#I’m glad i was able to share my silly comics with you guys | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

commentaryvorg · 3 years

Text

Digimon Data Squad Dub Comparison Episode 1 - There Are Monsters Among Us!

This is a companion to my commentary on the original Japanese Digimon Savers! Reading my commentary on the original version of this episode (which you can find here) is recommended before reading this dub comparison.

Original name ~ Dubbed name

Masaru Daimon ~ Marcus Damon

Yoshino Fujieda ~ Yoshino “Yoshi” Fujieda

Captain Rentarou Satsuma ~ Commander Richard Sampson

[Since several characters share the same name between the original and the dub, quotes from the dub will always be in italics, while quotes from the original will not, in order to distinguish them.]

First off, can we talk about the characters’ dub names? The dub doesn’t actively draw attention to its setting much (but then again neither does the original, really), but it also does not change the fact that this is taking place in Japan and these characters are actually Japanese, despite that we’re hearing them speak English. Some of them keep their Japanese names, too, even if maybe they have slight shortenings of them to be easier for a Western audience to remember. But then some characters’ names are randomly changed to completely English ones, even though these characters are apparently still meant to be Japanese and living in Japan. It’s just strange – if they’re okay with keeping some of the Japanese names, why not keep all of them?

(Honestly, despite my complaints, I am kind of a little glad that they changed Masaru’s name in the dub, because Marcus comes across somewhat of a different character to Masaru for reasons I will be discussing at length. In that sense, it’s convenient to have different names to differentiate them by.)

Kudamon: “He’s a renegade to begin with. We have no choice but to dispose of him.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “The target is a renegade. We must catch him before he gets out.”

This is actually more reasonable than what Kudamon says here in the original.

Satsuma: “The only ones who can keep Digimon under control… are Digimon!”

~~~~~

Sampson: “Only a high-level DATS agent can capture a Digimon.”

The original version of this line was already awkwardly expositiony, sure, but this one just doesn’t make as much sense. The point is not that Yoshi is a high level DATS agent, but that she has a Digimon partner.

The dub completely replaces the original’s soundtrack. I did a shoutout to the BGM here in the original, and I also want to do a BGM shoutout here in the dub! This piece here is very different sounding from Provocation Infinity but still gives a similar sort of actiony gung-ho feel appropriate for Marcus and Agumon being fighty dorks, and I like it. It’s used often enough in moments like this such that it’s the only dub theme aside from the evolution theme that I’ve become able to pick out and recognise the melody of, even though this is only my second time watching the dub. Though I don’t know what the dub soundtrack’s titles are (actually, after having a look, it seems like the dub OST was never released, so nobody does), I like to think that this one is probably Marcus’s theme based on the moments its used in, so I’m going to be calling it Probably Marcus’s Theme.

Marcus: “This is my training ground!”

This park is apparently specifically his “training ground”, even though it’s just an ordinary park that anyone can visit. Um, okay? (More on this at the end of this episode.)

Masaru: “I’m the number one street fighter in Japan, Daimon Masaru-sama!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “One day, I’m gonna be a champion ultimate fighter!”

They’ve changed “street fighter” to “ultimate fighter”, which, okay, makes him come across a bit less like a delinquent, fair enough. But a noteworthy difference is that he’s only trying to be the best ultimate fighter. Masaru, on the other hand, feels like he already is Japan’s number one street fighter. This change still sounds fine and in-character enough on the surface, but it’s a meaningful distinction that will become quite relevant further in as we get more into Masaru’s character, so keep this in mind.

Marcus: “Fans all over will chant my name! They’ll say, ‘Marcus Damon is the best!’”

I get that what the dubbers are going for here is something equivalent in spirit to Masaru using -sama on himself. But there’s other, simpler ways to do that – just have him call himself “the great Marcus Damon”, or something like that.

As it is, what they’ve done here is make it seem like, apparently, Marcus has fans, or at least he wants to have fans. Which is not even remotely the point of his fighting thing in the original, nor will it be in the dub, either. He’s not doing this for recognition from others; this is something he’s doing entirely for himself.

Yoshi: “Raptor-1 can talk…?”

This was not a thing implied in the original – that apparently, Yoshi (and presumably therefore everyone else at DATS) hadn’t even heard Agumon talk until now. I guess they’re going for giving more of an explanation as to why DATS treated him like a monster, but I find it difficult to buy that Agumon really wouldn’t have said at least some stuff while trapped at DATS HQ. (“I’m hungry,” if nothing else, right?)

Lalamon: “Yoshi, he’ll destroy the human!”

Oh, boy. This is one of those English dubs that refuses to directly acknowledge the concept of death because apparently the poor kiddies can’t handle that or something. I will attempt to not rag on it every time it does so – only because that’d get really boringly repetitive – but I will be talking about it a lot in future episodes when death becomes quite a story-important thing that is happening.

For now, let’s just point out that it sounds really silly to talk like a human can be “destroyed”. There’s plenty of other ways to get across that Agumon is dangerous without directly referencing death that would sound more natural.

Marcus: “Then I’ll knock you out like I did these guys!”

Masaru did not mention the fact that he was responsible for beating up all the dudes this early on. I guess here in the dub, Yoshi just isn’t paying proper attention, because she’s going to continue to assume it was Agumon who hurt all the students.

Kudamon: “He’s too dangerous.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “We cannot let this escalate.”

I am sad that the dub lost the fun “who’s too dangerous?” double meaning of Kudamon’s original line.

Yoshino: “Hey, you! Get away from him! You’ll only lose if you fight him!”

Masaru: “Huh? This isn’t about win or lose! This is about fighting man-to-man!”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “You can’t fight that creature! He’s too dangerous!”

Marcus: “Huh? Look, toots, I’m the dangerous fighter here! And I don’t need any babysitter to hold my hand!”

We really, really did not need Marcus being vaguely misogynistic by calling Yoshi “toots”, or by implying that she’s nothing but a babysitter. We really didn’t.

This also replaces Masaru’s original line that has that fun aspect of him not even caring about winning and just wanting to have a good challenging fight with a worthy opponent, so we lose that, too.

(Though, ignoring the misogyny, I do enjoy Marcus responding to “he’s too dangerous!” with “hey, I’m dangerous”.)

Agumon: “Yeah! It’s man-to-man!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “That’s right! This is between him and me!”

Agumon then also isn’t able to agree about this being man-to-man, and this just becomes a less interestingly nuanced “stay out of our fight”, rather than really about the kind of fight they want to have.

Masaru: “Got it? Now stay out of this!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “This is a fight between men, so stay out of it!”

Having removed Masaru’s reference to men a few lines earlier, the dub does something which is going to be extremely rare by its standards and actually adds in a reference to men here. …Unfortunately, because they’d also added in Marcus’s random misogynistic lines earlier, this comes across much more like it’s about gender, and he’s just essentially saying “we don’t want any girls in our fight”. Which, no. Masaru talking about manliness is never actually that much about gender at all, despite the word he uses.

Masaru: “I see you’re pretty brave.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “I dunno what you are, but you’re goin’ down!”

We lose the sense of Masaru having respect for Agumon challenging him in place of some basic I’m-better-than-you trash talk. And this also adds in Marcus calling Agumon a what, rather than a who, indicating that apparently Marcus is paying some attention to Agumon’s species and is seeing him, at least a little, as not quite worthy of the same respect as a human.

After their big cross-counter…

Agumon: “I wasn’t ready. But you won’t get me this time!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Hey! I wasn’t ready! I was waitin’ for you to say, ‘One, two, three, go!’”

The dubbers completely missed the point of the original, “I wasn’t ready.” Original-Agumon’s line comes across as “I wasn’t expecting you to be that strong, but now I’ve got the measure of you”, like he’s gained more respect for Masaru’s strength. Meanwhile dub-Agumon is just whining and acting like Marcus totally cheated rather than acknowledging his unexpected strength.

Agumon kicking Marcus in the crotch is cut, replaced with a rather cheesy-looking comic book POW sort of effect across the whole screen.

There’s a cute acoustic guitar BGM here for their bonding moment that I like, especially after recognising its melody and realising that this is a variation on Probably Marcus’s Theme! That seems very appropriate.

Agumon: “You’re… pretty good… for a human.”

Geez, what a backhanded compliment. Apparently dub-Agumon still sees Marcus as below him simply because he’s human, rather than fully acknowledging his strength regardless of species.

Agumon: “Let’s call it a draw.”

This line fills a silence, stating something that was already perfectly well implied in the first place by the fact that they’re no longer fighting and yet there’s no clear winner. It shouldn’t need to be said. In fact, it makes it seem a lot more like this fight really was just about winning or losing to both of them, when in the original that was never the point.

Rather than “Aniki”, which, okay, works fine in subs but can’t really be kept in a proper official English dub, Agumon calls Marcus “Boss”. I guess this is acceptable, but I feel like it would have been better for them to lean into the “big brother” meaning of aniki, rather than the “boss” one, for reasons I will be grumbling about a lot.

Masaru: “Aniki?”

Agumon: “Yeah. You’re the first person to acknowledge me as a full-fledged individual, Aniki.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Boss?”

Agumon: “Yeah. Y’see, you’re the only guy who’s ever matched me blow-for-blow in a fight before.”

So, in this version, Agumon gaining respect for Marcus has absolutely nothing to do with Marcus treating him like a person. It’s just because of his strength, nothing else. Way to lose that really fun little bit of nuance and character depth on both sides.

(Also, what does Agumon even mean, “before”? It’s not like he’d have been able to have proper fights that weren’t just defending himself while trying to escape until now.)

Agumon: “That’s why, from now on, I’ll be your follower!”

~~~~~

Agumon: “That makes you the boss. From now on, you give the orders and I’ll faithfully follow!”

Matching Agumon in a fight shouldn’t really suddenly make Marcus the boss who gets to order him around, should it? Plus, here’s Agumon explicitly saying Marcus can give him orders, which was not at all part of the arrangement originally. This whole thing has such a different tone to “you treated me like a person when nobody else did, so now I look up to you and will be loyal to you.”

Marcus: “I never thought one day that I’d have an employee that’s as funny-lookin’ as you are.”

Oh, boy. Meanwhile, instead of “follower”, we have… employee. That is even more completely missing the point of the aniki-and-follower relationship of the original. If they didn’t like the gang connotations of “boss”, maybe they should have gone for “big bro” instead, perhaps? But no, they just doubled down on the “boss” in a totally different and inappropriate direction. Marcus has apparently just started up a small business.

The heartwarming BGM gets a record scratch as Yoshi reminds them she’s still there. I admit, it made me chuckle.

Yoshi: “So, are you gonna come quietly, or do I have to use force?”

Marcus: “Who’s she talkin’ to, you or me?”

I do enjoy this – a little implication that Marcus has some experience with being treated in a similar way, perhaps by the regular police.

Masaru: “It’s the aniki’s job to look after his follower. I’m not handing him over to you!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “I’ve never had an employee before, and I’m not turning my only one over to you!”

Instead of Masaru doing this out of feeling like it’s an aniki’s responsibility, Marcus is making it about himself. He doesn’t want to lose his new and only employee. Like Agumon’s just a possession of his now. Nothing about how this is something that should be expected of him as a boss.

Later, at the tower, as Agumon asks Marcus to help him evade DATS:

Marcus: “What am I getting myself into this time?”

I enjoy this too. More implications that Marcus is used to getting himself into all sorts of Trouble.

Agumon: “I’m starved!”

Marcus: “Well, suck it up and act like a real man!”

Again with the dub adding in references to manliness that weren’t there originally, as if Marcus actually has a concept of manliness that will continue to be a running theme. Haha, I wish. Get ready for me complaining about the exact opposite of this in basically every other dub episode.

Agumon: “I’m a growing boy!”

How does Agumon even know this phrase? This is an entirely human concept. Dub Agumon will be doing a lot of this, awkwardly invoking human ideas that he shouldn’t have any conception of.

Yoshi: “Yum. I love chocolate pudding – it reminds me of being a little kid again!”

Yoshino’s coffee jelly gets localised into chocolate pudding, because I guess coffee jelly is more of a Japanese thing that Westerners might be unfamiliar with? I enjoy the added detail that it reminds her of being a kid and that’s why she likes it.

Masaru: “I don’t know anyone by that name!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “I have no idea who this ‘Raptor-1’ is!”

Marcus’s line loses the technically-not-lying and respecting-Agumon’s-identity of the original line. He does know who this “Raptor-1” that Yoshi’s talking about is, even if that isn’t actually his name.

Masaru: “How’d you know my name?”

Yoshino: “You yelled it out earlier for everyone to hear.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “How do you know my name, anyway?”

Yoshi: “I know everything about you.”

No pointing out that he yelled it out earlier like a huge dork. Instead, she just really leans into the DATS-are-creepily-authoritative vibe that she already had a little of in the original.

Yoshi: “Born April 2nd in Tokyo, blood type B, Ootori middle school eighth grade.”

Him being born in Tokyo was not a detail mentioned in the original. And also probably not true in the original, since the series is set in Yokohama and there’s no indication that his family moved here. The dub is presumably still set in Yokohama even though it’s never mentioned, just because the scenery is that of Yokohama, so I guess they’ve just established some dub-only canon that the Damon family moved home at some point. This will actually come up briefly later. I am shocked that I’m saying this.

At least, props to the dub for mentioning Tokyo and making it pretty overt that, yes, this is set in Japan. (You know, with this Japanese guy called Marcus.)

Yoshi also does not explicitly specify Marcus’s age, only that he’s in eighth grade. Which (I’m pretty sure, though I’m unfamiliar with American school grades and may be wrong) would make him fourteen anyway, at least assuming he hasn’t been held back at any point. Keep this in mind, because this will also come up later.

Yoshi: “…and you now live with your mother Sarah and your little sister Kristy, who looks up to you even though you generally act like a jerk.”

First of all, how the hell does DATS have so much information that they even know how his sister feels about him?

Second of all, more importantly, way to just tell us that, hey, did you know, Marcus is A Jerk, hey, guys, you’re supposed to think he’s a jerk, because… he fights things, I guess?

The reality? Masaru is not a jerk. Not even slightly. He’s reckless and hot-headed and will fight anything that poses a challenge, but that is not even remotely the same thing as being a jerk to people.

But apparently the dub doesn’t understand this, and they seem to think that being a jerk is somehow meant to be one of his most noticeable character traits. And I guess they’re trying to present the idea that he’s going to slowly grow into being a nicer person through the power of Digimon and friendship? Which is not at all any kind of arc that Masaru is going to have, because he is not actually a jerk in the first place.

If it was just this one line that seemed to think this, I wouldn’t be that annoyed. But one of the biggest things I’m going to be complaining about with the dub is the fact that they actually do change Marcus’s character significantly to make him noticeably more of a jerk than Masaru ever was. We’ve already seen a little bit of this sort of thing going on so far in this episode, with how they’ve removed focus from the bits with Masaru treating Agumon like a person and instead made it all about fighting, and specifically winning those fights. But, oh boy, there’s going to be a lot more, to an extent that it has to be deliberate.

And aside from me just finding this very frustrating as someone who deeply loves Masaru’s character to see him distorted like this, I also can’t help but boggle at why they would ever want to do this at all. Why would you deliberately adapt a character – the main character – to be less likeable than in the original version of the work? How does it not occur to you that this is only going to make your new audience enjoy the work less? I do not get it.

Lines like this one here are even worse, because they blatantly violate “show don’t tell”. Along with making Marcus act like a jerk and showing us that, the dub’s narrative is also telling us that he’s a jerk and insisting we should think that about him instead of letting us make up our own minds. It’s so lazy and heavy-handed. There will be more like this and I do not like it one bit.

Yoshi: “I’m with the Digimon Data Squad.”

I guess the Data Squad really is its full name in the dub. Even though the acronym is still DATS. Don’t ask me how that’s meant to work.

Marcus: “That’s a great story, dollface, but what’s it gotta do with me?”

Can we not with the Marcus being casually misogynistic? Can we not? (Thankfully, this isn’t going to be a recurring thing. Other ways in which Marcus is being made less likeable will be, but at least not this.)

Marcus does not say anything about assuming Agumon was just a frog. Since Masaru having thought that is going to be relevant again later in the series, this is a loss of not just a moment of amusing dorkiness but something actually meaningful.

(One thing that is very clear about the dub is that, with a few exceptions, they do not appear to have watched ahead to see the whole series first and are just dubbing episode-by-episode. For a series like this with quite a strong overarching plot and lots of little things like this that get callbacks, that means that a lot of this overarching sense of cohesiveness will be lost, simply by accident, because they didn’t realise there was something important there worth keeping around. This is another thing I will be talking about a lot.)

Yoshino: “As long as you keep running from DATS, Raptor-1 will only starve to death.”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “If you don’t return Raptor-1 to us, he’ll starve to death!”

This is a little different. Yoshino was only trying to get Masaru to come to DATS, supposedly to pick up some Digimon food. Yoshi, meanwhile, wants Marcus to bring Agumon to DATS. Which on the one hand is a more helpful strategy for what she’s trying to achieve. But on the other hand, he doesn’t bring Agumon, because obviously the dub can’t change the episode that much, so instead we’re just left with that awkwardly not being what happens despite it being brought up.

Yoshino: “You…”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “Thank you.”

The hint that Yoshino is gaining a new respect for Masaru from his desire to help Agumon gets lost here, in favour of simply a thanks-for-finally-co-operating. Might partly be just lip-flap’s fault – the Japanese “you” is two syllables – but still, Yoshi’s tone of voice could at least have done some of the work to imply the same as the original, and it doesn’t really.

Kudamon: “This is the boy that put Raptor-1 under control? He doesn’t appear to have any special power, at any rate.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “Interesting that this is the boy who fought Raptor-1, because nothing about him indicates that he’s able to fight at that level.”

We lose any implication that Satsuma might have been telling Kudamon things about Masaru offscreen, and instead here’s dub-Kudamon simply refusing to believe the evidence of his own eyes. You literally watched him fight Agumon on your screen. He very evidently can fight at that level.

Kamemon: “Enjoy.”

Marcus: “I’m not thirsty.”

Kamemon: “Suit yourself.”

Kamemon actually says words in the dub as he brings Marcus tea! This was very bizarre to me when I’m used to original-Kamemon, who almost never speaks at all.

Masaru: “Just hand over what I came for.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Just say what ya have to say and stop wasting my time!”

Apparently the dub has forgotten that Marcus only came here to pick up Digimon food for Agumon, and suddenly he expects to be receiving a speech here when he shouldn’t.

Masaru: “Renegades?”

Kudamon: “Yes. Raptor-1 has already entered the human world and injured humans. He cannot be allowed to go free.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Why are you calling him a renegade?”

Kudamon: “Because Raptor-1 has already entered the human world and made contact with human beings, so he can no longer be allowed to go free.”

I would complain that it’s a bit much that Agumon’s getting in so much trouble simply for meeting humans in the dub, and not specifically injuring them like they were assuming in the original. But, as it turns out, the original is also going to call Digimon simply meeting humans a “crime” in the next episode, possibly as part of its early weirdness. So, eh, this isn’t really the dub being any sillier than the original here.

Satsuma: “Daimon Masaru, you should work with us to create a bright future for both humans and Digimon!”

~~~~~

Sampson: “Please co-operate. The future relationship between humans and Digimon depends on you returning Raptor-1 to us.”

Also, apparently Sampson isn’t actually trying to recruit Masaru to join DATS with this speech. I can understand the logic behind changing that, since Satsuma was going about that whole thing weirdly vaguely.

That said, saying that the entire relationship between the two species hinges on this one Digimon being returned doesn’t make any sense. So I get the feeling that the implication of what Satsuma really wanted in the original line just went completely over the dubbers’ heads, and they simply thought they were translating his intent directly and made it sound rather silly as a result.

Masaru: “What the hell is this? Stop pestering without even listening to what I have to say first!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Why not? Because I don’t owe you people a single thing!”

We lose the fun subtle Masaru-y nuance of him caring about being given a chance to express how he feels here. Though I suppose it’s also relevant and illustrative that Marcus is implying he would help them if he felt like he owed them, showing a sense of responsibility there.

Masaru: “…but have you even considered why he suddenly showed up in this world? He admired this place! He admired this wide world, filled with things moving around that he’d never seen before.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Have you thought about why he came to the human world in the first place? What if he didn’t have a choice? Maybe things were bad for him back in the Digital World!”

This would be Marcus being sweet and thinking about how Agumon feels… if it wasn’t for the fact that Agumon told him he doesn’t know about anything except the institution, and therefore clearly didn’t deliberately try and run away from something bad in the Digital World. Pay attention to your foll – uh, employee, Marcus. Masaru’s line there had somewhat forgotten or misinterpreted what Agumon had told him, but Marcus’s is doing so to a much greater extent.

Masaru: “But if he starts rampaging, then I’ll be responsible.”

~~~~~

Marcus: “And if he gets into any sort of trouble, I’ll claim full responsibility for his actions.”

This sounds like a perfectly reasonable translation, but the dub version of the sentence does not work nearly as well to foreshadow the thing that the original line is foreshadowing and this makes me sad.

Marcus: “But only if you give me some food for him!”

…This is immediately following the previous line. So I guess, since they never give him any food, Marcus doesn’t end up obligated to take any responsibility for Agumon getting into trouble. (Even though that’s still what he is going to do when they think Agumon’s attacking the hamburger shop. But this makes him come across like someone who’s less willing to do so no matter what and has less of a strong sense of responsibility.)

Kudamon: “It looks like you’ll have to take responsibility sooner than you thought.”

~~~~~

Kudamon: “Do you now see how hiding him has created a security breach for all of us?”

This change makes a fair amount of sense, since original-Kudamon was being unreasonable by insisting Masaru should take responsibility for Agumon’s hunger when that was really Yoshino’s fault. And it also fits with the fact that Marcus never actually promised to take responsibility since he wasn’t given any food.

Yoshino: “So this is where you were hiding him. Since he’s nowhere to be seen, it must be him who attacked the hamburger shop.”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “So this is where you were hiding Raptor-1. A lot of good it did you, since we confirmed it was definitely him who attacked the hamburger stand.”

No, you didn’t! How did you confirm a thing that isn’t true? If this is Yoshi lying, that’s just a dick move; she doesn’t even have anything to gain from it. It feels more like this was the dubbers not paying attention and missing the original’s meaning, which is very obviously that Yoshino was assuming based simply on the fact that Agumon went missing. But he didn’t actually attack the hamburger stand! Did they not even watch ahead to the rest of this episode to realise that?

Marcus: “Why’d you attack a hamburger stand?”

Marcus asks this of Agumon after finding him with his head dorkily stuck in a trashcan, not really all that close to the explosions and flames. Way to jump to freaking conclusions after basically just finding proof that Agumon isn’t the culprit, geez! …Though I suppose that can be partly blamed on Yoshi inexplicably insisting he definitely was.

Agumon: “Huh? I didn’t attack anything, but a hamburger sure sounds good!”

Agumon should not know what a hamburger is. Again with his dub version knowing more human things than he should.

Kudamon: “He hasn’t been tamed. I don’t understand why he’s fighting alongside human beings.”

This just makes no sense. What the hell does “tamed” even mean? Doesn’t it just mean “has become willing to work with humans”? Because if so, he evidently has been tamed, actually. Just sounds frustratingly like Kudamon trying to insist he Knows Better than this nobody kid, and I don’t think that’s meant to be his character.

Agumon: “Aniki! He’s really strong…!”

Masaru: “Doesn’t that just fire you up!?”

Agumon: “Y… yeah!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “No! Agumon!”

Agumon: “Boss! I’m fine, but could you lend a hand?”

Marcus: “Ha! How about I lend a couple of fists!?”

The dub’s version of this exchange is kinda still cute, but it loses that fun nuance that Masaru loves how strong their opponent is, and that Agumon is learning to agree with that idea thanks to him.

Yoshi: “That thing will tear you to pieces!”

See, here’s a way to avoid directly using the word “die” or “kill” while still making it clear that’s what she’s referring to, without awkwardly acting like humans can be “destroyed”.

Masaru: “When you’re in a man’s fight, you’re already risking your life! The moment you get scared of dying is the moment you’ve lost the fight!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “Besides, the ultimate fighter is always willing to make the ultimate sacrifice!”

This significantly changes the meaning here, and instead Marcus is apparently consciously willing to get himself killed if necessary, even though the kinds of fights he’s been in before really aren’t something that’s actually worth dying for at all. Masaru’s philosophy of acknowledging but then choosing to brush aside the potential risk in order to fight better makes more sense, because he’s not actually intending to die for anything.

The dub’s changed version of this line will also not work for the callback that the original line is going to get later in the series. I’d talk a lot more about why not, but, spoilers, so I’ll save that for then.

There’s a brief snippet of music here during the Anime Sads that appears to be a sad piano variation of Probably Marcus’s Theme, which feels appropriate. I don’t remember it from my one previous dub watch-through, but I hope it gets used in some of the future much more substantial moments of Marcus being sad about things.

Masaru: “You… How dare you hurt my follower!”

~~~~~

Marcus: “It’s… It’s fightin’ time!”

We also lose another future callback here. But on the other hand, “it’s fightin’ time!” is going to become Marcus’s catchphrase that he uses basically every time he fights (a dub-only catchphrase that Masaru has no equivalent of, and that I’m really pretty happy with), and this moment when he’s avenging Agumon getting hurt is definitely an appropriate moment for it to start being a thing.

The dub’s term for Digisoul is, instead, DNA. Luckily for the biologist in me, who would otherwise be tearing my hair out over this, this stands for something entirely different from deoxyribonucleic acid, because boy would it being that kind of DNA make absolutely zero sense. It’s still pretty awkward that it happens to be the same acronym as a commonly-known thing that it could easily be mistaken for, mind you.

I don’t know why they couldn’t just keep the term Digisoul, though. It’s a perfectly good term! It can’t even be that the dubbers have some kind of oh-no-religious-references objection to using the word “soul”, because that word is also in the dub’s opening song that we’ll be hearing every episode.

Old man: “By mastering this technique, your Digimon can Digivolve.”

Um, sure. The technique of waving your glowing hand over the Digivice is definitely something that needs to be “mastered”.

Marcus also yells “DNA Charge!” out of nowhere for the first time. But in his case, the old man never actually mentioned the word “charge” when telling him what to do here, so it’s even less clear how he knew that was what he was supposed to say.

Alas, the English dub does not dub the original evolution songs in Digimon. The evolution music instead is an instrumental version of the dub’s opening song, which, though I prefer Believer, is an acceptable replacement in terms of creating a similarly triumphant mood.

Marcus: “That’ll teach ya! Don’t mess with my employee!”

Oh my god, wow, way to completely unintentionally mood-whiplash the triumphant moment by reminding us that this huge powerful dinosaur is actually just your subordinate in the new small business you’ve set up here, Marcus. A small business of punching everything.

Agumon: “Aniki! I’m hungry!”

Masaru: “What the hell… That’s so anti-climactic…”

~~~~~

Agumon: “Boss! I’m hungry.”

Marcus: “What else is new? I’m just glad you’re safe.”

This addition is cute. Originally Masaru’s just referring to the anticlimax of Agumon devolving so fast.

Masaru: “How about going for a hamburger?”

Agumon: “Does that taste good?”

~~~~~

Marcus: “How about a nice hamburger?”

Agumon: “Ooh! With cheese, too?”

On the one hand, at least the dub remembered the fact that this Agumon somehow already knows what a hamburger is. On the other, this raises even more questions in terms of how he also knows that they can come with cheese.

Yoshino: “But that one’s already injured 13 students!”

~~~~~

Yoshi: “But Agumon still injured fifteen men!”

Remember how the original tried to calculate fifteen minus one and got thirteen? Well, the dub tried it and got fifteen. Somehow each of them managed to get this very simple sum wrong in a different way.

(And yes, the dub did also specifically have Lalamon sense fifteen humans at the park in the beginning. Actually, it flashes back here to a part where Yoshi was then relaying to HQ that there are fifteen victims, but that was before she saw that Marcus was still standing. I guess it’s plausible to assume that Yoshi herself forgot to subtract Marcus after that and this is her mistake rather than the writers. Not convinced that’s the case, though.)

Also, told you the dub would forget about the part in the beginning where Marcus yelled out within Yoshi’s earshot that he beat up the dudes.

Marcus: “Those were some punks claiming to be ultimate fighters who wanted to train in my area, so I fought them for it, and guess what, I won!”

This begs the question: how the hell is that park supposed to be Marcus’s training ground? Surely, it’d make most sense as a training ground if it was where people regularly come to challenge him to fights? Instead, he only fought the dudes there because he wanted to drive them away from his training ground, so that he can continue to train there, alone, in a perfectly ordinary park that isn’t a gym or anything like that. How is he supposed to train there without opponents? Does he just, like… punch the trees?

I understand if the dub wants to make Marcus have slightly less of a teenage delinquent vibe, but the resulting implications they have here instead are just amusingly nonsensical. It does not seem like they actually thought about this very hard at all.

Overall differences

Overall, the dub of this episode shows a pattern of things generally making a bit less sense and having a bit less nuance, and Marcus in particular being just a bit less interesting and distinctive than Masaru. This is going to be such a regular pattern for every single dub episode that I probably won’t even bother to remark on it in most of these summaries going forward.

In terms of more specific effect on how this episode comes across, I think the most noticeable shift is that the sense of Marcus’s empathy towards Agumon despite his species is watered down slightly. Perhaps most notably, Agumon did not become loyal to Marcus because Marcus treated him like a person, but instead just because he matched him in a fight, which is less meaningful.

The terms “boss” and “employee” also give something of a different vibe to their relationship than in the original. Obviously the dub had to localise “aniki” to something, but I don’t think this was the best choice. This’ll be a thing in every episode, of course, but I’m bringing it up here because this is where it starts.

Then there’s the part where one of Yoshi’s lines casually established that Agumon had never spoken before. As much as this doesn’t make any sense to be a thing – why would he not have spoken while being held in DATS? – I guess it makes it slightly more reasonable that DATS then sees him as just a monster? Though they should also be changing their tune quite quickly when they realise he can speak, which of course they don’t. I guess this could have been an attempt to justify the original’s issues with DATS’s attitude towards Agumon… but not a very effective one.

#digimon #digimon savers #digimon data squad

12 notes · View notes

ptergwen · 4 years

Text

truth serum

a/n: ok ok ok i've had to post this four times now because it won’t show up in tags for some reason? i’m so :/ tumblr pls stop setting me up bruh. but moving on here’s a summary of the original request and i hope ya like

warnings: little bit of cursing here and there

when tom asked if you‘d be interested in going to a comic con with him, there was only one answer: yes. you‘ll take every chance you get to see him in his element. you’re looking forward to checking out some of the cool exhibits they’ll have — and people. comic con is a safe space for all your nerdiness. so really, both of you will be in your element that day.

the only thing you’re uneasy about is tom’s fans. you have no idea how they’ll react to seeing you by his side for hours on end. paparazzi caught you together once or twice, but you couldn’t tell much from their blurry pictures. that didn’t stop everyone from talking.

you’ve been named his new “mystery girl,” and tom still hasn’t adressed the whole situation. no matter how much he loves his fans, he’s not willing to spill every single detail of his personal life. spending time with his girlfriend doesn’t need some big explanation to please the public.

this is the first time you know for sure that you’ll be seen with him. comic cons are huge, and somebody always has their phone out at these things. you don’t want the fans to end up hating you for being there, or tom for bringing you. the way he sees it, they should just be happy he’s happy. anyone who isn’t never truly cared in the first place.

tom usually arrives early to go over his schedule and any last minute details. this time, he’s sleeping in a few hours extra with you. no one knows better than him that all day events can be draining. he wants you well rested and feeling good for it. since people are already at the venue, you’re using a different entrance to avoid getting mobbed.

“stay close, okay? i’m not sure what it’s like in there yet. might be a few people by the door, or a crowd.” you’re walking hand in hand with tom through the back lot. he feels you tense up next to him at the mention of a crowd. they overwhelm the hell out of you, and you’re suddenly feeling way underprepared for this.

“but we’re going in through the back. how are they gonna know that?” you grip his hand tighter without realizing. tom half smirks at your question and leads you over to the door. “my fans figure everything out... almost everything. you ready?”

shrugging your shoulders, you lean into his side for comfort. “sort of. i’m just getting nervous about being around so many people.” “i know, baby. not gonna lie, it’s pretty scary at first. but i’ll be with you the whole time.” he presses a quick kiss to the side of your head. you do feel better knowing he won’t leave you alone when you get inside.

“just try turning your nerves into excitement. it works for me every time. “i’ll do my best. i guess we can go in for real now.” tom’s thumb brushes over yours reassuringly, looking at you once more for any signs of doubt before he opens the door.

only a couple of fans notice tom is there, so it’s not as hectic as you thought it would be. he waves to them and says hi, a smile lighting up his face. you chew your lip nervously and let him take you to where he needs to be. obviously, you get a few stares. some pointing, some whispering. they’re all things that come with being pressed into tom holland in front of thousands of people.

tom brings you over to the check in area and gives both of your names. a woman with a headset on hands him two ID cards. he thanks her before pulling you aside so you two can have a moment of privacy.

“how is it so far? feeling okay?” his voice is soft unlike the yelling around you, which is nice. tom slips the lanyard with the ID over your head. “i’m getting used to it. i don’t know how you do this almost every day,” you admit, tugging on his own lanyard that he’s holding. he wraps an arm around your shoulders.

“i’ll tell you what, it’s a lot easier when you’re with me,” he mumbles into your ear, using that as a way to subtly leave a kiss to the skin. the little things like that are what will keep you together throughout the day.

a man with a headset and planner comes up to tom. why are so many people wearing headsets? he reads off tom’s plans for today, then ushers the two of you over to do meet and greets once tom has everything down. tom already called and explained that you’d be joining him, so he had it arranged for you to sit with the photographer and watch.

that’s definitely going to get people curious. he doesn’t mind too much, as long as it makes the experience more comfortable for you.

“i’ll be right over here. you’ll tell me if you need anything, yeah?” tom gazes out at the long line of fans waiting to see him, meeting your eyes after. “don’t worry about me. go give your fans some hugs.” you squeeze his hand and smile to let him know you’re okay. he smiles back even bigger before going over to greet the first person they send over.

this set up is way better than what you’d expected. you get a front row seat watching tom do silly faces and poses, and he can check in with you from time to time. there’s the occasional “who is that?” or “is it true that you’re dating her?” question from someone nosy.

tom responds with something along the lines of “that’s y/n. she’s a really lovely girl. she’s super awesome,” followed by a wink only for you to see. you find yourself having to hide your blushing face from all of his antics.

after about two hours, tom gets a break from photo ops. he decides to use the time to do whatever you choose, since you’ve been watching him for a while. you just walk around until there’s an announcement that a hypnotist show is about to start, and anyone can attend. you’ve never seen people be hypnotized in person, and it sounds like it could be fun.

tom lets you pick the seats. you end up towards the front for a closer look. his hand rests on your thigh as soon as you’re both seated, missing being able to touch you all day. you lace your fingers with his and watch as the show starts.

you’re both having a good time, laughing along at all the different segments. the guy hosting it is really entertaining. “now, let’s move onto a part of the show i like to call ‘truth serum.’ it’s simple. i’ll choose a member from the audience and get them to spill their guts for all of you, about anything i ask. who shall it be?” he rubs his chin and looks around the room.

he makes eye contact with people around you. you’re regretting getting seats in the third row. you pray he won’t call you up, but that would be too convenient. “ah!” he claps his hands together, gesturing to you. your mouth runs dry. “thanks for volunteering, come on up!”

you look at tom, silently asking if you should. “go on. i kind of wanna see this,” he wiggles his eyebrows at you devilishly. clenching your jaw, you walk past him and onto the stage. the hypnotist taps a chair for you to sit. you just had to be the lucky person he chose. “can we get a round of applause for...” he holds his microphone down to you.

“y/n,” you say into it, your voice coming out shaky. there are at least two hundred people staring up at you right now. “y/n!” he repeats. “everyone put your hands together for this brave soul.” the audience claps, tom cheering the loudest among them all.

“so, y/n. you seem excited to be up here,” the man jokes. tom watches with amusement as you give an unsure smile at the audience. “is it that obvious?” you get a few laughs. maybe this won’t be the train wreck you’re anticipating.

“extremely. y/n, i want you to look at your right hand for me.” he takes a step back, you doing as he says. “focus on your fingers and how they’re curling towards you. keep focusing. notice how you’re feeling more and more relaxed.”

everything he’s saying is actually happening. wanting to remember this, tom takes out his phone and starts recording. “bring your hand over to your forehead. let yourself feel the skin to skin contact. just like that.” you’re starting to feel sleepier. “and close your eyes.” the hypnotist snaps, and there’s silence throughout the auditorium. “you’re in a deep sleep. well done.”

you’re completely passed out with your head hanging low. everyone claps again, gasping and chatting to each other. tom is one of the gaspers. “y/n, you just guzzled a whole can of truth serum. you’re an open book. you love to share. when i snap again, you’ll wake up and answer whatever i ask you. truthfully,” the hypnotist tells you.

he waits a moment, then snaps his fingers. your head immediately snaps up. more gasps. tom puts his hand over his mouth, muffling his laughter at whatever you’re about to say.

“good morning, y/n. how are you doing?” “stiff. my neck hurts a lot for some reason,” you answer honestly, rubbing the back of it. the hypnotist has a smug grin on his face. “very good. we’re going to start off with some basic questions to see where you’re at. they mirror the five senses. y/n, what’s your favorite thing to hear?”

“my boyfriend’s voice. oh my god, and he has the cutest hiccup laugh,” you clasp your hands under your chin. tom is glad his phone is hiding his face so no one can see his cheeks turning pink. “hiccup laugh?” the hypnotist makes a face. “it gets stuck in his throat sometimes. it’s actually so cute.”

“what about your favorite smell?” “oh, that’s an easy one. sandalwood.” you casually reveal to the audience. “tell us why you like sandalwood so much, y/n,” the hypnotist prompts you. “it’s the scent of shampoo my boyfriend uses.” tom practically melts when he catches on. all your favorite things so far are related to him.

“i think we should skip ahead and talk about that boyfriend of yours. you seem to really love him, huh?” “more than anything. if you were planning to ask about anything else that’s my favorite, i’d say him.” there’s a big “awwww” from the whole audience, tom included.

“isn’t that sweet? where is your boyfriend right now, y/n? i’m sure he’d want to hear this.” “he just did, he’s in the audience.” you tell the hypnotist as if he should already know. tom’s lovestruck smile fades away. he hopes the hypnotist realizes it’s too personal to make you keep talking about something like this.

you have no control over what you’re saying, and it’s not going to end well. “why don’t you point him out for us so we can give him a big round of applause?” scanning around for tom with bright eyes, you get out of your seat. you point at him. “he’s right there.”

the whole audience turns to look at who you’re pointing to. tom lowers his phone, his mouth open in shock. everyone starts shouting as soon as they notice it’s tom. you’re confused over what the big deal is, since you’re still not fully yourself. the hypnotist realizes the mess he just caused, quickly sitting you down again to bring you out of it.

“y/n, i’m going to snap again. when you wake up this time, all the truth serum will be out of your system,” he says just to you over the noise, tom sinking down in his seat to avoid questions. the man snaps his fingers. there’s silence like the first time, everyone waiting to see what you’ll say.

you have no memory of anything that happened a few seconds ago. all the eyes on you are freaking you out. “wh- what did i say?” you ask him, biting down hard on your lip. his eyes dart over to tom. he speaks to you without the microphone. “you told the audience about your boyfriend.” it takes a second for you to register what he said. then you see tom down low in his chair, and you’re humiliated.

for yourself, but mostly him. you can’t believe you exposed your relationship in front of all these people. you run off the stage and out of the auditoruim, too embarrassed to say anything else. tom doesn’t hesitate to chase after you.

you’re breathing hard and fast, stopping somewhere there aren’t too many people around. your mind is racing while you try to figure out what’s going to happen next. someone puts a hand on your shoulder. it’s tom. he turns you around to face him.

“fuck, i- i’m so sorry. i don’t know what was going through my head, i shouldn’t have talked about any of that stuff. this is gonna be a nightmare for you,” you spit out all at once. tom only pulls you to his chest. he rubs circles around your back, trying to calm you down.

“it’s not your fault, angel. you didn’t have a choice about saying those things. you know that, right?” huffing, you hide your face in tom’s chest. “but still. i exposed us and i exposed you and now everyone knows something you didn’t want them to. you should hate me right now.” his lips press into a deep frown at what you’re saying. he rests his chin on your head and sighs.

“baby, i’m not mad. the only reason i wanted us to be a secret was for you.” you look up at him hesitantly, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. “so i didn’t destroy your whole career in two seconds?” “of course not. there have been way worse things i’ve had to deal with than publicly dating my really lovely, super awesome girlfriend. this won’t be easy, but i promise we’ll get through it together.”

you cheer up a bit hearing him repeat his words from earlier, nodding as you let yourself process everything.

“do you think anyone got me on video? or will they just post about what i said and everyone will believe them?” “i personally recorded the whole thing. not sure about the rest of the audience though,” tom proudly admits to you, making you groan into his chest. “great. that means we should probably say something before the twisted versions of the story come out,” you reason.

he considers it for a moment, and you can see when a lightbulb go off in his head. “what if i officially introduce you to some fans at my next round of photo ops? tell them about us, see how it goes. then we can decide what our next move is.”

it’s a huge relief that he’s taking this slow and giving you a say on how to go public. feeling brave, you peck his lips as a thank you. he’s surprised at first, but kisses back. he can finally see why those annoying pda couples exist. his arm takes its place around your shoulders again, yours going around his waist this time.

“let’s go share our not so secret relationship with the world.”

443 notes · View notes

langdvnshepherd · 5 years

Text

A Change of Heart (Michael Langdon x fem!Reader)

Summary: Michael Langdon drunkenly stumbles into your dorm one night at The Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men.

Word Count: 6.5k

Warnings: use of alcohol, angst, smut, heavy petting, fingering, cum play, oral (female receiving), a lil bit of fluff I suppose

A/N: I’ve been seeing a bunch of posts floating around about the bed-sharing trope, and I wanted to write it SO BAD. It took me a while and ended up being wayyy sweeter than I wanted it to be, but this is finally what I came up with! I hope you guys enjoy. Reblogs/likes/comments are always appreciated! Let me know what you guys think! Also, I did no proof-reading whatsoever so I apologize but what’s knew lmao

Masterlist in bio!

Weekends at Hawthorne were a blessing. You cherished them, counted down the minutes until your Friday lecture was dismissed and you were left to your own devices for the next two days. There were no classes, no nitpicky professors, no being bored to death for hours on end with countless spells and potions that you’d already mastered back at Robichaux’s (you’d come to conclude that the warlocks were eons behind the witches, despite how advanced they swore they were). While your prolonged stay at Hawthorne was turning out to be quite miserable, the weekends worked wonders for the permanent furrow in your brow from Mondays to Fridays.

Most witches and warlocks left the boarding school on the weekends, charming their way into trashy clubs and finessing fruit drinks from whoever they could seduce with their powers. It was as if they never slept for the entirety of those two days. They left early on in the night and returned late the next morning, often looking like they’d just been hit by a truck: messy makeup that was smudged to hell and back, blazers wrinkled beyond belief, sometimes one of them even would be missing a shoe. Some of them never returned until the following Monday, getting caught up in the bustling city of Los Angeles and wishing to forget their duties as students of the supernatural.

But not you. You rarely went out, if ever. Instead of leaving Hawthorne to escape your studies, you stayed within its walls, escaping the people. Your classmates annoyed you, and you used every ample opportunity to stay as far away from them as possible. Everyone left Hawthorne on the weekends, so staying indoors meant you’d be able to avoid the chaos almost completely. It was the only time you were glad to be trapped within the underground of the school for warlocks. No one bothered you. No one beat on your door at night asking you to help them cheat on their upcoming exam. It was peaceful. You could catch up on your latest tv binge, indulge in an extensive skincare routine, relax your bones that ached from putting up with absolute imbeciles for five straight days.

And that’s exactly what you were doing. It was late Friday night, almost too late for any sober person to be awake. You had just gotten out of the bath, this time treating yourself to a lavender soak that successfully worked its way into the sore muscles of your back. Your favorite, oversized t-shirt felt especially cozy against your bare thighs, the hem exposing only the slightest sliver of the bottom of your underwear.

There were no noises coming from outside of your dorm. No shuffling of loafers. No clicking of heels. Just silence. Thank Satan, because you had a long night of catching up on some much-needed sleep ahead of you. That was until you heard a series of offbeat knocks on the dark wood of your bedroom door.

What the fuck? Who could possibly be beating on your door this late at night? You were almost certain that any student that normally harassed you for your assistance during the week was out partying, and it couldn’t be one of the Hawthorne professors. They’re far too old to be up this late. Maybe something went wrong. Maybe someone was in danger. Maybe it was Cordelia coming back for you to tell you you could leave this godforsaken bunker. There was honestly no telling.

You padded over to the door, reaching out to grab the cool, metal handle of the knob. You kept your body hidden from behind the thick of the door, because whoever needed you this late at night certainly did not need to see you in your underwear.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” you huffed as the door came ajar and you saw the slender, tall figure that was waiting for you on the other side.

His body towered over yours, much like his ego, his lanky arms leaning casually against the door frame. He was still clad in his Hawthorne uniform that he wore to class earlier that afternoon, only the top of his undershirt was unbuttoned and his necktie hung much looser around the base of his throat. His eyes were still as aquamarine as the Santa Monica oceans that you once visited on a long weekend. It was none other than the Boy Wonder himself, the supposed Alpha, Michael fucking Langdon.

His appearance was quite comical if you were being honest. On any other day, you wouldn’t catch Langdon with a single hair out of place on his perfectly quaffed head or one speck of lint on his onyx black blazer, but given his current posture and the reeking stench of liquor that hit you head on as soon as the door cracked open, you knew he wasn’t in any state of mind to be caring about his appearance in the slightest.

“Oh, come on. You can’t be that surprised to see me,” he daunted, that iconic, shit-eating grin plastered clear across his face.

“It’s the middle of the night, Michael. What do you want?” you asked, disdain dripping from your voice. Your hand went to rest on your hip as you impatiently waited for his answer.

“What you mean, silly? I came to see you. My favorite girl,” he sneered, emphasizing the word ‘favorite.’ His words slurred together as he leaned in to bop your nose with his pointer finger, his drunken state unraveling further and further with each word that left his mouth.

You scrunched your nose up in disgust as his finger made contact with your face. “First of all,” you spat, “I am not your girl. And second, you’re drunk, Langdon. Extremely drunk. How did you even get here?”

Michael chuckled lightly as the cogs in his brain tried to process what you’d just asked him. He ran the palm of his hand up and down his jawline in order to form his next response.

“IIIII don’t realllly knowww,” he mumbled, “Alex called an Uber, but...”

He trailed off, scratching his head in concentration.

“I thiiink they got out at another bar? I kept walking and then I got cold and remembered that I could just use telekinesis and now here I am!” Michael shrugged his shoulders in satisfaction with the nonsense that he’d just spewed from his glossy lips that were sticky from all of the alcohol he’d tossed back like cold medicine.

You stared at him with your brow raised, gobsmacked with the story he’d given you. He was clearly drunker than your intuition led you to believe.

“Transmutation, Michael. It’s transmutation. Not telekinesis.”

“Okayyy. Whatever,” he sassed back, rolling his cerulean blue eyes far back into his head.

“I’m here now, so...Why don’t we have some fun like old times?” his syllables were drawn out and his voice was low, an embarrassing attempt at trying to be seductive. He reached for your sides to give them a playful pinch, but you swatted them away before they could even get close to touching you.

“Michael I already I told you I-”

You were interrupted by Langdon pushing the door to your room open with his foot. He waltzed in casually as if it were his own space, his feet tripping up just slightly as the scuffed the polished hardwood of the floor. There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere as the brazen boy entered your dorm for the first time in weeks. The feeling was all too familiar, but only this time it was under completely different circumstances. Your arms went instinctively to pull down your already oversized nightshirt to cover yourself, as if it mattered. Michael was the last person that cared about your indecency. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen you in far less before. And more than a handful of times at that.

“I know, I know, sweetheart. You told me. I’m an, ‘insolent, repulsive excuse for a man,’ and you, ‘never want to speak to me again,’” Michael babbled while using air quotes with his fingers as he recalled the explosive argument you’d gotten into where you ended your arrangement with him permanently. You were surprised he could even recall that much of the fight given the way his eyes were glossed over and his cheeks were consumed by a rosy, drunken glow.

“But you know something, Y/N?” he asked as he crossed his arms behind his back and began pacing around the room, “I never understood why that bothered you. It really wasn’t that ba-”

“You told the entire school, Michael,” you interjected, clapping your hands together for emphasis.

“Sooo? Is that such a horrible thing?”

“Yeah, it is!” you were growing angry now at his persistence, wishing he’d just leave and go back to wherever he came from before he’d ruined your quiet night in. His presence was bringing up feelings you had repressed deep into your psyche, and it only got worse as each second passed.

“You need to caaaalm dooown,” Michael began rubbing his temples with each of his middle fingers as if to say your increased volume was giving him a migraine.

He sobered up suddenly, walking right up to you to and taking both of your shoulders into his hands. “I’ve told you one thousand times already, sugar. I never meant to upset you when I said that shit. Honestly, I didn’t think you had a problem with anybody knowing.”

“Well, I did have a problem with it, Michael. What we did-,” you gestured back and forth, referring to the both of you, and the long history you shared before Michael betrayed your trust, “-was private. Personal. It was our thing. And you ruined that by telling everyone. It was so embarrassing, walking into class every day knowing that everybody was staring at me and calling me a ‘dirty whore’ behind my back.”

Michael nodded silently at your words, his lips pressed into a thin line. For a split second, you almost thought he took what you said to heart. That maybe you’d even get a genuine apology from him. That was until he leaned into your ear and you felt his warm, inebriated breath trickle down your neck as he spoke.

“But you’re my dirty whore, right?”

You should have known, Langdon was never one for taking things seriously. You shook his palms away from your shoulders, walking to the other side of the room to be as far away from him as possible.

“You know what? I’m done with this shit, Michael. Get the fuck out of my room. Go find another girl to entertain you for the rest of the night because I’m not the fucking one. Not anymore,” you demanded, crossing your arms against your chest.

A flicker of sadness danced across his face at your harshness. Had you not been staring a hole into his soul, you wouldn’t have caught it. Michael kept his feet planted on your shaggy area rug, not moving one muscle. He was quiet, for once. The only sound coming from him was his heavy breathing that you assumed was due to your outburst.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” you spat, “Does the magnificent Boy Wonder have nothing to say for once in his fucking life?”

Michael continued to stare at the floor like his pointed, Louboutin oxfords were the most captivating thing since the invention of the wheel. Maybe you’d actually managed to hit him where it hurt. Maybe the disintegration of your relationship had affected him more than he’d let on. Or maybe, hopefully, he’d finally leave you alone so you could permanently forget about everything that had (or hadn’t) happened between you two.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

That was all it took. Not even one second later, your favorite, faux-fur rug was covered in vomit. Michael dropped to his knees as he hurled, clutching his heaving stomach to ease the queasy feeling. It was like watching the water at Niagra Falls continuously cascade down its steep drop; you had never seen anyone puke that much in your entire life.

“Ohh, shit,” you muttered to yourself as you padded your way over to where Michael was sitting on the floor.

You suddenly felt bad for Michael. He had tears in his eyes from the strain, and you could feel the fevered hotness of his skin radiating from his blazer. His helplessness compelled you to reach out and stroke his spine comfortingly while he continued to empty his guts out onto your bedroom floor. Michael leaned into your touch, resting the side of his head against your bare thighs to steady himself.

“Are you okay?” you asked when the waves of his vomit had subsided.

“Peachy,” Michael snapped back, wiping the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand.

As much as you hated him at the moment, the thought of Michael being left alone to tend to his impending hangover filled you with the slightest bit of guilt and pity. You expelled a loud sigh from your throat before you spoke again.

“You should probably just stay here. I don’t think you should be left alone tonight,” you posed, your tone in great contrast to how you were screaming at him to leave just minutes before.

“No, no, no,” Michael stated. His voice was woozy again, still drunk even after all of that puking. “You wanted me to leave, remember?”

He tried to stand up, planting one of his large hands on your nightstand for leverage, but he stumbled again much like how he had when he first entered your room. You caught him by wrapping your arms around his torso before he could faceplant into the vomit that had pooled at his feet.

“Okay, but that was before you threw up everything you’ve eaten in the last week onto my carpet,” you began walking him back to your bed so he could be more stabilized, making sure to avoid the pile of bile, “And I’d rather not walk into another lecture on Monday morning about the dangers of teen drinking when John Henry catches you puking again in the hallway on your way back to your room.”

Michael let out an unexpected chuckle to himself at your mention of the Hawthorne instructor.

“I’ve got John Henry under control. You don’t need to worry about him,” he waved his hand in the air nonchalantly, clearly still unable to shake the alcohol from his system, even after the damage he’d just done to your rug.

“Umm, why?” you asked whilst simultaneously digging through your drawers for a shirt Michael could sleep in.

He flopped back on the bed, his arms crossing behind his head like a pillow. “We have a little, arrangement, I guess you could say. He definitely won’t be up my ass about anything anytime soon.”

You paused your rummaging to turn around and give Michael a quizzical expression, confused as to if he was being serious or if it was another one of his drunken rambles.

“Well, that’s not entirely true. He will be up my ass. Just in other ways, I suppose.”

“You’re disgusting,” you huffed, your fingers finally settling on the sweatshirt you’d been looking for. You wadded up the top and launched it at his face, suddenly wishing it was something much harder than a ball of fabric.

“Put that on.”

Michael took the sweatshirt in his hands, his faded vision trying to comprehend where he’d seen it before. It was one of the heather grey gym pullovers that every warlock was given when they arrived at Hawthorne, so he knew it wasn’t yours. He knew it wasn’t his either, because you’d thrown that at him also when you broke things off with him a handful of weeks ago. Which only meant one thing...

“Where did you get this, Y/N? Whose is this?” he demanded, his body shooting straight up from where he had been laying on your down comforter.

There was no reason to, but your face immediately flushed with embarrassment. What happened between Michael and you was in the past, even though you often wished it wasn’t. You had to move on, and in some ways, you had. It was what you were supposed to do. You’d hoped he would be too drunk to even notice that it was another warlock’s pullover, but Michael Langdon always had a way of catching you off guard.

“Don’t worry about it, Michael. Please, just put it on so we can both go to sleep. You’re not wearing your vomit-soaked clothes in my bed.”

“No. Tell me,” his eyes were pleading for an answer. You could see the rising anger in his chest, how his nostrils flared just slightly with every breath he took.

“It’s not a big deal, Michael. Seriously. Now put on the fucking sweatshirt before I make you sleep on the floor next to your puke.”

Michael rolled his eyes at your digression from the subject, wishing he was sober enough to be able to read your thoughts. He made a mental note to do that first thing in the morning. If he would even remember.

“I’m not wearing your new fuck buddy’s clothes, love. It’s not gonna happen.”

That struck a nerve. Just because the relationship between you and Michael never strayed from casual fucking, and lots of it, who was he to imply that that’s all you’ve ever been interested in from other guys? If the supposed Alpha was so good at reading people, why hadn’t he caught on to your own desires?

“Who said he’s my fuck buddy? Do you not think I’m capable of being in an actual relationship with someone?”

“Not saying that at all, princess. I just have a feeling there aren’t very many people you’re interested in. Especially not a warlock anyway,” he said disparagingly.

(Well, shit. Maybe he was good at reading people.)

“Honestly, I’m tired of arguing with you. Can you please just take off your clothes so we can both get some sleep?” you jeered, utterly exhausted at just the presence of the tall blonde.

“Mmmm, yes ma’am,” Michael replied, wiggling his brows at you flirtatiously. He seemed to have forgotten about his bubbling rage for a brief moment. Of course, that’s where his train of thought went to.

You didn’t even have the energy to fire back, you simply rolled your eyes at the mess of a boy in front of you with your arms crossed sternly at your chest. It got your point across.

Michael huffed a low, “fine, but I’m not wearing the fucking sweatshirt” under his breath before he began fumbling for the necktie that had come completely untied at this point. He tried to take off his blazer, but got caught in the thick fabric and began helplessly trying to shrug it off of his broad shoulders.

“You’re pathetic, Langdon,” you groaned, trudging over to where Michael was sitting on the bed to help him shake the remainder of his unkempt uniform.

He was tired now, seemingly floating in and out of consciousness as he tried to keep his heavy eyelids open. When you finally unlatched the last button of his undershirt and your fingers gently grazed the dip of his protruding collarbone, you paused. Just weeks ago, this action would have brought you great joy, a spout of arousal seeping from your core at what was to follow. But for some reason, this evoked a twinge of sadness in your heart. Michael wasn’t yours anymore. He wasn’t yours to touch, wasn’t yours to think about. Despite the suggestive things Michael had said throughout the evening, you knew it was the alcohol speaking on his behalf. He certainly didn’t feel the same way you did about him. You were nothing more to him than a hole to be filled, as he’d let the entire school know it.

You snapped out of your daze after hearing a loud hiccup escape from Michael’s lips. He chuckled like a child at the high-pitched sound it made, only causing you to roll your eyes at him for the millionth time tonight.

“Okay, you’re good,” you said to him whilst giving him a gentle pat on the cheek, “Go to sleep.”

Michael nodded sheepishly, falling back to rest his head on the extra pillow at the head of your bed. He seemed to fall asleep almost instantly as his hiccups subsided and were replaced with small snores that trickled out of his open mouth with each breath.

You walked around to your side of the bed and crawled in, savoring the cool satin of your sheets and the feeling of being off of your feet again. As you threw the duvet cover over both yourself and Michael, you considered stuffing a body pillow in between the two of you. Assuming he was far too intoxicated to even think about trying to pull anything, you opted against it. You’d most definitely wake before him anyway. By the looks of it, he’d surely sleep until well on the next evening.

Just as you felt the beacon of sleep crawling towards you, you remembered the overflow of vomit on the floor next to your bed, as it was beginning to smell more and more foul. With droopy eyelids, a half-hearted wave of your wrist and a low mutter of Latin under your breath, the stain evaporated.

Michael stirred at the commotion, swimming about in the excess of the duvet to turn towards you.

“Y/N?” he beckoned, not even bothering to lift his head from the pillow or open his eyes as he spoke.

You didn’t answer, seeing as it would most likely be another attempt to piss you off with his intoxicated bullshit.

“I’m sorry,” he muffled through scrunched up cheeks and the material of his pillow.

“For what?” you asked him. For interrupting your quiet night in with his nonsense? For puking on your floor?

“I just wanted everyone to know you were mine.”

It felt borderline cruel, the way he’d been talking all night. This was no different. He’d sworn up and down that all your relationship ever was was casual, but everything he said in the last hour, regardless of whether or not he meant it, seemed to contradict that statement.

Before you could question him further, although you were almost positive you knew what he was referring to and that he wasn’t being truthful, he had fallen back asleep. His breathing evened out and his body stiffened, succumbing to his drunken slumber.

But it was alright. You wouldn’t have known how to respond anyway.

Your brain paid no mind to the fact that it was the weekend, as your biological clock withdrew you from your sleep at a rather early hour. Especially given that you’d spent a lengthy amount of time tending to the presumably hungover Boy Wonder that was fast asleep next to you. As you motioned upwards to outstretch your stiff limbs, you realized your body was being constricted by an overbearing force.

Michael’s arms.

In the midst of his slumber, or most likely, on purpose, he had found his way over to your side of the bed. Go figure. Michael had his lanky, toned forearms wrapped tightly around your middle and his head nestled comfortably in between your shoulder blades. You felt the ends of his golden blonde curls just slightly tickling the back of your neck each time he took a breath.

You could move. Shake yourself out of his grasp or shove him back over to his side of the bed, or even kick him out of your room and send him back to his own. But a handful of reasons kept you from doing so.

For starters, he had certainly had a long night. Him puking on your carpet was only the aftermath of what you had assumed was an extremely eventful evening, meaning he could definitely use the sleep.

Second, you couldn’t help but be reminded of how things used to be with Michael. There were only a handful of times that you ever slept together through the night, but when you did, you savored every moment. He was much softer when he slept, a great contrast to how harsh he had always been with you earlier on in the evening, when he had you on your knees, forcing his length down your throat, making you gag on your own saliva as well as his cock while he fucked your face with no mercy whatsoever. He cuddled into you like a child does their teddy bear when he slept, tangling his limbs with yours, tucking his head into the crook of your shoulder. The first few times you’d woken up being practically smothered by Michael’s body on yours he’d tried to play it off, tried to pretend like he hadn’t meant to grab onto you at all. After you’d failed to show any type of discomfort, he stopped making excuses and shamelessly grappled onto you as often as he could. You loved it quite a bit more than you were willing to admit, hence why, right now, you opted to stay put. If lying here for an extra 20 minutes was the closest you would ever be to Michael again, so be it.

And you really hoped he was comfortable, because much to your chagrin, his sharp hip bone was digging into your back. At least you thought it was his hip bone until you accidentally shifted in the sheets and you heard a quiet, hoarse moan spill from Michael’s lips.

To test whether or not your movement and Michael’s subsequent groaning was a mere coincidence, you rolled your hips back again. Another quiet, but more forceful mewl evoked from Michael’s chest, the vibrations muffling against the cotton of your t-shirt.

Now you knew it definitely wasn’t his hip bone. You had been grinding yourself against his impressively hard morning wood, and just the mere thought of it already had you worked up. The girth, the thick, prominent vein that ran along the underside, the way that Michael had the ability to split you in half with it, skewering you onto him until you saw stars. You needed more. To hear his pants and groans while you worked him over and over as you had many times in the past.

Pushing the boundaries even further, you swiveled your hips back once more, this time further back and harder against him. This time, all you got was a low-register grunt.

“Are you having fun?”

His deep, baritone voice filled you with shock, and a little with panic. You’d thought for sure he had been sleeping, as he’d barely even moved the entire time you’ve been awake thus far. Unsure of how to respond, you laid frozen in his arms.

Michael resituated himself on the bed, pulling you closer into him so that he had a better grip around your waist and his cock was pressed firmly against your backside.

“I know you’re not asleep,” he beckoned, slowly trailing his fingers up your stomach and then down again, stopping just before he reached the flimsy waistband of your panties.

“I can smell you.”

“C’mon, Y/N,” Michael teased as his hand crept lower and lower until the pad of his middle finger barely grazed over the fabric that rested above your clit.

“Don’t you want to play?”

He pressed down on your panties gently, eliciting the smallest of whines on your part. You jutted your hips forward in an attempt to grind yourself harder onto his fingers, which did not go unnoticed by Langdon. He clicked his tongue in your ear.

“Not so fast, little witch,” he paused, “You’ve had your fun. Now it’s my turn,” he emphasized with a harsh roll of his hips into your ass.

“Michael, please,” you begged, fighting a moan as he began circling his calloused fingers through your folds.

You could feel your heart beating in your ears, and the flickering of an addictive fire simmering low in your belly. Michael was breathing heavily down your neck, focusing his concentration on your throbbing clit and each desperate sound that weaseled its way up your throat and through your now parched lips.

He clicked his tongue in your ear in disapproval of your begging.

“As I recall, you used to enjoy this,” he mocked, “The chase. The build-up.”

He paused to pull your panties to the side and plunge his index and middle fingers inside of you.

“My fingers.”

Michael quickly withdrew them from your heat, but not without another whine from you. He brought them to his lips slowly, savoring the taste of your sickly sweet saccharine that he’d been denied of for quite some time now. You heard him moan obscenely as he lolled his tongue around his digits, sending another bout of arousal through you, and your patience over the edge.

“Are you done being dramatic?” you posed, the annoyance evident in your voice.

It was obvious where this was going. Why waste any more time?

Your words seemed to have angered Michael, as he abruptly shoved you onto your stomach and straddled your waist all in one, fluid movement. His cock rocked against your ass firmly when he situated himself so that he was hovering just above your face, his silky curls tickling the exposed part of your shoulder.

“What the matter, princess?” he taunted, snaking his arm under your neck so that he could jerk you upwards by the jaw, forcing you to lift your head from the pillow he had just shoved you down onto.

“Does your new boyfriend not know how to treat a lady?”

Michael wiggled his other hand around your middle to toy with your clit through your soaking wet panties once more. You mewled against his tight hold on you, struggling to breathe as he seemed to push his fingers even more harshly against the pressure point on your throat and harder against your swollen bud.

“Or did you just forget everything I taught you?”

Michael released his grip from your throat, hands moving south to yank your underwear from your legs. You were left clothed in only the oversized t-shirt you slept in.

He took your ass in hands, kneading the warm mounds of flesh in circles, admiring the beauty beneath him. As he parted your cheeks, you felt his thumb creep downwards. He began to rub you in circles, from your sticky folds where cum oozed slowly from your core and up to the puckering ring of your asshole. Michael pressed down gently on the skin there each time he returned to it, savoring the exaggerated pants that left your lungs.

“God, Michael,” you moaned against the pillow, fighting tears of frustration and lust.

He was right. All of your hookups since Michael couldn’t compare the racy nights you spend with him, where he teased you for hours, making sure you were a wet, sobbing mess before brutally fucking you into the squeaky, springy mattress in his dorm. You had missed this, but you felt like you might implode if he didn’t do something to ease the aching between your legs, and fast.

“Oh, come on, Y/N. You know better than that.”

From behind you, you heard the sound of Michael tugging his boxer briefs from his hips. Everything inside of you wanted to turn around and look, to see his impressively hard cock bobbing freely against the skin below his navel just before he rammed it inside of you, but you feared he’d only draw out the process further if he caught you gawking.

“There isn’t a God on this earth that could keep you from me.”

“Then what’s stopping you now? Hmm?”

Michael chuckled at your poor attempt to snide him before parting your cheeks again, this time to run his cock through the folds of your pussy and against the quivering ring of your asshole. He made sure you were nice and ready for him, although the overflow of sticky juices that had pooled in between your closed legs spoke for itself.

Your eyes screwed shut as Michael entered you, your fingers moving to pinch the silky fabric of the pillowcase beneath you. He moved slowly, only pressing in an inch at a time. The stretch was unbearable, as Michael was endowed with a cock that was incompatible with any other man you had been with. Even when you two fucked regularly, it was never easy to adjust to his massive size.

When Michael filled you to the hilt and stretched you to your full capacity, he began to rock his hips into your ass. His thrusts were shallow at first, but still caused your breath to hitch in the back of your throat each time he bottomed out. He quickly set a new pace, withdrawing himself further and further until he was repeatedly slamming the entire length of his delicious, oozing cock into your dripping cunt without regard to the small tears that were now falling freely from your eyes at the sheer pleasure that consumed your entire body.

Just when you thought you couldn’t feel any more full with the brazen boy’s illustrious cock, Michael dug his fingers into your hipbones and lifted your backside up, forcing you to bring your knees inward and press the top half of your body even further into the sheets. Your glistening hole was now on full display for him, giving him the chance to penetrate your walls even deeper than you imagined possible. You tried grasping onto the pillowcase even harder, but not even your white-knuckled vice grip could soothe the overwhelming build of pressure pooling inside of you below your tummy.

“Michael,” you whined, embarrassed by the desperation in your tone.

“Don’t you dare, slut,” he scolded, giving your ass one firm, blistering smack, “Not until I say.”

His punishment made you cry out and sent another pool of fresh tears from your eyes as you tried your best to give him an obedient nod of your head. It felt good to be taken care of again.

By the shakiness in his voice, you could tell he was rearing his own end. His thrusts began to fall out of line with his previously remorseless pace and his breathing was becoming more and more erratic by the second. You felt him twitching inside of you, his cock begging for release each time he pounded into the warm, tight hole of yours that he had missed so dearly. He’d never tell, but the pillowy folds and spongy, welcoming walls of your pussy was his favorite by far.

“Fuck, Y/N,” he managed to spurt in between thrusts.

You felt his body heat radiating down onto you, heightening the pleasurable burn inside of you. Michael was panting and moaning and gasping, and his hold on your hips grew so intense that you were almost convinced he’d drawn blood with the crescent-shaped indents left behind by his nails.

You couldn’t take it any longer.

“Michael, can I please cum?” you cried, your sweaty hair trashing against the pillow as you tried to hold out for him.

“What did I just fucking say?” he spat.

“You cum when I tell you to cum.”

His pace quickened suddenly. He began skewering his cock into you as fast and as violently as he could manage. When his hips smacked into your ass particularly harshly, he stilled. Michael’s release was accompanied by a throaty groan. He milked himself in your heat as you felt the thick, rope-like strings of his cum coating your walls.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” you whined.

Before you even had the chance to complain about Michael denying you of your release, he flipped you over, looking you in the eyes for the first time this entire morning.

“When have I ever not taken care of you?” he posed before snaking his body down the bed and stopping when his head reached what laid between your open legs.

He licked a broad, flat stripe up your pussy, eliciting a gasp from you. You watched as he circled your clit with his tongue, your eyes making contact with the vibrant sapphire of his own. Michael was smirking against your folds as he mouthed at them, getting off on the knowledge that he was the only one that could ever see the pretty faces you were making now. He was certain no other boy had the skill or willingness to see you fall apart, with your eyes glued shut, back arching almost unnaturally as you cried out with passion, on their tongue.

Your fingers went to his hair, which was matted to his forehead with the sweat he’d accumulated from splitting you in two just moments ago. You tugged on the curls nestled against his scalp, wanting him to be suffocated by your heat, not able to breathe even the slightest of breaths. And he let you. He burrowed his tongue into your core, his jaw now covered in your slick and nose now pressed snuggly against your clit. Chants of his name echoed loudly against the cinderblock walls of your dorm. You sure hoped no one was awake yet.

“Are you ready to cum now?” Michael asked, licking another tantalizing stripe through your cunt.

As he lifted his lips from your pussy to speak and dipped back down again, you saw the pearly milk of his own release swirling about on the pad of his tongue. He’d been catching it as it dripped out of you, which only spurred you on even further.

All you could muster was a pathetic, half nod of your chin. Your thighs were beginning to tremble and you could barely keep your head up to see the magic Michael was working in between your legs.

“Then cum,” Michael beckoned.

“Let me feel you fall apart on my tongue.

You came directly after he granted you permission, the juices of your cunt soaking Michael as he continued to tug on your clit with his lips through your orgasm. You contracted around him as he held your hips down with his hands, becoming overstimulated almost immediately after you came down from your high.

Michael climbed on top of you, wiping the excess of your release from his chin as best as he could. He lowered himself to your face again, taking in the glowing sheen that now adorned your cheeks.

“You are so beautiful,” he spoke aloud before crashing his lips against yours.

His teeth clashed against your own and you could taste the remnants of his cum left behind in his mouth. Michael held onto your jaw as he pulled back, pulling the flushed skin of your bottom lip gently with his thumb.

“You taste like vomit,” you jabbed, shoving him off of you and onto the empty space beside you on the bed.

Michael chuckled softly at your dig, placing a hand over his heart.

“And you really know how to ruin a moment. Don’t you?”

He missed you and these little moments you shared after fucking each other’s brains out. He wished there was something he could do to get them back. Forever this time. No more “no strings attached.” No more casual fucks. He wanted you to be his and his only. But he had fucked up so badly that he wasn’t sure there was anything he could do to bring that to fruition.

Little did he know, you were thinking the exact same thing.

Tagging:

@avesatanormalpeoplescareme @sloppy-little-witch-bitch26@venusxxlangdon @ccodyfern@readsalot73 @americanhorrorstudies @wroteclassicaly @gold-dragon-slayer @langdonsdemon @langdonshell @1-800-bitchcraft @rocketgirl2410 @hecohansen31 @alice-is-mad @hplotrfan

((I need to work on an updated tag list so if you didn’t want to be tagged and I tagged you/didn’t get tagged and you would like to be, I’m really sorry just let me know and I won’t do it again sorry!!!))

#michael langdon x reader #michael langdon fanfiction #michael langdon smut #michael langdon one shot #ahs #ahs apocalypse #american horror story fanfiction #american horror story apocalypse #my writing #mine #fic

457 notes · View notes

swampgallows · 5 years

Text

i got distracted earlier and forgot to post but im thankful for my mutuals who have helped me time and again, even if it’s in ways you may not know. i appreciate you all so much and i am so grateful for the friends i’ve made here and the small but intimate community cultivated through tumblr.

zbfc and wch, thank you for everything. @zeyan i love you with all my heart and i’m so fucking thankful i could have funny airbnb time with you and @aeiroki grimlock hunterpunter. you make me laugh every single day and i always want the best for you both (and jack!!! and PARKER!!!)

@lokaror thank you for letting me share my love of rexxar and bears with you. we’ve shared a lot of fantastic laughs together, some very fun stuff and some very deep shit too. i treasure every one of our convos together, and your playlists too!

@reglei thankful i finally got to beat you into submission at blizzcon. youre a sweetheart and a sleepyhead. thanks for listening to me ramble late into the night. i appreciate all the times youve had my back, whether it was creepy dudes or spoilers or w/e. you shoulda killed me w gorehowl when you had the chance

I LOVE @amarysue i miss you when you work long hours but i’m always so happy when we get to play games together. i hope you can leave the mcdonalds playplace soon. also i dont get to say it much but i love talking about academic stuff with you. i know i rib you about dark leafy greens but you are very educated in a lot of amazing fields and i love when you share your knowledge with me!!! i love amary!!!!

@theabsolutevoid i know youre the void but youre a golden human being of radiant light. you are so spectacular, we are all always in amazement of your passion and creativity and constant flow of ideas, and your compassion seems boundless. i am so grateful to know such a special person and spent many late nights laughing to tears with you

@perce the dynamic duo... im thankful daygo got me into ladybug so i could hear all of your amazing takes on it as they are equally as hilarious as your wow takes. i admire your resilience, though that might be weird to say, and though i know i’m an old crone youre definitely a role model for me taking command of my own life and establishing boundaries to become the person i want to be. i’m so grateful we got to spend blizzcon together again!! and thank you for getting me the long-forgotten hippogryph. its a very important memory to me.

refugees i know i dont pop in much but i still love you all dearly. im embarrassed actually because you are all functional adults and i’m not but when i get a job and reenter society i want to be able to come back and say i’m a big kid now

thrainosh squad @irenthel @wckhamm etc thank you for letting me indulge my interests without ridicule or judgment. @fitzefitcher i dunno you changed my life SORRY there is not a less fucked up way to say that. no pressure

@sithisis & crew thank you for so many incredible hots games and wonderful memories and all of your sweetness and fun times!!! sith you have inspired and supported so much of my writing and my ideas and i am in awe that you are getting so many amazing opportunities working in games journalism!!! i know theres a lot of grunt work but at the end of the day it seems like youre really doing something you genuinely love (and are good at!!) and i’m so happy for you. you work hard and you deserve it. im love skitty w a gun

@steblynkaagain your art is such an inspiration to me, and i’m amazed by your cosplay too! i’m thankful that even across language barriers we can enjoy thraina and silly modern AUs together. i am so impressed by your intelligence and achievements. your comic where you pledge yourself to Thrall’s Horde is still so important to me, and every day i think about your mechanic garrosh..... and doctor drek’thar, and doctor thrall, and SHAMAN GARROSH....... (sob)

@captainkaprozyx and @sdei ... i am so thankful for all of your artwork and your amazing gifts. i am working on getting them framed, and your zine was amazing! you are a great team and I love your collaborations. also sdei’s birthday gift is still my discord icon. we just really love a big guy huh....... cannot express how inspiring your artwork is. the detail, the colors... it brings me to tears, i am so stunned. you are both so incredibly talented!

@omnifariousness bro i dont even know where to start. many good dog times and we can strike up the late night jawin again soon i hope. shit has been scattered and i know youve been dippin back n forth on the road but i hope the shit evens out soon for you. excited for you to see tool in feb and damn dude every DAY i think about the reading you treated me to of the 40k stuff for your reel. god man i want that VA shit to work out for you bad. your diction is impeccable and you so deserve it

@darnjam i know you guys dont read this but i love you so much and every day i’m so thankful we’re all still friends. @daygloow thank you for being like the sole source and catalyst for my personal development for like the last 3 years, im so proud of you and everything youve worked so hard to achieve and i’m so glad youre getting the recognition you deserve. thank you for always picking me up (vehicular and emotional) and for watching cartoons n playin vidya with me. god whens the next GOOD rave? i need to make you proud and actually dj so i can play banana

@bluntcrusher every day i’m like god when will king tori take the throne... im so thankful that youre in a good spot finally and that youre getting the love you deserve. and plus a sweet pucci mane. my blogs a mess but im glad youre still stickin around for it haha. always happy to see youre safe and THRIVING

@swarnpert love you dude thank you for lettin me harass you w 420 snaps. bro when you sent me those sabaton snaps i was in line for the haunted mansion at disneyland during blizzcon and it was just like... my heart was so full, it meant so much to me ALSO HOLY SHIT i love your art please NEVER STOP drawing

@nelfs i love your blog and your art and your FEELINGS like I dunno how to word it in a not-weird way. i think you are a very bright person with a good heart, and i’m thankful to know someone like that, even tangentially. it is fortifying also to see someone stand up for the things they love, whether it’s just a cartoon show or something of serious concern like animal welfare. i admire your healthy relationship to yourself and your strong integrity.

@neophyte-redglare i think about bead world garrosh every fucking day of my life. cannot thank you enough. i treasure it

@redpandalori THIS IS THE MVP RIGHT HERE. i dunno when you started sending me floods of kittums but every day i look forward to it and every single one means so much to me. i wear the kandi you handcrafted for me every single day and i show it off constantly to my friends because it’s just mindblowing. you are so sweet and thoughtful and i love sendin you snaps and it’s just incredible how the internet is. thank you for sending me rain snaps and kito & harley/ears & lilith pics all the time

@hungwy i dunno WHAT you get outta my blog but i’m thankful for the reams of sweet animal pics and interesting linguistic and anthropology posts on your blog. you’re a very positive force on my dash and you seem a wonderful person irl too!

@ubersaur im so happy we’re still mutuals after all this time lmao. you were one of the first aces id ever known so we’ll always have that solidarity and i’ll always be thankful. and i have to seriously catch up on magus bride haha. thank you for all of your love and support after all this time, i hope i offer the same to you!!

@18milliondeadplebs the rare and beautiful nexus of my two sole interests... warcraft and raving. dude just thank you for existing man LMAO i hope we can go ravin together some day

@kontextmaschine what a strange long fuckin trip it’s been dude. super surreal to have raved with you and had you come all the way down for burst but i knew i’d be remiss if youd missed it. you definitely deserved a potent taste of the 90s. thank you for the usb sticks, im still waiting on a worthy recipient for the other two. the majority of your blog is practically in hieroglyphics to me but man when the posts hit... they fuckin hit. i know you dont need me to tell you, but youve got a great talent and weirdass fuckin eye. a very very particular eye. love you man. please kiss badger for me.

@ironbull thank you for suffering in wisdom tooth hell with me. i am glad you had a good time at disney world and im hoping we can both be free of all of our tooth woes soon. thank you also for your advice and support in my personal stuff too!!

@kittensceilidh thank you for your sweet messages! every one of your hugs means a lot to me!!! it is nice to feel seen when i am in dark places.

@dimedog warcraft and foggy forests... hell yeah dude

@tim-official man sometimes it really is as simple as just laughing at the same funny shit, but youve reached out to me too and i appreciate it!!!

@peanotbotter thank you for all of the laughs and the kind words! thank you for caring about me, i care about you too!! i hope we can play hots again or wow together soon!!!

wow this got long but i love a bunch of people. there are more of you that i love and are very special to me and i apologize if i didnt get to you. i hope you all had a nice holiday, if you celebrated. thank you for believing in me

#blathering

54 notes · View notes

franeridart · 7 years

Note

I absolutely adore every single KiriBaku thing you draw. They’re so pure and I love them.

;O; !!!!! thank you holy heck!!!!!

Anon said:Fran i missed your hq fanart, it was so good seeing some more from you!

I’m happy you liked them!!!! I missed drawing them too, really !!!!

Anon said:Imagine this - BNHA kids like It kids. Also love your art!

But I haven’t watched It :O and thank you!!!

Anon said: Is it ok if fictionkin people reblog your art and tag it as kin or anything of the sort?

Sure! People are gonna do so anyway whatever I say after all, and this seems like a really silly thing to get bothered over since it’s not like it hurts me in any way haha

Anon said:Who dabs more, Denki or Mina?

If I gotta pick one I’d say Kaminari, but I sure as heck hope dabbing isn’t still a thing in whatever future bnha is set in, anon hahaha

Anon said:yo i love it when you color your sketches, so pretty!!

OH BOY thank you so so much!!!!! :O

Anon said:I love you and your art so much?? like??? you’re so perfect?? just keep doing what you’re doing because you’re doing fucking amazing

I’m the furthest thing from perfect you’re gonna find, anon haha but thank you so much for the compliment!!

Anon said:thank you for always making me smile.

And thank you cause this ask made me smile, anon!!

Anon said:your coloring skills are improving!!! gosh your art is visibly getting better lately (not that it’s even been “bad”, there’s no such thing!! i’ve always loved it). i don’t know if it’s a good idea to tell you this but i mean it as a genuine compliment!

Are they really??? °O° I wouldn’t have said so, honestly haha but I’m super happy to hear that, thank you!!

Anon said:Are any of your OCs romantically involved? Or are they all just good friends?

Yes and no, depending on at which point in their respective story we’re talking about haha Josh and Chris are in love with each other, and so are Max and Leo (well, their situation is a bit… uncommon, but if I were ever to write their story they’d be together in the end) - I once posted about Gabe and Hector, and by the end of their story they’re in a poly relationship with a girl named Erica I’ve never posted about. Luca has a love (?) interest of sort but he’s not been posted about yet hohoho maybe sometime in the near future. Still deciding about Isa and Ana’s relationship, but maybe. Who knows? That’s about it as far as the ones I’ve posted about go :D

Anon said:your ocs are adorable!! esp ana, I want to know EVERYTHING ABOUT HER (and, yeah, having new ocs is super exciting, like you said! just– being able to figure all that stuff out, actually mould a character of your own– it’s a lot of fun!!!)

Anon said: What are Ana and Isa like? From that drawing, I already think I would want to be friends with Isa! She looks like lots of fun!

She is!! She’s sort of a jock, a bit of a dummy and really loud, she’s easy to make laugh and got the type of laughter that makes you wanna laugh with her so when she’s around the mood is always a good one! She’s not exactly a social butterfly, but she’s got no problems with socializing, knows by instinct how to bend her behaviour to fit with all types of people and has the incredible ability to have every and all awkward situations fly right over her head, she just doesn’t notice them, and that makes it hard to be anything but relaxed when she’s around. She’s actually how she and Ana got in the group, since she’s gym buddies with Leo! She also really really likes ball sports :D

Ana’s an introvert all the way through, on the other hand - she’s really witty and sassy when she feels comfortable enough, and sarcasm is her preferred way of communicating, but if she doesn’t know you/ too many people she isn’t 100% comfortable with are around she comes off as timid and closed off, smiles politely and barely utters a word - people assume she’s the subdued and shy type at first so once she starts opening up it’s always sort of a shock haha she’s got a scientific mind and while she isn’t a “gifted kid” like Chris she likes to learn and study a lot, which is why she ended up having a real great relationship with Chris specifically out of everyone in the group (they like to nerd out together) (Josh isn’t particularly happy about it, the jelly idiot)

Anon said: I love seeing you drawing and getting asks about your OCs. They have so much personality and it makes me super happy. I hope you’ll feel like sharing them with us more often!

Thank you so much!!!! I’m really really happy people seem to like them too!!!! :O

Anon said:you draw the children so long i love it :0

!!!!! :D thank you!!!

Anon said:Did you now that the voice actor of Tenya is also the one of Kageyama ? (I start Haikyuu because of you by the way, thanks for this and for all your great art !)

I did know!!! There’s a lot of hq va’s in bnha, that’s always made me happy haha

Anon said:Love the new Haikyuu art! Although it’s sad that someone made you lose motivation to draw BNHA :/ Daishou is one of my faves, too. He’s such a doof, love it.

OH BOY I love Daishou so much, I’m glad you like him too! Aside from how much fun he is to draw (and color! he’s a green haired boy and that matters lots to me haha) he’s got so much personality and he’s such an interesting character! I honest to god disliked him with a passion during the nekohebi game, actually haha but that’s how it is with most of my hq faves, after all hahaha glad you liked the doodles, by the way!!!

Anon said:DOGS? SHOUTS? LUCA IS MY KINDA GUY

THANK YOU FOR LIKING MY ANGRY SON !!!!!! :D

Anon said:I love Luca! Where did he get his scar?

A fight with some punks back when he was a teen that ended up escalating when knives became a thing that was being used :O he comes off as the dangerous sorta type which makes good people steer clear and bad ones come looking for trouble/ pick fights with him cause they assume he was picking a fight cause of his resting bitch face. Well, he’s an ass so let’s say that at least half the times he had been picking fights, and it’s not like he runs when someone tries to fight him anyway… that’s not the only scar he has, it’s just the most visible one haha

Anon said:I’m kinda freaking out about Luca and the others being italians! It makes me love your OCs even more ahah Btw, don’t know if you’ve already answered this or if it’s too personal but… are you Italian? (Or what nationality?)

Yah I am! :D and I’m super happy to hear you like my kids!!!!!

Anon said:Hello! I just wanted to let you know that you inspire me a lot! Your blog is honestly such a happy, fun place to be. You draw so much stuff, so much cute and sweet stuff regularly and I aspire to be like that! I’m extremely slow at drawing, and I lose motivation or get distracted from drawing easily, but I’m hoping for a day when I can make a blog just like yours; a place where I can regularly draw things that make me happy. I hope you have a wonderful day!

I’m!!!! so happy to hear that!!!!! And yeah I 100% understand the being slow and getting discouraged easily, I used to be (and sort of still am) like that too :O my need to be faster is what had me end up with the style I have now, actually haha I hope you’ll find a comfortable style that’ll let you be as fast as you wish soon too, anon!!!

Anon said:I don’t think you understand how much it means to me that you drew an asahi! He’s my fave and he looks precious and pretty in your style! Thank you for this gift :’)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m glad you liked him, then!!!!!!! *O* thank you!!!!!

Anon said:Thank you for drawing Noya! Im sorry it was sort of cause of a shitty anon, I also really enjoy your bnha drawings so im not trying to be all “waaaah go back to hq”, but im happy to see my lightning son and also find out hes in your favs? Yay!

YAH HE’S THE BEST ISN’T HE he’s been one of my top 5s since he first appeared, he’s such a good I’m glad you liked him!!!!!!!!

Anon said:FRAN YOUR NEW HQ ART IM IN LOVE!!!!!! YOU DRAW DAISHOU LIKE A LITERAL SNAKE HES SO SMUG ITS SO GOOD!! AND YOUR OCS!! I WOULD HONESTLY READ A BOOK ABOUT THEM. OR A WEB COMIC. BOTH ARE GOOD. SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS IM JUST EXCITED BC HQ!!!! AND AWESOME OCS!!!! (can you tell that i have a weakness for other people’s ocs, esp when done well) (which you certainly have)

THANK YOU FOR THE COMPLIMENTS OH GODS !!!!!!!!!!!! Especially about my ocs, that makes me so happy oh boy ;O; !!! And and and I’m super happy you liked Dai! He’s honestly so much fun to draw, for me hahaha

Anon said:I’m sorry that people are being assholes, sending good vibes! I love all your art, I hope you have a good day

This to you and everyone else who’s sent the same type of ask, thank you SO much! You guys are all so incredibly nice and supportive, bless all of you ;O;

Anon said:Dave!!! :D

Dave indeed!!!!!! :D :D

Anon said:your art is Good

Thank You !!!!!!!!

Anon said:omg i love your ocs so much

SOB thank you?????

Anon said:I love how the collar on Kiri’s coat in the ‘Them boys’ post is reminiscent of his pauldrons

……………………………………………….. that was totally on purpose. Yep. Definitely. Hmhm.

Anon said:Anon from before showed me your stuff today and just wanted to say wow I love your stuff what even your art is so good I fuckin love kiribaku and oh my god I swear I must have gone through your whole kiribaku tag and I’m gone your art just made my day

GOSH I’m glad you liked them???? thank you for such a nice message aaahhhh !!!!!!

Anon said:Im cry omg i just realized ur url is franeridart fjhfhf this whole time i thought it was friend art bddnjx

You’re the second person that tells me that in the span of just a couple of days omfg hahahaha it’s cool tho, I wish that was actually the url, it’d have been such a soft one haha

Anon said:hi Kaminari can skateboard he has a skateboard in his room

Kaminari in his room also has a dart board, a basketball and a dj console, and that’s only the stuff whe can see so actually, considering in his likes there’s “cool things” I think he’s the type of boy that tries to pursue any hobbie he might think would make him look cool, so either he has no clue how to use any of the cool things in his room above a vaguely amatorial level or he’s still pursuing all of those interests! Which would actually be super cool! Incidentally this is my preferred headcanon too so, yeah, as far as I’m concerned he knows how to skate. And play basketball. And darts. And also how to dj. He’s a cool kid haha

Anon said:Bless you and your super cute kiribaku ^_^

Bless you for the super sweet message, anon!!!! ;O;

Anon said:THAT JIROU IS SO TINY AND ADORABLE I’M DYING LOOK AT HER SIDE BY SIDE WITH KAMINARI AND BAKUGOU OH MY GOD

Hahahaha I might have actually accentuated that a bit, but she’s about 20cm shorter than the both of them and in a chibi style that’s hard to keep accurate hahahaha but yeah I love my pocket sized girl she’s the best

Anon said:Im so fucking happy because youve been posting (almost?) daily for a few days now

That was my own poor attempt at something similar to inktober, actually! I’ve had a few days through the month I wasn’t at home at all so I couldn’t draw all 31 days, but I think I got close? Maybe? I’m glad you enjoyed it, tho!!

Anon said:you deserve all the love in the world

I’m f sobbing so do you, friend ;u;

Anon said:do you like as*noya?? or, which are your main pairings for asahi and noya :)

I do ship as*noya, but I prefer Asahi with Daichi and Suga (ot3) or with Kiyoko, actually :O while my fav Noya ship is with Tanaka~

Anon said:I have recently fallen totally in love with kiribaku as a ship, and your art is always my favorite to see in the tags. Thanks for drawing those two nerds, and I hope you have a good rest of your day!

Thank you!!!!! This fandom is super full of incredibly talented people, I hope you’ll enjoy it here hahaha

Anon said: I first found your blog searching the Bokuroo tag.I was very happy because it was one of my all time OTPs,but they didnt have much content.Then there you came,with amazing art.Time passed and you watched BNHA.I was absolutely captivated by BakuShima and then I checked your blog and it had BakuShima!!I told myself “this person cant get any cooler”.But today i found out about TetsuKami and I checked their tag and yoU ALREADY MADE FANART OF THEM!!Officially ,you are the coolest person on Tumblr tbh

We seem to have really really similar tastes in ships, anon!!!! that’s so great omfg !!!!!!! :O and I’m super happy you like my stuff still afer all this time hahaha

Anon said:Could I draw some fan art of your ocs?

Oh my god yeah!!!!! please do link me to it if you do!!!!!

Anon said:BLESS YOUR BEAUTIFUL SOUL FOR MAKING SUCH AMAZING ART

BLESS YOU FOR BEING SO KIND, ANON!!!!!!

#fran answers #fuck me and my procrastinating ass #also #original art #but just blabber about it?#oc asks #okay that's better #anonymous

127 notes · View notes

slylock-syl · 7 years

Photo

HEY GUESS WHAT!

A year ago today I uploaded the first ever update of Under/Source! :D In commemoration of this event, I will post a random fact or tid-bit about Under/Source over the course of the week.

Here’s your first lil’ fact: The prologue itself was a last minute decision.

Thrilling, I know, but they’ll get better as the week progresses.

Now that that’s out of the way, I want to say a few things.

I want to thank all of you for being here and supporting the comic, it means a HECK of a lot to me. This project of mine is the only thing I’ve ever created in which at least someone has shown any interest at all, and now there are over 1600?? It’s crazy it what it is, and I’m extremely grateful. When I started this, I never thought I’d get very far, and I especially never thought I’d get to meet such cool people. @askzanequestions, @bree-the-potato, @mramazingva, you guys have been AWESOME, I’m still reeling over the fact that you guys want to dub my silly comic! Seriously, you guys are super cool, thank you for being here.

This entire experience has been a heck of a ride for me so far, I went from doing nothing all day everyday, to having to draw a bunch of things every week. I love drawing and I love telling stories, and I’m really glad that I’m able to share this one with you all, and I hope I’ll be able to share more stories in the days to come. ^_^

Thank You ❤

#sylchat #Under/Source #UnderSource #UnderSource Anniversary #UnderSource 1st Anniversary #BTS #Behind-The-Scenes #why did I draw a mediocre cupcake for this occasion?#cuz why not XD #6

63 notes · View notes

stereksummerexchange · 7 years

Text

Stiles The Pirate

@eternalsterek-broughttolife | AO3 - A back-up gift specifically requested by me, and seeing how everyone was able to get their gifts in, I’m going to gift it to myself haha (especially since this is the sweetest little fic).

by @poetry-protest-pornography

Stiles works at a water park, one day he finds a little girl with dark hair and intense eyes crying and has to help her find her family.

The familiar chlorine-sunscreen-warm pavement smell of Riverwood Water Park is a strange comfort as Stiles walks toward the staff locker room; nostalgia and fond memories always rushed through Stiles when he was at the park. The fact that this would–hopefully–be his last summer working there was both sad and exciting.

It wouldn’t be easy saying goodbye to the place he’d visited so often with his mom and dad as a kid, the place where he had worked every summer since he was sixteen. Manning Pirate Cove, a scale model of a pirate ship designed for younger children, with slides where canons would be found and a swirling sprayer that moved with the ship’s wheel, had become his favorite summertime distraction. The enthusiasm and joy that little kids unabashedly threw into splashing each other and climbing and fun made Stiles feel joyous by proxy.

Closing his locker in the staff showers, he allowed himself to feel a little melancholy. Graduating and moving on to grad school that was no closer to his dad or his friends was hard. He’d always half planned on coming back to California, but he’d had to wave adios to that plan when a full scholarship offer came in for a program in Colorado.

It was going to be hard to have say goodbye to his coworkers, too. Some of them had been working with him since he started, and they’d grown up together, one summer at a time. They’d shared cookouts and after work meals, then after work drinks and dancing as they became old enough for it. End of season parties, bonfire hookups, summer flings.

The thought of leaving Erica and Boyd especially filled him with disappointment; they’d been spending their summers together for the last five seasons, and they’d had more than a handful of those s’mores and summer heat-flavored nights. Now, they were the best of friends, speaking often even when Stiles was on the other side of the country and longing for summer and open-skied nights in his adequate but lonely student apartment.

That he would not miss. Even with the personal touches he’d managed to add, a half-sized kitchen, a shower with the water pressure of a jammed squirt gun, and barely enough room for a two-seater couch and a desk with a rolling chair never felt much like home.

Summers at Riverwood, though, that was definitely part of home for him. Permanent chlorine scent, shrieking kids, and all.

What wasn’t normal though, was a crying child. Yet, just inside the gate where he entered Pirate Cove, there was a young girl–around five if Stiles had to guess–rubbing the back of her hand over her eyes, fruitlessly trying to stop the tears spilling from her green and gold eyes. Her long dark hair was escaping from the tight braid she wore, and she clutched at her brightly striped towel like a lifeline.

Stiles pasted on his friendliest, most reassuring smile and stooped down so he was at her eye level. “Hi, sweetheart, my name is Stiles. Is there something that I can help you with? I work here, so if you’re lost, or if something happened that upset you, I can help.”

When she looked up at him, her lip was wobbling and she was taking big, shuddering breaths, but she was obviously trying to get herself to calm down; Stiles was impressed with her control.

“I was pl-playing in the wave pool, an’ then I thought I saw a bunny by the fe-fence, so I went t’ see it, but it was go-one!” she sobbed, getting more upset as she went on. “Then I got lost, and now I can’t find my-my-m-” she started crying again, too much now to finish her sentence, so Stiles put a cautious hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, that is something I can definitely fix,” he said, letting a little enthusiasm into his voice in the hopes that his confidence would reassure her. “Can you tell me your name?”

She sniffed, but gave him a wobbly smile and answered “Tali.”

“Well, Tali,” he said, returning her smile, “Do you think you could hold my hand so we can stick together on the way back to the wave pool?” At her nod, he stood up, and offered his hand. Hers felt so small in his that he had a moment of panic at being responsible for someone so little. Then reality settled over him and his years of experience with kids kicked in as he rolled his eyes at himself.

On the way past Pirate Cove, Stiles waved to get Boyd’s attention, glad it was his friend in the lifeguard seat so he could be assured that the kids playing in the Cove would be safe for a few minutes while he returned Tali to her family (the new kid, Liam, he wasn’t so sure about yet; he barely looked old enough to drive, let alone be responsible for children). “Hey, Boyd! I just have to take my friend Tali back to the wave pool. Be right back!”

Boyd waved back, nodding that he’d heard him, and Stiles turned back to Tali, looking down at her with another smile as they restarted their short trek to the wave pool. “Okay, kiddo?” he asks gently.

“Yeah. But. Did you mean it when you said we were friends?” The sincerity in her voice makes Stiles heart break a little. This kid is just too… something.

“Of course I did! As long as you’re okay with having a friend who still reads comic books and believes in magic,” he replied with just as much sincerity. Those things were true, but in his experience, kids are more comfortable with adults they can relate to a little.

Tali’s eyes go wide and she smiles brightly. “You like comics! Who’s your favorite superhero? Do you like Spider-Man? Do you like werewolves?! How about fairies, do you believe in fairies? I like Tinkerbell, ’cause she builds cool stuff, but she’s a pixie, which is only kind of a fairy.”

Stiles couldn’t help but chuckle; it wasn’t often that he met someone who could talk as much as he did. They were almost to the wave pool, and Stiles started looking for a family with dark hair and a frantic expressions.

“Spider-Man is pretty great, but Batman is my favorite, and he’s kinda like Tinkerbell, right? He invents lots of stuff. Though he’s definitely not a pixie! I think werewolves are awesome, though, it’d be so cool to meet a werewolf, don’t ya think?”

Tali laughed, and it was the best thing Stiles had heard all morning; he couldn’t stand to see kids crying. “Batman would look silly dressed like Tinkerbell!”

“Ha! Yeah he would! Hey Tali? Do you remember where you were-” before Stiles could finish asking, the most attractive man Stiles had ever seen was rushing towards them, calling Tali’s name.

Tali let go of his hand and launched herself into the man’s open arms, a muffled cry of “Da-” disappearing into a strong shoulder. Stiles couldn’t help but notice the flex of the muscles in the guy’s tanned arms, or the dusting of dark hair that seemed to have been placed just-so by an artist on every perfect inch of him.

“Where have you been, peanut? I was so scared when I couldn’t find you!” The man’s voice is surprisingly soft, and he’s rocking Tali back and forth slightly as he cradles her against him. It’s almost too much for Stiles to bear watching, and it makes his heart beat out of sync; a strange and overwhelming sense of want settles in his belly, but he isn’t sure what it is for.

Tali begins to explain about the bunny again, a slight tremble in her voice as she pulls away from the man’s shoulder, small hands resting on either side of the guy’s neck. Her voice gets less wobbly and more animated as she continues “…An’ then my friend Stiles found me, and he brought me back! He works on a pirate ship, and he likes comic books, and he thinks werewolves are the coolest.”

The man looks up then, as if he’d only just realized he was standing there, his face doing something complicated as his (incredibly beautiful) eyes trace Stiles’ shape quickly. “Sorry, I- Thank you so much. I don’t know what happened–one minute she was right there–I must seem like a terrible-”

Stiles can’t let the poor guy continue to beat himself up. “Hey, no, it happens all the time, there’s a lot going on here, kids get distracted.”

“I really can’t thank you enough, uh, Stiles, right?” he asks as though uncertain he’d heard Tali correctly.

Stiles laughs lightly, “It’s a lot easier to say than what’s on my driver’s licence.”

“Stiles the pirate,” he says with a smile that makes Stiles’ heart and his breath speed up. He offers his hand and introduces himself with “I’m Derek.”

Taking a deep breath to make sure his voice is steady, Stiles takes Derek’s hand, mildly shocked at the electric feeling that rushes through him at the contact. “Nice to meet you, Derek.” Stiles feels Tali watching him, and he glances at her to find her head tilted and her eyes moving between him and Derek thoughtfully. He reluctantly slides his hand from Derek’s, vaguely aware he’s been holding it for longer than strictly necessary, and turns toward Tali. “And you, Ms. Tali, it was great to have someone to talk to about superheroes; most of my other friends don’t like them much.

Tali beams at him and sticks out her arm to shake Stiles’ hand, which he takes with a dramatic bow that makes her giggle. When he straightens up, Derek is looking at him with a softly awed smile and eyes that are positively sparkling. “You’re silly,” Tali teases, “Can you play with us a while?”

She’s looking at him pleadingly, a slight pout and eyebrows pushed up high on her forehead for maximum cuteness. Her brows aren’t newly as impressive as her dad’s, but it’s enough to make him want to skip work. Derek’s face is doing a pretty decent job of mirroring Tali’s, and that is just wholly unfair.

If Stiles is looking at Derek more than Tali when he says “I really wish I could,” he can’t really be blamed. He manages to get it together to direct “I have to get to work now, kiddo,” at Tali. Both Derek and Tali seem to deflate a little, and Stiles feels strangely guilty. He blames the eyebrows.

Derek rubs the back of his neck, balancing Tali in one arm, his eyes looking down at their feet for a moment before catching Stiles’ eye. “Maybe, uh. Maybe we can come and get a tour of your ship?” he asks hopefully, his ears turning a pleasing pink that has nothing to do with the afternoon sun. Stiles wants to taste the blush, see what else he can do to make it happen.

Tali excitedly asks, “Oh! Can we, can we, pleeease!” and Stiles feels his own face heat–thinking about what Derek’s skin feels like while he’s holding his kid, while he’s at work and surrounded by kids, is beyond inappropriate. Get it together, Stilinski he mentally chastises himself. Getting caught up in Tali’s wiggly excitement lets the heated mental images dissolve, and he can’t do anything but answer honestly, “I’d like that very much.”

Derek thanks him again as they part, and Tali calls “See you soon!” over Derek’s shoulder as they walk away. Stiles waves back, then has to actually shake his head to clear it before he heads back to Pirate Cove.

Boyd waves at him when he gets back, and Stiles goes to update his friend on what happened with Tali–and to talk about Derek a little. It’s a relatively quiet time at the Cove, lunch time usually is, as most families take the time to eat their picnic lunches or brave the lines at the food stands. Stiles is grateful for the fact that they only have half a dozen or so kids, instead of the twenty-five or so that they usually have, which is the upper limit on the number of kids allowed–and a lot to handle all at once. Stiles loved it though.

As he and Boyd caught up, pausing occasionally to warn kids about running, help fill buckets under the plank’s water spouts, or check in with the attendants on the other side of the shallow pool surrounding the ship, Stiles found his mind wandering back to Tali and Derek.

Was it ridiculous for him to hope for what could only be a summer fling with a guy who has a kid? Was it irresponsible to start something, if it was even an option? He’s pretty sure Derek was flirting with him, or at least was interested in flirting with him. And when they had touched, it was like every romance novel cliche about ‘electric contact’ suddenly made sense.

“Oh man, Stiles, you got it bad my friend,” Boyd teases in his quiet way.

“You know me, when I fall, I fall… Only. He’s got a kid, and she’s amazing! Funny, and bright, I think she might talk even more than me! But she’s like, five. It’s not fair to just jump into a kid’s life like that. I’m leaving for Denver in two months. Plus, it’s not like I’m great with not getting emotionally attached; it’s not good for me to jump into something that can’t last either.”

Boyd hums his agreement, being well acquainted with Stiles’ tendency to dive in head first. “Sometimes, things work out,” he says sagely, looking slightly over Stiles’ shoulder with a wide grin.

Stiles turns around and finds himself flailing to stay on his feet as his legs are tackled by all forty pounds of Tali. Luckily, Derek was right behind her, and then he was right next to Stiles, catching him before he could wipe out and end up ass first on the unforgiving concrete. Stiles feels hot where they’re touching, his back half pressed against Derek’s very firm chest, Derek’s arm wrapped low around his waist. Stiles feels like he’s burning up. He might need to have Tali hose him down with one of the water canons…

Thankfully, Tali giggles then, again pulling him out of his thoughts. “Oops! Sorry, Stiles!”

“No problem, kiddo,” Stiles laughs, patting her hair and stepping away from Derek, missing his heat despite the warmth of the sun.

“It’s a good thing Uncle Derek caught you, or you coulda fallen down!”

“Yeah it’s a very good thi- Uncle Derek? I thought-” Stiles looked back and forth between Tali and Derek rapidly, processing the new information.

Derek huffs out an apologetic “Yeah, Tali’s my older sister’s kid. I love her lots,” he says, ruffling Tali’s hair and pulling her against his side, “But her mom’d be pretty mad at me if I tried to take her back to Boulder with me.”

“I bet. Though, it’s probably hard to say goodbye, right? I mean, Tali is probably the coolest kid I’ve ever met.” Stiles grins at Tali, gratified to see that she’s positively beaming at him.

Boyd clears his throat loudly, and Stiles hears the unspoken “You missed something, pal” in the sound. Stiles thinks back a couple seconds to find what it might be, and “Oh! You live in Boulder?”

“Yeah, I’m just here for the summer, visiting Tali,” Derek smiles, looking slightly confused about why Stiles is excited about where he lives, eyebrows quirked in amused concern.

Stiles can’t believe his luck! Two out of three of the obstacles in the way of a potential relationship with Derek are not, in fact, in the way at all! “That’s funny, I’m moving to Denver for my Masters in Criminal Psych in August.”

Derek smiles one of those eyes-scrunched-and-sparkling smiles that Stiles thinks he might become addicted to. “I’m at UC Boulder for my PhD in History, we’re practically neighbors.” Stiles is pretty sure he imagines the flirtatious tone in Derek’s voice, but he doesn’t care.

Tali pulls on Stiles’ arm, forcing him to tear his eyes away from Derek. Again. “Can you show us the pirate ship now?” At a look from Derek, she adds “Please?” and Stiles can’t help but laugh. He and Tali are going to get along just fine.

“Yeah, let’s go see the ship,” Derek starts before Stiles can answer. “Then later, maybe Stiles would like to have dinner?” Derek looks at Stiles hopefully, and if he had even been entertaining turning Derek down, that face would’ve changed his mind.

“That sounds great, I’m done at 5 o’clock”

Derek smiles again, or his smile grows, really, and Tali adds “We can get hot dogs!”

“I love hot dogs,” Stiles says, because he really does, but also, if he and Tali are going to be buds, he should remind her of the things they have in common. If he and Derek make it to an actual date, he thinks having someone with such good puppy dog eyes will be very handy.

Derek laughs, and it’s a great sound. “Sorry kiddo, I promised your mom I’d have you back by four.”

Tali pouts and looks so put out that Stiles stifles a laugh. Instead, he says “Hey, Tali, next time, we’ll totally go for hot dogs, okay?”

She looks contemplative for a moment before nodding her agreement and taking him and Derek both by the hand, marching them toward the pirate ship. Derek looks at him over Tali’s head with an amused smirk “Next time, huh?”

Stiles lets a grin spread across his face. “Yep.”

“Good,” is all Derek says, but it sounds like a promise.

#stereksummerexchange17 #sse17 #sterek #submission #fic

260 notes · View notes

the-undertale-mouse · 7 years

Photo

Part 2 of a thing I call “Gaster’s Journal Entries” which I will be posting regularly since I finished it a while ago and just now decided to share it because I was rereading it recently and decided I actually rather liked it. It’s far from perfect and might not always make sense, so ask questions! Send Feedback! This writing exercise will be very, very interesting. What do you guys think?

Entry 8

She’s gone. All is lost. I am in the pit of despair. What started as a simple formula designed for the convenience of mankind, has ended in suffering. She used it to teleport, and to everyone’s surprise, she was successful…well, so it would seem. But the formula was still incomplete! She disappeared and has not come back. Her mother is distraught with grief. I am empty inside except when it comes to comforting my wife.

Entry 9

I died. It took 60 years after that incident, but it finally happened. How am I writing this? It’s a curious thing, what you can do with enough determination. I won’t say “will to live” because I think I lost that a long time ago, save for the hope that my daughter is out there, somewhere. My wife is no more. I believe she has found peace, or at least acceptance. I linger because I am restless. She is out there, in time or space…I do not know, but I feel it in my bones…This is funny because it appears that I am now some sort of living skeleton…well I guess not much has changed. My hair left me several years before I died, so the only real difference is the lack of skin and organs. There goes my dream of playing in church…I wonder if all skeletons are this humorous. ..I have to stop, but I can’t. Despite everything, life is funnier when you’re dead.

I arose underground, literally the place is called “the underground.” the folks down here are not much for naming. At first I thought I was in some version of the underworld or purgatory. Well, it is and it isn’t. After some investigating, I discovered it is not a form of afterlife, but a sort of subterranean chamber where monsters were banished long ago, nearly a millennia, in fact. I found myself here, because apparently, as a skeleton, I am one of them now. I’m not the only one either. There are others like me who have found themselves down here for one reason or another.

They call me by a new name, since it’s some sort of tradition to call skeletons by the way they talk. Apparently I am “Wingding Aster.” I tried introducing myself to some other monsters but all they got out of it was “g Aster” so now, everyone calls me that. I seem to talk in a way that is difficult for others to understand? I didn’t think my accent was that bad? In any case, I’ve taken to using sign language, and that seems to work better. A surprising number of monsters are quite fluent in it. Makes sense since there are a number who are incapable of vocal speech. I’m glad I learned it young.

There are other skeletons that are born in to this life: small baby skeletons that steadily grow and change. I’ve never imagined anything like it. Watching them reminds me of my little girl, and I wonder if I’ll see her again, and what form she’ll take. The old woman she should be? A skeleton like me? Or, hope against hope, she was lost in time, and one day, she’ll appear in front of me exactly the same as the day she left. But that is too good to be true. For one, how would she even get here? Whatever the case, I can feel she’s out there somewhere. I know she’ll find me one way or another.

Entry 10

I never imagined I would love again, but there it is. My heart may be colorless and upside down, but it is still somehow capable of making me feel this way. What did I do to deserve to get lucky twice? Miss Harrington is a skeletal wonder to behold. I swear, she’s just like my Harriett, and at the same time, she is entirely different. For one, she loves boats, where Harriet was always sea sick. They both like biology, but Harriett always loved the flora, whereas Harrington is fascinated with fauna. Little things, little clues that show me they are not the same. Yet I love them both. I think I will propose to her, when the moment is right. All should go well, as long as I don’t call her Harriet.

Entry 11

I called her Harriet and she said yes anyway! At First she was jealous, but when I explained, she became sweet and accepted my proposal! We were married in the castle by the king himself (who turns out to be a lovable fuzzy pushover.) We got to talking and he set me up with a great job as the royal scientist, can you believe it! He said it was so I could support the children to come! O///O I’m not even sure how skeletons have children. It’s silly, but I’ve been too embarrassed to ask anyone. I’ll ask my new wife on our honeymoon…I’m not sure how that will go either, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t eager to find out.

Entry 12

A beautiful baby boy has graced our lives! It all happened so fast and here he is! Ah. To hold a child in my arms once more! Gracious, how I missed it so! I wonder how Trish will react when she finds out she’s a sister! Little baby Comic Sans! Don’t ask me how I know if he hasn’t said a word yet, it’s some sort of skeletal instinct. Its incredible the things I learn about my new existence. Do you know, we made him out of magic and just a little piece of each of us? My wife donated a back molar, I donated a bit of my right hand(I lost my teeth in my past life and it didn’t feel right to do anything else.) I was able to just remove a little circle of my matter with magic and place it next to her tooth. It was oddly painless. In the past, I would have never believed it, as scientific as I was. But here I am, a being made of magic, and just a little dust, and so is my wife, and so is our child. We just charged up our energy and zap there he was!

Of course it took quite the toll on both of us, we’ll both have to take off work for weeks, maybe months. Though, I must say, I like how both partners have to put forth effort for new life to be created, really gives you a sense of pride and responsibility. Of course, I felt that with Trish, but with little Comic, it’s a whole new depth. I really feel like part of my soul went into him and is no longer mine, but his forever. And indeed, it may not be metaphorical, but actual. I’m still not sure how this monster stuff works. I would like to try it one more time, either another girl or another boy, doesn’t matter. But it will be a while. This one exhausted us, and if experience serves, it may be a good idea to wait until comic is old enough to handle himself a bit. 9 or 10 sounds good. I’ll talk to Harrington about it. In any case, it would be nice to even out my hands.

Entry 13

Comic is showing incredible mental development. Comparable to Trish. They will both surpass me, if Trish hasn’t already. Comic certainly will. Physically however…he likes his naps. I don’t know what is normal for skeleton children, but Trish didn’t nap half as much. He’s also rather small for his age, I think. I can’t tell. Trish grew so fast, was it because she was a human, a girl, both, some other factor? I keep urging him to eat healthy, but he keeps begging for fast-food. Half the time I think he just wants the ketchup that comes with it. I don’t know what it is with that boy and ketchup. His mom says it’s just a phase, but I’m not sure.

Entry 14

We’ve done it again! Another gorgeous baby boy. His name is Papyrus! He’s such a sweetheart! Everyone who meets him loves him instantly. I was worried for a moment if the brothers might have a rivalry, but no such thing. Comic absolutely adores his younger brother. I get the feeling he would protect him to the ends of the earth. I’m such a lucky father.

#undertale #fanfic #gaster's journal entries #gaster's family #sans #papyrus #part 2

1 note · View note

cutieodonoghue · 7 years

Text

all my love

summary: a 95% fluffy oneshot following the events of the following: world unknown, yours to keep, all that i’ll ever need, merry christmas, here’s to many more, and i was yours from the start.

word count: ~12,200