#Holy Family Academy

[laurrelise]

they would be friends argue with the wall

[witchinatree]

i have posted a LOT about the issues i had with season 4 of TUA but i'm going to say everything i've been thinking right here right now. i cannot get this shit out of my head.

i think a lot of it ties back to the flaws i noticed in season 3, they tried to take on too much and abandoned the previous storylines that were waiting for them (viktor's traumatic relationship with leonard, five's trauma in general, lila's parents dying because of five, DAVE, etc etc) and we were all expecting them to tie it all together in season 4

instead they just.. added more..???? jennifer and abigail were thrown in late season 3 and were just suddenly supposed to be super important to us (they were not.) the subway that takes you to other timelines (objectively cool as fuck, why is this only introduced in the last season of The Timeline Show)

and i'm still really upset that reginald is an alien because it makes no fucking sense. i always assumed he created the mystery 43 babies (why else would he seek them out and already have a plan for them) but the alien route was.. ill-fitting. i think it would've worked better if he fell in love with abigail, who was an alien and created marigold, and then his hubris and curiosity was what unleashed it into the world and doomed the timeline. "sure this mystery chemical destroyed the planet my wife is from but i'm reginald hargreeves so that won't happen to me!" [happens to him] also i wish abigail was not just used as "see! abuser not so bad! abuser have wife! he love wife :]" because. what. and then her weird complaints about reginald in episode 6 that came out of nowhere confused me. they just should've written her entirely different if they were gonna have her at all

AAALSO i hated that they regressed all of the characters back to how they were in season 1 (or worse??). luther was living in the old umbrella academy building because apparently he will never leave it?? after everything?? diego's life was different but he was still doing this weird job shit (discount batman and mail carrier are the same thing) and he was miserable with his loving wife and kids (who ARE you.). allison's husband left her again (what the hell raymond) and she was still the neglectful single mother of claire?? after EVERYTHING I KNOW I ALREADY SAID THAT BUT GOD. klaus actually had something going for him, if only his recovery wasn't made into a joke, and then he relapsed and got kidnapped and was just very.. season 1 klaus.. but with no ghost ben anymore. five.. eugh. he was not season 1 five he was just NotFive. crazy how they had a magnus archives crossover and just brought in NotThem to take five am i right guys. ben's also different because it's not the same ben from season 1 but they just made him really fucking mean. like worse than season 3 because there wasn't that underlying "please i just want to be loved" thing. crypto bro ben was funny as fuck though. and VIKTOR just fucked off by himself after working so hard to be part of the family again. glad he got to transition and become canada's #1 manslut but jesus, just abandoned everything you did to be part of the family huh.

my vision for the ending of TUA would go something like this

ending of season 3, pretty much the same but they all have their powers and reginald's head getting sliced in half did not reveal him to be some alien freak. also at some point abigail would have been introduced. i don't feel like rewriting season 3 too okay i'm cutting corners.

luther finds sloane when he goes back to where the umbrella academy building used to be, but it's now a very lovely apartment that the two of them live in together. they host all of the family gatherings for sentimental and space reasons. i think luther would explore the stripper idea but decide not to follow it because of sloane. sloane would be fine with it but luther would still get worried.

diego and lila live in the same house somewhat nearby. lila's family (they do get to be alive but lila does have to overcome the trauma of losing them while simultaneously getting them back) are their neighbors, it was the compromise they came to because diego wanted their house to be their space but lila wanted her family close. they have three kids who are each loved and names get to be in the fucking show. (looking at you mystery twin. grace and coco (?) didn't really get much attention either). they have a big backyard that the kids all play in together when they're visiting

allison and ray are still together and they have claire (maybe another kid...) they also live somewhat nearby the rest of the umbrella family because i refuse to let them separate. i don't have much to say about them other than RAY DID NOT WALK OUT ON HER.

klaus and dave live in allison and ray's neighborhood. maybe they adopted a kid? maybe they didn't? i think their family would be really cute either way. klaus is still overcoming his addiction and dave supports him through it. it's not made into a joke and actually gives klaus a lot of depth and emotional moments. also just in general dave meeting the rest of the family would be really really sweet

five gets to retire. he lives with viktor in my mind. full circle on viktor being the person who always waited for him and offered him a place to stay after he got home in season 1. five would not actually be getting a retirement pay because he has never had a real job so he's just vik's roommate now. he could have a romance plotline with a woman working at the department store down the street named delores. she looks familiar.

ben lives alone and works at a tech company? honestly i don't know what i would do with him in the pre-plot but it would not be put him in jail?? me personally. i think he would probably move further away than everyone else but stay close enough so he could visit sloane sometimes. he still feels like an outsider but doesn't know how to tell the umbrellas he wants to be their brother now

and viktor lives with sissy harlan and five (previously mentioned). his transition gets to actually be explored (PLEASE.), harlan is in therapy, and sissy is a strong working woman!! again i don't really know what to do with him pre-plot. just know he's the happiest he's ever been!!!

and just in general, a lot of this happiness from all of them comes from their powers and that they can finally be one big happy family together (whether ben likes it or not). setting up the inherent tragedy that comes with perfection

episode 1 opens by showing everything i just explained, the tragedy of getting everything you want or whatever the title was. their powers are still integral to their lives. they're either tied to their careers (luther would probably be like a wrestler or something again, diego could try police work again because i want that to be explored) or other aspects of their existence (allison still finds herself doubting how much of her life is real, klaus' relapses are always caused by his trauma surrounding ghosts, five sometimes space jumps when he wants to be alone [also i think he could feel some sort of shame/guilt because he lives with viktor and can't really contribute much without the commission. not really his fault though because of his insanely fucked timeline], ben uses the squid to carry things or grab things that are far away, and viktor plays the violin to help him remind himself that he is in control of his power now, and he won't end the world again)

the main conflict starts when ben meets a new woman named jennifer and shakes her hand when introducing himself (starting the marigold/durango reaction that builds very slowly throughout the season.) it could be romantic but i think it's just devestating. they're slowly realizing they're losing everything they worked so hard for because of something they can't control

yadda yadda yadda figuring shit out while also having conflicts in their life from the earlier seasons and it culminates in the old umbrella academy building, viktor is the only person who can remove the durango and marigold from ben and jennifer and save the world. he finally gets to be the hero, be the one to stop the end of the world instead of cause it, but he needs to take the marigold from each of the siblings in order to balance the amount of durango jennifer had (no idk why he would let the other like 30 something marigold kids keep theirs i really don't know how to fix that. why would they do this to me)

each of the siblings have to give up part of their lives, part of their identities, and it's hard for them!!! they struggle a lot to agree to do it!!! and it's also harder for them because they don't know if viktor will survive doing this. but he's the only one who can? is his life more important than the existence of everything and everyone? ultimately, they all give up their marigold, and viktor takes all of it and the durango to save everyone. it cancels itself out and stops the cleanse reaction, and i think it would kill viktor (but it doesn't have to). we see that same clip of the 'perfect world' but they get to be in it. they were never the problem. lila and diego play in the park with their kids. allison ray and claire are walking together. klaus and dave are talking on a bench. luther and sloane are carrying a large basket of food. ben and five are helping them set up the picnic. harlan is sitting in the grass with sissy next to him. each of the adults have a small violin tattoo on their wrists. their lives will never be as perfect as they were before, but they can finally just rest and move on. because it was never their fault.

also reginald dies. fuck that guy

[williamdonebar]

Wow lila and five romance killed my love for umbrella academy goodbye yall

[clockwayswrites]

City Pigeons Bleed Green Part 3

WC: 1861 Masterpost CW: mentions of blood, past experimentation, and torture

Duke tugged the sleeves of the hoodie he had thrown on as he rolled out of bed down over his hands. The Cave was freezing. Usually the temperature was nice. Dressing up in layers of body armor and fighting crime made a person hot and the cool air of the Cave was a relief. When pulled out of bed by an all-hands meeting it was another story and so Duke tucked himself further in the hoodie.

He was pretty sure it wasn’t even his hoodie. This family (and those let into the inner circle) were almost all clothing thieves. Duke had even caught Wally West with his missing Gotham Academy hoodie once. The weird lack of boundaries had taken some getting used to. Seeing various family members naked for decontamination showers or medical procedures helped hurry that along. It was hard to care about who’s hoddie it was was after washing off cuddle pollen together.

The roar of a bike filled the Cave and Duke didn’t even look up. He knew the sound of Red Hood’s bike.

Man, he really had been in this family too long now, he thought and buried his face in his arms. Would they notice if he just went back to sleep?

“Perhaps some tea, Master Duke?”

Guess so.

“Thanks, Alfred,” Duke said and dragged himself properly upright to accept the mug of tea. At least it was warm.

Duke sipped at the tea, his favorite blend of course, as Jason sped into the Cave like the badass bastard he was. He spun his bike to a stop in one of the open spots.

“Hood,” Bruce addressed the other, the Batman™ gravel seeped into his voice even though he was dressed down in sweats, a hoodie Duke was pretty sure was actually Jason’s, and a brace on his wrist.

They all knew what Bruce meant though: report why an all-hands was called, why Tim wasn’t there, did those of them not suited up need to, was anyone they cared about hurt?

“No, old man, you report,” Jason said as he stalked up the steps towards them. “Who the fuck were you fucking fifteen years ago?”

Duke pinched himself to make sure he was actually awake and not still in bed having the most awkward dream. Alright, well, that hurt. So much for being saved from this conversation by the T-rex suddenly coming to life and breathing fire and them having to take it down with squirt guns and pool noodles.

He’d had some weird dreams since coming to live in the manor, alright?

“Um, ask what now, little wing?” Dick asked, looking between Jason and Bruce.

“I asked what I asked,” Jason said. He’d made it to the computer and they all turned obediently to look at the screen. Jason tugged off his helmet and set it down as he leaned against the console. “Who the fuck were you sleeping with at that time, Bruce?”

Bruce stared at Jason for a long moment. “Selina, mostly. Some socialites and such maybe still. What’s going on, Jason?”

“Oracle,” Jason said, not taking his eyes Bruce. “Red should have sent you some media. You’ll get why. Throw something fitting up on the screen.”

Despite what the superhero community and Gotham thought, everyone in the Cave knew that Batman was far from unflappable. They had all pulled one over on him before. But Duke had never seen Bruce looking like that before. As that image went up on the screen, it looked like someone had just shattered his brittle heart into pieces.

Duke couldn’t blame him. The sickly looking guy on the screen made Duke want to go find someone to punch and it wasn’t his face the other was wearing.

“Holy shit,” Steph whispered.

“Father, what is the meaning of this?” Damian ordered.

“Jay?” Dick prompted when Bruce seemed unable to find the words.

Jason scowled down at the ground. “Red and I were on patrol. He noticed… blood.”

Babs brought another image up on the left monitor without prompting. It was a Gotham alley like any other except it was splattered with a green spray.

“That is Lazarus water, that is not blood,” Damian said. His words were as haughty as ever, but there was a wobble under them.

“It’s blood for him,” Jason said. “Trust me. I held the kid as Red stitched him up. Knife wound. It was the only… new wound. Oracle, did Red send you…”

A new image popped up on the left screen and Jason closed his eyes. Duke had to swallow heavily and look away himself. He got now why Jason came in demanding who Bruce had slept with. Bruce’s heart was going to break all over again.

“Who?” Cass signed. Her motion was sharp and aggressive as she pulled her thumb from her chin after the sign.

“We don’t know,” Jason said. “He was jumpy.”

The picture of the horrible injuries was replaced by a video, clearly from Red’s suit. The guy was pressed against the wall, one hand gripped tight over the wet, green stain on his hoodie. He looked dwarfed in it.

“Hey, looks like you could use some help with that wound before you bleed out,” Tim said in the video. Duke could hear how he was keeping his tone carefully light.

“…just who are you supposed to be?” The guy’s voice could barely be heard.

“You must not be from Gotham. I’m Red Robin, one of the heroes here.”

The guy snorted, curling further into himself rather than relaxing at that. “So you’re just going to hand me over to the government then?”

Everyone in the cave stiffened at that, including Jason, which was interesting.

“Why would I do that? I’m a vigilante. Do you know how illegal what I do is? I just don’t want to see you bleed out. Maybe I can even take you to a safe house where you can rest.”

“So that you can interrogate me? No thanks.”

“I mean, I’d like to know who tried to kill a kid, but that’s to make them pay, not you.”

As the guy gave a horrible laugh, Duke reached out and touched Cass’ elbow, reminding her they were all there. These sort of things always hit her hard. She sent him a grateful smile before focusing back on the screen. “Maybe I deserve it.”

The guy tensed suddenly, weight shifting like he was about to bolt as the video slumped slightly sideways.

Jason’s voice rumbled from close to the camera. “You’re what, sixteen?”

“…fifteen?”

“Uncertain,” Cass spoke. Duke had to agree, the guy didn’t know how old he was, not for sure.

“Yeah, no fifteen year old deserves to bleed out. You know who I am?”

Duke tracked the motion of the hood as it slipped. The white hair was curious, considering Bruce, but if the guy was a meta or had been in the Lazarus Pits long enough… or worse, both…

“I’m Red Hood. I protect part of this city called Crime Alley. I’m not afraid to kill a shithead, especially ones that hurt kids, but I never harm a kid,” the Jason of the video said, something they all knew was true. It was an argument still often enough on bad days. “I’ve got places to put you if you needed somewhere safe; places not in the system. Or we can get you somewhere. Do you have a place to go to?”

The guy laughed again. “That’s the thing. I do. I might, I guess. Just no one is going to believe me.”

It was Tim who asked, “Why won’t they believe you? Where do you need to get?”

After the photo earlier, they all knew what the guy would look like when he lifted his head, but it still made Duke glance over at Bruce.

“I need to get to Bruce Wayne.”

-

Jason motioned and the video stopped there and went away.

Bruce closed his eyes.

I need to get to Bruce Wayne.

Another son he didn’t know about. Another son he failed to save from a horrible childhood because he didn’t know they existed.

“He didn’t want to see you right away, but we think that Tim and I convinced him that we could arrange a meeting between you and him,” Jason said.

“Of course,” Bruce answered instantly.

Jason just gave a little nod and explained, “He doesn’t trust the offer, or us, completely. It was enough to get him to the safe house. Passed out on the way.”

“And still asleep,” Tim piped up from the computer. “I’ve been running analysis on the… collar he’s wearing. It’s definitely a one off, but very professionally made. There’s, well, there was a tracker in it that’s been crushed. It’s meant to deliver a shock if someone messes with it, but I can disable that long enough to remove it.”

“You should wait until one of is is there,” Duke spoke up. “Just… in case there’s a reaction when it’s removed.”

Duke ducked his head when all eyes turned to him, still bashful as the newest member of the family. Bruce had been trying to reassure the other, but he knew that was far from his own strength. Clearly he needed to try a different approach.

“Just, you know, he’s clearly a meta? Of some type? It’s probably a containment collar and it could release a, you know, backlog? Of power?”

“Good thinking,” Bruce assured Duke.

“Someone better get here quick then. I hate seeing this thing on him,” Tim grumbled. At least he agreed.

Bruce looked back at the photo still on the center screen to the pale, drawn face. Even in sleep his son’s face was etched with pain.

“Bruce?” Dick prompted.

Bruce took a breath and made himself focus, to be Batman, not a grieving father. How often had he had to make that choice? “Dick, you and Jason both should go. Tim, as soon as the collar is off I want you and Oracle working on it but stay mindful of traps.”

“Will do,” Tim replied.

“And what of the rest of us?” Damian asked.

His youngest had come so far, but Bruce knew this would be a big disruption for him. They would have to watch him. He caught Cass’ eyes and she gave the slightest nod.

“I want Robin, Batgirl, and Spoiler out on the streets. Don’t ask questions yet, we don’t want to lead anyone to him, but get a sense of the mood around the big players. If this is already on anyone’s radar, I want to know.”

“And you need to make a list,” Jason said. “Kid talked in his sleep, begged his mom to stop. Could just be nightmares…”

“I’ll make one,” Bruce said. His bedroom proclivities were hardly what the papers reported, but with how this new son wasn’t certain of his age, it could be pre-Dick, or even at the start of Dick joining the family. It certainly meant there would be more names then any of the years later on. Whoever it was though, Bruce would find them.

He had to try and do that much for his son.

--- AN: Not entirely sure about Bruce's part here, but he's always harder for me to write! I think goal is to get at least one POV with all of the kids, so I guess Dick's is next likely! I'm super fuzzy today (fatigue, day fuck it, seven? Eight? Of this headache), so I hope this is at least decent~

Stay delightful, darlings!

I no longer tag, but you can subscribe to the masterpost to be notified!

[thenightwolf51]

So i originally had this idea when i reblogged this post by @saphushia but i wanna just seperate it out as its own little prompt.

A quick context is that Danny seems to be roaming around Gotham like some homeless cryptid, kinda Bus to Nowhere style but with more vigilante interaction and casual offerings of first aid. And the batkids are keeping their adoption bait First Aid Cryptid(tm) secret from Batman.

One set of tags in the reblogs from @little-pondhead caught my attention

I came up with both funny answers and an angsty answer for that "#why?" but here's the angsty one (though i promice i actually envision it to be more hurt/comfort with a lot of family fluff)

Actual Prompt⬇️⬇️

Something happens, maybe a reveal gone wrong, maybe he got capture by the GIW, maybe he lost Jazz and his parents somehow.

Whatever it is, it leaves Danny with a need to escaped to a new dimension which just so happens to end up being the DCU. He winds up in Gotham and is just trying to start over, easier said than done but at there's plenty of heros around so he doesn't need to go ghost and he can still patch up the local vigilantes to feed his obsession. He's just not up to being Phantom yet and he's still recovering from whatever happened in Amity, whether it be mentally or physically.

Plus these vigilantes are kinda fun to mess with. Danny can practically see the gears turning as they try to put together and make sense of his little "lore drops", that Red Robin almost reminds him of Wes in a way.

Its not like he really needs to hide anyways. There's no GIW here, no Anti-Ecto Acts, if it really comes down to it he could probably pass as meta and fall under those protection laws. Judging by Signal, Danny's pretty sure Batman's bluffing on the whole "hating metas" thing anyways.

It takes awhile before Danny actually does meet the big bat himself and the reaction he gets is nothing anyone was expecting.

You see theres one little detail danny couldn't have been warned about, and its that there just so happens to be a version of Jazz here.

Except this Jazz lost her Danny when they were in high school, as in full on dead and gone Danny, no halfas here, the portal simply did not work and it was just regular ole lethal electrocution that hit her little brother.

What if she grew up with a young Bruce somehow, whether it be because CPS took her from the Fentons after her Danny's death or Amity Park simply doesn't exist in the DCU making Gotham the city with the thinnest veil and thus where the Fenton's chose to settle down.

This Jazz is an adult in her 40s but was once a kid smart enough to go to Gotham Academy on scholarship (or maybe the Fenton's had enough money from patents?). A kid who took one look at young Bruce's grumpy little face and decided he needed a honest friend, one that wasn't after status or money.

This Jazz grew up being a secondary voice of reason for Bruce, ganging up with Alfred in their own crusade to enforce healthy habits on him in between their weekly tea sessions.

This Jazz lost her brother and could not only understand Bruce's resoning on a minor level but encouraged his planned "journey of self discovery and healing". (Though the bat costume he made when he came back was unexpected and she gave him a look to rival Alfred for it)

This Jazz grew up to be a social worker because if anyone had cared enough to take her away from the Fenton's sooner then her brother might've still been alive

This Jazz being the one Bruce calls when he first gets Dick because holy shit he has no idea what hes doing and "Jazz, i just became a father, help!"

This Jazz being a sort of aunt to all the Batkids and is a major influence that has led to their dynamics being similar to Wayne Family Adventures

Bruce goes pale and later calls Jazz after he finally gets a glimps/meets the so called "First Aid Cryptid" his kids have been obsessed with. Because this kid that he's looking at with the barely visible lichtenberg scars... that's a face he hasn't seen in little over 20 years, that's his old friend's long dead baby brother.

Bruce sees danny and his mind rapidly jumps to all sorts of possibilities. Is this a clone? Is this a trap? Are the Lazarus pits involved somehow? Time travel? He does consider a ghost but this kid is too solid and they're nowhere near the old dilapidated Fenton Works building

Eventually, down the line when they get the full story of Danny being from an alternate dimension, Jazz might try to adopt him. Which has potential to be unhealthy but i fully believe Jazz would be aware enough not to project her decades old grief on this Danny, who is so similar but so different to her brother.

(Because I think a Gotham raised Danny would've been similar to a young Jason in street smarts so this Amity raised Danny is noticeably different)

Danny on the other hand... not sure if i could say the same, especially if he just lost his Jazz before winding up in the DCU. But again, this is an adult Jazz in her late 40s with professional experience dealing with traumatized kids, and she'll do her best to help him through it

Im imagining Jazz and Bruce to have a more platonic friendship, maybe even see each other as family, but you could go with Parent Syndrome if you want

(And because i love to see other peoples ideas and opinions, @omnicrafts @ailithnight @atiyasnake @hdgnj @nelkcats @nerdpoe @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @dcxdpdabbles. Sorry i tag you guys so much but i like your writing, im eager to offer ideas, and your posts have been major sources of joy while ive been hyperfixating on DPxDC)

[diazsdimples]

Do you have any buddie fic recs that is a /must/ read for Buddie shippers ( sorry I don't ship Bucktommy 🥹)

Boy do I ever!!!

honey, when you call my name - @hippolotamus (Explicit)

"Eddie witnesses the Buck/Lucy kiss, has himself a little panic, and decides to do something about it when Buck does his Buck thing and won't stop pushing Eddie's buttons" It's spicy, it's sweet, it's packed full of feels and there was not a dry eye in the house!!

Whatever may come (your heart I will choose) - @hippolotamus (Mature)

"The Story of Eddie and Christopher Diaz" The number of times I yelled at Hippo while reading this,,,, it is incredible!! 30 chapters of Buckley-Diaz family feels, Eddie's heartbreaking backstory and FUCK if I could read it for the first time again, I would!

James Bond AU Series - @princessfbi (Teen & Explicit)

James Bond AU with 007 Agent Eddie Diaz and Buck as Q. Incredible. No notes. Read them back to back in one sitting, and then read them again immediately after. No prior knowledge of James Bond needed (cause I sure didn't have any) but be prepared to have the sudden urge to go watch all the films.

Kink Club AU Series - @princessfbi (Explicit)

"Canon compliant one shots where Eddie works at a Kink Club as a side hustle and meets Buck there before his first shift in 2x01." This series is insanely good. 5 perfect fics of the boys and BDSM, it is incredibly hot, full of feels and just.... yeah. Incredible. Please do read the tags before each fic though, especially if BDSM isn't your thing.

because we'll all arrive in heaven alive - @neverevan (Explicit)

"During a search and rescue, Eddie disappears without a trace, leaving Buck to grapple with the sudden possibility of a life without him." I was literally on the edge of my seat with every single chapter release. It's SO angsty and delicious and absolutely incredible, and I think also very feasible for what could happen in canon should Timothy ever decide to be as mean (affectionate) as Newbie was by putting the boys through this.

Out Of Order, Still In Line - @neverevan (Explicit)

"When Buck finally gets to the Clinic, the long awaited release doesn’t seem to come; cue Eddie to the rescue." One of the first Buddie fics I read and it altered my brain chemistry a little. Lord have mercy. It's just ... you gotta read it. Like, Jesus 🥵

My Blood on Your Skin (My Rose on Your Snow) - @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels (Explicit)

"When Eddie needs cash and fast to take care of Christopher, his LAFD Academy buddy suggests a job as a bouncer at Elysium - an exclusive sex club in downtown Los Angeles. Eddie doesn't care what goes on there, so long as he's paid, but he finds he cares a lot bout the club's enigmatic owner, Evan Buckley, and it's not long before the two of them are violating every boss-employee rule in the book. But there's something different about Buck and the club, something not quite... human. If Eddie wants to keep Buck, he's going to have to delve into the world of immortals, and all the risks that implies." Honestly I think the blurb says it all. I read this at my cousin's wedding (literally just before the ceremony and during the reception fsdkjdfs) because I literally couldn't put it down. Incredible Greek Gods integration and so. fucking. hot. Sorry Caleb, I hope your matrimony is holy but this was so worth it.

stuck now so long, we just got the start wrong - @daffi-990 (Unrated at present)

"Probational Firefighters Evan “Buck” Buckley and Eddie Diaz meet on a call which ends with them at odds with each other. As the months roll by, they keep running into each other on the job, much to Eddie’s dismay and Buck’s delight. Can they put aside their first opinions and misunderstandings and allow the seeds of friendship, and possibly something more, to take root?" This AU has been eating me alive with snippets for the last few months and the chapters are FINALLY being published!! Stay tuned for weekly updates about our idiots being - well - idiots. Daffi has written them so well and I don't think I could yell louder about this one if I wanted.

Cow Eyes - @theotherbuckley (General)

"'Eddie's in hospital and Buck tries not to break down' fic except its actually just a cute silly little fic" Exactly what is says on the tin. Cute, silly, fluffy and entirely adorable. High!Eddie is fucking hilarious and Worried!Buck has my whole ass heart. Love this fic, have read it many times, will read many times more

Both Blade and Branch - @cal-daisies-and-briars (Mature)

"The chances of being struck by lightning twice are incredibly minute, but Buck still manages to pull it off. During a double date with Marisol and Natalia, nonetheless. Eddie manages to resuscitate him, but as Buck recovers from yet another trauma, Eddie can’t help but notice there’s something very different about him. He’s not quite sure what version of Buck he got back." Orpheus and Eurydice vibes but somehow more heartbreaking because it's the Boys? Literally every chapter I was gobsmacked and the fact that I couldn't read it in one sitting due to Life™️ was frankly criminal.

what humans do - @gayhoediaz

""…and the thought that she had just escaped death by such a narrow margin made me realize the intensity of my feelings toward her.” Eddie swallows. “‘What’s the matter?’ I couldn’t tell her, so I kissed her instead,” Buck goes on, and since Eddie’s eyes are focused on the page, they drift ahead a little bit, and the next few lines have him swallowing once again, taking his hand back to brace himself against the mattress as he slowly starts to push himself up to sit. “Kissing is what humans do when words have reached a place they can’t escape from. It is a switch to another language. The kiss was an act of defiance, maybe of war. You can’t touch us, is what the kiss said. ‘I love you,’ I told her, and as I smelled her skin, I knew I had never wanted anyone or anything more than I wanted her…” Buck trails off when Eddie reaches for the book, gently luring it out of his grasp. " One of the best getting together fics I've read. So sweet, so hot, full of feels, and also just very 🤯 in many places. Just insanely well written and perfect imagery.

Also I have a small list of authors whom I love dearly:

@spotsandsocks @exhuastedpigeon @wildlife4life @thewolvesof1998 @thekristen999

@steadfastsaturnsrings @watchyourbuck @fortheloveofbuddie @rainbow-nerdss @bidisasterevankinard

@aroeddiediaz @jesuisici33 @wikiangela @loveyouanyway @kitteneddiediaz

@actuallyitsellie @dangerpronebuddie @loserdiaz @elvensorceress @underwaterninja13

@smilingbuckley

Literally anything these wonderful people (and the authors of the above fics) have written is well worth a read. I would rec all of their words and make individual recs for all their fics but I fear I simply do not have the words.

I might also humbly suggest some of my fics, which you can find here! Happy reading!!!

[android-and-ale]

Headcanon du jour: What if most Vulcan’s aren’t massively bigoted space racists?

The majority Vulcans we’ve met have essentially been Vulcan Royalty. You know, the institution which, here on Earth, is notorious for being bigoted, backwards, and inbred. 

Tuvok and T’Lynn aren’t like that. 

But then, they’re not direct descendants of Surak, son of a galactically famous ambassador, born and raised in the capital city of Shi’Khar, heirs to a massive estate on the homeworld, and educated in schools where admission to the elite Vulcan Science Academy is taken for granted. 

Spock is the adult Vulcan equivalent of Prince Archie, if Harry hadn’t left The Institution.

Of COURSE we get flashbacks of Vulcan kids bullying Spock! The Learning Center is equivalent to the sort of British Boarding School where they sent King Charles. These places are meant to break kids. They’re all about exclusivity and maintaining the elite status quo. After all, maintaining tradition is only logical, and holy shit do Vulcans love their rituals - even if those rituals include hardcore school bullying. 

Look at how the British royal family and media treat Meghan Markle. Now look at how all the Vulcans in Spock’s orbit treat Amanda Grayson. If Amanda had married a nice Vulcan biologist somewhere out in the colonies no one would have cared, but no, she married the single most high profile Vulcan Royalty of his generation. Plenty of Vulcans were no doubt jealous she snatched up that prize of a bondmate, then masked it as criticizing his choice for being “illogical in the extreme.” 

I like to think that most Vulcans are just out there living their best IDIC lives. 

Meanwhile, the S’chn T’gai family is out there living by Royalty Rules in everything they do. 

Mutiny? Pshaw. Our great grandmother T’Pau knows a guy who knows a guy who will make the paperwork disappear. Stealing a ship? Well, the family could buy it outright, but that would be gauche. Starting a cult? Sybok is a direct descendant of Surak himself. Who better to lead a revolution?

[myhamartiaishubris]

Ben Hargreeves is the worst written best character and I can prove it

This is a poorly organized meta/essay about my baby boy who got massacred. Originally posted in the discord server so some of y'all have seen it already.

Let me be clear: this is a love letter to my favourite Hargreeves boy. I could write him better. I could fix him (narratively).

Here's why Ben is a great character who, paradoxically, was very badly written.

Umbrella Ben

Listen. Listen to me. Ben Hargreeves was, from the moment I saw him, my absolute favourite character. He's already dead? Doomed by the narrative before the narrative even begins? Also, an East Asian character in the year of our Lord 2018?? I was on board. And Brelly Ben gets a lot of good moments! You know that scene where Klaus is in the motel closet, tied up, and Ben says something like, "How does it feel being helpless? This is how I feel, watching my brother piss his life away." Um, hello?? That's such a delicious line.

Because up until this point Ben's been kind of quiet, in that dead broody way, or we saw his young self being soft and reluctant. But suddenly we realize, oh, Ben isn't nice. In fact, he's kind of nasty to his addict brother, and you get this kernel of a glimpse into his character. This is a character who might have been soft-spoken in life, but death and the years since have shredded him down to all his razor edges. He's still that bookish little Ben, except he's not little and he's frustrated, angry, traumatized, and in pain.

And season 2 builds on this! He's willing to violate Klaus's personal boundaries just for a taste of life again. Holy shit that's so delicious. My problem is that, especially in season 2, this isn't explored nearly as much as it could be. Ben's possession shenanigans are mostly played for comedy, when in fact we could be delving into the implications of Ben's character and his relationship with Klaus. You have this character who's kind, who (from what we know so far) represented the "good" of the academy, who loves his brother so so hard and it hurts him so bad to see Klaus hit rock bottom every time. The little "I missed you guys" in season 2? Devastating. And yet despite his goodness he is capable of being a bad person, and he repeatedly hurts those around him (namely Klaus).

So surely this is part of his arc, right? This is going to be explored and resolved. Right?

The Season 2 Ending

So the thing is, I didn't immediately hate the way they had Ben move on / die to save Viktor. I was sad to see my favourite character go, but also excited to see where the writers would take that storyline. Because, obviously, it wasn't over. Right? Obviously Ben's arc isn't finished, he hasn't resolved his frustrations, his complicated relationship with Klaus is never fully untangled, plus the rest of the family never get a moment of real closure with him (except maybe Diego). So clearly, it wasn't over. Right?

Well, in light of season 4, I can confidently come back and say that killing Brelly Ben off here was a stupidass decision.

And here's why: you've effectively splintered his arc in half. Starting from season 3, Ben is an entirely different character, with an entirely different arc that needs to be built from the ground up. While everyone else gets 4 seasons of development, Ben only gets 2, both times. And I'm so not over the fact that his arc isn't over. We saw Ben do some reprehensible shit to Klaus, especially in season 2 with all that possession shit! And we just. Never hear from him again? That's bullshit.

But anyway, since we're here, let's make peace with being here. Hey, Justin H Min is still playing a version of Ben, and he seems interesting, if way different! Surely this will have some interesting implications.

Sparrow Ben

Oh god, Sparrow Ben. In terms of Ben's character writing, season 3 is... fine. Like I said, it suffers from effectively fracturing his arc in half and having to start over, and this isn't the complicated, kind but frustrated and prickly ghost Ben I originally fell in love with. But ok, I do like Justin, and EA rep is still a win to me, so let's go with the flow.

For the most part, season 3 does a solid job. We get some solid beats relating to Ben's ambition and inferiority complex being Number 2. There's a bit of overacting on Justin's part, but hey, that's camp. (I think. I have no idea if I'm using that word right. Am I hip with the kids?)

I really, really loved Ben's moment with Sloane as she's getting married, because it highlights the core of this Ben's character: someone who desperately yearns for family but has forced himself to be all hard shell and soldier. In a way, he's the other end of Brelly Ben's spectrum. (Like forsterite and fayalite - all Mg on one end, Fe on the other.) How much of this Ben is family softness, how much of it is defense mechanism and lashing out?

And then of course - the thing I've been craving so badly - the in-universe comparison to Brelly Ben. This was done... underwhelmingly, if I'm honest. I liked that Ben had a moment of crisis where he couldn't live up to the Umbrellas' dead version of himself, and his moment with Klaus was nice, but in light of season 4 it becomes clear that we could have had more. I wanted him to have an entire arc about it - after all, it's a pretty significant aspect of your character to be "the worse version of yourself from another timeline." (Refer to @vyther16's Gongye Jiwu fic.) I feel like there's a lot of meta you could pull from that, about how your siblings who aren't your siblings look at you and see someone different. Someone you won't be. Someone you can't be, even if you tried, so why bother trying? And they really don't dig through that at all, which is disappointing.

The tentacle samurai fight is badass, though.

Season 4

Oh buddy oh boy. There's so much dumpster fire here, but I'll start with the season 3 loose ends and then move on to season 4's own problems.

1) Sloane. Luther picks Ben up from prison, so I thought they might have an interesting bonding moment over Sloane - after all, they're the two people who cared most about her. But actually no, apparently Ben doesn't give a shit about the one real sister he actually had left at the end of s3.

2) The subway thing. Wasn't he in Korea? My grasping-at-straws ass truly thought that might have been Brelly Ben in the reset timeline, and we'd get a Ben-Ben confrontation or a battle in the minds thing. But I guess that doesn't matter.

3) The Jennifer Incident. So we all know that everyone forgetting about an incident they explicitly reference is stupid, right? Especially because the name Jennifer only exists because they reference it in s3. Ben obsessively draws Jennifer, and then he doesn't recognize or know her? Kill me.

The continuation of his arc is also just sloppy, if it even exists. No more identity crisis about being the worse Ben, no more secret yearning for family or inferiority complex about being a good soldier. Suddenly his arc amounts to, uh, being an asshole and getting hit with sex pollen so powerful it ends the world.

And look, there is a world where Sparrow Ben spiking everyone with marigold could parallel with Brelly Ben's consent problems with Klaus. There is a world where Sparrow Ben dying because of Jennifer could echo Brelly Ben's death in a haunting, tragic, destined kind of way.

But, uh, none of that happens. Here we are, finally getting a Ben-centric season, and it's this. Being relegated to a plot device in your own season. Looking back and realizing that you were always the plot device, even in season 2. Carrying all that tragedy in your little ghost body and being treated like Chekov's waterlogged gun.

And I can't help but look back at season 1, Klaus trying so desperately to prove Ben's existence, and contrast it with the literal next season where a single throwaway line from Klaus sidelines Ben for a whole season. And then he dies. And he dies again.

Fucking hell.

It feels like I'm being made a fool of. Oh, you cared about this East Asian character? You wanted him to have narrative weight and character presence instead of being a plot device for the benefit of his White brothers? Idiot.

Because you'll still be here anyway, right? You'll grasp onto your crumbs for a cool EA character, you'll let us run a character through a trash compactor and keep pretending he's a good character because you latched onto this one East Asian protagonist and you don't want to admit that maybe you should have let go years before.

[syn4k]

if tumblr existed in empires s1 then the dashboard would look a little bit like this i think

🏜️ cactus-abolitionist

MY CAT JUST RAN OUTSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SANDSTORM IM

🌿 theres-no-place-like-gnome Follow

oh no are they okay?? i don't know how serious sandstorms are but maybe you could go after them?

🏜️ cactus-abolitionist

Sand blowing past you at upwards of 75kmh. It's also really hot sand. It's been known to literally strip the flesh off of bones wait post cancelled my cat just walked back in she's fine guys

9 notes

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

visiting the Mythlands today and me and my family found a neat lil natural floating island while hiking

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

to the people in my notes going "what the fuck": have y'all never heard of physics?

🥀 remorse-is-remorse-of-course Follow

OP WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU LIVE WHERE THIS IS NORMAL

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

western mezalea?? lol

🔧 verylostmechanic Follow

well that explains a lot.

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

Can I Help You

🔧 verylostmechanic Follow

ain't emperor joel dating a fish

🏺 clay-the-dirt-man Follow

yeah, they're married. Isn't Emperor Joey a demonfucker????

#dude why are the notes arguing over the ethics of being ruled by a demon 😭 what the fuck #op im so sorry

11,798 notes

🌸 prismarined Follow

...i'm in this class thats being taught by the headmaster today and she smells like weed. i'm not gonna say anything but like. what

🦦 i-like-otters

yeah the academy's just like that. as long as she's not like, actively dying or anything she's probably fine??? idk o7

#reblog

2 notes

⌛️ thelittlesandthatcan Follow

I JUST GOT BACK FROM A BUSINESS TRIP WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THE COPPER KING'S GONE

🐟 kelpieselkie Follow

I DONT KNOW I DONT LIVE THERE BUT apparently nobody expected it either?? like some people are saying it was the Dragon Fight that did it (i know Emperor Joey came out with statements that Emperor Riffs actually helped kill the dragon and unleash the demon but its been two days and we all know that he hates that guy so idk) but nobody actually knows anything. it's crazy bro

⌛️ thelittlesandthatcan Follow

my mom said the royal housekeepers found a note from him alongside like everything he owned but they're not saying what's on the note yet. holy shit

237 notes

🐠 fishfucker997

this will definitely have an impact on the local trout population

🏰 all-the-kings-hen Follow

the Guardian of the Thirteenth Empire just died and you're worried about fish???? be for real omg

🐠 fishfucker997

have you people never heard of references in your life

🏰 all-the-kings-hen Follow

why are you interacting with me i literally have "codlanders dni" in my bio

🐠 fishfucker997

my brother in cod you literally reblogged this from me??

🐠 fishfucker997

they blocked me lmao

#how is this post only 2 days old

197,233 notes

🐪 camel Follow

she dragon fight on my copper king til i disappear

elvfish-deactivated-20210503

who the hell let a camel onto this site lol

🐪 camel Follow

You will die at age 87 with nobody to mourn you and no stars still shining to watch you go.

#911 i just witnessed a murder

87,546 notes

🌻 helantheia

anyone know who made emperor pearl's dress? it's really pretty :0

0 notes

📷 desertphotography

West of the River of Plenty, Pixandria

2,307 notes

[whore-4-drewstarkey]

The Night We Met Pt. 2 - Dad!Rafe Cameron x Fem!Reader

Summary: when rafe finds out that his and Y/N son is slowly going down the same path he did, he decides to open up to their son about his past.

Warning: lots of angst (sorry), heavy drug use, drug overdose talk, alcohol consumption, physical violence, dark themes basically. (so sorry). lmk if i forgot any!! PLEASE DONT READ IF ANY OF THESE WARNINGS TRIGGER YOU!!!

A/N: i did a poll to see which fic you all wanted and this was the winner. i can’t remember how this idea popped in my head but it did. i really hope you all enjoy this one!! FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS WELCOMED! PLEASE BE KIND<33 ps remember to share and like!

W/C: 3.6k+ (holy fuck)

it had been seventeen years since Y/N and rafe had gotten married. the two of them had a son together, archie, who had just turned sixteen years-old. archie had definitely taken after his father looks. he was tall, with dirty blonde hair, and striking blue eyes that would catch anyone’s attention. he had also taken after his fathers athletic abilities, as he was the star quarterback for the kook academy on kildare island. but, unfortunately the worst way he took after his father, was the intense drug use that was slowly starting to make him an addict; just like his father, rafe cameron, was a mere twenty-one years-ago.

as archie had left for school one friday morning on figure eight, Y/N had entered his room to grab his dirty clothes to wash. as she’d grabbed some of his clothes, a small plastic bag had fallen from one of his khaki pants pockets, and onto the wooden floor of his bedroom next to Y/N feet. bending down, Y/N picked the small packet up to investigate it a little more, until realization hit, as tears began to brim her eyes. it was a packet of cocaine. the only thing she felt like she needed to do in that moment was call her husband who’d been in his office downtown at the cameron development. so she did. she immediately pulled out her phone and pressed rafes contact name, waiting for him to pick up as it rang through her ear.

“baby, what’s up? everything okay? you never call while i’m at work” rafe asked Y/N warily as he sat his falcon pen back down on his oak desk, ignoring the documents that needed his signature.

“i-i think y-you n-need t-t-to come home now” Y/N managed to stutter out, laundry basket long forgotten as she’d made her way to rafes home office, where there was the most privacy.

“what? why? baby, tell me what’s wrong” he insisted.

Y/N swallowed sharply before she began to stutter, and beat around the bush, not wanting to trigger him, “i-i found something i-in archie’s bed-bedroom, but i-i want to wa-warn you, i do-don’t want you tr-triggered hunny”

and in that instant, as soon as she said the world ‘trigger’, he knew she’d found not only drugs, but his old drug of choice; cocaine, in their sons bedroom. he let out a shaky breath of air, as he brought his left hand up to run through his shaggy curtain bangs he’d been growing out from his old buzzcut. “i’ll be home in ten, please don’t worry about me and my trigger, i’ll be fine hunny” he reassured his wife of seventeen-years. and with that he hung up immediately, leaving his office and telling his assistant it was family matters.

as soon as rafe put his porsche in park in the driveway, he ran into his and Y/N house which was located on figure eight, calling out Y/N name, “Y/N WHERE ARE YOU BABY? Y/N???!”

“keep it down rafael, i’m in your office you dumbass” she hushed her husband as she walked out of the french doors that lead to the said room. she grabbed his wrist and yanked him into his office, before she started to cry all over again.

rafe quickly wrapped Y/N into his arms, sending her hushed murmurs of comfort and love, easing her to calm down. she was so heartbroken her little boy was going down the same awful path his father once did. it was hard enough for her to have found rafe almost dead after his overdose twenty-one years ago. she had to go to a couple of years of therapy to recover from that incident. she couldn’t even bare the thought about losing her only child to the same demons that almost took rafe out years before. she clutched onto rafe’s forearm as he held her tight into his arms, trying to steady her shaky frame. he swiftly moved the two of them to his office chair located behind his desk, sitting down and bringing her into his lap where he continued to cradle her fragile head. he pecked her head repeatedly before speaking softly, “hey. hey, Y/N look at me hunny” as he held her cheeks to make her look at him. and in that moment his heart shattered. seeing the love of his life hurt tremendously broke him to his core. swiping some of her tears away with the pads of his thumbs he began to speak again, “we will figure this out love. we will get him the help he needs. i’ll do right by him since my father never could for me. he will be okay. i promise. even if i have to tell him about my addiction. got it sweetheart?” and with that, Y/N bit her bottom lip, and nodded her head to rafe’s reassurance.

“good, now, where is it? i promise i will be fine, you don’t have to worry about me. okay?” rafe asked Y/N as he lightly brushed her curtain bangs back behind her ear with the back of his hand, bringing his lips to hers for a delicate but loving kiss. she placed one of her shaky hands to his scruff covered cheeks, stroking his cheekbone softly, “promise you’ll be fine?”

“promise” he cooed as he grabbed her hand that had been stroking his cheekbone and placed a chaste kiss to the palm of it. she then used her other hand to grab the bag of white powder from her sweatshirt pocket, dropping it in rafe’s large, veiny hand.

“how are we going to approach him about it? you are the expert on this kinda stuff aren’t you?” Y/N attempted to tease rafe to lighten the mood. she’d always had a dark sense of humor, just like rafe.

smirking rafe responded,” hahaha very funny. i mean i am i guess? i know how not to approach him if that helps.”

“how so?”

“as long as we don’t do what ward would do, i think we will be fine baby” rafe sighed out at the mention of his fathers name. a cold-hearted man is what he was. was no father to rafe…. ever. hell, he didn’t even acknowledge him as his father these days, only called the man by his name.

“i guess you’re right” Y/N sighed as she stood back up, preparing herself for what was to come in the next few hours.

“we got this baby, we got this. yeah?” rafe once again tried to reassure the woman of his dreams as she nodded her head in response.

——————-

rafe and Y/N had taken a seat on the living room couch as they waited for their beloved son archie to arrive home from school. he’d football practice, but had received a text from rafe demanding him to come home and skip the practice, adding in that he had already talked to archie’s coach, excusing his absence. archie, being just like his father was, obligated to make his father happy, came home in a hurry.

when the front door opened frantically, followed by hurried steps and commotion, Y/N scooted closer to rafe for comfort. she didn’t know what was going to happen or how it would go down. rafe placed his large, veiny hand on her thigh, giving it a light squeeze for reassurance that everything would be okay in the end.

“we’re in here archie!” rafe had hollered from the living room couch as he and Y/N both waited anxiously for archie to arrive.

“h-hey, what’s up? what was so important that i had to miss practice?” archie questioned as rafe motioned for him to take a seat on the couch opposite of the one Y/N and him were seated on.

“umm archie, your mom went to your room this morning to do your laundry and found something a little concerning. i wanna state that we aren’t blaming you and we aren’t criticizing you whatsoever bud, we love you and want the best for you” rafe spoke warily to his and Y/N young son who sat opposite of them, with worried eyes. archie knew immediately what Y/N found when his father said laundry. he had forgotten to put his drug of choice in his secret spot in his dresser.

rafe continued before archie could even speak a word, “ archie, bud, i get it. i know the high is great and all. i know what you’re going through a-“ rafe had been cut off mid sentence by a triggered archie who had begun to yell at his father.

“really? how in the hell would you, of all people understand how good it makes me feel when i get a little bit of a kick?”

and with that outburst and those words coming from his precious archie, came rafe’s sadness and anxiousness. he had to tell him about his addiction and more specifically; he had to tell him about his overdose that dreadful night Y/N had found him in his bedroom. frustratedly, he pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling loudly as he tried to find the words to tell archie about his horrible past. he tried to sniffle back some tears, but gave up as he had remembered the only reason why he used to hold back his emotions; his father. so, he let a few tears fall down his stubbled cheeks as Y/N had an arm around his shoulders rubbing his back while the other rubbed his inner thigh to comfort him, all while whispering sweet nothings only rafe and her could hear.

“you got this” she whispered as he raised his head again to make eye contact with archie.

“archie…” he started as he composed himself for what he was about to say. “when i was your age, i used to go out and party a lot. when i first started doing cocaine i was only fifteen years-old. nobody knew in my family. hell, it’s not like anyone would have even cared if they had known anyways” rafe shook his head as he took a deep breath to continue.

“and by the time i was seventeen, all i did was party, drink, snort cocaine and get into a lot of physical altercations. i was heavily addicted to the drug. and some of those altercations i had were so bad that some people were even hospitalized. i was not a good person and i sure as hell was a danger to myself and those who were around me.” he swallowed the lump in the back of his throat as he was about to tell archie about a time when he had hurt topper so bad he had to go to the hospital for many reasons. he still couldn’t recall what had happened that night. and yet for some odd reason, topper was still his best friend to this day minus Y/N, she would be his bestest friend til death do them part.

“once, i got so high that when your uncle topper tried to get me to ease up on the lines and shots and get me to go home, i literally blacked out and beat the living shit out of him. he was hospitalized for two days. i broke two of his ribs, his nose, many lacerations from a beer bottle and a concussion. cocaine, let alone any drug for that matter, is not the answer to anyone’s problems. i would know” he pleaded with archie as rafe’s face scrunched up in hurt as he remembered the aftermath of that fight like it was yesterday.

“b-but, buddy, what’s worse is the night i overdosed on cocaine when i was seventeen years-old, twenty-one years ago. if it weren’t for your mom coming over to find your aunt sarah to do some project for school, i wouldn’t be here right now. it was your fucking mother who found me being delirious and aggressive. i almost hit her because i was so out of my mind. but then before i could do anything, i passed out and went out cold, all while my heart almost stopped beating” rafe croaked out as Y/N continued to rub rafe’s back as this had always been a tough subject to talk about after she had told him she was the one who’d found him that night. he continued again once he cleared his throat, “that night i had done a few extra lines and what i didn’t know at the time was that they were laced with small amounts of fentanyl and that’s why my heart rate was so low. i had to have THREE doses of NAR-CAN archie. and then i went into a 2-day coma” rafe started to cry again, not from the remembrance of that night but to the idea that that could be his boy one day.

“i-i didn’t know that dad” archie stuttered out as he looked down to his lap.

rafe continued, “my dad was so adamant about keeping the fentanyl part private that he paid people off so it wouldn’t ruin his deals. and he scrutinized me for doing drugs. he never asked me why. and sure as hell never really cared about me. i promised myself i would do right by you since my father never could do right by me. so that’s why we’re talking and not judging you for your choices.”

“why did you do it?” archie asked his father the question very few people had ever asked him throughout these 23 years since he’d first been introduced to that drug.

rafe, who’d been taken aback responded with a shake of the head confused, “wait what?”

“why did you start using?”

“um, my mom had died when i was ten and from that point on i wasn’t okay mentally. i didn’t have the love a child needs from their mother, instead i had a greedy, self centered, physically and emotionally abusive, selfish man for a father. he only ever seemed to care more about both of your aunts, money and my step mom, than he did me. he would hardly even look my way. he never truly loved me. so when i got to the kook academy and went to my first party, i was offered a line and took it. it made me feel what i thought was happy but looking back at it i just felt numb. but it was just a way for me to forget about my own shit and past and my emotions. using cocaine allowed me to forget everything that had happened. but with it came hurting others i loved and cared about. which is more important to me than myself. i’d do anything to go back and not get addicted. i hated hurting the ones i loved most. and it took years to build my relationships back up all because of my addiction. addiction is a demon. i’m lucky i got clean. you’re lucky you have us, supportive parents who will be there for you every step of the way” rafe spoke with passion as he looked deep into his boys blue eyes that had resembled his own.

“dad, i’m scared. how do i even get clean? how’d you get clean?”

“baby, archie, i don’t wanna find you like i found your father. that night was the scariest night of my life. i had ptsd from that night and had to go to therapy for a few years due to it. i don’t know if i can do that again, especially if it’s you hunny” Y/N cooed as she leaned forward to caress her boy’s face, pushing back his curtain bangs that resembled his fathers when he was his age.

“arch, it’s okay to be scared. hell, i was so scared when i woke up in the hospital and the doctor told my dad and i that i had overdosed on cocaine and fentanyl. when i heard that i wanted to get clean, but i was so scared. and my father had always told me anytime i showed emotion of any kind, to man up. to not show emotion. that’s what lead me to the drugs in the first place. embrace your emotions bud. even if it means you’re scared. it’s healthier that way.” rafe attempted to explain how he felt about expressing one’s emotions.

prepared to answer the second half of archie’s question rafe took an even breath in and out before he spoke, “i got clean probably the worst and most painful way you can do it. i went cold turkey. which takes a lot of determination. after seeing your aunts so scared, i wanted oh-so badly to get clean. but i was hard on the drug. i had gone to another party one night my senior year of high school, and had just quit two days before, when i met your mom. well i thought that was the first time i’d met her because in reality i had no recollection of the night of my overdose. had no idea your mom was the one who’d saved my life. anywho, i basically felt drawn to her and just being around her and talking to her kept me grounded and in line with what i needed to do. and that was get clean. i couldn’t go to a rehab because then my fathers business partners would’ve heard and his deals would’ve fallen through. so i did it on my own. but archie buddy, if your addiction is as bad as mine was by the time i was sixteen, then i want you to know your mom and i want to put you in rehab. it’s the healthiest and best way to get clean”

“i-i never knew that dad. i-i’m sorry. and mom used to go to parties?” archie frowned, as he tried to lighten the mood just slightly, earning a small chuckle from both of his parents.

“and that’s why i’m telling you bud. and yeah your mom was one hell of a beer pong partner” rafe smirked as he side-eyed his wife Y/N. “but arch, bud, i need to know, how often do you use? i promise i won’t judge you. okay? i’ve been through this same boat years ago. i’m here for you. we’re here for you” rafe cocked an eyebrow up as he questioned his only son.

“every other day sometimes every day. it just depends. i only started doing it after my injury last football season. yah know, when i broke my wrist? i was just so upset and frustrated that i couldn’t play for the rest of the season and then before i knew it, i was addicted i guess” archie huffed out in anger, just like his father used to do all those years ago. just thinking about how easily he got addicted to the drug pissed him off beyond means. the boy just wanted to get clean.

“fuck” rafe sighed as he bent his head down in his large hands. how had he not even noticed the change in archie? why hadn’t he even thought about how that injury could’ve affected him mentally? was it because he’d been working so much? was he just a horrible father like his own dad was? tears began to brim his eyes once again.

“dad, don’t feel bad about this please. it’s not your fault. i already know that you’re thinking you’ve being working too much and that’s why you haven’t noticed. that’s not true. i’ve just been hiding it really well” archie, spoke to his father as tears brimmed his own eyes now.

“i’m trying not to archie. it’s just hard. are you open to going to rehab or not?” rafe questioned as he lifted his head, swallowed his pride, and pushed back his tears to stay strong for archie and Y/N during these hard times. “i just want to express to you buddy, how lucky you are. this is a great opportunity. you’re lucky to have parents who truly care and love you because i never had that after my mom passed. and we both want the best for you” he continued on.

“of course i’ll go” archie quivered out as he looked at both of his parents. he felt so guilty to have put them through such a mess. especially his mother, Y/N, as she’d been through almost losing rafe all those years ago. he couldn’t even imagine the damage that must’ve done to her mentally when she found him. and to think that that could be him next that she found broke his heart to a thousand pieces.

“i-im sorry” the sixteen year-old boy croaked out to his two loving parents as he lunged forward to hug them both.

“we love you too baby, and we’re gonna get you the help you need” Y/N cooed to her little boy as she pecked his head.

“we’ll get you the help i never got, bud, okay? you’re gonna get through this, okay? got it?” rafe asked his son as he held archie’s face in his hands, making eye contact.

“yeah. im a cameron, of course i got this” he chuckled. “us cameron’s are stubborn and can make it through anything. right?” he questioned his father as he looked up at him.

“damn right. i love you archie, and i’m proud of you for taking such a big step. you’re gonna get clean and you’re gonna stay clean” he patted his son’s cheek as the three soaked in the last of their presence’s before archie left for rehab.

rafe sighed with a smile. he knew archie would get better…. after all he is a cameron for christ sake. ‘it’s hard to get rid of them’ he thought to himself as archie left that night for rehab. he smiled to himself because he knew in the end it would all work out. it always did for a cameron.

@slut4drudy @runningfrom2am @maybankslover

[witchinatree]

i finished season 4 of TUA and i just cried for a few minutes?? not even how the showrunners intended i was just so UPSET at how they ended it??

it was so fucked up for the ending to basically be "everything you've done to grow and change was pointless because your existance is the problem. the only solution is literally kill yourself" and then they die?? cease to exist?? they just looked us in the eyes and said the rest of the show does not matter because in the end none of it even happened

i'm just so fucking upset? this show meant a lot to so many people and i personally thought of it as like this message of 'hey! you can always be better and you will always be loved!!' and just a realistic (minus the powers LMAO) fucked up family dynamic??

and then they switch on us and say 'actually no you were never really loved and you should die because you can't fix anything' ????

i hated that they split up after everything they went through, they didn't have to live together but fuck they could've seen each other more often?? lived closer?? (viktor.)

idk. seasons 1-2 were peak. maybe unpopular opinion but i liked season 3 as well, i'm not usually very critical of TV shows and i didn't have a lot of issues with it. season 4 feels like i just got run over by a train and then shot in the chest

[thatseitagremlin]

gremlyn's danganronpa: despair time x digimon au

born to draw / world is a fuck / blender em all / i am au man / 410,757,864,530 unfinished wips /ref

everyone in the image is in elementary school age. this started because i wanted to draw kid charles in a stupidly oversized lab coat and stupidly oversized square glasses and it spiraled into this (though the au itself has been in the works for far longer)

as usual, yapping about the au under cut! but there is a LOT of text down there holy Shit. allusions to Certain DRDT Character Development Spoilers; knowledge about digimon isn't necessary but will be helpful! :)

the au's bones / plot summary

ultimate titles and hope's peak academy do not exist in this universe. the tragedy never happened. everyone still has their respective talents, which helps some characters (e.g. min is a normal student living an average life) and hurts others

mai akasaki is this universe's first ever chosen child / digidestined. she encounters her partner digimon, makes all kinds of friends (everyone else in the pic except teruko) who she loves dearly (even if all of them drive her up the wall in their own unique ways), and eventually (high school age), all of them get isekai'd to the digital world!! they get to go on a fun adventure and improve as people and be closer friends!!!!!

until the part where mai dies an untimely, Brutal death during the final battle. which was Not Supposed To Happen. Whoops!

her death and the circumstances surrounding it cause her friend group to fracture, and most of them do not cope well at all.

i'll probably make a separate post for this, but tl;dr after the final battle; hu and ace initially stay in the digital world to clean up the final battle's aftermath, with differing outlooks on life -> charles has a breakdown + remembers his buried childhood memories, preventing him to function for a good while -> whit tries to take care of him just as he once did but his shitty coping mechanisms and refusal to acknowledge anything make the overall group disorder even worse -> david secludes himself in the digital world after a week of no contact -> xander tries looking for him and david avoids him. worst situationship in existence -> j and arei run away from their respective families and stay together. funniest situationship in existence -> arei realizes how fucked everyone is and is determined to honor mai's memory by keeping tabs on everyone and making sure her stupid friends will be alright

a few years after (depending on how old everyone actually is in canon— college age?), when things have somewhat settled and half of them (arei, j, ace, charles) have moved on, working for their futures, a message from mai's partner digimon is sent to everyone. it's something along the lines of "Bring* Teruko Tawaki to the Digital World and we'll revive** Mai"

*teruko would probably die in exchange

**they don't know and can't know in what form would mai Hypothetically come back in

teruko is just trying to survive with her scraggly cat who she definitely does not project onto. now she has to fend off a bunch of weirdoes with their own funny animals that are trying to?? kidnap her???????? her bad luck kicks in and an innocent stranger (eden) gets dragged into this mess too so she's morally obligated to let said innocent stranger get away as far as possible. (un?)fortunately, eden wants everyone to be happy, so she isn't leaving until teruko's safety is also guaranteed

teruko and eden get front seats to mai's friends having too many internal conflicts and moral crises about potentially sacrificing an uninvolved stranger's life to bring their friend back

i have no idea how this ends. i just want to do some Character Building (bullying my blorbos)

digimon & crest assignments (major characters)

people who at least know of digimon adventure will now notice that all of the digimon here are the baby forms of partners relevant in digimon adventure continuity. it is very much intentional! ^w^

in this universe, digimon partners are "reflections of their human partner's souls", and can be roughly categorized into three groups: those who resemble their human, those who resemble their human's ideal self, and those who are direct manifestations of their human's problems

it is indeed possible for one to project onto their digimon

everyone meets their digimon partners during childhood. since the digimon hatch and grow up in the "real world", they take a while to evolve, and seem to change along with their humans

also this is where i put the disclaimer. i use jp terms and names 95% of the time soryr if you grew up with the dub :pensive:

hu: puroromon -> morphomon, crest of love. happy little butterfly :> butterflies represent change and rebirth, but hu's partner can't evolve like everyone else's partners even after their adventure? even after all these years, morphomon is still stuck in her child stage? how strange...

(morphomon evolves to hudiemon in arc 2 after hu finally accepts that things have changed irreversibly and she has to move on from the past, too)

ace: tokomon -> patamon, crest of courage. the direct manifestation of ace's fears, fate has seen it fit to give him exposure therapy by making patamon a snappy little dog that evolves to a horse (unimon).

(patamon -> unimon -> manticoremon -> kentaurosmon? i can't decide the final stage quite yet, but since his character substansially grows in arc 1, he unlocks said final stage before the end of arc 1)

david: tsunomon -> gabumon, crest of hope. i had to give xanvid agumon and gabumon because... You Know. whatever they're having good luck with that shit! gabumon's thing about being a reptile that wears a beast's fur coat to seem tougher is a. masking thing. i think. gabumon also could behave like how david was as a child

(gabumon -> garurumon -> weregarurumon -> cresgarurumon. yellow. cresgarurumon is unlocked during the final battle but can't be accessed again until after david and xander finally have a successful mutually civil conversation)

xander: koromon -> agumon, crest of light. protagonist energy. agumon is like a second xander and they constantly enable each other

(agumon -> greymon -> metalgreymon -> blitzgreymon. red. blitzgreymon is unlocked during the final battle but can't be accessed again until after david and xander finally have a successful mutually civil conversation)

good place to mention that i could swap david and xander's crests (david light / xander hope) and it'd still work. i personally interpret light as living and valuing life, even with the destinies and purposes one is burdened with, and that's why i gave it to the man with the definition of survivor's guilt hidden in his bio. also haha david "dubious protag" chiem and the funny h word. i would need to blender these two longer to pin down their crests once and for all but i'm leaning towards david hope / xander light for now

j: mochimon -> tentomon, crest of integrity / reliability. the juxtaposition of cute, squishy mochimon vs a ladybug that emits ELECTRICITY that evolves to even COOLER and SCARIER bugs!? tentomon is also more sympathetic than j to contrast them being the most judgmental person in this cast

(tentomon -> kabuterimon -> atlurkabuterimon blue -> rhinokabuterimon. unlocked before the end of arc 1 when j starts being more understanding of others without renouncing their own moral compass)

arei: pyocomon -> piyomon, crest of friendship. piyomon used to be the snappier, harsher one to protect arei from her sisters, but as they grew up, it's almost like their personalities reversed somehow...?

(piyomon -> cockatrimon -> delumon -> griffomon. the only stage that can fly is griffomon. unlocked before the end of arc 1 after arei's ch2e13 speech)

charles: tanemon -> palmon, crest of knowledge. plant baby that i jokingly call "charles jr" in my notes, just because the thought of palmon being charles' lab assistant and wearing goggles + labcoat was really cute...

(palmon -> sunflowmon -> toropiamon -> hydramon. poisonous guys. probably unlocked before the end of arc 1? i'm still figuring out how charles' arc would work if he grew up with whit, because on one hand a friend would help him, but on the other said friend is Whit Young and all the backstory involved with him)

whit: pukamon -> gomamon, crest of sincerity / purity. gomamon is more responsible than her partner though she's still pretty chill. i want to make her behave like whit's (idealization and idolization of his) mom, but it's probably gonna take like 5 years until he says anything more about her

(gomamon -> rukamon -> piccolomon? -> marinangemon. piccolomon was the best link i could figure out between a dolphin and a holy-adjacent sea angel. also this man is NOT getting marinangemon until late arc 2 at least. he needs the entire party to talk sense to him)

mai: nyaromon -> tailmon, crest of miracles. for Plot Reasons tailmon is silly!monotv. goofy and self-deprecating and makes shitty jokes. disappeared after mai's death and returns after a timeskip to implore mai's friends to bring it teruko tawaki

(tailmon -> kabukimon -> ofanimon. it's a lucky coincidence that kabukimon happens to be a tailmon armor evo. final stage unlocked during the final battle)

teruko: nyaromon. it looks like one at least. it's totally a nyaromon guys it's just like mai haha -> meicoomon, crest of fate. a scared kitty :( the manifestation of what remains of teruko's wish to have friends and trust others. meicoomon also appears to drive other digimon berserk just by being near them for long periods of time; a variation of teruko's bad luck, and the reason why these two are basically bound to each other. since teruko's bad luck hurts other people and meicoomon's "bad luck" hurts other digimon

(meicoomon -> meicrackmon vicious mode -> raguelmon. you know. probably a late evolver?)

eden: petitmeramon -> solarmon, crest of kindness. she isn't here but she's the most important character who i didn't draw. Sorry Eden. but solarmon is also like a second eden and they constantly enable each other

(solarmon -> clockmon. it's not that eden isn't getting development, it's just that i need clockmon to be plot relevant and i don't know what the two stages after could possibly be.)

digimon assignments (minor characters)

everyone in this part is irrelevant to the larger plot but i didn't wanna completely leave them out, esp since thinking of their hopes peak-less backstories could be really fun!!

however i have No Idea about what digimon most of these evolve to aside from like. canon stuff

min: minomon -> wormmon. bookworms :>

rose: budmon -> lalamon. silly plant thing :> they're -_- and :o buddies. evolves to togemon

nico: bowmon -> loogamon. as a nod to survive, i think loogamon is the one partner who can't talk in human language, but is very expressive? and nico quickly learns how their partner communicates and how to communicate with their partner

veronika: pagumon -> porcupamon. i had to give her the Spooky Bear Digimon there was no other way around it.

levi: tsumemon -> bemmon. ourple. generally the "unnatural" / unknown digimon tend to be purple, i just picked bemmon since it's probably getting a new evoline in liberators soon

arturo: puyoyomon -> jellymon. i had Absolutely Zero Idea for this guy and settled on Ghost Game's bastard of a jellymon because i want them to beef with each other

backstories and situations

mai is a perfectly normal girl with a loving family and many friends. her partner digimon isn't a "partner" in the same way everyone else's digimon are, but rather an individual (hence the monotv-like personality) who "chose" mai to be the hero of a predetermined story. a story that would end in its heroes becoming better people, having hope for the future

not all heroes succeed, though

charles and whit are childhood friends! yippee! they've been friends and stayed friends throughout most of their lives :) elliot and whit's mom still die, and charles still forgets about the former and possibly the latter :) i wonder where whit got those coping mechanisms from aha :D

i don't have concrete ideas for anyone else's backstory yet Sorry

the digimon partners could pass off as plushies in their baby forms but most of the cast probably had to spill the beans when they evolved to their child-sized forms forms

ryan keeps tempting j to unleash tentomon everytime paparazzi annoy them, to which the only thing stopping j from doing so is tentomon himself. elliot bullies palmon in the same way he bullies charles (affectionately). elizabeth treats gomamon like an actual dog and their neighbors think the young household has a dog who loves swimming a lot. patamon and agumon are popular with their partners' younger siblings. piyomon actually has successfully attacked arei's sisters

i think it'd be really funny if eden is popular enough in town to inexplicably at least know about the non-relevant characters + their digimon, no matter how unlikely. maybe classmates with min and rose, met nico in a cat cafe and stayed in contact, levi works nearby, saw arturo and jellymon argue in public

i'm not a shipper by any means, so i can't and won't write explicitly romantic relationships. but if it helps, my initial thoughts for relationships were queerplatonic charwhit, jarei situationship where neither of them know or care wtf they're doing, xanvid broken pedestals and breaking up in every way possible, and hu + ace... whatever you call "most divorced pair of people despite 1) never marrying and 2) one of them being a gay man". feel free to do your own spin on things though!

also little fun tidbit: the digimon's base colors (except teruko's nyaromon) are colorpicked from digimon world championship sprites just as a fun little challenge, and the color-coded lineart is meant to showcase that they're digital lifeforms physically existing in the real world

[lowkeyrobin]

hi! how are u???

i was wondering if you could do mcyt x reader where they go to an amusement park? i don't realky know the specifics :P

it's totally fine if not!

also, could i please be 🦑 anon?

your writing is so good, btw :3

ooo okay I can try! ; and welcome 🦑! (I'm gonna consistently think this is an umbrella academy fan goodnight 💀) hope you enjoy your stay! ; and thank you, I appreciate it! <3

MCYT ; amusement park

includes ; tommyinnit, badlinu, maxggs, quackity & slimecicle

warnings ; language

disclaimers ; idk anything about amusement parks outside kennywood and disneyworld so probably using references and names here / may be mixed up cause I don't remember all the different places / pretend like it's in Europe for tommy, freddie & max and in america for Charlie & Quackity

masterlist

TOMMYINNIT

he's so fuckin scared of the rides with insane heights that go really fast

soooo many pictures

he will NOT be going on them unless it's to impress you (shout out university crush)

if there's any water rides he's forcing you on them 🗣🗣

he buys any snacks/food or little souvenirs you want lol

you both go home tired and lowkey sleep on the train and almost miss ur stop

you're probably vlogging too

"guys, Tommy's scared of the phantom"

"look at that fuckin thing! I'm not going on that, ill fly out!"

"true, you're a six foot twig"

"I swear to god, y/n..."

FREDDIE BADLINU

he's getting on most rides w you

he loves the swings lmao

you got a handful of pics but you're mostly living in the moment

dippin dots go crazy

you go on the little kids rides for shits and giggles and adults are looking at u like 🤨😒

yk on that Winnie the Pooh ride line there's the screens and it's like honey and u can draw on it temporarily? yall stood there for a solid 10 mins cause the long line drawing dicks and random stuff

ice cream!!!! it's so good

you make a tiktok

"wheres harry potter land??"

"....y/n were at disneyworld"

it's your mission to piss of Disney adults

MAXGGS

literally up for anything

he got you both silly sunglasses and you wore them around all day

you literally go on Kalis River Rapids twice because why not

you SPRINT for Tianas Bayou Adventure (I wanna go so bad to see this omfg)

he makes you re-ride the barnstormer like 5 times (me core)

you immediately go for the fast paced / thrilling rides like space mountain and tower of terror (ik these are different just pretend I can't remember many rides...)

then at the end of the day you do the safari ride / avatar ride / ykwim

so many cute pics and videos 💔 literally spammed ur Instagrams when u got back

ALEX QUACKITY

he does not wanna go on things like space mountain or thunder mountain bro

you make him get on them anyway unless he just genuinley doesn't want to, you'll go with a friend if there is another person with you / alone and he'll wait / vlog from a safe spot

you meet a lot of characters and get pics all day long & they were so nice 💔

"OMG Y/N ITS OLAF"

he nearly vomits after the teacups...

you go on the pirates of the caribbean ride and he tries to speak like sparrow the whole time in line

you get some little leather bracelets with each other's names on them at the end in the little store (I had one but idk where it is anymore I'm so mad)

he keeps saying "I'm not hungry" ans when u stop for food he literallt devours his ice cream and hot dog bro

"I thought u weren't hungry???"

"... I was waiting for u to want food"

CHARLIE SLIMECICLE

literally the funnest ever

he's getting on everything istg

yall chill in the swiss family tree house when u need a break from walking / grab a drink and go to the enchanted tiki room to escape the heat entirely

over food you speculate what they may add for the little villain land they're planning (holy shit so excited for this even tho I'm probably never gonna be able to go again)

haunted mansion went crazy 💀 trust the vlog is funny asf

"woahhh that ghost looks like me!"

"yeah if you were dead"

"wanna go to mickeys philharmagic after this?"

"that's across the park.."

"we can make it lol"

he's on it with the puns idek how

u want a souvenir of any kind? he's got u trust

[songsofadelaide]

As a child of one of the Kingdom's noble families, you were subject to your family's many plans to maintain its standing in society. At every tail end of the Lone Moon since you turned six, when winter wraps Faerghus in its tightest and most frigid embrace, you would find yourself in the Dukedom of Fraldarius, under the watchful but caring gaze of Uncle Rodrigue, or that was what he encouraged you to call him. He said his eldest son already had a match, his betrothed a lady of a noble house too. Rodrigue wished Felix to forge the same warm friendship and companionship that Glenn and Ingrid already had... with someone. Someone he would come to love in the future. Rodrigue silently hoped that it would be you.

"...a love match," the older man said, his voice fading in the background as Felix, a boy dressed in the distinct Fraldarius blue, stepped out from behind his mother's skirts at her gentle urging.

"Say hello, cub," the lady of the house said in a tone so dulcet that it made the heat rise to your face. The boy's shy brown eyes met yours and somehow your young heart figured that you two could make things work. From what you remember, your parents were a love match— an extraordinary one, the kind many thought wouldn't work out but eventually did.

"Hello," you broke the silence with a single greeting and a smile that told him, let's work things out. "Shall we make our New Year's resolutions together?"

And every year, by the fireplace, next to his parents' blanketed feet, you and Felix whispered your resolutions for the new year in each other's ears, both of you looking forward to the fresh set of pages in a storybook that was yours to fill out and create.

"I want my swordsmanship to improve..." "I want to read more books..." "I want to get taller still..." "I want to get better at casting magic..."

In 1177, Felix stopped making resolutions, which wasn't all surprising.

Felix had no idea where to put this grief. You coaxed him out of his room at his mother's behest, but he had no words for you. When you held him in your arms as best you could, he barely moved himself.

You were present with House Fraldarius when they held a memorial for Glenn, a true knight of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, or so Rodrigue said, and not even your soothing touch could quell Felix's fist, his entire body seizing in a tempered rage he tried his best to contain. He was not the only one who lost a loved one, after all. And yet, he couldn't stomach how his father glazed over his eldest son's death. No words of embellishment will take away the fact that Glenn was killed horrifically in the Tragedy of Duscur. Felix would resent his father for that.

In 1178, when Prince Dimitri unlocked a certain bloodlust whilst suppressing an insurrection in west Faerghus, you were half-certain Felix might have developed the same grisly instinct, but you were relieved to find out that he was blatantly disgusted by the boar's unhinged behaviour.

In 1180, you entered the Officers Academy along with the other scions of the Kingdom's noble houses. As Felix grew into a swordsman of exceptional skill, he also kept you at an arm's length away, but again, that did not surprise you at all. You were a distraction to him, more or less, and he would appreciate you more if you showed yourself less to him. It was then you realised that he always sought you out at his own pace, that he desired your presence still, but only on his call.

"It's fine. It doesn't have to be me, as long as you're happy, Felix." "No," he hastily grabbed your hand. "It has to be you."

Felix brought you home with him when the Officers Academy closed its doors due to the internal strife simultaneously occurring in Faerghus, Adrestia and Leicester. It was then he became Duke Fraldarius, the Shield of Faerghus, and you, the lady of his house. When the war gong was struck, you stood by your husband rather than shying away from the fighting. Being Felix's assigned healer during your short stay at the Officers Academy granted you certain synchronicity with him. The two of you worked seamlessly beside each other, and he moved in complete confidence that you would have his back if no one else did. 

The war against Adrestia raged on for months, until it converged to a year, and it felt like you were the only one keeping tabs on the days that passed. The calluses in your hands thickened like the snow that usually blanketed Fraldarius this time of the year.

This time of the year...

"What are you doing?"

Your reverie was broken by your husband's query. It was still so odd to think that you two were married now, even though that was exactly what Rodrigue— your father-in-law— wanted from the start.

"Almost lost track of time because of how long this war's been dragging," you shrugged at him. "Happy New Year. Or not. We'll probably be asleep at the turning of the new moon."

Felix caught the quick twinkle in your eyes, his lips softening to a small smile that caught you off-guard. He stepped into your space and slipped his gloved hand in yours, pulling you further into the privacy of his quarters and straight into his arms.

"Felix?..."

"I want to be a better husband to you."

His voice was hushed to a whisper, and you could only blink to yourself as he held you much tighter. His breath was warm against your neck and it was there you noticed just how fast his heart was beating.

"I..." You started, only for a gentle laugh to leave your lips. "I want to be a better lady of the house."

He chuckled in relief when you returned his embrace, his hair coming undone from its ribbon just in time as you pressed a tender kiss to his cheek.

"Happy New Year, Duke Fraldarius."

Felix returned your gesture in kind, his lips stealing the warmth of your breath not long after. He still can't believe he played right into his father's hands the moment the old man introduced you to him— one of the very few things he is truly thankful for. Now he gets to call you his, he gets to protect you as part of his home, and he is yours, too.

"Happy New Year, my wife."

[awellboiledicicle]

I feel like Arven would try his hand at growing the herba mystica in his dorm, have a problem, and refuse to ask for help until Protag and Co find him haunting the horticulture section of the library for the fifth straight day without sleep.

At which point Protag shrugs and suggests asking their mom, since she’s got a really big garden that’s growing super well.

Cut to Arven awkwardly having tea and thanking everything holy that he paid attention in Languages enough to understand when she jumps into Galarian on a word she doesn’t know in Paldaen. Protag is telling their mom about the herbs and their journey to find them, and even excitedly telling her about what the herbs did for Mabosstiff. Arven tries not to feel weird about the feelings that well up when she gives him a genuinely sympathetic look and apologizes that he had to go through that alone for so long. After he chokes out the ‘thank you’ in response, Protag rounds back to growing the herbs-- they could help people AND pokemon. And they should, which is why Arven is wary of, like, asking a commercial source for help. He’s not stupid, he knows the herbs would be skwovet’d away for who knows how long until they’re fully studied. And yeah, they should be studied, but he feels... like he should be involved. Some part of him wonders if its his parent’s influence in him, wanting a stake in finding out the why of it. Some part of it is his desire to make food that’s good for everyone. Right now, though, there’s not enough of the herbs to do much with anyway. Thus why they’re there.

Protag’s mom suggests a climate controlled greenhouse-- partially to simulate the environment each herb was found in, and partially to keep out wild pokemon to keep more titans from growing. Unfortunately, the greenhouse at the academy is full and it’s not like Arven has a place outside there where he can be to keep an eye on things. So she suggests they build it in the back garden of their house and Arven will “just have to visit to keep up with things”. Protag offers to split their room with him while they set up, so they don’t have to flying taxi back and forth every day--though they still can when normal classes are in progress.

First day there, though, Arven sleeps on the couch. Under a cozy blanket that smells like lavender, with a stomach full of home cooked food. Mabosstiff is curled up against the couch with his head on his paws, snoozing away. First break he spends there, he has his own bed and Protag’s mom knows what kind of foods he likes. The herbs are growing well, but somehow he’s more focused on the house, rather than the greenhouse. Mabosstiff has claimed the skwovet plush as his own, though he does begrudgingly share with Protag’s starter on occasion. By the time the herbs are ready to be harvested and studied, he’s a regular fixture. Spends holidays and weekends there, when not catching up on studies. His half of the room has his signature yellow aesthetic. There are bookcases of old notebooks Protag brought him from his parent’s lab--nothing about the crater per se, but things that had been moved down there and left behind. Copies of personal pokemon observations. Formula books with notes in the margins, an old journal that mentions getting a maschiff that bonded with baby Arven. Journals about him. He keeps them at the house so he can focus on school-- and so, if he reads them and gets worked up, he’ll know someone will hear him cry and snap him out of it.

There’s a point where a ‘family’ picture is being taken. He’s pulled in by Protag and their mom, insisting he and his pokemon count as family-- why wouldn’t he be in the photo? I think he’d probably be trying very hard not to cry, at least until the picture was taken.

I just feel like he could use being adopted.

[sencrose]

— FALLING SHORT OF HEAVEN

pairing: sylvain jose gautier x f!reader

tags: dubcon (coercion), sacrilege, religious guilt, virginity loss (reader), semi-public sex, corruption kink (if you squint), overstim, multiple orgasms, fingering, creampie, pet names (babe, baby, angel), reverential capitalization, takes place during academy days and reader/sylvain (20) are a similar age

wc: 5.7k (do NOT look at me)

summary: Garreg Mach's most infamous skirt chaser seems to have a change of heart. First item on the list: getting closer to the Goddess, and maybe you in the process.

a/n: title from the ashe + catherine paralogue lol. happy belated 5th anniversary to fe3h! and big big thank you to @blueparadis for beta reading this for me! <3 divider by @/adornedwithlight

crossposted to ao3

The cathedral has become a second home to you, an escape from the confines of a stuffy dormitory.

Nothing takes your breath away more than the sight of the moon glowing through the stained glass windows, painting the statue of the Goddess in a soft, holy light. Praying feels much more intimate as if your voice is louder, closer to reaching Her ears. Even if you don’t have much to pray about, you occasionally come here to bask in the calming silence, something you’re unable to experience elsewhere in the monastery. Today is one of those days, admiring the chilly embrace of the ethereal moon.

You’re too lost in thought to notice the steps against the porcelain tile getting closer.

“Oh sorry, didn’t realize someone was here,” a voice echoes throughout the cathedral.

You turn and recognize him, not that you’ve been properly introduced. You’ve been told to be cautious of him, by fellow students and members of the church alike. Garreg Mach’s most infamous flirt in the flesh. And though you’ve been warned, you’re a follower of Seiros first and foremost, quick to welcome anyone who shows interest in the church.

“Oh, you’re fine,” you reply.

“Sylvain, by the way,” he introduces himself, hand against his chest. 

You quietly offer your name back.

“You mind if I sit next to you?” he asks, and you look at him, hesitantly. The cathedral is empty save for the two of you, and there are plenty of other seats he could take.

“S-sure,” you reply, figuring he’ll only be here a moment before leaving.

“I’m kind of new to this whole thing,” he comments before sitting down next to you, a bit too close for comfort.

You scoot a couple of inches away, uncomfortable by the lack of distance. “New? To what?”

“Praying,” he responds.

“We all start somewhere,” you reassure him.

“You think you could help me?”

“Help?” you repeat.

“Yeah,” he replies nonchalantly.

“How?”

“Maybe guide me through it.”

“Guide?” you repeat again, sounding like an incredulous parrot.

“Yeah. You know, like how am I supposed to keep my hands? Am I supposed to kneel? Do I speak out loud or keep it to myself? Stuff like that.”

It feels ridiculous. Even if he isn’t a follower of the church, you’d figured he’d at least be aware. You know he’s from Faerghus, whose royal family has always held ties to Seiros. Mercedes is in the same house as him, and you’ve seen her come plenty of times to pray. But he looks at you with a desire for an answer in his eyes, and who are you to deny someone a connection to the Goddess?

“You just press your hands together. You don’t need to kneel and you don’t have to speak out loud if you don’t want to,” you respond, answering each and every one of his questions succinctly.

Sylvain intertwines his fingers together, looking over at you to see if you’ll correct him. You don’t.

“Do you think you can hold on to them while I pray?” he asks gently, “I think my words will get closer to the Goddess if you do.”

You look at him with suspicion, the way a mother looks at a child attempting to weasel themself out of trouble.

It seems like he notices your wary expression, softening his features and voice to ask, “Please?”

It catches you by surprise, making your heart skip a beat when you look at the ginger strands that frame his face, how the moonlight illuminates his soft, hazel eyes.

Sure, he has a reputation as a skirt chaser, but maybe he’s had a change of faith. Why else would he come to the cathedral at the witching hour, when nobody else is around?

So you silently wrap your hands around his, and he closes his eyes to pray. His hands are warm, the opposite of what you were expecting from someone raised by the cold winds that haunt Faerghus. While his eyes are closed, you can’t help but let your eyes wander in the silence. The sliver of his arms that peek over his cuffs, toned muscles from his work in the training grounds. Your eyes trace up his sleeve, then trace down the trail of undone buttons of his dress shirt and feel heat rushing in droves to your face when you see his bare chest. There’s no way he’s abiding by the dress code.

When his eyes open, your gaze darts to the floor, hoping to extinguish any suspicion. Carefully, you let go of his hands, pulling them away as if you just put down a set of fine china on top of a tightrope.

“Wanna know what I prayed for?” he asks, pressing his hands on to the bench and turning his body towards you. 

“It really isn’t any of my concern.”

“You sure?”

“Y-yeah.”

He shrugs before standing up from his seat to leave. “Suit yourself, but I think it’d be of interest to you.”

– 

Another night alone in the cathedral, as is your routine, or so you think.

“Is this seat taken?” Once again, Sylvain sneaks up without you noticing his presence.

“No, go ahead.” You gesture to the spot next to you.

You half expect him to clasp his hands together, pray in silence, and be on his merry way, like any other worshiper. But that’s not how Sylvain works.

“I just wanted to thank you,” he says, sitting down on the pew. The distance isn’t as close as last time, as if he’s conscious of the imaginary boundary you’ve set down between the two of you.

“Thank me for what?” you ask, furrowing a brow.

“For helping me last time,” he replies.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. It was nothing.”

“No, seriously, it means a lot.” He scoots an inch closer to you. “I really do feel closer to the Goddess now.”

The unexpected praise lights a fire in your face, and you hope he doesn’t notice how flustered you are. “W-Well, I’m glad I was able to help.”

“I’d like to return the favor, if you’ll let me,” he says, giving you a charming wink. 

You hope you’re not reading too deeply into this. Your voice shakes like a leaf, hoping there isn’t some hidden implication behind his words. “R-return the favor?”

“Here.”

You hesitate when he holds his hands out in front of you.

“Come on, don’t be shy,” he says, nudging his shoulder as a gesture to put your hands in his.

Slowly, you bring your hands over to him, hovering over his. You can’t bring yourself to close the distance so he does it for you, large calloused fingers wrapping around yours. They’re still warm, maybe even warmer than before, on the cusp of consuming you whole. His thumbs rub circles into your skin, delicately, as if he’s worshiping you and the Goddess in tandem.

When you look up at him, you notice his eyes are closed, and you reflexively close yours as well. It’s hard to concentrate on praying, having someone other than the Goddess embrace you. It’s far too distracting. You dare not open your eyes, lest you catch another glance of his chest, of toned muscles, of his hands enveloping yours. Instead, the thought of him plagues you, causing you to squeeze your eyes shut harder, a ritual to snuff out all the wicked thoughts, though it does nothing to help. 

You shouldn’t be thinking of him this way, but it’s hard. So you pray, pray with all your might and ask Her what to do – what to do about the fuzzy feeling that consumes you when you think of his hands touching yours, what to do when his smile appears in your head, and takes your breath away? With all your heart, you hope She’s listening, that She can smite away all your worries and confusion with a wave of Her righteous hand. 

When he lets go, you open your eyes and look up towards him, a kind smile painted on his face.

“I hope that helped you as much as it helped me,” he says.

“Y-yeah,” you mumble, squirming in your seat, unable to meet his eyes. It’s all you’re able to get out. You’re sure he hasn’t helped you at all, just made the thoughts swirling through your head grow in intensity, a small gust of wind tumbling into a tornado.

He takes you by surprise, bringing you in for a embrace. Large arms wrap around you and bring your bodies together. Your hands seize, not knowing what to do, before hugging him back. Even though you don’t press any further, you feel his toned physique under the thin layer of his cotton shirt, and an unfamiliar sensation in your stomach. Your eyes find the statue of the Goddess staring down at the two of you, emotionless and unfeeling. Guilt and fear echo throughout your body like a struck bell. 

As if he’s aware of your internal struggle, Sylvain’s hand gently pats your back, delicately tracing down your spine, coming back up before his touch lingers somewhere it shouldn’t. 

“Goddess be with you,” he whispers into your ear before letting go.

You’re not sure you want to feel Her presence right now.

“Goddess be with you,” you murmur back.

–

Your visits to the cathedral have become more frequent, though night time is still your favorite time to stop by. Confusion could be used to describe your state of mind these days. You’ve only met Sylvain in short, fleeting encounters, but that doesn’t stop him from haunting your every waking moment. It doesn’t stop you from thinking about his intoxicating embrace, from wondering if he’s willing to give you another. 

But you’re dedicated to the Goddess, you shouldn’t be having these thoughts about a man, much less a man with Sylvain’s reputation. 

You’d like some guidance, an answer, but so far you’re left empty handed. Yet another part of you wants, hopes a certain someone will show-

“Here again?” Sylvain’s familiar voice rings throughout the room, and your heart jumps, just a little.

“Yes. I’m here most nights.”

“Maybe I should stop by more often.”

You don’t know how to respond, but your body does – a syrupy warmth pooling in your stomach, air catching in your lungs. You take a moment to swat away the feeling, inhaling deeply to recompose yourself. 

‘I think the Goddess would be fond of that.” You don’t want to say the silent part out loud. A portion of your words is crossed out in your head.

“I think I’ve grown fond of something myself.”

And the feeling is back, tenfold. Anticipation courses through your veins, and you hope the answer in your head matches the one on the tip of his tongue.

“Pray tell, Sylvain.”

“She’s right here.”

He kisses you gently, and your nerves are set ablaze. Before you can bask in the softness of his lips, it’s gone. Just like that, it disappears in the blink of an eye and makes you wonder if it even happened. You’re rendered speechless, eyes darting side to side, unable to meet Sylvain’s gaze. 

“Is something wrong?” he asks, eyes widening in concern. Even when he’s concerned he looks as handsome as ever. Goddess have mercy.

Your eyes flit towards the statue of the Goddess, Her silent and smothering gaze, but Sylvain’s eyes stay locked on you. 

“N-no.”

“Then shall we pray?” he asks, as if he didn’t just kiss you, didn’t tip your world onto its side. 

“S-sure.”

He holds his hands out again. This time you don’t hesitate to place yours inside, welcoming his comforting grasp, a shelter from the guilt that threatens to swallow you whole.

–

The Goddess was watching. The thought of Her seeing you so weak to your desires makes you sick.

But kisses are a chaste thing, aren’t they? Surely, She wouldn’t fret over a soft touch of lips. With that, the night devolves into an endless cycle of thoughts – rationalizing Sylvain’s actions and the way they make you feel, and the spiral of shame when you realize you committed these acts in front of the Goddess, in one of Her holiest places, no less. Rinse and repeat.

You hate the guilt that creeps up in your chest, nesting a ball in your throat, but the desire kindling in your stomach grows when you think about him.

You want it again – to feel his soft lips against yours, just for a moment longer. If he had a little more time, what would he do? Would he wrap his arms around you in a romantic embrace, like the ones you’ve only seen on stage during a Mittlefrank Opera? Would he kiss you deeper, stroking your jaw and holding your chin for leverage? Would you allow his hand to wander, tracing the curve of your waist, lower, lower–

The thought of him touching you so sinfully sends a chill down your spine and a heat to your core, but the aching need between your legs only intensifies as your thoughts grow and fester into something beyond your control. 

You squeeze a pillow between your thighs, because while you’re desperate to quell the desire in your core, you’re not sure you hold the courage to bring your hand any lower. Slowly, you roll your hips into it, wishing it was something else. Maybe you’d be able to face Sylvain properly, sit in his lap nice and pretty until he grabs your thighs and encourages you to push yourself harder into him.

What kind of praise would he give you if you were to give him a taste of the forbidden? If his hands unbuckled his slacks, another layer of him gone, and you were one step closer to being skin to skin. What would it feel like if his lips were dangerously close to your ear, whispering his secret desires, breath so close the warmth of it grazes your skin? Your pace amplifies at the thought, desperation ladled in every stroke. 

You feel something growing, a tension close to breaking, your muscles tightening in preparation for the unknown. Your thoughts go wild, thinking of rolling your hips against his, just two thin layers of fabric apart so you can still consider yourself to be in the Goddess’ good graces. It’s too much, just thinking of his large hands running through your hair, grasping your head to bring him closer into you with a kiss that’s far more passionate than what he gave you earlier tonight. Even in your fantasies, you can’t think of crossing the line, but that’s okay. This is enough – or so you tell yourself.

With a dizzying pace, something unfamiliar and electrifying washes over you, and for once, you're chanting a name that doesn’t belong to the Goddess. 

When the sensation fizzles out, you lie in your bed out of breath, staring at the roof of your room. The color of the wooden ceilings remind you of the pew you sit in every day. 

She’s always watching. You’re foolish to think otherwise. 

–

These days, the cathedral feels like home more so than your dormitory. It can be quantified in the countless hours you’ve spent in the pews, persevering through the crowds, hoping they are ignorant to your plight. You pray and pray, in search of an answer, in search of absolution. But even with all your waking hours spent in the cathedral, all you are left with are uncertain feelings whirling in your chest, no closer to an answer than when you started.

The room eventually empties, attendants leaving as the sun sets and the moon takes its place in the sky. Yet you remain. 

“I heard you’ve been spending a lot of time here lately,” Sylvain announces his entrance, further back than he usually would.

You turn around to confirm his presence. And there he is, the moonlight gently caressing his form as if he’s worthy of worship as well.

“And how do you know that?” you ask.

“I have my sources,” he says, sitting down to take his usual spot next to you, “something on your mind?”

“Y-yeah,” you’re barely able to choke out, “I guess you could say that.”

“Well, let it out.” Sylvain stretches, splaying his arms across the bench. His right arm wraps around your shoulder, brings you in much closer to him than you’re used to. His hand brushes against the side of your neck and buries your face in the crook of his neck. The scent of him overwhelms you. Something rich, full, something you don’t recognize. You figure it’s something only the nobility can get their hands on. It’s the first time you’ve gotten a whiff and you’re already intoxicated with him. Merciful Seiros, save you.

“I-I’m not sure if it’s something I can say out loud,” you confess, voice in a hushed whisper, “not here.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’ve been struggling with something too.”

“R-really?”

“Yup,” he states matter-of-factly, popping the last letter. He lets it hang in the silence, and curiosity gets the better of you.

“What is it?” you ask.

“Where do I start?” he retorts, pausing before continuing. “See, there’s this cute girl I’ve been seeing. Right here in this very cathedral.”

His voice vibrates through your body, a gentle hum.

“The thing is, I’m not sure she likes me back. And Goddess,” he sighs, moving a bit closer to you until your thighs touch,“I want her to like me back.”

When he looks at you like you hold the entire world in your hands, your breath hitches.

His eyes shift towards you, a knowing look. There’s no way he doesn’t notice the effect he has on you, how you breathe so carefully as to keep all your feelings inside, how you can’t meet his gaze for too long before you feel that familiar creeping heat rise up your cheeks.

“Do you think the Goddess is willing to answer my prayers?” he asks, his hand inching towards yours before eclipsing it completely. You attempt to look into his eyes, find any sign of dishonesty, but you find nothing. Even if he was dishonest, you’re not sure you could resist him.

“I’d like to think so,” you murmur, just loud enough for him to hear.

And in a rush, his lips find yours again. It’s better than you imagined, there’s so many details you miss when you don’t have the experience to go off of. The hypnotic smell of him, the warmth of his hand touching your neck, how his breath dances and mingles with yours.

When his lips leave yours, something in you breaks. The dam holding back your desire crumbles as you take the initiative to kiss him back, desperate to keep him in the now, to not lose him so soon like the last time. Sylvain doesn’t seem to have any objections, even when your hand tugs on his shirt to bring him closer.

“Hey, hey, I’m right here. There’s no rush,” he reassures you, his hand scratching the back of your head. He pats his lap. “C’mere.”

You maneuver your legs on top of his and sit down. Something presses against you and catches you by surprise. This isn’t a dream, it’s real. The guilt strikes you again, and you swear you can feel the Goddess’ eyes burning a hole into your back. 

But Sylvain brings you back to earth, back to him, lips gentle enough to melt all your worries. A heat grows in your core, and your hips buck into his, desperate for release. When you let out a small whimper, Sylvain’s tongue slips in to find yours. His tongue guides yours, showing you how to follow his rhythm, passionate and slow. When you break from each other, a gossamer of saliva connects you both, glistening in the dim light.

Before you have the chance to take in the moment, he’s already reaching to unfasten his belt and his slacks, without an ounce of shame. You however, still hold a bit of hesitation in your heart. 

“Um, Sylvain.”

“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Sylvain adjusts himself so that the fabric of his slacks covers his boxers, though he does a poor job of it. 

“N-no, it’s not that I don’t want to,” you mutter, “it’s just that I haven’t done anything like this before.” 

The confession seems to light a fire in Sylvain’s eyes. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle,” he whispers, kissing the shell of your ear before continuing, “make you feel real good.”

“You’re really lucky to have me as your first,” he tells you between kisses, “some of these guys are real jerks. Don’t know what to do with a lady.” His hand flips the hem of your skirt and travels up your legs.

“You gotta build up to it, you know?” he asks, his hand ghosting your thigh and you gasp at the sensation.

You don’t, but you’re sure you’ll learn soon enough.

His hand plays with the hem of your underwear, and the anticipation is killing you. 

“No shorts? Were you hoping something would happen tonight?” he asks, a devious grin painted on his face.

“N-No, I just-” you can’t bring yourself to explain.

“You’re cute.” He brings you in for another kiss, soft, gentle. “Doing all this just for me?”

If you couldn’t string words together before, the rope’s been set ablaze now. His fingers find the growing wet patch on your underwear, carefully tracing its shape. He’s so close to giving you what you want, you can’t help but whine.

“I haven’t even done anything yet,” he remarks, half in disbelief, half in amazement, “wonder what you’ll sound like when I start.”

His fingers find your clit and your body collapses into him just from the contact. It’s nothing like the guilt-ridden pillow-humping session you had the other night. Even though he’s barely moving, drawing slow, lazy shapes around the bud, it has you moaning so loud it echoes throughout the cathedral. 

“Sensitive little thing, aren’t you?”

All you can do is nod and squeeze your eyes shut from the shame.

“It’s not a bad thing,” he comments while slowly increasing his speed, “I think it’s a blessing, really.”

Your body writhes at the change in pace, and you don’t know what to do. The only thing on your mind is bringing yourself to embrace him as he brings you to the cusp of pleasure, better than you could have ever given yourself. 

“S-Sylvain, I think I’m-” Even in your pleasure-drunk haze, you can’t bring yourself to say it. 

“Let it all out for me angel,” he coos, littering your neck in kisses as he focuses on getting you there.

So you do, chanting his name reverently as you rapidly approach your climax, pleasure melting away your senses and fraying your nerves. The intensity is nothing like you’ve felt before, and you’re in disbelief at how he’s able to elicit such a reaction out of you, something you weren’t even able to find for yourself. It crashes into you in waves, your body trembling as it rushes through you, and Sylvain slowly dials it back down until your moans diminish into hushed pants.

“Felt good, right?” he asks, giving you a gentle peck on the lips.

You give him a shy nod.

“You wanna know what would feel better?”

You’re getting greedy, desperate to see what new heights Sylvain can take you, and you give him yet another shy nod.

His finger presses against your hole and you can’t bring yourself to look. While the sensation is new and strange, it’s not completely unwelcome. It takes your breath away when he slips it in further with no resistance from the arousal he coaxed out of you.

“You’re doing so good for me,” he coos, kissing your neck as he starts slowly dragging his finger in and out of you. A strange feeling builds as he explores your insides until he finds a home in a particular spot where you’re sensitive. You can’t hold your voice back, soft cries spilling like a waterfall as he presses into it again and again, just to hear you fall apart for him.

Apparently, he thinks this isn’t enough, slipping another finger in with ease and you gasp at the fullness. His other hand finds your clit again, massaging circles into it. You grip his shirt harder as that tension in your stomach starts to build and build. Something’s coming, something far more intense than what he’s already given you. Your muscles tighten in anticipation of it, and Sylvain pushes his fingers in harder as soon as he feels it. 

“Sylvain, Sylvain, please,” you whine between labored breaths, unsure what else you’re supposed to say. 

“Don’t worry, I’m right here,” he says in a placating tone that makes you melt as soon as it hits your ears, “cum for me, baby.”

The filth he speaks is what sends you over the edge, walls fluttering uncontrollably against his fingers as he continues fucking you through it, keeping his pace instead of showing any signs of stopping. 

“S-Sylvain wait, I just-” You stop yourself short of saying it, still too ashamed of the word, even though you’ve experienced it twice at his hands.

“Yeah? You can say it, I know you can.”

“Say what?” you whine the last word when his fingers press somewhere deep inside you. 

“Tell me how I made you cum.” The candidness of his words strikes you like a whip. 

“I-I don’t think I can,” you whimper.

“Then I’ll keep making you cum ‘til you can say it.”

It’s a side of him you haven’t seen before; determination clouding his eyes, fingers still pistoning inside you to prove his point. 

Sylvain is consistent to say the least. His pace doesn’t falter, both around your clit and your hole. Soon enough you sense the tell-tale signs of a climax, something you’ve quickly become accustomed to despite your inexperience – muscles taut around his fingers, quickening breaths, and a coil that is so, so, close to snapping. 

It happens so fast, ecstasy reverberating throughout your body before going into uncharted territory. Through this, you learn something new – how too many climaxes too close together can wring out your muscles, overstimulation delivering you from pleasure straight into pain. You wince when Sylvain still shows no sign of stopping, much less slowing down. 

“W-wait, Sylvain, please,”

“Then say it,” he commands, teasing lilt as he holds your body hostage. 

Even though your body begs for a break, you can’t bring yourself to say it. He doesn’t seem anywhere close to stopping, starting the cycle over again with constant stimulation to your clit, steadily fingering your pussy. Your clit aches, sensitive and worn out from your previous orgasms. Even so, Sylvain can coax another reaction out of you. Your legs tense so much it hurts, and if Sylvain is a man of his word, you don’t think you can handle more of this. With that, you wave the white flag. 

“Sylvain, I’m cumming, I’m cumming-” you cry, words spoken both from pleasure and fear of the pain to come. 

“See? That’s all you needed to say, baby,” he coos, sending you again over the edge. It feels good and intense for a split second before the numbing ache rolls in and takes its place. All you can afford is screaming his name into his jacket, doing your best to muffle your voice. Finally, you’re afforded respite when his fingers pull away from you. 

“You feeling ok?” he asks, back to the kind and comforting voice you’re used to hearing in the pews. 

“Y-Yeah.”

“You ready for some more?”

“More?”

Sylvain shuffles around the fabric of his slacks until-

Oh.

His cock springs free from his boxers, and it’s a sight to behold. Despite it being your first, you think it’s a respectable size, pretty with the way it flushes at the tip. Thinking about it entering you is overwhelming, considering the reaction you had with just his fingers. 

Even still, this is a step too far. You can reason your way out of the events of tonight, that you haven’t given him something sacred on a technicality. You might have done everything in between, but you’d like to think that you haven’t crossed any lines. This… This would be crossing the line, and there’s no going back.

“Sylvain, I-I’m not so sure about this anymore,” you mumble, a twang of guilt hitting you once again. No matter how many times you feel it, it never gets easier. 

“C’mon, it’ll be fun,” he says with a casual tone that throws you off guard, the way someone might suggest a day of shopping in the town.

“I don’t know…” You can’t look at him, not wanting to see the disappointment written on his face.

“I made you feel good, don’t you think you should return the favor?” he asks, a hint of bite in his voice.

That gets your attention.

“No, I mean, it’s just that-” you stumble over your words.

“You can trust me with this, I swear.”

The silence shared between the two of you is dense and heavy, a cloud of smoke you could choke on. You turn around and look at the statue again, hoping to find guidance from Her, but you find nothing. Not Her presence, not an answer. Distant and apathetic to your turmoil.

But Sylvain sits under you, guidance and presence real and tangible. He might even be the answer, with his eyes full of life and warmth when you turn back to look at him.

For the third time this evening, you give him a shy nod, another first.

He kisses you softly on the cheek before whispering, “you won’t regret this, babe.”

His cock gently presses and glides against your folds, collecting the arousal he’s coaxed out of you. You gasp at the new sensation, warm and wet length prodding at your hole. 

“You ready?”

You nod again. With that, he slowly pushes himself inside of you, savoring the taste of your tight cunt. You’re sure he’s nowhere close to bottoming out, but the way he’s already stretching you out is enough to make you whine.

“S-Sylvain, it’s too much.”

“Don’t worry, we can take it slow,” he says, and he speaks the truth. He takes his time, patient with every inch he pushes into you, carefully taking in your expressions and adjusting as needed. Before you know it, you feel unbelievably full. “See? It’s all in.”

You look down, unable to tear your eyes away from the point where your bodies connect. 

“I’m gonna move now, ok?”

His voice grabs your attention as you look back at him, soft smile there to welcome you.

“Ok,” you mutter.

Even though he keeps his promise to go slow, the first stroke is overwhelming – the way you can feel him drag against your walls, how that warm feeling returns to your stomach once again. You watch his cock go in and out of you, a growing amount of slick arousal painting his length with each pass. 

“You’re really into this, aren’t you?” he remarks. It sends a frenzy of blood and heat to your face, embarrassment painting your expression. 

“N-no, it’s not like that.”

“That’s not what your body’s saying.”

You don’t have an answer for that.

Once you’re accustomed to his languid pace, Sylvain tests the waters by gradually increasing his speed. One hand wraps around your waist, another pressing against your sensitive clit. As soon as he touches it, it’s like electricity runs through your body, rushing through to find an escape. He rolls the bud in between his fingers and you squeal at the sensation, your walls tightening around his cock as he does so. 

“You like that?” he asks, hushed into your ear. 

You can’t mutter an answer, he doesn’t let you. His fingers teasingly pinch your clit to get another moan out of you.

“C’mon babe, you can be honest with me.”

“It f-feels good,” you’re barely able to mutter out. 

From there, Sylvain pulls all the stops. His cock reaches a dizzying speed, the wet sounds of skin slapping against skin echoing throughout the cathedral and ringing in your ears. If that wasn’t enough, his fingers draw tight circles around your clit until all you’re able to let out are babbling breaths and choked moans. 

The tension you’ve become well-acquainted with builds in your stomach, overwhelming with its intensity. To think, there’s still something he can teach you about your own body. It snowballs so quickly, your breaths becoming shallower as you feel yourself tumbling towards another climax. 

“Sylvain, cumming, cumming again,” you whine into his neck as you grab him for an embrace.

“Cum for me, angel,” he pants, his voice shaky as well. 

With a few more strokes, every muscle in your body tightens as the rush of pleasure overtakes you. It’s different with him fucking you through it, the way your pussy contracts against his cock. You can’t control the lewd noises escaping your lips, the way your nails dig into his back to cope with the intensity. 

It seems like it’s too much for Sylvain as well, as he fucks into you with a desperation you think suits him well, all choked groans and muttered curses. He lets out one loud grunt before digging himself deep into your pussy, hot and sticky ropes of white painting your walls. 

You both attempt to control your breathing as you come down from your respective highs. He removes himself from you, and the feeling of something wet seeping out of you makes you wince. Sylvain kisses your lips again, soft and fleeting. 

It’s beyond your control. You look back even though you know you shouldn’t, your eyes watering when you look up at the statue of the Goddess, and realize the gravity of what you’ve done. Sylvain’s hand presses against the back of your head, and gently guides you to face him.

“I’m sure she’ll forgive you. She’s answered my prayers after all.”