#and because they were beloved they were shielded mostly from the 'bad stuff' at the cost of them being unaware by what they are

[senseearly]

I tried drawing young mithrun but ended up with an attempt for a kbms lovechild so uh:

MYRTLE (84)

Half-elf/born in Melini

Assigned female at birth/non-binary

Grew in tallman pace until they suddenly stopped growing at 20 years old

Currently working for their uncle (Kerensil Trading Company) in Melini but wants to be an adventurer

Close with their parents as a child but developed a strained relationship with Mithrun and Mithrun's struggles with rying and finding desires (worsened when Kabru died but they're both all good now)

More stuff under the cut:

Myrtle was actually an 'accident' and Mithrun carried them for 4 years (someone shared a HC that elves have a gestation period of 4-5 years so I'm borrowing that lol)

Myrtle spent most of their childhood in the Golden Kingdom and was visited by his uncle (Mithrun's brother) and Milsilril (who they call Auntie but at one point called her 'Grandma'). They are more familiar with Tallman/Golden Kingdom and Utayan culture, but not acquainted with their elven roots (they actually find Western elves intimidating)

Kabru did his very best sharing what he remembers of his hometown; Mithrun had assimilated into the Golden Kingdom way of life at this point and found some (most) of his elven noble ways too cumbersome

Myrtle was a kind child who grew up doted and loved by his parents and relatives. And they love their family with the same ferocity. But growing up, Myrtle was quickly made aware that his father, Mithrun, was 'not normal' - in most days, he was okay; in others, he struggled to get out of bed. In rare days, Mithrun was completely catatonic, and seeing Mithrun unresponsive, staring at the distance, scared Myrtle so much that he became somewhat of a troublemaker child, so that Mithrun always has to act and respond and not have anytime to be lost in his thoughts.

At some point, Myrtle 'disliked' Mithrun for the way that he is, not understanding his situation at all. Myrtle thinks that Mithrun does not love them enough to be better, feels ashamed that they cannot do anything to help Mithrun be better. But Myrtle's feelings on Mithrun comes from a place of love and ignorance - love because they do genuinely love their Father; and ignorance because they were never told why Mithrun was like that (Myrtle heard of what the dungeons were, but Kabru nor Mithrun never bothered to tell of the demon, Mithrun being the dungeon lord, or the full extent of the destruction of Utaya)

Once Myrtle became aware of their parent's pasts, they understood them a lot better.

Also thinking that a point of friction that Myrtle had with his parents was their dream of becoming an adventurer and fighting monsters (which were still rampant, though weaker) and Kabru insisting that they choose any other dream but that. Myrtle in their teenage years found Kabru too strict, too protective, not that Mithrun wasn't. But Mithrun at least was willing to teach them how to fight; Kabru made it clear Myrtle was not allowed near even a walking mushroom. Learning that Kabru was from Utaya, and what exactly happened in Utaya, made Myrtle understand why.

Eventually though Kabru concedes, knowing that Myrtle is much more capable, and surrounded by their own friends and comrades who will support them. I think in the last years of his life, Kabru made sure to prepare everything that will help Myrtle in his adventuring journey if they chose to embark once he is gone - such as speaking with guilds all over the content, ensuring a diplomatic immunity for Myrtle when they're in ally countries, writing an annotated adventure guide just for them, etc.

They work as a Vice-Manager of the Kerensil Trading Company (Mithrun's brother's merchant empire), but that's just a gloried name for the position of intern. Mithrun technically manages the Kerensil Trading Company branch in Melini, and is being pestered by Mithrun's brother to take over the main branch so that Mithrun will move back to the West. Mithrun is unmoved so Mithrun's brother has plans to declare Myrtle as 'heir' of the Kerensil merchant empire, all for the purpose of having his brother and niece move to the West (Mithrun's brother does not see the point of Mithrun and Myrtle staying at the Golden Kingdom any longer after Kabru's death)

(The beauty mark next to Myrtle's right eye is something that they got from Kabru's mother)

[fareehaandspaniards]

I sometimes wonder how comes you ended up SO attached to Damian specifically? When you first appeared you was just one of us Micolash simps, but before I've noticed it is just Damian everywhere ggjhggkj Sorry if you've answered somewhere already, but what made you so obsessed with Damian? What was that thing that made you see his potential and appeal the way you do now?

Well, yes, you were right to point out that when I came here, I was mostly interested only in Micolash! But gradually getting used to the character, you start to think about his surroundings! And if Edgar I liked from the first glance and he always will be my favourite nerd-accountant-church boy with issues, then Damian I just ignored at first xd And in the game did not really notice him, although he stands out among the phantoms - Loch Shield, ability to heal with choir bell, Mensis cage (AND his amazing look. Long hair and tired old face? Ooooh, I'm in). The cage in particular makes you think that he is a very difficult character which belongs to an enemy fraction and fights on your side. Well beyond that, it was worth taking a closer look at him and it all went on its own :'D

Most of the fandom sees him in a similar way - caring, selflessly giving of himself to Micolash, loyal to the core, a bit slow due to age, and cozy man. My first vision of him was also like he is an absolute angel, the purest creation in the entire game! That was second phase of my simping I think xD Granddilf with the biggest heart and purest soul, loyal servant of his beloved one - oh my god!! Makes me go crazy because I want him to be respected immediately, be loved and cherished. Maybe he is my type? I don't know. Old, really OLD man with loving heart and I-i-i-i... melting...

One of my headcanons is that Damian can kill a human, do crimes, cruel medical experiments (he is a Mensis scholar after all) but he can never hurt a child! ^^^^ There is him with little Yurie, Micolash and Edgar, and image I drew after a cool discussion with Fantomette! We talked about possibility of Edgar being Micolash's son, which means that Damian could possibly be his godfather xd

(Also you may see a plushie bunnie in little Micolash's hands and it has much more sense that it may seem!)

I am too lazy to explain I am sorry Dx But I wrote about bunny and little Irzhie here, in an ask game. The question was - what would be his favourite toy? >>>

Me and my husband talked about Irzhie too much and came to many funny and creepy conclusions and ideas (Damian's obsession with his little brother, projection his brother on Micolash, insanity, necromancy and,,,, Many other things :^) , so that picture was born)

(Sorry to put it in your ask lkak.ermkeamg,g,fdmg BUT you can't shut me up when it's about Damian D: )

I mean you can put Damian in ANY headcanon and he still be kindest man ever existed.

In myvision of lore he helped Rom when she felt really bad in Byrgenwerth, was one amongst three people in the whole college who supported Caryll, he protected Micolash his whole life, he was trying to soften Micolash's deeds and didn't want him to involve innocent children in his experiments (as much as adults. But I believe that Yahar'gul people were sort of fanatics so there were many volunteers for School of Mensis medical stuff), he was the one who will always do his best to help whenever you ask.

And my poor old man is also a saddest creature, because the fact is a fact - no matter if he hates or loves Micolash or just fights against his ideas in game, Micolash is in a Nightmare and Damian is here. I shipped Damicolash and it was really bittersweet. Mico dies and what is left for Damian? Only grieve and sorrow?

Damian/Yurie - bitter end, Damian/Rom - bitter end, Damian/Micolash - bitter end, Damian/anyone else - bitter end! :^)

Anyone else except sir Gremia! (This man deserves another post he is also so complicated! My husband KNOWS how much I adore him. Many of our daily jokes include him lol) Gremia has a strong need in an "adult/mother" archetype and also in "wife/lover", he needs someone who will pat his head and whom he can protect. And Damian needs someone to take care of, to protect and to be protected by that someone (Theme for another post :Р)

Damian, who gave love but didn't receive it, who did his best for Micolash but ended up leaving the Mensis School because his beloved crossed all bounds of sanity, who believed in Kos, his goddess of mothers and children, who genuinely tried to help everyone - I wanted him to be happy.

It really concerned me and I think then started the third phase of simping, when I found out that Sir Gremia exists and Damian just can't be perfect (it's so wrong and boring. I love when a character is like alive person, so it means they are problematic! There are no "normal" people)

I have to say, as you mentioned, I have seen him as a chad, attracting everyone to him xD But right now for me he has flaws, he can be very annoying sometimes, plus overprotection of Micolash (I think Micolash even got tired of him. Sounds like an absolute Micolash plus that may be a reason he let Damian go from serving him), weaknesses and traumas, cruelty and coldness in his heart, and a strong attachment to the past. But he's the kind one. And that's what hit my heart the hardest way. He is player friendly for his own unknown reasons, but I believe his destiny and talent is to lead and protect, which is what he has been doing all his life.

I write a fic about him and Gremia right now, connected with the early Healing Church and I want to put there all my headcanons, big and small and finally finish his story and give him the end of the game that he deserves

I am sorry for the amount of text. Old man took a place in my heart, he does not only looks like an absolute perfection but also seems to be a wonderful person with lots of issues and flaws. I LOVE HIM

I need to improve my drawing skill so I will draw him better and he will become more popular :'D

Maybe I got a little off-topic? But I want you to know how I see him - it's the main point of my simping xD So hard to put all my thoughts in one text. Hope it's not hard to read. It's much easier to write a story than tell the chaos that is happening in your head with your blorbo xD

[smoft-demons]

Loves Mammon and Beel the most, then all the other bros are tied for second place. Would NEVER admit it though!

Probably Asmo or Lucifer would have the worst first impression if they met differently. Belphie or Levi would have the best.

She was doing college, beating back burnout with a stick

She has a mother, some other relatives, a cat. Old friends she’d been growing apart from but still loves. Being in the Devildom has no bearing on missing those friends, she’d be missing them regardless

Cat!! Further into the story once she’s picked up some magic, she’d learn to cast find familiar.

Great at potion making and language stuff, AWFUL at math and seductive speechcraft.

Grew close to Mammon pretty quick, but bonded with Beel just a little faster. Got really attached to Belphie pre jailbreak… ouch. Warmed up to Levi quick, but didn’t wanna scare him so let him take the lead with no resistance. Got to like Satan relatively quick, found him easy to talk to. Always was friendly with Lucifer, but not close for months. Started out scared of Asmo. That took a while to work through, but they became close.

Would never choose celestial realm. Never! Too damn bright. Would really miss the human world, but ultimately would end up choosing Devildom. She found family there, and wouldn’t ever choose to leave them!

Loves the eternal night of the Devildom (she’s a bit photosensitive) and all the cool ass magic. Loves the food from the human realm, and hates to be separated from human internet, but otherwise… will take the Devildom.

Does NOT enjoy the celestial realm, it is an instant headache, she finds it stuffy and frustrating, the food and the friends are good but otherwise it’s nope as fuck!

Devildom is nice! It’s actually pretty cold, which is comfy. The dark is nice for her eyes. The stars always being out is even nicer. The food is… interesting, but not a deal breaker. She loves living in an awesome magic house with her awesome magic demon besties most of all.

Yeah, more often than she likes. Mostly pines after the food and the internet… but also familiar smells and sounds, the easier access to solitude, the relatives she likes, places and routes that she knows well enough to never get lost in.

Sloth and gluttony. Easily.

Emotional casting! Like, for her, summoning the bros is easy because she just thinks about how she misses them. Abjuration is easy because she’s got a guard dog complex like Beel, so just the emotional investment in shielding people makes it easy. Coming up with creative applications for easy spells is a big thing she’s good at too.

So so bad at anything requiring good dexterity or working memory, especially of numbers. Finicky rituals with math in them tend to explode. Any charms that straight up deceive someone are tricky for her too.

Nooope. She’s got a… hard to define thing going on with the seven brothers. Pseudo-adoption, but less in the you’re-my-kid-now way and more in the beloved-roommate-who-will-stay-forever way. Friendship, but not casual. Partnership, but not romantic or exclusive. Intimacy, but like,, knowing each other very well and being very affectionate, not like dating or making out or sex. It’s a,,, pseudo-polyam, sorta-adoption, mildly telepathic because of the pacts, impossible to explain to most humans QPR situation. With all seven of them. It’s everything except romance.

Mammon, Beel, Belphie

Looks up to… the obvious answer is Simeon. But also? Beel. She thinks a lot of people would be a lot better to be around if they were more like Beel. Wanting Lucifer’s approval is so thoughtless to her that she knows she does and never thinks about it. No surprise to her. What she DOES think about often tho is how much she wants Levi’s approval. That surprises her to to notice.

Solomon is baffled by her weird magic and way of thinking. Lucifer took a long time to completely warm up to her. She LIKES Barbatos and Diavolo, but is kind of uncomfy with them (formality confuses and distresses her) and they pick up on it.

Too complicated to write here. Will get to that.

She loooves making bread. Knows way too much about it.

Speaks so informally when she likes who she’s talking to. Cussing is a sign of trust and love. If she’s speaking like Lucifer, Barbatos, and Diavolo, it means she hates you. Customer service speak, she thinks. The more polite she is, the less she trusts you.

Has some abandonment issues and is sensitive to feeling unwanted. There was a whole thing with Mammon’s tsundere shit and her tendency to take that stuff seriously.

Loves her friends SO devotedly. Forgiving. Considerate. Honest. High perception. Very emotionally intelligent in some ways. Very self-aware. Cautious. Scarily cool under pressure. Logical and practical. Committed to her principles and values. Not afraid to confront difficult truths.

Clingy. Softhearted for better AND for worse. Awful liar. Distractable. Super dense sometimes. Logic and practicality can go too far. Self awareness too. Kinda lazy and useless when there’s no pressure. Prone to spiralling into emotional self harm out of determination to confront painful and scary facts. A bit too inflexible when it comes to rules she finds important enough to commit to.

She sings, reads, plays video games, bakes sometimes. Devildom does not stop her.

She picks up chess and piano from Lucifer.

She does routines more than habits. Certainly she makes new routines, but habits not really.

Gained confidence. Ironically, came out of hell a lot brighter and more cheerful. Learned magic.

Is AuDHD. Bonds hard with Mammon, Levi, and Satan about it.

Obey Me MC Questionnaire

A/N: I'm remaking my MC from the ground up & wanted a guideline so I thought I'd post it here for my fellow Obey Me fans. If you use/repost, please provide credit & also feel free to send me a PM if you want to share info about your character but don't want to post it. I love OC talk. :)

Out of the characters, who is your MC's favorite and their least favorite? Feel free to list multiple.

If your MC were to meet any of the characters for the first time, who would have they have the worst first impression of? Who has the best first impression?

What did your MC do before being summoned to the Devildom? Did they attend school, college, have a job, etc.?

Does your MC have anybody they miss back in the Human Realm? Did they have a family, friends, etc.?

Does your MC have any pets? Do they acquire any pets whilst in the Devildom? Do they have a familiar? (Ignore the fact that Lucifer insists there are no pets allowed. Besides, he'd fold faster than a piece of paper.)

When it comes to R.A.D., are there any subjects your MC hates or loves? Excels at or fails at?

Out of the seven brothers, in order, who was the first your MC grew close to and who was the last? If closeness doesn't apply, who did they get along with more in the beginning and who did they not get along with?

Theoretical question: say your MC is forced to decide between the three realms in terms of where to reside for the rest of their life, unable to travel to the other to, what would your MC choose?

In general, do they have a preference for any of the three realms? If so, what appeals to them?

What are their opinions of the Celestial Realm?

What about the Devildom?

Do they miss the Human Realm?

Which of the seven sins does your MC most relate to?

What is something they most excel at as a sorcerer?

What is something they are the worst at as a sorcerer?

Their main love interest(s)?

Their closest friend(s)?

Who does your MC look up to out of the characters?

Is there a character that doesn't like your MC?

What is an experience that stands out most to your MC since their time in the Devildom? Feel free to list multiple if you can't decide.

Fun fact about your MC?

Weird fact?

How about a sad fact?

What are their best traits?

What are their worst traits?

Do they have a hobby and were they able to comfortably continue it in the Devildom?

Did they pick up new hobbies since arriving in the Devildom?

What are some habits they've picked up since being in the Devildom? Did any habits get dropped?

In general, how have they changed since the exchange program?

What is something you'd like to share that you didn't get a chance to?

[badman-blr]

tell us about celes

Ah, yes. Celeste Agnirepentia. A nun of the church of Light. Beloved orphanage caretaker. The Pyromanic Inquisitor of heretics. Evangelic avenger and last living heir of the Clan of Forgiving Fire. And unfortunately the strictly better half for the one responsible for said clan's demise.

So long ago I was thinking about who should i ship with my main OC, Mirathielle. And since im kind of a sucked for enemies-to-lovers, i started with opposites.

Just a kind girl who was supposed to reign in Mira time to time. But that felt too eh. So i decided to agonize it beyond control.

So

Celes was second-in-line to inherit the title of Master of the Forgiving Fire Clan, right next to her brother. She was a bit of a radical who had thoughts of modifying the clans teachings by adding in the use of shields. This was frowned upon by the common peeps because fire based techniqies were mostly used and developed with offense-focused weapons like spears or blades. This led to Celes gallivanting around trying out her own style away from the clans supervision.

Which leads to her anonymously joining a recruitment tournament sponsored by the clan to try out her skills. She wanted to fight other element users to see the full extent of her experimental style but was disappointed by the lack of said users that could match her. (She forgot that new clan recruits usually cant use elements in battle dje to her impetus.) Thats until she matches against Mirathielle. They fight a most earnest battle in which both of them almost had to reveal their true strength to win. Too bad the is cut short since Celes gets found out in the battle.

Then there was a sudden call to arms as a wave of monsters was attacking the area. Celes sneaks off again to fight, but this time with Mirathielle as her companion. They grew rather close, looking out for each other through the fighting and stuff. Historians would label them as friends for sure for sure. Celes knew that Mira is defo an element user but she never sees her use it.

Then when they return a feast was prepared, Celes gets an earful flr being reckless, rewards flr the participants get doled out. Mira gets recognition for protecting Celes and was called to the front to receive her reward. Mira kneels in front Celes's brother and is awarded a medal. She then stands up, spins on her heel, flourishing her cross, which suddenly grows a blackened blademade of ice, and decapitates him. Mirathielle then goes on a massacre. Celes, consumed by rage, fights her to a standstill. Both almost kill each other. Both fall unconscious and get reacued. Mira by the Legion in the Dark. Celes by the Church of Light.

Church helps Celes get a new identity in exhange for her service as an inqhisitor from time to time. Is assigned orphanage caretaker and publicly known as Sister Fei. And spends most of time taking care of children. Or relaxing at a butler cafe (?) While being serviced by her favorite butler/gf Jeremiah (who is actuallg Mirathielles work persona)

Detakls are aubject to change but yeah. Celes Agnirepentia.

[youalexturnermeon]

Warm Beer and Cold Women Pt. 2 (Johnny Lawrence x Reader)

Click for Part 1

Request: Hi! I absolutely love your work and I was wondering if I could get a Cobra Kai Johnny imagine where the reader is a bartender and starts crushing on him since he’s a regular and he flirts with her all the time and she pretends to hate it but she actually loves it? by Anon

A/N: First part is basically just the request, the second part is more angsty and more heated. Johnny protects the reader from some creeps in the bar and they get finally closer

Warnings: badass reader, drinking, DUI, swearing, violence and sexual harassment

Wordcount: 3174

Friday nights were busier, much busier than any of the other days of the week. You didn’t know how much busier than the other fancy bars in L.A. but for you it was most certainly busy enough. Mostly, middle-aged men came by, construction workers above all, who decided to celebrate the end of the week by getting black-out drunk. The bar was much noisier and loud music blasted through the old shabby speakers on the walls. You didn’t particularly like the big groups of men. They weren’t the nicest and they were the definition of a patriarchal dick comparison that mostly consisted of hitting on the female barkeepers. They were a huge pain in the ass, but at least, the drunker they got, the better they tipped. And you needed the money. Compared to them Johnny was a literal angel.

You didn’t show much enthusiasm when you walked around with a tray, picking up dirty glasses, taking new orders tipped with a few disgusting comments and bringing new drinks over to the tables. Usually, you liked being behind the counter more. Firstly, because you didn’t have to move much, also you loved making cocktails, and secondly because of Johnny who was always an annoyingly good company, although you were never willing to admit that. However, he seemed off today. He still was full on hitting on you and complimenting your today’s choice of clothing, he said he loved how you looked in your shorts and fishnets, but you could see that someothing was going on with him. He was staring into space more than usual and he didn’t pick fights with the construction workers who accidentally bumped into him from time to time. You wanted to ask him about it, because you genuinely were interested in him but as soon as you walked past him with a new full tray, to bring it to a table with three men, he gave you a dirty wink. And the wish to know something about him just vanished, so you made your way.

“Alright,” you said in your overly nice server’s voice as you started placing down the drinks on the table, trying to ignore the looks on your body. You were used to it, you were attractive and being that whilst working as a barkeeper just came with nasty comments and occasional sexual harassment.

“We have three beers, one dark and two Lager, two Whisky on the rocks and one Vodka soda.” Everyone tried to grab their drink from your hands, which you hated but that was okay, some people just didn’t know better, they thought they were helping out that way. When you were putting down the last of the beers on the table and leaned down, a rough hand suddenly brushed over your chest. You might have imagined it, you thought, that was probably an accident. After all, the man, still in his dirty work clothes, probably just tried to grab his dark beer. Yet you stopped for a second, eyes wide, then you cleared your throat and pulled yourself together.

“You alright, love?” he asked, and you nodded, “Yeah, sure, enjoy!”

The man who did that wasn’t even looking at you, you missed his dirty smirk by seconds. You just shook if off, you had thick skin and turned around to go back to your beloved counter. Yet, the minute you turned your back to the men sitting, you instantly felt it. A hand on your ass, a squeeze and you heard laughter, then - a slap. You snapped back and slammed the tray on their table, glasses clanking.

“Get you fucking hands off me, you asshole!” you yelled, your breath suddenly quicker, anger rising in you. So, you haven’t imagined it, he touched your breasts before. Bad pick-up lines were okay, but this was too far. Groping was the last straw for you.

“Or what?” he retorted immediately and now you were seeing the disgusting grin on his sweaty wrinkled face, full of self-admiration, he was so proud of himself “Are you gonna chop them off with that sharp tongue of yours?”

You let out a hateful laugh, he probably was expecting you to leave it be, after all he was a customer and you’re a simple barkeeper. But not with you.

“No, I’m gonna bite your fucking tiny dick off!”

“Ohhh,”, the men growled together, “That’s a feisty one. Wanna see it? It’s not that tiny. You’ll like it.”, the bald sweaty one said and gestured to his crotch.

“I’m gonna bite your dick off. Then I’m going to go to your house and I’m gonna fuck your wife. And I’m gonna fuck her so good, she’ll leave your sorry dickless, spineless ass!”

Suddenly, your groper was on his feet, he was so close to you, you could smell his boozy breath, although he towered inches above you. He didn’t like being talked to like that. And his glance was full of fury.

“Leave my wife out of that, you slut!” he grunted through his teeth and took another threatening step towards you, nervously fiddling with his wedding ring. You didn’t back off, you were in your bar.

“I’m gonna leave her out of it if you apologize for being a piece of shit to me, you do not fucking touch your server!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t walk around in these tiny shorts of yours, showing off your legs if you don’t want men to appreciate it.”

You took a deep breath, this was not really happening right now. You felt so dirty.

“Is there a problem, (Y/N)?” you heard a familiar voice out of a sudden and felt a hand on your shoulder. And that’s when you understood how tense you were, but the soft touch helped, you relaxed. You didn’t even realize that as soon as you started yelling, Johnny sprung off his seat and rushed over to you.

“I…” you started but you had lost your words. It was the first time he touched you.

“Leave her the fuck alone!” Johnny growled, now shifting his attention from you to the three men who were bothering you. His voice was so ominous that it made you shiver. You had never seen him mad before. Protectively he stood in front of you, shielding you from their gaze, since he, too, was much taller than you. In the back Kenny was making his way to the scene as well.

“You scumbags should really pack your stuff and leave this fucking bar before I kill someone. You better watch how the fuck you are talking to her!”

“And who’s that? Your daddy?”, another spiteful remark from your tormenter. Johnny’s arms started trembling, he clenched his fist and the grip on your shoulder tightened, it almost hurt you. At the same it was calming you down.

“Yeah, and I’m her little brother” you heard yet another to you well-known voice and saw Kenny, who also stood there like a mountain, arms crossed in front of his chest, glaring down on the three construction workers, whilst his leather jacket crackled from where he tensed his muscles. He was fucking scary which made the men on appear so tiny whereas the one standing leapt back a couple steps, clearly intimidated by Kenny’s appearance and Johnny’s rage.

“And you better apologize to this lady before I give you a ban!”

And funnily enough, this helped. They muttered something about how they were sorry. But you didn’t even listen to it anymore, you were already walking back, Johnny following you, Kenny staying. You didn’t want to hear any more of that conversation. You wanted your safe space behind the bar with no one around you at best.

“Are you okay?” Johnny asked, seemingly concerned and took a seat at the other side of the counter. You were avoiding his eyes as you nodded, you didn’t want his pity. You just wanted a drink.

“That happens all the time, don’t worry,” you lied “As someone working here, I have to deal with it every fucking day. And you, my little drunk friend, are also part of the problem.”

“Ouch,” Johnny said and smiled, “At least, I never touched you!” “Seriously Johnny?” you laughed and saw how glad he was that you were able do that after the fight at the table, “The first time you came here, you bumped into me, hard.” “But not too hard.”

“And on purpose!”

“You can’t prove that,” he said grinning, “But it’s nice to hear that you still remember the first time we met. That has to mean something, right? Something like that we’re meant for each other.”

You rolled your eyes and poured yourself a whisky, you drank it and immediately another, “Not now, Johnny.”

“Sorry,” he said apologetically, and you were almost surprised to hear that from him “By the way, I really loved you threatening to fuck this asshole’s wife. That was badass. Just be careful next time, though, okay?”

“Is he bothering you, too?”, Kenny who suddenly appeared asked also pouring himself a whisky but in a much bigger glass than yours and a second in a smaller one.

“If I say yes, are you going to kill him?”

“Not necessarily kill him but cripple him real good.”

You heard Johnny gulp. He wasn’t afraid of three man but of Kenny. But Kenny laughed and placed a Whisky in front of Johnny, “That’s for protecting my (Y/N). After all you’re not as bad as she says.”

For the rest of the night, Kenny has sent you into the office, he wanted you to adjust the schedule for next week. You knew that it was only an excuse to get you out of the bar for a couple of hours, since the shifts you and the others had were always the same for years now. And you didn’t mind, although you wouldn’t have minded staying with Johnny either. Funnily enough, he calmed you down. Nevertheless, he was now making friends with Kenny whom he never really liked, so you knew, he was in good hands. It was around two o’clock in the morning when Kenny finally came in to tell you that you were free to go home if you did him the favour of bringing the garbage out and close the bar. This you didn’t mind as well. You dragged the bags behind you into the backyard where the bins were and that was also when Kenny said his goodbye.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked as he got on his bike and let the motor roar.

“Yeah,” you waved at him “Go home, I’ll be fine.”

And just like that, he was gone. You sighed and heaved the trash into the bins. Before you made your way back inside to get your bag to finally go home and sleep you decided to smoke a cigarette. And maybe that was your mistake.

“Well, well, well, if this isn’t the feisty little bitch,” you suddenly heard a slurring voice behind you, followed by laughter as were about to light a cigarette. You didn’t even have to turn around to know exactly to whom it belonged. This time, there was no anger rising in you, you didn’t dare to say a thing, there was only fear. You dropped your cigarette.

“Where are your friends now?”

“Kenny is still inside,” you answered trying to sound calm but your voice was shaky and so were your hands “And the other one is wai-“

“Bullshit!” exclaimed the man who acted that he was so sorry to have groped you only hours before. He was even drunker now and his thin lips crowned a spiteful grin. You were fucked.

“We just saw the big guy leaving on his motorbike. You’re all alone now.” And they were right. You tried to pull yourself together, to think of a plan to get you out of this situation but everything you could think of was calling the cops and on top of that your phone was still inside. You just have to fight back, your brain kept telling you!

“And what are you going to do? Beat me up? Rape me?” you tried to sound confident, but it was pretty difficult now that you were not in the bar anymore but outside in the backyard between some dumpsters. Your voice was failing you.

“Maybe a little bit of both?” one of the men said amused and shrugged while another one was now far too close to you, so close that he could grab your wrist. His grip was so tight that you cried out in pain and that was when you took all your courage, lashed out and punched him with all your might in the face. Your hand hurt as hell but now you saw blood.

“Shit, this bitch broke my nose!” your victim cried out in pain and now, with two other man leaping towards you, you were done with your plan, you just closed your eyes and…

“What the fuck did I tell you?”, a scream and then a loud thump. When you dared to open your eyes, you could not believe them. Johnny who managed to throw himself between you and the group was now in pretty hardcore fist fight. Although at the second glance you realized that he was not only throwing one strong punch after another but also full-on kicking the kicking the shit out of the assholes who were threatening you. He must’ve known some Martial Arts or something, you thought because this looked like being straight out of an action film. You couldn’t even follow the fight with your eyes that’s how quick Johnny was moving. Yet, some time you saw him being punched as well but it was nothing compared to how he dealt blows. And it that moment, you knew, you could never be not grateful to this man in your life ever again.

It might’ve taken just second or maybe hours but after a while, the men were gone, you didn’t even realize how they fled Johnny, and there were only you two left.

Johnny was panting when he came over to you, where you still stood motionless with your back pressed against the wall.

“Are you okay?”, he asked breathing quickly, holding out his hand to you. Without thinking you grabbed it and let yourself lead to a curb stone where you two sat down. You didn’t answer you just took out another cigarette and lit it, letting the smoke calming your lungs.

“(Y/N)?”

“I’m okay,” you said finally coming back to you and finding your voice, offering him a cigarette as well which he gladly accepted.

“Are you?” you asked while you studied him. He was the only one that had to be asked. Johnny looked rough. His blonde hair was all messy, his clothes now dirty and jeans ripped at the knees, but above all it was his face that concerned you. Blood was dripping from his chin, coming from his burst lip. Also, it already crusted on the cheekbone where a fresh scratch was on top of a purple bruise. And in the dim light you were not completely sure, but you could see a black eye being there tomorrow.

“I mean, you look like shit.” “Thanks, you’re always so kind to me. I can clearly see why I like you so much,” he joked “But yeah, I’m fine. Believe it or not but I always get into fights, this shit kinda follows me.”

“How did you beat them up like that anyways? Was that Krav Maga or something?”

“Karate” Johnny answered proudly and took a relieving drag from his cigarette.

“You never told me you did Karate.”

“You never asked me,” he smiled at you and protectively put and arm around your shoulders. He must’ve noticed how you shivered. And you didn’t object. You weren’t really cold but you just wanted be held by him.

“Well, to be fair, I never ask you anything besides your order. But I’ll guess I’m gonna start from now on. There’s obviously more to you than being a noisy bastard.” “Oh I’m honoured to be the one who finally melted the infamous (Y/N)’s heart.”

“No Johnny, seriously, you didn’t melt my heart, but you saved my ass. Thank you,” you laid your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes “I don’t even wanna know what would’ve happened if you weren’t there.”

“You don’t have to,” Johnny said softly and stroked your hair “Because I was there! And you’re save with me.”

You were, you felt save and you sighed. There was only one thing left to do.

“Now, c’mon, let’s patch you up so we can finally call it a day” you said and stood up.

--

Half an hour later you could finally close the doors to the damn bar, it was relieving. “Do you need a ride?”, Johnny asked when stopped for a second and gestured over to a black car in the distance “Because I’m not leaving you alone here anymore, not today, not ever.”

You rolled your eyes, but you smiled.  After all, it was an amazing feeling to know that Johnny cared about you. That he wasn’t just one freak you liked because he was nice to you but genuinely wanted you to be happy. However, you just couldn’t help yourself but being a sarcastic little shit again.

“No, thank you,” you answered, “I’m not really interested in being involved in DUI again.”

“And there she is, (Y/N) being herself again,” Johnny laughed but he didn’t seem to mind. Instead, he threw his keys at you “You’re driving then.” You clumsily caught but immediately threw them back at him.

“I’m also not driving. I don’t have a license, lost it a few months ago.” “For DUI?”

“For DUI,” you answered. The curse of working in a bar.

“So how are you getting home? Because I’m really not leaving you alone.”

“I called myself an Uber and there it is” you saw the only moving car in the distance and pointed at it.

“Thanks again,” you said when you were walking towards your Uber and Johnny made his way to his.

“No problem”

And something in you told you, that you two weren’t done yet. As you watched him walking you suddenly realized what it was. “Johnny!” you called out and he stopped.

“What is it, (Y/N)?”

“Tomorrow for sure, I’m gonna finally let you buy me that fucking drink. And I want to know everything about your Karate. Is that a deal?”

“You bet!”, he yelled back, and the brightest smile appeared on his face. He finally made it. “See you tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow.” You whispered back. And on your face also appeared a smile. Tomorrow would be the day, you thought and finally got in the car.

But Johnny didn’t come tomorrow, and he didn’t come the day after. That was unusual. You were waiting for him, but he didn’t show himself for almost two weeks.

**************************************************************

Part 3

Sooooooo, let me know what you all think about this fuckery

Taglist: @lililolli​

[secret-engima]

spideypoolalways

Does Regis ever ask how Titus has papers for the boys? Whats Cor or Clarus' PoV of this? What are some things (fluff or humor) that the boys get up to? Because I can see them getting adopted into the Ulric Clan because of shenanigans and Nyx going 'Yes, these are my people' since LCs just remind me of Ulrics with magic. And how do the Galatians take to the nephew of the Nif Chancellor and clone of the Crown Prince? Since I'm imagining that Titus told some of them and the

spideypoolalways

rest are guessing anyway. And does everyone assume that Noctis and Nox's magics resonated since they're kinda sorta close to each other/are the same person? How does Regis take the news that the only reason that Noctis got healed is because Nox pretty much felt everything Noctis did? /Both/ of his sons were basically attacked by a daemon and he only knew about one of them at the time and didn't do anything to calm or reassure Nox? (Clarus: Only because you didn't know

spideypoolalways

About him, Regis. Regis: Thats no excuse, Clarus.) Does Iris get to be a Shield or did Nox latch onto Axis or one of his kids? Does Acastus find Prompting and drop him off with Noct/Cor? Does Nox hang out with Noct, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prom all the time or does the memories act up enough to make him feel weird about it? How does Regis take his brother and son's Sick Days? What about Dissidia? The 3 youngest Royals getting snatched and the group watching on Crystal

spideypoolalways

Vision? Dad Titus/Regis freaking out over their kids having been summoned to a death match? And how exactly does Titus see the boys? Sons, brothers, cousins? Oooh, more Trauma. Noct, Nox and Acastus w/others playing and end up in the Crystal room. Cue the boys lighting up, maybe passing out because the magic hits their young system really hard (its why Royals aren't supposed to be Presented until 18) and everyone freaks out, and news makes it to Regis and Titus that they

spideypoolalways

Are in the infirmary and the gist of what happened via panicked guards and rush there immediately and are jumped by panicked kids talking and crying about what happened. I didn't realize I had so many questions. But now I need to know. 👀👀 Please!🙏

spideypoolalways

Oh! Just remembered a little more! Does anyone pick up on the people/places that he shouldn't know? Do they assume that Nox got some of it from Noct, like with the Marelith? Or are they assuming LC/ Oracle DNA mix?

Me: Yes, Regis asks about the papers and Titus doesn’t OUTRIGHT admit he did an illegal but he does grudgingly explain that he needed papers in case the NIfs came looking and he ... knows ... a few people who can help ... “recreate” papers for refugees who lost theirs in whatever fire or tragedy drove them from their homes.

Regis mulls over that for ten long seconds then blatantly pretends he never heard it in the first place. Those “people” likely saved the life of his son and half-brother, he can let it slide this once.

I need Nyx Ulric to adopt these two now JUST so Nyx can tease that he’s related to Captain (then later when he learns that they’re Lucis Caelums he can quietly die in a corner because OH NO HE’S RELATED TO THE KING). Not sure how or when Nyx adopts them, but he absolutely does.

It probably happens when he's just a wee bit sloshed. Not enough to be incoherent or insincere, but enough that he doesn’t feel any fear offering to adopt the pair while babysitting them because Captain had to work late and Nyx is off the combat roster until his ankle heals. Once he’s sober he is a Panic™, but Captain takes it surprisingly well and Nox loves his new braid. Acastus just looks Amused™.

Lib slaps Nyx over the head because IDIOT THINK THIS STUFF THROUGH then gives him another drink because TWO MORE ULRICS. It’s a good thing Nyx is an Ulric Keeper in this AU, because he can teach them most of the Ulric Clan stories and dances and make them proper Ulrics.

Acastus loves introducing himself as Acastus Ulric Drautos, both because it’s fancy like “Lucis Caelum” is and also because it made both Titus and Nyx spit their coffee the first time they hear it.

The Galahdians ... have mixed feelings at first. But the predominant one is that it doesn’t matter that this kid is clearly related to the Chancellor (at first they all think the Chancellor bedded Captain’s Aunt, since they don’t know about the LC blood, and that’s why he looks like Ardyn) because Captain has clearly staked a claim on him. Galahd (in my HCs) is a Very Adoption Heavy culture and big on judging people by their current family rather than any previous blood ties, so ... mostly the Chancellor thing gets intensely ignored. Acastus isn’t an Izunia, he’s a Drautos (and then later an Ulric). So they will treat him as such.

But in private there is some debate on exactly what happened, for the Chancellor to vanish around the time his ... relation (son? They mostly assume son), shows up in Drautos’s care.

No few number of them think Titus stumbled on Ardyn with the two kids and killed the Chancellor to save them.

For Nox ... the Lucis Caelum blood is basically impossible to hide. This boy LOOKS like a literal carbon copy of the Prince but younger and he’s young so his control over his magic is ... not. Not that good. Especially not when there’s so mUCH of it.

All of Galahd listened to the Glaive who was on babysitting duty when Nox had a rare tantrum and skewered the wall with ghostly blades and all privately, immediately agree to Never Tell Anyone. Ever.

Well. To be fair, they do debate whether they have a duty to tell Regis, but again the Adoption Culture comes into play and they decide it’s up to Titus to spill that secret. A few Glaives do ask Titus about it (Titus nearly has a heart attack because SINCE WHEN DID THEY KNOW) and when they ask if they know who the mother was, Titus looks very grim and very, very quiet for a long time, then admits:

There is no mother. There never was.

They stare at him in confusion until Acastus, lurking nearby with too-sharp eyes, gives a smile that could cut and says brittlely that “amazing things that can be done with science these days you know. Truly amazing. Why, get a blood sample and a tank of the right solutions and you could probably grow anything you wanted��.

The Glaives are Horrified™. So is the rest of Little Galahd when it gets around and then is made a Clan Secret by all the Clans unanimously. The secret never leaves the borders of their little slum.

Also yes, people assume that Noctis’s and Nox’s magic resonated because Nox is a clone and it freaks them out.

Regis is Such A Guilt when he finds out how Acastus knew about Noctis’s injury. No it doesn’t matter that he DIDN’T KNOW NOX EXISTED. One of his son’s (his FIVE YEAR OLD son) was suffering. Was screaming in agony and terror and Regis didn’t do a THING about it and no amount of logic can make that better.

Nox latches onto Axis’s triplets in this AU so while Iris will be best friends with him, his Shield, Hand, and Sword are actually all made up of Axis’s three kids. Axis is a BIT of an internal Scream when Nox is at the age people start making noises about him building a Retinue and taking Iris as his Shield and Nox goes, “NO. I have a Shield already! A Hand and Sword too!” And stuff spirals out to reveal Axis as Clarus’s kid (Clarus takes it much better than Axis thought he would, tho Axis didn’t expect to see Lord Amicitia go deathly pale and sit down hard in the nearest chair).

Honestly Iris might be the future love interest in this AU you never know. It would be hilarious if nothing else.

Bold of you to assume Acastus didn’t find Prompto early and bring him home to NOX because “Look Beloved Nibling I Found You A Friend!”. Prompto is a confusion because Nox is like- 4 at the time. But Prompto likes babysitting and playing with Nox and hearing Acastus’s stories and Titus just kinda- sighs his way through the playdates until he realizes that Prompto has been staying in his house for about two weeks with no sign of the parents.

Titus, after much snooping later, sitting at the kitchen table of Grandma Ostium quietly pulling his hair out: HOW DO YOU ADOPT A THIRD CHILD. DOES IT COUNT AS KIDNAPPING IF THEY COME OVER AND STAY WITH YOU FOREVER AND THE LEGAL PARENTS NEVER NOTICE. ACASTUS WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME.

Acastus: I regret nothing. Do you want me to fake Prompto’s death? I’m sure there’s enough Prompto’s out there that nobody will notice if you gain a nephew called Prompto Drautos.

Titus, holding his face in his hands while Grandma Ostium laughs at him in the corner: NO, ACASTUS. DO NOT FAKE THE DEATH OF THE CHILD. How do you even know how to do that? Nevermind I don’t want to know.

Roughly a year later when Everything Gets Revealed, Titus and Cor: *intense staring contest over Smol Blond Child*

Cor: You don’t know where he-

Titus, growling like a cranky Behemoth that might very well bite off someone’s head: He’s a Niflheim created clone. I know.

Cor: ....

Titus: He's been living in my house for a year. I’ve seen the barcode. It’s not like I wasn’t raising one already.

Cor: His legal parents-

Titus: Is me. The Argentums were emotionally neglectful and didn’t even notice when he hadn’t come home for a week and a half.

Cor: *guilty angry silence*

Titus: ...Kid could use an uncle. If you want to man up and be part of his life.

(hgfhg this is post is getting long Imma try to speed through the last questions a bit)

Yes, Nox hangs out with the Chocobros when he can because he adores them (especially Brother Prompto and Team Mom Iggy) but he also has his own friend group in the Little Galahd community so it doesn’t strike anyone as odd really. Nox is a naturally loving child for all he’s shy and Iggy and Gladio are Noctis’s friends and Prompto is his adopted brother (and later Noctis’s best friend).

Regis does Not take the Sick Days well. It makes him alarmed and angry because Lucis Caelums aren’t supposed to get sick days from their own magic and it speaks of BAD THINGS that both of the presumably experimented on and tortured LCs have them.

I’m going to have to come back to Dissidia another time (someone remind me) because this post is too long to ramble here but it would be- it would be Great. Honestly. It would either be the 3 littlest, just Acastus, or just Acastus and REGIS for some brotherly bonding and any of them would be Great and Chaotic. Crystal-o-vision absolutely happens.

The Crystal Room is under 24 hour guard so I don’t think the kids could wander in by accident, plus Acastus would actively avoid the area because of his Trauma.

Now Acastus being presented when he turns 18 on the other hand... >:))))))

Short Version: Much shouting, much alarm, much angst from Regis and Titus and everyone and also the first Sick Day Acastus has had since he turned 17 and by far one of the worst he’s ever had in his (second) life.

I might to a longer version later but not right now.

For Nox’s oddities and odd knowledge they kind of assume both? At first they think it’s just him resonating with Noctis so deeply that there’s a transfer (cue angst from Regis because what is going to happen to Nox when Noctis fulfills his destiny as Chosen King???) but then when Nox starts knowing stuff Noctis doesn’t/can’t know, they start to wonder if the scientists ... Tampered with his DNA. If they got their hands on Noctis’s, which should have been impossible, then it’s not all that out there they got their hands on Oracle DNA.

Sylva is ... very alarmed and very confused when Regis secretly contacts her on a secure encrypted line to ask if there were any ... symptoms to look for in an Oracle child. Because- yes there were but WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

Regis: they wouldn’t happen to be *lists very specific things*

Sylva: ....Have you seen any Messengers nearby lately.

Regis: Carbuncle, a black puppy that disappears into thin air, and a bird woman who can summon wind storms. She calls herself Garuda.

Sylva, having a minor crisis behind her Queenly Facade: I am Very Sure I only have two children so please explain this. Right Now.

Regis: Well............. NiflheimclonedmysonandIthinkmixeditwiththednaofyouoryourdaughterandhehasseerpowersandImayormaynotbepanickingrightnowpleasehelpme.

Sylva, slowly running that over in her mind and figuring out what Regis just said:...

W H A T.

XD Honestly Niflheim might invade Tenebrae only to find the royal family gone because Sylva coincidentally packed her backs and took her and her children on a secret trip to Lucis to have a look at Nox, then since they’re there when Niflheim invades and a spy gets word on what just happened Sylva and Co just- stay there. Oracle Mom Death averted.

Also they absolutely think that it’s Luna’s DNA they used to make Nox because of how instantly Nox gloms onto Luna like a limpet- JUST like he did with Noctis and Regis, and how Luna gets this dazed look in her eyes as their magic tangles and she whispers, “I ... I know you. I know you, don’t I Little Prince? I met you in a dream.” Luna starts crying softly as she pets Nox’s hair and when Sylva asks in alarm why she’s crying, Luna blinks and whispers, “Because he was crying in the dream, and I couldn’t comfort him.”

Acastus lurks in the shadows, watching it all with ... very mixed feelings.

Oracles. He could have gone his entire second life without meeting anymore Oracles. Aera she looks so much like you is that what our daughter would have looked like and oh astrals I KILLED her. I killed the girl with your eyes and your smile and laughed about it later.

[hecohansen31]

The Perks of The Toys

Modern! Ivar+Tinder Date! Reader

(A/N): Hello there, lovelies!

Since I saw that you quite liked ‘The Perks Of The Bush’, I decided to create a series of fics written on the ‘taboos of sex’, starting from pubic hair and moving onto involving sex toys during sex.

I have a few idea on how to continue, but I wanted to tell you that if you have any ideas or proposals of things that you’d want to see in the next chapter, I am here for it.

Feedback is more than welcome: it makes me write faster and make my heart flutter with happiness!

Hope you’ll like this!

Have a nice reading!

WARNINGS: Mention of Sex, Sex Toys, Light Grinding, Mention of Prank War

Before Ivar, you had been a single girl for quite some time.

This meant that you had had to satisfy yourself in some way.

And whenever your own fingers weren’t enough, you had learned to discover a new world: sex toys.

You had been pretty skeptic about it all.

There was no way a thing in rubber and plastic could make you feel as good as a man could.

But apparently it could.

And you had found yourself falling down that rabbit hole, collecting quite the impressive number.

And it had been quite, back in those crazy days.

But now you had a real thing, which was better than any toy.

And yet, although they simply laid unused in a bag, you hadn’t been able to part yourself from them, thinking that you couldn’t simply throw them away, because not only it’d be a waste of money, but also you thought it’d just be bad for the planet.

You didn’t know how to properly ‘dispose’ of them but the fact that they kept on hiding on your wardrobe felt heavy on your conscience, even more now that you and Ivar had moved in together.

Mostly because… a girl with a boyfriend didn’t use toys.

If she did, she wasn’t satisfied with her man.

Which wasn’t true with Ivar.

It was more like a sentimental value, because of all the ‘good moments’ you had spent with them.

But at the same time, you were well aware that if Ivar ever found out about ‘your little secret’ it’d destroy him and that small sexual confidence he was slowly building up, since your relationship had reached that level.

So, you had been trying to find a proper way to dispose of your sex toys, eventually finding out that a local sex-shop was organizing an event to collect sex toys and to give them ‘new life’, recycling them, through some new process.

That morning you had gotten the bag out of your wardrobe, as Ivar slept in a bit, since it had been a tough night for him his legs paining him thoroughly and stopping him from sleeping properly.

You thought of bringing it there after work and you could already feel lighter as if you had already solved the problem.

And you had felt so light… that you had forgotten the box at home, leaving it to a rather curious Ivar…

… who checked the box worried you had forgotten something important, just to make a rather… weird discovery.

He certainly wasn’t clueless to your time as a single woman and even more certainly he recognized the objects in the bag.

But he was shocked of finding out that after moving in together and having what he thought was an ‘healthy sex life’, you still had them.

Anger followed his insecurities and he wasn’t able to stop himself from throwing the bag down the small coffee table it was set onto, and as he did so, although the toys stayed in place, a small piece of paper came out of it, and curious investigator Ivar immediately lightly crouched down to collect it.

Maybe you hadn’t solely hidden a stash of sex toys, but also a relationship…

As much as Ivar tried to keep his calm, knowing that most of the time it was just him being paranoid, he couldn’t help but rush to irrational thoughts.

But the small piece of paper wasn’t any admission of guilt.

It was a form for the donation of some objects to a local sex shop (yeah he had definitely had to wait for Hvitserk outside of it) to recycle them, listing your name and your number, with a quick description of the products you intended to donate.

And then there was a small note about the reason behind why you had decided to donate.

And that was what struck him.

You had written:

“The toys are still functioning, and I am not donating them because of any malfunction, but I found somebody who makes me feel like I don’t have to use them”.

He wasn’t completely blushing.

And he was feeling just a tiny bit guilty of having gone through your stuff and for having mentally  accused you of something you obviously didn’t have any say in, although he still felt like he needed to talk with you.

And as he was thinking all of this, his eyes fell on the various ‘toys’, shifting swiftly past them, till he found a few ones that he couldn’t help but be curious about.

… and something more as he imagined you using them.

He licked his lips, and quickly closed the bag, throwing out the donation form.

Maybe these toys might still have some use between you two.

As you came home that night, you finally realized what was the task that you had forgotten about: taking the toys to the sex shop.

And worst of all, you had left them on the coffee table, for everyone to see, hadn’t they been shielded by the fabric bag you had stashed them in.

So, you literally huffed out a breath of relief, as you found the bag untouched where you had left it and smelled the wonderful perfume of a homemade meal, as Ivar came to greet you from the kitchen, an apron over his pajama, signaling he had worked from home.

You immediately came to him, gently kissing his lips, as he giggled at your eagerness, answering your kiss and then proceeding to bring you closer as he took in a good look at you.

Something was making him strangely affectionate.

“… welcome home” he huffed on your lips, as you tried to dive in for another kiss, just for him to turn around as a timer went off.

“Gosh aren’t you a little housewife?” you made fun of him, just to be threatened by a jokingly harsh look “… ok ok, man of the house”.

“How was work?” he asked, as he went to check on the meat, before he disposed a few appetizers for you to snack on, as you waited for everything to be cooked.

You opened a bottle of wine, pouring yourself a big glass, trying to appear as calm as you could, avoiding to think about the fact that your secret was still out in the open.

You should have set a note on your phone to bring it with you, so you wouldn’t forgotten about it anymore.

“… pretty nice” you mumbled, pouring a glass also for him and bringing it to him “… what about you? Did you work from home?”.

He nodded, as he came to get his glass from your hands, just to be stopped by your lips, as you held out the glass.

“… did you take some medicines?” you reprimanded him, since he wasn’t supposed to mix alcohol with the medicines he was taking.

“At lunch” he replied with a quick look at you, before stealing the glass, as he instead kissed you to distract you, finally gaining the upper hand “… so I am cleared to drink”.

“Not too much”.

“Ok, mom” he mumbled with a grimace, accompanying you back to the table, as he went to grab the food, which appeared delicious solely from the smell and you were quickly served, as you tried to understand if your lover was just trying to be romantic…

… or there was something behind it.

You didn’t in the slightest link Ivar’s behavior with your ‘toy collection’, thinking he had probably screamed at one of his brothers and he was trying to get you to apologize to them from him.

“What is this for?” you mumbled with a full belly, as you finished your second glass of wine, feeling definitely relaxed and sending a small look to your beloved, who had a sly smirk on his face, lightly teasing the board of his glass.

“Can’t you accept the fact that I am a decent boyfriend?” he shot back, as he held an hand out for you, but you sent him a questioning look.

“I hope that you know that I won’t help you in any prank way you have put yourself in” you retorted, as you gulped down your glass of wine, just for you to choke onto it as Ivar replied.

“… then you won’t help me understand what is in that bag on the coffee table”:

Fucking busted!

You risked choking on red wine eventually spluttering it everywhere, aware that Ivar had looked through your stuff.

“… you shouldn’t have opened it” you tried to shift the blame, but he just sent you a look as if to say ‘don’t even try’ “… it isn’t what…”.

“I do have to say that it bothered me at first” he mumbled, and although his tone was evidently playful you could hear the brutal emotion he had felt when he had found your stash of sex toys “… I mean why use a silicon model when you have the real thing”.

“Ivar…” you tried to plead with him to let you explain, but he raised a hand to tell you to let him continue.

“… and then I found the note, and I thought that… that maybe I should think before always assuming the worst”.

You were speechless but had to say something witty.

It was simply how your relationship with Ivar worked.

“And you had to find my stash of sex toys to realize this” you blurted out, as you both soon erupted in laughter and you couldn’t help but feel the blush on your cheeks dampen.

Maybe you didn’t have to talk about this…maybe you could just laugh it off…

“… you shouldn’t throw them away”.

… or maybe you had to endure a rather confusing talk with Ivar.

“I thought you said you didn’t want me to use a silicon substitute” you challenged him, and he smirked at you wolfishly.

The kind of smirk that made you clench your thighs in anticipation.

“No, you certainly like me better” he smirked confidently and although you muttered a light ‘asshole’ under your breath, you loved seeing him so sure about himself.

It was definitely a strong aphrodisiac.

“… but we could use some toys together” he continued as he sent you a shy look, looking out for your validation softly “… I mean I do have to know how you can use some…”.

“Ask away, boy” you mumbled, making him laugh, as you moved yourself for the ‘exploration’ in the bedroom.

Part of you couldn’t help but feel like it was nice to know that Ivar hadn’t taken it personally, but instead had tried to incorporate it in your sex life.

You found it sweet.

And fucking hot.

A lot of men would have shamed you, made you feel horridly for feeling the need to come without them, but it honestly made you feel good.

Even more as Ivar looked at you like you were a sex goddess as you explained the use of the various objects.

A few were non-working, because the battery had died down, and you’d definitely have to clean a few more because they hadn’t been used in such a long time, but it was definitely becoming a possibility the more you talked about it.

“What is this?” asked Ivar picking a small steel butt plug, with an aquamarine heart handle, making you smirk lightly.

“Butt plug” he immediately dropped it, sending you a worried look “… never used it, don’t worry. I got it in a flash sale on a black Friday a bit of years ago…”.

“You do buy sex toys, as other women buy bags” he mumbled, sending you a joking look, as you swatted him lightly on the shoulder.

“These ones give me much more satisfaction” you replied as you sent him a lightly reprimanding look “… and don’t look at me like that, like if you, yourself, don’t collection little vintage cars…”.

“Guilty” he mumbled, before he picked up the butt plug as you set up a small bullet vibrator, your favorite toy since it was sleek and cute but had led you in so so much pleasure that you were glad its battery wasn’t destroyed “… and about the butt… the plug… not interested in butt things?”.

Ivar’s malicious gaze definitely made it quite the trick on you.

“… never had anybody to try it on” you led him on, as you kneeled closer to him, taking the plug from his hand and nearing your lips to his mouth “… want to try it on, my might Viking?”.

“You mean on you, right?” he tried to protest, but you simply sent him a smirk.

“… not exactly, but we can discuss about it”.

“It is not open to negotiating” he growled as you lightly grinded yourself against his straining cock, his pajama pants doing literally nothing to hide it.

And if Ivar hadn’t changed his usual habits, he certainly wasn’t wearing nothing underneath them.

“The prostrate is there for a reason!” you joked and he sent you an even harsher look “… ok we’ll try it when you are ready, in the meanwhile what about a bit of the old love-making?”.

“I think that I can agree on at least that” he muttered and he pushed you down onto the bed, making you giggle at his eagerness.

But he still reached out lightly for one of your toys set in your bag: a big and very purpley dildo.

“Can I use this as a joke to Hvitserk?”.

And sometimes you wondered whether your instinct was ever wrong.

---

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[i-dream-of-twilight-sparkle]

Chapter 26 - Starlight’s Mother, Part 2 - Why Did Firelight Keep Her A Secret?

*THUNDER BOOM*

The storm rages on, and may be even picking up further intensity. But the group outside is absolutely affixed on the sight of Starlight’s Mother. Many with their mouth agape and concerned faces, especially after she had just mentioned that she had been murdered. Talking with her is going to be perhaps one of the darkest, and most serious conversations they’ve ever been in or listened to.

Firelight’s loud scream has attracted the attention of Sunburst and his Mom, they run up while both are holding umbrellas with their magic to see what’s going on and are immediately affixed on the sight of the glowing spirit. Stellar Flare actually somewhat recognizes her, though she didn’t know that she was Starlight’s Mother.

Sunburst: Just what is going on here?!

Stellar Flare: (I… feel like I’ve seen her before… do I know her?)

*THUNDER BOOM*

Twilight: I… think it’s about time we head into Firelight’s house for shelter against the storm… then we can start talking to Sunset about… well… a lot of stuff, to be frank…

The group now joined by Sunburst and Stellar Flare head into Firelight’s house, the only one not coming in quite yet… is Firelight himself… who is still too upset about learning that his wife has been dead. He eventually does just manage to slowly pick himself up and walk into his house along with the rest.

Starlight lights the fireplace to heat up the room and help dry everypony who got soaked in the storm, as everypony shakes off the water in their manes and tails. Sunset sits in the center of the room, naturally as she’s going to be answering a lot of questions. Everypony starts to settles down, except for Firelight who still can’t help himself from being upset about the fate of his beloved wife he weeps in the corner of the room constantly as the rest of the group prepares to speak with Sunset. Starlight then gets to asking Twilight what she knows.

Starlight: Twilight, you somehow knew my mother’s name as soon as you saw her… mind telling me how?

Twilight: Of course, your mother is none other then Sunset Shimmer… Celestia’s protege before me. Celestia told me all about her for the first time after a private talk with her and Luna when I was gathering invitees to the ball.

Starlight: WHAT?! Celestia had a protege before you… and she was my mother?!

Starlight turns to the spirit of Sunset

Starlight: Is… is this true… mother?

Sunset simply nods, and Starlight finally has the epiphany she’s been waiting for her whole life.

Starlight: Oh my gosh… that’s why… that’s why I’ve had so much raw magical power! My mother happens to be the only other pony’s whom’s magic power has captured Celestia’s attention! But wait… if you’re dead... were you killed in a battle with a foe while on the job... and thus Celestia had to unfortunately find a new student?

Sunset: You’re half right… I was killed in a battle… though if it were while I was still her student, there certainly would of been a very publicized funeral... But I had actually stepped down a decent while before then… so I could eventually live with your father and raise you… When I went up to the soul shield… I was so upset that I was never going to get that chance…

Sunset starts tearing up, looks like spirits can cry too. Though a spirit’s tears is more like little sparkles that simply fade once they hit the ground.

Starlight: Mother… you stepped down from a pretty secure role… where you could of possibly became a Princess of Equestria… just so you could raise a family…? Just so you could raise… me…?

Sunset nods once again

Sunset: Most of my life, I relished my role as Celestia’s protege. I felt like I was the coolest pony around in my teenage years… taking down the bad guys… being sent on missions on behalf of the Princess… the kind of spells I was able to perform… and even the possibility of eventually reaching a major position of power one day. I loved being Equestria’s premier hero so much, I started collecting a sort of information database on all the most wanted villains to get an edge on all of them. Reading up about past ones that had a danger of coming back, ones that were on the loose at the time, and any potential new threats in the future.

But… as I got older… keeping an eye on so many criminals and evildoers also put a target on my back… it was hard to make many meaningful friends when getting too close to me would only put them in danger. And as I reached adulthood, I felt a want to escape from it all, relax, and raise a family. I met your father sometime late in my teenage years, it was generally alright to go see him because Sire’s Hollow… at least at the time… was a pretty obscure place.

We got married not too long after I became 21 years old, and… when I was pregnant with you a few years later, Starlight… it finally came time to inform Celestia I wanted to step down. Continuing to be Celestia’s protege would of just simply endangered you and your father’s life.

But… once I had given birth to you… I know there was still one more danger I had to deal with before I could retire once and for all.. a family of 3 anarchists… who were threatening to steal the magic from Equestria for themselves or even get rid of all magic if the former wasn’t possible… so once my body mostly recovered from giving live birth in the very house we’re in right now… I set out within 2 weeks… and I’m not even sure I lived to see a 3rd week…

Starlight: So… you’ve really been dead for just about the whole time you were missing…

Firelight just breaks down

Firelight: Why… why did this have to happen…?! We were so close… to just having time for ourselves! *sniff*

Sunset: I’m so sorry, Fi-Fi! I didn’t think I was going to die! I got too overconfident that this last job wasn’t going to be that dangerous… the three anarchists I fought weren’t like a particularly strong entity… they were just a family of ponies…

Starlight: Can you recall their names?

Sunset: …I’ve been trying… but… for some reason I’m drawing a blank… to be frank, I can’t even recall how I died at the moment…

The entire group inside gasps

Starlight: What?! I would think the moment of death, and especially the names of murderers would be like… the one thing every spirit remembers most vividly!

Sunset: I don’t quite get it either… but I think at the very least it’s possible for something to jog my memory… all I can remember right now is that while I died myself… I believe 2 of the 3 anarchists I was chasing went down with me. I’m also drawing a blank on what happened to the 3rd, but if nothing else it looks like despite dying in the process. I was generally successful in my mission of making sure they weren’t able to do anything. Otherwise Equestria would be a magicless hellscape right now… that at least gives me some relief…

Starlight: How come no bodies were ever recovered? Of either you or the anarchists you were fighting that died too?

Sunset: I think where I confronted them, it was a pretty abandoned or at least a very low populated area… and if there’s one thing I feel like I can just vaguely recall about my death… I have this sense that I was falling at one point… off a cliff near an ocean… it’s possible that our bodies just ended up in the ocean… and hungry water predators like sharks picked off any remaining trace of me and the anarchists that died…

Starlight: Well… I guess if that’s all we’re going to get about your death until something jogs your memory… perhaps we should continue talking about back when you were alive. I’ll repeat that you were Celestia’s student… and you gave that away to raise me… that’s… a lot to take in…

Firelight looks at Starlight, and finally starts confessing why he’s kept quiet for so long about her mother.

Firelight: *sniff* The fact she was Celestia’s student… was why I was so adamant about not telling you who was your mother… *sniff* *sob* Do you remember that spell book of advanced magic that was the catalyst for your magic freakout that got you your cutie mark?

Starlight: Yes?

Firelight: That was your mother’s spell book…

Starlight gasps

Firelight: Because my wife led such a dangerous life… I thought you gaining your cutie mark through her spellbook meant you were destined to follow in your mother’s footsteps to become Celestia’s student… but I didn’t want you to go down that path… if you had known who your mother was, and especially after getting your cutie mark… you might of went straight to Canterlot to claim yourself as Celestia’s Student through a sense of birthright…

I had dealt with enough drama from this while I was with your mother… I pleaded several times during our relationship that she step down… and when she finally did… I felt like we were going to be free at last… *sniff* but then she went missing, and as we know now… she died… *sob* but I held onto vain hope for years that she was still alive and would some day come back… *sniff*

But the longer she never came back… the more it convinced me that I shouldn’t tell you. For fear… that… you’d disappear too… *sniff*

More tears stream down from Firelight’s eyes

Starlight: Father… So… you never told me who she was… to protect me?

Firelight nods while still tearing up. Starlight lowers her head, regretting at least some of the treatment she’s given him for never telling her about her mother.

Starlight: Oh gosh… I take back everything I ever said to you when I yelled at you about her… you probably would of been right that I’d go down that path because I would of immediately wanted to go to Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns back then... Sunburst did, I would of certainly made it too… and if I had known Sunset was my mother… I might of also been compelled to take her place… and might of even challenged Twilight to a duel for the position at some point…

I suppose you still made some mistakes by this resulting in my deep hatred for Cutie Marks being driven deeper… because if I had gone to the school I would of been able to reunite with Sunburst… perhaps I could of come around on Cutie Marks…

But… ultimately, you were just being a protective father... You didn’t want to see me get hurt, or go missing like Mom did… I wish at the very least you could of hired maybe a babysitter to keep me company rather then making me spend my entire childhood stewing about cutie marks, never having a mother figure, and more… but I now understand your motivation for hiding her name from me at last… cause there would of bound to have been records somewhere of who she was that I would of found, and how instantly compelled I might of been to go down a path you were afraid of…

Starlight tears up

Starlight: I’m so sorry… I understand now… you’re not such a bad father after all…

Starlight walks up to her father to hug him. After being so upset since finding out of his wife’s fate, he finally gets a little bit of happiness in at least somewhat reconciling with his daughter. The rest of the group giving d’awwws and/or crying joyous tears.

After letting go, Starlight decides to ask a question that’s now very possible to get an answer from both her parents.

Starlight: Is it alright… if I may ask what the day of my birth was like?

Sunset smiles

Sunset: One of the greatest days of my life… it was quite painful at first, of course… Sire’s Hollow unfortunately didn’t have a true hospital, at least at the time, and my water had broke far too early for me to get to a hospital without you likely being born while on the way there. Luckily, your father had some medical knowledge and was able to get me through. 

I eventually saw you as an adorable pinkish purple foal with a darker purple mane and tail with light blue highlights... couldn’t help but notice just how much of your father’s genes got passed down to you appearance-wise... and at the same moment I got to see you with my own eyes for the first time... I briefly looked out the window and noticed how pretty the stars outside at night were, I couldn’t help but have been inspired by the sky to give you your first name...

Firelight: And I had talked with your mother beforehand about how fun it’d be for our foal to have a last name to rhyme with hers, if we had a daughter

Sunset: And thus, you… Starlight Glimmer… was born.

Fluttershy: That’s so cute…

The group takes a moment to smile about the nice story about the day Starlight was born as a brief breather from the rather serious subjects that have come out from meeting Sunset. Though Twilight asks a rather important question.

Twilight: I don’t mean to bring seriousness back just as we talked about Starlight’s birth. But Firelight, when it seemed like Sunset was missing for a while… did you even try to spread the word for a search?

Firelight raises a hoof about to speak, but then Sunset answers for him

Sunset: I told him not to before I left, Princess Celestia must of told you I wanted out of the spotlight as much as possible once I had stepped down, right? A national search for me would of made that harder, plus Fi-Fi didn’t know I had died not even more than an hour ago. 

Firelight: Yes... right to the end, even if at some point it become more so about preferring to be blissfully unaware what had happened to her… I wanted to respect what she told me to do before she disappeared...

Twilight: Ah, alright… speaking of Princess Celestia though. I actually wonder if I should bring her real quick... I bet she’d love to see you again, Sunset. Would you be alright with that?

Sunset nods

Sunset: Go on ahead, Twilight. I’d absolutely love to see her again as well. It’s probably important she finds out what happened to me, anyway.

Twilight: Alright… I’ll be back with the Princess. Hang tight while I get her...

((Story continues after the break))

Twilight pulls out another piece of portal gum back to the Saddle Arabia palace. And eventually finds Celestia in the halls, and immediately gallops up close

Twilight: Princess Celestia! I have something urgent to tell you...

Celestia: *gasp* Twilight... What is it? Are any ponies in danger?

Twilight: No, nothing like that… but rather a mixture of good news and bad news…

Celestia: What’s the good news?

Twilight: We found Sunset Shimmer...

Celestia goes wide-eyed and smiles

Celestia: That’s fantastic news! So she is still ali…

Twilight: I’m afraid I’m going to have cut you off there, because unfortunately… we found her via spirit summoning… Sunset Shimmer… happened to also be Starlight’s missing mother... And she died shortly after she disappeared...

Celestia’s heart sinks, her hopes dashed of her previous protege being ok almost immediately. Celestia’s cranes her neck lower, her eyes immediately welling up in tears.

Celestia: No… I should of known… I feared this was the case a while ago…even if she wanted to get out of the spotlight… I know it’d be hard for her to avoid everypony that might recognize her… For somepony to be missing for that long without being noticed… it was never a good sign…

And… Starlight Glimmer… was her daughter the whole time…?

Twilight nods

Celestia: It’s… no wonder then she had such raw power, when I had never even heard of her before you met her… Twilight, please let me have a moment of silence and grief for my departed former protege…

Twilight nods to let Celestia have a brief moment to her own thoughts, knowing now how special Sunset was to her. Celestia just sits down for a moment to grieve, even with Spirit summoning possible. It’s nonetheless upsetting to hear somepony died, especially somepony who was only about in her mid-20’s and also somepony Celestia was quite proud of. But soon she stands back up, flares her majestic wings, and she gives Twilight a determined face.

Celestia: I must go see Sunset again... Please, take me wherever her spirit was summoned…

Twilight nods, walking back to the portal she left back into Firelight’s house. Soon Twilight has returned with Princess Celestia. Celestia looks around the room seeing the other Elements of Harmony, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Starlight Glimmer and her father, as well as Sunburst and Stellar Flare. Until she finally sees Sunset’s spirit. She approaches Sunset with a solemn look on her face.

Celestia: Sunset… I am… deeply saddened to learn you died a long time ago… were… you killed amidst a battle with the anarchists you were chasing after…?

Sunset: Yes, Princess… I was killed while fighting them most likely. I’m still trying to jog my memory on the exact circumstances of my death. I’m even having a hard time recalling the names of them. But I should also say, that one of the vague details I can share is 2 out of the 3 also died, though who or what happened to the 3rd is still something I need to recall. So my death wasn’t entirely in vain, I imagine I did just enough to stop them from whatever they planned to do. Since it seems like Equestria was fine in between my death and Twilight became your new student.

Celestia: It’s still so awful to see it came at a terrible price… I hoped you had simply succeeded and you were living the peaceful family life you wanted… it’s a shame you may have never gotten it...

Sunset: I wouldn’t say I didn’t get it at all… while I was pregnant with Starlight I kinda had to sideline myself once it kind of became risky to move too far. So at least for a short while, I got to experience a more normal life… even if of course that was cut short not long after Starlight is born… I guess from the perspective of that I really wanted to be a mother… then yes, I never really got to have all I wanted to do…

Sunset turns to Starlight

Sunset: I really wish I had gotten to be there for you during your childhood. If I had survived my battle with the anarchists, I fully planned on being there for you everyday for when Fi-Fi was at work.

Starlight slightly tears up and smiles

Starlight: I’m happy to hear that, mother… that would of made such a difference on my life...

Firelight: A little late I know, Starlight… but I thought I may as well also give the reason I never hired a babysitter... I had of course been still holding onto hope that your mother was still alive the whole time… I also feared that if she was still around like I optimistically thought… especially when it became years that she was missing… that your mother would of been heartbroken after she might of thought I moved on and married somepony else if she were indeed still alive and came back to the house only to find another mare taking care of you...

Starlight: I guess that’s an understandable reason, there are such thing as babysitters who are stallions that might of been able to avert that, but just not nearly as common as mares. Though if I may slightly change the subject to a more lighthearted note, I notice my mother keep calling you Fi-Fi. Is that just a cute nickname she came up with?

Sunset tilts her head and smiles

Sunset: Pretty much. Your father liked to call me Shimmy, and I wanted to have my own nickname for him. And we settled on Fi-Fi.

Starlight: *giggles* I guess my father has always liked nicknames. He’s called me Pumky-wumpkins or Sugarplum for as about as long as I can remember. Though they don’t seem to be quite as name related as your nicknames for each other

Sunset laughs, and looks at Starlight with a smug face.

Sunset: Hahahaha! Was it really? I’m pretty sure both of those were in potential REAL names he proposed before you were born. You were lucky I vetoed both of them, ehehehehe!

Firelight sheepishly smiles, Starlight just cringes.

Starlight: ….Yeeeeeeah I can’t imagine what it’d be like if Pumky-Wumpkins was actually my name… Sugarplum may have it at least made some sense given my mane is mostly purple. But I still like what actually became my name so much more.

Celestia smiles at the lighthearted conversation

Celestia: That makes me a little happier that you indeed got to have such cherished family moments like picking a name for your foal. I can’t help but feel regretful however... in order to honor your years of service and to make sure you last mission went smoothly, I should have accompanied you... There’s no way those three would of stood a chance against us both.

Sunset: Perhaps, but… these 3 weren’t some superpowered villains. For the most part I’m pretty sure they were average ponies, maybe I can vaguely recall one of them being a decent unicorn but otherwise in a 1-on-1 duel, I would of wiped the floor with them. I faced tougher odds plenty of times. I didn’t think I would of needed the help, guess a little overconfidence was my downfall.

Celestia: I guess so, sadly… at least I got to meet your lovely daughter that was within you as you stepped down…

Sunset goes wide-eyed surprised Celestia knew she was pregnant then

Sunset: You knew I was pregnant then?! That was still pretty early in my pregnancy…

Celestia: I noticed you were nervously rubbing your belly during our last conversation. Maybe at first I thought you just had a full meal. But given you talked to me so much about wanting to raise a family, I sort of put the pieces together.

And I felt it probably would be a better life for your foal for you to take care of it, you took care of Equestria for most of your life. I knew you’d likely raise a good child, and before I found Twilight first... I was thinking of maybe waiting for your child to be old enough to go to my school...

Starlight gasps

Starlight: Wait, you considered to have me as your next student?!

Celestia: That was my plan at first during the period between Sunset stepping down when I met Twilight. This was before I had that dream after bringing Spike’s egg to Equestria, Twilight became Plan A after she hatched Spike. But if that had fallen through in any number of ways, or if I couldn’t quite find a student to hatch the egg quick enough if Twilight failed to hatch it too. I would of gone out to search for you myself, and hope to convince Sunset to let you try to hatch the egg instead. There’s no guarantee that you would of been able to hatch it, but it’s very possible had Sunset lived and Twilight hadn’t become my student. Starlight would be in Twilight’s position right now.

Starlight: Dang… So I could of been the ruler of Equestria in a year right now if the right chips fell…

Starlight sits down while lowering her head thinking of what could have been. Twilight notices Starlight’s reaction to hearing this, ponders for a moment, and then give her a gracious offer.

Twilight: You know Starlight… I could always make you my student again… if… if… you kind of want to give ruling Equestria a shot. I’d still have a lot to teach you about doing so. But I wouldn’t mind having a co-ruler at some point. As I have thought about the strain of moving both the sun and the moon every day.

Starlight perks up at Twilight’s offer. She feels like she may have some slight interest after learning she’s the daughter of somepony else who could have very well succeeded to the throne, but with mysteries still surrounding yet to be answered about her mother. She decides not to make a complete decision just yet.

Starlight: I’ll… have to think about that. It’s already a huge enough honor that I’ll be succeeding you as Principal of the School of Friendship. I’d… be kind of scared a precedent would be set that every Principal of that School becomes a ruler of Equestria if I ended up co-ruling with you *giggles* But… if I have an answer… I’ll go and see you…

Meanwhile, Sunset is surprised but also kind of proud hearing that her daughter had been a student of a Princess too.

Sunset: You were Twilight’s student at one point? I see that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We were both students of Princesses! How did it end for you?

Starlight: I just had a graduation ceremony after Twilight had decided I had learned enough about friendship, and I was left to do what I wanted for a little while. I don’t think Twilight putting me under her wing originally was intent on making me Princess one day. More so that I learn the values of Friendship personally from her.

Though after I sort of graduated, I would later get employed again under Twilight when she started the School of Friendship, when I decided to become the school’s counselor. Kinda funny… at some point I became so dedicated to counseling I would have an alert for whenever a student knocked at my door. To the annoyance of my friend, Trixie. Mom, when you said that you were dedicated to keeping track of criminals even at the expense of having anything resemble a normal life. I realized that may have been another trait I inherited from you…

Sunset: Certainly sounds like it, doesn’t it? Hope you didn’t get all of my rather flawed traits, I… did kind of have a temper back in the day.

Starlight sheepishly smiles remembering all the time she’s expressed rage whether it was before she was reformed, when she had to bottle up anger at Trixie, when she most recently yelled at her father, etc.

Starlight: Er… I kinda have that too…

Starlight sheepishly smiles

Sunset: Oh well… at least that means we can sympathize with each other!

Celestia smiles hearing the conversation and decides to ask Sunset for a favor.

Celestia: This has been a nice conversation with you and your daughter. But may I ask you for something?

Sunset: What is it, Princess?

Celestia: I’d like... to give you a hug real quick, or at least… I hope the cosmos counted us as close enough to do so.

Sunset smiles

Sunset: Of course, Princess. I’d love that. And we better count, or else some how some way... I’m gonna get somepony to file a lawsuit against the Grim Reaper!

The whole room giggles thinking about a lawsuit against death itself. But Celestia and Sunset approach eachother close, Celestia puts a hoof around the back of Sunset’s neck, lowers her head and smiles.

The hug is successful. Sunset hugs back a little by wrapping a hoof behind one of Celestia’s tall, slim front hooves.

Pinkie: *giggles* The Reaper doesn’t have to worry about a lawsuit now!

Starlight: Hey! How about a hug for me too, Mom!

Firelight: Me three, Shimmy!

Sunset: Of course, Starlight and Fi-Fi!

Sunset and Celestia let go of each other so Sunset can proceed to have a small group hug with her family that lasts a good while. When they break off the hug, Sunset goes a little extra and surprises Firelight with a kiss.

Firelight: Even as a spirit, your kisses are the best, Shimmy…

The rest of the group just has been d’awwing all over the place for the heartwarming moment. Though as much as the ponies were enjoying these happy moments, there were still mysteries about Sunset left to uncover.

Twilight: I don’t wish to ruin the moment, but I feel like we should soon get some sort of lead so we can help Sunset uncover more of what happened. I don’t want to leave without uncovering who was responsible for Sunset’s death or at least get to finding some clues.

Sunset and Starlight nod, and Stellar Flare suddenly walks up to the front.

Stellar Flare: I… might have something… because… I think somehow I know you, Sunset… but I can’t place my hoof on why…

Sunset takes a look at Stellar and gives a surprised look. She’s been focused too much on talking with her family for the first time ever since she died, talking with her daughter for the first time in particular, and then also reuniting with Celestia to notice any others in the room she recognized

Sunset: I think I know you too! Weren’t you… my older brother’s wife?

Stellar Flare goes wide-eyed

Stellar Flare: YOU’RE Sunspot’s younger sister?!

Starlight, Trixie, and Sunburst give heavy gasps. Being Starlight’s mother wasn’t the only mystery found out about Sunset today. And it looks like there is still plenty more to go.

UP NEXT: Chapter 27: Starlight’s Mother, Part 3 - Where Did She Die?

[j-mysticalien]

🔫 the oc content, hand it over /lh

you don’t have to if u don’t want to lol I just saw you said something about ocs and 👀 I am interested

FIRST OF ALL 🥺🥺🥺

SECOND OF ALL OKAY OKAY HERE TAKE IT 

(I ended up dumping a lot ... I saw the opportunity and ran with it I didn’t mean to oops)

These guys have been in my head for y e a r s and even though I'll abandon them for months at a time, there are plot points I've forgotten, it’s very very unfinished, and clearly influenced by my freshman year interests, they're some of my favorites to imagine and write like every time I do a picrew chain or something I make them too for myself okay okay-

So. Exposition. For ages the demons and dark things have slipped between the veil and into the world. As evil rises, so do those who stand against it. In some parts of the world The Order was established not to eradicate or wage war against the demons, just to keep everything in their proper dimensions and destroy those who refuse. Members of the Order work in groups with assigned roles, often passed down generations. 1: trained in the physical aspects of fighting creatures, they have the unique and mysterious ability to survive in the other dimension-at least better than the average mortal. 2, “Alchemist”: Usually a witch, human descendant of a magical being, or a particularly skilled mortal even. they provide the magical aid since the other cannot perform magic themselves. (Though Witches tend to form their own communities or work with the demon realm which historically has caused tensions) While fewer and well hidden, this secret society guards the mortal realm to this day... 

There’s a small, quiet town in the northeast. Nothing much happens- the power may go out or the weather may turn within seconds and figures may appear and shift into the shadows but it all turns out fine eventually. Nothing to worry about. But those who know a  little too much know where to go when things need to be taken care off. Bloom’s Florist and Garden Shop, a sweet little store in the middle of town staffed by the owner’s two teenaged kids. They’ve got a lovely selection of flowers and herbs. If you hear noises from their basement, best to ignore it. If you see the kids sprinting down the street, best to stay out of their way. If they tell you to avoid the woods one night, you listen...

OCS MY BELOVED HERE THEY ARE

 Dante Achilles Sindweller. He is type 1.  He’s tall, thin but muscular, almost dangerously pale. His hair is blue, eyes blue though they sometimes look red. Riddles with piercings and pale scars. Cocky bastard but well deserved. Friendly and deadly all at once. He’s good at what he does and is always up for a challenge. Low key high key losing his sense of humanity. You see actually being in the demon dimension is draining because of the pure chaos of it but returning to reality is rough too. Because of the hunter’s ability (I’m pretty sure they have this ability bc the og demon hunters secretly fucked a bunch of demons so Hunters have demon blood and cannot “die” in the hell dimension but idfk at this point) they can adapt to the word with a combination of demonic attributes and idealized forms that disappear when he gets back. So um the mental toll is very much a thing that he hides very well...at least at first. He doesn’t actually have to travel too often thought, just during emergencies and later he genuinely visits some chill demon friends there.

Cordelia Emerys Bloom, “Cordie”. 5′2″, dark brown skin, black hair she keeps in two short braids, round rimmed glasses. She’s the alchemist. a few of her far off ancestors were fae. Her own magical battery is low so she’s become skilled in working with. potions and magical plants. She’s the most serious member. of the trio. She knows the job, she has a rhythm, she doesn’t like change. This group had three braincells and 90% of the time she has all of them. She likes her plants, her books, and Dante. She’s a little high strung and stubborn but she’s clever, intelligent, and really warm person once you get past her shields. She grew up way too fast and with all her adult figures gone, Dante slowly slipping (though she denies it to the point where Alice bright it up and they didn’t talk for a week), and this irritation turned fear that Alice’s presence is temporary leaves her with some issues but it’s okay im determined to let her be happy, she just has to let herself accept happiness.

Alice Barnet. A witch. Thick, bright red  hair, hazel/ blue eyes. Absolutely stunning. and a fashion icon. She moved to attend to uppity private school right outside of town. She stumbled upon the shop and immediately sensed the great power hidden in there. So she just walked in- because of the dimensional portal not because the girl at the register she saw through the window was so pretty what are you talking about it was witch instinct only- and announced herself and offered her services. She’s a flirt, though a sincere one. She projects a confident, fun vibes even if she doesn't actually feel it. Fake it until you make it I guess. Coffee addict will memorize your birth chart, Starbucks order, and all the little behavioral things. Most of my early drabbles with her involve her sitting on Cordie’s desk sipping her iced coffee while Cordie is like “how tf did you get in here” “good question. Better one: they didn’t have the black tea you like is green okay?” She actually is part of an informal coven but that’s a whole side story with its own cast of characters I haven’t touched in ages

Dynamics dynamics so Cordie and Dante are siblings in all but blood, they’ve been together for almost their entire lives. (Cordie’s parents are almost always away-either on Order business or just vibing idk they’re cool though. Dante’s parents are dead but only Dante himself seems to know that-Something about demon blood and dimension hopping doesn’t let their kind live long) They’re really close. If they met at this point in life they probably would never have been friends and Cordie probably would despise him but as they are they love each other and *know* each other. Technically Dante is older but Cordie is the eldest sister of the relationship.

The two of them have opposite reactions when Alice enters their life. (This entrance is one of the few *full* scenes I actually wrote down) Dante is allured-not by her but by the potential adventure she represents. She states her case and he’s like oh this’ll be interesting. They become best friends almost instantly. Their sass, confidence, and more adventurous sides click harmoniously- much of the time to Cordie’s dismay. To Cordelia, Alice is something unknown, something potentially dangerous. She makes her assumptions (prissy, incompetent, entitled, inexperienced) and tolerated her. Alice has had a crush on her since day 1. She was determined to prove herself to the group and really she’d just like to get her trust and friendship at some point, gushy feelings be damned. They fall in love slowly, they learn to trust and be weak and learn to know each other and be themselves Alice is genuinely interested in all the stuff Cordie knows about the magical world and Cordie gets to try to be a person outside of that world. The recent stuff I’ve actually written down involves a lot of sleepy conversations and whispered confessions and soft touched and hhh

Some of the non-human characters

“Lady”: the ghost that haunts the basement/ Order base. She can’t really speak and isn't always visible, never fully. They don’t know who she was or why she’s there. She helps out when she can though. Might help Dante in the very end. 

All of the actual demons are off ideas. Like each deadly sin has it’s own demon (they didn’t realize some humans had grouped them together for some time but they think it’s funny, sometimes they hang out just because of that) The gang doesn't directly meet a lot of them but 

Curiosity aka “Apple” aka “Heather” aka “Bee”aka...:The spark that fuels innovation ne the spiral of a downfall. frequently visits human world, team switches between stopping them from blowing up a building to playing Mario kart together. Like he definitely causes trouble and should not keep escaping through the portal but like...he’s fun to got to the mall with. Funky Lil dude who’s there for a good time and some chaos. Changes aliases all the time.

Nostalgia aka “Honey-Lavender”: the kind that leaves the ghost of a smile on your face, the kind that drowns you in the past, the kind that makes you want to go back, or forget. mostly stays in hell. One of the demons Dante visits and is acquainted with. They lay and talk. She can be a downer but he doesn’t mind, he appreciates the company and some days she keeps him tethered to his life and sanity (on the bad says she has the opposite effect, she can’t help it)

OKAY AHAHA THATS ENOUGH OUT OF ME THERE THEY ARE THANKS

[bellamyblake]

Good morning! How are you holding up? what are your bellarke!met on the ark headcanons? because everyone in this fandom has some

Tbh not great but thank you. Hope you’re doing well.

I’ve always had this headcanon that they meet up as kids. 

First when Wells takes Clarke to this black market in Factory where they trade for color pencils with Bellamy. 

He has this thing going that he climbs in the ventilation system and sneaks into this old storage room where he steals a bunch of old stuff to sell or tries to finds clothes for Octavia or his mom, so he has like 5 pencils up his ally and Clarke trades for them with some nice things he gives to Octavia later like a hair clip or a nice red ribbon or her beloved blue colored nail polish which he uses to paint O’s toenails with.

He’s always kinda rude and Clarke’s taken aback the first time but then the more she comes the more her and Bellamy bicker over how to trade for what and it turns into a really heated argument every damn time with poor Wells stuck between them, rolling his eyes.

Then one time a few months later he comes to medbay with a bad cough and she’s there with her mom, drawing on the table with the pencils he traded her. 

He’s not faking it, he’s really sick and if anything his cough sounds quite bad but when his mom disappears in the hallway to get his chart, he jumps off the cot and goes to her.

“Princess, I need medicine.”

“What?”

“I need more medicine than what your mom will give me. Please.” he grabs her arms frantically and shakes her “Where’s the storage?”

“In here, but why?” she leads him to the adjacent room.

“What would I need for high fever?”/ “Bellamy?”/ “Please, my mom’s very sick and I need to do this. Just a few pills, nobody will know!” so Clarke shows him the bottles and he takes a bunch of extra that he hides in his pocket. They come back in right before her mom does.

She still goes to the black market that weekend but he’s not there.

In fact he doesn’t come back for another two weeks and when he does he seems exhausted, very pale and barely standing on his feet, the cough still persistent. 

He doesn’t pick up the subject and they pretend it never happened but before they leave, she grabs his hand and squeezes it “You need to see my mom if you don’t feel fine, Bellamy.”

He tears himself away and groans at her “I don’t need your help, Clarke.”

“Didn’t seem so last time we were together.” 

“I’ll find a way to pay you back, alright?” he says back bitterly but in fact he never does because even though she doesn’t know it, they don’t go back to the market ever again.

There comes a point where Wells and her outgrow it, it’s not interesting for them anymore. It’s much more fun watching a movie in Alpha with their friends on a Friday night or sneaking out in the library and catching sight of cute girls and boys they crush on.

It’s not before she’s sixteen again and she starts working as a medic in medbay that she catches sight of him again.

He’s the cadet assigned to their unit, apparently one of the best out there yet though he was still in training. She takes a few days to remember why he looks so familiar. Meanwhile, he’s been smirking smugly in her direction since the moment he saw her, well aware of who she is and their history.

When she finally approaches him he tries to keep his cool “Came to have a chat with the help, princess?”

“Oh, God, you’re still an ass, aren’t you?”

“You’re the one who tricked me into giving you five pencils instead of four though you had only a stupid algae gum to trade me for them. I’d say you’re the ass out of the two of us.”

“They WERE A MATCHING SET, all basic colors and let me tell you, I still use them.” he raises an eyebrow at that, clearly surprised ”Oh yeah?” he smirks “You’d think by now the princess would’ve had five times that number but I guess in the end of the day only I am as good as to provide you the matching set of BASIC colors, huh?”

“You’re insufferable. Stay way from me.”

He does. Still, sometimes he helps her when her shift’s ending and she has to clean up after her or put the medicine back in the storage room. 

He’s good with the high shelves she can’t reach. Sometimes, even he’s not tall enough so he lets her climb his back to put the bottles up in their right place.

He doesn’t talk much and mostly they still bicker but one time she catches him reading a book in his lunch break and she pesters him about it till they go into that deep conversation about politics and religion and they’re both fifteen minutes late back to work.

She kind of grows to think of him as a friend.

And then one day there’s this man and his sick kid who has a bad heart. Mason’s been a patient of her mothers for years but he was getting significantly worse this year until he passed out at the table while she and Jackson were forced to perform a CPR on him that unfortunately didn’t work, not this time.

his dad, Chris, he cries his heart out but then grows violent, starts yelling, tripping things over and then before they know it he grabs the scalpel left on one of the metal tables and starts waving it around; 

He catches her arm before someone’s strong hands pull her back and a second later Bellamy’s shielding her with his body;

They fight it off on the ground, Bellamy teases him but the man’s still strong and starts chocking him.

Bellamy overpowers him, pulls him up and tosses him to the wall but Chris is really big and his grief makes him strong, so he lurches at Bellamy again with a broken glass he picked from the ground.

He stabs him in the side not once but twice and by the time Bellamy manages to pull out his baton and try to use it on him, Clarke hits him with a chair and the man passes out.

Later when Clarke’s stitching him up and figuring out how to thank him, he reaches to steady her shaky hand and look into her eyes. 

“Hey, it’s okay, princess. It’s fine.” the tears gather at her eyes and she tries to cover her mouth but a sob still escapes her lips and she lurches forward.

He welcomes her in his embrace and holds her close.

She can’t remember ever feeling more at home than in his arms. 

[some-days-we-get-sundays]

Avalance couple questions- basically little one shots

First road trip:

Sara and Ava went to go visit Ava’s pretend parents in Fresno.*let’s just pretend they can drive to Fresno.

Sara: Look Ava I know I held a knife to your moms neck the last time but it was only because I thought something bad had happened to you and that they had something to do with it. But I really wanted to meet your parents for the first time, with you by my side. None of my significant others had normal parents. Yours are fake but they’re like out of an old navy catalog and...

Ava: Honey-

Sara: Right. Anyway I really would love to get to know them with you. We can both get to know them together and i dunno, make it a regular thing maybe? And you can meet my parents too. So what do you say, road trip?

Ava: Wait, did you say you held a knife to my mom’s neck :?

They decided to do it the old fashion way and take a car so that they could have an excuse to buy junk food for the road trip to Fresno. Well Sara wanted the excuse. Ava got apples, carrots, pears, and granola. Sara got sour patch kids, peanut butter cups, skittles, lunchables (even though Ava made them both sandwiches), twizzlers, and bbq flavor chips. They played 20 questions and would you rather. They took turns driving while the other dozed off. They argued over what to listen to on the Bluetooth. Ava wanted Taylor Swift and Sara threatened to break up with Ava just for suggesting that. They belted out some Lizzo and Ariana Grande, they listened to H.E.R and some classic rock after that. One would always try to hold the others hand while driving until they would swerve on the road and have to pay more attention to the road instead of each other.

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First impression of the other:

Sara: Scared and horny. She first sees Ava in her pants suit threatening the legends. Sara is turned on and then she realizes that Ava is being mean to her crew so she prepares a snappy comment just to see pants suit squirm and get more agitated. It’s super arousing to Sara watching this tall beautiful woman be so bossy and demanding and giving orders. But Ava isn’t on the legends side so Sara doesn’t like her... even if she’s fucking gorgeous.

Ava: Damn I finally get to see this captain “bad ass” in person. And jeez it should be a crime to have eyes that blue. What is she like 5 feet tall. She’s so tiny. How can this little human do all the damage she’s been doing for so many years as a legend and then even before that as an assassin. I knew she was... pretty but damn she’s like insanely pretty. Beautiful really. And that damn attitude... I’d like to take her down a peg. And that smart mouth of hers. Making fun of my outfit, that’s original. What I wouldn’t give to wipe that smirk off her face with my lips. Woah no. Sara’s bad. Bad Sara. Bad hot Sara. Fuck I’m so screwed.

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What do they argue about the most:

Sara’s life before the legends, Ava being the C word. Sara hiding things from Ava because she’s scared to ruin the relationship and Ava finding out and getting upset. Sara not letting Ava take care of her sometimes and wanting to handle things on her own. Ava is very nurturing and wants to take care of Sara but she often forgets that Sara had a very troubled life after the boat accident. Sara is used to hard shit and used to taking care of herself. Even when she was with Nyssa, both Sara and Nyssa were raised on survival, not love. Sara has to remember that Ava loves her with no obligations or strings attached. Sara doesn’t have to be scared with Ava, she doesn’t have ultimatums with Ava. So even though it’s been some years, Sara still has a hard time letting her guard down. Ava makes sure to look Sara in the eyes, softly hold her face and push Sara’s hair back and tell her that she can open her heart to Ava and that Ava wants to be there for Sara and that she loves Sara with her whole being. Ava tells Sara that even though she died a couple times and was an assassin a couple times that it’s still Ava’s job to protect Sara even though Sara could kick Ava’s ass if she wanted. Sara still tells Ava that she was taking it easy on her that day that they fought each other on the wave rider. Ava says, “you wanna bet.” And then they fight each other all the way to the bedroom.

Sara doesn’t understand what it’s like to realize your whole life was made up. She and Ava fight on occasion when Sara forgets sometimes how Ava came to be. Sara will bring up things that she did as a child and Ava doesn’t have those memories. When these things happen, Sara takes Ava’s hand, runs her thumb over Ava’s fingers and kisses Ava on the cheek. She then vows to make new memories with Ava every time that Ava is feeling particularly sad about being a Clone. They’ll go to chuck E cheese, they’ll have water gun fights, they’ll build a clubhouse and make forts and continue to go camping (without the monsters), they’ll watch some of Sara’s fave cartoons and kids shows, they’ll make up handshakes and play video games, they’ll play truth or dare, they’ll go to the 80′s and 90′s and walk around the mall, Sara will take Ava to live concerts and shows... Sara assures Ava that even though the past was fabricated, her present and future with Sara are very real <3

_________________________________________________________

Favorite things about each other:

Sara likes Ava’s height. Even though mostly everyone is taller than Sara, not everyone has the perfect height difference between them like Sara and Ava do. Sara likes when Ava swoops down and captures her lips. Sara likes standing on her tip toes and having Ava’s arms wrapped around her body. She likes when they’re hugging and Ava slightly lifts Sara off the ground. Sara likes when Ava spoons her because Ava’s body is soft and it perfectly engulfs Sara’s body and makes her feel like she’s in an Ava cocoon. Sara daydreams sometimes about the curve in Ava’s top lip. Those pouty lips of Ava’s send Sara overboard every time. One of her favorite things to do is suck on Ava’s top lip. Ava also has princess hair and Sara often calls her princess pants suit. Sara can spend hours lazily running her fingers through Ava’s locks. She loves when Ava let’s her braid them while they watch movies. Sara also likes Ava’s legs, they are so toned and they go on for days. Sara doesn’t mind when she gets caught hungrily looking at them either. Sara likes the pet names that Ava calls her. Oliver never called her pet names, and Nyssa called her beloved but Sara likes being Ava’s baby, Ava’s babe, Ava’s sweetheart, Ava’s honey. Sara likes that Ava makes breakfast for them both. Sara isn’t always the best at taking care of herself but Ava makes sure she’s eating properly. Ava’s heart is just so big and she cares so much. It makes Sara ache sometimes, how much Ava cares. Sara loves that Ava worked her way to the top. Nothing was handed to Ava. Ava is brilliant and extraordinary. She can take care of herself, just like Sara. Ava was a woman in a man’s world of monsters and she held her own. She can fight her own battles, just like Sara but she likes that Ava allows herself to cry and be sad and confused and admit when she needs help. Sara learns from Ava how to be more vulnerable and how to forgive herself.

Ava also likes Sara’s height. She usually is self conscious about being so tall but Sara makes her feel beautiful. She loves leaning down and closing out the world as she kisses Sara. She loves wrapping Sara up and protecting her. She doesn’t want Sara to go through anymore pain and when she engulfs Sara, she imagines that she is shielding her from any more heartache. She likes that Sara is so small but so fierce. Everyone around her is taller but when she walks in the room, she’s easily the tallest most strongest, fearless person there. Ava is in awe of Sara’s confidence. Sara told Ava about her past, but she still thinks some things have been left out to spare Ava. Ava doesn’t mind and knows that Sara will tell her when she’s ready. Ava knows this is probably everyone’s favorite physical feature about Sara but she doesn’t care. Those damned blue eyes of Sara’s. Holy shit. The first time Ava saw them in person she gasped. How is it possible to have eyes so blue. Ava feels lucky that Sara only has those eyes for her. She thinks just getting to have Sara in her life makes up for the fact that she is a Clone. Sara makes it all better. Ava of course also likes Sara’s abs. Sometimes when they’re lounging on the bed, Sara sprawled out in every which way, Ava slips her hand under Sara’s shirt and runs her fingers over Sara’s abs. She sometimes will lightly kiss them too. And it’s more tender than it is sexual. Ava sees little scars here and there that she traces with her fingers and kisses with her lips. She doesn’t ask Sara about them. Ava is fascinated by all of Sara’s martial arts skills and often gets Sara to show her some of the moves. Ava thinks Sara is the strongest person that she knows. She has fears but she does stuff anyways. She powers through her fears and doubts, she doesn’t hide or run from her past like she used to. She embraces who she is. She doesn’t apologize any more for who she was or how she had to survive.

___________________________________________________________

What do they do in their downtime?

Besides making up for lost childhood memories, Sara and Ava are homebodies. They obviously use the jump ship for vacations and weekends away but mostly they like to hang out on the time ship in Sara’s room. They lie in bed together and talk, they play video games, Ava reads and Sara puts on earbuds and speed reads audio books. They read the same book so that they can discuss it with each other. When they do go out they like to try all the suggested restaurants from different time periods and areas. They like to go watch movies in the theaters from all the different time periods as well. Sometimes they’ll have picnics or lounge on different beaches. They’ll go to art shows, and cute shops, and museums and they absolutely love walking around old bookstores together- the older the better. Mostly they love to just spend time together. It’s rare that they want to be apart like some couples. Ava and Sara have almost lost each other too many times and they’re always around the Legends, so they cherish anytime together when it’s uninterrupted and just the two of them.

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Who is more jealous

Ava keeps finding out all of the people that Sara has slept with. She’s not mad and she doesn’t blame these people. Who can resit the charms of Sara Lance. Ava certainly couldn’t. She doesn’t blame Sara either. Ava knows that Sara loves her and she now knows that Sara doesn’t want other women. Sara didn’t even want an Ava clone. She could have had her pick of a number of Ava look alike’s but she wanted this Ava. But those insecurities run deep. She’s more secure the longer that they’ve been together but when they’re around attractive people, Ava stands closer to Sara or grabs her hand and squeezes it. Sara squeezes it back every time and Ava relaxes. Then when they are alone, Sara shows Ava how much she only wants her.

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Who is more romantic

Sara is. Sara loves spoiling Ava. And cooking dinner for Ava (ok sometimes Gideon cooks but it’s the thought that counts). Sara loves getting Ava random gifts just because. Her and Charlie and Zari like to sneak away on the jump ship and go shopping in different time periods and Sara always finds cute little trinkets or jewelry or books to bring back for Ava. Ava doesn’t like the commercial holiday and hates her birthday but Sara loves to go all out. Sara likes the moonlit walks and the nights under the stars. She likes going to fairs and winning prizes for Ava. She grew up watching movies where the guy always kissed the girl in the rain, or made a big speech or got flowers just because. And even though Sara grew into this tough bad ass who died many times and had to do terrible things in order to survive, under all that she’s still that same little girl watching those movies, not even being able to believe that she gets to have this fairy tale. She gets the girl and fights the monsters, demons, and dragons on the way.

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First to Wake up/Go to Sleep

Sara usually wakes up before Ava but it’ll be anywhere from 2-5 in the morning. She still has nightmares so she’ll sometimes get up and go make Tea and take it back into bed with her. Ava wakes up at the normal time and when she see’s a mug that wasn’t there before on the nightstand, she feels bad because she knows that means Sara had a nightmare. Ava will make breakfast (even with Gideon insisting to let her do it) and then she’ll rub Sara’s back or stroke her hair till she wakes up. Ava usually falls asleep first unless it was a super tough day then they both knock out at the same time. Sara usually is the night owl though. She always seems to have so much on her mind keeping her awake. Once Ava has fallen asleep beside her, Sara snuggles in and spoons Ava, burying her face into Ava’s neck.

[travllingbunny]

Quarantine tag game

Thanks for tagging me, @sometimesrosy!

ARE YOU STAYING HOME FROM WORK/SCHOOL? I am staying home but not from work, because I work at home. Not just now, I always work at home, so there hasn’t been any change in that respect. The volume of work was the same as always during the last few weeks, too. I haven’t had any new work since Friday, so I’m enjoying a few days of rest, but I don’t know if this has anything to do with Corona. A few days of rest and no work has happened before. It will give me more time to clean my apartment.

IF YOU’RE STAYING HOME, WHO IS THERE WITH YOU? My two dogs and two cats. They are probably happy that they get even more time with me than usual. I think that some people don’t consider pets real company - probably people who don’t have pets - which I find funny. They are amazing company and I never feel lonely or bored. It’s never boring with them. Taking the dogs out two times a day, having to feed the cats 6-7 times a day or however often they start mewing and asking for food (especially the kitten - the young one is just 9 months old), having to stand guard to make sure dogs don’t steal cat food :D and all the petting and displays of affection.

ARE YOU A HOMEBODY? Not really? But I’m also not not a homebody? LOL Normally, I enjoy going out and meeting people; I have salsa classes two times a week, which are really fun; I go clubbing on weekends; and my favorites are the Language Cafe type events, which used to be up to 3 times a week before the Coronavirus situation started (these are events for people to meet and practice languages, where you can just come, choose the table with the language you want to practice, introduce yourself and join the conversation). I go to concerts, film festivals, public lectures/debates etc. 

But at the same time, I don’t mind staying at home, and I’ve had experience in having to stay for a week or two when I had a ton of work and tight deadlines. I talk to people a lot via phone, Viber, Whatsupp and social media, exchange memes and satirical articles about the current situation, etc. I’m online a lot, and I’m trying to finally catch up/check out some of the many TV shows, movies and books I have on my watchlist/readlist and do other stuff I never had enough time for.

AN EVENT THAT YOU WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT GOT CANCELLED? I don’t think it’s been officially cancelled yet (?), but I doubt that the Tindersticks concert in early May is gonna be happening. I had already bought the ticket so I hope it gets postponed. I’ve also bought a ticket for a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds concert in early June (it’s probably too optimistic to hope that will happen?) and a Pixies concert in early September (I don’t have to worry about that one, do I?)

WHAT MOVIES HAVE YOU WATCHED RECENTLY? Since the curfew started, I’ve watched just a few movies that happened to be on TV  - which were all very different, but I wasn’t impressed by any of them (Divergent, Ironclad, and Francis Ha). 

The last time I was in cinema was for the FEST film festival, which ended on 8 March, and I watched Jojo Rabbit on the closing night. I really loved it. Before that, at the same festival, I watched Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut, Blood Quantum (pretty good Canadian horror that’s a different take on the zombie epidemic genre, as it takes place in a First Nation reserve, most characters/actors are First Nation and it deals with social issues), Spanish period drama by Alejandro Amenabar  Mientras dure la guerra (During the War) about the Spanish Civil War and Miguel de Inamuno’s role in the events, The Lighthouse (really good, really dark psychological horror drama that can have a bunch of interpretations) and Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmush’s zombie comedy with some very on-the-nose social commentary).

WHAT SHOWS ARE YOU WATCHING? The list is pretty long! Some shows I’ve been watching on TV include: Peaky Blinders (really good!), Babylon Berlin (still in season 1), Penny Dreadful (I’m almost finished - I didn’t like season 1 that much but it got much better in seasons 2 and 3), Wynonna Earp (not great but it’s just a fun show with some cool actors/characters). I'm about to finish S1 of The Witcher and I want to rewatch it immediately to figure out the timelines. I’m finishing my rewatch of The 100 and I’m going to resume my rewatch of Agents of SHIELD (hopefully I can finish it by its premiere date, 27 May). Also watching Outlander season 5, Harley Quinn, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, need to catch up on Roswell: New Mexico, Prodigal Son and Stumptown and finish The Outsider, and have recently started The Plot Against America and Mindhunter (the latter because my best friend has recommended it). I’ve even checked out the pilot of Lucifer, which I may or may not continue soon, and I’m continuing with 12 Monkeys season 1. And I intend to check out Kingdom. Quite a mix of genres there.

WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU LISTENING TO? I haven’t listened to that much music lately as I used to, but my routine for putting myself to sleep is to turn on MTV Rocks (or the Rock Alternative radio channel) on my TV, in low volume, program the sleep function for 2 hours, and go to bed. It works like a charm. I always have trouble falling asleep in silence. 

Other than that, I’ve been listening to a lot of Haelos since I first discovered them when I heard their song “Alone” in season 6 of The 100, and I’ve listened to othe songs from The 100 and Tree Adams’ soundtrack for season 3.

WHAT ARE YOU READING? Before all this, I borrowed 3 books from the American Corner library: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Beloved and Tea Obrecht’s The Tiger’s Wife.  I’m reading The Bluest Eye at the moment, but I’m also going to finally start reading GRRM’s Fire and Blood, which I had never found time for.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR SELF-CARE? The usual stuff I do - a bit of exercise, nurturing bath once a week, regular skin care. But last week, I also had to make an effort to relax and try to lower my level of stress and blood pressure, thanks to something that happened last Sunday. 

Rant incoming....If you don’t want to read about my bad experience with the police and idiotic government measures, stop now.

Namely, the idiotic government of my country has imposed “measures” which are supposed to be against the spread of Coronavirus but mostly don’t make any sense - they are constantly extending curfew and changing the time of it, and have changed the times when dog owners are allowed to walk their dogs. At one point, it seemed like there was no allowed time for that in the evening or afternoon. You had to listen to the news all the time (and listening to news and the President’s speeches is one of the things that annoys me the most) to figure these things out. And the weekend before last was their first experiment in an extra-long 3 day curfew, which I wasn’t even aware of, when they actually had the police patrol and arrest people for just walking on their own (or, in one case, a young farmer in his tractor - two days after the minister of agriculture said on TV that farmers would be exempt from the curfew - they changed it). So I got manhandled, put in handcuffs and taken to the station for walking my dogs all on my own, with no one else around (which is endangering people and helping the spread of Corona - how exactly??!) where i had to sit for 2 hours while a cop was writing stuff down from the records, and about 60 other cops walked right by me, 10 of whom didn’t have masks, while 3 had but pulled them up/down, then in a police car with 3 other people they picked up - who can’t sit any further than half a meter from you as there’s not enough room, then about 1.5 hours more at the court, with a bunch of other people (and everyone was sitting right next to each other - I was the only one who was like “Nope” and stood a couple of meters away from the others), where they passed the judgment that I have to pay a fine of almost 450 EUR - the amount that’s prescribed for everyone. (And in Serbia, that’s about 1.5 of the minimum wage. I can pay my bills for 3 months from that amount.) Turns out, they arrested some 700-800 people that weekend, so I guess they’re gonna extort a lot of money from the people - if all of them are able to pay it within 15 days (which I doubt. I can withdraw the money from the bank, but I don’t think everyone can). My temperature, pulse and probably blood pressure went up immediately and took an entire week to come down - due to stress, a lot of anger and fear - I had my mask and gloves, but that was still the most close contact and exposure to a lot of other people, much more than I’ve had in weeks. I yelled and ranted and told them that they’re the ones putting others and themselves in danger of contracting Corona, and they probably knew I was right, but it makes no difference -  President Vučić is either an idiot who actually thinks the virus is lurking outside in the air to jump at people, but only during the hours he decides, or, more likely, he doesn’t care, but is a wannabe dictator who likes to act self-important and playact at imposing “strict but necessary measures”.

/end rant. Sorry about that. But that’s why I bought a temperature meter and blood pressure meter, because I was having high temperature, heart palpitations and pressure in my chest, which hasn’t happened to me in a long time (I was also starting to feel PMS, which added to it and didn’t help, but is normally nowhere near as bad when I’m not stressed out) so I needed a lot of self-care last week - which included tranquilizers, but mostly trying my best to relax and feel better. And I’m finally well now and close to how I was before the whole arrest idiocy.

Tagging @jeanie205 @kizo2703 @weareagentsofnothing @turtle-paced @wolfheartgirl @theatre-steph @selflessbellamy @mytly4 @katersann @linzzmorgan100 @immortalpramheda @iishallbelieve @misskittyspuffy @marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @angearia @ladyofthefrostfangs - I know some of you have already been tagged, I’m sorry if you’ve already done it but I haven’t seen it, in which case I’look for it on your blog. Sorry to everyone I didn’t tag, too. 

[incomprehensiblelentils]

@swiftjolras tagged me in this fic writer meme, thanks buddy! Also because B and I do a lot of cowriting, I’m going to try to stick to the ones that only I have written for this meme. I guess if somebody wants I can do one about our cowritten stuff separately...? but I feel like this is a fair restriction.

Name: Megan

Fandoms: I mean. Do you want my like, current fandoms I write for or all the fandoms I’ve written for EVER? Actually the latter might be fun let’s do that! I think of my fanfic writing life as having 3 phases: the stuff I wrote when I was a little kid and didn’t know what fanfic was (Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin); the stuff I wrote as a middle/high schooler on ff.net (Cyberchase, The Princess Diaries, The Incredibles, LOTR, X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean); and the stuff I’ve posted on AO3 in college and beyond (Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Alphas, RPF*, MCU - particularly Agents of SHIELD and Daredevil, Firefly, Once Upon a Time, Kingsman, Wreck-it-Ralph, Terminator: Dark Fate). I actually used to be a BNF in Incredibles fandom, which is hilarious in retrospect as my fic was very bad BUT it was an incredible ego boost for a fourteen-year-old who loved writing! At the moment I mostly write for SHIELD and Dark Fate, with detours into other random gay shit as I feel like it.

*cancel me for my T-rated stories from 2013 I DARE YOU

Where You Post: my AO3 is here and I have a writing blog here that I link stuff from although I’m bad at updating it lol

Most Popular One-Shot: According to hits, by a hair it’s you are the ditch I tumbled into running blind, the first Skimmons fic I ever wrote AND the first Skimmons fic posted on AO3. Although my high school AU has a couple hundred more kudos. They are both 7 years old! That’s wild.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: Again, taking out mallverse which is cowritten and would be the obvious winner at over 40k hits over 6 years, it’s and for once you let go of your fears and your ghosts, which is my Victoria/Isabelle fix-it. It has over 800 hits and 47 kudos, which for a femslash ship in this fandom that isn’t popular at all is pretty damn good! (I wish it was my Kara fix-it, but what can you do when fandom is bad lol.)

Favorite Story You’ve Written: I talk about say you will, the Endgame Natasha/Laura fix-it, a lot, because it took me months to write and was born out of not only my hatred of Endgame but years of pent-up anger and frustration at how Natasha is treated in both canon and fandom. It’s probably my most personal fic - I wrote it as both a redemptive tribute for this character that I’ve loved for almost a decade and a goodbye to her. I got to fill in the blanks of Laura’s character that canon didn’t bother to address, and I made all three Barton kids autistic and gave them all traits that I and my brother and my friends have. I also had to write a lot of very uncomfortable emotions that I haven’t really dealt with in my writing too much and that was interesting and challenging. I know it won’t ever get the attention I’d like it to, but I still love it so much.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: lol all the Terminator porn, I’m not linking it again, y’all can find it, porn is scary bye

How You Choose Your Titles: I am shameless and steal lyrics. Terminator fics all have Carly Rae Jepsen lyrics, I also use TSwift and Marian Call a lot.

Complete: 50 exactly! And a couple dozen more I cowrote with B as well (mostly one-shots).

Incomplete: 5, at least one of which I should really go back and mark complete just because it’s a billion years old and I’ll probably never go back to it lol. But Three Lawyers and a Little Lady will definitely get updated someday because I love my Daredevil Accidental Baby Acquisition AU! And I have a shitton ongoing that B and I are working on together as well.

Do You Outline: Not usually for one-shots, but like, I ran into a real problem with say you will where I kept thinking of scenes that needed to be added and having to write them, and there were a couple of scenes that I had to sort of Frankenstein in because I’d written them early on and I wanted to include them real bad but they didn’t “technically” fit anywhere (I wonder if readers can tell lol). So I try to outline for long-running stuff because if I don’t it just goes extremely off the rails.

Coming Soon / Not Yet Started: I am in the middle of two right now: a Star Wars Jannah/Rose horse girls fic where they bond while riding orbaks and also kiss, and Halt and Catch Fire Donna/Cameron where Donna drags Cam to a PFLAG meeting to try and figure out how to talk to her lesbian daughter and everyone thinks they’re a couple (spoiler: they don’t know they are yet). These are the random gay shit detours I mentioned earlier. More on brand, I have at least one more Terminator porn in my brain and also a fluffy one where Grace proposes to Dani and Carl officiates their wedding. OH I FORGOT i was supposed to write a Charlie’s Angels 2019 fic where Sabina brought home a dog and the other two were like ????. I feel like that one will be pretty easily once I just sit down and do it because their voices seem pretty straightforward

Do You Accept Prompts: Um, I’m not like...I don’t want to say I’ll never do prompts, I once wrote Steve/Bucky as quarterback/cheerleader AU because my friend asked me to. But I don’t typically solicit them. The shit I like writing is usually way too random for people to think of lol.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited To Write: This is a someday-fic, but I swear I will write an epic redemption story for my beloved monster child Ruby Hale where she lives and becomes the Zuko of the group and also Daisy’s weird little protege and she and Elena are never like, close, and Elena doesn’t have to forgive her, and that’s okay. I just feel like they set her up as a perfect Ward foil and then really dropped the ball.

tagging uhhhh @unwind-myself @swashbucklery @amidalleia @allofthefeelings I forget which of my friends write fanfic anymore lololol if I tag you in this and you don’t VERY SORRY MY BAD also like, if you want to do this and pretend I tagged you please do!

[dukeofriven]

From An Old Internet Veteran: Go, and Sin No More

I wish I could explain to young people how wild the internet was as it went from the ‘weird niche thing for lame nerds’ irrelevancy of the early 90s and the “Boy This World Wide Web Thing Sure Is Nifty”-style painful optimism that describes 97% of Western Culture between 1994 and 2002 to the ‘Mad Max But Statistically Less Australian” culture that was the internet from 2002 to around 2010. I come neither to praise this era of internet nor condemn it. I merely want understanding. I cannot polish a lumpen pile of rape jokes, Chuck Norris glorification, “ironic” racism, and numa numa fat shaming and say that it’s misunderstood comedic genius. Trash is still trash even if it wins a bunch of Emmys. But at the same time I cannot take you with me back to the 90s and get you to feel, on a visceral level, what it was like to live in a place where Bart Simpson was both promoted as a real and present danger to the moral upbringing of the world’s children and was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential icons of the 20th century. And because I cannot do that I cannot get you to understand how freeing it felt to be on the internet in that Mad Max era. Ten years before a yellow boy shouting “Don’t have a cow” while doing a pathetic kick-flip on a chunky skateboard was considered the potential downfall of humanity’s children, but now you could make something so risqué that the old-guard stuffed-shirt in 1994 would have died on the spot, his brain unable to consider anything so outside his moral world view. I cannot easily make you understand a time when nobody just said whatever it was they wanted, not just because they had no platform to do so but because the rigidity of social convention was so strong. Nobody ever had hardcore lesbian sex on Northern Exposure on prime time television. Nobody on the X-Files ever died by having their head smashed in a car door repeatedly like a melon until viscera spilled all over the pavement. You could not have made Game of Thrones or Steven Universe in 1995. Forget the graphics, forget the budget, you simply couldn’t do or say any of that on television for either kids or adults. The Mad Max internet changed that - changed the very firmament of what was acceptable in media for every genre and for every demographic.  Is this a good thing? Not particularly. Is this a bad thing? Not particularly. If this sound frustratingly ambivalent that’s because it is: were we to go back and do it all again, knowing all that we know now, would we do it the same way? No. But then, we would not know all that we know now had we not learned it by making the attempt in the first place.

This poor comfort for someone who dives into some 2006 webcomic with a reputation of a Legacy Touchstone and finds it full of ‘jokes’ about their gender, or sexual preference, or the liberal use of the r-slur, or a kind of hyper-suburban comedic racial ignorance. I am not here to argue that that had any value merely because it was transgressive. But the same space that opened-up to let such ugly things out also opened-up places for marginalized groups to made themselves known, groups who never before had such public voices.

Imagine an apocalypse. Imagine society rebuilding in the ashes. Imagine how many false starts and missteps there would be and you begin to understand just a little of what that period was like. It was embarrassing. It was cruel. It was childish and stupid. But in living through it we grew up. Or, at least, those of us capable of growing up grew up, and learned, and learned to be better - learned what better was. And then we built new places where other people could learn too - and spread the gospel of being better. One of the things that always irritates me when it comes to young people talking about the past is the unexamined privilege of knowledge being at your fingertips. It’s more than just everyone carrying a wireless-internet connected computer in their pocket at all times. It’s more than just a Wikipedia with hundreds of millions of articles and a reputation for fact sourcing. It’s more than just a Google that works. If you never experienced it you cannot imagine what using WebCrawler was like in 1995 against Ask Jeeves in 2005 against Google in 2015 - or even Google between 2005 and 2015. Most people don’t go around thinking about SEO and search engine algorithms but maybe we should because anyone who wants to go “this info’s been on the internet since day one so people have no excuse not to know it” disingenuously argues that information search and retrieval has been consistent across the decades. There was a time - not all that long ago - when to look something up on-line involved getting the tacit agreement of everyone in your household to lose the use of the sole telephone for as long as you were web browsing. There was a time - not all that long ago - when ‘looking something up’ was to burden everyone around you with inconveniences, and while you were doing your web searches there was no guarantee what you wanted could be found with the primitive technology of the day. Do you know how much I’ve learned since joining Tumblr in 2011? On a fundamental level, both about myself and the make-up of our species in terms of social conception? I recently went through a bunch of old posts, removing those with broken links and meaningless content, but also shit that just embarrasses me now - mostly opinions from a period where I hadn’t yet had a chance to learn because the spaces in which to learn it did not yet exist. It’s not just things like communities for [demographic X] - it’s things like “communities for [demographic X] with an ability to broadcast their voices and have platforms able to network their ideas and audience halls able to receive them and a search engine to guide people to that community and a basic understanding that the community even exists in the first place.” And this does not even begin to touch on internet access, something that even now is not a universal thing, and for which getting angry about people’s ignorance reflects a bias all its own. I say all this because I think that a core tenant of cringe culture is a myth of universal access to knowledge and universal awareness of one’s own ignorance. I look back on old posts of things I said and I cringe with self-hatred - cringe enough to rip them down and stuff them in the trash. “HOW DID I THINK THAT?” and “HOW DID I NOT KNOW?” But why should I have known - what, in my life, would ever have put better ideas across my desk? That I can meaningfully speak now about privilege and intersectionality and historiography is because between then and now I was put in a place to learn these things. I was exposed to ideas that I had never before been exposed to, and was given the grace to learn. I am tired of the expectation that every aspect of our past selves should be held to the same standard as the present. (Yes, to all the disingenuous bad-faith trolls out there, I obviously and of course am advocating for complete and total uncritical pardon for everything in the past ever. Were you a neo-Nazi ten years ago? Water under the bridge without question because that’s obviously, obviously, obviously the sort of extreme outlier case I am talking about good on you for being clever enough to notice.) But for the non-dipshits out there who understand how to read without injecting insincere hyperbole into every argument, I want us to be kinder to our past selves when we have learned to be better. It’s okay that you used to like Sherlock - there were genuinely fun things about it, and it’s okay that you didn’t possess an expert grasp of post-graduate feminist critical theory when you were 21. Or 31. Or 41. More concepts of academia have filtered into mainstream consciousness than ever before - and in saying that we should remember the corollary that ten, twenty, thirty years ago that was not the case. We knew less, had access to less, and were exposed to narrower viewpoints than we are today. It is unfortunate - but it was not our fault, and we cannot easily blame ourselves for it any longer. Nothing makes my blood boil more than seeing people taking umbrage that... oh, Farmer Joe McSmithHead of Buttnut, Alabama in 1963 was ignorant of internal Chinese politics and said some untrue things about Chinese Communism. But the only thing Farmer Joe had to tell him of the outside world was a radio that played country music, a TV with four channels and strict content guidelines to only show pleasant, moral, and god-fearing content, and the three books in the Buttnut library, two of which were the Bible. There have, and will always be, certain moral lines so obvious that people of any era should always be held accountable to them. But above that, in the more trivial space of media consumption, absorption, and critique, we have to learn to be more forgiving - to ourselves and to others, so long as in the present we have changed. Did you use the r-slur a lot because it was practically a form of punctuation on 4chan and that’s where you learned the ways of the internet? Did you learn the harmfulness of this practice and cease to do it? Then I do not condemn thee - go, and sin no more. Did you and your friends used to make jokes about how Mexicans smelled because you saw Seinfeld do that in his standup and the whole TV laughed as though it was funny? Did you realize one day ‘wait a minute that’s actually super gross’ and stop repeating it? Then I do not condemn thee - go, and sin no more. Have you gone back to a beloved childhood property and found it’s full of woman-beating and weird views on homosexuality? Did you find yourself able to critique this beloved thing and did not defensively double-down on shielding it from all harsh words? Then I do not condemn thee - go, and sin no more. I will not allow us to dismiss the cruelty and hurt of Mad Max Internet Culture with a flippant ‘well that’s just how it was back then” but nor will I allow anyone to condemn us all as being consciously unfeeling, willfully ignorant, purposefully hateful. Some of us were. But some of us did not know, could not have known, needed to learn - and we were lucky enough to live in a time before cringe culture and cancel culture where we were allowed to have that opportunity to learn and grow. We need that today, for all young people who think themselves as woke as can be and ten years from now will look back and blush with shame for things they said and did in total ignorance. The sin is choosing to never change, not failing to change sooner.

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

Pokemon Sword and Shield first thoughts

The Negative:

- The reduced pokedex. Hear me out before you go screaming about how we knew this was going to be a thing. While I would always be disappointed with the reduced pokedex like I was with generation 7, Sword and Shield’s pokedex somehow felt less full than generation 7 which is strange because they had about the same (small) amount of new pokemon. My guess is that it’s because a lot of the pokemon we saw in Sword and Shield feel like the ones fans use more often than not. Like sure there were combees and whatever, but I noticed most the pseudos and beloved pokemon like charizard and gengar made it in. And like there’s nothing wrong per se about that, but it honestly felt like less diversity, especially in a game that had 6 new dragon lines.

- The lack of “evil plot” until the end. Look I know there was a buildup in Sonia’s plot about the darkest day and so on, and I know pokemon has done games where the major evil plot event happens at/after the elite four before, but the lack of evil team in these games made it feel empty and lowkey like a ripoff of Lysander’s reveal in X and Y without the team flare stuff. Like I don’t know, the chairman was an interesting villain and the whole “Is he or Olenna really the mastermind?” red herrings thrown through Bede’s story (as a sidenote, justice for Bede tbh, like yeah he’s a prick but he deserved better than he got) and Olenna’s personality was good, but none of it felt developed enough. Like story wise it literally felt like I was playing X and Y but instead of the protagonist, I was Tierno until the last part. It also made the gym challenge/travelling seem a lot longer which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but again, made it feel a little empty compared to past games.

- The version exclusives. No, I don’t care if this is a product of capitalism, I’m still gonna complain about it each game lmao. And I am especially going to criticise it with these games given you had to have a Nintendo switch online account to trade. Like I am someone who despises the idea of in game purchases, so the idea you need one to fill the pokedex is scummy to me.

- Hop. Whoever decided that he needed to make a comment every time you battled and did a supereffective or critical hit move on him needs to be fired because my god was that annoying. Just in general, I felt he was under developed in a way that made him uninteresting and pretty much a Hau rip off. And the sad thing is that like there was the makings there for him to be interesting. Him feeling like he had to live up to Leon + the shame/disappointment he felt from the loss to Bede and then you at the end along with him finding his own way in life and deciding to train to be a professor all sound interesting in theory, but it just didn’t come to life in the game in the same way I found Bede and Marnie’s backstories to be. I also kinda wish they built up the him wanting to be a professor thing more rather than just feeling like they added it on at the end.

- The graphics just popping in. Look, I wasn’t expecting Breath of the Wild graphics given this is the first new pokemon game on the switch and it wasn’t in development for as long. But I am someone who hopes that this gets fixed for future games.

- It was handholdy/linear. So I will gladly admit this was much better than it was in generation 7 and again, I wasn’t expecting Breath of the Wild but when you consider that technically in generation one, once you get cut you can do gyms 3 - 6 (7 if we’re talking let’s go) in whatever order you want and explore like 80% of Kanto, it feels restrictive that they flat out block you out of any town you haven’t been to/aren’t supposed to be in.

The Mixed:

- Sonia’s arc. I love that they showed through Hop and Sonia that becoming a professor is a genuine path because I feel like if I was in the pokemon universe, I would be a professor. But I felt the execution of Sonia’s story felt off. Like she spent a lot of it reminiscing/telling us about how she used to be a battler and supposedly Leon’s best rival and having Magnolia ask her what she’s doing with her life (which in itself was weird, I mean a professor making fun of someone for working towards being a professor???) just for Magnolia to hand Sonia the coat with no on screen resolution of any of that. Like I don’t know, I guess I just would have liked a big moment where she helped with the chairman or something whether that be through battling or her expertise and have that be an “aha!” moment where she decides to be a professor and Magnolia hand her the coat then or something of that calibre.

- The beginning. Basically I thought it was perfect except it still felt too long. Like having the champion give you pokemon, those pokemon showing their personalities in the choosing scene and being able to skip the catching and pokecenter tutorials were amazing. But even with those skippable features, the introduction felt long.

- The gym leaders. I like that Piers played a notable role in the story and his inability to use dynamax pokemon intrigues me. But quite frankly, the rest of the gym leaders are among the most forgettable we’ve ever had in my honest opinion.

- TRs. I feel like this was added for more competitive players who want a challenge which is not me if I’m honest, so I get it but would prefer TMs to stay multiuse lmao. I’m also kinda surprised at which particular TMs they chose to be TRs.

- The experience share. I’ll admit, even as someone who uses the new age experience share, I thought making it compulsory would be a horrific idea. But I genuinely feel like they balanced it out really well given I versed every single trainer with the same team without facing many wild pokemon and was still under leveled for most the gyms. My only gripe with it is that I tend to switch out my strongest pokemon throughout the main story to add a pokemon I don’t plan to use just to evolve it to fill the pokedex, so it being set up to mostly make you under leveled was a bit of a pain because as someone who isn’t big on versing wild pokemon and was just aiming to catch the new ones until post game, I couldn’t afford for my main pokemon to not be getting that experience. But I do recognise that that’s a personal thing and like not an inherit flaw of the experience share and it will definitely work well for nuzlockers and so on. 

- Dynamaxing. Basically I liked them for the raids but they still feel like a worse version of mega evolutions mixed with z moves to me.

- It felt longer than most games. For the most part this is good. Like overall it felt like a fuller game, in part due to the Wild Area being somewhere you can spend literal hours in without getting sick of it. As I mentioned though, I just wish the beginning wasn’t as long and their was more to the “evil plot” part of the story throughout the games.

The Positive:

- The wild area. This was by far the best thing they added to this game. A large amount of the time I’ve spent playing this game has just been messing about in there and none of it felt like I was doing it just to pass time. The weather changes throughout also added some nice variety and change of scenery.

- The raid battles. I thought these were going to be the worst part of the game if I’m honest, but I’ve actually really enjoyed them. I do wish they had a bit more variety, but in general I feel they’re fun and well balanced.

- Bede, Marnie and Oleana. Bede was a pratt at first, but again, his backstory along with game story intrigued me and I wish we dove further into that. Marnie was just a sweetheart and I love her and wish they did more with her connection with team yell and Piers. I also wish we got more about Oleana because I loved what I saw and feel like her team was perfect for her, but wanted more.

- The music. Whoever created the Slumbering Weald music needs a pay rise because that is literally the best music track pokemon has ever had in my honest opinion.

- LionHeartShipping. Leon/Sonia is the Rivals to Friends to Lovers ship we deserve even if it’s not cannon.

- The new pokemon we got in general. Yes I wish there was more and yes there were a few that I think were among the worst we’ve ever gotten (Looking at you Thwacky, Meowth and Cramorant), but in general I liked a majority of the designs even if I didn’t pre game.

- Old pokemon getting Galarian forms and evolving.

- The attention to detail in the speaking text. While a little stereotypical, using British slang was a nice type.

- Not having an elite four. Having a more anime style championship competition to make your way up to versing Leon felt like something new and a nice change of pace. I just kinda wish that it wasn’t the gym leaders you versed in the finals. Like if they wanted to go with the major/minor idea for the gyms, it would have been cool for the gym types not included to be the ones you versed in the finals.

- Exclusive gym leaders/types. So I know they’ve done this before with Iris/Drayden, but it is something that makes playing each version feel unique. Like I don’t think just the two was enough for me to want to play sword straight after finishing shield and I wish that just say sword had grass, electric, ground, fairy, ice, normal, poison and flying types while shield had fire, water, fighting, steel, dragon, ghost, rock and bug types with Marnie and Bede keeping their dark and psychic types, especially with them emphasising the minor/major league aspect, but it was something I hope pokemon continues to do in the future.

- The fossils being created from mixing and matching parts. Feels far more creative than past games.

Final Thoughts:

- Overall this was an okay game and a decent step into the console world. While there are some spectacular aspects of the game, the story leaving something to be desired made me feel like there was something missing on this journey. Given this and the probability of pokemon improving those well done features as time goes on, I imagine this game will be one that in time will be easily forgotten. Still, despite its flaws, I definitely see it as a necessary step to whatever comes next and am excited to see where it leads us.

[oldtvandcomics]

MY OPINION ABOUT ENDGAME

I’ve written this nice long YouTube comment about Endgame, and it contains pretty much everything that I think about that movie, so I’m just going to copypaste it here. Because of the subject of the video, a lot is about Steve/Bucky not becoming canon and what happened instead.

Spoilers after the break.

Ok, I don't care, I have OPINIONS and need to share them somewhere.

1) Stucky was never going to be canon and I think most of us are adult enough to admit that. HOWEVER what the movie did in general felt as if it would ignore everything we know about Steve, Bucky and Peggy.

- Did they keep Steve and Bucky apart? Totally.

- Steve ending up with Peggy. Would have been nice, IF that was where they had been going since 2011. It is not. They had a movie together where they have some flirting going on (a lot less than other superhero love stories, if you ask me, but shipping googles, don't ask me). After that, Peggy got an entire season about mourning Steve and slowly accepting his death, and a second where she started dating again, and Steve two plus movies where his motivation was mostly "OMG, Bucky is alive" and "I need to protect Bucky". THEY BOTH MOVED ON. This felt like a last minute "let's do something that gets Steve out of the way and will count as a happy ending".

- Steve living in the past. Ok, ok, ok, this is a BIG one for me. As many others have pointed out, he is now in a time where he full well knows Bucky is being held prisoner and tortured, and it's either letting it happen or key points in history will change. He is also watching SHIELD being founded and recruiting former HYDRA agents, as consequence of which PEOPLE WILL DIE, and Steve knows that, because HE'S BEEN THERE. Is he just going to sit there and let it happen??

Also, if we are already at it: Imagine the following scenario. It is the early 50s and Steve Rogers has just returned from the future (2023, right?) to spend the rest of his days with the love of his life, Peggy. Segregation is still a thing. Residential schools are still a thing. Women don't have the same rights as men. Queer people don't have any rights, period. Disabled and mentally ill people are being constantly mistreated, part out of ableism and part out of genuine ignorance in the medical field. The US is in cold war with the Soviet Union, and both sides do stuff that are not ok, and also highly classified. Steve, having lived in the future knows about them because it's history. Should I continue?

We normal people would maybe play the well-behaved time traveller and sit around waiting for history to happen, BUT NOT STEVE ROGERS. He is famous, and very influential because of his status as Captain America, and he has got a significantly smaller tolerance for bullsh*t than the other people in his time, because he has seen a world that is more accepting. He is going to try to fight everything at once. This is going to be chaos.

- Finally, and I haven't seen this pointed out yet, but HOWARD. Steve just returned to a time when Howard Stark was still the Howard Stark we know from The First Avenger and Agent Carter. A little weird and egocentric and visibly ND, but all in all a nice guy. I don't even know where to start with how much chaos this is going to cause. The memory of Steve Rogers has been a driving force behind Howard's entire life. Having him actually BE there will 1) prevent him from idolising him, and 2) Steve will be able to say little things to him like "Howard, you really have got a nice son there, maybe you could spend some more time with him?". Will Tony without his abusive childhood still become Iron Man? I think so, yes. Will it still completely change who he is as a person? Also yes...? Don't even mention that Steve perfectly knows how Howard and his wife are going to die, namely assassinated by Bucky, because...

(Also, remember Agent Carter season 1 when Howard openly told Peggy tat he'd been in love with Steve? Yeah, that is going to be a fun discussion when they announce their engagement. Seriously, someone should write it.)

Conclusion: While I understand how the idea of Steve returning to Peggy might have sounded good on paper, the writers just didn't think it through and as a consequence, it feels rushed and as if they'd just butchered not only one, but at least three or four of our beloved characters and their story arcs.

2) My opinion about Endgame was that it was nice. But definitely not good or something I'd want to rewatch anytime soon.

- It bit off more than it can chew. One movie to close off six character arcs is not enough by far. They should have made at least three. One for Steve and Tony, one for Clint and Natasha, and one for Bruce and Thor.

  -> Tony's character arc was the one I was almost completely happy with. Minus the Pepper wearing the suit bit, which I feel should have been a big emotional moment but instead was just kind of there and came a little out of nowhere. Steve, see above, would have needed either a different ending or a whole lot more thought in it.

  -> Clint becoming a pretty terrible serial killer was just somehow never dealt with?? Because THAT? That would have needed a complete movie to make sense and to give him time to actually redeem himself. Natasha... Redemption equals death. I'm not a fan of that trope, especially because she already seemed to have redeemed herself at that point? She didn't need to die? Also, fine, I get why it could make sense, but killing off the one female protagonist these movies had for quite some time feels really, really... It makes me feel cheated. Given more time, they could have developed the whole arc better.

  ->Bruce making peace with the Hulk IS exactly what should have happened to him. HOWEVER, it all happened in that short moment when the screen was black and read "five years later". That is... Not what I'd call good character development. Again, this would have needed TIME. Give him a movie. Combine his story with that of Thor. Could have been great.

  -> Thor. This is the one that makes me just ANGRY, so I'm giving it it's own bullet point. Look, what happened to him completely makes sense. It also feels as if the movie hadn't taken him and his pain seriously. Like that scene in his cabin, that was totally played for laughs, and after that, they just didn't give him enough time. And I get it, there WAS NO TIME. There was just too much going on.

But people, alcoholism and PTSD are SERIOUS subjects, and if you want them there, you need to commit to write them properly. Marvel can do that, as they have proven with their Demon In A Bottle storyline, Iron Man 3 or The Incredible Hulk episode Alice In Discoland. But these are all separate stories that revolve around these themes. There is no way someone could manage a nuanced and sensitive representation in an ensemble movie that also juggles at least eight other characters and aims to close off eleven years worth of movies. There is just not enough time.

So what they should have done instead: Either make Endgame three movies, and give Thor and Bruce one where they can support each other while dealing with his trauma and the Hulk, or just leave out the entire arc. Thor's arc was finished in Thor: Ragnarok. He became king, learned to accept that his father had done many bad things and made peace with Loki. They should have left it there and only used him to drive the action forward instead of trying to have him evolve in any direction.

(In this version, the massacre at the beginning of Infinity War shouldn't have happened. Give them some more time to arrive on Earth, and than call Thor and Bruce away to fight Thanos while Loki is benched because the Asgardians need an acting king. Thor behaves more or less the way he did in Ragnarok, goes on his quest to get the axe, and Endgame is just plain different.)

- While I do enjoy a good "everything is bad AU", Endgame didn't make it work. Probably because they messed up the characters part.

- Nice call backs, though. Especially the one when they redid the Star Lord dancing in the cave scene, and than cut to Rhodey and Nebula watching him looking like a complete idiot. :D I really liked that one.

- Good action scenes. The end fight when all the dusted heroes came out of the portal and they were these dark silhouettes with a bright light behind their backs! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Conclusion: Nice movie. Not a fan. Only half achieved what it set out to do.