#I don’t know it it’ll ever be the same

[liltumgrum]

There are two major things that are ripping me up about Kaladin leaving to become a herald.

And I don’t mean how it was predicable.

The first is the general lack of knowledge of what happened to him. Szeth doesn’t even know. His parents will never know how they lost their son again. Orodin will never know why his big brother he just met disappeared. What’s left of bridge 4 will think their Captain finally was beaten. No one knows he’s not actually dead. His body died and was all that was left behind as a clue. It looks like he *failed* almost. Kaladin has had a way of inspiring people to believe in the impossible since he was in his mid to late teens. And now when everything in their world has fallen, this almost divine figure has a well. He was such a symbol to hope to so many people only for him to seemingly die without anyone even awake to witness.

This is less sad to his character and more so for the population of human free from Retribution

Second, and worst of all in my opinion, is the people he left beind.

In this I’m not actually talking about Bridge 4 or his family who he did get closure with in some way. Specifically I’m thinking of Szeth, Adolin, and Shallan. He was what? Szeth’s first actual friend? For like 8 days? And Szeth buried his corpse. Adolin and Shallan refused to say goodbye. They haven’t out grown him in the same way others had. They saw him as he was, vulnerable, when others didn’t.

I’m not saying that it’s impossible for them to have that drink together, but unless Kal figures out how to do freaky shit in the cognitive realm or someone yanks the heralds back to roshar before their ready, it seems really unlikely. Ishar said that time passes significantly faster on roshar than where they are. Kaladin said the heralds have time to heal. He just…. Doesn’t seem to be planning on coming back in time for Adolin or Shallan to still be alive. He won’t get to be the friend to Adolin that Adolin was to him. He won’t get to joke and commiserate with Shallan with no weird feelings between them. He doesn’t get to be proud of them for what they’ve done while they were separated. And they know nothing but that this time. This one final time. He didn’t come back.

That hurts me.

That isn’t to say however that I think it was out of character or easy for Kaladin to leave. One crucial thing about his character that has always been true is this: Kaladin cannot, and will not walk away from someone in front of him that needs help. That moment and that need takes president over all else. He just has decided he’s going to deal with the consequences of his choice. No matter how steep. Being there for the people that had literally no one else: szeth, the heralds, Syl and every single spren was worth the loss. He chose it and he’s going to see it through.

On a side note I can totally see why people thought the therapy talk was a little hit over the head and clunky. I would have like to see him fumble his words more. Which maybe says something about me bc he fumbled a lot. But honestly I’m just impressed at him for pushing himself to talk so much. I mean can you image the grunting guy in WoR talking half as much as he does in WaT?

I think the message was prioritized more for setting him up as a herald than it was meant to feel super natural. Which is unfortunate but I don’t personally care that much. -_(o_o)_-

[bruciemilf]

Things baby Bakugou did as a child (source: I was there)

— proposed to Izuku with dandelion roots, and always let him make the first wishes. Proceeded to introduce himself as his husband for the next two years.

— Hid all of Maseru’s socks and mixed them, forcing his dad to walk around with mismatched pairs.

— wrote all his little recipes by hand, in red crayola, in a little organizer like a grandma. The ones for Izuku, he keeps in a special notebook.

—‘Meals when Deku’s sad’ ‘Meals when he makes me happy’ ‘meals when he makes me FUKIN MAD—‘

— the last one is just rocks.

— learned how to tie his shoe when he was 3 but pretends he doesn’t know so Izuku would tie it for him. It has to be a bunny knot, or else it’ll feel wrong.

— Built a treehouse all by himself (read: asked his mom for one) That way he and Izuku could play all day everyday. The fun part was climbing. The hard part was getting themdown.

— Bakugou, that is; Izuku’s the one who has to convince him he’ll be back.

—Yes, he loved playing today. He loves playing everyday. No, he hasn’t made a new best friend. No, Kacchan, you don’t have to pay me to be your friend. Yes, I would love you if you were quirkless.

— clingy baby bakugou oh how i love you

— He can do everything except climb trees. He can’t fucking climb and there’s CATS in TREES and he can’t SAVE them by HIMSELF.

—So he’d always call Izuku to do it because the little bastard can climb like it’s no one’s business.

— SUUUCH an overprotective little fucker, oh my god. Baby Izuku was a god damn menace and he’s get himself stuck in the most absurd scenarios ever just to play hero.

— Gave baby Bakugou gray hairs, do NOT run into traffic just to walk some stray puppies on the other side. Don’t play with the older kids either! Do you even have a bandaid kit on you?! He’s calling Inko!

— When he and Izuku stop being friends, he secretly fills Izuku’s cubby with all kinds of sweet sour treats. He likes lime and sour cherry and all bitter things. Bakugou hates them. He spends his allowence on them for years.

— Same goes for All Might merch. He thinks Jeanist is cooler, but Izuku never had refined tastes.

[bigkissbutch]

A woman stands in the doorway. A hazy vision from across the room, you can barely make out her shape at first; tall, broad, slender. You try to ask her how you got here, who she is, why she’s doing this; a panic rises in your throat with each word that escapes your lips. She waits for you to tire yourself as she scans the details of the room.

After a minute of silence, she speaks.

“Do you like your room, darling?”

Her voice is gentle and raspy.

“I set it up just the same as yours previous. I thought it might help you adjust.”

She steps towards you, and into the light cast by the tableau of sky above. She’s wearing a shirt whose buttons ever so slightly glint and twinkle at you in the moonlight. Her gaze is studying and impersonal as she squats down just out of your reach. You plead and beg and she waits again for silence. However, this time you do not give it to her.

You scream. You beg. You do not like it, it isn’t what you want, you want to leave.

She just watches your tantrum, almost confused. Eventually, she stands and leaves, and you are left back alone.

You notice her attention to detail. A blanket like mom made for you. A photo of you and an ex up on the wall in a hand-painted frame they made.

Time passes. You’re hoarse, and tired. Your eyes glaze over yet again.

Click

The latch again. She returns with a plate of food.

The smell fills the room. As much as you might hate to admit it, it’s delicious. She brings it just within your reach. You eat with vigour, and as you do, she reaches out and touches your hair.

You swat at her this time, and she deftly slides the meal away from you.

“Now darling, I know this transition is hard, but I think it’ll be better for both of us if you learn to cooperate.”

You go back to screaming. She takes your plate and leaves.

Click

After a while in the stillness, you pass out.

When you wake, she is lying next to you, and her lips are almost touching yours. She smells of cigarettes and cologne. You pull away with a start. She looks hurt.

“Please, I’m just trying to give you something better than you had out there, just let me.” Her tone is almost pleading, cracks forming in her demeanour. You back away from her as far as your chain will allow, and cry at her. Your mind is hazy, sleep-deprived and starved. You manage out that she will never give you anything better than freedom, and she should just let you go. She slinks out again.

You don’t see her again for two weeks, just plates of food slid through a slot in the door. Each one has a note from her, asking if you’ll just love her back. You are unrelenting in your refusal. You tear up every one.

When she finally returns, it’s different. There’s a fumble at the latch before it

Click

opens. Her usually composed outfit and demeanour is traded for a wife beater and boxers that reveal a scrawny frame. In her hand, a pistol. As she steps into the light, her face is red and tear-streaked; her composure was just as fake as the moon above her.

She points the gun in her hand towards the bed, and sobs to you.

“I thought you’d be different, I really did. Or maybe I thought I could be? I tried so hard this time. I did everything right.”

You scream. She points the gun towards the photo in the hand-made frame.

“Am I not enough?”

BANG.

The gunshot is loud. Glass scatters the floor. Your ears ring.

You begin to plead. It barely registers. She wraps herself in the blanket like mom made.

She points the gun towards the sky, the moon.

“I swear, I’ll do better next time. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for us.”

You can barely hear her.

BANG.

The room is plunged into darkness. You can barely see. You can barely here the sounds of her approach.

You feel her hand grip your wrist and the barrel of the gun press into your chest. She looms over you. You can’t make out words through the ringing in your ears. You’re apologizing now, but she doesn’t seem to notice.

The gun is pointed up into your jaw.

She leans in for a kiss. You taste the salt of her tears on her lips, look at the perfect, awful clarity in her eyes, and hear her sob out an apology.

And then, you hear nothing at all.

This is, I suppose you might say, a writing prompt. It's also an experiment, and an open invitation to anyone who would like to write and perhaps have me write back.

~

The fur lined steel cuff is custom fit, neither so tight that it cuts and bruises nor so loose that it shifts and chaifs. The chain is almost insultingly thin, it invites the misconception that it might be broken. The thick bolts that secures it to the concrete wall suggest otherwise.

The roof twinkles in a reasonable faxcimile of a clear night sky. The fake moon, hanging several meters above the floor, illuminates an enormous bed that dominates the room. The plump pillows are perfectly placed upon the luxiourious looking blankets. There is a palpable air of care. The creation of this room was an act of love, or perhaps misplaced devotion.

The perfection is almost eerie, each item entirely untouched, the blankets unruffled, the draws unoppened. And much like the eyes of the plush toys strategically scattered about the room the only occupant stares blankly at the wall. Unmoving, crosslegged, cuffed by the ankle. Until

*click*

The latch on the door

Eyes fly wide. A breath sharply inhaled.

The door opens

[valeriehalla]

Hi! I juuust found your work, and I like it (namely through that formatting post, but now I'm actually reading through CURSE/KISS/CUTE and, hey! It is cute! Aster's growing on me)!

I'm actually in the process of writing another book—er, webnovel. Something free because I want people to have the chance to actually invest themselves in it—and I wanted to ask! Did you code the site all yourself, or did you use something as a framework? And, to someone who doesn't know much code, what would you reccomend?

Asters are always growing in odd places ...

I coded the whole entire thing myself. I even coded a ton of backend tools that live on my computer for automating tasks like formatting pages and converting images. I did all of this because I’m a freak...? And I wanted to optimize for fast, lightweight page loads with no server-side rendering. (The entire website is static HTML.)

For someone less inclined to hubris than me, depending on your skill level or interest in learning web code I would recommend either:

just using Wordpress (every web host in existance has a big glowing button labeled “install wordpress” for making a wordpress site and there are endless templates for formatting any kind of post you can imagine with no coding required), or

picking a static site generator and using that (for a fast and lightweight website but one that you might have to do a little coding to finish out the way you like it).

Notably, one thing I don’t recommend is using SquareSpace. For one thing, they have an adult content ban on the books; for another, if you ever do want to do something as basic with your website as “upload an HTML page you coded yourself”, you’ll find yourself locked out in the cold, because that’s grown-up stuff and they don’t like you doing that. (Learning this the hard way is the reason I ended up making my new website myself. A nice thing about a static site is that not only do you have complete control, but it’s fully portable, too: just paste the files into whatever web host you like and it’ll work just the same.*)

*except sometimes you gotta configure your .htaccess a bit etc

[dumpywrites]

Nomenclature - Kim Taehyung / V

Prompt: “Tell me your name.” “No.”

Prompt request: HERE

Genre/tags: Fluff, strangers to lovers, simp! Taehyung, christmas cliche, some mentions of Yeontan passing (RIP Yeontan 🪽)

Pairing: Taehyung x she/her reader

a/n: I was again inspired by their song, winter ahead's music video is just truly beautiful :') Happy holidays everyone!

“Tell me your name.”

“No.”

“But, why???”

You rolled your eyes, simply walked past the guy who had been pestering you for weeks now. 

Allegedly, his name was Kim Taehyung. Ever since he moved to the town and bumped into you that one time at an art exhibition, this was all he ever did. You found out he was a sculptor, and that a few of his pieces were in fact shown that time. No one was supposed to know about this information because he was using an alias called “Vante”, but your friend Namjoon who was the art curator was a bit nosey. That was also probably how this Taehyung guy found out about your workplace. 

To be quite honest, you didn’t know why someone like him would want to move in a small town. He had looks, money, and supposedly fame too. He looked more like a Los Angeles or Paris kind of person. With those wavy black hair, perfect sculpted by the gods face, you would assume he was a model. But instead here he was, disturbing your cleanup duty. 

“Namjoon said that you’re the same age as me.” 

“Namjoon needs to shut the fuck up sometimes.”

“Wow, easy.” He chuckled, slumping down on the table. “I never ask him for your name though. I want to achieve it myself!” 

You looked around your donut shop and sighed. You still needed to clean the tables and it was already half an hour past closing time. 

“I’ll help.” He stood up with a boxy grin, pointing his finger up. 

“You can help me by going home.” You rolled your eyes. 

“Come on… I have no friends here.” He whined. 

“Namjoon is your friend, no?”

“He’s barely in town.” 

“I’m sure you can make friends elsewhere.” You said as you wiped the counter. 

He hummed, puffing his cheeks. “Why don’t you hire me? I can work part time. I’m mostly free! It seems like a lot of work just by yourself here…” 

“It’s only busy on holidays, usually I can manage it very well. And I do have a staff with me, he’s just currently not here since his dad is sick.”

He chewed the inner part of his cheeks, seemingly in thoughts again. He didn’t say anything but you saw him started cleaning the mess from the tables and throwing them to the trash. 

“So, how long have you been running this place?” 

“It’ll be two full years this December.” You said, your voice slowly going far as you moved to the kitchen. 

The man quickly followed you, clearly still wanted the conversation to keep going. You didn’t even bother to tell him away at this point. Maybe the company wasn’t so bad. 

“That’s cool.” He nodded, looking around the kitchen. “Have you always loved baking?”

“What is this, an interview?” You glared. 

“Maybe?” He giggled. 

“As a kid I used to want to study fashion and tailoring, but money was tight and I ended up just going for a normal and boring degree which is, accountancy.” 

He voiced an “ah” and nodded. “If you have the chance, would you still do it? Pursuing fashion and all…”

“I don’t know.” You sighed, hands full with the dishes. “The shop needs me. She doesn’t have anyone else.” 

“She?” He looked at you in amuse. 

“Yeah, it’s a she.” You held down a chuckle. 

He quietly helped you dry the plates and put them on the rack. 

Finally finished with the chores, you turned off the lights and grabbed your jacket. As you moved to the door, the man just followed you around like a puppy. 

“See ya, Taehyung.” You waved blankly and turned away, walking to the opposite direction. 

“Wait!” He called, making you stop in tracks. “Do you want me to drive you home?”

“My home is just a ten minute walk.” 

“Then I’ll walk you!” He smiled happily. 

“I’m not giving away my address to you.” You folded your arms. 

“Uh… text me when you get back home then?”

“I do not have your number.”

“That’s why we need to change that now.”

“It’s fine.” You turned your back again, the disappointed expression in his face went unseen to you. “Thank you for the offer though.” 

He sighed with a smile, but waved his goodbyes to you anyway. There was always a next day, he thought. 

You didn’t see him again until the next three days. This time he dropped by for a coffee, that you had recently noticed was bought for the sake of buying something, and a chocolate donut along with it. It seemed like this time instead of bugging you, he just sat there, sketching on his small sketch book, looking like he was shooting an advertisement for your cafe. 

He never greeted you nor had he said anything to you and he had been sitting there for four hours now. Your staff had offered to talk to him, but it just did not feel right to disturb him while looked so passionate. The shop wasn’t too busy at the moment anyway. 

“You sure he’s not a creep?” Jungkook, your staff said to you in a whisper. 

“Can’t exactly say he’s not one, but he’s harmless.” You told him. 

“He hasn’t touched his coffee.” 

“I don’t think he even likes coffee.”

“Then why even order one?! What a weirdo…” Jungkook looked at the guy with side eye. 

You heard the entrance door opened and saw a costumer. “Kook, handle the register for me, I’ll talk to the guy.”

Jungkook nodded and you went inside the kitchen. Grabbing an empty cup, you filled it with water before heading to the man sitting prettily at the corner. 

Taehyung was quick to put down his pencil and book as soon as he saw you placing down a glass of water. “Oh, hello!” He gave you a warm smile. 

“You need to drink something.” You told him, pointing at the water with your eyes. 

“Thanks, I already have the coffee though…”

“You haven’t even taken a single sip from it, Taehyung.” You folded your arms, leaning slightly at the table. “Why order one when you don’t like it?”

His eyes beamed. “You noticed???”

“You’ve been here for hours and the cup’s still full.”

“Sorry,” He chuckled and then took a full sip from the glass of water. “I wanted to look cool.” 

You rolled your eyes. “I don’t like coffee either. Not by choice cause I have acid reflux.” You told him. 

“We’re bonding already, I see… miss, uh…?” He eyed you. 

“Nice try.” You turned, walking away from him. You hoped he didn’t see the corners of your lips curled up ever so slightly. 

In the next few days he continued to visit your cafe to seemingly work on his sketch, but he did not get any coffee anymore. Instead, he now ordered some lemon tea alongside the chocolate donut. 

Usually, your shop would be closed on Sundays. You needed some time for yourself in order to prioritize your mental and physical health. But with the Christmas and New Year just around the corner, the place had been extra busy so you decided to open half day on Sundays just until the holiday season was over. 

That was why Taehyung looked so excited when he walked past the cafe and saw the lights on. 

“Welcome to Adore, what— oh.” You dropped your greetings as soon as your eyes met. 

“You’re open on Sundays now?” 

“Only during the holidays.” You simply said. “What can I get you?”

“Cherry jam filled donut?” He asked, pointing at the glass display. 

“Yup. It’s a holiday special.” 

“Interesting.” He hummed. “I’ll get one.”

“Alright. Anything else?”

“Nope. Please do print the bill with the cashier name on it this time…” 

“You’re never gonna give it up, huh?”

“You’re so dramatic. We’re basically friends at this point, why can’t I have your name?” He chuckled. 

You shook your head in disbelief. “If there’s nothing else, that would be two—“

“Boba-eyed boy isn’t here today?” He asked while looking around. 

“Jungkook’s shift doesn’t include Sundays.” You sighed. “Can we please proceed? There’s a line behind you.”

“Right, sorry…” He grinned awkwardly and paid the order. He waved you goodbye in a goofy way before exiting through the door. 

A lady who was a returning costumer was next in line. She smiled at you and spoke, “I’ve never seen him around before.”

“He just moved here around a month or so.” You told her. “What can I get you today?”

“Oh, the usual would be great, darling.” She smiled and you quickly typed matcha latte into the order. “I’d like the holiday hamper too, they look adorable.” 

You immediately went to get the donut set. “I know, right?” You smiled at her. 

You quickly typed and tally her order. After she was done with the payment, she spoke up again. “That boy seems nice… and seems into you.” She snickered. 

“Please don’t mind him.” You smiled at her and sighed. “He just has a lot of time in his hands.”

“Don’t be so negative, sweetheart. It’s almost Christmas.” 

She smiled before waving you goodbye, as you did the same to her. 

After the half day, you decided to spend your free time at the mall, window shopping and some actual light shopping too since you were looking for small gifts to give to your friends. On the way home, you were surprised to see Taehyung in front of your shop. He was tiptoeing in cold, hands in his pocket, trying to take a peek inside the closed store. 

“You’re here!” He waved cheerfully. “I didn’t know you closed early?”

“I only open until three on Sundays.” You said, feeling a little nervous seeing him outside work. “Did you wait for me…?”

“I want to give you this!” He quickly handed you a piece of paper, what appeared to be a ticket. “There’s a small art pop up at the town park next week. I have some of my works there and I was wondering if you want to come and see them with me?” He looked at you with hopeful eyes. 

You looked at the ticket and at him back and forth. A small art exhibition wouldn’t hurt anybody. The lady’s words somehow flashed through your mind. Maybe you needed to loosen it up a bit with the negativity. 

“It won’t clash with your work! It’s on Sun—“

“Sure.”

“Aww, man… I was hoping— wait, did you just say yes???” He widened his eyes at you. It was funny how he was already expecting you to reject him. 

“I mean, I’ll probably go either way so…” You shrugged. “I’m surprised Namjoon hasn’t told me anything about it.”

“I told him not to.” He smirked. 

“Well, that explains it.” You broke into a small smile. 

“Wow.” He gasped. “I just made you smile.”

Your expression dropped when you realized. “You’re crazy.”

He giggled, appeared to be very happy with himself. “Wanna take a stroll?”

Both of you ended up sitting down on a random bench across the river. The cold winter air was making you shiver and Taehyung being Taehyung, he quickly removed his coat and draped it across both of you. So now you were sitting shoulder to shoulder, under the moonlight. 

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, the cherry donut tasted great! You should keep it on the menu.” He showed you his thumbs up. 

“Really? I wasn’t so sure with the jam since I made them from scratch…” You thought. “It’s not overly sweet? I was worried the powdered sugar would be too much.”

“Nope.”

“You sure?”

“Why?” He turned to look at you with a mischievous grin. “You don’t trust my opinion?”

“N-No! I’m just making sure…” You looked away. 

Never knew looking at him in such close range would be this… nerve wracking. You never noticed his beautiful lashes, nor how unique his eyes were, one eye with monolid and the other had double. 

You cleared your throat, backing away slightly. You wondered why it suddenly felt hot even though you were out in the cold winter weather. 

“Is there a reason why I can’t know your name?” He suddenly asked. 

You looked around, fidgeting the hem of your sweater. “You’re too positive, too eager… It scares me.”

You were smiling, but Taehyung didn’t like the way your expression looked. The smile looked like it was laced with sadness behind it. 

“What made you decide to move here?” You asked, changing the topic suddenly. 

He looked like he wanted to protest, but chose not to. “I can’t stand the big city. Always thought I was born to live that life, but turns out I hate the crowd.” 

“Did you not have your alias before?”

“I used to star in movies.” 

“Damn, didn’t know you’re THAT famous.” You pouted your lips, impressed. 

“I’m no Ryan Gosling or anything, my thing was only on small movies or series.” He chuckled. 

“Wait, so you quit just like that???”

“My company kept pushing me on projects that don’t represent me. I was so fed up of putting on a facade in front of everyone, including behind cameras when meeting people in parties and whatnot…” He sighed. “And with my dog passing away recently, I thought a fresh start might be good for me. Cutting off all the toxic branches, you know?”

“I’m so sorry for your loss…” You couldn’t help but to feel sad hearing his story. 

“It’s okay. He’s been sick for so long, so he’s happier now somewhere.” He smiled. “Do you wanna see his pictures?”

You widened your eyes in surprise. “I can?”

“Sure. Just a sec…” 

He took out his phone and showed you a few photos from a dedicated album. Your heart melted upon seeing the images of the adorable Pomeranian. There was a few photos showing the dog wearing costumes, some he took with his friends, and even some selfies of him with the late dog. 

“His name was Yeontan.” He said, fingers still scrolling through the phone, letting you see more pictures. 

“I’m sure he was a good boy…” You gave him a smile. 

“The best.” He smiled back, almost teary eyed. 

Maybe it was the festivities around you, making your heart softened, but you finally agreed to him walking you back home. It was almost awkward to say goodbye as deep down you wanted to hug him. Not only as a farewell, but you wanted to comfort him after hearing his story. You were fighting with your inner morals and self respect, then ended up with a simple fist bump. To be fair, that was more you coded anyway. 

He was very sweet, waiting in front of your house, making sure you entered the door before leaving. You had to shoo him away through the window to make him leave. The sound of his laughter as he waved at you, sounded like a soft Christmas song. 

You did not get to see him until the day before the exhibition. You and Jungkook were busy cleaning up the place, and you could hear your staff’s growl when the sound of the door bell could be heard, thinking it was a costumer coming on closing time.

“Oh, it’s the creep.”

“Hello, boba boy.” Taehyung greeted playfully at the guy. 

“I do not like this guy.” Jungkook pointed to him and looked at you. 

You gave Tae a small smile before patting Jungkook’s shoulder. “I don’t either.” You chuckled. 

“Oh, yeah sure!” The younger guy protested, rolling his eyes. 

“I’ll be done in ten minutes.” You looked at the guy who was waiting next to the door. 

“Take your time.” He smiled at you, but earned another glare from the staff boy. 

After you were done and Jungkook went home, subsequent to giving the waiting man a few death stares. You heard Taehyung huffing and puffing, hands inside his pocket, while you were locking your entrance door. 

“What do you wanna talk about?” You asked him. 

“The exhibition is tomorrow…”

“I know.” You giggled. “And?”

“Hey, I don’t have your phone number to just text this thing, okay?” He said in defense, making you laugh. “I have something to give you though…”

“Oh? You don’t have to!”

You backed away one step from him but that did not stop him from taking out something from his pants pocket. He took out a small maroon colored jewelry box, and your heart was racing out because, to random people this might look like he wanted to propose to you.

He opened the box and showed it to you. A beautiful silver-plated Vivienne Westwood necklace was inside of it, you could notice it right away with the iconic Saturn orb. 

“Taehyung, I can’t accept this! I don’t even have anything to give you…” 

“I just think it’d look great with formal looks, for the exhibition and all…” He looked away shyly. “Just take it, please.”

Your hands were slightly trembling as you reached out for the box. “Thank you. It’s really beautiful.” 

“Uh huh.” He grinned, rocking back and forth playfully. “So uh… can I finally have your phone number? I kinda need to know when to pick you up…” He looked at you with hopeful looks. 

“Sure.” You chuckled. 

“Yes!” He threw his fist up, before quickly recollecting himself and cleared his throat. “Uh, here…” He handed you his phone. 

As you typed your number in, he suddenly stopped you. 

“Don’t type your name in!”

You looked at him with crooked head, wondering if he had lost his mind. The fact you were about to do it too. 

“Just tell me tomorrow, if you want to.” He grinned. 

“Okay…?” You chuckled and handed him back the phone. “What’s this all about?”

“Where’s the fun if I tell you.” You could see his cheeks turning a rosy color despite the low light. 

“Suspicious.” You eyed him, couldn’t help a smile. “But I’m intrigued.”

He flashed you his usual boxy grin, hands inside the pocket as he blew a cold smoke. “I’ll take you home?”

You might not realized it, but Taehyung had slowly but surely began to tear down the barrier you built one by one. Whether it was the constant affection, random jokes, or the small details that he would always noticed, whatever it was, his presence made you felt safe. 

Came next day, you had texted Taehyung when to pick you up at your home after work. The struggle and anxiety of choosing the right outfit really joined late. The whole day you thought you had figured it out, but when you finished putting it all together, you started overthinking. Does Taehyung like woman in skirts? Does he prefer woman with hair up or down? Would it be too much if you wear a little bit of makeup?

The choices landed on a simple black mini dress with a white shirt under it. It was the most formal-but-not-try-hard-but-also-still-cute kinda outfit you had. Your red plaid patterned pumps matched the whole theme of the Vivienne necklace that was gifted to you days prior. 

As you take a look at your reflection in the mirror, your phone rang. Expecting it to be Taehyung, you looked up the caller name revealing your friend Namjoon instead. 

“Hello?”

“You’re coming to the exhibition, right?” 

“I am. Why?”

“Tae’s picking you up?”

“Yeah, I think he’ll be here in fifteen.” 

“I’m assuming things are well between you and him?” There was a hint of sneaky teasing in his tone of voice. 

“Didn’t know you were trying to make something happen between us.” You said as you looked at the mirror, applying lipgloss. 

“Wasn’t suppose to, I don’t think that was his initial intention either.” The guy chuckled from the other line. “But I don’t know man… I just think it’s good to see you with someone again, no? You’ve been through so much and I think Taehyung is a good person.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, we don’t even know if he’s even thinking that way.” 

“Well, I know.” He emphasized. “Dude wouldn’t even make a move without my permission.”

You broke into a smile. “I didn’t know you’re that protective of me.”

“Hey, ever since what happened with that sick bastard, you had been shutting yourself down. You kept yourself busy with work, you don’t even socialize that much anymore…” He sighed. “And I know you are scared. I know you’re afraid of people that show you so much interest so fast, people who are all sunshine and happiness. But don’t you think it’s about time you try to trust again?”

“I don’t know Joon… to be honest with you, I feel safe with him. He seems like he has the purest intention, and even if he doesn’t even think about this romantically, I still want a friend like him. But…” You paused. “That’s why it’s even scarier. He’s broken all the walls I’ve built. If he hurt me, I’ll be back to ground zero again.” 

“It’s always worth the risk.” Your friend said sternly, assuring you. “And don’t worry, I’ll personally punch him in his goddamn top five most handsome men face if he ever tries to hurt you.” 

You laughed. “Thank you, Joon.” 

“Go get dolled up. I want jaws on the floor when you arrive.” 

“That’s not gonna happen, but whatever.” You laughed again. “See ya.”

“See you, lover girl.”

You had your fair share of Christmas movies. You were also never much of a romantic person yourself, so the Christmas movies dreamy golden retriever boy coming to sweep you off your feet cliche was never your cup of tea. But never say never, people said. 

The sleek back hair, the preppy white button up, the black suit. Who were you kidding, did this person steal his outfit from a movie set or something? You were sure you were getting picked up by a friend, not the prince himself. 

“Hi.” He said, a bit breathless. 

“Hi there.” You said bashfully. “You look great.” 

“Don’t steal my line.” He laughed, pulling his collar slightly. “Oh shit, I forgot.” 

“What is it?”

You saw the man quickly ran to his car and picked up something from the back seat. 

Lord saves us all. He came back with a bouquet. 

“Oh my god.” You rolled your eyes, laughing. “You can’t keep doing this!”

“It’s too much, is it?” He eyed you with a smirk. 

“I like them though.” You smiled as he handed you the flowers. “Although I must admit, red rose is a bit overrated.” 

“It matches your shoes though.” He pointed out. 

“I guess you’re right.” You giggled. “Wait just a sec, I’ll vase them.”You came back a few minutes later after quickly finding a jar for the roses. “Ready?”

“After you.” He playfully said. 

You had the opportunity to bond over music taste through the car ride. You shared your playlist and so did he. You tried your best to not sneak in looks but you caught him doing the same thing a few times, in which both of you just laughed it off. 

“Wow, she’s finally out and about, folks!” Namjoon greeted you as soon as both of you were in sight. 

“I do go out sometimes, you’re exaggerating.” You slapped your friend’s arm jokingly. 

“Buying groceries doesn’t count.” 

You rolled your eyes. “Let’s just leave this guy.”

Taehyung laughed. “Wasn’t planning on letting him trail us anyway.”

“You guys are disgusting. I am busy too, excuse you.” Namjoon shook his head playfully. “Enjoy the show, don’t forget to see the main piece!” He eyed Taehyung, wiggling his eyebrows. 

“We get it. Now shoo.” Taehyung gestured with his hand at the tall guy. Namjoon laughed once again before leaving the two of you. “Shall we?” He asked, gesturing his arm in hopes you would link yours over. 

You nodded and happily obliged. 

He cleared his throat as both of you start walking. “I’m supposed to be your tour guide and I rehearsed my whole opening speech, but now I’m nervous as hell with you being this close to me.”

Your cheeks flushed and you giggled. “It’s okay, let’s just both be visitors today.”

“Alright…” He breathed out. “You can ask questions if you’d like. Not everything here is mine but I know a thing or two about them too.”

Soon your eyes landed on a grayscale painting with random splashes of shapes decorating it. You let go your hand from his arm, stepping closer to the artwork, admiring it from close range. The amount of small details made up for the lack of vibrant colors, the visible brush strokes and different textures made it look very unreal to you. 

“Caught your eye?”

“It must took a lot of time and effort doing all the different textures and details.”

“Yeah, it took me months. Made this while thinking about the last time I fell in love.” He smiled at you. 

You were taken aback. Your eyes went down to the small signature done by the man himself. “One would’ve think being in love involves more bright colors…”

“It was more complicated than that.” He stepped closer and stood next to you, eyes on the painting as well. “There was a mix of emotions in there. Happiness, sadness, the in betweens… But all of that memories belong to my past, hence the gray palette.” 

You were debating if you should ask more about the said past.

“You could ask, you know. If you’re curious…” He said, as if he could read your mind. “It’s okay, we ended on good terms. She just fell out of love. I guess I just bore her.”

“That’s awful. How could someone find you boring?” 

You froze when you realized what you had just said. 

The man chuckled as soon as he heard. “Thank you for the compliment.” 

You turned away, blushing. “Let’s move on.” You walked ahead. 

He followed your pace and walked aside you. “What about you? What’s your past like? If you don’t mind me asking…”

“I don’t really have that much experience.” You said with eyes still roaming the area. “Namjoon didn’t tell you anything?”

“He loves to gossip but he also cares about you very much, so no.” 

You smiled and puffed a sigh. “It might not sound like that much of a big deal, but the last person I dated lovebombed me at the lowest point of my life. I was dealing with the loss of my grandma, moving back to this town to continue her bakery, and he came to me just like that only to leave me for another woman like I was nothing.”

“Hey, that is a big deal what are you even talking about.” He stopped and looked at you, seemingly a bit pissed too after hearing your story. 

“I try not to let it get to me anymore, I guess.” You pulled the hem of his sleeves, signaling him to continue walking further. “It’s getting better now, thank you.”

“Thank you?” He eyed you.

“Yeah, thank you.” You smiled. 

He chose not to question it and just continue the tour with a big grin decorating his face. The two of you continued the tour before Taehyung suddenly stopped you from making a turn to the last room to see. 

“Uh, before you go I need to tell you something… I want you to know that this didn’t happen on purpose.” He plastered a nervous smile. 

“What are you talking about?”

“The inspiration didn’t quite reach me until the very last few days… I was supposed to sculpt a whole different thing, but I ended up with a bust.” 

“Oh? Then I can’t wait to see—“

“Wait,” He grabbed your wrist, stopping you. “I want to let you know that I made this because it’s all that’s been occupying my mind the past few weeks and I don’t mean it in a creepy way… in case you’re offended.” He chuckled nervously again. 

“Why would I get offended?” You looked at him suspiciously. 

He took a deep breath and breathed out heavily. “Let’s go see it.” 

Once you were inside, the first thing that caught your eye was a huge bust sculpture facing back. There was somewhat of a drip effect coming from the neck downwards, huge mess of concrete pooling at the bottom, creating the illusion of an unfinished raw work. From the looks of it, the statue seemed to be of a woman, but you couldn’t judge for sure. As you stepped closer, circling to get a better view, Taehyung quietly followed you from behind. 

You began to notice the ear, the side profile and how oddly familiar looking it was. Once you finally see the full front view, it all made sense to you. 

The sculpture was in fact made to look like you. It had your eyes, nose, lips, everything. It was you, with your hair up like how you would during work hours. 

“T-Tae… is this…”

“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking at you with reddened cheeks. “What do you think?”

You were still in awe, speechless of seeing a literal art piece of yourself, most importantly, presented to the public eye. You weren’t sure if screaming or crying would be the appropriate way to react. 

Seeing you stunned silent, Taehyung began to panic a little. “It’s creepy, isn’t it? I’m sorry…”

“No!” You quickly voiced out. “It’s just… I’m just loss of words. I can’t exactly believe what I see.” 

“I can’t either.” He said, looking uneasy still. “It just happened out of nowhere. I only realized when I was already halfway done with your nose.”

“I…” You took a good look at the piece again, before continuing. “It’s really beautiful. I wasn’t even sure it’s me until I see the full view.”

“Well, that’s how you look in my eyes.” He giggled. 

You blushed. Clearly you didn’t have any comeback ready in you for this. 

“If you look closely, this piece doesn’t have a name yet.” 

You looked down to see the name plate empty, as told. Then something just connected in your head. This cheeky smart bastard. 

“Wanna name it?” He looked at you with a big contagious smile on his lips. 

You nodded, mirroring the smile he had on. Instead of immediately saying your name, you stepped closer and hugged him, in which he instantly returned, resting his head on top of yours. In his embrace you looked up and finally told him your name. 

The expression he had was mixture of joy and surprise. Both of you bursted into laughter in unison. For a moment, the world seemed to have stopped just for you. You even forgot the existence of other visitors wandering around. It was just you and him. 

Taehyung took out something from his side pocket, a black marker, which he wiggled playfully in front of you. He looked left and right, making sure no one would notice, before he quickly wrote something on the golden plate.

“What if someone sees you?!” You whispered. 

“Don’t worry, Namjoon already knows.” 

He chuckled and took your hand in his, intertwining your fingers together as he led you through the exit. You didn’t get to see exactly what he wrote on the plate, safe to assume it was probably just your name. 

Little did you know, Namjoon had reached the room, examining the new named sculpture, with the word “Love” now scribbled on top of its name plate. He couldn’t help but to be happy for his dear friends. 

Thank you for reading! 🎨

[velvetvexations]

as we all know you are THE popular Tumblr transfems. all of the popular radical feminist transfems on the site are actually the underdogs and definitely don't have huge followings or any social power on this website. don't look at their four-digit follower counts or the way they subtly encourage dogpiling people because they know there's a crowd of people who will do it immediately that's irrelevant

TRFs think 1k and 15k are the same number because they both have a one in them.

Being so many levels deep in the feminism discourse makes daily life amusing sometimes. Like some of the shit I wanna joke about would probably comes off as misogynistic without the context of it being in response to radical feminism but it's so funny. Like saying shit like I love erasing women doesn't necessarily make sense to someone who doesn't know it's in response to terfs talking about gender neutral medical language etc. Or like having to hear constant feminism 101 basic bitch feminism stuff from people around me and just nod cause I know they don't wanna hear about The Nuance cause the average person isn't as interested in social and gender theory as I am. Like to the average level one feminist I can understand how more complex feminism can come off as misogynistic so I don't Get Into It with coworkers and the like but I am always sitting here brimming with Opinions anyway. That and people at work seem to read me as "guy who's kind of gender nonconforming" rather than trans so I don't get interpreted as being a voice of "authority" on anything about gender or misogyny (and I'd rather stick with that than be the Outspoken Tranny tm). It's a silent game of "I know more than you"

lmao you're hiding your power level

How the heck do I not take doing something bad as life ending. I fucked up today bc I lost track of time and missed doing something with my bf. He says he’s not mad but I can tell he feels bad in some way, and I don’t blame him, I unequivocally DID fuck up, and it’s hard not to want to just fall on the ground and rip my skin off ngl lol but I know at this point if I keep apologizing or asking him if I can fix it or offering him shit is just going to come across desperate and weird, and I have to take him at face value that he is not mad, and it’ll be okay tomorrow, but arghhhhhhhh I’m historically horrible at taking people who are clearly upset saying “I’m not mad at you” at face value

please let me know if you find out because that wrecks me too

Fascinated by how much transandrophobia in queer spaces is like, 'youre a Dude and therefore obviously you cannot experience this opression the way you think you do, people obviously view you as a Man and therefore you have male privilege, anyway heres the most wildly specific misogynistic trope youve never seen aimed at cis men aimed at trans dudes, this is not sus at all' Yes this is abt the 'trans dudes on t should go on mood stabilisers' before someone asks.

it's so blatant

i find it very fun(/s) that theres like, two separate groups of trfs where one is super open about hating transmascs n shit and the other is more "guys THEORY" and the second group constantly pretends the first group doesn't exist and actually you're lying literally no one has ever said that ever what are you talking about

Mask on, mask off.

started just instant blocking anyone I see putting trf bullshit on my dash. soon I will have peace.

true inner peace

[writingtraumaforever]

Uncontrolled Chaos: Chapter 31

Notes: SAW THE MOVIE! Left a full review (spoiler (optional) and spoiler free) on my page! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

Summary: Sonic and Shadow deal with their ‘distress’.

UC Masterpost!

Link to my AO3!

Start:

“Damnit!” Shadow hisses, having Sonic pressed against a wall for support with his arm around the blue hedgehog’s waist, “What the hell were you thinking???”

Sonic just smirks and grits his teeth through the pain, winking at Shadow as he speaks, “I was thinking I was fighting with my Shadow. Forgot you don’t really fight the same as him..”

Shadow groans a bit at this, rolling his eyes in frustration as he looks at the bots coming down the halls of Eggman’s base. He narrowly got himself and Sonic away from that bigger bot without the blue hedgehog receiving more injury than he already has. He needed to get that emerald and get out of there!

“Stay here,” Shadow demands with a pointed look at the hero, “I’ll clear the way.”

Sonic just huffs at this, leaning a bit more insistently against the wall as Shadow carefully lets go of him to step back, “Where would I go??”

Shadow doesn’t even acknowledge that with an answer, simply rolling his eyes with an irritated shake of his head as he looks towards the incoming bots.

It doesn’t take much for him to wipe them out. A few blasts of the chaos spear and some air kicks and spindashes, and it’s cleared. Shadow turns back to Sonic then who has steadily made his way towards Shadow by scooting along the wall.

“I told you to stay put,” Shadow gruffs out, eyes narrowed at Sonic as he returns to him to allow the hedgehog to use him as a crutch.

“Got bored,” Sonic shrugs, leaning into Shadow as they limp down the hall towards where the emerald is being kept.

Shadow’s eyes look down at Sonic’s leg. More specifically, his thigh. The blue fur there is matted up with deep, red blood. Black scabs already are trying to form due to the air hitting the wound, but Shadow knows good and well it’ll need medical attention before it can close up. Unless they can get this emerald.. then they can use it to heal him. Hopefully.

Making it to the sealed door, he lets Sonic prop against the wall again as he deals with the security lock, typing in whatever it is hackers type in just like in movies because that’s definitely how hacking works mhm.

Sonic watches him. How tense he is, how rushed. He’s breathing heavy..

He holds up his wrist watch to read “Amy’s” vitals, seeing Shadow’s heart rate has indeed spiked rapidly. Sonic looks back to him again.

His eyes aren’t glowing.. there’s no red sparks flickering in the air around him.

He seems pretty in control of his emotions despite them being a bit more panicked currently..

“..You shouldn’t have sent out that distress signal,” Sonic says after a moment, “Gonna have everyone worried—“

“Quiet,” Shadow snaps, “I’m trying to think.”

Sonic snorts and rolls his eyes, looking down at his wound and examining the damage.

That Chaos Spear packs quite a punch..

Glancing down the hall to see if Eggman has followed with his big bot yet, he sees the coast is still clear and looks back to Shadow.

Shifting on his leg a bit uncomfortably, he swallows the pain and speaks again, “You ‘bout done??”

“I said quiet,” Shadow grits out, growling a bit this time to which Sonic smirks slightly and just watches him continuing typing on the security pad.

“Why so tense, Shads—“

“Don’t call me that.”

“—if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were worried.”

Shadow’s eyes glance to Sonic at that, narrowed and angered. Then down to his wound. Then back to the pad.

He’s not just worried, he’s guilty. He feels responsible. Sonic just sighs a bit at that, still offering a casual smile as to not let Shadow see how much it hurts, “I shouldn’t have jumped in the way. It’s just that when my Shadow and I train together, he has this move with his chaos spear where—“

“Do you ever shut up???” Shadow hisses, not really caring to hear any of this right now. He just wants to get that emerald and get Sonic back to the workshop.

Sonic huffs at this, “I was just trying to say it wasn’t your fault—“

“Finally,” Shadow breathes to himself when the doors hiss and slide open. And just in time, too. They hear the loud, distant thumping of robotic footsteps from down the hall.

“Oh hedgehogs! Come out, come out wherever you are!” Eggman’s voice coos through the speakers, Sage’s following after.

“They have accessed the emerald vault, Father.”

“What?! Sunnyside! Get them!!”

Shadow’s wide eyes dart down the hall to see the robot turning the corner for them, already firing to which Shadow quickly shifts his body around Sonic’s to absorb any hits that may land. Arms and legs outstretched and pressed against the wall on either side of him as Sonic stares up at him with wide eyes.

“Go!” Shadow grits, beginning to feel his barriers fall as the blasts get more and more powerful.

That’s the thing with them. Their chaotic abilities allow them to take a good brunt of hits so long as they have ring energy to keep their chaos energy charged up inside. It’s why they can spindash through robots and take hits from lasers and get right back up. But when a blast of chaos energy hits them??? It’s gonna hurt.. which is why Sonic’s thigh is currently split open from Shadow’s chaos blast.

Shadow is all charged up and able to take some hits currently, Sonic is vulnerable.

After blinking out of his brief stupor, Sonic quickly uses the wall to shuffle around the doorway and into the emerald vault. Once Sonic is safe inside, Shadow turns to properly hold off Eggman’s latest creation.

And he has a lot of frustration to get out on that thing.

Sonic makes his way to the control panel of the glass enclosure the emerald is being kept in, typing on the keypad only to have his access denied.

“Damnit,” he whispers to himself.

He can’t spindash through the barrier, currently. He needs the passkey..

As if sensing his distress, Sage appears from the wall behind him.

“You cannot take that,” she says, Sonic flinching and turning to lean back on the control panel and look at Sage.

“Chaos, Sage, you can’t sneak up on a hog like that—“

“Father will be displeased if you escape with the emerald. It is essential to his future plans..”

“Yeah, well, it’s essential to my current plans,” Sonic replies with a smirk, turning back to the control panel, “And I’d sure appreciate it if you helped a pal out.”

“We are not pals,” Sage clarifies, “..But I have scanned your lover.”

Sonic’s eyes widen a bit and turn to Sage at that.

“…He is not yours, is he..?”

“Now what makes you say that??” he smirks, tilting his head slightly.

“He does not move the way yours does,” the AI explains, “Nor does he speak the same..”

It makes sense that she would take notice in this. She’s very observant.. but also, her and Shadow had some sort of… moment back on Starfall Islands. Some sort of talk about family.. losing them. Sacrifice. Being created by a Robotnik. It all seemed to have made Sage respect Shadow a bit more..

Sonic frowns a little at Sage’s words, looking back to control panel as the sound of Shadow’s battle cries and explosions remind him he’s kinda on the clock here, “Yeah, well.. no denying that, huh??”

“Your fighting tactics were thrown off by this. It was very noticeable and resulted in your injury,” she points out, Sonic rolling his eyes at this.

“Yes, Sage, I’m aware—“

“Is the emerald necessary to get back your Shadow??”

Sonic looks back to her at that, eyes watching the AI’s flickering blue ones..

“…yeah.”

Sage looks at Sonic a long moment before she eventually moves to the control panel, “There isn’t much time. Father has reinforcements on the way.” She places her palm flat on the panel and the emerald case immediately opens up, Sonic’s eyes widening and his smile growing.

He doesn’t waste time, moving around the panel and grabbing the emerald before turning back to her with a grateful nod, “Thanks, Sage..”

“Thank me when Shadow is back with his family,” she says simply, Sonic’s smile softening at that before he looks to Shadow and calls,

“Shadow! I got it!”

Shadow glances to Sonic mid-combat, nodding his head in recognition before landing a hard blow on the robot he’s currently battling to make it stumble back for a moment.

Using this opening, he skates to Sonic quickly, Sonic lifting the emerald above his head at this moment.

“Chaos—“

Shadow reaches Sonic.

“—Control!”

They’re zapped out of there with a flash of light..

Knuckles is just rushing out the door when a flash of light stops him in his tracks, shielding his eyes momentarily before lowing his fists to see Shadow standing there with Sonic held bridal style in his arms.

“Sonic!” Knuckles immediately calls, rushing to the two with worry in his eyes, “You okay, buddy??”

Sonic just offers a little smirk, “Yeah, I’m good. Just took a bit of a hit.”

Shadow looks down at his wound, frowning at the sight of it.. he’s lost enough blood as is. They need to get it dealt with.

“The distress call—“ Knuckles frowns, brows knitting up as he looks at Sonic’s gash, “it kinda—“

“Yeah, I know. Didn’t mean to worry you guys, but Shadow over here—“

“No,” Knuckles interrupts, earning Sonic’s attention again with the urgency in his tone, “It—… we had contact with Shadow— our Shadow.”

Sonic’s eyes widen, body tensing immediately as he begins shifting in Shadow’s arms to be put down. Shadow, in fact, does not put him down.

“What?! When?! Is-is he alright?!”

“Yeah, well— we assume he is! His signal was hardly even there, and he couldn’t communicate back, but he let us know he heard our end by temporarily switching his locator on.”

“How long ago was this??”

“Like. Two minutes ago,” Knuckles shrugs, and that’s all it takes. Sonic is squirming his way right out of Shadow’s arms much to Shadow’s annoyance and protesting.

“Would you hold still?! You’re injured—“

“I need to talk to him! What if he saw the distress call?! He’s probably worried sick!”

“You’re not gonna help matters by being hurt! He obviously can’t communicate right now, and I’m sure the fox is working on it,” Shadow argues, now having to simply resort to holding Sonic by his elbows insistently as Sonic tries to pull away, “We need to worry about what we can control, right now, and that’s getting you patched up.”

“I’m fine!” Sonic insists, jerking away from Shadow only to immediately stumble and fall—

Luckily Shadow catches him before he hits the ground, pulling him right back up into his arms to carry,

“You’re not!”

Sonic’s brows are knitted up tight, gritting his teeth at the throbbing pain in his thigh.. not to mention the exhaustion of using chaos control.. his eyes shift to Knuckles who is looking at him worriedly.

“…Come get me the second we have a signal again.”

“I will,” Knuckles assures with a nod.

“Good,” Sonic sighs, looking back to Shadow with a nod towards the house, “Okay. Let’s get this over with so I can get to that communicator..”

Shadow nods, relieved Sonic is actually gonna allow him this rather than fighting him on it.

He needs to fix what he broke.

“I’ll take this to Tails—“

Knuckles reaches for the emerald, but Shadow stops him.

“We need that.”

“For what??”

“Healing,” Shadow says firmly, jerking the emerald away from Sonic’s hand and Knuckles’ reach.

Knuckles frowns at this, “You can’t heal with the emerald.”

“Like hell I can’t,” Shadow snarks back, eyes narrowing at Knuckles.

“Only Sonic can, and his energy isn’t high enough right now—“

“I can,” Shadow insists, in case he didn’t make himself clear.

“You???” Knuckles scoffs, crossing his arms, “But your—… your chaos energy isn’t—“

“Isn’t what??” Shadow snarls, getting tired of his time being wasted while Sonic still sits in his arms bleeding.

Knuckles blinks at him, watching him a moment before speaking, “You’ve done this before??”

“Yes, why would I offer it if I wasn’t experienced in it?? Now if you would excuse me, I’m trying to save the one person here who actually matters!”

And with no real recollection to what he just word vomited out out of rage, Shadow spins around to quickly walk himself and Sonic inside, Knuckles watching with wide and confused eyes.

Sonic blinks up at Shadow once inside, “Uh- Mobius to Shadow—what was that about??”

“He was wasting our time,” Shadow huffs, moving Sonic into the kitchen to set him on the counter carefully, “For people you consider friends, they don’t seem to worried about your wellbeing—“

“Hey, don’t say that,” Sonic warns with a frown, watching as Shadow begins fumbling for a wash cloth under the sink, “They care, they just know I can handle it. You should know that, too—“

“You weren’t hit by a laser, Hedgehog, you were hit by pure chaos energy. It shouldn’t be taken lightly—“

“It’s happened before, and I’ve been fine!” Sonic huffs with a roll of his eyes, “This is ridiculous, I should be in the workshop with Tails right now—“

“Even if that fox gets in contact with your Shadow, do you really think he’d be happy knowing that instead of mending your wound, you’re allowing yourself to bleed freely while crouching over a half-baked communicator??”

Sonic huffs at this, looking away as Shadow wets the cloth and begins cleaning blood off the fur around the wound.

“…How can you heal with the emerald?” Sonic asks now, turning his head to Shadow, “My Shadow can’t do that.”

“Sounds like he’s a sorry excuse of an Ultimate Lifeform then,” Shadow grumbles, focused on cleaning the matted fur so he can properly see the wound.

“He’s not,” Sonic snaps defensively, “He’s the best of us. Of any of us… he just-…”

Shadow glances up to Sonic when he doesn’t finish his words, seeing the blue hedgehog now looking out the window in thought.

Shadow sighs through his nose and looks back to the wound, “…Would all this talk of your Shadow not being able to heal be because of whatever happened with the Black Arms..?”

Sonic tenses immediately.

That alone is enough answer for Shadow.

“…You said you defeated them.. the Black Arms,” Sonic says after a long pause, Shadow having cleaned up most of the fur around the wound and now working on cleaning the actual wound itself. Sonic hisses a bit in discomfort but his mind is too distracted to be further bothered by it than that.

“I did,” Shadow nods, eyes glancing up to Sonic before back to the wound.

“…’I’. As in alone..?”

“Sort of,” Shadow says with a small shrug, “There was help along the way, I suppose… but when it came down to it, it was myself and Doom.. and I put an end to it for good.”

“How?”

“…Well, I used chaos control to move the Black Comet in the Eclipse Canon’s line of fire. It was destroyed.. I never faced any of the Black Arms again until the Time Eater incident..”

Sonic’s brows knit a bit at that, looking down a moment before back to Shadow, “…Where was I during all this?? Your me, I mean..”

“Helping GUN,” he explained with a small shrug, “You and your friends had your own plans to help save the planet. In the end, it was futile since Black Doom used mind control to freeze you all in place.. I was immune due to having his blood in my DNA.”

“…That’s not what happened at all here..”

Shadow glances up to Sonic at that, seeing how the hedgehog’s ears are drooped and there’s a frown on his muzzle..

It’s an odd sight. To see the hero so.. confused and almost defeated in appearance..

“…I’m going to heal you now,” Shadow says quietly, hand resting over Sonic’s wound while the other moves to hold the chaos emerald, “This may feel odd..”

Sonic just nods and allows the process, eyes watching out the window at the ARK in the sky..

[mint-mumbles]

Gonna make a list of queer characters that don’t outright state their queerness because a certain group of people complaining about the handling of a certain character’s arc from a certain game is pissing me off

“They didn’t make her say she was trans so that means that they’re giving us a ‘fuck you’/we need confirmation or it isn’t valid and transphobes will be transphobic/they’re queerbaiting!”

Shut the fuck up

The fact that we’re even at this point is a miracle in itself and needing every character to explicitly say their orientation and/or gender identity shows how ignorant you are, not just regarding media literacy, but also on queer history

By your myopic lens you’re discrediting a lot of queer characters that didn’t and/or couldn’t outright say that they’re queer

Characters shouldn’t have to outright say their orientation and/or gender identity for you to consider them “good rep”

That perspective is ridiculously narrow minded and downplays the importance of previous queer characters that helped pave the way to where we are now

[lliquidllyrium]

Brainstorming a post canon story where Lucanis is adjusting to life as the first Talon under Catarina’s watchful eye and juggling that with his and Rook’s relationship. Thinking Catarina will be a hardass as usual and criticizing most things Rook does (works with a De Riva but might be even more fitting with a Rook unfamiliar with the politics of the Crows) while Rook is trying Very Hard to earn her approval for Lu’s sake because despite his tense relationship with his grandmother she is important to him.

Culminates in Catarina speaking with Rook alone one night and out of nowhere Catarina swipes their cheek with her cane, leaving a very precise but shallow cut. She tells Rook that had it been an attack from an assassin truly meaning to take their life they would already be dead, and that being the lover of the First Talon requires someone vigilant and able to care for themselves.

Lu returns to their room that night (stressed as he normally is these days) and Rook tries to keep that side of their face angled away from him but Spite catches the scent of dried blood and tips him off. He’s worried and furious of course, but Rook is reluctant to tell him who did it and when they finally do Lu goes to storm out and confront Catarina. Rook stops him and asks if it’s him or Spite and Lu is a little taken aback and hurt that Rook assumes that because it is Catarina who did this he would somehow be less willing to react. He swears that Rook is family, and if Illario is not exempt from consequences for harming family Catarina is at least going to get an earful. Rook apologizes for assuming he wouldn’t stand up for them against his grandmother, and for treating Spite as a rabid animal with no self control. Cue sweet moment with hugs from both arms and wings.

Lu takes a moment to clean the wound up gently, also collecting his thoughts and calming himself down. Rook realizes somewhere in the middle of this that the clever old hag had meant for this all along. Harm Rook superficially after weeks of building tension -> get Lucanis mad enough to confront her in a blind rage -> pontificate on lessons about allowing judgment to be blinded when it comes to Rook. It was a test to see if he would charge in blindly to defend their honor or if he would take a moment to think and plan. He had almost failed, and would have if not for Rook.

He isn’t thrilled that it makes some sort of sense, but she is a 70-something year old assassin who was First Talon until recently so she obviously knows her shit. He approaches her later and insists that both he and Rook had heard her loud and clear, but any further lessons or advice for him will be delivered via verbal communication and counsel. Catarina agrees, looking as proud as a stoic old bat can. She may not be happy with the tone that he takes but something can be said about the fact that he is willing to take it with her after all this time.

She explains that it is crucial that if he as First Talon is to take a lover he must accept that he will not always be able to protect them from the dangers this life entails. They must be able to defend themselves against all threats, but even more important is that if something should happen to them, Lucanis will keep a level head. His enemies will expect him to be blinded by grief and rage, sloppy and prone to leaving himself unguarded. A true First Talon will keep his head about him and make his enemies suffer. A true First Talon will honor a loved one’s memory with the blood of their enemies, not by falling on a sword in their name.

[ghostbeam]

Fwb with Oliver who expects he’ll have to break things off once you get too attached but it’s worth it for a little fun except u never get too attached in fact ur the one who has to tell him it’s over bc he’s gotten too clingy

[ohitslen]

Hm. Uncanny valley Vash. Thoughts.

[lycan-subscribe]

i would really really love it if cis people would like. think before they speak Once in their fucking lives

[dumbthiccbitch666]

hate sm that the one time a man treats me like i’m pretty n worth the bare minimum, i’m just not attracted to him 🙃

[solymn]

Wish me luck lads, we’re entering crunch mode

[steviescrystals]

SO fucking sick of my nose piercing being infected for no reason literally what am i doing wrong!!!

[demi-queen]

A Venn Diagram with Heathers in one circle, Legally Blonde in the other and Mean Girls in the middle