#also i found out its damn hard to draw animals

[ohai-there]

I was talking with @doveywovy about founders era (izuna lives) animal hybrid au.....

Izuna absolutely tugs on Tobirama's little stubby tail and thinks its so cute its so small.

[untoldsoup]

Wanted to see a visual of my art progression for the comic so made a comparison of each characters first appearance to their more current ones. I guess this is my "year in review". Idea came from a friend on discord.

A lot of the changes I'm happy with. Drawing almost every day since March has really paid off. I had small projects I worked on in-between this comic that also helped too.

Some things I noticed now looking at this in hind-site: Luigi had the biggest changes. In the beginning I was so unsure of how to draw him in my style vs canon and its clear I was trying to find a compromise with it.

Human Bowser didn't have to many style changes, but his line work was refined over time. Peach suffered from generic anime girl in the beginning until I started drawing everyone under the same style umbrella. Koopa Bowser went through a lot of changes. Bowser is *hard* to draw, and I think he changed in almost every damn page lol.

Overall I'm really happy with the progression of things. I finally found a uniform way I want to draw everything, I learned a ton of skills and techniques along the way, and since I draw almost everyday I've gotten faster and more efficient at getting pages out.

I think the biggest challenges moving forward will be the action scenes in the sequel. They will be my weakest point and I'm hoping I can do them justice. I will be drawing Bowser jr. more in the sequel too so I'm going to keep working on making the koopa designs more cohesive.

[firefly--bright]

Reiner Braun modern headcanons!!!

a/n : the jean one I did did pretty well as a post, so I decided to do for my babygirl too (19 yr old war criminal) :)

warnings : none!

tagging : @mrsnobodynobody

✿ main masterlist is linked in pinned post! ✿ enter my taglist! ✿ requests are open! ✿

• loves animals. TO DEATH like if he sees any stray puppies or kitties, he will rescue them immediately. he'll pull over just to get out of the car and save the babes

• piggybacking off of that, he's also a foster dad for these pets. like he'd take them in. he has two cats and they're kind of on the old side (because he felt bad just leaving them at the shelter), one of them has grey and white fur and he's named her McFlurry (yes) and the other one is actually a cat you and him adopted together - an orange tabby that the two of you named calcifer (from howls moving castle :) )

• used to play like all sports during his entire academic life. he's played so many sports at this point like you'd think you know a niche sport that you didn't think he'd know the name of? he's played it. even rugby.

• hates the way his nose looks, but starts loving it more after you develop a habit of tracing the contours of his nose with your thumb (it makes him sleep too)

• loves to cook! he'd make any experimental recipies that he found from an obscure source on Pinterest. it almost always turns out good but if it doesn't then he tweaks it up until it tastes good.

• like jean, he's kind of not really into physical touch at first, but the more you show it, the more he falls in love with your touch.

• extroverted introvert. feels the need to be nice and be friends with everyone (literally knows everyone you've ever bumped into) but he prefers to stay in and not talk instead. he's glad he gets to sit in silence with you because he feels fully comfortable with that.

• strangers to friends to lovers typa guy (I have a fanfic idea for this but I'm too lazy to write it), like he's seen you before and because he feels the need to know everyone's names and stuff, he decides to befriend you. he's not boisterous or cocky or overconfident, he's actually really nice and down to earth. you start getting closer, he starts working at the same place you work at, which brings you even closer and he falls in love

• and he falls HARD like. when you ask him if he can remember the one point in time where he realised he was in love with you, he doesn't have an answer, because with him, its kinda like... he fell for you in a collection of moments. like you brushed his hair away from his face and he's like "oh that's nice" and then you gave him a thoughtful gift for his birthday, again, he was like "oh that's...super nice" - just little moments like that made him Realize™

• has a complicated relationship with his mom but they're on okay terms now, like apart from the usual motherly criticisms, they're doing pretty well!

• blushes like a damn tomato. he cannot hide if he's flustered for the life of him.

• he tries to hide it, but he LOVES being pampered. he loves it when you massage his shoulders, he loves it when you put those under eye masks on him, loves it when you draw a bath for him, etc. like at first he feels,,, kind of like a burden when you do those things for him, but he slowly starts to think that maybe, just maybe, he deserves this.

• super patient. if you're having a bad day or something, not only does he immediately take notice, he'll wait for you. he'll ask if you want to talk about it or if you just want him to be there, and if you say you want space, he'll give it to you and wait for you to come to him when you need him.

• he knows how to braid hair because of Gabi. when he was 17, he'd braid gabi's hair into two pigtails whenever she came over to their house for the summer. (he's her favourite cousin and vice versa but both won't admit it to eachother)

• loves to knit!!!!! his ideal date is literally just cozying up on the couch with some blankets and hot chocolate or soup and just. knitting. if you like knitting or crocheting too then bonus points!

• speaking of knitting, he also wears chunky sweaters that his mom made for him. warm toned, chunky and soft sweaters are literally all his closet is made up of. except in the summers, he wears loose fitting tank tops in the summer heat.

• religious note-taker. if you share a class with him, expect him to furiously take notes at a godly speed every class. and it's not even a messy handwriting, it's actually recognisable letters that are pretty easy to understand. he'd give those notes to anyone who missed class that day.

• people rely on him alot, and at first in highschool he kind of felt pressured by it, but he's grown into that role. he's a gentle leader.

• speaks german. you'll find him speaking in German to Gabi and his mom whenever they call <3

• speaking of calls, he only picks up if it's a loved one calling him. Gabi sometimes calls him just to annoy him after her school day is over and she's just roaming around the house. at this point Reiner knows all the gossip in gabi's middle school, being super attentive when Gabi talks about her school. like he knows ALL the lore.

• loves watching those relaxing vlogs. like those cooking vlogs with nice music in the background and captions instead of voiceovers. he loves those.

• has prescription glasses only for reading <3

• overthinks so hard. like even if he goes out of his way to talk to and know people more, he hates the after-conversation anxiety that comes with it.

• when he kisses you, he kinda hugs you. like his hands aren't on your waist, they kinda wrap around your back and shoulder and his hands are spread out so that he feels more of your skin.

• loves calling you dove or angel, cause that's exactly what you are to him.

• talks with his hands, very expressive with his conversations. it's very easy to know when he's uncomfortable/doesn't like someone he's talking to when his hands are crossed over his chest.

• he writes. like journals all his feelings out. just like his note-taking, he's very on routine about it. every night, or every other night, he'd sit down at his desk and use the pen he's kept especially for this journal, and describe the day in detail. it helps him alot :)

• he kinda does this small little,,, soft exhale when he smiles. like his lips don't quirk up fully, but you know he's smiling because of that small sound.

• full bellied laughter kinda guy. you crack a terrible joke and he starts out letting a small tiny laugh at it and then it turns into a chuckle and then the next thing you know, he's clutching his stomach and wiping the tears from the corner of his eye because he's laughing so much. which is so ???? you tell him it wasn't even that funny but to him it very much Was.

• his reactions are SOOOO funny. like you're telling him a story and he'll have visible reactions to it. he'll cover his mouth with his hand if he gasps, put his hand on his chest in surprise, scrunches his nose in disgust - like he literally cannot hide his emotions.

• likes jazz and classical music. no I will not elaborate.

• can't Instagram. he uses emojis unironically. he has one (1) post and it's you and him together, eating ramen from the same bowl (a pic that bert took to send to porco)

• even if he doesn't use Instagram that often, he'll always check if you posted. if you've posted something then he will make it his personal priority to spam comment the heart eye emojis. your entire comment section is Reiner sending 🥰🥰🥰 and 😘😘😘 and 😍😍 and all the diff coloured hearts.

• loves taking pics of you against the sunlight or like. infront of a beautiful scenery. he likes taking goofy candid pictures too, but the ones where you're just being lit up by the sun are his favourite because finally, there's an actual accurate picture of how he sees you.

• overall, the Reiner I have in my head in a modern a.u. is incredibly soft and will dance with you in the living room in the dark with no music playing because that's how in love with you he is.

[courtingchaos]

There’s a Devil Inside of Me and You

Kas!Eddie Munson x Vampire!Fem Reader

Pt.2 of At the End of the World

Warnings: Blood drinking, animal death, human death

A/N: Ope, more of this I suppose. I have no idea what I’m doing with this sometimes the urge just strikes, you know? Also just call me the comma queen because god damn there’s too many in this.

18+ NSFW No Minors

He speaks nonsense sometimes when his eyes go black. Deep pools of obsidian that seem to take his sense away.

“Why me?” You ask him when he crawls back into the boathouse you two hide away in.

“That hand that sneaks through the cracks, it found you.” He brings a new thing each time. A deer he found wandering too close to the lakes edge, a cooler of blood left unattended at the gym-turned-first aid center. “It pointed you out in the dark.” His own spindly finger points at you, tip of an elongated nail grazing your cheek. “It showed me where to find you.”

“Then why you?”

Tonight he clutches a den of foxes in his hands, necks broken, Eddie’s sympathy bleeding through into this creature. He shifts those dark eyes to the rotting slats of wood under you, a deep frown forming between his brows.

“He played at being the hero.” The frown turns melancholic before his face hardens into a grimace and he shakes a limp body at you. “He thought he could win.”

“Against what?”

“The vines. The rot. The bats.”

The sound is always around you now, the beating of thick wings. A muffled din during the night and silent when the sun hits its peak and you fall asleep in the shade of a corner of this dilapidated shack. He huddles you into the depths first, makes sure to tuck your legs up before he pulls the blue tarp and heavy boat cover over the two of you so you’re encased in darkness and the smell of lake water.

That first morning he’d been there, all Eddie all brown eyes all sense, and he’d told you what the sun would do to you. He’d darted his hand out into a pillar of dusty light and had started burning. You understood and said nothing while he arranged the corner for two bodies now, remaining silent when he pulled you along with him.

You were hungry like you hadn’t been before, hungry for his wrist and something wet. He knew what you needed but it was too early. A promise for dusk, a whispered ‘thank you’ and his head found a home on your shoulder, dirty hair pressed to your cheek where you watched him drift off. A moment of panic however when he stilled completely and no more breath came from him.

“Eddie?” You shake his shoulder and he doesn’t react. A firmer shake and his head lolls off it’s perch. You can see a sliver of his eyes now and they sit milky white and dead. A deep feeling of dread, something you should have been feeling a few hours ago settles in your stomach next to your hunger. It twists in the endless growling ache and you can feel it pull at your eyelids. This isn’t sleep though, not in the sense you know it. Whatever this feeling is weighs you down abruptly and it creeps through your body, stilling your movements as it makes it’s way up your spine until it hits your head and the darkness takes you.

Today it’s this other being that brings you dinner. Foxes to keep you for a few days, enough to get those brown eyes back in his skull. You find yourself missing Eddie when he’s gone, replaced by this other who can’t tell you the why of it all. You’ve yet to become accustom to feeding in this new way but instinct takes over and stamps down any apprehension. Long teeth pierce cooling flesh and you have to suck deep to draw the blood to the surface. A fresh kill but still dead, something you have to work hard for to stay alive.

He watches you with unblinking black that burns holes in you. Waits for you to finish your meal before he steals back a limp body from the mound in front of you. It’s day and night with him before and after feedings. This other watches you with rapt fascination and suddenly Eddie is there with fidgeting fingers and darting eyes, small grin forming a dimple on his cheek.

“Who is that?” The blood sticks in your throat, a thick coating that makes a click when you swallow around it.

“Who?” Eddie asks, lips smeared in gore.

“When you’re not here.” You gesture at your own eyes. “When your eyes are different.”

He hums and twists one of his rings around his knuckle. “No I’m…I’m here.”

“What is it then? Am I also gonna start speaking in riddles?”

“No.” He almost laughs at that. “No I-I’m special unfortunately.”

“Special?” You finally unfold from the corner and stand eye level with him, warmth creeping from your belly out towards your limbs.

“I got bit by something else.” He rakes a hand through his matted hair and it catches. He pulls until it rips free and he hisses from the pain and there you are, reaching out a hand to help soothe. There’s a draw to his pain deep in your head, an urge to fix. It propels you forward a few steps and you reach your hand towards his flinching face.

“You need to bathe.” Your fingers rub against his scalp and he shoots you a dubious look from the corner of his eye.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re disgusting.” Your gaze drops to his shirt, front stained with blood and dirt, and then down at yourself where the sight isn’t much better. “We both are.”

He pushes at your hand on his head and you stop trying to comfort him. He’s not meeting your eyes again, instead looking past you and out the window that looks into the woods. Overgrown ivy blankets the brush and walkway to the caved in house up the way. “And where do you suggest we clean up?”

There’s no soap and it’s lake water but it’s better than nothing. The wakes sway you gently where you sit waist deep and scrub your shirt under the water in a vain attempt to get the blood out. Eddie had averted his eyes when you’d started stripping out of your clothes, a move that you’d laughed at.

“You bit my neck and fed me your blood, I don’t think this matters.”

“Still.” He mutters before pulling his shirt over his head and kicking off his shoes.

Now though he floats a few feet in front of you in just his underwear, his clothes draped over your knee to soak in the muddy water.

“Next time you go out, find us a bar of soap or something.”

“Next on my list next to ‘nourishment’.”

“I’m tired of smelling like a lake.”

“It’s a been a week, how do you think I feel?”

A week. Already? Seven days of monstrous appetite and a deadly aversion to the sun.

“A week?”

“Yeah. They’ve got your posters up at the gym.” You hear his head turn in the water and his arms splash when he sits up, the water sitting just under his chin when he crouches. “I haven’t seen your parents though.” Not cold or uncaring but pragmatic.

You can’t go home. They won’t find you.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.” You stare through the murky water lit dimly by a crescent moon, down to your legs sitting in the silt. “I’m not mad.”

“You should be. I was.”

When Eddie stares it doesn’t burn like the glossy black does. His warm brown is almost a comfort where it flicks over you from head to hands still absentmindedly scrubbing your shirt. In another life from a week ago this could have been a normal thing to do, going for a dip in the lake. Maybe not during October but the cold doesn’t reach you the same now. You can feel it but it doesn’t get into your muscles and lock you up in a shiver.

“It’s not like you took anything of value.”

Eddie stills the back and forth swaying of his hands under the surface. “What?”

“It’s just like…it’s not a big deal. You said you needed help and I can help like this, I guess. It’s whatever.”

Silence between you two, just the splashing of water against the lake shore and the heavy sense of spilled feelings. He creeps close enough that he ends up on all fours just over your legs. “It’s not whatever, I took your life from you.”

“It wasn’t much of a life Eddie.”

“You can’t see your family again. You can’t go home.”

“I know.” You stop scrubbing and clutch your stained work shirt in your fists. His face is crumpled in pained confusion as he tries to get you to understand.

“I can’t fix this.” There’s layers to those words. “There’s no end to this, whatever this is.” He gestures between the two of you. “I-I can’t make you human again.” Panic lays under his tongue and he inches forward. “When this is all over? All the cracks and-and the monsters and him? I don’t know what happens. What’s supposed to happen.”

Eddie stands abruptly, bringing streams of water up with him that pull on his boxers. The thin fabric clings to his hips and you drop your gaze quickly. “I don’t-I didn’t think-fuck!” The echo of his voice bounces off the trees when he yells and buries his face in his hands. His distress worries at your brain again, a tether pulled taught between you and you wonder if he’d feel a reaction to your more volatile emotions. Before you can stop him he makes for the shore and leaves you staring into the glittering water.

Another week goes by and Eddie spends most of it in that other state. He makes sure you’re fed but he doesn’t stick around, just disappears until sunrise when he tucks you both in for the morning.

“Eddie?” You whisper at him under the tarp. He isn’t pressed close today and that bond you’ve felt growing in the amorphous background of your mind feels stretched. It’s a new kind of ache, one that rivals the way your stomach burns between feedings, and you pull yourself over. Shoulder to shoulder, forehead almost pressed to his cheek you ask. “What is it that found me?”

“The black hand.” He doesn’t open his eyes, breathing even and slow.

“What is it?”

“A monster.”

“Is that what destroyed Hawkins?”

“No.” He shakes his head, crown of his curls rolling against the wall. “That was Henry.”

“Henry? A man did this?”

“He’s not a man anymore. He’s vines and a hive mind.” The tarp crinkles against his hair when he shifts his head, rolling it toward you so your forehead does press into his face. “When a portal opens up I can show you where he hides.”

“A portal?”

“It’s…he can explain later.” A dismissal but he doesn’t move away from you. He drops his knees so your bodies touch from ankles to faces and you feel that tug again deep in your guts.

“You need to eat.” You whisper into the collar of his shirt, stiffened by lake water and grime half scrubbed away. “You look terrible.” His cheekbone is too prominent against you and his hands boney when he pulled your wrist to bring you under the makeshift blankets. You just need to help, you want to help. It’s why he found you right? A purpose finally for your small, now inhuman, life.

Your teeth bite through the thin skin of your wrist easily and the smell of blood floods your senses. Eddie’s eyes fly open, the all black dull when he finds your wrist held in front of him. “Eat.”

“It’s not the same.” He swallows thick and doesn’t tear his eyes away even as he tries to brush you off again.

“But it’s something.” Behind your words you feel a ripple in your intention. An urging for him to take. Not anger but intense persuasion. You picture him reaching out for you like you had to him in that alleyway. A clear snapshot and it’s gone, that small reverb in your voice diminished when that tether to your spine has an answering pull.

His palm is cold when he pulls at your wrist to bring it to his dry lips but you don’t flinch. The red pumps sluggishly from the wound against his mouth and you get to watch him take that first tentative lick. Something human in the crease of his brows, a small noise from the back of his throat. His lips wrap around to suck at the wound and you’re matching his whine. The pull of blood makes your eyes flutter, the grip of his fingers on your elbow send a shiver through you that has nothing to do with the cold. Eddie knows when to stop so you don’t worry but the slow turn to sluggishness makes you droop into him.

He breaks with a soft gasp, tongue rough against the thin skin of your wrist. “Thank you.” He runs a thumb over the bite you inflicted and it stings before it starts to close slowly. You can’t make out anything in the dark now but you can picture those brown eyes flicking between your own just like his thumb that soothes over your wrist. Your sleep catches up to you faster than normal and you can feel yourself fading when Eddie shifts you so he can bury his face under your jaw.

“We’ll go out at dusk okay?” His lips brush against your neck. “I’ll show you how to hunt, in case anything happens.” His hand snakes into your limp one while you hang on to the threads of your consciousness. He isn’t warm or cold against you, he isn’t anything really, but the tension in your belly loosens when you feel him relax into you and you can see the faint line of the sunrise along the far edge of the tarp.

Eddie expects to wake to your rising pulse against his lips as you stir back to life next to him. He’d fallen asleep pressed into you to help quell the growing gulf of pain he’d created by finding you. No food and distance from you proved to be a hindrance so it felt safer to hide in the dark behind beetle shell eyes, right until you’d forced him to eat. It felt different from the other commanding voice in his head, this one softer, no invisible hand on his neck to force his head down into blood. You gave him an offering that he could take willingly. One he could have gently.

So when he comes to with his face in the splintering floorboards he’s confused before he jolts up and has to fight his way out of the tangle of tarp. The sun leaves only a strip of gold and pink on the horizon and the trees are nothing but a black silhouette against the sky.

“Fuck.” He snaps his gaze around and up into the sagging roof. He peers into corners and finally out the window to try to find a scrap of you. Vines are trampled into a path and he’s outside before he notices the stench of copper on the breeze. Instinct draws his nose up to find the source and he knows exactly where he’ll find you.

He’s into the brush before the last bit of sunset disappears, hoping that this isn’t anyone he might have known previously. Any one of his friends who could be injured out here in the wild overgrowth about to meet his newest creation. In a deep part of his mind he laughs at the flicker of a thought that Vecna was his last played villain and here he is, accidentally siccing his companion on the unsuspecting.

There’s no sounds of struggle, just hushed words whispered harshly at each other as he makes his way through broken brush.

“There’s a curfew.”

“I know! I fucking know okay?!”

“Just get up and we can make it back to the car okay?”

“Just get up?! Just get up?!”

The voices have no body yet but a strong scent, one bleeding while the other exudes distress. The sour tang of fear sits in the back of Eddie’s throat and mingles with his own. He’d meant to show you how to hunt the animals out here, not the stray humans that still wandered too close to the lake. Past their boundaries set by intruding agents and into the woods to find whatever beasts had broken through the earth and wrecked havoc on their town.

There’s a scuff of metal and wood hitting the ground, a rifle dropped by one man to help the other stand, and a ruffling of leaves that only Eddie can hear. You stand a few feet from him, stock still except for your fingers that seem to dance along invisible strings. A flexing of your fists against your new instinct to lunge.

His appetite isn’t as new as yours, the voraciousness of it suppressed while yours beats against your teeth. He can see how you stand poised to pounce, muscles tense under your dirty shirt. He doesn’t need to call your name for you to realize he’s there, but he’s startled all the same when you look over your shoulder at him, eyes wild and deep. The black of your pupils bleeds through the color, veins of ink that creep across into the bloodshot whites of your eyes and Eddie realizes his mistake with the tilt of your head. You’d held yourself back until he’d made himself known, predator competition for a prize kill.

From his perspective your movements slow when you turn back to lunge at the two men and one of them finally notices you. He jumps when you come into focus and he jolts again when Eddie comes into view just as quick, hot on your heels to stop a slaughter. He grabs the back of your shirt and a snarl rips out of your chest, alerting the humans to your monstrousness. They freeze together, crouched on the ground surrounded by drops of blood. Even with his bearings Eddie finds it hard to focus on you, his own need clawing up his throat when the metal in the air seems to coat his mouth. He breaths heavy, panting as his ignored hunger makes its presence known and his grip on you loosens. These are not his friends, not family or even familiar in a sense.

These men have been staring for too long.

They’ll recognize his face soon, maybe even yours too.

They’ll run into town and ruin his plan, telling everyone the freak was alive and well with the newest missing girl in town.

“Eddie…” You moan and his attention breaks from the cowering men to you and the want laced in your voice. “Eddie, I’m hungry.”

You don’t need his permission, not now anyways, but you wait until he nods softly. Two screams erupt off the surrounding trees and one cuts off short into a wet gurgling when your teeth find purchase at the base of their neck. It’s a slow drag to the forest floor, your mouth anchored to this man’s juglar. His knees hit the hard ground while your fingers dig into his shoulders and you let yourself fall on top of him, his hands weakly beating at your arms. The other man only whimpers now while he tries in vain to drag himself away, gouged calf leaving a bleeding line behind him.

Eddie doesn’t find delight in this hunt. He hasn’t enjoyed any human life he’s taken thus far but he won’t lie to himself. This blood is sweeter, thicker and richer than the surrounding fauna. It fills his belly longer and sharpens his senses to fine points, sharp enough to hear the vines creeping beneath the town.

“I want you to know this isn’t personal.” Eddie says lowly and the man in front of him bables through the tears. “I can’t let you go though, not when there’s so much to finish.” He descends before this human can let out another yell, Eddie’s eyes rolling back in his skull when blood floods his mouth. He remembers that first kill and quietly wishes he’d waited so he could watch your reaction. Hot copper fills him and he works quickly, too scared of getting lost in the sensation of feeding.

You’ve stilled in his periphery, stuck staring down at the unmoving man between your knees. Your shirt is bloodied again and so soon after you’d scrubbed it ‘clean’.

“Hey.” Blood drips from his lips back down onto its previous vessel and he wipes his hand over his mouth messily. “It’s a lot, I know but you’ll see-” He really hasn’t learned as much as he thought. Your head turns to him and his sympathetic words but your eyes hold no color. Black pools stare back at him and you hiss under your breath at his outstretched hand. It’s his turn to jerk away from you but you follow him back, your victim already forgotten in the leaves.

Eddie can’t find his footing before you reach him in your crawling, crowding him down next to his own murder. He isn’t afraid but he has no idea what you’ll do. He’d really thought there wouldn’t be an other you if there was no alternate dimension, not bats or vines present but again he’s proven wrong.

You hover over him and your eyes dance across his mouth where the blood is smeared. The sudden dip of your head makes him flinch and your tongue pointing into a fine v draws his attention. You run the tip of it along the corner of his lip, through the left over blood and over his skin. A deep hum rattles through you and Eddie has to fight his baser instincts. Your tongue roves again along his cupids bow and when his eyelids flutter to close he puts a stop to it. Holds up his arm to push you back slowly but you don’t take kindly to the denial. A snap of your jaws and you’re clamped to his forearm, fangs buried deep in the muscles.

The tussle only lasts a few moments but you get him good, his arm peppered in fanged kisses and the fingers of his other hand bloody. He wedges them in your mouth at the joint of your jaw and pries you open to shake his arm loose.

“Listen to me!” Deep layers bid you to still. He doesn’t like using it with you like your a meal to be lured but his arm aches. You still, breathing heavy, mouth red with his and the strangers blood. There’s a shift in your eyes and before he can blink the black seeps away leaving your bright eyes shining and wet in the waning light.

A sharp gasp when you realize what you’ve done to his arm. He keeps you pushed away but your hands grazing over the punctures make him less tense. Worry furrows your brow and the tether anchoring you two draws closer.

“Oh…Eddie I’m sorry. I didn’t-I couldn’t see you.” Your eyes screw shut while your hands grip around your bites.

“It’s okay.” He tries to placate you, long arms pulling out of your grip to draw you down for a hug. It only feels strange for a moment before he feels you shudder and his grip tightens.

“He’s everywhere.” You sob into his chest, hands wound up in his shirt. “I can hear him winding through my skull. I hear their wings all night, the screams.”

His hands rest on your back while you try to climb into his neck. A low whine escapes from your chest and he shushes you. He won’t think about the consequences of this yet, not when you’re dealing with this intrusion. The two bodies next you can wait, the new questions he has can too. Under his back the vines inch along and the beating of wings on their search for him vibrate the earth.

[wannabe-cartoonist-blog]

finally drawing everybody's animal form after like 4 years into this au. randomly, I started with Touou. (plus bonus hanamiya bc i don't feel like coming up with the rest of kirisaki)

See more art from the AU | read the series (kagakuro main pairing)

Explanation on selections under the cut! plus some fun animal facts!!

Aomine: black jaguar/panther. this is was an easy one, considering its a canon comparison (it's his Animal Instinct). that being said, it really does fit him! a rather lethargic creature, he's often napping in the sun or found lounging around on any free surface, but you sure don't want to get on his bad side.

Momoi: I have an agenda which is to include Momoi as a GoM any chance I get, so I very well couldn't have her as the only non-shifter in the Teiko pack now could I? That being said, it was super hard to place her, but after a little research, I decided to pick a species that highlighted her intelligence (a parrot) and then picked a subspecies that matched her aesthetically. therefore, we have the galah (aka a pink cockatoo). she's a friendly and vocal little bird and can often be seen perching on Kuroko and/or Aomine when shifted.

Sakurai: a more recent epiphany, originally I thought he was going to remain a non-shifter. but after getting a really dumb idea, I decided to double-check to see if there were any creatures that both matched my idea and fit sakurai aesthetically/characteristically. the idea? to check to see what animals consume mushrooms as part of their diet. lo and behold, one such species is the hedgehog, which I happen to think aesthetically matches sakurai pretty perfectly. it was like a little epiphany. sakurai and hedgehogs are both small and round but a little prickly. perfection.

Imayoshi: another character who remained status-less for a long time. however, upon re-watching the series I concluded that Imyaoshi is very snake-like in his expressions. after i decided that, I simply googled black breeds of snakes. eastern rat snakes are non-venomous and are therefor constrictors, who wrap around and squeeze their prey. a slow, drawn out sort of style of killing, which I think matches his conniving, slightly sadistic nature quite well. they are cute little things though and rather non-aggressive towards humans.

Hanamiya: a canon comparison (the spider's web), so he was a character who always had a second-skin when I came up with the au. however, it would be damn right goofy to just have a normal spider try to be threatening in my mind, so I tried to come up with other variants than a simple black widow/whatever the animators drew for the Spider's Web sequence. in the fic, I wrote him to be a goliath birdeater tarantula, the biggest species of arachnid, but upon reflection, I decided that it was quite important to me to keep him as a spider, that way webs would still come into play. so, I sacrificed size and looked into other, more threatening-looking and acting spiders that also spun webs and then I learned about the funnel web spider, a species native to Australia (of course). technically, they more so build spider web nests, as opposed to traditional, airborne webs, but they're fascinating little creatures. look at a close up of them too, quite frightening! they also have some of the biggest fangs relative to their body size amongst their species. they also do threatening little dances where they fan out their limbs and also have venom. their venom is extremely toxic, and can cause severe drops in blood pressure, comas, or in extreme cases, organ failure and death; so if you ever encounter one, be extremely cautious, as they are very aggressive/territorial (I personally hope to never encounter one in my life-time; though they are funnily sassy-seeming in the videos I've seen). males are typically smaller than the females, but I decided to make Hanamiya an exception and have him be on the larger side (the whole species ranges from 1cm-5cm typically) but the largest male on record was 7.9cm (a little over 3 inches)!!

[criesinvarable]

My idea for an sonic Infection au because i got bored and did like 3 hours of research on diseases and know damn well i wont ever finish this

maybe eggman or what seemed to be a minor villain makes another virus but instead of turning its victims into metal zombies it simply bends as many prions as it can (creating prion disease which will spread during surgeries or by any bodily fluid) while expelling a miriad of different viruses like rabies, syphilis (can change literally anything about the body and mind with the only symptom is a small bump on body), hemorrhagic fevers, retroviruses, ect while researching i also found out that mental illnesses are also classes as diseases so you could add something similar to Sundowning seen in people with dementia (a major behavioral change seen in people with dementia during late afternoon or early evening, normally seen with symptoms such as: Confusion, Agitation, Intense Distress, Hallucinations/Delusions, Increases impulsivity and a strong feeling of being in the wrong place.). some explanations about why i chose what i chose (its in order of when it appears when im talking btw): Prion disease: Prion disease is horrifying, A disease entirely spreading from the body accidentally making a protein wrong that can appear without warning and doesn't show any symptoms until the final stages of life is genuinely scary. along with the fact that it makes that "zombie" aesthetic everyone goes for due to the disease basically rotting your brain away as well as having no cure. the reason most probably don't look into prion disease for these is due to the amount of incubation time for the disease (several years for symptoms to appear) and the fact it is non contagious in humans but not in animals like what I'm guessing Mobians are most similar to. Rabies: Everyone knows what rabies is yet i have almost never seen its symptoms in any infection au despite it being perfect for sonic infection au's due to mobian being just anthropomorphic animals. Once again being mainly a progressive brain disease that mainly affects the mentality and brain of the victim is not very popular in infection aus because every wants to draw gorey amalgamations. Syphilis: While the area where the ulcer first appears is a bit awkward,, Its not hard to simply move the ulcer to another area like the back of the neck. Syphilis only have one immediate symptom is terrifying as it only appears for a month and is painless before "leaving" only to suddenly appear again as its symptoms is an interesting idea for a infection au. It is syphilis curable with antibiotics but neurosyphilis isn't and its effects are irreversible and if you get syphilis or neurosyphilis you will have to live with it for . Even if you survive its horrible and you are changed forever. One of the cases that was talked about when i was researching was one where and i quote "Several years ago, I took care of an older gentleman who sat at the foot of his hospital bed and barked loudly at anyone who dared enter his room. Yes, “barked.” Like a dog. He even growled if anyone attempted to get too close, but he was friendly if you gave him food. We performed a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and diagnosed neurosyphilis." Seeing someone devolve in such a way would be horrifying while having the knowledge that there is no way of getting to old person back and that you could get infected with the same disease easily. Chills. Perfect for a horror au. Hemorrhagic Fevers: Ebola is the most well known Hemorrhagic fever, Being a disease or virus that both damage blood vein walls while stopping the blood's ability to clot properly allowing for other diseases to enter the body more easily while also increasing the chance of the victim to bleed out. Although it only existing in tropical regions is a negative but this is fantasy we can bend the rules a little.

Retroviruses: Retroviruses are split into 3 types: Cancer causing (Oncoretrovirus), Immunodeficiency causing (Lentivirus) and Benign (Spumavirus). For the infection au i'd suggest focusing on either Oncoretroviruses or Lentiviruses, the most well known viruses for each being HTLV for oncoretrovirus and HIV / FIV for Lentivirus. NIDS would be classed and a Lentivirus if you wanted to use a virus from the sonic series instead of making one on your own.

Sundowning: Behavioural changes would make sense if you are going in a mentally degenerative disease direction, As a mind begins to fade to something more animalistic there will probably be times where those animalistic traits "pop out" more (probably during stress or moments of danger)

[dexaroth]

tagged by @blyszczopies to answer questions and tag mutuals id like to get to know better :3 tag list is at the bottom!

⭐ Favorite color:

i honestly have had some 'color opinions' sloshing through my head for a while.. its complicated but you can rarely go wrong with these ones 👆 these are the ones I like the most! specially when combined together!

for favorites.. it depends a lot on how you use the colors and if they're alone or accompanied! some things look bad if they're just completely sky blue and such..

(putting this under a read more bc its a Very long post)

for the purposes of having an ultimate favorite color.. man i honestly don't know. it's a completely even match between purple and blue, though only the non-100% saturated shades of blue bc true blue is quite unbearable. I think the ultimate champion in questions of how many things can work with it would be blue. sometimes too much purple can be unbearable, but too much blue not so much

red Can be beautiful in many cases, but orange is simply superior between pure yellow and pure red. pure yellow specifically is literally unbearable for me. i hate it so much. for me to like a yellow it HAS to be going towards orange or its nothin'. lime green is super beautiful but pure green is also too much, and so is cyan. though the specific range of teal/green-blue can be nice, but it does not come close to lime green, instead it accents it quite nicely.

we don't talk about pink. or magenta. or any of its hideous nicknames. perish the thought!

⭐ Last song played: erm. well. you see, most of the music i have downloaded came from youtube. and quite a bit of them from compilations of songs all in one usually 30+ minute video..

the one currently playing is by Lauren Bousfield. i've tried searching for the - actually paragraph cancelled. i thought it was one of the comps by the pavor nocturnus1 channel but it turned out to be from some random other channel. i was having trouble identifying which song it was because it's a single audio file but it turns out the song currently in that queue to be playing is the song Cascading Retail Spaces!

i've had this album compilation downloaded since.. 2017! damn! and other albums of hers too. I don't know anything else about her though, but her music slaps :3

⭐ Currently reading: ah.. i dont read at all sorry 😭 does looking at the drawings from the morpho books series grant me any pity points perchance..

⭐Currently craving: WAFFLES!!!! GOD PLEASE!! and cookies..

^my cookie pile in project zomboid. can you tell?? (no waffles bc they're randomly found and not able to be baked like cookies..)

⭐Coffee or tea: neither soz.. i did try to enjoy coffee like 10 years ago but its just meh. tea as well, very boring. not counting the fact i have to load these suckers with sugar for them to even be worth drinking >.> but i suppose i'd choose tea over coffee simply due to variety and that some are naturally sweet :J

tagging: @moodycarcass @oxu @crazysodomite (maybe even u again timo if u wanna awnser my curious inquiries below.. muahaha)

additionally might i add my own questions... for funsies :33

favorite stone pattern:

favorite time of day:

favorite cloud pattern:

actually hm its quite hard to come up with somewhat potentially universal interesting questions. fuck. erm

FAVORITE ANIMAL!!! this question never disappoints. additionally favorite family of animals maybe?..

also from the makers of the best question ever above.. what's the silliest/weirdest animal off the top of your head?

last dumb mistake in a game?

last triumph in a game? (life cant all be losses afterall..!)

favorite clothing pattern?

worst + best texture(s) to feel?

and finally.. name one cool thing that happened this week. no matter how small. it is your duty now! commence!

actually i suppose it'd be weird to not awnser my own questions.. well here goes:

i like the one stone pattern that's a bunch of thin slabs slotted together. the ref image i have says its name is cliffstone/bluff stone! i also like the 'bavarian castle' one!

time of day: DUSK!!! MY LOVELY DUSK!!! though dawn is veeery nice as well. i used to be fonder of the night but dusk is just sooo niceys. dawn loses points for giving way to the boring middays though. but every time of day has its charm

cloud pattern; i actually dont know their names besides cummulonimbus..? lemme search..

according to this chart ive found on ddg. nimbus! i love gray skies and i love rain and i love fog. stratus and scuds are also nice

fav animal: erm.. got myself in my own question! i dont think i have a true favorite? i suppose ill go with jerboas.. as for the family. rodents of course. im the rodent mutual how could i not choose rodents! blasphemy!

silliest animal: off the top of my head? its a worm-like animal with a goofy face.. i thought it was legless lizards but that's not quite it.. i dont remember the name 😞

though there is a guy that's named worm lizard apparently.. oh such a foofy goofus

last dumb mistake in a game: most recently i was trying to go back to my base in a car in project zomboid and ran straight into a insane zombie crowd. the car got stuck in the grass bc it was loaded to the brim and i tried to move it backwards and let zombies approach me with the hope i'd run away from them on time, but it was not moving and then i panicked and stepped outside the car near a zombie with the sprint key enabled, bumped into the zombie, fell on the ground and by the time the get up animation started the zombie was already eating my guy. i was so mad

last triumph in a game: not much of a triumph but i got to fitness and stregth to lvl 6 in pz which are grindy time consuming skills to lup. but i have a base and crops and my coogieeees

favorite clothing pattern: i also dont know!! id say checkers that arent too busy or its derivatives. but also star/celestial patterns of course

^ from my fashion inspo folder

worst + best texture(s) to feel: i hate silk and those ones that are like a million little hairs that i dont know the name in english. best i suppose would be plush/cotton? i dont know their names either lol

and finally.. name one cool thing that happened this week: hmm. i suppose the nice sky i saw earlier today? though also one my af attacks has gotten a lot more notes than i expected. which is epic 💪🐁

[henrike-does-writing-sometimes]

The Most Willing Prey.

Because the last oneshot I wrote was in Anruh's pov I wanted to try something from Ruben's perspective and, yeah. This was supposed to be about him having masochistic and freaky fantasies about his monster girlfriend, but it turned into him experiencing desire for the first time and trying to navigate it while not fully understanding why he's feeling the way he's feeling.

It's still kinky, don't worry about that, but it was supposed to be a lot kinkier lmao

I'm also going to have to incorporate a lot of this into the actual story because god damn

Word count: 984 Warnings: Guro-esque | Gore and violence as erotic Kinks: Dom/sub undertones | Light Masochism | Primal play Wip: Gammellunden Characters: Ruben Hylén

: Oneshot Taglist - @vacantgodling :

Let me know if you want to be added/removed !

Enjoy~

//

The hours were ticking down slowly. Too slowly for Ruben's liking. Which wasn't rare. Hours spent trapped inside with an almost unbearable amount of sensory stimuli could easily drive anyone up the wall. Turning those hours into countless eternities.

But Ruben wasn't overwhelmed. The broken lightbulb in the corridor that flickered too loudly had been fixed. There had been pasta for lunch that day, with their unofficially assigned table unoccupied. The math teacher had even let him wear his headphones while he worked on their assigned chapter. Ruben hadn't been this at ease with the school environment in months. And yet, something irked him. Dragged him down and refused to tell him why.

It followed him home, too. Hung over him as he walked through the forest, and all the way up to his bedroom. 

Ruben unceremoniously dropped his backpack by his desk, before dropping down on his bed. He sat in silence for a moment, trying once again to asses what the strange feeling within him was. When he once more failed he made a frustrated noise and fell back on his bed. Ruben stared up at the ceiling, frowning as the feeling didn’t even have the decency to itch over his skin. Instead, it was rooted deep so Ruben wouldn’t be able to reach it however hard he tried. Had it been his skin, he could’ve tried to itch it. But he’d already tried multiple times, and it didn’t work. 

Still, Ruben ran a dull and stubborn nail across his freckled arm, leaving a red line to blossom in its wake. He'd never been one for scratches, finding the sensation too odd to be comfortable. But maybe it was because his nails weren't sharp enough. Maybe if it were Anruh’s claws…

Ruben let out a shuddered breath. Caught off guard by the warmth that fluttered within him at the thought. Warmth that, for a brief moment, calmed that strange feeling. It burnt to the touch, and yet Ruben found himself reaching out. Curiously welcoming the flames to lick his hand.

She'd easily slice his skin. Tantalizingly so. Slow and steady, drawing constellations with red ink. Or maybe she'd be quick and messy, ripping him apart like an animal. Like a predator, and he her prey. Ruben thought back to when she mauled the bear. Painting the snow in shades of red and pink without care. Brutal and without mercy, so effortlessly too. Would Anruh be the same with him? Was hunger and desire not the same? That was how people described it, at least. It was the allegory Karin had used when explaining her countless crushes.

“It’s like when you’re really craving something to eat, and that something is a specific person.”

“That sounds like cannibalism.”

“I mean, in a way it kinda is. Human connection is weird like that. You’ll understand when you’re older, trust me.”

Ruben wasn’t sure he fully understood even if he was older now. But the warmth that steadily grew within him beckoned him closer. As if promising him all the answers he was looking for. And Ruben followed. Closing his eyes, he delved further. Let himself be completely enveloped in the strange flames.

Did Anruh prefer pliant prey? The ones who dropped to their knees before her, giving her permission to do as she pleased. Or did she like them fighting? Those who kicked and screamed and did everything they could to flee, who had to be held down firmly and forced into submission.

Ruben would be lying if he claimed he wouldn't cave under Anruh. That her heavy gaze was enough for him to drop. But that didn't seem like fun, for either one of them. Ruben knew he was no match for the urroa, but the thought of trying regardless. Of being chased through the woods with her right on his heels. Of fighting tooth and nail for his life, adrenaline pumping in his veins. To truly be her prey. But after, when he was at her mercy with no means to escape, she could do whatever she wanted. Agonizingly slow, or merciless roughness. Perhaps a bit of both. Teasing the act for hours before stealing his breath in seconds. Ruben would be happy either way. And it scared him. 

Desire like this was uncharted territory. Which should be Ruben's favorite, but this time it felt different.

It felt raw. And real in ways Ruben couldn't fathom. Like for once in his life he understood every cue laid out before him. Like his die rolled 20s every single try. But this wasn't a game, this wasn't a roleplay. This was real. And it made him just as nervous and uncertain as it made his heart swell and his knees weak.

Like the first time he'd seen Anruh. Struck by dread, but oh so ridiculously mesmerized all the same.

Keeping his eyes closed, Ruben exhaled softly. If he thought hard enough, he could see her before him. Could imagine her pinning him down to the forest floor. Hand on his chest, claws poking at the skin of his collarbones. Promising to puncture it if he so much as breathed wrong. Perhaps she was waiting for it. Waiting for a moment to strike, to drag her claws down his belly. Cutting him open and granting her easy access to his insides. Because why would she kill him before having her feast? To desire was to hunger. To feel the raw beating of a heart against your lips, to mark up insides in ways that wouldn’t fade and couldn’t be replaced.

And Ruben didn’t mind. 

If Anruh wanted to squeeze his every organ to mush, carve her name into his broken bones and rip his heart from his chest, he’d let her. If only to satisfy that strange and frightening curiosity burning bright within him. If only to satisfy their desire, he’d be her most willing prey.

[tokyoleo]

this blog is contaminated with leo kurosagi brainrot, approach with caution

no one is safe i will ramble to anyone until i pass out and then start all over again

ive been working on a sona for weeks but i keep getting distracted

i am in love with literally all of them they should explode

MC sona that im working on under :

Let's try to balance being a perfect student and a menace

Name: Mika Momoka (美香 桃花 • みか ももか)

Age: eh

Birthday: August 8

Specie: Ghoul, Human formerly

Cursed?: Not this one! yet

Stigma: Passive (still figuring out the incantation)

Mika is able to sense danger in her environment, ranging from small risks to deadly certainties. She can find violent people or anomalies, dodge incoming attacks and distinguish between bluffing or genuine threat by paying attention to the feeling in her chest. She can also detect ill intent, like if a person lies specifically to hurt someone else. If her focus is disturbed or she gets overwhelmed by too many dangers, her stigma becomes useless.

A peculiar first year student fucked up and now has the sage's ring glued to her finger. The Chancellor took this opportunity to throw her in the spotlight- Mika hates it.

Personality:

Mika seems like a polite, discrete girl at first. Amicable, hardworking and passionate, it looks like she fits in the honor student role just fine!

But, Mika is, in fact, going insane. All she wanted was to do whatever she desired while passing under the radar. Be sneaky and avoid conflict or consequences; that was the strategy for all her life. Now, her job is to interact with all of the other quirky students? Mika has to cut herself off from swearing all the time because someone is always here. Fuck.

She tones down her clothes, makeup and eccentric personality at school, hoping to smoothly sail over the storm completely unnoticed. While she's annoyed at her responsibilities, she does enjoy the many, many perks being the 'honor student' gives her, so, she plays into the dumb role Darkwick gave her. However, she just keeps slipping up; saying the damned things on her mind, getting into stupid shenanigans, taking risks left and right... She tries so hard, she really does! But she also can't help but be herself. The more she denies herself that freedom, the more she feels herself grow restless.

Appearance:

Height: 5'7" without heels

Hair: A gradient from light blond to a slightly darker peach color. It's long and a bit messy. The ends are pink but faded- did she dye her hair in the past?

Eyes: Bright but pale teal. Light eyebags. She likes to wear makeup like eyeshadow, eyeliner, gloss and mascara, but sticks to natural colors while out on campus.

Uniform: The classic honor student uniform, customized here and there for personal flare. Never wears the jacket, even in winter. It's too thick and heavy. She likes to wear cardigans over the blouse instead. Her shoes have a higher heel because slay.

Casual Style : She mixes the fashion styles of gal, coquette and grundge! Cute and insanely girly but with an edge.

Trivia:

. She's french, because I am. Speaks baguette.

. Her name means beautiful fragrance of peach blossoms, though it doesn't mean much. She's kinda peach inspired in design tho.

. Mika's animal is the Cheetah 🐆

. Loves drawing, singing and baking in her free time. She hides all her hobbies so no one really knows for sure.

. She's a hopeless Bi with no game whatsoever. She's avoided attention and people all her life and now her stubborness is coming back to bite her in the ass. Crushes on girls all the time and it's really funny to watch.

. I haven't paired her up with anyone because I adore them all and it's fun to think about what the platonic or romantic dynamic would be for each of them.

. Has stolen an artifact. She just found out about all that neat stuff, how could she not? The artifact looks unnasuming enough, its just like a normal can of spray paint. However, it never runs out of paint and lets her have any color she wants- it's also extremely flammable. Fun!!

(let the honor student have something to defend herself with Darkwick like what the fuck)

. More to come! I LOVE other MCs, please show them to me and infodump about them!! Don't be scared to interact, it makes my day every time <3

[cardboardslugs]

I did some searching because I didn't want to ask on ao3 and potentially spoil anyone, hope that's ok! I wanted to know if you would be ok with sharing the the plot map for Schrödinger's Murder, and/or what you mean about the chapter with Chihiro's parents containing extreme foreshadowing? Hope this isn't too invasive, and I can completely respect if you want everything to be a surprise for everyone!

HEY ANON I WANT TO KISS YOU HOTLY AND WETLY ON THE MOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im gonna give you BOTH of your requests, and then some, BUT!!! under the cut bc I also respect the fact some people wanna stay surprised!!! SERIOUS TWs for body horror; sexual assualt; mental illness; physical assualt; euthanasia; and all other tags found on my ao3 fic!!!

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!!!

OCTOBER 2ND, 2024 EDIT: this plot map is entirely outdated. Some of what is in here is still mostly accurate to what is going to happen. most of it is not. Plots change. the Ending hasnt.

let me establish something before I continue: DR3 the anime did not fucking happen, In this fic. i am going complete and total pre-spike chunsoft sole-aquisition. Nanami was never a real person, Chihiro did not get nerfed by becoming two different characters, and Ryota Mitari does not Fucking Exist. Everyone was manipulated the hard way, Junko is not a tactical mastermind, shes a dumb model with an axe to grind and her dead boyfriend's stolen research notes. lets move on.

okay so, from the point we're at, plot map goes as follows:

Kirigiri has a theory. she's listening to Byakuya and Chihiro recount stories. Hands makoto a bat "Im going to need you to hit me across the head as hard as you physically can. no holding back. dont worry about it."

everyone arguing in the nurses office, chihiro loudly asserting everyone needs to go for a bath. Naked. Completely fucking naked gloves and all miss kirigiri-san!!!!

Byakuya flat out refuses. Toko refuses. Kirigiri refuses. "oh three possible murderers refusing, that's not suspect at all" "none of us murdered anyone. Chihiro's right there" "i am in fact alive. but that's not the point, dumbfucks." AUDIBLE GASPING AT CHIHIRO SWEARING

chihiro manages to convince them all to take a bath. some its more like "gentle persuasion" (sakura throws them in the tub).

Mondo, Chihiro has to drag him there by the ear. also have three other people go with him, because he's been alone in his room for 5 days after now finding chihiro alive, and hes trying to commit die.

"whyd you say you wanna be strong? I would have helped you if thats the case!" "i didnt say stong?? who told you that? I said *masculine*. not strong. that's exactly why i didnt ask you, sakura. it wound be an insult upon insults! im not that foolish!! why would I ever come to a woman for help being a man?!" "... well, great, now I *really* wanna kill myself!!" "sit down oowada, not as bad as I do." "what does that mean?!" "...dont worry about it-"

"great. now that you're all caught up, I need every last one of you to take medium head trauma" "The only thing i have become convinced of is that chihiro is fucking insane. I think mercy killing is in order, lets draw straws" "LISTEN TO ME YOU BRAINDEAD COWS!"

cut to junko enoshima having a very horrible no good day. after a very shitty phone call with kamukura, she's planning to off chihiro her damn self.

class 77 is ballin- by which to say they have been in the building the whole time and theyre feelin the hope baybee!! theyre making plans to ensure Junkos next trial goes south, if 78 cant fuck her up on their own. Peko comes back with news from the bath house, and lies about it to enoshima.

No one with any functional functional braincells agrees to get wacked over the head. Gundam neatly arranges for ceiling tiles and other objects on high shelves to fall for seemingly no reason. :) must be ghosties :) totally not tiny gods what are you talking about :)

junko had given a phone call to kamukura earlier. kamukura is rounding up the hit list victims before getting them out of there before any real harm can come to them. shoves them in a place he'll be able to keep them safe until something good comes- and as a master tactian, he's keeping an eye on the TV. theyre all in bad shape though, bears are not cool fun things. Funny how hope works!! Komaeda Nagito is practically creaming himself. Also is getting his shins beaten in with wiffle bats while making pbj sandwiches for some very bratty chidren of hope.

meanwhile, the gig is up for junko. and NOBODY is happy. junko's plan falls apart at the seams and she got rid of her insurance policy WAY too early. funny how quickly the monokuma bots will turn when she's not in control of them. The ending does not bring her the "despair" she desires-- because she has never experienced actual despair a day in her god forsaken life.

everyone brings their ass to safety, and Byakuya founds the Future Foundation with what's left of reasonable humanity-- but with all the people who got out alive before some REALLY bad shit happened; celebrations are in order. ahh yes. class 77 being the party cat comic once again.

happy 77/78 reunion time!! until they realize that at least half of 77 is HORRIBLY disfigured from things they did to themselves in the name of faux-despair terrorism. Nidai has become terribly weak from his heart condition that he had stopped taking his meds for. Fuyhikos eye is completely gouged out. Ibuki's head is shaved n burned and she has a hard time speaking because she took a chunk out of her tongue and drank a lil bleach, "just a tiny bit!!". Imposter is rail thin, could actually pass for Byakuya if someone bothered to check weight. Mahiru has several chemical burn scars from using photo development equipment as bombs. Mikan going on a full-blown panic attack self-harm-spree, and Kazuichi ate radium.

Chihiro, having remembered how close he was to Kazuichi, is particularly distraught over what's become of him. Chihiro, in all the strength he doesn't have, weakly pounds at kaz's arm-- and instantly breaks it. Chihiro has a breakdown. Kazuichi is not seen for several days, despite people looking for him. He's out eating more radium to speed up the process of it killing him.

Byakuya finally finds Souda and they talk for a little. Kazuichi's skin is sloughing off from him trying to wipe his tears. byakuya promises to take care of chihiro for him. kaz says his jaw hurts. byakuya makes a snide comment, and as kazuichi goes to rub his temples- his jaw quite literally falls off his face. Byakuya has no choice but to call for help- when he finally gets someone on the line, Kazuichi has brought Byakuya to a pipe wrench begging (as much as he can with virtually no tongue) to kill him. Fortunately, it's kirigiri and she's just meeting a hope-filled hinata- andHinata says, with kamukura knowledge, at the point he's describing, if that's how Souda wants to go, so be it.

Chihiro has no idea what happened when they basically come back with Souda's mangled body parts in an amazon box, but distraught is a VERY weak word for it. Byakuya had recorded their conversation, prior to having to call help. hearing Kaz talk doesnt make chihiro feel *good*, but it does put some of his fears at ease.

and the recovery ward is feeling okay enough for guests, at that point!! Kanon is fucking pissed but she and maizonos bitch can go suck my dick this aint about them!!!

good fun family time baybeeeee!!! everyone is excited to see their Most Important Person. there is full blown sob fests. Celestia Ludenberg looks like a KISS oc from ugly crying about her cat. the yamada siblings assert their position as pop team epic. Taka is buttmad only at staff that they saved his father from a stroke. Kenshiro is impressed with sakura. Aoi is about to introduce her brother and is immeadiately shocked sakura has a boyfriend. Pennysworth and Taichi are in a weird argument, that both of them drop upon seeing their respective kids again. Chihiro is just happy to see his dad after such a rough time.

"you're in pants, for once!" "y-yeah. yeah I am." "... I'm not one for praise to others; but you raised a strong son, Mr. Fujisaki" ".. thank you, togami. He's quite the handsome young man, too." Chihiro is openly sobbing. i need to be normal.

the world is starting to be rebuilt. everyone is getting therapy. *EVERYONE*. Byakuya realizes the ENTIRE togami empire fell- and beats the name to plowshears. The chick in that egg is finally out; her name is Polaris P. Polanski and she starts E. conincidentally the same day Chihiro starts T. three years have passed since Kazuichi's funeral, Gundam and sonia are in a stable relationship- literally, they spend most of their time trying to repopulate animals. (BA DUM TSSS) lots of people are getting the medical help they need, Nidai's gotten a heart transplant, Nagito has his AIDS under control, other people are starting to get rehomed; komaru and toko are the very first to get that luxury simply to keep Syoko (a moniker picked up by fukawa to reclaim her own humanity) away from Polaris at all costs. makoto is going ham with pet projects- by which to say he is finally introducing the warriors of hope back into the adults. theyre about 8 or 9 at this point.

theyre still their very own family unit, and they desperately want monaka to move forward with them. Monaka does not want this, for herself or for others. she actively harms people any way they can when she's allowed to see them. has shanked people with colored pencils.

i have to put this in another block, tumblr hates me and I am VERY wordy.

all of the adults try to talk reason into her. there is no reason to be talked into. she even got to live with komaeda and hajime for a month, and not even that proved to get anywhere, and Komaeda had to get a blood transfusion halfway through because of monaca. All the department heads agree, though with a lot of hemming and hawing, espicially from chihiro-- some people are too far gone, and cannot be saved.

Chihiro asks (and gets) to sit with Monaca while she is executed. she's supposed to not know. She Knows. She's a smart little shithead. She tries to stab Chihiro to death while poison very slowly works its way through her bloodstream. Thank god she's 10 and he's been working out a whole lot. She takes off half his tit though, and it gives him an excuse to get top. Chihiro is never sitting with anyone while they forcfully die again.

the kids go through another 6 months of therapy to process what just happened- though to be frank, they had gotten over her nonsense a while ago, and don't feel much after about only two months. they come to the conculsion it'll probably effect them more as young adults.

the kids are assigned to families via makoto. Taka and Mondo arent dating, but with how/how much they bicker, they might as well be married. they get joint custody daimon, who needs good male figures in his life who wont hurt him. Syoko and Komaru, lesbians extraordinaire, get Kotoko. SA victims help SA victims. syoko teaches her all the best places to stab men if they ever try to put their hands on her. several people go to the hopital for it. shes 10!! its deserved!! chihiro gets jataro. Taichi and Chihiro and Jataro are basically 3 peas in a pod, and they really love fostering Jataros interests and helping him learn healthy coping mechanisms for his autism. Polaris gets Nagisa. "both of you need to learn how to be kids for once!" "what the hell is that supposed to mean." "watch your tongue." "dont tell me what to do" "see? this is what i mean. go sneak into the food stores! get the sticks out of your asses and live a little!! take some inspiration from Mondo or something."

they do. polaris finds out she has a horrible addiction to goldfish crackers. Chihiro now uses them as a bribe, scooby snack style. Nagisa discovers what a food coma is. polaris and nagisa continue to be silly and have fun and play.

the kids function as additional therapy for all of the people who care for them, as well as therapy for the kids.

antics ensue!! the kids all play pranks get in trouble, grow up a bit more. polaris and chihiro are fucking, thinking about getting married, maybe owning up to a promise of their own to Polanski's dead father. Taka has learned fully what aromantic asexuality is and is comfortable in that indentity. Mondo feels lost without a partner, but his right hand man from the gang is always there for him, and he loves his son. Syoko is not allowed back at the foundation, but Komaru and Makoto meet up frequently, and kotoko always slips little pieces of Polaris to her mom. trouble is brewing under the surface-- its not despair, but Junko would be thrilled.

this is where the forshadowing in chapter 6 starts to become fully realized.

while taka's dad has always been a shithead about not only his own son, but also chihiro, taichi has had enough of it while theyre out getting some air and a few people are smoking. there is a large and serious old man fight. Taichi, by making Takaki KO, objectively wins, but not without doing some serious damage to himself.

taka is absolutely THRILLed that his father got his ass handed to him. he aslo does not visit his dad. fuck that. "Taichi Fujisaki got in a fight with my father because he said me, chihiro and jataro should all die by our own hands? the only reason i would be mad at mr fujisaki at this point is if my father isnt dead from this fight. Taichi is more my father than that man is."

taichi is visited by his son, his sons girlfriend (who is weathering an engagement ring in her pocket), and his sons girlfriend's butler in the hospital ward. Taichi Fujisaki as a very clear brand mark on his back between his shoulderblades- one that is extremely old and must have been seared into him in his youth-- and it says "Togami" in Kanji. Chihrio is confused, Polaris is frozen in fear, and Pennysworth is yelling a name neither of them recognize, but Taichi visibily shrinks to.

FUN BACKSTORY TIME OF HOW TAICHI FUJISAKI ESCAPED BEING A TOGAMI, CHANGED HIS IDENTITY, TOOK THE CASH AND RAN!! ("and that, chihiro, is why your mom always joked about extra broccoli." "you convinced mom that those kanji meant ADD BROCCOLI?!" "she couldnt read kanji and you never saw my back!! It worked out fine! unitl now, I guess--")

suddenly polaris doesnt feel so good about the engagement ring in her pocket-- even if in any other culture it is absolutely not weird to marry your estranged step-grand-cousin. Pennysworth is just thrilled to see his first Togami child again. Polaris thinks shes going to be sick over it, has a panic attack-- actually, much worse- a psychotic break. brought on by trauma. she's cold and snappy, and demands to not be called Polaris, "that girl is dead and has been dead for years. My name is Byakuya Togami, damnit!" Chihiro's in actual shock.

MEANWHILE!!! Jataro has finally been confident enough to be taking his mask off, and has gone for his first physical. He makes mention of what he knows about his mother-- and says right out that he killed her. He only knows her as one "Jean Mullen. but Mullen's a stupid name, So i said i dint have one and Junko helped me pick Kemuri." He mentions that if his real father is out there after having left his birthgiver for dead, he's angry, and if he were to meet him in his current state, Jataro feels confident he could kill him, too. Hajime is the doctor running this; and the name seems familiar to him, but he's not quite sure. he runs blood tests against every person he has in the system. and hajime is about to have to give the worst news of his life. but not before jataro shows them exactly where the dead, frozen body of his mom is.

Taichi Fujisaki had a tall, red-headed wife named "Gwendolyn Jeanette Mullen-Fujisaki". Chihiro and Jataro get along more like an older brother to a much younger sibling. Gwen had a horrible habit of verbally, and very occasionally physically, lashing out if she was denied her coping mechanisms. During the end of the world- the last thing she did was make love to her husband one last time! She did not know she would get pregant. or survive to see the baby born. or even get to know if her husband and son were alive!! so face to face in the end of the world with this terrible little infant who looked exactly the way chihiro should have? she became a terrible, terrible mother.

a now dead terrible single mother. who taichi and chihiro have to confirm the indentity of. Jataro does not understand why chihiro is having such a meltdown. "Polaris" is FURIOUS that not only was she never actually the sole heir(ess?) - this now discovered branch of her family is the Fujisakis and they've got a whole BUNCH of weird shit going on!!!!

Chihiro and Taichi privately talk with Jataro's therapist. he works through it because he's old enough (15) to realize and recognize that "hey, i didnt know I would have been concieved at the same time this horrible, world changing event happened, and my dad didn't walk out because my mom sucked- my dad didnt walk out at all! my dad got kidnapped!! and now he's right here with my older brother!!! and my ... step mom step cousin sister in law??? Where's Miss Polaris, anyways?" "........ sister in law?!" "did she pussy out" "excuse me!?!"

"Byakuya" runs from the situation. ends up staying for a little bit in the same building (now very well renovated) where Kazuichi passed. Chihiro stays with Gundam and Sonia to try to ease the hurt of the past two weeks, where Polaris has been distant and cold with him, even forgetting and seeming much more like the man she was at hopes peak to her classmates than the woman he knows and loves

taka pulls the plug on his dad, who has sustained enough injuries that Taka can finally justify it. Takaki goads and eggs Taka into doing it the whole time-- heavy on the sarcasm; and Taka doesn't understand, just knows it hurts and is in a tone that other hurtful words have been delivered by. "go ahead!! you want daddy to save you all this damn time?! do it! you fuckin wont let me!" --Some people are not worth saving. He cries to mondo about it, how he didnt know he could do such a thing, that if his father was worth saving, why would he be? Mondo comes tothe conclusion that sometimes, saving someone is the bravest thing you really can do. sometimes, you're really lucky if someone else you love will look out for you. sometimes- the bravest and strongest way to save yourself, is to sacrifice a life that hurts you like no other. "he left you a legacy- that doesnt mean you gotta do soemthing stupid to get yourself to not take it. sometimes, you just have to say no, n leave it behind."

Syoko, well healed and still on the mend, getting information about what's going on with her old flame from her kid and her three weird "brothers"-- go out and find Byakuya. exactly where she thought they'd be.

"youre not supposed to be here. God why are you so ancient?!" "you looked in a mirror lately? plus this isnt foundation property and You need some serious help" ".. when did i get breasts?!" "five years ago." "how long have we been out of that school?!!" "about 7 or 8 years." "Why are you the rational one here, you're a serial killer!!" "formerly, yes. turns out that seven or eight years of therapy 5 days a week does wonders for hurt little kids who have to dissociate to be able to cope with the terrible things that were forced upon them" "..." "like being an adult too early, being sexually assulated multiple times, physical and emotional abuse, no friends, scars that serve as physical reminders-" "stop talking like you know me." "I was only talking about myself. if you saw you in those statements, thats not something I can control." "... I dont recognize the people I'm with." "yeah, that was another common one." "..what about suddenly showing up places you dont remember going?" "... yeah. that one too." "... I wanna go home, Touko." "End of the world, White Knight! Home is where ever you want it to be now. Where the heart is, as some novels would have you believe." "... can we hug?" "Not a single fucking chance in the world dipshit, I still know where arteries are and i WILL stab you if you try. I also have no desire to go anywhere near foundation grounds." ".. you can come back. you're... clearly doing much better." "are you going to remember you said that?" "likely not. I also dont remember how to get back." "how about I bring you back and i talk to your shrink?" "perhaps the best idea."

Polaris gets therapy for bigger and more pervasive issues, part 2 electric boogaloo. Her family becomes real, and central, and loves and cares about her. it's not a contest, anymore.

She goes to finally propose to chihiro. chihiro beats her to it out on the same date. they laugh about the rings.

everyone lives happily ever after.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Allegro non troppo (1976)

Allegro non troppo is a 1976 Italian parody of Walt Disney’s Fantasia. "Obscure" is the correct adjective considering it came 36 years after the film it's lampooning. Only die-hard animation fanatics are likely to seek it out but the effort is worth it. Even if you haven’t delved deep into the medium, this is a funny, clever - occasionally inspired film.

This musical anthology begins in a dingy theater where “The Presenter” (Maurizio Micheli) introduces “A new and original film” where “you will see music and hear drawings”, a feat which has never been done before… except by some American called Grisney, or Prisney or something like that. With his domineering orchestra master (Néstor Garay), an ensemble of old ladies playing the instruments and a frazzled editor, they bring the following pieces to life: Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, about a randy elderly satyr who attempts to pass off as young and virile to get the attention of beautiful nymphs and dryads.

Antonín Dvořák's Slavonic Dance No. 7, Op. 46, in which a solitary caveman inventor gets tired of his brethren imitating him and leads them into war and dictatorship.

Maurice Ravel's Boléro, a direct parody of the Rite of Spring segment of Fantasia which shows the evolution of life on a strange planet from a discarded Coca-Cola bottle.

Sibelus’s Valse trise, a purposely dramatic segment that follows a lonely cat wandering through a now-abandoned house.

Vivaldi’s Concerto in C major for 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, Strings and Continuo RV 559, which follows the misadventures of a bee preparing to dine on a flower.

Stravinsky’s The Firebird, where the serpent in the Garden of Eden fails to tempt Adam and Eve with the fruit of knowledge and eats it himself instead.

This is a delightfully low-brow film. It knows it’s late to the game parodying Walt Disney so it pretends as though it has no idea what film it’s riffing on. Whereas Fantasia was targeted towards adults and aimed to do something new by using abstract imagery and (mostly) scientific theory to explain the beginnings of life on our planet, Allegro non troppo (whose title is a play on words and can mean either "Not So Fast!” or “Joyful, but not too much”) frequently throws cheap humor at the screen. Horny old goat men, fake-looking gorilla costumes, slapstick, trees whose fruits resemble engorged breasts, rear ends pointed at the screen, gratuitous violence... nothing is off limits. The visuals are nowhere near those found in the 1940 masterpiece, though those in Boléro are delightfully and weirdly beautiful. For that segment alone, the film is worth seeing. The whole thing is experimental and wonderfully varied in terms of style and tone but in the case of the first two stories, it can also look kinda crap. At least the jokes, mean-spirited as they may occasionally be, make you laugh. I wish they’d put a stronger opening number to avoid scaring away apprehensive viewers but who is tracking this film down except those determined to see it through?

Making this Bruno Bozzetto film particularly enjoyable is its willingness to go all-out. Just when you think it’s trying to say something serious the film will subvert everything it just showed you with a cheap joke. Damn you movie. I was so enraptured by your visuals and audio I’d forgotten what I was watching and you make fun of me for it! Got to hand it to you for finding something else to ridicule: the unsuspecting audience! Numerous segments can be interpreted as legitimate criticisms of society as a whole, and as long, elaborate gags with splendid punchlines. Some of the jokes are dumb, but smart people are behind them.

There are relatively few animated anthology films out there and although they’ve had a bit of a resurgence lately, most of them are used to promote video games or keep the masses invested in previously-established properties. Allegro non troppo is something else. It’s not classy like Fantasia but deserves, in a strange way, to be placed next to it on your shelf, and not just because seeing one after the other adds to your enjoyment of both. (Original Italian with typo-riddled subtitles on DVD, September 1, 2018)

[localvoidwhumper-moved]

HELLO WHUMP COMMUNITY.

A GREMLIN IS FINALLY COMING OUT OF THEIR LITTLE CAVE AND THAT GREMLIN IS ME

so hi there and welcome to my INTRO POST!

(despite having tumbr for years, i still suck at post formatting so please bear with me dkdhj)

I'm a person of many names, but for the sake of brevity I'll give you three

feel free to call me Yeehaw, Void or Isaac, whichever you prefer

I go mainly by they/them

English isn't my first language so please be patient with the occasional grammatical mistakes jdldjdldjdkdh

This is my main, chaotic blog where I'll reblog and try to post whump along with lots of stuff about my ocs and some other things.

For a bit about me: I am a writer, an artist, and a long time fan of whump. Ever since i was a wee child i found great joy in brewing up dark scenarios in my little mind to hurt the fictional people i made. And so i continued and now, here we are.

ONTO THE CREATIVE INFO!

(and buckle your seatbelts, this will be a long ride)

My favorite tropes:

i adore anything to do with dehumanization, which is why pet whump is one of my favorites! Nonhuman characters are very much my bread and butter, be them whumpers, caretakers or whumpees. That brings us to vampires in specific. I love those. mwah perfect. i also love creepy and intimate whumpers ohooo yes.

i like to see my whumpees break. i like my whumpees terrified. i like watching the last shreds of hope be ripped away from them and see how they scream and cry because what did they do to deserve this? BUUT i also like a hardy defiant whumpee who instead of breaking, snaps. and oh the desire for revenge... delightful. i like many things dkhdkdjd

gore, torture, kidnapping, lab and medical whump, restraints, heavy conditioning, the "damned if you do damned if you don't" trope, illness whump, all of those are absolute FAVORITES of mine

when it comes to comfort, i like seeing the recovery process, eg: a heavily conditioned and traumatized whumpee slowly learning that life isn't all pain. oh yesssss. i enjoy comfort and specks of hope being granted just before overwhelming torture strikes. it's about the contrast

when it comes to squicks, i don't really have a need to list them. i simply Dont Look at what makes me too uncomfortable once i find it so as long as a work has its themes properly tagged, it's all fine and dandy :D

I have a fuckton of ocs. might just make a big ole post cataloging all of them and let people send in asks requesting an oc and a prompt, who knows!

I have many ideas but it's hard to organize them so expect random disorganized idea dumps every now and them (voidrambles? maybe)

I'll also post lots of art, mostly oc drawings and some whumpy ideas!

AND FEEL FREE TO SEND ME ASKS!!! i love interacting and i promise i dont bite im just shy

MAIN STORY:

My main wip still doesn't have a proper name so I've been calling it the "wolf and rabbit story". It's mostly a recovery story that takes place in a world where hybrids, humans with animal characteristics, are mistreated and oppressed by most governments at large, and as such often end up becoming pets (i still gotta organize this worldbuilding *sobs*). The story follows Aleksei, a wolf hybrid who escaped the system and is now a citizen, and Vincent, a pet rabbit hybrid who ran away from his old master and is now living as a stray. Well, was living as a stray, untill Aleksei found him bleeding on the streets and made the impulse decision to take the rabbit in. Features lots of caretaking and comfort and past trauma and that wip is my baby basically.

if you've read up until this point, thank you! now it's time to play tag

(if anyone tagged here wants me to remove the tag, please let me know)

here are the main blogs which inspired me to write whump and dive into this lovely community! they're all amazing and i recommend checking them out!

@just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi was the first whump blog i saw! Her Tool series just awoke something deep in my heart and i haven't stopped since

@whumpster-dumpster 's delightful prompts have carried me through many a writer's block!

@wumpzone was the blog which actually inspired me to start my wip! her stories are all worth checking out they're so good

@whumpsday 's kane and jim series is just UGH PERFECT it sparks so much joy all their blog sparks joy

and @whumpshaped is the one who gave me the last push i needed to finally post this! (thank you whumpshaped of the lake <3) its writing and drabbles are all perfect and amazing and i love it all (devil hot.... my beloved) go check it out!

and i think this is basically it, folks.

if there's anything i should change around for more clarity, please do tell

and thanks for listening to my whump intro!!

have a good earth rotation :D

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 301: All My Todorokis

Previously on BnHA: We learned that when a bunch of superpowered villains are suddenly set loose with nobody around to stop them, things get fucked pretty quickly. Old Man Samurai and a bunch of other useless people decided to make “I pretend I do not see it” their new mantra, and resigned. Endeavor had a moment of despair on account of being crushed by the guilt of having ruined the lives of himself, his family, and basically everyone else in the entire world. For various reasons the heretical notion of “person who has done bad things feels sorry for doing them” sent fandom spiraling into a meltdown, so that was fun. The chapter ended with the entire Todoroki clan descending upon Enji’s hospital room to have a dramatic chat about Touya and All That General Fuckery.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “here’s the story of how Baby Touya slowly went insane trying to win his father’s love.” It’s a tale full of subverted expectations and heartbreaking inevitability, and also like twenty panels of the cutest fucking kids who ever existed on planet earth, who are so fucking cute that I can’t stop thinking about their cuteness even with all of the horrifying family tragedy unfolding around them. It is absolutely ridiculous how cute they are. Touya is out here pushing his tiny body past its limits because he inherited the same obsession as his dad and neither of them can put it aside even though it’s destroying them, and yet all I can think about is Baby Shouto’s (。･o･｡) face. Anyways what a chapter.

so I have to confess that even though I managed to avoid being caught off-guard by the early leaks, the number of people reblogging my Endeavor posts from earlier this week and using the tag “bnha 301” kind of gave me an inkling that this chapter will include more Tododrama lol. that said, I don’t know anything else about it, so we’re still good spoiler-wise

AHHHHH FLAHSBAKC AHHHH. omg I know I typoed the shit out of that, but I’m just going to leave it lol I think it’s fitting

holy shit holy fuck. so this is Rei and Enji’s first meeting, then??

yepppp, oh shit

so wait, I know this is not even the slightest bit important, but are they meeting at Enji’s home or Rei’s? because I always figured that Enji was the one with the super-Japanese aesthetic, but maybe that was Rei’s side of the family all along

(ETA: from what I found during my very brief google search, omiai meetings are often held at fancy hotels or restaurants, so maybe that’s what this is.)

there’s such a period drama feel to this setting. like it’s so outrageously formal fff how can anyone stand this kind of atmosphere though seriously

OH THANK GOD

I mean they’re still stiff af but at least they’re not rigidly sitting in seiza and staring at each other unblinkingly anymore lol. Enji’s actually got his hands in his pockets now. why is this somehow almost cute

oh damn it’s the flowers

Rei seems so subdued and it’s so hard to get any idea of what she’s actually thinking. I want to see her side of this dammit

but anyway, so at least from Enji’s perspective it seems like even though the marriage was arranged and he picked her because of her quirk, he still loved his wife and wanted to do right by her. the fact that he was watching her and noticed that she liked the flowers, and remembered that detail for all these years -- there’s a reason why Horikoshi’s showing us this. we know what’s going to happen later on; we know how much fear and violence and breaking of trust is coming up ahead, and while it may seem like this scene is serving to soften Enji’s character further -- which to be fair it is -- it also helps drive home the full impact of his abuse. that it’s so terrible not only because of the trauma of the abuse itself, but also because of the way it retroactively destroys all of the good things as well. this could have potentially been such a sweet scene, but it’s inescapably tainted by the knowledge of what’s to come, at least for me. and that’s just brutal

anyways, shit. is the whole chapter going to be like this?? feel free to toss in something I can actually make a joke about sometime, Horikoshi

oop, back to the present

omfg lol

“are you all right” “NO I’M NOT ALL RIGHT WHAT THE FUCK.” “oh, right, because of all the stuff that’s happened with me abusing you and you having a mental breakdown and being hospitalized for ten years and then our son coming back to life and killing thirty people, right, right. I almost forgot.” whoops

omfg you guys I’m loving this new and improved steely-eyed Rei. I’m loving her a lot

and what do you mean “part one” fkjds how long is this going to be. TOO MUCH DRAMA FOR ONE CHAPTER TO HANDLE

oh, hello

yeah I’ll say you did. didn’t seem to bother you much at the time, though

HMMMMMMMMMMMM

Dabi Is A Noumu intensifies even further. anyways though would you fucking look at this boy lounging on this moth-eaten couch doing his best DRAW ME LIKE YOUR FRENCH GIRLS impression wtf

Dabi what if you actually had killed him??? what would you feel?? satisfaction?? regret?? anything at all?? tell me your secrets goddammit

who are you talking to buddy

Fuyumi-chan, Natsu-kun (is it common for brothers to address each other as -kun?? can’t recall seeing that in many other anime, but hey), and “dot dot dot,,,,,, SHOUTO” lol thank you so much for this bountiful heaping of Tododrama Horikoshi we are blessed

AH, WHAT DID I SAY THE OTHER DAY

ULTIMATE MELODRAMATIC THEATER CHILD. “I’M JUST GOING TO LIE ON THIS COUCH SHIRTLESS AND ALONE AND MAKE SPEECHES TO MY FAMILY MEMBERS WHO AREN’T THERE AND SAY THINGS LIKE ‘WATCH ME IN THE PITS OF HELL’ WITH A STRAIGHT FACE BECAUSE NO ONE’S THERE TO JUDGE ME.” WELL JOKE’S ON YOU MISTER CHATTERBOX BECAUSE I AM IN FACT JUDGING THE SHIT OUT OF YOU LOL

(ETA: and on a more serious note, it’s interesting to see that “look at me”/”watch me” theme being used again though, because we see that same sentiment uttered repeatedly by the younger Touya in the flashback. well kid, you definitely got your wish at last. don’t know what else to say.)

OKAY HORIKOSHI HAS DECIDED THAT’S ENOUGH FUN, TIME FOR MORE FLASHBACKS

oh my sweet precious lord

just as cute as we left him. giving us a child this cute when we all know full well what’s going to happen to him is just unspeakably cruel though

HOMG

I’m fucking speechless. you broke me, congratulations. what am I even supposed to do with this

I can’t get over this. moving forward my life will be split into two distinct parts, B.P. (Before the Pout) and A.P. (After the Pout)

and meanwhile there’s ALL THIS BACKGROUND ANGST BUILDING UP, AND I CAN’T EVEN FOCUS ON IT. Touya’s arm and cheek are covered in bandages (I’m guessing this is shortly after that “ouch!” panel we got some chapters back), and Enji is deliberately avoiding training with him because he doesn’t want him to hurt himself further. I can’t fucking get over the irony that all this time everyone thought Touya had died because Enji pushed him too far in his training, and it turns out that it’s the opposite -- the tragedy ultimately happened because he didn’t want to push him. but I’m jumping ahead of myself though I guess

by the way,

remember this?? just wanted to remind you that it exists just in case you forgot

so now someone is talking and basically saying that Touya is the exact opposite of what Enji was hoping for when he decided to start playing with quirk genetics

-- okay hold up

...lol no, never mind. for a second I thought “holy shit he looks kind of familiar WHAT IF IT’S UJIKO OMG” before I remembered that Enji would have recognized him during the hospital capture mission if that was the case. so NEVER MIND, PROCEED

IMAGINE THAT, ENJI DOESN’T QUITE SEEM SATISFIED WITH THIS SUGGESTION OF QUITTING NOW

(ETA: how the fuck did this man go around saving 62 towns in a single day what even is All Might.)

[clicks tongue several times] trouble a’brewin’

MEANWHILE BABY TOUYA HAS UNFORTUNATELY INHERITED HIS DAD’S STUBBORN STREAK

KLDIHWOEIJFL:KSDJ

!!!!!!!!!!!

oh my god. oh my god. what is this chapter. WHAT IS IT

so now Touya is all “YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND MY MANLY DESIRE TO BURN MYSELF ALIVE” well you got her there champ

THEY’RE TOO CUTE. OH MY GOD. HIS FURIOUS LITTLE TEARS. HER CHUBBY LIL FACE. HIS STUBBY LIL FISTS. SOMEONE HELP ME

also are they just home alone lol or what. “hey Touya, you’re what, like six now?? do us a favor and look after your baby sister for a couple hours for us would you? make sure not to set yourself on fire or anything.” WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!!

now it’s nighttime and Enji and Rei are arguing, presumably about his decision not to train Touya anymore

whew. okay. so, a couple of things here

1. first of all I think this conclusively shows that Enji really was trying to do the best he could for Touya. he stopped training him as soon as he realized it was hurting him, but Touya was still determined so he tried to make it work anyway, and even visited doctors to try and figure out if there was anything they could do. then, once they were absolutely sure that it wasn’t going to work, he tried multiple times to explain to Touya why they had to stop. he didn’t just abandon him out of the blue, which is really important to note. “no matter how much I tried telling him...”

so yeah, that debunks another common fandom accusation. so by the time he finally makes this decision, which we all know is going to turn out horribly, it’s basically because he’s already tried everything else he could think of. which, by the way, still doesn’t mean he handled this right. but at the very least he was taking Touya’s feelings into account and he was trying, and he didn’t just abruptly toss his son aside (at least not yet)

2. buuuut, then there’s this panel right below all that

which is the other side of it. if he’d just quit like the doctor person advised him to, that would have been the end of it. Touya would still have been upset, but he would have eventually gotten over it and the family would have moved on and possibly even been happy. but what happens next happens because Enji can’t let go. he still has this maddening urge to surpass All Might, and so he and Rei keep having more children, and then Shouto is born, and Enji finally has a kid he can start projecting all of his hysterical ambitions onto once again, and everything starts spiraling out of control soon after

though p.s. none of that is Shouto’s fault though!! he’s one of the few good things to come out of this whole mess and I’m very happy that he exists. the tragedy is that his dad fucking lost his mind over his quirk and fucked everything up. but that’s on him, not Touya or Shouto

anyways, SLKFJLSHGLKJL

I CAN’T FUCKING TAKE THIS YOU GUYS??? LOOK AT THAT LIL BUTTON OF A NOSE??? I’M LOSING IT HERE???

AND TOUYA JUST SEEMS DEVASTATED OMG

because children aren’t stupid, after all. he understands that his dad is still looking to surpass All Might. and so he feels like a failure, and feels like his dad is trying to replace him because he wasn’t good enough. and even now, isn’t that what the adult Touya is trying to prove?? that he was good enough after all?? “I’ll show you what happens when you give up on me, dad”?? “I’ll show you what I can do”?? fuck my life fuck everything

AND YOU CAN SEE THE TOLL THAT IT’S ALL TAKING ON REI GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AS WELL OH GOD

really nice touch here with the panel outlines becoming all shimmery from the heat of Endeavor’s flames (and/or becoming more unstable as the family gets closer and closer to their breaking point). but man, Horikoshi I can’t handle this, please show us more cute kids or something I can’t

GKELKWFJLDKSHFLKL

WITTLE BABE. BEEB. BUBS. SMOL. lkj; oh ouch a piece of my heart just detached and latched onto him huh look at that

TODOROKI “I’M SO SMALL AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON AND I DIDN’T ASK TO BE HERE” SHOUTO AHHHHH

crazy how they all just seem to know right off the bat lol. kid doesn’t even have object permanence yet, let alone a quirk. but do they care?? IT’S THE HAIR, RIGHT. WE’RE ALL THINKING IT, I’M JUST GONNA COME OUT AND SAY IT. they knew the minute they looked at him lol

AND MEANWHILE TOUYA IS OFF HAVING UNSUPERVISED TRAINING/CRYING SESSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OR WHATEVER, AND, UH OH

are those blue flames yet?? they seem pretty close

(ETA: this is one of the few cases where the manga being in black and white is infuriating lol.)

OH MY GOD AND STILL

so it’s not like he was so disinterested that he didn’t notice what was happening, and he was still trying to stop it and get through to him. trying to reassure him that it wasn’t the end of the world and there were other things he could do with his life, but this one particular thing just wasn’t going to happen

fucking hell. it’s agonizing seeing how close they actually were to fixing it. if he’d only said the right words, or if he’d realized at this point how destructive his obsession could be to his kids, and backed off from putting that same pressure on Shouto. we came so close to possibly having a happy ending

AND ALSO THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING BUT PLEASE LOOK AT HOW TOUYA IS LIKE THREE AND A HALF FEET TALL AND HIS DAD IS LIKE NINE AND A HALF FEET. Touya barely comes past his knees flkjlkg. the Todoroki household must have been so filled with like plastic stepstools to reach the bathroom sink and all the little baby toothbrushes, and baby gates to keep the kiddos out of the important grown-up rooms and stuff. and also days-old half-empty cups of water and stale crackers and hot wheels and my little ponies strewn everywhere

“BUT EVERYONE AT SCHOOL SAYS THEY’RE GONNA BE HEROES” a wild Deku parallel appears?? how bout that

I know this is like a pivotal moment in the Todo Tragedy and all, but fucking look at this lil dumpling

“sup bro, it’s me, the manifestation of your fears of inadequacy and lack of fatherly affections. a GAAA. ba-baAA-baa [gurgling baby sounds]”

OHHHHH IT’S THE SOUND OF MY HEART BREAKING OH NO

HE WANTS TO BE LIKE YOU ENJI. good lord somebody please just get this family some therapy

“DAD YOU IGNITED IT IN ME” flkjslkj nope, nope. not ready for this pain here

baby Shouto, would you like to weigh in on this affair? “DA!! ba-ga-daaa, [pacifier chewing noises]” oh my, you don’t say. so insightful for one so young

OH MY GODDDDDD

IT’S SO DRAMATIC BUT ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT ARE THE SHOUNEN WOOSH LINES SURROUNDING FOUR-MONTH-OLD SHOUTO LOL HE WAS LIKE THIS FROM BIRTH OH MY GOD I AM DYING HELP

SHOUTO YOU’RE RUINING THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER!?!?!

“yo, the fuck kind of family was I fucking born into” oh, son. if you only knew. IF YOU ONLY KNEW!!

(ETA: lmao I got so distracted by the ridiculous cuteness that I glossed over the fact that Baby Touya seems to possibly be aiming at him?? it’s hard to tell because he’s also super out of it from heatstroke and may just be losing control in his attempt to show off his upgrade.)

ANYWAY THAT’S THE END EXCEPT WHAT’S THIS LAST LINE OMG

ffffff. and we’re in for ANOTHER chapter of this next week?? MORE drama?? MORE BABIES?? MORE OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD TOUYA’S SLOW DESCENT INTO MADNESS. MY HEART CAN’T TAKE IT, BUT ALSO YES PLEASE SIGN ME UP

[dirtychocolatechai]

meet-cute | b.b.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female Reader Warning(s): fluff, awkward Bucky, vet appointment stuff, Alpine Request: Babes if you're lowkey taking requests can I lowkey make one? 👉🏼👈🏼🥺💕 something flirty and cute and maybe a lil spicy with Bucky and vet!reader where something's going on with Alpine? Not self indulgent at all 😻💖 Notes: This was the first thing I’ve written in months and it felt damn good. Funny story, I actually almost went to school to be a vet tech + shadowed a vet for two weeks and got to see some wickedly cool things.

This was a bit self-indulgent on my part because I had a cat who passed away some years ago because of struvite stones and I wished he had a happier ending like Alpine so I thought why not 🤷‍♀️💖

Taglist is open

(gif from google)

There’s nothing Bucky hates more than the stringent smell of industrial cleaners and clinical white walls - too many associations and shades of memory long laid to rest - except for when something’s going on with Alpine. The Turkish Angora was fine up until a few days ago when he started to hide away and sleep all day.

That wasn’t too concerning at first...

But then came the pained little noises, the frantic running back and forth from the litter box, the excessive grooming. The pit that started forming low in his belly grew, his instincts screaming at him that something was wrong, very wrong, with his little buddy. 

Bucky wasn’t about to fuck around and set up an appointment with the first vet office he could find that had a same-day opening. And now he’s trying not to fall apart at the seams while he waits for the docs to do their magic and tell him what the hell’s going on with his cat and what he has to do to fix it.

The vet tech collected Alpine a bit ago and every minute stretches into years, the cat’s pitiful meow echoing in his ears and those betrayed eyes burned onto the backs of his eyelids.

I know, Bub, I’m sorry but they gotta figure out what’s going on. It’ll be okay, they’ll take care of you. 

His ass went numb from the plastic chair ages ago, his leg jiggling up and down at a rapid pace as he chews on his thumbnail and waits.

And waits.

And waits.

God, he knows these things take time but he’d rather be back at home, curled up on the couch with Alpine pigging out on breakfast food and watching space documentaries. 

How much longer-

“Alright, Mr. Barnes?”

The heavy door swings open with a click, a kind, professional voice preceding a pair of sensible shoes as the vet steps into the room with a clipboard cradled against her chest. His eyes snap up, skipping over her completely to look at the tech holding his cat who looks absolutely miserable. 

She introduces herself but he’s not paying attention. He’s not meaning to be rude but all his focus narrows in on that white little face, the knot in his chest unfurling at the little mew.

He smiles, his eyes crinkling around the edges as he breathes, “Hey there, Little Buddy.” 

The vet doesn’t push, in fact, she seems a little enamored with how much he melts at the sight of his pet. Her own lips quirk up into a soft smile while she stands off to the side patiently as Alpine’s set down on the metal table.

Bucky gets in a few good scritches under his chin, the beginnings of a purr just starting to vibrate his hand when the vet clears her throat delicately. 

He clears his throat, heat burrowing into the apples of his cheeks. “Shi - uh, ‘m sorry.” A hand scrubs over the back of his neck. “I’m just - uh - y’know...” 

Her laugh trickles down his spine like warm rain, the sound effectively drawing his attention away from the cat rubbing up against his side. He gets his first look at her and oh.

A bare face and a no-nonsense hairstyle greet him, her scrubs and white coat adding to the overall doctor vibe but she’s still breathtaking. The natural beauty in the curves of her face, the slant of her brows, the sparkle of her eyes.

He feels like he got sucker-punched in the chest, his heart giving a sudden throb that has him coughing like an idiot as he scrambles to not look like such a jackass.

“So,” he clears his throat, scratching at the stubble along his jaw, “What’s - what’s wrong with him?” 

Glancing down at Alpine’s chart, she hums and writes a note before glancing back up with a reassuring smile. “Nothing that can’t be managed with a special diet and watching his water intake.”

It’s like the weight of the world disappears from his shoulders, his broad frame practically heaving with his sigh of relief. “Oh thank fucking- ahem, ‘scuse me - thank god.” 

Her chuckle and sly smile have him blushing from the roots of his hair to the collar of his shirt, his stomach squirming in discomfort. Old habits are hard to break, especially ones his momma taught him with a box to the ear.

“You’re allowed to swear, Mr. Barnes,” she says, reaching down to run her fingers through snow-white fur. “We’re all adults here.” 

“No, no, I know...” 

“Hm, anyway, his blood work came back and everything looks fine which is a good thing.” 

And it’s back to business like that, any hint of personality hidden behind cool professionalism that Bucky thinks even Tasha would admire. Except for the playful gleam in her eyes as she sneaks peeks at him while going over everything they did and what they found. 

“Struvite crystals are quite common in cats at low levels, especially males because their tract is longer and narrower.” She pauses, flipping to a new page. “Depending on the severity, they can clump together in the urinary tract and actually form stones. That’s where the true problem lies because get one large enough, and it can cause a blockage.”

He’s listening with rapt attention, soaking in the knowledge she’s imparting to him all the while, petting Alpine who keeps nuzzling him and making little sounds. Honestly, he could listen to her talk for hours even if he didn’t understand a goddamn thing. 

She’s so animated when she speaks, holds eye contact and makes sure he understands everything without making him feel like an idiot. He’s had so many doctors who talked at him rather than with him, staring through him without seeing, more interested in the paycheck rather than their patients.

But not her, she cares.

Deeply.

He can see it all over her face and it’s utterly enchanting. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little enamored, charmed.

Turning the tablet towards him, she shifts closer and a waft of whatever perfume she’s wearing tickles his nose as she explains what the x-ray of Alpine’s abdomen found.

“These are the stones but thankfully they’re relatively small,” she points to several hazy white ovals starkly visible on the radiograph, “We caught them in time before they became a really big problem.” 

Shit, she smells so good...

 “Now, we’ll send you home with a special diet and see how he does. Also, make sure to up his fluid intake as much as you can. The food can take several months to start dissolving the crystals so we’ll have to do everything we can to help. Sound good?”

Bucky hasn’t pulled his eyes away from her face once this entire time, and how fucking creepy is that?

Quickly looking down at Alpine, embarrassment gnawing at his belly, he nods and wishes for the first time since he cut his hair that he hadn’t so he’d at least have a passing chance at hiding the blush burning its way across his face. 

“Yeah,” he says, picking up the ball of white fluff to hold against his chest, a makeshift shield. “Is there anything else I should do?” 

“No.” She smiles, writing another note and tapping away at the tablet next to her. “I do want to see him again in about a month for a check-up.”

Fuck, he doesn’t want to leave so soon.

The irony isn’t lost on him either.

How does he make this last longer? What can he do? If Sam was here right now, he’d be kicking him in the ass and bitching at him to ask for her number already, Ice Pick.

The clack of the chart being set down rings through the room, bouncing off the walls and sounding so fucking final that he starts to panic. 

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. 

She’s already halfway to the door when she asks, “Do you have any questions?”

The word vomit spring from him, unbidden and sudden without any thought, more forward than he’s been with a woman in years.

“Can I have your number?”

As soon as the question leaves his lips, he curses, cringes and wishes he could snatch the very words from the air itself.

Great, I just hit on my vet.

No amount of backpedaling can salvage this but goddamn it if Bucky doesn’t try, stuttering out some half-assed excuse about wanting it just in case he thinks of something later.

When he glances up, he wishes he hadn’t. The vet tech is in near tears in the corner, biting her lips so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if they started to bleed.

But it’s the absolute surprised bafflement on the woman he just inappropriately hit on that does him in, makes him about ready to burn all forms of identification and run for the hills. 

Her brows nearly reach her hairline, her mouth slack, eyes startled. She gets ahold of herself before he does, and he barely stops himself from slapping a hand over his face.

Right when he’s thinking there’s no way he’s going to be able to show his face in the office again, her expression softens with gentle amusement and her lips twitch. 

Struck dumb, he can only watch as she writes something down on a slip of paper before handing it over to him. He barely believes the string of numbers and the cheeky little call me anytime :).

The wink she sends his way is there and gone, so fast he almost believes he imagined it. 

“For emergencies only,” she says, slyly. “Of course.”

“Of course,” he agrees, almost tripping over the cat carrier as he hurries to stuff Alpine back in. “Of course, thank you. I...appreciate it.” 

“Anytime, Mr. Barnes.” 

Bucky leaves the room in a stupor, the world sharply shifted to the left as he heads to the front desk to make the follow-up appointment, but not before hearing the whispered, “Girl, you’re lucky. He’s fine!” and the “He is, isn’t he?”. 

[battybatzgirl]

Hey Mr. Sandman, You Missed a Spot

AO3

Summary: 

It's not that Hunter doesn't ever sleep, Eda's come to realize. It was that he falls asleep sporadically, most of the time in really weird places.

Or: 5 times Eda catches Hunter taking a nap

Part 1 of the Finders Keepers Series

---

Here’s the thing about Eda: she loves naps. Eda likes to be cozy, so usually, that equated to curling up under a blanket, lazing around, and falling asleep. The Owl Beast shared that sentiment, the creature that lived within her constantly wanting to nest. Those animalistic instincts were weird, but when you lived in a house with a demon who also liked to bury himself under a pile of stuffed animals, you kind of got used to it.

Here’s the thing about Hunter: he doesn’t sleep.

The kid has been living with them for only about two weeks, officially replacing Eda as Public Enemy Numero Uno in the eyes of the Emperor. When he’d showed up on Hooty’s doorstep, all bloody and barely conscious, Eda thought it was some kind of cosmic trick. The Powers That Be had to be pulling her leg because this was the second time the leader of the Emperor’s Coven had shown up to the Owl House with nowhere else to go.

Luz had been ecstatic to welcome him in, apparently excited to finally fulfill her dreams of becoming a middle child in their weird little found family. King was less thrilled, but eventually warmed up to the idea of Hunter staying with them as long as he taught King his secrets on how to command an army.

Hunter himself even seemed unnerved at the thought of living with them. He tried to leave a few times when he was still wounded, but his little bird palisman (Rascal, she’s heard him say) effectively herded him back into the house by continuously dive-bombing him and nipping at his ears. And after Belos put out a wanted poster for the kid, making him the Isles’ number one most wanted traitor, leaving wasn’t really an option. Not if he wanted to stay alive.

So eventually, Hunter begrudgingly accepted that yeah, he lived in the Owl House now.

And alright, Eda isn’t heartless. The kid was lost, wounded, and an enemy of the Emperor. She can work with that.

Getting to know him has been a challenge, though. Hunter has a lot of weird quirks. He holds himself so seriously that Eda has a hard time remembering that he’s a teenager and not a fully grown middle-aged man. He hardly ever smiles. He’s jumpy, practically jolting out of his skin every time you walk into the same room. He’s clearly Going Through Some Shit, as Eda so eloquently calls it, remembering how Lily went through the same thing when she slowly broke free of Belos’s freaky subjugation.

But still. The kid doesn’t sleep.

Eda first notices it around day four of his residence. She’s up early to go to the market, stepping into the living room and nearly transforming into her Harpy Form out of pure shock when she sees a figure messing with her bookshelf in the back of the room. Wide maroon eyes lock on hers from across the room and she feels the feathers that sprung to her skin recede.

“Titan, kid,” she breaths, “You nearly killed me. What are you doing up? It’s Saturday, you should be sleeping in.”

“Um…I did sleep in,” Hunter responds, as if it’s obvious.

Eda feels a frown tug at her lips, “The sun isn’t even up yet.”

The kid just shrugs a little lamely, and Eda feels a twinge of concern in her chest. (And ugh, feeling concerned for a guy who dangled you over the Boiling Sea is certainly weird.) If this was sleeping in for him, he couldn’t have rested more than five hours.

She steps closer, taking a second look at what he’s doing. Half the books are spread out on the floor, the other half stacked neatly back on the shelves in some kind of order.

He notices her looking, “I, uh, took the liberty of reorganizing your bookshelf. Or organizing it, since it didn’t really seem to have a system.” The kid ducks his head, the tips of his ears flushing pink. “I- I can put it back the way it was if you want, or organize them in a different way.”

That’s another thing about Hunter: he always has to be doing something. Being useful. Without direction, he crumples. It was always, What do you want me to do now, Miss Clawthorne this and I completed this task, Miss Clawthorne, what’s next that. His brain operated on a transactional level—I do this thing for you, you do this thing for me. And since Eda was housing him, he felt like he had to constantly be doing things for her. Constantly proving himself worthy to be here, repaying her. Hunter couldn’t seem to wrap his head around that she didn’t want him to do anything except stay comfortable.

Eda has thought up a hundred different little tasks for him to do in just his first four days. She’s running out of odd jobs to give him, and if she has to keep telling him what to do she’s going to start pulling out her hair.

“You’re fine, kid,” she says. “Keep doin’ what you’re doin’ if it makes ya happy. But you shouldn’t be up this early. You should at least take a nap later.”

Hunter tilts his head. “But that wouldn’t be accomplishing anything.”

“You don’t hafta be working all the time,” Eda stresses. “It’s okay to sit around and just exist once and a while. Actually, I think that should be your priority. Take a nap, relax, go cloud watching, take a walk—any or all of the above.”

“That sounds like doing nothing.”

“That’s because it is doing nothing.”

His face hardens, taking on that soldier-like seriousness that encompasses his entire demeanor. “Being lazy can’t be a priority.”

“Don’t think of it like that, then,” Eda almost snaps, wishing for a nice hot mug of apple blood. It was too damn early to deal with the repercussions of Belos’s all-work-no-play mindset. “Think of it as acting your age. Did you ever get to take naps as a kid in the Emperor’s Coven? Is relaxing just a foreign concept to you?”

He doesn’t answer, staring at her with those bagged eyes and guarded expression, and Eda throws up her hands in defeat.

She leaves then, her patience running too thin to continue arguing with him. She doubts he’ll actually go back to sleep. He probably goes back to doing whatever he was doing with that bookshelf. Eda makes a mental note to tell King to knock all the books off, just so Hunter can reorganize it later. Just for something for him to keep him occupied.

1.

Eda doesn’t even notice the first time it happens. It was one of Luz’s friends, Gus, who pointed it out.

The kids were gathered at her home after school, spread out on the floor of the living room along with various pillows and blankets. Luz found some card game she knew buried somewhere in the piles of human trash Eda has laying around, and the girl has been spending the better part of an hour trying to explain how it works.

“So the Wild Card doesn’t make you turn into a wild animal?” Willow questions, holding up a black card with looks like a colorful pie chart on it.

“Nope!” Luz says cheerfully. “It just becomes any color you want it to be to go with the rest of your hand.”

“But the card doesn’t actually change color?” Amity asks.

“No, it only represents the color,” Luz clarifies, and Eda has to admit, her girl has a ton of patience. She’s been quietly watching from her place on the couch, half-listening to their conversation, half-reading the Isles’ latest edition of You Gossipy Witch, a tabloid where a writer is speculating about her true form. Apparently, some people think she was raised by feral, wild owls on some far away barrier island, and has come to reside in Bonesborough just because she ran out of mutant rats to eat.

Weird.

But entertaining!

Gus holds up one of his cards, “So are blank cards bad, or—"

King jumps over his shoulder, landing on the deck of cards in the middle of their little circle and making them fly everywhere. “I have taken dominion over ALL YOUR CARDS. All of you must grovel for a taste of my wealth!”

“Actually, the point of the game is to get rid of all your cards,” Luz reminds him gently. “That way, when you get down to one card, you shout Uno! And you win! If no one else makes you draw anymore, that is.”

King deflates a little, apparently put off by the idea of less is more. “Oh.” Luz smiles and pats him on the head, and he brightens up. “Okay, let’s play, because I wanna make all of you draw as many cards as possible! You'll drown in your cards! Choke on them, even!”

As they start gathering up the cards that King threw everywhere, Gus lets out a little gasp. “You guys—is Hunter asleep?”

That immediately draws Eda’s attention away from the magazine. Her eyes flicker to the blond witch, laying on his stomach just on the edge of their group. He was still having a hard time socializing, especially with Amity, but Luz was determined to include him in all friendship activities. She said wanted to teach him how to be a kid, and hell, if anyone could knock some seriousness out of that boy it would be Luz.

Hunter is indeed asleep—his face is mushed into the forearms pillowed under his head, and his red palisman has weaseled its way to nestle in between the crook of his elbow. His breath comes out in soft little sighs, and Eda feels something in her melt.

“Awwww, he looks so peaceful,” Luz croons, mushing her palms against her cheeks. Amity’s already scooched past her, snapping photos on her scroll. Eda can’t blame her. She knows a good blackmail opportunity when she sees one.

Eda’s off the couch and catches King mid-pounce. “Whoa there, none of that buddy.”

“But Edaaaa,” the demon whines, his little arms and legs flailing in mid-air. “I have to conquer him when he least expects it!”

“Ehhh, let the kid sleep. Save your conquests for when he’s awake and can put up a fight.” Eda sets him down in his place in the circle, and the kids all glance at each other before turning back to the cards.

She notices that they’re more mindful to keep their tones softer, probably to not disturb the sleeping boy. And when Hunter wakes himself up about half an hour later, they don’t mention it, seamlessly integrating him back into their game.

2.

The second time it happens, Raine is walking Eda home. It’s early in the evening, and the pair just got done with a fabulous date—a picnic with apple blood and sweet (and stolen) baked goods? Titan, take Eda now, she’s found her perfect match.

She’s still riding that high, not noticing Raine stopping until they tug on their clasped hands. “Hey, who’s that? Is he okay?”

Eda follows where they’re pointing their finger. It’s Hunter, slumped against the base of an oak tree, fast asleep. His chin is tipped forward and a book open on his chest, and even more strangely, there’s a small pile of leaves on his lap.

“Oh, that’s just my—” Eda stops herself, the word catching in her throat. Hunter was a child in her care, yes, but he wasn’t quite her kid. Not like Luz or King. The blond witch was still too jumpy, baring his teeth and snarling at anything that tried to get close to him.

He calls her Miss Clawthorne, for Titan’s sake.

“—Hunter,” Eda finishes lamely.

Raine raises an eyebrow. “Your Hunter?”

“He’s uhhh, one of Luz’s friends who just so happens to be living with us. Not a big thing.”

Raine shoots her a deadpan look but strides forward anyway, kneeling next to the sleeping blond. They keep their voice to a low murmur, “Should we wake him? That can’t be comfortable for his neck. He’ll probably be sore later.”

“Eh, let him rest. This is more sleep than he usually gets.” Eda steps closer, kneeling down on his other side. It’s the side that has his scar, the slightly raised red tissue standing out even more so than usual now that he wasn’t constantly moving. She’s almost asked him how he got it, but he’s clearly sensitive about the subject. She’s seen the similar marks on his arms, and something tells her there are a whole lot more scars that he’s hiding.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who gave them to him.

Still, it’s hard to ignore just how young he looks. When he’s stripped of all of his snappy comebacks, quick defenses, and that guarded demeanor Belos forced onto him, he’s reduced to exactly what he should be:

A kid.

“Oh!” Raine startles in surprise. Eda looks up to see the cardinal palisman fluttering down from above them, carrying a few leaves in its beak. It hops down onto Hunter’s lap and deposits the leaves in the little growing pile on his leg.

A smile worms its way onto Eda’s face. She runs a finger across the little bird’s head, “Trying to keep him warm, huh?” The bird lets out a trilling note of confirmation. She lets the bird be, turning back to Raine, “I think Rascal’s got this covered. If he hasn’t come in before nightfall I’ll come out and get ‘em.”

The bard casts one last glance down at the sleeping boy before they stand. “Y’know, he kind of reminds me of someone.”

“Oh yeah?” Eda weaves her arm through Raine’s as the pair reassumes their walk.

“Yeah,” Raine hums. “He kind of has the same build as someone I met when I was held hostage in the Emperor’s palace. The Golden Guard. Did you hear that he ran away from the palace? There've been rumors that the Emperor himself is tearing apart the Right Arm looking for him.”

“Uh, about that...”

Raine stops, turning to look at her square in the face. Eda gives them a sheepish, toothy grin.

“Oh my god,” Raine says. “You adopted the Golden Guard?”

“Hey now, adopted is a very strong word—”

The bard cuts her off with a delighted laugh. “How am I not surprised?” Eda feels heat rise to her face, but can’t help but return Raine’s infectious smile. “Only you, Eda. Only you.”

3.

The third time it happens, Eda’s passing through the upstairs hallway, intent on curling up into her nest for an afternoon nap of her own. She hears a shuffling noise as she passes by the glorified storage closet that they gave Hunter as a room, and can’t resist a peek inside.

What she finds is definitely…not what she was expecting. Hunter is laying flat on his back on the floor, his feet elevated on the little cot they’d given him. Yeesh, that couldn’t be comfortable. Soft snores woosh past his open lips, his face turned toward a crystal ball that’s playing some cartoon he must have been watching before he fell asleep.

His body is nearly covered in stuffed animals.

“King,” Eda hisses. The horned perpetrator is in the middle of dumping his entire army onto the blond witch’s chest, pinning down his arms with plushies. “What did I tell you about burying people alive?”

The demon pauses from where he’s been slowly arranging his army over Hunter’s sleeping form. “He’s got plenty of room to breathe! I didn’t cover his face,” King protests. “Can’t subjugate someone who’s dead.”

“No subjugating—” your brother, she almost says, “—Hunter.”

King squints at her, but then grumbles and starts slowly taking the stuffed animals off the boy’s body. Crisis averted, Eda slips back out into the hall, mind swirling. That was the second time she’d almost referred to Hunter as hers in passing. The feeling is too raw to speak out loud yet, but there’s a growing warmth in her as she watches Hunter acclimate to his surroundings in the Owl House. With every day that goes by, he’s more comfortable around her, around Luz and King and Hooty, and he’s starting to come out of his shell. He’s growing softer, less quick to snarl, becoming more Hunter and less Golden Guard.

Unconsciously, Eda’s started viewing him as part of their little family. Two weeks ago, that thought would have made her uncomfortable. Now, she welcomes it with open arms.

Ugh, she’s getting so soft.

4.

The fourth time it happens is when Eda’s flying home from visiting Lilith. She’s only been gone for the day, and is hoping that leaving Luz in charge hasn’t led to any freak fires, the resurrection of the dead, or other various natural disasters. Unfortunately, even her most responsible kid is pretty reckless, so Eda’s expectations are set pretty low.

It’s probably sometime around 2 a.m. when she makes it home sweet home. She swoops in close, intent on landing on the front door but stilling mid-air when she sees something on the roof of the tower. Even from up here, it’s not hard to distinguish the form of a looming body.

Eda’s heart leaps into her throat and she takes Owlbert down into a dive. Her body is tense when she lands, her staff already aimed toward the person lurking by the edge of the roof. “Alright listen bucko, you better step back or—wait.” She sees what looks like a lump of feathers sitting on top of the person’s head, and Eda squints in the darkness. She quickly pulls out a light glyph, sending the tiny ball of sun forward.

“Hunter?!” Eda’s tense posture relaxes. The kid doesn’t answer, and it takes her a beat to figure out why. He’s dead asleep, slumped precariously over the telescope they use for stargazing. Eda has no idea how he’s even standing at all. Kid probably had a ton of practice of falling asleep on his feet during long, boring meetings with the Emperor.

“Wakey, wakey.” She places her hand on his shoulder, gently, but he wakes up with a full-body jerk, startling the palisman on top of his head. The cardinal chirps once in irritation, fluttering to rest on Eda’s shoulder instead.

Hunter’s eyes are wild for a moment until he seems to register where he is and who he’s with. He relaxes then, letting out a yawn so huge it would put any lion to shame. “…Eda?”

“The one and only,” Eda says, ignoring how her heart squeezes at the kid finally calling her by her name. “Wanna tell me why you’re up here in the middle of the night?”

“Waitin’ for you,” he mumbles, voice rough with sleep. His eyelids drop and he sways dangerously on his feet. “Wanted to… t’make sure y’got home safe.”

The warmth in her chest expands and eclipses her entire body in that fuzzy feeling she gets whenever one of her kids does something particularly adorable. Thank Titan it’s dark and Hunter is too out of it to notice the smile that spreads across her face. If he was fully awake, Eda gets the feeling that A) he probably never would have admitted that he was worried about her, and B) would have snapped at her for smiling at him like that. “Well, I’m home now, so let’s get you to bed before you topple over.”

Eda wraps her arm around his waist and nudges him along, practically carrying him back downstairs, their palismen following close behind. She doesn’t mind. Someone had to make sure he didn’t fall off the roof.

“Night, kid,” she says, tucking him under the blankets on his cot. Hunter doesn’t respond, already having slipped back into unconsciousness. And if she brushes his bangs tenderly out of his face, no one ever has to be the wiser.

5.

The fifth time it happens, Eda’s gotten used to it. It's not that Hunter doesn’t sleep, she’s come to realize. He just falls asleep in weird places. Why, she has no idea, but honestly, the kid looked so tired all the time, she wasn’t going to question it. They had bigger things to worry about.

The Day of Unity is just around the corner, and Belos has become more irritating than ever.

Eda hadn’t even thought that was possible for him, but apparently, it was. The scouts around Bonesborough have tripled, their captains leading more and more raids, butting into shops to check everyone’s papers, and invading random districts.

Oddly, Belos’s priorities seem to have shifted. He’s still sending out grunts to round up any wild witches, but the guards have been playing a weird sort of hide-and-seek, going beyond just patrolling the marketplaces to actually tearing into people’s homes. From what she’s heard, the guards never take anything, just searching the place top-to-bottom before leaving empty-handed and moving on to the next house.

Belos was looking for something.

And unfortunately, Eda’s got a pretty good idea of what he’s after.

Said thing just so happens to be slumped across from her at the kitchen table, dead to the world. It’s late into the night, and most of the kids have already gone to sleep. Too on edge to lie down, Eda’s been keeping herself busy by concocting more potions while the late-night news plays on her crystal ball in the background.

Hunter, striving to be helpful, volunteered to stay up and help.

It wasn’t long before the kid slowly started to nod off, face supported by his palm as his eyelids started to droop. He’d been in the middle of mixing two ingredients—highly flammable ingredients, mind you—and Eda plucked the vials out of his lax grip just in time. Honestly, it was a miracle the kid never killed himself in the Emperor’s Coven with how randomly he falls asleep.

He probably never got the chance to sleep at all, a voice reminds her. She remembers how dead-exhausted Lily was during her first few days at the Owl House. It was probably safe to assume that the Emperor had a habit of running the head of his Coven into the ground.

Hunter has been picking up on Belos’s tightening grip, too. He’s been getting quieter, more reserved. He’s come to the same conclusion that Eda has: the Emperor was tearing apart the whole of the Isles to get him back.

Why, though, is anyone’s guess. Hunter has long since explained that his uncle always said that the Titan had big plans for him, and it probably has something to do with the Day of Unity, but beyond that, the Emperor had always kept him in the dark. Luz has a crazy theory involving clones and blood magic, but that sounds like it’s a plot point straight out of one of her Azura books. King thinks Belos wants his artificial staff back, and Hooty predicts the Emperor is just sad because all his Coven leaders are leaving him to join Hooty’s superior best friends club.

Whatever the reason, Eda’s made it pretty clear that she’s not gonna bend to Belos’s intimidation tactics and turn him over. That smarmy gold jerk could set the whole Isles on fire and Eda still wouldn’t hand him over. Hunter’s part of the Bad Girl’s Coven now, and Belos can just suck it. And she’s not afraid to say that to his stupid face, either.

So when the cauldron at the end of the table that holds the scrying potion suddenly begins bubbling on its own, Eda may very well get her chance.

She’s up on her feet in an instant, dashing to the other end of the table just as the steam rising off the potion begins to warp into a familiar figure.

“Edalyn,” Belos greets, his voice sharp like a dagger. “I do hope I’m not interrupting your evening, but I needed a word with you.”

Ugh, scrying potions weren’t supposed to work both ways! Belos was too damn powerful. He could probably peer into their lives as much as they could peer into his.

“Sorry, but now’s a bad time,” Eda shoots back. “Why don’t you hang up and call back literally never?”

“It’s come to my attention that you have something of mine,” the masked man continues smoothly as if she hadn’t spoken. “I’d ever so appreciate it if you gave it back.”

Eda’s lip curls back, feeling the itch of feathers poking out of her joints. She wants to shift into her harpy form and leap through the potion to claw out his eyes. “Sorry, Belos,” she says, dripping smug bravado, “We wild witches operate solely under the laws of finders keepers. Your kid? Mine now.”

Eda expects that the Emperor would very much like to vaporize her. “Make your threats wisely, Owl Lady. You have no idea what you’re up against. Everything will be easier for you and your little friends if you just hand the boy back over to me.”

“Fat chance.” Eda throws back her shoulders and shoots him a sharp grin. “Sounds to me like you’re threatening one of my kids, and we weirdos stick together. Going after one of us is basically asking for all of us to bring you down. Remember how well that went last time? How my human cracked your mask and publicly humiliated you during your big let’s-turn-Eda-to-stone ceremony?”

The Emperor looks as though he has some choice words to say, but Eda doesn’t care. Hunter is her kid now. She glowers at him through that mist, voice lowering in with deadly promise. “You’ll have to drag him back to your Coven over my dead body.”

“That can be arranged,” sneers Belos.

“Try me, antler boy.” Then Eda whacks the cauldron and sends it tipping over the edge of the table. The connection is immediately severed as the potion goes splattering over the hardwood, and the resounding CLANG of the bowl makes Hunter shoot violently out of sleep.

“Huh?! Whassit—Eda? What happened? Are you alright?”

“Fine, kid,” she says, swallowing down the rage that’s still bubbling hot in her throat. “’S alright, just got a little clumsy and knocked over a cauldron. Sorry for waking you.”

“Sorry for falling asleep,” Hunter responds. He grabs a towel and hurries to clean up the oozing purple goo.

Eda waves him off, “Eh, I don’t mind. You kids need your rest. Growing bodies and all that.”

Hunter still hesitates, looking at her for a beat too long as if double-checking to make sure she wasn’t really upset. Eda holds back a sigh, a twinge of pity flickering through her that he’d even have to look at her like that in the first place. All the damage from Belos couldn’t be wrapped up in a month, she supposed.

She snatches up the cauldron, still dripping with the ruined potion. Peachy. She’ll have to call Lilith to get her scrying potion recipe. Though maybe not having this in the house was a good idea. Eda doesn’t want to risk His Royal Highness dropping in on any more unexpected house calls.

“Eda?”

She looks up at Hunter. The kid chewing on his bottom lip, wringing the half-soiled towel between scarred hands.

“I just…I wanted to say thank you,” Hunter says shyly. “I know having me here hasn’t exactly been easy—not only because of the fugitive thing, but because I’m…” He flounders for a moment, and Eda can only pretend to know what’s going through his mind right now. “…me,” he finishes finally. “You’ve been so kind and patient with me, it’s so much more than I deserve, and no matter what happens next—”

“Hey, no.” Eda cuts him off with a swift and gentle beratement. She sets the cauldron on the table and crowds closer to him, curling one hand around his cheek. The kid automatically leans into the touch, and Eda can’t help but wonder how Belos could have ever hurt a child who was as sweet as this one.

“You may be one bratty little shit, but you’re my bratty little shit. And Mama says you deserve all the smothering that comes with being a child of the Owl Lady.”

Then, to prove her point, she swoops down and quickly places feather-light kisses on the tip of his nose, forehead, and his scar, until Hunter squawks and shoves her away. He’s practically glowing, flushed all the way to the tips of his ears.

“Gross,” he snaps, rubbing furiously at his face. “I’m never helping you with your potions ever again.”

“I’ll accept your terms. Now get upstairs, it’s way past your bedtime.”

“I don’t have a bedtime, I’m not a baby.” Hunter sticks out his tongue but obeys, slipping out of the kitchen and disappearing into the rest of the house. Eda shakes her head as she watches him go.

Kids. What could ya do with ‘em?

[littlemisspascal]

Ezra’s Journal Entries #4-6

Fandom: Prospect / Pedro Pascal

Pairing: Ezra x Female!Reader

Word Count: 1,133

Summary:  I don’t deserve you, little love of mine. Not one damn piece of you.

Warnings: angsty fluff, night terrors, PTSD, Ezra dealing with the aftermath of the Green, language, 1st person POV (Ezra), dialogue in italics because that’s just how I chose to do it, overuse of space metaphors, no beta so all mistakes are mine

Author Note: As always, thank you readers for your support! All the love to each one of you! Hope you like these new segments 💖

Entries #1-3 #7-9

Cross-posted on AO3

Look for additional notes at the bottom.

I feel a little less torn after speaking with Cee, hearing her voice crackling across the radio regale me with details of her current studies at Cero Tol, the latest novel she’s devouring, the daytrip she made to Lao to collect shells for an art project—it reminds me there was a sliver of profound goodness to come out of my otherwise disastrous journey to the Green. She rambles and babbles and laughs at her tongue’s inability to keep up with all she has to share. Her soul has found exactly what it has always yearned for: a life of her own making.

For all that she lost on the Green, she has adapted to her new path and overcome every obstacle with the same bullheaded determination a helianthus possesses. Never losing sight of her goals just as the flower never loses sight of the sun. 

I must admit I’d been reluctant to split ways with her after our perilous escape from the Green—after all, nothing bonds people together faster than the collaboration of slicing off an arm and creaming the gaping wound shut, then immediately engaging in a bloody conflict with heavily armed mercs—but she deserved better than to live a floater’s life tainted by a lack of morals and the uncertainty of not knowing if she would survive from one sunrise to the next.

She deserved to live a life amongst her own peers. To rouse that spark of creativity her father tried to extinguish. To turn gold in all the ways I cannot. 

Sending her to school was worth every point and credit we managed to scrape together. Still, I remember how bittersweet it felt watching that little bird, ever so fearless in the face of sudden change, march right up the ramp of the freighter at the Pug, determined to make me and you proud by excelling at the academy. Standing amongst the sea of parents waving goodbye to their children, I wrapped my arm around your waist, rested my head atop yours, and forced myself to swallow a harsh pill of truth.

With or without me in her life, Cee is going to be just fine.

I remember how you swung our linked hands as we walked back to our ship, your sweet voice a soothing balm easing the ache of my melancholic heart. Ezra, she’s fierce and bold and strong. That little golden child is going to have her name written in the stars one day.

Kevva do I hope I live to see your vision come true.

First thing I remember noticing about you was your eyes. Remember how I caught you staring at me from across the bar? You looked at me like I was your North Star pointing you home, like I was something shiny and special. You scared the fuck out of me. It’s the worst thing I ever thought, but it’s true. I would have fled the scene if your gaze hadn’t anchored my soul. 

You introduced yourself, and I knew goodbye would never be a word exchanged between us. No, we became a pair of binary stars, constantly orbiting each other round and round, hello again and see you soon. Falling in love with you was inevitable. The Currents designed you perfect for me. Designed you with meteorite in your bones and sunlight on your lips and all the constellations sparkling in your eyes. There is no grander form of paradise than to feel you beneath my hand. There is no comparison. No second place contender. Just you, your tender heart, and the galaxies you contain. 

Sometimes, late at night when you’re asleep and my thoughts are too loud for my head, I stare at the ceiling and speculate about alternate verses. Verses starring another me and another you crisscrossing each other’s paths as we’re pulled across the galaxy by our heartstrings. Somewhere, there is another me who never escapes the ruthlessness of the Green and breathes my last with Inumon’s knife in my lungs. Another me who will never know the emotional and physical anguish that accompanies the loss of a limb. Another me who pulls the thrower’s trigger without hesitation, firing a shot between the wide eyes of an innocent girl. Another me who ignores the temptation of harvesting aurelac in hopes of making a reputable name for myself. 

Somewhere, there is another me who ran away from another you.

And it pains me to wonder if perhaps you’re happier never knowing me.

I speculate about those two most of all.

I woke up to screaming. My mind was a tangled mess, caught between the thin barriers separating reality from dreamscape, and I was truly convinced my head would explode from the noise. Inumon wouldn’t stop screaming no matter how hard I squeezed my fingers, no matter how much of my bulk I pressed down upon her. It’s me! She wailed like an animal in a trap, sensing impending doom but unable to flee from it. It’s me, it’s me, it’s me! Please, Ezra!

A thought crossed my mind, as sudden and blinding as a shooting star streaking through the midnight sky, and I found myself incapable of ignoring it. How does she know my name? I had cloaked my identity using a dead man’s name. It wasn’t feasible for her to know the truth or for the sound of my name coming out of her mouth to set my skin aflame. 

There aren’t words to describe the horror which consumed me when I looked down upon your tear-stained face. 

My mama once told me everybody’s a sinner. We have wickedness embedded in our cells from womb to tomb. It buries its roots deep, resistant to our attempts to rid ourselves of its corruption, and waits for the precise moment to inflict pain upon those we love most. Those who choose to love us despite the warning signs.

In the aftermath, when my fucking fingerprints were smudged across your throat blue and purple, you held me like I was a human and not a monster or a vexation or a broken thing to toss aside. I couldn’t stop trembling, couldn’t stop my mind from conjuring a torturous loop of what ifs. 

What if I hadn’t stopped myself? What if you hadn’t broken the nightmare’s spell? What if your last word had been my name? 

Hush, you whispered. My tremors worsened upon hearing the raspy quality of your voice and you pressed your lips to my forehead. An undeserved benediction. I’m here. You haven’t lost me. 

I don’t deserve you, little love of mine. Not one damn piece of you. If I could I’d give you the whole galaxy, but I only have one hand and it terrifies me to risk letting you go. Forgive me, please, for asking you to stay with me.

Forgive me for how much I dearly love you.

Notes:

Cero Tol is a made up academy based on Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory located in Chile. 

Lao is an island planet(?) mentioned in Prospect. Damon tells Cee she was born there.

Helianthus is the genus for sunflowers. I liked the fanciness of it 🙂

Points were referenced in Prospect as a type of currency. Credits are a Star Wars form of currency that I thought would also be fitting to use.

Binary Stars =  a system of two stars in which one star revolves around the other or both revolve around a common center.

I like to think there are alternate realities or a multiverse. It’s fun to imagine all the different possibilities another me is experiencing. 

I don’t think I’ll ever understand why guns in Prospect are called throwers, but that’s what the creators decided so that’s the terminology I’ll use too.

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