#I like the subtly of this design… a little more creepy that way

[shepscapades]

Creaking Bigb!! I did these a couple of nights ago after watching bigb’s first wildlife ep >:]

[melodiousmonsters]

I'm just going to start talking about my celestials each month to give you all some low effort and fun(for me) content. Also doing full illustrations of them as well, with some design notes at the end.

My interpretation of loodvigg, named Fhobia Denta Latrostratous (they're one of the three celstials with a full name at the moment) is a fair bit different from other's interpretations of it for extremely personal reasons. They're a tad bit strange, and creepy looking, but overall they are a compassionate (in their own strange way, like almost everything about them) and creative individual that's held as a role model for all shadowkind. They also have a lavender colored ring around their pupils so their eyes aren't fully pink, which is the main difference from the cannon loodvigg, along with the subtly different feathers, lower body, markings on the abdomen, and scales on the arms.

They are generally unexpressive (tonealy, the main way monsters express their emotions) yet VERY emotional. Over the years they gradually became more in control of their emotions due to sheer life experience, but they are still a little more irrational and driven by emotion than most of the other celestials.

They hate being touched, loud sudden/repetitive noises, math, people or things that get too into the meaning of art and other stuff like that, and the texture of a few things like fish meat or coarse fabrics. There are very few things they have a neutral opinion on, one of which is the taste of blood by itself.

They love keeping up their appearance in most situations, for example, their hair isn't naturally like that, they use their saliva like hair jell and specifically style it to look like that, also they would be absolutely rancid smelling and filthy with their diet of fresh meat and preferred locals of wet warm caves. They spend a lot of time cleaning themselves, which is extremely rare for monsters. They also like eating more than your average monster, they eat like a toddler because of how preoccupied with eating they get, collecting/making taxidermy and other oddities, and all critters, especially invertebrates though.

They are majorly interested in biological sciences, specifically preservation and taxonomy. They gave the celestials and dof era monsters/critters their scientific names(no I don't have scientific names for the celestials yet, I've kinda ran out of ideas for scientific names tbh). They happen to spend a lot of their time in a very large cave network with a lot of different types of caves that make good enclosures for keeping critters to study.

They care a lot about the other celestials as they are siblings and gets very angry if something bad happens to them, only if they feel it's undeserved, their empathy is a bit wacky and  inconsistent.

Also most shadow monsters tend to share in its odd mannerisms, sometimes the behaviors show up in completely non shadow affiliated monsters and no one knows why.

Disclaimer (I think that's the right word), yes you guessed right, Fhobia and the large majority of the shadow monsters are autistic, the term isn't used in universe as the monsters don't have a word for autism as they aren't that into psychology and "the way that monster is" has worked in place of a proper word historically, monsters aren't into categorizing others.

as for design notes and process here it is! all the stuff in red boxes are final.

[stillness-in-green]

Advisorama Asks

Two from @shockersalvage that have been waiting for an inexcusably long time to one I just got from @plf-advisor-stan that is relevant to the theme. Included: Spinner's advisors, Bindi the Younger and The Question, and Scarecrow maybe has an actual name?!?

She is not alone in thinking that it’s some real BS, let me tell you.  Like, if nothing else, I don’t think the back edges of that mob should have even been able to hear all the dialogue going on at the front.  Anyway, while I definitely don’t think Kurogiri should have left Spinner on the floor when he even bothered to bring Mic along, if he did, maybe Nimble will live up to her fan name I gave her her position as Spinner’s No. 1 and evade capture long enough to get Spinner out of there.

—

Hmmmm.  I assume you meant these two?

I guess they could be.  They’ve got similar silhouettes and broad similarities—short hair that divides in the middle; a white mask with a dark pattern—but there’s just enough different going on that I would probably not assume so without further appearances.

In direct comparison, Big Sis Bindi lacks those over-the-eyes bangs, her hair is a darker shade, and she of course has the big sweater neck thing.  The left figure’s hair lacking the screentone shading could just be because they’re so far in the background, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue for various other tiny background faces, so I don’t see why it would be an issue for this one.  Likewise, the horizontal dash just below the nose could be the outline of the sweater neck, but it looks more like a mouthline to me.

The other figure has the white mask down, but the enormous Kamen Rider-esque eye pattern is quite different from the question mark that should be there.  More subtly, the white mask seems to continue all the way down the neck, cowl-style, while The Question has that high black collar.

But!  That said, I appreciate that I’m not the only one obsessively looking for Advisor Appearances, so I thank you for calling my attention to it.  If anything, I expect we’ll see at least Big Sis Bindi again, probably with Brand, since we haven’t seen where he wound up yet, or possibly Hose Face, though we’ve already seen him once and not, as I recall, with any other pre-established PLF faces.

I do wonder where Spinner’s Number 3 has gotten off to, though…

—

HMMMMM. I wonder if that is his name, or if it's just Horikoshi shorthanding what Scarecrow's whole deal was going to be?

I ran it by friendchat and @codenamesazanka found that the Japanese on the original version of that page is a little unclear; a fan translator took their best guess about it, back when the volume it was in came out, and offered ヴィスガスタス”, visugasutasu, which no one could make any sense of.

However, Nal also noted that if the smudgy first character was di instead of vi, you got disugasutasu—Disgustas, which sounds an awful lot like Disgust, and disgust was a major theme in his speech to the hospital mob, like so:

So is this a reclamation thing? He had the "you're creepy and gross" sentiment thrown at him so much that he decided to take it up as a weapon? Or is it, again, just a shorthand for his general shtick? How does it compare to other examples of Horikoshi's design-phase sketches and notes? And if Horikoshi had the name picked out, why not include it anywhere? Just another example of Horikoshi's ongoing refusal to give plot-significant heteromorphs actual names?[1]

I also initially thought that Disgustas doesn't fit the typical MLA name scheme, but there are enough caveats there that I wouldn't consider it wholly disqualifying. Skeptic, Trumpet, Curious and Sanctum are all well and good English words, but Destro is not the same as Destroy, Re-Destro even less so, and Geten a complete outlier. So "word that resembles a relevant English word but is itself not quite that word" is not completely unprecedented.

It still makes me frowny, though, that the MLA gets shafted, the heteromorph plotline gets shafted, the single most eloquent speaker on the matter of heteromorph oppression gets EXTRA shafted, and also maybe that speaker's name is a reference to how gross the people who oppressed him and scarred him for life thought he was.

Like, for real, I have enough problems with Shouji preaching the moral superiority of passive endurance in the face of discrimination. By contrast, the MLA's whole deal is the violent overthrow of the harmful status quo; they won't even use a term their own founder's martyred mother coined because that term has been too bastardized by society at large. Spinner's #2 specifically decries various aspects of the status quo as phony, a sham, a false and shallow facade that's incapable of providing the "light" that heteromorphs need. He's the last person who should be willing to wear a label foisted off on him by the non-heteromorphic majority.

It all just feels like more of the entirely unnecessary two-faced bent #2 showed at the hospital, and, I suppose, in that regard, it's not entirely unfitting. I even kind of like the way, if his name is Disgustas, he answers his own question with both a verbal answer and a visual one via his dramatic face reveal.

"Take a look beyond the cities! What do they still say there?" In pulling off his hood, he implies the answer is him, his name: disgust. Disgust is what the people beyond the cities say. "'You give me the creeps.'"

It's a powerful moment. Indeed, language reclamation is always powerful. Still, though, that kind of internal calculation runs counter to the true believer zealotry he'd been written with prior to the hospital scene, and I admit I'm still pretty sore about that discrepancy.

But! In any case, thanks very much for bringing it to my attention! Anything about the advisors is a thing I will always want to hear about. For the time being, I'm going to keep on calling #2 Scarecrow, but if he ever turns up being called Disgustas (or Disgastas or Disgustus or however it gets romanized) in a volume extra or databook or something to that effect, I'll make the best of it at that time.[2]

Thanks for the asks, both of you!

------ 1: GIVE HER A NAME, HORIKOSHI. 2: Or I'll keep quibbling about it like I did Dabi's quirk being named Blueflame in the Hawks Villain Report. Like hell it is! ------

[northropi]

Quick Design Crisis Notes

I'll eventually have a more in-depth look into the future of these two designs when I get a little comic together about it, probably on the other blog. For now, let's go over some stuff I've been coming to terms with about the two. To catch anyone up:

Despite my PFP reflecting a now-quite-a-bit older design- I believe at this point the theme was still a zombified Pterosaur-girl with mechanical bits as prosthetics- the design I've actually been running with for a while is a zombified Dragon with mechanical bits as prosthetics. If you can't tell, not that much changed externally, except for a few details. That is, until...

After the Dragon design won out as a "quick few tweaks to the actual design but some fairly big lore changes that no one will notice," I... Kind of got dysphoric, in a way. Little features about how she looked were starting to gnaw at me, as I slowly started to interpret monstrous features as masculine- and subtly masculine aspects of her appearance started to bother me more than they did at first, driving me to want to just fold and make a flat-out fem character as, I suppose, escapism. So, the next character up, using a lot of assets and details from the previous design but with a new facial structure and an entirely different species and backstory, was a creepy doll thing.

However, this didn't go smoothly, and while I managed to put a lot together for her (granted, not outfits, both the Dragon and Doll models shown were still using placeholders), she's sort of fallen out of favor over a tweaked version of the Zombie Dragon design- now avoiding the traits I was getting in my own head over and kind of just introducing a nicer overall flavor- though the idea of somehow implementing doll traits into the character (such as wearing a porcelain mask to cover a decaying, skeletal face) were still floating around, waiting to be implemented if I decided to at the last second.

So that was it for the doll.

But not for a doll.

I had kind of joked for a while that if I inevitably rebranded enough it'd eventually lead to a robot, and the doll character... Well, she kinda accelerated that path. I really liked the idea of using a construct, mechanical character to represent myself, and while the Doll and Zombie motifs were ways to get that in while leaving in elements of Magic for me to play with, well, I guess I did always lean more towards technological aesthetics anyways. Previously I've also mused on the fact that I'd find a plain robot character unfitting because I don't know how to code, but honestly a robot character could be made to play off of that- like, she's sort of intimidated by people who are because she is code.

And with that I think I've fairly quickly arrived upon a character that ticks all the boxes I need her to, at least with some fleshing out. Still, it's not over yet. There's a lot of details about both designs that need refining. The Dragon, and especially the true form, have long needed updates- and I kind of want to pull through with those even if I don't end up keeping that character as my sona. The Robot needs special care to make sure a lot of motifs carry over organically (ironically), including a design that seems relatively grounded and utilitarian but still carries the seabird and reptile themes I like so much. And all this comes to a head with the fact that the Robot is a Robot and the Dragon is a Dragon.

I've mused with ideas like giving the Robot a full-blown walking tank form to match the Dragon's true form, but that feels a little... Weird. Like giving her multiple bodies would feel to "code-y," running into the problem I mentioned before as she becomes less "Robot" and more "AI," plus it'd kind of feel like a vehicle I guess? It feels less like a part of her than the Dragon does with its form shenanigans, and I feel would either overshadow her humanoid form (ie combat becomes relevant to the lore, which she obviously does in her walking tank mode, resulting in less time with the humanoid mode), or would be irrelevant (ie no combat, so why have a walking tank form?). So making a non-humanoid alt form for the robot is complicated, but having it without much in the way of mental gymnastics on the Dragon is kind of fun.

Like, I guess this is weird to the prevailing anti-self-insert attitude of the internet (which isn't wrong per se but VTuber and explicit Sona designs afford some room for self-indulgency), but having a character that is just Funny Scaly Woman but also Giant Three-Headed Albatross-Turtle whenever she feels like it is really... Yeah, fun. It's fun, it can be a nice gag for skits and comics, it lets me alternate between presenting as a humanoid for humanoid sorts of things and a nice pretty non-humanoid for ambient beauty shots or something, artistically treating her as an animal in nature in a way that even if I did go through with the Robot's big mode idea I'd still miss out on due to the way that form would turn out... To go over that last part a bit, yeah, ok, legged giant robot is unrealistic, sure, but it'd still be a grounded design, I just like making them that way, so I couldn't just make her a Dragon with a screen face and chrome skin and call it a day. She'd be a distinctly unnatural being, missing parts that animals have in favor of the streamlined design of a perhaps-improvised-but-still-pragmatic war machine- and maybe that could be a thing, separated from nature enough for that to work as a juxtaposition, but she likes it enough to try and associate with it, but also I don't fucking know let's talk about legs and wings and turboshafts and shit.

In true me fashion this is already a tad outdated. Rather than having a stocky tail that acts as an entire powerpack to which the wings are affixed, she'll probably have the engines powering the wings embedded in her body somewhere and the wings affixed to extensions of the hip, with the tail being a more biomimetic structure for balance and fuel storage- because I like short chonky tails. The wing itself is still more or less the same, with some slight detailing pending, and of course the color scheme will be... Something.

Her backstory is that she used to be a delivery robot for Legally Distinct Logistics Megacorp before everyone blew up everything and is now just trying to be helpful with long-distance deliveries between survivor camps, so she'll be designed with the idea of sterile alabaster corporatism in mind with a personalized scheme and hasty repairs over it.

The decidedly more normal limbs are actually where problems are cropping up. I'm not entirely sure how the arms and legs should look. The arms, true to life and in tradition for these characters, will be scrawny, metal tubes with a couple servos jammed in with distinctly rudimentary hands. I want to implement some sort of folding mechanism for them, maybe a sort of pauldron that locks to the hand as the forearm comes to lie parallel to the humerus, turning the arm into a single sort of pod thing.

The legs, however, are something that, true to life and in tradition for these characters, will be the opposite. Strong-looking, relevant to her flight controls, and I'm fond of the idea of making them look like floats on seaplanes and flying boats for the idea that she can basically kneeslide into a water landing when operating in such place. But I'm not sure exactly how that's going to work. She could go with plantigrade legs that end in nubs, or maybe some digitigrade look- recently I've been trying to feel out an idea for a digitigrade look where the "knee" mostly translates instead of rotates, allowing the leg to quickly retract and extend into and out of itself for jumping as well as reducing profile drag. This is also interesting because it sort of solves the little side debate in my head on how tall she should be by allowing her to control height on demand- in any case it's likely she could go back to older versions of the character being lanky monsters or become pretty short for the simple reason that I kinda find those ideas fun.

I'm also probably keeping the big central horn the later versions of the Dragon got- albeit as a clearly mechanical structure that contains her actual optics including a camera and LIDAR, with the eyes being mostly just aesthetic lights.

And, well, all that out of the way... I should probably follow up on this by drawing it while the ideas are still fresh in my mind, for once.

[ganondoodle]

of course i forgot soem things,

bc it also goes for the "twists", they want them to be big reveals, or act like they are at least, but dont actually commit to making it an actual twist, the puppet zelda thing could have been neat, if it wasnt so stupidly obvious fro mthe vers time you hear about it that its not actually her, do it more subtly like in the bloodmoon cutscene before you do the epic tm reveal of puppet zelda no one saw coming evah and have to refight phantom gain .. again, at least in german she noticably speaks weird, like shes not warning you of the bloodmoon but appraising it, and the detail of her being gone after you reach that point is also a detail i find cool

but again its not actually a twist nor a reveal, if you play with your brain there at all its blatantly obvious, one of the goron children even spells it out, but its brushed aside, and then even show it directly to your eyeballs in that one memory- theres a potential to make it creepy by letting you know its not her but make her actually threatening or soemthing, but no, and then you cant even goddamn tell anyone about it, like it feels like you are treated like a joke or being toyed with bc you just have to watch everyone around you being stupid and link not telling anyone, why not make people not realize it and not believing you, you can tell them but they are firmly believing its the real her, thats weird and kinda creepy (blind trust into zelda being a bad thing? neverrrrrrrrr)

same goes for the zelda dragon reveal, if all you had was the knowledge that the fruit gummy worms can turn you into one and the design and music of it, should tbh be enough to tell you, but no they cant commit to it being a big reveal, they tell you over and over and then just .. show it

its like they were super afraid of you not udnerstanding anything, like they keep turning to you and going "get it? do you get it?" and then start to explain the joke to you before you can even say anything

even the "story" does it, they act like its this big epic story but dont commit to it, they tease it at the start and then its just ... botw again (but worse), they put it in memories again, but seemingly without understanding why they worked in botw, in botw you had the basic outline of the story as soon as you finished the great plateau and all the memories did was fill in more background about characters, giving them all more weight and to make you care, you know as much and little as link really- in totk the memories do not work out of order, but even in order, like i carefully got them all in order, its just ... theres nothign happenign really, it could be summed up in a few sentences and given to me at the start like botw did (rauru could have done that, he could have jsut said it, but doesnt, for no reason) and then given me more isnight into the actual characters, but instead it IS the 'plot' and its also super simple and predictable, like id rather have gotten to know the characters instead of that run of the mill plot, i was so bored and got more disappointed with each memory i got bc my hope for an actual twist or interesting hook just .. wasnt there- and i knew they wouldnt commit to the zelda dragon bit, i knew they werent brave enough to let her stay that way- but i still had hope for something, and once i saw the end i was just ... oh, so even the little bit i felt at the thought of zelda staying that way was for nothing

theres also that element of some dialog seeming like they are aware of it, but cant or dont want to do anything about it, like again, when one of the goron kids just straight up says zelda isnt the real zelda (like we needed them to say it to our face) and then at the midpoint after the reveal of it yuno saying that we dont know anything about ganondorf but that hes evil and bad and that too is brushed aside- like it feels like they are self aware of it but dont care, its giving a character a line like "ahah i know this clothing is stupid to wear in this weather but i dont care" from a character thats been criticzed for a nonsensical design breaking the 4th wall to be like, lol i dont care directly to players who do care

(to an extend that also goes for that dialog of the woman in the spy post after the eviiil statue reveal, light and dark need to be in balance or something, its like ...... where is that in the game beyond this?????????? like this is pretty weird bc nothing else in the game even alludes to anything like that and no i dont believe the whole game is MEANT to be read as a weirdly imperialistic tale told from the victors of it, rewrtiting history to fit their needs etc, thats what it is to me but im 100% sure it is not meant as that and arther to be taken at face value without questioning anything)

they bring in concept after concept and dont actually commit to it, trying to be many things at once that dont work with the restrictions they put on themselves, bc all those things CAN work if done well, it leads to soemthing that has good ideas or passable ones but never actually standing up for it, doing everything half heartedly and messy and it just doesnt work, it feels like a test build to me, the main focus is to test the physics and performance but half of it is still placeholders and empty space that will be filled later

this is also why i dont get how people can only dislike the story bc ... the gameplay is just as bad, some things, like ultrahand, can be really fun at the start but after a while its just tedious and not well at all intergrated into the world, i see the fun people have with it, i have no ill will towards you if you do find it fun, but i dont and i still firmly believe they should have either made a spin off for the building mechanic in itself, or made an entirely new game that really and truly has nothing to do with botw and they can actually build it around all those ideas, instead of trying to modify a world that WASNT build for it

( totk rant?)

i have talked alot about my problems with totk in detail, as most of you probably know by now- but there really is a vibe of big ambitions but then not committing to it throughout the game

they want to have that building mechanic in it no matter what in a world that isnt in any way build around it, mister "freedom = good, linear = bad" guy wanting to give you ultimate freedom in the game (which imo leads to it being nothing again) but not committing to it and it creates a really toxic loop of things being more punishing than rewarding

you can build a fuckton of weird vehicles, but big parts, ESPECIALLY the glider, is on limited time so you cant actually go anywhere you want; they know giving you absolut freedom will remove any possible challenge- so they limit it by making the glider part timed, but then they cant do that for every single part bc it would be almost impossible to create anything that works well when every part is on a timer and you dont know how much of its lifespan is left bc you accidentally hit a fan once so now its uneven with the other one AND the more parts you have the more it uses battery, it makes sense, so you cant build soemthign super overpowered right at the start and its just kinda logical, but it leads to you being incentivised to build something with the fewest parts that dont have a timer-

then theres the battery power, which they try to limit by putting its upgrades behind multiple different currency exchanges, which is frustrating and leads to alot of grinding and gets overpowered really fast (it works against itself too that said currencies are all placed in the most undeveleoped and repetetive area of the game and are all never involved in anything interesting, its reused old enemy camps and the same mines everywhere, theres not a single reward in the underground that actually feels rewarding imo)

then you get the autobuild thing, so you can skip the building part of the building mechanic that is the main selling point of tha darn game, bc they know it can get frustrating to rebuild your things over and over so they give you a skip button for that if you are one of those players that doesnt like it BUT THEN they cant jsut let you do it for free so they give it a price, either spend the same currency you need for the exchange for the one you need for battery upgrades or spend parts you collected- both of which are things players generally save up and refuse to use (like the -never use any health potions bc what if i need it more at some point- thing is a problem for a reason)

then theres the added thing of the building stuff despawning incredibly quickly, im gonna guess its otherwise a performance problem (that the game is already struggling hard with) but it makes the entire already bad loop of trying to fix a problem with bandaids over and over even worse, you dont want to go too far away from your vehicles bc it will despawn and waste all that you used to build it, its like a leash to you stopping you from actually using it for more freedom- and potentially adds another annyoance bc you might try to bring it with you as far as you can, a monster truck in the depths you spend all your parts on gets stuck on the first bits of terrain you run into and you desperately try to get it out without destroying it, and if you cant you need to spend a ton of resources to build it again, even with autobuild

which is how you get the hoverbike, stupidly overpowered and boring but doing anything else is just less efficient in every way, it uses the least amount of battery, never breaks, is only 3 parts to rebuild

(i know me in particular doesnt enjoy the building in totk at all, for all those reasons and more ...... shiekah ........ and i know you CAN still choose to doing it more creatively, but you never need to, its entirely based around YOU making it fun for yourself, and i dont think its that controverisal to say a game should be fun and challenging without you having to create all the fun yourself and set yourself limit it all yourself)

similar goes for the dungeons, they heard you want the dungeons of old times back, but their strict adherance to freedom (which they themsleves contradict) leads to them being more breakable and less dungeony than even the titans in botw, they cant make it linear, thats BAD, so you can do any puzzle in any order, it cant build on any of the others bc you need to be able to do it when you want (the only one going slightly against that is the lightning one? maybe?), totks dungeons dont even limit that you cant climb them (even the titans in botw recognized that makign it easy to break so they are made of the same unclimbable material like the shrines and other shiekah tech) and the new abilities make them laughably easy to break ( .. im not even gonna mention the water temple one bc ... you dont even need to do anything there to break it to make it easier)

they wanted to cater to people wanting old dungeons, but didnt commit to it, making them WORSE dungeons than the titans with the only bonus being they got different designs and a longer build up to it (that often feels more like artificial filler than actually part of it ... like the missing lore tablet at the zoras and the missing part is a few steps away from it at best)

(ALL THE WHILE they DO limit you in SHRINES, you cant climb the walls again, for some reason, you can climb any other sonau structure though, why not that? idk, but dont limit it enough either bc you can break it all in really cheap and unsatisfying ways with ultrahand and time reversal alone- and they CANT limit those bc those abilities are the main ways to solve the 'puzzles'- botws abilities were .. well, limited in what they could do making them much more balanced, but moving sth with ultrahand and then stepping on it and time reversing it can be the boring solution to any 'puzzle', the best and only really good shrines are the ones that take all you shit bc it wactually forces you to be creative BC ITS LIMITING YOU)

(funnily enough a big possible reason why they removed the bombs from botw is bc of the glitches with it ...... like the new stuff isnt even worse and you dont even have to try lol)

people speculated on there being underground exploration due to the first trailer? people are worried about reusing the surface? ok they put the entirety of the surface map into the game again, but dont commit to it being a full thing, its horribly underdeveloped and filled with either nothing or reused filler material, while also neglecting changing anything substantial about the surface, and then the sky isalnds they even reduced and really there isnt anything of substance on there either besides the tutorial (hey, seriously, if one of botws most defining feature is its wide and empty sky why the hell would you decide to use that same map to put in your sky islands idea in), not commiting to one idea but doing all of them badly

ganondorf? well, they sure put him in there, but really what does he do? fuck all, the entire actual game hes jsut marinating in his own miasma juice for no reason, he doesnt have any presecne in the game, all he gets its a few scenes in the "story" that are told through memory cutscenes in a stupidly mega distant past i dont give a fuck about and all he does is go through the most stereotypical villain checklist of both actions and speech, they want ganondorf in there but dont commit to him ACTUALLY being there (listen i love ganondorf but really calamtiy ganon was more interesting than totk ganondorf ok im SORRY they did him so dirty)

they want dragon zelda and link 'losing' his arm be a big epic sacrifice but then .. again, dont commit to it, they tell you its oooh so irreversible and whatever and then at the end just fukcing reverse it, with no build up at all, and NONE of your own input, it just happens, and its not JUST zelda but also links arm, reversing it BOTH even and you dont even need to have all shrines (that are supposedly to cleanse your arm of miasma, i guess thats a non problem if you just stab the source of it to death instead)

they want it to be a sequel but also its own game, not committing to either and leaving us with this weird .... more alternative universe thing, vague references to botw but also acting like it never happened, slight changes, like zeldas hair, to make her seem different when shes exactly the same (you cant imply waifu zelda would ever age and not look like a little doll) and ignoring anything about her character from botw (no im serious, ooh shes nerdy for 3 minutes at the start and one time in a written thing from some servant of da royals in the past and thats it, interest in the shiekah? whos shiekah?- if anything her character is reversed, really having even less agency than in botw, that one decision to dragon is like, it really doesnt matter and not really her decision bc she didnt have a choice and it gets reversed anyway without her even remembering)

even retreading all of botws points (but doing it worse imo), but then attempting to differentiate itself from it by removing a big thing that made it what it is (shiekah) without giving it any or any sensible explanation among more, not committing to either sequel or AU and so doing both incredibly badly

(not quite the point but what i have been questioning for a while ... they way raurus abilities work ... so do all sonau have those? was it just a normal thing to have? could all sonau just glue shit together and jump through ceilings? he never uses anything of that when we see him? why is it just in the shrines at the start and its like .. he just gives it to you ...?? huh??is it part of his arm .. jewelry??)

(anyway, tin foil hat moment but it just feels like either there was a huge internal fight about everything or they neglected it in favor for something else, like say, a movie that earns them billions and is faster and cheaper to make than a game... or just dont care anymore i guess, idk which is worse tbh)

[daja-the-hypnokitten]

Jukebox reviews part 24! For context, see my post “A Project”     under this same tag. If you want to see a full list of his EMCSA   stories, they can be found here, sorted alphabetically.And if you want to see some of his drabbles, check out his blog at @jukeboxemcsa

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6/16/2012                                     mc ex hu

I always get a chuckle when Jukebox references the song the story takes its title from, as he does here. This story though .... it's maybe a little dark, in the current timeline. Religious fundamentalists in government, on the Supreme Court, well. It isn't as entertaining now as it was in 2012. The way our unnamed hacker stopped it is delightful, but ... again, a little bit sci-fi magic-y for me, and the story does remain dark enough that I just can't quite get into it. 4/10 spirals. 

 Only In My Dreams

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6/23/2012                                     mc ff

As a queer gal who was raised Catholic, this story never doesn't give me EMOTIONS. It wasn't fair of Nancy to do that to Lori quite so firmly, but at the same time, I can't entirely fault her motives. But it is all magic, and while influencing dreams is a fascinating form of control, it still isn't quite what does it for me. 7/10 spirals. 

 Angel Eyes

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7/7/2012                                       mc mf md

Jukebox, I need you to know that I hear Miles' "That's right" in a *very* particular tone in my head, because I remember the MCForum arena contest you wrote this story for. That aside, this is a lovely story, remarkably sweet, and while I will never grok Jill's joy in being both exhibitionist and voyeur, it's clear that she, at least, enjoys herself. This is clearly an established trigger, but seeing just how it effects Jill's mind as she sinks into it, as Miles guides her down, is lovely. And the fact that it makes me think of a specific, lovely thing just makes me smile more. 10/10 spirals. 

 She Came In Through the Bathroom Window

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7/14/2012                                     mc mf ff

This is creepy and full of horror and to me, not at all sexy. Especially in an age of a highly-contagious virus. And zombies - of any flavor - just have never done it for me. It's well written, so if that's your jam, you'll likely enjoy it, but it isn't for me. 3/10 spirals. 

 Miles Away

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7/21/2012                                     mc mf md

I normally can really enjoy the "hypnotee is unaware that they're being hypnotised" approach, but something about this one just bothers me. Probably the general tone of it all, seeing how particular I can be on consent vs pushing past a no, etc, which if you've been reading along you know well about me by now. But it's skillfully, subtly done, so A+ to Kurt on his technique, and I do enjoy seeing what's going on in Debbie's head while it happens. 6/10 spirals. 

 We R Who We R

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7/28/2012                                     mc mf ff md

This is a clever concept, overwriting concepts with letters. Though I *do* wonder why he bothered to override the concept of "fuck." that one doesn't quite make sense to me, for all the rest do. Even if I have to guess a little at what letter means what concept. It makes for a seriously good story, though, even if it isn't to my usual tastes. 7/10 spirals. 

 The Long and Winding Road

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8/4/2012                                       mc

Another one of Jukebox's inductions, and it's a really good one. I appreciate the care in this one added to help someone if they're trying to stay unnoticed or whatever, and the image of a journey works really well for me, too. It's an all-around good induction, though like his other ones it feels designed to be recorded rather than read. 8/10 spirals 

 Pop Music

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8/11/2012                                     mc ff ma hu

Ok, but if the drug breaks down on contact with oxygen, how long does it stay stable in the lungs? In the bloodstream? Inquiring biochemists want to know. Otherwise, the story is fine, really, but it it's science-as-magic again, in a way that just misses what I'd enjoy about it. And then I get very distracted by the science because I'm a nerd like that. 6/10 spirals. 

 Zap

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

10/6/2012                                     mc mf md

This is a lovely, wonderful, delightful bit of comedy. Oh, sure, it's hot enough, if you like the magic neurosicence gun tropes, leaving someone completely enslaved at the press of a button - and I know some of my readers will. But besides that, the set-up is just entertaining and made me laugh on a day I really needed it. There's so much I enjoy about this story, the characters, the build, all of it.I just kinda wish it felt less like hi-tech magic. 8/10 spirals. 

 I Alone

 date uploaded   date updated     Tags

2/9/2013                                       mc mf sf

This is sad and melancholy, and also a little hard to read due to the well-justified *odd* language. It follows reasonable rules, and I got used to it after a bit, but it was still a little challenging. I definitely don't see this as all that mind-control heavy, or erotic, and I'm admittely surprised Simon let it onto the Archive to begin with. ??/10 spirals 

[wonwoonlight]

Mingyu – strangers to lovers + “I’m annoyed, to say it mildly”

1k~ words - a thousand starlights event

To be completely honest, you were skeptical when Lisa has once again set you up on a blind date. Her heart is in a good place, on a mission to find you the perfect man after you complain about wanting a boyfriend. It’s holiday season and you get particularly lonely during this time; all you see is couples, couples, and more couples.

But, realistically speaking, the few blind dates she’s set you up with… well… it hasn’t gone that well because they’re all there because they thought they’d get information on Lisa out of you. You can’t really blame them, nor can you blame your friend for this. But the least you can tell her is that it hasn’t gone well.

Now when you find the man supposedly named Kim Mingyu sitting on the designated table your waiter has brought you to under your name, you believe he’s sat on the wrong table.

But when he introduces himself as Lisa’s friend and assures you that you are supposed to meet him, you can’t really say anything against that. You timidly sit on the seat across him, subtly stealing glances at the tall man in front of you. He’s easily one of the most handsome you’ve ever laid your eyes on–why would someone who looks like him need a blind date?

Perhaps he, too, was just trying to do Lisa a favour and wishes to get into her good side.

“Hi,” he calls your name, and you’re glad that at least his smile doesn’t look forced nor incredibly polite like your past few blind dates’ were. “I’ll just be honest and say I’ve seen you a lot on Lisa’s instagram and it’s nice to finally meet you.”

You blink at his words, Lisa didn’t even give you a picture of Mingyu when she told you about this date but Mingyu himself has seen you? You did try to look him up, but the only Mingyu on Lisa’s following list is on private and his profile picture is just his shillouthe under the sunset.

What aesthetic.

“Well that makes it awkward,” you smile a little, nervous under his stare. “I… don’t think I’ve seen you around?”

His laughter greets your ears, and it’s just so easy to get lost in that you didn’t realize Mingyu had finished his words.

“I’ve just got back from Japan, actually,” he says, telling you he went there to study photography and stayed for more after he finished university. “Figure it’s about time to come back home. I’ve only been back for two weeks at most.”

“And you’re already on a blind date,” you say before you realize, about to say you don’t mean it in a bad way when Mingyu simply laughs once more. Any dates you had before him would probably give you the stink eye or get stiff at the comment, but Mingyu shakes his head as his laughter dies down, a twinkle in his eyes when he looks back at you.

“I do like meeting new people,” he shrugs, not the least bothered by your comment. You don’t seem like the type to judge, anyway. “And I don’t see why I should waste my time when Lisa said she’s been setting you up on a blind date.”

You choke on your drink at his words, has Lisa been telling people you’re single and desperate?

“Oh God, are you okay?” he immediately sits straight, handing you a napkin until he realizes why you’re so startled. “Jeez, that came out wrong. It’s just–ugh, well, I asked about you and Lisa said she can introduce me to you if I want. Don’t worry, she doesn’t announce to everyone she meets that she’s on a mission to get you a boyfriend.”

“You… asked about me?” you make sure, wondering if you hear wrong.

“Yeah,” he scrunches his nose, embarrassed. “I see you on Minghao’s post too sometimes, and now that I’m back here I figured why not seek you out if I could?”

“That doesn’t sound creepy at all,” you joke despite the way your heart flutters at the revelation. Mingyu grins, once again proving to you that he’s not offended, already able to grasp your humor code though it hasn’t even been an hour since you’ve met him.

You stand up to excuse yourself to the bathroom, barely even walked two steps from your table when some guy bumps into you and immediately glares at you before you even have the chance to apologize despite it’s clear to anyone that he’s the one not looking.

“Don’t you have eyes?” he scoffs rudely, eyeing you up and down.

Without wasting a second, it’s Mingyu who interferes, protectively standing between you and the rude stranger. “Don’t you? I’d appreciate it if you don’t yell at my girlfriend when it’s you who bumped into her.”

He looks like he wants to say more, but between Mingyu’s towering figure and the way his friend is already telling him to drop it, the guy just scoffs once more before he begrudgingly turns around.

“Mingyu?” you softly pull the sleeve of his jacket, not wanting people to look further. “Let’s go sit back down?”

“Well, I’m annoyed, to say it mildly,” he frowns, taking a sip of his water. “Don’t people have manners nowadays?”

“It’s fine,” you give him a small smile, his words from earlier still ringing in your mind. “Thank you for standing up for me, boyfriend.”

Mingyu still has it in him to look embarrassed, mumbling about how it’s just easier to call you that so the guy would back off immediately. This side of him is endearing, you decide, and you can’t help but reach out for his hand resting on the table, planting yours on top of it as you mutter a ‘thank you’ to let him know you don’t mind at all and you appreciate the act just the same.

He doesn’t hesitate to shift his hand so he’s the one holding your hand, and when his smile grows wider the moment his eyes meet yours, you can’t help but think about ways to thank Lisa for setting up this date.

So much for being skeptical.

©wonwoonlight – all rights reserved.

[zafirosreverie]

Must be the eyes (Teacher!Agatha x Fem!Student!Reader) part 5

(Part 1) (Part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

a/n: I’m sorry if this is a little rushed, i did what i could with my laptop freezing at all times.

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

You jumped when your phone beeped with a message. You quickly grabbed it from the bed, where you had carelessly thrown it. It was from Nick.

"Meet me in the lobby”

You frowned slightly. What could he want at this hour? Probably tease you a little more. You rolled your eyes fondly.

During the whole tour, he hadn’t been able to tease you as usual. From the moment the two of you caught up with the group, your teacher's hand was firmly positioned on your lower back and when you entered the library, she was never too far away, so any joke Nick might have made would have reached her ears. And during dinner, the teachers' table had been right behind yours, conveniently.

"I'll be there in 5" you answered quickly, before putting the phone in the pocket of your shorts and smoothing your shirt again. You tied your hair in a messy bun and grabbed your purse. You didn't want to pay attention to the way your pulse was racing, or the voice in your head telling you that you were going on a date.

Because no, you were definitely not going on a date!

"Oh, are you ready?" asked a voice from the bathroom door.

For a moment you had forgotten about the other person in the room (well, not about her, but that she was there at the time). You turned to see your teacher leaning against the doorframe, in dark pants and a three-quarter-sleeve blouse. She looked so casual, so relaxed. It was a beautiful sight.

"Umm y-yeah" you stuttered "I'll wait for you downstairs. I'm going to the lobby with Nick" you explained

"Jadu?" Agatha frowned, quickly feeling a twinge of jealousy "Mister Jadu should already be in his room" she said.

"W-well, I'm sure he'll be soon, he just wanted to tell me something. Could be important" you said nervously.

It was strange how the woman could change her attitude so quickly. A few seconds ago she had been so relaxed, as if the two of you had been living together for a long time (you blushed at the thought. You did not live together!) And now, she was the living image of a beast about to attack.

"Fine" she said after looking at you for a few more moments "I'll catch up to you there"

You nodded quickly and left the room in a hurry. As much as you wanted to, now you couldn't turn a blind eye, you knew Nick was right. Harkness was acting weird.

____________

Agatha sighed when the door closed behind you. She mentally cursed herself for scaring you like this. She shouldn't be jealous of you, she shouldn't want to control what's going on around you, and she shouldn't want to be by your side for as long as possible.

Shouldn’t. It was a word that she had been repeating many times in the last three days.

"Maybe, I shouldn't have done all of this" she murmured.

The original plan was simple: take you to Salem, see you happy, go back, keep seeing you from afar through the hallways of the school, the end. But you had managed to complicate everything from the moment you were late, making her panic.

Then you had fallen asleep on her, making her feel nervous, you had managed to be sacrificed as an offering for her, sharing a room and making her doubt her own self-control, then you had gotten into her dreams, making her do things that she really didn't want to think about right now (there was no time for another trip to the bathroom, thank you very much) and now you were simply torturing her, rubbing in her face everything you could do with that little friend of yours that you couldn't do with her, making her feel terribly jealous of something that didn't even belong to her.

And still, she couldn't help but want to be close to you. She wasn't blind, she knew exactly how you felt about her, and even though she was still struggling with morality and shit, she also wanted to see where all of this took you both.

"Well, nowhere if I don't hurry up" she murmured, taking her purse and leaving the room.

___________

"Sooooo" Nick smiled at you, making you roll your eyes for the fifth time in the last five minutes.

"It’s not a date" you said for the third time "She will only take me to the antique store because it isn’t on the itinerary"

"How strange" he said sarcastically "I don't remember hearing her invitation ... Oh wait! She didn't invite us! She will only take her favorite student, with whom she shares a room, and from whom she hasn’t taken her eyes off, to a night walk through the city, so that you can visit a store that you wanted so much to go to. Yes, totally not a date" he rolled his eyes

"Well, I can ask her to let you come with us if you want" you said, blushing

"No, no" he laughed "I'm not going to piss off the kraken"

"Nick"

"I'm serious. I mean, I don't get along with her as well as you do, princess, but I want to think that I'm not on her list of students to murder. And something tells me that being a third wheel in her, 'not a date', would make me top that list" he laughed "so no, thanks, but no thanks princess"

"You are exaggerating, you know?" you laughed

"Yes yes, you call it exaggeration, I call it knowing how to choose my battles. And believe me, we all know that making Harkness angry is a losing battle and a suicidal desire"

"You make her sound like a serial killer" you rolled your eyes

"You never know" he shrugged "talking about the queen of Rome, here she comes" he told you in a low voice, subtly pointing to someone behind you.

You turned to see the brunette walking towards you with a smile that seemed a bit forced. You couldn't help but notice the sway of her hips.

"Well, I better go" Nick whispered "don't forget to bring me something" he winked at you.

She saw him rush past the older woman, giving her a little goodnight, which she only answered with a slight nod of the head. 

You saw your best friend disappear into the elevator, before paying attention to the woman in front of you.

"Everything alright?" she asked

"Y-yes Miss Harkness" you said

"So, was it important?" she pressed

"What?" you frowned confused

"The matter why you had to meet him here" she said she "didn't you say it might be important?"

You blinked a little at that. You hadn't thought that she really cared about what you said. It was a pleasant surprise, truth be told, it made you feel special and warmed your cheeks.

"Well he just wanted to make sure i bought him something" you lied.

The woman didn’t seem convinced, but she didn't say anything more on the subject. Smiling, she offered you her arm.

"Then we better go" she said she "we must find something for Mister Jadu, right?"

You giggled at that before nodding and, against your better judgment, you entwined your arm through hers.

Agatha smiled at this, unable to help but feel butterflies in her stomach, a quite refreshing and welcome feeling after the hot wave of jealousy that had washed over her when she stepped off the elevator and saw you so close to Nicholas.

______________

You tried to ignore the blush that was spreading across your face and neck when you walked into the store. You had thought that maybe you would take a taxi or something, but the brunette had told you that the store was not far away, so there was no point in taking a taxi when you were perfectly capable of walking there.

What she hadn't told you was that she wasn't going to let go of you. Sure, you linked your arm with hers, but you thought she would let you go when you got into a taxi. You didn't expect to find yourself walking to an antique store, arms intertwined with your crush, at night.

"How romantic" you thought sarcastically. Well, you could at least tell Nick that it was definitely not a date.

Your train of thought, however, stopped the moment you took a look at the shelves. There were old books, antique dolls, lamps, clocks, paintings, chairs, statues, among other things. You felt like a little girl in a toy store.

Agatha smiled at your look of astonishment. Your lips were slightly parted, you weren’t blinking and your eyes had a special shine that the brunette had never seen. Almost like a girl looking at the presents under the tree on Christmas day.

You looked so cute that she didn't care that you let go of her arm to get deeper and deeper into the place (although she immediately missed your warmth). She followed you carefully, not wanting to miss out on any of your reactions to the artifacts in front of you.

"I had one of those when I was little" you said suddenly, pointing to a beautiful porcelain doll.

Agatha looked at it for a moment. It had white skin, with black curlers tied in a half ponytail and a large purple bow. The dress, although worn and a bit dirty, still retained a bit of its purple color and the elegance of its original design.

But it was her face that had caught your attention the most. She had flushed cheeks, red lips (albeit a bit faded), and long eyelashes. And her eyes...her eyes were two big beautiful blue orbs.

"She looks like you" you said, smiling at the woman next to you

Agatha was a bit surprised and felt a rush of nerves when you stepped closer to her so she could see the doll better. It was true, it looked a bit like her.

"I guess so" she smiled at you

"I like her" you whispered.

The woman gasped silently, looking at you intently. You weren't looking at her, but at the doll in your hands, but something inside her, maybe a selfish part of her, told her that you were talking about her. And for the sake of her heart, she would hold on to that belief, regardless of your next words:

"T-the doll" you clarified quickly, cursing you for being so clumsy "I like the doll" you said, smiling nervously at her.

"Why?" she asked "Most people find them creepy”

“I don’t know” you shrugged “Must be the eyes” you smiled.

Agatha smiled back at you, but she didn't say anything. Suddenly feeling very exposed under her gaze, you set the doll back in place, before turning awkwardly to continue staring at the other shelves.

"Aren't you going to buy her?" the brunette asked, making you look at her again

"...no" you said "She’s beautiful, but too expensive for me. I prefer to save a little for other things that we can find in the following tours. It wouldn’t be smart of me to spend all my money on the third day, right?" you joked lightly.

Agatha however, noticed the look you gave the doll before turning around. You wanted it, of that she was sure.

______________

"My grandmother had one of those" you laughed

"Well, your grandmother had good taste then" replied the brunette, holding the locket in front of you.

"I suppose there is a certain beauty in it" you admitted, taking it carefully, smiling when the woman winked at you.

"Old is beautiful, Y/N" she said

"Much" you smiled and winked at her. You both knew that you weren't exactly talking about the necklace in your hands.

In the hour and a half that you had been there, something had changed between the two of you. It had started with something subtle, probably since the moment you said you liked the doll that reminded you of your teacher, but then it was an innocent comment about how beautiful a brooch looked in her, a hand on your back encouraging you to try on a necklace, a warm breath on your neck as she approached you from behind to see books over your shoulder. And without realizing it, you had been exchanging somewhat flirtatious comments with the older woman.

Nothing serious, you told yourself, but enough to feel like your relationship had changed. As if you had become closer.

"Well, I think I have everything" you said, separating a little from her

"Are you sure?" she told you "What about the gift for Mr. Jadu?"

"Here" you smiled, showing her the quartz necklace that you had chosen for your best friend.

"Excellent" she said to you "Why don't you pay and wait for me outside?

You shrugged and watched her get lost between the shelves. You paid for your things and left the store, shaking a little. It wasn't cold, but you needed a bubbly presence by your side.

__________

The next morning, there was no sign of the older woman. You frowned at that, but you guessed that she had simply gotten up before you, she was probably already in the dining room or waking up the rest of your classmates for breakfast.

You took a moment to remember the night before and how special it had made you feel. Too bad the spell had been broken as soon as you left the store.

You had asked her what was in the box she came out with, but she hadn't answered. In fact, she hadn't spoken to you the entire way back to the hotel. It was weird, but you hadn't minded because she had re-entwined her arm with yours anyway, so you were sure she wasn't upset with you.

______________

"So how was the no date?" Nick asked, immediately after sitting down across from you

"Great, they had very interesting things" you said

"Oh come on Y/N, give me the juicy details"

"There are no 'juicy details' Nick" you rolled your eyes "as you said yourself, it was not a date. We just went to an antique store and voila"

"Liar" he said "there had to be something! She took you by the hand? She pushed you against a shelf and kissed you?"

"Nick!" you hit him on the head

"Ouch" he said "Hey, don't be so aggressive"

"Don't be such an idiot" you said "Nothing happened. Period"

"Okay" he sighed in defeat "did you at least bring me something?"

"Yes, but I don't think you deserve it" you said

"Oh, come on!" he groaned "You don't give me juicy details and you’re also going to take my gift from me? Dark magic is corrupting you, Y/L/N"

You laughed at that, almost spitting out the juice you were drinking.

"You are an idiot" you said

"But?" he smiled at you and raised an eyebrow

You rolled your eyes "But, you are MY idiot" you said. You took the quartz necklace out of your pocket and threw it at him "Here, cry baby"

"Woah" he said, catching it in midair "Awesome, a rose quartz! Thank you princess"

"Yes, yes, you're welcome" you said "now, be a good slave and bring me more fruit, will you?"

"Right away, my lady" he winked at you and stood up.

You were so busy laughing at him, you didn't notice the brunette behind you getting up and leaving the dining room quickly.

______________

Agatha felt her hands shaking as she placed the package on your bed. She wasn't sure if she should, maybe she was crossing a line, maybe she had misinterpreted the signals. But last night she had seen a side of you that she didn’t know.

In that store, you had stopped being the tender and shy student who was always nervous for the presence of her teacher, and you were transformed into a playful and flirtatious creature that had made her legs tremble.

She hadn't expected you to flirt back, but she loved it and now she wanted more.

"But this" she whispered, looking at the gift on your bed "Will it be too much?"

She was breaking the agreement that she had made with herself. It was not night, and only the nights belonged to her. Leaving you a gift in broad daylight was against the rules.

Fortunately, Agatha Harkness was a woman who made her own rules.

_________________

You opened the door to your room quickly, counting in your mind the seconds it took. You were only back for a pair of sunglasses and your wallet. You were about to leave again when you noticed the box on your bed.

"What is this?" you murmured, moving closer to it.

How did you not notice a box in the middle of your bed as soon as you entered? You didn’t know.

You took the card that was on top of the box, blushing immediately when you recognized the fine handwriting.

"You keep surprising me with your ability to love broken creatures, Miss Y/L/N, but I suppose you're right. It must be the eyes -A.H."

You opened the box and couldn't help but smile as a familiar warmth ran through you and butterflies fluttered in your stomach.

A pair of glass blue eyes stared at you as you hugged the doll and you wished you could hug the woman who looked like her too.

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

Tags: @midnight-lestrange @everythingmarvelsherlockspn @amethyst-bitch @juliejules-089 @powerfulmagicalgirl @novohyde @annie-mit-ie @shinkomiii @agentbrownierso @swanqueensupercorp @usernames-are-difficult @philippaharkness @rainbow-hedgehog @parkerprolly @amelia02 @misarwen25 @booklovinbi @bloodyfool @marvelseverything @superpearlnerd @rooskaya-yelena @danvers97 @notsosecretlyalesbian​ @thoroughly--confused​ @tomy5girls​

[countess-strahd]

I changed a lot from canon and ended up making it really hard on myself. I recommend looking at MandyMod's guides on reddit, and watching Lunch Break Hero's videos on youtube. (I think the vids are also all available as articles, which is my preferred version, but some might only be in one format.) Keep in mind that you don't have to go with their changes, but you should see what they think, as they're both good at developping the setting further and have some valuable input.

If you're struggling with anything, the subreddit does have some valuable input, so search for the location or character and see what other DMs think. That usually helps me resolve things before they become a problem, like the Yesterhill fight.

Don't get sucked into the trap of making Strahd too difficult. He's incredibly powerful within Ravenloft, but a lot of that power comes from his minions. Your party shouldn't be able to beat Strahd til the very end, not because he's CR 27 or whateber the highest CR statsheet is these days, but because they've taken out the brides, Rahadin, and others of Strahd's allies.

One thing I screwed up on what making the Dark Powers too present in the plot. It's confusing for my players, and they throw a lot of stuff out of whack. Stick to having the vestiges in their amber sarcophagi be trapped in the Amber Temple. If you want to tempt or corrupt your PCs, with your players' consent ofc, my players REALLY like the creepy dreams where shadowy figures come talk to them. Could be a fun route if they have to piece together what's happening from rumors and such. (Where I got stuck is that one PC is a warlock of a powerful vestige/dark power from the temple, so I thought having other warlocks around like Kasimir and Rahadin would be cool. It is not. I fucked up so bad. The lore is so complicated.)

Another mistake I made was making the elves and vistani wayyy too closely tied together. Try and keep them distinct from each other as oppressed minorities within Barovia, and let the Barovian villages feel distinct culturally, as well. No two groups are the same. A way to do this is accents, but also description. Vallaki looks totally different from Barovia, Krezk, the elf village and the Vistani camp, etc. Also, they can be kinda emoty. Barovia has a terrifying population decline, and Vallaki and Krezk are no better. The elves are dying slowly but surely. The Vistani, meanwhile, have no lack of children and young folk. This should help them all feel separate. (Related note: I named the elf/vistani camp outside Vallaki "Avenir" for simplicity. Having Ez be from there, and be the only young person or maybe the only woman besides Arabelle the little girl, might add to the off vibes that PCs should sense here.)

Also: make Strahd the most manipulative, frighteningly in control, possessive, seductive, puppetmaster-y piece of shit you can conceive of. Strahd's spies are everywhere, and the PCs should pick up on that quickly for maximum horror vibes. Have these spies lie, manipulate, and subtly threaten. They should be nervous around animals, strangers, NPCs who are too helpful or know more than expected, and each other.

On the other hand, having Ireena work as a DMPC has been a godsend. DON'T rob players of choice, but being able to say "I don't think we should go there... at least not without a plan." is so damn useful in a campaign designed to kill your PCs if they screw up! She knows the valley despite never seeing much of it, can talk shop with burgomasters and others because of her upbringing, and is a sword-wielding badass. Ireena is willing to die for Barovia, or become undead, if it would save others. This makes her a fantastic NPC ally.

Allies: pick ahead of time. Rig the whole tarokka reading, honestly. Don't give your players a terrible ally like I did. Van Richten, Ez, and Ismark are very good choices. You could even say it's "the vampire hunter" and lead them to think it's RvR or Ez, only to have it turn out to be the other one. If you want, you can skip the reading entirely and just give them plot suggestions from Eva. As in, you might be able to find allies in Vallaki, Argynvostholt survivors, or the Winery. Something like that gives them direction but allows you to mix it up behind the scenes, where necessary. (Might be biased bc my reading fucked up my game, but that was my own damn fault lol)

It's a fun campaign. Don't worry too much about details and you'll be just fine. Good luck :-)

hi dnd tumblr 😎 i'm beginning to plan my curse of strahd campaign for my group, and here i am wondering. pondering. considering, even.

dms, is there something in strahd you would have changed/removed/did end up changing?

tips? tricks?

i myself have never played (which is so sad) but i'm determined to run it

[adobe-outdesign]

I don't know if you've done them yet, but: Your opinion on the Duskull - line?

The Duskull line in general has always been one of the eerier Pokemon out there. Just something about the single eye and lack of a true "face" makes it much more unnerving than your average ghost Pokemon.

As far as design goes, I really love how it has a single orb for an eye that, due to the angle, looks like it's in one of the eye sockets but actually floats between them. That's just such a cool idea, and much more interesting than having two glowing eyes like you'd expect.

The body is also nice; it's really hard to tell here, but it's basically just a round shape with a sheet draped over it. It subtly implies kind of a reaper vibe without being too literal with it.

I only have two complaints, and they're both minor. First, I would've liked to see a slightly darker grey used for the body to add contrast; it looks a little washed out as-is. And secondly, the bone patterns on the back are okay, but they don't add much and could've just been dropped. Otherwise, this is very nice little ghost.

I know some people don't like Dusclops as much as Duskull, but while I get where they're coming from I kind of dig it. It's somehow just as eerie as Duskull, with a single unblinking eye and awful grasping hands. It's 'dex entries mention how it's hollow on the inside, which is both a nice nod to how it's based off of paper lanterns and is also mildly terrifying.

Design-wise, there are a few elements carried over from Duskull here; the colors are the same, the three skull teeth are still present, and the cloth top from the robes is still on the head. It also has a single glowing orb eye, now without the extra sockets, which feels like a solid evolution. It's mostly the addition of a body that makes it feel different than Duskull; if it was still floating and legless at this stage, it might feel a bit more in-line with Duskull.

I also can't help but miss the eye actually floating behind the skull. I would've like to have seen this with a single black eye socket and an unmoving orb behind it again. Maybe even keep the skull and have it on top of the wrappings.

My only other thing is that the bandages on the side of the body feel a bit tacked-on; I don't mind having something flow back there, but they just kind of sit there rather than actually being part of the bandages that make up the body. Same thing with the ones on the head.

As a whole, however, I think that this is a pretty solid continuation of the line, even if it could've sampled for elements from Duskull. However...

Dusknoir is one of those Pokemon that I'm mixed on. On the one hand, I do like the general look of it for the most part, and it does carry some elements over from Dusclops (the eye, the teeth which are now upright, the hands, the stomach mouth that's similar to how Dusclops absorbs its prey) and some from Duskull (the tail). But on the other hand it does feel pretty removed from the rest of the line, much more so than Dusclops.

I think part of the problem is color. I like the darker grey--and as I mentioned earlier, I would've liked to see that on the entire line--but that combined with the yellow accents makes it not quite match the others. Keeping it all light grey with red accents would've made it feel more like the rest of the line.

And in terms of design, there are some odd things going on here. The doorknob on the head is an antennae, though you'd never guess that on design alone, and the overall shape of the head is a bit odd. Even the cuffs on the arms don't feel like they're needed. And adding an "eyelid" to the eye really reduced some of the creepiness of its pre-evos.

But there are a lot of things I do like about it; the stomach mouth complete with false eyes, the eye is once again floating, the tail feels more in line with Duskull, and the way the 'dex mentions it being controlled by ghost transmissions are all pretty neat. So I do like it; it just looks more like an unrelated Pokemon than a continuation of the line.

If I were to try to unify the line, I'd make them all a darker grey. Give them all black eyes with the floating static orb center, and remove Dusknoir's eyelid. For Dusclops, give it a tail made from unraveling bandages, and keep the skull on top of the wraps. Have Dusknoir then have floating hands, more loose bandages around the arms and the tail, red accents, and make the head a floating one-eyed skull. That would keep it a bit more cohesive, I think.

Cohesion aside, however, these are some very cool ghosts and I like the originality and eeriness of the designs. A+ from me.

[guyghoul]

I explicitly let @grosskelly do whatever @grosskelly wants wi this picture (and its art sources) in anyway anywhere anytime, including uploads to any website @grosskelly uses.

═══════════════════════════════ Discovering Teef had me Happy.

Being able to do fan-art of Teef (and actually doing so) had m Ecstatic.

Reading the chapter from the comic from where Teef comes had me Manic.

Th is not jus the Tumblr fascination with 'crab'. Teef is very hardcore with a pinch of edge, having tha tough carapace, plenty of sharp teeth, and that rotund, grooved underbelly... which turns ou to b equally tough to the rest of her carapace! I also like how she is rough and tough with a hidden soft side.

Then again, @grosskelly's designs were always Creepy Awesome. @grosskelly is not afraid in delving deep into the unknown or emaining in the conventional. The normal case, though, is the twisting and warping of biology to a deliberately uncanny and grotesqu effect. Really, the designs are in a wide spectrum o familiar and unfamiliar. The art style sticks out in the same way.

Once again, I was very grateful that I could spri Teef... and how fitting her design was to spriting. I mean, the grooves on the top and bottom parts of the carapace made a grea texture, her eyes and teeth made a neat pattern, the spots on her carapace pretty much begged to be dithered, and her palette being made of shades of red made more subtle shading possible. The legs look a little odd, though, plus her claw being outlined in a solid colour was honestly a compromise.

If I were to fix this, I would try again with more subtly shading the outline of the claw, plus I might reduce the size of the two-pixel tooth. ═══════════════════════════════ This was part of Artfight 2021.

Teef → Aberrunt → @grosskelly

[xx-psych0-rabbit-xx]

anyways youre not here to hear me rant abt that same sa scene issue over n over so heres some summarized takes on the main designs

charlie:6/10, shes completely inoffensive, just v boring, her pilot design had worse hair but w slightly more interesting outfit, her final one has better hair in exchange of a worse outfit, nothing in it tells us anything, shes yet another victim of "the protagonist has a v plain design w nothing going on"

vaggie:7/10, her pilot design stands out a lot more but i believe her final one is supposed to make her blend in more w all the others, but generally shes fine, i like the X eye!

alastor:5/10, i just.dont like it? i think his hair is great but the tuxedo is boring, the horns r comically invisible n it generally just looks.way too boring for a character youre supposed to think is a threat, the wiki has this eyestrain red version of it from an early reel i think works way better, the shape language is subtly more present in making him stand out n the reds used scream "threat" way more.also voudou being used as a creepy aesthetic is just shitty

angel:3/10, i recognize these more shape heavy designs arent for me but arent inherently flawed buuut his final design looks boring, the white gloves make it look like he just lacks gloves on one set of arms, also he had another set removed which makes the fact he doesnt at ALL look like a spider even worse, n back w the plain suits that have no personality (looking at his betas seem he was originally more mafia themed w a stereotypical mafia hat, which in that version justifies it but in the final.no thats just a boring suit again)

husk:7/10, i thank the gods they recognized his pilot design was a mess of patterns w no purpose n tried to tone it down but.they still just dont have to be there? the wings no longer have the card symbols, n the dots just.look bad.hed look completely fine w plain wings.n no ear patterns.otherwise honestly hes kinda cute, the eyebrows r fun n the suspenders look quite cute n r a typical attire associated w old timey bartenders as far as ik

niffty:8/10, her head n face r the best in the series, v cute! outfit wise her final one is way too plain, n her pilot one doesnt fit the role, but the cutesy head is winning her 8 points anyways

lucifer:9/10, the outfit works imo! the tuxedo has personality n the hat thing w the snake n the apple is v cool.im not big on sad boy lucifer takes but design wise, also one of the only designs i think understands how to feature red as a general color without it taking the spotlight, will explain at the end

adam:0/10 i HATE his original outfit, it just looks tacky n the shapes arent rly working, the later black one gets 3-4 points bc the colors work better n the spikes r cool, unmasked.thats just some white dude.what do you want me to say.

lute:10/10 i love a bad bitch w a bob.also im a huge sucker for the exorcist edgy masks

cherri:9/10, i think she looks cool but i can tell she made animators sob at the amount of detail her final design ended up w.so second score for specifically animating of 3/10

valentino:4/10, the stripes r obnoxious, apparently in an old design he had two feathers on the hat to resemble the antennas of an actual moth but one got removed? whats w bug demons n barely looking like bugs in this?

velvette:9/10, thats a cute girl! yup shes a cute girl.thats all.

snake guy idk his name:4/10, design hurts the eyes, color contrast is a little much, suit.again.

vox:7/10 hes like the snake dude but the colors actually work, might be shocking but hes wearing a suit.

general conclusions ive had r the designs DO have an "too much red" issue bc the same similar shades r constantly present, n red is the main color far too often, i think wanting it to be present in general is fine but it should be a secondary color rather than the main one

viv also has an obsession w suits n top hats, which i genuinely understand wanting your favorite clothing items to be present often in your designs, but its.just way too much, theres too many suits that add no personality to the design whatsoever, n trying to put stripes on them doesnt fix that

n.listen im VERY numb to characters all being skinny, but its.SO noticeable when you have this shape heavy style.theres an old image on the wiki of what seems to be silhouette tests n the same stick thin body shapes r just so obvious.if youre gonna have a style this based on exaggerated anatomy you cant just feature the same one body over n over

n when thats all mixed together.yeah the designs mesh a lot.same colors same body type n often the same kind of outfit, but theyre not these disastrous offenses to designing like ppl say they r, its a 6.5/10 for me doc

btw i needed smth to pass time yesterday so i went over the hazbin designs w a friend n the conclusion was a lot r not that good but at the same time some ppl rly blow over proportion how bad they actually r, which does feel like "all the designs r bad" is just another "its too red" aka just an easy to latch on reason to hate the show to hate smth popular instead of understanding the actual reasons why the show started being hated.like rly when the creator hired an open fetishist to work on a SA scene n then made up the artist was a victim so ppl would feel bad for criticizing them both (despite the artist literally saying themselves they werent) i think we got bigger issues than "why is hell so red"

[andromedasstarship]

in the stars - chapter 3

photo credit - unknown 

pairing - aaron hotchner x reader

warnings - canon-typical criminal minds violence, stalking, depictions of murder/violence, angst, verbal fighting, drinking, unhealthy coping mechanisms, smoking (cigarettes) 

summary -  “If you’re upset over how I ended our relationship, that is completely separate from the dealings of the case and I expect you to be able to conduct yourself appropriately.” Aaron said and you thought this was what ‘seeing red’ meant

a/n - hi besties! im so sorry this update took so long! i really wanted to make it perfect and was struggling with putting this together. to make it up this chapter is a whopping 5.9k words so uh enjoy lol!

masterlist // series masterlist // read it on ao3

chapter 2 // chapter 4

-----

You had to physically stop yourself- gripping the desk chair beside you so hard your knuckles turned white- from following Aaron out the office door and demanding he make sense of the whole good cop- ha!- bad cop show he’d been putting on since the two of you had been horribly reunited outside of the police station. 

This had been the second instance of him implying or accusing you of somehow worsening the case. And he hadn’t even been in LA for over 24hrs. It wasn’t fair, you thought, angrily grumbling to yourself about all the different ways you’d love to give him a piece of your mind. If he’d been a regular man, that you’d never met before, you probably wouldn’t consider his current behavior to be so- out of pocket? disgraceful? insulting?- offensive. You knew he had a reputation for being...,a hardass on the job, but that didn’t mean he had to go overboard in his treatment towards you. Maybe he wasn’t going overboard, maybe this was just how he treated every- you weren’t sure exactly how to define yourself in the case- witness? Maybe this is just what his team expected in terms of his behavior towards people he didn’t know.

But he did know you, he knew you quite well. He knew you well enough to know you’d never purposely attempt to slow the case down. Even without his fancy profiler skills, you were certain Aaron Hotchner knew every little thing about you. Or at least he used to. 

And while Aaron may know everything there was to know about you, you were beginning to doubt if you actually knew anything about him. As expected, over the past two months the case had been taking an extreme toll on you; constantly looking over your shoulder and worrying that someone was lurking behind every corner. What made it worse, was that it was yet another situation that required you to keep a secret. You ‘had’ the officers at the station and your agent, but besides them you were dealing with this completely on your own. Making the situation about yourself felt wrong, but you couldn’t even begin to explain how hurt you felt at Aaron's accusations that you were somehow more part of the problem than you were a victim. Yes, you hadn’t gone up to him and explicitly told him how badly you were hurting, but it’s not like it took a genius- or a profiler- to reach that conclusion themselves. 

It hurt, to have someone whose validation you had once- still did- crave so much, suddenly act as if you were a ‘bad guy’. Maybe you were being dramatic, you thought. Maybe you were overreacting and reading far too deep into such short interactions. On the other hand, you reasoned that it was perfectly acceptable to have feelings. Before you could delve deeper into that mental tirade, a sharp knock on the doorframe grabbed your attention. Looking up, you saw JJ leaning halfway into the room. 

“Sorry,” you said, awkwardly letting go of the chair, “I uh, got caught up with uh, just you know, thoughts about the case!” Smooth. You tried to put a cheery tone in your voice. You tried to subtly study her reaction as you walked over to her and it was clear she wasn’t exactly buying into your sudden happy attitude. She didn’t press you though, something you were grateful for. Instead she just moved out of the doorframe, letting you join her in the hallway. 

“The rest of the team has split up already, would you like to start in the basement?” JJ asked. You had only spoken to her a couple times, briefly at that, but you already found great comfort in her presence; you could see why she held the position, her ability to comfort and connect with others was unbeatable. Definitely need to send JJ a case of wine as a gift. 

You nodded dumbly, joining her in the hallway and taking her down towards your basement. Internally, you guessed the little ‘tour’ would only take an hour tops, considering all the little spiels you’d have to give about each room. 

You felt a bit like when you went through airport security or when a police car was on a road you were driving on. That sinking feeling that somehow you were going to get in trouble even though you knew you didn’t have anything to hide. Damn Aaron. His apparent lowly opinion of you was definitely messing with your head. Oh well. 

As you lead JJ towards the basement, you could vaguely hear the other agents throughout the house. A door opening here or the sound of papers rustling over there. You hadn’t exactly asked how they would be able to tell if something was missing or out of place. But honestly? You didn’t really care what the team did in your house, as long as they figured out how the unsub had gotten in there. 

You’d already come to terms with the fact that the unsub had managed to steal your clothes and jewelry, but you just couldn’t shake the fact that he had gotten into your house. Part of you secretly wished he had pick-pocketed you on a busy street or was stealing stuff off a film set instead. It would’ve been equally as bad and creepy and horrifying, but it would’ve been worth still feeling safe in your own house. 

Smacking the lightswitch on the wall behind you, the entire basement became illuminated. “So,” you started, really drawing out the word, “this is the basement. It’s technically one big open floor, but well,” you gestured lazily with your hand, “you can see it’s kinda still split up. There’s a movie room behind those doors right there.” 

JJ stepped ahead of you, walking towards the high windows in the basement. You watched as she ran her fingers along the window edges, carefully going over each one. “Do these open?” She asked, turning back to look at you. 

You quickly shook your head. “They’re mostly just for, like, decoration purposes.” You responded, giving a slight shrug. “I um, I’m not down here much unless I’m having people over. And those stairs we came down are the only way to get in here.” You added, thinking that’d probably be helpful. 

JJ gave you that nice smile again and started towards the movie room. “I’m just gonna look in here real quick and then we can go back upstairs, okay?” 

You stood awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs, rolling back and forth from your heels to your tippy toes, awkwardly playing with your hands in front of yourself. You knew her movie room scan wouldn’t take wrong, there were zero windows in there and no other point of entry besides the door she had walked through. 

Just as you expected, JJ came back out no longer than five minutes later. Once she got closer to you, you turned slowly on your heel and started back up the stairs. “We can start upstairs and then meet the rest of your team on the main level?” You offered.

“Lead the way.” 

“There’s um, two ways to get upstairs. There’s that main staircase you saw in the foyer and also there’s a ‘servants stair’ in the back,” you said, making air quotes with your fingers at the ‘servants stair’ part, “I have people that work in the house sometimes, but it’s not an actual designated staircase for anyone.” You explained, unsure of why you were feeling so anxious. 

“Why don’t we go up using the second set of stairs? Since I’ve already seen the main set.” JJ said. 

You nodded dumbly again, and walked in the direction of the back stairs. Once upstairs, you gave the same room spiel to JJ about six times. This is ‘x’ room, yep those windows can open, nope no one regularly comes into this room, yes the balcony doors do lock from the inside. 

Just as you thought earlier, the little tour took just a couple minutes under an hour. You and JJ were standing in your kitchen, both of you leaning against opposite countertops. According to JJ the whole team had agreed to meet up in your kitchen once they were done with their scans, so it seemed that you two were the first to finish. Also expected. 

You were lucky you hadn’t run into Aaron the entire time. At times you could vaguely hear his voice coming from another room and all that did was pull on your heartstrings and remind you of when the two of you were together. Aside from the sadness factor, you still weren’t sure you could trust yourself to not yell at him as soon as you saw him again. 

“That’s funny.” JJ said amusedly-more to herself than to you-, pulling you out of your thoughts. 

“What is?” You asked. She had moved from her spot by the countertops, to standing in front of your liquor wall, staring up at a bottle you couldn’t quite recognize from your position. 

“Oh, just Agent Hotchner? Out there,” she said, gesturing broadly out to where the rest of the team might be, “he loves this brand of scotch. We joke sometimes that he’d pick it over us if he was given the choice. But apparently it’s super difficult to get. He started getting lucky a few years ago and found a way to buy it, but recently I guess that luck ran out and he hasn’t been able to find it anymore.” 

Your eyes went wide at that. Yes. That scotch was super difficult to get and it was ridiculously expensive. And yes, Aaron loved the stuff. The two of you used to constantly argue over money. He hated that you were always the one paying for everything and had created a ‘rule’ that you weren’t allowed to buy him any gifts. Of course, you managed to find a way around that rule and found that this specific scotch was his gift achilles heel. So, you used to send him a steady supply while also keeping a bottle at your place for the rare occasions he was over. 

“Oh?” You squeaked. 

“Yeah, it’s super rare or something. They only make so many batches a year don’t they?” JJ asked, turning back to look at you. 

You quickly pulled your emotions in when she turned towards you, just giving her your third dumb nod of the day. “Yep, super hard to get. Super super hard. I uh, got as a gift once, I don’t even like the stuff.” 

“You should tell Hotch. I bet he’d pay pretty well for it.” She said with a laugh, shaking her head. Definitely will not be doing that. 

----

Upstairs, Rossi and Hotch were looking through your upstairs office. While your downstairs office was more work based- you stored scripts and had meetings down there, etc.-, your upstairs office was used for your more ‘personal’ work tasks. 

“If the unsub is taking her clothes, we might have better success scoping out her closet. See the potential entry and exit points from her room that the unsub must be taking.” Rossi proposed. 

Hotch nodded at that, putting down the stack of fan mail he’d been flipping through, trying to find any repeats or ‘creepy’ letters. He made a mental note to have Reid come and read through the piles of other mail you had neatly stacked around the room.

Your attention to fanmail had been one of the things that had quickened the process of him falling in love with you. He had had his doubts in the beginning of you relationship- he had stereotyped you for sure-, your age and status giving him somewhat valid concerns that you’d be insanely disconnected from the normal world. You’d proved him wrong in many ways since the beginning, but one of those ways had been the many days you’d call him from this room, reading through every single letter you were sent and always making sure to send a small note back. 

“Good idea, let’s go.” Hotch said. He walked out of office and didn’t think twice, his body automatically walking towards the room a few doors down from your bedroom. You didn’t keep your closet in your bedroom, you had actually put a little couch and sitting room in your bedroom closet space. Instead you’d taken an entire guest room and converted it into a full dressing room/closet that was a better fit for your needs. 

As Hotch went straight into the room, he missed the narrow look Rossi was giving him from the doorframe. It only took a couple minutes, but eventually Hotch looked up, cocking an eyebrow at Rossi. “Are you going to come in?” He questioned. 

“You knew her closet wasn’t in her room.” Rossi noted, amusement clear in his voice. 

Hotch’s face paled, before he steeled his emotions back over. “I saw the clothes while walking past earlier and made the deduction.” 

“She’s pretty, isn’t she Aaron?” Rossi teased, clearly finding a lot of enjoyment in this conversation. 

“Dave,” Hotch groaned, running a hand over his face, “just, not now okay?” He asked, the desperation clear in his voice. 

Rossi certainly didn’t have the entire story figured out, but he wasn’t dumb either, he could piece things together. As much as he’d love to keep busting Hotch over this, there was something about how gentle he had been with you in the conference room and his current clear discomfort that persuaded Rossi otherwise. Rossi grinned at Hotch and raised his hands in mock surrender. 

“So, we know the unsub doesn’t have to necessarily be quiet, her room is at least what, 3-”

“Four and across the hall.” Hotch huffed out, not looking up to meet Rossi’s eyes.

“Four and across the hall away. So he doesn’t need to sneak past her if he’s coming in at night...” 

----

Back in the kitchen, you turned your head at the sound of the back patio doors opening, showing Morgan and Spencer. Guess they’d be the second pair done with their house tour. 

Just as you were about to open your mouth and offer the two of them something to drink, you noticed the rather grim expressions on both their faces. Upon better inspection, you saw Spencer was tightly gripping on to a dirty journal. 

“What’s that?” You asked curiously, trying to get a better look at it. 

“I found this uh, journal out by the edge of your property line. I think it may belong to the unsub.” Reid responded, giving you a tight lipped look. 

It was terribly cliche, but you couldn’t help but gasp at that. Your eyes going wide and your mouth hanging open. 

“I flipped through it, there’s nothing that clearly identifies him, but it seems like he was keeping track of your comings and goings. As well as keeping a list of the things he took from your house, we can cross check that list with-” 

“Can I look at it?” You interjected, a morbid curiosity consuming your mind. 

Reid gave an unsure glance at the two other agents in the room. “I think it’d be better for the rest of the team and I to look through the journal first, and make sure there’s nothing uh...upsetting in it.” 

----

With the new revelations that the unsub had managed to break into your home multiple times, the team decided it would be best for at least one of them to be with you at the house at all times; during the day they would assign a plainclothes officer to discreetly sit watch. It was comical, the way they decided on the watch and then promptly assigned Aaron the first shift of the night. 

You wondered why he agreed to it, knowing he could’ve easily pulled a seniority boss card and taken himself out of any and all future watch shifts as well. He probably didn’t want you to get closer with any of his agents, should you accidentally say something a bit too personal. He also probably assumed that with the late hour of the night, you’d immediately be going to bed or at least locking yourself away in your room for the rest of the night. 

The team had stayed hours after their first walkthroughs of the house, the new list and notes from the unsub giving you all a better idea of what to look for. You had gone through the list of clothes and jewelry in front of the team, giving them a base description of what you assumed the unsub had meant, whether or not you had considered it missing and where you thought you’d last seen it in the house.

Unfortunately, whatever Aaron had been banking on wouldn’t be happening. You hadn’t been able to shake the sinking feeling that your house was no longer a home anymore. It was painfully cheesy, but you knew that trying to sleep would be futile. Nor did you really feel like being ‘alone’ in your room. That didn’t mean you were going to strike up a conversation with Aaron or ask him to play a board game or something, but you wouldn’t be shutting away from the rest of the night. 

After the team left, you had gone upstairs and changed into a more comfortable outfit for the evening; just your trusty sleep shorts and an oversized t-shirt. You were now walking back down the stairs and towards your kitchen; you grasped a lighter and your emergency cigarette pack in one hand. As you made your way into the kitchen, you could feel Aarons eyes on you from wherever he was seated in the living room. You pointedly ignored him, instead setting the pack and lighter down, freeing your hands so you could mix yourself your favorite drink. 

Once your drink was prepped, you balanced all your things in your hands and made your way back through the living room and out the grand French doors that lead to your backyard. You walked over to one of your lounge chairs that overlooked the pool and had a beautiful view of the sky and bright lights of the city. You turned on one of your favorite playlists and made yourself comfy in the chair, lighting up one of the cigarettes. 

With the first inhale, you felt your body relax. It was a horrible habit- you knew that-, but if there was ever a time to stress smoke, you reasoned it was probably now. Over the sound of your music, you faintly heard one of the doors open again, but you didn’t bother turning around. 

“I thought you quit.” Aaron said, quite literally coming out of the shadows. Even though you didn’t turn to look at him, you could perfectly imagine him in your mind; probably leaning up against one of the legs of the cabana, arms tightly crossed and a deep scowl on his face. 

“I did.” You replied plainly, blowing a steady stream of smoke out of your mouth. Using your free hand you picked your glass back off the chair side table, twirling it slowly. As you took a long sip, you could hear Aaron walk closer, not quite coming into view yet. 

“Drinking and abusing substances in response to a traumatic situation is widely frowned upon. 

“Thank you Surgeon General,” you said, rolling your eyes before adding, “no offense Agent, but right now, I don’t really think it matters.” You didn’t even bother attempting to argue that you were on your first drink and first smoke. 

“It matters, when my team will be counting on you tomorrow. The expectation is that you’ll be a useful and legitimate resource.” Aaron said, voice tight. 

“Do you really think I’m dumb enough to actually believe, that you believe that a single drink is going to render me useless?” You asked, finally turning your head so you could give him a pointed look. When he didn’t answer you rolled your eyes again, turning back away from him. “It doesn’t matter, Agent, I’m unavailable to be a resource tomorrow.” 

“What do you mean, unavailable?” Aaron asked. He finally walked into view, sitting down on the chair next to you. He positioned his legs over the edge facing you, resting his elbows off his knees. 

“What do you mean unavailable?” You said mockingly- the alcohol in your system and stress of the day emboldening your behavior. You paused for a moment to take another drag from your cigarette; Aaron didn’t miss the way you turned your head further from him during your exhale. “You have your job Agent, I have mine.” 

“There is a dangerous free man out there with a special interest in you. He’s not only managed to break into your house but is also murdering surrogate women in place of you,” he said, voice growing louder as he went, “and you think you should go to a film set? How immature and irresponsible are-” 

“Stop doing that!” You cut him off, snapping your head to face him. For a brief moment, you were taken aback by how close he’d been sitting. “Stop painting me to be some dumb self centered girl. This is the fourth time today.” You said, staring him hard in the face, neither of your breaking eye contact. He always looked so good with a beard- stop that. 

“I’m trying to do my job and protect you,” he paused, eyes scanning your face, “I couldn’t handle anything happening to you.” In that moment, his voice was so painfully honest and it almost made you want to agree to do whatever dumb rules he had for you. 

Almost.

Instead, you swung your legs to the side of the chair opposite to him, standing up in a quick blur of motion. “Stop doing that too!” You exclaimed, running your free hand over your face. You took a long drag from your cigarette, placing one hand on your hip. Aaron was giving you a genuinely confused look and you just wanted to wipe it off in one big swipe. “Stop doing some weird little bait and switch between acting like I’m a diva and then trying to end it with some vaguely little sweet comment.” 

“You actually think I don’t care about your safety?” Aaron asked, the faintest bit of hurt in his voice. He stood up as well before continuing. “You think this isn’t a difficult case for me?” 

“You do not get to do that!” You said angrily, pointing a free finger out at him. “You are not allowed to try and make yourself a victim in this story while you simultaneously make me part of the problem. How the hell can you see yourself as even remotely ‘good’ when you left the way you did?” There it was. Maybe it was immature, dragging the breakup into the argument, but the days’ tension- not to mention the months of bottled up emotions- was finally snapping inside of you. 

“If you’re upset over how I ended our relationship, that is completely separate from the dealings of the case and I expect you to be able to conduct yourself appropriately.” Aaron said and you thought that this must be what ‘seeing red’ meant. 

“Do you treat all your witnesses like this?” You were full on yelling now, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. “Is this your version of appropriate conduct, Agent Hotchner? You’ve proven to be nothing but incompetent! You can’t even see two inches past your own fucking face to consider this from my perspective!” 

Your words had their intended effect. Aaron’s face fell for the briefs of moments before years of bottling his own emotions took back over. You had to give him some credit for keeping it, outwardly, more together than you were. “I won't fight with you over something as trivial as this. You’ll report to the station in the morning with the rest of the team.” He ordered, voice dangerously low. 

“I have to work!” You exclaimed, putting heavy emphasis on each word. 

“Going to work isn’t safe. Do you understand that? Your stalker is well acquainted with your schedule, you need to step away from what’s expected of you. It’s dangerous-”

“Oh my god,” you groaned, shaking your head, “are you even listening to yourself? Your job is dangerous every single day, hell you didn’t even step away when the job was dangerous specifically to you! How am I supposed to take advice you can’t even follow?” At the end of your sentence, you angrily stubbed out your cigarette in the ashtray, leaving the butt in the tray. 

“This isn’t about me.” Aaron snapped, voice loudest it’d been all night. “I’m trying to keep you safe. What part of that don’t you understand?” He asked, giving you a tough look. You found yourself at a loss for words and he took your silence as an opening to continue. “I can’t stand to see you get hurt.”

“Are you finally understanding how exhausting it was to love you!” You blurted out, the words catching even you by surprise. You forcibly blinked back the tears forming your eyes. “That this, is how I felt each time you were called away on a case?” 

Aaron was equally as shocked, his mouth opening in vain a few times as he searched for the proper response. “I made sure you were properly aware of the risks and demands of my job before we started our relationship.” Bad answer.

“And I never complained,” you replied, a defeated tone creeping into your voice, “not once, did I?”

“If you’re going to accuse me of hypocrisy, you should recognize it in yourself. You were equally if not more in demand than I was.” 

“I thought you liked that I was so ‘in demand’!” You said, the frustration growing again. “What was it you always said? You liked not having to worry about me alone at home, waiting up for you.” 

“You’re coming to the station tomorrow Y/N. Final order.” Aaron repeated, completely ignoring your last statement. 

“You know what,” you said, the fight in your voice gone, “I don’t have to put up with this and your lame attempts at trying to be a good guy. I’m not having this conversation anymore.” You quickly leaned over to swipe your cigarette pack and glass of the little table. 

“Are you actually going to run away from this?” He asked, almost as if he was trying to bait you back into the argument.

You scoffed loudly, staring him dead in the eyes. “You did.” 

You angrily walked around him, nearly stomping the entire way to the door. As you were halfway into the house you paused for a moment, not even slightly turning your head back towards him. “Blankets are still in the same spot in the living room.” You said, slamming the door behind you as soon the sentence left your lips. 

-----

The next morning, promptly at 8am, an email from your agent was sent to Aaron. It was incredibly petty and inherently personal, but to an outsider it was nothing out of the ordinary for someone of your status. Aaron was near furious, as expected, but even in his stubbornness he could see you had the high ground. Long story short, the email plainly stated vaguely threatened that if your work schedule were to become an issue for the team, you could easily send a ‘spokesperson’ from your team to deal with any and all future communications. Y/N 2, Aaron Hotchner 0.

Back at your house, you were having a lovely morning. The victory tasted sweet in your mouth as you got yourself ready for the long day. Sometime around 4:00AM Reid had switched out with Aaron and the two of you were currently in your kitchen; Reid sitting at one of your countertop stools while you stood over the stove. After being angrily informed by Aaron that you wouldn’t be required to come into the station with Reid, you decided to make a simple breakfast for the two of you. Reid had wanted to leave sooner, but he was also under orders to not leave you alone until you were safely in your own car and on your way.

You weren’t sure how he felt, but you thought you and Reid got along quite well. He was the closest in age to you and even though he didn’t really seem to understand any of the little jokes or references you made, there was still some level of mutual understanding there. It didn’t hurt that he was quite easy on the eyes as well, of course he wasn’t Aaron by any means- stop that! 

Over breakfast, you spent the entire time answering Reid’s many questions about various actors and actresses he was a fan of. Lucky boy, you thought; as all the people he mentioned were quite nice even when the camera was off. What was it that people said about never meeting your hero? 

He graciously offered to do all the clean up, as you had cooked, which gave you a bit of extra time to make sure you were ready to go. When you both were ready and Reid had confirmed the plainclothes officer was positioned on your street, he helped you to your car. 

With one hand on the top of your car, just as you were about to sit down, you stopped and turned to Reid. “I enjoyed breakfast, would you please tell Agent Hotchner how sorry I am that my schedule’s gotten in the way?” You asked, giving him your sweetest smile. It was another petty move and Aaron was sure to see right through it; the team had amazing skills at reading people, you knew that, but you were an equally talented actress. “I’ll make sure to let you guys know when I’ll be back at home tonight.” You added, before sliding into your car. Reid closed the door gently behind you, waving from the outside of your garage as you pulled out and drove off. 

-----

Case wise, the next two days were quiet. You had won the ‘going to work battle’ by a longshot and happily went about your scheduled days. Aaron hadn’t taken another watch shift since the argument, something you were grateful for. It wasn’t until the fourth day, that the case started to pick up again.

“Agent Hotchner?” A young officer stepped into the conference room, holding out a thick manila envelope. “This was just dropped off at the front desk, addressed to you.” That certainly captured the entire team’s attention; every head turning, as if off on a swivel, to face the officer. 

“Who dropped it off?” Hotch demanded. ‘Who dropped it off?” He repeated, an added aggression in his voice. 

“Some kid! Some kid dropped it at the front and left before anyone could get a word out!” The officer said hurriedly, raising one of his hands up in a meek surrender. 

Hotch stepped up to the officer, easily snatching the envelope out of his hands. “Assure that my technical analyst has access to your entire security feed. Now.” He ordered, not giving the officer as a second glance. “Morgan, call Garcia and make sure she accesses those tapes and identifies the kid immediately.” 

Hotch went back to standing in front of the long table in the middle of the room, setting the envelope down in front of him. “Gloves, I need-” A pair were placed in his outstretched hand by Reid before he could finish. “I don’t want anyone touching anything that comes out of here without gloves, understood?” He said, not looking at anyone in particular. His focus, completely drawn to the angry penmanship that spelled out his name. After quickly pulling his gloves all the way on, Hotch grabbed the envelope again, internally shoving down his emotions before ripping off the top edge in one clean pull. Nothing could have prepared him for the way the envelope was overflowing with hundreds of photos of you. He tilted the envelope and they all came falling out, covering the table in front of him. Reid mentally estimated there were over five hundred photos of you- some seemed to be cut, some looked to have writing and designs on them- and there were even a few slips of paper thrown in the mix. 

“Hotch, Garcia managed to grab the plate from what the kid drove off in. She's running it-” Morgan said, his sentence running off as he took in the table full of photos. “Holy shit.” He said quietly, making his way closer to the table as well. 

Hotch reached down, picking up the closest photo to him. There you were, standing on a boardwalk with your hand blocking the sun from your eyes. You looked beautiful- stop that. As Hotch further studied the photo, he picked up a second one, taking another good look. It struck Hotch and the team then, the majority of the photos were grossly intimate; as if the unsub had taken them by himself. Hotch’s stomach twisted when his eyes fell on a photo that looked like you were posing for it, throwing a big smile and peace sign up at the camera. 

“Did Garcia get any hits on any scorned lovers?” Emily asked, holding up a photo of you and a man. The face and body of the man had been aggressively scratched over and cut up, but Aaron had a sinking feeling it was of him. 

“Yea, I got another potential ex photo right here.” Reid said, holding up another picture. In this one you had clearly been looking up at someone, but the photo had been crudely cut up to exclude whoever it was. 

Morgan held up one of the slips of papers, giving it a confused look. “You lost Aaron?” He said, reading off the paper. “What’s the reasoning for singling out Hotch rather than someone closer to her age like Reid” He questioned, not expecting anyone to answer. 

“I got one of Hotch’s face scribbled over. He must’ve gotten the photo online.” Emily added, holding up a professional headshot of Hotch. “Is anyone seeing photos of the rest of us? The unsub could see all of us as interfering with his connection to Y/N.” 

Hotch’s stomach was twisted in all different directions. He knew the moment of truth was coming and was internally cursing himself for not coming clean sooner. But that paled in comparison to the sickness he felt over the unsub clearly being someone who had such personal access to you. He was certain that some of these photos dates back years. The idea that whoever was doing this had been so close to you, for so long, could’ve brought him to his knees. 

“Hotch…” JJ said, her voice accusatory. She looked up at him, face a mix of confusion and a hint of betrayal. She held up another photo and the entire team went quiet. This photo was clearly taken at a distance, but there you were looking lovingly up at a man who was certainly Hotch. 

Hotch had one hand clenched tightly on the edge of the table, taking a deep breath before he looked up at his agents staring expectantly at him.  

“I haven’t been completely honest with you all,” Hotch started, running his free hand over his face, “I met Y/N five years ago and we were together for three, until I ended things.” He was sure someone had audibly gasped at that. “I know you all may have various concerns over my proximity to the case and are valid in any anger you may feel towards me. But right now, I need to go call Y/N and make sure she’s safe.” 

Hotch didn’t give anyone a chance to reply, instead whipping out his phone and near running out the door. Leaving a team of confused and shocked agents in his wake.

-----

a/n - of course, thank you all for reading. it means the world to me! also just the quickest of shoutouts to @kylorendrip and @ssahoodrathotchner who both constantly put up with my writing complaints and all the random ideas i bounce around their dms on the daily. 

taglist - @mac99martin @iwaizumiee @kylorendrip @hqtchner @lieswithoutfairytales @ssahoodrathotchner @midsummernightdream @weasleylovers @evans-dejong @itsmytimetoodream @yoshigguk @28cnn @cuddlyklaus @hotch-meeeeeuppppp @yallgotkik @sunflowersandotherthings @alexrodriguez1269

no permission is given to copy or republish my writing on any other platform or account. if you see this story outside of my blog or my ao3 it is stolen work. i do not own nor claim to own criminal minds or any of the character involved in it.

[viia01]

A random thing I wrote that has no ending

Bruce hid a sigh as he listened to the third speaker of the night tell another terrible joke. He laughed with everyone else, too tired to do more. Ordinarily, he would lean into the opportunity to act the part of Brucie Wayne.

But he really wasn’t in the mood tonight.

The last mission with the Justice League had run overtime and Bruce was running on two hours of sleep. Ordinarily, lack of sleep wouldn’t slow Bruce down any, but for some reason he just wasn’t in the mood tonight.

Briefly, he wondered why he hadn’t allowed Alfred to make his excuses.

The presenter came back onto the stage, not so subtly wrestling the microphone away from the rambling, somewhat drunk speaker from Luthor’s company.

Bruce tuned out the speech about Wayne Enterprises’ contributions to the development of new jet propulsion technology. He had had very little to do with the development, only funded it, so most of the technical talk was going straight over his head.

“You look like you’re having fun.”

Bruce glanced to his right and saw that Hal Jordan had sat himself down in the chair behind Bruce. “Go away. We’re not supposed to know each other. People will talk.”

“Please, they’re too busy making eyes at the pretty boy you got up there singing Wayne Enterprises praises,” Hal scoffed. He was dressed in a well fitted tuxedo, though he had swapped the black jacket out for a forest green jacket decorated with elaborate rose designs.

There was a thump against the back of Bruce’s chair, and he looked down in confusion and saw that Hal had tipped his chair back on two legs, the back of it now resting against the back of Bruce’s. “Really? Are you five?”

Hal grinned at him lazily and leaned his head on Bruce’s shoulder. “No, but we’re both bored so I thought I’d entertain myself.”

“You were invited because of Ferris Air’s work with Wayne Enterprises, not to entertain yourself,” Bruce said, putting on a smile when he saw a few people looking over at him. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for Brucie Wayne to be distracted by a pretty face at an event, but Bruce didn’t have the energy or patience to put on the act tonight. “Go back to your table and Ms. Ferris.”

“See normally, I’d just put up with the crappy puns and eat all the food, but the food sucks. So now I’m not just bored, but also hungry,” Hal said, ignoring Bruce, head still resting on Bruce’s shoulder. “Is that your doing? Because if you paid them for this catering… you should get your money back.”

Bruce sighed again. “Hal…” he warned.

“Watery champagne and tiny canapes, Bruce!” Hal said teasingly, tilting his head to look at Bruce. There was a mischievous glint to his eyes.

Bruce looked at him, putting on another smile. Most people were still listening to the presenter talk about the new jet propulsions, but there were bound to be a few people watching them. “Go. Back. To. Your seat.”

Hal blinked at him a few times. “I really don’t want to. There’s an old couple there that keeps asking me if I want to ‘join them afterwards for drinks’,” he said with a grimace. “Somehow I don’t think they want drinks.”

Bruce was tired. And sore. And the last thing he wanted right now was to listen to Hal Jordan’s whining.

“And I’m getting the vibe that the rich-guys-masturbating-over-their-own-money scene isn’t exactly your speed either,” Hal continued blithely, still ignoring Bruce’s irritation. “What do you say we go and find somewhere that’s serving actual food?”

“I have responsibilities,” Bruce said immediately, clapping politely when the presenter introduced General Thomasson as the next speaker.

Hal tipped his head back further to look at the stage. “Oh shit, the big wigs are here,” he said dryly. “What do you say, Spooks? Wanna go find a burger joint?”

“No, now go back to your seat.”

Hal sighed dramatically. “You’re boring,” he said, letting his chair fall back onto all its feet with a muffled thump. He rose, the dim light playing over his face in a way that made his eyes look more amber than brown. “Guess it’s back to eating stale canapes.”

Bruce sighed as Hal walked away, ambling back to his table. In his ridiculous suit jacket, Hal looked very much the epitome of flashy West Coast flyboy and Bruce wasn’t the only one watching him.

Bruce shook thoughts of Hal Jordan away, focusing on the stage again.

------------

Bruce ran through the notes he needed to hit in his speech. It was a fairly standard speech, talk about the minds behind the advances, explain the advancements as the video played, make a few jokes, and then close out by thanking everyone for coming.

For all of Bruce’s practice at playing the gregarious, fun loving Brucie Wayne, he actually didn’t enjoy it very much. It was exhausting, wearing the mask all the time and he was tired.

And hungry.

Hal had been right about the stale canapes.

“You did some really good work, Wayne,” General Thomasson said gruffly, clapping Bruce on the shoulder. “These planes will give us the edge over our enemies.”

“Anything for our troops,” Bruce said, mustering up a smile. “Can’t have them going without the best.”

The General chuckled. “And it’s only going to set the taxpayer back a couple billion, right?”

“Got to keep those stocks high,” Bruce countered jokingly. In reality, he and Lucius were already planning to wean Wayne Enterprises off the military contracts that sustained the R&D department and supplement it with investment into green energies and space exploration.

But the General didn’t need to know that just yet.

“Well, I need to go and prepare for this speech of mine,” Bruce said, even though he really didn’t. “Lots of technical speak tonight and I have to make sure I pronounce everything right.”

The General gave him a patronizing smile and wave. “Off you go, Wayne. We’ll talk business some other night.”

Bruce ducked behind a set of piled speakers and sound equipment. He pulled out his phone, to give himself a convenient cover of taking a phone call.

He took a moment to compose himself. All the small talk had taken a toll on his patience and his eyes stung with exhaustion. He knew he needed sleep and a good meal, considering how fuzzy and slow he was feeling. And the thought of going up onto that stage and enduring hours more so small talk and smiles-

“You make a big sale with the military brass?”

Bruce didn’t jump but he was surprised that he hadn’t noticed Hal’s appearance behind him. “What are you doing back here?” he asked.

Hal was holding a tray of canapes and his bowtie was untied and hanging around his neck. “Hiding from the creepy couple,” he said, offering the tray to Bruce. “You want one?”

“No. Go back to your seat,” Bruce said in exasperation. “How did you even get back here in the first place?”

Hal crunched on another canape and pulled a face. “My good looks and charm. Sure you don’t want a stale canape? It tastes like cardboard.”

“I don’t want a canape.”

Hal shrugged lazily. “So why are we hiding behind a bunch of sound equipment?” he asked through a mouthful of canape, looking at one of the speakers curiously.

“I’m not hiding, and you’re not supposed to be here.”

“I’m not supposed to be a lot of things,” Hal countered immediately. “And you’re totally hiding.”

“I am not hiding,” Bruce snapped, irritated by Hal’s very presence. He had hoped that tonight, Hal would just spend his time as far away from Bruce as possible, especially since they had had a blow out the mission before. “Go away.”

Instead of listening, Hal just arched an eyebrow at him, munching on his cardboard canapes. “You don’t want to go on that stage, huh?” he guessed.

Bruce waited for an insult or a joke at his expense.

But Hal just looked around the speakers, in the direction of the stage. “Well, I can’t say I blame you. We’ve had like ten different speakers and I remember nothing of what was said or who said it.”

“Maybe you should pay more attention, then,” Bruce replied. “And I enjoy honoring the men and women who worked hard on this latest breakthrough.”

“None of them are even here,” Hal pointed out blandly, shoving the canape tray behind one of the pieces of sound equipment. “You probably already gave them a billion dollars anyway.”

“If I gave everyone a billion dollars, I wouldn’t be a billionaire for very long,” Bruce couldn’t help but say in exasperation. He really wondered if Hal ever thought before he spoke or if he just made it up as he talked.

Hal swiped a tongue over his teeth, giving Bruce a funny look.

On stage, Bruce could hear the presenters winding up to his introduction. He steeled himself with a sigh, pulling Brucie Wayne back over himself.

Hal tilted his head and then smiled, cocky and self-assured. “I wasn’t kidding about that burger, by the way,” he said.

“What?” Bruce asked.

Hal held out a hand, palm up. “You wanna blow this popsicle shop, Spooks?” he asked, eyes glinting mischievously.

“Popsicle stand,” Bruce corrected, irritated.

“Whatever, Bruce Wayne,” Hal said, rolling his eyes.

There was a beat and Bruce could hear the presenters bantering with each other. It was nearly time for them to introduce him.

Bruce had responsibilities.

He had to give this speech and thank the team for their hard work. It was their accomplishment and the least Bruce could do was show up to thank them publicly.

He couldn’t just leave and galivant around like Hal seemed to think he could.

Hal arched an eyebrow at Bruce questioningly, hand still out. His eyes were alight with amusement, the same cocky self-assuredness that got on Bruce’s nerves.

Only now it seemed less annoying.

“Offer’s expiring,” Hal sang, eyes darting to the stage and back.

Bruce took his hand.

[servingy-nneeds]

PROMPT #1: BNHA HOW WOULD THEY REACT WITH A BIG BREASTED S/O:

Midoriya:

I imagine when you first two met this precious cinnamon roll wouldn't even notice you have larger than average sized breast until someone points it out to him

Bless his soul I mean he would instantly fall in love with your smile and honest to goodness personality

When you two began going out others are quick to tease him saying he likes you for your certain asset

I mean don't get him wrong he likes that part of you he is a healthy teenage boy but more than that he likes you as whole person

When you do suffer from back pains due to your breast he is quick to offer some back rubs (ahhhhh ♥(✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ)ﾉ)

Imagine his hands all rough and warm from training all day pressing all those sweet sweet spots of yours

Please go easy on this soft boy like one time you couldn't control a moans and he straight up stood from his spot to ask for forgiveness all while stuttering with a beat red face, you bet he would pass our at any given moment

"I-I swear y/n I don't have that in mind honest to goodness I won't do anything to you. I mean I want to but only if you want it too. I meant not right now, but maybe in the future. Not that I already have a mental image of you in a wedding gown. I mean not in a creepy way, like in a I want to marry you someday if you'll have me kinda way and-?!"

"Wh-why are you looking at me that way y/n?!"

"Stop teasing me please!" ahh truly bless this kid's soul

BONUS✨: he has your three sizes written somewhere in his notebook, headcanon he has all your exact body measurements.

Bakugou:

Now this little fluff of anger would straight up point it to you

Like that time you first met. 'Crap crap if only I didn't hit that snooze button 10 times then I wouldn't be late 5 mins ago!' you said trying to reach your designated classroom. Now reaching said classroom while putting your hands on your knees trying to catch you breath

"Oy" 'Hmm? what a rude way of calling' you thought while turning around about to give the stranger a piece of your mind

"Your huge ass tits are in the way dumbass" “You fuc-”

That day there was widespread rumor of a girl who socked Bakugou so hard he had to spend the entire morning hanging around the Recovery girl’s office and that kids is how I met your mother

Anyway fast forward to now, he now shows up randomly in front of your classroom even random places where he issues some type of challenge, apparently he needs to bandage his ego, but you wouldn’t tell him that

His so called group of friends calls it being tamed by you. Eventually you got so sick of these challenges “If you like me this much we should just go out at this point” you said hoping to get off his back “Sure” he said nonchalantly. “Wait what did you just-?!

Going out with him comes with the price of aggressive compliment “That is one ugly shirt" "Bakugou I swear" "Luckily your tits does wonders to its aesthetics"

Like very aggressive "I seen you eyeing her for miles away fucking extra, I know she's a whole damn meal but she aint some prize so I suggest turn around and gouge your eyes out"

Bakugou always ALWAYS has a safety pin ready in case you have a ward robe malfunction , ex: button popping off, that gap between your button downs, zippers wouldn't cooperate

BONUS✨: to this day he won't confess it but he was the one who spread the rumor, thanks to his blabbering mouth friends just so that no one would go near you increasing his chance with you

Iida

Tried to tell you to close the buttons of your uniform jacket but you hit him with the "My boobs are to big for me to fully button my jacket"

Low key tried to hand out his extra jacket that he pulled from god knows where, you declined

Apologized for coming of rude "Apologies  Miss y/n might I suggest going to the tailors to alter your uniform so that you would feel more comfortable? The Autumn air tends to get colder around this time of the year"

Told off some random boys when they started to get a little too personal with their comments "Hey you know that y/n chick from class ( )? Man, you should have seen her boobs do you think their fake or real?" "Objectifying women or anyone for that matter, should not be normalized in anyway..."

When you two started to date. This boy needs to chill AF

Who said chivalry is dead cause this boy killed it. He would carry all your bag in hopes of relieving some of the burden on your back.

"Iida it's literally just a bag of toilet paper I think I can carry it"

Would straight up feel offended when you don't accept his offer for help

There was a time you caught him staring

BONUS✨: His favorite type of hugs are back hugs but he wouldn't tell you that just yet

Shouto

Is straight up blunt

"Y/n I can see your bra through the gap of your shirt. I prefer the red one, although black works just as well"

You almost sent him back to kingdom come

"Shouto I feel like these three guys have been following me everywhere" (message seen)

“Leave, unless you’re planning for a third degree burn” from ice or fire the three creeps didn’t want risk the chance of finding out

“I thought you were back at school having class?”

Freakin brought you red lace bra for your birthday

“Midoriya said the best birthday present are those that make me think of you. I think those are personal enough”

Would subtly cover you up whenever you have to readjust your bra (Ex. covering you with his back, jacket, bag)

Unlike Iida he straight up stares at them not in a are those soft or are those soft

BONUS✨: Low key daydreams about sleeping on your chest

[boop-le-snoot]

PARTY FAVOURS I CHAPTER 18

First time reader click here

TWs/Summary: We stan ✨women in science✨. Bruce uwu. Twitter social media AU nobody asked for. Stephen and Tony are dicks and I'm not talking about their anatomy. Setting up mood for Bruce smut, ngl. PTSD makes things spicy. I'm depressed so please be kind ✌🏻💀🙃

"I really do wonder how can you two fit those egos of yours in your pants," I kept my tone forcefully casual, cheerful even. "Why don't you just fuck already?"

I was met with stunned silence. Suddenly, the room seemed far too large and the people in much too quiet, staring at me with various expressions of horror obvious in their faces. As the strange friendship began developing between me and the team, my "outbursts" - how Steve liked to call them - lessened considerably. I had no need to provoke them into giving me attention, just striking up a casual chat was enough. The Avengers were great conversationalists, to my surprise.

Tony and Stephen, when paired, were the exception. I could count on one hand the amount of times they successfully came to a conclusion without fighting like cats and dogs. It was like each man had made it a personal mission to verbally top the other, more often than not resulting in a thirty-minute shitshow ending with one storming off in a dramatic flourish. It was mind-boggling how two supremely intelligent men could not find a way to communicate efficiently without infuriating the rest of the team.

Plus me. One way or another, I was almost always around. In the beginning, it was hilarious to see the free circus but it got old really quickly when they couldn't decide on dinner or a movie, leaving the rest of us starving and bored. Or the great Cloak debate - that one lasted days and the fussy thing was so upset, it point blank refused to part from Peter for a substantial amount of time. It's pretty fucking creepy that a semi-sentient, ancient piece of outerwear watches you when you sleep - just sayin'. I personally interjected with my own snark and sass whenever Tony and Stephen got too heated, successfully drawing the attention to myself. The fight broke up and I had amazing sex with Tony later, it was a win-win scenario.

Yet, Tony and Stephen didn't stop. To me, their way of "talking" (and I use that term loosely) looked a lot like unresolved sexual tension. Stephen frequently used his greater height to tower over Tony in a childish attempt to establish dominance; the engineer was no rookie and responded with extravagant peacocking such as "subtly" tapping the bracelet that hosted his nanotech suit or parading at dinner in a $30,000 custom made designer outfit. Because Tony could.

I was pleasantly surprised when Natasha started laughing at my remark. Full-blown, belly laugh. Those were rare, coming from the Widow, her usual mirth was quiet, sophisticated, just like her. Deadly (adorable). Bucky followed suit, snorting together with Clint and Loki.

Steve looked none too pleased with me. But then again, was he ever? "Doll, don't be rude."

"Brat," Bruce said at the same time, palming his face.

"People always call me a brat. And guess what, Steve?" I popped my hip, twirling a cotton candy pink coloured Dum-Dum between my fingers. "What can you do about it? Nothing," I shrugged, leaning my head against Bruce's shoulder affectionately.

Steve just shook his head in disappointment. "Can we get back on topic? Please?"

"Captain, I think that Stark..." Strange began talking with Tony dramatically groaning in the background and I instantly tuned out the useless babble. Steve should've been smarter and revoked speaking rights from Tony and Stephen. Or asked Loki to magically render them both mute for ten minutes.

"You're not wrong," Bruce quietly whispered next to my ear. "Ten bucks says Wanda meddles and those two finally work out their frustrations," The scientist hid a grin against my head. I felt the amused, giddy energy radiating off him like a plasma beam.

"I don't even have to bet," I rolled my eyes. "If she doesn't do it, I will."

Both Tony and Stephen were throwing me equally infuriated glances. One promised me a good, hard fucking and the other saw me a short, poisonous lecture on appropriate behaviour in the nearest future - you can guess which is which. If I had it my way, I'd skip the lecture and go straight to a hot, filthy threesome with two men twice my age. I wasn't blind, Strange was hot as hell and could be decent and even nice once in a blue moon.

He could, but he wouldn't be. I wanted that raw, unadulterated lust, tension so concentrated it walked the razor's edge between violent craving and repulsion. Ever since the incident with Clint, I had this ugly mess inside of me, like a live wire about to snap. My brain was constantly racing, darting between how utterly useless I am in a group of supers and embracing my normal-ness, amplifying it by hosting game nights and spending time trying to convince people to start a dungeons and dragons campaign. Or something.

My sleep was like Swiss cheese, riddled with holes where I stayed awake for one or two hours at a time in the middle of the night after waking up sweaty, with my heart hammering out of my chest. Sometimes I dreamt of Clint's lifeless, sickly white body, sometimes the whole room flooded with blood and I couldn't stop it no matter what, there was so much of it, I drowned in it, I startled up with the taste of it in my mouth. Rarely, the worst of it came - the one where Clint was alive as millions of millions of little fluorescent, poisonous jellyfish burst out of him and he screamed and screamed and screamed...

I had PTSD. Yay, me. As if my uselessness wasn't enough of a burden, my brain decided for me that it wasn't good enough that I saved Clint and now it was punishing me for being close to a group of people who routinely saved the WORLD.

I contemplated my usual habits - going to a party, getting trashed and dancing until my legs were numb. I just wanted to shut my brain off for a moment, give it a hard reset so-to-say, but with Tony on my back like a jet-pack, I didn't doubt he'd show up to the place and drag me out of there even if I was kicking and screaming. And he was a Stark, a billionaire, so visiting my dad in Cali wouldn't be possible on my own. Tony would gas up the jet and the rest of the team would find and excuse to tag along, too. As much as I loved being the baby menace who could get away with anything, I hated the way they all herded me, like I was an actual child. I couldn't get away from myself, not even for a moment.

I had the backup-backup plan and I was going to have to execute it. Desperate times, desperate measures. "I don't doubt y'all enjoy listening to Tony and Steph flirt," The nickname escaped unmoderated from my lips before I could catch myself. "But what are we doing for Halloween? I need to know if I gotta get a costume," Bruce chuckled next to me and wrapped an arm around me, happy for the distraction. Unlike me, the scientist was obligated to listen and participate in the avengers-themed discussion. Which was difficult because the engineer and the sorcerer constantly bickered, inadvertently taking over the talk.

"Halloween?" Steve groaned.

"We should do something," Bucky side-eyed his boyfriend. "For the children." Something told me he wasn't thinking of the children, at all. The man was positively leering, probably thinking about what kind of a tight suit he could convince Steve to squeeze into.

"A party!" Tony immediately exclaimed, interrupting Stephen mid-setence.

"Tony, no," Steve stated firmly.

"Tony, YES!" Clint perked up. "A snack bar. A bar-bar."

"I will not be helping you all if you get alcohol poisoning," Stephen crossed his arms.

"So it's a party," I stated firmly, throwing a contemplating look at Wanda and Pietro. The twins looked unsure but excited. I knew I could count on fellow young people to support my decision to have fun, dance a little, drink a little. Let loose. To nail my point, I turned to Bruce with a mischievous smirk. "Fifty bucks says Stephen is too stuck up to show up in costume."

"Beg pardon?!" The sorcerer exclaimed. His eyebrows threatened to meet his hairline.

"I think you give him too little credit, Princess," Bruce winked at me and we solemnly shook hands. It was great having a fellow partner in mischief. Loki's approving smirk just sealed the deal for me.

"It's not my fault you sometimes act like you have a stick up your butt," I gave in the way of explanation, shrugging my shoulders innocently in Stephen's direction. "I'm just pointing out the obvious."

"I don't dare to imagine what's been up yours," The sorcerer retorted dryly, in an uncharacteristically childish fashion, arms still crossed. It almost looked like he was pouting.

"Tony," I simply said, leering salaciously at the man.

"Ooh, kinky," Clint reached over and we promptly high-fived each other in the wake of multiple embarrassed groans emanating around the room. "Strange, you're a boring old man, get over it."

"And you regularly end up in dumpsters, Barton," Strange retorted quickly. "Not my idea of fun."

"You wouldn't know fun if it hit you in the face!" Tony grinned triumphantly, confident in his superiority over Strange. Look at that, the team was doing the work for me and I didn't even have to try.

"I'll show you fun," Stephen retorted darkly. It was obvious the man was planning something.

"Ok, boomer," I raised my eyebrows in muted satisfaction before turning around and grabbing Bruce to drag along with me. "I'm confiscating your best scientist to amuse myself. I am bored. We will go and do actual science whilst y'all argue. Bye."

My patience had run out. We were examining the parasites we found in the murder-anthropods-from-space, codename MAFS, courtesy of yours truly, and their amazing properties to penetrate cell membranes and feed on metals in organic life forms. Without Bruce's help I understood maybe half of it but he had the patience of a saint and dutifully and understandably explained to me the finer points of studying aliens. Signing half a dozen NDAs was never more worth it.

Steve's sigh consisted of 99% suffering and 2% disappointment. Natasha face-palmed silently in the corner, clutching a mug of coffee, a poster child for existential dread.

"Wait for me," Tony whined, going for the door and promptly being stopped by Steve pointing out the team needing his input on one mission or another. The engineer sighed. "Baby girl, don't let the green mean to start any experiments without me." Tony instructed, pointing an accusatory finger in our direction.

I clutched at Bruce dramatically, feigning hurt feelings and was rewarded with a swift motion of his arms. I shrieked delightfully at being thrown over the scientist's shoulder as he hastened his pace towards the elevator, hightailing it out of there. "I'd never snitch on science daddy," I wiggled my eyebrows in Tony's direction, sticking a hand down the back pocket of Bruce's pants, dangling over his shoulder like a happy sack of potatoes.

The lab smelled strongly of alcohol and bitter chemicals, the solution that Bruce developed to ensure the optimal state of the alien pathogens. The man's genius never ceased to amaze me: Bruce came up with the needed formula in the span of a few hours while running low on sleep, post a Hulk-out session.

We put on our protective gear - "science onesies" I called them - along with a respirator and goggles and set to the segregated part of the lab where the specimens were kept under a blue light. The glass wall between Bruce's and Tony's lab was dimmed; I reflected in it, looking positively futuristic in my double-stacked white platformed boots and white hazmat suit.

"Wait," I motioned to Bruce to come over.

"Oh, right, our music," He was already half-way to being in total Science Mode. "Friday, please put on the "Get Schwifty" playlist, 60% volume."

The playlist that me and Bruce came up with for our lab sessions. The man was such an adorable dork. Thirty percent my music, thirty percent of his indie rock shit and forty percent 00's bops. In other words, utter perfection.

I finally managed to fish out my phone from my pants. "No, let's take a selfie," I struck an impressive pose and pointed the camera as Avril Lavigne sung the first verse to Sk8r Boi.

Bruce laughed but abided by the request, giving me bunny ears in the photo, tapping the fingers of his other hand on my waist to the rhythm of the song.

"He was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy!" I sang along, switching my Instagram to stories and posting the short clip of us just vibing with the caption #sciencetime, Bruce laughing openly behind his respirator. I looked cute and silly in my outfit.

"Send the video to me, I'll post it on my Twitter," Bruce requested. I indulged him then put my phone away, ready to conquer the world of microbiology. Or die trying. Science was calling...

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