#a lot of my happy memories involve people that make them harder to be fully happy about these days but.

[astralartefact]

NieR Reincarnation The People and the World Satellite Spoilers, Feelings and a lot of YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse

Please read this post imagining silent sobbing in the background...

First off, I liked what they did with 10H, just skipping a recap entirely and making her Mama's ally right from the outset while leaving the in-between after the story we already knew for the EX Story.

speaking of which, I loved that they gave that ex story a straightforward happy ending (also, the carnation for reincarnation is just... so cute) I was so afraid that it was going to end with Mama betraying her again, but she didn't q___q And it makes Mama calling her 'our special girl' before the chapter hit so much harder q___q I love you Mama q___q

(also, food for thought, her ex story's name 'copied floral silhouette'... silhouettes are black on white, so it implicates a copied black flower)

I was thinking what the fuck they were going to do with her RoD story in the distant future though... but alas, I only opened Twitter after doing all of that.

So let's talk about it, I didn't expect it to EoS in APRIL. WHAT THE FUCK THAT'S SO SOON!! And I wasn't even expecting them to do another Season or anything, the story is in a perfect place to stop, all I was expecting them to do was drag it out a little bit longer with a skeleton crew only releasing RoDs and Costumes for a year or so until they didn't feel like it anymore - but this soon??? I guess the next NieR game must be closer than I initially thought, why would they just end it, surely they could have kept up the servers for a few more months with how much money and time they've put into the character models and stuff...

I do hope a Offline Version is coming, mainly so I can finally unironically call it the best NieR game without the looming "But it's a Gacha" threating my credibility as a... I don't have credibility, why am I even worried about that

Needless to say, my dream of #AnoggForReincarnation is probably dead in the water... But we'll get to her, because I have thoughts.

Two Big things from the Chapter that I want to talk about:

No.1: It's revealed that Humanity had a plan to "return" (to Reincarnate, if you will) after their Extinction

No.2: The "Earth" we return to is just the Cage again, but whiter and snowier.

I have two theories for what the "Earth" we saw might have been:

a) It's a sort of Meta-Earth where every structure represents every possible parallel Earth in existence - like how we have a Drakengard Earth that's seperate from the Main NieR Earth that's seperate from Hina and Yuzuki's Earth.

b) They don't use Earth meaning planet, but Earth as the place where Humanity is - this is just where the Humans actually are right now, after all they don't just need a place to return to, they also need a place to return from as well.

A notable line here includes 10H confirming to Yuzuki that the Round Egg in the Background (ROUND EGG, ROUND EGG, ROUND EGG!) "must be" the Cage, but that it's "not supposed to be here."

You know another Round Egg that can move around to anywhere it feels like at will and also contains the entirety of Human Memories within it? Well of course, It's time for me to bring up the only thing I ever talk about, YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse!

I've brought up before that there are certain similarities Anogg displays with Noelle's Introductory Chapter and at the time I thought that Noelle's whole deal might be involved in the creation of the Pseudo-Seed from Y:DA. But now that her backstory is fully revealed I actually think it's the other way around.

We now know that Noelle is actually a Human Clone that was created from a human after Humanity disappeared - but that makes it impossible that the Y:DA Pseudo-Seed was based on her if we do consider it to be the same or even just a copy of the Cage, because as we now know the Cage is part of Humanity's plan to Return - which means it must have existed before experimentation on Noelle even started.

Basically I think that Noelle was created using the same technology that was used to create the Cage - a Seed of Destruction. Which - if she actually is one of the pre-established "Dragon Weapons" - is actually pretty likely, because we know Accord had her fingers in making those Weapons happen and we know thanks to countless cameos that the Cage is Accords whole thing - and Accord is really the first and probably only person we know who could even possibly provide a Seed to do that with in the first place.

So while I had thought before that what we see the Red Girls do and what we see Anogg do in Y:DA with and/or caused by the Pseudo-Seed was just from whatever the Red Girls did to it, I think it's now much more likely that that's just how the Cage functions that the Red Girls copied. What if the Cage doesn't just store them, what if it can also Recreate Humanity when the time is right? And they were going to set that in motion after YoRHa defeats the Machine Lifeforms - which just doesn't seem to happen?

Or maybe Humanity's plan was to shoot themselves into space and recreate their entire planet where ever they land, just like the Tower/Cannon the Red Girls create and the Dark Apocalypse they chime in on Norvrandt!

Whatever it turns out being, I think Humanity turned a Seed of Destruction into a literal Seed of Resurrection. And wouldn't that be poetic as fuck. long live optimism, humanity is good sometimes

[cat-dragron-arts]

Never knew I could become fixated on my own silly Sonic Frontiers AU but it's finally at a point where I feel comfortable enough to share it with the wider world! I also wrote all this up at like midnight so sorry if stuff doesn't make sense.

Whole premise is "what if Shadow was in Frontiers" which isn't a unique thought but I wanted to try my own spin on it! Calling it the Mnemonic AU for now since that's just have I've been titling files I save for this as.

Mnemosyne Island replaces Rhea Island in terms of story progression, combining all of the towers into one. Still working on some of the finer details but the chaos emeralds are involved so that Sonic, Shadow and their koco companion can have some quality time together.

Also! Have some rough environmental drawings because I cannot get certain scenes out of my head!!

My whole goal of this was to explore a bit of the harder to obtain voice lines on Rhea Island and how that would play in to someone besides Sage being there to witness Sonic at his lowest before the corruption fully takes over.

Oh and also to have more qpr sonadow content that scratches my particular itch of them having an incredibly deep bond and how that gets put to its limit.

More doodles and ramblings under the cut!

I have most of the main story beats planned out especially with how the ending plays out. It would follow the Final Horizon update in terms of how Ouranos Island plays out plus! Then there's also more potential for character interactions which I adore exploring.

Got no idea for how Shadow ends up at the Starfall Islands. Maybe he's out with Rouge and Omega and he's the only one that finds the portal that ends up transporting him to the islands. Anyways, at least he and Knuckles have that in common.

Shadow's memory token is lavender which I used primarily because it's more neutral than some of the other symbols I see with Shadow a lot. His koco's design was... a pain but I'm ultimately happy with it since they are fun to draw hehe.

The fic itself is gonna be a long one!! Not sure how long yet as I'm still writing it but I've gotten rough drafts for the first three chapters with chapter four on the way. I'm guessing somewhere around 40-60 k words?? Based purely on the chapters I have written right now and how many words they are.

I'd love to post the fic at some point but I want to wait until I have a little more of a back log/more polished since it's my first fan fic and I am a little nervous about it haha.

If you read this far thank you??? It means a lot and I just hope people enjoy this silly au hehe.

[outofangband]

daegred-winsterhand asked:

for the headcanon game, 🖤🐣 for Aerin or Morwen

From this headcanon ask game here! Still accepting them!

I went a bit lighter for the dark headcanons because I recently posted a really intense piece about Aerin (to ao3 not here) and it took a lot out of me…I still had some dark ones but I’ll compile a few more really dark ones later

I did most of these for Aerin, im going to make a separate post for Morwen, but I did include a couple for her tooo

Happy HCs (all my happy HCs for Aerin inevitably make me sad because most of them involve things she loses either completely or mostly, post Nírnaeth)

-Aerin learned to swim in the deeper pools of Nen Lalaith. She loves the water and is a strong swimmer. She also loved to watch the minnows and other tiny fish dart through the stream. When she was little she would take longer and longer walks trying to reach the source of the stream. When she got older and was able to ride longer distances she eventually got there, taking a three day trip with Húrin and another one of their cousins. It’s one of her happiest memories

-Aerin is one or two centimeters taller than Húrin and was absolutely delighted when this happened, when she was fourteen and him a couple years older. I headcanon that Indor was one of Galdor’s liege lords and one of his most trusted kinsmen and their children grew up close.)

-When Húrin was home him and Morwen would often spend evenings in the day room of their house. They would read or work on individual projects or they would play a chess like game. Sometimes they would have long debates. These peaceful evenings she almost felt completely at home.

Dark HCs (post Nírnaeth Aerin related warnings)

-Every time Aerin is punished for helping Morwen or some other transgression it makes the next time harder. She still does but it takes so much out of her to the point where leaving the house becomes panic inducing.

-Aerin is so grateful she never has children. She could not bear to bring someone else into this. And it brings her a grim satisfaction that Brodda will have no heir, no legacy, something the Narn specifically says he wanted and which was part of his reasons for what he did (I actually have a separate post about this, if you’re interested, that goes into my thoughts about this and why and the significance and the different possibilities)

-No matter how much Aerin may hate and fear Brodda, she has to know him on such a personal level; she has to learn his habits and moods and preferences because she has to, the alternative is dangerous. This is definitely something I want to work more with but the effect it has on her is profound. Just thinking about the level of very unwanted casual familiarity and closeness(?) unsure of wording here

(Will post more dark HCs for Morwen later but)

-It gets to Morwen, knowing that some people want to violently hurt her because in their minds that would make them powerful because they’ve decided you’re a scary witch and that if they tried, there’s very little she can do to defend herself or Niënor. Even when she’s in Doriath, that fear never fully leaves her

-Morwen will never admit this but she has had a fear of fire since the Bragollach. Lighting candles is usually fine, lighting a contained fire in the hearth gets easier over time. But when she can feel smoke in her lungs and feel the heat of the flames? It can be panic inducing. Of course as this is Morwen her panic tends to show as her being sharper and more brusque with others or isolating.

Rían on the other hand has a morbid fascination with fire.

On a semi related note I headcanon that several Hadorian festivals include bonfires including the celebration for the new year as I think I’ve talked about. Morwen is displeased by this.

[intheseautumnhands]

Top 5 tv shows and top 5 happy memories.

I got sidelined by Christmas and writing but I return to asks!

( ask my top 5 anything )

top 5 tv shows

Some of this overlaps with comfort shows, so I'll try not to repeat myself:

- Eastwick. - Pushing Daisies. - Sports Night. - The Umbrella Academy. I don't know, this show just ate a corner of my brain. I try to put shows where I don't have to caveat a specific season, and with TUA it is mostly season one, but it's taken so much of my interest it also doesn't feel right to leave it off. - Firefly. Is it flawed? Very much so. But I love it still. River is still an all-time favorite character, it's still a favorite found family, and I just have too much love poured into it to not still adore it.

top 5 happy memories

- The beginning of this month. Finally getting to spend time with Beth again was something I needed badly. - Hanging out with you all that time ago. <3 - Seeing Wicked from the front row. - Rushing Rent for the first time. - The first snow after moving to Tennessee.

[hitnran]

UNHAPPY (gender neutral! reader)

how you deal with them when they’re unhappy

includes: chifuyu, sanzu, ran, rindou

note: you can view these as either their past or present selves

— CHIFUYU MATSUNO

For Chifuyu, it doesn’t take too much for him to really make him super unhappy. But often times, he does get annoyed at some things that just tick him off. Sometimes it’ll be something small, like someone cutting in line or someone stepping too close into his boundaries. At those times, he usually either lets it go or will confront whoever it is he has to deal with (verbally or physically, depends on the situation).

But nothing would make him more unhappy like the situation involving the death of Baji - someone who changed his life for the better.

For the first few days, it felt like the situation didn’t even occur. He would drag this out to days, weeks, months. You didn’t want to ask too many questions out of fear of being too insensitive, maybe this was just how he dealt with it. Though, you would always at least check up on him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” He would softly grin, assuring you that he was okay. Never had you heard him fully talk about it, and you wouldn’t force him.

Upon plans to visit his place and hangout, you figured that it wouldn’t hurt to show up earlier than usual. It wasn’t like he minded it either - more time to spend with you.

You gathered together both of your favorite snacks and drinks, the door was left open for you. You quietly snuck in, figuring he would be in his room, maybe reading a new manga or playing with game.

But upon peaking through the cracks of his opened room door, you found him sniffling and sobbing, staring down at something in his lap - Baji’s Toman uniform.

You felt your throat go dry and your chest ache to see him like this - so vulnerable about a topic that he swore he accepted, but you knew him better. You slowly pushed opened his door, falling to your knees and pulling his head close to you.

He cried harder, feeling weak to show this side of himself to you, but he couldn’t help it. Chifuyu tried letting out words like ‘I’m okay,’ but he failed and choked on his words.

“You..don’t have to keep it to yourself anymore, Chifuyu,” You comforted him, softly humming and running your palm over his head.

Once he is calm enough to speak, you both move to a more comfortable spot where he can talk. One of Chifuyu’s favorite thing is to lay down with you, so this isn’t out of the ordinary, but when he’s unhappy, he relishes this moment more than he ever has.

The feeling of your stomach raising up and down and the sound of your heart beating makes him feel at ease - it helps him know that you’re there with him and you’re all his.

When he’s unhappy, he really appreciates it when you give him his undivided attention and just listens to him talk. Chifuyu’s aware that some things are out of your control, but it’s the thought of having someone to share these moments of his life with that means more to him. Whether it’s him ranting about someone who annoyed him or him reminiscing back on his memories, at the end of his session, he will always shower you with attention to show you how much he is thankful for you.

— HARUCHIYO SANZU

There’s a lot that actually makes Sanzu unhappy. It might be more common than him actually being happy, but nonetheless, for the most part he doesn’t care. Sanzu simply does not care enough to worry about minor inconveniences. If it doesn’t get in the way of him and/or those he is loyal to, he isn’t going to waste his time and energy on even thinking about it.

Other times, if he’s just having a bad day, he’ll maybe blow things out of proportion and take those minor inconveniences as a way to just blame his bad day on. If someone really wants to get on Sanzu’s bad side though, all they’d have to do is either mention his siblings that he loathes so much or talk badly about those who he is loyal to.

You will immediately know when he’s unhappy when Sanzu doesn’t talk. He’s already wasting his time and energy to even worry about what’s making him upset, so he’s not going to add more by talking. Unfortunately, this even goes for you. He’d enjoy it if you would give him his space, allowing him to just let time deal with his temper.

Though, Sanzu greatly appreciates how patient you are with him. Never did he ask for you to do these small things you do for him, in fact, he thought it should be the other way around where it would be him giving you everything.

When he’s unhappy and unwilling to speak, you still put so much effort. His favorite food is ready and waiting for him, his clothes are free of wrinkles, and life just seems so much easier for him to deal with.

Depending on how serious the issue was, it’ll either take a few hours or a few days for Sanzu to speak to anyone else again, but you will always be the first. He’ll walk up behind you, ignoring whatever you’re doing and inhale your scent that he missed so much.

It’s really better to just not ask about what happened unless he brings it up himself, but he likes it if you’d just talk about yourself.

“What are you doing, doll?” His words are a lot softer around you, a big contrast to the personality he puts out towards others.

And as you begin to talk, Sanzu can’t help but soften his expression, nodding at every sentence and giving you his attention. He knows that he isn’t the easiest to deal with and he knows that it was nothing you have to deal with - you could ignore it and he would be fine with it. But your efforts will never go unnoticed, and he will be sure to make it up to you to the best of his ability.

— RAN HAITANI

It doesn’t take too much to make Ran unhappy. He’s unbothered by a lot of things and it may just be an older brother instinct to just deal with things as they go. If it’s things involving his career as a dangerous man, then it’s a little different. Things are in the moment and he has to make sure that he isn’t caught with his guard down.

If someone is bothering you, Ran will deal with it on the spot. If Rindou got himself in trouble again, he’ll deal with that too on the spot. He just doesn’t wanna waste his time.

Like Sanzu, it had to just have been a bad day where things kept piling up on him and he just had enough. He’ll immediately go and find you, not wanting to really project his problems on you, but more as a way to distract himself.

You hear a familiar set of feet creep your direction, your name is dragged out as Ran calls for you, wondering where you are.

“There you are,” Ran’s face visibly beams as he finally sees you.

He immediately walks over to you, grabbing your attention and leaving you to toss out whatever you were doing prior. Ran’s a touchy person, but never really ‘clingy.’ You’ll know when something happened that irritated him when he clings onto you more.

“Did something happen?” You curiously ask, looking straight at him.

He shook his head, nearly forgetting the reason why he was upset in the first place, “Let’s go out tonight or something. Tell me what you wanna do, and we’ll do it.”

If Ran is unhappy, he really just doesn’t wanna bother with it especially if it isn’t something he can immediately deal with. The best thing you can do is just ask if he wants to talk about it. Usually he’ll brush over it, wanting to at least let you in on the details of his life, but that’s about it.

His thought process is really ‘why spend time worrying about those things when I can just be with my partner?’ He doesn’t want to think of you as a distraction, but no doubt does he see you as a mood booster. You always make his day.

— RINDOU HAITANI

Rindou gets irritated a lot. One thing he hates dealing with his people. He just hates dealing with how ‘indecisive and stupid some of them’ can be as he says. But with his title, he’s kind of forced to have to consistently be around others, usually those who aren’t looking to be his friend.

When Rindou’s unhappy, he’ll find everything else annoying. If it someone who cut in front of him in line, suddenly everyone to even looks in his direction will piss him off. If his brother took the last of his favorite snack, suddenly he’ll start thinking about how he can step outside and beat the shit out of a person just for fun if he wanted to.

He tries his best to not snap at you, it’s nothing he wants to bother with if he makes you unhappy too. He’ll be very similar to Sanzu where he just wants to be left alone for the most part but only out of fear of taking his anger out on you on accident or saying something out of pocket due to frustration.

But even after just a few minutes of asking to be alone, Rindou will usually go and find you and just ask to silently do something together. He just doesn’t wanna be left alone with his own thoughts; it might drive him more crazy.

Rindou will make it super evident when he’s upset (he’s stubborn), but when he is, it’s good to just be patient with him as he’ll most likely come back and drape his body over you, silently asking for attention.

Take off his glasses and kiss his eyelids, play with his hair and his fingers, tell him you love him and he’ll melt. His face is left with an expression he wouldn’t dare show anyone else, but nonetheless, he’s grateful to you and he immediately forgets what upset him in the first place.

“Thanks,” He lowly murmurs into your neck. You feel the heat from his ears go hot. “For dealing with me.”

[mayasdeluca]

Admittedly my first reaction to the story line was visceral and angry. And honestly I think it’s valid to think it’s not a good choice. But as I struggled to really understand why I felt the way I did I realized my own personal experiences were coloring my view. In the beginning of my relationship with my wife, there was a lot of emotional immaturity. At one point in our relationship, she ended up sleeping with a friend of hers. There was a lot of hurt obviously and I had trust issues but eventually decided to forgive because I knew what she meant to me. But I had such a hard time reconciling that if I could forgive my girl, I would have to try and release my anger with the other woman. It’s in a similar vein that Carina has to maneuver through to take Maya back. In the show, Carina taking Maya back came with forgiveness and also anger with Maya and Jack. But Jack was just a tool Maya used. It wasn’t emotional or lustful in intention. It was a mechanical release for two people who use sex as a coping mechanism. You can see it on their faces when it’s over, it was not for pleasure. Not an excuse. Still fucked up. But as Maya and Carina fall more into love with each other, it is obvious that nothing or no one matters more. Carina knows where Maya’s heart really lies and eventually even says she’s not threatened by him. She doesn’t need to be. Then rewatching their story because I was trying to reconnect the happy memories of falling in love with this couple, I noticed something. Jack is never malicious or undermining of their relationship in any way after that night. He’s the one who tells Maya she should apologize. Tells Maya not to worry about Carina’s sex friend because what Marina had together is more. Just like him as an old sex friend means nothing to what they have. He’s one of the ones there when they officially get engaged. He’s at the wedding. He gained enough of Carina’s trust to start a huge project together. He’s the first to hug them after they make their baby intentions announcement. The knee jerk response of seeing his character redemption in this decision I think isn’t necessarily valid. He’s been there. There’s so much of these characters personal lives we don’t see that we could never really know what their friendship fully entails. But Maya and Carina are insanely in love with each other. There is no hesitation. Jack is a tool being used again, but this time to help something they can’t do alone unfortunately. And honestly, all of them have major childhood family issues so on some level they all make sense coming together to try and heal certain traumas. I have to trust their happiness means more then the little bit we know. I’m choosing to tread lightly and just be happy my favs are happy. That being said, I think it’s the laziest choice the writers could have made to make him the donor. But then again it’s Shondaland. So I hate the choice, but at least it doesn’t induce blind rage for me now.

This is great insight and you make good points. I honestly think this is how the writers view it as well. Maybe even the cast/everyone else involved and why they believe it's justified.

I think there's so many different angles to this and it's complex because it's not even just about choosing Jack as the donor at this point. It's the fact that they've spent half a season on it and it's become their whole entire storyline and identity as a couple. I can't speak for anyone else but I think if they decided to use Jack as the donor, I would've been pissed still but if it was decided and done with after an episode or two, I wouldn't have been as mad as I am now. But dragging it out for them to have 1 minute conversations about it and nothing else made it much worse.

You're right that Jack has been supportive of their relationship ever since the cheating incident. But I think another huge problem is that the writers skipped over a huge chunk of that timeline completely and it just makes it harder for us fans to believe that Carina would still be okay with this eventual decision when we saw her initial reaction and how upset she was. Obviously things change over time and again most of it was skipped over and suddenly Jack was inserted in things and was supportive and before this whole donor mess, I actually really enjoyed the dynamic he had with both of them and how he was becoming a good friend to Maya that she could talk to about Carina (and the whole Gabriela situation) and other things but yeah. Of course they did choose the messiest option for a reason and that's also a fear because that comes with a whole other addition of problems that could ruin the relationships in the future.

I think treading lightly is a good way to describe it, that's how I feel now too. I want them to be happy and I just want to see Maya & Carina being the sweet, sexy, happy in love couple that we all know they can be and love that isn't constantly talking about sperm. So while choosing Jack opens up a possibility of even worse storylines in the future, right now taking it one step at a time and just seeing where they go with it seems like the best plan because anything can happen with this show.

[sunshineseung]

Little Secret Part 4 // Changbin

🍄 | genre: smut mini-series ☁️ | pairing: Seo Changbin x female!reader 🌿 | wc: 4.3k 🌸 | includes: Jisung x [man] just a little, yearning, teasing, making outtt, unprotected sex, hair pulling, slight size kink, slight possessiveness, no aftercare (yet)

v Read the other parts first! v 🌊 | Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Finale |

“I’m going out!” Jisung slung his bag behind his back, heading towards the front door. You, sitting on the couch with your head in your phone, give him a quick mhm before he went on his way. You didn’t know where he was going, and frankly, you didn’t care. Jisung out of the house gave you the chance to invite Changbin over, assuming they weren’t hanging out.

You haven’t seen Changbin in two days, but the two of you have been texting nonstop, mostly at night when you were both tired and horny. Changbin hasn’t seen Jisung since he almost caught you, but they’ve been texting with Chan in their group chat. Unfortunately, that’s about it. Jisung was making his space away from Changbin. 

Hey, wanna come over? My brother left

You wait a minute. Then a minute turns into 30, and 30 turns into 60. You start to regret sending the text considering he isn’t replying. You’ve given up hope before you hear your phone ring: It’s a call from Changbin.

“Hey!” You answer way too eagerly, probably freaking him out. “What’s up, Binnie?” 

As much as he loves when you call him Binnie, now was not the time for his heart to flutter.

“Y/n, can I still come over?” You had no clue why he had to call you for that, but regardless, you obviously said yes. “We need to talk, for real this time.”

🍓🍰🐤🍀💐🍯

Jisung couldn’t look at you. He was repulsed by our actions to the point where he would cringe whenever he heard your voice, because he knew your mouth belonged to his best friend. He didn’t want to think about it, and he needed to get his mind off of it. Since he clearly couldn’t hang out with Changbin, he called his next best friend, Chan. 

“Hey, Chan!” Jisung sounded happy though the phone, although he’d just been pounding his fists into his steering wheel out of anger moments ago. “Can we hang out in the studio? I need to let off some steam.”

It was about a month ago at a stupid house party. Chan was DJing while Jisung and Changbin were off partying, and he was doing a damn good job if he had to say so himself. Of course, just like every party, when the noise died down and people started to leave, Chan was dragged into a random drinking circle with several strangers, but most importantly, his best friend Jisung, although Chan would never call him that infront of him, because he knew Jisung and Changbin were closer than Chan and Jisung could ever be. Chan let the music run a random playlist of his while he sat, casually drinking and chatting before the game started. 

Never Have I Ever: Ten fingers up, and if you’ve done it, put a finger down. Go around in a circle until someone, probably the most innocent out of the group, has won. It always goes wrong for Chan, though. 

“Never have I ever…” a random girl looked around the circle, pausing to ponder what she’s never done, “had a crush on someone of the same sex.” 

Most of the girls put a finger down, and the guys awkwardly looked back and forth until Chan slipped his pinky finger down. He couldn’t tell a lie, but he didn’t want to admit that he had conflicting feelings for other men, let alone his best friend.

The circle went quiet as they stared at Chan, eyes unmoving. In Chan’s head, it felt like the world was imploding around him and at any moment he could combust, but the game simply went on. No questions were asked, and they moved on. When it got around to Jisung, his galaxy brain sparked and he knew a way to get all the girls out with one hit.

“Never have I ever fucked a man.” A simple command, and all but one of the girls put down one of their fingers. Jisung didn’t know it, but he lit a fuse that led directly to Chan, and if he wasn’t careful, Chan was going to be set off. 

Chan didn’t put a finger down for that, and he didn’t have to, but the idea of Chan being the man that got to make Jisung put his finger down was bubbling in his brain. It had been for months, but now that he heard the words come out of Jisung’s mouth, it felt real. It felt right there. At an arm’s reach, Chan could propose the idea to Jisung and end this party with a bang (quite literally.) Ever polite, Chan stayed quiet, remaining in his spot, letting the night go on without a hitch. 

There was no way Jisung could know.

Being invited to the studio to be with Jisung was nothing new. They’d worked on tracks alone before, but Chan always had to leave early, his thoughts getting the best of him as he ran to his car to jerk off in an empty parking lot before driving home to go through the motions again. There was no chance of Chan getting together with Jisung.

“Sure! I’ll be down in a few.” Chan sighed, going to collect his things and head to the studio.

“It won’t be long! I just need to talk for a minute.” 

Talk? Talk about what? Music? Friendship? Did another girl break his heart? Was he still going on about Changbin and his sister?

Chan had no idea. He just wanted to hear Jisung’s voice. 

At the studio, Jisung got there before Chan. He sat patiently, hands folded in his lap, going over what he wanted to say. He had practiced his speech for Chan in his head, in the mirror, in his car, and even in his phone notes, but nothing could prepare him for actually facing Chan. 

As if on cue, Chan walked in right as Jisung finished his mental monologue. A quick wave sufficed as a greeting, but before Chan could take his laptop out, Jisung told Chan to sit down and listen.

“This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out.” Jisung always sounded crazy, but Chan just nodded. “If you’re all caught up, you should know that Changbin is fucking my sister.” Again, a gentle nod. “Obviously, I don’t fucking like that, so I want to get back at him!”

“And what?” Chan laughs, rolling his eyes at the younger. “Fuck his sister?”

“No way! She’s way too out of my league.” He was only partially true. “I’m going to fuck the one person he cares about more than his family.”

“So, you’re gonna fuck yourself?” Chan was genuinely confused. He had no clue where Jisung was going with this insane plan, but as his brain slowly put the pieces together, his eyes got more wide. Jisung noticed his flushed expression and began to shake, scared of what was going on in Chan’s head.

“Chan, if it’s okay with yo-”

“Yes.” Chan placed both of his hands on Jisung’s knees, leaning forward to get closer to Jisung’s face. His features looked so detailed and pretty. They’ve never been this close before. Chan’s heart was beating out of his chest while Jisung’s heart was racing for another reason. Neither of them knew what to do.

“You’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?” Jisung’s voice wavered as he asked the question. His eyes were glowing with the realization that Chan had some sort of sexual or romantic feeling for him. Chan cupped Jisung’s cheek, petting him before nodding in approval. 

“What made you think of this plan?” Chan’s eyes left Jisung’s and wondered to his lips, cute and plump. Jisung had a slight pout, and it made Chan just that much harder. 

“I…” Jisung trailed off, looking to a corner of the quiet studio. “I didn’t think much about it before, but to get back at Changbin, I want to fuck someone close to him, and you’re the only person I could think of.”

“I didn’t know you liked guys.” Chan admitted, leaning even closer and making Jisung sweat. He could feel Chan’s breath on his face, and just his presence was intoxicating.

“I didn’t know either,” Jisung paused, “but the more I thought about you…”

“You don’t have to explain yourself.” Chan’s hands crept up Jisung’s thighs, sliding up to his hips and pulling Jisung onto his lap. “Just let me make you feel good, baby boy.”

Whenever Jisung would describe his sex life, he was always on top: railing women and never looking back. He always depicted himself as being in control, but right now Jisung had no control. He was at the will of Christopher Bang, and Chan knew all too well what he wanted to do to the poor boy. 

🍓🍰🐤🍀💐🍯

Changbin yawned as he rounded the corner, heading towards the 3Racha studio where he assumed he would be alone. As he approached, he noticed the blinds on the door were down although they always left them up. That’s weird, he thought, taking hold of the door knob before being stopped by the lock.

There was a commotion inside. It sounded like scrambling, things hitting the ground and other things being swept up. He thought it was just Jisung throwing a tantrum and wrecking the place, which would be a little funny, but a minute passed before the door swung open, revealing a disheveled Chan welcoming him in and a lazed Jisung, sprawled out on the couch, equally disheveled and a little sleepy. 

“What-” Changbin looked around the room. The desk with the expensive equipment was safe, but one of the swivel chairs was pushed over and the pillows from the couch were on the floor. 

“Hey, Bin! We were just working on something!” Chan was glowing, a smile wide across his face. Looking at the black computer screen, Changbin inhaled the scent of the room. 

“It smells like balls in here, what the fuck were you two doing?” Changbin takes a step in, not taking off his bag, because honestly, he wanted to leave.

“Working.” Jisung’s voice was hoarse, and he quickly coughed to reverse the effects of having a cock down his throat minutes before. “We were making a new track.”

“Oh, really?” Changbin rolls his eyes and looks at his phone. He hadn’t noticed before, but you texted him. 

“What is it? A text from my sister?” Jisung began sulking, all the memories of the past couple days returning to his fuzzy post-sex brain. 

Changbin stopped. He had never fully admitted his involvement with you to Jisung, and considering he totally just got railed by the only other person Changbin trusted, he thought this was the time.

“Yeah, actually.” Changbin smirked, raising his brows and Jisung. Chan’s jaw dropped as if he didn’t know what was going on. Jisung’s face went red with anger, and before he could stand up and yell up a storm, Changbin turned around to head out. “She said her brother isn’t home. I should go take advantage of that, right Jisung?”

“You fucker-”

“Oh, and your sister gives great head. Maybe it runs in the family.” Changbin shoots a look at Chan before slamming the door shut behind him and heading back to his car.

🍓🍰🐤🍀💐🍯

You sat in the living room, waiting to hear Changbin knocking at your front door. You were terrified that he was going to try to break your relationship like last time, but it seems like he was content judging from texts. Maybe he just wanted to talk, or maybe he wanted to break your heart. No matter what, you wanted him here. 

Three knocks at the door startled you out of your daze. You welcomed Changbin inside and you sat on your couch with him. This was the first time Changbin was sitting with you instead of Jisung, and it felt strange and familiar at the same time. Changbin’s heart was racing, and you felt the awkward tension as Changbin looked around, refusing to look at you. 

You placed your hand on his thigh, bringing his attention to you. “You said you wanted to talk?”

“Yeah.” Changbin gulped, unsure of how to bring this up. “So, I told Jisung a few things, and he fully knows that we’ve been…” 

“Oh?” You blush, afraid of what your brother was going to say to you and if he’d ever be able to look you in the eyes again. “Was he okay?”

“I didn’t give him much time to respond, but it looked like he was pretty pissed.” Changbin chuckles, and you do the same. A silence fell over the room as Changbin prepared what he was going to say next. He didn’t want to out his brother to his sister, especially if it was all a misunderstanding and Changbin just walked into the studio when it coincidentally smelled like balls. He just folded his hands and leaned back into the couch, resting the back of his head on the back. “What are we?”

His question hit you like a brick wall, because you didn’t have an answer. You’ve been an ace in all your classes and yet you couldn’t answer this simple question. You bit your bottom lip in concentration, replaying every conversation and moment you two had shared since the night Changbin so rudely barged in on your wanking session. 

“Do you want to be anything more than fuck buddies?” Changbin reenters the silence with another headsplitting question. You’ve always wanted to be the girlfriend of Seo Changbin, but now you are clamming up. Did you want to be his girlfriend, or was it all fantasy?

“I want to be with you, Changbin.” Your eyes met each other’s for the first time, and it felt heavy, as if the air got thicker just by meeting the other’s gaze. “I don’t know if that means I want to be your girlfriend, but I just know I want to be with you.” 

“Alright.” Changbin nodded, leaning closer to you. “Let’s forget labels for now.” He catches your lips in a kiss, holding your chin in one hand while your arms wrap around his neck, pulling your body towards his. He pulls away, breathless and calm. “I want to be with you, too.”

The next kiss is sweet enough to give you a cavity. It’s warm and inviting. No tongue, just lips on lips, appreciating the taste of the other. 

Regardless of what your brother thought, you were content in staying with Changbin. No amount of family disapproval or shunning could stop you from being with Changbin. It was as if your world had begun to revolve around Changbin. He took real estate in your mind every day and night, consistently keeping you awake for hours on end from your heart beating too fast at the thought of seeing him again. 

Changbin didn’t notice, but he had grown feelings for you. Before the first time you were together, you were nothing but a hot girl he thought about when he jerked off, but it quickly became more than that. He was infatuated with your existence. If you thought about him 24/7, he thought about you 25/8. He’s been with many girls before, but never one like you. No one made him feel like his world could fall apart at the removal of their presence like you. You were precious to Changbin, and he wanted to make you his and his alone. 

You were sitting in his lap, legs spread around his hips and you grinded into each other, feeling each other up like it was the last time you were going to be together. His hands cupped your breasts, kneading you through your shirt and bra, while your hands rested on his thick arms, holding on like you were about to drown. Everything felt rushed while simultaneously being drawn out. You were both so desperate for the other that you didn’t even care about the clothes in your way. 

No matter how much stamina Changbin had regularly, whenever he was with you, it always felt like he could pop at any moment and make a fool of himself. He loved your body so much, it was absurd. When your hands circled his nipples and gently pulled at the nubs, he felt his cock twitch in his pants. 

“I need to be inside you right now, princess.” You loved when he called you that, and even more, you loved when he showed how needy he was for you. He stood up with you, kissing your face all over before meeting your lips in a deep kiss. You felt so overwhelmingly heated, and when Changbin’s bulge brushed against you, you couldn’t help but let out a choked moan into the kiss.

He pulls away and pulls your shirt over your head, throwing it somewhere behind him to bring attention to your chest. He’s quick to remove your bra and properly worship your tits like he’s been wanting to do. He kisses down from your lips to your chest, attaching his lips around one of your nipples, but not before leaving a bright red hickey to form on your neck. His tongue flicked against your sensitive nub while his free hand gently twisted your other. Your legs were getting weaker by the second, and you couldn’t help but have moans escape your lips. His hand that wasn’t playing with your tits snaked around your body, holding up you by the waist. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to be bent down forever.

He stood up, slightly towering over you. His hands snapped to your hips and pulled your pants down, exposing your pretty lace panties. Changbin licked his lips at the sight, taking it all in for a moment. You felt his eyes gracing over your body, and you shivered from the intense look in his eyes. You were already dripping wet from his touches, and Changbin could sense that you were as needy as he was.

“Let’s go up to your room, baby.” Changbin took your hand and turned around, heading towards the stairwell. “We don’t want your brother coming home and finding us here.”

You headed up to your room, not bothering to pick up your clothes from downstairs. It wasn’t until you were in your room, laid back under Changbin that you realized he was still entirely dressed while you were only in your underwear.

“Changbinnie,” he lifted his head from your neck, arching an eyebrow at you, “let me see your body. I want to see you.” 

“Anything for my girl.”

My girl. Wow, you were his girl. His girl, all for him to use like a little cumrag. You were so high strung, and it felt like the only two people in the world were you and Changbin. He leans up, taking off his shirt and pulling down his pants, letting you see the impressive bulge in his boxers. You could practically feel his cock inside you just from seeing the outline. The whine you release is pathetic, and it makes Changbin laugh at your desperate state, but it also made him want you more.

He pressed his bulge against your cunt, dry humping you and feeling your wetness transfer to his boxers. You looked so hot while squirming under him. “Beg for it, baby. What do you want me to do?” 

“Ch-Changbin,” you slurred your words, already going dumb from a few teasing touches. You felt so small under him. Not physically small, but mentally small. He could form a full sentence and you could hardly think straight. “Please fuck me, please~”

He pulled your panties down your legs, tossing them to the floor. His cock popped out of his boxers as he pulled them down, finally being free. He pressed his tip against your clit, circling it and feeling your hips jolt.

“More, Y/n. Beg more.” Changbin’s brain was starting to get fuzzy too. His tip was so angry and red. You whined at the friction of the tip of his cock going through your folds. You wanted him inside you so bad, but you couldn’t articulate any of your very few thoughts. All you could do was whine. 

“P-please.” Your breathing was heavy. Without another word, you lifted your hips into his cock, hoping he understands your message, which he fully does, and as much as he wants to fuck you brainless, he also wants to hear you.

“Cmon, doll. You got this.” He holds your hips down and thrusts his cock through your folds without ever entering you. “Beg for my cock.”

You practically scream, “please fuck me, Changbin! I need your cock! I want to cum so bad for you, please.” You lose yourself at the end, unable to think any sort of coherent thought. Luckily, you didn’t need to speak anymore. Changbin was satisfied. 

He lined up with your entrance and pushed in, going about half way before stopping and making sure you were okay. The stretch was painful again, but it felt so good. You loved being filled by his cock, especially since it dragged across your walls so perfectly. When he finally bottoms out, he waits for you to slightly return to your senses. Your breathing begins to even as you grow comfortable with Changbin inside you. 

“Ready for me to move?” Your nodding is frantic, and your eagerness only eggs him on. He nearly pulls entirely out of you before pushing back in with one strong thrust, feeling somehow deeper than he was before. It felt like a new feeling. It felt different. He felt closer, warmer, better, but you couldn’t figure out why.

No condom. Changbin knew he didn’t put protection on, and he didn’t want to. He wanted to feel you around him. His stamina was good enough to make you cum plenty before he needed to pull out. He loved the way you felt with the condom on, and without, you felt a thousand times better. Fuck, maybe he wasn’t going to last as long as he thought.

His thrusts sped up, and he held himself closer inside you, hardly pulling out before plunging back in. The sound of skin slapping filled the room as Changbin leaned down to kiss you. Your tongues swirled together, and he ate up all your pretty moans of his name. 

Your tight cunt hugged his shaft so well, and the way his tip prodded at your g-spot made your head spin. His lips on yours kept you grounded, you passionately kissing back regardless of your breathlessness. His hands cup your tits, playing with your nipples with his thumb and forefinger. Even though you hadn’t been together too long, he knew just how to make your body feel best. He was an expert at everything he did, and fucking you was no exception. 

“Bin, ‘m close.” You spoke against his lips, him humming in response. His thrusts were rough, drilling you into the mattress. His groans sounded so hot, you never wanted them to end. He was right next to your ear, praising you and telling you how tight you were. 

“Ah, turn over, princess.” Changbin pulled out and patted your thigh, promoting you to push your face into your pillows and put your ass up. The view was beautiful, but now was no time to admire your body. Changbin needed to be inside you again.

His abrupt re-entrance made you moan loudly while his cock stretched you again. His thrusts were even faster and deeper than before, and your orgasm soon returned to the edge. The bed was creaking loudly, and the headboard pounded into the wall. 

In a flash, your head was pulled up by your hair. Changbin had your hair around his fist, pulling you violently out of the pillows and onto your hands. Your mouth hung open as he continued to violate your hole, brushing past your sensitive walls and pounding into your g-spot with every trust. His groans got louder and his pace began to fray. 

“Cum on my cock, Y/n.” His voice was hoarse and demanding, as if he was about to bust inside you at any moment. “Let Binnie feel you cum, sweetheart.”

“Ah~ Bin!” You felt the knot in your stomach tighten, threatening to snap. Your mind was so foggy, and all you could think of was Changbin’s amazing cock and the way he was railing you so well. “Changbin, so good…”

“Yeah, baby?” He pursues you, egging you on to say more. “What’s good?”

“Your cock! Your cock is- ah!” You’re screaming at this point, begging that your orgasm washes over your fucked out body soon. Changbin pushes you back down into your pillow, muffling your moans until you can turn your head and breath again.

You bite down on your lip hard enough to bleed before your mouth goes agape, slurring every curse word you could think of as your orgasm hit you like a metal bat. Your cunt began convulsing, making it harder and harder for Changbin to keep from cumming inside your hot pussy. He looked down at where you two were connected and saw the abundance of your creamy release coat his cock thicker than before. Your hands squeezed the sheets as you began to become overstimulated, your body becoming sore fast. 

“Changbin, it-” You’re still breathing heavily, thoughts slowly coming back to you. “It hurts.”

“Ah, princess,” Changbin pulls out, stroking himself intensely before cumming on your ass and your back. “Fuck, you felt too good.”

🍓🍰🐤🍀💐🍯

Jisung leads Chan into your house, holding his hand just to guide him upstairs. Before he can even put a foot on the bottom step, he sees your bra on the floor. He isn’t entirely sure that it’s yours, but he knows it can’t be anyone else’s. Chan’s ears perk up at the lewd sounds coming from upstairs, and Jisung soon notices too.

“We could go to my place-”

“No!” Jisung interrupts Chan just loud enough for it to be jarring. “They won’t mind a little more noise.”

[sashi-ya]

{+18} - Law x Fem Best Friend ♥ CH.2

♥ Daily living with the Heart pirates crew AU  ♥ Spoilers after Dressrosa Arc. Law´s backstory.  ♥ Female reader. Little physical description. Everybody is 18+, canon ages.  ♥ TW: Nightmares related to PTSD. Little NSFW. no further warnings. If you think I should include some feel free to tell me ♥Thank you for the likes and follows, I appreciate it them so so much! If you wanna know when I’ll be updating the next chapters, you can follow me on Twitter @LawIsMyWaifu, come interact I love to have mutuals that love Law and One Piece as much as I do ♥

Word count: 4.1K

» List of parts: {CH1}  {CH2}  {CH3}  {CH4} {CH5} «

Chapter 2.

The sound of his low, raspy voice resonated all over my head, making my body react instantly. I gasped as I felt a strike of pleasure travelling down my stomach to in between my legs. Closing my eyes, unable to move, I didn’t want to move, I wanted him to keep whispering, to kiss my neck… “Hahahaha, I’m sorry, I’m just fooling around, your face, you look astonished Y/N-ya”, he said while laying back on the bed, laughing. I chuckled as I stood up brushing my clothes as if I was trying to fix them. “Stop it, I’m not into that you ass. Goodnight”, I said trying to dissimulate how agitated and embarrassed I was.

Almost running, I left the room, directly to mine, holding on my hand my underwear. I jumped to my bed resting violently on my back. “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?” ... a little time passed until I passed out.

Hard knocks on my door woke me up. “Vice-Captain!! wake up! breakfast is ready!!!” Clione shouted from the corridor. “God damn how many times I have to tell this whole crew I fucking hate being awakened with shouting?” I mumbled annoyed, covering my face with the sheets.

I was brushing my hair when I remembered my “memory box” for some reason. Opened my drawer and found the little velvet red box that holds my “treasures”. Inside, there is a photo of my parents with me when I was 7, happy, eating some ice cream with them. It was taken during one of “the white parades”, on Flevance, before everything turned into hell. A little blue bow that my little sister used to wear, some photos of Law, Bepo, Shachi, Penguin and me when we were the only members of our crew. And, a necklace Law made with some seashells as a gift for my 15th birthday, were also inside.

I got watery eyes while looking at it, “I must be getting old”, I thought, “I got emotional over the memories” ... laughed and put everything back to its place.

“Morning..” I said, greeting the whole crew that was already devouring their breakfast. I noticed Law wasn’t there, so I had to ask. Uni told me he was in the control room preparing for the arrival at the next island. I took a few pancakes and some tea and headed to the control room to ask my captain if he needed help.

“Good morning, doc”, I saluted him. Law that was seated facing the controls, turned the chair to look at me nodding. He has more dark circles as always, so I asked him, “Oi, did you sleep last night? are you feeling sick again?”. “I’m ok, I didn’t get much sleep last night. I got caught up with the book I was reading”, he answered with his usual unfriendly tone. “Yeah, right” I answered back, rolling my eyes, and proceeded “Let me know if you need something before we get to the island”.  Left the control room and went back to my room.

I knew him well to know he hadn't slept because something was worrying him, and not because he was reading the old comic book of “Sora, the warrior of the sea against the evil Germa 66”. But hey, Law never shows any emotion besides annoyance if he is not sick.

A few hours later, the submarine got to the shore of some winter island, and we all got ready to accomplish our assigned tasks.  “Ok everyone, we will meet here at 7 pm, is that clear?” told my crew members, everybody agreed and headed to the island.

The temperature was pretty low, and it was snowing. Law was wearing the long black coat with yellow dots and our Jolly Roger that he used to wear at Punk Hazard, his hat and of course the Kikoku over his shoulder. I love when he wears warm clothing, he looks so cozy, hiding his mouth behind the collar. (He does it so his lips don’t get chapped with the cold breeze, haha).  I don't like to wear the boiler-suit when we get to explore islands, so I decided to wear a long yellow coat with a hood, also with our crew's Jolly Roger emblazoned on the left side of the chest.

We asked a few civilians where to find a pharmacy and headed to the destination following their instructions. Law didn’t say much during the walking, as he normally does.

The island seemed a little bit deserted, yet it had picturesque streets, full of colour that stand out from the snow.  It has cobbled lanes, some canals of crystallized water, there were wooden houses and shops with little lights that garnished their architecture giving the place a romantic aura. The scenery behind the city center included big snowed mountains and a big castle over one of the highest peaks.

I saw a boutique with some cute sweaters on display that caught my eyes and I wanted to try them on. “Law, would you mind if I enter here? I want to buy a new sweater.”, I said. Law looked at me and made a gesture with his hand as he was saying to go ahead.

While searching for the sweater I like on one of the clothing racks I saw through the shop window that a few kids approached the captain. The seller asked me if I needed some help, so I stopped looking at him and l directed my gaze to the girl in the shop. So, I forget about him.

After buying two cute pullovers, we continued walking through the picturesque streets.

When we finally arrived at the pharmacy shop, it seemed like it was closed, but the door was open, so we entered. I rang the bell over the counter and waited for someone to show up. Law walked in front of me and had his hand over his sword. I knew he was alert and trying to protect me even if he didn’t say a word. I didn’t think we could be in danger, yet he never fully relaxes when we are outside. After all, he is one of the most wanted pirates of our generation, so it's understandable he trusts no stranger.

After a minute or so, an old lady approached the counter from the inside of the store. She seemed a little weak and perhaps a little sick. She coughed, covering her mouth with a handkerchief, and then greeted us. “Good afternoon, how can I help you?”, she asked. Law handed her a list of supplies we needed, and we waited. “Oi, don’t you think she looks bad? I mean, she is probably sick, should I ask if she is ok?”, I told Law who gave me a disapproving sight. I rolled my eyes, and said, “Fiiiine…”, “You know that I hate you rolling your eyes at me, you did it yesterday and now too. Stop it.” I looked at him with an “excuse me?” face and while I was about to spit an insult to him the granny appeared. “I’m sorry, I put on the bag some of the supplies, but I don’t have everything you need. We are short on medicines'', she informed us and started coughing harder. “Excuse me, Mrs. Are you alright? are you sick?”, I asked as she seemed to lose composure from all the nagging coughing. Law, that hated when I don’t give a fuck about what he had just said, gave me the look of death. “Oh young lady, we are pretty much sick, a strange illness is hitting the island. Even the only doctor in town fell ill. The orphanage, though, is getting the worst part. All of the kids are bedridden”, as she said, the memories of Flevance and the amber lead disease hit me.

Law's expression changed to a more compassionate one and asked about the symptoms they were experiencing. He might be serious, he might not want to get involved in a lot of things, but he is a true doctor. And he can't let people die if he can help.

We decided to visit the orphanage in hopes of helping the sick people, so we asked the old lady to give us directions to it. She said it was pretty far from the city center and told us her husband would take us there with his cart.

"Thank you so much for offering your help, young doctors", said the old lady's husband that later told us his name was Gerald. The cart was pulled by two brown percheron horses that opened their way through the white landscape.

We had a small talk during the journey, until Gerald asked, "how long have you been together? Are you already married?". Despite the freezing cold weather, my cheeks turned to fire, and I could sense Law hiding his head even more into his coat and hat. Almost as if clarifying that we were no couple was a life or death situation I said, "WE ARE JUST BEST FRIENDS!". I realized I almost shouted and felt mortified. Gerald looked at us with a little smirk and kind eyes, excusing himself for the mistake.

A few minutes after we arrived at the orphanage. It took us almost 30 minutes to get there and the sun was starting to set on the horizon.

When we entered the place, the situation was worse than we thought. There were kids and adults lying on the ground, some of them shivering, others coughing while others were straight unconscious. A few nurses were working in order to maintain them, but the situation had clearly surpassed them.

Immediately Law and I started working. While I helped the nurses, Law used his ope ope no mi power to scan the bodies of the sick people.

We got to the conclusion that what they were suffering was a type of bacteria that caused the respiratory symptoms and the fever.

During our duty, there were times when our eyes interlocked, and we smiled at each other. I wouldn't say we like people suffering, but, we certainly enjoyed working to save lives together.

A few hours passed since we arrived there, the sun was already set, and outside it seemed as if a snowstorm was beginning. I've lost track of time until my portable Den Den Mushi started to ring. "Oi, y/n, where are you? Is Law with you? Are you alright? We've been waiting for you on the shore! It's 9 pm already and we were supposed to meet at 7!", shouted Shachi from the other side of the line. "Oh my God I'm sorry I forgot to tell you!... you see …" I explained to them what we've been doing and that we were probably not going to return to the submarine in a few more hours.

The kids and the other people began to get better and those who were helping there offered us some food that we accepted happily.

While we were having dinner, Gerald got back from outside, who's been in the forest collecting some firewood. He informed us that the weather was getting really bad so coming back to town would be pretty dangerous.

Law and I agreed that staying there for the night was the safer choice.

One of the nurses, Sister Alley, told us we could spend the night in the cabin next to the orphanage. "I'm really sorry guys, I wished we had a better place for you, we owe you so much. The cabin has a fireplace, Gerald would start a fire to keep you warm”, she said. We both smiled at her and thanked for it.

We walked some meters through the forest until we started to catch sight of a wooden cabin. Despite being a strong pirate, I’m the queen of the clumsy people, so I slipped off with what I assume was an ice patch on the already snowy ground. I was about to hit the ground when Law grabbed me by the waist and saved me from a few bruises. His face in front of mine, the feeling of being safe on his arms, I wished it has been eternal. But the romantic moment was destroyed by Law mocking me. “It must be the devil fruit; how come you are so clumsy? Be careful”, he said, and I told him to shut up, this time I wasn’t embarrassed, but I was almost angry at him.

“Here we are, let me help you with the fire”, Gerald said, opening the wood door that creaked as it moved. The inside felt cozy, there were a few cushions and pillows on the ground next to the fireplace. There were no separate rooms, so in the middle of the lounge there was some kind of mattress with a few blankets over it. Our “host” asked for forgiveness about the lack of separate beds, but Law intercepted him and said, “It’s ok sir, we are grateful to have a warm place to stay until tomorrow. If you need help with any patient during the night, just please tell us”. It might be ok for you, damn Law. Was I supposed to sleep with him? - I mean, I wanted to, but, he was still my best friend, and those thoughts should have been erased.

Gerald wished us a good night and returned to the main building.

I hung my coat and as I love to explore, I started to do so around the little wooden house. The kitchen seemed really equipped, so I grabbed a kettle and some cups. Gerald was kind enough to give us some tea bags, so I thought making some tea was a great idea.

Law was next to the fireplace, wearing only a sweater and his jeans. Apparently he has already hung up his coat and his white spotted hat. I saw him once more with a lost sight that seemed to contemplate the firewood.

Looking at him with my face resting on my arm that was over the breakfast nook, I got lost worshiping his profile. I’ve always adored his upturned nose, his spiky black hair, his facial hair, the contrast between his grey eyes and the tanned skin. How come he has always been so handsome, but I’ve never seemed to fully realize?.

The whistle of the kettle intensified as the water started boiling, but I was so into admiring my best friend's beauty that I didn’t notice. Law turned to me and woke me up from my reverie shouting “Oi, Y/N, the kettle!”. My stupid smile quickly erased from my face, and my whole skin turned red. “Sorry”, I said straight away and turned off the burner.

I served two cups, noticing that the tea has an amazing scent. I believe it was hibiscus mixed with some other spices, perhaps some cardamom and maybe a little hint of clover. The smell of the tea mixed with the slightly one from the logs burning, was wonderful.

I walked to where my captain was, “Here, I think you may like it”, I said and handed him a cup. Our fingers brushed softly when grabbed the tea, he looked at me and said “Thanks”. I sat not so near him over one of the cushions and sipped a little bit of my tea. Law looked at me and stood up from his place. I could sense how awkward he felt when he made a little pause, and then walked away.

Why is he leaving? Did I make him feel uncomfortable?, I asked myself trying to hide little stings of pain on my chest that traveled to my throat. Somehow I felt like crying, and when my eyes started to get slightly watery, Law approached me placing his hand over my right shoulder.

I turned my face to him, looking up with a slightly pouty face. I was about to cry, and I didn’t even know why when I noticed a blue little box on his hand.

He sat next to me and said, "Do you remember when we were 15?, that day when I gave you that necklace I made myself for your birthday? I looked at him confused but I answered, "yes, of course, I got it on my memory box, I'm afraid to wear it outside the polar cause it might get lost and I wouldn't forgive myself if I lose it". He was now looking at the little box moving it around nervously and finally said "I got you a better one". He handed me the little box still not looking at me.

"A present?? OMG Law, thank you very much!" When did you buy it??" I almost shouted in excitement while opening the box. Inside there was a fine rose gold necklace that has a little anatomical heart figure as a pendant. I grabbed it and admired the beauty of the jewelry I had in my hands. The heart had a little red stone crimped on it, that shined with every movement.

"Law, this is too much! It must have cost you a lot of Berries, I don't deserve such a fine jewel!, thank you so much", I expressed with a big smile on my face.

"You do deserve more than this, you know. I'm glad you like it", he said, a little embarrassed. “When you were buying the sweaters, I asked some children there if they knew a jewelry store, turned out it was just around the corner”, he confessed.

“Thank you so much, it is just perfect! You know how I adore hearts; they remind me of you.. “Doctor Heart Stealer”” I almost shouted, realizing I have said too much…

I tried to put it on my neck, but I couldn’t clip it right, so I asked him for help. He stood up, kneel at my back and passed from behind the necklace around my neck.

Some branches hit the window violently as they were suffering the merciless wind of the snowstorm outside.

He struggled a little and finally fastened the collar and when he did, the electric power went off. The fireplace was the only source of light, the dance of the fire created figures with shadows and highlights all around the walls of the cabin. We remained silent, maybe a little scared or even surprised, but enjoying the sound of the weather and the creak of the fire.

He was still behind me, and after a few seconds he placed a soft kiss on my back that sent a shiver through my spine. Once again I was unable to speak, did he… did he just kiss my back?.. Before I could say or do something Law stood up and headed to one of the windows. “The storm seems to be even worse than earlier; don’t you think?”, he said, trying to device something through the window.

I couldn’t focus on anything else than the kiss he softly planted on my nape, minutes ago.  He suddenly yawned and walked to the mattress that was in the center of the room, on the floor. He then took his jeans off and hopped inside the bed, naturally. I remained on my spot, contemplating his actions. “How could he be acting so normal?, I’m right here. He just gave me a necklace, kissed my skin and now he just goes to sleep?” I said to myself, still with a confused expression on my face.

“Oi, aren’t you coming to bed?”, he asked me, freely. “Yes… give me a second”, I said, and ran to the bathroom. The toilet was pretty tiny and basic, but enough for me to hide for a few minutes. “Come on, Y/N you slept with him two nights ago, it’s ok, he is like your brother, it’s ok…” I thought, trying to calm myself down.

I finally left my hiding place and headed to the mattress. Law was lying there, he took off his sweater, probably while I was in the bathroom, so he was only using a white tight undershirt, that molded his torso anatomy. Some blankets were covering the under part of his body from his hips. He had his forearm over his eyes, covering them with his neck stretched back.

I bite my lip, as a reaction for such a tempting scene. I was enjoying it, watching him breathe peacefully. I started feeling hot, so I took off the sweater but not my jeans and approached the “bed”.

I thought Law was already asleep, so I got in bed trying not to wake him up. I muffled myself up with the sheets. I remained still, hearing the snowstorm, fixing my eyes on the wooden ceiling, as the memories of my childhood flooded my mind. It must be the snowstorm, the wind, the cold that triggered these memories. eventually I fell asleep.

“No, stop it, my family, leave us alone!!!!”, I screamed. “Y/n-ya! Y/n-ya!, wake up!” said Law, pulling me out from the terrific oneiric world I was submerged in. I got lost into his eyes, and remained there with tears streaming from my eyes, rolling into my cheeks. Law was holding me close to his body around his arms. “Are you having those nightmares, again? why didn’t you tell me?”, he asked, worried. “This is the first time in ages, I think it must be the storm, perhaps the orphanage, the children…”, I expressed amid tears. My best friend brushed his tattooed fingers through my hair, moving it out of my face, and then wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“Oi, do you remember what happened when I gave you the first necklace?” he asked, trying to distract me. A feeling of warmth invaded my insides, suddenly I felt happy. “I do...” I said, laughing timidly, and continued, “It was my first kiss”. He smiled back at me, and said, “Mine too”.

For a second we both closed our eyes. I was grabbing the pendant with my left hand cherishing it and the memories of our younger days when we kissed for the first time. We haven't had much time to think about love while striving to survive so we forgot about it, letting the days, months and years pass, leaving the experience as a mere child’s play.

Suddenly we started laughing, Law didn't let go of me, and our faces were pretty close. “Everything's better when you laugh, I hate it when you cry, it makes me so sad…” he said, rubbing his thumb over my right cheek. I stopped laughing, as he got even closer. Almost as if the point of our noses were about to touch. I could feel the warmth of his breath over my lips, and he did too. My heart started racing, and the only thing I could hear was the blood pumping on my ears. I wasn’t moving, I wanted him to kiss me, I wanted to kiss him… I just didn’t care that he was my best friend, I just needed him to kiss me.  What is taking him so long? Why am I not moving if I wanted this more than anything?. After a good minute, that felt eternal, he exclaimed “Fuck it”, and plant the sweetest kiss over my lips. A feeling of happiness filled my insides, I’ve never been so joyful in ages, it felt the same way as the first time. I was like a teenage girl experimenting love for the first time. Both smiled still with our lips pressed. I doubted for a second if succumbing to my deepest desires was the right thing to do until he decided to turn the cute kiss into a more passionate one. From then on, the desire I’d been accumulating inside of me took control of my body…

We kept on kissing; Law slid a hand under my shirt timidly caressing the skin of my tummy. The kisses migrated from my mouth to my neck, mixed with little bites that surely would turn into hickies tomorrow.

“Law…” I gasped when his hands reached my breasts. “What?” he replied, whispering next to my ear and pinching one of my nipples in between two fingers…

Chapter 3

Ch1: Link

[mxgilray]

I... have some thoughts on the Loki finale. It was not what I was expecting, but I'm still hopeful for season 2.

This felt like a meh finale, like how a lot of season finales felt in Spring 2020 when they unexpectedly quit filming and had to cut things short by a couple episodes thanks to the pandemic. Only this was the planned out finale, they should've given a bit more oomph. I'm quite a fan of exposition and character development usually, but all the dialog was centered on He Who Remains, so it felt like our main characters were just side pieces.

Plus, the final "cliffhanger" of Mobius not knowing Loki and the statue of HWR replacing the Time Keeper statues felt quite lackluster. Not sure how they could've made it hit harder, but it didn't deliver the "oh shit" vibes they intended, but maybe that's cuz Mobius not remembering Loki has been an expected plot line on tumblr for half the season so it wasn't a blindside.

I get the point of the Sylki kiss. From what I've seen on tumblr so far I feel like the nuance of Sylvies actions was lost to most people (both Sylki fans and antis just Didn't Get It). It wasn't a big declaration of love like the fans are grasping onto it as, and it wasn't shoving selfcest into the canon to keep the heternormativity like antis are accusing it of being; it was Sylvie using Loki's attachment to her to trick him. She needed Loki out of her way, and she knew the only way to get past him and get He Who Remains' tempad was through emotional distraction. She used his love against him and betrayed him, a kiss was simply the most efficient way to do it. I did a whole post last week about Sylvie's feelings towards Loki, but to sum up I firmly believe that while Loki harbors some romantic feelings for Sylvie, she feels strictly platonic towards him, but is very aware of his attraction. She took advantage of his care for her to get the upper hand during their fight. Heck she even foreshadowed it herself in ep 5. "There are more important things than friends" "like taking down the TVA" she told Loki that taking down whoever is behind the TVA comes before everything; it's priority #1 in her book, above friendship or love or trust. Loki proved that his priority now is the greater good of the universe not her revenge, so Sylvie has no use for him anymore (partners only when it's convenient, because she is a Loki and that's how emotionally stunted Lokis behave).

I would like to point out the irony of her being worried about Loki betraying her, only to turn around and betray him. It's in the realm of "people who cheat assuming their partner is cheating" / "not using a turn signal when changing planes to avoid being cut off because when you see someone else use their signal you tend to cut them off", it's assuming other people will behave like you do. Sylvie feared in ep 5 that Loki would betray her in the end because she knew if it came down to it she'd betray him. But the thing is, he's actually grown past that. Loki is finally thinking about how his actions can damage others, not just his own wants and needs. Sylvie saw this moral change in Loki, realized there was no chance of getting him back on the blind revenge boat, and decided to exploit his newfound selflessness and emotional attachment to get him out of her path.

This whole season Loki has been maturing emotionally and growing into the best, most heroic version of himself. Sylvie, on the other hand, still has that deceptive, selfish, can't trust anyone persona that every Loki develops to combat insecurity. She hasn't had the emotional growth needed to see the bigger picture, she's still trapped in her own self centered mindset. As such, she disregards the impact her betrayal will have on Loki, the impact killing HWR will have on the universe. She doesn't even take a beat to consider whether revenge is still the right path cuz she doesn't practice self reflection yet; revenge has always been the goal and she refuses to give herself a chance of changing her mind. I hope in season 2 she'll get some character growth, now that her 1 goal has been accomplished.

Now on to Mobius. I enjoyed his scenes, I wish we'd been shown more of what he did to reveal the truth to the rest of the TVA. Again, I feel like too much time was given to HWR's monologing and not enough was spent on the other characters so Mobius and B-15 got very little screen time to display their plan. I am happy Mobius got the opportunity to throw Ranslayers betrayal back in her face, and his attemp at attacking her...my boy you work a desk job you ain't no fighter, she used to work in the field collecting variants, you had no chance. Also, where the F did she go??? I kept expecting her to show up at the end of time but she didn't. Where did Miss Minutes send her??

I'm sad Mobius doesn't know Loki anymore, but I can't say I'm surprised. I've got a few different thoughts on what the heck is going on with him and the TVA:

Sylvie accidentally sent Loki way back to a time early on in the TVA before HWR created the Time Keepers for anonymity. As such, this is a past Mobius who has yet to meet Loki or even learn of Loki's existence. If this is the case, then I think Loki and Past!Mobius's interaction at the end of ep 6 will be the catalyst for him becoming a Loki expert. The 63 branching timelines Mobius and B-15 are discussing before Loki interrupts are from some currently unknown disaster that'll be a plot line in s2. (This is my least favorite theory, but nevertheless a possibility)

HWR was correct when he said that if Sylvie kills him and destroys the TVA then another variant of him will just start it all up again. This variant didn't care to remain anonymous, hence the big statue of him, but kept all the memory wiped variants working there. Because time is a chaotic bitch, the changeover from one HWR variant to another may have been near seamless at the TVA and just involved a quick memory wipe of anything relating to the Time Keepers, Loki and Sylvie, or knowledge that the TVA are all variants. The 63 branches may be thanks to something Renslayer is doing like killing all the HWR variants in existence in order to negate the need for the TVA. The branching could also be from Sylvie's revenge still, we have no idea how much time has passed between her killing HWR and a new HWR taking over so the branching she caused could still be an issue.

There have actually been multiple TVAs running simultaneously, each in their own multiverse. Each one employs memory wiped variants, each one is in charge of a certain subset of timelines, and all work under the one HWR. Sylvie used HWR's tempad to eject Loki back to the TVA, but she accidentally sent him to the TVA of a different multiverse not realizing that's a Thing. The 63 branching timelines Mobius and B-15 are discussing are indeed from Sylvie killing HWR, but there's only 63 as opposed to the countless we saw diverging from Sylvie's perspective because this TVA only sees branches on timelines within their own multiverse. Mobius doesn't know Loki because he isn't our Mobius and in the multiverse he works in maybe Loki's aren't as much of an issue because none of them ever escaped the TVA like Sylvie did (or none of them have Tom's face so he doesn't recognize him as a Loki). If this is the case, then Loki is gonna have to find his way back to his own multiverse in order to be reunited with his Mobius, and that could end up happening thanks to Renslayer. Miss Minutes gave her a file that I suspect only HWR should have access to. Maybe it was tempad coordinates for other multiverses? It took til the 31st century for the multiverses to be connected despite Tony figuring out time travel in the 21st century because travel between universes is much harder, maybe HWR is still the only one who knows how to do that. (If this theory is correct then all the time travel done during Endgame was through timelines within one multiverse) Also just thought of this but what if the reason there are so many extreme variations of loki that grew to adulthood is because the criteria of "sacred timeline" is different in each multiverse. Classic Loki and maybe President Loki and Kid Loki are from the same universe as MCU Loki, but red haired Loki, Croki, Boastful Loki, etc are all from other universes. Think about it, Classic Loki, 2012 Loki, and MCU Loki all have an exact identical path up until their nexus event (or death in MCU Loki's case). I think other than identifying as female, Sylvie's childhood was identical as well and that her nexus event was coming to terms with her adoption as a child, which erased the catalyst of 2011 Thor's plot and would've changed everything for her future path. Had her adoption remained a secret and she grew up on asgard, I believe her story would mirror MCU Loki's. It mildly hit me weird that there would be such wild variation amongst Lokis, even with him being a shapeshifter, because there's a rigid sacred timeline (that supposedly the MCU movies have all adhered to) and they all felt like too big of a divergence to have been left unchecked so long. If boastful Loki was telling the truth about getting all 6 infinity stones then he should've triggered a nexus event as soon as he got more than the 3 he is "supposed to" interact with, unless in his multiverse the sacred timeline criteria is different. Another theory: the agents employed in each TVA are from multiverses other than the one they're working in. It would make sense, keep them from running into their own past by fully detaching each agent from their home timeline/universe. So the Principal!Renslayer that B-15 found will never in any future become the TVA judge we know. The one we know maybe came from the universe Loki got sent to, and that's how the two of them will end up crossing paths again.

[myundeadgayson]

DC Street Racing AU — Bart Allen’s Backstory

alright, i know practically nothing about cars. i’ve also never even seen a Fast and the Furious movie, but SOMEONE has gotta fill the void on lack of DC Street Racing AUs, and i’m gonna do it. (if there are some out there though, please let me know! i can barely find ANYTHING, and i’d love to see stuff for this kind of AU!)

so,,, i’m just saying,,, the Teen Titans and Young Justice Crews as Street Racers.

we’ll start off with the characters that sent me into this spiral in the first place: Bart Allen and Wally West.

again, i know practically nothing about this kind of stuff. i know nothing about street racing, or cars, but i’m just saying… i really love imagining Street Racer!Wally being Bart’s inspiration for wanting to race.

even though Iris was never approving of Wally’s racing (she’s supportive, but extremely concerned for his safety), Wally would occasionally bring Bart along to the races that he’d have with friends. sometimes Bart would sneak his way into going without Wally realizing, but either way, Bart would come along.

after years of growing up and watching Wally race, Bart decided he wanted to race too. (note: to save myself a headache since this is No Powers AU and Time Travel doesn’t take place, we’re just gonna pretend that Barry and Iris adopted Bart. i want to say that his parents were close family members of Iris and Wally. perhaps one of the parents was another cousin of theirs, but both Bart’s parents ended up dying in some sort of accident. since then, Bart’s been living with Barry, Iris, and their newly born twins.)

i have so much more to say about this AU, but i want to warn you because this is about to be a VERY long post. however, if you wanna know Bart Allen’s Street Racer AU backstory and more about Wally (and his racing group, The Titans), please read more!

      (TW: small car accident — completely non-graphic, no injuries involved, everything is okay, but it does happen)     Bart’s been interested in racing for YEARS. ever since he was a kid, he’s always craved to know what it’s like — to feel the wind in your hair, the rush of adrenaline in your veins, the feeling of your heart racing as you watch the speedometer go up and up and up. the exhilaration filling your lungs as some part of you realizes “this is dangerous”.

he wants those feelings. he wants that experience that makes Wally’s eyes light up like there’s pure lightening rushing through his veins.

he wants to go Fast.

when Bart was thirteen, Wally let him sit in the driver’s seat for the first time.

Wally didn’t let him drive it, of course. Bart wasn’t tall enough yet to reach the petals even if he wanted to, but he was excited nonetheless. Wally had laughed at him as he grinned, asking how to work everything.

the car wasn’t on — Wally wasn’t dumb enough to give him even the slightest chance of trying to start it. it was a good choice. Bart would be a liar to say that he wouldn’t have instantly tried to drive it. instead, Wally let Bart mess with the gears and pretend he was in a race of his own. he’d adjust the mirror to try to see himself. he was too short to fully be seen in it, but if he sat up tall enough he could see his eyes.

years later, Bart would do the same. he’d look into his reflection and see his eyes, sparkling with that same determination that he had all those years ago.

Wally had explained everything to him. Bart started off by eagerly pointing at things (like the gear, the numbers, and all the weird symbols he could see) and ask questions, and Wally would answer every one. Wally explained other things too, like what made Wally’s special car better for racing than some random car. Bart hung on every word, trying his best to imagine all the pieces, even if he didn’t know what some were at all. he tried to commemorate every bit of information to memory bc maybe one day, he could make himself a cool car too.

the first time Bart actually drove a car was a disaster.

he was barely fourteen. it was hardly even a few months after Wally had verbally explained to him how to work a car.

no one expected him to put that knowledge to use so quickly.

somehow he got ahold of Iris’ keys. he would never explain how he got him (they were RIGHT THERE on the counter. how was he supposed to say no when they made it so easy?), but somehow it happened.

his joyride didn’t last long enough. for a short moment though, he was beyond excited to be beyond the wheel. after lots of adjusting the seat and awkwardly shuffling to sit as close to the wheel as possible to be able to see over the hood, Bart started to drive.

he managed to get down the street. he was a little slow at first. the car wobbled in an unsteady line as it trudged down the road at barely 10mph. Bart’s eyes flickered constantly between the road and the mirror, his small hands gripping the wheel like a lifeline.

the anxiousness he felt subsided as he reached the end of the neighborhood. there was no sign of Iris in sight, and he managed to drive just fine. stunned laughter bubbled from his lips as his eyes flickered back down to the road ahead— he was doing it! he was really doing it! he was driving!

with a newfound confidence urging him on, he turned onto a connected street to keep going. he started pressing on the gas pedal more, trying to gain some speed. the car started going from a slow crawl to a decently safe speed. Bart started pressing down on it harder and harder, going faster and faster. he remembered laughing in delight. the windows were cracked halfway, allowing the air to rush in. it tousled his hair, and for a moment he felt like he was flying.

until he wasn’t.

he hadn’t really considered the thought of other cars. he hadn’t considered a lot of things actually, such as the fact it was the middle of the day and people would be driving.

he didn’t crash into anyone, but it was a close call. when he started getting closer to the main road and noticed the cars zooming across, he panicked.

he hit the brakes. he did what Wally said. he didn’t slam them, but he was still going too fast. the cars were getting closer! Bart pressed his foot door harder and finally, stomped on the brakes altogether.

he yanked the wheel away from the road, shutting his eyes tight.

the wheels spun. he went off the road into the grass, tire skidding rough tracks across the grass and dirt. he didn’t hit a car, but he did hit the stop sign at the end of the street.

it was a miracle he didn’t get hurt, or worse. he ended up a bit banged up hitting the wheel and the seatbelt yanking too tight, but he was overall fine. unfortunately, Iris definitely wasn’t happy.

Bart didn’t drive for a long while after that.

occasionally, Wally would still take him on drives though.

some of Bart’s best memories are riding in the passenger seat late at night. along barren backroads and empty highways, Wally would race through the streets. with the windows rolled down, the two of them would laugh, voices carried through the wind that whipped their hair like reckless flames.

under the passing lights, Bart would grin wide and holler his excitement into the night sky without a care in the world.

the world would need to try pretty hard to catch them.

Bart would also get to attend a few of Wally’s races. it isn’t as often as he used to with Iris and Barry watching him more closely, but he still got to go some times.

he’d only really watch Wally race against friends.

they called themselves the Titans. Wally said the name wasn’t planned, it just happened to stick. Bart assumed it was more because as time went on, they really did become like the titans to beat if you wanted to prove yourself as a racer.

it was who made up the team that once surprised him.

Dick Grayson, Wally’s best friend of many years and infamous son of Gotham’s Bruce Wayne, was the unofficial leader of the group. The Dick Grayson, with his car as dark as the night. the darkness of the car was only disrupted by a few brilliant blue decals. the most memorable one was always the striking blue silhouette of a bird on the hood. (“Nightwing,” Dick affectionately called the car.)

Koriand’r, an incredibly kind woman with hair that was almost more fiery than Bart’s own. her car was a vibrant purple with flames racing along the sides as if it’d caught fire. (“they call me Starfire”, she told him once when caught him fawning over the car, awed as ever. “i like to imagine that if i drive just fast enough, i can see flames.”)

Victor Stone, who indulged all his questions and answered every single one with the same enthusiasm. he’d lost an arm to an accident, but replaced it with an amazing cybernetic one. his designed his own car to have similar robotic style. incredibly futuristic and constantly updated with the best parts he could find. (“someone called me Cyborg,” Victor told him once while working on the car. he let Bart sit in the garage with him, occasionally offering whatever help he could. “i think it was an insult at first, but the name sort of stuck, kind of like with the Titans. so i made it my own.”)

and at last, Garfield Logan, the youngest of the group. with his dark green hair and toothy smile, Garfield was always quick to make him feel welcome and make him laugh with an endless amount of dumb jokes. his charisma and bright personality showed in his car. like his hair, it was a deep green. when he turned it on, the underneath glowed a neon green. black pawprints walked along the sides towards the end of the car. (“they’re actually tiger pawprints,” Gar corrected him once, looking excited as ever to explain. “there’s a few other animals too. i wanted it to look like the animals were really here, or like maybe i’m the animal? i dunno. i told everyone to call me Beast Boy, so i guess this would be my beast.”) they had another friend, Raven, that never raced with them. dressed in black with dark hair that he swore shone purple in certain lights, Raven was much more quiet and reserved than the rest of the group. Bart enjoyed her rare company, despite it being more of a companionable silence. he’d take it none the less. sometimes if Bart was able to hang out with Wally and the group outside of racing nights, he’d occasionally he’d bring along homework, a book, or a comic to read if Wally was meant to be busy at some point. he’d end up hanging out in one of their apartments while they were busy, and sometimes Raven would be there. they’d quietly read in each other’s company, never having to say a word. he’d asked Wally once why she didn’t race too. Wally had only laughed. (”we’re lucky that she doesn’t,” Wally told him, “if Raven raced, we’d all be doomed, trust me. you should never underestimate her.” Bart figured that meant that Raven was an undeniable part of the group too. he hoped he’d see her race one day.)

all of them were amazing, but Bart was a little stunned by each of them had their own unique style. they all had their own story and reason for being inspired to race. the one thing they all shared though was that same spark in their eyes Wally had.

needless to say, Bart would try to spend as much time with them as possible to try and learn from them.

his dream was to race, but his other dream was now to become just like them. he wanted to be a Titan.

he was too young at that time, but he would aim to prove that he could be good enough to join them one day. he would be a Titan.

or at least, he’d be close enough to being a Titan, he’d decide upon meeting a few other faces around his age, but that’s a story for another day.             ...and that’s all we have for now, folks!

if you’re wondering why i chose only those Teen Titans, i didn’t want to make the group too big. i originally considered the OG Young Justice group, but found that i really wanted to save Superboy (Conner Kent, my beloved) to be apart of Bart’s friend group later. (not to mention, i REALLY wanted to talk about Street Racer! Kori existing in this AU. Beast Boy’s another favorite that i just HAD to include, thus we have the animated Teen Titans team, just with Wally and Dick having the same kind of friendship as kids like in YJ.)

let me know if you want any more from his idea! i’d love to know what you guys think of all this so far. if you ever want me to talk about anyone in particular, please feel free to ask! i’d totally be up to come up with more ideas! i’d also love to know if anyone has any thoughts about other characters might be like from this AU!

i really just came up with all this on the fly, but i’m honestly becoming attached to this AU already, so i’d be more than excited to talk more about it!

thanks for reading!!

[pridewhatpride]

"rival"

There you are. You. Asking for a GX Rivalshipping drabble with 'Rival' as a keyword. Here you go. I hope you're happy ;; The length is around 2k words.

Special thanks to @deadkura for proofreading, but I note that any and all mistakes are on me. They were just... my poor lab rat. Apologies, my friend.

That aside, there are no warnings that need to be given, this is light-hearted in tone. Nobody dies and nobody gets hurt, aside from Shou who happens to be there at some point and just succumbs to the need to get on with some semblance of a plot.

... It's on Ao3 because why not. Here.

The story is below the cut! Enjoy (or don't)!

____ ____ ____

Manjoume could vaguely remember the first time he’d watched the Battle City recordings. He couldn’t remember when it had been exactly, but he did know he’d been at a classmate’s house with a bunch of other kids. He had a faint memory of being pressed up against other children, all of them shouting and cheering along as the duel between Seto Kaiba and Yugi Mutou came to a roaring end.

… It had been noisy. And he’d found himself mildly annoyed. Not that the duel didn’t have him on the edge of his seat- quite the opposite. He was completely mesmerised by the unforgiving tornado of grace that was Seto Kaiba, most of all. Perhaps that was why he’d found the others to be so bothersome in that specific instance. It seemed very rude to him that they would take him out of the experience with their screams. Was that fun? Was it supposed to be fun? Was he simply out of the loop? Should he have been screaming, too?

The thing he could recollect with a surprising amount of clarity was some kid who’d grabbed his arm to get him off the couch. To this day, he still had no clue what his name was.

“Jun! Come on, I want to play Yugi! You can be Kaiba!”

He remembered muttering something about the suggestion being extremely stupid. The kid wasn’t Yugi Mutou and neither of them possessed any Duel Monsters cards. What was the point of just replicating what they had just watched on screen? They could just… rewatch the scene. But the kid had seemed to be very set on the idea and when Manjoume looked around to see expectant looks on the others’ faces, he ended up giving in. He remembered thinking something along the lines of: ‘Why me?’ And even in retrospect, it made very little sense. He’d never played with this specific kid before. He was a friend of a friend- or a friend of someone he thought was a friend at the time.

“Why do I have to do this?” He had ended up asking, not hiding any sign of his annoyance. “Because you’re like Kaiba!” “I am?” “Yeah! You always say mean things like him! And Taro says you’re like… super rich.”

The rest was a bit of a blur, but he remembered being the ‘Kaiba’ of the group, for as long as it lasted. Which wasn’t a very long time, admittedly. But it had been the one and only ‘friend group’ he’d found himself being a part of, up until he’d entered the dueling circuits, when people started sucking up to him either because of his early successes or just to see what could be squeezed out of the youngest of the Manjoume brothers.

Reminiscing about things like that was… weird, to say the least. He wondered why he’d been that stuck up, even as a kid. He just couldn’t figure out what exactly had made him believe that acting like he was above everyone else could get him anywhere at all. Of course he was aware of the futility of the act, now that he’d grown up and a few years had passed, but it turned out that knowing something on a rational level does not, in fact, equal being able to put it into practise.

… He knew why he was doing what he was doing, anyways. It had stopped being meanness for the sake of being mean when he knew he could get away with it and had stepped into habit territory. And he hadn’t been allowed to go to Duel Academy so that he could make friends who shared the same hobby. He had imagined that 3 years could go by in the blink of an eye if he got involved as little as possible. All that mattered was winning duels, right? And the last thing he needed in order to do that was to start caring about his opponent’s feelings, really.

The thing he hadn’t really considered was that, maybe, his winning streak wouldn’t last forever. He should have known that the outcome of a duel did not depend entirely on how driven one was. It was still fucking annoying to have to see everyone’s surprised- no, incredulous faces upon seeing him finally defeated. Finally, yes. Clearly people had been waiting for nothing more than to see him brought to his knees. It turned out they had firmly believed he had no actual merits outside of his family connections. They had their long-awaited confirmation. He’d lost a single fucking duel. Obviously he was nothing but a blowhard.

Well, good. Whatever. He couldn’t have cared less.

What did infuriate him, however, were the words that the idiot who’d defeated him had exclaimed, entirely unaware of the fact that he’d just completely crushed everything Manjoume had tried to build for himself.

“That was a fun duel! We have to do this again some time!”

He hadn’t cared to stay behind to listen to anything else the other had to say. The guy clearly hardly had a clue where he was or what he was studying to become. Who had allowed that moron to smile like that while trampling his pride? How the fuck had Manjoume let himself be defeated by someone like that?

May the fucker go to hell. Him and his dumb red uniform. Everyone in the Academy. They could fucking die for all he cared. And Manjoume would have probably laughed at the sight.

He really thought he would have. And yet.

As he was going over his deck, sitting with his back against a tree, doing his best to avoid anyone and everyone, he heard footsteps approaching, accompanied by two voices he felt he knew.

“Aniki, I still can’t believe you beat that guy- he’s an Obelisk Blue- and the top ranking first year at that!” … Is this- “He is? Well, that checks out, he was pretty tough.” That’s- Yuki Judai. No doubt about it. “But you beat him.” … Because that needed to be pointed out, how insightful. “Doesn’t everyone lose at least once?” No. “Not against Osiris Red students!” Exactly. “… Why does that even matter in the first place?” It just fucking does, asshole. “Because! A top student isn’t supposed to lose against just anyone, Aniki! I don’t think he took that well.” … Who the fuck would. “Why, though. He didn’t duel poorly or anything. We were pretty evenly matched, there shouldn’t be shame in that.” “Doesn’t that just make it worse?” “… Does it?”

He’d known they were about to pass him, but didn’t bother getting up or making it look like he hadn’t heard anything. He’d clearly been right about this Yuki guy. A complete idiot who clearly understood nothing of what it meant to be a duelist. He glared at the two as they walked by.

… Ah, so the other was Marufuji. A failure younger brother, much like him. How ironic. The boy looked absolutely devastated to see him, too. What, wasn’t expecting the woods to have ears, eyes and a blue uniform?

He furrowed his eyebrows as Yuki abandoned his carefree walking posture, disentangling his fingers from behind his nape and letting his arms drop to his sides. And then proceeded to point straight at him, as if he’d just seen a mythological creature prancing about. Tch.

“It’s Manju!”

… Was that supposed to be a joke? Why was his first thought that that would make for an awful pet name?

After a second of silence, he decided there would be no harm in responding as he usually would to his name being tossed around improperly. “It’s Man-jou-me,” he corrected, making it a point to hold a hand up to count the three syllables as he spelled them out. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not actually food.”

Marufuji’s hands shot up to cover his face, at least he had the decency to be embarrassed for his friend. … But Yuki just laughed. “What! My name isn’t so forgettable that you’d just mistake it for dessert, asshole!” And laughed harder. “I-“ he paused to catch his breath. Manjoume looked on, entirely unimpressed. Hopefully. “Look- look, I’m not the best with names, I didn’t-“ a loud exhale. “I didn’t mean to make fun of you, I swear.” “… Sure you didn’t.” He tried to keep his voice as hostile as he could. But he… couldn’t fully bring himself to shut the guy down. He supposed his laughter was just contagious.

“Glad that’s settled!” He turned around to face a barely still present Marufuji. “See, Shou? The guy isn’t so bad!” Ah. Right. It had almost slipped his mind. “Aniki- please, I get it, there is no need-!”

“I’ll be winning the next one, anyways,” he said as he got up. And that, apparently, was enough to get both boys to gape uselessly. For half a second. Because before anything else could be said, Yuki shot him a thumbs up and a wide smile. “I’m counting on it, Manjoume!” He couldn’t stop himself from smirking back.

It didn’t take long for rumours to spread about a supposed rivalry between himself and Yuki Judai. It turned out that most off the students of the Academy had very little to do aside from gossiping about such things, which was honestly just a disappointment. Perhaps that was why Judai ended up growing on him, despite everything. While he wasn’t necessarily serious or studious by any means, he was… passionate. He meant it when he said that he was looking to have fun and, to an extent, it was admirable. Enjoy the game no matter the outcome. Easier said than done. But in a sense it was… pleasant to get along with and play against someone who was so different from him.

On one specific evening, they had ended up staying out, discussing strategies and dispensing sarcastic advice- or at least that was what Manjoume was doing. Judai actually seemed quite intent on asking how he’d built his deck and why he’d chosen certain card combos rather than others. They had had a match a few hours prior and Manjoume had surprised him with some new faces. Manjoume Jun was a lot of things and predictable wasn’t one of them. And if the way Judai’s face lit up whenever he pulled a surprise play was anything to go by… it was clearly a trait he appreciated immensely, which it was something that made him swell up with pride. To the point where, when switching out cards, he would often find himself thinking about what Judai’s reaction would look like upon the big reveal of his new strategy.

“It’s always my pleasure to be your lab rat, Manjoume.” The response came in the form of a light shove. “Oh shut up, I like testing out things and, clearly, so do you.” Judai’s laugh rang out, light and unintrusive. “You’re right about that, at least.”

They spent some minutes silently studying eachother’s decks. Manjoume had been about to comment on the card ratio, before Judai blurted out something that made him forget all about it. “We’re kind of like Yugi and Kaiba.” And then a necessary addition, judging by the urgency in his voice. “If they had been actual friends, that is.” … Huh. One of his eyebrows shot up. “Don’t tell me it’s because you win most of the times and I’m a stuck up asshole who also happens to be rich.” Judai laughed, as he always did. And it was only fair that after being shoved earlier he’d playfully punch Manjoume’s shoulder. “That could be one way to look at it, I guess.”

A small pause followed. And the increase in intensity of the sound of shuffling cards suggested that Judai was… nervous. “What I meant to say is that we’re rivals. Like them.” Majoume scoffed, without any actual bite, his eyes set on a Polymerisation copy. “That isn’t specific to them. Isn’t it just… normal? To have someone you want to defeat, I mean?” “Hah, so you admit I’m the role model you’re striving to overcome!” “I didn’t say anything of the sort, dumbass.” “… Well, for me… playing with you keeps the game fun.”

Manjoume actually looked away from the Elemental Heroes he’s been adamantly staring at. He turned to face Judai, who seemed to have been looking his way for some time.

He would do that a lot. Make a joke, get a snarky reply and immediately say something serious afterwards. What an idiot.

Fun he said, huh? “Not that it isn’t fun in and of itself, but it’s different, I guess. I find that I actually do want to win, when I’m up against you.” Judai’s hand moved to play with his bangs. “I didn’t think I’d ever think twice about a lost duel, but I… kind of do, now.”

“Oh yeah, sorry- Welcome to the magical world of normal people who don’t necessarily win every single time.” “You speak like I’m not the only one who’s beaten you.” “So do you, asshat.” Judai’s expression morphed back into a smile. “It’s refreshing to have a genuine challenge. If you were to quit I would probably lose my interest in playing, too.”

Ah. That part of the Yugi-Kaiba rivalry. He felt like he started to understand.

“Keep dreaming, Judai. I’m not quitting anytime soon. I vowed to never let you off the hook.”

He thought of what he could or should say next. A part of him suggested: ‘You make it fun for me, too.’ That wasn’t in his style, however.

“But I have to agree. I’d get really bored if winning were to become too easy. You’ll die before I allow you to quit, Judai.”

[bertyose]

L’manburg curse au

part two i guess???

just some info if/how other ppl find out about the curse, honestly hardly anyone notices it but once tubbo goes down his road of insanity a few people start to wonder if there is some sort of link between all the presidents and being insane.

(( this au is basically that L’manburg is cursed so that the leaders of the country is foced to go into a road of insanity, they become crazy and corrupted, that basically leads them to their deaths so that the country can kind of “consume” their soul and then they are forced to be ghosts for the rest of eternity ))

Tommy

tommy was with wilbur until the very end. He watched how different he’d look every morning they would wake up in pogtopia. Those days and nights in the revine were probably the worst weeks tommy has ever went through. He instantly knew something wasnt right with wil, that he clearly wasnt himself but no matter what tommy did or said wilbur wasn’t having any of it. He refused any of tommys help so he just ignored it. He pretended his brother was okay like he said he was, he acted as if everything was normal just so he could cary on trying to bring his home back.

Looking back on it now tommy knows he messed up. He knows that wasnt the best thing to do, he knows that ignoring the problem isnt going to make it go away. So when he first saw the same daranged, crazed look in tubbo’s eyes tommy tried a lot more harder this time. He constantly kept checking up on tubbo, trying to make his life a little easier by taking on his jobs. he’d kept telling him that he was there for him, always showing him a reassuring smile with a gentle hand on the shoulder. Tommy tried to do everything he thought he did wrong with Wilbur, because he couldn’t lose tubbo to the same maddness that infected his brother. Because it was just maddness, right? it couldnt be anything else. It had to have been too much pressure on their backs, lack of sleep or maybe an obsession over the tiniest thing. There was no other explanation that fitted these scenes. It has to be something that they can easily fix, that Tubbo can quickly overcome with the help of friends and family. Because Tommy doesnt know what he can do if it isnt...

Quackity

Quackity could never really say he knew wilbur that well. He got to spend some enjoyable times with him and tommy before the election. He cherished those happy memories. But apart from that he only knew him from the debate rooms or election podium. Or from the stories tubbo and fundy would share in their manburg days. So when Quackity saw the crazy man in front of him, after he escaped manburg, he was lost for words. He was confused and shocked. It was kind of amusing though. From all of those stories he expected a smart, cheerful, charismatic leader, yet infront stood a erratic lunatic. Apart from that, quackity didnt really think too much about it.

Quackity got to know schlatt quite well. At first he enjoyed his company, he laughed at his stories and agreed with the way he was running the country. However things very quickly turned sour. Things went downhill so fast that it was kind of hard to tell. Their relationship became toxic and schlatt started to be quite manipulative. Again, he didnt have a lot of time to process of think about the sudden change in characteristics, he had too much on his plate. He focused so hard to staying on schlatts good side, mainly out of fear most of the time. He’d hated to have gotten into the crossfire of his new drunken hatred. That was the last thing on Quackitys to do list.

Fundy

now fundy is probably one of the only ones to have been there first hand to see the presidents fight with the curse. Quackity was kind of but he didnt really know wilbur that well enough to see his true side before effected by the curse.

Now we all know fundy and Wilbur didnt have the b e s t father, son relationship. But it started off okay.? The moment Fundy joined pogtopia he couldn’t really recognise his dad. At first he thought it was the nerves of being regected and sent back to schlatt. But as the off feeling didnt leave he knew wilbur was different. He tried to ask Tommy but he just said Wil was fine. He tried to ask techno, tubbo and niki but niki just ignored him, techno just shrugged and tubbo was just confused. He thought it could of just been in his head but Wilbur got worse and so more people noticed. Fundy realised it was far too late before the others did, he knew there was no chance of reason. He knew Wilbur was already deep down into a black hole and that there was nothing to do apart from sitting back and to just watch. And he hated that.

Fundy spent the first half of the manburg era trying to get into schlatts goodbooks. However at first fundy truly did believe schlatt could do something good. From his very first speech he was excited for the new future for his country. But that excitement quickly died down the moment schlatt went down his spiral of pain. He saw how schlatt infected his veins with poison. He saw how vile and venemous the goat quickly became. He expienced the worse of it the moment quackity fled. He was alone with the insane president. Good news for pogtopia, bad news for fundy. At this point fundy only had hate towards this man. He believed he was always like this deep down, that his heart was a rotten apple. He had no suspicion of anything, whatso ever.

Fundy always considered Tubbo as one of his friends. The two of them thought against dreamons together, so of course they had a small lil bond. He was happy to see the country grow with the boy, relieved that his home was now in safe hands. Fundy enjoyed working along side quackity, tommy and tubbo. He enjoyed his job and the environment around. However there was still tension in the air left from the war involving technoblade. Everyone could feel it. Fundy noticed tubbo feeling a little stressed out, he tried his best trying to help his friend, giving him distractions every now and then. Tubbo didnt really appreciate it though. He was convinced Fundy was trying to sabotage him in some way. He was sure Fundy was up to no good. So as Tubbo became meaner, much more paranoid and obbsesive other his enemes he became more isolated ignored everyones input.

Fundy saw the new way tubbo looked it him, with fury and disgust. He was distraught when Tubbo ripped away his power, claiming him to be “untrustworthy” and a “traitorous spy”. He was lost for words when tubbo kicked him out of the land, banning him from his home. It was at that instant he knew that wasn’t his friend right then. He hated whatever had plauged the young boy and he just knew that something was causing the rise of insanity in L’manburg. And so as a dreamon hunter, it was his duty to hunt down and exterminate the problem.

Dream

well you see, the funny thing with dream is that he is fully aware with what is going down in L’manburg

Dream knows and see all, he’s addicted to chaos and destruction. He’d do anything to see people explode into insanity, especially his enemies. But how does dream know about the curse?

What the fuck did you do dream?

i’ll probably go into niki, phil, techno and maybe dream and a few others next time. I really also wanted to go into m a s s i v e detail about tubbos curse fun. cant wait to spill that all out. anyways, i hoped you enjoyed!! All of the art and fanfics you guys have created is just so so so good! oh my god you guys are super talented! wow ,,

oh god, i just realised that i didnt write quackitys expirence with cursed tubbo. whoops, sorry about that! i’ll write about it in the next part!!

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Today in Strongly Worded Opinions (That You Didn't Ask For), I'm going to assert that there are too objective ways to measure whether or not a relationship is strong in story terms – by which I mean, unrelated to whether or not readers/viewers personally like the dynamic or the chemistry of the actors (in such cases as there are actors involved).

So for the sake of clarity, be ye advised: this isn't about shipping, fuck it, ship whatever you want idc.  Shipping a strong relationship isn't inherently better than shipping a weak one – heck, you could just as easily argue that it's the lazier, less creative route.  Also, I don't care?  I don't care, it's just fandom.  Follow your arrow.  This is about ways to discuss whether or not a relationship introduced into a text succeeds or fails as an element of the story – or really as I'm going to prefer calling it, if a given relationship forms a strong or weak story element.

For this I'm presuming that you're creating a relationship between a protagonist and a secondary character introduced as a piece of the protagonist's overall story – protagonist/protagonist relationships aren't really a different situation, but they do have more moving parts, so for simplicity's sake, let's   stick with a Main Character (we'll call that M) and a Significant Other (S for short).  Also, these relationships by no means have to be romantic; any relationship can be measured as weak or strong in story terms.

Also, I'm going to say everything here as though it were factually true, even though it's just my opinion, which is correct, but if you disagree then it's only my opinion, but I am correct.  Ready?  Okay!

Strong relationships have story functions; in reality nothing means anything and people just like each other because they do, but fuck reality, it's a huge narrative mess.  And my basic premise here is that the story function of a strong relationship falls under one (or more, if you wanna get real fancy) of these three categories:

The relationship can unlock under-explored elements of M's story or character through mirroring or intimacy (often shows up as “friends to lovers”).  There is backstory that hasn't been unearthed yet, or some reaction or experience in M's life that could advance the story, and S can serve as a means to get at it.  Maybe M and S share a similar trauma or life story; maybe S is the first person M feels able to open up to about something profound and relevant.  Maybe part of M's story is a conflict between how they seem to others and how they see themselves or their own potential; maybe S is the person who sees them the way they see themselves...or sees M as the person they're afraid they'll never be.  The story goal being met here is giving M a boost toward successful completion of their story arc, so even though there could be conflict, S is fundamentally pulling on the same side as M in the major story conflicts, in such a way that by the end, the reader should feel like M's success is at least in part because of what they gain from their relationship with S.

The relationship can function as a piece of the story's overall conflict, or as a secondary subplot conflict (often shows up as “enemies to lovers”). Traditional romance novel plotting effectively slots the love interest into the role of “antagonist,” because the romance's conflict is generally driven by people not getting what they want from each other until certain win conditions are met.  In this kind of relationship, M and S might be actual-facts competitors, or be divided by ideological concerns, or they might be forced into proximity by the plot but clash on some personality level.  The arc of this relationship is typically going to be about the M softening up as the relationship develops – if M starts out ruthlessly single-minded, maybe realizing that they're running roughshod over S in the process is part of their character breakthrough; if the story is about M realizing that they've underestimated the complexity of the world around them, maybe coming to recognize S as an equal is how that gets concretized for the reader.  Basically this is a story where S presents a problem that M has to solve, and the more central to the narrative solving that problem is, the stronger the relationship is.

The relationship can serve to divide M's goals (often shows up as “love versus duty”).  This is a story where M has to accomplish two separate things in order to fulfill their arc, but those two things aren't easily integrated. One of M's goals might be fulfilling a vow, or filial duty, or seeking revenge, and the other goal is some form of protecting or obtaining S.  If the story puts M in a position of having to choose, then the relationship is inherently strong; it's providing narrative drive, whether or not S is especially well-developed as an individual character.  This one can be tricky, because a very weak relationship can serve a superficially similar purpose, by demonstrating M's devotion to duty or obsessive pursuit of whatever when M rebuffs S to keep them out of harm's way or to avoid distraction or whatever. The difference is that in those superficial cases, the audience is meant to recognize that aw, that's sad, M has really had to Make Sacrifices – but there's really no dramatic tension involved; we know all along that M is going to Make Sacrifices in purusit of the real goal.  When this is done seriously with a strong relationship, the audience is meant to feel divided as well; Romeo and Juliet just doesn't work as a story unless the audience likes Juliet and Mercutio, unless they fully identify with the dilemma that Romeo is in when he has to either avenge Mercutio's death or spare Tybalt for Juliet's sake and the sake of their future together. That's a big fucking story moment, and it only works because the audience buys both relationships – Romeo's with Mercutio and with Juliet – as narratively strong, to the point where Romeo's choice is not a forgone conclusion.  This one is much easier to get wrong, I think, than the other two are!

What I'm saying here is that a strong relationship isn't really determined by how personally compatible two characters seem to be; a lot of movies that fridge a character's wife, for example, rely on actors convincingly portraying, in a brief window of time, two compatible people who care for each other – I'm thinking of, like, Richard Kimble and his wife in The Fugitive, who I think do sell the idea of a loving and happy marriage, but the relationship itself is a weak one.  The story only really needs the bare fact of it – “Kimble had a wife that he loved and then this happened” – to kick off the actual story; the relationship between Kimble and Gerard is a stronger one narratively, because much of the emotional tension of the movie, what makes it more effective than just a series of chase scenes, is the way their mutual respect evolves as they compete against each other, and the story question of “Kimble really needs an ally, is this the right person for him to trust?”  It's such a strong relationship that it comes as a huge relief of tension when he does make that gesture of trust and it turns out to be the right choice.  The audience is happy that Kimble will be exonerated, but the audience is equally happy that the conflict between these two charcters is over – we didn't like them being at odds because we didn't want either of them to lose!  Now, would these two people ever be close friends, let alone come to love each other?  No? Yes? Who cares?  Kimble loves his wife more, but has a stronger relationship in this story with Gerard. From a writing perspective, it's trivially easy to introduce an S and say “M loves this person,” but it means relatively little.  It's harder to introduce an S and say “some part of this story now hinges on how M navigates knowing this person,” but that's kind of what has to happen in order to create a payoff that's worth the effort.  A strong relationship provides skeletal structure for the story; it can't be stitched on at the margins.

This is an even tougher sell in something like a television series, where the introduction of S may come in well after the story is underway and the bulk of M's characterization is already in place.  That's why introducing a late-season love interest is a notoriously dodgy proposition!  To demonstrate weak vs strong relationship in action, I'm going to take an example of what I think was a failed attempt and pitch some ways to doctor it up into a strong relationship: Sam Winchester and Eileen Leahy.

This is objectively a weak relationship.  She doesn't materially affect the metaplot of the series, or drive any major choices, or reveal anything about Sam's character.  She's just, you know, generally nice and attractive and Sam likes her, which is a fine start, but then the writers just leave her idling in the garage forever.  But it didn't have to be that way! Say we wanted to make it a Type 1 relationship: super easy, barely an inconvenience!  Eileen is very like Sam, actually, in that she lost her parents as an infant and then had the entire rest of her life shaped by the trauma and the pursuit of revenge.  That's amazing.  How many other people, even hunters, share that specific experience with Sam Winchester?  Sam was physically changed by drinking demon blood in infancy; Eileen was physically changed by being deafened by the banshee or whatever it was in infancy.  Even just allowing them to talk about that would have made the relationship stronger.  Sam is affected by the fact that there is no Before Time for him; even now that they've long since had their revenge on ol' Yellow Eyes himself, he grapples with the fact that he's forever robbed of any memories of innocence or safety or a life that wasn't lived in the shadow of this killing.  Eileen also has had her life's quest for revenge fulfilled, and also has to reckon with the fact that it doesn't actually give her access to the innocence that was stolen from her.  Maybe she struggles with that.  Maybe Sam can open up to her because she knows what it's like to look back on your child self and feel that however strong you've made yourself, you're never strong enough to protect that child.

What if you want to write something spicier than Sam and Eileen talking about their sad feelings?  Okay, let's take a Type 2 story.  Eileen has been a lone hunter with a disability all her life; it's fair to guess that even if she can't match Sam's physical strength, the fact that she's survived at all means that she's pretty indomitable.  Maybe she's had to be ruthless, even brutal in her hunting style; maybe she has a shoot-first-ask-questions-never approach to hunting that she credits with her very survival, but that Sam finds excessively rash and bloody.  Maybe they fight about it.  Have her kill some ambiguous, maybe-not-dangerous monstery types, a werewolf or something, and Sam's like, hey, we really can't just-- and Eileen is like, look, I hunt how I hunt, come with me or don't.  I mean, this is a retread in some ways of early season conflicts about who to kill and when, but everything in the latter seasons is a retread anyway, so whatever, and it provides something interesting to have Sam deal with this whiplash of how there seem to be two Eileens, the smiley, jocular sweetheart who eats pancakes with him and the one who kills like she's swatting flies.  What if he wants one but not the other?  It doesn't really work that way, does it?  Is this something he can dismiss as a foible, or is this a dealbreaker? The dude is almost forty, if he distances himself from Eileen, how many more hunters does he think he has a chance to meet and marry?  If she won't even listen to his concerns seriously, is it really a good relationship anyway, or will Sam's needs always end up taking a backseat to Eileen's?

A Type 3 fix could just come down quite plainly to, what if Eileen is ready to retire?  She's had her revenge.  She's lived her life on the hunt.  Maybe she's done, and maybe she wants Sam to be done with her.  Doing this in season 15 would circle Sam back to his season 1 story conflicts in a nice way, I think – why does Sam do this at all, if it's not for revenge any longer?  Does he feel personally responsible for every dead person he could've saved but didn't – is that a reasonable boundary, or lack thereof, to set?  Is a compromise possible – could he continue to coordinate hunts while also getting out of the field and starting a family, or is that still putting his family in the shadow of too much violence and danger to tolerate?  What's Dean going to say?  He's pitched a fit in the past when Sam said he wanted out, but he's mellowed with age, hasn't he?  Maybe he'll get it now?  But maybe Sam also feels guilty and fearful, because he knows Dean will hunt without him, so now he's in more danger because of Sam's choices, if Sam makes this choice.  It's a little heteronormative, as story conflicts go, but it's thematically appropriate to Supernatural, and the fact that Eileen isn't speaking out of timidity but out of the same weariness that Sam has so often felt about the whole endless cycle makes it feel a little less “the little lady won't let me go on adventures anymore.”  This might not be my pick of the three, but the point is that it makes for a strong conflict, a legitimate divided loyalty for Sam to wrestle with, and one that doesn't have a clear right answer.

Anyway, hopefully that helps illustrate what I mean when I say that the narrative strength of a relationship doesn't have anything to do with how likeable an S character is – Eileen is very likeable! But that doesn't substitute for building her into the fabric of the story in some way.  My expectation is that a serious protagonist relationship should bend the story arc in a way that requires response, and if it doesn't, I don't take that relationship particularly seriously.  Canon can declare a relationship real by fiat, but it can't automatically declare a relationship meaningful without, you know, making meaning of it.

Oh, and there's not anything really wrong with weak relationships – most M's are going to have several in the story.  My point is just that the difference between a weak relationship and a strong one isn't really a matter of taste or preference, but has a functional meaning that can be tested and measured, and if there's argument to be had about it, the argument can take place on evidentiary grounds.  Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[ink-and-flame]

Kinktober Day 9 : Intensity Bound

Kinktober Day 9 Prompts: Pussy whipping ~ Cuffs (leather) ~ Japanese rope bondage Fandom: Original Tags: exophilia, dom/sub, BDSM, pussy whipping, cuffs, rope bondage, Pairing:  Orc(m)/Human(f), Darnok/Lia

[Authors note: OOF. Lots going on with this one and it isn’t as long as my usual parts for this pairing. This is a transitional scene as we ramp up into some of the heavier stuff.]

The vacation with Darnok had been everything Lia  had hoped for and more. It was perfect, and clearly needed for both of them. By the time the trip was over, Lia was certain she had never seen a more relaxed orc in her life. There was a bittersweetness to it. Leaving the island, leaving the fantasy, returning to their normal lives and jobs. Knowing she wouldn’t be seeing him every day, or the memories of every night sharing a bed. Lia would miss all of it, and she wondered or maybe hoped, that Darnok would too. 

For Lia this had just made her feelings more confusing. She wanted a relationship with Darnok, she wanted to be more than just a sub. She wanted to be his sub, his only sub, and she wanted to be more than that too. She wanted to just be with him in every way possible. She didn’t care about his job, his money, or his power, she cared about him. That was the hardest part about all of this. She cared about him, maybe even loved him, and she wasn’t sure he felt the same.

There was no way to know if Darnok shared her feelings, other than the occasional slip on his part. There were times, during the trip, that he seemed to forget the insistence that the two parts of his lives be separate. There were nights that they fucked, sometimes in public, and there were nights they made love. Nothing could convince Lia otherwise. She knew enough to know the difference, and when his forehead pressed against hers and he whispered in his own language words she didn’t understand while thrusting so slowly into her, there was nothing else to think. If that wasn’t making love then maybe she didn’t know what love making was after all. 

Now they were home and back into their routines. Work was fine, though Lia would have liked a little more time off, and she had missed Ember quite a bit. It was nice being able to catch up with her friend and Lia spared almost no details. She had not quite told Ember everything about her arrangement with Darnok or how she felt. Mostly because Ember and Darnok somewhat knew each other, but only tangentially. Still, at some point Lia would have to confide her feelings to someone and Ember was quickly becoming her confidant. Having a friend, a best friend, had made everything so much easier, but also gave Lia comfort she didn’t realize she was missing. 

The first weekend after coming back Darnok insisted they keep the scene light and figure out if they wanted to start testing Lia’s limits again or not. Lia had never realized how much of an exhibition streak she had until Darnok was fucking her in front of strangers, people outside of the kink community. The gala, being in a cage, being stared at. That was the beginning, but this trip solidified that Lia did like to be watched. More importantly, she liked being watched when Darnok was involved. She wasn’t sure how she would feel about it without him there. 

They discussed what areas of kink they had not really touched, or might like to try and how it could work into their upcoming scenes. It almost felt a little detached and professional, so different to how things were on the island. Perhaps it was just the location. They did have to respect the club space, the time usage of the rooms, and the other members. It was possible this professional angle was a necessity of playing in a place that wasn’t their own. Something that had Lia itching to invite Darnok over, but afraid to do so as well. 

That was the line that was never crossed. She never had him come to her home. It was her way of forcing separation like his own. If she could not be part of his vanilla life, then she needed something of her own as well. She could not go to his work, or even ask about it, and she didn't even know for sure where Darnok lived. She suspected in the city, but she had reason to believe he might also have homes elsewhere. It was a little distressing if she thought about it too long, how much about him she really didn’t know, but at the same time, didn’t care. What she knew felt like enough. 

As strange as it may have seemed before, Lia found herself happy to see the club regulars again, even Morwenna. Though she still kept the woman at arms length, never sure what to think of her. There was a strange fondness she felt for Lucien and Zane, once she got to know them a little better. Their kindness to Ember, and herself helped considerably. Though she still had not agreed to a scene with any of them, though they had requested it of Darnok. The most he had promised them was trying out more public scenes and they were welcome to watch. 

Darnok had even spoken with Lucien to plan the first public scene with Lia since they returned from vacation. He wanted something that showed off Lia’s skills as a sub, something that helped to push her limits, but also something she would be comfortable with. There was a fine line to walk here. Since they were at the club, they could do a more indepth scene and not have to worry about it. Not the way they had with public sex, as that could have lead to some issues had the wrong person actually seen them. 

For the first public scene, Darnok had chosen shibari, the art of Japanese rope bondage. He had chosen teal and and a deeper ocean blue as the colors he would start with. He wanted colors of rope that would look good together, and also contrast on Lias light skin. He also just liked the color blue on her, and this color combination reminded him of the water at the island, something they had both enjoyed. 

Instead of using one of the private rooms Darnok led Lia into the area off the lounge with the circular beds. He chose one that was open, more towards the middle, and pushed the curtains out of the way. He wanted no obstruction of the view. Helping Lia onto the bed he watched as she slowly stripped. It was arousing seeing her this way and the room faded. He didn’t care if no one was there, or a hundred people were. She was his focus now. 

Once divested of her clothing Darnok moved in. Starting with the dark blue he wound it across her chest, between her breasts and under them going behind her neck and securing with small knots as he went. He wanted a simple design to start, the corset look was always popular and he knew that they had not done much with this kind of bondage yet so he needed to keep it somewhat simple. Working the dark blue down to her hips he switched out for the teal, creating an almost ombre effect with the rope colors. He stopped at her thighs, binding each one individually and then back up to her hips. One string of the rope was tied between her legs, he was careful with the positioning of the knots and how it hooked to the rest of the rope. He wanted her to feel every tug that he made. 

Soon he had Lia bound all pretty on the bed. Laying her back against the pillows he stroked over her body and tugged gently at the rope. He could hear murmurs behind him , but paid no mind. His goal was to bring his sub to a slow orgasm right here in front of anyone that wanted to watch. He could see Lia glancing around, watching the crowd watching her before closing her eyes again. 

Darnok was careful, purposeful with his touch. Teasing, tantalising, pushing to the edge but not letting her go over, not yet. Not until she was sweating, arching, the rope between her legs fully soaked. Then and only then was he ready to give in, to give her what she clearly wanted. Tugging the rope just right Darnok watched as Lia arched against the bed. Pleasure washing over her in waves as he kept the pressure  on her, wanting to see how long it would last. When she finally came down he was ready to take her right there. Something he wanted so desperately but would resist. 

Carefully and gently, Darnok began aftercare. He slowly undid the ropes, rubbing her flesh to help circulation, cutting where he needed to in order to release her safely. She was cold and shaking, something he expected as he rubbed her body with his rough hands to help bring back feeling and warmth. He had a blanket with him and wrapped her in it, giving her small sips of water once she was relaxed against him. His own need is forgotten for now as he took care of his precious little submissive. 

Lia stayed in sub space much longer than Darnok had anticipated and he ended up staying in the main room long enough that the intensity of his need was able to fade some what. It was a little surprising and good to know. Helping her get dressed, Darnok drove them to the hotel and pampered her the rest of the evening until she was a little more herself. Only then did he feel comfortable asking for his own release and the enthusiasm he was met with was encouraging. 

The scene had gone well, better than either had anticipated and Lia was just as excited to try even more scenes like that going forward. Darnok expressed a desire to be more public as well, but he still wanted private scenes, just for them. Especially when it came to more intense scenes, Darnok preferred those be private, at least the first time, so that he was certain it was something they both enjoyed. 

It was a couple of weeks before Lia and Darnok could be together again and Lia needed the break. Both physically and emotionally. Each time she saw him, the harder it was not to tell him how she really felt. Some distance helped and in planning for their next scene it gave her the opportunity to recenter herself. They would be experimenting with pain again. Something they only did on occasion and were careful about. Lia didn’t like most types of pain and found some of it to be a bit of a turn off, but she was always willing to experiment and try new things. 

This next scene had her nervous and wary. She would be bound and whipped. Specifically on her genitals. That sounded uncomfortable and it had taken quite a bit of convincing for her to finally agree to it. In the end her curiosity won out. She knew that Darnok would not strike her too hard, and she enjoyed rough sex. Perhaps this would be just as pleasurable as that. She did like the way spanking felt, this was close enough to that sensation that it made sense that she could possibly enjoy this too.

The day for the scene finally came and Lia was nervous. She had dressed comfortably and packed extra clothing. They were going to be doing this scene in private and that helped relax her just a bit. She wasn’t sure she had the energy for something this new and to be public as well. Arriving at the club Lia settled into the room they booked, changing out of her clothing and making sure everything in the room was ready. 

When Darnok arrived she smiled at him from the bed, sitting there naked, waiting patiently. His smile was worth it, she knew he would be pleased with her and was thankful she was right. It took him only a few moments to get himself ready before walking over to the bed with the leather cuffs he would be using on her. They would be more comfortable than handcuffs or rope. 

Lia squirmed as her wrists were slipped into the cuffs and hooked to the bed above her head. Her ankles were cuffed, legs spread, and hooked to the bottom of the bed. Straps had been mounted under the mattress and were adjustable to allow for bondage of varying degrees, and people of various heights. It was quite thoughtful and smart on the part of the club to make sure all their rooms were modular and could fit a variety of sizes of people. The bed was big enough for Darnok, but the straps made it easy to cuff someone as small as Lia to it. 

“I hope you are ready for this Lia. Remember we are using extended color codes ok. Red is full stop, orange you need a break with conversation, yellow you just need a small break or I need to move to a different spot. Green is go, blue is more or harder. Understand?” 

Lia nodded and remembered that verbal confirmation was preferred. “Yes, I understand. Red is full stop, the scene ends and does not continue right?”

“Yes. That is why orange is in there. It is one step below simply ending the scene.” Darnok moved off the bed and went to grab some items from the bag he brought with him.

Lia relaxed against the bed, knowing that tensing up would only make things worse for her. She took slow breaths as she watched Dar gathering up his tools. She knew what some of them were, the flogger was familiar, a few other things she wasn’t sure of. Lia trusted Darnok and knew that he would explain everything he used on her before actually using it. 

When Darnok settled on the bed he ran his hands up and down Lia’s thighs, massaging her, getting her used to his touch, warming her skin. He rubbed over her mons, her folds, her clit. Making sure she was feeling relaxed pleasure before breaking out any of his tools. They were in no rush and he was prepared to take his time. 

He pinched at her skin, then used his fingers to gently slap her thighs. Getting Lia used to being struck. Moving his hand he popped her mound softly. His strikes got slightly harder as he varied location until he struck her clit hard enough to make her jump. Watching her face he waited to see if she would code, when she did not, he continued. Interspacing the slaps with gentle rubbing over her clit and folds.

When she felt warmed up enough, and seemed to be enjoying what was happening, he grabbed his soft flogger. Even hitting with a harder strike, the material wasn’t firm enough to cause intense pain. Again he started with her thighs, then mound, before carefully striking her clit and folds. Her moans delighted him, and he kept the strikes light enough to bring pleasure instead of pain. 

Finding a nice balance Darnok would hit a little harder to make Lia jump and then back off a bit until she was panting. The soft flogger was soaked and he felt himself pressing hard against his pants. He had thought to be fully naked, but wanted the focus to be on her and not himself. Switching out to a more firm flogger he tested it on her thighs, then mound. When she winced a bit, Darnok paused before striking her clit gently. The sound she made was somewhere between pleasure and pain and he waited for her to code. 

Lia did not, and he was so proud as he increased the intensity of the strikes until she was panting and whimpering. Her outer lips were puffy and pink, there were raised areas on her mound, and her clit was swollen and red. Backing off Darnok rubbed Lia’s clit with his thumb, inserting two fingers inside of her and feeling her clench as she came almost instantly. It was a beautiful sight to behold and he felt his control slipping. 

“Oh how desperately I want you my dearest.”

“Please, Darnok, I need you inside me. I need  you now.” Lia’s voice pitched up as she tugged on the restraints. 

Darnok was barely able to hold back. Only his fear of hurting her kept him calm enough to unhook the cuffs, but he did not have the patience to remove them. Tugging off his pants, Dar loomed over Lia, the tip of his cock sliding over her swollen puffy pussy. He snarled, hips snapping forward as he buried himself in her tight heat. Her small body dwarfed by his. 

Powerful thrusts pushed his thick cock deeper and deeper inside of her until his balls were slapping rhythmically on her ass. The orc snarled, his tusks scraping Lia’s shoulder as she held onto him and took everything he had to give. Losing himself to the moment a familiar feeling washed over him as a flash of their first time together filled his mind. More of his control slipped and Darnok began to lose himself to his more beastly side.

Pulling Lia tight against him, his grip left marks on her skin as he arched and rutted into her with powerful strokes. Darnok felt his control slipping further as her tight heat around him pushed him closer and closer to the edge. He could feel her spasming, clenching around him, clearly finding her own release beneath him with a loud cry. 

“Mine, you are mine Lia, you will always be mine.” 

Darnok lost himself as pleasure built higher and higher before crashing down on him. His tusks dug into her shoulder, marking her again as he had done on that first day. Claiming her in ways he promised himself he never would. That delicate and possessive feeling rose within him again as he clung tight to the human beneath him and rocked his body into hers. Always marveling at how her small body could take him. Some part of Darnok knew he was lost, completely, to this bright human under him, but he had to hold back. 

Slowly, ever so slowly, he came back to himself. Releasing her shoulder Darnok panted, pressing his forehead to hers. An apology on his lips, one he couldn’t seem to make. Admitting he was sorry, would not only be a lie, but it would draw attention to just how far his control had slipped. 

Looking down at the woman beneath him, something twisted inside his chest. He knew that he had over stepped, broken a promise, and had simply gone too far. Admitting any of those things would require him to explain why it was forbidden. A conversation he simply wasn’t ready to have, a risk he wasn’t willing to take. The truth might push Lia away, and the selfish possessive part of himself did not want that. 

Carefully He pulled out and tended her wounds, holding her close, hoping she did not read too much into his words, his actions, the intensity of the scene. Let her think it was just part of it, part of the kink, part of the lifestyle. He wasn’t ready, not for the truth, and not for the possibility of losing his most precious little Lia.  

[thenervousmedic]

I had a minecraft dream last night...

This is going to be a long post, but bear eith me, and take the time to read it.

I don't dream about minecraft very often. In fact this might be a first. I'm still in bed while writing this, as im afraid if I wait I'll lose a bunch of the memories.

It involved myself and a few members of the Dream SMP getting sucked into MC. Ironic, I know. Dream, George, Badboyhalo, Tecnoblade, Wilbur Soot, Tommyinnit, and myself. We all looked like our avatars... mostly, and even had some special skills i'll get into later.

To be clear, they were as they are in real life in terms of personality.

I've not watched the dream smp yet... maybe I should start soon. Anyway, side tracked...

The world worked differently than normal MC. It was more realistic, especially the combat and movement. Anything you can do irl you can do here. The drawback was that it made everything harder and more exhausting.

I was dragged in a month before the others, where over the next four weeks, I'd figure out how the lives system works; how difficult movement was; that crafting was nearly the same as normal mc; and how to build.

Five lives. There was a little tracker on the back of your hand, five squares for five lives. Each life you lost, a square would disappear. But it wasnt that simple. Every tine you died you'd feel the affects of the world more. Eating took longer, everything cost more and more realistic amounts of effort, and most importantly... taking damage would actually hurt.

On your first life damage was less of a danger and more of a 'stat' to just be aware of. Getting attacked, shot, exploded next to, ect wasn't too bad. But the more you died the more these things started to get scary. Arrows would tear their way in and ve painful to remove. You'd bleed and have actual wounds that needed care.

By the time the smp members were spawning in, I'd already been reduced to my last life. I was never good at minecraft, though im alright irl with a bow it didnt help much.

You spawn in unconcious. I'd lost my first life that way. I spawned above water. A painless drowning. I hadn't gone back to the ocean since, it scared the fuck out of me.

The first to arrive was Techno. I went back to spawn for the good sheep spawns there. Found him asleep in the grass. He was lucky no creepers had spawned.

Nearly everyone was bigger than me, I'm pretty small, so hauling this guys limp piglin ass all the way to my little safety shack was really hard.

Then Dream and George one after another. Badboy. Tommy... and finally Wilbur.

Wilbur was... a special case. He was a ghost. Just like his ghostbur skin had been. Fully awake, really freaking out. I was near collapsing from taking everyone else to my home, wasnt really much of a comfort, but I at least managed to convince him to come with me after the sun started to dip.

When we got back Wilbur helped me make beds. Couldn't have everyone sleeping propped up against the walls... Wilbur couldn't grab anything, but he could open and close chests. He also found out he could manafest things like his guitar, and a plushie orca. Things that made him a little less anxious. It was nice to hear music again.

I didnt get to talk to him long. We finished the beds, put everyone on one, then I immediatly konked the fuck out over the crafting table.

By the time I woke up, everyone was already awake and talking. The typical suspects. Why are we here, how, what happened, is this even real. You get the picture. I guess usually social anxiety, especially in the presence of people I admire so much, would've been a big stressor but after a month alone in this world I damn near started bawling at the thought of someone else even existing.

I told them all I know. We are stuck here, we have lives, dont fucking lose them it makes the game harder. The physics are just as janky as regular minecraft, mobs are much more articulated, armour actually has weight and at this point I wasnt aware of the little buffs everyone had to a particular skill.

Dream was incredibly good at exploiting the game's wonky system and parkouring, even of he couldnt nessesarily do it irl.

Techno was suddenly extremely knowledgeable about combat and could handle most weapons effectively. He was also a piglin-type guy which made him immune to fire.

George's coding skills translated directly into redstone knowledge, letting him build ridiculous machines with enough respources.

Tommy had incredible luck with loot and generally got good enchants.

And Bad was, thanks to his skin, some form of demonic entity and would be completely ignored by most hostile mobs.

Wilbur, as you know, was a ghost who could phase through anything and summon ghostly items.

We didn't find out everyone's special trait immediatly, of course. It happened over many days of trail and error trying to collect resources, build, and have fun.

Turns out my skill was useless by myself, hence why I never found it before they arrived. Anything I gave to another person was twice as effective. Healing items helped more, food would fill them on smaller portions, armour would get a free temporary enchant depending on what they needed.

I'd never liked playing minecraft alone.

I'm losing some of the dream, I shoukd wtite some bullet points down or this post will be miles long.

Tommy accidently befriended a wolf, he named it Wilbur to mess with Wilbur. We had two Wilburs.

Bad was constantly driven up the wall by peoples language but truly was using it as a coping mechanism early on because he was afraid of being stuck here forever. We made sure to swear occasionally so he'd get the oportunity to yell at us.

Techno lost his first life when a creeper blast threw him directly into Dream's sword.

Dream never got over it.

Wilbur started making more songs and even made a few targetted at the groups adventures.

Wilbur descovered if he goes into the floor he cant tell which was is up, this terrified him, he never went underground again.

George made automatic farms and eventually even non-minecraft typical things like a morning alarm clock, a compass that pointed to the nearest village, and invented new armour that was more lightweight but still protective.

Wilbur the wolf regularly barked at and mauled giant spiders before they got anywhere near the house, much to literally everyone's relief.

Bad learned how to read and write enchanting table symbols.

I taught Dream how to repair his clothes and in return he showed me how to build traps.

Techno learned he could talk hoglin, piglin, and villager.

Bad learned he could stare at endermen and mistakingly assumed everyone could so he told everyone else its ok to do so.

Tommy lost his first life to an enderman.

Wilbur worked with george for a whole week on special gloves that would let him touch stuff.

I took an arrow dangerously close to the lungs after Tomny's first respawn trying to bring him home.

Dream realised he couldn't take off his mask and wished he could see the world normally again, nobody knew what his vision was like.

Bad descovered a joy for cooking.

Bad also tamed a cat and named it Muffin.

Muffin the cat would ride Wilbur the wolf around.

Dream lost his first life to hunger after pushing himself for too long.

Techno took a wrong step in the neather and lost his second life to a seriously long fall.

I never knew what I looked like...

Tommy lost his second life being overrun by zombies without a weapon. We made a rule to never leave the house alone after this many deaths.

Bad descovered pretty late that milk is poisonous to him and thus cakes will kill him. He lost a life to cake. He was devastated.

Tommy built a cute campfire. He and Wilbur would mess around singing at it. Wolf Wilbur thoroughly enjoyed this.

I would stay up most of the night watching everyone sleep because I worried the house could get invaded or surrounded. They found out after Phantoms started spawning and made a rule that at least one of then would stay awake at night to make me feel better.

George built Dream an obstacle course with lots of moving parts and such. He ran it every morning.

I learned how to play guitar from Wilbur at the campfire.

Torches never burnt out after they arrived. No idea why.

That's all I can remember...

It was a hard dream, I was sad and angry sometimes... but the happy moments made it worth it.

I hope I return to that dream someday.

[undyingsunshine]

YESSSSS YOU’RE BACK AND TAKING ASKS

14 and 15 for the most recent post, and I’m gonna come back with more too

Here we go!!!!

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Honestly, it usually differs from piece to piece! Usually, though, the title comes last! (Though I do have a short list of potential titles for Li Cu fics stored away, most of which are just lyrics from songs xD Whether I end up using them or not, only time will tell!)

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

All of these tend to give me a bit of trouble xD if I was to rank from hardest to easiest however, I think I'd say titles are the hardest and tags tend to be the easiest. For summaries I usually just slap a portion of the fic in and then add a small almost-summary below it, mostly because I feel like giving a sample of the fic will be more effective than trying to give a succinct description? Kind of shows you what you're getting into before you've even clicked xD

Titles, I use a lot of lyrics from songs, especially ones that I think fit with the character. Though, this does sometimes mean my titles are... long and it can make it a little awkward when trying to talk about the fics themselves. xD

Examples include;

"Come with me, I promise the water is fine..." Which is a lyric from God Bless Eric Taylor by Marietta, a song that I relate to Li Cu somewhat.

This next one is the title of a chapter instead of a whole fic, but I'll count it anyway xD Chapter 2 of I'm Here is titled: "I have this dream that I'm hitting my dad with a baseball bat and he is screaming and crying for help..." which is from the song Father by The Front Bottoms.

I ideally try to make it so that the lyrics also match up with the contents of the chapter/fic. I'm Here's second chapter is all about Li Cu's nightmares, so I thought the title would be pretty fitting xD Honestly, thinking back maybe I could've added more types of dreams.... Ones that fit that title even more.... Small rewrite of that Chapter perhaps? I don't think it would be that different, but still... Would add more angst onto everything xD

The title for "Come with me..." Also sort of relates to the contents of the fic, but moreso in the following line that appears in the summary: "I need something else to comvince me I won't die."

Honestly these lines could have me ranting a whole lot, especially in relation to Li Cu. Just makes me think of all his conflicted feelings, and how he must feel when he drags his friends into the mess he didn't even make. (And these feeling really would increase after Su Wan blames him for the snake bite and getting Shen Qiong inveolved, and during just... the entirety of the time he, Yang Hao, Su Wan and Liang Wan are in the desert together. (ESPECIALLY when Yang Hao is being absolutely mistreated by the 9 families, like sheesh.)

It's just a whole lot of guilt, but also maybe some stubborn determination? Li Cu is very adamant on living just to spit in the face of everyone around him. Existing out of pure spite, but with friends involved, it's more like he's existing to fulfil a purpose? One that he feels like he's bestowed upon himself. Not Wu Xie, or Rishan, or anyone. Just him. He stays alive so he can protect his friends. He'll keep them safe, he'll get them home alive. He has to. And he knows that he will. Or else, what is he even persevering for? "I need something to convince me I won't die." In the fic, this could also be referring to Wu Xie, as he kind of marks safety by the end of the drama. Wu Xie being there means it's okay. It means he doesn't have to fight anymore. And in the fic, it also means that Li Cu can let go. Of Everything. Permanently. (I have so many branching ideas based on that 300 word demon of a fic, you wouldn't even believe)

ANYWAY I'LL STOP RANTING ABT THAT FIC MAYBE I'LL TALK ABOUT THAT FIC MORE IN DEPTH SOME OTHER TIME IF PPL WANT IT.

As for tags, I struggle mostly because I never know what's okay to tag? I'm afraid of tagging a fic with something if the content of that particular tag doesn't show up all that much in the fic? Unless it's something that's a potnential trigger, and then I'll tag it, even if it's small. Just ot be safe. But like. Characters, I don't tag unless they're actually there and present and doing something. If they're mentioned, I tend to not tag them since it's not all that crucial? For people to know they show up for a second? Idk, I like to be as succinct and precise as possible with my tags, because I know how annoying it is for tags to be clogged or for fics to have too many tags xD

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

I have a few, surprisingly! I'll choose two, both from the second chapter of I'm Here!

"Each one makes him wake up, terrified and shaky and wanting to hide or just outright stop existing; to become intangible, untouchable, safe. Of course, he can't actually do that, so instead he pushes the fear down and suffocates it before burying it in the backyard of his mind in the hopes it'll never be dug up again."

Something I try and do while writing is find ways to explain how I. Just. Experience life? (This is also present in Chapter 1 with the line "Further frustration gathered in his chest, making it tighten with stress before it shot up into his throat". Just little things that I've never really seen in words before? That I feel but never know how to accurately describe.) There's always the whole "let the void swallow me/him/her/them whole" thing in media that I love because, honestly, mood. But I guess for this I just wanted to word it differently? In the way I felt was most accurate to myself. Just to be in a state of which nothing can get you, be it life or that one imaginary demon that you sometimes think is lurking around the house at the convenient time of 3 AM, Y'know? When real life becomes TOO real and you just want to blip out for a second, just pause everything and have a moment to be free of everything xD

I also just kind of like the metaphor(?) with his fear. Trust Li Cu to not only associate feelings with violence, but also treat his feelings violently xD I feel like I'm not the best when it comes to imagery and creative expression, especially through words. I point out the obvious, the facts, a lot, both when speaking normally and in writing, and it takes a bit of time for me to remember that I'm writing a story and not jotting a list of events xD So anytime I actually come up with something more kind of creatively written, I feel particularly happy with myself.

"He can't even fully comprehend what's been going on - everything feels bizarre and just out of reach, moreso than usual - but what he does know is that Wu Xie is here and he's angry. The man stands above Li Cu, his cold calculating eyes burning him with wordless accusations that, despite their ambiguity, feel justified. There's guilt, desperation and denial crashing inside him like waves assaulting a rickety raft on a stormy sea. What these feelings are for, he doesn't know. It makes him want to plead for forgiveness all the same."

Let's be honest, Li Cu probably has way too many mixed feelings on Wu Xie. The man who simultaneously built him up and destroyed him. The man who caused him agony, but is also probably one of the best things to come into Li Cu's life??? Like damn, I think I'd be pretty conflicted if I was Li Cu. And things only get worse when, in this fic's timeline, Wu Xie essentially ghosts Li Cu out of guilt for what he did to the kid. This is taken wrong by Li Cu, and he ends up feeling abandoned. By his own kidnapper. I just feel like this snippet is pretty okay at capturing all the blame he puts onto himself, and captures some of the trauma that comes with the events of Sha Hai as well. I just kind of like how this paragraph turned out in the end. xD

6. What character do you have the most fun writing

LI CU!!! Absolutely Li Cu. I don't know exactly what it is but it just. Clicks with me? Or at least the version I write of himd does, it's probably not even close to Li Cu's canon portrayal xD Maybe it's because of the fact that I'm also an angsty, angry 19 year old that I feel as such? It's much easier to put myself in the mind of a teenage boy rather than a 40 year old man xD In terms of non DMBJ writings, I have OCs that I love writing for! Funnily enough, one is an angsty 19 year old boy with a lot of self-worth issues (ringing any bells?) and the other is an angry, confused and conflicted character that was modified to be a kind of living weapon, but had since escaped and repressed all their memories of what happened. Though, the memories eventually start to resurface and they begin to question themself a whole lot, with flashbacks haunting the corners of their mind and driving them deeper and deeper into guilt-filled despair.

In general, angsty characters with a lot of conflicted emotions are super fun to write for! To flicker around from thought to thought and dive into all the hidden feelings that a character can have. It's just super enjoyable for me xD