#I've decided that now

[giggly-squiggily]

To Break A Gargoyle: Act 2 (Moriarty The Patriot)

Heyo everyone! I'm so excited for this one- I'm doing a collab with the amazing @rachi-roo! We got to talking about the tea party OVA for Moriarty and decided this was the best time to create a series of fics together! Rachi took part one (Or Act 1- hehe) while I took on the sequel! :D

Thank you so, so much for collabing with me, friend! This was so much fun, and any chance I get to write for Moran is a great day! Check her out if you haven't yet- Rachi's got some fabulous work!

For "To Break A Gargoyle: Act 1" (Rachi's fic! :D)

Summary: His plans for revenge failed, William is left a tad embarrassed but also hung up on a certain detail. What did Moran mean by one one person knows his weakness?

"There's only one man who know's how to beat me in a war of tickles."

William mused over that particular line for some time, the effect of Moran's counterattack still leaving his body tingling. It had been only a short few days since- and still he couldn't get the encounter out of his head.

Nor the odd jumpiness he felt whenever Moran passed by a tad too close for his liking. Or the smirk the older assassin wore when he left.

Such a mess he found himself in.

"Brother? Are you free?" A hand on his shoulder made him jump. "Brother?" Louis sounded concerned, and when he turned to meet his eyes, he was watching him intently. "Are you okay?"

"Oh? Yes...apologies. I wasn't listening." He smiled politely, going to get his tea. "What were you saying just now?"

"Just that I made scones. In case you grew hungry." The younger blonde gestured to the basket on the table, said treats steaming with warmth. "Best to wait though- I just took them out of the oven."

"Thank you Louis. Your preparations are what keep me going." William nodded, satisfied at the pleased blush painting Louis' cheeks. It was only after he left William let himself sigh, leaning into his fist. "What to do about him...?"

"Who?" Fred's voice shocked him to the core. A hand to his chest, he turned to the quiet boy with a short breath. "Apologies, my lord. Didn't mean to scare you." He nodded at the scones, something longing in his eyes. "Are you.."

"You're fine, Fred." William passed him one, a huff of a laugh in his voice as the younger man breathed it in, a warm smile on his lips. "I was just thinking about Moran recently. We had a...arrangement that went wary."

"Ah, so he got the jump on you." Fred nodded, something understanding in his expression as he stuffed his face with the scone. "I heard about it from him- he was telling Bonde and I."

"Oh, had he now?" William's smile felt forced, the slight twitch in the corner of his mouth the only indication he was crossed. "How charming."

"Yes...Moran can be quite the devil in tickle wars. It's funny- once you know how to handle him, he goes from a menace to a kitten rather quickly."

A...kitten?

There's only one man who know's how to beat me in a war of tickles.

"Fred...tell me, what's your favorite type of scone?" William asked, pushing the basket forward, a coy smile touching his lips as Fred's eyes lit up.

~~~

"You called?" Moran asked, poking his head into William's study the following afternoon. "Huh, doesn't this feel familiar?"

"Good afternoon, Moran, and thank you for coming." William, ignoring the last comment, nodded up to his bookshelves. "You see- I've found myself with quite the problem. I misplaced my step ladder and need to put these books away. You know how Louis is about tidiness, and if I don't do it now, the pile will grow taller and taller." He nodded to the highest shelf. "Think you could put these away for me?"

"Huh? That's all? Alright then." Moran nodded, walking up and taking the books. "And here I thought you were looking to continue our little chat the other day?" Moran chuckled at the faint blush staining the blonde's cheeks, turning to the shelf. "Okay, let's see...er- how do these go again?"

"By number. Here..." William took his chance. Reaching up as if to point where the books go, he let his hand brush against the back of Moran's neck, barely a graze. "This one goes...are you alright?"

"Tch- y-yeah. I'm great." Moran nodded, suddenly stiff. A soft flush of pink stained his neck as he cleared his throat. "Just dusty up here, that's all."

"Of course." William smiled, stepping back as Moran carried on. That was it- the sign Fred has spoke about. He mustn't waste this chance.

"Moran. You weren't incorrect in your assumption." William spoke casually, aligning himself with the other's back as he placed the second to last book on the shelf. "I did wish to continue our talk from the other day."

"Figured you would. Let me guess, you need a reminder?" Moran teased, even as his confidence wavered in his tone. William only smiled a dangerous smile, hands hovering over his exposed armpits.

"No. But I think you do, my friend." With that, he attacked, fingers digging into Moran's armpits.

At first, nothing happened. Moran stiffened, but that's about it. For a brief, scary moment, William was sure he'd misheard Fred on the spot to go for.

And then Moran was laughing. Booming with mirth, the last book fell helplessly to the floor as he shot his arms down, pressing in sharply and trapping William's fingers. "Ghahahhahahhahaha! Whahhahhat- whahhaaht the heheheheheheehll, Wihiihiihihiliam?"

"My- so you are ticklish?" William mused softly, delight coloring his tone as he watched the older man squirm and laugh before him. "So much for your gargoyle demeanor, no?"

"Ahehahahhahaha! G-Gahhahahrgoyle? Oohoohoho, thaahhahat's just ruhuhuhuhuuhde!" Moran wheezed, stumbling some as if he had too much to drink. "Hohohohoohow'd you fihihiihihihnd ohohohohoohut?"

"I just did. An accident led to my discovery." William lied smoothly, one hand reaching down to Moran's ribs while the other carried on attacking his armpit. "Seems like you can't turn off your ticklishness now, can you?"

"Aahhahahhacideheheheht my ahahahahahhass! Who-FRED!" Moran squawked out his name as the realization hit. At the same time, so did his knees when they crashed into the floor, sending him falling to his side. "Thahhahahaht snehhehahahahhaky brahahahhaht, whahahhat'd you giihiihihiihve hihihihihim?"

"Nothing at all. He has no part in this." William pressed his fingers into Moran's stomach, grinning when the older man squeaked and curled up. "You really are a kitten..."

"Wahhahahhhhaat? Shuhuhuuhuuhuht youhuhuhuhur mohohohoohuth!" Moran cried, cheeks bright red as he swatted at the hands. "Stahhahahhap plehahahahhahahse, I'm behehhehehehgging ya!"

"Giving up so soon? How unfortunate." Still, William did as he asked, pulling his hands back with a chuckle, watching Moran gasp for air. "Still- I do feel satisfied in my discovery."

"Eh...ehehehehe...yohoohhou scohohohundral." Moran growled without malice, reaching out and squeezing the blonde's knee. Laughing at his yelp, he sat up, running a hand through his hair. "Scones, huh? Louis' cooking?"

"Blueberry ones. I told Fred I'd request them for breakfast tomorrow." William shook his head with a laugh, Fred's excitement for such a treat reminded him of a puppy. "Thankfully none of our enemies know of this weakness. Who knows what secrets he'd spill for them."

"If it's not Louis' cooking? He'd be fine." Moran grinned. "He'd only break for him."

Sharing a laugh, the pair stood, Moran stretching his arms out as William smoothed out his clothes. "Well, we best be going before someone comes looking for us. Shall we?" William stared to leave, only to pause when Moran cleared his throat.

"A quick word, Will? Not as an employee to an employer but as between friends?" Moran's eyes danced, mischief gleaming within. "If you dare tickle me again, I'll be forced to return the favor, tenfold."

"We'll see about that, Moran." William smirked his classic coy smile, red eyes dancing. "We'll see about that."

Thanks for reading!

[mistbix]

so i've been re-watching atla....... expect more art soon

[ronanlynchbf]

tshirt that says NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY

[sadmages]

In my mind palace my tav and Astarion are playing the exact same game of 5D chess and they don't realize it yet

[somnimagus]

out of the frying pan and into the fire and into another frying pan that's also on fire

[id in alt text]

[lotus-pear]

mourning black and the death of ideals

[dragondawdles]

the beastie <3

[molinaesque]

"You know what inspires me? When there's no one in the house… and I'm all alone to do whatever I want." - Walton Goggins, Mulholland Distilling (2023) (x)

[fleshmaid]

Blood Baptism.

Image ref below.

[ferryfoam]

Ds9 characters describe Julian as an "overgrown child" but really what happened is he had his actual childhood stolen away from him and is now trying to reclaim what he missed out on now that he's in a more accepting environment

[rayjeff]

silly doodle guys

[queenoftheimps]

OK but imagine if Season 3 kicks off, Daniel is still trying to figure out where Armand is while tagging along on the Rockstar Lestat tour for the second book, he's having no luck figuring out where Armand has squirrelled away, then he winds up at some concert venue chatting with some aging punk who's around his mortal age and it gets mildly flirty and then LIKE A BAT OUT OF HELL, HERE COMES ARMAND WITH THE STEEL CHAIR

[waitineedaname]

i was thinking my little thoughts while falling asleep last night, and a concept occurred to me: what if binghe learned about the system not from shen qingqiu, but from shang qinghua

look, he likes shang qinghua alright. he's pretty disinterested in p much anyone who isn't shen qingqiu, but on the list of People Luo Binghe Tolerates, shang qinghua is relatively high. he gave him advice on wooing sqq, after all, and sqq likes his company, so binghe tolerates his shang-shishu

but the thing is, shang qinghua is a spy. has been for decades. binghe knows this. really, everyone knows this at this point, which isn't a great look for a spy, but still. and since shang qinghua is a spy for mobei-jun, who is a subordinate for luo binghe, then technically shang qinghua is also working for him, but you don't get to the position of demon emperor without a healthy amount of suspicion for everyone in your court

so he decides to test shang qinghua a little bit. nothing major, just a little poking around in his dreams. he starts out with a subtle touch, just sifting through his memories. most of it is what he expected. he sees his time on an ding as a disciple and then later as peak lord, he sees him working for mobei-jun. he sees mobei-jun in some compromising situations, which he files away for later, and then sees him in an entirely different flavor of compromising situations, and binghe immediately decides to act like he never saw that

then he decides to take a more direct approach and starts nudging the dreams in other directions, to see how he might react to certain scenarios, test his loyalty. he expects shang qinghua to act cowardly, or bluff his way through a situaton, maybe even draw his sword if pushed far enough

what he doesn't expect is for shang qinghua to frown at the changes luo binghe made and go "I didn't write it like this"

what

binghe is so bewildered by that response that he loses his grip on the dream for a second, and before he knows it, shang qinghua has spun the dream scenario back into the way the scene originally played out. he steps back and looks satisfied. "there we go," he says. "that's how it went. you know, if I'd known I'd be dealing with this scene myself, I would've written it differently"

what the hell does that mean?

fascinated, luo binghe continues to test him. most of the time, when he toys with someone's dream, they're completely unaware of the changes. shang qinghua, despite not seeming aware that he's lucid dreaming, seems very aware of how each scene should go. except for, strangely, many of the scenes that binghe himself was in. binghe pulls up one from his disciple days, one of the times he remembered shang qinghua coming to qing jing on some errand. he hadn't even changed anything yet, had just let the dream version of his younger self launch himself at shizun in a tacklehug, but shang qinghua tsks and takes the reins from him before he can make any edits. "sorry bing-ge, but that was just way too out of character," shang qinghua says. the dream copy of luo binghe's younger self is sent further away, watching the peak lords with a sullen gaze. he's skinnier than binghe remembers being at this age, and one of his eyes is swollen with a purple bruise. that doesn't make any sense, luo binghe thinks. he hadn't been beaten on qing jing peak for years at this point.

the shen qingqiu beside shang qinghua in the dream stands with his back straight as a ruler, and when his gaze lands on luo binghe, he sneers behind his fan. shang qinghua sighs. "cucumber-bro really wasn't as good of an actor as he thought he was. he's way too soft to ever seem like the original goods."

alarmed, luo binghe dispels the dream and steps out of it entirely. sure, he knows shen qingqiu's personality changed almost overnight when he had that qi deviation. everyone knew that. he avoided questioning it much, unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth when it meant having a shizun that cared for him

but shang qinghua. shang qinghua seems to know something more about shen qingqiu's personality change. something he's not sharing. luo binghe didn't like the idea that one of his subordinates could be hiding something as vital as this from him

well, this had been a test of his spy's loyalties, hadn't it? perhaps he should make a visit to an ding. he had some questions.

[bleepyear]

Rays of Sunshine

I like to think that after a hard mission, these two cuddle up in the nook of Price's cluttered office and take a nap in the afternoon sunbeams, like two overgrown cats ❤️

Isn't it great that the mw3 campaign doesn't exist?

[buckevantommy]

i'm so glad they brought back tommy for buck. they could've brought back eli. they could've brought back the openly gay firefighter. they could've introduced someone new. but instead they brought back tommy: the guy who was stuck in the old boys' club, as well as figuring himself out around the same age as buck. the guy who wasn't warm or welcoming to chim or hen when they first arrived but who clearly struggled with doing so, and then who came to appreciate them and have their backs and enjoy their friendship. the guy who was there to see how bobby made a real difference to the 118, made it like a family before he left. the guy who was there for bobby's introduction of 'family dinners'. the guy who left the 118 so that buck could take his place there. the guy with the tk initials. the guy who shares a name with 2 other poignant tommys in the narrative for buck. the guy who chim called not once but twice for help and he answered. the guy who was saved by chimney and who will (hopefully) get to return the favour. the guy who made such pivitol personal growth in his time at the 118 thanks to chim and hen and bobby. they brought back the guy who proves that it's never too late to change, to grow, to be open and soft and caring. that it's never too late to learn about yourself, to figure out who you are as well as the person you want to be. that it's never too late to become a better version of yourself.

[edorazzi]

Page 10 of my Miraculous Mentor AU comic A Matter of Trust! In which Felix's first night out is interrupted by Paris' most fabulous, flamboyant, feathered foe! You didn't think Mr. Pigeon's 700+ akumatization streak started out with Hawk Moth, did you?! 🪽✨

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