#and yet. I have no fucking clue how to actually come out lmao

[wiredelta]

my brain is constantly abuzz and the memories of feelings from when I first started experimenting are all flooding back

[kumquats-are-gay]

sparing with Johnny, and you pin him down only to find that he's rock hard, maybe some teasing/sex? idk idk

(TF YOU MEAN “idk”?? THIS PROMPT IS HEAT AND I’M ‘BOUTTA COOK!! 🔥💯😤)

Johnny Cage x gn!reader (SFW/NSFM)

NOTE: This will be a two-parter because I just couldn't wait to post what I had already, lmao. This first part only has sexual themes and foreplay, while the second part will have actual smut (also, while this first part is totally GN, the second part will be mentioning afab anatomy, but I will still be using GN pronouns). I'm sorry this took so long to get to; I've been working almost every day for the past two weeks and ya girl is tired, lol. Was super excited to write for this though! :D

ALSO I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE HOW ACTUAL FIGHTING WORKS I JUST MADE SHIT UP LMAO PLS DON'T COME AT ME

Pasted straight from Google Docs and NOT proofread, so please excuse any grammatical/continuity errors/syntax and formatting. I am also still VERY much an amateur writer so pls go easy on me <3

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51869623

Come On With a Come-on

         For a ‘professional’, Johnny Cage is about the least professional person you’ve ever met. Propriety must be a foreign concept to him with how frequently he flirts with you, especially on set—you know, in front of all of your colleagues and crew? The man was shameless in his relentless pursual of you, like a goddamn dog with a bone. And worst of all? You liked it, and this fact frustrated you to no end. 

         How could you possibly be attracted to someone who is so insufferably arrogant, loud-mouthed, and impossibly far up his own ass? An ass that, admittedly, you find yourself staring at whenever you think he isn’t looking. But, because you’re an actual professional, you’ve rebuffed his every attempt to seduce you thus far. Plus, you had a reputation to keep and dignity to hold onto; you weren’t sullying either when the likely outcome would involve your face and name on countless tabloids. 

         Without warning, his stupid, smug, and incredibly handsome smile invades your mind, and you suddenly find yourself wanting nothing more than to punch it off of his unfairly chiseled jaw.

         …or maybe kiss it off.

         “Grah!” you abruptly shout while burying your hands in your hair, momentarily tugging at the roots in annoyance. God, you had a problem. 

         Bzzt.

         “Huh?” You look down at your hip where your phone had just buzzed in your pocket. You pull it out and flick your finger across the screen to unlock it, then tap on the messaging icon.

         Johnny Cage: Hey, wanna spar later? 👊👊

         You raised a brow. You and Johnny worked in the same sphere for a reason. Action films were your guys’ bread and butter since the both of you knew how to fight as well as do your own stunts. 

         You and Johnny hung out casually here and there, but the two of you had never sparred before. You sensed an opportunity in his proposal, though: an effective way to get your frustration out on the source of said frustration. Shrugging, you figure, ‘why not?’

         You: Yeah, I’m down. But I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into b/c I won’t be holding back!

         Johnny: Woah, don’t go threatening me with a good time ;) 

         Your stomach twirled in unbidden delight at the cheeky response, and you internally chastised yourself for being so easily affected by this man. You and Johnny sorted out the details of your meetup—his place, late afternoon—and returned your phone to your pocket. You would just have to kill some time until then.

~~~

         “Of course you would have your own gym, and of course it’s fuckin’ huge,” you joked with a bit of sarcasm, yet enough lightheartedness as to not offend. Though, you doubt Johnny could be so easily offended; he’s got way too much self-confidence (for better or for worse) to be put down that easily.

         “Oh, honey, you haven’t seen ‘huge’ yet,” he boasted with a smirk. The wink that followed did nothing to abate the heat that was slowly taking over your body, but you did your best not to let the effects show. Since when were easy, immature innuendos such a turn on for you? You just closed your eyes and shook your head.

         “Alright, I am definitely knocking you on your ass for that one.”

         “Hah, see if you can, sweetheart!”

         The two of you stood in your  respective corners and took your stances. One quick little countdown later, and the game was on. 

        You knew Johnny was a very good fighter being a martial arts expert and all, but you didn’t realize he was that good. In all honesty, you figured he was more bark than bite, and that you’d have no real problem going toe-to-toe with him. Unfortunately, it seems like you may have underestimated him. It turns out that Johnny Cage was one of the rare few you had met who could back up their arrogance. Bully for you.

        Furthermore, this shithead was fighting dirty! Well, okay—technically he wasn’t fighting dirty. He was just talking after all, and there’s nothing wrong or “illegal” with that. But it was a dirty tactic regardless, and it only infuriated you further with how helpless you were to try and block him out.

        You pivot sharply on one foot and  use the momentum to lift and swing the other around, aiming the kick at his head. You expect him to duck under such a high-reaching maneuver—maybe he’d follow up with a low sweep with your single foot planted on the ground—so you prepare yourself to counter this. See, before you went into acting, fighting was your primary activity; you won many tournaments and managed to make a decent living off of it. One of the main things you were known for were your notoriously powerful kicks; few would risk trying to outright block them rather than moving out of the way.

         You must have forgotten who you were up against; that was the only reasonable explanation for your short-sightedness. You were not distracted by him or anything like that, thank you very much. Johnny-fucking-Cage just lifts an arm and grabs your leg. With one hand. Like it was nothing.

         The impact creates a loud smack! that briefly leaves you dumbfounded; you felt the force of that blow against his palm, and it was enough to leave the skin there tingling unpleasantly. Johnny didn’t look phased in the least bit with a crooked smile dancing across his handsome features, just gripping your ankle. Casually. Like you weren’t currently being held in the near-vertical splits.

         Johnny took this fleeting opportunity to give you a quick once-over, and his smile only grew. “Nice legs,” he quipped, “bet they’d look a lot nicer over my shoulders.” You openly gaped at his brazenness, and he used your shock to his advantage, flipping you in one fell swoop. You grunted when your back hit the mat underneath you, but the heat that overwhelmed your person (caused by your anger and fury, obviously) had you back up in a flash.

         “Best two out of three,” you nearly seethed. Johnny had the audacity to appear as anything but intimidated. In fact, he seemed rather amused.

         “You know, you’re like, really hot when you’re mad.”

         You nearly flung yourself at him in a mindless bout of rage, but caught yourself only a split moment before you could make such a devastating mistake. A delightful idea quickly sprang to mind—two could play at this game. 

         You kept up the facade of indignation and outrage in order to trick Johnny into thinking that you actually were going to make that blind charge at him. You stepped off of your dominant foot, using the momentum to make a lunge for him. He braced himself to counter your head-on attack, but you feigned right at the last possible second, swiftly gripped his shoulder with your left hand, and brought your right leg in against the back of his knee to buckle it. Johnny was quick to recover, though, keeping enough of his balance to twist and grapple with you as his leg nearly gave out. 

         Ah, so it was time for plan B.

         Before he could finish off the move, you brought your face right up to his, making sure that the two of you were making eye contact, and looked at him with sensual purpose. It was almost enough to disarm him, so to ensure you had the upper hand, you threw him another curveball with a breathy, “I wonder if you fuck as good as you fight.” 

         That did the trick. Johnny’s mind was sent reeling with your seemingly out-of-pocket comment, and you jumped at the chance to knock him flat on his ass. Johnny got the wind knocked from him as he landed with a resounding thump. Not wasting a minute, you straddled yourself across his hips and held his wrists against the floor mat. While Johnny had more raw strength than you, you hoped that the KO would leave him dizzy enough to keep him subdued.

         “Ha! Gotcha!” you barked out in triumph. Johnny just blinked up at you in a daze as his response. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle the taste of your own medi-” you had cut yourself off when you felt something stiff beneath your pelvis. ‘What…? Wait, is he…’

         “Are you hard right now?!” you squawked incredulously. Johnny just shrugged his shoulders and gave you an audacious smirk, as if to say, ‘Uh, yeah I guess so. What about it?’ You were flabbergasted. “I can not believe you right now!” You released his wrists and made to get up, but he grabbed your hips before you could get away. Damn it, his body was so warm, and…holy shit he felt big.

         “Woah now, hang on just a tick,” he spoke like he was trying to soothe a startled horse. This fucking asshole! Why, just why did you have to fall for him? “It is very difficult not to pop a boner when I’m getting up close and personal to the most gorgeous person I know,” he spoke with an immense amount of charm and a surprising measure of sincerity. Your eyes widened comically before you squinted at him with a healthy amount of suspicion. 

         “Oh, really now? And I don’t suppose you’ve used that line with every other person you’ve taken to bed, hm?”

         Johnny just sighed like he was the exasperated one here. “Darling, I’ve been laying it on thick for half a year now. There’s no way I’d still be after you just to get into your pants.” He looked at you with this sort of ‘duh’ expression on his face, like he couldn’t possibly understand your confusion. “I mean, don’t get me wrong: you’ve got just the kind of body that I love,” he added, and you nearly clocked him then and there, but you relaxed again as he spoke further, “but I’ve come to really like spending time with you. There’s never a day that I don’t look forward to working with you on set, you know.” And, just like that, you felt like the stupidest person on the planet for denying yourself something that you evidently could have had for a long time now. 

         You hung your head low and shook it from side to side in disappointment of yourself. You fool. You buffoon. You absolute imbecile. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Johnny took this the wrong way, looking offended, and opened his mouth to say something. However, you were quick to shut him up with a short yet firm kiss of which he wasted no time in returning. He ground his hips against yours in short, desperate thrusts like there would never be another chance to do so, and you eagerly mirrored his movements like they might be your last. Without warning, he rolled the two of you over to flip your positions. Sprawled out beneath him with your hands held beneath his own, Johnny thought you looked like a dream.

         “By the way, I think you’ll find that not only do I fuck as good as I fight, but I fuck like I fight, too—hard n’ fast,” he intoned in a voice nearly an octave deeper. 

         You squirmed in anticipation at his words, and retorted with equal huskiness, “let’s see it then.”

[monstersinthecosmos]

kacy i wanna know how much of a perv you think daniel is LOL so much fic centers on armand dragging him through an experience *armand* wants. so like what's the ratio of daniel being a freak in his nature (and knowing this about himself) vs armand nurturing this trait into him?

My friend, I’m so glad you asked.

THE THING IS IVE GIVEN THIS A LOT OF THOUGHT and in some ways it’s like, what all of my Devil’s Minion fics are about LOL. And yet! I don’t have a simple answer to this question, the way real questions of nature vs nurture are complicated in the real world in real people!

But let me sketch out a framework of the way I’ve questioned this, and everyone might come to different conclusions and that’s the fun of fandom, because there can exist several thousand versions of Daniel based on the same text! AND I KNOW YOU KNOW THIS STUFF, I HOPE IT DOESN’T COME OFF AS MANSPLAINING LMAO but I’m excited to talk about this topic. 

Here’s what we know unequivocally from the text:

Daniel is 20 years old in IWTV.

That’s it, that’s the whole list.

And here’s some fanon that people often try to extrapolate from the text: 

💦 That he met Louis at a gay bar. UNCONFIRMED, but I think it’s likely? In the short story the bar is named the Pink Baby, I think that might be a gay bar or a dick reference idk lol. 

💦 Whether or not the Pink Baby was a gay bar, he and Louis essentially cruised each other and left the bar together! Daniel has the excuse that he’s hunting for interviews for his job, Louis has the excuse that he’s an apex predator who preys on people, but ? Take this wherever you need to. (Also blah blah Ricean biting=sex symbolisms.)

💦 Was Daniel bisexual outside of the assumption that most of the VC characters are bisexual/omnisexual? The only clue we get is that when he and Armand practice voyeurism, he hooks up with men and women. There’s a lot of interesting information packed into the voyeurism paragraph, like this line: Yet he lay empty afterwards, staring at Armand, resentful, cold. and I’ve seen the “resentful, cold” comment dissected many times in fandom. Is it the general resentment of their whole relationship? Is it because he wants to fuck Armand and not randos? Is it because he only wants the Blood? Does he not consent to being used like a zoo animal? Is he gay and doesn’t want to fuck women? Is he straight (minus the orientation-defying vampire attraction) and doesn’t want to fuck men? I’ve seen all kinds of takes on this LOL. But still, no real definitive answer about his orientation in the text.

💦 What did the “roaming the bars of the world” comment mean? Sometimes I read Anne Rice’s language as being kinda lofty and exaggerated but was he ACTUALLY traveling the WHOLE WORLD or is he hyping up that he trolled bars in the Bay Area? Is he FROM the Bay Area or was it a stop in his travels? He worked for a radio station (not in the book, but mentioned in the short story + The Vampire Companion and The Alphabettery) so did he live here, even if he traveled a lot? Was he wealthy before vampires if he was traveling this much, if you think he was a traveler?

AND AFTER ALL THAT, here’s some extra questions where Daniel is FREE REAL ESTATE that every fan has the freedom to make the fuck up:

💦 How much sexual experience did he have at 20? Do we assume that by default as an Anne Rice character he probably had ample teenage sexual experiences, and if he did, is there a quality over quantity aspect to consider? Is the sex we have as teenagers like, all that to write home about LMAO. Do we really understand kinks yet, or do we need to grow up and gain some perspective first? 

💦 As an Anne Rice character, by default, do we assume he & everything else is sexually charged LOL, are the interviews and cruising and taking people home a code for bringing partners home? What percentage of his interviews were also hookups?  

💦 When we talk about nature vs nurture for kinkiness, how micro and macro is this? As a fellow Off the Cuffs fan I know you understand the “radioactive spider bite into kink” concept, and some kinks are so specific to our experiences. But BEING KINKY in itself IS nature, isn’t it? I’ve read some sex & kink theory that kink is (psychologically) more like an innate orientation. IE: in the way you can be straight or gay, some people are also by default turned on by being smacked or by whatever paraphilia. Whatever that thing is, the way it takes shape, is the nurture half. But like, many people can have the same experience and 99% of them don’t develop a paraphilia right? So I think that capability exists in kinky folks at all times, especially when so many of the radioactive spider bites are things that people discover in childhood. ANYWAY I RANTED but I say that to say; DANIEL MOLLOY IS A MONSTERFUCKER, IWTV IS THE PROOF THAT HE IS A MONSTERFUCKER. IT WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME. 

So I bring up all those questions to encourage everyone to make up their own story with this, but I’ll tell you where I personally landed and how I approach it in my fics!!!

The Daniel in MY OWN fics is 20, single child, estranged from his parents, dropped out of college because he didn’t have ADHD support and was struggling, bisexual and promiscuous! I wonder if he went through that like college freshman thing where he got out of his parents house for the first time and partied a little too hard because he COULD! I like to read “bars of the world” as an exaggeration, I like to think he was a normal guy NOT globe hopping, sticking to the Bay Area, maybe he was out there for college, and guess what! There’s a thriving gay liberation culture there, so he finds some safe spaces to experiment with that! 

However, I think the text leaves space to think he didn’t have a lot of close friends, or wasn’t close with his family, due to the way that he simply ✨fucks off ✨ after IWTV. NOW, that’s just me! Because there’s potential here for a TRAGEDY of people looking for him or grieving him! But idk I just like thinking that he was already on the outs and the interview pushed him over the edge.

So I ask like, does the 20 year old have a ton of kink experience? Is he good at sex? WHAT DOES RESENTFUL, COLD MEAN? Was he celibate during the chase years? Are the voyeurism sessions the first time he’s had sex since his old life? Even if he had random hookups during the chase years, was this qualitatively good sex? Can you truly get into good BDSM on a hookup or do you need a trusted partner? (This is subjective, idk, but!) 

Also, how much kink is theoretical and private (to masturbate to) vs stuff you actually try? Especially if we believe that kink is nature, someone isn’t less kinky if they’re celibate, the way someone isn’t less gay if they’re celibate, or even a virgin. As Daniel becomes more and more obsessed with vampires, and with Armand, does it take over how he jerks off? Does he think about getting bitten? HE LIKES SNUGGLING WITH DEAD THINGS.

So like, there IS an element of Daniel being the unwilling witness of Armand’s rapidly shifting hyperfixations, and it’s natural that fandom pervs would extend that to sex acts and kinks. I LOVE IT, yes! It makes sense. 

But when you say like, which one of them is in charge, I wonder if it’s relevant if we assume Daniel enjoys it. (Does he? Would he? Resentful, cold?)

Here’s some points that come to mind when I imagine it as purely Armand’s doing:

💦 People sometimes misunderstand BDSM dynamics when it comes to power and control, because BDSM is a consensual fantasy between two adults. The sub is just as in control, because they allow it. In that sense: Do we believe Armand respects Daniel’s consent? Would he force Daniel to participate if he wasn’t enjoying himself? 

🩸 (How much can we compare this to Venice and how Armand was prepared for vampirism? I’m putting this in parentheses bc I’m putting a pin in this one, I CANNOT ADD A SUB-ESSAY INTO THIS POST ABOUT COMPARING VENICE TO DEVILS MINION but thinking of this too. Returning to the under-negotiated kink in Venice and how much is diegetic to the text, how does experiencing a spectrum of sexuality benefit someone’s last years alive ((sub-parentheses: does Armand flip-flop on turning Daniel as much as Marius did with Armand, does Armand subliminally know he’ll turn Daniel one day, does he go through these experiences as a precursor to turning Daniel eventually?)) are these experiences more for Armand to process the way he was groomed for asexual immortality vs being purely selfless and for Daniel’s benefit?)

💦 Armand uses Daniel as his usher into the modern age, and is it fair to assume he could sense Daniel’s kinkiness and knew that this was the person for him? 

💦 How dubious is Daniel’s consent here? How addicted to Armand’s Blood is he by the time they start fucking around? Is he already within the throes of Ricean Omnisexuality where he’s down for whatever? Does the Blood influence this as well? Is there a secret subliminal violence creeping into your body when you’ve been drinking it again and again? What about less violent kinks, like your feederism fic? Does the Blood encourage all types of excess and consumption??? 

But if DANIEL is the driving force here, I still must consider:

💦 He meets Armand and his life essentially ends when he’s 20 years old. Was he really self-aware of his kinks? Did he know himself very well sexually yet? 

💦 While exploring kinks can be mutually beneficial by sating Armand’s need for WEIRD HUMAN STUFF, maybe it IS something Daniel wants. It’s something he’s missing out on, because he checked out of regular human life when he was 20. Like, everyone’s different, so, I’m not saying that people can’t be sexually articulate at 20, but I know I fucking wasn’t! And I personally never fucked anyone that age who was good at it LMAO. So like how old would Daniel have been before he experimented enough to really know what he liked, and how much of him getting to know his sexuality involved Armand during the next decade?

💦 And this ties into Armand being his sugar daddy! That’s canon! Armand is his sugar daddy! If Daniel, at 28 years old, starts lamenting “I wish I’d gotten the chance to try watersports when I still had a normal life :( “ wouldn’t Armand have arranged that for him? 

🩸 (Again let’s talk about Venice and what did Armand learn there about being the vampire lover, how much does he process and repeat on Daniel, and for whose benefit?)

💦 If Daniel is an innately kinky person, and realizes as he’s approaching 30 that he never really got to explore it properly, wouldn’t Armand usher him through that experience? Even if Armand didn’t plan to turn him, I wonder if he saw the window of Daniel’s mortal experience closing, maybe he worried that this is the type of thing people need to be wild about while they’re still so young. And outside of stigmatizing Daniel's age, it's also about how he was becoming less and less healthy, dying of alcoholism at 32, so there was a small window here for them to have sex adventures.

So basically, I’m saying that the nature half feels very much like Daniel being a monsterfucker, the nurture half is the actual experiences he got to have. And I don’t think he’d be in this situation in the first place if he wasn’t a bit of a monsterfucker, and wasn't a innately into danger and pain. Like, we don’t get a TON of examples but Gretchen and Babette didn’t try to fuck vampires! We know that vampires give humans the heebie jeebies! What kind of sick fuck is into that?!?!?!? 

I don’t really have one single answer here. When it comes to the large library of kinks I think either of them can be blamed, and I also think it 100% makes sense to use Armand as a vehicle to write fic about them as if they’re another collection of human oddities for him to explore. But even using Armand’s weird bullshit to process that doesn’t mean it’s not mutually beneficial, and I think it gets into a fuzzier area that’s up to the writer when it comes to their take on the relationship, how dubious the consent is, how much do they actually like each other and get along? Can it be mutually beneficial in the end even if one person is driving? (see: the conversation about the second whipping scene in TVA and how it works out in the end.) Is it something they have fun agreeing to and negotiating in advance? 

I can totally see how someone might write this as a fun thing that they talk about beforehand as easily as it could be Armand forcing mystery adventure on Daniel and suddenly he’s tied up in some shitty apartment in Hells Kitchen with some man pissing on him, and did he ever even reveal this kink to Armand or did Armand pull it out of his head? 

The ship dynamic is so fucked up and coercive and resentful and toxic, even though there is real love here, so there’s this whole spectrum to use when you build your fanworks and headcanons!!!!!!! AND LIKE

IF IT’S COERCIVE AND FUCKED UP, DOES IT DRIVE THEM FURTHER APART OR BRING THEM CLOSER TOGETHER? IS DANIEL RESENTFUL AND COLD AND DOES THIS CAUSE FIGHTS? IS THIS A WAY FOR THEM TO PROCESS SOME OF THEIR COLDNESS AND RESENTMENT BECAUSE THEY AREN’T GOOD COMMUNICATORS? DO THEY DO BETTER AFTER THESE SESSIONS AND FEEL CLOSER BECAUSE THEY BROKE THROUGH SOMETHING NEITHER OF THEM KNEW HOW TO SAY?

Gosh idk.

Anyway I apologized in the beginning for mansplaining but I also want to apologize for this non answer LMFAO. I hope it doesn’t feel like a cop-out to not have a real answer, it’s just that I think there is such a rich context with a MENAGERIE of possibility !!!!!!! 

[lunamayn]

The Quarry Collectibles Breakdown

Hi hello, my autism moment is still momenting. In honor of my fifth playthrough (Blood Pact Run babey), here's all the evidence/clues/tarot by location and counselor.

I'm a dataset kinda bitch and love to look at charts sooooo. This is mainly for me, if you get a kick out of it? Great!

Clues and Tarot by Chapter

Honestly not a whole lot to say on these except holy shit Chapter 2 is Clue Heavy. (makes sense, it's the chapter before shit hits the fan officially)

I would have included Evidence here, but it's a boring chart folks. Every Chapter (except The Prologue) has one bit of evidence.

Clues by Counselors

This project started because of how many collectibles Jacob finds in the first half of the game. I had to observe that data over time lmao

Laura was imprisoned for two months, gets out of jail, and fucking BOOKS it for the top clue finder spot.

I was actually surprised to see Dylan end up in second place for clues? Sir, you can't tease Kaitlyn for finding the Harum Scarum ticket stub when it's the only chapter she gets to find the collectibles! You've been at it since Chapter 2.

Ryan you found one. You found one clue. In all fairness, he's too tired from carrying the team on his back to bother with finding anymore.

Nick honey we didn't have you for long, but by god you put in the effort when we did have ya.

Kaitlyn didn't get a chance to snoop all game, and the moment she's got the opportunity? She makes third place a four way tie.

Max is here because I love him. Also, when my partner got a sneak peak of this and saw Max had a big ol goose egg? He went, "This is malewife erasure."

Tarot by Counselors

Laura is really out here doing the MOST

Again! Dylan is casually slinking into second place here for the second category of collectibles.

Jacob and Abi put in a lot of work at the start of the game, but what's that in Chapters 8 & 9? HERE COMES RYAN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR

Nick might not get to do a whole lot, but he certainly gives it his best.

Kaitlyn literally doesn't get to find anything until Chapter 10.

Max is once again just here because I love him.

Evidence by Counselors

Last but not least, evidence breakdown!

Laura I am begging you to take a nap after the game concludes, please take a break girl.

Emma and Jacob got, objectively, the most important evidence. Picture of werewolf Max? Finding the dead dude at the bottom of the lake? Thanks for your service guys, you didn't need to go the extra mile and get more evidence!

In the credits listening to Bizarre Yet Bonafide, I crack up every time Murph (Okay Anton, but c'mon I'm a Dimension 20 bitch) calls Dylan's claw mark photo unconvincing and that he could do that if he were given a fork and a wall. Emily calling it filler evidence? Mwah!

Nick and Max, at least you're pretty.

[manic-sapphic]

here it comes.. another spop rant on moments i see as mirrored~

~~very sorry but i bet most of you know what to expect from me by now.. i can't stop the spop thoughts. and tbh, i don't wanna lolol <3

**ok adding this note here after typing out what was meant (as usual ofc) to be a rant, sure, but not to the extent of the length it became (they just grow up so fast; such proud, so shame) so if anyone just wants the main idea i managed to succinctly make clear at the very end of all this wordy rambling across various tangents tryna make the same fckin points lmao, just scroll on down lol :)

so a mirror actually reflects reality, except flipped on its vertical axis, right? so the reflection is the same image, but if you look hard enough, you realize it's really an inversion of the original.

that's kinda how i feel about what adora says to catra in the sword pt 2 vs save the cat --

- when adora takes catra's hand after already plainly stating that she's "not going home" and says to her, "come with me, you don't have to go back there..." -

- this is all happening after adora tried to sneak out in the middle of the night w/o even telling catra, who only found out cause she happened to either be awake or wake up when she left~

- and upon catching up w adora and hearing her intentions, catra immediately is like "ok cool, let's go," even sounds kinda stoked on the idea- unsurprising since she fckin hates being in the fright zone. but adora quickly shuts it down, cause she "doesn't want her getting in trouble on my (adora's) behalf"

- but then pivots to asking her to just "cover for her till she gets back," saying she'll be back before anyone knows she's gone. and tbh, the way catra's jaw kinda drops slightly as she watches adora run off, ignoring her whispered calls after her, breaks my fucking heart. you can tell she's legit terrified at the idea of being left there in the fright zone w/o adora, even if it's just for a night.

~~(and tbh, adora ignoring catra's hushed calls after her as she runs off is way too similar for me to s5 when catra, invisible w melog but def still within earshot, ignores adora when she cries out her name at the end of failsafe [and every time i hear it, i can't help imagining how much it must've broke catra in half to keep going after she hears adora do that] 💔 my heart can't handle this shit fuuuu)~~

- and then adora doesn't come back the next day. catra had no clue where she was, but still must've thought that if she hadn't come back yet, there had to be a good reason for it - and she tries to refuse shadow weaver's command for her to find adora and bring her back - only to, once again, be abused by sw's magic and threatened if she doesn't comply (so much for not "getting in trouble on my [adora's] behalf")

- so she sets off w a team of soldiers to where sw already knows she is, finds adora, and assumes from the situation that she was taken prisoner by rebels. only to have adora tell her she's found out the horde is evil (which catra justifiably said "duh" to, and was prob pretty hurt to hear adora only figured out after spending a day or two w some rebels; total strangers to catra and adora atm vs the majority of her life spent as catra's best friend; i get the feeling catra thought her and adora were on the same page about that already, since adora had been the sole witness to the worst ways catra herself was treated in the horde since their childhood. [we don't know that yet, but once you do, hindsight's 20/20 bb] )

- so when adora says to her, "come with me, you don't have to go back there -" i can understand how to catra, that must have felt like an afterthought. an offer adora was only extending cause catra had sought her out and found adora herself - rendering it impossible for catra to ever know for sure or not if adora would have come back to try n get her to go w her if she hadn't been forced to find adora in the first place.

- and once we learn later in the season just how close these two were and for how long - and, especially, that the source of the exact words catra says to adora in s1e2 - "because, it doesn't matter what they do, the two of us look out for each other" was adora herself to catra as kids when the promise was first made - well. looking back at that episode and the near instantaneous fission that occurred between them - i would think it would become easier to see how that might happen from catra's pov.

- particularly after she's attacked by adora's new rebel companions and ends up watching some intensely powerful, previously unseen princess decimate their entire squadron - before turning back into adora. who she had just had that whole conversation w only minutes ago. and adora never once bothered to mention the discovery of this new truth about herself to her lifelong best friend. catra just had to watch it happen.

--- OKAY so, i know i ranted toooo much already about that first bit, so i'll try n keep what i see as the reflection of this experience brief as i can (i'ma be so bad at it tho; bet) ---

- in save the cat, adora chooses to go back for catra in spite of what a huge risk it is for her, for everyone who's willing to sneak onto prime's ship w her, and by extension, the rest of the rebellion/etheria/aaannd possibly the entire universe if they fuck it up and can't get back out

*(not-so-quick aside i just gotta make tho to give props af to glimmer for being down for this btw; she's the only one who knows what even just being in prime's presence can feel like; she just barely escaped his clutches but is willing to go right back for catra after what that bitch did for her; she's even willing to be the one who has to walk the ship alone, [i mean tbh, somebody had to babysit entrapta lolol] attempting to find her way back to the holding cells where she was so recently held herself, tryna find catra- so i just gotta give a lil 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 for glimmer y'all)

- but ofc, prime had a nice lil surprise for adora up his sleeve, and brings out chipped catra. forcing them to fight, and very quickly taking the opportunity to let adora know - he doesn't gaf how much catra gets hurt in this fight. and catra can't gaf, no matter how much pain she's being forced to cause herself.

- from the instance early on when adora manages to get catra in a hold that renders her unable to really move much - adora says what, if you ask me, might've made all the difference in the beginning if she'd thought to say it this way:

"i am not leaving without you."

- then catra strains against her hold for another second or two before her head kinda falls and her ears droop (tbh, i always get the sense there's a tiny bit of the real catra reacting to adora saying that to her in those physical responses- just due to their history)

- but then the arm twist. omfg dude - it kinda seems like she was straight up forced by prime to dislocate her shoulder just to get out of the hold - which would explain how horrified adora is when it happens - cause not a single sound or indicator of the pain felt ever escapes catra. even as she goes on fighting, despite the fact that attempting even the slightest motion w an arm that's been dislocated is known to be extremely painful.

...fuck well - true to form, i set out to try n be somewhat brief & succinct; i rlly hoped to keep my thoughts at a somewhat endurable level lol. i should prob stop thinking i'm even capable of it at this point lmao; i just can't stfu lolol rants are my way. sorry bout that fr <3

~~but i did cover my main point, hidden above in all the garble and ramble and twists and turns of my train of thought -

---there's a big difference between:

- hearing "come with me" and not only perceiving it as a slight & an afterthought; but also feeling totally robbed of hope for any kind of confidence that they ever would have come back for you in the first place-

- and having someone be willing to throw caution to the wind cause they want to literally come back for you and tell you they're not leaving without you.

<3

[shima-draws]

Okay so. I'm like, 99% done with V3 and I realized I've barely shared like any of my thoughts here so. SPOILERS AHEAD

-The fact that Ryoma wanted to die and was fighting to find something to live for only to find out that he had NOTHING...that shit was sad bro

-Was NOT expecting Kirumi at all but in retrospect it's the least suspicious ones that you should be the most suspicious of. Also her execution was p brutal

-ANGIE WITH THE CULT...the fact that she managed to brainwash half the group had me terrified. Also her Atua worshipping got real old real fast. I hate religious cults lmao I was literally sitting there like "I REALLY hope she's the one to die this chapter" bc if I had to read one more sentence of her being like "Atua will save us all <3" I WOULD have gone to play in traffic.

-Angie needed to go but TENKO 😭 She was just a hopeless lesbian in love with Himiko she did not deserve what happened to her

-Speaking of Himiko I was kinda meh about her at first but after the chapter 3 trial her character developed so wonderfully...it was so nice to see her grow and change and learn to express herself 🥺

-TRAINING TRIO MY BELOVED FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER I would kill for them genuinely.

-My hatred for Kokichi only grew as time went on but after forcing Gonta to kill. MAN. That trial was so heartbreaking Gonta was just trying his best to protect everyone :"( Kokichi's such a little shit

-Kaito brushing off his illness as just him being afraid of ghosts AGGHHHH I knew there was something wrong from the start but seeing it progress and get worse was just 😭 I was literally sitting there like. Does he have a terminal illness. Oh my god he's going to die isn't he. NO HE'S MY FAVORITE PLEASEEEEE

-Was NOT expecting the space colony twist but even more so was the fact that the world ended...not once, but TWICE

-Me during chapter 4: How much you wanna bet next chapter Kokichi's gonna get killed and Kaito's gonna be the one who kills him Me during the chapter 5 trial: FUCKING. CALLED IT!!!!!!

-MAKI FALLING FOR KAITO and admitting it right before his execution.......my heart can't TAKE this shit please!!!!

-Kaito dying from his illness before the execution was even over...Monokuma being pissed about it...everyone looking at him and going HA BITCH YOU THOUGHT! Kaito beat you!!

-Also me during all this: NOT KAITO THAT'S SHUICHI'S EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BOYFRIEND

-Keebo going off the rails was not on my 2024 bingo card but here we are

-KAEDE DIED FOR NO REASON?? She didn't actually kill Rantaro. My girl was innocent after all huh 😔

-Me, 3 chapters in: Tsumugi is so boring she literally brings nothing to the plot whatsoever. She's just...there Me, during the chapter 6 class trial: OHHHH. THAT WAS INTENTIONAL. I KNEW they wouldn't just have a useless character that should have been my first clue honestly

-Also me: Why do the Monocubs even exist. They've done nothing but comedy routines and die this entire time. They're literally pointless?? I've been watching Game Grumps play V3 and every time they come on screen Dan and Arin collectively sigh together. LMAO

-Imagine me with my jaw on the FLOOR once everything was revealed to be fictional. It's all a lie?? They Truman Show'd this shit?? Neither of the first two games MATTERED?? (A friend explained that DRV3 is in a separate universe than the first two games so that calmed me down a little lmao I would have been so pissed if it were actually the case that everyone from the first two games were just. Not real. Didn't actually exist. It was all faked)

Anyway I'm not completely done with the game yet I'm at the tail end of the chapter 6 trial so we'll see how things go from here 😬 This has been a wild ride. An emotional rollercoaster for sure

[thatdeadaquarius]

PLS YOU’RE SO FUNNY your pspspsps is too strong I’m back with more asks hello how are you I’m loving your takes on sagau! I thought of a contribution by the power of the pspsps imagine like the languages in teyvat are based on the nations’ real life counterparts (like Japanese for Inazuma) but like only loosely. So creator knows like exactly 3 words in Japanese and think they’re gonna take that and somehow make it work but they get there and understand NOTHING. They finally understand like one word but turns out it means something completely different in this version of “Japanese” so they think someone told them hi and they said hi back but they’re just going around saying “fuck” and no one wants to tell them

ANOTHER ONE YUHSSS LURING BACK IN FOR MORE im doing well tysm for asking ya flatterer!!

aw u think im funny??!! 🥰 well geez here i thought i was just going feral over sagau/isekai genshin stuff and it was like a dam burst and all yall were just coming down with me funny or not 🤷‍♂️

(Hey askers look ive got cookies 🍪🍪🍪 :) if u ask smth ill give u one!!)

Nice to know the humor translates, but holy fuck this ask is like 10x funnier than anything ive written so far or come up with LMAO PLEASE NO ONE WANTS TO TELL YOU-

____________

This is exactly what Portugese vs. Spanish is like i stg

Im not fluent yet but i know a decent amount of spanish at this point, but when i was first learning it i ran into some Portuguese and couldnt really read it and was like?? Oh ok maybe this is too many vocab words i dont get yet, and showed it to another person who spoke some Spanish and they were like ".. Uh, wtf is that?? What is that???🧐😟 Thats not even Spanish, but why is it almost???" And they just kept trying to read it so hard bc they thought it was so close it should work 😭

Anyway the point is i feel like that is just you in this scenario over and over again lol

Its like teaching a little kid language and they happen to pick up the cusswords the best,

Omfg ur around Beidou about to head to Inazuma (bc i like to think u traveling with Aether/Lumine and they r sweet enough not to abandon ur weird ass)

And Beidou just keeps cussing in Liyue's-almost-Mandarian-Chinese-but-not, and ur like trying to pick smth up bc it sucks none of ur little bits and pieces of lang. from ur world have worked so far, and she keeps saying this one word over and over again, to this angry looking Liyue guy, oh hey wait a minute, that's the Mandarin word for "hello"!! Maybe she's using it sarcastically?? She smiled afterward, oh Kazuha's laughing!! Maybe it means smth different? But they still look positive abt it so eh, cant hurt, and you sort of know how to say it!!

"你好 !! (nǐhǎo)", you do a little wave too :)

(I just used straight mandarin for this pls tell me if not right-)

Hey you did it! Sort of, you didn't really do the tones right, and you look over to see if they got it, and oop-

Everybody froze and looked at you, before Beidou starts screaming laughing, Kazhua's wheezing so hard he's leaning on a barrel nearby, the traveler is trying to keep it together, but u can see Beidou's ridiculous laugh is contagious and is spreading rapidly to crew members and to the traveler,,

The angry Liyuean man no longer looks angry, oh, he's leaving, welp, you can tell u did smth funny, but u havent a clue what u actually said

Every now and then Beidou will come up to you and try to teach u more Liyuean words, but anytime the traveler sees it they shoo her off, she has a shit-eating grin on her face, while the traveler looks unamused or is at least trying to hide their amusement

(There r so many characters that will take advantage of this and only try to teach you cuss words, at least at first, CHILDE, kaveh, VENTI, Itto, BEIDOU, Xinqiu the little prankster, ppl i can think of quickly god i gotta look at a character list)

Beidou BEAMS anytime u say "nîhâo" now, and gives u a thumbs up everytime 👍

You learn much later that you probably should just give up trying to say any of your world's lang. That sound equivalent to each genshin country's lang. bc apparently the few words you know from them are either random shit like "egg, bowl, etc." Or straight up explicit "fuck, shit, piss etc."

__________

I didnt have too much to add bc that is a GREAT AND HILARIOUS idea all on its own (esp if u did it in front of more serious characters or situation)

So pls forgive if lackluster writing happened!!

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!! COME AGAIN!! AND YOU'LL GET A FREE COOKIE!! :]

✨️🍪✨️

Cheers,

🌒🌧🌊Aquarius♒️🌌🌘

[the-owl-tree]

oh my GOD I love your isekai warriors au.... I love that the isekai trope is becoming a lot more popular, especially in anime... please tell me more about it!!

shaking ur hand rn hello fellow isekai anime/other mediums fan :3c FIRST lemme go on my tangent about this genre and my main inspo because wow this got way too long lol

isekai is total comfort food for me haha it's my go to genre of manga/manwha/webcomic reading whenever i'm feeling down and while i generally feel the genre is getting bloated and somewhat stale in anime, i still enjoy it quite a bit. It's a cute idea with a lot of potential, i just wish less of the shows went for the wish fulfillment route of things since we have so many by now.

mine is very inspired by a lot of korean manwha style stories in which the protag gets trapped in a show/game/book/etc. and has to deal with it, specifically what if you became the villain of a story. A lot of them play off the trope of the one dimensional evil villainess and how an average person would have to deal with coming into the body of someone like that and dealing with consequences. That, or it's the tragic villain, someone's who's life is marred by tragedy usually of their own doing.

The most interesting ones are those that play on how character archetypes would actually work in the story. The cold bad boy is just a shitty abusive guy, the shy guy who follows the girl is kind of a stalker, and so on.

One of my bigger inspirations was a plotline that also stuck out to me: a teen girl who died too soon and got reincarnated as the mother of the protagonist. obviously she has no clue what to do, she's a kid who wants to go home! And the only way she thinks she can is by ensuring the story goes as planned (and this of course is doomed from the start, unbeknownst to her, the villain is a reincarnater too and has already made tremendous changes). She dies and the reader never knows if she gets to go home or not. It's kind of this rough around the edges gem of an idea that I love and obviously had to steal for myself.

note for anyone getting intrigued by my descriptions uh a lot of these stories tend to be pretty shallow in their exploration. this subgenre consists a lot more of wish fulfillment/revenge fantasies comparatively to like a deep dive of "oh my god i've fucked up the narrative". Not to say they don't have interesting ideas! many are super interesting. just like. temper your expectations if you're going in

originally the story was gonna be set in a canon arc but that felt boring so i decided to just make up a whole story for it

The story is meant to be a (loving) poke at old fanfiction, common tropes in the aforementioned subgenre of isekai, and just a general ""cliche"" Warriors series (in the human universe here, I figured it's call Battlers/Battle Cats or something stupid lmao). In this story, Frostblaze is born into [ONE OF THE FOUR FAKE CLANS I HAVENT FIGURED OUT NAMES YET IM SORRY]. She's the born to an unnamed mother who tragically died of illness when she was just a young baby and has no clue who her father is.

She's isolated from her peers due to her eyes which some believe are an omen of her unnaturality. This only worsens when she is apprenticed to their Clan leader and causes Honeypaw, the daughter of the Clan leader, to become enraged with jealousy. She is one of Frostpaw's worst tormentors in the early parts of the book and eventually, during a battle, tries to off Frostpaw herself....but is killed by Frostpaw's love interest, the dashing and handsome (if a bit stupid) Eaglepaw of [INSERT RIVAL CLAN HERE].

The two hit it off (Honeypaw is an after thought at this point) and work together to stop the eeevviilll leader of uuhh eviiiiilll clan. They win, live happily ever after, Frost is actually their Clan leader's daughter and Honeypaw is her half-sister and blah blah blah.

At least, they're supposed to. Honeypaw, out hunting, is hit by a truck at the same time a human is. Human wakes up as a cat about to be buried because everyone thinks Honeypaw is dead and freaks the fuck out.

A lot of the plot points are kind of just me working through my gripes of the subgenre lmao:

"the person who is reincarnated is more adept and cool and better than their character and everyone loves them" -> Honey is awkward, neurotic, and can come off as rude to those who don't know her. Even her coolest trait, her wrestling ability, is off-putting because oh my god why are you putting a cAT IN A SPIDER GUARD THEIR SPINES DON'T BEND LIKE THAT HONEY PUT HIM BACK TO NORMAL-

She reread the story before she died but, because she has no pen, no paper, and sadly of all, no thumbs, she's unable to write it down to keep remembering it when she gets sent to this world. It's awful and she desperately wishes she had thumbs back.

she stands on two legs, makes weird comments alluding to being a human, and just is a bit of a weirdo. Honeypaw was isolated for being mean, Honey is isolated for making everyone uncomfortable (unintentionally). However, her isolation allows her to slip under the radar and do some more investigating, as she's noticed that some of the details in the story aren't adding up...

The story is strange and the characters aren't as she remembers now that they're in the flesh. Of course, her main priority is to thwart Honeypaw's assassination attempts, the spirit being intent that the way to get her body back is if she dies again. It's only from a near death experience that they realize that that's not gonna work and have to work together to change the story so they don't die!

and, as many people have pieced together, they're not alone.

[ad-hawkeye]

posing you a potentially difficult task:rate artem’s year three worst to best(when you get the time ofc)

anon this was difficult on my soul. but i did it. mostly. because there's one or two i haven't watched in full myself, and one of those i legit have heard nothing about in terms of quality, i will mark them with a star.

i will also be including some of the upcoming third year cards i've read the translations of.

with that disclaimer out of the way, here's my list! worst from best.

ocean’s enchantment [summer splash] - i have no clue how they made a card that i consider worse than artem's second anniversary card but. by god did they do it. never say anything is impossible. at least artem was dressed nice in his second anniversary card. and also shitfaced. literally nothing is in this card's favor. also artem knowing how to surf is mind numbingly stupid i'll say it. lavish invitation [second anniversary] - i've bitched and moaned about this card for nearly two years now. you all know the takes on this one. third anniversary - this one nearly put me to sleep! 2/10. despite some weird short lived ooc moments, not as bad as artem's second anniversary card. its main sin is being a chore to get through. i was fighting against the urge to skip forward. mediocre art. top up cello ssr - ugh. i got so annoyed by this one i stopped watching a few minutes before the end. it's yet another "omg no way artem is a master at this random ass hobby?!?!?!?!??" card that year three LOVES and the explanation for it is so convoluted. really pretty art though. always happy to see rosa's canonical violin skills mentioned. calm as the night [billiards] - this one was fine. i guess? first of the cards i don't actively dislike. epic highs (omg this part made me smile like a year one/two card!) and epic lows (why are they licking each other's arms) velocity of desire [racing]* - i'd rank this one equal to artem's billiards card. one of the ssrs i mentioned that i haven't actually read, but i've seen people have generally indifferent to positive commentary on. better handling of jealousy. the actual event this came with was super cute though. love for the ages [3rd birthday] - cute art, serviceable if not a teensy bit convoluted story. an enjoyable time. this ranking is NOT about the birthday event it came with which, imo, sucked major ass. enshrouded sunglow - to the surprise of no one the au cards are going to wind up topping this list. funny enough i think this is artem's weakest au card. it's afraid to take risks and was a bit more boring than the other aus. still ages better than most of year three though. cutie ollie - mind boggling how this card where artem "isn't used to this kind of physical touch" in regards to mc playing with his hair, comes AFTER the daddy dom sex god ssr. anyways this one is very cute. i'm convinced it was supposed to be a year two card bc the only mention of second anniversary is a quick mention of an engagement ring. lmao. stormy enigma [bakerlon] - bakerlon my beloved. save me bakerlon save me. one of artem's better au cards, but i still wouldn't rank it first. also celestine is in it! a win! belle nuit d'amour - further evidence to my claim that tot's personal story cards rarely if ever suck. some good character stuff, the closest we've seen to artem fucking up a case, really good art. would recommend. or maybe not idk i haven't actually read the global version but i can't imagine it's too different from the fan translation i read. dragonsbreath - this one ties with the weeds for my favorite artem au card story. neil is in this one. fun plot. good art. good characterization.

[UNRANKED] voice of comfort* - i have not read this one nor have i ever seen anyone talk about it like. ever. or maybe i did read it and just fucking forgot. idk. don't really have the energy to read it regardless. the art is kinda mid. if anyone wants to message me their thoughts on this one, i can tentatively adjust my ranking on it

*i have not personally read either of these. any ratings are done via word of mouth or summary. regard these ratings tentatively.

[everywaythatmatters]

I’m about 2/3 of the way through WaT and I’m stuck at work without my book so. Rambling stream of consciousness bullet point thoughts and theories below the cut lmao

Chana has to be shallan’s mom, I’m so excited that theory is turning out to be true (I mean. I’m assuming. Based on everything) bc it makes so much sense. Poor shallan though oh my god. There was that one death rattle about an evil twin that I feel like has to be about her too

Renarin and rlain are so cute I adore them. Shallan squealing with delight when renarin finally confessed his feelings was wonderful lmao me too girl

Adolin bonding with his plate spren is so 🥹 I love this guy so much. Him losing his leg is so rough but maybe that means he won’t die?? Is that delusional?? Either way I kinda hope that’s permanent, branderson stop healing all your disabled characters challenge

Ash and taln died?? Did not see that coming, okay so they go back to braize now I guess. That was an awesome scene though - we haven’t gotten to see any of the heralds besides nale be the skilled immortal fighters they are, and DAMN. And the wind told kal that the heralds’ connections would be important, and those are the only two with pov books later, so my guess is that all the others will lose herald status by the end of the book. Maybe them too but they’re gonna live and all of the others could possibly die after getting removed from the oathpact (?). And they’ll be spared bc they weren’t on roshar… idk I’m spitballing here

Kal is apparently gonna be a champion for the spren but I have no clue what that means. I feel like something bad might happen to the spren at the end of this book (wasn’t that foreshadowed in sunlit man? Can’t remember). We haven’t gone back to ishar’s fucked up spren experiments yet so that’s probably involved. Syl I love you please be okay at the end of this book

Kal’s so much happier this book :)))

Szeth being the first patient in kal’s therapy sessions is wonderful. His highspren too I love this

Gav keeps hearing a voice that imo is definitely not elhokar. Maybe he could still end up being odiums champion? I just like that theory. Odium hasn’t been thinking about the actual contest or his champion at all which is weird, so it would make sense if there’s some kind of reveal like that later.

The stormfather is up to no good but I don’t quite understand how yet. He was keeping quiet the fact that Honor caused the recreance. WAIT what if the stormfather killed honor holy shit

What exactly is mraize’s plan? I guess just to have control over BAM, but to what end? I wonder if he and shallan will come to an understanding

Moash is ah. Still pretty evil. Holding out hope for a final act redemption arc (or at least for the narrative to stop treating him like his hatred for the system and outrage at his injustice is inherently bad). Rip to leyten though

Still don’t know what’s up with venli’s plotline but I love it!!! The chasmfiends being their allies now is amazing. Still dying to learn more about the fourth moon. And the well of Control thing too. Dawnshard? I feel like another shard from the past doesn’t really make sense for a couple reasons. Maybe there was a fourth old god (Wind, Night, Stone, another one (Rain? Water? Crabs? Idk man)), which is why the chasmfiend sing four notes. I’m assuming the moon had to have fallen before humans got to roshar

Wait wait wait what if there is a dawnshard at the shattered plains and that’s the one that sig takes up!! If that death rattle was right then moash will kill him but maybe he gets brought back by the dawnshard somehow

Back to the stormfather killed honor theory. Ok so. The stormfather wanted a bondsmith specifically (choosing gavilar and then dalinar) so that someone could challenge odium. But why? Does he want to lose intentionally so odium leaves roshar? Does he want to kill odium (how?)? I’m definitely still missing some info

The stormfather also worked against kal a few times (not wanting syl to stay with him in wor, not saving him in row). We know he’s been plotting so that feels very intentional in hindsight

Gonna stop there lmao. So close to getting to go home and read more :)

[the-cult-of-russo]

Just Beneath The Flames (Part 11)

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader

Warnings: cursing, smut at some point probably lmao, zombie shit, typical canon violence. You know the drill.

A/N: I giveth and I taketh away lmaoooo Honestly, no fucking clue where this is going, I’m along for the ride just like you guys are. Settle in for some angst and shit.

You almost didn’t get this chapter today, I’ve literally only just finished writing it. I wound up with writer's block like a quarter of a way through and started to think the story was doomed. I got there in the end though looool I’m not sure if chap 12 will be up tomorrow though as I haven’t even started writing it yet and I have an appointment to have my bloods done tomorrow and I still feel like shit so… lmao

—-----------------

You strolled around the perimeter, knife in hand as your eyes swept around diligently. It had been almost three weeks since you all moved into the oversized cabin and you’d all settled in nicely. The place was huge, the lower floor comprising of a massive living area, complete with large plush sofas and a big fireplace. The large kitchen was on the other side, the whole floor being open plan except for a couple of closets. The top two floors were bedrooms, each floor having a large bathroom. The Liebermans, Matt and Foggy had the rooms on the second floor while you were on the top floor along with Frank and Karen, Curtis and Billy. You hadn’t expected to share a room with Billy, especially after the disaster of the kiss you’d shared, but it still took some getting used to having your own room. You missed sharing a tent with him, the comfort it would bring you. But you knew even if you had to share a room here, there would be no comfort to be found. Not anymore. In the three weeks that passed, Billy had become more and more distant with you to the point he barely even spoke to you anymore. You’d accepted the fact he hadn’t actually wanted to kiss you, accepted the fact he’d used your feelings to get you to do what he wanted. None of that mattered in the grand scheme of things because the friendship you’d had with him, the bond you’d formed, it meant far more than any feelings you may have developed for him. But that bond seemed to not exist anymore and that hurt you more than anything. You’d hoped that once you all settled in, maybe he’d warm back up. Even if he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge the kiss, you thought you’d eventually be able to speak to him again in a way that had you two back on good terms, but it hadn’t happened. You’d come back with the others and you’d all set up and with each passing day, he spoke to you less and less and you really couldn't figure out just what you’d done to deserve it.

It hadn’t escaped the others how he was behaving either. You’d seen the frown on Frank’s face when Billy would purposely brush you off if you tried to initiate some conversation with him, seen how he’d glare at Billy. You saw the curious looks from the others and the sad look on Karen’s face and you weren’t sure what to do with it. It made you feel isolated and lonely, just like the odd one out all over again. The others cared and they made an effort, especially Karen. She’d taken up your time with Billy’s absence, keeping you company and you loved her for it. Frank was also never too far away and always making sure you were okay and you’d even made a habit out of hunting with Matt and you enjoyed his company. But none of that compared to what you’d shared with Billy. He was their family first and you knew if he turned around tomorrow and said he wanted you gone because he was sick of looking at you, they’d have to let it happen. You hated feeling this alienated all over again. A week after being here, Karen and you had been in the kitchen cooking dinner with actual electricity which had been a trip and she’d told you not to let him get to you. That he was just dealing with a lot after the whole Rawlins thing. You’d allowed her words to comfort you, naive and stupid that was all it was. You’d let it because you’d seen him sometimes when he didn’t know you were looking, that lost faraway gaze he held like he didn’t know what to do with himself. You knew it wasn’t easy, even if he had finally gotten what he wanted. That was part of the problem. Because once it was done, there was an air of finality to it all, a feeling of being adrift at sea once the long-term goal had been reached. So you’d waited patiently, stupidly hoping that one day he’d flash you that smile of his and say something playful just like he used to, but he just pulled away further. You’d given up hope now, it was pointless. You didn’t think you were a coward. You’d faced a lot of shit head-on with this new way of life, but the idea of confronting him outright wasn’t something you could bring yourself to do. The only conclusion you could draw from his behavior was that he knew how you felt about him, used it to his advantage and then regretted it, worrying he’d given you false hope or something. And now he just felt awkward being around someone he knew liked him as more than a friend. You couldn't blame him entirely. You knew you’d feel just as awkward if it turned out Matt or Foggy liked you that way although you wouldn't be such a rude dick about it. This past week he’d gone from being distant to occasionally being rude and you’d gotten sick of it. You missed him, missed your friendship and the comfort it had brought you. 

You rubbed your eyes tiredly, watching as the sun came up. You’d been taking watch more and more lately, your nights plagued with nightmares and bad thoughts. People hadn’t caught on at first, not noticing you offering to switch your shift with others and they’d been so grateful for the rest they hadn’t questioned it. But now, a few weeks in, you saw their concerned gazes when they realized you’d been on watch all night and barely had any sleep after. Once the sun was fully up, you sheathed your knife and trudged your way back to the house. The place itself was pretty perfect and you and Frank had even been talking about hitting up a garden center soon to get some fences put up and see if they had any crops to plant. It would be your dream to get that all set up, be more self-reliant. You guys could really make this place a home, you just wished you didn’t feel so empty inside. As you got around to the front of the house, you saw Frank and Billy through a couple of trees as they stood by the truck parked on the side of the road. Billy glanced up, his eyes locked onto yours and it made you bristle and you looked away quickly. Part of you wanted to be petty because of his behavior recently, to not look away until you made him feel awkward, but you couldn't. Your embarrassment over knowing that he knew how you felt about him and about the kiss outweighed the pettiness you felt. Annoyance prickled at you though at the idea of him trying to steal your garden center run off you. You’d barely been going on runs since you got here. Frank had given you excuses at first, saying things like there wasn’t enough room in the truck or he needed you here to keep an eye out. You’d bought it the first few times but started to get suspicious when it happened every single fucking time. Your suspicions were founded though as you overheard Billy telling Frank one day that he wouldn't be going on a run if you were there. You realized then that Billy had been the reason you were now excluded from runs. You tried not to let it bother you as you busied yourself here with all there was to do setting the place up and you still had your hunting, but it stung. This run though was yours, it was your idea to go and look for crops, to be able to grow your own food. You’d brought the idea to Frank and like fuck you were letting Billy kick you out of it. 

“Y/N!” you heard Frank call out as you walked to the front porch. You turned around and he gestured with his head for you to come over. You felt your body tense tightly, much the same way Billy seemed to as he gave Frank an unimpressed look. You trudged over as you prepared yourself for what he was going to say. If he told you that you’d be staying back from the run, you’d end up resorting to violence. 

“What’s up?” you asked as you got to them, making a point to not even glance Billy’s way. Frank's eyes flit over your face in a way that made you stuff your hands into your pockets and shrink a little. 

“Karen said you took watch again last night,” he murmured, a concerned almost fatherly tone to his voice.

“Yeah?” you asked, looking confused as you shrugged at him. 

“I think it’s great you wanna help out and all but… but I think you need to take a break,” he frowned. 

“I can handle it, Frank,” you sighed.

“Of course you can,” Billy scoffed and your eyes snapped to him with such fire behind them he actually recoiled for a second. 

“Something you wanna say, Russo?” you asked scathingly and he once again looked taken aback by the harshness of your tone for less than a moment before his face hardened. 

“You’re gonna wind up getting us all killed,” he growled.

“Seriously?” you asked with an eye roll.

“You’ve been on watch every night for almost a week straight and you have an hour sleep at most after. What happens when your body gives out from exhaustion? What happens if you fall asleep when you’re supposed to be keepin’ us safe?” he asked roughly.

“Do you think I’m that stupid? Do you really think I’d do it if I didn’t think I could handle it, that I’d put everyone at risk?” you asked, offense coloring your face. Even if you wanted to escape your treacherous thoughts, you wouldn’t do it at the expense of your group's safety. 

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” despite his shitty attitude lately, you really hadn’t expected such malicious words to leave his lips and you felt white hot rage flow through you, your ears ringing. Before you knew what you were even doing, your knife was unsheathed, gripped in your hand as you took a menacing step towards him. Frank quickly got between you two, shaking his head.

“That’s enough, guys!” he chided with a deep frown. Your eyes hadn’t left Billy though and a slow and dark smirk spread across his face, he looked almost amused at you with your knife, something sinister shining behind his dark eyes. 

“You really think you can stand there and judge me for the shit I’ve done? For failing the people I cared about? Maybe you should take a long look in the mirror, Billy, ‘cause I’m not the only one that’s failed people,” you hissed viciously. His smirk melted right off his face, his eyes flashing dangerously as he stood up taller, but Frank put a hand on his chest, shoving him back roughly as he still stood between you. At the back of your mind, you felt a pang of guilt knowing the people you were referring to were the family of the very man who was currently trying to break up the fight between you. Frank either didn’t connect the dots or he didn’t bother to look into it. 

“I said enough!” he bellowed. He gave you a very unimpressed look before he turned and looked at Billy. You smirked inwardly, noticing the look he directed at his best friend was scathing, much worse than the one he’d given you. Billy’s eyes hardened, the two men glaring at each other for a moment and you had a feeling they were doing that thing again where they spoke without words. Either way, Billy scoffed and shook his head, giving you one last glower before he moved away, stomping to the trees. You noticed then he had his bow and arrows with him and in spite, you hoped he wouldn't find a damn thing when he went out there. 

Frank sighed deeply, his body relaxing once Billy was gone and you sheathed your knife roughly, still feeling anger at how Billy had treated you. You didn’t want to stick around and get a lecture from Frank about your attitude or about how you’d been taking watch too much so you turned on your heel and started walking to the house.

“What the hell happened with you two?” Frank asked, stopping you in your tracks.

“I don’t know, Frank. He’s your best friend, why don’t you ask him?” you asked sourly, turning to face him once more. He was frowning as he looked at you.

“I tried askin’ him. Tried ‘til I was blue in the goddamn face but he just says he don’t wanna talk about it, so I’m askin’ you,” he said pointedly, raising a brow and you clenched your jaw. You were a little surprised he hadn’t told Frank about the kiss or anything, figuring as his best friend, he probably would have. The only reason you hadn’t told Karen was because it was weird considering Billy had been her family way before you’d been in the picture, but you’d wanted to tell her just to get it off your chest.

“Before you guys hit Rawlins, he kissed me. He kissed me and then when you guys came back out, he was different,” you muttered. Frank blinked rapidly, confusion and shock all over his face as he glanced to where Billy had disappeared through the trees before back at you. It seemed like you rendered him speechless for a moment and you didn’t want to stand here and talk about the fact you’d been kissed by someone you cared about, only to end up treated like this.

“I don’t know what the fuck is going on with him or why he’s being such an asshole, but keep him the hell away from me. If he tries to use my past against me like that again, you won't be around to stop my knife being buried in his neck,” you hissed, turning around and stomping over to the porch and up the steps. You knew it wasn’t true though. No matter how much he would hurt you, you knew you could never hurt him like that, not physically at least. And you’d feel bad for how you spoke to Frank later, knowing he was only trying to help. You were over it all. 

It was only as you got to the top of the porch stairs that you noticed Zach was sitting on the porch with a comic and he gave you a sad smile. You felt a bit shitty then behaving that way in front of him and you gave him a weak smile in return, feeling yourself deflate before you slipped inside. You ended up hiding out in your room for a while, not wanting to bump into Billy when he came back from hunting. After a few hours of you laying on your bed feeling sorry for yourself, your door knocked before Karen slipped inside, giving you a tentative smile. You smiled back, sitting up and leaning against the headboard as she moved inside and sat on your bed. 

“You should have told me that Billy kissed you,” she frowned, being blunt like she always was. You hadn’t expected her to come in here and talk about that, you’d figured she was just checking on you.

“Frank told you then,” you murmured, feeling the heat creeping into your cheeks.

“Of course he did. I feel awful, Y/N. All this time I’ve been making excuses for him and it turns out he kissed you, which just makes it even worse what he’s doing now,” she huffed, shaking her head. While it was slightly embarrassing she knew, you were partly grateful because now you could vent to her about it all. You’d been keeping it all locked inside and it had been killing you. 

“I just… I don’t get it. At first after he… and how he acted after… I just thought that he didn’t like me that way, that he kissed me just so I wouldn’t go near Rawlins. We both know what he’s like, he’s not above lying or manipulation to get what he wants. If he thinks he’s doing the right thing then it’s worth it to him. And the idea of him using my own feelings against me sucked but I got it, I wasn’t mad. When he started pulling away I figured I made him awkward. Like he saw me as a little sister or something and he knew how I felt now so he was uncomfortable. But now he’s just acting like an asshole and honestly, it doesn't matter how I feel about him, I don’t think I deserve that,” you frowned, hurt lacing your voice. She scooted closer to you, taking your hand that had been anxiously picking at a thread on your jeans.

“You don’t deserve that. I really don’t know what’s gotten into him. I didn’t know him before… before the Castles, but Frank told me he hadn’t been the same since what happened to them. And before the world fell, he didn’t really do relationships, he was a bit of a player. He finds it hard to let people in, to trust them. It took him a while to even accept Matt and Foggy. But with you… he just clicked with you and sometimes, it was like he trusted you just as much as he trusted Frank. It surprised all of us. I don’t… I don’t understand why he’s doing this now,” she muttered sadly. 

“I really thought we could try to get our friendship back on track. I thought that maybe if he warmed up a bit, I could show him I could hide my feelings and we could move past it all. But now… he knows I care about him yet he’s hurting me and I’m not gonna sit there and let him,” you sighed and Karen squeezed your hand.

“Maybe I could talk to him-” she started softly and you shook your head quickly.

“No. No, it’s too awkward. I’ll just stay out of his way and hopefully he’ll stay out of mine. Maybe he’ll stop being an asshole and we can go back to being strangers,” you muttered tensely. The idea made your chest ache but it would be better than whatever the fuck this was now. You hated him being so cruel to you like this and you knew it would only make things bad for everyone else in the group. You weren’t the type to sit there and let someone be rude to you, no matter who it was. You knew if he kept up with his bullshit, the pair of you were going to have some very bad fights and you didn’t want the others to have to put up with that, especially not the kids. You changed the subject after that, asking Karen what she was planning for dinner and luckily, she’d let you steer the talk away from Billy. After a while, she left but not before informing you that you wouldn’t be on watch tonight so you knew you were in for a rough night. Deciding not to dwell on it, you got off your ass and left your room since you had laundry duty. Karen had offered to do it for you so you could get some rest but you had politely declined. If you slept now there would be no way you’d sleep tonight. 

You went downstairs and grabbed the large basket that held all the dirty laundry in it, hauling it up before you left out of the back door in the kitchen. The creek that had been near your old camp ran through here too and wasn’t too far from the back of the cabin. You’d all decided it was best to clean the clothes there instead of using the water in the cabin as you didn’t want to push your luck with it. You had no idea if it would crap out on you eventually. When you got to the creek, you tried to let the sounds of nature soothe you as you got to work. You emptied the clothes from the basket, a bar of soap in the bottom of it. The air was cold but the water was colder and you tried to ignore how it bit into your hands as you started to wash the clothes, wetting them before getting them soapy and rinsing them again. It took what felt like forever and your hands were numb when you were done. You tossed the wet clothes back into the basket haphazardly before making your way to the side of the cabin where a makeshift clothesline hung between the trees. You got the clothes off it that had been drying since the last laundry shift, them taking longer to dry in the cold. You chucked them in a pile on a rock before you started to hang up the newly wet clothes and then you started to fold all the other dry clothes up neatly, sorting them into piles before putting them into the basket. You picked up the basket and started making your way around the front of the house, but as you got to the corner, you noticed Billy sitting on the porch steps. You quickly ducked back behind the corner before he saw you, rolling your eyes at your own cowardice to even face him. You felt too raw and you didn’t want to have to deal with him being cruel to you again. You heard the front door open and close and you hoped Billy had gone inside, but you were wrong.

“Hey, uncle Billy,” Zach murmured and it sounded like he sat beside Billy.

“Hey, little man,” Billy replied softly. You glanced to the other end of the house, deciding on just going around the back and through the kitchen. You had no desire to stay here and listen in. Well, you hadn’t until Zach said something that made your feet take root to the floor.

“Why are you so mean to Y/N?” he asked bluntly. Your hands tightened around the basket and you could just imagine the curious look on the boy's face. You hated that it had been something he’d noticed, hated the tension the group could see. Billy was silent for a long moment and you started to wonder if he would even answer him. You wouldn't lie and say you weren’t curious about his answer, wanting one yourself.

“It’s just… grown up stuff,” Billy replied tensely and you had to clamp your mouth closed as you almost scoffed at the cop out answer. 

“Grown up stuff?” Zach asked, he himself sounding like he knew it was a pile of shit.

“It’s complicated, alright?” Billy sighed.

“How is it complicated? You used to be close friends and now you’re just mean to her. She never smiles anymore and she's always just sad. Sometimes… sometimes she cries when she takes watch at night,” Zach murmured sadly and your head whipped to the side as if you’d be able to see through the building right to him. You felt shame burrow deep inside of you that he somehow knew about that and you could hear your heartbeat in your ears. 

“What?” Billy asked slowly.

“Sometimes… I can’t sleep at night. So I sit by my window to look at the stars and… I’ve seen her sometimes… crying by the trees,” Zach answered quietly. You swallowed thickly, cursing yourself for being so stupid. Although in your defense, you’d hardly expected anyone to be able to see you. It hadn’t happened too often but sometimes the whole thing got too much for you. It hadn’t just been Billy to make you cry but it hadn’t really helped with all your already existing issues. Billy didn’t reply to that and you wondered what was going through his head. You hated the idea of him having more ammunition to throw at you at some point, the idea of him throwing this in your face would be humiliating. 

“I might not be a grown up and maybe I don’t get it ‘cause I’m a kid but… mom always tells me and Leo to be kind to people, that they have their own struggles. I don’t know why you and Y/N aren’t friends anymore but you might wanna be kinder to her. This new world is scary… you don’t know how long she’ll be around,” with those ominous parting words you didn't think a kid would be capable of, it sounded like he got up and went inside. You heard Billy blow out a breath and you frowned to yourself, forcing yourself to walk to the other end of the house to go through the back, not wanting Billy to catch you there. You’d thought the kids were doing okay but the way Zach spoke made you think he was becoming a little jaded and you hated it. 

You walked through the back door and surprisingly, Zach was already in the kitchen with Sarah and Karen who were getting started on dinner. You felt your cheeks flush at remembering his words and he came over to you, giving you a smile.

“Can I help?” he asked, glancing to the basket in your hands.

“It’s okay, I got it,” you said, a grateful smile on your face. He frowned a little though and you felt bad.

“Actually… you could take these up. These are for everyone on your floor,” you murmured as you got out the clothes that belonged to everyone on the second floor. He grinned then, looking happy to be useful and you wondered if he was starting to feel a little like a spare part here. If he was getting to the age where he wanted to start to feel useful and to be doing stuff to help out. He took the pile of clothes at the same time the front door opened. Your eyes flit over to see Billy come in but you looked away before he saw you, not wanting him to start anything. You could feel his eyes burning into you as Zach took the clothes before he trotted off up the stairs. 

“Dinner won’t be too long,” Sarah murmured, squeezing your arm as she smiled at you and you nodded.

“I’ll just finish up with these,” you replied. As you made your way to the stairs, Billy was now nowhere to be found so you mused he’d gone to his room. You went to the third floor, going into the rooms and placing people's clothes on their bed. The rule was that if they were in the room, you didn’t just walk in, but you knew everyone else was downstairs so it was fine. You went in and out of the rooms before all that was left was yours and Billy’s clothes. You decided to go and put yours away first, getting it out of the way. You walked into your room, setting the basket on the bed before you put your clothes away. You stared at the clothes in the basket left, a dull ache starting in your chest. One hand came up to the necklace still around your neck that you hadn’t been able to bring yourself to take off. It was comforting and painful all at the same time with it still on and your fingers toyed with the moon pendant for a second before you sighed and slipped it back under your top. You grabbed the basket with one hand, Billy’s clothes in the other. You knew he was in his room so you’d just leave them outside. You would have done anyway, not wanting to just walk into his room even if he wasn’t in there. Just as you got to his door, it opened and you blinked up at him as he looked mildly shocked to see you. Your jaw set then, your eyes averting his. A petty part of you wanted to toss his neatly folded clothes to his feet but you pushed it down, holding his clothes out to him without looking at him or saying a word.

“Thanks…” he murmured, his voice soft and quiet as he took them from you. Not wanting to stick around in case he decided to start being a dick again, you turned away and started walking down the hall. 

“Y/N,” his voice stopped you and you tensed, knuckles turning white with how hard you were clutching the basket. You turned around apprehensively and he was standing outside of his door. His eyes didn’t land on you, looking everywhere else instead as he stood there rigidly and rolled his shoulder.

“I uh…” his mouth floundered for a moment and stupid hopeful part of you wondered if he might apologize for how he’d been behaving after Zach’s words. That maybe it had shown him just how shitty he was being. 

“It… it doesn’t matter,” he muttered, his brows creasing a little. You shook your head, a bitter smile painting your lips before you turned away once more and made your way down the stairs. You should know better than to be hopeful about anything. You tried to ignore the stinging disappointment as you went and put the basket where it belongs in the kitchen before walking into the living area where everyone usually had dinner. There were three big sofas and two armchairs but it still wasn't room for everyone. The kids were in their usual spot on the plush fur rug by the fireplace as they ate, their parents on one of the sofas. Matt and Foggy were on another sofa and Curtis was sitting in an armchair. Karen was handing out food, Frank on the last sofa with a spot for her and for Billy and you took residence on the other armchair that you’d practically claimed as yours. You gave Karen a smile as she handed you a bowl of soup and you dug into it. You all ate together but you didn’t sit around waiting for everyone to be seated to eat. Billy came down a few minutes later and you felt your appetite wane as he glanced over at you. He moved over to sit with Frank who gave him a look before Karen gave him his soup. 

The next day, you were standing by the truck as you made sure you had all of your stuff ready. Dinner the night before had been as awkward as it usually was when someone was purposely not talking to you but you had decided to just ignore it. You were excited for the run today, your run, and you and Frank were by the truck as you waited for Micro to come out as he’d be joining you both. You had no idea if you’d find what you were looking for there but it was worth a try and you were excited to just get out for once. You were sick of Billy stopping you going on runs. Micro came out, a lopsided grin on his face directed at you and Frank as he came over, shuffling the backpack on his shoulder. 

“We ready to go?” he asked. He also looked excited to go out. He hadn’t been in a while as he'd been with Sarah but you were pretty sure she was feeling a little smothered since she’d been adamant he came along. 

“Yep,” you grinned as Micro hopped into the bed of the truck, excitement thrumming through you as you glanced to Frank. He had a weird look on his face like he was deep in thought and you are about to ask him what was wrong. That was before the front door opened and you looked over, seeing Billy walking right towards the truck, his knife and gun on him. You narrowed your eyes, head whipping to Frank who shifted on his feet.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” you muttered to him and he gave you a sheepish look, unable to meet your eyes.

“He really wanted to come,” he shrugged and you scoffed.

“And I’ve really wanted to go on a bunch of runs since being here and I’ve not been able to go ‘cause his Highness didn’t want me there,” you hissed. His eyes snapped to you then, shocked and slightly guilty. You’d never told Frank you’d overheard his conversation with Billy that day, you’d just allowed him to feed you his bullshit excuses until you stopped bothering to ask to go along.

“Y/N,” Frank started, guilt coating his voice but he was cut off as Billy finally got to the truck.

“Ready?” he asked, looking at Frank and not at you. 

“You’re not coming,” you bit out, giving him a sour look. He dragged his dark eyes to you then, an amused and patronizing smirk on his lips.

“Is that right?” he asked teasingly and your eyes narrowed to slits.

“We could use another set of hands here, Y/N,” Frank tried to soothe, giving you a look that asked you to drop it.

“Then ask Matt to come,” you muttered blandly.

“Sorry, sweetheart, but your little blind boyfriend’s busy,” Billy smirked coldly and your brows almost flew off your head as you looked at him.

“Jesus Christ, that's enough! Stop with the jealous, petty bullshit, Bill. And Y/N, I know this is your run but I could use his help. You’ll go off with Micro to get your shit, I’ll take Bill to help with mine. Stop actin’ like a pair of fuckin’ kids,” Frank snapped, giving you both a firm look before he hopped into the driver’s side and slammed the door. You pursed your lips feeling like a scolded child but through the embarrassment, your brain wondered why Frank told Billy to stop being jealous. You didn’t even spare Billy a look as you moved around to the other side of the truck, opening the door and climbing in. You figured Billy would hop into the truck bed and sit with Micro and you were looking forward to the distance. It didn’t happen that way though as he grabbed the door as you tried to pull it shut and you squinted at him.

“Move up,” he smirked. You were sure your right eye twitched but not wanting to annoy Frank any more than you had, you shot him a glower before sliding up next to Frank in the middle of the seat. Billy climbed in after you and you found yourself smushed against Frank’s side just so you didn’t touch Billy. You didn’t miss the shake of Frank’s head as he sighed, giving Billy a look over your head before he put the truck in drive and pulled out. 

The ride was too uncomfortable. You knew if it had just been you and Frank it would have been full of talk and banter, it would have been a good time. But this run you’d been looking forward to was now tarnished by the long-legged asshole sitting next to you and you knew he’d sat next to you just to piss you off as he sat there with his legs spread, taking up as much room as possible. You wanted to kill Frank for agreeing to let him come. The trip seemed to last forever and you decided that on the way back, you’d be sitting with Micro in the truck bed. It was less comfortable in the physical sense but there was no way in hell you were doing this again. Halfway there and Frank and Billy started talking among themselves about nothing in particular and you tried to tune it out as you wished for the truck to speed up. But then Billy shifted, his leg knocking into yours and your head snapped to him, eyes narrowed to slits as annoyance prickled you all over. He looked at you, his face impassive as his cold eyes pinned you in place. You refused to look away though, glaring at him and at your unwavering gaze, he raised a brow before an amused smile curled on his lips that had you almost throttling him.

“I swear to god, Bill. You wanna act like a damn child, I’ll treat you like one. You need me to turn this truck around and take you home?” Frank asked annoyed, a stern face as he glanced over to Billy who blinked at his friend, mild shock on his face. It didn’t last too long then as defiance crossed his face, his eyes hardening as he glared at Frank who was simultaneously glowering at him and trying to keep his eye on the road. When Billy didn’t move an inch, Frank slammed on the brakes so hard you yelped, hands reaching to the dashboard so you didn’t hit it and you heard Micro shout something from the back.

“Get in the back with Micro,” Frank demanded and you blinked at him before looking at Billy who snorted.

“That’s a joke, right?” he asked, sounding far too amused. Frank didn't laugh, didn’t even crack a smile.

“Does it look like I’m fuckin’ around to you?” he asked and you were surprised by the severity of his tone, the harsh look directed at his friend. Billy also looked shocked before he scoffed, shaking his head before he got out and slammed the door hard before he climbed into the back. You finally felt like you could breathe and you slid over, able to now sit comfortably without squashing Frank. You weren’t sure why you were the one feeling embarrassed, after all, it was Billy who had been acting like a child. But the whole thing made you feel a little awkward and uncomfortable. Frank looked in the rearview and once he saw Billy was situated he started driving again.

“You can punch him if you want, I wouldn’t blame you,” he muttered after a while. You smiled to yourself, leaning your head on the cold glass of the window. 

“I doubt it would help,” you shrugged, although with the way you were currently feeling, you knew it would probably make you feel a bit better.

“Want me to do it?” Frank asked, a sly grin on his face. You had no idea if he was serious or not but you snorted and shook your head.

“I’ll get back to you on that one,” you smiled and he chuckled. You relaxed in your seat now and felt much better. You hoped once you got there, Frank would keep him the hell away from you. 

“I know… I know you’re probably mad at me for lettin’ him come. In my defense, I told him no a million times but we know what he’s like. Woulda fuckin’ turned up anyway, figured it’d be easier this way. Asked him to behave himself but I’m not sure why the fuck I thought he’d listen,” he frowned with a shake of his head. 

“It’s fine, as long as he sticks with you, I’ll be okay,” you murmured. While you weren’t exactly happy with Frank letting him come, you knew he was right. And you knew you were putting Frank in a tough spot here since Billy was his best friend. You were surprised he’d been sticking up for you as much as he had been but then again, Frank was a good man and even though Billy was his best friend, he wouldn’t stand there and let him be a dick for no reason.

When Frank finally got to your destination you leaned closer to the glass to see it. The building was huge, looking almost like a large greenhouse, the whole place made of glass and metal beams. It was surrounded by a high chain link fence and Frank pulled right into the car park. You hopped out of the truck as the others all got ready and you noticed a few large trucks on the far end of the car park, Micro saying something about how they might have shit in them from the last delivery. Frank was telling everyone the plans but movement through the glass at the front of the store caught your eye. You couldn't see through the glass as it was covered in grime, dirt and what looked like blood. You stepped closer, trying to see if you could gauge how many of the dead might be in there but then your eyes widened as you got a little closer and you took a quick step back. 

“I uh… we might have a problem,” you muttered, eyes not leaving the building as the guys all turned to you.

“What is it?” Frank asked, the three men moving to stand next to you. 

“Holy shit,” Billy breathed at the same time as Frank’s “What the fuck?” The dirt from the windows was being smeared away, revealing a sea of the dead inside that were pawing at the glass. There were so many and you felt yourself deflate a little. You knew someone had to put them here, just like the ones that had been locked in the carpark at the baby store. With how dirty the glass seemed though, this seemed to have happened a while ago. You really wished people would stop locking herds away like this because you seemed to end up having to deal with it.

“Guess we ain’t goin’ in there,” Billy mused darkly and you tried not to let the disappointment eat at you too much. You should have known something would go wrong, you’d been far too hopeful that you’d be able to get some crops out of this.

“Well… we could still look in the trucks, right? I mean, there might be some stuff there?” Micro asked hopefully. You nodded numbly, letting Frank put his hand on your back as he guided you away from the dead that seemed to be mocking you from behind the glass. Frank tossed Billy the truck keys so he could drive it up closer to the delivery trucks with them being so far away and you walked with Micro and Frank to them. Your annoyance of Billy’s presence had all but dissipated with how despondent you felt over this. When you got to the trucks, Frank used his knife to jimmy open the back door, pushing the rolling door upwards to reveal piles of bags. He hopped inside and you moved over to the door, noticing it was full of compost as Frank climbed over the bags and rummaged around.

“Nothin’ else in here,” he muttered, just as Billy parked up and came over. 

“The compost is good though. Even if we don’t get any crops today, it’d be handy to have for when we find some,” you mused, trying your hardest to look on the bright side. Frank gave you a smile, grabbing a bag and handing it to you and you moved to put it on the bed of the truck. Billy went and opened the second truck as Frank handed you another bag and you continued to load a few into the truck bed. You were curious about what he’d found but didn’t want to ask him. You didn’t have to wait for long though.

“Buncha seeds, but they all look like flowers,” he frowned, hopping out of the truck. You climbed inside to check yourself and he looked almost offended. It wasn’t that you didn’t believe him but you wanted to check he hadn’t missed anything. He hadn’t been the one to arrange this run, the one to be so hopeful about finding things to be able to be self sustainable. You grabbed the packets, looking them over quickly and discarding them as you went. Roses, tulips, forget-me-nots. You huffed a sigh as you tossed them, getting frustrated when you found nothing useful. A loud shrill sound made you drop a packet as you jumped and you quickly jumped out of the truck.

“David! What the fuck?!” Billy yelled and you soon realized that Micro had opened the last truck, only to set the alarm off. It was loud and made your brain hurt and you covered your ears as a frantic looking Frank moved over to the front door of the truck. The door wouldn't open and he ripped his jacket off, balling it around his hand before he punched the window to break it. He quickly unlocked the door, hopping in as he tried to kill the very loud noise that would be drawing in dead ones from a five mile radius. Another noise hit your ears then as you watched the men clamber to try and shut the truck off and you stepped away from the truck, the noise itching the back of your brain as it was familiar to you. You couldn't place it. But then you heard it again even louder and your eyes drifted to the front of the store, horror sweeping right though you when you saw a large crack that seemed to spread from the bottom where the roamers were hungrily hitting the glass at the noise, all the way up, getting bigger and branching off. For a moment, you froze completely, eyes wide as if waiting for a tidal wave to sweep you up and carry you out to sea. 

“Guys?” you called out, your chest feeling tight. They didn’t hear you over the alarm and they were already yelling at each other as they tried to turn the alarm off. 

“Guys?!” you bellowed more forcefully, just as the alarm stopped going off and your ears felt weird at the sensation.

“What?” they all called back simultaneously. 

“We’ve got a bigger problem,” you swallowed thickly, your voice wobbling a little. The grave nature of your voice had them all rushing from the front of the truck and as if waiting for them to arrive, the glass at the front of the store shattered into a million tiny little fragments. There was a beat of silence, everyone stood in shock, before a wave of the dead poured out. This was the most you’d seen in a very long time. Blind fear rushed through you, making you feel cold and your feet took root to the floor as Frank started yelling to get in the truck. Billy suddenly grabbed you, hauling you up like a sack of potatoes before he hopped into the bed of the truck with you, Frank driving and Micro in the front. The tires screamed as he put his foot down and the truck spun around since it had been facing the wrong way and you almost flew right out of the truck until Billy grabbed you, forcing you to sit on the floor. 

The truck stopped and Billy started shooting some of them as they advanced, getting them in the head as they fell to the floor.

“There’s too many,” you muttered to yourself, shaking your head as your eyes flit around. They were blocking the entrance and you knew even if you used your bow and the others all used their guns, it wouldn’t be enough and would only leave you with no ammo.

“Hold on!” Frank called out and you knew he had his window open since you heard him clear enough. You didn’t have time to process his words before he accelerated again and you gripped the side of the truck to steady yourself as he took off. Your heart was hammering away, hoping he wasn’t choosing to mow through the dead. There were so many of them, you knew the truck would get stuck. Instead, Billy suddenly shoved you to lay on the floor, his body over yours and before you had a chance to understand why he'd done it, you felt the impact as Frank rammed right through the fence, plowing it right down. The truck slowed for a mere moment before he tore out of there and the deafening chorus of the dead started to fade away as you lay there. Billy rolled off you, the pair of you lay side by side as you panted and you felt dizzy from the adrenaline of it all.

“Fuck,” he muttered breathlessly and you nodded at the sentiment. After about five minutes of Frank speeding down the road, he eventually slowed before he pulled over. You knew the dead wouldn't catch up and you could only hope they wouldn't all stay in a clump and come your way at some point, but you thought the cabin would be far enough away that you’d avoid it.

“Everyone alright?” Frank asked as he climbed out of the truck, Micro following suit. None of you had been close enough to the dead to have been hurt but you appreciated Frank asking anyway.

“Other than the heart attack I’m currently having? Peachy,” you snorted as you sat up. Billy sat up to, running a hand through his disheveled hair. With that drama out of the way and the threat in the distance, the disappointment clung to you desperately once again.

“I’m sorry, Frank,” you sighed with a deep frown. Not only had you been the one to convince him to come here and it turned out to be a bust, but you all could have died over this. 

“Nah, none of that bullshit, alright? It was worth a try. And besides, we got… we got the compost so, it wasn’t a complete waste,” he smiled at you but his words were firm. 

“That wasn’t all we got,” Micro grinned and you all turned to him then as he grabbed something from his pocket. He held out a packet and you took it, a beaming smile splitting your face when you saw it was potato seeds. 

“Where did you-? How?” you asked, turning your happy face to him. He looked so proud of himself.

“They were in the last truck, managed to grab ‘em before all hell broke loose,” he snorted. You hopped over the side of the truck, grabbing him in a hug that made him laugh.

“Thank you,” you grinned, squeezing him for a moment before you let him go. Frank clapped you on the back as Micro climbed into the truck bed once more.

“It’s a start, right?” Frank asked, a genuine smile on his face at your happiness. You nodded, clutching the packet tightly in your hands. It was a start. It might not have been all you’d hoped for but it was more than you left with. You really couldn't wait to get started with planting. You hoped one day, you’d have a bunch of crops and you wouldn't have to worry about food so much. As you got into the truck next to Frank, you smiled down at the packet in your hand, thinking about the future and that maybe, you might all have a chance at a real life after all.

 

Taglist: (if you’ve been asked to be tagged and aren’t here, it wouldn’t let me tag some people.)

@firexfate

@blanchedelioncourt

@ariesbutalibra

@sunshinedaisies-anddeath

@snowkestrel

@music-indie-tv

@idaofinfinity

@sweetserendipity65

@ramadiiiisme

@k-marzolf

@celestialams

@woowwwee

@noortsshift

[snufflepup]

They're some of my favorite! It's hard for me to really pick my favorites of anything (except for people, that of which is you^^<3) off the top of my head though, I like spy x family a lot too. I've read the manga for seraph of the end and plan on watching the anime soon, but it got confusing after they suddenly just kinda went back and saw the first vampire guy when mika died? I think? I really have no clue lol. I have a pretty bad sense of time too, it really sucks when there's so much I wanna do. I'm assuming you haven't seen kill counts? I watch this channel on yt called dead meat, and they give a movie synopsis alongside counting the kills in various horror movies. I think they're pretty funny. Ik that escape room movie, i found it kinda well written and fun^^ I've seen just about everything about omori except an actual playthrough, it seems really interesting. Who's your favorite characters? From what I've seen, I really like Kel and basil^^ I'm not really the best person to give advice on where to start in xmen, cause tbh, I saw a nightcrawler edit on tik tok and got obsessed with him lol. I looked up everything about him so it's not like I know nothing about him or something and I will watch the movies some time, i just haven't gotten to watch them yet. The end of the fucking world is a Netflix show about these two kids who kinda run away and be adults and realize everything's shit^^ James (boy mc) is a psychopath who ran away with Allysa (girl mc) with the intent to kill her and he ended up falling in love and killing a nasty guy that tried to mess with Allysa. Allysa is a kinda blunt girl that a lot of people say has bpd (idk if it's Canon or not) and she's really cool and badass and speaks her mind^^ James for me is totally transition goals lol

Omg like no one irl know total drama, I'm glad you do^^ who was your favorite characters? I love gravity falls too! I really liked the plot and thought it was just the best! I watched Winx and mlp when I was younger, though idk if I was old enough to understand it all :< maybe I'll watch the remake of Winx when it comes out^^ I love good animation- have you seen takt op destiny? It's absolutely goregeous and beautiful, though the plot isnt totally understandable, i feel. I've seen that video recommended to me, and I actually have it in my watch later for whenever I watch the playthrough. I'm glad you might check it out^^ and that at least I can talk to you about stuff^^ sorry this was so long lol

-ike<3

I know how you feel, I find it hard to do the same at times ! (｡>\\<)

Spy x Family is a lot of fun !! I like it a lot too ! I'm . not really up to date with the manga, but I know what's happening . kind of . I also lost track around that time, but !! I think I understand whats going on, at least. I agree, it really frustrates me (◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ )

oooo !! Okay ! It sounds fun ! Omori is really cool. . . It's my favourite game ! I really like all of the main characters. . . It's hard to pick favourites because they all sort of like . plague my mind /pos but ! I think it's probably Sunny and Basil that are my top favourites, but I really love the others ! They are all so special to me

That's fair, I've done that too, with different things ! I only watched voltron because of one of the characters at first lmao I hope you enjoy the movies then, when you are able to watch them !! ^–^

Omgmg it sounds so !!!! I'll definitely watch it ! I'll let you know my thoughts when I do ! I think I liked Gwen and and Mike a lot !! I liked Alejandro and Heather too. . . despite them being like . evil sometimes. I liked Chris too ! Who are your favourites ? Gravity Falls is super awesome, there seems to be something going on with it recently, though I don't really know what but I'm excited nonetheless

I watched them a bunch of times growing up, and I rewatched mlp again a couple months, or at least the seasons on netflix ! I haven't ! I just looked it up, though, and it looks really nice. I think I've seen clips of it because it looks familliar but I'm not really sure ! The video kind of . hit me like a ton of bricks, so, this is a warning I suppose !!

And it's okay ! I know mine can be long too :)

[fraternum-momentum]

Okay, so let me ramble abt making the last comic, cause that was an absolute behemoth to work on, and I have a lot of thoughts in my head. Man, I don't know how those webtoon artists do it every week. They scare me now.

This is super long btw, so get cozy if you want to read :]

Starting off, I actually got this idea from my lil 'ol diary I keep by my tableside :] I like writing down what I feel so I can see it in a more concrete(?) manner, helps me cope i think. One time, I really did cry for someone because I guess I just really liked them a lot. Having crushes is fun, but catching feelings isn't.

I always get this giddy feeling of being head over heels for someone. Every interaction is so exciting. Intoxicating even. And I couldn't get enough of it, but after that few seconds of bliss I immediately think to myself that all these scenarios in my head will never happen, not in a million fucking years. I just preemptively reject myself without ever telling the person what I feel. I know what the outcome will be anyway, and I'm afraid of what will happen if I did say anything. It's just too risky.

The second half is completely made up tho, I will never ever kidnap someone... unless? (For legal reasons, I will have to clarify that this is a joke, Thank you.)

Now onto the comic itself!

The composition is probably the easiest and the most fun part. I love, love, love, how versatile you can be in the webtoon format. Figuring out how to transition the panels is super fun, and it sucks that most of the webcomics I see on tapas or webtoon, etc. are just sticking to those boring box formulas over and over again when it has so much potential, although there are exceptions like, for example, Lore Olympus. While it has it's fair share of flaws when in comes to other aspects, you can't deny the artist's talent esp when it comes to knowing how to place the character in an illustration, (again) the compositioning etc etc. (ep. 8 is p good. They stick to the box stuff during dialogue but gets more experimental in some parts. I haven't been keeping up with it, so idk any other good eps)

One of my only big regrets is that I wish I had made the space between the '...but I love it." and "And soon..." parts longer. I think it changed scenarios way too fast and your eye immediately moves onto the next piece of text,, but eh, it is what it is, and I can't be bothered to edit it so ig I gotta learn to live with it.

It's still messy in,, a lot of parts actually, and I still can't do lineart to save my life, but i kinda tried just cleaning up the sketches instead???? I mean, it kinda works, but it isn't really smooth so,, And there are small mistakes here and there that I could've fixed or colored stuff in properly or whatever. But at that point, I'm just done with it. No more. Am tired and want to draw other shit now. Maybe boobs n dicks n pussy-

Oh actually i have another comic in my wip folder that I started before the sad Kylar crying one. Here's some of the thumbnails for it:

the fucking lisa simpson looking ass face just cracks me up every time I see it LMAOQJSJQJ I just wanted to show it to u but stay tuned for that ig

I eventually want to make little comics like this for other characters as well! Like Sydney, who is also one of my favorites cause of the whole religion aspect to them, and I would like to tackle that topic with yet another super personal experience of mine that for some reason I'm comfortable with sharing with a bunch of ppl lmao

I also really want to make a full on nsfw one, like gut rearranging, carnal fucking, hardcore banging,, ok ill stop. But I do need to do more,, uh, "research" on that,, i swear it's research, i have no clue how im gonna draw it. Hell, I already struggle with drawing people fucking and imagine adding cool transitions to that. Guess even my masochistic tendencies extend to this shit too.

And I think that's pretty much it? I'll probably just stick to b and w or monotone with a few accent colors because i just know that it would break me if i did a fully colored one.

Okay, thank you for reading this ramble, I'll go ahead and answer some asks now,, Here's your prize though!

[local-writer]

This post contains spoilers for twd; Daryl Dixon! If you haven't finished the first season, then please do not read this post!

I also want to give a warning about talks of self harm and suicide (something the show didn't do, which pisses me off), so please be cautious. That being said, if you haven't watched the 5th episode yet, please be cautious of this as well.

I just finished watching the season final and holy shit CAROL IS BACK IM SO HAPPY

If she actually manages to make it to France and track Daryl's ass down then she is officially a better tracker then Daryl lmao

I hope she does find him and she's able to bring him back home, because the last episode genuinely had me questioning Daryl. SURELY he's not thinking of staying in France??? Surely the writers aren't stupid??? EVERYONE, me included, wants to see Daryl reunite with his family, and most importantly, Rick, who we know is alive and HOPEFULLY will return home. Carol said over the radio that someone came back, and I'm really hoping that it's Rick and Michonne.

They all deserve to be together again, and I'm genuinely gonna be pissed if Rick doesn't come home and Daryl stays in France 🙃

I personally don't think Daryl would do that, it's just not like him to replace and forget his first family. Like, it's great that he found a possible love interest and another kid he cares about, but I hope he doesn't stay. Maybe he could talk them into going with him? Idk I hope they work something out. The relationships he built with them is cute, heartwarming, and I don't want to see them separate but I REALLY don't wanna see him stay either.

Another thing I want to talk about is the ending of the last episode. Okay, I know they can't show Rick with Carol (if he came home) because that would probably end up spoiling the new Rick and Michonne series. But we all know that Rick would have went with her to find Daryl, his brother, just like Daryl would and HAS done for him. So that makes me wonder if Carol lied to Daryl to try and get him to come home? But again, I'm hoping that Rick and Michonne came home. 🤞

I will drop this series so fast if they don't reunite. I know that probably makes me sound like a brat who didn't get her way, but it's the ending that the series and the characters deserve, and there's no better way to end it in my opinion. That's how it should have ended a long time ago, and don't get me wrong, I love all the new series they're coming out with, but it kinda feels like they're drawing out the series as long as possible so they can milk it dry. Hopefully this doesn't take the series down a shitty road in the end.

Oh, and can we talk about Isabelle in episode 5? And her almost suicide attempt?? I know the show is all kinds of fucked up and I think we've seen shit like this before and should expect it but the wrist cutting was a trigger for me. I didn't like it and I wasn't expecting her to almost go through with it. What was the fucking point of even showing it, she didn't even pierce her skin (and no, I'm not saying she should have for the scene to make sense, I'm glad she didn't) If there was a trigger warning, I sure didn't see it, but they probably should have considered putting one. Idk, maybe I should have expected it from her, considering she's tried it before in her past, but I didn't think that information was a clue that she would even think about trying it again later. Needless to say, I'll be more cautious whenever the next season is out, that's for sure.

Sorry that half of this was a bit of a mini rant, I wanted this post to be more on the positive side, because I genuinely enjoyed the first season, but the ending was questionable and it ticked me off a bit at the slight possibility that Daryl may end up staying in France.

On a more positive note, I thought the super strength that some of the walkers had made them more scary, and it was cool to see Daryl fight them. He's such a badass!

I said "what the fuck?" more than once with these new walkers lmao. That one on the boat that Daryl was being held captive on scared me when he started ripping that man's guts out and just- flinging them instead of eating them. THAT'S NOT NORMAL WALKER BEHAVIOR WHAT IS THIS DEMON. The black eyes even make them look like demons from Supernatural. 😭

Oh, and I wasn't expecting Daryl to yell at Laurant the way he did, which really broke my heart. I bet those were things his dad said to him when he was a kid. Although I kinda wished to smack Daryl, I guess I can't blame him too much. We learn from our parents, and Daryl learned how to take his anger out on kids from his dad, which is all the wrong ways (you're never supposed to take your anger out on kids, your own especially). I'm just glad Laurant forgave Daryl, because he didn't mean it. And no, I'm not saying it's okay what Daryl said, so don't come at me because I'm not defending Daryl's actions here.

Well, I guess that's it for now until next season. Share your thoughts and opinions if you want, I'd like to hear them!

[demonsfate]

not to defend BV (I dislike it as well, lmao), but BV! Jin was kind of suffering from Tek6 syndrome, so like... I KINDA get why he's an ass in that movie as well. A shame they just had to continue with that horrendous characterization. I mean, doesn't he say something along the lines of "If the world will be destroyed over a father-son quarrel, so be it >:3c" like bro...please be serious... Also, how come Tek6 Jin is still present in the movie, and yet Alisa and Xiao's relationship is nonexistent after that? They don't even interact in Tek8, as far as I remember.

He definitely was. It was that era where Jin was still suffering from Tek6 damage. As he had that problem in Street Fighter x Tekken, and that problem in Tag 2 (it just wasn't as noticeable in Tag 2). But like... Tek6 or Blood Vengeance Jin deserves to be strangled until his face turns blue lol!

YEAH. He literally does say that...

Like I've never seen a character get as warped as much as Jin has. It's like they completely forgot the whole reason why Jin wanted to kill Kazuya to begin with. Which is why I've always said that Tek6 Jin (and BV Jin) really goes against everything his character was supposed to be.

Very odd enough, Alisa is terribly lacking special interactions with most characters in Tek8. She only has ONE SINGLE UNIQUE interaction and it's with fucking Jack. She has a unique dialogue with Jin (but Jin doesn't say anything back to her) and they miiiight've added on with Lars? But I don't even remember her saying anything to Lars. I have no clue what is with the lack of interactions regarding Alisa, especially considering she's a very important character and was practically the secondary protagonist of Tek6. I know a lot of special dialogues were cut from the game, but if Alisa had more, I don't know why they'd cut hers specifically to the point she only has one actual unique interaction. So her and Xiao lacking one might be due to that as well.

It's really weird how Xiao and Alisa's relationship is just forgotten. How they don't interact at all in Tek8 (including the story) because like... during and after Blood Vengeance, they still tried to push their friendship in official arts.

And plus their friendship makes sense with them both being the protags Love Interests, and usually the ones to bring out the best in the protags. And well... as I've pointed out once afore, despite seeming quite different - Alisa does parallel with Jin sometimes, and we know how much Xiao loves Jin lol. I wouldn't mind their friendship, it's very cute. But alas... like MANY OTHER CONCEPTS AND STORYLINES, it's something that's been forgotten in the series.

[tired-biscuit]

i've just seen your posts on dash biscuit and its so sad you're feeling like that :( If i'm to tell you the honest truth biscuit, I don't remember how I found your account but i remember being so intrigued and hooked immediately - I went on to read your War General Kiba (to somewhat expose myself.. I am War General Kiba anon from around a month ago) bc your writing itched my brain so fuckin good !!

It makes me so sad that uni started recently for me and I have been so caught up I haven't gotten around to reblogging war general kiba because I haven't gotten the moment to write my thoughts regarding those:( they're sitting in my drafts. I decided I would read every single one of your fics a month ago (unfortunately I haven't been able to yet) - including the naruto thirst you elaborated on for me, and though I haven't gotten time to read it, THANK YOU SO MUCH BISCUIT for taking your time out to do that :( <3

You deserve every single one of those likes , but you deserve them alongside an equal amount of reblogs :/ i sincerely hope that these followers and whatnot pull their heads out of their ass and start reblogging - because if they don't, they're not going to have anything to read. bc biscuit you are such an amazing and talented writer, and it always blows my mind we get to read your masterpieces for free. FOR FREE!!!! that is so crazy like, this is stuff that could get you MILLIONS and we have the blessing from you to type a few words onto our screens and read it! like WOW thank you so much <3 🍁 anon

oh my gosh, you’re so sweet; imma start sobbing!

listen, you don’t have to apologize for not being able to read my fics; i get it, life happens and we get busy as people and fanfiction definitely is NOT everything there is to life! so please don’t say sorry for that because there is literally no need for it, like i said. YOU’RE GOOD!

it just grinds my gears that i’m not allowed to vent on here about this particular topic because some people will INSTANTLY jump the wagon to call me ungrateful. i get it, i get notes, but people usually don’t understand that likes don’t mean shit on here and that the majority of those notes are just that: likes. sure, i get a little notif that someone liked my story, but i have no clue what they thought about it based from that heart. i have no clue if they’ve even actually read it. to make matters even worse, it makes the post just straight up fucking die.

i spend hours and hours and hours writing, editing, rereading, tweaking the same story for ages. i could just not post it and keep it to myself, sure, but i enjoy interacting with my moots and my followers in general, and giving people that share my interest in the same characters something to read about, because let’s be real; kiba is niche af. i like feeding the kiba girlies because i barely had anything to eat a couple years back when it comes to him and i’ve worked my fucking ass off for those notes over the years, SO OF COURSE I APPRECIATE THEM, OK?

this debate, or whatever you wanna call it, has been circling around here for ages and it’s useless at this point, i think... writers, artists, creators of all sorts say “please say thank you for my creation that i made for YOU after you’ve asked, i beg” and people call us ungrateful or stuck up or whatever the fuck. i mean, do people seriously think i enjoy self-reblogging all the time and begging for interaction like that robin hood meme with the cup???????? no, i do it because it is the only way people will see my work before it disappears into the ether once again, ffs!!!!!!!!

ANYWAYS, i will write a drabble for your war general!kiba ask when i have the time, i promise! i just want to actually make it good and write like a proper story instead of just my thoughts because he is very dear to me and i am a perfectionist when it comes to my royalty AU and it makes me overthink and just… yeah! he has been sitting in the back of my head, clanking his heavy weapons impatiently, lmao.

I LOVE YOU!