#and what incredibly wild timing. both for When it Happened and also that i Saw It for the brief moment it was there.....

[greenwitchfromthewoods]

nymph. [2/2] l General Marcus Acacius

Summary:  you have been with him for a long time, but he has never seen you

Warnings:  +18, smut, fluff, oral sex (f!receiver), unprotected sex (don't do it), mythological figures treated in a simple way

A/N: I hope you will be gentle with me. your feedback is very important to me and I thank you for all the reblogs, comments and likes. 🖤 sorry for all the mistakes

>> PART 1

You gasped for air. Brown gentle eyes were staring at you as if you were an incredible miracle that suddenly found itself in his arms. 

Marcus wanted to say something and the words were already forming in his mouth when he saw the fear in your face. With a quick movement you slid off him, sitting on the edge of the bed, just like a wild animal that was ready to run away.

"Wait. Don't be afraid." he whispered, sitting up and slightly raising his hand, "You're in no danger from me."

There was no answer, but you didn't run away either. You watched him carefully, though. The glow of the candle flames danced on his bare chest, and his face showed curiosity, delight, but also fear.

When General Acacius woke up, the most beautiful creature he had ever seen was sitting on his hips, with a face that had haunted his dreams for so long. He wanted to get to know you, but at the same time he had the impression that he knew you so well.

"I've seen you before." he said finally. He tried to choose his words carefully, he didn't want to scare you. Your eyes twitched at the sound of his voice. "After the battle. You were standing there, in the middle of all those corpses... So beautiful and so intimidating at the same time."

"It was a terrible battle." you replied quietly, and Marcus was delighted to finally be able to hear the sound of your voice too. "Many lost their lives... Many tears were shed by the mothers of the fallen..."

He heard the pain in your voice as if you had also physically suffered during that event.

"Why did I see you?" the question he had been carrying around in himself for so long finally came out "Who or what are you, sweet bird?"

You looked away as if you were trying to find the answer to Marcus' question yourself. It wasn't easy or obvious. However, you knew that you had to be honest with him, because that was the only way both of you could enter a common path.

"I am... I was a servant of the goddess Minerva. One of many." you answered.

"Nymph?"

You nodded. "Yes, that's what you call us and that's the name we took." You took a deep breath. "You saw me, Marcus, because I lost my guard for a moment. It shouldn't have happened..."

"Why?" he was surprised.

He carried this memory of you like his most precious treasure, and the knowledge that he had acquired it unfairly, almost stealing it, hurt him a little.

"I didn't want you to know about me..." you replied quietly "I was supposed to be like the wind enveloping you, I was only supposed to watch and accompany you... I guess I got too involved."

The General moved a little closer. You quivered uneasily when his warm fingers brushed your bare shoulder, your eyes looked at him in fright.

"I've felt you by my side for so long..." he said, tracing his fingers that were roaming over your soft skin, so different from the roughness of war "You drilled under my skin so deeply that even a red-hot iron couldn't get you out. You were like a grace from the Gods, like a blessing... Don't take away my hope that you were meant for me."

"Only the Gods know what is meant for us." his fingers moved to your shoulder, and a strange shiver ran down your spine.

"So why do you say that what happened to us was just an accident? A mistake? I think that's what they wanted for us."

You sucked in a breath through your parted lips, and your chest rose sharply.

Maybe there was a grain of truth in what he was saying, maybe the Gods really had been planning this for you for years. 

Was it really an accident that you found yourself near this man? Could it be an accident that his eyes finally saw you then? You didn't know the answer to these questions. All you could do was flow with Marcus as it was planned for you...

His closeness stunned your senses, just like incense did in temples. Unconsciously, your hand found his cheek. Marcus closed his eyes as if your touch was a pleasure he had never experienced before.

"The Gods bless you, Marcus." you said, stroking his face, running your fingertips over the small wrinkles around his eyes, over the scar on his cheek. "All your successes and victories, the glory you brought to the Empire, all of this is the sum of your strength and their love."

"It's all just dust if I can't have your love, sweet bird." he lifted his eyelids and in his brown eyes you saw that these weren't empty words "May the earth swallow me, may the Gods curse me if I can't know the taste of your lips... That's all I've been dreaming about for so long..."

Not a single word left your mouth. When your lips brushed his, you already knew that you'd never forget that taste. 

The next touches were as gentle as the touch of a butterfly's wings, but Marcus wanted more with every moment. His strong arms wrapped around your waist and pulled you onto his lap, then he kissed you with all his might. You had never experienced a kiss like this before, deep and full of lust, almost stealing your breath and soul. 

You clung to his strong body, your hands sliding into his curly hair as you kissed him back as if that was the only thing that could keep you alive. His tongue deep in your throat drew sweet moans from you. But then you felt something else beneath you, his hard manhood twitching lustfully.

You finally pulled your lips away from his, rested your forehead against his, feeling his hands caressing your back hidden under the soft robe.

"My dreams were full of you." Marcus whispered, he looked at you, but you had the impression that he didn't see you at all, as if all his senses were playing tricks on him. "But reality is even more beautiful, more perfect..."

"Forgive me, please. It was the only way I could pretend that I was one of you, mortals. It was the only way I could accompany you, even for a moment." You slid your hands to his chest, you felt the strong beating of his heart under his skin.

"Since you are like me now, you can experience it yourself. For real."

He saw a flash of fear in your eyes, but also suppressed hope. "Do you want me, Marcus?"

"More than all the gold in the world we know. More than glory and immortality. If being with you was the last thing I would do before I died, I wouldn't hesitate for a moment."

There was no lie in his gaze. There was no empty desire that you sometimes saw in other people's eyes. This man wanted you, all of you, just as you were. He loved you before he was even able to lay a finger on you.

"So take me as I am. Give me this moment so I can love you..."

"I'll give you my whole life for this, little bird..."

You kissed again, and his hands carefully slid the robe you were wearing from your shoulders. The curves of your breasts revealed themselves before his eyes, your nipples hardened from the change in temperature and fear. But you weren't afraid of Marcus, nor were you afraid of what was about to happen. 

But you realized that every time he looked at you was the first real one. It wasn't a dream, it wasn't a stolen moment on a battlefield. You were there with him. Alive, with a beating heart, with blood flowing through your veins. The same as him, mortal.

Marcus' lips kissed your jaw and slowly went down your neck, all the way to your collarbone. He took your breasts in his hands, kneading them gently, feeling their softness, his fingers caressing your nipples as his lips showered your shoulders with kisses.

"Marcus..." you sighed, closing your eyes, desire flared in your lower abdomen, and his caresses only strengthened it.

"I've never wanted anyone like I want you." he whispered, one of his hands slid lower, right between your spread thighs, "I want to lose myself in your body..."

He felt how wet you were under his fingers, proof that you wanted him too. He ran his fingers over your folds, and then found the place where your body tensed in a pleasant sensation. 

In one swift movement he laid you on your back on the bed, his lips finding yours again as his hands greedily removed your robes. Finally, you were naked beneath him, the glow of the candles dancing on your skin. Perfect.

A trail of kisses stretched between your breasts, across your stomach, and to the inside of your thighs. You gasped loudly as his hot tongue licked your core. Marcus threw your legs over his shoulders so you couldn't escape his mouth, which sucked and licked your most sensitive spots.

Moans and spasms escaped your throat, fingers tightening in his hair as he, hidden between your thighs, shamelessly brought you to the edge of pleasure.

He sucked and kissed, long licks through your folds, drinking your juices sweeter to him than the best wine. And when a loud moan escaped your throat carrying his name, he knew he had paid you the proper homage. 

He raised himself on his shoulders and looked at you from between your trembling thighs. His beard and lips were shining, his hair, thanks to you, was a total mess. But it was his eyes, darker than before, that drew you to him.

You quickly sat up and took his face in your hands, moved to kiss his lips that tasted of you. 

His whole body was tense, wanting your closeness, the relief that only you could give him. One of your hands shamelessly reached for his strained cock, stroking it. Marcus' lips parted in your kiss at this sweet pleasure.

"I beg you..." he panted "I want to feel you."

So you pulled him behind you, and he fenced you with his broad arms. The tip of his cock, guided by Marcus' hand, brushed against your entrance and slowly slid into you. A pleasant feeling of stretching and filling spread through your body, but it was only when Marcus slid in completely and hid his face by your neck, inhaling your sweet scent, that you felt that he was fully inside you.

You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, stunned by how complete you felt in the arms of this man. You didn't notice when he lifted his head to watch your face with the first thrust of his hips. 

At first it was slow, just enough for you to get used to his size and how you felt him inside you. But when your legs closed around his waist, it was a signal for him that he could allow himself more.

Marcus raised himself on his shoulders, curls falling over his forehead, dark eyes shining with excitement as he stared into your face. To him, you were equal to the Gods. Your parted lips, slightly closed eyes, the quiet moans escaping from your core as he moved faster and harder inside you - it was worthy of worship in temples.

"Marcus... Please..."

You didn't ask for anything specific. Maybe just for him to end this, because you weren't sure if the next fulfillment that was building in your lower abdomen wasn't meant to be your end. 

Could ordinary people survive feeling so much? It was almost too much, and all you just had was your first sip, your first bite, your first breath with him by your side.

His hand grabbed yours and pressed it to the pillow just above your head, your fingers intertwined almost painfully, but you didn't care. You opened your eyes to look into Marcus’s focused face. Furrowed brows, quickened breathing and his hips perfectly slapping and grinding between your legs.

"Can you feel it? Can you feel how perfectly you fit me?" his voice was low, hitting you with a vibrating sound, as if you were a copper bowl in his hands. "They made you for me. Just for me... They couldn't be wrong. Ugh! I want to fill you with my seed, my love..."

"Do it... Mark me as yours..."

His. You were his. You were no longer just a fleeting being between worlds, doomed to live forever. You could feel, love, desire, but also suffer, cry and lose. But you wanted all of that if you could have it with Marcus.

His movements became stronger, his hand tightening on your thigh as he slammed into you. Then you reached your peak, tears pricking your eyelids, your body arching from the fulfillment that went through you like a bolt of lightning.

Marcus was right behind you. When your velvet walls squeezed his cock, he knew that he would only want to feel you for the rest of his life. A few more, strong thrusts, a low and deep moan escaped his throat as he tilted his head, showing you his beautiful neck. His seed filled you up, to the brims, and his cock twitched in the remnants of an orgasm.

If one of your sisters had been with you in that tent at that time, she would have had a truly amazing view. Your tangled and sweaty bodies, your deep breaths, the sweet and suffocating scent filling this place.

"Marcus..." you whispered, brushing his wet hair away from his face.

He mumbled something incomprehensible, and you laughed quietly. He seemed completely dazed. However, he raised his head and looked at you, his eyes sparkling like stars in the night sky.

"Tell me I'm not dreaming. Tell me you're really here. With me."

These words were like a pleading prayer addressed only to you. Even though he had you in his arms, even though his cock was still buried inside you, he still feared that you were just a dream.

"I am. I am with you, Marcus. And if you only let me, I will stay until the last beat of my heart."

"The Gods are truly kind to me."

He stole a kiss from you, still hungry for more. A strange feeling of emptiness came as he pulled out of you and lay down next to you, pulling you so that you were as close to him as possible. His seed lazily dripped down your thigh.

"Tomorrow we go back to Rome." he said, but he sounded like he didn't want to think about it. "I will take care of your safety. You will be able to find shelter in my home" his fingers drew unknown signs on your arm "I don’t want you to find yourself in the Emperor's court right away. You are too good for this..."

"The Gods have their own plans for him." Marcus kissed the tips of your fingers that brushed his lips.

"Do not say that in front of other people. Betrayal is severely punished." he said and you nodded "In Rome we can only trust ourselves, little bird. And I will do everything to make you happy and safe."

"You are enough for me."

He kissed your forehead, hugging you even tighter. Marcus was still afraid that despite everything you would dissolve like morning mist. He was afraid that he would wake up in an empty bed, that he would return to Rome alone, and the memory of you would fade with each passing day. He couldn’t bear it.

However, when he opened his eyes, after a few hours of deep and soothing sleep, you were still next to him. You were curled up at his side, sleeping, beautiful as every time he saw you. 

He didn't think he could ever get used to the sight. You were the grace of the Gods, their gift to him. A prize more precious than anything the Emperor could give him. 

"You are safe, little bird..." he said softly, kissing your temple. "I will never stop loving you. For the rest of our lives, for eternity."

☆☆☆☆

Thank you for your time.

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[sato-s-only-wife5107]

Reborn!Wukong: Kidnapped.

Word Count: 3042.

Content/Trigger Warnings: mention of poisoning.

Authors Notes: This came out a lot longer than I thought it would. There is another kidnapped thingy, but this one is based on the reader story and the upcoming one is a requested headcanon featuring all the Wukongs I'm doing.

<---Previous | Start | Next--->

You were no weakling, but you weren't much of a fighter compared to the other two you were left with. While Pigsy protected the monk from the pack of wild beasts, you were accompanied by Wujing. 

In your defence… It wasn't your fault. You just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up in something messy that Wukong definitely won't like… Let's just say he definitely won't be a happy camper.

“I'm scared…” Sweat dripped from your forehead at the thought of how mad Wukong would be when he returned to see you gone. 

“You're scared?! What about me?!” Pigsy snapped. 

You looked at Pigsy with a blank look and a raised brow. You didn't really care about what Wukong would do to Pigsy, since getting into a spat was an everyday thing with them. You shook your head and thought of ways to get out of the pit you were thrown into. No, you hadn't put yourself in any danger, it was more of an unexpected attack that got you hurt.

In the end, you and Pigsy were somehow captured and brought to the deity of the area. Some water deity you didn't care to remember the name of who had the demons that kidnapped you under his control.

Sacrifices? You thought to yourself. With my luck, probably worse. Ugh, Wukong's gonna throw a tantrum.

“Hey, big sis,” Pigsy's voice broke you out of your state. 

“Quiet, pork chop! Who gave you permission to speak to the goddess?!” one of the guards poked him in the behind with their spear, which made him cry out.

“Goddess?” you and Pigsy questioned then looked at each other and back to the male.

Guess that explains why he's tied up, but I'm not… This is already so exhausting. You sighed to yourself. Yep, this is worse than a sacrifice…

“Brother Monkey is gonna kill me,”

“You're at fault, you slob, you seriously couldn't have handled this? You've fought armies by yourself!” you whisper yelled.

“I didn't see you do anything but running away and hiding!” he whisper-yelled back. 

“I'm not a fighter! My entire life in the Celestial Realm was lived cooped up with archives and medicinal herbs. I'm the brains in this team and the rest if you are the brawn!”

____________________________

Wukong sneezed three times in a row as he jumped off of his cloud. He shook his head and attempted to clear the ringing in his ears.

“Big brother,” Wujing’s voice got his attention.

“Where's (Y/n)?” he immediately questioned as he looked around for you.

He also noticed Pigsy's absence, but he was only focused on yours. He was relaxed and casual till he saw the look on Wujing's face. Seeing the demon squirm like that made Wukong uneasy, and he knew that his gut feeling telling him you were in danger was right.

“Um…” Wujing looked incredibly nervous as the Monkey King approached him with narrowed eyes. 

“What.happened?” Wukong questioned in a growl.

“They were kidnapped, (Y/n) and Pigsy,”

“By who?” Wujing didn't like how calm Wukong was at the moment, it never ended well. 

“Demons… We were ambushed and they were taken,”

“Which way did they go?”

____________________________

“My great goddess,” a foreign voice boomed like thunder, the male's arms spread wide to present himself with extravagance. 

The game of ‘Spot the Boss’ just keeps getting easier and easier… you mused to yourself, but managed to keep a straight face.

“My name is Bolin Aiguo,” the male’s voice brought you back to reality. “I welcome you to my palace.”

“Um… thanks?” you asked more than said.

“Destiny has truly blessed us today,” he grinned as he bowed slightly. “We have waited centuries for your return,” he said and motioned to the wall where a cloth was dropped.

“Heh?” you both looked at the painting on the wall and your jaw dropped. 

Is this real? You thought as you saw the picture of a woman who looked like you, but wore garments of a divine goddess. Could it just be a coincidence? Maybe the unlikely chance that’s my ancestor?

“Whoa, that looks just like you,” Pigsy's marvel made you roll your eyes and sighed heavily. 

“Your sense of perception is exquisite as always,” you said sarcastically as you looked at him. He returned your gaze with a glare, which got him hit in the back with a whip. You winced at the sound of leather on skin, it gave you goosebumps and chills, the bad kind. 

“Don't you dare gaze at our goddess like that, you disgusting pig,” the guard that whipped him spat, literally, at the pig demon. 

“Do not speak to him like that,” you said without thinking. You and Wukong were the only ones allowed to bad talk Pigsy to his face like that.

“Forgive me, my goddess (Y/n), your servant needed to be punished,” the male bowed. 

They know my name? What in the ten worlds is going on? This is getting a bit scary now… Wait, did they call him my servant?

“Um…” you glanced around. “I address my servants directly, no one is allowed to speak to my underlings that way.”

“You are such a caring Goddess,” the men marvelled, then bowed. “Very well, if that is what you wish, then that is what will be.”

“Good,” your voice broke, but you didn't think they noticed. 

“Goddess, I am General Hàoyú,”

“Hm,”

“I'm Mùchén, it's a pleasure to meet you,” the guard who struck Pigsy bowed.

“The pleasure’s mine,” you smiled as politely as you could.

“Please, allow the maids to show you to your room,” Bolin gestured to four maids who stood at the ready, “I've prepared proper clothing for you.”

Not good. Really wished this was a sacrifice situation right now…

“Unnecessary,”

“I insist,” he looked at you then bowed. “It would be my honour if you did.”

“I-” you cut yourself off when you saw Pigsy trying not to laugh, it irked you. “Please see that my servant be treated with respect and cleaned up as well,” you smiled, which made the pig demon stop laughing to himself and boy was he pale.

“Yes, of course, Goddess!”

“I'm gonna hurt you,” Pigsy seethed.

“Who's laughing now, porky?” you smirked as you walked past him.

The outfit they made you wear was one similar to what ‘you’ were wearing in the painting. It wasn't exactly your colour or style, yet it looked amazing on you, curves and all. The stylists that did your hair tried so hard to hide their disgust in doing your hair, obviously your hair that hadn't been washed in three or so weeks wasn't to their liking. Despite Wukong’s excessive grooming, nothing beats a good soak in scented oils and natural hair products. You coil get used to the godly treatment.  

When you were reunited with Pigsy, he was amazed at your change, not really believing it was you at first. You, however, tried oh so hard not to laugh at the state of the pig demon. He looked prim, proper, and clean despite still looking like a servant. It was definitely an improvement to say the least… you cringed at the thought that he might actually look borderline adorable. 

“Are your servant’s garments not to your liking, goddess?” Mùchén asked.

“They're fine, thank you,” you managed a smile. “If you don't mind, I'd like to speak to my servant alone.”

“Of course,” the guard bowed, and they all left.

“You clean up nice,” you snorted as you walked to look out your window. 

“Shut up,”

“By gods, this place is locked up tight,” you pinched the bridge of your nose. “Escaping subtly is out of the question. You might be able to escape and get the others if you shape-shift, but seeing those wolf demons they have stationed along the border, I doubt you'd get far without being caught.”

“These clothes are so stuffy, how could people dress like this everyday?” Pigsy complained.

“Try wearing one of these, then you can complain,” you adjusted the cloth that was tied tightly and securely around your abdomen. “This dress thing is getting so annoying,”

“At least you get treated like a god, I'm just some servant!”

“It suits you,” you smirked and looked at Pigsy before you looked at your reflection in the mirror. “Ugh, I can't wait to get this stuff off my face, so itchy…”

“What do we do, big sis?”

“Bid our time,” you looked at Pigsy. “Wukong will find us soon, we just have to hold out till then.”

“But who knows when brother monkey will be back, you know he takes forever,”

“Believe me,” you stared off into space. “He already knows… he always does somehow.”

Before Pigsy could respond, someone walked into the room, you both mentally groaned when Bolin walked in. 

What does this hard case want? You thought to yourself.

“You look even more extravagant than I thought you would…” he marvelled, you couldn't help but blush at such a compliment.

“Don't you know it’s impolite to barge into a lady’s room?” you raised a brow.

“Forgive me,” he chuckled and bowed, offering to take your hand. “I was simply hoping to invite you to have dinner with me.”

Making it seem like I have a choice, how polite. You thought to yourself with a soft sigh. 

“I'd be honoured,” you forced a smile.

“The honour is mine,” he smiled at you, looking at you like he was hungry. 

“Did I hear food? I'm starving!”

Are you ever not? You thought to yourself in annoyance.

“Not for you, you disgusting creature,” he glared at Pigsy like he was scum. You didn't notice this, but your hand twitched slightly. You simply cleared your throat to steal his attention, which wasn't hard to do. “Please follow me.”

“Happy too,” you forced a natural smile.

____________________________

“Just one bite,” Pigsy continued to drool over the large assortment of food and drink served to you.

“Leave me be,” you shot him a glance then focused on your fish.

“Dear Goddess, c'mon, don't hog all the food for yourself,” he begged.

Pig knows how to beg when his stomach is concerned, I'll give him that much. You thought to yourself.

“Ironic coming from a gluttonous pig,” you barely spared Pigsy another glance before you smiled a bit. “Why don't you be a good servant and perform for me since you're so hungry,” you tilted your head, “after all, a meal tastes so much better when you worked hard for it.”

“I couldn't have said it better myself,” Bolin smiled at you, a smile that gave you the bad kind of chills. He frowned and looked at Pigsy. “You heard the goddess, what are you waiting for?”

This is gonna be good… you tried to hide the smirk. Suddenly, a chill ran down your spine and the feeling of being watched returned. Wukong? You thought to yourself, but after a few seconds passed with no sign of chaos, you guessed you were wrong.

“Where is he already?” you sighed softly to yourself.

“What was that, your grace?” you looked at Bolin and sat straighter.

“Nothing!” you smiled nervously, hoping he didn't hear you.

Maybe it was a bit cruel on your part to make Pigsy dance for your entertainment… but you didn't care. The entire situation was his fault, well, partially. Perhaps it was due to the lack of challenging fights that the two got a bit sloppy, either way… watching Pigsy dance was utterly hilarious, and you wished Wukong was there to laugh with you.

“Are you enjoying yourself, my dearest goddess?” you glanced at Bolin and closed your eyes briefly before you focused on your food.

“It has been entertaining to say the least,” you managed a smile, “overall, you have been an excellent host.”

“I'm so happy to hear you say that, goddess,” he mused and lifted his glass a bit. “Shall our days be like this one.”

“Pardon?” you looked at him, almost choking on your fish.

“You are to be my wife,” he smiled at you. “It is as prophecy has written, your return merits the marriage to the head of the palace, which is me.”

“I don't know about that, I am not interested in marriage,” you responded.

Especially not with you. You thought to yourself as the maid refilled your cup.

“I can wait, it is no trouble. You are worth it after all,” he said as you focused on your drink. 

“Hmmm… this drink is sweet, I really like it,” you looked at the red liquid in the chalice as you swirled it around.

“I'm glad you like it,” Bolin smiled. 

“What is it? I've never tasted anything like it,” you looked up at him curiously. 

Wukong isn't much of a sweet taste guy, I wonder if he’d like it… you found yourself drifting off to the thought of Wukong.  

“Nothing special,” he looked at his drink as he swirled it around as well, taking his time before he answered, “just a love potion.”

The words put Pigsy in a panic, not knowing what Wukong would do if he saw his beloved (Y/n) under the influence of a love potion with some random water deity who thinks you a goddess.

Did I seriously just get drugged? Is that way the taste is sweeter than before? That cocky bastard, what is he planning? You thought to yourself in a slight daze, but it only lasted a second longer before you got your senses back.

“A love potion?” you snorted, which took them both aback. “Are you truly that desperate to have me for yourself?”

“W-Why aren't you affected?” He stood up and backed away. “What are you?”

“Oh, you poor sweetheart… Love potions are meant to make you fall in love with the first person you see…” You stood and fixed your sleeves a bit before you looked up at the male in amusement. “But don't you know it doesn't work on someone who's already in love.”

“Impossible!” he barked. 

“I grow tired of this… we'll be leaving now,” you spoke, only glancing at Pigsy, who nodded and followed you. 

“Big sis, is that true?”

“Yeah, crazy right?” you spoke. “I read it in this book that I found, but I didn't believe it till now.”

“You cannot! You are our goddess!” he yelled.

“I regret to inform you that I am no God,” you called over your shoulder. 

“You are to be mine! It is destiny!” he yelled. You would've felt bad for the guy if he hadn't kidnapped and fed you a love potion, even if it tasted amazing.

“My love belongs to only one person… And you're not even half as good-looking as he is,” you folded your arms… The thought of Wukong started to make your insides feel warm and made you feel… weird. Especially when you thought of that smile/smirk you loved oh so much.

Is this what being drunk feels like? You thought to yourself before your focus was taken by the man child throwing a tantrum.

“I will slay this peasant!” he snapped. 

“You can try,” you looked up and smiled at the glaring monkey on his cloud, “but I don't think he's in the mood to humour you.”

“Sun Wukong?!”

“Who gave you permission to say my name?!”

Both you and Pigsy winced as Wukong beat the guy sound and proper. Pigsy knew that he was gonna get beat to a pulp too once Wukong was finished with the audacious bastard.

“See?” you looked at Pigsy warily. “I told you he'd find us soon…”

“Uh huh…” it was quite obvious that Pigsy was scared as Wukong was quick in finishing the deity and his men. Typical man, all show, no go… you thought to yourself before looking at Wukong as he wiped some blood off of his face. This shouldn't be hot… but it really is.

“So unfair…” you mumbled to yourself.

“Pft-” he eyed you, now it was your turn to glare.

“Shut up,” you folded your arms and looked away, but he forced you to look at him. 

“This look suits you well,” he leaned in and kissed you softly. “My beautiful goddess.”

“So you're not mad?” you peeked up at him.

“Furious,” he seethed, but caressed your cheek as he exhaled through his nose and smiled a bit, “but seeing you dressed like this… No man or demon could dare.”

“You sweet talker,” you managed a smile.

“I'm glad I'm the love of your life,” he winked with a smirk, which made you blush profusely.

“Exactly how long have you been watching?” you asked nervously. 

“Since you made Pigsy dance like an idiot, it was kinda funny,” he mused. 

So I guess I was right, Wukong was the one watching me.

“You were probably seething seeing that man hold me like that,” you smirked up at him.

“You know me well,” he nuzzled your cheek, “but today made me realize something.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

“You're mine and that's how it should be,” he kissed your forehead. “You are mine, (Y/n). As I am yours.”

“Such a way with words…” You stroked the right side of his face. He leaned into your touch and closed his eyes. “True love can never be replaced or forgotten,” he looked at you. “When we collect the scrolls, and our quest is done… I wanna be immortal,” you cupped his cheek. “I want to be with you, the love of my life, for the rest of my existence and beyond that.”

“Sounds like a proposal,” he smiled a bit. 

“It's the same thing,” you smiled. 

“So be it,” He smirked before he leaned in and kissed you softly.

“Handsome…”

“Hm?” He looked at you as you rubbed your cheek against his chest. “You okay?”

“The love potion is taking effect,” you looked up with heart-shaped pupils. “My body feels hot…” You said as you got goosebumps.

“Not to ruin your couple moment, but we gotta get going!” You both pulled back and glared at the pig demon.

Damn it, Pigsy. Shut up for once. You both thought at the same time.

____________________________

Masterlist | Next--->

[strawbeelemonade]

Imagine: Being Miles Morales’ best friend but also your a bit insane

•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_

🕷- Miles used to be so scared of you

🕷 - Even before you started a mutual friendship you sorta just…. kept appearing.

🕷 - He wasn’t sure when he became desensitised to you. but he likes to think his new double life of being a crime fighting upstart has given him a bit of a tolorence.

🕷 - Miles will now watch you eat an apple from the top down, core, stem and all, and literally not say anything.

🕷 - Your so consistently insane in such a harmless way, it’s kinda nice.

🕷 - He wishes you would stop picking up wild animals, though.

🕷 - Seriously stop. at least one of them will have a fatal disease.

🕷 - You keep venturing into the underground subway to play with the New York rats. Nothing bad has happened yet but that doesn’t mean nothing will.

🕷 - Don’t get me wrong. Miles isn’t overprotective or anything, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still worry. Your one of his closest friends.

🕷 - He’s not sure what he’d do without you.

🕷 - So please take the rat out of your jacket pocket. Please.

🕷 - Oh but it’s so cute!!

🕷 - You are Cinderella actually.

🕷 - Miles stumbles across you as his spider-sona surprisingly often.

🕷 - Not always when your doing something illegal, so he kinda forms this double friendship with you.

🕷 - It’s hard because he forgets your not supposed to know who he is!!

🕷 - He keeps forgetting to deepen his voice and act macho. You just make him relax so easily.

🕷 - I like to think His powers are particularly in tune with body language, even if he doesn’t mean or want to. And it can become so incredibly exhausting. all the extra information and interference is unrelenting unless he’s completely alone or has his headphones on.

🕷 - But you’re different. You let Everything rest on the surface. You say what you think, and miles found after a couple of months of knowing you that you’re actually more deep thinking then you like to let anyone realise.

🕷 - Your completely willing to sit in total silence with him. It’s so relaxing.

🕷 - The closer you both get the more he starts to see that you are actually a total sweetheart.

🕷 - You remember little things about him, your willing to go through great lengths for him. He knows that no matter where the both of you are or what your doing, you are ready to drop anything and everything to come to him if he needs you.

🕷 - He doesn’t demand it from you, but…

🕷 - You show up outside his dorm window at 3am all on your own ok?!

🕷 - He just mentioned he was having trouble sleeping!!! It’s not his fault!!! … but he’s not complaining either.

🕷 - So yeah, you put him at ease.

🕷 - Which is why it comes to no one’s surprise except miles when you bust him within the first two weeks.

🕷 - It scared the shit out of him. The next time you saw him as spider man you were like “Yo, Miles”.

🕷 - Y/N PLEASE.

🕷 - He asks you how you found him out, And you laugh and claim his mask made him look like he’s bad at Spanish. He socks you in the shoulder and you laugh harder.

🕷 - He then timidly asks if you’ve said anything to anyone.

🕷 - You tell him you don’t have deep enough conversations with anyone else TO tell.

🕷 - He understands what your trying to say.

🕷 - It’s actually a lovely little moment.

🕷 - As Spider-Man, he’s gotten to know an even crazier side to you. The fact that that was possible scared him a bit.

🕷 - Miles always wondered what you would get up to when he wasn’t around. You would disappear for hours, even days at a time. But you’d always come back.

🕷 - You were like an outdoor cat lmao.

🕷 - Turns out your a bit of an adrenaline junky.

🕷 - “Y/n this is a 7 story building and there’s no stairs how are you up here.”

🕷 - You liked feeding the pigeons… which was… yeah. Ok, fine.

🕷 - Miles wasn’t sure how his parents would react to you. He wasn’t ASHAMED but… Was he worried? Definetely.

🕷 - His dad is a COP.

🕷 - When He gets home from a couple hours of patrolling New York after school he has a heart attack when he sees you sitting on the couch nursing a drink while chatting to his mom.

🕷 - Your not fake, your still you. but you make a conscious decision not to pull out the rat in your pocket until you both head to his room to hang out.

🕷 - He’s much more emotional then he likes to make himself out to be. He’s still trying to figure himself out, He’s still only 14 after all.

🕷 - So hearing you drop deep emotional wisdom at 2 in the morning is a fucking EXPERIENCE.

🕷 - The deep conversations you have (and, now that he’s thinking about it the meaningless ones as well) feel like precious moments. They leave a lasting affect on him, your presence makes him feel safe.

🕷 - He’s not sure how to say all that out loud though.

🕷 - He doesn’t have to. you already know.

🕷 - His parents are happy to know that he’s made you as a friend. No matter how much or little they really know about you, anyone with eyes and two working ears can tell that your a good kid.

🕷 - You probably end up in the hospital a lot.

🕷 - Like a lot a lot. You are in so many wrong places at so many wrong times…

🕷 - An arm in a cast is considered a small case when it comes to you.

🕷 - Miles wonders how your still even alive this point!

🕷 - foreshadowing

🕷 - After you become more acquainted with miles’ family, you start getting visits from them!

🕷 - Especially If you don’t have any stable adult figures in your life.

🕷 - You get in a lot of accidents and fights. And it starts getting worrying. You don’t go looking for any trouble but you don’t let the criminal population of New York stop you from venturing out at night, either.

🕷 - In the waiting room Your all smiles and laughs. Nothing fazes you it seems, even under extreme amounts of pain. so it makes them relax a bit.

🕷 - But they are MUCH more willing to let you practically walk in and out of their house whenever you need a Homebase to fall back on.

🕷 - Mr. Davis does NOT enjoy getting called out late at night over a complaint of a homeless person loitering on a bench and it’s literally just you.

🕷 - What are you doing out here young lady/man/ster.

🕷 - Sorry sir I missed my bus

🕷 - But why were you sleeping outside!

🕷 - Eepy.

🕷 - Let them help you please you don’t have to do things on your own.

🕷 - You’ve only gotten lucky enough to be attacked a handful of times.

🕷 - But when the opportunity arises you are so ready.

🕷 - Remember how I said you were crazy in a harmless way? Forget I said that.

🕷 - Miles has literally watched you rip an old (albeit loose) stop sign out of the ground and beat a mugger over the head with it.

🕷 - He was not ready.

🕷 - You don’t even have any powers that he knows of. No super strength or healing. No heightened senses to protect you.

🕷 - Miles is in awe of you sometimes.

🕷 - he’s saved you from trouble a

Handful of times.

🕷 - you’ve literally got Spiderman looking out for you.

🕷 - If anything happens to you

He will freak the hell out.

🕷 - you might end up being room

-mates at his new school

🕷 - No matter how low he’s feeling he knows that you’ll find a way to make him smile.

🕷 - You find the craziest things to do, there’s no where you’re not willing to venture and there’s nothing your not willing to play with.

🕷 - Unfortunately Miles suffers from the terrible ailment of being a teenager 💔 (and also occasionally having terrible bouts of anxiety)

🕷 - often times he just feels so painfully uncool. He catches himself asking if he’s really cut out for this life. Not just about being the next Spider-Man, but also in the the-American-dream-is-not-real-and-I-don’t-have-a-future kind of way. He worries if he’s failing underneath the weight of his burdens. That he’s a loser.

🕷 - But you don’t let him feel that way when your around.

🕷 - You make him feel like he’s cool. You make him feel like he’s funny. like he’s the most interesting person in the world, your so unshakably and enthusiastically invested in him and his successes!

🕷 - You celebrate with him when he wins small fights. When he saves people. When he gets higher grades on exams.

🕷 - He doesn’t feel insecure standing next to you, even when your personality is as chaotic as it is.

🕷 - Miles isn’t sure sure how he got so lucky to have met you. He doesn’t realise you feel the same about him.

_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•_•

[bibliophilea]

So... this isn't the first time I've seen people being incredibly mean to a whole section of the phandom. It's the first time in a while I've seen a post this bad in the main "danny phantom" tag, though. I have Thoughts™ that have been stewing for a while. Thoughts™ that shouldn't be put in the tags of someone else's post.

I'm not going to link anything. These are just my thoughts, raised to the forefront by recent posts in the main tag.

TLDR: I have two main Thoughts™:

No matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom. The folks who openly despise real people for shipping fictional things do not represent all of phandom. Y'all deserve better than being called shitty names. Your ships do not make you a bad person, and I personally welcome you.

To y'all who keep trying to draw a line in the sand to define who is "degenerate" or whose work is "degenerate": the moment you draw that line, you create a way for others to shove people behind that line. And the folks who usually get shoved behind that line and called "degenerate" are lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. It's happened before on LiveJournal and FFN, and it's happening now, irl, with book bannings across the USA (and especially in Florida). The only way to protect lgbtqia+ folks and sa/csa survivors from this abuse is to not draw a line in the sand at all. Don't call folks "degenerate" for any reason, unless you're ready to have that finger pointed back at you by a larger and more negative movement.

If you desire fuller context, it's below the cut.

First: no matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom.

The views of hatred and disgust that pop up in this phandom don't represent all of phandom. No fandom is perfect, and we'll always see some form of the "logic of disgust" from some folks in any fandom. But no matter what you ship, and whether or not I personally ship it, I welcome you. You will find no disgust from me as I am now.

If you dig backwards into my blog, you might find some anti sentiment. My introduction to fandom was first FFN, and then tumblr, back when I was more of a black-and-white thinker. I'm pretty sure I experienced some form of shock when I really started digging in to the Wild West that is fandom. I don't know if I ever expressed this shock online. But none of you deserve to be called "degenerates" over liking whatever fictional content you like. Y'all are a part of phandom, too, and any attempts to erase you or deride you are wrong.

We shouldn't be drawing lines in the sand and throwing people behind those lines. That's dangerous.

Second: to y'all who keep drawing lines in the sand, please consider the broader context around you.

The moment you draw a line in the sand to delineate between you and your group of people, and "them" and their group of "degenerates", people find ways to shove other folks, including you and your folks, behind that line. Historically, both in fandom and outside of fandom, the folks who get shoved ALWAYS include lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. We saw this with the purging of LiveJournal. We saw this with the multiple purges of FanFiction.Net. We haven't seen this with ao3, as far as I know; but their stance seems to be very anti-censorship for fandom-historical reasons.

Outside of fandom, we are seeing this now. I'm doing my senior capstone project on book bans. According to PEN America's data, over the past school year alone, 154 counties in 34 states have banned 1557 books 3362 times overall. Over 40% of those bans come from Florida counties. And much of the "reasoning" behind these bans is the same logic of disgust that fandom applies to "problematic ships": They call it pornographic and pedophilia. They call it harmful and age-inappropriate. They largely target books about lgbtqia+ people and people of color. And this year, they've also targeted "books on physical abuse, health and well-being, and themes of grief and death" - expanding their censorship to "protect the children".

Censorship doesn't protect anyone. Instead, it prevents people from holding genuine conversations with real people about the censored material.

And if you're not ready to have that conversation, that's fine! You do you! But don't create an environment where other people can't have that conversation. That only breeds the sort of black-and-white thinking that leads to 1406 book bannings in the state of Florida.

This is just speculation on my part: but I reckon every single person who supports those bans would love to ban the same content you want censored. And they'd call for you and the content you love to be lumped in with them.

We all deserve better than that. So please stop drawing lines in the sand.

[daysofyellowroses]

chilli

carmen berzatto x reader | 1.8k | 18+ minors dni | tw: language, little bit of smut, men being sassy

prompt was: Carmy would neverrr date a girl in the food industry. Like he needs a girl sooo far removed??? Bc when he comes home, he just wants to roughly fuck out his frustrations and then be with a little sweet angel that plays with his hair and mutters how pretty he is and how good he makes her feel. So what would he do if she showed up to his work by surprise with like a tea or coffee or something all giddy to see him and she got all nervous bc she’s never seen him so angry and brute before screeeaming at the chefs (idea being a “get the FUCK off my expo chef, NOW!!!” Type intense Sitch) and r/ was like “carm…deep breaths, it’s just food bear. Do you need to come home?” And that would just make his OCD spiiiiirallll out bc how can someone so deeply important to him not see that it was so more then just food (even though he’s just a lil drama queen abt his work!!!!) - as requested by @thecapricunt1616 thank you so much for these requests they are honestly a joy to write and i can only hope i do your ideas justice!

not necessarily important but i had nfr by lana on repeat while writing this, i feel like it fits the vibe 🌼

🐻

Of all the people in the world, you never really expected to be with some like Carmy. It wasn't that he wasn't your type, or didn't treat you well, because he was and he did, he was the most amazing partner you could ask for. He was just different to anyone you'd ever dated. In the few relationships you'd had in the past you found yourself growing frustrated, fed up with being treated like some doll that would break easily. 

Just because you were a little more girly and had a soft personality it didn't mean you were totally delicate, that you would fall apart at the slightest touch. You were more than a bow in your hair, than pink dresses and long eyelashes. After your last relationship consisted of you basically being a doll on your boyfriend's arm, you swore it wouldn't happen again. 

And it didn't, Carmy didn't treat you like a doll, like something to be put on display when it suited him. He saw past your exterior, wanted to know the real you underneath it all. Of course he told you that you were beautiful, complimented you and made you feel incredible, but he also teased you and asked about your opinions on things and adored you just as much in your baggy t-shirts and sweatpants as he did in your dresses and stockings. 

It was the best relationship you'd ever had, and you couldn't believe your luck that you had met him. The two of you just clicked, everything fell into place from the first moment and you had fallen into a very enjoyable routine.

Because you both had busy schedules, you set aside one day every week to have a proper date, it could be going out for dinner or a movie or just relaxing at one of your apartments. And on the other days, you always managed to find a window for some..stress relief. 

At least four times a week, sometimes five depending on how work had been, one of you would show up at the other’s place, arms immediately wrapping around each other, getting to the bedroom if you were lucky. 

On the date nights, it was all about romance. You would dress up in a cute outfit, take your time to get ready, Carm would bring you flowers and hold your hand across restaurant tables. You would talk about anything and everything, and you would always end the night in one of your beds, it was sweet and romantic and tender.

Then on the other nights..you both knew what you wanted. Most times you just threw a long coat over your underwear if you were going to Carm's, clothes just slowed you down. It was like a different side of him, a fiery passionate wild side you adored. His hand around your neck, whispering the most depraved things in your ear as he fucked you til you could barely see straight anymore. Afterwards you would lay on his chest and stroke his hair, tell him how good he made you feel, how much you cared about him.

It was a routine, it worked, and you loved it.

But sometimes routines are meant to be broken, just a little bit. 

You had a day off work, and after doing some housework you went into town for a little browse around. You weren't sure why the urge came over you, but something in you decided to go visit Carmy at work. You had occasionally gone to the Beef for lunch with friends, feeling proud and stupidly happy when Carm would personally deliver your food. 

After picking up two coffees, you made your way to the restaurant, smiling as you spotted Richie behind the counter. He gave you a wave, but he wasn't quite his usual self, you could sense it.

“Mind if I head back?” You asked, gesturing to the kitchen door. 

“Uh..no,” Richie nodded, not quite meeting your eyes. “Head on in.”

You hesitated for a brief moment before walking into the kitchen, your senses becoming flooded by the smells, bright lights, and mostly by the shouting, specially Carm and Syd snapping at each other. 

Tickets were flooding out of the printer, the whirring sound filling the air. 

“If you just let me handle it, I can do this,” Syd snapped, pointing to the printer. “I don't have time to stand here arguing with you.”

“This is your fault,” Carm snapped, pushing his hand through his hair. “Messing around with other shit when you're supposed to be focusing. Just..just get the fuck off my expo, let me handle this.”

“Oh it's your expo now?” Syd scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Don't stand there and act like I don't-”

She paused as she met your eyes, clearing her throat.

Carm followed her gaze, looking over his shoulder to you. You expected his expression to soften, for him to come over to you. 

But he didn't. 

“Are you okay?” You asked, your heart starting to hammer in your chest.

After a moment of silence, Carm finally sighed, shaking his head. 

“This isn't a good time.”

“It's okay,” You walked closer, setting the coffees down on the counter and gently touching his arm. He pulled it free from your touch and you felt your heart sink.

“Just..take a deep breath,” You smiled softly. “it's just food, bear. The world isn't ending. Do you want to come home?”

The look you got had you turning from nervous to angry. 

Just food,” Carm repeated, rubbing his jaw. “Just fucking food?”

He laughed, mocking and cruel. You felt the anger rising inside you, taking a deep breath.

“You know what, I can't deal with this right now,” Carm threw his hands up, resting them on top of his head. “You don't know what the fuck I have to deal with, and I don't have time for your..”

“My what?” You interjected, challenging him. He didn't finish his sentence and you looked over to Syd. “Do me a favor,” You gestured to the coffee on the counter. “Pour that over his fucking head.”

You turned and walked away, hearing raised voices behind you, clamoring together. You shut your eyes for a moment, refusing to cry. Leaving the restaurant, the air felt cold and sharp on your skin, a determination to get as far away as possible hitting you.

You refused to look at your phone for the rest of the day, shutting it into your nightstand. By the time the lights of the city were lighting up the night sky, you didn't feel any less angry.

When you heard the knock on your door you told yourself not to answer, to let him wait. But there were things you needed to say, things you needed him to know.

Opening the door slowly, you held your hand up before Carmy could speak, taking a deep breath.

“I'm going to speak,” You told him, standing aside. “You're going to listen to me. Get in.”

He nodded, heading inside and holding his hand on his jacket zipper, looking at you.

You closed the door and looked back at him, folding your arms.

“Keep it on, I'll be brief.”

He moved his hand, biting his lip softly as he looked at you. You pushed aside the part of you that wanted to hug him like always, focusing on what you needed to say.

“First of all,” You began, taking a breath. “How..how fucking dare you speak to me the way that you did? How dare you speak to Syd that way, who the fuck do you think you are?”

You could tell he wanted to respond, holding your hand up.

“You think I don't understand stress? That I don't understand how important your job is to you? You can be stressed, you can be angry, but you are not allowed to speak to me that way ever again, I swear to god. Do you have any idea how it felt to stand there and be spoken to like that? Like I'm some embarrassment to you? Nobody treats me that way, you hear me? Fucking nobody.”

You took a breath, trying to calm yourself down, frowning as Carm ran his hand over his mouth, a slight smile on his face.

“Oh I'm sorry, is this a joke to you?” You snapped, resting your hands on your hips. “because I don't think it's very funny.”

“It's not a joke,” Carmy murmured softly, stepping closer to you and holding his hands up. “Not at all. I can't apologize enough for what I did, I swear to you it won't ever, ever happen again. It's just..”

“Just what?” You snapped, your heart pounding. 

“You're..you're really fucking hot when you're angry.”

You frowned at the comment before your expression softened a little, rolling your eyes.

“You are not allowed to be turned on right now. I'm too mad at you.”

“And it's hot,” Carm leaned in to whisper in your ear and you forced yourself not to be affected.

“Stop it,” You sighed, lightly swatting his shoulder. “I'm not in the mood.”

Carm pulled back, his hands touching your cheeks. 

“You deserve the world,” He sighed softly.  “And I don't deserve you, but I can't imagine my life without you. You're everything to me, I hate myself for hurting you, more than you could know. I don't expect you to forgive me, but if you do then I promise to spend every second making it up to you.”

“Every second?” You repeated, moving your hand to his arm, a small smile on your face. “you better get started then.”

“As you wish.” He grinned, giving you a kiss and letting you guide him towards your bedroom.

[tumblingxelian]

Tyrian Callows - The Master of Murder, Mayhem & Multitasking!

So, I recently saw a post discussing Tyrian Callows and I wanted to go into why I find him quite interesting despite his overall demeanor seeming to be that of a nihilistic serial killer.

Off the cuff, when I first saw Tyrian I hated him, "Oh good, another cackling serial killer, I hope e only exists to die & be replaced".

Then he ambushes RNJR & suddenly, oh suddenly I'm having fun!

Because he's not just cackling & killing, he's bombastic, spewing purple prose and strutting around like he's on a stage, then flinging himself through walls for dramatic poses. He waits after receiving major surprise attacks to reveal they didn't hurt him.

He is in essence, a theater kid who happens to also be a cultist and serial killer and I think that is incredibly entertaining if nothing else.

Beyond that I find his fawning behavior on Salem intriguing. Like, even beyond his failure, when Salem is growing in fury & others like Watts & Hazel know to get the fuck out. He starts irrationally offering her acts of service in a bid to make her happy before fleeing as well.

Like, whatever is going on there is interesting if nothing else, I think.

Then there's the fact he is far more insightful than characters like him are usually written as but, its not at the expense of is manic disposition as it often ends up being with say, Joker, bleh.

What I mean is, Tyrian is very good at analyzing people, what they want, what they feel, what will hurt them the most, what above all drives them & can articulate it very easily. Ala his confrontation with Mercury only knowing violence & being too afraid to leave it.

Yet at the same time when out under pressure by Clover, Qrow & Robyn he very quickly starts losing his cool, his mannerism and behaviors become more unhinged & wild, he is legitimately not all there. & it is isn't until he's had time to cool off in the airship that he's back on his game.

Finally there is his 'rivalry' qith Qrow.

To me the fun thing is that there is zero rivalry on Tyrian's end.

Qrow is just someone who he met in V4 and knew to be a capable fighter & important enemy agent. He was excited to fight & kill him & was briefly knocked off his game when disarming Qrow did nothing to slow him down.

Most Hunters based their fighting styles on their weapons so disarming them tends to be a winning move unless they are Hazel, Tyrian or Yang style combatants.

But he was back on his game in short order and still having a great time and even managed to essentially score the win... Right until Ruby dismembered him & he did not take it gracefully.

To say the least, Tyrian is definitely arrogant, I think that much is self evident.

It makes sense, it took a cooperative operation of Mitral Hunters & Atlesian Specialists to take him down. The Queen of Grimm came to collect him herself. His Semblance lets him take Aura out of a fight. & by all accounts he definitely seems to be among the most dangerous combatants on Remnant even without said Semblance.

So yeah, not surprised that he was both knocked off his game & angry about the injuries but after that he doesn't seem to dwell on them much the way Cinder spent several volumes seething over the damage Ruby did to her.

His little foreshadowing moment to Ruby before the election massacre & enjoying Qrow's suffering during Volume 7 very much seem like things he'd have done regardless cos he's just like that.

Tyrian will however exploit the idea of a rivalry to his advantage.

What I mean is, Qrow makes it clear when ambushing him with Clover & Robyn that he holds a grudge over their last fight. Tyrian doesn't utilize that in the three on one beatdown he gets, he's barely keeping his head above water most of that fight.

But once he is back in the game he's cheerfully egging on the break down in the Atlas and Mantle alliance. He's completely ignoring Qrow until the man jumps on him & even then doesn't offer him any unique attention.

Its only once he's established that things with Qrow and Clover have degraded as far as they have that he jumps in. He avoids starting off too violently to see how things go & is well pleased by Clover's dogged commitment to his orders.

Also likely dismissing Tyrian as just a violent lunatic.

It is then and only then that he leans on the idea that he actually wants a rematch with Qrow. But even then he still patiently waits for Qrow to float the idea first. He is playing into Qrow's grudge & Qrow's belief in a Shounen style rivalry & with it the belief that Tyrian will ignore Clover themoment he is not interrupting the fight and duke it out with Qrow.

But Tyrian only plays along with that and instead uses Clover's defeat to end his fucking life and frame Qrow for it.

He certainly has fun twisting the knife but again, this is stuff he does with everyone when he gets the chance. & it serves to make things more complex for Atlas and the now rebellious heroes than it would if Clover & Qrow had died together. Especially as enemy reinforcements are coming.

After this, again, neither Qrow or Ruby warrant a mention from him.

This is his job, they were parts of his assignments and Tyrian just happens to love what he's doing. Which humorously aligns very well with the life advice he gave Emerald and Mercury. Even if that was just because he thinks it'd be fun to be given the chance to kill them.

Anyway those are my takes on Tyrian Callows, evil as fuck, but smarter & more interesting than the usual portrayals of his archetype!

Thanks for reading!

[isthedogawolfdog]

I just saw a reel on Instagram, which I absolutely refuse to link because I don’t want to give it more views so I attached a recording of some of the more relevant parts above, but basically this woman (who I assume was a photographer due to the cameras and such) was in the middle of the Arctic doing who knows what. She starts off the video saying something “incredible” happened, and the footage then cuts to her being surrounded by roughly 13 wild wolves. Yeah, you read that right. Due to the poor quality that is my recording, I’ll try and break down what’s happening to the best of my ability.

Throughout the video you can see that the wolves seem not quite quite laid back, but aren’t scared. The wolf closest to the camera at roughly seven seconds in is regarding them with a look that kinda says “hey, what’s this?”.* All the wolves are either walking along on their path, or taking a closer look, not necessarily circling the two individuals but definitely keeping an eye on them. This is probably due to them not seeing people at all prior to this experience. Now, I know that might sound odd, but some areas in the Arctic or places super far north in general have wolves that just haven’t seen people. There was a documentary (which I forget the name of) that covered researchers interacting with a pack who hadn’t seen people. There was also a book (Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat) published a while ago that dealt with a pack similarly. When described, the behavior in both the book and documentary kinda reminds me of the wolves in this video.

A quick look at the animals tells me these people aren’t in any real danger, however, should the wolves get more curious and get closer things could probably get a bit tricky. Wolves being naturally neophobic, attacks on humans from healthy wild wolves are slim to none these days. Plus, you really shouldn’t interact with wild animals no matter what they’re acting like. Preferably these people would’ve tried scaring them away the second they saw them approaching (acting aggressive, maintaining eye contact, and whatever you do, don’t run!), but instead, we had to have a Disney princess moment.

In the extremely rare chance that the wolves had seen these people as food, we would be seeing more quicker movement, heads below their shoulders**, various behaviors to test and see whether the people were fit enough for a snack, etc. though this is not the case here. So why, might you be wondering, is this bad if the wolves aren’t hunting the people and the people aren’t interacting with the wolves?

Well, you should never, never, interact with wild animals like this, which if you’ve been following my blog for a while now you probably already know. These wolves, if they so happen to see people again, now associate people with something they can get close to without them getting hurt, which works great if you want a cool selfie, but isn’t good if you are a park ranger, a worried parent, or any other person in a position of authority really, let alone if you have a gun. Historically, if a wild animal (especially a wolf!) gets too close to people, they get shot. It doesn’t matter if the animal was exhibiting dangerous behavior or not, people can’t risk it. Basically, wolf getting closer to people and realizing they can do it without problems = them trying again at a time where things are different and people think “oh no, big and wolf!” and kill it.

I’m not sure how the encounter ended, but later footage shows the wolves farther away rallying as a group, so I assume everything went okayish despite the obvious errors. TL:DR, these people are endangering these animals with their need for a cool video, don’t be a Disney princess, and stay away from wild animals even if they look friendly.

*the wolf closest to the camera has its ears kinda flat and to the side, this is called airplane ears by some biologists (yes seriously) and it is a sign of uncertainty.

**fun fact: theories vary, but some have guessed that prey animals can tell whether a wolf is hunting from whether or not their heads are below their shoulders or not! This would explain why we see videos of wolves calmly walking passed a herd of elk while they stay rested, and why other times the elk will bolt as soon as they see the predator.

[thefirstknife]

Some conjecture on the topic of Ergo Sum: I think people are taking the whole "this is the sword that was on our grave in the Corridors of Time" thing the wrong way. Yeah, it's the sword buried on our grave, but I don't think people realize how *big* of a moment it is that we're getting *that* sword? This sword was a direct gift from the Traveler to aid us in our upcoming battle with the Witness. This sword is going to become so iconic and important and synonymous with us that it's going to be featured prominently on our grave when we die.

Ergo Sum also shares the same Ghost pommel (little bit at the end of the handle) that the new relic we get in the "final" boss fight has as well. Both were also given to us directly by the Traveler in the same place. They're very clearly linked to one another. It's also worth noting that the last shot of the final cutscene at the end of the campaign has a Guardian wielding it prominently, with what seems to be Light radiating off of it.

I think this is going to be the sword that kills the Witness.

(Or at least directly connected to it.)

Agreed! When we saw it originally obviously we didn't know anything about it. It just looked like a cool sword. I also remember people being disappointed that this sword wasn't the actual exotic we got from the Corridors of Time puzzle.

But now, this has so much more meaning. This is the sword made by the Traveler to cut down the Witness and destroy it. Like, it's not just some weapon, it was forged by the Traveler itself for the specific purpose of unmaking the Witness. That's absolutely incredible. Us wielding it in the final fight is HUGE.

The problem with Corridors of Time grave is that we simply don't know if that's something set in stone or not. There are other timelines and our grave could be from there, although the sword being real and so important to us makes this more likely to be our timeline. It's possible that whatever happens in the raid and in the post-raid mission, we will die in our final confrontation with the Witness, wielding that sword, and our grave will be made, fulfiling the Corridors vision, but we will somehow be brought back. I would not put it past the Traveler to personally intervene and react to bring us back because of how much we've done for it and the universe as a whole.

Super speculative of course, but the existence of that sword and it being directly connected to the Traveler is way too big of a deal IMO, for the Corridors of Time grave to just be a random curiosity. Like, they did not have to make the sword look like that. A lot of players have never seen it at this point. I'd even say most players; it was only available for a total of 2 weeks well over 4 years ago.

Speaking of, here's the grave scene with the eulogy. It also shows the sword at the end. Note the music in the background: it is the same music that plays when we take the sword at the end of the Destined Heroes exotic quest (I timestamped to one of the videos of the quest I could find where you can hear it). Again, this is something few people would notice because of how long it's been and the fact that it only existed for 2 weeks: you'd know only if you played at the time and remembered the music and recognised it, which I did the moment it started playing because I am normal about the Corridors of Time.

It's important to say also that in the eulogy, Saint says that the weapon used to be his and that it was shattered in the final confrontation. The Ghost shell is also not directly connected to the pommel; I remember originally we just thought it was a normal sword and the Ghost shell was just our Ghost laid to rest with us. Ergo Sum connects these two. Some alterations are normal I think, given the amount of time it's been between these things, but I do believe this is meant to be this same sword as a throwback to our grave, especially since they literally used the same music when we retrieve it. Really wild to think about.

In all likelihood, the only person who has seen our grave is us (Quria notwithstanding), unless we told someone about it. I'd like if this was somehow discussed but since nobody else has seen it, I don't know how we would do it even if we did speak more than one line. Do we even remember? Does it even matter? I feel like it should, beyond just being a cool throwback. Eagerly waiting to see more.

[moltengoldveins]

alright before I look at the tumblr tag for top gun 1984 or 1986 or whatever I can’t remember lemme take a wild flipping guess as to what tumblr thinks of the movie. Alright. Guess taken.

Now, I’ll just check the tag aaaaaaand- yep it’s all ice x mav content. so glad we all saw that completely unsubtle full-body scan up and down. When in the movie did that happen you ask? Uh. Like every time they’re both on screen I’m sorry men are allowed to be aggressive and competitive and also friends but not those men. Those men made me shift uncomfortably in front of my conservative parents. Those men made me more scandalized than the actual sex scene. Those men were 👌 this close to aggressively making out onscreen and when I brought it up literally all my parents said was “well men don’t act like men anymore no wonder you think it’s gay�� my parents in Christ they were staring at each others lips. Their faces were within four inches of one another that is not enough room for Jesus. If men used to act Like That in public I think we may have as a society actually gotten straighter. What the heck. (also the emotional core of the movie re: Mav’s and Goose’s relationship was amazing 10/10 loved that entire arc I did enjoy the movie but Dang. I had to get that off my chest somewhere where I knew people would get it-)

Edit: I didn’t even mention The Bite TM. What the hell. I brought it up and all mum said was “well you’re not supposed to like him during that scene, of course it makes you uncomfortable.” Mum it’s not making anyone uncomfortable but you. Everyone else is checking their blood pressure. If it weren’t for my parents’ insistence that this movie was straight I’d have absolutely no idea how this movie got past censors. The power of denial is incredible.

[shehungthemoon]

Just dumping my Ina Paha thoughts here. 🙃

First of all I did NOT know it was the 100th episode going into this, so i was very confused watching the montage at the end lol

I also had to click out and make sure I didn't click the wrong episode when the Pilot started playing at the beginning. When I heard Danny's voice on the phone instead of Hesse's I swear I got whiplash

It's filmed so well (bar where they reshot the pilot where Steve gets Danny on the phone instead of a dead dad, in which they literally forgot to put the same filter over the scene to make the stitching coherent) and I absolutely love the camera work they did with the white-room and the video projections. It felt very much a level above normal network television cinematography, especially the parts where Steve's going in and out of the hallucinations.

Steve finally FINALLY killing Wo-Fat was so cathartic, it should have happened ages ago but I'm willing to look past all the dumb ways he survived just to allow this incredible ending to his story.

Ina Paha gave me Kono doing... this. I owe Grace Park my whole life. Pls costuming department put her in hot pink again 💗

yes, it was a Steve episode. but Danny REALLY shone, first as the only resident Actual Detective figuring out what happened to Steve by the tire-tracks, rampaging through the compound steadily and efficiently and knocking people off without a pause, and then in Steve's mind shooting Hesse's kneecaps off?!?!?! That was CRAZY and probably not suppose to be as hot as it was and definitely made me want an ex-mobster AU immediately. Basically I have a competency kink and really like badass!danny shit 😊

Seeing Chin's long hair again made me swoon

My jaw dropped when I saw Jenna! I think it's really interesting that Steve still thinks of her so much, and I was surprised that she showed up in both the actual dreams and the montage. I definitely underestimated how much she impacted Steve's life, it seems, and I hate that we'll never hear him address that and we'll only know about it inadvertently like this.

(hand over the heart for how lori got like. one team shot. poor girlie.)

⭐I took the montage at the end as being flashbacks and memories that Steve was having as he left the compound. Looking at it through that lens certainly makes one unwell.

Obligatory squeal for Adam appearing just to save the day :))) look below to see the love of my life! :)))))) ⬇⬇⬇

Of course, the obligatory mcdanno bullet(s). It writes itself! The way Danny said Steve's name so small and broken when he found him. The way they look at each other on the ground, the pain their faces. I need an official apology statement from Scott and Alex for it. Can we talk about what flashes by during the montage at the end? (IMO it being Steve's memories.) So much Danny.

The first thing is Danny and Steve's first meeting. Jfc. The showrunners milk it SO MUCH and who's complaining

The big, rocking hug. The hands clasping underground. Gracie of course. And then Danny collapsing from the bioweapon, which to be honest I was NOT expecting to see at all--it felt like a genuinely strange choice to include in there and it really ONLY makes sense if you go along with all that being what Steve's remembering. Even then, I was surprised to see it, so basically this is Hawaii Five-Oh making mcdanno gayer than even I was wanting them to be. Steve still thinks about that? From so long ago? Even with so many other close calls in between then and now? Good fucking lord ok then loverboy that's WILD. Canon accepted ig this show is just pure whump.

Danny goes through all of this just days after losing his brother and killing Reyes. JFC can we please address that. I need a 30k introspection fic to let me into this man's mind rn.

The Wo Fat v.s. Steve fight at the end was INCREDIBLE. I would love to give the choreographer's hand a shake, it's some of the best work I've seen on television in a long time. It was impressive for a procedural like this. It was long and physical and you truly didn't know what the outcome was going to be; it everything that their built-up relationship deserved for a conclusion. It also happening with a Steve coming off of hours of torture and drugging was crazy (guess we finally know who would win a PVP if they were both at full strength!). That being said I was really impressed with Wo Fat's capabilities and physical prowess, I was not expecting it to be so even and close to the line. I actually jumped when Steve LIFTED him up into the lighting fixture. We do not talk about Steve's (Alex's???) raw upper-body strength enough.

Anyway. Electricity in the water play. The physicality hell that this gif below is ⬇. Fire extinguishers and loaded needles. Crazy martial arts. Chair and buckets (holy shit did y'all see the force with which Wo Fat SHOT that bucket?????) flying. All's fair. I loved it.

The shot going right through the forehead, clean. I don't know how to put into words why that's so monumental to me but it is.

The mystery bad lady was SO intriguing, I wish we got more from her... How does she know Wo Fat? Why was she entrusted with all that information on him and Steve and especially Doris? Absolutely where did she come from, what was her name? Why did I have a huge huge hot crush on her? All important questions. (Goes to show that h50 CAN give us some more genuine badass, not just there to date someone women characters, just explicitly choose not to. I'm holding out for Ellie to remain platonic so hard right now.)

Almost forgot Danny in that black Hawaiian shirt. Will be whimpering over that image forever. The whole episode I was trying to focus on the underlining betrayal mystery they were laying out but every time my brain started working too hard Scott with his stupid waist and those flower patterns just started flashing into my head

Again, are you seeing this:

I'm unwell and so so happy.

H50 you're a gem when you want to be.

[demonir]

Welcome to Adrian’s good omens thoughts while he’s half asleep again, on todays episode I want to talk about how important the gender expression in the show is to me

Don’t mind the typos I’m lying down without my glasses

I really appreciate how subtle they are about characters genders and stuff, characters with commonly male names being played by actresses and they still use stuff like “sir” or “lord” even if they also get referred to as they/them. They don’t make an intense effort to make them look incredibly androgynous either which like- idk it’s nice.

Knowing neither angels or demons have a defined gender also feels so so so nice because it comes paired with the fact they still choose to present in specific ways and use specific pronouns because newsflash bozo someone can be nonbinary or agender and still present masc as fuck or fem as fuck and use either he/him or she/her and if they wake up 2 weeks from now and change that they are still valid.

Which takes me to my second favorite point, Crowley’s change in gender presentation. I know we all know or at the very least agree he’s genderfluid but like I want to highlight the way he does it because it means so much to me. He has obviously chosen to be masc presenting through most of history (that we’ve seen, there could still be periods of time we haven’t seen where she’s been fem) and idk abt you but I was a tumblr teen years ago learning a very skewed version of gender identity and expression where if you wanted to be genderfluid you had to look very attractive as both genders and also PASS as both genders convincingly (as well as being perfectly androgynous when being neither, this also applied to nonbinary people), as well as change it like every 2 days or so and have no preference? That’s the way people would make it seem to me, that’s the way people would portray their genderfluid characters in fandom spaces and that’s the way my teenage mind came to absorb it.

Now, it’s 2024 and I’m sure all of us with common sense know this is bogus but still seeing Crowley just sorta… brightened my everything? Knowing nanny Crowley wasn’t just for the joke, knowing that during certain scenes she was indeed being fem… but the most important part to me is that no matter what he was still HIM, they could have gone the easy route and have an actress play fem Crowley and be like “oh well she’s a demon she can shapeshift whenever ooooo” like so many people do with their ocs (I was one at one point) but it is still obviously him, it is still David Tennant playing Crowley and nobody else and when she’s fem she’s still got the same features the same everything and that’s somehow just… so freeing to see? It’s realistic, it’s grounding. You can be fem and still have overly masculine features, you can be fem and still have facial hair, you can be masc and still wear makeup, you can be masc and not hide your chest.

Now I wish this was all just… more obvious to everyone, I know some of this stuff because I saw posts, I saw people talking about it… but not everyone is gonna go through a 3 hour post scavenger hunt for extra lore like I do and these things are simply not addressed in the show. There IS a certain freeing feeling to the gender stuff not being addressed, it simply happens, it passes by and you might not even notice, but also comes with the double edged sword of people simply thinking SOME of the characters have funny genders but the others don’t.

Sorry I’m distracted rn bc I can hear a fucking bohemian rhapsody cover coming from my moms tv the timing of this is fucking wild, anyways I’m gonna try to get my thoughts back on track

So yeah, to some people like for example my aforementioned mother, the nanny Crowley thing was merely a joke and nothing else, not a brief moment of gender expression but just a perhaps even nasty joke played at the expense of other people. To her every other Crowley before and after that has been strictly cis male and mlm despite the fact I did in fact explain to her that he’s not, same applies to Aziraphale and perhaps even harder because we only ever see him presenting masculine through the entirety of it and trying to explain otherwise to the woman that thinks she can use she/he on me because I’m bisexual will not work (and she refuses to use he/him on me anyways mind you, or my chosen name. Says it’s too complicated, but I know for a fact that if one of the characters had changed their name mid show she would switch to the new name instantly…..yknow… just casual transphobia for me only)

I would like just…a passing comment or a scene that lets everyone know the nuance yknow? Finally something that cannot be disputed by everyone, and you might say “well but Crowley says he’s neither when he gets called a good lad” and to that I say yes but people still dispute the meaning behind it, my mom certainly would. And again you might want to shake the nanny scene in front of me and again I’ll remind you of people thinking it was just a joke, a disguise, a singular haha funny. You might want to gesture towards other scenes or moments or passing phrases but the thing is they will or have already been debated on because people will try to deny it no matter fucking what and it’s FRUSTRATING, so perhaps it’s just me being petty or wanting to give them a good ol fuck you but I’d like it if either Crowley or Aziraphale or both just looked at the camera head on and went “we are not men, also Crowley is genderfluid” no ifs no butts no second meaning just straight to your face, a giant “shut the fuck up” to annoying people.

Now I’m not gonna die if this doesn’t happen, I’m fine with that… it just sorta feels depressing seeing someone in the wild genuinely saying shit like “why are you using she/her for Crowley? He’s a man” my brother in Christ I am about to hit you with the mallet of knowledge and you won’t be able to look at that demon the same way ever again.

The gender expression in good omens matters so much to me as someone who struggles with her own and Crowley and Beelzebub matter so much to me as a little afab genderfluid/nonbinary (I’m not sure yet) motherfucker, I need to go bite some fuckinf ccomcrete right now man, accidental typo but I’m keeping it.

[midlandslady]

On Daemon Targaryen Flaws

I know I have a love for Daemon that will probably be rivaled only by Matt Smith XD But people see him as a monster and I think we are watching different shows. Come on guys, all of his emotions are written in his face because Matt is such a great actor.

I try not to justify all of his crimes. But if I want to, I actually think I can.

"Heir for a day". I do not believe he said it! He never confirmed it, not even in this episode. Yes, it was a mistake to cheer the fact that he was restored as heir to the people who would stab him in the back. But he was sad! Come on, he was in his own corner of the bar, quietly drinking and looking forlorn. The people instigated him and him being young and with a huge ego felt like he had to indulge them. That doesn't mean he was happy about what happened or that he wanted to celebrate the death of Aemma and the baby! People who think so do not understand Daemon at all.

Murdering Rhea. He does not feel guilty about it. He hated her. She was an obstacle for him. This is probably his biggest sin yet. But I don't think he went there to kill her. He had no weapons. I don't see the horse being spooked by him. And then she was paralyzed but she wouldn't die. She would still be his wife. And he was leaving. Until she said he "couldn't finish". This triggered violence in him. But it would also be cruel to let her live a life she didn't want to live, in pain and suffering. Was it mercy, or was it cold-blooded murder? Again, this scene is meant to leave it uncertain. But the law says innocent until proven guilty, does it not? It was not a good deed anyway.

Mistreating Mysaria and Laena. When?? Mysaria was a whore working in a brothel, like many others. She was Daemon's favorite so he took her away from that life to live with him in Dragonstone atop Caraxes. I don't see him doing it for people he is not incredibly fond of. She left him when she thought he was putting her at risk with his recklessness. And she didn't go back to being a whore because she now had enough money to start her own business. And she betrayed him, to his worst enemy, time and time again. We never know what she felt for Daemon but it looked like she was also fond of him because when he was drunk in the streets making a fool of himself after leaving Rhaenyra in the brothel, she took him to her place. So I understand she also cared about him to an extent. And when she was betrayed by Otto, where did she go? To Daemon. And Daemon would have killed someone else on the spot for much less than her betrayal. He didn't. Why? He is fond of her. He understands her life was not easy and she had to make due. He even offered her freedom in exchange for a small bit of information he could've acquired somewhere else. And Laena? Daemon loved Laena, he admired her and cared for her. She was not ït" for him, but he was happy with her, he was soft to her. If she hadn't died he would probably stay married to her forever. One might even say she was the only one able to tame his wildness. Something Rhaenyra is incapable of doing. Because he and Rhaenyra are both fire, they will never know peace or calm because that's not them. But Daemon is not to blame for not loving Laena as much as he does Rhaenyra. It's not something he can control. I think if he could, he would because loving Laena was easier and uncomplicated.

He is a bad father. I don't think anyone is winning Best Dad of the Year in Hotd, I'm sorry. Maybe Harwin? But yeah. I saw in an interview they placed Corlys as the best dad. Best dad?! Best husband maybe! But not the best dad, surely. He wanted to marry 12-year-old Laena to Viserys for his own ambitions for the crown (worse even than Otto because Laena was a child) and he was terribly ashamed of Laenor because of his homosexuality. Viserys was the best dad? To Rhaenyra maybe, not to the other kids that he ignored. But even then, if he wanted Rhaenyra to be queen he should not have had an army of male children that would fight against his daughter, should he? Daemon always loved Baela and he didn't feel as connected to Rhaena. It happens. He was still with Rhaena all the time while Baela went to live with Rhaenys. He may not be affectionate but he is there for them. Even for Jace, Luke and Joffrey. He fought for Luke's claim to Driftmark. And people keep saying he ignored Baela after he argued with Rhaenyra. Come on, I would too! The man was so broken he wasn't even seeing straight, I barely think he would acknowledge anyone at that moment.

He was violent to Rhaenyra, twice. I hate it, I do! But she was already pushing him away, trying to command him, show her authority over him, and that came after a lot of traumatic events. Daemon lashes out when he is cornered, challenged, or hurt. She brings out the very worst out of him and that's the insane part of their relationship. It's not healthy, it is primal, animalistic, and crazy! Alas, I don't support his behavior and I hope he will learn from it now.

He wants to usurp Rhaenyra's throne. He does not! He is hurt! He is letting his ego talk for him because he needs to feel that he is not "pathetic", he needs to feel respected and that he is worthy (while doing exactly what makes him not be haha). Because he wants to show it to Rhaenyra. Prove himself to her, as Alys pointed out. The throne means nothing to him, it's all about what the throne represents to the people he loves and from whom he craves validity. He wants to be loved so badly, yet he does not know how to show it and that is a tragedy in itself.

He killed a child. I will die defending Daemon on this point. Once again, the writers intend it to be open for interpretation. I don't think he even considered male children at all. He said so himself and he never tries to justify himself for what he is accused of. Usually, he is just hurt that people he cares for would think bad of him and he would not even make an effort to say otherwise. This time he did say "no and no and no, I didn't" because I think deep down the brutality of the act shocked him to the core too. And maybe he would try to ignore it and put it under the carpet as a mistake but the way Rhaenyra confronts him makes him hate himself.

Is there any other flaw of Daemon that should be explored?

[mcytblr-archive]

Early MCYTblr Interviews: Anonymous

our interviewee today is the anonymous author of the "SBI Crit Post". he's asked to both remain anonymous and not to be sought out; he's been incredibly helpful and polite through this entire interview process, and i would ask you all to leave any residual feelings you may have from that time at the door. If you think you remember who posted it, please keep it to yourself. that said, let's begin!

Q: Before we begin talking about the ‘Crit Post’, I’d love to hear what your experience of MCYTblr was like before it was posted. Do you have any standout memories from this time?

A: Not particularly. There's some things that I guess looking back on nowadays is kind of wild, like how in the groups I was running in, shipping of any kind that wasn't DNF was super frowned upon (as in, I trigger tagged for IRL shipping)…but truthing wasn't really? Or, how back then the lines between 'critblr' and main mcytblr were super fuzzy. I hung out with both groups before the Crit Post to no issue. Oh!!! And this is a wonderful piece of MCYTblr lore that you may not know, but when I posted the Crit Post, I was apart of a MCYT art exchange themed after MCC called MC Creatives. I think it only happened once, and I can't exactly remember who ran it. They were a really nice DNF (? or just DTeam) blogger. I think it's cool to see that even back then the community was pretty tight knit and had overarching community activities like we see today. It's interesting to me that our fandom has missed out on some of the more important parts to being a fandom… not many big bangs, only one or two that I know of. It's very sad, but we are a weird fandom in general, and definitely a Modern Fandom, if you understand what I mean by that LOL. There is one memory that does stick out, completely irrelevant to this interview though. The fake Dreambur meetup. I pulled an all nighter for it. I was shaking. I drew fanart (though never posted it). Everyone was hysterical. And then it was faked and everyone went WHAT.

Q: As you let me know in your dms, you were the user who made the original “SBI Crit Post”. Would you mind giving a quick rundown of what it was exactly, for anyone who may not know?

A: I would, but frankly I barely remember anything about it. It was like… I saw someone being like "weird that we aren't as critical of SBI as we are of DT" and I thought, "Well, I can probably try?" and made shit up. It was nonsense. I can't even remember what I said about Philza. The points against the others were "Tommy is too young to be in this business" "Wilbur queerbaits" and… "Technoblade needs to be less honest about his ADHD he's glorifying it" or something like that. Again, it was nonsense at its best.

Q: What was your reasoning at the time for making the post? Did the overall culture around you play a part in it?

A: Here's the part no one knows: At the time of posting, I was 13 by maybe… one, two, or three weeks. And I'd spent almost the entirety of my time as a 12 year old in a community that was like "we need to be Critical of our Favorite Creators because this is Righteous and the Only Good Way To Engage With MCYT" and I was like "Everyone here is older than me and therefore endlessly smarter than me," and therefore just accepted it. You can see it very clearly in the part that was "critical" of Wilbur Soot. He was queerbaiting for what? Acting like he wanted to kiss men? Dressing nice? Ridiculous! But if we called Dream a queerbaiter (and never GNF, because everyone was convinced he was gay), then I thought surely Wilbur Soot could also be a queerbaiter! This made total sense to baby 13 year old me. It's not fair to really call that indoctrination: it's not like I was falling down an alt-right pipeline or anything. I was just a stupid kid with too much internet access who liked minecraft and knew nothing about like Dan & Phil or Septiplier (kind of thing that would make me suspicious of this activity--especially truthing). I thought I was fufilling some honor by saying "and yes, my favorite minecraft boys aren't without fault either!" The people that stayed friends with me after that… some of them were my closest normal non-Critblr friends, who refused to abandon me (shout out to you guys you know who you are), and the rest were the people in Critblr who were… okay with my behavior.

Q: I understand that the backlash to the post was very intense– what was it like from your perspective? Did it have any affect on you?

A: Lots. Lots and lots and lots. I lost a bunch of my close friends who weren't okay with what I'd said or how I'd doubled down, and it really messed with me as a kid in the middle of quarantine. There were times where I genuinely considered hurting myself irreperably as either a way to "apologize for what I had done" or just a way to stop worrying that everyone I knew was going to block me one day. Those feelings lasted for a long time, I still struggle with them to this day, over three years later (? I think). And I was kind of lead to believe that was an okay response. I recieved asks the night that it all went down where I was told I should hurt myself. Of course my own behavior wasn't cool, but neither was that. I know there was a post out there by a popular (at the time?) Technoblade blogger that detailed the faults in that post, but I never read it. All I knew about it was that people saw it, and harassed me because they saw it, and that the OP of that post hated me. It got to the point that seeing that blogger's URL caused me to have panic attacks, a ridiculous thing because that blogger as far as I know never actually did anything wrong. I don't know. Every once in awhile, someone in the server I'm in (hi some of you are definitely reading this :3 i love you guys) will bring up the post in passing and I'll have to mute the channel for 24 hours because I'm scared. Or even when we're discussing normal drama, if something feels too close to the Crit Post, or like it might come up, I'll get shaky and nauseous and have to mute the channel for 24 hours. It's weird, the shit being told to kill yourself because you did something dumb as a 13 year old can do to you.

Q: As a follow-up: What, if anything, do you wish had happened instead?

A: I don't know really. I guess the obvious answer is "I didn't make the post" or "I didn't double down", but I think the real answer has to be that I wish the community I was in hadn't taught me that what I was doing was an okay move.

Q: Do you have anything else to add about the Crit Post, MCYTblr, or the community as a whole?

A: Not really. I "retired" from MCYTBlr in I think 2022, but kept a passing interest in it for a long time, and I'm still active in a discord (hi again) comprised entirely of fans and retired fans. I loved MCYT, and in some ways, I still do. When I'm sad, I put on old Technoblade videos. When I'm really sad, I put on old Purpled videos. These things are my comforts, things that I haven't ever been able to give up. And that's good! Even if I don't talk about MCYT anymore, I'm glad it's there for me.

[ereana]

Alhaitham x Cyno - I’m going to ask you how you are and I would like you to answer me honestly

Consciousness returns slowly. Bits and pieces of feeling start to sink through the thick shroud of numbing darkness that surrounds his mind: the heaviness of his lungs in his chest, the weight of his limbs, and the stinging sharpness of light even behind closed eyelids all serve to draw him back into wakefulness.

Cyno opens his eyes. The familiar green patterned ceiling of the Bimarstan greets him and the knot of tension in his mind untangles itself from his thoughts. He made it back. He’s safe. 

Through the open window he can hear the mutterings and grumblings of a busy street.It must be around lunch time if the belligerent complaining of one particular passerby is anything to go by. If he listens hard enough he can even hear their companion attempting to console them over how the tavern was a very popular spot and tables filled up quickly.

A potent scent of incense, jasmine, makes him wrinkle his nose and he starts to shift on the bed. This turns out to be a mistake when searing pain shoots up his left side — broken ribs a part of him realizes, at least three — causing him to hiss loudly into the quiet.

Moments later the curtain by his bed is roughly pulled aside and Cyno blinks in shock as Alhaitham stares at him with wild eyes that suit a consecrated beast rather than the Grand Scribe.

Cyno narrows his eyes as he takes in Alhaitham’s appearance. He looks tired, there are bags under his eyes that weren’t there when Cyno saw him last; wishing him luck by the city entrance while also bluntly reminding him not to be overconfident, just having happened to drop by while out on his morning stroll which they both knew never took him anywhere near the main gate, another step in this dance of theirs they’d been partaking in since that fateful clash outside Aaru village.

Cyno remembers how tempted he’d been to reach out and pull Alhaitham down so he could seal that teasing mouth with his own. Would it be tentative? Clumsy? Would it be a simple peck on the mouth or an awkward clash of teeth as they stared into each other’s eyes with surprise?

But he hadn’t discovered the answers to any of those questions. He’d left Alhaitham standing there on the road, the weight of orange-ringed eyes piercing into his back until he was finally out of sight.

Now with Alhaitham looming over him, reaching out to cradle Cyno’s cheek with one shaking hand, Cyno wonders how long Alhaitham had stood there watching the road once he’d disappeared into the forest.

This is dangerous. Cyno is still disorientated, the world is threatening to spin away from him and there’s a feeling of nausea bubbling in his gut.  He wants to close his eyes against the stinging artificial light and press into Alhaitham’s touch, wants to bury himself in its warmth and ignore the way his entire body aches.

He opens his mouth, to say what he doesn’t really know, only to freeze when Alhaitham drops to his knees on the bed and curls his other hand around Cyno’s neck.

‘I’m going to ask you how you are and I would like you to answer me honestly.” He says, as dogmatic as Cyno has ever heard him. But there’s a tremble underlying his words that rings in Cyno’s ears. 

He’s learned how to find the truth and he sees it in the way Alhaitham crowds up close to him, he feels it in the careful touches on his cheek and neck; incredibly careful and mindful of the bruising that peppers Cyno’s face. He hears it in Alhaitham’s heavy breathing, still not settled after bursting in through the curtain.

Cyno nods slowly. His own palms itch to mirror the hold Alhaitham has on him but he clenches the bedsheet to reign in the impulse.

Alhaitham sucks in another breath. This one steadier than the others, but Cyno’s sharp ears can hear the racing of his heart that bely the appearance of calming down.

“How are you?” Alhaitham asks gruffly, seemingly unaware of the way he’s started to rub along Cyno’s cheek with his thumb.

Cyno doesn’t respond right away. The question itself is simple. It’s one he’s been asked time and time again by people who care about him; friends and family who worry about him because they know the heavy burden of his job and what he must do to fulfill it. He’s heard it asked with various degrees of concern, sometimes mixed with irritation when Tighnari was in a certain mood, and often repeated if he doesn’t reply with a satisfactory answer.

Somewhere in the Akademiya there must be someone who can explain to him why it feels different when Alhaitham asks the question now, in this room, cradling Cyno’s face in his hands and looking at him like he’s afraid Cyno is going to disappear any second. Maybe Lord Kusanali can elucidate the way Cyno is helpless to do anything but lean close and press their foreheads together. Maybe she can put into words the complicated mix of joy, hope, and guilt racing through his veins as he takes in the heart wrenching relief that pours from Alhaitham’s every word and action.

Their breaths mingle in the rapidly shrinking space between them and Cyno embraces Alhaitham.

“Everything hurts.”

“Do you want me to get the doctor?”

“Not yet, just…stay for a moment. Please?”

A hand slides through white hair, comforting them both.

“Of course.”

[softquietsteadylove]

I’m starving for some smuttt🤌 (any AU works) pretty pleaseeee🫶😘

"So, what was it like?" Thena asked from her position snuggled up to him. "Seeing my world?"

Gil kissed her forehead, "it was incredible, Angelfish. I'm glad you got to show me around."

"I am too," she purred into the side of his neck. "I wish you could have gotten more used to your tail."

Gil looked down at his legs at the end of the bed, under the covers. "It was interesting, I can see why legs feel so strange to you."

"Hm," she commented, in a way. She shifted and unfurled herself, letting her legs rub against his. His were hairy, which always tickled. "Legs are good for other things. And I like your legs."

"Oh, yeah?" he chuckled as she squirmed her way on top of him.

"They're strong," she settled on top of his chest and leaned in for a kiss. "Like the rest of you."

Gil laughed in his chest, jostling her faintly, but pleasantly. His hands settled on her back as he kissed her. "Is a strong tail a good sign of a suitable mate?"

It was for her, although it was a matter of personal preference. "To some."

"Well," Gil grinned up at her. His hips shifted slightly; he was getting in the mood. "I'm asking you."

She pursed her lips, trying to look coy about it. In truth, the second she saw his tail, she was - even further - in love. Its obvious strength and thickness, the shine of his pitch black scales. He had no way of knowing that the size of his fins would have been threatening to any male they encountered.

"Cuddlefish?"

She smiled, kissing him lightly again, "you were a very handsome mer."

"So," he raised his eyebrows, his fingers tapping lower, from her waist, to her hips, to her behind, "if you saw me, say, in the wild...?"

"Hm?" Her eyes fluttered closed as his fingers walked up the bottom of his shirt, to settle on her skin.

"Would you think I'd make a good mate?" he asked before latching onto her neck, where her gills would be. He had unfortunately discovered that weak spot rather early on.

"Yes," she gasped as his fingers immediately made their way between her legs, which parted for him instinctively. She raised her tailfin, letting him push his fingers in, even at their odd angle.

"I've always thought you were beautiful," he cooed, kissing her neck, her shoulder, nipping under her jaw. "Especially your tail."

"Gil," she whined, moving her hips to encourage him. Tails were such an example of what made for a compatible mate. And he spoke of them so casually.

"It's so pretty, sweetheart," he crooned. He moved his fingers faster, having to move them in the opposite motion he usually did.

She rolled her hips, much like she would move them to swim with her tail on. It worked with his motions, both of them working together.

"How would you tell me you wanted to mate?" he asked, getting lost in the idea of it.

She tried not to growl at him; she was concentrating on her pleasure. And if she had seen a specimen like him in the wild, unattached, she probably would have pursued him more directly than she would like to admit. "Gil, it's happening."

He had asked her before about 'coming', but she was still confused by the word. 'Came' implied going or arriving somewhere, but she wasn't going anywhere--she was in bed with him the whole time.

"It's okay, hon, just let go," he encouraged.

His encouragement was the final push she needed. She tightened around his fingers, still moving her hips to draw out the process of her pleasure. Gil was so good at achieving it. And she had never thought of using hands in the mating process.

Gil gave her tailfin one last, affectionate squeeze before pulling his hands away. "You okay?"

She nuzzled her face into his bare chest, purring loudly. She had wanted to hear what Gil sounded like when he purred, but there was no time. She trailed her nail up his arm and the muscles of his chest.

"More?"

She nodded, still buried in him. She hoped human females also felt the need to be so surrounded by the scent and sound and feeling of their partner amidst mating. Otherwise she was just embarrassing herself.

Gil rolled them over, pulling off his underwear and helping her get his shirt over her head. He tilted his head as she rolled over, putting her back to him while under him. "Angelfish?"

She turned her head just enough to peek at him. "Like before."

This is how they would mate if he had his tail on.

She didn't wait to see the look on his face, but he granted her wish. He held her hips as he pushed his reproductive organ into her. She bit his pillow, moaning at the feeling of it. She had never felt it in this position, at this angle.

He was heavy, but he was certainly holding himself up so as to not put his full weight on her. He moved her hair out of his way so he could kiss up her back. "This okay?"

She moaned, nodding with her face in his pillow so she could inhale his scent. He trailed his tongue over the bumps in her spine, where small dorsal fins would be if they were in the water.

Gil started moving slowly at first, as he always did. Always careful, always concerned if she was comfortable. But the way he held and lifted her hips to meet his were the actions of a mate hungry for her.

She was hungry for him. She moved her hips, meeting his for every beat. She brought her knees together, feeling a squeeze below her naval when she did.

Gil seemed to know what it meant. As he pumped against her his hand moved, sliding along her lips and then rubbing circles above where they were connected.

Thena moaned, still purring from deeper within her chest. The sound was foreign to even her ears, but Gil seemed to like it, moving faster. She gasped, "Gil, yes, more like that!"

She panted for breath. Human lungs were so ridiculously limited. She dug her nails into the pillows, although she had a feeling she was destroying their pillowcases and Gil was repairing them when she wasn't looking.

"Ohhhhhh," she groaned into the pillow as he gripped a plush handful of her behind, pulling so he could push deeper into her. "Seven seas, Gil, fuck!"

He liked it when she used his vernacular.

"Bite me," she whimpered. She could be mortified about it later. That feeling was creeping up on her again.

"What?"

"My neck, bite it," she panted. She picked her head up but she couldn't see straight. The warmth of her raised body temperature made her feel as if all she could see was a dreamy pink haze.

Gil lunged forward, spreading his hot, slick front over her back and latching onto the back of her neck with his teeth.

She came instantly, harder than she ever had before. It felt right for her--completing something that felt natural. Her hips moved beyond her control, rolling and swivelling and bucking against him. He also finished, and the weight of him on top of her increased. It was pleasant, though, like burying herself under the sand to be soothed during a storm.

"Y-You okay?" he sounded nervous. He moved her hair to inspect where he had bit her, as if his little human teeth could really have done any damage.

Thena moaned. She wanted to form words, but all she could do was moan, and purr, and tighten her arms around his pillow as if she were trying to drown herself in the smell of him.

Gil pulled himself off of her, although she immediately whined about missing the weight and the warmth of him. He pulled the covers up over them and wrapped his arms around her. "Thena?"

She emerged from his pillow, dragged sideways so she had to look at him. Her hair was tumbling everywhere, but Gil moved it out of the way of their view of each other.

"Is that a, uh-" he blushed faintly (always charming, her human), "mating...thing?"

She tucked her head under his chain, perhaps feeling slightly abashed as well. "If we were...you would bite my neck to secure my place under you."

"Huh," he muttered, because he was thinking very deeply about something. His fingers kept touching the spot on her neck, massaging any pain he was imagining she might feel.

She truly blushed now. "It's only done between selected mates. The bite is...a sign."

It was marked territory. She had bitten him before, but she had worried the permanent damage her teeth could do to his delicate human blood vessels.

"Oh, like," he moved his head so he could look at her, "an 'I'm yours' kind of thing?"

"Yes," she answered simply. She did not want to explain to him that it was a way of choosing a mate of all mates--that there would be no others after that mark was made.

"Well, I like the sound of that," he smiled, kissing her cheek and letting her cuddle against him again. So sweet and innocent, her human.

In truth, his mark would fade from her skin. He hadn't bit deep enough, and he probably couldn't, with the teeth he had. But he didn't need to, as far as she was concerned. He was her one and only mate, and she was happy with that knowledge.

And it wasn't as if she had to fend other mers away from him either.

[agent-calivide]

So, no one asked for this, but since I've been playing Silent Slayer: The Vault of the Vampire, I figured I'd toss an honest to god, detailed review out for it for those who like IEYTD and saw the game was from Schell and were just curious what it was like before buying it.

Spoilers for gameplay and story beats ahead

Brief Summery:

In Silent Slayer, you play as a vampire/monster hunter who's mission is to kill the entire Clan of Zar, working from the bottom of the pecking order and killing your way up. But, you are not alone, as you have a Grimoire of sorts assisting you. The book talks, is sentient, and walks the line between helpful advice and throwing shade. All of the vampires you encounter are asleep, as your character has one night to kill the entire Clan before they rise and complete a ritual that would make them unstoppable. Your job is to break into their sealed coffins and exterminate them. There is a lot of weight put on the fact that this is your one night, your one chance to take out Clan Zar, and you cannot afford failures, but as far as I've seen (as someone who died a ton) this is more of an artificial thing to up the ante or make a more compelling narrative. You won't actually be punished if you die, say, five times on the tutorial for example or if you take the time to read the whole book's chapter before going into the level.

Gameplay:

Throughout the game, you need to use various tools to help break your way into the coffins of the vampires, and the game is very good about introducing these mechanics at a comfortable pace. Nearly every level introduces a new mechanic and is explained by the book before you enter, but also repeats the mechanics from the previous level to ensure that while you learn the new tools, you don't get rusty with the old ones. Many of the later puzzles build off of the previous ones, like having trip wires that have to be cut later getting a magic charge you have to be sure isn't activated when you go to cut them.

I previously described the game as a spooky IEYTD, but I cannot emphasis enough that is incredibly inaccurate and was mostly for comedic purposes. They are both VR puzzle games made by Schell, so the art style feels similar at moments, some things float in the air like the book and specific puzzle pieces, and the hand/gravity mechanics feel similar, but Silent Slayer is much. Much. Slower. There is a ton of weight put on being slow and cautious, there is no wild "Agent Phoenix" throw it at the wall and see what happens vibe. The game is built on tension, every part of it is the slayer having to take their time, go slowly, and at moments completely freeze. If slow games aren't your thing, I wouldn't recommend this game for you.

There are also jump scares, both in the level and when you fail. Though, I will say the failure jump scares are probably the least frightening aspect, and I mean that as a compliment! Before you get a failure death, you'll know you messed up because the game plays an audio cue and gives you a moment to brace, the volume isn't cranked to hell on the actual jump scare, all in all I think the death scares are done really well. As for the jump scares while you're opening the safe, they're generally as loud as anything else you would hear in the level, which does give a nasty jolt. This can entail bats, creaking, steps, the vampires jolting like they're about to awaken, and spiders walking on the coffin or dropping in your face, though there is a toggle setting for arachnophobes if spiders are a particularly nasty ick for you. While there are jumpscares, I wouldn't say they're as egregious as the ones in say fnaf, they mostly lean into trying to up tension, not punish you for failure save for the death jump scares I covered earlier.

Mechanics:

Silent Slayer leans into a safe cracking sort of game play experience, with a heavy emphasis on using the right tools to break into the vampire's coffins. This entails things like pulling blockades off, prying nails out of the coffin, finding the right keys, using a hook on a rod to reach into the coffin to pull things out without touching the vampire, etc. Slayer leans heavily on the need for you to go slow and take your time to stay quiet, akin to the most high stakes quiet-chip-bag-opening ever. There are certain traps that force you to freeze, to hold your arms in sustained positions for prolonged windows of time, and lots of gentle finessing.

These mechanics are particularly rough if you struggle with shaky hands and/or depth perception, but with enough patience you can get through it.

My one big critique is the actual process of killing the vampire, staking them through the heart. The way you kill the vampire is finding their heart with an enchanted heart that allows you to see where it's located, as vampires hide their hearts in strange places on their bodies to try and keep them secure. Once you locate the heart and draw out runes, you stake the vampire in the place you detected the heart earlier. But, I personally, struggled immensely with getting the stake to actually go into the middle of the target I placed, resulting in a death that made me restart the level from the very beginning. Of course, I do think that there's nothing wrong with a little challenge, but I had times where I lined up the stake, went to stab, and watched in horror as it went in completely off course. This may be due to user error, my friend who also played along didn't have this struggle, but it's a thing to keep in mind if you struggle with shaking.

While there is not a visible overall timer, there is a time limit of roughly 10 minutes, which doesn't sound like much but honestly is more than enough time for the most part. After roughly 4 minutes and 45 seconds, the book gives you an audio cue that you're going slow, at 9 minutes the book tells you there's only seconds left, and from there you have roughly 60 seconds to finish the level. I honestly have yet to get that second time warning outside of the time I chose to die on purpose to time it out.

Art:

The game is absolutely gorgeous, each vampire having their own lore, room, and story explaining who they are, how long they've been a vampire, and in some cases how much the book disdains them personally. Each space is full of life (Despite the enemies being undead) and the tools you work with as the slayer all feel very real and are easy to see the aspects of when using them to take apart traps. The wire cutters are thin and straight so you know they're lined up, the hook and rod have a white claw that helps it stand out against the dark coffins when trying to grab things, etc. If you are squeamish to blood, occult things, dust, skeletons, spiders (though you can turn those off), eyes, or a sense of being watched, the game may be a bit rough for you, but it's a wonderful horror experience if those aren't things that get too under your skin. I honestly could (and probably will) go back to replay the game just to get screen grabs of the book throughout the various levels because the Grimoire in particular is just so well done.

All in all, Silent Slayer is a fantastic horror experience in my opinion, my one big thing is just don't go into it expecting a spooky IEYTD game just because it was made by Schell and is also a VR puzzle game. They're puzzles in the same way Escape Rooms and Puzzle Boxes are both puzzles. Similar, but very, very different.