#and if you wanna get familiar with the games or comics or whatever!! i am so happy to try and explain them to you

[fortruechaos]

i liked sonic 3 for the most part (except for jim carrey's jokes why did no one in the editing room think to edit those) but a big reason im uninterested in writing movie shadow is because of the changes to his backstory especially irt what happens to maria; my shadow specifically hinges a lot of his development off of the idea of being made as a cure for a terminally ill, dying child who also happened to be his best friend. i understand why this was not adapted for a kid's movie for obvious reasons though and frankly it was probably smart for them to cut it for the movie. also gun explicitly killing maria on purpose vs them accidentally blowing up pressurized gas that explodes and kills her are two very different things that of course change how shadow acts in the movie and probably will act in future movie installations.

i also think the more active role gerald plays in sonic 3, again while it makes sense for the movie canon and especially as a kid's movie, is significantly less interesting. gerald's active interpersonal manipulation of shadow and eggman and his role as a physical 'big bad' to kill in the story vs him in SA2 rearranging all of shadow's psyche before his execution because he knows he will be dead in the near future and can't end the world himself to make shadow believe he knows what gerald and maria want of him is much more compelling to me. gerald knew if he didn't alter shadow's memories to make him believe maria, the person he was created to save the life of, asked him to enact vengeance, he wouldn't have tried to blow up the world when he woke up. it builds more off of this idea of personal duty vs the concept of loyalty which i think while the two words are similar they are not interchangeable.

shadow is extremely loyal to rouge and omega. he would also betray them if he needed to if he felt it was the only way he could keep his promise. it would be nearly impossible for him to feel compelled to do this, but it could happen. and he would expect the same from everyone else he knows too (see in 06 where omega is the one to ultimately seal shadow away). shadow doesn't expect loyalty, he expects everyone to stick to their moral code because HE sticks to HIS moral code (which doesn't mean he acts in heroic ways all the time but he does what he ultimately believes to be right even if it's cutthroat) and he is extremely bad at understanding that not everyone finds morality to be of interest to how they live their lives.

i don't see this being a path movie shadow takes. which is fine, i like movie shadow, i feel he's more in character personality-wise than a lot of shadow's characterization in the games has been up till sxsg came out, but ultimately it's just a set of character motivations that aren't congruent with why i find shadow to be a compelling character to write. and that's mostly why i don't have a movie verse for him and just do crossover stuff with movie verse folks i write with ^^

there's also a few other things like how movie shadow is pretty explicitly disgusted by the researchers and doesn't like the way they treat him and is thus forced to be more subservient to them, but the way i see shadow acting on the ARK is to be much more willing and happy to comply with their tests as he believes it is the only way to unlock his potential as a cure, again, for his sick and dying friend, not a girl who just happened to be there. my shadow was made to be a cure and is happy to live a life that he believes will get him there, movie shadow obviously hates how he's treated.

also i like sonic lore, i like setting things within the zones and acts of the games and tv shows and stuff, not on earth! westopolis sounds way cooler than new york city imo.

anyway i wanted to write this because i've had some folks who write movie versions of the characters with no game-verses follow me and i'm more than happy to write with movie portrayals of the characters but ultimately my shadow is not going to really be similar to movie shadow apart from their taciturn dispositions and i don't want people to get the wrong impression in case they are expecting my shadow to be similar to movie shadow because i really don't think the two are equatable beyond sharing a name, appearance, and personality traits, or at least they aren't in my personal understanding and writing of a mostly game-verse shadow.

[honks-n-stonks]

save me.... I'm thinking about my goofy puyo x monhun au again..... (disclaimer: I have only played Rise/Sunbreak, GU (still in HR) and World (got to MR before my TV 💥)

EDIT ‼️‼️‼️ this thing got so LONG I'm just putting the entire thing under a "read more" because previously it was at the "characters" section but Jesus it looks so LONG on tablet I am so so SO sorry

nawr it's getting so bad I've been thinking about the TOWNS/VILLAGES now....

Primp (and Grimp, if we want to include Chronicle in all of this) would obviously become a village (Primp/Grimp Village oh how original you are Goose [not that I can come up with any better NAMES okay])

Not... sure about Suzuran.... Yeah it's a city, but MH doesn't have any modern or super technologically advanced civilizations (that are still around, anyway.) Something inbetween a kingdom and a village like. A Town. yeah. I don't know why the idea of a Town™️ seems so farfetched to me when Kingdoms Exist like does Sunbreak and the idea of Schrade (rip) not exist to me ????

Aahh,,, I really need to read up on the villages of the other MH games. Maybe that will help me get a feel for how I want Suzuran to be. Definitely much bigger than Primp or any regular village in GU/Rise, that's what I'll say. (Then again, the hubs don't give me a good feel of their true size. I need CONCEPT ART TO SAVE ME!!!!)

As for the Madou cast... instead of straight up being from another world, I think they'd just be from a distant village (or villages). I'm not TOO familiar with Arle's world, but that's the excuse I'm using! Same applies with Suzuran, and where Lemres, Feli, and Klug originate from. Comically far village! Though... this mainly stems from Primp Village being... prrreetty far away from other civilizations in general (stealing this from some HC that I saw where Primp is far from other towns, basically remote [unless that was already canon]).

As for the residents of the Tetra... well they uh. They live on a spaceship in the games. So, in the AU I'll just make them a traveling group of Hunters (sorta like mercenaries???? but for monsters duh) that go from village to village and help out with any particularly tough monster-related issues. Sorry, that's the best I can come up with...

Small tangent, is it weird I still want magic to be a thing in this AU? Despite the fact that none exists in MH- (Elders can do some goofy stuff, but it's usually from some special organs they possess/bioenergy crud [see: Ibushi and Narwa being able to float due to manipulation of the wind (Ibushi) and something akin to... magnetism, was it? Augh I KNOW it involves the thundersacs and electricity but I haven't played Rise in a fair bit])

Then again, it's an AU and I can technically do whatever I want..... bleh, they don't rely on it TOO much okay but perhaps the residents of Primp (and their neighbors) happen to have some... special powers that give them an edge in hunts and everyday life. I have no idea if I still wanna include Puyo themselves in this. Ehh.... I'll get to that eventually..... oughghjhjjdiskksiskj can you tell this is the most brainpower I've ever put into anything ever?

Oh god, this is becoming long. Too bad, I don't feel like stopping... I'll go onto some ideas for characters that I have... (aka The Trio™️)

Amitie: aw yeah!!! I kinda want her to be the focus in this AU? ahem. I think I want her to use a Sword and Shield, and as for her Hunter Rank I imagine her to be around Low-Early High Rank (4 stars?). I might have to make my own monster rank/difficulty chart for this AU, as there are some monsters I kinda feel are too dangerous for Low Ranks to take on? (see: Elders being in LOW RANK in GU for some ungodly reason, WHY WHY WHY ARE THEY THERE?! [not a complaint, just super hilarious, obviously i'm not taking that as "ooooohh canonically a LR hunter can fight Teostra" just a haha silly thought]) Probably basing it more on Rise/Gu's system works instead of World. Low Rank literally has its own storyline there! (Which obviously is expanded upon in High and probably Master Rank) That... and Hunter Rank isn't tied to the quest rank in World. Not gonna lie, that confused me a little...

Ugh, I went on a tangent.... anyways. Amitie. Sword and Shield User. HR 4 Hunter. I think... she'll have a Rath Heart SnS (why? PINK). Giving her a Fire element weapon might make more sense but... eh, she technically still uses magic in this AU, so it's probably fine. (I can imagine them using magic in tandem with their weapons, or using them as a... conduit? [is that it?] for magic. Think: Schezo's spells, where you can see the magic coming from the sword.) Typically goes on gathering/egg hunt quests, she's not quite good in direct confrontations with monsters! (Still a little klutzy, but when she's in a pinch, she manages to show an impressive-albeit brief- display of power. Not related to any sun goddess here, she's just stronger than she thinks she is!) Prefers to go on quests with other Hunters (Arle and Ringo, more on those two later), especially during a Hunt or Capture quest.

Arle: ALSO uses a Sword and Shield mainly because A) I can't think of anything better and B) hehe funny Arle and Amitie parallels though I can imagine her being proficient in most if not ALL the other weapons available, especially Bow. Can't think of a specific one she'd use though, sorry... I'll get back to that later. A more skilled Hunter than Amitie, she could probably tackle high-end High Rank monsters with ease (HR 7/8), even when going Solo. mmm, not sure about elders. I think it'd be neat if she managed to take down one or two (they're supposed to be fairly rare, I think), with a group of Hunters. (see: other Madou characters [Draco, Schezo, Rulue]). Probably Kushala Daora or Kirin. I consider them to be "easy" Elders (Chameleos is not here because I'd imagine him to be too elusive for her to have encountered... yet.)

Uhhh. Back on track. She currently resides in Primp Village with some other Madou characters. Maybe takes a sorta part-time job at Primp's canteen, I just think it'd be neat for her to make some KILLER curry. Always pumps up and invigorates anyone who eats it. Also just helps around with problems villagers have in general, she's pretty strong!

Ringo: Lives in the far off... town? yeah I'll just go with that of Suzuran. Albeit uncommon, her presence is always appreciated. I think it's mentioned that her family runs a small grocery store in Suzu, soo I think she'd be like... a traveling merchant? Of the food kind. Fresh fruit...? Perhaps her family even owns an orchid, with their apples being quite popular back home. HEY. WAIT. She could be the equivalent of the Argosy/Trader in the MH games! And the market in general. Anyways, although Ringo is not a hunter per say, she still can assist her buds in hunts (see: Sunbreak follower system). When out hunting, she prefers to use a Light Bowgun. (Modified, cause I imagine her with a Thunder or Paralysis iron tree LBG.) Hell, she's pretty damn good at it too. Probably has a good amount of experience fighting monsters, because a lot can happen when you travel around a lot with goods (especially of the food variety) in tow. Oh god, I just remembered those quests in Rise with this ONE dude who keeps getting his stuff wrecked in like... three different quests... by three different monsters..... that man CANNOT catch a break!!!!!!!!! Oh right. Not sure what Ringo's HR would be, cus' she's not officially a hunter. Sorta? Maybe. Would be around Ami's level, if not a tad bit higher. Since she's not quite really a hunter, she doesn't (or can't?) take quests solo. Not that I think she'd have too much of a problem with it, i think.

Um. That's all I got... well, not really. But this is becoming TOO LONG!!! If anyone sees this... lmk what you think? OH. YEAH WAIT BEFORE I FORGET... most of the characters probably are aged up in this AU (young adults?) because I don't think teens are really allowed to risk their lives Hunting that Monster if you get what I mean. No, I'm not counting the Rampage summons.... it's more of a "all hands on deck" kinda deal to be there!

As for how their designs would look.... Amitie's definitely gonna be based off her Swordfighter alt, and Ringo would probably have hers based around the Steam Ages one (but MHified, and that's obviously for her "hunting" look.) Arle? Uh. Probably a more armored version of her normal look. Can't remember any alts in particular. Sorry...

ANYWAYS THAT'S IT FOR REAL!!! Good god I spent too long rambling about this. I think I'm a little bit obsessed....

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

God, I am feeling so sick towards the TWDG fandom and their treatment towards Tillie. I am not a fan of the comic either, but the way she is being treated while announcing her baby's birth is sickening! Say whatever shit you want about the comic, but why attack the author when you can complain about Skybound doing the disservice? Tillie is only doing her job!

Mmhmmm, it's ridiculous.

I don't understand what's so hard about not sending her shit like that. It's fine to hate and rage about the comic since Clementine's a character we all care about, but leave Tillie out of it. Or at the very least be respectful about it, y'know? There's actually quite a bit in the Clementine books that you can draw back to her previous works and themes that she as a creator likes to write... but no one is interested in that, they just wanna wave their hate boners and I have no patience for that.

Also it pisses me off when bigger creators/fans in the fandom contribute to the hate, it makes it so much worse- lookin' at you, domthebomb. I tried to be nice before but frankly, I watched his review. I don't have it in me anymore.

If I didn't know he read the whole thing from watching parts of his stream, I would've assumed he just read the wiki since he got some basic things about the plot and characters wrong... which is very funny since he accuses Tillie of not playing the games when she's stated in interviews that she has. Like... Amir isn't John's brother, Dom, did you even read the comic? I know you did, so why would you say that? And the book did give you time to get to know some of the new cast, you just spent that time saying, "I don't care," so, I don't know... maybe respect your audience more and put some effort into your review for them? Or, y'know... don't read it at all if it makes you that angry.

Imagine saying you don't condone hate toward Tillie Walden and then proceed to go on a rant about how you believe Ricca, a character you and everyone hates, is Tillie's self-insert and this book is just a romance now, like... he should know that's contributing to the problem. He has an audience. If he actually gave a shit about harassment, he wouldn't bring Tillie into it at all... especially when it's a baseless accusation that falls apart when you have a basic understanding of how art is created and think for more than two seconds. When you say that Ricca is annoying and a character everyone hates, and you say she's Tillie's self-insert multiple times, you're conflating the two for your audience and that's probably why she got an influx of those comments on her instagram calling her awful things after your stream and your review.

Also, liking and engaging with the comments feeding the hate in his comments section goes against his "I don't condone hate" stance, no?

I don't even know why I'm bothering with this since he's not going to see it, and even if he did, he wouldn't care. I'm no one important, so he wouldn't take any criticism I give and reflect on it. I get that he's passionate about TWDG and he loves Clementine, but I don't give a shit that he cares about a fictional character. What matters is how he treats real people like Tillie and then tries to be like, "but guys I don't condone hate, please be kind" like dude, c'mon. I know he's played the games multiple times; he should be plenty familiar with, "This choice has consequences."

I guess at the very least he's not as bad as some other reviews. So much Angry Man Yelling energy, it's... uncomfortable.

[cybertron-after-dark]

Quick rules post!!

I take requests for both drabbles and headcanons about a whooooole lot of transformers continuities. There's no hard limit on how many characters in one ask, but remember that the more characters you ask for, the longer it will take. An ask might not always get done in a timely manner, and I hold the right not to respond if I'm uncomfortable or if I simply have no answer I could think of.

Sometimes I post nsfw, it will always be given the #valveplug tag and marked as mature.

Addendum: I post a lot about my little fan project called Wayward Sparks, feel free to block that tag if you're just here for the canon stuff. But if you really wanna know more about it you can ask 👉👈

Specific will and won't do lists are under the cut

Continuities

Know 'em (things I know really well and am comfortable writing for)

-Animated

-Beast Wars

-Prime

-Cyberverse

-Rescue Bots (the original version)

-Robots in Disguise (2001)

Sorta Know 'em (haven't seen/read/played it all, but I'm familiar with some parts. Ill probably write for them but it's not a guarantee I'll know everything and everyone)

-G1

-IDW comics

-Knightverse

-Earthspark (NO SPOILERS FOR ANYTHING BEYOND THE EPISODE "HOME," PLEASE)

Don't Know 'em (i have no idea what's going on here yet, I will not currently write for these because I'm completely unfamiliar, though that may change in the future)

-Unicron Trilogy

-Fall of Cybertron/War for Cybertron games

-Beast Wars Second/Beast Wars Neo

-anything from that weird stretch between g1 and beast wars honestly (Headmasters/pretenders/whatever the hell else happened in the dark ages)

-marvel comics

-dreamwave comics

Hell (please don't remind me that these exist I am so tired)

-Beast Machines

-War for Cybertron: Kingdom

-Robots in Disguise (2015)

-Rescue Bots Academy

-Bayverse

Subject Matter

Will Do

-canon x reader

-canon x canon

-canon & reader (platonic)

-canon & canon (platonic)

-poly ships

-human reader

-cybertronian reader

-other species that don't fall into human or bot reader (just specify, please)

-nsfw

-sticky, spark, tactile, EM field, and/or plug n play interfacing

-mass shifted/holoform bot

-bdsm

-medical kink

-belly kink/stuffing/vore/hunger kink

-monsterfucking

-consensual somno

-breeding kink

-honestly I'll do most kinks, if youre not sure feel free to ask. Freaks are welcome here

-violence

-darker themes not listed in the won't do category

Won't Do

-canon x oc

-yandere (not because I object to depicting abuse, when done responsibly, i just hate how horribly out of character the entire trope requires you to be)

-incest/stepcest

-underage

-rape

-bestiality/feral (this does not apply to characters simply existing in a beast mode, but it does apply to beastformers or cassettes who do not speak and have shown no indication that they can consent)

-ddlg

-scat/watersports/emeto/foot stuff

-raceplay/detrans kink/anything with clear harmful political overtones

[ayosdesignz-blog]

Hey so about fictional newyork?

All the mutants, mutates, freaks, geeks, sneaks, and geniuses seem to congregate this big small area without really overlaping all that much even when the characters are owned by the same company.

And that's just not fun enough.

Please keep in mind that I had no access to comics as a child. l have not had the opportunity yet to get my hands on comics now to gorge myself on and am MOST familiar with the old 80s/90s cartoons/shows and subsequent movies.

I am aware that the marvel movies are having heros occupy the same space in cinema. I'm aware of the spiderverse and even got to watch the 1st movie. I'm even aware that in more recent years (I think?) There was an official animated movie special that had Batman and the teenage mutant ninja turtles working together.

But I have yet to hear of any such thing for the TMNT meeting Spider-Man. And that's just wasted opportunity in my opinion.

So I wanted to ask my fellow fanfic readers (and fanfic writers if you see this)

Can ya recommend me a cool Spideypool fic that has the fantastic four, avengers, x -men acknowledged to exist and interact as friends. Team red being a thing and Spider-Man being one of the few to know the TMNT are real and works with them periodically as well as learned additional fighting skills from them with them helping to train his spidey sense some with their ninja skills. And Spidey in turn has 4 additional hero friends he can be himself with and they know who he is(who they gonna tell? Plus they keep distant surveillance on his loved ones for him) and were even introduced to his loved ones as a safety measure. Everyone likes Aunt May, Mikey especially likes the treats and trinkets she always has on hand to give them when they secretly visit her when Peter is too busy to so she isn't too lonely.

I basically wanna read a fic where Spider-Man grew into his heroism with 4 ninja turtle friends no one knew about. As an adult he managed to make his own punloving team in team red. Has worked to slowly introduce TMNT to other accepting allies/friends of his he thinks will mix well.

And while the xmen have a snooty gate keeping model of "mutates aren't real mutants" they're still nice in general and Kurt/Nightkrawler becomes their newest bestie while Master Splinter and Beast and the Thing are tea drinking buddies.

Deadpool meanwhile has been long gaming it to try to wife up Spidey even while accepting whatever he can get. And loses his shit once he's finally introduced to the TMNT because he'd hope they were real but didn't expect them to be for some reason. He's always wanting to spar with them for fun. And lightly flirts of course.

Team red and TMNT spar and the turtles use the spiderman and daredevil's senses as a game to increase stealth whereas the other 2 use it to increase their awareness. Deadpool tends to switch sides in the game.

[clairethecutepup]

Weekly Update: 3/11-3/19

Paragraphs ahead for: comic work, fan work, comic advice, advertising plans, gaming...

Jeez, why can't I seem to remember that Saturdays are when I'm supposed to post these? Aw well, at least it's being posted on a weekly basis, ja? So then, let's get into it...

I'm wrapping up the sketching portion of Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes' 7th page, and I've learned how to make lines less blurry: I need to alter the resolution before any potential drawing, and harden the lines for extra crispness. Hopefully, that fixes my little "fuzziness" problem...

Also, I've been thinking about blazing the entirety of Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes in a future post. I mean, I'll be doing a post with all the pages together, for viewer convenience, anyway. You see, I figured it'd be the best way to show my comic-related works to the world, via making posts with 50-ish comic "pages" to view. I know, I said I wouldn't do "blaze" posts with fan-related work, but work samples are work samples, ja? Hopefully, I'll have better luck in gathering a following and building up potential franchises, if I use the visual medium of comics, rather than simply posting chapter images with the accompanying paragraphs of literature.

Of course, I'm not just using a comic-styled medium for reasons of "easier attention-grabbing" alone, I also enjoy the idea of utilizing visuals/drawings than simple text walls. Why do you think I decided to add chapter images to Getting Your Goat, back when I stuck to mostly literary forms of entertainment? Plus, I feel like my art style would help my works be seen as more iconic/recognizable, compared to just a familiar writing style and the like. If you're gonna get anywhere, people gotta recognize your works as YOUR works, ja? Can't just rely on my blonde, little wolf-hybrid mascot to always tell you you're viewing something of mine.

Speaking of comic work, I really suggest doing it digitally for convenience sake. After all, do it traditionally and you'll be having a rougher/longer time altering outlines, panels and whatever else that'll take you a few seconds digitally. Sure, I won't tell you to fix what's not broken, nor am I demanding you forsake traditional art; but I will give recommendations where recommendations are seen fit. Of course, I don't want to forego traditional art myself, but I think I'll save it for reference sheets and other things that don't involve a bit more... "complexity," I guess is the word?

In relation to the workings of Puppy Eyes and Doll Eyes, as well as the over all desire to make a fan comic series based on the "Assassin AU" of Ed Edd n Eddy, I admit a bit of nervousness toward people's potential reactions regarding Claire. No, I wanna include Claire and include her as is, so she's getting included and included as is: namely, animal-hybrids recently being made as the "perfect tool" for the organization's assassins.

Of course, there'd be hints the organization also plans to eventually make the dubbed "Werebeasts" independent enough, so it can MAKE its own and better brand of assassins, rather than spending the time/effort into abducting and grooming people as kids. At least, I think that's supposed to be the AU's backstory: they were taken by the spaceship, in the "Invasion of the Eds" episode, and "trained" into their assassin lifestyles?

However, you don't get anywhere in life when you're too scared to do anything, so I'll suck it up and see what happens. The important thing is, as long as Claire doesn't hog the spotlight nor be more Mary-Sue than character, it should be fine. Plus, I'm sure some of the EEnE fandom would appreciate the "Assassin AU" making a comeback, characters like Claire present or not.

In matters unrelated to creative workings, I've finally gotten Pizza Tower, and I love it! It's fun to take the slow, steady pacing of platforming while exploring the levels-- and then run like HECK, Sonic the Hedgehog style!! I don't think I'll go for all "P" ranks, nor even one, as I like my games to be fun. Instead, I'll go for the collectibles and find all the secrets!

Anyway, till later!

[otakusheep15]

Hi! Could I have a match-up please? I use she/her pronouns, and I am bi (I think so anyway lol). A positive trait about me would be how creative I am! I love creating stories and world building; I feel like I can spend hours just designing characters, environments, etc. A negative trait would be how quick I am to anger and how explosive I can be (im trying to fix it tho;;). A hobby I have would be drawing (again with the designing thing), especially stuff like concept art and comics. Another hobby would be reading (love gothic novels!) and playing video games! My favorite color is blue :) The only characters I would say I don't wanna be Paired with is Lucifer and Solomon! Thank you for doing these matchups!!

I match you with Asmo!

Asmo would be super supportive of your creativity and would constantly encourage it at all times. He will not hesitate to help you with ideas or proofread your stories if you ask. Even if he's not very familiar with a topic you're working on, he'll do his duties as your number one cheerleader and support you. Always wants to keep tabs on your progress with any writing/drawing you might be doing, and he almost always wants to be the first one to see when it's done.

Whenever you get angry, Asmo is already there to calm you down. He's had plenty of practice dealing with his brothers and their bursts of anger (mostly Satan), so he is very confident in his abilities. He also has a very wide range of ways to help you out during these times. If you need to find a way to relax and stress relieve, he already has a self-care day lined up on his schedule. If you need a distraction, he's dragging you to the nearest store and buying you whatever you want. If you just want to sit around and do nothing, his room is always open to you.

As for your hobbies, he's very into them. Like I said earlier, he's super supportive of all of your creative works and would be more than happy to help you on anything you may want. And while he doesn't read or game very much, he'd be more than happy to join you if you ask. Feel free to recommend him games or novels to try. Usually he wouldn't be bothered, but he'd do it for you, and he may pick up some favorites along the way. He may also go to Levi in secret for advice on video games you might like.

Rules for matchups

[phytocondria]

Spooky Calls

Hello all! I am in fact alive, lol. Sorry I haven't been posting much on here, I'll definitely be trying and stay a little bit more active on Tumblr. Before Spirit's Eve passes by, here's a little spooky story for y'all to enjoy. Summary: The farmhouse has been getting some very strange calls and Harvey isn't the biggest fan of them. Wordcount: 685

It’s just a prank

He repeats the line over and over again and again, chasing sickening ideas out of his mind with the mantra. Harvey’s breath is too shallow, and he’s trying to even it out before it fully develops into hyperventilating, but the potency of his words deplete with each subsequent call. He sits by the house phone as he tries to forget, but rational and logic are tools that can only dispel his worries when he still has the ground solid beneath him. The irrational and illogical parts of his mind are too good at masquerading and sounding sensible when he’s unsettled, and he’s shaking as more and more uncertainty carves out homes in his mind.

When it first started it was easy to dismiss as just a prank, but now.

It’s just a creepy voice. A creepy, child's voice saying things like “forsaken” and “how could you do this”. It was comically textbook for a scary prank call. That alone should have enough to quiet his fears. Hell, he should be more surprised there wasn’t a “do you wanna play a game?” or “Hello Georgie” thrown in for variety and an extra self-congratulatory laugh, but maybe those references had thankfully, finally aged out.

It was his spouse picking up for the first time that had started this cycle of terror he realized. There wasn’t much that could get under Harvey’s skin quite so effectively, but the flash of terror on the farmer’s face was enough to throw Harvey into a fury. Going from a passive annoyance as he silently listened in to the pranksters' act, he was possessed with the desire to protect. Pulling the receiver from his partner’s hand and yelled that they needed to stop whatever joke they thought was so amusing before slamming the phone into the receiver. Spirit’s Eve was half a season away and his partner’s pale face and trembling hands as they covered their horrified expression weren’t funny.

Then the calls to the clinic started. Always when Maru wasn’t working, and the dialogue shifted. Hateful hisses of “Interloper” “Foolish worm” to more abstract insults and claims like, “What a loyal pet they’ve found” and “We were happy before you” in the beginning. He didn’t know why he bothered to listen, but sometimes the voices weren’t hateful, but sad, heartbroken and full of pity: “Do you know... the price they paid for you?” “We believed they loved us too once” “Don’t let them devour your heart or sense” “They lie, believe us, they lie, they lie, please?” The voices just crept into his heart and pulled at thoughts, memories, no not memories. They couldn’t be memories, but maybe vague thoughts that turned to smoke every time he tried touching them and shifting them into focus.

Why did they only ever warn him after a fight with the farmer? Why did the calls only come when Maru wasn’t working? Where was the normal, adoring warmth in their farmer’s eyes when he asked about the voice's words? A dark, cold shadow over their face as they soothed and promised it was nothing. Why couldn’t Maru track the number back to a person or even an app?

Questions crowded his mind, unable to quiet them as the voices new message echoed out. “Run… please, before you forget…. Run, before you inconvenience them… ”

~~~

Harvey looked up as the clinic door opened with a ding. The new farmer walked inside, digging through their knapsack before producing a tall, glass bottle and handing it to him without a word.

“It's for me?” Harvey asked, cautiously taking the bottle from their hand. On the bottle was a label, vaguely familiar, with an elegant font that said ‘truffle oil’, “ This is my favorite stuff! It's like you read my mind.” he joked, his excitement at such a marvelously, perfect gift showing and causing him to blush. The farmer returned his glowing thanks with a satisfied smile.

“Just a lucky guess.” they mumbled, Harvey trying to squash the dread clamoring at the corners of his mind, as he met the Farmer’s pleased expression.

[neutral-emerald]

SILVER THE COSMIC TIME-JANITOR (or: dude, what's with all the alternate futures)

silver the hedgehog has a very simple backstory. he's a kindhearted, sorta-naive but altogether very driven psychic hedgehog here to save the world by time-traveling to the past (also known as present-day) to prevent the apocalyptic future he was born into from coming to pass!

[ID: A screenshot of Silver from Sonic 06. He’s glowing with cyan energy as he flies over a dark, post-apocalyptic city.]

...wait, if he's time traveling 200 years into the past to completely change the shape of the timeline, how do the stars manage to align such that he manages to be born at the exact same point in the new timeline with the exact same genetics? how are his parents born? does silver have parents?? and how does he do this no less than THREE SEPARATE TIMES??!

hey everyone, i'm tumblr user neutral-emerald here to make good on the idea i vaguely gestured at yesterday and point out silver's wildly inconsistent backstory(s) and then explain to you how this isn't just sega playing hopscotch with the concept of time travel, but actually TOTALLY EXPLAINABLE if you don't mind a whole lot of conjecture and "fuck dude i just think it'd be cool."

LET'S GO.

before i get started, a few things to establish.

first, this is about… half serious, tops. it’s less of a theory and more of an observation of something that’s weird and then throwing some possible explanations at it because i am a massive sucker for time-based nonsense. if you wanna take my observations and build your own conclusions, go for it. i’m not your boss.

second, i'm basing my conclusions off of both the games and the idw comics. the conclusions i draw are applicable to either continuity, but the logic does rest a decent amount on the comics, so just a heads-up in case you were expecting pure game canon from this.

and third, i'm working off like half a brain and very intermittent checks of the wiki and cutscene compilations, so there's probably many things i'm missing! if you notice something i said was wildly off-base, go ahead and correct me in the replies and i'll either edit the post or explain to you just how that detail doesn't actually matter, depending on whether it. y'know. matters.

with that out of the way, let's get into the first topic of discussion!

part 1: the future is inconsistent, y'all

now, i'm not sure if you've heard, but in the year 2006 sonic team released this little indie game creatively entitled Sonic the Hedgehog. it was a smash hit, won countless awards, and for some reason went down in history as a messy, incomplete bugfest. but that's not what matters. what matters is that it introduced Silver the Hedgehog.

silver hails from 200 years in the future. the world is a bleak, fiery place, and has been since the monster iblis was unleashed after princess elise's death. silver was born into this world, which we know since it's literally the first thing he says in his story.

[ID: A cropped line from Silver's story in Sonic 06. "This world was devastated before I was born."]

i'm not going to drag you through a beat-by-beat summary of the entire plot of sonic 06, you should know it already. silver meets mephiles, gets lied to about who caused the apocalypse, mephiles yeets him and blaze into the past, he tries to murder Sonic the Hedgehog™, and so on. eventually he helps kill god, and then sonic and elise travel further back in time to kill god even deader so that none of the game ever happened, and the bad future into which silver was born never happened, thus thoroughly scrubbing silver's existence from the timeline!

...until.

sonic rivals.

i'm not going to speak much on sonic rivals, mostly because i'm not super familiar with it. but what matters is that silver is back! he's still from the future, he's still here to change the past, and most importantly he wasn't deleted from existence by the destruction of solaris, unlike everything else from sonic 06 including everyone's memories of it. and obviously, whatever state his future is in, it's not the same as it was in sonic 06.

now, i don't have a single clue what is going on in rivals 2, so do inform me if there's some big information i'm missing from that one. all i know is he's fixing yet another possible apocalyptic future, like always. correct me if i’m wrong, i don’t have the patience to trawl through it myself.

then we've got sonic colors, in which silver is again from the future. notably, he’s definitely not from an apocalypse!

[ID: Some screenshots from the DS version of Sonic Colors, again cropped to just the text. Tails and Silver are talking to each other.

Tails: What's the future you came from like, Silver? Silver: A lot brighter than this. Silver: The sky is blue, and everybody's got a smile.]

sonic generations doesn't add much. again, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think we learn anything about what kind of future silver is from, and he's definitely not here to fix it this time. that's sonic's job! he's just hanging out like everyone else.

now, up until this point the future has been reasonably consistent, setting aside my somewhat abstract understanding of the rivals games. there's nothing to say that silver's not coming back in time from the same point in a single timeline, which is the one and only version of the future ever since the destruction of sonic 06.

UNTIL.

[ID: Two panels from the comic Sonic Forces: Stress Test. In the first panel, Silver looks worried as he lands in front of Knuckles, who looks skeptical.

Silver: We've got big trouble! Eggman— Knuckles: How can you be here? I thought you returned to the future?

In the second panel, Knuckles looks away with a self-assured grin, while Silver looks more panicked.

Knuckles: Oh wait— I must be dreaming! Silver: What? No! I've come back with a dire warning from the future!]

i have a lot of issues with sonic forces, especially with how its story is written. something i do NOT take issue with is the supplemental comics, mainly because they are WONDERFUL evidence for my crackpot time travel theory.

like i said, up until this point we don't really know whether silver has been experiencing separate instances of the future, or simply traveling back in time to prevent an also-time-traveling eggman nega from messing things up in the past. but here, we get some very juicy information:

[ID: Knuckles and Silver again. Knuckles has his arms crossed and is looking at Silver, who has a nervous look on his face as he slams a fist on the palm of his other hand.

Knuckles: Come again? Silver: Something happens that brings the world to ruin! But the historical records are sparse or make no sense. I came back to hopefully head off whatever's about to happen and save the future.]

silver travels back in time to prevent a terrible apocalypse. this is not the beautiful future silver came from in sonic colors— but this is the same silver. everyone recognizes him. he recognizes everyone. and yet, the future he came from is different.

part 2: silver is a walking paradox

allow me to remind you of what i pointed out when i was talking about sonic 06. silver was born into the iblis-apocalypse. considering no elaborate timeline nonsense happened to him before the events of the game (by his reckoning) i think we can safely assume he was born like a regular person with parents.

in the first post-06 timeline, silver was probably also born. let's be charitable, acknowledge that sonic team doesn't overthink the butterfly effect like i do, and say that silver was born to the same parents, because the universe likes to keep things nice and simple and contrive itself to make this particular character exist in this time period.

so, it's entirely fair that silver comes to exist in a post-06 timeline at the equivalent point in time, aka 200 years in the future. it's also fair that he travels back in time to prevent some kind of apocalypse, because that's his narrative role! it's what he does. when it's time for him to exist in the story, that's what he's there to do.

what isn't fair is the fact that it keeps happening.

[ID: A panel from the IDW comics. Sonic is stretching his legs while looking faintly exasperated at Silver, who is nervously holding his arm.

Silver: Er… No. I came back because defeating Eggman didn't save the future. Sonic: Couldn't even play along. Had to bring the mood down. Sonic: *sigh* Okay, what happened this time?]

[ID: The following panel, cropped to just Silver's text bubbles narrating over a starry sky.

Silver: When I left, my time had been conquered by the Eggman Empire. Everyone lived in fear, choking on polluted air. Silver: When I went back, the Eggman Empire was gone— but so was everyone else. Silver: There was nothing left. No people, no animals, no machinery. Only water and sparse, metallic plant life.]

allow me to summarize my understanding of all this: silver is from the future. normally, the future is good. sometimes it isn't. when it isn't good, he goes back in time and fixes things, then returns to the future to check if that fixed things.

the least conjecture-y interpretation i can come up with is that sometimes silver will go into the past, then go back to the future but end up in a Bad Timeline and thus go into the past again to fix things. there's no weird warping directly between bad timelines, he only gets there by way of the past.

but that's boring, so here's my PREFERRED interpretation.

silver hails from a good future, but sometimes it just changes. he's unstuck from time— if something weird happens in the past, he's the only one to know that the passage of fate was changed, because he went to bed in one timeline and woke up somewhere categorically worse, and the only way he can fix it is by figuring out just what caused this and going back in time to fix it.

or, to say it in a meme:

[ID: A picture of someone lying in a hospital bed with a nurse standing next to them, edited so that Silver is in the bed.

nurse: sir… you've been asleep for 2 hours silver: oh boy i can't wait to wake up in the same timeline i went to sleep in]

part 3: how did this happen?

it's one thing to point out that silver doesn't experience time like a normal hedgehog, and another thing to explain how and why this happens.

fyi, this is the part where i go wildly off the rails and start saying whatever i want. there's a ton of explanations one could come up with, most probably stemming back to sonic 06. i'm just going to go with my own, and probably not come up with a whole lot of concrete evidence because i'm just spitballing. this is me having a fun time. going "heeheehoohoo time traveling hedgehog go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

so. something i haven't touched upon is that in all games after sonic 06, silver can time travel. we never see him do it, it's never explained how he does it. all we know is that he's doing it under his own power.

which is kinda odd, don't you think? should he be able to do that?

in sonic 06, we see three mechanisms for time travel. first is the chaos emeralds. if two people perform Chaos Control with a chaos emerald apiece, they open up a swirling rift in the air which can send them to different points in time and space. silver can't be doing that, for obvious reasons— he's only one hedgehog, and he's not exactly running around with a chaos emerald at all times. that can't be how he does it.

second is a time machine eggman built. that obviously can't be it; the machine doesn't exist at all after the timeline gets wiped, and again, silver is doing this on his own. he's actively antagonistic towards eggman, even. absolutely not this one.

third and finally is mephiles, who can make big purple orbs to take himself and passengers to different points in time. this obviously can't be it either, for similar reasons to number 2, right? after all, mephiles is one half of solaris, who was destroyed before he could be split off. he doesn't exist to be silver's time-traveling uber driver.

...right?

well, obviously. i'm not going to try and tell you that mephiles is secretly alive and shepherding silver back and forth between timelines for no reason. that's ridiculous. no, i'm going to try and tell you that silver is mephiles.

or rather, he's solaris. or RATHER, he's the new solaris, sorta-ascended to the role of Time God after the old one got blown out like a birthday candle.

like i said, i'm going wildly off the rails and as such don't have any concrete evidence to explain why it's this instead of something else, but hear me out. after elise blew out the flame of hope, the universe was left in an interesting situation. someone needs to be in charge of the flow of time, but the previous time-god was just unceremoniously destroyed. but all the power and energy of a time-god has to go somewhere, in some form, in some time.

with nothing else to go off of, the role of time-god starts flipping through every notable being it had interacted with. they're all solidly accounted for in the timeline, except for one. silver the hedgehog was born into a timeline that cannot exist. silver the hedgehog does not, and cannot exist. silver the hedgehog interacted quite a bit with both sides of solaris— he spent a substantial amount of time fighting back iblis, and associated with mephiles, even being one of the few people to directly experience his time travel abilities. silver the hedgehog tried and failed to absorb iblis into himself.

here's my theory: after sonic 06, the universe reasserted itself such that silver was the new Solaris. silver is not consciously aware that this is what he is, but he knows that he can time travel. sometimes the timeline will rearrange itself around silver. he is unaffected by this because he is a higher being unaffected by such petty trifles as "an origin" or "paradoxes".

silver the hedgehog probably doesn't have parents. he sprang into existence one day and everyone just kind of went with it, himself included.

oh also something i thought was neat but couldn't think of where to put:

[ID: More cropped dialogue, this time from Team Sonic Racing.

Silver: I'm fine. It's just, something bad is gonna happen. I can't explain it. I just feel it. Blaze: Have your travels through time given you precognition? Silver: I don't know. Maybe they have. Or maybe I'm just thinking too much.]

silver might be becoming psychic in a future-vision kinda way. that, or he’s riddled with anxiety. possibly both.

TL;DR

silver hails from no less than three separate timelines, his existence is a tangled web of who-knows-how-many grandfather paradoxes, and i choose to believe that he's god.

if anyone who cares more about evidence wants to gather up like, little one-off clues that support or conflict with my conclusions, go right ahead. or just throw your own arbitrary headcanons for what's going on with this at me. or incorporate these ideas into an au or something! i just want more people thinking about what the Fuck is up with silver post-06, because by god there is a WHOLE lot of potential packed in there

anyway thanks for reading make sure to like comment and subscribe—

[thiswasinevitableid]

A fun, potentially spooky prompt for Halloween season based on something you wrote in “Amnesty Records”: “Like the monster under the bed came to life, turned out to be hot, and really wants to fuck you.” Something to the theme of Little Monsters from 1989? Indruck and NSFW if you please?

This is indeed NSFW, and also came to me all in one burst.

Duck pulls the Captain Planet comforter up to his chin, sighing as he lays down. He turned seven today, and has been spoiled and fussed over. Mama Newton isn’t much of an entertainer, but she knows how to throw a birthday party. 

 A scrape  of nails on the floor and the rustle of something under his bed makes him freeze. 

“Taco, that you?”

When the cat doesn't appear, he sinks further under the covers.

“Mom?”

“No”  soft voice with a bit of hiss drifts up from under the bed.

He swallows, “Who’re you?”

“My name is Indrid. I live under your bed.”

“No you don’t, you weren’t there last night.”

“How do you know?”

“Just do. So go away.”

“No.”

“I’m gonna call my dad.”

“He won’t believe you” the bed frame rattles, “he will tell you to be a big boy.”

The monster is right, just yesterday dad was saying how proud he was of Duck being brave at the doctor. Fine, maybe if he pretends it’s not there, it’ll go away. 

“....aren't you going to cry?”

“No.” He sets his shoulders, glares at his wall.

“....not even a little?”

“No.”

“Oh.” A sigh, “I am not very good at this.”

Duck didn’t know monsters could be sad.

“Are, uh, are you a grown-up monster?”

“No. I am young and little, like you. They would not send a grown-up monster to a child, they send them to grown-up humans.”

“Grown ups don’t have monsters under their beds.”

“They do. They may not know it, but they do.”

Indrid doesn’t say anything else and Duck falls asleep. He’s hoping the monster won’t come back, but the instant his mom turns out the light, he knows he’s there. 

“I’m n-not scared.” He whispers to the ceiling.

“Yes you are. I can taste it.”

“You can't hurt me. You ain’t real.”

 A hand closes around his ankle and he yelps. The monster laughs, then hisses when Duck kicks his wrist. 

“That was not nice.”

“Neither was grabbing me”

There’s a huff, but nothing else. The third night, Duck is ready, sticking a fake sword under the bed as soon as Indrid says something. 

The sword is yanked from his hands. 

“Why is it this color?”

“Suppose to be from the future. Ain’t you seen space rangers?”

“No. That is not a movie we have down here.”

Duck is only now starting to recognize awkward pauses, but he’s pretty sure this is one.

“Will you tell me about it?” Indrid slides the sword back onto the floor by his dresser. 

He rolls onto his back. He’s not all that tired, and Juno is sick of hearing about it.

“Okay, so there’s this guy who’s a space farmer….”

----------------------------------------

It’s been a year and Indrid is under his bed almost every night, but Duck isn’t afraid of him anymore. Which is why he’s determined to finally get a look at him. How scary can a monster that wants to talk about T.V or trees or whatever else Duck has been up to really be?

When his mom turns off the light, Duck slips out of bed and lays on his stomach, staring into the darkness beneath it. 

Four red eyes appear, but nothing else. 

“Hey ‘Drid.”

“Hello. Why are you down here? Did you lose that action figure again?”

“Nah. Wanted to see you. Where’s the rest?”

“Hidden in shadows. I am not supposed to let humans see me. It can be dangerous.”

“Oh, uh, sorry?”

Indrid hurriedly adds, “But we can stay like this, this is okay. I think. I do not really care, I like being able to see you. You're like the baby multibear my friend has.”

“I ain't a bear.”

“No. But you are, ah, cute.”

Only Iris, Juno’s friend, has ever called him cute, and he only knows that because Juno told him. He understood he was supposed to think that was good. But he likes it much better when Indrid says it.

“What should we talk about tonight?”

Duck rests his chin on his hands, “You wanna play go fish?”

“You have a fish?” The red eyes tip to the right. 

He snickers, “No, it’s a game. Here, lemme show you…”

------------------------------------------

“You better give that one back.” Duck grumbles as he looks down from the bed to see his new Spiderman comic missing. 

“I have given all of them back.” He can hear the smile, the one he’s glimpsed in darkness while whispering secrets under the bed; it’s wide, and there are definitely fangs, but Indrid only ever shows it when he’s happy. He never has a mean smile like the jerks at school. 

“Where’s my Black Panther?”

“...........I dropped it in the stream when I was reading.”

“‘Drid!”

“I got excited!!”

“You owe me a new one.” There’s no anger in his words. It’s just a comic book, not nearly as special as Indrid. 

“Can I give you something from here instead?”

Duck closes the new Iron Man, holds it down to the space beneath the bed, “deal.”

------------------------------------------------

He wakes up with a cry, too quiet to be a scream but with tremendous force behind it. As the nightmare fades, something rolls off the bed behind him. 

“‘D-Drid? Please, please say that was you or Taco.”

“It was me, Duck. I, I am sorry, you were whimpering in your sleep and I could taste more and more fear and I did not want you to be afraid. I, ah, I thought if I held you, it would make you feel better.”

“Thanks.” He shivers, the dream reaching out from all sides, threatening more horror if he falls asleep.

“Can, uh, can you come back up? Just for a little bit?” 

“I should not. It was already risky to do it how I did.”

Duck nods, forgetting Indrid can't see him. That's fine. He’ll be okay. He can handle-

A tree branch scrapes the window and he throws the covers over his head. 

“Put your hand over the edge of the bed.”

Duck slips his hand out from the blanket and lets it hang in the air. Fingers link around it, and then Indrid is holding it full on. It doesn’t feel like holding Janes hand when he’s helping her cross the street; it’s cold, smooth, and the nails are sharp. He sneaks a glance, sees red claws wrapped around his wrist, and feels safe enough to sleep. 

--------------------------------------

“Trouble sleeping?”

“Yeah, don’t know why I’m so worried about startin’ high school. I mean, it’s fucking Kepler, the high school ain’t any bigger than the middle school. “

“I always get nervous for new lessons. Even with some ability to see the future, I am worried I will do something wrong. Maybe it is that?”

“Yeh.” Duck rolls onto his side, hoping for a glimpse of a hand. He wishes he knew what Indrid looked like, wishes he was coming to school with him tomorrow. 

“I am sure you will be fine. You are intelligent, and funny, and charming.”

He smiles at the wall, “Thanks, ‘Drid.”

“Any time, Duck.”

--------------------------------

His roommate is snoring, which is not what he was hoping for from his first night in the dorms. Class tomorrow is going to fucking suck if he hasn't slept. 

“Congratulations on the successful move.” A familiar voice slinks up to his ear. 

“‘Drid? Holy shit, did you follow me?”

“I am your monster, I go where you go. Sort of. It is complicated. What is not complicated however, is this.” The clawed hand pops up to the edge of the bed, placing a wrapped package near Duck’s head. Stealthily removing the paper shows it’s the bright orange truffles that come from Indrid’s home. Duck loves them.  

“You didn’t have to do this.”

“It is traditional in both human and monster culture to give a gift when one moves to a new home. And I like bringing you things. Are you feeling well? Excited to learn about the forest?”

“Yep. Just wish I could get to sleep.”

“One moment.”

He feels Indrid leave. Then his roommate's bed shakes and shudders, the other guy jolting awake in fright. He doesn’t look like he’ll be getting back to sleep anytime soon. 

Duck shifts onto his side, facing the wall, and whispers down the stucco, “Thanks.”

---------------------------------------------

A perk of his roommate getting a girlfriend is that Duck gets more nights alone. He’s soaked the pillow with sweat, and is so wrung out from cumming he hasn't wiped his hands yet. 

“Are you done?”

“JESUSFUCK”

“I'm taking that as a yes.”

“Please tell me you ain’t been there this whole time.”

“No, I always leave if you are doing that. It is private.”

“Thank fuck.”

Relief is followed by disappointment, which he decides he won’t think too hard about. 

It only takes another night before he does, imagining Indrid listening to him fuck himself, whispering instructions for how Duck should do it, even touching himself at the same time, getting off on the sound of Ducks pleasure before holding his hand all night. 

------------------------------------------------

It’s fall, and the apartment he and Juno share is close to campus, cheap, and fucking freezing.

Duck knows just how to warm up. Sliding his hand down his sweats, he starts picturing Rich, but the thought of jerking it to an ex is a boner-kill waiting to happen. So, he switches to his trusty fallback, selecting a blonde, fresh-faced yet kind of punk body for the voice under the bed. 

He wants to draw it out, but fantasizing about Indrid always sets his hand flying, too many nights like this seeding a deep desire in his veins that he has to purge fast for fear of what will happen if it lingers. The monsters name drops from his lips, breathy and urgent, and he’s too caught up to care  

“Indrid, fuck, please.”

“Please what?”

Gasping, he sits up. A figure is standing at the foot of his bed, staring at him with red eyes. In the dark room, he can’t make much out beside their glow and two short horns on the top of his head. Duck’s mind spins so fast it hurls out the first sentence that comes.

“‘Drid’s got four eyes, not tw-”

Another pair of eyes open just below the first.

“They are a secondary pair, so I can keep them shut and see just fine. I thought the sight of them might be too much combined with the rest of me.” Indrid murmurs.

“Th-though I ain’t allowed to see the rest.”

A shrug, “You aren’t. But I cannot bring myself to care right now. Not when you say my name like that.”

Summoning his courage, Duck locks his gaze onto Indrid’s own and slowly drags a hand up his dick, “You gonna show me the rest or not?”

A hissing growl curls around him as Indrid leans forward, clawed hands leading the crawl onto the bed. In the moonlight coming through the window, Duck sets eyes on the whole of him for the first time. 

His face is angular, sporting his wide toothy grin and framed by silver hair falling just past his chin. Past the claws, his arms are a mixture of tan skin and black and red scales, twining up his arms. The same combination is clear on his chest, visible above the neckline of the white tank-top. Flashes of color appear under the fabric, racing down Indrid’s spine, and Duck would ask what they are if Indrids face had not just come level with his. Standing up, the monster can't be much taller than him. But here, pinned against his headboard like a scientific specimen, Indrid bracketing him, he feels frighteningly small. 

“What happened to not spying on me when  I did this?” The words stick in his dry mouth. 

“It was accidental. I only stayed when I heard you call for me.”

“Wasn't callin.” Heat rises in his face. 

The grin widens, “Oh no?” A long tongue drags down Duck’s cheek, “You did not have even the smallest hint of hope I would her? That I would lay in the shadows, savoring the sounds of you, ah, taking yourself in hand?”

He’s so strange looking, every sensible part of Duck is screaming for him to run, to banish him under the bed and go back to his normal life. 

Duck inches his face forward, closing his teeth round the lobe of a pointed ear, “Maybe.”

Indrid chuckles, “Then maybe I have been hoping for the same. Maybe I have been touching myself and dreaming it was your hand instead of mine. Maybe” he brushes their noses together, “I have wanted this for as long as you have?”

“Least a year, more if I’m bein honest with myself.”

“Several years, but then again, I had the pleasure of being able to see your face. It made you all the more appealing.”

Duck reaches out a shaking hand, stroking silver hair. He means to say some platitude about Indrid being handsome because the affection in Duck’s heart means he couldn’t see him any other way. While that may be true,  a second, more surprising truth comes out in its place. 

“Thinkin if you’d let me see you, we woulda gotten here a lot sooner. “

There’s another growl and then he’s yelping out a laugh as Indrid yanks him flat on his back and unceremoniously rips his shirt off. His monster brings their lips together, tongue sliding between Duck’s lips as the human shoves both hands into Indrid’s hair. When he teases his tongue against Indrid’s, the monster whines, pressing closer and pawing his sides. 

“‘Drid” He mumbles. 

Another whine, higher and morphing into a chirr as Indrid grinds their hips together.

“‘Drid, you gotta let me breathe.”

The monster breaks the kiss, but coats his face in pecks as he catches his breath, chirping all the while. Something solid ripples beneath the fabric of his black pants where they rub against Duck’s thigh. 

“Holy fuck what, what exactly are you packin down there?”

“Would you like to see?”

“Hell yeah.” 

The pants and Duck’s sweats hit the ground in quick succession, Indrid’s shirt landing atop them a moment later when Duck pulls it off to kiss along the scaled swirls of his chest. 

“Well, what do you think?”

“Guh, uh, jesus, uh, ‘Drid, what’s it doin?”

Indrid looks down to where four short tendris are unfurling to reveal a ridged cock.

“Getting ready to fuck you?”

“Uh, how exactly?”

Indrid licks his lips, “Lay back and I will demonstrate. Do not worry, as much as it pains me to focus on anything but your face, I will use my foresight to be certain nothing I do leads to trouble. 

Duck rests his head on the pillow as Indrid settles between his legs, claws pricking his thighs when the monster pushes them apart. 

“Does the whole thing goOH, oh fuck.” He wiggles his hips, “fuck, ‘Drid, that feels so fuckin weird.”

‘That is not surprising. It is one of the tendrils which, unless I'm very wrong about human anatomy, none of your previous partners had.”

“Nnnnnnfuck, fuck you’re gonna fuckin ruin me, god fuckin damn that feels nice.”

“Wonderful.” Indrid bends down, hands gliding to rest by Ducks biceps. He kisses him slowly s the tendril continues stretching him open, slick and pulsing in time with the careful movements of Indrid’s hips. 

His monster noses down his throat, drgs his tongue back up it with a purr, “You taste divine.”

“If you,re fuck gonna eat me, do me a favor and do it after I cum?” Duck teases, stroking Indrid’s shoulder blades. 

Indrid laughs, “A fair request. But I have zero interest in eating you; how could I? I would lose my best friend and my new favorite past time.” The tendril thickens, making Duck moan and throw his forearm over his eyes. 

“Fuuuck, are all monsters this fuckin sappy?”

“Only yours. And it is not as if you're not that way. I remember those love notes you asked me to help with.”

“Okay okay, we’re both big fuckin marshmallows. Now, AAHnn, are you gonna help me break this bed or not?”

Indrid pulls out with another growl, kneading Duck’s ass as he lines up his cock, “Yes, yes I am.”

“FUCK, ohfuckohfuck, yeah, fuck yeah.” Duck digs his fingers into Indrid’s back as he shoves in, “‘Drid, tht’s so fuckin goodohshit, what, what’s it doin now?” The tendrils have spread, one curling around his dick, two teasing his balls, and the fourth twining up Indrid’s shaft, meaning Duck’s toes curl with new sensations on the next thrust.

Indrid grins against his neck, “Taking care of you.”

“Ain’t that, that thoughtful.”

“All for you my sweet, goodness, you’re so warm and your ass is delightful.” His lips find Duck’s cheeks, “I’ve wanted this so long, sweetheart, so very longAHhnnnn.” His head hits the pillow as Duck scratches down his back. Not only do colors flash in his wake; spikes emerge along the ridge of his spine, flickering red to purple to black.

“Is that-”

“-okay yes very, o-okay. You can touch them, they will not hurt.”

Duck runs his finger up one. It’s feathery and smooth, rising and lowering with the undulations of Indrid’s body. Tugging it makes Indrid snap his hips with a chirring growl.

“Yes, yes do that again, more, please ohahnnnnisJunohome?

“No?”

“Good.”

The words Duck meant to say give way to shouts of pleasure as Indrid slams into him over and over, sinking his teeth into his shoulder and clawing at his sides. Duck scratches his scales and skin, strokes and pulls the feathery spines, Indrid trilling when he does. His hips quicken, Duck struggling to keep pace as the monster pins him more firmly to the bed. When he cums the tendrils tighten, sending Duck over the edge right after him. Indrid kisses him again, nipping long his lips as he whimpers the monsters name. 

As his whole body spasms and relaxes, Indrid rolls him over, panting. 

“More, I want more, again, mine, you are all mine.”

Duck looks over his shoulder, grinning fondly, “Uh huh.”

“What is so funny?”

“Nothin. Just, uh, realized there's a plant your dick reminds me of.”

Indrid blinks so intently his second set of eyes join in the expression. Then he cackles, draping himself over Duck to kiss him again. 

“You can tell me all about it after we are done with the extremely pressing matter of me fucking you again.”

“Go wild, darlin.”

This time the pillow takes the brunt of the noise, Duck grunting and moaning into it as Indrid fucks him from behind, switching between slow, gentle thrusts and grabbing Duck’s hips to drive into him hard enough to set off fireworks in his brain. He’s overstimulated to the point of tears, but his whole system floods with pleasure at the intensity of Indrid’s desire, the feeling of being so utterly used and wanted all at once. When the monster pulls out, he’s cum enough that it drips down Duck’s thigh, tingling as it goes. 

“Now” Indrid flops onto the mattress, wriggling into Duck’s waiting arms, “tell me about this plant.”

----------------------------------------

When Juno gets home Sunday morning, Duck is in the kitchen humming long with a playlist on his phone. 

“Holy fuck man, what happened to you.” She stares at the bitemarks and bruises all around his neck and shoulders and the scratches on his legs. 

“Had a real nice weekend.”

“You got all that from a hook-up?”

Duck shakes his head with a secretive smile, “Nah. Just had a sleepover with my new boyfriend.”

[himbeaux-on-ice]

Who are your top five NHL teams and why?

Ooooo this is fun! Thanks anon!

Short list:

Habs ❤️🤍💙

Pens 🐧

Canucks 🌈🌊

Caps 🦅

Leafs 🟦🍁🟦 (no really! I know I don’t talk about them much but its true!)

Over-wordy explanations/backstory for my relationship to each of these teams below the cut for those interested!

Montreal Canadiens. My dearly beloved Nana, who half-raised me, is a lifelong diehard Habs fan who grew up listening to their games on the radio and then later as an adult watching them duel with the Leafs on Saturday nights on a black-and-white tv (also a BIG Carey Price stan). Needless to say she rubbed off on me immensely, and I remember saying to myself at some point “well, if that’s Nana’s team, that’s gonna be my team too” and it stuck for life. I also had a friend in middle school who was a RELIGIOUS Habs fan who also worshipped at the altar of Jesus Price in those early 2010’s, so I heard a LOT about all of that every lunch break as he argued with friends who were Pens and Bruins fans lol. We went on the Bell Centre tour during the annual 9th grade French class trip to Quebec, and while I was mostly focused on getting to the gift shop to buy Nana a souvenir, I swear my friend’s eyes were the size of quarters the whole time lmao. (Would LOVE to go back now that I care a lot). Basically the Habs are the closest thing to a local NHL team our region has bc we get their broadcasts (though people choose their own team allegiances for various random personal reasons), and I grew up absorbing through osmosis both the legends of yore and the latest updates on whatever Carey and PK and the lads were up to. (Also I’ve been quietly in love with Price myself since at least the 2014 Olympics lol. My first best fav ❤️) Bottom line the Habs are My Team, the “I’m gonna be here even when it sucks, even when players move on, this is attached to me in a way I can’t quite explain” team that every hockey fan has in their heart. GO HABS GO!

Pittsburgh Penguins. If you were an elementary school kid in Nova Scotia when Sidney Crosby was first released and up through the 2010’s, you had two options: love him, or hate him, but you better accept you’re gonna be hearing about him a LOT. I settled on “vague fondness” and followed Sid from a newspaper-scanning distance and vaguely rooted for him because when he brought the Cup home it felt like we all won. And like I said, lots of passionate Pens fans in my grade school classes to hear from (he’s also the only non-Habs player my Nana likes lol). Then I got into hockey properly last year and learned about Geno beyond just knowing his name, and my chronic affection for large loveable Russians got combined with my longstanding vague “I hope the Penguins win” feelings and my “time to get the full story on the Sidney Crosby’s Penguins narrative I only ever watched from a distance” research, in a manner not unlike the creation of the PowerPuff Girls ([chemical X] etc etc lol) to create a potent adoration for this team that rocketed them to second place in my heart. Also the fandom is just so damn fun and makes such great content, and that definitely feeds my level of engagement with the Pens!! Sometimes, when I want an emotional pick-me-up I watch one of their last 3 championship films just to remember what joy and optimism is — I would love to be present as a real-time fan for another adventure like that. With how much I know about them and how much I care, they’re my #2 for sure. I love those flightless fucks!!

Vancouver Canucks. So I started watching live NHL hockey games last summer around I think game 2 of the Habs’ first round series against the Flyers (I saw Price’s “Miracle Save” on twitter while following along bc I was intrigued by the fact that they made it through the play-ins, and was like “OKAY NOW I GOTTA SEE THIS SHIT LIVE”). That was really fun! Riiiight up until the Habs got eliminated. :/ And I was like “well, shit. I’m enjoying this hockey thing too much to stop now. who else is still around I can root for?” And the Canucks were the last Canadian team still in it, and there was buzz about their miraculous first-round win but also uncertainty I believe Markstrom had *just* got injured. So I started watching, ended up witnessing the Bubble Demko Miracle unfold live, had my heart charmed off me by “whatever the hell those two lil blonde bitches have going on” and a delightful underdog story, and here I am. Hitched to the Canuck wagon whether I enjoy it or not. Here for whatever happens! (Doesn’t hurt that I love me some Elton John too 😉)

Washington Capitals. I’m a person who is more likely to be really engaged with a team that has super interesting personalities, characters, and narratives around it — and my GOD are the Capitals good for that. I absolutely definitely started down this road with that mic’d up video from the 2018 final of Ovi telling Nicke “after me, I give it to you baby!” re: the Cup. Like I can pinpoint that there was a day I saw that for the first time in a gifset, squinted at the screen, said “you’re fucking with me...”, went to youtube, watched it be for reals, and was like “well. now I need to know more about ALL this.” After watching games and learning more about the team, I really enjoy the Caps’ “big dumb found family of stone-cold total weirdos” energy, their fun collective chemistry, their Cup story, etc. And oh BOY the fandom is fun during game lb’s! I love all the in-jokes and player nicknames, our delight with the quirks of our colourful wonderful broadcast crew (shoutout Wine Uncles & Co), the way we cheer for record-breaking milestones like they’re a first NHL goal! Being a fan of the Caps AND the Pens can be a bit awkward sometimes, and the team certainly has its blemishes, but my heart is big enough for two Metro teams for sure, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Toronto Maple Leafs. So like, as you can imagine from my previously described upbringing in Hab Land, “haha Leafs suck” is a punchline I have long been familiar with and trained to recite. I got a solid 3 days of laughter and entertainment out of the whole Zamboni Driver Saga last February, oh boy did I ever. But the thing is.... I have the Leafs to thank for the fact that I watch hockey now. See, the entire reason I started paying proper attention to the playoff bubble last summer was because one day, I happened to see the phrase “WHAT IS HAPPENING” trending at 16k tweets on twitter, and clicked on it like “huh?”. Turns out the Leafs were in the middle of their miraculous 3-minute comeback against Columbus and the country was losing its mind. And when they won, I was like “huh... the Zamboni Team is doing THIS??? I may have to start paying attention to this playoffs thing, because if they go All The Way I think that might be the only thing funnier than the Zamboni Incident”. Aaaaand when they immediately lost the next game and were eliminated I was like “lol, sounds about right” and was then immediately distracted by news of the Habs winning the play-in round. So then I spent several months watching playoffs and forgetting about the Leafs. And then one day in early October, looking on YouTube for more hockey to watch after the playoffs ended, I stumbled across something called a Hat Pick, and boy I actually enjoyed this shouty man’s sense of humour and takes on the game... and then when I ran out of Hat Picks and Dangits I watched some Trade Trees, which pulled back the curtain on the business side of the game... and then I discovered LFR’s, which were good background noise for doing tasks... and then I was recommended the episode of the Steve Dangle Podcast about Mitch Marner and The List... and next thing I knew I was listening to more of this podcast, because I found Steve and the guys to be insightful and funny and there was no hockey to watch, and I was trepidatious about accidentally stumbling into the more toxic corners of hockey fandom if I branched out for other content... and, well. If you spend enough hours listening to people passionately analyze every facet of a team, shout and cheer over a team, make fun of that team, nearly cry over that team... it’s really REALLY hard to not start to care about it. Leafs analysis was basically how I learned most of what I’ve learned about hockey this past year! And kudos to Steve and Adam and Jesse, their passionate investment in the Leafs and great content has got ME invested in the Leafs mainly because I want to see things go well for them. I want Charlie Brown to kick the football! I love a triumph over adversity story! Also, I think if the Leafs did Do The Thing it would basically be the combination of “Cubs win the World Series” and “Raptors are the champs” and I wanna watch the city of Toronto go fully apeshit from a safe distance. I don’t adore many their individual players as much as I do some other teams higher on this list, and I still laugh far too much when things go super comically impossibly badly for them, but I am actually pulling for the Leafs!! I want to see it all pay off for them. I want them to go all the way. Gimme that “LEAFS WIN!!!” (Unless it’s against someone above them on this list lol)

[cookinguptales]

winter fic requests

OKAY so I’ve been thinking this over. I do want to write some holiday gifts for people! I’ll take requests up through.. idk, I wanna say New Year’s? And post them the last week-ish in the year. That said, I’m gonna be way more likely to get them done if you send them to me early. I probably will not be able to write every request, so you have a much better chance of me writing you something nice if you get a request to me early.

Some guidelines if you’d like a gift fic:

Send me prompts! They don’t have to be super detailed. Give me a canon/pairing and a trope or an AU or a scenario or something like that. Few sentences max. I write better if I have some freedom, so please don’t send me a whole fic outline or something.

You can send me multiple prompts! But if you send me ANY prompts, please make sure at least one of them is for something you know I’m familiar with. I am actually hoping to consume some new canons through this, so please feel free to ask for whatever! But if I get a whole inbox full of 90-hour video games I’ve never played or something, that sounds overwhelming! Origific is also okay if there are certain prompts/archetypes you really like! (i.e. dragons, fake dating, magic chocolatier, etc.)

I’m okay with writing NSFW fic, but please don’t ask me for any explicit fic for underage ships unless you’re okay with them being aged up. It’s a hard squick of mine. And please don’t even ask for adult/minor ships as I will not write them.

PLEASE let me know if there are any deal-breakers for you! We call them “DNWs” in the exchange world. I don’t accidentally want to write a fic that triggers you or something!

If you have anything you particularly love, that’s cool too! I’m not asking for a full exchange letter here, but I am trying to write gift fics, not just prompt fics! I want to make something tailored to you that you’ll like. :)

I won’t be publishing any of the prompts publicly! But I would like to have a name I can use when I post the fic. Like, here’s a fic for X! So if you send me anon asks, please sign them with a pseud I can use to refer to you!

You can send me an ask or a DM on twitter (I’m @iletaitunefois there) or a chat here. I don’t really care. You can even email me if you have that info.

I can’t promise that I’ll write any one specific prompt, and I probably won’t be able to do something for everyone. I’ll write fics for people in the order I get inspired to, frankly, which will probably be random and confusing. I will do my best to write something for as many people as possible, though.

I am okay writing past ships that I’ve had, including bunsenbeaker and karabita. I... think. We’ll see how I feel when I actually sit down to write them haha. I’m willing to give it a go, though.

I probably won’t write for Big 2 comics tho because it’s been like a decade and I don’t remember the details! And I’m still sad about Oracle!

FINALLY, if you celebrate a particular holiday (or explicitly do NOT celebrate a holiday) and want the fic posted on that particular day, let me know! Do you want it on Xmas? Okay! Do you super NOT want a gift on Xmas? Also cool! You into Yule? I’ll post it the 21st. You have a birthday in late winter? Cool! Just give me a specific time (or times you do not want) and I’ll do my best. That said, if you choose a date that’s earlier, I may not be able to get things done in time! But I’ll do my best! lmao

idk man let’s give it a go! I want to write you all presents! lmk if you have any questions!

[davidmann95]

Got a handful of DC-solicit asks, so I’ll just write up my thoughts on the whole batch again.

Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom #1: The BALLS to not only do the next Mister Miracle thing after King and Gerads, but to do it with Shilo Norman and therefore invite Seven Soldiers comparisons as well. I wouldn’t be that interested, but the preview art that came with the announcement looked fun so this is a maybe for me.

Wonder Girl #1: I got a Yara Flor ask so I’ll go more into detail with that, but this sounds...not good.

Future State: Gotham #1: Hahaha, thanks, call me in six months if the next team does something there’s a reason to give a shit about. Except...wait, Dennis Culver cowrote that E Is For Extinction Secret Wars mini, dammit this might be good. Either way though, god willing we get a Future State: Metropolis book by Dan Watters too.

Legends of the Dark Knight #1: Hopefully this going with Sensational Wonder Woman means there’s a similar Superman anthology in the cards too, but I won’t hold my breath. Darick Robertson doing Batman is enticing, but I’m not familiar with his work as a writer and the premise doesn’t sound that gripping so I’ll wait and see. That Francavilla variant though? DC, blow that up to poster size and you’d make a mint.

Milestone Returns: Infinite Edition #0: Hmm. I got love for Static, but I might wait for further announcements and/or buzz before taking the plunge on this one.

DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1: This is a SERIOUSLY stacked lineup, definite buy.

Stargirl Spring Break Special #1: Impeccable timing, DC. It feels like it must be some kind of statement that there are no Morrison members of the Seven Soldiers in the mix (even swapping out Ystin for the original version of Shining Knight no one cares bout) - we focus on the Moore fixation, but there’s enough tidbits that I really do feel like Johns probably flat-out hates Morrison. And what’s this ‘secret eighth soldier’ nonsense? There’ve always been eight soldiers, people have been joking about it forever!

Justice League: Last Ride #1: Discussed that announcement here.

Batman: Earth One Vol. 3: *blinks*

*blinks again*

*squints at the cover art*

...Geoff Johns are you seriously trying to step to Morrison and use the Miagani tribe? YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN PEOPLE

I Am Not Starfire: Interesting concept that seems like it pushes into indie-flavored territory as much as DC’s superhero output just about ever has, if word-of-mouth is good there’s a decent chance I’ll get this.

Action Comics #1031: Wonder if this is serious about the potential of Kryptonian refugees, given PKJ suggested the idea in Worlds of War and that could play a significant part in the New Krypton stuff from Bendis’s Legion (with Johnson being clear he’s following up on a lot of Bendis’s ideas with his own Superman run).

Superman #31: This sounds big-time like Johnson hammering Superman into a swords-and-sorcery shape for an arc since that’s his bag, but Superman’s malleable enough for that to work so I’m not complaining.

American Vampire 1976 #8: Still not getting, so.

Batman #108: Tynion’s well and truly figured out how to game the direct market’s dopiest instincts, hasn’t he? Well, as long as that’s in service of him getting to continue doing weird Batman stuff with Jorge Jimenez like introducing whatever the ‘Unsanity Collective’ is, that’s fine with me. And more Ghostmaker!

Batman: Black & White #6: Not as packed for the finale as some previous issues, but still looking good. And there’s really never gonna be a ‘last’ Scott Snyder Batman story, is there? Sure it’ll be good but that’s kind of a shame, his Detective #1027 feature really felt like a nice full circle.

Batman: The Detective #2: Guess I wasn’t the only one wondering if it was a stealth DKR prequel and they wanted to cut that notion out at the knees.

Batman/Catwoman #6: Still very down for it, but BOY that Batwoman costume Mann debuted on Twitter.

The Batman & Scooby Doo Mysteries #2: I recently finally started reading Sholly Fisch and companies’ Scooby-Doo Team-Up! recently after getting the whole run for free on ComiXology earlier this year and have fallen in love with it, so I’m totally grabbing this digitally.

Batman/Superman #18: “The Dark Knight and the Man of Steel are on a mission to stop the godlike Auteur.io from destroying the pocket worlds he’s created...but where on Earth did Auteur.io even come from? The answer starts not on Earth at all, but with an ancient cult of World Forger worshippers on a planet far away—and if our heroes are to have a prayer of stopping this mythic behemoth, they’ll need to get to the bottom of his power source, and quick! It’s a race against time as the parallel lives of entire worlds hang in the balance!”

Anonymous said: Haha is Yang really doing Superman & Batman vs. Zack Snyder and the Snyder Cult (look up “auter” if you don’t know what I mean)? That’s fucking hilarious, especially since he apparently comes from the World Forge which is where all the shitty Earths full of bad ideas are made. Pretty pointed criticism there if I’m reading it right.

I’ve seen two or three people other than this anon independently conclude this arc is about the Supermen and Batmen of the Multiverse teaming up to stop Zack Snyder from destroying them all and at this point I’m ready to ask my LCS owner if I’m allowed to pay more than cover price for this run.

Batman: Urban Legends #3: Much more into this after the Grifter and Outsiders stories in Future State.

Catwoman #31: No reason not to assume this’ll continue to be great.

Challenge of the Super Sons #2: Good for the folks who want this, and that Nick Bradshaw variant is fun.

Crime Syndicate #3: I wanna be convinced to get this book, but the interviews are not persuading me.

Detective Comics #1036: How long is Mora sticking around?!

The Dreaming: Waking Hours #10: Another one I’ve got nothing to say about because I’ve never been getting it.

The Flash #770: Actually really excited to hear about how bad this run will suck now that I know it’s by the mind behind that “Geoff Johns’ OC - do not steal - beats up the Grant Morrison DC future” catastrophe from Future State.

Green Lantern #2: Really couldn’t wait a month for Far Sector to wrap up, huh?

Harley Quinn #3: Still not interested, but that *is* a nice cover.

The Joker #3: There’s a very real possibility I’ll have dropped the book by this point if it turns out to be the illustrated editorial mandate I get the feeling it could be, but fingers crossed.

Justice League #61: Not complaining, but wow, this really is Naomi 2 since Campbell’s busy in order to provide the necessary material for the CW show.

Looney Toons #260/Mad #20: Were these grouped with the rest of the solicits before?

Man-Bat #4: Very curious how this’ll be received, given nobody much cares about Man-Bat but Wielgosz seems to be quickly becoming a favorite.

The Next Batman: Second Son #2: Hadn’t realized this was only 4 issues - guess for at least one of them it’ll be the Luke Fox book everyone expected in the first place.

Nightwing #80: Dick Grayson vs. Heartless, not how I expected the DC/Kingdom Hearts crossover to happen but I’ll take it. That variant though? ALL TIMER:

The Other History of the DC Universe #4: I was trying to figure out who the focus of #4 would be since we know #5 is about Thunder and Lightning, forgot Montoya was confirmed.

Robin #2: Wanna care, so don’t care.

Rorschach #8: I will get it and probably like it.

RWBY/Justice League #2: My thoughts here will be their own post because there’s something particularly notable, but:

Anonymous said: Have you seen the BATtleaxe from the new art for RWBY/Justice League?

Yes, anon. Yes I have.

Sensational Wonder Woman #3: Eh, premise doesn’t grab me but maybe.

Strange Adventures #10: God I love the book about how Adam Strange sucks.

Suicide Squad #3/Teen Titans Academy #3: Hahahahaha

Superman: Red and Blue #3: Fiffe and Stokoe doing Superman stories!!! And...Nick Spencer. With Christian Ward art?! Sigh, fine, hopefully it’ll be Nick Spencer doing a nice little comedy, and not having Grant Morrison Superman throwing his t-shirt away because he grew up and realized changing things is too hard. A horrible shame Pope is doing the main cover though, the allegations against him I guess never really got any attention. At least there’s this JPL variant:

The Swamp Thing #3: Swampy will never be my guy but very happy for those who dig him, because I imagine this’ll be terrific.

Truth & Justice #4: Normally I wouldn’t care at all, but what I’m hearing on Twitter about this is a crying shame - that Jeff Trammell is really talented and Red Hood is a favorite of his and this is likely to be one of Jason Todd’s few Actually Good comics, but that artist Rob Guillory is a bullying transphobic piece of shit. Sucks all around.

Wonder Woman #772: I was so excited for this run, and then Immortal Wonder Woman had to go and suck.

[snowdice]

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 15]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

I have another fic to edit today! :)

Chapter 5

Virgil sat as still as he could in the dark space he’d been put in. He could feel the warning tingle of the binding magic at his wrists telling him not to move too much or else. He was just lucky that they’d chosen to use metal instead of cloth to apply the potion and that he’d been unconscious until it dried. He knew from experience that there was no escaping the pain that type of potion brought until it dried no matter how still you were. Now, at least, if he didn’t try to struggle against his binding it wouldn’t hurt him. It sucked because all he wanted to do was move. He wanted to struggle and pull against the binding at his wrist, but he couldn’t. Even if it wouldn’t put him in crippling amounts of pain, he’d still not be able to get away.

So, instead he just shook. He was such a fuck up. He couldn’t even remember the right room and now he was going to die. No, he was probably going to be tortured and then he was going to die. His breath came quicker and quicker the longer he remained in the closet. He’d tried to murder their king. He’d come into their prince’s bedroom in the middle of the night wielding a knife. There was no way he wasn’t going to be made to suffer for that. It didn’t matter how gently the prince and his… person had treated him so far.

He heard the muffled sounds of people approaching the closet and curled into himself. Oh, god he was going to die. He had been breathing quickly, but now he couldn’t breathe at all. It felt like someone had poured tar into his lungs. The closet door opened, and he flinched, curled into a ball and choking on nothing.

“Hey, hey,” a familiar voice said. Patton, Virgil’s mind offered: the other guy with the prince. When Virgil managed to flick his eyes open, he saw Patton had gotten to his knees in front of him. He dully noted that the boy had reached out and touched his shoulder. “Oh sweetie, I’m sorry. Can you breathe for me?”

What was the point? He wondered, but after a few moments, he managed to suck in a couple of breaths.

When he managed to calm enough to look around, he noticed that instead of there being a bunch of castle guards standing around waiting to drag him off to some dungeon, it was just the prince and Patton again. He blinked up at them in confusion.

“There’s been a change of plans,” the prince explained.

“What?” Virgil asked dumbly. “What do you mean?”

“My father is going to be away for the next three weeks,” the prince said. “Considering you didn’t kill the guards and your only targets seems to be my father and perhaps myself, you are likely not a real danger to anyone if you escape and I’m willing to take the risk with myself. With that in mind, Patton and I have decided not to turn you in yet.”

Well what the hell did that mean? Was that good or bad? On one hand, it meant that he wouldn’t be executed yet, but what exactly did the prince want with him?

As Virgil began to freak out about the possibilities, the prince continued to speak, seemingly more to himself than to Virgil or Patton.

“We will need to figure out how to care for you in the interim. We’ll have to provide you with more food than just snacks as well as find you a place to sleep. At least one of us will have to be with you at all times, and with Father gone, I’ll have to attend to some royal duties. Luckily it isn’t strange for Patton to come into my quarters at will.” He considered Virgil with discerning eyes. “Also, your general health seems to be lacking, so I’ll have to account for preexisting conditions. First thing, first though. I imagine keeping you in those bracelets all the time would be impractical. We’ll need another solution, especially for sleep.”

Virgil did not like the sound of that. He assumed based on what the prince had done so far that he’d enact some sort of magical bondage. From Virgil’s experience, magical bondage ranged from unpleasant to legitimately agonizing.

“Patton, if you will watch him for the time being, I need to go work on a more precise binding potion then the one I’ve been using.”

“Sure,” Patton agreed, but the prince was wondering away before he’d even finished the word. Patton shook his head fondly before turning back to Virgil. “Wanna come out of the closet now?”

He really, really didn’t, but he was pretty sure he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He curled his legs into himself as much as he could and waited to be dragged out into the room, but he wasn’t touched.

“Okay,” Patton said. “That’s fine. It’s a pretty nice closet.” Virgil said nothing but did breathe a sigh of relief about being able to stay. It wasn’t very rational because in actuality he was no safer here than anywhere else in the room, but the closet felt more defensible even if they could drag him out of it whenever they wanted.

Patton seemed content to sit outside the closet and leave him in peace for the moment. A few minutes later Patton made a sound and Virgil looked over to see him yawn. He smiled when he saw Virgil watching. “It was a long night for all of us, I imagine,” he said. “Hmm… actually. Wait there.”

Like he could go anywhere else. He couldn’t get a good enough angle to see what Patton was doing, but he could here him moving around the room and rustling through a few things. He came back into view holding a comical number of pillows and blankets.

“Here,” Patton said. He offered Virgil one of the blankets and then seemed to remember that Virgil could not reach out to take it. “Hmm…” He spread out the blanket next to Virgil. “Do you mind if I touch you?”

“Why are you even asking?” Virgil asked. “You can do whatever you want with me.”

Patton frowned and Virgil scrunched into himself at the expression, but it lightened the next moment. “I know it’s a bit of a bad situation and you are technically a prisoner, but I don’t want to hurt you or make you feel bad,” Patton said.

 Virgil didn’t know how to respond to that. There was no way that it wasn’t some sort of trick, but he didn’t dare outright say that he thought that.

“Can I touch you a bit?” Patton asked once again. “Just to help you get onto the blanket.”

“Sure,” Virgil agreed.

The other boy smiled sweetly and grabbed his wrists with gentle fingers. Virgil let his whole body follow Patton’s guidance until he was situated rather comfortably on an unbelievably soft blanket.

“Head,” Patton said, holding up a pillow. Virgil lifted his head slightly and the pillow was shoved underneath it.

 Another blanket was settled over him the next. Patton was weird. “There you go!” Patton said. “Now you can take a nap.”

Virgil blinked up at him in confusion. That was… not happening. What exactly about this situation did Patton think was conducive to sleep?

“…Or rest comfortably at least,” Patton said after a moment. He arranged a pillow and blanket for himself and laid on his side, so he was facing Virgil. He yawned slightly again but didn’t close his eyes. They stared at each other for an uncomfortably long moment.

“What are we doing?” Virgil finally asked when he realized Patton was not planning to ever break the awkward silence.

 “We’re resting,” Patton said, “and hanging out.”

“Hanging out?” Virgil asked.

“Mmm, yeah,” Patton said popping up onto his elbow to peer at him. “Let’s talk some! We can get to know each other.”

Virgil looked at him suspicious about where this was going. “Talk about what?” he asked, eyes narrowed.

Patton hummed a quiet tune and his fingers tapped against the side of his face as he wiggled a bit back and forth. “Do you like cats?”

“Cats?” Virgil asked. “Uh… sure?”

“I love cats,” Patton divulged. “There are a lot of cats in the castle. Not all of them like people very much, but I like to try to pet them! I even made up a game where I get points for every cat that lets me pet it. The grumpier they are, the more points I get!”

 “You… try to pet wild cats?” Virgil asked.

“Uh huh!”

Virgil thought back to the few untamed cats he’d met in his life. “Don’t they… try to murder you.”

“Sometimes,” Patton said with a shrug. He moved his arm suddenly and Virgil startled, but he just rolled down his sleeve so Virgil could see a large, fairly fresh-looking scratch on his arm. “This one’s from Mr. Calico Man. He does not like his ears touched apparently, but he will let me give him chin scratchies!”

This boy was insane.

“I think I’ve pet every single cat in the castle at least once, except for Ghost Kitty.”

 “Who is Ghost Kitty?”

“Oh, Ghost Kitty is the prettiest thing in the world,” Patton gushed. “She hangs out in the gardens a lot, but no one ever can get anywhere near it. She’s completely black and only started showing up about a year ago. I can’t even see her for more than 2 seconds at a time let alone try to pet her, but I will some day and on that day, I’ll get 1,000 points!”

“How many points are they usually?”

“For ones like Mittens and Cleo who I’ve known since they were babies, only 1. For Sandra it’s 5 since she can get a bit tetchy, but usually won’t run away. Lily Flower and Red Hot like to run away, but won’t try to scratch me if I do catch them so they’re 10. Ones like Mr. Calico Man are worth 100.”

 “So, you are going to try to pet a cat that is 10x more feral than the one that slashed your arm?”

“She’s so pretty!”

“You have no survival instincts whatsoever, do you?” Virgil asked.

Patton smiled wryly at him. “I apparently have a couple,” he said.

Virgil blinked at him and thought back, connecting the dots. Only Patton and the prince knew he was here, and the prince had been in front of him when he’d came into the room… “You were the one to knock me unconscious,” he concluded.

“I’d say sorry, but you were coming in here with the intention of hurting someone I care about,” Patton said with a shrug.

 Right. Virgil had almost forgotten amongst his soft tone and gentle countenance that the man laying docilly next to him definitely hated his guts, and would probably relish in whatever the prince had planned for him.

Virgil let his fists clench, but otherwise didn’t let onto his distress at the thought as Patton softly brought the conversation back to the previous topic and continued to ramble on about the different cats of the castle.

 Chapter 6

Virgil had started to feign sleep about an hour after Logan had left to his potions lab. Patton could tell because his arms never relaxed. Patton kept talking to him in soft tones even though he was no longer responding.

 He seemed exhausted, but he was also clearly not planning to sleep any time soon. Patton wondered what had led up to him being here both recently which had caused the dark circles under his eyes and long term that had caused the sunkenness of his cheeks.

Patton’s stomach growled reminding him of the passage of time. He had no idea how long whatever Logan was doing was going to take, but someone was going to have to go to the kitchen and get some breakfast soon. The snacks truly had not been enough to hold them through the night.

 He felt secure enough even knowing Virgil wasn’t actually sleeping to push himself to his feet and walk over to the potions lab door. “Hey Lo,” Patton called. Virgil still hadn’t moved to indicate he was still awake.

“Yes?” he asked.

“How long are you going to take? I need to get food soon and maybe come up with an excuse for at least one of us to stay here all day.”

“It’ll be a little while longer,” Logan said.

Patton glanced back at Virgil. He caught the boy with his eyes open this time and saw him wince at being caught. “Maybe Virgil can stay in there with you well I go get things?”

 “That would be fine,” Logan said, turning back to what he was working on. “Bring him in here if you’d like.”

“Okie dokie,” Patton chirped. He turned to Virgil who was looking up at him. “I’m going to take your arms and lead you to the other room, okay?”

He nodded and Patton leaned down and grabbed his wrists. He went tenser somehow when Patton moved his arms to his front and Patton frowned, but didn’t comment. He helped him get to his feet and led him into the other room.

“You can seat him over there,” Logan said pointing.

 Virgil was looking around the room with wide eyes and Patton had to stop and think about what this room might look like to someone who hadn’t been enthusiastically introduced to every new potion ingredient and piece of equipment as they arrived. There were shelves of ingredients, all organized and labeled. He kept all powders in uniform glass vials and liquids in bulbous containers. Whole dried herbs hung from strings in one area and there were containers of fresh ones glowing a soft green; the preservation spells that Logan came up with himself kept them fresh for months longer than they would usually last.

 Logan had three separate areas for potion making. There was one space for potions that required more dangerous ingredients which currently had something simmering at it, but the enchanted protective curtain wasn’t drawn around it, so Patton imagined it must not be doing anything that could be too harmful at the moment. The table he used for experiments was empty and thoroughly cleaned so he was clearly making something with an already well-established recipe. Currently, he was standing at his table reserved only for non-harmful substances. He was chopping up what appeared to be mint as two smaller pots boiled in front of him.

 Patton led Virgil over to the indicated chair which was out of the way of even the non-dangerous ingredient zone. He still seemed to be trying to take in the room as Patton settled his wrists on the chair armrests.

“Any requests?” he asked Logan.

“Not really,” Logan replied. He glanced up at Patton. “Though if you can sneak me some of the leftover macaroni salad from dinner, that would be appreciated.”

“That’s not breakfast!” Patton chided.

“Which is why I requested that you to sneak it.”

Patton shook his head and turned back to Virgil. “What about you?” he asked.

 He looked up at Patton and shook his head. Virgil looked a bit scared and out-of-sorts. He wanted to reach forward and pat him on the head or kiss his cheek to comfort him, but he imagined that would go over worse than badly. Instead, he flashed the boy a quick smile and then turned to leave the room.

He left Logan’s private chambers and closed the door behind him before walking down the hall.

“Good morning Patton,” one of the stationed guards greeted.

He smiled at her and the other guard. “Good morning Kalani. Hi Owen.”

“I see you and the prince had a sleepover,” Kalani said. “Should we be planning on him not making it to his royal duties until later today?”

“Actually,” said Patton. “Maybe all day. He was feeling a little sick. Had a headache.” It was… probably true. They hadn’t slept a wink last night.

“Hmm,” Kalani said. “Maybe there is something going around. Clover said she had a bit of a dizzy spell last night.”

“Oh,” Patton answered. Clover had been one of the two guards set to watch the door to the royal wing. At least Virgil had been telling the truth about not hurting anyone.

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“I hope she feels better. I’m going to go get Logan something to eat for breakfast since he can’t come himself, so I’ll see you again in a few minutes.”

The guards nodded to him and he turned to walk down the hall. The areas around the kitchens would be pretty busy at this point in the morning so instead of taking any of the busier paths to it, he walked past the dinning hall towards the guest hall and took the staircase that led straight outside. It was a longer path because he had to go around and through the garden, but it was worth not getting in anyone’s way.

 Patton always did like the garden. It was pretty at every time of year. Even now as the flowers started to get sparser in the fall, it was still wonderful, and it smelt great. He took just the briefest moment to himself to splash a hand through one of the fountains with a giggle. He turned away to continue on his path to the kitchen which is when he saw her.

“Oh,” he said softly. “Hi kitty.”

Ghost Kitty was there and stared at him briefly before taking off into one of the bushes.

“Bye kitty,” he said just as soft. He smiled even though she’d ran away because that was the closest, he’d ever gotten to her.

 He continued his trek to the kitchen and snuck inside on quiet feet hoping to be unnoticed as he went for the chilled storage box. Luck was on his side because Mama was busy talking in hushed tones to the gardener, Mr. Deknis, as she peeled potatoes.

“Well certainly no one has joined the kitchen staff who has a child,” Mama said. “I’d know.”

“Perhaps a maid or even a guard,” Mr. Deknis suggested.

Mama was frowning. “We don’t usually hire many people towards winter for those positions. Maybe someone in the stables?”

“But he needed to get back to the castle, not to the stable hand’s lodging.”

 “Well then,” Mama said. “I don’t know Jeff. I’ll ask around.”

Mr. Deknis sighed. “I should have asked him more questions, but the poor thing seemed ready to startle out of his boots, and I didn’t want to push.”

“Well if he’s new to the castle, he’s probably just a little out of sorts and nervous,” Mama reasoned.

“It didn’t seem like normal nervousness. He was…” Mr. Deknis shook his head. “Anyway, tell me if you figure anything out.”

“Of course,” Mama said.

“Also, your kid’s steeling macaroni salad for breakfast.”

“Patton!” Mama said, rounding on him. “That’s not breakfast!”

 Patton shot a pout at Mr. Deknis, but he seemed unrepentant. Patton pulled his hand away from the macaroni salad. “The prince wanted it,” Patton said.

“That’s not breakfast for ‘the prince’ either.”

“But,” Patton argued, “he’s not feeling well.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Is he not feeling well or is he tired?” she asked.

“…Both?”

“Mmhmm.”

“No! Seriously mom!” Patton said. “Kalani said that Clover wasn’t feeling well this morning and she sees Logan all the time. I even convinced Logan not to do any unnecessary royal duties today.”

“Well he must really be sick if that’s the case,” Mama admitted, “unless of course he found an interesting book to read or had an idea for a new potion.”

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“It’s not about a book or a potion,” Patton promised.

Mama considered him. “Fine,” she said, turning back towards the countertop. “Then give me a few minutes to make him and you a nutritious breakfast that doesn’t consist of 80% mayonnaise.”

“Pancakes?” Patton asked hopefully.

Mama shot him a look over her shoulder. “I said nutritious,” she said, wagging a finger at him. “Besides, I thought you said he was sick.”

“He’s not nauseous, mama,” Patton said. “And if you put blueberries in it, it’ll be healthy!”

“Mmhmm.”

“It will!”

“Now I know my own son doesn’t think I was born yesterday,” she said.

“Please mama,” he begged. “I promise we’ll both eat some other stuff too.”

“I don’t believe you.” Patton gave her a wobbly lip. “No,” she repeated.

“But Mama.”

“You and Logan are going to have a healthy breakfast or so help me…”

“… but Mama.”

  Chapter 7

Logan placed a spoon in one of the boiling pots in front of him so he could get a better look at the liquid. It looked dark enough, but he leaned forward to taste it just to be sure. At the moment, it was basically just mint and lavender tea with a couple of extras. Satisfied with it, he slowly poured it into the slightly simmering larger pot in front of him and stirred it a few times clockwise. The pot glowed a soft purple when he took the spoon out.

He glanced into the other small pot and saw that the liquid there was starting to thicken. It wasn’t quite at the honey consistency he needed it to be yet, but it was on track.

 Then he glanced up at his guest. Virgil had clearly been watching him but looked away quickly when Logan turned to him. Logan studied him for a few more moments. He looked almost sickly in the light of day, like he’d shatter in a stiff wind. Yet, somehow this was the assassin sent to kill a king? He was an enigma.

Logan turned his attention to the binding potion still simmering on the other table. Virgil cowered slightly as Logan walked by him to check on it. He certainly did startle easy. It was another piece to a concerning puzzle.

 The binding potion was coming along well. He stirred it slowly a few times and carefully rinsed off the spoon, so it didn’t get anywhere he didn’t want it before laying it back down. He checked the open book next to it and compared the color to the chart in it. It would need at least an hour or so more before it could be used, but it would be a much better solution to the one that basically glued Virgil’s hands to a chair.

He walked back over to the other potion set up to start cleaning up his supplies.

 He had some herbs that he hadn’t used and stuck a mint leaf in his mouth as he returned them to their correct containers. There was a small wedge of honeycomb left on the plate that he’d cut it on. Without even really thinking about it, he cut the honeycomb into to equal parts with the plan to offer half of it to the other presence in the room. He paused and looked up at said other presence who looked down at his lap quickly.

“Would you like half?” he asked. Virgil looked back up at him, hesitance in his eyes. “You can pick which half each of us eats,” Logan offered.

 Virgil nodded slowly and Logan rounded the table with the plate. “Left or right?” Logan asked.

“…Left.”

Logan nodded and went ahead and stuck the right piece in his own mouth before offering the left piece. Virgil opened his mouth and Logan popped it into his mouth. Logan almost laughed at the expression that crossed his face as he started to chew. He imagined this is what people were talking about when they mentioned feeding babies different foods for the first time. His eyes went wide, and he blinked a couple of times before chewing a bit faster. Logan smiled at him and took the plate back around to the other side of the table.

 The liquid in the second part had gotten thicker now and he stirred it carefully a few times before deciding it was finished. He then turned of the heat and quickly scrapped the sticky substance into the main pot. The purple liquid that had been in the pop slowly turned golden as he counted the number of times he stirred clockwise and then began to sparkle as he stirred it a few times counterclockwise. Once he was finished, he turned off the heat under the pot and wondered over to his case for empty jars. He grabbed one of the liter ones.

 While he waited for the potion to cool, he measured out and marked the container with 30 careful lines. It did not need to be an exact intake every day which is why he didn’t bother with separate containers, but for maximum benefit it should generally be about 40ml for the first 10 days and 30ml after that. The lines should help them keep track.

He walked back over to the potion once that was done and placed a funnel into the opening so he could pour it into the container. It perhaps filled a bit more above the top like than 40ml but having a bit extra the first day wouldn’t harm him.

 He looked to Virgil who was watching him with suddenly very wary eyes. He rounded the potions station and approached him slowly, hoping not to startle him when he already seemed rather skittish. “Okay, Virgil,” he said. “I’m going to need you to drink this. It’s a…”

“No.”

“W-what?”

“No,” his eyes were locked on the container in Logan’s hand and he shook his head back and forth. “Please no.”

“I assure you, it isn’t poison,” Logan said. “I will even test it myself.” Yet, he was acting differently than he had with the food. He’d begun to shake and cry as he continued to shake his head.

 Oh dear. Logan grimaced and set down the potion. He glanced at the door very much hoping that Patton would come through it in the next few seconds, but he did not. “What is…” Logan said. “What is wrong?”

“Please don’t,” he said. “Please. Can’t. No.”

Logan wrung his hands and then went to his knees in front of the hyperventilating boy. He tried to place a comforting hand on his knee, but he flinched violently, and Logan removed his hand quickly. He dithered, unsure what to do as the boy continued to heave with sobs.

“I am not adept with discerning feelings. Please communicate with me verbally.”

 He did not seem inclined to capitulate, making pitiful upset sounds that Logan could not determine the meanings of.

“Please, no, hurts.”

“You think it will hurt you?” Logan asked with a frown. “It won’t hurt you Virgil. The purpose of that potion is quite the opposite.”

He either did not hear Logan or did not register what he said. “Please,” he begged. “I’ll be good. I won’t even move. Please.”

Won’t move. Logan glanced over at the other potion still simmering at the other station. “Do you think this is a binding potion?” he asked. “Why on Earth would I be offering you a binding potion to drink?” Yet, Logan watched as he shook and cried, eyes not quite focused on Logan but on something else that wasn’t there. “Did,” Logan with dawning horror. “Did someone feed you a binding potion?”

 Logan had once accidently gotten some of a binding potion he was making on his hand. It had stung like a thousand small bees had attacked one area of his skin, and it was only made worse by the fact that even that small amount had kept him trapped in place. Then, binding potions were sticky. They were difficult to remove. Even after the counter potion had been applied, he’d still felt a bit of an ache when he moved it for the next week or so. It’s why one was never supposed to apply it directly to a person’s skin.

 Who would make someone drink that? Beyond the assured agony and full body paralysis, it could easily kill someone. If not cooked properly, it was literally poison and even if it was perfect, there was still the possibility that it would freeze a person’s lungs, heart, or any other number of internal organs. If someone had fed Virgil a binding potion (and while he was no expert on facial expressions, the one currently on his face made Logan sure that someone had) they had little regard for his life.

Logan tired his best to soften his expression and tone. “Hey Virgil,” he said. “It’s okay. I won’t force you to drink anything. It’s not a binding potion, but I won’t make you drink it anyway.”

 It took him a bit to calm down, but finally his breaths started to even out. “Are you alright?” Logan asked.

Virgil nodded after a moment.

“Good.” He waited for a few minutes for Virgil to calm down even more before he said anything else. “I will not make you drink any potions,” Logan promised. “Though, if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to explain the option.”

He gave Logan a suspicious blink, but he didn’t seem inclined to have another fit at the sentiment.

“It is not a binding potion,” Logan started with. “I am making one for you, but I have no intention of having you consume it. What I was offering to you is medicinal. Both Patton and I noted that you seem unhealthy and likely malnourished. While nothing can reverse the effects of malnutrition completely, the potion I made would help prevent many future problems as well as let your body acclimate to a more nutritious diet easier.”

 Virgil squinted at him. “Why?” he asked. “I’m your prisoner. Why would you want to help me?”

“You are my prisoner which means you are under my care,” Logan said. “I will not abide by your suffering if I can prevent it. That being said, if drinking the potion causes you undue mental distress, I will not force it upon you.”

Virgil studied him, eyes hard and suspicious, but his words were tentative when they came. “Does it hurt bad?” he asked.

“It doesn’t hurt at all,” Logan promised. “Allow me to demonstrate for you?” He nodded and stood to retrieve the potion.

 Logan placed his thumb over the lid of the container and tilted it until he felt the liquid hit his skin. He pulled his hand away and showed Virgil the notable drops of liquid on his thumb before opening his mouth and clearly placing it on his tongue. “It mostly tastes like the honey I put in it,” he told him, “plus a bit of lavender and mint. It does have a slightly sour aftertaste, but overall, it’s fine. How about just a small amount to start and then you can decide if you want to drink the rest of the dose for the day?”

 “Okay,” Virgil agreed.

“I’m going to put this bottle to your lips. You can take as little as you wish.” Virgil nodded and Logan leaned forward and pressed the container to his mouth. Virgil kept his lips firmly closed as Logan titled it up briefly before taking it away. Virgil’s tongue came out to swipe up a bit of the liquid on his lips. He seemed to brace himself as he waited for something to happen, but he calmed after a few moments.

“Oh,” he said. “That’s not bad.”

“It is not intended to be,” Logan said. “Would you be willing to drink a bit more?”

  Chapter 8

Whatever the potion was that the prince had just given him made his mouth tingle slightly. It was not an unpleasant sensation. In fact, it was actually kind of nice, and it tasted pretty good though not as good as the honey he’d been offered earlier. It did, as Logan had said, have a bit of a sour taste under the sweet of the honey. Yet, the way it sort of warmed his tongue almost made up for that.

He bit his lip, wondering if he was making a mistake and having more than a taste would rip apart his insides, but still replied, “yes,” when Logan asked if he was willing to drink more.

 “Okay,” Logan said, tapping his finger on the container in his hands. “I’d like you to drink about to this line today if you can, but you can go as slow as you like.”

Virgil nodded. “Okay.”

Logan offered the container again and this time Virgil opened his mouth for it slightly. Logan tilted it slow, letting Virgil control the pace. It was still slightly warm from being cooked, but there was a bit of unnatural warmness to it as well. It slid down his throat easily when he swallowed, and Virgil could feel it go to work the instant it hit his stomach.

 Virgil paused and Logan let him. The warmth didn’t fade. Instead, it seemed to radiate out and through him. He opened his lips again and Logan tilted a bit more of the liquid into his mouth. He drank until Logan pulled the container away and looked at the level of the liquid. Seeming to be satisfied with how much Virgil had drank, Logan capped the container and moved away.

“You should drink a little bit more each day until this is empty,” Logan said.

“O-okay,” Virgil agreed. The effects of the potion hadn’t faded. There was a pleasant, warm buzzing all over his skin at this point.

 It seemed to congregate where he knew there were still a few leftover bruises on his back fizzling there slightly under the skin. He let out a breath and felt his head slightly droop, suddenly felling very sleepy.

Logan turned back to him and seemed to notice. “Apologies,” Logan said, “I did forget to mention that it has a general healing potion in it as well. If you were at all injured and it needed to activate, you may feel some drowsiness. Though it should in no way be enough to force you asleep if you do not wish it.”

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A potion with a sleeping agent sounded like something Virgil should be concerned about, he thought, but he couldn’t quite manage to summon any anxiety over it for once. He felt himself list a bit to the side.

“…Of course,” Logan continued. “I did not account for the fact that I have no idea when you last slept, and you are also likely suffering from an adrenaline crash considering your panic a few minutes ago.”

Those… sounded… like… words?

“Oh dear,” Logan said. “Let’s not fall asleep in the chair.” He felt Logan hovering over him and squinted up at him.

 “I’m going to touch you now, alright?” Logan asked. Everything felt kind of floaty and he felt warm but not too hot all over, like he’d fallen asleep at the exact right distance from a fire. His eyes slipped shut and he couldn’t quite recall why that made a bit of panic shoot up his spine. Said panic was dulled immediately by the crashing waves of exhaustion and a comforting lack of pain anyway. “…Virgil?”

“Mmmph.” The identity of the speaker didn’t quite stick anymore, but it didn’t sound mad so it was probably fine.

“...I will take that as consent.” Gentle hands pushed him back up into a sitting position where he had been listing to the side and then Virgil’s wrists were grabbed. Virgil confusedly staggered to his feet when he was pulled up and immediately stumbled into something warm. He decided to lean against it. Leaning against it sounded good.

“When is the last time you slept, Virgil?” The voice rumbling from the warm thing supporting Virgil’s weight registered as chiding, but there didn’t seem to be any danger coming from it. He was given a soft push and he tripped in that direction. A warm band went around his waist to steady him and then pulled him forward. Virgil allowed himself to be guided, leaning heavily against the warmth next to him. He was stopped after an unknown amount of walking. “I’m going to have to put you in the closet again for now since I have to keep watch over the binding potion. However, it seems as though Patton has already constructed a comfortable enough sleeping area there anyway.”

“Mmmnum.”

“Would you lay down for me?” Laying down sounded fantastic right now. The walking was not fun and had made him even more tired. He let his body slump forward until his knees hit something very soft and then toppled onto his face. There was a sigh from above him and then hands were pushing at him until he rolled over onto his side. When one of the hands strayed near his head, he pressed his cheek into it.

“This would be something Patton would find adorable if it wasn’t a result of my unintentionally drugging you, injuries, and sleep deprivation.” The hand Virgil had been leaning into carefully lifted his head and when it was lowered again, his ear sunck into a plush thing. Something soft was pulled on top of Virgil, covering him from head to toe and then the warm thing drew away. Virgil whined at the loss.

There was a pause. “Here.” Something soft and squishable was placed under his chin and Virgil curled his arms around it, pulling it to his chest. “Sleep well. I’ll be back to check on you periodically” There was a soft click and then the world got even darker behind his closed eyelids. Virgil drifted off to sleep.

 “I think if we put a few more blankets and pillows in here, it would work okay,” a voice was saying when Virgil started to wake.

“You think he needs more?” another voice asked.

“Yes, Logan,” the first voice chided. “We want him to be comfortable.”

Speaking of comfortable, Virgil had no idea where he was at the moment or what was happening, but he was very comfortable. There was soft fluffiness closing him in on all sides and what felt like a really nice pillow under his head. He curled up even more around whatever he was holding against his chest.

 “Aw, Logan look,” the first voice cooed. There was a slight pause and a light smacking noise. “Don’t roll your eyes! You’re the one who gave him Barnaby!”

“…He was distressed.”

“Uh huh.”

“Shut up.”

Virgil was starting to wake up a bit more. He squirmed a bit and opened his eyes a crack to see two figures in front of him.

“Hey there,” Patton said, noticing him move. “You waking up?”

Virgil blinked a couple of times. He was still a little sleepy… right, Logan had given him a potion that had a sleep aid. He should probably be a bit more upset about that, but considering he was waking up without any problems, he thought it was okay.

 “Hey there,” Patton said softly. “How’re you doing?”

“Uh… I’m okay,” Virgil answered.

“Good.”

Virgil looked around himself and found that he was covered in a thick blanket and had something wedged between his restrained arms near his chest. He gave it a confused looked.

“That’s Barnaby,” Patton said. “He’s my stuffed bear.”

“Oh,” Virgil said staring at it. He couldn’t see much more than the top of it’s furry head. “Do you want him back.”

“You can keep him for now,” Patton said. “His job is to help make people feel better and you seem like you maybe need him right now.”

 “O-okay?”

Patton smiled brightly at him which seemed weird because all Virgil had done was keep something that belonged to Patton. “Are you hungry?” he asked. “Lo and I already ate a bit ago, but we kept the rest of it warm for you.” Well that was an offer Virgil wasn’t about to refuse.

“I would like to eat,” Virgil said hesitantly. “I-if that’s okay?”

“Of course, sweetie,” Patton said.

“Actually, if you wait a few more minutes,” Logan said. “I will have a way for you to eat more easily.” Virgil looked over at him questioningly. “The new binding potion finished up and I have been letting it dry on new restraints that will give you more freedom of motion,” he explained. Virgil did not relish the experience of having more binding magic applied to him, but at least it didn’t sound like he’d be forced to drink anything or that it would be poured directly on his skin. Virgil didn’t know what he meant by ‘more freedom of motion,’ but it sounded like something he’d want.

“Okay,” he agreed.

[cheeseflavouredjuul]

more than enough.

a college part bokuaka fic that no one asked for but everyone needed :) 

Akaashi hadn’t wanted to come to this dumb party, but as a stupid senior in high school, he’d promised to see Bokuto once a week minimum and he was especially busy this week and it just happened to be a Saturday and he just happened to have no valid excuse for his friend. So, when Bokuto called him saying he was out the front of his college’s dorm, Akaashi threw on the first pair of presentable pants and matching top, raked his hair back and reminded himself he didn’t actually care what Bokuto’s friends thought of him and left.

As usual, Bokuto was over the moon to see him, and if Akaashi was being honest with himself he had missed him more than usual too. So, when he clung to Akaashi a little tighter and for a while longer, it was enough to remind him why he’d made that promise all those years ago.

By the time they made it back to Bokuto’s campus the party was in full swing, drunken yelling and loud EDM music blared through the building and out onto the street. But neither of them wasted time soaking in the scene, Bokuto grabbing Akaashi by the shoulder and navigating him through the house and out the back where his friends sat.

As usual, the boys dominated in beer pong for a couple of rounds before they got kicked off for still being sober. so Bokuto’s friends turned to another method, a friendly game of Russian roulette and with some egging on they were at opposite ends of the table with a shot glass covered lazy Suzan placed between them.

“rules are simple, you spin the lazy Suzan and whichever glass lands closest to you, you have to drink.” Bokuto explained like they haven’t played the game hundreds of times. After fifteen minutes the two of them were a sputtering mess as Akaashi took the final shot, straight vodka.

Laughter erupted in the backroom and Akaashi took a bow, settling on the couch between Bokuto and an even bigger guy he’d seen on Bokuto's team, he was introduced as Daniel but as soon as they were acquainted he stood and left them as the others migrated inside for the keg chugging contest. Neither Bokuto nor Akaashi moved as Akaashi explained his newest writing gig and Bokuto rested his head on his leg as he listened intently.

As the conversation changed from work to school, to Bokuto springing the fact the Akaashi would be his plus-one for the Olympics over in Rio. Akaashi was shocked but he wasn’t surprised, they’d always talked about going together when they were younger, but as Akaashi found his love for writing and comics, he found the idea of watching him win from the sidelines much more appealing. While a small part of Bokuto mourned the thought of them playing together once again, he was still happy for Akaashi and his choices and over the moon for his success.

As Akaashi went to talk about all the fun things they could do in Rio, Daniel came back with a smaller girl by his side and interrupted.

“Ak- er, Bokuto your friend’s been asked for inside.” He says and he throws Akaashi a forgiving look for forgetting his name. Bokuto sat up and quirked a brow towards him.

“Tell them he’s with me and he doesn’t smoke that shit, and he definitely won’t take whatever they’ve got.” He laughs and Daniel shrugs his shoulders.

“Nah man, it’s a girl, I think she’s in a class with Kane.” He offers and before he knows what’s going on Akaashi’s being pulled to his feet and whisked off inside before he leaves Bokuto with a; “if I’m not back in ten I’m probably dead and you’ll need to come to find me.” He jokes and Bokuto waves him off, averting his glance to another one of his classmates.

“What does this girl want?” he asks and Daniel shrugs.

“No idea, she’s waiting for you in the bathroom. The second door on the right.” He explains and Akaashi is filled with dread, nothing good ever happens in bathrooms at party’s, he’s all too aware of that. But still, something in him wills itself up the stairs and into the bathroom. But before he closes the door he’s met with an eerily familiar face.

“Akaashi Keiji.”

“William Sato?” he asks and is met with an icy glare as the other man leans past him and shuts the door, “don’t tell me you’re the ‘girl’ who wanted to see me!” Akaashi laughs.

William wasn’t as entertained by his question as he backed Akaashi into the corner of the room, “when I saw you two chatting away like old friends I was reminded of high school, remember back then? Such good times.”

“What’s this about, William, I’m here for Bokuto not for your petty bullshit.” He explains but William is unmoving and reasonably larger than Akaashi so he had no hope of overpowering him, “we’re all adults, give it a rest.”

“No, I’m not giving anything a rest till I’ve had my way.”

“Oh yeah, and what do you want?” he asked unmoved by his attempt at being sinister.

“I wanna know, what do you think Bokuto would do if I took a couple of swings at his beloved vice-captain?” William asked as he lunged at Akaashi, stopping meet centimetres from his face, “leave some nice little bruises on his little bitch.” He spat and Akaashi decided he’d had enough and kneed him in the groin and shoved him back into the shower door.

“Who’s to say he’d care at all, huh?” Akaashi said as he shook him and pinned him still, “just because he didn’t pick you, doesn’t mean you need to act like this, I’m no one’s little bitch you salty fuck.” Akaashi’s words stabbed into William’s conscience and he snapped, tripping Akaashi as he shoved him backwards, looming over him as he thudded to the ground.

“If you’re so against my abuse, how about I deal directly with Bokuto huh, might take out a tendon or something, sure he’d understand my pain then, crap he could kiss the Olympics goodbye for sure!” William said inertly as he pulls out a pocket knife from his sleeve and flicks it open, “or you could do him a solid and take it like a man.” He sneers and Akaashi tries to get to his feet, but William kicks him back and he slams his head on the ceramic towel rail, then again and William grabs a fistful of hair and throws him back, now his shoulder slams into the towel rail and he hears it smash. Akaashi’s eyes were on William but he didn’t need to see the rail to know it was broken.

“Your psychotic!” Akaashi growls and William laughs kneeling to give Akaashi nowhere to run to, “what do you hope to achieve by these senseless acts of violence?” He asked as his hands searched for a shard of the towel rail when his hands met the cold sharp ceramic he felt for the biggest piece and took it in his hand.

William stops laughing and punches Akaashi straight in the nose, “senseless, am I joke to you?” He asks as he lifts another fist, landing another hard punch into his left eye.

Akaashi smelt pepper and fought the urge to cup a hand under his now dripping nose, “yes, you are a joke to me, how am I supposed to take you seriously.” He replied and William tried another punch but Akaashi clamped down and his hand slammed into the tile behind him. but before William could recoil, Akaashi had the shard of the ceramic towel rail neatly angled against his chin, “he picked me for a reason, and it isn’t that I’m hot and you’re not, it’s because you suck at volleyball and show no sign of minimising your ginormous ego enough to listen to anyone’s advice.” Akaashi spoke low as he grabbed the hand he wielded the knife with and pried open his hand, taking it from his grasp and shoving him away.

Like clockwork, the door swung open and Bokuto entered the scene, looking wide-eyed and confused as he tried to process what he was seeing, but before he could speak Akaashi stood, “work on your form and you might just make next season’s line up.” Akaashi said as he walked over to Bokuto who’d now noticed the blood still streaming from Akaashi’s nose and the switchblade he definitely didn’t own.

“It’s been twelve minutes and well-”

Akaashi's hand was on his right peck and Bokuto was being shoved back and pulled down the hall.

“Akaashi?” he asked as he trudged after his bleeding friend. But he didn’t stop, he didn’t answer, he just kept walking, so Bokuto waited until they were close to his room before he sped up and stopped Infront of him, pulling him back into his empty dorm room.

“Keiji, what’s going on?” He asked as he trapped him between the door, “talk to me, please?”

“Why did you pick me?” His voice was rushed and his mind was obviously somewhere else, his eyes stung with tears but Akaashi still managed to wear a demanding look, but he knew he’d never manage to fool Bokuto.

“What?”

“All those years ago, why’d you fucking pick me!” Akaashi broke as his shoulder slumped and he landed an unmotivated punch into Bokuto’s chest. Bokuto paused as he couldn’t answer, his mind was too concentrated on the darkening purple that had now settled under his left eye and Akaashi’s shaking hands. Bokuto laughed humourlessly as he backed away and sat Akaashi on his bed, leaving him to go to the freezer for frozen peas. Giving himself enough time to think of the reason. When he returned Akaashi was laying down and his eyes were closed and brow furrowed as he grumbled something Bokuto couldn't quite hear.

“I don’t know why I just.” He paused as he helped Akaashi upright and held the bag of peas against his eye, he swatted his hand away and held it himself. “This is going to sound cheesy but I remember seeing you and your mother sitting on our bench at that game you guys attended in high school, you looked so bored and uninterested, but after I hit that first jump float I looked back over to you again without even thinking and well, I haven’t stopped looking since.” Bokuto smiled down at his hands.

“That’s so dumb.” Akaashi laughed and Bokuto would’ve been taken aside by his laughter after being so honest, but Akaashi was laughing while he held a bloody tissue to his nose, so he wasn’t too concerned.

“Well after you decided you wanted to play for us, I decided that I wanted you to play for me, to play beside me, as an equal.” He explained as Akaashi put the cold bag of peas down and cupped his hand under Bokuto’s chin. “Is that why he hit you?” He asked as he lifted his head to meet Akaashi’s deep expression.

“As an equal, I was never equal, how could I ever be equal to you?” Akaashi laughed as he searched Bokuto’s face for something he wasn’t sure of, he just couldn’t look away. “Koutarou, I always looked up to you, I think after that game I put you on this pedestal and haven’t taken you off since, you know it still shocks me that you’re going to the Olympics next fall and you’re sitting here with me, so close I could-” Akaashi cut himself off as he pulled his hand away.

“Could what?”

“I remember when you walked me home the first time; you stood by the gate and waited until I was inside safe, I never understood why you waited so long, why’d you pick me?” he asked again and Bokuto’s eyes widened and he placed a hand on Akaashi’s knee and he leant closer, understanding that he wasn’t asking about volleyball anymore.

“I chose you because I didn’t have any other choice!”

“But you did, you could’ve picked anyone, the entire school threw themselves at your feet, but you picked me, why’d you write them off but not me?” Tears began to well in Akaashi’s eyes as he begged to spit out the right words, “why didn’t they make the cut.”

“They’re not you, I don’t want it if it’s not you.” He replied and Akaashi wouldn’t have been any wiser if his lungs had shrivelled up and died because at this moment he’d forgot how to breathe, “I wish you could see what I see, Keiji.” Bokuto’s words were low and heavy as Akaashi breathed out harshly.

“No.” he managed as he stood abruptly as he grabbed his shaking hands in one another, “don’t say things you don’t mean.” He sounded offended as he stood motionless with his head pointed down.

Bokuto stood in front of him as he struggled to find the right words, “I don’t know when I became this person you’ve idolised but I’ve always been just here with you.” He said as he placed a hand on Akaashi’s shoulder, “I chose you because no one else would be good enough.”

“I’m not good enough, that’s the problem.” He replied angrily as he shrugged Bokuto off him and glared at him. Bokuto was taken back by the sadness in his eyes, he’d always hated seeing Akaashi sad but this was something else.

“You are more than enough!”

“Stop lying to yourself, I could never be enough, I’d only bring you down with me.” He tried to pass Bokuto as everything got all too much for him, but Bokuto stepped across and Akaashi slammed into him. Akaashi stepped back and laughed, “do you remember that girl from yearbook club, she did the spread for your senior year, well I thought you two hit it off really well, in fact, Kuroo and I placed bets on whether or not you guys would get together, well she was really really nice, where’d she go wrong?”

“Because she wasn’t you, Akaashi. I don’t know how many times I can say this without getting through to you but; fuck the Olympics, when you stood by my side I didn’t want anything else, I just wanted to be with you, I don’t care what happens after that game, as long as your still by my side I know everything will be fine.” He said as Bokuto felt his cheeks reddening with anger.

“For fuck sake, why?” Akaashi yelled back and something in Bokuto snapped, he took four steps forward, breathed deeply and for the first time in four years he gave into his feelings as he pressed his lips to Akaashi’s and kissed him with every ounce of his being.

“Because I love you, and I have loved you ever since high school and I’ll probably love you until the day I die.” He said as he broke the kiss and looked to Akaashi in fear. “I chose you because even if I wanted to I don’t think I could pick anyone else.”

Akaashi’s eyes were set on Bokuto's yellow eyes, he’d seen them in many different lights but with the dim lights of his room, they looked so dark.

“You love me?”

“Yes Akaashi!” he laughed.

“How could you ever love me.” He muttered as the tears that built in his eyes finally fell, and before he knew it he was sobbing uncontrollably as he felt his knees give in and fall to the floor and Bokuto swallowed him in a hug. Akaashi wished he was a stronger man, strong enough to leave and save Bokuto the hassle of loving him, but as his cold hands brushed his warm forehead holding him against his chest, holding him so tightly. Akaashi wondered if Bokuto could actually love someone like him, someone so much lower than himself.

“How could I not?”

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

Thought about this last night. Something called GeekGem Rambles where I reveal some stuff. Mainly opinions and interests of mine. Thought I get this out of the way.

So here's my first GeekGem Rambles.

- My favorite Linkin Park album is Reanimation. I was listening to Alexa and thought of making this while it was on. But got distracted by other things. My other favorite albums are Meteora(Which is playing right now), and Hybrid Theory.

- Something I've wanted to reveal on this blog actually. Despite I do like Marvel and it's characters. I really don't like the MCU or using it's full name the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In all seriousness I may not mind the films. They can possibly be entertaining. Depends on what films. There are things I like from the universe.

But it's gotten to the point that they have oversaturated cinema. Yet also have influenced people a bit too negatively of what a comic book movie can be. Despite it should be diverse in content.

I really wanted to make this clear. Mainly I guess when I speak about Marvel. It would be me referencing movies that aren't part of the MCU. Something like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Or even stuff like Capcom's Marvel fighting games like the Marvel Vs Capcom series.

Even recently me mentioning the live action tv shows of The Amazing Spider-Man 1977 and The Incredible Hulk 1978. I genuinely like those two shows.

- I'm a Zack Snyder fan. Let me make that clear. Mainly of his DC work. Such as Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman. Which that may speak of who I am. Depends on how you see Zack and his work.

Especially Batman V Superman is personally one of my favorite films.

- I genuinely liked Joker 2019. Despite how some of the reactions to the movie were. I just want to put that out there. Mainly I stopped talking or reblogging stuff for a long time because of the depressive state I was in. But I'm all better now or so considering having to stay indoors. Besides finishing adult school is another thing neat addition too. :)

- To be honest I mainly like the older Disney films or I genuinely don't mind their animated films. Whether they are from the Disney Renaissance era as people call it. Or even some of their newer films. Along with some films in the middle. But I genuinely don't like Disney as a company.

- In all seriousness I was a big gamer when I was younger. But despite being familiar with parties like Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation. I am mainly a PlayStation guy because of its gallery of characters and games. Such as Twisted Metal, Sly Cooper, MedEvil, Resistance, Parappa, and others.

Besides I don't wanna stress myself out with too many games to play. Which I feel is a problem with me.

- In all seriousness my blog here is a horror themed blog mostly. But I have had expectations. It just depends on the material. I have wondered of changing the username on here. Despite I do still like it.

Again and well.....I do like horror or so. It's still that kind of blog. Basically a blog where I can indulge in these kinds of interests more while my main blog deals with some other pop culture stuff. Such as cartoons and whatever else.

Even though oh this blog. Bioshock and Bendy are pretty big here. It depends on which other franchise. I did think just now or whatever this blog focuses more on my more serious interests or whatever.

Did think if this blog could be a gaming blog but most likely not.

- I've played multiple first person shooters. So it's not just Bioshock. I've played Doom, Halo, Call Of Duty, Killzone, Team Fortress 2, and others.

I guess you can say first person shooters are a favorite mine. Along with other variety of games.

- I'm also a Sega guy. I'm mostly a Sonic guy. Yet I like Sega's other characters. It just depends on who I may like. I like the variety in characters and games. I'd also like to mention I own a Sega Dreamcast.

- I'm a Kaiju fan. Mainly of the Godzilla franchise and King Kong.

- Guess I'll say again that original Predator is one of my all time favorite films. Along with the original Halloween.

- The original MacGyver was a great show. I haven't watched the reboot. But I'm not really interested.

- Trying to remember what else. Mainly that was some of the major stuff. I guess I'll say again I have Autism.

Anyway that was my first GeekGem Rambles. :)

Edit considering I remembered this one I wanted to reveal.

- My favorite ship dynamic is the introvert X extrovert. :)