#another got chipped and whatnot

[slumbz]

got like. a shitton of cool pens, highlighters and sharpies that are like the fancy ones when me and my dad went shopping for school supplies

heres some of my favorites

[negansfavlucille01]

NEIGHBOR

Negan × f!reader

Summary: Y/N's noisy neighbor, Negan, throws another party while she tries to sleep, so she makes yet another complain, which leads to his dick deep in her

Warnings: smut, 18+, unprotected sex, creampie, Negan being an asshole noisy neighbor, choking, rough (not so rough) sex, enemies to sex buds...?

Word count: 2,5K

Choosing a new place to live was kind of hard. How many tries it took to find the perfect apartment? Y/N didn't know herself. But she found it and decorated it in her style. When she moved in, some of the neighbors brought her cookies, pies and whatnot else as a "welcome to the building". Most of them were nice, old people who were already retired. She was glad she had finally found a place where all the neighbors were nice... Or she thought. Until she met Negan. He was the man living above her apartment. With all the parties he threw, Y/N had to go ask him to quiet down many times, but he always kept being loud. None of them liked the other. She even wondered how the old ladies liked him and always talked about what a "great young man" he was. What was so nice about him? He always looked grumpy and mad at the world. She had to admit, he was pretty good looking, but that wasn't an excuse for being an asshole. Later on, she learned he was a baseball coach. How could someone so grumpy work with kids? It didn't sit right in her mind.

Work was hard that day and Y/N was tired. Her shift finished in half an hour and she couldn't wait to get home and take a hot bath. After what felt like forever, her boss walked into her office and announced that the work day was off. Y/N quickly closed her laptop, grabbed her bag and left. Friday was over, no more work for the week. What could go wrong? Oh, of course... It was Friday. There was no way the dickhead above won't have friends over. So, no. She wouldn't be able to relax. Not tonight, not tomorrow, not the next day. As she drove her car into the parking lot of the building, she noticed Negan getting off his motorcycle and taking off his helmet. He looked so good with messy hair. No. She couldn't think like that about someone who had zero respect for people. She thought about saying hi, but didn't. Instead, she walked past him like he didn't exist.

"Oh, you don't know me now? And people say I'm fucking rude..." He smiled arrogantly and started walking next to her with his helmet in hand. He walked faster and passed her. Reaching for the front door, he opened it and walked in the building. He wasn't the gentleman the old ladies said he was and didn't hold the door for Y/N. It closed right in her face and she sighed heavily and searched for her keys in her purse.

"Gentleman, my ass. What a moron..." She unlocked the front door and walked in, impatient to get to her apartment. Life, though, wasn't on her side because one of the two elevators was taken and Negan was already walking to the other. She sighed quietly and walked towards the elevator, getting in with the devil himself. She could feel his judgmental look on her. What was the dudes problem? She brushed it away. Going up to the sixth level wasn't long, but with Negan there, it felt like she was getting old waiting. She got home, took off her make up, poured herself a glass of white whine and got in the hot bath. She relaxed for about 30 minutes before getting out. Drying her body with a soft towel and laying down in a robe, reading was great, until something from above made a loud thud. "Not that fucker again.."

The noises continued, relentless and unyielding, a constant barrage that chipped away at her sanity. At first, it was just the occasional creak or thud, but as time went on, they grew more frequent, more insistent. And then, as if the noises weren't enough, loud music started blaring, the kind that shook the walls and vibrated through the ceiling. Desperate for relief, she tried everything she could think of. She would sit cross-legged on her bed, forcing herself to take deep, calming breaths, trying to keep herself from going up and murdering Negan. She switched to listening to her favorite music on earbuds, tried sleeping with two pillows pressed firmly over each ear, the soft fabric muffling the world outside, but it wasn't enough. No matter how she adjusted or what she tried, the noise was still there. She finally accepted that sleep was beyond her reach. After hours of tossing and turning, trying every trick she knew to drown out the relentless noise, she realized there was no point in continuing the fight. Y/N didn't even bother getting changed from her robe when she walked out of the apartment. She got in the elevator and got on the next level, ready to kill Negan if necessary. She reached his apartment, her frustration bubbling over as she raised her hand and knocked on the door loudly, the sound echoing down the hallway. Her patience was thin, and she was ready to demand that he quiet down, the words already forming on her lips as she stood there, bracing herself for the confrontation.

Here's a slightly longer version of that text:

The music lowered slightly, as if someone had finally noticed the knock. A moment later, the door creaked open, revealing a man with a disheveled appearance and a bemused expression. He glanced her over before turning his head back inside the apartment. "Hey, Negan," he called out, a hint of amusement in his voice, "there's a hot chick standing here."

Negan strolled over to the door, his usual confident grin plastered on his face. But as soon as his eyes landed on her, the smile abruptly faded, his expression shifting to something far more serious. "What can I do for you?"

She shot him a glare, her frustration evident as she glanced past him into the chaotic scene of his apartment. Music still hummed in the background, and the remnants of the party were scattered everywhere. "Well, I'm sure you're not surprised," she began, her voice laced with irritation, "but I'm gonna need you to quiet down."

Negan raised an eyebrow, then shrugged nonchalantly. "No worries, the party’s over," he said with a hint of amusement as about twenty people began to stream out of his apartment, laughing and chattering as they passed by her. He turned back to her, leaning casually against the doorframe. "If the noise bothers you so much, why don’t you just move?"

She folded her arms and met his gaze defiantly. "I just switched apartments to get away from the last set of noisy neighbors. Wouldn't it be easier if you weren't so loud?"

Negan smirked, his eyes lingering on her for a moment longer than necessary. “You didn’t bother changing out of your robe, love?” he asked, his tone teasing, his mind clearly wandering to inappropriate places. He leaned against the doorframe, his gaze drifting over her lazily. “I like it. It’s cute... suits you.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, refusing to be flustered by his playful remarks. “No, I didn’t,” she replied, her voice steady as she met his gaze without flinching. “I wanted to sleep, but your party was in my way.” Her words were firm, her frustration evident, but there was a hint of something else in the air between them—a tension that neither seemed willing to acknowledge, yet neither could ignore.

Negan's teasing grin softened as the tension between them thickened, his gaze locking with hers. Without another word, he stepped closer, closing the distance between them. She didn’t pull away when he reached out, his hand brushing her cheek before he tilted her chin up slightly. Their breaths mingled, and then, almost hesitantly, his lips met hers.

The kiss started slow, a tentative exploration, but quickly deepened as their frustrations melted into something else entirely. His hands slid around her waist, pulling her closer as she responded in kind, her fingers tangling in his hair. The pull between them was undeniable, electric, and before they knew it, they were stumbling toward the bedroom, never breaking the kiss as they crossed the threshold and fell onto the bed together. As they tumbled onto the bed, the world outside seemed to fade away, leaving only the two of them in the quiet, dimly lit room. Negan’s hands roamed over her back, pulling her closer until there was no space left between them. The kiss grew more intense, driven by a mix of lingering frustration and unexpected desire. His lips trailed down her neck, leaving a trail of heat in their wake, while her fingers traced the contours of his shoulders, feeling the strength beneath his skin. Their breathing quickened, the moment charged with a shared urgency. Negan shifted, rolling them over so she was beneath him, his weight pressing her into the mattress as he gazed down at her with a hunger that made her heart race. The teasing smirk that usually played on his lips was gone, replaced by something far more serious, almost vulnerable. For a brief second, their eyes met, and something unspoken passed between them, a silent acknowledgment that this was more than just a fleeting moment. Then, with a low growl, he claimed her lips again, deepening the kiss as his hands slid under her robe, exploring the soft skin of her ass.

She arched into him, the last remnants of resistance melting away as they surrendered completely to the desire that had been simmering beneath the surface. His hands moved expertly, pushing the robe off her shoulders and letting it fall away, revealing her bare skin to his eager touch. He broke the kiss just long enough to pull his own shirt over his head, exposing his torso, before descending on her again. Negan’s lips and hands were everywhere, worshiping every inch of her body with a fervor that left her breathless. She gasped as his mouth found her breast, sucking and teasing the sensitive peak with his tongue while his hand slid down her stomach, finding its way between her legs. His fingers moved with deliberate, tantalizing slowness, driving her wild with need. She moaned, her hips bucking against his hand, craving more of his touch. Negan obliged, his fingers slipping inside her, finding her wet and ready. He groaned against her skin, clearly enjoying the effect he was having on her. "You like that, don’t you?" he murmured, his voice rough with desire. "Tell me what you want."

"I want you," she whispered, her voice barely more than a breathless plea. "I need you."

Negan grinned, his eyes dark with a primal hunger as he looked down at her. "Then you’ll fuckin' have me," he promised, his voice a low, rough whisper that sent shivers down her spine. With deliberate slowness, he reached for his belt, the metal buckle clinking as he unfastened it. His gaze never left hers, the intensity in his eyes making her heart race. He took his time, letting the anticipation build as he slid the belt out of its loops and tossed it aside. With a confident smirk, Negan unbuttoned his jeans, pushing them down along with his boxers, freeing himself from the last of his clothing. He stood there for a moment, completely exposed, letting her take in every inch of him. His cock was huge, about 8 inches and thick, veiny. Then, without another word, he climbed back onto the bed, his body hovering over hers as he prepared to fulfill the promise he had just made. He entered her with a forceful, eager motion, not giving her a moment to adjust before he began moving with a powerful rhythm. "Fuck, that pussy is tight..." His thrusts were fast and driven, each one filled with a raw, unrestrained energy that matched the heat of the moment. The room was filled with the sounds of their shared passion—the rhythmic slap of skin against skin, their breathy gasps, and the creaks of the bed.

"Negaaaannnn...!" She cried out, the tension getting to her. She was close and he knew it. The way her pussy was squeezing him, the way her legs shook, the way her eyes rolled back and her mouth hung slightly open. He reached down, rubbing her clit, his hard thrusts never stopping, but only getting harder. Some men liked doggystyle because they had control of the situation, but Negan wasn't that man. He loved missionary. What wasn't perfect about this position? Tits bouncing, eye contact, seeing the persons face, their legs shaking and so on.

“Yeah, come for me, baby,” Negan growled in a low, throaty voice, his breath hot against her ear, his hand going to her throat, taking away her breath. “Soak my fucking cock...” His words were rough, filled with a mix of desire and command as he continued to drive into her with a relentless rhythm. The sensation of her walls tightening around him only fueled his passion further. He grunted with each thrust, the intensity of their connection building to an almost unbearable peak. His hands gripped her hips firmly, guiding her movements as he pushed them both closer to the edge. With a final, deep thrust, he let out a primal groan, the tension within him releasing as he came deep inside her. The moment was charged with raw, unfiltered pleasure, leaving them both gasping and trembling in the aftermath. He collapsed next to her, his breathing heavy.

She turned to look at him, her expression a mix of exhaustion and amusement as she caught her breath. “Can you be quieter next time?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper but carrying a playful edge.

Negan’s eyes sparkled with a mixture of mischief and satisfaction as he chuckled softly, his breath still coming in ragged gasps. He propped himself up on one elbow, his gaze meeting hers with a teasing glint. “Oh, if we do this again,” he said with a smirk, “I’ll make sure to be as quiet as a mouse.” He leaned in closer, his lips brushing against her ear as he added in a low, conspiratorial tone, “Wouldn’t want to disturb the neighbors, now would we?”

She laughed softly, shaking her head as she snuggled closer to him, the playful banter a pleasant counterpoint to the earlier intensity. “I’m sure they’d appreciate that,” she replied, her voice softening as she nestled into the warmth of his embrace.

Negan’s chuckle rumbled through his chest, and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. “Alright,” he said, his tone more sincere now, “I’ll keep it down. Just for you.” His smile was genuine as he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead, the earlier fervor giving way to a more relaxed, intimate moment between them.

[stars-n-spice]

Bad Batch Food Headcanons:

Was having the meal of champions (soju, galbi, and buldak) and it got me thinking,,

So have this collection of random food headcanons:

Crosshair insists he can handle spicy food but he cannot. He's eating hot cheetos and he's fucking crying

Wrecker had to build up a tolerance for spice - he fucking LOVES spicy food ("It's like an explosion in my mouth!!") but couldn't handle it at first. Now he can handle buldak with half of the spice packet!

Hunter and Tech can handle their spice decently but Echo isn't too fond of spicy foods.

Like Wrecker, Omega built up a tolerance to spice, but also like Crosshair she's sensitive to it and will insist that she can handle her spice

Echo is a picky eater. That's like canon. He doesn't care that he's a grown man, he's ordering mac-n-cheese at the fancy restaurant. Deal with it.

Tech is another picky eater but he thrives off instant stuff like ramen or snacks like chips. Man can plow through a whole Costco-sized bag of tortilla chips in one sitting without realizing it.

Hunter has a stomach of steel, he'll eat anything and everything. It's only a matter of REMEMBERING to fucking eat. He'll stand up, nearly faint, then go, "What the hell?" and it's because he hasn't eaten since fucking yesterday.

No Crosshair, an ice coffee is NOT a suitable breakfast. How many times do we have to tell you? And aren't you fucking lactose intolerant???

Oh they love their dinosaur chicken nuggets though - especially Omega and Wrecker. They'll dunk them in ketchup and create a whole murder crime scene.

Omega LOVES soup. Any and all kinds! I think she'd really enjoy udon or 냉면 the most though. The slurp-ier the better!

I feel like Tech is a curry enjoyer. Indian curry, Thai curry, Japanese curry - he loves it all.

Rip Crosshair you would've loved flavored soju 😔

Rip Wrecker you would've loved Korean BBQ and all you can eat sushi

I don't think Hunter likes cold foods. His teeth are sensitive and they hurt when he eats cold stuff like ice cream (no I'm not projecting)

Crosshair likes mint ice cream. Echo likes rocky road. Wrecker enjoys strawberry or sherbert. Omega likes cookie dough. Tech likes caramel or coffee.

Ice cream is like the only kind of "dessert" that Crosshair likes (despite being lactose intolerant) - he doesn't really have a sweet tooth

WAIT CROSSHAIR WHEN I TELL YOU ABOUT BINGSU!!!

SPAM. SPAM. SPAM. Shut up they WOULD eat spam and idc what people say I fucking LOVE spam. Spam is the love of my life, they could never make me hate spam. I used to write parody love songs about spam as a kid. They would enjoy breakfasts of spam, rice, and eggs.

They'd devour the shit out of Mexican food. Like CMON-

Feel like Omega would like fiedo. And Echo too

Wrecker thinks breakfast burritos are godsend - he absolutely loves papas and chorizo

Y'know what would be funny? Echo being a picky eater yet LOVEING Mole. It's not for everyone (I personally like it) but he thinks it's good

Omega has a boba addiction. She has ro have it every week. Her favorites are Taro, Strawberry Matcha, and Honey Milk Tea

Only Hunter and Wrecker like boba; Echo, Crosshair, and Tech find the texture funny but they enjoy the drinks

I feel like Echo is a big bread eater. My sister reminds me a LOT of Echo and she absolutely ADORES bread (she's also a picky eater) - catch him at 85° or Paris Baguette

Hunter would love Soul Food and he also can work a grill

Rip Echo you would’ve loved soba and you would've loved 맥주

Tech actually secretly (not so secretly) has a sweet tooth - he really likes muffins and pies specifically

Omega and Wrecker record "Food Review" videos together

I have,, so many more ideas and whatnot but I'm leaving it here-

Ugh I just,,, I have so many foods I'd love to introduce them too-

[dizzyjelly]

Pool Party

Part 2 here!

Word Count: 3.3k

Summary: You and your best friend Ellie go to a pool party together, you kiss in a game of truth or dare then share another one later that night in your bed.

Cw: Reader is characterized to have social anxiety, drinking, brief mention of insecurity but not too bad.

It was the very last month of summer before you'd return to college, and you were doing your best to enjoy every minute of it. Granted that meant spending nearly all your time with your best friend, Ellie. Today was gonna be real fun though because your friend Dina had invited you guys to her boyfriend's for a pool party. She said there'd be drinks and whatnot and you were welcome to stay overnight, but you weren't sure if you were going to or not. Right now it was just getting around to noon and you sat on your back porch swing with Ellie who was sketching in her journal.

"What are you drawing?" You asked as you leaned over, your cheek resting against her arm as you watched her skillfully draw closely.

"That." She muttered, gesturing to your neighbors yard which had a rather large water fountain.

It was quite pretty, and delicate too. The previous owners had it installed and the new ones never bothered removing it, which you found to be smart. You sighed against the auburn haired girls freckled arm, boredom taking over your every being.

"Can we go to lunch before heading to Jesse's?" You asked politely as you brought your hands to wrap around Ellie's forearm.

"Ok sure. Where d'ya wanna go?" She asked, already standing as she closed her journal and tossed it to where she previously sat.

You shrugged, "you pick, you're driving anyway."

"Alright, you got a suit underneath that?" She asked, referring to your yellow sundress.

"Nope, was gonna bring it with." You answered as you walked inside through the sliding door.

Ellie followed you all the way to your bedroom, watching as you opened your top dresser drawer and took out a bathing suit. You'd decided on one of your favorites, a sage green bikini that tied in the back. You smiled to yourself as you thought back to when you'd worn it to the water park with Ellie last month and she told you that you looked gorgeous.

You stuffed the suit into your usual tote bag, along with a black cover-up and spray on sunscreen and tanning lotion. You didn't bother bringing anything else as you didn't really need anymore than that. You now quirked a brow at Ellie.

"You've got a suit on?" You asked

And she simply responded by pulling up her shirt to reveal her black bikini top that appeared to match her red-black shorts which you now realized were swim trunks. You merely nodded your head in response then followed her out to her car. She'd roll the windows down as you got in, it was scorching hot out today. Her AC wouldn't kick in for a few minutes so you let your head peek out the window a bit to feel the breeze.

At each stoplight she'd catch a glance at you, smiling in adoration as you looked so content. Her smile grew even bigger if you were singing along to whatever was playing on the radio, or even better dancing a bit. It didn't take long for Ellie to pull into where she wanted to eat. You stood and followed her into the Subway, there wasn't a long line but it was enough that you waited a few minutes before ordering.

"Els, can you order mine for me?" You'd whisper as the two of you approached the sub station, most of the time you could order yourself but sometimes you just got nervous.

"Of course." She whispered back, staring down at you as you clinged onto her arm and let your eyes roam around the small restaurant.

Once you had your food the two of you sat down in a booth closer to the door. Ellie unpacked everything, opening her chips before taking a large bite from her warm sub. She pinched her fingers together as she smiled with delight at the taste.

"Perfecto." she'd say in an Italian accent, which made you giggle.

As you continued to eat you'd make small talk, and eventually you started asking about the pool party. Ellie was closer with Dina and Jesse that's for sure, so you mostly asked about what they were like. You also asked about how many people there would be and things like that.

"Eh, not too many. I don't know, like at least twenty." She shrugged, immediately taking notice of how your eyes seemed to widen and the way you let out a deep sigh.

"Hey, it'll be fine though, I'll be there." She reassured, and you nodded.

"Yeah, it'll be fine." You smiled.

You'd both finish your food and be ready to head to Jesse's place in no time. You couldn't lie, you were pretty nervous. Not that you hadn't been to parties before, you mostly enjoyed them too. But something about having to wear a swimsuit in front of that many people had you crawling out of your skin. Ellie didn't make any comments to how you chewed at your nails the entire way there.

She pulled into the driveway and you leaned over the middle console to reach into the backseat for your tote bag. As much as she tried not to, Ellie immediately took notice to your ass and how your little dress rode up your thighs just perfectly. She mentally slapped herself and brought her gaze back to the windshield. You threw your bag over your shoulder and followed Ellie as she walked inside the house.

"Come on, I'll take you to the bathroom so you can change, yeah?" You nodded and followed her upstairs, walking into the bathroom.

"Um, its the one that ties in the back so I'm gonna need your help, kay?" Ellie nodded in response and waited outside the door for you to call her in.

You clicked your tongue a few times as you shimmied out of your dress, discarding your undergarments as well. You slipped on the bottoms and got the top on just to cover your breasts. You cracked the door open, a sign that Ellie could come in. She walked in and shut the door behind her, your bare back faced her. Your breath hitched for a moment as her rough but soft hands grazed your back as she pulled at the strings, tying them into a little bow.

You turned around to face her with a thankful smile, stuffing your clothes into your bag then linking your arm with her own and letting her take you outside to the back. There were definitely more than twenty people there, and you already felt nervous. Ellie could tell by the way you pulled your cover up over yourself uncomfortably, but she always knew how to make you feel better.

"You look great in that suit by the way. It's my favorite one of yours y'know." She leaned down to whisper in your ear, and it was the confidence boost you'd clearly needed as you stopped wrapping your arm over your stomach consciously.

"Thanks." Your smile was a mile wide as you looked over at her, and hers the same.

You set your bag down on one of the pool chairs then took a seat on it, watching as Ellie walked to a table of drinks to get something for each of you. You felt out of place as there were groups of people all around, talking and laughing with each other. But then Dina came to say hi to you, she was dripping as she'd already taken a dip in the pool.

"Hey Y/n!" She gave you a hug, wetting you slightly.

"Hi Dina." You smiled as you wrapped your arms around her, cringing a bit at how her wet hair dripped on your shoulder.

"Oh, shit sorry. I saw you in your suit so I just figured-" She started to ramble.

"It's fin, really. Don't worry about it" You shrugged with a smile and she nodded.

Ellie returned with two red solo cups, handing one to you as she wrapped her arm loosely around Dinas waist as a greeting. You gave her a small thank you as you began to sip on it. Minutes would go by as the three of you talked, your drink was forgotten about as you set it on the table beside your pool chair, getting lost in the conversation. A few minutes later Ellie finished her drink and discarded her shirt with your pile of things.

"You wanna hop in?" She asked you as she tilted her head towards the pool, which was unfortunately filled with people.

"Yeah!" You agreed anyways, probably because you were a bit tipsy.

You removed your cover up then followed Ellie as she walked in at the steps, making her way to the middle of the pool so she was halfway submerged in water. You met her there, the water cupping just below your chest as you were a bit shorter than she was. Ellie chuckled at the sight of you, bringing her hands to rest on your waist underneath the water. You smiled at her, a faint blush spreading across your face at her rather intimate touch.

It wasn't unusual for Ellie to get handsy when she drank, so you were used to it. But it still never failed to fluster you each and every time. Today you were feeling rather bold because you brought your own hands to rest at the back of her neck. The two of you just stood there, smiling at each other. That was until some dude decided to cannon ball and splashed the both of you, leaving you both soaked.

"Ah, fuck!" You shouted with a groan.

Ellie just raised her arm to the side of her head with a grimace on her face, remaining mostly unbothered. You, however, were extremely pissed. Angrily, you made your way to the steps and stomped out of the pool. Ellie followed you out with a sigh. You rushed over to your seat, wrapping a towel around yourself with a grumpy frown.

"Y/n, come on, it's not that big of a deal. It's a pool party!" Ellie was just trying to be kind as she sat behind you and placed a hand on your shoulder.

"Well, it's a big deal to me!" You shouted at her before throwing your towel at the poor girl and walking over to pour yourself another drink.

Ellie closed her eyes with a sigh, setting the towel down on the chair. If you were going to be acting like this, she didn't wanna be around you. So she found her way to Dina and Jesse instead. You felt a slight pang of disappointment at the lack of her when you went back to your chair, but you were quickly occupied by some guy as he walked over to sit next to you.

"So, how do you know Dina?" He asked, taking a sip of his own drink.

"Friend of a friend I guess." You shrugged.

"Sweet, you here with anyone?" He asked as he looked your figure up and down.

"Yeah, Ellie." You were quick to answer, oblivious as to what he was really asking.

"Oh, got it." He got up and left you alone after that.

You were confused, but didn't let it bother you long. You were on your third drink now and had the courage to make your way over to Ellie who was sitting with Dina. Jesse had been with them moment prior, but now he was busy jumping off the diving board and hollering like a child.

"Hey." You greeted shyly as you sat beside Ellie, close enough that your bare thighs touched.

"Hi." She muttered as she shot you a glance, one that said 'you done being a bitch?'

You sat silently for a while, your leg bouncing nervously as you were unsure of what to say. Eventually you found your words, leaning over to whisper in your best friend's ear as your hand landed on her thigh for support.

"I'm sorry." You meant it genuinely.

"It's ok, I know." She'd whisper back in your ear, then place a small kiss to your shoulder as a sign of affection.

You smiled to yourself a bit, your hand coming back to rest in your lap as you finished your drink. Dina offered to grab you another and you weren't gonna say no. Ellie was growing concerned at your state, which caused her to ask you,

"How many have you had?" She quirked a brow.

"Only three." You shrugged as if it wasn't a lot.

"Only!? Jeez woman. You're lucky I'm driving." She muttered to herself as she shook her head.

You, Ellie, and Dina just sat and talked while you and Dina downed your drinks. Ellie decided to cut you off, at least for a bit. She had you drinking strictly water as she said she didn't want to hold your hair back while you threw up later. Reluctantly, you agreed with her, because you knew she was ultimately right. Some time passed and Dina called Jesse over.

"Hey babe, what do you think of moving inside? It's just getting kinda dark out.." She asked him.

"Yeah, that'd be chill. Yo, everyone! Yall can come inside if you want!" He shouted to all the party guests.

Ellie helped you collect your things and put your cover up on. You smiled at her as you held her hand whilst you two walked inside. Once you were inside, Dina suggested you play a game of truth or dare. You looked at Ellie, waiting to see if she wanted to or not. She shrugged and just said 'why the hell not' and now there were about fifteen people sat in a circle on Jesse's living room floor.

After hearing some vulgar stories and watching some people consume very gross things, you were finally asked the infamous question.

"Y/n, truth or dare?" The guy asking you had been the one who approached you earlier.

"Truth." You answered.

"Ok, rate your last hook up out of 10." He chuckled.

"Eh, I'd say like a 7." You were quick to answer, unembarrassed of your sex life.

"Jesse, truth or dare?" You asked.

"Dare all the way." He answered confidently.

"I dare you to show us your drivers license." You smiled.

He wasn't that embarrassed about it either which yoh were surprised by. Typically people hated their license photo, but not this guy. Once everyone had seen it Jesse asked Ellie.

"Truth or dare?" He questioned.

"Uh dare I guess." She shrugged.

"Ok I dare you to kiss the hottest person in this room. Guy or girl." He crossed his arms smugly.

Ellies face immediately flushed red. You laughed a bit from where you say next to her. Then you stopped as you wondered who she would kiss. There were lots of attractive people here, maybe that redhead that'd been eyeing her the whole game. But you couldn't have been more shocked when she looked at you. Your eyes widened and your breath hitched as she licked her lips, moving to sit in front of you.

Your hesrt was going a mile a minute as she brought her hand to cup your cheek then leaned in. Here emerald green eyes meeting your own just before her lips met yours. She tasted faintly of booze and mint, chewing gum you assumed. You melted into her touch with a smile. And then it was over and the game resumed. You couldn't believe that really happened, and before you knew it you stood up to excuse yourself to the bathroom.

There you stood, staring at your drunk self in the slightly dirty bathroom mirror as you ran a hand through your hair haphazardly. You blew a deep sigh out of your mouth, what the hell just happened. You wondered what this meant for you and Ellie, if it would change things between you two. But mostly you were scared because you knew you really wanted to kiss her again. After deciding you'd hidden in the small restroom long enough you made your way back out. You sat beside Ellie rather close as you wrapped a hand around her forearm.

"Can we leave? I wanna go." You asked her.

"Oh, sure I guess." She seemed taken aback.

The two of you said your goodbyes to Dina and Jesse before heading out to the car. You sat through the ride back silently. Ellie pulled into your driveway and let out a small sigh, biting down on her lip.

"Do you... want me to stay?" She asked, looking over at you.

"Yeah, yeah." You nodded and the two of you went inside.

Ellie sat in your living room and browsed your TV for something to watch while you got changed in your room. Suddenly everything was going to your head. All the times Sllie would put her hands on your waist, or how she'd hug you a little bit longer than anyone else. The way she'd kissed you tonight, like you were made of glass. What did it all mean.

You exited your room now in an oversized t-shirt and small pj shorts. The shirt which happened to be Ellies that you'd stolen a long time ago. She smiled as she saw you.

"Hey." She spoke softly.

"Hey." You replied shyly.

You sat beside her, bringing your legs up onto the couch as you sat crisscross applesauce. Ellie got comfortable and so did you. Which meant you laid your head on her shoulder while she wrapped an arm around you and rubbed at your shoulder with her thumb. She hit play on the movie but you weren't even paying it any attention. All you could focus on was Ellie. Ellie Ellie Ellie. And her lips. Her hands. Just everything about her.

And since she wasn't a complete idiot, she noticed you staring. She did her best to ignore it, but after a minute or two she just couldn't anymore.

"Is there something on my face?" She turned to ask you.

"What? No." You shook your head, confused.

"Ok, you're just like kinda staring. I don't know." She shrugged, bringing her attention back to the movie.

"Ellie?" She turned to face you once again.

"W-why did you kiss me tonight?" You asked, looking down as you were far too embarrassed to make eye contact with the girl.

"Oh..." Now she sat and stared for a minute, "uh I don't know. I just- I didn't really feel like kissing some rando." She lied.

"Oh, ok." You nodded your head, slightly disappointed.

The two of you finished the movie and you were wiped, so you stood to make your way to your bedroom. You looked back at Ellie who stayed sat on the couch.

"You coming to bed?" You asked from your doorframe.

"Oh, yeah." She got up and followed you, climbing into bed after you did.

You lied there in silence for a bit, you facing the wall and Ellie staring at your back. Until you decided to turn around, and just look at the girl in front of you.

"Ellie" You whispered her name so delicately.

"Hm?" She answered.

"Would you... k-kiss me again?" You asked, trying to sound bold and confident.

"W-what?" She responded, taken aback.

"Uh, nevermind. Sorry that was stupid." You chuckled awkwardly.

But before you could turn around again, she was pulling you in. You sighed into the kiss as your hands found their way into her hair, gripping and pulling lightly. You let out a small whimper as she pulled you on top of her, her back against your headboard as your lips moved perfectly together.

Once you finally pulled away all you could do was smile at her. She smiled too, holding your face with one hand and caressing your cheek with the other rested on your waist. After a minute you slid down her body so that your head was resting on her chest. She held you in her arms and the two of you fell asleep together. Maybe you didn't know what this meant for you and Ellie, but it couldn't have been bad.

[ofsappho]

treehouse chapter 33

Dream of the Endless | Lord Morpheus x reader pregnancy fic

Johanna Constantine comes bearing drinks and hard truths (ao3 link here if you prefer to read there)

Trouble finds you a couple days later in the form of a dark-eyed magician in a stunning white coat, twice as lovely as the Devil and three times more mischievous.

“Knock knock, princess,” Johanna Constantine declares as she raps her scarred knuckles against the open door of your bedchamber.

You were hoping for company - not Morpheus’s, but perhaps Matthew to giggle over Morpheus’s habit of making an ass out of himself, or Lucienne to show you another book or open another archive in the great library for you…

But you had not yet had the opportunity to talk to Johanna since her dramatic entrance into the throne room and the various things that happened after. “Johanna!” You greet her, trying to suppress the blush in your cheeks as you recall what all did happen after you last saw her.

It’s not her fault that Dream chases you into your thoughts even when he’s not present.

She hugs you tightly and her long hair tickles your nose. “M’glad to see you’re still…” Johanna’s gaze darts to your messy hair and your skin warm with living blood and something like relief settles across her face.

Johanna’s chest rises and falls with breath the same way yours does. No one else in the Dreaming inhales. “Still me?” They have no need of it, of course, but it unnerves you all the same, highlighting even further the deep sense of wrongness that you do not belong here.

Even as you find reasons why you might want to stay.

Johanna smiles crookedly, showing a chipped tooth and another encased in gold. Another comfortingly human thing about her. “Still you. And as lovely as ever. Let me in, hm? We should talk.”

The bottle in her left hand is marked by a hand-drawn label and contains some sort of wicked-looking clear liquid that sloshes with a different viscosity from water.

“Over a bottle of Kentucky moonshine?”

Johanna pulls another bottle out of her coat with her right hand. “And some sparkling apple cider for you and the wee one.”

“How’d you know? I didn’t think I was showing that much…” You murmur, instinctively resting a protective hand over your mostly-normal stomach. Only you and Morpheus had truly been able to tell the difference between the soft curves of your body before and slight additional roundness now.

“Please, love. The whole supernatural world has been buzzing about what sort of mess Dream of the Endless is in now.” Johanna raises a finely arched eyebrow. “Or if you will, who Dream of the Endless is in now,” She quips with a smirk.

You brace yourself against the doorway, your knees suddenly feeling weak. “Gross! Blegh. So everyone…” You trail off. Your face is cold and pale. Mortification thrums through you like you’re a guitar string being plucked and played with.

“Is paying attention to you? Well, when two Endless go head to head over the life of a puny mortal like you, who can blame the lot?” Johanna replies with no small degree of pity. “Morpheus and one of the Others had some sort of fight not more than two weeks ago. The Fair Folk are notorious gossips, and demons even more so. I put the pieces together from there.”

No doubt the various dreams, nightmares, spirits, and whatnot have less regard for privacy compared to your fellow humans.

You’re nothing to them, after all. A blip in the great immortal life of Dream of the Endless. A few seconds in the grand scheme of time.

You sigh and step back from the doorway, allowing Johanna entry to your room.

It must have been the biggest joke in the known universe, and all at the expense of your ignorance. “It feels like I’m the only one who never got the news.” There are countless myths written mocking mortals who attempt to consort with gods, are there not? You fear that one day, your life will join the ranks of those stories.

Johanna’s face sours, her eyes glinting with a rage that makes you want to put a few paces between you and her. “He’s a right tosser for that one, love,” She mutters under her breath.

As Johanna holds out the sparkling apple cider for you to take, she unscrews the top of her Kentucky moonshine with her teeth and takes a swig so prolonged that it’s a miracle she doesn’t choke. When Johanna comes back up for air, her cheeks are reddened and her eyes are as jovial and friendly as usual. “Bottoms up,” She says, gesturing to your own bottle.

You gesture silently to the cap and she pries it off with her teeth again, spitting the metal out into some remote corner of your bedchamber for the dreams that tidy up your space to find.

The acrid scent of alcohol carries across the room, making you wrinkle your nose as you try to suppress the faintest pangs of nausea.

Some of the apple cider helps settle your stomach to the point that you’re confident you won’t vomit if you open your mouth. “I bet this melodrama must seem so ridiculous to you,” You say softly, bowing your head and contemplating the dark green glass bottle in your hand. A warped distortion of your face looks back at you. “Johanna Constantine, great magician and legendary exorcist. I’ve done some research of my own.”

You sneak another wary glance at her bottle, then back again at Johanna getting well on her way to sloshed with an ease that speaks of habit.

Drunkenness in yourself and others stopped being amusing a long time ago. Probably around the first time you had to mop your mother’s vomit off the floor. But at least you can manage a drunkard. It’s a regular sized task, not a Herculean feat involving things humans have no business being involved in. And here in the Dreaming - the only thing that could hurt you is Morpheus.

“And human. Can’t forget that bit. That’s the most important part,” Johanna replies.

In spite of her inebriation, you soften the tiniest bit to Johanna. Even you lost sight of that when you found out her reputation, and the reputation of her illustrious family.

“While I can’t say I was expecting for you to pop up, especially not in the throne room, it’s nice to see a friendly face.” You truly mean the sentiment, and some of the built up tightness in your chest at being in this confusing dimension for as long as you have eases in Johanna Constantine’s company.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t more… forthcoming when we first met. Was hopin’- perhaps foolishly- you’d have the good sense to leave this world well alone. I see now that was futile.” Johanna means it too. Her good intentions and resulting regret practically flow off her words. Silently, Johanna makes another dent in her liquor bottle, this time out of a misplaced sense of guilt.

“No need to apologize. You helped plenty. I would’ve never known otherwise. Morpheus was fixing to drag this out as long as he could, maybe until the end of my life. I merely forced his hand.” You have to stop and laugh at the irony of it all - the choices other people have made for you to try and stop you from knowing, and how they were futile in the end.

All for nothing besides pain, grief, and betrayal. For you and him, and you, your family that you miss desperately, and Johanna.

The otherworldly beauty of your surroundings pales in comparison, unable to enchant your feelings away.

Johanna stares at you for a long moment before holding her hand out.

Next thing you know, she’s hugging you and you’re crying into the collar of her jacket that smells like laundry detergent and cigarette smoke. It’s hard to explain how a virtual stranger makes you feel so safe. You miss your friends so desperately and if you concentrate enough, you can pretend Willow is the one hugging you. Humans are pack animals, after all.

When you finally let go, Johanna presses the bottle of cider into your hand from where you had set it down on the floor. “Magical bullshit has a habit of taking innocent people, chewing them up, and spitting them out broken and unrecognizable. Dream of the Endless is the last being on this Earth or any others who should be given a gift such as yourself to care for,” She says with iron-clad conviction.

So Johanna’s grievances are deeply personal, then. “Tell me. Tell me what he did to you,” You ask, even though a small part of you doesn’t want to know.

For the first time since you’ve met her, the dark haired magician hesitates. Her face pales and she presses her lips together in a thin, tense line. In the absence of Johanna’s words, you guide her to sit with you in a pair of upholstered chairs in a small room adjoining your bedroom, a fancy reception salon of sorts.

Johanna takes her jacket off and folds it over the back of the chair before dropping heavily into the seat. “Not so much what he did to me. It’s what he did to Rachel.” She scrubs her face with a hand, drawing your attention to the dark bags under her eyes and the stress lines in her forehead.

Johanna tells you everything. The sand won from a demon, the kind woman who’s sweetness singed Johanna’s skin, how Johanna ran from Rachel’s sunlit eyes because all she’s ever known is fighting, not living. In her hurry to break that bond, she left every possession behind.

That is until Morpheus burst into Johanna’s life looking for that sand, a tall pillar of shadow and starlight who brought only destruction with him. And then the end. 

“I’m so sorry. I- I don’t know what to say.” Your voice is barely above a whisper. You hunch slightly, crossing your arms over your stomach, holding back a reflexive apology for Morpheus’s actions. Not to justify why you care for him, but because his hurts have somehow become your own. You bear his guilt.

“Do you know what it felt like to find her there? Not so much broken as she was… disintegrating. Rotting. His magic rotted her from the inside out. Morpheus’s sand left nothing of Rachel behind. She was a fuckin’ wraith,” Johanna spits out venomously. She’s too drunk to stand so she slumps even further into her chair, a tear gathering in the corner of her bloodshot eyes as she stares at the ornate ceiling.

Johanna roughly rubs it away with the long sleeve of her tight, plain charcoal black shirt. “I share most of the blame, of course. If it hadn’t been for me, for bringing the sand into her life and then abandoning her… Rachel would still be alive. There’s many, many people who would still be alive if not for my magic and I.” Her gaze flickers to you, bright with pain, as if she sees all of her ghosts stand shoulder to shoulder with you.

She takes another drink and the burning smell of alcohol grows like a specter haunting her narrative.

The bottle is halfway done. “You’re like Rachel. You’re innocent. I can fuckin’ smell the goodness coming off of you.” She’s so, so angry. “You’ve done nothing wrong and here you are. Tangled up in the supernatural, the enemy of one Endless and the obsession of another, your life forever changed. Because of one god and his carelessness and his urgent need to get his dick wet,” Johanna finishes in a mumble, her expression marred with bitterness.

“Johanna… Tell me about the others,” You urge.

“You know, I spend so much time watching good people die, and then drinking so I can forget about the sounds they made as they died, that I sometimes forget how perceptive sobriety can make you. Her name was Astra. Astra Logue.”

Your chest suddenly feels weighed down, like something’s squeezing your heart. Maybe it’s the hormones. “Astra’s a pretty name for a girl. Unique.” 

Johanna wipes her nose on the edge of her sleeve, and then rubs away the tear tracking down her cheek. “And she was just a girl when she died. When I- I killed her. Just as Dream should’ve safeguarded his corrupting sand from Rachel, kept it from ever hurting her, I should’ve protected Astra. I thought, in my hubris, that it was an easy thing to fight a demon. Summon another demon, they cancel each other out, I win. Astra survives.” 

“But it didn’t work out like that.”

Johanna shakes her head and you just… shatter. A sob builds in the back of your throat. You hold it down as this is not your grief, not your place to mourn.

“It didn’t. And she lost- Astra lost her soul. Do you understand? Her soul. My demon, that I brought into this plane, dragged her soul to Hell. I have to live with that for the rest of my days, knowing there’s a little girl being tortured from here ‘till eternity because of my mistakes. You think there’s blood on my hands? Dream of the Endless is absolutely covered in it.”

You could not be more bereft if you had been the one to birth Astra, to raise her, love her, and braid her hair everyday before school. And to know what happened to this little girl you never even met, to know that she’s in pain that will never end and no one can save her from it, no one is there to comfort Astra and tell her it will be alright…

Will it be your baby that pays the price next? You’re an adult. You know the risks of being here and with Morpheus. You consented. But bringing an unborn child into this-

Is that something you can live with on your conscience?

“Mortals and immortal things should never mix. It’s our lives they play with, and we alone suffer the consequences.” Johanna turns away from you for privacy to compose herself. Her dark red painted nails fiddle with the St. George medallion hanging around her neck, sliding it up and down the chain.

You let the quiet stand uninterrupted. A moment of silence for Astra Logue and Rachel.

Johanna breaks it first. The grief has passed and she can breathe freely now. “What are you thinking right now, love?” She asks. Her eyes are dry, if a little red still.

You’re struck by the strength that radiates off of her. The sheer force of her presence envelops her like armor. Her limbs are strung with sharpened steel, not ordinary flesh and bone.

“Can I be honest?” For all that she’s given you to think about, you know yourself. Your compass has always been pointed due North.

“By all means.” Her dark eyes are as warm as a cup of hot tea.

“I love him. I can’t not love him. I’ve tried. But I… I will never be anything other than myself. I want you to know that. You don’t have to protect me. You can forgive yourself for Astra and Rachel. I absolve you, Johanna.”

Your words pierce through her armored countenance sharper than an arrow.

“He’s not going to chew me up and spit me out. I swear it. Thank you for coming for me. Thank you for helping me to understand. He wronged Rachel and who knows who else, I don’t doubt that for one second.” You reach out to gently rest your hand on Johanna’s arm. Her body temperature runs hotter than you expect.

You have to blink away the memory of cool skin warmed by the heat of your skin and eyes the color of ice and blue flame, all at the same time. “But I’ve walked away from him before. My liberty is my beginning and end. You know when you get frostbitten, and you lose your extremities first because your body agrees to sacrifice anything to keep your organs alive? Like that. That’s how I fight, to the very last cell. If I decide to stay here, that decision will be made freely and without duress.”

Her gaze searches you for any small fracture or chipping paint in your resolve. She finds no such weakness.

“My goal was that I might convince you to walk away. But I understand. Though I won’t force you from here unwillingly, I also know you’re not here willingly.” Johanna raises one of her dark eyebrows knowingly. She’s seen this before, perhaps, seen countless other humans walk deeper into the abyss instead of returning to safer shores.

Who are you to flout convention? “I’m not, unfortunately. I wish we could’ve met again under better circumstances.” The pressure on your chest lightens as you take in Johanna’s soft, proud smile, despite how badly she wants to disapprove, and how the stress lines that signal her burdens disappear when she thinks of softer things. Like you.

It gives you pause. Perhaps in another world, another time, another universe…

Or perhaps not, as long as there were dreams to be had in those alternate realities and a dark haired lord to dream of.

Her brow furrows. “Don’t you worry. You can’t get rid of me that easily. I’m bound by honor to fight for you. To protect you, so you can truly decide if this is what you want. You’re not alone here. I will be your sword,” Johanna declares. She’s a knight with dented, tarnished armor, sure, but a knight all the same.

You’re simply unsure if you’re in need of rescue. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Not over me,” You tell her. 

“You think I can’t hold my own against him? Really? Love, I’m hurt, crushed. You’ve wounded me with your doubt,” Johanna quips, dramatically holding her hand to her chest with a fake gasp. She only holds the pose for half a second before succumbing to giggles.

“My apologies, Lady Knight.” You summon all the poise you can and incline your head with the affected, overdone elegance of some queen from a storybook.

Johanna’s giggles turn into hiccups, no doubt from the prodigious quantity of moonshine. “‘S alright, princess. You’ll see.”

“Why do I have the strangest feeling you mean that literally?” You sigh as you gently pry the empty bottle away from her, feeling half like a mother already.

Her eye teeth, unnaturally long and sharp like twin daggers, poke out of her parted lips stretched into a thin smile. “Some things are still for me to know and you to find out.”

You nod as if that platitude is enough, as if lies from Johanna Constantine’s mouth are easier to swallow than lies from Morpheus’s. But you know instinctively that if you went to Morpheus and asked outright, he’d tell you the truth. “Alright, I’ll leave it be. For now. But don’t be fooled- I’ll find out whatever it is you’re plotting eventually.” Johanna has underestimated you.

Morpheus doesn’t. He told you he loved you after you slit a man’s throat for him.

She pats your hand gently before pulling herself to her feet and stretching her wiry, muscular arms above her head. “I have no doubt about that, princess. Get some rest. No offense but you look…” Johanna gestures to the marks on your face left by sleepless nights, the hollows of your eyes so dark they almost look like bruises.

And the sallow tinge to your skin, and how you grimace every now and then, painfully reminded by your swollen joints and overworked muscles that you were not meant for this environment. You were not born to thrive here, without real sunlight. There is only the impression of sunlight dreamed by billions, and the air is not the air of the atmosphere of Earth. Your lungs don’t know how to process the memory of air in place of the real stuff.

“Sometimes it’s hard to sleep here. I can’t tell the difference anymore when I’m asleep and when I’m awake,” You admit, tucking your chin into your collarbone, feeling a sudden rush of shame at the weakness bred into your genes.

No. You should not be ashamed. If you looked hard enough, you would find your own dreams built into the foundation of this great palace.

Johanna’s face twists with sympathy. “Traversing realms is difficult even for the most experienced sorcerers. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I will go to Dream of the Endless and see what we can do to make you more comfortable,” She says. She leaves with a drunken stumble, steadying herself on the doorway before making it out into the hall.

The bouquet of flowers that stands on your bedside table draws your attention. Morpheus picked them himself for you from the meadows of Fiddler’s Green. He asked you to point out the ones you liked so you wouldn’t have to bend down to gather the violets and daisies and chicory yourself. You remember how his eyes fluttered shut in contentment when you touched his cheek in thanks.

A fevered urge stirs in your breast, taking control of your shaking hands and disoriented mind. You recognize it as a desire for unveiled honesty and the comfort that can only be found in someone else’s arms.

[silverag09]

5am rambling about Sky cause my sleep schedule is severely wack - includes personal headcannons about lore lmao- everything below the cut so you don’t get blasted with a billion words ✨

Heads up: this is not a fun silly Headcannon. It is

s a d.

You’ve been warned. There is a cute little doodle at the very bottom of this to make it up to anybody who reads this tho

This mainly pertains to moth players and Eden, I came up with this after watching a few folk’s own lore videos on their sky kid’s backstories and whatnot- imagine

Yknow all the moths you’ve adopted, guided through the world and befriended in the process? Once they enter Eden, that has the potential to determine their entire fate.

The moth’s who enter Eden, with or without your help, have to make it through. One way or another. Or, they don’t. They quit halfway through because they’re too afraid, or they don’t understand what they’re meant to do. Some manage to make it through Eden, but then think that’s the end of the game. No more, no seasons, no travelling spirits, no upcoming events, nothing.

I imagine the moths who never fully make it through Eden simply just.. die, in a sense. Their light, their soul, whatever you may call it, was not strong enough to withstand the storm and they simply perish and become one of the many statues trapped there, until you eventually come for your next run and free them.

Alternatively, the ones who make it out but quit shortly after - they were corrupted in some form by Eden - namely, the same power that may or may not have corrupted Resh - the Eden elder and/or king. I have my own theories about Resh too- but that’s for another time. They don’t continue, so their light/wings don’t grow stronger. Almost like an infection, they don’t have the strength to fight off the ‘virus’ (the corruption) as time passes, they remain stagnant and the corruption chips away at them until they ‘die’.

The sky kids who’ve fallen to corruption eventually return to either the wasteland or eden. Those who find themselves in the wasteland deteriorate slowly over time, transforming into crabs or simply dying, their bodies becoming seeds for dark plants to take root. Those who end up back in Eden aren’t so fortunate to have such a peaceful end. And I’m using the term peaceful very, very lightly.

Those who returned to Eden are back in the direct line of contamination from, as stated previously, the same power that corrupted Resh - their bodies rapidly deteriorate and give out on them, their remaining light unable to stay strong enough to stave off death. They don’t remain ‘dead’ for long though, the remains mutating into dark dragons or other beings of pure darkness. They wander aimlessly, trying to find any source of light in the hopes that they can relight the fire they lost, have the hope that - as minuscule as it may be - they can return to the lands of Sky and return to their normal life. The consciousness of the child who’s been mutated remains partially intact, that’s the only reason they’re still hunting down anything that gives off warmth - but they’re not aware of what they’ve become. All they know is that they’re cold, and that other sky kids run away from them no matter what they do.

In other words, the sky kids who don’t make it through are eternally trapped, until you provide them brief respite through freeing them during your weekly/monthly/etc runs. That’s why you see them in orbit sometimes. Those who can’t or refuse to continue perish, to put it very bluntly. I imagine after a certain length of time, their remaining consciousness fades entirely and all that’s left is a monster of darkness, wandering with nothing but subjecting others to the same fate as it fell to on its mind, taking out the envy, anger, and spite that got left behind on the poor souls it finds - those that have wandered where they should never have gone.

———————————————————

Ngl the only reason I came up was this is cause I wanted all the players who’ve quit at Eden, before/in/after, to have a purpose. It sounds bad when I put it like that but idk how else to put it— my old account, I started just before season of dreams started and I quit the same week cause I didn’t want to go through Eden, and I was unaware there was more to the game aside from “fly through pretty world, talk to old spirit looking things, die.” I returned to the game midway through season of remembrance, and I’m very glad I did. I don’t have a lot of headcannons for lore or anything like that, but this is one of them, and as sad as it is- I like it. I love the krill, I love the dark creatures and I love the light creatures too. I feel like the dark creatures don’t get enough love sometimes and I wanted to make something dedicated to them - and, again, it’s sad, but this makes me love them even more- even if I fell asleep by accident while playing that one time and got attacked by the krill and crabs so many times that I got sent to the pity room. Meh.

Anyways, here’s a doodle of my skykid and his buddies to make you less sad 👌

[tobeywobey]

this is me asking about your grandberry pirate gillion au :0

YESYAYYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this spawned cuz of a swordfish supercut and also the joke lizzie made abt "you come on this ship you're my crew"

ok SOOO its canon-compliant UP until 53/57, around there ! gilly takes Not Ferin Well a whole lot worse, especially the almost jay betrayal! hes basically the same as he is in canon (atleast to jay and chip) but hes so upset over jay lying to them this whole time even after what theyve been through together. lizzie and caspian roll up on the half a ship and yk yk, gill goes to help and lizzie makes the "hes on my ship, hes on my crew" and. gill just thinks shes serious and hes shocked and then kind of relieved? he didnt know how to confront chip and jay about what happened on block and now he doesnt have to! and so he just. says goodbye to jay and chip and lizzie is like oh shit youre fr? ok welcome aboard. LOL .

jay and chip take this as well as youd expect! theyre obviously very betrayed and upset, and chip is mad at both gill but also Lizzie cuz in his mind she has just taken his best friend away from her :( they go their separate ways after an argument between all of them (mainly gill, lizzie and chip) and jay keeps trying to convince chip to go back, chip keeps trying to sail them forward and is even more deadset on finding arlin now (they drop off ollie way sooner, as soon as they get to zero-- which they leave for after allport)

gill would start to feel guilty but also the training hes doing with caspian and lizzie starts to help him, and hes also coming to terms with being in the oversea and in his mind the grandberry ship is helping him a lot!

anyways a lot of time passes, both ships go on canon-compliant adventures (HOWEVER. grandberry pirates fight off against the navy a lot more than riptide crew does in canon, so gill is also dealing with that .)

since it starts out near ep 50ish, its near ep 100 where they are reunited (in the black sea!) niklaus tempts lizzie (and by proxy the rest of the crew) by saying if they go and help him with what he needs (which is uh. gillion. its the same thing he wants gill to do in canon) that he will bring ava back (he can Totally do that guys.) and then he gets A BIT SILLY and goes to riptide pirate crew (atp theyd have all the normal npcs minus queen cuz that was all gillion's doing) and is like. Do you Want your Fish Guy? Hes somewhere in the black sea. find him for me and ill make sure he comes back to you guys . :D (he can also Totally do that.)

they meet in the black sea, have the same battle they did when they first got there (both albatross and grandberry together) and gill is still the one who saves jay which leads to sillyness ^_^ gill and jay . talk it out and whatnot, chip (once he stops refusing to talk to gill) and gill argue about it and have. surprise. another ice arena moment. theyre so insane.

---also extra notes--- :D

i dont exactly think hed say hes happier on the grandberry ship than with chip n jay i just . think hes definitely less worried about being the main protector? he knows caspian and lizzie can hold their own (not saying jay and chip cant its just .. you know..) and is living with a lot less stress and also has worked through undersea trauma like how he does in canon except with lizzie and caspian so . hes definitely living a better life, and if offered a place back on the riptide crew he wouldnt just abandon lizzie and caspian after all that especially cuz he still has lingering pain from jay betrayal ^_^

has lizzie/ava (past), swordfish QPR (i love them), liz/casp (QPR) (have you heard how caspian talks abt liz?), and uh........ yeah thats it.

also little idea idk where to fit in here . thinking abt gill missing ollie and chip (once theyve made up) being like "the three of us can go back to Zero and see him!" and gill is just like .. "chip this is my family now, im so much happier here than I have been (OUCH.) I can't in good conscious rejoin you as a riptide pirate after i've spent so long with as a grandberry pirate. However I would Like to see ollie." but both ships go and see ollie bc. yeah ^_^. chip is. devastated :(

hes much stronger and also slightly crazier! the navy trying to kill you will do that to you ^_^

i feel like i had something else to say but i forgot it.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

sou !! hello !! this is also random and specific but i saw the datekou headcanon post and i was wondering. might you have any inarizaki road trip hcs?

i didn't until you asked me so LET'S GO

oh god you thought dateko was bad??? they were only stuck in the car for thirty minutes at MOST

(or something idk i haven't quite mapped out their geography yet but miyagi is a coastal prefecture and sendai isn't like SUPER far inland, so i'm just making assumptions out here)

but anyways. kurosu is driving obviously as much as he moans and groans about it

shoutout to the coaches btw they are CARRYING these headcanons

realistically i guess they'd road trip to another school for a training camp or like idk. maybe hot springs for some r&r bc inarizaki def has the budget for it but in my heart they road trip to suna's hometown during one of the breaks so suna can see his family <333

i guess it also kind of depends on WHERE in hyogo and aichi they are but we could get a solid 4-5 hours of driving if it was from, say, asago to tahara

kita makes a list of all the snacks everyone wants and rounds up aran, oomimi, and akagi to help him raid the market/convenience store like the old hunter-gatherer days

they end up with two massive tote bags of drinks, chips, cookies, and other miscellaneous snacks and one cooler for things like puddings and cakes and whatnot

oomimi sits shotgun because kurosu needed someone to help with directions and everyone else was on "make sure the miyas don't kill each other before we get there" duty

they all thought that kita was brilliant for making atsumu sit in the back and osamu up front because even tho they're separated the twins will NOT stop bickering and trying to throw random pieces of trash at each other. poor riseki gets caught in the crossfire the most often

they all converged to make one giant road trip playlist so you've got the weirdest mix of pop rock/bubblegum/k-pop/city pop, lofi, indie soft rock, show tunes and soundtracks, and more

(i named those genres with certain charas in mind so like. have fun figuring that out!)

nobody's willing to take a nap in fear of what the twins might do to each other when they're not looking

they play really stupid games like the alphabet-chain game and i spy and even try for a few rounds of truth or dare because, hey, there's nothing like being stuck in a car with your fellow teenagers for four hours to set the mood for emotionally vulnerable bonding time, right?

anyways. everyone learns that gin is afraid of heights and all sorts of horror movies, akagi would like to get his ears pierced some day, kosaku got rejected in middle school in front of his entire class and has refused to fall in love since, and suna takes pictures to capture the memory of a place he does not want to forget

(sorry i'm being emo about suna missing home again i'll stop)

kurosu is sweating BUCKETS in the front seat btw. "oh my god what do i do with this information am i supposed to talk to them i'm their TEACHER i'm supposed to guide them i do NOT get paid enough for this - "

a shame, really, considering inarizaki could definitely afford to give that man a raise

it's okay they get some really funny dares like daring gin to text his crush a totally random and weird question

(and thank god atsumu has his phone tucked away in his bag)

there's not a whole lot of dares they can do in the car tbh so they get really creative like daring osamu to eat this absolutely evil concoction of mixing tiramisu pudding into a bag of spicy chips and eating the whole thing

he does. nobody knows how he survived it

and then riseki dared both osamu AND atsumu to shut up and sit down and not even so much as GLANCE each other for the rest of the trip

this was at, like, the 1.5 hour mark btw

and okay he didn't say it EXACTLY like that because riseki is a sweet respectful underclassman but that WAS the closest to snapping he's ever gotten

they do stop occasionally here and there to get out and stretch their legs, but this makes their trip even longer bc it takes like thirty minutes each time to wrangle everyone and get them back in the van

also akagi is trying out his most terrible pickup lines. or antipickup lines. either one works

akagi: "are you lactose? because i can't tolerate you ;)" aran: "PLEASE, MAKE HIM STOP"

the only reason aran feels like he isn't completely suffering is because gin is sitting next to him and gin is kind of soothing like a cute pet would be. not that aran is thinking of gin as a pet nooooo ahahaha that would be weird

meanwhile gin is wondering why aran keeps trying to feed him crackers

they finally get to suna's hometown after being on the road for SIX AND A HALF HOURS

and while everyone is happy to be outside soaking up the sun and fresh air, they're all going to miss the bonding of being stuck in a van perhaps just a little bit

it's all right, they've got the return trip to look forward to

(made 100x worse when akagi busts out a drinking game and proclaims they should play with juice boxes, but that's a story for another time)

[theviridianbunny]

WIP WEDNESDAY (18/10/23)

it’s that time of the week- happy wip Wednesday! (how is it Wednesday already?! Where has the week gone?!) Anyway- so bunny- what have you been working on this week?

CP2077! VIRIDIAN COMPLEXION MOD (INSPIRED BY MAKEUP FROM THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO)

Ok I’ve not touched Wolvenkit or any modding tools in literally months. But I saw a few screenshots of Rooney Mara in character as Lisbeth Salander (from the 2011 girl with the dragon tattoo movie) and it made me want to load up modding tools and try something again. So far I’ve literally only just got a test complexion made - it’s currently too thick and patchy - but it’s a start. And a start is better than nothing… for now I’m Just playing about with markmaking and stuff for now - just spitballing and seeing what works !

BG3! VIRIDIAN AND HALSIN FANART

Now this bad boi has been in my drafts for like…. Ages now. I’m sharing a cropped wip/ close up wip shot here ! I’m really having so much fun working on this and popping in all the little details and whatnot. I’ve not been able to art much recently (mostly just because my brain has been in 80 places at once lololol) so when I do have the spoons to art - it’s a cosy time! There is a method to my scribbly n messy madness lol

tagging (with zero pressure as always!) : @withoutyouimsaskia @wanderingaldecaldo @alistairs @roarmoreau @heywoodvirgin @caffeinatedrogue @humberg @pozerjacket @wistereia @@mrdekarios @gortash @elmknight @grovekeepers @genocidalfetus @chipped-chimera @dustymagpie @nncc77 @thedeadthree @sankttealeaf @totentnz @togepies @halsin @luvwich @fereldanwench @aggravateddurian @another-corpo-rat and you (yes you- the awesome human reading this)- what have you been making recently?? I’d love to see!!

[munsonology]

a little something i whipped up just now. i’m gonna fix all the grammar and things and give it a proper title and whatnot later ok 😭

I think Nunny bakes in the middle of the night. On those slow, dreary nights when she can’t sleep. She slips Eddie’s shirt on and her bunny slippers and sneaks to the kitchen, careful to avoid the creak by the bathroom.

And she bakes. Flour is everywhere. eggs, sugar, dough, extract, all of their cabinet is laid out on the countertops.

she’s in a frenzy. cookies, muffins, cinnamon rolls (her favorite).

she’s so focused she doesn’t realize eddie is standing in the kitchen doorway. and she doesn’t realize when he’s right behind her, his arms wrapping around her. she jumps and he holds her tighter, nuzzling into her neck.

“it’s 3am,” eddie mumbles. Nunny’s hand doesn’t stop cracking eggs.

“mmhmm,” she responds. eddie’s hands crawl up his shirt she’s wearing to cup her stomach.

“baby…what’s gotten into that head of yours?”

“nothing.”

“well it’s not nothing, you’ve been baking nonstop for five days now.”

she ignores his concerns and reaches for another egg. eddie grips her wrist. the comforting pressure makes her drop the egg in the carton.

in the silence of the kitchen, the streetlights shining through the window, the bedroom tv faintly playing in the background, they stood together. no words shared, just the breathing in of each others soul.

“i got a letter in the mail last week,” nunny mumbles. anxiety creeps upon her and she makes a grab for a bag of chocolate chips. her nervous hands struggle with the bag, ripping it open. chocolate chips fly all over the counter.

“fuck!”

with a shaky breath makes a move to clean it up but eddie’s strong grip holds her still.

he says her full name. she stops, he only addresses her that way during serious conversations. and when he’s being a little shit.

eddie reaches for the chocolate chip bag. “i’ll fix it ok? i’ll fix it,” he whispers in her ear. he empties the bag into the batter.

“what’s next?”

“vanilla extract,” nunny sniffles. he follows her directions, realizing it’s the cookie recipe from the first batch she made for him and the boys at the bar.

eddie looks around the kitchen. “where’s your mixer?”

“the motor blew.”

“hmmm…hand mixing it is then.”

eddie picks up the mixing spatula and gets to turning the thick dough.

he doesn’t press the lingering question.

“the church.”

“what about it?”

“that’s who sent the letter. it’s from the archbishop. he wants to meet with me at the end of the month.”

“did he say what for?”

“probably about you…us. it was bound to make the rounds. nun gets caught getting fucked at the alter and oh! he’s also a demon in line to take over the underworld.”

“would it be better if i was a priest?”

nunny turns around in his arms. she slaps his shoulder and he busts out laughing. he picks her up and sets her down on the counter, standing between her thighs.

her lips tremble. nunny leans forward, her cheek on his shoulder.

“i’m scared, eddie.”

his hands rub her back softly. “i know, baby.”

“what if—what if it doesn’t work out this time? reality has been lurking around the corner and what if this time i can’t escape?”

“you’re not getting caught alone.”

he holds her for a while. the kitchen clock chiming.

4am.

“if it makes you feel better i told Him no.”

nunny lifts her head. eddie’s thumbs wipe away the tear stains.

“you told satan no?”

“i sure did.”

“—but who’s going to—how—”

“not my problem. he can find someone else. father or not, it’s time for me to make my own decisions.”

nunny smiles gently. she pecks his lips. i love yous are whispered between them.

reaching for one of her many baked goods, she offers a muffin to eddie. they eat the treat, feeding each other and giggling at their cat straits jumping on the counter.

“what’d you tell him?” nunny asks. “satan. what’d you tell him when he asked?”

at that moment eddie feels a cold chill on the back of his neck. in the toaster behind eddie he sees the face of the man in question.

eddie turns the toaster around, “not today.”

[halfmoth-halfman]

So I just read the new chapter, beautful work with the afterlife of Canary and seeing her father Adler again. The flames, the rage, Canary finally being SICK of it---- I am ready for the rage. I also appreicated the way her father just said "you're fault, I may have been shit and like hiring the docotor whose wife I killed wasn't the best idea, but the shit you got yourself is all you" talk bc Canary did try, but now she has that "bitch better have my money", "Jawn" Wick, Alabama riverboat brawl, 'cuz I'll air this bitch out', 'fuck it, I'll do it myself', energy that I just love to see on women *chefs kiss*. And then the face shift from Adler to Makarov really did it for me, and miss girl still held her owwwnnnnnn. She not playin' with y'all no more Graves, Kira, Makarov, 141 + Price inlcuded and even Kate (idk what she'd do, but if Canary got beef, then we all got beef).

And then her choice to go back to the land of the living bc she ain't no punk ass bitch???? Water my crops and made me want to get on my Zoom since I ain't been in session since I graduated and told myself to only take a 2 week break max then get on these job applications. Waking up and already being sarcastic and witty with Rudy is such a change to what I would've imagined her waking up like (being more frazzled, and scared, etc.). And then having everyone in the room tired as hell, weeks taken off her life and whatnot--- THEN TO BE TOLD PRICE GOT ARRESTED BC HE MURDERED HER!!!! Kate better swoop in and do her job, Shepherd better do some white people and police offer shit to get Price out so Canary can dog him for what he put her through. Then I wanna see Canary with the nine from Jamal, I need her hands Rated E for Everyone as a testmant to her last name and who tf she is and always been.

Also, your story is the first story I ever been waiting on for the chapter drop like when people wait on Rihanna for an album. I was pacing, then was like 'why tf is she in PST????' with my EST ass. And I even watched the new Zoey 102 movie to pass time then have a friend on FT bc I was STRESSED. I read through that too fucking fast, and you legit give me the energy to write, I just don't know what to write or feel that spark really. I legit sat here refreshing this forsaken app like it was Twitter lmfaooooo

Lots of love

aaaaaaaa thank you so much!!! 💜

i'm also ready for canary's rage, and her deciding to really embody the adler name and get her money and estate back like the queen she is. adler and canary have a very complicated relationship, and a lot of it stems from her mother's death. i think adler knows that his wife's death falls like 98% on his shoulders, but has shifted blame to canary because it's easier for him to be mad at someone else even if it's his own daughter. he's always been a little harsher on her than he was with graves, but convinced himself that it was for her own benefit and to make her stronger in the world that he was raising her to be a part of and take over.

so, of course, when everything goes down with graves and canary waltzes into purgatory/limbo while graves has control over everything, adler is pissed, regardless of the circumstances leading to that outcome. to me, he has a very black and white view of canary's situation and thinks that if she wanted to, she could've found a way out or to get rid of graves when it's not that simple. for canary, it feels like just another thing he's blaming her for, and she's realizing that almost every man in her life - graves, makarov, adler, shepherd, even price - are all the same; they all see her as a tool to be used, a bargaining chip, and she's not having it anymore. canary really is out for blood now, but whether or not the 141 is going to be included in that is undecided.

i don't think there was any other choice for her than to go back. like wanting to continue the story aside, adler was right when he figured she wouldn't be able to live with herself letting graves win, and canary knew that. sure, if she'd stayed she would get to see her mother and not have to worry about makarov or price or anyone else, but letting graves get away with no consequences after everything he's done to her? absolutely not.

i think she is a bit frazzled, but also more resolute after talking with her father. she knows what needs to be done, she knows she's going to need the 141 to do it, but she also knows she doesn't have to be happy and nice about it either. cordial, yes, but she's not going to forget what they accused her of anytime soon.

who knows what shepherd is going to do with price, but i can absolutely tell you canary's hands are rated e for everyone 24/7 365. she is out for blood, and she doesn't intend on taking any prisoners.

"refreshing this forsaken app like it was Twitter" LMAOOOOO i'm so glad that you're enjoying this fic that much omg, i love reading through everyone's thoughts about where the story's going to go. honestly, you guys give me a lot of inspiration to write these chapters, esp after the 12k one because ngl that chapter was kinda draining for me to write, but y'all made it worth it! 💜

[mariacallous]

So, today.

The new staff event I was asked to coordinate happened at 3pm. My supervisor had scheduled a meeting or whatever to prep for it at 10:30 this morning.

It's 10:45 before they tell me the meeting they're in is running over and that they'll ping me when they're available/done.

I don't hear anything from them for 2 hours, and it's when they walk by the office where I'm working on something with a coworker that they pop their head in and apologize and then say they'll try to find time before the event.

Meanwhile, they had said yesterday they wouldn't be able to attend a meeting I had asked to be rescheduled because of this event, and then like not too long before the new start time the overall team director has a conflict and can't make it. So I got it canceled and we'll meet in the new year, with apologies to the late notice to the attendees.

I'm also sending reminders for the event to those people invited, and I noticed that there's a lot of meeting forwarding notices and whatnot, and I'm like "...uh...okay..." but don't really think much about it or care. (I had brought chips and salsa and spinach dip and sodas and so forth yesterday for this, plus napkins, cups, and plates and utensils. My supervisor gave me a $20 (which I wasn't expecting anything anyway so that was pretty nice) since this is the first event for new staff both since our last new staff welcome and since the spending freeze which means no funds for refreshments for events basically, among other things, and I didn't want to have some kind of half-ass thing where people show up but there's nothing to eat or do besides talk).

Anyway, I find out a short while later that apparently the overall team director, seeing the "small number of confirmed attendees" had invited not only new staff external to our division but also people who had been around longer than the cutoff identified. Hence all the meeting forwarding notices and new confirmations.

Okay, fine. I also want to point out that part of my ask had been to get a list of new staff since January, with their start dates, identify the cutoff, get them invited etc. and also provide the list for division staff to review and update. I heard nothing back but people sure made a fucking mess of that excel doc I was told to make a onedrive/shared document. Anyway, whatever.

I'm helping another coworker double-check data and other information since we're in one of the busiest parts of the year with lots of project and other updates and work being done, and we had to spend some time unfucking the shared document version of a report this coworker puts together and was, again, told to make available to share with division staff to provide updates directly. Lots of them didn't do it, and had to be reminded to mark off they had done it, so tracking and checking has been a huge pain. That ate up a good amount of time because this coworker had to keep stopping to handle other updates and emails (which I completely understood and helped with where I could).

A meeting happens and for a while I'm the only person from our team so I just say to get started. The overall team director arrives late, and then asks questions and brings things up that could/should have been discussed sooner but end up being worked out.

There was another meeting that was supposed to happen today that I flagged for the overall team director and my supervisor, in that "hey, is this meeting still happening and do we have an agenda for it?" way. 15 minutes before the start time the overall team director sends a teams message to the meeting attendees asking if there's an agenda for the day. And pushed the meeting later. And then it took forever before it was finally cancelled.

During this, another coworker's husband had been working on cornhole boards for the office and he brought them by. I checked them out and complimented them and whatnot (and of course they're by my desk). Of course the overall team director wants a picture of them with everyone in them (one coworker quietly ducked away before this) and I was at my desk when they said "Oh, Sean, come on, get in the picture!" and kept pushing so I had to get short. They're response was "Okay, then you take the picture" which I said I had no problem doing. My supervisor either didn't hear or decided to also try to push and get me in the picture and once again I had to get rather short and definitive. I took the picture and hoped that would be the end of it. Nope. They decided to break in the boards and have a quick round. So I have to wait for a lull to get out of my cubicle and go elsewhere, like the restroom or wherever, and then have to dodge and do the same coming back.

It comes time to finally prep for the event. I stop by my supervisor's office to get the items and then we head down. The overall team director was going to join us to help and bring their stuff down as well. We got the room set up and I had to be the one to log in to the computer and get that figured out since they were blindly turning screens on and trying to make things happen. The overall team director brought *a* bag/bunch of grapes and *a* bunch of clementines, and that's it. We also used leftover stuff from our office holiday event yesterday. During the setup and other stuff they started talking about where we all were during the pandemic? and other things which was awkward.

Oh, and they decided they wanted people to do some kind of activity - "what 3 items would you bring on a desert island?" and then have people answer it etc.

People start showing up, I'm just trying to lay low and not draw attention to myself but I do end up chatting with a few people and they were all very nice and eager. People are kinda-sorta participating in the desert island thing but not really. People mingle, introduce themselves to each other, socialize etc. It's going okay. We end up with well over 20 people. Finally the overall team director has everyone go around the room and have people introduce themselves and some people also do the activity. There was talk of a picture being taken with the group but it didn't happen. Other people had other staff events to get to. There was one that one division verbally invited me and others to, happening like right after ours, and I noticed it was on the calendar of both my supervisor and the overall team director. Huh okay. I wasn't planning on going anyway because I had follow-ups and other stuff to do. The event peters out and we start cleaning up the room. The overall team director is just so enthused and amazed at how great it was and how everything came together. I'm just tired and want to be done.

I go back up to check with the other coworker on the data stuff, and they had ended up staying later because of delays in responses and so we're doing other checks and updates. I go back to my desk to get some things looked at and my supervisor comes over and goes "hey, I'm going over to the other division's thing, do you want to come check it out?" I say no thank you and then both of them depart. I say goodbye to the other coworker as they leave, wrap up my stuff, and then leave, and as I leave I can hear my supervisor and the team director chatting and debriefing and decide I don't want to attract any notice.

I end up getting on the wrong subway train but manage to ride it a good amount of the way before I switch to the correct one. And I made it home with various leftover items so that wasn't too bad.

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter Thirteen

Jude slides into the seat across from me at the table of this brightly lit Turkish kebab place on Liffey Street. He’s only bought a bottle of Pepsi, while I’ve piled the table high with taco chips, lamb kebab, chicken goujons and a giant strawberry milkshake. I eye him as he twists open the cap of his drink. 

“Wow, greedy.” I say.

He laughs. “Yeah you’re going to have to have me airlifted out of here. Can I’ve a chip?” He reaches out but I smack his hand away. “You’re doing that thing that boys always complain about, when girls don’t order enough food so they steal theirs.” 

“Come on.” He says. “Just one, for God’s sake.” I relent and let him, but only one. I eye him suspiciously as he plucks it out of the box.

“Did you want to count it?” He teases. “To make sure I’ve not hidden another one in my hand?”

“Okay just shush for a minute.” I urge him. “I just really want to eat.” He signs and leans back in the seat, taking slow, leisurely sips of his pepsi while I tear at my food like some kind of feral beast. Nothing has ever tasted as delicious as this particular kebab, in this particular restaurant, even though the floors are sticky and there’s a drunk man snoring in the booth across from us thus creating an interesting ambience. 

“Skipped dinner?” He queries after a few minutes of silence where he allows me to satiate myself.

“Mmm.” I say. “Didn’t have time to eat.” I grab a napkin and swipe it across my mouth, afraid that it’s as coated in sauce as my hands are. I try to get some small talk going to distract from what is probably an abominable sight for him. “So you ate at some Mexican restaurant earlier?”

“Yeah, we did.”

“Risky move, I’d say, bringing an American to a Mexican restaurant.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because everyone knows we can’t ever compete with the way they do it over there. Everyone’s always like ‘Oh you don’t know Mexican food until you go to the states’. Or whatever.”

“Or Mexico.” He supplies, and I grin.

“In case your memory has been lost to the sands of time, I did actually live my entire teenage life in Dublin. I was here for the inception of the burrito craze, but still, you’re right. It’s not the same.” He drums his fingers on the side of the plastic bottle. He’s still got some of that zippy, restless energy that he used to have, but not as intensely as before. I no longer get the sense that he might rocket out of his seat at any moment. “It was nice to see Shane and Claire again, they both look good.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah! Shane looks so much fitter than he ever did, he’s in great shape.”

“He’s been training a lot. He has to drive back home twice a week to train with the team, and even outside of that he’s in the gym the whole time.”

“Good for him.”

“Bit miserable though, you don’t think?”

He smirks. “Clearly you think so.”

“Well.” I begin, swallowing a huge mouthful of kebab. “He doesn’t really ever do anything fun. He gets barely any free time, and even at that his coach has all these strict rules about how much he’s allowed to drink and whatnot.”

“Alright Evie.” He says in a mock-condescending voice, but it makes me feel a little ashamed all the same. I never realised how easily unkind words spilled out of my mouth before, and it’s not even like I have a particular problem with Shane. But Jude is being nice, he goes on speaking before I start flailing around looking for an excuse for myself.

“I remember having to do that back when I was on my school rugby team.” He reminisces. “Funnily enough, another rule was abstinence.”

I glance up from my food. “Really?”

“They said that sex’d diminish our energy and testosterone and we’d end up playing a weak game, but…” He shrugs. “I don’t think it ever made a real difference. It was probably another one of those weird Catholic rules that your country is obsessed with.” I bristle a little bit against the way he says ‘your country’ like he’s divorced from it, like he hasn’t got our weird Catholic blood in his veins. 

“So come on, Evie.” He says, leaning his elbows onto the table. “What’s been going on with you? I can’t believe it’s been so long since we spoke.”

“I know.” I say. “I guess we lost touch at one point there.” I slide my eyes up to meet his, not feeling as jovial as I had a minute ago, and his smile falters to become a little rueful. “Yeah, I regret that. Life got so busy for me so quickly after I moved, I guess it was kind of a whirlwind situation.” He touches his hair self consciously. “But I thought of you often, I always imagined that we might see each other again.”

“Ah well, here we are.” I say. “A year and a half later.” I watch his hand reach out to touch my arm but I swiftly move it out of the way to grab my milkshake so that his palm hits the table instead. He curls it slowly into a fist and pulls it back onto his lap. “You look really different.” He says. “You know, I always think of you with that really long hair.”

“Yeah I cut it all off.”

“ And are you still running? And swimming? Do you still do all of that?”

“No, actually, I don’t.” I say. “I suppose I fell out of the habit of it when I moved here, I don’t really do many of the things I used to do.” I’m different now, I’ve changed so much since we last spoke. I look different, I do different things, and I feel differently about him now than I did when I was seventeen. I have to keep repeating this in my head as he gives me the kind of familiar smile that threatens to wipe out the last nineteen months. 

I stare at him unsmiling. “How’s things in Berlin? Better than they were here after all?”

“Really good. Hey.” A frown comes between his eyebrows and the corners of his pretty mouth turn downwards with concern. “Are you angry with me over losing touch?”

“Why’d you ask?”

“You’ve just gone so chilly all of a sudden, I don’t know.”

I pause for a moment. “It’d be a bit intense if I was still angry over something like that, wouldn’t it?”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Well, good to know you got my email. It’s a pity it wasn’t worth responding to.”

He laughs with surprise, as though he was expecting me to act the way I used to act. Docile. “Oh, come on, don’t be like that. I could have dealt with it better, but I was in a new city, and there were all of these new people. I left it sitting there too long and then, well, it felt like it’d be weird to respond after so much time.”

“Well, you know if you really wanted to you could have emailed me in a new thread.”

He arches his eyebrow “And equally, you could have sent the first message.”

I snap my mouth shut and pick through my food again, knowing that he’s right, but also knowing that I wouldn’t have been capable of doing something like that, double emailing him, like some kind of pathetic, desperate fool. The kind of pitiful low that I’d never have stooped to, not in front of him. 

“You have a new piercing in your ear.” I say quietly after a few moments of silence, grasping at anything that will stop this conversation heading down a too-vulnerable path. He reaches up to fiddle with the third tiny hoop in his ear, this one on the left side, looped around his anti-helix. 

“Yeah I figured that I already have a girl’s name and my dad thinks the other two piercings mean I’m gay so I might as well double down.” He grins. “I got it done when I went to Slovenia, actually. It was painful.”

“Little baby.” I tease. “I don’t remember mine being that bad, I got it done when I was like sixteen.”

His eyes go wide as he suddenly recalls. “I remember your piercings, you used to have four on one ear. Let me see.”

I turn my head to show him that they’re all gone now, nothing dangling from them but a simple set of gold hoops in my lobes. “I took them all out.” I admit. “They just didn’t feel like me anymore.”

“Damn, I always thought they were cool.” I almost remind him that nothing about me back then was cool, but then stop myself because I know now that language like that is a trap and he’ll only feel obligated to deny it. 

“Any other surprises up your sleeve?” I ask him, and he quickly steals another chip. I don’t stop him, finally starting to feel human again. 

“Funny you should ask.” He says as he chews on it. “I got this in Thailand.” He rolls up the left sleeve of his sweatshirt to show me the tattoo on the smooth inner skin of his forearm. It’s a mango on a stem with two leaves, done in simple black ink with this appealing, sketchy style. It looks a bit like something he might have drawn.

“Oh, nice.” I say. “Did you design it?”

“No, the woman in the tattoo parlour did. We were just passing by and I knew I had to get something done by her, like, I knew it was a kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

“Does it mean something special?”

He grins. “Nope, it’s just a nice drawing.”

“Fair enough.” I wonder what it’s like to be so nonchalant about something that’s going to be on your body for the rest of your life. It’s exactly the kind of free spirited thing that I wish I was capable of doing, but sometimes I have anxiety dreams that I’ve gotten a tattoo that I regret in a really prominent place like my face and for some reason nobody will laser it off for me. I take them as a sign that I’m not ready for anything so permanent. He picks at my chips again and I slide them towards him so he can tuck in with fervent enthusiasm, and while he eats I ask him about Thailand. 

“I went May last year.” He says. “I always wanted to visit. So my friend Jonas and I decided to take off for a month while we had the chance and it was incredible. Seriously. I think everyone should go and experience it if they can.”

“Really? What was it like?”

“I can’t even do it justice by trying to describe it to you. C’mere.” He pats the seat next to him and pulls out his phone. “I’ll show you some pictures.”

I slide out of my seat and move in next to him, being very careful to leave enough room for Jesus between us in case our legs touch and sand of those dangerous feelings I used to have come flying back. 

“No Blockia.” I comment. 

“Hm?”

“Your old phone. It’s gone.”

“Yes.” He grins. “I couldn’t fight the future anymore, it just wasn’t practical, I needed Google Maps to get around.”

“They have torches built in now, did you know.”

He exhales a laugh and shakes his head. “Alright, well, let’s look at my holiday to Thailand, when you’re ready.” And he starts scrolling through photographs of the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen, his phone screen becoming like a travel brochure with almost unrealistically spectacular vistas. Thailand looks like paradise, crystal blue waters and white sand, these huge rocks covered in lush vegetation jutting out of the sea and the sky awash with gold as the sun sets over a bay. “That was Railay Beach.” He narrates. “Jonas got food poisoning from a street vendor and was holed up in the hotel for two days so I just wandered around on my own.” Next he shows me photos of beach bars with thatch roofs, of intertwining roots of mangrove trees and of people selling shell necklaces under colourful tents. He’s taken a snap of a hand painted sign that says, in English: Beach This Way.

“You know, in a funny way, it kind of reminds me of the beach we stayed on.” I tell him. “Just something about the way those signs are painted, it’s like how it was at the Surf Shack.”

“Actually, I thought the same thing.” He says, and flicks to the next picture, which is him and a big, blonde German looking guy, presumably Jonas, standing in a little wooden boat holding a pair of oars. “Oh, this is when Jonas was better.” 

“I like your hair band.” I say, snickering. 

“Ha. Yeah, well, my hair was longer, I needed to keep it out of my eyes somehow.”

“Did you keep it?”

“The hairband? Why? Do you want it?”

“Oh yeah for sure, gimme. It’s so stylish.” 

He laughs and flips through more, and tells me about them all, Phuket, Ko Samui, Phi Phi islands, and even Bangkok for a few days before they flew home again. In all of the photos he’s got that golden tan that I remember he used to have, summer coloured skin lost now to the winter, and he looks so free and easy and so happy, riding on a motorbike, lying in a canoe, shirtless on the beach and stretched out doing a goofy pose on a sun lounger, I find myself mesmerised by this depiction of his life, like he’s only ever having good days, only ever in gorgeous places, smiling, happy, and I let myself get sucked into the fantasy that a life like this is possible for me too until he scrolls too far and I have to look at a picture of him kissing his girlfriend. My stomach drops instantly. 

“Oops. “ He says. “Went too far.”

I laugh awkwardly. “Oh, don’t worry, it’s okay.”

“That’s my girlfriend, Astrid.” 

“She looks pretty.” 

He nods in agreement. “She’s, yeah… she’s absolutely beautiful.” He quickly flips to another photo of her where she’s not locking lips with him and makes me look at her smiling face so that I can pretend I didn’t spend months cyber stalking her. I don’t really know what to say. “Yeah, wow, she’s something else.”

He stares down at the phone with this adoring expression on his face as though he’s the luckiest man alive and this feeling comes over me that I haven’t felt in a very long time. It’s the same way I felt when he rejected my misguided teenage attempts at seduction, and the same way I felt when I saw his face when he spoke to Michelle. It’s the feeling that I’m not what he wants. I’ll never be what he wants. The memory of it is too much and all over again I feel the stinging pain of knowing that I offered my love to someone who saw no worth in it. 

I start gathering my empty milkshake cup and the greasy papers onto a tray to dump them into a nearby bin. “We should get going now.” I tell him. “I’m sure everyone else is waiting for us at the bar, and they’ll be closing soon.”

“Right.” He says, pushing himself upright and swiping salt from his black jeans. “Thank you for the chips, by the way. I wasn’t even that hungry but those things are like crack to me.”

“No problem. And I appreciate you coming with me to get food.”

Prev // Next

[clovercow8228]

gillion and chip as hadestown!orpheus and eurydice

ok so i was listening to hadestown again because i love it dearly and i am still desperately trying to cope with ep 101 and i was like haha. chip and gillion as orpheus and eurydice. because yknow in the context of the actual myth you could compare it to the whole feywild arc and whatnot.

but then i listened to it more (more than halfway through the first song) and i realized it’s way better (worse) if you have it the other way around with chip as hadestown eurydice and gillion as hadestown orpheus. (there’s another way to read it too but we’ll get to that because it’s a bit more convoluted since. well it’s basically a game theory atp)

i’m going through this song by song because i have never felt happiness or peace ever

Road to Hell: ok so ignoring the gods for now. road to hell does eurydice a little dirty so for this song it’s just orpheus i’m talking about, but hermes describes him as a muse’s son and touched by the gods themselves. ok cool whatever so what Any Way the Wind Blows: “eurydice was a hungry young girl / a runaway from everywhere she’d ever been”? like yeah ok sure cool (side note? “ain’t nobody gonna stick around when the dark clouds roll” and  for chip, mr. constantly both afraid his crew will stay and will leave anytime something bad happens and who literally lost his family in the hole in the sea? silly.) plus for orpheus, “and this poor boy wore his heart on his sleeve / you might say he was naive to the ways of the world / but he had a way with words”. that’s my boy right there

Come Home with Me: most of this is just very funny (”oh, a liar and a player too?”) but “why would i become his wife?” “because he’ll make you feel alive” kinda got me a little tbh. and there’s also the ongoing theme of orpheus working on something to fix the balance of the world, which he can do because he’s touched by the gods.

Livin’ it Up on Top: most of this i’ll talk about when i talk about the gods because woo boy that should be a post of its own with how much psychological damage it caused me. but “there was a girl who had always run away / you might say it was in spite of herself / that this young girl decided to stay” for chip?

All I’ve Ever Known: yeahhhhhhhh nothing real metaphorical about this one. fnc shippers come get yalls juice ig idk that’s really all for that one

A Gathering Storm: title aside, the whole thing is eurydice being concerned about the practical way they will survive the winter while orpheus works on his song to make the world right again.

When the Chips are Down: hand to god i did not think about that pun until now. but yeah this whole song really sold it for me. “help yourself (to hell with the rest), even the one who loves you best / take if you can (give if you must), ain’t nobody but yourself to trust / aim for the heart (shoot to kill), if you don’t do it then the other one will” are interesting enough to think about with chip because basically his whole thing is not turning out like that but there are still some times (mainly early on) that he gets a little closer to those ideas. finally, “cast your eyes to heaven / you get a knife in the back”. put your life in the hands of anything but yourself and you get fucked over.

Wait for Me intro: alright one god i can pitch right now. hermes with the “so, just how far would you go for her? you got a ticket? yeah, i didn’t think so. course there is another way, but nah, i ain’t supposed to say.” being as mean as possible rn? hermes as niklaus would work as absolutely unfortunate as that is. which also makes the “ain’t no compass, brother, ain’t no map” line in the actual song even funnier since it’s hermes describing how to get to the underworld to save eurydice.

Wait for Me: the fates hit orpheus with the self doubt and worry that essentially he’s not the chosen one, part one. don’t really need to explain that one

Way Down Hadestown (Reprise): now hear me out on this. because hades’ whole bit is deals for people’s souls. eurydice signs a deal to give him her soul in exchange for not starving to death, and this song is her realizing what that really means and trying to defend it. which i will admit, makes it seem like it would work for niklaus too. but we’ll come back to that

If it’s True: “is this how the world is? to be beaten and betrayed and then be told that nothing changes?” now this one got me a little, between gillion’s ‘my last sin’ speech and what he said to jay in the block.

Intro to Wait for Me (Reprise): “it’s a trap?” “it’s a trial.” hermes explaining to orpheus and eurydice the conditions of them being allowed to leave. at the end of the day, according to hermes, their success rides on whether they trust each other and themselves. arguably the most recurring theme of riptide.

Doubt Comes In: orpheus doubting that he actually has the power to bring her back, thinking he has been tricked or is too weak to do it. in gillion’s own mind, his fatal flaw is not knowing if he believes he can be the chosen one or protect his friends. and for orpheus, he couldn’t.

a good amount of the songs are missing because i haven’t talked about hades and persephone yet. they’re. a separate issue

[galaxyseclipse]

OKAY

so I went through the Side Order trailer a gazillion times, so it's disorganized thoughts/theories/opinions time!

we're just gonna put a cut here in case folks don't want to read a quite long post lol

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okay, so I think the whole thing of this campaign is that it's not real. nothing that happens is actually happening to Eight, Pearl, and Dedf1sh. I mean obviously it's happening to them, but it has no affect on the real Inkopolis Square

so, I think it's either (1) a simulation/virtual "what-if?" scenario(probably created by Marina) that got corrupted or (2) that "world of order beyond comprehension" Marina mentioned that probably also got corrupted

either way it's gonna be weird, and is probably connected to computers somehow

my main reasoning for that is that every time we(as in the player) enter an area it literally loads us into the area(bringing in essentially an LoD model, then becoming the player/weapons), which most likely wouldn't happen if we weren't in some sort of virtual world

as well as this trippy glowy matrix-lookin' room thing

also the fact that Pearl is literally a drone clearly designed to look like her, and it doesn't appear as if we see her normally at all in the campaign. so my guess is that the drone is Pearl's "avatar" in this virtual world. this is further proven by her description on the Japanese website

this is a janky translation, but still, interesting wording

but why a drone? and why does it look like her? my only guess is that Marina made that avatar to look like Pearl, so she could be safe in this weird environment? I have no idea otherwise

why do Eight and Ded look normal then? why is Ded here in the first place? I have no idea, other than Ded saying they and Marina "go way back" and Eight maybe choosing to have an avatar that looks like themselves?

obviously a lot of that part of the theory relies on this world being something that Marina created and/or has/had some level of control over. I saw a theory somewhere(unfortunately I don't remember exactly) that was "maybe Marina's being controlled by whatever is all that black stuff and what's controlling the robot fish." which like, that'd be pretty dope ngl, and it'd tie into the "Marina made/discovered this place and it got out of her control" theory. and we've seen Marina precisely one (1) time, and it was in concept art that kinda made her look all glitchy and stuff

so like, I dunno guys, I think 'rina might be in danger...

sidenote: I don't really like the "Marina's the antagonist/villain" theory. it just doesn't feel in character for her to do something like that on her own will. I'm down for puppet Marina, but I just don't think she'd cause this herself

----------

something that I've seen bounced around a lot is "you can play as either an Inkling or an Octoling!" using this as proof

my honest opinion? this is a reused text string for the Run Speed Up ability. I don't think we're playing as anyone other than Eight, who is canonically an Octoling

which sucks because I'd be down to play as Agent 4, but whatever, guess they don't get adventures anymore >:(

----------

we're gonna go back to Dedf1sh(or, Acht, I guess) for a second:

this line is weird

sucked into what? the simulation? how? why? did Eight and Pearl get "sucked in" too? or is she referring to the metro?

and how does she know so much about the tower? like the color chips and whatnot? have they been here a while?

SO MANY QUESTIONS AND SO FEW ANSWERS!!

----------

also, the color chip they hold out in that cutscene appears to say "AGNT" on it

it could also say "ACHT", but I don't see why

what does this mean? does it mean anything? who knows!?

wait I got another picture of it in Eight's hand:

it kinda looks like it says "AGNT 7" on it? I dunno maybe I'm just reading things I wanna see lol

it does more strongly resemble the Latin alphabet than the other scripts in this series though, so it's definitely worth pointing out imo

----------

gameplay opinions: looks fun!

folks are saying it looks like a rougelike, and even after looking it up multiple times I still have no idea what the fuck that means

skill tree thingy with the chips and stuff looks cool, hopefully it's implemented well, or at least not in a way that makes it more inconvenient to use it than go without

a bit of a bummer that it doesn't look like you can attack while flying around with Pearl though lmao. but I do like how she looks like she can use bombs(folks have pointed out a hyperbomb in one shot too :3c), and even (maybe, the shot's kinda weird) a singular killer wail speaker

also the design of the drone is fuckin' adorable

like lookit this thing

----------

aesthetic-wise, not bad, I like the muted, pale tone of everything

...except for Acht for some reason?

like, I love Dedf1sh, and am very excited for their inclusion, but also:

octo kinda sticks out like a sore thumb

maybe that's the point, maybe that's why she's helping us, to restore the colors to this simulation or whatever it is, hence the color chips and the soundboard looking thing....

hey wait a second am I onto something?

whatever, anyway, I like how it looks, and the small portions of soundtrack we've gotten so far sound great

----------

also, something pointed out in the comments on the trailer and I thought was morbidly interesting:

those appear to be meat grinders.....

uh, yeah

not sure what kind of substance is coming out of them, but uh, yeah those strongly resemble meat grinders

Eight's gonna die because they were unable to use any small kitchen appliance and starved lmfao

----------

alright, that's all I've got for now I think lol

I wouldn't be surprised if we got one more trailer in like January or something with the release date maybe a Splatoon direct? probably not

[zedif-y]

Hello! Zedaph anon again.

I wanted to say how much I love his videos so much. He has color-coded captions on all of them so its easier for me to process and see who is talking and it's so amazing. The only other hermit I've seen do that Grian (correct me if I'm wrong.) It's just so awesome to see that and I think that people should watch more Zedaph.

On a side note if I wanted to start watching Impulse then where should I start?

hi zed anon!! <3

and yes, exactly!! i think grian is the only other hermit who does that and it's so so helpful. people should just generally watch more of zedaph because his videos are always SO creative but- anyway . that's a ramble for another day KLJGHJKSDG or another post.

AND !! 👀👀so you want to start watching impulse... well, i've got some recommendations!

personally i think you should start with either his hermitcraft s9 episodes OR his limited life povs. here's why:

i think that they both give you a sense of where his content is at Now, if that makes sense, so I recommend starting there instead of older hermitcraft content and whatnot (not to mention that it's. a lot of episodes to catch up on KSDJDHGSD)

i honestly think i would go for his limlife povs first? simply because you can catch up more easily than if you started with his hermitcraft content, because, yknow, less videos to watch. (AND THEY'RE REALLY GOOD, BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT)

but i do also recommend chipping away at his hc s9 episodes! i'm really loving his builds so far and his plans for the season, so i highly recommend giving his videos a watch! (i don't think i can give you specific videos to start with, i like watching them in chronological order, but... i Do have a favorite...)

you can also try watching his recent hardcore series, although he has mentioned he hasn't had the time to continue it since limlife started. but, still, it's nice to see his videos where he's just playing on his own, it's a different feel and i like it :>

it also wouldn't hurt to get into imp&skizz! i feel like being around skizz just brings out something in impulse that you really only get when they're making content together so like KJSDGHSJKDG YEAH, also highly recommend!

this is really long whoops, sorry anon KJSDGHJDSHG i hope i didn't overwhelm you with too much info?? and again, it's really up to you whichever you wanna start with, this is really just a suggestion<3