding, but in hindsight, he’s not sure why. Stephen stresses about everything, and special occasions are no exception. If anything, they’re the exemplar.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about either,” Gabe says, since Stephen’s giving him an expectant look.

Stephen squints. “You don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“No idea,” Gabe says. “You forgot to tell me.”

Stephen huffs.

“Who are they, and what are they talking about?” Gabe says. “I know you said you don’t know, but you sort of said it in a way that implies you do know, you just think that they’re—“

“Full of shit?” Stephen says.

That one, yes.

“You still haven’t told me who ‘they’ is referring to,” Gabe tells him.

Gabe knows Stephen’s trying to get him to agree, but he refuses to do that until he knows who Stephen’s talking about. What if he’s talking about his parents? Or Gabe’s? Gabe is way too big a mama’s boy to ever say his mother is full of shit. And if he did, he’s positive his mom would know. Even if he and Stephen never mentioned it again, even to each other: she’d know.

Stephen huffs at him again. “Them,” he says, gesturing expansively around the room, though Gabe doesn’t think he’s talking about their living room furniture. “Everyone.”

“Okay,” Gabe says. He thinks if he asks what everyone’s saying he’ll get a third huff, and if he gets a third huff, he’s probably going to start agreeing with ‘them’ just on principle, because, whatever it is that 'they' said, Stephen probably deserved it.

“Do you know what Jared called me today?” Stephen says.

Ah. Math. Gabe should have known it was Math, because he manages to get under Stephen’s skin like no one else. Stephen’s sole consolation is that it’s mutual.

Unfortunately, that’s the opposite of consolation for Gabe, who has to listen to both of them bitching about each other afterwards. Well, Dima often has to hear both sides of the bitching too, but he enjoys it.

“Something mean?” Gabe ventures.

“He called me high-maintenance,” Stephen says.

Gabe presses his lips together.

“Him,” Stephen says. “Jared Matheson. Who does not drink beer because he thinks it’s ‘yucky’.”

“You’re not the biggest fan of beer yourself,” Gabe says. He thinks Jared would take umbrage to the ‘yucky’ bit, claim he was too mature for to ever use that word, but he also saw Math’s face when he accidentally took a sip of Bryce’s beer, and ‘this is yucky’ is a pretty good description of the expression he made.

“But I drink it,” Stephen says. “Do you know why?”

Gabe knows exactly what he’ll say the reason is, and he refuses to participate on principle.

“Because I’m not high-maintenance,” Stephen says.

See? He doesn’t need Gabe for this at all. Doesn’t need him for conversations, or wedding planning, or —

“Can you believe that?” Stephen says, then gives Gabe a look that tells him it isn’t a rhetorical question.

Gabe makes a noise. It could be taken as support, if Stephen would like to take it that way. Commiseration, even. But it isn’t.

Because yes. Gabe can believe that.

In fact, messenger aside — no one who has ever met Jared Matheson would describe him as low-maintenance, except probably him, and maybe Bryce if he’s feeling particularly blinded by adoration that day — Gabe can’t do anything but agree.

[wolfiesmoon]

The wrong guy

teacher!Nanami x teacher!reader

so i started watching the kdrama "a good day to be a dog" recently and the ml makes me think of nanami so much it's not even funny. this fic is based on the plot!!

Warnings: drinking (but its wholesome dw), gojo

It's been about 5 months since your last breakup. You didn't really care for that ex, if you're honest. He immediately dumped you after you told him that kissing is off the table.

You could say that you are a bit unlucky when it comes to relationships and that's mostly because of that dastardly curse.

For as long as you can remember, your mom has been warning you to never ever let someone kiss you and to never kiss anyone, ever.

Otherwise you would end up like your cousin, doomed to live as a dog for the rest of his now shortened life.

It's his fault he got drunk and kissed a random girl, couldn't track her down in 100 days and didn't break the curse. But it was a pretty scary reminder of your family's curse.

Life moves on without waiting for you and there's no time to worry about your unfortunate love life in this society.

Today is another completely normal day at work. You walk to the school, greeting students along the way. The kids look awfully excited to go to school when it isn't exam season.

Youth must be fun. Especially sneaking around with your high school sweetheart.

While walking to your classroom, you run into your favourite co-worker, Gojo Satoru.

"Good morning!" He greets you smoothly, flashing you that perfect smile of his. You greet him back, always excited to see him.

"Are you free tonight? Because me and some other teachers are going drinking. Wanna come?" He asked you, and you nodded immediately. Of course you're going drinking with Gojo (and company). You could never refuse!

"Great! I'll send you the adress!" He waved you bye with a cheeky smile, going in his classroom to do homeroom.

Oh, right, you should probably be getting to that too. You can't set a bad example for your class by being late to homeroom.

You walk past the classroom where Nanami teaches and you have no idea why, but you stopped in your tracks to look at him a little.

You're not sure why, but he doesn't seem to like you at all. He always seems a bit distant and uncomfortable around you.

It kind of makes you sad. And it doesn't help at all that you constantly have to read notes about how hot he is after you confiscate them from your students.

What is up with this school and attractive teachers, anyways? Your students just barely got over Gojo and now they're thirsting over Nanami. Not that you can blame them.

You continue on, opening the door to your classroom. "Good morning!"

"Good morning, teacher!" The students shout back.

.

When you get to the meeting spot, Shoko is already waiting there. She greets you calmly.

"Hi. Uhhh..." you don't know where to go from here. It's kind of awkward just standing around and waiting for the others to arrive.

"You like Satoru, don't you?" Shoko asks suddenly, smiling at you.

"Huh?! How did you know?!"

"It's... obvious. But today's your chance. He's in a good mood when he gets drunk, you could attempt something." Shoko raised her brows.

Well, there isn't much to attempt if you can't kiss. Will a kiss-less confession work?

"Hello~" Gojo interrupted you just as you were about to answer Shoko and you jumped a little in surprise.

Nanami was standing next to him. Oh, so he invited him, too... You have a feeling this is going to get a little awkward.

While the lot of you headed to the bar, Shoko walked next to Gojo, talking to him about various things you didn't really care about.

That meant you were walking next to Nanami... in painfully awkward silence. Yikes.

"How was your day?" You asked with a painfully forced smile.

"It was fine." He answered simply, not even trying to continue the conversation. Right, you should just be quiet.

There's no use in getting buddy buddy with Nanami.

.

"Let's dig in!" Gojo grabbed the meat happily while Shoko and Nanami both immediately grabbed the bottle.

Eager to drink, aren't they...

Shoko nudged you gently. "Just wait till he gets drunk and then go in for the kiss. He likes them bold." She whispered.

You smiled and nodded awkwardly, unable to tell her why that's impossible for you.

You had loads of fun from there on out and all of you got atleast a little drunk. Turns out Shoko is more of a party animal than she lets on. Maybe you were wrong, this little get-together isn't awkward at all!

"I need some air, excuse me." Nanami bowed slightly, getting up and walking outside. Still as monotone and polite as ever when drunk, you suppose.

After about 10 minutes, Gojo's phone rang and he drunkenly excused himself to answer the call. If you weren't drunk as hell too, you would be worried about how the call will go. I mean, I doubt a professional call can go well when the other person keeps giggling and talking nonsense.

"Just goooo for itttt~" Shoko encouraged you after Gojo left your fields of vision, drunk out of her mind. To be fair, you weren't any less drunk right now, so you weren't thinking straight at all. You got up and ran off after Gojo. Who cares about a stupid phone call, you've got a man to kiss!

And there he is, on the corner behind the bar! You'd recognise that greyish blue jacket from a mile away! You cling onto him, giggling happily and he seems to call out to you.

"I love youuuu...." you slurred out, squinting your eyes at his face. Man, it's hard to see his face in the dark and with blurry vision to boot. No matter, you still know the general area of the lips.

"I wanna date youuuu.... and you should be my boyfriendddd..." you grabbed his cheeks and faintly heard his voice again. You can't make out anything he's saying right now. It's like a weird trance that your drunken determination put you in.

You pressed your lips to his, sighing. It's a weird feeling for sure, but not all that bad! Ahhh, this all feels like a dream! After a long long time, you finally got to kiss someone. And it's Gojo Satoru no less!

"What the f.... Nanamin?!"

Wait.

A shiver ran all the way from your toes to the top of your head. You looked at the direction of the voice. It's.... Gojo?! That's definitely Gojo, standing to your right and looking really surprised. But, then...

You looked back at the person who's cheeks you're currently holding to find... brown eyes staring at you. No way.

Now that you think about it, both Gojo and Nanami are wearing a greyish blue jacket. Oh no... Oh no no no no.

You sobered up almost instantly which was an out of body experience, one that you've never experienced before. Not only did you kiss the wrong guy in your drunken state, the curse also completely slipped your mind. Is it almost midnight already?! How are you going to explain this tommorow?! Why did it have to be Nanami?!

There's no time to panic, you have to get OUT OF HERE. STAT.

"I am so so so sorry!" you gently push Nanami away, running off and accidentally pushing Gojo slightly which made him stumble.

"Wait, why are you leaving already?!" Gojo called out after you but you ignored him. You have to get home to your family. Then you're safe. All you have to do is make it there before midnight or you'll turn into a dog.

Oh jeez... this innocent night which was supposed to go your way ended up becoming a nightmare.

Now you have to get Nanami of all people to kiss you while you're a freaking dog.

Still, kissing him didn't feel all that bad...

[laurasimonsdaughter]

What if Disney adapted The White Cat?

It'd look like this:

Although in a lot of the old illustrations for The White Cat, the cat princess is fully clothed in dramatic courtly fashion. So Disney could go full Robin Hood with this and have the prince be the only human at a full anthro cat court.

Silly photoshop aside, I think Madame d'Aulnoy's The White Cat could actually be a great candidate for an animated fairy tale movie, but to make it fully Disney I think I'd shorten it a bit and borrow a pinch of Disney's Aladdin

The ending needs the most changes. The prince will no longer have any brothers to compete with, he's an only child. And instead of a father afraid that his son(s) will steal the throne from him, the kind old king is under the influence of an Evil Advisor who is convincing him that his son is not fit to take the throne. The advisor persuades the king that the prince must prove his worthiness by fulfilling impossible impossible tasks:

To find a dog so small it can jump through a ring.

To find a fabric fine enough to be drawn through the eye of a needle.

And finally, to find a bride wise enough, kind enough and noble enough that her esteem alone would prove his worthiness.

The prince sets out on his first quest and gets hopelessly lost in the woods, stumbling into a magical castle full of talking cats, ruled by a white cat who is addressed by all the others as their princess. She helps him complete the first task and he returns to her for the second one.

Now, to make this more Disney, I will borrow from d'Aulnoy's Beauty and the Beast and let the prince have dreams in which the white cat, who grows fonder of every minute, turns into a human. So they can have a romantic song and dance together before he wakes up with a start.

When the last challenge is given the prince is dejected. He goes back to the white cat and explains he does not want to complete this quest, because he does not want a bride. He wants to stay with her. He begs her to turn him into a cat so he can stay with her. But the white cat tells him she can make sure he can complete the challenge and gain his happiness besides, if only he will do as she says.

Now this is a difficult point in the story to adapt. Because in the original the white cat asks the prince to cut her head off. This is a folklore motif with great pedigree, but a little grisly for Disney. (Not because of the level of violence, but because it's two good characters doing it to each other.) I'm not sure what to replace it with though. The best thing I can think of right now is the cat asking him to throw her into the river, so she can emerge as a beautiful dripping wet princess.

Either way the prince does as she asks and the cat turns into the human woman from his dream. The princess explains that she was cursed by the Evil Advisor (gasp) for refusing to marry him and that the curse could only be broken by someone who trusted her completely. (I am leaving out d'Aulnoy's dramatic fairy backstory, sorry Marie-Catherine, it's great but it's too much.)

Her entire court of cats also transforms back into human courtiers and servants (who still have comical cat-like behaviours) and the prince and princess travel back to the prince's court amidst a glorious procession.

The Evil Advisor is exposed and dealt with (drop him off a convenient cliff, you know the drill), the king comes to his sense, praises his son, consents to the marriage, adores his daugher-in-law, and everyone is sure to live happily ever after.

The prince scratches the princess behind her ear before kissing her at the wedding.

~The End~

[chaifootsteps]

Okay sorry I was talking with my mother

1) I hate sir Pentious’s new character. Sure, he’s fun. But oh my gosh, I miss his old character. The way that’s he’s not at all remorseful and just purely wants destruction  and to rule over the pentagram city. But now he’s too goody goody(I haven’t seen the new episode, pls don’t spoil it), and turned WAYYYY to easily over to Charlie’s anti-Christ ass, and wanting to be redeemed. He should have stayed a spy for longer and I would’ve loved to see his dynamic grow with the Vees(especially Vox) and how he worked for them as a spy. His rape scene wasp so uncomfortable and unnecessary, and speaking of that his and cherris relationship should of never of even been thought about. It’s such an awkward thing, as they’re rivals and Cherri has destroyed things that he’s made and insults him.

2) speaking of Cherri, she offered Angel drugs(which seems like it’s a normal thing for them as she’s so causal about it) when she knew he was there at the hotel that’s for redemption, but also she was so rude to Angel when he was trying to get Nifty out of the cleaning closet??? She’s a much better friend in the pilot and in the addict music video. She’s showing actual friendship and concern for Angel, nothing like she does now.

3) Alastor. Sure, I like his moments, but he’s so painfully edgy it’s not that good. His radio sound effects are good, I miss the old effects that he had in the pilot and his old voice actor, but of course viv is a “it’s my way or the high-way” gal and she dumped all of the previous cast. He’s nearly completely different now, claiming that Charlie is like his daughter(I swear to god he better be manipulative to her in that moment), when in the pilot he openly mocked her and what she was trying to do. He seems way to open about his emotions and wanting r help Charlie, using a TV(???) and playing along when what she wants to do. He also seems to much like an attention whore, which could be a good character trait if he wasn’t the way he is now. Also he’s too touchy touchy with everyone, especially Charlie.

4) Angel dust is not as interesting now as he was to me in the pilot. Now he’s just a porn star who gets raped and abused and is going to be redeemed. I’d love to see his old character traits(from before the pilot and during, such as mafia, insane, violent, ect), rather than just “oh he’s a gay sex spider who sometimes does violence but he’s such a good person now for finding love and refusing drugs!!!! :3”.

5) Husk’s new voice. I see the appeal of his new one, but his old voice actor just hit different. Make that skinny 1970s gambler man sound like he smokes 5 packs a day. Also I can’t stop thinking about the cat from Coraline.

6) almost everything about vaggie. Her design, her actions, and her backstory. It’s cool that she’s a fallen Angel but oh my gosh!! Don’t reveal that in the first season!! Slow burn that shit!! And why did she do quickly realize that he’s murdering ‘innocent souls’?? They’re in hell for a reason, she didn’t have to think that just because it was a kid it was innocent of any crimes it did. They revealed it too soon, it would have been a good twist for season 2.

7) vivziepop seemingly mocks Christianity and I had to look up how Saint Peter looked like, AND SHE WHITE-WASHED HIM SO BAD. HE LOOKS NOTHING LIKE HE SHOULD, AND HES SUCH A COMPLEX PEROSN FROM THE BIBLE AND AND SHORTENED HIS CHARACTER SO BADLY.

Anyways, my TED talk is over. Thank you

Thanks for your TED Talk, Anon. It was an excellent talk.

[subwaytostardew]

▽ Subway to Stardew - Emmet 8-Heart Event ▽

This plays after getting at least 8 hearts with Emmet and entering the Railroad between 9AM - 4PM on a Thursday after viewing his 7 heart event.

You recieve this letter when you reach 8 hearts with Emmet!

Commentary and progress under the readmore.

▷ Station Steward Thylak

I DID NOT REALIZE THAT THIS EVENT WOULD BE THAT LONG... I could have sworn it was around 14 minutes max! I was worried that the battle stuff went by too quickly! It's almost 30 minutes long! And that's with me clicking away faster! Emmet really meant it when he said he wanted to spend all the livelong day together...

I thought it was going to be roughly 18 minutes. NOPE. WOOPS. This what happens when you write possibly too much.

We are bad at making short events. Vanilla events are around 1-3 minutes long. A day in Stardew lasts 14 minutes and 10 seconds. I would not recommend trying to play this mod spoiler free on multiplayer because time does not freeze and you will die if you don't skip the events. I wouldn't want to shorten the events either... Cutting down their infodumps would just be wrong.

We had a few requests to have a battle event which made me 😅 because I personally couldn't imagine that going well (truth over ideals...). This event was partially made to shut that idea down. The whole tunnel scene is mostly me trying to write an in-story reason as to why there won't be a battle with the farmer against Ingo... Emmet is competitive! This is not just limited to battles but extends to being your best friend! Behind the scenes... I'm just too tired to write out more battles. I actually really dislike single battle format. I'm not making an Ingo battle event. You already have three games to battle him in. I refuse to make more battle events for the time being.

I say that but there's another half-finished double battle event between submas that I switched tracks from to work on Emmet's 8 heart event... I'll finish that eventually.

Anyways... the creation process did not go by quickly at all either. I sure do have a lot to say on that matter. I do all my coding in google docs (terrible, I know) and so far we have had to make 3 seperate documents becuase things start to break at around 40 pages. The document before Emmet's 8 heart event made it to 64 pages before I abandoned it for a new document.

The longest document we have is around 80 pages along. Which usually contain the draft scripts of multiple events. code documents however take up a lot more since it's basically a giant wall of text. So when Emmet's 8 heart event started to slow down the current code document (the third iteration). We had to give the event its own space.

Emmet's 8 heart event ended up being 36 pages long alone! Also if you didn't know, Stardew's event format doesn't allow for line breaks so I have been staring at a 36 page wall of text for weeks. I plan to upload a video compiling all the different options later because I feel like all of the "good" options for battle... don't quite make sense in the context of the rest of the story. The farmer is supposed to not be good at battle and lose because they got overwhelmed with information. As the one writing out all the battle options though, I can't bring myself to act like I'm bad at battling. The winning options are extra silly just to justify a loss and because I couldn't bring myself to lie about Wild Charge not being a guaranteed OHKO on Archeops either. Especially since Emmet brings out damage calculations in a few of the options.

On that topic, all of the battle options play out accurately in a real double battle! I tested. Every. Single. Path. In Pokemon Showdown between the halves of Emmet's team.

I had nightmares of reliving this same battle over and over because that's all I did when I was awake. Make it stopppppp 😭

The lines about them practicing were references to me actually simulating everything in Showdown! Emmet's frustration is also based on how making this event took over my brain so now I struggle to comprehend how someone who doesn't know what to do in this battle would feel... Thank you Kade for helping me with that part ^^;;;

Your welcome =3

I actually enjoyed the Pokémon Showdown part - when it comes to Pokémon Battles, I have dabbled a little bit into the competitive side of things. Or at least the massive game of 4D Chess... trying to predict your opponent etc. Bait them into making a mistake, etc. There was a good time where we did nothing but Pokémon Battles for a night. And it was fun.

I am in no way good at competitive side of things - (I lose lot but that's okay.) especially in the double battle format. Single Battles I could do. (Though once again, I'm average at best) However I think the most memorable battle I ever had was back in Pokémon X and Y, where I managed to chip away and stall a Mega Aggron with a Umbreon.. And I think Umbreon was my last Pokémon but I kept using Moonlight to keep my health up. My kid self was super surprised and ecstatic that I beaten the odds... but whenever I do Pokémon Showdown I'm either testing battle stuff or making teams. I'm addicted to team compositions and doing a combination of different Pokémon even if it's not the competitive Meta....

I have the choices sorted into good/bad routes in my mind so in most of the routes, Emmet criticizes the player's decisions based on type advantage, STAB, and target. I was torn between the best and worst options for this recording but thanks to Kade's input, you get to see Durant ramming into Emmet instead of him getting mad at you for conducting Shadow Claw on Galvantula.

Battling Emmet as a first time trainer is not going to go well! Not only is he too competitive and he refuses to let you win (unlike Ingo), he pretty much sets you up for failiure. I'm sorry Emmet but Galvantula's stats are not intended for making her a physical attacker (emphasis on the Egg Move at what cost...).

Not to mention... Emmet is a Battle Facility Head. And you don't get to battle the Subway Bosses in the mainline games unless you have a somewhat decent team halfway through the game. Even still! They can both wipe the floor with you if you're not aware that they are using battle items...

Though I interpret Emmet not going easy on someone as him challenging them to push themselves and exceed expectations. Both Ingo and Emmet as characters encourage others in their own way, Ingo through words and Emmet I believe through his actions. Though he also can say some encouraging things.

Not the most encouraging if you compare their quotes pages... Customer service and communication isn't exactly his forte... But Emmet wants you to do your best and win against him! He likes seeing serious battlers like him! He just won't let you win unless if you push yourself to do your best. You'll have to. He doesn't really have the most beginner-friendly approach...

Considering you the Farmer, have no idea what a Pokémon even is. (You're practically learning everything from Ingo, Emmet, Elesa etc.) The fact you get challenged to a Battle because Emmet wants to share his interests with you - to have you better understand Pokémon.

He just struggles with the fact that, he is essentially challenging someone with no real battle experience and it's a Double Battle at that. Controlling two Pokémon at once?! Think about the effort it takes to command one Pokémon. We all seen the Anime and how trainers struggle to connect with their partners because they're new. They're just starting. They aren't going to be Battle Facility levels of skill.

Not to mention that Emmet is a little deprived in the valley and hasn't really battled any other new passengers in quite some time. At most, he battled Iris once when she came to visit, Ingo (who's Pokemon are optimized for countering/pissing him off), and himself (I had the mental image of him sitting in the field practicing for this event like an old man playing chess against himself in a park). He's a little too far gone to fully understand what a beginner would think in this situation other than mayyyybe it would take a moment to catch them up to speed. (I would know... I swear those option paths rewired my brain...)

After inputting all of their data into Showdown, I had actually forgotten that Galvantula and Durant are Emmet's Doubles Line team while Eelektross and Archeops are the Super Doubles Line team when deciding the matchups. (Been a while since they were in the Battle Subway huh...) Story-wise, I was thinking that Emmet should be with his ace and that he wouldn't really trust anyone else with Archeops since... he has higher support needs (depression bird 💔). Eelektross and Archeops are paired up because of Gastro Acid and Defeatist. I was thinking that Galvantula and Durant are a bit more beginner-friendly; they can take a loss a bit more easilly (a little less so in Galvantula's case... she's a hater). The farmer had already met Durant earlier in the 4-heart event so he'd volunteer to return the favor of fighting for you. Once you win his trust, he's more than happy to help. As for Galvantula... She's testing to see if she can trust her clingy child with you.

I'm excited to dive into the Pokémon NPC stories... Durant and Excadrill especially.

Durant was originally going to have Choice Scarf instead of Quick Claw to help narrow down the options. It was a pain reorganizing my notes and options all over again to lump not only move choices but turn order in mind. My notes were a mess.

Durant and Galvantula are a very luck-based combination so it was ultimately easier to write the different option paths with that in mind since Stardew's event format is verrrrrrrrrrrry linear. All of the options need to merge back into the same event (well... besides the option to refuse his friendship/battle which ends the event in the tunnel). Durant has lowered accuracy while Galvantula has higher critical hit ratios, I could write the battles based on their luck which is great because I wanted to force a loss.

I thought it would be a little too... reductive (it sure would reduce the amount of content >.>) and unrealistic for the player to impress Emmet with a victory on their first battle. Emmet sees this battle as a test on if you can follow his train of thought and be a good match for him because he's a little bit dependent on you for emotional regulation. He kind of expects you as his favorite passenger to have twin telepathy like Ingo since that's his standard operating procedure. You won't. Because you're not Ingo. You're just some weird farmer he got attached to. With the setup of a battle, I wanted this event to develop the farmer and Emmet's relationship to show that they aren't exactly perfect for each other (and Will say things that can be wrongly misinterpreted) but ultimately they will put in the effort to communicate and make things work. They won't have the best communication! But it's there.

While Ingo has a proper library confession, this event doubles as Emmet's "confession" of sorts. Emmet is already pretty openly affectionate by this point and I wanted to make it somewhat ambiguous as to whether or not his attachment to you is romantic or strictly platonic. To him, it doesn't really matter, but he does want you all to himself. He's not fond of sharing!

But... While Emmet's event may be more platonic in intent, you can still reject him. It's a lot harsher than Ingo's because refusing to even let him try to be a better friend for you is pretty harsh in itself. Ingo's is mostly the choice of whether or not you want to send him back to 6 hearts for more dialogue variety (it's really easy to miss dialogue when you try to max out their hearts as soon as possible! We're making lines for every day, season, and heart level.) Rejecting Emmet sends you back to 2 hearts and overrides his daily dialogue for the day with him asking if you're still friends, apologizing, and then getting too upset to say anything more.

Anyways!

From the start, I wanted Emmet to be like Nemona; awkward in their attachment, somewhat intimidating in their obsession/competitiveness, and thinks of the player as their savior from loneliness. He wants to be the best friend you have because you're the best friend he has. It's only fair. Best rival for life, favorite passenger, same thing.

The mountain pass events were actually made because Emmet's original schedule included him waiting around near the bushes there like Nemona stalking the player on their gym journey. NPCs actually can't path there so when he did, he was just deleted from the save!

I also stumbled across a bug back when I made the very first introduction event where a question loops unless if you pick a certain option. I kept that with Emmet forcing you to keep battling with him in mind as a slight reference to how Nemona doesn't let you say no to being her "best rival for life". This question also makes SMAPI hate you!

Gotta love Pokémon's false sense of 'Sure you have a choice. Your choice is always YES.'

There's probably a more fitting flower for Emmet outside of poppies. I just looked up every flower in Stardew (some of them aren't real...) and their meanings in flower language to come to the conclusion of poppies. The meanings in Emmet's event refer to the white poppy in particular. White. Rest. Oblivion. It fits. Good enough. It was a bit difficult to find more on the flower language of poppies in English (particularly the "Oblivion" part) so I resorted to Japanese sites for more information.

In English, the meaning of "Rest" seems to precede every other meaning. Poppies are used in death memorials. Emmet and the farmer did accidentally develop a shared theme of dying (overwork exhaustion, slimes, the mines, etc... Emmet can't get a break. I'm sorry.) but I wasn't sure if Kade was okay with the theme of death being emphasized. With that in mind, I was stunned when I that saw that her first battle map draft included a graveyard. The implication that Emmet picked flowers from a memorial site...

In my mind - the area is an old train stop in between the desert area and the forest/mountains that lead into Pelican Town. Also figured there would be an abandon farm - considering how Pelican Town is struggling it makes sense that potentially other places are not in best of shape either.

The graveyard is possibly dead relatives of whatever family or farmer made their life near the rails. Of course a lot of time has passed... So much so that nature has taken back what was theirs in the first place.

I always make up stories when having a location in mind and this area parallels with the tunnel Ingo takes you through to stargaze around 10 hearts. That area being an abandon coal mining operation.... Coal, Wood, etc. was used to powered steam trains so makes sense for there to be a source for it. I'm not the best when it comes to filling up Tiled Maps with decor - but I at least put down enough for Thylak to come in and make it more fitting for Stardew

The battlefield underwent quite a few revisions, one was having the battle area be more centered, and changing the old warehouse/worker area to be more like a train repair station with a water stop. I wanted it to feel like a place where Emmet goes to keep himself busy when he's told to take a break from working on the station.

Here's the final map! The battle area had to be shrunken down to fit in an event. More grass was added because I kept losing track of Joltik in the dirt. There's more flowers for Emmet to observe the quality of and pick tge best ones as gifts that he's too nervous to give the farmer until they wilt and dry. Poppies by the gravestones, of course!

I also did attempt to make a proper scrapbook sprite for when I eventually have Emmet give you his gift, but I never got around to implementing it properly since... I'm not familliar with adding custom items and its implementation changes in the 1.6 update.

Despite having access to the modding alpha, I've been procrastinating on migrating to 1.6 since HD Portraits isn't supported yet (I know... 1.6 releases in 3 weeks...).

WOO 1.6 WE ARE NO WHERE NEAR READY FOR ALL THE STUFF THAT POSSIBLY GOING TO BREAK. LOL.

Until next time! Thank you for reading!

[monstersdownthepath]

Herald of Shelyn: The Spirit of Adoration

CR 15

Neutral Good Large Outsider

Inner Sea Gods, pg. 308

This gorgeous gal is said to be the incarnate of Shelyn's hope and love, born directly from the emotions of the Goddess of Love, and it shows. The Spirit of Adoration (who's title I will be shortening to 'the Spirit' or SOA from now on) is one of the rarest of the Heralds to ever see, as she spends the majority of her time in Nirvana, frolicking among the gardens of her mistress and creator. For vast swaths of her existence, the Spirit does little but entertain and interact with people coming and going from Blossomheart, the divine domain of Shelyn, putting her +22 to Perform and her Bardic talents to use. The only times she leaves are on diplomatic relationship missions with other planes... and as the occasional muse for a mortal in dire need of some beauty in their life.

Able to take the shape of any Small or Medium Humanoid, the Spirit masquerades as a bright and beautiful Bard when cavorting among mortals. She exists to lift spirits, dispel darkness, bolster love, inspire art, and preserve beauty, all things she excels at. Not over is she an incredible marriage councilor, but a phenomenal wingman, standing by the side of someone hopelessly in love but unable to pursue it, either because they physically cannot or simply don't know how; in either case, the Spirit provides answers and guidance.

Whether it's helping a budding relationship or helping an artist hone their skills, the Spirit can hand hand out upwards to six tokens of Inspiration, which often take the form of jewelry. So long as someone carries the token, they're blessed with a +4 insight bonus to Will saves, as well as Craft and Perform checks. Any Bard holding onto the token also gains +6 rounds of Bardic Performance per day regardless of their level, and the Spirit always knows the condition and emotional state of a token holder, arriving to their aid if they ever begin slipping... and if they put the token down for too long, she will know that it's because her job is done and they no longer need her blessing, letting her free up the slot for the next soul in need.

The Spirit is a noncombatant for the majority of her life, a far cry from most Heralds and very fitting for the servant of a goddess who holds out hope for even the most vile of souls. Even when pushed into battle, the Spirit seeks to end it as quickly as possible via diplomacy, charm, and calm explanations, saving violence only for creatures which cannot be reasoned with--namely, mindless Constructs and Undead--but even then preferring to fight only until they pose no danger to an innocent, going so far as to knock out and imprison the likes of daemons rather than dispatching them. While some may see her all-loving nature as foolish in such a universe, like her goddess she maintains that redemption, beauty, and love can be found in anything and given to anyone.

Remember that she's a merciful being as I explain to you just what could happen if that mercy ever stopped.

It takes a while to get there, mind. The Spirit's entire kit is devoted to keeping fighting to a minimum, to the extent that she has a Charming Aura that causes any creature within 30ft of her that fails a DC 24 Will save to be charmed for a day if they fail. A power like that would certainly be useful in the hands of a nefarious fiend, but the Spirit only uses it to get on everyone's good side to make them more amenable to her attempts at Diplomacy (which she has a +17 in).

She's also got Calm Emotions at-will for the same reason, and her aforementioned 40 rounds of Bardic Performance to distract or fascinate hostile crowds long enough for her to try and talk them down from their rampage. Should that fail, she has Good Hope and Inspire Courage +4 to aid any nearby allies in efforts to pacify the opposing force. She will refuse to kill any thinking being and will hesitate to harm even unthinking ones beyond the point of healing, using her at-will Cure Moderate Wounds to spare both ally and enemy from death in the hopes that her enemies will see the folly of their actions and begin walking the road to redemption.

While 40 rounds is usually enough to last her an entire day, there is the small but amusing interaction with her Inspiration power, in that she's not restricted from giving herself her own token, granting herself a +4 to Will saves and Craft/Perform checks, as well as +6 rounds of Performance if for whatever reason 40 isn't enough. If the DM allows her to do that, it's important to note that the stat enhancement is an insight bonus, meaning it STACKS with her own Unearthly Grace, which adds her Cha mod to her AC and all her saves; this means her saves go from an already impressive +17/+20/+24 to +17/+20/+28. She doesn't have immunity to mind-affecting effects, but between her 26 SR and a +28, she may as well; foes of a similar level to her simply can't affect her with anything that targets her Will unless she rolls a 1.

Her DR 10 is bypassed by Evil weapons like most celestial Outsiders, but she's immune to the common Fire and the typically-reliable Sonic, and has 30 Resistance to Acid and Electricity. She's not just sturdy, but she's also fast, moving 40ft a round on the ground and a 60ft fly speed with a proper +17 to Fly, allowing her to make impressive and often beautiful aerial maneuvers. Even beyond that, if she can see you she can just be there because she's got Teleport at-will, letting her appear directly next to anyone who's posing a threat to her or her charge. She's got a 10ft space and 10ft reach... but her statblock is a little ambiguous as to whether her 10ft reach is because of her weapon, a +2 Dancing Glaive, or in addition to it (which would make her reach 20ft). The downside that the glaive can't be used to attack creatures directly adjacent to her, but that's mitigated by the fact it's a Dancing weapon, allowing it to fight entirely on its own even when she moves, and leaving her hands free to cast spells, go full-defense, or open-palm slap someone for 5 nonlethal damage.

Whether she's wielding it herself or letting it dance around her, the glaive can attack up to four times a round for 2d8+8 damage, tripled on a critical hit. While she tends to go for nonlethal, the real use of her weapon is to disarm her foes; she's got Improved Sunder and a weapon strong enough to make that hurt, smashing apart her foes' weapons and armor if she just doesn't reach over and take them once she has them calmed, charmed, fascinated, or stunned.

"Stunned?" Oh yes. At will as a standard action, the Spirit can make a Stunning Ray ranged attack at anything within 180ft, blasting a target with a dazzling beam of light that deals 1d8 untyped and irresistible damage. Any creature impacted by the beam must make a DC 24 Will save or be stunned for 1d6 rounds, time the Spirit uses to rid them of their gear whenever she can... and, as the book states, time she uses to talk to them. Yes, for the entire duration of your stun, a 10ft tall beautiful woman will be trying to talk you out of continuing the battle. If you say "no, I'm going to keep fighting," guess what? There's no 24-hour immunity on her ray, so she may just blast you again... and again, and again, and again, and again, all the while relieving you of your equipment and perhaps even breaking it in front of you, until you either succeed the save (only to fail it again next round) or finally break down and surrender.

I don't know about you, but I think if I was some nameless soldier ready to kick some schmuck's teeth in, and the incarnate of resolute love and beauty descended from the heavens specifically to tell me to knock it off, I might begin questioning 'are we the baddies?'

And you know what? I've said all this without revealing the Spirit's nuclear option: Bardic Magic. 3/day, the Spirit can cast any Bard spell of any level. Do you know what most Heralds lack? Level 7+ spells. Do you know what the Spirit of Adoration has? 3 castings of any level 8+ equivalent spell in the game. Besides simple and silly utility options, the Spirit of Adoration can simply end any fight by casting oh, say, Overwhelming Presence, Waves of Ecstasy, or Hymn of Peace. And that's just defensive; offensive it's even worse, because Bards have access to spells including Shadow Evocation, Shadow Enchantment, and Shadow Transmutation, effectively meaning the Spirit of Adoration's spell list is "all of them." Bardic Magic is basically 3 castings of Limited Wish, except even stronger since the Bard's lower spell levels allow some sneaky power houses like Irresistible Dance, Mass Suggestion, Brilliant Inspiration, and Greater Shout, which are normally outside the power of Limited Wish. The DM is essentially encouraged to let the Spirit pull out whatever insane nonsense she needs to at a whim... but note that Bardic Magic is actually casting a spell, NOT using a spell-like ability! She has to provide components, if any are needed!

It's still a powerful option, and it makes her considerably more versatile than she already appears to be, in AND out of combat, and makes her just as dangerous as any Bard can be while surrounded by allies with fewer qualms about using lethal force. If you think she's dangerous on her own, just imagine how obnoxious Stunning Ray will be when there's a hasted Barbarian bearing down on you...

You can read more about her here.

[koorinokujira]

Logs from the OC Database: Sunrise ( TF IDW1)

(Finally decided to make a little introduction post for my main Transformers OC, Sunrise. This will most likely get updated often as I keep reading the IDW comics and learn new information).

The lovely art below is made by the amazing @the-prince-of-vos, aka Akkalis! Thank you again for bringing him to life!

"No matter how far I travel from it, Earth will always be my first and only home. After all, home is where the spark is, eh?"

Bright, loud, cheerful, and so energetic that it causes concern; those are just a few ways that the Autobots have described one of their newest additions to the faction. This friendly, large mech is sure to steal your attention with his cheeky personality, unapologetic love for the things and people he's fond of, along with the desire to do good, no matter how impossible it gets. A skilled fighter with a fondness for learning new things, Sunrise is definitely someone you call when you need a helping hand, or just a friend to talk to.

Names, Nicknames, Designations...

"Sunrise is the name, and brightening up your day is my game!"

Sunrise was a name chosen by himself, shortly after his unceremonious crashlanding to Earth. While it was mostly the natural phenomenon itself along with the color of his frame that inspired the designation, it is also a reference to his late predecessor and doctor, Sunset, and the small sliver of hope he felt that he refused to lose. It holds great significance to him, and he is more than determined to live up to it.

In the past, he was referred to as Aeroflare, or simply "Patient Zero", as he was the first (and only) documented case of a condition simply referred to as an "Acute Partial Spark Disconnect". While he doesn't actively use either of these (the second one for very obvious reasons), some Cybertronians know him as such thanks to the aformentioned Sunset and his Conjunx, Cloudwave, who took care of the unresponsive Sunrise. The name "Aeroflare" was created so they'd have a better way of referring to him.

As for nicknames, those tend to be either shortened or slightly altered versions of his name (Sun, Sunny, etc.). However, some humans have also likened his appearance to that of a moth because of his headshape, finials and the way he folds his wings. Variations of nicknames that include the insect aren't too uncommon thanks to that.

Important Physical Attributes

"You know... I worry about the humans sometimes. I'm pretty good at moving around them, but... what if I step on one on accident?"

Discounting his finials, Sunrise is around 36 feet (10.97 meters) tall. While his exact weight is unknown, he seems to be on the heavier side, despite being a jet. His bulkier, sturdier build easily supports his weight. The main color of his frame is a warm orange, with red, black, and sometimes even yellow/gold as his secondary colors. His face is mainly a lighter, metallic grey, with the sides being a grey-ish white. His optics seem to have a color somewhere between yellow and orange, and are particularly bright in comparison to some other Cybertronians.

Sunrise's alternate mode is based on a Canadair CL-415 plane, which is designed for aerial firefighting. Of course, his altmode is quite a bit smaller than the regular plane (which has the length of rougly 65 ft/19.81 m and a wingspan of rougly 94 ft/28.65 m), so the length of his altmode is almost 36 feet with a wingspan of around 52 ft (15.84 m). So, not as big, but forest fires still cower before him!

As for his weaponry, he prefers to get up close and personal, which tends to mean a blade or two. He eventually gets an inset blade in his right arm. But his firepower is nothing to scoff at, either, as his most used weapons are two massive energy cannons. Those are separate from his body unless he is in his altmode, however. In that case, they tend to take up some space in the compartment where the plane stores water. More often than not, his servos are also an effective weapon because of his large size.

Sunrise's spark is of a bright orange color, which occasionally seems to fade into red or blue.

His holoform is that of a young, tall man with freckled skin and wavy, fiery red hair. His eyes have a very light brown, almost orange color. His physique is nothing short of impressive, and even appears to have some tattoos and scars. Sunglasses are an often used accesorry.

Oddities and Anomalies

"Me? Oh, c'mon! I'm just a regular guy. Or mech? Ah, doesn't matter. Just don't treat me like I'm something special or awesome. Others deserve that more than me."

While Sunrise seems like a fairly regular (albeit tall) mech, many of his fellow Autobots very quickly found out that he's anything but ordinary. After some time of debating, Ratchet eventually classified him as an outlier. Everyone, including Sunrise himself, is still struggling to make sense of how his abilities make sense and come together. Most of them seem to have to do something with the spark itself. These are anomalies that have been verified to happen at least once:

Extreme stamina: While he is not that much stronger than his comrades, everyone will tell you that he can do everything for much longer than anyone else. He does need to refuel more often, but his body seems to distribute it with almost concerning effectiveness. His recharges are short and rare. And as any medic in his vicinity quickly finds out, he doesn't seem to realize when he's tired, either, which tends to result in him collapsing every few days (and sometimes even longer than that) in the middle of whatever he's doing. It has been debated whether this is an actual outlier ability, or some strange side effect of the Acute Spark Disconnect, or the current lack thereof.

Spark-hearing: Sunrise's hearing is already extremely good (purely through meddling with his audials and processors), but this ability is something completely different. It is a type of hearing focused purely on sparks; as he himself puts it, every spark has its own unique rhythm that can tell you a few things about its owner, and he insists he can hear it even without the use of any external tools. This was already a bit strange, but it got all the stranger when he admitted that from Optimus' Prime he not only hears a beat, but a melody as well. A short experiment proved that even when he was deprived of regular hearing, he could still hear sparkbeats of others around him with incredible accuracy. He never really divulges what exactly the rhythm tells him, but he has been known to be more perceptive to the moods of others, and many internal ailments have also been discovered when he noticed that someone's spark beats "wrong".

Spark-meld: So far, there has (luckily) only been one instance of this happening. An occassion where Sunrise's spark completely melded with two others despite a ridiculous distance between them. This essentially allowed him to "be" those other two mechs, as he heard, saw and felt all they did, and he even had access to their memories. It was, of course, an overwhelming and traumatizing affair that he had zero control over, and whenever he speaks about it, he insists that he wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy.

Faction and Role

"Mhm, I'm a proud Autobot! Whatever that means..."

Sunrise is an Autobot, though he could have been counted as neutral for a few years. He takes loyalty to his allies incredibly seriously, but he doesn't mind extending a friendly hand to a Decepticon that wishes to redeem themselves. He's quite disconnected from the entire conflict, and has been known to abide by a certain moral and honor code (such as not killing an opponent who cannot fight back).

As for his role in the faction, he is somewhat of a universal helper. He doesn't mind doing menial tasks if it means everything runs smoothly, and often goes around asking others whether they need help with something. He's an avid learner, so he slowly becomes a jack of all trades over the years, with a bit more focus on medical support as Ratchet teaches him how to help others. He's also unanimously considered to be a morale booster, as he's a great listener and his positivity is infectious to most.

Personality

"Well 'course I'm all happy and smiley! I'm not named after the Sun for nothing!"

On the outside, Sunrise is a bright, happy-go-lucky mech that often acts before he thinks. Boisterous and sometimes even a bit mischievous, he unapologetically goes through life doing whatever makes him the happiest. He's a friendly chatterbox, and every room is full of him once he enters. While he is a tad annoying to some, most don't say anything, as he's too endearing to interrupt while he speaks. However, this also often has the effect of some thinking he's a mech of the... simpler variety, and that he's very naive, which he most certainly isn't.

However, this bright exterior hides many complexeties, many of which aren't exactly happy ones. He often feels disconnected from his fellow Cybertronians and the entirety of their conflicts, leaving him feeling left out and lonely. Thanks to his previous ailments, he has missed much, and so he struggles to keep up with his peers. He rarely shows it, but his self-esteem is quite low and he tends to put others miles above himself. His ability to express negative emotions is also not the greatest, which he usually resolves by walking out of the conflict and losing himself in one physical activity or another. As more and more fellow Autobots come to him with their troubles, he feels trapped and a need to constantly appear strong, until he finally reaches a breaking point.

Some traumas have left him with some underlying feelings of paranoia, and he often needs guidance because he feels lost. Anger issues have been a problem in the past, not so much now.

Interests

"Did you know-"

If you ask Sunrise about what he likes the most, he'll probably pretend he's thinking for a few seconds, before he excitedly yells out "Earth!" or "Humans"! If it's related to our dear blue planet, he'll adore it, or at least be interested. He finds humans to be extremely adorable, even after years of living among them, and will talk your audial (or ear, if you have those) off about this or that human culture, or express his admiration for their inventiveness.

But his interests don't just stop with humans, as he's really into learning about nature, particularly animals. Nature documentaries are his favorite genre of film, and Sir David Attenborough may as well be a saint to him. His favorite books are sappy romances and he mostly likes upbeat, energetic music genres. The only exception are chansons, which have a calming effect on him.

He's also always interested in learning more about the home planet he never really got to know, and talking with older Cybertronians about what they've seen.

Tinkering with whatever he gets his hands on is therapeutic to him. It only becomes concerning when he learns more of Cybertronian anatomy and tries to give himself strange upgrades...

Relationships

"Hi there! No need to be scared, I'm harmless, just really big! Wanna be friends?"

The jet makes a point to always start out friendly and respectful when meeting someone, and to not judge a book by its cover. He considers all Autobots to be his friends, and tries to give a chance even to some Decepticons when they seem harmless.

He has a talent for awakening something akin to paternal instincts in most older mechs, which often causes humorous misunderstandings and someone always being there to try to teach him about this and that. This effect was always particularly strong with Ironhide, Kup, and even Ratchet to some extent, as he feels responsible for his wellbeing.

Sunrise is quite close with Optimus Prime and Ratchet and trusts them with everything. Hot Rod and Jazz are always welcome company to him, and he later also becomes good friends with Drift, with an extended friendliness and respect to the other Wreckers.

His relationship with Ultra Magnus is cordial, though it can't be said they're the best of friends considering Sunrise's ignorance of most laws and tendency for harmless mischief.

The only Autobot Sunrise has a fairly bad relationship with is Prowl. At the start, the both genuinely despise each other, until Sunrise lets it go and is satisfied with driving Prowl up to wall with his antics and witty banter. No one really knows where they stand in their relationship currently, and everyone is too afraid to ask.

An important part of Sunrise's inner circle is also a very unlikely friend; a troubled Decepticon seeker named Dustbite, with whom he forms an unlikely friendship based on them both sparing each other's lives. With mutual respect and understanding, their bond eventually becomes so deep that they become each other's Amica Endurae.

As for who he cares more than just a friend... well, only time will tell.

Other Fun Facts

When it comes to the chansons, Sunrise's favorite singer is Jacques Brel.

He himself is a fairly talented singer, though he mostly just hums to himself.

Sunrise's Cybertronian somehow has a vaguely Canadian accent.

He speaks Hand very fluently and uses it to express himself when speaking is difficult.

Even though he seems very innocent, the mech swears like a sailor when he can, even making horrible amalgamation of human and Cybertronian swear words and insults.

He dislikes Primus, blaming him for his previous illness.

Later on, he becomes a good friend and "calming agent" to Fortress Maximus.

He uses his (usual) enhanced hearing to check malfunctions in all sorts of machinery, including cables running through walls. However, he still struggles to find an appropriate way to announce it. "I hear it in the walls" is not something he should say to alert someone of a fried cable, he's been told.

His optics can get blindingly bright when he's very happy. On the other hand, they grow dim when he's feeling under the weather.

His voice claim is Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds.

Story/Story Involvement

(Empty for now... but some short scenes and chapters from his life will hopefully come soon).

[actual-changeling]

202X, London, Soho, Aziraphale's bookshop

"I never noticed that one."

Crowley gives a non-committal hum, too caught up in the soft rhythm of Aziraphale's fingers carding through his hair, and pushes his face further into his soft stomach. His shirt has ridden up while he has been teetering on the edge between dreams and wakefulness, and Aziraphale has never been able to resist a patch of bare skin.

While he technically does not need to sleep, let alone nap, slow afternoons like these are a simple pleasure in themselves. Two cups of hot cocoa, his head in Aziraphale's lap while he reads one book or another, the comfort of knowing that they're safe and free in the bubble they have created. He fully intends to drift back off, his eyes fluttering shut once more, when an odd pressure on the side of his ribs catches his attention.

Twisting his head as far as it will go, he watches as Aziraphale traces a long, jagged scar running almost parallel to his spin, although several inches to the left of it. Crowley cannot feel the touch itself, there are no nerves left in the scar tissue, but he senses the gentle brush of his fingertips right next to it.

"What happened?"

He blinks up at his angel and sighs, adjusting himself; it is not a pretty story, yet he knows he won't regain his peace until Aziraphale gets his answer.

"Remember Edinburgh?"

"Of course, but I don't—oh."

The second Aziraphale realises what he is getting at, all air leaves his body, his hand stilling, and Crowley can practically taste the pity rolling off of him in waves.

"My lot don't send rude notes, angel, and doing that much good all at once, well, let's just say Beelzebub wasn't pleased."

In the silence that follows, he absently considers simply falling asleep and leaving Aziraphale with his more than shortened summary of the events that followed their night at the graveyard, but a sudden rustle of paper and fabric tells him said angel has other plans.

Now pressing both his palms against Crowley's back, Aziraphale quickly bends down to kiss his hair before asking, "Does it still hurt?"

"Aches in bad weather, but no, doesn't hurt. Stop fretting, angel, it's-"

"If you say 'fine', Crowley, I swear I will- "Yeah, yeah, I won't."

It is fine, but he swallows the end of his sentence, and allows him to send low pulses of ethereal energy into his cells, smoothing over as much of the old injury as he can. Admittedly, it does feel nice after all these decades of distant pain, although it is entirely unnecessary. Once Aziraphale is satisfied, he kisses the back of his head again and tugs down his shirt, wrapping his arms around him and ignoring his book to hold him instead.

"Do I want to know what caused it?"

Crowley hisses contently and buries his face in the warmth of his stomach.

"No, but I guess you wanna know anyway."

"If you don't mind."

Letting out his second defeated sigh of the day, he tilts his head just enough to speak.

"They do this thing where they break your wings and send you down a chute to, eh, fall, for however long they want. I refused to show 'em my wings at first, Beelzebub threatened to rip out my spine, left the scar."

It's an incredibly condensed version of events. In reality, there has been a lot of blood, screams, and torn skin, but Aziraphale is already clinging to him like the earth will swallow him whole, so he decides not to elaborate. There is nothing one can say in response to that kind of confession, and Aziraphale doesn't try. Instead, he finally continues the drag of nails along his scalp. Crowley hums and closes his eyes.

"Can I please nap now?"

"Of course, whatever you want." Aziraphale pauses, and then, because he simply always has to, continues.

"I love you, dearest."

"Love you too, angel."

[misseviehyde]

KEY HOLDER

"Pleeeease," Sean hissed as you applied a another layer of lipgloss to your full sexy lips and pointedly ignored him. "Please take off the key now."

He looked at you pleadingly, but you refused to meet his gaze - not because you were ashamed - but because you had no intention of contaminating your eyeballs with his embarrassing display of subservience.

You could feel the key nestling sexily above your cleavage like it belonged there. You had no intention of removing it.

Cleavage...

That wasn't something you ever thought you'd have, but there they were on your chest, two full rounded firm titties that were all yours to play with and dominate boys with.

"No."

You were almost shocked at how good your voice sounded. So full and sensual - the voice of an entitled brat. Like poison honey. You almost wanted to say more so you could hear it, but that would be going too far.

There wasn't a need to say more. You didn't need to explain yourself. Brats like you NEVER explained themselves, just expected boys to obey.

If you had been minded to explain to Sean, you would have told him that removing the key would turn you back into a boy.

Your beautiful hair would shorten, your long sexy black nails would retract and your beautiful pussy would seal up as your useless boy cock grew back.

The key had set you free, unlocking the bratty potential within you and making you a Goddess. You had transformed into a rich, popupar, beautiful girl and it seemed that Sean was the only one who even remembered the original you.

"Please," he begged again. "Goddess, my cock hurts... please set me free."

You sneered and tossed your hair contemptuously, enjoying how the silken wave moved effortlessly over your shoulders. Adjusting the hem of your satin skirt, you casually turned and reaching down grabbed Sean by the balls.

He squealed and you grinned, your perfect white teeth flashing. "It only hurts because you've been trying to take off your cage again. I told you - I'm the only one who can remove that now."

The key round your neck and the cage on Sean's cock were magically linked. It could never be removed without your desire to do so and unfortunately for Sean you had no intention of doing that.

You squeezed and he groaned. With a flick of your will you made the cage tighter and you also strengthened the sense of devotion and worship he felt for you. Through the cage you controlled everything about Sean. You could make him do or believe anything. So far you'd left his mind relatively untouched, after all it was far more fun to break him manually.

You knew it was the key doing this to you. You never used to be this cruel, this manipulative, this sadistic. Wearing the key had made you beautiful and popular, but it had also rotted your soul and turned you into an evil bitch.

You smirked as you saw the light of worship blaze in Sean's eyes. "I... I'm sorry Goddess. I should be punished for trying to undo what you did to me. I am a worm."

"You ARE a worm Sean," you sighed, "but you're my worm. Goddess forgives you - but there does need to be a punishment. How about you eat another creampie?"

You saw Sean quail and it made you laugh. "Oh yes my little pet. The reason I'm putting on this lipgloss is we are on our way to Shane's house and once there I'm going to suck that big fat cock then get fucked. You can eat his cum out of my freshly fucked pussy as your punishment."

"But Shane was our bully... you wouldn't..."

"Shane only bullied me when I was a loser like you. Now he's all over me like a rash. He's not very sophisticated, but he does know how to make me squirt. Now come along loser - it's play time."

The magic key that had turned you into such a bitch bouncing on your chest, you walked off - high heeled boots clopping as with a snap of your fingers your pet followed.

Being a keyholder felt so fucking good.