#I’m so glad I tried out making custom bases too!

[drfrogphd]

They’re here!! Batter is a little smaller than the others but otherwise PERFECT

[hoe4hotchner]

I loved bakery owner reader x loyal customer hotch SO MUCH 😭😭😭

Can you please make one where the team finally meets her? Maybe on Penelope’s birthday since she is the most excited about the relationship 😅. Maybe he shows up at Dave’s house with reader by surprise

A sweet surprise, a warmer welcome | [A.H]

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x bakery owner fem!reader | WC: 0.8k | CW: it's fluff so none

String lights hung in the backyard, casting a warm glow over the patio, and the smell of grilling steaks, vegetables, and whatever vegetarian dish Penelope had brought along filled the air. Music played softly in the background, and laughter mixed with the hum of conversation.

But despite the cheerful atmosphere, the team couldn’t help but wonder about one thing: Hotch.

Ever since Penelope had found the picture of him with you the team had been curious about the woman who had brought some light into their usually reserved boss’s life. Penelope, in particular, was buzzing with excitement, though she had promised to let Hotch decide when to introduce his partner to the team - and hold her horses on looking into your background.

"Do you think he's coming?" Penelope whispered to Emily as they watched Morgan tend to the grill. “I mean, I don't expect him to bring her, but it would be the best birthday surprise.”

Emily smiled, taking a sip of her wine. “Who knows? He’s full of surprises lately.”

Meanwhile, Hotch parked his car in Rossi’s driveway, your hand resting in his as he turned off the engine. You had been nervous about meeting his team - they sounded like a close-knit group, full of strong personalities - but Hotch had assured you they would welcome you with open arms. Still, the nervous energy in your stomach was undeniable.

“You ready?” Hotch asked, his voice calm and reassuring as he turned to you, giving your hand a gentle squeeze.

You took a breath and smiled softly. “As ready as I probably can be.”

Hotch chuckled. “Don’t worry, they’re excited to meet you, especially Penelope.”

You laughed at that. “Penelope, your tech guru who figured out we were dating just from a picture? That Penelope?” You tried to recall the information he had told you about each member of the team.

He smiled. “That’s the one. She’s been asking about you ever since.”

The thought of the team being so eager to meet you made you feel more at ease. With a final glance at each other, Hotch led you to the front door, the faint sound of laughter and music drifting from the backyard. As he opened the door, you could hear what you assumed was Penelope’s voice, based on the information Hotch had told you, and the reality of the moment settled in.

Before stepping outside, Hotch paused, turning to you with a soft smile. “I’m happy that you wanted to come.”

Your heart fluttered at the sincerity in his words. “Me too.”

Together, you walked into the backyard, hand in hand. The conversation started to quiet as people noticed you arriving. It was JJ who spotted you first, her eyes widening as she nudged Will. “Guys, look.”

All heads turned in your direction, and for a moment, the team was silent, taking in the sight of Hotch with his arm around you. Penelope, however, couldn’t hold back her excitement for long.

“Oh. My. Gosh!” she squealed, practically bouncing with joy. “You brought her!”

Hotch smiled at her enthusiasm. “Surprise.”

She rushed forward, arms open as she enveloped you in a warm hug before you even had a chance to introduce yourself. “It’s so nice to finally meet you! We’ve all been waiting for this day!”

You returned the hug, smiling. “It’s nice to meet you too, Penelope. I’ve heard so much about everyone.”

Penelope pulled back, beaming, and gestured to the rest of the team. “This is Emily, Derek, JJ, and of course, you already know Rossi.”

Rossi walked over with a grin, wiping his hands on a towel. “Welcome. Hotch hasn’t said much, but we’ve been looking forward to this.”

You chuckled. “I’m just glad to finally meet all of you.”

The rest of the team gathered around, offering greetings and introductions. Morgan shook your hand with a grin. “So you’re the one who’s been making our boss a little less strict lately. Nice to meet you.”

You blushed slightly. “I just make the coffee and bread, really. He did the rest himself.”

Hotch smiled softly. “You do a lot more than that.”

Emily leaned in toward Penelope with a teasing smile. “Okay, you were right. Best birthday surprise ever.”

Penelope practically glowed with happiness. “I knew it! Hotch, you’ve been holding out on us, but I forgive you because she’s perfect.”

You laughed along with the group, feeling the warmth and acceptance from each of them. Hotch stayed close by, his hand still gently holding yours. He seemed more at ease, surrounded by his friends and with you by his side.

Rossi raised his glass, signaling for everyone to do the same. “To Penelope’s and to meeting the woman who’s made Hotch happier than we’ve seen him in a long time.”

The group cheered, glasses clinking together in celebration. As the night went on, you found yourself fitting seamlessly into their dynamic, sharing stories and laughter. Hotch remained close, always attentive, and though it was Penelope’s special day, it was clear that you were the true surprise that made the evening unforgettable.

[mightbeimpossiblenotto]

Show - Oct 30 - @rosekillermicrofic - 808 words - Warnings: none

“Will you please stop by Spellbinding Sound for me?” Pandora begged as soon as Evan picked up her call.

“‘Hello, Evan, my dearest brother,’” Evan said dryly. “I think you’re supposed to greet me at the very least before asking for a favor.”

Pandora sighed noisily. “I just need a new pack of reeds for my clarinet, and you know which ones to buy.”

Evan sighed back at her. “I suppose it is on the way home. I’ll drop by for you, if you make me dinner.”

“Deal,” Pandora said, hanging up immediately. Evan looked at his phone blankly, offended for a moment, before remembering she was probably in the middle of practicing when she called.

Spellbinding Sound was a small music supply shop that Pandora favored, and Evan had been sent there a few times on errands for her. He usually didn’t mind; the owner, an older man named Albus, was kind and patient. When Evan entered the store, though, he was already helping a customer.

“Would you like me to restring the instrument for you?” Albus was asking the man in front of him. The man was shorter than Evan, with dark, tousled hair and several face piercings: two on his lip, another on his eyebrow, another on his nose, too many to count on both ears. He was wearing a graphic band t-shirt over ripped-up jeans, a leather jacket slung over his shoulder. His bare arms were covered in tattoos, and they continued up his neck and down his hands. Evan found himself wondering where else the man was tattooed.

“No, thanks,” the man said in a smooth voice. “I like to do it myself.”

He picked up his strings, which Evan assumed were for some sort of guitar or bass for his punk band, based on the man’s appearance. The man nearly ran into Evan when he spun around and walked towards the door with a swift gait.

“My bad,” the man said, worrying one of the lip rings between his teeth for a moment. “I’m Barty.”

Confused as to why the man gave his name, Evan responded with his own. “Evan.”

Evan tried to step around Barty, but Barty stepped into his path again.

“You like music?” Barty asked, and before Evan could answer, he continued talking. “You should come to my show. Friday night at the Slytherin Stage. I hope I’ll see you there.”

Evan watched him walk out the door, raising both eyebrows at the man’s gall. Inviting him to a show was one thing, but leaving directly after the invite was just dramatic. Evan shook it off and stepped up to the counter and greeted Albus.

“Does Pandora need new reeds?” Albus asked knowingly, his eyes sparkling. Evan nodded. They chatted amicably while Albus grabbed the reeds for Evan, and processed the payment for them. Soon enough, Evan was on his way home to Pandora.

Evan didn’t even know why he was attending the concert. He wasn’t a punk music person — but something about Barty had made him want to learn more. Maybe it was his overconfidence or attractiveness, but Evan felt compelled to come to his show that evening. He was surprised that attendees were dressed so nicely, and he was glad that he had come directly after work, so he was still wearing his nice work slacks and a button-down shirt. As he took his seat in the audience, in a gorgeous emerald-green auditorium. He was starting to think he had greatly misread the man he’d spoken to, because there was no way he was about to see some sort of punk band performance.

Nerves flew in his stomach as he wondered what he had signed up for, just as the curtains pulled back and revealed an entire full symphony orchestra. Evan scanned the faces of every single person until he found Barty, sitting at the very front left. He was first chair violin, the goddamn concertmaster. Evan had him pegged completely wrong.

To make matters worse, Barty looked even more attractive in the emerald green suit and tie, with his instrument propped on his knee and his bow in his other hand. Evan had been so stupid to assume he played the guitar, when clearly Barty’s body had been made to hold the violin. The conductor raised his hands, and then lovely music filled the auditorium as the orchestra began.

Evan was entranced. He watched Barty throughout the entire performance, never taking his eyes off Barty’s graceful movements. He ended up lingering by the side stage, waiting for Barty after the show. When the man emerged, he looked surprised to see Evan there.

“You came,” he said softly, before seemingly shaking confidence back into himself. “You liked the show, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Evan said. “I really did.”

And then he stepped forward and kissed Barty.

[enteroctopusdarkysilis]

✨Bionicle crab !✨

It was, originally, meant to be just another arthropod. However, someone reblogged my previous rahi, along with this comment :

Well, guess what ? Yes, absolutely. I’m glad I saw it because it gave me the inspiration for this monstrosity (and it made me laugh more than I would admit, too). Thanks.

I must recognise that if I compare my rahis, there is a clear pipeline. I don’t think it can go much further in this direction.

Anyways, details/closeups/weird illegal technic I just found out, below the cut !

Front (smol Visorak for scale) :

Because it’s really big. It’s also a good excuse to show off my really fancy and glittery Kanohi. No clue where it comes from but it’s beautiful !

I’m really happy with how mean this things looks, overall. It’s most definitely the bad guy for Toas to fight. It has a really good scale to work with my larger customer Toas [here], but it could also act as a really large rahi for my smaller space-based Toas [here]. Why a large crab stealing Kanohis in space, you may ask ? No idea. I’d have to actually think out a lore for that.

I started the conception with the frame (which does make sense, in theory), then the legs, and finally the shell. This was only partially smart, because that meant I did not account for the shell's mass when building the legs. Essentially, this poor thing can't stand on it's own, so I'm using two technic bars underneath to keep it up right (which are hidden in editing, of course).

Top/Hind (shell) :

I think the shell was pretty decent. I tried to use as little pieces as possible to keep it light, but it's still a lot. Among these pieces can be found one Visorak claw and three Mantax feet, which have a nice texture for organic feet. There is also another foot at the front which comes from an Inika set which I can't seem to find. I'm also using some of these large technic panels, which cover a lot of surface without being too much of a pain to set up (still quite a lot, since they're connected to the feet at at an angle, feet which which are also connected to the frame at an odd angle...) Speaking of Mantax, I alsu used the black-pearl shells, because these, too, have a really organic vibe, and it gave a small touch of pearl which was missing on the body.

I tried to keep the back relatively slick, to avoid something similar to an abdomen since it's not a spider. Still I had to extend it a little bit using the rounded cubical cover, to hide some socket joints, but it's okay-ish.

Neath :

Truly a mess, I must admit. As I started with each side separately, I tried to somehow connect them with the large grey technic frame (in the middle). On either sides, I have a whole bunch of axle connectors, both standard and angled, which allow for the thing to appear rounder than it could have been. The two leg sockets peices at the front are used for the eyes, and the pieces abov (barley visible) is a classic Bionicle shoulders piece clipped backward as a base for the pincers arms.

Pincer :

Or mandatory unusual feet usage. These really works well as any kind of claw or armor, in my opinion. The black arm pieces used here (Hordika leg piece) were particularly good for the job as they technic pin holes in there allowed me to add ad additional socket practically at the same level at the original one (even if I would rather have used black technic bars instead of the light grey ones, but i couldn't find any in my supplies... It's likely the Space station's fault.

Legs :

Or equally mandatory foot out of not foot pieces. Here is a cursed homebrew way to make legs : one Bohrok head part (bricklink call these shoulders ?) to display the piston-like element and serve as structure, linked with Toa Metru legs (which slots above nicely. And then comes the magic trick, for the Rahkshi shells (silveragain, because I have many of these) have a small attachment point toward the end, that is meant to hold the back blades in place; but it also perfectly fits right on the small ledge in the middle of the leg piece ! Granted, it's not a very secure connection, but these two pieces don't need anything else but that to hold. I actually loved this one so much, you can notice two additional Rahkshi shells held similarly on the tope of the crab's shell.

In order to connect the legs individually to the frame, I am using Vahki legs for the exterior limbs, and Pihraka arms for the central ones (these arms have the particular property of having the restrictive sockets on either sides, which makes it good to keep the leg's shape.

The middle sections are made using two simple axle-socket pieces connected by old plates, usually found in technic sets predating the Bionicle them.

…And obviously, I had to make another makeshift studio (I actually really like this one). Have a look at all these terribly assembled elements !

[my-head-is-an-animal]

The Climb

Summary: You're a scientist, an engineer to be exact. Called to a meeting you had no real right to be at, Optimus Prime takes an exclusive interest in you, but you can't help but ask yourself at every turn, Why?

Rating: 18+ 🌹🩸🍆

Story Masterlist

Chapter 17

Optimus felt silly, he didn’t know what he was supposed to say to Jane. The whole point of sharing his Spark, the initial idea anyway, was so that she would know him and the need for words would be non-existent. It occurred to him when Lennox was speaking with the Autobots, there was still so little he knew about humans, about their customs. If he wanted to be with Jane, he needed to learn, fast.

     She had been transferred to another room, mostly because Smith had been pestering the doctors and generally making a nuisance of himself, disturbing other patients. It was in the best interest of everyone.

     Optimus was able to talk to her better on a higher floor, the windows open and a gentle breeze circling her body. He’d heard she had been struggling with a fever recently, but they were unsure why or how to deal with it properly. Optimus wondered if the Spark had something to do with it.

     ‘Jane.’ He whispered, close to her. ‘I am here.’

     The rest of the base was leaving for the night and the Autobots were heading back to the hanger. It was as private as could be, but Optimus wished he could have sat on the hillside with Jane again. He wanted to speak to his wife in the place that now meant so much to them both.

     ‘Captain Lennox believes that speaking to you is a wise choice.’ He really didn’t know what else to say. ‘But I am unsure why. I believe it is a human concept, one I need you to explain to me in more detail… please wake up.’ The slightly quake in his voice was undeniable. Optimus figured if this was one of the only chances he got to speak to her, he may as well have made use of it. ‘I am uncertain of what will happen if you do not awaken soon.’

     Optimus looked around him, a part of him was very frustrated that she couldn’t talk back, this all felt silly and unnecessary to him. What was it really achieving?

     ‘Oh sorry.’ A voice came from the door of Janes room. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you, I was just checking her vitals.’

     ‘Of course.’ Optimus would rather know with numbers if Jane was okay.

     He watched the doctor who was looking after her, the way she was so gentle, never disturbing Jane’s body too much and… talking.

     ‘Alright Jane, things are looking good,’ she said cheerfully. ‘Looks like your hydration levels are back to normal, your muscular injuries are on the mend as well… and it looks like you’re on a good road to recovery. Keep up the good work.’ She smiled and made some quick notes before moving to leave the room.

     ‘Doctor.’ Optimus stopped her, she seemed nice and cheerful, but he’d heard from Lennox that she was also fierce enough to protect Jane from the likes of Smith. ‘May I ask, why do you talk to her?’

     The doctor smiled and approached him.

     ‘I’m glad you’re here Optimus,’ she said. ‘Talking to patients is something I’ve always done, it’s something I encourage all the friends and families to do.’

     ‘But she cannot respond. I do not understand the purpose.’ Optimus tried not to let his frustration seep in too much.

     ‘Well, it’s not for you.’ The doctor explained. ‘Our unconscious bodies are still aware of the things happening around us, noises and smells are powerful tools that can be used to help a patient find their way back to us. You’re not talking to her for you, you’re doing it for her, so that she knows you’re out here somewhere waiting for her to come back. And when she’s able to, she’ll wake up.’

     Optimus thought about it, there was still a lot he didn’t understand about humans, he hoped that Jane could be the one to explain things, but the doctor’s explanation made sense to him, enough that he didn’t feel as silly anymore.

     ‘Thank you.’ Optimus bowed his head slightly to show his gratitude.

     ‘Of course, let me know if you need anything. I won’t be far.’ The doctor smiled again and left Optimus with Jane once again.

     He took a moment and thought about what to say.

     ‘Jane,’ he started. ‘There are things we need to talk about, things I cannot hope to face without you. Your bravery is being questioned by those in command, I will defend you until my dying breath, but you must wake to fight with me.’ Optimus closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I miss you. I would like nothing more than to find you through my Spark, but please understand, we do not know what will happen if I disturb you for any reason. I am sorry if I have caused you such pain that you are unable to withstand our union, but I believed it was the right course of action. I would have given myself to no other. I love you.’

     Optimus had never said it before, it was a human way of expressing the depth of feeling for another, but again, words fell so far short or what he felt.

     Optimus remained almost the entire night and there was no clear change in her condition. He hated to see her this way, so helpless and unable to revive herself.

     He returned every night for a week to talk to her, hoping there would be some indication of change in her condition, but there was nothing. The fever was still present and the doctor couldn’t figure out why. Optimus worried that his Spark had set in motion events in Jane’s body that couldn’t be fixed.

     Captain Lennox was starting to get irritable, as was Jane’s friend Theo. Both believed that Optimus should have tried to make contact if he could. Theo, in particular, was insistent on it.

     ‘I don’t care that she married you and never told me!’ He yelled in the empty Autobot hanger, tears streaming down his face. ‘I just care that she survives! I need my friend back and you can help!’

     Optimus looked down at the young human, sighing and getting onto one knee, showing Theo the respect he deserved.

     ‘I am sorry that you feel this way,’ Optimus began. ‘And I am sorry that she never told you of us, but Jane’s responsibilities lay with something much bigger than you or I. Her focus needed to remain on climbing the ship, everything else was sacrificed.’

     ‘Except you.’ Theo whispered, his whole body shaking with grief and anger. ‘I’ve known her all my life, you knew her all of a few days and you think that gives you the right to care more than me!’

     It was clear to Optimus that no matter how angry Theo’s words made him, he needed to allow him to vent at the one person who he could blame for everything.

     ‘They say you talk to her every night, but what could you possibly have to say?’ Theo was touching sensitive nerves now. ‘You don’t know her.’

     Theo had seemingly run out of words. He wiped his eyes roughly with his arm and stormed out of the hanger, leaving Optimus with more doubts than he’d ever had.

     He returned to Jane’s bedside that night and told her all about Theo’s words and how awful he felt that he’d caused such pain. There was a vague hope that if Optimus spoke about the people she loved, she might have found it easier to wake up and come back to him.

I couldn’t see anything, the wind blew so violently that it forced my eyes to squint, occasionally I would see some kind of device, or sheet of metal fly passed, barely missing me. I knew I could hear screaming, but I couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from. I needed to find shelter.

     My body was heavy, I couldn’t feel an injury, but my leg felt like part of it was missing, when I looked down it seemed fine, there was no blood or even pain, but the second I tried to use it, I would fall and end up crawling.

     I was sure every time I blinked, I could see space, like my vision was caught between this strange, raging, metal storm and the cold, silence of space.

     I couldn’t tell what was real.

     Surely none of it was, but then why did I feel the shards of glass and metal scratching my skin and my organs freezing when I closed my eyes?

     I limped in no particular direction, sometimes crawling if I couldn’t get up, trying to find somewhere to rest. I was so tired and weak.

     Suddenly a loud crack sounded from somewhere behind me. I turned, but saw nothing. Another crack from an entirely different direction. Was I in the middle of a lightning cloud?

     I turned in time to duck out of the way of a large sword hurtling towards me. It lodged itself in the ground not far from where I was, but soon began sinking. Something told me, I needed that sword. I launched my body towards it and grasped the handle.

     ‘OPTIMUS!’ It wasn’t just someone shouting for Optimus to save them, it was a war cry.

     The ground began to shake. Something was coming for me. More than something, probably a thousand somethings that I couldn’t do anything about.

     Without warning, I felt my body charge of its own accord, lifting me up to fight.

     I was suddenly holding a shield to go with my sword and found myself sprinting toward the sound of the war cry, yelling one of my own.

     It was Megatron.

     He cackled as I came running towards him, swinging his own sword down onto me. I lifted my shield and held my ground, trying to find an opening to strike back. Megatron’s swings came down harder and harder, I was weakening again, until finally, my shield was cracked, my sword destroyed and failure filled my heart.

     Wait, my heart. I didn’t have a heart. Why didn’t I have a heart? Where did it go? What was there now? Why would I assume something else was there? Why was I fighting Megatron? Where was Optimus?

     Wait.

     I lifted my hand to hover over where in my heart should have been, there was no pulse, nothing to say I was alive anymore.

     Another crack.

     Something had happened. Something important I needed to remember.

     Another crack.

     How was I supposed to live without a heart? Was I already dead? The wind. It was a metal storm because that was the last thing I remembered. The climb.

     I climbed thirty thousand feet to save the world. No wonder I couldn’t stand properly.

     Another crack.

     What was that?

     Another crack, but this time, I saw it. A streak of blue light whipping around me as if it were the thing that was containing the storm and me.

     ‘Why are you doing this?’ I shouted. Why was I shouting? Was it alive? Was it watching me?

     Suddenly the storm stopped. Everything froze. I could see it. I was surrounded by electric blue light. Housed by it. Caged.

     There was something memorable about it, something I’d once known.

     ‘Optimus?’ I frowned. ‘Where are you?’

     The storm began to clear, but the blue light expanded, like it was showing me more of what was inside.

     I thought initially it was some kind of breakers yard, but now it was more obviously images frozen in time. Battles. Each one contained someone I knew, Optimus. Each one also contained enemies I knew and some I didn’t.

     What was this place?

     ‘Nightmares.’ I whispered. ‘His nightmares?’

     I began walking through the only path I could see. A winding metal platform that showed me each battle Optimus had ever fought in and all the ways he was scared he’d lose.

     Eventually I was able to recognise each in his memories, but there were gaps, things were missing. Memories.

     ‘Where are the rest?’ I found myself asking.

     ‘What do you need?’

     I spun around to see Optimus Prime himself, standing tall and strong.

     ‘Optimus.’ I breathed, relief. ‘Where are we? What is this place?’

     ‘What do you need?’ He repeated.

     ‘I don’t understand.’

     ‘How do I help you?’ He stepped towards me and for a split second everything was clear.

     ‘His Spark.’ I breathed again. ‘You’re his Spark.’

     ‘I am your Spark, Jane Harding.’ He said, as if it were obvious. ‘But I don’t know what you need.’

     ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

     ‘You are dying. And I cannot stop it.’ He kneeled, his kindness and desperation clear for anyone to see. ‘What do you need?’

     I felt something heavy sit in my chest, I placed my hand over it once again. ‘My heart is gone.’ I whispered. ‘I need it to live.’

     ‘I can be your heart.’ Optimus said, immediately. ‘But what does a heart do?’

     I could hear the slight panic in his voice, maybe the situation was more dire than I realised.

     ‘It… it pumps blood around the body.’ I said, suddenly finding it very difficult to know anything about the human heart. ‘It does it at a rate the body requires. More exertion means more blood needs to be pumped, it does this via an electrical charge, not a big one, I don’t think. Actually, I have no idea of the right measurements.’

     ‘I can find out.’ Optimus nodded. ‘I don’t understand this body, Jane. I do not understand how it works. Everything I have tried, has failed.’

     I thought for a moment. ‘Can you wake me up? I can find out the information, I can help you stop me from dying.’

     ‘I’m afraid you are too weak to wake now.’ Optimus shook his head. ‘But I can send a message to Optimus. He can help us.’

     ‘How?’

     ‘In time, I can teach you, but for now, I must save you.’ Optimus lifted his hand and gently traced the tip of his finger around my face. ‘Sleep deeply, I will wake you when I am finished repairing your body.’

     Everything went black.

If you liked this, please consider supporting me ☕ thanks for reading!

[upat4amwiththemoon]

hiii! i just finished watching agents of shield season 5 and was wondering if you can write a daisy johnson x fem!reader based on the scene in season 5 when deke was going to confess his crush on daisy. so basically daisy and R (who's also on coulson's team) have been dating for a while but the team doesn't know yet, and when deke is about to tell daisy abt his crush on her, she casually mentions her gf. idk why i thought it would be hilarious 😭 also i hope it's not too confusing 😭

Lemons

Summary: When you’re in the past, don’t leave lemons on your crush’s bed.

Pairing: Daisy Johnson x female!reader, platonic Deke Shaw x Daisy Johnson x fem!reader

Warnings: none

Word count: 771

a/n: 🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋

Tags: @thought-of-you-and-me @rafecameronswhore

masterlists | guidelines

Deke walks towards Daisy’s room, hoping to find her there, so he could tell her he left the lemons on her bed. He doesn’t want her to think someone else, like Mack, was the one who has feelings for her.

Stopping in front of her room’s doorway, he knocks on the side. Daisy lifts her head up to look at him. He glances to see that the lemons are still on her bed, but his gaze moves to the big bag on the floor. “What’s in the bag?”

“My mom.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t what he expected, but he supposes these kind of things are normal in the SHIELD team. He walks into the room, “I heard about your little dust up, I just wanted to make sure you’re all right.”

“I’ve been better. It’s like the universe keeps reminding me I should never have come back from the future,” she pauses, turning to look at her bed, “also, some creep put a bunch of lemons on my bed, as some weird sort of prank.”

Deke scoffs, glamcing at the lemons and Daisy. “Sounds like classic Fitz.” He lets out an airy and strained laugh. Curses flow through his mind, he should’ve known giving lemons wasn’t a custom in the past. “Look, I- um, I feel like you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. I, on the other hand, I lived in a lighthouse my entire life, only to time travel into the past and still spend every single day of my life inside the freaking lighthouse. So..it’s like, even without Kasius gone, this place just has this leash that keeps pulling me back in.”

“Well, I’m glad you stuck around, even if it’s a little crazy.” She gives him a small smile before looking down at her hands.

The smile makes Deke feel all nervous and bubbly inside. Despite the setback with the lemons, he decides to gather his courage. “Well, maybe it’s not that crazy.” He chuckles quietly. “I-I’ve been wanting to tell you something since we’ve gotten, you know,” he moves to sit next to Daisy on the couch, “I don’t want to say closer, but-“

Daisy scoffs, interrupting him. “You really don’t. Everyone who gets close to me ends up dying.”

“Me too.” Deke says almost enthusiastically, as if that was a good thing. “And that’s why I feel like we have so much in common.”

“My mom.” Daisy mumbles.

“I-I know, and-“ he tries to continue, but Daisy isn’t listening anymore.

“Lincoln.”

“Who’s Lincoln?”

“Uh, Lincoln Campbell. He..he was the first inhuman that I became close with. Fought at our side, and he- he died. He died for me, really.” She sighs, looking at the floor, the memories seeping into her mind. “Right when we were getting going, or, you know, getting good.”

“It sounds like you were really in love with this guy.”

“I was.” She smiles, now other memories invading her thoughts. Deke opens her mouth to confess, but Daisy beats her to it, “luckily I met Y/N.”

“Y/N?” He frowns. “Like, you’re lucky she’s your friend?”

“No,” Daisy laughs, “she’s my girlfriend.”

“As in..you’re dating?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“What?” She raises her brows, fully turning to look at him now.

His eyes widen. “Nothing! I just didn’t know the two of you are dating.” He explains quickly, hoping she can’t see the heartbreak on his face.

“You’re actually the first one to know.”

Deke actually starts smiling. It’s a good feeling to be the one to find out something before anyone else, also, he is relieved the others didn’t send him on a fool’s errand while knowing Daisy isn’t even single. “Well, that’s nice.”

The moment gets interrupted by Y/N walking into the room, “Dais, I heard about the f-“ she stops on her track once she notices Deke sitting there. “Oh, sorry to interrupt. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Deke knows.” Daisy states with a smile, offering her hand for Y/N, so she’d come sit with them.

“Wonderful.” She mumbles. “Does Deke know how to keep his big mouth shut?”

He raises his hands and nods. “Deke does know how to keep his big mouth shut.” He would never tell her, but Y/N actually scares him a little bit, in a cool way. He thinks she is cool. Which he would also never tell her.

Daisy laughs, kissing Y/N. Deke looks away at that, feeling a ting of pain at the affection, but he’ll get over it. So, he stays in the room, talking with the pair. Because he thinks this’ll be a great trio.

[loosesodamarble]

Black Clover Cafe AU

Based on a silly little post.

(Note: I’m not actually that well versed in cosplay restaurant culture. This is mostly just a shitpost. For funsies.)

……….

Secre Swallowtail is the owner of Black Bird, a popular butler cafe.

Men in crisp, black suits. Varnished wood furniture. Fancy European style tea sets and table settings. There’s even a glasswork chandelier. It’s your typical aristocratic atmosphere for a butler cafe.

The men working at Black Bird aren’t just dressed as butlers but they also are assigned certain attitudes or archetypes to play into. Some are just kind of an exaggerated version of their normal selves while others really have to enter a character.

Sukehiro Yami is a “bodyguard” butler. A lot of his lines and mannerisms play up a protective persona. For example, he can ask to put an arm around a customer to guard them on their way to a table. He is also actual security for the cafe and has punched a guy unconscious to protect the customers. He’s the most popular butler.

Asta is the clumsy, “new hire” butler. He’s supposed to act meek and apologetic as he tries extra hard to serve customers. Also he’s not actually allowed to drop anything. At most he can bump into a chair or table (but NEVER a customer).

Finral is of course the flirty butler. Acting so suave for customers. He gives each lady a flower (never the same one twice in a row and they change with the seasons). His lines include him muttering “ah, but an esteemed lady/lord like you shouldn’t be seen with a lowly butler like myself.” Super cheesy stuff.

Gordon is the mysterious type of butler. He’s allowed very few “lines” outside of the standard “Welcome milady/master” or “As you wish.” It’s part of his charm, allowing customers to wonder what such a quiet, polite man like him is thinking. He gets extra points for being the only butler with prominent make-up (his black lipstick and eyeliner isn't as heavy as it appears in canon).

Henry is the sweetest of sweetheart butlers, the deredere if you will. He’s never failed to make a customer smile. Gives lots of compliments, similar to Finral, but with platonic intent. He’s also the one who writes the menu, making everything sound as delicious as possible.

Gauche is the harsh, “tsundere” butler. Instead of saying “it’s not like I like you” he would say “I didn’t choose to serve you.” 😆 But he always follows up with a small smile and “But I’m happy to do so now.” Also serves as security for the cafe.

Zora’s butler persona is meant to be a bit of a sadist. He gets to have a bossy attitude with customers. “You will drink this tea and you will like it” or “What makes you think I’ll take your order?” are things he might say. “Mocks” customers for how much they rely on him.

Nacht’s archetype in the cafe is basically a possessive yandere. Warns customers not to let any butler but him serve them and to appreciate all his hard work, because he only does it for them.

Fuegoleon plays an stern butler, not smiling and always insisting on his “duty” to the clients. He speaks very kindly to customers despite that. He has to fight back smiles because customers are so happy to see him and that makes him happy.

William is a straightforward gentleman archetype. Bowing and pulling out chairs, stuff like that. One gimmick he has is reciting poetry to customers. He’s the second most popular butler at the cafe.

Rill’s butler persona is haughty and a perfectionist. Always claiming his service and even those he serves are a cut above the rest. He also will occasionally play the piano to enhance the classy atmosphere.

Nozel is almost a blend of Gauche and Fuegoleon, stern like Fuegoleon and abrasive like Gauche but also displays an aloofness that neither portray. He's genuinely surprised with the popularity of his frigid persona. He was originally set in the “yandere” role before Nacht came along (and he’s very glad to be out of it).

Yuno isn’t a waiter. He’s too shy for it so he cleans up after customers (still dressed as a butler for aesthetics). Customers are really upset that he never serves as a waiter.

Magna and Luck definitely aren’t butlers either. They’re in the kitchen stacking and cutting sandwiches, as well as baking the various desserts on the menu.

Klaus and Marx are in charge of the drinks. Marx mostly works with the teas while Klaus focuses on the types of coffee they carry. There are non caffeinated drink options but the tea and coffee is highlighted as part of the aesthetic.

Jack is the head chef of the establishment. From the quiches for lunch to the pan-fried meats for dinner, Jack's got it covered. He's also got his fancy knife work which turns plain fruits and veggies into works of art.

Secre makes sure the uniforms get changed every once in a while to match the season.

Each employee actually goes by a different name while at work to protect their identities. That goes for the kitchen staff too despite never being seen in the front of house.

Nacht actually has extra identity protection by wearing a wig since outside of work, he’s actually still bleaching his hair like a delinquent.

Also, each employee has a “signature dish” on the menu based on their butler persona and a food they actually like.

[kfkr1ze]

Vividly Colored Imagination - Chapter 4

Characters — ✈︎ Akuta, Kiroku, Nanaki, Muneuji, Ushio, Sakujiro

Location: Higashi Chaya District in Kanazawa

Kaede: And when you’re talking about Kanazawa, of course you’ll have to go to the famous “Higashi Chaya District!”

Kiroku: …Sighs.

(That meeting with the producer… I couldn’t even do anything…)

Muneuji: Kinugawa, don’t be disheartened. 

Kaede: Teahouses adorned with red latticework, streets that are lined with stone pavement, and of course… the impressive Asanogawa bridge!

Muneuji: I’d like to share some of the gold leaves on my ice cream with you. Places a little.[1]

Nanaki: Then, I wanna too. Places a little.

Akuta: Take some of mine too! Places a little.

Kaede: You can even rent a kimono and take a walk around the area. That’s why it’s so popular with foreign customers,

Akuta: Ushio you too, give a little bit of yours!

Ushio: Hah!? Don’t just touch my ice cream with your bare hands!

…Here, I’ll only give a LITTLE bit. Places a little.

Kaede: This area’s also a place where many shops selling gold leaf items are gathered…

Muneuji: My younger sister used to read a fairy tale like this, about a swallow carrying a gold leaf.[2]

Kaede: And you can take a relaxing break with a cone of Hakuichi soft serve ice cream, made using an entire sheet of gold leaf!

Ushio: We already know that one. Aren’t you doing this explanation thing out of order?

Akuta: If they're using an entire sheet, let’s just paint Kiroku’s ice cream and make it all gold!!

Kiroku: Eh…?

Kaede: But eating while walking is strictly prohibited, so if you’re going to eat, we should all sit down.

All 4: Places a little places a little places a little places little places a little places a little…

Sakujiro: They are all sitting properly and wearing a serious expression while decorating Kinugawa-kun’s ice cream with the gold leaf.

Kiroku: Everyone… thank… you……

Kaede: (Kiroku-kun still looks a bit down, but with everyone supporting him, I’m sure that he’ll be okay)

Sakujiro: Chief. Let us both move to the side and eat ours as well before it melts.

Kaede: Yes, let’s. Then everyone, if you need anything, just call us. 

All 5: ‘Kayyyy.

Akuta: Kirokuu, what does the golden ice cream taste like?

Kiroku: The taste… Um... It tastes like… ice cream.

Muneuji: Well, the gold leaf itself is tasteless and smells of nothing.

Kiroku: It’s sweet though… delicious.

Nanaki: It seems like you cheered up a little.

Akuta: That’s good, that’s good! C’mon, hurry and eat some moree, feel more betteer, and then get your revenge!

Kiroku: Then next time… I want to… be able to… properly explain… my drawings.

Akuta: Don’t worry bro, I get it. When I try to explain the plot of my movies to people, they all look like it flew right over their heads.

Ushio: That’s just because you explain things in sound effects, isn’t it?

Akuta: No no, art is ultimately beyond words!

Ushio: Well, maybe Buddha Statue was just at a loss for words because of someone’s sneak attack that made him look even more pathetic in there.

Muneuji: Ushio.

Nanaki: … That wasn’t my intention…

Kiroku: Nanamegi… Earlier, you… really… helped me out. You kept… the conversation going…

Nanaki: I didn’t really do anything that’d you need to thank me for… but I’m glad. Oh right, here, I wanted you to listen to this Kiroku.

Kiroku: Is this the… surprise demo… song from earlier…?

Nanaki: No, this is the song for the HosLive. Here, take my earbuds.

Kiroku: ………

………

………!

Kiroku: Wah… Ah… Wah……

Nanaki: What do you think?

Kiroku: It’s so… cool…!

Nanaki: Actually, I tried writing it based of off your image.

Kiroku: Eh…!?

(This song is… based off of… my image…!?)

Nanaki: Wouldn’t it be interesting if we used your art and my music to collab?

Kiroku: ………

Nanaki: We may not be understood by adults, but let’s work hard together has fellow artists, okay?

Kiroku: Nanamegi…

………

Muneuji: Hm. It seems as if Kinugawa has his eyes closed and is deep in thought.

Akuta: What’s he listening to?

Ushio: Maybe it’s something dirty.

Akuta: S-Seriously…?

Nanaki: You’re wrong.

Kiroku: You all… should listen… too… He wrote it… for me…

Akuta: Yay! Lemmie listen, lemmie listen!

Muneuji: I’ll be borrowing these.

Ushio: Wow. You’d just use earbuds that got put in other people’s ears?

Akuta: Hohh, this was made for you…!?

Muneuji: I never knew that you can incorporate things like that into music. It’s very interesting.

Akuta: ………

Ushio: ? What’s with that expression. If your done, can you take out the earbuds already?

Akuta: Hey Nanaki, you said that this song was still a WIP, right?

Nanaki: ? Yeah, that’s right.

Akuta: I thought so! I’m looking forward to seeing what it sounds like when it’s finished! It’d be awesome, I’m sure!

Sakujiro: Have you all finished eating your ice cream? It is around time for us to get moving.

Kaede: Is anyone unsure if they need to use the bathroom or not? Do you need any wet wipes?

Akuta: Ah, Sensei, I’ll take a wipe! This ice cream ‘s making my hands all sticky〜

Ushio: ……You were touching Panda’s earbuds with fingers like that? I’m sorry for your loss.

Previous — ✈︎ Masterlist — ✈︎ Next

Notes — ✈︎

They all say a onomatopoeia that like . Means to stick something on something in a light way . So they're lightly pressing the gold leaves onto the ice cream. I have no idea how to say this in English so places a little it is.

A reference to The Happy Prince

[jgmartin]

THE DEAD WORLD

It happened late. I suppose these things always do. The end of the world isn’t exactly a rise and shine affair, you know?

It’s a big decision, nuclear war. You think you’re ready to drop the bombs, but then you figure it’s probably best to sleep on it. Then you wake up and think maybe, just maybe, we’ll first see how the day plays out. Maybe somebody convinces you not to press the button. Maybe the world gives you a reason it shouldn’t go up in smoke like the stock market, like the riots in the streets, like the futures of an entire generation.

Or maybe there are no reasons. Maybe starting fresh is all that’s left, and cleaning humanity off of this rock is the only truly moral choice left to make. 

I don’t know. 

All I know is it’s been a week since the blast. A week since I ran to the bunker, alone, forced to leave my family behind. If that sounds callous, then just know it wasn’t me who abandoned them. They abandoned me. 

They were disbelievers. All of them.

They called me crazy for building the bunker. Called me insane for stockpiling canned rations ten feet under the dirt. I tried to explain to them that we were running out of time, that if they cared enough to open their eyes, there were signs that the end was coming. But to them, that was just noise. More chatter from a lunatic.

They stuck their noses up at me all the way to the end. When the air-raid sirens sounded, my wife grabbed my son and daughter and screamed at me to leave the house. To never come back.

So I did.

I left them there. There simply wasn’t any time to fight her for the kids, to fight the kids who were wholesale convinced I was a fraud. A liar. The bombs were coming and the bunker was a hundred feet away, buried beneath the forest behind our farm.

I didn’t have a choice, you understand? No choice but to run, so that’s just what I did. I ran and ran, with tears in my eyes for my family, and just as I closed the heavy steel door of the bunker I felt the low rumble of the first explosion. Then the next.

Like I said, it’s been a week. I figure the worst of the fallout has dissipated by now. It’ll be just the fires that are left, the fires that there’s nobody left to put out. Soon though, once the flames have exhausted their supply of wooden homes and fuel-laden vehicles, they’ll die too, and then the new world will emerge.

The Dead World.

The dark truth is that the nightmare of nuclear armageddon takes place in three stages. The first is what people often assume to be the worst. The bombs. The explosions. The mushroom clouds and the screaming and the running and the sirens. Truthfully though, that’s the easy part. At that stage you’re just afraid or dead. That’s all.

After that comes the flames and radiation. They do some damage, maybe more than the bombs when you consider the pain inflicted, but even they pale in comparison to the third stage. The Dead World.

In the Dead World, the strings that tie us together are burned away. There are no rules. There are no customs. There is no humanity. It’s chaos, unbridled and hopeless. Raiders roam smouldering city streets, pillaging and raping and torturing for scraps of food. People are rounded up like cattle, butchered and eaten.

That, I think, is the stage we’re beginning to enter. The stage of desperation. Even now, I hear a band of raiders above me. I’ve made certain my bunker is well-hidden, but it’s possible that the blasts have swept away the dirt camouflaging my hatch. It’s possible I could be found.

In moments like these, I’m almost glad my family perished in the blast. I shudder to think what the monsters above would do to them, to my wife and my daughter. Still, I’ve covered my bases. The raiders likely arrived to see if there were any animals left alive on the farm, or crops left to reap. They wouldn’t be here looking for underground bunkers.

BANG BANG BANG

The sound echoes around my bunker like a heart attack. I freeze. Through inches of steel I hear the muffled chorus of human’s shouting. Moving.

BANG BANG BANG

There’s more shouting. I slink to the wall of my bunker, pick up my rifle and load a round into the chamber. I’m panicking for no reason, I tell myself. I’m making much ado about nothing. Even with a band of raiders there’s simply no way they could break the reinforced steel hatch. Not with a pair of bolt cutters. Not even with a welding torch.

KERCHUNK

There’s the sound of something clanking on metal. Like a carabiner. A hook. Did they attach something to the handle? Above me an engine roars to life, something powerful. A truck, maybe. It screams as its wheels tear into the dirt and my pulse races. I grip my rifle, raising it toward the hatch. Toward the intruders.

The hatch shudders. It shudders like it’s going to bend, warp, but instead it snaps clean off. I’m blinded by the afternoon sun. I shield my eyes as best I can, but there’s no shielding my lungs from the fallout in the air. “I’m armed!” I scream, hacking a cough. “I’ll blow the heads off of any of you fucks that wants to try me!”

There’s a beat of silence.

“Mr. Falton,” a voice blares over a megaphone. “You’re under arrest. Come out with your hands up.”

“You think you’re going to fool me with that spew?” I snarl. I cock the rifle and let off a warning shot through the open hatch. Birds scatter from the trees above. “Come any closer and the next bullet’s going straight through your heads!”

Something drops from the hatch. It’s small, oval-shaped, and it bounces on the steel floor once, twice, before rolling to a stop. It’s a metal canister.

Smoke hisses out of it.

_____________________________________________________________________

I open my eyes and realize I’ve been abducted. Stolen away. The familiar steel walls of my bunker are gone, replaced with cream wallpaper and drab lighting. It’s an office building– or at least it was one before the world went tits up.

“Where am I?” I ask, groggily. My head is throbbing, vision still blurry from the gas.

“You’re at the precinct. I’m Detective Vaneer and I’ll be conducting your interview.”

“Interview?” The room around me is sparsely furnished. There’s nothing between me and the liar but a wooden table, a cup of coffee and some empty creamer. It’s a nice set, but it isn’t fooling me. “I don’t have anything more than what was in that bunker, you hear? So you can call your raiding party back and let me go.”

“Why did you do it?”

I don’t reply. He’s fishing for answers, fishing for details he can use to find my backup rations buried out back behind the barn. I won’t say a word, though. No matter how much I’m gaslit.

“What’s the matter?” the liar says, standing up and adjusting his tie. “Was a week not enough time to dream up an alibi?” It occurs to me that he’s gone through a lot of effort to put up this ruse. To pretend society isn’t a fractured, crumbling memory. He’s even dressed the part.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say.

“The bombs,” he snaps. “You don’t know about the bombs?”

My mouth twitches. What the hell was his angle? To throw so many competing stories at me that I started questioning my own reality? “Of course I know about the bombs,” I spit. “I’ve known about the bombs for a long time, anybody could have seen this coming.”

His fist hits the table. There’s anger in his eyes, rage like I’ve never seen before. His facade is slipping. “How long?”

“Long enough to build a bunker and survive the blast.”

“And your family?”

My voice dies in my throat. “How…” I say, hoarsely. “What the hell gives you the right to talk about my family?”

“Where are they?”

He’s looking for a reaction. He’s trying his best to get me emotional, to get me to let down my guard long enough to spill my secrets and tell him about the cache behind the barn. “They’re dead,” I tell him. “They died in the blast.”

The liar masquerading as a detective leans over the prop table. He taps his finger on the surface. “What blast?” he says.

My jaw clenches. My hands ball into fists. I want to leap across the table and slug the motherfucker for invoking my loved ones, for cursing me with the pain of their memory. But then he wins. Then he knows he can get me talking with the proper stimulation. “I’m not talking,” I tell him.

“No,” he says. “What blast?”

“I don’t know!” I snap. “I wasn’t standing around to count how many bombs fell– to point out which one killed my family.”

“But you were standing around when we opened your bunker, weren’t you? You saw the trees. The birds. How many nukes hit your farm, do you think? Must be pretty sturdy bird nests.”

I open my mouth to speak, but the words aren’t there. The liar doesn’t seem to mind– in fact, it seems he realizes he’s found my weak point. He knows I’m breakable now. Fuck. He walks around the table, sizes me up, then stalks over to the blinds covering the windows. He gives them a tug.

More sunlight. It’s blinding, again. I hear the sound of a window sliding open, and suddenly my ears are assaulted with lies. A symphony of deception. Cars honking. People yelling in the street. Music. Then the world comes into focus, and I see just how deep this act goes. They’ve set up a projector on the wall. It’s a film reel from the old world, with its tall buildings, its people walking to and from work, and its cars spitting methane into the air.

“It took me a week to find your bunker,” the liar says, coming back around to his chair. He slips a laptop from a bag beneath the table. “I had to comb through your online activity. Match up receipts. Call the company that installed your tin can. It took some work, but we figured out where you were hiding eventually.”

I don’t speak. Their operation is more sophisticated than I expected, much more and I can't risk making a misstep.

“Let me tell you what happened, Mr. Falton. You fell down a rabbit hole, a deep one of online conspiracy. You convinced yourself the world was ending, that there were psychic vampires living among us, infecting our every level of society. You convinced yourself that the only way to stop them was to start from scratch, and that our world leaders knew this and planned a global nuclear strike for New Year's Day, 2022.”

My body is shaking. As much as I try to pretend his lies aren’t affecting me, they are. It’s poison to my ears. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? A psychic vampire. Bitter too, I bet since there won’t be enough food for you to sustain yourselves on– not now that humanity is halfway to extinction.”

The liar gives me a hard look, then opens his laptop. He clicks around some, types a bit on the keyboard, then turns the screen around to face me. It’s a picture of my house. It’s blown to pieces. There’s barely anything left but wooden splinters and smouldering ashes from the blast.

“See this?” He taps something in the bottom corner of the image. It’s a mess of colours. Of pixels. It’s red, pinkish and scattered in several pieces. “That’s your daughter,” he says.

My jaw drops. A sinking feeling grows in the pit of my stomach, unshakeable and awful. Still, I knew there would be horror in the aftermath of nuclear war. I knew. I also knew it would be a necessary price to pay.

He taps another section of the screen. The picture zooms in. “Over here, we think this might be a piece of your wife’s skull, though it could also be your son’s. Their corpses are in so many pieces it’s hard to say which hock of flesh belongs to who.”

“I don’t want to look at this. Put it away.”

“Wait,” he tells me. “You haven’t seen the best part.” More tapping. More zooming in. This time the pixels are dark. They’re something thirty feet away from the rubble of the house, something grey and familiar.

My stomach twists.

“What’s the matter? You set that speaker up, didn’t you? Put it right there in the yard?”

I don’t want to be here. This isn’t real. It’s a lie– all of this is a lie. A sophisticated psy op designed to trick me into emotional vulnerability, staged by psychic vampires to feed off of my pain. Yes, that much is clear to me now. This is too sophisticated for the average raider.

“Since reality seems to confuse you, Mr. Falton, let me tell you what happened.” The vampire leans back, a smug smirk on his weasel face. “You rigged your own house with enough explosives to sink a battleship. Bombs planted everywhere from the under the couch to inside the walls. You set it to blow the day the nukes were supposed to fly. Why? That’s simple. You didn’t want anybody finding any hints about where your bunker was– just in case the ICBMs missed your rural slice of buttfuck nowhere. You didn’t want your family above ground, freely able to give away your location to psychic vampires.”

This is textbook emotional manipulation, a specialty of his breed. I won’t let him have his way with me though. I won’t let him feed off of me.

He reaches into his bag and pulls out an old book. My journal. “Picked this up in your bunker, Falton.” He flips through the pages. “Reading through it, you’d almost think you gave a damn about your family. After all, the sirens were for them, weren’t they? You set them up to play hoping it’d convince them at long last that nuclear war was well-and-truly underway. You hoped it’d convince them to follow you into the bunker. To bury them underground so their thoughts were safe from attack from… uh, psychic vampires.”

“Yeah. Things like you,” I spit.

“You gave them one last test of faith. One last chance to follow you into your rabbit hole of madness, and they refused. For that, you killed them.”

“Fuck you,” I say, and my voice is quivering. “You’re nothing but a lying sack of psychic shit! You think I can’t feel you probing my thoughts? Gaslighting me?”

“I wish I was lying, Mr. Falton. I really do.” The vampire sighs, and rises from the table. “I feel bad for you, truthfully. Sooner or later you’re going to realize you were wrong. I don’t know if it’s going to happen when I leave this room, or when you get to prison, but it will happen and when it does, it’s going to break you.”

He heads for the door, grabs the handle and then stops. “For what it’s worth, I looked into those conspiracies of yours. Some were pretty convincing. They laid it out in easy to understand terms, made sensible links between the vampires, the pyramids and the moon landing.”

He chuckles to himself. “I guess the only problem I had was that at the end of the day, none of their shit stood up to reality. It only made sense in a vacuum. As soon as you looked outside the conspiracy community, as soon as you realized how many little lies you needed to be fed to make the big lies seem palatable, well, that’s when the whole facade broke for me.” He grips the door frame, shakes his head and laughs. “It’s more exciting than reality though, I’ll give you that.”

He exits the room, leaving me alone in his elaborate set. I take a moment to admire the detail in the projector screen, the crispness of the sound system and the smell of fresh coffee. It’s impressive. He went to great lengths to pull the wool over my eyes, but unfortunately for him I’m not a sheep.

My eyes find his laptop on the table and I pull it toward me, surprised to find that the internet is still functional. Good. I just need it to update my blog one last time-- to let the world know that no matter what insane story the vampire's weave, they never fooled me. Never fed on me.

I know the nukes fell. I know we beat back the psychic assholes and I know human civilization is in ashes. I also know it's for the best. My family, if they were still here, would be proud of me for doing what was right.

The only thing I can’t quite explain are the blinds. There’s something about the way they dance up and down in front of the projection of the open window, the way I can feel the coolness of a breeze that’s hard to explain. Part of me wants to get up and check, just to make sure they’re fake. But then I think about how pointless that’d be.

After all, I already know the truth.

[soul-sparx]

RYU’S SFV COSTUMES RATED

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done one of these, but they were some of my favorite posts on my old blog before it got nuked, so I figured I’d do another just for fun, and who better to choose than the series main character, in his final outing in the role?

Default

9/10

Ah, Ryu’s typical look. What can be said about it that already hasn’t been said? Not a whole lot. Ryu has aged gracefully in the past more than 35 years, and is one of the characters least affected by SFV’s confusing, pseudo-realistic art direction. The only marks I have against this are the color of his gi, and his hairstyle. On the gi, it looks like he hasn’t washed it since the first SF game came out back in 1987. That thing crunches when he walks. I get they’re going for a worn, used look, but I feel like they pushed it a bit too far here. As for his hair, I was just never a fan of the black, spiked look. I much prefer the look from SFII-- dark brown and brushed forward, hanging over his bandana with some weight on it. Ultimately, though, these are small marks against an otherwise great take on an old look.

Story

7/10

“But Ava!” you may say, “Doesn’t this costume do exactly what you criticized the default costume for not doing?”

Yes it does, however a couple things make it far less appealing to me. To start with positives, the color of his gi and belt are much better, still looking worn and used but not outright dirty. This Ryu takes care of himself and his stuff. That said, in trying to replicate the Street Fighter Alpha look, they made some...odd choices. Lightening his skin makes him look paler, not sickly but...getting there. I’m not going to call it whitewashing, because I don’t think it is, but it is a strange choice. His hair looks...molded, rather than brushed, like a clay headpiece you’d customize a Lego minifigure with. Finally, they tried to apply an odd cel-shading look and, what little consistent artstyle SFV has does not work with cel-shading. Overall, I’d say it’s a good idea with less than stellar execution.

Battle

10/10

Now THIS is how Ryu should’ve looked by default in this game. Theoretically, Ryu’s story in this game is the culmination of his battle with the Satsui no Hado, and this haggard, worn-down Ryu comminucates that beautifully. The torn, dirty pants, the unkempt beard (which also shows him working to defeat the Satsui no Hado, bringing him closer to his master, Gouken, visually), the ramshackle sparring gloves made of nothing but tightly-tied sports tape, this is Ryu at his lowest, ready to reach his highest, and I’m so glad they based his appearance in SF6 on this costume.

B-Boy

9/10

Now look, I get it, this is goofy, this is out of character, this is just stupid. But... I kind of love it for that? Like, it’s so goofy and out of character that it becomes hilarious and I gotta love it for that. On top of that, it’s actually pretty solid? Functionally speaking? The silvery pants and coat mirror his gi, and the black shirt and black trim of his jacket keep the emphasis on his arms and legs, further emphasized by the red shoes, rings, and wristbands. Like...it’s stupidly fun AND doesn’t hamper gameplay. How am I supposed to get mad at this?

Halloween

6/10

Don’t get me wrong, this costume is VERY cool, but I feel like the everpresent stark red might betray its functionality. I feel like it’s at least inspired by Bishamon from Darkstalkers, but Bishamon makes up for his almost all-red color palette with gold trims and wide, open posing that makes every keyframe clear. This has the gold trims, but Ryu’s posing is very closed and guarded. I’m sure it’s still usable, but it’s not nearly as readable as, for example, the default or b-boy costumes.

Capcom Pro Tour 2017

8/10

I'll admit, my understanding of Japanese culture is limited, but this does feel like some kind of traditional festival attire, and to that end I think it's very successful and fairly in-character for Ryu. He strikes me as a traditionalist, and I'm sure he's very popular in the village that I'm certain lies just down the mountain path from Suzaku Castle. It also works well from a functional aspect. His exposed arms and red gloves contrasted against blue/white ropes bring proper attention to his arms for moves like the Hadouken and Shoryuken, while the black vest draws your eye downward into his blue, long, wide pants to prepare you for moves like the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku. I'm curious about the purpose behind the dragon on his back, if that serves as a cultural reference, but it looks cool without getting in the way of functionality, so I can't be mad at it.

School

7/10

I question the choice to make this costume in the first place, it seems odd, but it looks fairly cool and is perfectly functional between the rolled up sleeves, long coat, and tapestry lining the coats inside to keep the legs visible. Doesn't do anything for me, and is kind of weird from a character perspective, but it does what it sets out to do and I don't have any real gripes with it.

Arthur - Ghosts ‘n Goblins

5/10

I have nothing to say here that I didn't cover with the Haloween costume. I do appreciate the Ghosts 'n Goblins reference, but thst doesn't excuse bad readability.

Jin Saotome - Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness

4/10

Same as above, but I'd say it's even worse here. If you notice, his shoulders, elbows, knees, and feet are covered by a kind of metallic material. In artwork, as well as sprites in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Jin's only playable appearance outside of a mecha), those metallic parts are a starker, darker silver color in order to make his posing more readable despite his all-white outfit. In other words, they actively made the design worse for...seemingly no reason.

Mega Man - Mega Man

9/10

This is so goddamn funny to me. Like, Mega Man is this tiny little Astroboy knockoff, he's not even 5 feet tall. Meanwhile Ryu is this hulking, muscular mass of meat. It's so funny to me how much this doesn't fit. As for readability, Mega Man is already one of the best designed video game characters ever made, so this is perfectly fine functionally.

Kairi - Street Fighter EX

8/10

I'm not particularly familiar with this character, as I've only played SFEX once, but it's very cool to see them referencing such an obscure piece of SF history. Not to mention, it just looks cool. Not much to say beyond that.

Track Suit

5/10

Eh....if you remember my old costume reviews, you know I'm not a fan of these. They're fine functionally, but I have no idea why every character has one, and they just get boring and tiring after looking at them 14 times over.

BCRF

8/10

It's pretty cool. It looks oddly tactical, and I don't really get the asymmetrical look-- why bring so much attention to one arm over the other, it's not like Yamazaki's right arm in Fatal Fury/KoF, which contains the power of a god. Ultimately, though, it was for a good cause and it works well enough. Not gonna complain.

[trixibebe]

OC Stuff: *Insert insane training's montage here while Eye of the Tiger plays in the background*

Under the cut is a kind of drabble/ scene I originally wrote for LYLMM but ultimately couldn't fit in so I'm yeeting it out now after revisiting.

A/N: You know, Kori is based on the reader insert of LYLMM which basically follows the events of Y7. This was supposed to be set after visiting Sotenbori and before going to Kamurocho.

As Kori placed down her bags and was busy with putting up her hair, she watched Zhao carefully take off each of his rings, his glasses, taking out his earrings... She was so caught up observing his hands work that hers forgot to move. In on itself the action wasn’t anything extraordinary but for her this was a rare sight. Her partner with no accessories whatsoever.

Of course he would notice her staring eventually. A half-smile formed on his lips as he turned to her:

“What is it?” She blinked once to get out of her trance, shrugging nonchalantly:

“I don’t know. Nothing...” Kori started off, smiling back at him and trying to give some explanation. “I’ve just never seen you without your jewelry. You seem more naked like this than…” but she felt like she said too much, heat creeping up her face. Not missing the opportunity she saw him take on a challenging grin, intending to coax an answer out of her:

“Than…?” So much for behaving when others are around too. she thought, glancing over to Joon-gi Han for a brief moment.

“When you’re actually naked…” she finished the notion half-heartedly with a burning face, making Zhao laugh. She quickly wanted to change the subject so she turned to the strategist, who just finished getting ready himself, sporting wide black shorts and a gray, loose sleeveless shirt accentuating his muscular arms.

“Anyway, you are in good shape too, Han. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much of your skin…” When she realized how that must have sounded like she just let out a defeated sigh.

“I should just shut my mouth.” The situation reminded her when she had one of her first conversations with the two in Survive. Somehow everything she said came out wrong.

The silver haired man didn’t let himself get thrown off by her wording, letting out a quiet laugh himself before answering calmly:

“My attire changed quite much since coming to Ijincho. You could say that during my stay in Kamurocho I dressed even more revealing. It was a big hit with our customers.” he stated confidently. Customers? She wanted to ask him about his previous occupation upon hearing the new information but Zhao was quicker, putting a hand on his hip, saying with a frown:

“Sheesh, I’m sure glad you two didn’t meet back in the day.” Is that a hint of jealousy? she thought amused and shrugged again:

“Considering he was part of the mafia that had beef with the Tojo Clan I think it’s for the best. I would probably be dead had we ever met.” Han crossed his arms, giving Kori a relaxed answer:

“Not if you didn’t get involved... Had Majima-san anything to do with the altercations?” The woman contemplated about it for a second, recalling what she could about the events surrounding the fire in Little Asia.

“Hm, I didn’t know much about what he did or didn’t do business-wise. But I don’t think he really had his fingers in this specific mess. Especially after he got arrested.” she finished thoughtfully before Zhao chimed in again:

“We saw where guys with a revealing fit can land you. So it’s for the best you were staying away.” he tried to play it off but his tone had a certain edge to it. His dislike towards the patriarch was more than justified but she couldn’t help pulling his leg a little. It wasn’t common for him to be annoyed about something like this and it was not like he had anything to beware.

“We got together indirectly because of him, didn’t we?” she gave back with crossing her arms over her chest, raising a brow. He just ever so slightly narrowed his eyes at her.

“Don’t give him too much credit.” His patience seemed to run out so she let it be.

“Fair.”

“How about we get started?” Han inquired in his usual undisturbed tone and she was quite relieved that he ended the conversational topic.

Kori was up against the Geomijul strategist in the first round of sparring so the two of them got onto the mat with Zhao staying on the side to observe and wait for his turn.

“This feels almost nostalgic, wouldn’t you say, Kornélia-san?” the silver-haired man announced with a perked up tone and the former leader was also more than happy to take the conversation somewhere else.

“Oh, you two practiced before?” he asked curiously to which she shook her head, answering slightly reproachfully:

“No, I think he means the night we were supposed to get that video evidence of Mabuchi, right?” She couldn’t hold it against either of them how that night played out but it still wasn’t the most fun evenings to remember.

“Yes, I certainly underestimated the group.” Han admitted with a little smile.

“I mean it was four against one… Though, you had two guns so it was kinda balanced now that I think about it. But I don’t think I could do much against you as it currently stands, even without your gun being shoved into my face.” the translator pointed out awkwardly. It wasn’t like she expected to have a chance against him one-on-one in the first place but standing in front of him as he wore his training outfit, he felt almost more intimidating than in his raincoat.

Though, the sparring had to wait for another moment as the ex-leader asked from the sidelines:

“Wait, four? Weren’t you five people? What happened?” Her answer came in a matter-of-fact tone:

“Nanba-san had the pleasure of experiencing a taser from up close; he was incapacitated before he eventually was able to flee.” Zhao snickered at the retold events, his tone practically saying I told you so on its own:

“Told you the Geomijul don’t fuck around.” Han nodded to this statement, adding:

“He was lucky Seong-hui didn’t shoot him right away.”

“Yeah, I’m not missing the guns much.” Kori gave back with a shrug, recalling the first night she fought with the gang together before the strategist took on a stance ready to start.

“Just hand-to-hand combat. You also can’t rely on your tanto all the time.”

“I know I can’t. When we beat up Captain Takabe’s guys I didn’t use my tanto either. Didn’t want to provoke them into firing their guns. Kept their guards lower." she paused and ultimately gave her partner a sly grin:

“One crazy guy blasting his gun on the scene was enough.” Zhao wasn't thrown off by the remark, mirroring the girl's facial expression as if he had just received a compliment.

[awesomelyanxiouspanda]

A Fiercely Bleeding Heart (Lucifer/OFC): Chapter 7

Story summary: Emery (Our lovely OFC) owns a thriving coffee shop smack dab in the middle of Monroe City, Mo. She’s well known for her unique coffee drinks and her “coffee charity”. What happens when a woman with too much heart- and not nearly enough common sense- comes across the fallen archangel in his mostly human state? Will Lucifer behave, or will he bite the hand that (quite literally) feeds him?  

Warnings/Tags: NO SMUT IN THIS CHAPTER. PURELY STORY LINE ADDITION! 

Loosely based around S.13 E. 13! Plus size OC, OC is gullible and a big softie, Lucifer in his nearly human form, Soft Lucifer, Dean and Sam cosplaying FBI agents again, Canon typical violence, Non-Canon compliant story line, Soulmate AU-ish?, canon typical cursing, NOT a slow burn, not beta’d we die like our king Crowley, smut, vaginal fingering, oral sex (male receiving), unprotected smut, commitments are made, soulmate bonds are formed, praise kink, Luci can dirty talk with the best of them (we all know his sass would be sinful in bed),  little bit of drama, some self-esteem issues, possessive Lucifer, breeding kink, dom/sub themes, pet names (such as princess, good girl, and little one), Castiel awkwardly and adorably cosplaying an FBI agent, Castiel is also scary af.

A/N: Draaammmaaa. Return of the Winchesters. Emery finally meets Cas! And, finally, reintroduction to the storyline of season 13, with creative liberties taken of course. Sorry this one took so long and it's a bit short, but it took forever to get the motivation and right head space to move on with! I hope you all enjoy!

“Have a good night!” 

I waved at Lucy as she backed out through the door and let out a happy sigh, nearly collapsing against the counter with a goofy smile. Today had gone better than expected. After two full weeks of the shop being closed so soon after my last break, I had no delusions of grandeur on what the first day back would be like, and yet still, it was nothing like the chaos I had pictured. I had expected angry customers, understocked sources, and cranky patrons of the coffee charity when in reality, it just seemed all my regulars had solely been concerned by my absence. It was heartwarming, to say the least.

“You good boss?” Amy asked cautiously. 

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. She’d been a mother hen since I’d gotten back. In fact, most of the staff had been texting me regularly since I’d fed them all the first little lie about being in recovery from an accident. To be fair, it wasn’t much of a lie the first time around. This time, though, was filled with much more fun activities.

Turning to face her, I flashed her a bigger smile and said, “Yeah, I’m great, actually. Today’s been nice, right?” 

That earned a grin from the young woman as she nodded emphatically. 

“We’re really glad to have you back and to be back. You had us all scared, Emery.”

Empathy bled through her tone and warmth every bone in my body. I truly was lucky to have her, to have each one of them, in my life. 

“Yeah, yeah, I was scared too,” I admitted quietly, eyes unfocusing as I was pulled deep into the recesses of the memories I tried to keep blocked out. 

I cleared my throat abruptly and shifted back to my feet, lips quirking into a half-smile. 

“I’m just lucky Nick was there to help.”

Her pixie-like features twisted between emotions before settling on something like contentment and she gave a little smile and a nod. 

“Anyway, enough jabbering. I’m going to grab the deposit and drop it off at the bank, you want anything while I’m out?” I asked as I popped up off the counter. 

“A million dollars?” she quipped back cheekily.

I couldn’t stop the roll of my eyes that followed my heavy groan. 

“Sttoooppp, you’re too young to make jokes like that. At least wait til you’re my age.”

Her laugh was interrupted by the ring of the bell over the door. 

“Hi! Welcome in!” she quickly recited.

I turned to echo the greeting but the words fell silent on my lips as I spotted the supposed customers walking through the lobby. My heart began to race as the acrid taste of fear coated my tongue. Two of them I recognized as the “FBI agents” that entered my shop weeks ago, whom I now knew to be Sam and Dean Winchester, thanks to Lucifer’s entail. The other was someone I’d never seen before, but he was no less gorgeous or terrifying. If anything, there was something about him that was worse… better? My brain was very confused. 

“Uhm, actually, could you do the bank run for me, Amy?” I asked gently, shooting the men a “one moment” signal.

I did my best to keep my worries hidden as I didn’t bother waiting for her reply, ducking beneath the counter and opening the safe to grab the drop bag from beneath. 

“You sure?” she asked, confusion obvious in her voice.

While Amy was essentially my second in command, I usually didn’t bother her with managerial duties, but, at this moment, I needed her out of the shop as soon as possible. 

“I’m sure. I need to talk to these lovely gentlemen and this is a good chance for you to get some fresh air while it’s nice,” I replied, forcing on a smile as I rose back to my feet and handed her the bag, “I’ll see you when you get back, okay?”

There was an obvious distrust in her narrowed eyes as she looked between the trio of men and I before she relented with a small nod. 

“Okay, I’ll have my phone on me. Be back in ten,” she said, loudly enough for the men in the lobby to hear.

Oh sweet Amy. So tiny yet to protective. If only she knew these men could kill us both. Well, I knew two of them could. I still wasn’t certain who the last one was, though I was sure if he was with the Winchesters… he couldn’t be any safer. 

The instant she was out the door, I placed on my most professional smile and skirted around the counter toward the “agents”.

“Agents, welcome back. I hope nothing’s happened again if you’re here?”

I did my best to hide anything other than courtesy and kindness but it was hard when three larger-than-life men were staring me down. 

Sam, as sweet as before, offered me a smile before reaching out a hand my way. 

“Emery, right?” he asked.

“Yes! I’m sorry, agents, but I don’t remember your names. My memory isn’t great in my old age of thirty,” I joked easily. 

Dean snorted with a little smirk and commented, “Just wait til you get to our age.” 

I saw the way Sam rolled his eyes minutely before that same patient smile covered his face once more. Before he could speak, I turned toward the third man and offered out my hand, determined to figure out who he was. He was a little shorter than Dean but still quite tall, with perfectly coifed dark brown hair, intense blue eyes, and strong masculine features defined by a light layer of stubble around his lower face. His tan trench coat was a little odd for a supposed FBI agent but it did give off a nice aura of detective. All in all, he was certainly a dream boat.

“I don’t think we met last time. Emery Pike,” I said. 

There was an obvious hesitation before he reached out and limply shook my hand, retreating as soon as possible as he cleared his throat. 

“Agent Beyonce.”

Oh. Oh, that voice. Had I not had Lucifer in my life, I had no doubt I would have fallen for him in that instant. 

“Beyonce?” I had to ask, caught off guard. 

“Yeah, like- like the singer, she-”

“Listen, Emery, we’re sorry to drop in like this,” Sam cut off the other agent sharply, “But there was something we needed to talk to you about.” 

“Uh, okay, sure.”

It felt hard to swallow as I gestured toward the counter. 

“Would you guys like some coffee or pastries while we talk?” I offered. 

Dean’s eyebrows lifted instantly at the word pastries and he asked, “What kind you got?” 

Gone was the stern agent, instantly replaced by something much softer and more genuine. I couldn’t hide the smile that slid across my lips as I made my way to the counter. 

“Nothing too crazy but I hand make everything three times a week. I’ll check what I have left.”

As I went into the back store room, I could hear the men arguing in hushed voices even over the pounding of my heart in my ears. I quickly shuffled through what was left and came out with almost a dozen options. For a moment, I debated praying for Lucifer but I also didn’t want to drag him into something possibly dangerous for him if they didn’t know about our relationship yet. Hopefully, it was something I could handle on my own. If I put him in harm’s way of those three just to save my own skin, well, what kind of soulmate would I be? 

“Here we go. I’ve got some muffins, blueberry and chocolate chip, a couple of apple and cherry danishes, and some plain bagels. Please, help yourself to whatever you’d like. I also have some coffee, freshly brewed.”

While I was no actress, I’d played the part of perfect hostess for so long that I was almost certain they wouldn’t see through to the panic beneath the mask. 

“Thanks, uh, I’ll take a coffee, black,” Sam said as he sat, seemingly giving up fighting Dean’s sweets craving. 

“Sure, if you decide you want cream or sugar, there’s some at the end there,” I replied, gesturing to the little turn wheel with the keep-cold creamer pot and sugar packets. 

“I’ll take some too,” Agent Beyonce added as I poured Sam’s cup, “Please.” 

Flashing him a genuine smile, I nodded and poured one for him as well. It was obvious he was either new to this, or was genuinely uncomfortable around other people. I almost felt bad for him being stuck with the Winchesters. I had to wonder if he knew what their ruse was, what they really were, or if he was just dragged along. 

Of course, in the grand scheme of things, I could determine that the Winchesters weren’t bad people- though, to Lucifer of cour,se, they were. It didn’t mean I had to like them either way, considering they wanted to kill the love of my life despite the fact he was becoming less and less “evil” to their standards. 

“Here we go.”

It was impossible to hide the grin that blossomed across my face at the way Dean nearly lit up with a groan when he took a bite of the apple danish. 

“YOU make these?” he asked in obvious disbelief. 

Sam gave a huff of a laugh, shaking his head, as I agreed softly. 

“Almost as good as pie, almost,” Dean muttered, shoving the rest of the danish in his mouth before pulling the last two in his direction. 

“Thank you, but if we might…?”

Sam trailed off and I quickly gave a little nod. 

“Of course. What brings you guys in again?” I asked.

I reached out and snagged the little pot of creamer as Agent Beyonce put it down, mimicking his actions and pouring in a good slosh before snagging some sugar packets to add in as well. 

“We know about you and L- Nick.”

His words made the world slow down instantly. My mouth went dry and my fingers froze in their actions, but I quickly kicked myself into gear with a little curse in my head, hazel eyes catching his soft green ones as he stared me down. 

“Okay, and? I know he wasn’t the one who killed that guy, so what does it matter who I share my love life with?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level. 

The guys exchanged looks and, much to my surprise, Agent Beyonce was the one to speak next. 

“Nick isn’t who you think he is, Emery. He’s lying to you. He’s done horrible things-”

“What he means to say is that we don’t think Nick is being completely honest with you,” Sam cut in quickly.

Agent Beyonce cast Sam a hilarious bitch face before looking out the window and sipping his coffee, obviously off-put by being stepped on once again. Man, if Sam only knew how much I knew about “Nick” and how I knew Agent Beyonce was right. 

“Whatever he’s done in the past, I don’t care about,” I spoke truthfully as I took a drink of my own coffee, “He’s a good person now. That’s what matters. He literally saved my life after an accident. He kept me safe and healthy while I recovered. As far as I’m concerned, what he does now is what is important. We all have a past. What matters is how we grow and change from it.”

Sam’s eyebrows pinched together in frustration and thought, obviously trying to decide how to get through to me, but Agent Beyonce was quicker. 

“Lucifer is a murderer. He’s killed millions of people, Emery! He’d kill you too if it benefited him!”

His words were harsh, filled with such anger that I now had no doubt he had been affected by Lucifer in some way personally. Dean cursed softly as Sam tried to scramble for some kind of cover, but it was all useless. 

I knew I was in over my head at this point. Resting my face in my hands, I silently sent out a prayer to Lucifer for help and made sure to let him know it was the Winchesters who were here and why. 

“Listen, Emery, we just-”

“No, no, I think I’m done listening,” I cut him off coldly, lifting my head to look at the trio once more, “You’re not going to poison me against the one good man in my life. I don’t care what you have to say, whether you call him the devil or not. Nothing is going to change. Understood? Now, agents, I would appreciate it if you would get out of my shop before I have to call the cops. And believe me, when I say, this wouldn’t be the first time they’ve had to come to save me from rowdy men who have tried to hurt me so they’re going to believe me over even you suited jackasses!”

Their surprise would have been more satisfying if I weren’t shaking with the need to vomit and sob at the same time. 

“What’s it going to be? Gonna be another addition to the “tried to rape Emery” list, or you going to use your brains and get the hell out of here?” I snapped. 

Dean and Sam instantly raised their hands in submission, slowly backing away. 

“Okay, fine, we’ll leave,” Sam said carefully, “But please, think over what we said.” 

I looked over at the last one to move, Agent Beyonce, and instantly knew I was in trouble with the heat in his stare.

“You’re coming with us, whether you want to or not.” 

“Cas, don’t-!”

Cas. Castiel. The seraphim, younger brother to Lucifer, and most dangerous ally to the Winchesters. I should have known! God, I was fucking stupid. 

Before Dean could finish his sentence, the angel was by my side, one arm wrapped around my back and the other to my forehead.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t lose this chance. Jack and Mary’s life depend on it.” 

Jack? Mary? Who was- 

Everything went black mid-thought and I was pulled into the easiest sleep of my life. 

[goldenorder]

zl birthday ask @sylvctica​

... and so, somehow two years have passed by in the blink of an eye; of course, to gods, years are nothing—a mere drop in the basin of experience that they’ve had ... but the god was excited all the same for another December, and another birthday.

The problem was getting something as sentimental as ... err, well wedding rings, accidental as they were when Sylvie had first offered them to the Geo god, so they were left quietly ruminating for days, weeks ... and eventually finding small moments to work on their gift.

( Obviously, although Zhongli had come with them to Sumeru, both still had their own whims and schedules! Which worked out for them to sneakily work on said gift they were planning. )

It took some string pulling and secretly shuffling off to a more secluded part of their teapot to not ruin the surprise, but as the 31st rolled around, they were more than fully prepared. With them luckily getting to see the consultant from the early hours of the morning, they could snag a kiss and a quick, tender ‘happy birthday’ along a quiet whisper that their surprise would come later in the night.

The rest of the day? Relatively uneventful! Spent idly together, wandering through the city, deviating here and there pending on what came up, but when the sun began to lower beyond the horizon was when they truly could begin their little bundle of surprises. “Ok, ok, now I can give you what I want. Trust me, I’ve been waiting in anticipation.”

The corner of their eyes crinkled up a little, disappearing only to return with a semi-small package wrapped with a pretty orange bow ... that they ended up opening themselves to reveal the interior: a dark bottle with no label on it, a small container of semi-clear orange liquid, and two slips of paper.

“... of course, how could I forgo making another wine for you? Same as last time.” There is a flush of colour at the tips of their ears with that set of words, but the small wink that follows shows they’ve very aware of what may follow. Fingers plucked the little container out, watching the thick liquid slowly swish for a moment.

“Ahem ... I also made you a custom perfume, hopefully way better than what Ying’er often tries to push on you—not that her product is bad, but I’d very much like to think as a Dendro god that I know how to squeeze out scents! ... this one consists of sandalwood, vanilla, yuzu, and ginger ... should give a bit of a sweet and fruity scent that’s not too strong. Calming to the senses ... no spray since it’s an essential oil base, so you’d just have to rub it against your pulse points. And as for the last...”

Was the tickets. “... puppet theaters are quite popular still, which I’m glad to see; I haven’t seen one in so long that I thought it would be a nice show to wrap up the evening with before returning to ... hm, a hotel room. Just us two, settled near the top of the divine tree.” They placed the held objects back within the gift container, free hand moving to take his with a soft squeeze.

“... just for you, tonight. Sadly, we’ll have to wait for my birthday for any true new year celebration, but we may still see some fireworks from others tonight as well.”

Before he could realize it, time had caught up with him—as today marks another end, but also the beginning of the new year. And while a year is hardly much to a god, a raindrop amidst a sea of water, each upcoming year always raises more opportunities and experiences. Though despite his apparent absence from the harbor, he does not find himself yearning for it, as Sumeru had quickly become another home for him–much like how Liyue is to Sylvie.

Who–speaking of–approached him without time to waste, bringing a delighted smile onto his face. Knowing how they are, they likely have something prepared. But even if they hadn’t, it would hardly matter to him as long as the other god remained by his side.

Breathing a soft ‘thank you’ against their lips, it is immediately followed with the curious raise of his brows at the mention of a surprise. With how unforgettable last year proved to be for numerous reasons–the ring on his hand evident of such–there is no telling what could be in store for him. Granted, he would likely forgo the curiosity in a short time anyway. Time spent now is just as precious as what awaits him.

“Then I shall look forward to the surprise. Though you should know that I look forward to spending any time with you regardless.”

Sure enough, they both carried on with their pleasant stroll around the city. While not too different from their usual outings, the two could still be found enjoying themselves—more so even with the added knowledge of the occasion.

But with daytime coming to a close, so does their brief trip; the dendro god practically beaming with anticipation to show what they have planned, almost like a giddy child. It was hard not to share the anticipation in return, as Zhongli eagerly studies the contents of the wrapped package.

Beginning with…Ah, yes. The osmanthus wine. A commemorative occasion always calls for it. Though it is clear that his thoughts are elsewhere in regards to the drink, his cheeks powered a rosy hue. “Well, you know how I am—I will gladly help myself to a glass…or more.” He clears his throat, possibly making his own implications before bringing his attention to the smaller vile.

The thoughtfulness of the perfume is apparent from how Sylvie spoke with such vigor; listing the scents one after another and demonstrating their knowledge in their handiwork. It was endearing to the consultant, and he found it as pleasant as the gift itself. “You do not have to worry about me ever doubting the quality of your crafts. And knowing it is made exclusively by you makes me favor it all the more.”

Taking the small bottle between his nimble fingers, he uncaps it with a pop, allowing the scent to waft over sweetly. “Mm, subtle but fragrant…even if you had not listed out the ingredients, I could gather what they are from the scent alone. You’ve truly outdone yourself. Truth be, I have been thinking of changing perfume, so this makes for quite the timely gift.” And it certainly isn’t the last of the surprises either, with a theater show to tie it all together..

“Oh?” Immediately piqued with interest, he has always had a deep appreciation for the arts, especially regarding that of the Grand Bazaar after hearing nothing but great things—Akademiya aside. And a hotel room, on the divine tree no less to top it all off, with a view stretching over the entire city…as expected, the other truly did go all out.

“...Sylvie, you…” Chuckles. “ —spoil me so much.” With intense fondness swelling up in his chest; a heart he had once seen as an unbreakable stone, he squeezes their hands in return, hazy eyes glossing over the ring as his thumb fiddles with it. He gets lost in doing so for a few seconds, briefly recalling last year as well as other fond memories made in the past couple of years they’ve spent together. Exhaling deeply in content, he looks back up with warmth in his eyes, a smile reaching from cheek-to-cheek.

“...Thank you. Let us enjoy the evening the fullest, shall we? I am sure you must have been waiting for long enough if you had this much planned for us.”

The remainder of their evening stretches over a few hours. Finishing off with the theater showing that was nothing less than spectacular, they reach for the inn high above the ground and into the stars, leaving the glistening city behind them. As peaceful as the streets were in comparison to the bustling harbor, his shoulders slack in relief in knowing he will spend the rest of the night alone with Sylvie. He frankly couldn’t think of a better way to end off the day.

“...This is the first time I have viewed the city in such a way.” He says while awestruck, unable to pry his eyes away from the flickering lights below him. Not that he hasn’t had his share of appreciation for the region before, but he never had the time to fully see the city for its intricacies.

Following the other’s suggestion to stargaze, but not without sharing some cheers over some wine first, they lay with their backs to the bare roots of the divine tree—feeling as though they are specs compared to the vast sky above them. And for some time, they simply remained there; idly chattering and hands entwining, the man feeling their fingers dipping in between his knuckles, or slipping a little beneath his glove.

…Perhaps it is the intimacy speaking—or perhaps the wine. Maybe both. But after what had to be almost an hour, he found himself sitting upright to hover himself above them, face flushed and lips slightly parted… and just when did he get so close to their face? He almost didn't realize.

“The stars… they are beautiful, but— Sylvie, I want your eyes to be on me instead. It is my birthday…so your attention should be on me, don’t you think?”

Is he acting a tad greedy and spoiled? Perhaps…

…But he figures it should be okay. With them, he can be a little selfish and indulge—and he knows that they will gladly indulge back.

[hazelthevixen]

Birthday month! VRChat, updates, vacations, and more!

Happy spoopy month everyone ^-^ or as I sometimes call it, my birthday month! That's right, my birthday is real soon! ^w^ I hope to go to big city on my birthday and enjoy a fun day out! and I'll be able to celebrate it even more when I go home because I'll be planning a fun halloween birthday event on my friends only server The Furry Pack >w< We're gonna be calling, roleplaying, watching shows and movies, and playing fun games that might include Animal Jam, Toontown, and VRChat :D I'm still learning my way around vrchat but I've been having alotta fun with friends on there, it's great! ^w^ I don't actually have a custom avatar yet, not even of my fox self I'm afraid, but I did find a cool avatar I like and it's my new pokesona! Yes I have a pokesona now :3 I was indecisive for a while until my dreams decided what I should be XD You'll find out more about it once I finish this short comic o mine ^w^ Yes this comic is based on a dream I had :D I had several dreams like that being in the same form, I now have some funny concept stories of this new form of mine ehehe X3 But yea if any of you guys play vrchat too, if you know me, feel free to add me! :3 keep in mind I do tend to stutter alot tho, I also look and sound alot younger than my actual age. hope that's alright! I don't mean to be annoying ^-^; I'm extremely shy so I set the game so I can only hear friends and not the public. As a new player I've heard both good things and bad things about the game so I guess it's kinda like how discord is sometimes Anywho, fun plans for my birthday and halloween I'm looking forward to it ^-^ My birthday is 2 days before halloween :D Halloween will also be around the time where Minty, Chip, and Cookie will finally be united and fully introduced! So far I've been seeing alot of good signs observing them, my guinea pigs often tend to popcorn after they sniff each other through the bars, and when I brought them all out for cuddles, the new pups Cookie and Minty huddled under Chip! they're quite young so maybe Chip's a fatherly figure to them ^-^ I hear guinea pig pups tend to do this with their parents to feel safe, so that's a good sign :3 Their introductions are going really well and I'm feeling pretty optimistic that they're gonna get along just fine ^w^ Also just a lil heads up: somewhere around november I'll be going on hiatus completely because good news, I'm going abroad! I'm going on a nice warm vacation to escape the horrible cold weather we get every autumn and winter. Oh yis, gotta love warm days and sunshine ^w^ I'm like a swallow, I like the idea of migrating south for the winter X3 I love summer but winter is just the wooorst.. DX That's why I hope to go abroad more so I can get away from all the cold and enjoy more fun days at beaches and whatnot, plus I'll be having all kinds of adventures and seeing all kinds of cool places so that'll be fun ^w^ I really like travelling I wish I could do it more as it makes me really happy, I do love a nice fun adventure and exploring new places :3 The world really does fascinate me.. I've tried food around the world, I've listened to music around the world, now I just have to explore it! >:3 I will work hard towards achieving my dreams on travelling the world, I will work towards a great future! >w< Wish me luck ^w^ Oh and I'm also gonna take a social media hiatus on my birthday as I like to focus on celebrating good times with all my loved ones, and that's my friends ofcourse! whether you're online or offline, you all seem like real friends to me either way 💛 and I'm glad to have you guys because it took me while to realise who was real and who was fake but I knew it was all worth it in the end because the realest people always stay and support and I appreciate your loyalty so thank you I love you guys :3 If any of my friends haven't added me on discord yet and would like to join my server events, feel free to lemme know and I'll try and add you on there aswell as vrchat if you play it. Don't worry, once I'm back from my birthday break, I'll see all your gifts and birthday wishes laterrrrr :3 I'm pretty chill when it comes to late gifts, but friends if you prefer to share gifts on the day, you'll have my discord ofcourse ^w^ I'm really sorry that art has been slow lately, like I mentioned I've been working really hard on trying to finish this short comic based on a dream I had, and my hands are full with art in general so I'm working on a ton of things. gotta try and get em finished before certain dates QwQ But don't worry it'll be worth it and I'm sure you'll love it when it's out ^-^ Thank you all for your patience and support it means alot :3 And thank you to all my friends for always being there for me, you guys always make me happy and I'm thankful for all the comfort, support, happiness, and quality time in general :3 Shoutout to all my pals! go follow em X3 Anywho, that's all for today's journal. If you've reached this far and read everything then thank you for listening! ☆ °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° ☆ *throws sparkles then cheerfully waves as the journal reaches its end*

Please be nice when commenting! I refuse to be criticised so please accept that. If you're gonna be mean, don't say anything at all. Thankies for checking out my post! Meep meep! ヽ(◕ヮ◕)ﾉ I'm on other places too! ^-^

Posted using PostyBirb

[theriverspath]

Good Omens November 2023 Writing Challenge. Day 4

This one turned out to be over 2,600 words! So, here's a snippet. If you like what you see, hop on over to my AO3 @theriverspath for the entire story.

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Celestial Teas

[Crowley] didn’t know what he had been expecting on his first visit [to Celestial Teas], but Aziraphale had caught him completely by surprise. When he and Anathema had first walked in, the shop was bustling. People milled around the product displays or lounged in the chairs. Crowley had let his eyes wander, taking in the atmosphere. He thought the dark blue ceiling with the stylized gold stars was a nice touch.

“Anathema, dear!” Crowley’s attention snapped to the source of the rich, smooth voice. He felt his breath leave his body in a rush when he spotted the man making his way over to them. A welcoming smile and twinkling eyes sat beneath a halo of blonde curls. A light blue shirt was rolled up at the sleeves to reveal sturdy forearms. And, was that an actual bowtie?

He approached with short, confident steps, both hands held out to greet Anathema. She clasped them with her own and leaned in. To Crowley’s amazement, the two exchanged quick air kisses beside each cheek. The man leaned back, but didn’t release Anathema’s hands.

“I’m so glad you stopped by! I just got in some of that peach and white you’re so fond of. I was thinking of dropping you a text about it.” Anathema smiled at the declaration.

“Well, I must have picked up on it. I knew I had to bring Crowley in to see you today.” Anathema let go of Aziraphale’s hands and placed one on Crowley’s arm. “He's suffering from a little coffee addiction, poor thing. I was thinking that you might be able to help him?” Aziraphale shifted his gaze over, and Crowley felt both his stomach drop and his heart leap. The man’s expression was curious, open. Suddenly terrified that Aziraphale would try the continental greeting on him, too, he stuck out a hand between them.

“Er, nice to meet you. Anathema says that you’re a tea genius.” Oh, hell. What did I just say? Aziraphale chuckled, and took Crowley’s extended hand. It was warm and dry, and sent a jolt of electricity right down to Crowley’s toes.

“Well, that's high praise, indeed. Let’s see if I can live up to it.” Crowley noticed little lines crinkle around Aziraphale’s eyes as he smiled. “Coffee addiction, huh? I’ve got a lovely English Breakfast with enough caffeine to help transition you away from the ol’ bean juice. Would you like to try some? I can make up a cup at the counter.”

“Sorry to interrupt.” A young woman tapped Aziraphale on the shoulder. “But, we’re out of oat milk and I can’t find any in the back fridge.” Aziraphale excused himself to sort out the milk emergency with a promise to meet them at the counter later. Crowley watched him walk away. Respectfully. I am respectfully watching the way he fills out those khakis. Re-spect-ful-ly. He tried to convince himself.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur in Crowley’s memory. The taste of the hot tea Aziraphale had made him, the sound of Aziraphale’s voice as he explained its properties, the disappointment he felt when Aziraphale was called away to help other customers, the way he held the small tin of looseleaf that Aziraphale had handed him at the register.

“Now, when you’re done with that. I’ve got plenty of other things for you to try.” Crowley felt a flush under his collar at the words. Tea, idiot. Get your mind out of the gutter. He’s talking about tea.

“I will. Thanks for your help today.” Crowley extended his hand for another shake. Aziraphale looked surprised, but pleasantly so. He took Crowley’s hand more carefully this time. Crowley felt the way the man’s soft spot at the base of his thumb fitted against the crook between Crowley’s own thumb and index finger. And, was that a little squeeze?

“It’s been a delight to meet you, Crowley.” Thankfully, Aziraphale released his hand and turned to Anathema. Crowley imagined that he’d only be able to manage a squeaky croak of a reply if Aziraphale had been expecting one.

“Anathema, always a pleasure. Do let me know what you think of the new chamomile blend. You have such a sensitive palate. I always value your feedback.” Aziraphale and Anathema repeated the air kisses, and before he knew it, Crowley was back outside. As they walked to where Crowley had parked the Bentley, Anathema looked over at him. She raised her eyebrows and leaned over just enough to bump her shoulder against his.

“I didn’t intend to play matchmaker today, just so you know. But, I think you may have charmed a particular ‘tea genius’.” Crowley groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Menace.” He muttered fondly before fishing a pair of sunglasses out of his coat pocket.

Following these prompts

Cross posted on Sendarya's Patreon discord

[poppyseed799]

HIII I MAKE CUSTOM ORIGINS DATAPACKS FOR THE MC ORIGINS MOD 😁 WHO WANTS TO HEAR ME DISCUSS A BIT OF ORIGIN DESIGN PHILOSOPHY AND TIPS FOR IF YOU WANT TO DESIGN AN ORIGIN???

For the rambling on how to design an origin, check this read more

First of all, Disclaimer:

No one’s opinion on what makes an origin good should be taken as fact. It’s all subjective. I’m a firm believer that you should make origins in whatever way YOU want, because there will ALWAYS be someone with the same or similar tastes as you. Even if a majority think your origin is poorly designed, there will be a handful of people who are glad it exists. I think it’s good to listen to criticism and others’ opinions to help you really flesh out your own ideals, but if you disagree with someone’s opinion, then don’t change your style just for them. So please just read through everything I have to say here and decide for yourself which ideas you want to use for your own designs.

Also, even if you don’t code origins yourself, if you’re a fan of typing up ideas for them, that’s what this is for lol. It will bring up a bit of coding stuff though.

Alright! First of all, a major pet peeve of mine! Impact level. Those green/yellow/red circles next to the origin’s name? Yeah. A lot of the time, I’ll see people choose whether the impact is low/medium/high based solely on how many powers it has. This is NOT what impact is for.

“Impact” is how much of an impact it’ll have on your typical minecraft survival let’s play. Basically, you’ll just have to think, “if I tried playing this like as if I was a human, how impossible would it be?”

Avian is low impact because it pretty much only prevents you from eating meat. That’s not a core part of human gameplay, so the impact is low. Enderian is medium impact because not being able to touch water will definitely change how you play the game, but not SUPER drastically, as touching water isn’t really that big for a typical minecraft playthrough. Blazeborn is high impact because it spawns in the Nether, which will absolutely change how you play. I’ve seen people do challenges where they start in the nether before lol.

So basically, even if your origin has the power to cast ten million spells, if its only downside is that it can’t eat vegetables, then it’s low impact since it doesn’t change your ability to play as a human would much. It’s just that you have the added bonus of magic.

I’m just tired of seeing really powerful origins with a lot of details in them always being high impact when you could still play somewhat normally with them. Low and Medium impact origins can be chock-full of complex powers too!

And yes, the impact is mostly focused on the downsides of origins, since I feel like the indicator is meant to help people know how much they’ll have to adapt. People who don’t want a hard time will go for low impact origins, people who like a challenge will go for high impact. Mixing up “high impact” with “lots of powers” will make that harder for people.

Now with impact out of the way, here’s some more design tips! Many of these ones I learned from others in the discord server, although they may be slightly changed to fit with my beliefs more. As I said it’s good to listen to others ideas to add to your own philosophy!

It’s helpful if your origin has a core gimmick. I personally don’t believe you NEED one, but it IS REALLY helpful for designing your origin, and will also draw more attention to it.

For example, say you want an origin that, um… shoots fireballs. You can make buffs and debuffs that encourage the use of said fireballs, so that it doesn’t feel like a random ability that you don’t really need!

People are really obsessed with balance, and tend to slap on debuffs and buffs to make things even, but if they aren’t related, then it feels really odd and hard to say if it’s balanced. For example, if you make your origin able to fly, and try to balance that by making it unable to eat meat. Like… okay? That doesn’t really affect the flying at all. Instead you could limit the flying (without making it useless), or make it so you’re worse on the ground. Or if you really want to balance it with not eating meat, make it so the flying costs food so the debuff of limiting your food options feels more relevant!

That being said, not everything has to be relevant to each other. There’s something that people like to call… flavor traits? Where it has nothing to do with the main gimmick, but fits what the origin is based on. An example being Avians laying eggs. It makes origins more fun, and I highly recommend adding them, but an important tip is to make sure they aren’t TOO impactful. Making a perfectly balanced origin and then making it take damage in water just for the lolz would give it an unnecessary major disadvantage. Instead you could just like give it weakness in water or something.

Designers don’t typically say this but it’s my belief that it’s okay if your origin doesn’t have a gimmick and is just a bunch of flavor traits, because not everyone is using origins for the gameplay, some are using them purely for roleplay purposes. I’d still recommend having a gimmick to make it more fun, but ultimately it’s up to you. (I also recommend making your flavor traits work well together if you’re not going to have a gimmick)

On the flipside, as I said I HIGHLY recommend adding flavor traits, as I’ve seen some origins that have a really cool core gimmick that they clearly worked hard on, but then they just decided that was enough and didn’t add anything else. It made the theme of the origin feel fake. Please add little things that add to the theme 🥺 but also try not to make your origin too crowded (well, I personally don’t mind crowded origins, so if you don’t either then go ahead! But if you do or you’re trying to appeal to others who do, then plz don’t force yourself to add traits if it’s already too much).

Something that’s more for coding, but also if you want to go into extreme detail when daydreaming about your own origins you won’t code yourself…

Avoid using potion effects for things when you can. Sometimes it’s good! But there are downsides to it, such as it overriding actual potions, cluttering your screen, and also making some people think you’re lazy but I say ignore the haters.

It’s not always bad; if you think a potion effect is the right way to go, then go ahead. But like, if you want an origin to be faster in a certain biome, instead of applying speed effect to them while they’re in it, you could make a conditioned attribute to their movement speed. It’s easy to notice without being a distracting icon, can be amplified with speed potions rather than negating them, and highly customizable so you can make it as fast or slow as you want!

The customizability is great as well, cuz if you wanted your origin to be faster and stronger at night, but you feel like applying speed and strength is too much, you could just make 2 conditioned attributes (one for movement and one for damage) and make it so it’s SLIGHTLY faster and stronger so it’s not too crazy! Once again this gives you the bonus of not overriding actual potion effects so if you drink strength you’ll be even STRONGER! It feels more authentic and real.

Practically ANY potion effect can be recreated with origin powers, even stuff like mining fatigue and regeneration (which yes would be more customizable). Hell, even luck. So I encourage you to try to take advantage of this, but also use actual potion effects whenever it feels more appropriate.

And now for another simple pet peeve which doesn’t really have anything to do with actually DESIGNING an origin, but rather EXPLAINING your origin.

Pros vs Cons vs Neutral traits. It should always be comparing it to what a HUMAN can do. It can climb walls? Humans can’t do that, that’s a pro! It can’t eat meat? Humans can eat meat, that’s a con! It’s translucent? That doesn’t affect the gameplay at all, it’s neutral! It can breathe in water but not breathe air? That’s something that is both a good thing that humans can’t do and a bad thing that humans can do, it’s neutral!

That’s how it works. So, tell me why people are making “it can only eat meat and golden apples” NEUTRAL. Like, humans can eat more than that!!! It’s a con!!! Even worse, when they say “it can only eat meat” con “it can eat golden apples” pro WHAT DO YOU MEAN??? EATING GOLDEN APPLES ISN’T A PRO HUMANS CAN ALREADY DO THAT!!! They’re just comparing it to other carnivore origins when you SHOULD be comparing it to HUMAN. Just. Whether it’s for impact or for pros/cons, ALWAYS compare to human.

I think I’m out of less opinionated stuff, so here’s some personal preferences that you DON’T have to listen to AT ALL because it’s just my opinion.

I don’t like origins that aren’t a species. Not like made up ones, those are fine. I mean stuff like “warrior”. My guy that’s a human. Even stuff like “wizard” like unless it’s a wizard that got physically infused with magic I don’t see why this is an origin instead of a class or something!

To be clear, I do totally get it. People want to make magic/combat systems but don’t know how to make mods, only origins. By all means, I should ALSO like making origins like these, but I don’t. Idk why. It just rubs me the wrong way. Like. That’s just a human. Install a magic mod.

Unnecessary size changes also kind of annoy me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them for flavor traits, don’t get me wrong! But sometimes they’re like WHOLE BLOCK height differences with NO accommodations. Like they didn’t think a whole block change to the height would make the game any different. News flash, IT DOES. Just be sure to keep in mind how annoying playing the origin might be when changing height. Anyways, the more opinionated part of this one is that I feel like it’s really unnecessary sometimes when it’s like.. pig origin. Pigs are small so you’re small. Like erm what? Most mobs are smaller than humans, but most mob origins aren’t shorter, so why is THIS one? But that’s just me. Sometimes it feels fitting, other times it doesn’t.

A lot of people say not to overstep Merling by giving your aquatic origin all of its powers, and I agree… except I also disagree at the same time. Like, making aquatic origins that aren’t just Merling copies? Extremely fun and test your creativity. But also I think we should be allowed to treat Merling as Underwater Human if we want. Like if a server has a bunch of underwater origins then Merling can just be like the human for ppl who wanna be aquatic. Guardian from I think mob origins is one of my favorite origins cuz it plays differently from Merling despite having all the Merling traits, but isn’t STRONGER. It’s just Merling with a theme and it plays into the theme really well in a way Merling doesn’t.

I got bored of typing auugghhh talk to me about origins I have a lot of fun making these 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁