#again these are just some that I've been using
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hedgehog-moss · 3 days ago
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When the world feels chaotic and unstable you can draw comfort and hope from one enduring certainty, and it is...
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... that Pampérigouste escaped again.
She Found A Way, and so can you—the first tenet of llama philosophy.
@ Anon from last time, please don't insult my fence again, it is truly doing its best 😔 One of the crossbars snapped because of the snow. Or the wind. Or Pampe. But I launched an investigation and found the crime scene pretty soon, thanks to her footprints in the fresh snow. (Surrounded by a whole lot of Pandolf's excited pawprints.)
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Pandolf & I walked around in the woods for some time looking for a replacement crossbar—as always, he wasn't quite sure what we were looking for but was very supportive and enthusiastic nonetheless.
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We found a suitably long & straight branch.
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Ta-dah! All patched up. (It's hard to tie knots with freezing hands so I warmed them up in Pandolf's neck fur at regular intervals. He thought he was being petted for being a good dog. He would have probably been even happier to realise he was being a good and useful dog, at the same time.)
I felt like I had earned my morning coffee, but just to be on the safe side, I went to check another crossbar that I've been keeping an eye on as a potential Escape Spot, because it's curved and therefore lower than the others—but there were no llama footprints there.
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Then I saw Pampe start trotting towards a specific part of the fence, with this cheerful and resolute gait which is always very alarming. I went after her, and discovered that she'd led me straight to another broken crossbar, and she was politely waiting for me there.
She is so confident in her abilities that she's decided she can afford to give her adversary some helpful tips.
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I had no trouble getting her back in her pasture btw, the Muesli Whistle still works very well (especially in winter when she's hungrier.) She didn't really want to go anywhere; her to-do list for today was 1. test every crossbar by applying pressure with her neck to locate a weak one, lower it then gracefully jump over it to practise her best talents; 2. acquire illegal hazel catkins from the tree near my house, thus making sure I can spot her from my window and see how talented she is; 3. make me say "Pampe!!!" in that annoyed tone that she evidently enjoys hearing; 4. wait for me to go get the usual muesli bribe before following me to the pasture.
And since the other animals always end up getting some muesli as well, it's clear that Pampe thinks of her escapes as a service to her community.
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iceybot · 3 days ago
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For those looking for a change, and i cannot stress this enough i've been repeatedly telling people to change because windows 11 is starting to go off of the seriously terrible to handle end, GET A LINUX DISTRO
Here's some counter arguments for every person making excuses
I'm too used to windows!
Here's a distro you might like, it's called Winbuntu, it is Ubuntu with a full on windows skin to make the transition to linux smoother!
I'm not smart enough to use the command line!
First off, stop talking yourself down, everything is learnable. Second off, With modern linux distros you actually have to use the command line VERY LITTLE, as always, everything wants to make it as easy as possible for you
But how will i play my games made for windows??
Wine or Proton. Steam will allow you to play any game you want with an EXE using their new proton system!! To use it, simply install steam, and you're done! For wine, it can practically emulate any EXE now, and its incompatibilities are pre windows 7 games, much like modern windows versions can't handle. Again, just install from the website, and you're done.
I'm not sure how to change!
Simple solution! You find the installer, create a bootable disk, plop in a USB, make it on the USB, then simply restart your computer and you're done.
Scared of losing your old data? That's fair! Wait until you can get your hands onto another drive or SSD, if you know anything about computers you can probably make out the wires that are supposed to fit together, then in your pc you can use that one to install linux on it!
Seriously! The way windows 11 is going is not good for the health of your pc AT ALL and i use it only because i don't yet have a place to install linux on safely. Consider switching if you can, i know i will.
"windows 11 upgrade ready!" "your computer is eligible for windows 11!" "download windows 11 now!"
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avidredux · 3 days ago
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a while ago there was a post that was a gathering of all the different names (nicknames rather) that the chain had used for each other up to that point. it's been a while, and i haven't seen another one personally, so i decided to make a new updated one for fun.
the little doodles and comics that aren't the MAIN lu comic aren't in this yet, but when i've got all those in here i'll be sure to post it
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1) said simultaneously 2) yes im counting this 3) technically vio (once) and green (twice) 4) in the same sentence! 5) first instance of buddy 6) first instance of someone calling someone else link directly 7) he corrects himself to speak directly about twi afterward 8) couldn’t leave this in honorable mentions
honorable mentions and fun details below the cut
wars calls wild a ���wild young man”
Legend refers to ��that wolf” when alluding to twilight’s dark form without addressing twilight directly
legend refers to himself as “the collector! A veteran of the hero business!”
in “heroes legacy” legend refers to each member of the chain by either a descriptor of their homes, or their “occupations” aside from Four, who is called “the smith” (distinct from leg’s wording of “a captain” and “a knight”)
wars calls twi “you dog”
blue refers to vio by name when four is split
wild calls twi “the original blue-eyed divine beast” but i’m unsure if this should be officially counted
time refers to twi as “a descendant” but more in the concept kinda way you feel me?
twi (who has just woken up from his near death) mistakes time and hyrule for rusl and colin
wars refers to some of the chain as “stubborn youths”
completely unrelated to what they call each other but wild seems to admire hyrule so much it’s adorable; the friends ever <3
the first time the chain see the postman, sky is the one who claims the mail (even though it’s wind’s). In dawn pt. 4 when the postman comes to the inn to find link, he sees sky and says he’s been looking for him. None of the mail is sky’s. The postman has deduced that sky is the Link and all these other guys are simply that: other guys.
four is called a kid by the town blacksmith (chilchuck moment)
epona sees twi and has a “!” in a bubble and i’m convinced she’s saying “Link!”
wild calls four, wind, hyrule, and wars “crafty individuals” indirectly (though he does say it in front of wind and four)
wild says “the wolf i knew” and “this wolf i’ve known” when referring to future twi aiding him in botw
wars repeats wild’s statement about twi being just some guy to twi himself, who then proclaims himself “Hero”
unrelated again but wind gets so excited to see wolfie it’s so cute
time calls himself “this old man”
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always-just-red · 2 days ago
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Oh I forgot to add 😭😭😭 be it fluff like jelly sylus but fluff maybe he trying to make the mc jelly too ? I’m going wild with ideas, I will be quiet
(Part 1 of ask) FINALLY finished this fic oh my goshhh I've loved it so much but writer's block was my constant companion for this one 🫠 Thanks for your patience!! Sy is jealous but I'm still pushing my 'Sylus is the softest man alive and would die before hurting MC' agenda, so I had to get a lil creative! Hope I've pulled it off idk 😭😭
Be Mine
Sylus x Reader 🩸
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Summary: Sylus is getting a little tired of sharing you with the other men in your life (and he doesn't mean Luke and Kieran 🙃)
Genre: lil bit of angst, comfort and fluff
Warnings/Additional tags: gn!reader, jealousy, other LIs mentioned, brief allusion to Raf's self-harm tendencies, cheating mentioned, some intimacy & kisses-- more soft than spicy!
| Word count: 4k | Masterlist | Opt-in to my taglist here!
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Love and Deepspace. All work is my own, so please don't repost or plagiarise!
Sylus has spent centuries waiting for you, so he’s going to give you another minute.
Patience is not a virtue; it’s an old acquaintance he greets with a false smile whenever he’s forced to pass it on the street. Sometimes outside your building, whilst you’re chatting with a neighbour from the apartment above yours. Sometimes when you’re running late from a doctor’s appointment.
Patience has been cropping up a lot these days and gods, he’s sick of its face. Even now, it sits with him at this table for two as he sips at a glass that’s almost empty. There’s poetry in stalling, in savouring what’s left, especially as a waiter hovers anxiously nearby, anticipating the need for yet another refill (it would be the third).
Dregs of blood-red wine swirl with solemnity. Sylus is a patient man, a man who waits, but he doesn’t want to be. He wants the reward of it: the pot of gold at the end of that insipid rainbow. Hasn’t he waited enough?
He lifts his drink to his lips again.
“Sylus!”
They curve as he swallows the final drop.
“I’m so sorry,” you stammer, flinging yourself into the seat across from him so quickly that he’s cheated of the chance to rise and help you with your chair. “Sit back down,” you usher, because he had made a start on it, “really, Sy, I’m so, so sorry. Things at work just got crazy, and I—”
“You don’t have to explain, sweetie,” he smiles as he signals the waiter. He’ll have that refill, now, and he orders your favourite drink as you shrug off your coat and fumble with your bag, looking for something. “I’m more than familiar with the Association’s… dedication to a cause.”
You glance up with an amused smile. “We’re keeping you on your toes, huh?”
“Mmm. There is one hunter who’s proving to be a real thorn in my side.”
“You on top of that?”
“Most evenings, yes. Some mornings, too.”
You poke your tongue out at him. You’ve retrieved a compact mirror and you use it to study your dishevelled reflection. “Is everything all right at work?” he asks as you fuss over your hair.
“Yeah,” you puff. “Long story.”
“We have time.”
With a warmer smile, you stash your mirror away and sequester your bag by your feet. “You sure?” He gives you a look. “Fine,” you chuckle. “Basically, Xavier forgot to write up some reports. He’s been away on an ultra-secret, special mission or whatever—” you tap your nose conspiratorially— “which I didn’t just tell you, okay? But yeah, the reports weren’t done, and they were due tonight, so…”
Sylus raises an apathetic eyebrow. “He asked you to help?”
“Begged me, more like.”
Of course he did. The waiter arrives with your drinks and Sylus has never been gladder for a distraction. His mouth is full of pettiness, bitterness, so he drowns it with wine. You could have called. Texted. “So kitten’s been playing secretary, hmm?” he goads instead.
“That would imply kitten could keep track of time,” you pout, “so no. And speaking of playing a part—” you poke his nose— “you’re allowed to be mad at me. I should have called you. Texted. So let me have it, yeah? I feel bad enough already without you being all… perfect.”
You’re only teasing, but Sylus doesn’t feel perfect. He’s thinking about you working late with your partner, laughing at his jokes, poking him with your pen to keep him from falling asleep on his paperwork. He smirks, regardless. “What if I want you to feel bad?”
“Oh, gods,” you slump forwards, face-down on the table. “How long were you waiting?”
“Years.”
You fake cry into the tablecloth. “Don’t, Sy. Just tell me the truth. How bad was it?”
“Really, years,” he insists again, folding his arms on the table and sliding forwards, too. His chin is resting on his hands, and he blows at the top of your head. “Look.” Your face lifts so you can peer at him. He pinches his hair. “I’ve even gone grey, see?”
You sit up the tiniest bit more and your noses are almost brushing. “It looks nice,” you whisper.
“You think so?”
“Mmm. Suits you.”
Your eyes are every gem— every jewel in an illicit auction Sylus has to steal away from the rest of the world, because something that pretty just has to be his; it will find no worthier home than his hands. His devotion fills vaults. Aren’t they spilling with emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds— those reckless imitations of your gaze? No-one else could deserve them, adore them like he does.
And they’ve nothing on the real thing.
Someone clears their throat and Sylus tracks the noise begrudgingly. The anxious waiter is back, clutching menus this time. You sit up fully, laughing to break the tension, and sure enough, Sylus feels less like hurling the man through the nearest window.
He’s still thinking about it though. He tells the waiter as much with a smile, and the menus are passed over with shaking hands. When Sylus says, “thank you,” it sounds like a bomb, ticking.
“Play nice,” you tut, once the waiter’s cleared the blast radius.
“Sweetie, when do I ever not play nice?”
You blink back at him disbelievingly. This should be good. “How about the time that you—?”
A familiar ringtone interrupts you, and your eyes widen in apology as you grab at your bag, rifling around for your phone. You find it— check the call and decline it— but relief is hiding, refusing to set foot on stage. Not yet, it confers to Sylus darkly, because it knows what comes next.
“Do you need to…?” he asks anyway.
“Nah, it was just Rafayel. Thanks, though.” You set the phone down. “Where was I?”
“You were about to tell me what a terribly bad man I am, sweetie.”
“Right!” you giggle. No, not yet. “So how about the time that you…” The phone rings again. You check it. Decline it. “How about the time that you—ugh!” It’s ringing again.
Sylus taps a finger on the table, impatiently patient. You can’t mute the wretched thing: the next call you miss would be a Wanderer, tearing through an orphanage or the like. It’s the reason you check, even when there’re no orphans at stake— just a pest of an artist with too much time on his hands.
Except… “Oh,” you say, glancing downwards, “it’s Zayne. I should probably—” Sylus gives a half-smile of blessing, but you weren’t waiting around for it— “hey, Zayne! I can’t talk right now, unless— Raf? What the hell? How did you get Zayne’s phone?”
You pull yours away from your ear as a string of whines come through:
“— ignore my calls, don’t even text me to ask what’s up, and then pick up his call right away? You hate me, right? Just say that you hate me, cutie.”
“I don’t hate you, Raf.” The phone is back to your ear. “I’m busy. Now seriously, how did you get— oh, hi, Zayne. Why is Raf…?” Sylus can hear a deeper voice answering your questions. “He’s at the—? Shit, is he okay? Ugh, tell him I can hear him. Tell him I know he’s not dying.”
You meet Sylus’s eyes as conflict erupts on the other end of the call. Sorry, you mouth as static filters through, interspersed with broken words and curses. The doctor’s voice prevails. “Yeah, Zayne,” you speak back to it. “I’ll call Thomas, get him to pick him up. Mmhmm? Oh!” You pinch the bridge of your nose. “I forgot, he’s at that stupid art thing. Look, maybe later, I can…”
The artist’s shrill tone is protesting.
“I know it’s my job, Raf!” you counter. “But gimme a break, please. If it was any other night, you know I’d be there. Of course I wanna be there! But I can’t—”
It’s just a slip of the tongue— words you don’t even realise you’re saying— but Sylus still feels his heart sink. He hates it. A heart is so difficult to argue with: it’s long gone before you can talk any sense into it. He stands from the table, those priceless eyes of yours pursuing him. When you tilt your head, he musters a smile, then a weak excuse: “I’m just stepping outside for a moment.”
You nod, a follow-up question on the tip of your tongue, but then there’s a voice in your ear again— two voices— and you’re you, so of course you listen.
Sylus waits on a bench outside the restaurant, closing his eyes as he waits for his heart to come back.
It’s only been a few minutes. He’s thinking about your eyes, your nose and lips— an inch from his— and how he should have closed that gap before it grew treacherous. Shouldn’t he be done with this? This… longing? You’re his. You’ve told him you’re his, over and over again, but he finds himself needing to hear it once more; the ghost of your voice is starting to lack persuasion.
He is yours without exception, but you? There’s always a caveat. I’m yours, Sylus. But only so long as the city is quiet. I’m yours, Sylus. Until someone else calls. The door to the restaurant opens— he can hear it— but he doesn’t open his eyes. He wants to pretend.
I’m yours, Sylus. No caveats. No exceptions.
“Sylus.”
He swallows the dread in his throat.
“I’m sorry,” you entreat softly. His eyes open, and you’re wearing your coat, holding your bag. “I have to run to the hospital— it’s this whole thing. Raf, like, passed out or something. He’s not been eating again. Zayne said when something like this keeps happening, it’s a sign that… yeah. He just… needs someone. And he hasn’t got anyone else, you know?”
“I understand.” You’re worried about your friend. That’s all it is.
Why can’t he believe that’s all it is?  
You come over and sink down on the bench beside him, looping your arm through his and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Don’t you know that he’s afraid? That a selfish, spiteful part of him wants to hide you— with the rest of his treasures— away from the light, so he can love you in the dark?
There’s a sigh as you lean against him, savouring his touch like the wine one swirls in a glass when their thoughts are elsewhere. It’s gone in a mouthful; you check your watch, and he hopes it’s bitter.
“Are you okay?” you ask.
No, he would rather be sweet for you, but look at you— making him lie. “I’m okay,” he says, and it doesn’t have a drop of conviction. He’s tired of philanthropy.
“What are you gonna do? Come on, tell us. Tell us! What are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know, Luke. Give me a second, okay? Jeez.”
You literally just got here. Your pace is brisk and the night air still clings to you— you shed a layer of it by peeling your arms out of your coat. Luke and Kieran are close behind, keeping to your heels like terriers hoping you’ll trip with a plateful of food. They’ll take even a crumb at this point.
“You gonna fight him?” Kieran nudges, but your lips stay tight.
“Oh, you’re so gonna fight him,” Luke takes away from the silence.
You don’t know what you’re going to do. You’ve reached a decadent lounge, lavished with black and gold, and you throw your coat over the arm of a chair before starting to wrestle off your combat boots. You’ve been off work for hours, but it doesn’t feel like it. One call-to-duty after another; first the hospital, now this.
Mephisto caws in greeting from a nearby perch. “I’m not gonna fight him,” you say as your second boot drops with a clunk. “I just need to—”
“Say no more,” Luke cuts you off. “We want in.”
With a tired sigh, you gaze up at the twins at last. Kieran is readying a fist: punching his hand softly, the beak of his mask low and threatening. Beside him, Luke swings a baseball bat over his shoulder. He didn’t have it a second ago. Where did he even—?
You put your hands on your hips. “You guys got a death wish or something?”
“Yes!” they enthuse together, nodding excitedly.
You haven’t got time to ask. Your focus drifts to Sylus’s bedroom door, where music is leaking with honeylike light. You can’t count the number of times you’ve fallen over that threshold, exhausted— always slightly broken. You want to crawl into cool silk sheets and a warmer embrace, but there’s one small problem.
The text that had brought you here, anxious and out of breath:
Boss is with someone.
“What’re you thinking?”
You’re closer to the door, now, and Luke’s whisper makes you jump. You spin, twisting the bat from his fingers and pushing him back until the tip is pressed to his throat. “Get back,” you hiss, before levelling the weapon at an encroaching Kieran, “both of you.”
Luke leaps behind his brother— swinging him between you for protection. The baseball bat stays hovering, and Luke peeks over Kieran’s shoulder, swatting at it like an indignant kitten.
“Stop it,” you scold, poking back at his hand and his masked face. “Begone!”
“Yes, boss!” Kieran goes to move, but Luke is holding him in place. He’s dragged backwards: a human shield until they can both scurry around the turn of a corridor.
You smile fondly. You forget, for just a moment, that you’re alone and full of uncertainty. The song in the next room lulls, at its inevitable end, and then you can’t forget. You’re stood in silence, staring at a door you’ve never had to knock before. Another song starts up.
Whatever this is, you can handle it.
You use the baseball bat to tap against the dark wood. “Sylus?” you call.
He makes you wait. You can hear him, moving around— unmistakably taking his time— but you don’t mind. You’re running scenarios through your head. Is he in on this, too? Or…?
He opens the door and oh, he definitely is. His silk robe hangs haphazardly over his figure, one side threatening to slip from his shoulder and the belt dangerously loose at the middle. A flush is tinting his face, spreading down through his neck, past his collarbone and lower, you think, but you’re trying not to look.
“Sweetie,” he purrs in the way that tells you he’s up to no good, “what a pleasant surprise.” His eyes flit downwards. “And you’re armed, too.”
There’s a breathlessness to the observation, and your ability to breathe briefly eludes you as well. His hair is damp and unkempt, his skin warm, his gaze hot. Is this a test? It feels like a test.
“Are you alone?” you snap, because he’s clearly put some thought into whatever it is, and you’re a good sport, so you’ll play along.
“No,” he says, but then: “You know you’re always with me in spirit, kitten. Even if not in—” another downwards glance— “body.”
“Sylus.”
“Mmm?”
“I’m going to ask you one more time.” You catch his chin with your free hand, forcing his gaze back to your face. “And I want a real answer.” He swallows thickly. “Are you alone?”
His submission is fragile. He lifts his hand, wraps his fingers around your wrist like a reminder of the fact. “Careful, sweetie.” His grip tightens as his voice drops. “Think about what you’re asking.”
“I know what I’m asking.” You snatch your hand free and step closer. “Get out of my way.”
Sylus narrows his eyes, but soon relaxes. He sweeps a hand through his hair, chuckling as he obeys— moving aside to let you past. You storm through, looking over every visible inch of his room. There’s nothing to see, of course. No clothes that aren’t yours pooled over the floor. No lover wrapped up in his bedsheets.
“Just what exactly are you looking for?” he asks smugly behind you.
“Save it, Sylus.” Your pretend patience is gone. “The twins told me everything.”
So you start searching more strenuously. You make your way over to his bed, baseball bat slung over your shoulder as you check behind the far side— even stooping to peek under it. You open the wardrobe. Nothing. Use the baseball bat to push back the curtains, letting in more blood-red moonlight. Nothing. You huff in frustration.
“You know, don’t you?” Sylus says quietly.
He’s leant against the doorway, arms crossed, and you spare him a glance. “Know what?”  
“That there’s no-one here.”
It sounds like defeat. “I’m taking this very seriously, actually,” you dismiss as you roll open the drawer of his bedside table, where no-one is hiding. You move on to even more absurd places: lifting flowers out of their vase to glance about inside it, peering into the horn of his vintage gramophone.
You’d hoped your antics would elicit at least a short laugh, or a scoff of amusement. There’s nothing, though, so you plonk onto the bed— defeated, yourself— and look to the man as you set your weapon down.
He looks back with an insincere smile. “How did you know?”
“That you weren’t really with someone? Because you’re you, Sylus. The key to a good prank?” Your fingers twinkle in the air beside your head. “Believability. Besides—” now a forefinger taps at your temple— “nothing gets past this.”
“Your ego?” he guesses with a smirk that is sincere, if nothing else.
“My brain, Sy.”
“Ah.”
Your ego— tsk. Your feet are dangling from the bed, playing with a slipper they’ve fished out from underneath it, and you have half a mind to launch it at him. This doesn’t feel like one of your usual games, though, and you’ve had a whole ride through the N109 Zone to figure out why.
“I really hurt you, didn’t I?” you speak like a confession, staring down at the floor so you don’t have to meet his eyes. “That’s what all this is about, right? You wanted to get back at me for dinner?”
“No, I—”
“I get it.” Your feet find the second slipper. “I do. I mean, it was a really shitty thing to do— walking out on you like that. Especially after you waited for me. You went to all that effort, and I— ah.” You’ve toed one of the slippers out of reach.
“Allow me,” comes a voice that’s suddenly close. Sylus’s figure looms over you before he’s crouching, kneeling by your feet. He still looks like a mess of sin, but he’s gentle as he retrieves the slipper for you. Removes your socks for you. Slides a slipper onto each of your cold feet. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” he mutters.
You let out a sigh. “Sylus.” You’re scolding him, and he gazes up at you, his eyes garnets of adoration only you could afford. “You can tell me anything, you know.”
“I know, sweetie.”
“So why won’t you tell me how you feel?”
He sits back on his knees, his thumb drawing circles on the inside of your ankle. The ministrations are mindless, and so are his words: “How I feel is not important.”
“Of course it is!” You pull away from him. “Don’t say things like that.”
“But I thought I could tell you anything, kitten.”
It’s a nick from a blade that could do much worse; he wants you to feel how sharp it is. His smile is a warning and he’s waiting for the hunter in you to strike back, because violence is what you’re good at. What you’re both good at. It hurts, but it’s easy.
You shift forward on the bed. “Sylus… you don’t need to protect me. Not from you. Not from anything you feel. I want you to be happy, to tell me if you’re unhappy. I don’t need you to—” your fingers skirt over his chest and you falter inexplicably— “to sacrifice yourself for me.”
Sylus looks down to where you’re tracing the shape of his heart on his skin. He lets out a long, beleaguered breath, then leans closer to you, his head turning away as he settles it on your lap. Your hands find his hair instinctually, threading through it in slow, meandering motions.
“I want you to be mine,” he admits on another sigh.
He can’t see you smile, but he’ll hear it in your voice: “I am yours, Sy—”
“No— just mine.”
He won’t make it a demand. Even asking you nicely has him breathless and still, like the drawn-out pause of a finished symphony. Your hands stop moving, out of respect for the quiet. You’re remembering the times you’ve been late out of your building because you’d stumbled into Xavier in the lobby. The doctor’s appointments that always overrun, and Rafayel’s ‘emergency’ phone calls.
“Come and sit with me,” you mumble, patting the bed beside you.
When Sylus does, it’s with the same reluctance a cat surrenders a sliver of sun. Lazy and listless— still warm from the light. The bed sinks under his weight and you turn to face him. His robe’s collar has fallen further, so you hook a finger under it to draw it back up to his neck. Then you straighten the lapels, smoothing them over distractedly.
He’s watching your face, not the movements of your hands. Your cheeks feel warm. “I was speaking to Rafayel earlier, and we—”
A groan, and Sylus is no longer at your fingertips; he’s flopped down backwards on the bed, his hand over his face. You can’t help giggling— you’ve broken the big, bad boss of Onychinus, it seems. Is that all it takes? You grin as you lie down with him, settling on your side, propped up on an elbow. He doesn’t stir when you fix a few stray strands of his hair.
“We talked about boundaries,” you continue. “How I can’t be on call twenty-four seven, and how he’s going to take better care of himself, so I don’t have to be.”
Sylus has moved his hand, ever so slightly.
There’s more: “I’m gonna call in sick to work tomorrow. I made a deal with Xavier, that’s why I stayed late today. He’ll cover for me.” You shift closer. “I wanted it to be a surprise. I know I can’t always be with you, but I am always thinking of you, I promise. You’re always with me in spirit, Sy, even if not in—” you press a quick kiss to his chest— “body.”
He chuckles at the words, or maybe the touch tickled.
You grin down at him. “I’m yours. Say it.”
“I’m yours.”
“No! Ugh, just—” Smart-ass! You flick his forehead as he laughs quietly. “Not the words ‘I’m yours’, say that I’m—”
His hand is at your face, pulling you in so he can kiss you. It’s slow and it’s patient; he’s taking his time, and you won’t slip away. You can feel his smile. “You’re mine,” he murmurs when he finally withdraws. One more kiss, lighter, on the tip of your nose. “Just mine.”
Always. You let him pull you into an embrace, snuggling into his warmth like you’ve been wanting to from the moment you last left it. You can hear his heartbeat beneath the lullaby of his breath. “Sy?” you whisper.
“Hmm?”
“You look really hot when you’re pretending to cheat on me.”
He scoffs, but a yawn comes before his response. “Don’t get any ideas, kitten.”
Your quiet is pensive. “I have this lunch with Zayne later this week. I really should text him to find out—”
The grip around you constricts, and a voice is in your ear, soft and possessive:
“What did I just say?”
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ariestrxsh · 2 days ago
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dealer!chris x dealer!reader
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💸 content warning: smut/angst (in later chapters; this one's mostly just suggestive), mentions of hard drugs and guns, enemies to lovers, slow burn
💸 summary: you and chris spend the night hanging out on his roof after your first day of making sales together.
there will be several parts to this story, and they will contain sex, drugs, violence, use of weapons, and a lot of things that could be triggering if you've ever been apart of the drug world or loved someone with an addiction. i don't mean to glorify drug use, selling, or anything like that, but i wanted this story to be realistic, so it does appear like a somewhat "glamorous" lifestyle to chris and the reader in the first few parts. i want to make it very clear that when you get involved in the drug world in real life, you usually end up in one of two places: the ground or prison.
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WHEN SPARKS FLY
chapters: | intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
The sun sank slowly below the skyline, and the evening turned to nightfall as you and Chris finished up your last deal of the day. You'd been showing him all the stops, introducing him to your customers, and teaching him the way you did everything.
He got into your passenger seat and sighed as his head fell against the headrest, really wishing he had a joint right about now. "Damn, ma. I can't believe how much money we made today," Chris mumbled, slouching down into his seat. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the wad of cash he'd made for the day.
"I know, and we're only a third of the way through the product," you smiled back, doing the math in your head about the potential profit. "I could never work a 9 to 5," Chris sighed, sifting through the $100 bills. "Can't believe I just made in a day what it would take some sucker to make in two weeks at some office job."
You fastened your seatbelt and turned the key in the ignition, admiring Chris, who brought his fingers to his lips and slowly licked them as he separated the crisp hundreds. "What are you thinking about, ma? My tongue or my fingers?" Chris flirted, catching you staring out of the corner of his eye and giving you a seductive smirk as he ran his tongue along the pads of his fingers again, flitting through his money.
You squeezed your thighs together as you bit down on your lip. For a moment, you were thinking about both at the same time. You hated the effect he had on you, the way he knew how to get inside your head, intrude on your thoughts, and invade your sexual fantasies. "You're fucking gross, Chris," you replied, rolling your eyes and trying to hide how turned on you were.
He responded with a chuckle, knowing that he was getting to you even if you wanted to deny it. "So, am I dropping you off at your girlfriend's house?" You asked, reminding him that he had one. "Nah, can you drop me off at my place? I'm staying home tonight," Chris requested. "I can do that. Just tell me where to go," you replied, your eyes darting around between the road in front of you, your side mirrors, and your rearview.
"So, have you told Daisy yet?" You asked, your gaze flickering over at Chris, who was shaking his head. "I'll tell her, ma, when I'm ready," Chris grumbled. He knew you were right. He knew he had some things to work out, like telling his girlfriend the real way he made his money or dealing with the fact that he was finding himself sexually attracted to his new business partner. He stole another glance at you from your passenger seat as the fantasy he'd had the night before flashed through his mind, praying you wouldn't notice the tent forming in his jeans.
When you pulled into Chris' driveway, he thanked you again for the ride. "I can't believe I've been sober for eight hours," Chris mentioned, bouncing his leg as you parked. "No wonder you've been so uptight today," you teased him. "Maybe you should come smoke with me since you're always uptight," Chris smirked, nudging you in the arm with his elbow, but his offer was genuine.
You gave him an annoyed look, but you couldn't hold back the smile that spread across your lips. "I don't smoke weed, Chris. I haven't since I was a teenager," you replied, fidgeting with the material of your black steering wheel cover. "Why not?" Chris wondered, surprised by your admission. "I like being clear-headed. I don't like feeling out of control," you shrugged.
"We're on a floating rock in space, ma. The idea that you have control over anything is an illusion," Chris laughed, reaching for his door handle. "C'mon. Come inside. Do you drink? I've got a beer with your name on it if you wanna hang out with me for a little."
You were quiet for a second. It wasn't often that people invited you to hang out or just do something fun with them, and for a moment, you thought maybe you could use it. "I could stay for one beer," you responded hesitantly, nervously rubbing the back of your neck. "That's what I'm talking about, ma. Let your hair down once in a while," Chris replied, beaming with a smile.
You trailed behind him, staring down at your shoes as you followed the pattern of the stepping stones that led to his front door. "Oh, shit. I forgot my house key at Daisy's place," he sighed, running his finger through his hair. You rolled your eyes and crossed your arms over your chest. "Do you need me to take you to Daisy's place after all?" You huffed, slightly annoyed at the situation.
"Nah, it wouldn't do any good anyways. She's at work. Plus, this won't take long," Chris said, pulling a pin out of his pocket and fiddling with the lock. You nervously looked around, worried someone was going to see him picking his lock and call the cops or something, but in a matter of seconds, you heard a click, and you watched as he turned the knob. His door creaked open, and he glanced back at you with a mischevious smile.
"Okay, now you're just showing off," you replied, raising an eyebrow. "What can I say, ma? I'm good with my hands. Gotta show you my skillset somehow," Chris playfully winked at you. You scoffed, biting back a smile. A part of you liked the way he couldn't keep himself from making sexual innuendos and flirting with you.
"If you need me to pick a lock on a deal, though, you're splitting the money 50/50 with me," Chris told you, stepping into his living room. "What kind of shady shit do you think I'm up to, Chris? I'm just selling coke. Not robbing people," you joked, following him in. "You never know," Chris peeked back at you over his shoulder with a smirk on his face.
"This is it," he announced, raising his arms to present his place to you. It was a dimly-lit, relatively small place, but it had a safe, cozy vibe to it. "I like it," you told him, your eyes scanning them room. You noticed his sprouting marijuana plants in the corner sitting beneath his grow lights and an old shelf beside it that was littered with comic books and novels you'd never heard of.
His house faintly smelled of weed and sandalwood, like how Chris always smelled, and you found the familiar scent comforting as it wafted through the air. He directed you over towards his couch and motioned for you to sit. You sat down, awkwardly perching at the edge of the couch cushion.
"C'mon, ma. You can relax. Kick your feet up," he told you, heading over towards his fridge to give you that beer he promised you. You exhaled and slowly leaned back into his sofa that was much softer than you imagined it would be. Chris twisted the cap off the bottle and handed it to you. The red and white label that read Stella Artois stared back at you, and you hesitantly reached out and took it.
Chris plopped down on the couch beside you, and you watched as he sprinkled a bit of ground weed into his rolling paper. You peered down at his rings and his fingers at the way they skillfully handled the joint, tucking the paper in and folding it in on itself.
His gaze flickered up at you as his tongue darted out, and he licked a long, slow stripe across the edge of the joint. His lips curled into a suggestive smile as he noticed you watching him, but you acted unamused, pulling your eyes away from his. You held the bottle up to your lips, taking a small, refreshing sip, the bubbles fizzing against your tongue as you relaxed further into the comfy couch.
You peered down the hall to an open door at the end. The room was dark, but you imagined it was probably Chris' bedroom. You found yourself wondering what it looked like, how comfortable his bed was, and how hard it would be for you to keep your hands off of him if you ever found yourself alone with him in there.
"You coming?" Chris asked, pulling you out of your thoughts and standing to his feet as soon as you'd gotten comfortable. "Coming where?" You wondered, giving him a perplexed look. "To the roof. The view's great up there," Chris responded, making his way towards the back door.
You hesitantly followed him back out into the cool air of the backyard where he had a ladder propped up against the side of his house. "C'mon, ma. I'll hold your beer. You start climbing the ladder," Chris told you, extending his arm to take your bottle from you. "Yep. Just smoking and drinking on a roof. What could possibly go wrong?" You muttered under your breath as you wrapped your fingers around the cold, metal rungs.
"Don't worry, ma. I'll be right behind you, so if you fall, I'll catch you," Chris' breath tickled your neck as he pressed his warm body into yours. Your heart skipped a beat, and you felt your breath hitch in your throat. It was the closest you'd ever been to him. You were just glad you were faced away from him, so he couldn't see the unmistakable look of desire written in your expression as heat radiated off his skin.
You cleared your throat and regained your composure. "Is that your gun, or are you just happy to see me?" You snarked at him, peering over your shoulder in an attempt to take control of the situation again. Chris chuckled, but he didn't answer you, leaving it up for interpretation. You started to hesitantly climb the ladder, and Chris followed closely behind, keeping his promise to not let you fall as he held your beer in one hand and the unlit joint between his lips.
The two of you made it to the roof, and Chris handed you your beer once the two of you got settled. The star-filled sky hung overhead as you looked out at the horizon. You saw the tops of the other houses, the city lights scattered across the skyline, and the waves crashing on the beach shore off in the far distance. You brought your bottle of Stella Artois up to your lips and took another sip as you took in the view. There was something about this perspective that made your problems feel smaller and less pressing.
"Pretty cool, isn't it, ma?" Chris asked beside you as you heard the flick of his lighter sound as he held the flame up to the end of his joint. You quietly nodded, surprised by how much you could see from Chris' roof. "So, ma. What do you say we get to know each other better and play your favorite game, twenty questions?" Chris smiled over at you with the lit joint pinched between his two fingers.
You rolled your eyes, but you didn't have an excuse this time. There was no work to be done, and there was nowhere to go to avoid his questioning, so you took a deep breath and another swig of your drink. "Okay, fine. Hit me," you finally replied after a moment of hesitancy.
"Where do you go to clear your mind?" Chris wondered, his gaze locked on you. "The beach. I like the waves. The sounds of the seagulls. Feeling the sand between my toes. It's peaceful," you shrugged. Even though the question wasn't a very personal one, you felt vulnerable answering.
"What about you, Chris?" You wondered aloud. "You're looking at it," Chris said with his joint tucked between his lips. He didn't need to explain anything further. You could tell why this was the place he went to sort out his thoughts.
"Alright. What kind of music do you listen to?" You blurted out, not sure of what to ask him next. "Anything, really. But I prefer indie over everything else," he told you. "Okay, play me your favorite song," you told him, gesturing towards his phone he had sitting beside him. He picked it up, staring back at you as he thought about it for a moment. "Alright," he responded, scrolling through the saved albums on his phone until he came across AM by Arctic Monkeys. No. 1 Party Anthem started playing through the speaker of his phone, and you nodded in approval as the melody filled the space between you.
"If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would you choose?" Chris asked, turning off his phone screen and letting the song play softly in the background of your conversation. You thought about it for a moment. "See, I wanna say Pablo Escobar or something, but I think I'd want to have dinner with one of those druglords who flew under the radar so well that we don't even know their names," you replied. "Damn, ma. That's a good answer," Chris mumbled with the joint hanging from his lips.
He glanced up at you as if silently reminding you it was your turn to ask a question. "What did you think of me when you first met me?" You wondered aloud. You gave him a look like he should be careful about how answered this question. He cracked a smile, remembering the first time you'd approached him and threatened him for selling his weed on your block and trying to steal your customers. "I thought you were tough. Not the kind of woman you want to mess with. I also thought you were super hot," Chris admitted. You blushed, hoping Chris couldn't tell in the glow of the moon.
"What's one thing you don't leave the house without?" Chris asked you, pulling a long drag from his joint. "My keys," you sharply responded, subtly teasing him for having to break into his own place earlier. He let out a laugh. "And my gun," you told him. You sipped on your bubbly drink, noting that the song had changed.
Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High started to play as you glanced back over at the blue-eyed man beside you. "If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?" You asked, peeling the label off your beer bottle. "Nothing," Chris smirked over at you. "Nothing?" You reiterated, furrowing your brow. "Nothing," he repeated. "You're a little cocky, aren't you?" You shot back. "I prefer confident," Chris chuckled before he pulled from the joint again.
"What do you think the most important quality in a friend or partner is?" Chris asked after a few seconds of silence. "Honesty and loyalty," you said without hesitation, and Chris nodded in agreement. "You?" You asked. "Probably just someone who isn't going to bail when things get hard," Chris sincerely responded.
"What's your biggest fear?" You asked him, the questions getting deeper and deeper. "Losing the people I love," he answered, staring down at the build-up of ash on the cherry before flicking it off. "How about you, ma?" He returned the question. "Trusting the wrong person and getting hurt," you responded almost immediately. "I get that," Chris answered, his gaze still fixed on you.
"What's your guilty pleasure?" Chris asked you, his luscious lips curling into a smile as he awaited your response. "Probably those dumb reality shows," you admitted, your cheeks growing warm. "Really? Never took you for a girl who likes trash TV," Chris teasingly nudged your arm. "Daisy loves that shit, too."
"What's one of your guilty pleasures?" You asked Chris. He bit down on his lip as he looked you up and down. He knew what he wanted to say, but he knew it would be crossing the line of just playful flirting and venturing into uncharted territory, so he came up with something on the spot.
"Watching the trash TV with her. I'm always making fun of her for watching The Bacholorette and shit like that, but then I find myself watching it with her and getting all invested," Chris confessed.
"I totally get it. Like, I started watching it as a joke at first, and then you get to know the people. Then you start wanting them to end up together," you said, glancing up at him, and his eyes met yours. The song changed again, and you listened as the lyrics came through:
🎶 If you like your coffee hot, let me be your coffee pot. You call the shots, babe. I just wanna be yours. 🎶
The two of you stared at each other in a comfortable silence for a moment, Chris taking a puff of his weed as you took a swig of beer. "So, what does Daisy think you're out doing all day when you're working?" You wondered, raising an eyebrow at him. "As far as she knows, I work in sales, which isn't totally a lie. She just doesn't know about the drugs," Chris shrugged. "Yeah, she doesn't know about the most important detail," you scoffed, tapping on the glass of your bottle.
"Why are you always judging me for that, ma? I've got my reasons. Why are you so pressed about it?" He asked, sounding a bit defensive. "I had an ex who kept things from me, like how much money he owed certain people. He put me in a lot of dangerous situations. Don't want to watch you do the same shit to Daisy," you murmured, letting Chris in more than you had up until this point. "I didn't know, ma," Chris said, placing a reassuring hand on your shoulder and relaxing his jaw. "You know, I'd never intentionally hurt her. Or you."
"It doesn't matter, Chris. You can be the most well-intentioned person in the world and still hurt the people around you," you responded. He was quiet for a few minutes, mulling over what you said.
"Your ex? Alex?" Chris wondered, blowing out a cloud of smoke against the night sky as he recalled Joe using that name earlier. "Yeah. My dumb fuck ex. He got himself killed because he owed the wrong people money," you said in a dry tone. "Holy shit. Ma, I'm so sorry," Chris whispered. "Don't be. He deserved it," you muttered under your breath.
"Hey, I have a question. Why do you always call me ma?" You chimed in. "It's just a sign of respect. That's all," he shrugged. "Why? Does it bother you?"
"No. It's fine. I don't care what you call me. You gotta stop looking at me like that, though. Looking like you're gonna kiss me or some shit," you accused him, following his gaze that danced between your eyes and your lips as you took another drink of your beer. The song changed again.
🎶 How many secrets can you keep? 'Cause there's this tune I found that makes me think of you somehow, and I play it on repeat until I fall asleep. 🎶
"I'm not looking at you any type of way! Maybe you're projecting because you wanna kiss me," he shot back. The sexual tension between the two of you was thick, and for a moment, you each thought about it. The temptation was there, and it was strong. You wanted to pull him as close as you could, passionately press your lips against his, and tangle your fingers in his soft, brown hair, but you didn't want to ruin your business relationship with him.
Chris thought the same, wondering what it would be like to kiss you, but he didn't want to screw up what he had with Daisy, and he didn't want to give you the wrong impression. He diverted his eyes, glancing down at his joint that had burned down to the roach, and he put it out. "Get enough of the view, ma? I'm getting kind of tired," Chris chimed in as you admired his profile in the moonlight.
For a moment, you forgot he was talking about the scape of the city from the roof. "Oh, right. Yeah, of course. I should probably go," you said, fiddling with the empty bottle in your hand. "You can stay the night if you need to," Chris motioned towards the alcoholic beverage you'd finished off, but he knew he was playing with fire the moment the words left his mouth, inviting you to stay the night.
🎶 Do I wanna know if this feeling flows both ways? Sad to see you go, was sort of hoping that you'd stay. 🎶
The two of you exchanged a look like you both knew it wouldn't be a good idea. Even with you both sleeping in separate rooms, you each knew deep down that a closed door wouldn't be enough to deter you two from the temptation. "It's cool, Chris. It was just one beer. I'll just grab a glass of water, sit on your couch for twenty minutes, and I'll be fine to drive," you told him. Chris picked up his phone and paused the song. "I got you, ma. I'll help you down."
You felt elated once you were finally sitting back down on Chris' couch, sobering up. You weren't sure if it was a buzz from the alcohol, an adrenaline rush from being on the roof, or just the way you were starting to feel around Chris.
Chris gave you some crackers to help "absorb the alcohol," because he had "heard somewhere that it does," and even though you'd only had one beer, it was sweet that he cared enough. You also both just knew that you had to sober up, because staying the night wasn't an option unless you were both prepared to give into the force that was pulling the two of you together and end up doing something that could hurt Daisy or hurt your business relationship.
So you were munching away on Ritz crackers on Chris' couch after your single beer, and once you felt like the effects of the alcohol had worn off, you made a comment about how late it was getting and about how you should probably get going.
You left, following the same stepping stones you'd used when you walked up. When you approached your car, you reached into your empty pocket for your keys just to remember you'd left them on Chris' coffee table. "Shit," you whispered, realizing you were going to have to do a walk of shame back up to his front door after giving him shit for forgetting his keys earlier.
Chris had already started to get ready for bed, shedding his layers and slipping into a pair of flannel pajama pants when a soft knock sounded at his front door. He peeked through the peephole to make sure it was you, his heart racing and secretly wondering if you'd come back to kiss him or confess your feelings for him, his mind swirling with half a dozen possibilities.
He turned the doorknob, and when you saw him, your eyes were immediately drawn to the fact that he was shirtless. "Uh, sorry. I forgot my keys," you told him, unable to conceal your smile at the irony of the situation. "Oh, you mean, the keys you don't go anywhere without?" Chris asked, leaning against the door frame and indulging in the fact that you were doing nothing to hide the fact that you were checking him out.
"Yeah. Those ones," you smirked, biting down on your lip. "I'll go get 'em, ma," Chris chuckled at you as he turned to retrieve your keys. You found yourself holding your breath as your gaze danced over the definition of his back muscles in the soft lighting of his living room.
He handed them to you, and as you took them from him, his hand brushed against yours. You both exchanged a look that was heavy with the words unspoken between you, but you also both silently agreed it was for the best. "Okay, goodnight," you said, unconsciously batting your eyelashes at him. "Goodnight," Chris smirked, eyeing you up and down as you turned to walk away before closing his door again.
As soon as you made it to your car, you reflected on the way you acted and how stupid you must have sounded, silently kicking yourself. You didn't harp on it for long, though. Your embarrassment was quickly overshadowed by the intoxication and bliss you felt from being around such an attractive man who was beginning to make you smile more than he made you roll your eyes.
taglist: @skye-44 @faiyaz555 @idrk2292 @chrisclean @drewswife @trevorsgodmother @sofisturns @milo-the-dog @rockstarchr1s @bluetalia @xaristhings @nomusic-nodreams @birkinbratsworld @wastelandzella @bsturnzmtts @sturniolo-girl @theyluvme-2315 @jassturn @brookiecookie-18 @maggot3647 @slut4chriztopher @strnlslvr @sleepysturniolo @lvrsturniolo @sofieeeeex @imjusthereforthesturniolosmut @matts-myloverboy @witchofthehour @whoahoahoahoahoa @ilovechrissturniolosposts @smt-obsessed @sturnioloxlver @that1fangirll @hrtz4alex2211 @drewstarkeys @sp3ncerslvt @sturniolo-munch44 @jakewebberswifee @ssturniolooss @thenickgurl @sturniolo-fann @sst7niolo @babysturniolo @chestersturniolo @riowritesitall @camzeecorner @mattsturnixlo @annedebeijer @scorpioosworld @mattlover-00
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joemomrgneissguy · 1 day ago
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I have conflicting feelings on this.
Because, yes, third spaces have been diminished. Fear mongering over media consumption and the youth has been going on for thousands of years.
And there are good and valuable life giving things that come from being online and it makes sense for folks to participate in it and often.
Not all of our problems stem from phones, and it would be incredibly reductive to just say "phone bad" and be done with it.
But also I feel like most of my time online in recent years has not been spent in a good or healthy fashion. There are many instances where I leave the experience feeling hollow or somewhat braindead. And there are real, documented incentives for media companies to use every trick in the book to try and keep you captivated for however long is possible in order to sell more ad space. There is infrastructure in place to encourage addictive behavior. YouTube shorts feels like a skinner box, and I don't feel good after involuntarily binging videos for 14 hours.
I've felt good on the Internet and think it can be a force for good in the world, and believe that there isn't a realistic scenario where we move entirely away from it. But I feel like there is a disconnect between that theory and actual practice.
Then again, maybe it's some work I need to do, and nothing is wrong with how it's set up. Are companies working against me and thus lowering my quality of life? Or am I looking for a scapegoat for my own ruinous behavior?
Much to ponder there, I suppose.
I wish it was easier to talk about mobile phone addiction without sounding like a boomer
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sylus-doll · 24 hours ago
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Synopsis: Sylus has always lived a lonely life, unfamiliar with pleasant company. Being with you again is something he must get used to. He's learning how to, and so are you.
Warnings: Lowkey doesn't make sense because the author is exhausted but wanted to churn something out for you guys. Also mentions of blood. Might be a little angsty.
Author's note: I've gotten busy recently, so I won't be able to write as often. Sorry! I come bearing lowkey dependant Sylus. Comments and reblogs are appreciated! <3
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Throughout his life, Sylus has spent all his time alone. No one would count enemies as company, even if they do trail him and keep an eye on his every move. They were the ones who wanted to see him fall off his throne; cause and spectate his suffering. A walking target. Sure, he had Mephisto and the twins he took under his wing... But could a mechanical bird count as a friend? Or a pair of twins who work directly under him, following his commands? No, that is obedience.
Sylus did not have anyone to call his own. No one to trade secrets with or share his warmth. And in turn it has made him cold, self-reliant, for he cannot trust in another person. He had never learned how. But he takes comfort in the teachings he does know— the ones of his only love. Melodies dance in the air, a comforting tune. He attempts to hum along, taking pride in the fact that he is able to unlike the past. A respite he is allowed to have in this harsh world.
When the both of you are reunited— albeit, unknowingly on your part— Sylus is at a loss. He had thought that you, too, would remember the past just as he did. Yet you stare into his eyes with the guarded malice of a stranger. It is a gaze he should be used to by now. And he is... Just not from you. Where has his beloved's familiar softness gone? Only your fierce claws and teeth remain. Sylus does not know how to fix this. He was never taught to build relationships or tenderly lower defenses with the patience of a saint.
Your relationship is rocky at first; like oil and water. Both of your lives are completely different from the other. With the Hunter Association actively hunting down Sylus, whatever you have with him is illegal. Forbidden. Although... Surely they would not mind if you stuck around? Gathering intel for them could be useful in the future. This is fine, you are simply using him, you are not delusional. Humans have always desired for what they cannot have.
“You're sticking around for intel on Onychinus? Well then, be my guest. Don't be shy when using me.” Sylus's sardonic smile is etched into your mind.
He tells no one that being of use to you is the only way he knows how to keep you close to him.
Be disgusted, you will yourself. Be repulsed, resent him for all he has done and will do. You will only come to regret being so entangled with his life. This is insane and you are supposed to be a good, law-abiding citizen of Linkon. A hunter. Yet you cannot help feeling like prey— engulfed by a predator who kills and comes back to you with blood soaked hands. Most times, even his own. How will you ever learn to hate someone who learned to be vulnerable with you?
Over time, you start to notice that Sylus is quite... lonely. You are the only one who checks up on him, through text or call. The only one who visits, who teases and jokes, who surprises. You, you, you. Comfortable and happy with someone so dangerous. So of course he eventually craves your presence in your absence. Sylus will make up whatever excuse, put himself in any situation, just to be able to spend some time with you. When it ends, he is distraught.
“You're abandoning me when I'm no longer useful to you? Your skill in being heartless is assuring.” His tone is teasing, as always. But his eyes hold a far-off melancholy.
It feels as though your heart has been punctured with shattered pieces of a fragile thing.
“Abandon? You're sorely mistaken. Useful or not, you're stuck with me, you have no other choice.” You reach out, grabbing his hand.
Something new for Sylus to learn; that you will not throw him away when he does not serve any purpose to you. You are his companion— his beloved who cares for and loves him. Not because you owe him or as an obligation. Simply because you do. And you are both still learning. It will be okay. Having each other means neither of you will ever have to face the cruelties of this world alone.
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sturnslutz · 18 hours ago
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berry goes to matt's house for a little "tutoring session."
warnings: weed smoking, shotgunning, making out, grinding/dry humping, no actual p in v, basically sub matt, use of “mama”
the drive to matt's house didn't take very long. he insisted earlier in class that he could come pick you up in his brand new family van they recently got, but you denied politely as you had to do a couple errands for your aunt before seeing matt.
a couple textbooks and your laptop filled your passenger seat alongside your purse and whatever you needed. you didn't know if matt smoked or not, chris did, but you didn't really expect matt to. you brought a couple blunts just in case.
you sent matt a small message stating you got to his house as you knocked the door three times softly. he hearted it before shortly arriving after to the door. his face flushed a soft red as he smiled at you softly, muttering a small "hi."
"hey, matt. just you home?"
matt opened the door wider for you to come in, which you did. looking around, it looked a lot more normal then your house did which was filled with bright colors and aesthetics that you and your aunt love.
"yeah, my parents are at work and chris and nick are out somewhere, i'on really know." he said softly as he shut the door. he trailed behind you as you started exploring and walking around, which he made no effort to stop you, but was rather intrigued.
"sorry it's not much. our house is kinda boring." he said as he scratched the back of his neck, a bit worried you were going to judge him. did he really think you were like that? he couldn't help himself but inhale the trail of strawberry perfume filling the air around the both of you.
you stopped your movements abruptly, which almost made matt bump into you. "matt, do you think i'm a horrible person or something? i love your house, no matter what. i'm actually quite fascinated with it. i've never been in a house which wasn't maximalist to the max, or filled with a range of every color. i like this simple look."
he searched your face for any hint you were lying, but your big eyes just looked up at him with the most genuine honesty. he smiled softly, looking away and running a hand through his hair. "thank you. i really appreciate it. do you wanna head up to my room now? i think you'll like it a lot."
you face brightened even more at the thought, eliciting a big smile across your face. "yes, of course! lead the way.” he nodded and turned, beginning to walk to the staircase as you followed after him.
his room was the complete opposite of what you thought it was. it was filled to the brim with comic posters, action figures, legos of every universe, so many stuffed animals, and everything matt couldn't express in words, but rather filled his thoughts.
"sorry, it's a lot. it's really nerdy too." he said softly, his voice shaking a bit. you looked around the room in awe, genuinely surprised he's embarrassed by this. you would love to have a room like this.
"it's not, at all. i actually love it so much. its so you. i like being able to see what you're interests are." he smiled again softly, his blue eyes scrunching up in his glasses as he ran a hand through his hair, again.
"thank you, berry. i really appreciate that. so, do you wanna start studying?" he sits down on his bed, sitting in a criss-cross position as he looked up at you through those damn glasses that you adored. he looked so hot like this.
"yep. i brought some papers i need to finish." you sat down, tossing your shoes off and sitting in the same position as him, but across him as you grabbed your bag, dumping it. his eyes skimmed through the papers, but noticed something he didn't expect.
two blunts sitting right next to each other.
you saw him look at them, and you chuckled softly. "didn't know if you smoked or not, but they help me relax and study better. thought i could smoke one here, if you're cool with it."
he looked up at you again, nodding a bit. "y-yeah sure, i don't mind. do you think it'll make my room smell?" he asked a bit nervously. his parents knew that chris smoked to help with his adhd, but he didn't want them to think he did it also.
you nodded, picking them up and looking for the lighter through your papers. "yeah, probably because it's a blunt and not a cart, those don't smell as much. but don't worry i got some perfume that makes the weed smell basically disappear."
his face seemed to understand but also didn't. "a cart- whats that?"
you laughed a bit again, rubbing his knee. "nothing you need to worry about." he nodded again, now directing his attention to a couple of your papers, trying to understand what he actually needed to help you on.
what he didn't notice though, was you holding one of the blunts up to your mouth and lighting it, and when he did, it was when you blew the smoke towards him causing him to cough a bit. "shit- sorry baby. are you okay?" he nodded, his coughing wearing down. what caught him again off guard was the name you called him. baby.
"yeah, i'm okay." you took another hit, now redirecting it to the door area before looking down at the papers. he seemed to notice your calmer demeanor and wondered if the weed actually did make you focus better.
he didn't notice himself staring at the blunt that was fiddling in between your fingers, but you did. "wanna hit?" his attention came back to you as his eyes opened a bit wide. "what? no-no. well maybe? i don't know how to!" he panicked a bit, making you laugh.
"you don't have to hit it. i'll help. you ever heard of shotgunning?" you take another hit, a smaller one now to help preserve it. "like the chugging beer thing?"
"well, yes. that's also shotgunning, but there's another kind. it's where i take a hit, but blow it into your mouth then you inhale and let it out. it'll get you high also."
knowledge of smoking was not something matt ever thought he would be learning, but he wasn't really complaining.
"oh-okay. yeah, we can do it." he said, waiting for the rest of your instruction. you smiled, moving the papers off the bed as you handed him the blunt to hold, so you wouldn't burn yourself. you sat back up right, taking the blunt back into your hand.
"okay, just relax, lemme do what i need to do. also, can i straddle you? it helps me actually do it right." he was taken aback a bit at the thought of you actually getting on top of him, but nodded. "y-yeah. sure. go ahead." he leaned back into the bed more as he stretched out his legs and you climbed on top of him, right above his cock.
he was praying that he wouldn't get a boner as he knew you would feel it, so tried to look elsewhere, now fairly interested in his poster of pokemon he got when he was 11.
you chuckled a bit, grabbing his face in your left hand, redirecting his face towards you. "it's not gonna work if you're not actually looking at me, matt." he muttered a small "sorry" as you lifted the blunt to your lips, taking a big hit before leaning down.
your lips touched his as he let out a soft gasp, allowing you to blow the smoke into his mouth. once you blew most of it in, you leaned back up, watching his face. "inhale, good, now exhale." he did exactly as you said, but letting out harsh coughs in result.
you smiled at him as he finally regained his breath, looking up at you. his face was flushed as a cherry, but he laughed a bit. "that was my first kiss." he softly admitted, but this time not taking his eyes off you.
"really? wanna have another?" you smirked as you leaned back down, putting the blunt back in between your lips as you let out a puff of smoke, filling the air once around you both again. you finally had finished it, burying it's end into the table next to his bed as he nodded.
you leaned back all the way down, reconnecting your lips with his. he was very patient with it and being gentle. he let his hands fall to your hips as the kisses deepened, a very noticeable poke in between your thighs now.
your tongue made it's way into his mouth, matt happily accepting it. for what was his first kiss, he sure was good at it. you couldn't help but notice the ache in between your thighs, right where matt was. you started absentmindedly grinding against him, causing matt to moan into your mouth as you smirked and pulled away, a string of saliva connecting the both of you still. his flushed face and lopsided glasses made you even wetter than before.
"y'ever had a girl do this to you before, baby?" you tease him a bit, obviously knowing his answer. he shakes his head softly, burying his forehead in your neck. "n-no." "feel good, huh?" he whined softly as your hand reached to his head, gently pulling his hair. "mm-mhm."
"need words, matt." you tug a bit harder on his strands, causing a even louder whine to come from his throat. "yes, feels good." you nodded, grabbing his head out of your neck and softly pushing it back down on the pillow as you kiss him again.
this time, he was more hungry. his kisses were intense, like he was trying to kiss you deeper despite the minimal space between the both of you.
grinding against him was easy, his boner was very evident through his sweatpants, and you grinding against him gave him pleasure he never knew could erupt in him.
“fuck- mama, i’m close” he whimpered a bit softly as his hands gripped your ass through your pants, his hands roaming every inch he could. “yeah? cum for me, matt. i’m right here behind you.” you moaned softly as your head fell against his chest.
you pushed your hips closer to his, your movements minimal but rather putting pressure on his covered cock and your covered ache.
“fuck! berry!” he whimpered loudly as a warm spot filled the space between you two. you looked down as the dark grey spot grew larger with every twitch of his cock in his pants.
“i’m almost there, matty. can you cum again?” his fucked-out look without actually being in you, was so hot. you don’t know when, but he took off his glasses and set them aside, now allowing you to see his slightly red, dilated big blue eyes perfectly.
you don’t know if it’s the high, but just looking at him made you cum faster against him than you expected. your orgasm came as a surprise for you, loud moans coming from your mouth as your head falls against his chest.
he came for the 2nd time right after. moans and strangled whimpers fall from his mouth, filling the room with even more pretty sounds. as you both caught your breath, you rested against his chest, as his fingers played with your hair a bit.
your clothes sticking to you because of the sweat made you ick and he could tell you felt like this from your movements, almost trying to take it off.
“do you want me to get you some new clothes? i need to change anyways.” he whispers to you softly. a nod comes from you as you roll off him, flopping to the other side. his pants had a very evident dark grey area from the combination of your liquids flowing through your clothing.
a small chuckle falls from him as he looks down. he stands up, but his legs are wobbly, causing him to fall back on the bed. “what the hell?” he mutters a bit as his legs become a bit tingly.
“just relax a bit more, this was probably the first orgasm you had that actually made your body feel different, right?” you whisper a bit as you rub his arm a bit.
he hums a bit and nods, taking your advice. once he finally felt like he could stand properly, he walked carefully to his dresser. he pulled out 2 of his shirts, and 2 new pairs of sweats, and 2 new pairs of boxers.
“i don’t have any underwear so are boxers okay?” he walks over and hands the clothing to you as you hand him his glasses, immediately bringing back his vision.
“yeah, thank you matt.” he nods a bit as he walks out of his room, changing in the bathroom. you stood up and changed into his slightly oversized clothing, but extremely comfortable.
he knocks a couple times against the door as you allow him to come in. you were already laying back down in his bed, and his heart swoons seeing you in his clothing. he lays down next to you, fiddling with his fingers a bit.
“do you want to study a bit more?” he asks randomly, causing you to laugh loudly.
“didn’t we learn enough? we’ll just do it later.” he nods, understanding. both of your thoughts are interrupted at the sound of the front door opening, and chris and nick’s voices flowing through the house.
matt looks at you with worry in his eyes, but you rub his arm, helping him relax. “don’t worry, just relax. can i stay over? it’ll help me give them a better reasoning as to why im in your clothes.”
he nods immediately. “sure. of course. i’m sure my parents won’t mind. what about yours?”
“nah, my aunt won’t care. i live with her right now. sometimes i go to my parents’ house in upstate.” you explain to him as a knock comes through the door. “hey matt? you home, man?”
chris’s voice is heard as matt stiffens up once again. “just chill.” he lets out a breath as he talks. “yeah, i’m here.” and that lets chris in. his eyes immediately fall to matt, but then look to you as he gasps a bit.
“matt’s here, and berry’s here… in matt’s room? what the hell…?” it was clear chris was a bit high just like you and matt. the scent of weed also hits chris’s nose as he lets out another question. “were you guys smoking?”
“hey, chris. i came because he was tutoring me, and i smoked a bit because you know how it helps me study better. it’s getting late so matt told me i can stay here, and he allowed me to be in his clothes.”
chris nods slowly, but seemingly understands. “ight. mom and dad are staying at aunt cathy’s house tonight, so it’s just the 4 of us tonight, okay?”
his sight goes between you and matt as both you and matt nod. “okay, i got another blunt for later if you and nick wanna smoke it with us.” chris nodded at you, glancing out matt’s window. “hell yeah, but when it gets a bit darker out. so like 10? it’s saturday tomorrow so we’re good.”
you look at matt for a confirmation to which he nods, once again. “yeah, okay.” he says softly. chris walks out, and you plop back down next to matt, rubbing his shoulder. “you okay?” he smiles and hums. “yeah, i’m good. that felt really good.”
“i’m glad. dry humping is good, but actual sex is amazing. we aren’t there yet though.” his eyes widen a bit at the thought of actually having sex, but relaxed a bit at your reassurance.
“mhm- okay.” you smile again, rubbing his cheek a bit. “let’s take a nap before you we have to spend the whole night with energetic nick and chris.”
he laughs, nodding. he dips his head into your neck, wrapping his arm around your waist, holding you tight. he knew you two weren’t official and didn’t know if you’d actually ever be, but he knew he trusted you.
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lemonlinelights · 1 day ago
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@dialup-dragon YES HI HELLO!!!!!!!! The can has been opened I hope you like worms XD
The diva's name is The Question aka Vic Sage My Beloved. He's my favorite superhero like EVER in DC and Marvel I love him so much. I can say like SO MANY THINGS ABOUT HIM!!! Idk where to start UHHH the other person in the art is Huntress aka Helena Bertinelli she's a badass character with a lot of cool stories of her own. Cause it's ya know ✨comics✨ it depends on what you're reading/watching but they're sometimes lovers and I love them together so much.
The Question is from DC comics and he's from Hub Cap City which like a lot of cities in DC comics is corrupted and full of crime.
Vic DOES have a face! He just has a special mask that makes it look like he doesn't. The mask is weirdly very important in the start of his alter ego. He uses a gas to take the mask on and off and it also changes his hair color in the process. His skill set is martial arts and his detective skills. but later on he sort of starts to be able to communicate with cities? And also understand coincidences, comic book logic lol.
Uhh I'm trying to keep this short without going into an essay XD
For awhile his main struggle was seeing things strictly in black and white, until he's basically beaten to death by Lady Shiva which starts his entire journey into morals and learning that not everything is what it seems (I've a post that explains this a lot better hopefully I can find it) A LOT of other stuff also happens, many tragedies and character growth as is the life of a comic book superhero. Skipping all his dramatic adventures Vic eventually dies from lung cancer, and his successor is someone who he's been training-
Renee Montoya! She is AWESOME! I don't know her as well yet but she's amazing as The Question I love her. While Vic is alive their dynamic together is SO fun and Renee on her own is also neat. Again comics so the story changes a bit but shes a former cop struggling with alcoholism and her girlfriend leaving her when Vic enters her life giving her something to work for again. Renee usually has a relationship with Kate Kane (Batwoman) and I love it just wkhxenhdben💕
So yes there's two Questions, sometimes at the same time! Vic Sage has some appearances  in Justice League Unlimited that a fun watch. He and Huntress are together in it <3
They're my beloveds I love them a lot. I think it's mainly their personalities that draw me in a lot of the time. They're entertaining :-) ✨Divas✨
Uhhh also at some point when the universe got rebooted (this is usually done once the comics get too complicated even for the creators) they tried giving The Question a fresh coat of paint by making him a cursed guy who will be able to solve other people's Questions but never answer the biggest one, his own identity. Also this version doesn't actually HAVE a face he legit has no face. The version also has some superpowers? It didn't last long though and I think they've just been ignoring it. So uh yeah we ignore that one.
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A whole bunch of JLU Question doodles
Shout out to these comments that changed how I saw certain scenes + Jeffrey Combs' entire performance (his voice is so goodd)
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Adding another compulsive nerd to my "favourite compulsive nerd characters" collection
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fkinkindagauche · 2 days ago
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Somebody Has to Arrange the Matches
This is a prompt fill for @steddiebingo Round One, prompt "Dustin Henderson". Full fic on AO3.
Rating: Explicit | WC: 5,398 | CW: None | Tags: Dustin Henderson parent trap, gay Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington speed runs his sexuality crisis, first kiss, mutual pining, friends to lovers, frottage
Summary: Dustin is adamant that Eddie Munson deserves to find love, after all he's been through. Once Dustin figures out some things about Eddie, he gets to work making it happen.
divider by @steddiecameraroll-graphics
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Eddie was being cagey again.
It had become Dustin's personal mission now that Eddie was out of the hospital to get the man a girlfriend. As far as Dustin could tell from his probing questions to the Corroded Coffin guys, Eddie had never had a girlfriend, which was honestly shocking to Dustin. Sure, Eddie could be pretty over the top, but everyone liked him. And it wasn't like he was ugly. So he must just be too shy or something. Dustin wanted to help.
Dustin currently had him cornered in Gareth's garage, away from the rest of the group. They'd just finished a D&D session at Gareth's house, with a Corroded Coffin practice scheduled after. Dustin, Lucas, Mike, and Will were waiting for Steve to pick them up before the practice started. Dustin was doing his utmost to get Eddie to go out with one of Robin's band geek friends, but Eddie was resisting all of his attempts.
"Henderson, no." Eddie sounded exactly like Steve did after Dustin had asked for a ride about ten times, trying to get a no to magically change to a yes. "I'm not going to ask Veronica out."
"Why not?" Dustin asked, voice raised. "She's a huge nerd, she flirts with you, like, non-stop, and she's hot."
Eddie sighed. "I'm just not into her."
Dustin groaned, tugging his hands through his hair in frustration. "Are you into anyone? Every time I bring someone up, you shoot the option down."
"Well, I don't like your options, bud. They're not good options."
"That's objectively false!" Dustin yelled. "Most guys would kill for some of the options I've presented!" Why did Eddie have to be like this?
"How can it be objectively false?" Eddie shot back. "It's literally my opinion. The definition of subjective."
Dustin glared at him. He hated when Eddie tried to outsmart him. He hated how often it worked. Steve drove up just as Dustin was opening his mouth for a rebuttal.
"Thank the fucking Lord," Eddie muttered. "Please take this young whippersnapper off of my hands before I kill him," Eddie yelled to Steve when he got out of his car.
"Oh, great," Steve said. "Can't wait to spend the next 15 minutes with a feisty Henderson in my car."
God, they were both such turds sometimes. Dustin sighed loudly and stomped over to Steve's car. "This isn't over, Munson!" he called over his shoulder. Eddie flipped him off in response.
He grabbed the passenger seat before Mike, Lucas, or Will even made it to the car, much to their chagrin. Steve chatted with Eddie for a few moments, Eddie leaning into his space as per usual, slinging an arm over Steve's shoulder.
Dustin leaned over and honked the horn.
"Really, Dustin?" Steve yelled, hands on his hips.
"Some of us have places to be!" Dustin yelled back.
"Where do you have to be?" Lucas asked from the backseat.
Dustin shrugged. "It's the principle of the thing."
Steve spent a few more moments talking to Eddie, probably just to piss Dustin off, then came back to the car.
Dustin gave Steve 30 seconds to adjust, watching the time tick by on his watch. He'd been told off one too many times for immediately starting an interrogation, so this was his compromise with the world. As soon as his watch hit the 30 second mark, he started in.
"So why doesn't Eddie ever date anyone?" Dustin asked, talking over whatever conversation Mike and Will had been having in the back.
Steve glanced at Dustin with a confused expression on his face. "What?"
"From the intel I've gathered, Eddie's never had a girlfriend," Dustin said. "He turns down all of my suggestions for potential dates. But if anyone deserves a girlfriend, it's him. He's, like, a hero. I want to help him find his Suzie."
"Excuse me, what am I? Chopped liver?" Steve interjected. "Why aren't you trying to find me a girlfriend?"
Dustin rolled his eyes. "You've had a million girlfriends, Steve. Give some of the other poor dudes a chance."
"Yeah, Steve. You're kind of hogging the eligible young women of Hawkins," Mike piped up from the back seat.
"I haven't had a girlfriend since Nancy," Steve protested.
"But you do still get around," Dustin insisted.
"Whatever, man." Steve shook his head. "Why don't you let Eddie do his own thing? Maybe he's just picky."
Dustin crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back, not responding. Steve was wrong. Eddie deserved his own Suzie. And Dustin wasn't going to give up on helping him find her.
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"So I saw this girl the other day at the arcade," Dustin started. He and Eddie were at the trailer, painting some miniatures. It was his mom's night working late, and Dustin had started spending it with either Eddie or Steve on alternating weeks.
Eddie groaned. "Not again, Henderson. Can't we go, like, one day without this shit?"
"But Eddie! I think you'd really like her. She had a mohawk. Dyed pink. And her nose was pierced."
Eddie dropped his head into his hands, smearing some red paint on his cheek. He stayed that way for a few moments, quieter for much longer than usual. Dustin worried for a moment that he might have broken him. When Eddie finally looked up, his face was serious in a way it almost never was. He reached out for Dustin's hand.
"Dustin. I'm about to tell you something, and you cannot freak out about it. And you can't tell anyone else about it, either. Am I clear?" Usually, Dustin would have thought a joke was coming after an intro like that from Eddie. But he seemed completely earnest this time, so Dustin actually considered what he'd asked.
"What about Suzie?" Dustin asked. "Can I tell Suzie?"
Eddie sighed. "Yeah, you can tell Suzie."
"Alright," Dustin said. "I agree to your terms. No freak out, no telling anyone other than Suzie."
Eddie nodded. "Okay." He took a deep breath and looked away. "I'm gay, Dustin."
It took Dustin a second for his brain to parse what he'd just heard. Eddie. Heavy metal band member, dungeon master Eddie.
"I'm sorry, you're what?" Dustin squeaked. He must have misheard.
"I'm gay," Eddie repeated. "Queer, fruity, a homo, a friend of Dorothy, a fairy. I like men. That's why none of your options have sounded remotely appealing to me. That's why I've never had a girlfriend."
Dustin sat back in his chair, stunned. A lot of things were making sense now.
"Oooookay," Dustin said, nodding. So now he had to find Eddie a boyfriend. More difficult, but he liked a challenge. "So what's your type? We can find you a boyfriend."
Eddie barked out a laugh, throwing his head back. He looked relieved. "Are you serious? That's your only question, what's my type?"
"Of course that's not my only question, who do you think I am?" Dustin was a little offended. "That's just my most pressing question."
"I think this is the best response I've gotten so far to coming out," Eddie said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair.
Dustin felt pretty good about that. "Well? Are you gonna answer?"
Eddie chuckled. "I should've known this wouldn't make you give up your weird crusade." He pulled a few strands of hair in front of his mouth, chewing on the ends while he thought. "My type? I'm not totally sure, honestly, haven't had much of a chance to find out, living in Hawkins. I guess probably my height or maybe shorter, but not much taller. On the masculine side of things, almost the jock physique. Hairy. Brunette."
Dustin nodded after each characteristic, mentally taking note. "Those are all physical things. What about personality?"
Eddie had to think a little harder about that one, looking into the distance. "Um. Kinda goofy, I guess? Not too macho. Sense of humor." Eddie trailed off and looked at Dustin sharply. "Henderson, if you go around asking the men of Hawkins if they're queer so you can try to find a date for me, you're gonna get beat to shit."
Dustin held up his hands. "You really think I'm that stupid? Give me some credit here, Eddie."
"You have a track record of failing to read the room, man," Eddie pointed out.
That absolutely wasn't true. Dustin was very tactful. He could be quite subtle when he wanted to be. Eddie just never got to see that side of him.
"I'll be careful," Dustin insisted. "I'm not gonna ask anyone if they're gay."
"Alright," Eddie said, but he didn't look convinced. Dustin would show him.
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The idea hit Dustin the next week, when he was spending his mom's late work night with Steve. They were out by the pool, and Steve's hairy chest was on full display, with all of its muscles. Dustin had Suzie, and she didn't want him to be muscular, but sometimes when he saw Steve's chest he couldn't deny the twinge of jealously.
Hairy. Muscular jock physique. Something was tickling at the back of Dustin's mind. Brunette. What was that? About as tall as Eddie.
Oh shit. Dustin dropped his Dr. Pepper as Steve yelled "COWABUNGA" and did a cannonball into the water. Kinda goofy.
It was Steve. Eddie had basically been describing Steve. Did Eddie even know? Had he been secretly pining after Steve this whole time? Or was it still subconscious?
Holy shit. But Steve liked girls. How was Dustin gonna make this work? Did he need to find a Steve doppelganger somewhere who was gay?
Steve popped out of the water, shaking his hair. He looked up at Dustin and the Dr. Pepper spilled all over the patio. "Everything alright there?" Steve asked. "You look like you saw a ghost."
Dustin nodded. "I- I'm good. Everything's fine!"
Steve shrugged and dove back under the water.
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Dustin did some research over the next few days. If he was going to find a gay Steve doppelganger for Eddie, he needed to understand the culture - where he could find other queer people, the types of phrases they used to identify each other without being too blatant, that kind of stuff.
He tried finding books at the library, but came up empty-handed and probably on some sort of list the librarian kept of degenerates. So he had to resort to asking Eddie where he got all his information.
"Why do you wanna know?" Eddie asked with a suspicious glare.
"I just wanna understand you, man!" Dustin insisted, putting on his most innocent expression. "You're my friend, I wanna know what's going on with you."
Eddie reluctantly handed Dustin some zines he'd picked up in Indianapolis. "None of the raunchy stuff," Eddie said. "I'm not getting arrested for dealing gay pornography to minors."
Dustin made a disgusted face. "You could have just… not told me you even had raunchy stuff."
Eddie shrugged. "Where's the fun in that?"
Dustin spent hours that night poring over the zines, learning the lingo. He discovered an incredibly interesting fact in one of the zines - the existence of bisexuality. You could like both men and women. You didn't have to be either gay or straight.
This fact blew Dustin's mind, and the seeds of a different plan took root. What if Steve was bisexual, and he didn't even know it? That would be the easiest, most logical solution to the Eddie problem. Steve was Eddie's type; so what if Eddie was also Steve's type?
He talked about it with Suzie the following evening. She'd been shocked to learn that Eddie was gay. Mormons weren't exactly accepting of homosexuality. But she'd always played a little fast and loose with certain aspects of Mormonism, so Dustin was able to bring her around to the idea eventually.
"I don't know, Dusty Buns," she said as they were discussing his idea about Steve. "I don't think you can just make someone be bisexual."
"I'm not gonna make him be bisexual," Dustin insisted. "I'm just gonna try to show him that he already is."
"But what if he isn't?" she shot back.
"Then I'll go back to the doppelganger plan," he said with a sigh. "But I have to try. This is the simplest solution. Occam's razor."
"Dusty Buns, you know you're not using that correctly right now," Suzie scolded.
Dustin sighed. She never let him get away with anything.
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Dustin paid a lot more attention to Steve and Eddie's interactions over the next few weeks. Now that he knew Eddie was gay, he couldn't believe he'd missed the signs pointing to his crush on Steve.
Eddie gravitated to Steve like a moth to a flame. It was like he had some sort of Steve-related sixth sense, his head immediately turning toward Steve whenever the man walked into a room.
He was a tactile guy with everyone, but whenever Steve was around, it was always Steve that Eddie was touching. Every time Dustin looked at the two of them, Eddie had a hand somewhere on Steve - slung around his shoulders, resting on one of his arms, brushing against one of his legs to get his attention.
Steve didn't seem to mind at all. He leaned into the physical contact, touching Eddie back almost as often as he was touched. They smiled at each other all the time. They got each other drinks and snacks and just in general acted like a goddamn couple. How had Dustin missed this?
He was gonna need to accelerate his timeline. These idiots needed to get together ASAP.
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Read the rest of the fic on AO3.
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luffydotcom · 3 days ago
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sharing their interests
synopsis: what happens you have the same interests as them (sword-fighting and cooking)
feat: zoro and sanji
notes: could've included the other characters for this, but i feel like for zoro and sanji this would work best!! i've honestly ALWAYS wanted to learn to use a sword. also don't mind how i can't write a fight scene to save myself 💔
also i will make a masterlist soon i just barely have any posts right now RAH
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zoro
ZORO has lived by the ways of the blade his whole life. he eats, sleeps and breathes his training, and takes pride in his abilities. but for him its more than just a display of strength, and not limited to protecting others, but what he enjoys doing the most - he wants to become the greatest there is after all - so he is genuinely passionate about it.
so one day, when the crew stops by a marketplace on a new island, and you take keen interest in a display of swords, he is very much intrigued that it also caught your attention. even he can't help admiring the designs of the swords, despite being perfectly happy with his own.
"i didn't know that you were interested in this sort of thing," he folds his arms, looking down at where you're squatted.
"i have learnt how to sword-fight in the past... but i wouldn't exactly call myself a pro," you tell him as you trace your finger over the blade, careful sure not to cut yourself. "even though it's been a while, i still enjoy it and admire people who are great at it."
zoro quickly looks away just for a second, before looking back with a small smirk. "is that so? i want to see for myself." he tried to hide his interest in seeing the skills you claimed to have had.
"i guess i could try, but i'm probably rusty now and these swords are pretty expensive." you sigh as you stand up and face him.
before zoro could argue, you hear loud voices chanting not too far away from you both. you and zoro turn your heads to see some marines not too far away, obviously having recognised you both, charging faster in your direction with weapons in their hands.
zoro was quick to draw out his swords and fight, however you had an idea, and a highly impulsive one. you quickly snatch one of the swords from the display, much to the dismay of the stall's owner as you let out a short "sorry, but i need to borrow this!" and follow zoro into the fight.
with all your strength, and despite how unsure you were of yourself, you grip the sword tightly and slice the marines, making them fall onto the ground and heave in pain, then turn around to fight off the rest that are behind you. having been victorious, and seeing them on the ground, you laugh, pleasantly surprised at yourself. from the corner of your eye, you catch zoro smiling at your show as he deals with the last marine.
after that day, zoro now felt a new level of respect, but also admiration of you, stunned that you also had an interest and talent in the same thing as him. he even bought you the sword that you had used, which nami wasn't too happy about at first, but he wanted to see you in action again, better if by his side.
he mentally made note to ask you to train with him one day and even show you techniques that you might be interested in - he's excited to have a sparring partner to practice with!
sanji
cooking is SANJI'S whole life, it was his very first love and he would never trade it for the world. he loves the feeling of making and serving food to hungry people with a smile, even if he's the only one doing it on the ship.
when sanji discovers that you have a knack and enjoyment for cooking yourself, his love and admiration for you grows tenfold.
after returning to the sunny with groceries for dinner, sanji notices a heavenly smell coming from the kitchen. he knows it can't be luffy - he would never be able to make food smell that good without burning the kitchen down. when he opens the door, he is surprised to see you busying yourself rolling dough and pressing it into shapes, while something is baking in the oven.
"mon chéri, are you making something?" he sets the shopping down on the counter and comes to inspect what you're doing.
"yes, luffy was getting hungry and you weren't here, so i decided to make pastries for us all to share," you indicated to what was baking in the oven. "sorry, i didn't want to use the kitchen without asking you, but i didn't want luffy to wreak havoc with his hunger..."
"it's no problem, love," he smiles warmly, then glances at the pastries you're moulding, each in pristine and neat shape. "they look amazing, i didn't know you were so experienced!"
you laugh quietly. "i love cooking so much - and baking - but i love your cooking much more."
sanji flushes for a second, taken aback by the sincerity in your compliment, but also your modesty. "you should've told me sooner, dear. and you don't need to ask to use the kitchen - in fact, i'd love it if we cooked together."
after the rest of the crew joins you both and share the finished pastries together, sanji feels so happy that he's discovered that he has a common interest with someone in the crew, especially because it's his number one passion!
that same night, after you tell him about how much you love cooking and what you've made in the past, he practically begs you to cook dinner with him - not because he can't manage on his own, but he knows it would be more fun if he was doing it with someone who is also passionate as he is. after, he even lets you borrow his favourite cookbooks, lets you in on his best recipes, and makes it a personal mission to cook with you more!
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fluffmonger · 7 hours ago
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So, in my experience growing up as a deeply curious child in an Evangelical (tm) church..... We *did* read the Bible, we had Sunday school, and Bible studies, all kinds of things. My church used the New International Version as a standard, which keeps some of the poetics of King James, but is a lot clearer and cleaner to read, more modern English. Reading the Bible wasn't the issue at hand.
What we weren't taught was how to interpret the Bible in Context, as a document that was written by historic humans in historic societies and cultures, across several hundred years. There's... Depending on the church, and pastor or Bible study, you may get some emphasis on the difference between the gospels and the letters, or a rundown of the "parts" of the old testament ... But that's usually it. There's no digging into it, and absolutely no questioning. There's very little, if any, acknowledgement that it is in fact, a bunch of separate texts all compiled by a small group of Christians, decades or more after the death of Jesus. To many Christians, I'd wager it feels like the Bible just appeared fully formed out of the air one day, as their holy book. And of course you can't question it, it's *the word of God* so it has to be correct and right, and if you question you're Doubting and not Having Faith (etc).
I hadn't connected the fact that many of the writings of Paul, and John the Revelator were done in the Reign of Emperor Nero until recently, when my classicist partner saw the dates and went "wait what". And if you know anything about Nero well..... Is it any wonder that Paul might have some Concerns about things like morality, and public display of faith and other things? And again! I'm someone who was asking questions and such, all the time, even back then. I was deeply nerdy about it and trying to read it like I read in English class. This made me..... Unpopular. And also felt kind of blasphemous? Like, I always felt odd about that approach while I was in the middle of it because it was *not* standard.
Likewise, a lot of the old testament gets written off as "a collection of stories" and treated more like.... Parables or fables?? Instead of a written collection of Jewish oral history about their history, laws, traditions, and culture. It's all set vaugely "in the past, in Bible times" without any rooting to real history or landscapes or cultures. And of course, because the Bible is all that matters, most Protestants and evangelicals don't think at all about any of the scholarship that goes back millennia on any part of it, the writings of Rabis and later on Christian scholars. The Bible as I was taught, wasn't a living document or a record, it wasn't something to be debated about or argued with, or even questioned, no matter how weird it outdated it seemed. It was *law*, ironclad, and to the claims of many, perfect as is (despite being a work in translation with a lot of nuance and no understanding of translators bias or how a translation should work).
It's.... Pretty fucking dire, and horrific, especially to me now, because the things I've learned about the time periods that the Bible is from? Are actually fascinating, and make it *so* much richer as a text! And then understanding the world of early Christianity, how it became what it is today, how those beliefs and practices became established.... Man, it's fascinating. But again, there's this culture of "Christianity has always been like this and will always be like this" that's very present in those spaces that make it really hard to gain sight of it all.
And... Of course at the end of the day.... The reason people like me didn't realize some of this, is because we weren't told. We werent given the tools to ask the questions we needed to. You can't explore what you don't even know exists, and when you're just told that we don't associate with "those people" and are discouraged from thinking about other faiths except to convert them..... Well.
So yeah. It's not (just) that people don't have reading comprehension.... It's also that they quite literally arent taught the context and origins of their faith for.... Reasons. Also, American Christianity has always just been... Very extreme. Probably bc of the puritans but hey.
Since posting that "how many mass graves and extinct cultures" post last month, I've had multiple Christians in the notes whining that there isn't a "specific instruction of belief that Christianity needs to wipe out every other religion in the world" in Christianity's teachings, and that it's all just The Church/King James/etc.
And every time, I point to the literal text of the passages of The Great Commission.
And nearly every time, that shuts them up; the only time it didn't, it was to engage in some disgusting semantical goalpost moving.
But it's like...
Why do Christians not know the content of their own texts? Is your faith really so tribalistic and totemic around the concept of "Jesus" that you all don't bother to actually read the religious texts?
It feels like it must be--I've heard of too many instances of Christians walking out of readings of The Sermon On The Mount because they think it's "liberal nonsense" and the like, but I just find it baffling and more than a little sad that I, a Jew, apparently knows the New Testament's text better than the people who swear by it and ostensibly believe and follow it.
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moonyswolfie · 3 days ago
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Study Session
A/N: So I just finished a torturously long exam session and this fic is a result of all the stress and mental breakdowns I've accumulated like Pokemons during this time. I actually wrote this piece between two of my biggest and most difficult exams, hence the N.E.W.T.s coming in to play. I hope you enjoy and if you relate, I'm so sorry! Remember that you are strong and no amount of academic stress can bring you down!
Pairing: Remus Lupin x Potter!reader
Masterlist
The table you were sat at in the Library was so crowded with textbooks and parchments that you could not see the wood any longer. Notes and cheat sheets, explanatory scrolls of parchments, quills and bottles of ink covered the entire surface. Hell, Lily even brought a dictionary. Merlin knew what use would a muggle dictionary have when it came to magical terms, but you learned a long time ago to never question her genius.
It was N.E.W.T.s season and to say that all 5 of you were stressed would be an understatement. James thought that once you passed your O.W.L.s, the N.E.W.T.s would not be as scary as everyone made them out to be. It was an exam session, a very long and tiresome and perhaps crucial exam session, but it wasn't Voldemort, right?
Wrong. The stress was growing by the hour and despite having two more weeks at your disposal to revise and memorise all you needed to, it didn't feel like enough.
But then again, was it ever enough? 
You've been preparing for the N.E.W.T.s since the beginning of the school year, forcing yourself to attend every class and take a ginormous amount of notes that you knew would probably end up useless or lost somewhere at the bottom of your book bag. Still, you couldn't bring yourself to pause. Failure was not an option.
So far you tackled Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts, all of them easy and rather entertaining subjects, if you were to say so yourself. Right now however, you were stuck on the same Potions chapter for the past four hours and were just about ready to scream, cry, Avada Kedavra yourself or better yet, all of the above.
"Hey, Sirius?" 
He hums and looks up, noticing your twitching eye and the exasperation rolling off you in waves. 
"Y/N, are you okay?" 
The concern was palpable and it caught the attention of your boyfriend in an instant, yet Remus knew better than to pester you with questions right now. He was adamant about rest and health being your first priority, but considering his own overcrowded study schedule, he would be a hypocrite to point it out at the moment. He did, however, push a goblet of water in your direction, which you eagerly accepted and gulped down in seconds. You weren't exactly allowed food or beverages in the Library, but what Pince didn't know would not hurt her.
You thanked Remus and handed the goblet back, before turning to Sirius and taking a deep breath to regain your composure. 
"I have been rereading this chapter for the majority of our time here and I still don't understand the origins or the side effects of Amortentia when used for a longer period of time. No one really bothered to detail on them in any of our textbooks and I am not sure anyone ever subjected themselves to testing it out and then writing a memoir about it. However, Slughorn oh so graciously announced us that it might be included in the advanced exam topics. Do you happen to have anything on this? I know he mentioned some in class, but I didn't catch all of them."
"I think I do..."
He shuffles some parchments and knocks down some books, thus earning himself a stern look from Madame Pince, but ultimately finds the notes and hands them over.
"There you go, love."
You smile and thank him, humming while you scan the information. For such a chaotic human being, he had the neatest handwriting you've ever seen.
It doesn't take long for you to find the part about side effects, however there was nothing you didn't already write down yourself. Thankfully though, Sirius was the type of person to absently write down everything he heard so you found other helpful pieces of information. This was why you asked him for the notes in the first place, instead of Remus or James. Remus, much like yourself, only wrote the parts he was less certain of, whereas James didn't write anything at all. And Lily, Merlin bless her, she was a growing disaster when it came to writing information down. There was, contrary to her claims, no method to her madness.
You rolled up the parchment once you were done writing, yet kept it close, just in case you needed it again later. Sirius was studying for Transfiguration, so he wouldn't miss the notes anytime soon. Lily turned to you, ready to ask a question regarding a Charms lesson she was too sick to attend, but stopped and frowned, browsing the page spread out on the table in front of you.
"Y/N, why are your notes bilingual?" 
You turned and followed her gaze to the margins, specifically to the terminology you borrowed from Sirius...
You unscrolled his notes again and placed them next to yours, looking from one to the other with a bemused smile. Next to the name of the potion, you drew a little arrow and wrote amour et obsession, which would have been inconspicuous, had you not added une potion délicate and l'amour impossible devient possible.
There were a few more next to the ingredients list and some corrections made regarding the mode of preparation. As you scanned the two sets of notes, you noticed that his were entirely in French, while you half translated, half copied your added bits.
You didn't know what was funnier, that you mindlessly wrote the information in Frenchglish, or that you didn't notice it was in another language to begin with. 
English was your mother tongue, yet like every other pureblooded offspring, you were forced to attend a variety of language lessons to determine which ones you would be more skilled in. Romantic languages proved to be your forte, so you stuck with French, Italian and Latin. It wasn't easy in the beginning, seeing as they are all mere variations of the latter, therefore making them ridiculously easy to mix up and combine in the oddest of sentences, but you persevered and were now fluent in all four. 
Regardless, slip ups like the one you were tiredly staring at now were not unheard of. You were certain it was a testament to how tired you truly were. Perhaps Remus was right, you should rest more.
But then again, this was not a simple exam session. It was the one that would determine your entire future. You could sleep when you're dead.
"You write your notes in French?"
Sirius' head shot up immediatey, confusion written all over his face.
"Yes?"
By now everyone's attention was on your exchange, which deepened his frown. James looked like he missed everything until that very moment, Remus was watching his best friend with a raised brow and Lily was silently shaking her head, smiling. She didn't know how she ended up with the lot of you, but she knew she loved you dearly.
"French is my first language" Sirius added, as if that was all the explanation you needed.
Sadly, it did nothing to clear up the confusion. When neither of you said anything, he added "doesn't everyone take notes in their first language?"
Despite Remus being the only other person in your group who wasn't a native English speaker, therefore making him the best candidate to answer his friend, you all shook your heads, your faces betraying different levels of amusement and fondness. It was a rather endearing situation.
"I don't take notes in Welsh, if that's what you're asking. I don't think I can even translate half the things correctly. Besides, the spells are in Latin, so imagine how that would look on a piece of parchment."
You chuckled at the mental image of magical notes looking more like pages taken from that muggle author's book, Tolkien. Lily followed and you both received a glare and a pointed "shhh" from Madame Pince. Honestly, it was a wonder she wasn't kicking you out at this point.
"Wait a second" James turned towards his best friend "ALL of your notes are in French?"
Sirius nods. Poor baby looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"But don't you..." you frown, unsure how to formulate your question "I see you writing constantly. If the Professor speaks, you write. How..." you groan, burying your face in your hands and shaking your head "my brain hurts. You look as if you write down everything that is said in class, so I assumed that you do?”
You peek an eye up only to be met with Sirius chuckling silently.
“I do write mostly everything that is said in class, but first I summarize it and I guess it’s easier to summarize it in French. I find it easier if I reformulate the information because it shows I understood the concept, but to avoid learning something mechanically and forgetting it when I flip the page, I use my own words. The only issue is that sometimes I forget the word I need in English or there isn’t even a word in English for said thing to begin with. Thus French. And no one really asked me for my notes before you so I didn’t see any reason to put any effort in translating them. And you didn’t seem to have a problem with it anyway.” he adds with an amused smirk, remembering Lily’s previous comment about your notes
You mask your chuckle with a cough and glance at your notes again.
“That is actually a great idea, Pads, I might have to start doing it myself.”
“NO!”
The lot of you was startled by James’ whisper-shout. You gave him a bewildered look, raising an eyebrow in question.
“Are you alright, big brother?”
“Don’t you dare. I know you and your disturbingly brilliant mind. If you start implementing this method, you’re going to write your notes in Latin” he squints, an accusatory look in his eyes “and where am I going to get my last minute notes from then?”
That was it, you couldn’t hold it in any longer if you tried. You burst out laughing, prompting an exaggerated “SHHH” to be directed your way.
“This is your last warning, if you cannot keep quiet, I suggest you move your little study session to your Common Room.”
Madame Pince was stern, yet you couldn’t fault her this time. You were loud and you certainly disturbed a few of your peers seated at nearby tables.
“Sorry” you whisper with a sheepish look.
You returned your attention to the table just in time to catch Lily placing a sweet kiss on James’ cheek, mumbling “don’t worry, my love, I won’t leave you noteless” which seemed to lift his spirits immediately. As grossed out as you were by their affection sometimes (what are sisters for after all?), you couldn’t help but smile at the scene. You were really happy he found his better half, even if it happened to be one of your best friends.
But after all, you did return the favour, did you not?
Remus’ hand found yours under the table and he squeezed it affectionately. You squeezed right back and smiled up at him, mouthing “I love you” and delighting in the beautiful smile that took over his face for the rest of the day.
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eclipseberrycake · 18 hours ago
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Poly! MoonBerryCake x Reader PT. 12
Obligatory AN: Guess who's back, back, back, back again. I've been swinging hard into a FNAF: Security breech hyperfix and have been reading nothing but sun/moon fanfic. So y'all drop your recs /hj
Part One -> Part Two -> Part Three -> Part Four -> Part Five -> Part Six -> Part Six 1/2 -> Part Seven -> Part Eight -> Part Nine -> Part Nine 1/2 -> Part Ten -> Part 11
Warnings: Switching of roles (IYKYK), talks of abuse/mistreatment of the toons, mentions of nausea/vomit, talks of needles/ injection of Ichor (I've decided Delilah is not a good person)
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☁ Your vacant blink does not give him much reassurance. You seem to register the question, fold your hands together in a nervous fidget only to use them to wring your tail. You bite your lip, eyes darting every way but their way.
☁ "...Why do you ask?" You manage to get out, shuffling just a bit. Blu pops up from where she was lounging on top of Coal, ears flickering at the sound of your voice. She murps then jumps onto the bed, moving to crawl into your lap. You occupy yourself with playing with her instead, letting her nip at your fingers and swat at your palms.
☁ "She came up in one of the files we were reading through." Astro pipes in, watching you carefully. He clocks immediately the way you curl slightly, as if to shield yourself for something you've probably suspected beforehand anyway. You're avoiding saying more than necessary, garnering how much they know and building your answer around that. Astro suspects it's a fear response, perhaps leftover from when you were with Ciara.
☁ You take this information for what it is, nodding softly before heaving a heavy sigh. Cosmo's right there beside you, rubbing your back and laying on your shoulder, feeling you shake beneath his cheek. It's a small tremble, but one nonetheless.
☁ "Ciara is-..." You immediately stop, choking on the words as they try to escape. You pause, tongue dry and too thick for your mouth suddenly before pushing past it, fighting the acid that builds in the back of your throat. "Was. Ciara was not quite my handler." You admit, retracting your hands from Blu to curl your hands into fists. As if to stop an ulterior action. "I wasn't allowed a handler."
☁ You still refuse to look at them, but they allow you the small mercy. Sprout gently places a hand on your knee, rubbing small circles into the flesh as he watches you carefully. As much as he wants answers, he doesn't want them at the expense of your own happiness.
☁ "When...When the commons started to out number the mains, Delilah and Arthur-" You groan, pressing the butt of your palm to your temple. "I-...I don't know how or why. I don't remember, but I know there was a...a trial of sorts. If they could turn a common into a main." You pause and nearly upchuck then and there, but swallow it down. It burns, speaking of it, you know you shouldn't. Who knows where Ciara is. If she knew, she'd-....She'd....She'd do nothing. She is little more than a rotten name spotting memories you can barely grasp. Like candle light in a dream you can't quite place.
☁ "Ciara was assigned to me, to get me ready to be a main. She trained me." You know they want you to elaborate, but you don't. You can't. You won't. You refuse to go back to that time. To the appointments where Delilah held you down, injecting Ichor into your flesh and documenting the effects. The changes to your arm, fur, words, thoughts, even your soul. It was like you were some great version of a patchwork project. "She wasn't good. She wasn't like Austin or Sam. She worked mostly with Delilah."
☁ There's silence for a moment before Astro is opening his mouth, "Starlight, if-"
☁ "No, I-...I just, I don't remember what you're probably asking about." You wilt and curl completely, trapping Blu between your chest and legs. She mews, but doesn't move. "I don't know if they were successful. I don't know anything beyond what Ciara wanted."
☁ "And what did she want?" Sprout asks before he can stop himself. he immediately kicks himself for it, especially as you wilt further.
☁ "To be like them. Like Austin and Sam and- and- and-" Your breath catches as you shake your head, eyes immediately shutting. Cosmo sits up enough to pull you to his chest, hushing you softly as you shake your head to fight off tears.
☁ He pets down your fur and gently murmurs against your temple, reassuring you you've done nothing wrong before. It's an act that's foreign to Sprout and Astro, watching Cosmo work, but one the cake roll is all too familiar with.
☁ Cosmo knows you. Has known you for a long time. He likes to think he's been in love with you far longer than he himself even remembers. He has memories of all kinds with you before the outbreak. He even remembers meeting you for the first time. When he was a freshly made toon, Delilah made it a point to familiarize him with the others quickly without letting him settle from his creation first. He was much too overwhelmed and the sounds were much too loud, even the feel of the sweater gifted to him made his entire body curl and cry out. You were there. You barked at the others to back off before walking up to him, laying on your belly so he could look at you without having to look up at the lights past your head.
☁ He swears that was when he fell in love with you, hopelessly pining, especially when you gently hummed a soft tune to him that he still clung to to this day. He can't explain the feeling that erupted in him the first instance of Ciara's cruelty. She was an individual driven by monetary value and chased it at the expense of anyone else; especially if it was you who paid the price. He hated it then, and he hates it now.
☁ The two of you had created a sort of routine when Ciara had gotten to the pinnacle of her nastiness. You'd knock on the frame of his bed and he'd wordlessly let you crawl in with him. You'd sleep against the wall and he'd sleep with his back to the door, hiding you under the blanket as your fingers curled around his sweated, burrowing between his neck and hood to muffle to sounds of your cries.
☁ It shattered his heart into pure dust to hear those noises, and he admittedly hoped they were long since left in the past. And then you were turned again. And the recovery began. And with that came your frustrations as to not healing fast enough for your preferences. Then this.
☁ It's the only thing he can think to do when he sees you flounder is to turn back to those old habits. He lets you hide, acts as the protector for even just a second. With the amount of times you've done it for them, he'll take every opportunity to return the favor.
☁ Sprout and Astro both send him pleading glances, begging wordlessly for directions on how to help. They've never seen this side of you and are grasping at straws on how to aid in any sort of way. Cosmo shakes his head a bit, pulling you so you're straddling him, letting you hide your face in his neck once more as he rubs up and own your back. Blu takes the opportunity to run off then, perching herself back on top of Coal.
☁ "It's a sensitive topic." Cosmo starts, feeling you practically claw at him to hold on tighter. "But you didn't know, that's not your fault." He's quick to cut in as he watches a flurry of emotions cut across their faces. "As far as we know, they weren't a main. I don't know what kind of tests they do to determine this, but they didn't pass them. If I had to guess, if they are a main now, it's evolved after being a twisted." He explains, hearing you hiccup. "That won't change anything about how we feel though, pudding."
☁ "No, oh god no." Sprout shakes his head. "Never would it ever change anything bud. We just...were curious. But should've gone about it better. I'm sorry."
☁ "I'm sorry as well." Astro wilts a bit himself, toying with his cloak. "But please trust that I absolutely agree with both Sprout and Cosmo."
☁ You sniffle once before pulling back just a big, dusting Cosmo's shoulder even if he doesn't care about what you've perceived to be a mess. "You went about it in what was pretty much the best way possible." You lips spread in a shaky grin. "Sorry I kind of freaked out."
☁ "You have nothing to apologize for, pudding." Cosmo gently nuzzles against your snout, making it scrunch. "It's just a sore spot."
☁ Sprout and Astro nod and a solemn silence falls for a second. It's thick and tangible, sweltering as it practically chokes them.
☁ Cosmo hates it.
☁ "C'mon, let's go on a run. I think it would be fun." He's already sliding off the bed, taking you with him with his hands under your thighs. You yip at the sudden action before peeling into laughter, holding on tighter. Astro and Sprout let out their own calls, quickly scrambling after Cosmo. He laughs in time with you, his heart soaring at the sound. He knows Sprout at least has the ability to catch up, but to his surprise, it's four hands to catch him and you rather than two. Astro is chuckling as he pulls back, sandwiching Cosmo between his chest and you.
☁ Sprout with all the gracefulness of a bull in a china shop runs right into the three of you and you all go toppling into a pile of giggles. It fits and it feels right, so Cosmo endures Sprout's weight, on top of Astro's and your owns, a moment longer before pushing you all off.
☁ He stands to dust himself off, pretending not to notice the soft moment you share with Astro and Sprout, both giving their own apologies once more before your waving them off and pressing soft pecks to their lips.
☁ By the time you make it to the elevator, the four of you are laughing like you normally do, with inside jokes and petty little squabbles mixed in with sneaky little pecks. However, because of that, others have clued in that a run is going on and wave you off. Glisten and Goob are the first to spot you both, seperating much further than they probably should be if what they were previously doing wasn't anything scandalous. You say as much, turning on your heel to run the second Goob's arms stretch for you. You don't make it far before he's pulling you back and your stuck, Goob's knuckles digging into your head as you squirm before breaking free.
☁ It's a normal run, with the barest idea of possibly getting Rudie Research, but still full of all sorts of jokes and laughter. Floor by floor, each machine is done well and quickly as you distract, and you're shocked by Sprout's prodding to learn how to distract as well.
☁ He's fast enough and had grabbed Toodle's trinket on the way out rather than Vee's remote, so you obliged, sitting on a nearby table with an airhorn ready whenever it was a single twisted floor. He kept up easily, maintaining a good distance between himself and his test twisteds. You watched carefully though, attention only diverting whenever Cosmo or Astro came up to check on the two of you.
☁ You were honestly proud of Sprout, telling him as much as you both jogged into the elevator, taking great pride in his pink cheeks as his leafy tail gave away his elation. You leaned in further to make your paint, poking his cheek even as he swatted at you, Cosmo and Astro even joining in as well.
☁ Then Dandy showed up. His eye was twitching, as it does, once more focused on you with a strained smile on his features. You give him a much lighter one, lips upturning to showcase your newly sharpened teeth from your time as a twisted. It makes Dandy lean back, just a smidge, meeting your gaze with a simmering one of his own.
☁ "You are quite the pain." He sneers, smile never faltering. You feel Sprout hover behind you, one of his hands gently laying on your lower back as Astro and Cosmo watch with baited breath. Dandy's twisted form wasn't scary anymore. Not to you. He was too slow and too sluggish to be a real threat after you realized this, the biggest concern being when he decides to try and strike. He's predictable in that sense though and you can tell it's coming from a mile away.
☁ "I've been told." You practically purr, giving a devious little smirk. "Gonna throw another fit about not getting tapes?" You push further and Sprout's hand on your back becomes more insistent.
☁ "Bud, c'mon now, remember what happened last time." He urges, thinking back to how Blu came into your lives. He's unsure of the power Dandy has and isn't willing to test it. To your credit, you do back off a bit before Dandy's snarl turns sharp and full of teeth.
☁ "That's right, listen to the main, Common."
☁ You whirl around before Sprout can catch you, hurling threats at the flower as his elevator descends and your left spitting out all sorts of venom.
☁ "I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!" You cry out, stomping your feet angrily as your hands curl, as if strangling him. Your boys are too busy watching you, Cosmo and Astro admittedly hiding behind Sprout before your taking in a deep breath. "I need to calm down first." You shake your head and take one more deep breath. "This is fine."
☁ "You...sure? We can call it? This was already further than we planned." Sprout tentatively offers, and you nod. "No, I'm having fun, he just...pisses me off." You fully settle at last giving them a smile. "Unless you all are admitting you're finally tired of me."
☁ Astro scoffs at this. "Tire? Of you? Please. Don't insult me." He turns with a flourish, the cape of his cloak following him with a trail of stars as you snicker. Cosmo's already rolling his eyes at the dramatics, but Sprout gives the other a soft smile.
☁ "Oh, of course, of course, how dare I." You tease, and the elevator opens once more. You go to take off before stopping, eyes immediately darting to the object in front of you. It looks like a smoke bomb, and you probably would've encouraged Cosmo or Astro to take it, it not for the glaring green color staring up at you. The other three come up behind you, peering over your shoulders at the new object. You blink. They blink. The thing doesn't move.
☁ "There's a unanimous decision to not touch it, right?" You question, getting a trio of agreements right away. You learned your lesson the first time and carefully try to maneuver around it. However the sound of a snap makes you perk up, immediately tackling Sprout, who was spotted by a twisted Scraps. Cosmo and Astro scramble back a few steps as you land on Sprout, but the attachment on her tail continues and crashes into the new object. Green smoke erupts around the four of you and you immediately wave your hand in front of your face, helping up Sprout who scrunches his nose at the smell. It doesn't really smell, but it's thick. It's like smog, choking you and you hate it.
☁ What you hate more is the sudden tug at your body. Nothing is grabbing you, but you feel something yank at your chest, pulling and pulling until something sharp snaps and it's gone. It almost feels like something else is snapped into it's place, but it's chunky and doesn't fit right. It's like if you swallowed a piece of chip too big, but it shifted halfway down and is now awkwardly lodged in your throat as it makes it's way to your stomach.
☁ The green smoke clears, but Scraps is still right there, so you have no room to wait, immediately taking off despite it all feeling wrong and off. She snaps at you and you're stunned for a second as it digs into your arm. You should've been much further then you were, but a glance back shows that you weren't. You put much more effort into running a second time rather than the usual jog you do, hiding behind a box as you take a breather. You check your trinkets, but they're just fine. Working as they should.
☁ Looking over the box, you're able to spot the other three, similarly freaking out behind a box. You glance back at Scraps, seeing her wander off with a frustrated shake of her head.
☁ You quickly dart to where they're hiding, Cosmo immediately shaking your shoulders. "What was that?!" He hissed, checking the injury pearling Ichor on your shoulder. It's not that bad, but it's still worrying.
☁ "I-I don't know. I wasn't-...." You pause, glancing back to the dust now laying on the ground as remnants of the object. Your eyes widen at this, looking to Astro, Cosmo and Sprout, they don't look any different, but something feels off. The normal warm aura that seems to come from Sprout at any given time has been disturbed, no longer there in a settled hum, but rather missing entirely. From the other end, Cosmo seems like he's practically vibrating with new energy, ready to peel off in the same way you normally do. Astro seems out of sorts as well, looking at his hands like he's missing something. He turns them over, then flips them again, then once more before shakily setting them on the ground. The normal lights glimmer out, but rather than feeling a burst of adrenaline, your wound closes up, sealing itself into little more than dried ichor staining your fur.
☁ There's silence before all four of you scream. Astro is freaking out, looking at his hands while Sprout is flipping them every which way. Cosmo is pulling your arm closer, inspecting it like it was some sick trick. You have one hand pulling at your head, fingers threading into your fur as you cry out. "What is going on?!"
☁ You don't get the answer as the yells have drawn Scraps attention back, and with her comes Toodles, already darting for you. You scramble, pushing at the boys to all move it. You would normally try and distract, but you have no confidence in your own abilities currently so you stick with them for a worst case scenario. You only gape as Cosmo's much faster then he's used to, tripping over himself and into Sprout, who yelps, taking Astro with him.
☁ You rush to pull them each up, Astro and Cosmo going first as Sprout slaps a hand on the ground to push himself up, only for it to feel like a shot of adrenaline was pushed straight into your nervous system. You gape at this once more before pinning it, pulling them into a room out of the way and hiding behind a desk. The four of you take a moment to pant, slowly settling from the entire ordeal.
☁ You drag your hands down your face, taking a breath and mentally counting in your head before exhaling. "Okay. So. Somethings wrong."
☁ "Something's wrong? Something's wrong?!" Astro grabs at his hair, pulling it slightly with two of his hands while the other two shake in front of him. "I HEALED?!"
☁ "Yeah, I got that, i was there." You gently unthread his fingers from his hair, soothing the stands slightly as you hold two of the hands in your own. "I think...we switched." You spit out, ears perked for signs of any twisteds.
☁ "Switched?! How is that even possible?!" Cosmo cries out. "So-so-so-so what?! Sprout is now our Astro equivalent? And Astro is Sprout?"
☁ "It didn't take any tapes, so it's more likely you and Astro switched." Sprout explains, running a hand through his leaves. "Okay, okay. Let's work this out. Cosmo, don't think we didn't see you. You and Y/N probably switched. So there's that. i switched with Astro, and Astro switched with either myself or Cosmo. How do you feel?" He turns to the celestial who swallows.
☁ "...Like I got hit." He answers slowly and Sprout nods. "Okay, so Cosmo got faster, I got weird stamina powers, Astro can heal like Cosmo does which leaves-" He turns to you. "You. You have my power."
☁ You swallow at this, clenching Astro's hand tightly. Looking into your inventory pouch, you quickly count your tapes, nodding at the surplus in there. "I don't know how to heal."
☁ "You didn't know how to make Blu appear and still did that." Sprout jokes, even if it sounds flat. It makes you snicker anyway before Sprout continues. "Just...try to imagine the energy of the tapes moving into Astro. It should-...should do the rest itself."
☁ You slowly nod at this, and do it, envisioning a small strand connecting to Astro from the tapes. Something settles then pulls taut before snapping. The bigger portion slithers towards Astro before lifting and your bag feels lighter. "This is insane."
☁ "I don't know how to distract, I don't wanna distract!" Cosmo cries out.
☁ You shake your head. "No, no, you don't have too. I should still-" You pause. "Actually, I don't know. I don't know how to distract without my speed." You wilt, and this time Astro squeezes your hands.
☁ "Then we'll have to be sneaky, won't we?" Astro prods just a bit, nudging you until you smile. "C'mon. If anyone can handle this, it's us. We got this. Just...do as we normally do. But behind more walls." He nods, standing and taking you with him even as you yelp.
☁ Sprout and Cosmo stand up as well, shooting each other a grin. It should be fine, It would be fine.
☁ It was not.
☁ You would later say that floor was by far. The Worst. Floor. You've ever done. Cosmo kept tripping over himself, not used to anything more than his usual saunter, slamming against the floor and calling the attention of the twisteds. Luckily, you stuck nearby, switching trinkets with him as he begrudgingly kept the twisteds on his tail.
☁ You would take over every time you could, switching with Cosmo intermittently as you found yourself at odds as well, nearly getting your ankles snapped on by Toodles since you weren't used to being conscious of your speed.
☁ Astro has his own difficulties as well, trying to stick between hovering to ensure neither you or Cosmo would get too hurt and having to catch himself from trying to give you both stamina, frustrating him at every turn.
☁ Sprout, on the other hand, seemed to be having a blast, despite the three of you glaring at him every time he popped by, letting Astro's own power roam like it was his before taking off. He found himself enjoying the lack of stress that came with healing, and admittedly found himself chuckling at the sound of the three of you scrambling every time one of you tripped or stumbled. He knew you'd be fine, they weren't overly awful twisteds and with all three of you there, it would be stressful, but scraps wouldn't snap without a clear target. Which she wouldn't have with all three of you running like chickens with heads cut off.
☁ he finished the last machine with a click of the vee-mote he took from Astro, hearing the elevator open and the three of you take off. He met up with you guys right away, letting a final thrum of Astro's power hum. Cosmo has one last tumblr which sends both him and Astro tumbling into the elevator with you following and Sprout being the final one.
☁ It shuts and you waste no time sending them back up. There's silence before you giggle, then you cackle then you're giving full on belly laughs as you clutch your stomach. "That was awful." You cry out, head tilting back as the hormonic sound echoes.
☁ Cosmo is quick to follow, still on top of Astro, which makes the celestial laugh, and before any of them can stop it you're all laughing at the absurdity of it all.
☁ In the very least, at least there wasn't another Blu.
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neon-zipperooni · 8 hours ago
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in light of the new costume implying some things.. boy howdy, here comes a hot take, the crk fandom needs to understand the prospect of shadow milk being redeemed is not the end of the world
cookie run rarely even does redemption stories, the only big example of villainous characters being redeemed is in ovenbreak with lotus dragon cookie's growth and lychee dragon cookie building up to a redemption, which while i think on lotus's end it was kinda rushed they've been handling lychee very well, so its not like redemption stories in cookie run are "overdone" (also im sick of the "nooo im tired of redemptions" argument when 1. not everyone is, i personally love a good redemption story and 2. there are plenty of villains out there who are plain evil with no redemption, it's not a dying genre)
also it would be way more interesting than the more obvious resolution to the beast storyline of just sealing them away again, i think finding a way to appeal to the shreds of.. humanity? cookiemanity? still within them is a much more interesting narrative and lends itself to more stories to potentially tell with these five very interesting characters. and there are implications that the cookies they used to be are still in there somewhere, especially with burning spice, given how he full on bluescreens for a moment when reminiscing on the first kingdom he [....] (my money's on watched over, but we dont know what he was gonna say) when talking w/ nutmeg tiger in the kingdom
i've seen a lot of people say they'll lose interest in shadow milk if he gets redeemed which baffles me because for me at least, while a decent chunk of the appeal of the beasts is how interesting and entertaining they are as villains, one of my favorite parts of them is the heroes they once were, what they could've been like during those days, and the tragedies that led to them falling so deep into villainy: witnessing the worst in cookiekind and becoming disillusioned and deciding nothing should exist, witnessing their denizens live grow and die over and over and to the point they get sick of it and end up embracing destruction to take control of the cycle, and.. whatever we end up learning about the other three and what corrupted them.
for me, i see it like this lmao
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and like, don't get me wrong, i know all the beasts really aren't good people but a redemption story doesn't necessarily mean a slap on the wrist, a redemption story can be about atonement just as much as it is about changing for the better, it can be messy, a sobering moment realizing everything you've done and everything you need to do to make up for it, there is sooo much story potential in delving into their pasts and delving into a redemption story of the beasts atoning for their deeds and growing as people it's crazy.. and besides, they were heroes once before, who's to say the potential to be that again isn't still within them?
i personally really wanna see a beast redemption and i'll never fathom why so many people are so against it when it's so much better of a way to conclude their story as the current main threat than just sealing them away again, i just hope that if this really is the route the devs go they'll handle it well because it can just as easily be done wrong, i have faith though
also i've seen a lot of people say the shadow milk costume looks ugly and they're WRONG it looks amazing i love blue and gold as a color combo
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burning2know · 10 hours ago
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Since people seem to be interested in inferring the real political opinions of the devs (or whoever's vision was realized in these games), here are some shower thoughts.
disclaimer: just some personal observation, i'm pretty ignorant about history and politics.
So imo, Anders follows very much the cultural narrative of a post 9/11 world (at least in my bubble). Violence is bad (especially terrorism), and we're meant to not fall prey to its tantalizing justifications because that's a slippery slope to war, genocide, the whole nine yards and then some. (We had to allow some time to mske it okay to even talk about capital T terror and sympathizing with perps).
DAI sets Solas up to redeem the writers for Anders, potentially. And given recent events in the past, idk, few months, year, I've seen that north american society no longer thinks about violence the way I thought it did (yes social media has a big role to play in that). Considering this background, da4 seems weirdly regressive and also on trend, all things considered. Opinions on the quality of the game notwithstanding.
Now I feel like the expressed-in-public sentiment is that violence is okay depending on which side you agree with because peaceful protests don't do fuck all, whereas some 10 odd years ago, it was that we like the change but not the violence to bring them about... Because change without violence is possible. But we've proven to ourselves time and again that the chsnge that happens without violence is overwhelmingly one-sidedly benefitting the powerful. There are through-lines over time, for sure, but things were indeed not always like this. The narrative of who is allowed to be sympathetic used to be controlled by keeping us ignorant, whereas now, it's being controlled by moral imperatives. Because it's gotten a lot easier to know.
Judging by what made it into the artbook, they were never going go where I hoped. But I think the da4 libs aren't quite the same flavour as the DA2/DAI libs. And that's... Something (neutral). Whether that reflects a single perspn on the team's views or the company's, I can't say. But it tracks with what I think is the zeitgeist.
However. I think it'd be remiss to not account for the change in leadership and vision of the world of thedas between dai and da4. To argue that the writers had always been like this is to ignore a major part of the problem. I felt that something had fundamentally shifted between dai and da4. The op's critique not withstanding (and I think you're right). The characterizations in dai were a hell of a lot more progressive than in da4, if only by virtue of da4 being extremely regressive through its bare-faced simplicity. In a nut shell, I just don't believe that the people who created Mythal and Flemeth and Morrigan would write the characters in da4. And it aggrieves me to have them lumped together with the likes of miserable little epler... They are not the same. This was not always the world view of DA.
Lastly, and this point is inane af, but I offer a more mechanistic explanation of the grace offered to blackwall. blackwall killed a single noble family, you can count that on one, mayhe two hands. Servants do not count as real people (I come back to this later, bear with me). anders and solas sought to destroy institutions forming the very fabric of society. The latter is much more visibly destructive, obviously, since such visible destruction is the ultimate goal. Whereas the violence perpetrated by the accepted authorities and instutions are so mundane as to be invisible or inevitable or "do not count" just as the servants thom rainier killed did not count. It's seemingly worse on an utilitarian scale. this often is used as justification against non-sanctioned violence and progressive ideas in general.
genuinely curious how the writers and larger dragon age audience would treat thom rainier if instead of being appropriately* repentant and putting himself in prison he blew up a major orlesian government building to instigate a chevalier rebellion or tried to have someone do some necromantic blood magic ritual involving uncertain danger and possible sacrifices to bring the innocent children he ordered killed back to life
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