#I did have to keep referencing line from the game to try and get a good sort of in character vibe as a whole

[taki-yaki]

I just thought of a prompt: In the game Astarion mentions during the first decade of his enslavement he met a sweet man that he didn’t want to bring to Cazador, which led to his year of entombment and giving up on fighting Cazador. What if Tav is a descendent or relative of that sweet man, and he left a journal of how a pale elf saved his life before escaping into the remote countryside. Tav is abducted while on her way to Baldur’s Gate to investigate the journal, and when she meets Astarion she immediately suspects it’s him.

When it’s revealed he’s a vampire spawn Tav is now sure he’s the elf that saved her ancestor/relative’s life.

Oooh, this is interesting, I have made this one a little bit angsty in one section. But I feel like this would change up the dynamic if it was in the game

Astarion x Descendant Tav Headcanons

For most of your life, you grew up living in the countryside, far from the large bustle of the city life in Baldur’s Gate. Despite your family's willingness to distance themselves from the city, it never seemed to deter you. Ever since you were gifted your grandfather’s journals as a child, chronicling his life in the upper city, from the views to that of the variety of dishes they provided, seemed like a dream to a country child like yourself.

Although one section was a mystery to you, that of in-depth descriptions of a pale elf. When you asked your parents, they never wanted to speak much about it, saying when he returned, he looked entirely different, changed by an event that took place there. They would always try to steer your thoughts away from the city if prompted any further.

One day, you decided to leave the small village on a whim to journey to the city, wanting to put an end to the mystery. Travelling along the road to Baldur’s gate to investigate the mystery, is cut early after being abducted by the nautiloid ship, now being set back further from where you started with a tadpole in your head.

However, one face looked familiar among your new travelling friends. A pale elf, one which matched the exaggerated descriptions inside your grandfather’s journal. However seeing him in person said otherwise, matching what was written, ‘Ruby eyes as if looking into a ripe rose’ and ‘Silver lock curls that brushed softly against his ears’. But how could an elf like him look the same after so many decades?

Upon discovering his vampiric nature, explains how he was able to stay young for so long. One night you decide to confront him about your grandfather’s journal, showing him the entries and asking if he knew anything about it. Of course, he would deny not having a clue about what you are talking about

“Why do you insist on exhuming the past? I have no such knowledge of meeting a person like this”

His eyes would dart away from yours wishing to no longer engage in such pointless dribble. Any other mentions of the journal would just leave you with him trying to skirt himself around the topic.

One night though, he approaches you, drunk on, presumably, the blood of a bear, clinging to you refusing to let you go “I’m glad you’re alive still” he’d slur “You were so naive and sweet, to be subjected to such a thing”. When you try to question him about it, he refuses to answer any further, just tightening his grip on you longing to stay in the moment, eventually having to drag him back to his tent for the night.

The next morning, approached his tent to check on him, “I suppose you want to know what I was talking about last night” His body turned away from you to stare at the deep crimson of the tent walls. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to”, he turns to face you “Hmm, well I don’t want to talk about as much as you do, but that won’t do anyone any good”.

He explains how, in his first decade of slavery, he found a sweet naive man, who dreamed of making it big in the upper city of Baldur’s Gate. Compared to most he would find from petty criminals, street drunkards and brothel-goers, he would occasionally find some naive soul who wished to make it big in the city. 

One of those was your grandfather, he never tried to charm him, more so befriend him, he warned him to never approach him again and to run far away from this city if he wanted to live. 

“He was the first and only one who I ever truly let go” his eye meeting the floor 

“And I punished horribly for it” the grip on his shoulders tightening.

An awkward silence fell upon the tent “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed you like that to answer”. A light laugh leaves his lips as he turns to look at you, “Ha, you're just as sweet as he was, but…I’m glad he was able to make a life for himself, unlike me”. Slowly you clasped over his shoulder, his eyes staring directly into yours “Don’t speak so short of yourself, I promised you that I’ll keep you safe, just as you did for my grandfather, your actions won’t be in vain”.

Whilst travelling to Baldur’s Gate the two of you bond over the descriptions left in your grandfather’s journal describing the palaces within the city, ‘The Blushing Mermaids signature dish, salted small-fish stew, may be one of the establishment's more unique dishes that they have to offer.’, “We have to try that when we get to the city it sounds amazing”, “Hmm, how about we just avoid the Blushing Mermaid, I know their calamari dishes don’t live up to their praise and that was over 200 years ago.”

Upon reaching Baldur’s Gate, you felt as if you had the biggest culture shock of your life, from the once romantic establishments now being nothing more than an average local tavern and the food they served was nothing but the morning leftovers from last week's catch. Now staring down at the dish through the murky stew a piece of baitfish floating to the surface. “Now darling, it was your choice to go here you should looked more pleased with the dish that dear old grandfather elegantly described to you.” smiling at you with a smug look.

Despite the reality of city life overwhelming your naive outlook on life, one quiet night in elf song, you turn to Astarion, “You know, over 200 years ago, if you didn’t let him go that night, then I would have never met you, funny how things worked out like that”, “I’m glad you think so too, ever since that night, I wonder sometimes if I ever made the right decision, but know I think I do, and I’m thankful to have met you”.

[asksonicverse]

You dont need to answer but I just wanted to tell you I adore Paradox being like "I hate all of them except" and then listing everyone except like 2 guys, honey you don't hate *all* of them you expressly don't hate *most of them*

Extremely charming characterization i adore it

[Creator Special number 2!]

So glad someone noticed that, I was originally going to have him name EVERYONE except Boost but then I was like “nah, Mania is just too annoying for Paradox to tolerate him”

And thanks! I’m trying to be… consistent with my characterization of each of them and stay in line with canon but like… URGH sometimes I want to deviate so bad just to indulge but I resist!

Needless to say tho, prism is probably going to get more affectionate later on. Rewatched Sonic Prime again and bro is a cutie patootie!

Headcanons… headcanons… hmm

Well, starting with the obvious, Paradox goes to therapy as I’ve mentioned which I think is hilarious. He and Lance are the only Shadows who really have their shit together which is why I think Sonadow works well for them? (we stan healthy relationships guys)

I do head canon that Eight doesn’t like being touched really at all anymore. After the metal virus, he grew so used to the fact that he couldn’t touch anyone that it sorta just stuck. He does it to save people, but not anything more. :(

And while I’m a sucker for the Trans Sonic HC I decided not to implement it in this particular AU!

I really want to include Captain Sonic and Shadow, but I haven’t played nor watched a serious play through of the game. (I’ve only really listened to a bit of the Snapcube dub..)

can someone tell me if Shadow is a Barista or a Mechanic in that game btw?? I google it, nothing pops up. I could’ve sworn there was something about a mechanic.

Uhh I LOVE Sonic Frontiers, fire game. If I include that one, it’ll ALSO be Sonamy since I’m pretty sure that game takes place before SA2 in canon?

I’m trying to keep the Sonics and Shadows balanced but I’d love to add Generations Shadow and Sonic. Just thinking of names already I get “Doom” for Shadow and “Emerald” for Sonic. (Referencing the fake emerald from their interaction in the shadow story)

Unfortunately I haven’t seen the Archie comics or Sonic Underground so I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

Someone also asked about if I’d ever include different AU’s: maybe if those AU creators gave me permission I’d be down to do a collab for a few asks or something!

Nope!

I dunno I just..! … how do I do? I’m fast. And you’re slow. That’s how I did it. /ref

Ahahah just kidding! But I am very fast. A few years ago I convinced myself I was a “slow drawer” because I was in a discord server with someone I looked up to (and holy cheese they could draw out fully articulate sketches in like 30 seconds!)

So I got insecure and taught myself to draw really fast. So now I just.. zoom! This does have a terrible draw back where I will very frequently forget smaller details.

Like if you look at half the posts, Shadow is missing his eyeliner and other markings frequently.

THIS IS JUST HILARIOUS TO ME YOU GUYS. PLEASE—

I’ve gotten SO many asks in my box about using Maria to calm the Shadows down or trying to give Shadows “Maria plushies”

Imagine you’re having a bad day and you get a plushie of your dead sibling thrown at you??? LMFAOOOO

I CANT I CANT I CANT PUT THEM THROUGH THAT 💔 Also I see every single ask.

“Do you all like Latinas” and “sonic which shadow is the hottest/shadow which sonic is the hottest” have all been engraved in my brain

Was joking with a friend on how that second question would come out LMFAOO

Previous | Next

[gunnerfc]

Dress | Alessia Russo x Reader (18+) [Thursday]

-> England and Arsenal reader

Summary: Your best friend and housemate looks a little too good in the new dress she bought | slightly inspired by ‘Dress’ - Taylor Swift

Warnings: bottom alessia, top reader, strap use (alessia receiving), oral (alessia receiving), fingering (r receiving), masturbation (R; fingering) in a shared space

WC: 4k

AN: this might be one of if not number 1 of the fics I've written 🧎| this is the dress I was referencing Alessia wearing

Night After Night masterlist

You cheered softly to yourself when you scored your eighth goal against Katie in a game of FIFA. You loved playing against her because you knew you could walk away with an easy win. you laughed to yourself picturing your teammate swearing and complaining to Caitlin, who would have a lot to say to you during training for making her deal with an angry Katie McCabe. 

Just as Katie restarted the game, Alessia came tumbling through the front door, hands full with bags from her day out shopping. You threw a glance her way and chuckled when she lightly tripped over her own feet. 

"You good, Lessi," you teased but kept your eyes locked on the TV screen in front of you.

Alessia's face lit up, blush coating her cheeks as she sat all her bags down to remove her shoes. "Perfectly fine, thank you very much," she huffed as she tossed her shoes to the small pile by the front door. 

You and Alessia had been friends for a long time and when you both were signed to Arsenal, you decided to move in together to make things easy. You loved living with her but being around her 24/7 did nothing to stop your ever-growing feelings for her. But you kept your feelings to yourself, not wanting to complicate your living situation. 

Your game with Katie came to an end and the defender promptly left the lobby, too pissed at the score line to continue playing. You chuckled once more as you sat your controller on the couch, your full attention turned to Alessia who was now trying to pick up all her bags to carry to her room. 

"Did you leave anything for other people to buy," you joked as you stood up to help her, a smile on your face when you noticed her blush.

"Hush," she mumbled as you picked up most of the bags for her. You were too busy keeping your own feelings hidden to notice Alessia doing the same.

The forward had a crush on you the moment you two met at the youth levels for England. You two have been inseparable since then, closer than ever and madly in love with the other, even if you were both hiding it. 

But Alessia was tired of keeping her feelings to herself, she's wanted to tell you how she felt every day since she came to terms with it. She just wasn't sure what the best way to go about it was because she was worried about you potentially not feeling the same. However, after whining about her feelings and gushing about you to Ella, the two of them came up with a plan. 

She was going to make you make the first move if you did feel the same and an upcoming event proved to be her best chance. She had spent all day shopping with Lotte and Emily to find the perfect dress that she thought would drive you crazy. After hours of searching, she finally found the perfect dress that she'd hoped you'd take off her. 

You sat the bags on the end of her bed before turning to head back to the living room. "Wait, can I get your help on which dress to wear for this event, I know you aren't going but I could use the extra opinion," the blonde grinned and you knew you'd never be able to say no to her.

"You're sure you want my opinion," you joked with a raised eyebrow, dressing up and going to all those fancy events were out of your comfort zone. 

"Of course, I trust your opinion more than others," she replied, her grin just a bright. 

You nodded with a smile before telling her you'd wait in the living room for her to show you her options. Alessia cheered cutely before she started pulling various outfits from the shopping bags. 

You sat on the couch, browsing through social media while you waited. You'd just clicked through Katie's Snapchat story where she posted about losing to you with various angry emojis when Alessia's bedroom door opened. You looked up from your phone and your eyes scanned the dress your best friend was wearing. 

It was a black dress but wasn't one you thought complimented her fully. "It's nice but I don't think it's my favorite," you hummed, your eyes straying toward her long legs before meeting her eyes. 

"It's not my favorite either but I thought I'd still show you," she blushed before heading back into her room to change into the next dress. 

You weren't sure how you were given a free pass to basically check out your best friend but you weren't going to say no to the idea. So you waited, letting Alessia take all the time she wanted before she came back out in a blue dress. 

This one was better than the last but still missing something. You tilted your head to the side as your eyes took in the piece of clothing before giving her your thoughts. "I like this one more than the black one, but it still feels like it's missing something," you offered, your eyes meeting hers with a smile on your face. 

Alessia nodded and smiled but didn't say anything as she turned around. Your eyes shamelessly dropped to check her out again before you were staring at her closed bedroom door. Alessia was glad you didn't like any of the ones she was showing you so far, she was only showing them to make it seem like she had options. 

But as she slipped on the red dress she bought earlier, she knew this would be the winner. Alessia took a small breath before opening her door and stepping out, her eyes landing on you to watch your reaction closely.

You looked up from your phone, your jaw dropping slightly but you were quick to school your expression. Your eyes slowly scanned her body, lingering as they eyed parts of her exposed chest and her legs. You swallowed harshly as you sat up straighter, many thoughts forming in your head but none were something you could say to your best friend. 

"Um... I- I like this one the most," you settled on something safe, though your eyes had yet to meet hers again. 

Alessia smirked softly but her face was almost as red as her dress, she'd slowly put her secret plan in motion and now she had to sit back and let you make the first move. "Good, this was my favorite too," she beamed, turning to head back into her room and she felt your eyes burning holes into her backside as you watched her leave.

The event was in four days and the blonde planned to let you sit with all you were feeling until you saw her in the dress again, hoping it would be what would jumpstart your relationship. Though with training in between, the days leading up to the event seemed to drag on for ages.

You groaned as you opened your front door to be met with multiple people who were a part of Alessia’s team helping her get ready. It had slipped your mind that today was the day of the event Alessia would be attending and a small burst of excitement filled your chest as you remembered the dress she decided on. Though in reality, the dress hadn’t left your mind since she first walked out of her bedroom to show you.

“Y/N! Is that you,” Alessia’s voice echoed from her bedroom as she heard the front door open amidst the chaotic scenes around her.

“Who else would it be,” you joked as you peeked your head around her doorframe, eyes landing on the blonde sitting on the edge of her bed in a white robe while her makeup artist covered her eyelashes in mascara.

Alessia rolled her eyes when the woman left her alone to grab a light shade of lipstick. Alessia’s eyes met yours as she let her makeup artist apply the lipstick. You sent her a small smile before returning to your room to shower, having gone for a light gym workout with Kyra. 

By the time you were done and changed, Alessia had changed into her dress and was getting assistance with her heels in the living room. Your breath hitched when you exited your room, your eyes slowly committing the sight of her to memory. “You look beautiful, Less,” you gushed quietly as you bit your lip softly. 

Alessia’s cheeks burned as her head dropped slightly out of shyness. “Thank you, y/n/n,” she muttered before her team informed her it was time to go.

Alessia was rushed out the door before either of you could say anything else and you were left in the quiet of your home, a warm feeling growing between your legs. You knew you had a few hours to yourself before Alessia would be back so you opted to relax in the living room.

You did your best to distract yourself for as long as you could but the need growing between your legs was overpowering. If you were going to get yourself off you were going to be quick about it since Alessia could be back at any moment. You swallowed lightly before propping one of your legs on the coffee table in front of you and spreading the other. You sighed as your hands pulled at your clothing, groping your chest as your hips rolled slightly. 

Your mind was full of Alessia, what it would be like to have your way with her, and how she’d sound begging for you to fuck her. Your breathing picked up as you slid your hands down your body toward the waistband of the sweatpants you were wearing. You pushed your shirt up your torso some, gripping it as your other hand dipped under the elastic of your pants and underwear.

Your body jerked at the feeling of your cold hands on your skin as you ran a finger through your wet folds. You moaned the sensation, Alessia’s name falling from your lips without realizing it. You pushed a finger into your wet cunt, thrusting slowly as your eyes fell shut and your chest heaved.

You added a second finger and sped up your movements, pumping your fingers inside you as your hips grind in time with your fingers. You moved the hand that was holding your shirt up to grope one of your breasts under your shirt, moaning as you pulled at the hardened nipple. You chanted Alessia’s name as your back arched off the couch, your thighs clamping your hand between them.

You came with a loud moan of Alessia’s name and kept your fingers pumping inside you to help calm yourself down. After a moment, the sensation became too much and you pulled your soaked fingers out of your pants. You swallowed harshly as you stared up at the ceiling, your chest moving rapidly.

You stood up after catching your breath to wash your hands in the kitchen and as you headed to your room, the front door opened. Alessia sighed as she closed the door behind her, leaning against it as she shoved her heels off and dropped her small purse. Your eyes widened slightly, hoping she hadn’t been right outside the whole time.

“Remind me to never do that again,” she groaned as she moved to the couch, dropping into the spot you had previously occupied. You blinked a few times before joining her, you couldn’t just say nothing and head to your room just yet.

You offered her a small laugh in response as you sat next to her, leaving enough space between the two of you. The dress she was wearing was driving you crazy and you didn’t know how much longer you could last.

“What did you get up to while I was gone,” the blonde questioned, turning her head to face you.

“Oh, um...not much. Just watched some TV, y’know,” you shrugged, though Alessia knew you well enough to know that you were lying but she didn’t press you.

She mumbled a small ‘nice’ before you were both sitting in silence, both of your thoughts filled with similar things. You bit your lip as your eyes trailed up her legs to the hem of her dress that rested on her thigh. Oh, how you’d love to be between her thighs right now.

Your breathing picked up as you thought about how she would taste and held back a moan as you pictured going down on her. “Y/n, are you all right,” Alessia asked softly as she slid next to you, a hand landing on your thigh.

You nodded but refused to meet her eye and Alessia wasn't having that. She raised her hand to turn you to face her, your eyes filled with arousal as you stared at her lips. “Alessia,” you whispered and the blonde’s thighs flexed hearing you say her full name.

“Yeah,” her voice was just as quiet as yours as she ran her thumb along your cheek. You leaned in slowly, giving her enough time to pull away if she wanted.

When she didn’t move away, you connected your lips in a hesitant kiss, waiting for her to move first. You both sighed heavily into the kiss as your lips moved against each other, your hand falling to grip her thigh. Alessia moaned softly into the kiss at the feeling of your hand on her and you took the opportunity to move your tongue into her mouth.

You slide your hand further up her thigh, pushing the bottom of her dress to her hips before your hand hits the fabric of her panties. Alessia pulled out of the kiss to moan louder, her forehead resting against yours as her eyes fell shut.

“I wanna taste you, Lessi,” you mumbled, your voice laced with arousal as you rubbed your fingers over her covered cunt. You could feel how wet she was through the piece of clothing and it was driving you crazy. 

“Please,” she croaked out and it was all you needed to drop to your knees in front of her. You bunched her dress around her hips as you placed light kisses along the inside of her thighs, small whines falling from her lips as she waited for you.

You pulled her panties down her legs, tossing them somewhere behind you as her legs spread for you. You gulped softly as you stared at her dripping cunt before making yourself comfortable between her thighs. 

You hooked your arms around her thighs, moving her legs to rest on your shoulders as you leaned in, placing a tentative kiss on her clit. Alessia threw her head back against the couch, one of her hands tangling in your hair as your kisses became more confident. Your kisses turned to suck as you took the sensitive bud into your mouth, sucking harshly as you moaned against her.

Alessia’s hips bucked up as you moved your tongue to run through her wet folds, a loud moan of your name falling from her lips. Her thighs clamped around your head, keeping you as close as possible to her as you tasted her. Your eyes flutter shut as you work your move against her, pulling whines from the blonde above you. 

“I’m gonna cum,” she cried, her breathing heavy as her hips jerked against your face. You sped up your tongue, fucking her with the muscle as you held her body tightly. 

Alessia came on your face with a loud groan, tears pricking her eyes in pleasure as you kept moving. Her legs went limp against your shoulders and she tugged slightly on your hair to get your attention. You pulled away from her, earning a whine when the cold air hit her cunt. 

You sat on your knees as you took her in, your eyes falling to her partially exposed chest. You weren’t close to being satisfied and you stood on wobbly legs, offering her a hand. Alessia took your hand, letting you help her up and guide her to your bedroom. Her mind racing from this new experience.

You closed your bedroom door softly behind you and moved the two of you to the edge of your bed. You took your time stripping Alessia’s dress off her, letting it pool by her ankles before she stepped out of it. Your hands rested softly on her waist as your eyes scanned her completely bare body. 

Alessia’s breath hitched when you kissed her collarbone before trailing kisses to her breasts. She pushed her chest forward as your lips wrapped around one of her nipples, sucking on the bud as one of your hands slipped down to grab her ass. You pulled away from her completely after a moment, a string of spit connecting your lips to her nipple as you did so.

You took a step back to strip, tossing your clothes to the floor to be picked up later. Alessia shamelessly let her eyes ogle your body. You turned to move toward your nightstand, pulling a girthy strap on from the drawer before turning to face the blonde. Alessia’s eyes dropped to the toy in your hand and felt her cunt grow even wetter. 

“We can stop if you want,” you offered, not wanting to overstep any boundary. 

Alessia shook her quickly, “I don't want to stop,” she croaked out. You nodded with a small smirk as you harnessed the toy around your waist. Alessia felt lightheaded at the sight of you with the strap on between your legs.

You motioned to the bed with your head, letting her get into whatever position she wanted to be fucked in. You bit back a small groan when she crawled onto your bed and stayed on her hands and knees. You moved around the bed to return to the edge before kneeling on the mattress behind her. You ran your hands over her ass, smacking her skin softly as you kneaded the skin.

Alessia whined at the feeling, her head dropping as she stared at the cover of your bed. You slid your hands up to caress her hips, rubbing your thumbs over her back. Alessia waited with bated breath as you moved one hand to the toy between your legs, lifting the tip to her cunt. You pushed the strap into her, your hand returning to her hip as you bottomed out. Alessia gasped at the full feeling, her hips pushing back against you once she was comfortable. 

Alessia’s skin felt hot against yours and you took a small intake of air before pulling out some. You snapped your hips against her, your skin slapping against hers as you thrust. Alessia’s arms buckled slightly at your thrusts but her hips pushed back against you with each one. You sped up your movements when loud whines fell from your best friend’s lips, your name never sounding better. 

“Fuck,” you huffed as your thrusts became rougher, your head falling back as you closed your eyes. Your eyes were back on Alessia when she moved to rest on her forearms, her hands gripping your cover as continuous whines filled your room. The loud sound of your skin hitting hers and the sound of you fucking her mixed with her moans made your head spin.

“Fuck, Less. You’re taking me so well,” you grunted as squeezed her hips, most likely leaving light bruises in your wake.

Alessia moaned at the praises, her hips faltering as she was close to another orgasm. You kept your pace steady, your hips snapping against her body roughly. “I’m so close! Please-” Her words were taken from her when you hit that particular spot within her, a loud whine taking their place.

You focused on your movements, determined to have her experience one of her best orgasms ever. “Cum for me, Alessia,” you grunted as you railed into her.

With a loud whine, Alessia fell into the mattress she came on your strap. You kept your hips going as you helped her through her orgasm, broken cries from the blonde edged you on to keep going. You fucked into her with the same momentum as before, a third orgasm hitting her as she whimpered.

You pulled out of her slowly, the blonde breathing heavily as you tossed the toy to the floor. You ran your hands up the back of her thighs, up her ass, and over her back in a comforting manner, the blonde’s skin sweaty under your touch.

“You good, Less,” you mumbled into her ear as you leaned over her, placing small kisses along her back. You moved slightly when she rolled over, her fucked out expression became your favorite sight in that moment. 

Alessia licked her lips as she nodded, her brain too foggy to form a sentence. You smirked as you lay on your side next to her, one of your hands tracing random shapes along her body. Alessia turned her head to face you, her eyes locking with yours as she leaned up to kiss you. She could faintly taste herself on your lips from earlier as she pushed you onto your back.

You stared at the blonde in shock, you hadn’t expected her to have enough energy to reciprocate, not that you minded. Alessia straddled your thigh and you moaned quietly as you felt her wetness on your skin. She traced a finger down your body and leaned down to kiss you. You moaned into the kiss when she ran her finger through your wet folds, your hips bucking up to meet her finger.

She dipped her finger inside you slowly before pulling it out quickly. You gasped lightly, her finger felt ten times better than yours had felt earlier. Your eyes screwed shut when she pushed two fingers deep inside you, pumping them slowly to edge you closer to your second orgasm that night. You held the cover beneath you tightly as your back arched off the mattress, hips rolling in time with her thrusts. 

“L-less,” you stuttered, your head thrown back against your pillows as she fucked you closer to the edge. “P-please,” you begged.

Alessia sped up her fingers as her other hand to rub your sensitive clit. Your body jerked at the feeling, a loud moan falling from your lips as you let go, cumming all over her fingers. Alessia slowed her fingers some before pulling them out of you completely. 

Your eyes fell open at the loss of contact and they fell on Alessia as she brought her fingers to her mouth, sucking them into her mouth to taste you. She moaned at the taste, her eyes closing as she licked her fingers clean. You gulped at the sight, desire building once more.

“Fuck, that’s so hot,” you grunted as you sat up, your arms wrapping around her waist to pull her flush against you. You both moaned slightly when your sensitive nipples bumped each other.

Alessia wrapped her arms around your neck, her fingers playing with the baby hairs on the back of your neck. You stared up at her, a look of love clouding your eyes as you smiled at her. Alessia giggled quietly as she gave you a quick kiss but you pulled her into a deeper kiss before she got too far.

“I'm in love with you, Alessia,” you whispered against her lips, a sense of nervousness filled your body despite everything that just happened.

“I’m in love with you too, y/n,” she blushed, a smile on her face as she spoke. You beamed up at her before kissing her once more, though this kiss was softer than the last. 

Alessia pulled back with a small yawn, her tiring week mixed with the sex had exhausted her. You cooed with a small smile when you saw her bow her head bashfully. You moved the two of you under the covers, placing a small kiss to her hairline as she curled into you.

“Goodnight, Less,” you whispered against her head as you pulled her close to you. The blonde mumbled a quiet ‘goodnight’ before sleep took over.

You were glad your feelings were out in the open now and the two of you could talk about it more in the morning. But for now, you were content to cuddle Alessia as you both slept, a smile on your face as fell asleep.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I've been trying to focus on thinking about things I enjoy about the idea of the TWST anime. And regarding overblots, I think an anime version would really help illustrate (even more) how terrifying the process is. I really like how the manga shows Riddle's OB, and I love anime as a medium, so I'm pretty hyped to see how it will be conveyed in it.

I really hope they accentuate the horror of it- I'm aware that they might not go all in w the horror like I would personally like, but the thought still excites me. What kind of music will they play? Will the animation change like it does in some animes when the characters are distressed (wobbly lines, glitchy effects)...? What sort of directions will the voice actors get? I mean, they already voiced the game, but anime gives them more room to do voice stuff. I'm really hyped for this aspect tbh...

And I'm also excited for the possibility of dubs, since I'm quite a fan of the whole dubbing world. (I know some ppl have their fears about this last possibility, but in my case even if it turns out to not be so good, I think we could still have a good time w something like that. Plus I've seen some popular eng dub actors hyped about the anime and wanting to be casted for certain characters)

I also wanted to apologize for my previous ask ᕙ⁠(⁠⇀⁠‸⁠↼⁠‶⁠)⁠ᕗ I already did so in the comments, but I felt bad about doomposting on your inbox. My mind's first reaction is usually to see the negative first and become anxious, and it's something I'm working on, but it sometimes goes out of hand. But now that a bit has passed, and specially thanks to your advice, I can sit down and try to focus on the things that excite me rather than the ones that scare me. Sure, building too much expectation could backfire at the end— but as you said, we have little to no information at this point. So I think focusing on the things I'd like to see is a better usage of my time. If they turn out to disappoint me... That's something I'll worry about next year, I'll suppose. I'm still a bit anxious and scared, but there's also lots of things I'm hyped for. I'll try to take your advice and focus on those. 🫂 Sorry if my previous negativity made you uncomfortable.

[Referencing this news! Asker’s prior post here.]

I’ve seen a lot of fans speculating that the OB transformation sequences will resemble magical girl ones! While that’s a fun idea, I do feel like it makes more sense for the anime to portray OB as something scary and all-consuming, similar to how it is depicted at the end of animated dorm commercials and in the manga. For the characters experiencing them, it’s not meant to be glamorous… All that agony, the dripping ink leaking out of their orifices and dripping like blood. Overblot looks incredibly horrific, and I think that should come through in the animation—whether they change the usual style for these segments or keep it the same.

I think the anime would reuse (or maybe do remastered versions of?) the Twst soundtrack for a lot of the show. The compositions are already there, so might as well. Maybe experiencing the anime will help to make the music more memorable, since it seems the game soundtrack alone isn’t doing it for some fans.

No clue about the JP voice cast; I did see some people worrying that they could replace the game’s voice cast for the anime, but as I’ve mentioned already, that’s an unfounded claim. If the usual VAs are there, surely they won’t just reuse the already recorded lines from the game?? 😂 I’d think they’d at least have to rerecord those based on how the script and its scenes are laid out, plus additional dialogue to fill in the gaps (such as new scenes).

No confirmation of an English (or other language) dubs yet either! (Again, this is another topic related to the anime that sparks worry, but I must stress that it’s pointless to get into a tizzy about something that isn’t concrete yet.) But yes, I’ve already seen English VAs expressing interest in certain characters; Daman Mills wants to audition for Malleus, Alejandro Saab has made it known he has Twst on his radar and wants to voice Leona, etc. (The latter has done Twst dorm leader impressions for fun before; I think Mr. Saab could make for a decent Leona or even Malleus!)

Don't worry about the previous ask ^^ I think it's better that we discuss these things with one another rather than post or tweet into the void and allow those negative feelings to fester. If you want to view it in a different way, think of it like the OB boys actually getting therapy/finding someone to confide in instead of being allowed to stew in their own emotions and risking OB a second time. Sometimes all it takes is that gentle nudge or a reminder to step back and take a deep breath. When we let our emotions get the best of us, we end up thinking and acting in irrational ways, and then that can lead to people--whether yourself or others--getting hurt.

[kris-a-day]

Day 21: "Graphics so realistic you'll forget you're playing a game!"

This one is probably the most experimental I've done so far. I'm also gonna use this post to ramble about some of my thoughts and ask my many questions I have about the Sword route so, obviously spoilers for that under the cut :]

----

The "Sword Route" and Shadow Mantle fight give me so many more questions than they answer... Cause like. What was Kris thinking as we go into that last board? They try to stop us from opening the shelter. Like:

Does Kris just not want us to collect the shadow crystals for some unknown reason? Is it because of the previous minigames? Do they fear what could happen if we obtain all of them?

Are they specifically trying to keep us out of the shelter to keep us from getting the shadow mantle? Is it because it'll help us defeat the Roaring Knight and they don't want us to beat them?

Did they think it would accurately reflect what's in the shelter in reality? Does it reflect what the real world shelter holds?

Also what is Friend and why is it here. What is it.

The Sword Route minigames just give me so many questions... Why does it reflect a) The Weird Route and b) The Ever Important and Continually referenced DragonBlazers 2 (Is it a copy of dragon blazers? did tenna overwrite a copy of Dragonblazers 2 to make "The Legend of Tenna". I mean the title card lines up with the word "Mantle" so yknow. Maybe not. But that's my headcanon I guess lol)

I feel like there's something to it. I just don't have anymore dots to connect than Toby's given me already. Anyways, good bye!

[higher-water]

sirs I am UNWELL what do you MEAN

mostly for my own reference, the songs whose titles reference something specific are:

Look to Windward A line from The Waste Land, a poem by T.S. Eliot: "Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead / forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell / and the profit and loss.....O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, / consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you". There are lots of elements of the poem that have pretty clearly influenced all of Even in Arcadia, particularly the imagery in the opening of II. A Game of Chess and the aesthetics of the whole poem.

"breeding lilacs out of the dead land" -> Even in Arcadia and its pink flower motif

"the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief / and the dry stone no sound of water" -> Atlantic, "crumble like a temple / built of future daughters / to wasteland when the ocean recedes"

"where the walls of Magnus Martyr hold / inexplicable splendor of Ionian white and gold" -> Emergence, "are you carbide to my nano? / red glass on my lightbulb? / dark light on my culture? / sapphire in my white gold?"

"a current under sea / picked his bones in whispers. as he rose and fell / he passed the stages of his age and youth / entering the whirlpool." -> the liner notes of the TPWBYT vinyl follow a similar progression from whirlpool to sea floor

"after the frosty silence in the gardens" -> The Offering, "you are a garden / entwined with all / you are the silence / on sacred shores"

Past Self Possibly connected to Ascensionism:

tell me you met me in past lives, past life past what might be eating me from the inside, darling

and Dark Signs:

and I miss the man I was the moment we left off and I hate who I have become every time I wake up

Damocles In the story of the Sword of Damocles, he praised his king, Dionysius. The king offered to switch places with Damocles for one day, so long as Damocles stayed seated on the throne; he agreed, and Dionysius had a sword suspended by a single horsehair above the throne to "evoke the sense of what it is like to be king": that fortune, power, and influence comes at the cost of safety and security, because enemies could be waiting at every turn. This, of course, reflects the theme of Caramel:

can I get a mirror side-stage? looking sideways at my own visage getting worse every time they try to shout my real name just to get a rise from me acting like I'm never stressed out by the hearsay guess that's what I get for tryin'a hide in the limelight guess that's what I get for having 20/20 hindsight

and:

tell me, did I give you what you came for? terrified to answer my own front door missing my wings in the realm of angels so I'll keep dancing alone to the rhythm the stage is a prison, a beautiful nightmare a war of attrition, I'll take what I'm given the deepest incisions, I thought I got better but maybe I didn't

Gethsemane Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an episode in Jesus' life when he goes to Gethsemane to contemplate and make peace with God in regards to the imminent betrayal of Judas. As Jesus prays, "His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down upon the ground" (Luke 22:44), which is imagery present in Say That You Will:

in this light, you are mine 'til the sweat turns to blood won't you say that you will even if you won't?

and, potentially, When the Bough Breaks:

don't lie to me everything we touch turns water into blood

This could also be connected to the "garden" referenced in multiple other songs, like Caramel:

they ask me, "is it going good in the garden?" say I'm lost, but I beg no pardon

Fall For Me:

won't you fall for me? with my love as your garden won't you fall for me?

and The Offering:

you are a garden entwined with all you are the silence on sacred shores

Infinite Baths: In thermodynamics, "heat baths" are thermodynamic systems whose heat capacity is so large that the overall temperature of the reservoir hardly changes even when a significant amount of heat is added to or extracted from it. Lakes, rivers, and oceans all serve as natural thermal baths, linking back to songs like Atlantic:

call me when they bury bodies underwater it's blue light over murder for me

High Water:

and it seems my hell is your high water wash me clean again before I pull myself beneath the waves

The Summoning:

I've got a river running right into you I've got a blood trail, red in the blue

and Rain:

and just like the rain you cast the dust into nothing and wash out the salt from my hands so touch me again I feel my shadow dissolving will you cleanse me with pleasure?

Infinite baths come into play in quantum mechanics. They are used to model the irreversible dissipation of energy from a quantum system. Think of it like a set of (frictionless!) pendulums connected together: when one swings, it slowly transfers energy to the other, which begins swinging and transferring the energy back. If more pendulums are connected, it takes longer for the energy to come back, but it will eventually (because energy, like matter, can't be destroyed, only changed). In order to ensure that the energy never returns to the first set of pendulums, one must assume an infinite number of pendulums that carry the energy away into infinity. Hence, infinite baths, dissipating the energy of a quantum system endlessly, irrevocably, forever.

So, we get two sides of the same coin: thermal baths, massive reservoirs of constant temperature that freely give and take without fundamentally changing; and infinite quantum baths, subatomic environments that take and take and take from the systems they're coupled to, never giving back.

Given the subject matter of Caramel (and, likely, Damocles), I think that's pretty solid confirmation that the final track on this album is gonna be fucking devastating.

[theeeveetamer]

Netflix DMC Episode 1 impressions

Okay I'm going to say some nice things and I'm going to say some less nice things. I acknowledge that I'm only on the first episode so things might come together in future episodes, but for now these are just first impressions. I'm trying to keep an open mind. I'll stick it under a cut so you can avoid spoilers.

Things I like:

The animation is great. My biggest complaint about the original anime is just how low budget the animation obviously was. They did well with what they had at the time, but you could tell they had no money to do anything

I like some of the nods to the original anime (like the diner and the waitress character)

There were some good jokes, like how Dante's "out-of-context humor creates a corny joke atmosphere" and he "acts as if his demon-hunting missions are video games"

Lucia cameo! Poor girl got so boned being part of the worst game in the franchise. I actually really like her (both as a character and her design) so I'm sad she doesn't get used as much as Lady and Trish in canon

It's cool to see some stuff from the supplementary material brought to life. For example, Dante breaking all of his guns until he gets Ebony and Ivory was a plot point of the first DMC novel, and Enzo was a presence in the first and second DMC novels as well as the DMC3 manga, but he's never been referenced in the main series as far as I know

I have been told there isn't really any romance. I haven't confirmed this for myself yet but. Good.

Things I dislike:

This isn't just a dislike. I hate that they explicitly set this in America. DMC has always been a series that could have been set literally anywhere in the world. I see no reason why it needed to be Americanized

Hate that they have a sequence with specific focus on political commentary, specifically common American discourse (news programs, radio shows/podcasts, talk shows, etc. that involve religious zealots and ranting and raving about liberals). Again there's the "why did this need to be Americanized" gripe, but also I just think it makes the show immediately dated. To be blunt, I don't need every show I watch to make a statement about American politics and discourse. It doesn't add anything to the show. Devil May Cry has never been about that. I wanna watch wacky woohoo pizza man go pew pew and be a sad alcoholic about his twin brother, not Fox News Parody Man rant about liberals destroying our country and how the Russians totally did it. If it's meant to be a joke then it's an incredibly lazy one. If it's meant to be commentary then it says nothing of value. It's just kind of nothing, hanging out in the middle of the episode, when I could be watching Dante doing something cool. I know it wasn't that long of a sequence, but any length would have been too long for me.

So much focus being on the American government specifically, and they are being extremely, painfully American. Again, why did this need to be Americanized, exactly? I'm American. Not everything needs to be about us. Why can't this just be a nonspecific world government organization or something. And I hate "shady world government" plot-lines so I hope that's not where this goes

The explaining. I am not a big fan of when shows or movies try to explain the magic away. I don't need a scientific explanation of why the amulets are the key and blah blah blah. Trust your audience to be invested enough in the world that they don't care about the nitty gritty explanation for how it works. If it is necessary to add, don't waste time having a character look into the camera and explain it in the driest manner possible.

The ratio of "government dudes stand around explaining things or other characters do things" to "Watch Dante do cool things" feels like 70%/30% in this first episode. I get that we need exposition but do we need this much? Can Dante not deliver some of it? Why can't I see Enzo talking to Dante about the job instead of just hearing Enzo talk about talking to Dante about the job.

The funniest jokes were constrained to on-screen blink-and-you'll-miss-it text, which I had to go back and pause several times to catch (Netflix flashing me with an ad every time I paused did not make that task easier).

Neutral observations, not exactly positive but not negative yet either.

1.I do not think I will ever get used to the recasting of Dante and Vergil. No hate to the VAs because they're all wonderful and exceptionally talented individuals. It's just, y'know, Reuben Langdon and Daniel Southworth are Dante and Vergil. Reuben Langdon nails the devil-may-care laid back so-lame-he-wraps-back-around-to-being-cool vibe. Daniel Southworth imbues Vergil with that kinda dorky, relatable quality that hints at the inherent contradiction of his character (acts serious and aloof, is in reality very childish and dorky just like Dante). Johnny Yong Bosch has a completely different vibe that doesn't quite work for Dante IMO, and I haven't heard much of Vergil's VA but it just doesn't communicate the same thing from what I've seen

2) Something that immediately sticks out to me is the heavy focus on the world ending consequences. Like 70% of episode one is committed to establishing it. DMC as a series is kind of funny, because, while the world-ending consequences are always present, they're rarely actually the focus.

Dante basically says in the DMC4 novel that stopping cults who try to end the world is his typical Tuesday. Morrison is surprised when it takes him more than about ten minutes to fight Urizen in DMC5. Dante's success is so assured that he has to make it fun for himself by messing around (that's why he does it). That's why it's a big deal when he's knocked out for a month in DMC5. The tension usually doesn't come from worrying if Dante can do it or worrying for his safety. The tension comes from the characters and their relationships. Can Vergil ever come to a place of healing for himself? Will he and Dante ever mend their relationship, or are they doomed to fight until one of them is actually dead? How does Nero feel about his place in the world, and what does it mean for him when he discovers his family?

I've seen glimmers in how Dante reacts to the Vergil-phantom, but the focus seems squarely on the end-of-the-world plot in the first episode. Now this could pan out to be subverted within the anime. Like the big bad government is freaking out and Dante handles it all in an afternoon. It could also be played completely straight, in which case I don't know if I'll like that. This is a wait-and-see for me

Overall conclusion: some of my fears were assuaged, others were put on steroids, and new ones were unlocked that I wasn't even expecting.

[asherashedwings]

FNF CONNECTED UNIVERSE LINE UP Part 1: The Boyfriends

Chat. I spent 34 hours in this canvas. I am so tired.

Anyways, when I began working on Connected Universe AU, I already knew I'd be making line ups. Cuz I love making line ups and I also love suffering.

Close-ups and lots of yapping under the cut

THIS IS ABOUT TO BE A LOT OF READING IM SO SORRY-

Alternate Universe Boyfriends

So all these guys, unlike the other BFs present on this line up, are actually BF but from different universes. They're the same dude.

I thought it'd be neat to display the fact that they're from different universes by drawing them all in different art styles. It was also a fun exercise to test my art style range.

So starting from the left, we got Base Game BF. The main universe one. He's drawn in my usual art style. Not much special about him. Boyfriend.XML my beloved. I will note here though that I did take some of the elements form my own BF design and threw them onto the AU BFs. So that's why they all have some sort of jacket/hoodie etc.

Then we got Yourself. I reverted to old tactics and used my sketch for his line art, which results in him having thicker line art in general. I also further distinguished him by giving him harsh black shading. He always has that. He already had it on his face, so I just gave it to the rest of his body too. Cuz silly. You. You could even say. Silly Billy- 💥💥💥

Then we have Funkadelix. Him and a few other BFs make use of the Blackburn brush for their line art, cuz idk I like that brush. I referenced the Mutant Mayhem style when making him, since in the Connected Universe, he's in the same universe as those turtles. His colors are mostly yoinked from the actual Funkadelix sprite. I think. I may have tweaked them a bit/eyeballed them idk. I prolly eyeballed them.

Then we got Monday Dusk Monolith (MDM). I really went with the mentality of "NO ROUND SHAPES" with this fucker. Just wanted him to look super sharp and scratchy, since that AU is literally dealing with an apocalypse. So sharp shapes just made sense in my brain.

I had a lot of issues settling on a style for Mix, so I just chose to take inspiration from the FNF loading screens, cuz it just fit in my brain, idk. His design also features present in my Pico design, like the stupid cleat shoes and stray hair lines. Yknow, since he's literally a mix of BF and Pico. He also uses Blackburn

Finally, HD. I decided to try and go for a semi realistic style for him, proportion wise at least. Cuz. Yknow. HD. He also uses the blackburn brush, but I also pulled an old tactic for him and made his sketch visible over his coloring. Cuz idk, I think it lends towards the vibe.

"Side" BFs

Okay, now we're REALLY getting into AU territory.

So from here on out, all the BFs are separate people from THE BF, and have their own names and shit.

So staring off, we got Blake. I was reading through his wiki trivia and saw them say his style was more "radical and funky" than base BF's. I saw the word funky and ran with it dawg. So that explains this clothes. I also tried my darndest to get rid of a lot of the BFs caps, cuz dude, I can't have that many fuckers having cubic backwards caps. So I gave Blake a pair of star shaped sunglasses cuz funky, chat, FUNKY. We decided that his stage name is Love Bird, and he chose that cuz that's a pet name his GF has for him, and if he had a band it'd be called The Birds of Paradise.

Then we got .XML. I immediately knew I wanted to give him a mullet. Look at this man and tell me he wouldn't have a mullet. Besides that, not much changed. Since he kept the name of .XML, I imagine he is actually related to BF in some way, and he just goes by his last name. They might be cousins or brothers or something idk. There's also more dumbass info on him here:

Then there's River, or G-Sides BF. I took a lot of inspiration from his teaser designs, cuz they were silly. Literally named his river after the dumbass river design on his sweater. I don't got much info on him besides that. I can't talk about River without including this image so here:

The New Yorkers

This group is literally named after the fact that they all live in NY in my AU. Technically, the Minus BFs should also be here, but they're their own group.

Starting with Bartholomew, or B3, I just took the shape of his glasses and ran with it. Chat I needed to get that shape language from somewhere. I actually drew him twice, since the first time around I really was not digging how I drew him. He's fine now tho. His ass only got brim, cuz he had to be different somehow. Other than that. not much changed for him.

Now Evan.. Evan gave me so many issues. Like, dawg I drew him three times. I kept on trying to make the orange in his upcoming design WORK but I just COULDNT chat i COULDNT

So, per @braveboiart 's request, I ended up getting rid of it entirely and replacing it with his blues and grays. They also gave me the advice of brightening the colors a bit, which was very easy for me to do, I love bright ass colors. I also touched up his design shape wise, since that was also lacking the first time around. So boom, zippers on the pants and baggy ass sleeves. I'm content with how he came out. Chat I did all his design touch ups while I was exhausted out of my mind. Sometimes you gotta be delirious with sleep deprivation in order to cook, kids, trust me (please do not be like me-)

Benjamin was pretty simple. Kept him soft, kept him round, kept him pastel. Got rid of the caution sign on his hoodie since .XML already had that, and just replaced it with paint splatters. Not much more to say.

With X's design, I got a lot of help from my good good friend @minxtheeenby , mainly when figuring out his hair style. Those braids are not actually his hair, and are fuckass cords that connect to his headphones and can move independently. Don't ask about the logic, I will not be thinking about it. He was born in Philly cuz of his fuckass white eyes. White eyes means Philly, I don't make the rules here.

Minus BFs

The colorful critters, these guys are.

So. Beta. I had actually drawn him before this point, and he didn't change much from then

He has arrow shaped top surgery scars cuz I love giving constantly shirtless characters top scars and I just. HAD TO once I had the idea to make them arrow shaped. Main things to change since that drawing are some details on his pants and some of his colors; notedly the fact that his hat is a darker color compared to his skin to further distinguish it. Also Brave kept trying to get me to make parts of his design the same color as his nipples. So that happened /lh

Chat. I let my furry show with Blue. BUT CHAT HEAR ME OUT. On the wiki it's stated that he's a "Dog??". You think I could look at that and not go all the way? So yeah. Dog. He's silly and he got his weird ear ring things from his sister (Minus Miku).

Not much to say on Mean, he barely changed. I just drew him in my style and added a few details. He might also be an alien, idk.

Now, I posted about Golden a bit, but for those who didn't see that insanity: I made him an Alien Hominid. Cuz small yellow alien=Alien Hominid in my brain. Flawless logic. (Don't worry chat, I sat down and extensively researched the AH series to the best of my ability to check if it made sense. And I didn't see anything that would make it not make sense?) But yeah, silly. Him and Otis might be buddies, cuz goofy.

Who Fuckin Knows

These guys are just all the guys I had nowhere else to put. Miscellaneous group.

So first we have Bonnie, or Saturday Night Swappin' BF. He's another one that I had to go back and touch up. I actually touched him up the same night/morning as Evan. He ended up turning purple. The name we assigned him was an omen /j Chat I swear he was originally blue, I don't know what happened

HC that he just got really into FNaF when he was younger and has just been cosplaying a humanized Bonnie the Bunny ever since /hj

BIDU GAVE ME SO MANY ISSUES AND IDK WHY. It's prolly cuz by the time I got to him I was getting SUPER burnt. But I prospered and was able to finish him. And I don't hate how he came out, so bonus points there. Main change was replacing the prohibition sign on his shirt with a lightning bolt, cuz no one but BF is allowed to have that symbol, and Bidu already had lightning bolt imagery, so eh why not. His eyebrows being green, at least in my style, implies his hair is naturally green, and he just added the blue and pink, and I find that slightly humorous, idk.

Keith (StarCatcher) was another one I had to go back and touch up, but that's due to the fact that I was informed that him and his GF got a redesign before the creator deleted their FNF stuff. So I had to go back and fix my design according to that. I also leaned into the scape suit direction cuz SHAPE.

Now, you might be wondering, why is Flippin BF here and not with the other alternates? He was grouped with him in a previous post? Well, that's because after more assessment, I decided that Friday Night Flippin' is in fact, in the same universe as Base FNF and not an alternate universe like I had previously decided. So I changed his design a bit (mainly just getting rid of his hat and changing the color of his shoes) and boom. Different guy. He is staying pixel art tho. I do still need to come up with a different name for him tho.

Now this next one, Heath, is not from a currently existing mod, but from an FNF AU my friend Minx is making.

I decided to include him cuz he's silly and I love him. Their AU is canon to the Connected Universe.

Okay, so Cam (Hellbeats BF) changed A LOT. I let my furry slip out again. BUT I HAVE ANOTHER REASON FOR IT. See, in this connected universe, it's not just Newgrounds stuff that is canon. I also made other fandoms I'm in canon. So that means the Hellaverse is canon (specifically my rewritten version of it), and Hellbeats has to fit in with that. So I had to assign the characters species from that universe as well. So I made Cam a cherub, cuz I wanted him to stay short as fuck. He's also a raccoon cuz he's a lil shit and I thought it'd fit If ur curious, this is what everyone else is:

Okay I'm done yapping now. Gonna be doing the GFs next.

[tokiro07]

Toki Reads Shonen Jump 2025, Issue#32: Ghostly Visions Week

Witch Watch (+17): Moi gets hooked on Wai Wai Wild Chocolates when he discovers that the collectible stickers they come with secretly contain complex lore. / [I had a huge smile on my face this entire chapter, likely in no small part because I'm something of a theorycrafter myself; I did notice that the first sticker Moi got referenced Leon, so I got to microdose on the feeling of picking up on foreshadowing; I'm also willing to bet that it'll turn out that the Jungorilla War is a retelling of the Great Mage War and this is a hint for how to defeat Jura - just look at the name! JUngoriRA!]

Kagurabachi (+5): Samura repairs Tobimune with Suzaku but still refuses to heal his own eyes; Chihiro's resolve to accept the past and make his own future inspires a vision of Samura's late wife, Inori, who reminds him of his promise to take care of Iori; as Iori arrives on the scene of the battle, Samura finally heals his eyes to see how she has grown. / [Whether it was not opening the door to comfort his crying child or keeping himself blind, Samura's coping method was always to avoid looking at the problem in front of him; maybe his plan would have worked, but his death would have abdicated the responsibility of dealing with the aftermath and would ultimately leave Iori to wipe away her own tears once again, when instead what she wanted was for him to be with her; it's late, but seeing Samura finally look at his daughter fills me with hope]

Ichi (-2): Richia brings Gokuraku to see the horde of Kagami citizens that are demanding an audience with Gokuraku - not because of his crimes against Bakugami, but to apologize for villainizing him when he was protecting them behind the scenes; Richia tells Gokuraku that he's suffered enough and should be free to live as he chooses - before he knows it, Gokuraku stands before Ichi, and asks to stay with him. / [Just as I said last week, absolutely no one would ask for anything more from Gokuraku than he's already given, but even then I didn't see the entire country begging him for forgiveness; I'm so excited to see what Nishi has in store for Ichi and Gokuraku next]

Akane (+7): Shomei's strict judging puts the crowd on edge, making it more difficult to focus on the performers, but Hikaru's drive to best Akane as her rival pulls that focus right back. / [The imagery in this chapter was simply fantastic; a vision of Akane appearing while Hikaru tells a ghost story gives the impression that, though still alive, Akane's skill literally haunts Hikaru, but as Ikken points out, this allows Hikaru's competitive nature to thrive]

Shinobi (-2): Hayabusa continues to try to distract Yodaka by telling him his relationship with Aoi can't work because it's built on false pretenses, but Yodaka gets his head back in the game by harnessing the Power of Compartmentalization...and, to a lesser extent, Incredible Violence. / [I'm going through a lot lately myself, and it's easy to lose sight of what you should be focusing on at any given time, so while the cast is acting like this is all obvious, for me it was a nice reminder to tackle my problems one step at a time]

Ping-Pong Peril (NEW): To work off the debt his deadbeat parents saddled him with, former child ping-pong star Taira Mikado is forced to play Ping-Pong Peril, an anything-goes underground sport with millions of yen on the line; Taira faces off against a debt collector over a metal table that sparks when hit, but manages to win by closing his eyes to the flames around him and focusing only on the ball. / [Though I dislike the character designs, the overall art is still quite good with detailed backgrounds and dynamic action; I can't say I'm invested in the cast yet, but the core premise is a fun spin on Jump's usual sports fare, which will help it stand out in this sports-heavy cohort; if Kataoka can keep coming up with fun scenarios, I can see myself enjoying its run easily]

Blue Box (-2): Kyo steers Ayame and Shota's date back towards where Ayame was going to meet with her friends, allowing the couple some new perspective on their boundaries and what they want without them needing to argue about it. / [I'm relieved that this wasn't about Ayame seeing Kyo as a better guy than Shota, and that Shota was mature enough to realize that he was risking hurting Ayame with his request; I hope if the plan is to break them up in favor of Kyo, they'll be able to have an amicable split]

Kaedegami (-6): Kou and Chiyou arrive at the village where Chiyou's acquaintance should be, but there's no one there but donkeys; when a bao saleswoman and her child arrive, the duo realizes that the saleswoman is a Shenguai turning people into donkeys, and the girl is her hostage whose parents were also transformed; Kou prepares to fight with righteous fury. / [Not as emotionally resonant as the first two chapters, but this seems more like set up for an emotional moment to come and gives some perspective on Kou's view of family, so "weaker" doesn't mean "weak"]

Hima-Ten (+1): Sumire ends up on a date with Tenichi and takes the opportunity to wingman for Himari, but in the process realizes what she likes about him herself. / [I KNEW IT!!! ISN'T THAT EXACTLY WHAT I SAID WOULD HAPPEN?! SHE REALLY IS THE TSUGUMI!!! It is sad seeing Sumire deliberately put aside her own feelings to support Himari getting with the boy she likes, but as always, there's one very simple solution...]

Otr (-2): While Etupirko distracts the guards, Otr and Sindra make their way down to the Iron Spirits frozen forge, only to be confronted by Suruld. / [We still don't know a lot about the Ice Kingdom's inhabitants, but Suruld's chivalric nature puts him in pretty stark contrast to the troop leaders Otr has faced previously, which is good because I was starting to worry they'd all end up just being different flavors of cruel with no greater depth]

Kiyoshi (-5): As Yuda lies dying, Sakaki comforts him and promises to stop the Black Parade; Asuta senses the deaths of the Thirteen Club and laments for a brief moment before getting over it; knowing what everyone else has gone through, Kiyoshi feels renewed determination to defeat Asuta. / [I think I would have preferred for Asuta to be legitimately upset by the death of his team, but given his focus on strength and how "easily" they were defeated, I think that might have undermined his character, so this is probably for the best even if it is a bit rote]

Kill Blue (-6): When Juzo catches a cold from all of the recent exertion, the Home-Ec Club comes over to take care of him; however, the HEC gets into Juzo's antidote for the de-aging venom, and Noren is suddenly turned into an adult?! / [Oh my god, FINALLY! I knew were going to be addressing this soon when Nekota asked how the antidote would affect people who weren't de-aged, but honestly I didn't expect it to happen IN THE SAME CHAPTER]

EluSam (+6): Tadayoshi cedes his remaining power to Yoshiakira, who demonstrates strong moral character by refusing to join hands with the previously traitorous Tadayoshi; unsatisfied without total dominance over his brother, though, Takauji begins a campaign to assassinate all of Tadayoshi's retainers; when all hope seems lost, Yoritsugu and Tokiyuki arrive to Tadayoshi's aide. / [I've never been super invested in Tadayoshi's character, but it's always heartbreaking seeing him try so hard to salvage his relationship with Takauji only to be taken advantage of; similarly, I don't have strong feelings on Yoshiakira, but his convictions really struck a chord with me somehow]

Nue (+6): Yozora tries to frame Gakuro for assaulting her, but Kazusa doesn't buy it and manages to outmanipulate her into cooperating with Gakuro; Kazusa starts being more romantically aggressive and even manages to set up a date with Gakuro, but they're interrupted by the revival of Suzaku. / [Ohhh, Yozora doesn't need to do anything compromising to give Gakuro power, she was just using The Allegations against him! That's...better...? I really was hoping we could just have a nice family set-up here, and we may still get that eventually, but Yozora's hard to like at the moment; fortunately, Kazusa earned points left and right this chapter, though I'm still not rooting for her over polyamory]

Roboco (+1): Kaoru thirdwheels on Bondo and Madoka's date, much to Madoka's Shonen Jump-referencing chagrin; despite how much she's clearly turning on the charm towards Bondo, Kaoru reveals that her real goal here was to make friends with Madoka; Madoka agrees, and then manages to go on her solo date with Bondo after all. / [I don't really care for Madoka's gag, but I did enjoy the sentiment of this chapter overall; as usual though, to resolve Madoka's jealousy, I suggest--]

Nice Prison (+1): The Dark Model Prisoner (apparently named Haradogs?) challenges Mitsuboshi for the title of Super Model Prisoner, which he once had but lost because of his violent temperament; over 24 hours, the two rapidly gain and lose points for their behavior, with Mitsuboshi managing to end up in the -3000s, only to reveal he'd actually been stockpiling points by saving moles. / [The punchline doesn't do much for me, but the overall bits of a random third party taking a strong lead by doing nothing and Tera literally sleeping through the entire challenge are both pretty solid]

Sakamoto (-4): Shin and the gang manage to retrieve Sakamoto from The Order, but it looks like they were too late, as his heart has already stopped; in a flash of inspiration, Shin attempts to use his mindjacking to restart Sakamoto's heart. / [A lot of people seem to hate this choice, but I think it's pretty solid - I always assumed that mindjacking was, like Medaka Box's Weighted Words, forcefully sending an electrical impulse into the target's nervous system, so it makes enough sense to me that it would be able to get a signal to the heart that the brain currently can't; I think people are just mad cus this is still fresh off the Tunnel Effect debacle]

Harukaze (-4): Nagiharu meets the rest of the team and learns that Ibuki once retired from baseball due to an injury, which spurred him on to research the game so thoroughly and found this unorthodox team. / [Wow, Ibuki's more of a main character than Nagiharu is! I wonder if Nagiharu is meant to be more of a perspective character than the focus? Guess we'll find out once we get better acquainted with the rest of this team - they seem interesting enough, but at the moment they're still just archetypes instead of actual characters]

Ekiden (-4): Kenzaki trains Nobu up to have the stamina for long-distance running; after two years of training, Nobu is finally able to beat Kenzaki in a practice race and decides to leave the nest for a different college. / [I guess I understand not wanting Nobu to be coached by his dad for fear of nepotism allegations, but growing up in the dorm seemed like the perfect setting for this story; the fact that he spent two years training there OFF SCREEN especially feels like a waste - we could have used that time as an introductory arc to see him gaining the fundamentals and establishing his relationship with the titular bros and HIS FREAKING PARENTS; this chapter overall left me feeling confused, which I think is worse than just leaving me uninterested]

Wow, that's a huge shake-up from Witch Watch! Certainly a good sign for any other low ranker! Hopefully, Ekiden Bros clears up my confusion and can start climbing the ranks

It also makes me feel a bit better about Ichi and Kaedegami dropping a bit, cus it reminds me that these ranks are a reaction to the specific chapters, not the series themselves and shouldn't be taken as a sign that a series is declining in quality

I guess that's what I was afraid would happen with this method - that it would start to give a bad impression of any given series rather than reflect one-off opinions

I'll keep with it for now, especially since I got overwhelmingly positive feedback towards it on last week's poll, but if it starts to seem like it's hurting my ability to enjoy a series, I'll probably have to brainstorm something else. How about you guys, though, do you have any particular thoughts on how seeing the ranks changes your experience?

[tallerthantale]

I finally got around to doing a close reading of transcripts of the Tortoise episodes, and I am very glad that I did.

My view remains that I find all the allegations both very credible and very damning. The updates to my views are that I feel more positively (though not entirely positively) about Tortoise, and that there is a probable very bad actor in all of this that isn't getting nearly enough attention. (Not Amanda Palmer. Or well, yes Amanda Palmer, but she isn't who I'm talking about.)

Tortoise first.

I'd been seeing a lot of comments claiming that Tortoise was anti BDSM. I don't know what the people in the podcast have as their personal views, but they made a point multiple times to clarify that BDSM does not operate like what Neil Gaimen was alleged to have done, and the condemnation they had for the alleged actions was not a condemnation of consensual BDSM. As someone who has been very involved in BDSM community for decades, I am fully in agreement with everything the hosts have said. The line people got most hung up on was a guest expert snarking about degradation ever being consensual. It is ambiguous in context what definition of "degradation" he is using, but it seemed to me he was referring to processes of establishing coercive control, and not referring to degrading roleplay in a mutually invested, healthily negotiated kink scenario. My remaining critique on the host / guests perspective is that the language around abuse and coercive control used by the hosts and guests often presumes all abusers are male and all victims are female. It doesn't diminish the value of the rest of what they are doing, but I think it is worth being critical of as a side note.

The other big point of concern with Tortoise, which I got major bad vibes off of from day one, was the manner in which they talk about their "understanding of Neil Gaimen's position." That sets off my internal red flags because it immediately prompts the follow up questions, "How did you acquire that understanding?" "Who told you that?" "Why aren't you quoting and / or citing them?" I had been speculating that they were from his side of the communications provided by the people coming forward, or comments from lawyers that weren't being properly attributed. Council of Geeks had a great "Cite Your Sources!" whiteboard moment I would generally agree with.

However.

It turns out there is actually a good reason for the citation fuckery. I think a lot of people missed it, so I'm going to try to explain it. When the hosts are referencing communications provided by those coming forward, they say so. When they are referencing comments by lawyers, they say so. The issue is, the bulk of the time, their understanding is coming from piles of direct emails with Gaimen that are OFF THE RECORD. Journalists have to take that seriously to get to keep doing journalism. They are professionally obligated to NOT cite or quote him when he is off the record. Normally in such a situation journalists wouldn't do this squiggly 'our understanding of their views' thing, they would leave it out entirely to be on the safe side of their professional obligations. Sprinkled through the podcasts are comments about the moral importance of hearing from both sides, the great public interest need to hear from both sides. This is a very snarky justification for the game they are playing of vague-posting the gist of his off the record statements without ever putting the exact statement on the record.

A lot of their snark surrounding that, and some other bits, leave the very distinct impression that Gaimen and his lawyers have threatened legal action against Tortoise several times already. Honestly I hope that they do file legal action, as that would open Gaimen up to discovery. Discovery is a process by which Tortoise would be able to demand access to nearly all documents and / or electronic communications Gaimen has relating to the matter, and in doing so make them public. Discovery is far broader sweeping that what is admissible in court, because it has to be 'discovered' before the court can rule it admissible or not. But inadmissible thigs are still usually public record. A jury wouldn't see them, but we still can. Because of that, it is extremely unlikely that Gaimen will file a legal claim, but again, I truly hope that he does. Tortoise probably does too.

But there is another person deserving of investigation and discovery in all this.

The main focus of my current attention is from a bit in the first episode that jumped out at me. Like, it made my eyes bug out, jaw on the metaphorical floor, and I was shocked that I haven't seen it mentioned. But then I figured, people might just not have the context to know how big of a deal this is. So I'm going to talk about it.

According to Scarlett's account, after she came forward to Amanda, Neil asked her to take a call with a therapist that both he and Amanda see. It seemed like his financial assistance offer to her may have hinged on the call being part of the deal. At first read, it looks like Gaimen strongarming Scarlett to tell his therapist he didn't assault anyone. She does the call, and there is a message from the guy that seems designed to plant the suggestion in Scarlett that her friends are manipulating her into perceiving a consensual relationship as a non consensual one.

To me, that is a five alarm fire. Everything happening in there should not be happening, ever. A person who provides individual therapy should not provide it to both partners in a relationship. A person who provides relationship therapy should not be providing individual therapy to people in the relationship. (They should do one-on-one sessions with each in the context of the relationship therapy but that is different.) A therapist should not be framing things the way they are described in that message, or interacting that way towards someone who is not a client, particularly if they have a conflict with someone who is. Therapists are very aware of the potential for clients to coerce others into saying things that fit the client's narrative, and should not be encouraging them to try. And all that is before we even get to the part where he seems to have been tasked specifically to gasslight Scarlett into mistrusting herself and blaming her friends. By Scarlett's paper trailed account, this person should be facing very serious repercussions and investigation. According to Tortoise, he has not responded to any of their attempts to get in touch with him, and he has a phone that is set up to not accept voicemail.

The name of this alleged professional is stated in the podcast, so I looked him up. He is most widely known as an author. His first professional descriptor for himself is as an executive leadership mentor. That more or less translates to person who gives expensive pep talks to rich people. He is also a minister, and a 'consultant.' He does call himself a therapist, but he has no degrees, background, or training in psychology. His degree is from divinity school. He does not list any professional qualifications or certifications in mental health, he does not list any memberships in any mental health organizations. He did co-found an organization that appears to have put on motivational seminars for a variety of organizations. His 'client list' was last updated in 2012. His website has features that are only accessible by those who are 'fully committed.' He is based out of Arizona, USA.

Searching for his name + therapist will get you to a podcast episode with Amanda Palmer, where she had him on as a guest, described him as a therapist, her therapist, and her and Neil's relationship therapist, and promoted his books. It was recorded in 2019, and it is utterly vapid and out of touch from the both of them. Searching his name + therapist will not get you any information on his work as a therapist, because he is not a therapist.

He can't get stripped of his status as a mental health practitioner, because he isn't one. Tortoise states that he has protected confidentiality to Neil and Amanda. If he does have protected confidentiality, he has it solely through his status as a minister, not as a mental health professional because again, he isn't one. As a minister, he may have greater client privilege than an actual mental health professional, who would be required to break privilege if they have reason to believe their client is a danger to themselves or others. Religious client privilege is very strongly protected in most of the US even if the client is explicitly planning to commit specific acts of violence. This might be the main selling point to people who choose to work with ministers who pretend to be therapists rather than actual therapists.

Scarlett doesn't have confidentiality much less privilege by any avenue, his communication with her did not form a professional relationship despite the ways his message seemed to blur those lines, which would have left him free to pass on whatever she said to Neil and Amanda. That would also open the door for him to corroborate what Scarlett told him to the media, but my impression is that if he can be contacted, he will cite a duty to his real client, Neil Gaimen, to avoid saying anything. This is one of many reasons why real therapists do not take clients who have potential conflicts of interest with their other clients. I can't tell from the content of either podcast to what extent he may have materially represented himself to be an actual mental health professional to his clients, but if he has done so he absolutely should be liable if not culpable for that.

I would like to see this man investigated to hell and back, but I don't know if anyone in the media is going to bother. For anyone who needs to hear it, do not go to therapy with someone who isn't a licensed mental health professional. Do not have the same individual therapist as your romantic partner(s). If you are setting up couples therapy, it needs to be with someone who has never met either of you before, and you make first contact with them as a unit.

Obligatory this is all personal opinion disclaimer. The internal states of public figures cannot be determined or scientifically evaluated by their public statements / appearances / works / ect... I am not the behaviour panel, nor do I endorse that kind of thing. But under certain circumstances I am willing to put out some personal opinions about what certain actions, if they happened, would seem to suggest.

I've been saying for a while now, the allegations paint a very strong and compelling picture of Gaimen knowing what he was doing and engaging in deliberate strategy even if he can make pocket experiences for himself where he gets to believe that the relationships were real. I think the evidence pointing towards Gaimen having a long running pseudo 'therapist' he is comfortable sending his accusers to talk to, who then encourages the accuser to think their friends are controlling them, speaks to how deeply this approach to life can saturate a person's existence. When I say 14 represents a lifestyle choice, these are the kinds of things I'm talking about. Someone who fucked up and made a few grievous errors, and did soul searching, and is trying to do better doesn't send their victims to their on call professional gassligter with religious privilege who they outsource to. This looks like 'life revolves around finding ways to control and silence people' level shit.

[therealestsophia]

Jealousy Hidden Behind Masksִ ࣪𖤐.ᐟ

hiya🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ this is my first tumblr post— this is also posted on ao3. howeveerrr I am aware Ghost and König are not in the same team ive been playing this game since I was younger, so think of it as an au or something idrk

────────୨ৎ────────

Last week you and your team were sent on a mission in Mexico trying to find some cartel in Guadalajara. However one of the new sergeants put herself in mind boggling danger. She stood tall at an open fire, trying to take the bullets for everyone else so they could have a chance to

live.

Everyone was screaming at her to get down, to save herself. But she didn’t want to listen, if she was gonna go down…She would be remembered for how she did it

For the few right reasons,

and for all the wrong.

You not wanting this bright eyed sergeant to lose her life from one dumb heroic decision, you took it upon yourself to tackle her to the ground. However in the midst of tackling her you got shot in the abdomen an exceptional amount of times. Due to you and the sergeant being severely injured the team couldn't move forward without abandoning you both, and to Ghost, that wasn't an option.

❤️🔥

“Are you stupid [name]?” his fists landed on his desk, causing the glass of water atop it to shake slightly. His voice may have been calm with a sharp edge to it, but he couldn't stop his actions. You were trying your absolute hardest to choke down your tears, you couldn't cry in front of your Lieutenant like a scared little girl who just lost her parents in the store.

“Huh? Are you?” he quipped. His icy blue gaze narrows on your small frame sitting on the chair in front of his desk.

“Ghost-” my voice shook as I tried to keep myself together, slowly meeting his piercing gaze.

“Don’t ‘Ghost’ me.” he hissed, cutting your trembling voice off. But somehow, Ghost cutting you off only fueled the fire that was slowly building inside of you. You looked down at your balled hands sitting in your lap, slightly picking at your nails to try and calm yourself down.

Even if you could see his face, you already could imagine what it looked like. His blonde eyebrows furrowing in frustration, his lips pressed thin in a firm line of anger. You could understand his anger to a degree, but was this really necessary? You’re sitting here living after all, injured but alive.

He took in a heavy sigh of anger, “You deliberately went against orders, and almost got yourself killed.” he growled, there he was again. Referencing the stupid wounds that litter your abdomen due to your stupid, heroic decision. His lips drawn back in a snarl as he looked at your body, studying your body language to try and guess your next move.

“Ghost, why do you even care so much?!” you finally snapped at him, which in turn caught him by surprise with your sudden outburst. Your eyes burning with frustration that had finally boiled over. Slightly shifting in your seat while never breaking eye contact, wincing at shooting pain coming from your ribs, the pain you’ve been so desperately trying to ignore. The exact pain he was referencing throughout this entire argument.

He paused for a second, debating his words. “Because I care about you.” he said flatly, the anger in his voice was slightly gone but it was still there lingering. “Don’t you get it? Do you need me to spell it out for you to even reach your thick skull?” he sneered. There's the anger that was lingering in his tone. His eyes never left yours, it was becoming a battle to see who would break eye contact first, and it wasn't going to be you.

His hands were pressed firm on the desk, standing over you like some kind of hierarchy. You sat there, your eyes staring into his while you sat there like some child getting scolded by a teacher.

“I don’t need to get it.” you muttered under your breath, annoyance clear in your tone. “I never asked for you to care,” you paused, inhaling a sharp breath while standing up to push in your chair. “Nor anyone else, so don't make it my problem.” you hissed through your teeth as you reached his office door, whipping around to open it. Maybe you were the one to break eye contact, but at this point you couldn’t take it anymore.

God if you wanted a lecture you could have gone to Price.

Ghost just stood there, a blank expression on his face that was carefully covered by his balaclava, though his eyes read a thousand words. You opened the door and slammed it shut, walking away from his office briskly, you reflected on your choice of words. They were harsh, no sugar coating that, but they were true. Right?

But this time he didn't try to call you back, demanding you come back to speak to him. He just stood there in his office, contemplating everything.

You walked back to the barracks quietly, not bothering to say hello to anyone you passed. You walked for what felt like forever, being trapped in your own thoughts made it worse.

Once you finally reached your room you opened your door quickly and slammed it shut. All your prior frustrations came back as soon as you stepped in the room. Your eyes pricked with tears as you stood there silently, a lump in your throat formed and it was impossible to choke down. You kicked off your boots and made your way to your bed, as you flopped down on the soft mattress you couldn't hold back your tears.

The tears fell smoothly down your flushed cheeks, your body curling up in a ball as you drowned yourself in blankets. Your quiet sobs filled the room, and it didn't even matter that you still had your uniform on, you didn't care anymore. Your abdomen was throbbing, the pain making your tears fall harder than they were before. His words flooded your thoughts, ‘Because I care about you.’ kept replaying over and over again.

Why did he have to care? That made this so much more worse than it had to be.

The sobs eventually got quieter and quieter, god. Why did I have to be such a crybaby? So- sensitive. His words felt like thousands of sharp knives cutting through you. It was awful, it hurt so much.  Your eyes began to flutter slightly as you continued to cry, all you could do was cry and ponder on your decisions.

❤️🔥 pov change.

My eyes slowly blinked open as I woke up to a pounding headache. Damn it. I glanced at the clock as I sat up. It read 17:38, I sighed and closed my eyes leaning my back on my headboard. I rubbed my puffy eyes and crawled out of bed, throwing my blankets off of me. I stumbled to my feet, grabbing my night stand to balance myself.

Finally steadying myself I walked into my bathroom just to look at what I looked like. Oh my god…my tear streaked face was a sight to see you could say. I turned the light on before turning the sink to cold and started to splash my face with freezing water, hoping it would clear my post-cry face.

Turning off my sink and grabbing a towel I turned to pat my face dry, good enough.

I looked at my puffy eyes in the mirror with a huff before walking out of my bathroom and turning off the light. I walked slowly towards my door, slipping on my boots and walking out of my room.

Roaming the halls it was quiet, nothing was really happening. It wasn’t a busy day today, the halls holding an uncomfortable silence as I walked through them.

The sounds of my boots lightly treading across cold tile floor filled my ears.

Continuing to walk towards the mess hall I saw Ghosts office to my right, the office that hours earlier I stormed out of. I shook my head with a sigh and continued to walk towards the mess hall. Though the halls were oddly quiet, it was unsettling to say the least.

Reaching the mess hall I realized it wasn't as  crowded as it usually was. I didn’t have an appetite so I decided to just sit down at one of the empty tables and lay my head down, just listening to the talking and bickering of the place was comforting.

That's when I heard a familiar voice behind me, his presence was strong but his accent was even stronger.

“Schatz?” the man asked, his Austrian accent strong.

“König?” I asked and glanced up to see the tall Austrian man standing behind me, looming over me like a giant building.

He sat next to me, he clearly saw the somber expression written all over my face. He sat close, but not that close. The chatter in the mess hall was a comforting ambiance to this situation.

He gently lifted a finger to my trembling chin with his rough index finger, forcing me to stare into his pale blue eyes.

“Ist etwas passiert?” he asked softly, his tone quiet but still audible from the noise around us. (Did something happen?)

“No…” I whispered lower than he could hear, my voice slightly shaking as I tried to keep myself together.

I quickly hung my head low, breaking eye contact with him. My bottom lip was trembling as I tried to choke back my own tears, I didn't want to worry him, especially with all the stuff he's dealing with on his own.

“Oh, komm her.” he coaxed, pulling me into a bear hug. Trapping me in his warm embrace, playing with my hair in an attempt to calm me down. (Oh, come here.)

I lost it, I started bawling into his chest. Clinging onto his shirt in a desperate attempt to make sure he wouldn't leave me.

“Ghost and I had a fight-” I managed to choke out.

Ghost, the name alone made Konig tense up. I felt him squeeze me tighter in his arms when I said his name.

The name rang in his ears, his head racing with thoughts of him and you together as he gently stroked your hair.

Why can't you just realize that I can be so much better than him? Konig thought quietly.

Everytime Konig saw you with Ghost, it felt like you took his heart so gingerly, so sparingly…only to stomp on it afterwards. Or whispering sweet nothings into his ear but plunging the knife in his heart, over, and over again.

“He wont talk to me-” your trembling voice broke him free from the prison someone called thoughts. “and I'm worried I really messed up big time…” I sobbed even harder into his chest, it felt like I was dying.

Dramatic much. Though my chest heaving, I was hyperventilating.

“Shhh…” he soothed, rubbing my lower back gently. Konig gritted his teeth and bit his tongue, he didn't want to upset you more than you already were. He didn’t want to add his name to the list of reasons.

He just sat there rubbing your back, just being a shoulder to cry on. My fingers clung to his shirt, like he was a balloon and I was trying so hard to keep him on the ground with me.

“I know it hurts, but everything will be fine.” he reassured, his voice soft but still stern enough to make you listen to him. He spoke of things he knew nothing about, having no prior knowledge was hard but he was trying his best.

Him calming me down was oddly comforting, his warm embrace made my heart flutter slightly. “Just calm down, it’ll be fine, I promise.” he calmed me further, his accent coming back stronger.

He held me tight, holding me like I was the most precious gem in the world and he would do anything to keep it in his possession.

How could he promise something he knew nothing about?

How could someone make such an empty promise?

I finally pulled away from him, my tear streaked face and glassy eyes looking up at him with a pained expression.

My breath was still labored, my bottom lip wobbling as I tried to keep myself steady.

“I know it hurts, but give him time,” he paused to take a sharp inhale. “You guys always work it out.” Konig mumbled through gritted teeth, his personal vendetta with Ghost was getting the better of him.

He wanted to say so much more, how Ghost didn't deserve you, how you shouldn't cry over someone like him. But he didn't, he kept his mouth shut because your comfort was his top priority.

It hurt him so much to see you in pain, to see you cry over Ghost was, who quite frankly, could go jump out of a helicopter and he’d be fine with it.

I was pulled from my thoughts as I glanced around the room. Out of my periphery I saw Ghost, leaning on the mess hall door watching me. Wait no…

Watching Konig?

His eyes looked like they were burning with irritation, though they had a hint of…

Jealousy?

His gaze narrowed on Konig who was looking at me with pitiful eyes, who looked at me like he wanted to say something more but didn't.

My head slowly rose to look up at Konig. My eyes were glassy as I looked up at him slowly, my lashes fluttering. He kept his hands on my waist, just looking down at me. That's when I realized Konig wasn't looking at me anymore, his eyes were focused on Ghost.

“I’m sorry…” I whispered, though I wasn't sure if he could hear me over the chattering in the mess hall.

That's right, I forgot that's where we were. It felt like everyone else was invisible when I saw Ghost, like I could only catch his gaze and that was it.

“Warum guckt er sie so an?!” König muttered beneath his mask. I looked up at König again, my head slightly cocking to the side at his comment. (Why does he look at her like that?!)

“Huh?” I asked quietly, my hands balled in front of me.

“Nothing.” he mumbled, his eyes quickly going back to mine. I glanced slowly back at the door, trying to see Ghost once more.

But he was gone, the tall Brit that stood there, watching, was now gone.

All I could see was the people chattering, not even noticing me and König, thank god.

“Im so sor-“ I started quickly before König cut me off.

“Don’t be sorry, its not your fault hes-“ König stopped himself from saying anything more. I gave König a slightly puzzled look when he abruptly stopped talking.

“Just don’t be sorry.” he restated, not bothering to add the extra words he was about to say.

Oh.

I just sat there on the bench, pondering in my own thoughts, pondering on what he was going to say. However thats when König stood up from the bench, no longer feeling his large hands on my waist.

“I have to go, schatz. But please, please, don’t be sorry, everything will be okay.” he assured as he rubbed my shoulder slightly, his accent dripping off of his words.

His words were sweet, so sweet. Almost like poison, leaving me slowly wanting more of his comfort, more of his touch.

I gave him a curt nod as I looked up at him, wiping my face with my sleeve while I watched König walk away.

I felt so alone all over again, my red puffy eyes returning like a bad hangover.

Another cold water splash for me.

I pulled myself from my thoughts, I needed to leave, I just needed to get out.

I started to force myself up from the bench, lowering my head to not let anyone see my tear stained face, and red puffy eyes. I began to walk briskly out of the mess hall, not bothering to to looking behind me as I reached the door.

For some odd reason when I reached the door my eyes wandered. I looked left and right, high and low, just to see if he was there.

If Ghost was there.

I shook my head and started walking quickly, the chattering and bickering slowly fading as I quietly walked out of the the mess hall, returning back to the uncomfortably quiet halls.

Finally returning back to the empty barracks I grabbed the cold door handle and swung open the door. Only to have warm air hit me as soon as it opened.

Great.

I walked over to the bathroom, reaching my hand up to the light switch. The yellow toned flickering light flooding the bathroom.

I sighed when I saw my face. Looking up to see my eyes were bloodshot, my under eyes no longer purple, they were red and puffy.

Just what I need.

I scoffed at my own thoughts before turning the sink on, letting the water run to a freezing temperature before finally lowering my head to splash my face with the water.

It felt like a sense of relief as the first drop hit my face, almost feeling like someone was running an ice cube across my face.

I continued to let the water hit me. My face gradually becoming warm because of the cold.

Though it gave me time to think, should I apologize to him?

Him was Ghost, I just couldn’t get him out of my head. The way he stared at me and König in the mess hall lingered in my mind like König’s cologne hitting my nose.

Wait- why am I even thinking about both of them?

I turned off the water and groaned. Wiping the droplets away from my eyes as I looked in the mirror once again. This time there was no redness,

well maybe except my nose that was cold now.

I grabbed a towel and roughly dried my face, before tossing the towel on my sink as I flicked off the light.

Leaning down I unzipped my boots,slipping them off I stood on the hot hardwood floor before I slumped on my bed. Letting all my worries slip slightly as I hit the hard mattress, the springs beneath me rattling slightly.

Why do I feel like this?

What am I feeling towards both of them-

What is even happening?

I laid on my bed, my feet slightly above the ground as I contemplated everything. I wanted to work things out between me and Ghost, but the look in his eyes when he saw me with König.

Not to mention König gripping me tighter when he saw Ghost.

The AC turning on erased my thoughts,

Finally, it’s hotter than the pits of hell in here.

My own thoughts were driving me crazy, I couldn’t stand to be alone with them anymore.

I guess thats it? I apologize and all of this stops?

I groaned getting up off my bed, my feet hitting the cold ground. No thick pair of socks can save you once the AC turns on.

I hobbled over to my boots, zipping them up quickly trying to get my poor feet off the cold hardwood.

Stumbling over my own feet I finally reached my door, carefully opening it, unlike how I swung it open 10 minutes ago.

The warm air of the halls hit me as I walked into them, slowly closing my door behind me.

Creeeeeek.

Was all I heard as my door closed. Cringing at the noise I started my journey to Ghosts office.

Roaming the halls it still held the same uncomfortable silence, odd.

My boots clicked and clacked as I ventured closer and closer to his office, my veins starting to pump with adrenaline as I drew closer.

My stomach churned with unease,

what would I say?

I didn’t even rehearse this!

Though my body had a mind of its own. As I drowned in my thoughts I finally realized I was standing in front of Ghosts office.

Good lord help me.

I was knocking on his door before I could even second guess myself.

Knock,

Knock,

Kno-

My first was still in the air when Ghost cracked the door open slightly, peering out to see who was knocking.

His eyes held an irritated gaze when he opened the door after realizing it was me. When his door opened enough to where I could see him fully, the smell of cigarettes and cologne wafted in my nose.

“Do you need something?” he grumbled, his brown eyes piercing through me.

“I uhm-“ I stammered, forget what I said earlier, I should have never came here.

“Cat got your tongue?” his eyes narrowed while his brows furrowed in annoyance, he was obviously not happy.

I let out a quick sigh as I fidgeted with my nails behind my back, “M’sor-“ I started quietly as he cut me off.

What is with them and cutting people off?

“Why.” he stated, nothing more, nothing less. His eyes holding no emotion to go off of anymore.

“Why?” I questioned as I stood outside of his doorway, my facial expression painted with confusion.

“Why?” he scoffed a pause, “Why were his hands all over you?” his voice was gruff when he spoke to me, his bulky figure leaning on the door frame.

I stared back at Ghost who was staring at me dead in the face. My eyes widened with surprise at his words, even his tone.

“What, do I have to elaborate for you?” he growled, his voice becoming rougher as his eyes bored into my soul.

“I- What?” I stumbled over my words, desperately trying to find the ones that were stuck in my throat. I stared blankly at him, my nails stinging from my consistent picking. Unease coursing through my frozen body.

He let out an exaggerated sigh before grabbing my wrist and pulling me into his office, slamming the door on my way in.

I let out a quiet yelp as he grabbed my wrist and dragged me into his office, the slamming door making my body jolt.

He spun me around, my back facing his desk as be grabbed my hips roughly.

“Ghost-“ My face flushed a pretty shade of pink, an unwanted shade of pink, right?

“Ghost get off of me!” I demanded as I pushed his hands off of me, stumbling as I tripped backwards into his desk.

What was he doing?

He looked at me with hungry eyes, jealousy and hunger. Though his eyes flashed with a hint of surprise as I pushed him back.

He didn’t say anything, both of us just stood there in an uncomfortable silence. His muscles tensing slightly when I pulled away.

“What the hell- Why would you put your hands on me?” I broke the silence, my eyes flashing with confusion- irritation even. I was so lost and confused.

“And why would you let him touch you like that?!” he countered, his husky voice getting lower as he took small steps towards me.

My blood ran cold as he started to walk towards me, I felt helpless as his eyes flashed with an unsettling look.

“I-“ my voice was caught in my throat, a lump was there was was impossible to choke down.

“Why does it matter to you?” I finally choked out. But that was probably the worst choice of words I could have picked.

‘Because I care about you.’

His words rang in my head, practically running circles.

Though a shadowy figure broke me from my thoughts when I realized he was standing directly in front of me, his bulky figure looming over mine.

His palms rested on the cool wooden desk my back laid against.

“What are you-“ my words got lost as he cupped my chin harshly forcing me look up at him.

My body shuddered, I stayed frozen. My mouth hung open, desperately trying to say words that fell on deaf ears.

I couldn’t speak, I physically couldn’t, my words hung in the air like a sheet swaying in the wind on a clothes line.

“Why would you let him touch you, [name].” his voice was low and husky. It didn’t even sound like a question anymore, it felt like a command.

Like he was commanding me to stay helpless beneath him, commanding me to answer his ‘questions’.

More like demands.

“Thats none of your business Ghost- Get off of me!” I shouted, my voice trembling slightly as I tried to use my palms to push him back,

but to no avail.

He was anticipating this, Ghost stood tall like a brick wall in front of me. Keeping my cheeks in his rough gloved hand.

I was stuck.

lmk if yall want a pt 2 cuz this is over a year old😭😭 maybe ill have motivation

[echantedtoon]

Until Death Do You Vow Ch1 Prologue

'Never make a promise you can't keep' and 'wake the dead' are two figures of speech that should never EVER go together. Nor should it be a good idea to do a paranormal investigation in a cemetery while still angry at your ex.

(The Groom of Gallagher Mansion Semi Corpse Bride Au. 

DISCLAIMERS AND WARNINGS!! The game that these characters are from is for 18+ folks only. While this story will be absolutely sfw the game itself is not and contains things ONLY for an 18+ audience.  I do NOT in anyway own the game or characters. They belong to their rightful owners. I do not own the movie Corpse Bride either. I also don't own the coverart which is a pic from their merch line. I only own this story here. In the beginning it will have a character briefly from the game Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack which is also a game for ONLY 18+ folks and that I ALSO do NOT own!! It's only referenced here and not part of the story.

There WILL be mentioning of death, murder, blood, etc. those parts will have warnings at the top of the chapters. If ANY chapters come with warnings PLEASE READ AND HEED THEM!!! 

Just imagine your wedding dress similar to the one above/linked below only with a longer veil and train that trails behind you.

https://images.app.goo.gl/V4BZ1rEaXstvYx696

Warnings: Ian cheats on both reader and Mc from SWWSDJ.)

Church bells chimed in the morning.

Flowers. Soft petals. Meant for their beauty to symbolize the beauty of the bride. 

Organ music. To match in chimes of the steps of the bride walking down the aisle.

An audience to shed tears of happiness for many happy moments to come from this union. 

Smiles shown at one another in the joys of the moment.

A breath to fill your lungs trying not to cry as you smiled up at the man in front of you. The one you were going to marry and have a life with after you both finally graduated. But this moment couldn't wait. This magical moment after a year. Some say it was fast but you supposed it was called love at first sight for a reason. 

Or at least it was supposed to be. A wedding was nothing if a groom never showed up for his bride leaving her humiliated by the alter and missing the wedding entirely. Only to show up after everyone decided to call it quits and leave for the night. Waiting for you with baited breath and a guilty look on his face. He wasn't even wearing a tuxedo. But better late than never. 

"Ian! There you are! Where have you been? Y'know what? Nevermind! The priest is still here. We can go inside and still elope even if everyone left already!"

Smiles turned to him exceedingly and in joy-

"I-...I-I can't."

Reality shattered. Gasps wracked around. Silence fell.

Your eyes blinked at his guilty face. "I-...What?"

"I'm sorry, Y/n." His hands released yours as he looked down. "But I can't go through with this! I-... I've been having an affair with you behind someone else's back. Someone whom knows and left me a year ago."

More gasps were had. A bouquet of flowers dropped from your hands to your feet. Time seemed to slow before completely freezing.

"W-What?!"

"I really did try to make this work! I thought if I forced myself to invest time with you I'd forget all about them but I couldn't and I still don't. I still love them!"

Your world shattered as humiliation, guilt, regret, anger all swirled about behind shock which was the strongest emotion. Keeping you from saying anything as Ian without looking up at you took off his ring and without saying anything pushed it back into your palms. 

"Here. Take this. You can sell it to get some money. I-It's the least you deserve after what I put you and them through. I'm-... I'm sorry, Y/n. I really am."

He then left the bride standing there. Nothing but white on her body. Tears on her cheeks. And crushed flowers at her feet. No one but her lonely self for comfort in the moonlight so late at night.

[gunnerfc]

Okay, nice! My prompt was the lia wälti one: "I could kiss you right now" + first kiss

Something along the lines of a team game night and r and lia being paired up. It gets competitive and r wins the final game for them, lia saying that in the spur of the moment (they are not together yet) and then later some fluff and the kiss between them

Take your time, whenever you feel like it, i'll be patiently waiting to see what you do with my muddled thoughts <3

L. Wälti - I could kiss you right now | WC: 1.1K

AN: the game I’m referencing is called “Incoherent,” where you have phrases spelled weirdly, and you have to try and figure out what the actual phrase is! (shoutout to Smosh for telling me about this game lmao) || hope you enjoy bff <3

Kim’s living room was loud as you and a few of your teammates yelled (playfully) at each other, everyone’s competitiveness getting the best of them during team game night. You and Lia were paired together, having been the last two to arrive, and were currently in the lead.

The two of you worked well together, having spent the last few years getting closer and having feelings develop. Feelings that you’ve yet to tell her about out of fear that she doesn’t feel the same and fear of losing the closeness you had with her. Instead, you opted not to tell her and keep the feelings to yourself (and Steph, who had to listen to you ramble about Lia on multiple occasions). 

You had all been playing the game Leah picked out for a few hours at this point, and time was drawing close for everyone to start heading home. “Okay, Lia, Y/n! You two are up, and then we can count our cards and see who got the most,” Leah nodded as she scooted the deck of cards closer to Lia. 

The midfielder nodded at you and then at Leah, signaling the blonde to flip over the mini hourglass. Lia quickly held up a card with nonsense written on it for you to sound out, which earned some laughter from your teammates at how ridiculous you sounded. 

“Just think about it, Y/n/n,” Lia encouraged, and you took a moment before saying the correct phrase. Lia mumbled a quiet ‘Yes!’ before picking a new card to repeat the process. 

You quickly flew through as many as you could before Kim yelled, ‘Time!’ and you held up your hand to highfive Lia. “How did you get literally any of those,” Steph laughed as you gathered all the cards you had guessed correctly. 

“Dunno, guess I’m just that good at this,” you shrugged at your fellow defender with a small laugh. Steph rolled her eyes at your comment before Leah interrupted whatever retort she had ready. 

“Seeing as though Lia and Y/n got almost every one right, I don’t think we really need to count, but Kim and I got nine total,” the blonde huffed as she sat the nine cards back on the table. 

You took a few minutes to count your cards as your other teammates called out their totals before you finished by saying, “Nineteen.” Your teammates around you grumbled and spoke over each other, jokingly accusing you and Lia of cheating.

“I could kiss you right now,” Lia said quietly with a small laugh when you called out your total, having beat everyone else by a significant margin. 

Your eyes widened slightly as you processed her words, and Lia’s expression matched yours once she realized what she had said. Neither of you made an effort to speak, your teammates’ jokes still going. 

“Okay! It’s getting late, and we have an early training tomorrow,” Kim finally broke everyone’s jokes off, using her “captain’s voice,” as Kyra had dubbed it. Her words earned a chorus of groans from everyone else except for you and Lia, who had yet to look away from each other. 

“Y/n, Lia, good game! Can’t wait to beat you next time!” Katie laughed, pulling you both from your thoughts. 

“You wish, McCabe,” you joked as you stood up from your place on the floor, reaching a hand out for Lia to take so you could help her up. 

The midfielder took your hand, letting you pull her to her feet, and reluctantly dropped your hand once she was up. You didn’t try to say anything else before you and your teammates made your way out the door, yelling goodnight to Kim and saying goodbye to each other. 

You hugged Steph quickly before the Aussie got in her car and took off. You slowed your walk to your car across the street, watching Lia hug Leah before the blonde headed to her car. You and Lia were the last two left outside, yet neither of you made any effort to get into your cars. 

Lia hesitantly made her way to where you stood by your car, her eyes never meeting yours. When she was finally in front of you, both of you stood silently, waiting for the other to speak first. 

“What I said earlier-” Lia started at the same you start with, “Did you mean it-.” Both of you stopped, processing what the other had started to say.

“Yes,” Lia muttered, her eyes meeting yours. You swallowed lightly as you took a step closer to her, giving her enough time and space to back away, which she didn’t. You closed the gap between you even more until you were as close as you could be to her.

You hesitantly brought a hand up to her jaw, rubbing your thumb along her cheek softly before mumbling, “Can I kiss you.” Lia nodded quickly, tilting her head slightly. You bit back a smile as you leaned down, your lips meeting hers in a soft yet passionate kiss.

You moved your other to cup the other side of her jaw, holding her close as your lips moved against one another. Lia moved her hands to grip the hoodie you were wearing, holding you just as close. You both pulled away after a few moments, panting as air filled your lungs. You rested your forehead against hers, a small smile gracing both of your faces.

“I’ve been thinking about that for a while,” You confessed, pulling back so you could see her face fully.

Lia smiled at your words before leaning up to give you a quick peck, “So have I,” she mumbled against your lips, a light blush coating her cheeks. Your smile grew hearing her words, and you let a deep breath you hadn’t realized you were holding. 

You sighed before taking a step back, letting your hands fall back to your sides, “We can talk about this tomorrow, after training or something, maybe,” you shrugged softly, hopefulness lacing your words.

“Are you asking me out on a date, Y/n/n,” Lia smiled, tilting her head slightly. Your eyes widened slightly, and you opened your mouth to respond, but nothing came out. “I would love that,” Lia continued, finding your reaction cute.

You chuckled softly at how nervous you feeling now that you knew Lia felt the same way. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” you mumbled, giving her a quick kiss before she made her way back to her car. You waved as she drove off, and you took a deep breath, smiling as you got into your car.

You normally hated having early training, but now you were hoping it came quickly. The entire drive home was spent replaying the kiss over and over in your head, and you couldn't be happier to know Lia felt the same way you did and the fact that you two had a date after training.

[vyeoh]

i dont understand watchers lmao

like i kind of get the gist

but i did not watch evo

and do not have time to (sadly)

so...help???

Luckily for you, the watchers at this point are pretty removed from the Evo ones! There are some pretentious purists out there, as with anything, that like to bitch about people not following the original script (god knows I'm guilty of this with other stuff lol) and I've noticed bitching about this specifically becoming more popular, but I'm assuming you're coming to me about the lifer series watchers and not Evo watchers. That being said, here's Vio's Watcher guide of questionable accuracy:

The Life Series watchers are only really "canon" in Martyn's lore, with them being referenced but not explicitly canonized in the Secret Life state (the symbol on the mask is their symbol from Evo but no one else really has lore, period, so I hesitate to count this as more than an easter egg for anyone else but Martyn). From what I can tell, the Watchers retained a few things from their Evo lore:

1) The ability to move players to new worlds- In Evo, the Watchers were the ones who moved people to more updated versions of the game (the series concept was playing survival but gradually updating the game version as they went). This ability lends to the life series Watchers being the "gamemakers" and being able to put players in a new game ever season

2) Grian - at the end of his Evo series (tho notably not the Evo series in general), he was taken after jumping into the end portal by the Watchers. Based on the end credit poem being replaced with a dialouge between two of them, and a third one joining in at the end, the assumption is that Grian became a Watcher. As Grian is also the server owner for the Life Series, him being a Watcher plays well into the Watchers being the game runners. I'm not sure how canon this is in Martyn's lore or if it's still an unknown, but it is a prevailing theory that Grian's involvement isn't part of the other Watcher's plans and is to try and fuck up their shit on the inside and essentially do damage control for his friends. This is based off of the quote "He was never meant to interfere, he was onlt ever meant to watch" from Martyn's videos. However, c!Martyn, who is the perspective we see, is not omniscient and therefore there's a lot we just don't know.

3) Listeners/ why the Watchers seem to hate Martyn and also Jimmy: from what I understand from the little Evo lore I remember (this was years ago lmao), the Listeners appeared later as an antagonistic force to the Watchers, and got Martyn and Jimmy on their side. They were presented as a route to freedom vs the Watchers, but once again unreliable narration needs to be kept in mind. This is likely why the Watxhers keep fucking w Martyn specifically (and might provide an in canon reason for why Jimmy keeping dying first as well lmao) but it hasn't really be touched on beyond 1) Martyn is canonically a Listener and 2) the Watchers know he's a Listener

4) So.... what are the Watchers? - this one is, canonically, unknown and therefore the source of the aforementioned pretentious bitching. You need to keep in mind that mcyt roleplay is not structured and Evo especially didn't start out expecting deep worldbuilng. This, plus the fact that the Watchers are higher powers that different people have different opinions on, means there's going to be a lot of info that just doesn't line up, from both a meta and in canon perspective.

One theory is that they're a representation of viewers. This is at least somewhat true, imo, based on how Grian "becomes a viewer" after ending his series. This is not canon, but personally I do like this theory lol. This also carries into Secret Life, where viewers can submit tasks via the statue. However, I don't think this is canonized ever and might just be more symbolic than literal. There's also a theory that Watchers vs Listeners are a dichotomy between the bad viewers who just "watch" and demand things without "listening" to the players, while Listeners are viewers what actually "listen" to what the players want to do. However, as with everything, this is speculation based off of a 3rd person limited perspective.

5) Are they evil?- once again, depends on who you ask and what version you're talking about. According to c!Martyn in both series, yes. According to c!Grian from Martyn's lore, probably? Or at least he doesn't like this particular plan of theirs. According to Evo fans who remember them as just "plot bunny for why the version of the world keeps changing", probably not. We really don't know a ton about them and so you are free to make them as evil as you want or as neutral as you want.

This is preally much all ik about the Watchers and how they relate to the Life Series. You will notice that most of it is theories or hinted at things. The beauty of mcrp as a genre is that it's very semi-formal, and so canon is a bit wiggley. So TLDR: do whatever the fuck you want lmao. You don't need mine or anyone else's approval. It's your right to do what you want with canon, just as it's your right to bitch about it on the internet. Just don't be a dick about it and everything will be fine 👍

[tsprants]

WE’RE BACK! with the museum ending 🦅

or more specifically, curator’s voice lines, because i’m too lazy to talk about the museum itself lmao

this is only part one of this rant, as the whole thing was too long to upload in one go (sorry haha)

i don’t know where to start with this except that i do because this is peak stanarrator but in a toxic billford way do you get me. picking up what im putting down huh huh 😝 so let’s start with what triggers the ending! the narrator isn’t really antagonistic here, but harm does come upon stanley by disobeying him, so we’ll call it reactionary (referring to my last rant, where i was talking about narry’s role in the game and whether or not he could be considered a villain/antagonist). you can get this ending by taking the escape passage when you’re about to enter the mind control facility, therefore, this would be the first time stanley/the player disobeys the narrator in that run. when stanley/the player enters the machine thingy, the narrator yaps for a while about how stanley never discovered what happened to his coworkers or anything (“he doesn't know the real story. tapped forever in his narrow vision of what this world is. perhaps his death was of no great loss, like plucking the eyeballs from a blind man” very rude). anyways, then the curator/female narrator steps in!! now, i keep up a tab of the dialogue from each ending as i’m writing these, and in the first few sentences of what curator says, we’ve already got some juicy shit. so let’s take a look! first thing i’d like to mention is, “and yet it would be just a few minutes before stanley would restart the game, back in his office, as alive as ever. what exactly did the narrator think he was going to accomplish?” WOW. wow!! immediately, so much to talk about here. so let’s take the first sentence there, which i believe to be a very clear reference to the game restarting over and over, as the stanley parable is made up of reruns, trying to get every ending. so we know curator is definitely aware of/remembers each run, and narrator has implied that he does too (countdown ending, narrator describes past runs where he tortures/kills stanley). so far, i don’t think we’ve seen any confirmations or implications in-game surrounding whether or not stanley remembers past runs, or at least i can’t think of any. the closest thing i can think of is probably when a few of narrator’s voice lines change in the countdown ending after you’ve played it a few times, ridiculing you for trying the ending over and over, trying to stop the inevitable. however, i believe narrator is speaking more to the player than stanley, as he does a few other times in the game (i talked about it a bit in my first rant, where i was contrasting the narrator being aware of the game and the player against the not stanley ending, but i digress). back to our curator quote, onto the second part, “what exactly did the narrator think he was going to accomplish?” i’m VERY excited about this part, because this is interesting to me! i find this interesting, mainly because there are just SO many ways to interpret this, especially considering the situation! firstly, you could see it as the curator referencing the narrator planning out endings, or having some kind of SCRIPT. huuuh huuuuh ⁉️ again, i talk a bit about this in my first rant, so i’m not going to dive *too* too deep into it here… but i do find the concept very intriguing. i think the narrator taking on that kind of role, one of full power in the game, would explain… everything, essentially. any kind of question you’d have about any of the endings would be easily answered with, “well, the narrator scripted it! he’s just messing with stanley/the player’s head, and it’s all for the psychological value!” while an interesting thing to think about, you have to consider this: it would mean the skip button ending (including the memory zone), not stanley ending and zending are all scripted. i’ve said it before, and i’ll say it now—i don’t think that’s true!!! i do believe those endings are genuine, on the narrator’s part… but moving on!

[bucketsofmonsters]

Where the Light Enters - Part 16

Cole/Female Inquisitor

cw: unreliable narrator, hurt/comfort, slow burn, enemies to lovers, referenced noncon, happy ending, oral sex

word count: 4k

ao3 link

Masterlist

They were in that room for a very long time. People brought them food, Varric mainly, but other than that they mostly left them alone. 

Cole occasionally brought food to, sneaking out to grab her favorites. On those occasions, he ate too. He didn’t mind eating so much when it was food she loved, especially if she let him split it down the middle. He insisted that the two halves connected them. 

People occasionally attempted to drag Cole out, Solas gently leading him away and telling him he was better than this, Cassandra grabbing him by the arm and hauling him out. He always came back, picking the lock on the door to get in and relocking it from the inside. 

She didn’t mind the door being locked. There was nowhere she wanted to go. So long as they kept feeding her and let Cole stay, this was almost perfect, the safest scenario she could imagine for them. It wouldn’t last forever but for now she was far from opposed to it. 

People pretty quickly gave up on trying to keep him out, though no one but Varric seemed pleased with his presence there. 

Cullen was the first to come with anything but food. He entered the room absolutely reeking of guilt with a chessboard in hand. 

The guilt wasn’t particularly surprising. Cullen always had an air of guilt about him, even if she couldn’t imagine what he felt guilty about here. She wasn’t sure he knew how to feel anything else anymore. 

“Do you know how to play chess?” he asked as he set the board on their little table, lining up the pieces for her.”

“Yes,” she snapped. “I’m not eight, I know how to play chess.” She didn’t actually, but he didn’t need to know that. 

He backed up, looking a little disoriented and dazed. “Right, of course. Look, I’m sorry if I ever imposed on you, I never meant…”

She rolled her eyes. “You didn’t even do anything to me, what are you apologizing for? Impure thoughts?”

Cole stared through him, as the spirit was wont to do, and announced to the room, “He looked right through the mages. Regret before and anger after, all backwards. He likes that you’re angry now, it makes him feel whole. More people should be angry at him, shouting, screaming. He did it to them but no one will do it back.”

Cullen stumbled back, looking almost like he’d been slapped. “I should leave. I hope you enjoy the chess set.”

He left like he was running from her. 

“Well that was something,” she said, as much to herself as it was to Cole. The instinct to write it down, to catalog the revealed weakness of Cullen’s, washed over her and she realized with a pang of distress that she couldn’t. 

She let out a quiet groan at that and Cole perked up, his head tilting in a silent question. 

“I just realized I’m going to have to remember things like that now,” she said with a huff. “I’m not good at remembering. It gets all jumbled and I can’t keep track of it all.”

“I can remember it for you,” he responded, his eyes lighting up. 

“What?”

“I’m better at remembering now, after the change. I can remember it for you. Like Varric does with people’s stories.”

“It’s a little different than that,” she said with a laugh.

“Not really. It’s something important to you and I will remember it.”

“Alright,” she said softly, trying not to reveal any emotion in her voice. “Thank you.”

He nodded, sitting at the chess board as he deemed the conversation over, positioning himself behind the white pieces. 

She sat across from him. “Black goes first,” she said, and attempted to move her queen out in what she was pretty sure was an illegal move.

Cole moved her piece back, which she was even more certain was not permitted. “She doesn’t want to be there. Try again.”

The game was practically incoherent. Cole would occasionally correct her pieces, she presumed trying to keep the moves legal. This only lasted so long before he began trying to get his pieces to fly across the board next to another piece, insisting they wanted to be near one another. 

Once he tried with one of her rooks and she’d simply taken the piece. He looked so sad about it that she moved his back on the board, insisting that he just couldn’t use it anymore. He seemed content with that. 

It became clear pretty quickly that they were both trying to get all four of the horses, although Britches was decidedly more aggressive about it than he was. 

All of his pieces that she captured went into the ‘torture chamber,’ grilled for information on Cole’s tactics in excruciating ways. 

Cole watched the pieces, eventually declaring, “It’s so cold. He wonders if that's part of it, if even the air is meant to hurt in here. It makes the chains so cold they burn and sometimes, he practically craves the fire. At least before, for a moment, he can pretend he is warm.”

“It’s not fun when you do that,” she said, dropping the agonized pawn with a huff.

Cullen returned a few hours later and she could practically see his tail tucked between his legs.

He looked down at the chessboard and then cocked his head, untensing a little as he analyzed the familiar game. “He’s won,” Cullen said. “Your king has been taken.”

She shook her head. “I still have a horse left, it’s never over until all the horses have been taken. Am I ungrounded yet?”

“You’re not grounded, you’re not twelve.”

She laughed. “I assure you, this is nothing close to what being twelve was like.”

Cullen shifted uncomfortably at that statement, moving past it as quickly as he could. “Are you doing alright? You don’t need any food?”

She shook her head. “Cole brings me plenty, I don’t need you.”

“Right,” he said, dropping a piece of bread that she hadn’t realized he was holding on a nearby table. “I’ll leave this here anyways.”

Cole insisted upon eating the bread, saying it was brought with good intentions, that it was a peace offering. 

She stared at him as she ate and then, all of a sudden, she declared, “Pop quiz time. What do you remember about Cullen?”

He looked up, seeming disoriented, before speaking with his mouth still full of bread. “Everything sticks. The bad thoughts linger but good actions never seem to, undone just as easily. They stick to him but not to the people who matter, the hero with unsaved victims. He likes when you yell. He thinks he deserves it,” He finally swallowed when he was done, looking proud of himself. 

She nodded, content with his answer. 

Josephine came next, barely an hour after Cullen’s appearance, no food in hand to offer as a peace offering. 

Her voice was colder than she’d ever heard it before. “You will be banned from all diplomatic missions in the future unless strictly supervised. We will work together to undo the damage you did and then you will be transitioned out of the public eye as much as possible, only appearing when strictly necessary.”

“Thank god,” she said, sporting a grin. “Can we ban me from non diplomatic missions next?”

Josephine left without so much as another word, having said everything she needed to. 

Left with nothing better to do, they played another bastardized game of chess. 

“I think Cullen likes me more now, like this,” she said as she moved one of his pieces back, hoping he wouldn’t notice. 

He did notice, but seemed content to just move it back as his turn, like they were in a game of tug of war. “He does.”

Like he’d been listening at the door, Cullen took that as his cue to enter. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, voice far harsher than it needed to be. “Why are you obsessed with me now?”

He stammered out a response before promptly exiting, not even staying behind to do whatever he’d needed to do. 

Her head whipped around towards Cole as he left, a delighted look on her face. “Was he into that?”

Cole nodded, staring down at the chess board before moving one of her pieces halfway across the board. “It came with guilt too. It always does. Your turn.”

Sera came in through the door midway through the game, completely unannounced. She didn’t really seem like she was meant to be there, she doubted anyone had signed off on it. 

She thought back to the meeting and realized that Sera had been the only traveling companion of hers that hadn’t come. She couldn’t help but wonder if no one had invited her or if she’d refused to come. Both seemed equally likely.

“Are you really crazy?” she asked, eyes flicking nervously towards Cole. 

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Right, and Blackwall said your name is Britches now?”

“Frankly, you can call me whatever you’d like. Clearly I am not picky.”

Cole interrupted, declaring, “Her name is Britches though.”

She rolled her eyes but didn’t correct him. 

Sera’s eyes flicked between the pair of them. “Are you two really together?”

“We are. Do you have a problem with that.”

“Not really. I mean, I don’t know why you’d want to date Creepy but to each their own. I kind of suspected anyways.”

“You didn’t tell Bull,” she noted, the closest she could get to saying thank you. 

“I didn’t. Didn’t want to get you in hot water. Figured he’d find out when it was time. Guess it was about time.”

She laughed a little at that. “Yes, I guess it was.”

“Right. Anyways, I’m not here to chat, I’m a messenger.  Blackwall said to tell you that if anyone tries anything with you, to let him know. He said he’d handle them for you.”

She nodded. “Tell him I said thank you. And that his past doesn’t define him or whatever, I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t,” Sera said, steadfast, “He really has changed.”

“I know. He’s always been kind to me. Kinder than most.”

“Good,” she said with a nod. “Just wanted to make sure you knew. You can go back to your boring game now.”

She left through the door and didn’t bother to lock it up again. It didn’t really matter, Britches had no intention of leaving. Still, the gesture was clearly intentional and it warmed her heart a little. It was a way out, a quiet way to look out for her. Just in case. 

She drew her attention back to the game, seeing that Cole technically had her in a corner, simply removing one of his pieces off the board to rectify that problem. 

Eventually, they gave up on chess. She’d won every game by making up rules and there was only so long that could be entertaining. 

Cole had switched to braiding her hair as she laid across his lap. They didn’t have any hair ties on them and Cole didn’t feel like leaving so he simply braided and unbraided endlessly. 

After a while she flipped onto her back, pulling her hair out of his hands so she could look up at him. 

“We are just stuck in here,” she said, batting her eyes up at him. “We could always find a way to entertain ourselves.”

He looked down at her, amusement shining in his eyes. “You’ve never been straightforward in your life,” he said accusationally.

“Oh sorry, what would you rather I say? Would you like to eat me out to pass the time?”

“Yes,” he said, his pupils blowing wide. 

He had them flipped in a matter of seconds, lips pressing into hers.

She wasn’t as nervous as she had been the last time they’d tried this. There was a quiet understand that had begun blossoming between then, the casual touches they exchanged settling her in a way. 

And he always stopped the second any amount of doubt or fear clouded her mind. The stopping never came with anything else, no apologies or explanations. It simply stopped and they moved onto the next thing. 

This time, however, he stopped for no reason before they had even begun. No doubt had flickered through her mind, he’d seemingly just decided they were done. 

“What happened?” she asked, propping herself up against the headboard.

His face was panicked and she moved towards him. He backed away and looked almost scared. 

“Did I do something?” she asked softly, fear tugging at her gut. “Did I hurt you?”

He shook his head and muttered, “I didn’t want to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“It’s been fading. I can’t see in everyone’s heads, it’s harder to pull it out. It’s stopped completely with some but never with you. Now I can’t see in. I don’t know when to stop.”

“Hey,” she said, reaching for his hand. This time he didn’t pull away, squeezing her hand back as she intertwined their fingers. “I can tell you when to stop. I’m a big girl, I promise I’m capable of that.”

“You never told them.”

You,” she said, putting an air of finality into her voice, “are not them. Nor could you ever be. I swear, I will tell you the second I want to stop. Do you trust me?”

He froze for a moment and then lunged at her, pulling her into a deep kiss. 

He kissed down her body slowly, looking up check in every few seconds. She supposed this was close to what he did normally, his typical methods of checking in had just become unavailable to him. 

She couldn’t help but wonder what other parts of him were changing, slowly and steadily, in this new form. 

And then she stopped wondering as he nosed at her crotch through her pants and her mind went blank. 

He was moving too slowly and she went to tug her pants down herself, impatience running through her. 

“We have nothing but time,” he said, looking up at her fondly. 

“Perhaps, but my patience is not infinite.”

He grinned and then, with no further adieu, dove between her legs, lapping immediately at her clit, grinding down into the bed as he did, a wanton moan muffled escaping him, muffled by her skin. 

She was in no less desperate of a state, arching up into his face, hands grabbing desperately at his hair. 

He ate her out like he wanted to consume her, sloppy and intense in his ministrations. 

There was more desperation in it this time and she guessed he’d spent a lot of time thinking about it after she’d given him permission. 

His hands wrapped around her ass, pulling her up into him with a shocking amount of strength, holding her up to keep her at the perfect angle. 

His tongue only dipped inside her on occasion, in his desperate attempt to taste everything she had. He mostly focused on her clit, a technique she was sure he’d stolen from someone’s mind. 

As soon as he pulled a quiet moan from her, barely more than a whimper, he doubled down, clearly desperate to pull more noises from her. 

He managed it, whimpers and moans slowly shifting, turning into pleading to not stop, to stay right there, just like that. 

And then something inside her snapped and her body went taut. He carefully worked her through it, holding her up as her hips rolled into him. 

He laid her down gently as she came down, pulling her pants back up before curling into her side. 

And she gave him nothing in return. Not this time. She didn’t have to. 

They were still cuddling, legs entwined, when Dorian came into the room. Britches quickly righted herself, trying to make herself look presentable, while Cole seemed unconcerned with anything other than laying on the bed, trying to tug her back over to him. 

“You certainly seem comfortable,” Dorian said with a laugh. 

She shrugged, trying to flatten some of the wrinkles on her clothes before declaring, “If you’re here to ask if you can get with Bull, the answer is yes. In fact, the answer is please do. I’ve been wanting you to for ages but I didn’t want to blow my cover.”

He paused, seeming taken aback by this. “Right, I wasn’t…”

“Oh please, yes you were. Listen, I don’t want him and you clearly do. I am not blind, Dorian. Go crazy, you have my permission. My encouragement, even.”

“Alright,” he said, clearly deep in thought. “I suppose I will keep that in mind.”

And then he left and Cole pulled her back into his side. His hands ran gently down her sides and it didn’t take long before she was lulled to sleep.  

She woke up, as if in a nightmare, to Bull’s voice. “She made me hurt her, tricked me into it.”

“She was scared.”

“We’re all scared sometimes. It’s not an excuse. I looked at her the other day and I didn’t even know who I was looking at.”

“She was doing the best she could. I can promise you that. She could have thrown you to the wolves and gotten away with it and she didn’t. She’ll never admit it but she’s changing. I love it when she’s rude or mean now because every time she is, she is trusting you not to hurt her for it.”

“It’s rude to gossip, you know,” she called out, having heard more than enough from the two of them. 

She opened her eyes and watched Bull freeze as Cole drifted back over to her side, sitting on the bed by her feet. 

“He just wants to talk,” Cole said quietly, and she reluctantly believed him.

Bull still looked upset, although certainly less upset than he had last time she’d seen him. 

She looked him over, all broad shoulders and jagged scars, and sighed. “You were never really a brute, were you?”

He laughed, sounding more good natured than he had any right to be. “No. But that’s what spies do. You probably should have guessed it.”

She huffed, a little upset by the idea. She’d done the best she could. “It doesn’t really matter. You acted like a brute, and so really, I was right.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself. And you weren’t really some damsel.”

Privately, she thought to herself that she was a damsel, definitionally speaking. But she supposed not in the way that mattered to him so she said, “No. But you knew that already. Do you have anything new to say to me?”

He shrugged, and he almost looked sad. “I guess not. Just wanted to see you. It doesn’t feel right, all of it. I haven’t slept since you got locked up, you know.”

“That’s not my problem. Not anymore.”

“Right.” he said, before going quiet for a minute. The next time he spoke, it was hesitant. “I think I’m going to try it with Dorian.”

“Okay?” she said, baffled by this entire conversation. “What does that have to do with me? You want me to give you my blessing?”

“Yeah, kind of. I guess you didn’t ask for mine, but then again, I’m a better man than you.”

She scrunched up her nose. “Whatever. Fine, you have my blessing. I already told him to go after you anyway.”

Bull snorted. “Probably for the best he turned down that threesome, huh? Would have made things even messier.”

Her brow furrowed and she reeled back a little. “The what?”

He seemed very intrigued by her reaction which made her incredibly nervous. “You know about it. We talked about it, hell it was in your book.”

“Oh. Well, sometimes I have a hard time remembering stuff. Especially things that matter. That’s why the book exists at all.”

“The things that matter? Like the hard stuff?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she said with a shrug. 

“You know,” he said, speaking very tactfully. “I’ve seen this before. In my men, after hard shit. The head trying to protect itself by throwing out memories, with or without your permission.”

She rolled her eyes. “No, not like that at all. I can’t just forget things without you pretending like I’ve been to war, absolutely absurd. Now what, why are you really here? Was it really just for a heart to heart?” she asked. 

“You know it wasn’t. They’re letting you go back into the field,” he said. “I made them let me be the one to tell you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why? What do you want from me?”

“Just wanted to see you,” he admitted. “And maybe I wanted to drag you out there myself. I don’t blame you, I’ve thought about it for days and I don’t think I have it in me to blame you, but I still want a little revenge.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. If I’m going back into the field, here are my terms. I demand at least ten bodyguards, perhaps more if it’s a dangerous spot. And I want every rift mapped out before you ever bring the mission to me, no more aimless wandering. That’s grunt work for less important people. Oh, and Cole goes on every mission with me, that’s non negotiable. And no more deserts, I’m done with deserts.”

And then Bull laughed, eyes crinkling as he did, and he picked her up, throwing her unceremoniously over his shoulder. 

“You know,” he said, keeping her steady as she squirmed and yelled various expletives at him, “I think maybe I would have liked the real you.”

“There’s still time,” Cole said, walking happily alongside them. 

“Yeah, I guess there is.”