#and also: it makes life so much less weird if you stop trying to assign value to sex

[novelconcepts]

It really frees up so much mental real estate when you start thinking of sex as just: a thing people sometimes do. Some people are super into it! Some aren't! It's for fun! It's for intimacy! It's the deepest connection some people will ever feel and totally meaningless to others! It's hot! It's boring! It helps some people sleep! It exists as an exciting construct solely in fantasy for others! What it isn't is some complicated moral ground that needs to be fought against at every turn. It's just A Thing. Which means people who have a lot of it, or none of it, or whatever in between are all worth the same. Which means stories that have a lot of it, or none of it, or whatever in between are worth the same, too. Smut isn't less valuable than "clean" stories. People who have a high "body count" aren't less valuable than those who have never had sex at all. It's just A Thing. Making peace with sex as just A Thing that is natural to consentingly have or not have, want or not want, really is a great adjustment to your brainspace.

[loserlvrss]

𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄 y. jeongin ( 양정인 )

synopsis | you really needed a new computer, but at least your boyfriend was there to ease the burden.

pairing : jeongin x fem!reader genre : drabble, fluff, est. relationship warnings : language, bit of angst word count : 0.7k authors note : this wasn't bc i couldn't get my fucking computer to stop downloading everything as pages and cried about it... no...

You shut your computer with the loudest groan you’ve ever let out. Your hands found their way into the roots of your hair as your head collided with your palms. You tugged lightly, trying in some weird attempt to get the pain inside to ease up. 

“What the actual fuck,” you mumbled into thin air, “if this damn computer doesn’t work again, I’m actually going to fail this assignment.” 

You had the worst—and oldest—version of a laptop you think anyone could ever have. It lagged out, stopped working and wouldn’t let you convert anything into a pdf, much less an editable copy. Of course, besides it sounding like it was going to explode while you played the sims, or acting as a make-shift heating pad when you dared open more than two tabs at a time, it had its charms… Most of them, however, were the stickers it was adorned with over the years. 

You really needed a new one. 

Your eyes welled, but you shut them quickly before any tears started to fall. It was frustrating having to try anything and everything to not inconvenience your professors; always trying to have the piece of hot-shit up to date so you could keep up with the deadlines. But, you weren’t sure how much more of the jumping through hoops you could do before it completely inconvenienced you. 

Why couldn’t they just bring back the paper days? you thought. You could definitely find a pen or pencil somewhere in your house—maybe even a typewriter would work better. 

Everything piling up in your life was getting a little overwhelming. It was mentally and physically taking a toll on you. Your shoulders had become more rounded, and your blue-light glasses were barely working anymore. You kept getting stress related headaches, and you seemed more anxious than normal. 

You felt the warm touch meet the skin of your shoulders, dragging from one side to the other. “Are you okay?” The corresponding voice asked. Your so-very sweet boyfriend, of course. 

You looked at him through the parted hair in your fingers, “No, it’s already past due by four days.” You groaned again, completely letting your head fall onto the closed metal. “this piece of shit, in, like what am I supposed to do now? I’m so stressed and I’m already on the verge of having a non-passing grade. This stu—”

He cut your tangent short, “Hey, baby, let’s take a deep breath.” His other hand took the opposite shoulder, thumbs digging into the knots that had formed over the last half a semester. “It’s all gonna be fine, we’ll figure something out. It’s not the end of the world, I promise.” 

You turned your head to the side, visibly pouting. He moved to the base of your neck, massaging the tension away just a bit more. 

“But Jeongin,” He broke away momentarily to take the bridge of your glasses between his forefinger and thumb, dragging them off and putting them aside. “If this damn computer…” 

He kept at it, letting you rant about your outdated computer. At least it was closed, he thought, you needed a break anyways—late assignments or not. He knew you were tired, not having slept well the last couple days. He was the man sleeping next to you afterall. He also knew that you rarely wanted to stress him out, so you bottled it inside. The depths of the night made it obvious however, tossing and turning and sitting up to stare at the wall. 

Jeongin hmphed, hearing the lightest breaths leave your parted lips. He examined closer, you had fallen asleep under the simplest of touches from him. You must have needed to relax (and lay off the caffeine) bad, he thought. 

He knew you’d also probably wake up in a panic in a couple of minutes, spewing something about your schoolwork. However, he’d just take you to bed and run his hand up and down your back all night if he had to. Whatever to get you to stop overthinking—and putting everyone else first. 

You were a very dedicated person to your studies, but even the smartest person in the world needed a break once and a while. 

And maybe a new computer… 

please reblog and like <3 comments are appreciated ! thank you 4 reading © loserlvrss 2024 all rights reserved. 

networks : @blossomnet @starlit-network @k-films @kstrucknet

taglist : @seomisaho @mystarsohee @jihyokat | send an ask to be added. 

back to masterlist !

[anonymouspuzzler]

you know what? fuck you (heartbreak gulch's my own guys)

(@heartbreakgulch courtesy of the inimitable @strangegutz & collaborators, also miscellaneous Thoughts under the cut bc it's my blog no one can stop me the doors have closed behind you)

HEARTBREAKER BULKHEAD:

Probably does not have superpowers anymore but still came from a family of considerable influence and was under pressure to inherit, pressure which he very much Broke Under.

Turned to a life of crime, definitely got in over his head with it, and essentially got rescued by Eddie, who he is Utterly Obsessed With And Heartsick For.

Has spent literal years as one of Eddie's attack dogs and generally jumping through hoops for him for Whatever Scraps Of Affection He Can Get, though he's still kind of squeamish around Literal Murder and thus tends to be assigned to supply runs and such most of the time.

Amateur mechanic and car enthusiast. Probably did a lot of McGyver-ass fixes around the Gulch-slash-generally assisted Ami til Davey was recruited.

Speaking of, was still the guy who recruited-slash-rescued Davey. They fell for each other hard and are in a committed relationship now, which has helped Buck take a little bit of a healthier step back with whatever the hell he and Eddie have going on (and helped him be a little less jealous and curmudgeonly about the Hot Young Things In Town, ie Zeki and Felix).

Absolutely not prepared to be a guardian to Minnie which has led his and Eddie's whole Relationship to enter a fun new stage of "hey man can I ask you for parenting advice nothing weird"

HEARTBREAKER DYNAMO:

Pretty similar backstory to the Villain-Coded version. Civilian turned criminal, lost his arm when he got in over his head on a job and Buck rescued him.

Has a bunch of different prosthetics he swaps out for different purposes, ie. one for combat, one to use for mechanic work, a kinda general use/everyday one, etc. That said, he goes without a lot to make sure he's prepared for a situation where he doesn't have access/one breaks or fails on a job/etc.

An alarmingly good recruit; I feel like originally Eddie kind of let him stick around as a kind of "gift" to Buck, but now that he's actually got him on jobs he's become a real rising star. Real good in a scrap and is a little more flexible with his moral lines in the sand compared to Buck. Outside of that he works with Ami a lot doing mechanics and repairs - probably interested in learning CompanDroid maintenance/repair but figures it'd be skeevy for him to push that point too much.

He and Eddie have a complicated relationship I think. They'd be kinda suspicious/distrusting of each other but also have a LOT of similarities and work really well together. To say nothing of their respective relationships with Buck.

I don't think he's Trying to Uncle the younger recruits in the Gulch but he definitely Does. He likes White a lot. He and Ami would also definitely get along really well. He is being The Bigger Man and Mature Adult and not giving Felix a wedgie no matter how badly he wants to

HEARTBREAKER(?) MINNIE:

From the same family of prominence as Buck and is currently very much on the run after a failed attempt to kill her own dad.

Extremely a city kid and is Not necessarily adapting well to Middle Of Nowhere Self Sustained Living.

Knew Of Buck but never met him before this so his whole Life and Little Criminal Commune featuring Multiple Guys He's Got SOMETHING Going On With is. it's a lot

Would like to do some crime actually but is A) still a little traumatized and adjusting to the whole Situation and B) 13 Whole Real Human Years Old.

Fascinated by Zeki's whole deal and his work but I think they would absolutely bring out the worst in each other they would fight so much. Autism to autism hostility

Having a very complicated response to White and Ami wherein she thinks they're SO cool but interacting with them at any length would make her realize Things About Herself that she's not consciously ready to confront so just like. Imagine being White and looking over your shoulder and that 13 year old is just Intensely Staring At You Unblinking from around a corner and as soon as she realizes you've seen her she turns around and runs off as fast as she can directly into a wall

Zarita absolutely hitting that Cool Just Slightly Older Kid niche for her.

[theminecraftbee]

so, first, accountability statement: I plan on trying to finish the “zedaph steals a baby” fic by the end of the month and god is that one-line summary no longer accurate but we’re sticking to it, said here publicly so now I have to do it. obviously I also have recursive exchange and the writing I have for hotguy comics zine, but I am not SUPER worried about either of those time/inspiration-wise at the moment and also for Reasons I know it won’t be long until I have more free writing time after that, SO.

various items that are on my potential writing docket, I am curious which of these appeal most:

I dust off the supervillain support group au. two ways this could go: I chip away at the second arc of my original outline and acknowledge this will be like a 300k fic I’m not ready to feel “done” with or “ready to post” with for ages, or I re-work it into something a little more doable and less ambitious keeping the same premise (ren runs a support group for supervillains, doc pov as he starts to heal and redeem himself). this MAY honestly be a target for “if I don’t hate the first 50k on re-reading it and I can actually make my brain write the second arc, do a slower release schedule and then start releasing chapters before I’m done writing”? but this ALSO runs the risk of “I stopped writing it, which is often a sign I was having trouble writing it”.

pearl monster au, which has been cooking in my head for a long while. the basic premise is “one day, pearl, with no memory of how or why this happened, wakes up in a facility as a monster and must try to figure out how she got there, escape, and find her way home, even knowing she may be irrevocably changed”. now with bonus season 10 fish flavor to add to this creature design I’ve been iterating on in my head for forever! this one is ALSO an experiment for me in “can I write a fic where I can’t write dialogue for basically the entire first act”, which would be interesting to see from me, you know?

the related “bigb folklore au”, where after secret life bigb is woken up by Cat and Dog by the tracks of the King Snake, which bigb can recognize as the railroad track, and decides to journey down the railroad to see if he can figure out what the fuck is going on. I need to do video review of life series bigb for this one. this is my excuse to get Weird and Metaphorical and also assign everyone to various animals for no reason, along with using some very specific aesthetic I have wanted to use for some worldbuilding but hadn’t gotten around to yet in any of my stuff. man walks through the desert with animal, confronts train that might be the watchers, might be death, and might just be a train. also, realizes that “confront” is the operative word there and has to deal with that. you know how it is.

““office au””, in air quotes because it’s not REALLY what anyone going to an office au is looking for so much as an excuse to write weird horror. iskall, normal-ish software developer man in a boring office job who does game jams in his free time, goes to work one day to work in his boring downtown office on a payment system for a client. and then things, uh, Take A Turn. this would be a LITTLE me going “what if I wrote an au with a guy who works in tech but like, the boring side of tech I’m in. like, banks and consulting and manufacturing and shit. where you sit in meetings all day and tweak java 8 code even though that language is ten years out of date. but THEN. something exciting happens in the worst way possible.” I’m doing to iskall what I did to mumbo stuffed bird is what I’m saying. it’d be fun.

DO ANY OF THESE PARTICULARLY INTEREST ANYONE. your input will be valued. like 50% chance i get hit with a strong bolt of inspiration then IGNORE that input but it’ll be valued all the same,

[alteon77]

Updated Masterlist of Writing and Art

About the writer/artist: I like to write and paint. My current obsession is Sandman, but I enjoy most fantasy fandoms as well as anime (I think I’m on season seven billion of One Piece right now 🤣). I'm also weird as they come (and awkward, too), so just please ignore my oddball (coughTERRIBLEcough) sense of humor.

On a more personal note, I have PTSD and suffer from severe manic depressive episodes. Writing and art are my most familiar coping mechanisms, and I need them like I need oxygen. Seriously, there were times in my life that knowing I had to finish a story or a piece of art was the only thing stopping me from ending up dead. So, I don't take part in fandom drama. Having my peace and protecting my mental health are very big deals to me, and I won't risk those for anything if I can help it.

As for my writing, it ranges from short one-shots to ridiculously long novel series. I use third person POV (on longer series) as well as second person (on shorter things). I also try to always exclude physical descriptions when writing main character OCs and assign them nicknames to avoid using Y/N. I love to read Y/N fics, but writing them makes me feel like I'm at work. And who actually wants to ever feel like they're at work when they're engaging in a hobby? Definitely not me.

Lastly, there's usually more stuff on my AO3 page than I have listed here, because I forget to post it pretty often. Oops. I'll get around to moving it all over one day. Probably. Maybe.

Feel free to leave an ask if you want or just drop by my DMs. <3

Artwork links are at the bottom of this list, so if you're here for those, that's where they are.

Sandman 'Verse

All the Precious and Fragile Things (so easily do they break)

After banishing his lover from the Dreaming for her betrayal, Morpheus learns that she is pregnant with his child.

And that she’s been captured by a revenge-seeking Alexander Burgess.

What the both of them are unaware of is that this will set in motion a cascade of unfavorable events, causing a chain reaction that threatens the whole of existence itself.

PART I: All of This Past

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

PART II: These Tender, Loving Mercies

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

PART III: When It All Falls Down

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

PART IV: The Dark of War

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Epilogue

Sometimes He's Sweet

Morpheus hates the holidays.

As excited as she seems to experience the mortal holiday, he's… less so. Much less so. With the entire collective unconscious contained within him, this time of year can be wholly overwhelming, a miasma of too much red and green, too much worry, too much loneliness, too much excitement, too many similarly themed dreams, too many similarly themed nightmares, and far far too many holiday songs. It all bleeds out from the collective unconscious into his own mind, sticks there like weeping sap to a tree until he feels half-mad with the unrelenting presence of it, with his inability to get free from its cloying trespass upon his very being.

This is just a little sweet fluff for the holiday season. It takes place between chapters 19 and 20 of "All the Precious and Fragile Things". No spoilers here if you've read that far!

The Dog Debacle (or how best to sneak a dragon into the dreaming)

Morpheus' daughter gets a new dog.

Well..... kind of.

That Familiar Feeling of Family (or how Hob Gadling ended up as an uncle to his stranger's oftentimes feral children)

It's a pretty universally known thing that families are just strange. As Hob is quickly figuring out, however, this little fact is magnified by AT LEAST a billion when the family in question is Endless.

(A lighthearted story in which Hob Gadling finds out his stranger has married, makes friends with a homicidal maniac/ruler, and manages to become an exemplary uncle to a pack of magically mischievous children. Really, now all he has to do is convince everyone to stop calling his and Dream's weekly meetups "playdates", and then his life would be practically perfect.)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

The Maker, the Muse, and the Sundered Song

In his temple, what remains of Orpheus waits in trepidation. Something is changing. Something that he knows might alter the very fabric of the world as he understands it.

Finally freed from captivity, Calliope struggles to make any meaningful changes to the laws that saw her bound and taken in the first place. When the strange woman appears on Mount Parnassus and offers help, Calliope knows she would be a fool not to accept it. Even if she thinks that she's being lied to.

Meanwhile in the peace of the Dreaming, Morpheus grapples with guilt over his son's fate. As he basks in the love of his new children, he can't help but to regret his own failings where Orpheus is concerned.

And as for May, she's really just got a job to do. And her own traumatic issues to deal with. And if it's all hella awkward because she's having to work alongside her husband's ex-wife, she'll see it done anyway. There's even the small possibility that she might eventually admit to Calliope the truth about her identity. That is if she can ever actually work up the courage to say it aloud.

Chapter 1

Nothing in This Closet but Boots and a Boy

Morpheus is wildly protective of his daughter.

That's probably bad for the boy in said daughter's closet.

AU's and Other Stuff in the Sandman 'Verse

Of Exes, Hellhounds, and Waffle Fries

Morpheus shows up to rescue the woman he probably loves (though he won't admit it) from hellhounds and ends up getting roped into helping with her family. This is one of those extras that doesn't fit into the main story, but it's fun, so I'm posting it.

The Bizarre Breeding Habits of Anthropomorphic Personifications

It's a tale as old as time.

Two idiots fall in love. Two idiots fall out of love.

Neither one of them is expecting a baby to come along and derail their unhappily ever after.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Original Fanart

I like to play around with different styles and to try new things with my artwork. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I'm still learning, and I am so far from being a professional that it's laughable. But I only post things that I think look decent or that I think others might enjoy.

The Lover's Argument (Morpheus x oc)

Oneiros (Morpheus in Grecian garb)

Because I could not stop for Death, she kindly stopped for me... (Regency era Dream and Death)

[melancholicmarionette]

Thoughts I’ve been trying to put into words part a thousand—

I think I have the sentiment “I don’t get why people get all serious about gender” but I never know how to say that without sounding dismissive as fuck to people who really need to not be dismissed. But I mean like—okay—

So I’m autistic. This is not news. I don’t know if it’s totally related, but it means I’m used to not really understanding things about the world on a fundamental level, mostly greater concepts that people accept as fact. I’m bad at math and most hard sciences because I am told that pi is a number that never ends and it keeps going forever and that these are how many elements make up everything in the universe and maybe there are more or maybe there aren’t. Like, my brain simply cannot conceptualize these things. I know that these are important things to know, I just have 0 clue how it is possible for a person to know them. But there are people that know better than me. So someone goes “also, there are imaginary numbers” and I’m just like “…okay.” That’s just not somewhere my brain goes.

So when I say I don’t get why people get so weird about the social construct of gender I mean—well by people I mean TERFs, really—life can be filled with so much less anguish and turmoil if you just accept that you are not going to understand something and that doesn’t make you stupid or wrong. Sometimes accepting that things that are not tangible or visible are still valid makes your brain stop hurting.

I’m a woman. If you ask me how I know that intrinsically my go to response is I Don’t Know, I Just Do™️ and if someone, cis or trans or nb or anything else, said that to me I cannot imagine any other reaction than “well, okay.”

Gender is a social construct. We made it, collectively, and it’s changed a lot in the entire time we’ve accepted it. It’s still changing now. So there are a lot of things we can’t see.

Fact that I can’t dispute: penises and vaginas are different from each other. They are fundamentally not the same thing. There are a lot of ways people’s genitalia can look, being intersex is possible. Physically, visibly, there are different body types whose reproductive organs work in different ways. It makes perfect sense to me for that to be true.

Where it gets fucky for me: your random assignment of chromosomes gives you a role in society at birth that you cannot fundamentally change ever in your life. And if you ask why this is, people will just say “god said so” or something and idk maybe your god did, sure, but I don’t know him. He ain’t the boss of me. And then TERFs and the like will go “because nature said so” or “because biology said so” and I’m immediately like no!! No they didn’t, Joanne, you said that!! Biology and nature said one of these types of bodies carries babies and the other helps make the baby, that’s it!!

I don’t cite my vagina when writing about why I’m a woman. It has nothing to say. I don’t know why pi never ends and I don’t know how the fuck we know enough of what a water looks like that we can make little models, but I live in my brain and I know how I feel. I am never going to know another person better than they know themselves and it’s fucked up when people claim otherwise.

So I don’t feel like I can participate in discourse in a meaningful way because I’ll say “this trans woman is a woman” and some chucklefuck with a blue check will say “but they were born with a penis” and my response is so what. Genuinely, so fucking what.

One of JK Rowling’s first transphobic posts was saying that the trans community are trying to deny that sex is real and it’s such an intellectually dishonest take I was taken aback. I don’t think you’ll find anyone outright denying that sex organs that fall within the binary standard are in fact physically different from each other. The hang up is that that assigns you an identity that you didn’t necessarily consent to because you were a fetus at the time. So my automatic response to arguments of that nature, that gender itself is assigned this way and that way and no other way, are unironically “who do you think you are?”

I can’t engage in intelligent discourse with the way I feel because on paper it seems childish. My response to transphobes is oh my god just shut up. And it’s not necessarily because reading the cruel and untrue things they can fit into like 280 characters is draining (because it is) it’s because I just don’t believe any of their points have value. And it infuriates me that these people so consumed with hatred for people they don’t know are affecting legislation and the safety of trans people. And I can’t engage because I don’t believe these people can change and that bleeds through. They are nothing. And if any TERFs (or GC, I think you’re using to sanitize it) have read this far, they think the same about me. Probably that I’m a simpleton who hates women and lives in a bog eating swamp sludge for sustenance and i take offense because I do not hate women please get out of my swamp.

Idk, I’m rambling on tumblr late at night bc I can’t drop this into a conversation. I’m tired. Trans right are human rights gender is a social construct and I may be a mud creature shambling through the bog

[thal-ent]

The annoyance

(Kate is @yanasae 's character, a lot more from others are mentionned cw for unknowingly misgenring someone, internalized transphobia, unsafe binding mentionned for like a line, and because I can't stop myself there's background Basgil lol)

It's 2022, and the start of the year was comparable to hell on earth.

Virgil, quite honestly, didn't understand a thing about what happened. The people around him speak a language he doesn't understand, and even the... Help of a man who somehow spoke romanian didn't do much. He's been assigned classes to learn english and japanese, to be able to communicate with others in the school. Some speak romanian like him, but he doesn't approach them. He shouldnt even be here, hundred of thousands of kilometers away from his village, but the letters were very clear about the fact he didn't have a choice.

He tries to remember the faces of the people he'll have to share a year with. The small, angry boy with pinkish hair. The tall... Girl ? With a bag on her head. The guy that tries to avoid attention who he shares his room with. The girl with a fake leg and a cane, like the old hunters from his village, who tried to talk to him before leaving when he didn't respond. The boy with white hair who looks even more lost than Virgil. The girl all in pink that he already can't stand when she talks. Another boy with white hair, one he almost didn't notice until he saw how nobody could touch that boy. The chaotic brown haired girl that kept yelling and had to be stopped by a big guy with blonde hair, both covered in scars.

He didn't remember any of their names. Names weren't exactly his thing. Neither was learning theory, but he knew Marius would want to know, so he sits through words he barely recognize and a translator at the ready. He's not the only one who gets one, the girl with the bag and another with blonde and pink hair get ones as well.

There's also the weather. He refuses to take off the vest of the uniform they make them wear. He considers himself lucky to get pants, and not a skirt that would have been humiliating, but they dont do a lot to hide his silhouette. His coat is hung in the closet they gave them, but he's not allowed to wear it as long as it's still warm. But that's the problem, it's too warm. For the first time in his life, Virgil misses the fresh air of his village, the cold that lingers well into the spring. Here he only has the rain to help, always gone too fast.

He does wear something less covering sometimes. They let the students like him use the sports' equipment, the man with glasses and one blue eye who spoke romanian said but didn't elaborate on. There's always people here, and they stopped trying to talk to him after he stopped paying attention to them. Well, that's not true. He did speak with one of them, a very tall girl without hair. He didn't catch her name, but she pointed the cross on his chest and showed her own. They shared a few words in latin, despite her weird dialect. She didn't talk a lot, and went back to a weird girl with curly brown hair after, but Virgil liked that girl.

But he didn't have time to waste on that. The training was nice, when less people were here and he felt like he could drop the bandages on his chest. He hated their surprised gaze, but ultimately his fell on someone else. He was still a hunter, the "Ultimate vampire hunter" if you believed what that letter said. And he started to suspect a vampire was in the school, hidden in plain sight. A red head, green eyes constantly hidden by glasses. Virgil doesn't know his name, only that he's apparently from the year before him. He's tall, skinny and almost... Pathetic. But something is weird with this boy.

He's been following him, when the annoyance first made herself known.

She was a girl from his class, one of the shorter names. She has ginger and pink hair, but not a pink like the one of the girl with the tablet. A flashier one, and longer hair tied in a way Virgil knows is to avoid it being caught while moving. She's way shorter than him, tries to not look like the kid she obviously is.

She starts speaking, but he doesn't understand. He thinks he recognizes a word or two, but when he tries to walk past her and follow his prey, she puts herself on his path, stopping him. He tries to go to her other side, but she follows, making him loose the boy he was looking at. She pulls out her phone and types on it before showing the screen to him.

"Fight me" is written in romanian, next to what he guesses is probably french or english. He only looks more confused, so she types again. "I want to fight you, I want to know what a "vampire hunter" fights like"

He groans, really not wanting to. She's barely 16, obviously just trying to get a rise out of him. But what does he has to loose ? His prey is far by now, and he knows the look of someone who refuses "no" as an awnser, he was one like her once.

So he follows her, gets the sword she gives him. It's lighter than he's used to, less deadly as well, but he guess that's the point. They're not here to kill each other, they're here to spar. But he was told to always give his all, even against the kids that barely started training. Her stance is firm, she knows what she's doing.

They trade large swipes for a moment, test the waters. He's not used to the weapon, and knows he's less agile than he would, feels the bandages on his chest limit his hair intake. But it's all details, when she looks at him with the determination of someone who has a thing to prouve. She's weird.

It doesn't take very long until he's able to push her and puts his sword on her throat, pinning her hands under his knees. She grimaces, but lets her head fall to the ground with a thud. He goes back up, keeps his eye on her. The crowd that formed around them starts to clap, as if given a good spectacle. She gets back up and goes to her phone, showing it in his face once again.

"why did I loose ?" He makes a face, one he knows she can't read. So she puts the phone in his hand, and he starts to write slowly.

"you dont try to kill." And she doesn't respond, which Virgil takes as a promise to let him get away.

He hopes she wont bother him again.

**

Of course she kept bothering him.

One loss wasn't enough for Kate, no. She kept pestering Virgil, calling his name and yelling for his attention, even when he was trying to be calm.

It's 2023 now, a full year passed and he's still in this school. He speaks relatively good english now, so they left the phone on the side. Hers is miles better than his, but she corrects his mistakes when they happen, free of jugement. He started to get closer to some people in his class, his dormmate and Mika, notably. He also stopped treating the boy from the year before him like a prey. Turns out, Bastien is way nicer when you speak to him.

Kate tho ? She's unsufferable in a very weird way. She gave him a gift for his birthday, and he still doesn't know how she learned the date it was on. But now, he traded bandages for a binder, and his ribs feel better than they had in years. They still spared a lot, Kate an eternal looser.

She's weird, he thinks. She looks dejected everytime, but keeps coming back for more, especially when he's with someone. She doesn't ask for tips, learns on her own and sees how he steadies himself, how he holds his weapon. She just doesn't get she doesn't have to only use that, for fighting.

She's a self imposed loner, and he can respect that. So he never mentions how she always come find him when they're eating. Once she asked how he got his scars on his eye, and was genuinely surprised when he told her vampires are indeed real, and that he killed more of them than he knew actual humans.

He's surprised when Emerens doesn't joke about him liking Kate or the opposite, but he appreciate it, his relationship to the girl everything but romantic. Instead, the man whines about his own partners while teaching Virgil english when Mika isn't available, and Virgil shuts his mouth by teaching him latin.

He started running with the tall girl who spoke latin, Tomyris. She's nice, they understand each other despite their diverging faiths. He often ends up holding their running partner Subaru on his back for the latter parts of the way, and they always talk. It's nice.

He misses Marius and his parents, but he finds himself not missing his village as much.

**

It's 2024, and he knows that if she could, Kate would have pushed him into one of the hall's walls by now.

They're friends now, he thinks. She's still annoying in her own way, learned to bite her way through their fights, and that's how they ended up here. Her eyes are full of something akin to fury, making their gray look black. He knows why she's angry, she's the second person to notice it, in Hope's Peak. Or at least to mention it to him. He doesn't wear the jacket anymore, but still wears the long sleeved shirt of the uniform, white on white.

She tried to bite his arm but only found solid, cold silicone instead of the meat of flesh and blood.

"What the fuck happened."

"I'm a hunter, Kate, it comes with risks." he said the same to Bastien, to his shocked horror. He told him it was a necessary sacrifice and he'll say the same to Kate.

"You lost your fucking arm ! That's not a fucking "risk" !" he knows she wants to say other swears than "fucking", but she speaks in english out of respect for him and her vocabulary is limited in that language.

"But i'm alive, so it was a good one."

She looks at him with wild eyes, and he doesn't know if she's about to punch his face or headbutt it. He braces himself for it anyway, but she just lets go of his shirt.

"That better be the last of your "sacrifices". That's..." her voice trembles, and he puts his flesh hand on her head, pats it in a weird show of affection they never shared.

"I'll try." he said the same to Marius, when he woke up. She's not his brother, nor his sister, but he doesn't like seeing her annoyed by something that is not a petty lost game.

[kalasangan]

Thoughts after a year of grading papers written with AI

The first thing I should say is that I don't have an outright ban on artificial intelligence use in the work I assign my students. That's mainly because I've accepted I can't control whether they use it. Instead, I simply ask for honesty: that my students tell me what AI tools they used on the assignment and explain how they did so.

I also tell them I'm aware the tools used to detect AI assistance in their work sometimes flag false positives. Turnitin, the plagiarism and AI writing detection software we use at my institution (let's just call it The Uni), includes the chance for error in its reports. It also warns against making decisions about students' work without some subjective assessment, regardless of whether it says 20% or 80% of the work might have been AI-generated. So, no matter how much a student assignment lights up in blue for AI writing and lavender for word-spinning, I always try to read for substance first.

Usually, in an assignment where a student hasn't really done the work, there isn't much of it.

In the best-case scenario, it's an actual false positive. The student just needs to keep developing their own voice as a writer. They need to stop using boilerplate. (I hope I never read a reference to "today's fast-paced, technologically advanced, networked society" again.) They need to sound, well, less like a robot. If I can still sense that they've made an effort to express their understanding of the topic, that they've tried to make sense of their data from their own point of view, or that the ideas that Quillbot or Grammarly cleaned up are still fundamentally their own, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

In the worst cases I've seen, the student hasn't even bothered to understand the course material, much less the assignment instructions or what the question is really asking. They just hope that whatever generic oatmeal slurry they pull out of their GPT of choice will do the job.

It usually doesn't. The writing-based assessments I give, whether they're essay questions in my ethics class, stories in my journalism class, or research papers in my methods classes, usually require the student to pull from actual experience, observations, or data. They require an awareness of specific contexts that I wouldn't expect the AI to have.

In my research classes, my students are supposed to propose their own research questions, gather actual data, and, in their final papers, present answers to their RQs based on that data. And I encourage them to research in a context they actually like or care about.

The least that a student could do is throw some raisins or chocolate chips into the oatmeal — edit their AI-generated text so that it actually applies to the context from which they're writing. Often, they don't bother. I could copy-paste the conclusion into just about any paper, and it would sound appropriately research-y, regardless of whether the paper was about barista life or an animal welfare org or beauty standards in local media*. It wouldn't actually say anything meaningful re: what the students learned about the population they studied, the hypothesis they wanted to test, the people they interviewed, the culture/community they spent time with, etc.

One pattern I've learned to recognize over the past year is overparaphrasing: paragraphs or even pages of text all restating the same idea. A common issue is when large portions of text are redundant, presenting a single thought in a different way. Several paragraphs or sections expressing essentially the same notions fill sections of a report.

If that paragraph felt weird or wrong to you, you now know what I'm talking about. It's gotten to the point that I can hear it in oral reports, too.

I thought the worst cases I'd ever seen were the ones who said the inability to make generalizations was a weakness of their qualitative data. In their qualitative research papers. For the qualitative methods course. Where I said many, many, many times that generalizations are not really the point of qualitative research. Where non-generalization for the sake of depth and diversity is a fucking strength.

This term, however, I saw some new lows.

AI, I hope my students have learned, can't do your field work for you.

Field observation is one of the most immersive and subjective methods. The data is recorded through field notes, which are basically a very detailed research diary. You want to write rich descriptions of interactions you observed, activities you participated in, and so on. You want to capture the phenomenon so that reading your notes again weeks or months down the line, you're taken back to how hot or cold it was, how noisy or quiet it was, and how exciting or dull or nerve-wracking it was to watch it all unfold. You definitely need to note your own point of view, your position in the scene. I tell my students to treat the field note assignment as a nonfiction storytelling exercise, and to show, not tell.

For the first time in my classes, students submitted field notes written by AI. The descriptions were flat. They told without showing. The student's point of view was missing. There was generic stuff about field observation as a research method, without any effort to connect it to the actual field site they (supposedly) visited or their actual experience of attempting the method.

One student submitted a dubious interview transcript. The transcript was too clean and didn't read like a real conversation. One of the supposed responses used a conceptual phrase that the student had used in previous submissions, which suggested to me that the interview was coached or scripted at best and AI-generated at worst. I don't know for sure because I didn't actually turn Turnitin on for that assignment. I trusted my students would actually do the interviews, so why would I check for plagiarism or AI use in interviews? Silly me, I guess. (As additional backup/proof, everyone was supposed to submit an audio or video recording of the interview for support; this student's file was less than three minutes of silence.)

I called a whole group in to talk about how they'd turned in multiple assignments with AI flags and without the disclosure. Their explanations on the spot didn't make sense with what was in their assignments. I warned them about doing better and being transparent on the next paper.

The next paper included parts that were just copy-pasted from one of their earlier flagged papers. No attempt to change the content at all.

This post has gotten much longer than I thought it would be, so I'm not even gonna go into what happened with the final essays in my ethics class. But seriously. Ethics. Class.

I teach communication students, so it's really important to me and, I would hope, to them also that they actually become good communicators by the end of their time at The Uni. These are students who want to work in creative fields and so should be testing, stretching, exercising their creativity. They're not getting that exercise if they're outsourcing work to the AI. The projects I give them are supposed to be treadmills for their own thinking, not conveyor belts for whatever they ask AI to assemble.

I want to remain open to — but I'm still not convinced of — the idea that my students might find AI a useful tool, without necessarily giving up their independent, critical, and artistic thinking. So far, it's just been a shortcut off a cliff over a field of Fs and zeroes.

--

*These are examples of actual topics my students have pursued, but not necessarily of work where they tried to pass off AI-generated text as their own writing.

Also, just to CMA, these are my own thoughts and opinions. They don't necessarily reflect those of my employers or The Uni where I work.

[gaiathemexicanbeauty]

puppy love | tanjirou x male! reader

word count: 1.1k

just a completely unexpected tanjirou crush headcanon list! :D

warnings: none! pure fluff :3 (i refuse to make anything remotely sad (unless asked) (then i'll do it) (unwillingy))

tanjirou is a minor so please do not comment weird stuff under this!

i wasn't gonna write this and just ramble all this to a friend but i was like "why am i gonna torture them" /lh i love you damien

anyways i am only on s1 e15 so this might not be canon compliant to the manga or to swordsmith village or to season 2 and happens before all of that sadness

but anywho, please enjoy this and happy reading! :D all of this was very rushed bc of how fast i wanted to write this so sorry if its bad lol

don't forget to check out my ask box! <3 ask box rules are in my pinned post! requests are slow right now but i am more than happy to just chat!

tanjiro is obviously a really determined kid, nothing really gets in the way of his journey or protecting his friends and nezuko

but i like to think that he has plenty of lovey dovey fantasies, sleeping beauty and cinderella type of thing where he thinks everyone is destined for love and that if you wish for it enough, it will come to you

but he can also be very oblivious so as much as he believes in soulmates, you would have to slap him across the face (though why would you do that?) for him to realize he was looking at the future love of his life

he's still a kid so the idea of love is very innocent to him and thats why i love him <3 but he can't really tell anyone about all of his daydreaming because zenitsu would give him a hard time and inosuke would laugh in his face

but tanjirou most definitely can't stop for too long in the places where he's assigned missions in (he wants to explore, he's naturally curious like that!) so in turn, he doesn't really have the time to fall in love or even have a crush

maybe one day he stops in a city or town, there's a festival going on and he's trying to get past all the crowds of people to get out of the city and get to his next mission

and maybe it's the cliche of you running away from someone (probably a bully) and you run into tanjirou and immediately scramble to hide behind him and beg him to help you, you'll do anything!

so now he has no choice but to give you a hand (he'd think about it for days if he didn't) and once he convinces the person to leave, you're on your hands and knees thanking him as he tries to reassure that it was his pleasure

"let me buy you a meal! it's the least i can do!" you say with a grateful smile; you don't give tanjiro time to respond as you take his hand and lead him to some food stands just a few feet away

from there, you treat tanjirou to more than just a meal, but snacks and even some local activities (im not japanese guys but i know there are plenty of super fun stuff to do)

once you actually look at him, you feel grateful that you stopped him when you did: his kind smile had you pleasantly staring at him, the way he would fluster so easily when you would compliment him, and just how overall nice he was for seemingly no reason

by the time you knew it, the streets were becoming quieter and less crowded and the night was cooling down but neither you or tanjirou had tried to stop talking

"oh, are you cold? here, you can take my haori." tanjirou says with a smile; how he had noticed the way you rubbed your hands over your arms made you flush a bit and even more so when he places the haori over your shoulders

it was warm with a soft scent you couldn't recognize on it but it wasn't necessarily unwelcome. a smile stretches onto your face before you look up at him; "aren't I supposed to be treating YOU? you must be hard to date, tanjirou." you tease, wrapping the haori over yourself a bit more as you nudge his arm

"ah, i couldn't let you spoil me like that, that would be selfish of me. i'm just as happy seeing you comfortable." he says with what you were learning was a signature smile

at that, you stop walking as a small laugh bubbles out of you which in turn makes tanjirou stop, a confused smile on his face as he looks at you; "what's so funny? did i say something?" he says as you start to step toward him

"nothing. you're just unreal, tanjirou. just perfect." you say, biting your lip to hide the growing smile on your face when you see a slight red on his cheeks now

of course, he immediately turns away and offers to walk you home, making up the excuse that he had somewhere to be the next morning; "not that i don't want to hang out, but it's pretty late! i don't think we should be out for much longer." tanjirou says when you tease him about wanting to get rid of you

once at your door, tanjirou bids you a good night but doesn't ask for his haori or move away: just stands there and looks around as you shift on your feet

"is the haori keeping you warm? it always helps me." "yes, thank you."

silence again until tanjirou clears his throat, the way red starts crawling up his neck making you tilt your head with a smile on your face

"if you're going to ask for my hand in marriage, tanjirou kamado, the answer is we are teenagers." you say, laughing when tanjirou's face turns a bright red before he starts to ramble about how those weren't his intentions

you finally get him to calm down, hand touching his arm as you squeeze it; tanjirou stands a little bit straigher when you do that, averting his eyes to the ground and mumbling an apology for losing his temper

"i need to go. but come and find me if you pass through here again. i'd be more than happy to treat you again." you say, earning a smile from tanjirou before, all in one motion, you take a step forward and kiss him on the cheek, disappearing into your home

tanjirou stands in shock with his hands hanging uselessly in the air before he realizes: he never got his haori back. he'd have to come back tomorrow. and get it. and see you.

mumbling to himself, he walks away from where you had just left him, cupping his cheek as a gentle smile starts to grow on his face

alerted by the noise and movement (and the fact that it was very late at night), nezuko pokes her head out of her box and looks to her brother who perks up at his sister's presence

"sorry about all the noise! we'll go somewhere quieter soon." tanjirou says, smiling at his sister before he stops to let her leave the box

she looks towards the spot where she had felt the presence of another person before looking at tanjirou, pointing towards the house; her brother's face flushes a bit as he looks everywhere but at her, waving her off with a nervous smile

"ah, i just...made a friend is all, don't worry about it! we should go now!" tanjirou says with a smile on his face as he takes nezuko's hand and starts to lead her away, already planning the next day with you; and totally only to get his haori back

（<｀▽´）―━━☆⌒*. bang, bang, thats the end!

so can you guess who my favorite demon slayer character is other than rengoku and mitsuri

in all seriousness, i love this show so far, such a good story and super cute characters (except for muzan, i hate that guy but i want him so bad) but i have yet to read the manga so bear with me here!

but for now, thanks for reading and to anyone who is starting spring break soon, have a safe and fun week of break, you deserve it! :D and to everyone else, good morning, good afternoon, or good night! <33

[kissesinelevators]

After Dark Pt. 3

Synopsis: What do you do when there’s a man with fangs lurking in the shadows, swearing he can keep you safe but ever since he’s popped up in your life things just get worse? Change is weird and very permanent.

Word Count: 13,596

Genre and Warnings: Romance, Angst, Smut (eventually), Obsession, Violence, Stalking, Slow Burn (kind of)

18+ Pt. 1 - 2

The next morning you had gotten up a bit earlier than usual and were arranging and steaming and ironing clothes as they were being put into the wraps of the plastic with their assigned numbers when you heard a door open and then shut. Fear filled you up, numbing your arms and leaving you lightweight as your breath was caught in your throat while your usual morning playlist filled the background as you tried to strain your ears to hear better.

Your mind kept going back to Miguel. You didn’t really know the guy but he was sweet. And quiet. That wasn’t very common for men at least in your experience. But Spider-Man was, well he was actually very kind. And he stood up for you. Also, something that wasn’t very common for men to do at least in your experience. You feel yourself fade into thought as unbeknownst to you, Miguel was opening the back door. He had a slight limp as he walked into the loud sounds of machines working and the soft feminine voice that was singing from a tiny speaker.

“Hey,” he said softly as he saw your eyes meet his, he leaned back into a machine. You were standing in the middle of the floor, wearing some pink velour sweats and a tank top. He also saw that you were barefooted, your toenails painted a bubble gum pink colour. He thought to himself cute.

“Hey,” you looked up at him with a smile. A flash of surprise came across his face. He hadn’t seen you smile, well smile at him really ever. It was nice.

“How are you?” He murmurs, still a bit surprised as he gets closer to you. You sigh and look around.

“I’m mean, I’m good. Oh,” you suddenly frown, your eyes now on his limp. “What’s wrong? Why are you limping?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just old. I probably pulled a muscle or something.” He hadn’t, he got gotten stabbed in the thigh last night trying to tell the mafia boss who had territory where. You didn’t know, much less were you ever going to find out. But for now, he was stitched up and triple bandaged.

“You’re not that old. Maybe it’s best if you just go home and rest. Today shouldn’t be so bad.” Miguel shakes his head.

“No, I’m here for a reason. I’m not going to go anywhere. Please, (Y/N).” He looks at you with pleading eyes. His eyes were a soft shade of brown. He had such beautiful eyes. Had that always been the case?

“Okay.” You breathe out, his eyes still catching yours and locking them in place. He gets closer, looking down at you, and goes to place his hand on your chin but stops himself before he does. This was a mistake. He had let himself get involved with someone who really didn’t matter. Even Lyla had told him. Nothing in this universe mattered. It was always going to be the same. And that meant you. You were always going to be this little storekeeper who faded in the background. So why was he here?

He curls his fingers into his palm, bringing his hand down to his side. Your eyes never leave his as your breath hitches in your throat.

“How’s your head?” Miguel finally says, breaking the spell. You look away, blinking. What had just happened?

“Um, it’s good. It’s like nothing happened honestly.” Your hand automatically goes to your head to touch the bandages still there.

“That’s great to hear.” He murmurs as he steps away from you, turning to check on the machines.

The rest of the day goes by normally, a bit slow and mundane. Miguel doesn’t really talk to you or look at you. But his hands keep making their way onto your waist.

Closing time comes and he places a big calloused hand on the small of your back, dipping his head down to speak lowly into your ear.

“Where are the keys to close? I Can do it tonight, you go get ready for bed.” He says gently to you. Blush creeps up your cheeks as you fumble the keys out of your pink apron. His other hand takes the keys from your nimble fingers and he pulls away from you, making his way to lock the door. You make your way to the back of the store, your feet leading you to your room. Since when were you obedient to anyone?

You mindlessly open the door and get inside, leaving the door open just in case Miguel needs you. Technically before closing you always prepared everything for the next day and got through things but Miguel’s demeanour was off. It wasn’t like he was a talkative guy before, if anything it was the opposite but he was limping, careful with corners, more silent than before, and avoiding your eyes. And if you both caught each other staring at the other, his eyes seemed angry and sad at the same thing which was strange. You really liked him, like a lot despite barely knowing him.

You start to take off your clothes, going to your hangers and changing into a man’s XXI shirt that is big on you, and sit down on your bed. You look at the open doorway, trying to hear Miguel. You didn’t hear keys jingling, footsteps, or doors shutting, it was silent. Silence wasn’t common in New York.

“Miguel?” No response. “Miguel?” You ask a little louder.

“Sorry, (Y/N), I’ll be here.” Miguel’s voice calls back, sounding a bit distant as if he were still closer to the front of the store rather than at the back where you were.

“Okay.” You say softly as you start to bring your knees into your chest and hug them. Your socked feet flat on the bed.

After some time Miguel appears in your doorway. You smile up at him through the darkness of your room, the amber light of the store pouring in from around Miguel’s massive body, giving him almost a halo around his whole self.

“I locked up and got things ready for tomorrow.” He says quickly. You smile at him.

“I’m going to close tomorrow.” Miguel narrows his eyes to your response which makes you laugh. “What? I basically got shot and I have a head injury. I’m allowed to take a day off, don’t you think?” You ask him as you pat the empty space next to you on the foot of the mattress. He looks at the bed and then back at you.

“Can I be honest with you?” He asks you as he steps in, taking a moment before he closes the door of your room behind him, closing himself inside with you. He stays there, back on the door trying to calm himself down. He was nervous. He, Spider-Man, was nervous.

“Sure, what’s up?” You ask him as you scoot over on the bed to give him more space. Miguel takes a step to get closer but stops.

“You can’t be here alone anymore, especially at night.” He says. You start to get up, the shirt falling past your thighs. He keeps his eyes trained on your face. “Things have gotten worse here.” He breathes out as you step closer to him. It’s like a trance has fallen around you two in your dark pink room. He can make out the ghostly shape of your face as you get closer. Why was he nervous? He’s Spider-Man, and he faces death every single day, why would you, someone insignificant, make him feel nervous?

“I’ll be okay, Miguel.” You say to him as you now stand 6 inches away, looking up at him. It was very dark in your room, you wish you had turned on at least the fairy lights.

“No, I think it’s best if I stay here with you.”

“Are you homeless?” The question catches Miguel off guard who then chokes on his spit. A fit of coughing breaks the trance in the room, making him hunch forward, hitting his chest and coughing into the crook of his arm. You step back, watching this big tall man fighting for his life from simply coughing.

“N-no!” Miguel manages to spit out as you go to turn on some of your lights to better illuminate the room, finally able to see his face. His red face.

“Do you want water?” You ask him calmly as you reach for a half-filled water bottle you had left on your bed from the night before. Miguel is still coughing but nods his head. You take the water bottle to him and to your shock, he rips it out of your hand and immediately starts to drink the contents after basically ripping off the cap.

What a way to kill the mood.

“No,” Miguel finally growled in response to my question as he tried to clear his throat after almost dying. “I have a home.” He says almost offended. You shrug.

“Oh okay, I was just wondering since you told me that you were going to stay here with me. Why can’t I go with you instead?” He looked at you with narrowed eyes. He and his bestie Spider-Man did that a lot. Were they related? It would explain the body build and the height.

“My home isn’t as pretty as you and I live some ways away from here. It would take us a while to get to your shop.” You nod at his response. He lets out a stray cough, fully clearing his throat now.

“Okay, so where are you planning on staying? In my room? You? Hyper masculine big tall man staying in my hyper feminine pink room? Actually, I love the contrast!” You excitedly say as you go to grab him by his rather large bicep and pull him towards your bed.

“What are you doing?” He asks you cautiously as you kneel down on the bed, facing him and pulling him down. He lets out a deep groan of pain from his thigh injury as you pull him down onto the bed. “Careful with me, pretty girl.” He chastises you. Your heart skips a beat to the nickname thinking back to Spider-Man.

“I am careful.” You pout as you pull him fully onto the mattress. He’s quite big, taking up more than two-thirds of the bed. “Come.” You sit up and lean your back into the wall, your bottom on the pink Lacey pillows. He is still wincing a bit as he goes to properly sit down on your bed.

“Am I supposed to sleep here with you in bed?” He asks amused. You nod as you bite your lower lip. “Yeah?” His voice drops down to a lower octave, the poorly lit room casting a shadow over your face as he dips down to get closer to you, encasing your hips between his legs. “And how is that supposed to work when you have a head injury and I pulled a muscle? Huh?” His voice is now a whisper as he pulls himself uncomfortably from the pain up a bit on you. You giggle.

“You know, this is the most action I’ve gotten from a man in like 10 years. Especially since taking over the shop.” Your hand makes its way to his hair, brushing it back. It was beautiful how dark it was.

“Mm,” Miguel presses his face into the side of the bed next to your left hip, breathing with his mouth open. “I don’t know if I should feel honored or pity for you.” You smack him on the head causing him to laugh against the pink sheets. “Hey!”

“Hey, you! That was rude!” You laugh as you continue to play with his silky hair. “You come into my shop, into my home, into my bed just to say you pity me! Sooo rude, Miguel!” You joke with him as he laughs.

The night goes as follows, with little to no sleep of Miguel lying between your legs, resting his head onto your stomach as you sit up against the wall with your hands massaging his scalp as you two talk the night away. You find yourself falling in love with Miguel. He had a child who unfortunately had passed away. From cancer he said, but the way he said made it feel like he was referring to himself as the cancer which was strange to you. He talked to you about how his parents were, his younger brother Gabriel, how he had been a horrible person in his early 20s which you didn’t judge him for because as someone close to their mid-20s, you felt like you were also a horrible person trying to figure out how to be a good person. That night things changed for both of you. You also opened up to him, even crying at some point where he sat up and engulfed you into his arms like a child and held you there without a word as he let you sob. Miguel was attentive and sweet. Maybe Spider-Man had finally saved you in every way he could by giving you this man who wasn’t as quiet as you had previously thought. But it didn’t matter, he cared for you. A lot. And you cared for him too. A lot.

The next morning you wake up to the horrible sounds of your alarm going off. You go to lock your phone and the sounds stop. Silence, just like last night. You sit up, looking around with your eyes still slightly closed heavy due to sleep. Wasn’t Miguel with you last night? A notification comes onto your phone, making you angry as you go to lock it again to quiet it.

“Miguel?” You ask as you rub your eyes to help erase the sleep from them. No response. Maybe he had gone to get breakfast again.

You finally get up from bed after 10 minutes of mentally fighting with yourself over going back to sleep or waking up and enjoying your day off. Things progress slowly as the day crawls on. You go back to your regular routine of starting the machines, checking on everything, washing, and hanging and drying, the speaker playing as loud as its little body permits it. You had fallen asleep at 4 am with Miguel last night but he made no indication that he was going to be gone.

2 p.m. rolls by and you’re sitting on your bed, watching TV when you get another notification.

“Spider-Man gone?” Is the headline of the notification that the news app sends you. Gone? You click the header and get taken to an article. Apparently, Spider-Man hadn’t shown up for 2 days now. Reports showed that he had disappeared after a little kid last saw him picking up breakfast and the cops saw him that same morning catching some perp. But that was the last time. You frown at the news.

You finally throw on some leggings and a shirt, put on some shoes, and decide to step outside. Your keys are in your hand along with your phone as you walk toward the front of your store. There was a letter on the counter addressed to you.

“Oh.” You open the letter, confused. It was a letter addressed to you by Miguel, well the letter was too nice to put it.

“(Y/N), I'm going to be out of town for two days. I’ll see you soon- Miguel.” You groan, upset, and throw the note back on the counter along with the envelope. Miguel was gone.

[tmbatcat]

i can only explain this interaction that i had the other day thru disco elysium dialog

(btw, never written in my life. only experience is the 8-12th grade assignments and reading AO3. hope it's readable [: also had to translate from other languages so it may sound a bit weird)

YOU - You are standing in a dimly lit office decorated with maybe too much personal touch waiting to know if you could go home a little early. The boss is asking which days everyone is available on, you were the first one to answer. Now you don't have anything to do except wait until everyone is done.

DAY DREAM - Good time to think over what we will do home. Let's play that new game that just cam-

YOU - You are swiftly pulled out of your zone out session by a girl next to you.

DOUBT - You always forget her name...

KNOW-HOW [ Medium - Failed ] - Ah, eh... It starts with a Z... I think

DOUBT - Like usual.

Z-SOMETHING - She is gesturing towards you with a pack of gum in her hand.

KNOW-HOW [ Trivial - Success ] - She is asking you if you want gum. I know that alright.

CHASE - Uuuu , I love gum :)

MECHANICAL HEART - It's not that you don't want gum, but it may be seen as a little unpolite to chew gum while your boss is talking to you, even though you are not paying attention.

YOU - You push her hand away. You don't need it.

Z-SOMETHING - She pushes your hand away and gives you a look that silently says "Are you sure you don't want one?"

CHASE - Aaah!! Dude, she is asking for it. JUST TAKE ONE!

YOU - You can't resist, you take one. By accident you make a happy sound. It's just a thing that you do when you are very excited. Maybe an autistic trait.

Z-SOMETHING - She seems to notice your excitement and gestures again to the pack of gum.

KNOW-HOW - She wants to give you the full pack.

CHASE - Oh my, all of it? For lil ol' me?

YOU - "You sure?"

Z-SOMETHING - "Ya, all yours."

YOU - *You take the pack of gum*

MECHANICAL HEART [ Medium - Failed ]- Oh, this is a good time to make a joke. That's what people do!

CHASE - Say "Thanks, I'm gonna put like 4 in my mouth and choke on them!" It's the truth.

DOUBT - Very bad idea. It's not even a joke. Don't say something self depricating at someone that you barely know. This is the third time that you even saw each other.

YOU - Kinda late, it already left your mouth.

Z-SOMETHING - The smile she gave when you took the pack of gum washes off her face. She looks like she saw a ghost.

DOUBT - What did I tell you, she did not take it good in any way. She took it completely seriously.

Z-SOMETHING - She raises her hand to try to snach the gum packet out of your hand.

MECHANICAL HEART - Play it as joke, run to the other side of the room. Maybe she will see how unserios you really are.

YOU - You walts over to the other corner of the room while smiling and almost giggling. Now everyone is noticing the terrified expression she has.

THE GROUP - "What is going on?" one of them says.

Z-SOMETHING - She starts talking before you can. "She said she wants to put a ton of gum in her mouth and choke and die!" she seems noticeably less terrified now that she took it off her chest.

SENSOR - They all stopped talking. All atention is on you. So much pressure.

DOUBT - Do something, explain yourself!

YOU - "I was just joking."

KNOW-HOW [ Trivial - Success ]- "I do like to chew 3 at once, I choked once."

DOUBT - WHY DID YOU SAY THAAAAT?.!!,?!? YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY EVERYTHING THAT COMES INTO YOUR MIND!! Don't you have any self-control??!

YOU - "Don't worry, I choked only once and I'm still a-ok."

DOUBT - Good try, all they heard was "choked".

SIDE MANAGER, ELA - The side manager, Ela, stand up and holds her hand open towards you "Give me the gum. You are not allowed to have it anymore."

MECHANICAL HEART - She always parented you, because she cares.

DOUBT - Or she thinks you are incapable. She thinks that if she left you alone for a second she will find you dead in a corner choking on gum and it's all going to be her fault. She also doesn't want a lawsuit on her hands.

SIDE MANAGER, ELA - You hand it over, she gives it back to Z-something.

Z-SOMETHING - She seams kinda relieved that the gum pack is back in her hand, but now she understands that you were trying to make a joke and she took it a bit far by almost screaming.

"You can have it back-"

SIDE MANAGER, ELA - "Nope, not letting you do that."

YOU - You gesture to her that you don't need the gum, to let go of the idea. That's not what's important.

THE GROUP - They start talking over each other, some of them going back to their previous conversation, and some trying to make sense of your "joke".

THE BOSS - She basically glides from behind you and puts a hand on your shoulder and starts walking out the door, practically forceing you to walk with her.

"Ignore them... "

MECHANICAL HEART [ Challenging - Failed ] - Wow, she is so nice. She even gloosed over what you said.

DOUBT - I think she just didn't understand what's going on... You know she doesn't understand other languages well, and everything you said was in English.

FLARE - Just accept the escape she so kindly gave you.

YOU - You do just that and walk down the stairs together to the main entrance, where everybodys outside shoes sit.

FLARE - Change as fast as possible. You don't want anymore interactions for today, you are all spent. You don't want me talking for you, don't we?

YOU - You start changing your shoes to leave while everybody left upstairs starts trickeling down the staircase.

Z-something shows up after a few people have already come down. The people changing next to you are ignoring you, they almost forget the whole interaction that happened upstairs.

DOUBT - They will never forget this.

WILLPOWER - They probably just want to go home just as bad as you after a long day.

Z-SOMETHING - "So, do you want the gum pack, or-?" she trails off. She seems a little nervous.

MECHANICAL HEART - Normally, she is super confident, at a point that you are anxious around her. Now, she feels a little sorry for going overboard.

DAY DREAM - You don't want Ela to find out. She wouldn't do anythig to you, but she would eat Z-something alive.

YOU - "Nah, I don't need it."

MECHANICAL HEART [ Medium - Failed ] - NOW, this is a good time to make a joke!

DOUBT - NO, not again!

KNOW-HOW - Please say "Don't worry, I have depression. I say stuff like that all the time." It's the truth and it will also be very funny.

YOU - And you say exactly that.

Z-SOMETHING - She chuckles out of nowhere, then a small pause, the she burst out into laughter.

MECHANICAL HEART - Conversation won!

DOUBT - Wow, better then I expect it.

WILLPOWER - Second time's the charm.

KNOW-HOW - Look, I'm so good at jokes! She literally had to process what you said twice.

CHASE - You fell like you could make anybody laugh, you are just that powerful!

YOU - You say bye to everyone before you go home. Kinda happy, mostly tired.

SENSOR - So tired.

WILLPOWER - Another day concured!

[squirmydonnie]

CW/TW: academics

Yesterday I did bad on my test. I got an 51, but because some of the questions were faulty everyone had an added 6 points.

The girl I comforted once, who made an effort to not include me in a conversation because it was "an A-B conversation", started crying in class.

They normally get 100s on every assignment, and only sometimes slightly lower. I wanted to go up to them and check on them, but I had just checked on someone else just before walking into class. I felt bad because I had tried this once before. But I felt like I couldn't find a good time to give them a tissue. I also felt like I had gotten too nervous already and probably sweated all over it, so I didn't give it to them.

They get very upset when they can't get something quickly. When she was staring at me so angry I had gotten scared, but I understood why she was upset. When getting help it probably felt like she was getting talked down to. Plus something with their blood sugar because they have diabetes.

So when I came up to help them that one time I thought it was fine. Until I realized today, they were probably weirded out by me coming up to them. And maybe I make them uncomfortable.

People say not to worry about others perceptions of you, but I can't.

I think these people see me as someone who's allowed to get poor grades. It's not their fault of they think that way, but I do try.

I used to be like them. I mean I wouldn't cry if I got lower then a B, but I get why they do. There's probably consequences they have to deal with and some kind of status they have to uphold.

And maybe I'm lucky I started failing at that status as soon as 6th grade. Maybe it's good. But its still uncomfortable.

This mindset makes me sick. That you are failure fo to grades, that your no longer intelligent because you didn't do as well on a test. And they way it can make you see others as well. In the GT classes people will call each other stupid a lot, and makes a whole bunch of unnecessary remarks. It gets tiring to hear everyday.

I get very upset with myself for ever thinking I am stupid. For ever thinking was dumb. Because that's wrong. I felt like worthless person.

I now know that I have these setbacks, that make it extremely difficult for me to keep up with these kinds of classes. I refuse to call them GT classes.

I hate the rift its created between students. It should have always been called advanced classes instead. If it's called "Gifted and Talented" you come across the problem of trying to explain that it doesn't mean that are or aren't gifted or talented and that its intelligence. Why would they make it this way? I almost feel like they wanted the rift, like they just wanted to make people feel bad.

Why are advanced classes basically just the regular classes sped up and with less instructions? Being in these classes would have been fine if it wasn't so shit.

I have adhd. I cannot do this sped up. I have autism. I can't do it with less instruction. Do not tell me to sit down and try to figure it out first. I will figure it out either when class is almost over or will get it done a month from now.

If I had advanced classes my way there wouldn't be any of this bullshit.

There would be accelerated classes which are faster for those who need work to be done that way. People who do the work quickly don't always comprehend it.

And also classes with more advanced content but at the regular pace.

I'm really just spit balling. I have no clue about whether or not this would be good, but I know what isn't. I know what hurts all factions of students in the schools.

General bad decision making.

Stop with these stupid names. Like when do you stop and think about whether what your labeling makes any sense.

I have beating myself up for years, for being a person who let academics rule my life. But I shouldn't. I don't know how to stop. It doesn't matter that I don't do it as much anymore.

I'm still left behind. Everyone's finishing their test an I'm still in class for another 40 minutes.

Everyone's working on assignment and I'm working on one from a month ago.

This would make anyone feel stupid or unworthy.

Knowing I'm not either of those only helps but so much when people in the class get upset with there 90s or 70s. And I'm in the back with my 20s, 40s, and 50s, and 60s.

I understand why your hurt. But when you say how bad your grade is, and it's an 80, don't ask why I'm looking at you weird.

What do you want me to say. Aw that sucks!

I guess it does. I'm not mad at you for feeling that way, but at the same time I'm not happy. I'm not happy the schools made you believe in bad grades.

It makes me sick to see you cry, even if your offput by me. You don't deserve that.

[bonesandthebees]

Okay, strings. Once again I love how we'll you make both their personalities shine through. We spend the entire chapter in Wilbur’s head, yet we get so see so much of what Tommy is like. The age difference and maturity level also shows. Wilbur makes pretty reasonable rules which boil down to “stop being such a gremlin I need you to act more like me” and Tommy refuses to do most of them out of what I’m assuming is spite and maybe some genuine fear that he csn’t do it so he doesn’t even want to try.

The one thing he does want to try at is taking notes, which I think is because Wilbur takes decent notes for him. So he wants to return the favour. Connecting this to the failed history assignment (is a C- a fail?), Tommy doesn’t see himself as smart. It’s so sad to know that Wilbur helping him with history made him genuinely want to try get a good grade and then he still failed. That’s one of the worst feelings possible. Knowing you tried as hard as you could and it still wasn’t enough. But Wilbur still won’t give up on him and I’m sure different study methods will help. Because Wilbur probably studies differently and used his methods which don’t help Tommy.

Meanwhile, Tommy’s rules for Wilbur are a lot more towards the chaotic side. There’s the acceptable “don’t mess up school for me” and “act more like me by cursing” (side note: Wilbur wants the same by asking Tommy to do tbs opposite and curse less, yet Tommy refuses, maybe he does try he just doesn’t tell Wilbur to annoy him). Then there’s the [Do my laundry :)] which, does this boy even know what compromise is? Anyway, Wilbur does still try to adhere to most of Tommy’s rules. Mainly to make his own life easier. Possibly with the hope that if he follows Tommy’s rules, Tommy will follow his.

Then there’s Wilbur writing [I wish you could’ve been there.] and deleting it which I’m connecting to these lines:

[I mean, can you miss someone you don’t remember? Or someone you never really met?

Yeah, I think you can.]

Especially the “someone you never met” bit. They are getting attached.

-🌲

man yeah writing their rules was so fun because I got to contrast just how different they are from each other. wilbur has a lot more maturity than tommy, because even though he's only 2 years older than tommy, he feels like since he's the older one he should be trying to manage this situation more out of the two of them. of course it's a very weird situation neither of them can really 'manage', but he's trying to come up with ways to make it easier on both of them and work out how best to cope with it.

yeah tommy definitely has issues with school :/ the worst feeling in the world is definitely when you try really hard on an exam and still end up failing it, so that really dug into tommy's confidence there. a C- isn't a fail, but it's very close to it. I've loosely implied it, but tommy goes to an extremely competitive big city school. that's why even though tommy is two years behind wilbur, they're doing the same stuff in maths. because tommy's school has a much faster-paced and more intensive curriculum than wilbur's small town school. so tommy feels a lot of pressure to try and get good grades because that's what everyone around him does.

tommy just likes being a little shit in the notes they pass lol. he actually does try to follow wilbur's rules a little bit regarding cursing, but he still calls techno a bitch every chance he gets just because he thinks it's funny. and the do my laundry thing is kind of him just fucking with wilbur for fun. to be fair, wilbur IS screwing up his work performance pretty badly, so tommy does have a reason to be a little annoyed at him.

they're getting attached :)))

[percysbluelemonade]

Welcome to my life. I struggle with ADHD and anxiety everyday, so here are some shit I came up with to cope

Brain dump - find a small notepad and carry it around. Write down EVERY SINGLE THOUGHT you have that is not related to the thing you're currently doing. Grocery lists. Your favourite artist's pet's name that you just recollected. Weird thought (E.g. I couldn't stop my brain from iterating the word 'bread' since morning so I drew a little slice of bread with hands and legs). EVERY UNRELATED THOUGHT I'M TELLING YOU. Now you might think that spending so much time writing down shit is just gonna make you less productive, but here's the catch - us ADHD people dread the tasks that take up too much time, esp when you do it because you 'have to'. So, not only does this help you remember the things you need to remember since you're noting everything down, but also, after a while, your brain would want to ultimately focus on the task at hand because interrupting yourself physically to brain dump is 'too much work'. Plus, if you go the extra mile and analyse your dumps every week, you'll probably find out the things that frequently tick you off

Buffer space - idk if that's what you actually call this, but what I do is I try to underestimate my time management abilities while I make my schedules or plans. Exams in a week? I can probably do 3 chapters in a day, right? WRONG. 2 CHAPTERS A DAY AND THAT'S IT. My favourite part about this is you can almost entirely get rid of the "oh shit why did I procrastinate" dread. You finish more than what you assigned for the day, making you feel accomplished and even if you stayed within this underestimated limit, you still ticked off all the boxes on your to do list. And you get to do whatever you want with the extra time, aka buffer space. Get more stuff done today so you can get a full day off tomorrow, or just chill. If you'd normally done things, not only will you be overwhelmed, but also feel bad about yourself. The best part about this is that you do not need a reward for everything you do per se, because accomplishing something, in itself, is a huge feat.

Music - If the task requires you to accept input and process (like studying), put up instrumentals. If it's a chore or just a daunting task in general (like doing your laundry), put on your fav music. I often find myself wanting to work just so that I can enjoy the music a little longer. LIFESAVER.

I'll keep reblogging this whenever I remember more tips ^^

BROOOO I HATE MY ADHD CAUSE I HAVE SHIT OBJECT PERMANENCE I KEEP FORGETTING ABOUT ASSIGNMENTS I HAVE FOR CLASS CAUSE THE MOMENT I LITERALLY LEAVE THE ROOM IT’S GONE AND THEN WHEN I DO REMEMBER THEM THE ASSIGNMENTS ARE LOCKED AND I’M TOO ANXIOUS TO TALK TO MY TEACHERS CAUSE I DON’T HAVE ANY DIAGNOSES CAUSE MY MOM DOESN’T BELIEVE IN MODERN MEDICINE AND I’M TOO POOR TO MOVE OUT

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker: Mighty Nein Reunited, Part 1

GUESS WHO'S BACK

BACK AGAIN

SOUP WIZARDS

TELL YOUR FRIENDS

Hello and welcome to the return of the Wizard Breakdown Tracker, a late Campaign 2 feature that I realized just now I should have also done for EXU Calamity, but also good news, it's all, eventually, 10/10, pretty much all the wizards die except for possibly Volucia who noped the fuck out to Cael Morrow, and Maya Agrupnin who was Assigned Wizard By Patia. There. EXU Calamity Wizard Breakdown Tracker.

Every D&D game is better with wizards. As Liam O'Brien once said, "what's sexier than wizards? nothing." Now, to be fair, he also once said rogues were the best class when you and I and Brennan Lee Mulligan all know it's paladins; but we can all agree re: the sexiness of wizards. It is my hope that we have more wizards in the future, but for now, we shall cherish the wizards we once had, and that we briefly have again.

Because we're not touching base in this two-shot with a large number of our erstwhile arcane allies and antagonists, and in the service of a joke at the end of this post, we are including our Wizard PCs this time! Let's begin.

Lady Vess DeRogna: She was not in this episode nor mentioned but she WAS in The Nine Eyes of Lucien and she WAS talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, etc. No spoilers for that here. Just wanted you to know that Lady Vess DeRogna is still dead. But like, probably 7/10.

Ludinus Da'leth: Per Beau, the Assembly's gotten awfully quiet lately, and per Caleb, Astrid's been trying to set him up with a professorship, which Ludinus can't really spike because he did offer the Assembly seat to Caleb first so it's weird to say that he's qualified for propaganda minister and not transmutation professor. The Mighty Nein have made this slippery motherfucker sweat so hard that apparently he started making deals with the Feywild. 6/10.

Trent Ikithon: Hey Trent! Bitch.

As previously stated, 9/10.

Astrid Becke: Trent's in jail and she's apparently doing pretty well and is either happy to help Beau's investigation, or helping Caleb without realizing that Beau really wants this. Probably the latter, but we love to see a complicated morally gray queen flourish, though I suspect she's having Beau-like growing pains into her new and fancy job. 4/10.

Yussa Errenis: You can just sense, from his brief response to Jester, that he absolutely knows that the Mighty Nein saved his ass twice and that he will need to call them if he gets trapped on the moon in 7 years, but also he is sleeping, dammit. Secretly glad they keep in touch; really unamused at having 14 people dripping seawater in his tower, because Tidepeak is really more of a turn of phrase. Also if he knew Veth was starting up a camp he would be very slightly hurt she hadn't asked him to teach anything but also if she asked him he would 100% turn it down. 2/10. Never change, king.

Essek Thelyss: We could get all poetic about the yearning but realistically, he's still at the outpost, getting more and more twitchy but also managing to visit Caleb regularly. Possibly hooking up? But that might just be a reference to the bit and general vibe of the episode. Anyway he's probably feeling kind of bad, but hey! We know he ends up in Uthodurn eventually, and then gets to go back to Aeor only to be part the most simultaneously intense and oblique confession of love of all time. So probably 6/10 but buddy! It gets so much better, and pretty soon no less!

Caleb Widogast: There's good meta to be had about Caleb Widogast, six months later, and you are NOT going to find it here, in a post that's about shaking up wizards in an empty Pringles can. Well, at least not much. As indicated above I think this is likely pre-Aeor excursion with Essek; but Caleb feels like he is tentatively and hopefully building a life. It's slow, and it's a little quiet and small right now, but the fact that he's able to do so on his own is itself an immense victory. He probably gets to have lunch with Beau and dinner with Essek at least once a week each, he has a little cottage and his tower, and he's already becoming a beloved teacher. And he leveled up! 3/10. We love to see it.

Veth Brenatto: Jitters about her camp notwithstanding, she's fucking thriving. They're working on the apothecary but in the meantime she's finding a balance of what she loves to do professionally while still staying with her family, she's keeping in touch with the rest, and she's absolutely on point, astute, and hilarious this whole episode. And she is definitely using Tenser's Floating Disk for sex purposes. 1/10. It's Veth Brenatto's world; we're just living in it.

Allura Vyesoren: Pending, depending on what sword Yasha brings out next episode and whether Caleb turned in the staff. TBD/10.

Bonus!

Warlock Breakdown Tracker

Fjord (Stone?): Oh honey.

It's at least five simultaneous breakdowns and they're recharging with each rest like his spell slots. You know how one of the Uk'otoa temples had a hydra? It's a metaphor, or whatever. 10/10.

[boydiisaster]

Can I request half moth demon MC for obey me?

Teen MC just starting highschool?

"contrary to popular belief, i don't like lamps"

reader: gender neutral, they/them pronouns

tw/cw: talks about insects and insect anatomy, cussing

author's note: thank you for the request!! i love writing teen mc content. i know i've said that a lot but it's just so comforting for me. also i really hope you like this- it's a bit messy and i didn't know how to go about it, but it was so fun to write! i hope you enjoy reading <3 (pretend that belphie was never trapped up in the attic for this oneshot)

You knew your life as a regular human wasn't going to last but honestly, did it have to end so soon? And did it have to end by the damn Prince of Hell dragging you back down to the Devildom through a portal? Couldn't he have just, I don't know, phoned you? Maybe sent you an email? Picked you up by car?

You double over once you land, arms wrapped around your stomach trying not to hurl all over Prince Diavolo's floor. The magic in the Devildom makes it hard to hide your less-than-normal appendages, but you somehow manage. Was it because of fear? Was it because the Prince of Hell had his own personal scary dog privileges with that damned Lucifer and Barbatos always by his side? Or was it because that orange-haired man was staring at you like you were just a hunk of meat waiting to be devoured, and if Diavolo found out you weren't totally human, would probably feed you to him?

Either way, you're scared shitless.

"Welcome, human!" The prince cheers happily. God, he's gotten way louder than when you were last here. It makes your head throb. You liked the prince, but the fact that you have sensitive hearing and the fact that he was so... energetic, to put it nicely, didn't make a good combination for you.

"Where am I?" you feign confusion. You dart your eyes around, yelping when that orange-haired man takes a step closer to you. "Don't touch me!" you point.

"He's only here to make sure you don't run," Lucifer heavily signs. "Stop panicking and he won't have to restrain you."

"How can I stop panicking?! You just kidnapped me!"

"They have a point," Barbatos smiles. "Though I wouldn't call it kidnapping."

"I'm a teenager," you deadpan, which wasn't a lie. You were a teenager, even in demon years.

The room falls silent.

"... Okay, perhaps it is kidnapping," Barbatos hums.

"You're damn right it is!" You cross your arms over your chest and groan. "But I won't tell the authorities if you just send me back up through that weird portal thing."

The Prince thinks for a moment, then simply laughs. "We'll sort it out ourselves. Until then, dear MC, welcome to the Devildom!"

"You smell like magic."

After that foolish meeting with Diavolo, Lucifer called in a man by the name Mammon to be your caretaker. He was less than happy to be assigned such a job, but now it seems he's interested in you, much to your dismay.

"What are you talking about?" You roll your eyes. "I'm human. How can I smell like magic?"

"Do you practice witchcraft?" he raises a brow at you.

"Listen bub," you jab a finger into his chest. "I'm tired of all your stupid questions. You don't like me, and I don't like you, so enough with the smalltalk. Let's just get me to my jail cell and quickly get through this year so I can go home."

With that, you take off walking toward the House of Lamentation. Strangely, you happened to know just the right road to take, Mammon noticed.

You also didn't answer his question.

Breakfast with you was awkward. Lucifer had the hardest time seeing you there at the end of the table, poking the Devildom cuisine with your fork. It reminded him of his younger brothers in a bittersweet sort of way. You looked bored more than anything, eyes tired, suppressing yet another yawn behind your hand. Were humans always as tired as you? Maybe you just don't sleep during the night? That would explain why he heard constant loud rustling coming from your room while he was trying to sleep.

"Do you want this?" he heard you whisper to Beelzebub, and when his younger brother happily took your plate, you briskly stood up.

"Thanks for the food," is all you say before hurrying out the door... without your backpack.

"Mammon."

Said demon jumps and bangs his knee against the bottom of the table. "What?" he hisses as he holds his hurt knee.

"MC forgot their bag."

"And why is that my problem?"

"Because you're in charge of taking care of them, remember?" Lucifer cocks a brow. "Or did you manage to forget that easily?"

"I'm not a babysitter," the Avatar of Greed huffs, but yet still stands to grab your bag. "The Great Mammon has many policies; one of the main ones is I don't handle kids."

"Just make sure a demon doesn't eat them on their way to school, okay?" Lucifer rolls his eyes. "You're capable of that much."

"And what if they do become demon food, what then? We'll have one less person to talk care of." Mammon slings your backpack over his shoulder and moves to jog after you. "They're a strange one, Lucifer. Didn't you smell the magic on them? They reek of it. I bet they're up to something."

"Whatever the case, you're still their guardian, so hurry up." Lucifer shoos his younger brother out of the kitchen. When Mammon reluctantly leaves, he turns to face 4 other curious demons.

"That's what that smell was!" Asmo smiles. "I remember it was all around MC's room last night. I thought someone just dropped a bottle of perfume."

"They're either a witch," Satan hums, chewing on his lower lip, "or they're hiding something. But what? What does a human have to hide on their immediate person that's too embarrassing for a demon to see?"

"If they even are a human."

Belphegor yawns behind his hand as he walks in. "By the way, there's holes all over the curtain in the bathroom. You think we've got moths?"

"Here."

You look over at Mammon, who's currently holding an umbrella up for you to take. He's been strangely nice to you recently. He brought you your backpack that you purposely left behind a few days ago, and now he's offering you his only covering for the sudden downpour that's currently happening outside.

You study the demon, then look curiously at the umbrella. "You didn't curse it, did you?"

Mammon rolls his eyes. "Just take the stupid thing."

"Answer my question first."

"No, I didn't! Just-" he grabs your hand and wraps it around the handle of the umbrella. "Take it," he finishes.

You stay silent, as does he as the two of you stand in the doorway of RAD watching the rain fall. With a hesitant step, you walk out into the rain, closing the umbrella as you go. "If you get wet, so do I." You look back at him and feel a hint of satisfaction at his shocked face. Your wings won't suffer from the onslaught of water if you just keep fluttering them, so getting rained on doesn't really matter much to you.

"Come on, dude," you begin to walk away. "Don't tell me you're still on that whole 'you smell like magic so I don't trust you' thing?"

"You're just weird. I thought you hated me?" Mammon quickly catches up with you thanks to his long legs.

"I thought you hated me," you retort.

"Touché."

The conversation dies there, and the two of you walk back to the House of Lamentation in a comfortable silence.

There's a bottle of something sitting on your dresser. Lucifer notices it as soon as he enters your room. The contents inside are a mixture of things, mostly herbs. There's a few rocks and crystals sitting by the jar, as well.

A human realm spell, he thinks, seeing the wax that seals the cork to the bottle. Humans are so entertaining.

He picks up a jar labeled Rain Water, inspecting it closely. It's surprisingly clear for rain water. This must've been why Lucifer saw you carrying in a bucket of water from outside last week after you got home with Mammon, sopping wet.

Posters hang all over your walls depicting all sorts of things. There's one with the phases of the moon on it, another with a blue-haired anime girl. Lucifer recognizes her from Leviathan's own poster. He was happy you were finally settling in, but honestly did you really need to hang up so much stuff? The walls look cluttered, and was that a stop sign hanging above your bed?

With a sigh, the demon sits down on your mattress. It's surprisingly comfortable. The sheets you brought down from your human realm bedroom were soft, as well. You never made your bed, so pillows were strewn about the mattress. Lucifer pretends to not become overwhelmed by the amount of magic in the air as he makes your bed for you.

Either you were a very strong human realm witch, or you weren't entirely human. Lucifer will give you the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. His brothers are beginning to grow fond of you, he knows, and with Beelzebub taking out the entire wall to your bedroom a few days ago, now doesn't seem like the best time to confront you with his suspicions.

He lies back on your bed and gazes up at those cheesy glow-in-the-dark stars you giddily put up yesterday. He's not worried of you finding him in here, you're currently out shopping with Beelzebub and Mammon, so with a yawn, the eldest demon brother gently closes his eyes and hums. He rolls over to take a quick nap, but then he feels something dig into his side.

"I had hoped I could've hid it from you longer."

7 sets of eyes are on you. You pretend to not care, but it was honestly getting a little embarrassing, especially with Lucifer holding up your spell bag in his fingers to show off to everyone in the room.

"Hide it from us?" Satan scoffs. "We're demons. You're a demon. You should know we can smell magic from miles away."

"I'm half demon," you snarkily correct him. "And it's not like I know much about being one. My mom left the Devildom when I was like, 7. I've been around humans practically my whole life."

"Yeah, yeah. MC lied to us, we're all very distraught." Asmo stands. "I must say though," he circles you, touching bits and pieces of your "new" appendages, "I've never seen a moth demon this pretty before. Your wings have such eccentric designs on them."

He pulls a bit on your wing and you yelp. "Watch it! They're fragile."

"So do you like, eat cloth like actual moths do?" Leviathan giggles as he plays with your antenna. You swat him away and huff at his stupid assumption, growing flustered.

"No! Well, I used to as a baby. But I grew out of that so stop laughing at me!"

"Do you ever overheat with that weird fur coat on your chest?" Mammon points.

"It's actually scales," you touch your chest a bit. "But sometimes."

"Are you fond of light like real moths are?"

You guess even Lucifer can't help but tease you. Your face grows hot as you frown at the smirking demon in front of you. His brothers have doubled over in laughter. Even Beelzebub cracks a smile.

"Shut up! I actually don't, so quit making fun of me!" Your wings flutter out of irritation. "Or I'll... I'll...!"

"You'll what?" Belphegor laughs. "Get so mad that you fly into a burning candle?"

That provokes more laughter from the 7 demon brothers. You cover your face and groan. "You're not funny!"

"Awe, we're just messing with you MC!" Asmo giggles. "I'll buy you a new lamp to make up for it."

"Shut up!" you whine and push the Lust Avatar away as he bursts into another fit of laughter. "You're not original! Get a new joke!"

"What do you want for dinner tonight, MC?" Satan smiles. "Maybe something fancy? An expensive shirt from Majolish, perhaps?"

"I'm leaving!" You turn and walk away from the family. "I'm walking out the door!"

"Don't let a lamp distract you! There's lots of them along the way."

"Shut up!"