#and on top of all that i keep losing karma for stealing stuff from these dickheads like. that's not fair!!! i'm a two person clean up crew

[anders-hawke]

thank god i have the no equipment decay mod bc i'm literally so overwhelmed rn i tried looking up the quests on the fnv wiki to figure out how to navigate the quests on the strip but they just made me paranoid that i was missing stuff and i also keep getting turned around and the maps and quest markers aren't helping and it's stressing me out...

[phoenixyfriend]

When Obi-Wan gets to AotC, there's also about two dozen Anakin clones on-site. They're all girls because... IDK Anakin is trans. They have a hive mind and are developmentally a few years younger than Anakin himself.

It's incredibly unsettling to Obi-Wan.

It's almost definitely a "fuck with Anakin's already fragile mental health" ploy by Palpatine, along with a "what if Jedi Black Widows, for me, a Sith Lord. Wouldn't that be neat? That would be neat."

Anakin is torn between "this freaks me out" and "GANG OF BABY SISTERS LET'S GOOOOOOO."

(I just finished reading Like Real People Do by glimmerglanger, so this is definitely inspired by that and the obligatory 'lay back in bed and daydream variations on plot points of that fic you just really enjoyed,' and also a little by Same Heart, Same Blood by loosingletters.)

They're physically like 14-16 on average, and Anakin's vibrating out of his skin with a million conflicting emotions, but when he tells Padme she's just like "oh, you have a handmaiden gang!"

I told this to @willowcrowned and she suggested:

Once Anakin decides to repress the part of him that’s weirded out and just regard them as baby sisters he gets. A little strange about it The first time one of them dies he may or may not slaughter every person he can [in response to Padme's comment] Anakin starts worrying that he needs to get them cool matching outfits

I also chatted about it with @firebirdeternal and they said:

Gang of Unsettling Smol Siblings is exactly the Karma that Anakin deserves

Do you think the Clones have a kind of Collective Name that they use at first that eventually just kind of morphs into a new last name? Skysisters or something? Like Palpatine was trying to be clever and name them like the Nightsisters.

I initially went with "functionally one person" hive-mind but I'm torn.

I think maybe they're BASICALLY one person on Kamino but drift into Separate Consciousness once they're far enough apart physically that their minds don't blend from proximity anymore.

Then they start Dating (like half of them are dating Fett clones because they grew up with these dudes, it's like childhood friends romance), and Anakin loses his mind about Protecting Them and They're Too Young.

Padme: You're nineteen and we just got married, they can date. Anakin: THEY'RE EIGHT. Padme: And the Fett clones are ten and dying for us in the field. Get them rights before you panic about their love lives.

Firebird:

it could be worse, one of them could imprint on Obi-Wan. "Anakin I promise I won't yell at you for the next five stupid things you do if you can figure out a way to stop this baby from having a crush on me" (I like the idea of Obi-wan bargaining not with "I won't be mad at you ever" because they Both Know That's Not True, and instead haggling with specific allowances. Like he's handing out Stupidity Coupons)

Please imagine Mace and Obi-Wan's personal responses to the idea of suddenly having to deal with not one, not two, but OVER TWENTY SKYWALKERS.

Plo is delighted to take one off their hands.

So is Yoda.

Willow:

Mace is like. okay suicide isn’t the Jedi way but on the other hand. i physically cannot deal with this Yoda: a skywalker, you say? one who is tall enough to reach the top shelf, you say? such a skywalker, bring me

Anakin would be given at least one because fuck you, suffer with us, but he's still a padawan so Ugh, fine, no.

I want to say one stays on Coruscant to hang out with the Guard, and ends up half-adopted by Padme. She keeps dressing up the Aniclone left with her in handmaiden outfits and sending selfies to Anakin.

"Hanging out with the little SiL!"

Anakin has so many issues about WHEN his genetic material was acquired.

And there's some confusion from the Fett clones about how much of a hive mind is normal for Jedi. They are confused that the answer is basically none, and "this is WHY nobody clones a Jedi"

ONE OF THEM STEALS BOBA FROM THE ARENA ON GEONOSIS.

Firebird:

"I have followed in our progenitor's footsteps and acquired a sibling." holds up a struggling Boba "He bites."

Willow:

Ooooo okay so if they have a sort of hive mind then they probably don’t have names other than their designations on Kamino right BUT When they SEPARATE The one that picks Boba up on Geonosis gets a name specifically for that. Okay what if the one Padmé picks up gets some variant on ‘pretty’ because she’s always being dressed up BELLE Maybe Yoda’s Ani has a name that means thief? Because obviously Yoda is using Anakin to steal sweets

So, to make the timeline work...

I don't think anyone would give Anakin one of his sisters until after he's knighted at least.

So obviously when they're doing initial placements none of the sisters go to him or Obi-Wan.

Once he's knighted, of course they're already all placed with someone, and Anakin instead gets Ahsoka. He loves Ahsoka. She is also a little sister. He said so.

At some point afterwards, one of the sisters is left without a place because the Master that was in charge of her died in the field battle.

That sister then gets placed with Obi-Wan, because he's already mostly-successfully raised one Skywalker, so he can do it again.

Anakin gets to hang out with her basically all the time.

Ahsoka is very very jealous of this girl stealing Anakin's attention.

Anakin is oblivious to the rivalry.

He asks Barriss to look after them while he's discussing Adult War Things with Luminara and Obi-Wan, and Barriss gets an eye into This Mess, which is quickly colored by Ahsoka growing a puppy crush on the lovely Miss Offee herself.

Firebird:

Ahsoka: Ah yes, my nemesis. Anisister: Ah yes, my new older sister whom I want to impress so bad.

"I will impress her by being Stoic and Competent" "Oh my god she must think she's so much better than me what a bitch"

Anakin is oblivious to most things to be fair Anakin: Laser focused precision fighting machine who can read the tiniest body movements and predict your moves seconds in advance, who also cannot understand even the most basic social nuance. I was originally writing this as to Dunk on Anakin but then I made myself sad, because none of those things are really his fault.

So you know that post about like, Sasuke and Brooding, specifically in the context of "Brooding" as it's used to refer to Nesting Chickens? Grouchy and protective and sitting on a tennis ball trying to hatch it because they're just. "These are my Babies." Anakin Broods. Baby sisters. Must protecc. "I'm actually fine and extremely deadly in combat." "MUST PROTECT."

Bad Guy: [catches Ahsoka in a Trap] Aniclone: Must rescue sister! Aniclone: [fights, is not winning fight, gets ouched] Ahsoka tearing her way out of Trap: I lived bitch. Also: stay the fuck away from her. [murders so hard]

Ahsoka catches the Protective Older Sib feels by the traditional method: "Hey, only I'm allowed to be mean to them."

Willow:

Oh Anakin has no clue what’s going on. He walks in on Ahsoka glaring at the Ani and is like!!! Little sisters!!! Bonding!!! When Ahsoka was about three seconds away from tossing her out of the airlock. Ahsoka mistakenly assumes that Barriss has a crush on the Ani, and gets even MORE jealous.

Obi-Wan is like oh god. I can’t take care of an Anakin going through puberty again. He’s great with periods and other stuff because he read about a billion books. He is TERRIBLE with everything else, as he was the first time.

Barriss is like???? YOU'RE BOTH CHILDREN, PLEASE CALM DOWN, I HAVE ZERO INTEREST IN DATING ANYONE, LET ALONE SOMEONE YOUR AGE.

IDK how old Obi-Wan's Aniclone is, probably physically the same age as Ahsoka?

Per @atagotiak on discord:

Also something something, similarities btw Anakin and Obi-Wan where like. "Am I a parent? That seems uncomfortable, I'm too young to be a dad to a kid this age, I mean I'm cool with being a mentor/caretaker but..."

Obi-Wan can't even sidestep parenthood this time.

"Is Anakin basically your dad?" "Uhhhhhh" [Muffled discussion] "So Obi-Wan is your dad." "Okay!" "WAIT NO I DIDN'T AGREE TO THIS"

Ahsoka: She's stealing my brother, that BITCH. Obi-Wan's Aniclone: new sister new sister new sister gotta make a good impression

Firebird:

I feel like the Sister Squad would make very effective interstellar espionage agents Even like, kind of by accident. They just get encouraged to branch out in their interests and figure out what they want to do with their lives and end up all over the dang place, and since they're all pretty dang competent they tend to gravitate towards Important Positions wherever they end up. Except for one sister who just retires to raise Space Sheep.

I like that in this AU Palpatine is just like "I will create an army of Loyal Murderers who will obey my every whim and also be a big psychological lever on my Other Pet Murderer," and then they all just Baby Duckling imprint on the first Jedi to be nice to them instead and he has to just be like "Wait no not like that."

AND one of them Steals Boba

I want Obi-Wan's Aniclone to start dating Fives. All the sisters judge her for it, because he's a Goof. A very competent, ARC Trooper goof! But a goof.

Not as goofy as Anakin, though.

Firebird:

Who expects a clone of Anakin Skywalker to not make questionable lifelong romantic choices impulsively?

[nuttynutcycle]

I just discovered your blog, and I'm in LOVE with your writing! I'm completely obsessed with Familiar, so if it's not to much to ask, could you write a continuation? Thank you so much, your snippets and prompts are greatly appreciated!!

Familiar - Pt 2

First part here

On a scale of one to ten, this was either a -2 or a 12 on the good idea scale. Hero double-checked the address Villain had sent her before looking back at the tiny house. The paint was peeling, steps were rotting and that roof was definitely of the leaking sort. Somehow, she had expected Villain to live on the rich side of town.

When he had invited her over to work on their assignment, her thoughts had been torn between screaming trap and find some evidence. The second side won. If there wasn’t anything in there to prove who Villain really was… Well, she’d have to find another way of getting proof to show the authorities. She knocked and noted the cracked windows to her side. After a few seconds, Villain opened the door.

“Hey, I’m glad you could make it. Come on in.” He led her down the musty hall towards a suspiciously normal bedroom. “Thanks again for making the trek all the way over here. My mom hasn’t been doing too well recently, and I’m trying not to leave her alone for too long.”

“Of course, I get it.” Hero let her eyes trail over the spartan room. The only furniture was a bed and two chairs beside a fold-up table covered with books and scribblers. Funny, the number of times Villain escaped from her with stolen cash made her think he’d at least have better furniture. Or a safe to put the money in. Maybe it was hiding in the closet? Although in this neighbourhood, keeping money lying around might not be the brightest idea. “It’s good that you’re taking care of her.”

He nodded, avoiding her gaze and moving his stuff from the table to the floor. “Hopefully, this next surgery will be the one that works.”

“Yeah, it’s tough watching people you love go through painful things. My sister has a heart problem right now, and it’s terrifying to watch her energy come and go.” Shut up! Stop telling him personal things. “Yeah.” She finished lamely.

Their gazes locked in understanding. Hero was the first to break away. “Ready to start the pain?”

They worked on the assignment in silence for a while. Honestly, there was probably a special punishment designed for whoever invented assignments over ten pages long. This just wasn’t fair. Hero sat back, running a hand through her hair. “I think this is karma's way of punishing me for not reading the textbook.”

His lips quirked. “There’s a textbook for this class? That would’ve been helpful to know at the start of the semester.”

“Want to know how tired I was at the beginning of the semester? I can’t even remember choosing my classes,” she pulled a hand down her face. “I think I just closed my eyes and pointed at the screen.”

“You could have been in differential calculus. Or worse, accounting.”

“Or Phys Ed. Did you know our university has a course devoted to badminton?”

Villain laughed. “What a racket. To think, I could have spent time swinging my arm around and gotten credit for it.”

“But then you’d be missing out on the glories of this assignment.”

“And a friend.”

Oh nope. Big nope. Wait, Hero reconsidered. Were they friends?  They did chat after class and had studied a few times together, but that didn’t mean- wait. Huh. Time to deflect with awkward humour and process these feelings later. “I thought you saw me as a role model, but that’s cool too. I’ll just have to find a new lackey.”

“And here I thought you were friends with me for my brilliance and good looks.”

She felt her cheeks begin to burn. “Yep, it’s all for your looks. If you seduce our professor, then we don’t have to do this assignment anymore.”

Villain rubbed his chin. “I’ve never seduced a professor before. Would I have to wear a sweater vest?”

“And a tweed jacket. It’s the only way.” Her fingers twitched, and she was suddenly very aware of him. The light hitting his hair, the way his lips curled when he was amused… Bad, very bad. This is your official ABORT MISSION alert. Find some evidence on the dangerous criminal and get out of there. She cleared her throat. “I’m parched. Could I get some water?”

Villain nodded, standing and leaving the room. Hero leapt out of the chair the moment the door shut behind him.  Her eyes latched on the only place one could hide anything in the sparse room - the closet. She yanked it open, feeling her heart speed up at the sound of Villain opening a cupboard in the kitchen and turning on the tap.

The closet was small and impressively dull. Clothes and boxes littered the tiny  shelves, with no signs of the files or weapons she was looking for. A flap of a familiar fabric dangling from one of the top boxes caught her eye. Bingo. Hero gingerly reached to feel the consistency, making sure she wasn’t wrong before bringing the authorities in, and accidentally bumped an elbow against the side of the closet. The box plummeted from its precarious placement and met the ground with a thump. No! She scrambled to pick up the box and the spilled-out uniform when a movement behind made her pause.

Villain stood in the doorway, hand clenched around a glass of water. His eyes darted to the clothes on the ground. “What are you doing?” he asked quietly.

Hero’s throat went dry. She tightened her grip on the clothes and tried to look surprised. “S-something fell in your closet, so I opened it to check what it was.”

“Huh,” Villain said. “That’s unfortunate.”

He knelt, gently taking his outfit from her hands and placing it back in the box. “You weren’t supposed to see this.”

“Clearly.”  Hero swallowed and prepared to run if he attacked. Worst case scenario, she had beat him before and could do it again. Theoretically. “I didn’t mean to-“

“I know.” A familiar calculation crept across his face, making her hands shake. Villain sat across from her and blocked the only exit, placing the cup of water between them. She felt trapped against the closet.

“You know, if this had happened a month ago, I would have killed you without a second thought,” he said mildly. “Guess you’re lucky.”

A horrifying reminder that she was not dealing with her awkward classmate anymore. “What are you going to do instead?”

Villain shrugged, seeming far too calm for the situation. “I don’t know yet. Talk, I guess?”

“I won’t tell anyone.” Hero said, lying through her teeth.

“Unfortunately, I’m too old to believe the promises of others so easily.” He trailed his fingers through the thin carpet, tracing patterns through the material. “Even yours. The stakes are just too high.”

“What’s even worth all the stealing and destruction?” she asked quietly. “Why do you do it? “

The  fingers paused. “It started out as one job. My mom needed treatment, and we didn’t have the money to pay for it. Then one treatment turned into two.” He shook his head. “Before I knew it, I was on the city’s most-wanted list.”

Her shoulders tensed. “Will you stop when the treatments are finished?”

“There have been other benefits to criminal activity.” Villain ducked his head, cheeks turning pink. “Lots of amazing people to meet. I haven’t decided yet.”

She leaned against the wall beside the closet, feeling safer with something solid against her back. “I don’t know if meeting people through crime is worth a lifetime in jail.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “You’d be surprised.”

Hero picked up the forgotten water sitting between them and drank, if nothing else than for the excuse to avoid responding.

His fingers trailed larger patterns in the carpet. “I never wanted you to find out- this is one of the first friendships I’ve made since I started university. I don’t want to lose that. And I don’t want you getting hurt, but this does put me in a tight position. I won’t let you inform the authorities.”

Hero pressed her back further against the wall.

Villain took one look at her wide eyes and softened his tone. “Just don’t tell. If I get one inkling that you’re about to turn me in, then..." he sighed. "Please don’t make me choose between you and my mom.”

He would know it was her. Hero didn’t think she could after this. Or fight him, knowing it was for his mom’s medical bills. She pursed her lips, making a highly regrettable split-second decision. “Alright. But only on one condition: you stop once her treatments are done.”

He twitched. “I told you, I haven’t decided yet-”

“I’m making the decision for you.” She tried to sound more confident than she felt. "Deals are much easier to trust than promises.”

“No. I’d miss-” Villain stopped, clenching his jaw. “I can’t let certain people from that life go yet.”

Something clicked. The girl he liked was from his criminal life… Oh gosh, Hero probably knew her. The brunette villain from the southside? The redheaded weapons supplier? Stop getting distracted.

“I trust you. Give it up as soon as you can.” The words slipped out before she could stop them. “For me.” That was even worse. Was it possible to die from a foot in your mouth?

Villain relaxed his shoulders. “Yeah. It’s a deal.” He stuck out a hand and Hero grasped it, shaking firmly and ignoring the sinking feeling in her chest. So like, a 5 on the good idea scale.

@revrevrew-personal @spruceandpine @sailor-cat2 @literally-just-kirby @emerqlds @chaoticgoodandu @notsocharmingmagician @flying-paperboat @touchedbyanerdyotaku

[jaideite]

Main 1-A (shoto, izuku, bakuhoe, and Iida) boys playing Minecraft with their s/o

*cries in ender pearls* I’m such a loser cause I don’t even remember most of everything that goes on in minecraft. Don’t @ me if something is wrong. Debating if I should buy Minecraft on my phone and play it

i felt bad bc i haven’t posted any good content so heres an old request ima shoot out the inbox for y’all I’m probably so rusty KWKD :(( <3

first time writing for Iida let’s see how well we do hMM ;))

TODOROKI, BAKUGOU, MIDORIYA AND IIDA PLAYING MINECRAFT WITH THEIR S/O (PLUS MIRIO TOGATA)

SHOTO TODOROKI

— doesn’t understand a single thing but still plays because you do

— he spawned into the world and moved two spaces

— he fell into a cave and survived

— then died because a cave spider attacked him

— “That’s rough buddy.”

— He’s one of those people who mines straight down and finds a whole bunch of diamonds

— “What are these light blue things in the stones?”

— “It’s an ore for a gem. You mine them and you get diamonds or emeralds. Is it like a really light blue?”

— you’re on like the other side of the cave you both went into so you can’t go over and mine them with a certain pickaxe you made specifically for mining

— you’re pissed because you always struggle to find them and here he is breaking the first rule of Minecraft and finding them

— jerk

— “So I should just get rid of them?”

— “Well I mean—“

— he throws them in lava and they make that burning “sss” sound and you just slowly look up at him from your screen

— “Shoto...what did you do with the diamonds?”

— he kinda just “oops” from his side of the room and you just rub your hands over your face and sigh

— “Oh god I’m in for a rude awakening.”

— he makes an underground farm and house and has collected sea lanterns as lights

— has collected all the diamonds in the world I’m not even kidding he just followed your rule of mining them with the gem pickaxe and diddly doo went off

— “This world sucks there are no diamonds.”

— “Oh I have some in the chest by my crafting table.”

— it’s literally a large chest and it’s full of diamonds

— like STACKS 64 DIAMONDS ALL TOGETHER

— you are just shook

— “sHOTO HOW—“

— lives in the side of a mountain too it’s actually kinda cute cause he used like stairs as chairs and stuff

— unless y’all are playing with some type of mod that allows chairs then other than that pfft your little “house” is decked out just like his bedroom

— your Minecraft beds are right next to each other too

— he thinks it’s romantic

— kinda looks more like an apartment lmaoo

— he’s more of a peaceful Minecraft player but he can survive survival mode if being asked to play

KATSUKI BAKUGOU

— blows everything up

— but not with TNT and flint and steel oh no that’s too easy for him

— the easy way is not for him

— he’s going to learn how to set redstone traps so you walk into them and don’t know

— you walk into your house and you hear the click

— “What just—“

— next thing you know your getting eaten by endermites that have been spawned in

— or your screen just freezes because of all the explosions that go off

— “No No No my stuff—“

— you just watch from the ‘respawn’ screen while he moves into your house to steal your stuff

— “Haha, I knew you had some good shit in here—fucking taking these— what the hell is hitting me—OH SHIT! NO FUCK OFF STUPID RAT LOOKING FUCKS NO DON’T FUCKING KILL ME—“

— your rolling on the floor at the situation of him raging cause the endermites killed him

— katsuki works hard but karma works harder bitch

— raids your stuff when all else fails

— “YOU TOOK ALL MY DIAMONDS?!”

— “They’re mine now bitch.”

— he is a survival mode player only

— no exceptions

— plays it at the hardest level and rages when he dies but manages to get the hang of it after a while

— the meanest and worst minecraft player to ever play with

— and on top of it all he only plays so he has your attention

— what a clown i swear

IZUKU MIDORIYA

— best one to play with tbh only second to mirio

— knows the basics and a little more

— if he made his own world he could survive pretty decently

— he keeps a notebook on the world you guys share with all the weapons and stuff you could need

— has memorized the most important potions needed like invisibility, etc.

— when you first made the world you had an icon that looked like you so you were looking for a little green haired character amongst the grass (assuming that’s where y’all spawned)

— and you are just so confused cause where is he

— “Izuku where the heck are you?”

— “By the flowers and grass.”

— “Oh no wonder I didn’t see you your hair probably—“

— and like once you finally get to the flowers you see him (or his character) and you just stop in your tracks

— cause there’s a tall, buff pixelated All Might staring back at you

— “Izuku—you know what? I ain’t even surprised.“

— “Haha...sorry.”

— you had to turn away because oh god the face on that thing was going to give you nightmares

— the armour—oh goodness the armour

— of course it’s customized to look like All Mights hero costume

— other than that—he’s a decent Minecraft player

— he has a secret world where he has built the city and all might fighting the villains

— it’s a huge flat world and it’s dedicated to all might

— he can survive pretty well at going off mining on his own but he won’t go without you just in case he dies and loses his stuff

— gets excited when he finds ores especially diamonds

— you get excited when you find emeralds because

— “Oh my god Izuku the emeralds look like your eyes.”

— all_mights_1_fan has left the game

— “Oh wow.”

TENYA IIDA

— y’all know those Minecraft books that they used to have that used to help you with like enchantments and stuff?

— Thats Iida

— he plays by the books

— has the complete handbook collection

— I do too lmaooo

— you ask him does he want to play and he just ??

— two days later he’s knocking at your door with the books in hand ready to play

— “I would suggest you go over these should we play!”

— “...Tenya—“

— when you guys play he immediately wants the rules

— “Theres only one.”

— “One—“

— “Don’t dig straight down.”

— he just stares at you mouth agape before he just starts going oFF

— “That rule is absurd! Surely there are more—“

— “NOpe that’s how you play.”

— he’s just ??

— no wonder you’re so chaotic you play games with oNE RULE

— what kind of g a m e has o n e r u l e ?

— so you guys are playing and yknow Iida isn’t having the best of luck

— he’s fallen into caves, burned by lava, and been buried alive by gravel and sand

— lowkey kinda feel bad for him lmaoo

— “This game is chaotic! At least these strange green fellows are coming to greet me.”

— “Strange green fellows?”

— “Yes! Some have no clothing on, but that’s alright!”

— you’re confused for a bit until it just it’s you

— “IIDA, NO, RUN, NO OH GOD DONT—“

— when the first creeper explodes and he goes flying and he starts scolding it for doing that you know you’re in for a ride

MIRIO TOGATA

— also best person to play with

— a combination of everyone lmaoo

— he’s like midoriya except no notebooks

— can also survive on his own but like not in hard mode like katsuki that demon

— you guys play mini games like bedwars and are definitely a couples teams just like in real life

— you guys are like pros at playing

— “Get that blue bed guy over there.”

— “You have a yellow bed behind you, watch out!”

— wholesome is what it is

— if you are like me and just chaotic at Minecraft and life

— which includes missing almost everything, forgetting the names of stuff, and building a little house on the side of a mountain for the next seven days and being scared of everything

— “Babe where are you?”

— “Uh...I’m... I’m in a cave.”

— “We are in the jungle how are you—“

— “I saw a pig and I wanted to kill it and on the way I just dropped into a hole in the ground.”

— poor mirio is just exasperated

— oh boy y’all are in for a ride

— best therapy for him if he gets depressed about the losing his quirk

[dreaming-of-assclass]

Hello! I was wondering if you could do some headcanons for sugino x karma. It's a really rare ship and I don't see it anywhere so it would be nice if you could write it. ^-^

Hi!! I sure can, nonnie!! 💜

I’ve seriously considered this pairing myself ngl.

Honestly, if any of you think of some odd new rare pair and ask for me to make headcanons, chances are I’ve already thought of it myself 😂 In this house, we respect rare pairs. And I’m especially in love with the Sugino/Karma dynamic.

Y’all don’t know how much I ADORE them man. We have an edgy introvert who tries to act bold all the time. And a chaotic soft boi who is the “straight man” to counteract that.

Except they’re ACTUALLY dumbasses who share a braincell and enable each other. They just have opposite energies.

Karma absolutely tries to steal Sugino’s baseball equipment to use for pranks...or as weapons. Luckily, Sugino always catches him in time and avoids a possible casualty.

They like to just rest and lean on each other’s shoulders at random moments, Sugino more so than Karma. But Karma has his moments where he seeks affection. Like a cat.

They like to call each other by sarcastic pet names just to be annoying and cringe together at how weird they sound. Sometimes though, rather than annoyance, hearing a dry “Sunshine” makes them happy.

They’re about the same size so they constantly swap clothes. Well...more like Sugino taking Karma’s clothes without asking because he likes the fancy material. “Oooh, is this cashmere?” “Put it down.”

Sugino gets cold easily. And Karma prefers the cold... Cue adorable moments where Karma takes his hands and blows on them to keep him warm...and Sugino blushing bright red.

One of their favorite chill activities is to watch nature documentaries late at night, just snuggling together on the couch. The coffee table is filled with empty platters from dinner and dessert. There’s only the light from the tv as they fall asleep basically on top of each other. 

They bicker kinda frequently, since they’re just clashing personalities sometimes. It’s never serious though, and they forget about it 2 seconds later, going back to normal.

Karma likes to wrap his arms around Sugino from behind, catching him on surprise and laughing as Sugino freaks out for a second.

They do this cute challenge where they attempt to draw each other, since both of them are very talented at art. It goes for a few rounds and they start with taking it seriously...but at some point one of them starts goofing around and drawing the other as a joke. With devil horns, a handlebar, etc.

Video games are a part of life. They both are very competitive, so the games can get a little intense...but nothing a kiss cant help. Unless Karma loses then he needs more than one kiss because he’s a sore loser.

Karma reads often and whenever he does, Sugino will do anything to disrupt him. He’ll threaten to knock stuff over with his bat, make a mess of things, bring over snacks...eventually just dramatically flopping on top of Karma...just to demand affection attention.

[hawthornsybil]

You’re Gonna Have a Great Time

Title: You’re Gonna Have a Great Time

Summary: Chris leaves a list of 20 things Buck can do to cheer Eddie up while he's at camp; somehow it turns into a 20 steps plan to woo Eddie.

Read on AO3

So, I read these amazing posts and just had to write something for it. Thanks to @theleftboobgrabber @pan-buck for letting me use their ideas as prompts. I hope you both like it! t when they walk inside the house.

The thing is, Eddie forbade him from going to see Chris off to summer camp because he didn’t think Buck would keep it together but Eddie has yet to learn how to say no to Buck and Chris when they team up. So, they strike a bargain where Buck will be allowed to have Chris for the afternoon before he leaves for camp. After having visited the zoo (for the third time), getting ice cream, and catching a movie, they’re now sitting together in Eddie’s living room waiting for him to come home.

“You sure you packed everything?”

Christopher rolls his eyes (something he totally learned from all the times Eddie has rolled his eyes at Buck) and then pats Buck on the knee. “I have everything I need.”

Buck has been high strung ever since Eddie told him about the camping trip and as much as Chimney has turned his overprotective act into just another thing to tease him about, Buck has no shame in caring so openly for Christopher. Plus, he figures that if he shows how worried he is, Eddie will either feel compelled to keep his cool (because Chris seriously doesn’t need them both to fret) or will feel supported in his fears.

“And did you remember to pack the mosquito spray?”

“Yes, Buck.”

Buck ticks it off the list he’s made on his phone and watches confusedly as Chris gets off the couch and heads to his room.

“Chris where…”

“I made something for you,” Chris answers on his way back.

He climbs back up on the couch and leans against Buck’s side. “I made a card for dad and I have one for you too.”

Buck always thinks he can’t possibly love this kid any more than he already does, and then Chris does something like this, and Buck ends up loving him that much harder.

He takes the purple card Christopher hands over and opens it, already excited about what sweet message he may find inside. He stares confusedly at the list in his hands.

“Chris, what is this?”

“It says at the top.”

Such a sassy kid, another thing Buck knows he takes after Eddie.

At the top of the card, scribbled in yellow crayon, Chris has written how to cheer up Dad while I’m at camp. Speechless, Buck looks between the card and Christopher’s determined face.

“Daddy said you’re going to miss me even more than he does,” he shrugs, pats Buck on the knee again comforting in a way no 9-years-old has any business being. “So, you can cheer up daddy and take care of him instead of missing me.”

“Chris…”

The front door opens before he can find the words to say, Eddie’s voice calling cheerfully from the hall, “I’m home!” He rounds the corner to the living room and his face softens when he sees Chris plastered to Buck’s side and Buck’s teary face. “Buck, we talked about this.”

“It’s okay daddy, I was just telling Buck how much I’m going to miss him.”

Eddie smiles and comes over, ruffling both his hair and Buck’s. “You guys had a good day?” They both nod. “I’m going to hop in the shower and then we can order dinner, okay?” He heads off when they nod again.

Chris turns to Buck and looks at him seriously. “Don’t tell dad.”

Buck nods solemnly, carefully folds the card, and puts it away in his pocket.

***

coffee with TONS of sugar so it’s not gross

It takes Eddie approximately one day to start losing his cool and collected demeanor. They’ve just got back to the station after a call where a kid had fallen in the pool and Buck can see Eddie continuously checking his phone.

Buck thinks back to the list Chris left. Point number one was making Eddie coffee and that’s easy enough. He leaves Eddie to go change into dry clothes and heads up to the loft to start off the coffee machine.

He idly chats with Chimney and Hen while he waits for the coffee to brew and by the time Eddie has changed and has joined them, a steaming mug is sitting on the table.

“Buck made you coffee, isn’t that sweet?” Chimney teases them.

Eddie ignores him completely. “Did you put…”

“Five spoons of sugar, yes. Just drink it.”

They’ve made each other coffee enough times to know how they take it, so he finds Eddie’s distrust appalling. Buck stares as Eddie takes the first sip and seems to relax a little bit. He smiles when Eddie looks at him.

 2. tell him about your day - he smiles when I tell him about school and stuff

Eddie takes a fall while on a call and Bobby sends him to the hospital to get checked for a concussion. He’s fine but gets signed off for the next shift so the others have to deal with Buck on their own.

Chimney tells him at least twice that he’s insufferable when Eddie is not at work and Hen tells him to go run some drills to kill time. Bobby takes pity on him and tells him he can help with the cooking.

At the end of the day, he puts on his jacket and is heading out when he remembers the card still in his pocket. Number two on Chris’s list is telling Eddie about his day so that’s what he will do. He calls him from the car, his voice barely carrying over the sound of the wind as he drives.

“Today was horrible,” he starts off by saying, even before Eddie has time to say hello. “I was bored, we had one call, that was it, can you believe it?”

Eddie chuckles. “You’re insufferable when you’re bored.”

“Yeah, that’s what Chimney said too. How was your day honey?” he asks sarcastically. 

“I finished painting abuela’s porch, then I painted mine. Were you really that bored?”

Buck stops at a red light still undecided on where he’s headed. “Yeah, I mean it was nice to have a quiet day, but you know, I need my adrenaline fix.” The light turns green and he makes a split-second decision to turn left instead of right. “Hey, are you home now?”

“Yeah, wanna come over?”

Buck smiles at that. “Turning in your street now.”

Eddie is waiting by the door when Buck pulls up to his house, an amused grin on his face, arms crossed as he casually leans against the doorframe, long legs crossed at the feet.

“What if I had someone over?”

He does a very bad job of masking his laugh at that. “I’m the only someone you ever have over.” He playfully bumps him with his shoulder and makes his way inside. “Wanna hear about all the different ways I’ve annoyed Chimney today?”

Eddie can’t do anything but follow.

3. ICE CREAM

Buck loves LA and has done all the touristy things except taking one of those tours where they show you where famous people live, but he has to admit, he fell in love with the city all over again when he started showing it to Eddie.

Walking alongside Venice Beach in the evening with the warm breeze coming from the ocean has to be at the top of his favorite things to do. He checks Chris’s list daily and when he saw that today’s idea was ice cream, he knew exactly where to take Eddie.

Their shoulders bump every other step, drawn together in a familiar way. Buck is eating his ice cream from the small cup Eddie made him order (“you’re gonna get chocolate all over your shirt if you get a cone, Buck”).

“Chris called from camp today.”

Buck perks up at that. “You didn’t tell me”

“You were in the shower after that last call.”

Buck wants to tell him that that was no excuse, he could have still gone to get him but decides to let it go. “What did Chris say?”

“That some of the other kids are staying until the end of the month.”

He can guess what he said to that from Eddie’s dejected sigh. “You said yes.”

“Of course, I did, I’m not a monster, Buck.”

Buck bumps into him again and inadvertently makes Eddie drop his cup. “Buck!”

“Oops, here.” Buck scoops up some of his ice cream and shoves it in Eddie’s mouth before he can object. He can’t cover up his laugh at Eddie’s outraged face. “We can share my ice cream, don’t worry.”

Eddie pushes him playfully and when a girl skating by almost runs into him, Eddie closes his hand around Buck’s wrist pulling him back close to him.

It feels like a date, that’s all Buck can think about as he stares at Eddie stealing Buck’s cup, mumbling about not giving it back because it’s all Buck’s fault if he doesn’t have his anymore. Buck would happily let Eddie steal everything from him.

 4. draw him a picture!!

He’s never been good at drawing anything, not even stars which everyone seems to be able to do, but Eddie has been staring forlornly at the drawings Chris made appositely for his locker and so here Buck is, at twenty eight, trying to come up with an idea for a card.

“Whatcha got there, Buck?”

He shrugs at Hen’s question, so she comes over to the table and stares from over his shoulder at the crumbled pieces of paper in front of him.

“Are you trying to draw something?”

“Yeah” he replies sheepishly. “It’s for Eddie.”

She smirks and shakes her head. “Of course it is. Why don’t you go for a stick figure and a simple message? Can’t go wrong with that.”

He ponders it for a moment and then nods. “Thanks, Hen.”

When half an hour later Buck sees the smile on Eddie’s face as he opens his locker and Buck’s card fall out of it, Buck feels just as accomplished as if he had just rappelled down a building for a rescue.

5. tell him a joke - I got a book of jokes for my birthday last year you can borrow it if you want buck / 6. tell him a knock-knock joke - I don’t have a book of knock-knock jokes :-(

“Hey, Eddie, have you heard about the new restaurant called Karma? There’s no menu: you get what you deserve.”

Eddie looks at him as if he’s finally lost it. They’re in the middle of a call and really, Buck should be paying more attention but all he has to do is hold a bar in place while Bobby saws it, so no big deal.

“What the…”

“It’s a joke,” Buck says with a big grin. “I’ve got another one. Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut? He just needed a little space.”

Eddie snorts and tries very hard not to show that he’s laughing but Buck sees it.

“Aren’t I supposed to be the one with the dad jokes?” He asks.

Buck shrugs, unrepentant. “I’ve got more.”

“Why?”

Bobby finishes with the saw and looks amusedly between the two. “Maybe wait until after we’re done saving someone, yeah?”

“Copy that, ‘Cap.” Buck does a little military salute and Eddie can’t help but laugh at him again.

Two hours later, while they’re laying in their bunkbeds trying to sleep between calls, Buck continues.

“Hey, Eddie?”

He gets a grunt in response and that’s enough for him to proceed. “Did you hear about the actor who fell through the floorboards?” He waits for dramatic effect and then goes, “He was just going through a stage.”

“Buck, I swear to God…”

“Knock, knock.”

Eddie grunts again. “Buck…”

“You have to play along. You can just not answer when someone says knock-knock.”

Buck hears the bedsprings creak as Eddie shifts in the bed next to his.

“Eddie?”

“Who’s there?”

Buck grins broadly. Eddie can’t ever say no to him doesn’t matter how annoying he’s being. “Leon.”

“Leon who?”

“Leon me when you’re not strong!”

He gets a pillow thrown in his face which makes the book of jokes he borrowed from Chris’ room last time he was over and the phone where he was looking up knock-knock jokes, fall from his hands and hit him right in the eye. “Ouch.”

“That’s what you get, Buck,” Chimney’s voice pipes up from the other side of the sleeping quarters. “Go to sleep.”

Buck doesn’t even mind because he hears Eddie sniggering from the other bed.

 7. ask him a funny question - one time I asked him if dogs know they’re dogs, and he smiled a lot!!

“Do you think cats have regrets?”

Buck’s question is so random that Eddie’s face turns into that confused squinty expression he always makes that Buck absolutely loves.

They’re on day 9 of Christopher being away at camp and Eddie is particularly grumpy. He’s snapped at the woman they were trying to save because she kept trying to tell them what to do because she’s a big Chicago Fire fan and thought she knew better.

Chris hasn’t called since the time he asked to stay at the camp longer and Bobby keeps shooting looks at Buck that say “fix it” so Buck took out his list, checked what was on the agenda for today, and asked the first question that popped into his head.

“I would love to be in your head for a day,” Eddie tells him, but Buck can see at least a bit of tension leaving him; he’ll take that as a win.

“I mean, think about it,” he continues, closing one of the compartments on the truck once they’ve finished expecting it. “You see so many photos of dogs looking ashamed because of something they did, but cats will maintain eye contact while dropping your favorite trophy off the shelf.” He shrugs. “What’s your take on it?”

Eddie stares at him as if trying to understand whether Buck is being serious or not. Buck looks back, an expectant grin on his face, and Eddie can’t help the laughter that starts bubbling out of him.

“I swear, this is why you and Chris get along so well.”

Buck looks proud of himself as he watches Eddie completely fail to remain grumpy.

 8. watch a movie with him - his favorite is emperor’s new groove I think

It’s not often that they don’t have the same days off together, but it can happen. Buck ends up covering someone on third shift and doesn’t see Eddie for two days. So, as soon as he’s done with his shift, he heads straight over to Eddie’s. He knocks once and then lets himself in and he’s not surprised to find Eddie laying on the couch, a film playing on the tv that Buck knows he’s only half watching.

He places the six-pack he brought over on the coffee table and Eddie startles. He’s wearing his old army t-shirt and grey sweatpants, one foot resting on the floor and the other on the armrest. Buck forces himself not to stare for too long.

“When did you get here?”

Buck rolls his eyes. “Nice to see you too.” He kicks Eddie’s foot until he gets the message and lifts his legs, barely waiting for Buck to be sitting down before he unceremoniously plants both his feet in his lap. “Is this seriously how you’re going to spend your day off?”

“I’m only on film 3 out of 8.”

It’s then that Buck looks at the TV again and realizes that Eddie is watching Harry Potter.

“Do you think they let the kids watch films at camp?”

Buck snorts, hands subconsciously closing around Eddie’s ankles. “I’m pretty sure that would go against the child labor program they have in place.”

Eddie kicks him and rolls his eyes. “Growing vegetables and then eating them is not child labor, we’ve been over this.”

Buck’s fingers dig into Eddie’s ankle and he lets himself relax against the couch. “Agree to disagree.”

He’s never seen the Harry Potter films prior to meeting Eddie and Christopher and watching it now without the youngest Diaz is making him think about all the other things he has never done before Eddie appeared in his life, stripping in slow motion in the middle of the fire station (he knows that’s not exactly how it went but that’s how he remembers it so sue him).

“This is making me sad.”

“The Prisoner of Azkaban cannot make you sad,” Eddie retorts.

“Whatever. Let’s watch something else.” He remembers Chris’ suggestion and he smiles. “You know what we haven’t watched in a while? Emperor’s New Clothes. I like that one.”

Eddie glances at him and studies him for a few seconds before grinning back. “Okay.”

9. clean up - sometimes when he looks stressed, I clean my room and he smiles??

Carla told him once that Eddie hates it when she helps cleaning around the house, so she discretely helps out but leaves enough that Eddie thinks she hasn’t done it just so Eddie can then spend his days off tiding up. Buck knows that when you join the army they drill it into you to keep everything tidy and so he knows how important it is for Eddie.

However, with Christopher off to camp, Carla hasn’t been around in a while and Buck can see that there’s a load of laundry to do and Eddie’s clothes were left in a pile after being in the dryer. But Eddie spoke with his parents that morning and Buck is not privy to what was said in the conversation, but he can see how stressed Eddie has been ever since getting off the phone.

Chris’ list has a suggestion for what to do in this case too, so, while he’s at Eddie’s waiting for him to come back from having gone to the shops to get beer and food, Buck starts tidying up a little. He puts the clothes in the washing machine, folds the ones Eddie left out and puts away the dishes that have been collecting dust on the drying rack.

When Eddie gets home, Buck looks at him like a deer caught in the headlights, plates in his hand halfway through being put away. Eddie frowns for a second and then darts his eyes around, goes to check in his room, and then comes back.

“Did you tidy up while I was gone?”

Buck shrugs, unsure if he’s overstepped some boundary. Eddie just stares at him, shoulders sagging and eyes searching.

“Thought I could help a little. You’ve got enough on your plate.”

Eddie walks over to him and hugs him, and Buck hopes Eddie can’t feel his heartbeat accelerating.

 10. play some video games - but don’t let him win he always knows when you let him win

Buck hasn’t played the ambulance simulation game in ages and he’s always been horrible at it; Hen can be his witness but playing with Eddie is different. He’s probably the only person who’s worse at it than he is but he was mopey after talking to Chris, so Buck wants to cheer him up which means he has to fake being worse than Eddie and let him win. 

“Oh no, drove right into the pedestrian.” Buck was never a good actor.

Eddie looks at him suspiciously. “Buck, I know you’re letting me win.”

“Oh c’mon, I’d never do that to you.”

Eddie doesn’t even dignify that with an answer just drops his controller and lets the ambulance drive off the road and into a building.

“Well, that will be hard to explain to the Chief,” Buck jokes.

He only has a moment to take in Eddie’s unimpressed face before Eddie tackles him and starts digging his fingers into Buck’s sides.

“Yield!” Eddie orders, unrelenting in his tickling.

Buck can barely breathe. “Okay! Okay! I will play for real now.”

Eddie pulls back but stays close in Buck’s personal space, eyes full of mirth and a little dopey, and Buck can’t look away, not until Hen walks past and throws a pillow at them.

 11. the aquarium!! he really likes going to the aquarium with me!

“I haven’t been here since the last time we brought Chris.”

Buck had shown up at Eddie’s that morning and dragged him out without even telling him where they were headed.

Since it’s a Wednesday, there are not many kids despite it being the summer holidays, so they’re enjoying a leisure walk between the various exhibitions.

“Did you know that a blue whale is the largest living animal on Earth?”

Eddie looks at him with a fond expression when Buck asks him that. He shakes his head, falls into steps with Buck and their shoulders bump as always. “No, I didn’t know that, Buck.”

They stop in front of the penguins and Buck stares at them, not feeling Eddie’s gaze on his face. “I used to think that penguins were really big, you know?” he glances up and catches Eddie’s eyes, finds himself blushing a little under the scrutiny. “Like as big as people and then I watched Madagascar and my mind was blown.”

“I’m more surprised that you watched Madagascar if I'm being honest.”

Buck smiles at him. “It’s one of my favorites. Maddie and I sneaked out of the house to go see it when it came out.” He feels himself grow nostalgic at the memory and looks back at the penguins so he doesn’t have to see Eddie’s expression. “It was one of the last things we did together before she married Doug.”

He’s not ready when a hand lands on the back of his neck, Eddie’s thumb pressing down on his pulse point.

“When I watch it with Chris, he makes me do the King Julian dance,” Eddie confesses. 

Buck appreciates the distraction more than he’d be able to express. He turns his head to the side, his cheek coming to rest on the back of Eddie’s hand. They’ve been more tactile lately but, this makes Buck feel as if it’s just the two of them in the world in that moment.

“I’m going to have to see that,” he teases just as a little kid comes running straight into his legs and almost knocks him over.

 12. LOTS OF HUGS

The minute Eddie is out of the building, Buck shrugs Bobby’s hands off and runs up to him, pulls him into a tight hug even as Eddie starts coughing against his shoulder.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Buck…”

“No, we’ve been over this, we can’t both be reckless.” He pulls back, starts opening up Eddie’s turnout coat to check him for injuries. “Next time Bobby says to fall back, you fall back, understood?”

Eddie grabs Buck’s wrists and squeezes hard enough to get his attention. “Buck, I’m fine.”

Buck’s eyes are still wide and his pulse is racing, he knows Eddie can feel it where he’s holding him, but Buck hasn’t been this scared in a long time. He pushes forward, wounds his arms around Eddie’s neck, and hugs him again.

“You’re an idiot.”

Eddie’s arms come up, hugging him back briefly before Buck is pulling away and Eddie’s hands slowly fall to his hips. This is Buck’s favorite thing about hugging Eddie, how he always leaves one hand on Buck’s flank. Buck is not used to being hold; Maddie is not a big hugger and unless Chris is around, the only person he ever gets hugs from is Eddie.

“I’m okay, Buck.”

He wants to drag him home and make him rest but Bobby calls out to them, tells them to start packing up and it takes Buck a lot longer than a second to be able to look at anything but Eddie’s face.

Eddie doesn’t look away either.

 13. do something adulty with him - I don't know buck I'm 9

So, the thing is, Buck has been crushing on Eddie for the past two years. Maddie likes to tease him about it all the time, it’s all in good spirits and it’s mostly about how Buck pretty much imprinted on Eddie the minute the guy told him how good he was at his job. So, these feelings, wanting to kiss Eddie, wanting to hold his hands, nothing new there. They’ve had bumps in the road, Buck tried and failed to date someone else and it hasn’t been easy, but Buck is done waiting for what he wants. He knows Eddie enough to be sure that even if he’s been reading the signals all wrong, they will be able to move on from this.

When he checks Chris’ list and sees the point about doing something adulty, Buck’s mind goes straight to one thing because he wants to date the shit out of Eddie Diaz and goddamnit he will.

So, when they’re halfway through their shifts, Buck flops down on the sofa next to Eddie and asks. “There’s a new restaurant near my place, do you wanna check it out?”

Perhaps he should have phrased it better, but Eddie makes him nervous.

“Yeah, sure.” Eddie barely looks up from his phone where he’s texting Lena.

Buck is like 80% sure that Eddie is not getting it. “We can go home and change and then I’ll come to pick you up.”

Eddie frowns, looks at Buck in confusion. “Why don’t we just go together from here?”

“I’m coming to pick you up,” Buck insists.

He can feel Chimney staring at them and when he looks in his direction, Buck finds him with a spoon halfway up to his mouth that might as well be popcorn considering he’s looking at them as if he was watching a movie.

“Can I help you, Chimney?”

“No, no,” he raises his hands in surrender. “Carry on.”

Buck looks back at Eddie raising an eyebrow expectantly.

“Okay, you can come to pick me up.”

Several hours later, halfway through their dinner, Buck realizes that the issue with spending so much time together is that this won’t feel like a date because they do this all the time. Eddie is dressed in a flannel shirt over a black shirt and well-fitting black jeans and Buck loves the look, he honestly does, but he’s thanking whatever deity made me forgo the suit he had originally planned.

Eddie trails off in the middle of what he’s saying and stares at Buck. “Are you okay? You’ve been glaring at your food for the past five minutes.”

“All good, you were saying?”

Buck drives him back home, and Eddie asks him if he wants to come inside, and apparently Buck is a sucker for punishment because he accepts even though he knows that Eddie didn't get that Buck had asked him out on a date.

 14. ask abuela how she makes the Magic Soup - dad really likes it

Buck has had Pepa’s number saved on his phone for the past two years because sometimes he’s the one going to pick up Christopher from their place. This time he uses it for a different reason. Eddie has canceled on him because of a cold or so he says, but Buck is pretty sure that it’s just the fact that Christopher has been gone for almost three weeks now. So, he texts Pepa and asks if he can drop by so Isobel can teach him how to make the magic soup Eddie loves.

She says yes and Buck finds himself standing between her and Isobel a couple of hours later, attentively following all the steps and taking notes.

“This is really nice what you’re doing, Buck.”

He shrugs because praise always makes him feel so out of depth. “Thank you, Isobel.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me abuela?”

He can’t help but smile at her. “Sorry, abuela.”

“Thank you for taking care of Eddie while Chris is away.”

“What else would I do?”

She smiles warmly at him, pats him on the arm, and then goes back to guide him through the next steps.

Two hours later he’s letting himself in Eddie’s house. “Honey, I’m home!” he calls jokingly while he uses his foot to close the front door.

When he walks in the living room, he doesn’t see Eddie, so he puts the soup down in the kitchen and then checks Eddie’s bedroom and finds him curled up under the covers watching Netflix on his phone.

“Are you actually sick?” he asks, leaning against the door.

“Maybe.”

Buck scoffs. “What if I told you that I have your magic soup waiting for you in the kitchen?”

That gets Eddie’s attention. He lets his phone fall on the bed and looks suspiciously at Buck. “How?”

“I might have stopped to Pepa and Abuela’s house.” He walks over, reaches out, and grabs Eddie’s wrist pulling a little. “C’mon. It took us hours to make and you have to eat.”

Eddie looks at him in a way that makes Buck think he’s about to be pulled down into bed in retaliation, but the moment passes, Eddie tugs his hand free and stands up. “You better not be lying, Buck. How did you even get her to give you the recipe?"

Buck scoffs. "You should know by now that Diaz's can't resist this face." 

Eddie can't say anything in return. 

 15. cuddles on the couch

Buck is a cuddly drunk, he usually turns into some sort of over joyous puppy who walks around and starts up a conversation with anyone who will give him attention. Eddie had to quite literally drag him away from where he’s explaining in detail to a couple what a compound fracture is.

“I’m sorry about him.” Eddie grabs him by the back of his shirt and pulls him out of the bar and pushes him towards Buck’s jeep. “Get in, I’ll take you home.”

Buck stumbles five times while attempting to get in his car, but his size seems to be too big for his drunken self so Eddie has to help him in. He dozes off leaning against the window as soon as Eddie turns the ignition on and doesn’t wake up until Eddie is pulling him out of the car once they’ve reached his building.

“Buck, c’mon, help me out.”

He blinks slowly and then more or less manages to follow Eddie all the way up to his apartment. Eddie helps him lay down on the couch and goes to get him water and painkillers. He’s about to leave when Buck grabs his wrist and tugs so hard that Eddie falls on top of him.

“Chris said to cuddle you on the couch.”

“What?” Eddie tries to push himself up, but even drunk, Buck is strong enough to maneuver them around until Eddie is laying with his back against the backrest, and Buck is perched precariously on the edge.

“What, what?” Buck sighs, face squished against Eddie’s neck.

Eddie has no choice but to wrap an arm around Buck and pull him closer; it’s either that or letting Buck fall off and bang his head against the coffee table.

“Shhh, Eddie, sleep time.”

He can’t help but smile and grip Buck a little bit tighter.

 16. build a fort! / 17. cuddles IN the fort!!!

Buck and Eddie are laying on their backs, staring up at the string lights that Buck has attached to the top of the pillow fort.

“Why are we doing this?” Eddie asks.

Buck had shown up, going on about how he had found a guide on how to build a pillow fort on IKEA’s website and how they had to practice because Chris was coming back and he wanted to be the best at it by the time that happened.

Eddie had helped him out, going around the house collecting pillows and bedsheets and now there they are. It would be big enough for Christopher and another child, but two adult men are a tight fit.

Eddie shifts, his shoulder bumping into Buck’s chest.

 Buck is beyond pleased with himself. “Chris is going to be so proud of you at his next sleepover. He loves pillow forts.”

Eddie turns to look at him and when Buck turns as well, their eyes meet. The twinkling lights are making Eddie’s eyes look brighter, but his face looks younger and softer. Buck really wants to kiss him right now, but he’s read the rest of the list and Chris put kissing for last so Buck looks away.

“He already knows how to build a fort, Buck.”

“I know, but this is like pro pillow forting or something.”

Eddie shakes his head at him. “So, what’s the plan, what are we doing now that we’re in here?”

“Well, I’m getting us snacks, you’re putting on a movie and we’re going to pretend we’re not boring adults for one night.”

“You never became a boring adult.”

Buck crawls out of the fort, throwing a pleased smile over his shoulder. “I know.”

When he gets back and lays down next to Eddie, Buck is hyperaware of how little space they have and he fidgets around until Eddie grabs his arm and makes him turn on his side, his chest pressed up against Eddie’s back.

“Stop moving,” Eddie orders him and Buck doesn’t have to be told twice.

He settles down and leans his chin on Eddie’s shoulder so he can look at the screen. Every once in awhile, Eddie will raise the bowl with the popcorn so Buck can get a handful and they don’t talk, they don’t need to. Buck is more aware of all the places where his and Eddie’s bodies are touching than what’s going on the screen, but he doesn’t mind.

He’s not sure when Eddie falls asleep but gradually his body goes slack in Buck’s hold and Buck can’t help but rest his head on the same pillow, his forehead touching the back of Eddie’s head and his arm tightening imperceptibly around Eddie’s waist. He closes his eyes and lets Eddie’s breath lull him into sleep.

 18. tell him it’s gonna be ok

Buck finds him leaning against the side of the truck, pensive as his eyes stare at the phone in his hand. The bay is quiet, and the sun is warm. Buck hands him a cup of coffee and leans next to him.

“That Chris?” he asks, nodding to the phone. 

“Yeah.” Eddie puts the phone away and takes a sip of coffee before sighing heavily, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

They’re at the end of their shift, one hour to go before they’re free and Buck feels just as exhausted as Eddie looks.

“Is he okay?”

“He sounded happy. Kinda got the impression he doesn’t want to come home.”

Buck can’t stop staring at him, kind of wants to take all his worries away, help him carry the weight. “Well, on the bright side, he has to live home for at least the next nine years.”

Eddie snorts. “Why do I get the impression you’ll be the one doing the shovel talk once he starts dating?”

Buck feels his heart double in size at the thought that Eddie thinks Buck will be around in the distant future to see that happening; very distant future because Chris is only nine and he has to stay a kid for as long as possible.

“I’m bigger so I can totally intimidate these future dates.” He puffs out his chest waddling around in an awkward robot dance that makes Eddie laugh. He takes a step closer, right into Eddie’s personal space and he feels like they’ve been dancing around this for the past month to the point where Buck is pretty sure Eddie is just waiting for him to take the first step.

“Hey, Eddie?”

Eddie arcs an eyebrow and hides his smile in his coffee. “Yes, Buck.”

“It’s going to be okay.”

Eddie’s answering smile is everything to him.

 19. tell him you love him!!!

Buck stares at the nineteenth point on Christopher’s list and tries to figure out a way to make it happen. As far as he’s concerned, he feels like he’s been telling Eddie he loves him since he introduced him to Carla and Eddie had given him that smile in return. He’s been saying ‘I love you’ since Eddie told him that it wasn’t his fault Doug had gotten Maddie, ever since he argued with Maddie until she let him go to Eddie’s shield ceremony despite the broken leg and the pain he was in; ever since he organized a Christmas party so they could be together with Chris, ever since he’s built the skateboard, ever since he tried to dig at the ground to get to Eddie. He’s been saying ‘I love you’ for so long he doesn’t remember what it felt like before.

He spends the day observing Eddie, seeing him joke around with Hen, giving Chimney advice on fatherhood, looking annoyed when Bobby doesn’t let him help with lunch.

Buck is just so in love with him. But the words are stuck somewhere in his throat, scared because he’s never felt this way about anyone ever. He knows that if Eddie asked him to jump, he’d only ask how high, but even more than that, he knows he would stop taking risks at work if Eddie asked him not to because he wants to stick around.

So instead, he tells him he loves him without words.

He gets up from where he’s sitting at the table in Bobby and Athena’s garden and goes over to where he’s animatedly talking with Karen. He puts a hand on his lower back, jumps into the conversation they’re having, and smiles softly at Eddie when Eddie looks at him.

 20. try kisses??

Christopher is coming back tomorrow, and this is it. Last day. Eddie has been brimming with excitement at the idea of having his kid back home and it’s all he can talk about. He doesn’t shut up about it during calls, and neither does he while they’re grabbing a drink with the others. Buck lives to see Eddie this happy. Buck is talking to Albert or at least trying to because his attention keeps being pulled over to where Eddie is dancing awkwardly while sandwiched between Chimney and Karen.

“So, how long have you guys been together?”

Buck does a double-take when he realizes that Albert is speaking to him. “What do you mean?”

“Eddie and you. I asked Maddie but she just giggled and said to leave it.”

Buck rolls his eyes. “Ignore whatever she says. Eddie is my best friend.”

Albert nods solemnly. “They always say the best relationships are born from friendships. They also suggest to marry your best friend.”

Buck, who was in the middle of taking a sip, chokes on his beer. He coughs loudly, and before he knows what’s happening, Eddie is right beside him suddenly alert and sober.

“Buck, what is it?”

“He was just drinking,” Albert intervenes. “He’s okay.”

Buck coughs once more and rubs the middle of his chest but he can’t look away from Eddie’s panicked look. “I’m okay, Eddie.” He grabs Eddie’s hand and tugs to bring him out of whatever panic he's slipping into.

“I think we should go,” Eddie says, already pulling away from Buck and getting his jacket.

Buck frowns but if he’s being honest with himself, he’s tired and he’s more than happy for them to leave now.

Albert gives him a look like he knows something is going on.

They quickly say goodbye to everyone, and they step outside the bar. Buck follows Eddie over to his truck ready to tell him that he’s only had one beer so maybe he should be driving when Eddie stops and turns around so suddenly that Buck ends up bumping into him.

“Are you sure you’re okay? We can stop at the hospital on the way home.”

Buck shakes his head, rests his hands on Eddie’s shoulders to get his attention. “I’m okay, I just want to go home, okay?”

Eddie scrutinizes him and Buck lets him look for whatever it is he needs to see to believe that Buck he’s okay. After a minute, he finally nods and pulls away. “You drive.” He tosses his keys at Buck.

They don’t talk on the way over to Eddie’s and they’re still silent when they walk inside the house.

Buck heads for the living room but Eddie grabs his wrist, turns him around, and hugs him. His arms are clutching at him tightly and his nose is buried against Buck’s pulse point and Buck knows there’s no way Eddie is not feeling his heart pick up.

“I didn’t think you were okay.”

Eddie’s voice is nothing but a whisper and Buck finally hugs him back, understands where Eddie’s mind went at.

“I’m okay, Eds.”

Buck is not sure how long they stay like that but when Eddie pulls back, his eyes are clear and determined as he stares at Buck, and Buck can’t help himself. He cups Eddie’s cheek with one hand, uses the other around Eddie’s hip to push him back until his back hits the wall, and finally, finally, after months, maybe years of buildup, Buck kisses him. He swears every sound disappears and all he can feel are Eddie’s hands gripping his shoulders, fingers digging in enough to hurt but Buck is all muscles and strength.

He has pictured kissing Eddie in his mind about a million times and nothing, no dream or hope or fantasy ever even came close to what he’s feeling now with Eddie pulling him in closer, their lips moving together slowly, kiss growing deeper and deeper.

Buck pushes him a bit harder against the wall and they knock one of the frames down and they couldn’t care less.

Eddie’s hand slides up into Buck’s hair and his fingers scratch his scalp and Buck has to pull back and breath or he’s going to drown in this kiss.

Eddie’s eyes are half-lidded, his lips shiny and swollen and Buck wants to kiss him again immediately and so he does because now he can.

 ***

 Chris throws himself into Eddie’s arms the minute he’s off the bus. Buck has been allowed to come to pick him up and he can’t stop smiling, trying his best to stop himself from nudging Eddie out of the way so he can have his hug.

Chris looks at him from over Eddie’s shoulder and god but has Buck missed this kid.

“Buck!” he screams, right by his father’s ears.

He comes over and the second Chris has freed himself from Eddie’s hold, Buck is scooping him up. “How are you doing, little guy?”

“It was awesome.”

Eddie picks up Chris’s luggage and the three of them start making their way back to Buck’s jeep. While they’re walking, Chris leans closer to Buck and whispers in his ear, “Did you use the list?”

“Yes, thank you so much for it.”

“And did you guys kiss?”

Any other time and Buck would have blushed but he’s so happy that all he can do is nod. He and Eddie haven't decided how to tell Chris but Buck assured him that it wouldn't be a problem. 

Chris looks delighted and pats him on the cheek. “I told you it was going to be okay, kid.”

[prorevenge]

Stingy, narcissistic boss negs and skimps on employees, so I damage his ego with some a-hole tax.

Let's call my asshole boss Eugene, since his stinginess reminds me of Eugene Krabs from SpongeBob Squarepants, except Krabs is nowhere near malicious. In order to display the full satisfaction of this revenge, I will have to describe a few (but not limited) things Eugene did that entitles him to being a complete jackass.

For the context, Eugene owns a small company that provides artistic services of some sort and never hired full-timers (which I later learnt that it was due to his stinginess). Initially, when I saw the open part-time position, I thought it was ideal for me as I had external commitments, and needed some sort of income. The job offers about 550USD per month (I don’t live in the US, this is a rough conversion), but only required me to clock in about 90 hours a month. It wasn’t a very good offer, but good enough for me as I considered myself to be inexperienced in field. Note that Eugene had seen my portfolio and knew my ability level before hiring me.

The first couple of months was fine, I worked the hours I was supposed to and got paid accordingly, occasionally extending my shift at my own time due to the nature of the work, but I didn’t mind. I guess Eugene saw this as an advantage he could exploit later on during my employment. It is also important to note that Eugene would often ask about my well-being, how did I spent my weekends etc. At this point in time, it all seemed like courtesy talk so I didn’t pay much attention to it. He would ask about my previous employment and my reason for leaving, which I answered honestly that their work system was unsuitable for me. This will be important later.

Eugene gradually began to grow more impatient towards me, often blaming me for not being able to match up to his ability. Remember when I was inexperienced thus the payrate? Eugene had over a decade of experience in this expertise and he expected me to be at his level when I was only 3 months in. The stress was intense and I began working longer hours just to keep up and produce work at the best quality I could. I was under the belief that if I worked hard enough, my effort will speak. Even though this was only a part-time position, I overcommitted my time there and took pride in my work. My external commitments were barely scraping by. I was exhausted, but thought I was doing a good job until Eugene “spoke” to me one day.

Eugene pulled me into his office and lectured me on my work etiquette, saying that I wasn’t putting enough effort he was considering letting me go. At this point, I was beyond confused. Did he really not see the effort I put in? Was I delusional in thinking that I was actually doing well and my work had been improving? I tried speaking up but he quickly diverted the topic, telling me he knew the reason why my previous employer hated me. It was because I was lazy and fussy with my job. To say I was in disbelief was an understatement. Not only did I believe I did my best with every task handled to me, Eugene had registered my flaws during casual conversations and twisted my words to his advantage. I had no idea how to react and simply ask him what expected of me. He instantly replied that he would like me to double my hours working for him, at the same monthly payrate. His reasons? It’s my fault that I am not experienced enough to produce quality work, thus it should be under my own responsibility and time to make up for it. My external commitments didn’t matter, he said, as this job was my only source of income and should be kept as priority. It finally dawned to me that Eugene was a narcissistic sociopath who was only held conversations so that he could learn a person’s weaknesses for his manipulation.

Now, if you read my title, you will see that Eugene was not only a narc but also stingy af. Eugene is obsessed with maximising his profits. Any business owner would love that, I agree, but Eugene is down to every cent in immoral and even possibly, illegal ways. He would sell a service to a client, and upon receiving the deposit, deliver something else. He was smart enough to keep his contracts vague (for both clients AND employees) so that nobody could not take legal actions against him. More than often, his clients would be left to wits’ end as it would be too late and expensive to engage another vendor by the time they realised they had been scammed. Eugene would then demanded another set of payment to deliver what he had originally promised, overcharging the client an average of 100% to 200% more that what was agreed. Eventually realising that they’d been played, most people would be too exhausted to pursue further action and prayed for the project to be over so they didn’t have to deal with his antics anymore. This inaction probably fed Eugene’s ego that he could get away playing dirty every time. There are many more things I would like to rant about Eugene, but this is prorevenge sub, not recruitinghell so most of you would like to get to the good stuff soon.

So in my country, employers are required to pay a certain amount of tax for every local employee they hire. While it is not exactly tax, it is obligated by law and negligence will result in a hefty fine and possibly jail time. These “taxes” are technically contributions for the employee’s retirement funds, which is payable by every employer. Employer can deduct a certain percentage of the contributions from the employee’s wages. This law has its own complications since there are a certain group of people exempted from it, such as students or interns. Now, Eugene is the classic example of narc who thinks that he is smarter than everyone else. He felt that he was smart enough to evade the law by drafting a contract with vague details to protect himself, and was deluded enough to believe that everyone would believe him as long as he sounded convincing. In other words, he thought of people as sacks of potatoes with no opinion of their own. If anyone was to have a perspective, it had to be his way or the wrong way.

I stayed in Eugene’s company for about 4 months, before I felt too mentally overwhelmed. On the day that I left, I called in to check on my Contribution account and just as I had expected, Eugene hadn’t paid a single cent over the past 4 months. The officer on the other end of the line asked if I would like to report this as a case, guess my answer.

A week later, I received an update from the Contribution Board, saying that Eugene had disputed my case, claiming that I was only an intern and thus, exempted from the law. This jerk was playing dirty as a last attempt to steal from me. As I had mentioned, Eugene thought of himself as a smart man, and probably felt that the officer would rule the case in his favor since he had world-class convincing skills and his vague “contract” would have protected him either way. Fine, Eugene. So you think you can get away just like any other time. You must have gotten pretty confident by now. Well, not this time, Eugene. I wrote a 2 pages long email to the Contribution Board Officer, with every reason and evidence I can find on how am I not an intern, like Eugene claimed. Knowing his antics, I went the extra mile to research all the exempted group and wrote every possible reason on how am I NOT in the category. Excessive? Yes. Worth it? HELL YES.

I didn’t hear from the Officer for 2 weeks and when I finally did, he informed me that Eugene had agreed to pay my contributions. Remember when I said employers are permitted to deduct a certain percentage from employee’s wages? Due to his negligence, Eugene could no longer do that and had to pay the full amount, on top of the fines that incurred along with it. If he had dutifully abide by the law, it would had only costed him a third of what he had to pay. So that’s a bit of asshole tax for you, Eugene. Now that I’ve gotten back what I was owed, I have decided to move on, but the story did not end there.

A ex-colleague of mine, NJ, who is still working for Eugene told me that during the 2 weeks I didn’t hear from the Officer, Eugene was busy fighting for his stand by giving every reason that I an exempted individual. The officer, having seen my email, soon got tired of his nonsense and gave him a deadline to pay up or he’ll be brought to court. NJ said he had never seen Eugene so defeated before. To top it off, it seemed like karma had finally caught up to him as he started losing more and more clients due to his unethical practices. The fine came to him when he had no clients that month so it was a very obvious dent in his bank account. Ultimately, it was not a huge amount, but knowing Eugene’s stinginess and ego, I think the damage was enough to qualify for this sub.

(source) story by (/u/anonymous_bun)

[ckret2]

I'm probably a little bit late for the hype, but for your radiosnake fic, was sir pentious being behind on current technology because he was just really heartbroken or bc he was somehow cursed? Sorry, sometimes i'm bad at understanding, so i wasn't sure if the karma bit meant that there really was some kind of supernatural intervention or not

It is never, ever too late to talk to me about one of my fics! People talk to me about stuff I was writing over a decade ago and I love it, you're good.

It's neither one, actually. He isn't too heartbroken to keep up, and he isn't cursed. He just lost so many resources that he can't keep up with new technological developments any more.

Long explanation below the cut!!

... god I think tumblr just, fucking deleted the cut. If there isn't a cut below this line I APOLOGIZE I tried to edit it back in, tumblr sucks.

Like, say in '64 someone comes into hell with knowledge of how to make a new weapon that's gonna change the game. Sir P's got a web of like a hundred informants who know they're gonna be rewarded when he has power, so he finds out about the weapon in three days and can snatch up the soul that knows how to make it in under a week. He's got a dozen mines from which he can extract the raw materials needed to make the weapon, so that takes a week; dozens of engineers working under him to figure out how to replicate the weapon based on the newly dead dude's half-remembered math, so that takes a week; and Sir Pent himself, the mastermind of this operation, has no more pressing needs to attend to--his airships are defending his turf without any need to call him in for help, he doesn't have to worry about collecting supplies because they have control of all the materials they need, nothing's disrupting their supply train in the sky, etc--so he can turn his whole attention to improving on this weapon, and he's done so in a week. So only a month has passed between this weapon entering hell and Sir Pent becoming not only the only person that has it, but the only person with the next generation version of it.

Compare: a new weapon enters hell in '76. After getting his ass stomped by the Radio Demon a decade ago, Sir P's lost most of his allies because they no longer have faith he can conquer hell (and even if they do, they don't want to risk getting on the Radio Demon's bad side—they don't know why he attacked Sir P, how do they know he won't attack his allies?) so he's got like, five informants. It takes him a month to find out about this weapon. If another overlord finds out about the weapon first and snatched up the weapon-maker, then Sir P has lost all opportunity to replicate it until the other overlord has made and started using it and he can get his hands on a copy to reverse-engineer, by which point this weapon's probably already on the way to being obsolete.

But say he DOES somehow get to this soul before anyone else: he's got like, maybe one or two mines under his control, so it takes a lot longer to extract the necessary raw materials, and that's assuming those mines have the materials this weapon needs. He might need to attack other factories or warehouses to steal the supplies he needs—and these factories & warehouses are probably being guarded by people armed with weapons he hasn't had a chance to replicate because a different overlord snatched up the weapon-maker before he ever heard about them, so they might overpower him, might even take out one of his airships. But say his raids succeed; they could take a couple of months, between planning and carefully executing the needed attacks.

It could take a couple more months for his heavily reduced number of engineers to figure out how to replicate the weapon, especially if it's outside their fields of expertise and he needs to find and recruit someone new to help—and what if he can't recruit anyone, because Sir P is no longer a top overlord that people will want to work for?

Meanwhile, Sir P is busy viciously defending his now very small turf with only a couple of airships at his disposal, AND he's got to plan and lead the raids for supplies, AND he's got to find and recruit new followers, AND he's got to organize repairs and do damage control if another overlord takes an airship out... so it might take him ANOTHER month to get around to looking at the designs himself and seeing if he can improve them. And maybe he's so stressed and overworked and tired he can't think of a way to improve the weapon.

So six months have passed and they have a rushed weapon that they might have had to make with shoddy stolen materials... and in that time, maybe someone with a weapon designed to overpower this one has died, and Vox has already snatched them up and made that weapon in a month, and so Sir P's new weapon is worthless before he uses it. Now he's six months behind.

Except he's not JUST six months behind. All his airships—which are his main bases, his main weapons, his main defenses, and his main transportation all in one—got blown up in '66, so he probably spent all of '66 and probably the next few years airshipless while he tried to rebuild them. Except while he tried to rebuild them, other overlords were stealing his turf because he had no airships to defend it—if he hears a facility of his is being attacked fifty miles away, he's powerless to go defend it. He's got no airships he can send to fight off the attackers. He's got no choice but to lose it. And that happened over and over, and he lost the very facilities he needed to rebuild his airships. So now it's gonna take twice as long to build half as many airships. And during all those YEARS he's trying to rebuild his airships, he's NOT going to be able to expend resources on keeping up with the latest weapons tech.

So in '76, he's not actually struggling to snatch up the newest weapon maker; in '76, he's finally built five airships, and they're all running on '66 technology. How is he going to even BEGIN replicating '76 technology if he completely missed out on learning about the '70 technology it's based on? By the time he's learned about '70 technology and is ready to face '76 technology, it's now '78.

Oh except another overlord who knows he's currently weak and fears what a threat he'll pose when he's strong again goes and crushes all his airships and now he falls behind five years again as he rebuilds AGAIN. And at this point Sir Pent is getting desperate, so he starts making stupid rushed mistakes in a scramble to gain some ground. (Stupid rushed mistakes like charging into Cherri Bomb's turf right after an extermination, or stupid rushed mistakes like aiming a giant cannon at Alastor just because he happens to be there.) And those stupid mistakes lose him more airships and set him back AGAIN.

It's an endless cycle. He lacks the resources to catch up with the latest developments; without the latest developments, he can't get the resources he needs.

History lesson! The fact that Sir Pent was a top overlord for so long was part luck and part momentum. When he died in 1888, he was THE first supervillain. In life he had no peers, and in death he had no peers. He was THE ONLY ONE who knew how to make the weapons of mass destruction he made. He was the ONLY human soul that could make a machine that could slaughter hundreds. The only ones stronger than him were fallen angels and proper demons (not souls who had died, but entities like Lucifer or Stolas) who had proper borderline-godly powers.

In 1933, the Radio Demon took out the power of a vast majority of those proper demons, and that's what buoyed Sir Pent up to being in a position where he could start conquering hell properly. Again, in '33, he was THE ONLY human soul who could do that. (Except, perhaps, Alastor himself, but he has no interest in claiming turf.) Other human souls began gaining power the way he had—both in the living world and in hell, there were people specifically following his example as a supervillain—but he was doing it first, and he was doing it with a lifetime (and afterlifetime) of experience. By the 60s, there were other human overlords around who'd gained some experience and were now just as good at him... but they didn't have his resources. He had a head start on them of decades. So all of them were the ones taking six months to make a weapon because he held all the supplies and personnel they needed to make the weapons. That's the primary reason he was ahead of them. Yeah, he's brilliant... but his overlord opponents are all brilliant too in different ways. The difference was, he's brilliant AND he had ten factories already.

(And it's worth remembering that he also had the Radio Demon, who's basically a walking tornado, on his side for fifteen years; so every once in a while one of Sir Pent's enemies would just have an entire facility mutilated by this dude. Not only is that a powerful weapon to be wielding, but who's gonna wanna go work for one of the guys that might be targeted by the Radio Demon?)

So! That's why Sir Pent fell behind and stayed behind. No heartbreak, and no curse. Just mathematics. Just resources. He stayed ahead because he came into hell with more resources than anyone else and stayed behind after Alastor reduced him to less resources than everyone else.

As for the "karma" section in the fic—not one single word of that scene reflects what's happening in hell in the slightest. Every single word of that scene reflects what's happening in Alastor's head. Fifty years after screwing over Sir P, he feels so miserable that he feels like he's being specifically punished. After seeing how massive and unintended the consequences of his actions are, he feels like he must be some kind of walking curse designed to torture Sir Pent.

On the one hand, seeing everything that's happened to himself and Sir P in the last fifty years and describing it as "karmic punishment/our assigned tortures in hell" is a reflection of how cataclysmically sublimely unhappy they both are. He's like, I'm so damn miserable it's GOTTA be divine punishment because nothing else could be this awful. On the other hand, it lets Alastor push some of the blame off of himself (because this REALLY IS all his fault!) and onto fate instead, like, oh, I couldn't have avoided this, it's our divine punishment. And if it's divine punishment, then there's nothing he can do to change it, is there? There's no point in trying. There's no need for him to say "I'm sorry" and try to make up for his mistakes. Because they aren't really his mistakes. He's just acting out some sort of karmic role. Right?

(And remember that a chapter earlier he was waxing poetic about how hell's not actually a bad place, really, he and Sir Pent deserve to be in hell together because it's the place they'll be happiest. :) :) :) Like, that's a direct contradiction to his "karma" theory. In both cases, neither scene is saying true things about the nature of hell—it's just Alastor's speculation based on how he currently feels.)

The logic fueling his "Sir Pent and I are each other's assigned punishments and there's nothing I can do about that but grin and bear it" is the same logic fueling his "dead sinners can't be redeemed, they had their chance in life and wasted it, now they're in hell forever" to Charlie in the pilot. The message behind both is the same: we can't and shouldn't be forgiven for our past mistakes; why bother trying to make up for them?

[alo-piss-trancy]

What would be some Grell omorashi headcanons?

Quick Note: I tend to use she/her for Gr/ell and hc her as a tra/ns wo/man, but I also understand between canon sources, non-canon char interviews, author intentions, dif cultural views, The time period the canon takes place in vs. The year the media was published vs. Our current time now changing views/terms, it's ALL a giant clustertruck question mark blob. So feel free to hc Gre/ll differently, be that a very feminine ga/y man or b/i or nonb/inary or whatever, I genuinely don't mind how anyone hcs characters and fan content does not affect my enjoyment of canon in any way. I'm never gonna pick fights and claim somebody's playing with their imaginary Barbie wrong lmao, kindergarteners know better than that

Now to the actual ask:

ANON I LOVE YOU!!! Gr/ell is one of my fav chars EVER but I never get to talk about her hhhhh ❤❤❤

I've had 8 dang years to think about this so enjoy a varied selection 😼 I'm sorry in advance bc half of these are very lemony oops

General:

* Reapers have stronger bladders than humans (in terms of capacity/general strength), but they're still much weaker than a demon's (goes for all bodily functions tbh. Demons don't really have any, the only reason they would need to go is if they chose to partake in occasional food/drink, and could easily hold it for weeks or even months at a time). A reaper can probably hang in there with a full bladder for a day or two if very determined, less if they've had any strong diuretics/alcohol (I imagine the humans' stuff is p weak tho and barely gets them buzzed).

* Gr/ell's bladder is stronger than a newbie like Ro/nald's, but weaker than someone like W/ill's. Mostly bc she's frequently drinking unhealthy stuff and has no problem up and ditching to pee as soon as she's tired of waiting.

* Not bladdershy in the slightest, and not dysp/horic either. (While she wants a womb/too look more womanly, she also seems fairly content with her body and even takes pride in it in several scenes.) The only time I could see her getting nervous/locking up is if she had a really bad day or felt extra self-conscious, and it wouldn't be a very severe condition.

* She doesn't like going in weird/gross places because she is a Beautiful Lady With Standards, thank you very much. If she has absolutely no choice she'll suck it up and pee in an alley like the commoner humans, but she will complain about it for the next few years at every opportunity.

* That being said she's also a huge hypocrite, and if the situation was reversed would immediately snap at someone like W/ill or Ro/nald to just go in the alley already instead of failing to hide their desperation on the job. You bunch of damn babies, grow a pair.

* If she needs to be serious/doesn't want ppl to know, she can hide desperation fairly well (a little clumsy/flushed and sweaty, but that could be mistaken as her normal goofy behavior), masking how bad it really is until she's a minute from wetting herself.

* If she doesn't care and wants to complain though, she's obvious af. Whines and gripes the whole time, full-blown potty dance to garner sympathy, legs crossed and bouncing, everything. By the time she gets to the suspiciously e/rotic moans ppl usually hurry to find her a bathroom/yell at her to leave lol

* There have definitely been times when Gre/ll used going to the bathroom as an excuse to ditch work for a LONG time or took many frequent smaller breaks to do her nails/read magazines/flirt with Seb, etc. Needless to say, this backfires terribly the one time she actually does have to go because W/illiam definitely isn't putting up with her bs no matter how much she begs or squirms. He's even madder at her when he realizes he'll have to clean the floor. If she wasn't so mad/embarrassed herself, she'd have taken joy in his karma and gladly told him to suck her d/ick.

* That's def not the first time W/ill's seen her desperate or piss herself. As young stud reapers in training I guarantee G/rell got shitfaced at company parties on more than one occasion (or just went out drinking the night before work on a weekday lol). Frequently showed up for field work having to pee every other hour and driving him nuts c':

* She and Ma/dame Red definitely fooled around a couple of times (she's the only woman Gr/ell's ever been attracted to) . Maybe Gr/ell already had the kink and brought it up, or maybe Red saw Gr/ell squirming and asked (insisted) she let her watch until she lost control, but either way things got dirty real quick lmao. Red slapped a demon's ass in the same room as her nephew, she's dom AF (and inappropriate lmao). G/rell's a giant masochist/sadist combo. Do the math 👀👌💯

* I personally love the concept of her ending up desperate after inviting herself along and crashing one of C/iel and Seb/astian's missions and just being miserable the whole time trying to hide it. Because she def can't embarrass herself in front of B/assy, but even worse she will NOT prove she has to take a potty break before some human kid. Naturally, C/iel being the complete brat and posessive bitch he is, immediately picks up on her predicament and torments her the whole time/makes a fool of her without letting Seb know the real issue. She can't lay a finger on him because she'd be Dead and she can't whine for B/assy to get him to stop bc that would mean explaining her problem so it just keeps escalating in comedic fashion. (This isn't even an omo hc really sorry lol, I just love any plot with those two bickering like petty babies as rivals for Seb's attention, even better if Ci/el consistently pulls one over on her and is the more mature one. You killed my aunt and then tried to steal my butler, Get Rekt Bitch )

* In any aus where she isn't hooking up with Red or trying to get Seb, I ship her hard with Un/dertaker (they're my otp actually don't judge me). In those he's actually the one with a massive piss kink and she's weirded tf out at first, but I mean if ur bf already eats dog biscuits and sleeps in a coffin u can probs learn to live with it. She indulges him periodically and he spoils her rotten afterwards. (I actually had several fic ideas for those two back in the day. One day maybe I'll finally get around to it).

* No matter what she draws a hard line at drinking it. No thank you. Golden showers are a maybe but they better have some gr8 shampoo to scrub her luxurious hair with afterwards.

* Wetting herself in that too small choir outfit from s1 that basically made short shorts and a crop top? P l e a s e

Dom G/rell:

* Has totally tried to pin Seb down/trap him somewhere and use his increasing desperation as leverage to get what she wants since he's too proper to wet himself. It probably doesn't work bc he's crafty and also could just throw her across the room, but u know. Points for trying.

* When someone lets her dom them willingly she's an absolutely sadistic fiend. W/ill completely torment them until they're begging and broken, and they have to pleasure her first before she'll show any mercy and allow them to let go. That said, she's got an almost sweet tone to anything she says and is very affectionate the whole time. It's a dichotomy that leaves any subs an absolute wreck. Her absolute fav part is watching ppl squirm and start to leak, it's cute.

* She also likes doing the whole fake sympathy play, where everything nice she says makes it 20x worse for the sub. Poor babies ❤

* Making out so they can't say anything no matter how desperate they are, just writhing underneath her with their whimpers muffled in her mouth? Perfection.

* Slowly pressing her boot into someone's abdomen is her signature move.

Sub Gr/ell:

* Loves the whole humiliation aspect and being all squirmy and nervous in front of (S/EBASTIAN) people, struggling to hide her problems and act casual but knowing her face is flushed red.

* When it gets really bad she gets super whiny and submissive, whimpering and moaning and really playing up the vulnerable aspect. Look how pitiful she is, it would be oh so easy for them to have their way with her~ (and then she bats her eyelashes and they just glare ajdkgk stop fucking around G/rell this is a Serious Scene we talked about this before we started)

* Sometimes she does public holds or gets desperate before a mission/visit just so she can see how long she can get away with it before she has to cave/people get suspicious. It's k/inky, exh/ibitionist, and oh so delicious~

* Lives for (S/EBASTIAN) the dom to get mad and disappointed in her, verbally berating her for not being more composed and embarrassing them in public, manhandling her as she's dragged somewhere more secluded to get ahold of herself, being teased and poked and prodded all while they're sneering in her ear. She wants to feel like the dirtiest, most ashamed and nervous person alive for such a simple need, knowing it's going to come out eventually no matter how hard she tries to be Good, having to beg and plead with teary eyes only to be denied access to the bathroom and told to suck it up and hold it.

* She really liked her original disguise/persona from the Ma/dame Red Days for this exact reason. Could be as shy and stuttery as possible and really play it up, got bossed around/teased by everyone, it was great. Totally got desperate once or twice so 'he' could beg Seb/astian to use the manor bathroom and get pitied. If he 'tripped' and just so happened to lose control and start crying, well, that couldn't be helped...

[sansloii-a]

coughs so am I allowed to request all of the “salty af munday meme” answers or—

oh my fucking god || @imbruedinfear​

strap in y’all ‘cause someone wants to hear me complain

What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you?

if you post excessive ooc in quick sucession, i will unfollow you faster than the speed of light. i’ve done it in the past. i will not hesitate to do it in the future. i don’t care if it’s tagged. if i’m on and i see it, you’re gone, my friend.

What’s the WORST thing that has happened to you rp wise?

uuuuuuuuuuhhhhh there was this one dude that legit tried to monopolize one of my old muses on another blog, got upset when i set a main ship for said muse, complained to me nonstop, was trying to use me to get back into rping with my friend group ( which he called “the popular group” for a reason I don’t understand to this day ), only wanted to ship, got pissy over a fucking pokemon au ( if you ever wanna hear about this, lemme know ), tried to insert a ship into every au we made automatically, tried to tell me how to write smut for no reason ( said he would read it and give me tips and everything ffs ), was an asshole to my sister ( who rped way back when but doesn’t anymore ), made several friends of mine uncomfortable to the point of leaving the rp scene for a bit, blamed other people for issues that he honestly had a part in causing, and a bunch of other things that i’m forgetting right now.

i figure that’s the worst because nothing has topped that. nothing. that happened years ago, though, so i’m good now. no one fucks with me like that anymore.

What was a mildly annoying thing that has happened to you rp wise?

i got about 10 asks from someone when i wanted to do other shit ( my asks that are in the double digits ) ‘cause they wanted me to send them an ask. annoyed me to hell and back and i promptly deleted those asks

 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  tough shit. i was not in the mood for games and i’m still not.

 Has anyone ever tried to steal your blog? Your headcanons? Icons? All that jazz?

not that i know of??? i hope not ‘cause i worked real hard on all this and if you steal anything from me, i’m gonna throw a huge-ass heaping of karma your way.

 How many people don’t like you?

i dunno. i’d say none but i know not everyone is going to like me so if you’re out there and you don’t like me, you’re entitled to that. don’t tell me, though, ‘cause i don’t wanna know if you don’t like me.

How many people do you not like?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i don’t really care enough to actively not like anyone. you can annoy me but unless you piss me off and continue to piss me off, you get stuck on the “do not care” list. 

Have you managed to stay away from drama?

i give advice when needed on how to avoid whoever my convo partner is talking about and i avoid getting involved. unless it’s like… a close friend or involves a close friend, i refuse to get in the middle of whatever issue people have. i’m not about to have my ass dragged into problems that do not concern me.

i don’t cause drama either so that’s also how i stay away from it. 100% guaranteed to keep you out of drama.

Have you ever been in the middle of drama?

personal/friend drama? yes. rp drama? see above.

none of that was fun btw. it was a lot of me getting angry, being frustrated with certain behaviors, having to cut people out for doing shit/saying shit that they knew they shouldn’t have and refusing to recognize that they have fucked up and use that to change their behavior, etc. it’s draining and not fun and i’m pretty sure it shaved years off my life but y’know, it is what it is. the most i can do about it is look out for myself and keep out of relationships that will put me in those situations again.

Have you ever tried to bring peace to a situation?

no because i used to be friends with people that weren’t straightforward with shit and made excuses instead of changing their behavior. i don’t wanna go into it ‘cause and i can’t remember all the details but boy, peace was hard to come by and it didn’t last long. i wasn’t going to try to bring peace if people didn’t really seem to want it and level with each other.

How long do you stay mad?

depends on what you do, tbh, but it’s a couple hours at least. a couple days at most.

What’s your rp pet peeve? ( i have a lot of these )

playing “find the links” on someone’s blog. if i can’t find your links, i’ll try “/rules”, “/r.”, “/g.” and whatever else i can think of to get your rules and a couple more things to get your muse’s about. however, i shouldn’t have to and it takes little effort to make it so that your links are easily distinguishable from the background. if i don’t find them, i don’t find them. and i don’t follow/follow back

Have you ever forgiven a partner when you shouldn’t have?

nope. not now, not ever.

 Have you ever been forgiven when you knew you shouldn’t have been?

i’ve never been in a situation where i’ve had to be forgiven for stuff i’ve done so no.

What fads/trends are you so over?

the first thing i thought of was the fucking double ampersands thing that was everywhere at some point. those annoyed me so much and i’m so glad they’re gone. super small text needs to die too. i may not wear glasses but i sure as shit ain’t straining my eyes to see what you’ve written in 3px font. 

honestly, a lot of the excessive aesthetic shit that sacrifices accessibility for #aesthetic

Have you ever rp’d with someone you knew for a fact was abusive but tried to give them a chance/to make up your own opinion on the roleplayer? Did they change or did you understand what people were talking about?

nope, nope. nu-uh. if i knew for a fact that this person was abusive in that moment, i wouldn’t touch them with a ten foot pole. absolutely fucking not. 

Have you ever made a public call out post?

-loud snort- hell no.

What has made you completely lose your chill?

honestly? look at my worst experience and that about sums up shit that has made me lose my chill. you really gotta push my fucking buttons to make me mad ‘cause i’m usually pretty laid back.

What do you think about public call out posts?

answered here

A fandom that you feel isn't open and accepting? 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i dunno. i’ve only been in one before and that was f.ire e.mblem

 A fandom that you feel is open and accepting?

imma be real honest with y’all--the only fandom i’ve been in that i will acknowledge is f.ire e.mblem and i had a pretty sweet time there. i had some ups and downs but it was an overall good experience for me. it was pretty open and inviting in my opinion but i tended to stay away from the douchebags in the fandom ‘cause i just wanted to have a good time there.

Thoughts on duplicates following you?

 if i have duplicates of my oc following me, i’ll have a whole fucking cow 

Do you agree with reblog karma or is it forced interaction?

i don’t think it’s forced interaction most of the time ( with sentence starters, symbol memes, memes that take literally zero fucking effort to send in ) ‘cause... everyone likes getting stuff, y’know. if you wanna reblog it from someone, just take a moment to send something in if the interaction is feasible. that’s the key thing here. if it’s feasible, then i don’t see the issue with sending something in before you reblog it from someone ( especially if you’re mutuals ). if it isn’t and you just wanna reblog it, reblog it from the source. it’s not that serious.

if someone nitpicks you for rebloging the same meme they did but you reblogged it from the source, i wouldn’t feel too bad. you know what’s best for your muses and if you don’t feel like the meme is cohesive for interactions, then that’s your prerogative and the 

Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you?

answered here

Has someone been jealous of you?

i’ve only been told that someone was jealous of me once and it was a long time ago. i have never heard that from anyone again ( not that i remember, at least )

Have you ever been jealous of anyone?

mhm! but it usually comes when i’m feeling super down about my blog and doubting my ocs ( which isn’t often ). when i do get jealous, it’s over interactions and the like and my big dumb galactic brain is like “wow, don’t you wish you had those interactions? don’t you wish you were rping with those people?” and makes me feel bad about the interactions i have, the speed at which i reply, my ocs, how many people are interesting in my ocs, etc. however, this shit doesn’t last long ‘cause i have a bunch of wonderful people that motivate me to get out of that funk and just... focus on what i have instead of what i’m seeing on my dash. i remind myself that i’m here to have fun and i shouldn’t try to match my experience to others’

How has Tumblr RP changed since you started?

more formatting, smaller icons, more focus on having a fancy ass theme, more formatting, more callout posts, less communication in some regard, more reminders for communication.more psa posts, more formatting--

honestly, i’ve been on tumblr since 2012 and most of it is a blur lmao. i probably don’t remember everything ‘cause i was.... 15 when i started rping on here. i’m 22 now. i’m sure a lot has changed in seven years but i definitely haven’t seen it all.

Thoughts on the fandom you're currently rping in?

i’m currently a fandomless blog and boy, is it a lot more fun XD i have a lot more creative liberty and i can shape the world my muses live in to my liking, as opposed to following or just adding onto what the fandom universe already is. it’s a lot of work and it takes a ton of time but it’s fun and i’m enjoying every second of it! 

How salty are you feeling right now?

answered here but i’ll just say it again: not salty. just tired and rambly because holy shit this took a while

[lasersheith]

Lasersheith’s Fic Masterlist

Thanks so much to everyone who reads/likes/comments on/shares my stuff, it means the world to me!

Finished works

AU:

Take It If You Want It | Complete | Ch.13/13 | 57k | M

Tags: Modern AU, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, fluff, light angst with a happy ending, pining, irresponsible use of alcohol, side pairing: Mattor, side pairing: Allurance, side pairing: Hidge

Written for Sheith Big Bang 2018!

Keith and Hunk make New Year’s Resolutions to finally tell their respective crushes how they’ve felt for years. Hunk takes all of 3 minutes, but Keith needs… a little longer.

Birthday mishaps, misunderstandings, self discovery, exciting new job opportunities, minor blackmail… a lot can happen in a year. Surely the perfect moment for a years-overdue love confession fits in there somewhere?

Serendipity’s Wings | Complete | Ch.7/7 | 24k | E

Tags: Modern AU, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, bedsharing, fluff, hurt/comfort, pining Shiro, sidepairing: Allura/Kuro, Shirogane twins

When Shiro receives bad news about his grandfather, he immediately books a flight for Japan. Luckily for him, he finds a familiar face in the pilot. It's been a long time since he saw his childhood friend Keith, but they pick up where they left off almost immediately.

Unluckily, his twin brother has decided to jump to conclusions, and now his family thinks he and Keith have rekindled a flame that was never there. Rather than disappoint them in a tense moment, Keith gamely agrees to play along. What are friends for, after all?

Oh Brother | Complete | Ch. 6/6 | 17k | T

Tags: Modern AU, fluff, humor, salt, sidepairing Matt/Allura, one-sided kl

What do you do when your boyfriend is in the hospital and they only let in immediate family? Lie and say you’re married? Not if you’re Keith, you don’t. Thanks to Keith’s inner turmoil, he and Shiro are stuck pretending to be brothers while he recovers. But Keith has to admit, “Mr. Shirogane” has a nice ring to it. 

The Gravitas of a Mattress | Complete | Ch. 7/7 | 16k | M

Tags: College AU, fluff, humor, oh my god they’re banging each other’s roommates, sidepairing Latte

From the prompt: My roommate got it on with yours yesterday and I don’t think I can face them for a while after hearing the sounds they made last night. Mind if I stayed with you for a while?

Keith gets sexiled from his dorm room because Matt and Lance won't stop hate-fucking. He decides that it's only fair that he gets to crash in Matt's room if Matt gets to keep him out of his own. Shiro is confused but accommodating. Very accommodating.

Matt and Lance have their own fun side adventure in learning to like each other and play nice. Pidge doesn't like it. Allura might.

Flowers don’t always mean “I love you” | Complete | Ch. 8/8 | 14k | T

Tags: Flowershop AU, Slow Burn, pining Shiro, PTSD, fluff, humor

Takashi Shirogane had fulfilled his dream of becoming a test pilot, but after a terrible accident that left him without an arm and in sudden need of a new career, he moves back home and starts working at a family friend’s flower shop while he focuses on recovering and finding a new direction for his life.

Things are going as well as can be expected until an attractive stranger shows up out of the blue, and keeps coming back. Who's this guy buying all these flowers for?

DDY 1138 | Complete | Ch. 3/3 | 7.2k | T | My favorite thing I’ve ever written

Tags: Modern AU, fluff, humor, meet ugly, disaster gay Shiro, smooth Keith

alternate title: Have you ever seen a man so beautiful you crashed your car?

Shiro learns that it's possible for the best day of your life to coincide with the worst day of your life in the dumbest way possible. He gets into a fender bender due to some distracted driving, and his cute mechanic doesn't make things any easier... until he does.

Hat Trick | Complete | Ch. 2/2 | 6.5k | E

Tags: Modern AU, Frat AU, Frat boy Shiro, Frat boy Keith, light angst with a happy ending, humor, crack played straight

No one has ever seen Takashi Shirogane without a hat on his head, or so the legends say.

...

“I tell you what,” Matt said after Keith told him he'd figure out Shiro's secret, the real secret. “If you find out the true story behind Shiro's hat before your initiation ceremony, I will personally pay your dues until you graduate.”

Keith's eyes glinted as he took another long swing from his beer. The steep price of brotherhood had been one of the few reasons he'd been wary about pledging. “What if I don't?” He asked suspiciously. It hadn't taken long to work out that Matt was an agent of chaos. No matter how confident he was in himself, he had to make sure it was worth the risk.

Matt smirked. “You have to wear a Santa hat to the Christmas party.”

Keith furrowed his brows. The punishment didn't add up with Matt’s smug look. His face paled as the realization dawned on him. “Just the hat?”

Matt's smirk shifted into an impish grin. “I knew you were a smart one.” He said with a wink, sticking out his hand. “Do we have a bet, then?”

Never one to back down from a challenge, Keith took Matt's hand and pumped it twice with determination. “You're on.”

Hey Sugar | Complete | Ch. 4/4 | 5k | G | I’m gonna rewrite this one soon rip

Tags: College AU, fluff, humor, pining Shiro, disaster gay Shiro

Autocorrect can be a beautiful thing. It can also be a Very Bad Thing. Keith accidentally sends a text with an embarrassing autocorrect to the hot guy he's been crushing on all semester.

Check Yes Juliet | Complete | Ch. 2/2 | 2.8k | T

Tags: College AU, fluff, humor, mistaken identity, Shirogane twins

Who knew a little Shakespeare knowledge could get you a midnight kiss from the hottest guy at the New Years party? However, young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes... Just ask Keith.

Melt | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 1.4k | G

Tags: AU modern setting or Post-canon, domestic fluff, established relationship

It's way too hot outside, and the AC is busted. Short and sweet domestic fluff featuring Spot the fluffy wonder and a trip to the store for some much needed ice cream.

Canon-Verse:

The way you looked at me | Complete | 17k | M

Tags: Amnesia, crack played straight, one sided fake dating, shiro is a mess, humor, fluff

Keith wakes up in the hospital and he's not sure of much, except that he and Shiro are definitely together. Shiro doesn't have the heart to correct him- much to their friends' amusement.

It’s not you, it’s me (also it’s you) | Complete | Ch. 3/3 | 7.5k | T

Tags: Canon-verse, pre-kerberos mission, humor, miscommunication, disaster gay Shiro, Matt is a Bad Friend

Keith catches Shiro doodling hearts in his notebook. When asked who the hearts are for, he blurts out Matt's name so he won't have to confess his feelings for Keith. Now Keith has made it his mission to help Shiro woo Matt at all costs. Matt is very unhelpful.

The Sweetest Apology | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 2.3k | Gen

Tags: College AU, fluff, humor

Everyone hates those tiny little desks every college feels the need to cram into huge lecture halls- they're way too small and there's never enough of the left handed ones. Keith thinks he scored big time getting the only left handed desk in his new class, but didn't realize he'd be stealing it from a classmate who's missing his right arm... How do you even apologize for that?

Not the right time | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 2.3k | T

Tags: Canon-verse, angst

fic request: Sheith and "It is always not the right time for us, isn't it?"

They've had so many chances to tell each other how they feel, but for Shiro and Keith it just never seems to be the right time.

Ringing in my ears and one on my finger | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 1.5k | T

Tags: soulmates, shiro is trying, fluff, humor

Canonverse soulmate AU: Colleen notices a soulmark on Shiro's finger... 

Head over heels | Complete | Ch. 1/1| 1.5k | G

Tags: Canon-verse, established relationship, fluff, humor

Keith's lost an entire Saturday to detention because Iverson is jerk. What better way to get revenge than a practical joke?

from the prompt "Shiro getting caught up in Keith pranking Iverson"

With a little help from my friends | Complete | Ch.1/1 | 1.4k | G

Tags: Canon-verse, pre-relationship, everyone loves Shiro, thirsty Keith

A malfunction in the engine room has left the castle a sweltering nightmare. Hunk has deemed it time for a team underwear party, but Shiro's nervous about his scars. His friends help him feel a little better.

p=mv | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 1.4k | T

Tags: Canon-verse, humor, meet ugly

The story of how Keith and Shiro met at the Garrison.

Or, the first time Keith saved Shiro.

Or, how a concussion led Shiro to the love of his life.

Or maybe it was all 3.

Love, Shiro | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 1.3k | G

Tags: Canon-verse, fluff, established relationship, humor, kerberos mission

Shiro and Keith decide to write each other letters while Shiro is away on his mission. This is a collection of some of Shiro's.

Getting there | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 1.3k | T

Tags: Canon-verse, hurt/comfort, Shiro whump, fluff

A lot of things changed in the year they were separated, but Keith's feelings aren't one of them. Shiro needs a little convincing after everything that's happened, especially with how much of an obvious physical toll it's taken. Keith is happy to oblige.

Just In Case | Complete | Ch. 1/1 | 1k | G

Tags: Canon-verse, humor, fluff, established relationship, pre-kerberos mission

Shiro is accidentally late for a morning inspection because he spent too long snuggled up with Keith. His commander isn't super thrilled about it. 

Series: It’s killing me when you’re away | Complete | Works 4/4 | 4.8k | T

Tags: Canon-verse, Keith’s time in the desert, angst, pre-kerberos mission

Keith’s devastated over losing Shiro

Tumblr Drabbles

Sheith Month 2018 | Canonverse Pre-Kerberos | 20k | G-T

My collection of prompt fills for Sheith Month 2018. All of them are pre-kerb fluff and/or humor!

As Many Drabbles As It Takes | Mix of settings | 10k | Ch. 14/? | M

Collection of sheith drabbles and prompt fills originally posted on Tumblr!

Posted WIPS:

Series: Easier with you | Ongoing | Works 6/? | 15k | M

Tags: Modern AU, Veteran Shiro, Veteran Keith, hurt/comfort, PTSD, Mutual Pining, Shiro Whump, Shiro & Matt, Allura/Matt,

Shiro's just returned back from the military, having been medically discharged from service after losing his arm. Matt is his best friend and is trying his best to help him deal with the loss. He convinces Shiro to go to a VA support group that will end up changing his life.

Best laid plans | Ongoing | Ch. 1/? | 2.3k | T

Tags: Canon-verse, crack, humor, fluff

Was Keith proud of the fact that petty revenge was his first thought upon being given an amazing stealth suit? Not particularly. But was he going to let that stop him from enacting said petty revenge? Absolutely not. Turns out, Karma isn't so much a bitch as a… well, you'll see.

Or, how to attempt to counter-prank your buddy and end up stuck as a cat, a memoir by Keith Kogane.

We’ll fix it in post | Ongoing | Ch.1/? | 2k | T

Tags: Modern AU, Barista Keith, humor, mistaken identity, Shirogane Twins

Shiro is a producer on the hit animated show "Voltron: Warden of the Cosmos" and a huge fan of it himself. Keith is a new barista at the coffee shop across from his studio and a lover of his show. A fortuitous meeting leads them on the path to romance, but there's just one problem: Keith thinks Shiro is his brother, Ryou, voice actor for Keith's favorite character on the show.

[bigherosixfeels]

Big Roommates REVIEW

SPOILERS BELOW

Well, the US is still waiting for new episodes of the show to come out. A new programming strategy is causing the delay, but the UK are getting these new episodes. It's frustrating, but I do hope this strategy ends up being good for the network.

For those wondering, yes, I do plan on reviewing each episode of the show. I like being able to talk about what happened and voicing some opinions at the end. So let's do this!

The episode begins in the school cafeteria with Fred and Gogo looking at mystery loaf which not only looks disgusting, but it also moves like Jell-O and I'm concerned as to why this is being served at the school. Although, according to Baymax, it won't cause any permanent damage to eat it which is reassuring enough to Fred until he tastes cilantro. 

Meanwhile, Honey Lemon is reloading her chem purse at the table which is worrisome to Hiro, but fun for her since she gets to be around both her best friends and chemistry. Wasabi then rushes to the table in relief to see that Honey Lemon is alive. Apparently she had tried to make instant ice after her roommate made lemonade and she froze up her entire apartment (including her roommate). How...how did Regina get to...nevermind. 

The gang is discussing where Honey Lemon could live for the time being. Fred mentions that Gogo has her own place, but Gogo shoots back mentioning his mansion. It would work out, but his parents insist on doing in-depth three year background checks for overnight guests. Honestly, given how rich they are, I don't blame them for taking precautions like that. Gogo tries to explain to Honey that she wouldn't like her place due to it being in a sketchy neighborhood, but Honey being the optimistic person that she is doesn't think it'll be that bad. Gogo then caves and agrees to letting her stay at her place. Honey is continuing to show her optimism and there's a discussion of whether or not the glass is half-full or half-empty. Wasn't there a Tumblr post explaining how that works? If liquid is added, it's half-full. If liquid is taken out it's half-empty. Something like that?

Everyone is happy to help Honey Lemon move in. Wasabi notes that there's a lot of jaywalkers in the neighborhood. Honey is happy to meet new faces and bedazzle a biker's motorcycle. The biker, who is properly introduced as Felony Carl, loves the glitter because it shows how comfortable he is with his masculinity. It's official. Felony Carl is amazing. 

We're then introduced to Dibbs, a guy that walks proud, but is a terrible thief. He does manage to get a hold of an elderly lady's purse for about a second before instant karma literally hits him in the face and the purse gets back into her possession. He then spots Honey Lemon's chem purse out in the open. Rather than an easy snag, the purse ends up on a taxi and he jumps on the cab and falls off the car before making a run. 

It's now night time and we're at an abandoned warehouse. Wait. Is this the same warehouse from the movie? If so, that's a great callback! Anyway, Dibbs talks to a rat about his (probably only) successful attempt at stealing. He doesn't understand that this isn't a normal purse, but his attempts to open it are cut short due to a couple people coming in. 

We're reintroduced to Alistair Krei and his assistant! I was wondering when we'd be seeing him again. The reasoning for them being in the warehouse is that he's hiding something. A supposed "better version" of Hiro's neurotransmitter. Basically if you wear it, you can control anything linked to it with your mind. The only reason this version is better to him is because it's just different enough so he can't get sued. Congratulations, Krei. You're losing brownie points with me. 

Overhearing that it'll be worth billions, Dibbs successfully steals it for himself. Unfortunately for him, the chem purse gets stuck and chemicals are released onto Dibbs, covering his entire body. He's now what is considered to be a monster. 

It's now the next morning in Gogo's (and now Honey Lemon's) apartment. Honey is settling into the apartment, opening a box that releases an incredible amount of butterflies. They must be so happy to be free. The girls have rather different daily activities. Gogo punching a punching bag interferes with Honey's focus to meditate. Honey adding cute stickers to the fridge and everything inside it irks Gogo. Gogo accidentally destroys some of Honey's flowers. Honey's snoring causes Gogo to not get any sleep. The iconic Oh My God They Were Roommates™ vine is on loop in my head. 

Later on, the gang (minus Fred) are at the cafe and Honey is asking if anyone has seen her chem purse. Gogo immediately believes it was stolen, but Honey doesn't think that's the case. Due to the lack of sleep, Gogo is exhausted and lulled to sleep by Baymax's calm music. The relaxing moment is broken by Fred who excitedly bursts through the door. He's ecstatic over the fact that there's a monster in the city. Nobody else believes this (despite the news report) because monsters aren't real. Of course, Fred won't let the matter drop unless the others check it out. Hiro decides to join Fred on this monster hunt. Meanwhile, the others are headed for Gogo and Honey Lemon's apartment. Baymax proceeds to pick up a sleeping Gogo and cradle her in his arms which is the most wholesome content I think we've gotten so far. Seriously, that was adorable! 

Hiro and Fred are investigating for any clues that a monster has been around. Hiro steps in some chemical goop. Fred gets a sample on his finger and sniffs it up his nose. Ew. Then he (why did he do this) took it out the other nostril and put it on Hiro's face. WHY. Fred then proceeds to sing a song about how he was right about the monster which doesn't amuse Hiro in the slightest. The sound of screams has both of them jumping into actions (well, Fred is still singing, but you get the point). 

Back at the apartment, Gogo has awoken from her nap and there has been no luck with finding Honey's purse. Gogo keeps explaining how is was probably (and it was) stolen, but Honey doesn't want to accept her negative views. The girls begin the argue; Gogo stating it's hard to respect someone who's happy all the time and Honey stating it's hard to understand why she's always so serious and cool. They storm off, but screaming from outside catches everyone's attention. 

The monster is confidently walking in the street and Big Hero 6 is officially in action for the episode! Baymax scans him, stating what we already know, but he does have fragments of Honey's purse within the goop. Honey feels concerned for him, but the mention of a purse has him nervous. His attempt to flee is quickly cut short on two occasions. While he clearly doesn't have the hang of his new abilities, the team doesn't have an easy time against him. 

Hiro and Fred join the fight. Fred comes up with the name Globby for our villain, which doesn't settle well with him. He asks the cliche "Can things get any worse?" and is immediately hit by a bus.

Taking Globby down is on pause for the time being and Honey is upset knowing that she should have been more careful with her stuff. She apologizes numerous times, even after Gogo points out she's doing so too much. Our usual bubbly, cheerful character has hit a rough patch. 

Back inside the apartment, Wasabi is trying to remove goop from his suit while he, Gogo and Fred watch the news. Fred considers naming Globby his legacy. Meanwhile, Hiro is finishing up making Honey a new chem purse, but this doesn't please her. Gogo takes note of her friends’ somber mood and attempts to cheer her up. What she says doesn't get through to Honey and Baymax tries to help with a hug. That also doesn't work and Honey is ready to "face the darkness of reality". 

The gang watches as Honey begins to create a compound that will un-stick the goop from Globby. Honey mentions that her beaker is half-empty, but Gogo argues that it's half-full. The discussion from earlier in the episode has reversed on the characters, leaving them all surprised. 

We cut to Globby at a restaurant with Felony Carl. He mentions that he's having a hard time with his now mutated body (he grabbed a cat instead of a spoon). Felony Carl takes note of the headband that Globby admits he doesn't know how to use it, but seeing a photo of Krei sparks a new idea for him. 

We get a quick shot of Krei Tech (rebuilt and everything!). And what is Krei up to now? Getting a statue of himself made. Of course. During the process of getting his sculpture finished, Globby breaks through the window and takes the statue before realizing his mistake and kidnapping Krei himself. 

Meanwhile, Honey is continuing to make an un-sticky ball. Her negative attitude has yet to fade and Baymax suggests that a pleasant image may help. As he says this, some of Honey's butterflies flutter around Baymax. Gogo considers that a sign, but Honey doesn't want to see it that way. 

Wasabi gets everyone's attention to watch the news which is about what happened to Krei earlier. I'm really glad that we're hearing his assistant talk and getting a feel for her personality. She seems nice and a little funny too. 

Globby has Krei stuck to him as he climbs to the top of a building. He refuses to let him go until he explains how the headband works. Krei tries to get the neurotransmitter back while Bluff Dunder covers the current situation on live TV. Krei explains that all Globby has to do is think for it to work naturally. 

Big Hero 6 comes to his rescue and immediately jumps into action. Bluff Dunder continues his constant updates. Honey offers Globby the chem ball that will help un-stick him. Globby is visibly stressed because all he wants to do is concentrate on thinking. He knows he's been making some bad choices lately and Baymax suggests positive reinforcement. The group looks to Honey who is unsure if she should, but Gogo assures her that her upbeat attitude takes getting used to, but it's good for her. These words finally get through to Honey and the girls share a quick hug before Honey starts to help Globby. Globby doesn't want to accept what she has to say at first because no one has ever believed in him. However, hearing that he can dedicate himself to making the best out of his situation and that he's special because no one else has his abilities inspires him. 

Despite accepting himself as he is, Krei wants his prototype back and his attempt to un-stick Globby almost costs him his life when he slips off the building. Globby manages to use his new abilities to save Krei, earning an awkward thanks from him. Globby thinks all the thanks goes to Honey since she believes in him. He announces that his days of being a purse thief are over, which pleases Honey until he states what he'll be doing now. He's determined to be a super villain, making a sticky escape. The episode ends with him smacking himself into a window. 

Overall, I thought this was a pretty enjoyable episode. There was humor, heart and an interesting origin story for our new super villain. 

I really liked the character development that we got for Honey Lemon. I'm glad that we got to see a side of her that wasn't her usual self. Her negative attitude is a complete 180 for her. I enjoyed that Gogo continuously tried to help her feel better until it actually worked. Despite the differences that they had prior to Honey being sad, Gogo put that aside and was later on able to get through to her. Just...ugh that was amazing. 

Globby is an interesting character. He's pretty comical throughout the episode, so he doesn't strike me to be a major threat for the time being. Of course, I'm sure we'll be seeing him again (If the description for Failure Mode is correct, we'll be seeing him pretty soon too.) I imagine once he learns to get a better hang of his abilities, he'll be more of a challenge. As I said earlier, I like that Globby got a little origin story of how he became Globby and it'll be cool to see him again. I'm glad that there's a good reason for the chemical compound being attached to him.

Speaking of the neurotransmitter, it was nice to see Krei again. I've always been indifferent to his character since the movie and I'm still indifferent now. He's still as money hungry as he was when we were first introduced to him so I'm not entirely surprised he's still like that. I have to admit that I'm disappointed to see that he has created a "better version" of Hiro's neurotransmitter. He wasn't able to accept Hiro's rejected offer and knowing that he's pretty much copied it continues to show his arrogance. I don't feel bad that Globby stole his prototype. Still, I can always appreciate seeing a familiar face and if he ends up building Tadashi Hamada Hall (I really hope that happens in the show), he may earn those brownie points back. 

I loved our side characters from this episode! Felony Carl was such a highlight to this episode. He may be a one-off character (or we might see him again who knows), but he's so great. I'm also glad that we finally heard Krei's assistant talk. I'm sure we'll see more of her because we'll be seeing more of Krei. 

I'm really liking the humor in the show too. There's always just the right amount of it and each joke is played out well. Wasabi had some funny lines. I liked Honey Lemon's "It's time to face the darkness of reality" line. I got a kick out of the scene where Globby took Krei's statue before realizing he didn't take Krei himself and came back to get him. Bluff Dunder was pretty funny during the last scene too. 

I also I liked when some goop got on Baymax and Wasabi said, "Nobody does that to Baymax and gets away with it!" Lines like that are small things that I'm happy to hear. 

I'm still not over Baymax cradling Gogo while she slept. That was so pure and adorable and I loved it very much. 

The style of the show continues to grow on me more and more witch each episode. I love the character designs for the new characters and I think Krei and his assistant look pretty good. The animation flow isn't bothering me either. Every once in awhile, the lip syncing is just a tad bit awkward, but it's easy to look past (for me anyway). The scenery looks so good! This style honestly brings San Fransokyo to life. 

On a scale of one to ten...I'd rate Big Roommates an 8!

[survivor-tierradelfuego]

Ep. 9: “If you’re not on top, you’re on the bottom & getting played” - Maddison

Maddison

I made the merge!!! Let’s gooo baby!

Aimee

I cannot believe me the oldest person made it to merge! I’m still shaking a little bit to be honest. Haha I always see those reality tv shows where the oldest person is the first boot. Haha and I know there are other 30 year olds but this feels special to me. 

Yay merge! This lady is gonna kick it into high gear, hopefully the alliances I made and the friendships I have started help me to get far but we will see what the future brings 🌅

Olivia A.

I’m excited for merge but not sure if we’ll able to get numbers together and have a majority.

Grae G

We do be merging.... OG maola is in mini Priya so I will be spending every spare moment working my ass off to try and make as many OG Hanuha bonds as possible... 

Najwah

While I'm happy to have made it to merge, I'm actually really sad about James. I've never been this sad about losing anyone in this game before. We started off never having had a one on one chat but we just had each others backs from day one. Stuck it out. Fought together. We spoke on a video call earlier and it was the most easiest conversation ever. He was genuine and kind and I wish him everything of the best in this life. He deserves so many good things. My heart is sore. I didn't want to be here with Amy. She's unresponsive and I don't really trust her. But she told me she had a steal a vote and she wanted to give it to me before tribal because it could be used post merge. And then, she changed her mind like 15 minutes before tribal she was like no this game is a distraction for me and I want to use it tonight. And it was either going to be James or me. She was in a position of power. I think she chose to vote James out coz she has previously stated that he is good at challenges. She wants to have a secret alliance with me. I agreed to it just so that I could be. Kept in the game by her I guess. I have no intention to betray other people I am in an alliance with. Idk. I'm just still shocked. I actually cried about it on a call with Cody earlier. Cody also told me that since day 1 Ben and Zack have been bitching about me voting James out and turning on James and weakening Hanúha Tribe alliance. Like? What? I'm so annoyed. Not once have I even considered voting out James. We had a good thing going. He's just one of the best people in this game and I honestly wish he was. Here. I'm not in the mood for these two faced assholes who only care about themselves. 

Pedro A

im scared ..this can change the whole game

Sarah

AHHH, it’s Merge time! I’m so excited that I, along with most of my alliance, made it to Merge. Definitely sad about James being voted out at the last vote since he was one of my closest allies in the game but thanks for giving me coins and helping me get the idol James! 😊 Maybe Amy has put a target on her back after playing steal a vote and can be an “easy” first vote for the majority of people on our new tribe. Well, there was definitely a lot to catch up on in a week and I talked with Cody for quite awhile last night and he filled me in. He let me know that Ben confided in him and said he didn’t trust Zack fully either. Cody of course hasn’t completely trusted Zack this whole game so at some point, I’m sure everyone will vote out Zack. But for now, our alliance and former Hanuha tribe is staying strong. Like I’ve said, I feel like Cody and I are in one of the best positions in the game because of our connections with so many others. Aimee feels close to me, Najwah feels close to Cody, and Ben and Zack feel close to us. I have also had some communication with Grae and feel like I can talk with her. I do think there is an alliance between Grae, Maddison, Olivia, and maybe Amy though. This next challenge and tribal will be interesting for sure with a 6/6 tribe split. 

Olivia A

At the moment it feels like we’re in the minority (with Pedro still mad abt the John vote) but with this idol and the plan to get everyone to target Pedro I feel like we can get in a good place again. And then convincing people to turn on Zack will hopefully not be too hard.

Maddison

It seems like the boys from original Hanuha are coming after me... and there is nothing I hate more than men chasing me. Time to bring down the hammer. :) I found an idol today thanks to the help of my lovely Rox the Sox alliance. I’m happy to have it in my possession but I’m also ready to use it for whomever in my alliance may need it. I wouldn’t have found it without them anyways. 

Amy A

Made the merge 🎉🎉🎉🎉. Can’t say it has been an easy road. Almost voted out last night. Even though that was not even remotely gonna happen cos ‘Steal-a-vote’. So, definitely happy to be here but sad that I lost my advantage. Also, my alliance with Najwah seems pretty solid. I hope she isn’t just saying stuff to me just to gain my trust and then break it. I absolutely trust her. Even beyond the game. I feel like I can actually talk to her. Let’s go merge!!! Amy A. So, lies. I feel like this should be my little confessional to keep track of my lies cos 😂😂😂😂😂😂 it’s so damn hilarious to ME. I don’t even have a cat but I feel like people seem you as more trustworthy when you have a pet. I also think Grae believes I’m not aligned with Najwah cos I told her I had a mini bond w James instead. This is really entertaining. 

Zack M

"well, i got it." - valerie cherish, the comeback and by it i mean the merge. i'm here. i've accomplished what i wanted to do. now my goal is to make it to top 10. baby steps. but i feel like i'm going to be the first person voted out tbh. something is off with my tribe. the only person i feel like i can actually trust at the moment is najwah. we had like a 2 hour video call last night and compared notes. apparently cody also tried to buy the necklace with her. i'm like 89% positive that him and sarah have the idol. i really wanted to go to final two with him but 1. i don't see me making 2. if i do, i don't think i can fully trust him. it's obvious he is running around talking to everyone and it's starting to get messy. anyways, i think i will be voted out first because it's clear the maola girls are working together. maddison, grae, olivia, amy, kalle all need someone to vote out. why not the guy who was the "tribe leader" at the swap. there may be some hope IF pedro stays loyal and votes with the hanuha tribe but that would also mean that aimee and sarah have to stay with us. aimee apparently told pedro she's been on the bottom which isn't a lie but like why aimee? *face palm* if hanuha stays strong and pedro votes with us then it will be 7 /5 and i should be safe. i would like to pretend to vote amy out (#Justice4James) because i feel like alan may have gave her the idol, if they actually had one like rumor suggests. she plays the idol ... we flush it ... and take out maddison or grae. that would be dream scenario. but who knows what is going to happen with this auction coming up. stay tuned. 

Olivia A

At the moment it feels like we’re in the minority (with Pedro still mad abt the John vote) but with this idol and the plan to get everyone to target Pedro I feel like we can get in a good place again. And then convincing people to turn on Zack will hopefully not be too hard.

Pedro A

OKay so kalle basically said...."I've been on the bottom since the John vote lol....I just don't know who I can try to connect or reconnect with at this point"...so she doesnt trust them anymore....which is nice...and i kinda believe her..considering they didnt pick her to be in the swap tribe...which honestly was a mistake......Grae and Maddison..im coming for you...karma is a bitch

Pedro A

im talking with najwah...i kinda wanna know about her relationship with amy...cause amy is a snake gURL...But i feel like its too early on to ask that...but im watching you GURL

Pedro A

lets just hope we dont self destruct...cause then we will be devoured by the habuha. tribe

Olivia A

Checked in with Aimee and she’s seeming iffy about the original Hanuha people and is still interested in working with me! This is very good news :) If we get Pedro our next and Aimee sticks w us then we’ll have the numbers 6-5.

Kalle N

This first tribal is going to be a gigantic mess. Pedro now says he trusts me and asked me really nicely to not lie to him bc he's sick of being lied to, and it just made me feel really bad. I think rox the sox is still planning on voting Pedro but if I feel like I genuinely have him on my side, I could maybe try to get our alliance to vote for someone else like Zack or Ben. Ben really wants to take out Maddison or Grae but idk how much I want to rely on Ben.

Pedro 

i honestly feel like i noone is being truthfull to me

Pedro A

Honestly im scared...at this point..i just want to make it into the top 10

Pedro A

one step at a time

Olivia A.

For this challenge I’m paired with Cody. I’m not really excited about it. I don’t have anything against him but I’ve never interacted w this man before and I don’t want to help him get immunity! He seems rly nice and funny I just feel like it’s gonna be awkward and also I have 0 ideas. Doesn’t rly matter though bc we’re not planning on targeting him so if he does get immunity it’s whatever. 🤷🤷

Pedro A

Is this  a jokkeeee..I'm with graeeeee .....I'm so unlucky...I'm honestly doneeee..like wtf...what did I do to deserve this ass...gods please help..

Kalle N

I don't know if you're familiar with the show New Girl or not, but it's my favorite show of all time and I'm going to use an example from it to explain how I feel. In New Girl, Nick Miller once said "I'm so sick of the lying... and the manipulating ..  and the out-manipulating". I'm lying and holding so much different info from different people and groups of people that my brain is going to explode. Can't wait to see what Aimee will be like but oof this is getting crazy

Olivia A

I take back what I said Cody’s vibes are immaculate 🤠

Aimee

Haha I’m an idiot. I just sat there at the auction staring at the void. I think I’m still so shook I made it to merge that I just stare into the blankness instead of doing anything. Dang, I wish I would of gotten that envelope. I need that extra vote man. I don’t want that extra going to the Suite life of Zack and Cody. I feel like they are still a big threat to my game even if we are being friendly right now. I don’t necessarily believe in this old Hanuha strong alliance. I’m skeptical, the game of survivor is so complex and I don’t want to play this simple, it has burned me before. With this immunity challenge for me Kalle would be a simple vote to get out now. But now I have to work with her to get immunity. Damn. We will see how this goes. Your lady is gonna to try her best no matter what. No throwing challenges here , in this house. 

Zack M

literally fml. i didn't get anything the auction which i don't care about tbh. but now it's our first INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY CHALLENGE but we have to work in pairs. individual immunity challenge .... in pairs. i know. seems like kindergarten knowledge that we would work alone but like whatever. i'm partners with amy. she fucked over najwah and james. i hear she doesn't respond and she didn't even complete the last challenge. i guess i will be doing this alone. flashback to high school when i did all the group projects. this is kind of mean. amy could be a sweetheart of a person. she's been nothing but nice to me. and i did reach out to her this morning because her facial expressions during tribal do crack me up. so if you read this amy, know that my frustration isn't with you personally ... it's how you've played the game so far from what i've been able to see. + that our first individual immunity challenge isn't individual at all. whatever. 

Sarah

AHHH, it’s Merge time! I’m so excited that I, along with most of my alliance, made it to Merge. Definitely sad about James being voted out at the last vote since he was one of my closest allies in the game but thanks for giving me coins and helping me get the idol James! 😊 Maybe Amy has put a target on her back after playing steal a vote and can be an “easy” first vote for the majority of people on our new tribe. Well, there was definitely a lot to catch up on in a week and I talked with Cody for quite awhile last night and he filled me in. He let me know that Ben confided in him and said he didn’t trust Zack fully either. Cody of course hasn’t completely trusted Zack this whole game so at some point, I’m sure everyone will vote out Zack. But for now, our alliance and former Hanuha tribe is staying strong. Like I’ve said, I feel like Cody and I are in one of the best positions in the game because of our connections with so many others. Aimee feels close to me, Najwah feels close to Cody, and Ben and Zack feel close to us. I have also had some communication with Grae and feel like I can talk with her. I do think there is an alliance between Grae, Maddison, Olivia, and maybe Amy though. This next challenge and tribal will be interesting for sure with a 6/6 tribe split. Olivia A.For this challenge I’m paired with Cody. I’m not really excited about it. I don’t have anything against him but I’ve never interacted w this man before and I don’t want to help him get immunity! He seems rly nice and funny I just feel like it’s gonna be awkward and also I have 0 ideas. Doesn’t rly matter though bc we’re not planning on targeting him so if he does get immunity it’s whatever. 🤷🤷

Sarah

FUCCKK. I didn’t buy anything in the auction except for a ticket with the VL (which I’m honestly thrilled about that). I definitely thought there would be 10 items, I learned my Survivor auction lesson.... So much has happened in the past hour I- Cody got an extra vote which he told me and then we discussed whether we should tell the whole group or not. I encouraged him to share it because it would keep our Hanuha tribe from getting paranoid at this first vote if they knew we had that advantage. We don’t want Zack to get paranoid and flip... So. Zack messaged Cody about Najwah sharing with him about what the necklace meant. Zack said that the necklace had to be used with an idol and would be like a super idol that can be played after the votes are read. But if Naj holds on to it, she gets a 5% disadvantage each week. Najwah didn’t message Cody about it and he was hurt and didn’t know if he could trust her. Cody asked Najwah and at first she said it was just a cursed necklace with a disadvantage and then later shared with him about using it with an idol. So we have no idea what is the truth and if Zack and Naj are closer than we think... but Zack literally wanted to vote Naj out so I have NO idea what to think anymore. I’m also worried that James shared with Naj he had shared 5 coins with me because they got close and now she may think I have an idol.... asdfghjkl. Cody also wants to start a group of 3 with Ben, him, and I but we don’t know if that will expose Cody and I and if Ben would share that with Zack. Sooo much uncertainty. Merge is CRAZY. 

Grae G

Pedros my partner which sucks for him bc of my disadvantage :///

Najwah

 I'm so happy about having Sarah as a partner in this challenge. Also awesome that I'm able to give people a 10% advantage. So Amy and I are secretly chatting. Initially I was ready to just blindside her and get her out but she's giving me the tea from the inside lmao and we are sharing ideas and hyping each other up and I love that. Pedro started talking to me too and we kinda connected. I told Amy the 10% in giving is for her and Zack and I'm telling Zack it's because I don't want to give Maddison, Grae or Olivia an advantage so Ben and Cody don't benefit from my advantage either. Aimee, Sarah, Zack, Amy and I do however and these are all people I'm willing to work with in the future. I have to play this very carefully. I THINK people trust me right now, but I suspect they're extremely weary. I don't want to be messy so I am sticking to Hanúha, Amy African Queen alliance and I'll listen and entertain Pedro if he wants to talk. He just needed to vent and I really think he's a genuine person. Not sure what he's going to be like now that he's working with someone he "Hates" and is "dead to him" yep my guy is hella dramatic. I feel for him though, I do. It's a game of survivor yes but the constant lying and betrayal affects one psychologically. It's important to still treat each other like humans and be kind. I feel okay right now. I think I'm in an okay position right now. 

Olivia A

I take back what I said Cody’s vibes are immaculate 🤠

Sarah

Cody, Ben, and I formed a three person alliance tonight and I honestly feel really good about it. Cody and I were worried that it might expose Cody and I’s closeness but we both really trust Ben and want to talk through things and work with him. Ben brought up the point of causing chaos at the first tribal so the former Maola tribe can play advantages/idols and we can flush some of them out. I think that will be a good plan. We will get more information tomorrow and then make a decision when we go to tribal. I still haven’t told Ben about my idol yet and I feel like I may but I just want to make sure sure sure that he wouldn’t tell anyone else... After talking with Ben, Cody and I called for another hour and seriously, our friendship goes beyond this game. It’s so crazy how someone can become your best friend in a couple weeks. We obviously want to get to final three/two together and don’t care about voting each other out (if there was a million dollars up for grabs yeah I would want to vote Cody out 😂). We want to go down as the best dynamic duo. 

Pedro A

really GRAE an disadvantge??????....CHILLLLEEEEE....my luck...im literally so unlucky.....anyways lets try to win either way Im so not confidente about this challenge and about the next tribal jeez...this will be a long ride

Cody A

https://youtu.be/cAF4L9RNlHg

Pedro A

me and grae did fine.....i really liked our ideia....i hope the judges like it too......IM SO NERVOUS...after this challenge chilllee...IT WILL be a mess

Olivia A

I’m excited for merge but not sure if we’ll able to get numbers together and have a majority.

Olivia A

Working with Cody on this challenge was a lot of fun!! We’re not in the same alliance but if I’m in a position where I do need to strategically work with him later on I’m confident that won’t be too difficult. Also I love what we made lol. 

Grae g

Amy got immunity which is very sexy Zack not so much but you know he’s not an active target ((yet))

Kalle N

Ok I literally had to make a chart to keep track of which lies I'm telling to which people bc this is getting WILD. Basically, Ben and I are trying to organize a Grae blindside without Grae knowing anything. If all goes according to plan, we have the numbers to make it happen without me even having to vote for Grae, which will make Maddison and Olivia still trust me. We're also trying to get Maddison to play her idol so we're pretending that her name is being thrown out. In order for this to work we NEED Aimee so tomorrow we're trying to pit her against Grae and make her think that Grae is just using her as a number and wants to get rid of her. I also have to keep talking to Pedro and just make sure he doesn't spread any info or find anything out. Bc he could topple this whole thing. I've also told everyone that I have a fake idol when it's actually real, and Grae is the only one who knows it's real. So if we vote them out and they haven't told anyone else, then that secret dies with them and I'm golden. Even Ben thinks my idol is fake. I'M OUT HERE PLAYING 11TH DIMENSIONAL CHESS rn

Zack M

to quote the great philosopher t-pain, "all i do is win win win...." dude. what?! i won the first "individual" immunity challenge?! this is so wild to me. najwah and sarah's was so cute. i want the little bead man najwah made of me. she really called me an #EMOGAY ... love to see it. back to my work though ... look ... was amy my first choice? no. literally no offense to you amy because you were actually a delight to work with because you allowed me to do what i wanted to do. the secret to a relationship with me is to let me have my way. you did and LOOK AT GOD you're safe. i know i'm a threat in this game and the second i don't win i will be in the mouths of everyone ... im including my alliances in that statement. like why would you want to keep me in this game with my track record? i guess for a shield? seems risky to me. i would 100% blindside me. i would like to take a second and talk to one of the judges from this challenge: dear raffy, lord where do i even start. this is an online game of survivor that's happening while everyone is also living real life. i'm not sure what you expected from people but like damn dude ... you were really acting like you were a guest judge on america's got talent or something. make way for TRYra banks. he called himself "a moment" in his bio. let me tell you that no people wait a lifetime for a moment like this. i can't. lol. you literally gave me a 6 for appeal but gave a computer generated buzzfeed quiz a 9. these judges should really have to explain their scores live in my opinion. ALSO JUDGES SHOULD NOT BE PEOPLE WHO ARE DRAFTING PLAYERS!!! now, i'm not saying they are cheating. (please do not edit this out because i just learned that was a thing from najwah. i will share whatever is missing from my confessions on twitter or somewhere if it isn't here when posted.) it seems a lot of this game is "in the family" and i don't like that. it's hard to be unbiased. but back to raffy ... you said i should have included the entire tribe or created a whole deck. sir ... 1. this is an INDIVIDUAL IMMUNITY CHALLENGE that i already had the displeasure of working on with someone else. it should have just been me on that card tbh. i'm tired of having everything comeback to a tribe. this isn't pre-merge. 2. create a whole deck? this was not some copy and paste art project. i did EVERYTHING including writing out the text on the cards instead of typing it out. now that that's out of my system .. jesus .. i don't even know where to begin with the vote. ben and i have decided to start floating maddison and olivia's names around. this will hopefully scare maddison into using whatever her MAYBE advantage from the auction is. let's flush that out. BUT the target i believe is going to be grae. we're not going to share that until later because we don't know if they're are any moles in the group. omg i just thought, what if her advantage is to steal immunity away from a player at tribal. i don't think that's ever been a thing but like maybe on this fucked up online version it could be. you just never know what to expect. hopefully everything goes according to plan and i just get to chill and see where everyone stands in the game .... and then i win again next time. 

Pedro A

I dont like that Amy came to talk to me.....seems suspicious...expecially because amy and najwah for sure have an allience...LOL.....i dont even know what to say..........i think im going tonight...maybe im just being paranoid....But i have this feeling....and hey its my 3rd tribal....3 times its a charm LOL

Amy A

So my little alliance with Najwah is brewing 😂. We’re super close and tell each other everything and I think this is the best move I’ve made since the game started. Also, I won immunity 🎉. Najwah’s advantage really helped. Cos that’s what boosted us. Unless no one tells me she’s the vote, she’s NOT going home tonight. I feel really great for tonight’s tribal and can’t wait to see what’s next.

Pedro A

but im 95% sure najwah..and amy are working a together...like amy came to talk to me...while najwah was online....and it seemed like shes was comparing notes ..to what i said to najwah lol

Pedro A

it feel like Najwah came to supervise me and to get me to throw out a name...LIKE GURLLLL...you think im stoopid?....I HAVE A BAD FEELING...i think its me tonight...chilleeee...which is dumb tbh....cause theres bigger fish...

Pedro A

I feel like najwah...doesnt trust me........like shes always...suspicous of me ...i dont like that....like im paranoid...but she is AN INVESTIGATOR 

Pedro A

IM going homeeee FUCKKK

Pedro A

Theory confirmed...CHILLEE...kalle told me....and Grae, Maddison, or Olivia, are planning to vote my ass out...like gurl....and apparently the other tribe was also considering voting my ass out also...wtffff...IM AT ROCK BOTTOM...and im not even playing both sides...i just want grae maddison and olivia out LOL

Pedro A

Grae´s ass better leave...i worked so mf hard on that challenge...and got a disadvantge from them ...and now they are trynna vote me out...LIKE chillleee wtf

Maddison

I! Still! Want! Pedro! Gone! Also hi Zack you’re the clear ringleader but you’ll be knocked out soon enough my guy

Olivia A

Hiii so it’s looking like we’re going for Pedro. I think we have a solid 6 and hopefully 7 if we can get Aimee to get Sarah in with us. This vote feels really important bc it’s gonna establish who has the majority. Although, anyone could flip at any time. WHO KNOWS!! 

Kalle N

So last night I was stressing and now I've actually decided to just pass away. This is getting insane. I told Pedro about the Grae vote and he's in, I just have to babysit him and make sure that he doesn't say a word about it to anyone. We also NEED Cody to use his extra vote. I need to throw away my vote on someone that Amy could vote for bc I'm gonna have to throw blame on her after this if this actually works out. The lying is really getting on top of me bc I have to say different things to different people but here we are. Very big tribal tonight

Maddison

I wish some people would realize that if you’re not on top, you’re on the bottom & getting played. 

Amy A

The votes are a MESS lemme tell you! The names are Pedro and Grae. We’re tryna use Cody as our decoy vote. The actual mess is in who we’re gonna involve and everyone tryna downplay their closeness to people on the other side. OG Maola tea-time seems to be working well together and have all agreed on Pedro. Maddison has taken a step back from the aggressive role cos I think she has seen that it’d make her a target. I honestly wouldn’t mind voting her out someday because she’s GOOD. I just want us all to get through this tribal and see where the lines fall. 

Amy A

Najwah is an actual rockstar 😂😂😂. She and I are basically a tag team at this point. Our private messages are actually lit. Nothing is off topic and literally everything I hear, I tell her. The best part is always blaming the things I know from her from our Palena swap tribe on James. I always say ‘James told me ...’ and it’s HILARIOUS. People may have doubted at the beginning but I think that now, no one even thinks we work together. We nicknames Zack and Pedro ‘Dynamic Dúo’ and I basically love her. She’s my spirit animal. 

Olivia A

Hiii so it’s looking like we’re going for Pedro. I think we have a solid 6 and hopefully 7 if we can get Aimee to get Sarah in with us. This vote feels really important bc it’s gonna establish who has the majority. Although, anyone could flip at any time. WHO KNOWS!! 

Olivia A

The vote is still Pedro but our fake-out vote is Cody. I completely trust the people I’m working with but I’m getting a gut feeling that this isn’t going to work out in our favor. Just bc the numbers aren’t quite secure yet. But I’ll just stick w the plan and stay hopeful :/

Kalle N.

kinda bummed we didn't get to pull off the Grae blindside tonight and give Pedro the idol that no one knows about :( But I'm more bummed that Zack was treating anyone the way he did so good riddance I guess. The PB & K alliance is hopefully going to be the undercover move making force that we need to keep our momentum going forward. Unfortunately I do have to work with Ben for right now since I'm definitely on the bottom of my other alliances. It'll be interesting to see what happens next

Pedro A

SOOO this was a mess....i was going homeee tonight.........this wholee situation saved my damn lifeeee.....lets hope this was only a situational thing....and next round is someone different....i doubt it...but still......im so shocked about zack...also can i say that my nº1s change every elimination ..like now its kalle and ben ...i trust them..they had my best interest in mind....im sorry to whoever is reading this...i dont like making long texts in english..and im not good with essays.. SORRY

Aimee

I’m not sure where I left off in my last confessional lol so I’ll start here It was a lot of fun working with Kalle on the coloring and poem projects. I really liked her haiku and her originality of it. I hope she becomes more confident in her creative writing. I’m happy that we got 3rd overall. This morning I heard Grae’s name get thrown around. Haha I literally almost cried when I heard that. I’m not normally an emotional person but I feel like Grae and I have such a special connection and I don’t want to lose it so soon. They are a joy to talk with everyday and I might honestly have a little crush forming. ☺️😅 Their energy matches no other that I talk to in this game. 🤩 It was so nice getting reached out to by Grae and Maddison on how they wanted to vote Pedro out. It was such a relief to finally get included in a vote. I am working closely with Ben in this game. Our main thing is that no one can know we are working together so that we can hear information from all sides of the game. He is someone that I can spill my guts to about ANYTHING game related and I know that he is in it with me for the long haul. There’s so much we know about  each other that it’s almost impossible to betray each other without burning each other to the ground! Not that I would want to! He is such a sweetheart and I love him to bits! Haha it’s hard to keep track of the days at this point. We video chat a lot and I really enjoy his company! I’m happy we both made it to merge and together we can turn this game upside down. Sarah and I call ourselves Team Casanova! The flash game queens! 👑 I love talking with her about outside of the game stuff. It’s was so great having her on Maola with me and now merge. We have built such a strong relationship and I really think she is someone I can trust through the end!!!! I really enjoy Maddison too. She seems so down to earth and easy to talk to. I’m glad she sees me as an ally and am excited to see how far she is willing to work with me. Shout out to my girl Najwah! I had no idea what all she was going through and I’m so happy that the emotional threat to her well being is out of this game. She is such a gem and I hope we get to work together more in the future. I’m honestly happy Zack is out of the game. I don’t enjoy hearing what all he was saying about contestants and the host. This game is meant for fun. I hope with him being out the game will be less stressful for us all. I’m just so sorry to hear about what people on my old Hanuha chat had to go through, it sounds even worse than how I felt about things. It breaks my heart and I’m relieved for this reset in the game where we can all air things out and come together. I love everyone here and I’m so happy Jay has decided to recruit me. These friendships I have made and continue to make have been such a joy this summer. Your lady is strong and I will keep fighting for that immunity. ✌️

Najwah

these past 24 hours have been the craziest ever and I have experienced a whirlwind of emotions, all while forgetting to eat, barely sleeping ans having not got out of bed today. Let me start from the beginning, hopefully I remember it all. Let me grab some snacks too. So it started with our first reward challenge. The auction. zack immediately asked me what I got and everyone else were sharing their bid items in the old hanuha group chat so in a panic, I told him. In retrospect, I should have lied. Anyway, zack made me doubt my trust in Cody so i decided not to tell Cody the truth about the necklace, i would learn that zack had told cody about my necklace almost immediately. But more on that later. Anyway, in a panic, i told ben too. lmao. Why? who knows? But i suppose it was an opening and Ben and i Could talk for the first time. Why am i writing this at 12 am on like2 hours sleep? who knows? Okay so then the reward challenge comes up and I am paired with Sarah. I end up having the best day ever. I had so much fun creating and chatting to sarah. We just spoke about life, absolutely nothing game related. For the first time in this entire game, I felt as though we could actually WIN and for the first time, I was having THE BEST DAY. I gave each of my 8bit survivor characters little haikus. It was funny, if i say so myself. Me? I love my silly humour. Okay this page is cutting me off I will write these in parts. 

Najwah

Before the challenge due date yesterday, Cody messages me and of course I am pleasantly surprised as I have felt like things were a bit off between Cody and I since merge happened. He said he wants to call and it ends up being one of the most emotional calls i have had in a while, even in real life. Through our call, we realised that we have basically had the same gut feelings about zack and his behaviour for a while now and we spoke about how zack has been trying to pit us against each other, how controlling and jealous and manipulative he is. We basically realised that the reason we have been so mentally exhausted was BECAUSE of Zack's paranoia. zack spoke so much game. we were constantly being bombarded and had our trust and loyalty questioned and he thought nothing about throwing My or Cody's names out. All of this just validated and reaffirmed our feelings towards Zack and we decided there and then that we would vote Zack out ASAP. As we were talking, the reultsof the challenge were released and lmao what are the chances that FRIGGEN ZACK WINS IMMUNITY URGGGHHHH. We were reeling and i so much wanted to decompress with Cody but then I had my meeting with the VL draft people so I had to reframe my mindset. Bare in mind that this is all happening at 4am and im under the blankets, with a warm bean bag because it is freezing out. NajwahI actually loved my conference call with Ellie, Raffy and Tim. What awesome people. I wish i wasn't as distracted or could articulate better because I feel as though my mind was all over the place but i also took the opportunity to ask for their advice and guidance post my call of revelations with Cody. It was still fresh in my mind and they gave me some GOOD pointers. They also told me how I should approach the game moving forward. I loved how they all had such different approaches. Raffy made me laugh so much. They told me how to deal with Zack too. So some other ish went down after this call. 

Najwah

Cody calls me and is like "lets get on a three way call with Sarah" After gushing about how much we love each other and how we have been on the same page for such a long time, Sarah throws an idea out that sticks. WHY NOT VOTE PEDRO OUT TO ISOLATE ZACK SINCE WE CANNOT VOTE ZACK. And we spent a lot of time freaking out and laughing about how we are going to do that. Cody was frustrated that everyone just assumed he and Zack were a duo and I said its because "Zack and Cody" to which Cody replied "Well this definitely aint the sweet life." Later I suggested that we call the group Mr Moseby and Cody said it was perfect as Zack was the bane of Mr Mosebys existance. Everytime i think about it I laugh. We spoke until my battery died, which was around 6am. I didnt sleep much because I was tasked to get a name out of pedro. I think i was messy there because Pedro accused me of being acting "like a supervisor and demanding a name from him like he is a ring leader" and honestly, it made me laugh so much. He is so dramatic I can't deal. Anyway, he knew what I was trying to do and he called me out and I apologised and honestly felt bad about the whole thing. In the end, I am happy we didn't vote him out. He has loose lips but he is very honest and I like that.

Najwah

So i feel as though there are so many things that happened simultaneously today. Amy L and I are working together on the side, she gives me all the ex maola tea. She told me Maddison has an idol. I haven't used this information yet and I won't now because it will raise questions. I told her that some of us are willing to vote Zack. The funny thing about our chats is that Amy keeps saying we need to share this tea with the VL. Any bit of information I have ever given her, she tells her tribemates she got from James lmao. And whenever I talk about her, I use James and Ryan too. Our alliance is so low key and its such a safe, unpretentious space. We have the best chats and we just spill tea for information's sake. Neither of us are going to use any of the tea. It's great having an in. 

Najwah

So all day Zack has been bitching about jay and Raffy and the judges and honestly, I can't even remember what else. It was as though he got a kick out of being verbally abusive. I think he watches too much trashy reality TV, there is a difference between sassy and just plain rude. I also felt that many of his comments were borderline misogynistic. also, whatever information I have given him, he used against Jay. Today was a blur and also intense and also exhausting. I went with Cody to a mall, to visit his friend at a military base, drove around with him, chatted in his room while he was drinking a whole bottle of frozen coke. Like we spoke so much and it was just Zack's constant bitching and paranoia getting to us? Like? How does one person make so many people feel uncomfortable. Cody got on a call with Ben and told him that we had been trying to vote Pedro out and ben went ballistic and said that i am being manipulated by ex moala, he didn't know that we all wanted Pedro out. It made me mad so I called Ben too and asked him why he keeps thinking I want to flip? But he gave me his word and I guess that should mean something. Today was especially exhausting because I had to pretend and entertain Zack until we voted him out. I hated every minute because usually if i find out people talk shit about me, I either talk it out or just not talk to the person at all. I couldnt do that with him. I needed him tio feel safe with me in order for us to pull of the pedro blindside. I wanted to see the look on his face when he realised wtf had just happened. Am i sad that I didn't get that satisfaction? yep. 

Najwah

Do I feel Zack should have been removed? Honestly no. I don't agree with it. I think we should have worked with everyone else and voted him out. I genuinely don't think he is a horrible person. In all honesty, I wish we could have met outside this game. I feel as though the game wasn't good for him. Not that i'm trying to justify his actions but I feel as though he got too invested and was too emotionally unstable. Most of us are here to have fun. Sure, it would be nice to win but at the end of the day it's not real life and I would much rather preserve the friendships and connections I've made in this game than win. Winning is nice but it isn't everything. Am i worried about Zack and wonder whether he will have a setback of some sort? Definitely. He has spoken about his crippling anxiety numerous times, which he has also projected time and time again. 

Najwah

So Cody feels bad and blames himself for all of this. I don't blame him. I feel bad too. I thought I would feel some sort of relief with zack gone, but it is just guilt. I mean the messages were still sent in confidence and I feel bad for violating his privacy. I also feel bad for entertaining him because of the game. I don't want to be playing so hard that I go against my values. It just feels weird with zack removed. Like he wont be on the jury. I can't stop wondering whether he is okay, as a human to another human. My husband says that the Russel Hantz of Tierra del fuego got removed. It made me laugh a little. He is a survivor super fan too so he is very invested in all of this. Sigh. I may have left some stuff out because its so late and just A LOT has happened but I will keep confessing as I think of things or remember things. Oh lol Ben said he would voted Zack out in a heart beat, Basically we all felt the exact same from the beginning, no one wanted to speak out in fear of being targeted.

Olivia A

The vote is still Pedro but our fake-out vote is Cody. I completely trust the people I’m working with but I’m getting a gut feeling that this isn’t going to work out in our favor. Just bc the numbers aren’t quite secure yet. But I’ll just stick w the plan and stay hopeful :/

Sarah

From last night.... https://youtu.be/EirlyVVXDKk

Ben Kessler

Today was eventful, so I will skip to the end. Situationally, I believe I am not in a good spot at all. There are 11 people left, Pedro will receive votes next tribal, but I would like him to stay. My former tribe it seems as though everyone is closer with others than they are with me, except possibly Aimee but that's a stretch. Today could potentially crash my game. So, what do I do? Hope is not strategy. Tomorrow, I talk to others. I ensure everybody knows how close people are. I play double agent. I make sure I am at least in important conversations to merely be there. I let people know I want to be with them in a group setting. I re-establish that I am here to have a good time. At the end of the day, this both is and isn't monopoly. Strategy is involved, but the rules aren't as specific. You don't know how much money or property people are holding. Situationally, though, it is the same. You work with the hand you are dealt and I intend to make the absolute best of this hand. People will do what they want for a variety of reasons, so I need to let things roll off my shoulders, read, and react. To end this long confessional, I am not hoping for anything. I will be doing things to affect change. If I see it doesn't work, I lay low. Read and react.

Maddison

the pink house has become my safe haven. i shall inhabit her until i can no longer. thank you, pink house, for the many blessings of coins that you have given myself and my allies.

Pedro A

Okay...so i think grae maddison and olivia are voting me....and everyone else is voting maddison (if maddison doesnt use her ring)...and im voting olivia and using kalles idol....idk at this point 2 hours till tribal..and anything can change

Sarah

Plans keep changing every minute but as of right now going into this first Merge tribal, the plan is to vote out Maddison because it seems like Maddison, Grae, and Olivia want to vote Pedro so if they vote Pedro and the rest of us vote Maddison we may could blindside her and we could get an idol out of the game. If she plays an idol, then Pedro still goes home and original Hanuha is saved... but if Pedro wins immunity, of course we will have to rework everything. We may be able to do 4 for Olivia and 4 for Maddison .

Aimee

https://elysiankardia.tumblr.com/post/625017490490179584

Is this really happening? Am I going to vote for who I ACTUALLY want to vote for for once, as a treat? And I getting what I want...and controlling the vote?! Am I in the twilight zone? The name of the game now is to get all of my potential final allies to get along with each other and play nice. My hand is in so many cookie jars I have to be careful, all my relationships trust each other. I already have an army ready to strike if anyone tries to turn on me, and I was forming those relationships genuinely and BEFORE I needed them to come through for me, not last minute where trust would be harder to earn. I literally am running this vote off of Grae and Maddison and onto a different target. Hanuha is so deadest in getting one of the “core three” out and this is the best I can do to protect those two but also not flip on people who I trust from my original tribe. For DAYS they have been so afraid of Grae and Maddison and I’m put in massive work to divert that away from them. My plan is something right down the middle, where I get to have my cake and eat it too. I love the best of both worlds; I’m Hannah Montana!

Maddison

Tonight is going to be a big one. I’ve heard my name and I really don’t want to go home with an idol in my pocket. Better safe than sorry? Olivia AI really hope this vote works out I’m NERVOUS!! Also, I worked really hard on this challenge so getting the disadvantage when I had 2 puzzles left was shitty but I don’t really need the immunity anyway. Still felt really good to finish it out regardless of if I win. :)

Sarah

Plans keep changing every minute but as of right now going into this first Merge tribal, the plan is to vote out Maddison because it seems like Maddison, Grae, and Olivia want to vote Pedro so if they vote Pedro and the rest of us vote Maddison we may could blindside her and we could get an idol out of the game. If she plays an idol, then Pedro still goes home and original Hanuha is saved... but if Pedro wins immunity, of course we will have to rework everything. We may be able to do 4 for Olivia and 4 for Maddison . 

Amy A

Tribal again and with it, ALLLLLL the drama. So I have made a ‘vote four’ alliance w Kalle, Ben and Pedro which is supposed to be secret. Which makes it two secret alliances I’m a part of 😂😂😂😂😂😂. The alliance w Najwah is definitely the one I’m most loyal to but Pedro and co seem like a really solid group I can work with. I didn’t think I’d win immunity so there’s that. About tonight’s vote, the new ‘core four’ is aiming for Grae but in order to keep the alliance a secret, only Pedro will vote for her. It’s all exciting stuff and I KNOW tonight’s tribal is going to be THE ONE. Cannot wait. 

Olivia A

I really hope this vote works out I’m NERVOUS!! Also, I worked really hard on this challenge so getting the disadvantage when I had 2 puzzles left was shitty but I don’t really need the immunity anyway. Still felt really good to finish it out regardless of if I win. :)

Aimee

Nooooo I didn’t need Olivia to win immunity. That way she is one of the “core 3 Maola” out. Oh man I don’t think I can save my game and Maddison at the same time. I got the target off Grae after merge happened. I worked so hard for that so this all wasn’t for nothing. There’s like fifteen minutes before tribal and I’m still not entirely sure what is going to happen.

[breeeliss]

[Voltron]: a little solace and peace

sooooooo......first voltron fic?

for @longhairpidge bc she’s recently been enchanted with plance and she cheered me up yesterday when i was feeling crummy. so here’s hoping that the rest of your day starts looking up :)

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Link to Archive of Our Own: [AO3]

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Title: a little solace and peace Pairings: Place (Pidge x Lance) Summary: Pidge knows what it’s like to lose most of what you call yours and find yourself flung into space to fight a war she might not win. It’s not the time to want things that are silly and wish for things that won’t happen. But Lance knows that she deserves it.

a little solace and peace

Pidge cut her hair for Matt.

Sweeping her hair into the trash can, stealing Matt’s old frames, and becoming Pidge Gunderson was a manifesto to herself — a single-minded promise to bring her family back to her no matter the distraction, no matter the cost to her, no matter how long it took. If she ever lost sight of that promise, all she ever needed to do was look in the mirror, squint her eyes, let the edges of her reflection blur and soften, and wait until she saw Matt staring back at her, telling her not to give up.

So perhaps, on the outside looking in, it does seem rather ridiculous for her to be tearing her room apart, looking for a knife or some scissors to take to her hair after looking in the mirror that morning and seeing Katie — Katie who was letting her hair grow out too long, Katie who needed to remember Matt, Katie who made a promise — but this is all she has of him anymore. A worn photograph and his blurred face staring back at her in the reflection of her paladin helmet.

When she finds nothing, Pidge heads to Lance’s room because if there’s anyone who cares more about what stares back at them in the mirror every morning, it’s him.

He’s wiping off the last bits of his facemask with a towel when she opens the door, and he barely has time to ruffle her hair and spit out a dorky greeting before the words are flying out of her mouth, “I need to borrow a pair of scissors.”

Lance blinks at the volume and speed of her words, but looks back into his room — covered in facial products, old Altean lounge clothes he’s repurposed into robes and pajamas, gifts inhabitants from other planets have given him over the past year — and says, “I’m pretty sure I have some around here somewhere. Why, what do you need them for?”

Pidge swallows. “I just need them. Just for five minutes.”

Lance merely shrugs — it’s not the first time Pidge has asked her teammates for weird things to aid in whatever pet project is keeping her distracted that day — and invites her in, letting her sit on his unmade bed while he rummages around his drawers and produces a small pair of scissors that don’t look very sharp but will probably do the job just fine.

He takes the edge of his shirt to wipe the blades clean, but right when Pidge thinks he’s going to hand them off to her and leave it at that, he beckons her to the bathroom attached to his room. “Come on, get in here already. Breakfast is gonna be served soon, and I don’t want Keith stealing bigger portions again.”

“Wait, what are you doing?” she asks.

Lance smirks and points to his own head. “You need a haircut, right? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a beautician or anything, but I know an uneven cut when I see one and it’s been bothering the crap out of me since day one. I’m practically begging for you to let me even it out for you.”

Pidge frowns. “How did you know that I — ?”

“I mean, it’s obvious it’s getting longer,” Lance explains. “But you keep yanking and touching it like it’s annoying you. Plus I know how anal you were about keeping your hair short in the Garrison.” When Pidge doesn’t move, he grabs her wrist and walks her to the bathroom. “Come on, I’m not gonna fuck it up, I promise.”

As she’s sticking her head in the sink to wet her hair, Lance tells her that haircuts used to cost too much money back home, so he just learned to trim his hair himself to save the cash for the things he needed. He’s ridiculously thorough about it, going so far as to throw a spare towel over her shoulders and spin her around in the stool in his bathroom like she’s in a barber’s chair. Lance turns her so that she’s facing the mirror, strokes his chin, and walks around her stool completely. “So. What are we going for here? Rihanna? Miley Cyrus? Kristen Stewart? You’d look chill in an undercut, but I don’t think there are any shears in space. God, that’s such a shame. You’d be the most badass looking one out of all of us.”

Pidge smirks and adjusts the towel. “Just….how it looked before is fine.”

“How it looked before except not like your ends went through a food processor, right?”

“Fuck you, my hair didn’t look that bad.”

“Por dios, Pidge, language! And I love you, but you can’t cut your hair for shit. But don’t worry. Lance is here to take care of you. I won’t even charge you for the wash.”

Pidge rolls her eyes at him, but keeps her head straight as she lets him work. It’s gone to her shoulders in the months that she’s left it uncut, and Lance immediately cuts across just short of the length he wants before he pinches her hair between his fingers and cleans up the ends. Lance is rarely quiet — he’s all too big smiles, too loud voice, too much soul that fills the room like sunlight pouring in through a window — but with the exception of his occasional humming, he works on Pidge’s hair in complete silence. She lets herself close her eyes to the sound of his snipping and moving around her, trying to remember the last time someone had gently turned her chin, brushed her shoulders clean of hair, accidentally grazed her ear with their finger. She can’t quite find the moment, and it reminds her how long she’s been gone.

He’s leaning away from her and occasionally making small snips to make extra sure that he’s leaving her hair even when he says, “You’re like the spitting image of your brother, dude.”

Pidge smiles softly and gently moves a wet strand of her bangs out of her eyes. “Yeah. The two of us got that a lot. If you put our baby pictures side to side there’s legit no difference. Used to freak everyone out.”

“Oh my God please tell me you took tests for each other and stuff.”

“He’s older than me, you idiot, that would’ve never worked,” Pidge chuckles. “Although, I’m pretty sure we dressed up as the Hitachin Twins for Halloween one year.”

Lance tips his head back and cackles. “Anime twins! Classic! Please tell me you have pics.”

“Plenty. They’re all at home though,” Pidge says, and she doesn’t say anything more. She doesn’t want to promise Lance that she’ll show them to him when they get home because the concept of going home seems so far removed from them now she doesn’t want to go injecting false hope where it might do more harm than good.

Lance pulls a comb from his pocket and starts brushing through her short strands. She looks in the mirror and already starts to feel more like herself. “It’s tough, huh?” he asks.

“I just hate not knowing,” Pidge explains. “I know mom is at home and she’s safe even though she’s not here. But Dad and Matt….there’s a whole universe out there, Lance, they could be anywhere. And there’s no way to know for sure short of just carving through every planet and ship we find and hoping they’re there.”

Lance is done with her hair, using the towel to dry the ends and brush any last cut pieces off her shirt. “They’re closer than you think,” he promises. “You don’t have to look that far or for that long. They’re gonna come back to you soon.”

“You don’t know that,” Pidge replies. “Like, you actually don’t. None of us do.”

“I don’t have to know it. I can feel it,” Lance explains. “I’m going off my gut here and it’s never failed me before.”

“Your gut convinced you to flirt with a girl who tried to trick you into her planet’s weekly fertility ritual. I still do not forget what those fertility tents looked like, Lance. The crap we went through to save you…”

“ Okay ,” Lance says loudly, his cheeks warming in embarrassment. “So it’s not right all the time. But it’s right about the important things and this is important. This is all temporary, Pidge. Trust me. Besides, my mom always says ‘ a mal tiempo, buena cara.’”

“What does that mean?”

“Means put a good face to the bad times. When shit goes south, stay positive. Good attitude works wonders. And no matter what you think, I’m gonna have a good attitude for you and rub all the karma your way because I’m that generous.”

Pidge rolls her eyes. “You’re a regular humanitarian.”

Lance chuckles and puts his face right next to Pidge’s so that they can look at her hair together. He nods in approval and knocks his head with hers. “You know. Undercut or not, you’re still the most badass looking one out of all of us. I did a pretty good job.”

“It’s definitely not bad,” Pidge agrees. She smiles at him through the mirror. “Thanks. Even though I could’ve done it myself! But still, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Lance winks back. And then, quite out of nowhere, he shocks her by kissing her.

It’s just a quick one on her temple, and Lance treats it like it’s just as natural as if he’d just high fived her or ruffled the hair on the top of her head. Pidge wants to say something but he’s already turning around to put his scissors and towel away, and Pidge doesn’t want to blow up something that seemed so miniscule and superficial to Lance. But Pidge feels that entire side of her body warm up with one shocked shiver before mellowing out into a lingering warmth that demands an explanation but has none. On the other hand, this was Lance, and Lance tended to do things on the fly just because and for no other reason. It was possible that this was just another one of those times.

Her fingers reach up to the temple still holding onto the ghost of Lance’s lips against her skin, and she looks down at the ticker in her pocket. “Thanks again, Lance,” Pidge speaks up, trying oh so hard to sound casual and hoping she does the job. “Hurry up. Breakfast is probably on already.”

 Pidge accepted long ago that being in space meant that there are things she won’t ever get to do now. Or at least, not anytime soon.

She won’t finish school and get that trip to Disneyland that her mother promised her as a graduation present. Despite the crash course on piloting she’d gotten this past year, she won’t learn how to drive — like actually sit in her brother’s old Subaru and stop short at stop signs, accidentally run over garbage cans, and complain about being too short for the pedals. She’ll never get invited to shitty house parties or have her first drink with Matt or finish that computer she was building or get a normal first kiss.

Pidge learns that when you’re in the middle of a war, there’s no clear end in sight, and it’s possible that she’ll be fighting and searching for a very long time, all while her life hangs precariously in the midst of battles that could quite literally kill her. But Pidge accepts this just like everyone else. Everyone has things that have been taken from them — things they’ll simply have to learn to live without or replace with whatever can be crudely fashioned out of parts scrounged from an existence spent in a castle flying light years away from home — but they put it aside in favor of picking up their weapons and pledging their lives to protecting an entire universe.

It makes no sense to wish for those missing things. They’re gone, and Pidge focuses on the now. She won’t go home without her brother and father. She won’t go home without fulfilling her duty to her team because they matter, they’re hers now, and she has to protect them too. But Pidge still feels herself wanting them despite that logic, and it makes her feel sick with guilt.

Lance is the only one who makes it known just how much he misses the little things he’ll never get to have — unapologetic in the way he wishes for comfort and simplicity but valiantly picks up the sword he never asked for in the first place. Lance tells everyone how much he wants to feel wet sand between his toes, take long drives along the coast, and dance salsa at family parties until his feet are sore. Even when they were in the Garrison together, Lance never felt guilty for being selfish.

Pidge’s first night in the Garrison — after their first failed flight simulation, after hacking the Garrison files led to no answers, after she stared at her photo albums for hours and felt the back of her throat aching from the effort of holding every sob and scream back — Lance found her curled up against the wall of her bunk, hugging a pillow to her chest, and staring at the walls while sleep continued to elude her.

Lance had snuck plates of food out of the mess hall to bring back for her because she had missed dinner. He left them by the desk next her door and sat cross legged by the edge of her bed, eye level with her tear stained face that she was too lazy to hide from him. “Homesickness?” he asked.

She promised she wouldn’t reveal anything personal to her crewmates. She was there to work, not get personal. They didn’t know about Matt, about her father, about her research into the Kerberos mission. But Lance wasn’t wrong , so she nodded and hid her face in the pillow when just that simple confession released a dam of frustration that even Pidge was too small to temper.

Lance rubbed her back and squeezed her shoulder while she silently poured tears into her pillow case. “Yeah, man. I feel. It’s tough being away from home. Pretty sure I cried like a baby my first night here because I came back from dinner in the mess hall and nothing tasted like home. I mean, granted this school food is kind of crap, but you get my point.”

“They feel far away,” Pidge rambled, forgetting that she wasn’t supposed to be making anyone privy to her thoughts, wasn’t supposed to distract herself from what she went there to do. “I can’t get to them. And I hate that it gets me like this.”

“I mean, it’s not perfect, but there’s always FaceTime.”

Pidge snorted and felt herself cry harder, because if only it was that easy. She’d kill to see their faces even if it was through a spotty cell reception. But of course Lance doesn’t see the irony that she sees and just keeps rubbing her back, which is oddly more comforting than Pidge would’ve figured.

“It’s okay to cry, you know,” he told her. “Like screw not being manly or being a baby about stuff you can’t change. You’re allowed to be sad about something even though it won’t change anything. Sometimes sitting and being sad helps to just get it all out.”

Lance is annoying when he complains, is annoying when he’s overly dramatic about little things, but when she stops to think about it, Pidge knows why he does it. He knows that sometimes you just need to sit there and complain about how unfair everything is — just to ease the ache and let everything unravel and breathe — before you picked up and started from where you left off again. Feeling the controls of her lion in her hands makes her feel like she has to grow up impossibly fast, pretend that she’s unbothered and focused. But Lance makes her guilt melt away and makes her feel like it’s okay to sit and pine for something simpler.

He sat with Pidge for hours that night at the Garrison, resting a hand over her forehead and kissing the back of it before he slipped out while she was still only half asleep, hoping that she woke up feeling a little bit better and reminding her to eat. Back then and now, Lance’s unspoken words always reach into her heart with a sincere reminder.

Feel for yourself. Cry for yourself. Hope for yourself. Want things that are silly and wish for things that won’t happen. You deserve it.

 It’s amazing how quickly a routine mission made to sound so simple can turn into a complete fucking shitstorm in five minutes flat.

They’ve gotten into the routine of wiping clean the computers in every abandoned Galra base they find on the off chance they can pluck out any names, coordinates, or scraps of mission logs that might be useful to them. Any little bit helps when your mission is basically to liberate an entire universe from an alien race. Hunk, Keith, and Shiro were meant to scope the base for lingering soldiers or survivors while Lance covered Pidge as she wiped their drives clean.

Except their plan manages to fail spectacularly when the alarms to the base start blaring the moment Pidge hooks up her computer to their systems. Suddenly Keith is screaming into the comms, saying that the bay doors won’t open and they’re cut off from their lions. Pidge is at the Galra computers, pulling up their code, running it through her computer, and quickly forcing her brain to come up with an override for the bay doors. But the realization that this is most certainly an ambush doesn’t come until Galra start pouring into the communications room, and a self-destruct beacon set for ten minutes is echoing through the base.

Lance is already at her back, his blaster pumping continuous fire into the chests of all the drones that are rushing them from all sides while Pidge tries to disable the self-destruct program. It’s just walls and walls of codes and commands that seem much more complicated than your standard Galra defense system. She knows it’s been rigged specifically for a trap like this, and it’s brutal to break through. Pidge is running scripts and ripping down firewalls only to find that she’s sifting through endless layers of pure numbers and it feels like she’s not getting anywhere. There are seven minutes left, Lance is still shooting, Shiro, Keith, and Hunk are trying to blast open the bay doors, and she realizes she needs more time.

This is her thing. This is what Pidge does. Her teammates depend on her to be able to run the numbers, think quickly, let her mind run a mile a minute, and get them out of tight spots like this. So far she’s never failed, and it’s literally saved their lives. But every algorithm Pidge tries fails, and the countdown screeching out every thirty seconds is making the numbers mix up in her head and making her brain trip over her thoughts. She’s gritting her teeth and mashing her fingers down hard on the keyboard, as if this will all make the scripts run faster, make her thoughts run more efficiently. But then she hears Lance scream out in pain as a well-aimed shot singes the side of his thigh and he cripples into a heap against the control panel.

“Pidge,” Lance mutters, sounding calm for someone who’s got a leg bleeding out on the floor and is wincing through every pull of his trigger. “How are we looking?”

Pidge is shaking her head, and she can feel her fingers trembling. “I’m….I-I’m trying. But this is like breaking out of fucking Alcatraz.”

“Don’t worry, Pidge, you’ve got this,” Lance encourages, leaning over her to shoot down a drone coming up on her right. “You always do.”

Yes, she always does, because this is her thing, this is what she’s supposed to be doing, and she’s not allowed to fail at it. She can’t fail her family, her friends, the universe, things are too dire for that. But there’s five minutes left and they’re about to die and she still can’t override the security and damn it all she can feel tears pushing against the backs of her eyes because she’s trying and it’s not fucking working.

Lance must see the turmoil on her face because his gun is on the floor and he’s grabbing Pidge’s shoulders to turn her towards him and cup her cheeks in his hands. She’s only barely aware of the wave of Galra soldiers briefly ceasing and giving them a moment of reprieve but Pidge’s mind is still running numbers, desperately pushing through for a solution.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” Lance is muttering and she has to work hard to drag her eyes up to meet his. “Breathe. In and out. Okay?”

“I don’t have time,” she’s mumbling, her thoughts sprinting and tripping right out her mouth. “It’s taking too much time, I’m doing everything I can, but I can’t do it in enough time, I’m not gonna finish and we’re all going to — ”

“Don’t you start doing that, Pidge,” Lance implores, pressing his forehead — slicked with sweat and blood — to hers.

“I can’t think Lance there’s no time to think because it’s not working!” she shouts at him, furious because he can weave all the pretty words that he wants but he doesn’t understand.

“Listen, listen to me,” he tells her, and his fingers are drawing circles on her cheeks and it’s grounding and she prays for it to help. “You’re allowed to screw up. You don’t have to breeze through this, you’re not perfect. But I know you and I know you can do this if you just….breathe. Please, breathe.”

He fills his chest with air to show her, and he’s not satisfied until Pidge is pulling in a breath through her nose and releasing in a shaky sigh. Lance nods in satisfaction, smiles, and presses a kiss to her forehead just as more Galra drones are marching down the halls towards them. “You’ve got it. I know you do.”

Lance is turning back to the drones, limping into position and staying in one spot to help him pivot around and not further injure his leg. Pidge doesn’t understand how he does that — how he’s bleeding from his leg and still managing to defend her even when he’s not entirely sure that they’re going to get out of this. It’s as if he has full faith in her but has already forgiven her if it turns out it’s just too much, and it shouldn’t be fair for someone to just be able to have that much blind faith in things that he can’t predict. But Lance is fighting for her and her teammates are rooting for her and she’s got four minutes to make this right.

His calm clears her head and the kiss he left on her skin feels like it sinks into her brain and invigorates it with purpose. Because suddenly she has an idea, and it’s an abysmally stupid one, but if she can nail it they’ll be able to get out of here in time. It’s a complicated stream code that she’s only ever tried once on Galra computers like this but it’s a beast of an override if she can force herself to remember it all. It takes her minutes to type in and she’s only got seconds left by the time she sends it and hopes that it breaks down what it needs to. Her heart is pounding and she’s sweating on the back of her neck as she waits for it to go through.

There’s only four seconds left on the countdown when it finally sputters out and the bay doors downstairs fly open. Pidge grins from ear to ear as she pulls out her bayard and helps Lance take out the last several drones still in the room with them, seeing the exhaustion that’s slowing him down. Once the last drone fizzles out into a hunk of metal on the floor, Pidge runs to Lance and wraps one of his arms around her shoulder. “Okay. Come on. You’re losing way too much blood and we need to get out of here.”

Lance chuckles, limps with her out of the comms room, and grips her shoulder tightly. “Knew you could do it. That’s all that matters.”

 Pidge waits outside of Lance’s healing pod even though Coran promised it would only take an hour or two for him to be all fixed up. The wound on his leg was easily patched up and the blood loss was easily fixed with more food once he managed to get out.

But Pidge stays because she owes it to him. Not just for snapping her back to herself today or shooting down literally dozens of drones through his pain just to keep her safe, although it’s mostly for that. But Lance puts too much of himself into others to not have someone meet him halfway, even if it’s something as simple as waiting for him to stumble out of a healing pod and give him some food and lead him back to his bed.

It’s not the first time this occurs to her, but someone like Lance doesn’t deserve to be in space away from the people who love him, deprived of all the love he deserves and doesn’t get enough of in the middle of a literal war. In reality, none of them do, but Lance especially seems so out place here, looks so wrong sitting injured in a healing pod only to come out and have to repeat the process again when the chance calls for it. Lance cares too much. Pieces of him are missing and he still finds enough of himself to cut up and hand to others because he has so much damn love to give to people he doesn’t even owe that kindness to. He deserves to get it all back and Pidge knows that, to a point, it’s impossible for the universe to pay him back in return for it.

So Pidge stays. Because he's a goof that speaks in memes and sneaks up on her when she has headphones in and liked to lean his elbow on her head because he finds it funny how short she is. Because he didn’t even know her all that well when they first met and still managed to let her know that he understood and was there to give her his kindness. She's sure that Lance doesn't see that as a strength of his, but Pidge is starting to realize how much it breathes life into their team and into her. It isn’t her forte — she doesn't deal in unknowns unless she knows exactly how to arrive at them — but Lance deserves it.

She owes it to him. So she stays.

It’s exactly an hour and a half when the healing pod slides open and Pidge catches Lance as he trips out of the pod and groans from the vertigo. “God, I hate those things,” he mutters.

“Wouldn’t know,” Pidge smirks. “Keith tells me they’re freezing, and Hunk says he just feels claustrophobic the whole time. I feel like I’m the only one who hasn’t hopped into one of those things.”

“And it’s going to stay that way if I can help it,” Lance says.

Pidge rolls her eyes. “That’s not an invitation for you to get shot to hell just to save my neck.”

“You make it sound like a chore,” Lance winks, but ignores her glare and tests out his healed leg. “Jesus, I’m starving. Please tell me you’ve got some space goop.”

Pidge reaches down to the floor where her bag is and hands him a bowl of food. “Gorge down, my friend. Coran says you’ve gotta keep eating since your blood pressure basically plummeted back there. Thanks for almost dying, you idiot.”

“Ah, I didn’t almost die, it was just a bloody leg,” Lance shrugs, talking with his mouth full. “Besides, gave you time to save our asses, so is it really a loss?”

“That’s literally the definition of a loss.”

“Eh, details. We’re all safe so it doesn’t really matter, right?”

Pidge sighs and starts to lead them out the medical bay. “Well. It was almost for nothing. That base was a total bust. Their computers were already wiped when we got there. Guess they’ve been catching onto how we’ve been getting intel.”

“Typical,” Lance mutters. “This is a good time to bring up my double agent idea to Allura again.”

“We’re not doing that,” Pidge deadpans.

“I’m just saying ,” Lance insists with a smile, “we paint Keith’s face purple and get him to pull some 007 shit on a Galra ship and we’re in business.”

“Yeah you go tell Keith that. Maybe he’ll let you narrate his theme music in the comms while he’s on mission.”

“You think!?”

“Lance, shut up,” Pidge laughs.

The rest of the team is resting after their stressful mission, but Lance has been resting for hours in the healing pod and Pidge keeps terrible hours most of the time anyway. So she brings them into one of the comms rooms on the ship and spends an hour finally hooking up the video game that they bought from the Space Mall to see if they can get it up and running. It took Pidge, Hunk and Coran as a collective to figure out how to make the connection between the ship and the old console compatible through some clever wiring and a few upgrades to the console itself, but she finishes off the adjustments and grins when Lance cheers at the menu screen that shows up.

It finally feels a little bit like they’re just sitting in Pidge’s basement and playing video games on the weekend. They’re at it for ages and in between levels Pidge stares at Lance’s face to see him practically beaming at finally getting to have a tiny taste of home, even if it’s something silly like a video game. It’s times like this when she notices how his eyes sometimes get too big and too bright and realizes that this is how she wishes she could feel all the time — a carefree kid with her parents and her brother back on Earth with all of her friends where everything is simple and doing stupid things doesn’t have consequences like it does here.

It’s unrealistic, but Lance pulls enthusiasm from the air and makes Pidge believe that one day this will all be over, and they’ll be able to return home safe and sound and finally have the normality that’s owed to them. She owes him for that.

“Thanks for today,” she says as they’re skipping through the narration on the bottom of the screen as the story progresses. “I mean, having my back like that. I appreciate it.”

Lance turns to her with a shocked look on his face, but quickly allows it to melt away into a smirk. “You don’t have to thank me. Like I wouldn’t totally go and do it again.”

“I know. But you still don’t have to. And you do anyway. I just want you to know that I’m grateful for it, alright?”

Then Lance does something strange again — he takes her hand, rubs his thumb across the backs of her knuckles, and presses a quick kiss there. Like the kiss at the Garrison. Like the kiss when he was cutting her hair. Like the kiss when he was bleeding on the floor and begging her to focus on what he knew she could do. Quick, casual, like he didn’t even have to think about it before he knew that it felt right. Lance, the showoff, won’t even let her thank him without showing her up in a show of affection that she doesn’t even know how to comprehend.

He turns back to the game and Pidge decides to do the same, suddenly feeling like there’s a scale that they’re both standing on that Lance has unfairly weighted towards his side. They’re staying up late and laughing through the video game and acting like normal teenagers….and she owes him.

 They’re sitting alone in the kitchens and having a late breakfast after sleeping in the next morning when she kisses him on the cheek.

She counts how long it lasts — as long as Lance’s first three put together — and doesn’t pull back until all the time is added up into a perfect balanced equation. Lance stops in the middle of lifting his spoon to his mouth and looks a little bit like a gaping fish, and Pidge suddenly doesn’t know why she even did that. But she’s learning that dealing with Lance is often an exercise in being comfortable with the fact that things don’t always have to make sense.

He blinks at her. “What was that for?”

Pidge shrugs and doesn’t look down at her food to avoid his gaze. She owns it because fair turnabout and all that jazz, and she tells him as much. “Payback. For all the kisses you’ve ever given me, and I’ve been noticing them.” Really, it’s for everything else that’s happened since they met, but that's not something she can make her mouth produce. Pidge works in numbers and evening out equations, and she tells him that this is just adding more mass to her side. 

Lance chuckles and leans closer to her. “You don’t have to do that. I wasn’t doing it and waiting for you to even us out.”

“I know you weren’t,” Pidge nods. “But you deserve to be paid back for it anyway. Although I’m not sure why you’re doing it.”

Lance leans his chin in his hand. “Can you guess?”

“I don’t know,” Pidge frowns. “To make me feel better?”

“Sort of,” he grins. “I don’t know I guess….you’ve gone through enough crap, you know? And I guess….I guess it just seems important for you to know that there’s someone looking out for you and making sure you’re happy. It’s not my job or anything, but I want to do it for you. Because you’re….well you’re you , you know?”

No. Pidge doesn’t know. All she knows is that his kisses don’t feel like the times when Shiro hugs her and lets her rant about Matt, when Keith quietly sits with her and knows exactly when words just aren’t good enough, or when Hunk and her buckle down and make a list of all the human food they’re going to eat when they get back home. It feels deeper and it feels poignant in a way that she doesn’t expect from Lance. She knows that it’s all these things because it’s difficult to understand. It doesn’t tease itself apart in discernable pieces and it feels like there’s something he’s trying to tell her that she simply isn’t seeing. And Pidge can’t stand it when she has evidence that doesn’t neatly fit together into an explanation for her, and the only way to solve that is to get more proof.

So Pidge leans in and kisses him again, this time closer to the edge of his mouth and she feels it. Can’t explain it or put a word to it or understand it for the life of her, but it feels too heavy and too filled with things for it to be just something to make her feel better. Lance is closing his eyes and turning his head to face her when she pulls away again. She sees the blush on his face, his big eyes full of love to give, and then it all comes crashing into her because now she’s so close and he’s letting himself be vulnerable. Everything that she needs is so clearly written on his face.

Then Pidge remembers she’s a girl stuck on a spaceship for the foreseeable future, and there are things she still wants to do.

So she stays. She waits for him to finish leaning in, finish shutting his eyes, finally kissing her full on the lips — gentle, uncomplicated, but enough to make her heart feel full with something that it had been deprived of for a very long time. It’s short, and her head doesn’t spin, and it doesn’t feel like everything is different and nothing will ever be the same. It feels like things have sharpened, because now she knows that Lance doesn’t do things just to do them. He’s frenetic but intentional, and everything was always going to coalesce and come back to this. Sitting together at the kitchen table, floating in space, not sure what tomorrow was going to bring, hoping for things they wished they could have back, and putting a good face to the bad times.

They laugh when they break apart, and the air feels sweet and light and like all the things Pidge didn’t think she’d be able to grab back for herself for a long while.

It’s nice. They deserve it.

[lacommunarde]

Words of Love - DC Coldwave Fic - The Flash/Legends of Tomorrow verse

This whole soulmate thing was a sonovabitch. It was supposed to be so romantic, so the gossipy girls on his bus ride always said. But see, it wasn’t like the books always said. Love at first sight hardly ever happened, and when it did, it was more likely to be lust at first hard on. And if it was love at first sight, what’s to stop them from beating a person solid. Falling in love so fast was hardly ever smart. At least so Len thought, sitting on the bus home from work behind two twenty-somethings slightly older than him sucking at each other in a way that was sure to leave a dozen marks come morning.

‘Sides, what if someone never did fall in love? With anybody? And by someone he meant himself. He wasn’t ever gonna be his mom, falling head over with his dad. The words on your flesh being what the person said that makes you realize you’re in love in them, supposedly wherever it was they were going to touch a person next but everyone knew that was BS. Love was something that made people idiots and narrowed one’s field of vision to one’s one and only (there must have been some people with more than one soulmate, he would bet money he didn’t have on it), and to him, there was little differentiating it from a thing one caught that lowered one’s defenses.

And yet, there the words were, written on his back and shoulders, across his chest and his stomach, and faintly up his face. “Lenny, what are you…? Why’s the place on fire? Oh… oh shit. Snart, why are you saving me? I fucked up,” written on his chest, stomach and one shoulder. “Nice… Boss, you didn’t have to search the world to get me the best present ever. You want me back in, I’m in,” written on his other arm right along his elbow, and very faint writing on his forehead and cheek with was so faint he couldn’t read it, just scrawl in blueish scars tissue.

Which was definitely interesting to say the least, but not exactly what he’d call a normal love confession. And it sounded like he jumped into a burning building to save someone, which, yeah, no, he couldn’t see himself doing ever. Then, he must break up with them and gotten back together, because that was the only way he’d have multiple soulmate marks, which the gossips on the bus said was terribly romantic. They seemed to have an investment in him finding his soulmate too for some reason known only to them. One of these days he was gonna invest in a boom box to drown of their interest and put on some good rap music.

He doubted he’d be interested in the whole love thing, particularly with the whole, falling out of love and back into it on and off thing.

--

Years later, a job had gone south due to a mob fight having gone down on that very spot and the shoot-out having pierced several gas tanks – which thank Central, goddamn corrupt company and mob run city – and if anyone thought the job was still on after that, they had another thing coming. He looked around for Mick, star distraction and smart enough to handle himself on jobs, unlike so many newer recruits, and couldn’t find him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an orange warm glow that spoke of fire – the distraction. Mother fuck. Mick could handle himself except when there was unanticipated fire. Then he focused on nothing but the fire, the rest of the world narrow to just that, so Mick had explained to him, and he’d agreed to keep an eye out for him. If he didn’t, Mick would go up in flames too.

Hell no. He wasn’t living without Mick. Mick was his partner, in crime, but more than that - he trusted Mick around Lisa, and around him and he trusted him enough to tell him things he didn’t even tell Lisa. He needed Mick next to him.

He turned and ran into the building where he had last seen Mick.

Mick was in the center of the fire, staring at it in wonder as the flames were licking his arms back and legs. Len grabbed a tarp, darted through the fire surrounding Mick and draped Mick’s body over his shoulder to get him out of there.

Mick started stirring once they got out of the building and away from the fire. “Lenny, what are you…? Why’s the place on fire?” Shit, Mick was still facing the fire, but at least Len was moving them both away from it and the heat.

“Oh… oh shit!” There was panic in Mick’s voice. Len would deal with that later, once they were far enough away.

Mick tried to push himself away from Len. “Snart, why are you saving me? I fucked up.”

“Stop moving, Mick. Makes carrying you difficult.”

“Why’re you saving me if you’re just going to put a bullet through me? I fucked up a job.”

“The job was off. There was too much gas. And the place was gonna be crawling with cops in just a half hour. I said it over the…” Len’s voice left off, seeing the frayed wire on Mick’s walkie talkie. And then his eyes drifted over the burned flesh.

He was killing the new tech kid who was supposed to check these things.

“I fucked up, boss. Ya should have just left me…” Mick murmured.

“Shh, Mick.” Len put a hand on Mick’s forehead.

Len got them over the hill and into the getaway car. He loaded Mick’s body into the back, still murmuring things about how he fucked up. “Drive,” he ordered the driver, climbing into the car. Mick began whimpering something about it being cold. “To the hospital.” The expression he was giving the driver kept any protests silent if the driver had had any.

Len knew one thing: he didn’t want to lose Mick.

It was only once he had gotten Mick to the hospital and on the ICU bed that he realized what Mick had said in his half-delirious murmuring.

And like the coward he knew he was around any emotion, Len fled.

--

He kept doing jobs without Mick, arranging teams, that sort of thing that he had usually left to Mick, who was better at it, or at least got more competent, less wet-blanket, much less likely to lose their temper people. After one bad incident of the last type, which ended with his gun against the short-tempered person’s head and the short-tempered person on the ground with his brains splatter against the fridge in the lay-low warehouse, Len was cursing himself over his bad luck: Mick was such a good partner and second-in-command, after all. Why he had to go ruin things by falling in love with the man was proof of a malevolent god or maybe karma coming back to bite him in the ass.

He disbanded the team, sent them off with their money to go spend it god knows where and grabbed a beer out of the fridge, before determined that he should probably clean the fridge off, bleach it good and proper, because even with the team having disposed of the body, the fridge still had blood on it. So he scrubbed it with a rag dipped in bleach, kneeling on the concrete as he had when his dad had ordered him to scrub the blood away, lest the cops find it, and allowed himself to take a few deep breaths to try to calm his nerves. It wasn’t as effective as Mick was at it. He got up when it was done, looked at the fridge to make sure it was clean, and then kicked an oil can filled with contraband and woodchips that was next to the slop sink in the warehouse. Then, taking another breath, he took out his blueprints to plan how to best get at a very pretty, much desired diamond that was coming through town.

The following week, he got knocked down in the middle of pulling a job of the moving truck that he was very proud of having planned. When he was able to zoom in on what he done it, and saw that it was a man moving at top speed – interesting to say the least – he determined that if he was not going to be of a job, he was going to have to up his game.

The black market of Central always had such interesting things – one of the perks to living in a city with the most research labs per square mile was that it was always easy to steal stuff from them, particularly as scientists, for the most part, did not seem to understand the purpose of locks. This time was no different. The fence brought him to a flamethrower. “I’m trying to slow things down not speed them up,” he told the guy, but already he knew that he was walking out of there with the flamethrower. He wanted to see Mick’s expression when he gave him the gun so badly it hurt.

“This might be more your speed,” the fence showed him the prettiest, sleekest gun he ever did see.

He walked out of there with both guns and was unsurprised when Mick’s first words on receiving the gun were: “Nice…” then turning to face Len with surprise, “Boss, you didn’t have to search the world to get me the best present ever. You want me back in, I’m in.”

And that was the moment he stopped fighting his renewed love for Mick.

--

A few years after that, after the Waverider, after his long journey among the stars and the timestream, after he finally found his way back to his Mick, he stood there drenched in the blue of the Oculus, Mick got up and embraced him, kissing his forehead and temple and cheek, clinging to him as if he would never let go and whispering sweet nothings into his ear. The only thing Len really caught was, “I love you, man. Don’t you ever do anything that dumb again.”

Len brought his arms up around Mick’s shoulders. “I love you too, Mick.”

[dancerwrites]

A Deep Breath and Steady Hands - A Julius de Rolo AU

Summary: When his family is killed by visitors to Whitestone and Julius is the only one to escape their clutches, he loses his faith and seeks justice on his own power. But fate seems to have a different idea, when he ends up in the path of a certain group of mercenaries and he finds something he’s been missing. Rating: Teen and up Words to date: 4277

[read from the beginning on AO3] {read from the beginning on tumblr}

Thank you to everyone who’s supported this story so far, and to the people who have commented or left me an ask - it’s super late where I am, but I have started responding, and hope to finish that stuff up tomorrow! (you know who you are ;) )

Chapter Summary: Julius finds some unexpected company while in prison. “But life inevitably throws us curve balls, unexpected circumstances that remind us to expect the unexpected. I’ve come to understand these curve balls are the beautiful unfolding of both karma and current.” -Carre Otis

Chapter 2: Karma and Current

Julius shifted in his cell, trying to get more comfortable on the hard cot provided for him. It had been a little under two weeks since he’d been locked in the cell for “disturbing the peace”, and he was getting anxious. He hadn’t seen Stonefell since getting locked away, and the guards hadn’t answered his questions about the man, or about his own sentence despite repeated requests.

“You just gotta wait,” one of them, Agnes, had said, after only a day of questions. “Either someone’ll come and pay yer bail, or you’ll stay here til yer time’s up. Nothin’ we can do about it. Now keep quiet, and eat yer rations.”

Julius had immediately felt inclined to drop his name and title, but he knew it held no weight after his family’s slaughter. From the little he’d heard mentioned in the village, the story being circulated was that his family had all succumbed to some terrible illness. Then, out of the “goodness of their hearts” and “concern for the citizens” the Briarwoods had taken over the governance of Whitestone instead of returning to Wildmount.

No one knew they had killed the rest of his family and tried to lock him away in order to give themselves a figurehead and keep the people in line.

As it was, he didn’t have the right to be a de Rolo, let alone flaunt the title like it meant nothing to him as he’d heard other nobles do.

After only a couple days Julius had felt feverish and nearly returned his half-digested lunch to the guards’ feet, so a cleric of Pelor had been brought in to treat his injuries from his battle with Kerrion Stonefell. Osahn was older, close to his mother’s age, and though he’d been held with chains while she worked, she hadn’t seemed worried or hesitant about treating him. She had even talked while she tended his wounds, rambling about the cold and the snowstorm outside, and her niece whom she’d just taught how to knit.

It had brought a vaguely nostalgic feeling to his chest that had settled into a sense peace by the evening. That, however, had been echoed by resentment as he fingered the small amulet of Pelor he kept in his pocket. He’d left his past duties, the obligations he had been planning to fulfill, behind him, but there were some things he couldn’t fully let go of, not even after years on his own.

He did, however, appreciate the lack of the sickening heat creeping through his chest and leg.

During the rest of his “stay” a man and a couple woman had been brought in or taken out of the cells, never saying much, probably condemned for minor counts of stealing and such. But they hardly ever stayed for twenty-four hours – a family member always came soon enough, to pay bail and bring them home.

Overall, his stay was getting monotonous after close to a fortnight, and the lack of action had Julius pacing the cell at night, various thoughts and memories haunting his waking hours like the bats that hung in the rafters above him. Stonefell had mentioned the Briarwoods’ “plans” before knocking Julius out, and Julius couldn’t help but wonder if the man had gone to Whitestone to retrieve the couple based off how long he’d been gone.

The thought of seeing them again turned Julius’ stomach and made him pace his cell to relieve the excess energy, but the faint whisper at the back of his head was ready for action. He knew he would fight to the death if they came face-to-face again.

He looked up at the ceiling as a dripping noise made itself known – a leak that let melting snow seep through the roof of the prison. The weather had gotten colder, and the snowstorm Osahn had mentioned had become a blizzard overnight, if the guards’ conversations were to be believed. It would be a plausible reason for Stonefell’s delay, but that didn’t stop him from worrying.

Julius brought to mind the Briarwoods’ faces on a whim, then shuddered at the memory of Sylas’ cold stare, Delilah’s simpering grin, and the gentle touches they shared. Those touches, that warmth between them, parodied the memories he retained of his parents in the worst possible way. He clenched his fists, feeling antsy again, a prickling feeling running over the back of his neck and down both of his arms.

He wished he could summon his sword to go through forms, but he didn’t want to reveal that particular skill to the guards – they already didn’t trust him (because of Kerrion Stonefell’s testimony, he was sure).

Instead, he shook out his limbs and paced from one end of the cell to the other, spinning abruptly on his heel when he neared one wall or the other.

Listening to the rhythmic sound of his feet against the stone, matching it with the beating of his heart, Julius felt the worst of the tension slip away. The repetition and control over some modicum of his life was grounding.

Or, at least, it was, until a ruckus sprung up down the hall, where the guards were stationed.

“Please, if I could explain-“ a young woman’s voice echoed off the stone walls. “It’s really not what you think-“

“I know what we were told,” came Agnes’ voice, carrying the usual monotone with a hint of frustration. “Mister Behrinn told us you were breakin’ into his barn and disturbing the sheep-“

“But one of them was sick – I heard her bleating and I was only trying to-“

“Likely story,” Agnes said, “But you broke into the barn, and regardless of what you were tryin’ to do, that’s still private property. You’ll sit til someone comes to pay bail for you, or til you’ve done yer time.”

Agnes finished just as they came into view, and Julius was surprised at the woman accompanying the tall guard.

He placed her around his own age, but she seemed a bit lacking in self-confidence as she looked around the prison with wide, scared eyes. She had on sensible boots and leggings, but her skirt was sheer and her arms were mostly bare, revealing faint markings on them that appeared to be tattoos. Julius didn’t, however, see any form of fur shawl or even a cloak, and he wondered how she had stayed warm in the chilly north of Tal’dorei.

“Please, my friends don’t know where I went, and they don’t know I’m here – If you see Grog, he’s a goliath, or Pike or Scanlan – they’re gnomes, or Vax or Vex who are half-elves, but with black hair – not red like mind – or Tiberius, who’s a dragonborn…” The woman trailed off in her rambling, and dropped her gaze. “Could you- could you maybe let them know I’m here?”

“You said yer name’s Keyleth, right?” Agnes said with a sigh.

Keyleth nodded, and she looked like she was seconds away from bursting into tears.

Agnes nodded, letting go of one of Keyleth’s arms to rub the bridge of her nose.

“If I see any of them with those descriptions, I’ll let them know you’re here,” Agnes promised, patting Keyleth’s shoulder. “But I’m working, so I can’t go lookin’ for them, right? They’ll have to show up first.”

“Oh, thank you!” Keyleth exclaimed, turning toward Agnes, free arm outstretched as if to give her a hug. “Um, I mean, thank you very much,” she amended, dropping her arm and her gaze, her cheeks turning pink.

“It’s no problem,” Agnes said, taking a moment to fumble with a ring of keys until she found the one she was looking for. “Just doing my job.”

Keyleth was escorted into the cell, and Julius couldn’t help smiling at her happier expression, which seemed to practically radiate joy in contrast to her earlier despair. She was certainly different than the townsfolk who’d been locked away over the course of his stay.

“And look – I don’t think you’re too terrible a person, so keep yer head down, and you’ll be outta here soon enough,” Agnes said, nodding as she locked the door again.

“Okay!” Keyleth agreed, waving as the woman turned to head back to the front door. “Thank you, Agnes!”

Agnes chuckled, the first time Julius had heard her do so, and gave a small salute to the woman before continuing back down the hall.

Julius watched as Keyleth looked around, drying her cheeks with one hand, until her eyes fell on him and she nearly jumped backward in surprise.

“Oh! I-I didn’t realize someone else was here,” she said, eyes wide as they scanned his form. He guessed that she was trying to determine the reason for the rips in his clothing where a sword had torn through them, though his wounds were, for the most part, healed. As a whole she seemed harmless enough, if a bit on the stranger side.

“Not really anywhere else for me to go,” he said, shrugging. He glanced around the cell, at the chamber pot that was emptied twice a day and the plain bed he slept on, a threadbare blanket on top of it that kept out a minimal amount of the winter chill.

Keyleth looked taken aback at his reply, but nodded, scratching her head with her fingers and tangling them in her hair, much like Vesper did… had done, when she was nervous or deep in thought. His oldest younger sister had always had to do something with her hands while thinking, and he remembered her often worrying the fabric of her sleeve or spinning her quill between her fingers during lessons.

“I’m here because a farmer thought I was stealing his sheep,” Keyleth said, as if she were condemning herself to death.

“So I heard.”

The skin on Keyleth’s face flushed pink as she winced. “Right, you were here for that. Sorry, It’s my first time getting arrested. I-“

“It’s quite alright,” Julius interrupted, quite sure she was going to ramble on if he didn’t preempt the rest of her apology. “You were a little preoccupied, and, well, there’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?”

“I suppose,” Keyleth agreed, biting her lip again and twirling her fingers through her hair some more. She took a deep breath, opened her mouth as if to say something, then shut it again. After another indecisive moment, she stuttered out: “I- um- If you don’t mind me asking, that is- Can I know- Could I know- I mean-“

Julius chuckled, and Keyleth winced again.

“Sorry…”

“You want to know why I’m in here?” Julius asked, not able to stop a grin from pulling at the corners of his lips. The young woman continued to remind him of his sister, especially during their speech classes with Professor Anders. The oldest de Rolo daughter had been rather shy at a young age (perhaps not quite as self-conscious as Keyleth), but she’d worked hard at her lessons and found a confident side of her that she exercised with impunity. “I was formally arrested for disturbing the peace.”

“And, informally?”

“I tried to kill a man, and failed.”

Julius really hoped she wouldn’t pry. Keyleth hardly looked the sort to have dealt with death or murder in her past, and Julius didn’t want to taint her view of the world because he’d been stupid. He also didn’t want to talk about his past, but that was beside the point.

When her eyes widened, he worried he’d gone too far, but she simply blinked and tilted her head, face softening.

“Does he deserve it?” she asked.

He blinked, and he felt the center of his chest constrict, an unexpected heat rising beneath his cheeks.

“He does,” Julius forced out, clearing his throat. He wondered who exactly she was, to appear both so naïve and yet so understanding of the pain the world could offer. He was beginning to suspect he had underestimated her at first glance, based on the suddenly guarded look in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice soft.

“There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I can still be sorry that the world is shitty sometimes,” Keyleth said. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth and hugged herself, seeming to finally notice the chill in the air. A look back over her shoulder revealed only a thin blanket similar to the one in Julius’ cell, and he could see her face fall as she realized the less-than meager comfort it would give her.

He watched as she picked it up, shook it out, folded it in half, and wrapped it around her shoulders like a shawl. She tried to pull it tighter and frowned again.

“Cold?” Julius asked, and Keyleth nodded.

“We- that is, my friends and I, we came up to the Umbra Hills on business, and we packed for the trip, but I left all of my warm clothes in the room because the snow had stopped before I went walking, and it wasn’t too cold, but then I heard the sheep and of course they didn’t let me stop back at the inn before coming here. I grew up in the mountains with my people, so usually I’d be fine, but even in the winter we layer clothes so we don’t get too cold.”

“Your people?” Julius asked, furrowing his brow. He tried to come up with a people who lived in the mountains. The only he could think of that lived in the Alabaster Sierras were Mountain Giants, and while he’d never seen them, he knew Keyleth was not of that particular race.

“The Ashari,” Keyleth clarified, shouldering herself and lifting her chin. “I am Keyleth of the Air Ashari.”

Julius scanned his memory for the Ashari, and remembered them mentioned in one of his history books, though there hadn’t been much information on them.

“Aren’t the Ashari rather reclusive?”

“Oh, you know us?” Keyleth asked, immediately brightening up.

Julius chuckled. “I know of them, yes,” he said, “though I’ve only heard stories. I must say, it is an honor to meet you.”

He bowed at the waist in her direction, only slightly because of the lingering pain in his ribs. She laughed and he grinned.

“You’re almost as bad as Tiberius!” she exclaimed, shaking her head. “I might be on my Aramenté, but it’s not like I’m truly of noble blood or anything.”

“Your… Aramenté?” Julius asked, the word unfamiliar on his tongue.

“Oh, yes!”

Keyleth explained about the journey she was on, about travelling across Tal’dorei and the surrounding continents to visit the other tribes of her people – three beside her own – and told him some of what she might learn from each of them. Julius, who had never had much interaction with magic users beyond the clerics of Erathis and Pelor in Whitestone, his mentor Teilo, or the occasional arcane caster, was fascinated by some of her descriptions.

He asked her some questions, she answered them and asked some of her own, and they built up a rapport of sorts – the physical distance between their cells negated by the easy flow of their words. It was, without a doubt, the most Julius had talked to a single person in years, but he was glad to find it wasn’t as awkward as he thought it might be.

When Keyleth shivered again, Julius offered her his own blanket, citing his warmer clothing and higher tolerance for the winter air as reasons for not needing it. She accepted with only a slight reservation, and Julius had the fun challenge of balling up the fabric and throwing it across the clear center area between them. He’d never been the weak one of the family, but rarely did he need to throw something – especially something so bulky. There was also the added struggle of the bars being in his way, but Julius did manage to land the bundle of cloth only a foot from Keyleth’s cell, where she was able to stretch out an arm between the bars and take hold of it.

“Thanks again,” she said, unfolding her own blanket and matching up their corners before wrapping the new double-layered shawl around her shoulders.

“It was no trouble,” Julius said, smiling. “I’m glad it’s with someone who actually needs it.”

In truth, he was feeling a bit of a chill from the air that was growing steadily cooler as the sun sank outside and the light from the skylight faded, but the company and inane conversation warmed a part of him he hadn’t realized was cold to begin with.