#I think I made everyone older too so he and Tails were both the same age I think? not 100% certain of that though

[reploidbuddy]

I don’t know if I'll ever get to write the rest of the story (big plan on my wall chilling there for a year+ if not two+ that I never managed to finish lmao) I thought I’d post the little I got for a first chapter of a Silver-centric Forces AU I had.

It's been sitting here for months it's almost sad, let's get it out here as a treat

***

A rough, cold, metal hand jolted Silver back awake.

“You’re starting to get on my nerves, boy.”

Silver glared down at the table, his loosely closed hands catching in the blurry edges of his vision. He put every inch of his concentration into keeping his psychokinesis inactive. If he showed even a spark of it, or a trace of a light under his painted hands, he’d never get out of here. If he would ever anyway.

They had kept him down on his chair awake repeating the same questions over and over for way too long, and his lack of sleep frankly made words take more energy than he was willing to put in.

And that static that had taken over his mind the second they had carried him into the Tower… this place was full of Phantom Ruby copies, wasn’t it?

Frankly, he couldn’t remember anything out of this room. He knew they had broken down his front door, he knew they had dragged him inside, he knew they had brought him in here… but how long it had taken or how anything beyond this room had looked like, he couldn’t recall. He’d forget why they brought him here if they kept him long enough.

“Don’t make me ask you another time.”

“I already told you,” he growled. “The Infinite showed up, and she vanished.”

Silver had never thought of it twice whenever his mother vanished. Some days, he’d wake up and she’d be nowhere in sight, or she’d go out mid-afternoon only for him to find her asleep in the morning. Never at the same time, never the same length, sometimes accompanied, sometimes waiting for another, sometimes alone. It only ever took one glance from the mink, one second of that soft look in her eyes, and Silver knew she’d soon be gone for a while.

But he had always known better than to ask where she went, and she had known better than to tell him.

He hadn’t thought of it any more when The Infinite had showed up, assuming she’d use the confusion to leave, as she had before…

Until it had been five full days of absence and his door got broken down as he prepared for bed.

The hard hand gripped his head quills, forcing his gaze up toward the harsh lamp and the red mask glaring him down.

“Where was she going?” hissed the rabbit, mask almost making him look covered in blood.

“No one knows where anyone goes when The Infinite comes…” grumbled Silver.

“It wasn’t about The Infinite and I think you know it.”

“Even if it was the case, I don’t know where she went.”

The rabbit slammed the hedgehog’s head down on the table. “Where was she going?”

Silver took a deep breath to keep his hands dull, faking to swallow with difficulty. “I don’t know.”

The rabbit’s voice grew again, making Silver’s fuzzy mind ache. “Where was she going?”

“I don’t know!”

The rabbit practically threw Silver’s head down, turning to his colleague in the corner, arms crossed. “Let’s get the bucket.”

In forty-eight hours, his answer hadn’t changed. As his front door was kicked open and three pairs of armored hands grabbed onto him to ask about her whereabouts, his answer had been clear.

I don’t know.

As they dragged him to the tower, flashed a light in his eyes, and asked of her whereabouts over and over, his answer had remained the same.

I don’t know.

And as they grabbed him by the quills, dragged him off of his chair and shoved his head down in a bucket filled with water over and over, he yelled the same three words.

I.

Don’t.

Know.

The cross-armed rabbit didn’t move from his spot as Silver was thrown down coughing. “This is useless, he doesn’t know.”

“Then what are we doing with him?”

A pause, and both rabbits brought their hands to their heads, fingers brushing the red mask.

The one standing above Silver let out a huff, and firmly grabbed Silver by the back of his chest fur, the sudden yank pulling a hiss out of him. He stomped out of the room, dragging Silver along in the darkness.

What had happened? How had these two even gotten their answer?

The static in his head grew too strong for him to wonder any further, closing his eyes at the dizziness taking over him and shutting out any other noise.

Eventually, two doors boomed open, and his face met the hard, dry ground. He sat up with a groan, looking back at the Tower’s closed doors.

He simply sat there for a while, staring at the still doors and wiping his nose, reddening his hand. He wanted to get up, but his legs had grown numb, and it was like he had forgotten how to move them.

The sky darkened, and several cold drops fell on his quills.

He should at least walk under the roofs.

He stumbled up, trailing his feet to the first street. He kept going, passing by the provider points, though his eyes remained glued to the ground. He walked and walked, wandered around the city for a while, letting the rain run over him until the silliness of the scene sank in. No one went out on walks when it rained, especially in this part of town; the roofs out here leaked on the outside; the parts that didn’t sit on top of the interior were never worth repairing.

…Wait. Why had he gone on a walk if it rained? Had the rain started midway? When did it start?

His mind felt light, as if he had suddenly rid himself of an annoying itch that had made him want to scratch his brain directly, an itch so bad that not feeling it made everything odd and empty.

He stopped as a speck of white appeared at the corner of a wall. He looked up, meeting with wide crimson eyes. Lithium.

“...Silver?”

He silently looked back at her, legs and jaw stuck in place, as if trying to collapse, yet unable to.

…Why was he under the rain again?

The white rat jogged the few steps separating them and brought him in a tight hug.

“We found your place ransacked, we thought they had gotten you!” Despite the surprise in her voice, she kept her words quiet, almost whispers. “Where were you? What happened to your face?”

Where he had been… where had he been? It seemed like he had walked in the rain for days if not forever. And what was wrong with his face…?

“I… can’t remember.”

Lithium pulled away, looking into his eyes for a moment. Her image blurred as his eyes unfocused on their own. He blinked it away. Wherever he had been, he hadn’t slept much.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” she said.

“My bed.” Or was it his? “And making myself dinner.”

Lithium frowned, that serious frown when her mind turned into a corkboard full of pictures and red threads. It must have been a while since that had happened, right?

“How long has it been since you found my place ransacked?” said Silver.

“Three days.” She patted his shoulder, slightly pulling. “Come on, let’s get you to my place, Pops will be relieved to see you.”

[blue-slxt]

Oldest Children Part 2

A/N: So I wrote Part 1 forever ago and a lot of people were asking for a part 2. I wasn't sure when/if I'd ever get around to it, but after Kinktober and Kinkmas and sooooo much smut, I wanted to try stretching my wings and try a little fluff just to mix it up. I'm admittedly not as confident in my fluff writing, but I think this turned out cute so I hope you like it too! All characters are aged up.

Pairing: Neteyam x Fem!Metkayina!Reader

Warnings: Fluffy fluff, Kissing

Word Count: 2.2k

Summary: Neteyam asks to meet you after eclipse.

Walking along the shore, you carefully observe each of the older Sully kids as they practice their breathing and ilu riding. Off to the side, Tuk is practicing her sign language with Rotxo.

They're all doing well, but you can't help but notice that Neteyam's posture is faltering. Tsireya and Ao'nung are both too caught up with Lo'ak and Kiri to notice so you decide to step in.

Your strides are long and confident, but nearly silent as you move behind him.

"Your posture is awful" you giggle in his ear making him crack a smile. You crouch down and place your hands on his back and shoulder applying gentle pressure to straighten him back out. Neteyam prays to Eywa that you don't notice the way his tail momentarily falters in its usually steady swaying. Lucky for him, you didn't seem to notice. Or, if you did, you didn't mention it.

He straightens his back, but he still looks awkward. You move around to his front and eye him a bit trying to decide on what was still off. His eyes look at you in waiting and it hits you. Your fingers hold his chin and lift his head. This time, you don't miss it when his face flushes and you freeze feeling your own face get warm. Your stares meet each other in a silent, tender moment that has you suddenly feeling like you can't catch your breath. It's only made worse when your eyes unintentionally flick to his lips and his tongue swipes over his bottom lip.

Off to the side somewhere, Ao'nung is rolling his eyes and Tsireya is stifling a giggle, but neither of you seems to be able to notice anything outside of each other in this moment.

At least, that is, until you hear Tuk's voice calling out from across the way where she was.

"Hey guys! Look at this pretty seashell I found!"

Her little feet stomp the sand beneath her as she races over with the shell in hand. "Be careful, Tuk!" Kiri says, but it's too late. You see the whole thing happen almost in slow motion.

Before she could see it or stop herself in time, her foot lands right on top of a sharp rock that was sticking out of the sand. There's a loud shriek followed by a thud from her falling over into the sand.

There's not a tangible thought in your mind as your body races towards her. You can hear everybody else shuffling to run in the same direction, but you're already in autopilot when you fall to your knees and cradle her in your arms.

Her tears fall steadily onto your arm and her small body trembles with her sobs.

"Shh shh shh, I know, Tuk. I know. Let me see." you try gently consoling her.

By now, everyone else has caught up and they're surrounding you trying to check up on her too. You grab her foot and examine it to see how bad the damage is. There's a small cut, but thankfully, it's nothing too deep.

"It doesn't look too bad. Here, let me clean the sand off and then I'll take you to my mom so she can patch you up? Okay?" you suggest to her and she can only nod her head still letting out little sniffles.

You carefully unhook the sack around your chest that stayed filled with water. Usually, you kept it with you to drink throughout the day, but this was more important right now. Using one hand to hold the skin while your other arm is still holding Tuk close, you pour the water over the small cut making her wince a bit. You gently shush her a bit while you make sure to get all the sand off her injured foot.

Once you're confident that it's all clean, you scoop Tuk up in your arms, "I'm going to take her to my mother so she can properly wrap her foot."

"I'll go with you. I want to make sure she's okay." Neteyam speaks up separating from the rest of the group and coming to join you.

You just give him a small nod as you turn to walk in the direction of the healing tent.

The walk to the healing tent is mostly silent aside from Tuk's tiny sobs and sniffles. Neteyam walks beside you while you cradle his baby sister in your arms and he mutters little words of encouragement to her. It's sweet watching him try to cheer her up.

Fortunately, when you reach the healing tent, it's not busy so your mother is able to attend to Tuk immediately. "You're going to be just fine, okay?" you say placing a comforting hand on top of Tuk's head. Neteyam watches from the wall while Ronal gets to work patching up her foot.

"I should be heading back." you say standing to your feet and walking past Neteyam and out of the pod.

"U-um..." he finally speaks up touching your shoulder to stop you before you got too far away. "Thank you. For looking out for her."

A sincere smile spreads on your face, "It's no problem." You turn to leave again, but again, before you can put too much distance between you, Neteyam takes a few long strides to catch you.

"Can I see you later?"

His question stops you dead in your tracks. You study his expression that almost looked shocked. Like he couldn't believe he just said that.

"Like after last meal?" his voice drops to a whisper feeling the embarrassment color his cheeks, but holding your gaze nonetheless.

"Okay" it comes out a little breathless, but you know he hears you loud and clear when a smile cracks his own face.

"See you later!" you call to him as you take off running back towards the beach. You duck behind a large tree on the shore and press your back to it heaving breaths while your heart threatens to crack right through your chest. There's heat behind your cheeks and your face is starting to hurt from the goofy grin that you couldn't get rid of.

You quietly take a minute to jump in place with glee before composing yourself again and heading back to the group that you'd left on the beach.

...

During last meal, you can barely bring yourself to pay much attention to whatever conversation your family is having. You can't even manage to properly eat your food with how distracted you are. Tsireya is the one that seems to notice first. As if your permanent cheeky grin weren't enough to give you away, she follows your eyeline one time when you and Neteyam catch each other's gaze across the crowd.

"You certainly seem to be in a good mood." she snickers at you.

"Should I not be?" you simply respond.

"You also seem distracted."

"I don't know what you mean." a lie.

"Hm" she hums. "So the Sully kids sure have been improving a lot lately. Especially Neteyam."

Your hands falter ever so slightly and anyone else who wasn't this close to you, would have missed it.

"I knew it!" Tsireya whisper shouts next to you.

"Shhh keep your voice down!" you whisper shout back to her.

A mischievous grin forms on her face laughing at your clearly startled expression.

"Fine! If you must know, he asked me to meet him after last meal." your excitement is barely containable at the prospect.

"How romantic~" she teases, poking at your side.

"Stop, I'm sure it's nothing like that."

"Oh, I'm sure" she says rolling her eyes. "That's why he hasn't stopped staring at you and smiling all meal?"

"Hush!" you lightly push her shoulder. From the corner of your eye, you can see Neteyam stand and excuse himself from his family's spot among the people. He gives you one last look before nodding his head in the direction of the beach and taking off. That's your cue.

You quickly excuse yourself from your family to which your mother gives you a suspicious glare and your sister gives a teasing giggle.

Walking down the shore of the beach it feels like your heart is racing just at the thought of being alone with Neteyam again. The last time the two of you were alone together on the beach, he got so close it made your stomach do flips. You're out of time to speculate on what could happen tonight once you spot his slender frame standing at the edge of the waves. One last breath to calm your nerves and you make the stride over to him.

"Fancy meeting you here, forest boy." you playfully quip at him.

Neteyam huffs out a laugh looking down at you and the gaze in his eyes immediately makes you want to fold in on yourself, but in a good way?

"I've been thinking about how to properly thank you for how you took care of my sister earlier."

"Neteyam, you don't have to--"

"I want to. I've been thinking about it and even though I miss the forest, so far, you have been the best thing about coming here." he turns to fully face you and it's almost as if time stops. Words can't seem to find you right now. His fingers graze the skin on your arm and trail all the way down to your hand where he grabs you firm, but gentle. "Can I show you something?" His eyes are full of hope and a small hint of fear that you'll deny him.

You could never.

"Of course."

The grin that spreads on his face is nothing short of disarming. You let him lead you down the shore and into the forest. He bobs and weaves through the foliage with such grace. No doubt he's fully in his element. Meanwhile, it's all you can do to keep your tail from smacking into every branch that you pass.

He leads you to a tree and before you have the chance to ask any questions, he leaps up to the closest branch with little to no effort leaving you a bit stunned. He looks down at you with an amused smirk and reaches his hand out to you. You were, admittedly, not a very strong climber so you accept his offer and he helps pull you up with ease.

You follow Neteyam up the tree higher and higher until you approach the highest branch.

"You ready for this?" he asks helping you reach your final stop. When you make it to the top and stand to your feet, the sight you're met with almost knocks you backwards.

You can see the entire beach stretched out under a seemingly never-ending sky full of stars. The reflection on the water makes it look like it's shining. And on the other side of you, a forest stretching for miles and miles full of green and bioluminescent flora glowing in the cover of eclipse.

"Wow..." you breath out almost silently. "I've never seen the water like this. It's beautiful..."

The sight is stunning. You can't tear your eyes away. But all Neteyam can look at is you.

"This is my second favorite sight here on the island." he says finally breaking you out of your trance. You turn to face him and his face is suddenly serious.

He offers his hand out to you and you take it somewhat hesitantly. Neteyam weaves his fingers with yours and pulls you closer ever so slightly.

It feels like he gets closer and closer and you can't bring yourself to move out of the way or push him away.

“Neteyam, we shouldn’t..." you say despite the fact that your eyes are trained on his lips that are still moving closer to yours.

He pauses only inches away from your face.

“Then tell me to stop…tell me you don’t want this. If you do, I’ll stop. I’ll leave you alone and I’ll resign myself to forever loving the version of us that could’ve been. But if you let me, I will be irrevocably and unapologetically in love with you past the day I die. You deserve the life you want. Let me give it to you…”

Your eyes finally find his and the sincerity you find in them is overwhelming. You can't help but flash back to that moment you shared on the beach.

“If there were such a man who wanted to give you that life, would you have him?”

Your body moves before your mind can think of words to say. You push up on the balls of your feet to let your lips meet his in a heated kiss. His large hands cup your face carefully and his tail wraps around your thigh holding onto you in every way that he can. Your hands rest against his chest and the beating of his heart is erratic and thunderous. Surely, yours feels the same way. His lips are warm and soft moving against yours. It's as if nothing else exists right now. That is until he gives a cheeky little nip to your bottom lip.

You finally pull away with a small giggle and a deep flush on your face.

"You know this is going to be tough to explain to my parents." you say raising an eyebrow at him.

"It'll be fine. Parents love me." he says proudly.

"Maybe, but you've never had to impress parents of a future olo'eykte"

"You worry too much, yawne. Let me handle it, okay?"

"Alright, if you say so, mighty warrior."

Taglist: @soleilmoon @netemoon @fifia-writes @strangersav11

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[asumofwords]

Smoke, Fire and Ash

Warnings: This fic includes noncon, dubcon, manipulation, violence, death, forced marriage, and inc3st. Tags will be added as the fic goes on.

This is a dark!fic. 18+ only. Read at your own discretion. Please read the warnings before continuing.

Summary: You are the eldest daughter of Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen. You are forced to navigate the difficult surroundings of your upbringing and the eventual disintegration between your family and the Hightower's relationship. What will happen when your older and estranged uncle suddenly takes a more sinister interest in you? (Dark!Aemond x Reader)

Masterlist

Characters: Aemond Targaryen X Reader, HOTD characters.

Note: Hello angels, here is another chapter! As always thank you all for the love you show me and all your kind words, I love reading all of your messages and comments/replies!! Everyone seems to love Gwayne Hightower lol !

Setting a boundary here: Please stop asking me when the next update is going to be when there has been a ONE DAY BREAK, its really rude and fucking annoying hehe (i'm at my breaking point with these dms).

ANYWAY... I wrote this chapter ages ago ahead of time and have been itching to get you all here... hehe... Enjoy <3

Chapter 64: A Bee 

You walked around the Keep aimlessly, looking at the different Lords and Ladies who shuffled aimlessly through the castle, thinking of who you could pursue. You thought of how Aegon and Aemond had both happily, and openly found pleasure with others. And how women like your mother were punished for doing the same. 

You had left your chambers with clarity in your mind. You would find someone else. If Aemond was to travel and love another, then you would too, only minus the travel.

They could be your ally in the Keep. You could spend your time talking to them and enjoying your days in each others company. You would not be so alone in the Keep. And above all of this, it could be advantageous.

When you left your chambers, you walked with no destination round the Keep. More specifically, the areas were Lords and Ladies would frequently pass. You had walked and observed, watched and deliberated on who would be a good match for you.

You thought of the names you already knew.

Perhaps the Lannister? But even the idea of taking him into your bed made your skin crawl, for all of Aemond’s cruelty, you knew that he would at least bring you pleasure, and doubted that the Lannister even knew how. 

You thought of Cregan Stark. Now he would be a good match. He was about your age, a few years older, maybe the same as Aemond. He was, from what you had been told, a handsome and respectful Lord. He was said to have the famed dark, curly hair of the Starks and eyes to match. But he was in the North, and thankfully allied to your mother, and you doubted that he would be able to sneak into the Keep unnoticed, nor you be able to send word to him by raven. 

It would have to be someone who came to the Red Keep frequently.

Or resided in Kings Landing at least.

You let yourself lean against a wall in a hallway, watching potential suitors walk past you. To your dismay, most of the Lords were old and balding, whilst the women refused to meet your gaze. You thought of Ser Criston Cole, but shrugged the thought away quickly with a shiver. He would not come to your bed willing and at the slightest hint of your plotting he would tuck tail and run to his precious Hightower Queen. You would do well to avoid him at all costs.

Lest you end up like you mother.

You shuddered at the thought and continued to watch the people walk about the Keep.

And then you saw someone promising.

He was tall, though not as tall as Aemond, and with a regular build. His skin was pale and dark curled hair was cut close to his head. He was not the most handsome man you had seen, but in a Keep with limited options you thought he would be a good enough.

Lord Jasper Wylde, Master of Laws, member of Aegon’s small council, walked through the halls slowly, large tome and parchment in hand. His eyes were a light brown, and he had a trimmed dark beard around his face. His face was stern and his eyes were hard, a most serious looking man.

You smiled at him gently as he walked closer towards you, moving to pass you in the halls. 

“Lord Wylde.” You greeted, straightening your posture as you smiled sweetly at him. 

You had not spoken once to the man, merely been in his presence a few times, including once when you has dined with Aegon on your wedding night. The Lord slowed his step and looked down at you, hint of interest in his eyes.

Perfect.

“Princess.” He greeted back, and moved to continue his walk. You pushed away from the wall to come beside him, his eyes watching your move.

“Might I accompany you on your walk?” You asked sweetly, hands behind your back as you pushed your chest forward subtly. You felt a prickle run along your skin.

You had heard from Saria that the Lord was known as Ironrod to the small folk, for he was unbending and immovable with his beliefs. A small voice wondered that if he was called Ironrod for another reason. Lord Jasper had sired over twenty-nine children, and had wed four wives, three of whom you knew had died in child birth.

“Of course, My Lady.” Wylde responded, uncertainty in his voice as you slowly began to walk together through the halls of the Red Keep.

“I must apologise for my behaviour in the Throne room the other day,” You began, knowing that he had witnessed your outburst. You needed to be sweet, saccharine, a docile woman he may take advantage of, “I was finding myself emotional after so long apart from my husband.” You looked down shyly at your feet as you walked. 

The Master of Laws stayed quiet beside you as you continued. Perhaps he would not be as easy as you had thought. You turned another corner, looking at the man as something moved in the corner of your eye.

“Does your wife reside here in Kings Landing with you, My Lord?” 

“My late Lady Wife passed away in childbirth two moons ago.”

Four wives then.

You slowed your step, frown pulling your lips downwards. A shiver rolled down your back and your hairs stood on end.

“My condolences. Are you being looked after?”

Jasper smiled down at you softly, “Of course, Princess. King Aegon provides all that I need here.”

Ugh.

“I am gladdened to hear this.” You paused looking back down at your feet as he slowed his step, curious eyes looking over you. 

“Do you not get... lonely?” You asked, looking up at him as you came to a complete stop.

The Lord of the Rain House stilled and looked down at you, hands adjusting the tomes and parchment in his hands. A silence stretched between the both of you as you looked at each other. 

Why was he not saying anything?

More importantly, who was watching you?

It set you on edge.

“I only ask as my Lord Husband is away for so long, and I find myself anxious for his return.”  You made a show of the sadness you supposedly felt, lifting a hand to come touch the man, before rethinking it and tucking back behind you to move forward. 

“It does get lonely, at times.” Lord Wylde spoke quietly, “Though I have promising news of a potential betrothal to Lady Ellyn Baratheon.” 

Here comes wife number five.

Shit.

“Oh, that is wonderful news then, My Lord. I must congratulate you. I would hate to know the you suffer the same affliction as I do.” You continued. 

The prickling of your skin started again and you turned your head. You and Lord Wylde had walked beside the Godswood in the open courtyard coridoors, where not too far from you stood a man with his cane.

You were definitely being watched.

“This is where I must leave you,” You told him, “Until we meet again.” You smiled, turning and leaving Lord Wylde without hearing his farewell. 

You crossed the courtyard not too far away, to where Lord Larys Strong, Master of Whispers, stood watching you with a knowing smile, leaning on his cane.

“Princess Y/n.” He greeted you, as you came to stand in front of him.

“Lord Larys. Do you ever grow tired of watching me from afar?”

The man hummed, “A fine day in King’s Landing.”

“No finer than the last. I would ask you to join me on my walk, but… I fear it may not be of interest to you.” You pointedly look down at his club foot.

Larys smiled, “It would be a pleasure to join you, Princess. My club foot would not restrict me from such an honour.”

You hummed.

Turning on your foot, you waited until he came to your side and began to slowly move out of the courtyard. You moved around the Keep, leading out to the garden.

Caution arose inside of you as you walked beside Lord Larys. You did not trust the man, nor did you like him. He was one of the many vipers in this nest, and had whispered in Alicent’s ears for years. For the most part, he had made himself scarce, barely acknowledging you, nor your presence for many years growing up, but now his sudden interest in you was a warning for you to keep a level head.

You would do well to not let your guard down around the man and not show him any weaknesses.

“Lord Larys, forgive me for my brazenness, but I must ask you.” You stopped walking and looked at him.

He did not look much like Ser Harwin. He was smaller, and weaker and ill-made. He stood crooked and thin, skin pale, and resembled a weasel more than a man. But his dark eyes and hair were the resemblance of his House.

“I am sure what you are about to ask is neither brazen, nor offensive, My Lady.”

You gave him a small smile.

“How does it feel...” You began looking down at the floor in mock innocence, as you begin to walk again through the garden, dirt path beneath your feet, and blooming flowers of all colours and shapes surrounding you.

You left him in limbo of the question a little while longer, before continuing, “...To the be the last of Strong blood? I was shocked when I had heard the news of what my Lord Husband had done in Harrenhal to your House, and I feel as though I must apologise to you for his actions.” 

“My Lady, you know more than I, that I am not alone.” He looked at you pointedly.

Your brothers. 

You clenched your jaw.

“Ah, yes. Alys Rivers.” You looked him up and down, “I suppose with her still surviving, you are not the last Strong after all.”

Larys lets out a small, knowing laugh, quiet for no-one else in the garden to hear, but loud enough for you.

You steered the both of you towards where you always sat. Where you and Helaena had watched sunsets and sunrises, looked at bugs and talked of your futures together.

Not at all what it was for now. 

You sat at a small steel table, and held out a hand for him to take the one opposite you. He bowed his head and sat, leaning his long cane against the table. It was well crafted, with a gold top, a small bee in its centre. It reminded you of the cane that had been left in your chambers. 

A servant boy came to join you once he saw the two of you seated.

“Please bring me and Lord Larys some tea and fruit. " You smiled at the boy, "Thank you.”

The young boy, no older than ten-and-five, bowed his head, and scuttled out of the garden towards the Keep. You held your hands together on the table.

“I will withdraw any pleasantries from this conversation henceforth. You know better than I,” You mocked his previous words, “That you are no ally to me, and I simply cannot stand the sight of you.” You smiled gracefully.

To any passing in the garden, it would look as though you were having a pleasant interaction.

“For years I had thought of how Ser Harwin and your late father had died so quickly on their return back to Harrenhal. I had slept on it as a child, you see. Ser Harwin was good to us,” You smiled and nodded your head to behind him, "He trained me in the yards just on the other side of this Keep. He was like a father to me.” 

Larys watched as you spoke to him, relaxed in your chair. All falseness had left his face, and what was left in its wake was a viper. He certainly played the defenceless and meek man well. 

“At first, I had my suspicions that Alicent had to be behind it, but it did not make sense for the man who could be put on trial for treason, to be put to death first. And so quietly too. "

You leant forward on the table as you looked at him, "Alicent loves a public spectacle, we saw that the day she tried to take my brothers eye. So I ruled her out. And then I thought some more.”

The servant boy came back with a large silver tray, pot of tea and teacups sitting atop, with a small plate of cut up fruit. You paused from your thoughts as the young boy placed the cups down in front of you, pouring them high and placing the fruit in its centre.

“Thank you. That will be all.” You thanked the boy, dismissing him, watching as he left. 

Reaching across the table you picked up a small sugar container, mother of pearl spoon inside. You scooped a small spoonful of sugar out of the bowl and held it towards Larys.

“Sugar?” You asked.

The man nodded, and you let the small soft grains fall into his cup of tea, before placing the sugar back in front of you. Picking up your unsweetened tea, you brought it to your lips, the steam brushing against your mouth warmly.

You took a small and polite sip. It was steeped perfectly.

A soft bitter aftertaste, just as you preferred in times of stress like this. Larys picked up his spoon, stirring the sugar into his tea gently, before bringing it up to his lips to drink.

“It was not hard to figure out. Who would have something to gain from the death of the Lord Lyonel Strong, and his first born son, Ser Harwin?”

You placed your teacup back on the table, letting the china clink softly against one another. Larys mirrored your movements. He did not seem nervous at all by your accusation, nor comments.

“Of course, it always comes down to the second son. You had a title to gain, lands and wealth, and not only that, but I suspect something to hold over the Queen’s conscience. Am I wrong?” You asked, and Larys stayed silent, "I’m sure you made it seem as though you did it for her, yes?”

“Quite the accusation, Princess. What you accuse me of would be treason, and kinslaying.” Larys mused, picking up his cup to sip at again.

“Of course. Forgive me, ’tis merely just speculation and a child’s mind left to run through endless possibilities.” You shrugged, and reached forward to pull a grape from its bunch, popping the round fruit into your mouth, feeling your teeth slice through the juicy flesh.

“It was an unfortunate accident. They say that Harrenhal is cursed.” The Strong man began, “Not at all like what had happened to the poor Prince Daeron.”

You let your head lazily look down as you sighed, “An unfortunate accident,” You parroted, “A casualty of war. Thank the Seven that we now have a treaty, to prevent further losses such as that.”

You sipped your tea in tandem, a tense silence filling your area of the garden.

“And how are you faring? Have you settled back into the Keep?” He asked.

“With my Lord Husband so frequently gone, I find myself more settled than ever.” You smiled, “It is relaxing to know that I do not have two monsters, watching me at all hours. Though I do worry for his absence. What whispers will the courts concoct once they hear of his whoring?”

“Trouble in paradise in such a fresh marriage is concerning to hear. But I would not worry on any opinions of the Lords and Ladies at court. They would not care for a bastard born from another.”

“And what of this bastard, Lord Larys, Master of Whispers? I have heard whispers of my own. They say that she is a witch, and has put a spell on my husband. That is why she still lives. Is it true?” 

“I seemingly recall you reminding me that I am neither your ally, nor you mine.”

“Mm. That’s true. You can’t blame me for trying. It is terribly dull, locked in this Keep. I am just desperate enough to sit and have tea with you, let alone look at you.” You smiled, and he smiled back. 

“Is this why you peruse the Keep in search of somebody? Is your Lord Husband not satisfying your needs, warming your bed chambers?”

“Unfortunately for me, my bed chambers are warmed enough. Though they lack a certain, want. I am sure you would know all about this, having known about Aegon and his wondering cock. You know, it truly is a mystery at how it has not fallen off yet.”

“A mystery indeed, Princess.” He paused, drinking from his tea, watching you, thinking, and when he comes to a conclusion, he places the cup back down, reaching to refill it.

“But Alys Rivers is less of a mystery.” He began, “I have heard tales of her beauty. An older woman with hair as black as the night sky, and eyes of green that pierce any mans soul. Rumours are about that she is a witch, and she claims to be one. Though who knows if it is real or not. I have been told she wears a chain of Valyrian steel around her neck, with three emeralds dripping from it. A gift from a Targaryen Prince.” The man shrugged, “Depends on what you believe.”

He brings the cup to sip again, eyes watching you over the rim.

“Are you a man of Faith, Lord Strong?”

“Of course, My Lady.”

“And what do you believe?”

“I believe what I am told.”

“And what a good little dog you make for it.” You smiled viciously, pulling another grape from the table to pop into your waiting mouth. “For a Master of Whispers, you sure do miss a lot of things.”

“Like what, Princess?”

You laughed.

“If you truly are a Master of Whispers, I am sure you will find out in due time. Need I remind you that I am neither your friend, nor ally?”

“You need not. Though may I give a word advice?”

You sighed, cocking your head, “No. But I have a feeling that you are going to anyway.”

“If you are to look for a man to warm your chambers in the absence of your husband, it is best that you don’t do so, so brazenly.” He smiled brightly, “Though he has lost an eye, he is not blind and has his ears.”

“Of no doubt you will be whispering your poison into.”

Larys smiled a sickly smile, “Of no doubt. Who knows what the courts may begin to whisper. Of course, only if my hand is forced.”

��May I offer you a word of advice, Lord Larys?”

The mans hand touched the top of his cane, its engraved bee sitting pretty in the expanse of the tip. A smirk wound its way on his lips in confirmation, head tilting to tell you to speak.

“Don't fuck with me." You smiled, and enjoyed the way the man blinked in shock at your harsh words, “I have found that throughout my life, men with ambition are a great threat to the realm and to the people living within it. I doubt that any man,” You looked him up and down in disgust, “Or woman, would lay with you. And without the lust of flesh, you are free to lust after power. A dangerous man indeed.” You smiled falsely, leaning back in your chair, listening to the waves behind you before you continued.

“Dragon or no dragon, I have not forgotten your place in this war, nor what you had done to Ser Harwin. I will rip your throat out with my teeth if I must. But of course,” You stood from the table looking down at the man who’s brow had hardened, “Only if my hand is forced.”

You walked around the table to stand beside Lord Larys.

“Thank you for an… inspiring conversation, Lord Larys.” You smiled down at him, “I had almost forgotten of your presence in the Keep.”

You grinned at the man, letting your hand come to touch his shoulder in a friendly manner.

Lord Larys Strong, Master of Whispers, stared at his empty tea cup as you walked away, leaving him to his thoughts and your unprovoked threat.

Thanks so much for reading along with me, if you wish to be added to the tag list please let me know :) Likes and reblogs are greatly appreciated ! Enjoy <3

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[desultory-novice]

"The Only Thing I Know"

"...It's still blood shed..."

-

A little sketch for the accidental second (or third?) of the Thematically Noir Songs || Gotye's "The Only Thing I Know"

To me, this is 100% a song about the Summer Trio. Or how they came undone when those bonds were destroyed forever.

-

I love how the music in this song feels very cold, desolate, and wintry, just like Shiver Star. And then, it chooses to end on this oddly dissonant, warm, beach cafe music, which to me just digs the nail in further. Because going to the (non-existent) beach in search of a true summer is something that was always bandied about between them.

But Raquelle dies and Noir dies and Adeleine, poor dear, DOES get to go in Kirby 64, but it is not with the two of them at her side...

-

Lyrics wise, I feel like both Raquelle and Adeleine fit the "girl that I remember, who'll never leave or need to grow" as one is dead and one literally can't grow older anymore. The word "memory" in this case (the only thing I know) feels like a fitting metaphor for the control gear that locked around Noir after Raquelle's death.

(Frankly, all three of them are kind of trapped in this moment/memory, really)

"When the past gives me no comfort And though the future is the cost..."

-The past being times when things were happy, but that memory stings Noir now, because the only thing from the past he'd kept with him was his pain, which the Sword both fed off of and fed him with poisonous whispers that he could cut it all away and be better off. The cost was everyone's future. No one made it out normal.

"The way I'm choosing to remember I'll forever be the man I never was..."

-Noir is literally physically locked into the bloody role of being Zero's blade, enforcer, and executioner: The Swordsman. A role painfully unfitting for the sorrowful and wistful, ever-dreaming, deeply protective, all bark-and-no-bite teenage boy...

"And you, you fade But the memory remains the same"

"And I, I can't change And I think living with your memory Is slowly driving me insane."

-Same as above, really. What he did and the knowledge he cannot take it back is eating away at him and even speeding along the change into Dark Matter.

The last part, the B part following the long instrumental, feels like Adeleine's chance to finally say something about the situation Noir carefully crafted for her by caring about her so much that he...was too afraid to open up to her before things got THIS bad.

-

"You are perfect but you're empty And it gets so lonely in my mind"

"Cause your image in my memory's The only shred of you that's left behind" -He was the perfect big brother, at least, on the surface. Again, he never let her in and now she's left trying to reassemble a truer picture of what her brother was like without him and she's got so little to work from...

"You were real and but then you left me And that's the part I can't accept

So I'll keep on living with your memory Because it's all that I have left..." -As I alluded to in the Haircut From Hell comic, Adeleine has this kind of understated, defrosting horror in the back of her mind that Noir's "gift" to her (his curse) was to die while accidentally trapping her in the memory of a time when he was still alive

-

For the drawing, though it is a loose and hasty sketch, I did try to convey a few things, particularly in the way everyone's hands are being used. Raquelle has both her hands around Noir's shoulders (or neck) as if she's trying to cling to him mid fall. But that positioning echoes the idea that it was her death that locked the collar...

Noir has never needed to use his hands to wield the heavy sword, but here, he metaphorically holds it, taking "responsibility" for this death. But doing so keeps him from otherwise reaching out to her (as he didn't truly snap out of his emotion-dampened blood-haze till it was too late) and it keeps him from reaching out to Adeleine too... 

Though the tails of his scarf appear to try...

For as opposed to the star-crossed pair, tangled in each other's arms in a doomed fashion, Adeleine is but a singular figure forlornly walking away from the scene. She is alone and seems to know it. Her eyes meet no one's. One hand of hers is full with the Brush, but the other is still open. Yet there is no one to take it anymore.....

[bonesandthebees]

Also, Wilbur being highly aware of the guards at Niki’s door and the shadows/being followed. The paranoia is already settling in after Phil mentioned that the eyes watching the hallways at night weren’t always visible. It’s entirely possible there was no one tailing him, but Wilbur still feels like there was. At the same time, I think it’s entirely possible that Phil is aware of where his son is at all times, both as a dotting and worried father and as a strategist how wants to train him. So now I’m wondering if the guards who went with them to L’mannes were going to (indirectly) report back to Phil afterwards. (And if so, he lost that intell.)

Anyway, L’mannes time! Gotta love Tomys falling asleep in the carriage. It essentially shows that he feels safe around Wilbur, safe enough to fall asleep at least. And we once again get the sort of half hearted bitching and cursing, though this time it’s mostly because he’s tired.

I think I figured out why Phil arranged it so Wilbur could be here instead of Puffy. It’s for bonding sure, but it’s also the perfect opportunity for Wilbur to show of how good of a council he would be. Aka he gets to show off his knowledge. He gets to teach Tomys and this will establish him as someone smart who knows what he’s doing. So that if (when) the boy gets to choose his Consul, he’ll probably pick Wilbur because he’ll know that that’s the best move and he’s the best suited for the job.

And now we get to see what Phil said about Puffy’s tutoring come to fruition. Tomys is indeed mostly aware of what happened at L’mannes, but we also get the difference between him and an older Wilbur who has specifically been taught these things in detail for his function as future consul. Aka Wilbur knows more details.

He’s also very aware of where exactly everything went ‘wrong’ with the chamber getting divided and the illegitimate claims which makes sense. Phil would teach him to look at the situation like that. Especially as they are growing up with a high likelihood of succession crisis. They need to know what went wrong to know how to avoid it. Wilbur needs to know these things too.

(2/?)

-🌲

wilbur is slowly realizing just how far his father's reach can go. he's finally learning that nothing goes unseen in a palace like that. the paranoia is very real now.

I do love their dynamic at this point bc wilbur is still being a bitter teenager thinking about how annoying and reckless and impulsive tommy is meanwhile tommy feels safe enough to fall asleep around wilbur and wilbur doesn't even pick up on it

another very good reason phil set this up! wilbur is a history nerd and phil knows this about his son. putting wilbur in a place with so much history was always going to lead to wilbur rambling about it to tommy letting tommy know just how smart wilbur is

yesss wilbur has a very interesting viewpoint of this moment in history thanks to how techno taught it to him (at phil's instruction). he looks at all angles and understands what caused the situation and what made it worse and what everyone's incorrect choices were etc etc

[pacifistcowboy]

so i’ve made some sol-dimension versions of the characters from sonic’s dimension, in the same way that blaze is a sol-dimension version of sonic (and sorta knuckles) and marine is a sol-dimension version of tails. these two are the sol versions of shadow and amy!

i haven’t quite decided on the colours for sol-shadow, so i have a few designs for her. any opinions on which colours are best would be appreciated!! i can mix and match different parts of these designs, since i explored different things in each.

i’ll explain a bit more about them below

sol-shadow is a cat with cryokinesis, which is ice powers! and since the sol-dimension versions seem to have opposite personalities but still have the same core values n kinda ‘roles’ as their original counterparts, sol-shadow is friendly, upbeat, and social. all she wants is to belong somewhere and constantly wants to do things with people and never alone. in order for her to still have an anti-hero vibe, i’ll probably have it that she’s willing to do anything for someone if she thinks they’ll be her friend for it. she trusts people too easily and tends to unintentionally be a bit too lighthearted and playful in most situations. sol-shadow also struggles a lot with her identity and knowing if she’s a good person or a bad guy due to her dramatic backstory that i had to give her ‘cause that’s a big part of og-shadow’s character, but i’ll talk about that after i talk about sol-amy, ‘cause it’s gonna be a lotta words.

i haven’t settled on a name yet but so far the options are: glacier, frost, crystal, and floe

sol-amy is a bobcat (not too sure if that’ll change or not) with a giant sword instead of a giant hammer!! he’s got a crush on blaze, since that’s og-amy’s ‘role’ with sonic, but since his personality’s the opposite of og-amy, he pretends he doesn’t like blaze, or anyone, or anything. he tries way too hard to be a mean, uncaring recluse, yet everyone can tell it’s a façade and that he truly loves and cares so very much for people and the world and everything. he acts like he’s forced to work as a team and help save the day, but literally nobody forces him to hang around or help. his grumpy, complaining, pessimistic persona stems from the fact that he’s actually a really anxious person who’s scared of being close to people and failing to save the things he cares about.

possible names i have for him are: sabre, ash, thorn, spike, aster, and fern

onto sol-shadow’s backstory which i’m still working out n kinda experimenting: many many years ago, the sol empire was overthrown by sol-shadow’s family. they either inherently had cryokinesis, or sol-shadow’s parents were rejected by the sol emeralds when trying to harness them and as an unintentional consequence both sol-shadow and her older brother were born with cryokinesis. sol-shadow’s parents ruled but they were apathetic towards the citizens and power-hungry. they were loving towards their children and sol-shadow’s a bit naïve, so she didn’t see how awful they were. but sol-shadow’s older brother, pierce, did, and he was against their cruelty and secretly helped plan a revolution for the citizens. when the uprising began, pierce escaped with sol-shadow and lead her into a deep cave or something hidden like that. he told her to stay there and that he was going to go back to help, and once the fight was over he would come back to her. sol-shadow refused to let him go alone, so pierce froze her to keep her from getting into danger. when pierce went back to the palace, he ended up getting killed by someone working for their parents. the revolution was a success, and the citizens chose to put blaze’s family back on the throne.

so sol-shadow was stuck frozen in a cave (or maybe not a cave idk) for many many years until someone finds her during blaze’s time, and thaws her. and once she wakes up, all sol-shadow knows is that her family was attacked by the citizens, and that she wants to find her brother, which is gonna lead to a lot of misunderstandings and self-reflection and discovery.

any criticisms or input n such is appreciated! this is an interesting but tricky concept to make :)

[cherubchoirs]

If the four Archangels (Our good ol' pal, Lucifier included) born at the same time, I like to imagine them as kids with small goat tails and tiny wings with halos still devoleping. What kind of silly mischeif scenero that involves curiousity with the Father (Prior to dying and everything going sideways) just scolding them for abrutly leaving a very important meeting or flight lession just to look at something they had never seen before?

AAA BABY ANGELS....i like to think that lucifer was made first, then several angels of the highest choirs (seraphim, cherubim, and thrones), with the archangels coming soon afterward as a little set. but they all basically grew up with lucifer as he was meant to prepare them for their role as leaders, and they helped build the very foundations of heaven as their first job. angels as entities aren't really given the time to be children, set to their task instantly upon their animation, but i really like the idea that this shouldn't be the case as they are filled with wonder and confusion that should be given time to breathe. and lucifer tried to give them that space. lucifer was ostensibly supposed to guide them, especially michael as their head, but he often broke up their work to take them exploring through much of the still primordial chaos. they could see forms taking shape there and lucifer told them all about the process of creation (i like to think he was an angel meant to facilitate that process, bringing light into darkness), to which they would all ask a million questions (he answered with confidence, despite being barely older than them lol)

any new sights they saw acted as a distraction, with the four of them highly curious about the rapidly growing world around them. each and every one of them was also enthusiastic about their roles...probably too much lol michael was lassoing other angels CONSTANTLY, practicing his aim and building his strength terrorizing thrones and other cherubim (also seraphim once or twice, which both god and lucifer scolded him for. he got his chains taken away a lot lol) gabriel was known to roughhouse a little too much when he played with many of the other angels, not knowing his own strength. he also flew WAY beyond his limits, often tiring his wings out and getting stranded in high places (panics so much he sometimes loses his physical form until lucifer gets him down). raphael was absolutely a treat thief, always finding ways to sneak extra shares of bread and honey to share with everyone else. he would also wander off to go pick flowers, both to give as gifts for other angels to put in their homes or as more snacks (gabe LOVES flowers and raph wanted to find his favorite). uriel liked to find lots of time to be on his own, often exploring the quieter places in heaven and particularly enjoying expansive, sunny fields where he could watch the clouds go by - including when he's supposed to be working.

really lucifer actively took the blame for a lot of this, figuring he was responsible for them anyway and that they should get the time to explore who they are. their transgressions were never treated as severe anyway, each of them simply exploring their roles in a time before god became so strict and punishing. and it was a point of pride to see all their halos taking shape, molded by the kind of angel they were becoming. as more angels were made they began taking on their respective roles, though michael continued to gravitate toward lucifer to learn from his leadership more extensively. and while they did grow in their responsibilities and take their positions more seriously as they got older, they still indulged in their freedom for a time until lucifer fell...and heaven changed entirely.

[mha-simp-99]

I've been having thoughts.

I think Kakashi Hatake and Shota Aizawa would be good friends. They have similar attitudes and their vibes are so chill...until they get pissed off, that is.

So. What if the different lands of Naruto were islands in MHA that were a little old school and very picky about their visitors? They give stealth ninja-like training to their up and coming heroes because it's a little more hardcore out there. And, multiple quirks? That's pretty normal for them. Especially for the clans trying to breed the perfect heirs to make the perfect hero who will become the Kage of their village...or as close to it as they can get. Or for clans looking to steal the quirks of others to strengthen themselves. Most of the latter are trying to take over the forbidden islands...and acquire the exceptionally rare 'tailed' quirks. The Tailed Beasts, of course. Be it man-made quirk for destruction gone awry or agitated quirk that chooses its owner or can be forced therein, they are highly sought after for their power.

Cue Orochimaru infiltrating the first round of physical hero exams and the arrival of the Akatsuki. The elder heroes grow concerned for their up and coming children...and at the fact that Naruto holds a covered tailed quirk. They don't have enough security measures in place to keep everyone looked after and safe. So...they reach out to UA for aid. And they gladly offer to help, building onto their school grounds to accommodate their newest members. Twenty seven students, roughly, come from each school and three to five teachers each, depending on the availability of heroes they can spare. From Konoha: Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai come along.

A bit of chaos ensues when they first come together, some schools more friendly than others. Gaara is in a transition point, thanks to Naruto, as is Neji. But both are still less than approachable. But I think Kakashi and Aizawa would kind of become fast friends. And Gai and Mic. They share the same vibes and try to pull their less enthusiastic friends from their shells.

I'm a big Hinata stan and I hate that she ended up with Naruto. I think she would become fast friends with a lot of Aizawa's class. She'd like drinking expensive teas with Momo-it would remind her of being in the Hyuuga compound where tea like that was the norm. And Bakugo, as abrasive (said in the most loving way possible) as he can be, reminds her a little of Kiba and Shino put together. Kiba for his speech, and Shino for his pin-point accuracy in topics and critiques. He takes no shit and helps push her beyond her limits. ("DON'T you fuckin' PUSSY OUT on me!! You got multiple quirks- USE 'EM! Better not go fuckin' easy on me, or I'LL KILL YA!" His trademark smirk is slowly matched by a nod and encouraged, determined look from Hinata. "Right!") He probably wouldn't mind her around his friend group, either, since she's pretty quiet and brings a serene vibe. Deku would probably constantly be studying her quirks, along with the others. But I'd probably match her with Shinso, if not Shino. I've been a big Shino/Hina fan for years, but I think Shinso and Hinata could hit it off well, too. They're both misunderstood for their quirks, kind of shunned for them, in ways. So they would understand each other pretty well. Hiashi probably wouldn't approve in the beginning- on either count- but there are ways of changing his mind.

Also, I think Sasuke and Naruto would hit it off with Deku and Bakugo. They could do double dates if they ever got over themselves and their own stumbling emotions for one another. (Sasu/Naru, Deku/Baku.) Sakura and Ochako might hit it off. Hinata and Mezou, Shino and Tokoyami, Kiba and Lee with Eijirou and Kami, Ino and Momo and Kyoka, Mina and Lee, Neji and Tenya and Shoto...and so many more. I'm not limiting the friends here, just suggesting some good friend partner-ups. And this was only Konoha rookie nine plus three in the older group and the first/middle class of UA...that's not accounting for the other villages or upperclassmen. I think Gaara would have a hard time with everything and be kind of emotionally stunted like Shoto. They might make a good friend pair, especially considering they were both betrayed by their dads. Lots of bonding angst there.

But, like...yeah. I think this could be a very fun crossover fic premise. Maybe even partner up villains from both and cause some havoc. What do y'all think? 🥺😁 Ideas free to use~ Hit me up if you use them. I'm a thirsty bitch for this kind of content.

[ducknotinarow]

[2k3 Mikey and 2k12 Casey]

Casey was glad that both Worlds used the exact same currency, he'd rather not have to ask to borrow cash from the Casey of this World, cause then he'd have to explain why he needed said money and he would rather not. Not that Casey was embarrassed by it, it was more just cause of how much of a 'mans man' this Casey turned out to be.

He and Mikey had talked about stuff when doing each others nails, and Casey felt a sense of solidarity with them. Sure, he let Angel do his makeup all the time, because he was a good older brother like that, but part of himself also enjoyed wearing the stuff just cause. And it seemed like Mikey was on the same page of him. Made him wonder if his own Mikey was like that.

Trying not to dwell too much, Casey found out the orange banded Turtle, small orange palette of eyeshadow, and brush in hand, he offered them a grin,

"Hey, I uh, I gotcha somethin'," Casey held it out to them, merely grinning at them, "Yanno, 'cause of all the stuff we talked 'bout the other day - it's just, I dunno, nice knowin' there's someone out there that, yanno, gets it."

| Muse interactions Mikey felt over the braided ends of his mask smiling a little, it wasn't anything big or special maybe? But it was a little something that he was getting a lot of enjoyment from. They didn't have hair but Mikey did often envy how April could style her he's up in that bun with the bits hanging on the side. Or how Casey just never. NEVER> Seemed to do a thing with all that hair he had. Like come on man tie it back! do a half do even! Whats even the point of all that hair jeez. He huffs a bit mentally moving his thoughts off that topic as he playfully tossed the braided rope of his mask over his shoulder grinning hard as he did. Yeah it was just fabric tied to cover over his face and not like an extension of himself? But well no it was also that just not physically attached.

Michelangelo didn't often put this much thought behind all of this. He just make off hand comments like how he was the pretty one of his brothers and what not. But well having someone who got it? Dunno maybe that had something to do with why he was thinking about it all more and showing off his pretty braid that his lil bro Casey did for him. Happily bragging about how it made him look ten times better than his brothers and how they were all jealous of his beauty. Well clearly that was going to be the case after all. Nails were nicely painted, he had the braid even, something he could undo when not right in the vibe of it.

And well he dunno sure he makes remarks like wanting to be a maid of honor when Raph one day gets married to Casey. Normally just meant with a look that came off as everyone thinking he was confused or something and meant a groomsmen. But now? he was sort of embracing it even more. He just never felt like a guy all the time it's not that he felt like a girl either something in between maybe? Nah more like it just varied at times if anything. Eh stuff like this wasn't really talked about so it did give him a lot of appreciation for his lil bro because well Casey was similar though for them they didn't feel like one or the other. But he got the whole I like wearing this stuff because well I like looking pretty. Course Mikey had a slight break down when they went and braided his mask tails but it just FELT nice to be accepted and understood. It not like if he told his brothers they wouldn't accept him. They just might not get it, but they would accept him if he voiced all this to them it's just hard he guesses? "uhh my head hurts I don't spend this much time in there." Mikey says to well no one really just himself, staying locked away in his mind wasn't always the best he needed to express his thoughts. Mikey rubbed at his head noticing he been so zoned out he pretty much missed his whole movie he sat down to watch. Grumbling a little to himself as he went to start it over he caught sight of his favorite human and favorite Casey at that. Moving to the left a bit so they could sit with him if they wanted as he beamed happily at them "Hey ya little bro what's up? No chihuahua boy with you uh?" He meant their Raph, likely they were with Donnie they seemed to take a liking to the tiny red banded turtle.

"Hey, I uh, I gotcha somethin',"

" A gift for moi?" Mikey asked holding a hand to his plastron as he acted out shocked and delighted in the moment. And soon he held out his hands for send gift like the greedy little turtle he was, when he was met with a palette of makeup? he hummed a bit curiously tilting his head to the side as he looked it over before taking it from Casey's hands. He seen one before from the time they had lived with April, she had a few in her bathroom and he asked her what they were. At first he thought it was paint or something. Till April had put some one to explain. He never made a single mention of wishing to wear makeup himeself after that but well thought it. The nail posih he could sort of get by with since he liked to paint the decks of his skate board and more when ever he could. But his face? Looking back to Casey who was just grinning at him looking a little unsure in the moment.

"Yanno, 'cause of all the stuff we talked 'bout the other day - it's just, I dunno, nice knowin' there's someone out there that, yanno, gets it."

Mikey let that sink in a moment, of course, it was a big deal for him to have someone to share this with but. it was also a big deal for Casey to have someone out there he could express this all towards especially being in a whole strange world. He smiled and held up the pallet "This is great! and you tots nailed my shade of colors dude! course you would my lil bro clearly got an eye for taste after all." Mikey praised and prided over as he spoke up.

Reaching up to tug his mask down a moment "what doya think uh? maybe this one here since it matches my mask so well?" he went and popped it open a bit to excited to hold off but well it wasn't just for him on way he jumped in on this right away. Casey was boosting his confidence so if he could boost their own in return? If big bro could dive right one in on all this and be an example maybe? he was trying to emulate how he sort of viewed his own older brothers if he was being honest. He turned off the tv and hopped to his feet so he could use the reflection a moment on the screen. The bathroom would be a better place for sure but he was following his impulsive action through right now as he did his best to color over his eye lid.

"hmm yup the perfect set of colors for me what do ya think?" He asked turned to look over his shoulder at Casey a moment as he closed the pallet and then eyed Casey a moment humming under his breath. "I know blacks your whole thing, minus traces of red" He smirked a bit hey big brother or not he would still tease them just a bit on their obvious infatuation for their boyfriend. "but I bet you would rock sliver." smiling as he moved to get up now mode changing a bit a he set a hand on Casey's shoulder

"But thanks I uh ya know this means a lot to me I dunno how to word it, thing is I haven't even told my brothers or dad about this stuff. Not that it's a secret they just think i'm a goof I guess?" he shrugs his shoulder cause well yeah he was so of course they might not get it all that well. "So it's well nice that you do ya know get it? and ya know I know ya guys gotta go home one day but well I'm still on your side okay? so when you're ready to tell whoever I'm there for you okay bro?" Mikey smiles once he finished his rambling, soon his smile drops as he points at his face brow knitting up in clear concur.

"okay but be honest did I fuck that up just now? cause I'd like to not be a mess the first time I wear make up?"

[lizlives]

Sonic Gatekeeping

I don't know who the artist was and I don't want to look it up cause I don't want to attract hate for them but there was an artist who would draw the Western versions of Sonic and Tails interacting with their Japanese counterparts. I remember it feeling extremely patronizing, like it made a point of West Sonic being a crude asshole who doesn't pay attention to his surroundings and had disgusting taste in food, and JP Sonic was this uber-polite introvert who was too polite to point out West Sonic's rudeness (there might be some stereotyping going on there but I'm not sure if I'm in a position to comment on it, both because of my background and because I'm not checking who the artist was).

And then Tails, omg Tails. I think they literally had West Tails smoking a cigarette in his only appearance and act like a cynical asshole for no reason. I get this was a joke but I don't think it's based on anything true. If I had to majorly differentiate them in this way I'd say West Tails actually tended to be more naive and optimistic than JP Tails most of the time, but really the main point I'm making is that the comics really just mischaracterized all the characters I guess except for JP Tails. But because they all become friends in the end and it's not perfectly disparaging I guess I'm supposed to be a bit peeved at the character assassinations.

West Sonic and JP Sonic were both fun-loving trouble makers! We can split hairs on the subtle differences in characterization like JP Sonic being a bit quieter and more introverted (but he would beat you up just the same lol) or American Sonic being more likely to make pop-culture references, but fundamentally they would probably get along cause they're more similar than they are different. West Sonic would think JP Sonic's fangs are rad! JP Sonic would think the mohawk is a cool look! JP Tails and West Tails would be like brothers, West Tails being the younger brother and JP Tails being the older brother.

Idk I just get really tired of all this gatekeeping. Yeah, Sega of America was stupid in deciding to do all of this separate localization years ago, but it happened, years ago, and like it or not almost everything you find repugnant about West Sonic has it's fans just like almost every side of Sonic. The dynamic with Sonic and Sega now is not remotely the same. Can people just get over themselves and stop acting as if they're punching up at western interpretations at Sonic when SoA hasn't held that much sway in a bit over a decade. There's room for everyone to be a fan of whatever Sonic media they like, we need to learn to get along and stop being so angry at each for subtle differences in preference.

[sapphiresterreart]

Tried to scribble a Sonic idea with a throwaway joke-reference only to get completely sidetracked by that very same joke. Got in too deep. Hope it's coherent enough!

Note: Usually picture them as young adults. Prolly early 20s or so. Not super important but might help with context. It's fun for me to mix youthful energy with slightly older characters. Whatever canon experiences they've had took time to happen kinda thing.

Rouge shares her struggle with her roommate’s terrible, no-good very bad coffee bean addiction eating habits. Starring Sonic, Tails, and a startling amount of memes and modern(?) slang as her prisoners. 

Sonic's desperate cries for help go ignored. Maybe if he was a better communicator he wouldn't have these issues.

Under the Read More it goes!

Off-screen, Shadow is blissfully unaware of such plights as he savors a cereal bowl of coffee beans for breakfast. Only faintly wondering why the bag of new beans had been stashed in the wrong kitchen cabinet. Didn’t Rouge know they were supposed to go in the pantry? Mentally shrugs. Everyone makes mistakes. She must've been tired last night or something. She did have eye-bags before putting on makeup this morning. Ah, well. Not his problem.

No. Instead it's Sonic's problem.

"Shadow thinks he's so smart but that guy eats coffee beans for breakfast. It was one thing when he had a gardening phase and cluttered the counters with potted plants; at least that was nice. Got fresh lavender for free and his chao could take care of 'em while he was away, ya know? But coffee beans? Raw? How am I supposed to have my morning coffee when Shadow keeps eating all my chaos-damned coffee beans, boys?" 

"Ah." Sonic blinks and shares a glance with Tails. They’d been trapped on their own living room couch ever since Rouge showed up a solid hour ago with eye bags so heavy not even the secrets of modern makeup could hide them.

Still. He's her friend and he's tried to give her his attention. He tentatively ventures, “I get the feeling you haven't had coffee this morning?"

"I haven't had coffee in days, Sonic, days!"

"Yikes." He grimaces, playing at an attempt for sympathy because there's only so long he can keep trying. An hour is a long time and he still doesn't see what the big deal is, or even care honestly, but he'll at least pretend. "Big oof. That's no good."

Tails slaps his forehead and slumps from where he sits on the couch beside him. Rouge stares at them both. Or maybe just him. Apparently he didn't pretend hard enough. Huh. Oh well. Guess he'll have to try again. 

"I try not to judge people by their dietary needs." Sonic beams, making sure to look as innocent as can be. Adds blinking for good measure

It's a strategic trick he learned while babysitting Cream long ago. She had been, and unfortunately still is, a master of them-big-ole-eyes paired with rapid-fire-eyelashes. 

Whenever Amy did it she looked like she had a bad case of allergies and sometimes caused her mascara to run which only ever made him think of the horror movies he'd seen late at night. It was a problem. She was not good to learn from for that. He's glad she started wearing waterproof stuff or whatever it is at some point. Turns out, black streaks for tear-tracks are terrifying. Not cute.

Guh. Moving on. Maybe his powers of persuasion will sway Rouge away from the dark side of more long-winded rants and dangerously boring tangents. Alas. They fail. She seems unmoved.

"Your diet is nothing but chili dogs." She points at him, needlessly affronted. 

Oh hey now. An age old argument apparently no one is willing to let go of. Not even Rouge. Hmph. He stands by his statement: there's nothing wrong with chili dogs and there never will be! Why fix what ain't broke?

"Like I said," Sonic continues undeterred by non-believers even after all these years. "Dietary needs."

Rouge huffs and whirls on a needle-thin heel. They click click click as she paces a circle in front of the TV.  Dang. Those boots look like they could kill someone. Sonic idly wonders if they have then decides he doesn't wanna know. He might be the next victim otherwise. At least not if this endless talkin’ doesn't do him in first.

"As I was saying; it'd be one thing if he ate them after I brewed them," she flicks a wrist already back on topic as she cocks a hip to the side. Her wings twitch from where they're folded along her spine. "But does he do that? Does he have the decency to do that, boys?"

She pauses a beat. Oh no. Is she expecting proper responses now after all that? Or maybe it’s is a rhetorical question and does not require an answer. Should he risk death by boot or death by boredom?

Tails, brave soul that he is, offers himself as tribute. "He... doesn't?"

"No!" Rouge whips around and her wings snap out on cue. The brothers jolt. "He does not!"

Tails makes some sort of noise. "That sounds rough." 

"Major bummer." Sonic agrees and hopes it'll get her tirade to stop.

"It is! And that's not all-"

Ah. It does not. Was she even listening to him? Or hearing him at all? His attention can only last so long. He's reaching his limit here! Maybe if he throws enough nonsense at her, she'll stop? Or talk about something else?

"What an L, Rouge."

"--maybe had some decency he'd-"

"L plus ratio?"

"What am I supposed to do without the beans, Sonic?"

She's not stopping. Luckily, Sonic ain't no quitter. "Cool story, bro. No cap?"

"The beans, Sonic! Focus on the beans!"

"The beans. So not gucci."

"Exactly! What am I supposed to do about the-" 

Tails leans over to him, bumping shoulders, and mutters. "You've been messing with my tech again, haven't you?"

“I just think it’s neat,” he chirps readily. Grins as he takes the lifeline his benevolent brother has provided him like a drowning soul. Ugh, drowning. "The internet’s a pretty cool place to be. So many ways to get your groovy on."

Tails sighs, sounding faintly irritable but his muzzle's twitching. He ain't foolin' nobody. "You are abusing slang on purpose." 

Sonic’s grin only widens. Score! "I would never do such a thing. Especially not in front of a friend. That's way past uncool, totally un-hippoed."

His brother may or may not have choked. An elbow knocks into Sonic’s side and he jumps with a snickering wheeze.

Tails mutters out the side of his mouth, face impossibly composed while pretending to pay attention to their mutual friend. "What even-? That's not- What are you up to?"

"Nuthin'," he lies like the liar they both know he is. Rouge is still goin' on strong in front of them. "Maintaining my sanity in the only way I can, maybe."

"How's that working out?"

"I may or may not lose my mind."

"It was nice knowing you, bruh."

It's Sonic's turn to choke on a snort.

Rouge continues her tirade apparently oblivious to the lapse in her audience's attention. So Sonic seizes the opportunity to set up a new game plan. He whips out and fiddles with his shiny new phone. The sound file had to be in here somewhere. It was unlikely to have been lost in the recent data transfer. His brother was too smart to let that happen.

Tails had done great work on the device; making it so it could keep up with the speed in which he tapped at the screen. The previous one had been durable but admittedly too slow. Yet his kid brother had fixed it up like the champ he's always been. 

He smiles to himself, unbearably soft, gloved thumbs stalling atop the glass. What couldn’t his baby bro do? Well, not much of a baby now, sure, but who gave him permission to grow up? Not Sonic! As his right as the older brother, he made the rules and the rules say Tails is not allowed to get older. 

What was he doing? Oh yeah! That funny audio. Where was it again? Tails had probably kept it in the same place. Or at least with the same name if he used the fancy search bar, right? He adjusted his grip to tap the screen. 

Bingo! Now let’s see here… A clicking of some buttons, a tapping of a few things, and a finger at the ready to press play. He was all set. Now to time it just right...

Rouge, unintentionally or not, plays her part well. She continues on as background noise with his brother watching her indulgently, politely smiling and nodding along to all the right bits because at some point in all these years he had learned manners. Sonic will never know from where. Certainly not from him.

Sonic waits, politely nodding along himself because misusing slang had proven futile. Tactics had to change and as Rouge works herself into a righteous tizzy he sits up and leans forward. Tails doesn't say a word though he can no doubt sense when his big bro’s ‘boutta cause some trouble. 

Wings flare as Rouge hoists herself off the floor and hovers in the middle of the living room. A fist shakes dramatically at the ceiling and her voice get louder with the momentum. She bemoans the tragedy of mortal kind and the emotionally constipated disasters that will be the downfall of them all. 

It's almost moving. Sonic finds himself engaged despite earlier grievances. She shoulda led with that instead of the bean nonsense. Apparently whatever it is she's talking about now is an infectious disease that only plagues the majority of the male population of everyone found everywhere. Unfortunately, Sonic’s not entirely convinced. It’s a good argument, though, he’ll give her that.

Then it happens. Finally happens. He feared he’d lose his mind before he could execute the most ultimate of masterplans (heh heh, Ultimate. No he'll never let it go, Shadow) but his time to shine has finally come. She makes a statement. Perfectly punctuated on a bold note and everything. She pauses for breath and Sonic takes the chance. 

He clicks the screen and the sound plays. A perfect accompaniment to Rouge’s declaration.

“Oh no.”

Tails. Slowly. Very slowly turns to him. 

Sonic. Very very slowly turns in turn. He makes sure to wear the biggest, most trouble-causing-eatingist grin as possible. Barely cuts off a giggle before it can escape. 

Tails does a remarkable job of maintaining a straight face while also stifling the faint wheezes Sonic can see his stomach make only because he's sitting right next to him. Yellow and white fur almost vibrates from the strain. Wow! What an impressive display of control. He's so proud of him. 

Sonic doesn’t even try to hide his delight anymore. A joke well-received is always a good thing. Even the dumb ones.

Neither notice Rouge coming’ in hot to snatch the phone outta his hands. 

"Was that Knuxie.” She says, honing in on the device in her hands like a starving vulture in desperate need of a feast. 

Sonic will never admit he startled as, between blinks, the bat was there and then she wasn’t. He recovers pretty darn well if he does say so himself. Blinks lashes innocently up at her even if it didn't work earlier.

This time he demurs very charmingly. "Who?”

“Don’t play games with me, big blue.” 

Aw. Foiled again. 

She taps at the screen, face nearly smushed against the glass as she clearly finds the recording and plays it again. A grin of her own spreads. Oops. He almost feels sorry for what he's probably unleashed onto Knuckles. Almost. 

“Where is this from?” Her grin’s looking a lil more evil by the second.

Sure she’s been thoroughly distracted from her war on coffee beans (Or was it a war on Shadow? Dang it! Maybe coulda used that somehow). But at what cost?

Eh. It’s probably fine. Knuckles can handle it.

So he leans back into the couch with an evil grin of his own and threads his arms through the quills on the back of his head. Relaxes in place as he firmly decides to delight in the shared goal of causing trouble.

Heh heh. Sux to be Knux. The guy needed to lighten up anyway.

[bisexualbumblebee-writes]

The Insiders Chapter 34: Meant to Be- Sodapop Curtis x Charlie Ikeda

Word Count: 0.6k

February 10, 1966

Charlie walked back to the picnic blanket, where Soda was waiting for her. She found herself continually glancing back at Darry and Ruth, who were standing beside the pond, as she sat down beside her boyfriend. Soda wrapped an arm around her shoulders, directing a smile in his older brother’s direction.

“I’m happy for them, they deserve this,” he mentioned. Charlie glanced at him. 

“Huh? Oh- yeah! Both of them were made for each other,” she agreed. He nodded and kissed the top of her head. 

“I hope we can do that someday.” His words made her blush. 

“Oh gee. I wouldn’t be quite the blushing bride that Ruth would be,” she responded, looking up at him. She looked healthier, though she now had two developed scars, one trailing over the bridge of her nose and the other one bisecting her eyebrow towards the tail. Her hair was choppy and bouncy. She looked tuff, but like she said, she was no bride. 

“Well, obviously I don’t really know about stuff like this, but I don’t really think there’s a standard for what a bride should look like,” he shrugged. “I think you’re pretty no matter how you look or what you’re wearin’.” Charlie shook her head with a small smile. 

“You’re too nice to me Sodapop.” 

“What you call nice, I just call the truth” he responded innocently. For a moment the girl just stared back at him with all the love in the world. 

“You really think you’d wanna marry me?” She asked softly.

“I really do. I’m tellin’ ya Charlie, I love you,” he nodded, the look in his eyes letting her know he was being genuine. The girl smiled then brought a hand up to his cheek. 

“I love you too,” she whispered before pulling him into a quick kiss. Once they pulled away, Charlie giggled. 

“I feel like you got taller while I was gone,” she joked. 

“I feel like you got shorter,” he teased back .“Almost can’t see ya down there.” Charlie put her hands on her hips and made a face at him. 

“I’m short but I can still wreck you,” she half joked. 

“Sure babe,” he laughed softly, making her gasp melodramatically. 

“You- You meanie!”

“Aw I’m sorry,” he responded with a pout, looking apologetic for a split second before a devious smile appeared on his face and he leaned down a bit as if trying to hear her better. “I couldn’t hear ya.” That earned him a scoff, and she smacked his arm lightly before facing Darry as he walked up to the picnic blanket carrying Ruth bridal style. 

“We’re getting married!” He exclaimed, which made everyone cheer. He set her down just in time for everyone to envelop them in a group hug. Once they pulled away they sat down and talked for a while before everyone eventually got into their own conversations. Charlie was practically sitting in Soda’s lap with how close they were, though neither of them were complaining. His arms were wrapped around her waist while her head laid on his shoulder. 

“I don’t know how I ever got so lucky with you,” he whispered into her ear. 

“I could say the same,” she responded, giggling afterwards. Soda merely hummed in response before looking around. 

“It’s kinda weird, I haven’t been here since my folks passed,” he mentioned. For a moment a bittersweet feeling began seeping into him, though it quickly went away when he noticed Charlie had lifted her head to smile at him. 

“I’d like to come here more often now that I have another good memory with it,” he said, nodding towards Darry and Ruth. 

“I know what you mean,” the girl nodded, smiling at the couple for a moment before facing her boyfriend again. And there they sat in content silence, both of them happy that everything was finally over. They could finally be together in peace.

[godesssiri]

Mum has been fielding congratulations calls and messages all afternoon since I put a picture of her and Doug the pug on FB. Everyone is always kinda amazed how she just acquires pure bred animals cheap or free. Her secret is that she always talks to everyone she meets about her animals and she doesn't go for puppies and kittens, she prefers older animals who need a home.

She's had 2 ragdolls, a boy who's previous owner died and a girl who was a breeding queen but she had complications and had to have a hysterectomy. The family of the owner who died knew Mum was a cat nut so they contacted her when they needed to re-home him. Then when he passed Mum contacted his breeder because she thought she would want to know and she just happened to have this queen she needed to find a home for.

Mum has also gotten a British short-hair and a Short-haired exotic (who has sadly passed) from a friend who owned a boarding cattery and was helping re-home them after their owner got dementia and forgot that she had cats and kept trying to chase them out of her house. Mum also got a Maine Coon for my cousin from the same friend - his owner had cancer and knew his wife was just waiting for him to die so she could get rid of the cat cause she hated animals in the house, so he asked the cattery owner for help finding someone. Not that Mum made friends with a cattery owner with any ulterior motive or anything.

We adopted Mum's (recently passed) shitzhu/chihuahua when her owner passed away in our rest home. Then when a friend of the man's daughter rescued a pure bred chihuahua from a drug addict neighbor who was abusing her, the daughter asked us if we were interested. We paid the rescuer back the money she'd offered the drug addict in order to get the poor dog away from her.

One of the staff at our rest home was having money problems, and man problems, and mental health problems, and just was not coping with all her responsibilities. Mum had talked to her about how I planned to adopt a greyhound so when this woman realized she wasn't taking care of her's properly she offered her to me. We gave the staff member money for her dog because we didn't want anyone to think we'd taken advantage, the money made it a transaction where everyone benefited. We also paid off the bill at the vet from the staff member thoughtlessly slamming the car door without checking where the dog was and accidentally amputating the tip of her tail.

I have a half Norweigian Forest cat and his plain ol tabby sister because a woman on a local FB group was trying to re-home them as a pair but no one wanted the sister until I put my hand up and said I'd take both.

With Doug she just wandered into a pet shop and asked if they knew of any older dogs that needed a home. She's been saying that to our vet, staff at a dog friendly cafe we go to a lot, just random people she's gotten chatting with.

Of course we've had plenty of ally cats and mutts too, because we're open to anything, but it's surprisingly easy to get expensive pets for free.

[hideousvoid]

Can you write yandere Leona and Azul(separately) headcanons? Thank you, all your posts here were amazing

Dry and Wet

reader: gender neutral

warnings: stalking mentions, possessive behaviour, manipulation, jealousy, implied violence/blood, slight mention of sexual themes and kidnapping.

Author comment: thank you, I'm trying my best for this blog <33

・゜゜・┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ °

You met him for the first time thanks to Jack, you already knew him since some rumors are present in the school. Leona is two years older than the others since he didn't attend one and failed the other, known for his "laziness" and good grades. You only needed him for a hand with some homeworks that both you and Jack didn't understood, the wolf explained to you how great the dorm leader was.

He certainly is but everyone has their dark secrets, being of the third year Leona knew many people and you being a new student ended in the mouth of many people. It's not often that the dorm leader listens to rumors but since you came there for the first time, why not? Once you two arrived, Ruggie came to warn the dorm leader that some students needed a hand. Many minutes passed before the hyena finally returned to make you two enter, Leona was taking a nap and he wasn't happy of your visit at all.

"warn me before coming here next time, I don't like to get interrupted"

He was patient while helping with the homeworks, clear and very nice. Incredible isn't it? Even though his gaze was most of the time on you, probably got curious since you looked like a normal human. The next days you discovered how charismatic he is, everyone in the dorm loved him, isn't that surprising? You started to see him around more and you didn't know that it was rare, to think that he even skipped classes before. Always in your way or in the same rooms, how was that possible? Had he been following you? Gradually he got more and more closer, standing behind you ready to tease you or just greeting you. You didn't get it at first, the way he talked made it appear for a desire of friendship not for else, Leona was haunting without you even realized it.

"look who is here, hello herbivore, isn't it strange how much we are meeting? Say, are you doing it on purpose to met me?"

The friendship plain actually worked and you went to his room often for a help with school or just to pass some time together, having a third year as a friend was cool, wasn't it? Until his jokes slowly turned to heavy ones with too much flirting or a sexual meaning behind it, he always sat so close that your thighs touched and his tail was near your waist. You didn't give it many importance to it at first, he was only a bit clingy in your mind since the dorm leader never made it too obvious. In advance of those jokes Leona started to pinch you playfully or starting a little fight to make you get closer, gradually adding bites to it or some licks. An evening he pressed his lips against yours making you red as a tomato, why did he do that? You didn't have the time to figure it out before his hands started to stroke your hair as he continued to kiss you. A refuse never escaped from your mouth, he was good at it, pleasant and the way he massaged you was heavenly.

"red for a little kiss? How cute herbivores are"

The same evening he confessed his feelings and you gladly accepted to date him, how could you refuse someone like Leona? Unfortunately there was even no choice, the lion wouldn't have allowed that. Your neck and shoulders started to be often full of bite marks or hickies, everyone must know that you are his. In fact many people didn't even look at you anymore, they knew the type of man was the dorm leader, what can you expect from a lion? Clingy and jealous, warning you everyday about how you should avoiding with some students. One time you had a little chat with Malleus and it didn't end well once you went to Leona, how could you talk to him? With all the students the only one he argues the most? His punishment was cruel and you never dared to talk to the Fae again.

"did it on purpose didn't you, herbivore? Admit that you were seeking for a punishment, and, it's exactly what you are going to receive"

・゜゜・_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

Azul tricked you like he did with anyone else, took advantage of one of your weaknesses to make you fall into his trap. He only needed to send the eels to find out more about you, your needs and general information. Even made sure that his service arrived to your ears, who wouldn't accept a contract so convenient? It took almost a week to realize the perfect plan, he used a notebook where he wrote all the things he knew about you, the options, the choices you could have chosen and a way to put you with your shoulders against a wall.

While brainstorming on it he actually noticed how interesting and lovable you were, oh, but Azul knew that if you found out that it was for love you would have thrown him away. It had to start with a contract only to use you, threating you to let everyone know about your secrets and weakness, do you think he is an idiot? If he screamed it in front of everyone no one would have believed him, so he threaten you to do it slowly, first whispering it to a student and then letting it do his work. Azul can be way too intelligent and scaring when he desires to achieve something. Oh, dear, when you started to sign the paper he got hit by a wave of pleasure and satisfaction, it was working!

Your soft hands signing a contract with the devil, he was trying his best to not smirk and chuckle while staring at the paper. So innocent and pure, you could have never guessed what was going to happen! He bit his right hand pressing his thighs together, the left hand grabbing one of them hard as his breath started to get heavier. The octopus was going insane, so much emotions hit him that moment, thing that lead him to scream his typical phrase.

"it's a deal! Oh (y/n), you will see how good our restaurant and services are! Prepare yourself, dear"

It was only the beginning, in fact he never made you realize how he was leading you to his cave. With soft words and gestures he pampered you, creating a false sense of trust in you, a false version of him to cover his delusional one. You volunteered to help with the monstro lounge to stay more time with him, you never got why Jade and Floyd always started to laugh or smirk in your presence, but why would have taken you to care? They often had something to joke about so it wasn't a problem to you. Every time you entered the office Azul became euphoric, blushing the more you got slowly closer. You started to give him some lights caresses for some reasons, feeling him starting to warm up incredibly fast. Squirming against your touches as you played with his hair or just pinched his cheeks, he is a slut for physical affection. Even starting to ask for massages since his "poor back" hurt all the time, strange that it happened only in your presence.

"you would really help me with a massage, you see since I sit all day here I feel a terrible pain"

He licked often his lips in your presence or just making them do a "pop" hard enough for you to hear, always hydrated as if he was waiting for something. Something that he received! How could you not give up when he is practically begging you for a kiss with all his forces? In a subtle way but he is still trying, you only took his cheeks between your hands and then gave Azul what he truly desired. Pulling you closer to him put the arms around your neck, he wanted you to devour him. Handling you hard and tight, it was pretty noticeable that he was an octopus. The grey haired man laid weak on the chair once you stopped the kiss, looking at him as if he run a marathon.

"more, give me more my pearl! I want you to eat me, grab me or squeeze!"

He handled you perfectly around his finger, you were always with him or the twins helping with the restaurant. You were so good for him, without noticing you started to avoid your friends and became one with the eels, dragging yourself in his lair. Floyd and Jade pushing you more in it to help their octopus friend, there was no way to escape something you unfortunately got yourself into. Met a man too cunning and smart, his hands making you move like a chess piece.

"you waited just for me? Oh my, you are so sweet, I think I'm going to have an heart attack!"

[charmercharm3r]

Dead but Pretty

LMH

Masterlist

wc: 2k of fluff

Synopsis: golden retriever girlfriend, hates-everyone-except-her-boyfriend Minho. Jisung is kinda a jerk.

-

“This one! This place is so good,” you pulled your boyfriend by the hand into the second cafe of the day. Minho was a homebody, if he could cook for you every day he would. When he suggested you two spend a day outside together because the weather was nice, you couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Though overhearing your day plans, Jisung and Hyunjin invited themselves to tag along and turn your date into a group outing. “Oh, I like this place too! The bakery items are always so fresh,” Jisung cooed from behind you. Minho had initially opened the door to let you in, placing his hand on the small of your back to usher you inside, but Jisung had cut him off and scurried on your tail. You could hear him scoff as Hyunjin followed behind Jisung and patted your boyfriend on the shoulder with a, “thanks, hyung.”

Minho immediately found your side again, letting you wrap your arm around his and he shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “What do you want?” his question was directed to you, hence him only looking at you as your eyes scanned the menu.

“The lavender latte sounds good,” Hyunjin responded before you did. Minho ignored his friend and kept his attention between you and the menu hanging above the counter. “I think I’ll get the hazelnut,” Jisung quipped.

“What about you?” Minho asked you again, this time nudging your side a little. You brought your free hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, scrunching your nose a bit as you thought about what you wanted to order. “I think peach tea and a croissant,” you looked up at him contently, “what looks good to you?” 

Your boyfriend was generally a routine guy, didn’t like straying from his usuals, but today was a day he wanted to spend doing the things you enjoyed. So when he said he wanted the same as you, it made your tummy flutter just a little. “Two peach teas and two croissants, please,” he’d told the cashier. A short but loud, “ahem,” from behind the two of you made your boyfriend huff slightly, “and one lavender and one hazelnut latte, as well.” Minho handed the cashier his card as you patted him gently on the back. Another, “thanks, hyung!” rang from your two friends. 

The four of you sat at a table and were talking about the most mundane of things, but it felt all the more interesting to Minho because it was you. He wasn’t one to speak much unless spoken to, which is what he preferred. With you, it was mostly you talking to yourself and him listening because he just loved how the little things made you giddy. Being younger than him, he felt like he had to take care of you, but not in a parenting or older sibling kind of way. You didn’t need him to take care of you, but he needed to make sure nothing came in the way of your happiness. And he made sure of that, you were untouchable.

When anyone gets too comfortable talking to you in any manner that isn’t polite, that’s where Minho steps in. “No one wants to admit it, but Venti is only good because he’s the anemo god. If he were a normal bow user, he’d be basic as hell,” you told Jisung. He didn’t know much about what game you were talking to him about, only a few characters and a basic storyline because of how often you play.

“That’s just ‘cause us you’re shit at using bow users,” Jisung shoots back, obviously offended by your statement. Hyunjin just sat back and watched the heating conversation unfold between you and your friend. Both Minho and Hyunjin’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of you as you continued to tell him all the pros and cons of the characters neither of them knew anything about. You weren’t someone who yelled, not in an angry way at least. But your voice did slightly raise from the quiet octave you usually spoke in when Jisung said something out of pocket that made you slam your hand on the table, “I pay for my own membership, asshole. Did you forget I also paid for yours for the past three months?”

“Did you forget you use my wifi at my house? I expect reparations in the form of primogems,” the squirrel-like boy retorted.

“I’m changing the Netflix password.”

“Minho pays for Netflix, you can’t do that.” All pairs of eyes were on him as Jisung smirked pre-triumphantly. He shrugged, leaning his left elbow onto the table to rest his chin and the other arm draped along the back of your chair, “she can do whatever she wants.” His fingertips played lightly with your hair as Jisung continued to try and prove his point.

“You always give her anything she wants, hyung. Be a man and grow some ba-”

The humor from your boyfriend’s face faded. “Don’t finish that sentence unless you want to die,” Minho bore his eyes diagonally across the table into Jisung, daring him. You and Hyunjin looked at each other, trying not to laugh at the serious interaction that was currently taking over the previously playful one. Minho’s stone cold expression didn’t falter, Jisung looked like he was going to cry. Easing the tension, you put a hand on his thigh under the table.

“It’s okay, he’s right. But at least I don’t take advantage of your kindness, like some people,” you cocked your head at Jisung who seemed slightly embarrassed. The red tint on his cheeks grew as he readjusted his hat to hide his ears under. “I’m kidding, Ji. Don’t shit your pants,” he let out a sigh.

“Tell your boyfriend to stop looking at me like he’s going to strangle me in my sleep tonight.”

You ran your hand up and down Minho’s thigh soothingly as you turned your body so your knees bumped with his. Though he didn’t look like it, you could tell he was fuming inside at the comment. His fingers still twirled your hair behind your back, trying to calm himself down. “He’ll strangle anyone who is mean to Y/N, Jisung, including us. Why do you still bother teasing?” Hyunjin lightly punched his friend’s arm, smiling at you and Minho. Jisung, although still slightly flustered, dropped the topic and moved to a new one that was mostly him and Hyunjin. Your boyfriend hardly touched his drink after that, only finishing the croissant because you forced him to.

“Wanna go somewhere? Just us?” you half whispered to him, your friends not paying any attention. He nodded, sitting up and adjusting his coat. “Guys, we’re gonna head out. See you,” you interrupted them, standing from your seat. Hyunjin and Jisung looked up and said their goodbyes while you walked behind them to ruffle both of their heads. They looked to Minho who just gave them a nod and started towards the door, holding his hand out for you to take.

The day had grown a little later than you thought, the air was cooling and the sun began to set, though it was nice since you had Minho’s coat to shove your intertwined hands into. The two of you walked in comfortable silence down the street and towards the sunset, taking your time. With the sky painted the brightest shades of orange and pink, you almost forgot the taunting your boyfriend endured. Minho looked down at you a split second after you tilted your head up to him. He quirked an eyebrow at you quizzically, making you smile and bite his covered shoulder gently. Grabbing at his shoulder, he overdramatically gasped and played into it as if you had actually hurt him. You laughed at him, kissing his ‘wounded’ shoulder better. Minho was never much for words, and with you he never had to be, you just always knew. Like now, you could feel the bits of anger in the way his hand firmly continued to hold yours as the two of you strolled into a book cafe. You pulled him to a cozy nook that had required a small ladder to reach, inside was a blanket, pillows, and a gaming console. He only let go of your hand to take yours and his coats off and leave in the nook to claim, retaking as quickly as he let go. He let you lead him to the manga section, picking out a story for yourself and finding something with lots of pictures you thought he’d enjoy.

Minho didn’t particularly like public displays of affection that would gross out other people, however he always felt the need to be touching you in some way. Back in your booth you sat facing each other. It was a small space, his feet touched the wall your back was against with his knees slightly bent with you between them, your own legs draped over his right thigh. A few minutes passed as you read, however you could see his eyebrows furrowing together and his jaw tensing from over the top of your book, though it didn’t seem like he noticed you staring. “He didn’t mean it,” you said softly, putting the book down. Minho didn’t respond, only pursing his lips, probably trying to think of something to say to justify his anger. You let him simmer for a bit, not pressing him to speak. Calmingly, you let your hand toy with the bottom hem of his pants and run along his calf.

“What made him think that was okay to say,” he mumbled from behind the book, not looking at you. He bit his lip and ran a hand through his brown hair, annoyed. “About you not being man enough?” You tilted your head, trying to understand.

“No, about you. He thinks you take advantage of me,” Minho threw the book to the side and folded his hands in his lap. The both of you spoke quietly, not wanting to disturb the other patrons. His eyes were slightly glazed, big and rounded even though he was trying to keep a lid on his anger. “How could he think that of you?”

Stalling your hand on his knee, you replied, “does it matter what he thinks of me?”

“It matters to me. I spoil you because you deserve it. You never asked for it, I want to do it. They know that, so why are you okay with how he talks to you?” You could see his chest rising and falling quicker now and the glaze over his eyes more apparent.

“Because I know that too. I don’t need their approval. They’re our friends but their opinions are just… opinions.” The gears in his head were starting to turn as you explained your lack of reaction to Jisung’s previous words. “I understand why you’re upset,” was all you said before climbing over his leg and sitting beside him to rest your head on his shoulder again. He took your hand and laced his fingers between yours, bringing them up to his lips to place a soft kiss. “If you still wanna smother him in his sleep, you can use my pillow.” Minho let out a hearty laugh, pulling you down to wrap both arms around your neck in a headlock and continue to laugh into your hair.

“No, you smell too good. He might enjoy it.” He quickly brushed some hair from your face to plant a quick couple kisses on your cheek before letting you sit up straight again. “What were you reading?” Minho asked quietly, grabbing the book from your previous spot.

“Something about zombies. Would you still love me if I was a zombie?”

“Would I be a zombie too?”

“No.”

“Yeah, I’d still love you. You’d be dead, but at least you’d still be pretty.” You leaned your back off the wall and turned so you faced him again, but closer. Leaning your knees onto his hip and nudging him back and forth, silly smiling, you said, “ooooh you think I’m pretty?”

“I also said you’d be dead.”

“Dead but pretty,” you wiggled your eyebrows at him and leaned forward, pecking his lips quickly. Blush crept onto his cheeks as he threw his arms around your neck to bring you in for another headlock and lay in his lap, craning down to give you another kiss but this time softly and sensually. He didn’t need to say anything else, and for once neither did you.

-

A/N: softish boyfie Minho cus I think he's the cutest. Ever so slightly cross based off a song I saw on TikTok called "dead but pretty" and that one mu:ply skz episode where they went to an arcade and a book cafe when Minho hurt his leg and couldn't walk around with them so he waited for them at the cafe. Anyway feedback is always appreciated!

-momo < 3

[sineala]

How would you say fandom culture has changed over the years? What are some differences you notice between older and younger fandom folks?

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to answer this, and I’m not sure I have a really good answer, but I’m going to try.

I’ve been in fandom since approximately 1995. Maybe 1994. At that point, the world wide web was a relatively new part of the internet, and the fandoms I was in had most of their activity on privately-hosted mailing lists (predating eGroups/OneList/Yahoo Groups) and on Usenet newsgroups, with fiction beginning to be available on websites as part of either fandom-specific or pairing-specific archives as well as authors’ individual pages. Fanfiction.net did not yet exist. LiveJournal did not exist. AO3 definitely did not exist. If you wanted real-time chat, there was IRC. I was coming in basically at the tail end of zine fandom; zines were no longer the only way of distributing fanfiction, as fandom started to move online. So I have a selection of zines from 90s-era Western media fandoms but even by then zines weren’t where I was doing most of my reading.

I think in terms of generally “what it was like to be in fandom,” the big-picture stuff hasn’t changed. Fandom still produces creative fanwork and likes to, y’know, get together and talk about fandom. Also, almost every fight or complaint that fandom has about something is a thing that has been going on for actual years. People complain that, say, the kudos button is ruining comment culture because back in the LJ days the only way you could comment on a story was, well, by leaving an actual comment, or sending an email on a mailing list, and this might mean that people who would have otherwise commented have left a kudos instead. But back in the LJ and mailing list days, people were complaining that commenting was going downhill since the days of zines, when in order to comment on a story you had to write a real paper letter and mail it and because you had to do that, the quality of feedback was so much better than you got nowadays because people could just dash off a quick email or comment. You get the idea. Top/bottom wars are not new either. Pairing wars are not new. If you’ve been in fandom a while, you will pretty much have seen all the fights already. I think one thing that is new, though, is the fandom awareness of things like privilege and intersectionality and various -isms, as well as things like “providing warnings might be nice” (do you know how much unwarned deathfic I have read? a lot!) and I sure won’t say we’re perfect at any of this now, but I think fandom is trying way way more about all that stuff than it used to.

There are some fights we actually don’t have anymore, as far as I can tell. I feel like it’s been years since I’ve seen the “real person fiction is wrong” battle, but also I don’t hang out in a whole lot of RPF fandoms, so it’s possible that’s still going and I just don’t see it.

There also used to be a recurring debate about whether gay relationships that were canonical were slash or not. When slash started, obviously this wasn’t a question because there weren’t canonical gay relationships in fandoms, period. But as gay characters began to appear in media, people started to wonder “does slash mean all same-sex relationships, or does slash mean only non-canonical same-sex relationships?” Now, you may be reading this and think that sounds like an incredibly weird thing to get hung up on, but that’s because what appears to have happened is that the term “ship” (originally from X-Files Mulder/Scully fandom) has, as far as I can tell, come up and eaten most of the rest of the terminology. Now people will just say, “oh, I ship that.” For any pairing, gay or not, canonical or not. Fandom seems to have decided that for the most part it no longer actually needs a term specific to same-sex relationships as a genre.

Similarly, there are a few genres of fic that we used to have also pretty much don’t exist anymore. There are also plenty of genres that are well-entrenched now that are also extremely recent -- A/B/O comes to mind. But there are some kinds of fic we don’t write a lot of now. Like, I haven’t seen smarm in years! I also haven’t seen We’re Not Gay We Just Love Each Other in a while. There was also a particular style of slash writing where you’d basically have to explain, in detail, what made you think that these particular characters could be anything other than straight. You’d have to motivate this decision. You’d have to look at their canonical heterosexual relationships and come up with a way to explain why all those had happened in order to reconcile how this one guy could have romantic feelings for another guy. When had he figured out he wasn’t straight? Who might he have been with before? How does he interact with people in ways that make you think he’s not straight? That kind of thing. You had to, essentially, show your work. And these days a lot of fanfic is just like, “Okay, Captain America is bisexual, let’s go!” It’s... different.

Fandom also used to skew older, is my sense. A lot older. I don’t know, actually, if it really was older, but I get the sense now that there are some younger people who are surprised that adults are still in fandom. I have seen people saying these days that they think they’re too old for fanfiction because they are not in middle school anymore. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the barriers to access fandom are a lot lower than they used to be. You used to basically have to be an adult with disposable income (or know an adult with disposable income who was willing to help you out; but even then if you were reading explicit fiction you also had to swear you were 18+, usually by sending in an age statement to whoever you were buying the zine from or to the mods of the list you wanted to join, so a lot of fandom was very much age-gated). Internet access was not widely available. Even if you had internet access, you maybe didn’t have your own email address, so you couldn’t sign up for mailing lists; free email providers didn’t exist. If you wanted to buy zines, you had to have money to buy them. If you wanted to go to cons, you had to be able to afford the cost of the con, travel to the con, et cetera. If you wanted to have a website you had to know HTML. Social media did not exist. You want to draw art? Guess what, you’re probably drawing it on paper! You might be able to upload a picture to your website if you have a digital camera or a scanner, but both of those things are expensive, and also a lot of people don’t have the capability or the money to download pictures from the internet (some people have data caps with overage charges, and some people have text-only connections!), so they won’t get to see it. Maybe you can sell your piece at a con! You want to make a fanvid? We called them songvids, but, anyway, you know how you’re doing that? You’re going to hook two VCRs together and smash the play and record buttons very fast! If you want anyone else to watch them, you are either making them a tape personally and mailing it to them or bringing your vids to a convention. Maybe you can digitize them and upload them, but it’s going to take people hours to download them!

(Every three hours my ISP would kick me off the internet and I’d have to dial in again. If it was a busy time of day, it might take me 20 or 30 minutes to get a connection again. And that was assuming no one else in the house needed to use the phone line. Imagine if your modem went out every three hours now.)

And now, for the cost of my internet connection, I can read pretty much whatever fanfiction I want, whenever I want it. I can see all the fanart I want! I can watch vids! Podfic exists now! Fanmixes exist! Gifsets and moodboards exist! If I want to write fic I can write it with programs that are completely free, and as soon as I post it everyone in the entire world can read it. If I want to draw or make vids that may require some additional investment, but I may also be able to do it with things I already have. Do you have any idea how good we all have it?

There are a couple of kinds of fan activity that don’t seem to exist anymore, though, and I miss them. I know that roleplaying still goes on, but I feel like these days most people who do real-time text roleplay have switched to things like Discord. I know that in the LJ days, RP communities were popular. But I really miss MU*s (MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs, MUXes..), which were servers for real-time text-based RP with a bunch of... hmm... features to aid RP. There were virtual rooms with text descriptions, and objects in virtual rooms with descriptions, and your character had a description, and they could interact with the objects as well as with other characters, and you could program things to change descriptions or emit various kinds of text or take you to different rooms, and so on. Just to, y’know, enhance the atmosphere. It was fun and it was where I learned to RP and I’m sad they’re pretty much gone now.

I also don’t think I see a lot of fanfiction awards in fandoms. Wonder where they went.

Going back to the previous point, the barriers to actually consuming the canon you are fannish about are way, way, way lower now. You can pretty much take it for granted that if right now someone tells you about a shiny new fandom, there will be a way to read that book or watch that show or movie right now. Possibly for free! Of course you can watch it! Why wouldn’t you be able to?

This was absolutely, absolutely not the case before. I’m currently in Marvel Comics fandom. If there is a comic I want to read, I can read it right now on the internet. I have subscribed to Marvel Unlimited and I can read pretty much every comic that is older than three months old; the newer ones cost extra money. But I can do it all from the comfort of my own home right now. I was also, actually, in Marvel Comics fandom in the nineties. If I wanted to read a comic, I had to go to a comic book store and hope they had it in stock; if they didn’t, I had to try another store. Not a lot of comics were available in trade paperback and they definitely weren’t readable on the internet. I used to read a lot of Gambit h/c fic set after Uncanny X-Men #350. I never found a copy of UXM #350. I still haven’t! But I did eventually read it on Unlimited.

Being in TV show fandoms also had similar challenges. Was the show you were watching still on the air? No? Then you’d better hope you could find it in reruns, or know someone who had tapes of it that they could copy for you, otherwise you weren’t watching that show. It was, I think, pretty common for people to be in fandoms for shows they hadn’t seen, because they had no way to see the show, but they loved all the fanfic. The Sentinel had a whole lot of fans like that, both because I think it took a while for it to end up in reruns and because overseas distribution was probably poor. So you’d get people who read the fic and wrote fic based on the other fic they’d read, which meant that you got massive, massive amounts of fanon appearing that people just assumed was in the show because it was a weirdly specific detail that appeared in someone’s fic once. Like “Jim and Blair’s apartment has a small water heater” (not actually canonical) or “Blair is a vegetarian” (there’s an episode where his mother visits and IIRC cooks him one of his favorite meals, which is beef tongue).

Like, I was in The Professionals fandom for years. I read all the fic. I hadn’t seen the show. As far as I know, it never aired in the US, and it certainly never had any kind of US VHS or DVD release. I’d seen a couple songvids. I eventually saw a couple episodes in maybe 2003, and that was because my dad special-ordered a commercial VHS tape from the UK and paid someone to convert it from PAL to NTSC. I didn’t get to see the whole show until several years later when I got a region-free DVD player someone in fandom sent me burned copies of the UK DVD releases and then I special-ordered the commercial release of the DVDs from the UK myself. But if I were a new fan and wanted to watch Pros right now? It is on YouTube! For free!

I think also one of the things about fandom that’s not immediately evident to new fans is the way in which it is permanent and/or impermanent. There are probably people whose first fannish experience is on Tumblr or who only read fanfic on FFN and who have no idea what they would do if either site, say, just shut down. But if you’ve been in fandom a while, you’ve been through, say, Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, Imzy, DW, JournalFen, LJ, GeoCities, IRC, mailing lists. And sure, if Tumblr closed, it would be inconvenient. But fandom would pack up and move somewhere else. You would find it again. It would, eventually, be okay. Similarly, if you’ve been in a lot of fandoms, if you’ve made a lot of friends, drifting through fandoms is like that. You’ll make a friend in 1998 because you were in the same fandom, and then you might go your own ways, and ten years later you might be in another fandom with them again! It happens.

But the flip side of that is that I think a lot of older fans have learned not to trust in the permanence of any particular site. If you like a story, you save it as soon as you read it. If you like a piece of art, you save it. If you like a vid, you save it. Because you don’t know when the site it’s on will be gone for good. I have, like, twenty years of lovingly-curated fanfic. And I feel like people who have only been in fandom since AO3 existed might not understand how much AO3 is a game-changer compared to what we had before. It’s a site where you can put your fic up and you don’t have to worry that the webhost is going out of business, or that the site might delete your work because they don’t allow gay fiction or explicit fiction or fiction written in second person or fiction for fandoms where the creator doesn’t like fanfiction, or whatever. Because all of those things have absolutely happened. But, I mean, I still save pretty much everything I like, even on AO3, just in case.

So, basically, yeah, fandom is a whole lot more accessible than it used to be. I think fandom is pretty much still fandom, but it’s a lot easier to get into, and that has made it way more open to people who wouldn’t have been able to be in fandom before. There is so, so much more now than there ever was before, and I think that’s great.