#and the way it rewards out of box thinking or things that would just bug out or break other games

[broodygaming]

Wow, I am shocked at how well BG3 is letting me do this really subtle inside man type plot with the cultists. Like, if I'm stuck or whatever it's hard looking up any walkthroughs or options or help cuz a lot of them are just approaching things WILDLY different from me. No sneaking in to blah-blah-blah for me, I've been able to walk in to all the enemy areas and run around. Usually I get to a point where I have to give up the gig and then I clear the place or just the witnesses. It's so fun so far. And I've never played an RPG where it let me hang out so well in this grey area. Like there's things I've had to do that I don't agree with - but so does anyone having to go undercover. You gotta keep up the act. And ! Idk! It's just really impressive!

[bleedingichorhearts]

𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐕

𝕬𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗: Would some like this to be on my Ao3? For better reading perhaps?

𝕾𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖞: You take the Mini Marines to the Apothecary, and find yourself getting uncomfortable with Dr. Ryker.

𝕿𝖆𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖉: @kit-williams, @egrets-not-regrets, @bispecsual, @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan, @sleepyfan-blog.

TW // None.

|°ᴛᴀɢ ʟɪꜱᴛ ᴀᴘᴘʟɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ°| |°ɪᴄʜᴏʀ’ꜱ ᴀᴏ3°| |°𝕄𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕃𝕚𝕤𝕥°| • {Chapter IV} • {Chapter VI}

To get Saveth and Sarvak to go to the apothecary was a hassle. More so Saveth as that little Night Lord stealth skills definitely has… well, the skill of a Night Lord, evasion skills too. Always running away when you blink, just as you find him. His little armored claws and rumbles skittering across the shelves and floorboards from wherever you find him: behind cereal boxes, mugs, antiques and even behind furniture.

Yes, you tried to persuade him as well with promises that he could… hunt every spider and rodent that he can find and bring it to you to show how proud he was of it, and that almost made him come out before he paused, thought about it more, and then dashed back into his hiding place, making you groan out in frustration. At this point, you just think he’s being a tease. You have been trying to catch him for… about three hours, your determination unwavering because you didn’t really have anything else to do besides cancel your work day off and make an appointment for the Apothecary. So you were sure as hell that you were going to take this little rascal and take him to the Apothecary like you planned. You're not going to waste work time for this.

Though, when you do finally catch the Night Lord it is only because you ask Sarvak to catch him with a promise to him as well that he can bully Saveth on the way there. Not harm him as the Apothecary would no doubt be mad, but just tease the hell out of him… and some cuddles too. Can’t forget the rewarding cuddles. (Which at that promise had Atheloca and Scarab trying to catch him as well.)

Now, you have a Saveth that cries out occasionally for cuddles and out of misery that he had to go to the Apothecary. His claws getting stuck in the net of the Nature Bound toy critter cage that you’ve managed to find around your apartment… You think you remember putting butterflies in there one time, but now you’re catching a rambunctious Night Lord in it.

“Calm down, Saveth.” You sigh down at the Night Lord that claws at the net, wailing to be let out. Your eyes focusing on the road as you drive. His skull-like helmet sometimes hitting against the net in defeat with a low whine. Which, in return, gets a tease from Sarvak as promised. Which then the World Eater gains a hiss in response. “I’m only taking you guys to the Apothecary because of that… weird, growth thing that happened with Scarab.”

The Night Lord doesn’t seemed to be amused by your words and wails out again. Trying to make you feel bad so you can let him out. Your hands tightening on the steering wheel of your car in great effort to ignore such calls before you say and try to persuade him once more. “Don’t you want to get big again, and at a possibly faster pace? Certainly, you would like to.”

The Night Lord pauses his actions, thinking, weighing his options. The car going silent besides the hum of its engine and the sound of other cars passing by as you and the other little marines wait for his response. Wondering what his logic would be, and of course. He gives an almost grieving whine that Sarvak teases outside of the net, and that triggers Saveth in a way that he just starts thrashing at the net, growling, desperate to get his claws on the World Eater.

You could only sigh and shake your head at his actions and attempts Saveth does towards Sarvak that looks all too pleased with himself when you glance down at them before refocusing on the road. You’re honestly even a little surprised that a bug toy like that was keeping the little Night Lord caged in there so well. Admittedly, it was slowly falling apart, but it would keep him in there long enough until you arrive at the Apothecary.

“Hello there Mrs!” A young lady greets you with a bright smile on her face, always greeting you warmly and never faulting. The smell of sterilization hitting your nose while her hazel eyes cast a glance down at Saveth in the sealed, toy bug catcher before her expression becomes more amused. No doubt wondering what caused him to be in such confinement.

“I couldn't get him to come.” You simply say, putting the catcher on top of the counter with a tired sigh. Observing how Saveth seems to prickle up when the young lady coos sweetly down at him. Her fingers gently wiggling at the ruined net, but being logical enough not to get too close. The many metal trinkets on her wrists clunking together.

You think she’s claimed by a Salamander with all these… forge-like trinkets all over her, and how innocent she’s been like over the past times you brought the miniature marines in. It just kinda screamed ‘Salamander’ like… it was just a perfect fit too. Innocent seeming woman with a Salamander? Ultimate fluff.

“Yeah? I can see that.” The young lady laughed lightly, leaning back to stop cooing over a steaming Saveth. Amused by how something that used to be so big and known to be scary is now just so small and cute. “It is known that Night Lords like to ‘play’ a little bit before coming here. I assume you are here for Dr. Ryker?”

You nod at her question. In some way, not appreciating the name of the doctor. His name just sending a weird feeling through your body, something akin to unease. You’ve seen how he looks at you, how he seems to look bored, but really? You think there is something up with the man. The vibes do not lie, neither does your guts. You don’t think he’s earned the title of the ‘doctor’ for feeling that weird.

“Alright…” The woman pauses and leans down to click at her computer, looking for the appointment on there that you had set up last night. Her eyes looking through the files before nodding and looking back at you with another smile. “You can go right ahead.”

“Thank you.” You nod at her again, taking the little bug catcher toy with you that was full of a prissy Night Lord in it as you make your way to the back. The woman letting you in with a button behind her desk. Your body automatically knowing where you’re supposed to be going, having done this a process a couple times before because sometimes, they get a little heavy on their attacks to one another. (More accurately Saveth and Sarvak.)

Settling yourself down in a chair near the counter in the room. You put the bug catcher on the counter and carefully undo the plastic things that keep the thing closed, only to have Saveth burst out of it and immediately attack your hands. Growling and snarling at you while you don’t hesitate to attack back, pinning him to the counter and shaking him with your hand. A tiny yowl escaping him as he kicks up at you, now trying to escape your hands. A little laugh escaping you. You’re thankful however, that he knows his strength… somewhat as you know full well that he could break your fingers. At most, he just makes you bleed like a cat would if they caught your hand.

You continue to gently shake him until the Doctor comes in, only then do you stop and let the little guy have some breathing room. Your hands simply resting on the counter as you look over to the Doctor, getting the heebie-jeebies from him. Watching as he settles himself down into a rolling chair with a sigh. Yet, he brought another person with him, a young, male nurse it looks like.

“The marines, ma’am?” The young nurse asks, putting his hand out at you for the marines. Your eyes quickly look him up and down, assessing him. Not trusting him as they never have been so… blunt before, but if you want them to be regular size…

You swipe up Saveth from the counter, not even looking to grasp him in your hands and carefully place the Night Lord into his hands before doing the same with the other three that climbed on your shoulders for comfort. Their forms squeaking out in questioning when you pick them up and place them into the nurses hands. This wasn’t the usual visit?! What was going on?

“Don’t be alarmed.” Dr. Ryker simply hums, looking at you while you watch the little marines being taken away. Their little confused whirrs and squeaks having you set on edge as you shift in your seat. Hearing them quiet as the door shuts. Now it was just you and the Doctor. “They are simply going through some tests. You did say one of them… grew right?”

You nod at his question, your nerves bundling up inside of you as you play with your hands. Anxious now that you were in a room alone with this man that takes in every detail of you with his sharp eyes. His long legs crossed with a clipboard in his lab, but he’s disinterested in it. His unwavering gaze was set upon you. This… this was certainly strange.

“You’re more… nervous than usual.” Dr. Rykers states, leaning back in his chair, daring to look relaxed while you weren’t. There was something wrong with this man, like he was hiding something classified from you. “Have you gotten any sleepy lately?”

You pause your uneasy thoughts about him for a second at that question, wondering if you should lie or not, but what benefit would it do to you? It’s just a simple, harmless question. Nothing wrong about that.

“Somewhat.” You respond, looking everywhere else besides the Doctor. Neither confirming nor denying what he had asked of you. You’re not sure of him.

“That isn’t a stable answer, darling.” The Doctor slips, or what you hope you think he slips. Your body tensing up at the pet name he had clearly given you. Your fingers just itching to go for the door and book it, but you keep yourself in place. Perhaps, you're just overrating? You have only met this Doctor like… twice.

“Uh, 5 hours at most.” You spill, tensing more up at what you had just said as you realized you could have just went for a simple yes or no, but you went for a more detailed answer. Probably hoping for him to get off your back quicker. To get out of his calm, predatory gaze quicker.

Dr. Ryker clicks his tongue at that, folding his arms while you could feel the disappointment running off of him. His head straining up a little before looking back down at you, his bright blue eyes still on you, following you wherever you may go.

“You know you should get at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep.” He tells you after a second of staring you down. Probably feeling superior or something with how straight he’s putting himself out to be. His body never faulting to slump over.

“I know.” You answer him quickly, maybe too quickly with how the Doctor slightly tilts his head to the right. His gaze wandering over your figure. Trying to read you, scan you.

“You… having troubles at home?” He asks another question, your brows rising up in confusion then. Finally looking at him for a second before glancing away. “Any… bad relationships? Bad roommates?”

Why did that question seem so specific when it shouldn’t be? When it was just so simple? Any doctor would have asked that. It was their job however, why was he talking about you when he was supposed to be talking about the Marines? This wasn’t your chosen doctor. This was practically a stranger. A very weird one too.

“No.” You keep your answer short and bold to end the conversation about your health. Your eyes flickering to him on and off, questioning him and his status. How would people like this man if he had brought this vibe with him all the time? Unless, it was just with you?

The Doctor simply hums, never moving from his place while he eyes you down. Not even a twitch from him. Acting as if he wasn’t doing anything wrong. That he was just simply sitting there before he speaks up again. “How about work? Is it treating you well?”

What the fuck we’re these questions for? They certainly are not for you as he isn’t your doctor nor is he joting anything down. He was simply just enjoying how you squirm underneath him, like you were someone below him, but at the same time you felt like you weren’t. It was just all so… weird.

“I’m not here to talk about me.” You say with a low tone, finally standing your ground just a bit. Your eyes staring right back into his, feeling like he pushed too much and this is what he was getting from you. You can see a brief flash of surprise in them before they turn amused. His body finally shifting as he unfolds his legs, but not his arms.

“Right, your marines.” Dr. Ryker sighs, sounding nearly disgusted by the fact you're bringing them up again. You wouldn’t have caught such a tone if you were being remarkably friendly with this man. If you weren’t so irked by this man. “There is nothing much to talk about them. We have everything we need to make sure we know everything on them.”

Well, that’s not reassuring at all. Why would he ask you questions then? Simply out of boredom? No, that can’t be right. His vibe, his aura says differently…

“Are you bonded?” You ask him out of the blue, watching that flicker of surprise go through him again before he hides it again. His head tilting more to his right than the first time he did. His folded arms shifting on his chest.

“No, why do you ask?” Dr. Ryker tries to question you again, but you just simply nod in response. Now knowing this guy was just a…a creep. It would have made a bit more sense if he was bonded, like to a Thousand Son or another Chaos Marine as their attitudes might affect their bonds as well or it could be simply he was hanging around his family’s Astartes too much and just gained his cold exterior from them too?

The Doctor tries to speak up again before the door opens up again with the previous nurse coming back in with the Marines back in his hands. The sight of them making you sigh out your tension and relax. Their little forms immediately chirping for you while they try and run off the nurses hands to get to you. The nurse lightly laughing at their antics, trying to keep them still before they evade him and jump onto you, latching onto your clothing and quickly climbing up to settle onto their assigned spots on your shoulders and collarbone.

“There, all tests are done.” The nurse simply says before exiting the room with a happy nod. The room going almost quiet if it weren’t for the little guys that cuddled up to you. Purring and rubbing all over you like you have been gone for too long, easing your nerves.

“…Then I suppose this concludes this appointment then?” Dr. Ryker says blandly, standing up from his chair with his clipboard in hand. Adjusting himself as he looks down at you, looks down at the marines with a flash of something you can’t process just yet. Jealousy, perhaps?

You nod immediately, wanting out of this room since the start, like Saveth had. Your body already moving for the door as you brush past the doctor, and you could have sworn, sensed that he backed up in surprise, but breathed in too, smelled you. Yeah, you are going to try and restrict your time here as much as you possibly can until they assign a new doctor to the case.

Especially, since the doctor takes that damaged bug catcher into his hands rather than just throwing it away like you should have remembered yourself to do.

[januaryembrs]

LAST KNIGHT IN SOHO | Steven Grant/Marc Spector x Reader [3]

description: With Marc and Steven captured by Harrow's men, Layla has no choice but to work with her ex-husbands mistress to get them and the scarab to safety. But things take a turn when Seth comes to reap his reward. word count: 9.4k trigger warnings: GORE, blood, Dove absolutely wrecks the jackals I won't lie. Very explicit imagery used for their deaths. Swearing. Layla thinks Dove is the mistress and is angry, talks of dove not owning her body anymore, talks of having bodily autonomy taken away. Quick hint at Dove's dark past. main masterlist | series masterlist

authors note: I hate writing action scenes so if this seems rushed or bad I'm sorry, action is not my strongest point!

Please reblog and comment for your authors!

She watched as Steven was led in cuffs to the black BMW that gave away no hint at being a real police car, eager to scramble back into his apartment from off the moss covered rooftop that had her second death of the week written all over it. 

Layla was quick to hop back inside behind her, nearly shoving her out the way to get to her backpack. 

“They wouldn’t kill him, would they? Marc said-” The younger woman started, trailing after Layla like a lost dog. This was way out of her depth. The way Marc had described it made it seem like he had it under control. About as under control as Egyptian Gods and resurrecting dead people goes, that is. He had said nothing about his ex-wife showing up or Steven being taken hostage by police impersonators. 

Layla stopped at the sound of her husband’s name leaving the girl’s lips. 

“Mention Marc one more time and you are walking to wherever Harrow is taking him, you hear me?” Layla seethed, looking at her with eyes cold as ice despite being a beautiful, warm brown. 

Dove choked on her words for a moment, swallowing whatever she was going to come back with and instead choosing to nod once. 

“Yes- Sorry-” 

“Good,” The woman hissed, turning on her heel and heading for the front door. “And remember what I said about talking,”

“Gotcha- right,” She stammered in reply. Layla was more intimidating than Marc had been, more than Donna even. He was annoyed when they’d spoken, sure. Cold? Absolutely. But to Layla, she was actively a pest. A bug. A rodent that had crawled into her marriage bed and weaselled her way into her husband’s life. Which wasn’t true of course. But she understood that Layla had more than enough reason to be upset with her. 

Heading after the woman, hot on her heels, she bit her tongue the entire minute they spent in the elevator, neither of them willing to start a conversation with the other. Whether it be pride (Layla) or sheer wanting to avoid getting punched in the stomach (Dove), the two women stayed silent until the metal box dinged and released them from the horribly tense atmosphere. 

Layla set off for her moped that she’d parked on the road, unlatching the red leather seat upwards to reveal a spare helmet in the cubby. Shoving the smooth, maroon hard hat into the younger woman’s arms, Layla strapped her own onto her head and swung a leg over the caboose. 

Dove followed suit, hopping onto the back, her arms faltering slightly as she looked for some kind of handle to hold onto. 

“What now?” The driver’s annoyed voice snapped as she caught on to the fussing from behind her. 

“Where do I put my arms?” Said a quiet tone, hating the helplessness in her voice yet the embarrassment was too much for her to have asked otherwise. Layla rolled her eyes, grabbing the woman’s hands and bringing them around her waist.

“Just hold on,” She ordered, a hum of energy blasting into the engine as she kicked off the curb and set off. The motor jumped to life, and the two women were speeding after the fraudulent fed car in no time. She clutched onto the front woman for dear life; she had always hated amusement park rides, and she was sure Layla was at least somewhat tempted to stage an accident with the way their morning had gone. 

“I’m really not sleeping with Marc, you know,” She braved to speak, gripping tighter in fear the single comment would tip her counterpart over the edge. 

“What did I say about-”

“I know! I know!” She called, loud enough for Layla to hear her over the bustle of London traffic, “I just wanted you to believe me. You’re more than right to be unhappy with him. Truth be told, the one time I’ve met him, he’s not exactly been a charmer.”

That seemed to perk up his ex wife’s ears. “You’ve only met once?”

“Yes. Like I said, I work with Steven at the museum. I only met Marc this morning when he told me-” She cut herself off, unsure of just how much he would want Layla knowing. How much she already knew. She didn’t even know he had a dissociative disorder, it wouldn’t be wrong for her to assume his wife wasn’t privy to other things too.

Maybe that was why they were divorcing? But that was none of her business. 

“Told you what?” Layla pushed, which only caused the girl at the rear to sigh heavily. Layla didn’t need to know much. And besides, it was her burden to bear now, not Marc’s. She could tell her if she wished. Hell, perhaps Layla could even help her seeing as she already knew so much about the scarab. 

“He told me,” She paused, coming to terms with how insane she was about to sound if Layla didn’t know much about her husband’s second, well third, life. “He said I died being chased by one of Harrow’s jackals, and the only way for him to save me was to give my body up to Setekh in exchange for becoming his avatar,”

Layla was quiet for a moment, the car Steven was in not too far ahead of them as she hung back to avoid suspicion. 

And then, after a few seconds, she laughed. 

Loud and bitter, but laughed at her nonetheless. 

“I just told you I fucking died, and you’re laughing?” Her passenger asked, aghast, which only made Layla laugh again. “Well, fuck you too,”

“No, sorry, it’s just,” The woman shook her head, taking a semi sharp right in order to stay on their tail, “Trust Marc to meddle in someone’s life and end up keeping her around because he feels guilty,” 

Her face warmed. So Layla really did know her husband then. 

“His meddling saved my life,” She tried to protest, the image of Marc’s eyes softening slightly when she’d grabbed his hand that same morning flashing in her mind. Without Marc, she wouldn’t be here. She tried to pretend the idea he was only keeping her around because he felt responsible for her now didn’t sting. 

At least Steven wanted her around. For now, that is.

“Did it?” Layla asked, all remnants of humour gone, replaced with a cold seriousness. Not mean like she had been all day, moreso a sobering tone of reality, “My father told me every story there was about Seth.”

“He’s a historian?” Dove asked, curiosity winning over her bitterness that the woman had laughed at her. She thought now maybe it was out of disbelief, maybe even pessimism at hearing the nefarious god’s name.

“No, an archeologist,” Layla replied, “He said Setekh was once worshipped as a way of protecting crops and villages from the storms he created. He said it was thought because he was the god of foreigners he was responsible for all the oppressors attacking the people. He became the one who caused all the bloodshed, the evil, the barbarity. Every bit of chaos and violence was down to his hand,” The woman said, speaking with a passion for her country it was clear she had lived, slept and breathed everything her father taught her, “It was said while Anubis was the first God of the Dead, Osiris took the role during the later centuries. And when his brother, Seth, slaughtered him and scattered him in pieces around the world, he took on the title of God of the Dead,” 

“Glad I’m not invited to that family reunion, then,” The other girl muttered from her place at the rear of the bike. Layla smirked to herself, not willing to let the younger woman know she’d drawn a small smile from her.

“They were always at each other's throats. And when they weren’t, they were usually marrying their sisters.” To which Dove recoiled in horror. The BMW started slowing down ahead of them, which they were both quick to notice as it took a right hand turn into a less populated area. The sky had been quick to overcast shadows, the April air turning cold and darker fast. As if someone up there knew what was coming. 

“Lovely,” She mused, “Well, my family doesn’t talk to me anymore so I’m sure we’ll be okay as far as incest marriages go,”

Layla’s expression faltered. She hadn’t expected the quiet mouse of a girl to drop something so heavy, yet it was clear from her widened gaze she didn’t quite mean to say that so bluntly. To set off such a bomb on their already awkward ride. The striking woman wheeled up onto a curb around the corner from the narrow street the car had pulled into, trying to avoid the gazes of the few people they saw communing there. 

Cutting the engine and hopping off the seat, Layla held the bike steady as the other woman did the same, all but falling off the back of the moped with a newborn fawn-like grace. 

The two women looked at one another, the younger one handing the helmet over sheepishly. “Look, I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot,” Dove murmured, unable to quite meet the beautiful woman’s eyes, Layla’s lips neither drawn into a sneer nor a smile. More a mix between pity and as if she were still weighing up the girl who picked at the loose skin around her nails anxiously.

“It’s alright,” Layla said with a long huff, swinging her bag over her shoulder, “Marc tends to leave people to deal with the shit he gets them into,”

The girl bit her tongue, pleased that she didn’t seem to be on Layla’s hit list anymore. They had bigger things to worry about now, like the fact Steven was essentially kidnapped or that they had yet to find somewhere to keep the scarab hidden. 

She felt it burning in her pocket, as if it were buzzing with the glory of being what everyone had their sights set on; of being such a harbinger of trouble. 

“Maybe so,” She said, handing the jewelled bug over to Layla to keep it safe, “But trusting him is the only hope I’ve got right now. Marc said Seth will be coming for me any day now,”

Layla looked at her for a moment, dark eyes raking over her forlorn figure some few years younger than her. The girl's eyes were soft, new to the world and the shit storm that was about to hit her, but her hands were what gave away her condition. The slightest touch of her fingers to her own where she handed her the scarab and Layla was able to feel just how cold her skin had become. Dead. Corpse like. As if the life truly had been drained out of her ten times over.

She wondered how her younger accomplice would fare as an avatar. Though Layla had swore that once those papers were signed this was not her fight anymore, she couldn’t help worrying just how badly her ex had seemed to mess up this young girl’s life in the space of one evening.

Seth was not a god you wanted to upset. Nor was he one you wanted to be of interest to. If everything that Abdallah El-Faouly had told his sweet daughter was correct, then that girl, barely mid twenties as she was, was in for a lifetime of torment and pain.

“Well, if that’s true, I hate to be the one to tell you to run and hide as soon as you can,” Layla said, her voice empty of emotion but her eyes genuine, “If Seth is the one looking for you, I can guarantee you’ll wish Marc had left you for the jackals,”

“Where is the scarab?” Harrow and his followers cornered Steven, still as lost and dazed as he had been all day. He just hoped that wherever Dove was, she was safe and far away from this mess that his other self had dragged her into. 

“We have it.” Steven’s head whipped around at the sound of Layla’s voice, clear and commanding and filling the abandoned building. 

And sure enough, his sweet friend stood next to her, eyes wide and clearly thrown off by the El-Faouly woman’s plan to draw attention to them. 

“What the hell are you doing?” She whisper-yelled as the two women trailed through the crowd of Ammit’s followers, both of them watching carefully for anyone getting ready to attack them. 

“I’m drawing their attention, Marc will deal with them easily,” Layla replied under her breath as they neared the two men in the centre of the room. It seemed Harrow and his followers had renovated some kind of church or antique building to become a communal hall. Community food lay out on tables around, a projector playing an old documentary on the dusty wall. 

Harrow’s followers didn’t seem to have anything particularly off about them. In fact, they seemed like regular citizens you would see around the streets of London. Nothing about them screamed evil, yet that only served to make them more menacing. They could be anyone, anywhere.

Dove knew all too well villains and monsters didn’t look like Ancient Egyptian mummies or jackals. They looked like regular people, like the man sitting next to you on the train. Like your family friend. Like your milkman. Or your school teacher. Or the shop clerk. Or young, female gift-shoppists that had a hopeless crush on their seemingly married co-worker. 

It didn’t matter who they were, what they looked like, they were tainted to their core. 

“That’s a great plan, except he’s not Marc, he’s Steven,” The young girl hissed, as Harrow stared at her with a smug twinkle in his eye, holding out his rough hand to Layla. 

“You couldn’t possibly understand the value of what you’re holding. Let me have that, I’ll keep it safe,” Harrow asked calmly, though it was clear with the way his focus trained on the jewel that he wasn’t quite so relaxed as he was making believe. 

He was clever with his words, manipulative. Making himself seem honest and responsible to anyone who didn’t understand the scarab. But Layla did. She wasn’t like the ordinary woman Harrow took her for. She was smart beyond belief, and knew more about the legends than Arthur could ever learn from seeing into people’s souls.

“Summon the suit,” Layla ordered under her breath as they reached Steven’s shaken figure. Her almond eyes scoured around the building for the nearest way out as her younger accomplice shook her head in despair and picked at her nails with furrowed brows. 

“Sorry what?” Steven asked, just as Dove had suspected. He had no clue what any of this meant. 

Layla’s brown gaze cut to his, chagrin mixed with a hint of fear boiling up in her expression. “Summon the suit,” She said again, stepping closer to the man who gawked at her with a lost look.

“‘Summon the soup’? What are you saying?” 

“The suit,” She said again, shoving the scarab into his chest, before turning to where Harrow was reaching for his staff. “And keep this safe,” 

“So be it,” Harrow said tiredly. Deciding they were in too thick to continue this little joke of Marc’s, she reached behind her for the younger woman, dragging her towards the only available exit she saw. 

Layla’s frantic brain caught sight of a flight of stairs that led to the first floor: a wide ledge that overlooked the rest of the room and had tiny archways where passageways wove into the sandstone walls, scaffolding and more of the plastic tarp scattered over and around the steps. 

A quick loop around the top of the stairs took them to a second set of steps that led only to an upper ledge and a large arched hallway with natural light coming from the end of it. A fire escape maybe? An open window? Bingo. 

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Layla hurried, grabbing Steven on the way as one of the men lunged at her. She was quick to rip his hand off her arm, shoving him into a table so hard he went tumbling over the edge and knocking into another of his men. 

Forcing Dove ahead of her, Layla directed the young girl towards the first flight of stairs, ducking around the scaffolding that lead to the first floor seemingly still mid-renovation. Steven trailed behind them quickly with a gasp as he dodged another of Harrow’s men. 

Practically swinging around the railing on one hand, Dove felt her tired legs ache as she ascended quickly, the only thing keeping her from stopping being the two people behind her breathing down her neck, relying on her to keep going. The temporary staircase wobbled for a moment as the floor shook, small chunks of brick crumbling free from the delicate wall at the movement. A flash of amethyst purple light reflected around the building, filling the space with something odd; something tense that crawled up her spine, like a foreboding that cut her right through her gut. 

Reaching the first level, she was quick to stop in her tracks as a man ducked out from one of the tiny corridors woven into the stone walls, and lunged for her. She felt Layla dart behind her and start scaling the second flight of stairs to the open door that hopefully spelled freedom. The man was quick enough to grab her wrists, but Steven's arm was swiftly wrapped around her waist, holding her from being thrown off the edge of the barrierless ledge. 

She kicked at the man a few times, desperate for him to let her go. That is until she got one of her hands free and was able to grab him by the collar of his coat. 

Remembering how tightly she had been able to grip Marc’s arm that morning, she found it unnaturally easy enough to lift the man a solid few inches off the ground, the stitches of his clothes ready to give way at his body weight. The menacing look on his face dropped when he realised with a cold slap to the face that no amount of holding onto her arms could do anything seeing as she had him scruffed and held like a little dog that was misbehaving. 

He let out a sharp squeal as she threw him with ease over the edge and down the ten foot drop, not enough to kill but enough to hear a loud crack from his ribs and legs.

“How on earth did you do that?” Steven asked, his baffled breath rolling over her neck in a way that had her stomach churning up a storm. His arm still held her tight to him as he guided her the way Layla had taken off to, the warmth of his hand alone seeping through her top and onto her bare skin underneath that was still as cold as a cadaver. 

His touch gave her a taste of life again, of humanity.  Like she didn’t exist again in this world until he touched her. As if his hand alone could find her in the afterlife and pluck her back to mortality.

Which technically he had. 

“Come on,” She brushed off his question, urging him towards where Layla was now pummeling the shit out of another assailant that had tried to make a grab for her. She made equally quick work of the attacker, shoving him off the same way the other woman had and sending him flying off the building frame and into a pile of wood that cracked easily with his weight. 

Grabbing both their arms, Layla led the two stunned watchers through the open archway that luckily expanded into a long corridor. Tarp lay around the bottom of the huge windows, moonlight filtering in through the surprisingly clear glass panes being the only thing allowing them to see their way. 

The three sets of footsteps pounded down the stone hallway, Harrow’s chants chasing them through an echo, spoken in Coptic the younger woman had surmised. It seemed her degree in Ancient Languages wasn’t entirely a waste. She was able to grasp at bits and pieces of what he was saying despite the rushing of blood in her ears from her running. 

Something about Ammit’s wrath, eradicating enemies. Calling on the ancient goddess to help him carry out her justice. 

Then came the shriek. Familiar at this point, the vengeful growl that reverberated down the hall and harmonising with Harrow’s hex. 

Summoning pure evil. She caught that part easily as they skidded around the corner awaiting them at the end of the hallway, coming to a set of huge, varnished wood doors. She threw her shoulder into the left one, hearing it give a small creak of protest before it gave way and slowly swung open. 

Her heart dropped as she quickly realised they were at a dead end. It felt almost de ja vu like as they entered the room, her eyes frantic to take in any way out as Layla and Steven rushed to block the entrance off. A thick, brick wall complete with an old fireplace on the right, and two huge windows in front and to her left. By all means it was a beautiful room, but it was an enclosure. A trap. A casket. 

“Here. Bolt the door,” Layla ordered, heaving a metal bar through the handles to give them some sort of protection of whatever it was Harrow was conjuring. 

More tarp over the floors and piles of bricks, dust and building tools, the windows reaching higher than even the ceiling to the museum. Sarcophaguses piled around the room, some fake but most seeming authentic, as ancient as the exhibits she walked past regularly at work, yet they were just thrown to the sides of the abandoned room as if they were not priceless objects. 

A dirty mirror lay to her right leaning against the fireplace, white plastic wrap draped over half of the looking glass, ridden with dust and a deep crack that made it unusable, no doubt why it was dumped here with the rest of the pieces of history they deemed rubbish. 

Layla and her rushed to the windows, Layla taking the one on the left and her heading for the one opposite the door, each attempting to jiggle the bottom of the panes, looking for a latch they could flick open to give them an escape. But the glass was thick. Taking up an entire wall, meant only to let light in and keep air firmly out. Meaning there was no movement from any of the panes. The lit up buildings across the street laughed at her attempts in a silent mocking, the block of flats watching the desperate women struggle. 

“Oh my god,” Steven said with a tone of utter despair, “I’m going to die in an evil magician’s man cave,”

She would have laughed. Any other day and his words would have cracked her up. But she barely heard him over the desperate way she tugged at the white, chipped frames, urging the damn thing to come loose, her nails splinting painfully at the force she used to try peel the rusted metal from their seals.

It would be no use anyway, she realised. Looking down she realised they were up high, on the third floor to be exact, and the only way down was a long fall onto solid concrete. Seeing Layla turn away from the other window, she guessed she had no luck with that either, and cursed under her breath. 

Layla stalked towards Steven’s piteous frame, grabbing him roughly by the arms. “No-no. Hey, listen to me,” She started in a panicked voice, though it was clear she was attempting to be kind to him. The three of them turned to the door as the sound of scratching signalled that something big was out there, waiting for them. Long, sharp knife-like claws raked down the old wood, carving out channels in the barrier, the pieces of timber creaking with the weight of it, like a dog begging to come into the sitting room. 

A moment of silence, before the doors began shaking in their hinges with loud thumps. The animal threw itself against the doors, the metal bar jittering in its place at the sheer weight of it. 

“Your name is Marc,” Layla said calmly, holding onto his shoulders to keep his attention on her, “There’s a suit, I’ve seen you use it. You bring it out,” Her dark eyes pierced him with something cold and scared hidden in them, as his face flustered and his breathing picked up. 

“No,” He mumbled, shaking his head that dripped with sweat, feeling his chest constricting as she grabbed him harder. 

“Where are you? We need you to fight!” She yelled, shaking him now as if to hope to snap him back into his senses. 

“Let me in, Steven!” Marc’s voice came from the abandoned mirror, his reflection twisted into a cruel sneer as Marc watched him freeze in place, Steven’s bright eyes lost and scared. 

It was too much for Steven. He was expected to be something, someone, that he had no idea existed until a few days ago. This was no longer about waking up late or funny dreams, or sand around his bed and tape on his door. This was real. Real consequences. Two very real women depending on him to become this hero and save the day. 

They needed him to be Marc. But he wasn’t. He was Steven Grant. And that was all he’d ever be. 

“No, I can’t please. Stop it both of you,” Steven’s voice snapped Dove out of her focus on the outside, her fingers sore with where they gripped the window frames distraughtly. 

She saw his overwhelmed figure. The way Layla held him in an iron grip, her voice raising in distress as she kept asking him to snap out of it, to bring out ‘the suit’. She saw the way Steven’s eyes flicked between the woman and the mirror, his voice clogging up with unshed tears. 

Finally giving up on the windows as an option, she stormed over to where the two of them stood, grabbing Steven by the shoulder and pulling his arms away from Layla’s desperate grip.

“Cut it out, you’re scaring him,” She growled, feeling Steven make a grab for her hand as she confronted the woman. 

“He should be scared! If he doesn’t get the suit the three of us are going to die, do you not get that?” Layla’s voice raised, but even the younger woman could see her face was rigid with fear. It was fear causing her to be so harsh, not malice. Layla was only human after all. The memory of that thing that had chased her through the museum resurfaced painfully, a phantom stab blooming over her stomach that seemed entirely healed, as if it hadn’t practically ripped her guts through her soft flesh and spilled them onto the marble floor.

“Shouting at him isn’t going to fix that, it’s not his fault. We just find another way out, okay?” Dove snipped, shutting down any other argument Layla could give her, and turned to Steven with a soft expression, “Okay?” She asked gently.

Steven stayed quiet, but he nodded, tears welled in his eyes, his face just as scared as she felt inside. She was shitting herself, her muscles tensing up with every grunt that came from the creature on the other side of the door. But cornering Steven and asking so much of him when neither of them truly understood what was happening was only doing harm. 

“Alright,” Layla mumbled in defeat, her lush brows drawn into a frown, despair lingering in her hazelnut eyes as she headed back to the smaller, side window and peered out to the building below, “I can see a fire escape on this roof-”

But no sooner had the woman come to terms with the fact there was no hero coming to save them from this mess, the barricade had given way with a loud pop as the metal bar split clean in two. 

A single breath, a moment of pure silence where Layla’s head whipped from her fraught attempt at seeking an escape route, where Steven and Dove clutched onto each other just that bit tighter. The doors swung wide on their hinges, smacking into the walls with the force and crumbling the bricks into piles of red dust on the already dirty floors.  

A figure stood in the entrance. She could only think to describe it as a tall man trying to wear a dog’s body. Its limbs were gangly, skinny, mottled and rotted skin stretching thinly over them. Four feet at the end of boney elbows carried dagger like claws, thin wisps of white hairs poking from its spine. Its face was that of a possessed wolf, skeletal and gaunt, its mouth opening into a roaring snarl with two yellow-green eyes staring back at them with a haunting glow. 

The air escaped Dove’s lungs the second it let out a familiar hum of hunger. This was the thing that had attacked her. That had killed her last night. This was the thing that had plunged its hand into her stomach with no remorse, tearing her organs to shreds in a single swipe.

The creature, the jackal, looked ahead at the two of them, holding onto each other for damn near life, her nails digging into his toned arm at her sheer trepidation. Its jaws fell open, saliva dripping from its dead lips as it gathered its legs up and prepared to lunge. 

“Jackal, J-JACKAL” Steven yelled, his hands beginning to shake as he pointed at the creature. 

“Oh my god- Oh my-” His friend could barely get out her words, panic constricting around her heart that thudded through her ribs hard enough to have her choking on her sentence and stay quiet, mouth agape in disbelief at the sight of the thing. 

She much preferred when she couldn’t see the damn thing. 

The Jackal took a breath, and the girl set in its sights could have sworn she heard it laugh, before it bolted at them.

The two of them screamed, Steven shoving her to the floor as its lithe body made contact and sent both their bodies flying through the glass, falling, falling, falling down all three levels and onto the hard concrete. 

“Oh my GOD!” Layla shrieked, her eyes trained on the huge gap in the wall where her ex-husband had been thrown through by some invisible force, before they lowered to where his not-mistress was cowering on the floor after being manhandled away from the danger. She caressed her scraped elbow silently, her gaze also locked on the broken glass.

Realising the girl was in shock, Layla leaned down to a pile of bricks, grabbing one and promptly raising it above her head, bringing it down onto the side window harshly. The glass cracked slightly, before she hit it again a few more times and it gave way completely, scattering across the tiled roof on the other side. Throwing her jacket over the broken glass, she hopped over the window ledge and onto the slanted roof, careful not to skid on the smooth stone. Whipping back to the girl that had seemed to come to her senses and was now looking at her bewildered, Layla yelled a single “Come on!” through the gap in the window, before turning and heading towards the fire escape alone.

Steven. Not Steven, please not him. Steven’s gone. Steven’s dead, or at least he will be soon, no doubt his body crumpled on the floor, practically laid out as a buffet for that monster. 

He’d thrown her out of the way, given his own life for one so undeserving as her own. 

A man so kind and gentle, good, shouldn’t have rescued her, someone entirely not that.

Being dragged out of her daze at Layla’s yell, her head snapped to where she’d managed to create an escape, the woman looking at her expectantly before she turned and headed towards the edge of the roof. 

Steven could still be alive, she told herself, he could be okay. 

Holding that hope close to her chest, she pushed herself to her feet and ran towards the exit Layla had taken. 

Please be okay. Please be okay. I’ll give every life I have to give if it means you’re safe. 

Her hand was seconds from gracing Layla’s jacket when she heard it. Another growl. 

No, not a growl. A chuckle. Dark, deep and rolling, an amused laugh from a thick chest that was loud enough to fill the entire room with its timbre. 

And she knew. She didn’t understand how, but she knew. She knew who waited for her to turn around. To meet his black, inky gaze with fright. 

But she was frozen. Despite her body being cold for the past day, the chill that ran through her spine was enough to have every single one of her hairs stand on end. Her voice was gone, her chest tight, her throat closed up. 

“I know you’ve been waiting for me, my little monster,” 

His voice was a rumble, though a smile laced his words. His every syllable sent a thrum of horror through her veins, her body going numb. As if she weren’t here. She was watching a movie through her eyes, and the villain was coming, the story was ending. The credits were about to start rolling. 

She said nothing. Didn’t dare move an inch, praying to anyone listening that she could become as invisible as that jackal had been. Yet she felt him getting closer. His feet made no sound, but she felt him draw near. The same way a person feels they’re not alone in a haunted house. Like seeing shadows in the corner of your eye. Like feeling something watching you from the darkness when you wake from a nightmare.

A hand trailed down her loose hair, running long, slim fingers through her locks, he gave a growl of praise. “I’ve been waiting for you too,” 

She started crying. Her face got hot, her eyes stinging as she tried to hold the tears back, only for them to scorch her cheeks as they rolled down, her expression pulling into an ugly whimper. 

Closing her eyes, she told herself if she couldn’t see him he was just a voice in her head. If she didn’t look him in the eye he had no control over her. It was just a bad dream. A side effect of the stress. An auditory halluc-

“Oh, don’t cry,” A cold knuckle dragged over her cheek, swiping away a tear. His finger alone took up half her jaw. “I’m here to help you. I’m here to save you, little beasty,” His voice was dark, but gentle. As if he cared. As if he didn’t want her afraid. “Think of what we could do to Harrow, together,” 

She didn’t doubt he had ideas for what torture he wanted to rain down on the man. But that wasn’t her. She didn’t want to be feared, or to hurt people, or to kill. She didn’t want to be bad. Or to feel even more so that there was something crawling out of her soul, a demon that showed everyone just who she really was. What she really was. 

“No,” She whispered, shaking her head and taking a small step away from him. 

“No?” He asked, a deadly calm washing over his voice. “People have taken from you your whole life. Taken and taken for their own selfish needs,” Seth cooed, circling her with his behemoth frame as more tears flowed over her cheeks, her eyes squeezed shut with a frown, “I see your anger, your need for vengeance. To make them hurt the way they hurt you-” 

“NO,” She yelled this time, her hands coming up to grab at her hair, her body giving in to his words. He knew her. He knew her like an old friend, like he knew himself. Like she knew him. Like he’d been there for every bad thing that had happened to her. Like he was there for the whole of that time, he was there that day. 

That day. That body. What she’d done to him. 

“You hurt, little beasty,” Seth said, coming to stand in front of her. She felt his two huge hands hold onto her shoulders, one coming to her chin to tip it up to his face. 

If she opened her eyes now she’d see his sable black eyes looking down at her in an aching hunger. As if he revelled in the fact she was so pliant to his touch, that he could snap her neck within a flick of his finger and she could do nothing about it. She clamped her eyes shut harder, desperate to not fall for his gentle words, or the familiarity that came with his touch. No, he wanted this, he wanted her to concede, to trust him. To give into him.

No. She wouldn’t. She wouldn’t.

“I see the way you hurt. I see the fear in you that came long before I did. That they’ll all see you as I do,” He said, caressing her jaw with his sharp claws, a single ounce of pressure too much and her skin would be slashed open. 

“Stop,” She begged, her face wet with tears, her throat closing with a sob that drew out her request like a child. 

“Stop?” Seth’s voice was different now. The semblance of kindness that had been there in a fleeting moment was gone, replaced again with a thunderclap of a laugh, “You poor sweet morning lamb. We’ve not even begun,” 

Her eyes opened for a split second when she felt her body tense up, the feeling as close to rigour mortis as she could imagine, as a dark flash of movement, a row of sharp teeth, and insidious black eyes were all she saw as he took over every part of her body. 

Death took her body for the second time, though this time she felt everything. 

Layla watched its jaws open as its head flicked to her, its deep grunt of annoyance echoing through the empty street, before it's long, slim arms were thrust outwards and grabbed the two of them by the jugular, boney, rough fingers wrapping around their throats and squeezing. 

Steven was lifted off the ground, Layla suffering the same fate after she had thrown an empty beer bottle at the demon’s head, the tiny shards of refracted light bouncing off the glass like a mirrorball and outlining the head of a monstrous creature. 

Layla felt the brick smack harshly against her spine as the thing threw her to the wall, the same way Steven was tossed against a parked car, the passenger window cracking from the pressure and the alarm wailing in protest. 

They both stood up again immediately, Layla’s eyes scanning the floor for anything to use as a weapon, before her almond eyes fell on the neck of the bottle she’d thrown, the jagged edge of broken glass sharp and fatal. Diving for the shiv, she swiped at the area she thought the creature could be stood, though her attempt only proved futile as her wrist was grabbed almost too easily and the weapon was ripped out of her hands. 

The woman made a sound somewhere between a yelp and a cry as she was tossed to the hard ground like a ragdoll, Steven being thrown next to her as he made a move to grab the monster as well.

The two of them gasped as the hands seemed to swipe them to the ground harshly, like a cat toying with its meal, dragging the torture out as long as possible before they gave up and submitted to being ravaged. The two of them looked at each other in alarm, Steven’s eyes a bright white behind the suit, as they felt the jackal grab their ankles and drag. Their bodies scraped against the pavement, the two of them kicking and squealing, writhing to get out of the monster's grip, only to be yanked into the air once more, the blood rushing to their skulls the second they were pulled from the concrete earth. 

“Steven, do something!” Layla wailed, her cheeks pooling a purple colour the longer they were held, though she never relented in her hits, her arms and free leg waving around for any soft tissue she could get at. 

“Marc’s the one who fights these shits, not me!” Steven called back, trying desperately to reach for his batons to inflict any damage he could. 

Layla felt her head building with pressure, her eyes becoming painful to shut as she blinked slowly, the darkened streets turned upside down in her mind. Her thick, dark brows furrowed, her eyes locking in on a figure standing at the other end of the wide street, unrecognisable to her dazed eyesight. 

“Steven?” Layla murmured drunkenly, her hand coming up to grab his arm that was still flailing around. 

“What?”

“Who is that?” The woman asked, pointing to the dark silhouette that stood and watched them.

Steven’s illuminated eyes followed her finger to see the figure still with statue-like grace, silent yet never relenting their dark stare.

His eyes trailed from their body, muscled and in a wide, casual stance, their arms resting at their sides. Their entire body seemed to be in some kind of black, chestplated one piece suit, pads of armour on their vulnerable parts, thin spindles of gold wrapping around the suit in a skeletal fashion. The armour spread over the backs of their hands, opening out into golden claw-like razors at the tips of their fingers that didn’t so much as twitch with fright at the sight of two strangers suspended in the mid air. 

A black muzzle wound its way over their mouth just above where the suit ended at their jaw, their hair falling over the back of their shoulders to reveal more of the golden weaves that fell around their neck and over their breastplate, accentuating the woman’s curves whilst also giving off the look they were wearing a set of bones on their armour. 

Two six-inch shells of armour protruded from their headpiece, curved yet in lithe points, like long dog ears, like a Whippet’s, high and alert. 

“I-I don’t know,” Steven murmured, though he found himself unable to take his eyes off the shadowed figure. He wasn’t even sure they were breathing at the way they were frozen solid, their head tilted slightly as if intrigued by the scene in front of them. 

It was then that it seemed the Jackal realised they had company. But this jackal wasn’t alone. It had brought friends too. 

The figure seemed to cut out of their daze as another of the behemoth beasts came stalking out of the darkness, as if to have been waiting for the scraps of the kill. But it had prey of its own now. This mystery woman. 

Steven’s heart fell into his mouth, which wasn’t too hard seeing as he was still being held upside down by the creature. 

“Run!” Steven called to her, though she seemed to take no notice of his cries, “Get out of here!” 

But the woman stood still, head snapping to where the jackal walked forward, slowly and with a hungry grin on its face as a deep growl rumbled from deep within its chest. This thing was going to rip her to pieces, Steven thought numbly. And it was going to be all his fault for not giving the body back to Marc. 

“Marc,” Steven said with a panic as the thing stepped closer to her still, her head tilting more at the sound of its approach, though that was the only inch she moved, “Marc- take the body- Marc- MARC-”

But he was too late. Steven winced as the jackal lunged towards her, jaws wide open and large enough to swallow her entire skull with one bite. He wanted to look away but his eyes couldn’t tear themselves off the scene, though he knew a blood bath was coming. He felt the bile rise already at the idea of it, though maybe that was the gravity talking.

But Steven’s heart practically stopped when his eyes caught another slight flicker of movement from the woman and he realised exactly what he was seeing. 

The Jackal’s jaws were pried open, stuck in the moment the creature had leapt forward. It took Steven a second to realise the woman’s hands were the ones holding them ajar, her sharp nails latching into its snout and chin, blood already running down her hands at the sheer vigour at which she held onto the dead flesh. The beast gave a whine, its body jolting forward as it tried to overpower her, only to have no luck. She didn’t budge a single hair's width. 

Steven’s eyes widened, the beams of light engrossed with the scene before his eyes. Who on earth was that? How could she see the jackals like he could, let alone wrestle one? 

“Steven, give me the body,” Marc demanded from inside his head, though Steven caught the trace of nerves that rang at his voice like a church bell on a silent morning. 

“Who is that, Marc?” Steven asked, his eyes widening when he saw the figure forcing the jackal to back down a step as she forced herself towards the creature, clearly stronger than the monster twice her size. 

“Steven, I will explain everything later, just please give me the body or she’s gonna get hurt,” Marc said with the same edge to his voice that he had before. The way Marc dodged his question had sirens wailing in Steven’s chest, louder than anything else the American man inside him had said. 

Steven’s voice cut out when he watched the figure grab the beast's jaws even tighter, yanking them apart with a sickening crunch as the joints popped out of their place. She didn’t stop there, not even as the creature gagged and squirmed, a yawp of pain echoing around the street as it scrambled to get out of her grip. But she was relentless. She tugged apart the lower mandible even wider, wider than could ever be natural, and a gut wrenching rip came next. 

The creature stopped moving. Stopped crying. Stopped everything. It slumped to the ground in defeat, the woman standing over its body with no mercy as she held the wad of flesh in her hand, blood running from her fingertips as smooth as water. 

The creature's lower jaw was thrown to the ground, its face a mush of exposed muscle, its throat torn cleanly open. It was then her gaze set onto the other jackal with a slow turn of her head and a low growl echoed through Steven’s bones.

It took him a second to realise it wasn’t the creature that held him that was making the sound. It was coming from her. 

Layla and Steven were dropped to the ground as she approached the creature, the two of them gasping for air, their heads spinning with the blood crashing around their brains. 

The jackal set its sights on her too, eager to avenge its fallen companion, the two of them circling one another for a moment. She made the first move, her black boots near silent against the cobbled street as she leapt with cat-like grace to tackle it to the ground. 

She was able to get her arms around its neck as it met her in the air, her muscled arms quick to begin choking the thing, squeezing until they heard the sound of its shoulder popping out of place. The jackal gave a yelp similar to the other one, only it dragged out into an angry snarl as its huge clawed hand grabbed onto her by the scruff of her neck. 

It threw her away from itself, desperate to get her strong hands off its body, and tossed her a good ten feet away, into the middle of a busy road where she bounced over the bonnet of a car and smashed its left headlight in. 

Steven was quick to jump to his feet as the monster’s head flicked away from the woman, back to where he and Layla stood. 

“Steven, you’re being dumb. Don’t do this, you can’t do this-” Marc protested, though Steven felt whatever bravery he had left collecting together as he clenched his hand together in a tight fist. 

“I think- I think I can,” He replied, the Jackal stalking closer to him with its three good legs. It stepped forward, its confidence shaken by the woman that was now getting back up and pacing her way over to the two of them much too calmly for someone who had been thrown so harshly. “You want some more do you, you mangy, Macedonian mutt?” Steven tried to taunt, though he could feel the tinge of fear still quelling at his chest at the sheer brute size of the thing even when wounded. 

The creature roared in response, gathering its hind legs up to lunge again, as Steven drew back his arm to swing. 

But he was too late. The woman had returned with a silent agility. Steven saw nothing but a flash of black and gold as she dived for the jackal’s throat, clawing and snarling at its chest as she took the thing down with her in one swoop. Steven watched with an agape jaw as she lifted the creature up as if it were nothing more than a sack of grain, and threw the jackal into the same parked car already cracked from where Steven had hit it, the opposite window getting the brunt of the attack as it smashed and the door caved easily. 

The creature lay still for a while, giving Steven time to confront the woman who had helped him, and hopefully answer the questions that Marc had dodged. 

“Oh my god,” Steven started, approaching the woman from behind where she was stood, barely out of breath for what had just occurred, “Excuse me, who exactly are you, you’re just bloody amazing-”

Raising his hand to touch the woman's shoulder gently, Steven practically had the wind knocked out of him as she turned on her heel in less than a blink of his two white eyes, and threw him to the ground as easily as she had the creature. Kneeling over him, his body mushy underneath her sadistic strength, he felt his knees go weak as she grabbed him by his collar and brought him to her face where her eyes trailed over his own face, a horrifically deep snarl emanated from her chest, shaking his lungs with its power. 

“WOAH, Woah wait. I’m not going to hurt you, though I supposed I should be more worried  about you hurting me-” It was then that he actually took in what he could see of her face. 

The colour of the hair that fell around her face as she leant over him, the shape of her face that wasn’t covered by the black muzzle that wrapped around her mouth and over her nose, thin and metallic and yet making her sounds all the more terrifying. Her eyes, the iris gone and replaced by inky black pits of darkness that blinked down at him with famine. 

But that face. He would know that face anywhere, he would know it in the thickest of fogs, the darkest of Winters. He could find her in any crowd, in any life. And if he was to go blind by morning, he’d know her by the way she breathed alone. 

And he did. Despite the fact her breath was laden with grunts, he knew her. He knew her. 

“Dove?” Steven muttered, hands coming to hold her face gently, his brows furrowed with confusion, “Dove, what happened to you-”

His hand had all but brushed her cheek, a gentle action that normally would have had her preening to his touch, had her snapping at the bit, and Steven was sure she would have taken his hand clean off had she not been muzzled like a rabid dog. 

Steven jumped back as she came closer to him, an even louder rumble of fury damn near bursting his ear drums as she warned him off of touching her. She was not his dove. Not the girl he knew. Not the girl he loved. She was a feral beast untamed and wild, eager to hurt him as much as she had attacked the jackal were he to get too close. 

“Dove?” Steven asked one more time, though he kept his hands in surrender as she manhandled him, pushing him to the floor more as she pinned him down, her black eyes empty and raw as she stared at him, “It’s me, Steven. Your Steven,” 

Nothing. He gained no reaction from her, not so much as a blink. This was not her. This was a savage creature that knew no such thing as gentle touches and loving words. 

She did nothing but stare at him, waiting for him to make a move out of line so she could tear him to shreds. And yet, Steven lay there as if to submit his body to her if she wanted to do such a thing. He couldn’t hurt her, couldn’t fight back. Could never lay an unkind hand on her even if it came to his last moments on the earth. He could die by her hands and he would still consider himself lucky to have been touched by such a creature. 

She raised a clawed hand up to bring down on his masked face, a strength in the hit strong enough to tear clean through the ceremonial armour and likely leave him disfigured, if not cleave his skull in two on the spot. But she didn’t get a chance to strike. No sooner had she raised herself up to end it all, the Jackal launched its beaten body at her crouching form, the two of them tumbling away from Steven’s shaking body and rolling amongst one another in a flurry of wails and growls. 

She flew off him spitting and yowling like a feral street cat, a sound no normal human should make as the creature bit down on her arm hard. 

Steven felt two arms dragging him upwards and away from the scene, Layla could only imagine what was going on as the mystery woman’s arm sprayed her own blood over the concrete with every swipe of her claws. 

“What is that?” Layla asked breathlessly, practically yanking Steven away as he trembled under her hands. She froze when Steven said her name, her name, the name of the girl she had left in that room to make her own way out. “What? Is this Harrow’s doing? Turning her into some crazy dog-woman?”

“I don’t know,” Steven said with a defeated tone, his chest aching at the way she had looked at him with no recognition of who he was. “I think…” Steven thought for a moment, “I think Marc will know how to help her,” 

Layla nodded at him, her eyes taking in his broken expression, patting him on the arm gently, “Okay. Okay, bring him out,”

Steven turned away from her, sparing a small glance to the woman who held his life so closely in her hands, who had been seconds away from ending it, who he gave himself to entirely were it to be that he saw her in his last few moments of living. She scrapped with the jackal, two wild beasts gaining on eachother, drawing blood whenever and wherever they could. 

“Marc,” Steven said, his eyes never leaving her blank face, spots of blood now sprayed over her nose like freckles. He felt his alter perk up at the name, his body already tensing up as Marc clawed at the reigns to take over now.

“Yeah, buddy?” Marc asked, though he could see everything Steven was seeing, and his heart already sunk at the unrecognisable thousand mile stare she had. 

This was it. Seth had her now. “Save her,”

authors note: I used an AI to create what I think Dove looks like in her suit and-

These are the vibes we’re going for! Please feel free to imagine her as ANY shape, ANY ethnicity and ANY height however, these were just what the AI generated!

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LAST KNIGHT IN SOHO TAGLIST 

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[coconox]

my 2 cents on the state of whb

i've been contemplating about my thoughts on this game since i never really sat down and processed it, and a month of not playing the game and just keeping up with fandom content/official game news i think i can properly format my words (hopefully idk lol)

if you're looking for a specific section dw i'll properly format everything under the cut so you can just scroll till you find whatever you're looking for (also head's up it's insanely long i'm sorry but kinda not sorry i wanted to just put all my thoughts into one post rather than multiple)

SMALL INTRO

for some context on my experience, i have been playing this game everyday since launch/day 1, i was f2p up until i got juno's card, which i'll talk about later, but just know in advanced that juno was the only case where i've spent money. i uninstalled around the time the announcement was made in regards to no posting full stories of paid content, so almost month ago, and only reinstalled recently to grab certain items to add to the spreadsheet that i've been maintaining since november (aka a month after launch)

i've said it privately to a couple of close friends but i'll say it publicly here: imho, i think they released the game way too early even with the fact that they delayed launch 3 times.

i understand a handleful of bugs are from the fact that the public servers are significantly larger than test servers, but playing this game after the servers kinda stabilized feels like we are the test players, like we're constantly given rough drafts rather than the final copy.

the localization is rough to say the least, but i think i've been so used to it from other gachas that i've played that it didn't really ruin the experience for me,,, except when the text would switch to an entirely different language HJGFDHJGK

from visual bugs to gameplay bugs to voiceline bugs, there's been a lack of communication in terms of what has been fixed and what is still a wip. instead the players just have to "fuck around and find out" in terms of whether something has been fixed or not.

as i continue to state the issues with this game and its direction i'd like to put a disclaimer that i am by no means an expert in any of this stuff lol. i'm just a guy who nerds out over math, spreadsheets, and video games and everything i'll be saying is my personal opinion based on what i've seen/experienced.

THE ISSUE(S)

SOLOMON SEALS AND GACHA

i think the first mistake was them adding solomon seals in the first place. based on what packs in the past looked like, it looked like red keys were originally designed to be for debut characters, but instead they throw a curve ball and add ANOTHER gacha currency that was essentially p2w only up till some point early this year. this ultimately led to there being 2 standard banners, both of which essentially do the same thing except one doesn't have A/B/C-ranks. the fact that now even with realm of seraphim, in order for f2ps to have enough to guarantee with seals, they need to save for a year and a half. that is WAY too long for ONE character. this is of course worst case scenario of needing to hit pity, i'm aware you can get characters early but you should never always expect you'll get early in gacha games, i learned that the hard way during my idk how many years i've been playing gachas lol

i personally think that there's no winning across any of the gacha banners. there's no pity for either of the standards, and debut L/S-ranks have imo too high of a pity for what we're actually receiving per week. we essentially get more or less 1 pull per week in terms of red keys, yellow keys, and seals through dailies/weeklies alone, though of course that can vary cause of the rng key boxes, monthly login rewards, etc.

PANCAKES

there seems to be a general pattern that i've noticed of rather than confronting an issue directly they try to create something new in hoping that fixes the issue instead. an example of that would be the pancake shop.

the old pancake shop was fine as is, we could get a multi for relatively cheap price and get pie boxes everyday (albeit they're rng but pies are pies). what they could've done was add the L-ranks and skip tickets or whatever new thing they wanted to add into that old shop, adjusting the currency wherever necessary. yet instead they just remove the old system entirely and replace it for a new one that no one really asked for? while having the L-ranks in shop are nice, an entirely new system wasn't necessary to make that one relatively small addition. having A+-ranks and lower give gold and books was also not necessary, we have resource stages containing those 2 things and it's very accessible to everyone. what resources we are lacking in however are tears and pies, which are arguably more important than gold and books since those 2 currencies are the core to ascending/lvling characters and their skills.

PIES

i've emailed pb in the past in regards to if there will be other permanent methods for obtaining pies, and their response was holy coin portal and events. those two are NOT stable enough for pie income considering the prices of skills. if there's instances in unholy board where we need to level a character's skills, i'd expect there to be some sort of resource stage that would allow us to get pies so that we can easily obtain that skill level requirement.

"META" GAMEPLAY

i'll explain the quotes in a bit but i do want to put a disclaimer that whb was the first time i've experienced a full on tower defense style gameplay for gachas. i was already familiar with how it works kinda because of neural cloud even though the game as a whole is more like an auto-chess game of sorts, but some story gameplay had tower defense mechanisms and i learned a fair bit from playing that. personally i also haven't played arknights since i'm trying to cut down on the amount of gachas i play but i am aware of its playstyle through friends who like to attempt to drag me into playing it cause of certain characters that i might simp over (*cough flamebringer cough insider cough chongyue cough*)

disclaimer aside, trying to piece together what characters work and what don't genuinely hurts my brain. i put "meta" in quotes because realistically there's only 1: all L-rank light types, ideally at least 1 tank, maybe 1 healer (though a tank can act as both), rest be whatever dps you'd like really (preferably satan considering the fact he can be extremely reliable without his ultimate unlike a few characters). of course, everyone will have a different opinion on what they deem as meta, but that's the general idea i'd personally follow based on what kind of battles have been given to us, what characters are available, etc. the rest tbh are just "cope and seethe" for lack of a better term.

there's a huge type advantage with light and dark types, and i really wish they could buff the other elements more just show they have some spotlight too. i also wish there were more non-light L-ranks. as of making this post, out of the 23 L-rank characters there is currently only 1 non-light L-rank, and it's juno, an L-rank fire marksman.

the part that really "hurts" me the most (don't really know what other word to put here LOL) is the fact that this game is going in a very specific direction of just dps'ing through everything and hope you clear the stage before the enemies kill you.

this game has a huge and imbalanced ratio between dps characters and support characters regardless of element. the fact that we only have 5 healers (NOT including lucifer (victory) considering he's technically a marksman and the healing is from his artifact and not in his skills) and 8 tanks, whereas marksman and close-rangers have twice or thrice the amount is absurd. what pains me more is the fact that for tanks, if you don't have mammon, you're screwed. arguably the best non-mammon option players have that's accessible is bimet. valefor and eligos share the same kit with the fact that their downfall is the possibility that they could be instakilled the second they pop their ult. healers on the other hand are somewhat more lenient. if you don't have lucifer, marbas is your next best, then gamigin (marbas and gamigin can technically be placed interchangeably since their healing differs by 0.1%, it just depends on who you have), then morax, then maybe buer but he only heals 1 unit at a time rather than multiple but i digress. healers still have multiple and very reliable non-L-rank alternatives whilst tanks really only have 1. i really, really hope there's more support units in the future cause man this sucks.

NIGHTMARE PASS

spending $50-$70, on paper, is significantly better than spending ~$400 for a character, and that's really the only "good" thing about it 💀

$50-$70 may feel like nothing to some players, but to a majority, that is a portion of a cost towards food, groceries, rent, etc. basically, i'd assume a majority of people would prioritize surviving than watching pixels on a screen.

i understand at the end of the day pb is running a business, but for kings to be fully locked behind a paywall knowing for a fact that a majority of the player base are 1. casuals/f2ps and 2. are here for the kings is absurd. plus with the fact that typically nightmare pass characters aren't added to standard and aren't always 100% guaranteed to rerun in the future just puts the nail in the coffin for me.

i think it makes more sense for non-kings like juno to be in nightmare pass because it's just additional fun and silly content that arguably won't be tied to the main lore and whatnot, maybe referenced as a silly bit here or there but it'd be more of an easter egg than something important that you absolutely need to know.

personally i bought juno's pass because i love his design, kit, and voice. story was kinda meh for me personally but i really just cared more about the va and gameplay. gameplay-wise, he certainly does not disappoint as a gehenna support unit. but do i regret purchasing him? yes and no. oddly enough this was probably the first i've ever felt guilty in terms of buying something i wanted in a gacha game. yes i regret it in terms of i'm no longer really playing this game anymore, which is unfortunate considering i barely made it through half a year of this game's release. yet at the same time, no i don't regret it because he is a really fun unit. for example, when it's gabriel's rotation in realm of seraphim, juno's, leraye (nostalgia)'s, and leraye's ultimates absolutely DESTROY gabriel in a matter of like <10 or so seconds and it's so satisfying to see. i also just really like his va, scratches a very particular itch in my brain.

anyways before i get sidetracked over appreciating juno, the fundamental flaws of nightmare pass are essentially

you shouldn't need to buy both tiers to get the character. you should realistically need to buy the highest tier and by default it unlocks all previous tiers below it

ui is a bit confusing. i still don't get why f2ps have to unlock parts of nightmare pass that they can't even access/obtain. there should be a clear separation between what f2ps get, what advanced tier gets, and what premium tier gets.

it's too expensive. most bp's i know are ~$10 at the highest tier, though that's considering the fact that bp's i'm familiar with only give cosmetics rather than actual units

from what i've heard through the grapevine, beel (bath) is basically in the same formatting as all the other currently existing bath cards, which are all currently obtainable through gacha. beel has no reason to be in nightmare pass. it genuinely makes no sense as to why pb put him there aside from getting money and that in-turn alienates a majority of the fan base since we can't even view the prologue of card stories if they're a nightmare pass character.

when nightmare pass was first released during christmas, everything was in chaos. the fact that a nightmare pass character needed the other two limited gacha characters gameplay-wise is absurd (mind you, this was before we were given the chance to earn seals through weeklies). everything was too expensive, and rather than an enjoyable christmas event it felt like a "merry christmas, now give us money" kind of situation. i think nightmare pass should not be happening as frequent as it is now. the gap between gabriel and juno was perfectly fine (4 month gap btw), but for a nightmare pass to happen back to back on top of gacha events is too much for both f2ps and p2ws.

the point of buying packs, bp, anything that costs real money in a gacha game is so it makes your gameplay experience easier, paying shouldn't be the main component of your game. personally based on what i've experienced through playing gacha games you should theoretically be able to pull for almost every character on debut just by playing dailies/weeklies/events, yet here we get a bit over a multi per patch (this includes playing realm of seraphim).

DICTATING FANDOM INTERACTIONS

i wholeheartedly believe a fandom is what keeps a game alive. a hindrance to the fan base is a hindrance to the game, which can be seen with the aftermath of pb announcing that legal action will be taken if full stories of paid content are shared publicly. while i understand from a business standpoint that pb would want to enforce the "no sharing full story" thing for paid content since they want players to yk, buy the card, like i mentioned in the previous section, the majority of the player base just cannot afford it.

the people who posted full stories wanted to share to those who cannot afford it, some people may not want only tidbits of the story but rather the whole context, especially those who enjoy dissecting character lore but don't have the irl funds to fully experience it themselves. some people may even want to archive it, cause honestly no one knows how long this game will stay up and we want to archive story so that it's something we can easily look back on. to essentially make players borderline terrified on trying to figure out whether or not it's ok to publicly post stuff in relation to any sort of story content is absurd.

there is also that loophole of what is defined as a paid story. when events end and get put behind a paywall, does that now count as paid story or is that still ok? what about debut L-ranks that are behind seals and there's a 3 month downtime till they're added to standard? or is it just referring to nightmare pass characters? paid stories in the context of the state of the game right now is insanely broad, it's practically at least 50% of this game (i'm exaggerating (or maybe not i wouldn't be surprised if that was actually the case)).

i understand no datamining, while it technically speaking isn't illegal, it's disrespectful to the devs, but a lot of these call to action methods they're announcing are rather extreme imo.

with the most recent cards either being put to standard 3 months after their banner ends or flat out paywalled and not 100% guaranteed to have a rerun, story content as of late has been very sparse. what people want most is a main story update, which we were originally promised to be updated every 3 months and it is now month 6 and we still have nothing.

EVENTS AND EVENT STORIES

event stories being locked behind a paywall after the event ends is probably the first time i've ever seen a gacha game do this. most of the gachas i've played either don't archive event story at all and just rerun it every year, don't rerun or archive the event at all (i.e. if you miss it, cope and seethe), or they archive it for FREE. it feels insanely greedy how EVERY event story needs payment if you ever want to backread an old event.

what also concerns me is the fact like instances like gamigin's event or beleth's event carry so much lore for their respective region and that may never show up in main story, which then screws new players over in not knowing the full context behind every region. events like minhyeok's or bimet's are fine in the sense that it doesn't carry that much lore in comparison to the more recent events. the first few events were like silly banter and getting to know a bit more about the cast.

also changing the event shop from daily pies to a set limit per account was an awful choice it just emphasizes my point earlier of how unstable obtaining pies are in this game.

FULFILLING PROMISES

i think while it was a smart move to list what's gonna be implemented throughout the year, they shouldn't have stated deadlines on when they're doing so.

the following are the things that still aren't implemented yet as of making this post:

new daily chats (expected within february)

friends system (expected within march)

birthday system (more specifically celebrating your bday) (expected within april)

new main story chapter (new chapter expected every 3 months)

if pb were to just say "here's what to expect in 2024" and NOT give specific months, that's fine, but giving these specific months sets an expectation that they would complete it within that timeframe. main story for example is probably the one people have been anticipating the most. by now as of july, if we were to follow the expectation pb gave us, we would currently be on chapter 7, or at the very least chapter 7 would've been released some time this month. we have not even gotten chapter 6 yet. chapter 5 was released in january. it has been 6 months since the last main story update. failing to meet these timeframes will make people upset, because it was mentioned in the announcement that it's 1. a promise (i hope i'm not the only one that takes promises seriously) and 2. in bold yellow text, "what we can realistically expect to see in 2024." the only promises that were fulfilled on-time were the ones in january, the rest have been delayed by at least a month. if you're giving a timeline of what's happening, announce if there's any changes to that timeline, because not doing so will make players believe you were lying to them even though you probably aren't and are instead just falling behind schedule.

i think what hurts more to me is the fact that they aren't publicly communicating these delays. it shouldn't be our responsibility to find out why or when something isn't happening within the timeframe they promised (e.g. by emailing them), it should be up to the devs to communicate that publicly to us. i'm not saying they should overshare what's going on behind the scenes, it can simply just be a simple announcement of "hey, we're very sorry but we're having some technical difficulties with this certain feature and we need more time. here is some compensation in the meantime, thank you for your patience and again, we're very sorry." it's that simple.

FINAL THOUGHTS

i mentioned back in my intro that i feel like this game was released too early purely because the fundamentals of making a bare minimum decent gacha game are just not there. if every patch update has people complaining on what's just recently been added/removed, you're not fully listening to what the audience wants. while i understand pb is a small business, a business is still a business regardless of size and criticism/feedback is necessary especially in a game dev setting.

i've followed this game's news ever since it was teased, which was december of 2022, i've lurked/participated in the fandom (on here at least) ever since september of 2023. i've felt a rollercoaster of thoughts and emotions of "omg this is so great" to "why is this even a feature," hoping that over time the game would get better, but the only thing that's improved was server stability (and even that's still a bit rocky 💀).

a huge part of my stay was just being a lurker in the fandom. i genuinely appreciate all the creatives who fulfill asked prompts of characters, make ocs, fanart, write theories, reactions + many more. i love seeing other people's works/opinions and having just a lively fandom made it all more fun.

but at this point this game is just not for me. i've really only stuck around to read mammon's lore but since main story hasn't been updated in 6 months i'll really only chime back in when there's finally an update. it still amazes me to this day that my patience lasted this long. i think i've covered everything i wanted to cover but my memory is swiss cheese so if i forgot something,,, woops 💀

as for the future of the spreadsheet for those who check back on it, it's still being managed by myself and windy, who has been a huge help since day 1 of creating the build lists and team comps and i honestly can't thank her enough for also enduring this pain of a game with me as we've worked on this spreadsheet together hgjdfgh (luv u bestie 🫶). though it's written in the narrative that both of us will eventually quit updating it entirely if this game persists on not having any signs of improvement. when that day comes i'll make sure to post an announcement about it.

as for myself i'm probably still gonna lurk in the fandom/keep an eye out on game news. i doubt i'll be making any fanart anymore unless if i really have the motivation/boredom for it, but currently i'm revamping the "aesthetics" of this account so nothing's really set in stone. maybe i'll make a few whb rambles here or there if some game news really irks me but for the most part i've already been in the process of moving on to other things.

if you've stuck around this long to read this mess of a post, thank you for sticking around and have a cookie, you deserve it 🫴🍪

[balloonboyismyson]

Freddy Bear (Glamrock Freddy x Reader oneshot)

You are absolutely in love with Freddy, and what is the best way of telling him other than getting him a meaningful gift?

(1.5k words)

28mph, 29mph, 30mph

The speed slowly rises as you try to center yourself on the road. Right now it feels like there are a hundred things to focus on to just drive the couple of miles to work. In your passenger seat lies a little box, one you hand-picked for the perfect gift. 

He’s always been by your side. Through loss, through hardships, and through each painful scream from your boss- he is always there to support you. 

Freddy Bear, as you call him, is always the highlight of your days. Helping him through birthday parties is always a delight, and getting to see his smile makes every kid’s tantrum worth it. The way he squints when he smiles, his beautiful K9s saying hello, he’s such a masterpiece. 

You try so hard to make him feel as special as he makes you, but by god, you don’t think you’ll ever be able to achieve that. That’s where the box comes in. Within it is a special gift that you agonized over for weeks, wondering if it was good enough. No matter what you looked at, this one thing seemed to keep popping in your head, and you decided that this is what you needed to give him. 

He had already told you that no gifts were necessary, especially since he has pretty much everything he could ask for. “I do not do it for a reward,” he says. But you are determined to get him something the gift shops never could. To keep it safe, you put it in a fancy bag with tissue paper and clicked the seatbelt around it so it would not jostle around. It’s fragile, so you were trying hard to keep your car from bumping on the uneven roads.

If there is one thing you hope, it is to hear that gorgeous laugh when he opens it. It is not a joke gift by any means, but you hope he’ll shake his head and pull you into a hug when he opens it. 

Your shift doesn’t start until 9AM, but you wanted to get there early. The idea to wait until closing crossed your mind, but you quickly decided that you simply can’t wait that long. When you pull up to the empty Plex, you get another rush of anxiety. That stupid voice in your head keeps saying this is a horrible idea, that he’s gonna hate it. A quick shake of your head stops you from imagining him throwing it on the ground to break it, because you know he’d never do something like that to you. 

The doors open and you stand there for a moment trying to collect your bearings (hehe!). You take a deep breath and hold the bag behind yourself as you walk in. The closer to Rockstar Row you get, the more nervous you become. 

He deserves this gift! He deserves way more than this, too, but damn it there is no backing out now!

As you approach his room, you see his curtains drawn just a smidge. He walks by the crack and you swear your heart stopped for half a second. A part of you was hoping he was downstairs rehearsing for today, but you must’ve come at a good time. 

Your face immediately heated up the second you saw him. Your eyes move down and look at the floor to ground yourself once more. 

“Whazzat?” Jesus Christ you almost shit yourself at the sudden question. You fling yourself to look at whoever is behind you, and Monty stares back at you with his shades propped up on his forehead. “Relax, shortstack, ‘s jus’ me.” You let out a breath you must have sucked in during the scare and close your eyes in defeat. “H-hey Monty.” Was all you could let out as he chuckled at your now sweaty figure. “OooOOoo, you got a present fer someone? ‘S it fer your boyfriend?”

You want so badly to tell him off, but in all honesty, Freddy being your boyfriend would probably make you the happiest person in the world. Denying it now means you do not want it to happen, and for the sake of karma, you can’t make yourself utter a peep. You just look at him, and his eyes bug a little bit before a devilish smile pops onto his face. 

“Y’know, shortstack, that bear really likes you. He might never have the guts ta tell ya to yer face, but I’ve never seen ‘im happier. ‘Nd he’s happier ‘cuz of you.” He places his glasses back upon his snout and bends over, getting really close to your face. “‘Nd this is jus’ between you ‘n’ me, but you break his heart? I break you, capiche?” You nod your head vigorously and he belly roars a laugh. “Glad that’s outta the way! Now, get in there ‘fore you have a heart attack. Don’t want ya dyin’ before you talk to ‘im!” Monty grabs you by the shoulders and turns you around, harshly patting your back, causing you to take a few steps towards Freddy’s door. Before you can thank him, you can already hear him jump and make his way towards his room. 

You take another deep breath and start walking towards the room, your nerves building up again as you step closer. As you walk up to the door, you look back in the back to make sure the box is inside, and once you deem it is, you shakily knock on the door to his room. 

A brief “Coming!” is said as you smile from just hearing Freddy’s voice. As you hear footsteps approach, you remember the bag and quickly hide it behind yourself. Once Freddy uncovers his room, he gives you a big smile. “Hello, Superstar! You are here early this morning! Did something urgent come up?” 

“No, no, nothing like that!” You wave your hand in dismissal and hold a somewhat clenched fist towards your chest. “May I come in?” 

“Of course! I was just cleaning up for the Meet and Greets after the shows! Please, make yourself at home!” 

My god, he was as sweet as ever. As you enter the room, you continue to try and hide the bag behind yourself, but Freddy has very clearly already seen that you’re holding something. 

“What is that? Would you like me to carry it for you?” Your eyes open at his question and all you can muster is a couple of “uh-”s and “erm-”s as he stares at you with a cocked head. “T-this is for you!” The words basically pour out of your mouth as you quickly hold the bag out to him. “Superstar, I am very thankful, but you know you do not need to get me gifts. It is not even my birthday!” A chuckle finds its way out of your throat and you look at him with big eyes. “I know, b-but I saw this and it really reminded me of you.” Not a complete lie, but you don’t want to tell him that you were searching for weeks for the perfect gift, especially when the gift is so… subpar. 

He motions over to the couch and you follow him, where you sit side by side. You feel comforted by the big Freddy plush next to you, but you’re even happier to be here in front of the actual love himself. 

Freddy very delicately takes out the wrapping paper and takes out the box as gently as he can. You don’t even need to tell him that it’s fragile, it’s like he already knows. 

He undoes the ribbon and lets it fall into his palm as he very carefully lifts up the top of the box. You can hear a slight gasp from him as he tries to make out what he is seeing before picking it up. He gently holds it in-between his two claws and takes it out of the plush box. In his hand is a small glass figure of a fluffy bear with a butterfly on its nose. The bear looks extremely happy. 

He just stares at it for about a minute before an abrupt sob-like noise makes its way out of his voice box. You look up and see that his eyes are lit up, making the figure in his claws sparkle and refract across the room. 

“Freddy?” He breaks eye contact with the little bear and looks at you, his eyes somehow more glassy than normal, and you hear a little whimper come from his voice box. “Superstar t-this is…. Beautiful. Where did you get it?” His words were interrupted by an artificial breath in. 

“I found it at a store I go to a lot.” He hesitantly looks away from you and looks back at the bear, another sob like noise escaping him. “Thank you… so much, Superstar.” 

You didn’t expect him to love it as much as he does, but you’ve never been more happy than you are right now. You lean on his shoulder and he carefully puts the bear back in the box and shuts it before hugging you back. “I will cherish it for the rest of time, but I will cherish you for ever longer. Thank you.” 

[nihilnovisubsole]

Hiiii since I'm incredibly curious - what is the workflow process at your job? As in, when you get assigned something to write who does it come from, where does it go, what details do you get about it, and do you get to go wild with it or are you given rules or parameters to write in? I'm of course not asking for secrets or names, just the general process because it's really fascinating to me! I'm a long, long, long time follower and wanted to let you know it's been an honor to go from reading your FNV fanfics to seeing you work for the company itself. I'm extremely proud of you!

do you reckon it would be weird if i re-polished that FNV fic and posted it on ao3. i think about it in the shower sometimes

anyway! my workflow depends on a lot of different things. unless i have a large writing assignment that takes me a long time, it's rare for me to do the same tasks two days in a row. i write a lot, but i spend at least as much time editing, fixing bugs, or helping another department solve a problem. the "pitch an idea" stage is short.

when you get assigned something to write, who does it come from? either a producer or someone from the nebulous cloud called "leadership," like the game director or my narrative lead. sometimes it's a direct request, or sometimes they'll say "we have this thing that needs doing," and i can volunteer if i have time. like a lot of studios, we have an online work inbox - producers assign tasks through it, and i close them when i'm done.

where does it go? if you mean "where it goes in the game," pretty much anywhere. one day i could write dialogue. one day i could name items, or something like that. once i'm done, it gets handed off to another department to implement in the game itself. many NDs have to touch their game's engine. i don't, thank god!

what details do you get about it? this one depends too, because i've done work that's wholly mine, and i've also written on assignments that were someone else's first. sometimes an ND writes something, but when we revisit it months later, they're busy with more important work, so i need to pinch-hit for them. or they leave, and someone needs to take on the work they left behind. either way, i try to retain as much of their vision as i can. technically, they forfeit ownership of that writing if they leave, and i'm not beholden to them. but i don't like that, so i keep them in mind anyway. i just know i'd feel bad if someone took one of my characters and turned them into something that flouted all my principles.

if i'm starting from scratch, i'll definitely get parameters. they're vague ingredients that have to inform the ideas i pitch. for NDA reasons, these aren't specific examples, but it could be like:

"we need a guy in X Area so players will talk to him and find the item we hid there."

"this quest needs the player to do something in X Dungeon."

"this encounter needs to teach the player to use a special ability."

"this quest needs to teach the player about a conflict between two groups."

"this character should introduce X Worldbuilding Concept."

"we want to give the player X Reward."

they sound utilitarian, but they don't have to be. i can still go wild as long as i tick the right boxes. they're more guardrails than anything. in game writing, where you have limited assets, you have to be careful not to get out ahead of your skis and pitch something the team can't make. you also don't want to put the player in a situation you haven't taught them how to handle, or confuse them with your world. i mean, they're still confused sometimes, but... you know!

[thewholecrew]

@headstrongblake said: ϟ — [sender] and [receiver] are stuck indoors on a rainy/stormy day / thewholecrew + o&nick ???

this isn't how rev had planned this weekend but they supposed while it could have been better it also could have been worse. the weather man lied, promising a beautiful weekend for them to enjoy at the cabin but yet the sky was dark grey, thunder rolling outside as it poured all day. aside from spending a little time on the shielded porch, the gang had decided to gather around in the living room and play some games the old fashon way. rev plopped down the boardgames on the table, blowing the dust off the top and unintentionally over at kassy and nick. "hey!" kassy coughed, raising her arm as nick shielded her from the cloud that dissolved into the air. "whoops, sorry," they mused with a smirk as alec placed down a couple different card games.

"ooh, it's been a long time since i've played yahtzee!" alec exclaimed as he plopped down on the couch between kassy and octavia, holding a cup of dice for the game. "don't think i've ever played that one," kassy murmured, leaning tucked against nick as she eyed the other games. with the fireplace lit, there was a warm glow that flickered in the living room, the soft crackling of burning wood a soft ambiance that melded with the sound of the rain against the windows and the low rumbling of thunder. this was not what kassy would call an enjoyable weekend away but she was trapped here now and preferred to be inside anyways, keep away from bugs for the most part.

grant leaned closer, his arms around octavia as he peered down with a small smile on his face and perhaps an eager light in his eyes. "we could play snakes and ladders?" he suggested, "or monopoly," he was a fan of chess and checkers and the old battleship game box as well but those games wouldn't allow them all to play together. "not monopoly, that game sucks," rev interjected with a roll of their eyes. it was one of hunters favourite board games when they were kids but rev just found it stupid and boring. "i'm fine with snakes and ladders, or yahtzee," kassy suggested before she sat up a little, "ooh, or uno, that game is sooo fun," she grinned as she picked the card deck up.

with nick suggesting a vote since there seemed to be a couple different options, they ended up deciding on snakes and ladders first, then uno, then yahtzee. "and if anyone wants to after, i'd love to try this puzzle," alec mentioned, pointing to the 1000 piece puzzle of an old I Spy page. kassy chuckled as she reached out to gently ruffle his hair, "maybe, if we're all still friends after uno," she teased.

so, with the snakes and ladders game set up everyone was given their player piece which was an assortment of things since over the years rev had lost the player pieces. one person was rewarded a button, another an acorn, one a broken soldier with no head. the looks they all gave rev as they were handing out the game pieces had them shrug, "what? as if you guys haven't lost a game piece or two in your day," they scoffed. with amused eye rolling and head shakes from the group aside from alec who adored his little flower piece, they began to play. there wasn't much of a strategy for the game since it was mostly luck but that luck was not on rev or nicks side. the two getting nearly every snake while grant, octavia and alec seemed to breeze through.

frowning deeply as rev went up a small ladder only to immediately go down another snake and start at the beginning again with nick, they groaned. "this is ridiculous!" they grumbled in outrage which had the girls on the couch laugh. "oh you think it's so funny," rev muttered, "well at least i don't have a spider on me," they countered, pointing to kassy who's eyes widened suddenly as she screamed, hands swiping at her shoulder as she practically launched herself into nicks lap, foot accidentally kicking the board game off the coffee table. alec and octavia also shifted away with gasps in surprise only for rev to then start killing themself laughing. they fell back where they sat on the floor as they laughed, "you should have seen your face! overreaction much?"

grant did his best to bite back an amused smile at it all despite the fact that he had been winning and now the game and all its pieces were scattered on the floor. kassy huffed in her own outrage, grabbing a pillow before launching it at rev. "you jackass!" kassy hissed from where she was curled in nicks lap, watching as rev caught the pillow to put behind their head as they continued laughing. she then felt the rumbled chuckle from nick and turned to him with a pout, "hey, don't you laugh at me too!" she huffed, poking at his chest despite the smile growing on her lips.

soft laughter from them all echoed through the cabin then as she shook her head, "well no wonder you lose all the pieces," she muttered as alec and grant had started cleaning up. "oh shut up, you're the one who kicked everything off the table," they countered with a snicker. kassy stuck her tongue out at rev before she rose from nicks lap, checking herself for a spider still yet in a mildly calmer fashion before she looked back at the couch. when it was finally deemed safe, she sat back down as she snagged the uno deck, "it's fine, but we're moving on." she decided. grant frowned hearing that as he finally set up the last piece where it had been. "we're done with snakes and ladders?" he asked only for rev and kassy to both say yes in unison. brows lifted as he leaned in to murmur to octavia, "are they always like this?"

[raayllum]

Hello First of all I just wanted to say that I've been following you for a while and I love all your TDP analysis. I always ask myself how I miss things because it always seems obvious in hindsight..... bug I digress.

I was wondering if you ever considered watching RWBY and if you would be willing to provide your analysis on that show! Colors and fairy tales and song lyrics.... I would love to hear your take on that. If this has been asked before I apologize!

Hello and thank you for your kind words and for taking time out of your day to share them with me!! That is incredibly sweet <3 And honestly I feel that same way when writing my own meta sometimes, like "bruh how did I not realize this sooner?" but I digress

I have heard of RWBY and some of the fairy tale stuff that's apparently woven in, and I think I gave the first episode a shot forever ago, but I couldn't really get into it. I wasn't really into the animation style in terms of the weapons and stuff, and I honestly don't go feral for fairy tale stuff as much as mythic stuff (Hansel and Gretel retellings and The Lunar Chronicles being some of the sole exceptions tbh). Steampunk can also be kinda hit or miss for me, so I don't know if it'd be for me, but I'm glad you love it and I hope you're having a fun time for it!

The only other series' I've really written meta for even somewhat prominently is ATLA (here) and a couple for HTTYD in the past, as well as VLD way back in the day, which was very disappointing to say the least, although I still think some of that meta holds up. But yeah meta takes a lot of hyperfixation energy to get out and nothing has ever quite grabbed me the way TDP has, and I'm very grateful to have a show that checks off so many of my personal favourite thing boxes as well as being so thematically rich and rewarding to talk about!

[amazingmsme]

Omg that tag vid 🤣 I can completely picture the main trio just spinning around the watch post and feigning going left or right at the cafe tables, tossing chairs to try to slow down each other. As for your most flustering fics hmngh so many of yours put me in Lee mood, and this got long and turned into my rambling like a nerd- apologies in advance!

I'm gonna say the Stanley Parable fics Disobedience Shan't be Rewarded, and Is the Bucket Worth it, Stanley? are some of the ones that get me the most. I think it's the way you right the Narrator. I have a weakness for Gods using their powers to mess with someone helpless and those fics scratch that particular itch for me wonderfully. Also, mock sympathy, and condescension fuck me up so bad in Lers and you write it so well? 🫣

Ooh Hands To Yourself gets me bad though 😭 Pretty sure that fic made me hide my face in blush multiple times; Essek especially took me out in that good Lord I haven't even met him but you made me frightened to haha as an easily flustered Lee. 🤣 There was also quite a few neck and ear tword focus and given those are some of my own worse spots, I was scrunching up reading certain parts there lol. Oh! Another thing about Essek's characterization I loved- how he feigned genuine anger, because I would absolutely panic and trip over myself to people please out of fear and fall right into his trap 🤣 Then after it comes out he's not actually upset and my bad anxiety would go away and turn into anticipation, like right before i go on stage for a performance. I think I'd more just get flustered, jumpy and skittish.

I thought your Castlevania fic The Moderator and the Monster are One in the Same was also super cute; I also wrote an Alucard/Reader fic a while back based on the library scene since it took me out. Still haven't finished the show because I don't want it to end/make me sad haha.

Fuck Off and Let Me Sulk took me out jfc, just found that now and we have similar tword thoughts lmao- Alucard calling Trevor out? I am always down bad for mean, teasy as Hell, Alucard. His voice and mannerisms kill me, and his adorable back and forth with Trevor at the end was so cute?

Okay no more rambling I swear! Hope you had a good rest and that this is semi-coherent; I'm gonna pass out now cause it's nearing 7am 🤣 Getting creative in the middle of the night is both blessing and curse

LXGSMAHSKD THIS IS LIKE THE NICEST THING ANYONE’S EVER SAID OMG THANG YOU ILY!

I remember having so much fun with the Stanley Parable ones, especially the first one! It was pure self indulgence rewarded by an unexpected shower of attention lmao. & omg my sweet baby boy Essek, trust me you’re gonna love this prissy bitch once you meet him! I was literally like a horse trapped in that box before the race & once I officially met him I shot off like a rocket! I really need to write more critickle role tbh cause I have so many ideas! Although I gotta admit, I’m not sure that one’s mine, so can’t take credit for that one, but I do have a long ass shadowgast fic that just so happens to have a very teasy Essek. & don’t get me started on castlevania! Omg I fell so hard for those boys! Their dynamic is so fun & their banter is hilarious! They need their own get along shirt, I feel like it would end badly lzavakdhkq but yeah, Alucard is a teasy bastard & he loves to bother Trevor, & the human is just too cute for his own good

Please don’t apologize for rambling! This made me really happy & it’s so cool to hear about what fics y’all really like! Especially when they’re ones I really enjoyed making! Wish I got better sleep, but the fucking construction woke me up & bug man is coming to spray, so fuck it, we ball. But omg please get some sleep! I mean, I’ve definitely been there after a night of endless creative flow, so I absolutely feel you. Sleep tight, & hope you have sweet dreams! & to everyone else… good morning! 😂

[findabanana]

How do i change the internet on my funia blue rag player

#How do i change the internet on my funia blue rag player movie#

#How do i change the internet on my funia blue rag player full#

It took awhile to upload-images would not upload and finally I had to do an update, with 13 pieces, so that took awhile and it's 3:05am right now. The box itself doesn't really seem to have any clues-not even an arrow on the box saying "This end up." I do think, however, that I can rule out a wide-screen tv. I was thinking of taking a picture a day and posting them, but thought that that would even annoy me half to death. I'll probably open it tomorrow and take a pic or two.

#How do i change the internet on my funia blue rag player full#

But the day went by fast and I got tired, and I realize it might be full of packing peanuts and pork rinds, so this box might be the best part of the deal. I was going to reward myself today after I got a few things done and open it. I think it's just beautiful-the box, that is. So, it's a picture using scale with miniatures made to scale. I put the water bottle there for scale, and I put a miniature Marvin and a miniature toy soldier made 'to scale'. So I got the mail today and sent out a pic or two of the box asking "Does that look like $5 worth?" (I didn't even wait for a reply, because I was already too excited anyway, and I think for $5 this is a beautiful boxx). So,I just think that whole thing is incredible, and congratulations. And he did and Bam! -well, that just went incredible. And 'a while' went by and Matt said "I want to do it again, I think". Tried back in woot days, and tried in meh-days-and then I got one! And I'm just oozing enthusing because I this it's incredible, that back in the day Matt started this thing, and had a ball with it, and then sold it.And 'They' said ok, you can't do this for awhile, and he said "o.k.", and went and played. Also, first time i won something, so I am just thrilled beyond belief. Thanks, Meh! 17įirst Time I've done this, so gimme a break. I doubt we'll find a use for the lunch bag, I but I love the black tote. It didn't look opened, thought the packaging was a little messed up, so we'll see. The video copter thing may or may not work. They're way too old for it, but they just watched ET for the first time about two weeks ago (it's on Netflix now, yay!) so I think they'll get a kick out of it. My kids are going to flip over the ET book. It stays on for a minute or so while playing music, then shuts off. Right after I took this picture, it shut off. We fixed the problem and I paired my phone and we had music. So, I headed to google and he opened it up. When my husband powered it up, the headphone icon was showing. The receiver had a note that said "no sound". There was excitement, disappointment, some fixing, more excitement, and then disappointment again. So my husband's ( but he doesn't do forums) Fuko came in today. But it looks like a turd to me.įinally, we got the expected Fuko bag, Now with extra shards of glass! 16 Turd? It's supposed to be a ceramic toothbrush holder in the shape of an alligator.

#How do i change the internet on my funia blue rag player movie#

That's not a bug, that's a feature! As your movie skips randomly, you may come up with a million dollar re-edit of a classic!" I wonder how many tiny shards of glass are embedded in this thing? The CPSC will get the vapors just thinking about that. Next we have a kid's "Adventure Time" neck pillow. Ok, well that's a major misfortune, the Fuko lives up to its reputation. Leaving me to wonder if it's worth checking it out and replacing the carafe or sending the whole thing into the dumpster unopened. It certainly appears that the 26 hermetically sealed samples of Irk's breath weren't going to do much good here. Upon opening, I think I have a pretty good idea what the source of clinking shards is. It came with the very ominous sound effects of something broken, which the clerk at my PMB remarked upon and said the Postal carrier did likewise.

[ffsg0jo]

- l i t t l e t h i n g s t h e y l o v e a b o u t y o u -

jjk x gn reader [gojo,, nanami,, nobara,, megumi,, itadori]

part 1,, part 2

WARNINGS: mentions of food -- masterlist

a/n: my draft kept messing up when trying to save/post this so please do excuse me if there are any mistakes. I hope you enjoy reading this and feel free to leave suggestions in my ask box!!

GOJO : the little exasperated smile on your face after he makes a terrible terrible joke or pun; you both know that it’s a terrible joke, but you can’t help but reward his behaviour with a teensie smile. in fact he loves seeing your expression so much he’s inclined to make more shitty jokes, despite everyone else's protests, just to see you smile. you hate to admit it, but you love seeing Gojo mess around. there's just something deeply satisfying in seeing him release his inner child, albeit very annoying, like he’s making up for lost time. it's a win-win situation for you both, each getting to relish in the others joy.  

NANAMI : no matter what you’re eating or where you are, without fail, there’s always little crumbs of food or sauce smeared on one corner of your lip. at first nanami found it messy and the little crumbs always used to bug him. but now he’s used to seeing it there and it's expected of you. and to be completely honest, he's grown rather fond of it. he thinks it’s one of the cutest things he’s seen; whenever you're sat down to eat he'd watch you with a smile on his face, your cheeks rounded, chewing on whatever it is you’re eating, with crumbs on your lips. plus it’s always an excuse to touch you and get closer to you :)

MEGUMI : the way your nose cutely scrunches up when you need to sneeze is something Megumi finds endearing and something he's obsessed with. everytime he sees your nose twitch, needing to sneeze he anticipates the little scrunch of your nose and a soft smile graces his lips. you could literally have the loudest, most trumpet-like sneeze in the world and Megumi would still wish to see you sneeze time and time again. in those moments he thinks about how much more pleasant life would be if he had a little camera built into his eyes to capture your cute expression, to look back on whenever he's feeling particularly worn out or stressed.

NOBARA : it's really weird but nobara just loves seeing you do your hair. the way your fingers sift through your hair and just watching the comb untangle it. she finds it oddly relaxing and calming. it also makes her incredibly jealous, wishing it was her fingers touching your soft hair and her hands working to untangle bits of your hair with a comb. she often dreams about the way your hair would feel in her palms and the way she'd also be close enough to smell the delightful shampoo you use. your hair is one of her most favourite parts of you.

ITADORI : yuuji loves it when you get really passionate about a niche little topic that you're into and get carried away talking about it. he can't even focus on what you're saying because he's too busy admiring the faces you make and the way your arms are swinging about in a show of ardour, although he does try his best to. he adores the way your eyes light up and come to life as you talk, twinkling with the light of a hundred thousand stars in the nights sky. he finds it absolutely admirable that you've found something that you love so much and that you can speak about for literal days on end.

© ffsg0jo 2022 — do not plagiarise, repost, modify, or translate any of my work, in any way shape or form; i will piss in your cereal if you do. all work belongs to me and me only.

[oatmealcrisp-freak]

Do you think the Saiki parents would be supportive or normal towards Kusuo if he had did his little physic gender swap later on in life or would they be bugging him (mainly Kuniharu) to change back into their “sweet little girl”?

OH BOY ANON YOU HAVE CRACKED A SEAL -cracks knuckles- LET’S GET TO THEORIZING AND CHARACTER ANALYSIS AND READING WAY TOO DEEP INTO THINGS THAT PROBS WEREN’T MEANT TO BE READ INTO!!!

Sorry this took a while, I got DEEP.

TLDR - Kuniharu? MAYBE. Kurumi? Thrilled. Kusuke? Hmm...

SO!!!

Kuniharu in particular seems to be threatened by Saiki because he's got ‘milkman colours’ (colouration and disposition) in addition to being, like, God.

Hopelessly optimist are good key words here.

I think this is supported by how fond he is of Kusuke, who shares his eye colour and smiles readily like his parents, while still being bug nuts out of this world smart. 

Kuniharu also doesn't seem to show much reaction to the 'little sister Kuriko (who can only be Kusuo running around as a girl)' thing, though his reaction isn't explored in depth. He only says she's in Paraguay once he catches on that “Ah, this is a Kusuo Thing”.

That said I personally do tend to HC him as a person who's not comfortable with things that he thinks are abnormal, by and large because of how he treats Kusuo. He happily reaps the benefits from his kid's powers but he really doesn't seem to be comfortable with Kusuo in general. In my fics this has translated to discomfort with things outside hetero/cisnormative binaries.

I think he's just more comfortable with things being 'black and white', and that might be part of why he prefers Kusuke to Kusuo as Kusuke is just a genius so he's still sort of within the realms of expectation. I think this is the case because overall Kuniharu is lazy. He's a lazy father, he's a lazy worker, he's a lazy thinker.

Your son has depression, sir.

And again, ‘hopelessly optimistic’. Those glasses? Rose tinted. He wants the ignorance is bliss schtick, but unlike Kurumi who doesn’t hide from the negative (see her threatening Kusuo out of self isolation and her worrying that Kusuo might be a bully) and knows her own drawbacks but is determined to do her best

KUNIHARU DOES WANT TO HIDE, both from his flaws and challenges, because that’s how he’s comfortable. And he doesn’t want to be uncomfortable, because he’s also too lazy for that.

(Says his son is a monster because Kusuo challenges him in every way)

(And also lashes out at him because of it. Repeatedly.)

(Doesn’t want to be confronted by the bed he’s made and literally runs away from it.)

(Doesn’t want his son to see his, uh, flaws. At least Nendo doesn’t drool when he picks his nose in public...)

Like yeah he’ll go into work when he’s running a 100 degree fever but he does need that job and...well....

Kuniharu is intelligent about what interests him. So basically, manga, figure building, and most of all, his wife. Anything outside what gives his brain that dopamine hit challenges him, and he doesn’t seem to really want to be challenged, so he won’t like it. 

Canonically speaking also, Kuniharu doesn’t seem to mind men, including men in authority over him. In fact, one of his top 10 skills is sucking up to men LOL (See his boss and Kumagoro) so it probably isn’t so much that Kuniharu is threatened by his son’s maleness (though I’ve joked about that in the past, it’s hard not to lOL), it’s just that Kusuo challenges his preconceptions and he doesn’t like that. He wants to make his son fit into a box his son doesn’t fit in, ergo, he punishes and dislikes his son. 

I think that’d be the case even if Kusuo did his transition later in life. More on that further down.

That said, Kuniharu does seem to have adapted to some new ‘normals’ thanks to Kusuo’s ‘not normalness’ - thus his ability to reap the rewards of it to the point of expectation and taking his kid’s abilities for granted as owed to him. 

To that end, I do think he’d be uncomfortable with discussions of gender outside the cisnormative binary, but also Kusuo turning into Kuriko would just be another Monday. However, if it’s then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...

So let’s flip that.

Kuriko Saiki ‘becomes’ Kusuo Saiki later in life. Would Kuniharu especially be a transphobe about it? 

I think it depends purely on how the conversation is approached. If it doesn’t challenge his preconceptions about what’s ‘normal’, I actually? don’t think he’d care?

Shocker coming from the Kuniharu Hate Blog, I know LOL

He might actually be happy to have another guy around the house!! And then become mad that said guy is still just as gloomy as ever, so that’d get back to the usual nonsense pretty shortly. See his reaction to Nendo in ch. 33 after his initial worries Nendo is a criminal (also proof Kuniharu is straight).

To Kuniharu, smiling = good person, like he says previously in the baby Kusuo omakes. 

His son doesn’t smile so he’s not. 

And I don’t think Kuriko would have a lot to smile about either tbh, even if some other familial circumstances might change for the better by her ‘being a girl’ (more on that below). All the issues with the ESP would be the same after all - she’d likely still be encouraged toward secrecy by her parents which would result in some mental hang ups, and Kuniharu would probably still have the same attitude of expectation that’d lead her to think

Because

That’s exactly how Kuniharu acts. So she’d probably still resent her ESP, and therefore, resent herself.

However if it’s approached via the lense of a discussion about the gender binary not being two boxes permanently forever, I think he’d get whiny and transphobic over it, yeah s;dlkf

Also Kurumi wouldn’t care one bit~ Her baby is her baby no matter what. She’s probably be excited because it means she’d have to make new clothes for her kid, because Kusuo has different ‘dimensions’ than Kuriko, incl. height.

That all said I think it’d probably be Kusuke who’d have the most problems about Kusuo transitioning later in life. 

He has so much affection for his mama and so much spite for his father, and he’s very hung up over the concept of his little BROTHER beating him - hence moving to England.

It’s not hard to read some sexism into Kusuke over his obsession with how the eldest male ought to be superior, AND how he treats Teruhashi, he basically calls her a slut sdlkfj 

so theoretically it’d make sense that he’d have even bigger problems with a little SISTER beating him than a little BROTHER, but 

Kusuo and Kurumi both have purple eyes. Kusuo is a mama’s boy. He’s a little ditzy and falls for scams - like his mother. He responds with violence to his loved ones being threatened - like his mother. He does things so his mom doesn’t have to, like wear Santa outfits and do the shopping (and tbh possibly cooking since Kurumi’s kitchen skills are shown to be debatable in the class reunion bit and Kusuo’s - as we see in the home ec bit - are solid). HE IS A MAMA’S BOY.

(I’m gonna kill him.)

Kusuo being Kuriko would probably heighten that resemblance in Kusuke’s mind and potentially lead to a significantly less combative relationship between them, because Kusuke is also a mama’s boy. I’m even tempted to believe he’d be less of a perv about it because his breaking point came during puberty, so that probably ended up with some of his wires crossing or something (but I don’t wanna get into that too much askldfj).

So I don’t think he’d be so inclined to kick his little sister’s ass like he does his little brother’s, or get his butt kicked in return. But if Kusuo ‘threw that away’ by not being Kuriko, he might see that as a betrayal because he really, really, REALLY does not like his dad.

He’s embarrassed by him and seems to show a consistent preference for embarrassing AND hurting him. He probably does not like that they might share a resemblance (possibly why he covers one eye?), nevermind the same genes, and Kuriko becoming a ‘man like our father’ might sting. 

So I think the familial relationship that’d be the most effected if Kuriko became Kusuo later in life would be with Kusuke tbh, and not because Kusuke is a transphobe but because he’s just a GORDION KNOT of problems. Like what is WRONG with that guy??????

[rawrmeansmemes]

THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE ( 2000 ) SENTENCE STARTERS

Ah, how shall I do it? Oh, I know. I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives... .I'll smash it with a hammer! It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius, I say!

Or, to save on postage, I'll just poison him with this!

Okay, I admit it. Maybe I wasn't as nice as I should have been.

Do you really want to kill me?

Just think of it as you're being let go, that your life's going in a different direction, that your body's part of a permanent outplacement.

I know. It's called a "cruel irony", like my dependence on you.

Hey, I've been turned into a cow. Can I go home?

Don't tell me. We're about to go over a huge waterfall.

Bring it on.

Oh, right. The poison. The poison for _____, the poison chosen especially to kill _____, _____’s poison. That poison?

Excellent. A few drops in his drink, and then I'll propose a toast, and he will be dead before dessert.

Okay, why does she even *have* that lever?

It is no concern of mine whether or not your family has... what was it again?

Yay. I'm a llama again!

This is ____, the emperor's advisor. Living proof that dinosaurs once roamed the Earth.

Take him out of town and finish the job now!

What about dinner?

___,  this is kind of important.

All right. A quick cup of coffee. THEN TAKE HIM OUT OF TOWN AND FINISH THE JOB!

Listen, you guys. You're sort of confusing me, so, uh, begone... or, uh, y'know, however I get rid of you guys.

Now, now, remember, guys. From above, the wicked shall receive their just reward.

Why do we even *have* that lever?

Pull the lever, _____!

Wrong lever!

Oh, it's not the first time I was tossed out of a window, and it won't be the last. 

What can I say? I'm a rebel.

Oh, and by the way, you're fired.

Fired? W-W-What do you mean, "fired"?

Um, how else can I say it? "You're being let go." "Your department's being downsized." "You're part of an outplacement." "We're going in a different direction." "We're not picking up your option." Take your pick. I got more.

I can't believe this is happening!

Then I bet you weren't expecting *this*.

Is that *my* voice? Oh, well.

A llama? He's supposed to be *dead*.

So, I'll be building my summer home on a more *magical* hill. Thank you.

You know, I'm pretty sure I heard some singing on the hill next to us. In case you're interested.

Well, ya got me. By all accounts, it doesn't make sense.

D'oh! You threw off my groove!

I'm sorry, but you've thrown off the Emperor's groove.

I was always taught that there was some good in everyone, but, oh, you proved me wrong.

Why did I risk my life for a selfish brat like you?

Well, that makes you ugly *and* stupid.

Yeah, you'd think he would've turned out better.

Why, I'm his third cousin's brother's wife's step-niece's great aunt. Twice removed.

Uh, do you need to hear all those words exactly?

Well, he's not as dead as we would have hoped.

Yeah, that would be kinda awkward, especially after that lovely eulogy.

I have no idea. You're the criminal mastermind, not me.

You're right. That's giving you way too much credit.

You know, in my defense, your poisons all look alike. You might think about relabeling some of them.

Well, which is it? That sounds like a pretty crucial conjunction.

Break it down? Are ya kidding me? This is hand-carved mahogany.

Huh? What? I didn't do anything. I didn't... Somebody's throwin' stuff.

You have a lovely wife. They're both very pretty.

Good, because believe it or not, I think I need a bath.

Oh, look. A golden-throated small-winged warbler. Just one more for exotic bird bingo. I am loving this.

Ok... that's the freakiest thing I've ever seen...

Um, what's with the chimp and the bug? Can we get back to *me*?

Maybe I'm just new to this whole rescuing thing, but this, to me, might be considered kind of a step backwards, wouldn't you say?

[kermitbread]

hear me out—no, you will listen to me. sit down there and listen very carefully

I will bestow you a cat returns au... in the form of a list of erratic thoughts I've been having since 10pm last night I think I've gone batshit insane

part one of idk because I have too much going on in my brain to put it in a single list so here part two will be out maybe tomorrow

okay, so we have nene as our lovely protagonist

she thinks of herself as unassuming, just an ordinary girl

her best friend is mei and they're both in the same class together

nene has a crush on this one popular guy at their class but she's too shy to confess (even with mei's constant encouragement)

she doesn't really count on something utterly bizzare to happen to her while walking back home from school

while talking to mei, carrying the shovel she had borrowed from a neighbor to return

she spotted an orange cat run from a convenience store

now what was strange about this was that the cat was carrying a small white box wrapped in a red ribbon in it's mouth

nene questioned this, while mei didn't really see it as a big deal

the cat suddenly began to cross the road, not realizing the huge truck coming it's way

the driver won't be able to see a small cat like him, nene thought

she ran off, surprising mei as she approached the cat, who had froze in place upon seeing the incoming truck

she swung the shovel, scooping up the cat and flinging it to the bushes

she also luckily managed to step aside quickly enough to avoid getting run over by the truck

unfortunately she had dropped the shovel and the truck wheels snapped it's wooden handle into pieces

how was she going to explain that to her neighbor now?

she turned to the cat, and she couldn't believe her eyes

it was standing on its hind legs, dusting itself off like a human would

and it talked. it fucking talked

it thanked her for her kindness, and promised to reward her soon enough before picking the box back up and leaving

she could only sit there, dumbfounded, as mei ran up to her, yelling in concern

she regained her senses though, and continued back home without any more scuffle

"must have been my imagination. I'll just go to bed and forget all about this."

oh you were so wrong nene so so wrong

next thing she knows a parade of cats walking like humans stopped in front of her house

a cat in robes and spectacles introduced her to the supposed king of the cats

they had apparently wanted to thank her for rescuing the king's only son

a very frightening old man—erm, cat, sat in a portable throne, only addressing her through short sentences

and a brown spotted cat declared about the rewards she was going to be having tomorrow

nene didn't know why or how she was acting calm throughout the whole thing

but the next morning was chaos

cattails overgrew in the front of her house, catnip placed in her skirt pocket that attracted a lot of neighborhood cats, and bugs and rats in her locker

what kind of horrific rewards were these?! they were only things cats would enjoy!

even worse, she saw her crush hanging out with another girl, supposedly his girlfriend

as she wallows in her sorrow, the brown spotted cat from last night had visited her at school

she doesn't really pay attention as he tells her if she didn't like their first wave of gifts, she can get married to their prince

yeah. maybe marrying a cat prince would be good. cats had it easy, and she wouldn't have to worry anymore. no one would be bothered by her ever again.

wait.

the brown spotted cat took her mumbling to herself a yes, and before she could even properly tell him her refusal, he had already left

oh great. now she was going to get married to a cat. A fucking cat.

whatever will she do?

a girl's voice spoke to her, although she couldn't see where it was coming from

the voice told her to find the cat bureau, by finding the black cat that would lead her to it

ultimately, upon walking from school, she spots a black cat snoozing on an outdoor cafe's chair

she felt like an idiot, asking a cat, but she did it anyway

"are... you the black cat that I'm supposed to find?"

no answer. it was hopeless, anyway

"ah, what am I doing. you're just a stupid cat anyway. And I'm stupid for even doing this."

but the black cat suddenly meowed at her before she could leave, looking back at her with glowing yellow eyes

and it didn't look like it appreciated her stupid cat comment

it then tilted it's head, signalling her to follow it

nene had to go through literal ups and downs before she reached a quiet, peaceful spot she had never seen before

it looked like a miniature town, nifty looking houses built next to each other circling a fountain with a statue of a giant crow on the center

the black cat she had followed was now sitting on a chair in front of a bigger, white house, reading a newspaper like it was nobody's business

was this the place? she was about to ask when the sun had began to set, and lights began to shine from the houses

it was beautiful until the black cat interrupted

"oh come on, amane. no one wants to see your cheesy light shows."

the lights immediately died out, and before she knew it, the door of the white house opened, warm yellow light shining from the inside

one step. another one.

nene found herself staring down at another identical black cat, only this time... in a white suit?

he was definitely a cat, alright, but he had the proper proportions of a human

he tilted his hat at her, smiling

"welcome to the cat bureau, darling. we've been expecting you."

oh. so much charisma

[teeth-farie]

although feet is not my go-to, it always bothers me when people bug on it so much. like, you do realize our genitals are just as dirty as feet, right? we use them to piss.. and shit,, and yes feet can get dirty but we wash all three regardless?? and i’m sure the asra foot anon was thinking of washed feet .. i doubt i’ve ever closely met a single foot fetishizer that was into dirty, unwashed feet in their mouth 🧍

anyways though i believe all the Li’s would be into foot play one way or another 😏 .. like, julian would def be into footjobs, or kneeling and kissing your boots/bare feet, or being stepped on. same w lucio, though i imagine he gets off on the idea of cumming just by rutting against your foot. nadia might be into the worship aspect of it, probably on the receiving end (hashtag treat the countess like a queen 2021) where you kiss down her ankles and back up again. muriel probably wouldn’t mind getting a footjob or kissing your feet either. and portia seems like an experimentalist. anything and everything would probably work for her, and she’s def tried everything at least once 🧎

apologies if my arcana rambles bother your ask box jshdjd it’s just you and your anons have SUCH GOOD IDEAS and it fuels me 🛐

- @dollarstore-writings

Yeah there’s like people who don’t wash their ass. Like, at all. Some feet would probably be cleaner tbh (also apparently on tiktok there’s afab ppl who don’t know how to wipe?? Like which way to do it?? They’re wiping back to front how are they not getting infections and utis-)

Anyway

Julian’s like, the most into it. He’s all for anything dirty that you want to do to him. Or that you want him to do, in the case of him worshipping your feet. Step on his dick, his face, kick him to the floor, he loves it all and he’ll thank you for everything. Use a foot job as a reward rather than punishment, he’ll sob as he cums.

Lucio’s almost the same as Julian. He’s more into the shoe fetish side of it. He likes a good heel/platform/boot that can really kick him in the ass. He’ll lick them clean and get them shining for you, so long as you let him grind against your shoe (of course he’ll have another mess to clean after..)

Nadia would get turned on by a foot rub imo. Imagine taking care of her after a long day and giving her a foot rub and she starts to get hot and bothered by it ♡ I’m mostly a softdom for Nadi but teasing her about getting turned on by it is *chefs kiss* aww big bad countess got turned on by a foot rub, poor thing

Muriel gets a foot job and loses his mind. He cums super quick and he gets super embarrassed. I don’t think he likes feet in general, he just likes your feet. Though I do think he’d find small feet cute (but really any foot compared to his is small). Like he would just like to hold them or let you rest them in his lap while relaxing.

Portia is the living embodiment of a wild card tbh. She doesn’t have the experience that Julian has but she still know what she wants and things she’d like to try. I think she’d get a kick out of humping your foot/leg. It goes with petplay, after all! Needy kitties need things to grind on, and she doesn’t want to leave her spot kneeing in-front of you.

And of course, Asra. He’s so sappy he kisses your feet during foot rubs. You try play kicking him when he’s getting in bed and he grabs your foot and kisses to sole just to see you react. Of course he loves the sexual side, worshiping every part of you, and getting a foot job in return. I think he’d like to paint your toenails before you do it, so he can see the pretty color while you touch him.

[sly-merlin]

okey dokey! I'm gonna be a father!

Requesting pregnant reader scenarios, wanna see more of the guys’ duality balancing domesticity and impending fatherhood, and running the world, ya know 🙏🏾😎🤔😀 Just throwing the idea out there since you said we could. Y’know things like ‘I’m trying to leave to set up a meeting but her back is sore & she wants ice cream so one of u needs to suddenly be available. now’ & other things ig. I imagined Ty Kun, John Jae or Kun in as leader & probably hc or jaemin as the wife-sitters (lol)

Since you didn’t specify the unit,I did this with the few members from hyung line. This got so long that I ran out of ideas so let me know if you want me to write for some other members.  though j incorporated your ideas but i based it on the concept of them managing the treats in both hands. This is my first time doing reactions so leave some feedback if you wish! Have a nice day everybody.

(7 members) Ft. Taeil, johnny, taeyong, yuta, ten, jaehyun + kun

TAEIL 

"Let me message you back!" Taeil whispered into the phone and raised his body to observe your sleeping form. Your head was securely resting on his arm and he let out a relieved sigh as it was one of the few Lucky days when you were not thrashing around in your sleep. Day after day, you were getting uncomfortable with your heavy belly and all he could ever do was keep you company in your frustrations. He couldn't risk waking you up so he tried his best to complete the task in the painful position. He fidgeted with the phone for it was impossible to handle a 6 inch of metal device with one hand. Struggling with the grip for a few more seconds, he finally managed to send johnny a message regarding the inquiry.

Ask tae He has ab eztra key 2 my ofice.

Maybe he should turn his autocorrect on for situations like this!

Thinking his work was done, he locked the phone. just when he was about to put it on the nightstand on a blind guess, it vibrated again! 

John: He is out! You need to come asap.

He stopped to watch out for any movement from your side and when there was none, he shifted to his phone again.

Nt my pblm. 

He couldn't understand why johnny was being so persistent when everyone was under strict orders to not call him after 10 p.m unless someone was dying!

John: Jungwoo is in trouble with police. I need his fake ID!

Taeil’s scoffed a bit too loudly causing you to stir.  He paused in his actions only to continue when he noticed your even breathing. Weighing the options, he concluded that Jungwoo must have forgotten to pay for the food again or something like that otherwise if it was work related then johnny would have been screaming at his door and not through the phone.

Not his 1st time. dw too much. Jst send him some food so he wont cry like last tym.

He deserved that much punishment! With that he switched the device off and wrapped his arm around your waist, returning to the warmth he got to experience only at night times.

JOHNNY

You were on edge since the day you got yourself tested. You could blame it on the suddenly changing hormones or the never present johnny but one thing was sure that you were missing him more than ever. Johnny on the other hand, avoided going back home for the sole reason of finding himself incapable of taking care of you and his dangerous job. That’s why he had assigned hendery to be at your beck and call. He was a medic and since the other medical emergencies could be handled by xiaojun and renjun, hendery had no problem in spending some time with you. His company was full of funny stories of other members and silly jokes. Despite his endless efforts to distract you, the thought that your daughter’s father was missing the growth of his own child always remained at the back of your head. You couldn’t understand how all of a sudden his workload had increased so much that he barely had any time to even see your face let alone talk to you for a few minutes. But all your worries vanished the day he returned and sarcastically ordered hendery to show his donkey self out of his house to never come back again.

“I managed to prepone some important weapon deals”, he bowed gracefully to acknowledge his own achievements, making you chuckle at him, “and I’ve been rewarded with three months of holidays so I shall be spending these months making up for the lost time and creating new memories” he completed, kissing your forehead.

"I never said I need you 24/7. A few hours at most would do John" you said, knowing how his absence would affect the black neos. 

"Yeah. But then I realised what if my baby girl mistakes hendery for her father. Can't let that happen now yeah!" 

Masked under jokes, you were very well aware of the real reasons behind the toil he had subjected himself to! It was all for you and your baby girl and you knew he would do it again and again even if it meant the end of his life!

TAEYONG

 From sharp cold deadly glare to the dragon tattoo that adorned his neck and arms, fellow criminals had every reason to fear this man. His name, in the underworld, screamed  cursed royalty. But that was Lee taeyong, leader of black neos.

The taeyong standing right in front of you, struggling with multiple boxes of boards was anything but scary. Cladded in baby blue hoodie and black boxers, he was reading the manual, knocking down the structure again and again as he repeatedly found something missing from it. 

"Leave it tae. I can complete this later on. Come and eat now." You whined and suggested while taking bites from the creamy pasta he had prepared earlier. 

"what do you mean i can complete this later on. Do you find me incapable of making a crib?"

Yes you did!

But that was not the answer you could give when he was clearly trying his hardest. It was indeed baffling as to why the man who could assemble a weapon with his left hand was unable to join the pieces of a crib with both!

"No tae. You were out for three days so maybe you are just too tired to concentrate!" You explained in the politest way possible that clearly didn't reach him properly. He let out an audible gasp at what felt for him to be the accusatory tone.

"Eat your pasta and watch me complete this in half an hour! You'd regret saying that to me!"

Why was he the one with mood swings?

Just like other bubbling thoughts, you gulped down this one too and nodded enthusiastically, giving him a thumbs up as if you would never doubt his capabilities.

But you knew, he might have started the task but he was surely not going to be the one to complete it!

YUTA

“How about sakura?” hyuck suggested. Looks of disapproval were exchanged across the room and sound of mark hitting hyuck’s arm resonated in the living room.

“Cliche!” jaehyun laughed.

“Yes. We aren't naming our daughter sakura and that is final. She’s one of a kind and her name should also be!” you announced your arrival in the room and sat on the floor, making yourself comfortable between yuta’s legs. He wrapped his arms around your belly before leaning his neck to greet you with a sweet cheek kiss.

“Yes. What y/n wants, y/n gets. No sakura!” he held his one hand up in the air, forbidding any further discussion on the name.

"That's not fair!" Hyuck whined only to be dismissed by a wave from you.

"Just because it's not hyuck's choice doesn't mean that you have got right to choose by yourself. The baby is a part of this family so we get to decide what's best for her!" Ten exclaimed loudly getting everyone’s attention.

“How about ayaka?” kun suggested, entering the room with a trolley full of snacks. As the recommendations poured in, the snacks were passed to everyone. Days like these were rare and from the past two months, these rare days were spent daydreaming about the very first child in the black neos house.

“Akira? It’s quite universal you know.” mark joined in, reading the meaning of the name in different cultures and languages.

“Haru”

“No kai!” 

Somewhere in the conversation, yuta’s hands had travelled from your tummy to your sides. He knew the little brushes of his fingers had started to work on you as you swatted his hand away with yours. It only encouraged him and he tickled you on your sides more and more, getting the desired reaction. Your body being more sensitive and responsive than usual, you wiggled in his arms and squealed loudly enough to get everyone’s attention. Suddenly his hands stopped as he heard a whiny shout.

“Why are you bugging her?” hyuck hollered, “can’t you sit still for once? Let her breathe for a freaking second. You wanna tickle! Tickle me. Come tickle me but Don’t bother her!” 

You were aware of hyuck’s sudden outbursts of protection for you but this was truly something new! And you new tickles were not the reasoning behind his irritation. Sakura was!

“Le-let’s play a game”, kun interrupted before haechan’s frustration would land him into some trouble with the elder, “we’ll write all the suggestions into paper and whichever y/n chooses would be final. How does it sound?” 

Everyone hummed along to the idea. Looking over at Hyuck, you noticed a sudden glint in his eyes that spoke trouble. He was clearly planning something evil and until it was all fun and games, you had no trouble for his intentions.

“Since when did you get a bodyguard hmm?” yuta whispered, planting another wet kiss on your right cheek. 

“Yua.” you said.

“What?”

“We are naming her yua! When are you gonna tell them that i’ve already decided!” leaning backwards, you said in a hushed voice meant only for his ears.

“When they are tired enough to play any more games. Till then, let’s have fun. Look at hyuck, he’s surely gonna cheat and mark and renjun are going to strangle him.” yuta chuckled against your ear, making you laugh again. Life was good!

TEN

“Xiaojun! Xiaojun! Show yourself you good for nothing potato!” you winced at the volume of ten’s voice. Even though he was outside the room, his vocals were irritating. But you held your tongue from scolding him as he was the only one you could rely on at the moment. 

“Xia-

“Did bella bite you again? why are you shouting at-” xiaojun squinted at the wall clock and adjusted his glasses, “at 5:30a.m?”

“Half of the world is up you hibernating bear! y/n is craving ice-cream. You know better than to refuse her so go to her. Your service starts right now.” 

Xiaojun scoffed and remained glued to the stairs. Ten raised a brow questioning him but instead of answering him xiaojun came up with one of his own.

“And why aren’t you going?” 

“Switchblade prince is called so I gotta go. I don’t think you want her to wait!.”

Xiaojun groaned when ten shot him a wink and left the living room. Of course he had no trouble in tending to your demands which as a medic, he understood very well but ten’s cockiness wasn’t something he was ever ready to handle.

“y/n! What does our prince wanted to eat this early in the morning?” he smiled at you, plopping down on the edge of the bed.

“Apples and bananas.” 

“I meant what ice cream flavour do you want?”

“Ice cream? Who said ice cream? I want bananas.” you answered him, confused at his confusion!

It was only then that xiaojun realised that switchblade prince was never called in the first place. Ten had fled. Due to fruits! He was contemplating as to what extent he should be manipulating ten’s words while telling you about his betrayal when you spoke up.

“Umm. i guess we can eat mint chocolate as well. I’ll eat a banana chocolate sandwich first then we can both watch a movie and finish the ice cream. What do you say?”

Ok!  Maybe revenge could wait. Ice cream would be a priority here! 

JAEHYUN

If your husband was cocky, you were seriously too many steps ahead of him and it has taken only 10 days for jaemin to realise that you were just jae's cup of tea and no one else's, at least not as a 4 months pregnant woman. 

"Why are you sitting on the floor?" Jaehyun laughed at jaemin sprawled on the floor like a toddler. 

"Noona screamed at me" jaemin mumbled, hiding his face in his neck.

"Oh jaemin! Why did she do it? Were you teasing her again. You know that she doesn't take sarcasm too we-

"No. She threw up the food i made for her and that too thrice since yesterday. I got angry so i told her to eat up or else i won't be making anymore for her. She threw the pillow at me and ordered me to never talk to her again! I mean it's not like i was showing real anger! She's hungry since yesterday. If she won't eat up then she'd be sick. What did I do wrong! Now I made her favourite pasta and she won't open the door for me."

Jaehyun sighed and crouched down to jaemin's level. He knew your emotions weren't in your control anymore but jaemin wasn't wrong either. He was just doing what was right for you and unintentionally, you had ended up hurting the poor boy. Jaehyun patted jaemin's hair before he told him to inform taeyong about his possible absence from the upcoming meetings and activities.

"You can't do that." Jaemin said the obvious.

"Do you want her to eat or not!" Jaemin frantically nodded at him before running off to the main office.

Heating up the pasta, jaehyun made his way to your shared bedroom in black neos. 

"Baby open up it's me!" He knocked at the door and hearing his voice,you immediately opened it. 

"You are here!" You exclaimed, feeling beads of moisture in the corner of your eyes.

"Aww. Now is not the time to cry." He cooed, entering the room with the tray. Placing it on the coffee table, he turned around and hugged you just the way he missed you.

"I'm sorry for being occupied and only coming back at night. But I'm here for a few days so let's get you all happy like a seal!" He laughed, ruffling your hair.

"I-i yelled at jaemin for no reason." You confessed not being aware that he was already filled in by the younger boy. 

"You wanna apologize?" You nodded as he squished your cheeks in his hands and leaned in to kiss your pouty lips. 

"Later on! Now's the time for evening lunch and getting this food in your tummy without it backfiring!" 

You laughed at how smoothly he eased your worries. After eating properly, you apologised to jaemin which he accepted but not before crying like a little boy he was!

Bonus :

KUN

"Yangyang what the heck are you doing near y/n. I told you to keep your meaningless books away from her!" Kun felt like his blood pressure would shot up anytime soon.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh really? What's the book that you are reading to her?"

"How to walk like a pro when you are only 2 months old! I want the baby to be high class like me."

Kun's hands found refuge in his hair as he groaned at the boy. Now he needed to read all the books that could possibly reverse yangyang's teachings.

"There is no such book available."

"Yeah that's why i wrote it by myself. Pulled an all nighter but when the baby would start walking at only 2 months of age, you'd thank me!"