#as with all timeline things you have to pick and choose what to run with

[on-leatheredwings]

request: “how damian would handle learning reader is dating somebody?”

Yandere! Damian Wayne / GN! Reader > romantic > tw/cw: possessive thoughts, yandere-typical behaviors > word count: 741

“So, remember when I told you I thought my chem partner was kind of hot?”

You both are poring over your books on one of Wayne Manor’s many balconies. Damian, on a break, looks up from playing with Alfred the Cat with her favorite fluffy wand. He and Alfred have identical pairs of glassy green eyes, now trained on you. Damian blinks, face impassive.

“... I do–”

“I finally asked him out!” you squeal. You hop out your seat and around in a circle, not caring to feign coolness. You were excited, dammit, and Damian has seen you do much more embarrassing things.

While you celebrate, Damian simply stares. You don’t notice his breaths deepening subtly, as he tries to subdue the burning acid that starts to run through his veins. You had been interested in your chemistry partner for weeks now, and he didn’t think much of it. You’re young. You’ll have crushes. They’ll pass. He’s learned the art of patience by now. Mainly, for the sake of any who catch your eye, and for the sake of his father’s chagrin. Damian Wayne is not above slander or physical harm. 

Damian Wayne also has a timeline. He knows when he’ll start to hint at his feelings for you. He knows when he’ll make you his significant other. When he’ll bring you to meet his family, although they are already aware of your place in his life. Damian even knows when he’ll someday propose. He has, quite literally, already planned out your nuptials. Stephanie had him make a moodboard on Pinterest, for goodness sake. 

Damian’s benevolent enough to let you choose the date… as long as it’s within a year of his proposal. He’s been so benevolent, and yet here you were, squealing over a date with some frivolous boy. 

Taking Damian’s silence as him being stunned, you continue waxing at length about your date. He admires the naive abandon at which you describe the events – one of your charming qualities. However, in his mind, Damian pokes holes in every sentence.

You met the boy there? Meaning, he didn’t pick you up? Embarrassing. 

He didn’t pull out your chair for you once you both reached the table? Insulting. 

You tripped on a stair, and the boy simply helped you up? Infuriating. If it were him, Damian would’ve picked you up and carried you to your next destination. 

“You can’t be serious,” Damian snaps, sneering against his better judgment. His blood has finally boiled over – he cannot sit here listening to this drivel anymore.

At his tone, you flinch. Your babbling ceases. Hurt flashes across your face, before you smother it away.

“... What?” you say defensively. Damian straightens to his full height, dropping the feathery wand entirely. He strides over to you, looking entirely striking. Two emerald eyes stare down at you.

“You were treated like garbage the entire time, and here you can’t stop gushing about it all.”

You stare at Damian agape. “Okay, I wasn’t treated like garbage–”

“Did he even pay for the meal,” Damian asks flatly. You bristle, frowning.

“We split it–”

Damian sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. You fill with embarrassment, staring at your feet… Your thoughts are interrupted by two warm, calloused hands landing on your shoulders. Your head snaps up. 

“You deserve to be treated like royalty.” Damian’s eyes pore into yours intensely, as if you’re the only thing he sees. “And as your… friend, I would hope you would entertain only those who could be your equal.” 

So he says, but no one will ever have his approval. He will sway you against them no matter who they are. Because only he deserves you. Some days, he doesn’t even know if he does. Regardless, you and him are meant to be.

You are dumbfounded by the sudden gravity of the conversation.

“I– yeah,” you say, nodding shyly. Damian overtakes your field of vision at this distance… you know, you noticed how handsome he was long ago, but at this closeness, you can truly admire it. He’s quite the domineering figure, with his perfectly-cut jaw, elegant aquiline nose, and even brown skin. You cough, stepping back.

“... Yeah,” you say again. “Uh, thanks, Damian. Let’s go over these problems again, yeah?”

Damian bristles.

The look that was just on your face...

He blinks. If he was correct… Perhaps he had just accelerated his timeline. And if so, such a development would be more than welcome.

[inbarfink]

I think a lot about the Concept of ‘choices that matter’ in video games. Like, in terms of what it is that makes a choice ‘really matter’, what do we perceive as a choice that matters or has a consequence, how do different games with different amounts of branching or non-branching storylines play with those ideas…  Especially because Undertale is one of my favorite games of all time, and it has often been hyped as ‘a game where your choices REALLY matter’ and… honestly, I dunno if all of this hype was fully conducive to Undertale.  Because the way it handles the concept of Video Game Choices is actually a lot more interesting and complex than that simplistic descriptor makes it seem.

Because Undertale actually has a lot of choices that ‘don’t really matter’! Lots of dialogue choices and silly little decisions that on a first playthrough seem like they’re some sort of moral choice or a branching plotline but end up always leading to basically the same result regardless of what you do!

And the game doesn’t really try to hide the fact that these choices are kinda 'Fake'. I mean, on a first playthrough a player might assume there’s gonna be some Massive Consequences for picking the ‘wrong’ drink on Undyne’s date, but the game’s narrative expects for there to be multiple playthroughs and pretty much every Choice that Doesn’t Matter is peppered with that Undertale brand of wacky character-focused humor that inherently makes the moment memorable. Papyrus leading Undyne straight to you no matter what you do is basically a cross-timeline running gag.

On some level I see this as a sort of gag that serves as meta-commentary about the expectations around Choices That Matter in Video Games. As in, a lot of games have their Moral Choices happen in clearly easily marked ‘this is a Moral Choice!’ moments within the story, while the actual gameplay (and any violence the player might cause as part of said gameplay) is basically entirely divorced from any element of narrative-branching and doesn't effect the story at all. Undertale basically entirely inverts this dynamic; the most important factor for which Route you’re own is how you handle your FIGHTs, and what seems like clearly-marked and obvious Moral Choices are just goofy insubstantial minor changes in dialogue. 

But also… there is also a level where you must ask yourself ‘what does it mean when we say that these choices Don’t Matter’. I mean, it’s not like they didn't change anything about the game, the Player still made the character say that other thing, the choice probably led to an alternate piece of dialogue, probably a joke with a call-back at the end of the game… The line between a one-off joke and an actual story-changing moment can be a little blurry if you look at it too deeply.

For example, near the end of the Waterfall part of the game, the Player is given the choice to save Monster Kid even at the risk of having to face down Undyne.

Pretty much anyone who isn’t deliberately trying to be an asshole is going to rush to save them and obviously that includes the Pacifist Route Players. But you can actually leave Monster Kid to die without it 'mattering' in the sense that it wouldn't divert you from the Pacifist Route. Undyne saves them instead of you, and ends up with slightly less HP for her battle (which might Matter for Runs when you try and FIGHT her but obviously not in Pacifist Runs) and… by the end of the game, during the extremely happy True Pacifist Ending, they still clearly remember that you abandoned them and are upset by it.

So… does saving Monster Kid ‘matter’ or not? On one hand, choosing not to save them mostly just changes a few lines of dialogue but… these lines of dialogue kinda recontextualize this happy ending and the Player’s actions in general. Despite the True Pacifist Ending otherwise portraying the Player/Frisk as a kind-hearted and brave hero... they still did this undeniably cowardly (and perhaps even cruel) act to one of their friends .

Was running away and leaving Monster Kid to die a brief but significant moment of weakness that the Player regrets and has cost them what could’ve been the start of a lovely friendship? Or is that simply that being a True Pacifist was always more of a matter of pragmatism rather than ideals? Were they only acting as a Pacifist to get that promised 'Best Ending', and only Monster Kid has an inkling they are not as heroic or kind as everyone thinks they are?

And then there’s the Snowman ‘quest’.

A free healing item given early in the game, with your mission being to carry it along in your inventory for as long as you can without ever consuming it. The only reward you will ever see from it is a few lines of dialogue…

But for many, it is more than enough of an incentive to preserve the Snowman’s Piece. You can do whatever you want with the Snowman without it ‘mattering’ in terms of Ending or consequences. You could carry it through all of your adventures with care and kindness... or you could eat it while he can’t see you and then go back to him and tell him that you ‘lost’ it and then get another piece and eat that as well, you could eat it right in front of his face, horrifying him. 

And much like with Monster Kid, you can STILL get the True Pacifist Ending after doing that, all that would change is a few optional pieces of dialogue from the Snowman… 

And a total recontextualization of the Player’s behavior and the ending. The Snowman sees the Player as a cruel and heartless person who is just pretending to be good so they can be liked - the way they acted with this immobile, powerless Snowman who could do nothing for them and their reputation reveals their true self. And he says their friends will realize that too one day...

Doing a True Reset on the Pacifist Ending is, by definition, a (almost) consequence-free action and yet it changes future Pacifist Routes immeasurably. Turning the Player into a Hypocrite doing the exact same thing they were trying to stop Flowey/Asriel from doing - trapping all of their friends into a time-loop so they can play with them forever while never actually letting them to enjoy freedom on the surface, simply because they are not willing to move on or put their friends' wishes and agency above their own. Nothing in the game actually changes, not one character can even suspect that you did something like that, and yet for the Player - this choice makes the entire Meaning of the game flip on its head. 

Even the most famous and heavily-toted Big Consequence in the whole game - selling your soul to Chara after completing a Murder Route… mostly what it does is just… recontextualize the ending of the Game.

As a game, ‘Undertale’ is very much about the ways in which a Player engages with a game can radically recontextualize it. The huge chasm of difference between the Pacifist and Muder Routes is just the most literal example of it. But, in a way, even the tiny little Dialogue Options - where the lack of real choice and consequences is Obviously a Joke - matter. Because of the way they can recontextualize the Player Character’s behavior.

(Okay, maybe not this one, but hear me out…)

Do you trust Papyrus to not betray you, even after you spied on him with Undyne?

Do you have the integrity to admit you forgot something or got it wrong even when there’s no consequences for just lying about it?

Are you a hypocrite for trying to get Alphys to be truthful with Undyne only to then immediately turn around and lie to Undyne yourself?  

None of these choices matter for the ending, some of them don’t even get, like, a call-back joke or anything, but… if you are engaged in this story as a narrative, if you are invested in these characters as if they were people, if you are honestly trying to be the best person you can be, if you are trying to self-reflect at the way you approach this game… even the silliest little dialogue option can suddenly be imbued with deep implications and you can make them matter. 

Undertale is one of the best demonstrations of this concept, but this is absolutely not exclusive to it. For example….

‘Ace Attorney’ is pretty much as far away as you can get from a ‘branching narrative’ within the video game sphere. It is a heavily-linear Visual Novel where 70% of the time it won’t even let you talk to random characters at anything but the exact order it expects you to and any ‘Bad Endings’ are basically just glorified Game Over Screens. (... because this is the Internet and something something piss on the poor, I should probably specify that I am talking about ‘Ace Attorney’ because I love Ace Attorney and these are neutral descriptions of the game and not complaints. There’s nothing wrong with a game being linear.) 

If there’s any Dialogue Choice in AA, it’s generally a very basic ‘right answer-wrong answer’ choice between Progress and a Penalty, or a total non-choice that just gets you to the same final result regardless. Except… Well… as we just talked about, getting to the same final result doesn’t necessarily mean a choice is ‘meaningless’, does it?

There’s actually a lot of great storytelling moments where Ace Attorney, despite its otherwise strict linearity, uses this exact sort of recontextualizing mindset I’ve talked about with Undertale to make choices with some really powerful emotional impact…. Even if technically, the ending is the same ending. It can be something as basic as ‘even if picking this Wrong Answer doesn’t get me a penalty, it still embarrassed my character and disappointed my friends/rivals and thus I feel bad for picking it’. Consequences as recontextualizing your character as more incompetent than they should’ve come across at that moment.

And then there’s moments like the iconic ending of ‘Justice for All’. That moment before Franziska bursts into the Courtroom with the case-making evidence and saves the day. The moment where it seems like Phoenix really is gonna have to pick between protecting his best friend and carrying out a rightful sentence.

The player gets to pick between the two options, but Phoenix never gets to say his choice out loud before Franziska comes running in... and yet… he, and the player, still made that choice. Even if no one ever has to experience the consequences of your choice, even if the rest of the world has no idea what Phoenix Wright would’ve chosen if the Miracle hadn’t happened, we know what we picked and that knowledge of the choice matters. Because of how we feel about this choice and what it says about our interpretation of Phoenix… and about us.

There’s also a bit of this ludonarrative device in ‘The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures’. During “The Adventures of the Runaway Room”, when you investigate the Omnibus for the second time and start finding things that… don’t quite fit together. When you’re finally starting to make progress with proving McGilded’s innocence, while also maybe starting to notice that something is… wrong with these pieces of evidence. 

The unchanging linear narrative of the game is that Ryunosuke does eventually realizes McGilded's trickery, puts truth ahead of victory in court and yet, despite his effort and good intentions - the case still ends with a false Not Guilty verdict. And yet, the Player has the choice to... tweak the details.

There are several points where Ryunosuke can object, where he can call out the inconsistencies even though they help his case, where he can support Van Zieks in his accusations of tempered evidence... or he can not. Not necessarily intentionally misleading the Court as much as subconsciously trying to ignore the inconsistencies in the name of trusting his client.

And yet… in the end it doesn’t matter. Maybe Susato calls out the inconsistency instead of him, maybe Van Zieks does, maybe it remains uncontested but... no matter what you do, the case will end with a Not Guilty verdict (I mean, I guess you can deliberately fail the game but that will not progress the plot), McGilded doesn’t seem like he held a grudge (in the few minutes he had left to live), and a few cases later - Ryunosuke would always be punished for his part at this false verdict.

So it doesn’t really matter what Ryunosuke did back then? Does it matter if he did his best and called out every single inconsistencies or if he kinda half-assed it until he (and the Player) had to? He’s still going to suffer the same consequences down the line. And yet….

And yet, I think there’s something so powerful about giving us that option. About knowing that Ryunosuke, and we, did try and do something about McGilded's dirty tricks- even if it didn’t work. Or alternative, knowing that there was more that Ryunosuke and us could’ve done even if it was not nearly enough. Even if in the eyes of the game and the British Justice system there is no difference, the fact that we know what did and what we could’ve done can radically change the way the player feels about all of the later scenes concerning the truth about McGilded’s trial. It can radically change the way the player interpret Ryunosuke’s feelings about it as well.

Because even though the game itself keeps playing along with the same script regardless, that trial had irrevocable consequences for the Player.

[cyberstudious]

✨ 📖 ✏️ studyblr masterpost jam ✏️ 📖 ✨

📌 what is this?

this is a masterpost jam, like a game jam or a hackathon or a writing challenge, but for creating masterposts! the goal is to share knowledge and resources, as well as connect with other cool folks on tumblr! this challenge was born out of the studyblr community, but anyone who loves learning is welcome to participate. each day, share a masterpost following the prompts below and tag your posts with the hashtag #studyblrmasterpostjam so we can all reblog them and share the love <3

🗓️ when is this happening?

the main challenge will run August 12th through August 18th, although you're welcome to participate on your own timeline :)

✨ everyone is encouraged to participate in whatever way is comfortable!

you don't have to be an academic or a professional! tell us about your special interest, a favorite hobby or craft, or something else that you like learning about!

even if you're a beginner, you still have a valuable perspective that's worth sharing (and writing posts for this challenge is a great way to do some research and learn!).

you don't have to do all of the days or share posts on the "right" day! pick and choose your faves if you want, combine things, and take as long as you need to put them together.

you don't have to make super long posts! if you have a single resource or tip to share, please do and we will appreciate it all the same <3

if you don't want to write any posts, you can still participate by reading posts that other people make and reblogging them so we can all learn from each other!

please feel free to interpret the prompts below in your own way and expand upon them! there are so many different topics out there and the questions I've written probably don't make sense for some of them, so take what makes sense and use the rest as inspiration!

✏️ prompts

[monday, august 12th] an intro to your topic or field of study

how would you describe this topic to someone who has never heard of it? what careers are available? what professional organizations/conferences are big? what journals do academics publish in? what are the big questions, goals, or challenges? what are the sub-fields/sub-topics/areas of specialization? what are some resources for learning about the field itself?

2. [tuesday, august 13th] books

textbooks, fiction that relates to the field, inspiring memoirs, biographies, art books, graphic novels, audiobooks… anything that you think is relevant to your topic and helpful!

3. [wednesday, august 14th] free resources

online things! resources that you might be able to get from your library! and and all ways to learn/study/practice that don't require money - feel free to get creative here and come up with some cool ideas beyond just links to websites!

4. [thursday, august 15th] notable figures

who has made important contributions to the field? is there anyone who made big contributions in the past that are now outdated or incorrect? who has done great things but been overlooked because of racism/sexism/ableism/etc.? who is making interesting contributions today? is there anyone in the field that you look up to? this is a great time to do some research if you don't already have some notable figures in mind!

5. [friday, august 16th] study tips

what are your favorite tips and ways to study this topic? are there lots of things you need to memorize or tricky concepts that are hard to understand at first? is there a skill that requires lots of practice? tell us about it and how you approach it!

6. [saturday, august 17th] tools of the trade

do you work with software? lab equipment? art supplies? your favorite pen and notebook? certain analysis frameworks or processes? tell us about them!

7. [sunday, august 18th] beginner's guide

what resources were most helpful when you were a beginner? what are the important concepts/techniques to start with? are there any prerequisite skills? also, include links to your previous masterposts!

remember to tag your posts with #studyblrmasterpostjam! if you want to participate, feel free to reblog this to spread the word. I'll see y'all on August 12th for the first masterpost!

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

Masterlist

"Masterlist? What is that?"

"it's mostly a record of the writings here, feel welcome to have a look and see if something catches your eye" she turns around and points to the the book detailing where every book or pages should

"last time I updated it was june 21, so it can get a bit behind but usually everything is in here"

"a magical land where people are able to handle elements as they please, a bit too fantastical for my liking but she seems to enjoy writing them"

Tokyo debunker

There is a separate section for this subject, best visit it for the list.

Genshin impact

There is a folder on the table and named with perfect cursive handwriting "Holy offsprings". It seems it's a collection of small works

A bouquet of feelings

Sometimes actions have unexpected consequences. Good thing Aether knows how to fix this one.

Ancient language au

A long forgotten tongue slips away from their lips to the ears of people who believe it's their god's language

Read my lips

"to suddenly be left in a world where I couldn't read anything... Such a torture"

Universal language

After alhaitham found your ability you were almost forced to work for the academia translating works, some misunderstandings arise

Great sage au

A foreign face settles as a country's sage and tries to help, even when it isn't all that easy

Prologue

As a former player the new great sage had a nice base of knowledge to stand on plus some new tools

Such a backstabber

His duty with sumeru has gotten him into a trail leading to you and believes you to be a danger. For some reason the proof he has reminds you of something… wait a minute.

Over tea

Luckily after cyno recognized them as not guilty they were allowed to return to their position and enjoy their new found love for tea. Seemingly the nation's calmness has lead to people allowing themselves to fantasize about their bosses’ love life

Everything feels so beautiful

"this one fits in the timeline but I'm not sure if even the writer knows how or when..."

Secret husband timeline

Be it because of secretiveness or nobody believing it was possible nobody found out about your marriage with the iudex until someone says it straight up. Oops

The first two are two different beginnings

How the iudex sleeps

"why did she choose for him to have a resemblance with otters? Even then it's a really sweet domestic piece"

Melusines say the darndest things

sometimes children can slip up and accidentally say more than desired. In this case the journalists are very happy about that.

Drabbles

Would they peel an orange for you?

"mhmm... I wonder why she chose oranges, I think she likes better pomegranate. Wouldn't it be more fitting 'would they open a pomegranate for you?' but I guess at the end it's the same intention"

Do they know if you wear silver or gold?

"I only ever wear this uniform, I'm not really sure how important that kind of stuff is"

Types of baby daddy

"my father has been a 'baby daddy' many times, including my and my sisters' conception and many of our half siblings. Despicable man. He even runs as fast as the thunders he throws so he is hard to catch"

Your ex in my body or me in their body

"seemingly this question is used to pick a fight with your lover, I'm not sure why would you, though"

Ideas

"some blurbs or unrefined concepts, maybe in the future they can become something more polished"

Npc sagau

"suddenly strangers and your loved ones start acting as mindless zombies and only certain people seem to wake up but you are unable to know when... It sounds stressful doesn't it?"

Living together (npc sagau)

Obey me

"it would make sense for them to live close by the only people you can speak with"

"It's a kind of undefined academic environment in hell? I heard from other visitors that highschool and university are difficult and sometimes unenjoyable but isn't this a bit too on the nose? Either way seemingly she could romance demons, angels and a... Regular human? I'm sure she did not... My goodness"

Night bringer saga

All this happen during night bringer but aren't particularly connected or in a particular timeline!

Love language: acts of service

After being temporarily transformed into a demon you find that there are some gaps in your knowledge of demon features care but Solomon is very happy to help

With the firstborn's ring I made you mine

A before bed chat with Solomon leads to you showing some concerns about wearing the ring of light so openly and he offers himself as a scapegoat

Love language, gift giving

He is old enough and famous enough that he can spend some money on superfluous gift and extra candies as long as you smile at him

The sorcerer's demonic firstborn

Nobody is exempt from Mother nature's cruel whims, not even the all powerful sorcerer that defied death. Some friends of yours help you with your dream

Twisted wonderland

"another fantasy setting that happens in a world where people can use Magic and a school? I'm seeing a pattern with her likings. Just tell me she wrote for a prince or a future king or- it's just a guy with white hair again? No just because he is sleepy doesn't make him different, writer..."

Forced fairytale

The tale of the sleeping beauty is one he holds dear, be it because it's related to his great grandmother or his dorm, malleus can't help but feel like silver and the prefect would be such a perfect modern retelling.

[oncewhenalongtimeago]

Hello I literally love ur writing style SO much, been binge reading all your httyd stuff and having a blast!!! Ty for being awesome, ur updates always make my day :3

The Jealous One pt 5

Pairing: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III x Fem!Reader

Words: 1848

The Great Hall is always a nice place to frequent when one’s seeking companionship. You are, however, not doing that.

Tags: fem!reader, silly, ambiguous timeline, Snotlout Jorgenson, Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, Jealous!Hiccup, Post RoB/DoB, Pre-RTTE

<Previous - Next>

You spoke and acted suddenly with Hiccup and with a wrongness that had made you uneasy for days to follow.

Acting out with Snotlout and the Twins had gone against a lot of your do-good lay-low-and-miserable instincts, which made you momentarily numb to them, in a way. 

When you were caught up with them, too busy to think, you ended up doing things in ways you definitely wouldn't have had you been thinking normally. The joy always ended up outweighing any other feelings you might have had on what you did later, but now it was a little different.

You feigned normal, but also you avoided Hiccup a lot, so you weren’t sure how you ended up here.

“-I don’t think that does anything for most dragons,” Fishlegs looked down at Ruffnut, some of his general nervous demeanor melting away in favor of minor exhaustion at her relentless questioning, maybe catching on some, “There are some, but…”

Snotlout was off on the other side of the Hall. Be it far below him to serve. However, he’d lost a very minor bet so he had to go get you guys dinner for the next five weeks.

You weren’t quite sure where Ruffnut was. Busy, probably. 

You sighed, slightly rotating the mug you had in hand, slumping down on a nearby bench, giving the off-put Viking a rest. That wasn’t your intention, to put him off, anyways.

Tuffnut chuckled to himself, before dropping down on the opposite bench, cradling Macey over his shoulder.

Fishlegs stood watching you for a moment, before perking up slightly. 

You turned your attention away from him, choosing instead to lay your head over your arms on the table. You didn’t care to register anything past that, even as Fishlegs began silent conversation with a new party, someone you barely sensed joined him through the loud hustle and bustle of the hall.

It took a while, but eventually you heard a familiar holler, followed by an exhausted declarative, “Food’s here.”

You lifted your head genially to reveal Snotlout, with a set of four plates balanced on his arm, one balanced between the horns of his helmet. Ruffnut followed closely behind, laughing at him.

“Snotlout!” You cheered.

Ruffnut poked his middle, causing him to nearly fumble your food as he balanced angrily past moving gaggles of Vikings. 

“Hey!” He snapped, “Watch it!”

She cackled as a group of running children, followed by Gustav, nearly ran him over.

“Oh, wow,” Came a voice from your left, “Never thought I’d see him do that.”

Your head jerked to reveal Hiccup, standing above you, watching Snotlout with mild amusement, though there was something stiff about him which you thought was very well deserved.

“That’s for sure,” Said Astrid with casualty, revealing herself from behind a set of women carrying two full plates of chicken to one of the larger tables, where clans preferred to sit together.

You grimaced slightly and turned away, leaning back against the meal table behind you, elbows propped against wood. 

Then cringed as they eyed each other with mild apprehensiveness from opposite sides of the table, then rolled your eyes and scooted away slightly as you spotted Snotlout, who had finally made his way over, Ruffnut dropping a roll of thick, hastily carved spoons on the surface. 

You cringed as they clattered across wood, picking one up and rubbing it with your sleeve.  

“You have to get your own food,” Snotlout scoffed at the two plus Fishlegs as he finished unloading plates onto the table. 

“Thanks, Snot,” You batted your lashes at him falsely as he gagged, ignoring the odd, caught-off guard look from Hiccup as you glanced back.

You fought the urge to gnash your teeth at him.

“But…” Fishlegs started, staring at the plate that had once previously been on top of his head. But you knew he’d have no luck. As always, Snotlout managed to negotiate himself an extra bit of food on top of his already loaded plate.

You noticed, with glee, that your plate was loaded with a little extra stew than normal. Something Plegma usually only did for the Riders.

“Nice,” You said, somewhat pleased, lifting your brows slightly and grinning from ear-to-ear, slouching back further against the table before taking a small bite.

“Food could be better,” You said snippishly, as you nudged the stew around your bowl with a spoon, resting your mug against the table and tugging it towards you with your other hand.

“Ugh,” Ruffnut rolled her eyes.

“Stick-in-the-mud,” Snotlout agreed, though not with cheer, looking at Tuffnut with a sneer as he scratched himself in the armpit.

You blew a raspberry at them, before frowning.

Maybe you had been grumpy. 

You glared at Hiccup from the corner of your eye, a move that might look coy on someone else, though you personally just felt a little bit queasy, as if a horde of bugs had started buzzing up and down your intestines, angry as you.

What had happened- you weren’t sure it was even an argument -maybe it was- but you could have gotten over it, maybe. Going over it with Tuffnut, though, had broken something in you that you hadn’t realized you’d been building back up hanging out with one half of the Riders.

You sighed shakingly, as you finished another swallow, bringing your mug down genially. It settled on to the table by your side with a simple clack, before pushing off against the table, swinging your legs over the side.

You felt the tension in your chest release as you moved across the hall, not expecting anyone to follow.

You weaved through the throng of the Great Hall clumsily, though not without experience. One hand held your elbow, the other the handle on your mug.

Your goal was, of course, to refill your cup, though that also had the slight upside of taking you away from the Riders.

You���d gotten sick of watching them all talk together, and to be honest, you were feeling a little out of place.

People milled by, momentary, uninterested onlookers to your conversation, by the side of a lunch table; a sturdy, tall woman with red hair piled up into a huge knot, a man in a helmet with four horns knocking people aside with his elbows, large trays in hand.

A lady with a shawl passed by, covered in the skulls of small animals swept by, nearly knocking you in the head with a wooden tray, speaking loudly to someone on her other side.

Looking back, you couldn’t help thinking about how you would have loved this if you’d been just a few years younger.

Sure, you were only friends with a few of them, but-even if you weren’t at the forefront of the crowd, you always imagined you’d feel like the girl of the hour. Maybe it would have been better because of it. Sure, you were living on a small rock island in the middle of nowhere, constantly showered on by torrents of hellfire and bloodshed, but you had Hiccup.

The Riders were his dream, so being ditched felt like he was telling you to kick rocks. Like he wanted you to feel miserable. Deep down thought, you’d wanted his dream- You’d wanted to be there too.

You’d had Hiccup in those daydreams, those dreams within dreams, casual and there and real enough like goats milk on skin, like falling asleep with hands carding through your hair after a long day.

You were incensed. You wanted to cry and yell, but you also felt terrible. The feeling built high in your stomach.

You wondered if anyone else took notice. 

You had never quite spent time with all of the Riders at once, and were quite adverse to the idea. The more you thought about it, the more you were even less inclined to stay than before.

You paused at the brush of a palm over your shoulder, loose and without any sort of grip, yet feeling enough for you to take notice, stopping suddenly. 

The hairs on the back of your neck stood. If you’d had hackles, they would have been raised.

“Hey, wait, where are you going?” It was a bit difficult to hear over the rabble, the crowd around you built up by voices much stronger than his or yours with personality and enthusiasm, yet you were able to make it out, a voice you knew by heart all the same.

Hiccup.

You turned and reached behind you, feeling the edge of a table bump into your rear. You leaned against it, racing your hand down slightly behind you to brace and dust over its surface.

The grain of the table was lumpy under your fingers yet smoothes by years of use and the grazing passes of many other hands.

“Why do you care?” You grumbled, arms falling loosely from their cross. You were nearly surprised when he heard you after.

“Why do I care?” Hiccup shook his head, “...What’s going on?”

You nearly missed the last bit, his voice nearly drowned out by the shout of someone two tables over. It was quite difficult to hold up an argument in the middle of a crowd, it seemed.

“Nothing,” You said, in lieu of an explanation, irritation spiking in your gut.

“It’s not.”

At that moment, the large arm of a blonde man nearly pushed him onto the table aside.

You fought down the urge to smile, looking down and feeling pretty malicious.

On the floor, you were greeted by a half-eaten leg of meat lay bitten into and discarded a few lengths away from you, a puddle of what was either stew or something you didn’t want to think about just further ahead.

You grimaced and scuffed a single loose boot toe into the Great Hall stone, annoyed, not surprised at all when it slid smoothly against the surface.

“What are you getting at?” You asked antagonistically. You felt stupid, dancing around him, mostly because you didn’t want to be talking to him at all. 

Was it arrogant for you to want to get away? Was this conversation penance, punishment for your earlier outburst?

You couldn’t help but wax poetically about it in your head.

“What am I-?” That seemed to do it -tick him off, that is.

“I can’t really read that mind of yours, genius.”

“Maybe if you stopped spending so much time with Snotlout-” Hiccup stepped forwards.

You snapped, gritting your teeth and stepping closer, feeling your nails dig into your palms through the fabric of your skirts, clutched in your hands,  “What’s your deal been?! I’m friends with Snotlout. What’s the big deal?!”

“I-...” He started, looking frustrated, though his eyes darted to the side slightly, “I just-”

“Gods,” You grit your jaw, bringing your hands to your head, not flinching when a few drops of mead spilled out the other end of your mug.

You didn’t show it, but you felt terrible. 

You hated the way his brows tilted, the momentary expression of grief on his face- yet you just wanted him to leave you alone.

[bubbipond]

I see people still confused about things after the last episode so here are some aspects of the novel that did not make it to the series. It will hopefully fill in some gaps in questions I've seen.

This post contains spoilers. Read at your own risk...

How come some can control their senses and others can't? Babe, Way, and Pete are the only people known to be able to completely control their senses. This is probably because Jeff and Charlie have more chaotic senses. But with the others, the more training they succeeded in the better they got at controlling the senses.

Why did Charlie plan to fake his death? The fake death plan was Jeff's idea in the novel I don't know what the point of changing it was. An important conversation that happens between Jeff and Charlie is that because Way is an Enigma who can hypnotize, he can actually understand someone's thoughts. Not like Pete who reads them but like-I don't know how to explain but basically that's the reason at one point Way tells Babe he knew he loved Charlie before Babe himself. So babe knowing the plan was fake=Way knowing. And Way was still a bad guy at that point.

How would the death plan have helped? Charlie planned to never return to Babe's life initially. He accidentally runs into Babe while going to save Jeff at the auction. He felt bad for the constant lies and felt Babe was better off without him even if they could fool Tony. Plus, even if Charlie did go back, the point was for Reval to remove the senses. Once removed Tony would render them all useless and move on.

Why does Charlie lack the alpha smell? I am positive at some point in the novel it is said that he can mask the alpha smell. I mean he has a bunch of abilities but we don't really see him use them much.

Why did I not get my other pairings? Babe (you babe, not Pavel Babe), you are lucky you got AlanJef cause the only real couple in the novel is Charlie/Babe. Jeff and Alan get hinted at but have no real relationship, Kim doesn't exist in the novel, Kenta is barely in it, and Way is offed so the other ships can't really happen.

Why did Babe always forgive Charlie? He didn't, I mean he did after the fake death plot, but before that, he stayed angry at him for a long time. This was after the sense (all for one quirk) stealing. He actually spends quite some time angry which is why Charlie is against the sewer side plot. But at the end of the day....Babe loves his man and he gone stand beside em'.

Why didn't Jeff use his senses or tell anyone else about his visions? Well 1. he cannot control when and what he sees so even if he touched one of them that didn't mean he would see that specific event. 2. The point of him and Charlie doing all they did with Reval was in hopes of everyone NOT dying. He saw a future where everyone dies so he couldn't pick and choose who this new timeline saved. Hope this answers any of your lingering questions and if you have any I did not touch on just let me know (: It's been a while since I read this but I still remember most key points!

[animalcrossingshowdown]

someone sent in this ask and I spent literal hours putting together this tutorial but then it wouldn't let me post it and when I went back into my inbox the ask was gone?? good thing I copy and pasted it, so here it is in its own post

I'm not sure if this will work with programs other than photoshop, but this is how I do it. I know @shinobi-bacon has a tutorial here on how they do it which is pretty different from the way I do it, so if my tutorial is confusing maybe theirs will click with you better lmao. I stole the greenscreen idea from them anyway

SO FIRST, you want your villager on a green screen background. to do this, go to harv's island and use a custom pattern to make the walls and floors bright green. If the villager you're using has green in their design, you'll have to pick a different colour that isn't in their design, but for most villagers green is fine.

if your villager has every colour on them like pietro or stiches then rip you're gonna have to do some manual editing frame by frame. try to choose a colour that doesn't touch the edges of their silhouette too much in that case because it'll make life easier for you

so once you have them in green purgatory, record them doing their emote or whatever. I just use the built-in screen record function that the switch has. press and hold this button to record the last 30 seconds that your switch displayed:

next send that video to your computer and trim off the start of the video so it starts right before a recognizable part of the animation. for this emote I cut it off right before the blink. if you have a slow computer, you'll probably want to trim the end off too so the video is only a little bit longer than one full animation loop

(you can use the video editing software of your preference, I just use quick time player Edit -> Trim)

okay time for photoshop. go File -> Import -> Video Frames to Layers

for "range to import" select "from beginning to end" (or you could skip the last step about trimming the video and select a range here, but I find it kind of finicky), and make sure "make frame animation" is checked

once imported, if it doesn't pop up on it's own, go Window -> Timeline to get your animation at the bottom

click through those frames at the bottom until you find an easily recognizable frame (I chose the first frame where her eyes are closed) and delete all the frames before it. in the layers panel, the layer from the frame you've selected should be the only one turned on. delete all the layers below it

now go through the frames to find the next identical frame. this is where the animation loops. delete that frame and all the frames after it, as well as all of their corresponding layers (note in the picture, frame 121 is selected, and it's exactly the same as the frame from the start of the animation)

hit the play button on the bottom left to double check that it loops properly

next, make sure both THE FIRST FRAME AND BOTTOM LAYER are selected, and crop and reduce the image to your desired size. you can do this step later if you want, it's just that doing it now will reduce the load on your computer and make it run a bit faster. just as long as the first frame and bottom layer are selected, you can do this at any time

SAVE HERE because if you mess up this next part it's a pain to fix, but it's easy to quit and start over if need be

now it's time for my best friend the actions panel !! say hi actions panel !! (Window -> Actions). what the actions panel does is record your steps so you can quickly automate repetitive tasks.

in the actions panel, click the folder and name it whatever you want

then click the little plus and name that whatever you want and hit record. You'll see the dot turn red to indicate that your actions are now being recorded

now with the BOTTOM LAYER AND FIRST FRAME selected (ignore that I have the wrong layer selected in the pictures, I fixed it after), go to Select -> Colour Range

click on a part of the canvas that would be green

shift+click on the rest of the green background and adjust the fuzziness until just the character's silhouette remains

hit OK, now the background should be selected. go Select -> Inverse so that the character is selected, and click on layer mask.

click the next frame button (you MUST click the button, not the actual frame. you need the recording to recognize "go to next frame" and not "select frame 2"),

then keyboard shortcut option + ] to select the next layer up (again, you MUST use the shortcut so it knows to move up one layer and not just "select layer 2"),

and then stop recording.

now just repeatedly click the play button and it will do all those steps we just did for each frame :)

this part is usually where it gets messed up for me. if it did something weird like duplicate the same frame or layer your animation over a static frame, just quit and reopen that save I told you to make earlier. the action recording you just made will still be there when you reopen photoshop, so just select the first frame and bottom layer and repeatedly hit play again. if it STILL doesn't work, you probably did something wrong

the recording is now saved in photoshop forever until you delete it, so you can reuse the recording for other gifs! but if they use a different colour background, you'll need to make a new recording (you can see I have separate ones for blue and purple screens). also if you were working with one of those colourful villagers and parts got masked out that shouldn't have been, you'll have to go frame by frame and manually fix them. that's why we masked out the background instead of deleting it.

now it's time to make it into a gif! go File -> Export -> Save for Web. make sure Matte is set to "none" so you don't get those weird white flecks. colours and dither you want as high as they can go, but you can lower them if you need to make the file smaller (though I'd recommend resizing the image smaller first). the bottom left shows your file size. currently as of January 2024, tumblr allows gifs of up to 10MB

and there ya go! gif! :)

[alarmsofmyheart]

Am I the only one who thinks it's Fasai's dad's hired man who shot Great and his mom?

And it was Win? who was following Tyme when he returned to hospital? That man was wearing a mask and tall and lean, Tyme was clearly being followed and he sensed it but Den appeared infront of him.

That lady who after seeing the news, gave a donation and picked up '4' numbered fortune stick and the diviner telling 'it means death or partition from beloved' what was that.. gosh that was nerve wrecking.. is it Nan's mom? Or Mon's mom? I don't think she could hire a person to shoot? But the person who shoots is he an hired man or personal revenge? Great in this timeline hasn't infact killed anyone directly, Mani is also saved ig or indirectly for online gambling coverup? So????Who???

---------------------------------------------

Great's mom.. you're pretty pretty but that mentality sucks, justifying/ closing your eyes on murders and gambling is one bad thing, but expecting your only son to accept your ways and do as he is told as if he is a three year old is NOT GREAT?????!!!!!!!

Great having to choose between his mother who had "done it all for him" or running away from that home, Great running away makes sense, even though it was for like four seconds.

Both Korn and Great's Mom tell that 'You don't have to do it I'm doing it instead', 'All of this is for you to live comfortably', 'Ive done it all for you these many years, just apologise and accept' ???????? is a huge guilt to carry on by the innocent bystander family member. Those family dynamics run in all real life families, mafia or not, rich or poor or middle. And people who have no conscience can go ahead do whatever murder torture sex trafficking and live off that, but people with conscience suffer even if they were kept and grown without knowing any of those shit. And more so after knowing it all.

Can a child turn in their parents to the police? My Sweet Mobster kdrama did an amazing work with that exact mafia plot. Link : Eat, Die, Kill kdrama did a similar concept but without the mafia part. But it's not going to be happening in 4 minutes.

Korn is not going to turn anything anybody over to police. He is selling his soul multiple times for that company. Great asked for time from Tyme to take next step and got shot. So Tyme asking Great if can turn in his parents and Great hesitating (even if it was dream fight/unreal timeline) is insignificant now that Nan has revealed it all. Whether Great's Dad cover it all up is for upcoming episodes.

Coming to the guy who shoots. Korn is not going to hurt Great as Great knows. Great is sure to Tyme that nobody will hurt him. Is it blissful ignorance or is it just a simple fact or is it his childlike belief of his subconscious where all these episodes are taking place? Wow. Idfk. Great's father is not going to hurt Great too. Definitely not his mother.

Or Tyme, Tyme didn't hurt him in front of that bar or while standing on that rooftop or any other time. If not out of love, even if and when Tyme was just using him, he might have hurt Great emotionally but not physically to the extent of shooting, definitely not after falling in love! It's out of the question now. In the dreamy fight when Tyme tells he has nothing to loose, he for a split second literally forgot both his grandma and Great. But later in the outside world, it's shown he accepts the money and backs off from Great, trying to protect his grandma and Great. How much of this is reliable.. but atleast he won't be killing Great for whatever reasons.

But anyway, Great is shot. And that brings back to Fasai, the only one to have the motive and lack of emotional connection with Great. I think Fasai or both she & her dad are trying to actually take over the company by marrying Korn, using him as puppet/toy the same thing she refers Tonkla as and simultaneously eliminating Great and Great's mom and leaving Great's Dad with no choice but give up the company?

Fasai. God I hate that kind of manipulative/cornering/coercive/trading relationship when someone is emotionally invested somewhere else. Korn you poor thing. All your choices and life are meaningless and wrong loops.

If Fasai knows about Tonkla, and call him a toy like everyone was telling since ep 1 but I like an idiot telling no Korn loves Tonkla since ep 1 like I'm an absolute pathetic idiot who thinks love will be chosen over money.. I mean if I want that I should just stick to JJ Methas.. anyway.. what was I talking about.. If Fasai knows Korn and Tonkla, she must know about Tonkla and Win, but she didnt reveal to it Korn while telling him to leave Tonkla and marry her.. she might be playing that card later???

----------------------------------

Korn. I hate you. I love you. Hope you runaway and restart a life. Or surrender or something. Anything other than doing whatever the shit you been doing since ep 1.

[pokemon-ash-aus]

Cuteness!

Cuteness

Timeline: Present

Alternative Universe: Swap Maturity AU

May grinned, chuckling as her new friends gathered closer and closer, tied into it by a certain missing ebony.

The awkward atmosphere was still plenty palpable, but the more they talked and mingled, the more many of them had realized they all had quiet a bit in common.

And yes, May was going to get at Ash for forgetting to mention how many cool people he knew. The dude had the memory of swiss cheese at times, which still baffled all of them on plenty of occassion.

"Anyone got any insight in Ash." Brock tilted his head, the ten year old mullishly picking at his pokedex. "I thought, he was gonna be here sooner."

"Either Indigo held him up, or he got lost." Max grinned, taking the plate offered to him by Bonnie. "You know how they are."

"Just cause we know it, doesnt mean we get it." Came the grumble, Brock glaring at the plate of chicken offered to him.

"Worse comes to worse, we get a Jenny and preform a search party." May waved a hand, feeling her phone vibrate for the briefest of seconds before she flipped it open. "Man- they choose the worse timing, it would have been a great search party too."

"They're here?" Dawn prodded, leaning to look over her shoulder.

It didn't really matter much, as they all felt the smallest tug of a teleportation, ears popping at the subtle change of atmosphere.

Suddenly, they heard the thundering of footsteps, watching Peach burst in with the flamboyance only ten year olds seem to manage.

"HELLO!" She threw her arms up and threw her head back, like a tiny little rockstar in the making. "WE ARE LATE CAUSE OF THE TERRORS!"

May snickered, rolling her eyes as Indigo came running in shortly after, hair askewed and desperately trying to fix it. His face was tickled pink, burning brighter as he glanced at everyone.

"Oh fuck." Indigo breathed out, wincing slightly when Misty shot him a glare. "For the record, here and now, I wanna say we've had a hellish few months, we didn't actively choose to not tell you."

"Gogo, what are you even talking-," And Bonnie's sentence trailed off, the older teen sitting up straight as her mouth dropped open.

And May followed her line of sight, taking in Ash as he sluggishly walked in, eye bags bruised and hair frazzled.

Still, when he caught their eyes, he grinned, face considerably brightening.

"Come on now." He drawled sarcastically, shifting his shoulder slightly. "This isnt the weirdest thing you caught me doing."

And May's eyes traveled down, right into the two kids settled neatly into Ash's arms.

One child, couldn't have been older than two, peered over the swaddled blanket he was in. Big red-brown eyes stared right back at her, a pout settled on his lips. The kid has black hair from what she could tell, contrasting against paler skin.

The other child must have been only a year older. Maybe three? Maybe not. But he was a small bit bigger. Black hair toussled with streaks of pink, big blue eyes glancing at everyone nervously as he tried his hardest to sink into Ash's shirt. Unlike the other one, he had a tanner skin, nearly the same tone as Ash's.

May completely froze, barely registering any sound as her eyes darted from Ash, to the two children in his arms.

"What the fuck," Iris dropped her plate onto the table, blinking slowly as she stepped forward, then back, then forward again.

"Oh yeah-" Ash lifted up baby number 1, the two year old scrunching his face and making an odd movement with his hand. "This is Red, Red Ketchum. He's 2 years old and he can't speak very well, so we've been teaching him sign."

The baby made another movement with his hands, coordinated in a way that May had an inkling she knew less and more than she was supposed to.

"And this-" Ash lifted up baby number 2, the Toddler having a vice grip on ash's shirt, uncaring of the way he dragged Ash's shirt and jacket up. "Is King, King Ketchum. He's 3 years old, but he doesnt like people very much. Just give him a bit of time to get used to everyone."

The silence might have been much more all consuming, if it wasnt for the way that Indigo and Peach both walked to the center table to start serving themselves food, one looking exhausted and the other gleeful.

"Cute kids." Serena mumured out, her eyes still wide as she turned to look at everyone else. "So, where did you even... Did you- did you make them?"

And Ash's demeanor fell, an annoyed look to his face that would have made her flinch is May hadn't known her friend.

"Oh, let me tell you all what happened." He sighed, striding forward with a story on his shoulders and 2 toddlers in his arms.

Oh, May was gonna remember this day forever.

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability:  AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

[dustorange]

I really was interested by what you said in your post about WFA outselling the main comics and canon/fanon. Do you think the fanon characterizations are pretty much on point for canon characterizations or then at least redeemable?

Well, so the thing with Fanon DC stuff and why it exists and why it is so pervasive is that 1) PART of it is a function of the medium—I.e., lots of people know Batman, through movies or shows or now TikTok and ao3, without having read 80 daunting years of comics, so people take a shortcut (very reasonably) (fanon) whereas others HAVE read 80 yrs worth and want to discuss canon and 2) PART of it, the larger part in my opinion, is that fanon Dick Grayson or fanon Tim drake or whoever are NOT really in any way approximations of their canon counterparts anyway—instead they’re just the same default character archetypes you see across other fanfics and fandoms. They’re a little bit painted to be the DC characters (features like Patrol, Pit Madness, etc.) but otherwise it’s not really a special character at all, just an archetype or something, just someone’s vague sort of immature cartoony characterization of a Good Happy Big Brother or Neglected By Parents Anxious Panic Attack Boy. You can see exactly those same characters—with the names scraped off—in any other fandom’s fanon. And in lots of contemporary shows or books. Everybody does the same stuff. With the same weekly social media jokes etc. The same 2024 up-to-date politics uniform among the characters. And characters are the exact same across so many different things because it’s just what people jump to and know how to write! Because we’ve grown up with those archetypes! It’s just like how EVERYBODY’s first stories involved Mary-sue-like qualities. Or how a trademark first fic for EVERYBODY is a very teenage angst victimfantasy or everyone Realizing They Were Wrong and Apologizijg or Grieving Their Loss Of You. It’s like the universal teenage girl fantasy. And it’s a loooot of people’s first stories me included probably. And that’s why an essential part of talking about fanon people has to be cut with the fact that fanon people ARE VERY YOUNG. Like teenagers. Not all of them. But a lot of them are veryyyyyyy young and there’s a big Pro Being A Hater contingent on here and i have laughed at many a Tim drake shrimp allergy meme but omg I should not have bc that is rly cruel and people are really truly harsh and I know if someone made some meme about how bad fanon writing is about a fic i put genuine work into, I would feel sooo crushed so with all of this preface before the actual answer is to say WE SHOULD BE NICE TO FANON PEOPLE BUT:

no, fanon really is not redeemable and it pretty much does not have any, even accidental, grasp on or insight into the dc characters. as far as i’ve seen. These ARE complex characters and they’re tough to nail. But fanon is not dealing with those characters, just sort of empty characterholes that are the same regardless of the fandom. Fanon is really a snowball that began snowballing in a whole different zip code from canon. And then there’s a whole different question of What Is A Dick Grayson or What Is A Bruce Wayne like is there a true essence to be gleaned from comic books and stuff and I think the answer is YES. But also something ive been thinking about is that everybody picks and chooses, even selfprofessed canon fans, and says No I Don’t Consider This Canon or In This Fic I Changed The Timeline And Ignored This Arc And This Run Because It Is OOC and I think if we’re really talking about being rigorous and tied to canon it’s GOOD to force your stuff to be in line with canon, even with canonical aspects you don’t like, because pressure, limitations, and rules make you much better than just getting to do whatever you want at all.

[verdemoun]

Okay, but what I want to know is how does Arthur and Kieran’s friendship change in the “very chill about his murder and befriending said murderer” Isaac timeline??? While I am very much hoping that not much does, you can't tell me Arthur (and Eliza) wouldn't hold a bit of a grudge for WHILE after finding out, to the point they go out of their way to keeping Issac away from Kieran/lessening his visits (which of course, eventually leads to Bessie and Hosea running interference and forcing the three to address their issues. Not just for Arthur/Kieran/Eliza’s sake, but also for their own. No way in hell will they allow their precious grandchild, who’s still way too relaxed about this entire situation for it to be healthy, to be kept from them).

How do the rest of the gang who weren't present for the initial reveal react when they do find out— if at all? Is this entire thing something only a few are privy to and kept under wraps, or does it become common knowledge?

very, very slowly.

arthur couldn't bring himself to talk to kieran for a long time or look at him without glowering, which only left kieran a mess despite feeling/knowing he deserved far, far worse. finds it really unnerving that isaac had known all these years and still considers kieran one of his favorite people and for all the times he is a little shit he has always been really kind and decent to kieran

also arthur has known kieran for 5 years at this point. he still lived with bessie and hosea after sean+lenny and their gang moved out. kieran was part of his daily life. he cares and worries about the little wimp and finds kieran delightful to be around how can that be the same person who destroyed his life

eliza absolutely forbids isaac from visiting or arthur taking isaac to hosea's on his days, which arthur agrees to. but isaac is a certified shit he's sneaking out and going to bessie and hosea's on their own and they just cannot resist grandbaby time despite knowing eliza will be furious when she finds out and isaac is still trying to check in on kieran because he knows his autistic uncle/murderer will not be handling it

arthur has to do a lot of self-reflection and unpacking because isaac in one of his tantrum about not being able to stay at bessie's weekends anymore makes the point aren't all the gang murderers you don't get to pick and choose which murders are considered bad just because it actually impacted you. arthur carries a vague sense of guilt over all the lives he ruined with his many, many, many murders over the years. acab but that was still someone's son/husband/father. he saw what happened to the downes', and how that lead to his own death (also one of the cops who is buddy buddy 'oh you' whenever isaac is in trouble is the grandson of archie downes isaac loves accidentally becoming besties with people who haunt arthur's past)

also... no one can hate kieran as much as he hates himself. nightmares about colm might leave him in a cold sweat and trembling but nights where his brain reminds him what he did? all he can do is cry because that guilt never lessened or went away. arthur sees and knows that. really, there is nothing he can do to make kieran feel worse about it than kieran already does

so they end up becoming friends again. it's sort of a thing where sometimes the anger is a fresher than usual and he'll avoid kieran for a while but he can't just turn his back on kieran because he does care about the weird little guy

eliza agrees to isaac staying nights again on the condition if anything happens to isaac she will personally be taking it out on kieran, who she understandably still hates. but even if she hates him, being around him passively it's so hard to actually see kieran as the young man who murdered her? he's so awkward and terrified of everything and pathetic. even if she hates him she would still stop to help if he was having a panic attack in public because she's just a good person.

arthur will sometimes awkwardly explain it to people who knew about isaac in canon era eg john, abigail, grimshaw (charles, obviously) but for the most part people are too awestruck by wait holy fuck arthur has a kid to immediately follow it up with who killed him and arthur doesn't make a point of telling people it was him

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Friends To Lovers + Smut/PWP Masterlist

7 Minutes In Heaven - interrupted-by-fireworks

Summary: Dan and Phil have to play 7 Minutes in Heaven at a party.

A Koi pond, love, sex, and all the crap that comes with it (ao3) - winstonlives

Summary: Dan can't sleep, but Phil can. Dan thinks too much. What happens after the tour?

A Sleepless Night With Dan (ao3) - cockwhoredan

Summary: Dan and Phil live together, and they’re just friends. One night Dan can’t sleep. Naturally, he decides to give Phil a blowjob.

Break Me Down (ao3) - gayestever

Summary: The tour bus breaks down and Dan and Phil struggle to find a hotel room- or at least one that has two beds.

Can't Help The Itch To Touch- To Kiss (ao3) - thescienceofphan

Summary: Phil is deaf and Dan is a manwhore. When people see them together, they worry about Phil’s emotional well being and shame on Dan for targeting a deaf boy, but it’s not like that. Not at all.

Craving Control (ao3) - starwatersong

Summary: Phil is intrigued by the hypnotist at the YouTuber Summit in 2016 and finds himself oddly fascinated by hypnotism. Is Dan helping him find one for a video for Phil’s benefit… or Dan’s? Some timeline mixing where Phil’s fortune telling video takes place in an earlier time. They’re living in London apartment #1 in this story.

drop your heart I'll save it for you (ao3) - Anonymous

Summary: Tenderness isn't part of the deal, nor are soft words, or feelings, or kisses that don't lead to fucking. It's not what Dan asked for, and it's certainly not why someone would choose to fuck their friend slash flatmate slash colleague who they absolutely don’t have any feelings for.

How do you Sleep? (When you Lie to Me.) (ao3) - CactiPhan

Summary: Dan is about to be married to his longtime boyfriend Henry, but plans change when he walks in on him cheating on Dan. The only person he can run back to is his best friend, who he was blind not to see was perfect for him.

If You Don't Love Me, Pretend (ao3) - phantasticworks

Summary: All his life, Dan has wanted to have the chance to be a parent someday. He would be the best parent that ever existed, he was sure of it. Fostering might not be the most traditional way on the road to parenting, but Dan's dead set on doing it anyway. But, well, it would be easier with a co-parent, right?

the bed-sharing, fake relationship, friends-to-lovers, parent fic i was desperate to read; when i shouted into the void and was met with silence, i decided i'd do it myself

No They're Not (ao3) - bandhoez9194

Summary: Against Phil's better judgement, Dan goes to a small house party with friends. He had been assured by both Dan and the party host that there would be no alcohol after all.

Unfortunately, someone else has a change of plans and gets Dan drunk anyway. Which makes him start talking about buttholes and storage places.

When Phil picks him up though, things get soft, steamy, and bendy, just like the spaghetti he left on the stove.

Very sexy, very smutty, very random, very cute. Also, drunk Dan so who doesn't like that?

Read It and Weep (ao3) - phansomedevil

Summary: Dan's feelings toward Phil are nothing but platonic, or so he thinks before stumbling upon some actually decent phanfiction and falling face-first into the abyss.

Something New (ao3) - benotafraidofwriting

Summary: Dan wants Phil's help when trying something new, but can Phil keep his feelings for his best friend at bay?

stuck on you (ao3) - watergator

Summary: dan finds himself in a rather awkward predicament and phil ends up having to helping him

The Parent Project (ao3) - ATEEZpresent (orphan_account)

Summary: Dan and Phil get paired to take care of a realistic baby doll for a few days. Feelings arise.

The Sun, The Snow, And Everything In Between - chocolatesaucelester

Summary: A lot can happen in the span of one year, or a cycle of four seasons, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes and 31,536,000 seconds. In that common amount of time Phil met Dan at bonfire night in the fall and over the course of a year, realizes he found a person he would’ve never guessed he’d found that night.

Two Man Team (ao3) - Nefertiti1052 (Succubusphan)

Summary: This is the story of two struggling friends who after many trials and tribulations find their way back to each other and build the life they’ve always dreamed of.

Or how Phil changed his life by talking to random strangers on the internet.

Unspoken Rules (ao3) - jestbee

Summary: They have rules.

1. They don't kiss 2. They don't talk about it 3. They aren't exclusive 4. They don't get attached 5. It's over when the tour is

As long as they abide by the rules, no one gets hurt. Simple, right?

Want (ao3) - yoidnp

Summary: It was a rare night alone in a hotel room away from the confines of the tour bus. Dan and Phil discover a few things about each other.

Watching You, Watching Me (ao3) - Spring_Haze

Summary: Dan accidentally discovers his best friend and roommate pleasuring himself in the early hours of the morning and can't look away. In fact, he can't keep his hands off of himself. Phil is surprised by Dan's reaction, and two best friends make long-time confessions.

[justafriendofxanders]

enjoying your leverageposting!! question for fun if you want: do you have any headcanons about hardison?

hi thanks so much! i'm glad my descent into madness is bringing some enjoyment to people. 😄 this isn't so much a list of headcanons as it is one i've been thinking about a lot involving hardison running a game of dnd -- he chooses 5e (assuming some timeline wibblyness) not because it's the simplest system out there, but because he figures it's the most accessible given the cultural baggage around it. it's not that the others aren't smart enough to figure it out (they definitely are), but they're a little intimidated by the various handouts hardison has printed out and put into individual binder sleeves. eliot (jokingly) gives him a hard time about not wanting to dress up as an elf and do "nerd shit." hardison picks up on everyone's reticence and goes, "well if this is too complicated we can do a different system," and then stays up all night gutting and retooling the entire game and making premade character sheets and a presentation explaining how to play, but then something more important comes up and nate's gotta pull the plug on their scheduled game night. hardison gets actually bummed about it and they can tell because he insists "it's cool" and is not actively bringing it up except to occasionally give them sad puppy-dog eyes from the corner.

anyways the team make it up to him one night when he comes home and they're all sitting around the table wearing silly costumes. a couple of them have brought dice; eliot's the only one with a d20 and is arguing with nate who's brought, like, craps dice ("it's a very distinctive rolling system"), except hardison's reworked it into some 3d6 system so technically nate has the right ones. (no one can tell if nate actually knew this all along or just got lucky.) sophie's like, "oh i have six-sided dice!" except everyone knows they're loaded and she's not allowed to get them. also every single one of them is a control freak who gets upset when their rolls don't go well ("a BABY could pick that lock"). after a while, parker starts consistently rolling very well, and no one can prove that she's manipulating the dice but also no one can prove that she's NOT manipulating them.

hardison also makes premade characters for everyone based on what he anticipates their playstyles will be:

parker's a cool thief that can only do three things (sneak, steal, and stab) but does them very well

nate's a shifty used car salesman of a bard that tries to talk his way through every situation

sophie's a beautiful actress that everyone recognizes and adores. tries to seduce her way out of the situations nate gets them in.

eliot is squeaky the gnome. he grumbles about it until combat rolls around and everyone learns squeaky is built to kick absolute ass.

[multifandomlover01]

How Far Have I Fallen? How High Shall I Soar?

Spencer Reid x GN!BAU!Reader (Fem coded bc apparently I can't help myself)

Warnings: canon typical violence and abuse such as beating, man being very much not nice to person (also mentions of stalking and killing), some description of it afterwards (nothing too graphic), traumatic experience in general, description of kissing/french kissing, slightly sub!Spencer bc it’s based on early seasons Reid and I have a thing about it

WC: ~4.6k

Summary: reader gets kidnapped (there's the exclusive camera video feed to team; two different locations), and the kidnapper tries to force them to choose a team member to die and Reid freaks out and realizes just how deep his feelings for them are. Fluffy care afterwards ensues.

Disclaimer: posting bc general idea is done but there are time skips/gaps in the story… but don’t worry about them, just go with it

Inspired by 2x14 and 2x15 (similar situation but it’s not Tobias, it’s a different person but I guess timeline/placement could be the same)

gif credit: idiotlovers

You sit in a chair with your wrists and ankles bound with rope. Your clothes are dirty and torn and you have bruises on your arms and face.

Your captor plops tripod with a camera attached to it down in front of you and turns it on. He walks back over to you. He stands behind you, placing his hands on your shoulders, making you cringe. He wore a mask so the BAU couldn’t identify him. He'd been smart about setting up a location that the BAU could track and get to but not be able to link to him specifically. They had no idea who he was. And he planned to keep it that way.

“Your team has seven members on it. Pick one to die. The others can live.” He says calmly, and his tone is a stark contrast to the words he is speaking.

“No.” you shake your head, horrified at the notion. You try to lift your head to turn to face him but you are too weak and tired. Instead your head just kinda hangs a bit.

“Do it. Or I’ll pick one for you. Or…maybe I’ll just kill them all.” He leans down to whisper in your ear.

“Kill me.”

“You said you weren’t one of them. Why sacrifice yourself for them? I asked you if you were like those other scum sucking feds and you said no.” (lol no real explanation given for this line’s inclusion here, it’s taken from the source material/episode; could have it be that he'd stalked you. He hates feds but you don't seem all that much like a fed so you intrigued him and so he became obsessed with you, hence why he stalked and kidnapped you. He thinks you're on his side against your team because you'd told him that but that's just what you thought he wanted to hear at the time and you were going along with him so as not to upset him but now that he'd threatening to kill your teammates, your family, you have to protect them)

“I lied. Kill me. I’d die for them, any one of them, all of them. I’ll sacrifice myself before I let you kill any one of them.”

“There must be one of them you’d be willing to let go of. Come on. Not a one?” He teases lightly as he circles around to face you, but at an angle so the camera's view of you is not obscured.

“Not. One.” You grind out as you look up at him.

“Not even your boss? You don’t hate your boss?”

“Enough to pick him for you to kill?! No!”

“Come on! Just pick one or I kill all of them!” He said as if he hadn't planned on killing all of them eventually one by one anyway.

“I can’t! Please don’t make me!” You plead with him. But it’s a futile effort. He’s adamant.

“Choose one! If not your boss, perhaps the genius chatterbox, then?” He smirks.

Your blood runs cold as he says this. “Don’t you dare touch him!” You snap. Had he been stalking all of you? The entire team?

“Oh? Or what?” He scoffs as he grabs your chin, making you look at him. “You’re restrained here, sweetheart. What will you do to me if I kill your precious little boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.” You murmur.

“And now he never will be because I’m going to kill him.”

“No! Please!” You sob. “Don’t hurt him!”

He turns your head, making you look at the camera.

"Say goodbye." He whispered in your ear. His hot breath against your skin made you cringe.

You whimper softly.

"Do it. Say goodbye. Tell him you love him. You won't get another chance." He is taunting you now.

Tears fell from your eyes. You shook your head.

“Do it!” His grip on your chin tightened.

You took a shaky breath.

“I-I love you, Spencer.” You spoke and looked directly into the camera.

He lets go of your chin and goes over to cut the camera off.

He goes over to a chest and opens it.

"Wh-what're you doing?" You ask, tears falling from your eyes.

"Preparing." He grunts and you hear him clinking around in the chest.

"Please...just kill me...don't...don't hurt anybody else. You have me. Do whatever you want with or to me but please leave my team alone."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. My mission is to wipe out the scourge upon our country that is the federal agent. I had hoped that you'd be on my side...but if you're not...so be it. I'll do it without you. I'll do it without your approval."

"Why are you so obsessed with me and what I think? What's so special about me?"

"You were different!" He stalks over to you, standing in front of you.

"How? Because I'm not some trigger happy jackass? Is that all you think feds are? We are a very diverse group of people."

He strikes you hard across the face, causing you to gasp.

"Don't talk back to me. You feds are all more alike than you think. You're a drone. Just like the rest of them, not capable of independent thought. You're a puppet on some strings, being manipulated by your masters."

If you didn't already think this guy was seriously disturbed, you certainly did now. You knew not what masters he was referring to but figured it could be some kind of conspiracy he believed in.

"I don't...have any masters...unless you mean the government itself but...I'm just trying to help people. I save people."

"You're so brainwashed that you're blind to your true purpose." He crouches down to get in your face.

"My true purpose is to help people."

"That's just what they want you to think you're doing."

"So what am I really doing, then?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. You're too far gone."

"Try me."

"You're being manipulated and you don't even realize it."

"Manipulated by what? The government that I work for?"

"That which controls the government that you represent, yes."

"And what...controls the government?" You ask reluctantly, sure that the next thing out of his mouth was going to be something batshit crazy.

"A black cabal."

Aaaand there it was. You actually chuckle a bit, which earns you another hard slap across the face.

"There is no...black cabal. I don't know what drugs you're on, buddy. But that's just not true."

"It is true! I know it is! You...you're just too blind to see it." He huffs as he pushes himself off of the chair and away from you. "You'll see! After I eliminate its agents, it won't have a leg to stand on!"

He continues preparing before he leaves the building.

"No! Wait!" You try to stop him but it is useless. He's disregarded you now. You're nothing but a useless drone to him now. After he killed your entire team, he'd probably kill you too.

You try desperately to free yourself from the ropes that bind you but it is no use. They are very tight around your wrists. You are just left there, bound, ruminating on what could possibly be happening right now. Is your captor going to succeed in harming your team members, your family? Are they safe?

-

The video feed cuts off on the monitor in front of the team. A subconscious and collectively held breath is released.

“Reid, we need to get you to a secure location and put a guard on you. Just as a precaution. We know good and well what he’s capable of.” Hotch says, already pulling his phone out to make some calls to ensure Reid was safe.

“N-no, I need to help find Y/N!” Spencer protested, still reeling from the confession he just heard. He was shaking and he didn’t even realize it. Seeing the person he loved bruised and beaten and being held captive by a perverted madman broke his heart and made his blood boil.

“We need to make sure you’re safe.” Hotch told him, trying to be proactive about the situation but also upon seeing Spencer’s reaction, trying to be sensitive to him and his obvious feelings.

“I need to make sure Y/N is safe!” You were the only thing on his mind. Your safety came before his in his books. If the unsub wanted to come after him, let him come, Reid thought. He’d be in for quite the surprise. Reid was smart and he was pissed, a dangerous combination.

Hotch sighed. He could see how distressed Spencer was. He never knew Reid felt the way he did about Y/N. Spencer himself didn’t truly know how deep his feelings ran.

“They’ll be fine. We’ll continue working on it. Garcia will continue trying to locate them. We’ll find them.” Hotch tries to reassure Spencer but knows there’s a slight possibility that they might not and that he’ll lose a valuable member of his team.

“Please…we have to find them.”

“We will, Reid. We will. I promise. But we need to get you to a safe house right now, ok?"

Spencer reluctantly agrees to be taken to a safe house. He is loaded up into an SUV and taken there by Derek. He is silent nearly the whole ride there, which takes about an hour. Derek glances at him every so often, a look of concern on his face.

"You ok, Reid?" Derek takes a chance to ask.

Spencer looks over at Derek with a solemn expression.

"No. I'm not. Y/N's been kidnapped, beaten. And instead of working on saving them, what am I doing? Hiding? It doesn't feel right."

"You really care for them, don't you?"

"More than I think I realized." Spencer whispers as he and Derek share a look before he goes back to looking out the window.

"We'll save them, ok? I promise."

"We'd better. I don't know if I could live with myself if anything happened to them."

Eventually, they get to the safehouse. Derek helps Spencer unload his bags. The safehouse is a depressing sight. It is a ramshackle building in the middle of nowhere. It looks like no one has used it for quite some time. Who knows if the government pays people to take care of these places. They need to be looked after, though.

Spencer collapsed into a chair while Derek checked out the place, making sure everything was locked up tightly. The electricity worked. The water worked. There was apocalypse prepper type food that was still safe to eat. It seemed like they were set.

-

You collapsed on the ground, dropping the shovel.

“Dig.” The man orders you.

“I…I can’t.” You murmur weakly.

“You’re weak. Pathetic.” He growls as he kicks you in the stomach. You groan. You then hear footsteps. You quickly grab the discarded gun that was on the ground, you aim and shoot him.

Despite your weakened state, you were still an expert marks(person?) and you were indeed able to effectively kill him with that one bullet.

“One bullet left, you son of a bitch.” (He'd made a comment or taunted about there not being even one bullet left to shoot him or yourself with. You insisted there was exactly one left and that you’d kill him with it...Clue vibes?)

“Y/N!” Spencer shouts, his tone is frantic after hearing the gunshot.

“Over…here!” You shout back weakly.

He rushes toward you.

“Y/N! Oh, thank God you’re ok.”

He engulfs you immediately in a hug as you stand up and stagger towards him.

“Thought you didn’t believe in God. Thought my own wit and merit got me out alive.”

“So you both can get credit, then. Now…just…shush and let me hold you.” He murmurs as he buried his face in your neck as he has his arms wrapped around you tightly.

“Thought you hated physical contact.” You whisper softly.

“Never when it comes to you and certainly not right this moment. I thought I told you to shush.” His tone is light and teasing.

“You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my father.” You chuckle weakly.

“You’re right. I’m not…but that doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you.”

“You care about me?”

“Always have. I’ve been foolish for not demonstrating it more to you.”

“Oh, I think you demonstrate it enough.”

“No. I don’t. What I feel for you is…indescribable. It simply isn’t possible to convey to you in words or actions just how deeply I’ve…fallen in love you with.”

You pull away from the hug, looking up at him in disbelief.

“You’ve…fallen in love with me?” You had to make sure this wasn’t all a big joke being played on you.

“Wholly and utterly.” He looks down at you with a soft gaze in his eyes. He holds your hands in his, being careful of the rope burn. He brings your hands up to his lips and kisses your wrists.

“Y-you mean that?” You asked hopefully, your heart soaring at how tender he is being right now.

“Absolutely. Did you mean it when you said it or…did you only say it because you were forced to?”

“I meant it.” You say sincerely.

“Really? You did?” Spencer could see and hear the sincerity on your face and in your voice but he needed you to confirm it verbally for him. “You…you love me?”

“Completely and absolutely.” You mirror his response.

“I really want to kiss you right now. Can I please kiss you? I know you’ve just been through a trauma so the timing isn’t great so feel free to-“

“Spencer.” You cut him off.

“Y-yes?” He normally felt very sad and disheartened when people cut him off but he knew that you weren't doing it to be rude. He was doing more than rambling right now, he was spiraling.

“You can kiss me.” You smile up at him.

He brought his hands up and cupped your face. His hands were big on your face, making you feel smaller than you already were.

“I love you.” He whispers, looking into your soul as he looks into your eyes.

“I love you, too.”

He leans down and you lean up. Your lips meet his. They were very soft. The kiss is tentative at first but then he presses more firmly into it. You press back. He presses even harder into it. He’s kissing you like he’d die if he didn’t. He’s kissing you like it’s his sole purpose on this Earth. He kisses you for as long as his breathing capacity allows him to, pushing it to its limits, making his lungs burn almost before he pulls away, panting heavily.

“Let me…um…t-take you back to the hotel?”

“Or you could kiss me like that again.”

“Y-yeah…or I could…do that. That…that’s a good…idea…” he inches closer and your lips connect again. It feels like heaven for both of you. You wrap your arms around his neck.

“You know…you’ve been through…a trauma. Maybe…we shouldn’t…be doing…this…” he says in between kisses.

“I love you but please shut up and keep kissing me, pretty boy. I need to feel you. I need to make sure you’re alive and that I’m alive.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Your lips reconnected. Your tongue runs along the seam of his lips and he eagerly parts his lips to allow you to slip your tongue in. Your tongue caressed his tongue. He had to suppress a moan at how good you felt against him like this. He might've guessed he'd be such a whore for you but it still shocked him how he felt like he absolutely wanted to melt into you right now.

He felt no shame in allowing you to take your frustrations out on him through the kiss. You'd been through a trauma. He knew you needed it. It helped that he was naturally submissive and that he had been head over heels in love with you almost since the day he'd met you. Whether or not he knew if you were more dominant or submissive, he certainly knew what you were capable of now. You seemed to be desperately trying to keep him as close to you as possible as you tried to feel as much as him as you possibly could. Spencer wondered if this feeling was as addictive to you as it was to him. He craved more of you.

The two of you soon just became a cacophony of little moans and whimpers as you lost yourselves in each other. You two couldn't seem to get enough of each other. You seemed to be feeding off of the other's energy, letting it fuel your own.

"We...really...should...get back to...the hotel..." Spencer murmurs in between kisses.

You whimper. You felt like you needed him near you like you needed air to breathe. You'd simply die if he wasn't near.

"Shh, shh. It's ok, it's ok. I've got you. I'm not going anywhere." He whispers as he caresses your face.

"Don't leave me, please. I need you." You cling to him.

"I won't leave you. I'm right here, ok?"

“You promise?” You murmur into his chest as you rest your head upon it.

“I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Don’t say that.” You nudge him.

“Well it’s true.”

“But I don’t want you to die.”

“Guess I’ll just have to keep my promise, then, and stay right here with you. I won’t go anywhere. You can come and stay in my room for tonight, yeah? I can stay right by your side…all night long. How���s that sound?”

“Ok…”

He led you to an SUV after you'd been checked out and cleared by a medical person and opened the passenger side door for you, helping you in and even buckling you into your seat before going over to the driver’s side. He didn't often drive but he was able to, he had a license. But for you he'd do anything. And you certainly were in no condition to be driving right now. He glanced at you periodically as he drove to make sure you were doing alright.

"We'll get you to the hotel. We'll get you tucked into bed and then you can rest, ok?"

"Ok," You smiled as you curled up in the seat to rest. Spencer was going to lecture you about the proper way to be seated in a car but decided against it. He drove ever so carefully as there was precious cargo on board, a baby on board, if you will. He wonders if Hotch still has his sticker from when Jack was born and if he'd let him have it...as a joke, of course.

He drives very cautiously to the hotel and parks the SUV. He looks over at you to see you have fallen asleep. He smiles softly at the sight before unbuckling his and your seatbelts before getting out of the car. He goes around to the passenger's side and opens the door. He nudges you lightly.

"Y/N...we're at the hotel." He whispers softly so as not to startle you.

You stir. "Hmm?"

"Hey." He says softly. "We're at the hotel. Do you need help getting out or walking?"

"I'm not a baby, Spencer." You chuckle lightly, joking somewhat.

"Right...right...of course you're not. I know that. I didn't mean to imply that I thought you were."

"It's ok. It's sweet that you care, I guess." You smile as you start to get out of the car and he helps you.

You walk hand-in-hand into the hotel lobby and head for the elevator. Spencer flashes his FBI badge at the receptionist who gives you both a quizzical look. Spencer looks over at you as you stand in front of the elevator to make sure that you're doing alright. You are. You look tired but you're alive and doing ok and soon you will be sleeping.

You enter the elevator when the doors open and Spencer presses the correct floor button. The elevator ascends. When the doors open, he leads you towards his room.

"Is there anything I can get you from your room?" He asks as he gets his room key out and opens the door.

"Um...maybe some melatonin. Oh, but I don't have my room key on me. That'd be back at the precinct in my bag that I carry." You think as you enter his room

"You certainly could use it. and that's ok. I'll just go down to reception and ask for an extra or a master key. Anything else? Clothes? A stuffed animal perhaps."

He had said it so non-judgmentally but your eyes snapped to him.

"Wh-what?" You asked, slightly panicked.

"You do pack at least one stuffed animal for cases, don't you?"

"How...did you know that?" You asked, suspicious of him.

"I'm an expert profiler." He shrugs as he smiles

You narrow your eyes at him, not quite believing that that is the reason.

He chuckled. "Ok, fine. I may have saw one one time when I was putting your bags away on the jet and one wasn't zipped properly and I went to zip it and...I felt something soft and then investigated. I know I shouldn't have. That's your personal property. But It's ok. I'm not judging you."

"Really? You're not?" You ask hopefully. You were always so afraid of being judged.

"Not at all. Stuffed animals can actually provide a great sense of comfort, especially during times of stress. It may be just the thing you need right now."

"Yeah, ok. I um...I keep them in my blue suitcase. It's by the closet. Clothes should be in the closet itself. A t-shirt and a pair of shorts should be fine."

"Got it. Anything else I can get you?"

"No. I think that's it."

"Alright. Why don't you strip out of those dirty clothes and hop in the shower. I can bring you your toiletries bag too, if you'd like."

"I'd like that, thank you."

"Alright. I'll be right back, then, ok? I have to go get an extra key for you room from reception downstairs. But then I'll just be right across the hall for a minute, ok?"

"Ok."

He left the room. You stepped into the bathroom. You slowly stripped out of your torn and dirty clothes, leaving them on the floor. You look at yourself in the mirror. You have bruises on your face. You face is pale. There were bags under your eyes. You looked like hell. You wondered why on Earth Spencer would have kissed you as much as he did with you looking like this.

You shake that thought from your mind and replace it with another. Spencer cares about you. That much was obvious. You start the water in the shower. You wait for it to warm up and while it is warming up, you hear Spencer come back into the room.

"Y/N? I have your clothes. I can just crack the door open and slide them in on the floor."

"Alright."

He cracks the door open and slides the clean clothes into the room. He then slides you toiletries bag in.

"I will put your melatonin and your stuffed animal on your bed, ok?"

"Ok."

He closes the door and you grab your shampoo, loofah, and soap from your bag before you step into the shower. It feels good to get all of the caked blood and dirt off of your body. You allow the warm water to seep into your skin. You grab your shampoo bottle and squirt some into your hands before carding your fingers through your hair and massaging your scalp. An image of your captor grabbing your hair and pulling you by it flashes through your mind. You soothe your head subconsciously even though you had not just been caused physical pain. As you continue to massage the shampoo into your scalp, running your fingers along it and scraping your nails against it, you inadvertently grasp your hair after you've scratched too hard at your scalp as the image and feeling of you being dragged by your hair plagued. You winced once you felt the pain and let go. You drop your hands from your head and stand still for a second. You cannot resist the urge to bring a hand back up to your head to rub at it. You do this at an increasing pace and then suddenly stop.

Your hair is shampooed so you slowly reach for your soap and loofah. You lather the loofah up with the soap bar. As you clean your body, you make sure to clean the last bit of dirt and grime from it. You wish to fully cleanse yourself from the awful trauma you'd just endured. You hand skims over the bruise on your calf from where your captor had kicked you harshly from behind because you weren't walking fast enough in the cemetery.

Once fully cleaned and showered, you turn the water off and exit the shower. You dry your hair off before wrapping the towel around your body. You dry your body off completely before putting the clean clothes on.

You exit the bathroom. Spencer looks up from his book at you as you do.

“Hey.” He says softly. “Feeling better? You’re looking better.”

You smile and nod as you approach your bed. You take the melatonin gummy and grab your stuffed animal before climbing into bed with him.

“Oh um I uh I thought maybe you’d want to uh sleep in a separate bed…you know…for comfort.”

“I’m comfortable right here.” You whisper as you snuggle up to him. “This ok with you?”

He looks down at you as you rest your head on his shoulder. His cheeks tinge pink.

“Y-yeah…more than ok. I just wanna make sure that you’re comfortable.”

“Well I assure you that I am.”

“Good. Would you like me to read to you? Might help lull you to sleep. It helps Morgan.” He chuckles.

You chuckle too. “Yeah. You can read to me. I like hearing you talk.”

“R-Really? You do? You mean that?” He was surprised. No one liked to hear him talk. People often cut him off or simply walked away from him when they got bored of his talking.

“Mhm. I do. I like your voice.”

He smiled at your compliments before he began to read aloud. Granted it wasn’t light reading. It was a book on Quantum Physics but you didn’t seem to mind. You found his voice to be very calming. You didn’t mind what he was saying and you certainly weren’t going to stop him.

As he lay there with you in his arms while he caressed your arm, he couldn’t help but think that this felt incredibly right. Like this was where he was meant to be and this is where you were meant to be. You were meant to be in each other’s arms. He looked down upon you as you rested your head against his chest. He admired your facial features. You looked so peaceful. He was glad you were able to rest comfortably in his arms after what you’d been through.

As you laid there resting peacefully in his arms, he couldn’t help but think how incredibly hard he’d fallen for you. It astonished him. He loved no one more than he loved you (with the exception of perhaps his mother). You were everything to him. And now that he knew that you loved him back, he couldn’t help but think how high he could soar, how much better his life could be now with you in it in a much more intimate fashion. Why, he’d be unstoppable loving you with you loving him.

[saywha413]

insane cookie run headcanon time !!

romantic relationship the witches made a little. a little oopsie. cousins adopted child birth child siblings (both by birth and adoption)

under cut is my lore and I’m warning you now. it’s long

note beforehand. this is what I mean when I refer to witches:

Biggest thing of note: witches do not care about cookies. They are neutral towards them and can coexist. If witches want to eat cookies, they make nonalive ones. Like we all do.

Also. The whole beast yeast thing? I ain’t dealing w that. I haven’t kept up w the story as well 💀. We can have two alt timelines: one where the beasts stay chained up, everyone’s alive, and crunchyvelvet have 8 kids at 30 and one where crunchyvelvet die in each others arms at like 28 (and carrow dies too ig)

and also. “Cookie” is not a surname. No one refers to anyone like red velvet cookie or whatever. It’s just red velvet.

Traits

Already established in my fanfiction: cookies pick up traits of organisms they spend lots of time with.

The only major caveats are that they need to 1. enjoy spending time with them and 2. choose to spend time w them

When a cookie picks up a trait from another cookie, they typically get one back, regardless of “time”.

The amount of time varies from cookie to cookie, but typically cookies who know less cookies (like red velvet- born and raised with cod) pick up traits faster.

Children

Children are “gifted” by the witches to cookies that they think are both compatible and suited to raise them. The witches are humans though, meaning that there’s lots of human error lol.

The witches have some kind of spell/book/intuition that tells them the cookie’s life story and traits, letting them decide.

Babies are baked from something from the two parents- usually a lock of hair from each. The witches will cut it when the cookies are sleeping. (Sometimes cookies will wake randomly in the middle of the night, but see nothing. Most take that as a sign of a baby coming.)

The baby is baked with the two things and voila. Child. The witches will then leave the baby in the parents bed, again while they’re sleeping, so they can wake to it.

Because of the process, any cookies of any gender can have children. Poly relationships can also have children.

Aging

Different cookies have different “rates of aging,” as shown by mycookie growing to about 10 in a few months. All cookies will age differently until a set age (which also varies), where their age then shifts to grow year by year.

Sometimes cookies will randomly age much slower. They don’t know why. (Ancients and younger cookies are likely more prone to this.)

Specific stuff relating to this tree

Ages (as of a flame in the snow rn)

Dark Cacao (and other ancients I guess)- like. eighty to a hundred?? idk. let’s lock in: ???

Coffee Roll (second watcher)- 70s?

Dark Choco + Werewolf- mid to late 40s

Crunchy Chip- 26

Red Velvet- 25

Wizard + Strawberry Crepe- 15 (would turn 16 in the story I think)

Caramel Arrow- 27 (Financier- 27, Kouign-Amann- 25, Raspberry- 25, Pastry- 26)

Black Raisin- 26 (Latte- 27, Creampuff- 14)

Prune Juice- 24 (Capsaicin- 24, Stardust- ??? (presumably around 20s?))

Crowberry- 28 (Kumiho- ???)

Ages (when all the kids are born)

Crunchy Chip- 31

Red Velvet- 30

Wizard- 18 (starts aging at about 16, had slowed aging for a few years)

Strawberry Crepe- 19 (just barely started aging as of the story (unnoticeable just yet) but slows too)

Strawberry Cream- 16 (rapidly grew to about 13)

Onyx Cream- 20 (rapidly grew to about 18 (which is kinda insane))

Chocolate Cake- 16 (rapidly grew to about 14)

Black Velvet- 18 (rapidly grew to about 18, but then growth slowed)

Witchberry- 12 (rapidly grew to about 8)

Cream Ferret- 12 (rapidly grew to about 5)

Individual profiles and notes

King Dark Cacao + King consort Coffee Roll + Dark Choco + Werewolf

All use he/him

Dark Cacao- Witch of accomplishment

Coffee Roll- Witch of order

Dark Choco- Witch of perseverance 

Werewolf- Witch of loyalty

Post polyancients break up lmao (hollyberry/white lily/golden cheese and aroace pure vanilla). Dark Cacao had streaks of hair that were each of their colors once, but he’s long since cut them all of them but White Lily’s out. Because of how he feels about her, though, the white has become more of his own trait than hers and is able to be passed to those close to him.

Shortly after the witches gifted him and [insert name of partner] Dark Choco, [insert name of partner] died in battle. Coffee Roll (the first watcher at the time) helped care for baby Dark Choco, leading to him and Dark Cacao becoming closer.

They got married when Choco was ab 10 (Coffee Roll would be abt 40?)

Dark Choco met Werewolf when they were both 12-13 and he was playing by himself in the forest. They met sporadically over like 2-3 years and eventually started dating. They thought Dark Cacao wouldn’t approve (he probably wouldn’t rlly have cared lmao), so they never told him.

Dark Cacao and Coffee Roll “are eventually blessed with” Caramel Arrow. They rlly just like. adopt her. They prob call her their kid so the public leaves her alone.

After the fight™️, Dark Choco runs off (he’s abt 20 (CR 50 and CA 1)). He spends a few nights with Werewolf, which is when the witches “bless” them with Crunchy Chip (human error). They decide together that they’re not suited to raise a child, leaving Crunchy Chip with Dark Cacao (and Coffee Roll). Instead of dropping him and running, though, they decide to give him the baby by hand. Dark Cacao says something that angers Dark Choco, and he storms off before Werewolf or the others can stop him. (Werewolf has a grudge against Dark Cacao because of this.)

Dark Choco then joins the cod.

Dark Cacao and Coffee Roll raise Crunchy Chip and Caramel Arrow as siblings.

Eventual Coffee Roll/Dark Cacao/Elder Faerie I think (since beast thing doesn’t happen, he lives! yahoo).

Red Velvet

He/him

Witch of loyalty

He was gifted as a completely normal baby to a normal family. He lived with them until about 9 maybe?

He and his cousins (black raisin, prune juice, crowberry) also spent lots of time together.

When he was 9 though, the cod attacked his house, killed his parents, and set everything on fire. He both lost his arm and hit his head hard in the chaos. He mistook Dark Enchantress for his mother and wound up following her back to her realm. When she found him, she took him in as her own, rebaking him with some cake/cream parts- thus giving him his new arm and fucking up his genetics.

Because of the rebaking, his anatomy and physical abilities are different from average cookies. He’s stronger with more endurance and has keener senses. He basically has all the good stuff from both a human and a wolf.

The trust he has in Dark Enchantress slowly crumbles over time, especially bc of how she treats the cake hounds as disposable minions, eventually leading him to run away. (He asked his friends to come with him, but they still believed in her. They know this means they might meet on the battlefield one day, but they’ve silently resigned themselves to the idea.)

This leads to the plot of the fic: he goes to the Cacao Kingdom.

Commander Crunchy Chip

He/him

Witch of order

Crunchy Chip grows up as Cacao’s grandson and is called his heir. 

Cacao doesn’t talk about Choco or Werewolf if possible, but Crunchy Chip does know of them and what they look like.

He’s the commander of Cacao’s army- both cookies and cream wolves.

Caramel Arrow + polycule

Caramel Arrow- She/her

Witch of aspiration

Financier- She/her

Witch of efficiency

Kouign-Amann- She/her

Witch of harmony

Raspberry- She/her

Witch of aspiration

Pastry- She/her

Witch of order

All of the polycule excluding Caramel Arrow is already together. She meets them at the party organized by Dark Cacao in the fic, and is almost immediately asked to join the polycule.

Prune Juice + polycule

Prune Juice- He/him/they/them/xey/xem

Witch of insight

Capsaicin- He/him

Witch of perseverance

Stardust- He/any

Witch of observation

Prune Juice and Capsaicin (and Kouign-Amann) knew each other from before the tournament. They started dating before the tournament, and agreed that them dating wouldn’t affect the competition during it. After the events of episode 16 (slightly before the tournament), Stardust flies around without a real plan. He eventually stumbles into the two and bonds with them, and then they invite him to join their relationship.

Crowberry + Kumiho

Crowberry- It/its

Witch of logic

Kumiho- She/her/they/them

Witch of efficiency

Both Crowberry and Kumiho have animal forms and prefer roaming Parfaedia at night- that’s how they met. Crowberry was going to grab a jewel from someone’s house, but a fox quickly grabbed it before it could. It was annoyed, and started chasing the fox. They eventually shifted into their human forms while chasing each other and started talking while running across rooftops all night. When the sun rose, they collapsed in a heap together and laughed, deciding they were better off friends than rivals.

This eventually flourished into a romance :).

Both are secretly glad that the other’s human form is slightly off putting (wings, ears, tail), making them feel a bit more confident with their own. Both are very protective of each other when they receive snide comments. aka they both seethe silently and then rob the person blind later.

Black Raisin + Latte + Cream Puff

Black Raisin- She/her

Witch of efficiency

Latte- She/her

Witch of improvisation

Cream Puff- She/her

Witch of aspiration

After the whole Vanilla Kingdom incident, Black Raisin decides to travel to Parfaedia to visit Prune Juice and Crowberry. There, she was introduced to both’s partners. She and Kumiho hit it off, and Kumiho then introduces her to some of their friends. That’s how she meets Latte. When they first meet, they both immediately feel a spark and ditch Kumiho to talk (and essentially go on a date). Kumiho was fine with it when they explained and apologized.

They go on many more dates, and Black Raisin even meets Latte’s adopted daughter Cream Puff.

Cream Puff was initially suspicious that Black Raisin would leave eventually because of Latte’s last partner (Almond- he realized he was gay and they amicably broke up). When she realized that BR was here to stay, she quickly warmed up to her.

After maybe a year of dating, they decided to get married. (The wedding happens shortly after the triple cone cup in universe.) When people commented about how “it was too early in the relationship,” they ignored them because they were happy.

Strawberry Crepe + Wizard

Crepe- They/them

Witch of imagination

Wizard- He/him

Witch of insight

Both are adopted by Red Velvet and Crunchy Chip after they choose to stay in the Cacao Kingdom after the party and become closer, since Dark Cacao makes them the duo’s responsibility.

Onyx Cream + Strawberry Cream

Onyx Cream- He/him

Witch of efficiency

Strawberry Cream- He/him

Witch of loyalty

Witchberry

She/her

Witch of observation

Crowberry and Kumiho’s kid. They were gifted her, but since they’re always moving, they didn’t think they were right to take care of her. They asked RV and CC to take care of her, and they agreed. They’re still in Witchberry’s life, but more as the “cool gay wine aunts” than second parents

Cream Ferret

They/them

Witch of happiness

Baked by the witches from Latte and Kumiho, but that was human error. They were just friends. When the baby was baked, the witch didn’t want to give them to either, and figured that Cream Ferret would be alright raised with the cream animals. They eventually befriend Crepe, which leads to them being adopted.

Black Velvet + Choco Cake

Black Velvet- She/her

Witch of equability

Choco Cake- He/they

Witch of ingenuity 

idk man. ship kids. (both will get a redesign at some point. especially since the mycookie thing lol)