#I think about the kids who will get all these cool items to express themselves and put in their notebooks

[die-rosastrasse]

How do you declutter and choose what things to throw away or donate?

I've never really had problems with decluttering. Yes, I love collecting (mostly thrifted) cute stuff but I'm not attached to them emotionally and I'm not overly sentimental. People who saw me clean my stuff think I'm a bit heartless to be honest. Every smallest reason is enough for me to get rid of something. You could try answering these questions, and if the answer is no, or I'm not sure - don't cling to it!

Questions below

For clothes: Have I ever worn this since I bought it? Do I have anything in my closet to make an outfit with this? Do I feel like this shape/color enhances my natural features? Does it fit my current style (versus when I bought it)? Do I feel nice/cute/elegant/trendy/myself when I wear it? Does it fit my dream closet? If it requires mending, tailoring etc, do you think you can or will do them soon?

For books: Did I enjoy reading it? Will I ever reach for this book again? Is my library richer with this addition?

For craft materials: Does it fit my current art style and aesthetic? Is there any particular project or idea where I could use this? Does this represent my taste or my dream aesthetic? Is there anything else in this item except for objective cute look?

For trinkets and objects: Is there a particular place in my house where this fits? Does it match my future dream house? Does it match my color palette? If it requires flipping, repairing, renewing etc, do I have the time and energy to do it soon? Is it just objectively nice, or is it representative of my current taste?

Don't ever think about the past you that bought the item, but the future you that is using it. Remember that decluttering makes room for more cool stuff that you'll cherish much more! And really, stop with the sentiments. No, the item isn't mad at you, and the person who gave you this years ago isn't either. If it doesn't spark joy, give it away!

[kellenhathspoken]

"Kellen hath spoken" hath been born!

Bonjour!

This is my first ever writing-based blog! I'd like to use this platform to spread lies, deceit, misinformation and pseudoscience across the internet! Hopefully one day I will have created a cult-like movement with followers who worship my words like otherworldly deities while disseminating all the nonsense I spew from my keyboard onto the screen on which you are currently reading this… Just kidding! Unless…..?

I am currently dog-sitting for family friends in an extremely remote part of Michigan. It’s the kind of “remote” where, if I screamed loudly outside, no one would hear me except for the animals that dwell in the surrounding forest! I could scream obscenities, slurs, insults or words in other languages for anatomical parts, and the only beings that would hear these horrible words would be the worms in the ground, the birds in the sky, and the hounds I’m watching! Let’s cross our fingers and hope they don’t tell their owners that the person watching them is a lunatic! But the dogs' owners, like most people I know through my parents, most likely already know I’m a lunatic! And let me tell you, readers: it pays to be a lunatic!!

I had a dear friend visit me on the farm (and I call it a “farm” because there are two barns on the property, though no farming takes place here… I think…) who recommended that I start blogging. I must admit, I am a bit narcissistic in the way that I get a thrill out of people reading what I have to say. Well, calling that “narcissistic” is such a dramatic stretch and over-exaggeration, but I do love the drama of it all… I have recently come to love creating text posts on my “close friends” story on Instagram and sharing my thoughts there, though I think it’s time to move on from esoteric rants and grow into something mainstream… Which is why I’ve decided to create a blog on Tumblr in 2024! So incredibly mainstream, is it not?

I have to owe it to my above-mentioned dear friend Sarah for suggesting I start blogging. In the past, whenever I had Tumblrs, it was a site I went on to re-blog photos, videos and music I thought were cool. Getting a Tumblr at the age of 13 was like opening Pandora’s box: Arthouse movies, unheard-of genres of music (like vaporwave!! I still miss it), stills of scandalous TV shows such as “Skins," artists I’d never heard of but came to adore, reading strangers’ graphically detailed diary entries, hardcore pornography, photos of women wearing high-heels in the mud, radioactive green goo dripping onto Nike tennis shoes, Paz de la Huerta, anime, hentai, pro-ana manifestos, a lady named “Molly Soda,” a link to a website that teaches you how to kill yourself with a helium tank, John Galliano, neo-Nazis, gore, gore, and more gore; these horrifically grotesque yet fascinating items and ideas all jumped out from the screen and implanted themselves into my brain, never to be forgotten! One click led to an intrusive thought, the other a pang of guilt for seeing, another a new type of arousal never felt before. I don’t need to go on and on about Tumblr, and I’d rather not anyway for fear of sounding corny, but you get the picture(s)!

I’m excited to begin this new trek into the collective unconscious to retrieve new ways of self-expression and discovery! Maybe I won’t come out of it unscathed, but I am looking forward to seeing how kellen hath spoken evolves (or devolves!) on this platform we Gen Z degenerates and outcasts are all too familiar with. One more thing about Tumblr and then I’m cutting myself off from mentioning it again: We as members of the same internet-exposed generation ought to require our potential suitors to disclose their old Tumblrs. I believe this could prevent you from dating a serial killer, racist, sexist, or, worse: a Dr. Who fan!! Ew!!!!! Typing those words made my stomach growl, and not in a cute way.

I suppose I’d like to dedicate this inaugural blog post to gluttony, considering it was only yesterday that Americans across the US of A gathered to eat till the cows came home! And maybe the cows never came home, and the eating never ended. Maybe you’re still eating turkey (my least favorite meat! I HATE how dry it can be, and the flavor isn’t satiating in the least!) and mashed potatoes (like eating cotton balls, I’d guess) and stuffing (weird) and the wretched grotesquerie known as green bean casserole!!! Disgusting!! I have spent just about every Thanksgiving with my family, except for Thanksgiving of 2017 when I went to London by myself to stay with an internet friend whom I’d met on (you guessed it!) Tumblr. I think from this moment forward I’d like to spend Thanksgiving with friends who possess exquisite taste in cuisine. Sorry, family, but there’s only so much overcooked, under-moisturized turkey and meandering small talk I can stomach! Next year, I plan to assemble an elite team of friends, acquaintances, lovers, and gluttons who all have a complementary, if not identical, palate. I’m salivating while thinking about a Thanksgiving feast replete with foods and drinks that tickle our umami and savory taste buds in our group’s mouths!  Vegemite on every slice of sourdough bread, seaweed as a garnish on EVERYTHING, raw garlic and onions as hors d’oeuvres, nutritional yeast mixed in bubbly water as an apéritif, duck marinated in a salty, garlicky sauce only referred to as “duck bath,” a jar of pickles for every guest, ponzu as the liquid with which we wash our hands before “digging in,” canned sardines that we all tie into knots in our mouths like cherry stems, a soup made of leftovers from last year’s Thanksgiving that we must all slurp as dramatically yet sexily as possible, trip hop and downtempo and drum-and-bass classics playing from a Bose stereo from the ‘80s that someone somehow hooked a Bluetooth connector into, an autistic mime in the background mocking and mimicking each of us in a slightly insulting yet endearing way, a live chicken sauntering beneath the table and occasionally pecking our feet. Reader, would you like to join us next year? If so, let me know. If not, also let me know and include an explanation as well as a list of three nice things to say about me.

Gluttony as a sin baffles me. I can understand the sinfulness of lust, wrath, and even sloth, but gluttony? You mean “god” will “damn” me to “hell” for eating too much? You know what, I propose we get a hold of the Pope and demand that gluttony be replaced with withholding! The act of restricting something necessary from someone or yourself; now that’s a sin worth damning someone to hell for! Before you assemble a torch-and-pitchfork-wielding militia to conduct a citizen’s arrest on me, hear me out. Depriving another human of something they absolutely need and/or desperately want is much crueler and more unusual than over-consumption! Gluttons can share too! However, gluttony in and of itself… Doesn’t make sense as a sin, does it, Christians? Choosing not to share when being fully able to do so? Evil! I applaud Christians for being such good rule-followers. That sort of deluded loyalty is an admirable trait indeed. If you’re a Christian and reading this, have you considered being an evil henchman/sidekick instead? Think of all the riches and treasures you and your evil genius leader would scour. Put those blind-worshiping skills to good use!

If you have made it here after reading the nonsense I’ve written so far, I am not sure whether to thank you or fear you. Either way, I appreciate your patience and perhaps enthusiasm for what I’ve got to say. Kellen hath spoken will ideally be a blog through which I share my thoughts, concerns, suggestions, obsessions, observations, favorite things, least favorite things, fears, desires, and interviews with friends! Thank you for reading!!!!! TTYL!

[faroreswinds]

With the Tears of the Kingdom previews out, I took a gander at general reactions on Reddit. Why? I don’t know, I must hate myself. 

I also actively despise Zelda Youtubers so I don’t want to go there and read Youtube comments. 

I have been surprised by the number of negative comments after the previews. I figured this would go over really well, since Freedom TM seems to be popular theses days in your gameplay. With the overwhelming success of BotW, I figured more would be welcomed. 

But no, there are quite a few people who don’t like what they see. r/Games, for instance, has this thread where many people express that they aren’t sure if they really like the direction Zelda is heading now. As if it is really going too far. r/NintendoSwitch also has this thread where similar sentiments are shared. Of course, r/truezelda, r/tearsofthekingdom and r/Zelda share similar sentiments from time to time, but as they are Zelda subreddits, these fans are drowned out as haters or trolls. 

Now below the cut are some minor spoiler stuff. I will be hiding it for those who are keeping themselves spoiler free entirely.

You have been warned. There are gameplay spoilers below. 

Personally myself, I’m am not entirely pleased either. I already do not like this Princess Zelda or Link. I do not really like this Hyrule. I only really like Riju and Sidon. And I can tell you that the story will not be my cup of tea. It’s er... it’s going to be something.

Of course I will play the game and judge it accordingly. But first impressions have not been great. I can fuse a mushroom to my shield? Technically impressive, but not really want I wanted. I can craft vehicles? Looks dumb, I don’t want rockets or shit in my fantasy video game. 

Actual bombs being back is great though. Well, bomb flowers, but close enough, those are a classic. I also really think being able to bring Sidon on my adventure will be fun as well. Not... happy about Tulin though. He’s an annoying little kid, and frankly I don’t get the appeal. 

The new menu design looks both great and terrible. It’s ugly on the eyes, like really ugly. But there are some clear improvements in function. 

Not a fan of all the menu-ing you will have to do. Apparently, you have to go into a menu every time you want to fuse something to your arrow. No bulk fusing that we know of yet. That is a serious design flaw if true. Menu-ing also breaks up the flow of combat, and if I can just open a menu and dick around with the items to put a flamethrower on my shield, then there will be a lot of time spent in menus while in combat. 

Speaking of menus, they have not fixed the healing system. It still functions the same. Pause, eat as much as you want, continue battle. Lame. They did make some changes, but not in the way that enhances combat. 

First of all, you can cook anywhere with a new item (one time use though). This was never an issue. The real issue was never being able to cook in bulk, but one at a time, making it a tedious wait time of watching the same animations over and over again. 

Second, there is now a recipe book. Great, but unless hearty foods are no longer in the game I can promise you I will not be cooking much. I will make the most simple shit that is effective, not try to see what fun recipes I can make. Who cares if I can make cake if it only heals me 5 heart, when a fish with a hearty turnip will heal me thirty? But people asked for a recipe book, so I’m not necessarily mad that it is there. 

I also want to touch quickly on durability and ultrahand. Durability, of course, is back. Urg. But they tried to “fix” it by making it so you can fuse items together to make it more durable. Cool. But it’s still breakable. 

And apparently, you can just unfuse the item and then refuse it with something else to keep it even longer. This is essentially resetting durability. If this is true, then it is effectively no durability with extra, tedious steps. 

In fact, this whole game looks like a lot of tedium. 

As for ultrahand, there is apparently a skill that allows you to save past builds. You can then autobuild them instantly if you have the right items. Great idea, except did we really have to waste a skill slot for this? Apparently it is a later game skill. If true, this means that any early builds you make will be unable to be saved. Nintendo wanted to keep this skill a secret for some reason. Honestly, I have no idea why. It’s not like that it is worth keep private. It’s a QoL feature that people should probably know about. 

My guess is that they don’t want to discourage people from experimenting early on. If people can save their builds right away, they will just keep their early builds and continue to adjust them till they end the game, rather than continuing trying new things. And if you know there is a save feature you get later, you might be discouraged to try making things early since you cannot keep the schematics around. 

This is lame if true, though. 

There are effectively “8″ skills Link can use. I use the number “8″ loosely. It’s not really 8 skills, but rather 4 skills, 1 expanded feature on another skill, and 1 amiibo skill. 

Ultrahand - Link can pick up and move anything, and put them together in any configuration he would like

Fuse - Take up to two items and fuse them together like glue

Ascend - Go through ceilings and some enemies like water and reach the top

Recall - Turn back time on an object so it returns to its original position. 

These are the known, unique skills. Then we have

Autobuild - Quickly build past builds if you have the parts. This is essentially a save feature for Ultrahand

Amiibo - Literally just the amiibo skill, similar to the amiibo rune from Botw. 

Finally, we have two mysterious skills

Compass-thing - Some weird compass-looking green icon. It’s probably a tracking feature, but we do not know it’s purpose yet. 

Blank - We honestly don’t know what this could be. Could be a camera skill. Could be a secondary feature to one of the main 4 features. We just have no clue at all. 

Effectively, these are rune replacements. Ultrahand + Autobuild is just Magnesis but better. Recall is Statis but instead of freezing an object, you make it go in reverse into it’s original position. Amiibo is amiibo. 

Ascend is basically Revali’s Gale but through rock instead of the air. Fuse is entirely new. However, Ascend has some great exploration potential. Maybe I can find an air pocket in a cave with treasure. Hopefully, though, that treasure will be worth it and not some stupid consumable sword. 

The bomb runes and Cryonsis are entirely gone. The bombs have been replaced with bomb flowers as a consumable item now. So no more remote bombs, round or square. Cryonsis could have a similar skill that is that missing blank skill, but I suspect they want players to use the Ultrahand system, and make ships and the like. Cryonsis would remove the need to do this, so it has to go. 

Most of these skills are entirely focused on the sandbox-style of BotW. I am not a particular fan of sandbox games, and it saddens me that this is the direction Zelda seems to be going. It was fine for a single game, but I had hoped for a more cultured, straight-forward experience in future installments. I figured Totk would still value freedom to the player, but it doubled down in ways I was hoping it would not. 

The only real “combat” skills are maybe Fuse and Recall. Fuse because of making weapons better. Recall because you can make rolling stones hit enemies or the like.

But calling them real “combat” skills is a stretch. They don’t really actually do combat, but rather craft the necessary items to create a combat experience. I’m hoping that like BotW, we get more “combat” skills like Urbosa’s Fury (unless they didn’t add stuff like this because they want to player to interact with the fusing system). 

I am worried about the size of the map. BotW ran pretty ok, but it still had issues. This is a bigger game, with a LOT more going on. Honestly, it seems too ambitious for a Switch game. My super powerful PC sometimes struggles to play Elden Ring, and a little Switch will seamlessly play the biggest Zelda game of all time? When it couldn’t even get a small title like Link’s Awakening to play smoothly? I’m skeptical. 

And with the map size so big, I feel like this will be a one and done game for me. I’m a lot older now, and exploring large maps are only fun once. After the first time, it’s too overwhelming to try it again. I love Elden Ring, but it’s 30 square mile map keeps me from wanting to do another thorough playthrough again. I am actually replying it, but I plan to skip a lot. 

When it came to BotW’s map, it is so large but empty of meaningful content that I don’t have it in me to roam around just for the reason of roaming around. I need goals, that come with real, tangible rewards at the end. Now we are getting the map again (which was already 22 square miles) plus the sky PLUS underground stuff. That is a lot of land. How can you fill all that with meaningful content you want to do again and again? This could be potentially bigger than Elden Ring’s map. And Elden Ring’s map is really big. It’s starting to all get too big for me. 

Also, Korok seeds are back. Urg. Why? I don’t want them. Can we not figure out another means to fill the world with content besides more Korok seeds? 

However, and this might sound a bit callous... but I look forward to the future “BotW” versus “Totk” fights.

Already it’s happening. Fans wondering if Totk will completely invalidate the experience BotW offered. Totk looks richer, fuller. It’s larger. It looks like it has a better story. NPC companions, probably better side quests, lots of crafting, and hopefully better dungeons! 

I have no leg in this fight because I love MM and MM is not the most favorite Zelda game in the series among fans. I don’t particularly enjoy the direction Zelda is going, both in lore and gameplay. Seeing people argue about which game will be the better Zelda experience, BotW or Totk, will be quite funny to me. 

To end on a positive note, the Sky Islands we did see do look quite beautiful. I look forward to see these beautiful lands. 

[owlgoddess24]

i’ve talked about this a little bit before but i’ve been thinking about it again: as a vehicle for creative expression, minecraft is incredible, but as a video game, minecraft is shit.

i mean it. unless you mod it to hell and back it’s just shit.

tutorials are done about as clearly as story in a dark souls game, that being through vague things you might see in the world that don’t clearly tell you anything. minecraft is so ubiquitous that most people don’t ever think about this, but to me i think having to go on a wiki to understand basic elements of a video game is bad design. progression is so small and basic that you’re encouraged to just try to go through it as fast as possible, some tools and armor sets are completely useless because the only thing they need to do is get you to the next tier of materials. the durability system on said tools is fucking awful, everything breaks extremely quickly, and once you get to the higher tiers of diamond and netherite you end up feeling like you have to prevent tools from breaking at all costs, because then you get into the WORST system of the game, enchanting. the purpose of the system is to give your tools cool extra boosts in ability, and it’s fun conceptually, but in practice a piece of shit grindfest. a tool can only be enchanted in a table once, but you can add more using enchanted books in an anvil, so you end up grinding out those books until you get the one you want. once you do get the enchantments you want, you run into another problem: every time you use a tool in an anvil, the XP cost increases, until eventually the game just arbitrarily decides it’s “too expensive” and you can NEVER use that item in the anvil again. this wouldn’t be too bad if anvils were just for enchanting, BUT THEY ARE ALSO FOR REPAIRING TOOLS, MEANING THAT IF YOU PUT A LOT OF WORK INTO ENCHANTING A TOOL YOU WILL AT A CERTAIN POINT BE UNABLE TO REPAIR IT. this then basically forces you to seek out the rare mending enchantment, which repairs held tools slightly every time you gain experience, but even that just turns repairing tools into its own piece of shit grind session. getting this enchantment requires either getting an ultra rare drop from the unbearably boring fishing mechanic, or from villager trades. however, rather than simply being a high level trade for librarian villagers or something like that, mending is just a part of the random pool of possible enchantment trades, meaning that a player is usually forced into exploiting villager job mechanics for even a chance at getting it. oh, and THEN there’s the problem of the villagers and their trading system themselves, because this game basically encourages players to enslave its humans who are suspiciously designed like anti-semitic caricatures. i have no fucking idea how mojang has let this sit for as long as it has, nor do i understand how their changes to villager mechanics almost always just make it worse. the optimal strategy most players use for villagers is to steal them from their villages and lock them inside of small areas for the sole purpose of trading, as there is no penalty for this and no bonus from treating them like people. god forbid children think frogs can eat fireflies, but sure! lets teach the kids the wonders of slavery and human trafficking! i don’t think mojang is malicious here, but just. how haven’t they noticed this!!! it’s an active fight against what the game seems to be telling you to try and play it in a way that doesn’t feel colonizer as shit! on top of all this, at its core, i think minecraft is just… boring! building is fun, but playing survival has always felt to me like i have to slog through a million other things in order to do that part of the game that i really like. and i like building in survival! there’s a satisfaction to it that i don’t get in creative! it’s just that first i have to go through the boring ass mining and the boring ass progression and the absolutely brutal enchantment system and only THEN do i feel like i can start doing the fun stuff. i can’t act like this is a good game with a couple of flaws anymore. minecraft sucks. i’m sorry.

[ranhaitanisgf]

Hello, can I have “enemies/rivals to lovers” with Ran where reader “gets sick” and Ran is the only one who is there to take care of her because she lives alone most of the time. While she is delirious she reveals some things that make Ran view her in a different light. And then Ran decided to take her on a date when she feels better. Some angst and fluff afterwards. Thank you!

— ran haitani // enemies/rivals to lovers // getting sick

[𖤐] #guess whose back. back again . HIIII ik i was gone for like two weeks but im backkk neow hallo :D idk why but i made this shi SO LONG so i was getting unmotivated to keep writing this but i did it lollll. hope u enjoy my lovelies xoxo !!

[𖤐] disclaimer ; fem!reader

wc ; 2.1k+

masterlist || 2k masterlist

ran isn’t sure why he’s even doing this. 

he’s been standing in front of your door for closer to twenty minutes now, trying to figure out how the hell he was going explain his purpose in being at your place. he’s not a man to typically think too hard about things; after all, he’s the elder brother of the infamous haitani brothers who rule roppongi, so why would he ever need to think about his interactions with other people? he typically will just do whatever fits his mood, and others will respond to that; that’s how it’s been ever since him and rindou made a name for themselves. 

so why was he thinking about this so much? 

it was comical to him, the fact that someone like you could be making him question himself so much. ran had found a whole lot of entertainment in teasing you every so often, and would even go so far as to say that you piqued his interest. he always found the expressions you would make were quite cute, and it was even cuter when you would call him your ‘enemy’. he’d even been showing up to school a bit more just to see you, ignoring his brother’s annoyance about it. you were just so interesting.

which is why he began to seek you out when he noticed that you weren’t at school today, going around and asking different classmates if they knew why you were absent. when he’d finally gotten the answer that you were out sick, he’d been a bit disappointed, but he had just decided to move on with his day. he would just come to school and bother you next week, right? 

however, he immediately started to think different when he overheard some of your friends talking, whispering about how you lived alone and how they were worried about you taking care of yourself when you’re sick. of course, as soon as ran heard this, he butted in on their conversation, asking for your address and telling them not to worry because ‘he would take care of it’, (they were even more worried after he said this). 

and so now he was here, a plastic bag in his hand with various items to give to you. he might not look like it, but he was actually pretty adept at taking care of sick people. before their rise to fame, ran and rindou were just two little kids with parents who were never around, which meant that whenever rindou got sick, ran was the only one around to take care of him, (they were bittersweet memories for him). it’s why he was so confident on the way here; he knew what he was doing. 

“you ever gonna ring the damn doorbell?? been sittin’ here for so long my ass is numb.” ran rolled his eyes at his brother's words. 

“yeah yeah, don’t get your panties in a twist.” he could hear rindou scoff at his words, but he ignored it, finally pressing his finger against your doorbell. a minute or two went by as he stood there, wondering if you were maybe asleep. just as he was about to ring the doorbell a second time, the door swung open. 

“the hell’re you doing here?” you grumbled, shivering a bit at the cool outside air. ran merely laughed at your standoffish tone, holding up the bag in his hand. 

“now now, is that any way to greet someone who came to give you dire supplies?” 

“i’m sick, not dying. how did you even find my address?”

“i have my ways~” the look on your face changed from somewhat neutral to grossed out, which just made him laugh again. “mind i come in?” 

“actually i do- ugh…” ran didn’t wait for your answer before stepping into your house, slipping his shoes off and taking a look around. 

“what’re you doing here??” your question pulled him a bit out of his observing, turning to you and seeing the state you were in. he supposed it wasn’t terrible, especially since you could still get out of bed and walk around. 

“well of course, i came here to offer my services~” you only sighed at ran’s words, starting up the stairs to get back into bed. 

“wow i feel so flattered! you took time out of your oh so busy schedule to come and see me, how will i ever recover!” ran chuckled at your sarcasm, following you into your room. you seemed to give him a pointed glare, but you were too tired to argue with him, so you just got back into bed and pulled your covers up. you sighed once again as you saw ran pull your desk chair up to the side of your bed, sitting himself down and plopping the bag next to him. 

there weren’t any words said between the two of you as he started to take things out. the silence in the air was anything but tense; in fact, as much as you hated to admit it to yourself, you felt somewhat comforted by his presence. it was nice to have someone else there with you. 

his fingers moved deftly between everything; you had no idea what in the world he was doing, so your eyes drifted up to his face, watching his calm expression and how every so often, he would chew a bit on his bottom lip. there were some strands of hair that had escaped from his two braids, framing his face more than usual. it gave his face a softer look, and made him seem somehow…softer. 

“see somethin’ you like?” his lilac gaze shifted towards you, a teasing look in his eyes as you promptly looked away, pulling your covers up a bit more. 

“no. i was just thinking about how fuckin’ weird you are.” 

“whew, you sure know how to make an impression, (l/n).” he chuckled. 

you felt slightly perturbed by how casual and chill he was acting; how was it that he was acting so calm while you felt like screaming and had no idea what to say? 

if you weren’t feeling so conflicted, you would have at the very least said something vulgar when ran suddenly grabbed your hand, (why the hell were his hands so soft?). you were suddenly aware of how sweaty and hot your palms were, which merely made them even more sweaty. if he noticed, ran didn’t say anything about it, just carefully dropping two tablets into your palm and handing you a glass of water. 

at your questioning gaze, ran merely chuckled, leaning back in his chair. 

“if you seriously think that i just handed you some mysterious drugs, then i would say that you’re severely mistaken.” holding up the medicine bottle, ran shook it a bit, the pills inside making a rattling noise. 

“hey, i think i have a right to question popping pills from some random dude who just walked into my house.” you muttered, popping the pills into your mouth and taking some gulps of water. “who knows what kind of shady business you’re into, after all.” 

“well darling, i would certainly hope that you don’t let random men into your house aside from me~ i would feel terribly wounded if i saw another man walking out of your house.” the feigned expression of hurt on ran’s face made you giggle a little bit, although the small expression from you embarrassingly turned into a fit of coughs. 

as your coughs started to settle down, you could’ve sworn that you’d seen a hint of something in ran’s eyes, his brows pulled together slightly. was it concern? worry? you could never quite figure out what he was thinking. 

gingerly, ran took the glass of water from your hand and put it on your bedside table, gesturing for you to lay back down. you hadn’t ever thought that you would see ran acting in a way that was gentle, but somehow, seeing this different side of him made you feel like maybe…

“you should get some rest.” the short statement pulled you out of your thoughts, looking back at the boy at your bedside. it was hard to tell whether the heat in your cheeks was due to him or your fever, so you looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed that he’s seeing you this way. never in your wildest imagination had you thought that the first person to care for you when you were sick would ran haitani of all people; after all, hadn’t you considered him somewhat of an enemy? 

so why was he being so nice? why was he getting your hopes up? 

“you better not tell anybody about this.” 

“wasn’t plannin’ on it, sweet cheeks.” 

“you seriously can’t tell anybody. not even your brother. nobody’s ever seen me sick before.” ran quirked an eyebrow at this; a silent indicator that he was wanting more of an explanation as to what you just said. you felt a sigh slip through your lips, wondering if you could even tell him something like this. 

however, with the concern in his gaze, the fever that was most definitely interfering with your decision making skills, and his stupidly handsome face, you decided to tell him. 

“doesn’t this house seem way too big for just one person?” 

“...sure.”

“i didn’t just hate you. i hated all delinquents and gangs ‘cause they took people away from me. but i guess you were able to change that for me or somethin’...anyways. you’re stupid for coming here, and if you tell anybody about this i’ll kill you.” you supposed that it doesn’t seem like much of a threat when you’re bedridden with a fever, especially with how you currently look. 

you were unsure of how ran would react to what you had just told him, and the silence between the two of you made you regret it every passing second. 

“just forget i said anything, and please leave-?!” before you could finish your sentence, ran’s hand rested gently against your forehead, his hands gloveless for once in his life. there was a pensive look in his eyes, his facial expression rather serious as he toyed with locks of your hair, tenderly brushing them away from your face. 

although you were taken aback at first, you slowly started to relax under his gentle touch. your fever was clouding your mind significantly, as you would never ever allow this under normal circumstances. 

you supposed it was okay for now though. 

--

“eek!” 

“didn’t i tell you to hold on tight?” 

“i-i am!!” 

“hold on tighter then~!” you let out another squeal as you felt the bike pick up speed once again, your arms now tightly around the waist of the boy in front of you. your cheek was pressed against his back, your eyes closed as you felt the wind whip against your face. 

“is-is this really necessary?!” 

“i’m feeling quite wounded that you would suggest that i would do something unnecessary-”

“eek!!!” you could feel the rumbling of his laughter at your incessant squeals, but you decided that that wasn’t important at the moment. what was more important was that you made it off this bike alive. 

“calm down doll, we’re almost there.” 

“calm down?! you expect me to calm down?! if i fall off i’m going to die!!” you got no response from him aside from a hearty chuckle, which somehow made you feel (just a little bit) at ease. 

after a few minutes, the motions of the bike slowed until it finally stopped. as soon as it came to a stop, you stumbled off, whipping around to face ran, who seemed rather calm and was moreso giving you a smirk rather than being apologetic. 

“when you said you wanted to go on a date, this is not at all what i expected!!” you yelled, putting your hands on your hips. “do you even feel any remorse for scaring me half to death?” 

“mm, not really. see…” his long arms reached out to wrap around your waist, turning you around and pulling you close, your back against his chest. “...that was just the mode of transportation. i was hoping you were going to enjoy this more~” 

now that you took a moment to look at your surroundings, you realized that in front of you was the most gorgeous view of the city, effectively taking your breath away. when you looked a little closer, you also noticed the picnic table in front of you, the surface holding a wide variety of snacks and foods. 

“...i guess i can forgive you this time.” 

“you guess? wow, you truly wound me, princess.” 

“you use that way too much.” you murmured, glad than ran couldn’t see your embarrassed face at the moment. you were even more glad that he couldn’t see you when he pressed a kiss to the crown of your head, somehow making your cheeks heat up more. 

“you forgive me yet?”

“you’re so stupid…” 

“mm, i love you too.”

[r--kt]

OMG I'm so glad you like it!! yes, that scene from princess mononoke is so them. love your reblogs, honestly! they're always makes me feel every positive emotion I can express.

the chat part is the exact thing. in addition, in this scene Obito is waiting for a simple solution from Kakashi, while he says that there is no simple solution. this is another detail that angers Obito, because subconsciously he believes that Kakashi has some kind of expert opinion, and here Kakashi says that he does not know the answer himself.

if you move away from the topic of my post a little bit, then, well, yes, this is a dialogue about accepting reality, about how to do it right so as not to go crazy or something — And about accepting how hard the reality might become. so it's also about Obito's feeling for Kakashi and Rin, about the way he said that they're fake if they aren't the way he wants them to be. I'd say it's about Obito's immaturity on the one hand, and it's worth thinking about them both being so broken, but Obito was full of hope and this thing hit him hard, while Kakashi hopes for the best, but prepares for the worst. Kakashi says that the worst thing about this situation is loneliness, and Obito, who has been pushing himself into the framework of a "lone wolf" for years, was naturally taken aback when he heard this.

it seems so interesting and kind of weird that kid Obito got hooked on Kakashi, who did nothing but pressure him and spur him on to be better. I would even say that Rin and Kakashi are like a carrot and stick for Obito, and they see it themselves. well, it's a mystery why he chose Kakashi. maybe this is reverse psychology, "I will choose the most intolerant of me, win his recognition and then I will close the non-recognition of other people with this, cuz I defeated the boss." it's like buying an item, we can close the gap between who we want to be and who we actually are, "if those I want to look like have such a thing, then I'll get it and be better." [ a bit weird example, I'm studying to be an advertising and PR specialist so that's why :D ] so maybe he chose Kakashi as the as almost an elusive but payback goal. oh, well, either it's the magical powers of Uchiha's love.

and it's also damn cool that Obito didn't fall for naruto therapy because he generally understands all this, you can't convince him with the words that he said himself as a child. he already has arguments for this over the years. and after all, Kakashi is not saying the same words, they really talk about which side Kakashi is on, and why he is there, and why he did not support Obito, and this is probably one of the most personal dialogues that could have been between them. no, like, they haven't talked for twenty years!!! and after twenty years of separation, in this conversation, Obito does perhaps the most vulnerable and sincere and intimate thing he could do — he admits that Kakashi is dear to him. the same thing happens when he sacrifices himself a second time and gives Kakashi both of his eyes (I'm going to split into atoms right now thinking about how personal and sensual it all is). I think that's why Obito laughs it off or switches the topic at the end — because it's even awkward, to love him so obviously.

I like the "Kakashi is his legacy" thought, it's so true. they seem to both understand this, thus Obito doesn't want to kill Kakashi (he never wanted btw) and this is a very significant part of the reasons why Kakashi did not commit suicide during the Anbu period.

I don't know why Kishimoto prescribed these two the way he did, but they're like from some soulmate AU. paired eyes? yes. seeing eachother's life through these eyes? sure. being separated and then meet in the most tragic circumstances? ughhh. "I'm never enough to be loved", but there's one more "I'm never enough to be loved by you". guys, that's intense (and gay, do smth with this already). and huge YES to the post-war AU

and this conversation with Rin, I would also like to talk about it some day, this is a very entertaining thing. I agree that he might not have seen her literally, but it's rather his expectations and desires.

thank you so much for these conversations I love it 😭 the song lines are accurate af. I will look forward to your posts when you find time for them!

Where actually was this betrayal line for Obito that Kakashi had crossed?

about the whole "anyone got Kakashi, but not Obito" thing that @komihoyinsblog said. I remembered where the culmination of this theme was. no, like, this whole topic is real!

let's talk about the scene after when Jubito was defeated. here I will analyse kkobkk relationships and Obito's arc specifically.

contents | context · meaning of the scene · where's a mistake and where's a betrayal

CH. 655

Context

during the battle with the shinobi alliance, Obito came face to face with a deeply repressed desire for another life, which he did not realize due to his position as the only one who can fulfill the tsukuyomi plan. the battle itself as well as the conversation with Naruto reminds Obito of the aspirations and values dear to him that he had to sacrifice. all this has noticeably hit Obito and now he is disarmed and stripped of his armor, which is metaphorically reflected in his half-naked body (and cuz fans love men's boobs).

CH. 652. god, look how happy he is, I'm sobbing. love the way he never regrets about his scars, they're with him even in his imagination, that's a reminder of his core values.

structurally, in Obito's arc, this scene is the Collapse point and the end of the second act. here, the previous methods (the tsukuyomi plan) have shown their inconsistency, and the goal (peace for everyone and for him, too) has not been achieved, and he must find a new way to achieve this goal. at the beginning of the scene, he is confused, defeated and not ready to face the consequences.

why isn't he ready? he's lying there, seemingly resigned. yeah, not exactly. here, he accepted the impending death, and it's even not bad to die by Kakashi's hand to some extent. another question is, is he ready to talk to him, is he ready to accept the defeat and find the strength to continue the journey?

Meaning of the scene

once again, it is important that the battle with the alliance and the conversation with Naruto influenced Obito, but did not convince him. it was Kakashi who did it.

in fact, this conversation with Kakashi is a crucial reason for Obito to return to his ideals. before that, he was in doubt (the second act is a reflection of the character, as if hesitating from one side to the other), and after that he takes the side of the alliance. what did Kakashi say that made Obito come back?

three questions Obito is asking.

how can you be sure that Naruto won't fail on his way, unlike me? [pic 2, above]

why are you so attached to Naruto, what's the difference between him and me? [pic below]

why are you willing to help him (and not me)? [pic below]

they don't talk about different paths here. Kakashi emphasizes that Obito's path is not exactly wrong, so that's not the deal. it's about Obito and Naruto as people, and, more, about Kakashi's opinion on Obito.

finding out why he is not the one whose path Kakashi is ready to defend is essential for Obito. he wants to understand why Naruto (aka Obito's previous self, too) is closer to him, why Kakashi does not support the actual one for whom he grieved so much. why, even recognizing the possible correctness of tsukuyomi, Kakashi refuses to support Obito in this, prefers to go the same way. and also look at how damn emotional he is at this moment, his feelings go from anger to anxiety in a couple of frames. that's what happened when the central conflict "I'm never good enough to be loved" is raised.

Obito's questions are a subconscious appeal to Kakashi — "why don't you choose me? I could make you happy. what's wrong with me again?!" he thinks that the reason Kakashi doesn't take his side is not because of the correctness of his path, but because of Obito himself. subconsciously, he thinks that it's because of Kakashi's personal dislike of this "new" Obito, and he is very afraid of this might be true. just look at his face at the bottom of the page, he's really worried about hearing Kakashi's answer. oh, and it's actually the same meaning as "I thought, maybe you could love me like you used to, even though I'm different" [ Jinx's quote from Arcane, yes, I like to compare these two sometimes ].

what Kakashi says in this situation means "let me help you." Kakashi said he would be ready to help Obito if he let him in, if he allowed him. this is literally the only condition (which is important to mention here) under which Obito did not pass, because of his desire to reject Kakashi's help, believing that he must put his life on tsukuyomi plan and cut off all ties. but this does not mean that he wanted Kakashi to cut off this tie in return.

Obito was an individualist, and he only scoffed or got angry at Kakashi's offer to help/sympathize. now they're in a situation when Obito finally hear that Kakashi said "you've made mistakes, but that's okay. I can be with you, if you need me to, and I'm okay with you continuing your life and reaching peace. I accept you and I believe in you." and I want you to appreciate that this is the tipping point of Obito's arc.

so, that's why Obito changes his way of acting. Kakashi shows that he accepts Obito the way he is, and thus significantly reduces Obito's need to prove his worth through his own hardships and overcoming difficulties. yes, Kakashi had already said similar things before, and it didn't work, but here this line is resolved precisely because of this deep conversation they had.

Where's a mistake and where's a betrayal

oh, maybe Rin's death was a thing Obito considered a betrayal from Kakashi's part? everything's much less trivial. would he offer to help Kakashi if he thought he was a traitor? and well, he offered.

CH. 630

no, look at his face on the bottom right, why would you say that with such a gentle face to someone you consider a traitor? what is it, a genuine smile? so something happened besides that.

the betrayal was that Kakashi preferred his other ties to the connection with Obito. here, betrayal is not about killing Rin, and not about breaking a promise — all these are mistakes that Obito is able to forgive.

all the moments when Obito says something like "you had the opportunity to kill me, but you didn't do it", "you can't deal with me because of guilt?", "still blaming yourself for the broken promises?" - all this is an attempt to increase his own value, to show the importance of Obito for Kakashi. and it's also a projection. Obito says, "you had so many opportunities to kill me, but you..." although he does the same. like, why would he leave Kakashi alive after the kamui battle? intentionally inflict a non-fatal wound on him and leave him in a dimension that only he and Obito have access to? "I don't care if he's alive or dead," but at every opportunity he chose the option "alive", even if it's less profitable for him. my baby loves to deceive himself so much.

all this time, Obito believed that he was striving for their common dream, and therefore the condemnation from Kakashi (there should be a couple more frames from the manga) feels like the most painful blow for him, especially when Kakashi says that Rin would not want it either. before that, Obito had compared himself and Kakashi a couple of times, put them on an equal footing, and after being rejected by him, that's where Obito feels really lonely.

the point of no return was precisely the fact that Kakashi shows with his own words that he does not accept the current Obito and everything he's been striving for years. all this, taken together, he considered a betrayal, as if he's not enough, as if he fucked everything up again.

therefore, their conflict is resolved by the acceptance of one person by another, this is in fact exactly what Obito's heart wanted — to hear that he could be accepted after all that had happened. the same thing happened after his death, when he finally met Rin, by the way.

hope the text is not that messy. oh, and! that kkob video I've made with mitski's song. this fits the topic so well. love these guys

[tazzykiki]

I Adore Earthspark So So Much <3

Okay so I watched all episodes of Earthspark and AAAAAAA it's so good and I love it sooooooo much. It's everything I wanted for it and MORE(major spoilers ahead):

-The animation is AMAZING. I love the mix of 3D characters and background with all the special effects being in 2D. It's such an odd but cool style.

-I love the way the characters are animated, their motions are sooooo good and are on par with TFP's in that every character moves in their own way. Such as Twitch's fan-thingies wiggling when she's excited(which is super cute). As well as the action being so exciting and impactful hhhhhh I love it SO MUCH. That scene when Skywarp and Nova Storm attacked was SO GOOD. I love it when we get to see the human perspective and sheer scale of these fights, it's so cool and terrifying.

-I adore the human aspect and how well it's portrayed. I love them being this big loving family that all have each other's backs. And I LOVE how instantly Twitch and Thrash are part of this family and are immediately referred to as siblings and Dot & Alex's kids.

-Also one of my fave things is how the Decepticons are treated. I love them as villains but I also love the nuance presented that we honestly don't get that much in the shows. I love that multiple times there's a point in talking about how they're treated, why they do what they do, and that they aren't mindlessly evil and that they deserve to be seen as any other cybertronian.

-I love that that's also a major conflict. We get a hint at it in the first ep with the super amazing G1-style recounting in which the story is so superficial and watered down that even the characters themselves question it. And then we even have this disagreement between Optimus and Megatron, not only showing their different outlooks and way of thinking but how imperfect everything is(especially with GHOST trying to convince everyone everything is fine). I love that that discussion doesn't villainize either of them. OP doing what he has to do even if he doesn't fully trust it because he just wants to keep everyone safe and Megatron not wanting to sacrifice freedom and instead TAKE ACTION even if it'll result in having to fight. Which is SO THEM.

-I am also so intrigued about WHY Bumblebee is supposed to be dead and why GHOST can't know about him. WHAT HAPPENED I MUST KNOWWW.

-I love the diversity and how it's portrayed. I love Robby, Mo, and Dot having afro-textured hair. And the fact that Mo wears a bonnet and Robby a durag(I believe that's what it is, I'm manly familiar with women's afro hair care) when they sleep!!!! I don't think I've ever seen them in cartoons or at least not enough! Same goes for live action stuff that only ever uses them to make us look ghetto, ugh. But it made me so happy just seeing them casually wearing those items!!! Cuz I!!! Do!!! That!!!! And aaaaa, the way they portrayed Alex and his traditions??? I'm not familiar with them but god I love that they took the time to do that and build an entire episode off of it.

-And of course Nightshade!!!! FINALLY. They're fucking called Transformers for a reason shjdkflg. But in all seriousness, I'm so glad they were included. And I can't wait to see more of them. Cybertronians are like, practically built for gender expression and exploration??? Like I'm of the belief they just pick whatever frame and pronoun best fits them because there's really no reason for them to have the same outlook on gender and etc like humans do????? Especially being giant alien robots who reproduce by popping out of Primus' butthole.

-I also adore the music, especially the dubstep sounding theme that plays when Megatron first appears. Please I need like a 200 year loop of that please and thank you.

-I love the bots' designs so muchhhh. I tend to prefer the more sleek and humanoid designs so I love that they went with that while keeping some of the boxy, G1 style aspects. I love how colorful everyone is and the different styles they have.

-Arcee is sooooo pretty and has this super old and classic feel to her that I love so much???(Also her voice is AMAZING). I love that little metal grate thing on her midsection she has and just her overall look that sets her aside from all the others. OP's face looks like a car crash, but he's my dad so that's allowed. The rest of him is perfect and I love how big he and Megatron are. I love how Megs has this style that makes him look both friendly and intimidating. I'm pretty sure his shoulders are based off TFP megs shape-wise with the face(at least the 2D version seen in Dot's photo) being based off TFA's markings(or were those shadows, we will never know). Also Wheeljack's entire look is great. It's a bit hard to tell what's going on with his mouth but I love that they brought back the beard style he tends to have. Also his yeehaw voice is great, it's like an emphasis on his Cyberverse voice I love it so much.

-Also Papa Wheeljack owns my soul <3(who's gonna tell him he has 3 more kids now..?)

-Also also I love Bumblebee's design, mix of friend shape and badass which I love to see(def looks a lot like his Cyberverse style but with the vibes of G1 with the more matte styling). I also love his face so much, idk why it's just so great. Also love this dumbaft saying his "eyebrows don't look like that" when he doesn't even have any. Please get this bot a mirror.

-Speaking of no eyebrows....STORE BOUGHT ICE CREAM(starscream) HE'S HERE AND HE LOOKS GREAT AND HE'S FUCKING VOICED BY STEVE BLUM I'M GONNA LOSE IT AAAAAA

-Aligned Continuity took everyone's eyebrows, can't have shit in Earthspark.

-Also I love Frenzy's rockstar design so much. I wonder where Rumble is(idk too much about the cassettes yet but I do know those two are usually together).

-Also Skywarp and Nova Storm were so fucking badass. I loved the way they portrayed Skywarp's teleportation ability and even extended it to her being able to teleport items seperately(Could skywarp always do that???). I just love the seekers being so fucking badass which has me even more excited to see Stars Cream in action(also instead of null ray blasters were those blades on his arms???). And I hope we get to see most, if not the rest, of them!!! Manifesting Thundercracker and Buster rn.(and Sunstorm, please I want to see him and all of his batshitness)

-Soundwave was so badass. I'll admit, his design is kinda ehhh to me? Like he looks super badass and I'm lovin the funky hips, but idk he just doesn't hit like the others.

-Mandroid is also super fucking cool. His stolen arm is kinda meh and looks super awkward, but whatever Mr. Alone On a Friday Night you do you. He's like if Silas took a chill pill and didn't immediately steal everyone's kidneys and was like really really into Howl's Moving Castle. I'm super curious what else there is for him(cuz cmon he ain't dead) and what the backstory between him and Alex is since they were colleagues.

-Also love Dot's leg??? Like that was such a cool reveal it makes me wonder if there was any clue to it before that moment. I also just love her overall, how protective she is and how much of a great parent she is. I also love how close she is with Megatron?? I really wanna know how they became such close friends, which I assume has something to do with his ideals. Cuz she def seems more in line with his way of seeing things than OP. I guess she just likes how realistic he can be about things. But god I hope we get a flashback episode about those two.

-Also like last point because this is getting so long aghsdjkf but god I adore Twitch and Thrash. They are so adorable and so much fun to watch. I love their designs so much. I love how they're just straight up kids and are oh so very small(they're like the size of Megs and OP's forearm ahdjkf). I love Thrash's white and gold style and his super cool goggles(I'm a proud advocate of transformers with Accessories™). And Twitch's cool wing blade thingies she has. And just the overall thing of Twitch being the fighting type and Thrash being the defensive type. I hope the others have unique fighting styles, I can't wait to see their new designs.

-Also also Hashtag is the best name for a bot and whoever thought of it is a genius and I love them.

Anywayssss

Overall I just absolutely ADORE this show and everything about it. This isn't even all my thoughts. I love the wholesome and lighthearted found family aspect with the serious and darker undertones and nuanced storytelling. I love that Earthspark is giving us the characters we love but being so amazingly unique at the same time. I love the post-war aspect and the humans and bots aspect both combined. I love the animation and the music and the storytelling and the designs and the voices and just EVERYTHING. I love the lore of the 13 primes being brought in and the emotional beats and the mystical feeling it all has. I love the..just the EVERYTHING. And I'm sooooo excited to see more.

[kaijurakunsobs]

Karl coming back to you and the baby after a successful REVOLUTION!! Cause he deserves happiness (and maybe ethans there because I want rosemary and lil maginito baby to be friends

I like how you think anon

this one is gonna be fun and LONG

Let's start by pretending Ethan wasn't just a human chia pet, but the mold made him mutate like the Lords, he has no powers but his body is just...sturdier

that being said...

after Miranda's announcement of finding the perfect vessel and presenting Rose to the Lords, you could tell Heisenberg was extremely close to start his rebellion in that moment, what stopped him? that your child is waiting for the return of their parents and you still have no way out of everything goes wrong

it feels grotesque to receive a piece of such an innocent baby in a flask

through the creep vine you both learn about Ethan being in the Village, the father of the stolen child, you can see the expression in Karl's face shift into one of hope, he knows something you don't

when Winters is brought to the church you both play your role of sadistic monsters, giving a "show" for Donna and Moreau, but you have made sure there are useful things "left behind" by previous participants of your little game

with bated breaths, you follow his progress, feeling more and more hope with each Lord he takes down

Heisenberg cheers loudly when Dimitrescu goes down, lifting you off the ground and howling harder when only Moreau remains

He knows that, Ethan won't take it well when he arrives at the factory, so you offer to be the one to welcome him, reminding Karl to keep his cool and be straight with his answers and go to the point

NO THREATENING THE GUESS WITH THROWING HIM TO THE STURM

Ethan is, indeed, shaken up when he comes into the factory and the first thing he sees is you, he saw you at the church, why are you waiting for him?

"I must say, under other circumstances, it would have been...nice to meet you, but there's no time to lose, come with me, please"

he's hesitant, which is understandable, but he follows, a hand always hovering over his gun and eyes following your every move

when you reach Karl's center of command, you are careful with asking to sit and please listen to what you two have to say

"That boulder punching guy and his people are here, right Ethan?" Karl has his back to the other man "You see...me and Y/N...we need your help"

"My help!? after everything, each and everyone single one of you psychos put through?!"

But Karl is not listening, he starts to tell his story...your story, how Miranda took you both and used you like she's trying to use Rose, but you two were defective, useless, he wants revenge and is willing to do anything to get it

There's desperation in his voice but Winters seems unmoved by it, later you will admit that what you did was manipulative but as long as it works

Both men see you leave and come back with your child in arms, the kid is a bit older than Rose, the gray hair and factions that resemble yours is all that Ethan needs to know, Heisenberg as a child

they are vastly different but, he's like Ethan, he just wants to put his family in a safe place, so he accepts with the promise of "I'll kill you the moment you try to betray me"

Involving and convincing Chris is a lot harder, the man is already pissed at Ethan and now he's besties with 2 of Miranda's underlings? but time is running out and hes desperate for help, and maybe, it could actually work

Chris gives Heisenberg coordinates of where there's gonna be someone waiting for you and the kid, and that you have to be quick in reaching the point or they will leave with out you

of course, you panic! Karl is staying behind and you have to go? you want to kick Chris in the face and make him change his mind, he already has the soldats, why does he need Karl too?!

it's he who has to almost drag you away towards where the Duke is, he knows he has a better chance of getting you there, Miranda won't spare a glance at the merchant

a hefty payment and promises of coming back to you later, you are delivered safely to the team, Karl's trench coat draped over your shoulders and a sack filled with some of your most precious items. feeling like that's the last time you will see him again.

from the helicopter's window, you see with horror how the factory gets destroyed, gasping when Karl's mechanical form appears from the rubble and his army moving to where Miranda must be

the wait is grueling, painful, the sounds of gunfire and explosions make you jump, your crying child screams for their father, but this time, hes not there to calm the not cries and make them laugh

it's past dawn when the bigger explosion shakes the helicopter and when you cry the hardest, believing hes dead, that he die protecting you both.

the entire ride back to the BSAA is spent in silence, your child cried themselves to sleep and you are...just there...heartbroken, unable to shed another tear

a group of paramedics comes to you when you arrive at the new area, asking you questions and trying to check you for any wounds, but you don't answer or hear or care

from far away you see him, limping and using Ethan as a crutch, and then you are running, harder than you have ever done in your life, a strong hold in your baby

Karl looks up to see you and he can't help but smile and cry, open arms waiting for you and catching you, not carrying for his wounds, hes just there and his family is safe...and the 3 of you are free

neither of you put up a fight when the BSAA informs you that you will be under surveillance or that wherever you go you are expected to stay close to their offices, you laugh wholeheartedly when Karl asks "But we can go anywhere...you won't keep us locked away?"

Mia is the one who insists that both families must be close to each other, and you accept

it feels like a dream when Karl comes back and bitches about something that happened in the new lab, he may not be allowed to use corpses but hes allowed to tinker around with his creations and help to contain all bioweapons

you see your child grow and little Rose comes often to play, both children laugh and run around, not knowing what life they could have had

they whisper secrets and share what they have, Mia lights up whenever your kid gives her drawings, Karl melts down a bit when Rosemary calls him "uncle Heis"

and you see him change, he no longer frowns or gets irritated, he giggles or tells jokes, you have caught him develop a true fascination in watching videos and play video games

for once in so long...everything is finally fine

[strangelysamantha]

cheerleader ❀

rafe cameron x plus!reader.

warnings: swearing, flirting, slight angst in the beginning (barely)

words: 2,365.

summary: rafe was intrigued by you, he wanted to get to know you. he thought that task would be easy, but your distaste for him was apparent. despite the overwhelming amount of setbacks, he knew he would get you to crack.

request? no :)

a/n: please like and comment if you enjoy! thank you, ilysm <3

my masterlist

part two

——————————————————————————

most things rafe wanted, he easily got. it was a known fact. his parents were financially stable so they could afford to throw money down the drain for useless items that wouldn’t be used more than once. his popularity and name allowed him to get away with most things. except you. you seemed to not care about his wealth or his looks. you didn’t even care to give him the time of day. he took this as a challenge. he was destined to get you to like him if it was the last thing he did.

the first time he talked to you was during school. he thought his charm and popularity would make you swoon. instead, it was quite the opposite. he approached you at your locker, his smile bright. “hey. i’m rafe.” he extended his hand out to you. “hello, rafe.” you shake his hand back, before retreating your hand to your side. you stare at him in confusion. “uhm am i in the way of your locker?” you question, he shakes his head. “oh no, actually. i just wanted to introduce myself to you.” you nod your head. “well rafe, it was nice to meet you, i guess. but i’m running late for class.” you shut your locker, speeding off to class.

rafe stayed by your locker in awe. you really thought rafe was just waiting to get to his locker? it’s halfway through the school year, if his locker was by yours, you would have known by now. he embarrassingly walked away, heading to his first class. that awkward moment was lingering in his head, stuck on replay. your facial expression that showcased confusion stayed still in his mind. by third hour he was over it, not as embarrassed. he shrugged it off, excited to try again.

rafe actually didn’t know that much about you. he saw you in the halls occasionally. his interest in you peaked when he saw that you talked to topper a lot. since you were heavily associated with topper, he believed that it would be easy to befriend you. it’s clear to him now that isn’t the case. he can’t help but feel surprised at your lack of knowledge for him. everyone knows of rafe, and you should especially know because of how well you know topper.

regardless, rafe knew what he had to do. he needed to see topper, and investigate him. rafe pulled his phone out, texting topper to meet him.

topper met rafe in the boy’s bathroom before fourth period. they scoped the bathroom, ensuring to themselves that they could openly talk since they were alone. rafe didn’t hesitate, he immediately bombarded topper with questions about you. “what’s with the sudden interest?” topper asks, confused.

“i don’t know, i keep seeing her in the hallway and she stares at me.” topper nods, “well she does good academically, i know her because her family is friends with my family, she’s on the cheerleading team, i don’t know man. what info are you wanting?” the cheerleading team. rafe smiled to himself, you are a cheerleader. “that’s good enough, i just needed some info so i could know if i want to meet her or not.” topper laughed, “alright man. i gotta go.” rafe nodded, “see you later.” topper fist bumped rafe before walking out the bathroom.

you were a cheerleader? he had no clue. it dawned on him, if he had no idea of who you were, why would you know who he was? he shook his head at the thought, instead heading to class.

on the other side of the school sat you, fidgeting with your pencil as you struggled to keep up with the current notes. the interaction you had with rafe was confusing you. why did he suddenly want to meet you? it didn’t make sense. the whole class period you tried to wrap your brain around his actions, trying to figure out what his intention was, but you fell short.

at lunch time you sat at a table, you usually sat with friends but they were absent. it didn’t help they were absent the one day someone popular randomly takes an interest in you. you sit on the chair, pulling out your math homework. if you knocked it out at lunch, you had a high chance of not having homework. you start the first problem, but immediately halt when your family friend, topper, taps on your shoulder. “hi tops.” you smile softly at him, setting your pencil down and turning your attention to him. he smiles at you, “hey.”

you pick up a goldfish, plopping it into your mouth. “how have you been?” you question topper. he shrugs, “same old same old. family is still upset with me, per usual.” you nod, soaking up what he said. “dang, that sucks. it’s so annoying how people hold grudges. they don’t know how to forgive and forget.” you shrug, smiling up at him. he returns the smile, “i know right.” you place your homework back in your bag, assuming you wouldn’t be able to finish it during lunch.

“what did you even do?” you ask him. he smiles, “uh i accidentally pissed a pogue off so they got revenge by sinking my new boat.” your eyes widened, “what! holy shit you must have fucked up bad.” he frowns, “i didn’t really want to do it, you know how tricky it is with our reputation and who we have to associate with.” you laugh, “oh i know all too well of what that’s like.” topper rolls his eyes, assuming you’re talking about him.

“hey! i’m not too bad.” you laugh, “it wasn’t about you. you aren’t bad at all.” you look up, seeing rafe take his backpack off. you glance at topper to see he is confused as well. “hey rafe, what’s up?” topper questions rafe, who had just sat down at our table. “nothing much man, saw you over here and decided to join.” you laugh sarcastically, “inviting yourself to our private party?” you question, slightly joking. rafe felt an unexpected twinge of jealousy when you grouped yourself and topper together.

“i’m just kidding rafe… kind of.” you grin, topper joining in by chuckling with you. rafe awkwardly laughs along. he pulls himself together, thinking of things to say. “are you going to the football game tomorrow?” rafe waits for your response. you smile slightly, “yeah, but i’m a cheerleader so i’ll be on field.” he nods, “oh, that’s cool.” you nod awkwardly. “yeah.” he smiles subconsciously, excited to see you in a uniform. his smile disintegrates when topper confronts him. “what are you smiling for bro?” rafe stared at him, unamused. “nothing.” topper scoffs, “alright then.”

you steal looks between rafe and topper, still confused. you don’t ask any questions, you just continue eating your food. the bell rings, indicating that lunch is over. you gather up your trash, standing up. you notice rafes eyes lingering over your body. his eyes fixating between your thick thighs, and hips. you feel self conscious under his stare, so you quickly stand up and walk to the trash can. rafe follows after you, quick on his feet. he comes up to your side, much to your dismay.

“will i see you at the game tomorrow?” you turn your head to the side, “are you going to the game?” you return. he nods, “yeah.” you smile, “then you’ll probably see me.” he grins, “okay, cool.” he quickly turns around, leaving you by yourself. you were confused still, but hey, maybe having rafe as a friend would be good.

you got through the day quickly, heading immediately home. you work on homework, chores, and finally get ready for bed. before bed you prepare your uniform. you set it out, along with a jacket so you weren’t on full display at school. you wake up the next morning, putting on your uniform, along with a bow in your hair. you head to school, slightly nervous for your possible interaction with rafe.

when you arrive at school, you don’t see rafe. you only saw topper, who was eagerly heading in your direction. he smiled, standing still in front of you. “hey, good morning!” you smile, “hi tops.” the two of you talk for a bit, him walking you to class. “can i pick you up before the game?” topper asks. “sure, it has to be a little earlier than the fans. i have warm ups and stuff i have to do before the game.” he grins, “okay! just text me tonight when you want me to pick you up.” you put your hands in your jacket pocket. “okay, thanks topper!”

he walks away, and you walk into your first hour class. you go through your classes as usual, rafe not showing up. you couldn’t tell if you were disappointed or relieved, but either way it didn’t matter, you had a game you had to prepare for. you do your make up, and touch up your hair. you chug water, and began stretching. you text topper, saying he could pick you up now, if he still wanted to drive you. his response was quick and enthusiastic.

topper pulls up to your house, his music loud, and a large smile plastered on his face. “game day!!” you laugh along, repeating his words. “game day!” you open his door, hopping inside. “let’s go!” you playfully roll your eyes at his eagerness, “to the school!” topper smirks, stepping on the gas, and speeding out your driveway.

the two of you sing along to the songs on the radio, before it abruptly ends due to you two arriving at the school. he decides to stay in his car, planning on joining right when the official game starts. you skip down the field, joining your teammates. you stretch with them, before you practice the chants and dance numbers.

at six thirty, they start allowing people in. you immediately see topper hunched over the fence, him waving frantically at you. you wave back, jogging over to him. “you ready?” he asks, you bite your lip, “i guess.” he laughs at your nerves, excited for you. you glance over and see rafe. he hadn’t seen you yet. your breath gets caught in your throat, slightly scared and self conscious to see him.

topper gives you reassuring words, and out of the corner of your eye, you notice rafe had found you. rafe slowly makes his way towards topper, keeping his cool. rafe stares at you in your cheerleading uniform. his breath gets heavy, he stares, watching you talk to topper. jealously fills his chest, of course topper was here first. rafe quickly approached the two of you, eager to break the conversation up.

“hi rafe.” you smile softly, looking up at him. he smiles, “hey. good luck today.” you fiddle with your fingers, “thank you.” rafe stays silent. you hear the coaches whistle. “i got to go, i’ll talk to you when i can!” you quickly turn around, jogging back to the cheerleading circle.

rafe watches as you jog away, hes mesmerized by how well the uniform fit. he knew you would look good, but damn. he looks over at topper, who makes eye contact with him. “what’s up rafe?” topper stares at rafe, waiting for an explanation. “she is so hot.” topper scoffs, “bro, already whipped?” rafe rolls his eyes, but grins. “for her, yeah. i’d willingly be whipped.” the two boys sit on the bench, topper watching the game, and rafe watching you.

after sitting in silence, rafe speaks up. “do you think she likes me?” topper quickly glances at rafe, trying to see if he was joking or if he was serious. when topper saw he was serious, he genuinely contemplated it. “id say maybe, i mean she doesn’t shrivel up in disgust when you are around. that’s a pretty good sign.” rafe shook his head, “that’s true. that is a good sign.”

rafe admired you, you getting his full attention. on break you rush to the fence, excited to see rafe and topper. “hey!” you look up at them, “you are doing great!” topper reached down, highfiving you. “thanks!” you look over at rafe, something took you over because he actually looked hot. you bit you lip slightly, you were going to say something, but rafe beat you to it. “you look good.” rafe smirked slightly, causing heat to rise to your face. “thank you, rafe.”

you return to the group again, your heart racing. the idea of rafe made your breath heavy. you continue to chant, and preform. you occasionally looked up rafe, his eyes always focused on you. you had a low chance of being able to go to the fence again, so you focused entirely on perfecting the choreography. the crowd was cheering loudly, your hometown winning the game.

at the final quarter, your hometown won by one point. your team jumps up and down, ecstatic. you preform a final show, before you break apart. you chug water. you rush in line with the other cheerleaders, going in a straight line to high-five the football players. you smile brightly at them, telling them congrats for winning the game. most of them returned a smile, and thanked you.

after the bleachers started to empty, you decided to meet up with topper, and possibly rafe. you look around for topper but he was gone. you turn around, accidentally bumping into rafe. “oh i’m sorry.” he stares at you, “hey, by the way topper left, said he was going on a date with a girl from the cheer team.” you frown, “oh. he was my ride.” rafe smiles, “you can ride me- i mean ride with me.” you laugh lightly at his switch up, “okay. i’ll ride you.” your heart is racing, the after game adrenaline flowing through your veins, which was causing you to be bold. he smirks at you, “okay, i’d enjoy that.” you mimic his smirk, following him to his car.

he turns around, “are you sure?” you nod, “i’m sure, are you?” he is shocked by your question, “so fucking sure.”

part two will be steamy <3

[cdmagic1408]

Onward Fan Art Shout Out - 16

Theme: Post-It / Lunch Note Art

Seeing as school seems to be back in session for most people nowadays, this week's Onward fanart post shall focus on art in which school-related canvas are used!

Post-it notes, napkins, flashcards, paper lunch bags...all these items are things one would typically use for school, right? I mean you'd think, oh! post-it notes for giving yourself reminders or...flashcards to use to help you study for a test, napkins to clean your hands with, and paper lunch bags to hold your lunch in...

Well...all of the following 8 artists below chose to cleverly and creatively use those things for much more than that... 😉

Artists

enri_tsuno_pictures - as someone who's been doing practice sketches on flashcards herself lately, I'm first just gonna say that I relate to this piece a lot lol, but I also really love the style of Ian and Barley too! They're both soooooo cute! And I especially enjoy the way they colored them in, with color but also in adding detail!

sandwichbagadventure - this one's pretty unique because this artist drew either themselves or their kid as Ian, but it's very sweet! It's very clear to me that they love Onward in this household and that they see Ian as a hero which is really REALLY great to see! Also that's a very cute turtle in the bottom left corner! 🐢

daedally_done - can't get enough of the manticore after last week? Well here she is again! this artist's canvas was a napkin! Certainty not an easy texture to work with—thin, bumpy, see-through—so I commend whoever drew this for taking on that challenge and for utilizing one of Barley's special questing rules: using what you've got! I also love the use of only black and red pen here! it helps in giving a very clear, recognizable picture of Corey!

ladybagman - this one's actually two for the price of one because this artist has two kids! And they used two different art styles for both bags which is cool! The one on the left is absolutely adorable! I love the expressions on both the bros! And Ian's eyes and smile are just precious on the bag on the right! Also, for context, "te amo" is Spanish for "I love you", awwwww 🥹

ktrosemary - an awesome pencil drawing of Barley on a post-it note! Very nice use of shadow under his chin and above his eyes! I also really like how this artist used a variety of tones with their pencil to create different shades of black and gray!

alc_artchive - I love how the artist of his paper lunch bag used BOTH sides of the bag to draw and include Ian AND Barley. That's the great thing about paper lunch bags, they're three dimensional! So art doesn't only have to be limited to one side! Also LOVE how they used the Onward font to spell out their daughter's name!

davestl - I really love the way this artist colored Laurel's hair! It's colored pencil, but not filling it in completely with colored pencil gives off a really nice textured effect! The whole drawing is very well textured, actually...Laurel's skin looks phenomenal too! But her hair is probably my favorite part of this whole post-it note art, there's something about it that just shines! 😍

lovemom.and.dad_napkin_notes - this drawing of the Manticore is really well done! Like for real: the line work is just 👌 Also the napkin provides such a great background that didn't need to be drawn, which is awesome! Again, resourcefulness and using what you've got is absolutely the best!

[fleursdemeduse]

Remembrance AU: Day and Night

I only have 5 more planned parts before the "main story" is completed.

Warnings: Mention of Death ; Unconsciousness ; Unrequited[?] Love

Words: 3.5k

Sometimes, it was amazing to you how lucky you had been.

You remembered how warm the air had been when you had found the flower field. The breeze drug the long grass into graceful waves and the different wildflowers swayed gently. Trees framed the field except for the large weeping cherry tree that sat upon a small hill. No other flowers grew on the hill, but you hadn’t thought anything of it. It was so quiet there, so serene. The air tasted sweet. It was like a scene from a storybook.

You had immediately hunted down Techno and took him away from his farming to see the spot. Back then, you hadn’t known each other for long, but you had felt so close to him already. It was like you had already known each other for all of the lifetimes he had talked about.

“Isn’t it gorgeous, Tech?” He grunted out a quiet “yeah” and you grinned up at him. Back then, during the war, he always wore his mask. The pig skull strapped tightly to his face hid his features, including his eyes, but you didn’t care. His voice usually had enough inflection for you to know his expression. You giggled as you sprinted forward, towards the giant tree in the middle. “Follow me! I wanna watch the clouds.”

He had relented. Your smile could have rivaled the beauty of the field in that moment, and he felt himself falling for you even deeper. He’d never tell you, though. Despite how often you could respawn, he wouldn’t let himself be with someone he could lose. And he very much could lose you. You could just not come back one of these times, you could hate him for the things he’s done, you could see how Wilbur looked at you and turn that damning smile onto him. He wouldn’t prevent you from being happy.

You sat with your back against the bark of the large tree, some of the light petals shaking loose and drifting slowly down around you. He would remember this moment forever.

He had laid next to you, his hair a brighter pink than the flowers above the two of you and spread in a halo around his head.

“What’s gonna happen when this is all over?” He thought it over, watching the clouds mimic the flowers in their sluggishness.

“We move on.” You nodded, stomach flipping at the way he said “we” and not “I”. That had to have been progress in your friendship, no?

You sat there quietly, contemplative, while he took in the coolness of the shade compared to how hot the area in the trees seemed to be. This was a spot Phil would have loved had he been around. He could imagine a small cottage nearby and the overgrown field turned into a garden. The voices agreed with this thought. There would be cakes and bonfires on summer nights. He’d bring you with him to visit. Would you like Phil? You two were similar in a lot of ways. Even in past lives, Phil had a fatherly streak for himself, Tommy and Wilbur. Sometimes Tubbo and Ranboo were included in that equation. When would the teen show up? This couldn’t have been a timeline without him. Everyone else was here and the hybrid knew you’d love the kid just like you did the other two. He hadn’t interacted with him much in other lives, but the kid was nice enough. Maybe you’d-

"I can braid your hair for you, if you want."

Your voice had broken through the voices that had idly whispered in his ears. He considered it for a moment, chat now becoming louder.

YES!!

Please don’t let them.

What kind of braid do they want to do?

Are they going to play with it too?

Don’t turn your back on them.

The mask would have to come off.

E.

Why are they so nice to us?

E.

Do it.

What if they did a french braid? That’d look nice.

Their hands look soft.

What if they pull our hair?

Let them do it. They’ll be so proud of themselves.

Technoblade sighed and moved his head to your lap. “I’m not moving any more. You can do what you wish. I’m gonna nap.”

Your smile was electric and he pressed his lips together to fight the urge to groan at the sight. He almost lost that fight when your fingers carded through his hair.

“Can I take off your mask?”

“No.” His answer was immediate. “Work around it.”

You pressed your lips together. “Can I unbuckle it, at least? I don’t want to pull.”

“Do what you want.” He closed his eyes, feeling you mess with the strap before carefully laying it over the side of the skull, careful to not dislodge it. The extra effort you took to make him comfortable made his heart flutter in his chest a bit more than it should have. Did you do this with anyone else in their tiny rebellion? He had noticed Tommy had been walking around with a small braid framing his face lately and he had seen Wilbur with one pinned back in his hair when he removed his beanie a while back. Were they your doing? It was his turn, then.

He craved your touch more than he should have. It was much softer than his own and the contrast wasn’t something he experienced often. He enjoyed the fleeting touches you experimented with on him as you tested his boundaries. The random hugs you gave him when you were happy and forgot yourself for a moment. The times when you’d unconsciously touch his arm while you two talked. The friendly bumps when you two walked. He was happy to be your friend.

“Have you ever thought about how much worse our lives would be without each other?”

He took a moment to think the question over.

“Well, I figure mine would have been about the same. I’ve spent plenty of them without you before, so it’d have just been another to add on.” Your hands paused in his hair and the hybrid opened an eye to watch your lips tilted into a frown. He had never liked that expression on you.

“I suppose that’s fair.”

“I think having you in mine now is pretty nice.” The sentence left his lips before he could stop it. It was too sentimental for him. He wasn’t one to speak before thinking, but the way you lit up at his outburst made him happy he had too.

“I think having you in mine is pretty nice too, Tech.” Your nails ran lightly over his temple as you pulled hair back into the mess you were currently trying to tame it into.

“I’m not a dog, [y/n].”

“I never said you were.”

“Then stop scratchin’ me like one.” You laughed and he huffed proudly at the sound. “I do like spendin’ time with you, though.”

He heard you hum quietly, feeling the way his hair tugged as your fingers worked.

“You make everything quiet. Sometimes, I can see the past so clearly in my mind… it almost feels like it’s real and happenin’ again. But it isn’t. Only now is real. And when I’m with you, even the voices will occasionally take a break.” He watched the way your lips fell to a soft “o” shape. He sighed, feeling like if he didn’t go on, you’d say something contrary to him. He didn’t spill his guts like this. Not literally or metaphorically. But something about you made him want to go on and on. “You have this special power over everyone. It’s amazin’. I didn’t even know what to think when we met. I was ready to move on and never see you again, but you kept persisting. You just trusted this violent stranger who can’t handle social situations, and I’m here tryin’ to figure out what I’m supposed to do when I can’t even trust my own mind.”

Your laughter felt like you punched him in the gut and he turned his head to look up at you. Your smile didn’t look mocking, and when your amusement faded, the curve of your lips remained untaunting.

“You just trust me back, Tech. I don’t have any special powers aside from not being able to stay dead.” He felt your hand grip his arm and squeeze lightly. “I’m not going anywhere either. You’re right. I’m relentless. You’re not gonna get rid of me unless you tell me you want me gone.”

His heart felt like it was in his throat.

“And honestly?” His breath caught for a moment at the look in your eyes as you gazed down at him. He felt so naked under it, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. “I could see the worst parts of you and still think you are the most beautiful person I've met.”

“Bold of you to say, considerin’ I’m wearin’ a mask.” He mumbled, heartbeat suddenly picking up and palpitating as if he were in battle. It felt like you really could see him, all of him, despite the covering. He didn’t feel like he had, or even could, hide anything from you. Every scar, every expression, every thought. You had taken his admittance of the voices in stride, even talked to them directly sometimes. You weren’t afraid to touch him, to be soft with him. If he could spend the rest of this timeline with you, even if this was the only one you were in, he’d feel full.

Your smile wavered when you watched Techno reach up as if to remove his mask.

“What are you doing?”

“Showing you some of the worst parts of me.” He sat up, moving the item to his lap, before looking back at you. Seeing you unfiltered by the mask was a whole new experience. It was like he was seeing you for the first time all over again. His heart began skipping every other beat. What did you think of his face? Tommy, Tubbo and Wilbur had seen it plenty of times, remembered it in other lifetimes when he did have a humanoid face, but this was your first time.

The grin that pulled your lips bigger slightly alleviated his worries, though. And you reached forward, touching his face like you had Tommy’s a hundred times while whispering a quiet “Wow” he didn’t know if he should have been flattered by. He let you trace your fingers over the scar over his nose and brush your thumb over his lower lip before you pulled his mouth open. You examined his slightly-sharper teeth with a fascination he didn’t know felt more clinical or childlike. Your expression turned oddly serious.

“I was wrong.” His veins suddenly felt like ice as you pulled your hand away. “You’re no person, Tech. You’re a god and I am lucky to be in your presence.”

The ice melted just as quickly as it had formed and his cheeks suddenly felt like they were aflame. He had been called that hundreds of times, but the way it rolled off your tongue sounded like reverence. He swallowed and looked away. You were wrong about having no power over him as well. You shouldn’t have been able to play with his emotions as easily as you did. “You’re cruel, [y/n].”

He smirked at the sound of your scoff as you feigned indignation before turning back to you. He watched your eyes widen before you reached for his face once more. He let you.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen you smile.”

He prayed you thought his was as brilliant as yours.

Being close to others was a good thing, wasn’t it? Even if you didn’t share any memories with them, you’d still be there for them, no matter what.

Tommy had crawled into your bed once more while you slept. He had done so plenty of times during the revolution until L’Manburg had been won back. Now, he had his own house he could sleep comfortably in. But he had a key to your house. So as long as he locked the front door whenever he snuck in, when the mattress dipped at his weight, you would always peel open an eye before pulling the covers up for him to crawl under. You would never be upset with him about breaking in just to cuddle and eventually fall asleep. You would never mention it after the fact either. He didn’t need to be embarrassed in front of the others and face the taunts from not being able to sleep properly when he was alone. He just needed comfort sometimes. The blond was, after all, still a child just swept up in all of this.

You curled around him, his gangly limbs tucked into his chest awkwardly as you tried to give him the most paternal embrace possible. You didn’t press him for details like you used to, just tucked the golden braid you had weaved into his shaggy hair behind his ear and smile sleepily at him in hopes he would smile back.

He wouldn’t, but you never expected him to.

“Hey Toms?” He hummed in response, looking at the part of the pillow tucked under your throat. “Did I ever tell you the story about how the moon did the sun’s work every night because he loved her so much?”

“No.” His voice cracked, but you ignored it, choosing instead to roll onto your back to look at the stars through your skylight. You felt him do the same.

“Well, when the sun found the moon, it had just been happenstance. He was drinking tea under the large cherry tree in his garden and she was so tired. She had not stopped working. Day was the only thing anyone knew. Her light and warmth were so abundant, she was barely hanging on from the exhaustion it exerted on her. And so she collapsed in his garden, unconscious. He brought her into the shade of his tree and the world darkened. Plants and people died in the absence of light more than they had before. However, when she woke up and when they locked eyes, the world finally felt like it was spinning. He had been so kind to her. How could she not love him? But she kept it from him. She visited everyday and they would share tea and talk for hours. She sat just outside of the tree’s shade despite how tired it made her.”

You watched Tommy turn his head to watch you speak from the corner of your eye.

“Eventually he asked her “Why do you come everyday when you look so tired? Why don’t you rest?”. “Because I cannot. I must cast light onto my children and help them grow.” She replied. “Why do you never leave the shade of your tree?” He laughed at her question. “Because I cannot. The light is too bright and I will disappear.” She took his answer and they moved on.”

The blond listened to the voices you used for each character, slowly closing his eyes.

“One day, when she collapsed again, she was still conscious when the moon stepped out of his shade once more to rescue her. The world lightened once more, but only dimly. He reflected her warmth onto everything. It was a soft light and the people marveled at his beauty. He decided then he would take on half of her work when they had tea because he too loved her, but kept it to himself. And from then on, whenever she would visit for tea, he would sit outside of the comfort of his cherry tree, and she would perch herself under it and let him show his brightness to the world. And they were happy.”

You looked back at him, trying to not giggle at how sleepy he looked.

“Tha’s a lame story.” He quietly slurred and you shrugged your shoulders a little, rolling back over to face him fully.

“I think Phil would disagree.”

“Phil?”

“Yep. That’s his favorite story.” He pouted a little and your chest warmed at how childlike he looked.

“Then I think…” His voice was becoming softer, trailing off. “I think it’ll be mine too.”

You listened to his breathing soften before evening out completely and you’d fall back asleep.

People trusted you so much and you didn’t know what you did to deserve it.

The pendent was cold in your hands.

A silver heron stared up at you with a lone emerald eye and you prayed it wasn’t made from the same friendship emerald that Technoblade had gifted him with.

“I got that from a friend a long time ago. His child, Love, actually had it for a while when his mother passed, but when his kid suffered the same fate, Psarocolius gave it to me. Said it was bad luck or something.” You snorted and rolled your eyes.

“Wow, Phil. What an amazing gift.” Your sarcasm was palatable. He bopped the top of your head with a gentle chop of his hand.

“Shut. It’s a way to reach out to Kristin.” You had been complaining to him about how left out you felt whenever everyone else was talking about their previous lives, hoping the older man would have some good advice for you. “That’s why Psar’s wife and kid died. There was no other way.”

“So your wife just killed them off? How cold.” He shook his head.

“Nah, mate. They asked her to. She still feels awful about it.” You paused for a moment.

“But isn’t that technically your job now?” You watched the way his lips curled into a smile.

“I do it so I can see her more often. It gets tiring doing everything, you know.” You definitely knew. “But talk to her about it. See what the deal is.”

You snickered at the thought.

“It can’t be that easy.”

“It is.”

Now, in the heat of her presence, the pendent was even colder.

“Hey, [y/n]. I was wondering when you were going to come around.” You swallowed, a little overwhelmed.

“You were expecting me?”

“Well, not exactly. But you were probably going to want to talk to me eventually.” She arched a manicured eyebrow at you. Was every god this beautiful? “Now, why did-”

“Why don’t I have any past lives?” You watched how her eyes widened for a moment, stunned, before her pink lips parted as she laughed. It was warm, motherly enough to match Philza’s naturally fatherly one, and so lovely to listen to. She rested a hand on your cheek when it slowly quieted and you were faced with looking into her eyes that looked like they held every answer in the universe. You felt a little dumb for asking it straight out and floundered to recover. To explain yourself. “I don’t have any to remember. I want to have them, to share memories with everyone else.”

There was a slow build at the front of your brain.

“Well, who’s to say you don’t?”

The pressure continued growing. Your head ached in the worst way possible.

“Minds are weird. Sometimes you just shove things down and make yourself forget.”

You suddenly thought of a servant who tended to a woman you didn’t know. Images of things that had happened or might have flickered through your mind. Possibilities playing in loops. You remembered watching heroes save the city and the zombie apocalypse starting countless times. Your skull felt like it was splitting.

“All you need is a nudge in the right direction, and memories will just come back.”

There was laughter with Drista and Kristin herself. Stories on a computer screen. Childish fights echoing over a Discord call while you watched on in silence. First love, second love, third. Faces that weren’t yours smiling wide back at you. Mellohi playing softly in the background as hands you had seen countless times before cooked dinner.

“It hurts so much. Why does it hurt so much? I just want it to stop.” Kristin pet your hair with her other hand. Tears formed in the corners of your eyes and she shushed you.

You saw different versions of Techno’s sweet smiles. You felt the varied intensities of Wilbur’s stares, warm and cold. You savoured the several kinds of laughs Tommy shared with everyone around him. Would you ever experience any of them again? You would. You had to. Techno was your best friend, Tommy your little brother, Ghostbur your companion. You could not abandon them when you promised to always come back.

Your vision blurred black around the edges as stars danced across your eyes. You suddenly felt so very weak.

The goddess of life and death’s voice was muffled in your ears as your hearing slowly faded. The heron necklace slipped from your grip, but the sound of it hitting the ground didn’t reach you. Neither did the crash of your fall. Her words echoed around you as you lost consciousness.

“You’ll be okay.”

It was only a matter of time before you found out why.

[ecto-american]

Stuck (Stubbornly)

Phic Phight Oneshot for @deuynndoodles​ : Jack and Maddie are stuck in the Ghost Zone. Fortunately for them, Phantom's around and willing to help out. However, they'll rather be arrested by a ghost warden and put in ghost jail before they'd allow some teenage menace to help them. Oh wait...

Read on AO3 or FFN

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"Should we call Jazz or Danny?" Jack suggested.

Maddie stared out into the unending void of the Ghost Zone. It hurt to think that their voyage, a trip that they had been planning out for months, would end so soon already, but they had barely made any progress when they realized just how much fuel the Specter Speeder was guzzling. Something was wrong.

"...Not yet," she determined. "We should have emergency fuel. We should be able to get back without any problems. Can you refill?"

"You got it," Jack replied, and he got out of the co-pilot seat. She could hear him go to the back, and shuffling around. He didn't say anything for a while, and that immediately began to unnerve her, but she kept her attention on the dashboard, trying to think of what went wrong when building. Was their fuel lines loose? Was there gas leaking everywhere? "Uh, Mads? I'm not seeing it?"

Her blood froze, but no need to panic. Maybe he just didn't see…

Maddie walked to the back and checked. And checked. Moved some stuff around, checked some more.

They had no emergency fuel.

"Why don't we go outside and check the engine?" Jack suggested. "Maybe we can figure something out." With a dry mouth, she nodded, and they hesitantly went outside to check.

There were no ghosts around, thankfully, just an endless green void. They knew that they would be safe breathing in the GZ air, thanks to their prior tests and experiments. They hooked themselves to a rope using a carabiner clip, the other end tied tightly to the speeder. Floating unnerved her, and she kept a hand on the speeder as they went to the front of the speeder. Jack popped the hood, and smoke floated out, making Maddie's heart sink. This was definitely not a good sign at all, or something that could be a simple fix.

"Need some help?"

Maddie looked over her shoulder to see…

"Absolutely not," she scowled. Phantom was floating nearby.

"Are you sure?" he asked. He floated up a bit higher to glance at their vehicle. "Looks like you got. Well, uh, basically car trouble."

"Leave. Now."

Phantom opened his mouth to say more, but Maddie pulled her ecto-gun out.

"We don't want help from some lowlife ghost!" she hissed. Phantom put his hands up in surrender and flew away.

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An hour passed, and they decided to take a break working on the engine. Every possible problem that she could think of had been exhausted, and she had to take a break to both cool down and think. She sat on the steps leading into the speeder, with Jack deciding to lay on the floor of the inside.

"Fuel line wasn't broken, none of the lines were cut or had knicks. There's no reason it should be draining so much gas," Jack thunk aloud. "There shouldn't be anything besides the engine that the gas is going to, and there's no weird random connections to anywhere else. The battery's still good."

"And we forgot the emergency fuel," Maddie slumped over. Jack sighed.

"It's my own fault," he replied. "I should have checked to make sure Jazz and Danny had properly put all the supplies in. A proper exploration team always triple checks before a voyage."

Maddie could only give a low hum of agreement as she stared out into the zone. She felt somebody pat the side of the speeder, and she scowled as she saw Phantom grinning at her, giving a half way.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed.

"I brought help this time," Phantom told her, and he jerked a thumb behind him. It was finally then that she noticed the Red Huntress. Maddie raised an eyebrow.

"How in the world…" she murmured, only to trail off as she stared at the two of them. Jack sat up, and he poked his head out of the speeder.

"Oh dope! It's my favorite huntress!" Jack boomed. Red seemed bashful at the comment, shifting her weight onto her other foot and rubbing her upper arm.

"I mean, if you don't trust me or want my help, I figured you'd be willing to let a human help," Phantom explained, motioning towards Red.

"So, do you need help?" Red finally spoke up. She reached down to pat her left calf. "I have some tools with me, but I can always go and fetch more."

Something in Maddie's gut told her that this was very, very odd. Humans and ghosts working together so...willingly like this. She had taken note that Phantom and Red hadn't hunted each other down or fought like they used to, but she just assumed that they didn't quite run into each other that much anymore. Both were unpredictable with odd schedules and routines.

She glanced at Jack, who despite his initial enthusiasm, seemed to share her feelings, and she shook her head no.

"We'll be fine," she insisted. "You two should leave."

Red stared at Phantom, who shrugged his shoulders.

"So, wanna just go get some boba tea?" Phantom asked.

"And just leave them here?" Red scowled, motioning to the Fentons.

"They don't want our help," he replied. Red glanced from Phantom and the Fentons, who studied the two of them. She finally shrugged as well.

The two began to idly chat as they flew off, their conversation becoming more and more distant.

"That was weird," Maddie mused.

"Yeah, I thought she and Phantom were rivals," Jack mused. Maddie shrugged. Right now she wasn't too invested in the mystery. She'd worry about that later when they got home.

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Judging by their phones (which they had worriedly learned that they oh-so-helpfully had no reception in the land of the undead), another hour passed since Phantom and Red had left. Jack was deep into the engine, fiddling with a possible solution to the problem as Maddie stood nearby. She continued to think as she looked around. She was surprised that they hadn't been bothered by now.

"Trespassing in an unauthorized vehicle that is also a real world item," a deep southern voice boomed. Well, she absolutely spoke too soon.

They whipped their heads to see a huge, hulking figure, an all white man with a black hat, black gloves and wearing a suit of white.

"Ghost!" Jack squawked. He scrambled to grab his gun, Maddie already having hers drawn. The ghost frowned deeply. Maddie was finally very aware of just how many ghosts were surrounding them. Too many to count, but they all looked exactly like the ghosts that terrorized Amity Park years before, all identical and matching in uniform that resembled a SWAT team. There was also vehicles resembling police cars and police vans.

"Resisting arrest. That's against the rules," he continued. He opened a large green and white book in his hands, flipping to another page. "Assault and battery with a deadly weapon." He glanced up at them with an angry glare. "Y'all are going away for a long, long time."

"We're not going anywhere," Jack frowned. He charged up his weapon.

Maddie looked around, and she shivered anxiously. There was no way they could take on all these ghosts. She nudged Jack, and he side-eyed her curiously. She lowered her weapon, and she used her head to motion around them. Jack blinked as he looked himself, and all of his confidence left him. He also lowered his weapon.

"We'll go," Maddie finally spoke. The ghost smirked, and he knocked on the side of a police van. The back opened up.

"Surrender your weapons," he ordered.

One of the SWAT ghosts came forward with his arms outstretched. Reluctantly, the adults handed their weapons over, detaching themselves from the speeder and getting into the van.

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Their cell was a lot like a normal cell, and it was just them. Iron bars, no windows, single toilet, and four bunk beds. Jack was laying on one of the beds, facing the fall, as Maddie laid on the one across from him, staring up at the bunk bed above her.

Of course. Of course they ended up in ghost jail. It was just their luck. Though a scientist part of her was giddy at knowing that ghosts had some kind of legal system! Who would have known!

As she tried to start figuring out what on earth to do, she heard something banging against the jail bars.

She immediately sat up, staring to see Phantom making the noise by banging something in his hand on the bars. He was staring at them with a bright smile, and it only made her mood drop even more.

"Phantom!" Maddie hissed, standing fully and going up to the bars. "How did you find us?"

"We came back to check on you guys and see if you changed your minds," Phantom explained. Jack got up from his own bed to come over, looking surprised to see the infamous ghost teen. "Technus and Skulker were looting your speeder, and they said Walker arrested you. So we came by as quickly as we could."

The Fenton adults could see Red nearby, glancing around the corner. She was keeping watch.

"We're not going with you," Jack replied. Phantom rolled his eyes.

"Okay, and what? Stay here forever? Never see your kids again?" he asked. Their faces instantly dropped. "So do you wanna go home or not?"

Maddie narrowed her eyes at him before noticing that he was holding a metallic-looking cup of boba tea and raising an eyebrow.

"You brought a snack with you," she said. Phantom shrugged, offering it to her.

"Want a sip?"

"No! Just!" Maddie glanced at Jack worriedly, and he mirrored her expression. They, unfortunately, knew that they really...didn't have a choice. "Get us out of here!"

"Danny, you may wanna hurry it up," Red's voice called out softly to them. Maddie did a double take. Oh yeah. Danny Phantom. Huh, she kinda forgot about that.

Phantom nodded, and he dropped the boba tea, letting it float in the air as he phased them out of the jail cell. Maddie stared at him.

"Wait, you can just phase through?" she asked. Phantom shrugged.

"Uh, sorta yes, sorta no," he replied, grabbing his tea.

"Danny!" Red's voice hissed. Phantom glanced to her.

"Okay, so super quick rundown of Ghost Zone rules. In the Ghost Zone, you guys are the ghosts, so you basically can fly and phase through objects, so Red can phase through objects and you guys too, but this is also a human cell that only I can get you out, and speaking out getting out, we need to leave. Now," Phantom quickly explained. As soon as he finished, he motioned for them to follow him.

He began to fly towards Red, and they jogged after him. Phantom peered around the corner before pulling back. Red did too.

"How's our escape route looking?" Phantom asked. He took a sip of his drink as Red pulled up a map on her suit. She studied it for a bit.

"Hmm. We may run into some trouble," Red mused. "Best bet is for me to take Mr. and Mrs. Fenton and phase with them out of here, and…" She gave a weird pause. "We'll uh. Wait for you to escape on your own." Phantom sucked on his drink, and the sound of air coming through as he ran out of boba tea grinded Maddie's nerves.

"Oh would you just!" Maddie scowled, and she slapped the cup out of Phantom's hands.

"Hey! I paid for that!" Phantom cried out. He scrambled to pick it up. "They were having an unlimited refills special if you got that cup!" Red snorted in amusement.

"Danny, they kicked you out for getting too many refills anyway," she reminded him. Phantom made a face.

"Well maybe they shouldn't advertise it as unlimited refills then," he retorted.

"Most people don't drink twelve cups of boba tea," she replied.

"Maybe I should be rewarded for being able to drink that much then."

"Hm, we'll debate it later," Red replied. "Look, I'll get them out and meet you on the other side. Got it?"

"Got it," Phantom replied. To Maddie's horror and shock, Red lifted her visor up, but not all the way. Just enough to expose her lips, and she leaned into Phantom to give him a light peck on the lips.

"Be careful," she told him. Phantom nodded.

"I will," he promised. "If I'm not with you in five minutes. Just." He paused. "Leave without me, get the Fentons home, and then come back for me." Red nodded as her visor went all the way down.

"Grab my hands," Red instructed the Fentons. Maddie blinked, reluctantly taking one of her hands. Jack took the other. Red summoned her board, jumping in the air and allowing it to manifest beneath her. She held onto them tightly and flew through the walls.

Instinctively, Maddie closed her eyes as she flew through. Only to feel no impact. A blur of walls impaired her vision with constant flashes of the darkness of being in a thick jail wall and the light of the prison rooms and hallways. She blinked as the neutral green skies of the Ghost Zone finally greeted her, and Red continued flying until they were a decent distance from the prison. And now that she had a moment to think…

"What the hell are you thinking?" she exclaimed to Red. The huntress snapped her attention to her in confusion.

"What? You would have died if we let you stay in there!" she scowled.

"No, not that!" Maddie clarified. "I mean, thank you so much for helping us, but you? And Phantom?"

"Exactly!" Jack agreed. "He's an absolute menace! He's a danger! Don't you guys fight? What happened to all of that?"

She could see a glimpse of Red's face under her heavily tinted visor, and Maddie was sure that the girl looked embarrassed and was likely turning as red as her suit.

"Oh man, it's a looong story," Red sighed heavily. "Uh, best and easiest and quickest way I can explain it is; a lot of the things that made me angry with him was a misunderstanding, and I found out that he's...actually a really sweet guy. I know it's weird to say, but, um. Well, I've never met a guy who was so kind, thoughtful and romantic. My life's kinda hectic, and he just...he really goes out of his way to make it easier on me."

"How so?" Jack wondered.

"Well, like. He does a lot of my household chores and stuff like laundry, bringing me lunch when I have long shifts at work, listening to me when I have a bad day," she explained. "He makes life a lot easier and better."

How cute. If it wasn't between a dead teenage menace and this poor, obviously manipulated girl. It honestly reminded Maddie a lot of her own Danny and his little girlfriend, Valerie. Valerie told her a few times about Danny doing some of her chores at home since Valerie was so busy working and doing school. It kinda pissed Maddie off, since Danny never seemed to remember his own chores at home, but she never felt like bringing it up to him because, well, at least he was really good to her. She'd be ashamed of him if he was any lesser.

"Hey!" Phantom called out as he zoomed towards them. "Let's go! Quick!"

Red nodded. She passed Jack off to Phantom, and the two teenagers flew the Fentons home.

[preciousthingsareprecious]

Around the Carousel

Catch me joining Damian Wayne Week after it started with some impulse fics. This is for day 2 (I almost made it to actually posting on the 14th my time). I selected the: Undercover prompt.

Summary: Bruce and Damian go undercover at a school fair. They're supposed to be investigating, instead they stop to enjoy themselves.

AO3 Link

~

Bruce tucked his hands into his pockets and smiled down at Damian as the boy adjusted his hat. It was the third time he’d done it in ten minutes as the wind kept pulling at it, trying to tease it off his head.

It was a windy night for them to be out. A steady breeze blew through fair stalls, kicking up banners and tablecloths, and threatening to blow papers and smaller items off of tables. It cut the late Spring heat in a nice way, making the night mild and perfect for a school fair. Which, was exactly where they were at.

“If you’d like, I can carry that for you.” Bruce said.

Damian dropped his hands and looked up at Bruce, “I am fine, Fa--Uncle Matches. It is not bothering me.”

“Alright, whatever you say, kiddo.” Bruce smiled, “You wanna adjust those glasses while you’re at it?”

His son frowned, his nose wrinkling, and sending the glasses sliding a little further down it. It was unreasonably cute. Bruce held up his phone and snapped a photo of his son. The flash went off and when Bruce dropped his phone Damian was looking surprised.

“For posterity's sake.” Bruce explained, examining the picture, it had caught Damian’s expression perfectly.

He attached it to a text and sent it to Dick, anticipating a response of jealousy from his eldest. Dick was in Bludhaven, working his own case, and had to bow out of joining the Matches boys as they went undercover.

“Uncle Matches, are you planning to spend all night looking at your phone or are we to explore the fair? You promised to examine my entry for the art exhibit.”

How Damian had managed to get a piece in an art exhibit at a school he didn’t even attend Bruce was still figuring out. Apparently he’d had Oracle hack into the system and create a profile and enrollment information for one Matthew “Matches” Malone. Damian’s art was set up under the moniker Lil’ Matches, and even thinking about it made Bruce smile.

“Of course, lead the way.”

Damian nodded, the action shaking his glasses loose again. Bruce bit back a smile. It was Damian who’d insisted on going the Clark Kent route with glasses and selecting clear ones to help obscure their identities, instead of the normal shades that paired with the Matches persona. It would be hard to defend sunglasses at a fair that took place mostly after dark.

It had been a good call, so far no one had recognized them in their suits and glasses, and they’d been able to enter the fair and purchase game tickets with ease.

His kid adjusted the glasses again, turned on his heel and began to lead Bruce. He followed at a leisurely pace, enjoying the lights strung across stalls, the smell of food frying, and the calls of students manning games and trying to get them to use their tickets to purchase sketches or experiences.

“I believe our target is one of the art students. Most have been asked to spend time by their pieces at the exhibit.” Damian explained as he walked.

“What time is their slot?” Bruce asked, eyes catching on a bottle toss game.

“He should arrive in approximately an hour.”

“An hour you say?” Bruce hooked an arm around Damian’s shoulders and spun him back towards the bottle toss, “Then why don’t we spend some time enjoying the fair, my dear nephew?”

Damian stopped and looked up at him with open surprise, “But we are on a case?”

“At a school fair. The likes of which I don’t think you’ve ever properly attended. Didn’t the one at your school get interrupted?”

“No.”

Bruce frowned, “You didn’t go, I remember that. What happened?”

His son looked down at the ground, fascinated by the way dust coated his shoe, “There was a Scarecrow attack the night prior. I--was incapacitated by it.”

He remembered now. Damian had taken a dose of toxin for Tim when his brother’s mask had cracked. Both of them had been down for a while, but Damian had been exposed longer than Tim by the time Batman and Spoiler had arrived. He’d been shaky and sick for days after.

Bruce squeezed Damian’s shoulder, “All the more reason to enjoy this one.”

He tried not to think about how Dick would have remembered right away and not pushed the subject, or how even if he had fallen in this pit he’d have figured out how to cheer Damian right away, “We can afford some distraction, you don’t want to be bored for an hour do you?”

Damian hummed, and glanced up, “I would not be opposed to trying a game or two.”

“Perfect, let’s start with the ring toss.” Bruce smiled.

They traded in some tickets for both of them to get a chance at the ring toss. The operator pointed at some green rimmed bottles, “Get at least three rings on the green and you’ll win a prize. If both of you get three onto green you can get one of the big ones or two smaller prizes.”

They had four chances each. Bruce glanced at Damian. He was focused, feeling the weight of the rings in his hands, and eyeing the bottles like he was doing the math in his head calculating what it would take to get them perfectly in place.

After a moment Damian tossed the first ring, it caught at the edge of one of the green bottles and slipped off. He frowned at it, nodded, and then tossed his remaining three in quick succession. All three landed around bottles.

Bruce grinned, and looked up to see the surprise on the operator's face. His son was extraordinary, and Bruce loved seeing him show off.

He took his own time tossing his rings, landing three as well, and missing his last. He shrugged, not minding missing one. They still met the requirements for the big prize.

“Well, kiddo, what do you want?” He asked.

Damian looked up at the racks of plushes hanging from the top of the booth, considering. He pointed at two of the smaller ones. One was a dog dressed as Batman, with a little cowl and cape, and the other was a duck wearing a green deerstalker cap, with a small magnifying glass attached to one of its wings.

The operator handed Damian both animals with a smile, “Good choices, looks like you’re a fan of detectives.”

“Yes.” Damian said, “I am, as is my brother. He will enjoy the duck. Thank you for the diverting game, and best of luck with others.”

As they walked away, Damian handed Bruce the duck, “I trust you to keep an eye on this.” he said, “If you lose it Timothy will be terribly disappointed. I cannot miss bringing him a souvenir twice in a row.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow at him, “It’s not for Dick?”

“Tt, I would have selected a different animal for him, perhaps an elephant or bird.” Damian fiddled with one of the ears of the cowl on his dog, “I promised Timothy a prize if I won one last time, it was supposed to be in exchange for driving Jon and I. Even though the event did not happen, he might still enjoy one from here.”

“I’m sure he will.” Bruce said, resisting the urge to tug Damian into a tight hug, “What would you like to do next? That didn’t take us very long.”

His son looked around the fair, “Perhaps we could try one of the rides? Is there one you particularly enjoy?”

Bruce looked up around them, the fair had a variety of rides. The school had managed to hire a good selection, including a carousel. Bruce pointed at it, they could just see the pointed top from where they were.

“The carousel, you’ll love it.”

This time Bruce led, with Damian close by his side, as they walked, Bruce gave into the desire to reach down and take Damian’s hand in his own. When the boy looked up at him Bruce smiled, “It’s normal for families to do, especially in a busy place like this.”

The crowd wasn’t so thick Bruce was worried about losing Damian, but the move felt natural. He’d held his other children’s hands at events like this before, even Tim’s, though they’d gone well after the boy was the usual age for hand holding when wandering around an event. Damian didn’t seem too upset, in fact he gave Bruce’s hand a squeeze.

“That makes sense. As my Uncle you would be concerned for my safety and wish me to stay close.”

“Of course.” Bruce nodded.

Soon they reached the carousel. Bruce watched Damian with a close eye as they approached. Damian’s face went from cautious and curious, to delighted. There was something about being at the fair and undercover that seemed to let his son react a little more openly than he might if they were somewhere else. Bruce contributed it to the magic of the night.

“It has animals?” he asked, looking up at Bruce.

“Yep, different types. Carousel horses and animals are actually a really unique type of art. There are some horses that have sold for tens of thousands of dollars.” He explained, “And some artists who spend their whole lives making just horses for them.”

Damian’s eyes had gone very wide now, his face open with childlike delight, “And we are allowed to ride them?”

“Most yes, this one probably isn’t as fancy as some, but if you’re interested I’m sure we can visit a few of the more famous ones. I bet Dick’s seen some really cool ones from when he was younger.”

The look on Damian’s face, of excitement and anticipation was enough to melt Bruce’s heart and say yes to anything the kid might ask. Bruce tugged him forward.

“Come on, let’s get in line.”

They didn’t have long to wait, just until the ride stopped and emptied off. From there, they traded in a few more tickets for a chance to ride. Damian wandered the whole of the ride before selecting a white horse with gold trimmings. Bruce took the brown one beside it. They’d taken so long selecting, that almost the moment after they were settled, the ride began to move.

Damian’s laugh when the horse he was on began to rise and fall along with the forward momentum of the carousel was like music. Bruce wanted to take him on every carousel in the world to keep hearing that laugh and seeing that smile.

“May we go again?” Damian asked, the moment the ride stopped.

“Of course.” Bruce told him.

After the second ride, they stepped off and back into the crowd. Bruce checked his watch, they still had some time to spare before they had to be at the art display. He glanced around and caught sight of some food stands.

“Have you had a funnel cake before?” He asked, elbowing Damian.

His son shook his head.

“Then we’re getting one.” Bruce declared, “They’re the perfect mix of fried dough and toppings. We’ve got enough time to enjoy one before getting back on track.”

Damian looked less excited by the prospect of fried dough, but agreed to try it. Soon, the two of them were seated at a picnic table with a funnel cake between them. It was topped with powdered sugar, chocolate, sprinkles, and even some whipped topping. Damian gaped at the concoction, but Bruce passed him a fork with confidence.

“You just have to go at it.” he explained, “Dig in and enjoy.”

His son snorted, “That sounds like something Richard would say.”

Bruce grinned at him, “It should, he told me the very same thing when he introduced me to funnel cakes.”

Together they managed to eat the entire funnel cake. As Bruce set his plastic fork down, he thought finishing it off might have been a mistake even if they weren’t in the middle of an undercover operation. His stomach felt heavy with grease, sugar, and bread.

“That was--a lot.” Damian said, finishing his bottle of water.

“Yes.” Bruce said, wiping at his fake moustache, “It was. But I think we’ll be fine. It’s about time to head over to the exhibit.”

He wanted to get there early enough to see Damian’s piece. The kid had been very secretive of what he’d been working on for it. Taking the project as seriously as he would have as if it were for his own school fair. Bruce wanted to be able to enjoy it before they disrupted everything.

They were here to catch one of the students in the act of trying to blackmail a teacher. Damian had gotten news of it from his friend Collin, letting him know that strange things were going down. After some research, Damian had found some discrepancies in grades with a few of the students, and noted one teacher withdrawing large sums of money on a regular basis. Not enough to make a kid rich, but enough to placate a teen who’d watched too much television.

Damian had brought the case to Bruce, and together they’d worked out that this would be the next best place to find the kid and teacher interacting in a public location. From what Bruce could tell, the teacher hadn’t done anything against his students, instead he seemed to be in the middle of an affair with a seperate teacher. The plan was to bust the student, or at the very least record the exchange and get it in the hands of the administration.

The teacher in question? One of the art instructors.

They tossed their trash into a bin and Bruce let Damian lead him over to where the art exhibit was put up. It was tucked in one of the further corners of the fair, out of the way of chaos, but on a busy enough route that plenty of people were stopping by to look at the art.

“Which one is yours?” Bruce asked.

“Ah, it is this here.” Damian led him to a painting hanging up on a temporary pillar.

It was a painting of the garden outside Wayne manor. Done in bright beautiful colors it looked like you could step right into the painting. Portions of the paint were raised up to create texture and shadows, like the petals on flowers. In one portion, Bruce could see Alfred the cat sleeping in a patch of sun.

“It’s gorgeous.” Bruce said, “the detail is incredible.”

Damian was blushing, “It is nothing, a quick painting.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, I know you were working on this for hours.” Bruce told him, “Do you get to bring it home?”

“Yes.” Damian said, “I was not sure what to do with it.”

“We’ll hang it up, of course. There’s a spot in the library I think will work well. Some greenery in a very brown room.”

At this point, Damian’s ears had gone red, “If you are sure.”

Bruce nodded, “I am.”

They spent a little longer looking at Damian’s painting before they shifted to look at some of the other pieces on display. There were quite a few that were really good, and a number of interesting ones. Some looked as if they had been submitted just for a grade, but all in all it was enjoyable.

Bruce was busy looking over a self portrait when he felt a small sharp elbow jab him in the side. He looked up to see Damian staring at another young man. Probably about sixteen, who’d just walked into the display area.

“That him?” he asked.

Damian nodded, “Let us wait to see if he approaches Mr. Franklin.”

Bruce slipped his phone out of his pocket and played with it, as if he were taking general photos.

“Matches, why don’t you stand by your painting? I want to get a picture of you with it.” he said, affecting a delighted uncle voice, “I’m sure your dad would love to see it.”

They moved over to the painting, and Bruce aimed the phone as he walked. Mr. Franklin was situated just behind the pillar with Damian’s painting on it. He snapped a few pictures of Damian, directing the kid to smile and pose, before slipping the phone’s setting over to video. He shifted slightly so that Franklin was in frame and hit record.

After a moment, the other boy approached him. Bruce inched forward to make sure he could get sound, and glanced over at Damian. The kid was hurrying away, off to find a separate teacher to bring over and hopefully stumble on the blackmail scene.

The exhibit was a good place to meet as Franklin was in charge of it and there wasn’t any reason for other teachers to wander over unless they were just checking things out. Most were too busy for that, with their own booths and class exhibits to care for.

Thankfully, Bruce did catch the conversation clearly from where he was. He hoped that no one would notice he’d stopped recording his kid, and started just recording the area. If he had to, he’d just say it was b-roll for a home video or something.

It wasn’t very long before Damian came back, a teacher at his heels. Bruce shifted the camera subtly back towards Damian’s painting.

“And here is my Uncle Malone. He can vouch for my skills if my piece does not convince you.” Damian was saying.

The teacher opened her mouth to say something, and then suddenly the boy speaking to Mr. Franklin shouted, “This is not what we agreed on!”

“I’m sorry--” she said, “Matches, Mr. Malone I’ll be right back.”

With that, she split from them to intervene on the argument. Bruce stopped his recording, and sent the video to Oracle who was going to forward it to the school.

“Well, that should take care of that.” Bruce said, turning to Damian, “How about we enjoy the rest of the fair? We’ve still got tickets, and there’s some rides we haven’t tried yet.”

Damian nodded, “That sounds acceptable. This fair has been, quite fun. And I am enjoying spending time with you.”

Bruce grinned, and tugged Damian into a hug, “Me too.”

“We should do the carousel again.” Damian said, stepping away to take Bruce’s hand, “And after that there is something that apparently spins you at such a speed you are stuck to the wall.”

“Oh? Well, lead the way, we’ll go until I feel like I’ve had a full patrol.”

Damian grinned at that, and Bruce felt his heart soar. He was going to have to figure out other ways of getting them undercover to things like this. Or just take Damian out to fairs more often as father and son.

[echoes-of-the-clockwork]

Book Two: Sapphire (Ignis x Reader) Chapter V

While exploring Keycatrich Trench, (Y/n) kept her lips sealed as she listened to the boy's banter back and forth. She walked a little ahead of the group, curious to learn the layout of the area and locate the royal tomb as quick as possible.

After having located a generator and activating it, the guardian overheard Ignis scold Prompto. "Tis impertinent to ogle, Prompto."

The younger boy blinked, not realizing he'd been staring at (Y/n). "I-I, uh...was staring?"

"Quite intently," the advisor said.

"Can't blame the kid for staring," Gladio said, meeting Ignis' gaze. "It's your fault, Iggy."

"Do pray tell."

"For hiding (Y/n)."

Said girl rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'm standing right here." She placed a hand on her hip. "And nothing's Iggy's fault. He wasn't hiding me from anyone. He was simply respecting my wishes. I'm...very shy and get embarrassed rather easily."

"We can tell," the shield chuckled. "Your cheeks are turning red."

She quickly turned away, scrunching up her shoulders. She nibbles on her bottom lip, wondering how to retort. However, she didn't need to say anything because Prompto came to her rescue. "H-Hey, that's okay! There's nothing wrong with being shy! I mean, even I'm shy from time to time."

(Y/n) pushed past her shyness and smiled kindly at the marksman. She was thankful for his intervention. "I appreciate your kindness, Prompto."

His own cheeks turned red. "Y-Yeah, of course."

Continuing through the tunnels, they tried different branching paths. Many of the metal doors were locked and resulted in them to travel deeper. Exploring one of the main tunnels, Prompto suddenly shouted in fright when the faint echo of 'clinking' could be heard. His eyes bounced around in desperation, trying to locate the source of the sound. "What was that?!"

"My bad. Kicked a can," Gladio explained with a faint smirk.

Prompto glared at him. "You are killing me here, big guy! Are you trying to give me a heart attack here or somethin'?!"

"It is rather dark in these tunnels even with the generator on," (Y/n) commented.

"Think there's something in here with us?" Noctis asked her.

"It's a dark, musty system of tunnels. Of course there's something in here with us."

"Can you two please stop?" Prompto whined.

The prince shrugged his shoulders. "Not like you haven't fought daemons before."

"No, but I don't wanna think about what's in here with us! My imagination will go wild and freak me out even more!"

Noctis continued to lead them through Keycatrich Trench. (Y/n) walked behind the prince with Ignis beside her. The two could feel Prompto and Gladio staring at them, but they ignored the eyes boring into their backs. The guardian was tempted to transform after becoming uncomfortable because of the boys' staring and scrunched up the hem of her dress in her fists.

Ignis noticed this when she unconsciously took a step towards him. One of her shy habits is to walk closer to him when she felt uneasy. He adjusted his glasses and peered over his shoulder at the two boys walking behind him. "Is something the matter, gentlemen?"

"Oh, I've got tons of questions," Gladio remarked. "And none of them are for you, Iggy."

"Same here," Prompto muttered.

"I'm positive (Y/n) will answer any and all questions you so desire to ask," Ignis replied. "Gawking will get you no answers."

The sapphire-eyed girl glanced over her shoulder at Prompto and Gladio. "Yes, ask me anything. But do cease staring. It's making me uncomfortable."

"Sorry," the shield apologized. "Still in shock at seeing what you really look like after all these years. I'm not used to seeing a woman hanging around Iggy, only a white fluff ball. Now I understand why he refused to let me set him up with any woman. He had you all to himself."

(Y/n) pauses her stride and turned to face the brute. "Iggy and I aren't an item. Perhaps your taste in women is why he refused to let you set him up on a date."

"So you'd be okay with him being with another woman?" Gladio came to a stop directly in front of her. He couldn't read her stoic expression and was trying to figure out if what he detected between the two was indeed unspoken feelings.

She lowered her head with a sigh. "If he's happy, I don't care who he's with. If he ever needs me, I'll be there. And if I prove to be a hindrance for him and prevent him from doing what he wants, I will leave so he can be happy."

All four boys stopped at her declaration. Ignis and Prompto were wide-eyed while Gladio and Noctis only blinked in surprise. The marksman stepped forward and nearly stumbled over his own feet. "B-But what about your own happiness, (Y/n)? I know you're Iggy's guardian and all, but don't you deserve to be happy too?"

"A guardian's duty is to protect the soul that which gave them life and ensure their happiness. If Ignis can only achieve happiness when I'm gone, then so be it. There's no room for my own happiness." She hung her head, hiding her face with her (h/c) locks. "May we drop this subject? I don't want to talk about it anymore." Walking ahead, she left the boys behind.

Prompto stared sorrowfully at her back as she disappeared deeper into the tunnels. He then looked over at Ignis. "You wouldn't ask her to leave, would you, Iggy?"

"Not even for a moment," the advisor declared strongly, eyes focused on her retreating figure.

Gladio folded his arms across his chest with a smirk. "I'm sensing something between you two. If it's what I think it is, you better get your ass movin', Iggy."

The tactician sighed. He wanted to drop the subject and leave the turmoils of his own heart for another time. His duty was to Noctis and that was all that mattered at the moment. "We've idled too long. Let's proceed forth."

"Right..." Noctis muttered. He glanced at Ignis and saw his cool composure was still intact as always. There wasn't even a crack. The prince knew his advisor all too well and how he never broadcasted his feelings. He was too occupied with his own duty to him and wouldn't allow his emotions to come into play. Noctis was grateful for what Ignis' has done for him over the years, but he wished he wasn't a robot programmed with one function-to watch over him. Even a straight-laced guy like Ignis deserved his own happiness and Noctis didn't want him to dedicate his entire life to him. One day he will find someone who truly makes him happy and Noctis would be more than overjoyed for him.

The prince wondered if (Y/n) was that special person and all Ignis needed was a push. Maybe this journey wasn't just for him, but for the strategist to finally stop acting like an emotionless robot and see there's more to life than being a royal advisor. From that moment, Noctis decided he would help both Ignis and (Y/n).

Unbeknownst to the prince, Prompto was thinking the same thing. He could see how much Ignis and (Y/n) cared for each other just by watching them together. Even when the guardian wasn't in her human form, he could tell how the two really cared about each other. Alongside his best friend, he would help them find happiness in each other.

Pushing their thoughts aside, Noctis and Prompto went after (Y/n) with Gladio and Ignis close behind. They followed the tunnel until they entered a room with a metal door. Looking around, they didn't find the girl anywhere. Prompto approaches the metal door to open it, but he screamed and retracted his hand when something beats on the other side of the door and leaves a large dent.

"What is it?" Ignis asked.

Prompto shook his head with a shaky voice. "I-I don't know. Maybe it was (Y/n)."

"Doubtful," Gladio scoffed.

"You never know!"

"What would be the point in her trying to scare us?"

"Maybe you pissed her off."

"(Y/n) would never pull such a petty stunt if she were angered," Ignis stated.

Gladio chortled. "Sounds like you've experienced her anger first-hand."

"On a few occasions I have witnessed her fury."

"Oh, yeah? What's she like?" Noctis pried.

"A frigid, silent anger that strikes fear in your being with a single glance from her. It's as if she freezes your blood from inside your body."

"Damn..." Gladio mumbled. "Now I wanna see her pissed off."

"She did frighten one of the parliament members quite terribly to the point of him retracting his proposal and resigning from his position," Ignis said.

"Wait, are you talking about Councilman Tenmus?" The prince asked.

"One and the same."

"I hated that guy..."

"Who didn't?" Gladio asked. "(Y/n) did all of us a favor. She must've been really pissed if she showed herself to him."

Ignis smirked at the memory. "She was quite livid with the man for his taxation statement. His sudden resignation was a welcomed surprise."

Noctis' chuckles. "I'll say. We better find her. We might need to scare off even more people..."

Eventually, the boys stumbled across a collapsed tunnel. They crouch to proceed through the small opening from the partially collapsed tunnel off to one side of the main tunnel. "First time through here, right?" Prompto asked.

"Looks it," Gladio responded. He followed behind the blonde and felt something cold on the wall. Looking towards the spot, he saw a patch of ice. "Seems munchkin came this way too."

"Think she handled the daemons already?" Prompto asked.

"She can kick ass without us. I wouldn't be surprised if she's already wiped out most of the daemons in these tunnels."

Exiting the small opening, the boys turn right at the next tunnel and follow it to the end. Ignis looked around with a huff. "A dead end."

"I could've sworn this was it..." Prompto mumbled.

Suddenly, the lights powered by the generator go out. Gladio looked around in confusion. "The hell?"

"Somebody...turn on a light!"

The four turn on their flashlights to find themselves under attack by goblins. The small daemons launches themselves at the boys, but each one screamed out in pain as a barrage of icicles pierced their bodies and killed them instantly. They each fell to the ground before their bodies vanished into nothingness. From behind the dead daemons, a figure emerged from the darkness. "The generator ran out of gas," (Y/n) stated. "Looks like we're stuck with only flashlights."

"Where'd you run off to?" Noctis inquired.

"We are here for a royal tomb, are we not?" She remarked. "I was looking for it."

"So you really weren't trying to scare us earlier?" Prompto asked.

She arched a brow. "Scare you? Why would I do that?"

"N-No reason!"

She eyed him curiously before shaking her head. "Anyway, I think I found another path. Follow me."

The boys followed the guardian down the opposite end of the tunnel. There, they pass through a narrow opening between two nearly closed blast doors into another tunnel. With a new path revealed, they located another generator. Noctis started it and deactivated his flashlight when he saw the lights in the tunnel flicker on. More goblins manifest and attack, but they were weak and stood no chance against the group.

Proceeding forth, the group comes across a pair of unlocked metal doors at the other end of this tunnel and heard a sound like a faucet turning as they walk through. Prompto looked around at his friends. "Wait. Hear that?"

"I didn't hear anything," Noctis replied.

"I heard it," (Y/n) said. "Are we going to check it out?"

"I think you two are just hearing things."

"Dude, we're not paranoid," Prompto remarked.

Walking through a door on the other side of the room, they find what appears to be a locker room with showers, but there's no one else in the room. "Nothing," Prompto muttered.

"That's weird," Gladio commented.

"I do believe we are being toyed with," Ignis said.

"You sayin' daemons are messing with us?"

"Smaller daemons, especially goblins and imps, have a somewhat playful mannerism and tend to toy with their prey before attacking," (Y/n) said.

"Well, that explains why we're hearing all these weird noises..." Prompto murmured.

Returning to the previous room, Noctis and the others are ambushed by a group of tarantula daemons. Prompto summoned his pistol and shot at the adversaries. "These are not the type of bad guys I like to fight."

Gladio swung his greatsword while asking, "What type do you like to fight?"

"None, now that you mention it."

(Y/n) killed the last tarantula daemon with a minuscule ice spell, pinning its body to the wall with an icicle. Gladio, who was standing beside her, grinned. "You trying to redecorate the place?"

"With daemon corpses? They don't last very long," she replied. "Besides, this place is gonna need a little more than redecorating to get rid of this dreary atmosphere. Maybe some ice could help."

The brute huffed out a chuckle at her playful banter. He was glad she was working past her shyness and joining in his playfulness. He dispelled his greatsword as he and the others approach another pair of metal doors in the room. Prompto eyes the doors with a slightly giddy grin. "Ooh, this looks promising."

"In an ominous sort of way," Gladio said.

"Stay sharp," Ignis advised.

After passing through the doors, then a short tunnel, and then yet another pair of metal doors, they enter what appears to be a wide, open storage room. As they step across the middle of the room, an arachne daemon descends from above and attacks.

"No way we're taking that thing on!" Prompto wailed.

"No turning back," Gladio said.

Noctis summoned his sword. "Nope."

The arachne daemon proved to be no obstacle. The group easily slew it and continued through Keycatrich Trench. They locate another small passage that requires them to crouch. After crouching, moving through the small passage into the next tunnel, and making their way to the next intersection, Gladio takes notice of something down the path to the left. "Huh? The hell?"

(Y/n) looked toward what had the shield's attention and spotted the doors to the next royal tomb they'd been searching for. Noctis also saw the royal tomb and makes his way over. He unlocks the doors to the Tomb of the Conqueror and they slide open. Stepping inside, the prince claims the Axe of the Conqueror. When he stepped out of the royal tomb with his newly claimed ancestral arm in his arsenal, Prompto asked, "So, Noct borrows the old kings' powers?"

"More or less," Ignis replied. "At this rate, he'll soon rival his father's legacy."

""The Copycat King"," Gladio mocked.

Noctis glared weakly at the brute. "Out of line."

"Well? What's it like?" The sharpshooter questioned.

"Hmm..." The prince glanced down at his hands and flexed his fingers. "Like I've got some tricks up my sleeve."

Gladio stuck his hands up in the air. "No need to put on a magic show for us."

"But it never hurt to practice," Ignis added.

"Guess not." Noctis tugged on the fringe of his hair. "Any idea on this conduit we're supposed to find?"

All eyes fell on (Y/n). She bashfully blinked and looked around at the boys. "Wh-Why're you all looking at me?"

"You're the guardian here and Cor said the conduit was one of your people."

"Th-That doesn't mean I know who or what this conduit is capable of..." She cleared her throat. "But I will do my best as a guardian to help you find the conduit. It's easier to speak to my people if I'm with you. The only humans spirits trust are their masters. Luckily, my people are easy to pick out in a crowd. Let's just hope the empire hasn't gotten to the conduit yet."

"Wait, if the empire doesn't know who the conduit is, won't they come after you, (Y/n)?" Prompto asked.

She nodded calmly. "Most likely."

"Eh, she's got nothing to worry about," Noctis said.

The marksman nodded with a wide smile. "That's right! You've got us, (Y/n)!"

"Pretty sure the lady can handle herself in a skirmish, Casanova," Gladio stated.

"I know, but we'll be there for her too!"

(Y/n)'s eyes widen in shock. She glanced around at the boys and saw them all smiling at her. She didn't expect to fit into their merry band this quick, but she was happy to already being closer to Noctis, Prompto, and Gladio. She was already tied to Ignis with the red string of fate and was looking forward to growing closer with the other boys after knowing them for years now. Smiling back, she giggled. "And I'll be here for each and every one of you."

With that, the group left Keycatrich Trench. Back at the entrance to the tunnel system, Noctis' cell phone rings and he promptly answers. "Yeah?"

"Finally picked up. Thought I'd lost another king," Cor responded on the other end.

"Just busy building my arsenal."

"Good to hear. I have a task for you. The empire's begun construction of a new base, along the road west to Duscae. I need you to put it out of commission. If left unchecked, it will cost us access to the west-and all the royal tombs that lie beyond. I believe you've met Monica. She can fill you in on the details. Go see her."

Noctis hung up, putting his phone back into his pocket. Prompto glanced over at him, wondering who called. "What's up?"

"People to see, bases to burn. Let's go see Monica at the outpost," Noctis replied.

"Come to think of it, we did spy a large structure," Ignis said.

"Yeah, hard to miss an ominous thing like that."

"Ain't gonna be easy takin' down a whole stronghold," Gladio claimed.

Prompto fiddled with his gloves. "Can we really do this?"

"The marshal believes we can, or he wouldn't have asked us. But first things first," the advisor started.

Noctis nodded. "Right. Let's head back to the outpost."

Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || Masterlist

[fightabear]

so, i just need to shout for a second.

you are allowed to be critical of the media you consume. you should ask how it impacts you.

howver, you aren’t making the internet safer by pushing purity culture. if you care about the safety of minors online, you need to push education about internet safety.  predators lay in wait in general spaces and don’t need problematic content to groom them. in fact, actively pushing the idea that determining whether or not someone is a predator based on whether or not they engage in adult content determines whether or not they’re safe to interact with sets minors up to be uncritical of interactions with people that meet arbitrary safe criteria.

online predators will actively work to blend in to their victims peer group. 

you also need to be critical about where you’re getting your ideas, where they stem from, and who is pushing this agenda. 

please look at what just happened to onlyfans. i saw so many people toting it as a victory for children’s rights, without realizing that the organization behind the campaign against it is one whose primary focus is actually just criminalizing and stamping out all forms sex work. 

your desire to protect children and make the internet a safer space was being used as a weapon against sex workers by an anti-lgbt fundamentalist Christian organization that believes in abstinence only education.  

sorry.

if this had come from a genuine place, it would have sparked a larger conversation that explained to minors the very real danger put themselves in when they bypass the restrictions in place for these sites, the types of predators that could be watching them. not to mention the legal liabilities they open themselves up to as the child is technically committing a crime by producing and sharing this content.  there also would have been time for onlyfans to rework its verification system to make it harder for minors to get into.

instead, sex workers have been thrown out of the platform they built and are being shamed for being upset about it because they aren’t “thinking of the children”.

there is such a stunning lack of education being pushed as to why these things are bad and dangerous  and much more focus about destroying it. children will see this cool forbidden thing and run straight towards it because they don’t know any better, no one has told them not to touch the hot stove. yes, their brains aren’t done developing yet. they are not emotionally or mentally mature yet, they are going to make stupid mistakes - but they make more mistakes and open themselves up to more harm when they don’t understand that they’re in danger or where the danger is coming from.

and this isn’t victim blaming. i was a child online who had to deal with predators. i was the kid who would circumvent neopet’s ‘no offline site contact’ rule to rp with people over AIM. i thought it was stupid! i was grown up and mature, i could handle it, right? i had sooooo many online friends and nothing bad ever happened. i wasn’t even old enough to be on the forum!

then i was thirteen. i had naively added a person on msn thinking they were a fun new friend who was going to give me a rare item on gaia online, only for them to switch on a time when we were in private. they threatened to hack and delete my account unless i got on webcam and got shirtless. i was a lonely child and the internet friends i had were my only friends. i remember crying and my mom walking in the room, not knowing what was happening, and then i used that as a chance to wrest my account back and block and report the guy.

i never told my mom. i thought she’d take away the computer forever and i’d lose my only connection. i just dealt with the shame that this man had seen me shaking and afraid in only my bra. i had nightmares about him telling me to take it off or he’d send the picture to my school friends, since he now had access to my im list. i thought he was my friend. he said he liked my writing. he changed on a dime when we were alone.

when it happened again later, i knew that there was a reason why this 27 year old man kept dming me to tell me i was pretty when i shared pictures in our group chat.  now my school was giving internet stranger danger education, i knew some of what to watch out for and to trust my gut. it made me feel cool for all of ten seconds that this COOL older person praised my writing and thought i was attractive, but it also made me feel uneasy.  the fact that he wouldn’t do this where anyone else could see it bothered me. so, without a trusted adult, i went to the mods of the server and his girlfriend and expressed my discomfort about the conversations that were happening in private. more details came out and he was thrown out from the group chat.

i never see education being brought up in these conversations. never. from either side. the other day i went looking for evidence or studies of some of the arguments i see bandied around the most and found nothing. even in psas for legitimate predators, i never see people passing out education as to how kids can spot the danger signs or take the steps necessary to protect themselves. 

please ask yourself why when we talk about protecting minors online from predators, the normalization of carrds containing every single detail about their personal life when that is essentially a guide for a predator to use to get close to and abuse that child with is not the first thing brought up as a problem that needs to go.

[mcmactictac]

Some of my favourite quotes from random media I enjoy! (I wasn’t super specific with my sourcing, but if you want to check out any of the source material I find them all really interesting!)

“ ‘You can’t unsee this’

he told himself.

‘This is not allowed in the life you’re living’

he told himself.

I want so much more”

(Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stievfater)

I absolutely adore Maggie’s writing style. The use of italics and spacing on the page to convey emotion is something I see so rarely, and yet find so refreshing. Something about that moment of Declan finally breaking free and going no, I want more than this is so refreshing. Especially for someone who constantly puts the needs of other people above himself, him making a clear choice to finally put what he wants first was something really interesting to me.

“In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of strength.”

(Avatar the Last Airbender, the good animated show, not the movie)

There are so many amazing quotes in this show, but this one really stuck with me. I think when it comes to dealing with our problems, everyone just wishes other people could fix them so they wouldn’t have to deal with it (a totally understandable and valid feeling). Although having a good support system is great, not everyone is always able to have that. Sometimes you have to rely on yourself to provide that motivation, that hope to push yourself through it. Giving hope to yourself when you are struggling is something that is incredibly difficult for most people, which is why I liked how the show acknowledged how challenging it was. It recognizes the strength it takes to be your own source of light, which was really nice to see (especially from a kids show)

“The thing about leaving something for the last time is that you rarely realize you’re doing it”

(The Candymakers by Wendy Mass)

This book has been a personal favourite of mine for a long time. This line really struck a chord with me, and I don’t think I really understood it exactly the first time I read it. But after COVID, and losing so much, I feel like this is something that can be relatable to many people. So much was lost so quickly, and we really had no idea any of it was coming. Especially for the high school seniors in 2020, they left school for the last time not realizing they would never go back. I find this quote has more of an impact once you’ve experienced that feeling of loss, and wishing you had appreciated things more since you didn’t realize it would be the last time you would get to experience it.

“I’ll make mistakes, but my own and it frees me”

(The Lightning Thief, but the Broadway musical not the book)

Something about this line was really special to me. Acknowledging that making mistakes is a part of growing up, it’s a part of life and it isn’t bad. It also acknowledges that the mistakes you make are because of you, not anyone else. You have the freedom to choose whatever you want and take whichever path you desire. Knowing that you’ll still make those mistakes, but it can finally be for something you deem worthy and important and not something trivial. This line should be stressful, but it just feels filled with hope instead. It doesn’t fill you with dread of your regrets, but instead fills you with hope and excitement instead.

“It was this. This moment, and no other moment, and for the first time that Gansey could remember, he knew what it felt like to be present in his own life”

(The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater)

This is one of my favourite scenes of a book I’ve ever read. This whole chapter was absolutely magical, and filled with so much life and happiness. I always love a Gansey POV, but it was so nice to watch himself relax and have a “normal life” for a night. I loved the use of “present in his own life”, I think it’s a wonderful way to convey a feeling that’s so hard to express. It’s even hard to capture how the quote makes me feel, there’s just so much genuine happiness and peace within it.

“If nothing ever changed, there would be no such thing as butterflies”

(The Candymakers by Wendy Mass)

I really do love this book. It takes such a positive outlook on so many difficult things. Change can be scary, but it can also be beautiful and create incredible things. Change is how we get good things in our life and I think so many people are terrified of it. I love the simplistic way it puts a positive spin on such a complicated topic. I think it’s important for people to see that change doesn’t always have to be bad and can make things better than before.

“When they’re gone, it will hurt. But that hurt will remind you of how much you loved them.”

(Supernatural, season 15)?

OUCH. I love how this looks at pain and loss in a different direction. So often pain associated with loss is seen as the absence of something and it was cool to see it portrayed more positively. Instead of looking at something and seeing all you’ve lost, it’s being reminded how much you cared about it and the experiences that developed that deep care. It’s seeing all you had, instead of thinking about how much you lost.

“To be human is to move forward, to adapt, to believe in your ability to make things better. That is the only way to make the pain and sacrifice mean something.”

(Supernatural, season 15)?

This one hits hard. We all suffer so much, and keep pushing forward, doing the best we can to make it all worth it. If you get trapped in that loop of negativity, It will be really hard to move forward with that mindset. Hope is one of those characteristics that makes us human and without hope for something it’s hard to find satisfaction. Even if it’s something small, like hoping a store has the item you came looking for, or something larger like hoping we can fight harder against climate change. These things add value to our lives, and although they can provide disappointment, they can also bring joy.

“ ‘What am I without you?’ ‘Yourself.’ “

(Dream SMP, the disc finale)

Wow. Especially for all of the people out here who have always been part of a duo, where it’s the two of you together so often, people start to treat you the same. You link your sense of identity in with that person, and it becomes a large part of who you are. But I love the way that Tubbo responded to this, simply going “yourself”. It’s such a foreign concept to people who are super close with another person, to be seen as separate from them. Ultimately if you take it all away, Tubbo is right. You are your own person, separate of the people around you and you have the freedom to be whatever you want to be. I just think it’s a good thing for people to hear, and be reminded that although the people they surround themselves with can be major parts of their lives, underneath all of that they are still their own person.