#and then also part of the group separated early and i was like hey we should check on them etc etc every so often

[lilgynt]

if ur autistic go to a rave rn it’s literally unlimited stimming get high? bro goodbye

[fictionalgap]

Roommate: Too Whipped (chapter 3)

Pairing: Hazel Callahan x Reader

Summary: You can't get Hazel out of your head.

Warning: 18+ Themes

Warning: +18 themes, swearing, sexual themes

Other Chapters: Chapter 1 , Chapter 2 , Chapter 4 , Chapter 5

Song Recommendation: I Want To Be With You - Chloe Moriondo

You had two classes today and you had a four hours break. Your only option was library. Hazel had swimming practice during your break. It was one hour. Unfortunately swimming team was always going to gym before the classes so It's three hours If you count the shower and etc. You knew PJ and Josie had classes during that time. Your classmates didn't take the class you had earlier so they usually don't show up before evening class starts.

You went to your favorite spot in the library, at the corner and next to the window where you recently had the knowledge that Hazel can see you from there. You didn't felt like studying so you picked up a book you've been wanting to read for a long time.

You didn't know how much time has passed until you felt someone tap on your shoulder.

You turned around to see Hazel, whose smile met her eyes.

"Hey." your bored mood vanished.

"Hi." She said as she sat on the chair next to you.

"What are you reading? " she whispered.

You showed her the cover of the book you've been reading.

"I didn't feel like studying. Wait- " You checked your watch.

"Aren't you supposed to be at practice? " you asked as you raised a brow.

"Someone suggested we separate gym and swimming hours. We only had swimming practice today.

" Oh... Is that good? "

"Yeah. It was pretty tiring to swim after gym."

"Oh than it's great." You nodded to her and smiled genuinely.

"Yeah." she smiled sweetly at you.

"And, and also we can study together, because I will be leaving early and-, I mean If that's what you want and If you don't have anyone to, to,to hang out and maybe-"

"Yeah, I'd love to, Hazel. Studying, hangout or whatever. "

"Yeah...okay. " you could see that she was nervous.

You squeezed her arm lightly with a soft smile to make her less nervous.

She looked relieved and stared in your eyes for a while.

"Yeah so, what do you want to do now? " you cleared your throat and pulled your hand from her arm.

"I don't know. What do you want to do? "

"Did you study earlier? "

"Nah. I mean a little but I think there are some things I need to look... "

"Cool. Okay I can review my notes too. Maybe for a while then we can go for a walk around campus. I have a class later. Or, or you can stay here and keep studying since it's hard to study at home." you pouted, remembering your evening class.

You hated evening classes. You were too tired to get anything in your head.

"That's alright... Maybe we can study now and then go for a walk. Later, you go to your class and I'll study here and maybe we'll go home together."

You blinked a few times.

"Yeah, I mean, If that's what you want. " you put a soft smile on your face.

"Yeah... " She said and opened her backpack and took a notebook out.

You took your book out of your backpack and started studying as Hazel did.

~~~

You went out of your class with your classmates, tired. You were all talking about the upcoming group project. You saw Hazel at the corner, waiting for you. You couldn't help but blush when see her there waiting, only for you. You said goodbye to your classmates and walked to her.

"Hey."

"Hey. You look overwhelmed."

"I am overwhelmed. It's an evening class and our professor gave us a group project. We have to speak in front of whole class. Who wants to speak in front of whole class."

"Wow... that's overwhelming."

"I know...and that's not the worst part!"

"What's the worst part? "

"I blush so much when I speak in front of a crowd. My cheeks look like tomatoes."

Hazel chuckled to your reply.

"What? It's not funny. I am going to look like a loser. "

"First, I personally love it when you blush. You look so cute. Second, you can't look like a loser cause you are not one."

Hazel called you cute. Hazel called you cute. Hazel called you cute. Hazel called you cute. Hazel call-

"You only say that cause you are my friend. "

"Best friend and no, I don't. It's my honest idea but I think, If that's the part you are afraid of, you know, the speaking in front of whole class part, you can practice with me and maybe that'll help with your fear and blushing."

'How could someone be so fucking nice?' you thought.

Only Hazel. She was so sweet, kind, caring, adorable and cute. She was like a marshmallow sweet, fluff, soft and yummy. You wanted to know what she taste like down th-

"Y/N? " she blinked at you.

"Hazel?" you started at her, confused.

"You kinda froze for minute. Are you okay? " she asked, worried.

'Fuck.' you cursed to yourself.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just tired. Just want to go home that's all. " you tried to hide your blush with your folder.

"Okay." She said and you knew she was smiling from her tone of voice.

'Dammit. Did she think I thought of her?' You groaned mentally.

~~~

You went home to see PJ and Josie laying on the couch while watching a movie.

"And now you came home together, huh. Since both of you are the commitment type, I hear wedding bells. " She raised her brow, smirking.

"Josie, push a pillow on her face till she can't breathe for me, will you? "

"My pleasure. " Josie said cheerfully.

Next thing you now there was a serious pillow fight in your living room. It wasn't like cute sleepover pillow fight. It was kind of a eat shit kind of a pillow fight. Concussion is included kinda pillow fight.

You went straight to your room and changed into pajamas. Then you joined the pillow fight too. Then Hazel joined too.

After a while, you were pretty tired from fighting. Others seemed pretty tired too.

"Should we like... order pizza? " Hazel asked.

"Yes! "you three shouted.

You ate your pizzas and watched another movie. Eventually, you all went to bed.

You saw Hazel in your dream. You were in your living room and you felt her kiss you, her hands on your both cheeks. You even felt the cold metal of her rings. When she pulled she beamed at you. Then PJ came out of nowhere and clashing both pans in her hands with an annoying smile. Hazel vanished.

"What the fuck!"

"We are celebrating!"

"Celebrating what?"

"The fact that you're gonna make a fool of yourself in front of whole class! " she said and then started to laugh maniacally. Just like the villan in stories.

Then Josie came who was wearing a suit and sunglasses like in the movie 'Men In Black' and pulled a small box out of her denim's pocket and squeezed her into the box.

"Sorry for her. I try to keep her in the place but she gets out of my hands from time to time."

You couldn't say anything.

"Anyways, bye." She left just like that.

She didn't even use the machine to make you forget for seeing them...

"Okay... That's not weird at all."

"What's weird is... that you still don't go down on me, Y/N..." Hazel's voice came from behind.

You turned back to see Hazel standing, lust filled in her eyes.

'Fuck.' you thought.

'Yes. We should definitely do that. Fucking. ' She was smiling mischievously.

You froze to what she said. You only thought that.

"The thing about dreams Y/N..." She slowly make the gap between you smaller. You could feel your heart in your ears. "They are part of your thoughts so they know your other thoughts too and I know you want me." She took your hand and put it on her vagina and suddenly she was naked.

Oh my god. You never saw her naked. It was your mind's doing. You were touching her naked vagina while she was naked in front of you. Naked.

You gulped nervously.

"If you want to go down on me, go down on me Y/N. It's all yours. " she said and left you there only to lay down on the couch of the living room. She opened her legs as she was waiting for you.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

You felt her eyes on you as you got closer to her. Her chest slowly rising and falling with each breath. You sat between her legs. You were about to look at her vagina, of course the dream fucking had to end here.

You were having a sex dream about going down on Hazel and It had to end here.

Well, at least she kissed you. Even If it's in a dream...

You got up from your bed, feeling horny but you didn't want to masturbate. You felt frustrated that you couldn't just have sex with the gorgeous woman just a couple steps away from you. Masturbating while thinking of her, would make you feel hopeless and lonely.

You got up from your bed, got dressed and made your bed. You took your phone with you and walked to the kitchen. You decided to make some chocolate chip cookies.

Cause why not? Right?

You tried to do the recipe you know like the back of your hand as quiet as you can be, to not wake up your roommates.

You put them in the oven and then cleaned all of the stuff. When there was nothing left to do, you sat down next to the oven, watching cookies.

You liked to watch whatever you made transform in the oven. It was just so satisfying to see them how they change.

You saw Hazel with pjs coming to your direction. She kneeled on the floor next to oven, facing you.

"Cookies? This late?" she raised her brow with a side smile.

'You're the reason.' you wanted to say.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Oh... " She bit her lower lip.

You pulled your knees to your chest. Your back was facing the kitchen drawers.

"What about you?" You tilted your head to the side.

" I just woke up and smelled something amazing so, here I am." she smiled cheekily.

You grinned. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

She pouted to your answer.

"Are you saying you are not going to let me eat cookies?"

She looked at you with puppy eyes.

"Stop making that face... " you whisper-shouted.

"Or what?" she asked playfully.

This version of Hazel was one that got out of her sometimes. It was cocky and confident. You didn't see her showing this side of her to the others. Maybe the ones you don't know did know her this side. Maybe It was just for you.

It burned down there to know It was only for you.

You couldn't believe you were horny again. Just when you thought you could get rid off the feeling...

You couldn't answer to her question. Instead you looked at the oven and saw the cookies were about to burn If you wait another five minutes.

"Ow... " You stopped the oven and got up to take kitchen clothes for both of your hands to get the tray out of the oven without burning your hands.

"Can I help? " Hazel asked even though she knew the answer.

"I got it. " you said sweetly at her.

You put them on the counter and inhaled the magical smell.

"Can I have one? " Hazel stood next to you, her eyes wide and excited. Your arms were touching each other.

"It needs to cool down a little bit Hazel... then you can have as many as you'd like."

She grinned while looking at the cookies.

'Cookie Monster... ' you thought of her and smiled.

She was just so fucking adorable...You knew you would fight with everyone for her. Didn't matter If you got hurt or end up dead. You would do it for her. Knowing that she will keep smiling like that.

You took a cookie and broke it in half.

"Do we have milk? " you asked her.

Her eyes got wider at your question. " I think we do." she went to the fridge quickly and came back with milk box in her hand.

You took two glasses and placed them on the counter. She opened the milk and looked at you as she was asking what to do. You nodded and she poured down the white liquid.

You took the two halves of the cookie and dipped it in the milk and before you could put one in Hazel's mouth and she instinctively opened it wide for you. You were shocked how eager she was for cookie. You wondered If she could ever be eager for other things...

You ate the other half of the cookie. It was delicious. Also, cold milk made it eatable.

"Hmmm... I could eat this everyday. They are so delicious." she moaned while eating the cookie.

You wanted to kiss her cookie flavored mouth so bad right now. And cookie flavored other things...

Your head was filling with more dirty thoughts. As It wasn't dirty enough.

"It's not healthy to eat this every day but thank you. " you grinned quietly.

You wanted her. You wanted her lips. Her eyes on you. Her hands on you. Her breath on you. Her smell on you. Her voice in your ears. You wanted her to devour you. You wanted her to love you more than a friend. It was getting harder everyday. It hurt. It hurt wanting but not getting anything. Not knowing If she ever sees you in that way. Not knowing If she will ever love you in that way. More than a friend. You were longing for her love. She was giving it to you in most intimate ways that a friend ever can but you were greedy. You wanted more. More of her.

A wave of sadness came through and you didn't know you were crying until you saw Hazel's worried face and felt her hands on your arms.

"Y/N? What- what's wrong?"

"Hazel... " you managed to get out but you were sobbing and you hugged her without asking and of course she hugged you back tightly as you could fly away from her grasp.

"It's okay Y/N. Whatever it is, It's okay. We can figure out together, okay. Is-Is it t-the project, hm?" she tried to soothe you but you couldn't tell her. What If she didn't like you? What If she hated you after you confessed? Or what If she avoided you? What If she couldn't have feelings for you ever?

"You can talk to me Y/N. I-I don't want to pressure you but It seems like, whatever this is, makes you really upset and-and I want you to be okay."

You looked at her with teary eyes.

" What If I can't talk to you about it? "

"Well, uhm what about a professional? Maybe a psychologi-"

You couldn't stand this anymore. It felt too bad. Like life or death. It was now or never for you.

And you did it.

You kissed her cookie flavored mouth.

She stood there frozen for a minute, her hands in the air with an unreadable expression.

Your eyes began to tear up again and you looked down at your feet but you felt your chin being lifted up and a pair of hands covering your cheeks. Warm hands and cold rings, just like you imagined. Lastly, you felt her lips on your lips. Soft, sweet, plush and heavenly.

Her lips were everything at that moment.

You wanted more and craved more, immediately.

You tried to slide your tounge into her mouth and you felt her smile at what you were trying to do. She opened it for you eventually then you wasted no time to explore inside of her pretty mouth. There was no one trying to dominate the other. Just simply exploring and enjoying the feeling of tounges meeting each other.

Swirling, tasting and feeling.

Simply saying hi to each other.

[kittykatthatbitesback]

Hey! I love your beach head canons, and I would love to see your take on the Hazbin Hotel characters on a road trip/maybe a trip to a theme park? I feel like that would be cute lol.

Yes of course! This sounds so fun but I decided to make it a road trip to wherever the reader decides (Theme park, wherever)! This actually works perfectly as a prequel/sequel to my Beach Trip! Headcanons I've posted. Hope you enjoy!

Hazbin Hotel Road Trip! Headcanons

Characters: Charlie, Vaggie, Alastor, Angeldust, Husk, Sir Pentious, Vox, Lucifer, Adam, and Cherri Bomb

Charlie 🐐🫶

Originally wanted to be the one to drive, but Vaggie figured her inclination to be distracted by anything on the side of the road would cause everyone to crash, so Vaggie refused to let her drive at any point

Doesn’t even have her license so she wouldn’t be able to drive anyways so

“Ugh fine! Well, then, I call shotgun!!”

Went from Princess of Hell to passenger princess hehe

Was upset at not driving but got over it quickly as realizing she enjoys the view more than driving

“Oh my gosh look at those deer! Wait there’s more over there! Wait. Did we just drive past the rest area, I need to pee again!!”

Constantly nags the driver by chitchatting to them, regardless if they’re listening

A bad habit of hers is playfully hitting others when Charlie talks, but she forgets to not do this when driving

A couple of minor accidents nearly occur but she is unfazed

Is so pumped and asks to stop and look at any roadside attraction

It begins to become a bit annoying after a while

Vaggie ❌🥀

Is the one who drives for the most part on this road trip

Is a bit grumbly because she was woken up so early by an eager Charlie to go on this trip and needs her beauty sleep

Is the only one who can handle Charlie’s constant nagging and pushing, and is also the only one with a license out of the whole group, so logically the ex-Angel is the one who drives

Only pays attention to the road and not Charlie unfortunately for maximum safety

Is sipping on a large Circle K cup that she filled with Monster Energy prior to the trip

This just barely wakes her enough to watch the road

Has a bit of road rage but these guys are from Hell, what can you expect

Refuses to waste gas so only stops for gas when the car is literally empty

Empty like everyone else had to get out of the car and push it to the nearest gas station that was three miles away, empty

“Come on guys, we’re almost there.” She’ll say smugly sipping her Monster from within the car in the AC

Alastor 🦌📻

Was invited on this road trip, but ended up driving on his own to their destination

Yes, he doesn’t have a license, but he’s the Radio Demon he does what he pleases

Mainly decided to drive separately so that he could listen to his radio in peace without complaints or extra unnecessary noise

Is listening to jazz, and keeps on repeating the songs: “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Sing, Sing, Sing”

Also prefers to be alone, he vibes better that way and is more in his element

Drives the coolest, red, vintage pick up truck ever

All the girls and guys at the stop lights are just fawning over him but the Radio Demon can’t see anything past the road in his shades

Drives super fast and only stops for gas, which considering the age of his truck, ends up happening often

Angeldust 🕷️❤️‍🔥

Wanted to get one of those party buses with the strip poles inside but now has to make do with the crew’s giant van

Enough space to do lines of coke so it’s okay

Obviously snuck in drugs and alcohol, this is a given, it’s Angeldust come on

“I call aux!!” and plays his playlist titled Cunty B*tch

It’s a bunch of Ayesha Erotica, Kesha, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, etc.

Screams all of the songs at the top of his lungs while hanging out of the window

“HE MIGHT NOT LOOK LIKE HE GETS BITCHES, BUT HONEY THAT DICK WAS ELEVEN INCHES!”

Husk has to pull him inside but he’s just having the time of his life

Loud as Hell but provides the entertainment, and Vaggie appreciates his music taste

Has to get Vaggie to pull over and proceeds to violently throw up all the alcohol he chugged earlier on the side of the highway as Cherri films laughing from inside the van

Immediately falls asleep after this embarrassing moment as the aftermath of his “fun” takes a toll on him

Husk 🐈‍⬛🥃

Was planning to catch up on missed hours of sleep by dozing through this entire trip, but Angeldust made this quite hard

Is wrapped up in a blanket, eye mask on, earplugs in, headphones on, neck pillow propped, and stuffed toy snuggled (HE SLEEPS WITH A STUFFED TOY OMG)

It’s a miniature Pegasus he named after his favorite drink: Whiskey

Angeldust, Cherri, and Adam won’t stop making fun of him the entire trip

This, plus Angeldust’s music, Charlie’s nonstop talking causes Husk to EXPLODE

“IF YOU ALL DONT SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR A SECOND!”

But his geared-up sleep ware makes him look a bit goofy as he shouts this, so everyone instead bursts out laughing

The feline just grumbles to himself as he decides to just stare out the window depressingly for the rest of the ride

Gets bored and ends up practicing Poker and Solitaire with the cards he brought

Is also keeping an eye on Angeldust who at first was off the wall

Once Angeldust passes out, Husk covers him with his blanket so he’s not cold (aww)

Sir Pentious 🐍🥚

Actually was the one who designed and crafted the van

The original van wasn’t big enough for the whole crew after Cherri decided to join in last minute, so of course the snake is going to build an ENTIRE new vehicle for his Cherri Bomb <3

Engineered the van for maximum comfort and refused Angeldust’s pleads for strip poles inside; “Thossse would be ssso uneccesssary!”

Instead, he included luxurious feet space, and AC and heater system throughout the whole van, seats with massaging for backs and feet, mini TVs on the back of each seat, and a fancy mini fridge for food

Also built miniature seats for his Egg Bois with built-in heating pads in case they get too cold in the AC

These Egg Bois have a really specific temperature range they can survive in, so those same heating pads were engineered by Sir Pentious to also work as cooling pads

“Anything for my babiesss”

Came extra prepared and was the only one to bring snacks and drinks to put in the cooler

Is constantly offering Cherri a water or coke whenever she is “looking a bit dehydrated”

Which happens to be every 2 minutes according to him

Is trying so hard to flex on her the fact that he built the van

“Ssssoo Cherri, how are you enjoying the back masssssage? I programmed it to perfectly meet the needsss of a beautiful lady like you”

Bro with 0 rizz somehow ends up charming her

Vox 🖥️⚡️

This TV ignores the mini TVs Sir Pentious built arguing they’re “not of top Vox quality”

Tries to hijack them to prove his point, but Sir Pentious is smarter than that and even his mini TVs are Vox-resistant

Ego bruised, now tries to hijack the radio to turn off Angeldust’s loud ass music, but Sir Pentious ALSO came prepared for that

Sir Pentious even shaped his seat and headrest to fit Vox’s big ass TV head perfectly, so Vox isn’t able to complain about anything

Now an upset Vox is left to sit in silence for most of the trip

Will chime in occasionally to the conversations but you can tell his pride was hurt

Spends his hours of silence to brainstorm ways to defeat Alastor

Lucifer 🪽🐤

Brought his rubber duckies to play house with them on the ride

To everyone’s surprise, knows all the lyrics to all of Angeldust’s songs

“What! I enjoy these too!” Proceeds to lip sync them in the most fruity way

Is Lucifer straight or gay? Bi? No one knows.

Is definitely that one person in a car ride to try to start a game of “100 bottles of beer on a wall” or the game of concentration

LIVES for these games

“20 questions” is his favorite

Tries to get everyone involved and yells at Husk once he sees he’s playing his own game of Poker

Husk suggests that Lucifer should play the silent game

Will try to convince the others to play by reciting them old dad jokes

This does not work

Adam 🎸🤘

Will definitely pig out on all of those snack Sir Pentious brought

“YO WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BEER”

Forces Vaggie to stop at a gas station 5 minutes into the trip to buy 3 twelve packs of beer

Is absolutely in his happy place with the massage chair, vast feet space, TV playing “Too Hot to Handle”, chips, and beer

Is the only one who manages to trash his space with wrappers, spills, and crumbs

Does not give a fuck

Has his window down, sunglasses on, and wind blowing in his face while he just yells

Shouts and catcalls to every hot chick they pass by

Brought an air horn to do that more efficiently while on the highway

Is seated next to Vox so is taunting and teasing him about the whole incident earlier

“Hmm not so tough anymore huh? Even these mini TVs are doing a better job than you!”

Is a bit of a menace

Cherri Bomb 🍒💣

Only joined last minute for the trip because she thought it would be lame at first

But Angeldust promised to bring along drugs and alcohol so she agreed

Made a certain snake sooo happy that she decided to come

Is constantly nagged by him throughout this whole trip but she has grown used to it

She even starts to think it’s cute how much he cares

Has to stop to go pee so often because of all the beverages Sir Pentious keeps offering her

Doesn’t wait for a rest area, will pop a squat on the side of the road

Sings along with Angeldust (and Lucifer??) to all the songs

Actually she’s the one who made the playlist and shared it with Angeldust ;)

“Ooh ooh skip this one, the next one’s even better!”

Brought an Erotica novel to read (she usually just skips to the good parts)

Is glad to be sitting next to Angeldust but still films him as he throws up so that they can joke about it later

Passes time with him playing, Fuck, Marry, Kill

She ends up answering Fuck to all the options

[one-flower-one-sword]

"Mu Qing spat out a mouthful of blood and grimaced like he'd been stabbed where it hurt. He replied, spiteful slowly, "Thank goodness I kicked you out. If we'd kept you in the army and let you get closer to His Highness, were you going to watch him all day with your mind full of unspeakable filth? Disgusting!"

Xie Lian's heart squeezed violently. Hua Cheng had his fist raised at first, but it froze in midair when Mu Qing spat the word "disgusting." Veins bulged on the back of his pale hand. The fingers clenched and loosened, loosened then clenched.

A long moment later, Hua Cheng said icily, "For now, I won't argue with you on that point. [...]"

TGCF Volume 6, page 66

Hua Cheng's reaction here is really interesting - and gets more heartbreaking the more you think about it. I think to understand it, we need to take a look at his distorted self-image and his extreme self-blame whenever he feels he's failed Xie Lian in some way. While doing this, I think it's important to keep in mind that we're looking at these things as separate from Hua Cheng's very real - and very earned! - confidence in his knowledge, abilities, and strength. He knows exactly what he can and can't do and has no problems stating those things as facts. That "aggressive, rebellious confidence" as Xie Lian describes it is a defining part of Hua Cheng's personality and who he is as a person, that is then juxtaposed by a surprising fragility in other matters.

Right when we meet Hua Cheng at just ten years old, he's already been abused for so long and so severely that it's made him actively suicidal. He's also already internalized that his right eye is ugly, evidenced by the way that he keeps covering it with his hands when the bandages are removed after he was beaten and dragged through the streets by Qi Rong and his lackeys:

After a pause, Xie Lian smiled softly. "The doctors will see to your wounds now. Don't be afraid and lower your hands, okay?" The child heard but hesitantly shook his head.

"Why not?" Xie Lian asked.

He was silent for a long time before replying, "Ugly."

TGCF Volume 2, page 349

The right side of his face also appears to receive the most abuse when he gets beaten, as Xie Lian realizes when he sees him again a few years later and his bandages come loose after being attacked by a group of other kids:

During that scuffle, the bandages on the boy's head had been partially yanked off, giving a peek on the other half of his face. It was quite swollen, covered in black and blue bruises. It was obvious that these injuries hadn't been caused by the brawl just now. TGCF Volume 3, page 56

It can be deduced that he probably learned very early in his life that if people see his eye, he gets beaten. It seems to be known around the area that he frequently gets beaten up and kicked out by his family, to a point where even kids from wealthier families know about him and refer to him as apparently everyone else does - the "ugly freak":

"Wow, wow, the ugly freak got kicked out again!" Although these kids were all around the same age as the boy in the shrine, every single one of them was taller than him and looked like their parents fed them well. There was probably a holiday coming up, since they were all dressed in new clothes and shoes. [...] "Hey, ugly freak, are you sleeping at the shrine again tonight? Watch out, your mom is gonna beat the crap outta you when you get home!"

TGCF Volume 3, pages 54-55

This post is going to get quite long, so I'm putting the rest under a read more.

Hua Cheng seems to internalize this view of himself as something ugly and revolting to a point where even hundreds of years later, he's wary about showing Xie Lian his true form. At the same time, he seems to long deeply for Xie Lian to see and accept the real him, so he tries to test the waters when Xie Lian asks the "young master" on the ox cart what Hua Cheng looks like :

The youth laughed. "Who knows? But he's blind in one eye." He pointed to his right eye. "This one."

That was nothing outrageous. Xie Lian recalled one of the many backstory versions where Hua Cheng wore a black eyepatch to hide that missing eye and asked, "Do you know what happened to that eye?"

"That's a question everyone wants the answer to," the youth replied. Others asked because they wanted to know what Hua Cheng's weakness was, but Xie Lian asked purely out of curiosity. He didn't say anything, and the youth continued, "He dug it out himself."

TGCF Volume 1, page 175

And then again after they're back from Banyue:

Hua Cheng didn't turn around but continued to stare at the dilapidated ceiling of the shrine, and Xie Lian could only see this handsome young man's left profile. Hua Cheng said softly, "If I was ugly."

"Huh?" Xie Lian gaped.

Hua Cheng finally turned his head slightly. "If my true appearance is ugly, would you still want to see it?"

Xie Lian was taken aback. "Is it? Although there's no real reason, I never thought your true appearance would be too horrible-looking."

"Who knows?" Hua Cheng said, half-jokingly. "What if I'm discolored, disfigured, ugly, monstrous, and horrible. What will you do?"

At first, Xie Lian thought this line of inquiry was rather fascinating. So the overlord of the Ghost Realm, the one called the devil incarnate and feared by all in the heavens, would care about his looks? But when he thought about it deeply, he didn't think it was very funny anymore. He vaguely recalled, in one of the many rumored backstories of Hua Cheng, one said that he was a disfigured child from birth, or something along those lines. If that was true, then he must've grown up discriminated against by others. Maybe that was why he was particularly sensitive about his appearance.

TGCF Volume 1, pages 369-370

This quote is really long but I wanted to include all of it because Xie Lian's realization here is very important - Hua Cheng's issues don't stem from vanity but from being othered and subsequently abused because of his unusual red right eye. The society they're in shows many instances of ableism, racism, xenophobia and classism, where any attempted change to the status quo as well as anything that goes against "the norm" is regarded with instant suspicion and rejection - as Pei Ming puts it once, "Where there is abnormality, there is evil."

When he finally does show Xie Lian his true form, Hua Cheng is anxious about it up until Xie Lian remarks that it doesn't look bad:

Xie Lian examined him as he followed, smiling. "So, this is your real appearance." Hua Cheng paused slightly in his step. Maybe it was his imagination, but Hua Cheng's shoulders seemed to stiffen for a flash of a second. The moment didn't last, and Hua Cheng responded naturally. "I did say that the next time we met, I would greet you with my real appearance."

Xie Lian grinned and said earnestly, "Not bad." Xie Lian's tone wasn't teasing or consoling, the words were simply said. Hua Cheng gave a small smile back, and this time, it was genuinely relaxed.

TGCF Volume 2, page 103

Xie Lian's acceptance of his true form seems to have reassured Hua Cheng enough that he appears in it a lot more regularly after that, though it's always with the place where his right eye used to be carefully covered. He's also still too afraid to tell Xie Lian about their shared past and who he really is, and even more afraid to confess his feelings because he fears that then Xie Lian will no longer look at him with acceptance and instead see Hua Cheng as this:

He pointed at a little blood-red person on the wall. Right next to it, there were a bunch of messy, twisted, indiscernible characters - it looked like they had been written in a state of delirium or scrawled to vent the author's feeling during a period of extreme suffering. Based on those characters, Xie Lian could guess that the little blood-red person painted there was Hua Cheng himself, but for some unknown reason he had depicted himself as extremely ugly and disfigured.

[...] There was an ugly little blood-red figure at the bottom of the mural. It cupped a small flower in its hands, which it was offering to the statue.

TGCF Volume 6, pages 52-55

Hua Cheng having internalized this distorted "ugly freak" image of himself isn't the only thing tripping him up though. Every time he can't prevent Xie Lian from getting hurt or can't help him, Hua Cheng takes it as a personal failure on his part and immediately seeks to punish himself. Be that by lashing out at Eming, which is essentially an extension of himself:

Xie Lian stroked Eming. "Fangxin is still better suited." Fangxin remained motionless. Eming had tried so enthusiastically to offer itself up but was so blatantly rejected. It hopped back to Hua Cheng's side, weeping. Hua Cheng didn't spare it a single look before he smacked it with a backhand slap. "What are you crying about? This happened because you're useless! Trash!"

TGCF Volume 5, page 120

Or denying himself to touch Xie Lian, like after Xie Lian got accidentally hurt by Eming (an especially cruel punishment given that Hua Cheng had longed for Xie Lian for hundreds of years):

Hua Cheng, however, let go of his hand. "Don't mind them," he said to Xie Lian. "Come with me." His voice was low, the emotion behind it hard to discern. Yet the way he let go of Xie Lian's wrist was swift, almost like he'd been shaken off.

TGCF Volume 2, page 192

Repeatedly witnessing Xie Lian be brutalized and violated while he didn't yet have the power to stop it from happening traumatized Hua Cheng deeply and left him with a wrathful anger that he wields not only against those who wronged Xie Lian but also against himself for any and all perceived failures.

Now, what does all of this have to do with the quote that started it all? In it, Mu Qing accuses Hua Cheng that if they'd have kept him in the army, he would have kept watching Xie Lian "with his mind full of unspeakable filth! Disgusting!" (the fact that he describes a man having romantic feelings and sexual desires for another man in such a way comes off as extremely homophobic of course but that's not the topic of this post)

Hua Cheng, who hates Mu Qing deeply and with good reason, then not only stops his assault but actually goes on to say that he won't argue with him on that point for now. His inner conflict shows in the repeated clenching and loosening of the fingers in his fist - he's extremely angry and would usually never agree with Mu Qing, yet finds himself unable to deny his words. It's noticeable also that it's the "disgusting" that makes him freeze up.

So why would Hua Cheng, someone usually so confident and so unapologetically himself, concede this point to Mu Qing, someone he hates and who's just been viciously insulting him? I would argue that there are two possible reasons.

First of, if viewed through the lens of everything we reviewed in this post, Hua Cheng feels like he "can't argue" on this because he does desire Xie Lian and always has - while at the same time knowing that he, an ugly disfigured other that has repeatedly failed at keeping the God he's pledged his existence to safe from harm, could never be good enough to deserve being with said God like that.

Second of all, as I analyzed in my previous post, Hua Cheng's reaction to Xie Lian having seen the statues and murals is profound fear and heartbreak because he's so sure Xie Lian must now be scared of and disgusted by him. At this point in the story, Hua Cheng is still utterly convinced that his feelings aren't requited, which is something he can deal with. But what he can't bear is the prospect of his feelings, his very devotion, causing Xie Lian pain. Failing to keep Xie Lian safe from being harmed by others is bad enough, but hurting Xie Lian himself? Unforgivable. His fear that his desire for Xie Lian will be upsetting to him is so strong that even after the confession scene, his immediate reaction to Xie Lian even just mentioning the murals is "I'll go destroy them" (Volume 6, page 88), and he doesn't calm down until Xie Lian reassures them that he only saw a few of them and won't look at the others if Hua Cheng doesn't want him to.

[postwarlevi]

Happy Halloween IV

Content: Back at it with over 2100 words of dad Levi worrying about his daughters first party.

Previous parts: Part I /////// Part II /////// Part III

"It's almost time to go, are you ready?" You call out from the living room to your eleven year old daughter.

It's Halloween and you did trick or treating a little early this year. Bags of candy, mostly separated and ready to be eaten. There's a small pile staying in your house for you all to snack on and another bowl for late trick or treaters. The rest is being brought as offering for her first Halloween party.

"Yes mama, I'm coming!" You hear her racing about.

"She's already in costume, what could be taking so long?" Levi, your husband, comes to stand beside you.

He won't admit but maybe he's a little anxious about this event. It's being hosted by a family friend and their son, one of your daughters best friends. Of course she will be safe. But this is the first time you aren't going to be there to help out.

"Don't rush her, sweetheart, she's nervous too." You hold Levi's hand, giving him a loving smile. He leans into you and calms down instantly.

There's a knock on the door and you call out to her again, letting her know her ride is here.

"Ready!" She comes running out, bags in hand, costume still looking great. She's picked a superhero this year.

"Hey guys." Levi let's Miche and his son in. They are driving her to the party and later you and Levi will pick them up and drop him off on your way home.

"You look great!" You tell her again, then turn to Miche and his son, who is also in a superhero costume. It appears the group of friends had this planned.

The men go over plans for dropping off and picking up while the kids talk. A large black cat comes out from the kitchen to greet everyone. Just a couple years ago he was such a tiny little thing. He's still active so you don't know how he got so big. Probably all the treats your daughter sneaks him.

She hands the bags to the boy and picks the cat up, who purrs as he gets pets from everyone.

"Okay, pumpkin, everything all set? Ready to go to Erwin's?" Levi turns to her, patting her head.

She smiles and ducks, looking a little embarrassed at the treatment her father gives her.

"Yes daddy, I'm ready." She's growing up and it's hard for everyone involved.

"Okay my little avenger, be good and we'll see you in a few hours." You take the cat from her and send him on his way.

"I'm not an avenger." She points out, maybe in a slightly sarcastic way.

"Oh, right, sorry." You let it go. You remember being eleven. And twelve. Oh no, and then thirteen. There's a long way to go with her.

"Let's go kids! You can sit up front." Miche tells your daughter before anything else can be added, picking up the bags of candy and handing them to his son to carry. The polite thing to do for the little lady.

Levi waits for her to hug him and she gives him a quick side hug, smiling and waving to you.

"Love you." You say, and she says it back while running out the door.

It doesn't bother you nearly as much as Levi that she doesn't hug you as much anymore. In front of her friends it just isn't the cool thing to do. You know she loves you both.

"Well Mr Ackerman, it's just you and me now. And kitty, of course." Kitty has come back out demanding second dinner. Hmm, maybe that's part of his size issue.

Giving in you head to the kitchen, pulling Levi along, who is sulking a bit.

"Don't worry, darling." You kiss his cheek and give him a hug. It makes him feel better.

"Her first party." You giggle as you can hear the frowning he's doing as he says this.

You pull apart as kitty cries for food and you bend to fill his bowl.

"First of many. We should get used to this." It would be easier to just accept it.

"I know. But I still don't like it." Levi sighs and decides it would help him to help you.

He cleans up dinner dishes from earlier that got left in favor of going out, something that would usually never happen.

Together you get things tidy and while humming you come to hug Levi from behind, making him chuckle.

"Stop worrying." You tell him, rubbing his back.

He turns to you and smiles softly, pulling you into a proper hug. "I didn't even say anything."

"Yes, but I know you." You kiss his cheek and put your arms around him. "It's been half an hour. She's with people we know and love. Having a wonderful time."

All true. But anything new his little girl does it going to be new for him too.

The doorbell rings then and you go to hand out candy to the older kids. A few more come right after before you can get settled.

"Come on, do you want to watch a movie, read a book, anything, what would you like?" You find Levi standing right behind you in the living room.

"Anything?" He raises an eyebrow, laughing when you roll your eyes and give him a shove.

"Cut that out." You give him a light kiss, going to switch out your day clothes for a comfy shirt and sweatpants and slippers. Levi gives out a bit more candy then takes your lead and gets into something comfortable, meeting you on the couch with more candy.

It's something he can still go out in later to pick the kids up. He just has to get to the car.

He throws a blanket on you both while you pick out an old movie to play in the background.

"When was your first Halloween party?" Levi asks you, snuggling close and picking out some Twizzlers.

"Oh, I think I was fourteen maybe?" You think about it, digging through the candy. You feel Levi shift and look up at him. "But I wasn't nearly as social as our girl at her age." You try not to make him overthink it.

"So you think this is too early?" He asks with concern.

"No, not at all." You put the candy bowl aside. "We all agreed this was a good idea, and it is." All the kids in your friend group are attending, plus some others from school. Erwin and his wife have it all planned, and you trust them.

"My first party was the one I went to with you the first year we were married." Levi tells you, holding you closer. He'd missed out on some things in his younger years that he enjoys doing now with you. Maybe that's partially why he is worried. He doesn't remember a whole lot about eleven.

"And that was fun, wasn't it?" You remember trying to get him to dress up. It's still not something he does a whole lot. But he admits it was fun. Everything with you makes him happy though.

You go back to candy and the movie and chat while watching the time.

"You don't need to go yet, it won't take you that long to get there." You grin when he is trying to leave half an hour early.

Knowing you're right, Levi settles back down and pulls you into his lap, sighing happily when you rest against him. You still make him feel blissful and he adores that this feeling has never and will never fade.

"We can host a party next year." You suggest, breaking the comfortable silence. Levi nearly chokes on the candy he's snacking on.

"No we can not." He tells you, making you laugh. Sure, then he could keep an eye on your daughter, but that would mean watching around fifteen or so preteens. No thank you. One is enough.

"We could go to our own party. For old times sake." You say, hopeful, looking back at him.

"Maybe." He somewhat agrees. It wasn't out of the question. While being at home like this is his favorite thing, sometimes social events were okay.

"We could even do a couples costume." You grin, kissing his chin when his eyebrows furrow. You know you're pushing it.

Soon it's time to go pick the kids up and you tell Levi you're staying home. He makes sure you're all tucked in and locks the front door behind him.

The usual eight minute drive takes a little longer with kids still out trick or treating.

There's a few other cars already in Erwin's driveway as parents pick up their children.

Levi gets out and heads into the house. Spooky music is still playing on low and he takes in all the decorations. They did a good job.

"Levi." Erwin, one of his oldest friends, comes to greet him.

"Hey." They talk for a couple minutes while one child and their parent thank Erwin on their way out.

"Where's the other kids?" Levi can't help himself, he hasn't seen anyone, or rather, his.

Erwin understands and chuckles. "Out back playing with the dogs. I'll get them."

A few moments later your daughter comes in smiling. She bounces up to Levi.

"Hi dad!" She's a bit loud. Maybe the music, maybe the candy.

He resists the urge to hug her. But he doesn't have to, she hugs him. He smiles.

"You guys ready to go?" He asks, looking around for Miche's son.

"The guys are going to have a sleep over. It's all arranged." Erwin says, coming back in from outside.

"Alright then, just you and me." Levi looks at his daughter and she nods.

Everyone says their thanks and goodbyes and on the way out to the car they pause as Erwin's son comes from the house holding a bag.

Levi takes note of his costume, that matches your daughters very closely, and the way they speak to each other.

Oh no, another thing to worry about. It's always been the joke, that your daughter would marry Erwin's son, and that Miche's son would marry Hange's daughter.

Getting into the car Levi drives slow while your daughter plays with the bag.

"You all plan your costumes?" Levi side eyes her.

"Yeah, we all did. I had a lot of fun." She announces, not staying on the subject.

Levi decides not to, either. "Good. Your mother was worried."

Your little girl laughs because she knows who was the most worried. Levi smiles and they talk about the party.

"So what's in the bag?" He asks as they pull in the driveway.

"Oh, stuff for you and mom. Some of us traded candy. I got your favorites, and a few of mine." She opens the bag which holds a lot of Levi's favorites.

"Thanks." He goes to pat her head but stops, making her shift.

"Daddy, I'm sorry about before. I love your hugs." She realizes that even though she's growing up, watching the boys hug their fathers openly tonight, she still needed her own fathers hugs too.

"Thank you, cupcake. I love them too." His heart full, they share one before getting out of the car.

Feeling much better, Levi promises himself not to worry so much anymore.

Once inside kitty comes right over and gets carried into your daughters room as she goes to change.

You come shuffling out of the bedroom and come to hug Levi.

"How are things?" You ask, happy with everything he tells you. The candy, the hugs, even the matching costumes. You are more open to the idea of the kids getting together one day then Levi.

"Good, I was a little worried. Just a little." You admit to Levi's satisfaction.

"Hi mama." Your daughter comes from her room in her pajamas and you all share a hug and go brush your teeth.

It's a school night so no staying up too late, but everyone is tired from the days events anyway.

"I'm glad you had a good time." You say as you get your daughter in bed, cat at her feet.

"Thank you, me too." She smiles, giving both you and then Levi one of the best hugs you can remember. "Good night."

You go to your own room and get settled into bed, snuggling up to Levi, who teases you gently for also being worried.

Smiling you roll your eyes affectionately and kiss him lightly. "We're her parents, it's only natural."

"We got a long way to go, love." Levi says, brushing your cheek with his thumb.

"Yes, but we'll do it together." You say with a yawn and a sparkle in your eye.

You both got through your teen years, and with as wonderful as your daughter is, you can look forward for what's to come.

--------

a/n I'm baaaaackkk maybe? It's a start! It's been a while so I hope this is okay :)

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Ninjago Groupings Episode by Episode

A.K.A. how much time they spend together

Key

This chart has each of the ninja sorted into who they were with each episode. For consistency, I designate the grouping based on who they're with at the beginning of the episode. So, for instance, if Zane is with the ninja at the beginning of the episode, he'll be sorted as "Gang's all here" even if he spends the rest of the episode in on his own little galavant. I will go through each season, so I can explain my observations and so you can see the chart closer up and come up with your own. First, I must explain each designation as I gave them odd titles for fun.

Purple refers to the main party. There will (almost) always be purple on the chart, even if the whole party's split as I designate it based on where either the majority of people started, or, where the main mission's at. For instance, if we have a party with all the ninja, but they gradually die off, as in Skybound for instance, Jay remains the main party as he has survived.

Busy is the first designation I'll turn to if one or more of the ninja has gone off on a separate mission. If there are two ongoing missions in addition to the main party, I'll use Double Busy. If there are three, I'll use Triple Busy. If there are four, I'll hope one of them fits into a separate category as you'll see with the Crystalized madness.

Homebase comes into play if a ninja is at the monastary, Bounty, or whatever's been designated the base at the moment. Gang's all here and Busies predominate however. This designation primarily applies when the ninja is hanging out with Wu or holding down the fort. Tragically, Nya and Pixal have this designation for much of the seasons.

If one or more of the ninja is kidnapped, dead, possessed, or otherwise incapcitated, this comes into play. For Double Involuntary to apply, at least two ninja must be in two different types of incapacitation. For instance, in Skybound, Kai and Zane were in a sword so they were Involuntary, but Jay was captured by pirates so he was Double Involuntary.

So far, this literally only applies to Jay (during Dragons Rising specifically). I used it because the audience knew where he was but didn't know how he felt about it.

I use this designation when the audience doesn't know the status of the characters long-term. A clear instance is most of the ninja at the beginning of Dragons Rising, the reason I created it. I also use it for those one-off episodes that aren't about the ninja such as "The News Never Sleeps." (This designation is named after an alternate ending for Cole in Hands of Time which my friend and I find hilarious).

Season Breakdown

In these early seasons, we really only have to deal with four categories. We get the occasional side mission such as Kai, Nya, and Lloyd living their pre-Ninja lives, but nothing serious. For the most part, the ninja are sticking together with their missions. If they break apart, such as in episode 5 where they split up to find Serpentine tombs, it occurs only for the episode, and doesn't extend long-term. While she is Samuai X, Nya is primarily on the Bounty doing various man in the chair tasks. Nya and Lloyd are competing for the damsel in distress title and Lloyd is winning. (Going forward, I am going to omit the Arin through Sora rows until they actually appear. Just know that they're toddlers off who knows where doing who knows what.)

Lloyd has joined the party. It's odd because he usually is engaging in the main plot, but in Child's Play, they act like they've always left him at home. Early season trends are continuing. While Nya's still on the move during the late season, she has been turned evil by a substance which is not something she wanted so she's still racking up Involuntary points.

Yay, Pixal's here! The core 4 continues to stick together but Lloyd has undergone on the first mission separate from the party. It doesn't end well as he gets captured, but hey as long as he had fun. Pixal is regarded as Involuntary as, similar to Nya in the previous season, she has been turned evil by hacking. Observe that the whole group gets together for the finale. This will occur nearly every season going forward.

This is our first elimination season, so we start to see even the core four break apart. This crumbling starts with the first episode, as Zane is, as per usual, gone. He's finally thrown his hat in the ring for the damel competition. As Pixal goes into Zane's head this season, I match her color codes to Zane but in a muted tone, as she's there, but she's not really there for anyone but Zane.

It's another elimination season, but they spend a lot more time all together than I remembered. For the first time, no Busy gets invoked as they're all always together or captured, but Double Involuntary does occur twice in two different fashions. With Pixal's designation here, I am presuming that Nadakhan had the common courtesy of returning her to life when Zane wished it all away.

Day of the Departed is really just a Cole solo mission. Zane dies again. Pixal is one again innovating with designations as she causes the first invokation of Double Busy once she's free. You might observe that I technically invoked Double Busy before Busy. I did this because Kai and Nya were the main plotline, while Double Busy was primarily occuring in the background. More characters in play is resulting in more categories of groupings, but, for the most part they all stuck together as has been par for the course during Masters of Spinjitzu.

We have a few little missions and incapacitations here and there, but for the most part it's a team effort. I really enjoy when they spend all season on the ship. Zane dies again. Pixal is gets to be part of the main crew again because while she may be on the Bounty, so is everyone else.

Hunted is in past tense for a reason. The Ninja spent half the time captured. I considered the core four to be the main party as majority rules, not to mention they had the ship and Wu. This is the first time we have a Busy designation last nearly all season. Hunted is sort of our first "splitting the party" season. It may have been accidental, but we'll see a lot of this going forward.

Being a movie, aside from a little father son fishing trip and a death fake-out, the ninja tended to stick together.

The ninja go back to sticking together, as in early seasons but it doesn't last long. For the latter half of this chapter, they split up into alpha squad (Zane, Nya, and Lloyd) and the boys (Cole, Kai, and Jay), which, as I like to point out, Lloyd will nearly always choose when he picks teams. Pixal may have been with the ninja in these first few episodes, but she was doing her own thing at homebase. We have out first side character episode, which is something I really loved about this era. Zane dies again.

As you can see, we're starting to have these long periods of splitting the party. While it's not as extreme as in Hunted, we have Lloyd going off alone and Zane off being evil, while the main party spends some time in the village. Cole even has one of his brief solo missions. Something I'll note about Zane. His evilness was very much involuntary as he needed amnesia, an evil staff, AND an evil advisor to make it happen.

I didn't count Jay entering Prime Empire as Involuntary because he did that on purpose. Pixal's finally off the bench. Or has Zane joined her? Hard to say but I ruled the former as Wu was not there and they very much had their own mission. We have a return of the elimination season, which funnily enough looks near identical to the elimination pattern in Skybound. Despite the fact he didn't enter Prime Empire, Zane insists on racking up his Damsel points.

This season was big on splitting the party, as indicated by the longest Double Busy so far for this many people. Kai and Zane get to be the main party even though they're not majority because when it gets down to a near 50/50 split, the designation is relatively arbitrary and I like to keep it at the top of the chart for pretty data's sake and so I tend to keep it with the core four, mainly Kai. You may observe that even when the entire party is captured, Cole doesn't revert to purple. Once a ninja has a designation, it sticks until they form a new grouping.

Cole and Kai get to chill at home for the first time. The rest of the party sticks together for the most part, which was surprising to me as I remembered Nya going off on her own more. It turned out that, similar to season one, these little solo missions ended up isolated within episodes. That is of course, until the end when she becomes the sea. I marked it as Triple Busy so I could reserve Busy for the main plots in the next season.

Crystalized is so long and complicated. It took me forever because, I mean, do you SEE episodes 22-27. You can see why I had to invent Triple Busy. It got so crazy I had to designate Kai as at homebase just because he was at the Newskids' hideout, which was serving as the current base. Nya is of course the sea at the beginning, but I designated her as Triple Busy, because she wasn't on screen for the most part. The ninja go to jail. Lloyd goes off for one minute and gets captured. Zane dies again. Near the end, each of the ninja spend time with a partner ninja except Lloyd who's alone forever. For the finale, they're all together again.

Welcome kids! This is sort of a reverse elimination season. it looks dismal at the beginning, but gradually we recover (mostly) everyone. Even if we don't see a character on screen, I start categorizing them when the audience knows their status. For example, Kai didn't show up until episode 4 but Lloyd told us he was off on a mission. Despite the spires of maybe dead, in the first part it's relatively simple. However, starting now, ninja, such as Nya, will just go off on solo missions like it's no big deal. The mid-season finale gets into some serious party splitting with Kai at homebase again, the discovery of Zane, and the kids off on their own, but ultimately all the active ninja end up together in the finale. In the second half, they party split into pairs long term. It's a good way to balance such a big cast. Zane doesn't have a little buddy so he spends some time at home and then goes to jail. Interstingly, though he's at homebase we do get some significant feature of what's going on in the monastary. We saw a bit of this with Seabound, but not nearly as much as we're seeing with DR. Lloyd and Arin find Zane (again). Kai and Wildfyre find things in common. Sora and Arin find Cole who goes off on a side quest. The audience finds Jay so he gets his Business Trip designation as we don't know how he feels about it. Similar to Pixal during the Zane's head period, I made this color muted as it's very in the background.

Blood Moon is simple for Dragons Rising standards, but calling it simple really reflects how many different categoriations there exists in these later seasons as compared to the old days. Lloyd, the siblings, and the kids go on an educational field trip. Zane stays at home until Cole visits and gets Zane to join his mission. Jay briefly joins Busy during his Business Trip, but no one knows it except Bonezal. Interestingly, they don't all join together in the mid-season finale, but rather, this time, it becomes even more fragmented.

This is my prediction for the Tournament of Sources based soley on the end of Blood Moon and trailer material. Arin will probably be off doing spy stuff and reflecting. Jay's doing something I may have to make a new designation for. Kai's in the void but I think he may be a suprise last minute addition to the Tournament that saves the day (or not). (Off topic, but if Ras always planned on going to the tournament, was this decade+ long Forbidden Five plan just him drafting people for his team?) It's not an elimination tournament because as far as I can tell, when you lose, you can just chill in the stands. They'll probably go off on their own little sidequests but I expect them to all, at the very least, stay in the City of Temples. I'm very excited to find out the truth in a couple days.

With this, I have now posted all my pre-made charts. I plan on making some new charts based on a few suggestions I've gotten already. I think it would also be cool to tally up the designations on this chart to see what the ninja spend most of their time doing. I'll also be posting the official Tournament of Sources updates for all my charts within the next few weeks. Thanks for reading this far. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for additional charts!

[funlovingfuzzball]

Draconity is Getting Harder: an essay by an exhausted dragon fictive

Hey there. I’m Raie, short for Temeraire, she/they. I don’t have the energy to find sources for any of right now, sorry. I am an introject of a dragon who is physically a dragon, but I personally identify as a dragon therian(/theriomythic) due to it most closely matching how my draconity manifests when fronting. As such, I will be approaching this as a non-plural theriomythic, as I originally believed myself to be. Also note that I am not dealing with fictionkin or causes of alterhumanity in this essay as I do not know enough to properly discuss them. Generally assume I include everyone where applicable. To anyone who wants to reply that dragons can’t be therians, that’s exactly why I wrote this, so please do click the read more to see my reasoning before responding.

Definitions

Definitions seem to be purposely complicated in the wider alterhuman community, which becomes a challenge for many who fall on the borders of these groups. As such, I’ll give general definition first, and then add other definitions in parentheses if needed.

Alterhuman: Someone who identifies as non-human in some way.

Type: Someone’s specific non-human identity, usually a different species but not always. Generally given a prefix by what alterhuman community a person is in, like theriotype for therians and kintype for otherkin. Individual types are usually written in front of a community suffix, such as ___kin, ___ therian, or ___hearted/___kith.

Therian: Someone with a non-human identity, usually animalistic, who experiences shifts between feeling more human or more like their type (sometimes defined as only animals that currently live on Earth).

Theriomythic: A therian whose theriotype is a mythical creature (legitimacy is sometimes debated by users of the narrower definition of therianthropy).

Otherkin: Someone whose non-human identity is not necessarily animalistic, but does identify as their type (sometimes said to not have shifts or used as a synonym for alterhuman, both widely disputed).

Otherhearted (sometimes otherkith): Someone who does not identify as, but rather with, their type.

Draconity: How much someone identifies with dragons. Someone with no link to dragons whatsoever has no draconity, but otherkin, otherhearted, etc. all have varying degrees of draconity and are thus all accepted as dragons by the draconic community.

Draconic community (or dragon community): The community of anyone with some degree of draconity, split off from the wider alterhuman community early on due to the complicated relationship between draconity and the other alterhuman community labels being laid out in this essay.

Challenges

The parenthetical definitions of therian and otherkin, by default, leave a large gap where alterhumans can belong to neither community. As a dragon, I do experience major animalistic shifts, so I’m not a classic otherkin, but I also am not a species that is currently alive on Earth, so I’m not a classic therian. My experiences with shifts mean I feel closer to therians than otherkin due to the inherent similarities we have, but many therians would tell me I can’t be part of the community due to being a mythical creature. As such, I fall into a strange loophole of almost being neither. Weirdly the same is true for extinct animal therians, like a dodo or a pterodactyl, but generally that comes up less frequently.

Mythical creatures that can be animalistic end up with major division within their type. For example, as a more animalistic dragon with shifts who ends up associated with the therian community, dragons with higher-level intelligence and without shifts who end up in the otherkin community end up not crossing paths with me much if ever. This can be extrapolated to nearly any mythical creature, though dragons and unicorns are the most common types to encounter this problem due to each of their wildly varying depictions, and thus each having made separate communities for this purpose in the past. Non-mythical therians or non-animal otherkin usually avoid this problem easily, as their types are basically always one or the other. Basically all wolves call themselves wolf therians, basically all dolls call themselves dollkin, and so forth.

Theriomythics, despite being a group with common experiences, are still stuck in validity debates. Quite frankly I think the time to debate the naming has long since passed on this one. If the name “theriomythic” is what stuck, that’s what we need to work with, because we in no way devalue the existence of therians and thus don’t have enough reason to change it. But since we spend so much time refuting the idea that we’re faking it, it’s near impossible to just make a friendly community space.

Solutions?

Intra-community solidarity. Therians and otherkin have different experiences, yes, but we also have a shared alterhumanity. There’s no reason to avoid each other the way we do. Getting closer would make all the rest of the solutions vastly more achievable as well

More type-centric subcommunities. Theriomythics, and anyone else whose type spans both major communities, deserve to be able to talk with others of our type. This is why the draconic community existed in the first place. It also would allow otherhearted or copinglink individuals access to others of their type without judgement.

No more inter-community type policing. Ideally, therians are those with shifts and otherkin are those without shifts, or otherkin is solidified as an umbrella term. Pair with point 1 to allow people to identify as somewhere in between. Make it a spectrum, not two completely separate buckets.

Theriomythic spaces need to exist. We’re fairly unique in being rather evenly distributed across the therian and otherkin communities, with wildly varying levels of species sapience, and having a space for us specifically needs to happen. Yes, others have tried this, but given the current weirdness about theriomythic validity, nothing particularly large has actually caught on. Again, preferably this is a subcommunity within the larger community.

Conclusion

Quite frankly, this ends up in about the same spot gender does. In short: this question is too complicated for strict divisions to ever actually work. I’d love the communities to eventually integrate fully with subcommunities for different groups, but that may still be a long way off. Either way, we really need to treat our alterhuman siblings better than this, and celebrate what makes us unique rather than drawing lines in the sand of who can and can’t join. No one needs to be left out just because their type is too confusing to categorize.

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals - Thriller (part 1 of 2)

(The video isn't a two-parter, but this analysis is! You can find part two HERE, but there'll also be a link at the bottom of this post!) VoicePlay's cover of Michael Jackson's Thriller was released to YouTube on the 12th of October, 2024 (and/or on the 11th - you know how it works), and features the one and only J None, back again with the group! Actually, in case you haven't fully realised it yet, of the 4 Halloween videos that VP has done since he stopped being a permanent member, J has returned for 3 out of 4 of them! (The exception being 2022's Hide And Seek/Ding Dong, ft. Lauren Paley). Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this might be the first time Voiceplay has covered two songs by the same artist in the same year? The first obviously being The Way You Make Me Feel (which has been submitted for consideration to be maybe nominated for a Grammy in two categories!?!) But anyway, I don't wanna get off-topic, and of course I'm not actually here to talk about the music/vocals/arrangement (I did that in a separate post which you can find HERE); I'm here to talk about everything happening on screen! And boy is there a lot to talk about, such that I very quickly realised I would absolutely have to make two posts in order to mention everything (like what I did for Classical Chaos). So enough of my introductory yapping, Let's Get Into This!

Introductory shot! Actually this was the video thumbnail that Patrons got for early access (though I hit play without even looking at it anyway), so we went in way more blind than the rest of y'all did!

The moon lamp once again making an appearance in the background! Geoff first got it for his Jack's Lament video, and then VoicePlay used it for Classical Chaos earlier this year. Also I wouldn't be surprised if some of those gravestones were reused from Jack's Lament as well tbh. (And trees possibly from Be Prepared and/or Classical Chaos?)

Oh yeah and maybe you might see something on the floor behind Cesar's legs? Don't worry about it, it's probably nothing! 😉 😝

(More below the cut!)

J sings "under the moonlight...", and Cesar turns to look back at the moon! (And Layne turns his head as well)

Also the beam of light coming from the top left area shining down to the centre of the floor reminds me of the similar lighting effect from Song Of Durin ngl (as always, Eli was credited with lighting for this one - shocker to no one, and he always kills it every time!)

Also quick comment on the clothing, I like how they're all wearing black and red, but with each with their own take on it. Layne has red shoes (so does J), Cesar has red plaid pants, and J, Eli, and Geoff all have red shirts (and J has red and black trousers (or whatever they are), and Geoff has ripped jeans with red showing through underneath). And of course it's always nice when Geoff is wearing an actual proper colour other than blue! 😁😝

Not fully a visuals thing but I forgot to put it in my musical thoughts/commentary post - I like how Eli sings "you're paralysed!" and then the background vocals sing "you're para-!" but they din't finish the word, as if they've been stopped, or rather paralysed midway through singing! And this is highlighted in the video by Cesar here, so it is still kinda a visual thing as well!

Hey I think that person figure thing on the ground behind Cesar and Layne has gotten closer! It's still probably nothing though, it's fine /j

Actually nevermind, it's not fine - watch out Layne!!!

On my first watch-through of this video on Patreon, I mostly just watched it start to finish without stopping. The only two times I paused were right at the start to take in the starting shot and kind of "psych myself up" to get through the rest of it (again, not knowing anything about the video), and then I rewound a few seconds and paused to try and get a better look at who this zombie person was. And then I stayed paused for like a hot minute while I absolutely died laughing because omg KATHY!!!!! 😂🤣🤣

*YEET*

(Oh the genuine delights of frame-by-frame scrubbing 😂)

So here's some BTS info for you: Geoff was in charge of the production and direction of this video (and song arrangement) (though Tony also helped out with direction too), and apparently his initial idea was for Zombie!Kathy to "bite" Layne's leg, and then just make a face or something as if he tasted bad, and then crawl away or whatever. It was Kathy who had the idea of what actually happens in the video! Geoff wasn't sure at first, but she told Layne the idea and he loved it, and yeah it was absolutely hilarious - definitely VoicePlay Brand Of Dumb (affectionate).

Also you don't really see anything of the ""body double"" that Layne kicks away, but VoicePlay (Geoff specifically I'm presuming) decided to credit 'her' in the description: "Flying Stunt Zombie - Greta The Gruesome" 😂 (Kathy meanwhile is credited as "Production Manager and Floor Zombie")

And also despite being hardly seen, VoicePlay and crew put effort into making Kathy and the doll "Greta" (bought from a Spirit Halloween store inside the same mall as Pattycake Studios) look like each other! Kathy has since posted a couple pics from the videoshoot with her and "Greta" in full makeup and costuming on her Instagram - Here's a link!

Cesar is Concerned (and/or confused, lol)

And so yeah, Kathy was on the floor at the back right from the start! (Though I didn't notice her there at first till the second time around.) Kinda like Geoff's Monster Mash video in that regard! (someone on the Discord server (I believe it was Huldra?) made a joke about this being the result of Narrator/Scientist!Geoff's creation going horribly wrong, lol)

You doing alright there Layne?

*AAAAAAHHHH...*

*...CHOOOO!*

(Oof, rip Cesar!)

Also kinda neat how the lights change back to red right on Layne's sneeze (momentarily going purple in between as well!)

So not only did Eli maybe get some in his eye, or at least almost do so, but Cesar's wiping his sneezed-on hands on him!

Eli: Cesar dude what the heck? Cesar: Hey don't blame me! Layne was the one that sneezed in the first place!

Not exactly an air guitar, but Geoff does kinda look like he's playing some sort of invisible instrument here and it's low-key intriguing to me

A very quick sideways head/neck jerk from Cesar - the first warning sign that the zombie-ness has spread to him as well!

Yep, now it's Cesar's turn!

Shoutout to Cesar's gold painted nails! Very pretty!

And also shoutout to Layne's acting/movements in this video! In most VoicePlay videos you'll likely notice that he has "self-conducting" movements in a similar way to what Geoff does, and you might even notice similar hand movements across multiple videos. But in this video, from the moment he starts looking a bit more sickly/"zombie-like", his movements change a little as well - looking a bit more jerky and stuff, and he seems to mostly be keeping his hands open and flat like in this picture here - less bending of fingers or any sort of fluid "drumming" motions (maybe meant to represent a bit of growing rigor mortis?)

I only just thought of the rigor mortius idea/"theory" just before, and then we get this ~2 second group shot at the start of the bridge section, and Layne barely moves, despite there still being audible percussion - it definitely seems like a deliberate choice! (He's still beatboxing, or at least lip-syncing to it, but it's rare that he keeps his body so still in a video while he's still doing percussion)

Watch out Eli - I think you're next!

*Pfft* rip he's gone

(Cesar in the BTS video: "Can I go for his head?" Geoff: "If he consents to it")

"Well that's not good"

"They're out to get you..."

Geoff isn't the only person to look directly at the camera/viewer in the video, but the verse he does here definitely feels the most like an actual warning, especially with the way he conveys it on screen here, and I guess it lines up nicely with him doing the monologue later. (Also low-key "close all the windows, lock the doors, unless you're careful he'll get yours" vibes ngl)

(Oh and necklace spotted!)

Also this bit low-key reminds me of the end of VoicePlay's Running Up That Hill video, after Ashley levitates and everyone else is just practically frozen, moving only their eyes (and mouths)

Oh no Geoff watch out!!!

(But also goddamn why does he look so good here? Like even with the hands and everything, almost looks like a freaking painting!)

Honestly I find Geoff's bit here really interesting - he's concerned/worried, but he doesn't actually look massively terrified, and he doesn't look like he's ready to run or fight. Like maybe he's almost already accepted the fact that he's next, and it's just a matter of how and when?

(That'd kinda sorta line up with the This Is Halloween video actually, in that everyone is slowly turning into creepy monsters, and Geoff appears to be the one least resistant to it (yes this video can be connected to a lot of other VoicePlay/Geoff videos, and I love it))

(Oh and I gotta give my love to his grey-white parts of Geoff's hair - truly this man ages like fine wine <3)

Not the hair!!!

And down he goes!

(And literally, he was in fact pulled straight downwards! Bent the legs, and Cesar and Layne helped support his weight so he didn't topple straight down - it was kinda amusing to see it happen in the BTS video ngl)

One last thing I will point out is that the jump across to J following this bit is actually not a cut or some fancy transition edit - Geoff's section to J's section is one continuous shot. But with that being said, this is still where I'm cutting this post off, because it's the halfway point (not counting the credits), and I've hit image limit! (I had to remove two images here to make it work but otherwise I managed!) Go find part 2 HERE!

[j3zelle]

Summary: You and Ellie are just getting by, pushing yourselves to the limit as you finally find what it was you were looking for.

Warnings: NSFW WARNING ! MINORS DNI ! cursing, blood mention, animal death, oral sex r!receiving, fingering r!receiving.

Word Count: 6338

A/N: I know what you guys are thinking... "OMG??? ITS FINALLLY HERE???" I know bitches, it's time, strap yourselves in! (Also I finished writing this at 11:30 at night, so sorry if there are any writing mistakes, but hey, apparently the freaks do come out at night... Enjoy!)

Benevolence: Part 5

You awoke the next morning to the smell of mud and dew. It was a pleasant smell, one you missed a lot since you left Jackson. You missed gardening in the greenhouses, the smell of freshly cooked bacon and steak. The feeling of your own bed underneath you. Even if it was a life you didn’t imagine living, you were grateful for it.

You open your eyes slowly, looking up through the trees as the very early morning sun rays spill through the leaves and branches, creating a burn yellow glow. You soaked up the sun like a small, budding flower. As you do this, you feel movement beside you. Turning, Ellie was beside you, reading that survivor's book. Her heavy sweat jacket made a makeshift pillow as she laid on her back, looking down at the book as it laid on her chest.

“Morning.” You whisper softly to her. “Doing some light reading?” She looks over to you, smiling at your words before she closes the book on her finger, keeping her page safe from the clutches of the unknown.

“Only a little. I was trying to see who those people were, maybe they were part of the same group.”

“Why would they separate?”

“To find Joel. Scout ahead. Who knows at this point?” Ellie sits up, looking over to her bag that was beside her before opening it and placing the book back into it. “However, I did learn something new.”

“And that was?” Ellie doesn’t answer yet, she simply places a small apple in the hand you had laying on your chest. You sit up slowly, careful to not hurt your arm, and take a bite out of it. It was tarty and a bit squishy, but you didn’t mind that much.

“They call themselves the Washington Liberation Front. Their base is in Seattle.”

“Okay.”

“Where do you think they would take Jesse?” She questions, and you shrug.

“Not back to Seattle, if they are still here. But, again, how do we know these are the same people?”

“That girl in the building, she mentioned the man that led them, named Isaac. The same name was mentioned in the diary.” Ellie grips onto her pinky and ring finger on her left hand, just like she always does. “They also mentioned looking for Joel and Jackson.”

“Did they mention why they were looking for him?” You ask, taking another bite out of the apple. Ellie looks away, digging into her bag one last time and pulling out the bandages. Without her asking, you turned your body completely so your right arm was facing her. She turned around, her eyes wide. She likely didn’t expect you to read her mind. You giggled softly as you bit into the apple once more, and she just shook her head.

“They didn’t mention it.” She responds, taking off the bloody bandages from your arm carefully, and wrapping new ones around it. You wince softly, looking up into her eyes as she works. 

“That’s odd.”

“All I know is that if Jesse isn’t in Seattle now, he will be soon. We have to find him before he is off the map for good.”

“You mean… going to Seattle?” 

“If you're willing to go that far.”

“I’m more than willing.”

Three Months Later

The weeks turned into months as you and Ellie were on the road. It was long and hard, but you and her managed it. A lot of nights, you had to go without eating, but thankfully, Ellie was great with a bow. Every few nights that go by, she would hunt down a rabbit the both of you would share. She would even tell you stories about the times she spent in Jackson with Jesse and Dina, before you came yourself only a year or so ago. 

After a while of traveling with the horses, yours ended up dying in the night from hunger. You felt terrible, as you were so worried about yourself and Ellie, not what the horses ate. You gave them what little food you could spare, but there was nothing you two could do about it. Ellie let Shimmer go that same morning, hoping she would fend better in the wild than with you two. You just couldn’t salvage the extra food for them. It broke her heart, letting her go, but you told her it was the best thing to do, and reminded her that it would’ve been better letting her go to live a better life than watch her die a few nights later. She knew you were right, and as she watched her leave, she took hold of your hand. You two have been on foot since then, trekking along as far as you could go until you basically collapsed to the grassy floor every night.

You thought with all this traveling, you and her would get closer. And that is exactly what happened. There were times where she would warm up to you and get to share a lot with you. Even times where you would find yourselves enveloped in each other in kisses, the ones you thought only happened on those terrible 90’s movies the adults showed everyone on movie nights. But, you noticed something always made her pull away, as if she regretted it. It was driving you insane, the fact she changed her personality so much. It was nothing like she usually acted, like in Jackson. She was still herself but it was like something pulled her out of it.

Whenever you mentioned it or brought it up, she changed the subject quickly. It worried you more than you would like to admit, and sometimes she noticed.

When she would change the subject, she often brought up your new scar and how it looked a lot like the one she used to have before she covered it up with her tattoo. You took it as a compliment most of the time, because you actually loved your new scar. The healing was a pain and you wish you didn’t get hurt from the beginning, but at least it looked cool now.

With the weather getting warmer, Ellie ripped her long sleeve denim jacket into a t-shirt, showing off her beautiful toned muscles. She only caught you staring once, so you are training yourself to look away as soon as she feels your eyes on her. You weren’t staring that much, but you couldn’t deny when she was sweating in the sun, and the way it beaded on her skin, it was hard to look away. 

“Alright, according to this map, there should be an old hotel down the road. We can hole up there for the night.” Ellie speaks, looking over to you. You were kneeling down in a small area of grass, picking at a patch of lemongrass. With the warmer weather came more food to eat, and although lemongrass didn’t have the most pleasant taste, it was better than nothing. You pick a handful, placing them in your bag before you stand back up and walk over to her.

“What did you just grab?” “Lemongrass.”

“Again?” Ellie groans, folding up the map of Seattle she found on a dead survivor's body. They were also part of the Washington Liberation Front, the body had a patch on it saying so.

“You want to starve?” You ask her, moving to her side.

“It’s not my plan, no.”

“Then we are eating lemongrass for dinner.”

“We can’t even eat it! We just suck on the strands.” She replies, beginning to walk away. The sun was a bit brighter now, but with the towering buildings above you, the shadows cast on the two of you well enough to block the sun's harsh rays. You traveled a lot before, but Seattle was something different, especially since nature took over all the buildings and made them seem like they were trying to camouflage.

“So, we’re heading to a hotel?”

“Yeah, apparently it's a small meeting place for the WLF. Maybe there are some people there we can talk to, get some more information out of anyone we can.” “Maybe even find Jesse?”

“Exactly what I thought. If they were smart, they wouldn’t lead us all the way back to their base. No, they’d keep him in a spot only those they trusted knew about. So, this is our best lead so far.”

“Sounds like a lot of nothing for just information. Jesse isn’t the kind of guy to kidnap to get information out of. He’s not like Tommy or Maria, those are people they would want for information.”

“Yeah, but they are also one of the strongest in Jackson. They wouldn’t do that. They’d grab someone alone, vulnerable.”

You smile, shaking your head. “Then Jesse isn’t the one. He’s older than you and me, he knows what he is doing. He knows how to take care of himself. Hell, I’d be surprised if he was tied up when we found him. He has a thing for getting out of sticky situations.”

Ellie looks back at you, shrugging. “Of course, but we can’t let them know that, can we?”

More walking with the only change being the sun going down. Your legs were beginning to itch and the balls of your feet were sore. You wanted to tap Ellie’s shoulder and ask her to stop for the night, hoping she’d make an exception. How big is Seattle? This is getting ridiculous! 

“There.” Ellie whispers, putting a hand on your shoulder. You look over to Ellie, noticing her eyes were focusing on something entirely different in front of her. You follow her gaze, noticing a brick building in the difference, covered in plants. A fence wrapped around the outside of the building, and a large gate was the window to the courtyard, which held a beautiful fountain. Unfortunately, it no longer worked, even though you could imagine the water spewing out of the little angel's mouth at the top.

“Come on.” She murmurs, taking your hand as she pulls you along. You tag behind her, feeling the way her hand wraps around yours. Her skin was a bit rough at the moment, but you didn’t mind it. It was a rough couple of months on the road, with and without your horses. 

The two of you ran across the road, quickly and quieting, hoping know one was watching the two of you. Ellie lets go of your hand, then wraps it around the bars of the gate, shaking it to see if it will open easily. She then looks up, noticing the top of the gate was only a little rusted, and there were no sharp points.

“Hey. Let’s jump it.” She tells you, and you nod in understanding. 

“You first.”

‘No, ladies first~” She answers, placing her back against the gate as she kneels down and makes a cup shape with her hands. 

“You are such a charmer.” You tell her, smirking as blush rose onto your cheeks.

“Quickly now.” She replies, shrugging for you to get over the gate. Without another word, you grab onto the gate tightly, then place your foot in Ellie’s hands. With a few grunts, Ellie pushes you up as far as she can. Raising your hand up to the top, you grab on tightly and scurry all the way up the gate like a squirrel going up a tree. You didn’t realize how tired your body was until now, when it needed all your strength to pull the other half of your body up. With some effort however, and some more help from Ellie by pushing on the bottom of your shoes, you managed to get to the top and jump to the bottom on the other side.

“Alright, nice. Now open the gate.” 

You place your hands on the handlebars of the gate, pulling towards you, with a bit of force into it. However, the gate wasn’t moving. You sigh, looking over all the vines and leaves covering the fence and the fence gate. They were tied together, but not as if they grew together like that. You trace your finger over the vines, the soft and moist texture you are used to was not what you felt. It was rough and dry.

“These aren't real.” You tell her, pulling out a knife as you cut at the fake plants. “Someone put them here.”

“Well, that's not good, but it's not bad either.” She answers, looking around her. “Means someone is here to protect this place. It can’t just be one person either.”

“Stay on your toes.” You tell her, pulling open the gate as Ellie quickly makes her way into the courtyard. You both close it back with ease, looking around one last time before making your way towards the building. The building up close looks like a paper mache brick being held together with string. It looked like it could collapse at any moment, so you told this to Ellie. She understood what you meant and shared your fear of the collapse, but also mentioned that it likely wouldn’t happen if there were people here already. You knew you both couldn’t prove it yet, but you trusted Ellie’s instincts when she mentioned something like that. 

With soft steps, you both entered the hotel. The front doors showed less restraint than the gate outside, which filled you with hope. Even though you were worried as well, it didn’t stop your ambition. This was the closest you’ve gotten to Jesse since you and Ellie left Jackson a few months ago. Even if Jesse wasn’t in this building, or even in the immediate area, Seattle was the only lead you two had. A strong one at that. You couldn’t let it go to waste. 

It was eerily silent within the hotel, but you and Ellie stood close together and made sure to check in with one another every time you each finished checking a room for infected. Every room you walked into, every floor you went up. You didn’t want a repeat of the garage. 

On the fifth floor, the floorboards beneath your feet began to creak at any movements. Your heart rate increased at this, and you gripped onto your knife a bit harder. Walker over to the first door on your right, you leaned into the old, moist wood, listening to the other side before barging in. With no sounds arousing your suspicion, you placed a hand on the door handle, twisting it and opening it slowly. Peaking into the room, which was filled with dusty furniture and broken glass. Not too different from the other rooms you and Ellie looked through. You confidently opened the door all the way, taking a few steps within, the light from the sun finally seeping through the old and dusty blinds.

Suddenly, you feel an arm wrap around you, and the sharp, cold edge of a blade against your neck. With a gasp, you quickly move your hands up in the air, and instinctively drop your knife to the ground.

“Good job Wolf, didn’t have to even say anything. Now, give me your bag.” The familiar male voice sent a shiver through your spine. It was rougher and deeper than you remembered it, but it had been months since you last heard his voice.

“Jesse?” You speak. You feel the blade leave your skin slowly, the person behind you falling silent. As the knife gets a good distance away from your neck, you turn around. 

There he was, right there in front of you. Jesse. He was very dirty, dried bits of blood scattered across his face. His hair was also a lot longer than you remembered it, going past his ears a bit.

“Oh God… You look like crap.” You whisper, covering your mouth as the feeling of chlorine fills your nose.

“Still better looking than you.” He answers back, then he smiles. You step towards him, placing a hand on his cheek. With a closer look, you could see the blood was his own, a deep incision on his cheekbone. He flinched a bit at your touch, and you released slowly. 

“Sorry.” You tell him. 

“It's fine. How is everyone back home?” He questions. It takes you a moment to respond, you were still shocked that you managed to find him.

“Everyones fine.” Jesse nods, looking down at the floor. “So is Dina.”

“I wasn’t-”

“Mhm, sure.” You giggle at Jesse as his face turns a bright red. 

“So who all came with you?”

You hum softly, shrugging. “Ellie.”

“And?”

“That's it.”

“You two came on your own?” Jesse raised his voice, then looked around, lowering it once more. “Are you insane? That’s really stupid, especially for the two of you! Who knows what could've happened?”

“A lot happened. A smaller group was a better idea anyways.” You reply, noticing his eyes staring at your right arm. The arm where your new scar laid, and where a deep gash was just a few months ago from the radio station.

“When did that happen?”

“A few months ago. It’s not a big deal, Jesse.”

“How many times did you both almost die?”

“Quite a few, but we can handle ourselves! You know this? How many times have we gone on runs together and just made it back?”

“More than I’d like to admit to Maria, that's for sure.”

“We are fine.”

You both fall silent, and after a few moments, you watch as Ellie appears in the open doorway.

“Holy sh-”

“Sup.”

Ellie quickly embraces Jesse, giving him a swift, strong hug. You smiled down at the ground, your cheeks turning hot. The soft side of Ellie was one you always loved to see, and a welcome sight compared to her indifferent side you recently saw as you traveled together. 

“Took you two long enough.”

“You didn’t make it easy for us, Jesse.” Ellie responds, placing her hand in her brown hair. “Jesus, you scared us.”

“Trust me. I know, I feel terrible.”

“We thought..” The words were stuck in your throat, a tear began to stream down your cheek. “We thought we’d never find you. We’ve been gone from Jackson since the day after you stopped responding to the radio.”

“That long? Does anyone know you left?” Jesse asks. You and Ellie both stay silent, and Jesse sighs.

“Alright. Guess it's time to go home then.”

“No.” Ellie murmurs. You and Jesse both look towards her, and Ellie looks back to you. “Remember.. They are going to find Joel.”

You raised an eyebrow, confused at first, then you remembered. “Yes. The WLF, they are trying to find Joel.”

“What? Why? How do you know this?”

“We found a diary from one of the soldiers in a house not too far from the radio station. It said the leader's name, Isaac.”

“I heard that name before…” Jesse says, looking down to the ground as he scratches his head. 

“What exactly happened at the radio station, Jesse?” You ask him, turning towards him.

“I was surrounded. I had no clue they were there until they were on top of me. I was in the break room, just grabbing something to eat before I continued walking back home. They jumped me right as I walked out.”

“Did you hear anything?”

“Heard their scrambling, that's for sure. I heard the name Owen… Abby. They talked about those two like they weren’t there though, so I don’t think the group that got me was with them. But, on the way here, they talked about home. Talked about how they would torture me to get information out of me. A few nights ago, they stopped at this building, and as one of them let me go to the bathroom, I jumped on him.” He turns towards you, shaking his head. “This whole city was guarded relatively well. I’m surprised you two managed to get by.”

Ellie hums, nodding to him. “We didn’t see anyone, but we moved in the shadows pretty well. I don’t think anyone saw us.”

“Well, if anyone did, they would’ve gotten reinforcements. There are a lot of them.”

“Then we better take them out while we have the strength to.” Ellie says, looking at you. You widen your eyes, wondering what she was thinking.

“Woah, Ellie, we came all the way here to find Jesse. We found him, let's go home!” You plead, taking her hand.

“I know you're scared, but you said you're willing to go far. ‘I’m more than willing.’” Ellie repeats your words, and you shake your head quickly.

“To find him, not to hurt people! Let’s just go home, please. There are only three of us. We won’t last that long anyways.”

“Ellie, (Y/N) has a point. We can’t just bust in there. None of us are battle ready. None of us can take on that many people.”

“They don’t know there are three of us. They only know there is one of you.” Ellie tells Jesse, walking over to the window. “We just have to be smart about this. With the three of us in the shadows, they have no chance. We each can hold our own well, well enough to do plenty of damage and get away fast. Then, we meet back here.”

“That’s not a plan, Ellie. We can only hope to do enough damage, and even if we did, what’s the hope they don’t attack Jackson anyways? Find Joel, Maria, Tommy. Everyone else we care about? Our failure to make a dent will be their anger towards us only more so. We need to go home and tell everyone!”

“If they had any idea if we would be coming for you, they would never expect us to attack. They would expect us to go home. We can’t, we will lead them right there.”

You frown gently at Ellie’s idea. With each word she spoke, you could’ve sworn she was being greedy. Craving it. She wanted to do something about these people. They already kidnapped Jesse. Her plan was flawed, but doing nothing would put Jackson at risk. All those innocent people. The kids. You didn’t want that blood on your hands.

“Fine. We will do our best then.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” Jesse says, placing his hands on his hips. You turn to Jesse, shaking your head gently. You weren’t happy about it either, but you couldn’t just walk away and do nothing.

“They have to pay, Jesse.”

“You say this like they did something terrible to me!”

“They were going to! You heard them yourself!” You cry out, placing a hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “Think about Dina… If we brought these people back to Jackson…”

“She would want you to deal with them.” Ellie tags in, walking closer to both you and Jesse. She then lays a hand on your hip. You believed it comforted her more than it was meant to comfort you.

Jesse stands there, looking down at the two of you. You could understand why he didn’t want to do it. After all the three of you went through the past few months, all of you wanted to go home. Even Ellie, who seemed so eager to spend more time here, wanted to go home. You didn’t want to question it. 

“Fine. Come here.” Jesse gestures the two of you towards the other room, and you and Ellie both follow closely. Jesse leads the two of you to the window in a bedroom, kneeling down on the ground. 

“See that all the way over there.” Jesse points to the road below, towards a subway entrance.

“Yeah?” Ellie answers, looking at it.

“There is our way to their base. It's a football stadium not too far away, but walking there above ground wouldn’t be the best idea.”

“So we take the subway? And walk all the way there?” You ask, looking towards Jesse. He nods, but then he holds up his finger.

“The only unfortunate thing about this is the subway entrance. It leads into what I think is a camp area for them. After watching them for days though, I’ve noticed that every time a group leaves, the other group doesn’t arrive until five to ten minutes afterwards. That gives us more than enough time to run down there after the first group leaves later tonight. As soon as we do, we run down there, grab some supplies, if there is any, and quickly head towards the stadium.”

“How many are in a group?” You ask.

“About six each, only one group so far this past week has had more, but that was the group that greeted mine.”

“Wait, where are they? The group you were a part of?” Ellie asks Jesse.

“You think you're the only one that can hold your own?” He asks, smiling at Ellie. “Just don’t check out the dumpsters.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Ellie shakes her head. “You’re strong. Me and (Y/N) both knew it. We had high hopes you were still alive when we were coming to find you.”

“I don’t doubt it for a minute. I know the two of you were just dying to see me again.”

Ellie rolls her eyes, and you respond by punching Jesse’s shoulder.

“Alright. Let's do this then. We wait for a few hours, then we head there right as this group down here leaves.” 

You look over to Ellie, a shimmer of determination in her eyes. Her auburn hair was brighter in the sunlight, and her freckles were easier to see. You smiled softly at the sight. No matter what happened, you knew you could always trust her.

The day slowly turned to dusk, and with it came the gentle, cool spring breeze. You and Ellie agreed to stay up, letting Jesse sleep in the same hotel room you first found him in. He was exhausted, and you could tell just by the way he swayed back and forth and the dark circles under his eyes. As much as he said he wasn’t tired, you didn’t believe him. You practically forced him to lie down. However, he would only take the old sofa in the living room, leaving the bed to you and Ellie to share.

You made sure nothing was wrong with Jesse as he slept, hoping as you checked his body for cuts and bruises, you didn’t wake him. Thankfully, he was in the deepest sleep you’ve ever seen, and instead of waking, he snored like a newborn.

You walked back into the bedroom, looking at Ellie as she sat on the bed. The back of the bed was against the wall that had the door to the room, and it was facing a nice dresser that once had a gorgeous mirror. Now, it was broken, and completely covered the floor near it. The carpet floor was covered in nasty stains, some of which you were glad you had no clue what they were.

Ellie was on the right side of the bed, looking towards the window. You saw the diary you two found months ago when you both started your journey, settled on her hands. She was in her usual ripped button up shirt, the same one she always wore that looked so good on her.

Without saying a word, you turned your back towards the bed and flopped right onto it. The bed barely squeaked under your weight, and with a heavy sigh, you allowed yourself to sink into the bed. You hear Ellie laugh under her breath as you do, and all you do is laugh back.

“I don’t care if it's old and dusty… This is sooo comfy.” You say out loud, spreading your arms out to enjoy the feeling of the cushion beneath you. Ellie closes the diary and turns her body, laying on her back as she looks up to the ceiling. You adjust yourself, laying beside her. Your back and shoulders ached carrying around your bookbag all day everyday. You could only imagine how bad Ellie’s felt, knowing she had the larger bookbag, so she carried the most supplies. 

“Enjoy it. This might be the last good night's sleep we will have in a while.” She places the diary on the side table, then turns her body to its side, facing you.

“God. Don’t even say that. I don’t want this to end.” You groan, looking at Ellie. She was sitting herself up with her arm, looking down at you with a smile on her lips. It made you blush, her sweet, freckled face looking down at you like that.

“Just get some rest. We have a lot to worry about later.”

“And what if I want to stay up?”

“Then you can do that. No one is stopping you.” She concluded. As you both sat in a nice, comfortable silence, you couldn’t help but think back to everything that happened the past few months. Jesse goes missing, you and Ellie almost die trying to find him, you run into people that want to find Joel and possibly hurt him, then you finally find Jesse, which he almost kills you.

“Wow.”

“What?”

“You know how time flies… It feels like yesterday was twenty minutes ago… Last month was yesterday?” You question. Ellie hums, then nods.

“It felt like the opposite. I feel like we have been on the road for so long and I haven't taken a breath yet.”

“Never thought of it that way before.” Ellie expressed, shrugging. “I barely paid any attention.”

“Not even as you are sitting here?”

“I’m not worrying about it?”

“Why not?” You wonder out loud, looking away from Ellie as you stare at the ceiling.

“I care more about this now. What I have in front of me.”

You felt your heart skip a beat at her words. As you laid on the bed, you could feel Ellie’s finger draw small circles on your arm. They slowly turned into spirals, going up and up and up. Goosebumps rose onto your skin, and you shuddered a bit.

“Even if you know we might die tomorrow?” 

“I don’t care about tomorrow because everything will go exactly as planned.”

“It’s not always like that, Ellie.” You exhaled, looking back at her as she looked down at you with those big green eyes of hers. 

“I don’t care. This is how it’ll happen. We will walk into that subway, down to the football stadium. We will set that place ablaze and kill anyone that tries to kill us. We will save Jackson. We will survive. You will survive.”

You stayed silent for a moment, noticing Ellie’s fingers were wrapped around your tank top string, and with every second that passed, she twisted her fingers around it more. You could feel the cloth scratch at your skin and her rough knuckles brush against you. Your breath got caught in your throat, and you just now noticed how close Ellie was to your lips.

“You aren’t a god, you know? Not everything will go your way.” You quip, smirking softly as you trace your fingers against her jawline.

“It doesn’t matter what I am. I won’t let anyone take anything from me ever again. Not even you.” 

With those words, you breathe out happily. No matter where you were and what would happen, as long as Ellie was with you, you were invincible. 

Before you get a chance to say anything else to her, Ellie’s lips crash into yours in a lustful, wet passion that no one could stop. Your need for her at first was nothing compared to now. Your hand found its way into her hair, gently cradling her head and keeping her as close to you as possible. 

You could feel her legs tangle up with your own, but you had to admit you were barely paying attention. You were focused on her lips. Her sweet, perfectly sculpted lips. You thought the first few kisses with her were amazing, but wow, this was unlike anything you thought you could experience. The way she not only worked her lips, but the way she placed her hands on your body, sending lighting through your body with the slightest touch. You are a mess, and she was only going to make you messier. 

You finally caught a breath as Ellie released from the kiss, but she only made her way to the skin beneath your ear. As if she wasn’t already making you go crazy, she just had to make it so much worse. Biting and kissing at your sensitive skin, you tried your best to hold back any noises that could’ve seeped from your mouth. But each time she bit, she didn’t seem satisfied. She would get a moan out of you one way or another, and she was nowhere close to finishing. 

As she released her hold on your neck, your fingers were finding their way up to her shirt, and finally found the buttons. As you struggled to undo her shirt, she only laughed under her breath as you did so terribly. She took over, pulling it over herself, then taking off your tank top. Both of you are now shirtless, the wind coming in from the window doing little to nothing to the heat within the room now. You would've been surprised if you felt any kind of chill anytime soon. 

You sat up, kissing Ellie again as you set your fingers against the belt on her jeans. She followed close behind you, and each of you shimmied out of your clothing that was oh so uncomfortable now, considering the circumstances. If you thought seeing Ellie’s biceps caused you to lose breath, you were not ready for her toned abs. Your face turned a deep red at the sight, but you were quickly focused right back on her eyes as she cupped your face. 

“Your so fucking perfect.” She whispered under her breath. Because of her words, all you could do was bite your lips, enticing her to kiss you more. Again and again. All you wanted was her at this moment. 

“So have me then.”

She obliged. She pushed you back down onto the bed, first kissing at your lips, biting and nibbling at them. She then went down, each kiss sending sparks of electricity through your body, each one stronger than the last. 

“E-Ellie…” You begin to moan, then you quickly cover your mouth. The last thing you wanted was to wake up Jesse because you were indulging too much. 

“Don’t worry about him. He hasn’t slept in days. Doubt he’d hear a thing.” Ellie advised. For a moment, you almost didn’t believe her. It was a trick, a way of making you turn into a little puddle for her right then and there. Then, you thought, Who gives a fuck?

Ellie’s kisses got dangerously close to your core, so you moved your hips up slowly, almost pushing her away. However, she used her own body weight to push you back down and begin kissing at your panty line. Only small, shuddering breaths were escaping your lips at this point. You were waiting for her to make her first move. You could only imagine what she would do, and that only made you hotter and wetter than before. 

She hungrily pulled down your panties, first planting kisses on your core, almost carelessly. She was like a natural, not afraid at all. It was enough to make you moan, for real this time. Her hot breath landed on your snatch just perfectly, and with each kiss, they got wetter and there was more tongue. She was eating you out with a passion, and at this point, it was so ethereal, it was like a dream. Your legs began to cramp as you tried to pull away, not because you wanted to, but because it was so good it was impossible to stay still. Ellie’s hands, however, were immovable and were placed gracefully under your thighs. 

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, you feel a digit insert into your core. You gasped aloud, covering your mouth instinctively. Ellie’s hands, no longer on your thighs, were placed at your snatch. But, one of her hands trailed up to your face and pulled your own away, making you helpless to her and her actions. 

“Ellie, that's not fair.” You whine out. Although you were half joking, not minding this slightly dominant side she was showing, she inserted two more fingers within you, as if to punish you for even thinking of hiding.

“Fuck~!” You cried out happily, her fingers curling perfectly against all your sensitive spots. Spots you yourself didn’t know you had. You were at her mercy and we entirely hers at this moment, but you didn’t care. You felt nothing but bliss. 

With each stroke of her fingers and her tongue together, a familiar, yet different feeling rose in your core. It came closer and closer, and with each second your moans became louder and louder. And Ellie wouldn’t stop. She was going faster. She was going to make sure you reached the perfect, euphoric state that you deserved, that you both were building up to. 

Finally, with one last curl of her fingers, waves began to pulse through your body at full blast. It was like nothing you ever felt and nothing you yourself would have ever done. It felt like it lasted forever, that perfect high that Ellie gave to you. You thought you could hear gentle words come out of her mouth, but mostly all your heart was your own heartbeat.

“Ellie?”

“You made a mess of yourself, (Y/N),” Ellie whispers, looking up at you from where she laid. She sat up, the sound of dripping liquid from her fingers landing onto the mattress. “And the bed.”

“S-Sorry…” You whispered. You were not sorry. You had the best orgasm you had ever felt. You’d never be sorry.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you could make it up to me~” 

[wonhoscumrag]

Eren x Reader

Transfer Student Eren who transferred to your Uni from Germany for the semester but ended up staying and completing his entire degree in your uni,

Eren who started off as a business major and ended up in the same Children’s lit English class as you because it was an elective.

Eren who would constantly argue and bicker with you in class because you both had very different opinions on topics in class. 

The conversation had been going on for almost all of the class time now. You don't know what your professor was thinking by grouping you together with Jaeger. You damn near argued with each other in every other class. The professor put you in a group with Eren, Armin, and Sasha. He made the next class asynchronous to give you extra time to work. Armin figured that since the best place to work would be the class since nobody else was going to be there.

For the most part, everything was going well until Jaeger decided to open his stupid mouth. “I cannot believe that you think that Willy Wonka shouldn’t be held liable for what happened to those kids, you’re actually unbelievable Jaeger.” You spat out at him. "Ugh not again". You heard an exasperated voice behind you. It was Sasha groaning while placing her head down onto the desk. Eren raised his brow as he took small steps towards you. In all honesty, he didn’t really care that much about the topic of debate; he just really liked arguing with you. It did get him riled up and frustrated but it was entertaining. The principle wasn’t about being right, it was just about disagreeing with you. He took another step close to you and got right into your face. “He gave the kids clear instructions on what to do and they didn't follow them. They even signed it in writing and they still disobeyed. Why should he still have to take responsibility? Besides, it's not like anyone died. ” His thick accent made his words sound much more blunt than intended.

Before you could strike back Armin stepped in between the both of you. “Hey, come on guys, we still have to finish this assignment. We don’t even have to do Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we can do a different story instead” He spoke softly and tried to separate the two of you hoping it would give you both time to cool your heads. “Business majors” you muttered under your breath as you both walked back to your seats. “Here goes Freud jr. trying to psychoanalyze me again” Eren spoke while rolling his eyes before he sat down. You gave him a hard glare and right before you were about to speak you glanced across the table and saw Armin's worried look. You sighed and tried to calm yourself down. Armin was right, we did have to work on the project. The due date wasn’t for a while but you were all swamped with work from other classes and this was the best time frame for the 4 of you to do the work and hopefully complete it early. You faced Armin and gave him a sweet smile “let's continue where we left off”. Armin breathed out a sigh of relief and opened his notebook.

A/N: Hope it was okay, this is my first time doing this and I'll probably add on to it whenever I get the time but I just wanted to put something out cause it was running through my mind. Also this was stemmed from a 2 minute conversation I had with my friend.

[samobservessonic]

Now, as was sadly also the case with the last specials we covered, the creators of this special are uncredited. But an old (defunct?) Yahoo Group tells us that Kitching was the writer for each of the stories in this issue, with various artists working with him. For Sun Doctor, Ferran Rodriguez is back on art duties. This story is split into two parts, being the first and last comics to appear in the special. I’ve decided to post them as two separate parts for my read-through, so part two will be shared last Also, while the canon of the two yearbooks I covered earlier were only loosely connected to StC, there’s no denying that this special is set firmly in the StC world, with our opening showing a civilian being blindfolded and led into Sonic’s base, where the usual team of Sonic, Tails, Amy, Porker and the Kintobor computer are waiting

Some of you might remember Stripes, a young badger who appeared way back in issue 4. Well, today he’s joined a cult and his dad is seeking out help. Also, heads up for cult mentions in this story if that’s a matter you’re not comfortable with reading about. They refer to it directly as being a cult in the comic, but I'll try to avoid doing so in my write-ups here Anyway, this story will be Stripe’s last appearance. I didn’t even know he came back after the first issue he was in, to be honest. The blindfold thing here also really solidifies that there’s a select group who are working as the Freedom Fighters now, whereas in those early issues it seemed to be anyone who lived in the Hill Zones was fighting Robotnik

Tails can’t believe his luck that Sonic deems this mission okay to take him along on. He mustn’t think this Doctor Sun character is too dangerous

Anyway, we get a long sequence of Sonic & Tails travelling through the Mystic Cave Zone, fighting badniks and disarming traps. It’s another case of the story being less effective because the location they’re in just doesn’t look like the Mystic Cave Zone, which is a shame, because that place has some cool visuals they could’ve worked with

Part One ends with our duo finding the titular Doctor Sun and hey look, it’s Sally Acorn! Looks like she and a bunch of others have made some bad life choices, but we’ll find out how bad later in the special

[missmilkie]

Ninja From Another Land

Part Four

wc: 2.4k

During the days you waited until genin orientation, you learned some new jutsus. Naruto taught you the Shadow Clone Jutsu. The Body Flicker Jutsu, Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu, and Temporary Paralysis Jutsu were also added to your arsenal.

If you have these natures you can learn:

Fire Style- Fireball Jutsu, Phoenix Flower Jutsu, Dragon Flame Jutsu

Water Style- Liquid Bullets, Wild Bubble Waves, Raging Waves

Earth Style- Double Suicide Decapitation Jutsu, Hiding Mole Jutsu, Earthquake Slam

Wind Style- Wind Scythe Jutsu, Gale Palm, Great Breakthrough

Lightning Style- Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop

You arrived ten minutes early to the orientation meeting for new genin. Other academy graduates filtered in as time passed, including Naruto.

“What are you doing here? This meeting is for graduates only.” Shikamaru approached Naruto.

“Don’t you see this headband? As of today, I’m a ninja too.” Naruto adjusted his headband. “What can I say? It suits me.”

Soon after, Ino and Sakura barreled into the room.

“Looks like I won again, Sakura.” Ino panted.

“What are you talking about? The tip of my foot got in one centimeter faster!”

“You’re blind!”

Sakura then turned to see Sasuke. Naruto blushed as he thought she was looking at him. The pinkette ended up pushing Naruto out of her way to talk to the Uchiha heartthrob.

“Good morning, Sasuke. Mind if I sit next to you?” Sakura asked as if she didn’t just violently shove Naruto away.

“Hey! I’m gonna sit next to Sasuke.” Ino argued.

“It’s first come, first served.”

“Well, I got in the classroom sooner!”

“I did!” Some other girl shouted.

“If that’s the case, then I did!” Another came up.

“I was first!”

“I’m sitting next to Sasuke!”

A small crowd of girls began arguing over Sasuke. He just sighed, annoyed.

Naruto hopped up onto the desk, getting right in Sasuke’s face. They stared each other down.

“Naruto! Don’t glare at Sasuke!” Sakura scolded.

The blond turned back to Sasuke to continue glaring. What’s so special about him anyways?

“Beat him up, Sasuke!”

The kid sitting in front of Naruto then suddenly jerked back, bumping into Naruto.

“Oh! Sorry!”

You giggled. Naruto and Sasuke were now lip locked in front of all the fangirls. They quickly separated, spitting dramatically. Naruto turned to the girls, sensing their rage.

“Naruto…You…”

“An accident…It was an accident!”

Sakura cracked her knuckles menacingly. After the blond ninja took a beating, Iruka came in and started the meeting.

“As of today, you have all become full-fledged ninjas. However, you’re still genin. The tough part is still to come. From now on you’ll be in a squad of three and carry out your missions under your jounin teachers. Though there will be one with four since we have an odd number.”

Chatter erupted at the possibilities of the squads.

“The groups have been determined so that the strength of the group will be balanced. Now for the assignments.” Iruka brought up a list.

You naturally spaced out for a while because none of the groupings mattered much to you.

“Group Seven will be…Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and (Y/n) (L/n).”

Hell yeah!

“Group Eight is…Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame.”

Sakura bragged to Ino about being on a team with Sasuke. Shikamaru didn’t understand why girls were so interested in Sasuke. Ino had just finished saying that she would hate to be grouped with Shikamaru when Iruka spoke.

“Next is Group Ten…Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi. That’s all for the group divisions.”

“Mr Iruka! Why does an exceptional student like me have to be in the same group as Sasuke?!” Naruto stood up angrily.

“Sasuke has the best grades of the graduates along with (Y/n). Naruto, you have the worst!” Everyone laughed. “Of course, this is how it is when trying to balance the strength within groups.”

“Just don’t get in my way.” Sasuke side-eyed Naruto.

“What did you say to me?!” The blond fumed.

“You wanna fight?”

“Knock it off, Naruto.” Sakura told him disapprovingly.

“In the afternoon, I’ll introduce you to your jounin teachers. You’re dismissed until then!”

Everyone dispersed to eat lunch. You stayed in your seat and ate your bento before taking a nap. You didn’t want to deal with the drama that you knew was occurring outside the room.

Every other team’s teachers picked them up, so you guys were the last people there. You knew that Kakashi was notorious for being late, so you took a nap. Sakura and Naruto argued while Sasuke brooded at his desk. When you woke up, Naruto was placing an eraser in the cracked open doorway.

“Hey! What are you doing, Naruto!” Sakura scolded him.

“It’ll be his fault because he’s late.”

“You’re just asking for it..”

“A jounin wouldn’t get caught in such a weak prank.” Sasuke rolled his eyes.

“That’s right! You’re such an idiot.”

“I bet you 500 ryo each that our sensei falls for it.” You suggested with an air that drew them in. Sasuke and Naruto blushed profusely.

“It’s a bet.” Sasuke accepted.

Kakashi fell for it just like he was supposed to. You always theorized that he just didn’t care and let it happen. Kakashi told your group to meet him on the roof before disappearing. At least you made a quick 1000 ryo out of it.

“First things first, introduce yourselves.” Kakashi said simply.

“What should we say?” Sakura was confused.

“What you like, dislike. Your dreams for the future, hobbies, that kind of stuff.”

“Hey! You should go first.” Naruto suggested.

“Alright. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I don’t feel like telling you about my likes and dislikes. I haven’t really thought about my dreams for the future... And as for hobbies, I have a lot.” Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura looked at him in disbelief. They didn’t learn anything from that, just his name. “You next.”

“I’m Naruto Uzumaki! I like instant ramen, ramen from Ichiraku, and (Y/n)! My hobbies are trying different kinds of ramen. I dislike the five minutes you have to wait after you pour the hot water in your ramen. My hobby is eating and comparing ramen! My dream is to become Hokage, so that the people of the village will pay attention to me and give me some respect!”

“My name is Sakura Haruno. I like…*giggles* My hobbies are…*giggles* My dreams for the future are…*giggles* Oh, and I hate Naruto!” Every time she giggled she was looking at Sasuke. You mentally facepalmed. You were going to fix her.

“I am Sasuke Uchiha. I dislike a lot of things, but no likes in particular. What I have is not a dream because it will become a reality. I will restore my clan and kill a certain someone.” It was so emo.

“You do realize what you’re going to have to do to restore your clan, right? That’s a lot of se-“ Kakashi cut you off.

“Your turn.” Sasuke’s face had become beet red at your comment. He had an idea of who he wanted to help him restore his clan.

“I’m (Y/n) (L/n). I like food, and I dislike people who are mean to my friends. My hobbies are hanging out with friends and learning new jutsus. My dream is to save as many people as possible.”

“The four of you are…very distinct and interesting. Your first mission will be tomorrow.” Naruto perked up. “We'll do what we can with five people, a survival exercise.”

“An exercise? I thought this was supposed to be a mission.” Sakura pointed out.

“Yeah, what’s with that?” Naruto jumped in. Akashi began to laugh darkly, the sound making you sit up straighter.

“If I tell you, you’ll be disappointed…” The amused edge never left his voice. “Of the twenty-eight graduates, only nine or ten will be recognized as junior ninja. The rest will go back to the academy. In other words, this will be a difficult test with a 66% fail rate.” Everyone’s demeanors dropped a bit.

“I told you you wouldn’t like it.”

“That’s not fair! We’ve gone through so much. What was the graduation exam even for?!” Naruto exclaimed.

“It was to select those with the potential of becoming a genin.” Naruto shrieked incredulously. “I’ll be deciding if you pass or fail. Bring all of your ninja tools and meet at five in the morning!”

Everyone freaked out in their heads. No one was going to let themselves fail.

“Alright, you're dismissed.” Kakashi turned to leave. “Oh, and you should skip breakfast because you’ll throw up.”

The next morning, you woke up at six. You knew that Kakashi was going to be three hours late, so you took your time getting ready. You had a decent breakfast before going to the training ground. You arrived around seven forty-five.

“(Y/n)! Why are you so late?!” Sakura demanded a response.

“Oh, I just slept in on accident.” You lied with a smile before glancing around. “Looks like Kakashi isn’t here though, so it’s all good. Time is relative, you know.” The three of them stared at you in confusion.

Twenty minutes later, Kakashi finally arrived.

“Why are you three hours late?!”

“A black cat was about to cross my path, so I had to find another route.” Kakashi shrugged at his half assed lie.

“So, what’s our mission?” You asked. Kakashi set an alarm clock down in front of you all and removed three bells from his pocket.

“This clock is set to go off at noon. You have until then to take these bells from me. If you don’t get one, you won’t get lunch.” Your hungry teammates gasped.

“But sensei, there’s only three of them.” Sakura pointed out.

“At the very least, one of you will be sent back to the academy.” Naruto and Sakura were freaking out over how unfair it would be to be sent back to the academy. “Although one of you will definitely fail, all of you can still fail. You won’t get a bell unless you come at me with the intent to kill.”

“But sensei, that’s dangerous!” Sakura exclaimed.

“Yeah, you couldn’t even dodge an eraser!” Naruto snickered.

“In this world, those without enough skills tend to complain more. So don’t listen to that loser.”

Naruto was pissed. You could’ve swore he popped a blood vessel. The blond whipped out a kunai and charged at Kakashi. Almost too fast for you to comprehend, Kakashi caught Naruto’s hand and turned him around to be at his mercy with the kunai poised at the back of his blond head.

“Don’t be hasty. I didn’t say start yet.” The jonin’s voice was dangerously low and you felt your cheeks burn. Nothing beats hearing it in person. Why did you have to be twelve again?! He was so hot! Kakashi released Naruto after a moment. “But hey, you did come at me with the intent to kill.”

You all looked at your new sensei, anticipating his next words.

“I think I’m starting to like you guys.” Your team stared him down, hopeful. “Let’s start now.”

Everyone jumped away to hide. You were able to mask your presence well enough to begin concocting a plan. Nearby Naruto was out in the open and challenging Kakashi. You kept your eyes on Kakashi as a precaution.

If you remembered correctly, the purpose of this exercise was to work together. Sasuke wouldn’t be open to cooperating since he believed people would slow him down. Sakura might be more open to it, even if she can get a little distracted… You made your way over to her, careful to not make a sound.

“Psst. Sakura.”

She opened her mouth to scream, but you covered it.

“We should work together. None of us are good enough to get the bells on our own. Here’s what we can do.” You leaned in close to Sakura to whisper your plan.

Unbeknownst to you, Kakashi had a clone watching your every move. He smiled underneath his mask before diffusing into smoke. He wanted to be surprised.

While Naruto was getting his ass handed to him, you and Sakura took up your positions. Sakura would ambush Kakashi and put him under a genjutsu. In the second that he would take to release it, you would snatch the bells.

Kakashi had just finished dealing with Naruto’s dumb ass when Sakura pounced.

“Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu.”

Kakashi’s body went rigid. You had jumped out of hiding as soon as Sakura performed the last hand seal.

Wind thundered in your ears as you rocketed to your sensei. He drew close within seconds, your hands reaching out. Cool metal pressed into your skin and your hand closed. You let the momentum propel you away from him. It was your escape.

“(Y/n)!” Sakura called out.

You opened your hand to reveal three twigs.

“They were fakes! The real ones were somewhere else on his body.”

“What?!” Sakura caught up to your figure. “When did he do that?”

“Right before you put me under that genjutsu.”

The two of you whipped around to face your teacher.

“Well, it was worth a shot. We’ll just have to figure out a better plan.” You shrugged, knowing that the two of you had already passed.

Just then, the timer went off.

“Time for lunch. Except for Naruto.” Kakashi’s tone didn’t reflect how scary he was acting earlier.

The three of you sat down around Naruto with your bentos.

“Sakura and (Y/n) have already passed. You’ve got to step it up, boys.”

Sakura’s green eyes widened as a grin spread across her face.

“We did?”

“They did?!” Naruto exclaimed.

“Yeah. Don’t tell the boys your secrets.” Kakashi went from lighthearted to terrifying. “And none of you feed Naruto.”

With that you were left alone to eat. Naruto’s stomach loudly protested the lack of food. You just went for it, offering your food up after taking a bite.

“(Y/n)!”

“Relax. Naruto’s gonna need his strength if he wants to pass.” You alternated between taking a bite and giving Naruto one.

Hesitantly, Sasuke and Sakura joined.

“You still need to eat too, you know.”

The rotation of feeding Naruto didn’t last long before Kakashi returned, looking livid. The sky became dark as clouds rolled in and thunder crashed.

“You…all pass.”

Just like that, the dark clouds were gone. A pleased expression could be seen on what was revealed of Kakashi’s face.

“But how?”

“Those who break the rules are scum. But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.”

After talking to Hinata and Ino, you and Sakura were informed that they didn’t have to endure a test. Kakashi was just being extra. Of course he was. You thought to yourself.

“So unfair.”

“He may not act like it, but Kakashi-sensei cares. You’ll see.” You assured her with a smile.

“If you say so.”

[gokartkid]

we've been loving in silence

title prompt

brocedes im thinking normal-people esque.

like, lewis and nico are in a high school relationship, they've known each other for forever ever since they were kids, their parents are close, they've been on holidays together the whole deal but-- they're also childhood friends in that way where they fell apart somewhere in intermediate and early high school.

nico made different friends, lewis made different friends, they just stopped talking. they were never really friends at school either, they'd have a great time on the weekend but. again. they had separate groups

they start going out after they keep running into each other at parties in high school: they go off into quiet corners and end up talking for hours nursing warm beers and chatting about everything, nothing. one of these nights, someone leans forward -- dunno who, lewis or nico, and it doesn't really matter but they're kissing

they keep it secret and its painful. lewis doesn't want to be judged for dating nico (internalised homophobia and nico is just again. theyre part of different crowds. nico goes with it but its frustrating-- sometimes he just wants to talk to lewis at school but he knows he cant, they dont go anywhere in public together or if they do its not even fun because lewis is looking over his shoulder to see if theres anyone that they know.

they break up-- and its awful and messy and lewis tries to do it over the phone but nico is like you cant seriously be doing this i live 5 minutes away from you im coming over.

neither of them can even talk about it to anyone because again nobody KNEW (and people did know but they knew the vibe was. not tlaking about it, so they never brought it up. the secrecy never even mattered tragedy!) and its very licking your wounds why are you so moody and angry, ppl in their life being like. just TALK to us!

and then they just ignore it because they're going to different universities anyway (nico goes away, lewis stays near their hometown) except then nico transfers back because his dad has an illness and he wants to stay close to him. lewis hates bumping into him (he doesn't like who he used to be. he feels really bad for treating nico the way he did) but it comes off as him just hating nico.

nico is seeing someone who's-- just okay. lewis hates him. lewis also hates how okay his friends are with nico, and with the guy hes seeing (they were never homophobic, just normal guys. when nico comes to a party theyre at they back slap him say hey whats up ur back etc etc)

nico and the guy break up. long getting back together process -- theres a moment where lewis is like can we just be friends again. and then both of them are nervous about moving beyond that and possibly fucking it up again and then NEVER having each other in their lives

everyone around them can see whats going on but they cant moment. lewis thinks his parents r just being annoying asking after nico but they always knew and they care about lewis and they just want him to be happy etc. etc. (somewhere in here a rlly difficult coming out convo with his dad where theyre not making eye contact but in the end its all abt love)

and then yeah. they get back together and its the same but so different and theyre grown up!

[mariska]

hello world i am awake and have my first dose of daily medications in my system and thus have a lil bit of energy at the moment to just Type My Thoughts Out Into The Void On Here. so here is my non internet/social media life update for all of u today:

later in the day i am finally gonna be able to meet/hang out with one of my longest exclusively internet-based friends of mine after a little under 10 years of us being friends!! im so happy + excited for it but i still have some chores and last minute cleaning stuff i gotta do before he gets here, hopefully waking up a lot earlier than i usually do will give me whatever time i need to finish my part of the household preparations 😅 but yeah!!! he's a mutual friend of both me and Eli (obviously, would not otherwise just be like. hey Eli this person u dont know or hypothetically arent friends with actively is also staying at the house while ur here get used to it HFSGSHSCGSF) and we've been trying to put together some kind of non-internet hangout trip for years and it just didnt work out until this time around.

right before the first global shutdown covid wave back in early 2020 the three of us had been trying to plan a May hangout together that we called "superbirthday" (cus my birthday is may 6 and my friend Jon's, person who is coming here 2day, has a may 26 birthday, so the 20 days in between both our birthdays is 'superbirthday' celebration time 😌✌️) so im like. beyond excited that we've all actually been able to make it happen for real this time!!

i've met up irl now with quite a few of my good friends who were people i originally met online in some way but it's still so surreal in a happy way whenever that happens again. me and Jon originally became friends through the Gmod server "Gmod Towers" (which doesnt even exist anymore it has its own separate game that both me and Jon actually contributed to the fundraising campaign for the devs to develop yrs ago) in like. fall of 2014, if u never played on it back then, it was a really chill fun virtual hangout server world kinda similar to like....imvu/second life, that kinda thing, but on a much smaller scale than either of those and with most playable characters taken from like, the general Gmod Valve Game Character Model List. it was styled like a resort type hotel with different areas of the map having different activities u could do with friends or anyone else around, there was a mini games section and a big hotel lobby where a lot of people just sat in groups and talked with their mic headsets and a hotel room area that saved whatever interior decor u set up in ur room, u could watch youtube vids on a virtual tv and throw parties for the server to come join and be goofy at....Good Times.

ANYWAYS all of that to say, as awful as the general internet experience can be like all the time forever especially in more modern yrs, im really grateful that in my life i've been able to make such meaningful connections and friendships with people online, sometimes in niche lil corners of the internet with dedicated fan followings like Gmod Tower!! i say it irl all the time to ppl but the internet truly Was Not One Big Mistake despite the increasing chaos of the whole big picture concept, being someone who is disabled and had to drop out of school at 14 to quite literally keep myself alive and keep my body/brain from totally failing on me, i genuinely don't think i would have many friends if any at all if i hadn't been able to connect with people online, especially with my Agoraphobia making it very difficult to like. put myself out there in the world.

....yeah! so. thats what i am up to currently. and yes we WILL all be playing Kirby Air Ride for the Gamecube on my Pink Disney Princess TV as a Superbirthday™️ activity. for ur information.

[j2memories]

Variety article (October 9th 2020)

‘Supernatural’s’ Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki on Their Final Scene Together, Moving onto ‘The Boys’ and ‘Walker’

Oct 9, 2020 9:00am PT

By Danielle Turchiano

The Winchesters’ work may not yet be done on “Supernatural,” but their portrayers, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, already have to think about shedding Dean and Sam and stepping into new characters.

The CW demon-hunting drama called series wrap in early September, with the guys sharing their final scene as on-screen brothers on Sept. 10.

“When I showed up, it was our last day of filming at the studios and it was a big day, script-wise. And our third AD, Emma — we call her G.G., which is short for ‘garden gnome,’ because she’s little — she came up to me and was already in tears; she was like, ‘It’s our last day at the studio.’ And I just said, ‘Nope. No, no no, another day at the office, business as usual, don’t start that s—.’ That’s how I do the work,” Ackles tells Variety.

With only days since between wrap and chatting with Variety, Padalecki points out that he doesn’t “know if I’ve unpacked” what that final brother moment fully means emotionally. He shares that he has been “avoiding really delving back into that mindset and what it means and what it meant.”

“Even though Jensen and Jared knew, ‘Hey “Supernatural’s” done on Friday; we finished on Thursday,’ we had to treat it like, ‘OK this may be the last minute of the Super Bowl, but we’ve still got plays to make’; we still have to be on point,” he explains.

“Supernatural” began airing the final seven episodes of its 15-season run on Oct. 8, with the world watching whether or not the Winchesters would be able to defeat God (Rob Benedict), who has been hell-bent (no pun intended) on destroying universes of late. Unlike seasons past, though, the episodes have wrapped ahead of time: The first five were finished in the spring, as the show was originally scheduled to end in May. When the coronavirus pandemic halted production, they had two episodes to go, which were completed amid the still-ongoing pandemic in early September.

“We didn’t let COVID stop any brother moments,” Padalecki promises, noting that protocol on-set had the co-leads getting tested every three days and only interacting with essential personal, such as each other, the director, cinematographer and their key makeup and hair artists.

“In those final moments, without giving away too much, one thing you’ll see in my opinion for me [is] the lines that separate the the character from the actor get heavily blurred,” Ackles says of Dean and Sam’s last scene together.

Because of schedule changes due to COVID, both Ackles and Padalecki were able to look ahead to what their next projects would be before finishing the arguably the longest-running one of which they will ever be a part.

Early this year, Padalecki booked the titular role in the CW’s reboot of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” simply titled “Walker”; for the first time in his career he will also be an executive producer on that project. In August, Ackles announced he would be joining the cast of Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” for the third season, playing the first superhero, Soldier Boy. Just yesterday, it was announced the Ackles also signed an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television Group.

“My new character, Walker, is different than Sam and so I’ve been spending time since they called, ‘That’s a wrap,’ getting back into that mindset. I was able to get into that mindset during quarantine, but I know as well as any actor that it takes a while to fully flesh out a character anyways — and it should,” says Padalecki. “If ‘Walker,’ the TV show, goes for three or four or five or six or seven years or whatever, then I hope he’s more fleshed-out and more developed than he was during the pilot. And so, I’ve done a lot of work — I’ve done the character work — and I’m going to start from there and let what happens between ‘action’ and ‘cut’ inform me more.”

Both actors say that no matter what new character comes their way, there have been invaluable lessons learned on the set of “Supernatural” that they will carry with them.

“The last 15 years was not just going to work, it was an educational experience. I learned a lot about everything I do. Jared and I didn’t go to school for this; we learned on the job. And so, the more on-the-job we have been, the more we have learned. I certainly never anticipated being this educated in what we do, and I think that that will only help us in what we do moving forward,” says Ackles.

Adds Padalecki: “I’m going to take Sam Winchester and the lessons I learned from ‘Supernatural,’ proudly, into every job I do — and probably outside of jobs, just as what kind of a human being I want to be.”

“Supernatural” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.

Watch Variety’s video interview with Ackles and Padalecki above.

Link to the article

[moodymisty]

◁ Stolen Goods ▷

Part 2

Author's note: Decided to post this early for reasons, even if I'm not happy with it. Enjoy! This is mostly setup for part 2.

Summary: For someone as smart as Tech, he sure just made a really dumb move.

Relationships: Tech/Reader(This part is gender neutral apart from mentions of panties)

Warnings: NSFW, Panty kink, Panty Stealing, Pining, Masturbation, I guess stealing someones underwear to beat your meat with could count as Dubcon?, Dirty Thoughts, Post Order-66

Words: 5448

AO3 Link

With being in a ship as compact as the Marauder, came with the catch that belongings had to be relegated only the scarce necessities. A few pants, shirts, socks; Underwear.

There was only so much open space, and most of it was occupied by other supplies; Like food and weapons crates. As well as the necessities of multiple other people crammed in as well. Which had made it all the more obvious when you realized you were missing your favorite pair of underwear. They had seemingly disappeared into thin air; Gone.

After checking your bag of clothes and the washer, you'd began looking around in odder areas, thinking maybe you'd dropped them or they'd gotten stuck in a pair of pants. You looked all over where you’d been sleeping as if maybe be some slim chance they’d be there, and nothing. Pulling back the thin mattress and checking underneath revealed nothing but some dust and crumbs, and even a few stray credits. Checking your bags for a second time also revealed nothing. It wasn’t like they had many places to flee to in the ship, scanning over every nook and cranny.

Before you had a chance to begin an ever more in-depth search however, you heard a voice yell to you from outside the ship.

“Hey! We’re leaving! Tech’s staying here to fix something before we take off!”

Abandoning the search you quickly scurried to the front of the ship, where Tech was sitting in the pilot’s seat while the rest stood just outside by the gangplank. You'd stopped on some random planet to fuel up and gather supplies before taking off again, as well as give Tech and Echo enough time to work on fixing some parts of the ship. Since it was still early in the day, they'd apparently decided to grab food supplies before it got dark. This wasn't exactly the most, safe planet, so you'd rather not be in the area once it got dark.

“You coming or staying?”

Hunter looked up at you, watching as you hopped down the gangplank and outside.

“I’ll come with; Might as well get some fresh air.” That would leave Tech alone in the Marauder while he did maintenance, and the rest of you got supplies. If anything happened; As slim the chance may be, Tech could get a hold of you via comms. You would've figured Echo would be staying behind too, though he was probably coming with for a similar reason to you. Being stuck up in the ship for so many hours was taxing, to say the least.

"Do remember to keep your comms on, and try not to separate and get lost again?" You looked over your shoulder to see Tech now standing in the entrance of the ship, looking down at the group. 

"Oh relax! We didn't get lost!" Wrecker blew him off, not noticing when Tech raised his eyebrows.

"Then why did you call asking for directions back to the ship the last time we were on Ord Mantell?" Of course Tech would bring that time up, you were staying out of this. 

"Uh, to double check?"

Tech shook his head and sighed, looking down at his datapad before closing up the gangplank and leaving you all to walk off. 

With Omega tagging along as well-all of you knew well she couldn’t be trusted with no less than two sets of eyes on her-you all started walking in the direction of the city to stock up. Quite the odd bunch; Omega running ahead while Hunter was slightly behind the pack.

After locking the main door Tech sat back down in the pilot's seat and watched through the viewport, picking up his tools and gently holding them in his hands; The work he'd been doing had long since been finished, now just keeping his hands busy. He kept glancing upward however, and as time passed Tech figured that if any of you had forgotten something you would’ve come back for it by now, and he was truly alone for the time being.

He’d already finished the things he needed to get done and then some earlier, and although he was against the idea of a break, his tools were put back into the correct box after he got up from the pilot’s seat.

Making sure the seat faced forward, Tech took one more glance out the front viewport just to be sure, before walking out of the cockpit. 

While he-in theory at least-didn't mind the idea of having some alone time for once, Tech wasn't sure now he was a fan of how quiet the ship was. There was no stomping around, no one yelling or laughing, leaving it almost deathly quiet. He tried not to think much more on it, picking up a few tools that had rolled around the main area of the ship, and putting them away in their respective places. He needed to get around to organizing all the stuff back here when he had the chance; And possibly move it so no one jumbled it up again. It had already been shuffled around multiple times, and knocked over by Wrecker a few times as well. Picking up a few more random strewn about things-and delaying what was his real goal the whole time-the only thing that stopped Tech from continuing to do so was the sound of the commlink beeping from the cockpit. Boots clanging against the metal flooring Tech jogged to the cockpit, leaning over and answering it.

"Echo, did something happen?" Tech's brow furrowed, trying to listen to him over the rumblings of the city area they were in. And apparently, whatever chaos was happening directly in the background. 

"Nah nothing happened-HEY! Give that back!- We're just picking up more than we thought and-Wrecker put me down!- We just wanted to tell you that-" Echo sighed and clearly decided to yell at whatever was going down around him and put it to an end.

"Dammit Wrecker put her down before you hurt someone!" Echo went back to speaking to Tech.

"We're gonna be a little longer getting back than we thought. The city's packed; It's like a maze out here, already almost got lost once." Tech nodded to no one and gave an affirmative hum.

"Just try not to destroy anything before it gets back to the ship? You should preferably return before nightfall as well; This particular planet is well known for its violent crime." That didn't exactly fill Echo with the most reassurance, but he couldn't disagree with Tech's recommendations. He agreed and cut comms shortly after, whatever had been happening in the background previously having mostly stopped; Even if the chatter of crowds still remained.

Now that was out of the way, and Tech decided to get back to what he was actually going to do; And preferably not get distracted by anything else. Leaning up from the control panel Tech pulled off his helmet, holding it in the crook of his elbow. He only placed it down when he got to his own bunk, hanging it on a small hook he'd placed for that very reason. With the display attached to his helmet he didn't like just putting it on the ground or tossing it around like the others did with their helmets, intent to keep it safe and not damage any of the internal wiring.

And now with everything else he could think of out of the way, Tech could finally deal with what was eating at him without anyone to bother him. 

He'd recently made a stupid, stupid mistake; Unlike him, and now needed to correct it. 

But he hadn't been able to with everyone on the ship, especially you. No matter where you went there was always someone right at your side, packed together tight with little privacy. So when you decided to go with them all picking up supplies, it all worked out perfectly for him. At least as good as it could go, given the circumstances.

Granted it wouldn't have had to go perfectly if he hadn't done this in the first place. He bit the inside of his bottom lip. Hunter would've absolutely noticed something wrong with him if he'd been here; If not the racing of his heart, him just standing here like he was frozen would've absolutely gotten someone's attention. The absolute last thing he wanted. 

Especially if it was your attention, he thought while looking down at his bunk and eyeing the small sliver of fabric he could see; Shoddily hidden.

He knew it was wrong, to say the least. But he'd seen them freshly cleaned in the washer as he'd passed by, tucked between the few other pieces of clothing you had, and he just-nabbed them. It was such a stupid, impulse decision, and now he was stuck with the repercussions of it, tucked between his bunk's mattress and the wall. He's alone on the ship now, he should just stick them to where ever he thinks you keep your clothes, and hope you're none the wiser. 

Yeah, that's what he'd do. It was the right thing to do, and it would help him get over this so the guilt didn't eat him up from the inside. 

Pulling back the mattress just enough, he pulled the underwear from where he'd hid them. the minute the soft beige fabric in his hands, Tech hummed. His feet suddenly felt like lead weights, and he sat down on his bunk instead of doing what he'd hyped himself up to do. Your bunk was so close yet it felt like it was lightyears away at the same time, looking over to see one of your bags resting on well used, crumbled blankets.

Tech never thought he'd be one to get a 'crush'; A cutesy nat-born term for a concoction of chemicals that sparks attraction. It was easy science, he knew it like the back of his hand; But he was still distracted by it, unable to fully focus when you were in the room. It quite honestly infuriated him, that he had the answer but he just couldn't solve it.

You were the first person who actually seemed to enjoy listening to him talk, going as far to even seek him out. He'd quickly begun listening for your footsteps coming towards the cockpit where you'd sit down and chat with him, or even sit in silence while he worked. Sometimes you'd do something for yourself, other times you'd watch or help him. He'd become fond of those moments, listening to your own interests and even doing research on them. But even if he could talk to you for hours, he hadn't quite been to formulate how to talk about how he felt; Instead relegating it to flutter around inside of him until it went away. 

It hadn't yet, and if anything, it'd gotten worse. Gone from wanting to talk with you and sit beside you to getting distracted by the shape of your lips; Or the curve of your neck. 

Too distracted to notice the tightening feeling in his lower stomach, Tech was racing a thousand thoughts a second until he adjusted his sitting position and abruptly realized. He could suddenly feel his blacks begin to feel almost suffocatingly tight, a free hand tugging at the edge of his codpiece. He could just take the armor off, it wasn't like he needed it on at the moment anyways; No one would be back for at least an hour or so.

It would be nice to just take it off anyways, get some breathing room.

Still holding your underwear in his hand, Tech reached around and undid the snaps keeping his chest armor and codpiece on. He slipped them off, feeling the weight off his chest and taking in a deep breath.

Laying both gently at the end of the bunk he could now noticeably see the strain of his erection through his blacks, struggling against the nearly skin-tight fabric. He'd already stolen them, the last thing he wanted was to get aroused by that fact, grimacing as he adjusted his goggles. But the lace was soft, rubbing the edge between the pads of his fingers.

Thinking of research he'd done about hormones and pheromones did little to soothe the ache between his legs; Cock now almost completely hard. 

He'd meant to put them away and correct his mistake before you noticed; Not, do this.

It was almost angry-the way he torn down the lower part of his blacks, cock springing free the second the fabric was peeled away. And with his hand still holding the gusset of your underwear, he groaned while his head thumped against the wall of his bunk, one boot on the mattress and one of the edge.

Right hand almost hesitantly wrapped around himself it slowly moved as if testing the waters, the motion making him grit his teeth as his hips twitched. It felt good, damn good; It had been awhile since he'd done anything like this. He hadn't had the time, not with everything happening. Though it wasn't like he hadn't thought about it, the sides of your panties still wrapped around the fingers of his left hand. They kept twitching, mindlessly moving against each other with the fabric in-between.

The feeling of the it against his skin made him look down at them again, causing him to bite the inside of his cheek. His other hand still slowly pumped his cock, as if biding time. 

For a split second there was a thought of you with them on, wrapped perfectly around your hips.

Don't do it, don't do it...

Ignoring his inner voice the fabric was wrapped around his cock in record time, it’s soft, new feeling almost instantly bringing other things to mind. The image of him fucking your thighs, teasing you-or you teasing him-with the feeling but a pesky layer of fabric between. His left hand now free it grasped the blanket beneath him, the bunk creaking softly from his movement as he shifted his weight. Pre-cum got wicked away by the soft fabric, all the while he tried to simulate the feeling of what he had in mind.

'If only it was real', his cock twitching as his hand moved faster and faster. But it had been awhile since Tech hadn’t instantly passed out once his head hit the pillow or back of a chair, holding datapads or half finished projects, and as such it was an embarrassingly short time before he stained your freshly cleaned clothing.

His chest almost suffocatingly tight Tech bit his lip, hissing between his teeth and struggling to keep his breaths not sounding any louder than normal. All of you were gathering supplies in the city so it wasn’t like he had any risks, but it still felt almost nerve-wracking to make noise like this unhindered.

Once he was lowered down from his high enough Tech slowly removed his hand, and your underwear, away from his softening cock. He’d absolutely have to clean them before daring to put them with anything else, as he’d actually stained them.

Or he could throw them in some random vat of acid, and try and forget this whole thing. Just shrug off any of your questions about where your clothes went by saying washer ate your clothes like some mechanized panty eating rancor. 

But that would be destroying your property even more than he already had, and with not a small amount of shame, Tech quickly went about making sure everything was borderline spotless. He threw back on what pieces of his armor he'd taken off, adjusting so none looked out of place. Tidying his bunk until it was perfect again, he raced to the refresher and turned on the water.

He scrubbed and scrubbed until he felt like he was going to raw his skin through the fabric, and so that not even the most high powered microscope would be able to tell what happened. He'd slip them in with your clothes the next time he noticed them in the washer, and forget everything happened. Once finished and quickly tried to dry them as best he could, the sudden sound of the door opening and gangplank lowering, along with multiple pairs of boots, startled him.

"Tech?"

Almost tripping over a canister he hurried, shoving them back in the first place he could think off; Between his bunk mattress and the wall, before grabbing his helmet and walking towards the cockpit to see everyone coming in. Wrecker was first, hauling a crate up the ramp and past him. Tech could hear the slam of it as he dropped it onto the ground.

"Did you not say you were going to take longer than expected?" Echo entered next, shrugging and leaning against the wall watching people walk past him.

"Yeah, we thought so too, but foot traffic was way less busy when we were on our way out. Guess it all worked out." Echo gestured nonchalantly, moving slightly to one side when Hunter slipped past him. And behind him was you, scurrying up the ramp with Omega hot on your heels. You were both carrying freshly cooked street food and were already beginning to dive into it; Everyone quite hungry from having to ration out food between supply runs.

You divvied out some more to Omega after throwing your things on your bunk, ushering her to sit down and eat it. Wrecker had already eaten his fair share on the way back, pouting when you'd slapped his hand away and commented on the fact.

Giving Hunter his own portion, you soon walked over to Tech who'd since sat back in the cockpit in his usual place. He seemed distracted, surprised when the container of food came into his line of sight. He followed the arms holding said container upward to see you, smiling at him and jerking your head in the direction of the food.

"Hungry? If you aren't you can give it to Wrecker, he's still stalking around for some more."

Tech was indeed quite hungry, and took it from you before instantly taking a bite. He noticed your hair was frizzy from the harsh winds outside; It looked cute.

"Get anything of worth done while we were gone?" Tech had been having trouble staying focused with everyone around him, to the point that once he'd even banned people from the cockpit unless there was an emergency. He took another bite of his food and nodded, using a single knuckle to adjust the frame of his goggles. You could see the marks they'd made around his face, having been constantly against his skin for quite awhile without break now. He glanced away for a moment and tried to forget, before looking back. 

"Some, though I still need to do work on the outer hull of the Marauder. It would be preferable to do it when we have some more supplies however; It's quite inadvisable to weld on existing welds." As if he hadn't been doing it already...

"You should make up a list that we can get next time things cool down enough we can get supplies." Tech let out an amused but quiet scoff, giving you a rare smile before taking another bite. It seemed like he'd already moved on from what had happened earlier, no longer thinking of it.

"That would be quite the long list."

You definitely wouldn't doubt that fact. Repairs were constant on a ship that took as a consistent beating as the Marauder. As well as the things inside it; Multiple pieces of equipment that had taken too much damage to work properly. 

"Well, Hunter says we're still staying here another day if things go to plan. How about you type it up tonight and maybe we can go back into town? Should at least get stuff for the hull, so it isn't so riddled with blaster holes..."

Just the two of you? Maybe he could use the time to actually speak to you, without his mind going off the rails.

Taking another bite of his food while not looking at it Tech nodded, already checking off the things he knew right off hand he needed. Granted they didn't have a lot of credits to work with, and that was after you pawned off your earring to pay for food. Which Tech was pretty sure Hunter was still feeling guilty about, already at odds after having dragged you into this. You weren't even technically a deserter, but you were still on the same wanted lists as them anyhow. Tech wasn't fond of you being collateral to them either to be honest, always worried you'd somehow end up getting in trouble because of them. 

But even as Tech began getting sidetracked, info dumping to you about a piece of hardware he needed for the climate controls, he remembered again for a moment what he had previously been trying to do. But now everyone was shuffling around inside the Marauder, Hunter leaning on the wall right beside your bunk, eyes closed and attempting to relax while Omega joked around with Echo.

Tech would just, handle it later. 

If his stomach stopped doing enough flips, that is.

It was well into the evening when you'd decided to turn on some of the lighting inside the ship, since the sun was dropping and no longer lighting the ship up in its stead. On your way to do so you ended up nearly tripping over something and falling flat on your face, only just barely managing to stumble to the wall to support yourself. Hunter instantly heard it and turned to look around the back of the cockpit seat he was resting in and asked if you were ok, to which you responded back with a light hearted:

"Think so?" You had to quickly say you were joking however, before Hunter got up fully and went to help you. But what wasn't ok was the state of the ship; Which was a complete mess. Since the Marauder had apparently ended up reaching the point where you were having to step over things, you figured it was time to clean at least something up. Pushing storage crates back against the walls and making sure they were strapped in, you grabbed the torn wrappers of various ration packs. Guiltily, you were probably the one who dropped your fare share of these, but at least you were cleaning them up. Unlike Wrecker, who would sooner throw himself out the airlock. You put them in the trash, continuing to shuffle around and try and tame the mess.

“What are you rummaging around in back there?” Hunter had a distinctly joking tone to his voice, while also being curious. Standing back upright, you walked to take the one step down into the cockpit area, past various other piles of mess. Tech was fiddling in the pilot's seat and Echo was in the co-pilot's, While Hunter leaned partly back in the seat just behind Tech. Wrecker was also shoved in the opposing corner, occupied with cracking the sore joints of his right hand. Omega seemed almost morbidly curious with the action, trying to replicate herself; Or at least make Wrecker do it again.

“Trying to clean some things up before I trip and kill myself. Want me to stop?” Hunter held his hands up in mock surrender and said to go at it. No one would certainly refuse a free clean up, even if it wasn’t technically your job. Especially Echo.

“One day this ship won’t smell like a damn kybuck barn…” Echo leaned forward to press a button on the main control panel, muttering mostly to himself.

“You’re holding an awful lot of hope in that, might want to knock the expectations down a bit.” Turning to look at you fully, Echo gave a wince at what he was about to say.

“You don’t even know. This was after cleaning it up for you back before everything.” That, wasn’t an encouraging thought. Slapping the back of the co-pilot’s chair you nodded, glancing over at Tech for a moment. He was distracted by something, to the point of not being part of the conversation. It was kind of cute, you wouldn’t knock him out of it.

Leaving the cockpit area to get back into cleaning up, you managed to get all the random junk off the floor, including tools. Next would be to deal with the various bits of clothes scattered around, before it got even more out of hand. Or you all were left wearing dirty clothes; Which given Hunter's nose, had to be a last resort. Standing in front of all the bunks you glanced around, pushing your hair out of your face.

Each one of them had a ‘spot’ that they put their dirty blacks. Given the size of the ship, creativity was necessary. Both Hunter, previously Crosshair, and Echo shoved them under the mattresses of their bunks; Out of sight out of mind. Wrecker put them literally anywhere nearby his bunk, much to everyone's chagrin; and Tech, put them neatly in the corner of his bunk, smushed and out of the way.

You grabbed most of them in one shot, using your foot to snag some and throw up into your grip. They all went into the one machine for washing and drying their clothes and armor, going to grab the rest. Holding the last pieces you grabbed off the floor, it was easy to cross the floor over to Tech’s bunk.

It being Tech’s was always instantly obvious, given it’s mass of unfinished projects and engineering plans written on the wall in semi-permanent marker. He was apparently in the middle of a hard one, numerous scribbles and revisions all over the walls.

At first you'd assumed he would be the type to have everything neat as a pin, but soon you realized Tech was the definition of organized chaos. He knew exactly where each individual wire and screw was; But to anyone else, it was a safety hazard.

Even then it was still cute, seeing how much of him was in such a small space. At least it was better than the clone base, which had always filled you with anger knowing the clones weren't allowed to have much of anything to themselves. Clone Force 99 was a rare exception given they had their own small barracks, but even then, there was harsh limits on what could get brought base without being caught by higher ups.

Grabbing the neat little bundle of black fabric from the corner you almost turned to leave, when an odd color caught the corner of your eye. It was distinctly not GAR regulated black, but instead a soft beige lodged in the crack between the mattress and wall.

Putting a knee onto the bunk and getting partly on it you pulled on the piece of fabric, realizing quite quickly what it was. One of your pairs of underwear. Your favorite ones too, which had triggered your wondering as to where they had gone in the first place. At first you’d assumed it had just gotten stuck somewhere in a nook of the washer, but clearly that wasn't the case.

While it certainly solved your first question about where they'd gone, it raised a great many more. But not exactly ones you could just bring up crammed to the teeth with others. 

Though you also didn't want to give Tech the wrong idea either; As all in all, you couldn't exactly say you were up in arms about it. At least it didn't feel like you were; If someone else had done it, you felt like you'd be reacting a lot different than you were now.

But you liked Tech, a lot, which probably swayed things a considerable degree. Even if you hadn't the slightest idea if he liked you back, if he was just dense, or just trying to be polite. You'd kissed him on the cheek before, chatted with him well into the late night, and he would often look up topics that interested you and would show you them, even waiting to read them so you could do it together. It was Hunter who ended up saying that was quite odd for Tech, who would normally just eat up information as quickly as possible. 

Not wanting to mention it in front of everyone, you glanced around before noticing one of Tech's storage boxes in the back. He kept large amounts of things tucked in them, including the medical equipment that you didn't normally need. It stayed in there for safe keeping, the box insulated to keep the temperature somewhat average. It was helpful for things like spare bacta patches, avoiding them becoming unusable. Though after a few wayward incidents Tech had installed a lock on that particular crate, and only he had the combination for it. You hadn't been around for said 'incidents', before your time, so you just kind of blindly accepted it and only asked Tech to open it for you every now and again. 

You chucked the laundry into the little washer and shoved your own underwear in your back pocket before calling out to Tech.

"Hey Tech?"

You got a expectant 'yes?' in response, Tech fiddling with something on his helmet. You still stared at the storage crate, crossing your arms across your chest. 

"Can you unlock something for me?" Tech had trusted you with the code the first time, though after you'd unlocked it in front of Omega, the smart girl managed to watch you do it and memorized it. After that incident, Tech reset the code and kept it firmly within his own mind palace. He wouldn't dare say it in front of everyone else, either. Tech placed his helmet on a button free spot of the control panel and hefted himself off the seat, walking towards the back and seeing you standing there waiting.

"I just need to check the dates on something really quick." He looked down at you for a moment while adjusting the left wrist of his armor.

"Very well. We were low on bacta patches, last I had checked." Adjusting his belt Tech kneeled down, instantly punching in the code. You glanced towards direction the cockpit for a moment.

He was about as separate as you were going to get him, wringing your hands. You lowered to as low of a tone you could get with Tech still able to hear you, hoping and praying Hunter's ears wouldn't prick to this.

“So, Tech… Why were my missing underwear in your bunk?”

You could instantly see his body go completely rigid, frozen with the crate's lid half open.