#I was just thinking how nice it'd be to be able to drive to see my family/my friend | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thestarfishinjootsoffice · 7 months ago

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Hey, would you be able to do a Sinclair brothers saving a child reader from a bad family and raising them themselves? Like the kid would be kinda timid but maybe warm up to lester first? Could they also know about what goes on in Ambrose but just kinda shrug it off for some reason? If you write this THANK YOUU!!

Wrote. This also kind of became a character study.

Warnings: murder, blood, mention of negligence from reader's parents. Mention of addiction, arguing. Ooc maybe?

Relationship: platonic, brotherly/fatherly figure.

Sinclair brothers x child! Reader from a bad family!

Preview; how it all started. You can skip this if you'd like, might get boring.

Nothing hits harder than an angry car drive with your family who has curtains with printed sunshine and glitters hung on their windows for people to see.

Sinking back into your seat as you watch them argue almost endlessly. The only times they weren't yelling in each other's faces were when they were sleeping or in public. Of course this results in negligence and the incapability to provide you both physical and emotional needs.

"Maybe if you stopped indulging in your disgusting addiction and acted like a proper father and husband we wouldn't be-"

"Oh for fuck's sake, M/N! Stop bringing that up or else I'm gonna fucking turn this car around, you slut! You think you're so perfect, tell that to the other men you've been sleeping with!"

Spending nights behind your bedroom door with your ear pressed against it, listening closely in case things get physical and you need to step in. You didn't even know why they were heading this way, apparently they thought it'd be a good idea to spend some 'family time' together. As if.

Eventually the car stopped, you perked up. Your parent's bickering died down for a moment which appeared odd to you.

"The car broke down, goddammit!" Your father exclaimed.

"You should've brought a better car." Mom retorted.

"We don't have enough money!!"

"And why do you think that is!?"

You sighed and followed shortly after both of them headed out. Shutting the car door close as you stood quietly while your father opened the trunk.

"Now I have to fix this damn car."

Their voices slowly drowned as you zoned out, you looked ahead of you and saw a man with a green hat with a beige jacket on top of a white tank top. He looked a little... Unwashed.

"Hey there!" The man called out which caused your parents to stop yelling.

"Are you three lost?" He asked, now getting closer.

"Well- more sort of the car broke down. And.. We're out of fuel" Your mother replied with a nervous chuckle.

"Really? In that case, I could let you guys in my truck and drive you to Ambrose. It's a small town but I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for in there."

"Might be a tight fit, but it'll work."

You could see the hesitation in both your parents' faces. Of course, they weren't really the type to accept the presence of people who didn't look like they have a hygienic and healthy lifestyle but they were left with no choice. They reluctantly agreed.

"M' name's Lester." The man who you now knew as Lester said.

"Uh, my name's F/N. Thank you, Lester, in advance." Your father thanked Lester.

Now you three were in his car, you had to sit on your mom's lap, it was deed quite a tight fit. Your parents weren't expecting the rotten smell and especially not the hanging bones but they pretended it didn't bother them. You ignored the smell and instead admired the 'decorations'.

"So uh, who's your wife and kid?" Lester asked, glancing at both your mom and you.

"I'm M/N and this is our child, Y/N. Say hi." Your mom nudged you and you smiled uncomfortably.

"Hello, Mr. Lester."

Lester only chuckled, although he kept his eyes on you a little longer before reverting his gaze to the road. "You have a beautiful family, I'm envious. It must be nice, huh?"

Your parents shared glances before agreeing.

"It is, I'm really grateful to have them in my life." Your father said. You could've laughed. You looked at him and noticed a knife in a knife sheath on his thigh. He noticed and took out the blade.

"Kid, you like knives?" Lester suddenly asked you, and your parents tensed up.

"I do-"

"I'm.. Trying to get y/n away from sharp objects. It's dangerous for them." Your mother cut you off with wariness in her tone, her distrust growing more by the minute.

"It's a bowie, a good knife... It'll cut through anything."

He said and stabbed the knife into the car dashboard and then abruptly stopped. You yelped out a little and held onto your mom as to not chuck yourself through the window.

"You... You said there's a town nearby, where is it?" Your dad asked, grabbing onto the seat.

"There is, right around that bend. I gotta flip my hubs into four-wheel. Mind giving me a hand?" Lester said as he opened the door and stepped out of the car.

"Look, I think you've done enough for us, Lester." Your father said.

"... Well, why would you think that?" Lester scoffed a little, sensing a bit of hostility.

"We wanna walk from now on, okay? I can't handle being in here. Just let us out." Your mother replied with a harsher tone, a look of offense settled on Lester's face and he frowned. A clear thick atmosphere now forming in the air.

"Uhh, we're really grateful but we don't want to trouble you anymore. Thank you." You spoke up, hoping to de-escalate the situation. He looked at you and for a moment his face softened slightly before glancing up at your parents again.

"Sure..." He said quietly, taking the blade off the dashboard and shutting the door. Now walking towards the other side of the car. You could feel the nervousness from both your parents – as he reached the door and opened it, their eyes landed on his left hand. Which was now missing the knife.

"Go on, get out then..!" He said although the anger was directed more to your parents. They quickly got out of the car, your father was the first one trying to calm him down – you noticed a stream in front of you, you looked back to make sure they were busy and decided to discreetly cross through with the help of the rocks, wanting to no further be near all this.

As you entered through, you could see houses and posters around. It was a ghost town though.. There was barely anyone. You walked around and saw a bunch of puppies behind a big glass window. You stopped and walked up to it, observing the small animals with adoration before a gruffy voice behind you snapped you out of your tranquil.

"What the hell is a kid like you doin' here?" A tall man asked with suspicion, looking down at you. You took in his outfit. A hat that said 'sweet bird 69' with a picture of a red car underneath. Dark blue shirt along with jeans.

"Uhm.. Me and my family are here for a trip.." You said quietly, backing away a little.

"And where's your parents?"

"I- they should be here..."

"Should?" He questioned, narrowing his eyes.

Then he looked behind you and before you could turn around you felt a firm grasp on your shoulder from behind.

"Y/n! what the hell did i-.. What did I say about walking away, sweetie. You had us worried." Your mother softened her tone as she caught herself, clearing her throat as your father came beside her.

"It's alright... What brings you here?- I'm Bo." He extended his hand to your father who shook it.

"I'm F/N, we were running low on fuel and our car broke down."

"Oh that's perfect, I run a convenience store a few feet away. You can... Keep your kid in my car. Just in case they get tired."

Your mother glanced at you before nodding.

"Yes, thank you. That'd be perfect."

You were carelessly shoved into Bo's car by your parents. Grumbling and sighing, you crossed your arms and begrudgingly sat still. Though something in the distance caught your eye. A big building – you looked out of the car of the window to check your surroundings before quietly opening the car and heading towards the building.

You looked at the big words on top of the door,

'HOUSE OF WAX'

"Hm." You opened the door and stepped inside, your eyes widened a bit as you took in the contents inside the 'house'. Many, many sculptures... Wax sculptures. You gently traced your fingers over them while admiring the beauty and art – Slowly walking into the kitchen. You saw more sculptures, this house was full of them. Looking around more you caught sight of baby chairs behind the door – disturbingly enough , hand and ankle straps on the one that said 'Bo' and a normal one that said 'Vincent'.

You turned around and a figure with long dark hair and a weird mask of some sort was outside the kitchen window. You gasped and it swiftly retreated back – having no idea whether or not you were hallucinating you breathed out and tried to calm yourself down. Hesitantly walking out of the house. You concluded you were smart enough not to investigate and made a run to Bo's car.

Huffing as you shut and locked yourself inside. Maybe you were tired, all this new stuff is making you see things. You should sleep – laying down on the seat, you nervously closed your eyes and took a few deep breaths. 'Mom and dad will wake me up when they're done.'

You opened your eyes and it was dark... It was dark. Where are mom and dad? Did they leave you? Forget about you? Your stomach churned and you unlocked the car door. Stepping out and feeling the cold breeze of the wind – so quiet.... Too quiet.

You walked, in search of your parents. There was what seemed to be a church not too far with the lights on. You could check it out? Approaching towards the church, standing right outside of the door and peeking in through the crack. There was that man from earlier, Bo, and... Dad? You squinted your eyes, Bo held something in his hand.

You jolted as your dad out of nowhere let out a blood-curdling scream, blood pouring from his head and running down his face and clothes. He cried out and grunted, trying to crawl away from Bo while sobbing. Holding his head as red that almost appeared black seeped from between his fingers escaped. Bo didn't let him get far, gripping onto your father's collar as he swung the weapon against his head one more time resulting in your father completely collapsing. His eyes rolled back as the slit in his forehead looked inches deep.

You gulped and backed away, quite frankly you couldn't care less if your father was getting killed. But maybe you shouldn't be here- you yelped out as hands grabbed onto your arms, instinctively thrashing against whoever was holding you. Looking behind you stopped momentarily, it was the masked guy! You couldn't see anything behind those empty holes where his eyes should be. And quite frankly - you're not sure if he wants to harm you or not.

Bo, who upon hearing your cry of surprise, quickly rushed out of the church and slammed the doors open. Stopping in his tracks as his eyes trailed down to you.

"Vinny, what are we going to do with them?" Bo asked with uncertainty. Vincent didn't reply.

As you didn't thrash anymore, Vincent loosened his grip but still held a firm grasp on you.

Bo sighed, "let's kill it."

At that, Vincent immediately shook his head and hugged you closer to him. Placing a hand over your head and pulling you to his chest gently.

Bo sighed again, a little more agitated this time. "Vincent, we can't raise a damn child. Nor the responsibilities! What if they try to run away and go to the damn police Or something?"

Vincent stayed stubborn and shook his head again. Bo exhaled and rubbed his face. "God dammit, you're so difficult."

End of story. life with them

Lester was quite happy to hear from Bo that they decided to keep you alive. Both brothers quite surprised, it's not the first time they had children come to Ambrose and get killed but none of them ever wanted to. And to hear Vincent of all people to initiate it was surprising, because normally he doesn't care about his victims. Vincent's cruel. Keeping his victims alive and all they could do is wait inside their wax bodies agonizing for death to come to them as their preserved bodies slowly rot overtime. He thought he knew his brothers – guess he was delightfully wrong. You first seemed so shy and timid – not really speaking unless you were spoken to and even then your responses were quiet and soft. He made sure to interact with you often, cracking jokes here and there and smiling a lot around you. 'Hey buddy, wanna go fishing?' Or 'Hey kiddo, wanna drive around for a bit?' It's mandatory. And the moment he noticed you warming to him first was the moment he realised how "hard work pays off" felt. He can't be around you a lot since he doesn't live in Ambrose anymore but he tries to visit more because of you – the sight of you smiling and running towards him when he comes back never fails to make his heart swell. Though he finds it a bit odd when you tell him how you feel about what happens here, he wonders if you're really telling the truth or lying so you can keep his guard down. He's cautious, he's friendly but he doesn't trust easily. You may be just a kid but he doesn't know if you're really not scared or you are and you're planning to escape. He loves you either way and tries not to think about it often, he just tells you and himself "Guess that means you're meant to be in this family!" (By the way he still hates your parents and his heart will ache for you when you open up to him about them.)

Bo couldn't believe this, really? He has to take care of a child?He just wanted to hand you entire to Vinny but the risk of you running away was too much for his insides to handle so he kept you on a close watch. He was tempted to put a leash on you but was stopped by Vincent. He doesn't see the appeal in raising a random kid, it would bring unnecessary trouble and responsibilities and make it harder for them. Or so he thinks. You weren't really troublesome at all you just kept your distance from him since he scares you. With this, he one day mentally himself on the cheek and decided to be more kind to you. Asking what you wanted for breakfast, if you wanted to shower, telling you not to go too far away from him etc. Eventually he finds himself doing more than just these, scolding you when you scrape your knees and putting a bandaid over it. Picking you up to help you reach stuff on the high shelves. He tries to convince himself he's only doing this for his brother's and his own sake – and yet he can't resist when you ask him to kiss your aided injuries because 'Grandma told me it heals better that way'. Think it's stupid Lester got you to warm up first. Yeah, it's only because he gives you sweets and takes you out whenever he pops in – and then next time Bo hands you a lollipop. Gets suspicious when you never bring up what he did with your parents. He expected you to hold the grudge against him, at least for a few months or years but no. He'll scoff if you tell him it doesn't bother you. Yeah, right. He's not stupid (just severe trust issues) he'll immediately assume you're trying to trick him and next time a tourist comes in you're gonna scream for help. Just be patient with him, he's had a rough childhood. Although the more days and weeks that pass by, the more he spends nights in his bed hoping you won't try to run away. Not because he's scared you'll snitch on them, but because he's scared that means they meant nothing to you at all. If you ever decide to open up to him about your family, he'll pretend it doesn't affect him as much as it actually did. To think you two had a similar childhood just makes his eyebrows knit together and his lips form into a frown.

Vincent himself didn't understand why he held you so protectively. But as the years grew, he felt himself yearn to cradle something in his arms. Something warm and small, something that'll smile up at him and giggle, something that isn't scared of him. He knew the moment he saw you through the window in that kitchen he couldn't let this chance slip – a chance to have a child. He feels so... Alone. The need to care for a living thing grows stronger. He tried his hardest, really. Tend to you and care for you. His touch was softer and he watched the old movies and read the stories of how people acted towards children so he could know how to not freak you out. And his heart broke a little when he saw that Lester was the one that you warmed up to first – but he didn't give up. 'Family don't give up on each other' was a quote he heard one time and stuck with him. Yes, he had already considered you as family. To make you like family, he had to treat you like one. Most of the time he gets frustrated because of his extremely limited vocabulary. It was difficult for him to speak and he knew that a child like you wouldn't be able to properly understand his body language like his brothers do, but when you do start to learn step by step he feels the glimmer of hope grow stronger. Is around you a lot and makes sure you're in his line of sight as much as possible. He feels guilty that you had to witness them do all these horrible things and tries to shield you away from it but if you confess you know and shrugs it off anyway it's a mix between surprise and suspicion. He wants to believe you, he does but what if you're lying? It's too heavy on his heart to bear – he can't. Gets more protective and overbearing and doesn't realise it'll most likely drive you off that way. But if you do start warming up to him he feels like the happiest and most content person alive. Will cradle you in his arms if you'll allow him and stroke your hair if you decide to open up to him – he may be a man of very little words but he listens like no else.

#lester sinclair x child! reader platonic #lester sinclair #bo sinclair x child! reader platonic #bo sinclair #vincent sinclair #vincent sinclair x child! reader platonic #sinclair twins #sinclair brothers #house of wax 2005 #house of wax #slasher x child! reader (platonic)

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ardienothesieno · 4 months ago

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post game isat thoughts i have

what the title says i have thoughts in my brain and i want to share them

isafrin date thing pretty much immediately post-game: sif should get to be sick for at least a week. and the party fusses over them the whole time and it's adorable and then i think one night. sif should turn to isa and ask if he wants to hang out. hehe and sif brings isa to go look at the stars this time! and it's sort of like isa's friendquest but this time they are actually snuggling. and not just talking about isa, they're talking bout sif too some of the stuff isa says is reminiscent of the loops which freaks sif out a bit. but it just makes them happy to hear isabeau talk and he would share some things that happened in the loops-- wholesome things of course i think it'd still be a while before they opened up about the uh. the worse shit. but stuff like teaching bonnie to fight, finding out they were allergic to pineapple the hard way (isa would be freaked by this but sif finds it hilarious), maybe tell him about wish craft and color theory, the change god helping them out, bombing the king, etc etc. the nice stuff. AND THEN. I THINK THE ISA USING A SHOOTING STAR AS A DISTRACTION THING SHOULD HAPPEN-- BUT ITS REAL THIS TIME <3 like sif looks up and it's a whole freaking meteor shower... and isa tells them to make a wish, to which they respond "i'm not messing with that again for a looooong time" :)))) and i just think that should culminate in isa carrying a sleeping sif back to either the clocktower or the house, wherever the family has set up shop... njhgfcftyhujkuhgvfcdfty i love them they're so cute

LOOP THOUGHTS. i dont know if i am committing to this hc, but i think it would be cool if loop and siffrin became a system of sorts? i know very little about plurality so i dont really know what im talking about... if i get anything wrong please tell me! but ive got yet another scene in mind like right before the party leaves dormont to go pick up nille, sif visits the favor tree one last time. just. reminiscing. and mira would come along and find him and they'd have a talk! not specifically about loop, but loop would definitely come up in the conversation and then at some point sif says that loop mentioned that they'd be coming back and is like "i wonder when we'll see them again" and loop just screams HOW ABOUT RIGHT NOW and shoves siffrin out of front jhugtfcvfdxscfgthbnygvh i think loop should still get to have their own body and autonomy and stuff, i just think they should also be able to just show up in sif's head. and vice versa i think eventually sif figures out how to do it as well and they just get to constantly bother each other from a shared headspace dcgbnjuytfg

and. and then i think that can lead into a lot of sad wholesome moments where sif lets loop be siffrin for a little while. like the party is sitting around a campfire telling stories and being happy, sif notices loop hanging around in the headspace, and lets them drive for a bit. i dont think they'd do it very often or for super long or anything but. hgfcdxcfgybhnj. they should get to be siffrin every once in a while too. as time goes on and they become more of their own person they do it less and less, but for the first few months to a year or so it's comforting to be able to be surrounded by versions of their past family, if only for a bit as i said. i dont know what im talking about really so if i said anything badly or if any of these ideas are bad please let me know

time craft shenanigans i think sif (and loop) should get to keep time craft powers after the loops end not to like. the extreme that the loops were. but like how sif will loop back like five minutes if they screw something up socially-- i think they should get to keep that EXCEPT. the party learns to pick up on what time craft feels like. so if theyre ever talking to sif and boom weird time craft feeling and sif is in a wildly different emotional state they can just go "sif. did you loop back. what happened." i think it would be a good. like. starting therapy point? them having a toxic coping mechanism for when things go badly and the rest of the group helping him work through those situations instead of avoiding avoiding avoiding and i think loop should keep it for the memes (and trauma reasons. but mostly the memes.)

it would get better with time, as siffrin (and loop) gets more and more comfortable with being uncomfortable and messing up and learning to work through the anxiety and and and then that could lead to a big situation a few years in the future when the group splits up. and sif is TERRIFIED that the loops will start again i dont think the group would ever split up for good though. they're a family!!! they're not gonna just leave each other behind after another few months of traveling!!!! that just means all the suffering sif went through was for nothing!!!!! and yeah, they cant stay together forever. i know. but even after splitting up they'd still definitely have family reunions like every other tuesday

BUT SIF AND ISA NEVER SPLIT UP EVER. NOT EVEN FOR FIVE MINUTES they get bonded and go on to open a boutique/trinket shop <3

#isat #isat spoilers #in stars and time #in stars and time spoilers #rambling #brainrot #isafrin #isat siffrin #isat isabeau #isat loop #oc

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thezombieprostitute · 6 months ago

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Fireflies

Written for Essie’s Summer Lovin’ 300 Follower Celebration.

Prompts: catching fireflies; “who thought a place with mosquitoes was a good idea?”

Summary: Jake helps you kick off your vacation in the best way.

You've been having such a rough few weeks, maybe even few months at work and Jake has been trying so hard to help you out. You finally have some time off coming up and he's been working hard on figuring out all the things you can do, that you need to do, to help you really relax and enjoy the time off.

He's definitely starting you out on the right foot by picking you up from work. You step into the car, give him a kiss, and just collapse into your seat.

“So what's the plan, Jakey?”

“It's a surprise,” he smiles. He hasn't hidden the fact that he'll be taking care of you but he refused to tell you all the ideas he'd come up with.

“Can we get some food first?”

“That actually is part of the plan! Let's go get your favorite fast food.”

“Yes! You're the best, Jakey!” You lean over and kiss him again before buckling up and heading out.

It's about an hour-and-a-half later and you swear Jake is driving to the middle of nowhere. The only reason you're not grumpy is because he got you extra fries without even having to ask if you wanted them. The sun is low in the sky and you haven't seen any signs of civilization for a while.

“Jake, are we lost?”

“Nope,” he answers confidently. “I've got the GPS and I managed to bounce off some...unsanctioned satellites so we can always have a signal.”

“So, where are we going?”

“I told you, it's a surprise!”

You give him a suspicious look but his grin never falters. He takes a left onto what looks more like a path than a road and drives for another twenty minutes or so. At least the scenery is nice. You don't often get to the woods like when you were little. You kinda miss them. The path is taking you through quite the forest and you think it'd be nice to take a walk through them with Jake. Maybe that's what he has planned!

The path ends at a clearing in the woods with a small lake. Jake immediately declares “we're here” and jumps out to start getting things from the trunk of the car. You chuckle at his enthusiasm and step out, taking a look at the area. You and Jake are the only signs of civilization out here. It really is just a lake in a clearing. You know you've told Jake you wanted to get to the woods more, but you'd kinda hoped he'd opt for a cabin or something.

You feel a mosquito bite on your arm and instinctively slap at it. Then another. Then another!

“Jake,” you call to him, “please tell me you brought bug spray!” Jake is walking towards with a cooler and he stops. His expression betrays his answer. “You brought us out to the woods without bug spray?! It's mosquito season and we're right by a body of water!” You're still smacking spots on your arms.

Jake's head drops, “I...I didn't think of that.” He winces and you know he's been bit as well. “I just...this spot is...” he drops the cooler and starts smacking the bugs that are increasing in number with the darkening skies.

“Let's get back in the car,” you suggest. He doesn't argue and makes sure you're safely in before he puts gets in. Within the safety of the car, the swarm of mosquitos dwindles and you're both able to take out the few that make it into the car.

Jake lets out a sad sigh, “they said this place would be best.”

You turn to Jake, “who thought a place with mosquitoes was a good idea?”

“I cross-referenced a bunch of firefly websites with angler forums to find the best places we could go to for fireflies. I wanted you to start your vacation with a little magic and I fucked that up.” He sags in his seat, resting his forehead against the steering wheel.

Your heart flutters at how sad he looks. He really did want to do something nice for you. Something he knew you would love. Taking you to the woods, seeing fireflies. If it weren't for the mosquitos, or the lack of bug spray, it really would've been a wonderful night.

You gently caress his cheek, “hey, you tried. You put in a lot of effort for this and you know I appreciate that.” He turns to you and sees your gentle smile. “We still had a night of good food and even better company.”

“You really mean that?”

“Absolutely,” you assure him with a kiss. “We should probably head home, though.”

Jake nods and buckles in while you do the same and look out the window.

“Jake!” you quietly yell. “Jake! Look! The fireflies!”

Sure enough, the telltale flickers of light are starting up all around the car. You're absolutely giddy with excitement, even tearing up a little. It's been so long since you've seen so many in one place! You stop making coherent statements and just give appreciative noises of delight as you unbuckle and practically bounce around inside the car to look at them from every window.

By the time you calm down, Jake is just staring at you with loving eyes. You grab him for as big a hug as you can get in the vehicle.

“This was the best, Jake! Thank you so much!”

Tagging @alicedopey; @bigtreefest; @delicatebarness; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @ronearoundblindly

#essie’s summer lovin’ 300 follower celebration #summer lovin’ celebration #essie’s 300 follower special #jake jensen fluff #jake jensen x reader

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slutforpringles · 5 months ago

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I see everyone cranky about the article about perez's sponsors and the constructor's bonus. But i feel like it's gonna work out ok. Or ok-ish at least. The chances that daniel gets in the car and immediately makes up the difference in the constructor's is low. Max is struggling with the car and he's been in it all year. So either way the constructor's is likely a write off. This way, the bonus is covered. And they can still put daniel in for next year, especially if perez bottles the rest of season. Sponsor's or not, if he fucks it up and doesn't meet his contract clauses at least they're seen to have tried to help him meet the targets. So not totally pissing sponsors off. Maybe daniel doesn't have the exact same money behind him, but he is a big sponsor draw. Obviously it's bullshit on daniel's side to keep getting the goal posts moved, but I'm trying to hold on to the hope that it'll actually work in his favour! What do you think?

Yep I definitely think there are upsides to Daniel not being in the Red Bull. As you said it is a tricky car to drive currently, and while I wholeheartedly believe that Daniel would be doing a better job than Payrez currently, I also don't know if he would be able to wring performance out of it to the same degree that Max has been able to. He would be under mountains of pressure to perform immediately, and I can easily see him being blamed en masse by fans if Red Bull were still to lose the constructors.

I won't lie, a small part of me still worries that if there's absolutely zero improvement post-summer break that Red Bull won't suddenly go 'oh shit we have to do something now' and put Daniel in the car after Singapore - which would make the pressure/situation even more challenging. Honestly though in that scenario my biggest concern would be his safety and security at COTA and in particular Mexico - some of the absolute fanatical lunacy I have seen online by Mexican journalists/commentators and the amount of hate it has stirred up is quite honestly bonkers, so I really hope for Daniel's sake he's not parachuted in post-Singapore.

Also to be honest I'm quite excited to see Daniel's continued progression at Vcarb. I've been really impressed by how he and his engineers have knuckled down and found solutions to issues he was having and they have really made some pretty huge steps since his early season struggles. I think he clearly gets on well with Pierre and they've found their groove, and it'd be nice to see Daniel get a full season with Vcarb to continue that trend and really prove to people he deserves that Red Bull seat. I also think the next big lot of Vcarb upgrades are likely to be quite impactful, especially since they seem to have understood why the last upgrades didn't work out.

So while I do find the Red Bull/Payrez situation infuriating, it's definitely not all doom and gloom. I think there's still a huge amount of positive momentum going Daniel's way, he just needs to continue to put in those solid performances we saw from him before the summer break!! ✨🫶🏻🙏🏻👏🏻

#anon ask #daniel ricciardo

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oh-no-its-bird · 7 months ago

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Naruto/Death Note crossover but it's just me zapping Misa into Naruto w the dimension travel beams (and also I stopped reading Death Note after L died bc I got bored)

Deranged hot goth girl fucks with ninjas more at 11

Ok but taking it seriously:

Her Shinigami eyes could actually cause SO many issues for ninja in general. No disguise ever works on her bc she can see your name !! You can not go undercover with this bitch around she'll catch you near instantly!!

Also her being able to see peoples lifespans would fuck so hard there too, what a party trick to pull. I want her to push someone to do some insane shit while going "nah don't worry you won't die for another few months at least so you'll be fine!! :)"

I don't think she came w the death note itself just bc I don't think Misa could prevent someone from taking it from her and it's way too OP to deal with the logistics of what having it just out there in the world would actually mean. Pretty much any naruto character gets it and the story ends in like 3 minutes flat

I know that there are shinigami in Naruto canon, tho I'm not too familiar w the specifics.

Either way, it could be cool if we really got into Misa's relation to them— she can see them with her eyes already, maybe she can sense them too. She's like being drawn to different artifacts and prisons of shinigami, she can sense them from far away and they call to her ooOOoOoo

She ends up freeing that one specific shinigami from the mask or whatevers going on w that. And since she already has the eyes from Rem, instead of going "oh, thanks lmao *kills you*" when freed, they recognize that shes already been claimed by a shinigami and are like "Oh shit, nice contract blondie." and she has an actual opening to talk to them (and maybe get another funky death god contract along the way)

Misa continues to show she has unstoppable, unbeatable shinigami rizz even into the next dimension. They all want her.

(If nothing else, naruto world has PROVEN that if u roll high enough on a charisma stat, you can convince anyone of literally anything, no matter if it was like the driving force of their entire life since they were 5 or whatever. So why shouldn't Misa get to talk shinigami into liking her just by being violently friendly?? No really, why not??)

Shes collecting death contracts like Pokémon cards, causing actual fucking havoc everywhere she goes via unleashing ancient evils for deals for some of their power (thanks Misa!!)

She doesn't know how to fucking fight tho, she's a 2000's goth girl in chunky heels. She's getting by on her insanely high charisma stats, good luck, and the giant shinigami only she can see standing directly behind her with a giant baseball bat waiting for someone to get close enough to hit

Could be cool if her shinigami eyes let her see yokai in general too, and just say there weren't enough back in modern Japan to notice. But there's TONS around now and Misa is making little kissy faces at them trying to be friends

Her eyes keep her safe by marking her as already claimed by a shinigami, also making most yokai reguard her as one of them. That could also maybe be used to get her places she shouldn't be in / have weaknesses a normal guy doesn't

Like, seals designed for yokai work on her too

Her eyes need to be mistaken for sharingan at LEAST once and it must cause as many problems as possible.

It'd be neat if Rem was there too. Maybe Misa collecting all this power from different shinigami is actually in some quest to bring Rem back, via giving her that power she got from the other shinigami. She's like roaming the land in an effort to get as much power as possible to make Rem a new body or smthn.

The rules of how shinigami exist and are allowed to interact with the mortal plane is different than the rules where Misa is from, so there's like tons of wiggle room for creativity n "woahh I didn't know you could do that!!"

Misa herself is such a go with the flow morally grey gal w a very clear potential and allowance for absoloute insanity— I think she'd be super down with joining whoever just happens to be the first person she meets in Naruto world. Like. She bumps into the Akatsuki first? You KNOW she's gonna join in. She happens to land near Konoha first? Hell yeah she's loving the funky ninja village! Military dictatorship? Fine by her!

Shes so undying loyal, no matter how clearly wrong or deranged the object of her affection is. So whoever earns that affection first is gonna keep it p much the whole way through (honestly this world is just lucky she's still hung up on Light, which is why she still has sommee agency here)

I think the most interesting thing to do w her + what parallels her story best would be joining Akatsuki actually. Cmon, a terrorist organization "dedicated to peace" (through murder) she's so there for it, she's asking to pretty please help bc "Light would probably like it <33"

Also the Akatsuki cloak is like the only naruto outfit I can see her really rocking while keeping her signature style. ALSO also, Akatsuki nailpolish code,,,,

#birds fic talk #naruto #death note #misa amane #naruto crossover #death note crossover

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accidentally-in-fictional-love · 4 months ago

Note

😶: Hector from Premature Show

🥰+🎯: dealer's choice! Whatever you want to write about him - I just wanna see this guy get some love!!

Love Is Messy (And That's a Good Thing) - Hector/Reader

Warnings: No use of Y/N, gender-neutral reader, an abundance of cuteness.

Wordcount: 8969

Summary: Your neighbours were all weird as hell, but it takes a crash in the hall to make you realize that that might be exactly what you need in your life.

Notes: When I started this, I told myself it'd be a super quick one and then I'd be able to blast through the next. Cue days later and me somehow writing this much. I love this man!! He's so freakin adorable oh my god!! Once again I adore it when DD plays villains, but it's his cute characters that steal my heart and I took one look at Hector and fell hard so even though burnout has been kicking my ass again I still enjoyed every second of this one. And he's a chef! I'm always writing comfort food sections and finally I get to write a chef /)w(\ I really hope you enjoy, thank you so much for asking for him 💗💗💗

Big City Living wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and you'd learned that the moment you arrived at your new apartment. It was smaller than the website promised you with its clearly doctored photos, and while the rent was at least nice and affordable despite it being New York, the neighbours were, to put it lightly, weird as hell.

Grace was fine, she seemed normal enough, but it was everyone else that made you walk a little faster as soon as you reached your shared floor, Denzel's advances constantly unwanted as his roommate hid in the safety of the living room beyond the door. You'd heard him talk with the two of them before, their voices carrying through the walls and lifting up to your window when they were outside, so you knew he could be sociable, but when it came to you he outright avoided you the moment you happened near. He would only really talk to them, in fact, they seemed almost inseparable by now, and that was great for them, but you weren't about to join in on the weird festivities of dressing her in odd fashion for interviews and the other one apparently pretending to be her boyfriend to impress her boss.

You didn't think you even knew his name, since he was the only one who had yet to approach you when you joined their floor, and the moment you'd tried to be somewhat social and introduce yourself just to finish the trio he'd jerked away from your hand and rushed out of the elevator as soon as it dinged and freed him. You didn't try again after that, clearly this guy wasn't interested in making more friends, so you wouldn't force things and insert yourself into his life.

Unlike his friend, who was constantly and without fail trying to prove to you how great of a catch he was the second you appeared in his view.

It'd been a few months now and your deceptively small apartment was now filled to the brim with everything you'd thought you'd have space for. It was a bit cramped, but it was all yours, and it was right next to the subway so you didn't have to worry about driving or taxis, so you'd cherish your small slice of heaven for as long as you could. You'd just finished cleaning, dust gathered fast when everything was so cluttered, and were in the middle of carrying the bags to the trash chute when the door next to yours opened and The Other One walked out. You bumped into him when you noticed too late, his arms shooting up to his chest as he attempted to avoid the bag in your hand, his eyes open wide in terror like you were about to splash him with toxic sludge and turn him into a laughing villain.

‘Sorry, didn't see you there,’ you quickly apologized as he pressed himself to the wall, and he looked to the bags before pulling a bottle of sanitizer from his pocket; he washed his hands, then his arm where you'd hit him, and you felt slightly offended until you realized that oh, he wasn't doing this because of cooties or a bit or something, he was serious. ‘It's just some used paper towels and a bit of cleaning wipes, nothing too bad,’ you offered to console him but still he flinched like that was somehow even worse.

‘Still used, and filthy, but thank you,’ he said, and it was the first time you'd heard his voice in person you realized as he finished up and put the small bottle back into his pocket.

‘Oh, well, at least it's all safe in the bag,’ you tried next, and he looked ready to argue before he swallowed it down and gave you a smile.

‘Yeah, safe in the bag,’ he agreed stiffly yet politely, and you smiled back before continuing to the chute. ‘I'm Hector, by the way, I know we haven't been properly introduced since you arrived.’

‘It seems we haven't,’ you said as you spun on your heel to face him again, your own name finally stated as his smile turned more genuine.

‘It's nice to meet you, and- if I may say, the next time you're preparing any sort of meat, you should really wear gloves and use a properly sanitized cutting board, I noticed that you used the barbecue out in the yard the other day and just… placed the meat right on the tray while you waited.’

‘You were… watching me grill?’ you asked with a bit of a chuckle, you hadn't expected that one.

‘No-! Well, the window was open, and it was making Denzel hungry so he asked me to see if we knew who was out there, y'know, so we could grab a bite, and when I saw how you were preparing everything-’

‘Are you some kinda chef?’ you asked as a joke, but to your surprise he nodded.

‘I am, well, I'm in between cooking jobs, at the moment, but I did get my degree in it, so regardless I call myself a chef, yes,’ he explained, and you looked him over and decided that you couldn't picture him in a Hell’s Kitchen type scenario at all between the shyness and the nearly discovered mysophobia.

‘Huh, well then, the next time I'm in the mood for burgers I'll knock on your door, if you'd like? So you can show me the correct way to do it?’ you suggested in a friendly manner now that you saw that he wasn't nearly as bad as you'd feared considering who he roomed with, and he mulled it over for just a moment before giving a small sway on one heel and pushing his longish hair behind his ear, he seemed actually excited about it, and it was honestly pretty cute.

‘I'd really like that, actually, been a while since I got to cook for anyone that wasn't him, I might have to get out the book of recipes I wrote up while I was studying.’

‘I don't think you need to go that far just for burgers,’ you laughed, and when he looked disappointed you were quick to continue, ‘but maybe we could do some kinda potluck another time? I don't mean to brag, but I can make a damn good bowl of store-bought potato salad.’

It took him a moment to get it, but when he did he laughed so hard that it caught the attention of Denzel, who rushed out to see what he was missing before his eyes landed on you. ‘So you're the reason for all the commotion out here, you two getting friendly without me?’ he smirked as he straightened his hair, his cheese-dusted fingers leaving streaks of orange that he quickly brushed out thanks to Hector flinching and pointing at it.

‘Just throwing out some trash,’ you told him before continuing down the hall, his voice following after you as he jogged to catch up.

‘That's cool, hey, we were actually gunna take Grace out tonight to celebrate her latest gig, you wanna tag along, see where the night takes you?’ He wiggled his eyebrows at you while the rest of his face remained dead serious, and you looked between them and his eyes before shaking your head.

‘I can't, I have work in the morning, but thank you,’ you replied before slipping between him and the wall and heading back for your door.

‘That's cool too, y'know we're free all week, very flexible schedule, we can hit you up for Round 2 when you're off work,’ he said as he followed again, Hector silently apologizing for his forwardness in place of his friend's lack of social awareness, clearly this really did happen often.

‘I'll be swamped all week, but I'll let you know.’ You shut your door behind you as he kept talking through the old wood, Hector whispering for him to let it go before it fell silent, and you sighed to yourself with a smile as you leaned back; guess you were making friends here whether you liked it or not.

The weather took a bit of a turn, everything way too hot to allow you to stand out in the sun in front of a hot grill for hours. You stuck to your unairconditioned home instead as soon as you got off work, an emergency fan brought and barely cooling you as it spun back and forth while you sprawled out on your couch in discomfort. This was hell, this might actually be Hell itself you decided as your brief breeze grazed over you and gave you a moment of reprieve.

You were in the middle of considering filling your bath with ice and hopping in when a knock came to your door, and you tried to get up when you just sank back down and made a noise for them to enter, you hadn't locked it in your hurry to set up your new fan. The door creaked open after some muffled conversation on the other side, and you didn't have to look to know who it was as Denzel let himself right in and headed for your fan. ‘I feel like there's a presence in here, a heavy one,’ he said lowly and mysteriously as he stepped into the heat between the oscillations, and you couldn't even fake a laugh as he blocked your breeze.

‘It's you, it's always you,’ Grace told him as she also appeared, and this time you did sit up and face the door at the sound of her voice. You'd only talked once or twice in the elevator, and you knew she was nice enough to have the patience to put up with Denzel, but you hadn't expected a party when Hector came in last.

‘Hi, again, uh… we noticed that you might be having the same problem as us, so we thought-’

‘You might appreciate the party coming to you, complete with cold drinks and frozen foods,’ Denzel finished for him, a very cold and condensating soda tossed into your lap and making you yelp before he took the couch seat next to you. ‘Listen, it's come to my attention that we might’ve gotten off on the wrong foot here, so I brought you a little peace offering to know that it's all good, you're still free to hang with us whenever you want, you don't have to be intimidated by me.’

You still had no energy to do anything other than press the cold bottle to your neck and cheeks and slowly blink in the heat.

‘What my roommate is trying to say, is that he's sorry about last time,’ Hector translated for you as he approached the front of your couch but didn't sit, and you took no offense to it when you saw just how intense his mysophobia could be even over something like a slightly sweaty couch. ‘And that, since you're so busy, we might share our Cooldown Party with you, since our units are also temporarily out. Well, more like a gathering, really, Grace and I aren't much for parties, maybe just a get together, actually.’

‘My mom sent me some cookies, and Hector made this really yummy frozen pie,’ Grace said as she brought the treats over, and it did look damn good under what appeared to be a mummy's worth of plastic wrap over the case to keep the pie extra safe.

‘It's an easy recipe, it's mostly just pudding,’ he revealed, but he still looked away with a smile when you hungrily looked over the chilled dessert.

‘I'll take anything if it cools me down, lemme grab some plates, I also bought some Popsicles earlier, and I can just slightly heat up the lasagna I started on yesterday, if you want?’ you offered as you stood, your outfit sticking to your entire back and making Hector cringe again at the sight of it.

‘Yay to the Popsicles, nay to the lasagna, you got anything like potato salad or macaroni salad? Any of the fun salads other than actual salad?’ Hector asked as he spread himself out next and turned on your TV to find a movie, guess everyone was staying.

‘I have a bit of a wrap I bought for lunch and never finished?’ you called over as you searched your fridge, and Grace gave him a bit of a slap before joining you.

‘Don't feed him, he just ate,’ she whispered to you before finding your plates, and you got out the lasagna and started heating it properly no matter how much you wish you had more cold things. ‘I can bring over something else, so we don't eat all your leftovers, if you'd like?’

‘It's fine, half of this would've probably gone to waste by the end of the week,’ you figured as the microwave dinged, and you didn't notice the presence until you felt cold air flow over your back; instantly your head fell back with a moan, it was divine, and Denzel let out a very interested, ‘Whoaaaaaa,’ from the couch at the sound of it as you turned to see the cause. Hector took a step back, the tissue still protecting his fingers as he quickly apologized, apparently your shirt sticking to you and keeping you hot had bothered him just that much, and you waved it off before fixing your shorts yourself.

‘Thank you, I was just gunna leave it,’ you laughed, your face red at the embarrassing sound you'd made on pure instinct, but he still apologized again before tossing out the tissue and washing his hands for good measure.

‘Denzel, come help me grab something from my kitchen,’ Grace said suddenly as she stood next to you, said man just letting out a noise of disinterest as he watched his movie. ‘There aren't enough places to sit, help me bring over a chair,’ she repeated, and when he didn't get up she pinched him by the ear and dragged him to his feet. You watched the two of them go before shrugging and moving over to your fan, the now freed back of your shirt lifted so the air could travel under and cool you enough to enjoy the lasagna you were now very hungry for.

‘Sorry again, I know it wasn't very sanitary to do it in the kitchen but you looked like you were uncomfortable,’ he repeated again, his glasses fogging in the heat as he tried not to watch you when you spun to lift the front of your shirt forward next.

‘I very much was,’ you confirmed, and when you were nice and cool you offered him the chance to do the same since he was all buttoned up and looking ready to go to work or a meeting or something. ‘How about you? Don't you own any t-shirts or anything?’

‘Oh, no, not my style,’ he said with a soft laugh, and while the button down and khaki pants did suit him well, you could see the sheen on his forehead from you hogging all the fan.

‘Well, at least take the fan, if you have nothing more breathable,’ you suggested, and he thought about it before shaking his head and nearly pressing himself to your wall before jumping away like it'd burned him, although in this heat it might've.

‘No thank you, you don't need my sweat and body odour and dead skin flying through the air, getting on your things, I'll be fine,’ he lied, and you hummed to yourself before circling behind him and seeing that he was in the same predicament as you'd been; his shirt was tucked in and the entire top was stuck to him, and you stared at the damp material before grabbing it and yanking it free. ‘Wha- what're you-?’ he yelped as he spun around but you just spun with him, pulling his shirt free and letting the fan do the rest as he got caught in the breeze, and you felt satisfied as he also let out a loud sigh of relief.

‘I know you don't like touching, but you looked like you were pretty uncomfortable too,’ you admitted as you washed your hands to make him feel better, but he'd forgotten all about his turmoil as he leaned over the cover and let it bring down his internal temperature that was currently set to Boiling. You just smiled and gave him some space so he'd feel less self-conscious about his sweat and body odour and, God forbid, dead skin floating through the air with a small chuckle, and when the others returned with the chairs you ended up making sure he stole the other half of the couch this time instead of Denzel.

The weather evened out again just as the AC was fixed, and the next time you had a party/gathering/get together it was outside in the actual breeze with the grill fired up at last. You knew by now that both Hector and Denzel were between jobs at the moment, so it took a careful script of asking him to help you clean your bathroom, the worst room in the home, in order to sneak him away without the temptation of Denzel following until everything was ready. You held your fingers to your lips to keep him quiet as you got him to help you bring everything outside, of course you were the one to handle the burgers and other raw meats, and he preferred the plates and forks and other needed utensils very much as you made your way to the barbecue.

You'd made sure to book it just in case, you weren't sure how this shared space went outside of first come first serve pretty much, since that was how you'd nabbed it the first time, and he filled you in on everything as a now longtime resident. ‘Basically there's a clipboard out in the lobby, y'know the one by the front desk? It has several pages for stuff like lost things and requests to the super, but on page 4 it also has whoever books the barbecue so everyone can check and write down their name if something comes up,’ he told you as you hauled the picnic table a little closer, his hands covered in two pairs of sanitary gloves since the table lived outside and was covered in way too much to touch otherwise.

‘I'd seen that but I just thought it was all for lost and found,’ you said as you cracked your back, he was strong but he also had a tendency to keep stopping when his hand shifted too close to something undesirable, and as such his gripping area was pretty limited and made the task take longer than it should've.

‘Nope, we used to have a bulletin board for it so all the pages were spaced out, but then Mr. Katz expanded the front desk and that area became unavailable to residents, so now we just use the clipboard, you'll get used to it.’ He was talking a lot more and a lot easier as well, you noted with a smile as he also cracked his back, his hands far away from himself as he stretched out his hands and leaned back as far as his spine would allow, which wasn't very far.

‘Good to know, I'll remember that for next time; so, how're you gunna teach me, Chef?’ you teased as you motioned to the things you'd prepared, and he gave you a smirk before ditching the gloves, tossing them into the nearby trash from a safe distance, and took out his phone after he was once again sanitized; in just a moment Grace was softly calling to you, and she prepared to toss a small something to you before letting it fall past the border of the fire escape. Hector went to catch it before he realized it'd be touching his hands, and you managed it in his stead last second, his eyes bright and his smile wide at your success.

It was a small square it looked like, once again bagged to keep it safe, and when you opened it he quickly stopped you before pulling out another pair of gloves from his pocket. He put them on and handled the rest, the square actually a neatly folded and brand new plastic table covering, and he spread it over the dirtied wood and declared it ‘fffffffine enough’ before motioning towards the food.

‘Okay, we should really be doing this in the kitchen, but that's too risky, so just follow my lead,’ he began as everything was spread out, and he glanced down at his sleeves before pursing his lips and rolling them up so he could work, new gloves coming out again so he could handle the food, how many did he have in there? ‘These are store bought, but they've thawed out enough to add the seasoning, and that'll make all the difference once they hit the flame, did you pick up everything I suggested the other day?’

‘Yup, already measured them into that bag,’ you confirmed as you grabbed it, and he sucked in a breath through his teeth before pulling out his sanitizer and waved you over. You were patient with him even though the smell was strong, and when it'd dried over your skin he brought out more gloves from his other pocket, these ones set aside just for you it seemed.

‘Okay, much better; open the bag, keep an eye out for flies, and one by one take the patties and rub a bit of the seasoning into each side, like this.’ He showed you how to do it, his eyes focused as he grabbed the meat with the safety of the gloves, grabbed a couple pinches of the seasoning, and rubbed it into the slightly thawed top and bottom of the burger until it was mixed in without tearing it apart. You followed his lead, grabbing your own but pressing too hard and ending up piercing it with your fingers and thumb, and you frowned at it and decided that Denzel could have that one as he chuckled. ‘No, here, it's in a delicate stage since you can't really roll it back into a ball like this, that's the trouble with store bought, do it like this-’

He came up behind you, his chest a safe distance from your back, but you still felt how warm he was as he took your hand and adjusted your grip as you tried again, the perfect amount of seasoning sprinkled on before he guided your hand to rub it in much gentler than your first attempt. ‘I-I feel like that one movie, with the pottery,’ you joked, and he thought about it a moment before laughing softly in your ear.

‘I won't rub raw meat all over your bare arms, don't worry about that,’ he joked back, that patty done and the next started. ‘You think you've got it?’

‘Yeah, I got it now, thanks,’ you said as you continued without him, and he went back to preparing his own, the two of you working in silence until the wax papered tray was full of the improved burgers. He let you handle the grill, he'd overthink it too much if he tried to use it, he always let Denzel cook when they were out there since he could pretend everything was fine if he didn't actively see the state of the grill despite it being well taken care of. He didn't sit as he avoided watching you, his eyes on everything else as he stripped off the used gloves, sanitized again, and leaned against the end of the table. ‘Y’know, I'm curious, how did you get through cooking school when your fear is this bad?’ you asked him as you flipped the burgers to start to seal in the added flavour, the cheese slices coming out to wait until the lid was opened again.

‘Culinary school, actually, and it wasn't as bad back then, if you'd believe it,’ he replied as he started to place down the plates, a protective napkin placed over each one in case of curious flies. ‘It's always been there, but learning about all the way bacteria can make you sick, even kill you, how you could really hurt someone if you aren't careful, not to mention the state of some kitchens- well, they didn't like me walking around with my big ideas to wear gloves and be more strict with the hairnets, don't even mention the desire to just please clean out the utensil holders, and all that mixed in with my refusal to handle certain things…’

‘It got you fired,’ you finished for him, and he pointed at you, dead on. ‘Wow, I didn't realize the cooking business was that cutthroat.’

‘It's not if you know how to ignore it all, but… I can't, no matter how hard I try, I just can't, so it's been hard to do what I love the past few years.’ He fiddled with the edge of one of the napkins, rolling the soft paper between his fingers until it started to tear, and you wished you had a way to help him find a boss who understood him like you did. But life out there wasn't as easy as him taking your hand and showing you how to season a burger without wrecking it, and the odds of finding a restaurant owner who'd put up with his intense fears disguised as quirks were even worse than finding a needle in a haystack.

You opened the lid and the smell of criminally delicious burgers hit you right in the face, your mouth instantly watering as you reached for the first cheese slice only to be stopped by a new pair of gloves since you’d been touching the grill and spatula; you just gave him a thankful and understanding smile before pulling them on, and you laid the cheese overtop to be melted as Denzel finally caught on and yelled from the apartment window for you two to save him some for the love of God, he was not about to miss out on Hector's famous burgers after so long.

The two of you grew even closer after that day, the grill party very successful as several residents you didn't even know came out of the woodwork at the smells of the burgers. You were glad you'd made so many as everyone ate them up along with the hot dogs and sausages that eventually also got tossed onto the grill as the day went on, and you ended up adding a few new names to your mental registry of the neighbours you'd had yet to meet.

At one point you'd actually needed to run back upstairs to grab some more plates and forks, and you didn't realize Hector had been sent up - aka ran up before Denzel could - to get the other chilled pie he'd made at your request, the two of you bumping into each other in the hallway again when you'd left your apartments at the same time. The pie was saved as you slid your hands underneath his, the stack of plates providing extra support, and when he'd felt your thumbs brush against his bare hands without him pulling away it'd felt way more intimate than if you'd gone full romcom and accidentally kissed somehow or something.

He'd still sanitized again when you reached the yard, but he'd done so with a blush, you couldn't help but notice.

It was going on the next weekend when you'd woken up, got some breakfast, and found a note slid under your door as you'd made your way to the couch. You set down the bowl on the coffee table and picked it up, the writing neat but also a little stiff as the folded paper presented your name to you and confirmed that this was meant for your eyes only.

You brought it over to the couch and opened it up as you ate, and you nearly choked when you saw that it was actually an invitation to dinner by Hector, he liked spending time with you so much that he wanted some time with just the two of you. Your face grew hot as you thought about your growing friendship, and you knew that you were catching feelings for him despite Denzel's best efforts, so you quickly finished off your breakfast, made yourself look Hallway Presentable, and headed over to his door.

You knocked until Denzel opened up, all hunched over and messy from his sleep, and you bit your lip to contain your smile a little when he started to assume that you were finally here for him. ‘Can you tell Hector yes for me?’ you asked him nervously, and he frowned in confusion before looking down to the note in your hand.

‘Ohhhh yeah, I gotcha, I'll tell him,’ he promised with a wink, and you thanked him before heading back to your apartment to get ready for your short shift at work.

Your mind was on him all day, and whether you should dress up nice in case it ended up being a fancy dinner, or if you should just dress like yourself, and by the time you got home you'd decided - multiple times, while mentally going back and forth repeatedly - on a business casual look, so a nice button down and jeans, to start. You raced home once you got off the subway, just barely giving Grace a hello as she also headed inside, and you didn't stop until you reached your apartment and started going over what you could wear.

You ended up with a lineup of clothes, and one by one you picked them off until you were left with what had to be the perfect outfit, something not too fancy, just in case, but nothing too casual either, so he knew you were serious about this. You had a quick shower to get rid of the stress from work and got dressed, the note on your counter as you brushed your teeth and read it again to go over all the details.

There were none, it just said he wanted to invite you to dinner tonight, and when there was nothing left to do you let out the breath you'd been holding all day and approached his door once more.

Denzel opened it again, although this time he was ready for you, Hector nowhere in sight behind him as you tried to peer past into the living room. ‘Oh, he'll be out in a sec, Hector!’ he shouted back over his shoulder, and as he did the door to your right opened and revealed Grace. ‘My, what a coincidence, hey Grace would you wanna grab Phat Dong and check out that place over on 49th?’ he asked her almost like he'd practiced this, and she seemed just as practiced as she for once didn't argue against it and led the way.

‘Have fun tonight,’ she told you as they reached by the elevator, and you had just enough time to feel like you'd been scammed when Hector appeared with a jump.

‘Oh, I thought I heard your voice,’ he said with a smile, but it faltered slightly when he noticed that he was now alone. ‘Where did…?’

Ah, so you had been scammed.

‘He just walked out with Grace,’ you answered honestly, now feeling a little overdressed considering he hadn't been the one to write the letter after all, and honestly you should've seen it coming, the paper had been on the floor and you had thought that the writing had looked a little stiff. ‘But, since they just left, why don't we hang out, just the two of us?’

A fake date to give you the courage to ask for a real one because they'd known you never would, clever girl- guy, the both of them.

‘I'd like that, have you eaten anything yet?’ he asked as he invited you in, and you shook your head as you took in his apartment for the first time; the layout was the same as yours, but you could definitely see where his OCD came in, everything sparkling clean despite the haphazard placement of it all, he'd likely let Denzel decorate with his own things and then kept everything tidy.

‘Nope, just got off work,’ you replied, only two steps in before he stopped you and had you take your shoes off. You set them into the placemat so you wouldn't track any dirt over his mopped floors, and you saw that his socks were actually kind of cute as he led you to the kitchen, the pattern matching the tie he was wearing almost exactly.

‘Great, there's been a recipe I've been thinking of revisiting but I didn't want to make it and have Denzel take half, or Grace, or anyone other than you, actually,’ he admitted as he pulled out an old notebook from between the cookbooks on his shelf. ‘I've kinda just been wanting to share it with you, since you've been encouraging me to get back into this outside of job hunting, as a thank you.’

‘I didn't know you were looking again, how's it been going?’ you asked excitedly as you approached, careful to give him space as usual but he surprised you a little by leaning in to show you everything he'd written down.

‘Not too good, but there's a few places nearby that I'm getting a second interview with, so I've been brushing up on my recipes lately as well as learning the menus, crossing my fingers that if I'm good enough they'll listen to what I have to say this time without throwing me out.’ His smile was small as he flipped through the pages, his arm just barely touching yours, but he might not have noticed thanks to his long sleeves.

‘Well, if you can turn a normal frozen burger into something worth selling at a restaurant just with a bit of seasoning, then I know you can nail these interviews,’ you told him confidently, your hand hovering over him before you pulled away, settling for giving him a thumbs up instead. He watched your hand, noticed how close you were, how respectful you were to his boundaries when the others weren't, and he shut his eyes tight before leaning over and closing the space. It was just your arms touching over fabric, but still it made your breath catch to see it, to feel him heat up against you because this was intimate to him, trusting, and you had to wonder if he might've really wanted to ask you after all but didn't know how to say it.

‘This, uh, this one looks delicious,’ you said with a tap to the book to get him to open his eyes again, and when he saw what page he'd landed on he actually let out a small noise of surprise.

‘That's the one I was going to make for you,’ he revealed, and you looked it over again before he was hiding it from you, your quick glance would be your only teaser. ‘You know, I'd really like to cook with you again one of these days, but for tonight, let me test my recipe out on you, I know you'll be honest with me, or, you'll be honest but not as much as Denzel, and more so than Grace, if that makes sense?’

‘It does, don't worry,’ you smiled as he moved away, your side now cold without him there next to you. ‘So shall I get comfy, try not to spoil all your cooking secrets so you can surprise me?’

‘I-I don't think I could do this if you're watching me,’ he mumbled with a blush, his hand adjusting his glasses as he looked away from you, ‘but we have a big collection of movies you can look through, it shouldn’t take up the whole thing but I haven't made this in a while, so…’

‘A movie sounds great, and recommendations?’ You walked over to the cabinet where they were all completely disorganized but you'd guessed that was only because Hector cared more about germs than order, while Denzel didn't care at all. He didn't have any, he was already too focused on preparing the food to answer, and you shot him a fond smile before grabbing your favourite from the batch and popping it into the DVD player.

You did indeed get comfy as he worked behind you out of sight, the smells of everything making your stomach growl until you couldn't concentrate on the TV any longer; you quietly turned until you were facing the kitchen, and again he wore that same calm and completely concentrated expression as he chopped and sliced and seasoned. He was so into it he didn't even notice when he faced your way to grab some paper towels, and it took you a while to realize that he wasn't wearing gloves this time, although he still generously washed his hands after everything outside of handling the raw meat.

You found watching him to be way more interesting than the movie, and not once did he feel your eyes on him as he carefully assembled the dish into a glass pan and placed it into the oven until he washed his hands a final time and found you staring at him over the back of the couch.

‘How long?’ he mumbled as he pushed his hair behind his ear and walked over, that calmness replaced with a blush again.

‘Dunno, lost track of time,’ you didn't lie, and he looked nervous about it before you motioned for him to come over. ‘You really love this, don't you?’ you said softly as he sat next to you, his posture tight again compared to how relaxed he'd been as he cooked.

‘Yeah, ever since I was little I've always enjoyed standing at the counter with my dad, learning old recipes that were handed down through our families, and then, when I got older and could start making stuff on my own, sharing it with them and my friends, I knew that this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.’ He stared at the TV as he spoke but he wasn't watching, clearly picturing what he was talking about as he said it, and you wished you could see it too as you watched him.

‘I'm sorry that things turned out the way they did, I wish there was an opening at my job for you,’ you said honestly, and he smiled and shrugged as he relaxed a little more.

‘For years I've just lived with this, adjusted my life around the fear until it lost me a job and nearly lost me my home, but Denzel is a good guy, bit eccentric, and sometimes he knows just how to push my buttons, it's because of him that I still have a roof over my head.’ He relaxed even more, his posture loose again as he spread his legs just a bit and let his back bend, no more sitting up straight with his knees pressed hard together. ‘I know he doesn't look it, especially when we live here, but you know he's got money, right? That's why he's still unemployed like me, because he doesn't have to work so he doesn't want to.’

No, you didn't know it, you couldn't believe it, in all honesty. ‘Why's he live here then? It's not exactly the Ritz,’ you gaped in surprise, and Hector gave a small smirk as he nodded.

‘No idea, but we were neighbours when I got evicted, I mean, Mr. Katz is great, but he couldn't keep me here for free when the money started to run out,’ he told you even though it must've been a hard and embarrassing part of his life, but neither showed on his face as he looked at you.

‘I might’ve misjudged him,’ you figured, and he gave you a nod, ‘so he took you in, and you were neighbours, that means I've got your old place, don't I?’ Another nod, and it wasn't bitter, that wasn't the kind of person he was. ‘You'll have to tell me how you managed the space because I swear I've used up every inch and still need more,’ you griped, and he laughed and moved a little closer to you, just an inch.

‘I guess I'll have to come over again sometime and help,’ he suggested, and something in the air changed as he realized that he'd actually said it out loud; it was different here, this was his shared space where Denzel could come home at any moment - like hell he would after the scam but still - but your place, that was all yours, and no one would bother you if you went over, shut the door, and locked it. He swallowed, face going red until his glasses started to fog, and you chuckled at the sight before facing him more in return so that when he could see again all he would see was you.

‘I guess you should,’ you agreed, and you gave the oven a glance. ‘How long does dinner have left?’ He looked at his watch before telling you, and you took out your phone and set an alarm before standing up. ‘C’mon,’ you encouraged when he didn't move, completely frozen in place, ‘we've still got 45 minutes to kill, so come give me some pointers, okay? I swear it's clean, cross my heart.’

He looked back at the stove before standing as well, and you left your shoes on the mat as you opened the door and waited for him to join you. He slipped on his loafers and followed after, the hallway so quiet without the others around, and you were glad you'd cleaned when you opened the door and invited him in. He didn't take his shoes off at first, giving your floors a good once over before deciding that he trusted you, although he did shiver a little as his socks met the hardwood; you wanted to praise him but didn't know how to do it without sounding condescending, so you kept it to yourself and raised your arms to motion around the room.

‘So… this is it, as you’ve already seen, plus a few new things here and there,’ you said nervously, like he was going to find one spec of dust and deem you too dirty to hang out with even though that was definitely just nerves and that he would never do anything like that, and he hummed to himself as he walked around.

‘I had my TV over here,’ he told you as he compared, his couch pressed into the wall and surrounded by the end tables that now decorated Denzel's apartment next door. ‘The kitchen is still the same, is the… yeah, I did this.’ He waved you over to point at the burn going up the wall, the one that had made you terribly worried about an electrical fire when you'd first seen it. ‘I was making something and the oil splashed when I tried to drop the chicken in from afar, never do that, and the whole wall nearly caught if my screaming hadn't brought Denzel over, that was actually how we'd met.’

‘He helped put it out and didn't make it worse, I hope,’ you joked, and he thought about it a moment to your concern before deciding yes, he had helped in the end. ‘What a way to start a friendship, must've been hard to top that.’ You paused briefly to put away a dish towel when you noticed he was quiet behind you, clearly he didn't like it because it was already dirty from the dishes you'd done yesterday, but when you turned back to him you saw that he was staring at you, not it.

‘I think I might've topped it,’ he said just above a whisper, your throat going dry under his gaze, once again calm and concentrated as he reached for your hand. There was a moment as his fingers brushed over yours before he pulled back again, like his brain was telling him to keep being afraid of everything he couldn't help in life, of raw meat and eggs and bacteria, of human contact because all of it was bad and could hurt him and he should be afraid.

You didn't rush him as he shut his eyes and tried again, and this time he remained as he touched the back of your hand, your palm, explored your fingers until he was linking his own through yours. He let out a shaky breath, his palm sweating against yours but you didn't mind, he was working so hard to show you how he felt, and you wished he was okay with hugs as you held his hand right back.

‘I never knew how exciting it was to just hold someone's hand,’ you admitted with a smile, and when he cracked his eye open at your voice you saw the way he looked over you like he was seeing you for the first time.

‘So… you don't mind this? With me?’ he asked like he believed you would, and you just shook your head and rubbed your thumb over the back of his hand. ‘Good, I mean- they told me I should take a chance, but it's been a while since all this got worse, not everyone wants to deal with someone like me.’

‘You mean someone who's funny, and an excellent cook, and is probably the cutest person in this whole building?’ you challenged, another nervous laugh leaving him as he tried to take a step back, his hand bringing you with him.

‘I dunno, you're also pretty cute,’ he mumbled so genuinely that it could only make you laugh.

‘That's why I said “probably”,’ you teased him, the two of you just laughing until he became aware of how hot his hand was against yours. He tried to free you but you didn't let him, instead pulling him towards your couch so you could sit down together, you still had a half hour before the food was ready, after all. ‘They tried to set us up, you know, that's why I showed up today,’ you told him with a bit of adjusting, Hector very still as you moved closer to him when he still tried to keep to his end of the couch. ‘I was so excited at the thought of you asking me out that I didn't even consider the fact that it wasn't you who wrote the letter they left for me.’

‘Oh no, I wrote that,’ he confirmed after seeing it on the table in front of him, your eyes wide and his shutting again when you turned to face him. ‘They encouraged me to write it, basically told me what to say when I couldn't decide, I just didn't know they'd gone and delivered it when I wasn't looking.’ You were stunned, absolutely flabbergasted, his lip worried between his teeth a moment when he felt you pull his hand onto your lap. ‘I'd actually written it after that day in the yard, when we had the barbeque party, that was when I knew I…’

‘Yeah, me too.’

He opened his eyes again and just stared at you, this mutual confession more than you'd ever hoped for when you'd knocked on his door almost two hours ago already. ‘Does… that mean I can ask you out, for real?’ he dared to wonder, and you nodded and leaned in for a kiss before he stopped you. ‘Sorry, it's been so long, you couldn't imagine the things that fester inside the human mouth,’ he winced, which of course made you wince to think about in return, and he bit his lip again before biting the bullet and kissing you on the cheek instead. ‘But I think I might be okay with stuff like that, for now, if that's fine with you?’

You blushed deep before kissing his cheek back, and he almost looked ready to wipe it off and run before he fought the screaming in his head, he was going to cherish every touch he could get with you until he wasn't afraid anymore, and you were so proud of him it only made you hold his hand all the more. ‘It's perfectly fine with me, you just tell me what you want and I'll always be ready to help you through it, okay?’ you assured him comfortingly, his smile growing even wider and making his glasses raise over his cheekbones. ‘Is there anything else you might wanna do before we go back?’

You didn't even say it in a flirting manner and still he stuttered, his free hand coming up to readjust his glasses when they then slid down his nose. ‘Oh, well, I will admit I have been missing one thing about relationships,’ he confessed scandalously, and you leaned in ever patiently as he lowered his voice. ‘How do you feel about… snuggling?’

He was definitely the cutest person in the entire building, bar none.

‘I like it very much,’ you grinned up at him, and he looked relieved as he pulled your hand to his chest and grinned right back. There was a moment between the smiles and the relief before you realized you were now draped over his side, the closest he'd let you get since you'd met other than when he helped you with the burgers, and you didn't want to make it end by calling attention to it; instead you rested your head on his shoulder, a small snuggle just for him, and for once he didn't pull away until your alarm went off and startled the both of you. ‘Guess it's done,’ you figured sleepily, he was more comfortable than he let on, ‘we should probably turn off the oven before it catches fire.’

He looked ready to contest until he stared at the wall like he could already see the flames, and you laughed as he dragged you back to his apartment to save the meal he'd so lovingly made for you.

It was his own version of a lasagna, much more flavourful and full of things other than just meat and noodles like the instant one you'd bought when he'd first come over, and you decided to bring it back to your place again as you sat together on your couch and ate. There was no more hand holding while he ate, too risky, but he was now fine with sharing the middle of the couch with you instead of cramming himself into his side, to your delight.

You watched the movie you'd paid no attention to earlier, and it seemed to be a shared favourite as you talked and laughed over it, the last of your Popsicles coming out for dessert when you were done. You eventually heard Denzel and Grace come back, their voices hushed in the hallway as he peeked into his apartment and found it empty, and it made you chuckle when they asked themselves where Hector had gone. You got up before he could knock on your door next, hushing him and revealing the man in question fast asleep on your couch.

‘I'm gunna steal him for the night, if that's okay with him when he wakes up,’ you whispered, Denzel's eyebrow raising so high it made you want to shove him just a little.

‘Fine with me, been a while since I had any alone time,’ he said in a sultry voice even though you'd clearly made your choice, and he looked to his friend before his voice then fell oddly serious. ‘You gunna take care of him for us?’

‘I'm sure as hell gunna try,’ you promised honestly, and he gave you an approving nod before wishing you a good night and leaving, no more quips, no more jokes. You shut and locked the door again, the credits playing on screen as Hector snored away over the arm of the couch, and you nearly shook him awake before you remembered you probably weren't there yet after just one date. ‘Hey, sleepyhead, you wanna head to bed?’

He came back to his senses and looked around, the room so familiar but still so new until he saw you. ‘Sorry, think I missed the ending,’ he yawned, and he really was the cutest person in the whole building. ‘Should I get going so you can sleep?’

‘I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm all free to snuggle some more, if you want?’ You offered it carefully, with him something like that could be moving too fast, but he just blushed and sat up, his hands straightening his outfit and hair in order to look more presentable to you.

‘If you don't mind me running home to shower and grab my pajamas first, I think that can be arranged,’ he agreed like it was no big deal, and when he all but ran home and banged on the door until Denzel let him back in, you just chuckled fondly and got ready for your own shower, the promise of getting to be close to him again making you realize how lucky you were to have found this place.

Maybe Big City Living wasn't so bad after all, you thought as you looked around your small and way too crowded apartment, his leftover lasagna in your fridge and his hand in yours again the moment you reopened the door for him.

#Ray's Readers #Ray's Requests #david dastmalchian #hector premature #hector premature x reader #I gotta stop attempting to tag these rare characters lol #I FORGOT TO TITLE THIS ONE ALL WEEKEND OTL

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moodymisty · 8 months ago

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It's longpost anon, here to drop another novel in your asks! (If this isn't welcome, just say so and I'll stop, no hard feelings!!)

All the Sanguinius content lately had me thinking about him having a daughter.

What spurred this on: I was grocery shopping this morning and there was a mom with her young daughter in front of me checking out. The kid would excitedly tell everyone "Nice to meet you!" when they walked past, and it was the most adorable thing ever. She was just so happy to see people and be out and about.

TMI but I'm at that point in my cycle where I was trying not to cry in public from the cuteness lol. (I've got baby fever, send help 😭) On the drive home, I started thinking about Sangy's daughter meeting all her uncles for the first time, and her trying to shake their giant hands with her tiny little ones and saying "Nice to meet you!" It would be so precious.

Then I started thinking about the mom being too kind for her own good, seeing Konrad lurking at the edge of the room alone and quietly asking him, "Do you want to meet your niece?"

It'd be like all the air got sucked out of the room. Sanguinius would just be tense as a board. Everyone is mentally screaming "Are you crazy?!" at her in their heads.

An aside: I've just read Konrad's primarch book, and while it shows why he is genuinely truly terrifying, there is also so many sad things.. Like how he doesn't hate any of his brothers (except Corax) despite them absolutely loathing him. Despite Fulgrim shattering his trust. Despite Sanguinius basically being the better alternate version of himself. I don't think the average person could be treated the way he was and not hate their family at least a little bit. I feel so badly for him.. I don't think he would hurt one of his brother's offspring pre-heresy. Maybe I'm just deluded though lol.

Anywho-

Everyone is just on edge, ready for Konrad to show even the most microscopic indication of aggression.. But he just kneels down, silently holds his hand out to the girl and she shakes his hand as best she can, giving him a cheery "Nice to meet you!" the same as she did for her other uncles. He just stands up, stares for a moment, and then silently leaves.. (He spends the next 72 hours trying to process the 12 different emotions he got blasted with in that moment.)

Also! Sangy's daughter being weirdly attached to one of the primarchs who is not particularly good at socializing with normies is really funny to picture. Like she gets SUPER hyped anytime she gets to see uncle Guilliman, and nobody knows why because he is honestly kinda boring to talk to. (It's because when she asks him a million questions about mundane things, he genuinely tries to answer every. single. one.)

Fulgrim trying to be the cool fun wine uncle but never being able to truly capture the kid's interest lmao. He's quietly seething like, why does she like paper-pushing Roboute?! (Fulgrim gets his time in the spotlight when she's a little older and gets super interested in art)

And the Blood Angels interacting with her would be so heartmeltingly sweet. Little mini Sanguinius asking for uppies from a captain because she wants to be Really Tall. He's just like, "It would be my honor." and hoists her onto his shoulder.

When the kid is still a toddler, the mom offhandedly asks her guard to hold her daughter for a second while she does something and just kinda shoves the squirmy toddler into his arms despite his protests. He's internally having a meltdown because he is so scared of hurting her accidentally and is still as a statue the entire time. The first time the mom refers to them as the girl's brothers, there would be no going back. Like, "Wave to your brothers!" as they're both watching the Blood Angels train. If it was even possible for them to adore their 'sister' any more, it would happen in that moment.

This is all super fucking cute. Especially the stuff with Konrad. And you are somewhat right; we have to remember that as fucked as Konrad is, he was largely under the impression that he was doing justice and only killing those deserving of it. I doubt he would think Sanguinius’ child was evil, at least at first. He has no reason to hate his child afterall, he never hated any of the Primarchs ‘cept Corvus.

Funny note I first read this while really tired and my brain skipped lines, and at first I thought it was Konrad asking people if they wanted to see their niece XD like he had a secret child. 💀 I’m dumb

#reply #Misty’s book club

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burning-academia-if · 8 months ago

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Do the Ro's drive? And if so what type of car or motorcycle? Bc I see Lars as a motorcycle person for some reason.

Honestly, I don't think I know enough about cars to answer this question lmaO sorry for the ✨vague✨ answers

Rook: He drives, and got his license the second he was able. He probably has a sports car or anything that goes fast. Not the newest model, but something released in the past fiveish years.

Beck: Does not drive. His teen years were too chaotic to have time to learn, and it hasn't exactly been a priority.

Rhea: She does drive, and I think she has a pretty nice car courtesy of well off parents lol. I think it'd be a nice jeep or something similar.

Zoe: Can technically drive, they have their license and everything but they prefer to just bike or use public transport (bus fare is free for students). Doesn't have their own car, so they just borrow their parents when needed

Lars: Him driving a motorcycle is so funny to me. He knows how to ride one, but I actually think he'd find it kind of a pain to use on a day to day basis so he doesn't have one. He probably has some random used car, as long as it functions he doesn't care about much else.

???: Doesn't drive for obvious reasons lol

#em answers #ch: rook #ch: beck #ch: rhea #ch: zoe #ch: lars #ch: ???

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beanibon · 2 years ago

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Hi there. I love everything you've written so far. I was wondering if you could write something about Vash having a romantic partner who struggles with self harm and is worried he'll be disgusted with or loathe all the scars on their body once he sees them. or that he'll start looking at and treating them different cuz of their struggle. Thank you have a nice day.

That's no issue at all, I'd love to write this for you and anyone else who needs just a bit of Vash comforting his s/o.

TW: self-harm, self-harm mentions, scars, depressive thoughts.(lemme know if I've missed anything)

Fluff & Angst

Vash x A Relapsing Self-Harm!Reader

It was a particularly hard day for you, struggling to keep up with what was happening around you, mind mostly wandering. Driving squished in-between your boyfriend, head leaning against the hard technology of his prosthetic, and Wolfwood left a lot of time between towns to think. Not the good kind of thinking.

You had been relapsing for a while, new scars appearing almost each day as the constant travelling was becoming overwhelming. The car was filled with silence 70% of the time, the other either arguing, snoring of one or all of the men crammed in the car, or the nauseating sound of a staticie radio. It drove you insane!

Nails began pinching at the skin where new scars had formed, only stopping when a certain blonde stirred from his peaceful slumber.

Vash yawned, rubbing his eyes as he tiredly smiled at you, enveloping you in an one armed hug. You leaned into the embrace, welcoming his warmth as it ceased most of those ugly thoughts. There was only one that screamed louder than the others, only sounding in affectionate moments like this.

It was officially week 3 since Vash shyly asked you to be his girlfriend, even going as far as presenting a worn book to you in hopes you'd accept. Even without the gift you wouldn't launched into his arms, squeezing the air from him as you hugged his neck in pure joy. There was just one thing that played in the back of your mind, an certain problem you feared may ruin the only bit of happiness you managed to scrape from this planet.

You couldn't stop harming yourself.

The many scars across your body was a constant reminder, you couldn't look at yourself in the mirror anymore, that's how bad your urges had gotten. Since dating Vash you tried to stop, or at least lessen the amount of times you did it. But nothing worked, and you found yourself falling deeper into an endless chasm that you couldn't be pulled from.

"You feeling okay, Mayfly?" Vash looked at you, concern written across his soft features. He was such a loving boyfriend, caring and compassionate, you truly didn't deserve him.

"Just thinking about the bed we better still be getting," You lied, feeling the guilt already begin to well up inside your gut. "It'd be nice not to wake up with sand all in my clothes for once."

A small laugh was heard from the Humanoid Typhoon before a gentle, loving kiss was placed between your brows, his hand fondly playing with your hair. Such a simple action had seemingly brushed away all of your fears, worries and harmful thoughts, mind filled with the kind person that was Vash. It was refreshing, even as the guilt of using him as a distraction balled in your stomach, as if he were some pain medication to take away the vindictive desires inflicted upon yourself.

"Alright everyone, we're stopping here for the night," Excited at the prospect of a bed made you shove Vash out of the car, only to freeze, blinking as you were met with endless sand. You turned to Meryl, confused. "Sorry Y/N, we weren't able to make it to the next town. It'll only be for the night though, I promise!"

Yet that wasn't what concerned you, what concerned you was the way your skin itched, unsure if you could go another night clean. The very thought ate you up inside, but you didn't know how to stop, how to overcome the voice screaming at you.

So, as everyone set out to make their makeshift camp, you slumped against the other side of the car. Everyone was busy, so it wouldn't hurt to quickly to relieve some of the pain, right?

Taking the small pocket knife from it's compartment, you flicked it out, met with your reflection upon it's blade.

Guilt, regret and worst of all endless pain stared back at you, and before you knew it, the damage was done.

"Y/N?"

Startled you jumped from your spot on the ground, clutching your wrists as you met the shocked eyes of none other than Vash.

Fear swallowed you whole, even as Vash ran forward to seize your hands in his, you flinched out of his grip. All that consumed your mind was how Vash would react to seeing the rest, your arms, legs, body even was covered in scars. Surely he would be disgusted at the sight, loathe your very existence that you weren't some gorgeous, scar-free individual.

"Please, Y/N. Let me see," Vash's voice was so soft, so gentle and reassuring it made you choke out a cry. You refused to believe this was how he chose to react, that secretly he despised you. "Let me help you, Mayfly."

You hesitantly relaxed, allowing Vash to roll your sleeves up, revealing the ugly sight of many self-inflicted scars, yet he didn't bat an eye. Vash grabbed some water, and set to patching up the recent wounds.

You simply watched, letting silent tears fall from your eyes, his hands were so soft. It made fresh tears well up, eyes desperately trying to find some kind of malice behind those stupid yellow shades.

"I don't hate you if that's what you're thinking, I just want to know why?" Vash finished up, hands moving to cup your crying face in his hands. "How long have you been hurting Mayfly?"

The waterworks came immediately, latching onto Vash as if he'd disappear if you didn't. He simply reacted by holding you tightly, arms wrapped around you protectively as you wept. Gentle whispers began reassuring you, soft kisses pressed into the crown of your skull as fingers stroked loving circles in between your shoulder blades.

"I'm sorry... I tried, I really tried to stop, I swear I did." You managed began sobs, wiping at your face to lessen the tears that blurred your vision. "It just hurts too much, the screams don't stop until I give in."

Vash let out a quiet 'shh', that stupid smile on his face as he wiped your tears and nose with his sleeve, ignoring the way you scrunched your face at the action.

"You don't ever have to apologise to me, not now not ever." He squeezed you against him, nuzzling into your hair. "And I promise you Y/N, I'll help you get through this. Just promise me one thing, that you'll come to me first before resorting to this." Vash held the pocket knife in his hand, snapped shut.

"You don't hate me? Think I'm pathetic, disgusting to look at?" Vash's eyes widened, shocked you would think such a thing.

"Of course not! Why would I ever hate you?"

"Because I'm ugly covered in all these scars."

The impact of your words left the Humanoid Typhoon speechless, head shaking as he brought you closer, cradling your head against his shoulder. "You are not ugly, you're beautiful, perfect even! I'm so lucky to have someone as amazing as you are in my life, you make me laugh, your smile lights fireworks in my heart, and the way you kiss me? I'd melt right against those lips of yours!"

A small laugh sounded from you, those words alone lifted a weight from your shoulders. What had you done to deserve someone that radiated sunshine like Vash did?

"Don't even get me started on your ass in those pants," A gentle slap made Vash laugh, bringing you into the best kiss you've experienced. "There's my spitfire, glad to have you back."

You hummed, closing your eyes as you leaned into Vash, who wrapped his coat around your shoulders. Picking you up to tuck you into his sleeping bag, despite having your own.

"Vash?"

"Yes, Mayfly?"

"I promise to come to you first, or at least try to." You promised, determined for his sake.

"That's all I ask of you, I love you my beautiful Mayfly."

"I love you too, Vash."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed Anon and anyone else that needed this. You're all amazing and I hope you all stay safe

#trigun stampede #trigun #vash #vash the stampede #vash x you #vash the stampede x reader #vash x reader

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crushedsweets · 1 year ago

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I know you spoke about how things would "end" for Toby and Nat if O/S ever came together again, but what about Nina and Kate? I figure things would be hard for Kate seeing as she's been there for like a decade.🤔 maybe they will move to NYC idk

did you reference nyc cuz u remembered that one ask... if yes that made me smile. also u guys asking for these sort of 'good' endings remind me of Laundry & Taxes so u guys should go read it..

anyway, it is probably the hardest for kate. she has an 8th grade education, only shreds of humanity, blood on her hands, and no clue where her family is. she can't remember a single address or phone number.

just maybe, and this is difficult for me to imagine, nina could convince her to call a police department. she's been a missing person, not a wanted criminal - her family and friends all assumed she was kidnapped and killed long ago. so maybe she could go in, tell the police her name, have them search a database or two, figure SOMETHING out. go back to her dad. . .make up some story, claim amnesia of the last decade. use this a chance to get her GED and a job. but that's such an unlikely path for kate, i rlly struggle to imagine it...

so, like toby, she'd probably stick around that farm. work with toby.

i could see her asking BEN for one last bit of help, see if he could somehow go through whatever database that could get her SSN and whatnot, so she could get a job on her own . . without having to go home. maybe i should have BEN just create/steal one for Toby... regardless, she'd try to get some sort of stable footing. i could only see her working pretty physical jobs, not customer service or anything like that. maybe a job at a morgue... graveyard shifts and the sort... fitting for her.

in this circumstance, kate would try to stay with toby as long as he'd let her. but if he's with clocky, things would be pretty cramped, and get tense. so maybe she'd go live with jack for a long while... quiet, peaceful, familiar.

if nina and kate were together(or getting there), then i think . .

nina would beg kate to move in with her, stay full time at the apartment. it'd be hard at first, only to get even more difficult. they'd start arguing, kate would leave for days. not because she's angry with nina, but she's scared that if kate cant keep her emotions in check, the O/S syndrome will set right back in and make kate a danger.

but then she'd come back in the middle of the night, climbing into bed with an exhausted nina, pretending nothing bad happened. and then nina would wake up and she'd have to ask why kate left and kate would be like ? isnt it obvious. we were arguing. and ninas like BUT THATS NOT THE POINT and they'd get overwhelmed and have to deal with it again. cuz ninas not letting kate go. and kate doesn't wanna go.

once kate starts getting paychecks, she's terrible at saving. immediately blows it on nina, as thanks for all nina's done. buying her dresses, jewelry, ordering meals, skincare, spending hours going thru the magazines nina has around. nina would ask her to save a bit more, and she would listen, and then realize it's probably more helpful to buy things like groceries, pay bills, etc. but money doesn't hold much meaning to her, she never attributed her terrible life to a lack of money, so she's still quick to throw it away to make nina happy . . but nina would start sitting her down and being like STOP WASTING UR MONEY!!!! . oddly enough kate finds comfort in being told what to do. feels like guidance, in a way? especially because she KNOWS nina does it with love. not so kate does what she wants

and eventually, they'd be able to save to move. regrettably, not to NYC, because that's too expensive for either of them. but somewhere nice... a quiet neighborhood, preferably only a 20-ish minute drive from any fun attraction nina wants to visit. i could see them agreeing on somewhere near a beach(though that'd be far in the future cuz expensive..). the forest was so suffocating to kate, so the openness of the ocean would be a good change of pace

i think kate just wants to lay on a bed with blankets fresh out the dryer.

#creeped #hcs #asks #kate the chaser #ninakate

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random-thought-depository · 1 year ago

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A TV channel in my area plays Star Trek TOS episodes on Saturday night, last week's episode was the one about how the writers were scared of hippies lol.

Anyway, in the episode they go the anvilicious route of making all the plants on that planet incredibly poisonous (and the hippies I guess too technophobic to wave a tricorder over a bush before deciding they want to settle there), but before they found out about that there was a line about the planet having no animals and, wait, even if the biochemistries were compatible, wouldn't a planet with no animals logically be pretty difficult for humans to survive on, especially if the humans are going to go full anprim and live as gatherers?

Obviously getting enough protein might be a problem. And I think there's some vitamin you can only get from animals? You only need tiny amounts of it IIRC, small enough that preindustrial vegetarian Jains were able to get enough from insect contamination in their food, but on a planet with no animals at all that would be a huge problem!

But also, no animals would logically mean no fruit, right? Fruit exist to entice animals to move a plant's seeds around for it. If there's no animals, there's no reason for plants to expend energy on growing them. Plants on a planet with no animals would probably mostly propagate by wind-blown seeds, and have seeds similar to dandelion fluff, small and very light to easily disperse in the wind.

That basically leaves tubers. Which probably would exist; they might be even more useful on a planet where there are no animals to plunder such rich stores of energy (though I guess there'd probably be parasitic fungi and stuff evolved to exploit them). On the other hand, on a planet with no browsers or grazers the main selection pressures driving the evolution of tubers would be winter, drought, and fire, so if "Eden" has a nice climate it might not have a lot of tubers either.

I don't think it'd look nice and pretty and park-like like the planet in the episode either. For one thing, I think, just like it has no fruit, it'd have no flowers except things similar to dandelion puffs; there'd be nothing to pollinate them. With no animals with eyes, there'd be no reason for plants to evolve parts with dramatic color contrast. Its vegetation would be rather visually monotonous, mostly greens and browns. But also, and more importantly in terms of its potential (or lack of thereof) for human habitation, that kind of lush but open park-like landscape is what you get when vegetation is being regularly pruned back by people or animals or fire or some combination of those things. I think a planet with no animals would have very different vegetation growth patterns, more like...

In areas dry enough for burning seasons, I think you might get a fire-adapted ecology where fire does some of what grazers and browsers do on Earth. With no grazers and browsers and the main selection pressure being competition between plants, you'd get a dense tangled profusion of growth and lots of slowly decomposing dead plant material (cause there's no animals to help break it down or prune the leaves before they get a chance to die and fall off, just bacteria and fungi). It'd probably be rather difficult for a human to walk through, a forest choked with a dense profusion of undergrowth and dead stuff; at least there are no thorns, and nothing like poison oak; with no animals there's no selection pressure for thorns or poison. In dry parts of the year, this accumulation of living and dead plant material becomes a tinderbox for wildfires. If a planet like this looks idyllic from orbit, it's cause you arrived in mid-spring/mid-autumn; come in summer/winter, when dry seasons are in full swing, and you would see huge wildfires and skies stained with smoke. The oldest and biggest trees are tough enough to usually survive the burning, but the undergrowth is cleared. After the burn, seeds sprout and saplings grow quickly, competing to take advantage of the cleared ground, quickly filling the forest back up with a tangled profusion of growth and an increasing accumulation of slowly rotting dead material, completing the cycle.

On the other hand, on the same planet, in the places with lots of rain and conditions favorable to evergreen plants, there might be forests of enormous trees with forest floors that are pretty open but rather dark, barren, and muddy, with most light being blocked by a dense cathedral-like canopy far above. They'd smell of mud and rot, as the forest floor has accumulated large amounts of slowly decomposing leaf litter fallen from the canopy far above and has a mostly decomposer-based ecology of fungi and bacteria that slowly feeds on that. This is an ecosystem of trees and rot, and the trees make no fruit, they reproduce by seeds like dandelion fluff, small and very light to float on the wind, and they don't even produce much of that; they live a very long time and reproduce very slowly, partially because they're Cronuses; their dense canopy starves their own offspring of light along with everything else. For all the green lushness of their canopies these forests are low-energy ecosystems, conservative ecosystems, defined by the almost total victory of ancient, mighty incumbents; these are the Cronus forests, the lands of the Cronus trees.

There's very little energy available to humans in these Cronus woods. Some edible mushrooms, maybe; that'd be about it. Very possibly humans simply could not survive here, except perhaps in tiny numbers and by living in almost hermit-like isolation and dispersal. The Cronus forests might be almost as hostile as the Sahara or Antarctica, a place where the likely fate of some unfortunate stranded human explorer would be to die of hunger lying on the roots of some sequoia-size Cronus tree that was ancient when Julius Caesar marched into Gaul, staring up into cathedral-like dense green canopy through which only a dim twilight illumination filters even at mid-day, their nose filled with the reek of mud and rot.

Humans might try to terraform the Cronus forests by opening them, but I think that might be quite difficult for low-tech humans. The obvious efficient strategy for attacking the Cronus trees would be to set fire to them, but fire would be one of the primary natural threats to the Cronus trees, and a strong selection pressure on them, so I expect them to be well-adapted to resist it, with fire-retardant chemicals in their bark, wood, sap, and leaves so they resist ignition, and with their sheer size protecting them. The floors of the Cronus woods would receive almost no direct sunlight and therefore be cool and probably damp, and they would have very little undergrowth; fire would probably not spread easily through such an environment. It might be more effective to set torch to the canopies, but they would be dozens or maybe even hundreds of meters above the ground; quite a climb, on a tree that's probably more-or-less a branchless trunk much of the way up, and you've got to climb back down after setting the tree on fire.

That leaves tediously timbering them one by one. With, say, Medieval technology, this might work! The Cronus trees look mighty and their rule assured, but they are actually quite vulnerable. They are slow. Their defenses are purely passive. They literally could not make a single motion to defend themselves as an enemy attacked them with steel saws and axes. And they reproduce very slowly; if they could be timbered efficiently, it would be easy to destroy them faster than they reproduce. An enemy that can think and move is an outside context problem for them, something that never existed in their environment and therefore something they are totally unprepared for. Humans with steel saws and axes might be very efficient killers of these ancient titans.

But steel axes are pretty high-tech if you think agriculture was a mistake. Without metal tools? Imagine trying to bring down a giant sequoia without metal tools, so the axe is something delicate like obsidian or bone, or it has to be very tediously ground to a blade, or you're basically trying to bring the (big and structurally strong!) tree down by bashing it to a pulp, and big saws are probably impossible. Now imagine having to do that over and over again. Imagine trying to clear a forest that stretches from horizon to horizon that way.

If very low-tech humans can inhabit the Cronus forests at all, I think it might be as, like, highly dispersed small families who move around constantly and rarely meet each other, living on the occasional patch of edible mushrooms or other tid-bit, cause there just isn't enough energy to support anything denser. And even then, they might have to stick to the edge, where other ecozones are accessible, cause, like, would mushrooms even have all the nutrients you need?

I mean, I guess there would be some kind of open woodland areas? I think a planet with no animals would have more forest than a more Earth-like planet with the same climate, cause you've removed a major inhibition on plant growth. Think of how places like highland Scotland used to be forested, but when humans with livestock were added to the mix it became more-or-less an open grassland landscape. I think you'd see a similar effect comparing Plantworld to a version of the same planet that had animals; places that would be marginally viable forest without browsers would be grassland or open woodland with them. But a planet with no animals is probably going to have areas wet enough for plants but too dry for forests, so it'll probably have some grassland equivalents. But...

... Grass in natural prairies often gets pretty tall, doesn't it? And that's with grazers. A grass-equivalent that evolved on a world without grazers would be more selected by competition against other plants. I think no selection by grazing but more selection by competition against other plants might favor more investment in individual stalks. And instead of looking like our grass, these plants would have a cluster of little branches and leaves at the top, for better light interception - and to shade and thus inhibit the growth of any rivals growing near their base!

So, maybe... The experience of walking in a grassland in no animals world is very different from walking through a lawn or even the kind of knee-high or less wild grass I see around the Bay Area. The grass is tall. It's taller than you. The stalks are thick too; finger-thick and hollow; it's more like a forest of young bamboo. It feels more like walking in a cornfield. And it's surprisingly dark. Each stalk has a little crown of small branches and leaves, and together they make a surprisingly dense canopy not far above your head. The effect is claustrophobic and eerie. It has a vibe a little like the Cronus woods. And that's not an accident; these plants are essentially much smaller versions of the Cronus trees; tighter constraints, similar strategy. This place replicates the Cronus woods in miniature. This is the Cronus prairie, the land of the Cronus grass.

This probably doesn't sound like a place you'd like. If it's any consolation, if the Cronus grasses had minds they probably wouldn't like you either. Unlike the Cronus trees, the Cronus grass is small and vulnerable enough to experience you, fast-moving muscles-having thing, as the outside context problem you are on its world. You move through the Cronus grass and break a stalk. What a calamity to that plant! All the energy and resources it poured into building that stalk, all that work, the work of its life, undone in an instant! Now it has no crown to drink the sun, and its luckier neighboring competitors will close over it, and it will die without ever having a chance to scatter its gossamer seeds on the wind. Or maybe it's a different, longer-lived sort of Cronus grass (Cronus grass and Cronus tree aren't species, they're strategies and niches), and in the soil below the base of the stalk, where the long-lived part of the plant lives, there is a tuber, from which it can pull stored energy to regenerate the stalk, but this only prolongs the failure cycle; that energy was supposed to be used to regenerate the stalk after the Cronus prairie burns in the dry season and is reduced to a horizon-to-horizon smoldering plain of bare earth and ash; now its energy stores will be depleted when the fire comes, and afterward it will not be able to keep pace with the growth and regeneration of its neighbors and rivals, and they will close over it and it will die.

Those tubers make the Cronus prairie the best place on this planet for humans to live. Some of the Cronus grasses are annuals and live only one year, dying in the fires of the dry season and leaving only seeds to continue their lineage, but many are long-lived, with root systems that survive the fires, and these all have tubers that store energy to regenerate their stalk after the burn. In the competitive scramble after the burn the advantage offered by such a pre-existing storehouse of caloric wealth is huge, and these plants evolved in the absence of any animals that might raid them. Think of the Cronus prairie as a vast field of turnips and potatoes, with multiple edible plants in every square foot of soil, stretching from horizon to horizon. Here, at last, is something like the promise of Eden; food provided abundantly by nature with no need to work the soil, simply waiting to be dug up, available in such quantity that there would be little motivation for hard toil or war. That is, if you don't mind a monotonous diet of bland and nutrient-poor tubers, every day, every year, almost every meal, from the day you are weaned to the day you die. Low-tech human inhabitants of the Cronus prairie would have plenty of calories, but getting enough protein and other nutrients to stay alive and healthy might be a very hard struggle for them, and they might often suffer from malnutrition.

The abundance of the Cronus prairie would also be fragile. The tuber-growing Cronus grasses are long-lived and reproduce slowly, and digging up the tuber would probably destroy one. All the defenses they use to protect their precious hordes of carbohydrates are against enemies as slow as themselves, bacteria and fungi and specialized "vampire plants" without chlorophyll; they are not evolved to deal with raiders with muscles and eyes who can simply physically dig up the tubers. It would be quite easy for humans to slip into harvesting them faster than they reproduce.

Imagine what life might be like for a low-tech inhabitant of the Cronus prairie, a few hundred or a few thousand years after establishment.

Your staple food is something like turnip soup (the stalks of the Cronus grass furnish the fuel for cooking). No animals in your world have yet developed the ability to breathe on land, but there are things a little like insects you can find in creeks and rivers; they are enough to supply your people with the nutrients you absolutely must get from animals. Your people wean your babies late, because mother's milk is one of the precious few foods available to you that is not Cronus grass tubers and is much more nourishing. You've learned to feed your children small amounts of human feces to establish the gut microbiomes they need to process food. Finding enough food that isn't Cronus grass tubers to get all the nutrients you need is a struggle, but you know if you eat only Cronus grass tubers you will get sick and die slowly. In fact, your people are chronically malnourished and chronically ill, but you live long and most of your children grow up anyway, because your world has few bacteria and viruses capable of infecting humans, so your immune systems don't have to be very strong. In a desperate measure to increase protein consumption, your people have incorporated cannibalism of the deceased into your funeral rituals (your people view the practice as loving and reverential and normal, not desperate; it is done only to people who have already died of natural causes and allows their flesh to still be part of the tribe while their bones are shallowly buried to nourish the Cronus grass). Water bugs and human flesh are the only meats you've ever tasted. It is the beginning of the dry season, and the sky is stained with high-altitude smoke from the vast wildfires already burning hundreds of kilometers to the north. Soon your people must move northwest to the island of barren rock that rises from the Cronus prairie or southwest to the Cronus woods; there is little food in those places, but the fire stops at their boundaries, and to be caught out in the Cronus prairie when the fire walks across it is death.

You know, if you're going with "hippies have an overly romanticized view of nature and therefore don't deal with it well," I think I'd kind of prefer this. Just making the plants on "Eden" super-poisonous is just kind of an arbitrary fuck you, but... "Planet with no animals and sufficient abundance that you can survive as a gatherer without much effort" is totally something I could see as a hippie fantasy; no need for hard toil or alienating technology, little temptation toward war, no dangerous animals that might hurt you, and no temptation toward carnivory. But it's an ecologically incoherent fantasy! You are also an animal! A world with no place for animals has no place for you! It will probably not be an easy world for you to survive on! Of course, it'd be difficult to portray this in a one hour TV episode; would probably work a lot better with a novel.

Also, you could flip this around: if you think about it, it's actually really weird that a planet with no animals has fruit (even super-poisonous fruit). Maybe it's not a natural wilderness. Maybe it's somebody's food forest.

Suggestion: "Eden" is actually a heavily gardened world maintained by one of those state-repelling cultures James C. Scott talks about. Its inhabitants are not humanoid and have totally different biochemistry from us, so the local food's perfectly edible, palatable, and nourishing to them. They mostly live as gatherers at a low level technology, doing the sort of proto-agricultural ecosystem engineering lots of hunter-gatherers do on Earth. They maintain just enough technology to tell them when a starship is dropping by. When that happens, they crawl into little hidey-holes and go into a deep hibernation, which makes starship sensors not register them as alive. They come out of hibernation a few days later or something, which is usually enough time for visitors with more galactic-normal biochemistry to realize the plants on the planet are poisonous to them, lose interest in it, and leave.

Something something people who reject the value system of settler colonial society but don't reject the terra nullius myth.

Also, I might use these ideas for a planet in my own sci fi, cause it has a premise that easily lends itself to such a scenario happening somewhere in it.

#Star Trek #writing ideas #speculative biology #cw: gross #cw: cannibalism

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