#Lambda hit piece

[timelordpropaganda]

What are they exposing you for?

The usual nonsense:

“Your marriage was illegally arranged!” “You only had a child to start a Timetot clothing line!” “You’re only interested in Prydonian matters!” “You were only elected due to President Borusa and Chancellor Flavia’s quiet support!” “You use your money for frivolous things” “Lady Vulca is being abused!” “Your art is surface level!” “The love you show and claim to have is all an act! You are only married on paper!”

The claims are endless and entirely stupid. Think how much good in the world could come if people stopped writing these argumentative essays built on lies?

[withahappyrefrain]

FRAT TASM!PETER WITH

“I had a dream about you last night. Woke up hard/wet. Wanna hear about it?”

THIS IS SOMETHING THAT COCKY ASSHOLE WOULD SAYYY OH MY GOD

This is how blonde frat Peter returns bless you

Warning: language, frat Peter being a cocky little shit, female reader, I think that's it!

"Hey, you made it after all."

You audbily breathe in through your nose, trying to ignore the fumes of vodka and who knows what else was in this God forsaken jungle juice.

Anything to give you the strength to face Peter Parker.

You turn around to find him leaning against the door, a joint tucked behind his ear, hands in the pocket of his black hoodie, bleached blonde hair somehow perfectly messy.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Parker. I'm only here to support my roommate," you scoff, turning your attention back to the game of beer pong. Not that you were truly interested.

But you couldn't let him know that.

You regret being late to the first day of your Science Diplomacy & World Health class. Had you known it would have left you no choice but to sit next to Peter Parker, you wouldn't have hit the snooze button for your alarm five times.

It wasn't even like you had asked to borrow a pencil from him. He seemed drawn to you, like a moth to a flame.

"Y'know, I feel like I would have remembered a face like yours. You a transfer?" He asked, as if you two weren't in the middle of a lecture.

Thanks to your roommate being in the sorority that paired up with his frat, you had heard all about Peter Parker. The infamous parties. How he dyed his hair blonde at the beginning of sophomore. How he's the biggest flirt that Delta Lambda Phi had.

You didn't even look at him when you responded, "We've been in the same class since freshman year. But I came here to get a degree, not to party."

Ever since that day, he wouldn't leave you alone. At first it started with ridiculously over the top pick up lines.

"Are you made up of copper and tellurium? Because you're cute."

All you could do was roll your eyes at every line, mustering all the strength you had to not smile. You had eyes, the guy was cute. But you also knew his type.

So when he extended a personal invite to the latest frat party, you simply turned him down, like you had for countless of other parties.

Of course, as luck would have it, it was exactly the party your roommate wanted to go to.

You hoped to avoid him, hoped that your roommate would find whoever she was looking for so you could leave.

But it was as if Peter Parker had a sixth sense for you specifically. His inability to find you in libraries, dinning halls, and the university's coffee shop (bc fuck Starbucks) had now extended to frat parties.

"You know Parker, stalking is a serious crime," you scoff, refusing to look at him. The ever present scent of cinnamon alerted you that he was now standing next to you.

"It's not my fault you have a beautiful face that I could pick out from a crowd," He mumbles, a stark contrast to the usual cocky bravada you're used to.

"Excuse me?" Without thinking, you turn to face him, making contact with those big brown eyes.

The corner of his pink lips jerk upwards as he leans in, brushing a piece of hair out of your face. His touch is gentle, something you weren't expecting at all.

"You heard me." The cocky smile had returned, causing you to roll your eyes.

"Hey, don't gimme that. I know you love how cheesy I am."

Unfortunately, it was true. He was never crude and it somehow sounded genuine, despite being accompanied by a worn snapback.

"It's not crass, unlike your fellow brotherin. I'll give you that Parker." You would have taken a step back if you could, but you were now up against the wall. But he still had space to close in on you, not that he did. He always kept enough distance that you could walk away.

Come to think of it, you hadn't seen or heard him flirt with anyone since the first day of classes.

"Y'know, I got an offer from Delta Chi. It could be way worse." His comment earned a laugh from you, a feat Peter was quite proud of.

"You're right, I guess I should give you that."

"I think you can give me a lot more," He leaned in, closing some of the distance between you two but not all the way, "If you want."

The ball was in your court. His lips looked so soft, no doubt from the vanilla chapstick he used. God, why did you know that about him? And why did he always smell like cinnamon instead of Axe body spray? That's what he should be using, it would certainly make it easier for you to discourage your own feelings about the guy.

Tired of denying, tired of putting up a wall, and not kissing anyone in the last four months caused you to grab at his hoodie, your lips crashing onto his.

You vaguely register the sound of the dropped plastic cup, as your fingers thread through his hair to find it soft, despite all the hair dye and bleach.

Peter's hands feel large as they skim your sides, landing at your hips. When his tongue slid across your bottom lip, you could feel your knees begin to go weak. As if he could sense it, he pushed your back firmly against the wall, one of his large hands going down to your thigh to help steady you.

Fuck, his lips were soft. There was muscle underneath that hoodie, you could feel it.

His lips trailed down to your jaw before settling on your ear.

"I had a dream about you last night. Woke up hard. Wanna hear about it?"

Desire burned at the pit of your stomach, your fingers gripping the strands of his hair.

"Where the fuck is your bedroom Parker?"

[annon-guy2]

Guilty Gear X BlazBlue: BlazBlue Reactions to Bone Crushing Excitement

Here's what I think the BlazBlue cast would say in response to Faust's Bone Crushing Excitement Super in a hypothetical Guilty Gear X BlazBlue Game.

Ragna The Bloodedge

● "GOD DAMN IT!!!"

● "ARGH! YOU... FREAKING!!!"

● "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!!!"

Jin Kisaragi (His quotes a Japanese words for cold related terms)

● "YUKI!"

● "KORI!"

● "SHIMO!"

Noel Vermillion

● "OUCH!"

● "AHHHH!"

● "I ought to shoot you for that!"

Rachel Alucard

● "!?!" Nago: "The princess looks mad!"

● "You... rammed my...!?" Gii: "That looked like it hurt..."

● "You... fool...!" Nago: "Oh dear!" Gii: "Nice knowing you doctor..."

Taokaka

● "YIKESSSSSSSS!"

● "ME-OWWWWW!"

● "Tao's leg hurts neow!"

Iron Tager (Tager reads Mystery Novels and his quotes refer to authors of said novels)

● "LILIAN JACKSON!"

● "STEPHEN KING!"

● "CHARLAINE HARRIS!"

Litchi Faye-Ling (Litchi's a fellow doctor)

● "That's not how a wheelchair works!"

● "You're the one who pushed me!"

● "Is this how you lost you medical license!?"

Arakune (He has bugs. Self explanatory)

● "My bees! Crushed!"

● "My beloved leeches!"

● "Tartar... flee! FLEE!"

Carl Clover (Carl has chess piece like attacks and the last one is a reference to his 'Rhapsody of Memories' Distortion Drive)

● "WAHHHH!"

● "CHECKMATE!"

● "SYMPHONY!"

Bang Shishigami (His quotes are Ninja Commands in Japanese)

● "YAME!"

● "MATE!"

● "ASHI!"

Hakumen

● "Argh!"

● "I won't bend!"

● "This won't stop me!"

Nu-13

● "Damage to leg: Critical!"

● "You...! Will die!

● "Carry me... Ragna!"

Tsubaki Yayoi (Tsubaki likes historical dramas. Her quotes reference them.)

● "HIMIKO!"

● "NAGASAKI!

● "FUEFUKI!"

Hazama (The dude likes hard boiled eggs, so why not?"

● "SUNNYSIDE UP!"

● "DONE OVER EASY!"

● "DEVILED!"

Mu-12

● "Through the armor!?"

● "While I was down!?"

● "While caught off guard!?"

Makoto Nanaya (Makoto likes nuts.)

● "CHESTNUTS!"

● "WALNUTS!"

● "PEANUTS!"

Valkenhayn R. Hellsing

● "UNCOUTH!"

● "BARBARIAN!"

● "RAPSCALLION!"

Platinum The Trinity

● Luna: "LUNA'S LEG HURTS!"

● Sena: "Why'd you run our leg over!?"

● Trinity: "Doctor!? How could you!?"

Relius Clover (Relius enjoys the Opera, so Opera references away!)

● "CARMEN!"

● "FIGARO!"

● "OTELLO!"

Izayoi

● "This can't...!"

● "Argh! That... hurt!"

● "Ugh...! I won't yield!"

Amane Nishiki (His quotes reference Japanese Dance Groups)

● "ARASHI!"

● "TEMPURA KIDZ!"

● "7 MEN SAMURAI!"

Bullet

● "GAH! I'll get you for this!"

● "Why you...!?"

● "Erk! I break your shin in return!"

Azrael

● "That actually hurt!?"

● "To think I felt that!"

● "What's this... PAIN!?"

Kagura Mutsuki (His references are for Japanese Alcohol Brands)

● "SUNTORY!"

● "MIYAGIKYO!"

● "YAMAZAKI!"

Yuuki Terumi (Terumi likes Live Music, so why not?)

● "DEATH METAL!"

● "POWER BALLAD!"

● "HARDCORE TECHNO!"

Kokonoe (She's a scientist, hence her quotes are related to it)

● "CHEMISTRY!"

● "ASTRONOMY!"

● "MICROBIOLOGY!"

Celica A. Mercury (Minerva gets hit instead of Celica here.)

● "Minerva! Are you okay?!"

● "I'm sure he didn't mean it!"

● "P-Please don't be mad with the doctor!"

Lambda-11

● "Damage to knee joints!"

● "Excruciating!"

● "Ragna... help...."

Hibiki Kohaku (Hibiki's quotes are in reference to Pottery)

● "EARTHENWARE!"

● "STONEWARE!"

● "PORCELAIN!"

Naoto Kurogane

● "MY LEG!" (I couldn't resist 😂)

● "NOT AGAIN!"

● "YOU COULDN'T HIT THE PROSTHETIC LEG?!"

Nine The Phantom

● "FIREY!"

● "BURNING!"

● "BLAZING!"

Izanami

● "Transcendence!"

● "Enlightening!"

● "Awakening!"

Susano'o

● "BLASPHEMOUS!!!"

● "ETERNAL DAMNATION!!!"

● "ABOMINATION!!!"

Es

● "Blue lights...?"

● "Nobody...?"

● "Crystal in my chest...?"

Mai Natsume (Mai likes reptiles, hence her quotes.)

● "CHAMELEON!"

● "SUNGAZER!"

● "SNAKE!" (Not a Metal Gear Solid reference 😂)

Jubei

● "Smart move!"

● "Clever trick!"

● "Decent gamble!"

==============================================================================

Hope you all enjoyed this!

[certitudinis]

anyway on the topic of me trying to stay mostly spoiler-free, i love having a lambdadelta blog in particular because i am free to drop fun little Lambda Facts, such as how one time she turned her catgirl gf into a piece of candy and ate her, but realized within like a fraction of a second of the candy hitting her tastebuds that she must have been outwitted and actually failed in infusing her into it because----

and it doesn't spoil anything at all whatsoever about the story progression or plot of umineko as a whole except that lambdabern are freaks (affectionate) <3

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 151

Chapter 151: "The Ones to Win"

Zazie attacking Legravalima with such great speed and yet only managing to land a simple scratch on her less than perfect face is unfortunate. And sorry not sorry because I know she's royalty and supposedly pretty but the three eyes always creeped me out, not even because there's an extra one but how off center each of them are.

You would think she would have a blind spot on her right with how her eyes are placed but when Cislo & Barbara come crashing through the ceiling, that's the direction she turns to first. Maybe she reacted to sound here instead or noticed Cislo first through her center eye's peripheral, but whatever.

I take great joy in knowing that Emma (& Ray) essentially learned about the demon's regeneration limit back in ch91 during their fight against Leuvis while Norman & crew found out the fundamentals from experiments done on chained up wild demons. One method just seems more dangerous than the other and I think it fits their individual learning styles.

No way in hell both of y'all could've seen the entire Legravalima vs Geelan fight through that tiny hole, not unless they both took turns putting their faces down to the ground and putting an eye directly above it.

This poor child aahhh.. definitely not an ideal way to spend the first couple years of your life!

Aside from the massive panic of seeing yet another fierce girl get stabbed by a royal, this moment sucks because the injury effectively takes Barbara out of the fight and it disappoints me since we didn't really get to see her do that much. She doesn't get a heroic second wind moment like Emma does at GP either.

I questioned what made Legravalima pause right before she ate Geelan's head last chapter but completely forgot that it was Vincent and the Adam clones who unleashed some poison bullets or whatever onto all the demons before Zazie entered the room. Zazie's also lucky he hit both the queen's hands at once since those fingers of hers are lethal.

The absolute tease of seeing Zazie's paper bag ripped to pieces and having the face reveal wait until next chapter.

Favorite panel/moment:

No offense to Vincent, but if the Lambda crew were to have a trio, it would be these three.

[tenaciouspostfun]

Robert Massimi in the Times Square Chronicles.

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Robert Massimi

Robert Massimi is the Chief Drama Critic for Metropolitan Magazine.Chief Drama Critic for Nimbus Magazine.Chief Drama Critic for My Life Publications.Member of The Dramatists Guild.Member of The National Arts Club.Former Member of the Board of Directors Metropolitan Playhouse.I Have produced 14 shows both on and off Broadway.A Graduate of Manhattan College. Alpha Sigma Lambda and Triple Major :English, Government and Psychology.

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[fullscoreshenanigans]

#fullscoreshenanigans impossible polls #this is your tag now for theses (via @thetinytimeturtle)

I'll give it to you for this one but any poll with an other option I refuse 😤

#181 is so cute but then there is the context and it hits and it is still cute but also aaaaaaa!!! #c168 has Ayshe who I love very very much and also Ray and Isabella feels #c131 ss21 is so silly yes lambda squad go on take care of the baby owl #c104-105ss19 felt like a huge puzzle piece clicking into place when I read it #and c30ss7 MCBc2/c48 c153 and c159 all holds your heart and dropkicks your feels #all the rest are of course also adorable but these are the ones giving me the most trouble when choosing

All very valid sentiments though, and it was so hard narrowing it down to twelve. _(:△」∠)_

*Sketches will be in a separate poll.

Related Posts: • Separate post for the chapter 48 side scene with Ray, Lannion, and Thoma featured in the mystic code book. (Translated by 14thNeah) • Norman and Vincent's relationship • Did Ayshe forgive Norman during the timeskip? • What would you like out of the Ayshe-Norman conflict? • Me @ Shirai choosing to include Ayshe specifically in this panel of Isabella’s internal thoughts in chapter 174 • Why Ayshe acts the way she does in her conversation with Ray • What reconciliation with Isabella looks like for Ray versus the rest of her children • "The  tragedy  is  that  the  prioritizing  of  her  own  position  trumps  that  love  of  a  mother  more  times  that  it  ever  didn’t,  and   that’s   the  mom  that  Ray  was  left  with. " • Chapter 181 - WSJ Release vs Volume Release Differences

[bandtrees]

finished end!!!! i love umineko so much and it hits very different to be reading it as a writer and someone who gets very invested in stories, to see how different in-universe “writing” decisions further the story… how erika is an all-knowing detective who is practically an in-universe mary sue (as people give her whatever information she needs and she acts very unrealistically on the gameboard for the sake of gathering evidence ‘for the mystery’) because she’s not being written as a character or person but as an in-universe ‘plot device’, because lambda and bern are shallow game masters/‘writers’ who care more about mystery circlejerks and showing off how smart they are than actually making a coherent story or paying the characters in it any respect…

it’s not only really really good discussion on the mystery genre but also reads a lot to me as commentary on the sensationalism of tragedy that comes with true crime - a whole family being murdered and erika getting the most inflammatory disrespectful and offensive ‘truth’ out of the mystery for the sake of feeling like she’s solved it… in general how the rokkenjima massacre just becomes a Setup For The Mystery with People As Pieces and the real emotions and relationships these family members had for eachother are used only to determine ‘motives’ for WhoDunIt - it’s so so so damn good

i also just love erika. and dlanor. end was really really good with making charming new characters and i am especially really drawn to erika and how tragic she is, how bernkastel abuses her and how she’s intentionally made worse and worse because being the vessel for bernkastel’s shitty beliefs and lack of compassion for the ‘pieces’ is like… literally the only reason she’s even alive, her only purpose is to be rokkenjima’s ‘detective’. and she’s horrible yes but i can only be sad at how this very young girl is being pushed into such a shitty position by a mother figure who very obviously doesn’t care about her. Man. :( i don’t think 07 meant for me to get too attached to her but i am, happy ending for erika pls

Also What The Fuck Is The Gold Truth Bitch I’ll Kill You

[leroyzboots]

you and i are trying, together.

part one

Benrey's been looking for the opportunity to apologize for...quite some time now, in fact.

Just looking at Gordon and his dripping stump he now has instead of a hand causes his stomach to churn with intense discomfort.

It doesn't help with the nightmares, either.

As if the abuse of the soldiers and the military of Black Mesa constantly swimming in and out of his dreams wasn't bad enough, now they're coupled together with the deep black room where the horror occurred.

They're standing in the mixology lab, Darnold is explaining something to Gordon, when the flashbacks are triggered heavily by a loud bang and mechanical shock from one of the many computers.

Sharp, angry metal poles stick deep into Benrey's neck and fill him with electricity, drawing a long, piercing shriek from his throat that melts into Gordon's rapid wailing.

And then Benrey is crouching on the ground, and the soldier's boot is slamming into his side, crushing and breaking his ribs, and Benrey tastes blood.

He's kneeling in it, the blood pours out from his lips and covers the floor, a massive pool of Gordon's life fluid.

The world is spinning, and Benrey faces Gordon again, and watches as the scientist raises his bloody stump, now transformed into a gun, makes a fist and shoots.

The bullets strike a numbing pain into Benrey's brain, and as Gordon shoves past him, not even sparing him a glance, he expects the daytime nightmare to end.

It doesn't.

Benrey presses his hand to his forehead, the only place the shots entered, and it comes away shaky and covered in wet, sticky red liquid.

Guess that part of it was real.

It doesn't take more than a few seconds out of the lab before the bullets clatter onto the ground and the wound heals.

--

They're barely a few hours out from the Lambda lab when opportunity strikes.

The ground shakes beneath their feet, and Dr. Coomer lets out a little yelp and latches onto Bubby's arm, who grabs onto Tommy's collar as the floor begins to break apart.

Bubby realizes with a horrible jolt that they only have two hands.

The tiles shatter and crumble beneath Gordon's boots, and he grabs at the closest person next to him, which is unfortunately Benrey.

As the hole expands, Benrey catches ahold of the edge of it, and stops himself from falling through, but as Gordon wraps himself around Benrey's pants leg, the combined weight of the man and his HEV suit is too much for one-handed hanging.

They fall.

It's deep, and Benrey tenses as his torso hits the concrete below with a breathtaking amount of force.

Definitely half a dozen broken ribs, a fractured shoulderblade and his spinal cord snaps.

Whatever.

He'll recover.

But Gordon lands feet first, with a sickening crack that causes him to scream and tumble over onto his side.

Benrey heals as quickly as he can, feeling his nerves re-attatch as he forces himself to stand, eyes peering up at the hole they came from.

Tommy's color-splotched face peeks over the edge, so far away that Benrey just barely can make out his features.

"Are you tw-two okay, Mr. Freeman!?" Tommy has to shout the question down at them.

It had to have been a 40, maybe 50 foot drop.

"We're...we'll be fine!" Gordon shouts back upward, his leg clutched between his hands.

"I'll circle around until we find a way back up. Keep...just keep heading to the lab and I'll c-catch up."

"Alrighty, M-Mr. Freeman!"

Tommy's head disappears, and distantly Benrey hears their retreating footsteps.

Gordon winces as he stands and tests his leg, which sticks out at a slightly bent angle near the middle of his shin.

"Dude, it's definitely broken," Benrey notes, and Gordon tenses before making a face of annoyance.

"Right," he groans, "I forgot you're with me."

And Gordon stomps off, far harder than he really should on his leg, and leaves Benrey standing beneath the light shining through the hole.

Sighing, Benrey makes a decision.

He follows, jogging to catch up to Gordon's pace before trailing slightly behind.

--

Gordon is very clearly not doing so hot.

He's limping, and sweating like a stuck pig to the point it's dripping off his nose onto the ground.

Benrey's been watching him carefully, and Gordon....hasn't said a word to him since the beginning.

He's leaned up against Benrey a few times on accident, but not a single sound has been in his general direction.

It's when Gordon stumbles over a fallen chair and whimpers from the pain that Benrey breaks the silence.

"Dammit, man. Alright. Sit down, dude, please?"

Gordon turns, scowling, but the exhaustion on his face is showing.

"Why do you care?"

Benrey pauses.

He could lie, of course, make something up or tell a joke to get Gordon to sit.

But he wants to apologize, and starting it out with a lie isn't..something Benrey wants to do.

So he tells the truth, even if it is hard for him to say it.

"Because I care about you, and we're friends, man. Sit down?"

Gordon scoffs, turning around all the way, and slipping slightly with his broken shin.

"We are not friends, not after you so-sold me out to the fuckin. Boot boys, the soldiers!"

He's not thinking straight, the pain alone is causing Gordon to reach incoherence.

"Yeah, well you led the soldiers to us!"

Gordon opens his mouth to retort, but Benrey cuts him off, barreling onward.

"I wasn't fucking. Angry, like Bubby was, but the dude doesn't know his damn limits, 'aight? So. Had to jump in, you know? Thought it'd be uhhh, funny little prank. Like all, surprise!"

Benrey waves his hands in place, stopping only to take a breath before continuing.

"Well, it didn't work how either of us wanted. They. They uhh."

Blood, his blood is on Benrey's hands and knees.

"They cut your damn hand off. It just..just...they cut it off like butter! Ha, ha haha, butter...and it-it was so much blood and..."

Benrey gulps, and he almost chokes as he loudly mutters the next few words.

"I thought. Thought I'd killed you, you know? Gordo, I th-thought you were dead."

He struggles, and a high pitch of navy blue sweet voice hangs in the air for a second before Benrey goes on, after another deep breath.

"Gordon, I'm really sorry. I know that. That I'm not always your gamer buddy, but I'm sorry. So if you could just fucking sit down, so I can stop watching you die, that'd be fantastic."

Gordon stares, his mouth open just a little, before he sits down, a small groan escaping him as the pressure comes off his leg.

Benrey lets out a sigh of relief, before heading back a little ways to grab the bandages from the medkit on the wall.

Crouching around the chair Gordon stumbled over, he snaps off the middle support piece and tests the sturdiness.

Gordon glances up as Benrey steps over to him, the sweat wiped away and his eyes a more gentle gaze than before.

Benrey kneels, and gingerly works off the protective plate of Gordon's boot before he looks up again, the chair beam in his left hand and the bandages in the other.

"I'm gonna uh. Set the bone. Homemade splint, you know? Tommy. Tommy, he taught me how to do this a long time ago."

Benrey pushes the beam gently against the other's shin, wrapping it down with the bandage near the bottom.

"It's. Gonna hurt, but uhh. S'gonna feel better and you'll be able to put p-pressure on it again."

Gordon takes a deep breath, and closes his eyes as Benrey pushes down hard.

The bone snaps back into place, and Gordon cries out through gritted teeth, but it's over quick and the pain is lessened by a great amount as the security guard before him wraps the entirety of his leg up to his knee.

"There. You should still uh. Rest a bit. Imma lay down."

Benrey gets to his feet, and starts to walk away, but Gordon reaches out and grabs ahold of his pants, stopping him for a second.

".....Thank you."

Gordon lets go, and leans back against the wall and closes his eyes.

Benrey stays in place, watching him carefully until he falls asleep, before sidling down a little ways off to keep watch.

--

Things are definitely better between the two of them after that.

When Gordon wakes up, he's much friendlier to Benrey, without any real hostility.

Honestly? Gordon's glad.

His relationship with Benrey had always been a bit complicated.

Sure, before, Benrey was annoying as hell, but he always made Gordon laugh.

He was nice, someone Gordon's own age for once, and if not someone who he could confide in, a friend.

But then, the soldiers have him, and the pain in his arm is excruciating, and everything Benrey did or does suddenly isn't so comforting.

Convinced Benrey's jokes were meant to demean him, his casual touches and close contact deception, Gordon turned and just kinda.

Let Benrey have the short end of the stick.

But earlier...Benrey tells him he cares, that Gordon's life was always in his best interests, and that they were and still are, friends.

So, it feels good to no longer make Benrey the target of his affliction.

Gordon's about to suggest looking for a vending machine, for some food, when creatures round the corner and attack.

Gordon whips out his gun hand and fires, and vaguely to his right, pistol shots ring off the walls.

The peeper puppies, as Dr. Coomer had called them, bound away from the bullets and circle the pair, releasing their sonic barks and baring their open mouths filled with jagged teeth.

Gordon steps backward, holding his gun hand close to his face to blow cool air on the barrel, the metal radiating pure heat.

Benrey bumps against Gordon's back, hastily re-loading his gun, his face screwed up in careful precision.

But then he turns, and gives Gordon a strained little smile.

A little puddle of happiness forms in Gordon's stomach before the soldiers kick open the underground doors and shoot before they aim.

Gordon finishes off the peeper puppy, then stumbles and shifts his line of fire towards the soldiers.

It's a messy fight, with Gordon constantly limping on his wounded leg, and both sides being attacked by alien creatures.

Gordon's never really seen Benrey fight before, so watching him is definitely an experience.

The way he acts is familiar.

Gordon glances between the reloading gunman ahead of him and Benrey behind him.

The way their hands move over the bullet cartridges, the way both of them hit the side of it with their palm when they're about to reload.

Benrey was trained by the same soldiers shooting at him now.

But the way that they handle guns is the only similarity, because while the military of Black Mesa are ruthless and cruel, Benrey is his own, merciful person.

Gordon fires the last few rounds of his hand before it has to cool down, and thankfully the last soldier drops to the floor.

Benrey is breathing heavily, wiping sweat from underneath his helmet visor, when he pales.

Gordon glances down as something rolls from the soldiers hand to his feet.

A grenade.

Gordon doesn't even have time to react before Benrey lunges, scooping the explosive into his hands and clutching it close to his chest, practically rolling across the ground until he's a good twenty or so feet from Gordon.

He looks back, catching Gordon's eye, and explodes.

Shrapnel bursts from the walls and cracks the paint, debris scatters all around the site and lands in the scientists' hair, who is kneeled over coughing from the dust, his eyes searching the room.

Gordon doesn't want to be alone again, he hates being alone, he hates it.

He turns, ready to head back, and then Gordon wants to vomit.

Benrey staggers, halfway through the revival-respawning process, clearly not wanting to leave Gordon too long.

But dear god.

Half of his body is still skeletal, his entire left side is just an open orifice of bones and muscle.

The bones in Benrey's legs snap together, muscle forming overtop them, before flesh and clothing crawl down to form a whole.

His leg hits solid ground, and it has to be partially startling because Benrey lurches forward, and brain matter slops out of the empty eye socket onto the floor before it vanishes.

His neck cracks, and his head moves jerkily as skin reforms over his jaw and teeth, Benrey's one green eye spinning wildly in place before the tired lid creeps back to hold it still.

A few more disgusting crunches and Benrey is back to normal, passing Gordon now, casually placing his gun back into its holster and moving on.

Gordon blinks a few times, holding back his revulsion for a moment, before chasing after him, through the doorframe into a poorly lit hallway.

"Woah, woah woah man, slow down."

Benrey stops, turning and raising an eyebrow.

Gordon points through the doorframe they came through, gesturing helplessly.

"What. What the actual hell, was that?? You...just, what??"

Benrey blinks, as though he is completely clueless.

He just might be.

"You...you died for me," Gordon finishes, a little quieter than he meant to.

"Uhhh, yeah? Isn't that what friends do?"

Benrey grins as if it's a joke, and Gordon feels the surge of irritation, but also something else he can't quite put his finger on.

"No, it is not something friends do. We do not die randomly for people."

"Yeah. Uh, you do if one of em' can't die. Then it doesn't count, idiot," Benrey says all this casually, in his own, joking around style, but Gordon pauses.

He leans forward, and adopts his casually pleasant expression, but delivers his next question with the tone one would use for a ceremony or a funeral.

"So what happens when I decide to die for you, huh?"

Benrey turns, the smirk still on his face, and opens his mouth to respond with another joke when he stops, eyes wide.

Gordon's....entirely serious.

It surprised him too, but. After the leg wrapping and the grenade stunt, Gordon is. Plenty shocked but pleasantly surprised at how willing he'd be to die for Benrey.

He expects some kind of rebuke, but instead Benrey.

Blushes?

A deep flush goes across his cheeks and his eyes dart away from Gordon's, mumbling under his breath all the while.

Gordon wonders for a second if maybe Benrey's previously irritating teasing had been something else, before he sets off after the guard, a warming smile on his face.

--

Tommy had lied- of course he lied, he had to lie- when he told Mr. Freeman that he couldn't handle a gun.

How else was he supposed to explain without melting the poor man's brain that he was actually an incredibly talented shot, not because of military training, but because he could control the metal?

How was he supposed to explain that through sheer mental prowess, he could morph and create the bullets to go in any direction he wished, never running out of ammo because he could simply will the ammunition into existence?

He didn't want to scare Mr. Freeman away.

Tommy hurries after the Coomers, his long legs easily making distance across the lit hallways of Black Mesa.

Having just emerged from a scuffle with aliens, they were all on edge, wary.

The three hadn't been traveling long, only a couple hours, but worry had already crept down their throats.

Surprisingly, Bubby voices his concern first.

"Do you think they'll get along all right?" They quip, mostly to Harold and himself but to Tommy as well.

"Oh, I'm certain Gordon will make it out just fine," Dr. Coomer replies, cracking his knuckles absentmindedly as a stim.

"And Benrey certainly has always survived whatever Death's thrown his way!"

Bubby nods, but the ends of their mouth turn down with a crease, and he turns to Tommy, who understands their message perfectly.

"Y-yes, Mr. Coomer but! Gordon and Ben-Benrey don't get along together very well."

Anxious, Tommy absentmindedly pulls a spare Beyblade from his pocket and fiddles with the wheels, the soft whir of the toy is calming.

"I'm worried, um, I'm worried! A-about whether they'll m-manage to...to cooperate long enough to survive together."

Dr. Coomer chortles, but the nervous look behind his eyes betrays him.

Bubby shrugs, airing out his still heated hands before speaking.

"Who knows? Maybe they'll work it out and that dumbass will finally tell Gordon how he feels."

Tommy pauses, his mouth puckered.

"Y-you know about Benrey and-and Mr. Freeman?"

"Of course I know, everyone with a damn brain knows," Bubby snorts, then falls short noticing the look on Tommy's face.

"Then you know the kind of trouble th-they're going to walk into."

"Yes," Dr. Coomer sighs, taking Bubby's hand tenderly; "we unfortunately do."

--

Benrey's gotta get those feelings under some goddamn control, because if he doesn't, then.

Game over, you know?

Gordon doesn't seem to understand what he does to Benrey, but it's driving him crazy.

That little thing he pulled back there?

It doesn't help, idiot. Only makes him fall for him more.

But they're both in a good mood, making some distance between them and the last time they saw the soldiers.

It's around midnight by now, and Benrey is ready to go back to sleep.

"Hey, come check this thing out!"

Gordon's excited yell shakes Benrey out of his sleepy stupor, and he hurries over to where Gordon is poking around inside of a barely-lit room, the door frame busted off its hinges in order to access the inside.

Benrey pokes his head in, and his heart slides all the way into his stomach with a horrendous lurch.

This is the room.

He hasn't been here in maybe six, seven or so years, but everything is the same as he left it.

The tube shattered, still connected to the ceiling and floor, the plaque bearing his subject number stubbornly.

The tables, bolted to the floor.

The papers, scattered and ripped, the shelves tipped over and splintered beyond saving.

"What do you think happened here?" Gordon asks, kneeling by the tube in examination of something long discarded on the floor.

Running his hands over the metal table, fingers brushing the shackles, the memories return to Benrey.

Shock collars. Sweet voice tests, hours or days or weeks locked in his tube, sick of breathing the containment fluid.

"I...I know what happened here."

"Er, what? I'm sorry?"

Gordon looks heavily confused, and reluctantly, as if this place will never let him go, Benrey lets go of the chains and shuffles over to the tube.

Taking off his badge, he holds it up to the tube plaque, both bearing the same text.

B3_NY

#7037

Gordon stares, his eyes wide, before turning to the guard.

"I thought that was like, your serial number. They...they made you here?"

Benrey swallows his anger, tossing the badge to the ground and going through the next door.

"They did more than just make me."

It's all still there.

The room is lit only from above, with a dim lightbulb buzzing meekly in its socket.

The long metal bed sits in the center, almost beckoning to Benrey with omnicity.

One of the only scars Benrey has, the precise incision made jagged by struggle, prickles on his back at the sight of it.

He just stands, biting back tears as Gordon goes around the room, looking through boxes, his scientific curiosity never satisfied, until he finds something.

He's not looking, Benrey is not looking at whatever Gordon has clutched in his fist.

In his hurry to get out of this awful room, he slams into the metal table, pushing it into the wall with a reverberating crash.

Benrey drops to the ground outside, shaking and clutching his helmet, with shuddery sobs echoing around him.

He's trying to shut out the memories, but the knives are in his back and Gordon's blood is on his hands and the lightning is in his skull and it's all so terrifyingly loud.

It's a few minutes before Gordon comes back out into the hall.

Benrey goes rigid as Gordon sits down beside him, but he makes no effort to push the subject.

Benrey relaxes, just a little, lowering his hands and leaning against the wall.

A heavy warmth wraps around his hand, and as the guard looks down, he realizes Gordon's hand is on top of his right.

Gordon is purposefully not looking at him.

Heart in his throat, Benrey slowly turns his hand palm upward, and Gordon laces their fingers together.

They're holding hands.

They're holding hands and Gordon looks a little sheepish, but he's smiling fondly and his cheeks are flushed.

Benrey stares, and then cautiously leans into Gordon's shoulder, his helmet clunking quietly against the plate of the HEV suit.

Gordon doesn't let go, and Benrey falls asleep tucked close to his warmth and their hands clasped together.

[strawhatpoofy]

It’s a Love-Hate Thing

characters: frat boy!hawks x f!reader, brief mentions of mirko and members of the LOV

genre: smut. nsfw. 18+

notes/warnings: frat!au, college!au, hate-sex, degradation, dirty talk, mentions of alcohol, mentions of political science (deffo the scariest thing in here), swearing uuuuh lmk if i forgot anything

words: 3.6k

If someone were to ask you how you ended up here, you would have bitterly pointed towards your now drunk roommate, Rumi. She had spent two hours begging you to accompany her to Lambda Omega Vi’s biggest party of the year: their post-rush celebration. As if it wasn’t bad enough that you had an avid hatred for greek life, the LOV’s ‘brothers’ were renoundedly the douchiest boys on campus.

Yet, Rumi had pleaded with you, and bargained with dish duty. If you went, she would do all of the dishes for a month. She knew as soon as your eyes narrowed and head titled that she had you. After some fluttered lashes and a sweet pout, it was a done deal. And, damn, were you pissed.

You stood in the corner of a musty, bare living room. There was something bassy and synthetic pumping through a large speaker, and sweaty bodies mingled in the middle of the room. From the sidelines, you played a little game you had made up after your first quarter on campus.

That one is Shiggy; his lips were always chapped, and skin always parched, yet there was always a gorgeous girl attached to his arm. Jin was running the game of beer pong; people around school called him Twice, but the stories always varied as to how that name originated (you heard it was ‘cuz he gave the same girl an STD twice). As your eyes flitted around the room, your face contorted in displeasure. The LOV really was the bottom of the barrel.

That’s when you saw him. The bane of your fucking existence. Keigo fuckin’ Takami. What a prick. You had the displeasure of meeting Keigo in your second quarter Intro to Political Thought class. It was a large lecture, and you sat in the back, making sure to keep at least a few seats between you and the nearest person. You were only taking this class as a GE, and had no interest  in making friends with the poli sci majors. Of course, when Keigo came in, he plopped down in the seat right next to yours. His knee bumped yours and he had a sleazy smirk on his face.

He did that every lecture-bumped into you, lazily grinning and never saying a word unless it looked like you were about to get up and move. Then he would need a pencil, despite the one sitting on top of his notebook, or he’d ask for a piece of gum, or ask you to catch him up on the reading he didn’t do. Thus, you were trapped with him for a painful ten weeks. As the quarter progressed, so did his shameless fuckboy behavior. No matter how scathingly you shut him down, he was on you like a fungus.

When you had found out he was part of the LOV, it made everything click. Some girl had come up to him during one of your last lectures, batting her eyelashes, and when you heard her call him Hawks oh so sweetly, you didn’t let him live it down. Every time you saw him it was, hey Hawky, you absolute dumbass. He simply played along, calling you princess and his little dove with a dazzling smile each time. And fuck if it didn’t make you want to bash your head against a wall.

Thus, this is what your relationship became; any chance meetings across campus after that first class together consisted of his shameless flirting and your anti-fraternity war, which always inevitably turned into more bickering. Others would snicker when they witnessed the two of you, resulting in your heads whipping around to face whoever it was, sure to make a point of letting them know just how much you couldn’t stand each other.

So here you were, glaring at him from across his living room, while his arm was thrown around some wasted sorority girl. You nursed your cup of spiked punch, wincing at the cheap alcohol with every sip you took . Then, Keigo caught your gaze. Your eyes locked with his for far too long, but you weren’t going to back down first. Eyes narrowed, you worked your hardest to force all of your anger and hatred into your stare. But when he winked, you practically spit up your punch. You scoffed and flipped him off, turning away after drinking in his initial expression of shock.

Working your way into the kitchen, you smiled behind your cup. Damn, that felt good. Maybe it was petty, but fuck that guy. As you reached the chip bowl, you felt a hand curl around your wrist. You jumped in surprise, whipping around to see Rumi giggling and looking up at you.

“Hey (Y/N)! Hi. Ok, so I know I begged you to come with me, and I know you’re my ride. But um,” she glanced behind her and as your eyes followed her gaze, you understood what she was getting at. “I think I’m gonna uh, catch a ride with Dabi right now.” She was biting her lip, “I’ll still do the dishes for a month, I swear. And the good news is you can totally leave now!”

You sighed and nodded, muttering a just be safe and text me, then she was running off, jumping into who you assumed was Dabi’s arms. After watching them disappear, you went to dump the rest of the punch down the kitchen sink. No point in staying here any longer. Thankfully you had barely had anything to drink, so all that was left to do was grab your purse and get the hell out of here.

Up the stairs, second door on the left. That’s where your stuff should have been. Every time you had been to one of these parties, the hosting fraternity usually offered up a safe room for everyone to keep their belongings. This time it was someone’s bedroom, and when you walked in only to  see your purse wasn’t where you had left it, panic began to rise in your throat. There was no way someone had taken it, right? Then, the door behind you shuts, the lock clicking.

“Looking for this, doll?”

Oh absolutely not. Keigo stood in front of the door, your purse dangling from his fingers, that same unbearable smirk on his face. You didn’t respond, instead crossing your arms and stalking over to where he stood. “You know, I didn’t really appreciate your little stunt earlier, (Y/N). I thought we were buds!” He was looking down at you, mock hurt across his face. The fact that he remembered your name made your pulse jump just the slightest.

“What the fuck do you want, Hawks?” You spat out the nickname, taking a step back from him so you could look him level in the eyes. He put your purse behind him and took  a step closer.

“Aw, c’mon dove. You know I only like it when you use that special little nickname lovingly.” Keigo’s hand was on the back of his neck, and the display of bullshit modesty made you roll your eyes. In the back of your mind you were thinking how adorable he looked, but you shook those thoughts from your head.

“Keigo, I’m trying to go home, and I don’t understand what the fuck you think you’re doing in here, or what little game you think you’re playing, but you better get out of my way.” You were desperate to sound in control of the situation, but your voice had softened half way through. Of course he noticed, and he took another step towards you.

“I just wanted to see why you thought it would be cute to do me dirty like you did down there, dove. What could I have done to deserve being embarrassed like that in front of my guests, hm?” He imitated you, crossing his arms. His chest was puffed out a little, but he was still smirking at you

You attempted to make a snatch for your bag, but he was too quick.

“Tsk tsk tsk. C’mon now darlin’. Thought you were smarter than that.” His arms had shot out and caught hold of your shoulders. His grip was like steel, and you were starting to feel a little uneasy. He was staring down at you like he was a predator, and you were already a dead thing he had dragged into his den. “I think I’m gonna need an apology for all the trouble you’ve been causing me tonight, dove.” He was shoving you down, and your knees hit the rug on the floor with a thud.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” You were looking up at him, his hands still on your shoulders keeping you against the floor. You despised the way his surprise show of strength forced heat to rush between your legs. One of his hands left your shoulder to cup your cheek, a finger hooked under your chin.

“I’m just doing something I’ve wanted to do since I first saw you last year. Don’t you think you could behave? Don’t you think you owe me some sort of apology?” Keigo was frowning now, gazing down at you through his lashes. Fuck, he was gorgeous. “Now be a good girl.” His hand cupped your face, thumb leaving your chin to trace your lips, while the other left your shoulder and started working on his pants.

“W-what are you-” You were cut off by Keigo shoving his thumb into your mouth, and when you let out a little hum, he beamed down at you. He was unzipping his jeans, doing his best to pull them down with one hand. It was then you noticed his cock hardening under his pants.

“Look at you, already cooing for me. Thought you were gonna give me a harder time than this, dove. What a slut.” He was mocking you, you were sure of it. Yet at his words your cunt clenched. Still, he was wrong; you were gonna give him a hard time. You bit down on his thumb, and he hissed. “Fuck, you really are a brat. Better not try that when I have my cock in that smart mouth of yours.”

He pulled his cock free from his boxers, and your eyes widened just the tiniest bit. He wasn’t particularly thick, but long, with just a hint of a curve. His cock was was throbbing, and he grabbed himself with the hand that was previously pulling down his pants.

When he squeezed himself, he tensed up and shuddered. “Alright dove, open up.” He slapped the head of his cock against your cheek, leaving a trail of precum. He tapped it again against your bottom lip when you refused to take his orders, and something about the obscenity of Keigo smacking your face with his cock had your mouth dropping open involuntarily.

“Good girl, I knew you had it in you to be a good girl for me.” Both his hands wrapped into the hair at the back of your head, and without a second of hesitation, he’s fucking your face.

His hips are thrusting lazily, and his cock is hitting the back of your throat. Your gagging and whimpering only seems to egg him on, and he pushes your face forward until your nose is against his pubic bone. You’re trying to fight the heat rising in your belly, but it’s no use. Impossibly, this is  the hottest thing anyone has ever done to you.

“Aw, darlin’, look at you crying over how I fuck that smart little mouth of yours. Does it hurt? Feels so good for me, dove. Love watching you cry too.” You hadn’t even realized the tears falling from your eyes, too busy focusing on your breathing. While you’d be lying if you said you hadn’t thought of Keigo in a sexual way, you definitely had never pictured anything like this. Yet, you were enjoying yourself almost as much as he was.

You glanced up at him, eyes watery and lashes heavy. His face was flushed pink, his lips parted and breath panting. He was holding you against him as if you two were glued together, practically grinding against your face, cock pulsating against your tongue. The whines falling from his lips were music to your ears; he was gasping and sputtering, hips moving a little bit more erratically. The wetness in your panties was growing, along with your frustration. There was no way he was going to cum just like that and leave you here to pick up the mess; there was no way you were gonna let him use you.

When your teeth gently grazed his cock and you started shimmying away from him, Keigo groaned, head falling and hands tugging on your hair. You pulled off of his cock with a pop, stood up, wiped your face of any tears, and pulled your fingers through your hair.

“Sorry, birdy, but I am gonna give you a hard time. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” You squirm around him while he’s trying to catch his breath to grab your purse. It’s almost in your clutches when you’re slammed against the door.

“Think I’m gonna let you leave just like that, dove?” His voice is hot in your ear, and his hands are holding yours above your head, pinning them to the wood of the door. “Think that being a brat is gonna keep me from taking what I want?” He presses his still bare, still throbbing cock against your ass.

You stifle the groan begging to be let out, instead opting to egg him further. “I think you’re a real piece of shit, Keigo. Just another no good, douchey frat boy.”

“Hm, yeah I bet you do. Doesn’t mean you’re not gonna let this douchey frat boy abuse that slutty pussy of yours though, right? Gonna let me take advantage of you even if you fuckin’ hate me, isn’t that right, dove?” He smells like body wash and faintly of beer, and his skin is burning everywhere it’s touching yours. At his filthy words you keen, and rut your ass against his cock. “Mmm, of course you are. All bark ‘nd no bite, huh?”

He puts both of your wrists in one of his hands, and lets the other wander down. His fingers graze your waist, pushing up the material of your t-shirt. Then he’s moving up, hand cupping your breasts, fingers grazing against your nipple through the thin material of your bra. You whine and continue pushing yourself against him, wanting more.

“God, you talk too much Keigo. Too scared to actually fuck me? I doubt you’d be able to make me cum. Bet most the girls you’ve been with have faked it-” You know what you’re doing is dangerous, but you’re already here so why not. Keigo lets out something akin to growl, rumbling from deep in his chest. He’s pulling your shirt over your bra, then tugging the skimpy material down under your breasts.

“Alright, now you’ve really pissed me off brat. I’m gonna make it so the only words you remember are my name and please.” He pinches a nipple, twisting the sensitive nub between his fingers, and bites down on your neck. A moan is pitching from the back of your throat when he brings his hand up from your tits, clamping it down over your mouth. “You’re not gonna make a god damn peep unless I give you permission to, dove. Now just fuckin’ behave and keep your hands up high like that for me.”

He releases the grip he had on your wrists, and you can already feel the bruises that will be covering them tomorrow. Suddenly he’s working on your jeans, unbuttoning and unzipping with minimal fumbling, and yanking your pants and panties down in one swift motion. Once they’re past your knees, and your ass is bare to him, he’s humming in approval, hand gliding over your cheeks, grabbing, kneading, pinching.

Finally, he’s running a finger across your slit, avoiding your clit, just barely fluttering past your hole, only touching your pussy enough to collect your wetness on his fingertips.

“Such a high and mighty attitude, but look at you princess. So wet, and I’ve barely touched you. All that just from sucking my cock?” You can feel yourself start to whine against his hand, wanting to shoot back some bitchy response, but when he hears your voice starting up in your throat, he shoves two fingers into your mouth. “Nuh uh, dove. Told you not a sound til’ I say so.”

Right as he says it, he pulls your hips back, giving himself the perfect angle to slam his cock into you. There was no warning, just his cock head suddenly kissing the entrance of your cunt and then the pleasurable stretch of being filled. His fingers shoved themselves backwards into your throat in time with his cock, as if to prevent you from even the littlest bit of noise at the intrusion.

The pace he sets is ruthless, and apart from his pants and whines, the only sound in the room is skin hitting skin as his hips fuck up against your ass. Your knees start to quake, and you paw at the door, relishing the cool feeling of the wood against your skin as compared to the heat of Keigo’s. Your pussy is fluttering; he’s hitting all these spots inside of you with minimal effort, and each time you clench around him he leans forward to press a kiss against your neck.

“Alright pretty girl, I’m gonna take my fingers outta that smart mouth now, and the only thing I wanna hear is how good I’m making you feel. Can tell by the way your sluttly little hole clenches around me that I’m makin’ you feel good, dove.”

As soon as his fingers leave your mouth your gasping and whimpering and making the prettiest noises Keigo’s ever heard. If only he could hear you like this more often, instead of you running your mouth at him. He let himself hold on to the musing; he would absolutely love to fuck the hatred you had for him right out of your body. Ain’t no time like the present.

He’s fucking you with more fervor now, in his mind he has a goal. Your head feels light as he eggs you on, practically begging you to use your words and tell him how good he’s making his little dove feel. God, every time he calls you that you’re practically seeing stars. Still, you don’t want to comply, to give him the satisfaction, but then his cock finds that weak spot inside of you and you’re babbling out praises.

“K-Keigo, feels so good. You’re making me feel so good. Fuck. God dammit.” You want to hate that one of your least favorite people is making you drip all over his cock, but it just feels perfect and you can’t even think anymore about all the nasty things you’ve said to each other beyond the context of now, of fucking like it’s the only thing you two should have ever been doing.

When his hand reaches down to play with your clit, you’re practically lost to the world. The only thing that matters is here and now and the feeling of it all. Your nails are scratching against the door, and you’re confident anyone walking by would get an unpleasant earful of two idiots going at it like there’s no tomorrow. You’re mumbling and whining and grinding your hips up to meet Keigo’s thrusts.

He doesn’t think he can hold himself back much longer, not with the way you're mewling and squirming and fluttering all over his cock, and he’s about ready to beg your orgasm forth. “C’mon dove, can’t have you on my cock all night. Need you to cum for me. Gotta feel you cum on my cock, darlin’.” His thrusts are sloppier, and his head is resting on your shoulder. He’s abusing your clit, rubbing harsh, tight circles, and his other hand is attached to a nipple, kneading and pinching.

“Fuckk-k, please (Y/N).” His voice is airy and needy, and hearing your name fall from his mouth like that brings your orgasm crashing down on you. Your muscles spasm as your pussy clenches down on Keigo’s cock, and he lets out a moan as he cums with you. He fucks both of you through your highs, burying his cum deep in your cunt.

Then he’s pulling out, his head still on your shoulder, when you hear the sound of a zipper being pulled up. You feel a chill as he pulls away from you, ass bare, dripping with cum.

“Well, that was fun, huh smart ass?” Keigo is looking in a small vanity mirror situated on the dresser in the bedroom, fixing his hair and adjusting his shirt. You stand up, legs wobbly, thighs sticky, head spinning. “Maybe we could do it again some time; I think I like you more when you’re fucked stupid and can’t talk shit at me.” He shoots you a wink and a smirk, and you stand there, in front of the door blinking at him.

“So uh, I have a party to get to downstairs, and it looks like  you were gonna be heading out anyways. Might wanna um,” he gestures to your undressed state, then gently guides you out from in front of the door. “Well, catch ya later dumplin’.” With a grin and, was that a fucking shaka, Keigo is out the door. You hear his footsteps fading down the stairwell, and you begin to process what just happened as you fix your clothing and grab your bag.

That little son of a bitch.

[mechahero]

A low growl pulls itself from his throat. A warning on one hand, an expression of his frustration on another. "Yes.", he hissed through his teeth. And then, like lightning, he strikes. Pulling a hand away from his arm before slamming his open palm into the side of the other's face.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'll fuckin' do! Piece of shit!" Hit after hit aimed for the face. One part meant to hurt, one part meant to punish him for his audacity. For treating him that way. Or at least, that's how Lambda was framing it in his mind. A likely reckless decision on his part, no doubt that it'd come back to bite him on the ass later. But for now, he's lashing out instead of bottling it up any longer than he'd already had.

"Fuck you!", he spits. Curses flying from his mouth in rapid succession. "I'd do that shit in a heartbeat! Mother-" WHAM! "Fucker!"

The pained sound from Lambda sprouts goosebumps across his body. But like eating a potato chip, one is never enough. Contrast to Lambda, Devil has no reaction as those claws puncture his ' skin ' . A devil is designed for battle, & from the battle is pain, pain they must endure.

His ruby eyes widen & gleam with thrill. Lambda warns him against an action he really wanted to see the result to. Talons are still splayed out, twitching with desire to return to Lambda's head & twist it until he hears the disgusting sound of bones snapping in the neck. Does Lambda still have bones, or would they be mechanical parts ? Oh, how he wishes to find out !

❝ Why won't I ? Would Lambda get upset if I do ? would Lambda try to break my neck in return ? Huh ? ❞ He speaks in a tone somebody would use when talking to a baby.

[kotosnoozy]

Requesting Tales of Graces for the ask meme, please? 😊

it's been a while since i did graces (i'm due a replay actually 👀) but i'll do my best!!!

send me a fandom and i’ll tell you…

the first character i ever fell in love with:

richard 😩💘 man had my ass the second i saw him!! i was still Very Deep in my riku kingdom hearts phase at that point and My God they're similar

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

i can't really think of one honestly!! uhhh i don't DISLIKE him but hubert doesn't hit quite as hard as he did for me as a kid? but i still love him so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

as a teen i liked a Lot of ships that i now. consider extremely dodgy and would block people on sight for being into lmao. but i liked richard/sophie a lot 🥴 i still think their dynamic is very sweet but DEFINITELY not romantically lmao

my ultimate favorite character™:

sophie!!! ultimate tales daughter........

prettiest character:

richard 😌

my most hated character:

i don't remember any particularly strong feelings of hatred honestly??? i don't think i was too fond of asbel's dad from what i remember

my OTP:

richas!! though i feel like on a repeat playthrough i'll be more open to richascheria

my NOTP:

sophie and uhhhh anyone really lmao. malik and any of the party is Iffy too.

favorite moment:

my memories of plot points of graces is pretty hazy honestly. but i think? i always liked the scenes with sophie and asbel talking by her flower bed. somft.

saddest death:

i don't remember any other than sophie at the end of the childhood arc!! so i guess that by default lmao

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

i don't remember if i hated anyone at all honestly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but i've seen a fair few people who love lambda recently and i don't remember caring that much about him one way or the other

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

pascal but in like a. trash (affectionate) way. trash (endearing)

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

sophie ofc!!

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

i? don't have one sdjfhksd but i'm sure i'll come up with some cursed crossover ship after i replay it - i'll get back to you kjhfdkshf

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

asbel/cheria - they're fine and i remember their development being satisfying enough that i didn't Dislike them but fundamentally i don't think tales usually does that good a job of developing its Actual Romances. so they're just Kind of Cute hehe

[ofprevioustimes]

plotted starter for @griefincarnate​

The time for secrecy was running out. Not even a full day had passed since her return, but the news of her presence could not be kept from the others for too long. Only the loyalty and obedience which was so characteristic of the lacedaemonians prevented the gossip from spreading throughout the argive camp: Helen had arrived in the darkest hour that precedes the dawn, quiet and surreptitious, but there is only so much privacy that one can have in the middle of a war camp. Someone is always watching, either with intent or by chance. Rumors of an unusual stir in the Spartan settlement had begun on the same night, though no one had been able to figure out its cause so far. The delay of this announcement was tactical - necessary, even. It did not take a genius to anticipate that her presence among them was bound to invoke the powers of Eris among their commanders. The princes of Greece were much too famous for their dissent to expect otherwise. Seeing Helen retrieved to her rightful husband fulfilled the sacred oaths that had brought most of them here in the first place, right at a time when morale was inevitably weakened after all these years of siege without a sign of victory in the horizon. The circumstances demanded her to tread carefully in order to prevent further damage. Thus, on the second night, Helen began to arrange the necessary meetings. After a warm midsummer day, the armies had ceased their fight, taking the time to collect their dead and tend to the wounded. Now, after sunset, the wind was beginning to cool down. A warrior in her service was dispatched to the Myrmidon camp in order to invite their leader for a private supper with Menelaus, though the Spartan king was presently away in the medic’s quarters, checking on his wounded soldiers. The hoplite returned just as a mild rain began to fall outside, bringing a soothing sound of its drops continuously hitting the tent. “He is here, my queen”, he announced. “Send him in”, Helen replied. So far, her attention had been focused on a piece of linen above her lap where she had diligently woven the letter lambda that the Spartans wore in their banners. Helen sat like a statue on her chair, with her back impeccably erect. The golden gauze of her veil was not covering her head like custom dictated, draped casually over her shoulders instead, giving an air of informality to her otherwise haughty and regal figure. That aspect was only enhanced by her bare feet, free of the golden slippers left beside them. Between Helen and the empty seat across from her, a generous meal had been served in gleaming bronze plates: roasted meat and salted fish, bread and honey to dip it into, fresh fruits and watered wine, enough to feed three or four grown men. Helen was happy to have no more than the traditional black broth that fed her army, but anyone that wasn’t a Spartan would have found it intolerable. The smell of food filled the room, but she wasn’t looking at it. Her eyes had been focused on the decorated cloth which she touched with her fingertips, right before they rose just as a man’s shadow came into her line of vision. “Son of Peleus”, she spoke as if they knew each other already - if only because neither of them required much introduction. “You expected my husband”, Helen stated, flashing an amiable smile that gave her a girlish, youthful air, if only in appearance alone. With a wave of her hand, she gestured towards the empty seat in a silent invitation. “But my company will have to suffice.” The friendliness in her tone and manners concealed the analytical, observant mind that thoroughly studied him as soon as he entered. Achilles’ reputation preceded him, but meeting face to face was not the same as hearing about him. “I believe that we have much to discuss”, she added, “will you sit with me?”

[tuanhood]

alpha

pairing: frat!im jaebeom x reader 

genre: lil bit of everything. lil smut, lil angst, maybe lots of fluff, established relationship

warnings: language, cringey frat stuff, public(??) fingering

word count: 4,200+

summary: your boyfriend’s frat doesn’t allow dating outside of greek life. hence the reason you two have had to sneak around for ten months... and hence the reason you’ve somehow found yourself stuck and hiding in a closet. 

a/n: wow long time no see! sorry for the delay, I’m really busy/stressing about dissertation stuff lately so updates and writings aren’t going to be frequent. but I really wanted to write this for ya’ll real quick to have SOMETHING, but yeah it’s not edited and NOT very good bc of the quickness. But I hope ya’ll will forgive me :) 

lambda | delta | gamma | kappa | theta | sigma

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you woke up this morning, you really didn’t think you would end up in a closet at the Alpha Sigma Phi house.

The space is cramped, dark and a little smelly. Judging by the odor, you guessed that this was the closet that the boys in the house used to throw garbage in whenever they had to “clean” the house. Maybe this situation would have been a little bit better if you had been pushed into the closet that’s on the second floor – that way there would be less garbage and less boy smell. But who were you kidding? There would be a boy smell regardless.

In theory though you really shouldn’t be stuck in a closet at a frat house thinking about which closet you’d rather be in. What had your life become lately?

“Just a little bit longer, okay?” You heard Jaebeom utter through the door. It instinctively made you roll your eyes. The tone of his voice was so nonchalant, as if you weren’t stuck in a small space. But of course, he was on the other side of the door in fresh air, with as much space to roam around as he pleased – he didn’t understand “just a little bit longer” was triggering.

As much as you lo- liked Jaebeom… you weren’t sure if you would be able to hide in small spaces for the entirety of your relationship.

Babe it’s not for our entire relationship… Just until we graduate.

When he had first said that you didn’t really think about the bigger picture. All you had thought about was how happy he made you and how much you loved being with him. And that was the most important thing to you. But lately the sneaking around and the hiding had been a little too much for you – you weren’t sure if you could keep it up for another year… It had already been 10 months and you were at your wits end. Every time you wanted to sit down to have the conversation with Jaebeom – the one where you tell him it’s either the end of hiding or the end of your relationship – he’d give you those eyes, that smile and it would be completely wiped from your thoughts.

Damn Im Jaebeom. You think you fucking love him.

“Jae…” you grumbled, hitting your head against the door a bit. It had already been what… a half hour?

You heard him shush you and another voice emerged from the other side of the door. “Hey man, any particular reason you’ve been standing here?” Jaebeom’s nervous laughter is a giveaway, you just hope that Yugyeom doesn’t pick up on it. “No reason… just… like the space over here… It’s good party watching space.”

There’s silence and you pressed your ear up to the door further, hoping to hear something. You jumped back when you heard your boyfriend’s panicked voice, “what are you doing?”

Yugyeom snorted, “Dude chill… I’m just getting more cups from the closet.”

“Uh… Let me! I’ll get them!”

“What?”

“Yeah no worries dude, I didn’t really do anything to help prep for the party so I might as well get some fucking cups from the closet,” Jaebeom chuckled, his voice shifting to a more normal tone, “to be honest I didn’t really even know this was happening tonight… otherwise…” He drifted off, mumbling the last part to himself. You know he’s referencing the fact that the two of you thought the house would be empty – many of the guys typically going out to a local bar on Thursdays, but to your surprise as you crossed the main foyer in the house, the front door opened with most of the guys in the frat piling through. That led to your push into the closet.

“Yeah well… Red Room was closed because apparently they have a rat problem. I feel like that’s a bunch of bullshit. I mean we go there every week… we would have noticed if there was a rat problem.”

“Maybe they were just good at hiding it.”

There’s a lull in silence and Yugyeom clicked his tongue, as if he thinking deeply about something, “but I guess you wouldn’t know… You really don’t go out with us on Thursdays anymore…” As much as you liked the guys in Jaebeom’s frat – from stories you’d heard through your boyfriend of course – it seemed like they were often pretty slow when it came to certain things. If Yugyeom was starting to get skeptical and began piecing things together then surely the rest of the guys would too.

“Let me get you guys those cups.”

Taking a small step back, you turn to the shelf on your right, finding the red cups almost immediately through the dimmed closet. As the door cracks open slightly, your boyfriend’s long arm appears in the small space, gesturing around – clearly looking for the cups.

“Dude what are you doing?” Yugyeom asked.

“I know where the cups are so why should I go in all the way and get claustrophobic?” You have to cover your mouth to stop yourself from laughing at Jaebeom’s fake explanation.

Yes, because why would anyone ever want to be stuck inside of a closet? Rolling your eyes – happy he can’t see – you thrust the cups forward into his wandering hand. You swear you hear him grunt at your force.

The cups and his hand disappeared along with the small sliver of light that comes from the door being open. “Well… here you go… the cups you wanted.” There’s another pause and you wished you could see what was going on – to know if Yugyeom was buying how uncharacteristically strange Jaebeom was being or if he was still suspicious.

“You should leave your creepy party watching spot and actually join the fun, ya know? Some of the girls from Theta are going to be by soon and I know Amanda’s been asking a lot about you lately.”

Yugyeom’s mention of another girl makes your skin crawl and you’re almost ready to pounce out of the closet and call it a day, but instead you clenched your fists and waited to hear your boyfriend’s response.

“Nah man… I’m good.”

“Come on… how long has it been since you last had any action? I’m pretty sure Amanda would be down to hook up tonight.” Instinctively you felt your hand go to the doorknob, gripping it tightly.

To your dismay Jaebeom says nothing in response and your mind starts running wild thinking about possible nonverbal responses he could have communicated to Yugyeom – perhaps one of them being “yeah I’ll totally bang Amanda tonight.”

And you know what… maybe he should. Maybe it’d be better for him to be with someone he can actually walk around campus with. To be with someone he could actually introduce to his friends. You weren’t any of those things.

The circumstances of your relationship with Jaebeom had been complicated from the beginning. The two of you had met in a random general ed class you were both forced to take for a stupid credit. Never in your life did you think you were going to meet your next boyfriend in “Comparative Post-Communist Politics.” The two of you had the lowest scores in the class and found yourselves bonding over your almost failing midterm grades, but luckily the two of you had passed the course. Thank god for the grading curve.

It had started just that simply – two people who were “class friends.” Nothing more, nothing less. You’d sit next to each other every lecture and laugh over how dumb you both were, but never made efforts to hang out after class or even study together in preparation for exams. It wasn’t until the final day of class that Jaebeom had asked you to get drinks. His request shocked you as you had figured that just like most “class friends” you two would part ways and never see each other again except for the occasional pass by on campus where each of you would squint and wonder how do I know that person? Were they in that one class I took that one time?

You were perhaps even more shocked when you agreed to go.

From then on, the two of you talked about things besides class and got to know each other on a more personal level. You had already known some very basic things about him – such as his affiliation with the Greek system – but soon enough Jaebeom was pouring his heart out to you, and you to him. Both of you admitted that you had never felt this comfortable with someone before.

It was probably you fifth- or sixth-time getting drinks at a secluded place downtown when Jaebeom revealed to you how much he liked you. You felt your heart leap out of your chest and just as you were about to reveal your own confession, he hit you with a “but…”

“but… I can’t technically date you. My frat’s chapter is really strict about dating outside of Greek life. When I was a pledge, they told me that they’ve kicked guys out for going out with girls who aren’t affiliated.”

In any other situation you would have gotten up and said “no thank you” to whoever the guy was, not wanting to waste your time on anything or anyone who prioritized some stupid brotherhood over their feelings for you. But this was Jaebeom… The Jaebeom that you had grown close to over such a short period of time and had told you how much Alpha Sigma Phi meant to him. He had grown up an only child and spent much of his younger years feeling lonely, which was what made him want to rush the frat. He wanted the close experience and to have strong loyalty and ties with the other members – just like with real brothers.

“We can make it work. I really like you too Jaebeom… I’m willing to try this and figure something out…”

At the time… you weren’t sure what “figure something out” really meant – especially since you weren’t supposed to be seen together by literally anyone. Most people on campus knew someone who knew someone that was in Alpha Sig and if anyone saw the two of you together, you’d risk it getting back to the guys at the house. Which was why for 10 months the two of you had been dating in secret – him coming over to yours almost every night and you sneaking over to the house every Thursday when the guys were usually gone until the early hours.

You felt like you were fighting back tears at the thought of Jaebeom with someone else, but maybe it was what was right. You deserved to not be a secret forever – you were in a closet for godssake – and Jaebeom deserved to be with the perfect sorority girl that he could take wherever he wanted without the risk of getting kicked out of his second home. Tightly shutting your eyes, you attempted to stop yourself from crying, but somehow it makes it worse with the first drop rolling down your cheek slowly.

“Baby? Are you crying?”

It’s then that you realized the door had been cracked open once again, Jaebeom looking behind him before slipping in with you, shutting the door tightly. It occurred to you how pathetic you must look, crying in a dim, cramped closet at a frat house.

Quickly, you tried to wipe the tears of your cheek and hiccupped slightly, “N-no I’m not crying. It’s just my allergies with all the dust in here.”

“You don’t have allergies…” He positioned himself closer to you, bringing his own hand up to your face to rest it on your cheek, feeling the wet trails your tears had left behind, “what’s wrong?” Biting your lip, you don’t say anything in the hopes that he’ll drop the subject. Jaebeom knows you well enough to know when you want to move on and not address a topic, but this time he can’t find it in himself to just let it go.

“Y/N tell me.”

The way his thumb continued to gently caress your cheek back in forth, makes you want to close your eyes and pretend you’re anywhere else besides here in this closet having this conversation. You’d rather be with your boyfriend in a place far away from here where you don’t have to hide and you don’t have to worry about perceptions.

“I was just thinking about what Yugyeom said about the girl from Theta.”

“Baby… I would never go behind your back and do something with her-”

You sighed deeply and felt your stomach drop as you kept wedging your way further and further into the conversation you had once been wanting to have. Not seeing his sparkling eyes and that look in bright light made the words somewhat easier to get out. “I know you would never do that… I just think sometimes maybe it’s best if you had someone you could actually be seen with.”

Jaebeom doesn’t say anything, because it’s at that moment he feels his own stomach churn and feel sick. Making out your saddened face in the dark closet and listening to your words he realizes what he’s done. The way you had said “if you had someone you could actually be seen with” as if there was something wrong with you. As if you were less then. He wanted to kick himself for making you feel like that when it was in fact his fault and his own issues that stopped the two of you from being together publicly. Was brotherhood really so important to him when he was at risk of losing the person he loves?

Loves.

Reality hit him again.

“No,” Jaebeom finally said shaking his head, “I don’t want anyone else. I only want you and I’m sorry for making you feel like this. You’ve been so willing to hide this just because I’m a fucking idiot… because you understand how much this all meant to me.”

“Meant?”

He delicately brings his hands to rest at your waist, leaning close enough forward until you can feel his breath on your face, “I have something in my life that’s more important than getting kicked out of a stupid frat. I-I love you Y/N.”

You don’t answer him for a moment and he feels like he’s going to collapse at first from your lack of response. He wonders if maybe he had read the last 10-months completely wrong or if you had finally had enough with his bullshit and he was just too late. Jaebeom feels all of these worries and doubts fade away when you lean forward to press your lips against his. “I love you too,” you mumbled against his lips and you felt your boyfriend smile, his grip tightening on your waist and bringing you even closer to his body until you’re flush against one another.

You felt one of his hands drift down from your waist to the hem of your skirt, slowly caressing your thigh and slipping itself underneath the material until it’s hitched up above his hand. Removing yourself from his lips, you let out a lustful sigh to let him know how much you want him to do what he’s thinking about doing. As he rests his forehead against yours, he looks down between your two bodies, his hand going to your panties, gently playing with the waistband – snapping it back and forth gently to tease you.

“Do you want me to take back that I love you?” You asked playfully.

Jaebeom laughed, “you wouldn’t dare.”

Just as you’re about to respond with a bratty “try me,” you feel him dip his hand underneath the now damp material. He smiled at your caught off guard reaction. His fingers brushed your core, his index finger moving along your slit as he gathered your juices on his finger before he brought it to his lips and sucked them gently. You watched him in the dim light and felt yourself somehow grow more wet than before. He moved his fingers back down, his thumb pressing up against your clit and you felt yourself suck in a breath at the feeling, before two of his digits pushed into your completely. With the small amount of space, you had, you lifted your hips in an effort to get more of him inside of you and he chuckled at the action.

“We have all night baby girl, don’t worry. I take care of you, always.”

You exhaled at the feeling of his thumb massaging your clit and his fingers began to pump into you at a slow rhythmic pace. He watched you for a moment wondering how he got so lucky before returning his lips back to yours.

A groan arose in your throat and against Jaebeom’s lips as he curled his middle finger into you, hitting that spot that always made you so weak and you feel your thighs begin to twitch as you near your high. Sometimes it amazed you how quick he could make you reach your release, but he already knew everything else about you so well it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he would excel at this as well.

When he picked up the pace of his fingers fucking into you, continuing to hit your g-spot each time, you felt yourself quickly come apart and your walls clench around his fingers tightly. You dropped your head down to his shoulder and felt like there wasn’t any breath left in your body as you rode out the waves of your orgasm, Jaebeom making sure not to overstimulate you and slowing his fingers down. When he finally removes his hand from you, you feel so empty almost like your body just wants to be that close to him all the time – not even in a sexual way.

When you finally feel strong enough, you bring your head off of Jaebeom’s shoulder and wrap your hands around his neck tightly, bringing him in for another kiss.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. I never want to stop saying it and I never want to stop hearing it.”

With arms still around his neck, you gently play with the hair at his nape. You feel happier than you’ve felt in a long time – which was saying something considering how happy your boyfriend had made you the past 10 months.

“Should we get out of this closet?” Jaebeom asked with shut eyes, feeling relaxed every time he’s under your touch.

“Now? You want everyone to see us now?”

He shrugged, “They’re going to find out either way so might as well just do it now. I just hope they give me time to get my stuff before they kick me out.” You feel yourself frown at his candor and the thought of Jaebeom losing the sense of belonging he had gained from being in Alpha Sig, but you remember his previous assurances. You had one another and everything was going to be fine.

Just as you’re about to respond to him, you’re interrupted by a sudden emergence of light into the closet signaling the opening of the door. You and Jaebeom both freeze when you see Yugyeom and some of the other brothers behind him.

“Can you two just come out already?”

It’s almost as though both you and your boyfriend had forgotten all of your words. Instead you stare at one another with wide eyes.

“We’re tired of all this waiting. Just come out and introduce us to your girlfriend already man,” Yugyeom whined.

This was embarrassing. Had they been… listening?

“Listen ‘Gyeom I know you chose today’s date in the pool, but that doesn’t mean you win the bet,” one of the guys from behind him said.

Yugyeom lets out a large groan and turns to the member, “what? Why not? I chose today and he was going to do it today! I swear!”

“Yeah but you ruined it by opening the door! You pretty much made the whole thing void… Haven’t you heard of like… not ruining the controlled variable in the experiment or whatever the fuck?”

“The controlled variable was the door? That doesn’t make sense. You’re as dumb as a bag of bones dude,” Yugyeom snorted, turning back to you and Jaebeom. It’s then that you feel relief as Jaebeom finally cleared his throat to say something to the many pairs of eyes fixated on you both, “can you guys please explain to me what’s going on here?”

Yugyeom rolled his eyes at Jaebeom as if it was the most obvious thing in the world to understand, “we had a bet going for when you would finally tell us about your secret girlfriend… Who to be honest isn’t really a secret. I sit next to Y/N’s friend in Econ… class friends ya know.”

You felt your mouth go dry. If they knew about Jaebeom dating an unaffiliated girl this entire time why did they let it play out for so long? Why didn’t they say something to him and make him break up with you or kick him out of the frat? Were they trying to torture the two of you for the longest amount of time possible?

It’s then when you really take in each member of Alpha Sig’s face and you see no malice or disgust at the fact that you’re not a non-affiliate. They almost seemed… happy.

You felt Jaebeom take his head into yours and he sighs once more before looking back to the guys, “listen… Y/N is my girlfriend and has been for the last 10 months… I’ve put her through so much shit and made her sneak around which she did willingly because of how amazing she is. I’ve never felt so loved and cared for by someone before and I can’t put her through more shit that’s going to make her feel less then she is. I love her and I’m sorry you guys can’t accept that. I can be out of here by tomorrow.”

As Jaebeom goes to move the two of you out of the closet, Yugyeom places his hand up causing you both to stop in your tracks.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Jaebeom looks to you and then back to Yugyeom, “the rule… that we’re not allowed to date anyone who’s not affiliated. When we were pledges they told us they’ve kicked guys out for breaking the rule… remember?”

The boys in front of Jaebeom all look at him blankly until Yugyeom begins to laugh, the rest of the guys following him until you have approximately 6 frat guys laughing in your faces. Looking at your boyfriend his eyebrows are furrowed. You can’t tell if he’s confused at their reaction or annoyed.

It takes a moment for Yugyeom and the boys to finally stop laughing, “Jae… are you joking? Is that why you haven’t introduced her to us? Because of that stupid rule?”

“Yeah…”

Coming closer, Yugyeom placed his hand on Jaebeom’s shoulder, “Dude… that rule is not real. They’ve never kicked anyone out over dating someone who’s unaffiliated. Sure, the upperclassmen then didn’t want us to date someone not in an org, but they would have never made us leave… That kinda goes against the whole brotherhood thing. Besides, now we’re the upperclassmen and we just care that we’re all happy. You included.”

You felt like you could run a marathon at the amount of energy and feelings coursing through your body. You wanted to hug all of the semi-strangers in front of you, but also you wanted to hit Jaebeom for thinking that rule was a real thing when it was in fact… apparently not. In the back of your head, you make a mental note to lecture him on next time it never hurts to ask questions before you get into a secret 10-month relationship that might not need to be a secret.

“Thanks guys,” Jaebeom smiled at his brothers, with his hand still holding onto yours, caressing your smooth skin with his thumb.

“Now let’s continue this party, shall we?” Yugyeom yelled loudly as the rest of the guys cheer back in response, most of them heading back to the main living space until it’s just you, Jaebeom and Yugyeom.

The younger boy shakes his head, “I still can’t believe you were in that closet the entire time… which reminds me. I am never going in there again after the actions that occurred in there,” you felt your face grow hot at his admittance that he had heard or at least knew what had happened in the closest just moments before his grand entrance.

“I still can’t believe you knew the entire time and didn’t say anything!” You whined.

“I was expecting you to jump out as soon as I mentioned Amanda… That’s why I brought it up. Which by the way man,” Yugyeom turned to Jaebeom, “none of the girls at Theta give a shit about you.”

“That’s totally okay. There’s only one girl I want to give a shit about me,” Jaebeom smiled proudly placing his arm around you in front of Yugyeom and everyone else at the party. He relishes in how comfortable it feels to finally be like this with you in front of some of the most important people in his life. Besides you of course.

You hummed in delight and nuzzled your head against his arm, into his shoulder, “She doesn’t just give a shit about you. She kind of loves you too.”

“Just kind of?”

“Nah with her full heart.”

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Witches and Fragments in Umineko

What is this guide?

<< Previous (Witches and Fragments in Original Higurashi)

If you thought the supernatural was confusing in Higurashi, don’t worry! It’s about to get weirder and even more convoluted.

Wiki Links

https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Witch [Not recommended: major Umineko spoilers!]

https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Miko [Some Umineko spoilers]

https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Game_Board

https://07th-expansion.fandom.com/wiki/Meta-World

What is a witch?

In Umineko, witches and magic have a... complicated... relationship with reality. Unlike Higurashi, where time travel and gods are very real, much of Umineko involves arguing that none of the magic is real.  Perhaps all of the witches are simply metaphors, imaginary friends, and/or power fantasies dreamed up by other characters in the “mundane” world.

This nonmagical perspective is where you get the "mundane" or “anti-fantasy” counterparts - things in the real world that may have inspired the witch characters. So if you’ve seen comments like “Featherine is just a human author named Hachijou.” or “Bernkastel is just a pet cat.”  - this read is where those come from.

(For the curious: As far as I know, Lambdadelta's mundane counterpart is unknown, but is theorized to be something to do with candy.)

However, Bern, Lambda, and Featherine's connection with Higurashi is much more tenuous from this perspective - if it even exists at all. (It boils down to “did Hachijou name her pet after meeting Rika or after reading an in-universe fictional story?”)

Indeed, in “Bernkastel’s Letter,” Bern herself notes that none of the three would be witches by the same definition as Beatrice anyway.

As such, let's clap our hands and believe that magic and real and witches definitely exist for the rest of this guide!

As for the fantasy side...well. When Umienko descends into fantasy, it goes all the way. The worldbuilding and magical fights run pretty much entirely on Rule of Cool.

There’s references to demons and familiars summoned from Hell, a multiversal Senate of witches, bunny girl soldiers that definitely weren’t borrowed from Touhou Project, an entire bureaucracy of Heaven, an impossibly vast magical library... I wouldn’t advise trying to make sense of it, and I highly doubt Ryukishi07 had a coherent system in mind when he wrote it either.

As such, it’s quite silly to stress over the specifics of what witches can do off the game board. In the Meta-World, Bern and Lambda have been seen to fly, teleport, shapeshift, conjure items and huge magical attacks, dodge hits using magical duplicates, and more.

Within Fragments, they’re more subdued, mostly appearing in visions or dreams. Probably the most overtly magical occurrence is Bern appearing in midair to offer a human a chance to visit the past. (But did that scene really even happen?)

Bern and Lambda specifically are called “Voyager Witches,” said to be a far higher-level, far more powerful type of witch than those who stay in their own territories. Essentially, Bern and Lambda are beings of the Sea of Fragments, more so than any other witch.

In a nod to Higurashi’s terminology, older and more powerful witches sometimes take on a new witch and/or human as their “miko.” A human receiving this guardianship can perceive the meta level and can become a witch themselves through it. Bern, Lambda, and Featherine have all taken mikos, and Bern is (still) Featherine’s miko.

In short: theoretically, any of the three could have granted the ability to loop. They’re all known to pull normal humans into the Meta-World, and they all have the ability to act as Game Masters.

Game Boards, Players, and Pieces

A Fragment "game" is basically the same as the metaphysical scenario in Higurashi: a collection of related parallel timelines.  However, in Umineko, we don't just see the worlds inside the Fragments.  We also get a collection of more characters who exist in the spaces outside those Fragments, and play games with them.

There are a few names for the spaces outside of Fragments.  Canonically, Umineko labels at least one part of it "Purgatorio". The Sea of Fragments is another part. Many fans (and the wiki) use the term "Meta-World" to describe all of it.

The players are often (but not always), witches. A player often has a "piece" (= human character) which represents them on the "game board" (= the world inside of a Fragment).

A commonly repeated statement about pieces is that they act according to their original personality and can’t take actions which would be impossible for them. However, in practice, a piece’s nature can be much broader than you might assume. For example, a character that is heroic in one iteration of a game can be a villain in another.

This isn't in the visual novels, but I've always found the best way to understand the player/piece relationship is to think of it like a very immersive game of D&D. The witch acting as Game Master has all non-player pieces under her control. Meanwhile the players also have pieces representing them in the game, which they use to try and defeat the Game Master's scenario.

Much like in D&D, a player's piece does not necessarily have the same personality as the player.  For example, player Battler usually controls a piece that looks and acts exactly like him on the game board (minus his memory of other worlds...ish).  Other players control pieces which are quite different from themselves - Lambda and Takano come to mind.

How closely does a player control their piece(s)?  Again, consider the D&D metaphor. You can act out your character’s actions and dialogue, but even when you don’t, they’re still presumably existing as a normal person in their world.

(Where this starts to break down is when you think too hard about whether pieces have free will. Some scenes in Umineko imply they do, others imply they don’t.)

TL;DR: Witches and game boards aren’t about negating the drama or importance of what happens inside individual Fragments any more than Rika hopping timelines does. When everything is fiction anyway, the view of which perspective is more “real”  - the events of the Fragment or the Meta-World players - is up to you.

Next (Bernkastel) >>

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Gou Ep23

Let’s all pretend to be surprised next week when ep24 isn’t actually the final episode and it just continues into a second season, lol.

Thoughts under the cut.

I feel like this is gonna be a kind of controversial episode for obvious reasons, but ironically this is one part of Gou’s writing that you can actually trace back directly to stuff Ryukishi wrote in the VN originally, so even if you disagree with it, you can’t act like it’s an idea he just came up with, lol. It’s been a long time since I read the VN, but I’m pretty sure that in the afterword for Matsuribayashi he talks about how he regretted not giving Teppei any sort of redemption, considering that the whole message of the story was about redemption and forgiveness. So this is clearly his way of going back and taking the chance to fix something that he saw as a missing piece in the narrative.

Across basically everything he’s written, he has a real interest in writing about abuse, and there’s been multiple cases across his different series of abusers being humanized, as well as abused people becoming abusers. Which can obviously be kinda polarizing, but this episode itself also shows how at the end of the day he still also feels very strongly about just how horrible abuse is, and how difficult it actually is to overcome that sort of trauma. So personally I don’t think he’s trying to downplay or make excuses for child abuse, but it’s fine if people don’t feel that way.

The fact that Satoko still suffers from PTSD even after her whole century-long descent into time-travel still makes me think that a lot of what we saw from her in Tataridamashi wasn’t just an act, even though at this point we can tell that she probably wasn’t being physically abused in that arc. In this episode she rejected his offer to get back into contact with her, but dealing with a timeline down the track where she actually has to live with him again, even if it’s a version of him that isn’t physically abusive, might have triggered her PTSD in it’s own way.

I know I’ve said this before, but even at the very end of Nekodamashi she reacted to Rika pulling out a jack in the box that hit her in the face like ten loops previously by pretty much curling up on the floor out of fear, so I kinda doubt she was able to intentionally fake a major PTSD episode without at least some of it being her real emotions coming through, lol.

Along the same lines, this is also making me increasingly convinced that she was totally serious about how upset she was in the loop where she spawn-kills Rika, and she wasn’t just acting like she was L5 to mess with Rika.

Also, despite the whole set-up of this episode, I don’t think this is the Tataridamashi fragment itself. For one thing it’d be weird to jump to this loop without covering what happened in Onidamashi and Watadamashi, but in this loop we saw how Satoko rejected Teppei’s offer to get into contact with her, and we saw their first reunion at the village, which was totally different to how they reunited in Tataridamashi. So I think this is basically just a random loop that happened before Onidamashi even happened.

It’s kinda hilarious at this point how much shit apparently happened from Satoko’s POV before Gou even started, but at this point we know that ep24 isn’t the finale, so the pacing makes more sense, lol.

Also on that whole note, the situation with Gou’s episode count is basically that the AT-X broadcast station had basically leaked the existence of at least six more episodes of Gou via their broadcast schedule for the rest of March and April, and it looks like they recently went back and removed those listings. But since they just changed it so that those time-slots are listed as being ‘undecided’, it’s pretty obvious that they’re still gonna air the rest of Gou there, but they just realized that they weren’t meant to reveal that yet.

The schedule only went up to ep30, but that’s just because ep30 is going to air at the end of April, and the schedule for May hasn’t been uploaded yet. Ep30 isn’t listed as the season finale [since they color-code the premiere and finale episodes of each series], so we’re probably getting at least one more cour, which would take us to around 36 episodes.

I get the feeling that, since the series already got pushed back a season, they might have initially planned this as a split-cour series with a gap in the middle, and usually split-cour series have their two parts be of the same length, so it’s possible that we’ll get two more cours, which would probably take us to around 48 episodes. I dunno if there’s two more cours worth of material for the story to cover though, lol.

I also like the idea that they might go the three-cour route and have it end at episode 34 for thematic reasons. Which would be a kinda non-standard length for a three-cour series, but it’s not impossible.

So basically it’s an open secret now that the series is gonna just keep going after ep24, and the question now is just how long it’ll keep going for, and what direction the story will take.

Considering how slow-paced this arc has been, and how we haven’t even gotten to Onidamashi yet from Satoko’s POV, it might genuinely take another full cour just to go over all of those arcs from her POV and then go back to the end of Nekodamashi to show how their big confrontation goes and how the story wraps up. But it’s also possible that this might lead to something along the lines of Satoko and Rika teaming up against Featherine/Eua, which would be it’s own whole arc. I think it’s probably more likely that we’ll get another full cour of answers for what was going on from Satoko’s POV, though.

On the one hand it might be a little unbearable to have to wait that much longer for a continuation of the Nekodamashi cliffhanger, but on the other hand if them spending more time showing what happened in the Gou question arcs means that we get more screen-time for characters like Rena, Mion, and Shion, that’d be nice.

I’m also wondering if they’ll change the ED theme [and maybe the OP theme] for the next cour, or if they’ll just keep it for the entire series.

Anyway, the fact that we just keep getting random loops one after another before we even get to Onidamashi is making me even more confused about the logistics of how the time travel works when it comes to both Rika and Satoko’s perspectives, lol. Like, from Rika’s perspective she went straight from dying in St. Lucia’s to the Onidamashi loop, so she doesn’t seem to remember any of these loops that are happening in the mean time. So I guess Rika’s consciousness somehow jumped from that early loop at St. Lucia’s to Onidamashi, while basically skipping everything in between. Which probably has to do with how Satoko isn’t killing Rika in these loops, which seems to be the trigger for having Rika remember each loop.

I guess it’s possible that in all of these loops, Rika is going through the same process of thinking that she’s waking up directly after the St. Lucia loop, but she keeps forgetting it because Satoko doesn’t kill her yet in these loops, so each time she wakes up she thinks it’s the first loop she’s experiencing after St. Lucia. So Onidamashi probably wasn’t exactly the first time she went through that process, which would probably also point toward the idea that the Hanyuu we saw earlier in Gou was just Featherine/Eua messing with her. They probably kept having the same meetings, and ‘Hanyuu’ just kept acting like this was the first new loop Rika was experiencing.

If my interpretation of how Rika’s perspective on things work is correct, then it might be possible for there to have been multiple loops in between the Gou question arcs that she doesn’t remember because Satoko didn’t kill her during them. Once we get to Onidamashi I think it’s probably just a linear sequence of back to back loops, but it might not be.

Either way I think the overall trajectory of the story from here on out will be about showing how the process of actually experiencing these loops for herself started to really mess with Satoko, leading up to the point where she just directly reveals all of her motivations to Rika out of desperation to have this whole game end.

Also, this whole arc has been filled with not so subtle allusions toward Rika and Satoko becoming Bern and Lambda, but Satoko going ‘Rika tries to win through miracles, but I win through certainty’ is pretty hilarious, lol. It’s still possible it’s some sort of elaborate troll, but I doubt it. Especially since Satoko is basically already in the process of becoming a witch because of how she’s learning about the concept of fragments and how to exploit them, while becoming more and more detached from her humanity.