#I decided to draw her eyes the same shape as when she is a human because I feel like they look better this way

[obeymeluv]

In Your Defense [PT - 4 - Diasomnia]

You decide to work at Sam's for Valentine's Day and your crush just happens to hear a customer hitting on you. If they get arrested, can you be their alibi? AKA: This person has a death wish and you find out your crush might be jealous?

Note: Each one is random and some will be longer than others. If I made everyone the same length this thing would be MASSIVE and I would probably die.

Happy late V-Day :)

Malleus is forever amused at the many holidays humans entertain. They're certainly festive and unique. This one relies on red, pink, white, and sweets! He's absolutely fascinated by the sheer amount of heart-shaped items and clever cards but the idea of so many sweets turns his stomach a bit.

Just a bit.

The almost-cloying smell of sugar hits his nose and it's nearly enough to make him leave the shop. He reminds himself that he's not required to eat the sweets nor get anything massive and that does well enough to settle his stomach. He stoops to enter, green eyes turned skyward lest he tangle himself in the cute, frilly banners strung back and forth across the store. Sparkly pink pens draw his attention, the tops decorated with hearts, and he wonders if his grandmother would be interested in it.

Perhaps the heart-shaped trinket box next to it? She's always looking for things to sort and contain her hoard. He picks the deepest one, a great red heart, and puts it in his basket along with the pen.

He meanders through the aisles, picking up an obnoxiously adorable pillow for Lilia. It's meant to look like an envelope sealed with a heart sticker and would do well for his back on gaming nights (which are most nights). Silver and Sebek are much harder to buy for, as they're quite practical and not really prone to whimsy like Lilia. Malleus recalls Lilia trying to broaden Sebek's...people skills...and sets his basket between his feet as he peruses the books. Some of the titles are simple and honest but he thinks Sebek would be hurt if he opened How to Make Friends so he opts for Success in Every Situation.

For Silver, who has hobbies but is always wondering how to incorporate things into training exercises, he picks up a crocheting kit and an origami practice book. Both of these things rely on manual dexterity and patience, the perfect compliments to swordsmanship! Satisfied, Malleus rejoins the line. He's distracted, untangling a heart-shaped hanger with curly gold ribbon when he hears it.

He can't UNHEAR it! Not with his fae ears.

How much do you cost? Malleus clucks his tongue in disapproval, careful not to move his feet lest the magic push down into the shop floor and start to splinter it. Because it needs to go somewhere, he's not surprised that it radiates off of him and starts shaking the shelves. Glimpses of light peeking through slats in the front of the shop are snuffed out by darkness as thunder roars in the distance. The shop lights flicker and buzz as if to protest the conversation on his behalf.

The shop goes deathly quiet. It's enough for him to reign in his magic, that cretin's voice no longer grating on his ears. Malleus swallows down the smoke tickling his throat and walks calmly to the front. His shoes echo quietly but pointedly on the floor. He can see the cretin shrinking with every step and it has nothing to do with the fact that he towers over him.

"Be careful asking the cost of things, human," Malleus looks down at the man, "you may find yourself in a situation where the cost is too steep and the unwillingness to pay leaves you worse off than what you started. So ask yourself: what are you willing to pay? Is the price worth it?"

"No," he whispers in the absolute terror Malleus is all too familiar with. "No, it's not."

You were the first one to not look at him in such a way, and the realization hits him when he locks eyes with you. Yes, the man is running--tripping--out of the store but you look glowing and so happy to see him! His heart swells immeasurably in his chest. Fatally, he fears on occasion.

The lights flicker back to life in the shop, sun caressing the outside once more. Malleus apologizes to the people he cut in front of, gesturing for them to resume natural order but they refuse. He thanks them and hands you his basket. Before you can scan anything, Sam slides in to finish the transaction. "After I check out these lovely imps I'm going to close down for a bit and do inventory, check some things. You should grab what you were looking at earlier!"

You give him a curious look but take the opportunity. Sam probably didn't want to say he was worried about his freezers and fridges after that little stunt. Malleus' magic tends to cast a small effect field that wears off when he's not around. You're careful to hide the ice cream cake from Malleus, glad Sam has charmed bags for cold goods.

"Might I interest you in coming to Diasomnia for the holiday, Child of Man?" Malleus tips his head as he walks out the door. "We've had great success keeping Lilia out of the kitchen this time. He's not fond of marshmallows, you see."

"Sounds interesting! I'd love to! I have something to share, anyways."

"As do we!" Malleus takes your hand and teleports you to Diasomnia where you walk into a small feast catered by various places in town. Diasomnia students were picking and conversating. Malleus guides you to the tea room where there five places set. Lilia, Sebek, and Silver had made their plates and a pot of tea. Malleus pulls out your chair for you and takes your plate and his, not giving you time to make your own.

By the time he returns you've set out the heart-shaped ice cream cake.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Malleus!"

"Quite." he smiles down at you, careful to keep his hair from the food as he sets the plate down carefully.

----

Lilia is a bit put out that Valentine's Day doesn't really have any funny gag items like the April fool's day Sebek and Silver loathe. Surely there must be something, right? He can't stop his nose from turning up at the airy sweetness of marshmallows, finding them stuffed damn near everywhere in the store. Marshmallows have no place in his basket but crunchy suckers and candy hearts do. He giggles to himself as he tries on a pair of heart glasses and finds they actually cut the light quite well.

Super cute glasses for super cute him, right?

He gets Silver a cute stuffed squirrel holding a little sign saying 'NUTS ABOUT YOU!' and starts rooting around for something dragon related for Malleus. Lilia's forced to settle for a dinosaur card that says 'I love you THIS BIG! (My arms are short, okay?)' on the inside. Normally he'd get Malleus an ice cream treat but he found the secret stash and doesn't think Queen Maleficia would want him to have too much. Sebek is hard to buy for, as unyielding as Baur, but Lilia thinks a book of exercise challenges will keep him occupied.

Someone had stuffed a heart-speckled, tinsel-rimmed noisemaker near the book and he couldn't be more delighted. Lilia finds a Valentine's-themed confetti popper near fake mailboxes a few aisles over. Sadly, it's the only one of its kind. He consoles himself with a bottle of tomato juice and gets in line.

"How much do you cost? Come now, boy!" Lilia wants to bite his own tongue for saying 'boy' in public like he's old. He's not even 700 yet! Not very cute of him. "Why worry about the price when you don't even have your wallet?" he's waiving said wallet in the man's face.

Being an ex-general, it was nothing to pick his pocket. A mix of genuine skill and fae speed, naturally. Maybe a little magic to get him up to the front of the line. "H-Hey! Give that back!" the guy tries to grab it and Lilia casually flicks it back and forth out of reach.

Neither fast nor smart, this one. Sad.

"I'll trade you," Lilia offers with a sweet smile that belies the fact that he's not playing. "You leave this innocent cashier alone and you get your wallet back. Sounds good, yes?"

The man tries to grab it several more times before Lilia flicks it halfway across the store. It lands about six aisles over. Predictably, the whelp goes to get it.

"Next in line, please!" you call out, the two of you grinning at each other.

---

Silver knows he shouldn't enable his father's late-night gaming but when it comes to Lilia, he doesn't have a lot of ideas. The drinks are limited edition, colorful, and somewhat dessert-y. They claim to have vitamins and zero marshmallows so Silver thinks a can or two won't hurt. He picks up a few bags of popcorn and some 'mystery box' style candy snacks. Trying to guess the flavor of the jelly beans and fruit bars was sure to please Lilia's...unique palette.

Sebek's gift was a gamble; the artwork on the Fae and Folklore was absolutely gorgeous--gilded in gold and watercolor--but he didn't know if the contents would turn into a rant about humans and their inaccuracies. He decided he was willing to take the risk. Sebek was an avid reader and it might give Malleus a moment of reprieve (even though he didn't mind).

He'd really only come into Sam's for those two; he couldn't shop for Sebek while out in town with him and there were practically no energy drinks to speak of. Apparently online ordering was popular and someone had bought up quite a few. Malleus' gift was tucked away in Diasomnia because Silver was still on the fence about giving it to him. It was meant for children but you were supposed to be able to dig up your own bones and fossils like you were excavating.

It's the thought that counts, right?

Bags of mixed nuts catch his eye and he stops to grab a few. He meant to get some when he bought birdseed in town but it slipped his mind. Silver waits patiently in line, nearly lulled to sleep when the chatter melted into background noise.

"How much do you cost?"

He startles himself awake. That voice was so loud and begging for attention! Begging to be funny. Dredges of sleepiness disappeared with every blink; Silver's brow furrowed when lines upon lines of price stickers came into view. Who the hell was asking about the price of something when it was posted all over the store?! Sam was quite diligent in that; he would never leave you guessing!

Silver finds himself very awake when he realizes you're being accosted by this nonsense. He doesn't know if you look more mad or upset but the guy is clearly waiting for you to feed into something you don't want. Something in him burns and Silver finds himself clutching the handle of the basket so hard it almost cracks.

He stomps up to the man, his aurora borealis eyes boring holes into him. "Considering how you'll pay for the lack of consideration and insolence?" Silver asks him. He sets the basket down and crosses his arms.

He's prepared to roll up his sleeves and start swinging. Lilia would approve, he's sure.

"Lack of consideration?" the guy guffaws, "What do you mean--"

"Look around you! Who likes this? Who wants this? They don't!" Silver jerks his head to you, "And they don't!" he throws an arm out to the people behind him. The guy starts to look at different faces and Silver knows when his shoulders slump, he's won. Satisfied but still a little pissed, Silver goes to the back of the line and watches the man like a hawk to make sure he leaves.

"My hero!" you tease when he finally makes it up to you. Silver can only blush.

-----

Sebek didn't really see the point in Valentine's Day because you don't need a dedicated day to care for people. You also don't need to tell them, just show them! He's not quite disgusted at the amount of candy and sweets he sees but he doesn't know how to feel about it. It reminds him of all the times his father gave him candy and sweets unprompted. He didn't not appreciate it but he thought it was a little underhanded that his father was a dentist handing out sweets.

Who wants soft things, anyways? They need to make crunchy Valentine's candy! He finds candy bracelets and his mouth waters a little, imagining the sweetness and the crunch. It was about the only tolerable thing in this store. The rest of it was an infestation of pink and red and cute.

Gross.

He weeds through bad puns and tacky cards until he finds one for his mother and father. Not too sappy but not cold, either. Sufficient. The attempt to find Malleus a decent, non-bedazzled pen was almost futile but he thinks his Lord will like it for letters to Queen Maleficia. Grandfather Baur gets snacks these humans might find a little tough but the crocodilian fae will like the chew and challenge.

Silver was last on his list. Sebek tried to control the disgust on his face as he looked at all manner of pillows---fluffy ones, pink ones, fuzzy ones, soft wispy ones, ones with happy faces on them--on the aisle. Against his better judgement, he began stretching and squeezing them. Being half fae, it was drilled into him not to be a poor gift-giver.

And if he had to stand near pink, fluffy, glittery pillows he wasn't going to half-ass this. As he flipped them and patted them, Sebek was sorely wishing he could've found something while he was in town. Lilia and Malleus came so easily!

WHY MUST SILVER BE A PAIN? DUMB HUMAN!

You know you don't mean that, Sebek thought to himself, frowning a bit as he tested what must've been the twentieth pillow. Confident with his choice but disappointed that it was a pink cloud pillow, he tries not to sulk as he gets in line. He snaps to alertness when he hears the idiot human ask how much do you cost.

He can hear you trying to steer the conversation back to checking out and the guy says 'yeah, I'm checking something out' and Sebek is done.

"YOU ARE INTOLERABLE AND THAT IS INAPPROPRIATE!" he shouts at the man, pointing a finger at him.

There is a pause. The man looks down at his basket. "I'm not taking that from a guy with a pink pillow." he snorts.

Something in Sebek snaps. He takes said pink pillow and closes the space before the guy can put his hands up.

"SAM! SAM?" you call out as feathers explode and start raining everywhere. IT'S A PILLOW!

SAM DOESN'T BUY CHEAP STUFF! HOW DID IT BUST?!

You watch as Sebek effortlessly dodges every sloppy punch, pillow bunched angrily in his fist. The guy's already been smacked in the face, the stomach, just about everywhere one could think to aim a pillow. It lands solidly and you're not sure if it's because of the feathers bunched in what's left of the pillow or how hard Sebek is swinging. All of a sudden, the pillow is abandoned and they're grappling.

Sebek has the upper hand in this, too. It's not really a contest when he can wrap around him, slip under him, and fold him up like a lawn chair. He lets the guy flail in his arms, knees pinned to his chest, and drops him unceremoniously. The guy tries to take Sebek down at the knees and he's unfazed. Sebek goes dead weight on the man, falling unapologetically and knocking the air out of him.

The man is stunned and Sebek picks him up in one arm like a limp toddler. He's muttering curses all the way to the door, lobbing the man out like a sack of potatoes. No one moves as he disappears between the shelf and reemerges with a new pink cloud pillow.

Sam walks out to the sight of Sebek AND HIS FLOOR absolutely LITTERED with feathers. Surprisingly, he's not angry. Sebek is allowed to check out on the condition that he helps you sweep. It wasn't your fault, of course, but you're currently on the clock. He waits to the side, cheeks dusted pink, until you hand him a broom.

"Thanks for that," you smile.

"Say nothing, human!" Sebek stares at the floor, sweeping so hard he cracks the broom handle. Sam just sighs and gets another one from the back.

[ganondoodle]

can you tell us more ab shargon’s kids?? :0

(sorry for the ... very rough sketch and probably unreadable text, struggeling alot with art atm ... still ..)

Thank you for asking!

Shargon has two young children, Jyothi and Tyura (forgive the weird names, made them when i was young and they are too ingrained now to change ..)

(Shargon is a single parent; demons do not have a gender/only one, all of them have the ability to bear children with an organ that sits right beneath the demonic heart, they also do not need a partner, they can just decide to have a child and trigger the process- while carrying they cannot shapeshift since an unborn demon cannot go along with that- genetics are usually not a problem since demons generally draw from a huge gene pool dating back eons; if they have a partner they will have to exchange some heartblood for the child to be a mix of both; growing a child is very energy draining and when carrying its not unusual for a demon to resort to consuming food, which they typically dont need to do; maintaining a certain energy level is very important since otherwise the risk of deformities in the child increases alot; a newborn demon (birth occurs through the mouth) has a few baby teeth with which to bite its parent/caretaker and feed on their demonic blood, it is not a requirement but many do since it accelerates their growth and can even out energy imbalances)

Jyothi, comparable to a 13 year old human, is a rather healthy young demon with alot of skill using elemental magic (wind in her case), which is why shes being taught by Lord Eadrya; Eadrya wants Shargon dead and regularly attacks him and although both of his children inherited his unnatural and hated/feared eye color, Jyothi stood up to Eadrya not knowing who they were at the time (and thus not their status and reputation) since Shargon lives extremely isolated- and even challenged them to a fight showing so much character and skill that Eadrya saw past her heritage and offered to teach her

The two get along well and she often sneaks away to find them bc she is so eager to learn and spend time with such a powerful and careless demon that everyone respects ... unlike her parent, who is weak, riddled with anxiety and hated by everyone, she still loves him of course, but the more time she spends away the more she adopts the way the other demons think and speak of Shargon

Shargon hates that she goes to them so much, mostly bc he is afraid they, and especially Eadrya, will hurt her or stop her from returning home, even with her special status bc of her talents, she still is his child after all; he does not and could not force her to not go though (a benefit is that she has been the only one besides Thor (Eadryas best friend) able to stop Eadrya from literally killing Shargon, as much as they are horrible to him, they do care alot for her)

(Jyothi has only started to grow her horns and her markings and colors will shift alot as she grows, as is typical for young demons)

Tyura, comparable to a 6 year old human, is much more like Shargon himself, very fearful and skitters away if theres anything they are unsure of, they are of the same elemental type as Shargon (lightning) but thus far has never used it beyond weak defensive shocks; they are also mute and have a deformed left hand likely bc Shargon was attacked and hunted for a long time while carrying them, thus not able to provide a stable energy level the other demons know of them but any attempt to get close to them has been prevented either by Shargon himself or .. Tyura fleeing and hiding (their body structure is also rather similar, the round shape is largely just fluffy feathers)

when Shargon is in the human world his children tend to stay with the only other demon he can trust (Ceryrion, an earth elemental and the chillest guy you can imagine), they dont like him much but love children and will happily go about their day while a little Tyura clings onto their back (though Tyura will absolutely dive back to Shargon whenever they notice his presence) both kids have been to the human world before but since it is very uncomfortable to be in as a demon he has only done so for them to meet Mori (Shargons human friend that lives .. illegally .. at the gates to the demon world) and avoided bringing them there otherwise

the time he is away has notably increased alot after accepting the deal with Zaphira (being her bodyguard .... 24 hours a day .. granted she did not know he had children, and also didnt know anything about demons but that she could use him to solve her problems)

here i go rambling again, i hope that gave you a bit of an idea of them ;O;

[daryascurse]

ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴏɪꜱᴏɴ ɢʀᴏᴡꜱ ᴀᴛ ᴄʜʀɪꜱᴛᴍᴀꜱ

“Deadly to eat.” His voice is smooth velvet. “Isn’t that funny? Humans saw a parasite that can kill, and decided to call it romantic.”

“Only if you eat it, then,” you say. “Something harmless pretending to be dangerous.”

“Or something dangerous, pretending to be harmless.”

SUKUNA x READER | 3.3k | ao3 | ᴀꜰᴀʙ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ, ɴᴏɴɢᴇɴᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴘʀᴏɴᴏᴜɴꜱ, ᴍɪʟᴅ ᴘᴏꜱꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴠᴇɴᴇꜱꜱ, ʙᴇɢɢɪɴɢ ʙᴊ/ ᴅᴇᴇᴘᴛʜʀᴏᴀᴛɪɴɢ, ɴɪᴘᴘʟᴇ ᴘʟᴀʏ, ꜱᴘᴀɴᴋɪɴɢ, ꜰɪɴɢᴇʀɪɴɢ, ᴄᴜᴍ, ᴄʀᴇᴀᴍᴘɪᴇ

“You have to kiss under mistletoe,” says the little girl who materialized at your elbow. “That’s the rule.”

You take a step backwards, startled, and she just beams up at you. “Well, look.”

“Careful,” Sukuna mutters as you almost tread on his toes, and the child scowls at his low tone. Her mother swoops in and grabs her forearm, tugging the girl down the snow-dusted street with apologies tossed your way. They make their way through the thinning crowds, the streetlights throttled with green cords and illuminating bulbs.

You glance up. A cluster of frostbitten mistletoe dangles, knotted just over your head where someone’s tied it off a lamppost’s iron branch.

Sukuna’s hand is at the small of your back as you lift your fingers to touch the shriveled plant. “Careful,” he says again. “It’s poisonous.”

“Hmm?”

“Mistletoe,” Sukuna says, and you pinch the ribbon instead as you bring it closer for inspection. It’s half-black with rot and frost. The red berries glimmer, weakly reflecting the streetlight around. It’s on its last legs of life as the holiday season peaks, just a dead plant tied together with fraying ribbon.

“Poisonous?”

He lifts his hand as well, cupping the berries in his palm. “Deadly to eat.” His voice is smooth velvet. “Isn’t that funny? Humans saw a parasite that can kill, and decided to call it romantic.”

“Only if you eat it, then,” you say. “Something harmless pretending to be dangerous.”

“Or something dangerous, pretending to be harmless.”

His breath is hot in your ear and the tableau is frozen a moment; a hand at your spine, the turn of your shoulder warm against his chest, your outstretched arms embracing the same plant. You tilt your nose closer to his face.

“A weed,” Sukuna says, and suddenly snaps the ribbon clean from the iron post. "It's also called the thief of the tree."

You turn, your face burning, and can’t watch him fling the mistletoe down the street. But he offers you an elbow as you walk towards the small square at the end of the street. Blinding lights take on proper shape as you approach. Fenced trees, white with snow and dead under a layer of frost, circle the plaza. They sparkle with the same golden and green lights threaded up the trunks and through the branches. The footpath is lined with electric, brilliantly scarlet poinsettias that cast an artificially red glow along the ground. Every few minutes, the colors ripple and change hues, eliciting sounds of delight from the children in the crowd.

“Beautiful,” you hear a woman breathe to another.

And he, Sukuna, he is beautiful too, his chin buried in the cowl of his dark coat, his narrowed eyes shining like the ornaments around you. You duck your face away in a bashful smile. The warmth of his thick coat pushes into you. Streetlamps pepper your way with light, and you shiver, even with Sukuna’s body heat snug and welcome against you.

Chirp!

The winter serenity is broken by the phone beeping in your pocket.

You try to draw your arm away from Sukuna to get to it, but he clamps his elbow closer to yours with a bullish look ahead. You use your other hand to awkwardly reach across.

“Oh,” you say as you read the message. “The girls – they want to meet up a little earlier for drinks.”

“You need to get the train now?”

Sukuna’s looking straight ahead.

“No, not yet,” you say, but frown when you slip your phone away again. “I think I left my headphones at yours, though.”

Sukuna rubs the tip of his nose with his free hand, and slides it back into his pocket. You can’t read the flash in his eyes. “We’re not far.”

“I know,” you say, and give a wistful look to the romantic lights around you. “I’m sorry to leave early…”

He grunts, a response you can’t quite decipher. But he turns and leads you from the square. Slowly, with each new block, the illuminations and lights drape away to bare night streets.

It’s hot in the lobby of his building. Sukuna’s bicep flexes in release when he slides your body from his arm to push the door open and lead you to the elevator.

His boots are off. You’re shimmying free from your shoes in his foyer when he turns. He pulls his hand from his pocket and lifts it over your eyes, backing you against his closed door; the stolen mistletoe and ragged black ribbon threaded between his fingers.

“Now what did that brat say, you have to kiss underneath this?”

Sukuna dangles the mistletoe, lifting his arm. You feel the weight of your head in a nod.

“But what if I want more than a kiss?”

Your eyes skim, up to the pinch of the mistletoe in his hand, before coming back down to meet his gaze. Sukuna smirks.

His lips are on yours before you can even lean into his chest. His mouth is cold to the touch. Your fingers grab the front of his coat and his free hand slides to the small of your back, drawing you closer. His fingers are impatient and they curve to pluck under lengths of fabric, to curve his hold to your body. You breathe shakily through your nose when he breaks the kiss.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Sukuna says with a thin smile. He looks at the mistletoe, back down at you. “What else can I make you do with this?”

Your elbows are resting on his chest, your grip still against the lapels of his coat. Sukuna’s fingers push at you.

“I asked, what if I want more?”

“I’ll give it to you,” you say, your breath coming quick and jagged. Your tongue feels heavy in your mouth without his own.

“Good answer,” Sukuna says. His voice is throaty, his lips spreading in a grin. The next kiss is encompassing, his arms on you, around you, to guide an entwined walk from the foyer. Light spills from the entry to the dark room. Your arms wrestle his coat free. He tosses the mistletoe somewhere down to the couch, and his hands move to his pants as your own jacket slips from your shoulders.

“Come here.”

Sukuna lifts his hips to let his pants kick down. He sits wide on the sofa, and you drop to your knees. He strokes his cock lightly in one hand, unbuttoning his shirt slowly, lazily with the other. His eyes fall down as you sit between his spread thighs.

“I want you to suck on it,” he says.

His hand is on yours to control your motions when you lean forward; back up, down, up again. He stiffens under your touch and the tip glistens as your thumb slides messily in circles. Sukuna lets go with a groan coming from his throat.

You guide him to your lips and he moans again, the sound hitching in response. The taste of him waters your mouth. He hits the back of your throat and you move back up with a slight gag.

“Mmm- ”

“That’s it, that’s it.”

Your mouth adds pressure to the rhythm, your tongue stroking along the underside of his cock until you’re sucking him, harder, harder, before gasping. Sukuna is hard and full when you put him back in your mouth. Saliva gathers, drools out over him.

“Fuck…”

You force your eyes up to see Sukuna’s lids are closed, mouth agape with elbows slung over the back of the couch. His chest rises and falls rapidly, half-bare. Slight groans slip from his lips.

As if he can feel the plead of your stare, Sukuna’s hands drop to the back of your head. His cock is ribbing over you, pushing to the back of your throat with each urge of his hand. He’s fucking your mouth more than you’re sucking him off now, his hips thrusting shallowly upwards with no mind to your struggle. Your hands fumble clumsy and blind to smear your saliva down.

Tears are beading involuntarily, leaking from your eyes as he moves you faster and faster over him. There’s that long, hard vein – and your tongue finds it, runs over it again and again.

“Oh – ”

The sound comes with an anguished force from him. The hands are pushing back now, and you lean away panting for breath. You wipe your lips with the back of your hand.

Sukuna lets out a groan like a growl, fumbling with the last buttons of his shirt. His eyes are wild on you. He tears the sleeves from his arms and he pulls you to his lap with rough hands. His mouth returns to you again, tasting his suggestion with a reverence, and the hands are busy to help you shed the layers from your own skin.

“You didn’t need mistletoe for that,” you whisper, your lip twitching in a half smile between kisses. Your nails card through his hair again, raking lower and lower, and then a hand to balance on his shoulder.

He urges your hips up a moment and your panties are off with the measured patience of someone who restrained himself from ripping the fabric from you. “Careful.”

“Why – oh – ” and as he steadies your knees over his thighs, you curl your fingers into hair with a gasp – “do you keep saying that?”

The question stutters out of you as his hands ride up around your ribs.

“Because you think everything is harmless until it bites you.”

Sukuna kisses your neck, your collarbone, down your breast where your skin pebbles cold.

“A weed… a kiss… a man.”

He bites then, pulling your nipple between his teeth with a pinch that makes you squeal. The words dissolve on your tongue.

There’s nothing slow or gentle to help slow your eager heartbeat. Sukuna dances his tongue until your nipple peaks, one hand coming to brace the small of your back to balance you, really keep you at him this time. He moves to the other with a fervor, saliva sparkling across your skin as you shake over him.

His other hand pushes into you, his finger seeking between your folds and urging your hips into position with each suggestive turn of his wrist. His finger finds your clit and begins to rub.

“Ohh – ”

It lowers you in a relentless rocking to where his cock waits, hard at the back of your thigh. The smoothness of it makes you whimper. Your muscles are tensing, relaxing when you realize you’ve been holding yourself steady for him; but then you tense again in a desperate reach for anything close to friction.

You curl your fingers into his shoulder to keep the balance as you reach with your other hand anxiously, trembling. His cock is still wet with your mouth.

“Impatient,” Sukuna murmurs.

“Maybe I should hang the mistletoe over your head,” you say, trying to angle him to you.

“You want more than a kiss from me?” His hand at your back lowers, and you’re leaning against the strong muscle of his forearm for a moment as he slaps your ass – cheekily, but with enough of a smart to make you yelp. “Didn’t you have somewhere to be soon?”

“Ah- ”

You’d forgotten, with his other hand now running a teasing finger along you to coax out the slick that opens you to him.

Sukuna’s lip curls at that, at the vacancy settled over your eyes, and he slides into you easily. From above like this, he’s pushed up so deep –

“- so d-deep…”

You’re stuttering, clutching to his shoulders with both hands now. Your thighs are clenched as you sink onto him.

“Move your hips.”

There’s an edge of impatience in his voice, choked with something thicker. Sukuna’s hands are there now, and he lets his palms run gentle massaging circles before slapping your ass with both hands now. It stings, and you bark out another cry. You push your hips back in whimpering response and spread your legs as best as you can to let your thighs and knees work and support the movements. But this dropping pushes him further inside you, and you let out another whine.

“Oh…”

“Better.”

He spanks you again as you move. His cock slides out of you a moment, back in, as you build your own unsteady rhythm. It’s unsteady because every deep, hard stroke inside makes you shake. When he thrusts his hips back up into you with a grunt, the force is so strong that your nails bite into his skin to keep you up. Sukuna moves his hands again at that and lock around your wrists.

You look down between the bars of your arms. Below your chest, his tense abdomen, his cock slides up into your body split and stretched against his width. It makes you shake just to see it, as if it defies reality to comprehend what it is you feel. You close your eyes and tilt your head back dizzyingly, shifting your hips.

“Mm… hmm… it feels so good…”

It’s easier, the more he’s in you, to rock your hips back and forth. You need to feed that desperate desire for friction, even if it grinds you raw. You’re able to move faster now, but Sukuna is still stronger, so much stronger that every stroke up into you stutters the rhythm.

He’s picking up the pace again in a way you can’t keep up with, and he’s groaning your name wildly.

“Feels – good?”

“Yes…”

“You’re… going to… leave my cum inside your cunt,” Sukuna says, his voice a low hiss, strained as he thrusts erratically, ecstatically, up inside you. His grip tightens on your wrists. “All night. With your friends. Let it sink … into your panties… all night.”

You whimper, and it makes your body shudder to hear those words rasp from his lips, wet and red with your kisses. Your back arches and you’re riding him with some new fire in you, even as your thighs tremble and your hips begin to ache.

Sukuna’s fingers are digging into your forearms, hard enough to promise a Morse code of bruises for you to read in the morning. His grip seizes; he releases to grab desperately at your hips again.

“Oh – ”

And Sukuna comes, hot and thick and roaring your name. Your inner muscles compress with clenching over his cock; the punching, dull ache behind your belly button fluttering so tantalizingly close to an orgasm as he climaxes in you. It shoots through and you moan, lifting a hand to clutch at yourself at the sensation – at your cheek, at your throat, squirming at the lewd sense of him.

Sukuna pants. His breath is hot and short as he finishes. He lets go of you, his palms giving a few, sweaty pats. His hips push back and dip into the couch and his cock begins to slide out of you with a slickness.

“Oh – “ you say, and you whimper, grabbing at him again. “Please – please not yet – I’m so close – ”

“Please?”

Sukuna looks up at you through his eyelashes, and just barely quirks his brow up. “Greedy,” he says. He makes a tongue clicking sound of mock disappointment, and pushes up and stays inside you, still heavy and still thick and warm. “Then you do the work.”

You’re so close, torturingly close, and his cool, dismissive gaze mixed with the heat of his words is almost enough to push you over the edge. You drag your shaking hands down from Sukuna’s shoulders, with skin marked with the crescent moons of your fingernails, down over his chest where his heartbeat betrays the nonchalance in his eyes.

“I want to see you touch yourself,” Sukuna says.

You push your hands against yourself. His grip has come comfortable on your hips, the strength of his wrists keeping you in balance. One of your hands hovers down, the heat of your joined bodies still radiating, the other right below your stomach. You push, gingerly, and a moan slips from you at where his cock sits within you.

When you start to force your thighs back to strength, there’s a sense of pure cream coming from you. You look down and could freeze at the sight – his cum is beginning to practically drool out of your spread folds. You rock your hips, slowly at first, and clumsy. Your body is aching for more and you begin to touch yourself, watching the grace of your fingers and feeling your clit slide beneath your touch. You look back up at Sukuna.

He’s watching beneath heavily lidded eyes, and he’s holding his jaw tight and your hips loose. True to his word – you do the work.

But how long will his stubborn pride win over his desire? His breath is coming faster and faster. You press your hand over your belly and let out a louder whimper for effect.

“Oh… Sukuna…”

No, he can’t let you keep control for long. His left hand moves back and he gives another spanking, a sharp one that makes your leg muscles clench across his body, and you yelp again. “Oh!”

“Yes,” he says.

You whine and press your finger flat against yourself. He’s moving his hips now, this time in a frenzy that makes your blood spin at how you can feel him beneath your belly. You have to drop that hand, to brace yourself for support on the couch, and then you cry out even louder when a hand shoves onto yours between your bodies. Sukuna uses your finger, manipulated under his, to push on your clit, dancing a firm pressure on and off your body.

“Come for me,” he says, his voice raspy. “Come on my cock.”

You groan, turning your head with a fevered madness next to his. “Say it again,” you breathe. “Please, say it again.”

The aching place that he pushes at is tightening.

“Please, Sukuna.”

“Do – what you’re told – and – come.”

His voice is dark and rough, as probing and insistent as his fingers. You let out a shuddering cry as it finally takes you to climax. Your orgasm pulses, throbbing and ebbing as it washes over you. He groans, fat and full within you.

“Oh,” you moan, your face in the crook of his neck.

He lets go of you, his hands sliding away.

With his grip released and offering no resistance, you lean back, bracing your arms against the couch as you climb off his lap.

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

Either perfectly timed, or simply within your awareness for the first time, your phone begins to sing.

“Oh,” you say again, and press your hand to your forehead. “Oh, shit. I’m going to be so late now.”

You feel sore and weak, your skin hot and sticky between your thighs. Sukuna has gleams of silver across his legs in the darkness.

“Oops,” Sukuna says in a nasty voice that offers no true apology.

He sits up, and his large fingers encircle your hand as you lean forward to fish for your phone amongst the litter of clothes.

“I meant it,” he says evenly.

“What?”

“Go see your friends. Have fun. Get all dolled up. But I want you to put those panties back on. I want you to feel that, rubbing against you and staining you the rest of the evening. I want you to smell me under your clothes. I want you filthy and mine before the whole city.”

You turn your knees towards him, your breath coming from your mouth. Sukuna reaches next to him, and lifts the mistletoe from the couch over your head once more. His eyes shine in the darkness.

“Give me another kiss.”

A/N: this is admittedly a rework/ edit from a fic i did on my old account with chrollo. merry christmas!!

[clare-875]

Until The End (Levi x Reader)- Chapter 35

[The beginning of the End]

_____ A/N: Posted on Wattpad (@CLARE_875) but also decided to post here :)

Summary: "You can push me away, but I will still fight by you, and I will still follow you… until the end."

The ever-so-stoic Levi Ackerman has only ever known the terrors that living in a cruel world could bring. This all changed one fateful day when he encountered [y/n]; a girl renowned for her looks and abnormal speed. As they escape the confines of the Underground together, they soon discover that freedom doesn't come easy in a world full of Titans. As they rise through the ranks, [y/n] becomes known as "Humanity's Angel", a beacon of hope to humanity as she melts the walls Levi had built around his heart. However, she has her secrets too, and a dark past that might just threaten to pull them apart.

The storyline and characters of Attack on Titan do NOT belong to me, but all to Hajime Isayama; however, I do own this story, and all that occurs disparate to that storyline.

[Series Masterlist] [Chapter Thirty-Four] <--> [Chapter Thirty-Six] _____

"Now then... Let's come up with a plan." Your tired eyes look up to Armin who stands before you all. Your squad members have started to settle, sitting into the available seats on the aircraft, heavy emotion in the air, but knowing you had to push it aside and move on... as always. Armin continues, grabbing a piece of chalk and drawing on the wooden floor of the airship. "Pieck, Captain [y/n], Captain Levi, is this roughly the shape of the Founding Titan?" You had to be honest, you hadn't had much of a glimpse of it, only seen a faint outline in the distance but you recognised it. Eren's founding Titan was massive, its head attached to a large skeletal body that was larger than even the Colossal Titan. The drawing Armin had created depicted it well, a massive spine and bone-like structures that were attached to it like ribs. "Yes, though I didn't get a great look at it." You reply, as Pieck also nods before voicing the same thoughts.

"Basically, it's a humongous bundle of bones that moves like an insect," Levi says from next to you, voice dull but blunt. "If it's like a normal Titan, Eren would be in the neck near the head, but given the War Hammer's abilities, that's not guaranteed," you add, remembering the ability the Titan had to alter the location of its holder from its nape. "In other words, we don't know which part Eren is in." Armin finishes your line of thought as he looks down at his drawing, deep in thought. "Even if we don't know where he is, we can blast the whole thing away," Pieck mutters as she leans further forward. "The same way you annihilated Libero's port... with the Colossal Titan." A long silence reaches the inside of the airship as your squad members along with Reiner look on at the tense conversation.

"That certainly would be the most effective method." Armin voices his agreement, only hesitating slightly, as Mikasa lets out a gasp at the proclamation, no doubt because it put Eren's life in danger. Armin quickly continues, however, knowing what his words imply. "But we'll leave that for after we've exhausted our chance to talk. If there's still no other way to stop Eren, that's our last resort." He turns to Mikasa who nods sullenly but maintains a spark of hope in her eyes that it wouldn't come to that. "It's great to have a last resort and all," Levi speaks up once more, tone maintaining his sharp front, "but isn't Eren controlling the Founder through Zeke? Won't the rumbling stop if we kill Zeke first?" Armin looks up, surprise catching onto his face as though in wonder he hadn't thought of that before. "True. That might work!"

"There's no definite proof, but Hange thought it would." Levi finishes his ramblings with the last voice of credit to the Commander who was no longer with us. "But if we don't know Zeke's location either..." Pieck starts contemplating the depths of the plans you all try to build, only to be interrupted by Levi once more. "We'll just have to find that shithead, the Beast, in those bones." There is a deep silence before Levi takes a breath in the quiet of the small airship. "I'll take Zeke out," you turn to him and are surprised to see his gaze is on you all. "Help me do it." Everyone looks to Levi, the ever-so-stoic Captain, asking for help. Their gazes brim with determination, and Jean is the one who speaks for your subordinates. "Of course. We killed many friends and comrades to get this thing in the sky. We can't allow that slaughter to have been for nothing. Everything is to stop the rumbling. I'll do whatever it takes."

"Jean..." Reiner looks to Jean, sentiment clouding his eyes as Connie also speaks up. "I shot Samuel and Daz and sliced up other people I knew. I got called a traitor as I did so, all the while telling myself it was to save the world." Connie then sits up from where he is slouched, burdened eyes looking to Reiner who meets his troubled gaze. "Hey, Reiner. It was agonizing for you, Bertholdt and Annie too, wasn't it?" Reiner's face contorts into dire nostalgia, as he lifts his hand as though reminiscing all it had done. "I can't even make up for the sins I committed anymore," he replies, "even if we save what remains of humanity, I doubt I'll ever forgive myself." Your squad member's eyes look to the floor of the airship at his words, Connie's eyes filling with tears and his face contorting into one that looks like regret. But he looks up once more when Reiner leans forward and clasps his hand onto his shoulder.

"So... Well, let's at least save what remains of humanity." Connie grits his teeth as he looks at his prior comrade and friend turned traitor and enemy turned ally once more, before his face morphs into a contrite smile. "You're right, Reiner," Connie puts a hand atop the one that touches his shoulder, "we still gotta do what we can." Stillness encompasses you in the wake of voiced burdens before Jean speaks up from where he sits opposite you. "That's right. We're the same, Reiner." Said man looks at Jean, eyes widening at his next words. "I never had any right to judge you. I became a murderer to save others." Reiner turns away before speaking up once more. "You know... On the night of the raid on Liberio, Eren said the same thing to me. I feel like I understand some of what's going on in Eren's head. Could it be Eren wants us to stop him?" Everyone looks to Reiner once more, but this time Mikasa speaks up, curiosity filling her stare.

"I mean, it's just a thought that occurred to me." Reiner merely replies before Armin looks down, now expressing his thoughts. "Something's been bothering me this whole time. Eren has the power to affect all Titans and Eldians. And yet our ability to use our Titan powers remains unchanged." Pieck’s eyes widen, "you mean, Eren is purposely giving us free rein?" Armin continues looking to the ground but replies all the same. "Exactly. He's letting us act freely. As if to test how we respond to what he's doing." Mikasa turns to him, concern on her face. "Why? We might succeed in stopping the rumbling," she asks, but Reiner now voiced his thoughts at the possibility of such a fact. "It has to be agonizing for him, too. Committing mass murder... that's not a burden you can just bear. If it was me, I'd be desperate to leave the Founder's power with someone else. And if that wasn't possible, I'd want someone... to end it."

Before anyone can retort once more, you feel yourself slipping. You stand, trying to hold your balance, but when you look around you realise that you are once in a strange land. Surrounding and above you is the starry sky, there is sand that is below you, and in the distance, there is a large and blinding white light. You are no longer on the airship. "What, was he listening in?" You hear Levi mutter from next to you darkly, as you wonder the same thing, now in the lands you know Eren uses to communicate to you Eldians. Knowing this your squad waste no time.

It is Armin who starts, yelling into the vast lands that surround you shouting that the mass murder can come to an end and that there is no need for massacre, that no one would dare touch Paradis for centuries and that it was our fault for pushing him into starting the rumbling. Jean and Connie join in, forgiving him of what happened to Sasha, seeing he was hurting too, and telling him that we can sort it out together. Mikasa shouts saying she wishes to bear his burdens with him, and even Levi talks irritably to the wind, threatening and calling for the man to answer. Several long moments of silence pass after the incessant shouting, but all you do is watch speechlessly until you hear the familiar and yet so foreign voice reach you all.

The rumbling will not stop. Nor will I leave Paradis Island's future to chance. I will keep moving forward.

You all freeze under the weight of his words until Levi points to the bright white light in the distance, a small figure standing before it. "Look." In an instant, your squad member starts running towards the figure, hoping it is him... that it's Eren. From the distance, it looks like a child and you hear the voices of your squad reach the air once more.

"Huh?! Ain't that a kid?!"

"Yeah, but that's Eren!"

"Eren!"

"Why refuse, Eren!"

"You think you can't rely on us?"

"Why did you leave us able to use our Titan powers?"

"We can talk for as long as we want here right?"

"Talk to us. We've always been together. Please don't go any farther away!"

"Eren!"

In order to obtain freedom, I will take freedom from the world. But I will not take anything from any of you. You all have freedom

Your squad members run only to come back to you, Pieck, Reiner and Levi who had been still the whole time from the opposite direction.

You are free to protect the world's freedom. And I am free to keep moving forward. As long as we each hold unbending convictions, a clash is inevitable. There is but one thing for us to do. Fight.

"But..." Armin's gaze is full of dread and trepidation as he listens to Eren's words. "Then... why did you call us here?"

To discuss the fact that there's no need to have a discussion. If you wish to stop me, make me draw my last breath. You have my freedom.

Your heart accelerates, breath uneven. The white light in the distance seems to grow more and more, blinding your vision. You feel yourself falling and yet being so still at the same time, and you jump, suddenly finding yourself back on the airship. You hear Onyankopon call out to you all in sudden worry as you all suddenly jump at the same time. You turn to Levi who looks at your state in concern but you shake your head, dazed but alright. There is a heaviness in the room that dictates the air but Reiner is the first to speak, a dark look upon his face. "It looks like I was right," he mutters grimly before Jean speaks up, an arm sprawled across his face. "So there's no way to work this out?" You take in a deep breath as Levi speaks up from next to you. "Looks like we aren't gonna solve this by talking. What now... Commander?"

.....

"Dammit! We're running on fumes!" Onyankopon yells out from where he steers the plane, now having expended the last drops of fuel available to the aircraft. You fight to keep steady on your heat, geared up and Thunder Spears now ready in your grasp. The airship is unstable moving with heavy turbulence and you were more likely falling than flying. "Get ready to jump!" Onyankopon calls out as Jean retorts quickly. "Onyankopon, you get over here, too!" But the man turns from the Captain's seat, face fierce as he turns to you all. "Not yet! I'll keep going till we're over the Founder! Afterwards, I'll make an emergency landing! So make sure you land on the Founding Titan! Got that!" But suddenly you all flinch as Onyankopon steers the aircraft roughly to the side. "That bastard's down there. That damned beast!" Sure enough, upon the skeletal body of the Founding Titan, there is the Beast Titan in a ghostly colour, throwing debris at us.

"That saves us the trouble of finding it!" You yell out in gritted teeth as you try to steady yourself while Armin nods. "Target the Beast Titan! Put all your power into taking him out! Let's stop the rumbling!" Onyankopon accelerates towards the Founding Titan diving downwards whilst simultaneously dodging whatever the Beast Titan throws away. As the airship levels out along the spine of the Founding Titan, that is when he yells out the confirmation that it is time to go. "Now!" You meet eyes with Levi once last time before Armin throws open the door to the flying ship, and you're diving. You attach to the bones upon the large skeletal figure, avoiding the obstacles of the Beast Titan and turning expertly at a high pace now neck and neck with Levi's speed as you approach the Beast. A bright glow suddenly envelops your surroundings as Reiner transforms, the familiar figure of the Armoured Titan appearing from within the sudden bright light.

Reiner is successful in grabbing onto the Beast Titan as he retches is free from where the ghostly Titan had been attached to the skeleton tumbling with it as it rolls down the Founding Titan heavily. You stop, attaching to a massive skeleton increment on the Founding Titan, as another gold light fills the air and Pieck transforms into the Cart Titan, explosives that had lined the airship now carried on her back. The aircraft that Onyankopon still mans lifts from where it moved over the skeleton into the air as you see it travel far into the distance. However, with the lack of fuel, you also see the propellers of the vehicle come to a stop, and you can only hope he can make a landing somehow. You hear the voice of Armin next to you when you land next to Levi on the Founding Titan's spine. "Eren. I have another question to ask you, once we drag you out of there... In what way are you free?"

.....

Reiner is in front of you, the Beast Titan, or what you had thought was the Beast Titan under his grasp. However, it turned out that the Titan not only looked like a ghost but that it was one. "I guess killing some empty husk, isn't gonna do anything..." Levi mutters from next to you as your squad members also start to surround you all, crowding around the skeletal remains of the Beast Titan which was merely a puppet now lifeless without its strings. "As I feared, Zeke's using the same method as the War Hammer Titan to hide himself," Armin says from where he stands on the Armoured Titan. "You mean we have to find one tiny body in this huge mass of bones?" Jean yells out, outlining a clearly impossible task. "There ain't no way! We gotta face up to reality! Armin!" Armin interrupts his incessant shouting gritting his teeth, "I know!" Jean falls silent as Armin continues.

"In one minute, I'm blasting this area away. Work with the Cart Titan to get clear! Eren knows this attack could be coming. I can't imagine this'll kill him! But if I blow these bones apart, we might figure out where Eren or Zeke is!" There is a silence that follows but you all merely yell out in confirmation before attaching to the Founding Titan's looming bones, flying so you are a good distance away. As you go along the large spine of the Titan, you can't help but notice the more ghostly Titan puppets that appear from the Founding Titan. Titans you have both seen and never seen before appear, mimicking their prior holders but with no presence of a person controlling them; an empty shell of what they represent. However, your attention is once more diverged when the voice of Mikasa yelling out Armin's name rings through your ears. You turn wide-eyed, just in time to see that a Titan has come from behind Armin, swallowing him whole, you freeze, but can do nothing as Titans have already started their descent. You watch as some of your squad members help Reiner fight some off, despite the threat of running out of Thunder Spears.

You grit your teeth in thought. Armin had already been captured by one of them and whisked away, all you knew was that he was okay, for if he was injured, he would simply transform into the Colossal Titan. His absence had however evidently caused great unease amongst your squad as it not only hindered the use of his explosive transformation but also caused the lack of a Commander. You and your squad now face innumerable threats, and the true power of the Founding Titan; the ability to resurrect past generations of Titans. You are outnumbered and overpowered. "We're no match for something like that!" Connie yells after you all discuss your observations with the other, but it is Pieck who responds, an untamed look in their Titan's eyes reflecting their words. "Exactly. So, we can't afford to be so easy-going with this. I'm not even friends with Eren, so..." Suddenly the Cart Titan is off running into the distance, the direction of where the Founding Titan's nape should be. "Hey! You're not gonna..." Connie shouts out but it's too late. Pieck bounds over the Founding Titan's immense spine, dodging Titans as she does so as you curse under your breath.

You watch her form move adeptly through the area before landing at her goal. She unravels the explosives she carried upon her back, instead wrapping it numerous times around the nape of the Founding Titan. You hear her gravelly voice reach the air through her Titan as she yells out, causing the fearful screams of Mikasa who yells out for her to stop. "No matter how you look at it, this is the first place to strike! I've only had one aim here!" Pieck ignores Mikasa who yells out to her to stop as she comes out of her Titan form to pull on the trigger of the explosive she has set around the Founding Titan's neck. "Begone, nightmare!" But just as she goes to pull the trigger she is stopped as a four-prong spear impales her. She freezes, blood seeping from her body and the Titan. It was a reborn Armoured Titan, the one that Eren had fought in Libero, and it held Pieck's form upon its weapon, though lifeless behind its eyes.

Unsure how to feel about Pieck's failure to cause the explosion, you have no time to react as another impending situation surrounds you. A Jaw Titan comes out of nowhere attacking Reiner who was momentarily distracted as he goes quickly to the defence. Jean then calls out to him from where he is attached along the Founder's spine. "Over here, Reiner!" He calls out, "Keep him still!" But as he goes to detach from the spine to assist Reiner, he doesn't notice another Jaw Titan leap from behind him in attack. Levi yells out to you in warning but you have no time to respond nor stop as you use all of your speed to flash over to him in a second. With a yell you knock him out of the way just before he is supposed to be eaten, landing harshly against the Founding Titan as you take the impact of Jean landing on you. You let out a groan at the harsh pain in your arm and back but also look to the boy in relief, at least able to save his early demise. "Captain!" He yells at you in concern, but Levi is who quickly approaches you, sharp worry in his eyes as he looks at you stumbling and hissing as you force yourself to stand.

"[y/n]!" he yells and you see the momentary fear that laced his expression. His hands tremble slightly as he goes to hold you by the shoulders, checking if you're still with him. "I'm fine," you say breathlessly, trying to ignore the pain you hope would subside quickly with your powers. "We've got to hurry; we're getting Armin back. That's the only way, or we die for nothing!" You say as you ready your gear once more, causing Levi to hesitate but nod. You all fly in the air, flying across space at a pace you had never even dreamed of trying before. "Let's go, Reiner!" You hear the voice of Connie reach the air as he also follows your attacks, laying waste to the ghostly Titans that await you.

You use your swords twisting in milliseconds and turning at unmatched speeds, cutting through Titans that cross your path. Levi follows and despite his injuries mimics his usual perilous movements, leaving no Titan standing after he is through with them. Reiner, Connie and Jean are close behind the both of you. Reiner rips through or charges through obstacles that come his way while Connie and Jean try to sparingly use the limited amount of Thunder Spears in their possession. Mikasa comes in from behind doing the same as she immaculately aims and kills pursuing Titans. You all make your way across the Founding Titan's spine, fighting to find any source of the presence of Armin. Your movements are sharp and your squad follows well, however, that is when you notice a looming shadow overhead causing you all to come to an abrupt stop. You freeze turning sharply and, your eyes widen at a familiar face coming from out of practically nowhere.

Bertholdt.

You see the massive form of the past holder approaching as everyone stands sullen in the disturbance. The Colossal Titan grasps Reiner within its hold easily as the Armoured Titan struggles against the massive grasp Bertholdt has on him. You look to the Titan, unease upon you and knowing the true extent of power this Titan beholds. You can't help but wonder if the consciousness of its past holder was truly absent. "Reiner!" You all call out, but even you can’t do anything when the Colossal Titan moves, bringing what's left of Reiner's body backwards and readying him your way.

Shit.

The impact of the explosion caused is massive. You can only dodge the debris by sheer will and speed, but you spot Levi who struggles in his escape, the weight of his injuries no doubt hindering his usual agility. You quickly go to him, grabbing onto your husband and attaching to the underside of the Founding Titan. You feel him lean heavily onto you as blood seeps from his mouth that he coughs out causing you to fall into a fit of worry. "Levi!" You say, trying to hold him up better and he forces himself to alleviate some of the weight he's pushed onto you, only to struggle in exhaustion. Some of his blood taints the clothing you wore but it doesn't bother you in the slightest next to Levi's struggling form. Your sharp eyes look around, as Levi catches his breath, safe in your grasp.

Connie hangs from the Founding Titan, barely conscious and only held up by his ODM gear that attaches itself stubbornly to the spine of the massive Titan. Jean is also in a similar position except he holds onto Reiner who escaped Bertholdt, ODM gear jammed just like Connie's. Mikasa is the only one who freely flies about the area, protecting Connie from an incoming Titan, trying to get him to wake up. "[y/n]" Levi groans through gritted teeth as your attention goes to him once again and you feel yourself swallow thickly at his fraught form amid the depths of war, wanting nothing more than to take him away from here. "I'm alright," he mutters, letting go of you and attaching to the Founding Titan using his ODM gear, you nod slowly as he looks to you determinedly, knowing now isn't the time to argue. You look up just in time to see a snake-like Titan now approach Connie, Mikasa yelling out his name and so you go to leave Levi to save him... well at least you try to.

Levi sees your intension of throwing yourself in the face of danger once more and grits his teeth, using his Ackerman strength he pushes forward just seconds before you do, flashing over to his subordinate and slicing through the Titan, only he's too slow. Your eyes widen in shock as you watch as Levi’s left leg is now in the Jaws of the same Titan. Your heart pounds at the blood that spills from his injury pushing yourself forward. "LEVI!!" Luckily Mikasa is there to slice through the remnants of the Titan as you fly swiftly across the expanse. You swing and in a flash grab onto Levi's falling form that descends down to where the rumbling awaits him just below. You hold him against your body as you attach to the spine of the Founding Titan pulling the two of you up, cursing his stubbornness as you feel tears prick your eyes in frustration.

"Levi!" You hold the man against you, barely conscious. He coughs up more blood, but Levi doesn't even have the strength to reassure you. You look to the distance, Jean struggling with holding onto Reiner, ODM gear still stuck in place. Connie looks up from where he is attached, dread masking his expression and Mikasa flies past you in apprehension. You look down at the man you love your eyes travelling down his body to his left leg that seems broken beyond repair, no doubt torn under the weight of the Titan's jaws. "This is why I wanted you safe," you brokenly utter, holding him closer as you observe the sorry state of your team. It was hard to fight when you were so concerned over Levi's life and he was so stubborn over worrying about yours. Your last slither of hope at any sense of victory starts to slip away, but then you hear it, the voice of a woman you were sure you left behind.

Annie.

She comes to you sitting by Gabi on a flying Titan, a net attached to its back which they hold onto. They go to Jean and Reiner first allowing them to drop onto the Titan, then Connie, then you and Levi. You feel slightly relieved as you drop down, detaching your ODM gear and holding onto the net tightly, Levi secured under your arm as he struggles to do the same. When Mikasa also gets onto the flying Titan it is then that it starts to pick up pace. It dodges the Titans that approach, swinging side to side before breaking through the endless bones that depict the Founding Titan's shape. It flies away from the Founding Titan into open space, allowing a moment to think, as you and your squad turn to Annie in shock... because no doubt this Titan was... Falco.

"Listen, I didn't think he'd really be able to fly, either," Annie starts to explain knowing the chain of thoughts we had by our stunned faces. "But then he actually did it, so what choice did I have but to come?" Reiner and Jean have yet to pick up their jaws as they stare wide-eyed as Annie continues her brief but blunt explanation. "Still, I'm glad I did." Reiner's attention then turns to the young girl next to Annie, sharp eyes now facing hers. "Gabi, why did you come here too?" He asks the girl who retorts immediately, an annoyed tone lacing her words. "Because you left us behind Reiner! I can fight too, you know!" You sigh inwardly knowing that Pieck's plan to force them to stay atop the ship was now fruitless. "Annie!" Reiner yells out accusingly to the woman who faces away at his angered tone, no doubt upset she brought Gabi here.

"The Azumabito ship sank," Annie replies, "It couldn't withstand Falco's Titan transformation. Even though we had no definite proof he could fly, Kiyomi agreed to try it." Gabi then turns to Reiner, determination gleaming in her eyes. "So we have to repay her faith by stopping the rumbling!" Annie then turns to Mikasa in question. "So where's Arm- I mean, Pieck?" Mikasa replies instantly looking at the blond-haired woman intensely. "Armin was captured and his life is in danger. The Titan that took him should be back by the tailbone. Annie, we need your help." Annie's frown morphs into a contrite smile as she looks at Mikasa. "Your childhood friends are always getting captured, aren't they? We'll get him back. Count on it." Gabi now speaks up noticing the absence of her ally. "What about Pieck?"

"She' by the skull," Reiner replies grimly, "She tried to blow up the nape. But the War Hammer Titan is blocking her." Sure enough, in the distance, we see her static form impaled by the Titan that stopped her. "We'll launch simultaneous operations," you turn wide-eyed as you notice that it is Levi who now speaks, having composed himself after further injuries he now has to encumber. "One group rescues Armin, we need the Colossal's explosion. The other group goes after Eren and attacks the nape. We'll split into two teams and strike simultaneously." You nod, turning to your squad, namely Mikasa who looks at his words with despair. "We no longer have the luxury of worrying about Eren... we never had it to begin with," you mutter, facial features tense as you look to your squad. "Captain... but-" Mikasa starts, her voice weak but doing nothing to ease the palpable apprehension that came from bartering with death.

"But what?" It's Connie who speaks looking imploringly at the raven-haired woman. "Falco being able to fly was a miracle. Without that, we'd already be dead!" Jean turns away but agrees to the weight of Connie's words, speaking up. "Yeah, and never had accomplished anything..." Mikasa shakes her head before Levi speaks once again. "I had a long list of shit to tell that idiot off about... Fuck!" Connie turns to Mikasa once more. "I don't wanna give up on Eren, either! But Captain Levi can't fight anymore because of me, and even if he could, we're up against the Founding Titan! How can we win if we're still holding back!?" The air stills at his words and you all grit your teeth, knowing the time has come to divest yourselves of the restraints you held against the man that destroys the world. "Mikasa.... let's.... let's..."

"Kill Eren." You turn to Mikasa who looks as though lost in her thoughts, dazed and forlorn. You grasp the woman's shoulder tightly, trying to ease the pain you know you can't. "Mikasa!" You call urgently to the woman several times who finally turns to you tears brimming her eyes, the expression makes you hesitate but you continue your words nonetheless. "You just concentrate on rescuing Armin... You don't have to think about anything else." Your voice goes gentler towards the end of your words knowing what you are essentially asking her to do; to turn away as you all try to kill the man she loves. Your heart breaks at that notion, knowing that if it had been Levi whose life was on the line, you would have been devastated and inconsolable. Mikasa turns to you, facial features trembling but she replies softly into the wind.

"Okay." _____

[Chapter Thirty-Four] <--> [Chapter Thirty-Six]

Tags: @batboygirlie @crmnic

[human-encounters-diary]

Day 5

I successfully made contact with the human today. As per usual, I completed my cyclic meal intake, but did not come across the human. When I arrived at my work station, the human was already present. She turned around to me and once again, her face warped into a horrifying grimace similar to the one on the second day, baring her teeth and raising the corners of her mouth in a rather threatening manner. I recoiled, although fortunately, the grimace was gone as soon as it had appeared. The human did not seem to notice my discomfort, and simply turned back to her work station.

After a moment, I felt secure enough to approach my own work station. As we worked in silence, I pondered if this was perhaps not a sign of aggression, but rather a way of greeting among humans. Although this thesis could not be supported by any real evidence, as baring ones teeth was a universal sign of aggression among most species.

The human, suddenly, seemingly without any indicator, spoke up: "Y‘know, I just realized that I never asked your name. That must‘ve seemed terribly rude of me." "I was not upset by your behaviour", I decided on after a moment.

"So what is your name?" "My species does not participate in the gifting of individual names.", I explained. "We simply address each other by their titles or their profession. I am addressed as 'mechanic'." 

"But that‘s…boring and sad." My front pliers uttered a rattling sound. "I have never known anything else." Her vocal cords vibrated, producing a barely detectable humming sound. 

The silence did not last long. "Can I ask you a kind of personal question? You don‘t have to answer, obviously…I was just wondering: Do…all of your species look like you? Kind of like, insect-looking, six legs, pliers, compound eyes type?"

"The anatomy of my species does not wary greatly. We all look quite similar, yes." "Oh, cool"

I tried to word my own following question as polite as possible: "What…about your species? Do your individuals vary greatly from each other in terms of physique?" 

"Well…kind of. I mean, we all have, like, the same 'ground structure', I guess you‘d call it? Like, anatomy-wise? But we like, can vary in, for example skin colour, eye colour, hair colour, height, weight, so shape, basically. Uuh yeah, that‘s what‘s coming into my head right now." She had started 'counting' with her fingers while she spoke, taking one finger for every thing she listed.

"That is quite astounding, compared to my species.", I informed her. "Yeah, I guess you could say so…", she opened and closed her mouth, producing a clicking sound as her teeth clashed together. Seemingly, she had wanted to say another thing, but decided against it.

Before I was able to strike up another conversation, Wrin walked, or rather, stumbled into the main control room, a bottle in their gloved hand. They informed me that, apparently, there was another leak in one of the machinery rooms that they wanted me to have a look at. Although I doubted their words, I followed them nonetheless, even if it was solely to reassure them. 

As it transpired, there was an actual leak, which I had to spend the rest of the cycle repairing and checking that there was further damage or similar leaks, since there had been two in a row in a rather short matter of cycles.

When I eventually finished the task at hand, the cycle had almost come to an end and the human had left the premises to indulge in her (now dark) recharging time session.

As I stated in the report prior to this one, I do not draw conclusions, but I have a slight presentiment that the human may like me.

[ckret2]

Chapter 16 of human Bill has taken an "I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me" approach to being the Mystery Shack's prisoner (title TBD), featuring:

Also featuring: Ford and Mabel bonding... until things go very, very wrong. Thanks Bill.

####

October 2012

As Stan turned the corner, he paused to let his eyes adjust as he came out of the blinding evening sun into the shadows of a tight, unobtrusive street, then shuffled up to where Ford was waiting. "All right, I think we shook the cops," he muttered. "The were-rats should keep 'em distracted. Smart move, splitting up to lead them to each other." He rummaged through the bag of ("borrowed") groceries that had caused them all this trouble, looking for a stick of cured meat he'd had his eye on.

"Mm." That was all Ford said.

Stan looked sharply at Ford. "Hey, you okay? The rats didn't get you, did they?" He glanced over Ford for any torn clothes or blood.

"No—sorry, I'm fine. Just..." He gestured at the storefront across the street. "Distracted."

Stan followed his gesture. He couldn't read the language on the signs, but he didn't need to: the pictures in the windows—tarot cards, palmistry charts, a hand-painted poster of a crystal ball, all surrounded by unlit neon tubes shaped into stars—made it clear enough just what kind of shop this was. Stan laughed. "Hey, it looks like what Ma did with the pawn shop after Dad passed. When we're back in the States, I oughta find a picture for you. Or maybe Shermie can 'e-mail' us one, I think his kid was 'digitalizing' the old family photos..." He trailed off as he saw what Ford was really staring at.

Amongst the other dark neon lights, there was a single larger one, just over the name of the shop: a triangle with an eye.

Stan shuddered. "Ugh. I'm never gonna be able to look at those things the same way again, are you?"

"I haven't been able to for over thirty years," Ford said. "It's funny—in most civilized dimensions in the multiverse, that symbol is incredibly taboo, because as soon as it's drawn it becomes his eye. I only ever saw it used as the direst warning in places tainted by the Nightmare Realm—places he could already see."

Stan snorted. "Coming home must've been a rude shock, huh?"

It was true—Ford saw Bill peering from every dollar, winking slyly at him from strangers' gold rings, standing solemn vigil over graveyards from the headstones. Ford remembered the first time he'd returned to his study: of course he'd known that all his art of Bill was still there, but he'd been stunned by the sheer quantity of eyes watching him, ready to welcome him home. He'd awkwardly hidden himself beneath a bedsheet like a ghost to keep Bill from staring at him as he went around the room, covering every tapestry, drawing, and statue with black curtains. He hoped Bill hadn't been actively watching then. He knew he'd looked stupid.

"You don't know the half of it." Ford nodded toward the psychic shop. "Looking at that face now feels like seeing a toxic waste warning sign."

"Do you think she knows?" Stan asked.

"'She'?"

"The psychic!" Apparently, Stan had decided the psychic was a woman. "D'you think she knows what that is? Did he slip her prophecies to start up her business? Or is it just a spooky magic symbol to her?"

Stan was probably expecting Ford to vaguely speculate—but instead, he eyed the symbol critically. "It's got a slit pupil, which is always a worrying sign," he said, "but that could just be an aesthetic choice. If it had his clothing or limbs, I'd know for sure it's meant to be him, but without..."

As they'd spoken, the evening had crept on and the shadows in the alley had deepened; and now it was dark enough that someone inside the shop flipped the neon lights on. Multicolored stars danced around the window. The triangle lit up bright yellow. The pupil and top eyelid had burned out, so now it looked like the Eye of Providence was perpetually asleep, eye shut.

Stan and Ford both shivered.

"That's probably a coincidence, right?" Stan said. "That's—that's just bad luck."

"There's absolutely no scientific reason why Bill's death would cause depictions of his face to—um—malfunction," Ford said. "It's definitely a coincidence." He said it like he was sure.

"Right," Stan said. "C'mon, we should head back to the beach before someone finds our boat." He turned away from the shop. As he walked, he fished his wallet out of his pocket, rifled through the money until he found some American currency, and squinted at it to make sure Bill's eye was still open.

Ford didn't move. He was still staring at the triangle.

Did she know, he wondered? (She or he or whoever owned this shop.) Did Bill have a worshiper here? Perhaps just another distant believer who'd been recruited by one of the micro-cults Bill left in his wake, five degrees and fifty years removed from a former "student" that Bill had "inspired" and then abandoned?

Or had Bill met them in their dreams? Had he been summoned up to give them inspiration and knowledge of the future? Did they remember Bill as the central figure in a visionary dream that now made up the core of their spirituality? Maybe he'd visited them more than once, while trying to decide whether they'd be useful to him? Perhaps he'd been grooming the fortune teller into his minion, feeding them lines he wanted to pass on to a local politician or scientist? Did he ever play board games with them?

Did they worship him still?

Did they know their god was dead?

Stan called from the end of the street, "Ford?" 

"Coming." Ford tore his gaze away from the dead face. "I kept expecting it to blink."

Stan laughed nervously. "Yeah, real funny."

Stan and Ford watched each other from their peripheral vision as they turned the corner, to make sure neither of them tried to glance back to check.

They returned to their boat, set sail, and had dinner. And when Stan went to bed, Ford sat out on the deck, looked at the stars—and wept.

He'd cried when he'd thought his brother had lost his memories forever. He hadn't cried in the month and a half since then. He didn't want anyone to watch him grieve the worst monster he'd ever met.

####

There'd been an ache in Ford's chest for over thirty years—an empty pit that once held awe—a dark void that used to be filled with starlight. Ford knew now that, metaphorically speaking, the divine light Bill put off had never been anything but optical illusions with flashlights and mirrors. But even so—even so, nothing and nobody had inspired such sublime wonder in Ford since.

During his lowest moments out in the multiverse, starving and exhausted and despairing, he'd irrationally wondered if the unimpressable depression left in Bill's wake was evidence that Bill had been truly that great, too great for a human like Ford to understand, and the shadow cast on Ford's life in Bill's absence was the natural consequence of turning away from something godlike.

Ford had gotten over that. He'd recovered, he'd grown. He understood the truth: Bill's parlor tricks had dazzled his eyes so thoroughly that now he couldn't detect the subtle glimmer of the truly wondrous. He wondered if his eyes would ever adjust to the dark again.

Whether he liked it or not, he missed the way mind-blowing awe felt. He missed being dazzled. 

There were days when he wasn't sure what he resented Bill for more: vomiting so much glittery garbage into his soul, or stopping.

####

June 2013

When Ford went looking for his briefcase to make a trip to Portland, he found it opened in the kitchen. He shouldn't have left it in the kitchen. His five-page copy of the text from a purportedly-extraterrestrial prehistoric cave painting was spread out across the table.

The mysterious, unintelligible alien text had been fully translated.

With purple crayon.

Into a second alien language.

Ford could have strangled Bill.

And what made him angriest was how excited he was over this new puzzle.

The original cave panting had consisted of hundreds of tiny symbols in an unknown language from an unknown species, painted on rock, the text faded over time. He hadn't even known whether all the symbols were recognizable as their originals. He'd suspected there'd never be a translation in his lifetime, if indeed there ever was. Bill's translation implicitly said, yes, there is a knowable translation. Said, and you can know the translation too. Said, I've made it into a fun game for you. Said, all you have to do is play along.

He would not play along.

He stuffed the papers back in his bag where they belonged, added the stack of notes he'd made for his trip, slung the briefcase over his shoulder and against his back, and went looking for his great-niece.

####

"Hey Grunkle Ford!" Mabel waved from the living room table. "Wanna play fairy chess?" She was wearing a black-and-white checkerboard-patterned sweater with a blue fairy on her chest. Apparently, this was her plan for the day.

Ford paused outside the living room. "What's 'fairy' chess?"

"It's like normal chess, but you get to decorate the chess pieces and give them weird new rules. Look! I made a princess and a unicorn!" She held up a queen piece with a yarn ponytail and a knight piece with a clay horn. "Wanna play? You can make up any kind of piece you want and I can decorate it for you! Or I can give you the rook with the dragon wings!"

Ford laughed. "That sounds fun. Where did you come up with fairy chess?"

Mabel hesitated, her smile slightly flagging.

"Ah." Of course. He would teach her made-up chess varieties. Ford cleared his throat. "Actually, I'm planning to visit Portland today. There's a weird-looking shop I saw while Soos was driving Stan and I from the airport, and I've been meaning to visit it."

"Oh." Mabel's smile wilted completely. She placed her princess and unicorn back on the chess board. "Yeah. That's fine. I could ask Dipper if he wants to play. Unless he's going with you..."

"I was actually going to ask if you'd like to come."

Mabel's head whipped toward Ford, eyes wide. "Really?"

"Sure, it seemed up your alley! I'm going to a crystal shop—"

"WHAT!" Mabel was on her feet and bounding across the room. "Shut up, I love crystals! They're like jumbo glitter for adults!"

Ford laughed. "I thought you might be interested!"

Mabel went on, "And you know those gift shops with all the shelves of glass and crystal sculptures? I love looking at those! I've always wanted to get one, but my parents think I'd break it. They're probably right."

Ford flashed back to the devastation Mabel wrought on the gift shop snow globes last summer. Well. Maybe her parents had a point, but. "You just have to be careful with it during transport! I got one of those souvenir glass statues during my roadtrip from college to Gravity Falls, and it survived all sorts of gnome invasions and eye-bat battles. I wonder where Stan put it?"

"What did it look like?"

"Mothgar." Did they still make Mothgar movies? "She's a beautiful, heroic moth—who's been radioactively mutated into a giant fire-breathing monster. I consider her one of my heroes. Her flame breath held her statue in the air."

"That sounds awesome!" Mabel bounced on her feet excitedly. "I'll be right back! I've gotta change clothes before we go." She pounded up the stairs.

Ford wondered if Mabel would like watching Mothgar, or any of the other Lizilla monster movies. He and Stan had practically grown up on those films; it would be nice to pass his love of them on to someone else in the family. Maybe she'd find them boring. It sounded like kids these days were more into computer-generated movies...

His train of thought gently derailed as he slowly became aware of a dangerous predator watching him.

He looked around—living room, kitchen, hallway, front door. Nothing. He looked up. Bill was standing in the shadows of the attic stairway landing, leaning against the corner where the stairs turned, peering down at Ford.

Ford scowled.

Bill grinned. "Crystals, huh?" There was a mocking edge to his smile. "Doesn't that sound fun. I bet she'll just love that."

That was the idea, yes. "What are you getting at, Bill."

"'Getting at'?" Bill repeated innocently. "What's there to get at? I just think it's nice of you to do something nice for her."

"Uh-huh."

"Especially after all the time you've spent favoring her brother."

There it was. And the dig struck home, too. Ford's stomach twisted. He'd never forgive himself for only confiding in Dipper about his history with Bill or the danger of the rift—and in the process, setting up Mabel to be the next one Bill tricked and exploited.

And as much as he wished he could say otherwise, he hadn't done much better in the months since then. Shortly after arriving home, Dipper had started having nightmares about Bill possessing or harassing him. When Dipper had those nightmares, usually Ford was the first person he called. He didn't want to disturb his parents or sister more than necessary, and he knew Ford kept odd hours in odd time zones and might be available at 3 a.m. California time—and most importantly, Ford had had more restless nights than he could count, waking up on strange worlds from nightmares of Bill. Ford was the only one who could understand what Dipper was going through: that unique sanity-shaking terror that came from knowing it was a dream, but still not knowing whether it was real.

Those late-night reassurance sessions and the conversations he'd had with Dipper after he calmed down had brought both of them closer. Ford was glad that when Dipper had most needed somebody, Ford was able to be that person—but he hated that in giving Dipper that support, he'd only widened the gap in the attention he gave Dipper and Mabel. 

But she had her own life, with friends and school and hobbies—so many hobbies—Dipper had told Ford, laughing, about how she'd had to juggle her parkour lessons with library craft classes—and Ford didn't have excuses to talk to Mabel the way he did Dipper, and so what could Ford do about it? (What could Ford do about it? He actually didn't know. He'd always been abysmal at socialization, even just keeping up with friends and family. And that was before he'd gone thirty years without steady human company.)

Ford had hoped he could make it up to Mabel this summer.

And then Bill happened.

He was smirking down at Ford like he knew he'd hit a bullseye.

Ford wondered how much Bill knew—if he'd assumed that the way Ford neglected Mabel last summer had continued, or if he'd had some way to spy on them over the past school year... or if she'd told him. "My family's none of your business, Bill."

Ford could almost see the gears in Bill's head turning—no doubt mentally trying out various retorts to find the most cutting—but when he spoke again, he simply changed topics. "So hey, what'd you think of that translation? Helpful at all?"

Dryly, Ford said, "You mean the one you translated into another alien language?"

"Wrong-o. I translated it into an alien writing system. It's a human language."

"What?" Ford rummaged through his briefcase for the "translated" pages. "Which language?"

"C'mon, Fords—Ford, where's the fun in just telling you? I want to see if you can figure it out yourself," Bill said. As Ford's scowl deepened, Bill added, "Give you a hint: it's a language you've studied."

A language he'd studied... Did that mean only second languages, or was English an option? No, if English was a possibility, Bill probably would have said "it's a language you know." Unless he was trying to distract Ford from the possibility it was English. He'd keep English on the list. He ought to start by counting up the number of distinct letters, if Bill had used a simple substitution cipher that might rule out some options...

He wasn't sure how long he'd been staring at the first page of the crayon translation when he heard the attic bedroom door open. Mabel came bounding downstairs in a hot pink sweater that said "YOU ROCK!" over a drum kit. "I used to have a sweater with a crystal heart on it but I think I left it in Piedmont! This'll have to do..." She slowed at the landing, giving Bill a questioning look, and then stopped when she saw Ford looking up at them. "What's up?"

Before Ford could speak up, Bill said, "I was asking Stanford about an alien translation I helped him with this morning, that's all! I don't think he's too grateful. Hey—crystal shop, right?" He beamed at Mabel. "Bring me something fun!"

Mabel beamed back. "Ok—!"

"No," Ford said.

"No," Mabel immediately repeated. "Nope! Nuh-uh, crystals are off the list of acceptable prisoner amenities."

Bill sighed deeply. "All right, fine. I guess I'll just go without the simple pleasure of a cool-looking rock in my final days."

Mabel laughed. "You're such a whiner. I'll draw you a stupid rock." She hopped down the stairs. "See you later!"

"Hey, Shooting Star," Bill said. "Stay safe out there, okay?" The way he said it like a warning, and the way Mabel immediately paused mid-step, made the hair on the back of Ford's neck stand on end. 

He held open the door, glared up at Bill, and said calmly, "We'll be back by dinner."

Bill didn't reply. He just smiled.

The moment the door shut, Mabel looked up at Ford, brows furrowed. "Sooo... what was all that about an alien translation?"

Ford showed Mabel the papers. "He rifled through my bag when I wasn't looking, put a translation in a cipher, and dared me to crack it."

"Ah!" Mabel's puzzled look evaporated. "I knew he was up to something! At least he's just being a jerk instead of a supervillain." She laughed.

Ford smiled in relief. He hadn't lost her yet. "This time, anyway."

"This time!"

As they walked around the shack to Stan's car, Mabel tentatively took Ford's hand. He squeezed hers back just a little too tight.

####

Part of Mabel was nervous to hang out with Ford—just Ford, without Dipper or Stan there as well. He loved her, of course—she knew he loved her, and she loved him—but they didn't simply hang out. Last summer, she'd usually been the one to talk to him first, and they rarely spoke over the school year unless it was part of a family call. She got it—last summer he'd been busy with Bill stuff, during the school year he'd been busy with adventuring, and this summer he was busy with Bill stuff again—and Ford and Dipper had more in common to talk about—so it was fine, really. She understood. But even so, being alone with him kinda made her feel like she was in trouble.

But she'd had nothing to worry about. As they hit the road, there'd been a few minutes of awkward small talk—the kinds of questions adults always asked kids when they couldn't think to ask anything else, so, what kinds of classes are you taking next year—but once they hit common ground the conversation got rolling. Mabel had agonized over whether to join the yearbook or take art class, since she only had room in her electives for one, and had finally settled on art; Ford revealed that one year in high school he'd only taken biology and physics and passed up chemistry so that he could take an art class, had kicked himself over it when taking college chemistry courses, but now decades later he was glad he'd made the effort to preserve his artistic side even as he cultivated his scientific mind. Somehow, even though she'd spent all summer looking over Dipper's shoulder at Ford's illustrations in Journal 3, it had never quite dawned on her that being a scientist didn't mean Ford wasn't also an artist.

They talked about their preferred drawing tools—Ford liked the precision and detail of pencils and pens, while Mabel preferred the smooth drawing experience, vibrant hues, and color-blending potential of crayons. They talked about what they liked drawing—Ford typically drew from life, but said he greatly admired Mabel's creative imagination. Ford talked about blueprints and engineering diagrams like they were artwork, talked about protractors and compasses and rulers like they were art tools; and Mabel figured that blueprints were like very angular versions of the intricate star, swirl, and squiggle patterns she liked filling page margins with, so maybe that was a kind of art. They agreed that the greatest artistic masters of the modern age were the people who made those crazy paintings for the covers of fantasy paperback novels. They both couldn't stand watercolor painting and didn't understand how people could control the paint well enough to make it look good, rather than just sort of leak faintly-colored puddles around the page—although Mabel, at least, was willing to give watercolors another shot.

And from artwork they moved on to talking about Mabel's hopes for high school and Ford's memories of that time—the good and the bad. (Ford asked Mabel to have mercy if the class nerd ever awkwardly attempted to flirt with her at a school dance; she could tell the nerd "no" if she wanted, just please don't pour punch all over his suit.) And then they talked about music (they were surprised at how many synth-poppy new-wavy favorites they had in common, and Mabel was heartbroken to learn how much of the 80s he still had to catch up on), and then about all the new technology Mabel thought Ford had probably missed out on and the equivalent technology he'd encountered out in the multiverse, and then some of the adventures he'd had and people he'd met out in other dimensions...

And Mabel kept expecting Bill to come up, but he never did.

The hour drive from Gravity Falls to the outskirts of Portland consisted mostly of wide flat roads self-consciously hustling through forests, as if the cars were embarrassed visitors who'd stepped into the wrong room. Low wooden buildings clustered together in twos and threes beneath the trees like dogs sitting at their owners' feet. The occasional A-frame house peered curiously down at the road through the pines and firs. Mabel peered curiously back.

In the distance, hazy blue mountains bristling with trees tried to bite the sky. Sometimes, Mabel could imagine an X-shaped rip in the sky vomiting colors onto a distant mountain. Not for the first time, she wondered what Weirdmageddon had looked like from outside Roadkill County. She'd searched online, but never found any pictures.

They passed a bright red shop with dozens of wood-carved statues of bears and Bigfoot in the parking lot, and a cute little white house with a metal sculpture of an ostrich sitting in the front yard, and a teeny tiny shack next to a chop-your-own-Christmas-tree farm—"You hack it, we'll pack it". Seeing a gas station beside a trailer-sized drive-thru coffee shop felt like stumbling upon a carnival. Eventually, the trees peeled back to reveal a strip of colorful but run-down local shops lining either side of Route 26; which bloomed into a proper small town, houses painted cloud white and sky blue on one side of the road, a hunter green motel-style apartment building on the other side, though Mabel could always see the trees waiting just a few streets beyond the main road; and then another small town, which beat the trees back even further; and then their surroundings gently became the suburban outskirts of Portland as they got on the highway.

"The crystal shop was somewhere on the north side of the highway," Ford said, gesturing to the right. So far, all that had gone by on the right had been trees, warehouses, and distant clusters of houses. "I didn't get a long look at it, but it had some mystical-sounding name and it was in a row of storefronts with a pole sign next to the highway. The sign had a cutout in the middle for a stained glass window shaped like a diamond."

"Oooh, fancy."

"And very distinctive. We should have no trouble finding the place again."

The highway ran elevated above the homes and businesses below. After a few miles, a railroad wove up alongside the highway. Ford glanced at the railroad with a puzzled frown. Mabel asked, "Should we have passed it by now?"

"I'm... not sure. I thought we would have—when we were traveling the other direction, I seem to remember I didn't see it long before we exited the highway—but..." He trailed off. "We can't possibly have missed it. That sign stood out like a sore, bejeweled thumb."

Mabel made a mental note to try bedazzling her fingernails. "Are you sure it was on this side of the highway?"

"Positive. I saw it to my left as we were traveling east and considering asking Soos and Stan if they'd mind exiting the highway to visit it, but I decided that would take too much time since it was on the wrong side of the highway and we'd have to do a U-turn. So now it should be on our side of the highway." He gestured demonstratively to the right. "I'm sure of it."

"Okay." Mabel propped her chin in her hand and stared out the window again. A wall of concrete and trees rose up along the right side of the highway, and Ford's frown deepened.

When they reached the exit for the airport, Mabel finally had to admit to herself that there probably was no crystal shop.

Her stomach flip-flopped as Ford silently exited the highway, pulled into a strip mall parking lot, and parked. He stared out the windshield, frowning in deep thought, staring into the distance.

This is it, Mabel thought, ankles twisting together, fingers digging into the bench seat cushion.

Ford said, "We can't have missed the shop. That sign was taller than anything in the area. We couldn't have overlooked it if we'd tried."

Mabel's stomach slowly de-flipped. "Maybe they closed?" she suggested. "Or maybe something knocked the sign down!" In the week and a half since Ford had last come this way.

"Maybe," Ford said dubiously.

Mabel pulled out her phone to search for Portland crystal shops and rock shops. "There's some shops in town, but I... don't see any up here? Maybe they closed years ago and only just took the sign down?"

"Hmm. It seems unlikely, but... I don't know what else could have happened." He glanced at Mabel's phone. "What are you looking at? Do you have the yellow pages in there?"

"Um..." Mabel shrugged. "Kinda?"

Ford sighed. "Well, if we can't find the crystal shop I saw, I suppose we could visit another one. I did promise you crystals. Can you give me directions with that thing?"

Mabel gave him a hesitant, thoughtful look; but then she nodded, grinned, and said, "Sure! You drive, I'll navigate! This'll be easy!"

####

They missed the store four times.

####

The store Mabel had dug up was a general magic shop named Lunar Blessings, on the ground level of a mixed-use building. It was surrounded by apartments up above, a beauty salon to the left, and a tax preparation service to the right. They carefully stowed Stan's car in the parking garage.

"For my thirtieth birthday, I made a trip to Portland and got a cake at a bakery that used to be on this block," Ford said, looking up at the compact brick-like building that now filled the block. "It must have gone out of business." So many little things had changed.

Mabel was treating the sidewalk like a huge hopscotch board as they approached the magic shop, taking huge leaps between each concrete square. As the storefront came into sight, she said, "You know those souvenir shops with trays of polished rocks and little bags you can fill up?"

"The little brown suede bags? Yes, I've seen those. I think they're terrific gifts for young fans of geology." He probably would have gotten one himself as a child, but he hadn't started seeing them until adulthood.

"I have like eight of those bags!" Mabel declared. "I collect them whenever I can! Last summer I tried to talk Grunkle Stan into adding them to the Mystery Shack, but he said they were too easy to shoplift. He let me buy a fake gold nugget for half price, though!" She looked up at Ford hopefully. "A store full of crystals probably has something like that, right? Or at least a few cheap small rocks? Those bags are only, like, five dollars."

Solemnly, Ford said, "Your shopping budget is fifty dollars."

Mabel stumbled her last jump and almost fell. "What! Are you serious!"

"I've been in places like this before. These days you can't get anything decent for five dollars." He offered her a half smile. "Anyway, I missed out on thirty years of spoiling my nephew and my great-niece and great-nephew. I've got to make up for lost time."

Mabel flung her arms around Ford—"Thank you thank you thank you!"—and flung open the store door. "Rockmongers! Show me to your biggest, fanciest crystals! You've got a big spender in the house!" The door swung shut.

By the time Ford made it in, Mabel was saying, somewhat sheepishly, "Show me to your second fanciest crystals." Ford spied her next to an amethyst geode almost as tall as she was and hurried over.

Mabel took his hand and whispered, "You weren't kidding. Fifty dollars doesn't take you far in this place."

Ford grinned. "Funny, isn't it? Considering that you can just dig this stuff out of the ground."

Mabel nodded. "Like potatoes."

Like potatoes. Ford couldn't believe he'd missed out on thirteen years of this kid.

####

The shop boasted books on metaphysics and magic spells; sculptures depicting an undifferentiated mix of global religious figures and fantasy creatures; fake dream catchers with plastic beads and neon-dyed feathers; shelves stuffed with herbs, incense, tarot cards, and more; and most importantly of all: crystals, crystals, rocks, and crystals. Raw stones, polished tumbled stones, carved into figurines and mystical shapes, arranged by rock type in roughly rainbow order around the walls.

It was the kind of place where, once upon a time, Ford would have eagerly spent half an afternoon, browsing the books for something intellectually stimulating amidst the rows of hokey hocus-pocus, scoffing at the promised protections listed on the cards by each type of crystal but still glancing over the crystals themselves for something that might look pleasant on his desk. Not a believer in the melting pot of New Age beliefs being peddled, but still acknowledging he'd dedicated his life to seeking the same things people sought in shops like this.

He was beginning to wonder if he'd ever feel comfortable in a magic shop again. 

He'd hardly been in the shop a minute before he saw a gold-foiled pyramid with an Eye of Horus on the side. And then small pyramids constructed out of seven layers of stone, forming an inverted rainbow from purple down to red. "Divine Eye"-brand incense sticks with a brown logo stamped onto each package depicting an uncannily realistic eye on a pyramid. Milky translucent selenite pyramids. Multiple different tarot decks—simple woodcut designs, complex oil paintings, punkish collage art—that featured an eye in a triangle somewhere on the box art. Shiny black pyramids with copper coils wrapped around them. A poster with a psychedelic Eye of Providence. Pyramids in a dozen other colors and stones. With so many hostile triangles around, even the familiar, watchful nazar and eyed hamsa amulets now seemed to stare at him too hard.

It was almost a relief when Ford spotted, between sculptures of Shiva and a severe-looking angel, one sculpture that was unmistakeably Bill himself. He was seated with his legs in lotus position, "floating" by attaching to a wall of flames behind him, with two blue glass flames in his hands. Anything else in this shop left Ford with the nervous uncertainty of whether the artist had been depicting Bill, or just an innocuous Eye of Providence symbol a hundred generations removed from its initial inspiration. But this sculpture, down to the hat and bow tie, left no doubt.

Ford reminded himself that it shouldn't be a comfort to see Bill's face; and he didn't like that he had to remind himself.

He gingerly pictured up the sculpture, surprised at how light it was, and inspected the bottom. It had a logo stamped on it that matched the logo on sculptures of at least a dozen other less malevolent entities in the store; the shop had probably bought them en masse and wasn't affiliated with Bill. But somewhere out there was an artist who was. Ford wondered where they were.

####

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel bounded up to him, grinning. 

Ford flinched when his name was called and turned away from the shelf he'd been inspecting a little too fast, like he'd been caught doing something wrong—but he gave her his full, polite attention. "Yes?"

"Look what I found in the window! It makes rainbows when the sunlight hits it! Like a prism-pyramid! A prismid! A pyrismid?" She shrugged. "Anyway, isn't it awesome! Free rainbows, everywhere, forever!" She beamed at Ford, holding her clear glass pyramid up for him to inspect; but when she saw the look on his face, she slowly lowered it. "What's wrong?"

Ford forced a tense smile. "Oh, it's... I'm sorry, Mabel. You're right, it is very impressive. But—" He winced, glancing away, voice dropping, "Bill happens to be fond of those, too. I used to have—dozens of those."

Mabel's cheeks heated up. "Oh." Now that she thought back, she distantly recalled seeing a similar pyramid in the room with the switcheroo carpet, although she'd never seen it in the sunlight. Stupid, stupid, stupid. "Sorry. I can put it back. I saw some pink cats and these resin hearts filled with gold flakes? They were cute."

It took Ford a second to speak; Mabel wasn't sure he'd even heard what she'd said. "He didn't put the idea of getting one of these in your head, did he?"

"What? No!" Mabel said. "Of course not! When would he have even brought it up?"

"You... have been spending a lot of time around him lately."

"Pffft!" Mabel rolled her eyes. "Like when?"

####

"Okay," Stan called from the kitchen, a tray of raw burgers in front of him, "ready to start grilling! How does everyone want their burgers? Your options are 'medium rare' and 'overcooked.'"

Mabel stuck her head in the kitchen. "I want mine with sprinkles mixed in!"

Stan grimaced. "Sweetie, that sounds awful—"

Bill stuck his head in over Mabel's. "I want sprinkles too."

"I'm not making you a burger!"

Mabel chanted, "Sprinkles, sprinkles—" and Bill joined in, "—sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles—!"

####

Mabel pointed at one of the cartoon animal drawings on the blackboard. "And the orange one is...?"

Bill, sitting on the living room floor with a notepad and a yellow pencil, raised his hand, even though he was Mabel's only audience. "Teddy Tender!"

"And his job is...?"

"Healing! Uh—doctoring and social reconciliation! He's like a therapist medic."

"Correct! Full points!"

"Yes!"

"And the indigo one?"

Bill squinted at the fishy-looking creature. "The Mystic Dolphin."

"Close enough, I'll give it to you! Misty the Dolphin. Her job?"

Bill frowned. "Psychic powers."

"No."

"Purple has psychic powers."

"No!"

"Who has psychic powers, then!"

"Nobody has psychic powers, man, we've been over this!"

Bill groaned. "Is Misty going to be on the test?"

"Of course she is! We can't just skip over Misty! Indigo gets shortchanged in artistic depictions of rainbows enough as it is!"

"Misty is stupid! She can't even visit the rest of the critters!" Bill chucked his notebook at the blackboard. It smacked it harmlessly and flopped to the floor.

Mabel gave him a stern look. "You'll never grasp the deeper thematic concepts in Color Critters if you can't see that Misty's an equal part of the team regardless of her handicaps."

Bill groaned again.

####

"Hey dudes," Soos said, opening the attic door. "Do you know where my laundry went? I can't find my green t-shirt, and—"

Mabel was wearing Soos's green t-shirt, which went down to her calves like a loose dress. Bill was hot glueing construction paper flowers all over the shirt.

Arms outstretched in a T shape, Mabel said, "I'm the flower queen."

"She's the flower queen," Bill said.

Soos looked between them both, flashed Mabel a double thumbs up, said, "You look beautiful, dawg," and shut the door.

####

Mabel kicked a foot sheepishly. "I haven't been spending that much time with him."

"That was all in the last three days," Ford said.

Mabel winced. "Okay, fine—but—it's all been harmless stuff! Nothing Bill can use to conquer the world or anything! I'm not even letting him use the scissors! And I promise he's not doing anything evil under my supervision. He's actually been really well behaved—"

"That's exactly what worries me!" Ford snapped. He sighed harshly. "Mabel—I'm not surprised he's treating you decently. It's what I expected. I... I've actually been meaning to talk to you about this for a few days."

Mabel immediately went cold. Stay safe out there, okay? "Oh. Yeah?"

"I understand you're just trying to be kind, but considering who we're dealing with here—and how willing he is to exploit and abuse even our best virtues—I'm worried you're not being careful enough around him."

Mabel was never careful enough, was she? Not even careful enough to be trusted with a snow globe, much less anything important. Voice thick, she asked, "Is that why we're here?" She gestured around the magic shop.

Ford hesitated just long enough to give her her answer. "I... didn't think this was a conversation we should have inside the shack."

Mabel looked down at her hands, saw the stupid glass pyramid, and nearly flung it on the floor in frustration. Instead, she set it on the nearest shelf. Don't break anything. Under her breath, she muttered, "Bill said you'd do something like this."

"Bill said? Bill said?! Of course he would, that's just like him. What kind of nonsense has he been filling your head with?"

####

"Honestly, I'm surprised Ford hasn't said anything about you talking to me yet," Bill said, carefully taping construction paper petals together into flowers. "But mark my words—if he's taken this long, it's only because he's waiting for an opportunity to scold you where I can't overhear. He'll probably lure you out somewhere fun—go to the zoo or something. Then he'll let you have it."

"Pfff, come on!" Mabel focused on cutting out the next few flower petals. "He wouldn't 'let me have it.' If it bothered him that much, he'd have said so by now."

"You, my friend, have never seen him get really mad. I have. For the sake of argument, maybe I deserved it, fine—but he's got a tendency to aim that hate at anybody I'm friends with, too. So don't think you're safe."

Mabel paused, then shook her head. "No." She threw another bunch of petals at Bill to tape together. "He wouldn't hate me. We're family."

"If you were your brother, I'd agree with you. As it is, though..." Bill dumped a half dozen finished flowers in Mabel's lap. "Honestly, I can't even tell how he feels about you. Can you?"

####

Mabel flinched. "Obviously what he's filling my head with isn't nonsense, because he was right! You took me all the way to Portland by promising a stupid crystal shop that doesn't exist—"

"What?! Mabel, that's ridiculous! Just listen to m—"

"Why are you yelling! Why are you mad at me, I was only trying to be nice to him!" She let out a sob. "I didn't do anything wrong this time!"

Ford froze. "Mabel..."

She ran out of the crystal shop, crying. Ford watched her go, paralyzed. Mad at her? He was mad at Bill, if anybody. Mad at her?

He turned helplessly toward the shopkeeper, as if the only other adult in the store could help him out. "I'm... sorry for the disturbance." 

The shopkeeper shrugged her shoulder in vague sympathy. "She upset over some guy?"

"Not that way." Thank goodness for that. "She's just..." He sighed. "She's been making friends with a very bad influence."

####

The entire crystal shop trip was initially one super long chapter that I cut in two. They would have been about equal length if I'd ended this chapter after Ford saw the Bill statue. I decided not to do that. I did that to be mean. ♡

[thesupernaturalhouse]

Ooooookay! Hazbin Hotle redesigns....but not really? Honestly, it's just me drawing them in my style, but they could be considered redesigns, I guess, specifically Charlie

Uhhhh I guess we start form left to right sooo, Emily!

Right, so, Emily is obviously a fallen angle. Thiguht this isn't her fallen look, since we already kneo what she looks liek with wings and a halo I didn't think about making a 2nd version of her without the demon disguise- but maybe I should

Either way, I kinda kept her original dress, with the symbols and what not, I feel liek blue and purple really suit her so, indigo

I tried to add red to her, but it just didn't look good. It gave me an eye strain.though her till and horns have a sort of dark magenta color going on

I wanted to add more 'freckles' cause, thier cute, and I have a bunch of freckles ove rmy arms and legs and face and stuff so, added them to em, I put a few on her ears and tail and horns to

Gave her gold buttons and fishnets on her arms, i forget what their called cause they are cute, and I like Athnek(?) Posts about Emily and uh, goth Emily, I think, is pretty cool and so boom, fishnet glive things- I gitta look up what there called

Lso ehr shoes look liek dolphins, which I didn't mean to do but it happened and I've accepted it

Next is Charlie!!

Um. Obviously, Charlie is the most changed from her canon design, I relaly like her hooves and others redesigns of her looking more liek a goat

Originally, I was just gonna add gaot ears and stuff, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of her having fur soooo tadaaaaa~

I gave her a little red stripe between her eyes and fade on her legs and ears to match Razzle and dazzle, and since lucifer was a high angle a seraphm/archangels hoenstly I dotn see a difference. I gave her some white freckles as well to sorta, show that connection

Also, toe beans! If she has claws, she can have beans, I think that Emily would have a normal human hand while vaggie would have little soft spikes on her like moths do, tho that's not shown

I also drew charlies wings cause it's cnaon she has them, and I wanted to play around with the demon/angle wing/s she could have, my irl friend K helped me decide which one to choose

I also drew her leg so you can see the fade in full. Side note that her belly has the same cherry red fur

I also added some chest fluff because why not?

As for her horns, I kept them the same color but added rings like Lilith has to show a connection between them. She also has her mom's eyes and heart tail point. I wanted her to have some demon stuff out just cause, she is a demon, she should......also realizing just how long I made her tail-

Uhhh, oh, right, side note, which I'll have to make a separate post about, Lucifer/eve/lilith are all dating each other, and Chalrie is all 3s kid. Eve is where she got the goat aspect from, inckuding horn shape, her scaly tail, snake fangs, red cheeks and color scheme over all are from dad, and Lilith is where she got her eyes and horn rings and heart point from, and beans to I guess

Maybe I should make a gene sheet one day; I gave her Jean shorts, like how I usually wear just cause I didn't want to add too much red or black

Okay, vaggie time!

Vaggie is the least changed. The most I really change about her is how her wings look. Her hand snow has soft spikes like moths do, and her hair

I do think when she fell, she got more demon aspects, but since her wings were torn off, she doesn't have to many physically other than fangs and the spikes

I also made her hair shorter because please, nobody has their hair that long!! or if they do, then I've never seen them!

I know it's a show, but it was driving me crazy! I'm not that skilled at draw front view bodies yet, so if vaggie looks off I'm sorry:(

Play that should be it!-

Oh wait, hold on, right. The reason they have gold rings/objects on them is because in term software demon courting their all technically married, okay bye-

[ele-sme]

3 years

3 years passed since Neteyam died in the last battle, 3 years passed since Quaritch died, shot again by an arrow.

3 years passed without humans on the way.

The grief took over the family for a year, then they had to move on.

Life was good now, Neteyam was missed dearly, but he now was in peace.

Lo'ak and Tsireya started official court, Tuk started training, Kiri decided to return to the forest and continue her training as Tsahìk, Spider, even if slowly was becoming a warrior for the sea clan.

Jake and Neytiri some how moved on, day wasn't passed without them going to check on their forever teen son.

But eventually they calmed down, even apologise to Spider.

Welcomed him into the family, and he slowly became an official part of it, growing strangely close to Neytiri.

She lost a son, he never had a mother, they needed the comfort of one another.

Still he didn't call her mom, but there was time, they had all the time in their life.

Until...

Tuk, Lo'ak and Spider spent all morning togheter.

They played with the water, swimmed, draw on the sand and so so much more.

Now they were laying on the soft sand, now colder and not hot.

Watching as the sun flew down and the sky became of an unnatural natural shape of orange.

Spider was in peace, this is all he ever hoped for.

Being accept, having a family to call his own, a father and a mother, siblings.

Although...

There was one thing he missed more than everything.

Neteyam.

His first friend, died because of him.

In 3 years everyone who visited him said to Spider how Neteyam's soul was not angry at him.

But he wanted to hear it from him...

The thought of never seeing Neteyam again...

Everyone could but not him, that wasn't fair, that was dishonest, this was mad-

But also will of the mother, if she wanted him to see Neteyam, he would have been born with a normal body, and not a pink tiny one.

The sun was now fully dissapering, and the bioluminescence was appearing.

"Guys!" Tsireya happy voice was heard, making Lo'ak jump up.

He greeted her with a kiss, which made Tuk do a disgusted sound.

"Reya, you should totally upper you standards" she said, making Tsireya chuckles and Lo'ak mad at his baby sister.

Spider close his eyes when they started to yell at one another.

So goddamn similar to eachother.

...

...

...

Something was wrong...

Spider felt wrong.

Breathing was hard.

His eyes didn't want to open.

What was happening?!

What the f-

"Spider"

...

Spider forgot about this voice, Something he never wanted to admit out loud but made him cry for months.

But this...this was Neteyam voice!

Spider eyes were close but he could feel Neteyam sitting next to him.

"Dude" he said, Spider couldn't reply, like his lips were glue togheter.

"It's been a while" Neteyam said, as he played a little with Spider's locks.

Why was Neteyam there? Was this a dream?

"I need to bring you there, a direct order" he continued

Oh

As a tear fell off Spider cheek, he gave the other a smile.

He could feel Neteyam taking his oxygen mask off.

Although he could also still feel it but that feeling was faitinig away.

He finally open his eyes again, Neteyam next to him smiling happily at the boy.

Spider sit up right and he finally after so long hugged Neteyam.

"She wants you there personally, she loves you so much i swear, she can't stop talking about you" Neteyam said in the hug.

As they pull away, Spider looked at his friends and siblings.

Tuk and Lo'ak still yelling at eachother meanwhile Tsireya tried to calm them.

"What about them?" He asked, and Neteyam's face was longing.

He wished to remain there for them too.

But this wasn't how the mother wanted.

"They will go on, they're strong" he said.

He offered a hand for standing up, which Spider kindly accepted, he was now standing.

He chuckles when he noticed that he was somehow teller then Neteyam.

' must be a dead thing '

"Ohh shut up" Neteyam said without even letting him start.

With the same hand, he helped Spider step out of his physical body.

Who was now resting in peace, soon to be laid with the ancestors.

Hand in hand they walked in the forest.

"Don't turn away to face them, that would only hurt more" Neteyam said, tightening his grip on Spider's hand.

In the distance there was Tuk, who scream that Spider couldn't breath.

Another few steps and a cold bloody scream came from behind them.

"There's also a human woman waiting for you" Neteyam said, grinning at Spider.

"My...?" Neteyam nodded immediately.

Waiting for them a latin woman, with a shine smile on her face she said hello to her son.

Hugging him tightly when he arrived.

"Come my son, she been waiting for you"

And them three walked away, leaving behind an horrific scene.

Of two parents loosing both young sons in less then five years.

[genericpuff]

Do you have any recommendations for comics on tapas? I'm rather new to the app so I wondered if you had any. Sorry if someone already asked!

Oh, so many! Tapas was one of my OG homes waaay back in the day, when I was still getting into drawing comics (back then it was gag-a-days). I spent a lot of time reading comics on there and it was one of my first introductions to comic platforms in general (next to SmackJeeves, RIP).

Rock and Riot - 1950's LGBTQ+ gangster teenagers getting into shenanigans and turf wars. Very cute and fun and adorable <3

Monster Pop! - Monster girls who are besties! This one has some real gorgeous art especially if you like the original vibes of S1 LO, lots of bright beautiful colors and lineless shapes. The creator of this comic, mayakern, now develops comfortable and eco-friendly skirts with her wife and pals for plus-sized folks! (they have pockets!)

A BETTER PLACE - Young girl Hannah and her little brother Theo find something cool in the woods. Children becoming gods. This was one of those comics that had some REALLY cool "you had to be there" time travel elements that aren't quite as immersive in hindsight (I was one of those people who were there and DAMN it was awesome), but it's still absolutely worth the read and it operates as a sort of prequel to another one of Harry Bogosian's comics on the platform.

Fail by Error - This comic is long since done with, its creator having moved on to bigger things, but at one point in time, this was the titan series on Tapas, before the platform became predominantly BL's and isekais. Fail by Error was truly one of the best of the best of Tapas-hosted comics from its golden era of comedy comics. Also the creator made art for me once and I still have it! <3

(my babieees <3)

RandoWis - funny gag strip is funny ! He also draws an MMO-themed comic that - coincidentally - when I double checked, looks like it stopped updating in 2021 until two days ago. So yeah, good time to check that one out too!

Undying Happiness - Naomi takes a chance on love and decides to meet up with a guy she met online. He turns out to not look like the guy in the photos in the most hilariously absurd way.

Deep Fried Pudge - Okay, this is a really weird inclusion because like... this comic isn't good. This comic is painfully bad. Like, "roll your eyes into the back of your skull at your dad's stupid jokes" bad. This comic has not stopped updating daily since 2012. It literally just had its 11 year anniversary. Every update is just a single panel either making some pun or just stating very innocent, inoffensive opinions. There are four thousand of these things. And every single one is done with the same art style and joke structure as before, the comics from today look and feel like a 7 year old made them the exact same way they did 10 years ago, as if trapped in a hellish time capsule of its own design, and I love it, I freaking love it. Its existence quite literally defies human nature. Reading it and attempting to comprehend why it exists is like staring into the eyes of some Eldritch god that chose peace over chaos. Pudge will outlive all of us. Pudge will outlive the universe. All hail Pudge.

[docholligay]

Shamash Answers: Writing Day Final

Points for everyone who played! Not because there were a tiny amount of answers, I just decided everyone who answered this one was going to get a point early on, since it was a tough one.

One point:

She stumbled out. The house behind her croaked out, like the dying animal it was. Not looking behind her, she reached for her car keys. --Jack (I can't tag you so pay attention to the draw!)

Well. If she had to die, that seemed a reasonable way to go about it. --@seolh (I do low key want to use this)

"I'm supposed to do what with the flour?" ---@madegeeky

Nope, I suck at this, sorry! -- (The beginning of a novel about me, as someone starts telling me about their childhood trauma ahaha) @vassekocho

"You know..." the woman said, looking down at the mass of activity outside the third story window. "I really do love how many specialized words exist." Her companion merely grunted. The woman continued. "It really is wonderful that there is a word for throwing someone ass over tea kettle out a window." --@shavedjudomonkey

Petals clustered in the street, undisturbed by wind or rain, though still reflecting the blue and red of their lights. "I just don't get how those girls are always gone before we're here," Margritte grumbled as she stomped on her finished cigarette. "All. Ways." "When the response time to this neighborhood is twenty goddamned minutes, do you think they're just going to wait around?" Isobel answered, never taking her eyes from her work. Margritte rolled her eyes and debated lighting another. She decided not, seeing Isobel stand up, surveying the outline she'd made. Chalk surrounded the petals. A monstrous shape. But still belonging to a human. A murder, same as any outline. -- @katrani

3rd place, 2 points (Very very narrow between third and second here)

Hollywood and many excellent or otherwise books have prepared society to expect horrific news to be cloaked in muted greys, a terrific downpour of rain, thunderous cloud heads, and the creeping onset of night. Haruka gripped that knowledge tightly to her heart as her fingers clenched around the doorknob, staring out over the shoulder of the CNO standing on her porch, framed by a beautifully clear and balmy spring day. --@rhiorhino

2nd place, 3 points!

It was a romantic story. Beautifully sweet. As long as you stopped before he began to regret the loss of his originally intended life. Before the rat of guilt, born of that regret, began gnawing along the edges of what his life had become. Before she fortified her life against that rat through their children. Before the bitterness that could only have come from such a romantic beginning. --@incorrecttact

1st place, 4 points!

I woke up dead this morning. Or someone who looks like me did: she was cold in my bed when I turned around, and stiff as anything. I just don't know if I can say that if I call in sick to work, you know? -- @everybodyknows-everybodydies

[maddiemuu]

1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19 & 20 for ruth and/or nicole?

WAOWWW THAT'S SO MANY... THANK YOU!! i am gonna put them under a cut so i don't absolutely obliterate the dashboard of the ppl who follow me LOL

here is the ask game!

ruth

aaa ok so ruth hasn't actually existed in her current form for super long... she was definitely more nebulous to me than nicole for a long time. so there r sort of two answers to this. initially, ruth didn't exist at all in nicole's story- nicole was much less isolated there, and actually interacted with the rest of the town and her parents on "screen" (aka. in the stories i told myself with her in my head). initially, it was just about her going home and finding that the people there had established some weird and sort of fucked up new religion. but from there i decided they should be worshipping SOMETHING and so i came up with ruth! she was always nicole's childhood friend/crush/whatever/nightmare situationship but originally the ruth in the story WAS the same person as said friend. eventually i just decided it would be more interesting if she was something Different. i like stories about locations that just seem to have had something Wrong with them from the very start- stuff like the land the house (house) on ash tree lane is built on in house of leaves or the town in uzumaki. ruth is sort of like if that concept was a fully sentient, distinct being.

3. appearance but like. ruth 1.0's appearance. i omitted her face for thematic + tonal purposes and from there i just eventually made a design that didn't have one at all! ruth CAN have a face but i don't think i could draw it as scary as it is in my head LOL. so i only ever draw it in parts. the best way i can describe the way i think of it is like. you know how some stop motion doll faces ALMOST look like people if they're made in the right style and have the right lighting?? (what i'm specifically thinking of is like. the stop motion from The Cat With Hands, which is a very good and scary short horror film if you haven't already seen it). she looks sort of like that. she doesn't like to have a face anyways, because nicole doesn't remember ruth 1.0's face well enough. whenever ruth tries to have her face, no matter how good it looks, nicole can tell the details are wrong, but not WHY, so ruth can't fix it. it makes her really mad.

7. i like her weird drippy "face"! and also when i draw her big scary eyes. a lot of it is just aesthetic- i really like drawing things that are dripping, and the eye shapes are super fun to draw.

8. a lot of it was created as a direct response to nicole's personality! i wanted a solid foil for her. more than anything, ruth is much more assertive than nicole- even to an extent that can be considered cruel. she's easy to frustrate and lashes out just as easily. i wouldn't say i'm super similar to either ruth or nicole, but they both have personalities stemming from qualities of mine. i think on the ruth-nicole spectrum, i'm more of a ruth, though.

11. hmm! i think junji ito's character tomie is similar in some ways. not intentional, though i did read junji ito's work with the voraciousness of someone who had trapped inside a cave with no entertainment for months, so tomie's probably in the inspiration soup somewhere. rose quartz from steven universe too now that i think about it. her line about not being able to act like a "real person" because she /isn't one/ has really stuck with me since that episode first aired. that sort of sentiment is definitely a big part of ruth. uhhh what else... the moopies from the phoenix by osamu tezuka!!! especially tamami from the "future" volume of the series. this idea of an inhuman alien CHOOSING to look like a human being and it becoming so fundamental to her identity... that's more of an intentional influence. also. as much as i loathe to admit it. pon-chan from guru guru pon chan. a truly haunting (to me) shoujo romance manga about a dog who has a magic slash incredibly technologically advanced bone charm that can transform her into a human girl! but she still has a dog brain! she is still a dog!!! the manga never lets you forget this! i think a lot of the darker implications of her character were unintentional, but people also still TREAT her like a dog for the most part. she is simultaneously forced into human society and sheltered from it, leaving her in a really tragic limbo where she's barred from full autonomy and full personhood, even. i am sincerely compelled by her, for better or for worse. ALSO. quick lightning round: hal 9000 (2001: a space odyssey), the house from anatomy by kitty horrorshow, both hill house and theodora from the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson (one of my very favorite books!), the thing from the thing, and the cenobites from hellraiser/the hellbound heart by clive barker

12. i DO have a playlist! you can find it here! (cw for the first song, "holy" by the golden palominos- the song describes a character with disordered eating patterns in some significant detail). i'll also list a few extra songs that AREN'T on the playlist for one reason or another:

-i got heaven by mannequin pussy (close, but not quiiiite the vibe. still! close!)

-yeah yeah by cyndi lauper

-sat in your lap by kate bush

-once i flew by white town

-woodpecker no. 1 by merzbow (this one is very loud. it is noise music and sounds like very loud, discordant static and screeching noises, in case anyone reading this is not familiar with merzbow. please be extra cautious if you are wearing headphones. i find his work to be pretty soothing but i'm sure it makes a lot of other people feel very tense. also, warning for eyestrain with the album cover.)

-last lion of albion by neko case

13. sssort of...? not the kind of thing i could link a 1:1 video for unfortunately. there are two ideas i think of for her voice. one is when my laptop speakers get sort of muffled/blocked somehow, and it creates a weird echo-ish effect to the voice of whatever youtuber i'm watching at the time. the other is... once again, from the thing! hooray for the thing! i love the way the thing screams (youtube link), where you can hear all the different layers to what it's assimilated into itself over all the time it's existed... eughh..... it rules. anyways, ruth has a weird sort of crackle/echo/scratchiness to her voice normally- it's sort of uncomfortable to hear. makes you feel like some hair or something is stuck in your ear... but nope! when she gets really upset her voice unravels and you can hear similar "layers" to it like the thing's screaming. it gets harder for her to enunciate like that, too.

14. aaahh, well from other media i already mentioned rose quartz steven universe's "i'm... not a real person". this also isn't something you can read for free unfortunately, but the artist DID post these panels publicly so i feel ok quoting it lol. in a recent page of cheap thrills (original comic here, patreon continuation here, posted-for-free remake/reimagining here. be aware that all of those contain significant themes of drug use/addiction and parental abuse. cheap thrills also contains explicit nudity/sexual content and depictions of suicidal ideation. rigsby wi contains sexually suggestive content) by se case, one character asks another "do you know what i would GIVE to be LOVED like YOU" and it's been on my mind a lot... wrt quotes BY ruth, one thing i come back to a lot with her is the sentiment that if nicole doesn't like her she should just "make something else"- which is a mockery of her. nicole won't make something else of ruth. ever. why would she? there's also her idea that anything she sees as wrong with her is NICOLE'S fault for not even being able to remember "her" well enough. she's mean lol!!!

17. stars and botanical imagery- especially roots and various flowers! i've drawn her with wasps before and would like to do that more often, too.

19. oooh this is an interesting one. i like the vagueness of what "favorite" and "least favorite" mean in this context. i will do my best to give the most well-rounded answers i can lol. i think in terms of like. personality. as in "what would i like or dislike about her if she was real" ruth is a very outwardly resilient and confident person which i think is admirable! on the flip side, she is an asshole. from the perspective of me being her creator, i like drawing her "weirder" designs- i actually feel a little insecure about her "main" look sometimes. i find it annoying when the weirdest thing a story wants to come up with for a woman's design is just "woman with a few inhuman features", but on the other hand- i know that i CAN design more interesting/inhuman things, i just legitimately think that's how ruth would choose to look lol. she wants to be a human! like one very specific human!

20. haha! this one's fun. i unfortunately don't think i have any art to show off here... i post the majority of things i draw. WAIT actually i can show off some very early ruth pics. i think these were the first two things i ever drew of ruth (1.0...) i believe they're from 2021 (left) and 2022 (right). one on the left was drawn with my motherfuckingggg laptop trackpad i think. evil. why would i ever do that.

i will also say that i wanna draw something with ruth's fucked up anatomy soon!!! i made a post abt it and i wanna show off what that looks like...

nicole

nicole has existed since 2021 (according to the first piece i drew of her). iirc her design came from a limited palette challenge i was playing with and i ended up liking what i was coming up with so much i decided to keep her. it was sort of like finding some sad, sopping wet little animal under a car. story-wise her Character Bones come from my deep love of folk horror. i just wanted to make my own folk horror character!

3. appearance! i wanted to draw a character with long, wavy hair lol. she's also always sorta been the protagonist, just by virtue of being the character i came up with first re: her story. her name was also pretty immediate- i just really love the name "nicole" and wanted to give it to a character. naming ruth was a lot harder, actually- i usually choose names for their sound more than anything, but hers is actually one i chose based on meaning. nicole's personality actually developed last, and has changed the most out of those three things. she used to be much more put together. she had a decently successful career too... which. lol. lmao. no. nowadays i think that before she moved back home she was something like a receptionist or executive assistant somewhere but was too nervous + disorganized to be very good at it. very quiet and sort of off putting to her coworkers. also this image was another one done with my TRACKPADDD. WHY. WHY. WHY DID I EVER DO THAT. my hand hurts just thinking about it!!!! i swear it is an actual bible-level miracle i have never had tendonitis or carpal tunnel.

7. her weak chin and big arms are both v defining parts of her design to me... but she actually didn't have either at the start!! her face shape developed by the 4th-5th piece i drew of her (according to my computer lol)... something about it just felt much more like her, plus i liked how distinctive it was next to my other designs. her larger upper arms developed slower- i shifted her design to being fat pretty quickly, but she used to be more "proportional" for lack of a better term. i ended up shifting to making her more top-heavy over time, partially just for the sake of interesting design elements, and partially because i used to be similarly top-heavy. nicole's breast hypertrophy is a feature she inhereted directly from me lol. i also just don't think enough characters have really prominent upper arm fat! it's a cute feature and i really enjoy drawing it.

8. nicole is inspired a lot by traits i personally find very annoying LOL. mostly in others. i wanted to try and find a way to undestand/better sympathize with why people act like her... i can't really speak to how successful she's been in that regard, since i AM still ultimately limited by my own perception, but it's been interesting!! nicole is a selfish person in some very specific, self-infantilizing, victimizing ways, especially. i think in some ways she also probably reflects traits i fear seeing in myself- or traits i fear others seeing in me.

11. visually? uh. griffith from berserk sort of. curse of white person w/ long wavy hair.

in terms of personality/inspiration, there's a fair bit of eleanor from the haunting of hill house (book) in there. her and merricat from we have always lived in the castle are DEFINITELY big influences for nicole. there's also tonta from jaime hernandez's side of love and rockets. los bros hernandez are two of my biggest artistic inspirations... i find her such a fun character, and i love the way her design is rendered. i also read monster pulse by magnolia porter sidell when i was really getting into developing nicole, and i think the character of dr. lulenski definitely had an impact! lulenski's squeamishness and tendency to rationalize her own negative actions to herself especially strike me as influential here. there's also some sally hardesty in her for sure- visually, especially! nicole was definitely inspired somewhat by the archetype of the final girl in slashers, especially my fascination with the misogyny i think is sort of inherent to it. to give one more just to even out these pictures, the character of riley from em carroll's comics the hole the fox did make and the groom. both fantastic short horror stories. riley is a child, but the mood and setting of both stories definitely had an influence on nicole- especially the sense of dread and inevitability i always feel reading both.

12. i DO have a nicole playlist! here it is! and here are some extra songs like i did for ruth :3:

-god take all by glass eye

-bracing for sunday by neko case (another song where the vibes are simply not quite there. but this song is still in nicole's dna. i think if anyone it's a ruth 1.0 song tbh.)

-the river by bruce springsteen (specifically this live version LOL. this is not a nicole song narratively speaking. but in terms of vibes yes. i also imagine her parents' circumstances were somewhere along these lines)

-good for me by aimee mann

-st james infirmary by abner jay

-i was a child by elysium

13. i don't have a specific person in mind who i think sounds like her, but i can describe how i imagine her voice! nicole has a slightly scratchy voice, and she tends to intentionally speak in a higher register than what's natural. aside from the scratchiness, her voice is pretty soft most of the time. she has a southern accent and the strength of it fluctuates a little depending on the situation.

14. hmmm.... do i?! i'll have to think on this one for a second. oh, wait- yeah, for sure. "why don't they stop me?" from the haunting of hill house- this will probably only hit if you've also read the book, unfortunately, but MAN it is such a suckerpunch of a line. it's also the only one coming to mind for me right now LOL. there aren't a lot of specific phrases/lines of nicole's that really stick with me as quintessentially HER, at least not yet.

17. yes!!! lots of flowers- especially sunflowers and daisies, cornstalks, mountains, smoke, and telephone poles, mostly.

19. as a person, i think nicole really does try to be kind, for the most part, just for the sake of it. in terms of negative traits- i would find it incredibly frustrating how averse she is to owning up to wrongdoing LOL. as a character, i'm sincerely really proud of her design. i love how she looks. i guess in terms of least favorite there...? i'd like to get better at drawing her side profile ig. sometimes i really like how i render it and sometimes not as much. that's more of a me problem than a her problem, though.

20. hmmm...! well, i'm almost to 100 (digital) drawings of nicole (🎉). i wanna redraw the first thing i ever made of her for the 100th piece. i've also been thinking about maybe doing a longer series of interconnected illustrations with her sometime soon... i think that could be really fun!!

[salty-dracon]

So what other animal designs did you have in mind? I imagined Takumi is a fox and Karua is an arctic fox.

Oh, that's so cool. I love the idea of Takumi and Karua as two different kinds of foxes.

So the ones I've drawn at least partially (while overseas, while we didn't know much about some of these characters' personalities), and I can't wait to finish coloring, are-

Takumi- Border collie with mostly black fur and a white muzzle.

Karua- White goat. Her rose ribbon is tied to one of her horns. I wanted Karua and Takumi to have a farm animal theme, but that was sort of lost with the others.

Hiruko- Horse with black fur and a white stripe down the nose. I think it fits with her being super tall and lowkey dangerous.

Yugamu- Hognose bat. I had a hard time deciding this one, since I wanted an animal that felt a little "occult". I actually think a spider fits him better (with four visible eyes and the eyepatch covering two of them without changing its design), but I'm too scared of spiders to even draw one, let alone look at one.

Eito- Housecat, specifically a white or blondeish cat. The white jacket is still very big on him. I can't really explain my rationale except "look at his CGs". The cookout one? Happy cat. The one where he's waking up on the desk? Sleepy cat.

Kyoshika- White/albino fox. And when I do anthros, I like giving the super serious characters (I didn't know her gag would be the opposite of that!) giant pointy ears, so hers are very tall and pointy.

Muscle Girl- Lioness. Some of her poses reminded me of Wuk Lamat and the Fem Hrothgar from FFXIV, plus when people think "strength" they usually think lions, so I think it fits. (Her sprites would look adorable on a lion face too!)

Darumi- Parrot. Worth stating that I wanted to go with a parrot specifically because I couldn't think of a mammal that fit her, but I still wanted an animal that reflected her colorful design.

As for the remainder-

Frog Boy / Bear Boy / Green Hat - Yorkshire Terrier. This is going to sound weird, but I grew up with this Yorkie plushie that has roughly the same body shape as him, so I just felt like doing it.

Tsubasa - Golden Retriever or Yellow Lab. I guess she's supposed to be the most normal one of the cast, plus golden retrievers and labs famously look adorable in baseball caps.

Ima - Ferret. He would have more stripes and darker coloration than his sister. Plus the wings would look kind of cool in Hemoanima form. His more aggressive sprites would look cool on a ferret face too.

Kako - Ferret. She would have lighter-colored fur, maybe even be albino? I'm not sure if they're meant to look completely different yet. Ferrets are interesting because moreso than dogs or cats, they're animals that can be found living in the wild as well as being kept as pets, which I think works well with the dual nature of the twins.

Gaku - Chihuahua. He just has that vibe of a guy who's used to being pushed around and can be a little dramatic and defensive. I guess he comes from a rougher background, so one detail I'd add is a slice in his ear.

Takemaru - This is going to sound weird, but an alpaca. Alpacas can be aggressive, but I just think it would be hilarious to have a badass biker character who's a buff alpaca.

Kurara - I could answer this more definitively if we knew what she looked like under the tomato mask, but assuming it's a regular human head and she's not secretly an Invader or something, I'd design her to look like a Corgi. They've become synonymous with the British Royal Family fandom (one of my childhood art teachers had one for this reason), plus that one sprite where she points at the viewer somehow screams Corgi to me. (Or, a Shiba Inu, maybe? Would that also be appropriate? IDK.)

[neerbear]

To celebrate reaching (over) 1k followers on here, I am opening up a DTIYS challenge!

PRIZES:

Fully shaded character half body

Fully shaded character bust

Flat colour character half body

HOW TO ENTER:

You have 2 options - you can either redraw the same pieces as me (the one above) OR you can choose EITHER (or both!) of these characters and ANY of their designs (see ref sheet below) and draw them in ANY pose + setting YOU want!! This DTIYS challenge is supposed to be as open/free as possible, so I suggest you go with the second option and let your imagination run wild!!

OUTFITS REF:

I'll have a quick bio about each character at the end of the post - so check that out as well to get inspo!

I will be reblogging ALL the entries I find! If I didn't reblog yours - feel free to DM me, I might have missed it.

RULES:

No tracing!

Absolutely NO AI (at all, in any shape or form)

Must follow me (if you post on multiple social medias, following me on just one of them is enough)

Use the #neerDTIYS and @ me!

Gore and nudity (nsfw included) are ALLOWED, just tag them properly so others can filter easily!

ABOUT THE CHARACTERS:

This is just for those that will be drawing from their own imagination (or just want to know more)!

Master Hua / Lin Meixiu

Former Goddess of War. In her human life, she used to be a general, who got gravely injured during war and decided to spend her last moments with the people, leading to her hearing how everyone was grieving losses or dying from injuries, cursing the war, the rich and the generals themselves. A strange man saved her - the (then) God of War - and appointed her as his disciple. She trained under him and after his demise, she became the new Goddess of War, with everyone praising her strength and intelligence. After the Great Heavenly War against the devils, Goddess Lin Meixiu concentrated on trying to protect peace, so no more wars would ever happen. Her companions, the other Gods, took in disciples after that, yet she was the only one who refused any disciple, stating that the best God of War is self-made and only by being strong enough to defeat her can anyone hope to replace her. This angered a student who desperately wanted to become her disciple, to the point where he'd train every day and challenge her every year - but he would always lose. He and his friend (who turned out to be the son of one of the devils she killed in war) hacked a plan to get rid of all the current Gods and replace them. Their plan was successful, and after watching all of her brethren die, Lin Meixiu was prepared to join them, but (because of her great inner strength) she survived, injured and weak. Instead of returning to the Heavens, she stayed in the mortal realm and lead a simple life there.

Xiao Shuilong / Guo Xifeng

Her true form is that of a dragon, but she has successfully cultivated a human form. When she was little, her dragon village faced a great disaster. The Heavens blamed the dragonfolk so they sent the Goddess of War to investigate and kill them. When she arrived, however, she quickly understood the situation and saved the dragons, instead. Before she left, she performed a dance for them, as a gift to the young hatchling of noble blood. The dragons then swore their undying loyalty to her. When Guo Xifeng grew up, she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming the Goddess' disciple, so she headed to the heavens to sign up as a student. She won every competition and caught the eye of all the Gods, who allowed her to choose any God she wanted as her master (assuming that God agreed to it, as well). She instantly asked for Goddess Lin Meixiu, but was informed of her passing. During her moment of shock and horror, she was appointed as the disciple of the current God of War, instead. Every day, she would ask about her Goddess, but no one gave her a truthful answer about her passing. One day, long into her training, she overheard her teacher discussing the matter of Lin Meixiu's death, in which she found out the truth. In a fit of rage, she decided to avenge her Goddess by murdering the two Gods, but she was defeated and sent to the dungeons. There, the devil's son poisoned her with his demonic energy and she went mad, turning into her dragon form and destroying half of the place before being defeated again and sent crashing down to the mortal realm, heavily injured and with amnesia.

THEM

The injured dragon was found by a woman, who helped heal the dragon enough to give it a human form and drag it back to her home to further heal it. When the dragon lady woke up, it was obvious she had lost her memories. The strange woman introduced herself as an ordinary flower spirit named Hua. She named the dragon Xiao Shuilong, since she was found in the waters outside. Although Hua wanted to continue living her life, Xiao Shuilong was determined to retrieve her memories, so the two of them started investigating her origins. Every so often, the demonic energy in Xiao Shuilong's body overwhelms her, making her go crazy and turn into her dragon form - but Master Hua found that with dual cultivation, she is able to suppress demonic energy and bring Xiao Shuilong back to sanity. This might have heavy consequences later down the line... The rest you'll just have to read when the novel comes out 😉

[romirola]

Aggro, Bob, and Cheese at the Vet

When @claracatlady shared the brilliant headcanon that William Solaire owns a pampered, spoiled ragdoll cat named Bob, I was inspired to imagine how Bob and Aggro would get along, resulting in this post, and then this post, and then even a few fics that feature cameo appearances by Bob. (This fic is complete, while this one is currently ongoing. Recently, though, @slushiepizza shared that they headcanon Guy and Honey adopted a cat named Cheese. Obviously, this development led me to wonder how this kitty trio might cross paths...

Despite their many differences in lifestyle, fur type, and preferred petting, Aggro and Bob are best friends. It's no surprise that during a playdate, Milo gives William the name and contact information of Aggro's feline-exclusive vet when William decides that he won't subject Bob to a waiting room full of barking dogs, squawking birds, and even the occasional ferret scurrying about the floor. By pure happenstance, Aggro ends up getting stung by a bee the same day as Bob has his first annual check-up.

The diagnoses? Aggro is going to be just fine, though he needs to stay the night due to the heavy bout of antibiotics he's on to prevent his eye from developing an infection. Bob is in tip-top shape, but due to the vet wanting to be thorough and get a baseline of Bob's health, he will have to stay the night to complete some bloodwork and wait for the results.

William and Milo are so sad to leave their sons at the vet, but their health comes first. So, after many goodbye kisses and pets, they leave with empty carriers, counting down the hours until they can pick up their cats again. They are supposed to return to pick them up around 4PM the following day.

Meanwhile, Bob and Aggro are settled into the back room. The staff takes very good care of all boarding patients, including a spacious cage, providing soft towels, a clean litter box, and nutritious food based on the cat's health.

But, still. It's the vet. And Aggro and Bob hate the vet. They hate being in this strange place, with strange people, who all smell and sound strange. It's awful, and neither cat has any problem making that displeasure known. They hiss and growl, swat and bite. If given the chance, they'll even make a break for it and try to escape into the examination rooms. When any staff member tries to do anything to Aggro or Bob, they have to wear big, thick gloves and sometimes, even try to get a mask over their eyes to "relax" them.

Neither Bob nor Aggro finds that mask relaxing. And, yes, they take it off.

Bob and Aggro happen to be placed in adjacent cages, facing a cage that is occupied by none other than Cheese, who is waiting patiently and quietly for her humans to come get her. She is a good girl. Guy and Honey always tell her so. She does not bite or claw, because that would be rude. The staff all speak nicely and softly to her, even if they are jamming some syringe full of icky-tasting liquid down her throat. When Cheese arrived at the vet, her paw really, really hurt when she walked on it. Now, her paw still hurt a little bit, but it was much better, so these different humans must have been doing something good.

Aggro, ever one to establish himself as alpha-cat no matter what kind of medication he was taking, yowls at this newcomer. He puffs himself up so that his gray fur stands on end, claws extended, as he side-hops around the edge of the cage. Bob is unamused, licking at the paw the vet tech had the gall to shave to draw blood from him.

Cheese stares at Aggro with odd fascination. She's not used to aggression in the slightest. "Me-rrow?" She pushes a ball towards Aggro, through the bars of his cage. Maybe if this gray cat batted around a ball, he'd feel better? Batting around a ball always made Cheese feel happy, especially when Guy chased it around with her

Aggro continues his tirade. Bob, however, suddenly grows attentive when he saw the ball hop out of Cheese's cage and onto the hard floor. Bob loves chasing balls around William's mansion. And suddenly, the fact that he was cooped up in a cage is quite an inconvenience. Ever one to handle inconveniences, Bob begins to scream his displeasure, begging for someone to procure that ball from him.

Cheese pulls her ears back at Bob's desperate cries. She flattens herself against the floor, long fur splaying out from her belly. All she had wanted to do was share her ball, and now these other cats were all upset.

Alarmed at his friends sudden change in demeanor, Aggro joins the calls, adding his own voice. The chorus of cries rang out loudly, echoing throughout the room and beyond.

Soon enough, Cheese, too, feels compelled to join in with the meowing. It looks fun, and she always wants to help. She let her own voice squeaky voice add a particularly desperate, pitiful tone to the song.

It doesn't take long for a human to come bursting into the room. "Oh my gosh, what is it?" they ask worriedly. "What's wrong? What?" They spot the ball on the floor. They quickly retrieve that ball and two others, giving one to each cat, before rushing off to an examine room. "Bye now! Be good!" they trill.

Silence falls over the room as Aggro, Bob, and Cheese enjoy the spoils of their vocal hunt...

...until the cats collectively realize the power that their voices held when together. Alone? They were powerless. But together?

They had this vet clinic at their beck and meow.

It's a long, long day for the staff. At 8:01AM, Milo, William, and Guy all receive the following phone call:

"Hi, yes, your cat is all set and ready to come home. Could you come pick up your cat early? As early as you can get here, preferably. Aggro/Bob/Cheese just really wants to come home. Please? Please come get your cat?"

Aggro, Bob, and Cheese hate the vet, but they are quite pleased to have made a new friend.

[trashboatprince]

Drabbled idea, crossover style: 10th Doctor and Crowley stand off while Donna and Aziraphale watch

Gosh, I always love writing Ten and Crowley interacting, it's a lot of fun. :D

On with the fic!

--

Donna stared at the two man-shaped beings as one sat on a couch, the other holding a book open in his hands. The third man-shaped being in the room, the one that didn't look like the first two, was gripping his teacup rather tightly, his eyes never leaving that book.

"You can't just tell me that this was made in a workshop! Impossible!" The Doctor shouted, jabbing a finger at an old drawing of the sun, Aziraphale wincing at the hard jabs.

"I am tellin' you, cause it's bloody true!" Crowley shouted back. "I should know, I helped make it!"

"I've seen the thing explode! Hell, I can go back in time right now and watch it get made! I saw that with the Earth! Remember, Donna? It was during our first adventure!"

Donna snorted. "Yeah, I remember. It was right after I found out that my fiance was going to feed me to a giant spider's babies in order to take over the world. On my wedding day."

Aziraphale made a face. "What a terrible way to celebrate your wedding."

"Well, didn't help that I missed the blasted thing cause of him." She gestured at the Doctor, who gasped, putting a hand to his chest.

"Not my fault! You know this! It was the-"

"Yeah, yeah, ancient particles and all that. What the hell are you two even fighting about over there?" Donna asked, raising an eyebrow. "You two were doing just fine all morning, wouldn't shut up about this and that!"

Crowley made a face. "This guy here is telling me that it's impossible for angels to have created the building blocks of the universe. And even more impossible for this former angel, that being me, to have made stars. Specifically the one this planet is circling around."

"It is! I've seen stars be created!" The Doctor threw his hands up in the air and Aziraphale snapped his fingers, the book was now gone, probably back on a shelf or something. "My own people have helped in development on some!"

"That's cause Heaven decided to let some other lifeforms do what we do. It's, ya know, cheaper labor." Crowley said, waving a hand about.

"Cheaper la-!? Next you're going to be telling me that the universe was made only a few thousand years ago!"

Crowley made a weird series of noises that could have been words but Donna didn't catch any of it, not even the TARDIS could translate that string of nonsense. The Doctor stared in shock. "No."

"Yeeeeaaaahhhh... like, it's hard to explain, time is insane when it comes to angels and demons, we've got our own system and all that. Somehow the humans learned about it and now there's some people who really believe that, but it's like, really? Really? Nah. But yeah, to me, over six thousand years, 's not a big deal."

The Doctor looked like he wanted to throw a fit. Donna almost leaned over to ask Aziraphale if he had any popcorn for this show, but he seemed to be on the same wavelength as her, already holding up a bag for her to take a few pieces.

--

I still trust David's judgement on Crowley and Ten being very fast friends, but I just know that they would argue about science. Angel/demon science makes sense! When you're an angel or a demon.

Not really a standoff, but they're about to have a big nerd fight.

[still-a-morosexual-help]

@🌹anon asked about my ocs sometime back and as I was answering it rn I accidentally deleted the entire thing😭😭😭😭😭

I'm gonna try and write whatever I remember again✌️:

Yes I did it again (shut up);

I'm such a fucking idiot, I found the "deleted ask" hidden deep in my drafts - apparently it went there when I lost my internet connection but instead of getting saved at the top of my drafts it got saved on the day anon first sent me the ask so somewhere in the middle between other drafts??? Anyway:

!!!You asked for it!!

They were all created for some game or another (characters I'll be able to toss away once I'm done playing the games) But I ended up falling in love with all of them🤡

I can't draw people for shit & I don't wanna describe appearances so I'm gonna use picrews (with links added for anyone who wants to use 'em too)

Starting from first created to last & answering it like I'm making them character profiles for a dating sim (but leaving out the three from Choices 'cause I don't know if they can be considered proper ocs rather than just characters the game handed us? Also leaving out the others from fictif because they're not as well developed)

1. "Lex" Alexandra Lane

(Lex after Lex Luthor and Lane after Lois Lane because I think I'm funny)

[1] , [2]

Origin: Love Island the Game S2

25 at beginning now 26 years (Birthday: November 16th)

5'5"

She/Her

Bisexual

Professional Cellist

English/British because the game didn't give me a choice

Married at 26 (because the game gives you no option), will definitely have a couple kids at some point

No gross out factor - probably ate bugs as a kid. Probably will still eat a bug off the ground if dared to. Biggest point of pride is that she can do a backflip in heels. Loves fashion/beautiful clothes that are usually stupidly expensive. Biting her lip and making bedroom eyes at every single person but really just wants to fall in love and settle down. Hates confrontation/any sort of fight but also really wants to know everything about everyone's business. Good at being the mediator. Always the big spoon. Actually pretty buff - can absolutely bench you.

2. Eliza Ramskin

(Eliza after the official name of the porcelain apple doll sitting in a box on my cupboard but then I decided I didn't want it to stand for Elizabeth so now it stands for "A Lizard" after the rubber gecko pasted on my bedroom wall. Ramskin: a bad pun because of the game)

[1] , [2] (yes the little frog is supposed to be me)

Origin: Obey Me!

23 at beginning now 26 years (Birthday: April 21st)

5'10"

They/Them

Queer

Wildlife Photographer

Has chronic pain

Has a scar over one eyebrow - will smugly tell you a cool story for it. In reality dropped a jar of peanut butter on their face. + top surgery scars

-> Essentially just om! gen MC with a background and name. Have you read my post about gen MC's canon facts? Have you read any of my gen MC theory posts, where I take individual canon facts & connect them to see what happens? Have you read any of my obey me! fics? Can you remember what general MC was like in them? Then you know exactly what Eliza is like. But still, here are some of my favourite parts:

Ambiguously human. Would fight God at 2am in a Denny's parking lot and WIN. They're very lowkey an asshole but underneath that they're kinda nice but underneath that they're a bigger asshole but underneath that they're even nicer and so on and so forth. Surprisingly down for murder. 0 self preservation + 0 shame + 0 fear + max drive & determination + max stubborness + max can do attitude + unconsciously charming + actually pretty strong + danger kink + horny = the world's greatest monster fucker.

3. Len

(Len's short for Lenora which she no longer goes by but irl named after my Lenova laptop, No surname.)

[1] , [2]

Origin: The Arcana

31 years (Birthday: June 7th)

5'11"

She/They

Bisexual

Same occupation as the game's MC

The only one who has a defined body shape in my mind and that body shape is plank of wood

Pitch black eyes that reflects no light. Vague cryptid energy. Stoic, cold yet thin polite smile that seems very surface level. Posture's so good just looking at her makes your back hurt. Warms up once you get to know her; is caring and gentle and understanding and soothing but also stuborn and tough/harsh/strict. Responsible but also has no problem breaking the law if needed. Dreams of travelling the world. Gives off black cat energy but is a dog person. Sadistic in both the sexy and unsexy way. Bad puns. So much untapped potential to be a super villain. I think I accidentally just created a female version of om!'s Lucifer...

4. Vale Knight

(Vale after welcome to night vale which I hadn't watched at the time, Knight from the same place but it's also a pun because of what happens to them in the game)

[1] , [2]

Origin: Last Legacy

28 years (July 10th)

6'0"

They/Them

Queer Polyamorous

Same occupation as the game's MC

Not only are they a weeb they're an ASSHOLE. The kind of person to get stabbed because their first instinct was to mock the mugger. Decided to dye their hair for cosplay once and then went "wait a minute -" A shameless flirt until someone flirts back and then they're a flustered annoyed mess. Had a lot of jobs over the years, currently a barista - doesn't want to be a barista forever but doesn't know what they want to do (other than gaming, watching movies/shows/anime, reading books/comics/manga) until they accidentally discover a passion for medicine and go to nursing school

5. River Bouwmeester

(River after Lake from Infinity Train which I've never watched, Bouwmeester because it's a Dutch surname meaning "master builder" because they work as a home renovater)

[1]

Origin: Monster Manor

27 years

5'1"

He/They

Queer

Same occupation as the game's MC

American (because the game gave me no choice) with probably Dutch origins from their father's side

Couple of big scars here and there

BIG "I can fix him energy". Moves around a lot = not much possibility for a long term stable relationship = oblivious and shy when it comes to romantic attraction. Strong, patient, practical. Very little can rattle them. Came from a long family line of home renovaters/builders (of the magic, strange & weird) but no close living family. Unironically loves bob the builder. Trying very hard to forget about the fact that they're extremely lonely by keeping up a very positive optimistic attitude. Their truck is their pride & joy. Absolutely loves their job even though it's what causes them to move about so much and so makes it hard to form close connections. Very friendly from the first moment but isn't tolerant of anyone's bullshit.

6. Roo Kidd

(Roo after the baby kangaroo from Winnie the Pooh, Kidd because the baby kangaroo was a kid. Surprisingly the actual meanings behind both names fit with their character/circumstances)

[1] , [2]

Origin: Twisted Wonderland

16 years (Birthday January 10th)

5'7"

He/They

Gay Demiromantic Asexual

Wears reading glasses

Lots of small scars from scrapes and scratches all along body

Always cold + loves cute clothes = wearing summer dresses and instantly regretting it. Head in the clouds 7 outta 10 times. Has never felt romantic attraction before - believed they never would and was 100% okay with that - so the one time they did start feeling it went "wow I'm really into this friendship" and stayed oblivious for an annoyingly long time. Also similarly oblivious to romantic attraction directed at them. Kinda klutzy. Big wet eyes. Big bright smile. A ball of sunshine but also really snarky. "This might as well happen" energy. Fast with quick reflexes and a sharp eye for detail. A cunning edge that comes out only during emergencies. Strength of a wet noodle though. Gets a shitty impromptu/accidental haircut that leads to him buzzing it all off and having to grow it back.