#also sometimes brilliant people don't want to fucking teach

[deathspeaker]

I would like to point out that professors make garbage pay these days 75+% of professors are 'adjunct' professors. And most adjuncts get paid MINIMUM WAGE. And in some states that's the federal minimum wage. Which is 7.25$ an hour.

So there are 100% absolutely brilliant Ph.D.-holding people who 100% have to work a second job to be able to teach. So right now I have 0 doubt there are at least a good number of janitors out there who are actually professors.

They also don't get healthcare. I know, I dated an adjunct for a while. And due to how their work is he absolutely had to do work off the clock for his classes.

I had a friend who wanted to be a professor, she was on the right track, but then she realized she'd be making more money, and keeping her benefits, by giving up on her dream and just staying in the admin office. This was at the top school in Arizona BTW. Of which, has 3 fantastic universities, tuition and fees can range from 12k a year to 35k a year btw (spring and fall). That's per student (in-state vs. out-of-state).

So again, there are actual brilliant people who are currently working jobs that some (assholes) view as lesser or degrading.

America does NOT value its education system, from pre-k to post-grad.

I was debating pre- and post- smartphone existentialism with an older gentleman today and he stopped part way through and said “Why are you a security guard? Why aren’t you teaching this at some college somewhere?” And I didn’t know what to say so I went with “Well I used to make art but nobody pays an artist”

[thebluestbluewords]

swimming lessons

"You're not serious." Mal says, laughing. Her feet are solidly on her towel, nowhere near the water. "I'm not swimming." 

Ben flicks a handful of water at her anyway. He's been swimming since he was a kid. He knows just how far he can splash without hitting someone. "You don't want to learn how to swim?" 

"Uh, no." she jerks her feet further back. "Nobody really knows how to swim, some people can just fake it for a while before they fuck up and drown." 

"I know how to swim." Ben says, kicking his feet in demonstration. He's good at swimming. He's got this. "I could teach you." 

"You think you know how. It's only a matter of time until you get too cocky, and then you'll be the next body we have to fish out of the water." 

"You're wearing a swimsuit."

Mal looks down at herself. She's wearing an emerald green bikini top, a mesh sort-of-shirt over it with more zippers than looks entirely practical for something that's ostensibly swimwear, and a pair of her own cut off shorts. Her bare midriff and thighs are incandescently pale in the sunlight.  

"Evie made it." she says, as though that's all the explanation required. Knowing the two of them, it nearly is. Evie makes the clothes, and then the other three wear them. It's like a weird sort of isle mating ritual, as far as Ben can tell. He's been honored with an Evie's original leather jacket himself, and it certainly feels like there's a weight to the leather, and to their eyes on him, when he wears it. 

"Jay's in the water," Ben points out instead. "He hasn't drowned yet." 

Mal scoffs. "Jay's one of the morons who thinks he can swim, and also, his feet are on the ground." 

"The last time I asked him to jump in the enchanted lake with me, he made up an excuse about needing to wash his horse." Ben says slowly. It's not that he's doubting the story, exactly... 

Mal laughs. "The horse is named Denial. Or maybe Distraction. Next time he'll tell you he forgot his homework." 

"Jay doesn't do his--" Ben starts to say, before his brain catches up. "Oh. I get it. Why wouldn't he just tell me he can't swim?" 

Mal shrugs. "It's not exactly something we learned on the isle. Just one more way we stick out, and you know how much he cares about fitting in sometimes." 

Ben knows. 

He tries not to think about it, mostly. How much the VKs hide when they try to fit in. They don't do it around him very much anymore, and Mal hardly ever tries at all, but the others all hide pieces of themselves whenever they want to blend in with their classmates. Evie hides how brilliant she is, like playing dumb will make her more desirable. Carlos hides his tools like he's afraid they're going to be stolen from him. Jay smiles and jokes and says that he's not lying, that this is just who he is, like he just happens to be exactly the sort of friendly that Auradon eats right up, but Ben's seen how he acts when there's nobody around to impress. 

It's not a big leap to assume that his assurances that he can swim and he's just not in the mood right now are another lie. 

He flicks another handful of water at Mal's feet. "Do you really not want to learn? I could teach you." 

"I really don't want to risk my life, no. Besides, I'm watching from out here. I have an important job to do." 

"And that is?" 

She grins, and swoops a hand through the air like she's gathering a cobweb with a duster. "Magic." Her fingers glow green, poison-apple bright and shimmering just like the lake water in the sunlight. She points a finger at Jay, in the water up to his knees and leaning down to splash a handful at Carlos.  "Give me power, no more steps, lift him from these watery depths." 

Mal lifts her hand, and Jay's feet fly out from under him. 

Only they don't. 

Jay's feet go flying, but it's because the rest of him is flying too, just a few inches above the surface of the water. He's reclining, easy as anything, like he's being held by an invisible hand. 

"Hey!" 

Mal waves her free hand at her second-in-command, without shifting the shining green one, which, now that Ben's looking, is cradled in a similar position to the unseen one that Jay is cradled in.  "Hay is for horses, babe! Get more specific!" 

"Put me down so I can splash the nerds!" Jay shouts. "I was gonna sneak attack!" 

"And now you're not!" Evie chirps. She looks as gorgeous as ever in her swim clothes, which are a little red skirt with a ruffle, a red top that shows off the smooth golden span of her chest, and a giant sun hat. 

"I'm not the one keeping you here!" Mal shouts back. "If you wanna swim so bad you can get off the spell!" 

Jay rolls over until he's on the edge of whatever invisible force is keeping him up, feet dangling down to just brush the water."My spell now. Dump me off." 

Mal grins so wide that the pointed fey teeth behind her human ones show. "If that's what you want." 

"WAIT--" 

She flips her hand. 

Jay hits the water with a splash. 

[isa-ghost]

qPhil & Other Egg Headcanons

Happy birthday original eggos 😭💚🎉

Note: Although I made these bc the og eggs are birth today, I've done at least one hc for each egg! They're a bit limited bc they're based off what I've seen through 3 POVs + osmosis through liveblog, but I included them all nonetheless. :D

qPhil headcanons masterlist

He thinks Leo has so much fucking swag. How does a literal egg look so fucking cool like at all times. How does she do it.

Secretly admires the shit out of Dapper. He's fucking brilliant. Hilariously unhinged. Insanely devoted to his collection habits. Adorably takes after Bad in looks and silliness. He's just such a badass little guy.

Pomme his fucking beloved. Brilliant just like her siblings, insanely perceptive, tough as nails yet still soft as flower pedals. He sees huge survivalist potential in her. He wishes she could shed some of the stress she's always seems to be under. He relates to her a bit too much sometimes. He hopes that poor girl gets a break.

He's absolutely gutted he didn't get to know Trump like at all. He saw little to nothing of him. He hopes he's at peace with Maxo.

GOD he wish he got more time with Flippa. She took him out like it was nothing. He would've loved training her alongside her parents. He bets she would've been an awesome pvper one day.

He wishes he could've seen more of Tilin. He was more familiar with her than he was Trump but still not enough.

Richarlyson makes it so hard not to pick "favorite eggs" besides his own. Richas is always on some wild ass shit, Phil fucking loves it. That kid's just high on life at like all times. Unreasonably funny on top of it all. God does Phil worry about him though, he's gotten way too into risking his life for the lulz.

Ramon practically feels like a third child to him (sometimes). Much like Dapper, he loves how brilliant he is and how cracked at his craft he is.

Bobby's death absolutely devastated him. He loved that little shit. And he loved how happy he made Roier and Jaiden. Seeing how severely his death broke them made his heart ache. He had nightmares about going through the same thing.

He's DETERMINED to get to know Chunsik further. Timezones are a bitch though. :( But he will be damned if something happens before he can get more familiar.

Empanada is unreasonably cute to him, and he loves seeing her take more and more after Bagi every time he sees her once more. He absolutely loves how close she and all her moms are. He genuinely fears the Pancake Mafia tbh, and he's convinced Empanada is the head.

He adores Sunny. She knows what she wants. They're not afraid to speak their mind as long as they're comfortable. She's silly and playful and sweet. Yet they still have this small, but palpable cool edge to them. Truly one spunky little girl. 😎

Phil is like 90% sure Pepito is just always going thru it, but has a sneaking suspicion that's just how Pepito seems at first glance, and maybe thats just what Pepito WANTS people to think. Either way, Pepito is just such a Creacher and Phil loves it. An absolutely loveable little guy.

He on/off considers commissioning Ramon or Dapper to make bombs to go fuck up a Fed building. He'd let them join him tbh.

He's so insanely afraid of accidentally hurting the eggs, but he'd love to spar with them and teach them more pvp skills so they'd be even better at defending themselves. He's only comfortable doing so with his own eggs.

God, he wants more times where ALL the eggs are together. He loves watching them interact, he loves their dynamics with each other and the chaos that unfolds when they're all in one place.

Phil: I don't want to build things bc technically that's doing the Feds a favor by making the island cooler. So fuck them. // Also Phil: *would build an entire city for these goddamn eggs if it meant they were safe and happy*

Watching the eggs all just talk and be silly together is literally Phil's favorite thing about their existence. Just watching them silently communicate in their Egg Ways, slapping down signs and punching each other. There's something so special and funny about their nonverbal communication.

He will NEVER be able to look at certain objects or accessories without thinking of the kids now.

He secretly has doodles of what he thinks each kid would look like if they hatched into dragons.

[perseusannabeth]

Chapter 1

A/N: Hi everyone, and happy holidays! This is my contribution to the @acotargiftexchange for the lovely @talkfantasytome! I want to thank the organisers for this absolutely brilliant event. It's looking like this fic will be 3 chapters, so fingers crossed that the rest of the parts will come soon!

This has chef Cassian and writer Nesta, aka my favourite combo. I also have to warn you, as per usual, Cassian's Illyrian cooking is in fact how I cook as a south Asian person.

AO3 is currently down, so I won't be able to post this on there until later, but it will be added. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this!

Summary: Cassian is deeply concerned about the fact that his neighbour cannot cook at all. He decides to start cooking for her to save her from an early death, and it becomes so much more.

Cassian had lived in his current apartment for a long enough time to know most of the people in the building. It wasn't a massive building, so it wasn't hard to run into people. The only person he hadn't run into was his neighbour, who had moved in 3 months ago. 

Thankfully, there were signs of life, like the post being checked, and he could hear the door opening and closing. The most concerning thing he noticed was that his new neighbour seemed friendly with the fast food delivery drivers. Cassian didn't like judging food choices because he knew that people around him already felt self-conscious when they talked about food. Being a chef meant people assumed he knew best, but he could easily teach people he was willing to learn. Still, his neighbour was concerning him a lot. They must be on their way to a heart attack with the amount of fast food they consumed, and from Cassian's observation, they sometimes got food at least once a day or more. But Cassian had never assumed his neighbour's eating habits would affect him.

"So, have you seen her around? It's been a few days, that's all, and I'm a little worried about her," said his delivery driver, Toby. 

"I'm sorry, I'm so tired right now that my brain barely functions. Please, can you repeat yourself?" 

"Nesta, your neighbour. She orders from us daily, but I've not had any deliveries for her for 3 days. I'm just a little worried about her, that's all," Toby said, blushing now. The poor guy couldn't be more than 20 years old. At 20 years old, Cassian can't imagine he would've had the guts to do what Toby was doing, so he had to hand it to the guy. 

"I'm sorry, I haven't heard from her," Cassian replied, unwilling to admit he'd never seen her before and had just learned her name from Toby. "I'll check on her though, don't worry," Cassian said, to both reassure the man and to get him to leave because, god damn it, his food was getting cold!

"Thanks, man, I really appreciate it. She seems nice, and she tips really well." Toby smiled. Cassian just nodded awkwardly and then waited for Toby to finally (finally) move from his door. 

Cassian practically inhaled his food because, yes, he had promised his delivery driver that he would check on his neighbour, but if he was going to check on a potentially dead person, he would not be doing it while he was hungry. Fuck that; he had been in the restaurant since 6am, and he had planned on eating and then collapsing in bed. Now he had to check on his potentially dead neighbour because the delivery boy liked her tips!

By the time he had finished his food, he had managed to work up some energy, mostly just the rage he had to check on his neighbour and delay his sleep. Still, before leaving his flat, he checked his attitude at the door because he didn't want to be rude. He was being neighbourly, even if he was tired. 

When he knocked on the door and didn't hear any movement on the other side of the door, he was suddenly wide awake. He had horrific visions of breaking the door down and finding a corpse as he knocked again, trying to delay the rescue mission playing out in his head. When the door flew open, Cassian nearly jumped out of his skin.

The lady in front of him looked pretty annoyed at him, especially as he gawped at her like an idiot. Her hair was pulled up in something that might have once been a bun but was now just a tangled mess. She was in a long t-shirt that had seen better days; it was stained and faded, and underneath, she wore leggings that were in a similar state. But somehow, despite all this and the deep bags under her eyes, she still was the most beautiful woman Cassian had ever seen. 

"Can I help you?" The woman said, giving him a quick once over. 

That snapped Cassian out of his trance. "Sorry, erm, I'm looking for someone called Nesta?" Cassian asked awkwardly.

The woman had gone from droll to actively suppressing a laugh. "Oh my god, did Emerie actually do it? Are you a male stripper?"

Cassian's eyes widened as he quickly stepped back to distance himself from the beautiful, crazy woman. "Woah, I have no idea who Emerie is. I'm flattered you think I could pass for a stripper, but I'm no magic Mike. I'm Cassian, and I'm your neighbour." Cassian said, pointing at the open door to his apartment.

'Oh," the woman said, now also looking awkward. 

"Look, I just need to know if you're Nesta and if you're alright. I ordered some food, and the delivery driver said he was worried because he hadn't heard from you in a few days," Cassian explained, not wanting to linger in awkward silence. 

The woman's face went bright red at that, so Cassian assumed that this was, in fact, the mysterious Nesta who tipped really well and ordered food every single day. "Listen, I'm assuming you're Cassian, the chef Mrs Culpepper mentioned. I can only imagine what you think of me since Toby felt chatty today. I'm gonna be honest with you, I can't cook. My friend said not to burn down the building, so I've not tried. Really, my takeaway habit is saving everyone, and as my neighbour, you should be grateful, so don't judge me,"

Cassian held his hands up in surrender. "I'm not judging. Just because I enjoy cooking doesn't mean I assume everyone will. I am, however, slightly concerned. Is that all you eat? That can't be good for your health," Cassian said, frowning as he calculated how expensive that must be and the calories. He wasn't the best with numbers, so he couldn't be sure, but he was pretty sure that was a bad time. 

"My friend said the same thing, so she batch-cooked me a few meals. I've got a deadline for work, so I've been even worse than usual, but that's why I haven't ordered any food. When it runs out, which will probably be tomorrow, I'll be back to ordering from Toby," she said with a shrug. 

"Okay, I said I'm not judging, but that sounds horrific. I can't let you carry on like that. I don't think my conscience can take it," Cassian said, looking at her wide-eyed. The way this woman was going, she'd be dead of a heart attack in no time.

"I'll be fine; you don't need to take pity on me," Nesta said defensively. 

"Listen, it's Nesta, right?" she nodded, eyeing him suspiciously now, which made him want to laugh. She hadn't been suspicious before, but now he was questioning her food intake; she was wary of him. "I get to take leftovers from my work. It's one of the perks, but there's sometimes a lot. I tend to bring them home and make myself something with whatever random stuff there is. It's way healthier than ordering out and helps me not waste food. It's a win-win situation for both of us, really." 

"So, you're basically offering to be my personal chef?" Nesta said, trying to figure out what the catch was. 

"Well, within reason. If there's anything you hate or won't eat, I'll consider it, and obviously, any allergies. And if you want something specific, I don't mind making that, too, as long as I have enough time to get the ingredients. And I don't really mind cooking; if I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it as my job." 

A silence lingered, and Cassian wondered if he had gone in too hard on the sales pitch. He wouldn't be shocked if she said no; it was a weird request from your neighbour, whom you'd only met. But there was something about this woman that made Cassian want to offer to cook for her outside of work. His friends knew he never shared his food, not when he was outside of work. He made traditional Illyrian dishes when he was at home. It was a way for him to stay connected with his culture and mother despite his distance. These recipes had been handed down through generations of his mother's family, but there was something private and intimate about them. But he would share them with his neighbour. 

"Are you even real?" Nesta said, staring at him in a bit of a daze. Then, she reached out and poked him in the cheek. "You feel real," she said as she continued poking his cheek.

"I- I think I'm real?" Cassian stuttered, really not sure how he should react. Cassian wasn't shy, but this woman was just something else. 

Clearly, his talking pulled her out of whatever daze she was in. "I'm so sorry; I've been working non-stop for my next deadline, so I'm losing my grip on reality right now," Nesta said, shaking her head to get rid of whatever weird thoughts were in her head. 

Cassian pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Add your number, and I'll text you so you have mine. Then, you can text me any allergies or anything you wouldn't eat. I'll probably just tell you some dishes I can make with the leftovers, and you can let me know what sounds good. Is that okay with you?" Cassian said.

Nesta nodded, handing his phone back with her number added. Cassian shot her a quick text and then put his phone away. "Thank you," Nesta said awkwardly. "You really don't need to do that, but I'm certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth," she said with a shrug and a quick smile. 

Cassian smiled back, said his goodbyes and went back to his apartment. As he shut his door, he took his neighbour in, who was watching him walk away with a contemplative look on her face. He shook his head, shutting his door. Cassian was doing a good deed for his hot neighbour, but he hoped and prayed that his friends wouldn't find out about it. 

With that, he quickly got ready for bed, practically collapsing into his bed. As he drifted off to sleep, he noticed that he was smiling and had been since he had said goodbye to his neighbour. 

***

Cassian had forgotten entirely about the events of the night before when he woke up in the morning. It was so surreal; it felt like a dream. It wasn't until he was getting ready for his morning run that he realised it was true. 

He had a strict no phones policy in the mornings, mainly because his doom-scrolling habit was an awful way to start the day. So until he was ready to leave the house, he wouldn't look at his phone. It had helped with his mental health a lot and made waking up for his job so much easier, too. 

Since he had the day off, he slept till 9, which was late for someone who left the house at 4am every day for work. When he finally looked at his phone, he froze for a second, because there was a message from his neighbour. 

Once he had processed that yesterday had, in fact, not been a dream, he quickly made a note of the things she didn't like (kale being called the devil's lettuce made him laugh way more than it should've); he had a quick glance in the fridge to see what he could make. He figured he would make a quick tuna and avocado sandwich for lunch, and then for dinner, he would make pasta. Both seemed reasonably safe first options for her meals. Then, he could also give her leftover pasta for lunch the next day. 

As he finally left and started his run, he realised this could be the perfect opportunity to work on some new recipes for the restaurant. He wanted to update the menu and add more traditional recipes, but he had been nervous to test them out on anyone. By the time he got to the point he turned back, he had a massive grin on his face. He whipped his phone out and sent Nesta a text. 

Cassian: I've just had an idea. How would you feel being my new taster for some experimental recipes?

Her reply was instant, which surprised him. 

Nesta: you're doing me a favour so if i can help then i'm good with that. Although idk if i'm the best taste tester since my own culinary skills start and end at cereal 

Cassian: All I need is your honest opinion, everyone else in my life is too biased.

Nesta: i'm not afraid of cutting a man down, so dw

Cassian laughed at her message, sending her a quick laughing emoji before he put his phone back to go back home. He was in a good mood and excited about cooking for someone new. Of course, he got to cook for new people at his job every day, but cooking for someone one-on-one was so different. He could get her reactions, and she would give him feedback. This wasn't just a faceless customer; it was his neighbour. 

When he had assembled the sandwich, he put it into a Tupperware box and then cleaned up the kitchen. Once he was done, he finally gave Nesta her sandwich, trying to ignore the excitement and nerves bubbling in his stomach as he knocked on her door. 

Nesta flung the door open with a massive smile on her face. "Well, hello there, neighbour," she said, wiggling her eyebrows at him. "What do you have for me?" Nesta said, looking at the box with excitement. 

"I've got a tuna and avocado sandwich with red onion and some homemade sriracha mayo," Cassian said, presenting her the food with a flourish.

Nesta didn't hesitate to open the box to have a look. "Oh wow, this looks so good, like one of those fancy coffee shop sandwiches which is really over-priced. Did you make the bread, too?" she asked, tapping the sourdough. 

"Oh nah, absolutely not; I'm not much of a bread maker; it's so faffy, but I love the smell of fresh bread. There's another chef in the restaurant who makes bread, but there's never any left, so this is just some supermarket bread."

"Oh, well, I thought you used leftovers," Nesta said with a frown. 

"I do, but I like to jazz them up, so I use things I have at home, too. Don't worry about it, though."

"Nah, absolutely not. I need to pay you for this if you're using your money to feed me. That's not fair on you!" she exclaimed. "I'm not a charity case."

"I don't think you are!" Cassian said, alarmed. "You're going to help me, remember. Maybe I'll develop a new menu for the restaurant."

"I still want to contribute to this because you're saving me a lot of money. Let me pay half towards your groceries at least," Nesta said sternly. 

"I- okay if you insist, but I feel bad taking your money," Cassian said awkwardly. 

"Well, that's too bad. Text me your bank details, and I'll transfer you the money, and if you don't, I'll just have to hunt you down and hurt you," she threatened. 

"You seem like a busy woman, so I'll try to avoid that happening," Cassian winced. Changing the subject, he asked, "So I never asked, but what do you do?" 

"Oh, I'm a writer!" Nesta said excitedly.

"Oh wow, that's amazing! What kind of stuff do you write? I've not had time to read in a while, but maybe I should start that up again."

Nesta's eyes widened at that. "Do not read my books. You're not the target audience, and frankly, I would probably have to avoid you if I knew you'd read them."

Cassian frowned at her, and then it dawned on him. "Oh my god, you write porn books!" he exclaimed. 

"They're romance books! Sometimes they might have some smut, but they're not porn!" she hissed. 

"Right, of course! Well, I'm gonna get going since you've probably got some sex scene left to right or something," Cassian said with a shit-eating grin. 

Nesta froze but then smirked. "Actually, I finished writing that last night after you left. You know, since you weren't the male stripper I was hoping for," she said before turning around and slamming the door in his face. He stood there gaping for a while before eventually shaking himself out of it. My god, that woman was something else. 

***

"Cassian bheta! It's been too long since you called me," his mother said as she answered the phone. He had decided to ring her while he cooked because it was the best way to cook. He couldn't help but smile at his mother calling him son in their native language. He loved his Illyrian culture; the fact his mother had taught him so much of it gave him such pride. 

"Mama, I called you 2 days ago, and I've been texting you too!" he protested with a smile as he diced onion. 

"But you're my baby, my bacha, you don't understand. One day, when you have your own children, then you'll understand," she loved saying that line. It was one of his favourites. Now, he was nearing 30 and not even close to being married. 

 He ignored her comment, knowing no good could come from delving into that subject. "Mama, I'm making Illyrian-style pasta for my neighbour right now."

"Ohh, is your neighbour Illyrian too? Rhys's mum told me that the lady who used to live across the road from her has a daughter in the city! Her name is-"

"Mama! Velaris is a big city; you know I won't run into every Illyrian here, so stop trying to match-make! My neighbour isn't Illyrian, but she said she's happy to try different things. I'm cooking for her because she can't cook for herself."

"She can't cook?" his mother said, sounding scandalised. 

"No, and let me tell you, how I met her was crazy."

He relayed the events of yesterday evening while he sauteed the onion in some ghee, diced up some bell peppers and drained the sweetcorn. After the onions started to go soft, he added the basaar, a mix of spices that Illyrians added to almost every dish.

"Well, it's a good thing you're here to look after this girl; the poor thing has been living off those takeaways; she's in desperate need of some good, home-cooked food!" his mother said the word takeaway like it was dirty. She had always been very strict about eating out when they were younger, telling him they could make it better at home. Only as he got older did he realise they probably couldn't afford to eat out for more than the occasional treat. 

"That's why I offered mama."

"That's because you're my good bacha," she said fondly. "What's this neighbour's name anyway? And what does she do?" she asked. 

Cassian smiled. Illyrian mothers could never resist fishing for gossip, even if it was people they didn't know. "Oh, her name is Nesta, and she said she's a romance writer."

His mother gasped, making him almost drop the pasta as he drained it. "Are you cooking for the famous writer, Nesta Archeron?" his mother asked, her excitement tangible. 

"I don't actually know her surname. Why?" he asked, suspicious. 

"Oh my god, Cassian!" her mother screamed, so excited that she didn't seem to mind busting her son's eardrums. "Cassian, that woman is my favourite author!"

His eyes widened at that. "Mama! I don't want to know if you read those books!" he said, taking deep breaths and trying to clear his mind of that information.

"Pfft, why? Those books are brilliant, and you're a grown man now, stop being a baby. There are no men in my life, but those fictional men are something else," his mother sounded breathless, which was just too disturbing to think about. 

"Mama! Stop, I'll be sick if you carry on, and then how can I feed your favourite author?"

His mother was outraged at that. "Listen here, you! She's writing her next book, so you better feed her well because I've been waiting for this book for a year."

"Geez, mama, I promise I will; now I have to go. I'll give it to her now while it's warm." He said, sprinkling cheese on the pasta he had put in the two Tupperware boxes for Nesta. His mother said her goodbyes because he needed to feed Nesta, not because he said he needed to go. She made it clear her loyalties lie with Nesta, which was concerning. 

He knocked on Nesta's door, and she came quickly this time. She eagerly handed him an empty box from lunch, which had been washed, and took the pasta. 

"I'm not sure if you know this, but I can smell when you're cooking things, so I've been able to smell this for a while, and I'm starving right now. This smells absolutely amazing, so if this is what Illyrian food is like, keep it coming," Nesta said, not taking her eyes off the pasta. 

"Well, this isn't Illyrian food; this is just pasta with an Illyrian twist on it, in all fairness, but I'll keep that in mind." Nesta nodded eagerly. "By the way, my mother wanted me to check. Are you the author, Nesta Archeron?"

Nesta looked up at that. "Yes, I am," she said slowly.

"Right, well, my mother is a big fan and said I need to feed you well so you can write your book because she's very excited. She's basically gonna disown me if I don't cook well for you," he laughed. 

Nesta smiled at that. "She sounds sweet. Let her know that you're doing an excellent job."

Cassian smiled back and returned to his apartment, giving her instructions about how she needed to eat the 2nd box for lunch tomorrow because he would be at work. Nesta thanked him profusely, licking her lips as she eyed the pasta. 

Cassian got out of there quickly after that because seeing Nesta lick her lips did something weird that he didn't want to think about. He had only met the woman yesterday, so whatever he felt, he would ignore it. 

He got a text as he dug into his own pasta while watching a modern family rerun on TV. 

Nesta: this might be the best pasta i've ever had omg you're a god!!!

Nesta: i would eat this for the rest of my life if i could

Cassian: It's not too spicy for you?

Nesta: nah, this is fine, the tomatoes calm it down. Idk if i'm strong enough to handle more than this tho, my tastebuds are probs dead with everything i eat 

Cassian: Lolll, noted

Cassian cleared his dishes and got into bed since he'd have an early night the next day. Before putting his phone away, he quickly googled his neighbour, and lo and behold, a list of her books came up. She was popular, and he had to admit, he was impressed. Her fans were practically rabid for her next book. It looked like a series, so he ordered the first book before he could think about it too deeply. 

Please let me know if you'd like to be added/ removed from my tags list:

@sannelovesreading​ @bookstantrash​ @superspiritfestival @courtofjurdan​​ @thewayshedreamed​ @sayosdreams​ @letstakethedawn​​ @and-she-burns-with-it @nahthanks @arinbelle @gracie-rosee​ @julemmaes​ @claralady​ @rowaelinismyotp @swankii-art-teacher​ @tswaney17​ @duskandstarlight @live-the-fangirl-life​ @oversizedbats​ @nestaisgod​ @vidalinav @vanserrass @moodymelanist @emily-gsh @lady-winter-sunrise @dread3r @starryblueskies7 @simpingfornestaarcheron @mis-lil-red @catplayinvioline @vinylcryes @starksravings @vasudharaghavan @a-court-of-valkyries @nestaspegasus @sv0430 @champanheandluxxury @nesquick-arccheron @a-little-disguised @nestable @illyrianshadowhunter @readiajin @lordof-bloodshed @deedz-thrillerkilller16 @rachmkerch123456 @autumnbabylon

[asmo-cosmetics]

In honour of november ending, I think we deserve to know how exactly you think Asmo would ruin each brothers NNN

oldhead asmo-cosmetics follower ask (affectionate)

for newbies i have this headcanon that MC tells the brothers what no-nut november is and through a convoluted stream of banter they somehow all end up daring each other to do it... except asmo, who thinks it's the stupidest shit ever, and gives himself his own challenge out of pure spite and annoyance: make all of them lose.

target one: mammon

because he'd be the easiest, obviously.

as much as they bicker, mammon's soft spot for asmo is almost if not just as bad as lucifer's imo

mammon is also SO easy to manipulate, especially if asmo does his whole little "i'm just a dumb cute bimbo, i don't know all of this complicated manly stuff :/" routine

inserting mechanic mammon propaganda bc i can but imagine mammon's solution to how he's going to "win" (is there a bet? there's probably a bet if he's involved i guess right?) is that he's going to channel his frustration into working on his project car 💛

asmo's just hanging out in the garage to watch and mammon gripes at him to get out a few times but is eventually just like "well if you're here you're gonna help. hand me that"

mammon gradually getting happier and more relaxed as he gets to explain/teach everything he's doing to asmo who's pretending he doesn't know what a "chassis" is

asmo, all blushy and cute and fake-innocent, leaning on the hood of the car: "you always look so cool working in here, i just like watching"

and mammon's sweet baby (asmo) looks so pretty on his sweet baby (the car), and he folds like a cheap accordion

additional related headcanon that i am completely right about: the most embarrassing cheap porno lines absolutely work on mammon. ESPECIALLY from asmo. "pretty please? i need my big brother's big cock in me." "fuck, princess, i know. i know. yer big bro's got ya."

target two: beel

poor sweetie doesn't even realize how frustrated he is because it's usually belphie who notices when he's horny anyway, and just takes care of it for him.

in my mind beel really struggles with understanding a lot of instinctual bodily urges that aren't hunger, because since he's always hungry, his body telling him it wants or needs something isn't as immediately noticeable as it is to most people.

like, you know how sometimes you haven't had enough water, and instead of actually feeling thirsty, you just get a headache? like that.

it's usually not that much of an issue because belphie's right there to hand him a bottle of water, "here, you're thirsty, i can feel it" or snuggle him, "you can't just go around so tired, because then i'm going around tired and a half" or get him off, "c'mere, baby. i know what you need."

but now belphie can't help him get off, because they agreed to this stupid bet, because their older brothers kept teasing them that they would totally lose first because of each other, and belphie got really annoyed.

so belphie's brilliant solution was that he just. wouldn't tell beel when he was horny.

beel remains oblivious and just starts working out more and gradually getting into a bitchier and bitchier mood

honestly, asmo's doing this for beel's own good. he's getting mean. beel's never mean.

the twins are both really receptive to any kind of attention from asmo because he's their favorite older brother, so when asmo genuinely snaps at beel and starts scolding him for his attitude, beel is all sad and guilty and he's like. "i really don't know what's wrong :( i just feel really upset and irritated all the time. especially when you're here, even though i wanna see you :("

oh asmo's poor baby. beel lets asmo kiss him and even starts smiling and kissing back, but when asmo starts trying to take it further beel's like "no, wait, belphie will get mad," but asmo coaxes him with the promise that mammon's the loser, and "c'mon, sweetie, i can make you feel better, please just let me?"

asmo usually rides him when they have sex, but when poor beel laid back and spread himself and begged his big brother to please fuck him all better — how could he possibly refuse?

target three: levi

admittedly levi is also definitely pathetic enough to have been first. but asmo cares more about protecting levi's ego than mammon's. lol

it also took a little longer because i do think asmo would spoil levi for something like this, because they're genuinely close and i think asmo would actually be legitimately worried about his brother with a humiliation fetish vs his brother who actually has dangerously low self-esteem

because obviously he could've gone to levi first and just been like "oh please, you know you're not actually going to be able to do this, cumbrain, don't you? a fucking pervert like you who's addicted to hentai and eroge? at least with me you'd lose having sex instead of alone with your sad left hand." etc etc, and that would make him cum but might also make him cry, like, in a bad way.

has anyone else ever noticed how easy it would be for asmo to cosplay ruri-hana like he kind of looks just like her and they wear the same colors

(he gets to wear a cute outfit and lets levi get away with the "he exploited a weakness!" defense... while still, like, winning. win win win win situation)

no but seriously can you imagine how cute it would be. levi sees asmo and he's immediately all blushy and embarrassed. "g- get out of here! that's not even fair! this is totally cheating!" all while he can't take his eyes off him and is already reaching out to touch him. already mumbling to himself about what a loser otaku he is and how pathetic he is and asmo's calling him adorable in this condescending tone that's turning him on even more.

rides levi with his panties pulled to the side so levi can see him in the costume while they fuck 🧡

target four: belphie

again... fairly easy, just because belphie is like. canonically an asmo stan

like he gets mad and they get into an argument at first as soon as asmo starts in on him, because belphie's actually smart enough/knows asmo well enough that he immediately catches on that he's trying to screw up the challenge

i just have this hc that belphie is like. really bad at being mad at asmo. like he's so good at being sharp and cutting with all the others but with asmo he always ends up saying sth like "and you just fucking stand there looking all gorgeous and perfect, fuck you!" because he still just thinks asmo is the coolest and most beautiful person ever

so they're arguing and belphie's all pissy and pent up and he acts weird and unpredictable when he's mad anyway, and belphie just starts angry kissing him because he can't take it anymore.

asmo loves on him and calms him down, "shh, baby, it's okay, it's okay, i love you. i wanna help, belphie, sweetie, can i help? can i suck you off? would you like that? i could suck your cock and then we could cuddle? you could take a nap, yeah? does that sound nice?"

loooong lazy makeout after. asmo ends up covered in little hickies 💜 and belphie has one big one that makes him shy when asmo touches it in front of the others.

target five: satan

satan takes work.

lucifer is participating in this challenge, after all. so even if satan personally thinks the whole concept is asinine, well, he still can't just let lucifer win something.

he's competitive, but more than that, he actually has a reasonable strategy. because satan, more than the rest of the brothers, knows that he can't just avoid asmo — asmo is his favorite brother, his lover, AND his best friend. he'd miss him too much.

so asmo has had plenty of satan kissing time in this month. but anything more than kissing gets him a chaste peck on the forehead and a simple "no, darling."

it's sort of driving him crazy. satan is considerate and sweet and makes sure asmo feels adored and desirable. he touches him with so much love and asmo can feel the want in it, because satan wants him to know he's wanted, because he knows how much attention asmo needs and still wants to make sure he gets it... which means asmo can be pouty, but he can't really guilt satan, because he's actually being cute and attentive as fuck.

ultimately though asmo does remember that satan has one very exploitable weakness

lucifer.

satan knows about asmo's big plan, he figured it out the first day, and even figures he must be almost done if he's spending so much time with satan. not that he's complaining.

but then asmo starts telling him about his plans for lucifer.

"maybe i won't let him fuck me, actually. would you like that? you could help me, you could come with me. you're so good at getting him all subby like that."

"i could hold him and finger him and make him cum on the floor. i didn't even make levi do that, you know? i let levi cum inside me. wouldn't that be cute? he's always so cute when he's trying not to act like a desperate slut."

satan knows he shouldn't be indulging this if he wants to beat lucifer but asmo knows him far too well.

"even better — just stuff him full of a big toy and make him watch how a real demon fucks me. i mean, if you'd do that for me? you would, wouldn't you, satan?"

he ends up agreeing, shortly after bending asmo over the kitchen counter and blowing his back out. you know, to demonstrate.

target six: lucifer

asmo and satan don't know how right they were

poor lucifer thought it would be so easy to pass the challenge, but by the time asmo gets to him he's locked himself in a cock cage and has a plug in under his clothes just to calm himself down.

he's been really stressed, and when he's stressed he normally goes to, like, asmo, satan, and/or belphie to get some very specific help, but obviously he's had to handle it on his own this month. it hasn't been going well.

asmo knows something's wrong because lucifer starts soaking up the love as soon as asmo gives it, not even putting up a token effort of pretending to be annoyed at being distracted from his work

he does almost forget what he promised satan for a few minutes because having lucifer's full attention on him always kinda makes asmo short-circuit. "darling boy, precious boy, my jewel"

lucifer has probably completely forgotten about the bet btw. like when he starts scolding asmo for trying to take lucifer's clothes off asmo thinks it's because of that, but in reality that's completely slipped his mind and he's just embarrassed for anyone to see how needy he is

when asmo finally gets him naked lucifer's so mortified, but asmo's breathless and enamored, "luci, baby, so gorgeous, so so pretty, i'll take care of you"

asmo asks if he can call satan and lucifer immediately agrees even though asmo can tell he hates himself for it, because he knows he needs his dom right now

satan greets asmo first, doesn't even give lucifer a glance, walks right past him and pulls asmo into a long, passionate kiss that makes him giggle, then moan.

"mm, hi, sweetheart, what did you need..." [pretends to notice lucifer for the first time (on his knees, naked, still caged and plugged)] "... oh, how pitiful."

satan makes lucifer give him his key and examines his plug, "well of course you're frustrated. a slut like you would never be satisfied with something this size" (bonus: he pulls it out in one quick tug and lucifer doubles over and whines. it's actually a fairly large plug, but satan and asmo both know he needs more.)

"i haven't fucked him yet," asmo explains, "i don't know if he deserves it, playing without us."

"good boy, asmo. you're right, of course. he has to be punished."

he leans down into lucifer's ear and says "you think just because you caged yourself without my permission i won't be able to make you cum? you know me better than that, don't you? i'm leaving you locked up, darling, and you're still going to cum for me. that's how much of a slut you are."

he gets a dildo to entertain himself, at least. a big one, one of asmo's, but not as big as what he really wants

but once asmo and satan get him to cum once - caged and untouched - they take pity on the poor thing and give him what he needs, and make him cum over and over until he's coming dry, taking turns on their big brother's mouth and ass 💙💚🩷

[kimbapisnotsushi]

shiratorizawa/inarizaki headcanons bc i miss them and i love them and i crave yamagata and reon content so i have to be the change i want to see in the world. so let's go!!

reon, the love of my life

i actually think he really likes comforting cozy slice-of-life sim games, like stardew valley and animal crossing and such

okay this is the part where i retcon the entire haikyuu timeline bc i really like the idea of everyone piling into reon's and tendou's dorm and watching reon game on a switch

or just like. gathering in the common area and squishing onto the couch or whatever while reon roams his island collecting fruits and bugs or whatever

(these games are the only sense of peace and stability reon gets at this goddamn school)

anyways it's funny bc tendou screams every time reon runs into a wasp's nest and yells "RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN" until reon either gets stung or successfully evades them

admittedly i do think the ds and gameboy are sacred and, for the sake of nostalgia, are definitely used to play pokemon (of which everyone has a favorite gen and get into endless arguments about it)

tendou DOES teach goshiki how to pirate shit and get ROM hacks and emulators and such tho

reon and semi are the most popular members out of the third years btw

they're both polite and calm and generally nice and don't have an RBF that makes people nervous

too many people keep trying to fight yamagata just bc they think he's glaring at them and he is SO tired

yamagata (slightly inspired by my own recent purchase) decides to get a phone charm to see if it'll help him keep track of his phone btw

he mentions this idea to semi who mentions it to reon who mentions it to tendou who blabs to the whole team. and guess what? everyone gets the absolutely brilliant idea of gifting yamagata a phone charm!!!

so now he has like a dozen different ones. and he's STILL losing his goddamn phone, so now his convos are like "have you seen my phone? yeah right now it's got a little phone charm hanging off of it, so just keep an eye out for that. what does the charm look like? oh i meant it's a charm that is literally a phone. of course it was tendou, who else do you think it was"

tendou has also taken to putting stickers on yamagata in an attempt to make him "less scary". sometimes yamagata knows about it. sometimes he doesn't.

kawanishi: "yamagata-san, pardon me for asking, but why do you have one-punch man on your butt" yamagata: "i have what now"

tendou meets someone he can talk to manga about online in some fandom/community forum or whatever and he is absolutely BETRAYED to find out that it's akagi michinari of inarizaki

okay not really but he is SUPER dramatic about it and keeps going on and on to akagi about how he can't be caught fraternizing with the enemy

akagi is just like "yeah yeah now are we going to talk about the complexities of yoru being both a victim and a perpetrator and his inevitable redemption arc or what"

(GO READ GOKURAKUGAI I AM BEGGING)

aran is still scared of tendou btw. like he won't outright admit it but he's still not over the time tendou yelled that he was going to piss in his pants from all the way across the court.

when akagi tells him they've become friends aran is like "are you SURE about that"

also i know tendou gets pissed off at suna. but i think it'd be REALLY funny if suna got pissed off at kawanishi

something something "he should be more sure of himself, he'll never stop aran-san like that" something something "and i thought i was a sarcastic little bitch" something something "no i DON'T think he's cute what the fuck are you on about"

(i didn't mean for it to go that way when i started typing it but i DO think it'd be an absolutely hilarious development)

i htink kawanishi and shirabu go on a lot of study dates, holing up at coffeeshops and boba cafes with their backpacks and notebooks and spending hours on homework and studying

shirabu worked his ass off to get into shiratorizawa and he intends to keep it that way!! he's a model student. probably even the top of their year. everyone knows him as the high-achiever.

kawanishi is there to make sure shirabu doesn't get lost inside his head and gets him take breaks and makes sure he doesn't get sucked into the endless soulless spiral of academic rigor at an elite private high school

basically: shirabu's consistently on the path to burnout and kawanishi is there to keep the flames alive

(hey that would be a good fic summary)

maybe that's another thing, then, that helps kawanishi and suna become friends. because suna's been there. suna knows, sometimes, that feeling of imposter syndrome. feeling like you don't belong. feeling like you have to prove your worth, your entire existence, just to be able to stay in a place you love, even if that place might not love you back.

and kawanishi knows shirabu would rather shove a volleyball down his throat than open up about the bad days and the bad feelings, so he picks suna's brain instead to find out how he can help. what he can do. what shirabu might be thinking and how kawanishi can fix it

you can't, suna tells him, you can't fix something like this. he has to learn to live with it. to grow around it. to believe in something better until it's the only thing he believes in. but having people you care about care about you helps. it did for me.

and so kawanishi is there to draw the blanket around shirabu's shoulders, and he's there to put snacks on shirabu's desk, and he's there to flip shirabu's textbook close when the clock hits eleven they need to sleep, and he cares for shirabu in all the ways shirabu can't care for himself and hopes that it's enough

[beanghostprincess]

My thoughts on Sanuso's children!!

I recently got a Tumblr ask (I'll edit this later and write the link) that talked about Sanuso adopting a child, and it has opened my eyes to make this whole post about the three children I think they'd have!! (Also shout out to @latinokokonoi for the idea of Zolu's daughter).

The Strawhats are still together after finding the One Piece, being together still and enjoying their own dreams for a while without separating yet (honestly, with how fast this story is going they're gonna find the One Piece quickly af, just pretend they've already found it). Sanji and Usopp are 25/23 when they have their two twin daughters (accidentally. Because they are idiots and did NOT listen to Chopper's talk about protection). Even if they weren't planned they're still extremely excited to form a family together! They're a bit worried about what will happen from now on, but they've taken care of children before on their adventures, so how hard can it be? The answer is pretty fucking hard but, you know, it's not like they don't have other children in the crew (Zoro and Luffy found a 2 y/o in a treasure chest when they were 23/21 and they've been taking care of her for two years now. Called her Kuina!). They believe they'll be just fine.

The girls are named after their moms, Sora and Banchina, and they're Usopp and Sanji's little princesses. They instantly get along with Kuina, by the way, as they grow up together. She kind of acts like an older sister to them, being 4 years older and all. If anybody asks, they're cousins! I won't go into much detail about Kuina here because this is about Sanuso's children, but I love the idea I have of her already.

The thing is, the girls grow up to be brilliant and also a menace. They're twins but you can easily tell who's who when they're not together!

Sora: Oldest sister for, like, two seconds and she's always reminding everyone about that (in a good way. She takes pride in protecting her sister). She has Sanji's morals and ambition. She's passionate and pretty intense when it comes to protecting the ones she loves. But also she's an adventurer like Usopp! She loves getting into trouble, too, and she's strategic enough to know how to come out of them (most of the time. Well- Sometimes. Most of the time Kuina is the one saving her ass. But, you know, at the end of the day Kuina gets lost and Sora is the one to find her... They make a pretty good team). She dreams of being a pirate and having her own crew someday with Banchina. She's a natural dreamer. A bit idealistic. She has Sanji's smile and Usopp's skills. She wants to learn how to fight in every damn way. She asks Sanji to teach her how to fight with her legs and Usopp to use the slingshot (prefers Sanji's method, tho). She often trains with Kuina, too! She reminds people of Nami (that's, like, her favorite crew member if you ask her. That's her auntie!) because of her mischievous personality and ability to steal. She's also very impulsive because she has Usopp's sense of adventure but Sanji's inability to back down. So... Yeah. Luffy fucking loves her. But at least she's good at strategies! She would do anything for her sister and has been by her side forever. Often asks her to join her shenanigans and schemes and that's when Banchina is a bit more playful! Loves Sanji's cooking and eats almost just as much as Luffy. She talks about Usopp's stories, being so so proud of being his daughter! Her favorite aunt is Nami and her favorite uncles are Luffy and Zoro.

Banchina: The sweetest of the two sisters. She's pretty much like their mothers, personality wise. She's a cutie pie. She loves cooking and drawing because she grew up watching her fathers doing these mundane, more domestic and calm activities. If Sora is the clumsy more adventurous one, Banchina is the caretaker who's just done with her sister's bullshit but loves her a lot. She has Sanji's need to help and Usopp's anxiety (but not in a really nervous way. More in a careful, thoughtful way). It's not that she doesn't know how to defend herself, but she uses her slingshot only when needed and to back up her sister. She's more of a support person! She loves to cook but prefers to draw. Spends the day drawing. Kuina and Sora are very protective of her but she's usually the one who ends up rolling her eyes and taking care of them when they get injured somehow. However, she can be very playful too when Sora manages to get her in her schemes and shenanigans. She's a sweetheart but she protects her family when she needs to do so. She prefers more calm spaces but she appreciates the company of her sister and Kuina, finds them amusing. Basically, calm and helpful, very done with the chaos but secretly loves it, and ends up playing around when she finds it funny. Her favorite aunt is Robin (they spend time together reading and drawing) and her favorite uncles are Jinbe and Brook.

They grow up together and somehow they're not only the crew's most precious treasure, but also they're very helpful when they fight. I mean, they don't usually let them fight, but they always end up helping without being asked.

They're 10 and 14 when they find Takumi (Sanuso is 35/33, if you're curious) on a boat, fainted, and very very injured. The kid appears to be around 7 and he has chains on his arms and a metal collar around his neck. That doesn't sit right with any of them, so the kids call Luffy and the others and they instantly help him to get into the ship.

Long story short, they take care of him for a day or so, extremely worried about his well-being. Sanji and Chopper look after him until he wakes up. The thing is, the kid wakes up when he's alone with Sanji, and he's instantly frightened. Sanji promises they're not going to do anything to him, but the kid is only begging him to not bring him back to where he was. Anything but that. Sanji is- Well, saying he's worried would be an understatement. When everyone goes to see him, he doesn't want to tell them anything. For some reason he grows attached to Sanji and won't let go of him, apparently, and he refuses to tell anybody what happened to him. However, Luffy offers him to break his chains and Takumi hesitates but obviously says yes. When Luffy does so, he just smiles widely at the sight of Takumi's relief and says: "See? Much better now, isn't it?" And Takumi stares at him and whispers "You look..." Luffy only tilts his head, confused, and Takumi blushes shyly. "I just- You look like someone I know." And he tightens his grip inside the pockets of his hoodie, holding something they can't see but don't ask about either.

Basically, they take care of the kid but he isn't quite ready to socialize yet and his injuries are still bad. The only ones allowed to spend a long time with him are Chopper (he's looking after his wounds) and Sanji (brings him food and, well, he's apparently the only one Takumi is comfortable with enough to talk. Besides, Takumi apparently won't eat any meat or fish and he doesn't explain why, but Sanji makes new dishes for him gladly). The three girls want to know him better, but they're forbidden from bothering him (although they definitely sneak out to talk to him for a few seconds when the adults are busy).

Sanji sees a lot of himself in him. The scared eyes. The trembling voice. He's even blond, for God's sake. He spends a lot of time with the kid, and Takumi even asks him to sleep next to him most of the time. Usopp sees this and he just knows they're keeping him because now there's no way they can say goodbye to him. One day, Takumi has a very nasty panic attack and Sanji has to help him through it. When the kid asks how he knows to deal with this, Sanji thinks it's only fair to open up to him about some stuff about his own past. This makes Takumi open up too, finally explaining what happened to him:

Takumi's mom is a celestial dragon that cheated on her husband with a slave. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed and she died in an "accident" while the slave was brutally murdered (when you think Celestial Dragons can be worse, they- They just get worse). The man didn't even give Takumi a name, he just took the kid and made him a slave the second he could start working. That's all he's ever known. Long story short, he's locked in a cell for a while as a punishment along with some other slaves, thinking there's no hope. But there's always hope, because the revolutionary army suddenly shows up! Sabo frees all of the slaves from that cell, Koala leading them to their respective boats. But... There's a kid who won't move. Chained. Injured. It shatters Sabo's heart into a million pieces. Sabo tries to help him with reassuring words but the kid is visibly shaking. Sabo asks him his name, but the kid won't answer, to which Sabo just smiles and says: "Well! Isn't that just great? Now you can choose your own name!" and the little guy is all confused, but it's the first time there's true excitement in his eyes. "Really?" / "Really! Is there something you like a ton? A name you want to make yours?" The kid seems to think about it, a bit shy about his answer. "I want- I want to go to the sea." / "Oh! I come from there, actually. Is there something you want to do there?" / "It's dumb-" / "No dreams are dumb. Now tell me." / "I want to build things. Things that can help people! Like- Like machines but- But good ones. I dunno how to explain it..." / "Umm. Well. How about Takumi? You can write it however you want it can mean both sea and craftsman. Also an outstanding person. The person you'll become once you get out of here. How does that sound?" Takumi nods and takes the name as his, as long with Sabo's glasses. He says Takumi will use them way more than him one day.

However, there's a lot of chaos and Takumi gets lost in his boat. All alone. And ends up fainting in the middle of the sea until the Straw hats find him.

Sanji knows it will be too much for the little guy to tell him all he knows about this story, so he just comforts him and lets him rest for a few days until he's ready to come out of the room. He has dinner with the rest of them, finally, one day. And even though the three girls are curious about him they have a very calm dinner, respecting his space. That's when the crew does their presentations, Luffy being the last one... And of course, he says: "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! Captain of this ship and the king of the pirates!". Something inside of Takumi switches, a huge surprised smile decorating his face. "You are Sabo's brother! That's why you reminded me of him!" / "You know Sabo?". Takumi tells them about his story and shows them the glasses, saying he's worried about Sabo because he promised to take care of him and he's sure the blond blames himself for this. He tells them, also, about Sabo talking about Luffy ("The world is scary out there, but pirates aren't all so bad, all right? Monkey D. Luffy is my brother! The king of the pirates! And he's the best man I've ever met.") and Takumi couldn't be happier to have found him.

Basically, Takumi stays with them for a long time and grows closer and closer with everyone. The girls and he get along, even if he's still very overwhelmed by everything and has to take things slow. They protect him when there's a fight and they spend time with him, playing and teaching him everything there's to know. He also sleeps with Sanji and Usopp most of the time, also growing very fond of the sniper and his stories late at night when he has nightmares and refuses to wake up Sanji. Usopp is always there to distract him from bad thoughts and Sanji is always there to hug the anxiousness away. Sora and Banchina love him like a brother, so much that they even start calling him that. Sanji and Usopp don't say a word about it, but it hurts to know that there's a possibility of him not staying with them. Sanji says it's fine. That the kid deserves a better life. But Usopp knows Sanji wants the kid to stay with them.

Sabo appears one day with the intention to see Takumi again. They catch up and have a fun day together until Sabo offers Takumi the option of going away with him. However, Takumi says he prefers to stay here. With his new family, if they accept him. And so Takumi stays with them!

That's when his personality starts to form a little bit more with the passage of time. He loves spending time with Franky and Usopp, building things. Little machines and inventions. Turns out Sabo's glasses do end up being useful to him! He's still a bit shy. A very anxious kid. But he's so, so smart... A brilliant, outstanding kid who wants to make the world a better place with his inventions. He keeps being reserved and he isn't very fond of fighting, but he supports the whole crew with his inventions! Usopp couldn't be more proud. He also likes the revolutionary's ideology and lets Robin talk to him about it for hours and hours. Cooking is just like science, in his opinion, and once he says it Sanji's heart melts because that's exactly what Usopp told him once.

They end up figuring out that he ate a devil fruit, one that helps him talk to animals. That's why he refuses to eat them. Sanji tells him that it's amazing. One of the best powers in the world. Fascinating, even. He's his special boy and Sanji's just so jealous he has a power like that but he's glad Takumi is the one to have it and not some horrible pirate out there. Usopp and he grow closer talking about bugs and different types of beetles and arachnids! Sanji loves to see it, but can only talk about Takumi about it when it comes to regular animals.

They're so, so similar in a lot of things... Even if they are not his real parents. Yet. He hasn't called them that yet.

Until one morning Takumi calls Sanji dad and he has a whole crisis about it, the kid thinks he has killed his father but Usopp calms both of them down. Sanji asks the kid if he truly wants to be part of his family. Because if he does, he'd be glad to call him his son. And Takumi couldn't be happier. Do you know who's even happier? Sora and Banchina. They are THRILLED to have a little brother.

I've made these picrews based on the idea I have of them (if you like the idea I'll post more information about them):

Sora

Age: 10 (Older twin for literally seconds of difference)

MBTI: ENTP

-> She's an adventurer, hence the bandages and band-aids. Prefers long hair because she refuses to cut it, mostly. Uses Usopp's overalls and Sanji's shirts because they're comfortable and they don't fit her dads anymore, so she gets to keep them!!! She likes nature (the bees and her leaf earring) and loves stealing Zoro's money at poker (Nami taught her).

Banchina

Age: 10

MBTI: INFP

-> Usually has a ponytail or buns to keep them from bothering her while she draws. Lil' toad on her head (Wano Usopp reference, he kept that toad). She likes butterflies and bugs, too!! Big comfy clothes and a calmer, comfier energy.

Takumi

Age: 7

MBTI: INFJ

-> Lil' crown of leaves his sisters gift him. Animals around him all the time. He likes big clothes but usually just wears a synthetic leather jacket Usopp gave him and never takes off Sabo's goggles. Big sweaters, too. He's very tiny even for his age.

Kuina

Age: 14

MBTI: ESTP

-> Long hair for the same reason as Sora: Refuses to cut it. Bold of you to assume she showers, honestly. Lil' ponytail to see better. She has one of Zoro's earrings and a necklace with a sun (iykyk). She also has a bandana around her neck (Zoro moment). Have you seen her clothes? She wants to go to Wano so fucking bad.

Picrew

[crymeariveronceagain]

;;;;;-;;;;; TYSM

I will say that the filial boldness thing comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, number 2610 or page 627 in my edition. It's about how Jesus taught us to pray, and it reads, "Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives thanks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us to pray in filial boldness. 'Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and you will.'"

I once heard an interpretation of this specific line which made it out to being more than just asking for whatever you need, but bringing your whole heart, your whole self, to God. The priest talked about how God loves you as you are.

I also combined a lot of that with the work of Flannery O'Connor, my favorite writer, who in her short story The Temple of the Holy Ghost, asks the reader to question how much of who we are is sinful imperfection. The answer she comes to is that a great deal of our personalities, our being, and even our bodies, as flawed as they may be at times, are not going to be fundamentally changed by coming to God, but instead will be glorified and made radiant, not lost. She communicates this through the dream of a little girl, who's been struggling with her own personality and her idea that she is not what she should be. In this dream, O'Connor writes about a person on display at a circus telling the crowd, "

"God made me thisaway and I don't dispute hit," and the people saying, "Amen. Amen." "God done this to me and I praise Him." "Amen. Amen." "But he has not." "Amen." "Raise yourself up. A temple of the Holy Ghost. You! You are God's temple, don't you know? Don't you know? God's spirit has a dwelling in you, don't you know?" "Amen. Amen." "If anybody desecrates the temple of God, God will bring him to ruin and if you laugh, He may strike you thisaway. A temple of God is a holy thing. Amen. Amen." "I am a temple of the Holy Ghost." "Amen."

And that quote has haunted me.... Gosh. I don't know for how many years. There's something gorgeous and wonderful, especially with the crowd eventually answering back "I am a temple of the Holy Ghost." I once had a professor tell me that the entire story is about how much of you is redeemed.

I sat in the church a few months later staring at my hands and having a mental breakdown because these are the same hands, callused and with bitten nails and scars, that God wants in the afterlife.

He wants all of me with him, all that's broken, healed, and somewhere in between. life is a process in the between but even then a great deal of that between is beautiful, lovely, and good. We are good. We are created in the image of God.

Something about that story makes me refuse to hide anything, or put on airs.

It came out, very strongly, in Jason. He's angry. He's broken. Beaten down. And he refuses to put on airs or pretend like God doesn't want him as he is.

It comes out most strongly, i think, in that one line when he's talking to Bruce:

Jason jerked around and stared at his father. “Hell fucking no.” “Jason,” Bruce said, wincing, “You’re in a Church---” “God made this mouth,” Jason snapped, “He can handle it."

It's the same sort of thing, in my mind, to "You! You are God's temple, don't you know?" And Jason does know. It's one of his greatest strengths, most brilliant graces.

He doesn't know much, but he knows that God can handle him. Whatever he is, whatever he looks like, and he doesn't see the reason to hide that from Him.

I sometimes sit on the floor of the chapel at my college and have long conversations with God. I'm embarassed when someone else walks in on me, sees me having these conversations, but I am not afraid of the person I'm having the conversation with. He made this. He can handle it.

I used to freak out about people not being able to handle all of me, unable to handle my heart or my anxiety or my various pains and problems.

I don't fear that, anymore.

Because God made me, he can handle it. He's the only one who needs to.

And that's the filial boldness I gave to Jason.

I want everyone to look at God with the confidence that he can handle it. Because that, right there, is probably one of the biggest steps of faith that anyone ever takes.

@crymeariveronceagain I can only cry in silence and hope that conveys the extent of my appreciation.

This is so amazing? What the heck? This work just changed my brain chemistry.

It’s honestly amazing, and one of the best things about it is that it is so human.

The relationship with God, the ‘filial boldness’ as you called it in the comments (yes I have read all of the comments also), the “God speaking in the silence”, “listen for the silence”. I have no words. That’s literally my relationship with God, and you just gave me words for it! I’m amazed!

Also, i’m totally gonna use all this newfound knowledge to aid me in answering one of my asks, so tysm hihi🤭

Edit: by the way I shed tears. I Bawled. Multiple times. I really did cry you a river lol

Plus it’s only got 1376 hits?!?!? HOW?!?!

[vaguely-concerned]

Happy healing post-DA:I things for my Hawke and company

because if anyone ever deserved that soft epilogue it's these guys

Hawke giving Merrill a griffon feather from Weisshaupt

Hawke getting a new mabari puppy (maybe also kittens? can we work kittens into this as well?). Hawke and companions playing with and petting said puppy. said puppy falling asleep in people's laps. it dozes off on fenris' head once and he just lies there and lets it with great equanimity until it wakes again. varric and isabela try to teach it wicked grace. it's better at it than anders was.

Bethany can live at home now ;_______; the last of the Hawke family finally getting to actually live in their ancestral home together, after all their hopes and hard work in act one ;_________________________________; she could get married if she wanted to, she could have kids, she could have whatever part of a 'normal life' she feared she never would and her magic, not having to hide anymore ;__________________________________________; (a big thank u to leliana the murderpope my best homie <3)

Bethany bringing some of the apprentices she's taken under her wing and Merrill bringing some of the alienage kids who're in extra tricky circumstances, and the big empty house is not so empty anymore

Hawke training Bethany's apprentices and Merrill's wards in physical combat -- "My father always said that the real trick of magic is knowing when not to use it. Doesn't mean you can't throw a punch about it tho". the kids sometimes gang up on him when they're playfighting and bethany looks on like :') because he pretends to be vanquished & defeated, alas proud warriors your strength combined is too great, in exactly the same way he did with her and carver when they were little

Fenris and Hawke friendly sparring! Isabela watches while drinking rum.

Hawke hanging around the Viscount's office, pretending to be there just to make fun of Varric (and annoy Aveline let's not forget) but actually helping out unceasingly. don't tell anyone tho he has a reputation to uphold as a rich idiot with no day job even though he's been doing every fucking job in kirkwall for like a decade now, ssssh he has to feel like he's still fooling someone

First Wintersend party at the Hawke estate where most of the gang is together again. (My canon always has Hawke send Anders away at the end of DA2 and sometimes there's a romance involved for double heartbreak too so y'know. bittersweet there but at least the rest of the family gets to be together again.) Varric and Hawke mutually pretend they don't notice the other one getting teary-eyed during the dinner because sometimes that's what friendship is

kirkwall book club? kirkwall book club. fenris hasn't gotten to read a lot of books yet, so it sort of starts as people giving him recs, evolves to a covert war among the gang to get their fave books/series read first, and then it keeps escalating from there until they're all fully in it. isabela frequently derails it into friendfiction night.

what if merrill got to do some gardening. huh. what about that. I just think that would be nice.

varric writing some black fox stories just because he knows hawke likes them ;__; (you find the black fox codex entry in DA2 in Hawke's mansion and one of the DLC outfits you can get for them is said to have belonged to him as well, so I like to think Hawke has a weak spot for that Robin Hood/Zoro-esque thing deep down lol it would explain a lot about his life)

just varric and hawke hanging out honestly. varric writing while hawke lounges around in his room. every time he has to name a character or something and gets stuck he throws out the basic concept and hawke provides a name without missing a beat or indeed looking up from whatever he's doing. it's always brilliant or awful or brilliantly awful. varric does his shitty little he he he laugh and/or offers hawke his hand in marriage yet again and goes back to writing. all is right in the world, if only just for a while.

[marchioness-caprina]

Swapped

{ Part 3 }

Read ; {Part 1} , { Part 2}

Pairings : Katsuki Bakugou x Reader

Warnings : Cussing

Writing style : 3rd Person

Word Count 1843

3rd Person's POV

" I thought we were going out to patrol again" Uraraka muttered and a majority of the class nodded in agreement.

They were supposedly going to the agencies they were training under to do their daily rounds of patrol but a sudden shift of their schedule got all of them gathered in Ground Beta for another suprise Physical Test Exercise.

" You were supposed to but unfortunately; a Villain attack happened near the train station and it caused damage on the tracks. It won't be fixed until Tomorrow. Meaning you're all stuck here doing 'Kiddy stuff' " Aizawa replied in his usual bored tone; hands buried inside his pockets as his shoulders sagged. The dark circle under his eyes were clear indication that he didn't get any sleep last night.

" Aww But sens--"

" Stop complaining. If you wanna be a Hero then you got to take it slow, Don't rush things. Plus... You don't see me complaining when I have to put up with all of you... " Aizawa Cut Sato off as he rubbed his temples " And dealing with all of you is not an easy job" He grumbled the last part and everyone picked up on his mood and just shut up.

" So... What exercise are we supposed to be doing today? " Momo questioned and everyone seemed to be interested in what their te aver had in store for them.

They were up for anything. As long as the penalty isn't an expulsion, the fear of their first day with their teacher still struck everyone with fear knowing how ruthless he could be.

" It's simple... Android Bots " Aizawa called out and from the entrance; loud stomping noises were heard, the stomping wasn't from just one but an army of Robots came marching out of ye entrance, stomping their metallic foot with in perfect harmony.

" Woah! "

Gasps of awe were heard from a few students as they stared at the bots with wonder.

" Let me guess... We're gonna be facing those junks here? " Y/n stated in a matter of fact. Katsuki who was right behind the female with arms wrapped around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder just gave off a satisfied humm when y/n placed her hand ontop of Katsuki's own.

Aizawa who was too tired to give a sassy remark to his student's comment just nodded; and he won't even point out Bakugou's Clingyness seeing how the boy had reacted yesterday when he told him to minimize his Skinship with y/n. It didn't end well.

" This ain't cutting shit. Knowing you... There's a twist to this crappy test right? " Y/n countered and with a sigh Aizawa began to explain ;

" You're right Miss smarty pants. There's a twist. You guys will be judged individually, these bots can't do much damage but the bombs inside them are the ones you need to watch out for, if you destroy a Bot directly without dismantling the bombs first then... Of course you go Kaboom " Everyone flinched at Their Teacher's explanation especially with how nonchalantly he is as he did so.

" Ehhh!? B-but sensei... Isn't it a little bit too.... Cruel? " Mina interjected and aizawa shook his head.

" As a hero. You must always be prepared of every possible scenarios and surprises. Such as this, of course there are subtle indications whether a bot has a bomb or not.... So you gotta put your observational skills to good use and put that brain of yours to work. Spot the difference, dismantle the bomb and you're free to destroy it... Simple as that " Aizawa yawned as he waved off his student's shocked and terrified expression.

Everyone knew their team her isn't going to give them any more clues.

" He just wants to see us suffer.... " Jiro dead panned and everyone couldn't help but agree.

" You said we'll be graded individually.... So you're saying that we have to take out loud portions of those robots ourselves?" Y/n raised a brow when her sensei gave her a spine chilling smile.

" Yes, that's also part of the lesson. It's not everyday you'd get lucky to have another Hero to he paired with you... Sometimes you gotta work alone and most of the time The villain's you're gonna be facing won't be alone. So multi-tasking is the key... And since you're my 'favorite' student... You'll go first " Aizawa pointed at her lazily and she shot him a gentle smile.

A smile that seemed too gentle for this y/n to pull off. Something wasn't right with the way she smiled and everyone knew it.

" But... She might get hurt... I'll stay with her" Katsuki murmured tightening his hold around the girl.

" What? You think I can't handle myself? Get off me already loser. I need to release some stress and you're getting in the way. " Y/n without thinking much of how bad her words had affected Katsuki grinned as she pushed him off her roughly.

Katsuki tumbled back and he looked at her with a pained expression.

" Y-you think I'm a--"

" Get him outta here. He's fucking up my mood. " Y/n snapped as she jogged away from the group.

Katsuki who was fast to try and run up to her was pulled back by aizawa's scarf like fabric.

" Let her go Bakugou. "

" No! I Need Her! Y/n! " Bakugou whined and he had to be knocked out because he was starting to get aggressive.

"Everyone. To the Control room" Aizawa groaned and his students followed his command but go course they felt sorry for their classmate who was passed out cold.

_____________________

" Fucking Die! Hahahaha "

Everyone was silent as they stared at the screen; gawking at how monstrous their classmate could be. Was that even y/n? Because that screaming creature murdering those innocent robots while crushing them to pieces reducing them to junk was scarier than any villain they have ever seen.

" ..... Remind me to never piss y/n....ever" Kirishima gulped when 10 robots were sent flying off the ground with the girl wildly swinging a metal pole like a mad man continued her assault.

" S-she's doing a very accurate job at controlling that new quirk of hers though " Kaminari mumbled as he began thinking.

" But... That is not the opposite of her quirk... Unless.... Oh could it be? The quirk she has is a combined and mixture of mine and Bakugou's quirk ... I underestimated that villain's quirk " Kaminari began to mumble his thoughts out loud and it didn't go unnoticed.

" Well... What do we even call that quirk? "

Kaminari paused and gave a nod towards Uraraka " I suggest Electrical Combustion would fit the spunk" .

" She's doing a tad too good don't you think? "

" She's y/n. So it's no wonder "

___________________

Y/n slammed both of her hands on the ground creating an electrical current as well as a loud eruption of explosion to ensue underground sending the both flying before being completely engulfed and destroyed by either the flying debris, the roasting electricity or the destructive explosion.

With fluid like movement she shot out explosive electric bombs out of her palm that violently detonated when it came in contact with the robots.

She didn't have to worry about the exploding bombs inside the boys because she herself was more explosive than all of those bombs combined.

Her movements were accurate, powerful and spontaneous but her eyes showed how calculated and focused she was if people would ignore that sadistic grin spread out on her face.

She was merciless and with one final punch of the ground that sent a combined jolt of electricity and explosion that caused a mass breakage the fight was over. With no bots left standing at all.

The area was crumbling with ruined buildings and flying rocks and debris mixed with chunks of broken metal.

" Ahh... That hit the fucking spot " She grinned stretching her limbs after her little 'workout'

Meanwhile ------

Everyone was speechless at the display of power of their classmate. She was far too ruthless and she looked more like a villain---no monster from the screen.

And if you squint really hard earlier the students could see how the bots were running away from her instead of actually attacking her.

Y/n gained both the respect and fear of everyone after that bit of course they admired her for her brilliant performance meaning they didn't have to do the test because she destroyed all the bots in a blink of an eye.

" That..... Was so Manly! " Kirishima cheered and his cheer was joined by everyone else.

" Man! Who knew she knows some pretty sweet moves like that! I should ask her to teach me a few of those moves! " Sero commented punching the air.

" Well if you ask me that was rather terrifying.... The continuous onslaught of those poor robots was enough to petrify me for eternity. Not to mention she left us with nothing at all! " Iida sighed as he pushed his glasses up.

" Jeez, loosen up. She did all of us a favor " Jiro replied placing her hand on the slightly disappointed Iida.

Izuku on the side was vigorously writing down on his notebook with such intensity it made everyone pause for a moment to look at him; no doubt about it. He was taking notes about y/n.

Everyone was happy and Aizawa looked more like a proud father than an angry teacher.

But the same couldn't be said for Katsuki. He was sulking in the corner. Eyes dull and fists balled.

The little demon called jealousy was beginning to creep up again. He remembered the other day about Y/n wanting to be partners with Deku or Half and Half. And now that everyone saw how amazing his Girlfriend is, it made him sink deeper as his own insecurities began to swallow him whole.

" .... Do I even... Deserve her? " He mumbled to himself. Tears were already rolling down his cheeks while he pitifully sniffled.

His classmates were gazing at him. They looked inside of what they should do. They still couldn't get used to this new Katsuki.

Kirishima was about to approach and comfort his friend when suddenly Katsuki's body jolted from his spot before collapsing on the ground.

" Bakugou! " Kirishima exclaimed but another gasp was heard from the back.

" It's Y/n-san and Kaminari-san! " Izuku pointed out. Jiro was holding onto an unconscious Kaminari with the help of Tsuyu and on the screen it was pretty clear that y/n had also experienced the same thing and was now sprawled down on the ground.

Unmoving .

........ To be Continued.

[danieyells]

Shino is three or so which means she's at the point where she can speak a good bit and she's long past the point of understanding and catching on to when other people speak--so she's learned that "No fighting, Shino's here!" are magic words she can use in Sinostra to practically make time stop and make everyone calm down for a bit. So if Romeo and Taiga do start getting into it around her she just cries "no fighting! Shino's here!!" (Often followed by Taiga smugly saying "Yeah, Lulu, no fighting around Shino" if he wasn't particularly invested in the argument) and Romeo has to reel himself in as much as possible. Shino is the only person most of the general students have heard Romeo sincerely apologize to.

Because as important as it is that she learn Fighting Is Part Of Real Life and never arguing or never being angry isn't good either and given her parentage she's not going to escape conflict ever. . .well, they'll have time for those lessons when things are a little safer.

(on the other hand sometimes Taiga gets one of his Brilliant Ideas and comes back after going missing with Shino for an hour like "i took her to the training grounds and taught her to use a pistol."

"I hit all the tagets!"

"she did hit em! Not like accurately but she didn't miss a single shot!!"

And romeo is extremely mad--Ritsu is even more upset by this! Don't teach her to use a firearm!?--but that's also impressive and maybe not. Entirely unwise, in a controlled setting, for her to know how to use a weapon. DEFINITELY TOO YOUNG but also. . .you never know.)

Shino loves to wander around the casino and watch people play and look at all the pretty flashing lights! And if she asks very nicely the dealers will let her help. Sometimes you can see her spinning the roulette wheel and throwing the ball in it or rolling dice or passing out cards. No gambling for her but she can deal! (If she is allowed to play the game. . .Shino wins count as house wins. So she's never making bets or really experiencing the gambling aspect at all. It's all just games for her. She barely knows the difference between winning and losing, she's just happy to be here. If she's sitting on Taiga's lap while he plays she has to learn not to count out loud(or to lie) when looking at his cards lol)

She's also a master escape artist(read: she somehow gets out of daycare at 2am to go on walks) and after she stayed awake while being taken back from Sinostra one day she just. . .memorized the way and started walking in the middle of the fucking night. Which is probably not very safe on the anomalous island but between the campus cats and other friendly anomalies and her trusty flashlight she's usually safe on her walks. Once she was in Sho and Bonnie's path while they were on a late night ride and Sho, not knowing where the daycare/nursery was but she says she's going to Sinostra, just. Sits her on Bonnie and very slowly rides her to Sinostra. (Romeo appreciated the gesture but told Shino she shouldn't let strangers take her places. Shino said that she knew Sho was safe because "he has a bike" which makes perfect sense to her child brain. She just calls Sho 'Mr Bike' which is comically much longer than just 'Sho.')

(She also meets Rui because she shined her flashlight on him while he was in the shadows. He obviously can't pick her up or anything so he just. Follows her to make sure she gets to and from safely at night. 'Mr Shadow Man' didn't want to come into Sinostra with her to see her papa but fortunately Shino described him and Romeo at least knew she was with someone kind of safe.)

But aside from going to Sinostra she just. Walks around and goes on adventures. They've really gotta bulk up security at the nursery because this child cannot be contained. At least she has a good sense of direction. . . .

So @sinostracasino 's breeding kink got me thinking 'well since Romeo and Taiga knew each other before they got to Darkwick and Romeo implicitly came to Darkwick because of Taiga if Romeo could get pregnant they would probably already have a kid'

Which led to the thought of Romeo pregnant thanks to [trans headcanons/unexpected ghoul side effect/anomalous reasons/the fact that i said so] and Taiga's so hype and he's floating names for their kid and Romeo's gotta be like

"I am not naming my daughter Casino."

"But it'd be cute--"

"No."

"Okay but what if--"

"No."

. . .anyway Kashino Lucci is the happiest little gremlin in Darkwick Nursery/Daycare(because lbr a college of that size has on-campus childcare because Shit Happens) who's very happy when her dads can drop by between classes and missions. They just call her Shino for short since that's a normal Japanese girl name. . . .

(Romeo passed out after giving birth and Taiga does what he wants as usual. He insisted that it's totally different because casino in Japanese is kaJIno, not kaSHIno. Romeo punched him but hasn't changed her name.)

(Kashino's name is written 賭(ka - gamble/bet) 志(shi - ambition/gift) 乃(no - possessive particle))

(you can't biologically inherit being a ghoul but for some reason she gets some of Taiga's teeth. . . .)

[lunapwrites]

7, 16 and 26 please!

love you! 💞

my beloved!!! <3 <3 <3

7. has your writing process changed and improved, and how?

Good lord has it ever lol. I can absolutely attribute this to finally joining the community and not just tippy-tapping away in secret like the little hermit I am was. The thing that I think is wildest to me, personally, is that a lot of what I published earlier in 2020 was not that indistinguishable from what I published in 2008. Basically the narrative voice had matured (because I had matured), and I was handling subject matter a bit more gracefully, but otherwise? It had the same sort of patterns, because I just write how I think. I also didn't used to have any kind of editing process aside from "do a once-over for typos." And now I actually am running things through Grammarly, and I am using alpha and beta readers, and I am being more thoughtful in my editing process and keeping in mind things like continuity and clarity in addition to flow. I also kind of actually outline things now? When I first dove into this series I'm writing, I dove in with nothing but where I was starting and where I wanted to end up, and everything between was a giant question mark. But now I actually have like. Beats I want to hit in my story haha. It's pretty neat. And you can actually see, in Louder Than Love in particular, the point where I started really talking to other writers and incorporating feedback. I mean, maybe a little less so now that I'm quietly editing the first couple of chapters so they stop being sins against god (IMO) but otherwise, you can literally see a shift around... chapter 5? I think chapter 5 was after I got on Discord. Anyway, yeah. Mostly just having access to creative feedback and getting the opportunity to both teach and learn has been HUGE for me.

16: what's a comment/piece of feedback you received that really made your day?

OK, so I don't usually post up whole-ass comments like this, but it didn't just make my day, it like... validated my entire existence. Like, I think about this comment every time I start doubting myself, and it's literally giving me strength to continue so BIG updoots to this commenter.

I've been reading through this series for the past few days and I guess this is just the point where I need to comment.

This may be my absolute favorite characterization of Remus of all time. Like, your characterization of everyone is so perfect and gives them all so much depth and actual humanity, but your Remus is incandescent. I love his anger and his rough edges. It feels like what he would be if he wasn't only a character in a children's book or a person being perceived from a child's (book Harry's) perspective. I adore how you describe relationships and create connection between Remus and Sirius and Dora. It's just so real and layered and brilliant.

One of the things that really hooks me into a fic is when people can capture the entire flavor of what a long term relationship is. It's not just angst or just love or just flirtation. Sometimes its being absolutely fucking livid with your person but still wanting to make them a cup of coffee because you can love someone and be angry with them at the same time. It is many and varied. You do a great job of portraying love very realistically, especially in the chapter here where Remus runs away and how we see everyone's reactions when he comes back.

I'm rambling, I've got a lot more I could say, but I'll leave it here. Thank you for this universe.

Like I am just. Floored by this. I'm pretty sure I actually cried over this one lol. It's also on No Code, which I'm actually planning on rewriting because my dumb ass posted Louder Than Love and its sequel concurrently, without having either of them completed, and so things have shifted slightly to the left. And just. Ugh. I appreciate every comment that I get, even if it's just a heart emoji, because someone took the time out to tell me they liked what I read and that is life-giving to me. But comments like this one in particular keep me up at night for the best reasons.

#26 I answered over on another post, and it's another long boi, so I'm just going to link to it here!

Thank you for the ask!! <3 <3 Love you! :D

[buttercupprojections]

Yo, I just finished watching Martha Marcy May Marlene, and I am THOROUGHLY impressed!

Spoiler warning if you wanna watch a movie about a girl and a cult blindly, cuz here comes a bunch of praise.

Let's start with my favourite part, the use of flashbacks. This movie uses flashbacks like theres no tomorrow, which is typically ugly and confusing, but thats precicely why it fits so well here. The whole deal with the movie is that it gets the viewer to truly empathize with the main character, Martha. Let me explain.

From our perspective, one time line is normal: Martha's sister teaching her common manners, how to feel safe, opening up, big vacation home that can be quiet at times and full of party guests other times, thinking about what you want now and what you want for the future, opening up to people you trust, those r all normal to the viewer.

What's not normal, however, is the other time line: the constant attention and watchful presence, normalizing traumatic experiences such as rape and straight up murder, everyone fucking each other and their mom, this is all very jarring to the viewer.

But here's the thing, in the begining, we don't know which time line is which, and only through exposure do we start to differentiate the two, so we can begin to understand and even predict what's going to happen next. Furthermore, the two happen side by side so we can associate our heavy stomach with the normal timeline, emmersing us even more. This is brilliant, because we have just experienced what it felt like when Martha got tangled up in the cult, but we also know what it feels like to be torn away from normality, where everything we thought was right is actually wrong, we got confused, repulsed, and defensive.... this reprogramming of what's concidered normal happens only once for the viewer, but we can clearly see it happen TWICE to Martha. Everything we'd consider normal is confusing and wrong, and we can empathize with that now. Mmmmmmm so good!

Second praise isn't as strong, and I'm sure there's a ton more symbolism worth mentioning, but the use of water is also nice. Water resembles both emotion and clensing, and sometimes both. Martha feels dirtied by her life prior to the movie, they don't bring it up a whole lot, but something happened to Martha that made her vulnerable enough to seek comfort in some horny strangers, so her time swimming naked with her fellow cult members resembled a clearing of her past traumas. At the end of the movie, she plunges back into water to to clear her soul of the traumatic cult activities she partook in. It's basically a sign that she's ready to move on and try to heal, but it also clears her slate, making her vulnerable once again.

AAANYWHO, I just wanted to blubber on about this cuz I thought it was really clever and creative, hope ya learned something!

[mikaa-exe]

Demon hunter au | Demon!Hyunjin x DemonHunter!Reader

Requested by @jung-snoopy-woo, thank you so much for your kind words ^^

•Gender neutral reader

•fluff uwu

•some swear words here and there

•might have some typos but I'll fix them asap if I find any

Ok

We don't want to brag here but

You kinda were the best demon hunter of your area

Those naughty creatures got nothing on you

You were always one step ahead

You've been doing this for so long that you already knew every trick they would use to mislead you, every action and almost every face and name -_-

And you could see that they were scared of you, even if they didn't show it

You're basically a whole badass reader damn!!

Let's give some context here

So there's been demons around since before you were born

They aren't the evil bloodthristy creatures that you normally find in books or movies

Well most of them aren't

Some of them kill and do that whole satan thing but the rest are chill most of the time

They're just a pain in the butt jesus

The demons love to be mischievous and play tricks on every one

They steal not because they need money or products but because they love chaos

They go to peoples houses just to mess with their closets and dishes

They eat your food before you can even finish cooking it

They even steal candies from children >:( those bastards

So it's your job to capture these creatures when they get too out of control

You're amazing but there is one specific demon that haunts your nightmares

Hwang Hyunjin -_-

This demon has been YOUR pain in the butt for almost 6 years now!!

The first time he appeared was in your bedroom, you were about to fall asleep when you felt your hair being pulled from behind you

Boy you were hella fast to jump from your bed and grab the closest thing to you in that moment, which was YOUR GUN- no I'm joking, it was a knife, you don't bring guns to bed, that's gross

You looked around but it was too dark to see anything so you sneackly walked to the switch and BAM

No one was there

The fuck

-_-

Now at this point you were positive it was a demon but why wasn't he showing itself or attacking you again? That's not common of them

-"Did you lose something?"

JESUSWTFISHAPPENINGBITCHIGOTAKNIFEANDIMNOTAFRAIDTOUSEIT

The voice behind you made you jump and hit your head in the light that hanged from the wall

Well ouch that was really unecessary

You looked up and--

Wow hello cutie

NOP

WHAT THE FUCK READER IT'S A DEMON AND IT JUST PULLED YOUR HAIR GET YOUR FEELINGS TOGETHER

The little shit had the audacy to l a u g h

Bitch

- "Aren't you supposed to be the best demon hunter here?"

You gave this little shit your scariest gaze

At least the scariest you could while sitting on the floor with your hair all over the place

-"WhY? dO yOu hAvE A pRoBlEm SiR?"

-"Mmh idk... Thought you'd be taller"

And just like that he desapeared, leaving you on the floor still trying to digest what the heck had happened here

So there you go, that's how you two met

From that day on he made sure to visit you almost everyday

He's the one who switches your socks right before you go out just to see you wearing mismatching socks like an idiot

He puts salt on your morning cereal and sugar on your lunch

He goes to school with you and just follows you everywhere

-"Is this what you chose to wear to school? Geez"

-"vxhdbxvvx can you not"

-"That girl is looking at you funny, you should spit on her"

-"WtF sPiT?!"

-"Omg the teacher asked you a question and you're taking this long to answer?"

-"Shut up I'm thinking!!!"

-"What if you stood up right now and started dancing the floss?"

-"Why would I do that?"

-"Why aren't you talking to me? :("

-"Hyunjin I am in class and I don't want to talk"

-"Why do you keep responding then?"

-"I'm about to punch you so hard--"

-"You can't, you're in class"

-"ARHHHHHH"

You would laugh at how ridiculous this situation was if it had nothing to do you with you

BUT IT HAD UFFF

You tried everything to get Hyunjin to leave you alone

Demon traps, boxes, holy water because why not

You tried violence once but the best you managed to do was throwing him some cookies

Guess what

You missed

And you waisted some perfectly good cookies :(

You're not a violent person in general bUT THIS BOY AHH

You even tried talking to him at one point about this whole situation but he was too busy drawing on your kitchen walls with tomato sauce

It was starting to get to you so you reported him to your superiors but they said they didn't have any complains about a demon named Hyunjin

So that means this idiot is only here to mess with you and you only

WHY CRUEL WORLD WHY

Ok

Let's be fair

He never seemed interested in actually hurting you or doing anything too mean

He just seemed to want your attention God knows why

So if you're stuck dealing with him might as well try and enjoy this situation

What do people usually say?

If you can't win, join them

Instead of yelling at him or throwing him your book collection for the third time you asked how his day went and even offered him some cookies

Let's just say he was s h o o k

He just stood there, mouth open and completly lost

JSHDJDBBDNSNVDKD

READER YOU BROKE HIM!!!

You?! Being nIcE to him?!

Is this a joke, where are the cameras?!

The only thing he managed to say was a shy "Good.." and a mumbled "no thanks"

O M G :o

The demon that's capable of spending the whole night talking about God knows what is out of words .. WOW!

The next day you found him repainting his old masterpiece on your kitchen wall but with mustard this time

You quietly walked up to him and replaced the mustard in his hand with a rug

-"I like this smell better"

HE WAS SO CONFUSED THE POOR THING!!

He looked down with the face of someone who was having an existential crisis and started cleaning your wall

You smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up to which he responded with a blink and a worried smile

SJBDJSMBDJE HELP

So yeah, from that day foward you tried being nice to him and understanding his needs and actions

And if we're being honest here

He wasn't all that bad when you got to know him better

Aparently the other demons didn't like him that much so he tried to find other ways to entertain himself

You thought maybe boddering you was his way of expressing himself??

He thought that was the only way he could get your attetion

So you tried teaching him how to help instead of being annoying

He still went to school with you but now he insisted to help by carrying some of your stuff

He was quieter during classes and even started answering some questions on a notebook that you offered him

Maybe it was out of boredom but you were so happy!!

He was learning and that was so good and adorable! ^w^

He asked for your help sometimes with the things he couldn't solve

And you thought he looked so cute when he would bite your pencil whenever a harder question came up

You two started doing homework together and he was getting so much better at each subject

You felt like a proud mother :')

He would now watch you while you cooked for you both and would occasionally ask some questions like why did you put that in there or why were you mixing the ingredients with a fork and not a spoon

So you tried teaching him how to cook

Let's just say he was a whole m e s s

So after hours of intense baking you ended up with a weird red mix and some mashed potatoes

Your kitchen was dirty, sticky, slippery and oN FIRE OMG!!!!!!

After a visit from the fire department Hyunjin promised he would be more careful and ask you before turning on anything

You also discovered he was a whole teddy bear

Omg this boy was so soft and cuddly

He's such a clingy demon but he was also kinda shy, specially at first

THE UWUs

THEY EXPLODED

He started by getting closer to you until your shoulders touched but if you looked at him with a questioning gaze he would immediately push you to the ground and run away with a evil laugh and some flushed cheeks

Whenever you had free time you two would do a movie marathon that always ended up with holding hands or falling asleep on each other

He once had the brilliant idea that you two should definitely watch a horror movie one night

He thought it would be the perfect opportunity to prove you how strong he was and how he could protect you

But it didn't go like he had hoped to

You two ended up a trembling mess of limbs, cuddled up to each other as Hyunjin whispered how bad of an idea that was and how it was all your fault

THIS BITCH I CAN'T-

Some days you would just arrive home totally exhausted and Hyunjin would make you some warm tea and cuddle you on the sofa until you fell asleep

He'd try to stay awake in case you wanted to move or go to your room but you were so warm and cozy that he was gone not even a minute after you

He'd also insist on doing your hair when you were going out

He loved it and he had a lot of fun so anytime he had the opportunity he would ask you to let him help

At first you ended up with a mess of braids and accessories that formed a weird nest on your head

BUT HYUNJIN LOOKED SO HAPPY WITH HIS PUPPY EYES AHH

You ended up going out like that

But he got better with time

Whenever you had to leave him alone at home you would write him a list of things for him to do and others that he shouldn't even attempt to

You arrived later and found your house a little messier than before and Hyunjin cleaning a weird green goo that mysteriously fell on the floor

Y o u r f l o o r

But you couldn't be mad at him now, specially because when Hyunjin saw you he tackled and trapped you in a big bear hug that immediately melted all your anger

How can someone be so cute Hwang Hyunjin wHAT IS HE DOING TO YOU

How dare he mess with your feelings this way

You two started opening up more and more to each other and BAM that's how you got your super demon best friend :D

His mischievous side wasn't all gone, he still pranked you once in a while but now you were sure it wasn't for the sake of being mean

And he made sure to compensate you with cuddles, an attempt of a meal or a gift made of things he found around the house

It so was weird

At first you couldn't handle him but now you two are inseparable!

It's unusual but you both make it work

Your own way ^^

[beanghostprincess]

I am so delighted to see we can send platonic ship and that you are insane about it!! (same here i love it so so much, tahat all my life) so what about Nami&Robin or/and Nami&Zoro

there are so many people asking me my opinions i can't believe y'all actually care about what i have to say ilysm <33

nami/robin: i love them and i wish they had more scenes together in canon :(( i love that they share a room and their beds are literally next to each other. i'm sure that they cuddle when they sleep. no doubt about it. robin reads out loud while nami does her nightly routine with makeup and stuff and then they talk for a bit before falling asleep. i love that they're the only girls in the crew but their role isn't just that. they both keep the guys in place but robin has that silly, satiric dark side that scares nami sometimes, and nami has that impulsive, thief side that robin loves too. and kjsdcjksdnjkasd they make me ill. they have girl nights. they go shopping. they talk shit about people together. they eat sanji's food together. nami talks about how much she misses her girlfriend (vivi, i miss you too. come back) and robin comforts her but instantly nami complains about her "not getting it" because she has her husband on the damn ship!!!!! then nami goes and hugs robin back again. i think they're the smartest and brightest girls ever and they deserve all the love. neither of them has ever had real friends and now that they have the chance to live freely, they finally can hang out together. robin is older and tbh i think she sees nami as this cute, young, brilliant girl with so so much potential. and nami sees robin as, like, this older, mature woman that's also her bestie and that's awesome!!! a lot of people ship them romantically but i personally see them as besties or sisters ngl. i think robin is still getting used to having friends like a normal person and nami teaching her how to enjoy life is so,,, so beautiful,,, they also have their own shenanigans and i need them to have wayyy more scenes together c'mon!!!

nami/zoro: i am so not shutting up about them i apologize- i love them. i am obsessed with them. we need to talk more and more about them. "they're overrated" they should be. they deserve it. i fucking love everything about these two. so, so much... the thing that makes me like them it's probably the fact that they're part of the romance dawn trio, and i'm very nostalgic about those three. they're all important to luffy, of course, all of his nakama are. but... there's just something about zoro and nami being the first ones that makes me insane. they're the ones that had to deal with luffy together when they first met, and ever since, they've just been sooo chaotic. i'm happy opla gave them scenes together (uhhh not so much the fact that people see them romantically. it's obvious they wanted to make them romantic. please don't, netflix, i'm watching you) because they mean so much to me! they have this lesbian/gay solidarity and hostility (yes, at the same time) that i LOVE. i'm obsessed with zoro being all edgy-wannabe (he's just quiet lmfao his dramatic gay ass wanting to be a dark swordsman is so funny) and nami like "??? shut up you're just dumb". the fact that they argue and zoro complains about her manipulative behavior but still always helps her and saves her every time,,, that's so,,, i love them. i know we all say zoro is luffy's guard dog, but that's not true. zoro is luffy's cat and nami's guard dog. he stays behind nami protectively with a dark stare and nobody dares to approach her bc they know they'll die if they try to hurt his navigator. he'd never admit it out loud, tho, but he cares for her an insane amount. and she loves him too. thinking about them cuddling when it's too cold and zoro's just the perfect pillow!! zoro braiding nami's hair!!! nami helping him clean his swords!! they look after the other all the time,, and they are the ones that know luffy the best, of course they're going to be the first ones to talk things out together if something's wrong with him. also, my zolu shipper heart needs to say that nami would be the first one to find out about them. in every universe. i love them.

[bishoukun]

yeeaaaaah I have no regrets.

Gai's part in this idea is from my friend and writing partner, but we do still have to actually... like, write it. xD

and that's just. Kakashi and his ninken.

I have a whole closed circle circus for the Uchiha and nekonin. and I am compelled to say that Madara's is the sweetest thing in the world, while Izuna's is known by Hashirama as "Izuna's demon cat" and strikes actual fear into the man. (she lives with Mada after Izu dies, and Hashi learns... quickly.)

(((she loves Yams though. she fucking adores him. I don't know or understand why, but I'm so okay with it.)))

YES. 100% body positive, focused only on genuine health and sportsmanship. someone tries to claim he's setting an impossible standard. he goes and gets a few random people on the street to join him for things at /their/ level. makes the point that if the standard of "do what your body says you can do" is impossible, then of course he's setting impossible standards.

also does cooking and shopping for fresh food. someone realizes Pakkun is in one of the baskets. they make a point of talking about how to look at the individuality of a diet, that every person's is and needs to be different, and that's without specific health conditions. why a number of energy units on a box won't tell you if something is good for you or not, or how your body will process it. and what to definitely never give your dogs even when they think they want it. how to cook for the dogs instead of using store bought, what treats and toys are best and why. at one point explaining that dogs see objects in movement better than stationary.

Everybody wonders what this crazy dog man looks like, but the closest they get is an arm or hands, maybe sometimes a shoe. Someone claims he can't possibly control that many dogs at once. POV with his hand holding 8 leads. with all the dogs clearly there. then unclasps each lead and gives them each individual commands before telling them to circle up.

then makes it clear how to effectively train them and why some lessons seem to fade if they aren't hard enforced. someone asks to see the precious boys get dinner, and all hell breaks loose because that cannot be real.

so, I have some very particular HCs about certain ways the dogs are trained and what they can do, because they're all bloody brilliant. they get used in modern AUs most often, including a very simple strategy that can be applied to almost everything else.

lines and letters. see the line? no touch the line, no cross the line. that's pretty simple. the more fun part of teaching the base of this is the letters - buttons! because those get particularly useful when they know what they want but can't speak human with their mouths. they all learn their names, which then makes this the simplest replacement for a child-dog gate ever.

-see the line? yes. good, no touch the line. -is there a name on either side of the line? yes. -is it on the same side of the line as you? yes. -is it your name? yes. good, stay on this side of the line. -is it your name? no. okay, move to the other side of the line. -is there a name on either side of the line? yes, both sides. good, you can be on either side of the line. -is there a name on either side of the line? no. stay on this side of the line.

when there's a word that isn't a name on the line, they can cross it once they hear that word. verbal commands take priority.

so the reason the IG people freak out is because there's eight dogs just waiting behind a doorway (an in-between room for house and backyard) but the door is open. there's nothing noticeable other than what might be a wood tile or something on the floor. pan to the side and there is a perfect set up of mats with lines on the edges each with a bowl of food in the center (including holders for some), and each mat has a katakana name on it. 'ban-gohan' is called and dogs do dog things, scurry to their spot, and start eating. but only from their spot, and some of the smaller boys wait, but nobody steals from them.

the whole concept around this is a combination of: -what could he use in literally any setting I will ever throw him into ever? -how many different things can this one method be applied to? -if necessary, can someone else set a command they will abide by with this method? -> is there a way to identify 'this is not from Kakashi' that can be used so he can override something?

@bishoukun IG influencers Kakashi and Gai is top tier!

Gai being the work out influencer but instead of selling you fake diet things or telling you how to lose weight and become thin, he focuses on making working out fun and pumping his followers up. He also teaches work outs that anyone can do, with different tiers of difficulties and has video’s of how to do certain excersises to aid injury recovery

Kakashi is dogs. All dogs, just like you said. He talks about the best dog foods depending on breed, dietary restrictions, etc. If there’s a group like Peta Kakashi is venomously against them and always talking about all the harm they do. He will chew out anyone who suggests dog’s can be vegan. He also shows how to bath dogs (including the difficult one’s like Akino) and no one belives that those eight dogs he’s always shown with are his.

They are

He takes care of them all and he loves them