#I think it’d be very funny they’re constantly trying to one-up each-other in various ways 😩

[spiderin-space]

Disciple Rivalry 😩

[autumnslance]

About Plagiarism

I left a long, planned essay on Twitter tonight. I will copy the meat of it here for y’all, as recently a friend was copied (a rarer ship in the fandom, so very noticeable by the writer and their regular beta reader) and it seems we need a Talk, kids. Links and screenshots and my rambling underway.

------

Apparently we need to discuss what is and isn’t plagiarism. Especially in FanFic where we're interacting with the same characters, settings, ideas. Let’s start with the dictionary and continue the thread from there (I like the word origin/history personally):

Definition of plagiarize

transitive verb  : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

The Kidnapping Roots of Plagiarize

If schools wish to impress upon their students how serious an offense plagiarism is, they might start with an explanation of the word’s history. Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius “kidnapper.” This word, derived from the Latin plaga (“a net used by hunters to catch game”), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another. When plagiarius first entered English in the form plagiary, it kept its original reference to kidnapping, a sense that is now quite obsolete.

“Ideas” is fuzzy in the Merriam-Webster definition. There are story archetypes that exist in many forms. Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth/Hero's Journey outlines many famous stories. And it's popular to say that “Avatar” is “Dances with Wolves” is “Pocahontas” is “The Last Samurai” etc.

But note how while those films have similar plotlines--”Military Guy falls for Native woman, learns to appreciate her Culture, stands up to Evil Bosses”--none of them execute those ideas in the same way. Sully’s story is different from Dunbar’s not just cuz one’s a Science Fiction epic and the other a Western. Disney's “Pocahontas” Very Loosely takes history and uses the same story beats. The Last Samurai uses the Meiji era Westernization. Same ideas, different executions, even beyond settings.

None of these are plagiarizing each other though the ideas are similar. They’re told in their own ways, own language; both in the genres they belong to (Western, Pseudo-History, SciFi, Animated) and how characters interact with each other and settings. Original dialogues (variable quality).

We also see this in books as similar novel plots get published in waves so we end up with bunches of post-apocalypse teen revolutionaries or various vampires or lots of young wizard stories all at once. Sometimes ideas just happen like this; multiple discovery, simultaneous invention, concurrent inspiration, cognitive emergence are all phrases I’ve seen for it. So it happens in original content as well, and legality gets fuzzy (Also why you don't send authors your fanfic ideas).

In existing properties, this gets trickier but even “Elementary”’s Holmes and Watson are nothing like the BBC’s “Sherlock” characters. Who are nothing like other versions of the Detective and his Doctor pal over the decades in various media properties.

FanFic's in a similar position where like Sherlock Holmes we play with the same characters, setting, and storyarcs but give our own spin to them. People can and will have similar ideas about plots. Trick is to use your own words. Take the characters and make the story your own.

I have a good example courtesy of @raelly-writing​. We both ship Wolcred. We both wrote soft post-Paglth’an scenes with Thancred and our WoLs. Both features the couples helping each other undress, examining injuries, bathing, bantering. My fic was written soon after 5.5 part 1 came out. Dara’s is much more recent. Yet at no point reading hers did I feel she was copying my words. The PoVs differ. Our characters focus on different things. Mine has a mini-arc concerning the Nutkin.

The links for comparison’s sake (and maybe leave kudos/comments if so inclined please and thanks). Note while the scenes are very similar no phrases are written in the same way. Mine: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25417882/chapters/76059467 Dara’s: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067565/chapters/81832915

Dara and I both hang out in certain Discords and I know conversations about Thancred and WoL caring for each other post-battle has come up in those channels and we've both participated. It’s a stock FanFic scene to boot. Cuz it's soft and feels warm and snuggly.

I HAVE been copied before, back in WoW. My case is pretty clear cut so here are the images of my old RP Haven profile (1st, old RP website) and the plagiarist’s RSP (2nd, an in game mod to share descriptions and basic info). 

This was a decade ago on Shadow Council and I think the character deleted so any Availa’s in WoW now aren’t the same person. I left the names to point out what changed. Just the names and a word or 2 to make sense for the class changes as well. Otherwise lifted directly from my RP profile.

The funny part is how the person got caught. Literally walked into our weekly RP Guild meeting that I was running and asked to join. Folks noticed right away the similar backstory; after all there may have been more Outland-born Azerothians. My initial excitement at a character I could weave into our story turned to gut-twisting rage and grief as I recognized my own exact words though. Words I’d carefully crafted and constantly iterated on to improve over time (before and after this incident, until the site died).

When caught they tried to claim their significant other had leveled the character for them and made up the backstory based on Skyrim. If you know WoW’s Outland story and Skyrim’s plot you know how ridiculous that is. Also tried to lie about other drama I knew about thanks to roommate's characters but hey. I had to be blunt that I’d shared the info with Haven mods and other guild officers Alliance and Horde. That we would not “laugh about this” one day though lucky this was “just” RP not original or academic work. Cuz if it'd been monetized or academic I would've raked them through the coals.

I felt violated. Hurt. Had anxiety attacks. They took MY WORDS and tried to claim them as theirs. Have another character born in Outland trained by Draenei; Awesome! Our characters have an instant connect in similarities and differences of that experience. Don’t steal my characters wholesale!

Then the audacity of trying to come into my guild as if no one would notice. ShC wasn’t a large server by then, still active but not nearly Wyrmrest Accord or Moon Guard big. My character was well known due to my writing and RP. Speaking of how easy it is to get caught in specific spaces...A case of a self-published novelist getting noticed for plagiarizing fanfic was discovered recently (explicit erotica examples through the thread).

One way they got noticed was how much content they put out in only a year, lifted from fandom. The examples in Kokom’s threads show how the material was altered but still recognizable. In some cases, just the names are changed as in my experience. In other passages more has changed but you can still see the bones of the original fic poking through in the descriptions and character interactions, even with adjustments made.

Similar ideas happen. Similar plots exist. Same 'ships with friends are fun! In FanFic we’re working with the same material. It’s possible to write a similar scene differently. To make that scene and characters your own. All we’re asking is not to copy others' words. Others' characters. Others' specific phrases and descriptions used to bring those words, those characters, to life. Use your own. In the end you’ll be happier.

I get wanting to have what the perceived “popular people” have. I get seeing concepts others succeed with and wanting some of that too. We all get a bit jealous now and then for various reasons. Sometimes we don't even realize it, consciously. But do it in your own way. Maybe check to see if you’re getting a bit too close to the “inspiration” you admired, maybe reread often. Don’t hurt your fellow creatives. If you do and get caught don’t try to double down. Have the grace to be abashed at least and work to do better. Eventually you WILL get caught. All it takes is once to throw all else you've done into question. Ao3 doesn’t take kindly to plagiarists. Nor do a lot of fan communities focused on writing and RP. Getting back that trust is hard. The internet doesn’t forget easily, for good or ill.

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-08-06

♪ HS2 HS2 is baaaaack ♪

♪ HS2bloggin here we gooooo ♪

♪ Structural changes on their team but I don’t caaaaare ♪

♪ Already resooolved myself that its NOOOT gonna beee as good ♪ with inattentiveness to details characters like Terezi forgetting-what-they-used-to-know and an obsession with dwelling on traaageeeDEEE without relief-or-considering how weee’d feeeeeeel~ ♪♪♪ --so just gonna enjoy-what-i-caaaaaan about iiit~ ♪♪♪

Okay time for bankruptcy

> CHAPTER 11. History's Most Notorious Haters

Let’s see how effectively my perky new lowered-expectations attitude lets me enjoy this comic  *click*

wut

Oh.  so is this Dave drawing comics about current events or Regular Calliope doing so for our very first lanky look at her presumably-grown-up-more cherub form

> Knight: Keep it real.

HOLY SHIT IT’S DAVEBOT AND ARADIA

so we just get to SEE them?!  just like that???  no buildup or anything?  :D

Okay I’m marking out a little that’s a good sign.  Also what a nerdy cop-out to turn the roboteyes into glasses that’s barely passable which is perfect, the rest of his outfit looks pretty cool tho

DAVEBOT: and thats reason four hundred nineteen why despite my mans many accomplishments i will never acknowledge big skateboardings contrived message that tony hawk is the quintessential skater of our generation ARADIA: o_o DAVEBOT: not in these trying times

Good to see Ultimate Dave is being true to form with regards to the core of his personality

DAVEBOT: beep boop ARADIA: i have told you several times that i was a robot before and i know for a fact you dont have to say beep boop DAVEBOT: hm that sounds fake does not compute ARADIA: david DAVEBOT: mom

I was with this conversation until the last two lines what the fuck

(I’m reading into it aren’t I, Aradia was trying to be atypically proper -- even though she wouldn’t have the frame of reference to know without being specifically told that “Dave” was considered nickname shorthand for the human name David, and thus if she DID know there’s no reason she’d use it except to troll him -- and Dave’s just mocking her response.  Without any shame about his continued weirdness of calling people Mom, and by without any shame I mean he made the choice EXPLICITLY to intentionally evoke the awkwardness.  Wow I got a lot out of two lines.)

(Oh, also alt!Callie’s true Jade-body incarnation here probably prompted her to start using “David” by example.  There, various mysteries solved via a pile of assumptions probably to be disproven in the next couple lines I read.)

The Knight and the Maid stare at each other briefly, having exchanged enough meaningful glances over their time together to know when to drop it.

Would Time players have an easier time gelling this way, like this particular smoothness?  Dropping it just before it gets weird or excessively irritating?

(Overclasspecting)

ARADIA: i think we have exchanged enough meaningful glances over our time together to know when to drop this DAVEBOT: what i enjoy about our conversations is that you just say things like that

OKAY I SNRK’D AT THAT.  That was funny.

Initially.  And now I’m concerned whether Aradia is being controlled by the narrative-speak, or whether they’re both just humorously referencing the meta-text they can both see, or--

ARADIA: oh is that what you enjoy ARADIA: well we are both an infinite number of years old living countless lifetimes at once but thats no reason to waste any of our...

WHAT??!?  She’s an Ultimate Self too?!?

Um, okay!  Yeah!  So they’re BOTH just riffing on the narrative then.  But... why would Dave need a robot body to accommodate his Ultimate Psyche without getting sick but Rose not need it?  I can understand Dirk not needing it because the merging of the full breadth of his multiversal individuality gels well with him being a God of the aspect governing the power of his multiversal individuality, but Aradia?

Were the robot bodies not necessary after all, and the sickness Rose suffered and Obama thought Dave would have suffered some sort of ruse?  Are there shenanigans afoot?  (Or are we going with the “troll biology is better” cop-out?)

She knows how this will play out, having undoubtedly tried this joke on her friend in some timeline or another. Their rapport reflects a unique combination of their matching aspects but greatly differing classes. One a passive but powerful servant to time, the other wielding the aspect like a honed blade.

WH

WHAT????

PASSIVE SERVANT OF THE ASPECT?!? WHAT THE FUCK

Okay if that means anything like it sounds like I guess my class chart is finally blown up, sure, they only waited (*checks last edit date*) SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS TO BLOW THAT GUESS UP, SURE

Wow.  Okay, I feel some obligation to jump to conclusions and say the whole class chart is wrong, but let me stay strapped in to see if “passive” is as literal as one would expect alt!Callie to mean, or it just means “an active class passive compared to other classes”.  And, serving the aspect?  Oh dammit, now people are gonna come at me advocating a Maid / Page dichotomy about actively serving the aspect versus allowing the aspect to be served... or Page / Maid even, jesus

I wish I had enough energy to have those chats anymore.  I’d rather hold on and see the whole ridiculous chart scheme they have in mind... which is definitely (and hopefully) the one Andrew really drew up at the time and not made up by the staff, even if it throws away plenty of my old work...  I’ll just stop thinking about it and keep reading.

...

--no, I don’t think I can just stop thinking about it yet.  Dammit, brain.

So um.  Maids serving their aspect.  There was a whole “Maids serve” thing going on throughout the whole plot of Homestuck, but despite how prevalent it was, I wrote it off as the story riffing on the classical definition of Maid when the actual stuff Maids accomplished was something different and more specific, just like Knights constantly got riffed on for chivalry and the like.  Furthermore, service seemed like a really shitty class definition, when class definitions are the verbs one uses to interact with reality through Aspects to change the way reality unfolds, and “serving” isn’t really an action that results in change, implying a distinct deficit of agency that I wouldn’t have viewed as fair.  (Especially since you originally think “meant to serve others” and not “meant to serve the aspect”, implying even LESS agency.)  Furthermore, MOST passive classes from their descriptions seem to have a propensity to act “as if by the will of the aspect”, so even with the nuance of “serving the aspect”, devoting an entire class verb to service would just step on the territory of other active/passive class pairs’ passive sides, right?

But... IF we were to take this for granted as what it SEEMS... then concentrating on that angle of “serving the aspect” implies a whole lot more agency than a service class might sound on its surface.  The definition fits with the story better once you contextualize all the Maid-y references to service around Jane, for instance, with the additional idea of “serving Life” by baking prolifically and creating more of its symbols in food and--

--fuck.  “Serving”, like serving to others.  Serving the aspect as its attendant AND serving it out to others that need it.  Maybe this still IS part of the Additive class pair!  Whoa.  :O

Okay okay so, what I/we thought before was:

Create/Add - Maid / Sylph

Destroy/Reduce - Prince / Bard

But “additive” really isn’t an elegant verb compared to the “Destroyer” classes, so... could it be the “Servants” and the “Destroyers”?  Like Maids cleaning up and healing the broken wreckage strewn through the halls by a bratty Prince’s tantrum???

It’d certainly be weird... and it’d CERTAINLY be a wild twist where I was partially wrong in some fascinating ways but not entirely off base?

One a passive but powerful servant to time, the other wielding the aspect like a honed blade.

And yet, I can’t bet on this being the situation yet; not at all.  First, it relies on the idea that alt!Callie’s explicit narrative here is slightly misleading, which would be a pretty extreme thing to commit to, even for a technical truth like “she was saying it was passive relative to other classes even though it’s technically “active””.  Second... it would mean that Muses are even more wildly defined than the previous insinuation of hers, that the Sylph -- what we thought was the passive additive class -- was not enough like a Muse compared to a Witch.  Muses not being that Additive?  I could grudgingly understand that, but Muses not being anything like passive Servants?!  That would be EXTREMELY weird!

So... there’s not a whole lot of chance that I’m not dramatically wrong somewhere about these classes!  In a way that throws the entire chart into disarray!

I’m... oddly excited?  Huh.

That’s a pretty nice surprise that I actually feel that way.

:)

(Don’t hit me up all at once to discuss this Classpect development over Discord, I’ll still need a few days without talking about Homestuck to recharge as usual.  Like... maybe wait and come at me as a group chat? So I’m not talking about the latest developments separately with everyone?  No that wouldn’t work, how about... guh I dunno, look my outlook’s a little more positive right now but dealing with Homestuck still takes emotional energy okay?)

Okay the rest of this page...

ARADIA: ... DAVEBOT: time then make a weird face ARADIA: ........ DAVEBOT: waste time DAVEBOT: time ARADIA:............. DAVEBOT: i experience all points of time simultaneously please just say time and make a weird face

This is true.

ARADIA: .................. DAVEBOT: cmon megido youre killing me clocks ticking ARADIA: ... ARADIA: time o_o

The Maid casts a furtive glance around the empty crew quarters, as though to search for someone more sympathetic to her bit.

ARADIA: tough crowd

Dorks.

> ==>

(Lazy fruit-throwing sword-training I won’t bother to screenshot but looks fun)

(I mean, really lazy looking, these people really don’t have Andrew’s knack for action composition that would make the same amount of gif-creation effort feel like a microcosm of the event they’re depicting, unfortunately.  Again, I don’t blame them; Andrew was just too good at it.)

DAVEBOT: ok heres one DAVEBOT: how old do you think you are ARADIA: emotionally? ARADIA: that is a pretty heavy topic DAVEBOT: you know damn well thats not what i meant ARADIA: you know I have been through a lot dave DAVEBOT: ok ARADIA: its just so kind of someone DAVEBOT: ok i get it ARADIA: to finally ask how i feel ARADIA: i am beside myself with emotions ARADIA: i want to open up DAVEBOT: jesus christ ARADIA: shall i open up about my past traumas to you ARADIA: would you enjoy that ARADIA: to think even a frog like me can work through their pain with a dear friend ARADIA: you have truly blessed me on this day dave strider

Is Aradia JUST trolling here or is her Ultimate Self grappling with a ton of real unresolved trauma too that she’s bullshitting around Dave-style?

DAVEBOT: times fun when youre having flies

Okay that’s a damned good frog pun.

Alright now Davebot’s rapping

DAVEBOT: lacking tact i stay stacked while i breach contract DAVEBOT: sacred vows disavowed got divorce fever DAVEBOT: i leave her DAVEBOT: dont look back dont perceive her ARADIA: do you want to talk about it :( DAVEBOT: about what ARADIA: would you say you are hung up on leaving your wife and friends behind

Goddamnit is DAVE’S ton of real unresolved trauma leaking into his raps unintentionally Dave-style??  I knew we had to address it when we cut to Davebot but how about LESS TRAGEDY IN THIS COMIC MAYBE

DAVEBOT: arent you even a little guilty about ditching your boyfriend ARADIA: what ARADIA: oh fuck

Wh

But she knew what she was doing when she did it she explicitly did it didn’t she?  Epilogues quote:

DAVEBOT: what about your boy DAVEBOT: eyepatches ARADIA: oh sollux is in one of his moods ARADIA: this was all getting to be a bit much for him ARADIA: if i go ill probably just cut him loose DAVEBOT: good move

And then they stepped through the sky hole more or less.  Did like, distracted Ultimate Aradia not realize exactly how long she was leaving Sollux for, ie forever?  Or did she “ascend” to Ultimate status later and hadn’t thought back to the full consequences of her actions within this timeline?  Or both?  From the looks of the link we’ll probably find out on the next pa--

--Wait.  Something else I just thought of, unrelated.

If Aradia is an Ultimate Self, that’s another coincidentally Ultimate version of someone hanging around that happens to be on the prospective list of Soul-Powered Jujus that might have their creation loops closed in the coming story.  Could those two things play into each other somehow?  Like instead of their souls getting stuffed into the items, their “Ultimateness” is?  Or as if that’s a necessary component, or...  no, I’m probably overthinking things.

> (Months in the past, but not many...)

Uh huh.  Is that flashing because he’s “watching” Aradia leave?  But I thought Aradia SAID she was leaving--

> (==>)

--and that black hole portal doesn’t look as cool as it sounded in the Epilogues.  But why was Aradia acting surprised, she said “I’ll probably just cut him loose” mere MOMENTS before entering the portal, did she mean “cut him loose” as in “I’m going to talk to him before leaving” and then just IMMEDIATELY forget that she didn’t say anything to him because she cared so little???

Wait.  Waaaait wait wait.  I think.  I think maybe I missed some subtext.  Lemme do some fuller quotes here:

ARADIA: oh sollux is in one of his moods ARADIA: this was all getting to be a bit much for him ARADIA: if i go ill probably just cut him loose DAVEBOT: good move

His gaze remains fixed on her. She blinks and looks away, unsure what to say next. He’s standing perfectly still, presumably waiting for her to say something. She met him... what was it? Once, twice before? She can’t remember. But she knows this is a very different Dave. Aside from the metal skin, he seems implacably confident. But then, people go through changes. She’s been through more than her share. She cocks an eyebrow, recalling her own stint with a metal body.

DAVEBOT: hey earth to whats your face ARADIA: oh ARADIA: its aradia

[...]

DAVEBOT: youre coming DAVEBOT: better decide quick i doubt that dank fuckin hell funnel is staying open for much longer ARADIA: yes i suppose so ARADIA: thats where all the action is right? DAVEBOT: all the action that matters yeah ARADIA: off we go then :) DAVEBOT: word

He holds out his hand. She looks around, and assumes he means for her to take it, so she does. She didn’t know someone could fly this fast. He nearly yanks her arm out of its socket. She considers reminding him that maybe this isn’t necessary, since she can fly too. But she doesn’t want to risk saying more embarrassing stuff around this outrageously cool dude. Besides, they’re through the wormhole before she can even finish the thought. It vanishes the moment they’ve crossed.

...this was a SHIPPING thing wasn’t it.  She’s impressed as hell with Striderbot, she SAID she’d cut things off with Sollux, and then she was so busy being swooped off her feet and into the portal that she forgot to actually say anything to him.  Is that what happened????

Ultimate Self Davebot x Ultimate Self Aradia.  Huh.  Didn’t see that coming.  (Though, again... they could make it SLIGHTLY clearer that this wasn’t just a blatant continuity error.)

Anyway, a rare-don’t-get-used-to-it [S] page...

> [S] (Gaze.)

...Okay that was kinda funny.

> (==>)

SOLLUX: h0w the fuck am i g0ing t0 get d0wn fr0m here.

HAH!  Okay, he’s taking it pretty well.  :)  --and THAT’s what she realized she forgot, giving him a flight down from the tower before leaving.

GOOD.  KEEP THINGS HUMOROUS EVEN WHEN LITERAL ABANDONMENT IS HAPPENING.  THAT’S the Homestuck I was missing.  :)  :)  :)

> Back to reality.

(Since the black hole is outside “canon” reality.)

Those are some cool poses-AHAH JESUS CHRIST ALT!JADE YOU LOOK ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING XD

COULD YOU MAYBE HAVE CLEANED UP THE DRIED BLOOD AT SOME POINT OR IS SOME OF THAT FRESH FROM EATING MORE RAW MEAT

(Lord English’s blood leaving permanent timeless bloodstains would be a cool new thing to squeeze into canon i admit, i wouldn’t blame them for taking the excuse even if you could find small canon counterexamples I’m not sure of but dimly think might exist)

((ALSO SHE’S GONNA BE TINY NEXT TO THEM I DUNNO IF THAT MAKES IT MORE TERRIFYING OR LESS, PROBABLY MORE))

DAVEBOT: so youre telling me you dont even feel a little bad that you ditched him to be a weird death acolyte ARADIA: no i think he found my wiles both charming and irresistible DAVEBOT: not even an ounce of guilt or self doubt huh DAVEBOT: just like that DAVEBOT: no conversations about the greater good DAVEBOT: no revelations about your feelings

Is Aradia a jerk or weird?  Can’t decide.

ARADIA: do you often find your faith in yourself shaken like this or is it a new experience now that your mortal coil has been left behind DAVEBOT: what ARADIA: do you think now that all that is left of you is a literal ghost inside of a machine you are more or less likely to embrace finality DAVEBOT: oh dope more cult of one shit DAVEBOT: immortality changed you ARADIA: could it be that you are projecting your feelings onto my situation DAVEBOT: does not compute rose jr ARADIA: ... ARADIA: we dont have to talk about it DAVEBOT: thanks

Wow, I actually can’t follow this conversation at all.  Let me stare at it for a sec...

...okay, the first part she’s talking about DAVE’s faith in HIMself being shaken, not her own.  She’s not asking if he relates to HER experience, she’s contrasting it.

Then, asking if he’d be more likely to embrace death, or... Time?  Death.  Whether his self-worth has changed because he might view himself as “less real”, something Aradia doubtless struggled with when she was a robot who already had so many excuses to devalue herself at the time?  And then Dave talks about “cult of one” shit what does that even mean-...

OH.  Like she’s a death cult.  Gooot it.  Because Aradia’s of the position that death and ending should be celebrated, and Davebot understandably isn’t entirely bought in.  This is as hard to parse down as one would EXPECT conversations between two Ultimate Selves to be hard to parse down, unlike Rose and Dirk where their insane missions and glaring flaws shine bright enough through it all that you can follow their conversation flow easily.

JADE: They sit in each other's presence, the silence between them as meaningful as any words they could exchange. DAVEBOT: its always really cool to hear how meaningful my silences are DAVEBOT: especially while DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: especially while i am attempting to experience them

Alt!Callie pulling a narrative-text AFTER a talk-identifier like “JADE:” is really hilarious in my opinion.

JADE: i do not need your approval. the story will continue how it must. DAVEBOT: beep boop hater detected ARADIA: wow is that true JADE: i am not a hater. DAVEBOT: classic hater line DAVEBOT: i know this because i am pouring through genuine actual quadrabytes of information on historys most notorious haters JADE: no, you aren’t.

Pffffff. This is pretty fun.

DAVEBOT: you are the exact opposite of a hater ARADIA: a liker DAVEBOT: ok DAVEBOT: perfect example your tolerance for whatever is going on with DAVEBOT: all this ARADIA: i think she looks quite lovely covered in the viscera of the all-powerful enemy she consumed ARADIA: floating lifelessly in our periphery ARADIA: observing our every action and noting its relevance :) DAVEBOT: uh huh thats what i mean

I was gonna note “liker” as additive for pointless classpect purposes, but really more quoting it just because I really enjoy this conversation.  I’m starting to get sold on the chemistry of these two a lot faster than I expected.

JADE: even though I understand that it must happen, i am growing frustrated with the direction of this conversation. DAVEBOT: do you want to talk about something else stinky JADE: what would you suggest?

How long has that dried fucking blood been on her

DAVEBOT: ok hear me out DAVEBOT: kanaya DAVEBOT: but like DAVEBOT: wearing huge jorts

That explains Homestuck’s twitter earlier

> Weeks in the future, relative to the original point of interest...

Wait wait which point of interest?  This time we were just viewing? *click*

I love what must be this shitty imagination-ship they’re using to cross the substrate of reality

> ==>

Whoaaaa.  So they DIDN’T stay in those outfits for long?  It showed them in a bunk bed earlier, it showed CallieJade still going around blood-covered afterward-- dammit, I’m having a hard time gauging exactly how much time is supposed to have passed between their entry into the black portal, their earlier conversation, and this moment.  And as likely as some are to call this poor scene composition, I can’t think it’s anything but intentional, given we’re dealing with a couple of Ultimate Time players bullshitting with each other.

Moments like these are not rare, and serve a valuable function to the story. They are able to show a passage of time with the bulk of the emotional labor of a lengthy bonding process happening off screen. How did we get here? What have they been through? These questions are often better left open to individual interpretation and can give the one interpreting a sense of ownership of the story.

See?  We’re being trolled is why.  (Even if the authors are pulling the trick Alt!Callie describes maybe a little too damn often, because a cut like this where we’re supposed to fill in the emotional gaps and intervening events ourselves as readers depends on readers’ faith that sensible events and decisions for these characters would OCCUPY the gaps, as if readers don’t have faith that what intervenes WOULD make sense to their understanding of the characters the way the authors are writing them... it just seems like an excuse to do whatever you want without adequately explaining yourself, when in reality if you’d spelled out the events that led to it we’d all cry foul at the mischaracterization.)

...okay, maybe I’m a BIT bitter.  Sorry.  Where were we?

JADE: As a point of curiosity- ARADIA: oh shit!!!!

The dead Cherub possessing the body of an equally deceased Goddess of Space pauses at the interruption.

She doesn’t talk much, then?  Too busy doing whatever talking you’d do as your other possessed Jade body?  Just how temporally related is you controlling THIS Jade compared to when you were controlling the other?  When that Jade pegged you as enjoying contact with friends, are these two just not enough for you, or did you “experience” the trips entirely separately?  I don’t THINK the alt!Callie possessing either Jade is a separate entity from the other, but...

Were she to voice her opinion, it would be that --actually-- it is not unusual for those whose primary concern is The Grander Scheme to have a passing curiosity about the insignificant. So when one really thinks about it, any annoyance with the attendant’s small mindedness is both understandable and warranted.

She pissed

...also, “the attendant”.  Even if “serve” is really the verb here, that phrasing really irks me as if she’s talking down to her.  Which, I mean, makes sense for alt!Callie’s character, but doesn’t make me feel better about this new definition being foisted on us.

ARADIA: :( JADE: as a point of order, you never answered dave’s question. ARADIA: which one he is very chatty JADE: you experience time in a way that is woefully unfamiliar to me and it has... piqued my curiosity enough to learn more. ARADIA: ?_? DAVEBOT: shes asking how old you are

Wait a minute, is Alt!Callie asking a question about a dropped topic from WEEKS ago?!  And is Davebot so in touch with Time and the meta ordering of topics that he actually CAUGHT ON that fast to what she was actually wondering about?????

This is getting more disorienting by the minute.

ARADIA: in this form our bodies stop aging once we reach maturity i think ARADIA: the god tier keeps our physical form locked in a state of undying ARADIA: even in death the bodies do not decay ARADIA: only lay dormant

THAT LAST PART IS FUCKING IMPORTANT.  It’s being brought up intentionally to tell us that JOHN’S DEAD BODY can still be in the wallet Terezi’s carrying around RIGHT NOW without having decayed over the past years.  I remember remarking in SOME previous HS^2 liveblog post of mine that I was alarmed by the decay that would have happened there (can’t find my remark on short notice and don’t really care to), so this explicitly dismisses it so we won’t be surprised by the fact that she could keep it in just-dead condition.

DAVEBOT: like how long have you been alive JADE: yes, that one.

[...]

ARADIA: oh maybe a few hundred years or so DAVEBOT: what JADE: what? ARADIA: well if i had known you were going to be so judgy about it DAVEBOT: when did this happen ARADIA: oh i spent some time in other doomed realities and timelines and came back before anybody could tell i was gone

Hm!

We knew she spent a LONG time in the dream bubbles, enough to talk to “pretty much all of the Nepetas”, but she was actually able to access a universe or universes and hop between them?  That’s not something any time traveller we’ve seen has been explicitly able to do intentionally before, quite like she’s describing.

DAVEBOT: oh just out for a bit of fun then DAVEBOT: just hopped on over to a different reality DAVEBOT: real casual like DAVEBOT: oh hello dont mind me just popping in to see if it really is as doomed as they say it is DAVEBOT: did not disappoint ARADIA: yes almost exactly like that :) DAVEBOT: who did you hang out with are they cooler than me ARADIA: it is complicated to explain DAVEBOT: oh ok nevermind then DAVEBOT: all clear

Yep, he’s kinda bewildered.  Is this Pesterquest stuff she’s referring to?  Did she stop by Pesterquest?

DAVEBOT: a whole alternate universe ripe with the coolest motherfuckers imaginable ARADIA: you were there too i threw your air conditioner into the sun DAVEBOT: wow thats fucked up DAVEBOT: thats not where that goes at all JADE: these events are not-canonical. ARADIA: rude

Ah!  Yeah, almost certainly Pesterquest.  (Still haven’t played that and have little inclination to now that I’m more sure we aren’t being gaslit with intentional continuity errors, just disappointed by actual continuity errors.)  Oh!  And that makes a bit more sense because I imagine that’s Black Hole territory, and that territory outside of Canon seems pretty rich and easy for time-travellers to hop between stories and timelines willy-nilly.  As they’re apt to in fanfics, which is the most appropriate way for things to be in that realm!

DAVEBOT: is that the trope of being hundreds of years old but looking young forever patently sucks ass DAVEBOT: a plot device an asshole would write ARADIA: :( JADE: that is not what i am trying to say at all. DAVEBOT: hmm wow yeah thatd really be a sort of pot/kettle situation i guess DAVEBOT: i cant believe im the only woke one here DAVEBOT: its hard being such a visionary AND such a fine metallic specimen DAVEBOT: but im an altruist first and fucking foremost ARADIA: so selfless JADE: yes, the greater narrative is truly blessed by your beneficent presence. DAVEBOT: oh so you got jokes now huh JADE: i have always had the ‘jokes’ of which you speak, but i have heretofore exercised restraint in laying you low. JADE: i possess knowledge of many of your iterations, as the scope of my powers allows me to exist in several narrative structures at once. DAVEBOT: but can she see why kids love the sweet cinnamon taste of cinnamon toast crunch JADE: i do not know, or care, what that means. ARADIA: neither do i :)

I’m actually really enjoying this conversation

JADE: its cultural significance to you as an earthling is wasted on the two of us entirely, as we have not conflated the misguided notion of clinging to nostalgic cereal advertisement trivia with socially relevant conversation.

Pff she literally checked her meta notes just now to learn what the cereal ads were after admitting she didn’t know what it meant and pretending not to care

> ==>

Oh, closer look at Davebot.  Are those actual SHAPED shades over his robotic eye bulges?  Weird, I thought it was just a lazy line drawn between them with red sharpie at first, Sans style.  That would’ve been funny.

> ==>

Ohh, I get it.  I was gonna say that was an unwarranted reaction... but he just realized that the Time-wait puns will be coming from BOTH his shipmates from now on.  That’s gotta be a downer.  :)

> ==>

HOLY

FUCKING

SHIT

IS ALT-CALLIE LAUGHING!??!?!?!??

That’s REALLY, REALLY GOOD!!!  SHE’S ALREADY LAUGHING OCCASIONALLY THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY

“BEST NARRATOR” COFFEE CUP

SHE’S ADORABLE

> ==>

Ah, was that Jade kicking you out?  Or just the multiverse punishing you for being briefly happy :(

--oh, end of the update.  Guess that’s it for now!

...

Alright I know I’m A BIT BEHIND on covering the HS2 commentary,

But

I really would rather wait on that a bit longer if that’s alright.  Real busy and stressful week or two.  (Found out my hair is starting to thin noticeably at age 31!  Quite suddenly, too.  Blood test looks fine so it’s nothing serious... gonna see a doctor to check if anything can be safely done about that, it’s really hurting my self-esteem more than I thought it would.  Didn’t think it would hit my emotions that hard when it eventually happened, knew it was likely but not so SOON... really messing with my anxiety every time I accidentally touch my hair, now.  I’ll deal with it.)

If I sound really aimless in this post, I think it’s cause I am?  My mental and emotional energy’s REALLY drained.  I’m glad that June/July break in HS^2 happened when it did, and I’m definitely glad there’s apparently plenty in HS^2 I can really enjoy, if this update is anything to go by.  Maybe this comic can help lift me up instead of knocking me down.  :)

See y’all later!  More Patreon commentary blogging catchup after some other upd8.

[sandalaris]

fanfic tropes ask: de-aging, pornstar au, disability, accidental marriage, and huddling for warmth!! 👀

de-aging:

Unlikely but I’m not opposed to writing it.

It depends on the de-aging. If we’re talking some an AU where everyone’s been aged down, then probably not. The urge has never struck me and I probably never will at least. But if it’s more of a supernatural/sci-fi forces somehow de-age one or more characters, then possibly. I wrote one before, where a couple of characters were cursed into bodies about ten years younger than they were, and had to figure out how to break the curse when everyone around them didn’t take them seriously as kids/teens.

pornstar au:

Not fully, but yes. Like I don’t think I’d ever write a fic where all the characters were involved in the porn business just because AUs where everyone is in the exact same career holds very little interest to me, but I’d be down to write a fic where one or two characters were involved in the porn industry. It’d probably be a Teen Wolf fic where Stiles, who does porn, meets and hits it off with Derek, the son of the local youth pastor - or maybe Derek’s the youth pastor - and then drama would ensue.

If I went FDtD with it, because I do see a potential fic there, it would have some er, questionable things involved in it that only a small niche would probably like and I’m not going to mention here, lol. Richie would be 100% happy with his job as a pornstar, constantly on the hunt for just the right script to interest him and willing to explore his boundaries, while Seth would be reserved, double checking each contract and having strict guidelines he follows. I’m not sure how I’d fit the Fullers in, so this would most likely be a Richie/Kisa fic involving Kisa having a truly very shady but completely binding contact with Malvado that they find a way to get her out of. She’d go behind the scenes in the end, because it may be a career others chose but she never did, making sure everything is on the up and up and that everyone’s that there actually wants to be there.

Now that I think about it, I think I could possibly write a Community pornstar AU fic where the Study Group was all involved in the the porn industry to an extent. They aren’t all pornstars, but they each do various things in the industry and that’s how they all meet. Not really sure I’ll ever write it, but maybe. Then again, that’s not so much a pornstar au so much a everyone’s in the porn business au.

disability:

Yes! As long as it was rooted in canon. It wouldn’t have to be canon, but I wouldn’t just like rewrite a character as having been born blind/blinded in childhood if they weren’t in canon.

For FDtD it would go one of two ways; I’d include Seth having an anxiety disorder into a fic, because there’s a lot of evidence in show that he has one and that could be interesting to explore. OR, much more likely, I’d write an all human AU Dakota/Richie fic where after Richie is declared Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity for the murder of Earl McGraw, Dakota sets out to prove that Richard’s recent diagnosis of schizophrenia if fake by hiding who she is and applying to be a doctor at the hospital he’s been sent to. But once there, instead of finding the monster she imagined him to be, Dakota finds a highly intelligent, socially awkward, young man who is both angry and terrified of his mind for turning against him... things would progress from there as Richie learns to manage his illness and Dakota learns to forgive him.

For just about any fandom there’s always an apocalypse AU where someone’s lost a limb or had a sense damaged or anything like that. If I ever write a canon-compliant Bethyl, I’ll go with those theories about how the bullet could’ve ricocheted along the inside of her skull and the brain damage that would’ve caused. Or in Teen Wolf there’s a good chance Stiles would’ve gone deaf in one ear after the amount of close range gunfire that been done next to his head. And Frank from the Punisher having memory issues from the shot to the head he took is 100% a headcanon of mine.

accidental marriage:

A thousand times yes, but it wouldn’t be the actual ship of the fic getting accidentally married, because I find it more interesting to subvert it.

I’ve thought about this before for SethKate actually, in two different fics; canon-compliant and AU.

AU: Kate has a horrible break up with her boyfriend just before leaving for Vegas on a.. business trip? Vacation with friends? something like that... She only means to drown her sorrows a little, but ends up getting black out drunk while meeting and befriending a handsome stranger. They decide to try and win a couple’s give-away and, in their drunken stupor, think that getting really hitched is better than just lying on the application form. The next morning, hungover and fully dressed (no drunken hook-up here), they realize their mistake. It probably would’ve just been a funny, if embarrassing, story down the line if Kate’s technically legal husband didn’t have a foul-mouthed, short tempered brother who throws an absolute fit when he finds out. Kate doesn’t know what Seth’s problem with her is, but the sooner she annuls her marriage to Richie and gets the hell away from them, the better. Of course, things don’t go according to plan, because this is a SethKate fic and they are one-hundred percent going to fall for each other while bickering.

The canon-compliant version would be much shorter: sometime after season three, they learn that in order for them both to get out of Xibalba Kate and Richie sort of accidentally got Xibalban married. It’s no big deal, it doesn’t change anything between them, they’re still fully platonic friends, and it won’t stand up in any court of law, at least not in this realm. But still Seth can’t put a finger on why it bugs him so much. Richie gets it though, smug bastard, and he’s going to use it against his brother until Seth man ups and makes a move already.

huddling for warmth:

Probably. It’d be pre-ship, either where the feelings are still soft and new, and therefore unrecognized by the characters, or fully realized on both sides but not yet ready to be acted on, like Jeff/Annie from Community. Or if I was writing post-season 1 FDtD, it'd be Seth and Kate cuddling in the convertible while broke and on the road, fighting against the desert chill at night by curling up together. Lots of secrets shared in the quiet dark, faces tucked close but unable to see the other, the feel of the other, whole and alive, against them, reminding them both that they got out, they made it, they aren't alone. Building that foundation for who they will become to each other down the line.

[crapitskizaru]

Side Effects May Include: Devil Fruits Edition

🦖 Could I request some HCs on how devil fruits would affect the user’s sex lives? :o this is so vague but it’s so interesting to consider that I wanted to hear your opinions, haha

Warning: in-depth analysis of all the naturalistic filth that comes along in the topic of a human body and sexual encounters + freakishly long-ass post that includes most of the currently known devil fruits 

Logia Types

Hie Hie no Mi (Kuzan) 

❄️ since he’s such a chilly guy ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), he’d certainly use his abilities to cool down the temperature of his body during any sexual encounter - Kuzan doesn’t really like all the heat and sweat that is produced during the steamy see what I did here? hilarious times in between him and his current lover 

❄️ if his partner’s vagina is sore because of reasons varying from physical injuries to hardcore love-making, he’s the perfect guy to come up with a quick solution - a chilly, smooth dildo of his own making to ease out the pain pretty much torpedoes the problem 

Goro Goro no Mi (Enel)

⚡️ this one’s a little tricky; since he can transform himself into pure electricity, he’d have to keep that in mind at all times, especially when reaching his climax - so that he wouldn’t electrocute his lover from too much excitement 

⚡️ if he’s an extreme sucker for kinkplays, he could use the tiniest bit of his powers to either stimulate his partner or punish them for disobedience of any kind, provided they’re into it as well 

⚡️ given that Enel can also use his skills to listen to the electrical sound waves in the air, he’d have an incredibly detailed perception of how his lover reacts to particular sex positions, angles of his thrusts and so on i honestly don’t know what to do with this information 

Gasu Gasu no Mi (Caesar)

☁️ sex in the air?????

Magu Magu no Mi (Sakazuki)

🐶 this shit only serves him an inability to get too caught up in the moment, unless he wants this particular person to get burned alive during sex 

🐶 so besides the obvious flaws, the only advantage I can think of is being able to serve as a human heater to his partner during particularly cold nights if only he would ever actually cuddle someone

Mera Mera no Mi (Acey & Saboo)

🔥 just as with Akainu, these bois will instantly heat up even their coldest partners - a lot of warmth and a lot of sweat-producing usually accompanies them during love-making sessions 

🔥 might include the annoying issue of holes being burned right through their clothing whenever they get too fiery with the act - as well as the possibility of unintentionally starting a fire in the room 

Moku Moku no Mi (Smoker)

🚬 I can easily imagine him using the ability of producing as much smoke as he fancies to blind his lover for maximized kinky submission experience 

🚬 also, using the great speed with which all the smoke allows him to move in order to intensify the frequency of his thrusts - could it get any better?

Numa Numa no Mi (Caribou) 

🛸 used for stabilizing his partner’s legs/waist/arms so that he can devote all of his attention towards pleasuring both of them, without having to worry about occupying his hands to hold them 

🛸 also available for kinky use - all of that bondage gear could be replaced with those muddy serpents of his just perfect 

🛸 provided he’s got a rather powerful dominance/daddy kink, Caribou could also create the bottomless swamps to trap his partner and make them beg for his cock 

Pika Pika no Mi (Borsalino) 

💥 reflecting himself into various positions to gain dominance? Heating his partner up? Providing enough room lighting? Sex at the speed of light? What?

Suna Suna no Mi (Crocodaddy) 

🐊 trapping his lover in piles of quicksand for further teasing seems like a good enough idea to me - also, since he can crumble things to dust in literal seconds, stripping his partner down is never as quick as when it comes to this man 

🐊 the ability to absorb any liquid makes cleaning up his cum from the drenched sheets a rather easy job that’s quite handy actually 

Yami Yami no Mi (Blackbeard) 

👺 the only use of this shit that I can think of is, again, blinding his partner and surrounding them with pure darkness, leaving them all hot and bothered in anticipation for his traitorous cock 

👺 could also serve as a technique of pulling a person towards himself, like he did with Ace, but that’s just too scary to me, idk 

Yuki Yuki no Mi (Monet)

💨 compressing her snow to different bondage gear, as well as cooling her partner down at particularly humid times - although I think it’d be hard for her to control the powers while being in a highly aroused state 

Paramecia Types

Ato Ato no Mi (Jora) 

🎨 courting her crushes with abstract art paintings, thank u very much 

Awa Awa no Mi (Kalifa) 

🛁 unlimited lube supplies

🛁 now that’s what I’m talking about 

🛁 I can assure you, this woman would go all out with those bubbly powers - using it to turn her various kinks into reality 

🛁 used for draining her partner’s energy to gain as much dominance over them as possible; also to clean up from all the bodily fluids that cover them after each round of sex 

🛁 could come in handy to relax her partner and bring them floods of pleasure, often to the point of overstimulation 

Baku Baku no Mi (Wapol) 

🏰 no, I can’t do this 

Bane Bane no Mi (Bell)

🛎 boing-boinging into his lover during sex??????

Bara Bara no Mi (Buggy D. Clown)

🤡 oh, this one’s good 

🤡 this fruit allows him to use more dildos and plugs with his fingers than he could count on one hand - mainly because he’s got two im so funny 

🤡 thrusting inside his partner and giving oral at the exact same time, because why not; the only requirement would be that his lover can’t get too grossed out by all of this dirty shit 

Bari Bari no Mi (Bartolomeo)

💫 being able to make love to his partner against the barriers that he creates/creating surfaces to fuck on in places that no one sane enough would ever consider as suitable ones for having sex 

Bata Bata no Mi (Galette) 

😈 imagine how much fun this woman has in bed - being able to control and restrict anyone’s movements with those buttery thingies, she doesn’t even have to try much to be the dominant one in between the sheets

😈 also, consider this: butter-flavoured lube and unlimited + unbreakable flavoured condoms 

Beri Beri no Mi (Very Good)

🍇 berry/sphere-shaped dildos??? incredible

Beta Beta no Mi (Trebol)

💧 if his partner has a vagina, he could control their discharge, as in the amount and its texture - what for, I have no idea 

💧 he’d also be able to restrict his lover’s movements, as well as come up with new positions, since he can attach himself to any surface 

💧 other use may be as a lube? although that’s pretty disgusting 

Bisu Bisu no Mi (Cracker) 

🍪 do you find yourself daydreaming about sweets when close to climaxing? Are you experiencing unexpected, overwhelming cravings during sex? Constantly hungry? Or simply bored with orgasms? Fear not! This man will supply you with floods of biscuits to munch on so that both of you will be pleasured 

🍪 moving cookie dildos??

Doru Doru no Mi (Mr.3)

🕯 various bondage constructions made with wax? 

Fuku Fuku no Mi (Kin’emon)

👙 imagine how many sets of lingerie this man would create for his partner to wear - a literal dream come true when it comes to this pervert 

Fuwa Fuwa no Mi (Shiki)

🦁 advanced sex positions in the air/rotating his lover according to the man’s whims 

Giro Giro no Mi (Violet) 

🌹 this woman would bring her lover as much pleasure as possible while also making their deepest kinks and desires come true 

🌹 she’s also able to read which positions are the most enjoyable for her partner and what they secretly think of her sex skills kinda scary if you ask me 

Gura Gura no Mi (Whitebeard) 

🌎 what may be possible when it comes to this fruit is creating the tiniest vibrations in order to stimulate different areas of a human body and bringing powerful orgasms, although that’s just too good to be true 

Hana Hana no Mi (Robin-chwan) 

🌷 giving oral and being able to grope her partner, both at the same time, seems like a pretty good use of this devil fruit 

🌷 slight possibility of sprouting as many pair of legs as she fancies and ability to take theoretically unlimited partners at the same time? 

Horu Horu no Mi (Ivankov) 

👅 starting the love-making session while having a dick and ending it with a vagina? Why not? 

👅 imagine how much Ivankov could arouse their partner by increasing their levels of dopamine/serotonin/testosterone/estrogen, according to their desires

Hoya Hoya no Mi (Charlotte Daifuku) 

🏺 gains +1 spectator, if he’s an exhibitionist ;)

Kage Kage no Mi (Gekko Moria) 

🕳 could have multiple partners, exclusively at his service?

Kilo Kilo no Mi (Miss Valentine) 

🎀 would totally be able to pin her lover to the bed, preventing them from flipping on top of her - what an easy way to gain dominance, although she’d have to be extra careful not to crush them well

Kobu Kobu no Mi (Bello Betty<3)

🌌 her partner receives almost overwhelming waves of encouragement, whether in order to praise them or to push them to keep going - this woman certainly doesn’t take sex lightly 

🌌 is able to turn even the most insecure lovers into confident sex-animals in the matter of seconds 

Kuri Kuri no Mi (Charlotte Opera) 

🍦 moisture! Lube! Food kink! Quick snack! Fluffy surface! Whatever you want!

Mane Mane no Mi (Bon Clay) 

🦄 ever wished it was your crush instead of ą random hook-up? Problem solved indefinitely~

Mato Mato no Mi (Vander Decken)

🐍 he could try aiming dildos at his partner from afar? Why did I even think of this?

Memo Memo no Mi (Charlotte Pudding) 

🎞 rewatching her and her partner’s favorite sex moments whenever she wants, almost like a portable(?), realistic porn movie

🎞 being able to erase all of the sexual encounters during which she either didn’t enjoy herself enough or performed badly and doesn’t want her lover to remember it terrifying 

Mero Mero no Mi (Hancock) 

🎇 keeps perverts at distance 

Mochi Mochi no Mi (Charlotte Katakuri) 

🍩 food kink

🍩 is able to restrain his lover’s movements so that they have to plead for his cock - good method whenever Mochi’s in a dominant mood~ 

🍩 food kink

🍩 it also allows him to create as much mochi as he desires in order to either lick it off of his partner’s body or make them lick him clean 

Nagi Nagi no Mi (Rosie)

🍰 his lover can be as loud as they want - screams, pleads, moans and groans of pleasure - nothing will be audible outside of his sphere, which comes in handy when he just wants to have a quickie and Doffy’s in the room next to them 

Netsu Netsu no Mi (Charlotte Oven) 

🌡 hot dick 

Nikyu Nikyu no Mi (Bartholomew Kuma)

🐾 useful when you never want to see your partner again 

Ope Ope no Mi (Trafalgar the Fucking Law) 

⛄️ now that’s the kinkiest shit 

⛄️ just visualize all of the fucked up poses and positions he could slice his partner into, and then multiply it by Law’s level of sadism - great 

⛄️ this man’s totally able to make his partner watch from afar as he plays and fucks their body the way he likes 

⛄️ could he slice his dick off and use it as a dildo though?

Ori Ori no Mi (Hina)

⛓ brings hardcore bondage to a completely new level (:

Pero Pero no Mi (Charlotte Perospero) 

🍭 what else if not creating lickable, candy dildos - and just like Mochi, he loves to lick his own candy from his lover’s body 

🍭 also various candy creations to restrain his lover with

Wara Wara no Mi (Basil Hawkins) 

🃏 cute little voodoo dolls to cuddle!

Ito Ito no Mi (Donquixote Doflamingo)

🍨 imagine how incredibly kinky this man can get with his powers 

🍨 holding his partner in the air with those strings? Leaving small cuts all over their body, if they agree to that, edging and marking?

🍨 also using it as bondage gear and maximalyzing his Daddy authority/dom position, since his partner can’t even wriggle so that they won’t get cut 

Bastard Bastard no Mi (Eustass Kid)

🔥 manipulating the restricting bondage gear/handcuffs/jewelry of his partner’s according to his whims and wishes 

🔥 also knife play mastered to perfection?

Zoan Types

🦖 every furry’s heaven, thank u 

[forgedobsidian]

Scrambled

A Captain Marvel fanfiction. One-shot, complete.

AO3

Summary: The first message Fury sends Carol is . . . unexpected, in a variety of ways.

Characters: Carol Danvers, Talos, Nick Fury, Goose

It’d been something Carol worked on, during the post-fight, Talos-healing, Skrulls-getting-used-to-open-air downtime at Maria’s. She’d needed a project outside of Fury’s pager, and between talks with Talos and Soren and Maria, the fear of falling out of her rediscovered life for a second time took over her hands and head. Days before departure she was handing over a two rudimentary communications devices to Fury and Maria, telling them how to access the universal clock and what to do when she (inevitably) missed a transmission.

The large comms were fairly simple, using a touch-based navigation to go between various conversations and an image processor for pictures and real-time conversations. She’d made them as simple as she could, to avoid hackers and increase durability. Monica had been excited, near tears to have a way to keep in contact with Arala and her other Skrull friends and her Aunt Carol. Maria got a little misty eyed, too, rubbing at her face when she thought nobody was looking.

After getting Carol’s contact ID, Fury had gone straight to Talos and made sure he could contact the Skrull Commander personally. Talos had laughed and said, “Sure you don’t want me to keep being your boss?”

Fury’d just grinned back and promised to send a lot of pictures of Goose.

But that was two weeks ago, and now Carol and the refitted Kree stealth ship were resting in the orbit of Kurual, a minimally inhabited planet known for its exports of somewhat-durable wood and fancy carvings.

“‘S a nice enough place,” Talos said, stepping next to her and peering out the viewing port. “Too close to the Kree-Xandarian border for my comfort, though.”

“I hear ya.” She sighed and rested her forearms against the banister. “Any word back from Admiral Yora?”

“We’re about another week out from the armada.” He handed her a pumu fruit, biting into his own and swallowing. “We can’t stay here for too long. Just need to let the engines cool.”

“Hmm.”

Just then her comm binged, signaling a new message. She pulled her wrist up and palmed at the controls, fingers too occupied with the fruit. Monica had been talking about an upcoming school field trip - this might be a quick message about how it went.

Instead it was from Fury, the first one he’d sent her. She quirked her mouth around a mouthful of pumu and pulled up the message, nearly spitting the fruit all over the viewing port as it came up.

Attached was an image of a smug-looking Goose, curled up in a flerken-loaf next to what looked like a glowing, radioactive spider web the size of an icecream truck. Tucked away in the iridescent mess of fibers were an uncountable number of eggs as big as Carol’s fist.

The only text said: EGGS??!! THESE ARE DAMN FLERKEN EGGS??!!

Carol choked between her laughter and the fruit, pushing her wrist towards Talos while she tried to swallow the mouthful of pumu. Talos looked over the message and started wheezing, leaning over and resting his open hand on his knee.

The comm pinged with another message from Fury, saying: WHAT DO I DO THERE’S SO MANY

She cackled and gave up on standing, sagging against the hallway and throwing her head back in a full-body laugh. Talos just draped himself onto the sill of the viewport, shoulders bobbing up and down as he tried to get his laughter under control.

She managed to pull herself together enough to send back: WHAT, NOT READY TO BE A DAD?

THAT’S NOT FUNNY DANVERS. THERE’S LIKE SIXTY OF THESE THINGS.

At that Carol palmed away the message and booted up the live feed. Fury picked up seconds later, looking hassled and confused and very, very tired.

“So flerkens lay eggs,” Carol said, trying to keep her face under control.

Fury narrowed his eye and pointed a finger at her. “Shut it, Danvers.”

Talos slid down the wall next to Carol, trying to breathe around his laughter. “You - ha! - Goose laid eggs!” He rubbed a hand down his face, grinning between his fingers. “Bet that was a surprise!”

Somehow Fury managed to glare harder. “Not what I expected to find in the corner of my apartment at two in the morning.”

There’s an offended merowl from somewhere off-screen and Fury looks down. “Yes, Goose, your babies are wonderful and you’re a perfect mama. I’m just . . . surprised, is all.”

“Show us the proud mama,” Carol said, bracing her wrist comm against her knee.

He knelt down and back up, this time with Goose tucked in the crook of his arm. The flerken seemed pleased, whiskers and ears pricked as she gave a slow blink. Fury sighed and rubbed a finger against Goose’s cheek. “I don’t know how to handle this.”

Carol let her head fall against the wall with a thunk. Fury seemed genuinely worried, which was an odd realization to have.

Talos finally stopped laughing and crossed his arms over his chest, grinning into the comm screen. “You’re lucky, actually. Some flerken broods have over a hundred and fifty individuals.”

“Oh. Shit. Should I be looking for other . . . nests?”

“Nah, there’s just the one. It’s easier to protect that way.”

“How long until they, uh, hatch?”

Talos shrugged. “Flerkens can hold their eggs for however long they want, until they feel secure enough in their surroundings and food sources to make the nest. They’ll probably hatch in a few days.”

Fury gave a slow blink and sat down, face flabbergasted. Goose crawled up his chest and rubbed her face against his neck. “Okay,” he said, voice sing-songy. “I’m gonna have over sixty flerkens - flerkittens? flerkits? - running around my small, single-bedroom apartment. That’s -” he took a deep breath and his voice nearly broke, “-fine.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Carol said, giving Fury a smile. “They’re gonna be so cute! Little fluffy kitten things! With tentacles!”

“And pocket dimensions in their bellies,” Talos added. “Think of the prime storage space.”

Carol swatted at his shoulder. “Goose’s babies aren’t storage lockers, you jerk.”

“I’m just saying.”

Fury was rubbing at his temples, his eyes clenched closed. Goose seemed concerned, meowing and rubbing her cheek against his jaw. “What do I do with . . . how do I handle this situation?”

Talos shrugged. “Goose’ll probably handle most of the care. Just make sure to keep her well-fed.”

“She already ate my favorite chair. I can’t afford any more casualties.” He looked up, threading his fingers together. “But what about homes? I’m not guessing there’s a space animal shelter or something.”

“For flerkens? No.”

Goose braced herself against Fury’s shoulder and gave a loud meow right into his face. He blinked and sighed. “Was that you saying you have it under control?”

The flerken gave another loud meow and rubbed her forehead against his chin.

Apparently the growth rate for flerkits was completely random on an individual basis, despite them all hatching within eleven hours of each other. Carol got a series of pictures and clips throughout the entire process, images of Goose vigorously licking her children clean, assisted by Fury and a variety of towels. At the end of it, 67 small flerkits were wobbling around Fury’s living room, eyes already open.

By the end of the week, 16 of the kits had doubled in size and were driving Fury crazy. Then, the next day, those 16 were gone. Goose didn’t seem worried, even though Fury spent a solid two hours nearly turning his apartment upside-down and inside-out.

Then, three days later, 9 more flerkits had grown and gone missing.

It took Fury a while to figure out what was going on, and he was lucky enough to catch it on video.

The screen was bouncing as Carol opened the video message. Eventually the camera stilled, focused on the corner of Fury’s apartment that Goose had claimed for her nest. The strange webbing and eggshells had disappeared. Instead, the entire area was covered in blankets and towels and several small plastic toys.

Most of the flerkits were sleeping, tucked into corners and bundled together. Six of them were awake, however, and grown to the size of young cats. Goose was giving each one a through grooming, making sure their fur was fluffy and clean. Then she opened her maw and tentacles shot out.

For a horrifying moment Carol thought Goose was eating her children, but then she looked closer. Goose’s tentacles were calm, not frenzied and writhing like when she swallowed the Tesseract. They were calm and gentle as they slowly wound around her children, petting their ears and scratching their chins.

The flerkits leaned into the touch and opened their own maws, but nothing came out. Instead there was an odd distortion of space around each of their mouths, and then the flerkits blinked away in a ripple of space.

“Goose, what the hell!” Fury yelled, the camera jostling again as he ran over.

When Carol showed Talos the clip, he shuddered when Goose’s tentacles shot out. But then understanding cleared his eyes as the flerkits disappeared.

“My guess?” Talos swiped through another report. “She’s sending them somewhere they’ll be safe, and can grow into their own.”

“How, though?”

“Flerkens have pocket dimensions in their bellies, Carol. They can probably do all sorts of weird things.”

“Okay, that’s fair.”

Goose continued to send her children out into the universe. Two actually went directly to Maria’s home, popping up in one of her open tool boxes. Monica sent everyone excited pictures of her playing with the flerkits, dragging sticks through the dirt for them to chase.

Four flerkits made it onto Talos’ ship, somehow managing to pop up directly in the command chair on the bridge.

A spunky calico immediately attached herself to Arala like it was her personal mission. The little flerkit was constantly jogging behind her charge, batting at Arala’s heels or trying to climb up her legs. Whenever the young flerken tired, Arala would pick her up and carry her like a child, belly up, tucked safely in the crook of her arm. Arala named her new friend Cypress, after a species of tree in Louisiana. Cypress quickly became Arala’s constant companion, sleeping with her during night cycles and sneaking food off her plate with paws and the occasional tentacle.

Another one - a light orange tabby - made himself at home in the infirmary. He looked like a mirror image of his mother, except for black socks on his feet. The (unimaginative, in Carol’s opinion) staff named him Suture. It wasn’t uncommon for ill or injured crew to be comforted by a facefull of purring flerken. When he wasn’t acting as a destressor, Suture took to napping on bundles of bandages or strutting the hallways with his siblings.

The third was a shy orange-and-black tortoiseshell that tended to avoid crowds. Even as a young flerkit she tended towards the quieter parts of the ship, the information bays, abandoned rooms and closets. Carol named her Ghost. The growing flerken spent a lot of time out and about during night cycles, hunting orloni in the vents and keeping the less boisterous members of the crew company.

The last one was a fuzzy disaster, with ear tufts as long as his head and large, ungainly paws that signaled a lot of growth in his future. Talos named him “Ojir,” using the Old Skrullic word for “join.” Ojir carried himself with dignity, in contrast with the loud Cypress or attention-seeking Suture. The swiftly-growing flerkit enjoyed spending time with Talos and Soren, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to join Carol in the engineering bays as she tinkered with tech and helped repair ships.

Fury nearly passed out from laughter when he heard about four of Goose’s children popping up in Talos’ chair. “For someone so scared of them,” Fury said, chortling as he tried to talk, “they sure seem to like you!”

Talos just flipped him off.

It was surprisingly nice, having the growing flerkens around. The orloni population took a drastic hit, helping protect delicate wiring in the ship’s interior. Suture became a quick favorite of the soldiers, always willing to be held and petted. While he might not admit it, Talos felt better for having a flerken with his daughter - the creatures seemed to protect those they claimed as their own. Ghost lived up to her name, darting around hallways and through rooms she felt uncomfortable in.

Carol sighed and stretched, pulling away from the bundle of wires and metal scraps on the table in front of her. Her personal room was nearly perfect. Her bed was pushed into an alcove, with storage space below. A built-in, slightly magnetized table was ideal for her projects, and the window was wide enough that, if she pressed her face tight to the glass, she just saw space.

There was a polite knock at her door. “Come in,” she called, looking at the smears of black on her fingertips.

The door hissed into the wall and Talos stepped over the threshold. “And how is Captain Marvel today?” he asked, sitting down in a spare chair.

“Mar-Vell,” she said automatically, a smile pulling at her face. “Just fine.”

“Sleep shift not treating you badly?”

“You know, it takes me a while to get tired, so no.”

“Good, good.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “I just finished a check-in with Admiral Yora.”

Her eyes flicked to his face. “And? What did she say?”

“Well, I think she might have laughed a little when I told her about the flerkits.” His mouth twitched around a smile. “She’s looking forward to meeting you.”

“Oh.”

Talos narrowed his eyes, taking in Carol’s expression. She seemed nervous and . . . guilty. “You alright?”

“Yeah, just, heh, nervous.” She swallowed.

He rested a hand on her shoulder. “She’ll understand, Carol. She might be older than dirt - don’t ever tell her I said that - but she’s a soldier, too. She gets it.”

Carol sighed. “If you say so.”

Just then there was a rattle in the vent above them, a moment of silence, then the grated opening gave way and dumped a solid 15 lbs. of growing, fluffy flerkit onto her work table. Her tools and projects scattered, the slight magnetization not enough to hold them in place. For what it was worth, Ojir seemed just as surprised as everyone else.

Carol sputtered and grabbed the scrabbling flerken, helping him find his feet on the slippery surface. Ojir stilled and let himself relax into a sit, holding himself with a dignity that’d been missing seconds before.

“You,” Carol said, gently booping him on the nose, “are getting too heavy for the vents.” Ojir blinked and gave his head a shake, the tufts on his ears slapping back and forth.

Talos snorted and reached over to give the flerkit a pet down his back. “He’s been too big for a while.”

She leaned forward and gave the flerkit a stern look. “Just what were you thinking, mister?”

Ojir narrowed his yellow eyes and, slowly, reached one paw out and gently bopped Carol on the forehead. She blinked and laughed, letting herself feel how silly everything was. She heard Talos give a soft laugh, and for a moment, everything was alright.

Author’s Note:  I pulled some info on flerkens directly from the wiki, but a lot of it I just made up as I went along. Goose is a good mama. Ojir is a Big Fluffy Boy (think bigass maine coon) who likes to feel in charge. Suture loves all his people and actually enjoys belly rubs. Ghost likes hanging out in vents and leaving trophies outside of everyone’s personal rooms. Arala really IS Cypress’s personal charge and she follows her around EVERYWHERE.

Thank you for reading!

[blenderbender1811]

Just random thoughts about Yellow and Red’s relationship because I cannot control myself apparently. I blame my boyfriend, he got my into this show and we’ve been binging it the past three-four dates at his house. I have like 8 episodes left to watch, but until he gets over here tomorrow and we can watch the rest, I’m going to write this.

- Yellow and Red started dating in high school, when they were like 16ish. In hindsight, Yellow’s still not sure why she did it - she knew Red was reckless and impulsive and irresponsible and didn’t take the Hue Troop nearly as seriously as she did. Red was MAGNETIC though, she had experience dating, and they were friends, so Yellow thinks it was just because it felt safe to start exploring relationships with Red. And there is absolutely no side of her brain that was enjoying the HELL out of Red’s bad girl maverick schtick nope no way.

- Red’s ‘barely-disguised-flirting’ style worked on Yellow WAY more than she wanted to admit. Once, just to prove to Blue that she could pull off classy for a disguise mission, Red started ‘chatting up’ Yellow and ‘asking her out’ and even though Yellow KNEW they were pretending, she still ended up getting a little dreamy-eyed and asking ‘Where are we going?’ She will still not admit she did this and if Red (or Blue) brings it up, she will deny it swiftly and decisively.

- Yellow kinda constantly felt at war with herself while she was dating Red. It was like her ‘smart brain’ was telling her ‘Okay, we’re fundamentally incompatible, Red goes waaaaay farther in her thrill seeking than I want to, she doesn’t take our missions seriously and it stresses me out, and I do not enjoy heart attacks’ and her ‘bad decision’ brain kept screaming ‘RED IS HOT AND THIS IS EXCITING’. 

- Red was a terrible, terrible student. When she bothered to show up, she was always either sneaking looks at social media, daydreaming or falling asleep. Her response to an uninteresting assignment (or ‘she just wasn’t feeling it’) was ‘Eh, I’m gonna skip this one.’ Yellow, on the other hand, was a straight A nerd with a strictly kept schedule for getting all her work done and who routinely stressed herself out to breakdown point making sure everything was perfect. Red tried to help Yellow calm down and relax, but Yellow decided this was ‘distracting’ and usually kicked Red out. Yellow also found one way to get Red to do even a modicum of studying was to say that she would have fewer people harassing her to get her work done and less time making up her grades to avoid failing, which would automatically mean more time to go out with Yellow. It didn’t cure things but it actually got a couple assignments done that way. Now, whether or not they were half assed is another question, but Yellow took that as a step forward.

- Yellow was always tagging Red to play app games on her phone with her. It usually worked, although maybe not at the times Yellow might have wanted (”DON’T PLAY GAMES IN CLASS, RED, COME ON.”)

- Red actually routinely did things she didn’t really want to do to make Yellow happy. Nothing skeevy, but it got her to go to more than one boring lecture series Yellow wanted to go to, and practicing Hue Troop stuff. ‘I would follow you to the ends of the earth with only mild complaining’ was in full effect here.

- Red once decided to show Yellow her ‘stunt driving’ around various ‘obstacles’. Yellow wouldn’t let Red drive her anywhere for a month after that. Ironically, Red driving her around was one of Yellow’s favourite things to do before that.

- I imagine they were actually pretty quietly cute, despite the frequent little arguments, like holding hands, cuddling, kissing...selfies that they both still have on their phone and Yellow isn’t sure why she hasn’t deleted them yet. Because they’re still cute that’s why.

- They always used to pair off together on missions and patrols and such, and they always looked for each other first after a fight. Green, Black, and Blue were the other usual team. Blue trusted that they would stay focused on their own once they started dating. ...Well, okay, she trusted YELLOW to stay focused after they started dating. And in Red’s defence, they only got distracted making out a handful of times. They dated for a while, so Red thought that was impressive. She and Yellow, ah, used to argue about that. Among other things.

- I wanna say they knew each other since they were like 12ish? Not childhood friends, but not like they only just met when they were both on the Hue Troop either.

- They argued a LOT. Like...a lot. They disagreed about a lot of things and a lot of those disagreements were vehement. There were things that Red and Yellow just fundamentally did not gel well on. What Yellow saw as well meaning, helpful advice, Red saw as nagging and nitpicking and ‘get off my back already’. Meanwhile, what Red saw as ‘harmless thrill seeking’ Yellow saw as ‘irresponsible and reckless, self-destructive behaviour’. What was half hearted grumbling to Red often came off as a resentment to Yellow  Add in that Yellow was a die hard Hue Trooper and Red ...had her doubts about it, and the fact Yellow thought Red SERIOUSLY needed to re-evaluate her priorities and they were, to put it politely, a poor fit. Most of these arguments stayed in the realm of healthy, if passionate disagreement, but sometimes...yeah, you’d think World War Three broke out in the Hue Troops’ hangout with their Big arguments. Red can get really mad and Yellow can be COLD when she’s upset. Mercifully, they usually made up pretty fast after fights like that because they DID care about each other (and Blue was on hand to lock them in the basement until they made up when they were being stubborn).

- That’s not to say they didn’t care about each other because that’s not it - there were definitely a lot of things they admired about each other too. Yellow thinks that Red is creative, brave, opportunistic, fun to be around, adaptable, funny, confident and, again, absolutely magnetic and that’s what she likes about Red (even if she wishes she had better timing and priorities sometimes). Red, for her part, thinks Yellow is determined, smart, caring, loyal, tireless, playful in her own way, and that she has a certain amount of not caring what other’s think (even if she’s also a stuffy nerd). There’s a lot they could have handled better and a lot they disagreed about, but they were friends who cared about each other. ...Even if, as friends, Red can’t resist winding up Yellow until Yellow is ready to strangle her. It’s okay, Yellow, she does it to Blue too.

- Okay, so Red had her leg with the Hue Troop, so I’m revising what I said earlier and Red was in the hospital for something that happened on a mission. Nothing TOO frightening, but bad enough she was off her feet in the hospital for a week or so. Yellow realized that she couldn’t keep worrying about Red being reckless and that she needed someone who was more calm and who could help her relax after being on duty with the Troopers. Again, she doesn’t regret breaking up with her (most days) and thinks they’re better off as friends (most days) but if she was willing to tell her past self, it would be ‘don’t break up with your girlfriend while she’s in the hospital, that’s never going to end well.’

- They reconciled for the most part after a while, but for the first couple months or so after they broke up? HO-LY SHIT. If you thought their Big Arguments were bad, you had not seen anything yet that first week or so afterwards. Not even Blue could sort this one out. After that first week, things kind of...simmered. No more exploding at each other, but there was definite tension. Red was both angry and hurt and Yellow was too stubborn to grant that she might have screwed up (in the timing if nothing else) mostly to avoid feeling guiltier about hurting Red. Yellow made overtures trying to explain her reasoning more than once (because when Yellow is upset with someone for hurting her, understanding their logic makes her feel more solid even if she doesn’t agree with it), but once again, these two did not gel well. Red felt like these explanations were just rubbing her nose in their breakup. So, to try to annoy Yellow, Red started going on dates with any hot girl who looked her way so she could shove it in Yellow’s face. It worked more than Yellow wanted it to and Yellow thought it was juvenile as hell, so that started another argument when that boiled over. Finally, after what was like pulling teeth (have you EVER tried to get Red to admit things she doesn’t want to???) Red told Blue what she was doing and, moreover, it didn’t work - she couldn’t find anybody she liked as much as Yellow. Meanwhile, Black Strategy and Green Guts managed to painstakingly talk Yellow around to admitting that, yes, she could see why her timing was upsetting to Red. This resulted in Yellow ONCE AGAIN trying to explain why she did it...and they started arguing. But THANKFULLY, this time Red snapped at her for rubbing it in. They managed to talk their way through this breakthrough in communication and Yellow gave Red space to move on. 

- Mercifully, things went more or less back to being friendly after that. I think Blue’s plan if the above didn’t work was to smack their heads together until they made up. There was the occasional awkwardness or hurt feelings that came out in minor snarky comments, but things pretty much went back to how they were before they started dating. Yellow’s still got the best understanding of how Red’s mind works.

- Yellow still, very deep down, thinks Red is hot and while her smart brain says she’s not going to go down that road again (especially when Red has a new girlfriend), her bad decision brain still sometimes gives her a flicker of ‘Oh, but it’d be SO FUN to hang out with her again’.

[venus-says]

Kiratto Prichan Episodes 59-64

Welcome back, Meltic StAr!

I bet you thought I forgot about Prichan right? This gonna sound like a lie but I didn’t, for real. XD

The problem Prichan has is basically the same one as AiFure, the subs come out late and things just pile up. Last year I used to watch Prichan without the subs as normal because I wasn’t as invested in the story and if I felt like I was missing out on something I could check on tumblr and see what actually happened. But this time around I actually wanna know what's going on with these characters, especially for this batch of episodes that give major focus to my favorite members of this cast.

But anyway, I got a lot to cover so let's get right into it.

Episodes 59 and 60 are pretty boring. 59 is one to try to promote the new rarity in the game while 60 is to promote the new toy, and I didn't really care for neither of them.

59 had some cute moments on it, specially Daia she was pretty adorable on this one. The owners of that bookstore were also fun sometimes, and I do like the idea they came up to save their business. But the rest of the episode I just couldn’t care less, boring stuff from left to right.

Episode 60 I had quite a lot of problems with it. First I don’t like how they made Mirai so over-obsessed about the palette thing, as far as I know, she never showed signs of being crazy over something at this level before and is just awkward. Second, I don’t like how they make the design palette be such a big deal when we probably won’t see it again after maybe one or two months, also if it’s such an important and rare thing why would Aira give it to Mirai? It makes no sense to me. And in overall it’s just not an interesting episode at all. IF only IF, the new Prism Stone uniform was good I think I could give it a pass and say at least something good came out of it, but these new ones are nowhere near the ones from S1 so...

I think I would've liked 59 more if instead of a repeat performance of Rinka we got one in that Snow White coord. If they still wanted to use Yumeiro Energy it'd be fine for me, I've come to accept this song more from the last time I did one of these, but still I don't think that Miracle Idol coord fits neither the song or the stage and is just a generic group coord because they were lazy to make new performance coords for each new song. But nothing could save 60 for me, not even Super Cutie Super Girl.

Episode 61 is when things get interesting again because MELTIC STAR!!!!!!!!!

The first episode of this mini ark is great, I was surprised by how much I liked this one since it was very focused on Emo and Oshama Tricks was a big part of it as well, and these are normally two elements that if put together could make me go crazy and bored because I don’t like neither of them. But in this one, it worked very well and I enjoyed this episode a lot.

They’ve made a very good job showing how important Anna is for Emo even though they drive each other crazy, and because it was so well done that you can really feel both Emo sadness for thinking that everything was just a lie and her happiness right after as soon as the girls introduce themselves on stage.

If there’s only one thing to complain about this episode is that Meltic StAr’s new unit coords are weird as hell, I really dislike them and I don’t get why they would go with this aesthetic for them. Maybe if these were introduced with a new group song that had this Circus vibe to it I wouldn’t dislike it as much, but since that’s not the case I can’t like them, at least not yet.

I also don’t understand why they would have to announce they’re taking part in the Jewel Auditions since I though everyone doing prichan was eligible for it, but this is honestly just a minor nitpick and not a problem per se.

The next two episodes are used to finally cement Meltic StAr as active parts in this season this gets evident by looking at the opening that features them on it.

I think that, to me, the best that episodes 62 and 63 do is creating bonds between Meltic and Ring Marry, and I’m not saying this just because the 5 of them are my favorites and I love to see their interactions. I promise. I think it is just natural having the two groups together when you consider that Kiratts and Daia have a strong relationship and this has left Maria and Suzu behind for a little.

And honestly, both groups work really well together. Even though both episodes are mainly focused on Mel and Suzu, they still add some other nice little touches to it like for example, saying Sara knows Maria’s channel. Sara loves cute things so is just natural that she’s aware of Maria’s channel. Are small details like this that make me appreciate and enjoy these episodes a little more.

These episodes are so well constructed that they alone made me raise Suzu in my faves list, I really enjoyed seeing her with Mel and seeing how they’re very different from each other which makes possible for both of them to learn a lot from their time together. Given that in both episodes Suzu basically was the one in charge of learning rather than teaching, I believe Mel was able to extract some good this from this experience as well.

Talking about 63 more specifically, I have two problems with it. First is Mel getting jewel chance in the first episode she performs alone in this season, I already mentioned that I don’t like this but since it seems this is the trend for all idols who were already a part of the original cast I can let it pass, also Universe Queen jewel coord is gorgeous and probably my favorite of all we’ve seen so far so this makes me even less mad about the whole situation.

The second is that part where Mel insists for Suzu to sing, I know it’s a minor moment, it goes very quickly, and it’s there just to consolidate even more the fact that Suzu doesn’t want to sing yet. I also know that Mel had good intentions there, but I still don’t like it. As someone who constantly has people trying to force me into doing things I don’t like/want, I can’t stress enough how bad this is.

Thankfully this episode does so many other great things that in the end they overcome these bad points and results in a good episode. My favorite bits being all the moments where Mel was the most hyperactive kid on the planet. Gosh, I love her so much. ALSO, Mel promoting education and saying that learning is fun is very valid.

The highlight of this episode is definitely Mel’s performance!!!!! What a great song it is!!! I have the same problem as before where the Circus Ringmaster Coord doesn’t fit the song and the stage, but I still enjoyed every single bit of it. Even using the repeated stage was good, I think the Amusement Park stage works better here than the palace stage and the sweet shop stag does for Mirai and Rinka’s song. I must say, I didn’t expect Mel’s song to be like this, I expected it to be more like Cometic Shilouette, but I really like it and it fits Mel PERFECTLY. I also think the Meltic StAr generic Yattemita for this season is better than the Kiratts generic one so that’s another plus for this performance.

Closing up this batch the show goes down again in Episode 64. I really don’t like this episode, I really don’t see the point of it and the execution of the thing was kinda wonky.

This Daia Fest was very confusing. First, I don’t get the concept of going through a competition to win a single piece of a coord. I know this is something they do since the Pretty Rhythm days but still, I don’t get it.

Second, I don’t understand why the only two participants are Mirai and Mel, I’d think that more idols would get jewel coords as well, it’d be a good way to showcase in the show that the jewel coords come in various colors in the game. Making the two of them the only competitors make the competion even more pointless.

Third, I don’t get how someone could come out victorious of this thing, they’ve done the exact same thing with nothing different being added to spice things out. Yeah they performed in their Jewel Coords, but in general they share the same value so, is not like they’ve done anything special.

Fourth, Mirai’s victory feels empty. They tried to set up a conflict with Mirai not knowing what her dream was but they don’t do anything with it. If they made Mirai lose they could give her an ark about finding herself, and finding a dream for her and make the culmination of all that be really amazing. But no, she’s the main character so we have to give everything to her very easily.

But to not say I dislike everything this episode has done, I liked the excuse they came up with to why Rinka didn’t got in, I think this thing she has with her mom is very funny and probably the only thing I REALLY like about her.

Oh there’s also Naru who’s in the middle of love and hate. I do like her character here but since I never watched the PR season she’s from I have this sensation in the back of my head that i’m already loosing lots of information about this character, even though like Aira she’s not the same naru from Pretty Rhythm and technically all we’re seeing here is new.

And this is it for now! It took me way longer than I wanted to write this down but I’m finally done.

A FEW SIDE NOTES:

Maria is very relatable.

IS THIS A MOTHERFUCKING BRAZIL REFERENCE?

Despite all the bad things I had to say about these episodes, I can’t deny that we got some very adorable shots from them. LOOK AT IT, THEY’RE SO CUTE.

Now that’s everything I had to say.

I’ve already watched Episode 65, but I’m leaving it for its own post because I have lots of things to talk about and this post is already long enough as it is. I’ll probably post it later today by itself or tomorrow with Episode 66, it will depend if Aikatsu subs will be coming out today or not. Regardless, the symphoger review will be out very soon, I’m finishing up some things here and I’ll be watching the episode in no time.

See yall soon (very soon this time, I promise).

[rivetgoth]

I keep wanting to talk about my stupid band OCs but when i try i forget what words are idk. theyre an industrial band called Heat Pit and there’s three members and they’re kind of an homage to all my favorite bands but really fucked up and stupid. the three members are E.C., Eris, and King Ramses.

E.C.’s name is Eric Christian & he’s from the deeeeep South. he loves trad goth and old school industrial and experimental electro stuff. he plays keyboards of all kinds. he’s extremely extremely shy and quiet and people mistake that for him being sweet and nice but he’s really just sort of a dick in reality. he’s very self absorbed and hates most people and is just standoffish and likes to be left alone. he bitches constantly on tour cuz he hates being stuck with his bandmates for too long and he never goes out and does fun things with them and he’ll disappear ALL DAY before a show and barely make it back in time. he’s very... detail oriented, he likes to construct weird little inventions and creatures with little scraps of things he finds because it entertains him, he likes puzzle solving, he really appreciates little in-the-moment things, he loves nature and stargazing and watching the clouds and shit like that. because he’s so shy he refuses to sing and hates his singing so his solo work is always purely instrumental unless he’s collaborating. he also tends to wear some kind of face covering on stage so he has this weird mysterious aura around him, he almost never does interviews and if he does its with a bandmate and he almost never speaks. he worked in a record store with Ramses after graduating high school because college was miserable for him and he went to the same high school as Eris so he’s a middleman between them because he knows them both.

Eris’ name is also Eric cuz I thought it’d be funny to have two characters with the same name as an homage to you-know-what -___- His music taste tends to be like, synth stuff, new wave, post punk... Eris was born in LA but his family were like devout intense Christians and they moved to some shitty small dirt town in the South cuz they said they were called by God or w/e so Eris was dragged across the country to the pit of Hell and it was miserable. He was miserable. He hates God and he has religious trauma xddd. He was a choir boy throughout school and everyone praised him for having the voice of an angel. He learned to play guitar and did low budget local Christian rock gigs in high school. everyone loved that. he didnt. He realizes he was gay and his life fell apart. goth culture provided a place of solace for him and he started exploring harsher scarier shit in part to get away from the whole “uwuw what an angel!!!!” rep he had with his ugly christian rock stuff. Eris’ original stage name was Eros but he changed it cuz Eris was edgier. He wears fucked up gothic pseudodrag a lot and he is very excitable and energetic and very unafraid to aggressively speak his mind, but he doesnt really know exactly who he is or what he wants to be, hence the frequent name changes, and he ends up struggling the most with drug abuse as the band relations get worse over time :(

King Ramses ends up changing his name to Anubis later in life and he’s a major character in my novel LOL. Ramses is into all industrial stuff and metal and especially industrial metal. he’s from Europe, Greece I think, he’s Greek and Egyptian and he moved to Britain to go to university there and get a philosophy degree. he was a poet his entire life and he was exceptionally good at manipulating people and presenting himself however would best suite him, he adopted a very very upper class british accent and made himself out to be this elite rich intellectual despite being a foreigner from a pretty poor home. he’s incredibly good at reading people and then conforming to what will suite him best in their eyes. he’s a control freak but he’s good at it. he’s fascinated with the occult, with spirituality, with art, with philosophy, and he comes to consider himself a neotranscendentalist. hes an attention seeker and a thrill seeker and he played multiple instruments so he decided to move to the US and become a musician. he needed a band because he thrives so much on leading others, being a solo artist bored him, so he convinced E.C. (who really had only wanted to do solo stuff) to form a band with him after they met while working together at a record store. Ramses becomes increasingly fascinated by body modification and performance art & by the time of my novel he’s gone through extreme extensive body modification but that’s a whole other story 🤗

Heat Pit ends up falling apart cuz frankly they’re all assholes LMFAO. They all hook up with each other at various points and whichever one isn’t currently in the relationship ends up being a really bitter third wheel. they’re all very much control freaks in their own way and very uncompromising. In the end the final instigator is another OC named Sugar who’s a goth macabre pop performance artist & model. he’s really into self mutilation in his work. he’s fucked up. he meets Ramses at a club and the two start dating and Sugar’s influence is abhorrent. things collapse after that. Sugar actually ends up killing himself eventually which sets Ramses down this path where he becomes fascinated by the art of death and death as art which is when he becomes obsessed with body modification stuff. E.C. and Eris eventually reconnect after not speaking to each other for a long time and start dating in a slightly healthier fashion but things remain awkward forever. Eris disappears off the face of the planet and is presumed dead for like a decade but he’s “fine”? Yeah. Shit happens. :/

[rorykillmore]

i feel like i send u this every time i cant decide on new characters lol but do u want any canon mates for your charas rn, which ones?

uhhh let’s see... i ALWAYS want canonmates. though first of all a disclaimer: i might do a bit of character cleanout after the revamp and on the chance that you’re considering any of these i don’t want you to like, commit only for me to drop them, so let me know if you are thinking of picking anyone up.....

lucille... idk. it’d be complicated if she got canonmates because she’s already had significant interactions and developments with previous iterations of edith and thomas. so idk. it could be interesting??? but it really depends on the angle

siobhan, i’m gonna be real, i have ALWAYS wanted a livewire for siobhan. livewire would make, like, the perfect addition to the denny guardians. and she 500% deserves better than what she got in canon, so everybody wins!

otherwise maybe a winn?? i think i’ve talked about this before but i have a soft spot for winn and siobhan’s dynamic, and i think it’d be interesting for them to interact now that she’s developed a lot...

(also a cat grant even though her and siobhan hate each other because i’m just like, CONSTANTLY in a state of “denny needs a cat grant”,)

for sara... hm probably one of the legends (idk if i can narrow down favorites, kendra, snart, zari, jax maybe...) or most definitely an e-1 laurel! which would, y’know, cause a lot of catastrophic conflict, but also sara and e-1 laurel deserve their reunion, so,

bramblestar... you know i’d really love to see one of the journey cats on denny?? we had a few of them at various times -- squirrelflight, feathertail, giz tried out crowpaw briefly. but man i would LOVE to have bramblestar interact with tawnypelt, or really... any of his half-siblings, because he and hawkfrost obviously have a lot of conflict, and he and mothwing. never get to fucking interact and there’s so much potential there. anyway if bramblestar had any kind of sibling on denny it would definitely be super interesting, given tigerstar’s presence and the conflict tigerclan presents in general.

or you know who i’ve always thought would be a really interesting warrior cat to see on denny? goldenflower. because i have a lot of questions about her relationship with tigerstar that the books never answered. and also, give bramblestar his mom back,

for dolores.... i think it’d be really interesting to have a teddy!!! they have so much unresolved shit they need to deal with, and it’d be... sad and complicated with dolores dating laurel now. otherwise, virtually any of the characters you apped/tried out were fucking great, or i would love to have a bernard sometime especially with their mounting conflict.

or i’ve always thought dolores would have really interesting conversations with emily....

for sophie-anne.... idk [immediately forgets all the true blood characters]

no but i would definitely love to have a hadley!! that’d be one of those like. “basically expanding a lot of headcanons for a ship we really didn’t get to see much of in canon” things but. what we saw of them was great, and i like my “hadley would ask to be turned” headcanon. or maybe someone like pam or tara??

camille.... well you’ve mentioned wanting to try out jackie and obviously i would LOVE that. camille and jackie’s relationship is really. poignant to me but i also think they have a lot of unresolved, sad stuff going on. i think camille... forgives jackie or is trying to because she’s also trying to forgive herself for what happened with marian, and she loves jackie so much and jackie was sometimes the only thing that made her childhood bearable, but yeah. also there’d be a lot of potential for funny stuff obviously but there’s something legitimately impressive about jackie’s ability to get dirt on EVERYONE so i have to wonder like, what else she’d get into,

and then.... jay tried her out for a bit (and was wonderful with her) but i would fuckin kill to have an amma long term. i think amma is a wonderfully. painfully complex character who you could do a lot with in rp and admittedly i also just, want to give her and camille some kind of closure arc because they REALLY deserve it, 

i don’t know if anyone would ever try her out because she’s only in one episode but maybe alice too?? although i might cry too hard for that,

sly’s answer is surprisingly like, “too many to count”, because i realized how many sly cooper characters i would LOVE to see on denny. obviously there’s carmelita but i think fate is still planning on apping her eventually?? so besides her... definitely bentley or murray! how could i not want sly to have his best friends... and i also think someone like neyla has a hell of a lot of potential (good balance of ‘scary villain who would do shit’ and ‘potential to flesh out some legitimate complexity’) and that clockwerk if played right would be a TERRIFYING threat and.... someone like dimitri could make a fun comic relief character, or i have such a soft spot for the panda king

or really, honestly, ANY of the cooper ancestors, and so many of those are fan favorites so i’m always holding out hope that someone will pick one of those up! consider: rioichi and nyssa would get along INCREDIBLY well,

for nightcloud.... hmmm honestly i wouldn’t mind having a crowfeather as much as there is to complain about with that relationship because. i’m always here for rping things out in a more satisfying way than canon,

but also like... god i don’t know. feathertail or... i’m trying to think what other female characters Deserved Better because i would love to give nightcloud a ship with another she-cat that kind of. deconstructs a bit of that jealousy thing she does

for susie i would be SO fucking stoked if someone apped someone else from the suspiria movie, actually. specifically like... madame blanc or sara because obviously susie had very poignant and important relationships with both of them (and i think they’re both great characters in their own right). and like. aren’t we all here for sad gay stuff,

also this might be a weird answer but i’m like... weirdly attached to the remake’s version of olga?? she has like 10 minutes of screentime so idek why except for the fact that i was like, previously attached to olga from the original movie. probably no one would ever care enough to flesh her out and app her unless they were like BIG into suspiria like me or fate or jemi are but, y’know

cordelia.... already has/or has had some great canonmates on denny; obviously i already REALLY love your myrtle. if you’re not still planning on apping her... idk i know you also said you were interested in coco or queenie and they would both be amazing to see. basically any of the coven witches!! or uh... christ idk i don’t have the energy to sort through the other seasons of ahs characters now but, any ahs characters would be really interesting i’m sure

for alana, barring the two you’ve already tried out.... i of course think having hannibal around would be both catastrophic and extremely interesting for everyone involved. or also, possibly a weirder answer, but jack??? idk you know we need some like. Solid Law Types for the mld maybe, and i have a weird soft spot/interest in alana and jack’s relationship. or like... obviously getting an abigail would be really sad and complicated (but also, give abigail a shot at a normal life,) or i’ve always thought bedelia could be super interesting on denny...

but naturally the REAL answer here is matthew brown,

for villanelle... i mean i should preempt this by saying that i can’t think of a like, major or supporting character from killing eve who isn’t fucking delightful and i would be thrilled to see ANY of them. if you continue with irina i would rp with her more in an instant

but also..... i would lay down my life for an eve, i gotta be real..... idk what else there is to say.  eve is another character who would be interesting with the mld (though. not for the same reasons as jack. the mld has had corrupt characters and it’s had lawful characters but it hasn’t really had someone who’s... slowly spiraling off the rails yet??) and of course i would throw like 15 million plots at her with villanelle (and my other characters, i guess, >__>). villanelle deserves to have the rug pulled out from under her with eve showing up, so,

okay and then laura.... idk american gods is. SUCH a universe. there are so many potential characters from that who would be fun on denny. to narrow down a couple, obviously shadow and laura have... a lot of unresolved issues to work out and i would kind of really love to play off a shadow because i have a thing for like. sad unresolved ex plots?? and they’d be great for that, nevermind the fact that shadow would have a lot of potential on denny...

ooooor mad sweeney because i have to admit i am becoming a LITTLE bit of a sucker for him and laura as a ship and how could i RESIST the opportunity for things to spiral into disaster if/when she finds out about his involvement in her death. but also like. give me them working through that and becoming better people together.  or mr wednesday!! i mean any of the gods would be INCREDIBLE to see on denny but i think mr. wednesday really stands out as far as... how much overall plot potential he has because he is really such a driving force. and i both love him and love to hate him,

[rpchive]

Ninety Second Encounter-- Infinity City

Oz is probably gonna be up there for Worst Dad of the Year awards after this

Upon entering the IT, the group finds that the entire interior has gone dark. The console room still seems to be the same size, but the floor has changed from a mirror to a carpet.

Collin: Well this is... weird.

He creates a small ball of light that floats up a foot or so above his head while Fawkes deploys his flashlights once again. "Hell of a time for the IT to renovate, huh?" alienrabitt: ...Hey, if that's the only weird thing going on, I don't mind it. Daedalus: Somehow I doubt that. Where were you keeping the Wizard of Oz again, night light? Firefly: He was in my room, but now I have no idea where he is...

Rio: Do you think he wound up on the island?

alienrabitt: No way; he'd need to either be alive, or have a body. He wasn't even bound to an object, so he didn't get the boot like we did... Collin: Sounds like we need to check Firefly's room, then. Azreldeh: Shouldn't you be looking for the marble Demo's been complaining about? Collin: Er, maybe so, yeah. Sorry, got stuck on one track there... Karumet: Just be careful; I know he can't do anything when it's so far away from Demo; but knowing the luck you all share, anything's still on the table... Collin: Fingers crossed, I guess. Let's get to Demo's room then. Jay and Zenith head off for Demo's room. Collin, Fawkes, and Daedalus follow after them.

Zenith: How big is the marble we're looking for anyway? The size of a golf ball?

alienrabitt: More like a lime, I guess. Close, but too small. Daedalus: What color is it? Or does it change like a mood ring or some crap like that? alienrabitt: Not so much a mood ring; it's like every other saa-based kleivenn's...whatevers. Changes based on whoever touched it last; though I wasn't really paying attention when I gave it back to her...she acted like it changed for her in her own hands too, though? I didn't think that was possible, but Demo's not exactly normal...

cannocly, they’re referred to as oracles, because of a line in a FOB song

“I'm the oracle in my chest”

Daedalus: I kinda picked up on that when she dragged me out of your boyfriend. alienrabitt: Honestly, I still have no idea how she managed to do that one... Jay opens the door of Demo's room to find little more than a solid wall with a piece of paper attached.

Zenith: Wh-where'd her room go? What's that note?

alienrabitt: ...It says "I already got what I wanted..." Collin: Oh this is bad. The group returns to the console room to find Demo standing on Silky's back, holding the Candy Cane's sharpened end towards the back of her neck as she waits for the group to return. XL and Nydins are standing nearby, equally tense and nervous, while Firefly and Azreldeh seem to be debating the safest way to get Demo away from her.

Demo?: There you are! I was getting tired of waiting for the two of you. Thought you were gonna stand me up or something.

alienrabitt: L-look, don't do anything you're gonna regret... Demo?: Regret? Do I seriously strike you as the kind of person to have regrets? Seriously, it's like you don't even know me or something.

Stepping down, Demo quickly kicks Silky across the floor, knocking Firefly over. Quickly closing the distance between them, Demo rips Jay's heart out and shatters it in front of him as she pulls out her marble. "...Not like that matters; after this, you won't know anything at all."

As the marble absorbs the shards of Jay's heart, Zenith frantically attempts to stop Demo, and Nydins calls out to try and stop them, however her warning remains disregarded as Demo places the marble against Zenith's chest.

"...And if you're anything like him, you probably took that terrible trait of his, didn't you? Not like you could ever stop taking people in anyway. It's the one thing the two of you truly have in common." As Demo takes Zenith as well, the entirety of the IT vanishes around the group; sending all of them hurdling off in various directions as the very fabric of reality itself seems to tear like a film that's off track, leaving their surroundings an ever shifting plane of brilliant reds, greens, and blues. One by one, everyone's view of each other is cut off by pillars of what appear to be a mixture of memories and separate timelines; each one focused on the person trapped inside.

After several moments of falling in uninterrupted solitude, Daedalus finds himself placed alone in a city that is constantly changing it's layout and appearance. From across the "city," Daedalus can hear Demo call out to him:

"Don't bother looking for the others; there's only the three of us left now. Well, four if you include Collin, but if you take too long to find me, he won't be a problem. See, I kind of figured that he'd be about the only person who could reach through to Jay, and I really can't have that, but leaving him somewhere to find me seemed...well, not a good idea. So I'm just straight up going to rip him to pieces. His soul, I mean. It's totally getting shredded. 'Course, I couldn't risk any of those magic users sitting up here to do that kind of thing either; so I'm making Nydins do it. Don't worry, she has no idea what's going on; pretty sure she can't see or hear any of this, actually. Anyway, if you take too long, you're stuck out there, sooo...get walking, pal."

Daedalus: ... Wow. Literally everything fell apart in less than fifteen seconds. That's gotta be some kind of record for you guys. Alright, fuck it, looks like I'm saving that worthless idiot's soul a second time. Time to really give this bad boy a run for its money.

He adjusts the gauntlet on his arm to make sure that it's firmly attached and then points it out in front of him. He activates a sprayer from the underside of the glove which shoots out an orange gel on the ground in front of him. Stepping onto the material, he begins sprinting forward at a drastically increased speed as he continues to spray in front of him, heading off toward the direction of Demo's voice. Switching over to a blue gel, he splatters a decently sized puddle at the end of his trail and launches off of it like a spring pad, hurtling through the air.

Before he hits the ground, he shoots another blotch of blue gel onto the pavement and bounces off of that as well. He repeats the process to make his way around the shifting city, occasionally rolling to a stop on a splatter of the gel which absorbs the impact of his landing so that he can orient himself and continue onward.

can’t believe Daedalus is gonna LARP Splatoon to save everybody’s lives

In the center of the shifting expanse is a building that continues to shift in size and layout, however the upper half remains the same, an amalgamate of neon lights; colorful windows; and walls that are placed nonsensically, barely qualifying as proper rooms. Daedalus glances around at the structure for a minute before finally picking out a spot on the upper half to try and shoot a portal onto. He successfully places a portal on a solid portion of the brilliant building. Daedalus: Nice, half-expected that not to stick, but I'll take it.

He shoots the other portal on a nearby wall and steps through, carefully making his way onto the top of the bizarre structure. Once he has his footing, he starts cautiously making his way around as he looks for a way inside. There seems to be a door on the roof, however it's sunken into the roof rather than protruding, leading into the building more like a cellar door. Daedalus: God, what the hell is with this place anyway? I know we're from the seventies but honestly...

He pulls the door open and heads down inside. "... If I didn't know any better, I'd think M. C. Escher bodyjacked Demo rather than the world's shittiest pseudo-scientist." The interior of the building isn't much better, stairs going both up and down despite being on the uppermost floor; some of them actively moving as wholes or shifting  like escalators. The building seems to get more stable the closer he gets to Demo's location, however, making it easy to tell where she is. Using a combination of portals and gels, Daedalus gradually works his way toward the more stable parts of the building. He raises his voice slightly as he continues talking to himself, seeing if he can get any sort of response from Demo. "At least Aperture's layout was vaguely practical! I mean really, stair elevators? Stairevators? That doesn't even make sense!"

I...guess it makes sense that Daedalus wouldn’t have seen an escalator, but it’s still kinda funny that he doesn’t know what they are

Demo?: "The stairs are moving? I haven't even left this room, honestly; I'm kind of enjoying the view. Well, that and trying to get Zenith to stop talking so much. It won't stop complaining about Jay; ugh; seriously; the guy's dead for sure; I mean, you'd think it'd pick up on that after his body disappeared when I literally broke his heart, but noooooo..." He pauses on the next staircase and looks blankly in the direction of Demo's voice for a second. "... Buddy, you'd better hope you're wrong about that." Demo?: "It was kind of a rush if we're being totally honest; I was a little nervous or something at first, but the sheer concept of finally being whole made it more satisfying. I mean, really, this is all I've ever wanted. Nothing can hurt him; or take him away; he's not bound to anybody anymore; there's no other people in his life that are better than me; I'm just...the only thing that's important. The only thing that he has. Literally keeping him alive...as a part of me. It's the safest he's ever been; and it just feels right."

you know that, since he’s still soulbound to Collin, if you kill him, you kill yourself too, right?

After another moment, Daedalus continues moving deeper into the building with a fortified sense of determination. "Right, well, you can keep being a clingy psychopath for now, but I think it's only fair to warn you that you are seriously screwed the moment I put Collin's soul back in his body." Demo?: "If there's even enough of him left to punish me." Daedalus: You seriously underestimate how damnably resilient he is. Trust me, I know that better than any of you fuckers. Demo?: "Seriously? With a shredded soul? Would he even care? Didn't seem like he was too worried last time he lost it." Daedalus: God, you're insufferable like this, you know that? Daedalus finally comes across the room Demo is in; perfectly stable, and similar in appearance to the room Zenith was made in. Behind her is Nydins, Collin's unconscious body floating a few feet away from her in a large, blue bubble with the grief symbol on it; though the eye is open for once. Nydins makes no attempt to look away from what she is doing. Demo, however, stops watching them to face Daedalus.

Demo?: You got here faster than expected...! I'm impressed. Daedalus rolls his neck and his shoulders for a second before pointing his gauntlet at Demo. "Yeah, well, I learned how to get around pretty well from my twin back in the day. So, are we doing this the easy way or the hard way? I might not have any magical nonsense to drag Oz out of you, but I know someone in here that sure as hell does." Demo?: ...Why are you even bothering to help him? To help any of them? What exactly do you have to prove; that you're redeemable? That you're finally a good guy; that you can finally think and act on your own? What good does it do you to save these people; they can't even punish you if they can't save themselves. Daedalus: I'm not doing this to "prove" anything. I'm not trying to avoid punishment, or get a pat on the back, or whatever other dumb excuses you can come up with. I'm here because of two simple things. The first is that you collapsed the only place I had to stay into some nonexistent space and dumped my ass in some crack-fueled nightmare of an Escher wannabe, so no shit I'm gonna want to find a way out.

The second is that after Demo brought me back here, things felt... different. They felt... real. It was like everything I knew up until then was some sort of manic hallucination. Before, I could only feel jealousy, anger, hatred toward everyone and everything. All that mattered was sabotaging Collin's life and everything that he stood for. Now I look back on all of it and I feel... guilt. Like a lead weight in my chest pulling me down into something I still can't quite understand.

I might not be pushover goodie two-shoes that my twin is, but I'm not letting myself become some mindless rage monster again either. I'm not living a life that I'll despise ever again, and I'll carve a bloody fucking path through anyone that tries to get in the way of that. So, one more time then. Let Collin go, undo whatever the fuck you've done to everyone, and give us back the IT, or things are about to get really. Fucking. Ugly. Demo?: I really don't understand you. I'm not sure why, I just...can't place it in the slightest. You've got nothing holding you back; no obligations; don't you get it? This isn't just the ship; this...this is everything; every reality they see is one I can tear into; one I can pull from, or go to; I can do anything; make anything; I've got eternity in front of me, and the fabric of reality is playdough in my palms!! And all you want is... to go back to how things ought to be? Don't do this to yourself; don't go back to that subpar lifestyle of living in this...nobody's shadow! You can be a god; why settle for less just because it's "the right thing to do?" Daedalus: I'm not settling for anything. I don't want to be a god. I just want to be me. Letting out a sigh, Demo shakes her head. "I can't make you something you aren't. I mean, I very much can, but I was really hoping you'd just be on board with this whole thing out the gate. Suit yourself, pal; just remember-"

A long, sharp, steel rod protrudes from the floor abruptly, impaling Daedalus through the chest.

"-Time means nothing here, and your lives? They're just my playthings. And we're gonna be playing this game for a long, /long/ time, until I get the answer I want."

Demo continually reverses and redoes this for quite some time, not really relenting as much as taking her time to undo it occasionally.

thanks pal

you’re about to experience the wrath of a god

(those are two separate links btw)

As Demo continues to torment Daedalus, Firefly comes crashing through one of the windows, causing her to stop. It is impossible to read Firefly's expression as she rushes Demo, pulling everyone Oz pulled in apart from each other.

Firefly: ...You shouldn't have underestimated me!

With the trio now separated, the chaos that had consumed the various dimensions stops all at once, and reality returns to the way that it was. Zenith pushes themself upright, but can barely support themself. Leaning against the wall of the console room, they look at the shards of Jay's heart, floating several feet away, gray and cold. Demo lies on the floor between them, incapable of moving beyond shifting her view up. Firefly keeps her grip on Oz's raw soul, breathing heavily as she tries to hold back tears.

Firefly: ...He's not gonna wake up like that...! And Jay...he might not even come back! You...I tried so hard to find a way to stop you, or to help you, but...there's no good in you, is there? I was stupid to give you a window like this...I shouldn't have even kept you here...

Oz: But you did. You left me here, and kept the Zenith. You made too many mistakes, you made this happen.

Zenith: ...Sh-she didn't do anything; nobody did anything; nobody but you...you're the only one who wanted to hurt everybody...you're the one who did this... Daedalus staggers to his feet, still clutching his chest with his unarmored hand. He groans as he looks at the others for a moment before focusing back on Oz.    "... P-.... Permission to wipe this asshole off the map?" Azreldeh: Go for it. If you don't, I'll drag him to hell myself. Daedalus: Wonderful.

His eyes suddenly burst into brilliant white flames as he takes one step forward and holds out the gauntlet toward Oz. A shockwave starts forming in the palm as flames burst to life along his arm and coalesce around the charge. A blazing ring of fire suddenly appears on the ceiling directly above Oz and several spears of searing hot fire spike down and pierce through Oz one after the other, knocking Firefly clear. As one last spear plunges through him, Daedalus screams in fury and unleashes a massive blast of flame from the gauntlet. The blast seems to wrap around Oz's form like a snare and twists around him, engulfing him in an overwhelming surge.

The flames dissipate in a sudden gust of air a moment later, leaving absolutely nothing in its wake, not even a char on the carpet.

Daedalus: That's for treating me like a fucking shishkebab, asshole.

As he finishes his sentence, he drops to his knees and then flops gracelessly to the floor, still conscious but groaning in pain. Zenith: Wh-what the...?! You can do stuff like that!?

Clair: L-let's talk about that later...as...terrifying and awesome as it was; d-...Oz...still left a lot in his wake for us to deal with...

Rio: Are...are you gonna be okay after doing something like that? Daedalus: I.... think.... not sure... what I just did... Karumet: ...More questions for later, I guess...

Azreldeh: Nydins; you're the one who messed Collin up like this; you've gotta be the one that can pull him back together.

Nydins: M-me?! I can't! Not like this--!

Azreldeh: Your powers are grief-based, right? They work off the pain and suffering of others? Everyone around you's going through a lot of that, but if that's still not enough...use me. Look back to everyone I wound up sending off; everyone I saved; and you'll find more than you need, I'm sure.

Nydins: B-but won't that hurt you? T-to...to see all that again?

Azreldeh: Collin's basically comatose and Jay might be dead; do you seriously think I care about hurting? C'mon, let's hold hands and do whatever you did with Collin, but...good this tine. Okay?

Still reluctant, Nydins steps over to Azreldeh and takes her hand like she asked. Azreldeh tells her it's not bad, just a little cold, then abruptly goes rigid, even her tail standing on end as she seems to stare straight through the wall and off into space. As this happens, the eye that normally physically appears on Nydins appears in the fire between her horns instead, and a multitude of small, blue, magical circles appear on the floor around Collin, each erupting into a beam of light that forms a pyramid over his body. Extending her free arm, palm forward, Nydins aims at Collin, and yet another beam of light seemingly pierces through the entire IT, connecting all the glowing circles into a symbol before the entire setup vanishes along with the eye in the flames. Exhausted, Nydins releases Azreldeh and staggers aside, and Azreldeh collapses onto her hands and knees, breathing heavily as she curls her tail around herself uncomfortably. Collin suddenly gasps for air before breaking out into a coughing fit. He rolls over onto his side and puts his free hand on the floor in front of him. Simultaneously, the large, dull crystal lying on the floor off to the side of the console room suddenly bursts back to life and is consumed by a ball of light. The shape then stretches out to form a humanoid shape before dissipating, leaving Sanglied behind who then just as quickly falls to one knee, shaking slightly as they hug their arms around themself.

Collin seems to come to his senses first while he slowly starts to push himself up off the floor. His movements are unsteady, but his sheer determination drives him to keep moving.

Collin: J-Jay... Where... is he? I... have to... Zenith: ...Oz made Demo break his heart. I...I don't know if you can fix it...

Karumet: ...If he were dead, he wouldn't have left anything behind. As it stands, he just looks...empty.

Demo: ...I couldn't...hurt him...I didn't...want to do...that....I wanted to...keep him...safe...not...this. Not...this... Daedalus: What the hell are you going on about? Zenith: ...Oz just...did what he did to everybody; he took what Demo wanted and...made it all wrong. She wanted to keep Jay around; so Oz tried to make him a part of us. She wanted Collin out of the picture, so he was gonna kill Collin. She wanted to be alone, so he sent everyone spiraling off into space. She wanted you to help...and he wanted the worst of that. Daedalus: ... I know I just cremated him somehow, but I kinda wish I could do it again. Collin finally pushes himself onto his feet, slowly approaching the floating shards of Jay's heart. His expression is locked in a mask of stunned bewilderment as he tries to push the shards together with his hands. "N-No.... I... H-How do... How am I supposed to fix this?"

Karumet: ...I'm...not sure. It looks like he's just totally empty; no wish; no magic. And there's no way we'd have enough magic to fix him in the state everyone's in right now. The best you could do is try to make the wish that made him again, and hope he regains color. After that, the shards will be able to pull together again, and once you have magic, we can bring him back in full. That's about the only guess I have...it's still better than just...assuming he's gone for good. Collin: I... Alright, I'll...

Still trying to pull the shards together himself, he takes a shaky breath in as he closes his eyes as tight as he can. "... Please... come back... You can't just... It can't end like this..." /Though the shards make no effort to conjoin, there is a moment where they flash a bright green; a bright red; and a deeper shade of green before settling on their proper shade of blue. Collin slowly opens his eyes and seems to relax just slightly when he notices the color change. "Well... It's a start..." Zenith: H-he'll get better eventually...! Hopefully...

Demo: ...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...J-Jay... She begins to choke up as she buries her face in the carpet. Daedalus: This is just one white-hot shitstorm of a day, isn't it... Azreldeh: Dude; you just burned a kid's dad do death in front of them...

Zenith: He...definitely deserved it... Daedalus: Maybe I should feel bad, but I don't. Clair: ...I don't blame you. It...was really a long time coming...at least nobody can let the Operation know where we are now...

Azreldeh: ...You're not handling this well. You're also terrible at hiding how you feel.

Clair: ...There's nothing /to/ feel. I can't feel sorry; or mad; or even guilty. Nothing he caused was because of me; nothing I could've done would've stopped him...I've got nothing to hide, and nothing left to lose. Daedalus: I'll admit, this part's going better than I expected. Azreldeh: Really? Because it looks like big guy's boyfriend just turned into a bunch of glowing rocks; but I'm glad you're having a good time.

Zenith: At least nobody...actually died? Daedalus: I was talking more about- Ugh, nevermind...

Collin: I... guess I'll try to take these back to the room. I'm not sure what else to do with them right now. Silky: I'll just take Demo to XL's room for now too...if anyone's actually hurt, they should go there also; otherwise, we probably just need to lie down for a while or something...

XL: Anything but...whatever the hell all that was. I don't care what you do. If you're hurt; come to me; if not...please, don't.

With that, the pair leaves, taking Demo with them. Sanglied finally steps back onto their feet, but their gaze seems somewhat distracted and distant. "I'm sorry, we... we need some time alone."

They hurry off down the hall to their room.

Daedalus: Well, I'm just gonna... lay here for a bit. Can't really move still, so unless someone wants to drag me along, I'll be here if you need me.

Collin wordlessly scoops the shards of Jay's heart into his hands and gently carries them back to his room. Zenith: Would you, uhh...rather be in your room? Daedalus: Buddy, after taking about umpteen metal rods in the chest, I'm just taking life as it comes.

I think about this line more than I should tbh, lol

Zenith glances at Clair, unsure of what to do in the situation. Sighing, Clair shakes her head and takes a seat on the floor beside Zenith.

Clair: ...How are you handling this?

Zenith: Jay being...broke; or...dad?

Clair: ...Both, I guess.

Zenith: ...I'm not. I just don't wanna cry in front of everybody. They're gonna think I'm a baby or something. Daedalus: I think half of the IT is in tears right about now, so now's the time honestly. I promise not to be snarky about it. Zenith: ...Why didn't you tell me?

Clair: ...Tell you what?

Zenith: ...You...you knew about Alzedeth, but...you still tried to protect them. Why?

Clair: ...Look, I told you I don't hold that against you...I know he can't go back to that, but...it was all I had left of--

Zenith: I never went anywhere; I just...I don't know. I guess I got so caught up in everything, it was hard for me to say who I was.

Clair quietly stares at the floor for a moment before looking over to Zenith. "...If you're lying just to make me feel better, it's not."

Zenith: I'm not lying! When I was...stuck with those guys, I saw a lot of stuff that wasn't mine. I knew how Demo felt about what was happening; I knew Oz was the one doing it; and...somewhere in it all, I think Jay did too. But Oz just...took all this out on me when he made me like this; he knew who I was supposed to be...and so I found out.

Clair: Y-you...you were there for everything he did?

Zenith: ...Yeah. I watched everything. He was there every time he made me take somebody else. He justified it as a funeral since he kept making everyone's friends and stuff forget them.

Clair: This...this is too much. I don't even know where to start, I-...

Zenith: ...Look, you don't...owe me any sorrys or anything. I know you tried to stop him. I know you care.

Unsure of what to say, Clair is the one to burst into tears as she wraps Zenith in a hug; though they seem more confused by the gesture than anything. Daedalus suddenly seems slightly uncomfortable with his current situation and tries moving again, but he barely gets his limbs to budge. He lets a minute or so pass as he tries to will himself to become invisible. Failing that, he finally musters up his courage and uneasily breaks the silence. "Well, uh... At least something good came out of all of this, huh?" Azreldeh: ...I don't think she's gonna stop crying any time soon. You wanna go somewhere else? Daedalus: I don't really want to interrupt your reunion, but uh... I'm feeling a little out of place suddenly, so it might be for the best. For what it's worth though, I'm... well, I'm not sorry for torching the monster, but I do feel a little bad for doing it in front of you guys. Zenith: It's...he deserved it. I guess we were both kind of hoping he'd maybe...get better or something; but instead he just kind of...didn't. This is on us as much as it is Firefly... Daedalus: Oh please, don't give me that crap. There was only one person at fault here, and they're a fine vapor at this point. Zenith: ...Y-yeah...I guess so. Um, Clair; I kinda wanna check on everybody else, could you...let go?

Embarrassed, but still crying, Clair backs off. "S-sorry! I just...I really missed you."

Zenith: Hey, don't worry, alright? I'm not gonna leave you alone. Getting up off the floor, Zenith heads for Collin and Jay's room first.

“hey do you wanna be somewhere else?” *leaves him on the floor*

good job Zenith

The room is almost eerily quiet as Zenith approaches the door. He can practically feel the despair emanating from inside. Zenith debates knocking for a moment before indecisively pulling the door open slightly and sheepishly calling into the room instead: "...You don't have to sit all by yourself..." Collin: ... I know. Still uncomfortable, Zenith steps into the room anyway. "...I know it's not okay, but...he will be. And until he is, you...shouldn't stay like this. You're only gonna feel worse." Jay's shards are floating gently above his side of the bed while Collin sits with his legs pulled up against his chest next to them. He looks at Zenith as he comes in. “I... I just don't want to leave them alone. If this situation gets any worse, he'll..." Zenith: ...Yeah, I know. I don't think it will, though. I...don't really have what it takes to help him entirely after what Oz did, but I could probably pull him together enough to get him out here again? He'd probably still be broken up, but he'd be here... Collin: I don't want to rush this if it's going to hurt him. Zenith: Does it hurt? I thought he'd just forget stuff... Collin: I... Look, it... I just don't want to see him look at me like a stranger. Zenith: ...Then I'll wait here too. You don't deserve to be alone, not after all that... Collin: You don't need to do that. I'll have to leave eventually, I just... don't know what to do with myself right now. Zenith: ...What's there to do? The IT never even stopped moving; Oz is gone; Demo can't even move... Collin: You mean Daedalus? Zenith: No, I mean Demo. When we all showed up, she was lying on the floor the whole time. Silky had to take her to XL's room because she can't move. She could barely even look at you when you started trying to help Jay. Collin: Oh. God, I guess I was so out of it I didn't even notice... Zenith: Do you wanna go check on her? I can watch the shards... Collin: You... don't need to do that. You're right, he'll be fine here. Zenith: I just wanna help you out. Collin: I get that, but just... don't weigh yourself down for my sake. I'm sure there's something else you'd rather do than babysit my boyfriend's... pieces... Zenith:  already had one big conversation with Clair; the only other thing on my list was see if your god friends were okay too. They looked really shaken up when they left... Collin: Yeah, things got pretty bad for both of us there... Anyway, I should go check on Demo like you said. Zenith: Okay; I'll go try to find the gods then. Unless you want the company. Collin: .... Tell you what, I'll go with you to see Sanglied. It feels more personal than just this weird telepathy thing. Zenith: Sounds good to me!

With that, they leave the room again. They head for the gods' room and Collin pauses for a moment as they reach the door. After that, he nods and gently opens the door to their room. Stepping inside, they find themselves inside a room like a small palace. The floors are made of a gleaming marble tile, and the walls are stylized like those of a cathedral. A lifelike mural of a starry night sky is painted in a circular indent in the ceiling. Various bedroom furnishings are set up along the walls, and a large fountain filled with glistening water stands at its center.

Sanglied is sitting on the edge of the fountain with a fairly large goblet in their hand. They finish off its contents and then dunk it back into the fountain to refill it. They look over to the pair and raise their goblet to them in a mute greeting before taking another drink. A little awestruck by the room's contents, Zenith slowly enters before remembering what they've come for. "...Um, y-...are you guys okay? I don't know what exactly happened to you; I'm pretty sure Collin was unconscious from the start of that mess, but Oz didn't target you guys at all..." Sanglied: Didn't have to. I don't know what was happening to Collin's soul, but almost killing him like that almost killed us. Well, "killed".  Our connection to the physical realm was falling apart, and this body of ours was giving out. Everyone started panicking because we knew Collin was in danger but we couldn't do anything about it, and about that time we lost consciousness. After we came to, the The pain and confusion had sent Ezorius into one of her... episodes, so I had to calm her down from that. We were all trying to get up to speed with what had happened, and so I just... got us back here so we could regroup, I guess. Zenith: ...I'm really sorry we couldn't stop him. I can't even begin to imagine what all of you went through while we were stuck together. I mean, I know what he wanted to do; but he didn't; I don't even think he could...well, he could've, but when all of us were holding him back, things...didn't totally work out for him either. Sanglied looks at him from over the rim of their goblet. "... You wanna try being a little less vague?" Zenith: He really was trying to send everybody else everywhere else, but since we didn't want him to do that, everybody just kinda kept falling, surrounded by the infinite possibilities of places they could be... Sanglied: That... doesn't sound much better. Zenith: Hey, if he'd actually sent everybody away, nobody would've been able to stop him! I...still have no idea how Firefly escaped all that; but maybe she'll explain that later. Regardless, I think we were both messing up each other's stuff. You're lucky you couldn't see his poor excuse for a "city." Sanglied: We'll take your word for it. Regardless, Ezzy's okay, and everyone else has calmed down. Mostly. I guess we'd already gotten spoiled by being back here; almost being forced back into the Inbetween was not a fun thing to feel again. Zenith: I understand. The entire experience was uncomfortable for everybody involved; I don't think anybody walked away from this totally unscathed. Azreldeh's trying to be tough by not admitting it, but even she got scared of all that. Collin: Oh shit, is she okay? I'm still a little fuzzy on what was happening in the console room... Zenith: She's fine; she wouldn't be sitting in my shadow watching you right now if she wasn't. Collin: Oh, she's-? Alright, that's good. Zenith quickly apologizes to his shadow before looking back to Collin.

"Seriously though, what about you? I know you're worried about Jay, but, I mean...Oz tried to kill you too." Collin: I... I don't know. Everything had happened so fast. One second I was watching Demo shatter Jay's heart right in front of me, and the next... I think I was drifting in and out of consciousness or something, because everything until I woke back up in the console room is just a mess of voices and colors and pain. It doesn't make any sense. Zenith: ...I had no idea you were even remotely awake during that whole mess. Oz kind of tried to make an entire building out of one of the rooms he used for his weird funeral things; and that's where Daedalus found us. He was making Nydins rip you apart, but I don't know how much she knows either. She looked like she wanted to stay away from things, but Azreldeh told her she was the only one who had a shot at helping you, so she did.

Azreldeh: ...For what it's worth; she really tried to get you back together. I've never had that many flashbacks that realistically so close together in my whole life...but I still don't regret all that stuff. And hey, it helped you get back on your own...foot, I guess; so that's, like, a double plus, right? Like, 200% great. Collin: Well, I appreciate it. I just hope whatever Nydins had to do to you wasn't that bad. Azreldeh: I'm basically from hell; nothing she could've done would've been too much for me to take. Collin: Well, I can't argue with that. So, just to make sure Sanglied, everyone's still okay?

Sanglied: Yeah, we're alright now. I'm probably going to take the fiercest nap in a century after this though. Azreldeh: Just don't oversleep. Sanglied: Does sleeping til the turn of the next year count? Zenith: Uh...yes? Sanglied: Dammit. I'll have to set an alarm...

Collin: Well, I still need to go check up on Demo, so we'll just uh, leave you to it then. Zenith: Just don't sleep through that too! Sanglied: Eh, someone else will get tired of hearing it if I don't.

Collin and Zenith leave the pantheon to their nap and head back down the hall toward XL's room. Collin: So Demo wasn't looking too good after all of that either, huh? Zenith: She couldn't move at all, but she didn't look physically hurt or anything? I guess it just really wore her out or something; which doesn't really surprise me; I'm, uh...a lot to handle. Collin: I suppose so. How are you feeling after all of that, anyway? Zenith: I uhh...watched my dad die...again, I guess? But I'm more guilty that I wound up hurting everybody somehow...I mean, I know it wasn't me doing all that stuff, but I still feel bad that I got used against you guys... Collin: Heh, you can join the club there, honestly. It's happened to a fair chunk of us. The "getting used" thing, not the... dad thing. I am sorry you had to be there for that, even if he was a complete psychopath. Zenith: ...I know he deserved it. Clair and I both quietly hoped he'd...maybe not be like that somehow, but he clearly only ever had one thing in mind at any point in time, and nothing anyone did or said could change that. I kinda didn't want to be wrong, but we both always knew it'd come down to something like that... Collin: There's only so many chances you can give someone, y'know? It's no one's fault but his. Zenith: ...Yeah. I know... Collin: .... I do get how you feel though. I actually had to stop what....used to be my mom myself. I still feel awful about that sometimes, but I know that if I let her continue on, more people would just get hurt. It was the right thing to do, even if it didn't feel right.

the arc of OZ is pretty much just “DECIMATE YOUR PARENTS”

Zenith: ...I...kinda knew about that. I don't know everything Jay did, but I got enough context to understand who was who and why they were where they were. It just wasn't really the kind of thing I figured I should be talking about, so I never brought it up or anything. That must've been a terrible choice to make, though; but at least you got to make it. And you're right; you did do the right thing. Collin: I don't really mind questions if they're brought up at the right time, I guess. It's funny, I don't actually get too many questions about Aperture at all, even from the people who've known me the longest. Anyway, let's see how Demo's holding up. Staying at the back of her room, XL and Silky quietly discuss something with each other while Demo continues to lie on XL's metal bed. Demo makes no effort to look at the door once she hears people enter, though she does quietly acknowledge it. "...Why are you here?" Collin: Well... Jay's gonna be out for a while, and I've already talked with Zenith. You're the only person I haven't really checked in with that got the worst of... all that. Demo: Me? I almost killed you. I almost killed Daedalus too. I thought I'd killed Jay for real until I saw you try to fix him; do you know how that felt? ...No, I don't even need to ask, of course you do; you know everything about Jay; I'm sure he's already waiting for you like some stupid puppy back in your stupid room...don't try to pity me.  I don't deserve it. Collin: Jay's still in fucking pieces back in my room, asshole. I didn't come here to pity you, I came here to see how you were doing because I still care about you, even if you are an absolute ass sometimes. Demo: ...But why? Why do you care about me?  I  know I tried to do the right thing once I came back, but...everything that happened back there still happened because I wanted it to a degree. It wasn't exactly what I wanted; that much is true, but...I still wanted to get rid of everybody. I still wanted to get him alone, even after all this time...I'm barely better than I used to be. Collin: At least you tried to change. That's the difference between you and Oz. He would've kept ruining lives until the end of time if he had it his way, but even if you did have a hand in all of this, you're still not that computer-generated thing that I first met all that time ago. And beside all of that, you've shown that you can care about people other than Jay, and that alone proves that you've already changed from before. Demo: ...I just wish I could've stopped him before he did all that. If you two had actually died, I don't know what I would've done...literally; I don't think there'd be anybody left to help anyone...but somehow, despite almost losing you both, things worked out, and I got stopped before Oz could force me to do something really stupid...I never wanted you dead. Not even before. I just wanted Jay to listen to me...I know, I figured that maybe that kid he's stuck with might've been my other half, but it's not; it can't be. It has to be Jay. Just Jay. But I don't want to be whole at his expense. I don't want to be whole at all if it takes something away from him. Oz didn't get that; or maybe he just didn't care.

now, there is gonna be something substantial to Demo realizing “hey, Jay’s actually my other half” beyond competition, but that’s gonna be some serious slow burn

Collin: Probably the latter, if I'm being honest. He wasn't exactly a font of sympathy. Er, no offense, Zenith. Demo: ...Regardless, I'm just...sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't hold him back; sorry I couldn't stop him; sorry he tried to read me and twisted it into something that worked out for him instead...Firefly wants to blame herself, but this is the third time I couldn't tell somebody no enough and everybody around me got hurt because of it. Collin: If you really want to make it up to everyone, then don't let something like this happen again. And while you're at it, maaaybe try not to mess with Jay anymore? I'm not sure how much more of all this "breaking down and being absorbed by other things" nonsense he can take. Demo: Trust me, if I'd had a choice, I wouldn't have touched him. Collin: Fair enough. I can leave you alone now so you can rest, if you want. Demo: ...Fine by me. Just let me know when Jay's...Jay again. I'm sure he has a lot to say. Collin: I will, I just don't know when that'll be. Demo: Your guess is as good as mine, pal. I have no idea how much that stuff burned him out. I never even tried to take any part of him in; I tried as best as I could to keep us all distinct; but that was about all I could do. Collin: Well, hopefully that was enough. I guess I'll go back and make sure the shards are safe for now. Might take a nap while I'm at it, honestly. I still don't really remember what happened, but I feel like my tank's running at half-past empty at this point. Demo: Probably for the best. Sleep well or whatever. Collin and Zenith take their leave again and head off their separate ways.

the next log is gonna be p much just...solid aftermath from all this, tbh. substantial enough to not be considered filler, but it doesn’t have any Action or anything afaik

[artificialqueens]

your body as a museum of careless gestures (biadore) - dylann

A/N:

Adore’s impulsive, sure.

But she’s more “don’t sober up at all for 36 hours because you’re sad you can’t randomly drop your own responsibilities and fly out to Europe” impulsive than “actually fly out to Europe” impulsive.

(or

Bianca is vulnerable, homesickness is a real bitch, Europe is very far away and plane tickets are unreasonably priced. Also, old patterns are hard to break, especially when you don’t even want to break them.

A reunion fic, everyone. That’s what this is.

Drag names and she/her pronouns for both throughout most of this. Shoutout to Dare for some solid constructive criticism and noticing my missing paragraph breaks.

Content warnings for mentions of weed and alcohol; sex; minor breathplay)

They FaceTime once, in early August, while Bianca’s at an airport somewhere in Europe, and Adore’s shitfaced in Seattle.

She’s home after a local show, still in full makeup, but she’s pulled her wig off and her own hair is piled up at the top of her head in a messy approximation of a bun. Her phone keeps flashing on every couple of minutes, lighting up with various notifications.

Bianca liking a recent Instagram post, or the occasional tweet, or commenting on pictures they’re both tagged in. It’s the clear signs of someone who’s bored and in some sort of situation where they can’t do much besides fuck about on their phone.

Adore knows she shouldn’t text because— well, because she isn’t having the best night anyway, and while talking to Bianca might help at first, it’d probably fuck her up worse in the long run.

She’s stripped down to her underwear and the remnants of a practically destroyed Sex Pistols tank top when her phone buzzes again. It’s another Facebook comment, and she caves.

To Bea 🍹 (3:27:02am) how the fuck bored are you??

Bianca fires back a 😂 almost immediately, and then types a response. The three dots that indicate her thinking pop up a few times, until she settles on

To Adore 🔞 Delano (3:30:03am) Airport. Plane’s delayed.

(3:30:12am) cafe’s not even open, I hate Europe.

Adore mutters “No, you don’t,” to herself as she situates herself in the middle of her bed. Last night’s bowl is still half-packed at the sill of her open window, and she thanks past-Adore for being so considerate as she picks it up and takes a hit. 

And then she remembers Bianca can’t actually hear her.

To Bea 🍹 (3:31:45am) no you dont

(3:31:57am) can i call you???

To Adore 🔞 Delano (3:32:05am) 🙃👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

Adore props her phone on her nightstand, and tilts the small reading lamp so it hits her face from the right angle. She’s wearing very light sea green contacts, and she knows for a fact her eyes look stunning.

The connection takes a moment and then the black screen lights up to reveal Roy who looks like a parody of an airplane traveller. He’s clearly exhausted and bleary-eyed under the rim of his baseball cap, and he’s wearing a plush fuchsia pink travel pillow around his neck like a goddamn statement piece.

Adore lets out a delighted laugh, and then goes,

“You look horrible.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Roy laughs, giving his camera a long look. “Isn’t it, like, way past your bedtime?”

“Has anyone ever told you you use emoji like a thirteen year old girl with a secret Instagram account?” Adore fires back.

“Are you calling me old?” Roy asks, feigning offense well enough that it makes Adore break and she shoots the camera a shit-eating grin as she nods and lights up her bowl again.

“Call me old one more time and I’ll buy a house somewhere in central Europe, take up farming, and never fucking come back,” Roy threatens lightly.

“No one would miss you here,” Adore says, perhaps a second too late to be funny.

Roy doesn’t answer, which is fine. Adore is usually obsessed with filling silences, like it’s her personal responsibility to make sure everyone’s constantly entertained. Roy’s an exception.

They’ve been silent around each other enough that it hasn’t felt awkward in years. 

“How’s Europe?” she asks eventually.

“Fun. Loud. Really fucking hot,“ Roy shrugs. He reaches up and presses his thumb against the bridge of his nose before rubbing along the outline of his eye socket. It’s rare and unsettling to see him that quiet and clearly drained.

Adore smokes and watches him as she contemplates how okay it’d be to say what’s actually on her mind.

“Hey, Bea?” she says quietly, as she shifts to lie down on her stomach.

“Yeah?”

“You look really tired. But um— I hope you’re just tired? Europe’s not making you, like, sad, is it?” Adore trails off for a second and presses her eyes shut as she refocuses. “That’s dumb. I mean. A continent can’t make you sad, right? I don’t know—“

“I’m fine,” Roy says and his face lights up with a small, fond smile which makes him look more like himself. “How are you doing? You look—“

“Fucking wasted?” Adore supplies. She aims for a joke but it just kind of comes out tired and flat. Plus, selling Roy the whole act is kind of pointless. “Yeah. I had a weird night, I don’t know. The whole album thing is fucking stressing me out.”

“People are gonna love it,” Roy says quickly, earnestly. He seems more awake. “They’re gonna eat that shit up.”

“You’re supposed to say that ‘cause you love me,” Adore whines jokingly, but then he just shrugs and nods in agreement, which makes her soften. “Thanks. Honestly. It’s just so— people wanna hear the old shit, you know? And the new stuff’s so different, I just— what if they don’t wanna hear it?”

“They keep asking for the old stuff ‘cause they haven’t heard your new stuff,” Roy reasons. He’s holding his headphones’ microphone close to his lips and it sort of feels like he’s in the room and talking directly to her if she closes her eyes.

“You’re right. Thanks, Bea,” she sighs, and then bites her lip as she adds softly, “I miss you.”

“Come to Europe,” Roy laughs a little. He can always recognize when she’s on the brink of some sad spiral and can usually pull her right back out. Adore opens her eyes to watch him laugh at the camera.

It’s impossible not to smile back.

“Right, are you gonna fly me out?” she laughs, making a show of pursing her lips at the camera.

“You wish,” Roy grins, and then his eyes drift over to something out of frame. Some sort of airport announcement comes through the speaker of Adore’s phone, entirely too far away and jumbled to be understandable.

“Hey, listen, I gotta go,” Roy says. “I might finally get to make it to a plane.”

“Awesome, fly safe,” Adore nods, scrunching up her nose as she fights off a yawn.

“You get some rest,” Roy adds. “This was fun, let’s—“

“More often. Yeah. I’ll call you.”

Adore smiles, and they say their goodbyes and hang up.

And then they don’t talk again for weeks.

***

The morning after the last FaceTime call, Adore had woken up with a screenshot of her own bank account, and a bunch of screenshots of various potential flights on her phone. Looking at them (and maybe the hangover) had made her sick, and she’d deleted them with her eyes half closed.

Adore’s impulsive, sure.

But she’s more “don’t sober up at all for 36 hours because you’re sad you can’t randomly drop your own responsibilities and fly out to Europe” impulsive than “actually fly out to Europe” impulsive.

It’d been days, maybe weeks, after the call when an ad had popped up on her Instagram feed, quite aggressively advertising Bianca’s upcoming gig on Fire Island.

New York is, in comparison to central Europe, closer.

Closer, easier to get to, slightly more reasonable.

So Adore had called her manager and said she’d do that one interview she had scheduled over the phone, and that she was going to be out of town for a few days. Her manager wasn’t impressed, but it was just a weekend, and she’d already made up her mind.

She doesn’t really call or let anyone else know she’s going.

When she walks into the club, the security guard gives her and her ID a long, curious look, but other than that, it’s dark enough that no one really notices or pays attention to her.

She’s wearing a Bianca t-shirt she’s mercilessly cut up into a douchey tank top tucked into a short, faux leather mini skirt with an unnecessarily chunky zipper in the front. Underneath the tank top, she’s in a lacy black bandeau that only draws attention to the boy chest, which is the exact effect she’s aiming for. The tight fishnet covering her legs culminates in heeled combat boots. Her hair is long and black and just messy enough that from afar, she looks like she could be just another girl here for the show.

It’s great, and she feels kind of incognito, even though she’s not necessarily trying to hide. She’s just not here to put on a show, either.

When she gets a drink, the bartender shoots her a knowing grin and says this one’s on the house, she only smiles back and thanks him and doesn’t argue. There’s being lowkey, and then there’s just being plain stupid.

The club is already pretty full, and it’s crowded by the time Bianca takes the stage to host.

Adore doesn’t quite care for the actual event and she lets herself be distracted watching her even when she’s off to the side, and clearly not supposed to be pulling the focus.

It’s impossible for Bianca not to pull focus. In a bodycon dress that somehow manages to be both leopard and floral and still be incredible, she looks like every wet dream Adore’s ever had. Bianca’s focused and attentive, she watches each performance and laughs along, and her lips are so shiny, and her eyes are so bright, and Adore is so tempted to make her way over to the stage and pull her off now, like she can’t wait another minute.

But the reality is, she’s waited this long and now that she’s here, Adore wants to do this right. So she sits back, accepts a couple more drinks from the bartender, and lives out her groupie fantasy, screaming and howling with laugher as if she’s just there to prove she can be louder than everyone else in the club.

At the end of the show, Bianca performs a number and the crowd goes wild, and Adore wants to be cheering with them, except she’s transfixed, breathless as she watches Bianca in her element.

“It never fucking gets old,” Adore yells at the bartender once Bianca’s left the stage. Her ears are ringing.

“She’s great,” he agrees, sliding another refill across the bar for her.

“She’s the best,” Adore corrects. “Can you send her a large gin backstage? Tell her it’s from a fan who claims to know her.

The bartender laughs and fixes a drink, and Adore, who’s only human, watches the sway of his hips as he walks through an unmarked door behind the bar which presumably leads backstage.

When Bianca comes out (from a different door, off to the side), she scans the club past the faces of people who notice her and either try to flock to her, or take a few steps back in some sort of classical awe. She glances around with a look Adore has come to realize means she’s expecting to see an acquaintance who’s dropped her name in hopes for a drink and a catchup.

Then, Bianca notices her and her entire face shifts.

Adore watches her face go from a public, performative smile through shock, through defeat, all the way to blossoming into a genuine smile within a split second. Bianca mouths something in her direction and heads over, and Adore’s heart is pounding so hard in her chest that it makes her cough.

Then, Bianca’s in front of her and pulling her into a hug, and saying into her ear,

“You motherfucker.”

Adore laughs loudly, pulling back just enough to catch Bianca’s eyes and grin at her.

“You absolute motherfucker,” Bianca repeats. “You could’ve called—“

“I wanted to surprise you,” Adore shrugs, as if it’s that simple, and Bianca softens.

“Well, I am surprised,” she laughs. Her hands are still around Adore’s waist and she’s becoming more aware of that by the second. “But I left my drink in the dressing room so we’re gonna have to continue being surprised there.”

Adore just nods. She picks up her glass and follows Bianca through the crowd. When Bianca reaches back, she slips her hand in hers, and hopes the club is just dark and confusing enough that no one would see.

***

“I can’t believe you just pulled this shit,” Bianca says as they walk into the dressing room, which is cool and only illuminated by the lightbulbs that line the mirror.

She closes her eyes for a split second and Adore watches her stage poise and energy leave her body like air from a recently popped balloon.

“I wanted to see your face,” Adore shrugs, and squeezes her hand as she brings herself closer. “Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve watched you—“

“Tonight wasn’t that good,” Bianca says quietly. “It’s not even technically my show…“

Adore bites her lip, and takes a sip of her drink as she says,

“I wasn’t gonna push but— are you okay? I mean, you seem—“

“I’m okay,”

Bianca pulls her hand away from Adore’s and walks around to sit down on the makeup chair, her back turned to the room. Adore just kind of stands there, swallowing uneasily once they break contact. Bianca is never like this, and witnessing it is terrifying, and Adore’s chest is tight as she attempts to figure out how she’d help the most.

“I just feel like I’ve been away for so long, you know?” Bianca says suddenly. Her voice is barely audible over the dull, unrecognizable bass that filters through the walls. “I’m not even sure if I’m away from— This summer’s just going by so fast. I feel like I’m always catching up with people. Like, tonight, when I stepped out—“

“You looked fucking terrified,” Adore supplies. She’s taken one cautious step towards Bianca’s chair and is hovering there.

“‘cause I was,” Bianca agrees, and it comes out in a shaky laugh. “Fuck, Adore, I was so worried I was gonna have to sit down and have a chat with some local queen I haven’t seen in years and make it look like I’m having the time of my life, you know?”

“Yeah. I know.”

Years of sharing dressing rooms have taught Adore that usually, Bianca would be out of all of her drag by this point. Now, she’s just sitting there, her eyes distant as she looks into the mirror but not really at herself.

Adore sighs and walks the rest of the distance to the makeup table, planting herself directly behind the chair. She drapes her arms over Bianca’s shoulders and crosses her wrists at her chest. Bianca’s hand comes up to cover her wrist, pressing down just a little, as if she’s afraid Adore might pull back.

Bianca’s nails are a dark shade of greenish gold and they glitter as they catch the mirror light. Adore wants to tell her she’s never looked more beautiful.

“It just gets kinda lonely,” Bianca says, quiet enough that Adore isn’t sure if it’s for her at all. She doesn’t answer.

Instead, she moves her hand just a little underneath Bianca’s, so she can run her thumb along the side of Bianca’s hand. Bianca sighs and closes her eyes again. Her eyelashes cast long shadows down her cheeks.

Adore doesn’t move, just lets Bianca breathe and take in the physical weight of her presence, lets her be quiet until she seems a little bit more grounded. Adore can feel it under her arms when Bianca exhales a long breath and her shoulders relax.

“Well, I’m here now,” Adore says finally, quiet and intimate, and it feels like dipping one toe in cool water.

She hasn’t planned this far in advance, never knows quite where they stand when they’ve been away from each other for so long, only knows that she’s here, and she’s here for Bianca, in whatever capacity Bianca needs her to be.

“Yeah— motherfucker,” Bianca repeats softly, in an almost-laugh. “You’re here.”

Then, she makes the choice for Adore.

Bianca pushes the chair back and stands up, turning around to face Adore in one swift, decisive motion. Adore catches her eyes and when Bianca tilts her chin down in the slightest of nods, it’s enough.

Adore launches herself forward, resting a gentle hand at the curve of Bianca’s neck as she kisses her with all the intent of an innocent death row inmate who’s been granted one last wish. Bianca responds almost immediately, her hands coming to rest at the small of Adore’s back. Adore (who, again, is only human) rolls her hips into the touch, which gets a noise halfway between a groan and a laugh from Bianca. It sounds more like her than anything Adore’s heard from her so far tonight.

“Missed you,” Bianca whispers once she pulls back. Up close, her eyes are so incredibly bright.

“I’m here.”

“You are.”

They exchange reassurances in a terribly familiar rhythm, and something in Adore’s chest twists a little. It must show on her face because Bianca says “Shhh” even though she’s silent, and is then she’s kissing her again.

This one lasts longer. Bianca licks her way past Adore’s dark plum lips and all Adore can do is respond in small, breathless sounds as she drops one hand down to grip the table behind Bianca, essentially trapping Bianca between herself and the tabletop.

A bunch of lipsticks fall down and maybe something rolls off the table, and Adore lets out a careless laugh into Bianca’s mouth. Her world feels lighter than it has in months. She doesn’t want to think about it at all.

Bianca distracts her, luckily, as she drops her hands past her ass to brush her fingers under Adore’s skirt. Underneath the thin layer of fishnet, Adore’s — unsurprisingly — untucked and wearing the tiniest briefs which leave most of her ass bare. Upon making that discovery for herself, Bianca lets out a laugh which is both appreciation and utter defeat.

“You’re gonna be the death of me, Adore Delano,” she hums, pulling back to draw in a very deep breath.

It’s overdramatic but earnest and Adore feels so fucking wanted.

“I dress to impress,” she says sweetly.

“Jesus,” Bianca whispers, and her exasperated smile reaches all the way to her eyes. “Shut up.”

Adore laughs loudly, and it comes from deep in her chest. This is easier than anything else she’s done in so long. She knows Bianca feels the exact same way because she’s still laughing as she kisses her again.

By the time Bianca pulls back again, Adore’s hard and dizzy and the only coherent thought in her head is a vague curiosity about whether the door to the dressing room locks.

“Where are you staying?” Bianca is asking quietly. The outline of her lipliner has blurred and her eyes are dark and bearing so much promise it makes Adore’s head spin.

She grins in response.

She has one bag — a way too expensive designer carryon — that she’d dropped at a friend’s apartment before explaining that no, she didn’t need a place to crash, just storage room, thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow.

She hadn’t bothered with a plan B.

“You bitch,” Bianca laughs fondly. “Yeah. Come on.”

***

Bianca’s hotel room is tiny and taken over almost entirely by the bed in the center. There’s a suitcase half-open in one corner. The lights are off, and the room is instead illuminated by the pale orange glow of street lamps filtering through the (truly hideous) cream tulle curtains.

Adore’s head is swimming. She lets herself fall back onto the mattress, laughing breathlessly as she props herself up on her elbows to look at Bianca who pauses a few steps away to kick off her heels.

“Hold on—“ Bianca starts, heading over to the small table in front of the mirror.

“No, no, no,” Adore says quickly. “No time. Come here—“

Bianca laughs as she stretches to pull the zipper of her own dress down.

“Fine. Just this, then,” she negotiates and Adore nods, and falls silent as she watches her strip and unclip her wig to pull it off.

It’s rare for Bianca to stay in drag when they hook up, but de-dragging takes too long, and Adore is too turned on to survive waiting for her any longer than she absolutely has to.

Plus,

“You look so fucking beautiful,” Adore whispers, lowering herself onto her back as Bianca crawls on top of her. She’s completely naked now and it’s purely instinct when Adore reaches for her cock. Bianca catches her wrist and pulls her hand away, her lips curving in an amused smirk.

“You’re so fucking impatient,” she says quietly and Adore responds with a low groan because Yeah, no shit, aren’t you?

“You’re right,” Bianca agrees, still smirking like some wicked demon of temptation from the depths of Hell when she comes down to catch Adore’s lips in a messy kiss. Adore’s all about hyperbole when it comes to Bianca.

And then Bianca’s grinding her hips down as she licks a hot stripe down the side of Adore’s neck, and literally nothing in Adore’s entire life has ever felt nearly as good.

“That’s cute,” Bianca comments, her lips almost brushing the thin strip of leather. Adore’s wearing a simple one-ring choker, and her face turns a deep shade of pink the second Bianca decides to acknowledge it.

“Told you,” she smirks, and manages to school her voice into an almost challenging singsong. “I dress to impress.”

“Stop talking,” Bianca replies lowly, hooking a finger through the ring to tug Adore up as she kisses her again. Adore’s eyes fall shut and she gasps helplessly into the kiss, and then all she can do is part her lips for Bianca’s tongue.

Adore’s tank top and the lacy bandeau are long gone. She’s still wearing the skirt, and tights, and briefs, and that’s three layers too many, and she’s so uncomfortably hard, and Bianca knows and is ignoring her because apparently, Bianca likes to torture people.

(Which is, on occasion, actually true. And welcomed. Just—)

“Bea,” Adore whines, actually whines, because this is unbearable. “Not right now, Jesus, please.”

“No?”

“No. Come on, I’m done waiting, fuck me now, please,” the last word comes out indignant, as if she’s only saying it to be polite but she doesn’t really want to. It works for Bianca, apparently, because she lets go of the choker and refocuses both of her hands’ attention to unzipping Adore’s skirt.

The zipper goes all the way down and the skirt comes undone.

“You thought this through,” Bianca hums, audibly entertained, and Adore drives her hips up in response because Hurry up, yeah I have, I want this, I’m ready, hurry up.

Bianca peels her tights and her underwear down her legs at the same time and brings them all the way down to her ankles but doesn’t take them off.

“I like the boots,” she explains, breath heavy and hot against the inside of Adore’s thigh. “We’re keeping them on.”

Adore feels filthy, like this part of it is somehow taboo, and her dick is already slick with precome against her stomach. She crosses her ankles and lets her knees fall open to the sides, and Bianca responds with an appreciative groan which makes her twitch.

Adore keeps her eyes closed as she listens to the distant sound of a plastic cap popping open, and then two lubed up fingers are pressing against her and she’s gone.

Bianca preps her quickly, efficiently, because any attempt she makes at slowing down is met by Adore with disjointed sounds of protest and helpless jerks of her hips.

“Now,” she moans eventually as she hovers with her hips pushed off the mattress, desperately trying to get more of Bianca. “Now, I’m ready, come on, fuck me now.”

A moment passes in which Bianca considers making her beg, just to get a rise out of her, but Adore is a picture of uncensored want with her messy hair spilling across the pillows, and her flushed dick, and the small crease in her forehead, and frankly, Bianca’s growing too impatient to tease.

Adore cries out loudly when Bianca pushes into her, sending stars flying behind her closed eyelids. Bianca’s propped a pillow under her hips and the angle is torturous and absolutely fucking perfect. Adore’s thighs shake with tension as Bianca thrusts all the way in, almost too slowly, letting Adore adjust to the sensation. It’s already so much, and yet not nearly enough.

Bianca moves experimentally and it draws a soft whimper from Adore. “Yeah— I’m ready, come on.”

And then, Bianca’s off. She grips Adore’s hips to tilt her up and picks up the pace as her nails dig half-moons into Adore’s ass. Adore is incoherent, meeting each thrust with small moans and broken, disconnected swearwords. Her lips are parted and swollen and glossy with spit, and Bianca stares in admiration for a moment before arching down to kiss her.

Bianca kisses like Adore’s darkest secret is hiding at the back of her mouth and there’s never going to be another way to get to it. It’s disorienting, like walking through darkness. Adore’s ears are ringing. Bianca pulls one hand away from her hips and a second later she’s tugging on Adore’s choker again. This time, she hooks her index finger under the strap and pinches it between the knuckle of her middle finger and her thumb. The leather digs into Adore’s throat and she feels it like fireworks at the back of her skull.

Bianca keeps her lips just out of reach as she tightens her grip on the choker, and it drives Adore to  crane her neck, desperately chasing after a kiss she can’t quite reach. The leather digs into her neck and she coughs right as Bianca thrusts her cock deeper inside of her, at a slightly different angle which makes Adore want to scream.

The sound that comes out is closer to a strangled whine, and Bianca meets it with a low laugh which makes Adore blush. Her chest is so tight she feels like she’s one second, one stray touch, one jerk of Bianca’s hips away from bursting wide open.

“Bea—“ she starts, and it’s barely sound. She gasps, dragging in more air. Bianca’s grip doesn’t falter. “Bea. I’m—“

Adore’s voice breaks a loud moan as Bianca drops her hand to her cock. Bianca laughs quietly, breathlessly, as she tightens her grip and gives her a few experimental strokes. Adore accompanies each stroke with a whimper as Bianca picks up her pace so her hand can match the rhythm of her hips. Adore’s brow is beaded with sweat and her hair is sticking to her face and she looks absolutely gone as she drives her hips up, over and over, in an endless race to meet Bianca halfway.

She comes first, with Bianca’s name in a sharp moan on her lips, cum streaking through Bianca’s fingers and onto her stomach.

“God, you’re gorgeous,” Bianca groans quietly, arching down to trace kisses along the red mark lining Adore’s neck as she keeps fucking into her in deep, quick thrusts, chasing her own release.

Adore is shaking, spent and oversensitive and unabashedly loud as each move sends a new wave of aftershocks through her body.

When Bianca comes, she goes perfectly still, perfectly silent, her eyes pressed tightly shut and her lips parted in a soundless scream. Adore, who’s watching her through heavy, hooded eyelids, chokes out a moan instead of her.

Then, the only sound Adore can focus on is her own heartbeat pounding in her ears as Bianca lowers herself down, burrowing her face against Adore’s neck. She doesn’t quite kiss this time, just rests there, her breath warm against the cooling sweat on Adore’s skin.

Adore drifts. It takes a minute, or maybe an hour, she’d never know for sure, and Bianca’s growing soft inside of her but neither of them moves. Adore’s limbs feel heavy, inoperable, and she thinks distractedly that maybe that’s not too big of a deal, maybe she can just be there for the rest of her natural existence and she would be okay with that.

Then Bianca moves. She pulls herself away slowly, carefully, like she doesn’t mean to disturb, and Adore still winces at the loss.

“Gotta get you cleaned up,” Bianca says softly. Her voice sounds raw, spent, and Adore finds herself hoping it’s still like that tomorrow. She wants people to talk to Bianca and know.

The sound of the bathroom sink running and Bianca’s footsteps sound so far away and Adore closes her eyes, lets them lull her into a half-sleep as her body cools down and stops shaking.

Minutes later, perhaps, Bianca returns with a warm, damp towel, and Adore breathes steadily as she cleans her up, too tired and too gone to do much but accept it. Then it’s more footsteps, to the bathroom and back.

Then, Bianca’s hands are working her boots open and pulling them off, along with the mess of fabric tangled around her ankles. It feels private in a new sort of way, as if this is where the moment would usually have to break but Bianca’s not letting that happen. Adore’s chest tightens and she lets out the smallest noise as she swallows dryly.

“You okay?” Bianca asks, all gentle attentiveness, as she climbs up and rests behind her, one arm coming to drape over Adore’s hips, her hand angled up to rest at her sternum.

“Yeah.” Adore’s throat scratches, and she knows she’ll wake up needing water. Bianca makes a sound like she doesn’t quite believe her, so Adore amends, “I’m here.”

Bianca laughs. It’s almost inaudible but Adore feels it against her back.

“Yeah,” Bianca whispers. She presses her lips against Adore’s shoulder and holds them there for a long time. “You are.”

***

A/N: the title is from this poem which you should definitely read, it’s beautiful.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

*slams hand on table* okay miss Shikai hear me out. if you want... do you have any headcannons surrounding X and Zero? Their ordinary dates? Character tics? Relations with others when together? X/Zero being cute in general? Funny stories surrounding this glorious gay robot couple? Generally, just X A ND Z E RO

OH MY DEAR ANON…The answer is yes, of course, and always. But you’ve put me on the spot and now I’m not sure where to begin! I know I’ll be kicking myself because I’ll think of more later, but for now I’ll just start off with general headcannons (boy oh boy did this get long):

Zero’s not a big touchy-feely person. Reploids don’t get “skin starved” like humans do, so I feel like most wouldn’t be very touchy-feely anyways, but I think Zero’s absolutely not a fan of people being up in his personal space without good reason (a “good reason” would probably be combat or training related). That being said, Zero can be pretty demonstrative (for Zero anyways) when it comes to X. Day of Sigma reinforced this headcanon (plus that greeting they had in X6) since Zero pretty casually put his hand on X’s shoulder to ease his concerns, so I think that sort of interaction is a regular thing between them.

X is probably pretty touchy-feely for a Reploid. Along with the morality tests and other scenarios Dr. Light programmed to help educate and test X, I’m sure he put in a few lessons about social interactions so X would have a general idea of how to socialize with humans once he woke up. (X is probably more touchy-feely than he would’ve been anyways because of habits he picked up in his first few years of being “awake” and being around Dr. Cain). I think giving pats on the shoulder or back are things he’d do to show his affection for the people he cares about (he probably likes receiving them too). I think hugs are reserved for Dr. Cain and maybe??? Zero??? I have nothing in canon to go off of this unless you want to count X5 //shot but X seems like the type of person who’s desperately in need of hugs so I’m going to say yeah, that’s a thing that happens between X and Zero too (on rare occasions).

I think X and Zero would be pretty casual around each other? Like maybe X is a little tired so he leans against Zero or something and it’s Not A Big Deal. Canonically speaking, Zero and X trust each other more than anyone else in the world so I feel like they’re pretty comfortable around each other.

If we’re talking about what they’d be like in a relationship, I think it’d be really frickin cute if they held hands (for long periods or even if it was just for a brief moments, like one of them returns from a long mission and that’s how they greet each other. Maybe Zero squeezes X’s hand and it’s his way of being expressive since he’s probably not as good at that as X is). I like to think about them leaning their foreheads against each other’s (even though the other Hunters would probably be Scandalized because being so touchy-feely is weird for Reploids).

As for dates I think it’d be pretty casual too??? They’re practically a couple in canon already so I feel like their hangout sessions wouldn’t be too different (assuming they have time between missions and just. The war in general. Man that’s depressing). I tried tackling my idea of what one of their dates might be like in my “Dates and Desserts” fic, but I wasn’t 100% happy with that fic. I’ll get around to fixing that up later. But basically, casual fun things, in or outside of Hunter Base. Maybe they just watch awful human movies together or X tells Zero about weird books he’s read. Nothing that deviates too much from what they usually do (but maybe it’d involve more cuddling).

Other random stuff??? X likes reading physical books rather than digital copies just because. He doesn’t really have a reason for it, he just does. He also likes sleeping with a blanket even though he doesn’t need to because it’s comforting (that’s probably a human-exclusive trait but you know what, let me have this one). He likes eating human food sometimes and he’s tried every human hobby at least once (he has a scrapbook, various knitting equipment, a few sketchbooks, and some music sheets in some of his drawers). I think X would be good at piano but never felt a strong connection to any of the other instruments he tried. Zero likes seeing the hobbies X picks up on occasion, but I don’t think he’d try most of them unless they piqued his interest (or unless X asked him to try something with him).

HECK these are more like general headcannons, lemme give you some actual romantic ZeroX headcannons

I think if they ever actually got into a relationship it wouldn’t be an official thing? Like they’d never have that “you want to date?” or “I love you” moment, it’d just sort of happen organically? I don’t think much would change between their current dynamic and any sort of relationship. They already love and care about each other, after all :’)

I’ve gone back and forth over the whole kiss thing for them for MONTHS and I’m still not 100% set on my headcannon, because on the one hand I think any sort of physical interaction between them is already pretty intimate since it’s a demonstration of trust, so they probably wouldn’t really feel the need do the whole kissing thing? ON THE OTHER HAND, I think X (and Zero?) would recognize kissing as another / different way to show affection for someone you love, so maybe it’s a thing they’d do??? Who knows???? I’m constantly struggling to keep headcannons as in-character as possible but that can kill the fun so you knOW WHAT here’s some kissing headcannons

X gives really soft, small, gentle kisses mostly the cheek, and they’d be pretty regular. Maybe a cute short smooch on the lips once in a while. Zero would probably not be a big kisser, when he does it, they’d mostly be on the forehead because X is short lmao. Once in a while he catches X off guard with a proper kiss and it and X is adequately pleased and flustered for the rest of the day.

I dug up my old kissing headcannon post from like a year ago so I’ll reiterate a few of those here too: Zero’s kinda bad at the whole “romantic displays of affection” thing, so in the beginning he just tries to copy what X does and he’s awkward at it (but X would think it’s sweet b/c Zero’s this big intimidating Reploid trying his best to figure out how to give his bf cute kisses). Zero eventually nails his technique and then it’s X’s turn to be embarrassed and Zero’s just like “B) good”.

I don’t think they’d have nicknames for each other. Just regular ol’ X and Zero. I put a lot of importance in names but idk how to properly explain that so moving on-

Going back to an earlier comment, if the whole “organic thing” regarding how they came to terms with their feelings was too bland, here’s a few more headcannons from a scrapped fic:

X realized how he felt first because of course he would. 100 years of being stuck in a capsule growing accustom to his emotions and feelings would naturally give him a good understanding of his personality (and heart, theoretical though it might be). He’d probably realize it in quiet moments while hanging out with Zero, times when they’re relaxing after missions and just talking. Of course, it probably wasn’t something he felt the need to meditate on until Zero’s initial death (or maybe even before then- when Sigma used Zero as a hostage in ‘Day of Sigma’. Though he didn’t know what the consequences would be in the moment, he essentially let hundreds (if not thousands) of people die because he couldn’t harm Zero to kill Sigma, and then Sigma turned around and bombed their city. The understanding that there was a single thing he was unwilling to lose, so much so that he might put others at risk (even unknowingly), probably scared the hell out of him for a little while. If not that, then the fact that Sigma so easily read him and used (and continued to use) Zero against him time and time again probably did it.

Zero, even without 100 years of meditation and the emotional expression range of a brick, would realize how he felt about X eventually. Love and Loyalty are probably the same thing in his mind, and he’d accept his feelings readily. It’d just be another fact of life for him, one he wouldn’t dispute or question, and one he wouldn’t linger on. Tbh I have a whole fic concerning Zero reacting to this realization, so expect a fic from me about this later.

I could add more but THIS IS LONG ENOUGH AS IT IS. I’m always down to talk about MMX and these two, thanks for giving me an excuse to do so anon (and please forgive any run-ons or whatever)

[blackbatpurplecat]

My Thoughts on Batman #14

By popular demand (which surprised me and now I feel honored <3 ), here’s a little review on the latest issue of the current Batman run, #14: Rooftops Part 1.

What’s the story?

After the arc I Am Suicide, we are finally back in Gotham and follow BatCat through the city. Both are the main characters and apart from three speech bubbles of Clock King, even the only characters that speak and act in a fairly simple narrative.

The mood’s pretty melancholic; Batman reveals that Catwoman’s death penalty has been revoked by the President, thanks to Amanda Waller. Even though we’ve never seen or heard of any evidence against Selina. All we have is her claiming to have killed almost 300 men and that’s apparently enough for a death sentence... Yeah. Sure. Ugh. Now Catwoman needs to go to Blackgate, I assume for theft, and Batman has to take her in that same night. You can feel the tearful goodbye hanging above them and their mutual feelings for each other don’t make it any easier. It’s simply what we’ve seen over and over: Batman is struggling with two sides. He knows what’s right (arrest the criminal) and he knows what he wants to do (let the woman he loves go free), and those two things cancel each other out. We know he will always pick the side of the law but that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt less.

Catwoman, also saddened by the turn of events, pretty much accepts her faith though. She knows what’s coming for her and tries to lighten the mood a little bit by making suggestive comments and initiating a lovely make out session beneath the stars. She states that she wants one more night, living and enjoying her freedom. 

They again bring up the mass murder committed by her. Bruce doesn’t believe that Selina killed almost 300 people and wants to prove her innocence, yet he doesn’t know how. Selina repeats that she did kill those guys and promises to give him the truth if he takes her to Blackgate in the morning instead of right then and there. While Bruce states he knows she’ll try to flee, Selina replies she knows he will come after her.

So since they’ve come to some kind of an understanding, Selina very obviously suggests making the monster with two backs to say goodbye. Well OF COURSE! A farewell fuck! Since we still have no idea why or for how long Selina has known Bruce’s identity, we don’t know if it’d be their first (and last) time or if they’ve done it before. If they’ve been having an on-off-relationship like over the last decades or only fucked like in The New52. We can take into account that we’ve seen Bruce talk fondly and intimately to her so it’s not only fucking. But since I don’t care for anything outside of this issue, I’ll go with my own assumption and say “first time.” Bitter-sweet would be an understatement.

But, alas, the Bat signal pops up in the sky and dutiful Batman reacts just like we’d ALL expect him to react - work now, have fun later! But this time, he invites Catwoman to come along.

We jump to a clocktower where Batman faces Clock King who rambles on like a Bond villain and gets knocked out by Catwoman who swings in from behind. Is their work done, can they finally bang? The Bat signal in the sky says NOPE! So they go from villain to villain, Batman kicks the shit out of a various number of Rogues, Catwoman stays in the background and asks if that’s how he spends all of his nights.

Eventually, Catwoman grows tired and frustrated with him constantly postponing their boning and finally wants to do what she wants to do - breaking & entering! And Batsy comes along. Reluctantly.

They break into an apartment where Bruce sees a stolen cat figurine floating in the middle of the room. “It’s hanging by a thread, too thin to see” - God knows why. Selina simply grabs the cat and tells Bruce to run. They jump out of the window before the apartment explodes. Oh, and the apartment also belongs to Selina who had rented it under the name Holly Robinson. Ehm... okay...? Dunno what to do with that info. But another, more important thing: was that her alarm system in case another thief broke in and stole the cat? She would just... blow them up???!!! The thread is too thin, not even she can work around it so in order to take the cat, you HAVE to pull it down and trigger the explosion. This trap was set up with the intension to kill! What the fuck, Selina?!

BatCat watch the burning building from a rooftop far away and we learn that Selina owns the floors above and below the apartment and the sprinklers are awesome and everyone there is safe - again WHAT THE FUCK??? NO! This is fucking dumb! And Selina’s apparently so damn rich that she can rent 3 whole floors high in a skyscraper in the middle of the city?! WHAT?! And after revealing that load of info, she shows us that there are diamonds inside the cat figurine, kind of like a piggy bank for bad times.

She wants Bruce to have the diamonds and tells him to build dozens of orphanages after she’s gone. Sure. Because BRUCE FUCKING WAYNE needs financial support... Okay, let’s say the diamonds are a donation. Okay, I can buy that.

And to conclude this issue, Selina throws the tiny diamonds on the ground, takes her mask off, they start making out and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY HAVE  S E X!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, what did I think of all this?

I really liked the art. Sure, it’s not the best art I’ve ever seen but it looks good and it’s definitely better than what Guillem March did in the Catwoman run. BatCat look like real people, no extreme poses or overdone, dramatic movements. There are some not so pretty angles here and there and on the first page, Batman’s face looks like covered in dirt but in general, the art is quite decent! Especially in the last panels where it matters the most!

The first two and the last two pages are wonderful. Buy the issue for those four pages, they are SO worth it! Everything inbetween is filler. The BatCat teamwork is way too short and while Batsy roughing up some C-List Rogues looked funny, it wasn’t engaging or anything. If it was meant to prove a point, I didn’t need it. I know that his duty will always come first. But I can try and interpret something into it if you want me to: Bruce kept pushing the expected sex back more and more, the Bat signal was the ultimate cockblock in this issue. But at the very end, the Bat signal shines above them while they’re going at it cowgirl style and Bruce does not shove her away to grab cowl and cape. Maybe it’s supposed to show us that for once, something or someone was more important than the Mission. And it would be incredibly rude to leave in mid-coitus.

The BatCat sex scene is like a kiss to my soul. I’ve been wanting some decent love scenes of my ship for so SO SOOO LOOONG!!! Lois and Clark got so many good ones, there are some of Bruce and the Demon Spawn, hell, there’s even a (granted, awful) sex scene between Batman and Black Canary! Why has it taken decades for DC to release a decent BatCat sex scene??? It’s what we freaking deserve!!! And I want every single BatCat shipper to see it!!! We’ve been denied something magical for too long, not only Batsy and Kitten were frustrated with this lack of sexy times.

And it’s even not creepy or rapey or anything, no! It’s very tastefully drawn, it’s sensual and lovely and just beautiful! They even drew Bruce’s scars all over his body, nice attention to detail. BUT fucking on hundreds of tiny diamonds CAN’T BE COMFORTABLE!!! Imagine rolling around naked on Legos! Not so sexy, heh??? What if you get one up the crack? They are sharp and can cut your ass skin open!

Now, apart from the nonsense I’ve already mentioned, like the booby trap, Selina’s financial situations, the weird laws Gotham operates in, and the mass murder bullcrap, there is one thing that I absolutely detest in this issue: the dialogues! Holy fucking shit! Has King ever in his life talked to another human being? Or heard people have conversations?! The dialogues are awful! This is Nocenti level of awfulness in my opinion. Imagine if Frank “I’m an insane sexist racist asshole” Miller and Nocenti had a hate child and that hate child was writing dialogues. THAT is what King produces in this issue! He even recycles big chunks of those terrible lines! And don’t get me started on the fact that BatCat STILL call each other “Bat” and “Cat”. Ugh, that’s so fucking dumb. My God, honestly, try to skip the dialogues, guys. It’s what I had mentioned before; King tries to sound so deep and clever while he delivers a pile of bullshit.

Will I go back to this issue in the future? HELL YEAH!!! I would print the sex panels out and frame them and put them on my walls!!! The art thankfully saved the issue from becoming another generic DC fart. They could have easily screwed up the emotional scenes between BatCat but artist Mitch Gerads did a great job with the facial expressions, the close-ups, and the angles. You (thankfully) don’t need the bad lines to understand what’s happening between our leads. Just look at their faces and you’ll feel what they feel.

And I am SO thankful that we FUCKING FINALLY got a beautiful BatCat love scene! I hope there are many more to come in the future!

Part 2 got the teaser “The final farewell?” - I hope we will finally find out what the deal is with that stupid as fuck mass murder plot. It annoys the hell out of me that King keeps going back and forth “yes, she did it”, “no, she didn’t”, “but she clearly states she did it”, “but he doesn’t believe it”, “but she says it” etc etc. It doesn’t make the plot more exciting or interesting but frustrating and boring. Just like the “will-they-won’t-they” DC have been doing with BatCat for decades now.

The way they’re handling it at the moment, the next issue will probably reveal the biggest twist *gasp* that she did not kill almost 300 people! She only claimed it and willingly went to Arkham and wanted to be sentenced and put to death because................. ?????????????? And then she will flee and lay low. And we will be without our beloved Kitten again. And that was important to the plot HOW?!?!?! Who needed it??? Ugh, King really isn’t the best writer.

Tl;dr Batman #14 is THE issue for BatCat shippers!!! Just marvel at the panels and don’t read the dialogues.