#and he is literally crawling his way out of the ground eheh

[insidi0summoved]

& wednesday addams. 〃 @miercolaes

Death too must be earned.  Words that were once spoken to him.  Words that would always be seared in the deepest part of his soul after death itself forsaken him, after all one too many times Nick had played the part of the maker as if the very essence of the circle of life and death was something that didn't bear any important.  Words that echoed in the back of his head when instead of the sweet embrace of darkness, he was left in the hands of a vengeful spirit, one that had waited centuries to finally make someone pay for what his ancestor started; for what led her to be hunted as the witch that cursed a whole town.

Trapped in his own paralyzed body, as if he was cast into stone, his mind at the spirit of Sarah Fier's mercy.  Plagued with nightmares and horrors that could easily drive someone insane.  Except what he was made to witness over and over again, to relive as if it was happening for the very first time and on his own skin, weren't horrors coming from a wild imagination, but every single bloody deed that his family stained their hands with to build the empire that had crumbled down alongside him.

Never once a moment of silence or rest, he wasn't allowed such luxury.  His mind constantly echoing with the screams of innocent people mixed up with the thoughts of the unlucky ones that had their souls sold to the devil, the way they begged in their heads to stop as they spilled the blood of their loved ones.  How long was he going to last before his own mind was going to break ?  Perhaps, it would have already happened if it wasn't for his resolve; for the anger ever so constantly burning deep inside him despite the way he was destined to forever be stuck in limbo of horrors.  Or so he thought.

There were moments of clarity among the madness, times when Nick was more lucid, when he could actually hear his own thoughts, except this time it was different, it was his name being called out that brought him out of yet another nightmare, leaving him surrounded by nothing but darkness and deafening silence.  Did he imagine it ?  The witch wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case, he long had stopped keeping track of how much time had passed since he had been stuck in there. However it happened again. . .  and again.  His fingers twitched, eyes opening and revealing white and pale gray hues.  The voice both familiar and unknown at the same time, and yet, Nick found himself tuning to it.  His determination and anger fueling Nick to drag his own body towards the voice, through the dirt.  Every single movements of muscles that haven't been used in so long sending a wave of pain crashing into him, but he kept going through gritted teeth.

He wasn't going to allow himself to be a prisoner for any second longer.

However nothing ever came free, not when he had been cursed to an eternity of horrors.  Sarah Feir's laugh echoing all around him as if trying to throw him off or perhaps mock him for his seemingly futile attempt of escaping.  " Keep talking. "  Voice hoarse from not being used, a foolish attempt to be heard from the one trying to get him free.  An attempt that seemed to have worked, the more he dragged himself towards the voice, the more the darkness surrounding him, pulling him deep into the nothingness, seemed to dissipate, leaving nothing but dirt all around him, collapsing onto him as if he had been buried alive.  So close and yet so far from his freedom.

[aticklishpercivalwriter]

Submission by @dim-sumsum! My comments below~ hi hi i saw this art on Twitter and it reminded me of your most recent SethoScara fic (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o))) it made my day and i hope it makes your better too ehe i couldn’t help brain rotting over it like Sethos would be sucha touchy cuddly lover even w someone like Scara/Wanderer who’s about as touchy and cuddly as a cactus but when he realizes Sethos (1) has a tasty back window and (2) his back is his death spot, all hell breaks loose hdkfjshdhdjdjshd Sethos probs prides himself on bein pretty speedy w his skill and electro vision but he’s got no chance against Wanderer’s anemo jets lmao Wanderer lets him run for like 5 seconds jus to get his hopes up and then immediately dashes them by literally dashing right for him and sending them both rolling down a hill ueueueueueue ofc Wanderer ends up pinning him to the ground and plants himself right on his booty so Sethos can’t get away and has no other choice but to tank the delicate drag of fingers running down his spine— it’s pretty soft but the way he’s screeching and flailing would make you think he’s getting murdered lols bonus if Wanderer traces shapes or letters into his skin and makes him guess what they are, not that it matters whether or not Sethos gets it right tho (actually he makes pretty solid guesses bc he’s a smarty pants when it comes to spelling BEES ha H A H— get it ?bc *dies*) bc he gets more vicious scribbles along the back of his ribs and up under his arms either way ehehe

and or if Wanderer uses the precious feather on his vision to run along and flutter into the sweet spots he found aka right where Sethos’s spine curves when he arches his back and jus underneath his shoulder blades aaaaaaaa i am in love with them Your Honor i am in love with Sethos mega bubbly and squawky laugh that he’s kinda self conscious of bc he tries to portray himself as charming and collected but the way he’s pounding his fists and grabbing the grass and kicking his legs really only makes him seem rather childish, although Wanderer finds this incredibly endearing and thus teases him accordingly like throwing a temper tantrum won’t make me stop, why don’t you ask me nicely like a good boy? and after many strings of stuttery PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEs and a couple snorts too Sethos is finally able to breathe 🤭

---

OH MY GOD! YAAS! The back window! There's so many fan fic ideas rushing through my head, ah! Scara/Wanderer will literally take advantage of that spot with no mercy whatsoever. He really is an evil ler, wrecking Sethos and giving him false hope. Literally a tickle monster when he is with Sethos. Knows just the ways to elicit laughter out of him. This is actually a good excuse for me to wreck Sethos because he literally scared me the other day. I was in the desert collecting chests and this one chest was on a hill and there were eremites surrounding it and once I defeated them and had Sethos open the chest, he goes, "Aah! It's a monster!" and I literally whipped the camera as fast as it can go and but don't see anything. I groaned as I hear, "...No dice? I'll get you next time." I imagine Wanderer opening that chest and then Sethos right behind him saying those words and Scara will jump in the air like a scaredy scarameow and then glare at Sethos who is on the ground laughing and he suddenly goes to Sethos' ear and says, "You have 5 seconds to run, little bee~" and yeah, the scenario you write out happens. "Did you really think you can get away from me, hmm?" Scara smirks down at Sethos who's pinned down. He crawls his fingers down his spine making him bark out a panicked laugh. "Wahahait! W-We can tahahalk abohout thihihis! Scahahara!" "Scara?" Wanderer gets up and close to his ear, whispering. "I don't know anyone by the name of Scara. I'm the tickle monster~" Sethos' eyes widened in realization. "NO! NononOHOHOHO! NAHAHAHAT THEHEHE TIHIHIHICKLE MOHOHONSTEHEHER! AHAHAHAHA!" And yeah, tickles, teases, everything you can think of, Scara does it all to make Sethos into a laughing, whiny mess. The tracing of shapes and letters is such a good idea. Spelling Bees, that was a good one :) Tracing is one of my favorites in tickling. The collected Sethos has fallen into the hands of tickle monster Wanderer with no end in sight.

Thanks for the submission @dim-sumsum! That was some good SethoScara food that I will expand on ;)

[approximately20eggs]

walks in

hi hi hello i am here to choose for you and ask about an oc of yours <3

i would love to hear about immerlias if you have any facts you'd like to share!!!

hello hi hi!!! the boy!!!!! good choice!!!! thank you for asking me about him :) this turned out to be SUCH a long post so I'm gonna put it under a readmore so I don't clog up people's dashboards with my fucking essay lmao

so I've actually been wanting an excuse to break down S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W by mcr and why its actually conveniently written about Immerlias so I think I will do that ehehe BUT also I just wanna ramble about him in general so I shall do that first

so. I do not remember how much information about Immerlias I have shared on him before. but he is my beloved. my son. my bestie. you surely understand /lh

some general info: Immerlias is a shining elf andhis name means sunlight and joy! he is aro ace and agender but also simultaneously a cis boy and his pronouns are he/him but he honestly doesn't really care what people refer to him with! I feel like he'd get a kick out of the occasional they/them or neopronoun, as a treat, but not enough to "officially" use them or anything. I do not think he would want people to consistently use other pronouns for him. this was meant to be a short detail and now its not lol

he is also babey. something about this man sets off everyone's protective instincts I swear and I KNOW this because in every rp and dnd game I have put him in, people IMMEDIATELY snap to "precious boy must be protected" mode within minutes. he is just so good at winning people over with his sweet, adorable smile and autistic adhd swag. I don't blame anyone for this because if I had only just met him I would probably default to that too. unfortunately I am subjecting him to The Horrors instead /lh

he's just super super sweet and adorable and my favorite way to show it is literally just to describe what his bedroom looks like because it is just. in every way an example of the kind of person he is. it is messy and stuffed with every last little thing that makes him happy. he painted the walls yellow and keeps repainting his ceiling in different murals and he puts poems and art up on the walls and draws directly on them sometimes and every surface is stuffed with trinkets, most of which are broken things he's picked up off the ground and shined up or made into art or just thought were pretty, and he collects shards of broken glass to sand and polish away all the sharp edges and wrap them in wire and hang them in his window so they through rainbows all over his room, and his bookshelves are stocked with everything from picture books to highly advanced math textbooks because it all brings him joy, and sometimes he spills ink on his desk but he'll just draw around it and make art out of it, and god I could go on all day describing his room but hjhghghjshghbvbhsgvsvjhgjhs

(also he has a little hidden spot under the floorboards that he's made without telling anyone that's just big enough for him to crawl into and hide and I think that's also very apt because as much as Immerlias appears to wear his heart on his sleeve there's also a lot he doesn't tell anyone. this whole room is a symbol I swear)

god this is getting long. I apologize in advance because I still haven't talked about S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W lmao

I am going to get into that actually SO I'm just gonna. put up each verse and then talk about it jbjksbjks

[Chorus] Move your body when the sunlight dies Everybody, hide your body from the scarecrow Everybody, hide

[Verse 1] Make a wish when your childhood dies Hear the knock, knock, knock when she cries We're all alone tonight Hold your breath when a blackbird flies Count to seventeen and close your eyes I'll keep you safe inside

so I'm putting these two together because I intend to break down the chorus fully later but it feels illegal to skip the intro of the song. so starting with verse 1:

GOD ok so. this is perfect. if you didn't know my wip starts off with Immerlias and Aryaea coming of age so this is very apt lol. BUT this is especially good for Immerlias because his whole character arc is about growing up and losing his naivete. he's been sheltered his whole life and then at the start of the book for the first time he and Aryaea are leaving town and their parents altogether (getting a bit into the third line there lol) but YEAH from line one it's very good!! line two is also good though because Aryaea goes to him for support a lot and you can also jump to the last line in the verse which makes me think about that again because they keep each other safe a lot. they're very codependent you see, as fictional twins have a tendency to be /lh

(you know, for once I think it would be very funny to have a pair of twins that just fucking hate each other but also aren't mortal enemies. just twins that they're each like "ugh, Steve again" at each other or something. I think it would be funny. anyway)

BUT besides the first line the OTHER line that made me immediately think of Immerlias when I first heard this song is in this verse too!! I don't know if I've ever mentioned this but Immerlias is fucking terrified of crows. which has plot reasons. it is Auresmus's fault. basically bc of zem Immerlias has nightmares about crows (elves are not supposed to be able to have nightmares at all) so that freaks him out a lot!!! it's kind of led him to firmly hold the belief that crows are harbringers of doom in real life too so he will have a full-blown panic attack if he sees one or even hears them cawing. anyway, moving on:

[Pre-Chorus] He burns my skin Never mind about the shape I'm in I'll keep you safe tonight Yeah, yeah, shut up and run with me!

I'm just gonna. that last line there I'm just gonna focus on it really hard for a moment because Immerlias IS arguably running away from home at the start of the novel. besides the fact that he's kind of tired of being coddled, he and Immor have a history of butting heads and frankly due to a lot of communication issues in this family Immerlias doesn't exactly believe his parents are proud of him. he also has this perception of his parents' expectations of him that are both a lot higher and completely different from what they actually are; while Immor and Regaya genuinely just want a happy life for him he's convinced that he's going to disappoint them if he goes into the arts instead of something more academic in nature, and frankly he's kind of convinced he's already disappointed Immor by not being remotely interested in joining the military (very false. if anything Immor is thrilled his son is relatively safe from the horrors of war). not only all of that but completely unrelated to family communication issues I do think he's trying to procrastinate growing up a little. typically at age 50 shining elves would start building a house of their own and/or start pursuing a career, but Immerlias isn't ready for that, in no small part because he's conflicted about what he wants to do with his life, because even with his parents out of the equation he loves math and STEM easily just as much as the arts and he doesn't want to pick one over the other. so yeah he's running away from all that with Aryaea for a little bit! ok moving on again

Move your body when the sunlight dies Everybody, hide your body from the scarecrow Everybody, hide Move your body when the sunlight dies Everybody, hide your body from the scarecrow Everybody, hide

ok so to start ANY song that says something about the sunlight dying or the world losing its color/light/saturation or whatever immediately reminds me of Immerlias. this is both because of tdi campaign Immerlias (in which he literally died. L) and because of his actual canon arc in my wip which does not in fact involve his literal death so much as him going through a depressive episode and struggling with his sense of identity (his name does mean joy, after all) and then having to redefine that happiness for himself when he doesn't have that childhood naivete that made it so easy anymore. I'm really, really looking forward to writing that arc out but alas it is a long ways away </3

all the references to the scarecrow also make me think btw, bc it's not a reference to the blackbird in verse 1, but something different. you can think of a scarecrow as something that exerts control over crows, in a way, which makes me think of Auresmus—and for a significant chunk of the book he does seem like a pretty big threat in need of being avoided! but if we think of the crows as being representative of Auresmus themself rather than zem just being in control of them, then you also get something that 'scares crows,' or that scares Auresmus, and that's the actual threat—the dragon that he owes a debt to, who is the actual antagonist of the novel, not zem. I think it's an interesting thing to consider :)

[Verse 2] Blow a kiss at the methane skies See the rust through your playground eyes We're all in love tonight (All in love tonight) Leave a dream where the fallout lies Watch it grow where the tear stain dries To keep you safe tonight

this verse makes me think a bunch about Immerlias's optimism and more about his arc with having to redefine joy and all that. the whole childlike, happy-go lucky attitude doesn't really cut it for some things (such as the impending doom of the apocalypse) but it still takes him a while to like. process the situation that is the plot and see it all in a realistic, grounded light that's not just blindly believing it will all work out okay in the end. and that's what kicks off his depression spiral but at the same time he has to work though his whole identity crisis and an increasing rift between him and his ability to keep in touch with reality on a more existential level if that makes any sense at all and he's still trying to work out his personal future and dreams with all this and yeah. yeah. its a whole thing

[Pre-Chorus]

[Chorus]

[Guitar Solo]

[Bridge] Love, love, love won't stop this Bomb, bomb, love won't stop this Bomb, bomb, love won't stop this bomb Run, run, bunny, run Run, run, bunny, run

[Chorus]

again this whole thing with like "love won't stop this bomb" makes me think very much about how he loses his naivete (and this verse particularly calls to mind his staunch pacifism, which isn't a problem in and of itself so much of the lack of nuance he has about it at the start) and has to work towards solving the problem that is the impending apocalypse without just trusting in Peace And Love On Planet Earth Quapara <3

and that is the end of the song! god that was fun. I haven't had a good long-winded infodump in a while

thank you again for asking about him, friend. I hope you enjoyed my essay kjbsjkbskjsjks

[yourhero404]

yo!! idk if you'd be up for this, but could you write a scenario with Amajiki where he has a crush on a first year who looks pretty emo with medium/short dyed black hair that covers the right part of her face a lot? it's a bit personal pft,, but she has a quirk that enables her to turn her stuffed animals into real versions of themselves. i was wondering if you could do some kind of scenario where she gets to show him her rottweiler as a real dog? if it sounds too specific, i'm sorry!!

A/N: No worries! It wasn’t /too/ specific, but I hope it’s okay! I was gone for a bit because I hit a rough patch of writers block, sorry about that ^^;;; so im not quite sure,,,, if this is my best work;;; :’)

TAMAKI

“Ah, (Y/n)!” Tamaki called, his lips quivering at the attention he gained for his outburst, “You… uh, you left this.”  

He pointed to the fairly large, stuffed dog in the chair across from him that she had left behind. Her expression shifted through both confusion and relief fairly rapidly as she rushed back over to her senpai’s desk. He enjoyed spending time with her and started to realize how rapid his heart rate would rise and drop depending on her distance- she was adorable, honestly, the way she hid behind her hair was similar to his and the fact that her arms were constantly wrapped around some sort of stuffed animal. His thoughts about which type of stuffed animal would be a good gift were swiftly interrupted as she reached his desk.

“Thank you! It would’ve been bad if I left him!”  

“Oh, I would’ve taken care of him for you…”

“Oh, no no, that’s not what I meant!” her face lit up with a blush as she nervously rubbed the back of her neck, “I trust that you would’ve taken care of him, it’s just that… what if I needed him on the way home, you know?”

His head tilted in confusion, but let it slide as her bright smile distracted him. The day was over and he knew the two of them had to go home, but he was feeling fairly bold today and wanted to stretch out their time together as long as possible.

“W-well,” he stumbled over his words as well as his feet as he stood up too quickly, “I can walk you home. I mean- both of you!”

“Are you sure? Don’t you have to go to Fatgum’s office today?” She started to walk to the hallway with Tamaki by her side and her stuffed rottweiler in her arms.

“Well, yeah…” he started, keeping his eyes glued to the ground, “But I’m sure he’ll be okay with me being late as long as it was for a good reason. So… what do you say?” his voice grew quiet by the end of the question, afraid of rejection.

“Mmm,” she hummed, playfully twisting her lips to the side in faux thought. “If you won’t get in trouble, then sure! Justice and I could use the company.”

“J… Justice?”

“Yeah!” she grabbed her shoes from her locker and placed her dog on a nearby bench, taking a leash out of her bag and clipping it onto its collar. “That’s his name, Justice! He’s one of my best warriors after all!”

“Warriors?”  

He was lost and it showed through the influx of pitch in his voice. He thought it was cute- how she treated her stuffed dog as though it were real. It was endearing and gentle, and most definitely something he admired about her seeing as she was unbelievably kind to not only her stuffed animals, but those around her. Tamaki had to admit, however, something was off about her treatment of these toys, and he hoped he was getting closer to the answer this afternoon.  

“Yup, warriors!” she scooped the dog back up and carried it off of campus with a small pep in her step, “They’re like my own little army.”

“They? Meaning… all of the ones you bring around?”

“You’d be correct,” she smiled, “I pick which ones are best suited for the day, depending on what I have to do and where I have to go!”

“Oh,” he stared in the distance for a moment before turning back to her, “Like… a sort of security blanket? But with animals? I can understand that-”

“No no, I think you misunderstood and have the wrong sense of security there.”

“What?” His eyebrows drew together as he tried to process what she was getting at.

After putting her stuffed dog and the ground in front of her, she stepped back to focus on it. With a quick flash of her eyes and a slow growing black tint on her fingertips, the dog suddenly sprang into action and jumped towards Tamaki, barking frantically. He jumped back with an embarrassingly loud squeal and run a few feet away to avoid the dog’s teeth.

“See, they’re literally my security!” she had to yell over Justice’s bark. “Justice, sit!” Her voice boomed with something dark behind it, causing it to have a deep echo.  

Tamaki watched as the dog sat at her feet, practically melting into happiness as she scratched behind his ear and suddenly seemed much gentler than he previously did. The darkness at her fingertips slowly spread up the rest of her fingers, settling on her knuckles for a moment; His attention shot between this and the previously stuffed dog.  

“(Y/n),” he started, pointing in her direction, “How did- what is- You just- What?”  

“Calm down!” she giggled, holding her hand out to call him towards her, “It’s just my quirk! Come here, he won’t bite you!”

With his body shaking for another reason rather than fear from the dog, he let his hand rest within hers as she pulled him closer, crouching down to the dog’s level, prompting him to do so as well.

“Okay Justice, be nice! Tamaki is our friend, okay? We want to preserve his cute little face,” She held Tamaki’s hand out to the dog, allowing him to get his scent before Justice used his nose to lift his hand up, allowing it to land on his head as a sign to begin petting.

“N… Nice dog… Good boy…” Tamaki stammered, “We’re friends! I’m… probably not good tasting, after all…”

Her giggle soothed his nerves, allowing him to boldly start petting the dog, watching as he quickly started to pant and offer up kisses as he licked his hand. He sat on the ground then, allowing the large dog to crawl in his lap and lay down for some cuddles, despite the size differences.  

“He likes you! I knew he had good taste” She beamed.

“Eheh…” he nervously giggled, scratching behind the dog’s ear, “So, (Y/n)… All of your stuffed animals… you can do this to them?”

“Mhm! They all come to life and fight in my place with their own set of skills!”

That changed everything- at least he now had the idea to find a stuffed animal that could be of good service to her. She stood up, calling Justice off of his lap and released her control over him, causing him to turn back to a toy before picking him up and smiling up at Tamaki. With his face warming up into a blush, he quickly made his way to his feet and brushed himself off, walking her the rest of the distance to her home with nothing but questions and answers about her quirk; It was a strong quirk, and he honestly wanted to see it more in action- maybe he could get out of class and watch one of their first year training sessions? It’s activated by the flash of her eyes and the darker forces that start on her fingertips serve as reminders for her time limit- he’d certainly like to keep on her good side after knowing this.

All too quickly, they arrived at her door and he felt himself pout a bit. With a longing stare, quivering lip and a red face, he stuttered out a goodbye after she had leaned in to kiss his cheek as a thank you. As he turned away, he heard a soft growl and sharp bark behind him that caused him to jump a few inches off of the ground and take off running in the direction of his mentor’s office, screeching as he did so.  

(Y/n) couldn’t help but laugh, patting Justice on the head as she watched her senpai run away flustered and spooked. A soft, red hue crept up to her cheeks while she settled her laugh down to a smile and her hand reached to pat Justice on the head.

“Maybe I should have introduced him to a smaller one first, huh?” The dog barked to agree.

Once she made it to her room to rest, she felt her phone vibrate as she checked to find a message from the timid senpai himself.

‘So, if you had to choose…’ The picture attached was a wall complete with various species, sizes, colours and types of stuffed animals, ‘Hypothetically… which would you prefer?’

She smiled to herself, typing her reply and sending it off- she imagined the flustered look on his face once he read it. Would he drop to the ground and hide himself like he did when she got too close? Something within her wished she could see.

‘The small, black kitty one in the corner. The one in the hood and the blush marks- it looks soft. Reminds me of you.’

[sixty-billion]

Vash knows that Wolfwood can espy him from his perch. In fact, he counts on it with his angle of approach and his appeal to other senses. Visible, deliberate, he switches from a prowling whisper-brush cognizant of shifting sand and dry-cracked gravel that ought to crunch under every footstep to an overtly 'sneaky' sneak.

Tiptoes in bulky boots, knees bent, strides long and premeditated in the clumsiest of ways.

Fingers delicately clasping the edges of his oversized jacket as if he's hiking his skirts.

Not suspicious. Not in the slightest. Nope.

When Nicholas calls out, Vash freezes mid-step—literally mid-step—with a foot lifted, toe pointed, shoulders hunched and wrists arched. He juts his chin and tilts his head to set a wide-eyed stare on the preacher-turned-sentinel for a heartbeat. Two.

"Ehehe—"

Smoothing out his posture and his clothing with a puckish grin, he picks his way around the rocky outcropping without disturbing the network of winnowed slabs that serve as territory and hunting grounds for resilient fauna. It wouldn't do to just trounce all over creatures on the prowl for a meal or sheltering to avoid becoming a meal. Vash has not forgotten Wolfwood's threat-promise of a midnight snack.

"Gleeful wiggling, huh? That's an interesting image to think of. You did say make like a worm…"

It's sing-song. It's cheeky. It's delivered with a curled smile and a gleaming squint, well aware that he might earn reprisal. He might deserve reprisal at this point, but it's nice to just do and be without any immediate pang of remorse.

Kip-hop and he alights on the level, extending his arms out and then up. Long and lean and the opposite of suave, mid-stretch he paces forward and on the tail of a sigh he invites himself to a cross-legged seat within elbowing distance. As he strokes his chin and takes in the view (near and far alike), he nudges Wolfwood's shoulder with his right. If he knows that he startled his compatriot, he gives no obvious sign.

The last thing he wants is to be frightening, and it is better to seem oblivious.

"This is nice."

Apropos of nothing. And of everything.

Out here it is quiet: arid and vast and altogether empty. No headlights crawl across the dunes or flash like beacons across the salt flats. No drones. No bots. No screams. And the best of all, it is not completely lonely.

"Mm. Got plenty of rest…it's easier to sleep in the truck," he ventures, soft and conversational, a furtive sort of candor with few to witness but Wolfwood, worms, and the void above. "On the move, you know. Going somewhere."

He stands at the fringes, observing from behind a wisp of smoke like he isn’t cracking the occasional grin at the ridiculous company he keeps. Playing at indifference, but not so much that he can suppress the snort of laughter when a harried Roberto squints at them through the window with bedhead and a grumpily twitching mustache. 

When they involve him against his will, it is his turn to scowl. Not at Meryl, whom he grabs gently by the shoulders to rebalance and set her upright on her feet– tries to, in any case, only for his efforts to be in vain.

“Oof- hey!” 

The whole scuffle wasn’t even his fault. For once. Vash can look cute and innocent all he likes (and maybe it works just a little bit), their Humanoid Typhoon is part firestarter and…all teeth. He blinks and stares a second longer than strictly necessary before exhaling loudly through his nose.

“Hmph.” Wolfwood throws a half-hearted glare in Vash’s direction before stalking off in search of a rocky shelf to haunt for the first half of the night.  

With as much flat desert as they have stretching out before them, elevation makes all the difference. The only arrivals and departures of note as the shadows deepen and the stars and moons glow unchallenged in the dark is the occasional buzz of worm swarms undulating in a glittering cloud of bioluminescence as they pass over his head. Watching, being watched. It is harder to be where Zazie is not. 

Lizards skitter in and out of pockets of wind-carved stone, their tiny claws scratching in the dark as they search for midnight snacks. Lower, almost imperceptible, the haunting groan of grand worms breaching the dunes and carving through great swaths of sand can be felt through the sandstone spire that he has made into his roost. 

An impression of quiet. 

So when movement in his peripheral vision turns out to be none other than Vash in the dead silence of ambience, Wolfwood cannot decide if he ought to question whether he has lost his edge or if Vash has always been capable of moving quietly enough to escape detection from enhanced senses. 

Traveling with this trio might have made him too comfortable, perhaps. He stubs out his cigarette to a small pile growing between his bent knees and looks back out over the desert again as if Vash hadn’t just startled the hell out of him.  “Surprised you managed to even wait that long. Did you actually get any sleep or were you just gleefully wigglin’ in your bedroll the whole time?”