#YES the formatting sucks

[maxz-b]

part 2 here

[degenerateshinji]

that one grocery store omake

(@thelittleprinceconfirmed i stole your shirt its mine now)

[just-trying-my-best-everyday]

My Timebomb fanfic from two years ago suddenly started getting a ton of traction on AO3 (hilarious, if you ask me), so I went looking through my drafts for another fanfic I remember writing at the time. It's not finished, it's not good enough for AO3 but I still want the Tumblr Whores to have it, so here:

Life is funny.

That was Ekko's last thought before he jumped off the roof and landed heavily on his hoverboard, making it heel over and skim the surface of the river below. It splashed his boots, the water seeping through the leather and reaching his socks. He stabilized himself and shot up. Time was a precious commodity he couldn't afford to waste. 

A bullet barely missed the top of his head when he abandoned the cover of the wall. He spun above the building, keeping his eyes firmly locked on her.

Ah, Jinx. Destructive, dangerous, bad news in one of the most beautiful disguises nature could offer. The Firelights' worst concern. Little Man's biggest regret. She made him feel like she was the only one who could pump air in his lungs, his hands itched to strangle the wind out of hers. His first love, his most ardent hatred. He would gladly mourn her at her feet one second if he could drive a knife through her heart the next. Her features were familiar, she'd gotten rid of several faces he forced himself to add to the mural, right next to hers. 

He would kill her today.

Would he hesitate?

Frustrated, he stomped the front of his board. It tilted forwards and he dove down, club in hand, ready to strike. Jinx saw him out of the corner of her eye and shot indiscriminately. As he dodged the first round, he suddenly thanked his gut for recommending he handled this particular mission alone. Her machine gun was effective to a fault with big groups, but much less so individually. It was heavy and even though she was definitely strong enough for it, it slowed her down and made her deadly aim slightly more manageable. All he needed was to eliminate some distance and he'd have her.

He swung when he got close. She ducked. Of course she ducked. Then it was just a game of speed: would he turn his hoverboard around the fastest, or would he get a bullet in the neck? 

She won, she was always faster and faster. With the years, he'd learned he couldn't keep up. All he could do was face her for just the right amount of time for her shot to hit the board instead of him and send him tumbling to the ground. 

Static noise fizzled in his ears on first impact. His mask cracked and fell apart a moment afterwards. He shook his head and the white dots on his field of vision disappeared. The club was still on his hand, Jinx had yet to open fire on him. That was all he needed to know before lunging forward, screaming.

She laughed. She always laughed, even as he knocked her beloved weapon out of her hands and forced her to back away to avoid his hits. 

"Ah, Boy Savior," she proclaimed as if he were the guest she'd been expecting. "Long time no see. Came to check up on little old me? I'm touched."

He charged forward again. Yes, he had. He always did. Always on her heels to find out where she'd been, who she'd crossed, how she came out of those encounters she didn't try to avoid. "Studying the enemy", that was what he called it, what his Firelights thought it was. But some knew. Eve added tidbits about her in her reports, Scar dissuaded others from joining in missions just like this one when intel indicated she'd be around with a stern glance. They never brought it up, never shamed him for it, but they knew Ekko still saw a sliver of Powder in Jinx, even if he was pretty damn good at ignoring it.

She holstered herself up on a nearby pipe like a feline and his club met only metal. "Feeling very chatty today, aren't we?"

"Get down from there." He wiped the sweat off his upper lip.

"Nope."

"We're fighting."

"You're fighting, I wanna chat about our days and have a nice cup of tea together."

"Unless you wanna talk about Shimmer, I'm not interested."

"But that's so boring." She rested her chin on her fist and propped her elbow up on her knee. "And I have nothing to tell you that you don't already know, do I? I'm not in charge of that stuff. You should ask Sevika. I get it, she's not as pretty as me—"

"Enough chit chat," he cut her off and slammed his club into the pipe.

Smoke sizzled out of the dent he left in the metal. She bellowed when it clouded her, so she stood up, holding her gun with murderous intent. Her hand didn't tremble as she pointed down and slowly scanned her surroundings in search of a target. He crouched deeper into the makeshift fog. She was right above him. If he jumped—

"There you are."

A shot rang in his ear, missing his arm by an inch. The bullet ricocheted against the ground and clanked to a stop near his feet. He looked up and saw her sardonic smile, the ever present tinge of craze cranked to a hundred. The trajectory of the shot had cleared a straight path through the smoke.

One.

She fired again. He dodged and ran towards the areas where the smoke was denser. It did him no good; she just blew it off again. Two.

He dropped to the ground when a third bullet whistled by his ear. A fourth one lodged firmly into another pipe behind him, making it puke a dark goo all over his shoes. The one that flew off the roof was five and the one he managed to deflect with a bunt of his club was six.

No one was too much of a threat with an empty cartridge. 

He kicked the parapet and propelled himself into the air. Jinx had a thumb on the cylinder, ready to push it open and reload, but she didn't get a chance. Her eyes flashed wide in surprise, and next thing she knew, he had hammered his weapon into her ribs and thrown her off the pipe.

They tumbled down together after he lost his momentum. He heard her gasp when she collided against something. His joints cried at the repeated abuse he put them through by falling from different heights, but he regained his footing immediately and attacked again. Even though she was still on the ground, she slithered away from the swing of his club. So he tried again and again. He hit the ground again. Curse her, she could never stop being faster than him, nimbler, more agile. 

It had always been like this, hadn't it? She used to fit in every vent and alley like she fit in the cracks of his heart and he used to win wrestling matches with as much ease as he tore holes in the concrete roof.

Finally, she reached the edge. She tried rolling to the side, but he discarded the club and snagged her up by the shoulders. His fingers dug into what little flesh she had. She was all bone and skin that quickly turned purple in his grip. She growled and twisted, her nails pulling at his coat in a vain attempt to break free. But he rammed her body against the parapet and ignored her manic, wordless objections as he tried to bring himself to tighten his hands around her throat.

She spat on his face. "Violent behavior for a savior."

He clenched his fingers, adding just the tiniest bit of pressure. "Shut up."

"Come on!" She wheezed. "Do it, Boy Savior! Go all in before it's too late!"

"Shut up."

"Don't tell me you're scared!" Even choking, she laughed. "After all this time, you get scared now?"

"Shut up, shut up," he hissed, "shut up."

"You can shut me up," she suggested innocently. "Forever. But hurry up, I'm getting impatient here."

He was trying. He wanted to press down and get it over with. But Powder… No. Powder was dead. He was just getting rid of the corpse.

"Okay, yeah, you're taking too long." He felt cold steel against his side, right above his left hip. "My turn."

Of course, he thought. Of course she had modified her cartridge to hold seven bullets instead of six. Of course he'd failed to take that into account. Of course she'd wait until he had her to pull her final, most cruel prank. 

Through the splotches of white in his vision, he saw Powder's muscles tense to push him off herself and dump him over the parapet. He saw her face, framed by choppy bangs, curiously peek over the side of the building as he fell. Her hand caressed her neck and the pain that blazed in his abdomen mixed with guilt. I'm sorry I hurt you. He tried to reach out to her, because goddamn, he missed her. I just wanted to save you. 

But she was too far away and his body crashed into the warm water below. As he sank, he found out he couldn't swim. His mouth filled with water and blood as he tried to scream her name.

Everything went dark.

- - -

Jinx had already mentally prepared her thank-you speech for when Silco congratulated her for finishing off the leader of those pesky Firelights when she realized Ekko was going to drown. 

Ekko. 

Drown. 

Die.

"Way to go, Jinx," Mylo leaned over the parapet to watch. "You killed the last one of us. Guess you can cross that off your list."

"I don't want to hear it," she growled, but she remained frozen in her spot, watching Ekko sink lower and lower.

Ekko. 

Sink.

Drown. 

Die.

"You're really going to let him die?" Claggor had always been kinder and more soft spoken. It was usually a welcome change from Mylo's harsh truths, but right now, it felt like a spear through the ribs. "Like this."

"Yes. No. I have to."

Claggor sighed, disappointed.

Ekko.

Die.

The water was polluted. If he magically didn't drown, the garbage would infect his wound and kill him painfully. 

Had they hurt when they died? 

"You know, it was unavoidable," Mylo continued. "One by one, we would all fall before the Jinx."

She barely registered his words through her throbbing pulse in her temples. 

Ekko 

Die.

Forever.

Gone.

Silco wouldn't be happy. Sevika would want her head. She didn't care what Sevika thought. Silco wouldn't congratulate her on this.

"Dive in first," Claggor encouraged her. "Think it through later."

Ekko. 

He couldn't die.

Not like this, not yet.

Not by her hand.

"Give it up, Claggor, she can't save anyone." Mylo. Always so mean. "All she can do is break."

Ekko.

"—curse—"

He wouldn't die. 

"—and jinx everything."

The rest of Mylo's insults were lost in the whooshing of the wind as she jumped.

- - -

Ekko stumbled in and out of consciousness. He saw his feet, half staggering, half dragging through mud. He heard cursing in a familiar voice. He felt something dense and warm trickling down his leg. Every cell on his body was on fire, but he was shaking.

It was so cold.

After half an hour of drowsy pain, a faint smell of trees brought him back. Green spots. Moonlight. Life. With extreme effort, he forced himself awake. The first thing he noticed was the bony arm holding him up, covered in swirls of blue. 

"Welcome back, Boy Savior."

Powder?

Jinx.

He struggled weakly. If there was grass, there was only one place they could be. The Firelight Hideout. Jinx was in the Hideout. She had him, probably as a hostage. Scar wouldn't fight for him, neither would Eve or the others. He knew they'd surrender for him. It couldn't end like this. Powder had been the end of him, but Jinx wouldn't be the end of them.

"Woah, relax, silly." She tilted his weight onto herself. "You're hurt. Don't wanna bleed more than necessary, do we?"

His mind finally began to clear and he realized they were already in front of his cabin. She kicked the door open and walked him through. Helped? Impossible. It had to be a trick. He shoved her away and his side flared up in pain of a thousand colors as soon as he set his left foot down. His knees buckled underneath him and his back hit the desk. 

"Would you stop that?" She yanked him up and threw his arm over her shoulder to support him. "Someone's going to hear us."

"If they do, all the better." He didn't try to break away again. She was the only thing keeping him standing and he didn't like the plan of falling and bleeding all over everything again. Because yes, he was bleeding, as far as he could tell by the wet stain on his pants and the puddle on the floor. "I'll scream. They'll get you."

"Please." She helped him lay down on the bed and turned around to lock the door. It worried him even more when she propped up a chair against it. "You know damn well your goons wouldn't last a minute against me."

They would. She was unarmed, possibly battered up from their fight, and completely surrounded. Then again, he wouldn't put it above her to blow everything up with one match and a bottle of soda.

So he opted to slowly settle down on the bed, moving as little as humanly possible. "They're not my goons."

"Don't go all semantics-crazy on me. Where do you keep the first aid kit?"

He pointed towards the closet. Soon enough, her weight dipped down the mattress by his side, and he didn't have the strength to kick her out.

"Okay, Boy Savior," she pulled out gauze and a latex glove and set them on the nightstand. "I'm taking the bullet out. It'll suck. Hold on to something."

"Are you insane?" He blocked her hand before she could get close to his wound. "Leave it there. Do you want me to bleed out?"

She looked him dead in the eye. "Do you know all the shit I put in my bullets? It's been an hour already. It's a marvel you're not dead. So stop moving if you don't want to die."

"I'll get a doctor instead."

"You don't need a doctor with me here."

"You are the reason I need a doctor at all."

"Oh shush." She set his hand down on the mattress by his side. "Hold your breath."

He closed his eyes and heard the latex snap against her skin. This was an awful idea. Life endangering even. And he let her? He really just allowed her to reach inside his wounds to pull out a bullet she put in? What in the world—

His entire body contorted when something that was once hard and cold came out warm and covered in things he needed to live. It was like opening a tap. Blood spilled like water out of a fountain and wet his clothes and his bed. He held back a scream. A hand clutched his own and he squeezed. 

It wasn't like he hadn't lived through worse, but knowing it was Jinx patching him up hurt a hundred times more.

He slowly opened his eyes. She had pulled up his shirt up to his stomach and was wrapping clean cloth around his waist. He squinted at the way she swiftly worked with only one hand. She hadn't let go yet, so he did first and gripped the covers instead. He was still shaking.

Red seeped through the bandages, but she kept adding more until it was kept under control. The pressure on his hip felt relieving. Not good, not any less painful, but at least he wasn't dying.

He didn't thank her. He would never.

"There we go," she patted his side. "Good boy. Good Boy Savior."

"Do you ever shut up?"

"Nuh-uh," she wiggled a finger in the air. "No complaints are accepted if you throw away your shot at shutting me up."

His eyes landed on the dark marks in her neck. They were even, almost like they'd been painted with thin brush strokes instead of murderous intent. Powder wouldn't have forgiven him, he thought. But it didn't matter, because Powder was dead and he had no interest in asking for Jinx's forgiveness.

"You need to leave." He pushed himself up on one arm. To his surprise, she didn't try to keep him down, but rather wordlessly helped him to sit up. "Now."

"No."

Realization hit the bottom of his stomach like a punch to the gut. "How do you even know where this place is?" 

She scoffed. "Are you kidding? I followed you a thousand times. Duh."

They knew. They had found them. A long time ago. If they hadn't attacked yet, that could only mean they had a terrifying fate ready for them. But they couldn't leave. They'd work too hard for their taste of paradise to give it up without a fight.

"What's Silco planning?" He seized her by the shoulders. "You have to tell me. What's he gonna do to us?"

"Silco doesn't know where you guys are."

His hands dropped. "What?"

"Only I know," she winked. "It's my secret."

"Why? Why didn't you tell him, if you knew?"

She shrugged. "He never asked."

He didn't find the words to answer that. So he didn't. He just stared at her unkempt braids and her bangs that stuck to her face. He belatedly realized he was drenched as well. That was why he felt so heavy. His coat had soaked up water like a sponge and his scarf had drawn so tightly around his neck he was almost choking. The covers around him were damp already. 

Her eyes followed his and dropped on his clothes. "Come on, Boy Savior, let's get you out of those wet clothes."

She tugged at the lapels of his coat, but he snatched her wrist before she could pull it off him. "You need to leave."

"No." She closed her fist around the fabric, even as he held her hand as far away from him as his strength allowed him. "You're gonna go cold. Too early for that. You need to die first."

"I'll handle myself."

"You can barely move."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Just let me—"

"Let you what?"

Her silence sizzled in the air between them for all of the fourteen seconds she held his gaze (he counted). They'd gone darker, her eyes. Beyond all the the light in your eyes is gone bullshit, they seemed several shades deeper now. Maybe it was the poor lighting in his room. Maybe it was a natural effect of aging. How come it was such a surprise for him? He should have been with her for so much time he couldn't tell the differences between one day and the other until they found old photos and laughed at how much they'd changed since then. But no. He was there, in the moment, finding new things he had no way of knowing were there.

She had freckles on her nose now, and maybe they were why he loosened his grip on her when she said, "let me help. For once, let me do something right. Just one thing, one time. Let me help."

He gave up and rested his head back against the wall. She started with the coat, slowly sliding it off his shoulders. It was a weight off his back, almost immediate. She undid his utility belt and laid it on the desk, careful not to break anything. He didn't do anything to stop her from unwrapping his scarf, but made no move to help either. After all, she wanted to help, right? So let her help, let her manage. 

Before she continued with the last layer of clothing, she got up to get new clothes to replace the wet ones with. Ekko closed his eyes. There was nothing in his closet he wanted to keep from her, or at the very least, nothing he could keep from her. Fabric rustled as she rummaged through the drawer. She was humming about bombs and bullets and tricks. Weird song. What was the original like? Powder— Jinx didn't have the best sense of rhythm and melody. For all he knew, she was singing gibberish to a made-up tune. 

He jerked up when she tugged at his shirt. She immediately raised her hands in surrender. "Pinky promise I'm not making a weird move on you."

[ragnarokhound]

For the au ask game!

OKAY I wanted specifically to get to the pokemon au from the ask you sent, it's been cooking a bit so it's time to see what comes out of the oven, so... @azol-otl ty for the ask!

Crossover au's are all about the fused worldbuilding for me and speculating on how characters from universe A would fit into universe B heehee hoohoo - and for Batfam especially it's fun to think about the equivalent of their roles as vigilantes! What kind of people have the same level of celebrity, the same sideways seeking of justice?

Naturally this leads you to the gym leaders because a) it's the most fun and b) they are like. Quasi-law enforcement/educators/professional athletes depending on how you try to translate the innate child's perspective on the pokemon universe into something that makes sense as an adult lol ilu pokemon. [insert 'compels me though' gif here]

SO with this in mind, here's 5 fun facts (that are mostly backstory lmao) from a jaytim pokemon au I would write

I'm deeply ill about pokemon so this one goes under the cut lol:

Jason Todd used to be the Champion. He won the role after Dick Grayson quit a year or two before (Dick had been getting older and chafing under the League rules - meaning he'd been chafing under how Bruce ran the League) and was a fierce competitor who didn't believe in going easy on anyone. His Houndoom was a force to be reckoned with, and despite running a mostly Dark-type team, his Honchkrow cleaned up anyone thinking their Fighting-types could sweep. He looked after the League and Gotham with a cocky, self-assured attitude and the win record to back it up. .

Jason disappeared suddenly at the age of 15. Many assumed him dead, after a Rocket (Or whatever Gotham themed gang name we want to go with lol could be Team Joker) bombing in the area he'd last been seen, but he's officially declared missing. Bruce Wayne took back the duties of interim Champion as he once did for Dick Grayson, but he's not quite the mentor he once was. It's obvious he's grieving, and that he doesn't want to mentor any more twelve year olds. Dick signed up to be a Gym Leader shortly after this, returning from his trip about a year early to help out in the chaos following Jason's disappearance. .

Enter Tim Drake. Tim's gym challenge wasn't all that interesting in the circuit at first; he had a rocky start and had to retake a few gym challenges. He wasn't exactly sweeping on his first try every time like Jason had done. He didn't have the meteoric rise that caught the Champion's attention early, didn't get one-on-one mentorship or face-to-face meetings, cautionary advice and congratulations all rolled into one from Bruce Wayne himself - but Tim had patience and grit, and he paid attention. He was gunning for the Championship, and it wasn't just so he could prove himself. Team Rocket/Joker was still out there, and Bruce needed all the help he could get. He was always better for Gotham when he had a Robin. .

Dick had been nicknamed Robin for his all-Flying-type team and especially his Natu-then-Xatu; Jason followed up with his Murkrow-then-Honchkrow; Tim's Rookidee was one among many (Robin-esque pokemon were popularized by Dick and the trend remains through Tim's day) so he wasn't considered a possible Robin successor until it was a Corvisquire and he was about to face Dick Grayson himself, a badge away from Victory Road. By then, Tim and his team were a well-oiled machine (he runs mostly Steel-types lol but also Normal-types for the unexpected adaptability and the 'underestimate my rattata i dare you it's in the top peRCENTAGE--' of it all. FEAR.), and his loss-record had all but frozen while his win-record ticked higher and higher. .

Shit finally goes down about three years after Tim has become Champion and all but bullied Bruce into mentoring him (he basically said 'if you don't watch me, i'll go find Team Rocket/Joker on my own' and triggers all of Bruce's child endangerment traumas simultaneously) and the mysterious Rocket/Joker leader Red Hood shows up, bringing the gang out of the shadows in pursuit of a hidden agenda. Identity shenanigans and "wait is that a Houndoom? But he's only been using Ghost-types, it CAN'T be..." and heel-face turns abound. .

(BONUS FACT: Something something, Jason went into deep cover with Looker or whoever he is, that Interpol guy from X & Y (WAIT. LOOKER MIGHT ACTUALLY BE TALIA AL GHUL IN THIS AU HOHOHO), infiltrating the Rocket/Joker gang and going public as Red Hood is the first step in the last phase of the sting. Cue a million tense Jaytim interactions in which Tim is legitimately trying to take Red Hood down and Jason desperately tries to shake him so that he doesn't do anything that forces Jason to blow his cover. There is at least one 'tugged into a tight space to hide them both from the actual bad guys, "wait, did you just HELP me...?" "Think whatever you want, babybird"' interaction because I am a slut for the first sprinkles of a redemption arc that is rife with UST fufufu)

[thetriggeredhappy]

would you people still consider me a respectable writer if i told you that basically everything i’ve written since 2019 has been done in the notes app

[missionel]

punch out pokemon au ‼️

so i realized that punch out wii has 13 opponents (not counting donkey kong) that are divided up in such a way that they could all be opponents in a pokemon game! the minor and major circuits are the 8 gym leaders, the world circuit is the elite four, and mr sandman is the champion! it's too perfect! i've at least decided everyone's type specialties, sooo....

gym leaders (minor & major circuits):

- glass joe: flying types

i imagine joe is not as miserable in this au, since the first gym leader's job is literally to lose a lot to young trainers. he's not too skilled at battling, and became a gym leader by accident. his team is made up of two measly kalosian flying types, fletchling and vivillon.

- von kaiser: rock types

i know herr kaiser is typically associated with steel, but steel types are way too cool to be the type of the second gym. sorry. i imagine his students are his gym trainers. his ace is rockruff, and maybe he uses something classic like geodude as well.

- disco kid: electric types

these moves are ELECTRIC! i think this one is self-explanatory. disco kid is pretty good at battling, at least good enough to secure a spot as the 3rd gym leader, but he also doesn't take things too seriously. his team is made up of pokemon that he befriended first and trained for battle later, with his ace being raichu.

- king hippo: ground types

did i give him the ground type just so i could give him hippowdon? ...maybe. there's not much else for me to say about king hippo... he's just chilling. good for him. i was originally gonna give him the poison type, but i'll be giving that type to someone else. ;)

- piston hondo: ghost types

what can i say? he seems like a ghost type guy. obviously he gets a revaroom, because honda and all that. he absolutely feeds his pokemon only the best of snacks.

- bear hugger: normal types

what comes to mind when you hear "bear hugger" and "pokemon"? obviously it's bewear. that is his ace, without a doubt. he also has a greedent and a snorlax, it's way too perfect! and of course, they all like raw fish.

- great tiger: psychic types

yeah i don't think i need to explain this one. the man has a medicham (his ace) and an espeon. this also fits the theme of psychic gym leaders tending to have psychic powers themselves. do you think it's legal to use your own psychic powers to trip up your opponents in a battle? let's not worry about it...

- don flamenco: grass types

it goes without saying that this man has a roserade for his ace, as well as an equally powerful arboliva. maybe carmen is one of his gym trainers, or perhaps she's only there to cheer him on? and do you think he would acquire a shiny roserade for his title defense fight to match his all-black look?

elite four (world circuit):

- aran ryan: bug types

what an absolute bug of a man. starting off the elite four strong with a not-so-strong type, aran ryan chose the generation 7 bug type vikavolt to be his ace. he also has a shedinja, which sports the electric tera type and the air balloom item in his title defense fight. really? (for non-pokemon nerds, this setup makes it nearly unkillable. it's practically cheating!) aran has a questionable background, and seems to have been affiliated with some shady people in the past...

- soda popinski: water types

mister popinski has a love for both water and ice types, and he's in luck because a good few pokemon are both! his ace is one of those, that being walrein. he also has a lapras. he's quite fond of giving his team the soda pop item as opposed to normal healing items during battle.

- bald bull: fire types

red is the color of anger, and also the color of the fire type, so naturally this angry man would gravitate towards fire types, especially the fire type bull that is paldean taurous. he also uses a magmortar. of course bald bull isn't angry ALL the time, and spends his free time relaxing with his pokemon. warm pokemon give warm hugs :]

- super macho man: dragon types

of course everyone's "favorite" show-off uses what's generally regarded as one of the most powerful types. his ace is a kommo-o, a very cool one at that. (i like smm and i like kommo-o. but it works!) he also has an appletun, which was a gift to him from a certain someone... oh my god, this au lets macho man literally release the beast. amazing.

the champion (mr. sandman)

sandman does not use just one type, as is the case with most champions. he has a gengar and a musharna, for obvious reasons. he also has a crabominable and and a hydrapple. he was mysteriously missing after mac defeated the elite four, but i'm sure he'll come back soon. right?

i'm sure nothing bad will happen ;)

feel free to suggest ideas for this au, i still need to flesh out all of the teams so i am welcome to input :3

[musingmycelium]

its oc kiss week!!! @antivan-beau 😘

In the time between the midday meal and contemplation the Keep is nearly quiet. Far fewer footsteps, the stones remain untrod, the sun shines cleanly on the turret stairs. Clandestine one might even say. Though even with the full bearing of the sun on her face Attie still finds a sliver of a chill slipping down her spine. 

Then again, those little stinging nerves in the tips of her fingers and the pit of her stomach may have nothing at all to do with the crisp autumn air nipping through the arrow notches. 

She walks up. One slippered foot at a time taking breath after breath, each corner could be the one. The stairs are quiet, now, in the hush when everyone else is in the dining hall, lively and loud and so very far away. Quiet except for the subtle thuds reverberating in the stones where Attie drags her fingers along the wall. Plate metal, she’s told, rings against the floor. She’s never cared about the way those footsteps fade before.

Another step, an echo in the wall. Only a handful more steps before the next floor, the open entryway peeking, sneaking glances just as Attie keeps sneaking upward. Anticipation, yes that’s the word for the way her toes feel numb and her heart climbs into her throat. Noure would be proud. 

Perhaps Bea will be too.

Attie takes one step up and a boot swaddled foot enters her upturned line of sight. Another breath, deeper. The scent of leather polish faintly follows the ankle, follows the calf. 

Around the corner. Sunlight catches in her hair as she descends the turret stairs, shining off her armor. Beatrice rounds the corner and Attie stops breathing entirely. 

But she doesn’t stop walking.

Clandestine, quiet, hidden in the stairs in the sunlight in autumn. 

Fleeting moments all they have. Too many things at stake, too many others where they should be alone. Responsibilities, obligations. There is room only for the flight path of sunlight in Bea’s hair, in the open mouth of Attie’s reflection on her breastplate. There is room only for passing on the stairs. 

Stepping past. Attie shifts to the side in the same movement as Bea makes room for her to continue. The last deep breath, to hold her metallic scent in her chest. It will last. It will last.

There is room only for the brush of Attie’s arm against Bea’s.

Oh it will last. 

One more step is all they have left. The Keep will come back to life, the stairs will empty.

Beatrice catches Attie’s arm just as she’s nearly past her. Her last breath is knocked from her lungs, the numbness the tingling the soaring in her stomach. On her arm, Bea’s breath ghosts her own refusal, her rebuttal, time is never enough and nothing good can last.

Her eyes are closed where she holds Attie’s arm to her chest and it’s too much. Too much of everything they can never have. Attie turns her head, towards the sun towards the stone, away from where Bea presses a tender kiss to Attie’s forearm. 

Sunlight. Sunlight, sunlight, the autumn sunlight hits Bea’s hair and the fire Attie sees there has caught in Attie’s chest. How can it last, how can it last long enough. Her lips against the fabric covering her skin. How long can it last?

An uneven hitch in Attie’s breathing. An almost sob hidden by the crook of her elbow. Bea releases her arm with nothing more than a lingering touch and the reverberations of her footsteps down the stairs fades from the stone walls where Attie cannot help but let her fingers linger.

[how-about-will]

an unnecessarily long rant about windows 11, bitlocker, bulldozers, and one sad man's quest to format his 2tb nvme ssd

it's incredible how bad microsoft can make a product. windows 11 home pushes bitlocker on my drives without my knowledge or consent, encrypting them without a recovery key. fine. one of the encrypted drives (i have 2) gets corrupted! uh oh! the metadata of the single partition drive is now GONE! oh well! 'twas just my steam library and some stray GOG downloads. no worries! we'll just forma-the drive is now read only and every goddamn low level, registry edit, diskpart solution found anywhere online does squat. can't format the drive because it's read only and bitlocker encrpyted too somehow? okay. maybe the drive being encrypted has something to do with the permanant current read only state. let's go into settings and manage our bitlocker in control panel, yknow, like you've been able to for since it was released in 2013. FIne fine fine i'll go do that. microsoft does not include the ability to manage bitlocker via any other way than command prompt and powershell if you do not pay $100 for windows 11 professional and like WHATEVER right i've been using windows for 15 of my 20 years on this planet i can definitely handle some easy commands except oh wait the commands don't work? and the documentation for them is poor or nonexistant? oh and your now completely RAW drive actually doesn't have the relevant information to remove bitlocker at all???? i fail to see why formatting a drive cares what the fuck is on it anyway??? it's supposed to be like the bulldozer and also the vogons at the start of hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, right? you just format the drive and all of the everything on it is supposed to get bulldozered and space lasered and filleted into new, clean, workable data! i can't clean the drive with diskpart because it's encrpyted, and i can't decrypt it because it has bad blocks where the metadata is!

[maretriarch]

coming to the horrifying realization that i actually do want to be an artist while fully knowing how dumb and ill advised that is

[dragongirltongue]

honestly getting tired of those interrogration style posts now, like, they really fuck with my head in a way that does not help them, idk it's late and I just gotta say my piece.

I agree with what they're aiming for 6ut it's like, the aggression in them hits. idk is this a trauma response or something idk

just yeah real talk, ain't a fan of them and hope the style moves on soon. gonna just post 6lock em for my own sanity.

[badolmen]

:]

[fastianini]

this whole season start had the most rancid, rotten, foul and disgusting ass vibes ever

[hardtchill]

Endo plays LB for Japan playing her there wasn’t “weird” or “out of position”. She’s not good there sure, but it’s not like she’s been good at forward for ACFC either.

If someone isn't good in a certain position i personally find it weird to play them there, but okay.

[astrxealis]

mobile tumblr's new format what the fuck!

[twobitsandanibble]

tomorrow's 3/23/23 32323

a truly blessed march

oh shit, it's 3/21/23, 32123, palindrome day

[sophaeros]

dropping jewelry from the list of things the eycte fit comp will cover so i'll actually finish it within like. lets say the month or two. sorry but if some insane person out there wants stats on their jewelry they will have to ask some other poor soul out there god bless 🙏